by
Nolwenn Weiler
Basta!
January
9, 2012
translated
from French
Nolwenn Weiler
2012/01/09
Two or three trains carrying radioactive
waste of nuclear fuel move throughout France every day. These cargoes are
considered to be “of no danger” for the railway workers involved in their
transport, according to the SNCF (French national railways) and AREVA. However,
in the absence of specific precautionary measures, some workers are concerned.
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that in the future, under privatization of
the railways, these high risk loads will not be handled by private companies
that are less concerned with safety.
138,000 kilometers: that’s the distance
traveled each year by nuclear cargoes on French railways. “You hear a lot of
talk about trains carrying waste from foreign countries which is sent back
later after being treated in La Hague, in Normandy. But these are not the most
common loads,” says Michel, an SNCF worker since the 1980s. “Most of the wastes
travelling on the rails are French.”
2 to 3 nuclear
trains per day
They depart from France’s 18 nuclear power
plants toward the reprocessing center in La Hague, on the Cotentin Peninsula.
Some of the reprocessed wastes stay there, stored above ground. Others are sent
off again. Uranium produced by reprocessing goes to Pierrelatte where it will
be transformed further into a form that can be stored. Low and mid-level wastes
are sent to Soulaine, in l’Aube. “In total, 500 nuclear trains, of which only
ten per cent consist of imported wastes, circulate in France every year. That’s
two or three every day!
Loaded by staff working for EDF or AREVA,
the trains are then handled by SNCF staff. The railway workers have to connect
rail cars in between them, and verify the condition of the brakes, assure that
everything (tarps, doors, hatches) is in proper order, and inspect the hitches.
“For a worker who works fast and well, it takes thirty minutes, half of which
is spent very close to the train,” says someone familiar with the job. If there
is a problem with the brakes, he might spend a lot of time there. “Sometimes he
has to get under the car,” says Philippe Guiter, conductor and federal
secretary of the union SUD-Rail. “If he can’t solve the problem by himself, an
equipment specialist has to come.” If the car is not quickly repairable, it has
to be unhitched and isolated. Then it is sent out to be repaired with its
radioactive payload still on it.
The cars deemed fit to roll are towed to
the destination, for several hours, by a conductor. In case of incident, a conductor
has to get out of his cabin and inspect the length of the train in order to
find the problem. “There are times when he’ll be in contact with the cars for
15 or 30 minutes, or longer,” says Michel. Railwaymen are not considered nuclear
workers. The maximum dose for them is the same as for the general public: 1
millisievert (mSv) per year, above exposures to natural sources and medical
treatments. There is no medical record-keeping of their exposures.
Nonetheless, they are exposed, in the
course of their duties, to risks of irradiation and contamination. As Bruno
Chareyron, engineer in nuclear physics and head of the laboratory for CRIIRAD
(commission de recherche et d’information indépendante sur la radioactivité),
describes it, “As for irradiation, certain emissions escape the containment
structures.” Contamination consists of the deposit of radioactive materials
outside the containment. “They leave becquerels on terrain where there aren’t
any normally, such as on the rails on rainy days, for example.”
“Sometimes the guys
from AREVA tell us, ‘That car there: don’t get too close to it.’”
In 1998, after the revelation of a
significant contamination of “castor” cars (or beavers, the French nickname for the cars used for transporting
radioactive waste) on the route between France and Germany, CRIIRAD won the
right to conduct its own independent measurements.
According to the gamma rays and neutron
emissions recorded, an SNCF employee who prepares six convoys per year, staying
each time 15 minutes within one meter of the cars, can receive 675
microsieverts (μSv)[2], which is more than half the minimum annual dose
authorized. CRIIRAD notes, “We are way above the dose considered negligible by
European regulations, which is 10 μSv per year.” The values measured show that
“the doses received annually by certain employees of the SNCF can surpass the
maximum tolerable risk limit of 1000 μSv per year." And yet while these
figures have been not well known until now,
CRIIRAD has discovered how little awareness of radioprotection there is
among rail workers. In a station in Valognes, Normandy, in the winter, some
workers huddle close to the beavers during their breaks for the warmth that
they give off! These workers have without a doubt surpassed their 675 μSv per
year. “It’s clear that no one was paying attention,” comments one staff
manager. “I remember during certain operations they stopped to take photos in
front of the beavers. Sometimes, the guys from AREVA told us, ‘That car there:
don’t get too close, or work fast.’ Then they straightened up. But at the same
time, they always told us that there was nothing to worry about, that it was
made to be…”
Polemic on
radiation risks
At the SNCF it is document RH0838 that
addresses “risk of ionizing radiation.” The plans for preventing risks apply to
“railway facilities involved in the transport of radioactive materials,” those
which are found close to Tricastin or La Hague. In order to identify the risks
which workers are exposed to, the SNCF asks the IRSN (Institut de
radioprotection et sûreté nucléaire)
to come up with protection measures appropriate for each type of convoy and job
duty. These measures put in effect between 1998 and 2004 show a regard for the
regulatory limits. One document states, “We verify that the maximum dose
received over twelve months does not exceed 1 mSv per year, which was always
the case until now.”
Measures realized on November 18, 2011 by a
certified independent laboratory—The Association for the Control of
Radioactivity in the West (ACRO)—on one convoy leaving for Germany confirmed
that the doses were below the limit of 1mSv per year. But while the IRSN
concludes that there is not a problem, ACRO thinks otherwise. “This limit of 1
mSv is one that aims to cover all the sources that a person is exposed to,”
says Pierre Barbey, vice president of the laboratory. “When it’s a matter of
exposure to one source, as in the case of the nuclear convoys, the CIPR
(Commission international de protection radiologique, ICRP in the English
acronym) recommends holding the limit down to 0.3 mSv per year. A railway
worker who spends ten hours per year within two meters of these cars will
exceed this limit.”
Asked about this question, the IRSN
responded, “The railway workers have very little risk of exposure to other
sources of ionizing radiation.” But according to Pierre Barbey, “Radioprotection
is not merely a consideration of the regulatory limit. It is also, above all,
the principle of optimization that obliges one to stay as much below the limits
as is possible. The CIPR is very clear on this point.
Intermittent use of
dosimeters
In the scope of SNCF’s prevention measures,
certain staff are given dosimeters. How many are there? No one seems to know.
Not at the SNCF (no response to this question), nor at the committees for
health, safety and working conditions (CHSCT), charged with verifying
enforcement of rules made to protect the health of workers. Reports on
individuals’ dosimeters “are sent three times a year to the doctors in charge
of following them,” according to the directory of communications for freight.
But Philippe Guiter claims the reality is a bit different. “There are not
enough doctors available to examine the dosimeters. And because they have
different medical backgrounds, they can’t even make sense of them. They have to
be trained in this area. The result? Some workers don’t even use them. They don’t
see the point.”
The few railway workers who are often in
proximity to radiation would prefer to have counters that show the dose rate,
the type which shows the exposure in real time as opposed to the cumulative
dose. This would alert them when rates are very high. “We think all the staff
should have them, including conductors,” adds Philippe Guiter. According to the
SNCF, the latter are not exposed due to “the fact of their distance from
dangerous materials and their position in the train engine.” However, “the
engine isn’t a confined space, and this worries certain staff. And certainly
the conductors sometimes have to come down from the engine. In the autumn of
2010, one who was taking a train loaded with recycled fuel from La Hague to
Germany had to walk the length of the train several times. He noticed that the
police officers who accompanied the shipment all had dosimeters.” The length of
time that workers are exposed can increase when there are problems. In February
1997, a load of irradiated fuel derailed in Apach station, at the French-German
border. It took several hours to get the cars back on track.
AREVA assures that
there is no danger
At the CFDT (French Democratic
Confederation of Labor) and at the CGT (General Confederation of Labor), there
is confidence in the measures and statements of the SNCF. Eric Chollet,
national secretary of the CFDT stresses, “It is hoped that management would be
as careful with other health issues as they are with nuclear risks.” In the
workplace, opinions are divided. “Management assures us there is nothing to
worry about,” says Laurent, a conductor, “But with nuclear, it’s complicated.
They always tell us there is no problem until there is a problem,” adds one of
his colleagues. And in the stations where there is nothing but nuclear cargoes,
one fears seeing the job roll on to someplace else if it has been a particularly
“hot” object to deal with.
Everyone says he is “very attentive” and no
one would be opposed to having extra measures in place. “If the tests of the
SNCF could be confirmed by independent labs, that would be welcome,” concedes
Gregory Laloyer, representative for the CGT at Rouen. SUD-Rail (a workers’ union),
is very active on this matter and has requested additional tests on several
occasions. “We are systematically refused,” regrets one union member. “The
evaluation of the risk of contamination is left up to the sender,” argues the
SNCF in a letter explaining its refusal. “It’s AREVA or EDF that assures there
is no problem, upon departure and arrival. Isn’t that great? says Philippe
Guiter sarcastically.
A certificate showing the absence of
contamination in the rail cars, delivered by AREVA, is based on standards of
the IRSN, which uses 1 mSv/year as a standard limit. But on AREVA sites, the
rule is that containments “conform to international limits: 2 milliSieverts per
hour (mSv/h) where the container contacts the vehicle, 0.1 mSv/h two meters
from the vehicle.” Neither ACRO nor CRIIRAD has ever measured such high levels
of radiation, ones at which a person would hit the maximum level within 30 minutes,
in the immediate vicinity of the rail cars. “But this international regulation
for transports is not in line with the public health guidelines in France,”
protests Bruno Chareyron, from CRIIRAD. “In 1998 we asked for this to be
reviewed, but we’ve never got a satisfactory reply.” (Basta Magazine contacted AREVA and the SNCF but never received a
response.)
Questions about the
structural integrity of the rail cars
The SNCF has been called upon many times by
various inspectors to review the way it evaluates the risks posed to workers by
nuclear convoys. In March 2011, a labor inspector from the region of Ile-de-France
ordered the company to “proceed with a new risk evaluation and to anticipate
operational modes for responding to emergencies with this type of cargo.”
Formulated in 2011, these orders haven’t
yet produced any effect. SUD-Rail wants stress tests for the beavers to be
carried out. “They tell us that they can resist a fire of 800°C
for half an hour. But Philippe Guiter responds, “In the Mont-Blanc tunnel fire
in 1999, the temperature reached 1000°C, for several
hours. And a nuclear convoy goes through an average of ten tunnels. As for
crash strength, the beavers can supposedly withstand a fall of nine meters, but
I’d like to see that tested.”
WISE (World Information Service on Energy) published
a study in 2003 that raised questions about the shock resistance of the
beavers. “In case of a collision involving a train transporting nuclear materials
with a train transporting dangerous materials, the combined speed in the collision
could exceed the resistance claimed for the beavers in the nine-meter drop
test.”
Towards a
privatization of nuclear transports?
“We don’t wish to get rid of these convoys,”
says a conductor for the SNCF. “But we want good working conditions, without
putting our health in danger.” All the rail workers’ unions state that
dangerous materials, which include nuclear materials, should continue to be
carried by rail “by the least dangerous means.” They stress also that this
mission should be filled by a public service enterprise in which the time can
be taken to guarantee safety. “And that there is the capability to take actions
to protect workers,” adds Gregory Laloyer of the CGT.
The presence of private companies on the
French rails concerns them a great deal. “The other day, I saw one worker, a
guy working for a private contractor, arrive at the station. He hadn’t had time
to check the brakes, and he didn’t even know what he was hauling. What will
happen in the future if such people drive nuclear convoys which are for now
still taken by the SNCF?”
“The transparency that we demand, for us
and our colleagues, is also for passengers,” says Laurent, a conductor. “We
believe that it is not acceptable that convoys carrying nuclear materials
should be in transit on public routes during peak hours, especially in the
Paris region,” adds Philippe Guiter. “We want the SNCF to remain as a top rank
transport company which imposes no risk of being irradiated on workers or travelers.
Photo source:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeace_nederland/5808817994/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Notes
[1]
Certain names were changed at the request of persons interviewed.
[2]
At a distance of one meter, the gamma dose rate is 31 μSv/hour. The neutron
rate is 14 μSv/hour. A worker who handles six convoys in ten months, spending
15 minutes each time less than a meter from the cars, receives a dose of 675 μSv,
or 0.675 mSv.
_______________
translation
of:
Nolwenn Weiler
Basta!
2012/01/09
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