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3 Mile Island plant back to normal-industry
Index:
3 Mile Island plant back to normal-industry
Three Mile Island Goes on Alert After 'Credible' Threat
Uranium reactor stockpiles falling-ERA
Nuclear fallout used to carbon date wine
North Korea still stalls UN nuclear inspections
U.S. Coast Guard joins nuclear power plant patrol
ACF pleased Labor not keen on finding alternative nuclear dump site
Carr denies Lucas Heights a terrorist target
New York stations troops at nuclear power plants
====================================
3 Mile Island plant back to normal-industry
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Operations at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear
plant appear to be back to normal, with the facility implementing normal safety
standards after receiving a "credible threat" Wednesday night, a U.S. industry group
spokeswoman said Thursday.
Melanie White, spokeswoman for the Nuclear Energy Institute here, said the Three
Mile Island plant "is implementing safety standards" as governed by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. She added, "Everything appears back to normal."
A spokesman for Exelon, the owner of Three Mile Island, said earlier Thursday that a
"credible threat" had been made against the power plant.
Nearby Harrisburg International Airport and Lancaster airport were shut for four
hours until about 1 a.m. Thursday because of the threat.
Local television stations said temporary flight restrictions were put into effect for a 20-
mile radius around the airport and military aircraft were dispatched to protect Three
Mile Island -- the site in 1979 of the worst nuclear accident in the United States.
------------------
Three Mile Island Goes on Alert After 'Credible' Threat
WASHINGTON (Oct. 18) - The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in
Pennsylvania was on high alert on Thursday after receiving a ''credible threat''
against the installation, plant officials said.
''We were notified last night that a security threat had been made against Three Mile
Island. That threat was deemed credible. We took extra security measures and we
remain at that heightened state of alert,'' said David Carl, spokesman for operators
Exelon Nuclear.
Nearby Harrisburg International Airport and Lancaster airport were shut down for four
hours late on Wednesday because of the threat, which came a week after the FBI
issued a warning about possible additional attacks on U.S. interests at home or
abroad following the Sept. 11 assaults on New York and Washington by hijacked
commercial airliners.
A Harrisburg airport police spokesman said all flights in and out of the airport were
stopped for four hours until about 1 a.m. on Thursday morning.
''We were closed because of security concerns for four hours, but we reopened at
around 1 a.m.,'' the spokesman said.
Local television stations said temporary flight restrictions were put into effect for a 20-
mile radius around the airport and military aircraft were dispatched to protect Three
Mile Island -- the site in 1979 of the worst nuclear accident in the United States.
Carl said work continued overnight at the plant and that none of the 800 or so
workers was evacuated. He declined to give details of the specific nature of the
threat, but said Three Mile Island had activated its emergency response facilities,
including a technical support center and information center, as a precaution.
''We did not reach a level where we had to declare a formal emergency,'' Carl said.
He said no incident had taken place overnight but that heightened security measures
would remain in place ''as long as are needed.''
The FBI and Federal Aviation Administration could not be reached for comment.
-----------------
Uranium reactor stockpiles falling-ERA
SYDNEY, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Stockpiles of uranium held by nuclear power generating
companies were slowly being used up, creating more demand for new supplies,
uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia Ltd said on Thursday.
"Growth in demand for primary uranium production will largely arise through the
depletion of utility inventories," ERA chairman Barry Cusack told the annual
shareholders meeting.
Markets for intermediate uranium concentrate were relatively flat, with requirements
from nuclear reactor operators worldwide expected to increase only modestly over
the medium term, Cusack said.
But there were signs that supplies could begin to tighten, leading to higher selling
prices, he said.
Prices for uranium oxide used by the reactors have slipped 15 percent in the last
year to an average of US$7.89 a pound, but had improved recently to around $9.33 a
pound, he said.
Mining companies overall produced 34,746 tonnes of uranium last year, a 12 percent
increase on 1999, Cusack said.
"Primary production represented only 56 percent of demand, the balance being made
up from secondary sources such as utility stockpile draw down," Cusack said.
About 440 commercial nuclear reactors in 31 countries supply 16 percent of the
world's electricity, Cusack said.
New supply sources of uranium were being concentrated in Canada and Australia,
he said.
ERA mines uranium in Australia's far northwest. Rival WMC Ltd <WMC.AX>
produces uranium as a by-product of its copper mining business in South Australia.
Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd, an affiliate of U.S. utility General Atomics, also
operates a uranium mine in South Australia.
Most of the new nuclear reactors planned for construction are located in Southeast
Asia, although the California energy crisis has led to discussions of nuclear power in
the U.S., Cusack said.
Australia has no nuclear industry of its own but exports uranium to North America,
Asia and Europe.
-----------------
Nuclear fallout used to carbon date wine
Oct 18 - Australian Broadcasting Company - Nuclear fallout from atomic bomb
testing in the 1950s is being used to determine the age of wines.
The University of Adelaide has come up with a technique to carbon date the year
wines were bottled - providing a new tool in combating wine fraud.
Dr Graham Jones from the Department of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenologysays
large amounts of Carbon-14 were released during atomic bomb testing.
He says wine grapes absorb the carbon and with the amount in the atmosphere
decreasing each year, testing can reveal the exact year a wine was bottled.
---------------
North Korea still stalls UN nuclear inspections
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Despite U.S. warnings, North Korea has
made no move to work with international inspectors trying to analyze its past atomic
arms program, the United Nation's nuclear watchdog agency said.
"We are still where we had been a year ago. We continue to verify the freeze of the
existing facilities but we haven't really made any progress with regard to verification
of the past program," said Mohammed Elbaradei, director general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
"Basically we want to see how much plutonium had been produced in North Korea
and make sure that it is declared to us and put under safeguards," Elbaradei said in
an interview.
In 1994, the Clinton administration and North Korea worked out the "Agreed
Framework" accord in which Pyongyang agreed to freeze its plutonium production
program and eventually to dismantle it.
In return, Washington agreed to replace North Korea's graphite-moderated reactors
with two light-water reactors, which are less useful in making bomb-grade material, to
help ease the country's power shortage.
The deal, worth $5 billion, is financed by a consortium that also includes South
Korea, Japan and the European Union.
One condition was that North Korea would allow the IAEA to inspect several nuclear
waste sites and make sure all plutonium was under international safeguards once a
"significant portion" of the reactors was completed. The United States has warned
several times that work on the reactors could be halted if the inspectors continued to
be barred.
Elbaradei said he believed North Korea was waiting for the construction of the
reactors to move past the excavation phase before it took action.
"They feel that the reactor project is not going according to schedule. It was
supposed to be completed by 2003 and people are now talking about 2008," he said.
"So they feel there is no reason for them to start cooperating with us. I hope that
once they get a schedule for delivery they will come to us," he said.
He said the IAEA needed to give "a positive assessment" that North Korea had no
materials from suspected past undeclared programs. "Otherwise there will be no
reactors."
KEEP WEST GUESSING?
Analysts have speculated that North Korea wants to keep the West guessing about
its nuclear potential and thereby maintain leverage over the Bush administration to
keep the bargain.
The IAEA would need three to four years to complete its work "and I guess they still
feel they can buy some time -- and exert some pressure," Elbaradei said.
"So we are in a waiting phase. The ball is in their court, Elbaradei said of the dispute
that began in 1991.
"It's not a good case to show respect for the nonproliferation regime," he said. "We
would like to see that case come to an end as soon as we can."
Separate from the reactor project, the United States has urged North Korea to
resume negotiations on missile and other issues, stalled since President George W.
Bush took office in January and ordered a review of U.S. policy.
The review went beyond curbing missiles and concluded Pyongyang had to
undertake a wider program to curb its military potential and North Korea has not
responded.
U.S. Secretary State Colin Powell told reporters flying with him to Shanghai on
Wednesday that the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States had probably slowed the
North Korean decision-making process, but dire economic circumstances in the
country would eventually force it to seek better relations.
"Eventually the North Koreans will respond in a way that will allow us to go forward
because I don't think they have any other choice or future," Powell said. "Their
economy doesn't get any better."
-------------------
U.S. Coast Guard joins nuclear power plant patrol
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Moving to tighten security at the nation's
nuclear power plants, the U.S. Coast Guard has set up security zones off plants on
the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts and the Great Lakes.
The nuclear off-limits zones are part of 94 marine security areas established since
the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
The intent is "to protect the infrastructure of the nation's marine interests," said Petty
Officer Patrick Montgomery, a spokesman for the Coast Guard's Atlantic Area
headquarters in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Government officials and the public have become increasingly concerned about the
safety of the nation's 103 nuclear stations since the attacks.
Nuclear power plants, which provide about a fifth of the nation's electricity, are
typically built along a lake, river or ocean where they have ready access to huge
volumes of water needed to cool down their reactors.
National Guard troops patrolled six nuclear plants in New York state Tuesday after
Gov. George Pataki ordered their deployment to protect against potential attacks.
New Jersey has also ordered the National Guard to protect atomic reactors in that
state.
The nation's utilities have beefed up security at the plants, but there is a heightened
level of concern because a successful attack on a reactor could spread deadly
radioactive contamination over hundreds of miles or knock the plant off the grid for
months.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses and oversees the plants, shut
down its Web site last week to review its contents and remove anything that might
prove a safety risk, including a daily report on the operating status of each atomic
reactor in the power fleet.
The nuclear security zones, like the troop movements in New York, were not linked
to any specific threat, Coast Guard officers said.
BIG CALIFORNIA PLANT
"We looked at specific situations. We can't go into the decision-making process but
we established zones where warranted," said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Carter, a spokesman for
the Coast Guard's Pacific Area in Alameda, California.
One of the Pacific zones extends up to one mile offshore California's biggest nuclear
plant, the 1,300-megawatt Diablo Canyon station operated by PG&E Corp.'s
<PCG.N> Pacific Gas & Electric utility at Avila Beach, about halfway between San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
Fishing, recreation and other vessels are barred from the plant's zone without the
permission of the Coast Guard's marine safety office in Los Angeles, Carter said.
The Coast Guard will warn off boaters who venture into the zone, but anyone who
willfully violates the order is subject to a minimum $5,000 fine and possible felony
prosecution by a U.S. attorney, according to Carter.
The Coast Guard also operates patrol vessels in the vicinity, he added.
The Coast Guard broadcasts information about the nuclear
off-limits zones to fishing and other vessels over marine radio and in local
newspapers and other media, said Lt. Cmdr. Bryan Emond, based in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Coast Guard station has set up security zones in Lake Michigan up
to 1,000 yards offshore WPS Resources Corp.'s <WPS.N> 500-megawatt Kewaunee
nuclear plant in Carlton, Wis., and Wisconsin Energy Corp.'s <WEC.N> 1,017-
megawatt Point Beach plant in Two Rivers, Wis.
"These zones enable the Coast Guard to protect the plants from harm. We're
working closely with the security staffs at the plants, and so far there have been no
threats," said Emond.
The Coast Guard patrols 361 ports and 95,000 miles of U.S. coast line, including the
Great Lakes of Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario, said Montgomery at the
Atlantic Area.
-----------------
ACF pleased Labor not keen on finding alternative nuclear dump site
Oct 16 - Australian Broadcasting Company - The Australian Conservation
Foundation (ACF) has welcomed Labor's pledge not to rush into finding an
alternative nuclear waste dump site just because a Labor government would rule
South Australia out as an option.
Yesterday, Federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley reaffirmed Labor's promise to
scrap Coalition plans to set up a medium level radioactive waste dump in remote
South Australia should it win office.
He also said a Labor government would commission further studies into the options
that exist.
ACF campaign officer David Noonan says he is heartened by Mr Beazley's position.
"It's time to step back from imposing a nuclear waste future on South Australians
and Australians in general.
"The ACF recommends that there's an order of events that needs to be put in place
to get a credible answer, to have something that has public acceptance and
scientific defensibility."
But Federal Industry Minister, Nick Minchin, says it was Labor's current deputy,
Simon Crean, who stressed the need for a national nuclear waste repository.
Senator Minchin has described as a joke, Labor's latest claim that more studies into
the options should be carried out.
"Mr Crean himself announced nine years ago that Australia needed a purpose built
storage site for low level radioactive waste and initiated the national search and
shortlisted South Australia," he said.
"So it's nonsense to say, 'oh you know we should now sit around and wait'. Wait for
what? Wait for Godot?"
------------------
Carr denies Lucas Heights a terrorist target
Oct 16 - Australian Broadcasting Company - The NSW Premier, Bob Carr, has
rejected claims that the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor site in Sydney's south
represents a potential terrorist risk.
The Greens has accused the Government of being complacent about a potential
attack.
Mr Carr announced the Government's disaster plan yesterday in response to
possible terrorist threats in New South Wales.
The former police control centre used during the Olympic Games has been
reactivated to deal with potential attacks including major building collapses and the
use of biological, chemical or radioactive materials by terrorists.
The Greens Upper House MP, Lee Rhiannon, has called on the Premier to also
reveal if emergency plans have been changed to take into account of any terrorist
risks associated with Lucas Heights.
Mr Carr says he does not believe there is any extra risk at the site but he will look
into the emergency procedures there.
"I don't think that represents a greater threat than hazardous industry or what can
happen with an aviation disaster in the CBD," he said.
------------------
New York stations troops at nuclear power plants
NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - U.S. National Guard troops on Tuesday patrolled six
nuclear power plants in New York after Gov. George Pataki ordered their deployment
to protect against potential attacks.
Already posted at tunnels, bridges, train stations, and airports, members of the
National Guard will be stationed at the nuclear plants "as long as needed" to help
state and local police guard the facilities, Pataki said.
The deployment comes as government officials and the public have become
concerned about the safety of the nation's 103 nuclear power plants in the wake of
the Sept 11. hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington.
As a precaution, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has temporarily shut down
its Web site to review its contents and remove anything that might prove a safety
risk. New Jersey has also ordered National Guardsmen to protect its reactors.
But other states have yet to deploy troops at their reactors, experts said, warning that
a successful attack on a plant could kill thousands and spread radioactive
contamination over hundreds of miles (km).
Steve Dolley, the research director at the Nuclear Control Institute, a research center
specializing in problems of nuclear proliferation and safety, said such an attack could
come from a hijacked airplane, a truck bomb or a "commando style raid."
"It's very difficult to determine how safe these plants are right now, based on
information in the public domain," he said, adding "we hope that governors in other
states will take similar measures."
New York's troop deployment was not connected to any specific threat. But given
"general threats being made by terrorist groups, it is a prudent action to augment and
enhance the high level of security that is currently being maintained," Pataki said.
At the Indian Point nuclear plant, located about 20 miles (32 km) north of New York
City on the Hudson River, the troops come in addition to a series of security
measures taken since last month's hijacked airplane attacks on the United States.
Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Corp. (ETR.N) which owns the Indian Point
plant, would not comment on details of the additional security.
But he said, "Imagine every possible way you can get into this plant, as authorized
personnel, a visitor, a member of the media, and understand that every way you
could have gotten into the plant in the past has changed."
Along with Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant Reactors 2 and 3, troops are stationed
at Nine Mile 1 and 2 Nuclear Power Plants, the James A. Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power
Plant and Ginna Nuclear Power Plant.
Pataki ordered the deployment of troops from the National Guard's 27th Brigade over
the weekend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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