nuclear seems viable in theory but it does not work in practice, apart from increasing the cost of electricity ...
After the incident at Tricastin, a new uranium leak at an Areva site occurred yesterday, this time at the FCBC nuclear fuel manufacturing plant in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme), after the rupture of a buried pipeline of uranium liquid effluent discharges, announced Friday the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), without specifying the degree of severity.
ASN investigators, warned Thursday at 17 p.m., reported that "the rupture of this buried pipeline would date, according to the operator, several years", while "corrective measures intended to protect the area against possible bad weather" have been taken.
An Areva spokesperson, Charles Hufnagel, said it was "slightly enriched" uranium, while assuring that the leak had only occurred at the site. There is "absolutely no impact on the environment," he said, indicating that Areva proposed to classify this incident at level 1 on the international scale of severity INES which goes up to 7.
In a press release, the FBFC factory specified that this pipeline links a nuclear fuel fabrication workshop to a processing station. The “faulty” piping was closed, while the Drôme prefecture and ASN were “immediately warned of this technical malfunction”.
According to ASN, the investigators noted “the non-compliance of this piping with the requirements of the regulations” which normally provides “sufficient impact resistance capacity to avoid” any rupture. After cleaning the area scheduled for Friday, they "requested that all of the materials removed be analyzed to assess the mass of uranium present".
"As usual, it is the ASN spokesperson who issued and checked this information," lamented the France Nature Environment federation. For her, the law of June 13, 2006 means that "all the powers of management of the nuclear industry are concentrated in the hands of the five leaders" of ASN. The federation, which brings together around 3000 environmental defense associations, requests that independent supervisory authorities "be able to carry out a public audit of these various accidents so that every citizen can know their causes and effects" and says that it is "thinking about possible legal actions ”.
Overhaul
"My feeling is that the more we move away from the heart of the matter, the less rigor there is" in the subcontracting of nuclear installations, said Friday the Minister of Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo after the two uranium leaks recorded this week.
"As long as we are in the heart of the matter, I have the impression that there is a great deal of rigor," said Borloo during a press conference.
The Minister recalled that he had asked the High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Security to "review" the entire nuclear monitoring and information process, from which it awaits the conclusions for the October.
when is the next publicly "announced"?