On 16 December 2003 JEWO-metaal B.V. alarmed the VROM-Inspectorate that they had a radiation alarm of their portal detector. A container with stainless steel scrap from Jordan had a radiation level of 0.3 microSievert per hour at contact. The enhanced radiation level was caused by a process vessel of about 40 liters inside the container. The radiation level at the outside of the vessel was 2.2 microSievert per hour. The process vessel contained a filter with about 1 kilogram of natural uranium as remnants of a brown and yellow filtercake. By handling the vessel some pieces of the content fell out of one of the pipes which were assembled on the vessel, but did not cause a contamination of the scrapyard. Those pieces were analysed in a laboratory. The analysed material contained about 50 wt% uranium. The IAEA was informed. Inspectors of the IAEA investigated the vessel and have taken samples of the content of the vessel. The press was informed on 14 january 2004 (http://www.vrom.nl/pagina.html?id=12281, only in Dutch). The press release attracted international attention (on 16 and 17 January 2004 in The New York Times).
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, […]
