On 24th July 2002, a worker received radiation exposure of 151 mSv while performing radiography works in the turbine auxiliary systems, outside the reactor building of Madras Atomic Power Station. The worker is a certified radiographer and also a qualified radiation worker. He got exposure when he was removing the exposed film and installing the new film. The exposure took place because he did not retract the source into the shielded remote operable camera, prior to this job. The camera used in the incident contained Ir-192 source, of estimated strength of 5 Curies. It is estimated that the worker may have got exposure for 10 to 15 minutes, at a distance of 20 cms or less. He carried a digital survey meter but failed to switch it on during work. His exposure was known only after processing of his TLD. Further investigations are in progress. The event has been rated at level 2 on INES.
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, […]