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Today's Top News
New Uranium Leak Discovered at French Nuclear Site
PARIS - French nuclear safety authorities said Friday that a broken pipe at a nuclear fuel plant in southeast France had caused a radioactive leak but no damage to the environment.
The latest uranium spill at the plant run by nuclear giant Areva in Romans-sur-Isere came amid much public concern over a leak at another facility last week that polluted the local water supply.
Residents in the Vaucluse region of southern France have been told not to drink water or eat fish from nearby rivers after the liquid uranium spill on July 7 at the Tricastin nuclear plant.
According to the ASN nuclear safety authority, the pipe defect at the FBFC plant at Romans-sur-Isere in the Drome region may date back several years.
"Results from initial tests show there has been no impact at all on the environment, because the quantity of uranium was very small, in the order of a few hundred grammes," said ASN spokeswoman Evangelia Petit.
The FBFC plant produces nuclear fuel for some of France's 58 reactors, the world's largest network after the United States and which produces 80 percent of the nation's electricity.
Areva late Thursday notified the nuclear authority of the leak and three inspectors were dispatched to the site in the early hours on Friday to assess the damage.
Petit said the spill did not reach the ground water and that there was no sign of contamination.
Areva president Anne Lauvergeon was later Friday due to inspect the Tricastin plant, which is run by its subsidiary Socatri.
After admitting to a safety lapse at Tricastin, Areva on Thursday replaced Socatri's director and announced an internal audit to determine what went wrong.
French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo has announced that tests of the ground water near all nuclear reactors will be carried out to reassure residents following the Tricastin leak.
Swimming and water sports have also been forbidden as is irrigation of crops with the contaminated water.
The leak ranked as a level-one incident on the seven-point scale to rank nuclear accidents.
Copyright © AFP 2008
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13 Comments so far
Show AllCurious how D.U. John McSame is pushing Nuclear Power.
And ~OBAMA~? Ha ha ha. He's a nuke lover too.
These nuclear slow leaks are the tip of the iceburg.
Ya gotta love this link.
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chapter1.html
i see in Al Gore's speech, the word "nuclear" does not appear. Gore should be denouncing nuclear power, not leaving the door open for opportunistic corporations to offer their "clean" nuclear solutions to our climate crisis.
"i see in Al Gore's speech, the word "nuclear" does not appear. Gore should be denouncing nuclear power, not leaving the door open for opportunistic corporations to offer their "clean" nuclear solutions to our climate crisis."
You missed it… he didn't actually say the word "nuclear", but he referred to it when he said:
"Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years."
Part of that 100 percent he referred to *IS* nuclear… he just spun that into the "truly clean carbon-free sources" category. Of course nuclear is anything BUT "clean"… but because it does not add to the carbon problem, it only takes a little spinning to make you believe that he isn't including nuclear into the mix. In fact, he admitted so in an interview after the speech according to a NYT article:
"He said he envisioned nuclear power retaining its current share of domestic electricity generation, about 20 percent."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/washington/18gore.html
Now… there's the second spin. He believes nuclear should retain its 20 percent share. Don't make the mistake of reading that statistic to mean that he believes that nuclear generation should remain fixed at the current level of generation, just that it should remain fixed at the *proportion* of generation… and since he sees demand growing, that of course means that nuclear generation will be growing to maintain the 20 percent proportion.
It's easy to lie with statistics. Gore has always been an advocate of nuclear generation. Don't believe otherwise.
It sounds like ASN needs to increase inspections, even have full time rotating on-site personnel at every nuclear facility. (If they don't already.)
It looks like almost all of the radioactive dirt is from working with the fuel. Enriching, recovery, spent rods, reprocessing... The French better get this act together. The country isn't big enough to have a Hanford, WA type problem. France is now the world lab for nuclear power. They have to do it right.
toast:
Actually they have to start building replacements for aging nukes or that 20% is going to drop off. McCain wants to build 100. That would put a pretty nice dent in GHG emissions if used to replace coal fired, and most of the existing 100 nukes remain actve.
America with 200 nukes! Yes!! (I get silly on Fridays when its 96 F.)
Golly ~BBR 001~ don't live where we are, it's 109F in the shade today and it's full moon time too. ___ You'd be more than silly. __LOL.
Kem:
It was over 100 in the shop with a huge puddle of condensation around the soda (pop) machine. Then chills from soaked clothes in the office AC. Can see that full moon! This thread got quiet tonight.
Note to hypermilers: The traffic is lighter if you spend rush hour checking out the new CD articles on your office PC!
"a radioactive leak but no damage to the environment."
Given the rules of logic, how is this possible?
Dave Barry might have an explanation. He once sprayed a can of baldness cure on the bald area on his head. It turned out to be spray-on shoeblack, which looks really stupid around the office. Barry sprayed this tar on his head because, A: Journalists have no shame.
Some French reporter let the above statement stand unchallenged, that people shouldn't eat the fish or drink the water but there was "no damage to the environment". This is a bald lie, with the bald part covered with shoeblack which might possibly look like real hair from a mile away. Somewhere a reporter has no shame.
Yeah ~BBR~, our heat is DRY heat. No sweat or condensation.
It's DRY because it's HOT.
Atomic waste leaks are "not dangerous", they are just little spills ___ whenever reported. Don't worry unless you begin to get very sick, or develop a horrible disease, or your children whose immune systems are not fully developed come down with autism, cancer or diabetes. Those are just normal childhood maladies.
And many, especially heads of governments, or the major news and media giants, claim DU won't harm you either, it's just heavy metal. ___ And the beat goes on.
Chernobyl!... coming to a city near you!
(This message brought to you by General Electric, Westinghouse, John 'Bomb Bomb' McCain, and Barrak Obama)
I mention the above because Chernobyl was first reported as a 'minor' leak...
Shouldn't this article be linked to all the recent Al Gore articles, who after years of being a shill for the nuclear industry is promoting it as much, although he is still comfortable backing nuclear power for 1/5 or more of US energy needs (current level).