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kristopher

(29,798 posts)
Wed Jun 26, 2013, 06:44 AM Jun 2013

French Nuclear Disaster Scenario Was So Bad The Government Kept It Secret

French Nuclear Disaster Scenario Was So Bad The Government Kept It Secret


Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl in 1986 or Fukushima No. 1 in 2011, are, we’re incessantly told, very rare, and their probability of occurring infinitesimal.

But when they do occur, they get costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with cost estimates for an accident in France, kept them secret.

But now the report was leaked to the French magazine, Le Journal de Dimanche. Turns out, the upper end of the cost spectrum of an accident at the nuclear power plant at Dampierre, in the Department of Loiret in north-central France, amounted to over three times the country’s GDP.

Hence, the need to keep it secret. The study was done in 2007 by the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN), a government agency under joint authority of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Environment, Industry, Research, and Health.With over 1,700 employees, it’s France’s “public service expert in nuclear and radiation risks.” This isn’t some overambitious, publicity-hungry think tank.

It evaluated a range of disaster scenarios that might occur at the Dampierre plant. In the best-case scenario, costs came to €760 billion—more than a third of France’s GDP...




Read more: http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2013/3/13/potential-cost-of-a-nuclear-accident-so-high-its-a-secret.html
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French Nuclear Disaster Scenario Was So Bad The Government Kept It Secret (Original Post) kristopher Jun 2013 OP
One of you antinukes* reported that there had been ten wrecked cores or meltdowns Kolesar Jun 2013 #1
What hasn't happened *yet*... kristopher Jun 2013 #2

Kolesar

(31,182 posts)
1. One of you antinukes* reported that there had been ten wrecked cores or meltdowns
Wed Jun 26, 2013, 06:48 AM
Jun 2013

...out of the few hundred operational nuclear generating plants in the world. I am not sure it was exactly ten, but there were a lot more than the headline grabbers at TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima.

*smile when you say "antinuke"

kristopher

(29,798 posts)
2. What hasn't happened *yet*...
Wed Jun 26, 2013, 03:20 PM
Jun 2013

What hasn't happened *yet* is a large breach of containment that hits a densely populated region full force.
Japan lucked out when a modern kamikaze blew the bulk of the release from Fukushima out to sea. If the wind had been out of the NE the conversation about the meaning of that accident would have been entirely different.

The French study shows just how different.


kamikaze of 1274 and 1281:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1483622/kamikaze-of-1274-and-1281

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