[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] PSC says Georgia Power can pursue plans for new nuclear reactor

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

PSC says Georgia Power can pursue plans for new nuclear reactor
Westchester suit against federal nuclear regulators gain support
Feds puzzled by gamma radiation higher than normal near wildfire
UKAEA fined £15,000 for radiation exposure incident
Worried well warned over CT scan radiation
British Nuclear power plant closed again 
German firms smuggled nuclear material to Iran: prosecutor 
Nuclear row in Germany; operator could lose licence
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PSC says Georgia Power can pursue plans for new nuclear reactor

ATLANTA  (AP) State utility regulators say Georgia Power can pursue 
plans to build the state's first new nuclear reactors in years, but 
only after the company considers less costly alternatives.

The development is included in a long-term electric energy plan 
adopted unanimously Thursday by the state Public Service Commission.

The go-ahead for nuclear planning, which caps months of debate, is 
part of a settlement among the utility, its biggest customers, the 
PSC staff, the Gov.'s Office of Consumer Affairs and others.

The plan calls Georgia Power's nuclear ambitions "reasonable," to the 
dismay of nuclear opponents. A handful of them picked outside the PSC 
meeting.

In addition to allowing Georgia Power to go ahead with planning two 
1,200-megawatt reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, the plan 
includes new energy-efficiency measures.

The deal also requires the utility to let other companies and energy 
sources _ most likely coal _ compete with the proposed nuclear 
sources for Georgia Power's business.

Georgia Power had wanted permission to proceed not only without state-
mandated competitive bidding but without telling the PSC what the new 
reactors would cost.

The current reactors at Plant Vogtle were initially estimated at less 
than $1 billion and ended up close to $9 billion, part of a wave of 
overruns that all but killed the nuclear industry in the wake of the 
Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

Georgia Power has said it may have cost numbers in November.
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Westchester suit against federal nuclear regulators gains state 
support

WHITE PLAINS Jul 13 - State attorneys general from New York and 
Connecticut weighed in on Indian Point's relicensing yesterday, 
supporting a Westchester lawsuit to force federal regulators to 
evaluate working nuclear plants the same way they do new sites.

"This brief raises serious questions about the (Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission) relicensing process - a process that ignores important 
factors about nuclear power plant safety and is stacked in favor of 
plant operators," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a prepared 
statement.

"Our brief reinforces a position I have long held," Cuomo said. "New 
York needs to work toward an energy future without Indian Point."

Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano yesterday followed through 
on a February promise to take the case to federal court after the NRC 
denied the county's petition to change relicensing criteria.

Spano sought to have the agency look at population density, the 
viability of emergency evacuation plans, potential for terrorism and 
a plant's environmental record.

He said the federal regulations were adopted in 1991 and amended in 
1995, too far removed from today's world.

"We live in a different age since 2001," Spano said. "To be 
responsible, the NRC cannot continue doing things the way they were 
done previously."

Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also supports 
the legal action.

NRC spokesman Diane Screnci declined comment on the matter yesterday, 
saying the agency can't publicly discuss any court case.

Screnci did say that Indian Point's relicensing application, which 
was filed April 30 and normally takes six to eight weeks to be 
accepted, had not yet been approved for processing.

NRC officials said in rejecting Spano's original petition that the 
proposed changes were unwarranted. The agency looks almost 
exclusively at the operation of whatever plant is seeking a 20-year 
license renewal.

Factors such as demographics, siting and the ability to conduct an 
effective emergency evacuation are not part of the relicensing 
application. The agency says it considers those in ongoing reviews.

Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point 2 and 
Indian Point 3 in Buchanan, announced plans the day before 
Thanksgiving to apply for license extensions for both plants. If 
granted, the renewals would allow the plants to operate until 2033 
and 2035, respectively.

The original 40-year licenses for Indian Point 2 will expire in 2013. 
A similar license for Indian Point 3 will expire in 2015.

"The NRC's refusal to require consideration of emergency planning and 
security concerns as part of Indian Point's relicensing review is 
unjustifiable, given the significant changes in population density, 
increase in traffic congestion and increased concerns over terrorism 
in the New York metropolitan area," said Alex Matthiessen, president 
of the environmental group Riverkeeper.

Matthiessen said the attorney general's support was welcome.

Jerry Kremer, chairman of the industry group New York Affordable 
Reliable Electricity Alliance, said the plant was a safe facility 
that was important to the state's economy and air quality.

"In light of our growing demand for and the rising cost of energy, 
Mr. Cuomo's announcement is shortsighted and ignores the energy needs 
of the downstate area," Kremer said. "New York's state officials 
should be looking for ways to create new electric power and not look 
for ways to choke off what we have."

The case is expected to be heard in mid-October.
-----------------

Feds puzzled by gamma radiation higher than normal near wildfire

The Salt Lake Tribune, Jul 13 -  A puzzle has sprung from the flames 
of the Milford Flat Fire: What's pumping radiation into the air? The 
National Nuclear Security Administration said Thursday its radiation 
monitors in the area are showing gamma radiation spikes seven times 
higher than the normal background. But before anyone runs to the 
doctor, it's worth pointing out that even those spikes, if someone 
breathed them for seven hours straight, produce less than one-2,000th 
of the radiation dose a Utahn normally gets in a year. "You're 
talking about a very small dose," said NNSA spokesman Darwin Morgan. 
The agency, which had proposed a massive, non-nuclear explosion 
experiment at the Nevada Test Site last year, monitors the air for 
radiation at 29 monitoring stations in Utah, California and Nevada. 
The agency canceled the so-called Divine Strake test after hearing 
from thousands of Utahns who complained that the explosion would send 
radiation-tainted debris into their air and onto their landscape. "We 
heard loud and clear from the people of Utah they are concerned about 
radiation," said Morgan, explaining his agency's reasons for 
publicizing the radiation-meter findings. Morgan said filters from 
the Milford monitoring station are being analyzed at a laboratory. 
The agency thinks that naturally occurring radon is being released 
from the ground, but only study of the material captured on the air 
filters will tell them for sure. Dane Finerfrock, director of the 
Utah Division of Radiation Control, said the fact that radiation is 
released during combustion is no secret. "There's a radioactivity in 
that forest and brush," he said, "and some of it stays in the ash and 
some of it goes into the atmosphere." Morgan said there is no data 
about the radiation from the Neola North Fire in eastern Utah. The 
agency does not have monitors in that part of the state.
----------------------

UKAEA fined £15,000 for radiation exposure incident

THE UK Atomic Energy Authority has been fined £15,000 following a 
breach of operating procedures at its Dounreay plant which resulted 
in two employees being exposed to radiation.

Imposing the penalty at Wick Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff David 
Sutherland referred to the "serious risk" the pair had been subjected 
to - one of them having received a plutonium dose which would remain 
with him for life.

David Stewart, solicitor for the UKAEA, said the authority had "held 
its hands up" and accepted responsibility for the incident and had 
taken every precaution to ensure it would not happen again.

The UKAEA admitted having contravened the Health and Safety at Work 
Act of 1974 by failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of 
employees at Dounreay in connection with the storage and handling of 
contaminated lead bricks. The charge accused the authority of 
shortcomings in the storage and labelling of the bricks on January 12 
and failing to provide protective equipment to the employees and 
advise them of the potential risk.

The court was told that the incident occurred in the Marshall 
Laboratory, D2670.

The lead bricks were originally kept in a glovebox, which allows 
radioactive material to be manipulated by employees while fully 
protected from the effects of plutonium - described by procurator 
fiscal Alasdair MacDonald as "one of the most toxic of radioactive 
materials".

He went on: "Procedures involving plutonium must be carried out under 
strict systems of working to ensure that employees are adequately 
protected."

Mr MacDonald said there was a regular requirement by the UKAEA to 
renew the bricks or remove contaminated ones.

The bricks involved in the charge were removed from the glovebox in 
the lab in 2004 or 2005. For some reason, it was decided that some of 
them would be reused and they were removed from the glovebox.

However, Mr MacDonald said that, instead of being installed in 
special drums under controlled conditions by experienced staff, the 
bricks were bagged and transferred to a shelf in the decontamination 
facility.

In January 2006 it was decided that the bricks were no longer needed 
and were to be stored.

The fiscal continued: "The two employees in question were instructed 
to remove the bricks and package them for storage in an intermediate 
waste facility. Rather unusually for the Dounreay site, no safety 
assessment or risk assessment was carried out and, as a result, no 
advice or instructions were given to the employees about the 
protection measures necessary for this type of operation.

"As a result, the two workers were exposed to airborne radiation 
contamination from plutonium, albeit at low levels."

It was found that one of the employees had received a plutonium 
intake of 1.7 millisieverts - the maximum permitted dose level is 20 
mSv, although Mr MacDonald pointed out that the ingested plutonium 
would remain with the worker for the rest of his life.

The incident prompted an investigation which identified the bricks 
operation as the likely source.

Solicitor Mr Stewart said that the original intention had been to use 
the bricks in an experiment but it was delayed and they were instead 
stored temporarily in their sealed bags on a shelf in the 
decontamination room. Following the decision to dispose of them, they 
were moved by trolley to the loading bay where they were placed in 
drums.

Mr Stewart continued: "In order to carry out this task, the employees 
would probably have had to bend over the drums, likely to have been 
the point at which the intake may have occurred."

The solicitor said the authority accepted that there had been a gap 
in its procedures and that the employees should have worn 
respirators, the customary practice when the bricks were removed from 
the glovebox in the first place.

Mr Stewart pointed out that the employee with the highest personal 
air-sampler reading had received less than one tenth of the annual 
permitted legal dose for classified workers.

But he added: "Exposure should not have occurred, and clear 
instructions should have been given that respirators were to be 
worn."

As a result of a Health and Safety Executive investigation into the 
incident, improvement notices were issued to the UKAEA and procedures 
were tightened up.

Mr Stewart said: "The authority took immediate action to prevent 
further incidents such as this recurring."

Afterwards, the Dounreay director Simon Middlemas said the incident 
should not have happened but stressed that the UKAEA had worked hard 
to close the gaps in the system.

He added: "It is a salutary lesson that, no matter how safe you think 
you are, you can always do better."

The authority´s director of safety, Dr John Crofts, said: "Our 
procedures have been tightened and a number of behavioural safety 
initiatives have been set in place to ensure that this type of 
incident should never occur again."
----------------

Worried well warned over CT scan radiation

The Scotsman, Jul 13 - GERMANS with no real health problems are 
needlessly taking in heavy doses of radiation because of an alarming 
increase in the use of computerised body scanning. 

Computed tomography or CT scanning, is a common medical imaging 
method that uses X-ray images to create three-dimensional pictures of 
the body. 

It is used to diagnose diseases such as cancer, but doctors are 
increasingly using it for full-body scans to rule out hidden 
problems. 

German environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, called the unnecessary 
use of CT scans an irresponsible practice. 

"CT scans in preventive medicine without any medical indications or 
when no illness is present are nonsense," he said.
------------------

British Nuclear power plant closed again  

BBC News Jul 13 - Oldbury Power Station is to close permanently by 
2008 A nuclear power station has only been open for a total of eight 
days since August, it has been revealed. Oldbury Power Station in 
South Gloucestershire recently closed for an undisclosed reason, 
three days after reopening at the end of June.  

It was also closed at the end of May after a fire at the plant. 

Plant manager Pete Harper said: "Our number one priority is safety. 
We wouldn't run this plant if it wasn't safe to do so." 

He added that the plant would only be brought back on line when it 
was safe to do so. 

Oldbury is due to stop generating electricity at the end of 2008.
-----------------

German firms smuggled nuclear material to Iran: prosecutor 

POTSDAM, Germany (AFP) - German prosecutors on Thursday said they are 
investigating some 50 companies suspected of smuggling technology to 
Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant via Russia.  
 
Berlin-based company Vero is suspected of having smuggled material to 
build the nuclear reactor through Poland to Moscow, from where it was 
taken to Iran, said Christoph Lange from the prosecutor's office in 
Potsdam near Berlin.

He said Vero appeared to have been buying up nuclear technology in 
Germany and elsewhere in Europe since 2000 at the orders of Russia, 
which is constructing Iran's first nuclear power plant in the town of 
Bushehr.

Lange said prosecutors have so far only traced material worth about 
five million euros (6.8 million dollars), but that this appeared to 
be the tip of the iceberg. Up to 150 million euros' worth of material 
may have left Germany for Iran, he estimates.

The companies being probed have claimed that the material was 
destined for Russia but at least a dozen of them must have known that 
Iran was the final destination, Lange said.

Only one of the companies under investigation is seated in the former 
communist East Germany. It is believed to have exported parts for a 
crane meant to be used in the Bushehr reactor to Russia in 2001 and 
2002.

In 2004, a company employee was arrested in the east German state of 
Saxony-Anhalt on suspicion of smuggling technology destined for Iran 
to Russia.

Russia said earlier this month that the Bushehr plant will not be 
completed before 2008.

The project has been hit by a series of delays and financial 
difficulties, which has seen Russia and Moscow accuse each other of 
not living up to their obligations.

Iranian officials have charged that Russia is being half-hearted in 
finishing the project at a time when the United States is calling for 
more sanctions over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, 
which is the central issue in the international standoff over Iran's 
nuclear programme.

Washington accuses Tehran of trying to make nuclear weapons but the 
hardline Islamic state insists it is running a peaceful nuclear 
programme solely aimed at meeting its civilian energy needs.
------------------

Nuclear row in Germany; operator could lose licence

Euro News Jul 13 - After numerous anti-nuclear demonstrations, and 
protests from politicians, the Swedish owners of a nuclear power 
plant in Germany have agreed to let local authorities investigate a 
potentially toxic fire. 

The Kruemmel plant, close to Hamburg, was shut down last month 
following the blaze. 

Then, Vattenfall Europe insisted the fire did not affect the reactor. 
But it has now admitted that is not the case and has agreed to 
divulge the names of the employees involved so they can be 
interviewed. 

The SPD Minister responsible for nuclear safety in the state of 
Schleswig-Holstein, Gitta Trauernicht, said she would force 
improvements. 

"We want to know exactly what happened. It is a question of expert 
knowledge and the qualifications of employees," said Trauernicht. 

German police have now searched the plant's offices. 

The Swedish company risks losing its licence to operate this nuclear 
plant as well as another, also shut down last month because of a 
short circuit. 

A small hole has also been found in the turbine section of the 
Kruemmel plant. There are fears there may be more.

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Sander C. Perle
President
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/