MADRID-Three of Spain’s nine nuclear power plants have seen production come to a halt owing to various faults, the country’s nuclear watchdog CSN said.

Production was expected to be held up for a fortnight at the Asco I plant near the north-eastern city of Tarragona following problems with electric transformers in two reactors which led to a fuel leak.

According to CSN, the incident did not pose any risk to the population.

Production was set to stop for a month at the Vandellos plant, also in north-eastern Spain, after detection of a problem in the water system of the plant’s “essential service”.

Work also came to a standstill at the Garona plant near the northern city of Burgos to enable a combustible recharge two months overdue.

The process was delayed for repairs to the ventilation system after an inspection had shown up an anomaly.

Greenpeace spokesman Carlos Bravo criticised the “poor functioning” of the plants concerned and what he termed a “lack of security of Spanish nuclear technology, (which is) intrinsically dangerous.”

Spain’s nuclear energy production supplies just under a third of the country’s overall energy needs and its nuclear sector is substantially smaller than neighbouring states such as France, Germany and Britain.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news