On 5th of July 2002 the VROM-Inspection was alarmed by a metal scrap dealer about the detection of an increased radiation level in a truckload of metal scrap that came from a lead smelter. An inspector / health physicist of the VROM-Inspection started immediately with an investigation. On one side of the truck he found a radiation level of 150 microSv/h. With help of a collegue the cargo of the truck was carefully inspected. An unshielded encapsulated radiation source was found. It can be described as a metal disk of 15 cm in diameter with on one flat side a cone of 4 cm in height. At the bottom it has two inscriptions:"100" and "YVG Eu152". The results from the inspection of the source are: Eu-152; maximum radiation 15.8 mSv/h at 0.1 m, 365 microSv/h at 1 m and 41 microSv/h at 3 m; estimated activity 2 GBq. In annex 1 you can find two pictures of the recovered scource. The origin of the source could not be determined. We think that the source was manufactured in Eastern Germany or the Czech Republic. The source-container is supposedly smelted, so that the source was floating in the dross on the molten lead and was collected with the dross in a barrel that was shipped to the metal scrap dealer. The dose of one or two workers at the lead smelter is likely to be below 20 microSv. The truckdriver is supposed to have had a dose of 30 microSv. Other persons are supposed to have had a much lower dose.The source has been transported to COVRA, the radioactive waste facility in the Netherlands.
An analysis by the Norwegian NGO Bellona of transborder trade operations with the customs code 840130 (irradiated fuel assemblies or fuel elements) show a more than twofold increase of import to EU countries of fresh nuclear fuel in cash terms – from 280 million Euros in 2022 to 686 million Euros in 2023. In physical […]
The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia. "The option of […]
Jan vd Putte quickly changed from dressing as the pied piper at the protest during the IAEA nuclear power conference to warn for the Russian nuclear power conglomerate Rosatom and its role in Ukraine.
Anke Herold, Executive Director Oeko-Institut, Freiburg (Germany), in Brussels about the claim to triple nuclear by 2050: IPCC scenarios vs forecast development of nuclear.
