The Sealing cladd of the radioactive source Co-60 used in the chemical reactor factory for the level measurement was detected as failed. Corrective actions initiated identified that the cladd was not sealed due to corrosion effects. As a result the plant was stopped and the operating licence withdrawn for the Co-60 radioactive source up to the clarification of the causes, implementation of the actions considered to be taken and evaluation of the consequences. Further investigations revealed that about half of the radioactive source was mixed up with the urea carbonate inside the cladd and the other half of about 100 mCi spread out inside the chemical reactor. No personnel was injured during the event, and the on-site contamination which was lower than the regulatory limits was removed. However, further investigations are still going on to identify if some off-site impact exists. Preliminary evaluations reveal that the individual and collective population doses were not exceeded even in the worst cases as a result of fertilizer contamination.
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, […]
