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US Sees Nuclear Power as Attractive Energy Source, Post Says
Index:
US Sees Nuclear Power as Attractive Energy Source, Post Says
Calif. power crisis sparks fresh look at nuke power
Nuclear push, tax breaks seen in Bush energy plan
Temelin Plant Gets Nuclear Fuel for Second Reactor, Agency Says
German nuclear waste shipment prompts protest
Yamaguchi governor agrees on nuclear plant project
Six plead guilty in Japan's worst nuclear accident
Caboolture residents oppose proposed nuclear plant
NRC to meet Entergy on NY FitzPatrick nuke safety
Non-TEPCO concerns may begin using MOX
NRC NAMES THOMAS RESIDENT INSPECTOR AT PADUCAH DIFFUSION PLANT
TEPCO says will not load MOX fuel at Fukushima
Nuclear reactor accident prompts 2 investigations
=============================================
US Sees Nuclear Power as Attractive Energy Source, Post Says
Washington, April 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. nuclear power is proving an
attractive source of energy amid rising natural gas prices and an
improving safety record within the industry, the Washington Post
reported, citing Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard A.
Meserve.
U.S. nuclear plants have boosted production by 25 percent in the past
decade by reducing accidents and temporary shutdowns. About 40
percent of plants have said they will seek to renew their licenses,
upsetting earlier forecasts that few would.
The Bush administration has said nuclear power will be key to its
energy plan. Industry leaders expect the administration to support
the renewal of the Price Anderson Act, which limits generators'
liability in the case of accidents, the paper said.
Industry representatives also want the government to reward them for
not emitting the so-called greenhouse gases produced by fossil fuel
plants, the paper said.
--------------
Calif. power crisis sparks fresh look at nuke power
SAN FRANCISCO, April 20 (Reuters) - The unthinkable is happening:
California's power crisis is helping spark renewed interest in the
nearly taboo subject of nuclear power, even in this environmentally
conscious state.
"Investors are increasingly looking at nuclear as an attractive asset
for utilities to own rather than a liability like before," James
Asselstine, a managing director with Lehman Brothers, told Reuters at
a recent nuclear conference here.
Utilities are lining up to extend the lives of their nuclear units,
and some are assessing building new reactors.
"I think you could see an application to build a new nuclear power
plant in the United States within the next five years," said
Asseltine, who was invited to speak at a conference sponsored by the
Washington D.C.-based industry group Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI).
The watchdog Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not received a
new plant application since the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear
accident put a freeze on the industry.
In the past two decades, construction was halted on more than 40
nuclear units that had received NRC permission to build, and others
were shut down after starting operations due to cost overruns and
safety concerns, a NRC spokeswoman said.
The last construction permit issued by the NRC -- in 1973 -- was for
the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority's 1,170-megawatt
Watts Bar facility in Spring City, Tenn., which began operating in
1996.
But the nuclear frost is now starting to thaw.
Nuclear experts expect most, if not all, of the nation's 103 nuclear
units, which supply about 20 percent of U.S. energy needs, to extend
their 40-year operating licenses by 20 years.
So far, the NRC says it has approved 20-year extensions for five
nuclear units, has received applications to extend five more, and
expects applications from about 33 additional ones.
CALIFORNIA -- A HARD NUT
Two top Silicon Valley leaders have even said quietly that California
should take another look at nuclear power after a 1996 flawed
deregulation law and supply crunch sent wholesale power prices
skyrocketing, triggered rolling blackouts, and prompted the state's
top utility to file for bankruptcy.
Scott McNealy, co-founder and chairman of Palo Alto-based high-tech
giant Sun Microsystems, Inc. <SUNW.O>, lamented over the country's
steep energy costs and California's almost daily power alerts
declaring precariously low supplies.
"It's like a Third World nation out there in the Bay area," said
McNealy, referring to the alerts in a speech to the National Press
Club in Washington D.C. earlier this year.
"I'm going to do the politically incorrect thing and tell you the
answer's going to be nuclear power."
Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. <INTC.O> chief executive, Craig Barret,
head of the world's No. 1 computer chip maker, has also said nuclear
power is one of the answers to the states's energy crisis, although
it's not politically correct.
California has only two nuclear plants, which account for nearly 15
percent of its energy needs. Although residents may have developed a
greater appreciation for them after the power crisis, the Golden
State will be a hard nut to crack.
"California is probably the worst place to build anything, not just a
nuclear power plant," said Marvin Fertel, NEI senior vice president
of business operations. And memories remain.
California's two-unit, 2,200-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear plant was
redesigned twice: once after an earthquake fault was discovered near
the site, and later when engineers read the blueprints backwards. The
final bill for the plant exceeded projections by several billion
dollars.
Then in 1989, residents of Sacramento County in California voted to
close down a nuclear plant. The Rancho Seco plant was the first --
and only -- operating nuclear power station in the United States to
be shut down as the result of a local referendum.
OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES
Experts say the first new nuclear plants will probably be built on
existing sites in the Southeast or Midwest where nuclear opposition
is less strong than places like California.
Advocates have always touted nuclear power as a source of abundant
and relatively cheap fuel that is also "clean" because it does not
produce any greenhouse gas emissions.
Now several recent changes are helping their cause.
Prices of other fuels are rising, prompting calls for diversifying
fuel sources, and the industry has also improved its safety record
and performance and cut production costs.
And a new, streamlined licensing process for future nuclear units
ensures that all major design, safety, siting and other regulatory
issues are resolved as early as possible -- before construction
begins and billions of dollars are spent.
This is possible because the new NRC process uses standardized plant
designs that are pre-approved, which means future nuclear plants will
be almost fully designed when they are ordered, which should cut down
the lead time between proposing and constructing a nuclear reactor.
"There is an air of optimism in the industry," Wes Taylor, president
of generation at TXU Corp. <TXU.N>, a leading energy services company
based in Texas, told the NEI conference.
But he added: "The question of when a new power plant may be ordered
is less easy to predict. More reforms are need before the barriers
are entirely removed."
No new nuclear plants have been proposed since the reformed NRC
licensing process was introduced in 1992, which means the new system
still needs to be tested, nuclear experts say.
A solution to the U.S. nuclear waste storage problem still needs to
be found and capital costs remain high, they add.
And of course, public confidence remains key.
"When it comes to nuclear power, not much has really changed. The
problems of nuclear waste disposal, reactor safety and siting
remain," said Carl Zichella, the California's regional staff director
of the Sierra Club, vowing to fight "hammer and tongs" against any
new nuclear plants.
"Nuclear is a technology that has had its day."
-------------
Nuclear push, tax breaks seen in Bush energy plan
WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's energy
task force is working toward recommendations likely to focus on tax
incentives to boost energy supplies from sources including nuclear,
oil, coal and natural gas.
Congressional and industry sources familiar with the panel's closed-
door work said this week they expect recommendations to promote
nuclear energy, to drill for oil in federal lands including the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and to review U.S. sanctions against
foreign oil producers such as Iran, Iraq and Libya.
Environmental provisions, such as steps to encourage energy
efficiency and alternative fuels are also expected, but some critics
say these will be dwarfed in impact by an emphasis on increasing
traditional supplies.
The cabinet-level panel headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney is
expected to report by mid-May. "We're at least several weeks away,"
Cheney spokeswoman Juleanna Glover Weiss said. She declined to
comment on specifics of the recommendations. "Everything is on the
table," she said.
A major "education" push will follow release of the plan, she said.
Bush appointed the panel January 29, asking it to develop a plan to
fight high energy prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil, to
encourage development of pipelines and power-generating capacity, and
to find ways to cope with California's electricity supply shortage.
Since then, the panel has worked behind closed doors and met scores
of interest groups ranging from energy industry officials to
environmentalists in off-the-record sessions, drawing criticism for
its secrecy.
"We're not learning anything," said an environmental group official
who met with task force staff in an off-the record session this
month. "We told them at this meeting that it looked eerily familiar,
like it was the Clinton health plan."
Former President Bill Clinton's task force to reform the health care
system, a sprawling effort far larger than the Cheney panel, was
heavily criticized for a secretive process.
But the White House defended the task force, saying it is open to
input from any interested party and will begin releasing more
information as a final report nears.
"The task force itself is open and they are willing to hear ideas,
whatever the source," Weiss said.
WHAT'S CONSIDERED
Although the panel is keeping its policy options closely guarded,
people who have met with panel staff and comments by Cheney and other
administration officials indicate that likely features of the final
recommendations will include:
-- Tax breaks and regulatory changes: "They've said they would use
tax credit as the preferred method of increasing energy production,"
the environmental group official said. "They've said across the board
-- with nuclear power you're going to see more tax credits, with more
drilling you're going to see more tax credits."
The task force also aims to revise regulations to increase energy
production and transmission capability, sources said.
-- A nuclear push: Cheney has called for building new nuclear power
plants as an "environmentally sound" way to help provide the 65 new
power plants a year he said would be needed in the United States over
the next two decades.
America's 103 nuclear power plants now provide about 20 percent of
U.S. electricity and are running at record high output levels due to
improvements in reliability.
Nuclear industry officials met last month with top White House
officials to pitch nuclear power as an "affordable, reliable (and)
emission free" energy source, said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the
Nuclear Energy Institute. The industry has been gearing up for months
for a possible revival in nuclear plant construction, although
capital costs for nuclear plants remain high relative to other
plants, he said.
Kerekes said he expected all existing plants to eventually pursue and
receive 20-year operating license extensions, and that new reactor
construction could initially begin on the sites of existing nuclear
facilities.
An administration official said the task force was considering ways
to encourage both new construction and better utilization of existing
plants.
Supporters say public fear of nuclear power has abated with the
passage of time since the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear
accidents, although critics say the problem of how to permanently
dispose of nuclear waste has not been solved.
-- Oil and gas exploration: Bush has made opening more federal lands,
including the Arctic refuge in Alaska, to oil and gas exploration a
core feature of his energy agenda. Cheney has said the proposal to
drill in ANWR remains alive despite Congress's reluctance to approve
it.
A congressional source familiar with the task force's work speculated
that it would also recommend increasing the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve. Weiss declined to comment.
COAL, OIL SANCTIONS, ENVIRONMENT
-- "Clean-coal" incentives: Bush has frequently cited clean-coal
technology as an environmentally promising source of energy using
America's vast coal reserves.
-- International issues: A draft chapter of recommendations on
international issues calls for reviewing U.S. sanctions policies,
with an eye toward their impact on U.S. oil supplies from OPEC
countries such as Iraq, Iran and Libya. Those reviews are already
underway and will be considered "within the framework of national
security and diplomatic goals," Weiss said on Friday.
Bush said Thursday he had no current plans to lift sanctions on Iran
or Libya.
The draft also recommends overhauling cross-border energy trade
regulations to ease the way for increased electricity imports to
power-strapped California.
-- Environment: The administration official said the recommendations
will have a strong environmental component that includes energy
conservation measures, but environmentalists are skeptical. "We would
like to see an energy plan that does the right thing. Not one that
says, drill, dig, burn and pollute and, oh yeah, here is some energy
efficiency on the side," said Sierra Club energy representative Ann
Mesnikoff.
------------
Temelin Plant Gets Nuclear Fuel for Second Reactor, Agency Says
Prague, April 23 (Bloomberg) -- The train with nuclear fuel for the
second reactor of the new Czech nuclear power station in Temelin
arrived without any problems Sunday afternoon, Czech news agency CTK
reported.
More than 40 tons of fuel was supplied by U.S.-based Westinghouse
Electric Supply Co., which upgraded the plant after the fall of
communism. The transport, which was not publicly announced in
advance, was accompanied by exceptional safety measures, CTK said.
Temelin Director Frantisek Hezoucky said the fuel should be loaded in
the plant's second reactor, which needs a total of 92 tons of fuel,
at the end of the year.
CEZ, which started Temelin's first reactor in October, is facing a
threat of lawsuits by U.S. lawyer Edward Fagan, who advises Austrian
opponents of the plant in their effort to stop it. Fagan called in
February on CEZ and Westinghouse to meet more stringent safety
standards and submit documentation of all the plant's equipment.
---------------
German nuclear waste shipment prompts protest
FRANKFURT, April 23 (Reuters) - German environmental activists
chained themselves to rail tracks for several hours on Monday hoping
to stop wagons they said were due to carry a nuclear waste shipment
to Britain this week for reprocessing.
The environmental group Greenpeace said a small group of members had
been at the Mannheim cargo railway station since early morning to
protest against the planned shipment to Sellafield in northwest
England.
By early afternoon, German police said they had ended the protest and
unchained the demonstrators, who will be charged with dangerous
interference in rail transport, an offence that could mean a fine or
a jail sentence of up to five years.
"The managers of the power stations who are sending their nuclear
waste to Sellafield are unscrupulous. Politicians who have approved
the nuclear transports to Sellafield are acting irresponsibly,"
Greenpeace spokesman Veit Buerger said.
A Greenpeace spokeswoman said 12 members chained themselves to the
tracks under an empty wagon that she said was due to transport
nuclear waste to the Sellafield reprocessing plant.
Spent nuclear fuel is due to move from power plants at Neckarwestheim
and Biblis in southwest Germany to Sellafield late on Monday or early
on Tuesday in what will be the first shipment to Britain in three
years.
Anti-nuclear activists clashed with police this month as they tried
to hold up the first transport in three years of nuclear waste from
Germany to France.
Thousands of demonstrators also protested last month when Germany
took back the first cargo of reprocessed waste from France since the
German government banned the shipments in 1998 over concerns about
radioactive leaks.
--------------
Yamaguchi governor agrees on nuclear plant project
YAMAGUCHI, Japan, April 23 (Kyodo) - Yamaguchi Gov. Sekinari Nii
agreed in principle Monday to a plan to build a nuclear power plant
in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, prefectural government officials
said.
But Nii suggested strict conditions, such as the drafting of safety
measures, disaster-prevention measures and measures to protect the
environment.
These conditions were included in an opinion paper Vice Gov. Shigeji
Wataya submitted Monday to the Agency for Natural Resources and
Energy, which falls under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
(METI).
Nii said that the prefectural government's cooperation with the
central government plan would depend on the central government's
responses to the conditions.
The central government decided to incorporate the power plant project
into the nation's power development program April 6 and had asked for
the governor to present his opinion by Wednesday.
Hirobumi Kawano, chief of the agency, ''Having been able to gain the
agreement of the governor is a step forward, but we received various
requests at the same time.''
He said the agency would ''respond sincerely'' after reviewing the
requests seriously.
Following Nii's approval, an advisory panel for the METI minister on
power development will discuss in May at the earliest the plan by
Chugoku Electric Power Co. to build the plant, officials said.
Nii's conditional approval marks the first sign of a go-ahead for the
construction of a nuclear power plant since Japan's worst nuclear
accident in September 1999, which killed two plant workers at a
uranium-processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki
Prefecture.
The nuclear power plant is scheduled to be built in Nagashima Island
in Kaminoseki, facing the Seto Inland Sea.
Chugoku Electric Power aims to put its No. 1 reactor into operation
in fiscal 2012, and its No. 2 reactor in fiscal 2015.
---------------
Six plead guilty in Japan's worst nuclear accident
TOKYO, April 23 (Reuters) - A Japanese uranium processing company and
six staff all pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of negligence
resulting in death as the trial opened into Japan's worst nuclear
accident.
The pleas were entered at the initial hearing at the Mito District
Court in Ibaraki Prefecture.
"I know it's too late for regret. I can only pray sincerely for the
souls of the dead," said Tomoyuki Inami, president of JCO Co, as he
entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company.
Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred when workers at JCO's plant
in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles) northeast of Tokyo, ignored proper
safety procedures and used buckets instead of a pump to transfer a
uranium solution to a tank in September 1999.
This was Japan's first trial involving criminal charges in a nuclear
accident, said Baku Nishio, a representative at the Citizens Nuclear
Information Centre.
"There has been no other trial in Japan to try to pin the
responsibility for an accident at a nuclear facility, this is the
first," he said. Nishio said he hoped the trial would shed light on
what had led to the negligence at the plant and where the
responsibility for it lay.
The JCO staff were charged with allowing employees to illegally use
buckets to transport uranium.
Among the six staff who pleaded guilty was Kenzo Koshijima, 54, the
former head of JCO Co plant. He and other officials allegedly
approved the procedures at an in-house safety committee in 1995,
leading to compilation of an unauthorised manual in 1996 that
recommended the use of buckets to make the solution.
Operators of nuclear facilities are required by law to obtain
approval from the prime minister before changing production methods.
The workers mistakenly loaded 16 kg (35 lb) of condensed uranium into
a mixing tank, nearly eight times the proper amount, causing it to
reach "criticality," the point at which a nuclear reaction becomes
self-sustaining.
The first such accident in Japan, it exposed hundreds of residents,
plant workers and emergency personnel who responded to the accident
to radiation.
Two plant workers later died.
JCO, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd
(5713.T), still exists although it no longer operates having lost its
uranium fuel processing license in March last year. LINGERING
REPERCUSSIONS
The JCO accident is the worst in a series of nuclear accidents in
Japan in recent years that have caused public confidence in the
domestic nuclear industry to plummet.
A Japanese nuclear industry official said the accident was a major
blow to the industry and had led to a number of setbacks in
implementing Japan's nuclear programme.
"The accident is to blame for having badly damaged public trust in
the nuclear industry," he said.
The governor of Mie Prefecture in western Japan forced Chubu Electric
Power Co Inc (9502.T) in February last year to scrap a 37-year-old
plan to build a nuclear power plant.
Governor Masayasu Kitagawa said at the time his action took into
account the fierce conflict over the plant that had divided the local
community since the project was first unveiled.
Japan's nuclear industry has been unable to begin commercial use of
the controversial MOX fuel, originally targeted for 1999.
Just last week, Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO) said it had
abandoned plans to load the fuel, a blend of uranium and plutonium
recycled from spent nuclear fuel, at one of its nuclear reactors
during its current maintenance term.
TEPCO had failed to win the permission of the governor of Fukushima
Prefecture in northern Japan to use the fuel.
The governor said he could not allow the use of the fuel given the
deep-seated public distrust in the nuclear industry.
--------------
Caboolture residents oppose proposed nuclear plant
22 April, 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Caboolture residents, north of Brisbane, fear they may soon be living
next to a highly radioactive nuclear plant.
Community Action Group secretary Frank Jell says an irradiation
plant, proposed for the Narangba industrial estate, will be
energized by Cobalt 60, which is normally stored as radioactive
waste.
Mr Jell says more than 700 residents voiced their opposition to the
development of the plant on Friday night after processing company
Steritech advertised their intentions to use Cobalt 60.
He says if the plant succeeds in obtaining a licence the health of
the general public is in jeopardy.
"One Cobalt pencil has the capacity to spread radioactive
contamination over an area of 6,000 square kilometres," he said.
"That means that we have quite a dangerous facility sitting in the
midst of an otherwise rural residential area."
The company behind the proposed irradiation plant has dismissed
claims it is keeping residents in the dark about how the plant will
be fuelled.
Local community activists say they have now been told Cobalt 60 will
be used as a power source not gamma radiation.
But George West from Steritech says Cobalt 60 was always going to be
used and gamma rays are emitted by the product.
He says there should be no confusion.
---------------
NRC to meet Entergy on NY FitzPatrick nuke safety
NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) said Friday its staff will meet with Entergy Nuclear on April
27 to discuss safety concerns at the FitzPatrick nuclear reactor in
New York.
Specifically, the NRC said it wanted to talk about Entergy's progress
on and plans for addressing the number of unplanned power changes at
the plant.
The NRC issued a "white" performance indicator to FitzPatrick,
indicating there are continued problems with equipment reliability
that have impacted plant operations.
Under the NRC Reactor Oversight Process launched in April 2000, the
agency uses several tools to assess plant performance.
Among those tools are performance indicators, which utilize different
colors to depict increasing safety significance. The colors range
from green, which means performance in an expected range, rising to
white, which is considered performance outside the expected range, to
yellow and finally red.
For instance, if a plant has six or more unplanned power changes
during a specified period, it receives a "white" indicator. The
specified period of operations is 7,000 hours. An unplanned power
change is a change greater than 20 percent, but not including an
automatic or manual shutdown.
These problems extend back several years, the NRC said in a
statement, referring also to the time when the New York Power
Authority owned the plant.
Entergy Nuclear, a unit of Entergy Corp. <ETR.N> of New Orleans,
completed the purchase of the Power Authority's nuclear plants in
November 2000.
------------
Non-TEPCO concerns may begin using MOX
TOKYO, April 20 (Kyodo) - Entities other than front-running Tokyo
Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) may begin using plutonium-uranium mixed
oxide (MOX) fuel at nuclear power plants before TEPCO should they
earlier win local approval, an electric power industry leader said
Friday.
''The question is not who will go first. Companies should make
preparations to win local understanding,'' Hiroji Ota, chairman of
the Federation of Electric Power Companies, said at a news
conference.
His remarks were taken to indicate that power companies, such as
Chubu Electric Power Co. and Hokkaido Electric Power Co., may put
their plans into practice ahead of TEPCO.
TEPCO decided earlier Friday to give up its planned use of MOX fuel
at the No. 1 reactor in Fukushima Prefecture from April.
TEPCO and Kansai Electric Power Co. initially planned to use MOX fuel
at their nuclear power plants in 1999. They were expected to be
followed by three power companies in the next few years and by six
others by 2010.
But TEPCO and Kansai Electric subsequently changed their plans
following the revelation of falsified MOX data involving the latter.
TEPCO therefore announced a new plan to start using the fuel at its
nuclear plants in Fukushima and Niigata prefectures this spring,
finding itself facing strong local opposition.
------------
NRC NAMES THOMAS RESIDENT INSPECTOR AT PADUCAH DIFFUSION PLANT
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials in Lisle, Illinois, have
announced the assignment of Mary Thomas a Resident Inspector at the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky.
Thomas, who begins her duties at the Paducah plant today, joined the
NRC in September of 1991. Since January 2000, Thomas has worked as a
fuel facilities inspector in the agency's regional office in Lisle,
Illinois. Prior to that, she worked in the agency's headquarters
office in Rockville, Maryland, in a variety of positions including
subcommittee chairman for the Sewer Sludge subcommittee of the
Interagency Steering Committee on Radiation Standards and project
manager for the Radiation Exposure Information and Reporting System.
Thomas also served in the U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program and
was based in San Diego, California, on the USS Samuel Gompers.
Thomas earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, and a master's degree
in environmental and health science from New York University. She
lives in Paducah.
Thomas joins Senior Resident Inspector Courtney Blanchard at the
Paducah plant. They can be reached at (270) 442-7118.
-------------
TEPCO says will not load MOX fuel at Fukushima
TOKYO, April 20 (Reuters) - Japan's largest power utility Tokyo
Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO) said on Friday it will not be loading
controversial MOX fuel during maintenance now taking place at its
Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant in northern Japan.
A spokesman at said it informed the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry (METI) on Friday that it will load conventional uranium fuel
at the power plant, which has been shut down since April 3 for
regular maintenance.
Japan's nuclear industry is behind schedule in its plan to begin
commercial use of MOX fuel, initially targeted for 1999.
TEPCO had initially been widely expected to take advantage of the
maintenance closure of the Fukushima No 1 plant's No 3 reactor to
load the MOX fuel.
A blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel,
the use of MOX in conventional reactors is a cornerstone of resources-
poor Japan's energy policy.
Japan's 51 commercial nuclear reactors satisfy one-third of the
nation's electricity needs.
In February, the governor of Fukushima Prefecture, Eisaku Sato, said
he would not allow the use of the fuel at the plant, noting deep-
seated public distrust in Japan's nuclear industry.
He cited in particular a 1999 accident at an uranium processing plant
operated by private company JCO Ltd in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo,
which exposed three workers to radiation, and two of them later
died.Nuclear reactor accident prompts two investigations
Sato's comment had made it virtually impossible for TEPCO to begin
using MOX fuel.
------------
Nuclear reactor accident prompts 2 investigations
20 April, 2001
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Two separate investigations are underway into an accident at the the
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney's south.
Operators of the facility alerted the Commonwealth's radiation
safety agency (ARPANZA) late yesterday of "an incident involving a
sealed solid source".
The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANTSO)
has not yet released any details about what occured and it is not
known if staff at the facility were involved.
ARPANZA says the incident occured in the nuclear medicine division
and that it is not fully satisfied with ANTSO's explanation of what
happened.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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