Green challenge on UK nuclear plant reaches Court

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

Index:



Green challenge on UK nuclear plant reaches Court

British Energy interested in Czech nuclear plants

Rupture of pipe causes steam leakage at Japanese nuke plant

Audit Finds Imprecise Nuclear Records

Turkish police detain suspects selling uranium

New Device at Stanford Delivers Safer, Targeted Brain Tumor Treatment

Nuclear Solutions and Washington Nuclear Sign Contract

American Ecology Sells Nuclear Equipment Service Center Assets to Alaron

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



Green challenge on UK nuclear plant reaches Court

  

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Environmental groups on Thursday will begin legal 

arguments against the British government's decision to give the go-ahead for a plant 

to begin manufacturing nuclear fuel, Greenpeace said on Wednesday. 



"A High Court Judge will judicially review the decision allowing BNFL (British Nuclear 

Fuels) to start up the MOX plant," a Greenpeace spokesman told Reuters, adding 

the legal action was a joint effort between Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. 



A month ago the government decided to give the go-ahead to allow state-owned 

BNFL to start up the 472 million pound ($691.1 million) mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant 

which mixes plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, recycled from the 

THORP reprocessing complex with uranium. 



The plant has lain idle since 1996 because regulatory approval was witheld over 

fears of insufficient customers for the mixed oxide fuel. 



Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace will argue on Thursday the government 

decision is unlawful because the 472 million pounds spent so far on SMP were 

discounted from the decision-making which declared the plant could be economically 

viable. 



BNFL on Wednesday said the plant had not yet started operations because the 

group was awaiting the results of the judicial review. 



The environmental groups say MOX does not have a real market since it is more 

expensive than uraninium - the fuel most reactors burn - and requires modifications 

to most reactors before it can be used. 



Both groups also said there were genuine safety and security concerns about 

allowing MOX production to start. 



"The decision to go-ahead with the manufacture of MOX is highly controversial 

because it will perpetuate the production of plutonium at the Sellafield site with all the 

attendant problems of pollution, security and nuclear proliferation," Greenpeace said 

in a statement. 



They say that many nuclear experts believe it is relatively easy to extract plutonium 

from MOX rods which raises security issues post the September 11 attacks in the 

U.S. 



BNFL says the MOX plant can be profitable and that it already boasts a healthy order 

book from overseas customers. The group dismisses suggestions it would be easy to 

extract plutonium from MOX to make a nuclear device. 

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



British Energy interested in Czech nuclear plants

  

LONDON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Nuclear power group British Energy 



said on Wednesday it is interested in the nuclear assets of Czech state-owned power 

producer CEZ, which is up for privatisation. 



"We are interested in the CEZ nuclear plants," British Energy's executive chairman 

Robin Jeffrey told a news briefing in London after the release of interim results. 



But he said the Czech government so far had reacted negatively to British Energy's 

interest, which covers the CEZ nuclear plants but not the other assets the 

government wants to sell. 



The Czech government is selling off CEZ in a package of generation, transmission 

and distribution assets. 



CEZ owns the 2,000 megawatt Temelin nuclear power station and the 1,600 

megawatt Dukovany nuclear plant.     



Electricite de France (EdF) is widely viewed as the front runner in the tender. 



"EdF is the head and shoulders front runner for CEZ," said Jeffrey. 



Other shortlisted bidders are a tie-up of Italy's Enel and Spain's Iberdrola; and a 

group combining U.S.-based NRG Energy and Britain's International Power. 



Belgium's Electrabel last month pulled out of the tender citing a lack of transparency 

in the sale process. 

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



Rupture of pipe causes steam leakage at Japanese nuke plant



SHIZUOKA, Japan, Nov. 8 (Kyodo) - A small amount of radioactive material was 

detected in steam that leaked from a pressure injection system of a nuclear power 

reactor in Hamaoka, Shizuoka Prefecture, caused by a rupture in a pipe, Chubu 

Electric Power Co. said Wednesday night.  



Radioactive material was detected at the No. 1 reactor unit of Hamaoka Nuclear 

Power Plant, the Nagoya-based power utility company said. 



The high-pressure injection system, designed to cool the reactor core in an 

emergency, stopped operating at around 5 p.m. during a test run, after fire alarms in 

the building went off, Chubu Electric said. 



No fire was reported at the site, but the fire alarms may have been activated by the 

steam, local government officials said. 



The plant operator began a manual shutdown of the reactor so as to pinpoint the 

cause of the trouble, the company said. 



The No. 1 unit houses a boiling water reactor capable of generating a maximum 

540,000 kilowatts of electricity. 

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



Audit Finds Imprecise Nuclear Records

  

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

are not keeping an accurate inventory of nuclear materials loaned out for domestic 

research, investigators say. 



An audit by the Energy Department's inspector general between April and August 

found that 119 locations handling government-owned enriched uranium, plutonium 

and other nuclear materials had returned more to the department than had been 

loaned out or leased. 



While finding no evidence of nuclear materials being diverted or misused, the 

government's inaccurate records could undermine its ability to detect stolen or lost 

materials, said Gregory H. Friedman, the department's inspector general. 



The records entered into a federal electronic database run by the Energy 

Department and the NRC ``are not logical and almost certainly incorrect,'' said 

Friedman in the Oct. 26 report, released this week. 



He warned that a proper inventory must be done if the government is to keep ``the 

strictest possible control over materials that could, in the wrong hands, threaten 

national security.'' 



The report showed an excess of 4.2 million kilograms of depleted uranium, 1.3 

million grams of enriched uranium and 2,500 grams of plutonium in the department's 

inventory. 



Some of the record-keeping problems were found as early as 1994 but the 

department did not try to correct them until this year, the audit says. 



``The department did not provide adequate oversight of the system,'' Friedman said 

in his report to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. He added that the department 

should not assume that the public is protected until all records have been explained 

and corrected. 



Security officials within the department also told auditors that it was ``unlikely'' more 

material had been returned than was loaned or leased, the audit says. Those officials 

said a more probable explanation was that the wrong ownership codes were entered 

into the records when the radioactive materials were transferred to another location. 



Other inaccuracies included records showing ``a significant quantity'' of plutonium 

existed at two facilities, despite NRC officials saying those facilities had not held 

plutonium for years. Officials said one facility had not housed plutonium since 1996 

and the other facility likewise had no plutonium since its license had expired in 1993. 



To its credit, the Energy Department had accounted for all 2,500 grams of plutonium 

by September, five months after being notified of a problem, the audit says. Security 

officials believe the plutonium was washed away during decontamination and 

decommissioning of the facilities, the audit says, though there was no documentation 

at the time of the audit to show what happened to the material. 



The department's security and emergency operations director, Joseph S. Mahaley, 

said he had met with NRC officials in mid-October to begin accounting for all the 

loaned or leased inventories of department-owned nuclear materials. The NRC 

licenses the research institutions. 



On the Net: 



Energy Department Office of Inspector General: http://www.ig.doe.gov 

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



Turkish police detain suspects selling uranium

  

ISTANBUL, Turkey (Reuters) - Paramilitary police arrested two Turks Tuesday after 

they attempted to sell weapons-grade uranium to undercover officers, police said. 



The suspects had agreed to sell the officers 2.56 pounds of uranium of a quality that 

could be used to develop a nuclear weapon, the police official told Reuters. 



The arrests came the same day President Bush warned Eastern European leaders 

that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network could be seeking nuclear weapons to step 

up its fight against the United States. 



Bush said bin Laden's agents were active in at least 60 countries. The president 

named bin Laden as the prime suspect behind the hijacked airliner attacks on New 

York and Washington that killed about 4,800 people. 



Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency reported the men bought the weapons-

grade uranium earlier this year from an unidentified source, who had brought the 

uranium from an Eastern European country into Turkey. 



The suspects offered the uranium, wrapped in newspaper, to the officers for 

$750,000, Anatolian said. 



Turkey's state nuclear research authority was now in possession of the material, the 

agency said.

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



New Device at Stanford Delivers Safer, Targeted Brain Tumor Treatment

  

STANFORD, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 6, 2001--A Stanford University Medical 

Center neurosurgeon is one of the first in the country to treat brain tumors with a new 

device for delivering aggressive intratumoral radiation -- radiation therapy that 

irradiates cancerous cells from within the tumor cavity. Griff Harsh, MD, professor of 

neurosurgery at Stanford, has successfully treated two patients with the GliaSite 

technique, a method of targeted and accelerated delivery of intratumoral radiation. 

Stanford is the only hospital on the West Coast to use the device. 



"This technique is an important new treatment option for patients  with malignant 

brain tumors," said Harsh, who is also director of the Stanford Brain Tumor Center. 

"Radiation combined with surgery is the single most effective way to treat brain 

tumors, and intratumoral radiation is a highly advantageous way of delivering 

additional radiation to the site of the cancer." 



According to the American Cancer Society, more than 16,000 Americans are 

diagnosed with malignant primary brain tumors each year, and Harsh said the 

majority of patients are treated with a combination of surgery and external beam 

radiation therapy. With typical treatment, external beams of x-rays are sent from 

outside the body to the tumor cavity -- passing through healthy brain tissue. 

Traditional radiation therapy, which usually lasts six weeks, suppresses tumor 

regrowth for a period of time -- but almost all patients experience recurrences. 



Unlike older approaches, GliaSite delivers an even, easily controlled dose of 

radiation to the targeted tumor area while minimizing exposure of nearby healthy 

brain tissue. The technique requires surgically removing the brain tumor and 

inserting an expandable balloon into the tumor cavity. The balloon is connected by a 

thin catheter to a small reservoir placed just beneath the patient's scalp. After one to 

two weeks, the balloon is filled with a liquid source of radiation. Over a course of 

three to seven days, high doses of radiation are delivered through the balloon directly 

to the tissue surrounding the cavity, where recurring tumors are most likely to 

appear. The balloon, catheter, reservoir and liquid radiation are then removed. 



Stanford Hospital's first GliaSite patient, a 31-year-old San Jose, Calif., resident with 

a recurring tumor, began his treatment last month. The therapy was recently 

completed and the patient, who left the hospital the same day his catheter was 

removed, experienced no ill effects and said he "feels great." 



Harsh said a short recovery time and the low incidence of side effects are benefits of 

GliaSite. "Preliminary studies have suggested that the risk of harmful side effects 

such as radiation necrosis -- damage to surrounding tissue -- is markedly lower with 

this technique than with alternatives," he said. 



In the past, patients with recurring brain tumors have had few treatment options. A 

second course of traditional radiation typically isn't advised for a recurring tumor 

because of the high risk of damage to healthy surrounding brain tissue. "Our 

treatment options have been notably limited," said Harsh. 



The reliability of the new device, which was recently approved by the federal Food 

and Drug Administration, was demonstrated in a recent National Cancer Institute-

sponsored study of patients with recurring primary brain tumors, all of whom had 

undergone previous surgery and radiation therapy and half of whom had received 

chemotherapy. It found a high rate of patient survival and no evidence of radiation 

necrosis after a year. 



Harsh said the Stanford Brain Tumor Center plans to use this technique in patients 

with newly diagnosed or recurring primary or metastatic brain tumors. 



Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and 

patient care at its three institutions -- Stanford University School of Medicine, 

Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For more 

information, please visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of News and 

Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu. 

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



Nuclear Solutions and Washington Nuclear Sign Contract

  

MERIDIAN, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2001--Nuclear Solutions, Inc. 

(OTCBB:NSOL) and Washington Nuclear Corporation (WNC) have signed a contract 

under which WNC will provide consulting services and identify market opportunities 

leading to demonstration, financing, and commercial deployment of NSOL's 

HYPERCON(TM) ADS process for transmutation of nuclear materials and generation 

of electricity. 



WNC is an international consulting and information services company. Based in 

suburban Washington, D.C., the company provides services to all segments of the 

commercial nuclear power industry and the international political arena and has 

clients in the United States, Asia, Australia, Canada, and Europe. 



"We are excited to have WNC on board as we look to the possibilities for our 

technology," said Nuclear Solutions President Dr. Paul M. Brown. "We are confident 

that WNC's international experience in the nuclear arena will position us well." 



WNC Director Eric Lindeman added, "We believe the Nuclear Solutions technology 

holds tremendous promise for the safe handling of nuclear materials, particularly 

radioactive waste, while at the same time generating electric power." 



This press release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements that could 

affect the financial condition and results of operations of the company and its 

subsidiaries. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial 

condition, results of operations, and expansion projects of the company are included 

in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 



NOTES TO THE EDITORS: 



1. The Nuclear Solutions technology is an electron accelerator-based 

photodisintegration process that reduces the atomic mass of radioactive materials, 

thereby rendering them non-radioactive or radioactive with a short half-life. These 

processes involve accelerator-driven technology and photo-nuclear reactions, 

incorporating the most recent advances in the photo-nuclear industry. 



2. The technology could be developed into new applications for remediation of 

nuclear waste. Industrially, it would operate at a sub-critical level, so the heat 

produced by the process could also be used to generate electricity in a safe and 

environmentally benign manner. 

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



American Ecology Sells Nuclear Equipment Service Center Assets to Alaron 

Corporation; Company Continues Focus on Core Processing and Disposal Business

  

BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2001--Steve Romano, President and 

Chief Operating Officer of American Ecology Corporation (Nasdaq:ECOL), today 

announced the sale of specified assets and contracts at the Company's Nuclear 

Equipment Service Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to Alaron Corporation of 

Wampum, Pennsylvania. 



"The successful sale of the principal assets of our Nuclear Equipment Service Center 

(NESC) to Alaron Corporation allows us to concentrate our focus on American 

Ecology's core waste processing and disposal businesses," Romano stated, adding 

"We are confident NESC's customers will be pleased with the commitment and 

services provided by Alaron Corporation." 



The Nuclear Equipment Service Center provided electric motor and equipment 

refurbishment and testing services for the nuclear utility industry. Equipment, 

contracts and other assets of the Nuclear Equipment Service Center were sold to 

Alaron for an unspecified amount of cash and future royalties. "The Center's building 

and infrastructure will now be available for other business uses," Romano added, 

concluding "This is a good deal for both companies." 



American Ecology Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides radioactive, PCB, 

hazardous and non-hazardous waste services to commercial and government 

customers throughout the United States, such as nuclear power plants, steel mills, 

medical and academic institutions, steel mills and petro-chemical facilities. 

Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the Company is the oldest radioactive and hazardous 

waste services Company in the United States. 

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

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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