The expert assessed the risk of leakage at the Olkiluoto NPP power unit in Finland

The coolant leak that occurred at the third power unit of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant (NPP) in Finland is not a serious incident, the director of the ANO AtomInfo Center, editor—in-chief of the atomic energy portal, told Izvestia. AtomInfo.ru Alexander Uvarov on March 11th. At the same time, he clarified that this is not the first case involving this power unit in recent years.

"No need to worry. It's not an accident, it's an incident. In fact, the incident itself is not serious," Uvarov said.

He explained that the third Olkiluoto power unit was installed for preventive maintenance. The workers came to inspect the equipment and, after they had completed their functions, improperly closed one of the hatches. As a result, the water that is available at the station has flowed into the room. The leak amounted to about 100 cubic meters of reactor coolant.

"It's actually not that big of a volume. But it is contaminated with radioactive nuclides. However, it is located inside a serious concrete building, sealed, and did not come out," the expert added.

According to him, this is far from the first incident at this power unit that has occurred in recent years. At the same time, each of the cases was not something serious.

"But when there have been about a dozen incidents in a row, starting in 2022, you start to wonder if everything is in order there? Is everything in order with the safety culture there? Safety culture is a thing that has emerged in the nuclear industry after all the known severe accidents that have occurred. <...> Safety culture, [is when] you don't fight an accident, but make sure that it doesn't happen," Uvarov emphasized.

He noted that people who work in the nuclear industry, first of all, should understand that their actions should not lead to any incident.

The leak was reported the day before in the press service of the Finnish energy company Teollisuuden Voima. The nuclear power plant is located in the western part of Finland near the coast of the Baltic Gulf. It has three reactors in total, which produce about 30% of the energy consumed by residents. No one was injured in the incident.