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Dutch, EC want nuclear plant shut down for checks
Index:
Dutch, EC want nuclear plant shut down for checks
IAEA says Georgia nuclear devices now safely stored
Ridge Opposes Federal Nuke Guards
IAEA mission bringing nuclear devices to Tbilisi
======================================
Dutch, EC want nuclear plant shut down for checks
AMSTERDAM, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Dutch government said on Monday it wants a
small nuclear research plant northwest of Amsterdam shut down by the end of the
week so that a known crack in the reactor can be examined and safety measures
improved.
The high flux reactor (HFR) in the small town of Petten is owned by the Dutch
government which leases it to the European Commission to conduct experiments.
The nuclear plant is operated by local energy consultancy NRG.
Although the Commission on Monday advised the reactor be shut down by the end of
the week, the decision rests with NRG and the Dutch environment ministry said it
was still awaiting a response to its demands from the consultancy.
NRG could not be reached for comment.
Bowing to public demand, the Netherlands has phased out almost all nuclear power
and only one plant -- at Borssele in the south -- is still in operation. Last June,
Greenpeace activists climbed the plant in protest at its ongoing operation.
European Commission spokeswoman Andrea Dahmen said that the EC's Joint
Research Centre believed the HFR reactor in Petten was safe but that the safety
could be improved.
"The Joint Research Centre recommends that the reactor should be shut down to
permit re-measurement of a known crack, in fact an internal welding anomaly, which
has existed since the installation of the reactor vessel in 1984," Dahmen said.
"This shutdown should take place as soon as possible. It would appear that the
earliest reasonable date for the shutdown is by the end of this week.
-----------------
IAEA says Georgia nuclear devices now safely stored
VIENNA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency said on
Monday it had completed a mission to Georgia to recover two containers filled with
deadly radioactive material and has stored them at a safe location.
The December discovery of the titanium-based ceramic containers in Georgia's
breakaway Abkhazia region renewed fears, in the wake of the September 11 attacks
on America, that nuclear material could fall into the hands of people who would use it
to make crude bombs.
"The team we had there, along with the Georgian authorities, have recovered the
sources and safely contained and secured them at a storage site," Lothar Wedekind,
spokesman for the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters.
Wedekind would not disclose the location of the storage site, but said that it was safe
and secure. The team, supervised by the Vienna-based IAEA, launched the recovery
mission on Saturday. The containers were discovered in December.
The agency said the radioactive strontium-90 material in the fist-sized containers
cannot be used to make even a crude nuclear bomb. But the IAEA declined to
speculate on whether it could be used for a so-called "dirty bomb," by using
conventional explosives to spread the radioactive material.
"This is not the kind of material used in conventional bombs and it's not explosive,"
Wedekind said. "It's a product of nuclear fission and is not itself fissionable."
In November the agency said attacks using nuclear material were far more likely
than thought. One of its experts said then that commonplace radioactive materials
could easily be attached to conventional explosives.
The Soviet Union, one of the world's five recognised nuclear powers, broke up in
1991 and nuclear materials once under its control have turned up in many of its
former republics.
Abkhazia, which declared independence from the former Soviet republic of Georgia
in 1991, has remained outside the Georgian government's control and guerrillas
regularly clash with the Abkhazian military.
The three Georgians who found and briefly handled the containers in early
December suffered severe radiation sickness and one of them was still in critical
condition. The IAEA sent a medical team to help treat them in January.
Wedekind said that there was no change in the condition of the men, two of whom
remain in hospital.
------------------
Ridge Opposes Federal Nuke Guards
WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Sunday that
private security forces at nuclear power plants should not be replaced with federal
guards, siding with federal regulators and the industry.
The federal role in guarding the nation's 103 nuclear reactors against terrorist attacks
should be limited to setting standards about the level of security provided, Ridge said
on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission already certifies security plans at each plant,
and tightened requirements after Sept. 11.
``There is a role here for the federal government,'' Ridge said. But, he added, ``those
who own the nuclear power plants have to provide'' the security.
Legislation to federalize plant security guards was introduced by Democratic Sens.
Harry Reid of Nevada, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Hillary Rodham Clinton of
New York and independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont.
Reid, chairman of the Senate subcommittee with authority over the NRC, said Friday
he plans to continue to push the legislation.
But NRC Chairman Richard Meserve has said that regulators oppose such a move.
The nuclear industry does, too, preferring greater authority for guards instead.
Nuclear reactor guards currently are armed, but many states restrict what weapons
they may carry and whether they may use deadly force.
-----------------
IAEA mission bringing nuclear devices to Tbilisi
VIENNA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency said on
Sunday that it had recovered two highly radioactive nuclear objects that three
woodsmen found in a remote Georgian forest late last year.
The discovery of the cylinders, evidently once used in a generator, in Georgia's
breakaway Abkhazia region touched off international concern that terrorists might
obtain nuclear material to make bombs.
"They have the devices and are expected to return late tonight to Tbilisi, where they
will transfer them to a safe storage facility," said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for
the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
About the size of a person's hand, the encased but unshielded canisters contain
highly radioactive strontium-90.
The three Georgians who found and handled them are suffering from severe
radiation sickness, one of them in critical condition. The IAEA sent a medical team to
help treat them.
The agency said on Friday that discarded radioactive sources have been found from
time to time in Georgia over the past decade, and it believed many others remained
"lost, abandoned or otherwise outside of regulatory control."
They also said that the IAEA was sending experts to Georgia this week to help
tighten safety in the former Soviet republic.
Specialists from the United States, Russia, France and Germany would be among
those meeting with Georgian authorities on Thursday and Friday.
The Soviet Union, one of the world's five recognised nuclear powers, broke up in
1991 and nuclear materials once under its control have turned up in many of its
former republics.
Abkhazia, which declared independence from Georgia in 1991, has remained outside
the Georgian government's control and Georgian guerrillas regularly clash with the
Abkhazian military.
IAEA experts reached the former Soviet republic in early January, but the recovery
was delayed by bad weather that made the journey across Abkhazia's rough terrain
impossible.
The agency said devices like those found were widely used in the former Soviet
Union as heaters, power sources for remote
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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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