A nuclear plant in southern China is reportedly leaking due to issues in the reactor, but Chinese officials there say the situation is under control and the plant remains safe. A French entity involved in the project, however, reached out to the United States Department of Energy for assistance, according to a letter obtained by CNN.
"The situation is an imminent radiological threat to the site and to the public," reads the letter from French nuclear equipment company Framatome. The letter concerning the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China's Guangdong Province "urgently requests permission to transfer technical data and assistance as may be necessary to return the plant to normal operation."
"It is unusual that a foreign company would unilaterally reach out to the American government for help when its Chinese state-owned partner is yet to acknowledge a problem exists," CNN noted.
The plant is majority-owned by the Chinese Communist Party-controlled China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), an entity that has so far failed to comment on the plant experiencing issues. The Taishan plant put a message on its website claiming local environmental readings were still "normal."
CGN, like any Chinese state-owned enterprise, should not necessarily be taken at its word. As Peter Schweizer pointed out, it was CGN that the U.S. Department of Justice charged in 2016 "with stealing nuclear secrets from the United States — actions prosecutors said could cause 'significant damage to our national security." Schweizer also notes that CGN has ties to business dealings with than Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden.
Readings from the CCP's National Nuclear Safety Administration show some increased levels of gamma radiation around the afflicted plant that have been "elevated since at least late May."
Short ??: Data from the Chinese National Nuclear Safety Administration does seem to indicate a *slightly* elevated level of gamma radiation around the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. These are the two monitoring stations closest (one on the left is at the plant). pic.twitter.com/0wbdJaBl4W
— Geoff Brumfiel (@gbrumfiel) June 14, 2021
According to other reports, the French power company involved with the plant "called for a special meeting of the board of the joint venture that operates the power plant 'to present all the data and the necessary decisions.'"
The problem, according to a nuclear scientist quoted in the report, may be due to radioactive isotope xenon leaking from cracked fuel rods that cause the reactor process to accelerate, leading to overheating. Among the options to mitigate the situation, according to the expert, is to "vent traces of the xenon gas from the reactor into the atmosphere."
According to AFP, that venting took place Monday.
#UPDATE A Chinese nuclear company has deliberately released gas from a power plant into the atmosphere within authorised limits, as it seeks to fix an issue at the facility, its French partner EDF said Monday https://t.co/hFaZCnjXaO #Taishan pic.twitter.com/2H8wXvmzt3
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 14, 2021
The Chinese Communist Party's safety authority has reportedly "continued to raise regulatory 'off-site dose limits,'" for radioactive exposure "due to an increasing number of failures" to keep the plant running despite safety issues.
U.S. officials who spoke to CNN maintain that the Chinese plant leak is not at a "crisis level" yet.