***************************************************************** 06/24/01 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 9.157 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER CONTENTS 1 ECONOMY DAE plans to make nuclear power generation cheaper 2 Record production of nuclear fuel at NFC 3 Senate Panel OKs Uranium Mine Fund 4 Editorial: Don't end oversight of nuke dump 5 Columnist Jeff German: Gamers are finally in battle over Yucca 6 Nuclear waste to roll through Midwest 7 Nuclear-energy plan is asking for trouble 8 Nuclear fuel glut forces layoffs of uranium processing workers 9 Nuclear's Comeback 10 Profit meltdown at BNFL 11 Nuclear power has momentum 12 S.C. nuclear plants look to future 13 County prepares for nuclear rods 14 Campaigners hail Dounreay 'victory' 15 LETTERS: Pro nuke piece doesn't make its case 16 Dounreay is scrapped as nuclear plant 17 Radiation-exposed salmon leaked into Japan NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONTENTS 1 New plan to clean up missile site - 2 £1m Calder Hall Bill ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** NUCLEAR POWER ARTICLES ***************************************************************** 1 ECONOMY DAE plans to make nuclear power generation cheaper Jun 23 2001 Our Bureau HYDERABAD THE AMBITION of the Department of Atomic Energy is to promote nuclear power as a benign source of power and also to make its generation cheaper anywhere in the country, irrespective of the location of the generating units, said Dr Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, DAE, and chairman, AEC. Addressing the officers and staff of the Nuclear Fuel Complex, Dr Kakodkar said: "Though it’s a tall order, we will squarely take up the challenge." Dr Kakodkar said developing countries like India need to concentrate on producing nuclear power to meet their growing energy needs. "I don’t say nuclear power is the only answer to meet the needs, but it is certainly an inevitable source," he said. Referring to the DAE’s ambitious target of producing 20,000 mw of nuclear power by 2020, the secretary of DAE and chairman of AEC said though it may appear difficult, it is not an impossible target to achieve. "Personally, I feel it is feasible, but money is the only constraint," he said, before adding, "We require at least Rs 4-5 crore to produce each mw of nuclear power." He said in a lighter vein, "We can only produce nuclear power, but not the money (to fund the nuclear power projects)." He stated that DAE and AEC are ready to commence work on the proposed 500 mw prototype fast breeder nuclear reactor at Kalpakkam later this year and hoped this new plant will spur nuclear power generation and help the country in achieving its target of producing 20,000 mw by 2020. Earlier, Dr C Ganguly, chairman and chief executive of the NFC, an industrial unit of the DAE, said in his presentation that NFC has achieved remarkable success in the last three financial years during which it not only surpassed the production targets but registered a steep rise in the revenue receipts. "The NFC crossed the production targets by 108, 114, and 117 per cent respectively in the last three financial years. Similarly, the total revenue receipts shot up to an all-time high of Rs 670 crore in 2000-01, up from Rs 398 crore in 1998-99," he said. The NFC performed creditably well on the non-nuclear front also, notching up turnovers of Rs 3.5 crore in special materials and Rs 17.8 crore in seamless stainless steel tubes, the two niche areas, said Dr Ganguly. He declared that NFC is all set to play a key role in the implementation of the DAE’s programme of producing 20,000 mw by 2020 by supplying the required fuel and core structurals for the proposed 500 mw pressurised heavy water reactors at Tarapur, 500 mw prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam, as also the light water reactors and advanced heavy water reactors. ***************************************************************** 2 Record production of nuclear fuel at NFC 24 June 2001 : The Times of India NEW DELHI: Nuclear plants in the country have registered record production of nuclear fuel this year, the third time in succession, officials said on Saturday. The officials said that during the last three consecutive years, nuclear fuel production at the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) at Hyderabad, an industrial unit of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), had exceeded 100 per cent of the annual target set by the NFC board. In some of the critical plants like natural uranium fuel plants and zirconium oxide plant, production had even surpassed the rated capacities. More than 27,000 natural uranium oxide fuel bundles had been manufactured during 2000-01 for the 12 operating Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR), including the four new reactors at Kaiga (Karnataka) and Rawatbhatta (Rajasthan). Each PHWR fuel bundle contains 15 kg of uranium oxide fuel pellets and produces approximately 6.4 lakh kilowatt-hour units of electricity. Likewise, a record production of 106 enriched uranium oxide fuel assemblies was achieved during the year for the two Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) at Tarapur. Each BWR fuel assembly contains 160 kg of uranium oxide fuel which generates nearly 200 lakh kilowatt-hour units. The entire zirconium alloy hardwares for the PHWR and BWR fuels were manufactured in-house at zirconium oxide, sponge and zircaloy fabrication plants, starting from zircon sand. The year 2000-2001 also witnessed a steep rise in both nuclear and non-nuclear business. The total revenue receipts in 2000-01 shot up to an all-time high of Rs 670 crore against revenue expenditure of Rs 438 crore. On the non-nuclear side, sales revenue crossed Rs 3.5 crore in special materials and Rs 17.8 crore in seamless stainless steel tubes, the two niche areas of NFC. All these have been achieved while maintaining the high safety and environmental standards prescribed by various regulatory agencies. Out of the six nuclear power reactors that have been connected to the grid all over the world in the year 2000, four are in India. With the infrastructure and expertise built over three decades and with peak performance demonstrated for the past three years successfully, NFC looked forward to seizing new opportunities in manufacturing fuel and core structurals for the forthcoming 500 MWE PHWRS at Tarapur, 500 MWE prototype fast breeder reactor at Kalpakkam, light water reactors and advanced heavy water reactors. (UNI) SRC="http://til.speedera.net/www.timesofindia.com/images1/arrow_next.gif" ***************************************************************** 3 Senate Panel OKs Uranium Mine Fund ABQjournal: Friday, June 22, 2001 Albuquerque Journal--> Journal Wire Report WASHINGTON — A Senate committee on Thursday approved a spending bill that earmarks $84 million to settle compensation claims from uranium miners who were made sick by their work during the Cold War. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Trust Fund went broke in May 2000. The spending measure approved Thursday, if approved by the full Congress and signed by the president, would return the fund to solvency. The government has been issuing IOUs to the sick workers and their families for the past year. The spending measure, designed to alleviate current-year federal budget shortfalls, also includes money for New Mexico's national nuclear laboratories, veterans health-care programs and missile defense research at Kirtland Air Force Base. Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 4 Editorial: Don't end oversight of nuke dump June 22, 2001 If someone had to pick a single federal government program that deserves more scrutiny, not less, it would have to be the Yucca Mountain Project. After all, the Department of Energy too often has ignored scientific evidence that has demonstrated how dangerous it would be to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain. That is why it was so disturbing to learn that Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is considering a recommendation to place the Yucca Mountain Project "off-budget." If Congress were to agree to this change, it would mean that the Yucca Mountain Project's budget wouldn't face the same spending constraints as other government programs, effectively limiting congressional oversight of this terribly mismanaged program. Throughout its existence the Yucca Mountain Project has received stinging rebukes for not only its slipshod scientific investigation, but also for its sorry management. In 1999 a GAO report noted that $6.5 billion and 15 years later, the Yucca Mountain Project was still 12 years behind schedule. This obviously wouldn't be a ringing endorsement to decrease oversight of that project. Nevadans naturally are frightened about giving a budgetary green light to an agency that has not earned the public's trust. It is encouraging that Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the assistant majority leader, is adamantly opposed to Abraham's proposal. Reid believes it would be wrong to lessen the DOE's accountability. It would be a travesty if Congress were to suspend its annual review of the budget of a program that has done a disastrous job of assessing whether man's deadliest waste can safely be stored in Nevada. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 5 Columnist Jeff German: Gamers are finally in battle over Yucca June 22, 2001 Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com. --- BETTER LATE than never. Those were the words of Nevada Sen. Harry Reid last week when he was asked to comment on the gaming industry's willingness to join the fight against Yucca Mountain. Indeed it's never too late for the state's No. 1 industry, with all of its political muscle, to take up arms in Nevada's fight of the century. Most Nevadans have long recognized that the $58 billion Yucca Mountain Project, the proposed site of the nation's high-level nuclear waste dump, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, poses the biggest threat to the state's environment and economy. Now, according to a new county report about to be made public, the best and the brightest of the casino industry have come to that conclusion. Industry executives, notorious for being slow to jump on issues vital to the state, are prepared to use their growing political influence in Washington in the fight, a draft of the report says. The executives, the report says, now believe the nuclear waste issue is "so large and so important to the well-being" of Nevadans that an all-out political assault on the dump must be launched. They now understand that just one overturned truck carrying high-level nuclear waste on Interstate 15 could destroy this city's reputation as America's premier tourist destination. And so after standing on the sidelines for two decades, the gaming industry finally is ready to make a meaningful contribution to the fight -- one that's going to force the industry to dig deep into its pockets. This comes as the Department of Energy is only months away from recommending whether Yucca Mountain is safe to store 77,000 tons of the nation's radioactive waste. The deadly garbage would be transported to Southern Nevada from nuclear plants across the country. The industry's enlightened attitude about the dump also comes as Nevada's political machine is raising the stakes in the battle. Gov. Kenny Guinn has persuaded the Nevada Legislature this year to shell out $4 million in the fight, primarily to show states along the nuclear waste trucking corridor that they also are at risk. And Polo Towers President Stephen Cloobeck has been rallying the troops within the business community. Cloobeck's nonprofit "Save Nevada" organization soon will launch a massive fund-raising effort that is expecting significant contributions from the gaming industry. But beyond the money, getting the industry to step up to the plate in Washington is going to be just as important to Reid and other members of Nevada's congressional delegation. This month Reid's political fortune rose after he became assistant majority leader, the second highest-ranking member of the Senate. Nevadans saw the benefits of his new influence late last month when Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota visited Las Vegas. With Reid at his side, Daschle told reporters that the Yucca Mountain issue is dead on Capitol Hill as long as the Democrats control the Senate. But even if the dump turns out not to be as dead as Daschle's prediction, the casino industry is fully capable of moving in for the kill. If gaming can mount the same kind of high-powered offensive on the Hill that it has in the sports betting battle with the NCAA, then there indeed is hope of prevailing against the DOE and its nuclear industry cronies. Last week American Gaming Association President Frank Fahrenkopf, the industry's chief Washington lobbyist, said he had seen the ground-breaking draft of the county's new report. The draft, he said, prompted him to put Yucca Mountain on his radar screen. Better late than never. All contents copyright 2001 Las Vegas SUN, Inc. ***************************************************************** 6 Nuclear waste to roll through Midwest Lawrence Journal-World: The Associated Press June 24, 2001 Kansas City — Missouri is powerless to stop the planned federal shipment of spent nuclear fuel from Germany that will roll along Interstate 70 en route to Idaho, officials said. But precautions — including a highway patrol escort and promises to keep the waste away from metro areas during peak traffic times — are in place to safeguard the shipment. The load of reactor fuel from Europe is the first in a decade of nuclear waste shipments expected to cross the nation's heartland. It should pass through St. Louis, Columbia, Kansas City and other towns along the interstate later this summer. In a separate planned shipment, Kansas and Missouri are among 11 states on the route for a cross-country trip that will haul used nuclear fuel from West Valley, N.Y., to a storage facility in Idaho. Arrival of the European shipment will be confidential, though Missouri officials will get seven days' advance notice. But authorities can't stop the shipment and won't be able to say anything about them. "We're opposed to it, but that doesn't mean we can block it," said Dru Buntin of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. "The state has no statutory authority to block these shipments." Like the late Gov. Mel Carnahan before him, Gov. Bob Holden has opposed federal nuclear waste shipments through Missouri. Last year Carnahan managed to stop the first shipment — carrying waste from England — by having it rerouted onto Interstate 80 in Iowa. Carnahan cited concerns about the safety of shipping the waste along bumpy I-70, as federal officials had planned. But then the U.S. Department of Energy blocked any state shipments bound for South Carolina from the University of Missouri-Columbia's research reactor, saying Missouri roads must not be safe for state shipments if they are not safe for federal ones. That blockage upset state officials, who called the move retaliatory and claimed it jeopardized the production of radioactive drugs used to treat cancer. Now that state and federal officials have agreed to safety precautions, the state's nuclear waste is again moving to a disposal site in South Carolina. This summer's federal shipment will include a Missouri State Highway Patrol escort, a safety inspection of the truck carrying waste, as well as a check for radioactivity, and special parking areas if bad weather or highway congestion threatens the shipment. The shipment also will avoid Kansas City during peak traffic periods. The shipment will come from nuclear reactors in Germany. The United States accepts foreign waste because it promoted the building of research reactors in Europe. Copyright © 2001, the Lawrence Journal-World. ***************************************************************** 7 Nuclear-energy plan is asking for trouble Sunday, June 24, 2001 Advocates of President Bush's energy plan assert the safety of properly run nuclear power facilities and point to nuclear power's economic and environmental benefits as reasons to continue with the proposal. The reality of the situation is not so simple. There certainly are nations today that successfully use nuclear power and have not experienced any major incidents, but it is only a matter of time. Accidents at nuclear facilities have happened, and they will continue to happen. Everyone loves the idea when it's just that: an idea. When it comes time to choose sites for the new plants, there will be blood in the streets as Americans fight to protect their neighborhoods from the invasion. We gloss the issue over with our scientific arrogance and desire for progress, but deep inside we know that nuclear power violates nature in a profound way. It is a perversion of the natural laws, and any nation that relies on it will pay a great price. Greg Mann Westerville Copyright © 2001, The Columbus Dispatch ***************************************************************** 8 Nuclear fuel glut forces layoffs of uranium processing workers HoustonChronicle.com June 22, 2001, 9:38PM Associated Press PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- In the coming months, Marybeth Hamel and hundreds of her co-workers at one of the nation's last two uranium enrichment plants will lose some of the best-paying jobs in a region long plagued by high unemployment. U.S. Enrichment Corp. says it can no longer afford to operate the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a massive facility the government built in the 1950s to produce enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and submarines, because of low prices caused by a market glut for nuclear plant fuel. Production stopped last month, and this month layoffs of nearly a quarter of the plant's 1,700 workers began. The rest will remain to handle contract work and maintain equipment. At its peak in the 1980s, the plant employed more than 3,000 people. The company will keep a sister plant in Paducah, Ky., open and it will buy highly enriched Russian uranium from that country's decommissioned nuclear warheads. Some members of Congress, who agreed to make the company private in 1998 to give it more flexibility to respond to market conditions, are angry that it is laying off former federal workers who helped get the country through the Cold War. At the Department of Energy's insistence, the company will keep the southern Ohio plant in a "cold standby status" so that it can be restarted if needed. For Hamel, it will be her second layoff from the plant in a decade. But unlike last time, she isn't going to wait around for another job to open up -- she already has been accepted into a nurse training program in Nashville, Tenn. "The first time I was laid off, I had Tums on my desk and Zantac," Hamel said. "This time, I look at it as a temporary transition." U.S. Enrichment has earmarked $20 million for community development, severance pay and extended benefits for laid-off workers, who on average earned $40,000 a year with another $20,000 in benefits. But that does little to cushion the shock for workers who have spent decades at the plant, union officials say. "We have people who have never worked anywhere else," said Garry Sexton, a safety representative for the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy International Union Local 5-689. "They came out of high school here. "We've been on a roller-coaster ride for a long time, ever since privatization," said Sexton, a 17-year employee. "It's been a ride, with people not knowing what their destiny is going to be." Union president Dan Minter said meeting with plant veterans who are losing jobs is an emotional drain. He has traveled to Washington repeatedly -- four times last month alone -- to lobby for government attention for the workers. "It's the most difficult thing I've had to deal with in my lifetime," Minter said. The region, with rolling green hills and sweeping views of the Ohio River, historically has the state's highest unemployment. Pike County, home to the plant, had a 6.9 percent unemployment rate in April, nearly double the statewide rate. Hamel, 35, of Lucasville said she doesn't know when exactly her layoff date will be. She just knows it is coming. Her father worked at the plant and has retired. Her brother, sister-in-law and brother-in-law also work there. Her current job is safety representative for plant subcontractor Bechtel Jacobs. She is hoping to parlay her experience into a new career as an occupational nurse. Her daughter, Bethany, an eighth-grader, cries at the prospect of leaving her 300-student school for a 1,700-student building full of strangers in Nashville. "She's been a cheerleader since third grade," Hamel said. "She didn't go out for cheerleading this year because she didn't want to take another girl's spot. It broke her heart." ***************************************************************** 9 Nuclear's Comeback June 22, 12:44 PM Claiming that an energy crisis is looming, the United States is about to do a U-turn on nuclear energy. Fifteen years after Chernobyl, worries about global warming and improved technology are also combining to revive interest in the once-vilified nuclear industry in other countries THERE now seems little doubt that the Bush administration will try to revive America's nuclear-power industry. Dick Cheney, the vice president, has taken on the task of reviewing energy policy. His report is expected some time this month. But already he has made it clear that he wants not only to open up Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil exploration, and to build many more conventional power plants, but to start, once again, building more nuclear plants as well. On April 30th, he repeated these views, calling nuclear fission â€a safe, clean, very plentiful energy sourceâ€. What Mr Cheney recommends is almost certain to become administration policy. If the US government does manage to overcome opposition to the building of more nuclear reactors, leading the way for an expansion of nuclear energy in other countries as well, it will represent a remarkable resurrection for a technology which has long been viewed with fear and suspicion. April 26th 1986 was the day when nuclear power seemed to die. Once considered the energy of the future, promising virtually unlimited amounts of clean power at low cost, nuclearâ€s attraction was seriously tarnished by a well-publicised, though relatively minor, accident at the Three Mile Island plant on Americaâ€s east coast in 1979. After that scare, public opposition grew, but it never quite stopped the building of new plants. But then when a reactor at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in the southern Ukraine blew up seven years after Three Mile Island, exposing millions of people across Europe to radiation, the nuclear dream seemed well and truly over. Plans for new nuclear reactors were shelved all over the world. And yet fifteen years after the Chernobyl disaster, attitudes toward nuclear energy are shifting again. Mr Cheney's championing of it is only the most visible sign of this. There are a variety of reasons behind the change. Prices for natural gas are going up even while demand for energy keeps rising. According to estimates by the United Nations, energy consumption worldwide could double in the next fifty years. Nuclear energy is coming to seem, once again, as relatively cheap, although the initial costs of setting up a nuclear plant are very high and it can take years until a plant is operational. The nuclear industry itselfâ€which has continued to operate although new plant construction has virtually stoppedâ€has improved its case by showing that it can operate more safely and efficiently. And, perhaps most important of all, the growing concern about global warming has made nuclear seem much more attractive. Unlike fossil fuelsâ€oil, gas and coalâ€nuclear energy does not produce any greenhouse-gas emissions. America had been one of the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of nuclear power, but also one of the first to react to public fears about the safety of nuclear plants. Today home to about a quarter of some 440 nuclear plants worldwide, the US stopped building new nuclear plants altogether after Three Mile Island. Many of its existing plants' 40-year operating licenses are now beginning to expire. Until recently few expected these licenses to be renewed. This now looks much more likely. One big factor behind the change is Californiaâ€s current energy crisis, which has highlighted Americaâ€s ever-increasing demand for electricity. America's consumption of electricity has increased by more than 50% over the past two decades. So far most of the increased demand has been met with natural gas and coal. But California's recent blackouts have persuaded many people that other sorts of energies need to be tapped as well. Partly due to a botched deregulation of the power sector, the state has endured a series of blackouts since last December that have already cost businesses vast sums of money and humiliated a state which sees itself as the high-tech centre of the world. California brought energy policy back into the headlines, but Mr Bushâ€s administration has been busily remaking that policy in any case. Mr Bush controversially abandoned restrictions on carbon-dioxide emissions, which he had pledged to maintain during the presidential campaign, soon after coming into office, and he has turned his back on the Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations treaty that obliges industrialised countries to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. He has also announced an intensified exploitation in America of oil and natural gas, the principal sources of such emissions, and slashed the budget for research into renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal and biomass). These moves were perhaps not too surprising coming from an administration led by two former oil-industry executives (Mr Bush and Mr Cheney have both worked for oil companies). And they have just as predictably enraged environmentalists, who may mount a stiff rearguard battle against them. But the one surprising move by the administration, given its oil-industry background, is its newfound interest in nuclear, once seen as the rival to oil and natural gas. With energy shortages looming, such rivalry no longer seems to matter much. America is not the only place where interest in nuclear has revived. Like the US, Russia is plagued by energy shortages but when it comes to nuclear it has always suffered from fewer scruples. Now it too wants to expand nuclear energy output dramatically. Bulat Nigmatulin, Russia's deputy minister of atomic energy, recently warned that Russia would face severe energy shortages if it did not complete five nuclear reactors that have been under construction for more than a decade by 2005 and did not build 25 new ones over the next 20 years. Dwindling coal and gas reserves and rising demand for electricity in Russia's western regions gave the government no choice but to increase its reliance on nuclear energy, claimed Mr Nigmutalin. Russia already operates 29 reactors, with nuclear power providing 12% of the country's energy. Is a revival of nuclear energy wise? Catastrophes can be cathartic. After the shock of Chernobyl, international organisations and the nuclear industry bent over backwards to improve safety and efficiency. The World Association of Nuclear Operators, national nuclear regulators and the International Atomic Energy Agency started to co-operate more closely to improve international safety-standards. In particular, American owners of nuclear plants have raised standards. And American nuclear plants have increased their output by a quarter over the past decade by raising their operating efficiency. Almost all nuclear plants that are today operational in 31 countries have similarly improved with the exception of some Chernobyl-type reactors in the former Soviet Union. These remain dangerous, and should be shut down as soon as alternative sources of energy can be supplied, or even before. One big reactor accident could yet wipe out nuclear's new credibility. Most of the public remains wary. And there are still real difficulties. It is still not clear how most nuclear plants will be decommissioned when they can no longer be operated. Parts of them remain radioactive virtually forever. And yet a solution for even this may be within sight. Nuclear wastes can be turned into inert glass and disposed permanently in salt deposits that have been stable for millions of years. Mr Bush is expected to approve later this year, over stiff local opposition, a plan to store radioactive waste in an underground site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Yet the nuclear industry's best friend is global warming. Most climate scientists agree now that global warming, principally caused by carbon-dioxide emissions, is real and that global warming could have serious, if not catastrophic, climatic consequences. So far, nuclear power is the only alternative to fossil fuels that could produce enough energy to make a difference in the level of emissions. Ironically, if Mr Bush is to support his vice president in his advocacy of nuclear power, he may end up doing what crusaders for Kyoto wanted him to do, namely to reduce considerably Americaâ€s emissions. But donâ€t expect the environmentalists to be pleased. Despite their concern about climate change, they remain among the most fervent opponents of nuclear energy. Bitte schicken Sie Kritik und Verbesserungsvorschläge ***************************************************************** 10 Profit meltdown at BNFL Guardian Unlimited Observer | Business | Oliver Morgan, industrial correspondent Sunday June 24, 2001 The Observer British Nuclear Fuels will this week report a series of severe operational problems which left it with an operating loss of nearly £200 million last year. Disruptions in reprocessing activities at its Sellafield site in Cumbria, as well as serious difficulties with its first-generation Magnox nuclear power stations, will be blamed for the performance, which is worse than previous estimates. Last year BNFL made an operating profit of £65m, which converted into a £242m loss after exceptionals. This year's underlying operating performance is worse, but is likely to be improved by some exceptional items. However, the total figure will still be in the red. The key problem at Sellafield has been the Thorp reprocessing plant, which had to shut down in April, October and February. Its Wylfa Magnox plant - which generates nearly 40 per cent of BNFL's power - was closed all year. BNFL executives, headed by chairman Hugh Collum, are anxious to meet Energy Minister Brian Wilson to discuss the prospects of a partial privatisation initially scheduled for the end of next year. However, sources close to the BNFL board say it accepts that such a move is a long way off, given the operational problems and uncertainties over BNFL's nuclear liabilities, which could total £34 billion. The news comes as Core, a Cumbrian-based group campaigning for the closure of Sellafield, circulates research to BNFL's customers indicating that it is unlikely to meet deadlines for reprocessing their waste. BNFL has already angered customers from Germany, Japan and elsewhere by pushing back by one year to 2005 the first 10-year tranche of contracts. However, Core argues that bottlenecks at BNFL vitrification facilities, which package highly radioactive liquids, mean that this date could be pushed back to 2012 or 2015. Core says that BNFL must continue to vitrify waste from its Magnox reprocessing plant, which holds up work on Thorp waste. It says it has checked its calculations with the safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, where sources have suggested they are broadly correct. A BNFL spokesman said he was unable to comment on the figures. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 ***************************************************************** 11 Nuclear power has momentum | The Sun News - Myrtle Beach, SC Sunday, June 24, 2001 *****************************************************************