Within the framework of plant decommissioning workers at spent fuel pool hall, a specialized worker using "Mururoa and autonomous respiration equipment" changed the vinile cap of an underwater radiation detector. During the routine check out for radiation contamination at the working area exit, a nose frotis showed 0.048 cps of alpha particles. The worker was administered DTPA for preventing internal contamination fixing. Afterwards he passed through a bioassay program that took several months and concluded that: a) effective dose to the whole body estimated at 31 mSv, b) internal integrated dose to bone surface 576 mSv. Dose a) is well within statutory limits, regarding dose b) bones are organs not referred to in ICRP-60, the standard to which Spain is to adhere for European Union mandate. Justification: The on-site criterion is not applicable as no statutory limit was reached. It is rated on the Defense in depth criterion, in application of bullet A.6 of the INES User's Manual Addendum "Events requiring medical treatment of workers" says where any surgical or medical treatment (e.g. DTPA) is necessary in order to prevent an exposure significantly in excess of an annual dose limit, the event should be rated at least at level 1 under defense in depth. Final: INES level 1
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, […]
