[ RadSafe ] nuclear industry not responsible for defending plants from airliner attack

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

nuclear industry not responsible for defending NPPs from airliner
TVA plans to add reactors to its nuclear power program
NRC hears from public on Yankee environmental review
Japan: Utility Admits Past Data Fibbing
Two Swedish nuclear reactors shut down because of possible problem
Swedish nuclear authority files complaint against power plant
Brazil's 3rd Nuclear Plant on Hold
Emergency Shutdown at Rusian Nuke Plant
==========================================

Government says nuclear industry not responsible for defending plants 
from airliner attack

WASHINGTON (AP) - Making nuclear power plants crash-proof to an 
airliner attack by terrorists is impracticable, and it is up to the 
military to avert such an assault, the government said Monday. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a revised security policy, 
directed nuclear plant operators to focus on preventing radiation 
from escaping in case of such an attack and to improve evacuation 
plans to protect public health and safety. 

"The active protection against airborne threats is addressed by other 
federal organizations, including the military," the NRC said in a 
statement. 

The agency rejected calls by some nuclear watchdog groups that the 
government establish firm no-fly zones near reactors or that plant 
operators build "lattice-like" barriers to protect reactors, or be 
required to have anti-aircraft weapons on site to shoot down an 
incoming plane. 

The NRC, in a summary of the mostly secret security plan, said such 
proposals were examined, but it was concluded the "active protection" 
against an airborne threat rests with organizations such as the 
military or the Federal Aviation Administration. 

It said various mitigation strategies already required of plant 
operators, such as radiation protection measures and evacuation 
plans, "are sufficient to ensure adequate protection of the public 
health and safety" in case of an airborne attack. 

The commission unanimously approved the plan in a 5-0 vote at a brief 
meeting without discussion. It has been the subject of internal 
discussions for 15 months. 

"This rule is an important piece, but only one piece of a broader 
effort to enhance nuclear power plant security," NRC Chairman Dale 
Klein said in a statement. 

The defense plan, formally known as the Design Basis Threat, spells 
out what type of attack force the government believes might target a 
commercial power reactor and what its operator must be capable of 
defending against. 

While details are sketchy because of security considerations, the 
plan requires defense against a relatively small force, perhaps no 
more than a half-dozen attackers, even should they attack from 
multiple directions including by water, and use suicide attackers. 

The plan, which formally approves many of the procedures that long 
have been in place, reflects the increased concerns raised by the 
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States. It includes 
measures to address cyber attacks, according to the NRC. 

Some members of Congress  and nuclear watchdog groups have argued 
that the requirements fall short of what is needed, given what was 
learned by the Sept. 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York and at 
the Pentagon outside Washington. 

These critics argue that defenders of a reactor should be ready to 
face up to 19 attackers - as was the case on Sept. 11 - and expect 
them to have rocket-propelled grenades, so-called "platter" explosive 
charges and .50-caliber armor-piercing ammunition. 

The NRC does not assume that such weapons would be used and rejected 
the idea of a 19-member attack force, maintaining that the Sept. 11 
attacks actually were four separate attacks, each by four or five 
terrorists. 

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate  Environment 
and Public Works Committee, said the NRC appears not to have followed 
the direction of Congress "to ensure that our nuclear power plants 
are protected from air- or land-based terrorist threats" of the 
magnitude demonstrated on Sept. 11. 

The NRC "has missed an opportunity to provide the public with a real 
solution to the nuclear reactor security problem," said Democratic 
Rep. Edward Markey, a frequent critic of the nuclear industry and the 
NRC. 

Daniel Hirsch, president of the Community to Bridge the Gap, a 
California-based nuclear watchdog group that had urged the NRC to 
require physical barriers to keep planes from hitting reactors, 
called the security measures "irresponsible to the extreme." 

"Rather than upgrading protections, (the NRC plan) merely codifies 
the status quo, reaffirming the existing, woefully inadequate 
security measures already in place at the nation's reactors," said 
Hirsch. 

NRC officials have emphasized that the defense plan should require 
what is "reasonable" to be expected of a civilian security force at 
the 103 commercial nuclear power reactors. 

In an unclassified summary of the DBT, the NRC maintains that studies 
"confirm the low likelihood" that an aircraft crashing into a reactor 
would damage the reactor core and release radioactivity, which should 
it occur would damage public health and safety. 

"Even in the unlikely event of a radiological release due to a 
terrorist use of a large aircraft against a nuclear power plant, the 
studies indicate that there would be time to implement the required 
onsite mitigating actions," says the summary. 

Those "mitigation measures in place are sufficient to ensure adequate 
protection of the public health and safety," it continued. 

The nuclear power industry has argued that protection against an air 
attack or one using a large ground attack force should be the 
responsibility of the government. 

Responding to the NRC's action Monday, the Nuclear Energy Institute 
cited a $1 million (770,000) study by the Electric Power Research 
Institute last year that concluded the concrete enclosure that 
surrounds a reactor would withstand the impact of a large jetliner 
without releasing radiation.
----------------

TVA plans to add reactors to its nuclear power program

SPRING CITY, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Valley Authority will submit 
applications to build two new nuclear reactors under the government's 
streamlined licensing process and restart its oldest reactor after a 
22-year shutdown at Browns Ferry, TVA officials told The Chattanooga 
Times Free Press. 

The utility also plans to decide by August whether to spend up to $2 
billion to complete the unfinished Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar 
Nuclear Power Plant, the newspaper reported Sunday. 

The total tally could top $7 billion for design and construction, 
officials said. 

"We need more power and, at this point, nuclear looks to be the best 
option," TVA Chairman Bill Sansom told the newspaper. 

TVA currently operates three nuclear plants: Sequoyah (with two 
reactors) and Watts Bar (one reactor) in Tennessee, and Browns Ferry 
(two reactors) in Alabama. 

Under its plan, TVA would build two new reactors at the Bellefonte 
nuclear plant site in Hollywood, Ala. The utility began constructing 
the Bellefonte plant in the 1970s but never completed it. 

A consortium of utilities and contractors known as NuStart Energy LLC 
will split the projected $50 million costs with the U.S. Department 
of Energy for initial design of the two reactors for Bellefonte. 

TVA officials said they will benefit from new government rules that 
provide a more streamlined licensing process and government 
incentives such as production tax credits and risk insurance for new 
nuclear plants. 

No new nuclear reactors have been ordered in the United States since 
a 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania raised 
public concerns about nuclear power and caused the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission to revamp its rules. 

But industry officials believe concerns about global warming have 
changed attitudes about nuclear energy. Nationwide, U.S. utilities 
are pursuing plans for up to 31 new reactors. 

Proponents say nuclear power is an attractive alternative to coal, 
which is blamed for contributing to global warming and air pollution. 
Nuclear energy also provides an alternative to natural gas, which has 
been buffeted by high and volatile prices. 

The Bush administration and some Republican lawmakers also are 
touting the resurgence of nuclear energy, along with a new-to-the-
United States reprocessing and recycling technology for highly 
radioactive spent fuel waste. 

"Nuclear power is almost the only answer for clean electricity to 
meet our growing needs," said Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of 
Tennessee, who is co-chairman of the TVA Congressional Caucus and a 
member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "When I 
look at all of the options, I think nuclear is the leading 
technology." 

The TVA estimates electricity demand will grow 1.9 percent a year. To 
meet all of that increase with nuclear reactors would require TVA 
nearly to double its nuclear generation in the next decade. 

But critics question the safety and cost of the plan. Nearly 30 years 
ago, TVA scrapped most of what then was the nation's most costly and 
ambitious nuclear program. 

"Of all the places on Earth that have given nuclear power a shot and 
failed, the Tennessee Valley has got to be No. 1," said S. David 
Freeman, a former TVA chairman who has headed four other electric 
utilities across the country. 

The 74-year old utility sank more than $8 billion in the 1970s and 
1980s into 10 nuclear reactors that were canceled before they were 
finished. TVA spent another $6 billion to build the first reactor 
here at Watts Bar, making it the most expensive nuclear plant of its 
size ever built. 

"TVA's electric rates would be a whole lot lower today if they 
wouldn't have tried to build all those expensive nuclear plants," 
Freeman said. "It's just baffling to me that TVA would want to get 
into that business again." 

TVA President Tom Kilgore insists the agency now is taking a slower 
and more cost-effective approach to adding nuclear power than it did 
before, when it tried to build and operate up to 17 reactors at one 
time. 

"If we do decide to proceed with more nuclear units, we're going to 
make sure they are well designed in advance and are built one at a 
time," Kilgore said. 

After costly repairs in the 1980s, TVA's five operating reactors are 
now in the top quartile of U.S. nuclear plants for performance and 
safety, according to Kilgore. 

TVA provides wholesale electricity to 158 distributors serving about 
8.6 million consumers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia
---------------

NRC hears from public on Yankee environmental review

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 
finding that the continued operation of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant 
poses no serious environmental risk drew mixed reviews at a public 
hearing. 

Some who attended a public hearing on the agency's draft 
environmental impact statement Wednesday were less than thrilled with 
the regulators' presentation, which concluded that it could be 
operated for another 20 years - past the 2012 expiration of its 
operating license - without major environmental harm. 

One problem was that slides used in the session made reference not to 
the Vernon reactor, but to the Pilgrim nuclear plant in 
Massachusetts. 

"My primary concern is the slides referred to Pilgrim and not Vermont 
Yankee," said Sally Shaw, a long-time critic of the Vernon reactor 
and nuclear power in general. "This is not an environmental impact 
statement for Vermont Yankee. It's an environmental insult 
statement." 

The NRC's Chip Cameron, who moderated the meeting, said, "All of the 
information on these slides and the draft environmental statement are 
specific to Vermont Yankee license renewal. I apologize for the 
confusion that (the slides) might have caused." 

Actually, 69 of the 92 environmental standards by which Vermont 
Yankee was reviewed were generic to plants like it around the 
country, officials explained. The remaining issues were site-
specific, they said. 

At the hearing, the agency heard from supporters and critics alike. 

Supporters included former Gov. Thomas Salmon, who also is former 
chairman of Green Mountain Power Corp., which once was a part-owner 
of Vermont Yankee; and Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace 
who's now a nuclear power proponent. 

Critics complained that the environmental impact statement had not 
taken into account the possibility of a terrorist attack on a nuclear 
plant, and had not considered the adequacy of emergency evacuation 
plans.
-----------------

Japan: Utility Admits Past Data Fibbing

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's largest utility operator, Tokyo Electric Power 
Co., admitted that it falsified data at its nuclear power plants for 
three decades in an attempt to easily pass compulsory government 
inspections. 

TEPCO said it discovered falsifications of technical data on nearly 
200 occasions from 1977 to 2002 at three nuclear power plants, and 
reported them to the Trade and Industry Ministry as requested. 

The company also found three cases of improper modifications at two 
thermal plants, it said Wednesday. However, the modifications did not 
affect plant safety, the company said in a statement on its Web site.

The falsifications have passed the three-year statute of limitations 
and the company is likely escape punishment, Kyodo News agency 
reported. 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged METI to determine how the 
falsifications were possible, and called on TEPCO to come up with 
measures to prevent an occurrence. 

"Residents around the plants feel unsafe over the fabrications. They 
need to be able to trust in the safety of nuclear power," Abe told 
reporters Thursday evening. 

In December, the ministry ordered TEPCO to review past data following 
the company's discovery of falsification of cooling water data at the 
Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the late 1980s. 

The company also faked test operations at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 
nuclear plant in northern Japan in 1992, when an emergency core 
cooling system pump failed during government inspection. 

TEPCO came under fire after another safety data cover-up scandal in 
2002, stirring public distrust of Japan's nuclear industry.
-------------------

Two Swedish nuclear reactors shut down because of possible technical 
problem

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Two reactors at Sweden's Forsmark nuclear 
plant were shut down Saturday because of a possible problem with 
rubber sealing, authorities said. 

"This is not serious, it's not unusual that reactors are shut down," 
said Anders Bredfell, information director at the Swedish Nuclear 
Inspectorate, the Swedish government's regulatory body that 
supervises all nuclear activities in Sweden. 

A part of the sealing at the Forsmark 1 reactor showed possible 
degradation, and since Forsmark 1 and 2 have similar construction, 
management decided to shut down both, he said. 

Bredfell said both reactors would be restarted in a couple of days. 

Forsmark 1 was also shut down in late December and was restarted four 
days later, while Forsmark 2 was also temporarily shut down late last 
month. 

Forsmark has three reactors and is situated about 100 kilometers (60 
miles) north of Stockholm on the Swedish east coast. It accounts for 
about one-sixth of Sweden's total electricity generation.
-----------------

Swedish nuclear authority files complaint against power plant

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Sweden's nuclear authority on Monday asked 
prosecutors to investigate whether the operator of a nuclear power 
plant broke the law in its response to a malfunction last year. 

Two reactors at the Forsmark plant, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north 
of Stockholm, were shut down in July after two backup generators 
malfunctioned during a power failure. They went back on the grid two 
months later after security upgrades. 

In its complaint to prosecutors, the Swedish Nuclear Power 
Inspectorate said plant managers acted too slowly in cooling down one 
of the reactors after the incident. Such a decision was not made 
until one day after the July 25 incident, the inspectorate said. 

Prosecutors will now review the complaint and decide whether to press 
charges against the operator, Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB, for nuclear 
safety violations. The company is controlled by state-owned energy 
group Vattenfall AB.
---------------

Brazil's 3rd Nuclear Plant on Hold

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - An ambitious infrastructure investment plan 
announced Monday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva did not 
include completion of Brazil's third nuclear plant. 

The investment plan calls for more than 503 billion reals (US$240 
billion, euro185 billion) through 2010 to be spent on repairing and 
building highways, boosting electric power generation, expanding 
ports and airports and providing housing, water and sewage service 
for poor Brazilians. 

Completion of the Angra 3 nuclear power plant in Rio de Janeiro, 
which has been stuck in the planning stage for a number of years, "is 
not part of the (investment) plan," Mines and Energy Minister Silas 
Rondeau told reporters. 

"Resumption of work on Angra 3 is part of the resumption of Brazil's 
nuclear program, which involves much more than generating 
electricity," Rondeau told reporters without going into details. 

He said the future of the nuclear program was still under discussion.

Brazil currently has two operating nuclear plants, Angra 1 and Angra 
2, with an installed capacity of about 2,000 megawatts. Angra 3 would 
raise its nuclear capacity to 3,300 megawatts. 

Late last year, Brazil announced plans to build four new nuclear 
plants in the northeast and southeast of the country starting in 
2015. Each is projected to have generating capacity of 1,000 
megawatts. 

Brazil recently raised international concern when it announced it 
would begin enriching uranium for peaceful purposes but then denied 
inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency complete access 
to its centrifuges. Eventually, a deal for limited inspections was 
reached.
-----------------

Emergency Shutdown at Rusian Nuke Plant

MOSCOW (AP) - An unspecified safety problem prompted an emergency 
shutdown at a Russian nuclear power plant, but no increase in 
radiation levels were reported, federal officials said Tuesday. 

The incident occurred at the first unit of the Balakovo plant around 
11:15 p.m. Monday, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The plant, 
located near the Volga River city of Saratov, about 450 miles 
southeast of Moscow, has four 1,000-megawatt pressurized water 
reactors. 

Nuclear regulators said the problem was located and corrected Tuesday 
morning and could be restarted later in the day. 

"Initial reports indicate the cause of the shutdown was a problem 
with the safety system. The reactor has been taken off-line," the 
Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement. 

The Balakovo plant was the site of a false alarm in late 2004, when a 
turbine malfunction prompted a shutdown and rumors of a major 
accident sparked panic among nearby residents. 

Russian lawmakers recently passed legislation to restructure the 
country's nuclear power sector, which includes 31 reactors at 10 
nuclear power plants, accounting for about 17 percent of electricity 
generation. 

President Vladimir Putin has pledged to build another 42 atomic 
reactors by 2030 and increase the proportion of electricity 
generation produced by nuclear plants to about 25 percent. 

Environmental groups have criticized government plans to keep older 
model nuclear plants operational, saying that graphite reactors like 
the one that exploded in Chernobyl and other types have serious 
safety flaws. 

About half of Russia's nuclear reactors are of the graphite and older 
models.

----------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle 
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations 
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306 
Fax:(949) 296-1144

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/