Cofrentes nuclear power plant acknowledges unscheduled shutdown due to technical failure

The main reactor of the Cofrentes nuclear power plant (Valencia), managed by Iberdrola, recently shut down unscheduled due to the failure of an electronic card of the main feedwater flow control system. This has been notified to the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), stating that the incident had no impact on workers, the public or the environment, according to the CSN itself.

The technical failure caused a flow transient in the feedwater system and a high level in the drainage of the moisture separators. This circumstance finally led to the shutdown of the main turbine, according to the same sources.

In this situation, as established in the plant design, the reactor protection system was automatically activated, thus stopping its operation. All the plant's safety systems worked correctly. Cofrentes has the reactor with the highest electrical power in the Spanish nuclear system, with 1,092 MWe. The operating permit for this facility was renewed in March 2021, after a first ten-year extension expired in 2011.

With the information available so far, the incident is classified as level 0, which means that it is out of scale and without safety significance, as established by the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).