Mar 26, 2001 - 12:16 PM

Glitch at Russia's Newest Nuclear Reactor The Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) - Operators discovered a minor glitch at Russia's newest nuclear power plant during start-up tests, Russia's state-owned nuclear power company said Monday. No radiation leaked during Sunday's tests, which pushed non-radioactive steam through the generating turbines at the Rostov nuclear power plant near the southern city of Volgodonsk, the company, Rosenergoatom, said in a statement.

But steam leaked from the secondary cooling pipes, the statement said. Engineers fixed the problem and continued the test.

The secondary cooling system carries hot water from the reactor core to power generators and is a less critical system than the primary cooling pipes that contain radioactive water under immense pressure.

The Rostov plant was the first new nuclear plant launched in the former Soviet Union since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986, which spewed nuclear waste over large territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and other areas of Europe.

The Rostov reactor is a VVER-1000 design, considered safer than the RBMK model at Chernobyl.

AP-ES-03-26-01 1216EST © Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Brought to you by the Tampa Bay Online Network

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001