Ex-German soldiers mull action against U.S. firms

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

Index:



Ex-German soldiers mull action against U.S. firms

CMS sees Mich. Palisades nuke back in Jan 2002

AEP shuts big Mich. nuke due silt buildup

Excavation work for nuclear plant to begin in N. Korea: media

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



Ex-German soldiers mull action against U.S. firms

  

BERLIN, Aug 30 (Reuters) - A law firm representing 540 former German 

soldiers allegedly exposed to radiation from radar equipment said on 

Friday it planned to seek compensation from U.S. companies General 

Electric <GE.N>, ITT Industries Inc <ITT.N> and Raytheon <RTN.N>. 



"We will send letters looking for compensation to General Electric, 

ITT and Raytheon and if they refuse we will take legal action against 

them," Ramo Klinger, a lawyer with Geulen in Berlin, told Reuters. 



Klinger declined to say how much compensation his firm was seeking 

from the engineering groups, but said it would be "millions of 

dollars." 



Klinger said his law firm was also representing a group of former 

Dutch soldiers and six women in Greece whose husbands had died from 

cancer he said was caused by their exposure to radiation from 

military radar equipment. 



"This is not just a German problem but a NATO problem," Klinger said, 

adding that the former soldiers had been exposed to radiation in the 

1960s and 1970s. 



A German government-commissioned report released in June said about 

250 soldiers had developed cancer because of exposure to radiation 

from radar equipment in the 1960s and 1970s. 



Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping said at the time he wanted to find 

a "generous solution" for those affected and Klinger said his clients 

would wait until the end of September to see what sort of 

compensation Scharping offered. 



"We are looking at somewhere in the region of between 300,000 marks 

($139,500) and 600,000 marks ($278,900) per victim as well as 

additional pension payments," he said. 



"If the ministry does not provide this then we will sue the 

ministry," he said. 



According to the German Soldiers' Association, 120 former servicemen 

exposed to radiation have died so far. 

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



CMS sees Mich. Palisades nuke back in Jan 2002

  

DEARBORN. Mich., Aug 31 (Reuters) - CMS Energy Corp. <CMS.N> said on 

Friday its Consumers Energy unit will replace the control rod 

equipment at its shut 789-megawatt Palisades nuclear plant in 

Michigan in December and expects the plant to resume operation in 

January 2002. 



The Palisades plant was shut on June 20 to inspect a steam leak on 

the control rod equipment. 



CMS said the work, which will cost $25 million to $30 million, is 

expected to be finished in December. 



>From the start of the June 20 outage through the end of this year, 

the incremental cost of replacement power and maintenance is 

estimated at approximately 50 cents per share of common stock, CMS 

said in a statement. 

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



AEP shuts big Mich. nuke due silt buildup

  

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - American Electric Power Co. <AEP.N> 

was forced to shut its big 1,090-megawatt (MW) Cook 2 nuclear reactor 

in Michigan Thursday after a build-up of sandy silt from Lake 

Michigan clogged the power unit's cooling water system. 



The adjacent 1,020-MW Cook Unit 1 was already off line, shut Monday 

to replace a valve in a pump that expels water from the plant. 



The loss of more than 2,100 megawatts from the Midwest power network, 

however, was not expected to threaten the reliability of electric 

service in the region, power traders said. One megawatt can power 

about 1,000 homes. 



Power demand was expected to ease Friday ahead of the three-day 

holiday weekend to celebrate Labor Day Monday, with many offices and 

businesses closing early so workers could get a head start on the 

weekend that marks the unofficial end of summer. 



Weather conditions in the Midwest also were expected to remain mild, 

cutting electricity demand for air conditioning or heating, traders 

said. 



AEP, of Columbus, Ohio, said Cook 2, in Bridgman, Mich., was reducing 

power Thursday and expected to be taken off the grid late in the 

afternoon or tonight, according to Bill Schalk, a company spokesman. 



The unit was to remain in "hot standby", while plant operators look 

into what caused the silt buildup and figure out when they can put 

both reactors back in service. 



"We don't know at this point how long the investigation or the work 

will take," Schalk told Reuters. 



Schalk declined to estimate when the units might reconnect to the 

grid. AEP does not comment on operating schedules for its generating 

units for competitive reasons, he said. 



The silt was drawn into the plant's water intake pipes and hurt the 

performance of cooling systems needed by safety equipment and back-up 

power systems. 



The Cook plant has three 16-foot diameter pipes that bring water from 

one-half mile out in Lake Michigan into the facility. Pumps use this 

water for cooling. 



The Cook station was closed in September 1997 for extensive upgrades 

to address safety concerns related to the plant's design. Unit 2 

returned to the grid in June 2000 and Unit 1 in December 2000. 

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



Excavation work for nuclear plant to begin in N. Korea: media



WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Kyodo) - The U.S.-led consortium charged with 

building two nuclear power reactors in North Korea will begin 

excavation work for a light-water reactor in September and the 

project is ''well under way,'' the Washington Times said Thursday, 

quoting the head of the consortium. 



Charles Kartman, executive director of the Korean Peninsula Energy 

Development Organization, told a gathering of Korea experts in 

Washington on Tuesday that the foundations for the reactor site would 

be ready in ''about a year,'' the newspaper said. 



''The public image is that the project has been beset by problems,'' 

Kartman is quoted as saying. ''It certainly remains a difficult task, 

but the project is well under way and the construction schedule is 

now moving on.'' 



The $4.6 billion project to build the reactors in Kumho, on North 

Korea's northeast coast, is based on a 1994 U.S.-North Korean 

agreement which calls on Pyongyang to dismantle its graphite-

moderated nuclear reactor program in exchange for light-water 

reactors, and fuel oil from the U.S. until one of the reactors begins 

operation. 



President George W. Bush's administration has proposed $95 million in 

fiscal 2002 for 500,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil for North 

Korea. 



The U.S. suspects North Korea was using the graphite reactor to 

produce fissionable material for nuclear weapons. Light-water 

reactors are less likely to be used for weapons use.



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

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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