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Fire breaks out at Joyo reactor site in Ibaraki
NOTE: Some of these news items are from late last week, due to my lack of time to
compile the news while I am here at NIST this week
Index:
Fire breaks out at Joyo reactor site in Ibaraki
Planes Banned Near Nuclear Plants
French protesters delay nuclear waste shipment
Norway urges UK to curb Sellafield emissions
Brunswick Plant Breaks Own World Record
Austria will not veto Czech EU bid over N-plant
Japan holds 1st nuclear drill using permanent center
Titan to sell mail sanitizers to U.S. Post Service
Irish launch legal action over UK nuclear plant
Rapiscan Announces FAA Order for Secure 1000 Personal Body-Scanner Systems
==================================================
Fire breaks out at Joyo reactor site in Ibaraki
MITO, Japan, Oct. 31 (Kyodo) - Fire broke out at around 8:40 p.m. Wednesday at the
site accommodating the experimental fast-breeder reactor Joyo in the town of Oarai,
Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, police said.
The police said the fire broke out on the first floor of a maintenance facility some 50
meters from the experimental reactor in the compound of the Oarai Engineering
Center of the government-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.
Firefighters were mobilized and the fire was contained around 10:25 p.m., the police
said, adding that no one was hurt and ruled out the possibility of a radioactive leak or
of fire spreading to the reactor.
The institute said it stopped operating Joyo in June last year as it needed to replace
the reactor core with a new one.
The maintenance facility is a square concrete structure. It accommodates
maintenance equipment to clean pumps used in the reactor.
The science and technology ministry also said fuel bars have been pulled out from the
reactor as it is undergoing renovation.
Joyo is Japan's first fast-breeder reactor, which went into operation in 1978, after
reaching criticality in April 1977. It is a research facility for Japan's development of
fast-breeder reactor technology, designed to produce more fuel than it consumes,
using plutonium.
-------------------
Planes Banned Near Nuclear Plants
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily banned private
planes from flying near nuclear power plants after Attorney General John Ashcroft
warned of possible new terrorist attacks.
The FAA on Tuesday imposed the restrictions ``for reasons of national security.'' The
ban on flying within 11 miles of 86 nuclear plants and other nuclear sites such as the
Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico expires Nov. 7.
Also in response to Ashcroft's warning, Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta
told his department's administrators to make sure that the trucking, aviation, railroad,
shipping and other industries maintained high levels of security.
The ban on private flights near nuclear power plants will force nearby small airports to
close, said Warren Morningstar, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association.
``A small, general-aviation aircraft is not a significant risk to a nuclear facility,''
Morningstar said. ``On the other hand, we also have to accept that there are serious
national security threats, and we will do our best to protect the nation and keep people
safe.''
Commercial airplanes, which fly at higher altitudes, will not be affected. Nor will the
ban apply to medical, law enforcement, rescue and firefighting operations when
authorized by air traffic controllers.
The FAA also announced restrictions on private planes because of the World Series.
Only pilots who file flight plans with the FAA will be allowed to fly within 34 miles of
John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. The restrictions will be in effect from 6:45 p.m.
to 2 a.m. EST during all World Series games played at Yankee Stadium.
Bans remain in effect on all private planes within 20 miles of Kennedy Airport or
Reagan Washington National Airport. In Boston, New York and Washington, all
private pilots must file flight plans with the FAA.
Blimps, news helicopters and banner-towing planes remain grounded in 30
metropolitan areas.
On the Net:
Federal Aviation Administration: http://www.faa.gov
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association: http://www.aopa.org
---------------------
French protesters delay nuclear waste shipment
SCHILTIGHEIM, France, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Anti-nuclear activists set off rockets and
chained themselves to rail tracks on Tuesday in a bid to stop a German train carrying
nuclear waste from crossing France.
A Reuters reporter in the town of Schiltigheim in eastern France, close to the German
border, said several protesters managed to halt the train briefly at about 1900 GMT
before police quickly stepped in and cut them free from the tracks. Two people were
arrested.
The train, which is bound for a nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in northwestern
England, continued on its journey across northern France after a 15-minute delay.
It is carrying two containers of nuclear waste from the northern German plant of
Kleinensiel.
Earlier, German police detained about 50 anti-nuclear protesters who forced the train
to stop several times by sitting on railway tracks.
Convoys transporting nuclear waste for reprocessing or back to its country of origin
afterwards are frequently targeted by anti-nuclear protesters.
--------------------
NRC checks tube problem at Three Mile Isl Pa. nuke
NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said late
Monday it sent an inspection team to investigate a steam generator tube problem at
the 786-megawatt Three Mile Island nuclear unit in Pennsylvania.
During an inspection of steam generator tubes last week as part of a refueling outage
at Three Mile Island, AmerGen Energy Co., which owns the plant, found a plugged
steam generator tube had separated from the tube sheet and caused wear on several
adjoining tubes, the NRC said in a statement.
The cause of the separation was being evaluated, the NRC said. An inspection report
will be issued about 45 days from the end of the inspection.
Steam generators transfer heat from the reactor systems to the power-generating
portion of a nuclear power plant.
Three Mile Island was shut on Oct. 8 for scheduled refueling and maintenance. The
unit will likely remain out of service until Nov. 10, a week longer than expected,
according to electricity traders.
Separately, the NRC said it will review AmerGen's work to identify and repair small
cracks associated with control rod drive mechanism nozzle penetrations in Three Mile
Island's reactor vessel head.
The Three Mile Island station is located in Londonderry Township, Pa.
----------------------
Norway urges UK to curb Sellafield emissions
OSLO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Norway's Environment Minister Boerge Brende said on
Monday he had asked his British counterpart to halt emissions from the UK's nuclear
reprocessing plant near Sellafield, traced as far as the Arctic Barents Sea.
Brende met UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Margaret
Beckett and Environment Minister Michael Meacher in Luxembourg earlier on Monday
to demand emissions from the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) facility are
processed ashore and not discharged into the Irish Sea.
"What came out of the meeting was that the British government would consider the
Sellafield emissions again before Christmas," Brende told Reuters.
"It was a constructive but tough meeting."
Brende said traces of the radioactive compound technetium-99, known to stem from
Sellafield, had been discovered along the entire Norwegian coastline and as far as the
Arctic areas.
"We are not happy about Sellafield and understand fully the strong Irish reactions
against Sellafield as the site is only a few miles away from their border," Brende said.
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern promised earlier in the month to pursue "every legal
avenue" to halt the commissioning of a mixed oxide (MOX) plant in Cumbria,
northwest England.
Ireland has long called for the closure of Sellafield.
A spokesman for Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said
ministers were considering whether to accept the UK environment agency's proposal
to leave limits on technetium emissions unchanged.
"Ministers (Beckett and Meacher) are considering whether to intervene," he said.
Brende, who took office a week ago as a centre-right coalition came to power after
winning a general election on September 10, said Norway was currently exploring
possibilities for a lawsuit against British authorities over Sellafield.
"I have asked the Foreign Ministry to evaluate the legal aspects of these emissions for
Norway," Brende said.
Brende said British authorities should have an obligation to choose the most
environmentally friendly way of dealing with the discharge from Sellafield.
"Environmental considerations should weigh heavier than short-term economic
considerations," he said.
Brende said he would meet again with British authorities before Christmas.
Britain first established nuclear facilities at Sellafield, formerly called Windscale, in the
1940s, and the world's first commercial nuclear power station was opened there in
1956.
Research has shown lobsters and other shellfish in the North Sea and in the Irish sea
have high levels of technetium-99.
---------------------
Brunswick Plant Breaks Own World Record
SOUTHPORT, N.C., Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- CP&L's Brunswick Nuclear Plant has
set a new world record for the longest continuous operating run for a boiling water
reactor, breaking its own 581-day record achieved in 1996.
"Breaking our own world record for operating a unit for more than 581 consecutive
days is a tribute to our employee's focus on safely and reliably maintaining and
operating the power plant," explained Brunswick Plant Vice President Jack Keenan.
"Our outstanding performance in nearly every industry category related to safety,
reliability, and cost clearly demonstrates that the Brunswick Plant is among the best
nuclear plants in the world."
The Brunswick Nuclear Plant utilizes two GE boiling water reactors, each of which
produces approximately 815 megawatts of electricity. It was Brunswick's Unit 2 that
set the continuous run record for the industry in 1996 and has held it ever since. This
time Unit 1 broke the world record, surpassing the old mark on October 27.
"Our long-term goal is to continue improving in every way and to operate our two units
100 percent of the time between refueling outages," said Keenan. The Brunswick
Plant recently moved to a two-year refueling cycle, during which one of the plant's
units is taken out of service for approximately one month each spring. Brunswick Unit
1 is scheduled for a refueling outage in the spring of 2002.
CP&L's three nuclear power plants located in the Carolinas are operated as "base
load" power plants, generating around the clock more than 40 percent of the
company's electricity. The plants are typically shut down for maintenance and
refueling outages in the spring or fall when customer demand for electricity is lowest.
During this time, other company electric generating facilities supply electricity to
customers.
The Brunswick Nuclear Plant is located near Southport, N.C. CP&L, a subsidiary of
Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), serves more than 1.2 million customers in North
Carolina and South Carolina. For more information about CP&L, visit the company's
Web site at: http://www.cpl.com.
----------------------
Austria will not veto Czech EU bid over N-plant
VIENNA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said on Sunday
he would not veto the Czech Republic's entry to the European Union over the Temelin
nuclear plant issue, but added that Austria still wanted to block or improve the
controversial project.
Austria's opposition to the Czech Republic's plant going on line just 60 km (37 miles)
from the Austrian border threatens to derail Prague's negotiations with the EU on
energy issues, one of the requirements for its planned entry to the bloc in 2004.
"There is no threat of a veto from the government," Schuessel said in an interview
with national television station ORF.
"What we want is to block the plant or at least bring it up to European safety
standards," he said. "A veto would not make the plant any safer."
The Czech Republic maintains Temelin will be safe, but Austria says the plant
remains a danger despite the addition of Western safety systems to the Communist-
era design.
Last month, Joerg Haider, former leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party which is
in coalition with Schuessel's conservatives, said the chancellor would face problems
within his own party if he did not exercise a veto over the Czech Republic's EU entry
should the plant be allowed to open.
--------------------
Japan holds 1st nuclear drill using permanent center
TOMARI, Japan, Oct. 27 (Kyodo) - Japan on Saturday conducted its first nuclear
accident drill using a permanent emergency response center in Hokkaido, local
antidisaster officials said.
The drill, which ended just after 3:20 p.m., involved a nuclear power plant in the
northernmost prefecture and was the country's second nuclear preparation exercise
under the Special Measures Law for Nuclear Accidents, which entered into force in
June last year, they said. The first drill was held in Shimane Prefecture in October last
year.
The law, which requires the government to conduct a comprehensive drill annually,
was passed after Japan's worst nuclear accident in September 1999 at a nuclear fuel
processing plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Saturday's drill was based on the premise of an accident at the Hokkaido Electric
Power Co. plant in the village of Tomari in western Hokkaido, according to officials. It
was assumed that coolant in the No. 1 reactor of the plant had leaked, damaging a
pipe at around 8:30 a.m.
Under the scenario, radiation from the reactor leaked outside, prompting the
evacuation of about 100 residents to two areas, they said.
About 80 entities including the central government, the Hokkaido prefectural
government and Hokkaido Electric Power as well as some 2,400 people participated,
cooperating on relaying information in the wake of the accident.
Keiji Furuya, senior vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and
head of the local task force group, said the objectives of the drill had been
accomplished.
''Close networking among relevant groups is indispensable to attain a disaster-
prevention framework. We would like to use our experience here for creating further''
improvements in such frameworks, he said.
At a crisis group within the ministry, a liaison conference involving the various
ministries took place while a meeting was also held at the response center.
Due to the failure of the emergency core cooling system, Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi declared a state of nuclear emergency in the drill.
Koizumi held a teleconference to consult with a special task force led by him at the
premier's official residence in Tokyo and the response center, which is located in the
Hokkaido town of Kyowa, about 2 kilometers southeast of the power plant.
''We in the government will deal first and foremost with the safety of the residents,''
Koizumi said in the teleconference.
The scenario involved an ''off-site'' risk in which people at the site and those nearby
are in danger of being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.
---------------------
Titan to sell mail sanitizers to U.S. Post Service
LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Technology company Titan Corp. (TTN.N) said on
Friday that the U.S. Postal Service will buy up to 20 of its electron beam systems to
sterilize mail and eradicate the threat of anthrax contamination.
San Diego-based Titan said it will subcontract the order for the systems, which use
electron beam and X-ray technology to destroy harmful bacteria, to its majority-owned
subsidiary SureBeam Corp. (SURE.O).
Titan said the Postal Service will purchase eight systems for about $40 million, with an
option to buy 12 more, each of which cost about $5 million. In addition to providing the
equipment, the company said it will operate and maintain the systems.
Titan said it expects the first systems to be received by the Postal Service in the
Washington, D.C. area in November. The company said the Postal Service has also
contracted to use a Titan facility to sanitize mail.
The U.S. Supreme Court building was closed on Friday after anthrax was found at an
off-site mail inspection warehouse, and traces were also detected at a CIA facility, as
authorities struggled to find the source of letters laced with the germ warfare agent.
Tests earlier found traces of anthrax in mail rooms that serve Congress, the White
House, the State Department and the main mail processing plant for the nation's
capital.
So far, three people -- two Washington postal workers and a photo editor at a Florida-
based media company -- have died of anthrax in recent weeks.
Titan's shares, which rose $1.21 to close at $27.00 on the New York Stock Exchange,
have gained some 24 percent this week alone. Surebeam is up 21 percent for the
week.
"We provide a complete, computerized system," Titan Chief Executive Gene Ray told
Reuters. He said the system package includes computers, the tubular machine
through which the mail will pass, a material handling unit and a system for measuring
the precise dose of radiation.
He estimated the cost of using the technology on mail to about a penny per letter.
"The source of the radiation is electricity, there is no nuclear power involved," he said.
Ray explained that the electron beam technology works by taking regular electricity
and speeding up the rate at which the electrons travel.
"It is just like your TV. Electricity comes in there, passes through cathode ray tubes,
and turns into the picture," the CEO said.
For the past eight years, Titan has used SureBeam electron beam technology to
sterilize medical products, and for the last 18 months the technology has been used
by SureBeam to eliminate dangerous bacteria in food.
"We take hamburger -- raw or frozen -- run it past the machine and all the Ecoli and
other dangerous bacteria is killed," Ray said.
He warned that while the electricity is harmless for most packages, electronic devices
would be damaged if passed through an electron beam accelerator.
Ray said Titan has received a number of calls from other countries about potential use
of its system in mail handling, but said needs in the United States come first.
"What we are doing is delaying deliveries to some of our other customers," the CEO
said.
He said the company currently produces about 50 of its electron beam systems each
year, but could make "three times that."
----------------------
Irish launch legal action over UK nuclear plant
DUBLIN, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Ireland said on Friday it had launched international legal
action against Britain to prevent the planned expansion of the Sellafield nuclear plant
on England's northwest coast.
Joe Jacob, Ireland's minister with responsibility for nuclear safety, said Ireland was
determined to make every effort to halt the commissioning of the mixed oxide (MOX)
plant in Cumbria, northwest England.
"Having fully exhausted all other avenues open to us to no avail, the legal
proceedings...are now being pursued," he said in a statement.
Britain's decision last month to give the go-ahead for the nuclear fuel manufacturing
plant provoked a storm of protest in Ireland, which has long campaigned for the
closure of the existing Sellafield facilities just across the Irish sea.
Fears fanned by September's hijack attacks on the United States were further
exacerbated this week by a European Parliament-commissioned report leaked to
media which said an accident at Sellafield could cause greater damage than the
Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine in 1986.
The Chernobyl nuclear accident exposed some five million Europeans to increased
levels of radiation.
The Irish legal action -- based on what it says are contraventions by Britain of the
1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea -- also seeks to stop
international movements of radioactive materials associated with the MOX plant in
and around the Irish Sea.
Ireland plans to ask the Hamburg-based International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea
to order an immediate suspension of the MOX plant's authorisation and international
transports pending a decision from an international arbitration tribunal it wants set up
to resolve the dispute.
It wants hearings on the matter held before the MOX plant becomes operational,
which it said could be as early as November 23.
The Irish government added it believed the attacks on New York and Washington
warranted a wholesale review of the security measures relating to the MOX plant and
international movements of radioactive materials.
Ireland has already launched a separate legal action under European Union law.
Britain first established nuclear facilities at Sellafield -- formerly called Windscale -- in
the 1940s, and the world's first commercial nuclear power station was opened there in
1956.
----------------------
Rapiscan Announces FAA Order for Secure 1000 Personal Body-Scanner Systems
HAWTHORNE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 29, 2001--
Revolutionary Secure 1000 Product Accurately Detects
Non-Metallic Weapons, Plastic Explosives, and other Security Threats Carried on the
Body
Rapiscan Security Products, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSI Systems, Inc.
(Nasdaq:OSIS) and a worldwide leader in providing security solutions to airports,
customs facilities, correctional facilities, and governments, announced today that the
FAA has awarded OSI Systems an order for five Secure 1000(TM) body scanning
systems.
The Company currently has several Secure 1000 units placed with United States
Customs at various U.S. airport locations.
The FAA is purchasing these five Secure 1000 systems in order to study their
potential for enhancing security at the nation's airports. The study will be conducted at
the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Product
delivery has commenced and is expected to be completed by the end of this calendar
year.
In recent testimony before the Aviation Subcommittee of the House Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure on Aviation Security, Andreas Kotowski, Rapiscan's
Chief Technical Officer, recommended that the Secure 1000 be implemented as a key
security measure because its technology can disclose all types of contraband
concealed on the body, even under clothing and hair, including plastic weapons,
ceramic weapons, and explosives; not only metallic items.
"The Secure 1000 is an unparalleled solution for the detection of potential threats that
are carried on a person's body," said Deepak Chopra, Chairman and CEO of OSI
Systems. "It has the ability to detect non-metallic objects such as ceramic or graphite
weapons, plastic explosives, or threats stored in glass containers. Its small footprint
and rapid throughput would allow the system to be rapidly deployed at secure
installations as a solid complement to X-ray baggage scanners and walk-through
metal detectors."
The Secure 1000 is a cutting-edge security and detection product, providing
comprehensive and highly-detailed body searches in seconds, without the need for
time-consuming, inefficient and potentially demeaning and dangerous hands-on body
searches by security personnel. The individual being searched steps in front of the
Secure 1000 for a rapid "hands-off" body scan, and the results are displayed on the
Secure 1000's high-resolution color monitor, to be viewed by the Secure 1000's
operator from a secure remote location.
The Secure 1000's proprietary computer processing creates a computer image of the
scanned individual to show the shape, size and location of objects concealed under
the person's clothing. In addition to metallic items, the Secure 1000 is able to detect
such items as dynamite, C-4, ceramics, graphite fibers, plastic, packaged narcotics,
bundled currency, and even wooden objects.
The Secure 1000 achieves its advanced detection capabilities through the use of
extremely low-level and safe X-Ray technology. One complete body scan by the
Secure 1000 is equal to approximately 6 microREMs of radiation, equivalent to what a
person would receive from watching television for a few minutes, and is less than 1%
of the minimum natural level of background radiation that all people are exposed to
every day.
About Rapiscan Security Products, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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