Radioactive leak- Cherbourg

[Nicos]

Weird..but this was on the news here yesterday...no mention on the BBC....surely this should have some coverage somewhere...esp if there are SWly winds????????

[VirginVegGrower]

Eeks! Not good news for France or GB.

[veggiechicken]

I haven't been able to find any mention of it. How big a leak was it?

[veggiechicken]

Found it - rest easy - it was all contained in the reactor building!
Flamanville reactor n�1: leak on a reactor coolant system auxiliary line - French Nuclear Safety Authority
I can come out from under the stairs now

[vikkib]

I have to confess to having read it as 'Radioactive Leek'...

... it's early!

[PyreneesPlot]

Me too. And then Google a variety of leek called Cherbourg

[veggiechicken]

They'd be easy to pick after dark.........

[snohare]

They'd never catch on commercially. Too good a crop and come harvest time, when they reach the storage shed
BOOM !

( I think the Vine script size needs to go up to Spinal Tap 11 to encompass this one. )
I was reading about the post-Fukushima review of safety in nuclear power stations in Europe just the other day. The regulatory agency urged the reviewers not to use language that would worry people, and no details were released about which of the many reactors with potentially severe problems were sited where. So for example, France had about 78 reactors, of which say 50 had problems, 6 might meltdown like Fukushima, and nobody was saying which was safe or exactly what the matter was. (Can't remember the figures, that is just an example, but the numbers reflected the old age of most of the reactors and their designs.)
Meantime Fukushima is affected by subsidence, which may lead to a total collapse of the building containing the fuel rod storage ponds, and thus a truly catastrophic meltdown; and in the UK, we never hear about the cracks in stainless steel pipes coming from the base of the reactors, that were reported as am urgent reason for closure, at least a decade ago.
Seems like the death of the nuclear dream, these days. Shame, almost - the suggested thorium pebble bed reactors could have done a wonderful job of disposing of all that high level radioactive waste we have accumulated.

[veggiechicken]

Thanks for that cheery note, Snohare

[snohare]

Nice to know you appreciated my missing out the really bad bits of news, Veggie !

福島4號核爐危及日本和全世界（中英字幕）4号機倒壊危機 Unit 4 Crisis ENG SB - YouTube

I'm not sure if I am an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist - I consider this issue small potatoes !

[Nicos]

Having had a few 'workers' staying with us ( ie peeps who live at home at weekend and live near their place of work Mon- Fri), we've had a couple of guys who work at the local nuclear plants who have said that some of the French reactors are liable to flooding and could easily go the way of Fukushima in certain circumstances....tis just a matter of time

yes it's worrying especially as France is now producing nuclear energy in the form of electricity to the UK.....Cherbourg to Poole is only 75 miles or so!

[veggiechicken]

I find the whole issue of nuclear fuel alarming. I'm sure there must be another way. It doesn't matter how green you try to be as an individual there is little escape from a major incident at one of these plants.
*takes another sip of wine, just in case......*