11/26/2011 Nuclear waste shipment draws ire of angry nuclear protesters in both France and Germany

Date: 11/24/2011 and 11/26/2011
Sources: CCTV News, Associated Press and NHK World

According to CCTV News, a train shipment of nuclear waste from France's La Hague facility met resistance first in France as it departed Wednesday and then in Germany.  French anti-nuclear protesters, some of whom damaged rail tracks, managed to delay the shipment.  300 French protesters in Northern France were met by police with batons and tear gas.

Per the Associated Press, further resistance by German anti-nuclear protesters has taken the form of a peaceful protest in Dannenberg where 23,000 activists showed up to demonstrate, as well as 50 protesters who attempted to sabotage train tracks. 300 protesters in Berlin threw rocks and fireworks at police.

11/17/2011 Radiation Mystery Solved? Budapest 'Probably' the Source

Source: ABC News
Date: 11/17/2011
by: LEE FERRAN and DRAGANA JOVANOVIC

Chain Bridge and Houses of Parliament in Budapest, Hungary, are seen in this elevated view. (Getty Images)

Nuclear officials said today they believe they have traced the source of a massive, but harmless, radiation plume that has spread across the atmosphere in Europe to an institute in Hungary, but the head of the institute disagrees.  

The Hungary Atomic Energy Authority said the Budapest-based Institute of Isotopes was "most probably" the source of the continued leak of trace amounts of Iodine-131 into the atmosphere, according to a statement by the International Atomic Energy Institute. Last week the IAEA first announced they received reports of trace iodine-131 detections from countries "across Europe," but had no idea from where the radiation was leaking. 

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11/15/2011 Radiation Spreads to France

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 11/15/2011

France Hit with Radiation


I reported yesterday that a blanket of radioactive iodine – indicating a new nuclear release – has hit Germany, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Today, Agence France Presse reports that it has hit France as well:

France´s nuclear watchdog on Tuesday said it had detected traces of radioactive iodine in the air last week ….
Concentrations of iodine 131 measuring a few microbecquerels per cubic metre were detected last week at four monitoring stations in northern and eastern France, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) said.
“Although the presence of iodine 131 over national territory is quite exceptional… the level of concentrations that have been observed are of no risk for public health,” it said in a press release.
“The source and date of the radioactive emissions which caused this pollution are currently unknown,” the IRSN said.
Iodine is a very short-lived isotope that decays to half of its radioactivity in only eight days.

As I noted yesterday, mainstream authorities are saying – without proof – that it can’t be from Fukushima.

11/11/2011 Radiation Levels Up in Europe, Depleted Uranium & More: Infowars Nightly News

Source: Infowars Nightly News
Date: 11/11/2011 (Veterans Day)
by: Alex Jones


See also:

1. United Nations Agency Downplays Increased Radiation in Europe  
2. Riddle of the radiation sweeping across Europe: UN nuclear agency mystified by soaring levels 
3. Why World War III: Destroy The Global Economy, Create A Greater Israel, And Establish A Global Authoritarian Government
4.  Japanese Debris to Start Hitting Western U.S. and Canada THIS WEEK 
5. Iran will be able to build nuclear bomb within months, IAEA says 
6. Ahmadinejad: IAEA chief is a tool for the US 
7. Israel may launch strike on Iran as soon as next month to prevent development of nuclear weapons

9/16/2011 SILENCE On French Nuclear MOX Plant Explosion! There is NO more information, except for the original story! WHY?!

Source: Sherrie Questioning All
Date: 9/16/2011

 France - Marcoule Nuclear Plant

I have been searching and searching for updated information about France's Marcoule nuclear site explosion, which was identified as being a MOX fuel site.  France has claimed it was an industrial explosion and not a nuclear explosion, but it happened at a MOX fuel producing part of the nuclear power plant.

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9/13/2011 Marcoule: an increase in radioactivity was observed in the Gard, Vaucluse and Herault

Source: Passerellesud via ENENEWS
Date: 9/13/2011
[Editor's Note:  Below is the original French article piped through Google Translate]
"A level of radioactivity 10 times the daily measurement of Avignon and 4 times higher than the Mont Ventoux"

According to an article published September 13, 2011 on the website of the anti-nuclear coordination Southeast (see below), an "anomalous increase" of radioactivity on the detection of X-rays, Gamma and Beta particles have been measured within a radius of 120 km downstream of Marcoule.
 
On September 12, 2011 anti-nuclear members of the Collective have made the Vaucluse independent measurements of radioactivity in different parts of Vaucluse, Gard and Herault, see the statement below:

No "credible explanation" from the makers of the nuclear accident at Marcoule and the weight of the French nuclear lobby, the collective anti-nuclear states that the cause of this increase in radioactivity could be directly linked to the bombing in the Gard.
 
In the same article, said that the collective anti-nuclear Provence is the region most nuclearized of France and its inhabitants, like those of Fukushima or Chernobyl, are daily exposed to radiation produced by the nuclear industry and the dangers posed by the French sites Triscastin, Marcoule and Cadarache, located on active seismic faults [ 1 ].
 
Finally, the collective anti-nuclear states that in the Vaucluse area of ​​malfunctions in the center of nuclear radioactive waste processing (Centraco), would do "not his first attempt," he refers to it to the list very official of accidents and incidents recorded by the ASN (Nuclear Safety Authority).
For more details read the article: Nuclear Incident at Marcoule: At least 1 dead, wounded and radiation

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To cite this article:

Drozerah "Marcoule: an increase in radioactivity was observed in the Gard, Vaucluse and Herault," Passerellesud.org, first broadcast September 14, 2011. ISSN: current request. URL: http://passerellesud.org/Marcoule-une-augmentation-de-la.html

9/12/2011 Explosion occurs at French nuclear facility

Source: NHK World
Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 05:55 +0900 (JST)
by: Keiko Kitagawa


An explosion has occurred at a nuclear waste processing plant in the suburb of Nimes in southern France. The country's nuclear safety body says no radioactive leaks have been detected. The blast in Marcoule took place shortly before noon on Monday. One person reportedly died and 4 others were injured. The nuclear agency says the explosion occurred in an oven used to melt metallic waste that contains very little radioactivity. The plant is operated by a subsidiary of the EDF power company. A spokesperson says a fire broke out after the explosion, but it has since been brought under control. Local media say no evacuation orders have been issued to residents living near the facility. The nuclear safety authorities are investigating how the blast occurred. The International Atomic Energy Agency has set up a task force. It is asking the French authorities to provide details of the accident in order to ascertain the situation.

Editor's Note: For the history of the Mercoule Nuclear Facility, see the article "Marcoule's long nuclear history".

View Live Ustream Radiation Detectors in a larger map

9/12/2011 Explosion Hits French MOX Nuclear Site

Source: Infowars
Date: Monday, September 12, 2011
by: Paul Joseph Watson




An explosion at a French nuclear facility that processes dangerous MOX plutonium has killed one person and injured four others, provoking fear that radioactivity could be escaping into the atmosphere, although officials have played down such concerns.

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7/2/2011 Transformer explodes at Tricastin nuclear power plant in Southern France

Date: 7/2/2011

I could not find any English reports on the fire so I piped some German and French articles through Google Translate. Following are the results.

From Der Standard:

France
Explosion in Atomkraftwerk Tricastin
02. July 2011 19:20

Fire brought under control

Paris - In the southern French nuclear plant Tricastin it came to French media reports of an explosion. A fire had broken out, but this has been brought under control in the afternoon, it said on the website of the newspaper "Dauphine Libere." People were not injured. The explosion is said to have occurred in a transformer outside the nuclear zone. (APA)

From BFMTV.com:

A fire hit on Saturday afternoon, the transformer unit to stop the nuclear Tricastin in the Drôme. Large plumes of black smoke escaped but according to EDF, there will be consequences on the environment.
Posted July 2, 2011 at 21:23

From leJDD.fr:

An explosion at the plant Tricastin

A transformer of the power plant Tricastin, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux (Drôme), exploded Saturday afternoon. The fire was quickly brought under control and the damage appears to no effect on the operation of the site.

"The fire was quickly extinguished." The prefecture of the Drôme, interviewed by leJDD.fr , has sought to reassure about an explosion on Saturday at the site of the nuclear plant Tricastin, in the commune of Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux. According to EDF, also contacted, an electrical transformer outside the nuclear zone, exploded around 15:30, causing the temporary shutdown of the plant. Material was then caught fire, releasing a large black smoke, which was witnessed by many residents and road. "The wind has not pressed the smoke on the ground and no motorist was annoyed," assures the prefecture.

Internal services of EDF responded immediately, locking the access to the site. Firefighters responded just minutes later to control the fire, confined at 15:55. "No one was hurt and there was no damage to the environment," says the prefecture.

Tricastin plant is subject to careful monitoring of the nuclear safety authority (ASN). The latter, in a 2007 report, stated that "the site had yet to make progress on the management of training, development permits and fire response times in case of fire that remain too long." A year later, the release of carbon, in June and September, and a leak of uranium in July, had caused great concern. ASN also announced last Thursday, have imposed new security requirements concerning the EDF reactor No. 1 of the plant. Commissioned in 1980, it might work for another ten years if the EDF gives the standards. The explosion took place Saturday in the Unit 1 power plant, fueled by the reactor 1.

Simplified map of the site of Tricastin (credit: Roulex_45/Wikipedia Commons).

GV - leJDD.fr

Saturday, July 2, 2011

There have in the past been safety concerns and incidents at this particular nuclear power plant, as per Reuters and Wikipedia. A recent Bloomberg article dated 7/1/2011 details that EDF (Electricite de France SA) France's largest operator of nuclear power plants was ordered to improve the Tricastin nuclear power plant's defense against natural disasters (floods, earthquakes and fires):

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EDF must reinforce the earthquake buffers at the Tricastin reactor as well as improve anti-flooding measures, according to a report released yesterday by the national atomic watchdog. Nobody from EDF could be reached for comment today.
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