-------- Original Message --------
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
>From the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) recent action
bulletin:
***Dominion CEO Holds Out for Government Nuclear Power Subsidies***
A spate of new nuclear reactors are being proposed - the first to be built
in America in the 25-plus years since the tragic Three Mile Island meltdown
in Pennsylvania. They are only the tip of the iceberg, according to the
Bush Administration's energy bill now moving through Congress. Closest to
approval are two new nuclear reactors being proposed by Dominion (parent
company of Dominion Virginia Power) at the North Anna Power Station in
Louisa County, Virginia. At Dominion's annual shareholder's meeting, on
April 23rd, CEO Thomas F. Farrell II announced that the company will not
move forward with the new reactors at North Anna without federal
subsidies. The estimated cost of constructing the new reactors is $1.3
billion, and Dominion wants about half of that amount to come from DOE
funds earmarked to develop and build new nuclear reactors. Farrell's
statement underscores the fact that nuclear power is not only
environmentally unsustainable but economically unsustainable as well,
without heavy government tax breaks and subsidies to help make it profitable.
-----------
NOTE FROM MIKE: Please contact your senators and urge them to filibuster
the energy bill!! It'll will be coming to the floor in the next two
weeks. See http://www.energyjustice.net/energybill/ for links and
background info.
-----------
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21 NRC Asleep at the Wheel: 20 years since Davis-Besse
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:32:21 -0700
Hello:
20 years ago today, the Davis-Besse reactor experienced the closest
near-miss since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. As described in the
attached backgrounder (compiled almost exclusively from the NRC's report on
it), the event was caused by the plant's owner failing to correct several
known problems which the NRC also knew about and also accepted as-is.
Since then, Davis-Besse has come even closer to Three Mile Island's
accident. Once again, this more recent event was caused by the plant's owner
failing to correct several known problems which the NRC also knew about and
accepted.
But exceedingly bad judgment on the part of Davis-Besse's management is
really not the common thread. For Davis-Besse has not been the only nuclear
plant with serious safety problems. The Hope Creek nuclear plant in New
Jersey is shut down today after experiencing its third significant leak in
less than a year. Well-documented systemic problems at Hope Creek caused all
three leaks, but the NRC has allowed the plant's owner to band-aid each
symptom and not fix the underlying causes.
And Millstone, Browns Ferry, Sequoyah, Peach Bottom, FitzPatrick, Indian
Point, DC Cook, LaSalle, Clinton, and many others each provide their own
story of NRC's regulatory inaction contributing to deep tears in the safety
nets. The common thread is an ineffective regulatory agency.
The NRC is chartered with providing oversight of the nuclear power industry.
Overlook is a much more appropriate description of that the NRC does. The
NRC is simply not the "nuclear cop on the beat" the public needs to protect
it.
Thanks,
Dave Lochbaum
Nuclear Safety Engineer
Union of Concerned Scientists
1707 H Street NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006-3962
(202) 223-6133 (office)
(202) 331-5430 (direct line)
(202) 223-6162 (fax)
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\20050609-db-ucsŠwater-event.pdf"
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22 [NukeNet] NRC to "watch closely"; Hope Creek Leak Source Found
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:32:13 -0700
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
NRC: PSEG operations safe, issues linger
Thursday, June 09, 2005
By BILL GALLO JR.
Staff Writer
LOGAN TWP. -- PSEG Nuclear has safely operated its three nuclear plants in
Salem County in the past year, but still has to resolve important issues
involving equipment and the work environment, federal officials told the
utility Wednesday night.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission met here with top officials from PSEG
Nuclear at a local hotel for a review of the utility's performance during
2004.
Key issues for PSEG remain the areas of problem identification and
resolution and ensuring a safety-conscious work environment. Because of
its concern, NRC officials said that the agency will continue increased
oversight at the three-reactor complex on Artificial Island in Lower
Alloways Creek during 2005.
A. Randolph Blough, the NRC's director of the Division of Reactor Safety,
acknowledged PSEG's efforts to make improvements in those areas, but
noted, "a lot of work lies ahead of you."
"We acknowledge we're not perfect and we need to improve," said Frank
Cassidy, president and COO of PSEG Power.
Part of that effort, Cassidy noted, was the new management team put in
place at the Island in mid January.
A multi-billion dollar merger between Public Service Enterprise Group,
PSEG Nuclear's parent company, and the Exelon Corporation was announced in
December.
At that time, an agreement was signed between PSEG and Exelon for Exelon
to provide a management team to take charge of operations at the Island.
Bill Levis, as senior vice president and chief nuclear officer of PSEG
Nuclear, was named to lead the team. So far, Levis has 20-plus members in
place at the Island.
"While we believe the transition is going smoothly, there are some things
that we need to do better," Cassidy said.
But, Cassidy noted, "We are at a very different and improved place today
than we were at the end of 2004."
The key to resolving problems, Levis said, is "getting everyone aligned to
a common set of goals."
Levis, a veteran in the nuclear power industry, is implementing a model
developed by Exelon at its other nuclear plants around the country.
"I believe we are on track. We have set the course and will stay the
course," Levis said.
He noted that communication remains a critical point among management and
staff.
A survey conducted in January shows improvement in worker attitudes over a
survey done in 2003, PSEG officials said.
Utility officials also noted that the maintenance backlog at the Island
continues to shrink. That had been one of the areas, noted in past
meetings, that officials believed contributed to feelings among workers
that management wasn't listening to their concerns.
But the utility still faces challenges dealing with identifying and
resolving problems at the plant and improving the work environment.
A leak at the Hope Creek plant on Tuesday, illustrated the equipment issue
cited by the NRC.
"We will continue to watch closely," Blough told the utility, referring to
its efforts to fix long-standing problems.
The complex has three reactors -- Salem 1, Salem 2 and Hope Creek. The
site comprises the second largest commercial nuclear power complex in the
United States.
© 2005 Today's Sunbeam
© 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Officials find source of leak
Thursday, June 09, 2005
By BILL GALLO JR.
Staff Writer
LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. -- Officials Wednesday said they have pinpointed
the source of a leak which prompted the shutdown of the Hope Creek nuclear
power plant here Tuesday.
The connection of a valve position indicating device to a pipe on the
plant's residual heat removal system somehow failed, according to Skip
Sindoni, a spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear.
The gap allowed slightly radioactive steam to escape inside an area below
the reactor called the drywell. The drywell, located in the bottom of the
secure containment structure, is designed to collect any leaking water
from pipes in the extensive reactor system.
The reactor was manually shut down at 3:27 p.m. Tuesday and an "unusual
event" declared at Hope Creek when plant operators said the leak grew from
five gallons per minute to 10 gallons per minute.
Once released into the contained area, the steam converted back to water,
which is how the leak was measured.
Plant workers entered the drywell area and they found a 20-foot plume of
steam coming from the where the valve position device was connected, said
Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the
federal agency which oversees the operation of the nation's nuclear plants.
The "unusual event" declaration was lifted at Hope Creek at 5:15 a.m.
Wednesday, Sindoni said.
The plant is now in cold shutdown to allow workers to repair the rupture
and determine what caused the indicating device's connection to the larger
pipe to fail.
The valve position indicating device was removed for analysis.
No additional radiation was released into the atmosphere during the event
and all of the water from the leak was contained in the drywell's sump
area, Sindoni said.
The NRC said the risk significance of the leak was "very low."
Sindoni said it is not known how long Hope Creek will be shut down for
repairs.
Sheehan, said the federal agency is closely monitoring the incident.
"Obviously we have concerns," Sheehan said.
This is the third time Hope Creek has been shut down due to a leak in the
containment area. Sheehan said the NRC is concerned about these equipment
problems.
The two other PSEG-operated nuclear plants at the Artificial Island
complex, Salem 1 and Salem 2, remain operating at full power, Sindoni said.
An "unusual event" is the lowest of four classifications used to identify
events at nuclear power stations.
© 2005 Today's Sunbeam
© 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
--
Coalition for Peace and Justice
UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr Ave, Linwood
NJ 08221; 609-601-8583; cell 609-742-0982
ncohen12@comcast.net; http://www.unplugsalem.org
http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org
"A time comes when silence is betrayal.
Even when pressed by the demands of
inner truth, men do not easily assume
the task of opposing their government's
policy, especially in time of war.
Nor does the human spirit move without
great difficulty against all the apathy
of conformist thought, within one's own
bosom and in the surrounding world."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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23 NRC: NRC, Pa. Company to Discuss Apparent Violation Involving Gauge
News Release - Region I - 2005-03
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I
No. I-05-033 June 9, 2005
CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330
Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
involving maintaining proper control of a nuclear gauge.
The meeting, known as a predecisional enforcement conference, is
scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the NRC Region I Office, 475
Allendale Road in King of Prussia, Pa. It will be open to the
public for observation and NRC staff will be available to answer
questions before the session is adjourned.
The apparent violation stems from an event on April 5 in which a
nuclear gauge owned by David Blackmore & Associates was damaged
at a temporary work site on Egypt Road in Upper Providence
(Montgomery County), Pa. The Pottstown company is an engineering
consulting firm that provides geotechnical and environmental
services at construction sites. At approximately 11 a.m. that
day, the gauge was crushed by a bulldozer after being left
unattended by its user. The gauge contains americium-241 and
cesium-137 and is used for such purposes as measuring soil
density.
Actions by company personnel in response to the incident were
prompt and in accordance with emergency procedures. The area
around the damaged gauge was quickly roped off and other workers
at the site and the companys Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) were
notified. The RSO, in turn, informed the NRC. The radioactive
sources inside the gauge were determined to be intact and
radiation surveys of the area by the RSO and an NRC inspector
who responded to the site did not reveal any contamination.
The apparent violation identified by the NRC as a result of a
follow-up inspection involves the companys failure to
effectively control and maintain constant surveillance of
licensed nuclear material in this case, the gauge in an
unrestricted area, as required by agency regulations.
The purpose of the June 16th meeting is to obtain information to
enable the NRC to determine what, if any, enforcement action is
warranted. Examples of that information would be a common
understanding of the facts, root causes of the event and
corrective actions undertaken by the company.
No decision will be made by the NRC staff at the session.
Rather, NRC management will render a decision sometime in the
near future.
Last revised Thursday, June 09, 2005
*****************************************************************
24 Interfax: Belarussian KGB investigating new Chernobyl accident rumors
Interfax.com Text version Site map
Jun 9 2005 9:46PM
MINSK. June 9 (Interfax) - The Belarussian KGB is attempting to
establish the origin of an organization called the National
Liberation Army, which, according to information available on
the Internet, claimed responsibility for an accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant that allegedly occurred in late
May.
"We were very alarmed by these rumors, we already have
information about where the statement was put on the Internet
from. We are doing all we can to investigate," First Deputy KGB
Chairman Vasily Dementei told journalists on Thursday.
"It is hard to say how serious the aims of those who distributed
this information were," Dementei said.
He did not rule out the possibility of information terrorism
occurring in Belarus in the future. "The KGB is generally
concerned over the various rumors that have been spread in
Belarus in general, such as an emergency in the Chernobyl
station and pricks with AIDS-infected syringes in Brest and
Minsk," Dementei said.
"All the rumors are unconfirmed, but criminal cases have been
opened on them," Dementei said.
© 1991-2005 Interfax
All rights reserved
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution
of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is
expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
Interfax.
*****************************************************************
25 NRC: NRC Announces Opportunity for Hearing on Application to Renew Operating License for Palisades
Nuclear Power Plant
News Release - 2005-09
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 05-091 June 9, 2005
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced the opportunity
to request a hearing on an application to renew the operating
license for the Palisades Nuclear Plant for an additional 20
years.
The Palisades plant is a pressurized water reactor, located 5
miles south of South Haven, Mich. The Nuclear Management Co.,
LLC, submitted the renewal application March 22, as well as
supplemental information on May 5. The current operating license
for Palisades expires on March 24, 2011.
The NRC staff has determined that the application, as
supplemented, contains sufficient information for the agency to
formally "docket," or file, the application and begin its
technical review. Docketing the application does not preclude
requesting additional information as the review proceeds, nor
does it indicate whether the Commission will grant the
application.
A notice of opportunity to request a hearing will be published
shortly in the Federal Register. Petitions requesting a hearing
may be filed anytime within 60 days of the notice. Petitions may
be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected by the license
renewal and who wishes to participate as a party in the
proceeding.
A request for hearing and a petition for leave to intervene must
be filed with the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, Attention:
Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. Requests may also be
submitted by facsimile to (301) 415-1101 or e-mail to
HEARINGDOCKET@nrc.gov. A copy should also be submitted to the
NRC Office of General Counsel, by facsimile to (301) 415-3725 or
e-mail to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov.
Information about the license renewal process can be found on
the NRC Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html.
The Palisades renewal application is online at
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/palisades.html, and it is available for public view at the
South Haven Memorial Library, 314 Broadway, South Haven, Mich.
Last revised Thursday, June 09, 2005
*****************************************************************
26 Natchez Democrat: Officials hope for second power plant
Published: Jun 08, 2005 - 11:49:22 pm CDT
PORT GIBSON - Twenty years after Grand Gulf Nuclear Station
began operation, Claiborne County waits to hear whether it will
be the home to a second nuclear plant.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in recent weeks, narrowed
down to six finalists the sites being considered as a location
for the new plant. The federal agency said it would narrow the
list to two by October.
But at least one Claiborne County official said he hopes to hear
by the end of the year whether that county has been chosen. And
he and others hope that this time, more revenues from the plant
will stay at home.
Not that Claiborne doesn't receive millions in revenues and
scores of jobs from the plant, which opened in 1985 - it does,
said Charles Shorts, president of the Claiborne County Board of
Supervisors.
As of 2003, the last year for which figures were available from
the State Auditor's Office, Claiborne County took in $9.1
million in total revenues.
When asked how much of the county's budget comes from Grand
Gulf, Shorts let out a laugh. "All of it," he said.
Not quite. Still, the plant pays $8 million a year to the county
and to its county seat, Port Gibson, according to figures from
Entergy, the power company that owns the first Grand Gulf plant.
Port Gibson Mayor Amelda Arnold could not be reached for comment
by press time Wednesday.
Shorts said the money the county receives from the plant isn't
earmarked for any particular purpose, meaning it can go into the
general fund to pay for everything from personnel to public
services.
But some have pointed out that local
governments could and, he added, should have gotten more - for
one, A.C. Garner, spokesman for the county's NAACP chapter.
That chapter - along with several other groups, such as the
Sierra Club of Mississippi - have filed their concerns with the
NRC.
Grand Gulf Nuclear Station pays at least $20 million in property
taxes to the state a year. But after the plant was built, the
Legislature changed the rules of how its revenue was to be
distributed, Garner said.
"They decided it was best to take that money and distribute it
among the other counties," Garner said.
Garner, formerly a civil defense director for the county, said
his concerns include the fact that at least part of the money
Claiborne County is losing could be used to better protect its
citizens in case there's a breach at the plant.
Improving "radiation protection is an ongoing thing," Garner
said. "That could be used as money for citizen education, to
improve evacuation routes, for fire and sheriff's departments -
all sorts of things."
Shorts understands the NAACP's concerns. "They and everybody
else want to make sure the tax dollars stay in Claiborne
County," Short said.
Meanwhile, Shorts said the county needs the economic benefits
such a plant could bring. The current plant employs more than
700 people, including more than 100 from Port Gibson itself.
It pays almost $55 million in payroll and almost $9.5 million in
benefits each year at a time when large industries, at least in
southwest Mississippi, are few and far between.
"And in order to grow our economy, we must look at new ventures"
like the proposed second plant, Shorts said. "We're waiting and
hoping - and praying - that this comes through."
The Natchez Democrat story archive contains stories and related
material published online after August 1, 1999. The archive does
not include the complete text of the print edition of the paper.
© 2005 Natchez Newspapers Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
27 AU ABC: PM encourages nuclear power debate.
09/06/2005. ABC News Online
[The Prime Minister says Australia is ready for a debate
on nuclear power.]
The Prime Minister says Australia is ready for a debate on
nuclear power. [ border=]
Prime Minister John Howard says he would welcome a debate about
the use of nuclear power in Australia.
Mr Howard says there are vast supplies of uranium in Australia
which could provide an alternative fuel source to coal or gas.
He says Australia is mature enough to participate in a robust
debate on issues associated with the use of nuclear power.
"This country has enormous supplies of uranium and it would
strike a lot of people as an odd contradiction that we would not
allow a debate on nuclear power in Australia yet we would be
quite happy under appropriate safeguards to export large amounts
of uranium," Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard is the latest in a line of Australian politicians to
suggest the country should debate the use of nuclear power,
including Treasurer Peter Costello, Science Minister Brendan
Nelson, Labor backbencher Peter Garrett and New South Wales
Premier Bob Carr.
At an Australian Institute of Energy conference in Sydney
yesterday, US nuclear power scientist Alan Baxter recommended
Australia turn to nuclear power to help turn seawater into
drinking water and reduce emissions from coal fired power plants.
"It can be used for desalinisation and I believe you have a
problem with water in this country," said Dr Baxter, from the US
company General Atomics which designs nuclear power plants.
"The other of course is just electricity. I believe most of
your electricity comes from coal fire plants. Nuclear at least
would prevent C and more CO2 into the atmosphere."
Federal Liberal Party politician Dennis Jensen also spoke in
favour of nuclear power.
"You actually get two times the radiation dose by sleeping next
to your partner [than] you do from the background radiation as a
result of nuclear power generation," Dr Jensen said.
"That is simply because in each and every one of our bodies we
have radioactive materials. Radioactive materials are absolutely
everywhere in the environment."
But Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, who led a protest outside the
conference, says nuclear power stations produce waste which
cannot be stored safely.
"We'd also have this enormous amount of radioactive waste that
we've got no scientific understanding of how we deal with the
consequences of that waste that lasts for a quarter of a million
years," she said.
"So it's not a long term solution and indeed the Greens say
it's not a solution at all."
*****************************************************************
28 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria Receives EUR 85 M for Closing N-Plant
www.novinite.com
[Sofia News Agency]
Politics: 9 June 2005, Thursday.
The European Union (EU) will pay to Bulgaria a complimentary EUR
85 M compensation for the closedown of the Kozloduy nuclear
power plant, it emerged on Thursday.
The sum has been specified in a financial memorandum of the
Bulgarian Cabinet and the European Commission (EC).
Kozloduy's work should be halted by 2007 in order for Bulgaria
to be accepted into the EU.
In April, Bulgaria greenlighted the project for building a new
nuclear power plant, in the town of Belene. The next step will
be the opening of an international tender for a supplier and
constructor.[ width=]
NOVINITE.COM
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency -
www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news
provider in English that informs its readers about the latest
Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily
*****************************************************************
29 Guardian Unlimited: UN alert as nuclear plans go missing
Blueprints disclosing key steps to build a bomb feared up for
sale
Ian Traynor in Vienna
Thursday June 9, 2005
Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to
build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have
vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black
market, according to UN investigators.
The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make
centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators
have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge
rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been
secreted away and could be for sale.
Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International
Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear
smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two
years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and
Iran.
A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium
centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems
which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing.
"We know there were several sets of them prepared," said the
official. "So who got those electronic drawings? We have only
actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the
rest, the copies?
"We have no evidence they were destroyed. One possibility is
another client. We just don't know where they are."
A European diplomat privy to western intelligence on the Khan
network added: "This is what keeps people awake at night. It's
very sensitive. The fact that there are [nuclear] proliferation
manuals kicking around is deeply disturbing."
The blueprints detail how to manufacture the components for a
uranium centrifuge, what materials are needed, how to assemble
the machines, and how to test them. The centrifuges are the main
route to producing bomb-grade uranium. Uranium concentrate is
converted into uranium hexafluoride gas which can be spun
through cascades of centrifuges at super-high speeds to be
enriched to weapons grade.
"The big question is who else got this stuff [apart from Iran
and Libya]," the European diplomat said.
Another diplomat pointed out that the Khan network was based in
the Middle East and that Khan was known as the father of the
Islamic bomb. He suggested that Syria and Egypt could be
potential customers for the materials if they were still being
offered.
Khan is a national hero for creating the Pakistani nuclear bomb
but is under house arrest in Islamabad since confessing to
heading the network and being pardoned in February last year.
Although the network's operations extended to Europe, Africa,
the Middle East, and the far east, its headquarters were in
Dubai. Khan maintained a luxury apartment in Dubai.
Following the uncovering of the network in October 2003,
investigators went to the Dubai apartment only to find that it
had been emptied, apparently by Khan's daughter Dina.
The Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gadafy, confessed to his
secret nuclear bomb programme and gave it up in December 2003.
Three months later in Tripoli, the UN inspectors were given two
CD-roms and one computer hard drive. One CD contained aset of
drawings and manuals for the P-1 centrifuge system, the other
for the more advanced P-2.
The instructions are in English, Dutch and German, and the
designs are from Urenco, the Dutch-British-German consortium
which is a leader in centrifuge technology and is the source of
Khan's knowhow from his time working there in the 1970s. The CDs
and hard drive are at IAEA headquarters in Vienna, where they
have been analysed. The investigators now know that the scanning
of the original blueprints was done in Dubai and when.
In addition to these blueprints, Khan also supplied Libya with
drawings for an old Chinese nuclear warhead design. The
drawings, now in Washington under IAEA seal, were not complete,
say sources, but were adequate to construct a crude nuclear
device.
Investigators suspect that the warhead design was also copied
into electronic form and is still available to prospective
clients.
"There is reason to believe that there might even be some
drawings related to nuclear weaponisation in electronic form,"
said the senior official.
It is now also clear that multiple components secretly made for
Libya's $100m (Ł54.6m) centrifuge programme did not reach Libya
and have gone missing.
From their investigations of the nuclear programmes in Libya and
Iran, the IAEA has concluded that pieces of the nuclear jigsaw
have not been located.
"We are still missing something from the picture in terms of
critical equipment, certain parts of centrifuges ... There is
equipment missing important enough for us to search, an amount
that makes us worried," said the official.
Around a dozen individuals, including engineers, businessmen,
and middlemen, were key figures in the Khan network, with dozens
of other companies operating at a secondary level, according to
those familiar with the investigation.
Alleged Khan associates have been arrested in the Netherlands,
Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Dubai, and Malaysia,
although none of those cases has yet come to full trial. British
customs is also conducting an investigation into a British
suspect.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
30 NRC: NRC Restoring 70,000 Additional Documents to its On-Line Library after Security Review
News Release - 2005-09
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
No. 05-090 June 9, 2005
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is restoring public access to
more than 70,000 additional documents through its on-line public
library, ADAMS, after reviewing them for security sensitivity.
The restoration involves administrative, contractual, research
and other documents not related to a specific licensee that were
deemed non-sensitive as a result of the NRCs review.
The documents were removed from the ADAMS library on Oct. 25
last year, along with hundreds of thousands of others, to
conduct a security review and remove information that could
potentially be of use to a terrorist. The NRC remains committed
to operating as an open agency and conducting its business in
public to the extent possible. The agency has already restored
access to about 163,000 non-sensitive documents in several
categories, including those pertaining to reactors, Yucca
Mountain and selected hearings. Most documents dealing with
nuclear materials (i.e., non-reactor) licensee documents have
not been restored, and the Commission continues to evaluate
them.
The newly restored documents will be available through the
Electronic Reading Room on the NRC web site at
http://www.nrc.gov. The restoration will proceed in batches of
approximately 5,000 documents per day to limit the impact on the
NRCs electronic records system. It is expected that the
restoration process for the 70,000 documents will be completed
by June 20.
Pending further restorations to this site, time-sensitive
documents that have not been restored, particularly those
related to opportunities for hearings or needed for public
reviews and comments on regulatory matters such as license
amendment applications, may be available by contacting the NRC
Public Document Room at 800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or
pdr@nrc.gov.
Last revised Thursday, June 09, 2005
*****************************************************************
31 UK: The Times: No evidence of raised cancer risk at nuclear power sites
The Sunday Times - Times thetimes.co.uk
June 10, 2005
By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor
CHILDREN living near the naval dockyard at Rosyth may have a
slightly higher risk of cancer, a report suggests.
In an examination of British nuclear sites, the Committee on
Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment found no
evidence of an increased risk of cancers close to nuclear power
stations.
But it confirmed earlier evidence that living near the nuclear
sites at Sellafield reprocessing plant, in Cumbria, the Dounreay
reprocessing plant, in Caithness, or the Burghfield atomic
weapons establishment, in Berkshire, appeared to increase the
risk of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).
Burghfield, with the military establishments at Aldermaston, in
Berkshire, and Harwell, in South Oxfordshire, also showed
increased risks of solid tumours, again a result that earlier
studies had found.
The only new site identified in the committee’s report is
Rosyth, on the Firth of Forth, where a dockyard was built to
refit nuclear submarines.
The study shows a tiny excess of cancers in the area within 25km
(15˝ miles) of Rosyth but it does show a gradient in cancer
cases with distance from the plant. Bryn Bridges, who chaired
the committee while the report was in preparation, said that
what this meant was unclear. The most significant finding of the
report, in his view, was the clean bill of health given to
nuclear power stations.
Many claims had been made that cancer was more common in
children living near plants but this report, covering 24 years
and more than 32,000 cancers, indicated that there was no risk.
“There is no evidence from this very large study that living
within 25km of a nuclear generating station in Britain is
associated with any increased risk of childhood cancer,”
Professor Bridges said.
The study included all cancer cases in children under the age of
15 occurring between 1969 and 1993, the largest study yet.
For the four sites where links were found it concludes that
risks were modestly increased.
At Sellafield, for example, the risks of leukaemia and NHL were
14 per cent higher than average and the risks of solid tumours
11 per cent higher. The biggest risk was found at Dounreay,
where the odds of contracting leukaemia or NHL were more than
doubled, but this was based on small numbers — 9 cancers when
3.9 would have been expected.
Professor Bridges said that this “blip” could have been due to
population mixing, which exposes children moving to an area of
infectious agents that they are unused to, which has been shown
to increase leukaemia risks. In this case, the population mixing
was the result of people moving to Thurso, near Dounreay, to
work in the oil industry.
As for Aldermaston, Burghfield and Harwell, he said, Berkshire
and Oxfordshire had been shown to have higher cancer rates than
other areas for reasons that are unexplained but which cannot be
due to radiation because the cancers are found far from nuclear
plants.
Rosyth is the only new site identified by the study. The
evidence shows a small excess of leukaemias and NHL: 218 where
211 would have been expected and 392 solid tumours where 343
would have been expected. But these differences are not
statistically significant.
Page 1 || Page 2
Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****************************************************************
32 Platts: Price-Anderson Act extension passes Senate committee
+ A Senate committee today approved legislation to extend the
Price-Anderson Act until 2025.
The act provides liability coverage for commercial nuclear plants
and DOE contractors working on nuclear-related projects.
The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee approved S. 865,
under which "the total retrospective premium for each reactor
would be set at the current level of $95.8-million and the limit
on per-reactor annual payments raised to $15-million, with both
to be adjusted for inflation every five years," committee staff
said in a bill summary.
The previous limit on annual payments was $10-million.
Both current and newly-licensed reactors would be covered.
The bill would also treat modular reactors of 100-300 megawatts
at a single site as a single reactor under Price-Anderson. Floor
action has not been scheduled.
Washington (Platts)--8Jun2005
Copyright © 2005 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
33 BBC: Power stations 'no cancer risk'
Last Updated: Thursday, 9 June, 2005
[Image of a power station]
The research is the largest to date
There is categorically no evidence that living near nuclear power
stations increases the rate of childhood cancers, says a report.
The Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment
based its conclusions on data on 32,000 childhood cancer cases
between 1969-93 in the UK.
Overall, children living within a 25k radius of a site were no
more likely to get cancer than those living elsewhere.
However, there was a cluster of cases close to one Scottish
nuclear dockyard.
We can
give power stations clean bill of health Professor Bryn Bridges,
COMARE
There were slightly more cases of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin
lymphoma within the immediate vicinity of the Rosyth site than
was expected, which conflicts with previous studies of this
nuclear installation.
The authors said there were many possible explanations for this
other than radiation and recommended more research as soon as
possible.
Past and the current data show similar clusters close to other
nuclear (but non-power station) sites, such as Aldermaston,
Burghfield and Harwell in the area of Berkshire and South
Oxfordshire.
The latest research is the largest study so far looking at the
cancer risk posed, if any, by power stations.
Professor Bryn Bridges, chairman of COMARE during the preparation
of this, its 10th report, said: "We think this is as definitive a
study as one can do.
"There is no evidence from this very large study that living
within 25km of a nuclear generating station in Great Britain is
associated with any increased risk of childhood cancer."
Debate
"We can give power stations a clean bill of health," said
Professor Bridges.
Critics maintain power stations do pose a cancer risk.
These radial studies a meaningless Chris Busby of Green Audit
Chris Busby of Green Audit, an environmental consultancy and
review organisation, said: "By looking at a 25k radius they are
not dealing with the actual real world movement of radioactivity
from power stations to people.
"The wind blows in particular directions and the materials are
released into the environment in particular ways. Much of it ends
up in the sea and the coastline. We have told them this. These
radial studies are meaningless.
"Also, they should be looking at adult cancers, particularly
female breast cancers, as well.
"Childhood leukaemia is a rare disease and the numbers involved
are going to be so small that it is much more difficult to get
the levels of statistical significance that you need to see an
effect."
But Professor Bridges said it was better to look at childhood
cancers because children were more sensitive to the effects of
radiation and they were less likely to have moved around a lot
geographically, making it easier to check for any link.
A spokesman from the Department of Health said: "It is important
to reassure the public that this research found no evidence of an
excess of cancer cases around any of the nuclear power stations
in the UK.
He said that although there was no evidence of a causal link for
cancer clusters around nuclear sites, other than power stations,
the department recognised it was an important issue.
"The department has an ongoing programme of radiation protection
research set up to address these issues," he said.
Cancer Research UK's Professor John Toy said: "We are extremely
pleased that this report found no evidence for an excess number
of cases of cancer in children who live near nuclear power
stations.
"However, the excess incidence of certain childhood cancers near
some types of nuclear installation sites remains a real worry.
*****************************************************************
34 Independent: Experts fail to find a link between nuclear power stations and cancer
www.independent.co.uk
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
10 June 2005
Nuclear power stations have been given a clean bill of health by
an official investigation that failed to establish any link
between radioactive discharges and levels of childhood cancer.
However the study has confirmed three known childhood cancer
clusters around nuclear installations, although it found no
evidence that these resulted from radioactive discharges.
The findings are described as the most definitive research
anywhere in the world on alleged links between nuclear plants
and cancers in local children.
Scientists analysed more than 32,000 cases of childhood cancer
diagnosed between 1969 and 1993 to see if there was a
higher-than-expected incidence within 25 kilometres (15.5 miles)
of every licensed nuclear installation in Britain.
They looked at 12,415 cases of childhood cancers of the blood,
as well as 19,908 cases of solid tumours - both of which have
been linked with nuclear installations by other researchers.
In terms of Britain's 13 nuclear power stations, the scientists
failed to find any evidence for an increase in the risk of
childhood cancer despite using five different statistical
techniques.
However, when the Government-appointed Committee on the Medical
Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare) looked at the
other 15 non-power nuclear installations, which handle
radioactive material, they found three clusters which had been
noted in previous studies. These occurred around the Sellafield
reprocessing plant in Cumbria, the Dounreay site in Scotland and
the Burghfield and Aldermaston weapons establishments in
Berkshire.
The scientists also found an anomaly around the Rosyth dockyard
on the Firth of Forth where nuclear-powered submarines are
maintained. Although this was not excessive, the scientists
found there was a slightly elevated risk of childhood cancer
nearer to the dockyard than at the 25km mark. Bryn Bridges, the
outgoing chairman of Comare, said the Rosyth findings were
difficult to interpret and has ordered more research. "There is
no excess there to explain away. It's a question of where the
cases are distributed within the 25km circle," Professor Bridges
said.
Children are more sensitive to radiation than adults and if
low-level effects of radiation cannot be detected in the
childhood population then it would be difficult to find them in
adults, he said.
Professor Bridges said the radioactive discharges near the three
known clusters around non-power nuclear installations were too
low to account for the increased incidence of cancer. "For power
stations the results are unambiguous and, as might be expected
from the very low discharges, there is no indication of any
effect on the incidence of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma," he said.
The next Comare report will study whether childhood cancer is
spread in a random manner across Britain or whether there are
statistical clusters elsewhere around the country. "There does
seem to be a certain amount of clustering but it is a small
effect," Professor Bridges said.
©2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
35 Joplin Globe: Resource center raises concerns about safety
The Joplin Globe • 117 E. Fourth St. • Joplin, MO 64801 •
417.623.3480 • 800.444.8514 • Fax 417.623.8450
Wally Kennedy more Globe Staff Writer 6/9/05
If you see a flatbed truck on Interstate 44 with two large
canisters and placards that say “Radioactive, Class 7,” avoid it.
On Monday, the first of 2,000 shipments of radioactive waste
left Fernald, Ohio, site of a Cold War uranium refinery, on
their way to temporary storage in Andrews County, Texas. As many
as 15 tractor-trailers will pass through Joplin each day this
summer on I-44.
Jeff Wagner, spokesman for Fluor Fernald, the contractor
responsible for cleanup of the Ohio plant, said the company is
more concerned about the physical hazards of transporting the
large containers than the radiological hazard.
“We have neutralized the radiation hazard to the point where it
can be safely shipped,” he said. “We have used fly ash and
concrete to neutralize the waste. But, this a very heavy
container. ... We are more concerned about the weight of it, and
safely loading and unloading it, than we are with the contents
of the container.”
But Kevin Kamps, with the Nuclear Information and Resource
Service, in Washington, D.C., said motorists and others
traveling I-44 should give the trucks a wide berth.
“These containers are like mobile X-ray machines that can’t be
turned off,” he said. “Those in closest proximity are most at
risk. That would be the truck drivers, inspectors at weigh
stations and also just innocent bystanders who might be stuck in
traffic next to one of these flatbed trucks.”
Kamps said a person standing next to a container could receive a
direct radiation dose of 9 millirems. He said a typical medical
X-ray gives off a dose of 10 millirems. Touching one of the
containers would be the equivalent of seven medical X-rays, he
said.
“There are some people who need to avoid these trucks, such as a
pregnant woman,” he said. “It has been shown that exposure to a
medical X-ray by a fetus in the womb doubles the chance that the
child will contract leukemia.”
Wagner disputes the numbers.
“There will be nothing at that level that is close to a medical
X-ray,” he said. “And, let’s look at a realistic scenario. What
are the chances that anyone will come in close contact with
these containers?”
The U.S. Department of Energy, in a fact sheet released in
connection with the cleanup of the plant, confirmed the numbers
cited by Kamps.
Kamps also expressed concern about the containers.
“Are they designed to withstand a high-speed collision, such as
hitting a bridge abutment at 55 mph?” he said. “What would
prevent the volatile components inside the containers from
escaping during a fire? We fear that a high-speed impact with a
fire would challenge these containers.”
Wagner said the containers are safe and meet U.S. Department of
Transportation requirements for nuclear-waste shipments.
The Fernald site has radioactive waste stored in four
75,000-gallon tanks. The plant began operating in 1952,
producing high-purity uranium for the nation’s defense programs.
It closed in 1989.
The waste is being shipped under contract with Visionary
Solutions, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn. A company spokesman on
Wednesday said he did not know whether local trucking companies
will be hired as carriers. Tri-State Motor Transit Co., one of
the nation’s leading carriers of hazardous and nuclear wastes,
has carried for Visionary Solutions in the past. A spokeswoman
at Tri-State could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Kamps said the DOE has not been open about the shipments, and
that communities along the route have not been notified. But,
state officials were alerted.
“They did notify us that they were coming through with shipments
of low-level radioactivity,” said Jane Beetem, with the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources. “They are not required to
notify us about low-level radioactive shipments, but they are
required to notify us in advance when it involves high-level
radioactivity.”
Beetem said the DNR can review the plan for transporting
high-level radioactive wastes through the state and can comment
on the selected route. It also can arrange for radiological
screenings when the shipments enter the state.
Beetem said radioactive shipments occasionally pass through
Missouri on Interstate 70 between St. Louis and Kansas City en
route to Utah. She said this is one of the first shipments to
use I-44.
“We understand that the really bad stuff has already left that
site,” Beetem said. “We have notified local emergency responders
along the route about the shipments. They know who to call in
case of a problem.”
© 2005 The Joplin Globe Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
36 [du-list]DOT rules against secret shipments of radioactive
Date: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:32:32 -0700
MAJOR KUDOS GO OUT TO GLEN MILNER AND GROUND ZERO !!!
Dear Glen,
You and your group brought this issue to the forefront. Your research,
diligence, organizing and perseverance truly paid off!! The DOT ruling
follows last weeks NRC ruling which cited this campaign as one reason they
unanimously rejected the Atomic Waste Deregulation Rulemaking . It's a
tremendous victory- and we can only hope, as Patricia Young of the
Department of the Army points out, that the shipment of DU will now become
cost prohibitive!!
In Peace and Solidarity,
Tara Thornton
Military Toxics Project
GROUND ZERO CENTER FOR NONVIOLENT ACTION
> 16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370
> phone: 360-377-2586 e-mail: info@g...
> website: www.gzcenter.org
>
> JUNE 8, 2005--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> Department of Transportation rules against secret shipments of
> radioactive munitions by the Department of Defense
>
> Contact: Sunny Miller (413) 773-7427 (Deerfield, Massachusetts)
> Glen Milner (206) 365-7865 (Seattle, Washington)
>
> The Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced its intent to
> end a special exemption, DOT-E 9649, which allows for the secret
shipment
> of radioactive or "depleted uranium" munitions by the Department of
> Defense.
>
> The DOT Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (HMS)
> announced plans to phase out the exemption in the next year for new
> radioactive munitions and in the next two years for munitions already
> manufactured before transitioning to full compliance with hazardous
> materials regulations. The special exemption was created in 1986
and has
> been renewed every two years since.
>
> The highly toxic, radioactive ammunition, also known as "depleted
> uranium" or DU, has been used in recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The
> shipments occur on a daily basis throughout the U.S., on our highways,
> railways, and waterways.
>
> Depleted uranium munitions are a uniquely hazardous material, consisting
> of a radioactive penetrator which breaks down into small particles when
> burned, and an explosive charge or combustible propellant in the
shell of
> the cartridge. A fire involving depleted uranium munitions would spread
> radioactive material around the area of the accident. Under the
terms of
> DOT-E 9649, first responders would not know they were addressing a fire
> involving radioactive material.
>
> In a May 18, 2005 Information Memorandum to the Chief of Staff, the DOT
> noted that over 200 comments had been received against the renewal
of the
> exemption from national and local government offices, first responder
> organization members, interest groups and citizens.
>
> The comments specifically addressed: 1. the absence of hazard
> communications that would aid emergency response personnel; 2. Accuracy
> and completeness of the recent DOD request which falsely stated the
> exemption had not been used in the previous two years; and 3. the
lack of
> DOD compliance with the terms of the exemption.
>
> Sunny Miller, of Traprock Peace Center, one of the organizations opposed
> to the renewal of the exemption, said, "The ruling against the
Department
> of Defense shows that political activists in the U.S. can educate
> themselves and others on important technical issues and organize to
> petition governmental agencies to enforce the law." Miller said, "Moms,
> dads, teachers and ordinary people are speaking up about safety in our
> communities." Glen Milner, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
> said, "Activists involved presented overwhelming evidence that depleted
> uranium shipments, occurring daily throughout the United States, are a
> hazard and a danger to the public." Milner added, "The DOT and
> specifically, Mr. Billings and his staff of the Office of Hazardous
> Materials, had the honesty and courage to require that the Department of
> Defense label radioactive munitions accordingly."
>
> The Department of Transportation concluded the following: 1. Radiation
> levels allowed by the exemption for depleted uranium munitions are
> significantly higher than allowed in hazardous materials regulations
> (HMR) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety regulations;
> 2. In some cases, transport workers can receive inappropriate radiation
> exposures by being in the vicinity of the material for just 100
hours per
> year. 3. The U.S. Navy has not had a required safety plan in place for a
> number of years for handling radioactive munitions; and 4. The DOD has
> been using DOT-E 9649 internationally, in violation of a specific
> requirement that the exemption is for domestic use only, shipments in
> foreign nations have been in violation of IAEA regulations.
>
> A letter dated May 19, 2005 from Patricia Young, of the Department
of the
> Army, to the DOT stated, "…DOT-E 9649, (governing the shipment of DU
> ammunition) is one of the few documents on which our two agencies have
> not been able to reach an agreement." The letter continued, "We believe
> that failure to renew the exemption may possibly interrupt the movement
> of these critical munitions to our forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The
> cost of our compliance with the currently exempted standards may
reach as
> high as $50 million; it may be cost prohibitive given our current fiscal
> restraints."
>
> A May 20, 2005 e-mail message from the Army to the DOT suggested a
> mid-July meeting between the Army and "others from the DOT to discuss
> issues of importance to both groups."
>
> One of the results of the canceled DOT shipping exemption is that
> depleted uranium munitions shipments will be required to be labeled with
> both "Radioactive" and "Explosives" placards.
>
> Organizations involved in ending the exemption for unmarked, unlabeled
> radioactive ammunition will continue to ask for an immediate end of
these
> secret shipments.
>
> The effort to stop the renewal of DOT-E 9649 had been initiated by four
> organizations, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Poulsbo,
> Washington; Traprock Peace Center, Deerfield, Massachusetts; Military
> Toxics Project, Lewiston, Maine; and Nukewatch, Luck, Wisconsin.
> Numerous other groups and individuals joined in an 18 month lobbying
> campaign against the exemption which allowed shipment of radioactive
> munitions without a "Radioactive" placard. The Depleted Uranium
> Munitions Action Plan first appeared on the Ground Zero Center for
> Nonviolent Action website in November 2003.
>
> Documents regarding DOT-E 9649, may be viewed on the Department of
> Transportation Docket Management System website at
http://dms.dot.gov. To
> access DOT-E 9649 statements, go to the bottom left side of the webpage,
> then link to Simple Search and
> enter 18576 for the Docket Number. 279 documents are currently posted on
> the website, intended for public viewing. The DOT decision not to renew
> DOT-E 9649 is document No. 276.
--- End forwarded message ---
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37 Bradenton Herald: Lockheed denies liability for relocation
| 06/09/2005 |
BRIAN BLANCO-The Herald
County Commissioner Pat Glass reviews the latest contamination
map from Lockheed Martin with Bill Kutash of the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection immediately following
Tuesday's Tallevast update in front of the Manatee County
Commission.
DONNA WRIGHT
Herald Staff Writer
Lockheed Martin Corp. officials say they have no responsibility
to relocate Tallevast residents despite Manatee County
commissioners' insistence that they do.
No current work or future remediation to eliminate a plume of
toxic waste under Tallevast puts residents at risk, Lockheed
spokeswoman Meredith Rouse Davis said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, county commissioners said Lockheed Martin must move
Tallevast residents to protect them from the contamination
stemming from the former Loral American Beryllium Co., which
Lockheed once owned.
Recent tests show that plume now covers more than 131 acres and
contains solvents such as trichloroethylene, or TCE and 1,4
dioxane, both known to cause cancer in laboratory rats.
As owners of the beryllium plant when the contamination was
discovered in 2000, Lockheed has assumed responsibility for
cleaning up the toxic mess.
But that responsibility, Davis said, does not extend to
relocating residents.
"We are not creating a risk to residents' health and we are not
impairing their use of their residential property," Davis said.
Nonetheless, Commissioner Amy Stein once again laid the
responsibility for relocation directly upon Lockheed Martin.
"If Lockheed Martin knew the property was contaminated but
withheld the information from residents, allowing people to
continue drinking groundwater from private wells, yes, I think
they are culpable," Stein said.
"Just on the basis of the plume still being there now, why would
you allow Tallevast residents to continue to live in that
polluted environment when common sense tells you they have been
impacted for decades?" Stein asked.
Stein is ready to take her concerns to Lockheed stockholders.
Stein said she intends to buy Lockheed stock so she can speak at
the next shareholders' annual meeting.
Stein also said she plans to ask Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen
Castille to back the demand that Lockheed relocate Tallevast
residents.
Tallevast residents are overjoyed with the county commission's
support, said Wanda Washington, vice president of advocate group
Family Oriented Community United and Strong.
Brenda Pinkney, a Tallevast resident since 1993, said the stress
of living on top of the pollution is reason enough for Lockheed
to relocate the community.
"It is more than fair when we have to deal with worrying about
the quality of air we breath every day," Pinkney said.
Pinkney said her son Kevin, 6, suffers from asthma and
respiratory problems she contends are related to the pollution.
"We are afraid to open our windows, because we do not know what
is in the air," she said. "When it rains, the water rises to the
surface and then when the water recedes the toxins are left on
the ground. We track that stuff into our homes. It is in the air
we breathe. How much longer can we take this?"
Robin Washington Darville, who has lived in Tallevast all of her
life, has suffered migraines since she was 10. Now 36, Darville
has had to be hospitalized four times in the past two years
because she now has seizures along with the migraines.
Darville is convinced that the migraines are connected to the
toxins underground in Tallevast.
She also links her son's frequent nosebleeds to the underground
plume.
Her son's problems, Darville said, started at birth after a
difficult pregnancy.
"He weighed only three pounds," Darville said.
When Lockheed started drilling the monitoring wells to measure
the plume, Darville said her son's nosebleeds worsened.
"We have been waiting so long to have somebody on our side,"
Darville said. "We are now being heard. You could hear it in the
commissioners' voices. They were saying 'We care for these
people.' It is overwhelming to have that support."
Washington, Darville's sister, said most residents now want to
move because they know their health is at risk.
"It has to be a serious fear for us to consider relocation,"
Washington said. "We have a deep love, a deep commitment to stay
here, but we had to make a decision. What is more important: my
devotion to the soil or my devotion to my family to keep them
safe. I chose to keep my family."
Ed Cottingham, an attorney with Motley &Rice LLC of Charleston,
S.C, represents FOCUS and Tallevast residents. Cottingham
attended the commission meeting Tuesday.
"The commissioners are espousing viewpoints that take into
concern the stress residents feel and the solutions residents
want. That is a good thing," Cottingham said. "I am sure there
are ways Lockheed can do a number of things without an admission
of liability, if they are of mind to do so."
DEP spokeswoman Pamala Vazquez said state regulators have every
intention of involving Tallevast residents every step of the way
as Lockheed moves forward with plans to remediate the plume.
That remediation, Vazquez said, has not yet begun, despite
comments made Tuesday by Bill Kutash, DEP's project manager for
the Tallevast project.
Kutash's comments before the commission were misunderstood,
Vazquez said.
"Any residents affected would obviously be informed before
remediation begins," Vazquez said. "We look forward to moving
ahead with FOCUS, Lockheed Martin and the commission to make
sure everyone in Tallevast is living in a safe situation."
*****************************************************************
38 Las Vegas SUN: Lawmakers want temporary and permanent nuke sites
Today: June 09, 2005 at 11:05:34 PDT
By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The plan pending in the House to pursue interim
nuclear waste sites has not dimmed enthusiasm among lawmakers
for the proposed permanent repository at Yucca Mountain, a key
lawmaker said today.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy
Committee and a leading pro-Yucca lawmaker, told several
reporters today that it was "common sense" to establish
temporary waste sites for radioactive material that has been
piling up for years at the nation's 103 active commercial
nuclear reactors.
Congress should pursue interim storage sites as well as the
Yucca repository because delays continue to snare progress at
Yucca, Barton said.
Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, this year inserted $10 million for
interim sites into a House energy and water appropriations bill
so that Congress could begin work to establish interim sites, as
early as next year. The Senate has not acted on the proposal.
The action amounted to a new, additional approach to solving
the nation's long-lingering problem of high-level nuclear waste,
at a time when nuclear power industry officials aim to begin
constructing a new generation of U.S. plants.
"It's time to rethink our approach to dealing with spent fuel,"
Hobson, chairman of the House Appropriations Energy and Water
subcommittee, said last month. "It's irresponsible the policies
we have now. It delays us."
Hobson emphasized that the interim plan in no way suggests that
lawmakers are stepping back from their long battle to establish
a permanent site at Yucca.
Congress in 1987 deemed Yucca as the site most suitable for a
national repository. Congress officially approved the site in
2002, as did President Bush. Nuclear plant operators have been
vocal supporters of Yucca, and they have long prodded the
government with lawsuits to begin hauling their waste away, as
promised by Congress.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has made it clear he is focused
on obtaining a license for Yucca and constructing it. "There are
lots of issues swirling around, but I intend to be single-minded
on this," Bodman said last month.
Barton today also said he was committed to pursuing a
long-standing proposal that would make it easier for the Energy
Department to tap into a national nuclear waste fund to pay for
Yucca. Currently lawmakers set a specific Yucca budget each
year. Barton and other pro-Yucca lawmakers aim to change the law
so that Yucca spending does not count toward the annual Energy
Department budget cap.
Barton today said he aims to pursue the plan again after
Congress has finished wrestling with a massive national energy
plan bill. Congress has been haggling over the legislation for
six years.
Barton, who will serve as chairman of the House-Senate panel
that will meet to finalize the energy plan, said that he did not
intend to introduce any Yucca-related legislation in the
meetings. Barton said he did not "want to play games" with Yucca
legislation that would jeopardize the energy plan in
negotiations, given that Senate Minority Leader, D-Nev., opposes
initiatives that would speed Yucca progress.
*****************************************************************
39 Common Voice: Why the South for next repository?
The Common Voice
Ron Bourgoin
June 9, 2005
Brian from Washington on June 3 asked why I expect the second
national high-level nuclear waste burial site will come to the
southeast. The second site is, by law, to be named as early as
2007.
The list of second geologic repositories contains sites in
Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Maine, Virginia, North
Carolina, and Virginia.
The Canadian government has just released its proposed plans for
the burial of highly radioactive wastes. Canada has made very
special effort to select burial far away from the United States.
Deep burial will be in the Canadian Shield, a massive rock
structure way up north in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
[http://www.nwmo.ca/adx/asp/adxGetMedia.asp?DocID=1224,1026,20,1,
Documents&MediaID=2341&Filename=NWMO_DSR_E ]
The report's title is "Choosing a Way Forward: The Future
Management of Canada's Used Nuclear Fuel," which is 304 pages
long.
The Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, and New Hampshire sites are too
close to the Canadian border to place a high-level nuclear waste
repository in either of those states. The Minnesota and Wisconsin
sites, especially, are sitting on the Great Lakes.
The southeast, on the other hand, is far enough away from other
countries to render the region attractive to the Department of
Energy.
Brian suggested that Yucca Mountain could be expanded, but right
now it appears doubtful Yucca will even open. He further suggests
the federal government owns enough land in the western states to
put a nuclear dump there, but the fact is those states aren't on
the list of second repository sites.
*****************************************************************
40 Times Argus: Dry cask idea good for Vermont
June 09, 2005
The dry cask storage agreement announced between the leadership
of the Legislature and Entergy, owners of Vermont Yankee is a
very positive development for Vermont consumers and businesses.
Dry cask storage is a safe, proven, state-of-the-art technology
for storing used nuclear fuel. Entergy has successfully
implemented this technology at other plants and will face
scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Vermont
Public Service Board in order to do so here.
Vermont faces enormous challenges in the coming years to make
sure we have reliable, clean and low-cost electricity. As
Vermont Yankee supplies one-third of the state's electricity,
and by far its lowest cost electricity, there would be economic
calamity if the Legislature had forced Vermont Yankee and its
reliable and consistently generated base-load power to close, or
consider closing, because of a unique, prohibitive tax.
Electricity is the lifeblood of any economy. Having a stable and
reliable electricity supply makes it more likely that companies
will expand in Vermont, or re-locate here.
House Speaker Gaye Symington and Senate President Peter Welch
deserve high commendation for their leadership, statesmanship
and political courage in bringing about this agreement.
Duane Marsh
Vermont Chamber of Commerce
© 2005 Times Argus
*****************************************************************
41 Rutland Herald: Yankee dry-cask plan awaits next step: PSB
June 9, 2005
The Associated Press
BRATTLEBORO — The company that owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear
plant expects to make a formal request to the Public Service
Board within a few weeks to store highly radioactive nuclear
waste in dry casks on the plant's grounds in Vernon.
Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said that would
be the next step now that the Vermont Legislature has passed a
law authorizing Entergy to make the request to the three-member
PSB.
The case could take a year or longer, depending on the number of
parties the board allows to intervene.
Williams said the company was studying the new state law in
order to incorporate its terms into the application it must make
to the board.
The company already has filed its request with the Windham
Regional Commission, which it is required to do before going to
the PSB.
Jim Matteau, executive director of the regional commission, said
he was bothered that the new law does not require Entergy to
come back to get lawmakers' OK before trying to extend the
plant's license beyond its 2012 expiration date.
"There's not going to be public discussion about re-licensing.
There will be a Public Service Board proceeding, but that's not
really accessible to the public," he said.
Members of the public may attend the board hearings, but only
parties officially involved in the case can participate.
Supporters of the bill argued that legislative approval would be
required for storing any nuclear waste generated by operations
continuing past 2012, effectively giving lawmakers a say in
relicensing.
Both the regional commission and the nuclear watchdog group New
England Coalition have been parties in the ongoing PSB case on
Vermont Yankee's bid to boost its power output by 20 percent.
Both are also expected to be parties in the dry-cask storage
case.
Vermont Yankee officials say they're running out of room to
store spent nuclear fuel in a pool of water inside the plant for
that purpose. They say that to continue operating after 2008,
they need to begin storing the spent fuel in concrete and steel
casks on the plant's grounds.
© 2005
*****************************************************************
42 NEWS.com.au: Cross-floor call over N-dump
09-06-2005)
June 09, 2005 From: AAP Advertisement:
THE Greens have called on the Northern Territory's only Country
Liberal Party (CLP) senator to cross the floor and vote down any
moves for a nuclear waste dump in the top end. Federal Cabinet
met earlier this week where it had been expected to discuss the
disposal of Australia's nuclear waste, with the NT touted as the
most likely site.
In the midst of the NT election campaign, both the NT Labor
government and Country Liberal Party have voiced their strong
opposition to the territory becoming the nation's dumping site.
The NT Labor Government last year passed laws in a bid to block
a commonwealth nuclear waste dump being located anywhere in the
NT.
But Greens Senator Bob Brown today said the Federal Government
could override the legislation, as it did with NT's
controversial euthanasia laws.
He called on the NT's only CLP senator Nigel Scullion to commit
to crossing the floor in the Senate to block any legislation for
a NT dump.
"The Government will have a one-vote majority in the senate
after the 1st of July," Senator Brown told ABC radio.
"It only takes one member to vote against legislation being
brought into the Senate and that legislation fails.
"So the question is, will the territory CLP senator commit to
blocking legislation for a nuclear waste dump because then
Territorians can be assured that the territory isn't simply
going to be overridden by Canberra in the matter of the
placement of a nuclear waste dump."
Comment was being sought from Senator Scullion.
A national nuclear waste dump, originally proposed for an
outback South Australian site, was scrapped before last year's
federal election campaign after resistance from the South
Australian Government.
But The Australian newspaper reported this week that the Howard
Government had discarded plans to send nuclear waste to an
island because of terrorism and transportation fears.
It suggested the Government was again looking to a mainland
site, probably in the NT.
Senator Brown is campaigning in the NT today, where the Greens
are fielding a record 11 candidates in the June 18 poll.
The Greens have never won a seat in the NT Legislative
Assembly.
*****************************************************************
43 Barnet Times: Nuclear waste 'a terror target'
By Sophie Kummer
Nuclear waste in Britain is being left open to terrorist attack
because a Government committee is ignoring essential expertise,
a Middlesex University professor claimed this week.
Professor David Ball, who resigned from his post as Government
adviser on nuclear waste disposal on the Committee on
Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) last month, said much of
Britain was open to terrorist attack if it failed to dispose of
its waste effectively.
A professor of risk management at Middlesex, Professor Ball
said: "My fear is that much nuclear waste in this country is not
stored in the best way and so is leaving us vulnerable to
terrorist attack. For instance, someone could fly a plane into
it. That risk could be minimised and we jolly well ought to be
sorting it out. But my fear is that the committee (CoRWM) has
gone down such a wayward path, it may come up with a bad
conclusion or its work will be discredited, leaving us open to
further delay and costs."
In his letter of resignation to the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Professor Ball described the
committee as openly antagonistic to specialist input, whether on
science and engineering, economics, ethics'. He wrote: "The fact
that CoRWM's process is flawed cannot be undone, and in my
opinion it does not provide a model for future decision-making,
but a warning."
The most highly radioactive waste in the country which he said
could probably fit into a medium-sized house is stored at
different sites, and it would cost billions of pounds to dispose
of it properly by, for instance, storing it deep underground.
3:59pm Thursday 9th June 2005
Privacy Policy © Copyright 2001-2004 Newsquest Media Group - A
Gannett Company
*****************************************************************
44 Japan Times: Monju's fast-breeder technology remains far from practical
Thursday, June 9, 2005
A Supreme Court ruling late last month in favor of the Monju
prototype fast-breeder reactor may have been welcome news to its
builder, the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, but
putting the technology into practical use is still a long way
away.
The top court upheld the government's 1983 approval to build
Monju, once dubbed a "dream atomic reactor," paving the way to
get it back online. The facility in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture,
has been shut for more than nine years due to an accident and
coverup.
Fast-breeder reactors like Monju are supposed to be able to
produce more plutonium than they consume, and the government
initially expected to get the technology into practical use in
the 1970s.
The government has spent more than 800 billion yen on the
reactor, Japan's largest scientific and technological project.
Monju reached criticality for the first time in 1994, but a
massive sodium coolant leak in December 1995 triggered a claim
that the accident resulted from shortcomings in the facility's
safety assessment before it was built.
The Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch supported that claim by
32 plaintiffs, mostly residents living near the facility, who
sought to nullify the approval to build the reactor. The Supreme
Court's May 30 ruling overturned that decision.
Since the accident, mishaps at other nuclear plants and
coverups have followed. In addition, the electricity market has
been liberalized, sending power companies unable to adapt
quickly into a tight financial corner.
Fast-breeder reactors use costly plutonium-uranium mixed oxide,
or MOX, fuel, and the target year for putting the reactor
technology to commercial use was put off to 2010, and then to
2030.
"The largest reason for the delayed target is economic
efficiency," an official at the Atomic Energy Commission said.
"The initial forecast proved wrong, and uranium prices have long
been stable. Instead of reusing less economical plutonium, it's
profitable to use the present light-water reactors as long as
possible."
The Atomic Energy Commission, which works out long-term nuclear
power plans, decided this year to begin a full-scale study in
2015 on the commercial use of fast-breeder reactors, with
Monju's performance as a model.
However, precise blueprints are nowhere in sight, and
introduction of a reactor for practical use has been further
delayed, "until about 2050."
A power industry source said that even the next experimental
fast-breeder reactor will probably be radically different from
Monju.
"Various types of structures should be considered for the final
reactor for practical use, including a water-cooled type," a
nuclear power researcher said.
Despite all the questions about its future, maintaining Monju
-- even while it is still shut down -- runs somewhere between
6.4 billion yen and 17.3 billion yen a year. The total since the
1995 accident is expected to reach 127 billion yen by next March.
Meanwhile, Monju still plays a major political and economic
role in Fukui Prefecture and the city of Tsuruga. About 2
percent of the city's 70,000 residents are employees at the
Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute and related companies.
"The economic effects are large. We want to coexist and jointly
prosper" with Monju, said Tsuruga Mayor Kazuharu Kawase.
For Fukui Prefecture, which has 15 nuclear plants within its
borders, the radically different Monju is also a tool to attract
as much money as possible from the central government.
The Japan Times: June 9, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
45 NEWS.com.au: New U-mine tipped for NT
(10-06-2005)
A NEW uranium mine could open in the Territory, Arafura
Resources managing director Alistair Stephens said yesterday.
Western Australia-based Arafura is seeking an exploration
licence for a site at Yalyirimbi in Central Australia, he said.
The company believes the site, in the Reynolds Range northwest
of Alice Springs, contains large deposits of uranium oxide.
The land borders a potential site at Nolan's Bore, 130km north
of Alice Springs, where a new phase of test drilling will begin
next week, Mr Stephens said.
Testing at Nolan's Bore showed the site was rich in rare earth
elements, phosphate and also contained small amounts of uranium.
The company hopes to extract up to 200 tonnes of uranium a year
if given the go-ahead, he said.
"The uranium would be extracted as a by-product of the
rare-earth element operation," he said.
Mr Stephens said starting work on both sites depended on many
factors, including government approval, but testing would
continue.
"There is a fair way to go at this stage," he said. "But by the
year's end we should have an advanced understanding of the
resource."
Arafura lodged an exploration application for Yalyirimbi with
the NT Department of Mines and Energy one month ago and hopes to
have an answer by October.
Tests of source rock in the area have indicated a large deposit.
The NT Government said last month it would block an application
to mine the Koongarra deposit in Kakadu National Park.
The 14,000-tonne deposit has been the subject of dispute since
it was discovered in 1971.
Plans to mine it were blocked by traditional owners but French
nuclear energy company Areva has lodged an application to
explore.
Uranium prices have risen sharply recently, pushing higher than
US$25 a pound because of a shortfall in production.
Copyright 2005 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT + 10).
*****************************************************************
46 PE.com: Feinstein demands answers on perchlorate
| Inland Southern California | Inland News
11:19 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 8, 2005
By DAVID DANELSKI / The Press-Enterprise
A California senator wants the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to explain why it used a study that many scientists say
is flawed to determine how much of a rocket fuel chemical is
safe in drinking water.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's concern about perchlorate, a chemical
that has contaminated the Colorado River and several Inland
water supplies, follows recent reports in The Press-Enterprise
and a scientific journal that raised questions about the study.
The research, sponsored by perchlorate manufacturers and users,
became a cornerstone of the EPA's policy on how much of the
chemical people can safely consume.
Feinstein released a letter Wednesday that she wrote to EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson reiterating some scientists'
concerns about uncertainties in the study's data and how it has
been interpreted.
Perchlorate is an oxidizer in rocket fuel, munitions, road
flares and other products. It has been found in drinking water
sources in at least 34 states and in samples of lettuce, cows'
milk and human breast milk. In sufficient doses, the chemical
can impair thyroid function and result in neurological
impairment of fetuses and babies, metabolic disorders and other
problems, scientists say.
"With such widespread contamination in my state and across the
country, I have serious concerns over the health and well-being
of the most vulnerable among the population -- infants,
toddlers, pregnant women and their unborn children, and those
with compromised immune systems," Feinstein wrote. Feinstein
could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
An EPA press officer, Suzanne Ackerman, said the agency had
received Feinstein's letter and is reviewing it.
In 2002, EPA scientists concluded that 1 part per billion of
perchlorate was known to be safe in drinking water. The lower
Colorado River and several Inland drinking-water supplies have
higher levels.
Independent Study Sought
The next year, under pressure from the U.S. Department of
Defense and defense contractors responsible for perchlorate
contamination, the Bush administration asked the independent
National Academy of Sciences to review perchlorate science.
In January, a National Academy panel concluded that people can
safely consume 24 times more perchlorate than the amount
reflected in the EPA's analysis in 2002.
The National Academy recommendation was based, in part, on a
study by the late Dr. Monte Greer and industry consultants who
concluded that seven people given water laced with about 245
parts per billion were unaffected by the chemical.
Unpublished data from the study, however, showed the thyroid
function in two of the seven people appeared to be affected by
the chemical, The Press-Enterprise reported last week.
Study co-author Richard Pleus, a Seattle-based toxicologist, has
said the conclusions published in the Greer study were
statistically and biologically significant. He could not be
reached on Wednesday.
Scientists from California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine
and the EPA who reviewed the data all concluded perchlorate
might affect people at lower doses than the Greer study
reported.
National Academy panelists said in interviews last month that
they relied on the Greer study's published conclusions -- and
not the raw data about the seven adults who drank
perchlorate-laced water for two weeks.
Dr. Richard Johnston, chairman of the academy's perchlorate
panel and associate dean of research and development at the
University of Colorado Medical School, defended the panel's work
during a radio interview Tuesday on Pasadena-based KPCC (FM
89.3).
'Weakest Point'
The panel members were conservative and careful to protect
everyone, including fetuses and babies, he said. Their
conclusions were based on reviews of many studies, he said.
"If you want to attack the weakest point, it would be the Greer
study and the seven individuals in that study, and the committee
would agree," Johnston said.
Feinstein's letter also raised concerns about of the EPA's
decision to accept the National Academy's recommendations
without input from the public.
Gary Ginsberg is a Connecticut state toxicologist who co-wrote a
scientific journal article, published last month, that was
critical of the Greer study. He said in a telephone interview
that the EPA allowed for much more input in 2000 when it set
safe levels for methyl mercury, a chemical found in fish.
The EPA proposed a safe dose, then had a National Academy panel
review relevant studies. EPA scientists then analyzed the
panel's recommendations, rewrote the proposal and opened a
public comment period.
"That was in stark contrast to what happened with perchlorate,"
Ginsberg said.
Kevin Mayer, the EPA's perchlorate coordinator for the Southwest
region, said the agency's scientists were not asked to
re-evaluate their 2002 proposed safe dose to incorporate the
National Academy recommendation. Instead, EPA administrators
adopted the National Academy's recommendation.
Reach David Danelski at (951) 368-9471 or
ddanelski@pe.comMore
2005, The Press-Enterprise Company
*****************************************************************
47 AU ABC: Brown throws down gauntlet to CLP on nuclear waste dump.
09/06/2005. ABC News Online
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
Federal Greens Senator Bob Brown is challenging the Country
Liberal Party (CLP) to follow words with action in opposing a
nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
The Federal Government is reported to be considering the
Territory as a site for a dump, something both the CLP and Labor
say they will oppose.
But Senator Brown says it is the CLP who would have the power
to stop a dump.
"There's a very interesting question to be asked here of the CLP
when it comes to the nuclear waste dump," Senator Brown said.
"Is its senator prepared to cross the floor in the Senate?
Because that would block legislation for a dump being brought
into the Northern Territory."
Senator Brown says the Howard Government's determination should
not be underestimated.
"The Federal Government has an override here and just as the
Federal Government overrode the laws on death with dignity back
some years ago at the end of the '90s, the Territory laws, so
they can override laws on both the uranium mine and on a uranium
dump."
But Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin says she is
very concerned the Commonwealth could override Territory
legislation opposing a nuclear waste dump.
Ms Martin says if John Howard wants to put a waste dump in the
Territory, he should come and tell Territorians himself.
"I think he'll see just how strongly we feel about that. The
CLP need to say to their mates in Canberra this is not on. We're
saying it very firmly, I want to hear Denis Burke say it very
firmly as well," she said.
*****************************************************************
48 AU ABC: Senator 'won't need to' cross floor over nuclear dump.
09/06/2005. ABC News Online
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
The Country Liberal Party's (CLP) Northern Territory Senator
says he will not need to cross the floor of federal Parliament
to prevent a national nuclear waste dump being built in the
Northern Territory.
Prime Minister John Howard will not reveal if the Commonwealth
plans to store its nuclear waste in the Northern Territory.
"I'm not going to rule anything out on that," Mr Howard said.
"I've stated my position and I'm not ruling any areas in or
out."
Greens Leader Bob Brown has pressured the CLP's Nigel Scullion
to cross the floor if the Commonwealth decides on a Northern
Territory dump.
Senator Scullion says it will not come to that.
"I actually, as a member of government, am discussing this with
the Government," he said.
"I'm quite sure that the Government, knowing very well my views
on the matter, would not send it to the Senate."
Senator Scullion says the CLP's position has never changed.
*****************************************************************
49 Whitehaven News: GERMAN BAN TAKES EFFECT ON N-WASTE
GERMANY takes a step towards turning its back on nuclear
reprocessing at Sellafield, at the end of this month.
On July 1, a law will come into effect, banning shipments of
nuclear waste to Sellafield and the French reprocessing plant,
Cap La Hague. Already German nuclear power plant operator,
Vattenfall, has cancelled its planned final shipment of spent
nuclear fuel to Sellafield.
Altogether since the year 2001 only 267 containers were
transported to France and England. The German shipments have
always prompted controversy and mass demonstrations.
*****************************************************************
50 Whitehaven News: ROAD TRANSPORT OF PLUTONIUM DEFENDED
By David Siddall
ANTI nuclear group CORE claims a French firm was used to move
high security plutonium MOX fuel from Sellafield by road to
Workington.
CORE stated last week that over the Bank Holiday weekend,
Sellafield’s British Nuclear Group shipped four MOX fuel
assemblies (containing around 80kg of plutonium) from Sellafield
by road to Workington docks for onward shipment on the BNFL ship
Atlantic Osprey to Switzerland via the French port of Cherbourg.
Because of its plutonium content, the fuel is classified at the
highest security level and requires maximum security and safety
measures to defend against terrorist attack.
CORE’s spokesperson Martin Forwood said: “We understand the road
journey from Sellafield to Workington was undertaken by lorries
owned by Cogema Logistics (part of French reprocessing company).
“French plutonium transport methods were highly criticised in a
recent report and we’ll be seeking clarification about their use
in West Cumbria. We are also questioning once again the
transport of a highly dangerous material in second-hand BNFL
ship with second rate safety and security features.”
The four MOX fuel assemblies were produced in the Sellafield MOX
plant for the Swiss Beznau power station and transported on two
Cogema Logistics lorries onboard the BNFL ship Atlantic Osprey
from Workington Docks to the port of Cherbourg.
But BNFL say all their movements of MOX fuel use high security
vehicles, with numerous safety and security features and are
accompanied by the UKAE constabulary.
During the UK road journey and on board the Atlantic Osprey the
fuel was escorted by an armed team of officers from the Civil
Nuclear Constabulary.
Describing the transport operation, Captain Miller, Head of
International Transport for British Nuclear Group confirmed
that: “Safety of the public is ensured by the very robust
packages that contain the fuel which are designed and tested to
international standards.
“The ship, Atlantic Osprey, also has a range of safety features
over and above a normal cargo ship, such as an additional
watertight bulkhead, cargo fire protection, back up electrical
supplies, etc to provide additional safety.
“The vessel is classified as INF2 by the International Maritime
Organisation; a classification specifically for the carriage of
nuclear materials.
“Security is provided by the High Security Vehicle, the armed
Civil Nuclear Constabulary escort and additional security
measures on the Atlantic Osprey. The transport plan for this
delivery, including the security arrangements, have been
approved by the UK Government's independent Office of Civil
Nuclear Security.
“British Nuclear Group has more than 40 years experience of
transporting radioactive cargoes including spent nuclear fuel,
high level waste, plutonium and nuclear fuels including MOX
without any incident resulting in the release of radioactive
material.”
*****************************************************************
51 NEWS.com.au: Uranium debate gets hot
(10-06-2005)
US FEDERAL Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane has accused the
West Australian Government of putting political ideology ahead
of future opportunities for Australian children. He said at the
present price of $US29 a pound for uranium, the state was
sitting on $5.8 billion worth of yellowcake because of the
political ideology of the Gallop Government.
"But of course, under the present State Government, that will
never see light of day, never create jobs and never grow local
communities," Mr Macfarlane said.
In a speech that drew strong applause from the 350 people at a
Melbourne Mining Club lunch, Mr Macfarlane accused the Gallop
Government of putting political ideology ahead of the best
interests of the country.
He said China would have the capacity to consume all of the
uranium Australia could produce within a decade.
Mr Macfarlane also won over his audience by telling them that he
intended to press Cabinet for tax concessions next year for
flow-on or flow-through shares.
The scheme would allow tax deductions on investments in mineral
exploration which did not generate profits.
"That's still a very live option as far as I am concerned," he
said, noting later that it had a 50-50 chance of getting up and
he would pursue the issue in the lead-up to next year's budget.
Responding to questions, he said the use of nuclear power to
generate electricity in Australia was at least 25 years off
because of the need for debate, planning and decisions on where
to dispose of radioactive waste.
"We still can't dispose of the medical waste we have in
Australia because no premier wants to have to dispose of the
radioactive waste from their state hospitals.
"But the uranium debate is for here and now. Uranium is going to
be an energy fuel used by countries that have already made the
decision, which is probably going to take us five, maybe 10
years to make," Mr Macfarlane said.
He said the West Australian Government was sitting on the
state's uranium resources for no sensible reason, other than for
its own form of "self-gratification and to make an ideological
stand".
He noted that the Labor Premier in South Australia was fully
supportive and the Labor Chief Minister in the Northern
Territory also was fully supportive.
He said that while the Queensland and New South Wales
governments had expressed some issues about exports, they were
not significant in terms of the existing opportunities.
"Ideology has no place when you are trying to raise the standard
of living of the people you represent, and the opportunities for
their children and this nation to continue to grow," Mr
Macfarlane said.
*****************************************************************
52 Whitehaven News: MY HOPES FOR THORP – SNELSON
barry Snelson: Confident the Thorp plant will re-open
By Alan Irving
THE top man at Sellafield has assured thousands of worried
workers that the site operators British Nuclear Group DOES want
the besieged Thorp plant to open again.
But if the Government gives a final thumbs-up, it could be six
months before Thorp is back in business again — as a timely and
welcome Christmas present for the 10,000 Sellafield workforce.
Barry Snelson, managing director of British Nuclear Group, said
this week: “I am confident that Thorp will re-open but the
decision is not ours, it rests with the NDA (Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority) and the Government.”
Even if the radioactive liquor leak which has closed the plant
is cleared up successfully, worries have flared over the last
few weeks that the NDA, Thorp’s new owners, may still want it to
stay shut for commercial or political reasons.
However, whatever happens, the British Nuclear Group boss also
gave an assurance that he can’t foresee any reduction in the
industrial workforce following the 500 jobs cut in the
Sellafield management strength over the next two years.
In an exclusive interview with The Whitehaven News, Mr Snelson
said: “We are working harmoniously with the NDA. We have
presented our plans to them and have had some very positive
support and encouragement but re-opening Thorp is not my
decision, it is theirs and the Government’s.”
But when pressed as to whether British Nuclear Group itself
wanted Thorp to re-start, the managing director added: “If I am
pinned to the wall, and without any presumption of those final
decisions, I have to say that I do.
“We are recovering very well from the incident and I am
confident that once we have answered all the recommendations
from the Board of Inquiry and satisfied all the regulatory
authorities that we should be able to make a good case to
re-start.
“Yes, I am also confident that we can resume operations.
“Our role as operators rather than owners is to show we have the
capability to restore Thorp to service safely and also to
demonstrate what the economic benefits are.
“It is our intention to present that opportunity to the NDA and
the Government, but we cannot presume or try to pre-empt their
decisions.”
British Nuclear Group has been working to the scenario of Thorp
running until at least 2010, but Mr Snelson pointed out:
“Scenarios can be changed, assumptions can be altered. However,
Thorp has operated profitably so far and has generated the kind
of income which can be quite a benefit to the NDA’s site
clean-up programme and defray costs.”
On the leak which has closed Thorp for several weeks, he said:
“This incident was particularly galling after having such an
excellent year.
“We were making progress on all fronts for the NDA and then this
happens.
“It demonstrates that one bad event wipes out lots of good ones
and shows, above all, that for our industry perfection is what
people expect.
“Mistakes are only fatal if you don’t learn from them. The Board
of Inquiry was very thorough and brought out clear
recommendations. I can assure everybody they will be implemented
all the way across Thorp and the site.
“This has been a blow to us but we will recover and be even
stronger than we were before.”
BNG’s boss stressed that the inquiry was separate from any
subsequent disciplinary matters.
“People are being asked what they did or didn’t do and that
might result in a disciplinary process but it’s far too early to
judge that yet,” he pointed out.
Mr Snelson praised the Sellafield unions and workforce for
co-operating in the redeployment of personnel from Thorp to
other parts of the site.
“We have given an awful lot of reassurance about the 500
management jobs that will be going.”
Asked about possible cuts in the industrial workforce, he said:
“To be honest, I don’t see any significant downsizing at all
until we get to the period when major plants start to come off
line, say five or 10 years time.
“We also have an accelerated clean-up mission so we can redeploy
people to other work successfully.”
It will take another fortnight before the Thorp leak is totally
cleaned up and repairs completed — then the crucial decision
about its future has to be made.
n 500 Managers laid off – see page 6
n Comment – Page 10
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