Welcome to the inaugural Nuclear Reaction Awards 2008. As the year comes to its close we’d like to recognise those who have help make the nuclear industry the over-subsidised and under-scrutinised joke it is today.

Today’s Award: The Worst Nuclear Facility of 2008

This is an award that has seen fierce competition. There were many nominations and our judges had a very difficult time in choosing the winner.

Would it be the nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, 20 years over schedule, $32 billion over budget and officially full to capacity even before it opens?

Would it be the darling of the US nuclear industry, Vermont Yankee? With her collapsing cooling tower, three coolant leaks in a year, her attempt to bankrupt concerned citizens groups, and a huge shortfall in the decommissioning fund, Vermont was a strong contender for the award.

How about Sweden’s Oskarshamn reactor where cleaners and maintenance staff were asked to guard the perimeter fence when security systems failed. Or the UK’s Sellafield where the seagulls are radioactive and have to be culled by sharpshooters? Or the uranium enrichment plant in Iran where the security is so tight they even arrest the pigeons?

No, in the end, there could only be one winner: Tricastin.

What a year it’s been for the nuclear power facility in Southern France. The spill of ‘only’ 18,000 litres of a uranium solution that made its way into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers, tributaries to the Rhone. The contamination of 100 workers. The false alarms. The higher than normal radioactive emissions that led to France’s nuclear watchdog ordering operations be suspended. The nearby wine makers changing the names of their wines because they fear being associated with the region will damage their reputations. The two fuel units becoming ‘snagged’ during refueling. The flooding of a facility storing contaminated equipment.

Tricastin, we salute you. You truly are a poster-child for the nuclear ‘renaissance’.