Nuclear Event Valencia, Spain - Water leak at Cofrentes Nuclear Plant described as normal - 19th Apr 2011

The plant claims that the leakage of 4,000 litres of cooling water a day is normal.

The Nuclear Safety Council, CSN, has noted in a report on its inspection in the third quarter of last year, that the Cofrentes nuclear plant in Valencia is suffering the leak of some 4,000 litres of cooling water a day.

The nuclear plant considers that such escapes are normal and say the water ends up in a dry well where it is treated and then returned to the system. The CSN report describes the leak as ‘continuous’. The Cofrentes spokesman, Juan Cruz, said that there was ‘no leak or anything abnormal’, despite those being the terms used in the CSN report. Cruz claims the escapes are ‘part of the design of the plant’.

The ecologist group ‘Cerramos Cofrentes’ says that the problem is serious, and affects the control bars which were substituted in 2005 and 2007. They called again for the plant to be closed, but the Ministry for Industry announced on March 10 that the life of the plant had been extended by ten years. The CSN report was completed the following day. Source