South Africa says radioactive contamination at nuclear plant was minor

admin — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 17:02:00 +0000

Koeberg has been in operation for 40 years and was in 2024 granted an extension for another 20 years. (Representational image)
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Recent radioactive contamination incidents at Africa’s only nuclear power plant were minor and posed no public danger, officials said on Sunday (July 19, 2026), reaffirming South Africa’s intention to scale up nuclear power generation.

“Airborne radioactive contamination” was detected during scheduled maintenance work at the Koeberg nuclear plant, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Cape Town, between June 30 and July 16, they told a press briefing.

“The recorded levels were extremely low — less than the radiation exposure from using your cellphone for several minutes,” said Mteto Nyati, chairman of the state-owned energy authority Eskom, which runs Africa’s only operational nuclear plant.

Also Read | Iran war energy shock drives nuclear power plans in hard-hit Asia, Africa

“All protocols were followed,” he said, with workers undergoing testing that showed minimal exposure. “There was no release into the environment, no risk to the public,” he said.

Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said the incidents were handled efficiently and reinforced confidence in the management of the plant and South Africa’s capacity to move into a new phase of nuclear generation.

“We want to say to the communities around the immediate vicinity of Koeberg that it is safe. We want to say to the rest of the country, we are progressing with the nuclear build programme,” he said.

Koeberg has been in operation for 40 years and was in 2024 granted an extension for another 20 years.

Mr. Ramokgopa said officials wanted to be transparent about the recent incidents to reassure the public as South Africa pushes ahead with plans to procure 5.2 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2042.

South Africa relies on coal for most of its electricity and is seeking other sources of power generation to meet growing requirements.

It is the only country on the continent operating a nuclear power plant.

Another is under construction in Egypt.

Published – July 19, 2026 10:31 pm IST

Source link

Scientists test Fukushima fish after nuclear plant water release

admin — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 09:44:35 +0000

A member of the team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) observes the inshore fish as the sample at Hisanohama Port in Iwaki, northeastern Japan Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. They are visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling mission since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant started releasing the treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.
| Photo Credit: AP

A team of international scientists collected fish samples from a port town near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant on Thursday, seeking to assess the impact of the plant’s recent release of treated radioactive water into the sea.

The study by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog is the first since the water release began in August, a move that drew criticism from local fisherman and prompted China to ban all imports of marine products from Japan over food safety fears.

Scientists from China, South Korea and Canada observed the collection of fish samples delivered fresh off the boat at Hisanohama port, about 50 kilometres south of the plant which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The samples will be sent to laboratories in each country for independent testing, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

Also Read | What’s happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown?

“The Japanese government has requested that we do this and one of the reasons they want us to do this is to try and strengthen confidence in the data that Japan is producing,” said Paul McGinnity, a research scientist with the IAEA overseeing the survey.

More than a million metric tons of water – enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools – was contaminated from contact with fuel rods at the reactor following the 2011 disaster.

Before being released, the water is filtered to remove isotopes, leaving only tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate, plant operator Tepco says. The water is also diluted until tritium levels fall below regulatory limits.

Tritium is considered to be relatively harmless because its radiation is not energetic enough to penetrate human skin; however, when ingested at levels above those in the released water it can raise cancer risks, a Scientific American article said in 2014.

Source link

nuclear plant – Artifex.News

South Africa says radioactive contamination at nuclear plant was minor

Scientists test Fukushima fish after nuclear plant water release