A company licensed to perform well logging discovered that a source containing 44 GBq (1.2 curies) of cesium-137 was missing. The company recovered the source at a location where the source had been used two days earlier for a drilling rig operator not licensed to possess radioactive materials. The source was intact. The company determined that 31 nonradiation workers were exposed to the source while it was uncontrolled. It was determined through exposure rate measurements, coupled with time and motion studies, that the maximally exposed individual received 6.4 cSv (rems); 10individuals received exposures between 2 and 6.4 cSv; 15individuals received exposures between 1 and 2cSv; and 6 individuals received exposures less than 1 cSv. No adverse health effects are expected to any of the exposed individuals. The company concluded that the cause of the source being uncontrolled at the drilling rig was the failure of the well logging crew to follow standard operating procedures which require that multiple radiation surveys be conducted to verify the presence of the source in its shield. Apparently, none of the required surveys were performed by the crew.
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, […]
