Hiranuma to visit Niigata over controversial MOX fuel plan

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

Index:



Hiranuma to visit Niigata over controversial MOX fuel plan

Economics likely to hamper British nuclear revival

EU energy chief eyes continued coal subsidies

Japan to urge Asia-Pacific to help strengthen IAEA safeguards

SA Parliament told hospital kept organs without consent

Bush picks Brookhaven chief for top tech post

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



Hiranuma to visit Niigata over controversial MOX fuel plan



TOKYO, June 26 (Kyodo) - Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo

Hiranuma said Tuesday he will visit Niigata Prefecture on Saturday to

meet with local senior government officials about the controversial

plan to use plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in nuclear power

plants.



The move comes in response to the rejection May 27 by residents of

the village of Kariwa in the prefecture of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s

''pluthermal'' plan to use MOX fuel in its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear

plant.



Hiranuma said he will meet Niigata Gov. Ikuo Hirayama, Kashiwazaki

Mayor Masazumi Saikawa, and Kariwa Mayor Hiroo Shinada.



He is also expected to visit Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa

nuclear plant, ministry officials said. It will be Hiranuma's first

visit to Niigata as the industry minister.



Hiranuma said he will explain the government's stance over the

pluthermal project to the local officials.



The government and power companies want to use MOX fuel in commonly

used light-water reactors. But so far it has not been used at any of

Japan's nuclear plants due to public concern about its safety.

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



Economics likely to hamper British nuclear revival



LONDON (Reuters) - Nuclear power, dead and buried across much of

Europe, is back under the spotlight in Britain after the government

this week launched an in-depth review of the nation's future energy

needs.



New Energy Minister Brian Wilson, who is said to be pro-nuclear, said

Monday the government would look at what role nuclear power could

play in Britain's future energy mix, as well as assessing coal, gas,

oil and renewables.



The move comes six years after the UK last commissioned a reactor and

underscores nuclear's one big advantage over fossil fuels - the

absence of greenhouse gas emissions which many scientists believe

cause global warming.



But analysts said they doubted the economics of hugely expensive new

reactors, which can take up to a decade to build, could be made to

work in a liberalized energy market characterized by tumbling

electricity prices.



"The decision to invest is down to commercial companies looking for a

particular rate of return which make it difficult to justify nuclear

unless there are very large premiums for emission reductions," said

Neil Cornelius at industry consultants ICF.



"I don't see emissions permits as sufficiently valuable in the short

to medium term to make up (for the high start-up costs)," he said.



New nuclear power stations cost three to four billion pounds ($4-$6

billion) to build, about four times as much as a gas-fired plant,

analysts say.



"If you needed to make serious investment without any guaranteed

return in deregulated markets then that could be very tricky," said

David Newbery, an energy expert at Cambridge University.



JUGGLING OBJECTIVES



The clock is ticking for Britain's energy policymakers who must

juggle the need for long-term, secure energy supply with a target of

cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent below 1990 levels by

2010.



Nuclear accounts for roughly 22 percent of electricity supply in the

UK, with coal and gas about a third each.



Renewable energy like wind and solar power accounts for just under

three percent of supply, including hydro-electric plants.



Renewed prospects for nuclear power in the UK, where the last reactor

was built in 1995, drew sharp condemnation from environmentalists.



"This energy review, and the fight against climate change, must not

be used as an excuse to build a new generation of nuclear reactors,"

said Friends of the Earth campaigner Mark Johnson.



In addition to worries about safety, a big issue is how to dispose of

radioactive nuclear waste from the plants which takes thousands of

years to decay.



A reprieve for nuclear power in the UK would go against the approach

taken across much of Europe.



Germany and Sweden have taken the plunge and decided to phase out

nuclear energy and most other EU states are not actively developing

nuclear power.



But France still relies on nuclear energy for 80 percent of

electricity. Finland is alone is expanding its nuclear sector with

plans to build a fifth reactor.



LIFE SPAN EXTENSION UNCERTAIN



Analysts said it was unclear to what extent Britain could minimize

the need to build new reactors by extending the life of existing

plants.



"To determine the potential for life extension you need a sustained

period of continuous operation over several years," said Stewart

Gray, analyst at Scotland-based consultants Wood Mackenzie.



"Most of (British Energy's) AGR reactors have been up, down, broken

and fixed. Life extension is a very uncertain issue," he said.



But he said on current evidence it appeared the UK's aging



reactors would shut before their counterparts in mainland Europe.



State-owned British Nuclear Fuels has already started shutting down

its old Magnox plants and plans to switch them all off by 2021.



But Gray did not rule new nuclear stations in Britain in the longer

term.



"My guess is that the UK would like to see new builds in the U.S.

first but in that case we would be looking at 20 years down the line

for new plants in the UK," he said.

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



EU energy chief eyes continued coal subsidies



BRUSSELS, June 26 (Reuters) - The European Union's energy policy

chief said on Tuesday that she would propose allowing Europe's coal

industry to continue to receive aid despite EU plans to phase out

fossil fuel subsidies by 2010.



EU Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio said subsidies should be

allowed for coal, alongside those for renewable energies, as a way of

securing energy supplies for the bloc, which is heavily dependent on

imported fuel.



"Aid to coal must be phased out by 2010, by which time all countries

will have to have made significant reductions in their gas emissions

required by the Kyoto protocol (on climate change)," de Palacio said

in a statement.



"But it is important thereafter to maintain a strategic reserve,

meaning some of the infrastructure, qualified personnel and

technological experience," she added.



De Palacio has said in the past she favoured keeping a low level of

coal producing capacity in the EU and that this would have to be

subsidised, but this was the clearest statement to date that she

would formally propose EU rules allowing coal subsidies well into the

future.



"In the coming weeks I will propose measures that aim to create a

platform of subsidised primary energies consisting of coal and

renewable energy sources -- it's a matter of improving the security

of energy supply in Europe," she said.



De Palacio has angered environmentalists by her comments that coal --

a major source of greenhouse gas -- and nuclear power were good

indigenous sources of energy for Europe and should not be shunned for

ideological reasons.

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



Japan to urge Asia-Pacific to help strengthen IAEA safeguards



TOKYO, June 26 (Kyodo) - Japan will urge its fellow Asia-Pacific

states to join efforts to strengthen nuclear inspection safeguards

worldwide by signing and implementing protocols adopted by the

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Foreign Ministry

official said Tuesday.



To that end, the government is sponsoring with the IAEA a two-day

symposium starting Wednesday at a Tokyo hotel. The event is aimed at

reinforcing IAEA safeguards in the region by soliciting more

countries to implement the ''Additional Protocols.''



Established in 1997 in the wake of events such as suspected

development of nuclear weapons in Iraq and North Korea, the protocols

allow the IAEA to conduct on-site inspections of nuclear facilities

on advance notices as short as two to 24 hours in countries that have

implemented them.



Those countries are also obliged to provide the agency with a wide

range of information about their activities involving atomic power,

while the IAEA can designate ''sites'' rather than individual

''facilities'' as subjects of its inspections.



Japan, which signed the Additional Protocols in December 1998 and

implemented them a year later, has undergone 19 inspections based on

the arrangement since last November and will share its experiences

with participants at the symposium, the official said.



Of the 55 countries that have signed the protocols so far, 19 -- of

which five are from the Asia-Pacific region -- have implemented them.

The five are Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan and New Zealand.



''Japan, a major nuclear power country handling large amounts of

nuclear material, wants to promote the peaceful use of nuclear power

while gaining the trust of the international community, and to that

end we will support the IAEA,'' the official said.



''One of the most important issues facing the IAEA at the moment is

the Additional Protocols. We are holding the seminar in the hopes

that as many countries as possible will implement them,'' the

official added.



Aside from Japan and the IAEA, 15 countries from the region,

including China, the Philippines, South Korea, the United States and

Vietnam, are scheduled to send government representatives well-versed

in disarmament and nonproliferation issues or nuclear energy.



The official said an invitation was extended to North Korea to take

part as an observer, but there was no response as of Tuesday

afternoon.

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



SA Parliament told hospital kept organs without consent



26 June, 2001, Australia Broadcasting Corportaion, South Australia's

Human Services Minister Dean Brown says there is  evidence of

inappropriate retention of organs and tissues by South  Australian

hospitals prior to 1987.



Mr Brown has told the SA Parliament how an initial check of records

failed to turn up evidence on recent claims that remains of stillborn

 Australian babies were used in US nuclear experiments decades ago.



But Mr Brown says the check has also revealed that the Women's and

Children's Hospital is holding just under 1,000 specimens retained

after  post-mortem examinations at the old Adelaide Children's and

Queen  Victoria Hospitals.



He says another 650 specimens, taken from 1957 to 1987, are held in a

 clinical science museum and almost 300 hearts have been retained

from  babies who died between 1963 and 1990.



"By today's standards, these practices were inappropriate and

unacceptable although consent was given in some cases, in other cases

it  clearly was not given," Mr Brown said.



"While this info may cause distress to some families, it is important

 that past practices be revealed."

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



Bush picks Brookhaven chief for top tech post



PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The Bush administration will nominate

John H. Marburger III, director of the Energy Department's Brookhaven

National Laboratory, as director of the White House Office of Science

and Technology, financier and Bush adviser Floyd Kvamme said  Monday.





Under Marburger the national lab put into operation the world's

largest particle accelerator for nuclear physics research, expanded

biomedical research and began work on the study of human proteins, an

outgrowth of the human genome initiative.



Marburger, a Democrat and former president of the State University of

New York at Stony Brook, has also been credited with directives to

clean the 55,000-acre national lab of contaminated soil and water.



Kvamme's announcement of Marburger's planned nomination at a

broadband industry and policy conference in Palo Alto surprised some

attendees, who had expected Bush to tap a West Coast expert -- such

as Kvamme himself -- to head the science and technology office.



Kvamme, a longtime Bush supporter and prominent Silicon Valley

venture capitalist, told Reuters he would continue to advise the

White House on technology matters, joking that the Bush

administration now could draw on technology advisors on both coasts.



Marburger "will be east and I'll be west," Kvamme said, noting that

the White House in its search for a new director of the Office of

Science and Technology had been "looking for somebody with broad

experience and an appreciation of practical science issues."



According to Jay Keyworth, Reagan White House science advisor and

past director of the Office of Science Technology Policy in the early

1980s, Marburger meets both requirements.



"At BNL he has been responsible for a lot of life sciences and

computing programs," Keyworth told Reuters. "Those are two of the

most demanding areas the Bush administration is going to face."



The Bush White House has been embroiled in a dispute among

Republicans over federal funding for stem cell research, which uses

cells from human embryos.



Jeffrey Eisenach, president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation

which sponsored Monday's conference, told Reuters that while it was

important that the White House is "getting its ducks in a row" with

the nomination, a number of science and technology slots in the

administration remain vacant.



"Generally there is concern at the slow pace of the administration in

key technology appointments," Eisenach said.



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

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://www.geocities.com/scperle

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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