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Blair says no plans for more UK nuclear power
Index:
Blair says no plans for more UK nuclear power
German nuke industry plans to share accident risks
Japan fast-breeder reactor eases towards reopening
Fukui OKs Monju safety plan, civic groups want reactor junked
A-bomb victims group to hold int'l tribunal on nuclear weapons
Australia probes reports of nuclear tests on babies
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display
Duratek's Technology is Chosen for Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
========================================
Blair says no plans for more UK nuclear power
LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday
he had no plans to increase Britain's nuclear power capability.
"We have absolutely no plans to expand nuclear power," Blair told a
news conference two days ahead of an election he is expected to win
handsomely. "What we are actually doing is putting a lot of money now
into renewable forms of energy."
His Labour Party's election manifesto, released last month, was
slightly more opaque, saying coal and nuclear energy "currently play
important roles in ensuring diversity in our sources of electricity
generation."
U.S. President George W. Bush plans to reduce his country's
dependence on foreign oil with more oil, coal, natural gas and
nuclear power production.
"What the Americans do obviously is up to them but we've got no plans
to expand nuclear power here," Blair said.
Blair reaffirmed his commitment to meeting Britain's targets on
cutting greenhouse gas emissions as laid down by the Kyoto protocol.
"We've got to make progress across the board in getting that done,"
he said.
---------------
German nuke industry plans to share accident risks
FRANKFURT, June 5 (Reuters) - Germany's four nuclear plant operators
plan to share increased liability risks for accidents amongst
themselves rather than buying more cover on the market, a spokeswoman
for utility RWE <RWEG.DE> said on Tuesday.
The scheme was among a number of open discussion points ahead of the
planned signing of the operators' nuclear power phase-out programme
with the government on June 11, she said.
"The industry in last June's atomic compromise deal was given a
choice how to arrange cover for additional risks," the spokeswoman
for RWE Power AG, the plant division of leading utility RWE, said
from Essen.
"The operators are still in talks to clarify their plan to set up a
scheme of mutual risk sharing."
"But they will find a consensus...this will not hold up the signing
of the phase-out programme next Monday."
She made the remarks on behalf of the board chairman of RWE Power,
Gert Maichel, who is also the current president of the nuclear
industry body, German Atomic Forum (DAtF).
Apart from RWE, the nuclear operators are E.ON <EONG.DE>, HEW
<HEWG.DE>, and EnBW <EBKG.DE>.
The spokeswoman said Maichel was responding to a press report
claiming the operators were trying to save money on insurance
policies by rolling over the risk to the public sector and possible
victims.
The phase-out agreement with the German government , which requires
the country's 19 plants be closed by the mid-2020s, raises the
mandatory accident cover from currently 500 million marks ($216.2
million) to five billion marks ($2.16 billion).
"The (last June's) agreement said the additional risks could be
covered through insurance policies or through arrangements of equal
value," the spokeswoman said.
"The industry is clear it will bear the additional risk."
--------------
Japan fast-breeder reactor eases towards reopening
TOKYO, June 5 (Reuters) - Japan's prototype fast-breeder nuclear
reactor, Monju, edged towards resuming operations on Tuesday when
local authorities they would accept safety checks to be made ahead of
necessary construction work.
Monju, located in Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture 400 km (250 miles) west
of Tokyo, has been shut since December 1995 when an estimated three
tonnes of liquid sodium leaked from its cooling reactor.
The incident, and a subsequent revelation that plant officials had
tried to play down the seriousness of what happened by keeping secret
a videotape of the accident scene, enraged public opinion and eroded
confidence in the nuclear industry.
A spokesman at the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC),
Monju's operator, said it had asked Fukui Prefecture and the city of
Tsuruga last December to allow safety checks needed for it to begin
construction work that would enable it to resume operations.
He said local government leaders in Fukui Prefecture and the city of
Tsuruga were due to visit JNC on Tuesday to convey their acceptance
of the request.
But Monju still has a long way to go before it can start operating
again.
The JNC spokesman said the safety checks would take about a year.
After the checks, JNC will need the approval of the local authorities
again, this time in order to begin actual construction work needed
for Monju to begin operating.
The construction work itself is expected to take some 17 months, the
spokesman said.
Designed to produce more nuclear fuel than it consumes, Monju was a
cornerstone of resource-poor Japan's energy policy.
Since the shutdown of the nuclear reactor, Japan has shifted its
energy focus to the use of MOX fuel, a blend of uranium and plutonium
recycled from spent nuclear fuel.
But anti-nuclear sentiment has hindered Japan's attempts to begin the
use of MOX at commercial nuclear reactors, which was initially
planned to begin in 1999.
Earlier this month, Japan's largest utility Tokyo Electric Power Co
Inc (TEPCO) was forced to postpone the use of MOX fuel at one of its
nuclear reactors after a referendum in which some 53 percent of
voters in the village where the reactor is located opposed its use.
Fast-breeder reactors were conceived in the 1960s with the objective
of extending the resources of uranium fuel.
But technical difficulties have beset fast-breeder plants and caused
many countries which initially embraced the concept to abandon their
costly programmes.
--------------
Fukui OKs Monju safety plan, civic groups want reactor junked
FUKUI, Japan, June 5 (Kyodo) - Fukui Gov. Yukio Kurita on Tuesday
formally approved safety clearance measures that could lead to a
restart of the controversial Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor,
while civic groups gave the prime minister's office a petition
demanding it be scrapped.
Kurita handed a written approval to Yasumasa Togo, president of Monju
operator the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC).
The governor cleared the safety plan for the prototype reactor, which
has been off-line since a December 1995 sodium coolant leak, after
gaining the consent of Tsuruga Mayor Kazuharu Kawase on Monday. The
Monju is located in Tsuruga.
Last December, JNC submitted a request to local governments to allow
it to modify the reactor and resume operations. The safety
examinations are required for such modification.
Some local residents are contesting the construction of the reactor
itself in court as well as its restart.
Meanwhile, civic groups opposed to nuclear reactors submitted a
petition of more than 770,000 signatures urging the scrapping of the
Monju to the prime minister's office and the science ministry.
Another local group plans to collect signatures to ask the Fukui
prefectural government to organize a plebiscite on whether to approve
the restart.
''I don't think the approval for the safety clearance was based on
residents' opinions,'' said 52-year-old Takatoshi Yamazaki, director
of the group and a member of the Imadate town assembly. ''If the
governor wants to respect the opinion of the residents, he should
make efforts to realize the plebiscite.''
Although the governor's written approval stated that safety clearance
for the Monju should be considered separately from modifying and
resuming operations, it is a step toward ending about five and a half
years of inactivity at the reactor.
The Fukui government also intends to set up its own commission of
experts to conduct a safety examination apart from one by the central
government.
On receiving the approval, JNC applied to Tokyo to modify the
reactor. The central government is expected to conduct the safety
inspection for about one year.
If both the central and Fukui governments deem it safe, modifications
to the reactor would begin. Modification work is expected to last two
to three years.
Unlike regular light-water reactors that run on uranium, the Monju
reactor uses an oxide mix of plutonium and uranium and is designed to
generate more plutonium than it burns.
It reached criticality in April 1994, but caught fire during a trial
run after the sodium coolant leak.
Its operator, then called Donen, was dissolved in 1998 after being
criticized for concealing video footage of the accident. JNC
subsequently took over.
Upon granting Tuesday's approval, Kurita urged the JNC president to
confirm the safety of the Monju as a whole and to make public safety
information.
The governor accused JNC of the delayed report to the Fukui
government of a leakage of radioactive material at another
experimental nuclear reactor facility in Tsuruga in May.
''The incident damaged the trust of the people of Fukui in the
company,'' said the governor, who urged the firm to review the
incident.
The tritium leak was detected in a facility housing the Fugen
advanced thermal reactor. It occurred between the exterior of the
reactor container and a concrete wall surrounding the facility. The
substance had been leaking since January.
Togo said he would make his best efforts to gain the support of Fukui
residents for Japan's nuclear energy policy. While Japan has been
pushing for a fast-breeder reactor for future energy, most other
countries are giving up such reactors due to economic and safety
concerns.
In a May 27 plebiscite, villagers in Niigata Prefecture rejected a
plan to use recycled nuclear fuel containing plutonium at a local
nuclear power plant.
---------------
A-bomb victims group to hold int'l tribunal on nuclear weapons
TOKYO, June 5 (Kyodo) - The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb
Sufferers Organization (Hidankyo) met Tuesday in Tokyo and determined
an action policy for fiscal 2001, including promoting efforts for an
international tribunal to judge nuclear weapons crimes in 2005.
According to Hidankyo officials, A-bomb victims from Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and those who suffer from nuclear development and tests will
be plaintiffs in the trial. Defendants will be the world's nuclear
powers.
The trial is expected to be held in several countries with legal
experts serving as judges. The aim of the tribunal is to reveal the
inhumanity and criminal nature of nuclear weapons.
Hidankyo is the only nationwide organization of A-bomb survivors from
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is calling for overseas nongovernmental
organizations to take part in the effort as it cannot realize the
event alone.
The group also adopted a declaration of A-bomb victims for the 21st
century. It said Japan should be left out of the U.S. nuclear
umbrella and compensate A-bomb victims.
Hidankyo also decided to ask the central government not to appeal
last Friday's Osaka District Court ruling ordering the Osaka
prefectural government to pay an allowance to an A-bomb victim living
in South Korea. The prefectural government had stopped paying the
allowance to him in accordance with the central government's policy.
----------------
Australia probes reports of nuclear tests on babies
CANBERRA, June 5 (Reuters) - Australia launched an investigation on
Tuesday into reports that the bodies of Australian babies were sent
to the United States for use in nuclear energy experiments in the
1950s and 1960s.
Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said he was not aware of an
alleged operation in which the babies' bodies were shipped overseas
for research purposes without their parents' permission.
British newspapers this week that the bodies of stillborn babies and
infants were snatched from Australian hospitals for use in U.S.
Department of Energy tests to monitor radioactivity levels of the
element Strontium 90.
"Project Sunshine," the reports said, began in 1955 when University
of Chicago doctor Willard Libby, who was awarded a Nobel prize for
his research into carbon dating, appealed for bodies, preferably
stillborn or newly-born babies, to test atomic bomb fallout.
The reports said about 6,000 bodies were taken from hospitals in
Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United States and South
America over 15 years without the permission of parents.
"Obviously the information that has come to light is very disturbing
and the minister has asked his department for information," a
spokesman for Wooldridge told Reuters.
He said the minister was seeking hospital records from that era from
the relevant health authorities in Australia's six states and two
territories.
This was the second report of humans being used in nuclear tests to
emerge in Australia in the past month.
Australia last month raised allegations its troops were used as human
guinea pigs during British atom bomb tests in the 1950s to test
protective clothing in low-radiation nuclear tests at Maralinga in
the South Australian outback.
Britain told the European Court of Human Rights in 1997 that no
humans had ever been experimented on during its atom bomb tests but
documents unearthed in Australia's National Archives by a Scottish
researcher contradicted this.
---------------
Lucas Heights nuclear reactor plans go on public display
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. - 5 June, 2001 - Details of
plans to build a replacement nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in
Sydney's south go on public display today and mark the start of a 12
month assessment process.
The lengthy series of documents, including a safety analysis report,
will be examined by the regulator the Australian Radiation Protection
and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) before any decision is made on
the future of the reactor.
The plans include information on the building, which will contain the
reactor, analysis of any possible accidents and information on
temporary storage facilities.
Dr John Loy from ARPANSA says the plans even detail what the
operators will do to protect the Lucas Heights reactor against a
light airplane crash.
"They have in fact put a safety net around the reactor building to
strengthen it defences against aircraft crash that's a bit
unexpected," he said.
"That's a pretty superficial thing and I think otherwise we would see
what they have done as being a professional approach of reactor
design and analysis of its safety."
--------------
Duratek's Technology is Chosen for Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
Project
COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2001--Duratek, Inc.
(NASDAQ:DRTK) announced today that it signed two contracts with
Bechtel National, Inc. (BNI), the prime contractor to the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) for the design and construction of the
Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP).
The first contract is for research, development, and testing of pilot-
scale high-level and low-level radioactive waste vitrification
systems. It is a multi-year contract with the first task release
valued at $14.3 million over the next six months.
The second contract, a multi-year contract to support Bechtel over
the course of the WTP project, is for full-scale vitrification system
design support with the first six month task valued at $4.3 million.
The Hanford WTP project is the DOE's largest and most complex
environmental cleanup project. The ultimate objective of the project
is to treat 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste stored
in 177 underground tanks, the size of three-story buildings, at the
DOE's Hanford Site in Southeastern Washington State.
Robert Prince, Duratek's President and CEO stated, "Duratek has been
providing support on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant project since
1998. We are proud to be continuing work on this important project.
We believe that providing the technology for this major DOE clean-up
positions us well for a long-term role in the massive Hanford Waste
Treatment Plant project."
Duratek implements technologies and provides services that protect
people from radiation and the environment from radioactive waste.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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