U.S. nuclear plants said well protected from attack

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

Index:



U.S. nuclear plants said well protected from attack

Nuclear Extraction in Georgia

Water leaks from nuclear-waste reprocessing plant pool

Task Force Looks at Irradiated Mail

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U.S. nuclear plants said well protected from attack

  

NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Despite new warnings of a possible attack against 

U.S. nuclear facilities, industry officials said on Friday their power plants are well 

protected and only minor security changes have been necessary since the Sept. 11 

attacks on the United States. 



"We are in a state of readiness that is the absolute maximum that we can provide," 

Ralph Beedle, chief nuclear officer for the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), told a 

financial analyst briefing early Friday. 



U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

warned the country's 103 nuclear power plants could be targeted for airline attack. 



But nuclear officials said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had judged the threat to 

be "non-specific and non-credible," and that few extra precautions would be taken at 

nuclear plants, which are already on high alert. 



"What occurred was the NRC issued this without providing the proper context," 

Beedle said. "Once (the media) gets ahold of this it takes on a whole new life." 



"I don't believe that there is any more of a threat against our nuclear facilities...any 

more than there was on the afternoon of Sept. 11," Beedle said. 



Although none of the nation's nuclear power plants have ever been safety tested for 

the impact of a fully fueled jet airliner, the power plants would most likely be 

protected from any attack by their highly armed security forces, concrete walls that 

are several feet thick, and elaborate safety systems, the officials said. 



"We've had excellent security from day one -- prior to Sept. 11," Donald Hintz, 

president of nuclear plant operator Entergy Corp. <ETR.N>, told Reuters at the 

briefing. 



"Of all the critical infrastructure of the United States, I think nuclear plants are 

probably better protected than anything," Hintz said. "Basically we think that any 

security much beyond what we have there now is really a national defense issue 

which isn't a utility problem." 



Entergy operates nine nuclear power units in the United States, including a unit at 

the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan, New York, about 35 miles north of New 

York City. 



Recently an environmental group and local elected officials asked that the Indian 

Point plant be shut due to security concerns. 



But power producers have argued that nuclear plants are a cheap, safe source of 

electricity and that calls to shut nuclear facilities are a knee-jerk reaction to the Sept. 

11 attacks that would only damage the economy. 



"The plants have operated so well that you haven't heard that much from the anti-

nuclear people over the last few years, but Sept. 11 gave them a new forum," Hintz 

said. 



And although the nation's nuclear power plants have remained on a state of high 

alert since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the operating utilities 

have not had to take extensive steps to beef up power plant security, the officials 

said. 



"We have to do some additional things," Hintz said. "What we are doing is 

confidential because we don't want to tell the terrorists or anybody else what we are 

doing -- but we've expanded the protected area boundaries and have more roving 

patrols, things like that." 

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



Nuclear Extraction in Georgia

  

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Experts from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency 

are planning to extract two radioactive containers from a remote area of Georgia, a 

spokeswoman said. 



Experts will encase the objects in a protective shielding before transporting them 

from the rugged area where lumberjacks discovered them in December, said Melissa 

Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency. The containers 

will be taken to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, for special handling. 



Local authorities said the containers were used as fuel for signal beacons during the 

construction of a hydroelectric plant 30 years ago. An article appearing in Friday's 

issue of the magazine Science describes the devices as thermogenerators that use 

the heat of strontium to create electricity. 



After being alerted by Georgian authorities, the agency sent a medical team to treat 

the woodsmen for injuries caused by the radioactivity. Two of them remain in serious 

condition, Fleming said Thursday. 



Bad weather has stalled efforts to remove the containers. 



``It's not so snowed-in now and there's a good chance of us recovering them this 

weekend,'' Fleming said. 



Fleming downplayed concerns that the material could fall into the hands of terrorists 

because of the inaccessibility of the terrain. 



Fleming said the material, which is known as strontium-90, was so potent ``it's 

certainly almost life-threatening to handle it'' - though terrorists might not find that to 

be a deterrent. 



The agency's longtime efforts to help countries handle nuclear materials safely have 

gained greater attention in recent months in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on 

the United States. 



Georgian authorities fenced off the area and kept outsiders away from the site in a 

forest near the village of Dzhvare, about 135 miles southwest of the capital, Tbilisi. 

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



Water leaks from nuclear-waste reprocessing plant pool

  

AOMORI, Japan, Feb. 1 (Kyodo) - Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. said Friday it has 

confirmed that water containing radioactive materials has been leaking from a 

storage pool at its nuclear-waste reprocessing facility in Rokkasho village, Aomori 

Prefecture. 



But while some 5,000 liters of water has leaked so far, the water is being 

reprocessed by a disposal facility for radioactive liquid waste and no threat to the 

environment is seen, the company said. 



The company said it will investigate the cause of the leakage and repair the pool if 

necessary. 



The incident, however, may cause concern about security among local residents as 

the leakage occurred in the main facility of the reprocessing plant, which is key to the 

recycling of nuclear fuel. 



The storage pool stores spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants nationwide until 

the fuel can be reprocessed, and a leak detector found that some 1 liter of water has 

been flowing out of the pool every hour since July last year, the company said. 



The company injected chemicals into the pool on Wednesday to confirm whether the 

water found by the leak detector is from the pool, it said. 



The pool has been used to store some 165 tons of spent nuclear fuel, but all fuel had 

been transferred to another pool by Monday. 



The reprocessing plant, which started accepting spent nuclear fuel in December 

2000, is scheduled to start operations in July 2005,. 



The plant has run into several snags, including a blackout caused by operational 

mistakes that caused air blowers to cut out. 



The company will continue storing spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants 

nationwide using the other two pools at the plant during the investigation period, it 

said. 

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



Task Force Looks at Irradiated Mail

  

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal task force is investigating reports of illness and 

allergic reactions among people handling irradiated mail. 



About 350,000 pieces of mail addressed to federal offices are being irradiated daily 

in an effort to thwart any further anthrax-by-mail attacks. 



There have been complaints from a half-dozen Senate offices that staffers working 

with mail have suffered eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, a burning 

sensation on hands and face, dizziness and nausea. 



In one incident, two Commerce Department workers went to a hospital complaining 

of nausea, breathing problems and throat irritation after they opened a package and 

fumes escaped. 



The new task force, which held its first meeting this week, includes representatives 

from the Postal Service, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 

Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 

Office of the Attending Physician, Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Chief 

Administrative Office of the House. 



Currently, the only mail being irradiated is that addressed to federal offices in 

Washington. That includes ZIP codes 20200 to 20599. 



Some mail destined for the general public was irradiated previously but that is not 

now being done, postal officials said. 



Long-term plans call for more widespread radiation of mail or installation of 

equipment to detect any biological hazards. But while more radiation machines are 

being built they have not yet been delivered. 



The irradiation process does not make the mail radioactive. 



However, Thomas Day, postal vice president for engineering, said the process can 

cause paper to give off carbon monoxide and ozone. In addition, he said, the plastic 

used to wrap mail during the process may produce volatile compounds. 



Carbon monoxide can bind with hemoglobin in the blood, reducing its ability to carry 

oxygen throughout the body, said Dr. Milan J. Hazucha, a pulmonary expert at the 

University of North Carolina School of Medicine. 



But, he said, to cause illness the gas has to be breathed in high concentrations for a 

long period of time. The small amount that could be produced from a few envelopes 

should not be dangerous, he said. 



Exposure to high concentrations of ozone over several hours can produce throat 

irritation and cough, he said. 



A few people may be hypersensitive to these gases and may have a reaction to 

smaller amounts, Hazucha added. 



Day said that some postal workers complained of headache when working for long 

periods opening packages of mail that had been returned from irradiation treatment. 

That was cured, he said, by installing ventilation hoods, fans and filters to draw any 

fumes away from the workers. 



Currently, Day said, irradiated mail is ventilated for at least 24 hours to eliminate any 

fumes and gases before it is delivered. 



The volatile compounds that are released when plastic is irradiated smell bad, and 

that smell can make people feel ill, Dr. Ivan Walks, Washington's public health 

director, said. 



People have different levels of reaction to it, he said. Walks urged the post office to 

analyze these gases to determine exactly what they contain and provide a clear 

explanation to people who handle mail. 



Day said that the post office is looking into eliminating the plastic wrapping and 

simply placing the mail in cardboard containers for irradiation. 



Walks said the post office ``should give (mailroom workers) instructions on how to 

open it. ``It's not that it's unsafe, but there's a best practice for how to handle this 

new kind of mail,'' he said. 



The irradiation process also dries out paper, increasing the amount of dust and 

resulting in the paper drawing moisture from the skin of people handling the mail, 

Postal Senior Vice President Deborah K. Wilhite said. She urged that people who 

experience dry skin use hand creams. 



Wilhite added that while the source of the illnesses remains unknown, Washington 

has had unusually warm weather, which can lead to people developing allergies as 

plants begin to release pollen early. 



She said the case at the Commerce Department turned out to be an asthma attack 

that occurred when a staffer who had been on vacation returned to find her mail in a 

closed box which released a burst of dust when opened. 



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

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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