During a refueling much more radioactivity escapes from a nuclear power plant than during normal operations. This is shown by data from the period of refueling at the nuclear power station Grundmemmingen and research from the free author Ingrid Bertram recently published in the german consumer program Plusminus.
The npp Grundmemmingen ist the largest facility in Germany. A large scale study of the University of Mainz examined the cancer risks in children living near nuclear power plants in 2007.
Physicist Alfred Körblein from the Environmental Institute Munich looked for years for an answer to the question: Is there a connection between refueling and a cancer risk?
The result: the level of noble gas shoots up within a day 160-fold. Within a few days almost a third of the entire yearly emission for noble gases escape into the environment and with iodine it is even half of the yearly emissions. “The emissions are now focusing on a short time interval within the refueling period. “And that was the proof, i needed to my thesis to show that it is precisely the emission spikes that caused the negative health effects, and not the medium-sized burden over the year,” says physicist. Confronted with the results of Körblein, nuclear power plant operator RWE writes that all limit values will be well below, even at “spike” detection.
Reinhold Thiel is engaged in the organization Doctors against nuclear war. During his research he made an interesting discovery: a table with emission levels of the radioactive carbon C14, published by the federal office for radiation protection. He found out that in certain periods much more radioactivity occurs than otherwise. “The table says that always in that quarter in which the refueling is made increased levels of radioactivity have been measured. The reason why is simple: during refueling the lid of the vessel is opened and the spent fuel rods are put into the storage pool. When the lid is opened much more radioactivity escapes through a ventilation system than during normal operation. That’s when these spikes occur.
It should be noted that the power plant operator must not publish these detections. The people that live around the power plant know nothing about such spikes. The radiation levels made public show only the average readings over a longer period of time. “The correct levels however are kept secret. These are the spikes. And these are significantly higher than averaged levels.
Nuclear physician Edmund Lengfelder puts it this way. If a person drinks a whole bottle of hard liquor in one day it will be dangerous. But drinking it over a period of 2 month that bottle will be harmless.
Original in German:
http://www.contratom.de