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Fukui nuclear power plant to halt MOX fuel processing



Index:



Fukui nuclear power plant to halt MOX fuel processing

Japan firm to stop MOX processing at COGEMA unit

Japanese State must pay health allowances to S. Korean survivor

Anti-radiation drug will be offered to U.S. states

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



Fukui nuclear power plant to halt MOX fuel processing

  

TSURUGA, Japan, Dec. 26 (Kyodo) - Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) said 

Wednesday it will stop processing plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at its 

nuclear power plant in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, following a decision by the 

Japanese government. 



The move is expected to further delay the company's pluthermal project, following 

the 1999 scandal over manipulation of MOX fuel data by British Nuclear Fuels PLC 

(BNFL), company officials said./ 



The project will take place at the earliest in 2005, they said. 



The officials said the utility decided to halt the processing of MOX fuel, produced by 

the COMMOX consortium led by French nuclear fuel firm COGEMA, after they could 

not meet the conditions required in the revised regulation guidelines in the country's 

Electric Utility Law. 



The conditions are pre-auditing of a fuel factory and dispatch of personnel to check 

the state of production at the factory during the fuel production phase, the officials 

said. 



A uranium fuel production firm which is contracted by KEPCO pre-audits the factory 

and production situation. KEPCO officials had been saying there is no problem with 

the quality of fuel. 



However, late last month the government said it cannot approve the MOX fuel, the 

officials said, putting the damages to KEPCO at about 6 billion yen. 



Kazuo Sato, a KEPCO vice president, expressed regret at the decision but still wants 

the pluthermal project to go ahead at the Takahama plant along the Sea of Japan 

coast. 



The plant was set in 1999 to be the site of Japan's first plutonium thermal project. In 

that same year BNFL was found to have falsified manufacturing data for MOX fuel 

shipped to KEPCO. 

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



Japan firm to stop MOX processing at COGEMA unit



TOKYO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Japan's second-largest power utility said on Wednesday 

it had asked its French supplier of MOX fuel to stop processing the controversial 

blend of uranium and plutonium because the MOX could not be confirmed safe. 



Kansai Electric Power Co Inc (9503.T) said COMMOX, an affiliate of state-run 

French nuclear agency COGEMA, had been ordered to stop processing MOX fuel for 

the Japanese firm. 



Kansai said the Japanese government had not been able to confirm if the MOX fuel 

produced at the French firm, which has been processing MOX for Kansai Electric 

since November 1999, was safe. 



Japanese power utilities have been unable to use MOX, a blend of uranium and 

plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel, due to anti-nuclear sentiment among the 

public. 



The power industry, however, has said it would not abandon plans to use the 

controversial fuel. 

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



Japanese State must pay health allowances to S. Korean survivor

  

NAGASAKI, Dec. 26 (Kyodo) - The state was ordered Wednesday to pay a South 

Korean survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki a total of 1.03 million yen in 

health care allowances that it failed to give him after he left Japan following a brief 

stay for treatment in 1994. 



The Nagasaki District Court ruled in favor of Lee Kang Young, 74, who claimed that 

the 1994 Atomic Bomb Victims Relief Law does not say A-bomb survivors living 

outside Japan are excluded from receiving such benefits. He had demanded 4 million 

yen in compensation. 



''The plaintiff does not lose his status as an A-bomb survivor stipulated in the law 

even if he returns home and no longer resides in Japan,'' Presiding Judge Masanori 

Kawakubo said. 



Lee's certificate confirming that status has not become invalid, he said. 



The decision followed a landmark ruling by the Osaka District Court on June 1 that 

ordered the state to pay Kwak Kwi Hoon, a South Korean survivor of the 1945 A-

bombing in Hiroshima, health care allowances that it stopped providing after he left 

Osaka for South Korea following treatment in 1998. 



''I found the ruling quite natural,'' Koichiro Tatsuta, Lee's lawyer, told reporters after 

the Wednesday's ruling. ''The government definitely should not appeal the ruling.'' 



''The government should immediately change its inhumane and senseless policy for 

overseas survivors,'' he added. 



According to the lawsuit, Lee visited Japan in July 1994 to undergo treatment for 

diabetes and other sicknesses and was given a state certificate confirming his status 

as an A-bomb survivor. The state also decided to provide him with health benefits for 

three years. 



However, the state stopped extending Lee health benefits through the Nagasaki city 

government after he returned to his Pusan home in October that year following 

treatment in Japan. 



Lee was exposed to radiation as he was working at a munitions factory in Nagasaki 

when the United States dropped the A-bomb on the city on Aug. 9, 1945. He was 17 

years old at that time. 



Lee accuses the Japanese government of not respecting the 1994 law for A-bomb 

survivors, but instead following a health ministry order to local authorities issued in 

1974. 



He called the state's move ''illegal'' and claimed the state violated the Constitution 

that guarantees equal rights as well as the A-bomb relief law that aims to help 

survivors on humanitarian grounds. 



The order, issued by the then Health and Welfare Ministry's public health bureau 

chief, said the law does not apply to A-bomb survivors once they stop living in Japan. 



The ministry said the law does not apply to overseas A-bomb survivors as it is a 

social welfare law covering only people residing in Japan. 



Lee said he is not fighting the Japanese government for money but in defense of the 

human rights of the more than 5,000 overseas survivors of the atomic bombings -- 

about 2,200 in South Korea and 3,000 in China, North Korea, the United States and 

Brazil. 



The plaintiff called on the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to nullify 

the 1974 order to pave the way for overseas A-bomb survivors to receive the same 

health benefits as survivors in Japan. 



The ruling came after Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi 

announced Dec. 18 that Japan will help overseas A-bomb survivors visit Japan to 

undergo treatment beginning in fiscal 2002, with Tokyo earmarking some 500 million 

yen for the project for the year. 



But critics say the proposal will not help overseas survivors since they, most of whom 

are in their 70s and 80s, have to travel to Japan to receive the allowances for 

treatment. 



The Osaka ruling marked the first time a Japanese court had found overseas A-

bomb survivors eligible for receiving such allowances from Japan. But the state and 

the Osaka prefectural government appealed the ruling on June 15. 

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



Anti-radiation drug will be offered to U.S. states

  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency said Thursday that 

it would give potassium iodide to states that want to stockpile the medicine in case of 

an attack against a nuclear power plant. 



The drug has been shown to protect the body's thyroid gland if taken soon after 

radiation exposure. 



Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who has long criticized what he 

terms inadequate safety provisions at nuclear power plants, is among several 

lawmakers who have urged stricter security measures at the plants since the deadly 

Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. 



Nuclear plants, which rank among the nation's most closely guarded facilities, are of 

particular concern because an attack could spew radioactive contamination over an 

area covering hundreds of square miles. 



The regulatory commission said it had earmarked $800,000 to buy potassium iodide 

supplies for people living within about 10 miles of a nuclear plant. The United States 

has 103 nuclear power plants. 



"The commission has found that potassium iodide is a reasonable, prudent and 

inexpensive supplement to evacuation and sheltering for specific local conditions," a 

statement said. 



The drug will be given to states that request it within 30 days, according to the 

commission. 



Alabama, Arizona and Tennessee already have potassium iodide stockpiled for 

people living near nuclear plants as part of emergency preparedness programs. 



The agency took the action a month after Markey urged the federal government to 

stock the drug at homes and public buildings within 50 miles of a nuclear plant. 



The Nuclear Control Institute, an activist group, said a direct, high-speed crash by a 

large passenger jet would likely penetrate the concrete walls of up to 4-1/2 feet that 

protect a nuclear plant's reactor. 



Separately, Congress approved an extra $36 million in funding for the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission so it could assess security at nuclear power plants. 



The funds were included in a $20 billion supplemental spending bill for the Defense 

Department that was agreed on by House and Senate negotiators. The agency will 

study the safety design of nuclear plants security in the transportation, storage and 

use of nuclear materials. 

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

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://sandy-travels.com

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com





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