A radiographer working in the permanent shooting room at one of the licensee’s facilities, cranked out a 2.48 TBq (67 Ci) Ir-192 source for an exposure and did not crank the source back into the exposure device before setting up for the next exposure. Upon badge processing, it was determined that the radiographer received an exposure of 81.49 mSV (8.149 rem). The calculated exposures to the left hand and right hand were 396.84 mSv (39.684 rem) and 93.38 mSv (9.338 rem), respectively. The radiographer is being monitored by a medical physician. The primary cause of the incident appears to be human error. In addition to not cranking the source back at the end of the exposure, the radiographer failed to observe the radiation actuated visible alarm; bypassed the audible alarm feature of the shooting room; and failed to observe his survey meter upon entry into the shooting room. All safety features were operating properly at the time of the incident. The dose received by the radiographer exceeds the U.S. statutory limit for whole body dose of 0.05 Sv (5 rem). NRC EN53994
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 […]