Posted on 09/12/2011 5:04:03 AM PDT by tcrlaf
There is a risk of a radioactive leak after a blast at the southern French nuclear plant of Marcoule, media reports say.
One person was killed and three were injured in the explosion, following a fire in a storage site for radioactive waste, Le Figaro newspaper said.
The plant is in the Gard region.
It is a major site involved with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and operates a pressurised water reactor used to produce tritium.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Prayers
From Wiki:
“Since 1956, Marcoule is a gigantic site exploited by the atomic energy organization Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) and Areva NC. The first industrial and military plutonium experiments took place in Marcoule. Diversification of the site was started in the 1970s with the creation of the Phénix prototype fast breeder reactor, and is nowadays an important site for decommissioning nuclear facilities activities.
Since 1995, the MELOX factory produces MOX from a mix of uranium and plutonium oxides. MOX is used to recycle plutonium from nuclear fuel; this plutonium comes from the COGEMA La Hague site.
The ATelier Alpha et Laboratoires pour ANalyses, Transuraniens et Etudes de retraitement (ATALANTE) is a CEA laboratory investigating the issues of nuclear reprocessing of nuclear fuel and of radioactive waste.
[edit] Reactors
The site housed a number of the first generation French UNGG reactors, of which have all been shut down. Since then, it has also operated a pressurized water reactor that was used for the purpose of producing Tritium. Cooling for all of the plants has come from the Rhône river.”
One more event to go into the Obambam excuse file along with the Japanese tsunami.
Per Al Jezeera, this is near the city of Nimes
BBC has updated the story:
There is a risk of a radioactive leak after a blast at the southern French nuclear plant of Marcoule, media reports say.
One person was killed and three were injured in the explosion, following a fire in a storage site for radioactive waste, Le Figaro newspaper said.
It is a major site involved with the decommissioning of nuclear facilities.
It produces MOX fuel, which recycles plutonium from nuclear weapons, but does not include any reactors.
A spokesman for France’s atomic energy commission said there had so far been no leak but a security perimeter had been set up because of the risk.
The plant is located in the Gard department in Languedoc-Roussillon region, near France’s Mediterranean coast.
Muslim terrorists?
How much safer would reactors be if onsite waste storage was outlawed?
Dont call TEPCO (in Japan) for help, that’s for sure.
Hence the reason why there is now lot of interest in the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR). Because LFTR's don't use pressurized reactor vessel structures, you avoid that potential explosion danger. Indeed, LFTR's would be well-suited for operating in geologically-unstable zones like California and Japan.
This will be good for Europe, especially coupled with the current tension over the Euro and their collective economies.
This accident happened at a waste processing facility - not an operating reactor.
“If anything goes wrong....” We’ve had no vessel explosions in pressurized water reactors, so I guess that nothing has ever gone wrong in such a plant?
There’s nothing at all on Fox News :(
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Explosion_at_French_waste_site_1209111.html
It said that the incident occurred at the Centraco facility where low-level radiaoctive wastes are prepared for packing and disposal. ASN's first assessment was that one worker was killed and four more injured, one of those seriously.
Preliminary information was that the furnace affected was used to to melt scrap metal structural components, pumps, valves and tools made of stainless steel or carbon steel that are lightly contaminated with short-lived and very-low-level radioactivity.
They are completing a nuclear enrichment facility here in SE NM that is going to be processing high-level waste material using centrifuge technology. It's on the Texas-NM border (their east fence line is at the border) so any incident would likely contaminate Texas, not NM. Sorry about that...
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF-LES_plans_to_double_NEF_capacity-2411084.html
Nuclear power would be a lot safer on many levels if the plants were simplified with NO onsite storage of anything. That is a lesson from Japan. Stupidly we've hit that ice berg, now it's time to finally do something about it.
But all the public will hear is NUCLEAR.
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