During the annual calibration of the pressure sensors on the waste gas system a small amount of radioactive gases was released to the waste gas compressor room, and through the plant vent to the environment. The investigation showed that the impurities on the sealing surface of the instrumentaion isolation valve of the waste gas system were a probable cause of its leakage. The leak consisted only of noble gases: Kr-85m, Kr-87, Kr-88, Xe-133, Xe-135, Xe-135m. The release in excess of the alarm setting was in the duration of 5 minutes. The total calculated amount of the release was 1 Tbq Xe-133 equivalent, which represented approx. 0.9% of the annual regulatory release limit for noble gases. In the waste gas compressor room there was one worker at the time of the release. The estimated external dose from the release was 0.01 mSv. Whole body counting of the worker detected traces of Xe-133 and Xe-135 but the calculation showed negligible contribution to the annual dose.
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, […]
