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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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