[ RadSafe ] Helen Caldicot AGAIN [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Peter Thomas]

I believe she is referring to the accident at the THTR-300 reactor.

Here's the Wikipedia article on the reactor ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300

It doesn't discuss the accident but does include the following sentence
... "On September 1st, 1989 the THTR-300 was deactivated due to its cost
and increased public scrutiny following both the Chernobyl accident and
the THTR-300 fuel pellet accident."

The anti-nuclear NIRS talks about it at the following page ...
http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/pbmrfactsheet.htm

And has the following paragraph ...
"In 1985, the experimental THTR-300 PBMR on the Ruhr in Hamm-Uentrop,
Germany was also offered as accident proof--with the same promise of an
indestructible carbon fuel cladding capable of retaining all generated
radioactivity. Following the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor
accident and graphite fire in Ukraine, the West German government
revealed that on May 4, the 300-megawatt PBMR at Hamm released radiation
after one of its spherical fuel pebbles became lodged in the pipe
feeding the fuel to the reactor. Operator actions during the event
caused damage to the fuel cladding."

I seem to remember reading somewhere that a fuel pellet became lodged in
the feed pipe.  The operator then decided to release more fuel pellets
in the hope that the weight and impulse of the falling pellets would
push the stuck pellet through.  When that didn't work they prodded at
the stack of fuel pellets in the chute with some sort of pole or stick
to try to get them through.

Peter Thomas
Medical Physics Section
ARPANSA
 


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Tuesday, 12 June 2007 11:12 AM
To: radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Helen Caldicot AGAIN


June 11, 2007

         HC is a nut.

         She claims "Already there has been an accident in a pebble bed 
reactor in Germany during the time that Chernobyl melted down."

         What is the story on this?  Anyone know?  Franz?  You live in 
Austria.  Can you tell us anything about this alleged accident?  Of
course 
"accident" could mean just about anything.  Someone dropped a hammer on
his 
foot, etc., etc.

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com


At 12:33 PM 6/11/07 -0400, Wes Van Pelt wrote:
>Radsafers,
>
>CNET News, of all things, has a big article about Helen Caldicott and
>her usual anti nuclear stuff.
>
>If you go to the link below you can read the article and also send in a
>comment to CNET.
>
>http://news.com.com/Nuke+power+not+so+clean+or+green/2008-11392-6189817
>.html
>?part=dht&tag=nl.e703
>
>Best regards,
>Wes
>Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP
>Wesley R. Van Pelt Associates, Inc.




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