Explosion at French nuclear plant

[Butterfly]

terrorist attack ?

BBC News - 'Leak risk after explosion at French nuclear plant'

'Leak risk after explosion at French nuclear plant'

Nuclear site at Marcoule, France,

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.

[Albert Shagnasty]

terrorist attack ?

BBC News - 'Leak risk after explosion at French nuclear plant'

'Leak risk after explosion at French nuclear plant'

Nuclear site at Marcoule, France,

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.

But it's patently obvious that nuclear power is the way forward as opposed to wind, solar and wave power generation which are emminently clean and safe

[Wally Dorian Raffles]

i have a feeling this latest incident will be the nail in the coffin of the demise of nuclear power. it's just too dangerous..

[Gerbil]

Meanwhile the Thais are pressing ahead with their plans for nuclear power.

"What's this button do, Somchai?"

[Neo]

Go to main page News Blast rocks nuclear plant in France
Blast rocks nuclear plant in France

Published: 12 September, 2011, 15:54
Edited: 12 September, 2011, 16:19

At least one person has been killed and four more wounded in an explosion which rocked on Monday a nuclear power plant in Marcoule, southern France.
[at]According to emergency services, there is a risk of a radioactive leak after the blast. Meanwhile French nuclear authorities say there is no leak “at this time”.
There is no clear information immediately available as to how much risk the incident poses.

AFP Photo / Dominique Faget
The site is involved in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, and operates a pressurized water reactor used to produce tritium.
Sources say the blast happened in one of the workshops where nuclear waste is disposed of.
Le Figaro newspaper reports that there was also a fire in the storage site where explosion set off.
The Marcoule site has been in use since 1956 and is utilized by the Atomic Energy Organization "Commissariat a L'energie Atomique". In the 1970's, it housed the first industrial and military plutonium experiments.
All the first-generation nuclear reactions at the site have been shut down, and only one pressurized water reactor is in operation. Today, it is an important location for the decomissioning of nuclear facilities. The last reactor was shut down in 1984. The facility is currently used by the French nuclear firm Areva, for the clean-up and disassembly of nuclear installations.
Last March, a level 2 incident had already occurred in the same plant (on a scale up to 7). This incident was initially reported as "level 1" by Areva, but after reviewing the case, the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) decided to classify it as "level 2". The ASN asserted it was "the failure of several safety requirements of the installation."

The last high-profile disaster at a nuclear facility was the Fukushima power plant disaster in Japan. The power plant was heavily damaged on March 11 by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami, and several of its reactors melted down after safety systems failed.
The disaster resulted in massive leaks of radioactive materials and evacuation of residents of the area.



© Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005 - 2011. All rights reserved.

[Thaihome]

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Rabid Media - and the Marcoule incident



From time to time, I like to do the sort of thing you're about to see me do. I always thank Fintan Dunne for putting me on to this. Let's go!

First, look at the headline of the following article:

"What You Need to Know About the Nuclear Explosion In France."

There was no nuclear explosion in France. There was an industrial accident involving a furnace used to melt contaminated metal parts together into ingots for disposal. While this could involve, say, a fossil fuel explosion there isn't even a nuclear reactor in the facility in question.. and even THEN, there could not be a nuclear explosion because reactors cannot explode like nuclear weapons. So this has to be one of the most highly exaggerated headlines yet.

Here is just a horrible headline, and an even worse article:

France aims to limit fallout from nuclear accident.

Where shall I begin?

-Clever use of the word "fallout" hints at radioactive fallout, but they really mean public reaction to the event.

-Note the use of the different serious scary words such as "blast" and "blown up."

-See the implication that the press has learned from anti-nuclear Fukushima press hack media guidelines vis a vis age of sites in this article when it mentions that this is one of the oldest nuclear sites in France. This is one of their new hot button things - age.

-Note how the article ends with "hasn't learned the lessons of Fukushima." Yes, well, lessons learned from one of the most massive natural disasters in modern times and how that relates to GE-Toshiba-Hitachi boiling water reactors in Mk I containment buildings really has little to do with an explosion and fire in and around a furnace that melts steel.

"Blast rocks nuclear plant in France."

It's not a nuclear plant. It's a waste processing facility. Can't we get a handle on the differences here, media? Please? What, do I need to issue you all a media guide? Nuclear energy 101, maybe I'll call it. By the way - don't even bother reading the article actually linked above because it's almost perfect in its incorrectness from front to back, top to bottom. It's a masterpiece of total inaccuracy.

"Jitters after nuclear accident in France."

The Voice of Russia here makes it clear that they, and perhaps many others in Russia wish that something worse than Chernobyl would happen so that the spotlight is off them, and so that there's a new yardstick of "bad." Think I'm kidding? Read the last paragraph of this article twice slowly and you'll begin to realize I'm not.

I could go on and on like this, but I'd like you to compare all the articles you'll see in the blog roll on this site, and this site's own articles on the subject, with the various major media articles you have seen above on this post. The comparison - and the intent to scare and misinform by the major media - could not be more clear.

4:35 PM Eastern Monday September 12, 2011
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW

Posted by Will Davis at 4:16 PM

[harrybarracuda]

No radioactive leak after France nuclear power blast

By John Lichfield
Tuesday, 13 September 2011


France was yesterday quick to play down the significance of an explosion in a nuclear waste recycling plant in the south of the country which killed one man and injured four others.

Ministers said the blast, close to the Marcoule nuclear power station, near Avignon, was an "industrial accident" and not an explosion in, or near, a nuclear reactor. There had been no radioactive leak and no need to evacuate workers or local people.

The explosion at the sprawling Marcoule site on the banks of the Rhone - one of the oldest and largest nuclear facilities in France - is nonetheless a political and economic embarrassment to the French government.

Since the calamity at the Fukushima plant in Japan in March, France has been at pains to reassure its citizens, and potential foreign buyers, of the safety of its own nuclear technology. Environmental groups called yesterday on the French government, traditionally secretive on nuclear questions, to allow "total transparency" and an independent investigation of the Marcoule blast.
The pressure-group France Nature Environnement (FNE), which has 3,000 member associations, said the accident "underlines the problems with control of nuclear risks in France". The significance of nuclear accidents has sometimes been obscured by French authorities in the past, FNE pointed out.
Famously, the French government announced in 1986 that the radioactive nuclear cloud from the Chernobyl explosion in the Ukraine had "stopped at the French frontier". A lengthy legal investigation of French official responsibility in covering up the effects of Chernobyl concluded last week that there was no case to answer.
Officials said that yesterday's explosion had occurred in an oven used to destroy or recycle feebly radioactive objects ranging from metal bars to tools and gloves. The oven was in the Centraco recycling plant at Codolet, part of a large complex of nuclear facilities that has grown up near to the Marcoule power station.
First reports said that there had been a leakage of radioactivity and that local people would have to be evacuated. This was rapidly denied. Detectors outside the complex had found no trace of a radioactive escape, officials said. The explosion was being treated as an "industrial accident" with no implications for the local population, said the Energy Minister, Eric Besson.
The French nuclear safety authority, the Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, said that the blast occurred in an oven which destroyed or recycled objects of "low or very low radioactivity". One worker had been burnt to death. Four others had been injured but had suffered no exposure to radiation.
background
France is the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, with the lion's share of its electricity output - 79% - coming from the 58 nuclear reactors that dot the country. France is also a major exporter of nuclear power, treats nuclear waste from around the world, and state-owned nuclear giant Areva is one of the country's most prominent companies.

Read more: No radioactive leak after France nuclear power blast - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

So you can pretty well guarantee that they'll lie through their gauloise-stained teeth then.

[harrybarracuda]

My, France certainly gets its share of mentions on this list. Only a matter of time before one of them goes tits up and irradiates all the onions.

Calendar of Nuclear Accidents and Events