IAEA: Belgian Nuclear Mishap Exposed People To Radiation

VIENNA -- The U.N. nuclear agency says three people were exposed to radiation and had to undergo decontamination after a mishap at a Belgian waste facility.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says no radioactivity has been released into the environment through the incident at the Belgoprocess nuclear waste processing facility in Dessel, Belgium.

The IAEA said in a statement Wednesday one of its inspectors, along with a EURATOM inspector and a Belgoprocess staffer were on a routine tour of the facility when the incident occurred.

It said their level of radiation exposure is still to be determined and "decontamination of the facility is expected to begin soon."

Comments

[Kenz300]

08:38 PM on 10/08/2011

Nuclear energy is too dangerous and too costly.

[WeMustDoBetter09]

10:36 AM on 10/06/2011

Ummm...
Health Defects Found In Children Living Near Quake-Stricken Fukushima Prefecture
http://www.irishweatheronline.com/news/earth-science/geology/health-defects-found-in-children-living-near-quake-stricken-fukushima-prefecture/40893.html
Is this what we want? Such a dangerous form of energy that Children end up like the Children of Fukushima? I know I don't. There's no reason whatsoever we couldn't move to a cleaner, less dangerous source of Power. We need more people speaking out who feel the same. A good start might be HERE:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
End the use of nuclear energy in the United States.
http://wh.gov/4HA

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
End taxpayer subsidies for new nuclear reactors
http://tinyurl.com/3rxkknu

[Joffan]

07:23 PM on 10/07/2011

The children concerned are healthy. Slight variation in levels of various blood hormones are no reason to try to panic and/or stigmatize these people. "Normal" limits often only apply 95% of the time. The Japan Chernobyl Foundation appears to have found a new group to families to terrorize, for which I hope they will be suitably reviled.

[Genders]

04:10 AM on 10/12/2011

LOL, healthy? just mutated? WOW, desperate....

[Joffan]

06:02 AM on 10/06/2011

IAEA link:
http://www-news.iaea.org/ErfView.aspx?mId=2b7ece99-bfd0-4b68-944f-99ccdd996c71
==========­======
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. They were all immediately transferred to a specialised lab for external decontamination as well as for the verification and treatment of internal contamination.
Effective doses related to the external contamination of the 3 persons are very low. The committed doses over 50 years due to the internal contamination are below the statutory limits of 20 mSv.
Further measurements for internal contamination are on-going to get more accurate data and to confirm the first measurements.
No radioactivity has been released outside the building and hence the incident had no effect on the environment or people from the public.
==========­======
The mention of plutonium will no doubt attract the usual hysteria, but the worst-case lifetime dose for the people concerned is below 20 mSv.

[desertlabs]

11:18 PM on 10/06/2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/nuclear-regulatory-commission-spent-fuel-pools_n_996474.html

The report by NRC staff elevates the importance of spent-fuel pools, saying current regulations do not require instruments measuring water levels to be operable in case of accident. Water levels at spent-fuel pools were a key issue after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear plant in Japan.

-----

"Effective doses related to the external contamination of the 3 persons are very low."

What exactly does that mean? In the present day, why would levels not be stated? If an agency or group is interested in gaining support from anyone other than the Industry, they should be providing hard stats for their position. If they don't...credibility will sink even lower.

-----

"The committed doses over 50 years due to the internal contamination are below the statutory limits of 20 mSv."

Whose "statutory limits" would that be?

[desertlabs]

11:20 PM on 10/06/2011

"Further measurements for internal contamination are on-going to get more accurate data and to confirm the first measurements."

We've heard that before...most recently in regard to Fukushima.

Yeah...that's what I'm waiting for..."further measurements of internal contamination...confirm first measurement...we've learned just how significant first measurement are.

If we use TEPCO as a measure, we can expect a significant increase in the levels "measured" .

"No radioactivity has been released outside the building and hence the incident had no effect on the environment or people from the public."

Forgive me, but I think that assumption would be a mistake.

[Joffan]

05:20 AM on 10/06/2011

This is a very odd story... it reads like the safety inspection actually caused some kind of spill.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/iaea-reports-incident-at-belgian-nuclear-waste-site
================
A U.N. inspector and two other people are being checked for radiation exposure after a "contamination incident" at a nuclear waste processing facility in Belgium, the U.N. atomic agency said on Wednesday.

Belgian authorities say no radioactivity leaked into the environment after Tuesday afternoon's incident at the Belgoprocess facility in the northern municipality of Dessel, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

"The inspector, accompanied by a EURATOM inspector and a Belgoprocess official, was conducting a routine inspection at the facility when the incident occurred," it said in a statement.
================

[darlinsass]

02:16 PM on 10/07/2011

The news really don't tell you much, do they? It leads one to believe that one of the inspectors or the employee caused the accident. Still.. I wouldn't want to have the exposure myself, whether it's deemed safe or not.

[Genders]

11:36 PM on 10/05/2011

Nuclear reactors are just a cooling system failure away from catastrophic meltdown and explosions spewing cancer causing radioactive waste all over the planet.

Not to mention waste, proliferation and terrorism for expensive electricity.

Green is cheaper or very soon to be cheaper than all the fossils and nukes.

What are we waiting for?

rooftop solar, offshore wind and waste bio char bio fuels (FT too).

in combination,

Can provide all the fuels, chemicals, energy we need, more than now, forever, 24/7 using the waste bio fuels in existing gas turbines, safe, clean, carbon, land and water negative, ready now to grow by doubling every year or so as it has been, to replace fossil and nukes within 7-15 years.

http://solarcellcentral.com/companies_page.html first solar 2.5$ per Wp installed.

http://solar.gwu.edu/Research/EnergyPolicy_Zweibel2010.pdf 1-2 cents KWH

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/10/solar-power-graphs-to-make-you-smile/

http://www.sunelec.com/ 75 cents per Wp.
1-2$/Wp http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

http://www.wind-works.org/articles/EnergyBalanceofWindTurbines.html 3 months

http://www.plancanada.com/biochar_basics.pdf
2$ per watt bio chart.

[markkocaldo]

03:26 PM on 10/06/2011

Modern nukes have a meltdown risk of 1 incident per plant every 5 million years. The only two incidents in history happpend in ancient fifties design reactors crippled by corrupt regulators killed nobody while solar and wind kind scores every year in accidents.

Not so renewable solar, wind, and geothermal energy are no solution to our energy needs with wind/solar with its' current ghg spewing gas backup replaced with green storage costing near $1.50 a kwh, and large scale geothermal still massively polluting with sulfur emissions, causing earthquakes,and dependent on not yet invented technology.

Biofuels are immensely destructive to land, forest and fuel supply while at the same time enormously polluting of air and water supply.

Clean and green nuclear at 3 cents a kwh, and a 40% rate of return on investment is the only ethical, equitable, and sustainable source we have.

All this from the world's foremost climatologist James Hansen.

[Genders]

04:27 PM on 10/06/2011

You cannot accurately measure risk with a first generation technology that has not gone through it's entire life cycles. Based on history, we have had 3 major meltdowns in 50 years for a fleet of 1000 reactors. Now with the reactors being run past their design lifetimes, and above their design capacities, we can expect more meltdown. One big disaster could cause dozens or hundreds of reactor to melt down, a large quake or an EMP pulse for instance.

Rooftop solar, offshore wind, AND WASTE BIO FUELS/BIOCHAR HAS NO STORAGE PROBLEM, and IS ALREADY CHEAPER THEN NUKE POWER. I linked. try reading them.

WASTE BIO FUELS IS NOT ETHANOL. GET IT?

NUKE POWER IS NOT 3 CENTS THAT IS A WORLD NUKE LIE THAT INCLUDED ONLY FUEL AND MAINTENANCE AND YOU SOUND LIKE A FOOL EVERY TIME YOU REPEAT IT. NEW NUKES ARE CLOSER TO 30 CENTS. 50% OF NUKE COMPANIES ARE EXPECTED TO DEFAULT. NUKES HAVE BANKRUPTED MANY COMPANIES, THE ONLY WAY YOU GET 40% RETURN IS AFTER A BANKRUPTCY ELIMINATE THE MAJOR COSTS.

NUKES ARE ANYTHING BUT CLEAN AND CAUSE THOUSANDS OF CANCERS.

HANSEN IS INCORRECT. WOW WHAT A CONCEPT.

[mamacat]

09:12 PM on 10/05/2011

All over the world people and governments are re-examining the decision to use nuclear reactors to boil water in order to generate electricity.

In Japan, only 10 of their 54 nuclear plants are currently online. At Fukushima, while the central government tries to convince people to move back into their homes that were evacuated, unsafe levels of contamination in the soil were just this week discovered 60 kilometers away from the initial radiation leaks.

[Genders]

11:31 PM on 10/05/2011

ff

[WeMustDoBetter09]

06:29 PM on 10/05/2011

Counterpunch.org: Weep for Japan today. Weep for us tomorrow. How to Dwarf #Fukushima by RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/05/how-to-dwarf-fukushima/
10 minutes ago
How many more accidents will it take to WAKE PEOPLE UP?!?!

[undsoweiter]

08:25 PM on 10/05/2011

Oh, we're awake. We just didn't wake up in a straightjacket..................again.

[darlinsass]

02:17 PM on 10/07/2011

:)

[WeMustDoBetter09]

06:26 PM on 10/05/2011

Brand New Video
Nuclear Contaminat­ion Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass Part 1
http://tinyurl.com/3uyyuj3
What the governments and corporate media will not tell you.
Nuclear radiations and the lies and the cover ups

[WeMustDoBetter09]

06:18 PM on 10/05/2011

Nuclear Oversight Lacking Worldwide
by grtv
Fairewinds disagrees with a recent New York Times Opinion that claims that Fukushima was caused because Japanese regulators did not properly oversee Tokyo Electric.

Fairewinds shows that in the United States, the same cozy relationship exists between the NRC and the nuclear industry.

Proper regulation of nuclear power has been coopted worldwide by industry refusal to implement the cost to assure nuclear safety.
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/10/nuclear-oversight-lacking-worldwide

[WeMustDoBetter09]

05:54 PM on 10/05/2011

Shut all these damn Nuclear Plants down.
What does the world want? Another Fukushima?!?!

[NWBrunette]

01:04 AM on 10/06/2011

Hear hear!