German nuclear waste train crosses into France

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

Index:



German nuclear waste train crosses into France

New Nuclear Waste Transport Starts

NRC cites Illinois nuke for emergency drill errors

Bush Seeks to Delay Miner Reparation

D&B upgrades Slovenia after deal with Croatia

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



German nuclear waste train crosses into France

  

STIRING-WENDEL, France (Reuters) - A train carried nuclear waste from 

Germany into France on Wednesday, defying environmental protesters 

who oppose the cross-border transfer of the cargo for reprocessing, 

officials said. 



The shipment of 12 radioactive spent fuel rods, weighing six and a 

half tons, left Biblis nuclear power plant on its way for the La 

Hague reprocessing plant early Wednesday. 



Late Tuesday, 10 Greenpeace members chained themselves to the tracks 

at Biblis in the state of Hesse before being cut loose and held by 

police. 



As the train moved through Mannheim, four demonstrators were arrested 

for running onto the rails while at Homburg an der Saar police 

removed protesters who delayed the train for half an hour by blocking 

the tracks. 



A Reuters correspondent said about 20 anti-nuclear campaigners 

gathered in Stiring-Wendel on France's northeastern border with 

Germany but did not try to physically stop the train as protesters 

have done in the past. 



The transport of nuclear waste for reprocessing abroad resumed in 

April after a three-year interruption. This followed an agreement 

between the German federal government and the power industry on the 

abandonment of nuclear energy by 2020. 



As part of the deal, the reprocessing of fuel rods abroad will be 

allowed until 2005. In return, Germany has agreed to take back the 

reprocessed waste. 



Wednesday's contentious delivery was held in one container on a train 

comprising a total of some 20 wagons. The specialist La Hague plant 

is near the northwestern French town of Cherbourg. 



The train was expected to arrive at Valognes, near Cherbourg but anti-

nuclear campaigners said they planned to try to stop the convoy on 

its route through France. 



In the past, activists have chained themselves to the rail tracks 

ahead of the oncoming train, forcing it to stop and adding hours to 

its journey across northeastern France. They have so far not 

succeeded in stopping a delivery altogether. 

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



New Nuclear Waste Transport Starts



FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - A transport of nuclear waste set out by 

rail from western Germany for reprocessing in France Wednesday 

morning without any disturbance from anti-nuclear protesters, police 

said. 



The shipment from the Biblis plant in Hesse state was expected to 

cross the border later Wednesday, bound for France's La Hague 

reprocessing plant in Normandy. 



Greenpeace protesters had blocked rail tracks heading out of the 

Biblis plant Tuesday evening by chaining themselves to the rails. 

Police ended that protest after several hours. 



Protests regularly mark transports of atomic waste out of Germany by 

anti-nuclear activists, who argue that shipping the nuclear material 

endangers the public. 



Germany sends spent nuclear fuel from 19 power plants abroad for 

reprocessing under contracts that oblige it to take back the 

resulting waste for storage. After a break of several years, waste 

shipments resumed in March. 



In June, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leading energy companies 

signed an agreement to shut down Germany's nuclear power plants. The 

pact limits nuclear plants to an average of 32 years of operation, 

with the first plant scheduled to shut down in 2003. 

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



NRC cites Illinois nuke for emergency drill errors

  

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

(NRC) said Tuesday that the 950-megawatt Clinton nuclear power plant 

in Illinois violated NRC rules during emergency drills. 



The plant, located in Clinton, Illinois, is operated by Exelon 

Nuclear Generating Co., a unit of Exelon Corp. <EXC.N> of Chicago. 



The NRC said in a statement that it inspected the plant in May and 

June this year and found the company had not corrected "deficiencies" 

in the work of control room operators during safety drills in late 

1999 and August 2000. 



The operators, part of the plant's technical staff, were to feed 

power plant information to government agencies during mock 

emergencies. The NRC said 11 workers failed drill requirements in 

1999 and 10 in 2000. 



The nation's nuclear power plants are required to hold regular drills 

which simulate plant emergencies to test the effectiveness of 

emergency response workers. 



The NRC issued a so-called white finding for the Clinton plant, which 

it described as an issue of "low to moderate importance to safety." 



The NRC uses a four-color system for increasing levels of safety 

problems, beginning with green and progressing to white, yellow or 

red. 



Exelon, which did not contest the NRC's finding, has  strengthened 

its emergency response training program, the NRC said. Three of the 

operators were removed from the emergency response group. 



Jan Strasma, a spokesman for the NRC, said the Clinton plant will 

conduct another NRC-graded drill on Wednesday and Thursday. 

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



Bush Seeks to Delay Miner Reparation

  

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration wants to remove some people 

from a compensation program for workers who contracted illnesses 

after working in Cold War-era nuclear weapons programs. 



The administration says more study is needed to determine if some 

workers who helped mine uranium actually qualify for compensation. 

Critics say further delay means more eligible workers will die before 

getting any money. 



``They've been stonewalling and it's a crying shame,'' said Ed 

Brickey, president of the Colorado Uranium Workers Council. ``We have 

people who are dying because of where they worked.'' 



The administration wants to delay the payments until the completion 

of three ongoing studies, said Chris Ullman, spokesman for the Office 

of Management and Budget. 



William Lambert, an epidemiologist at the University of Oregon 

working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and 

Health, said the studies are looking at whether exposure to uranium 

and silica dust in the mines caused the illnesses. 



It could be six months to a year before the studies are finished, 

Lambert said. 



``The administration is shirking its moral and legal responsibility 

to a segment of society that is powerless because they're old and 

sick. It's a total disgrace,'' said Lori Goodman, spokeswoman for 

Dine CARE, which represents Navajo Indians who worked in the uranium 

mines. 



Ullman noted that the administration approved $84 million in 

supplemental spending to make immediate payments miners who qualified 

under the original compensation program and is seeking $97 million 

next year and a total of $710 million over the next 10 years. 



The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act was passed by Congress in 

1990 to compensate below-ground uranium miners and people exposed to 

radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons tests. 



Aboveground uranium miners, ore-haulers and millers were added to the 

program last year and could begin applying for $100,000 payments in 

January. 



At least 141 ore-haulers and millers applied for compensation, but 

none have been paid. 



Now the administration wants to remove those workers from the program 

until the studies are finished. OMB officials met with staffers from 

several senators earlier this month, briefing them on the 

administration's position. 



Wayne Hill, 69, of Grand Junction, Colo., is among those affected by 

the move. He worked for nine years hauling uranium from the mines to 

the mills in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. He said he has photos of 

himself standing atop loaded trucks and in the mines, covered in 

uranium dust. 



``(The government) wasn't about to tell us what we were doing to 

ourselves,'' Hill said. ``We were up there committing suicide and we 

didn't even know it.'' 



Three months ago Hill completed radiation treatments to shrink the 

cancer in his brain that had spread from his lungs. He said the 

$100,000 would help him pay medical bills. 



Steve Bell, chief of staff for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said 

Domenici and other supporters of the sick workers plan to fight the 

Bush administration effort. 



``We have told (the administration) that we're not going to delay 

anything,'' Bell said. ``These miners are going to get every dime 

they're entitled to and sooner than the administration thinks.'' 



On the Net: 



Radiation Exposure Compensation Program: 

http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/torts/const/reca/index.htm 

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



D&B upgrades Slovenia after deal with Croatia

  

LJUBLJANA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Credit rating agency Dun & Bradstreet 

(D&B) upgraded Slovenia's risk rating to DB2d from DB3a, after it 

resolved several issues in July with neighbouring Croatia, the agency 

said on Tuesday. 



D&B said July's agreement with Croatia about border cooperation, the 

signing of a draft agreement on their disputed border and on the 

jointly owned Krsko nuclear power plant, was extremely favourable for 

Slovenia's EU and NATO accession. 



"Consequently, Slovenia's chances of being invited to join NATO at 

the organisation's Prague summit in late 2002 have received an 

appreciable fillip," D&B said in its latests Risk & Payment Review. 



Also contributing to Slovenia's upgrade was the acceleration of 

privatisation, which has already significantly boosted foreign direct 

investment, and the recent suspension of residual portfolio 

regulations for foreign investors. 



Slovenia's government sold its third-largest bank SKB in May to 

French Societe Generale and opened a tender to sell the second 

largest bank, Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM). 



"The total (inflows) already exceed that registered during the whole 

of 2000. Furthermore, inflows of foreign direct investments are 

expected to remain strong over the short-term and mid-term," the 

agency said. 



Since July 1996, D&B kept Slovenia's risk rating at DB3a placing it 

at the top of the region together with Hungary, a country whose 

rating has also been upgraded to DB2d. 



Due to the government's active employment policies combined with 

buoyant growth D&B also reduced its 2001 unemployment forecast to 

11.3 percent, from 11.7 percent, and to 11.0 percent in 2002, from 

its previous forecast of 11.3 percent. 



The Slovenia's Statistical Office reported this month that 

unemployment in June fell to 11.1 percent, from 11.4 registered one 

month earlier and from 11.8 registered in June last year.



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

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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