Just in: Blast at the southern French nuclear plant of Marcoule

[7ightG4therer]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14883521

As I'm currently residing in the South of France only 75 km away from this site, this freaks me out a little. What about Laura and the group? Not wanting to be panicky I want to rely on proper information. I also realize that authorities are not quite the most reliable source, to put it mildly. Any one else has more background information? The story is developing as I speak.

 

[paralleloscope]

got a bad feeling about this. Be safe

An oven exploded on the Marcoule nuclear site in the Gard region, causing a risk of radioactive leakage, said firefighters and prefecture AFP.

_http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/france/822350/un-four-explose-sur-le-site-nucleaire-de-marcoule-en-france/

The site is partly used by French nuclear giant Areva to produce MOX fuel which recycles plutonium from nuclear weapons. Part of the process involves firing superheated plutonium and uranium pellets in an oven.

_http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/09/12/leak-risk-at-french-nuclear-site

From 1958 to 1997, plant UP1 treated used fuels from the subsidiary UNGG (natural uranium - graphite - gas). It ceased operations on September 30, 1997. The redevelopment phase since launched constitutes a world first for a nuclear site of this size.

Some figures:

30 years of construction work,
1,000 locations to clean,
30,000 ton of waste to treat, 2% of which was highly active

Under the project leadership of CEA, AREVA Marcoule is the industrial operator for the cleanup of the treatment plant and its connected facilities. It performs operations including:

Cleaning and disassembly of the treatment plant and associated facilities, such as preparation workshops:
rinsing circuits using classic or specific chemical reagents,
Decontamination, shearing, and disassembly of equipment (pumps, filters, tanks, glove boxes...)
Recovery, sorting, and reconditioning of waste generated since the inception of the site as well as those produced by the cleanup operations, in accordance with applicable standards: oil drums, structural waste, fuel containers... These were then temporarily stored on-site or removed to a permanent storage facility.

Nuclear installation operator

AREVA also operates in Marcoule various nuclear industry installations, on behalf of the CEA for the:

Production of tritium.
Treatment of liquid waste and waste products.
Inspections and laboratory expertise in nuclear materials.
Dosimetry of personnel.
Decontamination of machines and tools.
Maintenance of transport containers for nuclear materials.

_http://www.areva.com/EN/operations-3134/marcoule-site--activities-cleanup-and-dismantling.html

Firefighters and the prefect have warned of potential radioactive leaks after a man was killed in an explosion at a nuclear waste treatment plant in the Gard. Regional newspaper Midi Libre said a furnace had blown up at around 11.45, killing the man and injuring four others, one of them seriously. The latter was flown to hospital by helicopter, the paper said. Firefighters have thrown a security cordon round the Centraco plant at Marcoule, which is run by an EDF subsidiary, Socodei. So far, no harmful material has escaped from the installation but both firefighters and the prefecture have warned of the risk of a leak. The plant processes waste considered to be of low or very low radioactivity, so as to make it stable and reduce its bulk. The explosion was in a furnace used to melt it down.

_http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_update_read&edis_id=NC-20110912-32304-FRA&uid=11387

 

[SeekinTruth]

I'm hoping it won't become a major problem. How far is the chateau crew from the site? 7ightG4therer, you're really close, take care and keep vigilant.

 

[paralleloscope]

I'm hoping it won't become a major problem. How far is the chateau crew from the site? 7ightG4therer, you're really close, take care and keep vigilant.

It looks like about 350-400 km away from chateau, it just a stonethrow away from Orange and next stop downstream is Avignon. It's hard not to let emotions run away right now, best wishes in tonights early EE to you locals.

 

[Laura]

Rats! Ark's got a seminar in Marseille in a couple weeks and it is one of those non-cancellable things. Hotel already paid for and everything!

 

[anart]

Rats! Ark's got a seminar in Marseille in a couple weeks and it is one of those non-cancellable things. Hotel already paid for and everything!

Does the wind move toward ya'll or toward Marseille (in general). I'm thinking it moves from the plant toward you? That doesn't help you, but it might help Marseille. (?)

 

[paralleloscope]

Rats! Ark's got a seminar in Marseille in a couple weeks and it is one of those non-cancellable things. Hotel already paid for and everything!

Does the wind move toward ya'll or toward Marseille (in general). I'm thinking it moves from the plant toward you? That doesn't help you, but it might help Marseille. (?)

The wind seems to be generally a N(W) one moving south (Marseille bound). For the next week there are some SW ones (but mainly from N at 8-16 kmh). From next weeks snapshot it doesn't look to blow west.
_http://www.weatherforyou.com/reports/index.php?country=fr&state=&place=orange

 

[7ightG4therer]

Great, so it's moving in my direction.. Both ASN and IAEA declare that no radioactive material escaped into the atmosphere, but the question is how reliable this information is. They also claimed that the accident involved a low-radiation plant. I assume that such statements can easily be verified by doing measurements with a simple geiger counter. I don't see any acute need to start evacuating, based on the evidence at hand.

 

[paralleloscope]

Great, so it's moving in my direction.. Both ASN and IAEA declare that no radioactive material escaped into the atmosphere, but the question is how reliable this information is. They also claimed that the accident involved a low-radiation plant. I assume that such statements can easily be verified by doing measurements with a simple geiger counter. I don't see any acute need to start evacuating, based on the evidence at hand.

Please take care and don't freak out, we don't know anything yet. Apart from doing EE and taking a step back perhaps you could seek out (internet) local people with a scietific interest that could have a geiger counter handy or inside info, to make an independent diagnostic?

---Edit

The reactor is called phenix (rising from the ashes) of appearant shutdown since 09
_http://www.iaea.org/cgi-bin/db.page.pl/pris.prdeta.htm?country=FR&site=PHENIX&refno=10

their wiki updated today : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Site_nucl%C3%A9aire_de_Marcoule

Phoenix is an intermediary between reactor Rapsodie (arrested in 1983) and Superphénix (stopped in 1998).

The story of the Phoenix was punctuated by stoppages, mainly, until 1989, due to leaks and "small" fires sodium. Between September 1990 and the end of 1994, the breeder did not work, except for a few days of testing . Arrested in 1995, Phoenix will restart in 1998. In 1999, Phoenix suffered another stop as it should be in compliance with new seismic standards.

In September 2002, an explosion occurred in a tank connected to a chimney which opens into the roof of the building. This is a reaction between the sodium present in the residual reservoir of water that would have accidentally entered a result of an overflow due to heavy rains that affected the region .

In March 2008, a control operation at CEA Marcoule uncovered malfunctions of monitoring software fire of the nuclear Phoenix. The incident was classified as Level 1 on the INES scale .
The Marcoule site will be the first to dismantle because of the shutdown of all reactors. Outside Phoenix, the other three reactors at Marcoule nuclear site (the graphite-gas) were arrested in 1968, 1980 and 1984. The dismantling of the Phoenix is ​​scheduled for 2012. Phoenix (including the dismantling operation is estimated at nearly one billion euros) is considered a prototype fast breeder reactor called. Its dismantling will be particularly sensitive to the fact that unlike other reactors is not immersed in water but in liquid sodium (which a property is ignited by oxygen and react with water). Phoenix was arrested in 2009 .

It was used to make tritium, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium

Like hydrogen, tritium is difficult to confine. Rubber, plastic, and some kinds of steel are all somewhat permeable. This has raised concerns that if tritium were used in large quantities, in particular for fusion reactors, it may contribute to radioactive contamination, although its short half-life should prevent significant long-term accumulation in the atmosphere.

The high levels atmospheric nuclear weapons testing that took place prior to the enactment of the Partial Test Ban Treaty proved to be unexpectedly useful to oceanographers. The high levels of tritium oxide introduced into upper layers of the oceans have been used in the years since then to measure the rate of mixing of the upper layers of the oceans with their lower levels.

Health risks

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, which allows it to readily bind to hydroxyl radicals, forming tritiated water (HTO), and to carbon atoms. Since tritium is a low energy beta emitter, it is not dangerous externally (its beta particles are unable to penetrate the skin), but it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food or water, or absorbed through the skin.[14][15][16][17] HTO has a short biological half-life in the human body of 7 to 14 days, which both reduces the total effects of single-incident ingestion and precludes long-term bioaccumulation of HTO from the environment.

Tritium has leaked from 48 of 65 nuclear sites in the United States, resulting in higher than drinking water levels.[18]

Regulatory limits

The legal limits for tritium in drinking water vary from country-to-country and from continent-to-continent. Some figures are given below.

Canada: 7,000 becquerel per liter (Bq/L).
United States: 740 Bq/L or 20,000 picocurie per liter (pCi/L) (Safe Drinking Water Act)
World Health Organization: 10,000 Bq/L.
European Union: "investigative" limit of 100 Bq/L.