The Texas Department of State Health Services was informed of an incident involving industrial radiography of a pressure vessel. A site foreman was present in the work area with the radiographer. The radiographer approached the source collimator to change the film and realized the source was still in the exposed position. It is estimated that the site foreman received an unintended dose. The site foreman reported he was in the area for 5-8 minutes and approximately 12-24 inches from the source. A calculated dose for 8 minutes at a distance of 1 foot from the 67 Ci Ir-192 source was 40 rem. The radiographer’s badge is being sent for analysis. NRC EN49623.. UPDATE: After further investigation, the dose to the radiographer was calculated at 21 mSv (2.1 rem), which is not in excess of the statutory limit for radiation workers. However, dose to the site foreman was calculated at 5.15 mSv (515 mrem), in excess of the statuory limit of 1 mSv (100 mrem). EN49623.
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, […]
