The VOLVID PLC conducted gamma radiography to inspect welded joints at an industrial site of Borsodchem PLC at Kacincbarcika. The inspection was executed by a GammaMat SE device, containing a Category 3 Se-75 sealed radioactive source with 1,71 TBq activity. Upon competition of the inspection, the source could not be retracted into the device. The workers followed the emergency protocol of the radiation safety programme in order to protect the workers and the members of the public. Additionally notified the National Service for Radiation Health Preparedness (NSRHEP) and the maintenance service company (MSC). The MSC shielded the source, dismantled it from the device and placed the source into a transport container. The personal effective doses of the radiographers and the workers of MSC were negligible, well below occupational dose constraints. Members of public were not affected by the event. The source and the device was moved to the site of MSC. Subsequent inspections confirmed that the defectoscope was maintained regularly and properly, and the failure was caused by an unforeseeable break in one joint of the link-type source holder.
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, […]
