nuclear-news

Nuclear Waste Fuel can be Lethal within a Minute!

Source:

Allan Hedin
“Spent nuclear fuel – how dangerous is it? A report from the project  “Description of risk’ ”
SKB Report – Technical Report TR-97-13 (March 1997)

On page 21 of this report at para 3.5.2: the following two figures are provided:

1) the lethal dose is given as 5,000 ‘milli-Sieverts’ [1]

2) a dose rate of one million ‘milli-Sieverts’ per hour is quoted
(one year after one tonne of waste fuel has been taken out of a  reactor – when standing at one metre distance from the waste fuel rod)

From these two figures it is then calculated [2] that:

To stand one metre from:

• one tonne of waste fuel,
• one year after its removal from the reactor

– would kill you in twenty seconds.

On page 23 of the NDA ‘Disposability’ report for Westinghouse ‘AP1000’ [3] type fuel [4], a weight of approximately 600 kilograms per ‘AP1000’ fuel assembly is quoted. (see Table B4)

The figure quoted for the weight of an ‘EPR’ [5] fuel assembly is also roughly 600 kilograms. [6] ( See page 29 – Table B9)

Therefore:

• One fuel assembly of either ‘AP1000’ or ‘EPR’ type fuel weighs roughly half a tonne.
• This means that standing next to one of either of these fuel assemblies could kill you in about a minute.[7]

Dr Rachel E J Western BA(Oxon) PhD MRSC

16^th March 2018

[1] milli = one thousandth – (for defintion of ‘Sievert’ see ‘Technical section at the start of this document )

[2] (by reference to Figures 3-8a and b  ( See pp 22- 23 )

[3] ‘AP’ – Advanced Passive

[4] “Geological Disposal Generic Design Assessment: Summary of Disposability Assessment for Wastesand Spent Fuel arising from Operation of the Westinghouse AP1000 ”

NDA ( Oct ’09 )

http://www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/TN-17548-Generic-Design-Assessment-Summary-of-DA-for-Wastes-and-SF-arising-from-Operation-of-APPWR-October-2009.pdf

[5] ‘EPR’ – European Pressurised Reactor

[6] “Geological Disposal Generic Design Assessment: Summary of Disposability Assessment for Wastes and Spent Fuel arising from Operation of the UK EPR”

NDA Technical Note no. 11261814

NDA – October 2009

http://www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/TN-17548-Generic-Design-Assessment-Summary-of-Disposability-Assessment-for-Wastes-and-Spent-Fuel-arising-from-Operation-of-the-EPWR.pdf

[7] assuming that the waste fuel had been removed from the reactor one year earlier and that you were standing one metre away.

July 6, 2018 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized