Ascó contamination spotted at recycling
23 April 2008
Radioactive contamination was discovered on 21 April in a truck that left Spain's Ascó nuclear power plant carrying waste metal for recycling. The radioactivity was detected by an alarm portico in place for that possibility at the recycling plant. Some particles were tested and found to contain cobalt-60 with a dose contact of between 0.5 and 20 microseiverts per hour. The Consejo De Seguridad Nuclear (Nuclear Safety Council, CSN) said the particles had come from a container that had been in the vicinity of the ventilation stack through which the particles escaped the nuclear fuel building of Ascó 1. The release was reported to the CSN on 5 April following a November 2007 refuelling outage during which the fuel channel and then the ventilation system became contaminated before the contamination then bypassed filters. Some 'light pollution' has been found by CSN at the river near the plant. Over 900 workers and visitors have been checked for contamination and certified as clear, while surveillance of 1550 in total is scheduled. CSN has said the impact of the radioactive release was very low and below legal limits. The original release has been categorised at Level 2 on the International Nuclear Events Scale; the contamination metal for recycle at Level 1.