Two occupational workers, Mr. Qiao and Wang were injured by exposure of high frequency-high voltage electron accelerator during its commission in Tianjin electrical wire factory. The energy of the accelerator is 2.5 MeV. Its cooling water tank under Ti window was needed to change cooling water pipe. On 21 November 1995, while the accelerator has high voltage, but no electron beam was provided, five workers entered the irradiation hall to change cooling water pipe for 7-8 minutes. They did not wear personal dosimeter. Two of them were exposed by electron beam which caused skin burns. Medical diagnosis indicated the injury belongs to III - IV degree burn. Mr. Qiao's burn area is about 10 x 20 cm2. Mr. Wang's burn area is about 5 x 5 cm2. Three other workers were not found abnormal after medical examination because they were far away from Ti window. Mr. Qiao and Wang were treated by skin transgraft on 9 January 1996. After operation they are in good health and recovery phase. Justification: This event is rated at level 3 due to events resulting in external doses to one or more workers leading to acute health effects according to II-2.2 definition of level of the INES User's manual.
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, […]