Here's another report on this news story, for any of those interested :
Sunday December 16 10:47 PM ET
Greenpeace Storms Aussie Reactor
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Dozens of Greenpeace activists dressed up as nuclear waste barrels stormed a nuclear reactor Monday, scaling the walls and unfurling protest banners.
Detective Inspector Laurie Pettiford of the New South Wales state police said 46 people were arrested Monday and would be charged with trespassing.
A four-wheel-drive vehicle was used to block the gates of the Lucas Heights reactor in southern Sydney as two truckloads of activists ran onto the grounds, scaling a radio tower, the main building and a waste storage facility.
Some unfurled banners reading: ``Nuclear never safe.'' One protester chained himself to the top of the main building.
Pam Keenan, a spokeswoman for the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, the government authority that runs Lucas Heights, said Lucas Heights has ``layers'' of security.
``Because of that security in-depth approach, there wasn't any breach of the secure part of the site,'' she said.
The facility, a research reactor where scientists produce radioactive medicines sold to hospitals, also supplies irradiated silicon for the semiconductor industry.
The reactor, about the size of a washing machine, possesses only enough radioactive uranium to fill a coffee cup.
Built in 1958, Australia's only reactor is due to be replaced next year.
``A new reactor is unnecessary,'' Greenpeace activist Stephen Campbell said in a statement explaining the protester's actions.
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Comment:
Its interesting that Greenpeace chose the Hifar research & medical radioisotope production reactor for their latest stunt. Here are a couple of other Australian facilities & incidents which evidently they are not at all concerned about ( particularly relevant is the January 2000 tainted fuel scare in Australia -- apparently Greenpeace was quite willing to accept certain risks, when it sent its paraglider buzzing overhead at Lucas Heights....) :
(1) on Friday September 25, 1998, at 12:30 pm, a series of explosions killed two workers and caused three separate fires at Esso's Longford Plant 1 in Australia. The flow of gas was stopped, and this stopped the supply of 80% of the State of Victoria's gas. The gas supply authority ordered all homes and businesses in Victoria to turn off all gas
appliances. Residents living within five kilometres of the plant were evacuated. The pump price of liquid petroleum gas rose, and restrictions were placed on the sale of LPG with a $20 limit per customer. Hospitals canceled or deferred elective surgery, etc. This energy crisis continued for two weeks. The royal commission into the accident absolved workers of blame and found that Esso's failure to train its workers was the main cause of the tragedy. Four law firms started a $1.3 billion class action suit against the company for losses suffered by gas users."
(2)
http://www.aviationnow.com/TwoShare/getPage?sid=9208231425932583712
Recovery Slow In Aussie Fuel Crisis
by Paul Richfield
Australia's general aviation community is slowly recovering from the worst fuel contamination crisis in that nation's history. About 10% of the estimated 2,500 aircraft affected had been returned to service near the end of February, and Mobil Oil Australia had paid out more than $2 million in " interim" compensation.
Besides reimbursing customers for the cost of cleaning and replacement fuel, Mobil has allocated $15 million for Mobil avgas customers and their employees. Payments of up to $10,000 are available per affected aircraft. Mobil also intends to provide compensation for "direct business losses" resulting from the contamination.
"People will not be required to forgo other legal avenues, unless and until they are satisfied with the dollar amount of Mobil's offer," says Paul Wherry, fuels marketing director for Mobil Australia. "These are customer programs and do not constitute any admission of liability by Mobil."
Despite the offer, Mobil has received about 50 legal claims from operators and individuals to date, and more are anticipated. "Some will be more supportable than others, and some may be proven to be outrageous," says Alan Bailey, a Mobil Australia spokesman. "In a situation like this, it's reasonable to assume that some people may try to take advantage." ;
Mobil teams are in the process of meeting with operators at major airports in Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland, where the suspect avgas was sold. They also plan to visit airports in South Australia and Tasmania, where the fuel contamination issue has affected operations.
The problem surfaced when black deposits were discovered in the fuel system of an aircraft at Moorabin on Dec. 17, followed by reports of three other contaminated aircraft and an engine failure on Dec. 21.
Testing revealed that 100/130 avgas (green) from Mobil's Altona, Victoria, facility was found to contain Ethylene Di-Amine (EDA), a corrosion inhibitor that is normally "washed out" during the refining process. In mid-November, however, the flow of "caustic wash circulation" was reduced at the Altona plant, due to mechanical problems with the pumps. The EDA injection rate was then increased, to neutralize the effect of acidic compounds left in the fuel.
As soon as Mobil became aware of the problem, it "quarantined" the airports supplied from Altona, began recovering the tainted fuel and developed testing and cleaning procedures after deliberation.
"The test method was endorsed and applied and used to clean 250 aircraft--mostly single-engine types with simple fuel systems--that had no sign of contamination," Bailey said.
http://www.awgnet.com/today/news.htm
Australia To Test Fuel
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A fuel contamination scare that has crippled Australia's light aircraft industry may end soon thanks to a new test to tell if a plane is safe to fly, aviation officials said Sunday. Some 5,000 small aircraft in Australia's eastern states have been grounded for 13 days over concern that batches of airplane fuel made by Mobil Oil Australia Ltd. could clog engines. In response, Mobil has developed a test to determine if a plane's fuel system has been contaminated, said Mick Toller of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Until now, operators had no way of knowing if their plane's engine had been damaged. Mobil has begun distributing the test to small aircraft operators across southeastern Australia, and some planes could be flying as soon as Monday, Toller said. If the test detects contaminated fuel, the fuel system will have to be cleaned, he said.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns222248
Contaminated fuel is keeping light planes on the tarmac
Tim Thwaites, Melbourne
NEARLY half the light aircraft in Australia have been taken out of service because of an additive that the oil company Mobil put into one type of aviation fuel late last year. As New Scientist went to press, there appeared to be no simple way of getting the planes airborne again.
The grounding is having a devastating effect on the aviation industry. Many piston-engined aircraft operated by charter companies, flying schools and some emergency services are unable to fly. The Royal Flying Doctor Service has been forced to ground six aircraft in its southeast section.
The problem additive is an alkaline chemical called ethylene diamine (EDA). Mobil spokesman Alan Bailey says his company uses small amounts of EDA to prevent an acidic catalyst from corroding refinery equipment for making "avgas"--the fuel used in piston-engined aircraft. Normally, only traces of EDA remain in the fuel and have no known effect. But in November, Mobil raised the level of EDA in response to other changes in the production process. "We had no reason to suppose it would be a problem," Bailey says.
Mobil Avgas 100/130 released from the company's Melbourne refinery between 21 November and 23 December contained the higher level of EDA. This appears to have reacted with carbon dioxide in aircraft fuel tanks, and with copper or brass components in their engines to form sticky deposits that can clog them, causing them to run roughly and even cut out.
Aviation authorities first became aware of the problem when an aircraft lost power on take-off from Melbourne's Moorabbin airport on 21 December. A sticky black deposit was found in its carburettor. And on Christmas Eve, after several further incidents, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) issued an airworthiness directive requiring the inspection of piston-engined aircraft for fuel contamination. Jet and most turbine engines use different fuel and are unaffected. Last week, a second CASA directive ordered all aircraft potentially exposed to the contaminated avgas to be grounded until their fuel systems were replaced or decontaminated. The directive affects about 5000 of Australia's 11 500 light aircraft, mainly in Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland.
Mobil has developed tests for the contaminant, which CASA must now approve. CASA hopes the tests can be used to begin to clear uncontaminated aircraft for take-off by the end of this week. But that is only the first, and possibly the easiest, stage in dealing with the problem.
Because the EDA deposits are insoluble in avgas, they cannot be flushed out using clean fuel, as CASA first directed. While the deposits are soluble in water, that cure may be worse than the disease, says light aircraft pilot Mark Barnett. "If you introduce water into tiny fuel lines, how do you clean it out again?" he asks. He thinks the only sure way to clean engines may be to strip them down entirely.
On 18 January, Mobil announced a A$15 million hardship support package for affected customers--with a further programme of compensation to follow for business losses. Bill Hamilton, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association estimates that putting the problem right will end up costing the industry more than A$100 million.
http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/0,1080,500155693-500192611-500830298-0,00.html
'Dreadful gunk' in fuel grounds light aircraft in Australia
Copyright © 2000 Nando Media Copyright © 2000 Associated Press
By ROHAN SULLIVAN
SYDNEY, Australia (January 17, 2000 2:44 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - From Wagga Wagga to Wee Waa and from Rockhampton to Lightning Ridge, towns in the vast Australian Outback depend on small planes to deliver mail, dust crops, round up cattle, shuttle schoolchildren, bring in doctors and evacuate medical emergencies.
Eleven days ago, half the nation's light aircraft were grounded because of contaminated aviation fuel that thickens when it contacts copper and brass engine parts, raising the risk of clogged fuel lines and motors stalling in flight.
Nobody knows how many planes actually carry the bad fuel. The source of the contamination - Mobil Oil Australia Ltd., a subsidiary of U.S.-based Exxon Mobil Corp. - has no test to find out, and there is no known method to clean contaminated systems.
"This is a contamination crisis of a magnitude that has never been seen before anywhere in the world," said Mick Toller, the authority's safety director of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which ordered the planes grounded.
Scientists are working on a three-stage field diagnosis they hope will identify which aircraft have tainted fuel. But pending further tests, grounded planes will not be in the air before Thursday, Toller said Sunday.
The fuel contaminant affects piston-driven engines that turn propellers in aircraft ranging from single-engine Cessnas up to planes that carry a dozen or so passengers.
Bigger turboprop aircraft are not affected, so there is no disruption to major airlines. But hundreds of charter services and flight training schools have shut down. In Victoria state, wildfire-fighting crews scaled back operations, as did the national Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The air force grounded three of its 14 Caribou transport planes, including one in East Timor, where Australia is leading the peacekeeping force, until engine parts were replaced.
Just before Christmas, pilots started reporting discoloration in some fuel. The aviation authority told the pilots not to fly until they had checked and, if necessary, cleaned their fuel systems.
Then, on Jan. 7, the authority grounded all aircraft that had filled their tanks from batches of Avgas 100/130 produced at Mobil's plant in Altona, a suburb of Melbourne, from Nov. 21 to Dec. 23. The affected fuel had been distributed throughout Australia's eastern states. Scientists had found the tainted fuel could set off a chemical chain reaction, producing a viscous material that can clog fuel lines and cause motors to stall.
"What dreadful gunk," Bill Hamilton, president of the Aircraft Owners' and Pilots' Association, said as he examined the substance last week. "You wouldn't put that in your lawn mower, would you?"
Mobil says it inadvertently altered the refining cycle for Avgas 100/130 at the plant Nov. 21 and added corrosion retardants out of the proper sequence, which left traces of ethyl diamine in the finished product. The thick contaminant forms when the ethyl diamine reacts with copper and brass engine components, Mobil said.
The fuel crisis is crippling Australia's network of small airports, flight schools, charter services and bush pilots, an industry worth $330 million a year.
In hangars and on runways across eastern Australia, planes stand idle and owners are canceling orders and laying off pilots and mechanics. Operators say weekly losses are running at $8 million. Airport owners on Friday threatened legal action against Mobil to recover losses.
Besides potential compensation claims, Mobil faces a huge cleanup bill and a government investigation into the cause of two helicopter crashes during flight tests.
The federal Transport and Safety Bureau says it is looking into reports that the contamination occurred before Nov. 21 and that it contributed to the two helicopter accidents, both of which occurred before that date. The flight tests were near ground level, and no one was injured.
Mobil has said it will pay cleanup costs where contamination is found. At a meeting with pilots last Thursday, however, the company refused to discuss compensation, said Hamilton, the head of the pilots and owners group.
Acting Prime Minister John Anderson said the government would defer fees for air traffic control services and has urged banks not to foreclose on small air operators who miss loan repayments.
Jaro
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-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Perle [mailto:sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET]
Sent: Sunday December 16, 2001 6:36 PM
To: nuclear news list
Subject: Greenpeace protesters storm Australian nuclear reactor site
Greenpeace protesters storm Australian nuclear reactor site
17 December - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Greenpeace protesters have
taken security staff by surprise after storming Sydney's nuclear reactor site.
The action began without warning just after 7.15am AEDT today.
Two rental trucks drove up to the entrance and 30 protesters dressed as nuclear
barrels got out and ran through the front gate.
They climbed the radio tower and revealed an antinuclear banner. They have climbed
the reactor building itself and a paraglider is buzzing overhead.
Stephen Campbell is Greenpeace's nuclear campaign coordinator says the facility is
unsafe.
"This particular facility is unsafe, it will produce radioactive waste which is a threat to
the environment for thousands of years and since September 11, it is the wrong
location, the wrong technology at the wrong time," he said.
The campaign is continuing and police have arrived at the scene.