On 27 February 2025, a radiography camera containing 2.738 TBq (74 Ci) of Ir-192 was reported stolen from a licensee’s truck. On 26 February 2025, the radiographer stayed the night at a hotel in Kernersville, NC and discovered the next morning that the camera was missing. The radiographer had not followed approved procedures for securing the camera. They immediately notified North Carolina state authorities and local law enforcement. A search of the area was performed but the device could not be located. Hotel surveillance camera footage was reviewed but did not provide any useful information. North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services issued a press release (https://www.ncdhhs.gov/news/press-releases/2025/02/28/ncdhhs-issues-alert-missing-radioactive-material-triad-area) to warn the public of the potential danger of the device and to contact authorities if it is found or anyone has knowledge of its location. North Carolina state regulators and law enforcement investigations are ongoing. Based on activity, the source involved was Category 2. NRC EN57574
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, […]