 INES 2 |
Contamination of workers during inspection |
During the annual inspection of the fissile material inventory by members from EURATOM and IAEA, a recipient containing a small amount of plutonium fell on the floor, causing a contamination of the room and part of the adjacent rooms. Three people - the 2 inspectors from EURATOM and IAEA and 1 worker from Belgoprocess- have been contaminated by the incident.
INES 1 |
Melting of Orphan Source |
Tuesday 13 September 2011 in the evening, the FANC was informed that a radiation portal monitor for the measurement of radioactivity in a French facility indicated the presence of radioactive material in the load of a truck coming fom Duferco La Louvière Produits Longs, located in La Louvière, Belgium.
INES 2 |
Inadequate setting of the auxiliary feedwater turbopump |
After the replacement of an auxiliary feedwater turbopump during the 2009-outage, the rotational speed of the pump was adjusted to a lower level because of vibration problems with the pump. The pump was tested and requalified according to the technical specifications but the curve (flow-rate <-> pressure) was not verified as required by ASME-XI. The actual flow rate delivered in case of specific accidents could no longer match the flow rate postulated in the safety report. Nevertheless, an independent emergency feedwater system could offer additional capacity in such circumstances.
France's GDF Suez has paid the Belgian government a 2010 nuclear tax payment of Eur212 million ($276 million), a company spokeswoman said Thursday.
Through its subsidiary Electrabel, GDF Suez operates almost all of Belgium's 5.9 GW of nuclear capacity.
A leaked European Commission draft report says Europe should solve the problem of handling nuclear waste by making industry pay to stash it deep underground, where it will be overseen by independent watchdogs.
"The current situation of spent fuel and radioactive waste management in EU member states is not satisfactory," says the draft, seen by Reuters Thursday.
BRUSSELS, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Belgium may extend the lifetimes of its three oldest nuclear power stations by ten years to 2025 to guard against energy shortages, newspaper De Standaard reported on Friday.
The plants, two in Doel near the northern city of Antwerp and one in Tihange in southeastern Belgium, are due to close in 2015.
But Energy Minister Paul Magnette will submit a report to the government on Friday that concludes Belgium will face energy supply problems if the plants close on schedule, De Standaard said.
Electrabel has reacted strongly against a plan from the Belgian government to force a one-off payment of €250 million ($338 million) from nuclear power generators.
The company's parent group, GdF-Suez has told the Belgian government that it "emphatically protests" a draft of new legislation which requires nuclear operators - and nuclear operators only - to make a "contribution" of €250 million to government coffers for the 2008 financial year.
AMSTERDAM, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Belgium's proposals to charge the country's nuclear power generators a one-off tax of 250 million euros ($339.8 million) are in conflict with previous agreements, Belgian energy company Electrabel said.
The Belgian cabinet is set to present a bill to parliament to levy the charge against all nuclear players in the country for 2008 in return for keeping five out of seven of the country's nuclear reactors open.
INES 3 |
Iodine-131 release in the environment |
The waste division of the Institute for radioelements (IRE) has performed a transfer of liquid radioactive waste from one tank to another one. Immediately afterwards – for reasons still unknown – radioactivity was released through the stack. The release is related to the vapour phase above a liquid waste solution in a tank.
The quantity of radioactivity released into the environment is estimated at 45 GBq I-131, which corresponds to a dose of 160 microsievert (effective dose) for a hypothetical person remaining permanently at the site’s enclosure.
BRUSSELS (AFP) — Fresh tests carried out near a Belgian medical laboratory showed that a leak of radioactive iodine last weekend was worse than had initially been thought, authorities said late Thursday.
Samples of grass taken next to the National Institute for Radioactive Elements near the southern city of Charleroi had shown higher levels of radioactive iodine than the first tests, an interior ministry crisis group said here.
