Pope honours victims of Chernobyl disaster

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

Index:



Pope honours victims of Chernobyl disaster

Anniversary of Chernobyl Marked

Nuclear Power Looking Better

Trains carry German nuclear waste toward Sellafield

Ten-Year Study Reveals Nuclear Weapons Unlawful 

U.K. lawmaker regrets data falsification by nuclear fuel firm

Atomic Waste Rolls Into France

Eletrobras' Avila on Furnas, Nuclear Energy, New Plant: Comment

Facts About Nuclear Power Plants

Union Opposes Hanford Security Change

=================================



Pope honours victims of Chernobyl disaster



VATICAN CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul II honoured the 

victims of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion on the 15th 

anniversary of the disaster on Thursday, delivering a special message 

at an audience in the Vatican. 



"Today we must all remember that terrible tragedy," the Pope told 

representatives from organisations and church dioceses which provided 

care to the youngest victims of the disaster. 



"The young people here today represent all those children throughout 

the world who have found refuge and received medical care (since the 

accident) in Italy." 



Around five million people were exposed to nuclear radiation when one 

of the reactors at the Ukrainian power plant burst into flames on 

April 26, 1986. 



A toxic cloud from the accident spread across Ukraine, Russia and 

Belarus, contaminating thousands of people and hundreds of thousands 

of acres of land, and traces of radiation drifted across a big swathe 

of continental Europe. 



More than 11,000 children became ill with thyroid cancer and medical 

experts expect that incidence of cancer and other disabling diseases 

will continue to rise in the region over the next 30 years. Around 

4,000 people involved in the clean-up operation have died and another 

40,000 have become ill. 



"Chernobyl is symbolic of the risks associated with the use of 

nuclear energy and reminds us that me must use our technological, 

scientific and human resources to achieve peace for future 

generations," the 80-year-old Pontiff said. 



The Pope, scheduled to visit the Ukraine in June, said he could not 

wait to "kiss the ground of the city that has seen such adversity." 

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



Anniversary of Chernobyl Marked



KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Fifteen years after the world's worst nuclear 

disaster, people across much of the former Soviet Union lit candles 

and offered prayers Thursday for those killed and sickened by the 

explosion at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 



The April 26, 1986, explosion and fire sent a radioactive cloud over 

much of Europe and contaminated large areas in then-Soviet Ukraine, 

Russia and Belarus. 



The Ukrainian government says more than 4,000 of those who took part 

in the hasty and poorly organized Soviet cleanup effort have died, 

and that more than 70,000 Ukrainians were fully disabled by the 

disaster. 



In all, 7 million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated 

to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation related to 

the Chernobyl catastrophe. 



Hundreds of people attended an overnight memorial service at a small 

Kiev chapel that was built to commemorate the disaster. They held 

burning candles as priests read out prayers in memory of the dead. 



A bell rang shortly after 1 a.m., exactly the same time as the 

reactor exploded. Some in the crowd broke into tears. 



One woman described how the building in which she worked at Chernobyl 

grew dark and shook. From a window, she saw ``a glow, like haze in 

the summer'' over the reactor. 



A similar service was held in Slavytuch, a town of Chernobyl workers 

close to the plant. President Leonid Kuchma was due to visit the 

plant later in the day. 



In a statement marking the anniversary, Kuchma urged the world not to 

forget Chernobyl and to help Ukraine deal with its consequences. 



``Chernobyl is a common tragedy, a common pain of our planet, and its 

echo must not fall silent in our hearts,'' Kuchma said. 



At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed for 

people to remember the needs of those who are still suffering from 

the effects of Chernobyl. 



``Together, we must extend a helping hand to our fellow human beings, 

and show that we are not indifferent to their plight,'' Annan said in 

a statement released Wednesday. 



In Moscow, a service for victims of Chernobyl was to take place at 

the Danilov Monastery, commemorating Ukrainians, Belarusians and 

Russians affected by the disaster. Similar ceremonies were scheduled 

in Belarus. 



Boris Chekalin, the head of the radiation service at Russia's Kursk 

atomic power plant, took part in the Chernobyl cleanup. He told 

Russian state television about the first days of the operation. 



``When I arrived at Chernobyl, I saw a large black fire with clouds, 

an impression that will stay with me my whole life,'' he said. 



Chekalin said he never takes off his hat, even on overcast days, 

because he has to avoid the most minor sun rays to prevent irritating 

burns on his face and arms - a constant reminder of his radiation 

exposure during three days at Chernobyl. 



Following the 1986 explosion, other reactors at the plant continued 

operating until it was halted for good in December under intense 

international pressure. 



At the plant itself, workers remain busy. They monitor the now-idle 

reactors and are building a heating plant and facilities for nuclear 

waste disposal and reprocessing. 



They are also involved in a $758 million, internationally funded 

project to make the leaky concrete and steel sarcophagus over the 

ruined reactor environmentally safe. 

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



Nuclear Power Looking Better



WASHINGTON (AP) - Nuclear power is making a comeback two decades 

after the Three Mile Island reactor accident. 



Soaring natural gas prices, concerns about climate change and fear 

that California blackouts will spread have made electricity from the 

atom more attractive, though critics still worry about safety and 

what to do with radioactive waste. 



For the first time in decades, there is serious talk about building a 

new nuclear power plant in the United States. At least one utility 

has suggested it may submit a license application to the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission within a few years. 



This stirring of interest for a new reactor ``would have been 

unthinkable even a year ago,'' says the commission chairman, Richard 

Meserve, who has directed a task force to examine how to handle a new 

license application. 



Not since 1973 has an American utility sought to license and gone on 

to open a new nuclear power plant. Only a few years ago, industry 

analysts predicted scores of electric power reactors would be 

shuttered under the economic pressures of electricity deregulation. 



Instead, the country's 103 commercial reactors are churning out power 

at unprecedented efficiency, safety indictors have improved steadily, 

reactors put up for sale are attracting eager bidders, and the line 

of applications for 20-year license renewals is growing. Owners of 

nearly half of the operating plants already have said they will seek 

extensions when their permits expire. So far, two extensions have 

been granted. 



Nuclear power was stunned almost into submission 22 years ago by the 

Three Mile Island reactor meltdown near Harrisburg, Pa., and was 

pummeled further a few years later by the Russian disaster at 

Chernobyl. 



Since then, it has struggled to keep itself on life-support while 

designers worked on what they maintain are safer reactor designs. Now 

it has caught the attention of the Bush administration as the White 

House maps out a broad energy blueprint to present to Congress. 



Vice President Dick Cheney, who heads the president's energy task 

force, has been touting nuclear power as essential to America's 

energy needs. At least some of the 65 new power plants that need to 

be built annually to meet future electricity demand ``ought to be 

nuclear,'' he told an interviewer recently. 



``It's the only way to deal with the question of global warming,'' 

Cheney argues, a theme pushed by the nuclear industry for several 

years. 



Without a serious accident in years, nuclear power also is gaining 

acceptance at the grass roots. Half the people queried in a new 

Associated Press poll support using reactors to produce electricity, 

compared with 45 percent just two years ago. And 56 percent of the 

supporters say they would not mind a nuclear plant within 10 miles of 

their home. Three in 10 opposed nuclear power; the remainder said 

they were unsure. 



What's behind the turnaround? 



A combination of factors, energy analysts, regulators and utility 

executives say, including: 



The environment. Growing concerns about climate change and the cost 

of reducing air pollution from coal-burning power plants have made 

nuclear more attractive to utilities. Reactors emit neither 

greenhouse gasses nor smog-causing chemicals. 



Economics. Reactors have increased their electricity production by 25 

percent over the past decade through improved efficiencies. Operating 

costs have steadily declined to where nuclear-generated electricity 

is competitive with power from natural gas-fired plants and is not 

far behind coal in costs. 



Safety. While long-term uncertainties about nuclear waste remain, 

reactors have been free of major accidents and the number of safety-

related power plant disruptions has dropped dramatically. 



In addition, power woes in the West have highlighted the need for new 

generating plants, even prompting some in the Northwest and 

California to take a new look at mothballed and unfinished plants. 



The owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant have suddenly been 

besieged by companies wanting to buy their 27-year-old reactor. At 

least nine reactors have been sold in the past two years, many at 

prices much higher than earlier fire sales. 



``We are aggressively competing for additional nuclear units wherever 

they are for sale,'' says Randy Hutchinson, senior vice president at 

Entergy Nuclear Inc., a subsidiary of New Orleans-based Entergy 

Corp., which has bought three reactors in the Northeast and is 

closing deals on two more. 



At the same time the industry is consolidating. The number of 

companies owning nuclear plants has been reduced by half to about two 

dozen. Eventually there may be fewer than eight, says Hutchinson. 



Still, industry critics and even some utility executives remain wary. 



``Nuclear power poses an unacceptable threat to humans and the 

environment,'' says Anna Aurilio of the U.S. Public Interest Research 

Group. She argues that older reactors are deteriorating and that no 

clear solution has been found for disposing reactor wastes that 

remain dangerous to health and the environment for tens of thousands 

of years. 



Any long-term revival will depend on resolving lingering 

uncertainties, says John Holdren, a Harvard professor of 

environmental science and former chairman of the White House science 

and technology advisory panel in the Clinton administration. 



``Basically the issues are cost, safety, radioactive waste and 

nuclear proliferation,'' says Holdren. If any one of those factors 

shifts against the industry, nuclear power may again be doomed, he 

says. 



On the Net: 



Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov 



Nuclear Energy Institute: http://www.nei.org 

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



Trains carry German nuclear waste toward Sellafield

  

BERLIN, April 25 (Reuters) - A train carrying Germany's first 

shipments of nuclear waste to Britain for three years rolled across 

the border into France on Wednesday and police said protests against 

the transport were small and peaceful. 



Two separate trains carrying a total of five wagons of spent nuclear 

fuel rods from power plants in Neckarwestheim and Biblis were linked 

up in the town of Woerth near the border and passed without incident 

into France en route to a reprocessing plant at Sellafield in 

northwest England. 



About 100 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated in isolated groups 

along the 12 km (eight mile) stretch of track leading to the French 

border. Police detained about 20 of them. Authorities said the 

demonstrations were peaceful. 



Anti-nuclear activists trying to block railway tracks clashed with 

police earlier this month when Germany took back the first 

reprocessed waste from France since it lifted a ban on shipments 

imposed in 1998 because of concerns about radioactive leaks. 



Activists claim Sellafield, in Cumbria on the northwest coast of 

England, is dangerous to people living nearby. 

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



Ten-Year Study Reveals Nuclear Weapons Unlawful According To U.S. And 

Military Documentation

  

NEW YORK, April 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- New York litigator and former 

St. John's law professor Charles Moxley is catching the attention of 

leaders in the fields of politics, law and international relations 

due to the provocative conclusions in his recently released book, 

Nuclear Weapons and International Law in the Post Cold War World 

(Austin & Winfield, Publishers, University Press of America). Both 

the Professional's Network for Social Responsibility and the Middle 

Powers Initiative have invited Moxley to be their keynote speaker at 

upcoming events in New York (on April 29 and May 3). 



Moxley will discuss the results of his 10-year study on the legality 

of nuclear weapons as well as implications of the U.S. 

Administration's Missile Defense Program. He says, "The use of 

nuclear weapons under established rules of international law is 

unlawful, even according to official U.S. and military 

documentation." 



Moxley will be the keynote speaker at a private strategy conference 

for the Middle Powers Initiative (April 29) as well as for the 

Professional's Network for Social Responsibility. (Thursday May 3, at 

5:30 p.m. 15 Rutherford Place, East of Third Ave.) For press 

coverage, to arrange an interview or obtain a press copy of the book, 

contact Barbara Marx-Webber at 301-390-1114. 



Experts in the fields of politics, law, and national security are 

calling Moxley's work groundbreaking, comprehensive and of the utmost 

importance. In an indictment that Columbia Law School Dean David 

Leebron concludes, "requires a response" and Robert McNamara says 

should call on the President and Congress to investigate, Moxley 

expertly challenges the U.S. position on legality. Moxley also 

reveals that, to stave off an ICJ decision recognizing such total 

unlawfulness, the United States, acting through State and Defense 

Department attorneys, resorted to misrepresenting the facts and law 

to the Court. 



Robert McNamara describes Moxley's book as "the best exposition I 

have seen of the irrationality of the U.S. policy in this area, the 

irrationality of the policies of the other nuclear weapons states, 

and the irrationality of the human race in permitting the potential 

use of these weapons to continue." (Note: The April 29 event is 

closed to the press, however interviews can be arranged and copies of 

the speech can be made available.) 



MPI is a campaign of international citizen organizations launched in 

1998 to influence and assist middle power governments to encourage 

and educate the nuclear weapon states to commit to immediate 

practical steps to reduce nuclear dangers and commence negotiations 

to eliminate nuclear weapons. PNSR is a non-partisan network for 

professional organizations that share a concern about human and 

environmental needs and a desire to build a strong civilian economy 

through redirection of national priorities away from Cold War 

militarism and weapons protection. 

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



U.K. lawmaker regrets data falsification by nuclear fuel firm



AOMORI, Japan, April 26 (Kyodo) - A British lawmaker expressed regret 

Thursday over data falsification by British Nuclear Fuels PLC (BNFL) 

on fuel manufactured for shipment to Japan, which surfaced two years 

ago. 



Jack Cunningham, a House of Commons member, told an annual conference 

of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, held in the northeastern Japan 

city of Aomori, that the incident damaged relations between Britain 

and Japan. 



However, Cunningham noted the way in which BNFL deals with data on 

mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel (MOX) has improved significantly 

since being advised by British nuclear facility regulators. 



About 1,400 nuclear experts from Japan and abroad were participating 

in the three-day conference that began Wednesday. 



The venue of the conference was to be shifted Thursday afternoon to 

the village of Rokkasho, some 55 kilometers east of Aomori, where a 

used nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is being constructed. 



In September 1999, it came to light that quality-assurance data on a 

consignment of MOX fuel intended for use in the Takahama No. 3 

reactor in Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture had been 

falsified by workers at BNFL's Sellafield plant in Cumbria, northwest 

England. 



Cunningham is elected from Copeland constituency that includes 

Sellafield. 



The fuel was waiting to be shipped to Japan at the time of the 

disclosure. 



In December the same year, there was more embarrassment for BNFL when 

it was revealed that data on a consignment already in Takahama -- to 

be used for the No. 4 reactor -- had also been falsified. The 

shipment was delivered from Britain in September. 

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



Atomic Waste Rolls Into France



WOERTH, Germany (AP) - Thousands of police prevented demonstrators 

from blocking a train carrying nuclear waste on Wednesday, escorting 

the train into France on its way to Britain for reprocessing. 



The train, carrying five containers of spent fuel rods from two 

southern German nuclear plants, crossed the border near the German 

town of Woerth in the early evening. 



The containers are to be taken to the port of Dunkirk overnight, 

where French environmentalists said they would continue the 

demonstrations. 



In Germany, police deployed at least 4,500 officers to prevent any 

repeat of the massive protests which last month held up by almost a 

day a shipment of reprocessed waste returning from France. 



About 20 people were taken into temporary custody near the border 

Wednesday, but police said there were no major incidents. 



The day before, police detained 68 activists after a sit-down protest 

near the Neckarwestheim power plant where most of the waste 

originated. They have been released. 



Germany halted all nuclear shipments in 1998 after it emerged that 

radioactive emissions from the special containers had been exceeding 

safety limits. It also suspended dealings with the British plant last 

year in the wake of a scandal over fake records. 

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



Eletrobras' Avila on Furnas, Nuclear Energy, New Plant: Comment

  

Sao Paulo, April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Claudio Avila da Silva, president 

for Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA, Brazil's state- controlled 

electricity utility holding company known as Eletrobras, comments on 

Furnas Centrais Eletricas SA's debt, commercialization of nuclear 

energy, spending plans, and a new plant in the northern state of 

Para. 



On Furnas debt: 



``We will try to solve this problem inside the system between Furnas 

and Eletronuclear. The details will still be determined. But the (580 

million reais) debt will be paid.'' 



On nuclear energy sales: 



``I believe the nuclear energy is from the state so Eletrobras should 

be the one to sell it. The subject is being approached in a law to be 

voted in 3 weeks or a month that will discipline the sales of nuclear 

energy.'' 



Spending plans: 



``We are planning to invest 3.1 billion reais this year. About 1.3 

billion reais is only for transmission.'' 



Monte Belo hydroelectric plant: 



``A study for the feasibility of the Belo Monte plant will be ready 

in July. It is a project with a partnership characteristic. Depending 

on the consortium, we will likely use external financing.'' 



Avila added that Belo Monte plant is planned to be ready in 2007 and 

will have a capacity of 11,000 megawatts. 

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



Facts About Nuclear Power Plants



Facts and figures about nuclear power plants: 



Number: 103 operating nuclear power reactors at 64 plant sites in 31 

states. 



Annual power production: Nuclear accounts for 19.7 percent of all 

electricity produced, second to coal at 51 percent; 728 billion 

kilowatts-hours in 1999, compared with 577 billion kilowatt hours in 

1990. 



Reactor History: 



First reactor was at Shippingport, Pa., ordered by Duquesne Light in 

1954. Began operating in Dec. 2, 1957. No longer operating. 



Oldest operating reactor is Oyster Creek, in New Jersey, which began 

operation in December 1969. 



Last reactor to go into operation was Watts Bar Unit I, owned by 

Tennessee Valley Authority, ordered in 1970. Began operating in May 

1996. 



Last reactor ordered and built was Callaway near Fulton, Mo., ordered 

July 1973, It began operating in December 1984. 



Last order of a reactor was placed in 1978, but later was canceled. 



Reactor License Renewals: 



Five reactors at two plants (Calvert Cliffs Units 1 & 2 in Maryland; 

Oconee Units 1, 2, 3 in South Carolina) have received 20-year renewal 

licenses. Owners of five other reactors have filed for renewal. 

Owners of 32 reactors are expected to file over next four years. 



New Technology: 



Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified three new light-water 

reactor designs submitted by General Electric, Westinghouse and 

Combustion Engineering. 



Some U.S. utilities also are looking at a gas cooled, 125-megawatt 

``Pebble Bed Modular Reactor'' design. Plan is for a demonstration 

project to be completed in South Africa within a year. 

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



Union Opposes Hanford Security Change



YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The union representing guards at the Hanford 

nuclear reservation claims eliminating 24-hour security at two pools 

holding lethal spent fuel could put the public and environment at 

risk. 



The new security plan, which took effect last week, replaces the 

round-the-clock staffing at the 1.1 million-gallon basins with roving 

surveillance guards who cover a much larger area. 



The U.S. Energy Department and Fluor Hanford, the contractor managing 

the nuclear reservation, called the move a thrifty business decision 

that will make operations more efficient. 



The union's contention that the plan poses risks to the public is 

``flat-out wrong,'' said Mike Talbot, an Energy Department spokesman. 

The federal agency has no security scenario that would result in the 

draining of the two K Basins by terrorists or saboteurs, he said. 



``All of the scenarios that we've worked up show that we're doing the 

right thing. We're trying to be efficient with taxpayer dollars,'' 

Talbot said. 



Most of Hanford is closed to the public, with fences and the Columbia 

River limiting access to the 560-square-mile reservation in south-

central Washington, and security barricades are set up at the two 

roads leading inside. 



The K Basins contain about one-third of the radiation at Hanford, the 

most-contaminated nuclear site in the country. 



If either of the pools were ruptured by a terrorist attack or 

internal sabotage, it would ``make Chernobyl look like a Girl Scout 

campfire,'' said Darryl Sybouts, a former business agent for Local 21 

of the International Guards Union of America. 



About 2,100 tons of spent fuel, including 4 tons of plutonium, have 

been stored underwater in the basins, which were built in the 1950s. 



Most of the deadly radioactive rods there came from a reactor that 

was used to make plutonium for nuclear weapons during the Cold War, 

and were originally intended to be reprocessed. 



The existing collection represents about 80 percent of the nation's 

inventory of irradiated fuel left over from that era. 



The plutonium in the basins is not weapons-grade, one of the reasons 

constant, on-site security is unnecessary, said Michael Turner, a 

Fluor Hanford spokesman. 



Unprotected exposure to the fuel would be deadly, but he said it 

would take an elaborate plan to safely retrieve the fuel because it 

is underwater. 



But Charles Nelson, the local union's current business agent, said 

the real danger would be someone damaging the basins and allowing the 

contamination to escape into the environment, including the Columbia 

River, about 400 yards away. 



The K Basins and associated facilities are a hub of activity these 

days, as the DOE and its contractors move the spent nuclear fuel out 

of the pools for drying, packaging and storage. One of the pools has 

leaked, and moving the fuel out of the basins is a top priority. 



Without the 24-hour guard, the extra workers brought on board for the 

spent nuclear fuel project are no longer checked routinely for 

prohibited items, such as drugs, firearms and transmitters, Nelson 

said. 



Everyone wears a badge, and access is limited based on security 

standards determined by DOE, Turner said. 



Although it has been suggested that the union is sounding the alarm 

because it fears potential job cuts or lost overtime, that is not the 

case, Nelson said. No jobs have been eliminated, only reassigned, he 

said. 



``Our concern is security,'' he said. 



On the Net: 



Hanford: http://www.hanford.gov 



Union: http://www.amaonline.com/igua







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

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



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

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.