MOX fuel for TEPCO's Niigata plant gets green light

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



MOX fuel for TEPCO's Niigata plant gets green light

Chao To Handle Nuclear Benefits

Italy Turns Off US Navy Radio Masts Amid Emissions Concern

Exelon Faces Strike Vote by Union for 8,000 Illinois Workers

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MOX fuel for TEPCO's Niigata plant gets green light



NIIGATA, Japan, April 13 (Kyodo) - The Agency for Nuclear and 

Industrial Safety on Friday issued a certificate to Tokyo Electric 

Power Co. (TEPCO) stating that the company's plutonium-uranium 

mixed oxide (MOX) fuel imports have passed safety inspection. 



The agency issued the certificate for the 28 containers of MOX fuel 

imported from Britain for use in the No. 3 reactor of TEPCO's 

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture on 

the Japan Sea coast. 



TEPCO submitted to the central government a plan for periodic 

plant inspections that is expected to take effect next Tuesday, but 

it did not state whether the company will use the MOX fuel in the 

thermal reactor or instead use uranium fuel. 



The utility had planned to begin the project on Tuesday, the first 

day of the inspection, but the Niigata prefectural government has 

been reluctant to allow Japan's first nuclear plant to use MOX fuel. 



''The company will continue to make efforts to obtain understanding 

from local residents and will decide whether to use the MOX fuel in 

the inspection after analyzing the situation with regard to the 

locals,'' reads the plan. The inspection is to finish July 13. 



The company said it hopes to decide by June whether it will begin 

using the MOX fuel in the reactor. 



The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, which comprises seven 

reactors, has an output of 8,212,000 kilowatts, the largest in the 

world. 



The company's move follows its decision late March to postpone 

implementation of a similar project at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear 

plant in Fukushima Prefecture. 



MOX, a pellet mixture of uranium dioxide and plutonium dioxide, is 

designed to be burned in light-water reactors, a process known as 

plutonium thermal use. Plutonium is obtained by reprocessing 

spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants. 



The electricity industry plans to use MOX fuel in 16-18 reactors by 

2010. The project was originally scheduled to be launched in 1999. 

---------------



Chao To Handle Nuclear Benefits



WASHINGTON (AP) Apr 13 - Labor Secretary Elaine Chao 

changed her mind and is willing to supervise compensation for 

nuclear weapons workers disabled or killed by Cold War-era 

exposure, a spokesman for Sen. George Voinovich said Thursday. 



Labor Department officials spent much of Thursday on the phone 

with senators and Senate aides trying to build support for changes 

Chao wants as a condition for taking on the new entitlement 

program. 



The department would not discuss its efforts nor confirm the 

comment by Voinovich's office that she is ready to take over. 



``No decision has yet been made,'' Labor spokesman Stuart Roy 

said. ``The options include keeping it at Labor and moving the 

program to another agency.'' 



Voinovich's spokesman, Scott Milburn, said Chao wants to extend 

a July 31 deadline for getting the program started and wants to 

change the appeal process for rejected claims. 



Congress gave the Labor Department $60.4 million to initiate the 

program, reasoning it was well-prepared because Labor already 

runs three worker compensation programs. 



But the new Labor secretary insisted the Justice Department was 

better equipped to run the program for workers who became ill from 

being exposed to uranium dust, beryllium particles or lung-clogging 

silica. 



Lawmakers who worked hardest to get the program enacted 

quickly told the White House they opposed moving it. 



Ten House members introduced a bill to force the Labor 

Department to run it, and uranium plant workers in Paducah, Ky., 

turned their union hall into an impromptu phone bank. 



They repeatedly contacted the offices of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-

Ky., urging him to persuade Chao, his wife, to handle the program. 



The new program offers lifetime medical care and $150,000 to ailing 

workers who were employed in the nuclear weapons complex, at 

factories that worked for the Energy Department, or at nuclear test 

sites in Alaska and Nevada. 



By law, the government should be prepared to accept benefit 

applications on July 31. 



The new program is limited to those with cancer associated with 

radiation, silicosis or chronic beryllium disease. Eligibility rules for 

some workers have been set by law, and the Labor Department 

must work out qualification guidelines for the rest. 



About 600,000 people worked in the weapons complex during the 

Cold War. 



The Energy Department initially estimated 3,000 to 4,000 might be 

eligible for compensation, but there's a lot of uncertainty because 

of poor record-keeping over the decades. 



For instance, after former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant 

employee Joe Harding died, his bones were found to contain 1,700 

times to 34,000 times the expected concentration of uranium 



Yet while he lived, Harding was denied worker compensation 

because official records showed he was exposed to paltry levels of 

radiation. 



Harding also suffered from sores that wouldn't heal and sprouting of 

fingernail- and toenail-like growths on his palms, the bottoms of his 

feet, his knee caps, knuckles, wrists and elbows. 



The testimony of his widow, Clara Harding, helped build support for 

compensation. 



The Energy Department preliminarily identified 317 sites in 37 

states where exposed workers might qualify for benefits. 



A toll-free number set up by Energy to field requests, 1-877-447-

9756, has logged more than 19,000 calls. 



On the Net: Text of compensation law, preliminary list of sites 

prepared by Department of Energy: 

http://tis.eh.doe.gov/advocacy/index.html 

---------------



Italy Turns Off US Navy Radio Masts Amid Emissions Concern



Rome, April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Italy blacked out two radio 

transmitters beaming music to the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean 

amid concern about health risks from electromagnetic radiation, 

Corriere della Sera reported, citing Agriculture Minister Alfonso 

Pecoraro Scanio. 



Judges forced a total of 12 transmitters on Naples' Camaldoli hill to 

be turned off after they were found to emit radiation 55 times above 

government limits, the newspaper said. 



Environment Minister Willer Bordon this week tried to close the 

Vatican's radio transmitters after people living close to its 

broadcasting towers near Rome were found to suffer from higher 

rates of cancer. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato gave the Holy See 

more time to reduce radiation levels while Health Minister Umberto 

Veronesi, an oncologist, dismissed health fears. 



The radiation levels on Naples' Camaldoli hill were higher than 

those recorded in Cesano, where Vatican Radio's transmitters are 

located, Corriere said. 



``We live in a microwave oven,'' said Giovanni Colaleo, who lives 

100 meters from the Camaldoli hill masts, according to the Italian 

daily. 

------------------



Exelon Faces Strike Vote by Union for 8,000 Illinois Workers



Chicago, April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Exelon Corp., the owner of 

Chicago's Commonwealth Edison utility, faces a strike vote this 

month from a union representing about 8,000 Illinois employees 

over the company's attempt to cut 588 jobs. 



Exelon, formed in October when Philadelphia-based Peco Energy 

Co. bought Chicago's Unicom Corp. for $9.77 billion, says the 

positions at Com Ed and its nuclear-power business are redundant. 



Leaders of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union 

Local 15 rejected a three-year contract proposal on Monday, nine 

days after the previous agreement expired, spokesman Thomas 

O'Reilly said. The union will vote on whether to authorize a strike 

after leaders meet with members across Illinois, he said. 



``This is not about money,'' O'Reilly said. ``It's about jobs that we 

have that they want to turn over to supervisors or outside 

contractors.'' 



The company is offering a year's severance pay and benefits to 

workers who voluntarily resign or take early retirement, spokesman 

Don Kirchoffner said. Remaining union workers would get annual 

3.5 percent raises and job protection, he said. 



Exelon employs more than 30,000 people. The Chicago-based 

company also operates Philadelphia's Peco Energy Co. utility and 

has been acquiring small electricity, gas, heating and cooling, 

cable and telecommunications companies.



**************************************************************************

Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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