South African nuclear body shuts down key unit because of compliance failure

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) has executed an immediate shut down of its NTP Radiochemical Facility, because of non-compliance with licensing conditions. NTP produces radioisotopes for both industrial and an especially medical purposes, and many cancer and other patients in more than 60 countries around the world rely on its output. "We shut ourselves down and then told the regulator, and the NNR [National Nuclear Regulator] concurred," Necsa Group Executive Phumzile Tshelane told Engineering News Online. "When we operate the facility, we have two gauges that show us the level of hydrogen produced. One of them went non-operational, and we control [the production process] on the difference on the readings of the two gauges. With one out, we had to stop production." "The non-compliance is that the gauges should have been properly calibrated and production should have stopped immediately the one gauge stopped functioning," he explained. "But production did not stop immediately – it continued until that batch of production was completed and shipped out. Production of a batch takes only about four hours, but, even so, it should have been stopped immediately."