France
20km (12.5 miles) from Paris
Contaminated site in France | DW | 04.01.2018
The French military is said to have used an old military site for “small-scale nuclear tests”. The area is contaminated with radiation. A firm now plans to open a gypsum mine on there. Local residents and nuclear experts are outraged.
Russian Nuclear Accident (Aug. 2019)
The two big issues with the Russian accident are the use of a small modular nuclear reactor and what the radiation readings are in the area.
Did the accident include a small modular ‘nuclear’ reactor, commonly referred to as a SMR or SMNR? Information is mixed on this. It appear that a SMNR was involved but was it attached to a Missle at the time of explosion or was it operating at the site in some other capacity at the time of the explosion. For example was it being tested on the ground?
This is important to the U.S.A. as our country is supporting the work on the further development of SMNRs in our own country. They are often promoted as ‘safer’ than the larger older reactor currently in operation. What are the implications for SMNR development here if Russia is using them and they can blow up?
Excerpt [But Vyacheslav Solovyev, an official from Sarov, a closed nuclear research city overseen by Rosatom, characterized the power source involved in the explosion as a “small nuclear reactor,” The Moscow Times reported.]
Radiation levels reported are unclear however the contamination of tending physicians and their non-disclosure agreement may be an indicator that things are worse than are being conveyed to the public.
Excerpt [A regional news site, Northern News, reported that doctors at a civilian hospital in Arkhangelsk, the largest city in the region, who first treated victims of the accident, had not been informed of radiation danger.
After treating the patients, the doctors at the Arkhangelsk Regional Clinical Hospital found that their scrubs were causing radiation meters to click, the site reported.
The patients were taken to Moscow and the rooms where they had lain were sealed. Later, said the report, the doctors were also transferred to the capital for medical evaluations. All medical personnel who treated victims of the accident, the site reported, had been made to sign nondisclosure agreements.]
Russia
Evacuation ordered. We can only speculate right now as to the reasons why this town is being evacuated but the saying, ‘the whole world is watching’ comes to mind as we wait to find out.