[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Committee Considers Nuclear Liability
Index:
Committee Considers Nuclear Liability
Missouri deploys guard to two nuclear facilities
U.N. Pushes Nations on Nuke Protection
IAEA warns of nuclear terrorism
Europe reviews nuclear plant safety, fears attack
Treaty may require protecting domestic nuclear transport
NRC will have new Web site within the next few weeks
North Korean reactor seen on track despite chill
Japan says no leak at reactor after nearby fire
Fire at Ibaraki reactor site may be due to ignition of sodium
Kursk's Dents Said Not From Crash
========================================
Committee Considers Nuclear Liability
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation that would extend a law limiting nuclear power
plant operators' financial liability in a major accident or terrorist attack advanced in
the House on Wednesday. Some critics have said the limits amounted to an
unwarranted government subsidy.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee by a voice vote approved an
extension until 2017 of the Price-Anderson Act, which limits the amount of damages
the nuclear industry must pay in case of an accident to $9.5 billion. The law, enacted
in 1957, is set to expire next August.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, D-La., the committee's chairman, said he would ask that the
legislation be given quick action by the full House. A similar provision is pending in
the Senate.
The nuclear industry has maintained that some liability limits are needed for nuclear
plant operators to obtain insurance and financing for nuclear reactors. Opponents
argue that the industry is mature enough to get insurance without government help.
The law requires individual plants to have private insurance covering at least $200
million. In addition, the industry as a whole must have insurance for another $9.3
billion for an accident at any of the plants.
A major release of radiation, a reactor core meltdown, or a terrorist attack that might
destroy a reactor could lead to damages much larger than that, the critics charge.
Under the law the government is liable.
The House bill also requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reassess its
security requirements for nuclear power plants - something the NRC already has
begun - and directs the agency to more closely monitor and grade mock terrorist
exercises performed periodically at plants to test security.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the NRC already has begun a review of its
requirements for nuclear plant security.
The legislation was held up in the House committee in a dispute over liability of
Energy Department contractors, who also are protected under the 1957 law. In a
compromise, it was decided the DOE contractors would be liable for damages
caused by intentional misconduct, but that their liability would be limited to a
contractor's profit under a specific DOE contract.
On the Net:
House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce.house.gov
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
Department of Energy: http://www.energy.gov
------------------
Missouri deploys guard to two nuclear facilities
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Nov 1 (Reuters) - Missouri Gov. Bob Holden on Thursday
ordered Army National Guard troops deployed at two nuclear power facilities in the
state, saying he was acting on a request from Washington that security as such
installations be stepped up generally.
"While there have been no specific threats against any nuclear facilities in Missouri, I
believe it is prudent to send National Guard troops to boost existing security
measures after this week's alert from the Justice Department about the potential for
another terrorist attack," he said.
Holden also said that Tom Ridge, the national homeland security director, had asked
governors to increase security at nuclear plants.
The troops were being sent to the Callaway nuclear plant near the town of Fulton, a
facility owned by Ameren Corp <AEE.N> and to a reactor at the University of
Missouri-Columbia.
On Wednesday Guard troops were deployed at four nuclear power stations in
Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi at the request of Entergy Corp <ETR.N>,the
nation's third-largest power generator. It also said it asked for the military back-up as
a precaution during the heightened state of alert.
Last month similar action was taken at three Entergy nuclear plants in New York and
Massachusetts.
In Wichita, Kansas, the regional health department ordered 2 million doses of
antibiotics to be ready in case anthrax infections break out, and roadways around
McConnell Air Force Base there have been closed in response to terrorism
concerns.
The Air Force base is home to refueling tankers and B-1B bombers.
------------------
U.N. Pushes Nations on Nuke Protection
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned of an increased
threat of nuclear terrorism Thursday, urging governments to prevent radioactive
material from falling into the hands of terrorists.
The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States have created new concerns about the
vulnerability of nuclear sites and the danger that terrorist groups might obtain
radioactive material, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, told reporters.
``The willingness of terrorists to commit suicide to achieve their evil aims makes the
nuclear terrorism threat far more likely than it was before Sept. 11,'' ElBaradei said.
Delegates from most of the IAEA's 132 member states are meeting in Vienna on
Friday for a special session to explore ways to minimize the risk of nuclear-related
terrorism.
Founded in 1957, the agency sets world standards for nuclear safety and provides
help to countries in case of a radiological disaster.
Before Sept. 11, the agency was worried most about the risk of governments
``diverting nuclear materials into clandestine weapons programs,'' ElBaradei said.
Now, however, experts are more concerned about terrorists attacking nuclear plants
directly or releasing radioactive material into the environment.
Nuclear experts are especially worried that terrorists could obtain low-level
radioactive material and construct a so-called ``dirty bomb.'' Unlike more
sophisticated nuclear weapons, a ``dirty bomb'' is a crude device using radioactive
material taken from industrial sites or hospitals and detonated by conventional
explosives.
When a ``dirty bomb'' explodes, radioactive material is dispersed. Such a crude
weapon may not kill many people, but would touch off panic, ElBaradei said.
The IAEA will urge countries at the meeting on Friday to better safeguard nuclear
material. Government regulation of some sources of radiation - such as that used for
radiotherapy in hospitals - is very weak, the agency said.
ElBaradei singled out the former Soviet Union as a region where nuclear materials
are not adequately regulated. The political vacuum caused by the dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in some nuclear material escaping government
regulation, he said.
``Borders are too porous in certain areas,'' and ``security needs to be upgraded'' in
some parts of the former Soviet Union, he said.
ElBaradei also stressed that all nuclear sites are vulnerable - particularly in the
nightmare scenario of a fuel-filled jumbo jet slamming into a nuclear reactor. Nuclear
facilities are robust, but they were not built with this threat in mind, he said.
He said he welcomes the U.S. response to place anti-aircraft batteries near some
nuclear facilities.
``This is an exceptional time,'' he said. ``All security measures are welcomed.''
----------------
IAEA warns of nuclear terrorism
VIENNA, Nov. 1 (Kyodo) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on
Thursday urged countries with nuclear power facilities to step up nuclear-protection
security, saying that terrorists are ''far more likely'' to target nuclear facilities and
radioactive materials in the wake of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks in the United States.
''The willingness of terrorists to sacrifice their lives to achieve their evil aims creates
a new dimension in the fight against terrorism,'' IAEA Director General Mohamed
ElBaradei said in a statement.
ElBaradei issued the warning as experts from around the world gathered in Vienna
for a special IAEA session on Friday on nuclear terrorism.
''Although terrorists have never used a nuclear weapon, reports that some terrorist
groups, particularly al-Qaida, have attempted to acquire nuclear material is a cause
of great concern,'' ElBaradei said.
Al-Qaida is a suspected terrorist network under Osama bin Laden, who the U.S. said
masterminded the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
ElBaradei said terrorists may target nuclear facilities or use radioactive materials to
''incite panic, contaminate property, and even cause injury or death among civilian
populations.''
According to IAEA, there have been 175 cases of trafficking in nuclear materials and
201 cases of trafficking in medical and industrial radioactive materials since 1993.
''Any such materials being in illicit commerce and conceivably accessible to terrorist
groups is deeply troubling,'' ElBaradei said, noting that security of medical and
industrial radiation materials is ''disturbingly weak'' in some countries.
------------------
Europe reviews nuclear plant safety, fears attack
LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - European governments say they are reviewing security
measures at civil nuclear installations amid fears they could be the next target of
terrorist attacks, but they remain vague on what action they have taken.
Additional pressure to improve security came from the International Atomic Energy
Agency on Thursday, when Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said an act of
nuclear terrorism was far more likely than previously thought and concern was no
longer limited to secret nuclear weapons programmes.
ElBaradei called on countries around the world to spend the money necessary to
ensure that their nuclear plants could withstand terrorist attacks.
Although the majority of European countries with substantial nuclear power
production say they are reviewing security measures in light of the September 11
attacks in the United States, they are reluctant to say exactly what they are doing.
So far, it is not clear to what extent security has been improved in countries like
Britain, Germany, Russia and France, which produce a large amount of their
electricity from nuclear plants.
WASTE REPROCESSING PLANTS
Reprocessing plants such as BNFL's Sellafield plant in Britain and French Cogema's
plant at La Hague in Normandy are said to be particularly prone to attack because
reprocessing creates a higher level of radioactivity.Both plants process nuclear
waste from a number of countries. BNFL, which also runs nuclear generating plants,
declined to comment on improvements in security but said it had put in place
whatever measures were required by the nuclear watchdog, the Office for Civil
Nuclear Security (OCNS).
"We do what we're told by our regulator. For security reasons, we cannot give details
of measures taken," said a BNFL spokesman.
The Department of Trade and Industry, which handles press inquiries for the OCNS,
was no more specific.
"We've always applied the stringent international rules on nuclear plant safety. We've
taken the extra threat on board and are reviewing security at installations," said a DTI
spokesman.
He declined to say whether additional measures had been taken since the
September 11 attacks on the United States, but confirmed that no military equipment,
such as ground-to-air missiles, had been put in place.
"That's not to say it's not being looked at," he said.
Pressure to improve security measures at Sellafield was intensified last month after a
European Union report said an accident at the plant could cause greater damage
than the Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine in 1986, which exposed more than five
million Europeans to increased levels of radiation.
Nuclear power accounts for 27 percent of Britain's overall electricity generation.
So far, only the French government has said it has taken drastic measures to
strengthen security at nuclear facilities.
Two weeks ago, the French defence ministry announced it had deployed ground-to-
air missiles near the plant at La Hague as a precaution after the hijacked airliner
attacks on the United States.
It also said it was prepared to use warplanes to shoot down hijacked aircraft and
boosted security around key sites such as nuclear plants, industrial zones and large
dams. It did not give further details of measures it had taken.
France is Europe's largest nuclear power producer, its 19 nuclear power sites
producing 76 percent of its electricity.
In Germany, where nuclear power accounts for one-third of national needs,
Environment Ministry spokesman Martin Waldhausen said power companies had
tightened plant security after the September 11 attacks, but no extra security
measures had been ordered recently because there were no indications of a threat.
A debate began last month on whether to switch off old German nuclear plants
sooner than initially planned after the Commission on Nuclear Reactor Safety (RSK)
said in a report that older nuclear plants could not withstand a suicide plane crash.
In Russia, where concern has focused more on military nuclear targets, the
government said it was not aware of a specific threat to civil installations.
"As for civilian facilities, there has been no threat because our security is tight
enough. We have always maintained tough security -- and we have increased the
number of Interior Ministry troops patrolling the area," said Yuri Bespalko,
spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry.
In Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, extra measures including a ban on flights over
nuclear plants were implemented days after the September 11 attacks.
-------------------
Treaty may require protecting domestic nuclear transport
VIENNA, Nov. 1 (Kyodo) - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been
studying proposals to revise an international treaty obligating members to protect
nuclear substances during international transport to include protection during
domestic transport, a senior IAEA official said Thursday.
The United States is urging a revision to the Convention on the Physical Protection of
Nuclear Material due to fears of a possible hijacking of nuclear substances in the
former Soviet republics, the official said.
The U.S. previously had been reluctant about such changes, but has become eager
since the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, the official said.
The IAEA is currently formulating an amendment draft, hoping to launch debate on
the revision proposal later this month, when a board of governors' meeting of the
Vienna-based international body will take place, according to the official.
Sixty-four nations and organizations, including Japan, the U.S. and Russia, have
joined the convention that took effect in 1987.
The pact obligates nations to take appropriate measures to protect nuclear
substances during international transportation, but does not address transportation
within the nations' borders, leaving such measures to domestic law.
------------------
NRC will have new Web site within the next few weeks
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
said that within the next several weeks it will begin "deploying" its newly redesigned
public Web site following safety reviews of all content.
In a notice posted on its site at www.nrc.gov, the NRC said new data will become
available "in a phased approach following a thorough review of all information."
Last week, the NRC began offering limited information on the site following a
complete shutdown for safety reviews due to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon.
On Thursday morning, the notice on the site said, "as reviews are completed, (the)
NRC will restore content incrementally in the redesigned format. In the interim, only
select content will be available."
The NRC, based in Rockville, Maryland, shut its Web site on Oct. 11 to review
whether any of the data posted there could be of value to anyone seeking to attack
U.S. nuclear power facilities.
One suspended set of data is the NRC's daily plant status report which lists the
operating status of the country's 103 nuclear reactors that provide about 20 percent
of the country's electricity.
--------------------
North Korean reactor seen on track despite chill
SEOUL, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The painstaking multinational work of building a nuclear
reactor in North Korea has stayed on course, despite deadlock in the North's ties
with South Korea and the United States, a senior project spokesman said on
Thursday.
The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) benefited from
last year's diplomatic thaw but has shielded its work from setbacks this year, KEDO
Public Affairs Director Marc Vogelaar said.
"We are really isolated from political developments," he said in a telephone interview
from KEDO headquarters in New York.
KEDO was set up as a result of the 1990s crisis over Pyongyang's suspected
nuclear weapons programme.
Vogelaar said implementing the 1994 deal under which North Korea froze a
suspicious plutonium programme in exchange for two light-water reactors, which are
less useful in making bomb-grade material, is "a very political project."
"The whole intention behind it has been, and is, political," he said. "But in our daily
work, we don't really experience it as such. We do hope for progress in efforts to
normalise relations with North Korea because we only stand to benefit from it."
He said KEDO's dealings with North Korea this year have withstood a marked
downturn in Pyongyang's relations with the United States and South Korea, two key
founding members of KEDO.
NORTH KOREAN ATTITUDE IMPROVES
A budding reconciliation between Pyongyang and its longtime adversaries Seoul and
Washington saw South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and then U.S. Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright make landmark visits last year to North Korea.
But since the George W. Bush administration took office in January with a sceptical
view of North Korea, Communist Pyongyang has all but turned its back on South
Korea and the United States, reverting to brinkmanship and blistering propaganda
attacks.
Amid this standoff, however, KEDO's $5-billion reactor project on the North Korea's
remote eastern coast has made headway in matters of symbolism and substance,
Vogelaar said.
In August, after years of complaining about the project and demanding U.S.
compensation for delays, North Korea sent its first team of high-level officials from
Pyongyang to tour the project. In September, they attended a groundbreaking
ceremony.
"In the past, to show any recognition or enthusiasm about what we were doing was
counter to their attitude," he said.
"I think they are beginning to realise that we mean business, that this is not a political
ploy against them," Vogelaar said.
Construction at the North Korean village of Kumho has fallen behind its completion
target date of 2003, due to what experts said was Pyongyang's earlier footdragging
to extract more concessions and the complexity of the multinational scheme.
POURING CONCRETE IN AUGUST
But the KEDO team of more than 1,000 workers -- two-thirds from South Korea, 100
from North Korea and some 300 from Uzbekistan -- is ready to move to full
construction after leveling mountains and building harbours and housing.
Goals now are to finish the reactor's breakwater inlet for coolant by March and to
complete the discharge outlet in May. The next big milestone will be to pour the first
concrete in August.
But potential conflicts remain.
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's
nuclear watchdog agency, said North Korea had made no move over the past year to
work with international inspectors trying to analyse its past atomic arms programme.
"We keep in close touch with IAEA and there is, of course, a link between what we
do and what they seek to achieve and that link is expressed in the supply
agreement," he said.
The terms of the 1994 agreement requires North Korea to achieve "full compliance
with its IAEA safeguards" before delivery of key nuclear equipment.
"If there were no evidence of such full compliance. it would have repercussions for
our project, actually forcing us to interrupt the project," Vogelaar said.
A second issue is the North's need to upgrade their dilapidated electricity grid to
handle power from KEDO.
Pyongyang lacks cash and technology to do the work itself. It cannot get international
financial aid until it is taken off the list of states Washington accuses of sponsoring
terrorism.
"There is a problem looming, but there is enough time for North Korea to solve it,"
Vogelaar said.
A senior KEDO delegation flew into Pyongyang on Tuesday for semi-annual talks on
the project. KEDO's Executive Board will met in Seoul next month, he said.
------------------
Japan says no leak at reactor after nearby fire
TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - No radiation leaked from an experimental nuclear reactor
near Tokyo as a result of a fire at a nearby maintenance facility late on Wednesday,
the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute said.
The fire was put out at about three hours after it started at a maintenance facility near
the Joyo experimental fast-breeder reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture, the JNC said on
Thursday.
"Monitoring equipment around the site has not shown any irregularly high readings of
radioactivity...and we are investigating the cause of the fire," a spokesman for state-
run JNC. There were no injuries in the incident.
Parts and equipment from the reactor are taken to the building for repairs, the
spokesman said.
Joyo, in the process of having its capacity increased to 140 megawatts from 100
megawatts, is one of three experimental reactors run by JNC, none of which is
currently operating.
JNC is spearheading the nation's fast-breeder reactor programme -- a technology
first conceived in the 1960s with the objective of using plutonium recycled from
uranium fuel.
Most Western countries have abandoned similar programmes due to technical
difficulties and costs.
France, which depends roughly 75 percent on nuclear power for its electricity, closed
its Superphenix fast breeder in 1998.
Nuclear energy supplies about a third of Japan's electricity needs, and the nation has
stuck to its fast breeder programme.
ACCIDENTS STALKS JNC
Wednesday's fire was the latest in a string of incidents to hit JNC's development
efforts.
The company's prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju, at Tsuruga, 400 km (250
miles) west of Tokyo, has been shut since it suffered a massive sodium coolant leak
on December 8, 1995.
The spokesman said on Thursday that JNC was working towards restarting Monju
but no timetable had been set.
An accident at JNC's Fugen advanced thermal reactor on April 15, 1997, leaked
radioactive tritium.
The reactor, which is also undergoing maintenance, is due to be scrapped after
operations are halted in 2003.
These accidents and others, one of which resulted in the death of two workers at a
nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in 1999, have increased public distrust of the
nuclear industry and undermined Japan's efforts to build more nuclear reactors.
-----------------
Fire at Ibaraki reactor site may be due to ignition of sodium
MITO, Japan, Nov. 1 (Kyodo) - A fire that broke out Wednesday night at a
maintenance facility close to the experimental Joyo fast-breeder reactor in Oarai,
Ibaraki Prefecture, may have been caused by spontaneous ignition of sodium, facility
officials said Thursday.
''The possibility of natural ignition caused by sodium (on the equipment) cannot be
eliminated,'' they said. Sodium can combust when it reacts to water and air.
Two hours before the 8:40 p.m. fire, personnel at the facility had been cleaning
equipment used in the reactor.
The maintenance facility, a square concrete structure three-stories high, is used to
clean pumps and other equipment used in the reactor. It is located about 50 meters
from the reactor in the Oarai Engineering Center at the government-run Japan
Nuclear Cycle Development Institute.
Police and firefighters on Thursday inspected the site, including an area around a
sodium cleansing tank inside the building. The tank is believed to be the source of
the fire.
The blaze raged for nearly three hours before it was extinguished, but there were no
reports of casualties. Officials earlier said there were no workers inside the building
at the time of the fire.
The institute said the level of radioactivity outside the maintenance building rose at
one point after the fire. But it ruled out any leak of radiation into the air.
Oarai fire department officials earlier said the fire, which broke out around 8:40 p.m.
and was put out around 11:30 p.m., burned a vinyl sheet used to cover the tank work
site.
A precursor to the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, the Joyo went into
operation in 1978 after reaching criticality in April 1977. It is a research facility for the
development of fast-breeder reactor technology and designed to produce more fuel
than it consumes and uses plutonium.
-------------------
Kursk's Dents Said Not From Crash
MOSCOW (AP) - The dents that have puzzled investigators examining the wreck of
the nuclear submarine Kursk were not caused by a collision with another submarine,
a senior prosecutor said Thursday.
However, it is still possible a collision caused the two explosions that sank the Kursk,
said Yuri Yakovlev, first deputy chief military prosecutor.
``It's wrong to say that the dents resulted from a collision which led to the
catastrophe,'' he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
He did not say what could have caused the dents, but Russia's deputy prime minister
said Wednesday they could be due to the submarine hitting the seabed or to a
vacuum effect caused by the blasts.
The Kursk sank in the Barents Sea during a naval exercise on Aug. 12, 2000, killing
the entire crew of 118. The wreck was raised from the seabed and brought to dry
dock last week, enabling the navy to recover 53 bodies in addition to the 12 retrieved
by divers from the wreck last fall.
Meanwhile, the navy has unloaded 14 of the Kursk's 22 Granit cruise missiles,
including six on Thursday from starboard side. Eight others were removed from port
side. So far the navy has been was unable to retrieve three other missiles from port
side because of their sensitive location near the damaged bow.
Navy officials have said they may have to cut the massive weapons from the Kursk
together with their containers if they can't be lifted out by crane.
Officials say the first of two explosions in the Kursk's bow was caused by a practice
torpedo, but they disagree on what triggered it. Most experts suspect an internal
malfunction. Russian investigators have not ruled out a World War II mine or a
collision with a foreign submarine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.