May 1998, a memorable PATRAM in Paris for some, but also a catastrophe for some who will never forget

Those who took part in PATRAM 1998, held in Paris, probably remember that it was a success. For those who – like me, the Program chair of PATRAM - took part in the organisation, the pleasure of the participants was most gratifying. However, few days before PATRAM 98, on April 30th, the French Safety Directorate – DSIN – had published a press release indicating that during the year before, some 35 % of the spent fuel transports to La Hague had shown some anomalies, detected during or after transports, in form of non-fixed contamination in excess of 4 Bq/cm², the international standards in this respect. The thunderstorm which then developed immediately in the press and among the media, the reaction of some unions, the sensitivity of political circles (in France and in Germany especially), the legitimate emotion among the public, not to mention the active lobbying of the nuclear opponents lead – in a matter of days – to a complete stop of LWR spent fuel transports to La Hague and to Sellafield reprocessing plant, i.e. a catastrophe for a large part of our industry with a considerable damage to the image of all parties involved, and to some extent to the regulators. A catastrophe which remained, to tell the truth, largely unnoticed to most of the participants of PATRAM pleased by the conference and the discovery of Paris. The paper explains briefly what the problem was, and the solutions adopted to rectify the situation. The paper will draw also the morale of this very sad situation.