On April 29, 2002, the State of Illinois, an Agreement State, completed its investigation into a radiography incident that occurred in June 2000, but was not reported to the State of Illinois until 18 months later. After a review of all available information, the State of Illinois cannot definitively eliminate the possibility that an industrial radiographer received a radiation burn while performing industrial radiography. The radiographer was using a 3 TBq (81 Ci) of Ir-192 source while performing radiographs on 20 cm (8 inch) pipe welds. The radiographer alleges that after cranking the source back, he approached the area without looking at his survey meter. He set the meter behind the camera and knelt down in front of the camera. He changed out the film and prepared for the next shot. He then disconnected the guide tube and saw 4-6 inches of the drive cable. He looked over at the survey meter and saw that it was off-scale. He immediately went to the controls and cranked the source fully into the camera. He performed a survey and confirmed the source was shielded properly. He looked at his alarming ratemeter and saw that the battery indicator showed "low battery." His self-reading pocket dosimeter showed off-scale. The radiographer did not report the incident to the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO). The radiographer states that after one or two weeks, he noticed a small red area on the outside of his left lower leg. During August - September 2001, his condition apparently worsened and the area would not heal. In early January 2002, the RSO finally became aware of this matter and notified the State of Illinois on January 15, 2002. A physician concluded that the medical condition could be attributed to the event in June 2000. After thoroughly reviewing all the information available and interviewing involved personnel, the State of Illinois estimated the possible dose to the radiographer's left lower leg was 15 Sv (1500 rem).
A vast subsea nuclear graveyard planned to hold Britain’s burgeoning piles of radioactive waste is set to become the biggest, longest-lasting and most expensive infrastructure project ever undertaken in the UK. The project [UK's nuclear waste dump] is now predicted to take more than 150yrs to complete with lifetime costs of £66bn in today’s money...The […]
Last year, the Dutch Province of Limburg started an alliance in which, besides the local government, research institutes, small nuclear reactor (SMR) developers, utilities, industrial customers and funders cooperated. With this "Limburg SMR alliance" Limburg tried to lead the way towards an SMR in Limburg. The preferred site for a first SMR would be Chemelot, […]
From the IPFM: During a visit to the Civaux nuclear power plant on 18 March 2024, France's Minister of the Armed Forces unveiled a plan to use the plant to produce tritium for the French nuclear weapons program. Civaux is a civilian power plant that belongs to and is operated by Electricité de France. According […]
An analysis by the Norwegian NGO Bellona of transborder trade operations with the customs code 840130 (irradiated fuel assemblies or fuel elements) show a more than twofold increase of import to EU countries of fresh nuclear fuel in cash terms – from 280 million Euros in 2022 to 686 million Euros in 2023. In physical […]
The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia. "The option of […]