Canada's AECL considered for British nuke plants

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

Index:



Canada's AECL considered for British nuke plants

Experts warn of low-grade nuclear terror attack

Duke unit to replace steam generators at Mo. nuke

India, Russia to ink document on nuclear power plant

UK generator wants no-fly zones over its N-plants

Sellafield safety boss seeks to calm Irish fears

Australian Fed Govt called to define 'co-location' in nuclear waste dump disposal

Troops to guard Florida ports, nuclear plants

Can Nuclear Power Be Protected From Terrorists?

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



Canada's AECL considered for British nuke plants

  

OTTAWA, Nov 2 (Reuters) - British Energy Plc <BGY.L> and AECL, the Canadian 

government's nuclear reactor technology company, said on Friday they had agreed 

to assess the feasibility of using AECL's Candu nuclear plants in Britain. 



"AECL is very pleased to be collaborating with British Energy with a view to the 

potential building of Candu New Generation reactors in the U.K. and Canada," AECL 

president Robert Van Adel said in a joint statement with British Energy. 



Over the next year, the two companies will prepare a case including Candu as an 

option for new plants in Britain and will assess the technical suitability of Candu 

reactors on existing sites. 



British Energy currently operates four Candu units at its Bruce B station in Ontario 

and has plans to reopen two other units at the currently shutdown Bruce A site, the 

statement said. 



British Energy said in its submission to the British government's energy review it 

identified two types of reactors that it believed would be suitable -- one designed by 

AECL, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., and the other designed by Westinghouse, 

owned by the state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.

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



Experts warn of low-grade nuclear terror attack

  

VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - Nuclear experts said Friday any future act of nuclear 

terrorism could use crude weapons from commonplace radioactive materials aimed 

more at spreading panic than causing physical harm. 



"In some states where radioactive materials are not well regulated, they are 

potentially available," said Graham Andrew, scientific adviser at the International 

Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear security watchdog. 



In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of an IAEA conference on nuclear 

terrorism, Andrew said terrorists could take radiotherapy or X-ray materials from 

hospitals to construct a crude bomb. 



While such a weapon might not wreak devastation, it would certainly spread panic. 



"On the consequence side, you're not going to get a large number of fatalities. The 

consequence is going to be more one of economic disruption and anxiety in the 

public." 



Often referred to as a "dirty bomb," such a device could easily be built by 

surrounding a radioactive source with explosives and detonating it to spread 

radioactivity across a wide area. 



"The potential for panic is quite large. Radioactivity is invisible, you can't see it or feel 

it. And you don't know what its impact on your health in 10 years will be," said 

Andrew. 



IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei told the conference that although it was 

highly unlikely terrorists could get their hands on a sophisticated nuclear weapon and 

detonate it, that could not be ruled out. 



"This is the most horrifying scenario, but also the most unlikely," ElBaradei said. "But 

nothing is excluded, as we've learned from September 11." 



The IAEA has called on countries to review security and protection for all radioactive 

materials, not just weapons-grade radioactive sources. 



ElBaradei said the IAEA was aware of 175 cases of trafficking of nuclear materials 

since 1993. Of those, 18 involved highly enriched uranium, or plutonium, which is 

needed to make a nuclear bomb. 



The IAEA experts judged the quantities of plutonium involved were insufficient to 

make a nuclear bomb. 



ATTACK ON NUCLEAR REACTORS 



Jerrold Post, a terrorism expert from George Washington University in Washington, 

said an attack on a nuclear facility by religious fundamentalists was certainly 

conceivable in light of the events of Sept. 11. 



Post said he had interviewed several dozen suspected fundamentalist attackers 

about their views and told the conference the results were "startling and chilling." 



Post said that when asked if there were any limits to the numbers of casualties they 

wanted to inflict, one suspect said: "The more casualties, the better. The greater the 

number of casualties, the greater the measure of success." 



Post quoted another as saying, "This is not murder, this is jihad (holy war), and in a 

jihad, there are no red lines." 



Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon by 

hijacked commercial airliners, nuclear experts began exploring the consequences of 

hijackers ramming a jumbo jet into one of the world's 438 nuclear power reactors. 

Would the world have a Chernobyl-style disaster on its hands? 



The IAEA has no answer at the moment. "They haven't actually done that evaluation 

yet," Andrew said. 



He referred to a 1988 U.S. experiment in which scientists rammed a small military jet 

into a concrete and steel structure identical to a nuclear power plant. The structure 

held. 



"It wasn't just a publicity stunt," Andrew said. "What it actually showed was that the 

engineering assessment predicted it accurately. There was a dent of about 2-1/2 

inches and the computer simulations predicted that." 



He said he expected scientists to conduct experiments soon to find out what exactly 

would happen if hijackers rammed a jumbo jet into a nuclear power plant. 

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



Duke unit to replace steam generators at Mo. nuke



NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - AmerenUE selected Duke Energy Corp.'s <DUK.N> 

Steam Generating Team (SGT) to replace the steam generators at the Callaway 

nuclear plant in Fulton, Mo., North Carolina-based Duke said in a statement Friday. 



Steam generators transfer heat from the reactor systems to the power-generating 

portion of a nuclear plant. 



SGT is a limited liability company owned jointly by engineering firms Duke 

Engineering & Services and Washington Group International Inc. of Boise, Idaho. 



Duke, a diversified energy services giant based in Charlotte, N.C., did not disclose 

the details or the value of the contract in the statement. 



Under the contract, Duke said SGT will provide project management, engineering, 

licensing, construction, quality assurance, support services and start-up testing for 

the steam generator replacement at the 1,235-megawatt (MW) Westinghouse-

designed plant. 



AmerenUE is the regulated electric and natural gas distribution unit of St. Louis-

based diversified energy company Ameren Corp. <AEE.N>. 



Duke said SGT has begun planning and preparations for the steam generator 

replacement project. The replacement is scheduled to take place during the autumn 

2005 outage. 



SGT was also recently awarded a contract to replace steam generators at 

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc.'s <XEL.N> Prairie Island nuclear plant. 



SGT has completed steam generator replacements for New York-based 

Consolidated Edison Inc.'s <ED.N> Indian Point Unit 2, Milwaukee-based Wisconsin 

Energy Corp.'s <WEC.N> Point Beach Unit 2 and Florida-based FPL Group Inc.'s 

<FPL.N> St. Lucie Unit 1. 



The firm is currently under contract to replace steam generators at Baltimore-based 

Constellation Energy Group Inc.'s <CEG.N> Calvert Cliffs units 1 and 2 and Duke's 

Oconee Nuclear Station units 1, 2 and 3. 

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



India, Russia to ink document on nuclear power plant

  

NEW DELHI, Nov. 2 (Kyodo) - India and Russia will sign a memorandum of 

understanding on the construction of a nuclear power plant in a southern Indian state 

during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's four-day visit to Russia, the country's 

foreign secretary said Friday. 



A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the two countries for the 

construction of the Koodankulam nuclear power project in Tamil Nadu. 



The document will be one of several bilateral agreements, including a Moscow 

declaration on international terrorism and a joint statement on strategic issues, to be 

signed between the two countries during Vajpayee's visit to Russia from Sunday to 

Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Chokila Iyer said. 



Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to India in October 2000, inked a 

declaration on strategic partnership between India and Russia. 



''The visit of Prime Minister Vajpayee is expected to impart a new impulse, greater 

depth and content to Indo-Russian relations...the prime minister's visit will further 

cement the tradition of high-level exchanges of visits and reaffirms the strong bond of 

friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries, Iyer said in her 

opening remarks at the briefing. 



Vajapyee's visit to Moscow comes at a crucial juncture in international affairs and 

India and its ally Russia are expected to give a fresh impetus to the relationship 

despite changes in their relations with other countries, including the United States, 

China and Europe. 



The Indian prime minister will be in Washington on Nov. 7-9 at the invitation of 

President George W. Bush. Vajpayee and Bush will meet Nov. 9 at the White House, 

where they will hold talks over a number of issues, including the future of Afghanistan 

and bilateral, regional and international issues. 



Vajpayee will address the U.N. General Assembly on Nov. 11. 



The final leg of the Indian prime minister's tour will take him to Britain for a two-day 

visit from Nov. 12 at the invitation of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. 



Talks will focus on a range of bilateral and international matters. The two leaders last 

met during Blair's trip to New Delhi on Oct. 6. 



The Indian prime minister will return home around Nov. 13. 

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



UK generator wants no-fly zones over its N-plants

  

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - British Energy, the UK's largest nuclear power 

generator, on Friday urged the government to put in place no-fly zones over the 

company's power stations. 



"We have been telling the government we want no-fly zones over our power 

stations," group spokesman Bob Fenton told Reuters. 



The issue of nuclear safety has been thrust into the limelight after the September 11 

attacks in the U.S. and calls on Thursday by the head of the International Atomic 

Energy Agency for governments to improve security around installations. 



Fenton said there was a lot of interest in nuclear safety especially after several media 

organistions overflew on Thursday British Energy power stations with small aircraft 

and helicopters. 



"There are media stunts going on at the moment, but I am not sure what they prove. 

We could have told them there are not any no-fly zones," he said. 



The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said some nuclear sites such as military 

installations and several power stations operated by state-run British Nuclear Fuels 

(BNFL) did have no-fly zones. 



"The CAA can put in place no-fly zones, but the request has to come from the 

government," a spokeswoman at the authority said. 



BNFL said it could not comment on security at its plants. 



A spokesman from the Office for Civil Nuclear Security, the body that oversees 

issues relating to the security of civilian nuclear sites, said no-fly zones were a safety 

rather than security issue. 



"No-fly zones are not there for security purposes, they are there for safety purposes," 

he said, adding that security at all nuclear installations was under review. 



The Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, which handles 

aviation matters was not immediately available for comment. 



Putting in place no-fly zones to cover Britain's 35 reactors is a long way off what 

other nations with nuclear power stations have done. 



Last month France put in place ground-to-air missiles at its La Hague reprocessing 

site and said it will use warplanes to shoot down any hijacked aircraft threatening 

nuclear installations. 



The DTI said on Thursday no military equipment had been installed at the country's 

nuclear plants, although this did not mean the possibility was not being looked at. 

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



Sellafield safety boss seeks to calm Irish fears

  

DUBLIN, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A safety boss at Britain's Sellafield nuclear plant on 

Friday sought to soothe Irish concerns about the facility amid fears it could be the 

target of a terrorist attack. 



Ireland last month launched a legal challenge to the expansion of Sellafield, and its 

longstanding objections to the plant just 180 km (110 miles) across across the Irish 

Sea on England's northwest coast have been fanned by the September 11 hijack 

attacks on the U.S. 



"Whether it's a potential target or not I really don't know," said John Clarke, head of 

health and safety at Sellafield, in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE. 



"In terms of how safe it is, I believe it is a safe plant. I believe it's safe under normal 

conditions, I believe it's as safe as we can reasonably make it under accident 

conditions." 



On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said an act of nuclear 

terrorism was for more likely than previously thought. 



A report commissioned by the European Union and leaked to the media two weeks 

ago said an accident at Sellafield could cause greater damage than the Chernobyl 

explosion in the Ukraine in 1986. 



Irish commentators have voiced fears that a plane attack similar to those carried out 

against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington could 

result in a devastating release of radioactive material off Ireland's east coast. 



"There would be potential for a quantity of radioactive material to be released, but I 

don't think we should overestimate what we are talking about here," said Clarke. 



"Undoubtedly there would be significant damage, but what I have said is we believe 

the extent of any radiation released would be bounded by our existing emergency 

arrangements." 



The Irish government reacted with fury last month to Britain's decision to allow the 

commissioning of a mixed oxide (MOX) plant at the Sellafield site, and vowed to 

pursue "every legal avenue" to stop it. 



Norway also expressed concerns over Sellafield recently, calling in Britain to halt 

emissions from the plant. 



Britain first established nuclear facilities at Sellafield -- formerly called Windscale -- in 

the 1940s, and the world's first commercial nuclear power station opened there in 

1956. 

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



Australian Fed Govt called to define 'co-location' in nuclear waste dump disposal



2 Nov Australian Broadcasting Corporation - A South Australian antinuclear party is 

calling on the Federal  Government to clearly define the term "co-location" in its 

proposal for  a second radioactive waste dump in South Australia's outback. 



SA Nuclear Free Future Party candidate, Ben Aylen, says his party found  no 

supporters of the proposed low and medium level waste dumps during a  recent tour 

of the state's mid and far north. 



He says while the Federal Government bowed to environmental pressure not  to co-

locate the dumps, it needs to do more. 



"That's define what co-location means, so they could still feasibly put  the higher level 

dump a few kilometres away from the proposed lower  level dump and still meet their 

requirements of it not being  co-located," he said.  

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



Troops to guard Florida ports, nuclear plants

  

MIAMI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Armed soldiers will guard Florida's four major seaports and 

two nuclear power plants, joining troops already stationed at major airports in 

response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, state officials said on 

Thursday. 



Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered about 330 National Guards deployed at the Port of 

Miami, Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, the Port of Tampa and Port Canaveral 

and at the Turkey Point nuclear plant near Miami and the St. Lucie plant on the east 

coast near Fort Pierce. 



Florida was home to several of the suspected hijackers who rammed commercial 

passenger jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and had the first reported 

cases of anthrax in a germ warfare scare that has spread to other states. 



"While we have no credible evidence or threats to suggest that our state is being 

targeted in any way, out of an abundance of caution we are enhancing security at 

these facilities as part of the ongoing efforts to keep our citizens safe and confident," 

Bush said at a news conference at the Port of Miami. 



Bush said the troops would help safeguard key "economic engines" and support local 

law enforcers who, the Sept. 11 air attacks, have been working double duty. 



"These have been real tough times. People have been working long, long, long 

hours," he said. 



The National Guards -- who work as school teachers, police officers or in other 

careers until they are called to active duty as "citizen soldiers" -- will staff cruise ship 

terminals at passenger checkpoints, patrol port perimeters and watch fuel storage 

tanks and other vulnerable areas. 



On Oct. 5, some 500 uniformed National Guard troops armed with standard military 

issue 9-mm Beretta pistols or M-16 combat rifles were stationed at 19 Florida 

airports. 



The Florida seaports are among the world's busiest cruise ship terminals, playing 

host to some of the industry's largest and fanciest ships including Royal Caribbean's 

(RCL.N) Voyageur of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas and Carnival Corp's 

(CCL.N) Victory. 



After hijacked planes rammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing 

thousands of people, the U.S. Coast Guards was put on its highest alert since World 

War Two against any potential fresh strike and several states have deployed troops 

at nuclear plants. The FBI has said evidence has emerged there could be new 

strikes of an unknown nature on America. 



The deployment of troops at two of Florida's three nuclear power plants came at the 

request of FPL Group Inc.'s (FPL.N) Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric 

company and owner of the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants. 



Progress Energy's (PGN.N) Florida Power, owner of the third nuclear plant at Crystal 

River north of Tampa, turned down an offer for National Guard protection, Bush said. 



Bush authorized $5 million from the state's Coastal Protection Trust Fund to pay for 

the enhanced security. The guards were to take up their new posts no later than 

Nov. 9. 

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



Can Nuclear Power Be Protected From Terrorists?; Study Says Technology Alone 

Can Not Solve The Problem, Security is Essential

  

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In "The Search for Proliferation-Resistant 

Nuclear Power," Princeton University Senior Research Scientist Hal Feiveson just 

published by the Federation of American Scientists concludes that new nuclear 

reactor designs can make it more difficult for a terrorist to steal materials that could 

be used to produce a nuclear weapon, but they can not eliminate the problem.  Even 

with new technologies, the danger of nuclear theft could increase if use of nuclear 

power increases rapidly worldwide. 



Expanded research on advanced nuclear power cycles are still needed to reduce the 

danger of terrorism and to cut costs and improve the safety of nuclear power plants. 

Feiveson cautions that "no fuel cycle can be completely proliferation proof." Instead, 

he suggests that the security of nuclear power worldwide could require restricting 

nuclear power to large, secure, international energy parks that would then export 

electricity, hydrogen, or possibly sealed reactor cores to individual countries. He 

acknowledges that this could be politically difficult since "countries will be loathe to 

rely on reactor technologies that they have little capacity to monitor independently." 



"Before pinning too many hopes on nuclear power to solve global energy and 

environmental problems," said Henry Kelly, president of the FAS, "we must convince 

ourselves that we have a technical and a political strategy that can ensure that these 

plants will not supply materials for terrorist weapons.  Feiveson's careful analysis 

suggests that this will not be an easy task." 



A copy of the report is available at www.fas.org/faspir/2001/v54n5/index.html







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

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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