Current Affairs Nuclear materials uncovered in briefcase of ex-director of Czech power plant

František Hezoučký, photo: CTK Thursday’s Mladá fronta Dnes features a picture of the American cartoon character Homer Simpson, who works in a nuclear plant, holding a glowing nuclear particle whilst driving in his car. According to the paper’s front-page report something similar almost happened in the Czech Republic: a few weeks ago, the former director of the country’s Temelín nuclear plant, František Hezoučký, left work with nuclear materials in his briefcase.

He says that he simply forgot he was carrying them, but the police’s organized crime unit and the State Office for Nuclear Safety are investigating the case nevertheless. I asked the director of the state office, Dana Drábová, what kind of nuclear materials Mr Hezoučký was carrying.

“Uranium pellets – they are small parts, very tiny in fact. They are a centimeter in height and a centimeter in diameter, composed of uranium oxide.”

Dana Drábová And does it have a strong radiation?

“Not at all, it’s comparable to the natural background.”

Security screening at the nuclear plant’s exit prevented Mr Hezoučký from leaving with the uranium pellets. He says he borrowed the pellets from UJP PRAHA, a successor of the former Nuclear Fuel Institute, and was carrying them in his briefcase for teaching purposes, but then simply forgot about them. So did the security screening system at the plant prevent a dangerous event from happening? That’s a question I put to Dana Drábová.

“Danger is not the appropriate expression here, but this kind of material, nuclear material, has to be handled under very strict rules concerning transportation and so on, because there are international rules for manipulation with that kind of material from the point of view of possible proliferation. So there was no danger as such. But regarding adherence to the very strict rules for manipulation with such kinds of material, there were mistakes.”

Temelín What remains unresolved is the question of how Mr Hezoučký was able to enter the plant with the uranium pellets in his briefcase. One possible explanation is that the detectors at the entry are less sensitive than those at the exit. In addition, he no longer has valid permission to handle nuclear materials, and thus was not authorized to be loaned the uranium pellets in the first place. The UJP Praha employee who lent them to him will be criminally prosecuted. What about Mr Hezoučký himself? Dana Drábová again:

“For the part of the State Office of Nuclear Safety, really, we think that this outcry in the media is enough of a prosecution.”

Under Czech law, the maximum sentence for breaking international norms for handling radioactive material is five years, but much depends on what conclusions investigators reach. It is possible that Mr Hezoučký will only have to live down the shame of this incident.