"China’s Ministry Of Ecology And Environment Responds To Concerns Over Damaged Fuel Rods At Taishan Nuclear Plant", 16 June 2021

[...] China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and the Nuclear Safety Administration said in a June 16 statement that the level of radiation inside the reactor was increasing due to 5 damaged fuel rods. With more than 60,000 fuel rods in the core unit, the damaged rods comprise "less than 0.01 percent," of the rods and that “many nuclear power plants in the world have experienced fuel rod damage and continue operation.”

The statement denied the earlier CNN report suggesting that the National Nuclear Safety Administration approved an increase in the acceptable limit of radiation levels outside the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. The National Nuclear Safety Administration reviewed and approved the relevant limits “for the specific activity of the noble gas of the reactor coolant in the technical specifications of the primary circuit chemistry and radiochemistry of the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant. This limit is used for operation management and has nothing to do with the external radiation detection of the nuclear power plant,” the Ministry clarified.

The Ministry’s statement stressed, "The increase in the level of radioactivity in the primary circuit is completely different from a radiological leakage accident. The primary circuit is inside the reactor containment. As long as the pressure boundary of the reactor coolant system as a radioactive containment barrier and the containment tightness meet the requirements, there is no problem of radioactivity leaking to the environment, and the two physical barriers are safe.” [...]