[ RadSafe ] EDF sees closer China nuclear plant cooperation

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

EDF sees closer China nuclear plant cooperation
Japanese nuclear power steams ahead
Hacker leaves explosions on nuclear Web site
Panel Clears Nuclear Engineer
Abe renews Japan's resolve not to go nuclear
Radiation Pills Expire Soon
Fernald radiation data to get review
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EDF sees closer China nuclear plant cooperation

PARIS, Feb 9 (Reuters) - EDF said on Friday it planned to hold 
technical meetings on nuclear plants with Chinese partner CGNPC in 
coming weeks and predicted closer cooperation between the two in the 
next few months. 

"The long-term cooperation with CGNPC should reach a new stage in the 
months to come. Several technical meetings are planned in the next 
few weeks," a spokeswoman at EDF said. 

The comments coincide with a visit by EDF Chief Executive Pierre 
Gadonneix to China on Friday, and follow reports that EDF and French 
state-owned company Areva may be close to winning contracts to build 
two EPR reactors in China. 

The spokeswoman said the meeting had been "very constructive". 

Sources close to the situation said that Areva would build the plants 
and EDF would provide engineering support. 

EDF, the world's largest single producer of nuclear power, said last 
week that Gadonneix would go to China next Friday to discuss the 
construction of the advanced nuclear power plants with China 
Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC). 

The newspaper Le Figaro said recently Areva had signed a preliminary 
deal to supply the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) plants to CGNPC 
after losing a multi-billion-dollar contract in December for 4 EPR 
plants in China to Westinghouse Electric, a unit of Toshiba . 

China, the world's second-largest energy consumer, is working fast to 
make up for its weakness in the nuclear sector, which generates about 
2.3 percent of its electricity compared with three-quarters in France 
or more than a quarter in Japan. 

Beijing plans to spend some 400 billion yuan ($51.63 billion) on 
building around 30 new nuclear reactors by 2020, lifting the share to 
4 percent and raising its installed nuclear capacity to 40 gigawatts -
- nearly enough to power Spain. 

It currently has only nine working reactors.
-------------------

Japanese nuclear power steams ahead

TOKYO (Asian Times) Feb 9 - Japan's New National Energy Strategy 
calling for increased use of nuclear power to generate electricity 
and, more controversially, the need to extract plutonium from spent 
nuclear fuel for future use to power reactors has run into trouble 
because of repeated accidents and mishaps at various plants. 

So it was considered something of a victory for nuclear power 
generation when the Mihama-3 reactor in Fukui prefecture in western 
Japan resumed full-scale commercial operation on Wednesday, two and a 
half years after it was shut down in the wake of the nation's 
deadliest accident at a nuclear power plant. 

The 826-megawatt pressurized-water reactor, owned by the Kansai 
Electric Power Co (KEPCO), was shut down in August 2004 after a steam 
pipe on the non-radioactive side of the plant ruptured, scalding 11 
workers, five of whom died. 

After full-scale commercial operations were resumed at the reactor, 
KEPCO president Shosuke Mori posted a statement on the company 
website offering "heartfelt apologies" again to the victims of the 
accident and their families. He vowed never to let a similar accident 
happen again, saying, "Safeguarding safety is my own and my company's 
mission." 

KEPCO has 11 nuclear reactors, all of them in Fukui prefecture. It is 
dependent on nuclear power for about 60% of its electricity 
generation, the highest percentage among Japanese utilities. With the 
full resumption of operations at the Mihama-3, the capacity 
utilization rate of KEPCO's reactors for the current fiscal year 
ending March 31 will go up 1.8 percentage points to 77%. 

The accident was a prime example of why many Japanese harbor 
reservations about the management of the country's extensive network 
of nuclear power plants. The ruptured pipe had not been inspected 
even once in the 28 years since the reactor was first put into 
operation in 1976. The pipe had corroded from its original thickness 
of 10 millimeters to 0.4mm, far below the national standard of 4.7mm. 

In addition to replacing the ruptured carbon-steel pipe with one made 
of more corrosion-resistant stainless steel, KEPCO took measures to 
prevent a recurrence, including strengthening management of the 
secondary cooling-water system and relocating the headquarters of its 
nuclear-plant business from Osaka to Mihama, a town of about 11,400 
people. 

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, affiliated with the 
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), approved the 
utility's safety measures last March. Two months later, the Fukui 
prefectural government and the Mihama town office gave their official 
go-aheads for the utility to resume operations. KEPCO confirmed the 
safety of the pipes at the reactor during a test run in September and 
October. 

Some of the families of the accident victims opposed the restart, 
saying it was too early. But KEPCO president Mori visited the 
families of the five victims at the end of last year to explain the 
necessity of resuming commercial operations. After the meeting, KEPCO 
felt it had obtained the consent of the bereaved families to resume 
operations, the firm said. 

Fukui prefectural police are still investigating the accident for 
possible charges of professional negligence resulting in bodily 
injury and death. Investigators are looking into whether employees 
and others knew the pipe could rupture and, if so, who was 
responsible for their management and supervising duties. 

A tarnished reputation
The Mihama-3 accident isn't the only incident that has tarnished the 
reputation of Japan's nuclear-power industry, which is the world's 
third-largest in terms of the number of plants in operation. Japan's 
largest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), recently admitted 
that it falsified data at its nuclear plants for three decades in an 
attempt to pass compulsory government inspections easily. TEPCO said 
it had discovered falsifications of technical data on nearly 200 
occasions from 1977 to 2002 at three nuclear plants and reported them 
as requested. 

In December, METI ordered the company to review past data after the 
company's discovery that cooling-water data had been falsified at the 
Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture in the late 
1980s. The company also faked test operations at its Kashiwazaki-
Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture in 1992, when an emergency 
core cooling-system pump failed during a government inspection. 

TEPCO came under fire after another safety-data cover-up scandal in 
2002, stirring public distrust of Japan's nuclear industry and 
forcing the then chairman and the president of the company to resign 
to take responsibility. 

Another key to the future of the nation's nuclear-energy program is 
the fast-breeder reactor (FBR), which produces more fissile material 
than it consumes. But the prototype FBR Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui 
prefecture, has remained shut down since the liquefied sodium used to 
cool the reactor core leaked and burned

in December 1995. The operator, then known as the Power Reactor and 
Nuclear Fuel Development (Donen), tried to cover up the extent of the 
accident. 

It remains uncertain when Monju will resume full operations, although 
its current operator, the semi-governmental Japan Atomic Energy 
Agency, has been preparing Monju with an eye toward resuming full 
operations next year. 

The Mihama-3 accident temporarily halted the utility's plans to
participate in Japan's "pluthermal" program, the next phase of the 
country's nuclear-power development. It involves the use of mixed 
uranium and plutonium ("mixed oxide" or MOX) fuel in civilian power-
generating plants. ("Plutherma" refers to plutonium and "thermal", ie 
light-water reactors.) 

KEPCO froze the pluthermal program at its Takahama nuclear power 
plant, but Mori has said, "We would like to reconsider it in a 
concrete manner after the safety operations of the Mihama-3 reactor 
are confirmed." The program got the nod from the prefectural 
government in March 2004, but was put on ice because of the accident 
that August. 

Japan imports almost all of its oil and is also the world's largest 
importer of liquefied natural gas, so the government attaches great 
importance to nuclear-power promotion as a key to ensuring national 
energy security. Its New National Energy Strategy, adopted last May, 
calls for, among other things, raising the percentage of nuclear 
power in the total national electricity supply from the current 30% 
to 40% or more by 2030. 

The New National Energy Strategy also calls for establishing a closed 
nuclear-fuel cycle. That means the spent fuel is reprocessed to 
remove usable fissile material, which is then fabricated into mixed-
oxide fuels and placed back in reactor to produce more electricity. 

This new phase in Japan's nuclear program began last March when a 
nuclear-fuel-reprocessing plant run by Japan Nuclear Fuel in the 
Aomori prefecture village of Rokkasho in northern Japan started test 
operations to extract plutonium for the pluthermal power-generation 
project. The Rokkasho plant is scheduled to come into commercial 
operation this summer. 

Government officials say the recycling of uranium resources via the 
nuclear-fuel-cycle program will contribute to the stability of energy 
supplies. According to plans prepared by 11 Japanese power companies, 
as much as 6.5 tons of plutonium will be burned annually at nuclear 
plants after the pluthermal power-generation project gets under way. 

The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan plans to get 
pluthermal power generation under way at 16-18 power plants by the 
end of fiscal 2010. The companies have said they plan first to use 
plutonium produced overseas, such as in Britain and France, at the 
pluthermal plants and start burning domestically produced plutonium 
in 2012 or later. 

But it remains to be seen whether Japanese power companies, facing a 
serious loss of public confidence in nuclear-plant safety in the wake 
of a spate of accidents, will be able to carry out their plans. 
According to one opinion poll, a majority of Japanese support the 
promotion of nuclear power generation while remaining concerned about 
safety at nuclear plants. 

The Japanese government has approved several pluthermal programs. But 
so far only two of them, in addition to KEPCO, have managed to get 
the green light from local governments. Shikoku Electric Power Co won 
the approval of the Ehime prefectural government last October to 
generate electricity using MOX fuel at the Ikata-3 nuclear plant. In 
March, Kyushu Electric Power Co received local-government approval 
for a pluthermal program, in its case for the Genkai-3 reactor in 
Saga prefecture. 

Meanwhile, Japan is revving up its drive to secure uranium abroad as 
global demand for nuclear power rises amid high oil and gas prices 
and growing environmental concerns. Major Japanese trading and energy 
firms are looking at multibillion-yen investments in uranium mine 
projects, while electronics conglomerate Toshiba Corp purchased 
Westinghouse, the US power-plant arm of British Nuclear Fuels, for 
about US$5.4 billion last February. 

In anticipation of further growing demand for uranium, Sumitomo Corp 
and KEPCO invested in APPAK LLP, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan's state-
run nuclear power company, Kazatomprom, in January last year to 
develop the West Mynkuduk mine. Sumitomo and KEPCO acquired stakes in 
APPAK LLP of 25% and 10%, respectively. 

Uranium prices are climbing as energy-hungry China and India are 
stepping up construction of nuclear plants to power their high-flying 
economies, while some industrialized countries, including the US and 
Britain, are also thinking about building new plants after suspending 
construction after nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island near 
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the US in 1979 and Chernobyl, Ukraine, 
in 1986. 

Nuclear-power generation has begun to come under the spotlight again 
because of growing environmental concerns as well as high prices for 
oil and gas. Nuclear power plants generate no carbon dioxide, the 
primary greenhouse gas widely blamed for global warming. Renewable 
energy sources such as wind and solar power are not available in 
sufficient amounts - or at affordable prices.
---------------------

Hacker leaves explosions on nuclear Web site

OTTAWA (Reuters) Feb 9 - Red-faced officials at Canada's nuclear 
safety watchdog on Thursday said they were probing how a hacker had 
managed to litter its official Web site with dozens of color 
photographs of a nuclear explosion. 
 
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper said every media release on the Canadian 
Nuclear Safety Commission's Web site had been labeled as a security 
breach on Wednesday. When opened, each document had a headline 
reading "For immediate release" and underneath was a large photo of 
an exploding atomic bomb.

"We are in discussions with the (Internet service) provider. When we 
were informed the Web site had been tampered with, we immediately 
disabled the media module," said commission spokesman Aurel Gervais, 
dismissing the suggestion that the hacker had been able to access 
secret information.

"The external Web site was the only Web site that was tampered with. 
There was no internal information that was compromised," he said.

The media site at http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/media/ was 
working normally on Thursday.

The Citizen -- which published a color photograph of one of the 
tampered pages -- said the hacker had left a message saying "Please 
dont (sic) put me in jail ... oops, I divided by zero."
----------------

Panel Clears Nuclear Engineer

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Feb. 8 -- A panel has rejected allegations that 
a Purdue University nuclear engineer interfered with efforts to 
verify his claims of producing "tabletop fusion."

The internal university committee investigating the work of professor 
Rusi Taleyarkhan determined that the evidence does not support 
allegations of research misconduct and that no further investigation 
is needed, Purdue said Wednesday.
      
The university's vice president for research, Charles O. Rutledge, 
appointed the committee last March after the British research journal 
Nature reported that researchers had raised questions about 
Taleyarkhan's work.

Taleyarkhan led a team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee 
that reported in March 2002 in the journal Science that they had 
achieved nuclear fusion by collapsing bubbles in a solvent with 
powerful ultrasound vibrations.

Their simple experiment stood in contrast to experimental fusion 
reactors that have to date required large, multibillion-dollar 
machines.

Since the 2002 report, however, scientists working in other 
laboratories have been unable to reproduce those findings.

"Taleyarkhan is engaged in very promising, significant research, and 
we hope he will now be able to give his full attention to this 
important work," Purdue spokesman Joseph L. Bennett said in a 
statement.

Taleyarkhan said in an e-mail that he and his colleagues were 
unfairly accused. "The inquiry offers vindication for what we've 
stood for and have stated all along about the science, our research, 
and the integrity with which we conduct, report and stand by our 
results and findings -- despite the intense attacks from detractors," 
he said.
-----------------

Abe renews Japan's resolve not to go nuclear

(Kyodo) Feb 9  - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday 
reiterated that Japan will not go nuclear, saying nuclear armament 
for Japan is "unthinkable" and vowing efforts to promote nuclear 
disarmament. 

Speaking before the House of Representatives Budget Committee, Abe 
showed eagerness to establish legislation that would allow the 
deployment of Japanese Self-Defense Forces on overseas missions at 
any time, without the need to create special laws for every occasion.

"Arming (Japan) with nuclear weapons is unthinkable," Abe said. "As 
the world's only nation to have suffered from an atomic bomb, (Japan) 
has the obligation to promote nuclear disarmament." 

The remarks came as Japan is taking part in the second day of six-
nation talks in Beijing aimed at persuading North Korea to abolish 
its nuclear arms and development programs. 

Since 1967, Japan has upheld the principles of not possessing, not 
producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons, in 
line with the nation's pacifist postwar Constitution. 

But there have been growing concerns that Japan, a close ally of the 
United States, may decide to go nuclear in the face of North Korea's 
missile and nuclear threats, and amid fading memories of the 
annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by U.S. atomic bombs in 1945.
 
Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of Abe's 
ruling Liberal Democratic Party, stirred controversy last year when 
they spoke of the need for a discussion on the possibility of Japan 
shifting course to a nuclear weapons option. 

As for the permanent legislation for SDF overseas deployment, Abe 
said, "In order (for Japan) to make further contributions toward the 
peace and stability of the world, I hope to deepen public discussion 
and consider" creating such a law. 

Due to restrictions under the pacifist Constitution that renounces 
the threat or use of force as means of settling international 
disputes, Japan has established special laws for individual 
circumstances of deployment, such as its dispatch of troops to 
support the reconstruction of Iraq after the U.S. invasion. 

Abe made the remarks at the committee during the first day of full-
fledged deliberations on the budget for the next fiscal year starting 
April 1. 

The deliberations will continue Tuesday with heavyweight opposition 
politicians -- Naoto Kan of the main opposition Democratic Party of 
Japan and Shizuka Kamei of the People's New Party -- scheduled to 
question Abe and his Cabinet.
----------------

Radiation Pills Expire Soon

Chalonda Roberts (Rochester, N.Y.) -- Pills given to thousands of 
people who live near the Ginna Nuclear Power Plant will expire next 
month. 

The medication--potassium iodide--are intended to protect area 
residents in the event of an accident or terror attack that might 
lead to a radiation leak. 

Linda Naab knew exactly where she stored her potassium iodide pills 
that her family got four years. 
 
"I work at Wegmans on Holt Road," she said. "They were distributed at 
the pharmacy."

"I wish they hadn't waited to the last minute," Naab said. 

She's lived in Ontario for nearly 20 years and said she feels a 
little safer having the pills on hand just in case. So, she wasn't so 
happy to learn her pills expire in March.

"That's not good," she said. 

Thelma Wideman, director of Emergency Management in Wayne County, 
said, "They expire in March and you can go to the end of March. They 
have a good shelf life; from time to time they've even been given an 
extension." 

Emergency management offices in both Wayne and Monroe counties are 
waiting for shipment from the nuclear regulatory commission. They 
anticipate delivery by the end of the month. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered one million doses for 
seven counties including Wayne. Right now the plan is to send 
supplies to predetermined pick-up center.

This time, potassium iodide will be available in a liquid which can 
be used for people of all ages. Separate pills for children and 
adults will also be available. 
-----------------

Fernald radiation data to get review
Worker's daughter's petition may expand benefits eligibility
 
MASON (Cincinnati Enquirer) Feb 9 -  Sandra Baldridge's fight just 
entered Round 2. federal advisory board panel voted Thursday to get a 
second opinion from an independent consulting firm on the petition 
the Monroe woman filed seeking special compensation for thousands of 
people who used to work at the Fernald uranium foundry.

The board's vote came after health physicists with the National 
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommended rejecting the 
petition.

Baldridge, whose father worked at Fernald before dying of cancer, 
wants former Fernald workers who developed cancers that might be 
related to radiation declared a "special exposure cohort."

The designation would mean there isn't enough evidence for NIOSH 
scientists to perform so-called dose reconstructions, or calculations 
showing how much radiation workers were exposed to.

NIOSH uses the calculations to determine whether former energy 
workers' cancers were likely caused by the radiation they were 
exposed to at Fernald or other nuclear sites.

If the calculations show radiation exposures probably caused cancer, 
workers or their survivors are eligible for federal compensation.

NIOSH said Thursday it had plenty of data to run the numbers on the 
people who worked at the Crosby Township foundry.

But Baldridge disagreed, arguing federal scientists can't determine 
radiation exposure at Fernald "with sufficient accuracy."

Some of the data NIOSH bases its calculations on are from other 
nuclear sites, she said. Some are based on inaccurate, and sometimes 
falsified, information from National Lead of Ohio, the company that 
managed Fernald on the Department of Energy's behalf.

And none of NIOSH's calculations figure in the thorium Fernald 
workers were exposed to, she said.

Thorium is a radioactive metal mixed with steel and other metals to 
make very hard, lightweight and heat-resistant castings.

With the advisory board's vote, Sanford, Cohen and Associates, a 
Virginia consulting firm that has contracted with the board, will 
review Baldridge's petition, NIOSH's calculations and other 
information from the U.S. Department of Energy and other sources.

After that, consultants will make a recommendation to the advisory 
board on whether to approve the petition, said John Mauro, a senior 
vice president with the company.

The company has reviewed several such petitions, Mauro said, and 
questions are always raised about the accuracy of the information 
used to determine workers' radiation exposure.

"It was all collected so many years ago, and the scientific know-how 
has changed so much over the years," he said.

Baldridge said Thursday that she's happy with the board's action.

"That's what they needed to do. If they had voted today, it would 
have been to agree with NIOSH's recommendation against our petition," 
she said.
---------------


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

E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at cox.net 

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