Heavy water spill at Canadian N-plant. Approximately 3,000 kgs of heavy water containing radioactive tritium leaked from a hose improperly connected to a tanker truck at the Bruce nuclear power station on 8 February. A part of it spilled into nearby Lake Huron. Workers were able to suck up about 2,100 kgs using vacuum cleaners, but at least 900 kgs -- nearly a tonne -- flowed out of the plant and into a drainage ditch that empties into the lake. Workers did not discover the leak until four hours after it began. Drinking water in three lakeside communities -- Kincardine, Port Elgin and Southampton -- which rely on the lake for drinking water, is being tested. The communities have a combined population of about 15,000. Globe & Mail (Canada), 12 Feb. 1991
Pipes rupture at US N-plant. Millstone Unit 3 in Connecticut suffered a "secondary-side pipe break" similar to the 1986 catastrophic failure that killed four workers at Surry Unit 2 in Virginia. There were no injuries as a result of the 31 Dec. accident, but the break in two six-inch-diameter pipes led to multiple equipment failures, dumped about 230,000 gallons of scalding water on the floor of the turbine building and has raised serious questions about efforts by Northeast Utilities (NU), the plant's operator, to avoid pipe failures following the Surry tragedy. The water knocked out some electrical distribution panels in the turbine building and caused the loss of the plant process computer and station and instrument air compressors. As was the case at the Surry plant, erosion/corrosion of the carbon steel piping led to the failure. NU is now trying to find out how the ruptured pipes escaped inspection for wall thinning. Nucleonics Week (US), 10 Jan. 1991, p.2
French N-workers contaminated. Seven employees of Electricite de France's Blayais PWR station were contaminated 4 Dec. while replacing a defective seal on a spent fuel transport cask. According to EdF, a dozen spent fuel elements had been loaded into the container and it was ready to be sent to the La Hague reprocessing plant when a final inspection revealed that the cask cover seal was defective and had to be replaced. Before seal replacement, the cask must be filled with water; it was during that operation that the hose connecting the cask with the water supply separated from the cask, allowing radioactive gas to escape. The station's director said the precise integrated doses to the workers would not be known for a few days, and added, "all we can say today is that they are far, far lower than annual limits." Nuclear Fuel (US), 24 Dec. 1990, p.13
Roof falls in at Creys-Malville breeder reactor/France. Part of the roof of the turbine building at the Creys-Malville breeder reactor fell in under the weight of snow on 13 Dec. An exceptionally heavy snowfall earlier in the week created a load more than twice as heavy as that for which the roof was designed. The incident also caused the loss of one of the station's two 400-kilovolt power lines. Nucleonics Week, 20 Dec. 1990, p.14
Leak shuts down Canadian reactor. Leakage of some 3,000 gallons of heavy water forced operators to shut down the 200 MW research and isotope-producing NRU reactor at Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories on 12 January. The leak was due to a 1.5 inch break in a pipe of the moderator circuit. Most of the heavy water was re-covered from a sump in the reactor building. According to a spokes-person, "Less than a kilogram got off-site into the river and personnel exposures, even to those repairing the leak, were well below regulatory limits." An unknown amount of tritium, released by the heavy water, was vented and exceeded the Canadian Atomic Energy Control Board's weekly derived release limit by a "small amount". Nucleonics Week, 17 Jan. 1991, p.12
EC commission further opens borders to power exchanges. The European community has ruled for the first time that a national power monopoly cannot restrict imports and exports on or from its territory in the name of supply security. The decision has important implications in regard to the creation of a single EC energy market after 1992 and -- in view of nuclear power bans in some of the member states -- could reopen a debate on the role of nuclear energy in a borderless Europe. Nucleonics Week (US), 24 Jan. 1991
Computer-controlled safety systems. Electricite de France has abandoned its order for the new French "Controbloc P20" computer safety system for its new N4 1,450 megawatt PWRs because of major difficulties in perfecting it. Mean-while, Nuclear Electric in the UK is still planning to use the same system for it's Sizewell "B" reactor. Nuclear Electric's Project Director is on record as saying, "Our specifications are less demanding" (than those for the French PWR's)... Shut Down Sizewell Campaign (UK), Feb. 1991
Prague keeps U-mining alive. The government of Czecho-Slovakia has decided to reduce uranium mining, since the Soviet Union will no longer buy Czecho-Slovakian uranium. However, this does not mean uranium mining will be stopped. The government wants it continued in order to provide for the needs of its own nuclear power plants. To keep the mines producing, subsidies of five billion crowns (US $200 million) total will be needed until the year 2000. This is equivalent to 10% of the revenue from taxes on wages in the country. The uranium deposits in Bohemia and Moravia are, according to experts, rather mined out, and mining is expensive. The wages of the miners (who have not been in-formed about the risks involved in their work) are about twice as high as the average wages for the rest of the country. The former communist government had already planned to reduce uranium mining. Production for 1989 was 2400 tonnes of uranium. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FRG), 16 Jan. 1991
German firm willing to finish construction of Iranian reactors. Siemens has asked the German government for permission to finish the construction of the nuclear reactors at Busher in Iran. taz (FRG), 18 Feb. 1991
Storage of spent fuel rods allowed at Gorleben. The Atomsenats des Oberverwaltungsgericht (OVG -- the Atomic Senate of the Supreme Administrative Court)) in Lüneburg, FRG overruled the appeal of people from Gorleben and sur-rounding areas against the storage of spent fuel in the so-called 'Castor' transport containers in the storage facility at Gorleben. The appeal was overruled by a vote of 13-2. The above ground facility has been ready since 1983, and use of it is now allowed. In its explanation of the verdict, OVG stated, "...there is no reason to assume that radio-activity will be released through normal operation of the facility...". In addition, it seems that "because of measures taken against possible disturbance, it is out of the question that there will be any damage to the transport containers." Wolfgang Ehmke, spokes-person for the Bürger Initiative Lüchow-Dannenberg (a regional grass-roots group), said, in a first reaction, he especially objected to an assumption by the OVG that the complaints in the case "did not specify" their objections. Since the first court case began, there has been a long list of safety objections. taz (FRG), 14 Feb. 1991
April 11-14: "The Price is Too High: Chernobyl - Five Years Later", Berlin, FRG. The main conference speakers and their topics include: Dr. Gardner (UK), health impacts in the surrounding areas of nuclear facilities; Prof. Maria Shangelowa, health impacts and social implications of Soviet nuclear testing in Semipalatinsk; and M. Beleites, uranium mining in Saxony and Thyringia and its consequences. Source and contact: Dr. Joachim Listing, Rigaer Str. 20, 0-1035 Berlin, FRG.
April 15-20: Central European Environmental Seminar, Bratislava, Czecho-Slovakia. A seminar to bring together students and environ-mental professionals from Czecho-Slovakia, other Central and Western European countries and the US to discuss issues connected with environmental education. Source and contact: Susan Clevland, Students For Czecho-Slovakia, Dom Zahranicnych Stykov Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Slovak Republic, Hviezdoslavovo nam. 14, 81329 Bratislava, CSFR; tel: 42-7- 332 192; fax: 42-7-335 827.
April 22: Earth Day 1991. Contact : Earth Day 1991, PO Box AA, Stanford University, CA 94305, US; tel: +1-415-321-1990; fax: +1-415-321-2040.
June 22 and 23: 7th International Standing Conference on Low Level Radiation & Health, Bristol, UK. Experts from the US, Ukraine, Europe and the UK to speak on the new international radiation limits and the implications for workers and local communities. Presentations include: Decommissioning nuclear power stations; the after effects of Chernobyl five years on; radon; the role of monitoring radiation and the legal position here and in Europe. Speakers include, among others: Martyn Day, solicitor assisting in compensation cases; Roy Ellison/Dr. Mike Harris, Nuclear Services Group (which is responsible for decommissioning British nuclear power stations); Dr. Martin Pasqualetti, Arizona State University, on the environmental impact of decommissioning; Philippe Sands, Director, Centre for International Environmental Law, on radiation law in Europe; Dr. John Stather, Assistant Director, National Radiological Protection Board, on international radiation regulations; Patrick Green, radiation campaigner for FoE; Natalia Karpan, Green Help (an organization to help victims of environ-mental disasters in the Ukraine). Hosted by the Bristol City Council. For full details send S.A.E. to: 7th Conference, Bristol City Council, Brunel House, St. Georges Rd., Bristol BS1 5UY, UK; tel: +44-272-223344. Or call Jill Sutcliffe, +44-243-603705.
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