On January 6, 2004, Louisiana Radiation Protection Services notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that a licensee’s radioactive device could not be located. The device is a Kay-Ray Model 7063P gauge, with serial number 12349, currently containing a 11.71 Gbq (316.4 milliCurie) source of Cs-137. Since 1984, the device has been stored in a secured wooden crate with proper labeling, inside a locked warehouse with limited access at the licensee’s facility. The device was last accounted for during an inventory conducted on September 4, 2003. During the period from September 4, 2003 to October 30, 2003, the warehouse was renovated to prepare the space for other uses. After determining that the device was missing, the licensee conducted a search and performed interviews at the facility, although, as of December 2, 2003 the device has not been found. The licensee has notified all of its scrap metal contractors to be on alert for the device. The State and the licensee are continuing to investigate this event.
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, […]
