[ RadSafe ] John W. Simpson, 92, Dies; Pioneer of Nuclear Power

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

John W. Simpson, 92, Dies; Pioneer of Nuclear Power
NRC Chairman pushes for safer plants 
Nuclear Regulatory Workforce Challenged
Public input on nuclear power first: minister 
Germany reconsiders nuclear phase-out
Federal enviro plan includes nuclear
Irish protest Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant
Radiation dose 60 per cent too high
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John W. Simpson, 92, Dies; Pioneer of Nuclear Power

New York Times Jan 17 - John W. Simpson, a former top executive and 
engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation who played a major 
role in developing the nation´s first commercial nuclear power plant 
and its first nuclear-powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, died 
Jan. 4 near his home on Hilton Head Island, S.C. He was 92.  

He died at a hospital of complications of pneumonia, his son Carter 
said.

Mr. Simpson was a close associate of Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, known as 
the father of the nuclear Navy. The two first worked together during 
World War II to build switchboards that could withstand the hard 
impacts faced by naval vessels. Mr. Simpson, already a Westinghouse 
employee, and Admiral Rickover later joined in designing the 
Nautilus. Mr. Simpson was in charge of the design and construction of 
the submarine´s power plant.

In 1951, when Westinghouse received a contract from the federal 
Atomic Energy Commission to build the first atomic electricity-
generating plant, at Shippingport, Pa., Mr. Simpson was named 
manager. In the late 1950s, he organized the company´s astronuclear 
laboratory, which won the federal government´s first contract to 
develop a nuclear reactor for rocket propulsion. It was successfully 
tested, but money was later redirected to the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration´s Gemini program.

Mr. Simpson was president of the Westinghouse Electric Power Systems 
Company, one of four major divisions of Westinghouse, from 1969 to 
1977. In the late ´50s and early ´60s, Westinghouse held about 30 
percent of the nation´s market for power-generating equipment. 
Industry analysts eventually credited Mr. Simpson with turning 
Westinghouse into a close competitor of General Electric in the 
production of nuclear plants, turbines and transformers and the 
distribution of electricity.

When Mr. Simpson was awarded the Edison Medal of the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1971, the citation said he 
had made contributions to electricity generation and naval and space 
propulsion. It continued: "The extent to which he influenced the 
transition from scientific discovery to practical application in all 
three areas is to a substantial degree responsible for the eminence 
of the United States in the atomic energy field today."

John Wistar Simpson was born in Glenn Springs, S.C., on Sept. 25, 
1914, to Richard and Mary Berkeley Simpson. As a young man, he was 
torn between competing passions, his son Carter said - a fascination 
with science and an urge to serve in the military. 

Mr. Simpson joined the Marines in 1933. Just as he was completing 
basic training, his application to attend the United States Naval 
Academy was accepted. He graduated from Annapolis in 1937. But in his 
last year at the academy, Mr. Simpson developed near-sightedness and 
was denied a commission.

Soon after, he went to work as a junior engineer at the Westinghouse 
switchboard division in East Pittsburgh, Pa. There he met Rickover, 
the Navy´s contract officer on the switchboard project. At the same 
time, Mr. Simpson was studying at the University of Pittsburgh for a 
master´s degree in electrical engineering, which he received in 1941.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Simpson tried to enlist in the 
Army. His son recounted that when Rickover found out, he called Mr. 
Simpson into his office and told him he would never let him leave his 
scientific work. He said, "We don´t need more heroes, we need to win 
this war."

In 1946, Westinghouse granted Mr. Simpson a two-year leave to work at 
the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. There, with Rickover 
and a group of engineers and scientists, he helped draft plans for 
the first attempt at applying nuclear energy to the generation of 
electricity.

After returning to Westinghouse in 1949, he was named assistant 
manager of engineering at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in 
Pittsburgh, which the company operated for the Atomic Energy 
Commission. There, in addition to working on the Nautilus with 
Rickover, he helped design propulsion plants for the U.S.S. Long 
Beach and the U.S.S. Enterprise, the nation´s first nuclear surface 
ships, and for the U.S.S. George Washington, the first nuclear 
submarine that carried Polaris missiles.

In addition to Carter, of Great Falls, Va., Mr. Simpson is survived 
by another son, John Jr., of Bridgeville, Pa.; two daughters, 
Patricia Deely of Indianapolis and Barbara Wilkinson of Truckee, 
Calif.; and seven grandchildren. His wife of 56 years, the former 
Esther Slattery, died in 2004.
-----------------

NRC Chairman pushes for safer plants 

WASHINGTON (AP) Jan 16 - Future nuclear power plants should include 
design improvements to better protect against a terrorist attack by 
large aircraft, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
said Tuesday. 

The chairman, Dale Klein, said the commission soon will give guidance 
to reactor manufacturers on "what we believe the reactors should be 
designed to withstand," including the possibility of a terrorist 
crashing a plane into the reactor.  

"It is likely that we will ask the vendors to consider that in a 
different way than we did in the previous plants," said Klein in an 
Associated Press interview in his office at NRC headquarters in 
suburban Rockville, Md.

Klein, who became the commission's chairman last June, said it was 
incorrect to suggest that the NRC will not require design 
improvements to guard against an airborne terrorist attack.

The 103 reactors now in use were designed under regulations that did 
not require consideration of a direct hit by an aircraft. The nuclear 
industry maintains that protection against such an attack is a 
government matter and not one reactor operators should be responsible 
for as part of their security. While the industry says tests show 
current reactors can withstand such a direct hit, others have raised 
doubts.

Klein said the NRC will likely want future reactor designs to take 
such a possibility into account.

"These new plants have the opportunity to reduce the (deterrent) 
actions" that will be required as part of plant operations "by 
increased design requirements," Klein said. "The new reactors in all 
likelihood will be more robust than the existing fleet."

The NRC is gearing up for a rush of applications for new power 
reactors, the first such applications since the 1970s before the 
Three Mile Island nuclear accident.

Klein said four or five firm applications for new reactors are 
expected to be received this year with another eight likely in 2008. 
Most, if not all, of the new reactors are expected to be built on the 
sites of existing nuclear power plants.

In the interview, Klein expressed concern that the NRC won't be able 
to handle the license requests promptly unless Congress increases 
funding. The NRC, like other agencies, has not received a new budget 
and will run $95 million, or 12 percent, short. "It will slow (the 
licensing) down," said Klein, because there won't be money to train 
licensing specialists.

On other matters, Klein:

_Said the NRC is ready and in "a watch-and-see mode" when it comes to 
the proposed nuclear waste dump at        Yucca Mountain in Nevada. 
He noted there have been several "false starts" in the Energy 
Department's push to complete a license application.

_Expressed confidence that reactor waste can continue to be stored at 
nuclear plant sites in water pools and dry-cask storage, which are 
both regulated by the NRC.

_Said that the new, streamlined licensing process for new power 
reactors - now about 42 months - should be shortened even more, at 
least after the initial group of licenses. It can be done "with no 
compromise on safety," he said.

_Expects that Congress will require NRC approval for licenses for 
proposed reprocessing facilities under the Bush administration's 
Global Nuclear Energy Program. "In today's world, it's not likely the 
DOE will self-regulate like it has in the past," Klein said.

He said the NRC is on the fence when it comes to reprocessing nuclear 
fuel, the centerpiece of the Bush administration's vision of an 
expanded nuclear industry.

"As a regulator, we will evaluate whatever proposal comes at us, but 
we are not promoting recycling nor are we discouraging it," Klein 
said.
--------------

Nuclear Regulatory Workforce Challenged

WASHINGTON (AP) Jan 18 -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ability 
to hire enough workers to manage the expected onslaught of new 
nuclear reactor applications will be crippled without increased 
funding, a report by the investigative arm of Congress says. NRC 
Chairman Dale Klein said he, too, was concerned about the agency's 
ability to handle the license requests unless it receives more money 
from Congress. Without a new budget, the agency will be $95 million, 
or 12 percent, short.  

"It will slow (the licensing) down," he said in an interview.

A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday examined 
his agency's workforce challenges.

"The funding and full-time equivalent restrictions ... would have a 
crippling impact on our ability to manage human capital," Klein wrote 
in a response included in the GAO report released Wednesday.

Electric power companies, including Southern Co., Entergy Corp., 
Constellation Energy Group Inc., Exelon Corp., Dominion Resources 
Inc. and Duke Energy Corp., intend to apply for 20 licenses to build 
and operate at least 29 new nuclear power reactors in fiscal years 
2008 and 2009 with project costs between $1.5 billion and $4 billion, 
according to the GAO report.

French state-owned nuclear power company Areva, through its UniStar 
Nuclear joint venture with Constellation, is competing with General 
Electric Co., Westinghouse -- now owned by Toshiba Corp. -- and 
others to develop the new reactors.

To deal with the application demands and its other duties, NRC 
projects that its workforce will need to grow from about 3,100 
employees in early fiscal 2006 to nearly 4,000 workers by 2010, which 
will require between 300 and 400 new hires annually during that time, 
according to the report.

NRC exceeded its fiscal year 2006 hiring target by hiring 371 new 
employees, but sustaining that performance could be difficult because 
the agency has not completed its hiring and training enhancement 
plans, the GAO said.

Reviewing the applications and conducting its other work could hinder 
NRC's ability to ensure a safe and secure nuclear power industry. 
Substantial delays in the application process also could hurt 
investor confidence, decrease the cost effectiveness of nuclear 
energy, and possibly reduce the amount of electricity available in 
the U.S., the report concluded.

GAO recommended the NRC complete an overall workforce plan and 
provide appropriate resources to implement its knowledge management 
and training efforts.

There are currently 103 nuclear plants operating in the United 
States, producing about 20 percent of the nation's electricity, and 
the new applications will be the first since the 1970s before the 
Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.
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Blair accused of nuclear waste 'cover-up' 

Scientists claim committee's conclusions were manipulated for 
political gain, reports Colin Brown 

The Independent Jan 19 - Two scientists who sat on a nuclear waste 
committee have alleged that chaotic organistaion drove the committee 
to approve an option for deep storage of high-level nuclear waste.   

Labour MPs have responded to their allegations by saying there had 
been a " cover-up". 

The scientists, Professor David Ball and Dr Keith Baverstock, left 
the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) in April and 
May. David Miliband, the Secretary of State for the Environment, 
subsequently informed Labour MPs that Professor Ball had left for 
"personal reasons", an assertion dismissed by the professor as 
"misleading". 

Professor Ball and Dr Baverstock accused Tony Blair of "manipulating" 
the committee's decision for "political ends". They believe its 
recommendation for deep storage of high-level waste was used to push 
through the Cabinet the decision to go ahead with a new generation of 
nuclear power stations. 

But they warn that CoRWM's prolonged failure to identify which sites 
can safely take the waste will cause delays that could open Britain 
to a terrorist attack on its nuclear stockpiles, which are held on 
the surface at the Sellafield site in Cumbria. 

"Science has been manipulated for political ends," said Dr 
Baverstock. "The time wasted has resulted in continued and 
unnecessary exposure of the public to the ongoing risk of temporarily 
stored nuclear waste, surely a legitimate public concern in this age 
of terrorism," said the scientists. 

Dr Baverstock is a former senior radiation adviser with 12 years' 
experience at the World Health Organisation, but was sacked from the 
committee. He is now head of environmental science at the University 
of Kuopio, Finland. 

Mr Miliband, in a letter to the Labour MP Alan Simpson, rejected 
their criticism, saying the committee had taken the "best available 
existing scientific knowledge" into account. He added: "I believe it 
is possible to conclude that the scientific basis for CoRWM's work 
has been sound." 

Professor Ball said he had given Mr Miliband substantial reasons for 
his resignation from the committee, none of which could remotely be 
described as a "personal reason". He said: "I believed CoRWM to be 
treading dangerously close to the line and it was overall such an 
appalling experience that I concluded... that the only option was to 
resign." He added: "Defra's continuing strategy of total denial and 
what looks like the attempted rewriting of history is only 
compounding the problem." 

The two scientists added that they were unaware that four of the 
CoRWM's 12 members worked for the committee's largest suppliers until 
it was revealed by The Independent on Sunday on 8 May 2005. The 
committee included a paid consultant for NNC, which won the £1m 
contract to project-manage CoRWM's work; an associate consultant for 
Enviros Consulting, which had a contract worth £50,000 to £100,000 
from the committee; and an associate of the IDM consultancy, which 
conducted £10,000 to £50,000-worth of contract work for the 
committee. Mr Simpson, who organised a private Commons meeting with 
Labour MPs to hear the scientists' criticism, said: "This blows apart 
the recommendations for deep storage of nuclear waste. 

The taxpayer faces an £85bn bill for disposing of the last generation 
of nuclear waste. We now know that no one has a clue how to do this 
safely. This is no time for a cover-up." He added: "Blair has been 
allowed to ride the country into another nuclear nightmare before he 
goes. Someone has to call a halt, and if Brown isn't up to it, he 
isn't up to the succession." 

The Prime Minister signalled his determination on Tuesday to take the 
next step towards the nuclear power programme before he steps down 
from office. He announced that new licensing conditions for nuclear 
power stations would be published next month. 

But a former Labour minister joined MPs in calling on Mr Blair to 
stop the development of nuclear power stations until he answers the 
concerns raised by the scientists. A former environment minister, 
Michael Meacher, said their views had to be considered by the 
Government rather than being " rubbished". 

"I think it's very dangerous when reputable scientists have their 
views not fully taken into account and answered," said Mr Meacher. 
"It is incredibly irresponsible to go for a further round of nuclear 
power-station building when we still have not got a safe way of 
storing the huge volume of nuclear waste already produced." 

Where the waste goes 

* Higher activity radioactive waste is stored at facilities around 
the UK 

* The amount is estimated at 80,000 cubic metres about the size of 
Albert Hall. It weighs about 100,000 tons 

* Even if the Government decides not to build any more reactors, 
waste will increase by nearly sixfold to 477,860 cubic metres over 
the next century 

* The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management was asked to look at 
all the options for higher activity waste and find a long-term 
solution 

* It is expected to take 40 years to build a deep repository so, in 
the interim, it says the waste should be stored at surface sites as 
close as possible to nuclear facilities 

* The most likely candidate is Sellafield.
------------------

Public input on nuclear power first: minister 

CALGARY (CBC) Jan 18 - Albertans don't share federal Natural 
Resources Minister Gary Lunn's "enthusiasm" for using nuclear energy 
in oilsands extraction, a provincial cabinet minister says.  
 
"I don't know that Albertans share his enthusiasm," Environment 
Minister Rob Renner said. "That's why I would suggest that before we 
go down that route, there would need to be some fairly broad-based 
public consultation."

On Wednesday, Lunn told reporters he favours using nuclear energy to 
extract petroleum from the oilsands in Alberta.

"There's great promise in the oilsands for nuclear energy," he said.

"Nuclear energy is emission-free. There's no greenhouse gases. We 
burn a lot of natural gas to extract that oil from the sands right 
now. There's great opportunity to pursue nuclear energy, something 
that I'm very keen on."

Nuclear would be considered: industry

Two serious oilsands players - Husky Energy Inc. and Total SA of 
France - are publicly mulling over the nuclear option.

But the Alberta government is not working on any proposals for 
nuclear power plants in the province, provincial Energy Minister Mel 
Knight said Wednesday.

Renner said he is not opposed to nuclear power, but other sources of 
energy may be preferable.

It's too early to say if nuclear power will ever come to the 
oilsands, said Pierre Alvarez, head of the Canadian Association of 
Petroleum Producers.

"If a proposal can be brought forward that meets the timelines 
associated with oilsands development and the cost requirements, it 
would be considered," he said.

Alvarez said any nuclear project would have to make economic sense - 
in other words, it would have to be proven to be cheaper than using 
natural gas to extract the oil.
---------------

Germany reconsiders nuclear phase-out

Edie News Center Jan 19 - Germany is reconsidering its decision to 
abandon nuclear power after a temporary cut-off from Russian oil 
brought out its dependence on foreign fuel imports.  

The country decided to phase out nuclear power completely back in 
2001, but the country's politicians are now having second thoughts as 
energy prices rise, dependence on oil and gas from unreliable Russia 
grows and climate change increasingly becomes an issue. 

Russia cut off oil supplies to a number of European countries when it 
closed off the Druzhba pipeline for three days last week in order to 
force Belarus to accept an oil price increase. 

After doubts about the phase-out expressed by some members of 
Germany's ruling Social Democrats party, Chancellor Angela Merkel 
recently assured them and the public that she was "faithful to the 
contract" that foresees a complete nuclear phase-out. But the 
economics minister Michael Glos and environment minister Sigmar 
Gabriel remain in opposition on whether the country's future energy 
mix should include nuclear. 

The economics ministry has said in a recent discussion paper that the 
EU's climate-focussed energy policy is "not compatible with the 
continued phasing out of nuclear energy, given current energy 
predictions, which are seen as realistic." 

Phasing out Germany's 19 nuclear power plants to be replaced by gas 
or coal would significantly boost CO2 emissions, the economics 
ministry said. 

The environment ministry argues that Germany's greenhouse gas 
emission cuts can be achieved without the help of nuclear power, as 
renewables take a stronger role in the energy mix and energy 
efficiency improves. 

The share of renewables in energy production should go up from 4.5% 
today to 15.7% by 2020, the environment ministry calculates.
---------------

Federal enviro plan includes nuclear

Fort McMurray Today - Jan 18 - The Conservative government launched 
its green rebranding effort Wednesday with a controversial boost for 
nuclear power. In the first big announcement since Rona Ambrose was 
shuffled from the environment portfolio two weeks ago, Natural 
Resources Minister Gary Lunn promised $230 million over four years 
for research into clean energy. But he gave no specifics on how the 
money will be spent -- "it hasn´t been allocated yet" -- leading to 
criticism that the government is making more vague promises like 
those that scuppered Ambrose. The government is trying to restore 
credibility on the environment, which has emerged as a top issue for 
voters, and an election could come soon. Lunn said one target area 
for the research money is "next-generation nuclear. "Nuclear energy 
is emission-free, there´s no greenhouse gases, there´s no pollutants 
going out (with) the energy," he told a news conference. "There´s a 
great opportunity to pursue nuclear energy, something I am very keen 
on." Although it is often touted as an alternative to fossil fuels 
because it doesn´t directly produce greenhouse emissions, nuclear 
power is still panned by most environmentalists. "The range of 
problems associated with nuclear power is such that this is in no way 
a solution to the greenhouse gas problems," Matthew Bramley, director 
of climate change with the Pembina Institute, told Today in a 
telephone interview from Ottawa.  

"The generation of large amounts of radiation and hazardous wastes 
impact on surface and ground water quality and when you consider the 
security, the cost, this is in no way a good idea for cleaning up the 
oilsands sector," he said. Emilie Moorhouse of the Sierra Club of 
Canada said there´s no storage system that can keep nuclear waste 
isolated because it remains active for millions of years . Lunn 
suggested nuclear energy could be an ideal source of power for the 
massive oilsands project in Alberta. But Moorhouse said that would be 
problematic because nuclear plants need water for cooling, and high 
demand for water is already one of the biggest problems in Alberta. 
The new research program, dubbed the ecoEnergy Technology Initiative, 
is similar to a Liberal research program now terminated, although 
annual funding will rise somewhat. But the "overwhelming priority" 
Bramley said is to actually reduce emissions now and not for more 
research and development on technology. "For the oilsands, carbon 
capture is the obvious technology. We know that carbon capture 
technology is already available at a cost of somewhere in the 
neighbourhood of $30 per tonne of carbon dioxide," the climate change 
watch director said. "It´s in the oilsands industry´s own economic 
interest to deploy carbon capture technology on a large scale -- 
because its cost is modest," he said. The $30 per tonne cost to use 
carbon capture works out to be an additional $2 per barrel of 
produced oil and would eliminate 100 per cent of carbon dioxide. Lunn 
promised that the government will soon announce short-term emissions-
cutting targets for industry. Nor would he give his view on whether 
the government should stop generous tax breaks for the petroleum 
industry, saying that´s a matter for Finance Minister John Flaherty. 
Environment Minister John Baird, who also attended Wednesday´s news 
conference, offered no defence for the tax breaks for the oilsands, 
saying he did not know why they were introduced. Lunn is expected to 
make news with further clean energy announcements this week in 
Victoria and Toronto. Lunn got a cautious thumbs-up from Pierre 
Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum 
Producers, who said improved technology is the only way to improve 
the situation. But Alvarez warned that change will take time and a 
lot more money than Ottawa is willing to allocate. "There are no 
silver bullet solutions right now. We´re going to need more. But 
what´s encouraging to us is that we´re now having the debate on 
energy technologies that for the last 20 years nobody has wanted to 
talk about."  
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Entire Irish Nation Gathers On Beach To Futilely Shake Fists At 
Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant

(DUBLIN) Shitegist Jan 12 - The entire population of the Republic of 
Ireland are due to gather on Dollymount Strand, Clontarf this coming 
weekend to join in the world's largest instance of impotent fist-
shaking at a neighbouring nuclear polluter. 'We're gonna tell them 
British bastards what's feckin' what so we feckin are' said a random 
drunk who crawled out from under a nearby rock.  

Campaign manager Gubnait O'Toss says that the demonstration will send 
a powerful message to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and British 
Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) that the Irish people are serious about the 
issues of nuclear waste disposal in the Irish Sea and that they are 
prepared to take serious measures to make their case heard.

Irish Government ministers were quick to lend support to the 
campaign, with Minister for the Environment, Dodgy Roach, claiming 
that the Irish Government has been pursuing a 'vigorous campaign' 
against the nefarious Albionites and their radioactive goo-dumping. 
'No more' fumed Roach, 'will the Irish sea be the cess-pool where 
England dumps it's radioactive gysm. For too long the island of 
Ireland have been the continental wank-rag of the British Empire'.

Government spokesmen, speaking under terms of strict anonymity, 
indicated that the government is willing to consider further radical 
action to make itself and the Irish people heard. Amognst some of the 
more startling suggestions mooted are a mass staring session, 
formation frowning, synchronised, county-by-county grumbling and a 
nation-wide simoultaneous foot-stamping.
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Radiation dose 60 per cent too high

Telegraph UK Jan 19 - Lisa Norris is just one of the many patients 
who have died after being given the wrong treatment.  

The teenager had 19 radiotherapy sessions at the Beatson Oncology 
Centre in Glasgow to treat a brain tumour.

But after she was given the all clear, consultants told the 16-year-
old she had mistakenly been exposed to radiation levels 60 per cent 
higher than prescribed.

advertisementLisa, above, from Girvan, Ayrshire, was left covered in 
painful burns and blisters from the radiation overdose and died 
months later.

An inquiry revealed that the medic who planned Lisa's treatment was a 
trainee with limited experience, and that senior staff failed to 
monitor him correctly.

Lisa's father Ken said after the report into his daughter's death: 
"It is very hard for us to take in all the errors that took place.

It is also hard to believe so many things could go wrong with 
someone's treatment in an NHS hospital.

"It is frightening to think staff who were not properly trained were 
able to work with radiation. "
 
----------------------------------------------------------------
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/