[ RadSafe ] Iran shows nuclear plant

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Aussie PM pushes case for nuclear power
Ga. Power flings gauntlet in nuclear debate
Kansas House postpones debate on nuclear power bill
Indonesia to push ahead with nuclear plans
Nuclear firm mixes power and beauty
Public will get say on new North Anna nuclear reactors
Radiation board allows Blanding mill to process Oklahoma waste
Iran shows nuclear plant
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Aussie PM pushes case for nuclear power

SYDNEY, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard says the new
U.N. report on climate change presents an argument for the use of nuclear
power. 

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change found that
global warming was very likely man-made and will continue for centuries. 

Howard told reporters at his Sydney residence the report was the strongest
confirmation that greenhouse gas emissions were destroying the earth's
environment and must be reduced. 

"We must do it in a way that does not unfairly hurt or damage the Australian
economy and destroy Australian jobs," he said. 

Howard said Australia's energy needs could not be met by replacing fossil
fuel with solar and wind power and therefore "we should look at the nuclear
option." 

"There is no point, in the face of such a comprehensive challenge, of ruling
out consideration of something which may, over time, provide part of the
solution to the problem," he said.
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Ga. Power flings gauntlet in nuclear debate
PSC gets plan that would add 2 reactors to east Georgia site

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Feb 2 - Georgia Power dropped seven huge
notebooks of documents off at the state Public Service Commission this week,
officially kicking off the state's debate over building new nuclear plants
in Georgia.

The company filed its so-called integrated resource plan, which is the
company's prediction of state power demand over the next two decades and its
plans to meet that demand. The company is required to file an IRP every
three years - under a law drafted in response to huge nuclear construction
cost overruns in the 1980s.

The company has been talking about two new nuclear units at its Plant Vogtle
reactor in Waynesboro, near Augusta, for almost two years.

The IRP filing proposes that the company use those proposed plants to meet
demand in 2015, putting the question of whether that approach is good public
policy before the commission for the first time.

The previous version of the IRP had proposed meeting that same demand with
natural gas. That plan was written before Congress made nuclear expansion a
subsidy magnet in 2005. It also predated the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's
approval of a new standardized design for nuclear plants, which made nuclear
construction economically feasible again, the company said.

The IRP process will include a series of hearings and legal arguments,
likely spanning the next five to six months.

And it's already controversial.

In addition to the nuclear proposal itself, the IRP proposes exempting the
company from a current PSC requirement that it take competitive bids when
deciding how to meet new demand for the 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week kind
of power called baseload. Nuclear and coal plants are typically baseload
plants.

The company says it wants that exemption because baseload power plants are
critical to the reliability of the electric system, and should be built by
the home utility and not by a third party.

It means competing companies wouldn't be offering up potentially cheaper
ways to meet that 2015 demand, or any other large chunk of demand that
requires such large plants in the future.

"I think this is positively outrageous," said John Shelk, president of the
Electric Power Supply Association in Washington. EPSA is a trade association
for competitive power generating companies.

Shelk said independent power companies are already looking at building
nuclear plants in other states, without the guarantee that their costs will
be covered by ratepayers. He said Georgia Power's request reflects a wider
national push by monopoly utilities to lock up the new and potentially
lucrative business of building needed power supplies.

Environmental advocates are also bracing for the IRP debate: "We've got more
nuclear problems on our hands already, with the plants Georgia Power
currently has," said Rita Kilpatrick, Georgia policy director of the
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "We think it's too expensive, too risky
and too polluting and it's not the way to go."

The company is also proposing five new energy efficiency programs, which
seek to meet future demand by reducing it. That would be five more than the
company has proposed at any time over the past 13 years.

The programs would reduce demand by about 66 megawatts over two years - or
66 Super Wal-Marts' worth. Georgia Power says the need for new power
generation capacity is growing by 400 to 500 megawatts per year. Industrial
users typically oppose such programs, saying that they invested in energy
efficiency at their plants years ago and don't want to subsidize similar
measures for residential and commercial power users.

The plan also includes three new renewable power generation projects in
which Georgia Power has a stake, and the already announced conversion of
coal-fired Plant McDonough in Cobb County into cleaner gas-fired plants.

But neither the IRP nor related filings this week detailed where Georgia
Power planned to build a massive new natural gas pipeline to feed those
plants. News of that pipeline broke last month, after an East Point resident
spotted surveyors in an existing Georgia Power transmission corridor next to
his house. At the time, Georgia Power said it would include the route in the
filings made this week.

The company says it still hasn't decided on a route and that it would like
to announce one only after going door to door to inform neighbors along that
pipeline's path.
------------

Kansas House postpones debate on nuclear power bill
 
TOPEKA, Kan. The House postponed final action until Monday on a bill
designed to encourage the expansion of the state's only nuclear power plant.

The measure would grant the utilities owning the Wolf Creek plant outside
Burlington an exemption from property taxes for ten years for any new
reactor built within three miles of the plant.

The House gave first-round approval to the bill yesterday on an 86 to 31
vote, something that normally would have set up a final vote today.

But House leaders decided to wait an extra day. While they didn't specify
why, Majority Leader Ray Merrick was absent.

If the bill passes Monday, it will go to the Senate.
----------

Indonesia to push ahead with nuclear plans

JAKARTA (AFP) Feb 3 - Indonesia will pursue its plans to develop nuclear
power as part of efforts to find alternative energy sources to address its
growing needs, Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar has said. 

Jakarta shelved atomic energy plans in 1997 in the face of mounting public
opposition and the discovery and exploitation of the large Natuna gas field.
But the plans were floated again in 2005 amid increasing power shortages.

"We will continue to discuss how to utilise nuclear energy, but this does
not mean that we will develop it right now," the state Antara news agency
quoted Witoelar as saying Saturday.

Indonesia's nuclear plans are part of its policy to develop and diversify
energy resources in Southeast Asia's largest economy.

"But for us, this has not become a priority as the government is conducting
a series of endeavours to develop various other alternative sources," he
said.

Witoelar said Indonesia was also developing other energy sources such as
bio-fuels and wind and geothermal power to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
which are blamed for global warming.

Indonesia had previously said it planned to build its first nuclear power
plant on densely-populated Java island by 2015. The government, however, has
yet to secure investors.

The province of Gorontalo, on Sulawesi island, is considering developing a
floating nuclear power plant using Russian expertise.

TheInternational Atomic Energy Agency has backed Indonesia's plans to build
nuclear plants despite opposition from environmentalists.

Greenpeace says the plan poses a danger to quake-prone Indonesia and its
neighbours.

Indonesia is Southeast Asia's only member of the Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (        OPEC), but its oil output has fallen in recent
years to about one million barrels per day amid flagging investment.
------------

Nuclear firm mixes power and beauty 

MOSCOW (Reuters Life!) - For many, the words Russia and nuclear conjure up
fear and loathing. But Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom sees only
beauty. 

The search for Rosatom's fourth-consecutive Miss Atom has started from among
women working in nuclear energy in the former Soviet Union. Miss Atom 2007
will be crowned in March after a public Internet vote.
The winner will waltz off with a full-length mink fur coat, the
http://miss2007.nuclear.ru official Web site says.
------------

Public will get say on new North Anna nuclear reactors

TIMES-DISPATCH Feb 3 - A federal licensing board will hear from the public
Thursday on Dominion Virginia Power's permit application for additional
nuclear reactor sites at the North Anna Power Station.

 The hearing will be held at the Louisa County High School Auditorium near
Mineral from 6 to 11 p.m.

In the months afterward, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will consider
the alternatives and decide whether a site permit should be issued, denied
or granted with conditions to protect the environment.

Dominion Virginia Power wants a permit, which would allow the utility to set
aside a site for one or two new reactors for up to 20 years. The company
operates two reactors at the plant, which can generate enough electricity to
power 460,500 homes.

If the early site permit is approved, the utility could do site work for
reactors, but before building it would have to obtain construction and
operating licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The schedule calls for the licensing board -- made up of two NRC lawyers and
a technical expert -- to rule on the permit in August and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission to make its decision in December, said NRC spokesman
David McIntyre.

A final safety evaluation and an environmental impact statement for the
permit were issued late last year. The staff concluded that no environmental
issues stand in the way of issuing a site permit.

Harry Ruth, a Lake Anna resident, opposes dumping additional hot water from
the plant into cooling lagoons at the lake. He notes that the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality has asked for studies on the effect of
new reactors on lake aquatic life and water levels.

Last fall, Dominion Virginia Power said it plans to file for a license to
build and operate a third reactor at the plant once it receives the site
permit. In 2010, when it receives that license, the utility will make a
decision on whether to build, said Eugene Grecheck, vice president of
nuclear support services.

At Thursday's hearing, people who are not a party to the permit application
will be given up to five minutes to speak. Comments will be limited to six
issues related to public health and safety and the permit's compliance with
the National Environmental Policy Act.
-----------

Radiation board allows Blanding mill to process Oklahoma waste

Environmentalists call the ruling illegal, say they will try to block the
action in the courts

The Salt Lake Tribune Feb 3 - A Utah uranium mill can begin processing waste
from an Oklahoma metals plant cleanup after a decision Friday by the
Radiation Control Board. 
   The Glen Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club said immediately it would try
to block the ruling in court. 
   "I think this decision is transparently illegal," said Travis Stills, an
attorney representing the Sierra Club. "But, of course, you have to leave
that to a court to decide." 
   Bluff resident Krisanne Bender addressed the board after it decided, 7-3,
to uphold a permit granted last year to the International Uranium Corp. for
its Blanding mill by the state Division of Radiation Control. She said the
panel did not have enough data about current groundwater pollution trends to
be sure the addition of the Oklahoma waste will contaminate the water. 
   "It amazes me how so many intelligent and well-regarded folks, in my
mind, can go forward with this," she said. 
   Members of the committee have been considering the Sierra Club's request
to revoke IUC's latest license amendment for months. Over the past two
Fridays, they took testimony from state regulators, the company and the
Sierra Club. 
   And, while board members generally agreed the waste properly qualified to
go to the mill, they wrestled with a provision that allows the permit only
if there is no "incremental increase" in environmental degradation 
because of the added materials. 
   Board members criticized the amount of data available on groundwater
impacts at the White Mesa mill site, as well as the quality of the data
provided by the company. 
   "The evidence is inconclusive," said board member Peter A. Jenkins, a
University of Utah health physicist. 
   But Michael Zody, an attorney for the company, reminded board members
they were not deciding on the groundwater issues because IUC has a valid
groundwater permit. 
   In the end, board members indicated they did not have enough information
to suggest there would be environmental damage that could justify denying
the permit. They also directed radiation regulators to work closely with the
Division of Water Quality on a groundwater review that is already underway. 
   IUC generally waits until it has all of the material it plans to process
on site before beginning to run it through the mill, and all of the Oklahoma
material is at least a couple of months from being on site, said Company
President Ron Hochstein. 
   That gives the Sierra Club some time to seek a stay in court, if the
group decides to pursue its objections. The group contends the 32,000 tons
of Oklahoma tailings should be regulated as hazardous and radioactive waste.
It contains high concentrations of radium - as much as 85 times the
concentrations federal and state laws allow - and highly toxic contaminants
that including cyanide, lead, cadmium and tin. 
   Stills also called it "immoral [and] unacceptable" to allow possible
further contamination near the site, given its possible impacts on Utah's
poorest county.
------------

Iran shows nuclear plant

ISFAHAN (AFP) - Iran has opened the doors to its uranium conversion plant in
a bid to show its good intentions amid mounting international pressure for a
halt its controversial nuclear programme. 

A delegation of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and Group of 77 representatives
arrived at the facility in the central city of Isfahan together with foreign
and Iranian journalists for a guided tour.

The delegation included the ambassadors to the        International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) of Cuba, Malaysia and Egypt -- representing the NAM --
and Sudan and Bolivia from the Group of 77 as well as the Algerian envoy.

"They have the opportunity to see for themselves what is going on in the
peaceful nuclear activities of Iran and have first-hand experience," said
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

"This is the maximum transparency you can imagine that a country can have,
and shows the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran pays due attention
to public opinion of the international community."

Soltanieh, who guided diplomats and journalists around the site, showed the
IAEA's manitoring cameras installed in the heart of the plant where uranium
hexafluoride (UF6), the feed gas for uranium enrichment is produced.

"Everything is recorded for the IAEA. Each gram of input is measured before
and after going through the process. Everything is measurable by the agency
and we adhere to the guidelines of the agency word for word," he said.

Soltanieh said that Iran had produced "250 tonnes of UF6 in Isfahan".

Raw mined uranium, or "yellowcake", is transferred to the conversion
facility on the edge of Isfahan where it is transformed into uranium
tetrafluoride and then into UF6.

The UF6 is then enriched through cascades of centrifuges to produce fuel for
nuclear reactors. In extended form, the same process can produce the fissile
core of an atomic bomb, the source of US-led concerns over Iran's nuclear
programme.

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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 
Tel: (949) 419-1000 Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1144

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