[ RadSafe ] EDF sees closer China nuclear plant cooperation

[Sandy Perle]

Note: Re-sending this since I have not received the original
posting .. possibly a server issue

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/