The Halden reactor was built close to the center of Halden and was in operation from the 1960s until 2018. – We have discovered that the Institute of Energy Technology (IFE) has manipulated tests carried out for the international nuclear power industry in such a way that we cannot trust the results, says the director Per Strand in the Directorate for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety (DSA). Per Strand, director of DSA. Photo: Håvard G. Hagen / news For five years they have been working on an inspection report after research fraud was revealed at the nuclear reactor in Halden in the late 90s. The report is now ready. The directorate has found six deviations, and has decided that the case should be reported to Økocrim. – The financial aspect was probably the main motive, says Strand about the reason why there was cheating in the research. Own computer program created Five years have passed since the new management at the Department of Energy Engineering (IFE) became aware of what had happened at the nuclear reactor in Halden 15–20 years earlier. A department at IFE took on assignments for international nuclear companies where they set up advanced experiments inside the nuclear reactor. This way they could earn good money in periods. news has previously told how the cheating happened. Several times the researchers struggled to carry out the experiments according to plan. Therefore, they sometimes chose shortcuts, both IFE and DSA have concluded. For example, when an experiment actually required it to be 300 degrees inside the nuclear reactor. But for a period the researchers were unable to achieve such a high temperature. Therefore, they created a computer program that ensured that the temperature shown on the outside was higher than it actually was. The current IFE management quickly notified the DSA when they became aware of what had happened. DSA started its supervision. At the same time, IFE itself organized an investigation into what had happened, and ended up reporting the relationship to Økokrim. An incident in 1997 led to a leak and increased radiation to employees in the reactor, writes DSA. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news IFE also tried to find out whether the manipulation in the research had led to any safety risks at nuclear facilities somewhere in the world. One of the international nuclear customers has still not given an answer to this, according to the report from DSA. The rest of the affected customers have confirmed that there was no security risk. – Would never have allowed this. In the inspection report, it appears that the manipulation in one case led to a radioactive leak. The researchers had changed the setup of an experiment so that radioactive water leaked outside the reactor. This led both to equipment being contaminated, but also to people who worked in the nuclear reactor being exposed to elevated radiation doses, writes DSA. Director Nils Morten Huseby at the Department of Energy Engineering. Photo: Håvard Greger Hagen / news – I get really upset about this. After all, things have been done here that entailed risks for employees, colleagues and the environment. It is completely unacceptable, and I would never have allowed this, says IFE director Nils Morten Huseby. Normally, IFE emits only 0.02 per cent of the annual emission limit, says the report from DSA. But the leak led to emissions that may have been 280 times higher than what would normally escape in the course of a year. The discharge was below the annual maximum limit for what IFE was permitted to discharge. Nevertheless, DSA believes that the incident should have been reported to the radiation protection authorities. That did not happen, according to the report. Hope Økokrim investigator news has been in contact with a former researcher at the nuclear reactor who has told how they systematically and deliberately manipulated several projects. He believes that what happened was very serious. – It is strange that text similarity in research ends up in the Supreme Court, while the biggest research scandal in Norwegian history has not had major consequences, he says to news. The nuclear reactor is located deep inside a mountain near the center of Halden. Photo: Eskil Wie Furunes / news – That is why I hope that Økokrim will proceed with this case, he says. Økokrim chief Pål Lønseth confirms that they are aware of the case. He informs news that they are awaiting the inspection from DSA before making their final assessment. – We are aware that DSA will send a report to Økokrim. Once it has been received, we will naturally assess it thoroughly, says Lønseth. – Would not happen today Although there has been no operation in the nuclear reactor inside the mountain in Halden since 2018, it will take a very long time to dismantle the facility and get rid of the radioactive waste. It is Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NDD) that has been given responsibility for dismantling the facility. Dagne’s IFE management believes they have a different attitude to security today than the company had when the manipulation was taking place. – This could not have happened today. We have worked a lot on safety culture, says Huseby, who also emphasizes that they have confidence in the authorities’ assessments of further follow-up. The former employee who has told about his knowledge of the manipulation agrees with DSA that there have been major shortcomings in the safety culture at IFE. Therefore, he thinks it is good that someone other than IFE should be responsible for decommissioning the nuclear reactor. – I think it is good that NND takes over the responsibility. I think the safety culture at IFE is difficult to reverse, he says. news has been in contact with a former manager at the reactor in Halden. He does not wish to comment on the matter. These are the six deviations DSA has found: IFE has not complied with the purpose of the license and breached the conditions for a license under the Atomic Energy Act. They justify the breach, among other things, by the fact that IFE has used the licensed facility to mislead customers for its own gain and by manipulating data. IFE’s actions have resulted in increased risk, and IFE has consequently not complied with the soundness requirement. DSA refers, among other things, to the leak that occurred in 1997. IFE has not complied with its duty of internal control. IFE has had a weak safety culture. They believe the manipulation shows that IFE put financial interests ahead of safety. IFE has not complied with its duty to protect against damage, and changes that could have an impact on safety were carried out without sufficient safety assessments and without them being presented to DSA. The discrepancy is justified in the way an experiment was set up, and the leak this led to. IFE did not send a notification about an operational disruption/accident in connection with an incident in 1997. DSA believes that IFE never reported the incident to the authorities. Published 24.10.2024, at 16.40
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