US authorities looking into possible fission gas leak at Chinese nuclear reactor: Report

報告顯示：美國當局調查中國核反應堆可能發生裂變氣體洩漏

French partner of Chinese plant requested waiver to share American technical information

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The U.S. has since last week been examining the circumstances of a possible fission leak at a nuclear reactor in China after requests were made by the French company partnered with the local operators of the facility, according to a CNN report.

Framatone, the French company that helped build the plant, warned of an “imminent radiological threat” in its efforts to contact U.S. officials for a waiver that would grant the company permission to share American technical know-how in handling the matter.

The Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, located in Guangdong Province’s Taishan, was first said to be leaking fission gas by Framatone in a cable sent on June 3 to the U.S. Department of Energy requesting the waiver. In an alarming development, a cable sent on June 8 said the Chinese authorities had doubled the radiation limits at the plant and in nearby areas so as to keep the reactor going.

Electrictie de France, the French utility which is the parent company of Framatone, has said it is aware of an escalated concentration of “noble gases in the primary circuit” of reactor one at the Chinese plant, per CNN.

U.S. authorities, which only became involved in the issue because of the Framatone request, have been liaising with both the French and Chinese governments. Several meetings of the U.S. National Security Council have also been held on the subject.

The Biden administration does not believe the situation at the plant has yet reached a “crisis level,” according to sources cited by CNN. Were the U.S. to be aware of any imminent danger to the local population, it would be required by treaty to make the information known.

For its part, the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant has yet to acknowledge anything is amiss. It has published a statement claiming the readings for the plant and the surrounding area are both normal, though it has shared that part of the facility recently had an “overhaul,” according to the report.