The Brachytherapy machine became out of order in September 2009. The Bio-medical Engineering Department of the hospital explored to obtain maintenance support from the manufacturer for the repair of the machine but the same could not be arranged and machine remained out of use and was kept safe and secure in its bunker. In February 2014, during a routine check of the machine condition, the machine showed radiation leakage in the bunker room. It was suspected that the source pellet, while returning from the intermediate safe to the main safe mode, got stuck in the passage. According to the licensee, incident did not result in over exposure to the workers or the general public as the room was vacated promptly after quick radiation survey and the bunker was locked. Outside, the radiation level was within 1 µSv per hour.
As per PNRA directions, Brachytherapy machine is now not in use and measures have been taken to secure the area and strict surveillance is ensured. The management of Dr. Ziauddin Hospital has now decided to dispose-off the machine.
Location: Dr. Ziauddin Hospital, Karachi Event date: Wed, 12-02-2014
Everywhere you look, the nuclear industry’s hype machine is in overdrive. Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and the UK government all tout small modular reactors as the silver bullet for climate change and energy security. Tech billionaires are hiring nuclear veterans. Wall Street is whispering about “round-the-clock power” for artificial intelligence data centers. For those old enough […]
Kernenergie en veiligheid: A wargame sought to test if a major radiological release that would prompt the evacuation of millions of civilians in South Korea could distract key US allies from assisting and rebuffing an all-out military invasion of Taiwan. The short answer was yes. The game originally presumed that China, wanting to keep the […]
Big batteries and EVs to the rescue again as faults with new nuclear plant cause chaos on Nordic grids The Finnish nuclear power plant Olkiluoto was finally connected to the grid last year, at an estimated cost of €11 billion compared to the original budget of €3 billion. That cost blowout forced its developer, the […]
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, […]
