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Swiss end ban on sending nuclear waste to Britain
Index:
Swiss end ban on sending nuclear waste to Britain
Radioactive waste found at Swedish rubbish dumps
Germany To Cut Nuke Waste Transports
Post-Soviet leaders seek remedies for Chernobyl
Scientists Using Chernobyl Disaster
Parliament ousts Ukraine PM as thousands protest
Nuclear License Requests Expected
Lawmakers Question NRC Ability to Relicense US Nuclear Plants
======================================
Swiss end ban on sending nuclear waste to Britain
BERNE, April 27 (Reuters) - Switzerland has lifted its ban on sending
spent nuclear fuel rods to Britain for reprocessing after winning
assurances that a British plant had tightened safety standards, the
Swiss regulatory agency said on Friday.
The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (HSK) had blocked Swiss
nuclear waste shipments to the Sellafield reprocessing plant,
northwest England, in March 2000 amid concerns about its safety
record highlighted in a report from British regulators.
HSK officials met representatives of Britain's Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate (NII) and Sellafield operator British Nuclear Fuels Plc
last week to discuss changes NII had ordered and make spot checks on
how they were being implemented.
"The NII director described the Sellafield plant as safe. The new
director of Sellafield confirmed that pressure to contain costs had
been too high in years past and that security measures had been
affected by cost cutting and job cuts," HSK said, but added this was
now being remedied.
Revelations of falsified data at Sellafield triggered an
international scandal in late 1999 and prompted some countries,
including Germany and Japan, to ban imports from BNFL of tainted
nuclear fuel. Germany resumed nuclear waste shipments to Sellafield
this month.
---------------
Radioactive waste found at Swedish rubbish dumps
STOCKHOLM, April 27 (Reuters) - Sweden's nuclear safety watchdog said
on Friday radioactive waste from industry had been found at normal
waste tips and that it had started an investigation into the matter.
"This is really bad as it increases the health risks and we are now
working to raise the awareness within industry and other institutions
which produce radioactive waste," Carl-Goran Stalnacke, spokesman at
the watchdog, told Reuters.
The radioactive waste found at the tips came largely from measuring
instruments used in industry, hospitals and universities, he said.
Handling of radioactive waste, which increase the risk of sterility
and cancer, is very costly and some companies dump their radioactive
waste as normal rubbish to save costs. Others seemed unaware the
waste was radioactive, he said.
Leif Andersson, CEO at Sweden's radioactive handling company,
Studsvik RadWaste, said it costs about 1,000-10,000 crowns ($99-987)
for a company to send its waste to RadWaste.
Stalnacke also said many seemed unaware that the measuring
instruments contained radioactive elements. He said he hoped the
investigation would boost awareness among users of such measuring
tools.
---------------
Germany To Cut Nuke Waste Transports
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Germany said Friday that it will cut the
number of nuclear waste shipments to try to reduce protests, but anti-
nuclear groups denounced the decision.
Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said that, starting next year,
trains will haul the waste to the Gorleben dump in northern Germany
only once a year. Gorleben is Germany's main storage site for the
reprocessed waste.
The amount of nuclear waste shipped will be doubled to 12 containers
per train, Trittin said on ARD television.
``Such a decision does not defuse the situation, it escalates the
conflict,'' said Wolfgang Ehmke, a spokesman for area residents who
have fought the dump for two decades.
A Greenpeace spokesman accused the government of simply wanting to
make transports cheaper.
``It will be the largest transport ever, with 12 containers, so there
is a bigger danger of pollution because more radiation is being
transported,'' Veit Buerger said.
Germany sends spent nuclear fuel from 19 power plants abroad for
reprocessing under contracts that oblige the country to take back the
resulting waste for storage.
Germany's anti-nuclear lobby staged huge demonstrations last month
when a shipment of German waste was taken to Gorleben from a French
reprocessing plant.
Protesters, some of whom chained themselves to rail tracks, delayed
that shipment by 18 hours and promised to disrupt future shipments as
well. Dozens were injured in scuffles.
--------------
Post-Soviet leaders seek remedies for Chernobyl
BABCHIN, Belarus, April 26 (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 which 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 30-km (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 gathered in a field.
He accused the West of abandoning Belarus, Ukraine's northern
neighbour, 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 head bands
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 unfavourable 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 the succeeding years, including large numbers of
"liquidators" drafted in 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 new higher security
standards at existing nuclear power stations and parliament expressed
concern at attempts to cut down on rehabilitation programmes.
---------------
Scientists Using Chernobyl Disaster
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Fifteen years after the nuclear accident at
Chernobyl, scientists and are using the site to develop new
technologies to prevent the leakage of radioactive dust and
particles.
Artur Korneyev, deputy head of the Chernobyl project, said a special
material called EKOR developed to coat the sarcophagus in a destroyed
reactor could in the future be used to prevent hazardous waste
leakage worldwide.
``EKOR offers a solution to the myriad of problems associated with
nuclear waste handling, disposal and storage,'' Korneyev said
Thursday, the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.
The April 26, 1986, explosion and fire sent a radioactive cloud over
much of Europe and contaminated large areas of then-Soviet Ukraine,
Russia and Belarus. Continued leakage of radioactive waste from the
Chernobyl reactor is linked to many of the health problems.
EKOR, developed by scientists at the EuroAsian Physical Society and
tested at Kurchatov Research Institute in Moscow, has so far proven
effective in stopping leakage.
Since last March, when the crumbling sarcophagus at Chernobyl was
coated, the material - which thickens after application and
hermetically seals in waste for up to 400 years - has been the most
successful protectant so far, according to Korneyev.
Korneyev was among Chernobyl experts who gathered Thursday at the
United Nations to commemorate the anniversary of the disaster.
In a symbolic gesture earlier Thursday, Kenzo Oshima - the
undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs who himself is a
survivor of Hiroshima - rang the peace bell in memory of the
Chernobyl victims. The bell was a gift to the United Nations from
Japan.
``This accident at Chernobyl is much more than the worst
technological disaster in the history of nuclear power generation, it
is also a grave and continuing humanitarian tragedy,'' he said.
---------------
Parliament ousts Ukraine PM as thousands protest
KIEV, April 26 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament voted overwhelmingly
on Thursday to oust Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko in a move likely
to hobble faltering economic reforms and deepen the country's
political crisis.
The decision outraged thousands of Yushchenko supporters who clogged
streets near parliament in the biggest demonstration yet during more
than three months of political turmoil and protests against President
Leonid Kuchma.
"Shame, shame! Kuchma out, Kuchma out," the crowd roared outside
parliament. Police estimated 15,000 people had joined the protest.
Inside, Yushchenko vowed to fight on.
"I am not leaving politics. I am leaving so I can return," he said.
Members supporting him yelled "Yushchenko, Yushchenko!"
Thursday's mass show of support for Yushchenko, seen as a reformer
who encouraged closer links with Europe, was twinned with renewed
calls for Kuchma to go.
Kuchma has been under pressure to resign for his alleged role in the
kidnap and murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze last year, a charge
he fiercely denies.
Many in the crowd accused Kuchma of using his influence over
parliamentary parties with big business links to ease out a premier
whose popularity has for months outstripped his own.
"Who dismissed the prime minister? The president did of course!"
shouted one woman after the vote, sponsored by the Communist Party
and backed by parties accused by opponents of being run by powerful
businessmen or "oligarchs."
"The people who voted against him are the oligarchs and the
Communists," said Artyom Myrhorodsky, 22, an economics student. "The
Communists want to join their Russian brothers and the oligarchs have
close business ties to Russia."
KUCHMA SAYS HE REGRETS VOTE
But Kuchma, visiting the region around the Chernobyl nuclear plant on
the 15th anniversary of the disaster, insisted he was not happy about
the ousting of his prime minister.
"As head of state, I may not like the decision taken by parliament.
But it happened," he told reporters.
The president declined to speculate on who might succeed Yushchenko
once he signs a decree which will formally sack him.
With parliamentary elections looming early next year, analysts have
said the job of acting premier could be a poisoned chalice. Many of
his cabinet are expected to accept portfolios as acting ministers,
but Yushchenko has said he will not.
The crowd cheered as Yushchenko emerged from parliament, flanked by
his colleagues and wiping tears from his eyes.
"I said this government would be for the people and for all the
citizens of Ukraine. Thank you to all those who supported me and my
government for the past one and a half years," he said.
A wooden coffin daubed with the names of the parties which opposed
Yushchenko was set down at the steps of parliament as people chanted
for Kuchma's impeachment.
Around 3,000 protesters marched on Kuchma's administration building
and set up a barricade on an adjacent road. Most later dispersed, as
did those outside parliament.
"The police are with the people, the filth are with Kuchma," chanted
the crowd, some waving blue and yellow national flags.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who visited Kiev
last week, said he regretted Yushchenko's sacking.
"The prime minister had the confidence of the European Union in the
way of reforms and I feel sorry this has taken place," Solana told
Reuters in Brussels.
Deputies voted in two stages to oust the premier. In the final stage,
the 450-seat parliament voted 263 to 69 against Yushchenko, a former
central banker appointed in December 1999.
Western investors and the International Monetary Fund are expected to
be alarmed by the demise of Yushchenko, whom they regard as the
former Soviet state's best hope for reform.
Polls showed Yushchenko's popularity was based on his reputation for
honesty in a corrupt country.
Maria Pitrivna, a 55-year-old pensioner, said that was the reason she
came to support him: "He raised our pensions and is a decent man who
works for the people."
---------------
Nuclear License Requests Expected
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Operators of at least eight of every 10 nuclear
power reactors are expected to seek permission to keep plants running
beyond their initial 40-year licenses, the chairman of the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission said Thursday.
Reflecting the resurgence of nuclear power, ``the industry has
pursued license renewal in earnest,'' said Richard Meserve told
reporters at the agency's headquarters.
Meserve, a Democrat who became the commission's chairman 18 months
ago, said he expects the Bush administration's energy task force to
endorse nuclear power as an essential part of the nation's energy
mix.
``Perhaps the most startling recent development is the growing
industry interest in the construction of new nuclear plants,''
Meserve said, although he acknowledged that a license application for
a new plant may still be some time away.
He said he would not be surprised if some of the reactors abandoned
in the 1980s for economic reasons were dusted off and reconsidered
for completion. The agency would have to complete the licensing
approval process in such cases.
The commission has approved 20-year license extensions to two
utilities, involving five reactors, and has applications for license
renewals for 34 additional reactors on file.
``We now expect that between 85 percent and 100 percent of the
existing nuclear plants will seek license renewal,'' Meserve said.
``It is even possible that we may receive an application to conclude
certain reactor projects that were suspended for economic reasons in
the 1980s.''
Meserve declined to speculate how many of these applications will be
approved under an expedited review process. The commission has
established a goal of completing each license renewal within 24 to 30
months, he said.
``We have to be satisfied that if we allow an extension ... there
will not be a reduction in safety,'' he said. ``If they don't meet
the criteria, we're going to reject the application.''
Declining budgets and an aging work force of nuclear specialists have
concerned some commission officials as the agency prepares for a rush
of new business. Meserve said he has some of those concerns and
believes ``we need to rebuild our bench strength.''
``We now have six times as many people over 60 (years of age) as we
have under 30 in the building,'' Meserve said.
Still, Meserve said he was ``confident that we are up to the task''
of regulating the changing and rejuvenated nuclear industry.
He rejected claims by some nuclear critics that the agency's attempt
to streamline regulations and industry oversight amounts to less
scrutiny and protection.
The aim is ``that our regulations do not impose needless barriers''
while assuring that public health and safety are protected, Meserve
said.
On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov/
---------------
Lawmakers Question NRC Ability to Relicense US Nuclear Plants
Washington, April 26 (Bloomberg) -- Three key U.S. lawmakers
questioned the ability of federal nuclear regulators to handle the
increased workload of relicensing nuclear power reactors and handling
applications for new licenses and site permits.
In a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard
Meserve, Republican Representatives Billy Tauzin, Joe Barton and
James Greenwood expressed concern that the commission's budget
request does not allow for relicensing aging nuclear plants and other
activities that are increasing faster than had been anticipated.
``With respect to nuclear reactor licensing activities, it is
apparent that the number of power uprate applications (to increase
output capacity at reactors), license transfer applications, license
renewal applications, and pre-application interactions for new
licenses NRC has received this year was well beyond the number
anticipated,'' the three congressmen wrote.
By law, nuclear power plants must be relicensed every 20 years to
ensure that they continue to meet safety standards. Many of the
nation's 103 nuclear plants are getting close to that deadline, and
high electricity prices have rekindled industry interest in building
new plants.
In a briefing with reporters today, Meserve defended his 2002
appropriation request to Congress.
``Since interest in the possibility of new construction has arisen in
the last few months, as a result, our budget doesn't reflect that,''
Meserve said. ``The NRC does have serious manpower problems we need
to address.'' He said many commission scientists have retired and
universities are not graduating many nuclear engineers.
Money and Manpower
Tauzin, of Louisiana, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee; Barton, of Texas, chairman of its energy and air quality
subcommittee; and Greenwood, of Pennsylvania, chairman of its
oversight subcommittee, asked Meserve to address concerns about money
and manpower. They said their committee staff would evaluate the
NRC's resources, budget request and future plans to deal with its new
workload.
``It is apparent that NRC has continued to ensure that nuclear
reactor inspection activities are not adversely affected, and safety
has been maintained even though a reallocation and possibly a
reprogramming of NRC funds may be necessary to work on these
unplanned activities,'' they wrote.
``However, the committee seeks a better understanding of the
regulatory, research, licensing and other activities that will be
delayed as a result of resource constraints NRC is experiencing this
year.''
Meserve told reporters the commission will keep the review period for
relicensing applications down to 30 months. Lawmakers and energy
analysts have expressed concern that nuclear and other types of power
plants may be bogged down in regulatory hurdles as generators work to
keep up with rising electricity demand.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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