Meserve on Future of Nuclear Power Industry: Comment

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

Index:



Meserve on Future of Nuclear Power Industry: Comment 

Statement by the President on Ukraine and Chornobyl Nuclear Plant

Post-Soviet leaders seek remedies for Chernobyl

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Meserve on Future of Nuclear Power Industry: Comment 



Rockville, Maryland, April 26 (Bloomberg) -- The following are 

remarks by Richard Meserve, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, on the state of the nuclear power industry and the future 

of a waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, at his annual 

news conference: 



Generating companies that run nuclear power plants are consolidating 

in part as a result of electricity deregulation, Meserve said. 



``We're seeing a situation where there is a lot of restructuring 

going on in the nuclear industry, driven in part by deregulation,'' 

he said. ``We're seeing consolidation in the industry where a few 

companies are seriously interested in acquiring plants from others.''



Such consolidation should improve safety, and the commission is 

monitoring the consolidation to ensure companies purchasing other 

plants have the means to maintain them and aren't owned by foreign 

interests, he said. 



Meserve also discussed the pending approval of the Yucca Mountain 

nuclear waste storage facility. 



``We're having discussions with the Environmental Protection Agency 

over the standards to be applied to Yucca Mountain,'' he said, adding 

that disagreements have arisen over whether to set separate 

groundwater monitoring standards or to include them in the overall 

monitoring of the storage facility. 



The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has suggested that it should be 

responsible for environmental standards at the site, not the EPA. 



``The EPA would apply very antiquated science in assessing whether 

groundwater regulations were satisfied,'' Meserve said. The NRC would 

do a better job, he said. 



Putting the NRC in charge of the standards would require the approval 

of Congress, which may be as divisive an issue as the specifications 

and location of the site itself. Environmental groups say Yucca 

Mountain is an inadequate storage facility that may leak. 



``Our obligation is to call matters before us as we see them,'' 

Meserve said. ``We're not going to be affected by politics, pressure 

or public attitudes.'' 



The NRC is also discussing the design for Excelon Corp.'s proposed 

Pebble Bed Modular Reactor in South Africa, which Meserve said would 

use helium instead of water and would be smaller than conventional 

reactors. To be built, the design must be approved by the commission.



``PBMR could pose some safety advantages, but we have not analyzed 

those yet,'' Meserve said. ``We are in a preliminary conversation 

with Excelon about possibly undertaking certification of that 

design.'' 



The company is slated to build a test facility in South Africa, and 

Meserve said the NRC would be willing to study the test generator as 

well, provided South African officials approve. 

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



Statement by the President on Ukraine and Chornobyl Nuclear Plant

 

WASHINGTON, April 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released 

today by the White House: 



STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT 



Last year, on December 15, Ukraine ended one of the darkest chapters 

of the Soviet legacy and opened a new stage in Ukraine's evolution 

into a modern European state when it permanently closed the Chornobyl 

Nuclear Plant. 



Closing Chornobyl created the circumstances for a safer and more 

prosperous Ukraine for future generations.  We are reminded of this 

today on the 15th anniversary of the terrible accident at Chornobyl 

and are again grateful that an environmental threat has been removed 

from the Central European landscape. 



Today's anniversary is an occasion for the global community to pause 

and reflect on the lessons provided by this disaster, to recall the 

valor and dignity that the people of Ukraine displayed in the face of 

adversity -- and to acknowledge the suffering that many victims of 

Chornobyl continue to endure throughout the region. 



I am proud of the American people's role in helping to alleviate this 

suffering -- at the time of the tragedy and continuing through today. 

 I am proud of our continued efforts to work with Ukraine to improve 

nuclear safety and mitigate the harsh social impact of Chornobyl's 

closure on the local population. 



Much work remains to be done in Ukraine's transition to a modern 

European state.  This work will require strong and courageous 

leadership over the coming months and years.  It will require real 

support for democracy and difficult, but necessary reforms.  Last 

year strong Ukrainian leadership and committed international 

assistance achieved great results in Chornobyl.  I urge Ukraine to 

stay on the path of reform it set out upon last year.  Former U.S. 

President Theodore Roosevelt once noted that "it is only through 

strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately 

win the goal of true national greatness." 



I firmly believe that Ukraine's national greatness rests in Europe, 

and in its transatlantic and global ties.  The United States stands 

ready to work with Ukraine as it undertakes the political and 

economic reforms necessary to build these ties that are so vital to 

the brighter future Ukrainians seek for themselves and their 

children. 

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



Post-Soviet leaders seek remedies for Chernobyl



BABCHIN, Belarus (Reuters) - Leaders of ex-Soviet republics hit by 

the Chernobyl disaster marked Thursday's 15th anniversary of the 

world's worst nuclear accident with anger at the West's past failure 

to help, and pleas for investment to build a better future. 



Ukraine and Belarus both accused the West of failing to provide 

promised funds to clean up the contamination that devastated large 

stretches of their countries, and pondered new ways of raising funds. 





It was the first time the anniversary of the blast had been marked 

since the last working reactor at the station in Ukraine was shut 

down last December under Western pressure. 



Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, donning fatigues to tour 

the 18-mile exclusion zone still ringing the station, held out to 

foreign investors the lure of big tax breaks if they launched 

business projects in affected areas. 



"Those who invest in these areas will reap huge benefits from us as 

they do in free economic zones. I believe investors will come," 

Lukashenko told reporters. 



He accused the West of abandoning Belarus, Ukraine's northern 

neighbor, to cope on its own with the contamination covering one-

fifth of its territory. 



"The capitalists and the leadership of those states are fat, wealthy 

and don't care. They don't give a damn about how the Belarussian 

people live," he said. 



In Minsk, about 3,000 opposition demonstrators staged their 

traditional anniversary march -- deliberately combined with 

denunciations of Lukashenko. Some wore gas masks or white headbands 

and called for the removal of Lukashenko, accused in the West of 

limiting human rights. He faces re-election this year. 



In Ukraine, processions were pre-empted by a 15,000-strong 

demonstration in support of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko -- 

dismissed by a parliamentary vote. Protests in recent months have 

also called for President Leonid Kuchma's resignation over the 

unexplained murder of a journalist. 



PRESIDENT SAYS UKRAINE ON ITS OWN 



Kuchma told a gathering outside the stricken station, where 9,000 

staff still carry out maintenance, that the West had never made good 

on promises of millions of dollars of aid. 



"Ukraine has borne its Chernobyl cross practically on its own for 15 

years in the most unfavorable economic conditions," he said. 



"Only together can we overcome the consequences of the terrible 

Chernobyl tragedy, help all who suffered and secure the future of new 

generations." 



The explosion on April 26, 1986, destroyed the station's fourth 

reactor and spewed radioactivity over most of Europe. The blast 

produced radiation levels hundreds of times those unleashed by the 

U.S. atomic bomb at Hiroshima in 1945. 



About 30 people died in the immediate aftermath of the blast, and 

thousands over succeeding years, including large numbers of 

"liquidators" drafted with a minimum of equipment to fight the blaze 

and erect a concrete "sarcophagus" around the reactor. 



Hundreds of thousands were relocated, sometimes more than once, but 

vast numbers still live in affected areas. Tens of thousands remain 

affected by radiation-related diseases, among them post-Chernobyl 

children. 



The disaster halted the Soviet Union's plans to expand the nuclear 

industry, and the collapse of the Soviet Union five years later 

sharply cut aid to affected areas. Russia's first new post-Soviet 

reactor is to go on stream later this year. 



Russia, also badly affected by the disaster, marked the day with a 

ceremony at a cemetery outside Moscow where thousands of Chernobyl 

victims and "liquidators" are buried. 



The Russian government pledged to introduce higher security standards 

at existing nuclear power stations, and parliament expressed concern 

at attempts to cut down on rehabilitation programs.



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

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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