Russia moves closer to spent nuclear fuel imports

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

Index:



Russia moves closer to spent nuclear fuel imports

Gov't to decide in Aug. on delayed MOX debut in Japan

UK BNFL says has no plans for new nuclear plants

Greenspan Discusses Energy Crisis

UK children shrug off mobile phone health warnings

Spanish Hospital Pioneers Advanced Radiation Therapy Cancer Treatment

Less Than Half of Power Plants In Development Likely to be Completed

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



Russia moves closer to spent nuclear fuel imports

  

MOSCOW, June 29 (Reuters) - Plans to open Russia to imports of spent 

nuclear fuel got the go-ahead from the upper house of parliament on 

Friday, paving the way for President Vladimir Putin to enact the bill 

criticised by environmentalists. 



The Federation Council was not required by law to vote on any of 

three bills forming the package, but the chamber's head Yegor Stroyev 

said Putin wanted to know its opinion on one bill dealing with the 

clean-up of contaminated areas. 



If the Council declines to debate a bill already passed by the State 

Duma lower house, Putin has the right to sign it into law anyway. But 

RIA news agency quoted Stroyev as saying Putin had told him he would 

only sign the bills once the upper house expressed its opinion on 

that particular document. 



The bills, championed by the Atomic Energy Ministry which says Russia 

could earn $20 billion over 10 years, have sparked angry protests 

from ecologists and liberal politicians who fear the imports could 

turn the country into a nuclear dump. 



Environmentalists demonstrated on Red Square this week accusing the 

Federation Council of shirking its responsibility by declining to 

debate the bills. 



The chamber voted 92 to 17 in favour of the one bill it did debate, 

Interfax news agency said. 



Under the law, cash-strapped Russia would be able to accept money to 

store other countries' spent nuclear reactor fuel until 2021, when 

proceeds from the trade would be sufficient to allow Russia to build 

new plants to reprocess the spent fuel. 



Critics say the ministry may never win contracts to give it enough 

cash for the task and suspect it might leave the spent fuel in the 

ground indefinitely, or start importing nuclear waste that cannot be 

reprocessed or reused. 



Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev argues the project will 

help his underfunded industry avoid decline and will boost hi-tech 

research in Russia. 



The State Duma passed the bills earlier this month despite fierce 

opposition from liberal politicians such as head of Yabloko party 

Grigory Yavlinsky who suggested postponing the vote and holding a 

referendum. 



Opinion polls suggest most Russians oppose the laws.

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



Gov't to decide in Aug. on delayed MOX debut in Japan



TOKYO, June 29 (Kyodo) - The government's task force on a plan to 

introduce plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in commonly used 

nuclear reactors agreed Friday to decide in August on how to deal 

with the current standoff, government officials said. 



The government-wide team of high-ranking officials, formed in 

response to the rejection in a local plebiscite last month of the 

fuel's planned debut this month, will decide what to do with the 

delay of the entire plan to have MOX fuel used in 16 to 18 reactors 

by 2010, they said. 



In its second meeting since the launch earlier this month, the team 

also discussed ways to teach the national energy policy at schools as 

well as specific measures to boost the regions that accept the MOX 

fuel use or the so-called pluthermal plan. 



How to win local and general public support for the plan, which the 

government says is indispensable to the country's nuclear fuel cycle, 

became an issue after the villagers of Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture 

rejected it on May 27, forcing its debut to be put off for a third 

time. 



Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma plans to explain 

the government's progress so far in a visit Saturday to Niigata 

Prefecture, where Tokyo Electric Power Co. had planned on the MOX 

fuel use at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. 



The government discussions have been based on a four-point proposal 

made June 15 by Niigata Gov. Ikuo Hirayama, Kashiwazaki Mayor 

Masazumi Saikawa, and Kariwa Mayor Hiroo Shinada, with whom Hiranuma 

will meet Saturday, the officials said. 

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



UK BNFL says has no plans for new nuclear plants

  

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - State-owned British Nuclear Fuels on 

Friday said it has no plans to build new nuclear power stations to 

replace its ageing Magnox stations, to be phased out over the next 20 

years. 



A report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper said the company is putting 

foward plans to the government to build four, possibly six new 

nuclear stations. 



"There are no plans to build new plant and we have submitted no plans 

and do not intend to do so," a spokeswoman for BNFL said. 



"Any discussions about a building programme are hypothetical, 

although the argument of building several new power stations is valid 

because it would give economies of scale," she said. 



On Thursday BNFL announced annual pre-tax losses of 210 million 

pounds ($290 million) largely because of the poor performance of the 

Magnox power stations. 



Despite the poor results, which will not have helped in the 

government's quest to sell off 49 percent of the group within the 

next few years, chief executive Norman Askew was upbeat about 

prospects. 



He said the group will be well placed to take advantage of any 

nuclear renaissance whether in Britain or the United States. 



"We have got the best portfolio of new reactor designs (via 

subsidiary Westinghouse) anywhere in the world. If demand for new 

nuclear build comes, we are ready to go," he told Reuters. 



Government plans for a 1.5 billion pound ($2.1 billion) partial 

privatisation of BNFL were shelved in early 2000 after a data 

falisification scandal and a highly critical report by the country's 

nuclear watchdog on the way the company was run. 



Then energy minister Helen Liddell said a flotation could not take 

place before the latter half of 2002. On Thursday BNFL chairman Hugh 

Collum said 2004/2005 was a more likely date. 

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



Greenspan Discusses Energy Crisis



WASHINGTON (AP) - While the last three U.S. recessions were preceded 

by a sharp spike in energy prices, the country should be able to 

escape its current problems without long-term harm, Federal Reserve 

Chairman Alan Greenspan believes. 



Greenspan said recent declines in the price of gasoline and natural 

gas and increased supplies of those fuels give hope that the worst 

may be over for the country. 



``The short-term energy problems we are experiencing for gasoline, 

natural gas and electric power will be resolved, one hopes, without 

any further adverse impact on our economy,'' Greenspan said in a 

speech Thursday night to the Economic Club of Chicago. 



But he warned that California, which already has experienced rolling 

blackouts because of insufficient electric power supplies, faced more 

problems until increased generating capacity is brought on line. 



``To assume that California is going to be able to avoid serious 

problems as the full brunt of demands for energy mount this summer 

would be foolhardy,'' Greenspan said. 



Because California accounts for one-eighth of the total U.S. economy, 

problems in that state could have spillover effects on the overall 

economy, Greenspan said. 



But at least so far, he said, ``the overall effects on the California 

economy and on those of its neighboring states seems to have been 

modest.'' 



Greenspan spoke one day after the central bank cut interest rates for 

a sixth time this year in a continuing effort to keep a yearlong 

economic slowdown from pushing the country into a full-blown 

recession. 



While he made no mention of the Fed's rate cuts in his speech, 

private economists said his view that energy prices have begun to 

retreat could explain why the Fed chose to cut rates by only a 

quarter-point on Wednesday, rather than the larger half-point moves 

the Fed had been making. 



``Because energy prices have fallen a bit, the Fed doesn't feel the 

need to supply as much in rate reductions to get the economy moving 

again,'' said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Bank One in Chicago, 

who was in the audience for Greenspan's speech. 



She said that as he has in the past, the Fed chairman emphasized how 

much the run-up in energy prices contributed to the economic 

slowdown, particularly by raising costs for businesses. 



While some economists are still looking for the Fed to cut rates by 

one more quarter-point at its Aug. 21 meeting, Swonk said she 

believed this week's move could well be the last, given Greenspan's 

views that energy prices have begun falling and the belief of many 

analysts that an economic rebound is underway. 



Other analysts who believe the Fed's rate cuts are coming to an end 

pointed to the Fed's release earlier Thursday of the minutes of its 

May 15 discussions. In that debate, some Fed policy-makers already 

were beginning to caution that the central bank ran the risk of 

raising inflation pressures when economic growth rebounded if it 

overdid its credit easing. 



Asha Bangalore, an economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago, said 

the discussion revealed in the Fed's minutes indicated the Fed is 

``most likely at the end of the easing cycle.'' 



In his Chicago speech, Greenspan said the Federal Reserve has been 

paying close attention to the big jump in the price of gasoline and 

natural gas throughout the country and the electric power shortages 

in California, because of the crucial role energy plays in business 

and consumer spending decisions. 



But Greenspan said since the start of the year there had been a 

number of favorable developments including a significant drop in spot 

prices for natural gas, recent declines in gasoline prices following 

two years of increases and dampened demand for electric power in 

California. 



Greenspan said the decline in gasoline prices was especially 

important for the economy because in previous energy crises, the jump 

in gasoline costs not only reduced the amount of money American 

consumers had to spend for other products but also shook consumer 

confidence. 



Greenspan also used his energy speech to sound many of the same 

themes of increased production that were reflected in the energy plan 

President Bush sent to Congress on Thursday. 



Greenspan said it was important for the country to pursue increased 

production of all kinds of energy from oil and coal to nuclear power 

and renewable energy sources. 



He also warned against imposing price caps on energy, saying that 

allowing the market to set prices was critical to promote 

conservation and also to spur energy companies to search for 

increased supplies. 



On the Net: Federal Reserve: http://www.federalreserve.gov 

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



UK children shrug off mobile phone health warnings

  

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - British children use their mobile phones 

for up to 45 minutes every day, shrugging off warnings of the unknown 

effects of radiation, a report published Friday showed. 



The Sheffield Hallam University report showed that of 941 16-year-

olds surveyed,77 percent used their phone for less than 15 minutes 

every day -- but only 11 percent believed they had been affected by 

radiation. 



A spokeswoman at the Pupil Research Initiative, who carried out the 

survey, said the findings were not surprising. 



"They are an integral part of (children's) lives. They send hundreds 

of text messages every day," she said. 



A report published after a government-sponsored scientific enquiry 

last May urged parents to curb children's mobile phone use and 

promised tougher rules for transmitter masts as a precaution aganist 

potential health risks from radiation. 

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



Spanish Hospital Pioneers Advanced Radiation Therapy Cancer Treatment

  

VEENENDAAL, The Netherlands, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Nucletron BV, an 

international leader in radiotherapy, announces the first clinical 

treatments combining the advanced inverse planning features of the 

PLATO treatment planning system with a Siemens linear accelerator. 



The Radiotherapy Department of the Virgen Macarena Hospital chose 

precise Intensity Modulation Radiation Therapy (IMRT) for the 

treatment of a patient with prostate cancer.  The IMRT technique 

allows the hospital to improve local tumor control and decrease 

adverse side effects of the treatment.  The treatment was designed 

using inverse treatment planning on the Nucletron PLATO system, 

allowing higher radiation dose to be given to the tumor and 

minimising dose to radiation sensitive organs.  IMRT is of interest 

in the treatment of prostate cancer because of the proximity of 

radiation sensitive organs that are difficult to avoid using 

conventional treatments. 



The treatment was the first to use the Nucletron planning system 

linked with a Primus linear accelerator from Siemens.  The linear 

accelerator is equipped with a multi-leaf collimator (MLC) which 

shapes and modulates the intensity of the radiation beam during the 

treatment.  The complex sequence of movements of the MLC is 

calculated on the PLATO planning system and transferred 

electronically to the control system of the linear accelerator. 



In IMRT, the treatment radiation beams are divided into a series of 

small fields, whose irregular shape is determined by the multi-leaf 

collimator. Accurately modeling the combined effect of many small, 

irregular fields in order to provide independent verification of the 

PLATO treatment planning system and treatment on the linear 

accelerator is a major step towards the routine application of this 

new treatment method. 



The clinical implementation of the IMRT technique, with a 

satisfactory degree of confidence, has been possible thanks to the 

scientific background of the research group of the Sevilla University 

(Medical Physiology and Biophysic Department) in close collaboration 

with the Virgen Macarena Hospital.  This team has a wide experience 

on dosimetrical verification of complex Radiotherapy treatments by 

means of Monte Carlo calculation.  Prof. Sanchez-Doblado and Dr. Leal 

said, "IMRT has been an exciting challenge to be checked in the new 

ITP module.  The agreement between PLATO and Monte Carlo simulation 

has been very gratifying." 



Before performing treatments of this complexity, the hospital 

performed extensive verification tests on all elements of the 

planning and treatment chain.  Dr. Rafael Arrans and Dr. Rosello of 

the Radiophysics Department said, "This [treatment] has been possible 

after verification of the high level of agreement between the 

calculation results given by the planning system and experimental 

methods carried out on anthropomorphic phantoms and simulated by 

Monte Carlo technique. A discrepancy of only 0.6% was found on the 

reference point between the dose proposed by PLATO and the 

measurement of an ion chamber." 



The close agreement between calculated and measured doses is in 

agreement with studies at other hospitals using Nucletron PLATO in 

combination with linear accelerators manufactured by Elekta and 

Varian. 



Dr. Luis Errazquin and Dr. Areste from the Radiotherapy Department 

commented further, "In spite of its complexity, the application of 

this technique has not been so time-consuming as to affect the normal 

number of treated patients at the linear accelerator." 



Nucletron also produces planning and treatment systems for 

brachytherapy, used for the treatment of prostate and other cancers.  

With brachytherapy, radioactive sources are positioned in the tumour 

to be treated, also giving a highly conformal dose distribution.  

"Nucletron is proud of its innovations in radiotherapy products that 

help fight cancer.  The clinical use of PLATO's inverse treatment 

planning software in Sevilla and other centres demonstrates that 

these new and complex techniques can be widely used to benefit 

patients," said Rudolf Scholte, Managing Director of Nucletron. 



The Sevilla group has a large number of international scientific 

publications related to Medical Physics and maintains close links and 

collaborations with important European radiotherapy centres.  The 

group has organised several seminars and conferences.  Currently they 

are organising a workshop on "Verification of IMRT" that will take 

place in Sevilla during September 2001. 



About Nucletron   



Nucletron BV, Veenendaal, The Netherlands, is a worldwide leader in 

radiotherapy systems and thoracic imaging equipment for radiology and 

mass chest screening and specializes in some of the most innovative 

products used for cancer treatment.  The company has 11 offices 

worldwide, including its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands.  

Nucletron has been a worldwide leader in remote afterloading 

brachytherapy for 25 years. Nucletron BV is a subsidiary of Delft 

Instruments, an international group of companies with about 1000 

employees and annual sales of some EUR 180 million. 

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



Less Than Half of Power Plants In Development Likely to be Completed, 

Williams Capital Group Analysis Shows

  

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 2001-- 



Tight Supplies Likely to Continue Unless Coal-Fired and Nuclear 



Generating Stations Take Pressure Off Demand for Natural Gas 



Fewer than half of the electric power plants now in development in 

the United States are likely to be completed, according to an 

analysis of electricity and natural gas supply and demand by 

Christopher R. Ellinghaus, energy analyst with The Williams Capital 

Group, LP, a New York-based investment bank. 



While those new facilities that actually do get built will ease tight 

power markets and alleviate political pressures to control prices in 

the near term, high gas prices and electricity price volatility are 

likely to continue. Only if new coal-fired or nuclear power plants 

come on line in significant numbers, something that cannot begin to 

happen until 2005, are shortages likely to be abated. 



Although independent power producers and other electricity suppliers 

hope to have 300,000 MW of new generating capacity on line by 2005, 

it is doubtful that much more than 100,000 MW will be possible over 

the next three years, Mr. Ellinghaus maintained. He attributed the 

difference to a "multiple of infrastructure constraints," including 

U.S. energy policy, public attitudes toward new facilities and anemic 

growth of natural gas supplies, the fuel to be used in over 90 

percent of the proposed plants. 



Noting that gas supplies have been growing by less than one percent 

annually despite record drilling activity, Mr. Ellinghaus warned that 

"unless unprecedented amounts of new, net gas production emerges over 

the next three to five years, only a fraction - maybe 40-45 percent - 

of the natural gas-fired plants currently being developed will 

actually be constructed." 



Demand for electricity is likely to grow by three percent annually 

through 2010, Mr. Ellinghaus forecast. This rate reflects the 

fundamental shift in the U.S. economy that has made electricity-

intensive technologies such as computers, telecommunications and the 

Internet the engines of U.S. economic growth, he noted. 



To meet this demand and build sufficient reserves to avoid price 

shocks, U.S. power generators would have to build 330,000 MW of new 

and replacement capacity by 2010, a 41.7 percent increase from the 

822,000 MW of capacity in 2000. If all the new plants were gas fired, 

demand for natural gas would grow by between 11 and 15 trillion cubic 

feet, requiring the gas market to grow from 22.4 trillion cubic feet 

to between 33 and 38 trillion cubic feet. 



To meet that demand, natural gas supply would have to increase by 

nine percent annually. Based on production experience over the last 

decade, it is doubtful that such a level of increased production 

could be achieved, Mr. Ellinghaus noted. Most gas exploration and 

production analysts expect an annual growth rate in the one percent - 

three percent range, he added. 



There will be adequate gas supply to the fuel new plants being built 

this year and next, when 43,000 MW and 36,000 MW of new generating 

capacity are expected to come on line, Mr. Ellinghaus said. However, 

in subsequent years there only would be enough gas supply to support 

20,000 MW of new plant construction, he pointed out. "Natural gas 

remains the principal constraint to completing and operating plants 

currently in development." 



As a consequence of insufficient gas supplies, power generators would 

have to build 200,000 MW of generating capacity fueled by coal or 

uranium to meet long-term demand, Mr.Ellinghaus pointed out. However, 

because of the lengthy development cycle and public policy concerns, 

new plants relying on these energy sources will not begin to come on 

line in sufficient numbers until 2005 or 2006, he 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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