Probe into water leak at nuclear waste site begins in Rokkasho

["Sandy Perle" <sperle@ICNPHARM.COM>]

Index:



Probe into water leak at nuclear waste site begins in Rokkasho

Japanese Support for nuclear power plants drops to record low

US regulators oppose federal guards at nuke plants

U.S. Customs chief raises nuke threat on containers

Finnish govt backs building more nuclear power

Austria's Schuessel seeks to calm row with Prague

SA youth focus on jobs, anti-nuclear issues

Govt. Reports on Missing Nuke Fuel

Anti-nuclear Austrians look to past for Temelin hope

2-day international talks to begin for nuclear fusion project

NRC finds safety violation at Pa. Limerick 2 nuke

IAEA nuke inspection team arrives in N. Korea

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



Probe into water leak at nuclear waste site begins in Rokkasho



ROKKASHO, Japan, Jan. 15 (Kyodo) - Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. on Tuesday began

investigating whether water is leaking from a pool at its nuclear waste

storage facility in Rokkasho village, Aomori Prefecture, it said.



The company said it will check if water found by a leak detector is from

the pool by using chemicals from the end of this month until February,

after transferring spent nuclear fuel stored in the pool to another pool.



About 1 liter of water is flowing to the detector every hour, and some

4,750 liters has accumulated since the water began leaking in July last

year, it said.



Several dozen liters of water flow to the detector every year, though the

water stops flowing in three to four months during a summer-fall period.



The company decided to investigate as the leak picks up again and continues

even through winter. Also, the quantity of water is larger than what

normally would be found due to condensation.



The storage pool stores spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants

nationwide until the fuel can be reprocessed. The pool contains some 165

tons of nuclear waste, the company said.



Japan Nuclear Fuel said the water includes radioactive materials but will

not affect the environment as the water will be reprocessed by a disposal

facility for radioactive liquid waste.

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



Japanese Support for nuclear power plants drops to record low



TOKYO, Jan. 17 (Kyodo) - Public support for building nuclear power plants

has dropped to the lowest level on record, apparently due to a series of

nuclear accidents, according to a survey report released Thursday by a

research concern.



The Research Council for Energy and Information Technology said its latest

survey found 25% of respondents supported building nuclear power plants,

down 7 percentage points from the previous survey in 1998.



The ratio is the lowest since 1991, when the council's survey first asked

whether respondents supported the construction of nuclear power plants.



The latest survey was conducted last November, covering 3,200 people across

Japan as well as 800 residents near nuclear power plants. Valid replies

came from 2,985 of them.



Among the findings, 4% of the respondents voiced strong support for

building nuclear power plants, and 21% said the work should be implemented

gradually.



In addition, 34% called for maintaining the status quo, up 5 percentage

points from the previous survey. Gradual or complete elimination of plants

were supported by 29%, down 4 points.



Construction was supported by 29% of residents near plants, down 9 points

to the lowest level on record.



A recent series of accidents at nuclear power plants includes a radioactive

water leak in November at a reactor operated by Chubu Electric Power Co. in

Hamaoka, Shizuoka Prefecture.

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



US regulators oppose federal guards at nuke plants



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Congressional proposal to place guards at the

nation's 103 nuclear power plants under federal control is unnecessary

because the facilities already have enough security in place, the chairman

of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday.



Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced bills which would require

the NRC to take the lead in providing security at nuclear plants, a task

now left to the private firms that operate them.



The proposal has gained momentum from some lawmakers who also favored

federalizing security at the nation's airports, one of the many changes

proposed after the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Washington and New

York.



The NRC "strenuously opposes the legislation," to federalize nuclear

security workers, said agency Chairman Richard Meserve, speaking at a

National Press Club lunch. "We don't see that there is a problem today"

with the current nuclear guard regimen, he said.



Senate Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and

Hillary Clinton of New York are sponsoring the Senate version of the bill.



In the House, it is championed by Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey, a

long-time critic of current nuclear plant safety.



Private nuclear guards are "not rent-a-cops," Meserve said, pointing to

higher pay, experience and retention than their airport counterparts.



Enacting Congress' scheme would make the NRC "a security agency much more

than a regulatory agency. I believe that would be a deflection of our

mission," he said.



The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm, also opposes

federalizing plant guards. The trade group said the proposal would require

hiring 5,000 more guards.



That would make NRC "one of the largest law enforcement/security agencies

in the country," bigger than the Secret Service or Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco and Firearms, the industry group contends.



Meserve sought to reassure the public about the safety of nuclear plants,

but gave no details of NRC's ongoing "top-to-bottom review" of agency

security practices.



"Let me assure you that nuclear power plants are not soft targets," Meserve

said, calling them "among the most formidable structures in existence."



The NRC has been scrambling to assess whether U.S. nuclear power plants

could withstand the crash of a large airliner, such as the ones hijacked

for the Sept. 11 attacks. Nuclear power reactors are typically enclosed in

concrete walls of up to 4.5 feet (1.35 meters) thick.



The agency's so-called "design basis threat" -- the minimum preparedness

level required at each plant -- does not protect against a direct hit from

an aircraft, he said.



Meserve gave no indication of when NRC would complete its threat

evaluation.



"I don't think there will be any magic end-date for this," he said,

pointing to inter-agency cooperation with the Federal Bureau of

Investigation, the White House's new Homeland Security office, and other

agencies.

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



U.S. Customs chief raises nuke threat on containers



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Customs Service, in announcing

a new security initiative, on Thursday  raised the specter of a nuclear

bomb being shipped to and detonated in a United States seaport.



"Of greater concern are the possibilities that international terrorists

such as al Qaeda could smuggle a crude nuclear device in one of the more

than 50,000 (shipping) containers that arrive in the U.S. each day. One can

only imagine the devastation of a small nuclear explosion at one of our

seaports," said Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner in a speech prepared for

delivery at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a

Washington think tank.



Bonner raised the concern in announcing a new container security initiative

intended to enable officials to have more data on what's in international

shipping containers and enhance the ability of the United States to stop

suspicious containers before they arrive at an American seaport.



"First and foremost, we concentrate our efforts on the 'mega-ports' of the

world -- the largest container ports -- and specifically those ports that

send the highest volumes of container traffic into the United States,"

Bonner said.



Bonner said the top 10 international ports account for almost half of all

the container traffic coming into the United States. One idea, he said, is

to have the latest X-ray machines and radiation detectors at foreign

"mega-ports" to catch worrisome containers on the outbound trip.



He said the idea of delivering a nuclear device by container to the United

States was "by no means far-fetched" and said Italian authorities in

October had found an al Qaeda operative bound for Canada in a container

outfitted with a bed and bathroom.



Aside from the human toll, Bonner also said a nuclear attack via a shipping

container would also exact a huge cost economically.



"The detonation of a nuclear device smuggled by way of a sea container

would have a far greater impact upon global trade and the global economy.

Even a two-week shutdown of global sea container traffic would be

devastating, costing billions," he said.

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



Finnish govt backs building more nuclear power



HELSINKI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Finland's government voted on Thursday in

favour of building a new nuclear reactor to help meet energy demands,

setting the stage for a heated debate as the country bucks a general shift

away from nuclear power.



The government's decision makes Finland, which already has four reactors,

the only country in Western Europe currently to consider building a new

plant as others are opting for alternative energy sources.



"A decision to increase nuclear energy is the most economical of all

choices in terms of both the national economy and state finances," Trade

and Industry Minister Sinikka Monkare told a news conference.



Monkare added that other ways to meet growing energy demands in the Nordic

countries, including Finland, did not seem to be in the pipeline.



Of the 18 ministers in the five-party coalition, 10 voted for the proposal

while six voted against it. Two were absent.



The proposal, originally made by Finnish energy group Teollisuuden Voima

(TVO) in November 2000, will now go to parliament and could be voted on by

summer.



Parliament stands divided on the issue, according to recent polls. Industry

and trade union leaders have said they support the plan.



The decision passed largely unnoticed in Helsinki on Thursday, apart from a

group of about 20 Greenpeace activists, wearing yellow oil drums bearing

radiation symbols, and carrying banners with slogans such as "Radiating

people."



LAST ATTEMPT FAILED



The Finnish industry's last attempt to build a fifth nuclear power plant

was put on ice in 1986 following the catastrophe at the Ukrainian power

plant of Chernobyl, and once parliament did decide to vote on it in 1993 it

was turned down.



Political parties have given their representatives free rein to vote

according to their conscience, but so far the Greens, the Left Alliance and

the Swedish Party, all junior partners of the five-party coalition, have

said they oppose the plan.



Finland has its four nuclear reactors at two installations, and nuclear

power accounts for about 30 percent of total electricity consumption.



But the country is grappling with how to satisfy increasing energy demand

while ensuring it meets its greenhouse gas emissions obligations under the

Kyoto protocol.



Backers say boosting nuclear capacity is the only way to meet those goals

and keep Finland, which has no oil or gas of its own, from becoming

dependent on imported electricity.



Opponents say the health and environmental risks are too great, and other

energy forms should be favoured.



Monkare said Finland would continue to focus on reducing electricity

consumption and developing renewable energy sources.

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



Austria's Schuessel seeks to calm row with Prague



VIENNA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel tried on

Thursday to calm a bitter dispute between his far-right coalition partners

and the Czech prime minister over a controversial Czech nuclear power

plant.



Austria's Freedom Party launched a petition this week demanding that

Austria should veto the Czech Republic's entry to the European Union,

expected in 2004, unless the Temelin plant, 60 km (40 miles) from the

Austrian border, is closed.



Schuessel said the neighbouring countries, with centuries of common

history, should find a dignified style of coexistence both "before Czech

accession to the EU and afterwards."



"We don't need a war of words but positive words of friendship, which are

sometimes painfully missed," he said in a radio interview.



Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman and Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider

traded abuse late on Wednesday.



Zeman described Haider as "a political Chernobyl," referring to the world's

worst nuclear accident in Ukraine in 1986. Haider said the Czech leader was

a communist and a turncoat.



Schuessel implicitly rebuked Zeman for describing Haider as a

"post-fascist" who should be eliminated, saying, "All parties in Austria

are democratic parties under our constitution."



"You can criticise them and hold different views but we are all Austrians,

patriots and democrats. I would assume exactly the same of other countries

which want to join a democratic (European) Union."



Schuessel's People's Party, in coalition with the Freedom Party for the

last two years, again made clear it would not bow to Haider's demand that

Austria should veto Czech EU membership if Temelin is not closed.



Environment Minister Wilhelm Molterer, who has negotiated with Prague about

security guarantees for Temelin, said this week's non-binding petition in

Austria was an attempt to whip up general opposition to the enlargement of

the EU.



"There will be no veto of Czech accession to the EU because of this," he

added in an interview with NEWS magazine.



Haider, best known internationally for controversial remarks about

Austria's Nazi past for which he later apologised, stepped down as leader

of the Freedom Party in May 2000.



But he continues to dominate the party. Provincial governor of Carinthia,

Haider also sits on the two-party coalition committee in Vienna that sets

government policy.



Schuessel and Zeman reached an agreement last year under which Austria

ceased blocking talks on Czech EU membership in return for Czech promises

to improve the plant's safety.



The deal did not stop the Freedom Party drive to shut the plant, but even

if many Austrian voters back this week's petition, it would at most force

parliament to debate Temelin.

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



SA youth focus on jobs, anti-nuclear issues



Jan 17 - Australian Broadacsting Company -  South Australian youth groups

say anti-nuclear issues are likely to be a  key focus for young people when

they vote in next month's state  election.



The Youth Affairs Council of South Australia says policies that address

the state's high rate of unemployment will be on top of young people's

wish lists from the major parties.



South Australia currently has a youth unemployment rate of around 25 per

cent.



"Any political party that has a policy that tries to deal with the  growing

number of unemployed and does some job creation and job  development will

certainly get a lot of young people's interest," said  council president

Michael Collin.



However, Mr Collin says the recent revelations of radio-active leaks at

the state's Beverley uranium mine, and proposals for a nuclear waste  dump

in South Australia, are also likely to raise young people's  hackles.



"Young people would be totally opposed, as would the majority of South

Australians, to having any sort of nuclear facility anywhere within the

state," he said.



"I mean we might have a lot of desert and it might not be very well

inhabited, but nuclear dumps tend to stay around for quite some time."

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



Govt. Reports on Missing Nuke Fuel



WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) - Two radioactive fuel rods missing from a nuclear

power plant for at least two decades were likely mistaken for other

radioactive waste and safely disposed of, federal investigators have

concluded.



Inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday they were

considering whether to sanction or fine Dominion Inc., which owns the

Millstone One nuclear power plant, for the lapse in record-keeping and

mishandling of highly radioactive spent fuel.



Dominion bought the Millstone complex of three nuclear reactors last year

and said it would seek compensation from former owner Northeast Utilities

if fined. A final report is due from the NRC in a few weeks.



Fuel rods have never before gone missing in the history of commercial

nuclear power in the United States, according to the NRC.



The investigation into the missing fuel rods began in December 2000 after

NU conducted an inventory of the plant's spent fuel pool. Neither NU nor

Dominion could determine conclusively where the rods ended up.



The NRC and Dominion insist the rods could not have been stolen.



The 13 1/2-foot-long rods emit lethal doses of radiation. Anyone removing

them would have to use proper equipment and would have to get past numerous

radiation monitors and other security measures, the NRC said.



``There is nothing that indicated that as a possibility in any way,'' said

Todd Jackson, the NRC's head investigator.



Based on records, the NRC and Dominion agreed the rods were probably

mistaken for other radioactive material being stored in the spent fuel

pool, such as monitoring equipment, and shipped off for long-term storage.

The shipping containers are buried on arrival and never opened.



The most likely storage sites are in Barnwell, S.C., and Hanford, Wash.,

investigations by the company and the NRC said.



Officials at the Barnwell site, upset that spent fuel rods may have been

shipped to them without their knowledge and stored in violation of their

license, are refusing to accept more radioactive material from Millstone

until the rods are found.



``Even though this happened 20 years ago, it is still painful to hear the

description of it,'' said Alan Price, acting vice president of operations

at Millstone.



The company said it has implemented procedures to ensure nuclear rods never

disappear again. While Millstone One is in the process of being

decommissioned and has not operated since 1995, the other two plants in the

complex are in operation.



Dominion, based in Virginia, inherited the missing fuel rod problem from

Berlin-based NU when it paid $1.3 billion for the complex last year.



NU advised Dominion before the sale that the fuel rods were missing. NU

paid more than $9 million to investigate, said Bill Matthews, vice

president of Millstone.



NU spokeswoman Deborah Beauchamp said the company is pleased that the NRC's

investigation backed up NU's findings. She said it was premature to discuss

fines.



Joe Besade, an anti-nuclear activist, said Tuesday that NU had paid more

than $10 million in penalties in the past for violating nuclear and

clean-water regulations.



``Nobody's been held accountable for anything I've seen,'' Besade said.

``This is going to be another whitewash.''

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



Anti-nuclear Austrians look to past for Temelin hope



ZWENTENDORF, Austria (Reuters) - On the banks of the Danube, about 18 miles

west of Vienna, stands what locals call the world's safest nuclear power

plant -- safe, because it has never been used.



Surrounded by wasteland and hemmed in by rusting security fencing, the

Zwentendorf reactor has remained eerily silent since it was mothballed in

1978, when Austrians voted by a tiny majority against nuclear power in a

referendum.



Many Austrians hope to achieve the same fate for the controversial Czech

Temelin nuclear plant, located 37 miles from the Austrian border, which

most believe is unsafe.



But for the moment their only means of expressing concern is to sign a

non-legally binding petition launched Monday by Joerg Haider's far-right

Freedom Party, demanding that Austria veto the Czech Republic's entry into

the EU unless the plant is closed.



In a poll published in NEWS magazine, 59 percent of respondents said they

wanted Temelin closed.



Austria's conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, no fan of Temelin,

says the petition launched by his coalition partners is pointless, populist

and will achieve nothing.



No sovereign government will bow to pressure from abroad and more will be

achieved through patient diplomacy with Prague, Schuessel argues.



Anti-nuclear groups which might normally be expected to support such a

petition are not doing so, saying the issue has been hijacked by Haider's

party in a bid to curry favor with voters.



A POLITICAL MOVE



"This is just an attempt to try and get more votes in the next election,"

Greenpeace anti-nuclear spokesman Erwin Mayer told Reuters. "They don't

really believe in a veto."



Although Greenpeace has long called for the closure of Temelin, it is

refusing to support the Freedom Party's petition.



The people of Zwentendorf, still relieved they were spared the anxiety of

having a nuclear plant on their doorsteps, appear divided over whether

there is any point in signing the petition.



"I don't think much of the petition," said Hermann Kuehtreiber,

Zwentendorf's Social Democratic mayor. "It would only really be effective

if it was against all power stations in all EU candidate countries."



Others agreed.



"You just don't know how dangerous it is or what you are supposed to

think," a waitress, who declined to give her name, told Reuters. "People

are just being whipped up into a frenzy here just like they were with the

launch of the euro."



Zwentendorf would have been the Alpine nation's first nuclear reactor with

a capacity of around 700 megawatts. Instead it became a symbol for what the

anti-nuclear lobby could achieve.



"There is nothing else like it on earth," Kuehtreiber told Reuters. "It's

the least dangerous nuclear power station in the world."



Austria decided in the late 1960s to start a nuclear energy program. Work

on Zwentendorf began in 1972 and the plant was due to generate about 10

percent of the country's electricity.



MOOD AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER



But the popular mood swung against nuclear power during the 1970s.



In 1978, Socialist Chancellor Bruno Kreisky yielded to pressure to call a

referendum which, to the government's surprise, was won by the anti-nuclear

lobby by the narrowest of margins -- less than 20,000 votes.



The vote marked the end of Austria's atomic energy program.



Unlike Temelin, which was briefly cranked up to full output for the first

time Jan. 11, only to be shut down by another in a series of technical

glitches, Zwentendorf was never even equipped with fuel rods.



More than 20 years after its fate was sealed, Zwentendorf power station is

trying to forge a new role as an entertainment venue.



Last summer, its red and white striped chimney stack and stark walls formed

the background for an open-air rave called "nuke."



"We tried to turn it into a museum," Kuehtreiber said. "But we've also held

events there and used the power station as a kind of backdrop. People

really seemed to like that."

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



2-day international talks to begin for nuclear fusion project



TOKYO, Jan. 16 (Kyodo) - A conference on an international project on

developing nuclear fusion energy will be held in Tokyo on Jan. 22-23,

conference organizers said Wednesday.



Participants from the current members of the International Thermonuclear

Experimental Reactor (ITER) project -- Japan, the European Union, Russia

and Canada -- will discuss methods to select a construction site for the

reactor, the sharing of the cost burden and other basic problems, according

to the sources.



Plans on the gist of a joint implementation agreement on construction and

operation of the project are to be studied as well, the sources said,

adding final agreements are aimed at within the year.



The ITER project, designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological

feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes, began in the late

1990s.



The U.S., which withdrew from the project in 1998, earlier has shown

interest in returning to the project.



At the conference site in Tokyo's Koto Ward, representatives from the

village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and Naka town

in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, are expected to promote their

areas as the site of the ITER project, according to sources.

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



NRC finds safety violation at Pa. Limerick 2 nuke



NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) found

a safety violation involving a valve at Exelon Nuclear's Limerick nuclear

power plant in Pennsylvania, the federal nuclear watchdog said.



The agency, in a statement released late Monday, characterized the findings

as "white," meaning it is an issue of low to moderate importance to safety

but one which may require additional NRC inspections.



The NRC said Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Chicago's energy giant Exelon Corp.

<EXC.N>, did not have "adequate measures" in place to identify a worn out

relief valve at the plant's 1,115 megawatt Unit 2.



Relief valves are used to control temperatures and pressures in nuclear

power plants' reactor coolant systems.



The NRC found the problem an inspection last autumn.



Specifically, the NRC said Limerick personnel had been tracking the

temperature of the valve and planned to repair or replace it if its

temperature dropped below 497 degrees F.



An analysis had shown the valve might not shut if it was opened below that

temperature. However, in August 2000, Exelon Nuclear reduced the

temperature threshold to 475 degrees.



Subsequently, beginning on Dec. 5, 2000, the temperature dropped below 492

degrees.



The condition, however, was not identified until Feb. 23, 2001, when the

valve opened and did not immediately reclose.



NRC officials classify certain conditions at nuclear power plants as being

one of four colors which delineate increasing levels of severity. The

findings begin with "green" and progress in severity to "white", "yellow"

and "red" at the top end of the scale.

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



IAEA nuke inspection team arrives in N. Korea



VIENNA, Jan. 15 (Kyodo) - An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

technical team arrived Tuesday in Pyongyang for a five-day visit that the

Vienna-based nuclear watchdog hopes will lead to resumption of full nuclear

safeguards inspections, the IAEA said.



The agency said the team will visit nuclear facilities in the Nyongbyon

area of the country, including an isotope production laboratory that the

North has said was involved in the early stages of development of the

country's nuclear program.



North Korea says the institute is now involved in the production of

radioactive materials for medical and industrial use.



IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei was quoted as calling the visit ''a

small but welcome step toward a return to full-fledged inspections required

under North Korea's safeguards agreement'' with the IAEA.



At a technical meeting between the IAEA and North Korean officials in

Vienna in November, the North agreed to a ''visit'' by IAEA inspectors to

the isotope production facility but not an ''inspection.''



Since 1993, the IAEA has been unable to fully implement its comprehensive

safeguards agreement with North Korea, and has been therefore unable to

verify the completeness and correctness of Pyongyang's initial 1992

declaration of its nuclear inventory.



Pyongyang, which withdrew its membership from the IAEA in June 1994, has

rejected the agency's offer to start implementing these verification

measures immediately.



It has cited delays in implementation of its 1994 agreement with Washington

for construction of two light-water nuclear reactors in exchange for North

Korea's freezing its graphite-moderated reactors and related facilities,

and has complained that it has incurred economic losses as a result of the

agreement.



Under the 1994 accord, North Korea is required to accept IAEA inspections

before new reactors are installed by the Korean Peninsula Energy

Development Organization, an international consortium created to implement

the accord.



The agency has since November 1994 been monitoring North Korea's nuclear

freeze, while also maintaining a continuous inspector presence at the

Nyongbyon site.



If it were to resume nuclear safeguards inspections with full cooperation

from North Korea, the IAEA estimates the work required to verify that all

nuclear material in the country had been declared to the agency would take

three to four years.



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

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