Nuclear safety head questions reasons for flawed safety checks at Dukovany plant

The head of the State Authority for Nuclear Safety has raised the possibility that flaws in X-ray checks on pipes at the Dukovany nuclear power might have been deliberate. According to an article in the Respekt magazine, Dana Drábová said it was not clear whether the flaws were just the fault of the company that was sourced to do the work for power company ČEZ or whether they acted under instructions because closing reactors cost a lot of money. Respekt reported that the same X-ray image of welds was sometimes submitted three times instead of different images of the weld and that some pipes cleared to be watertight when there was a possibility they would crack. ČEZ has said it will change procedures so that such an incident can never happen again.

Author: Chris Johnstone