Govt refuses to release Lucas Heights nuclear reactor details

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

Index:



Govt refuses to release Lucas Heights nuclear reactor details

Engineer raises radiation concerns over hospital creche

Japanese Gov't to rely on nuclear power to cut CO2 emissions

Korea firm on privatisation, nuclear walkout averted

U.N. says nuclear plants' vulnerability unclear

Depleted uranium may cause kidney damage-study

Irish nuclear protesters plan postcard blitz on UK

Swedish Nuclear Plants Considered

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



Govt refuses to release Lucas Heights nuclear reactor details



Australian Broadcasting Co - Mar 20 -   The Federal Government is refusing to 

release contract details relating  to the replacement Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.  



The Government claims the documents are commercially confidential. 



But Labor Senator Kim Carr says information should be released to  support the 

Government's claim it is constantly monitoring the  Argentinian company 

contracted to build the $300 million reactor. 



Senator Carr says the company has borrowed more than $10 million from  the 

Argentinian Government. 



"Now what really troubles me was the Government has said repeatedly that  they 

are constantly monitoring the implementation of this contract and  that the 

Government has said repeatedly that there was no financial  support being 

extended by the Argentinian Government to this  contractor," he said. 



"We now discover that's not true."   

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



Engineer raises radiation concerns over hospital creche



Australian Broadcasting Co - Mar 18 -  A Melbourne electrical engineer has raised 

serious concerns for the  safety of children who have been exposed to radiation at 

the Royal  Women's Hospital Childcare Centre.  



Tests have found an electrical sub-station in the hospital's basement  has been 

emitting radiation into the creche for the past 12 years. 



The hospital says there is no cause for concern because the highest  radiation 

levels detected were 300 milligauss, which is well below the  Australian safety 

standard. 



However, engineer Roger Lamb says parents have every reason to be  concerned. 



"I wouldn't like to think I was sitting in a field greater than perhaps  three milligauss 

but for kids, the greatest impact is on pregnant women  and young kids, between 0 

to 16," he said.  

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



Japanese Gov't to rely on nuclear power to cut CO2 emissions

  

TOKYO, March 19 (Kyodo) - The government decided Tuesday it will rely heavily 

on nuclear power sources to attain emissions reduction targets set by the Kyoto 

Protocol, an international pact aimed at fighting global warming, the Ministry of 

Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) said. 



The 10-year energy plan, submitted last July to the industry minister, was endorsed 

at a meeting of ministers, who decided to push for the construction of new nuclear 

plants as a substitute to oil-burning power generation. 



The ministers set a target of using non-oil sources, including nuclear power, coal, 

natural gas, hydropower and geothermal power, to generate in fiscal 2010 power 

equivalent to that derived from 330 million kiloliters of crude oil. 



The target will be formalized at a cabinet meeting slated for Friday, METI officials 

said. 



The government aims to increase nuclear power generation by about 30% from 

fiscal 2000 levels, equivalent to 93 million kl worth of crude oil, on the expectation 

power utilities will have nine to 12 nuclear plants up and running by fiscal 2010. 



The government will increase its support to regions hosting the planned new 

nuclear plants to counter increasing resistance among residents to have plants 

generating nuclear power in their regions, the officials said. 



It also targets providing 19.1 million kl of energy through fuel cells, wind-generated 

power, and other new power sources, as well as 20 million kl through hydropower 

generation. 



Through various energy conserving measures, the government also aims to save 

56 million kl worth of crude oil, METI said. 

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



Korea firm on privatisation, nuclear walkout averted

  

SEOUL, March 19 (Reuters) - South Korean President Kim Dae-jung stood firm on 

plans to sell off state-run utilities on Tuesday after a vote by nuclear workers to join 

a power strike was suspended, averting potential electricity cuts. 



Workers at state-run Korea Electric Power Corp's (KEPCO) nuclear division 

suspended the vote indefinitely -- a potentially significant step because nuclear 

power provides two fifths of South Korea's electricity -- after what a union leader 

called "interference" from the company . 



About 5,600 KEPCO workers from non-nuclear power plants have been on strike 

since February 25 to protest against plans to sell power plants, a key policy of 

President Kim's government in an election year. 



The 3,700 union members at Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co make up about 

60 percent of the unit's 6,300-strong workforce. 



Soon after the nuclear workers suspended their vote, President Kim said in a 

cabinet meeting that privatisation was non negotiable because it had been 

approved by parliament in 2000. 



"The government won't accept the striking union's demands to scrap privatisation," 

President Kim said in a statement. 



"(The strike) is likely to frustrate the recovering economy by breaking laws and 

disrupting social order, and is leading even moderate unions to take a militant 

stance," Kim said. 



Kim said the government would uphold free market principles as well as labour 

laws banning public sector walkouts. 



"If the power industry continues to be in the red, the nation will end up with taking 

on the burden. The government will proceed based on market principles," Kim said. 



Under the privatisation plans, the government will keep nuclear and hydro power 

units under state control but start selling the five strike-hit fossil-fuel thermal power 

units this year. 



The thermal units provide about 60 percent of Korea's electricity, while hydro-

electricity is a marginal source. 



STRIKE VOTE CALLED OFF 



The government and striking unions are deadlocked after the failure of mediation 

by 26 government and opposition legislators. 



Strikers fear job cuts and higher power prices if privatisation goes ahead. The 

government has vowed stern action against the strike, which violates laws banning 

public sector walkouts. 



Union officials said KEPCO sent some workers on business trips and visited every 

office to persuade workers not to vote. 



"We suspended the voting because we couldn't proceed with it due to strong 

interference by the company," union head Kim Byung-ki told Reuters. "We'll 

resume it later, although at the moment it's not clear when." 



"They don't have any justification because it (the nuclear unit) is not on sale," Kang 

Duk-koo, chief company spokesman at the nuclear unit, told Reuters. 



The government plans to deploy 200 soldiers to relieve exhausted non-union staff 

working to keep power plants operating, after the troops undergo four weeks of 

training from Monday. Another 200 troops will begin training from April 15. 



Non-union workers make up a third of the 8,400 workers at the affected 31 power 

stations nationwide. Around a quarter of the strikers have agreed to return to work, 

but have yet to do so. 



KEPCO shares ended down 2.5 percent to 24,650 won on Tuesday, 

underperforming a 2.33-percent gain in the broader market. 

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



U.N. says nuclear plants' vulnerability unclear

  

VIENNA, March 18 (Reuters) - The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said on 

Monday that it was unclear how vulnerable nuclear facilities were to terrorist 

attacks of the scale that shocked the world on September 11. 



A report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) obtained 

by Reuters said nuclear facilities were generally very robust structures, but that 

their resistance to such attacks could not be easily determined. 



"There doesn't currently exist a widely accepted methodology for identifying, 

assessing and addressing such vulnerabilities," said the report, presented to the 

agency's board of governors by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on 

Monday. 



Many facilities are too old to have allowed for the effects of large modern 

passenger jets with a heavy fuel load slamming into them, as they did into the 

World Trade Center in September. 



"Most nuclear power plants took into consideration terrorist attacks when they were 

designed and built, but in the 1970s, when many of the plants were constructed 

and designed, airplanes were smaller and didn't carry as much fuel," IAEA 

spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. 



According to IAEA figures, there are 651 research reactors, of which 284 are in 

operation, and 438 nuclear power reactors around the world. 



In order to address the security of nuclear facilities, the IAEA has asked member 

states to contribute around $12 million annually between them. It said it was 

seeking another $20 million per year to help countries lacking funds "to respond to 

urgent situations that require immediate upgrades." 



The agency also wants to track down and recover all "orphaned," or missing, highly 

radioactive sources that had vanished from regulatory control, the report said. 



Fleming said there was no way of estimating how much radioactive material had 

been orphaned, but added that none of it was weapons grade material. 



Much of the missing material is believed to have been stolen from laboratories and 

hospitals in former Soviet states. 



The recent find of highly radioactive objects in ex-Soviet Georgia increased fears 

that terrorists could add such material to conventional explosives to make "dirty 

bombs" -- intended more to cause panic than physical harm. 

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



Depleted uranium may cause kidney damage-study



LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Soldiers exposed to high levels of depleted 

uranium may suffer kidney damage and it could pose a danger to civilians through 

contaminated soil or water supplies, scientists warned on Tuesday. 



But, in the latest contribution to a sometimes heated debate, a report by Britain's 

Royal Society said that only a small number of soldiers would have inhaled large 

enough amounts of depleted uranium (DU) to seriously damage their health and 

preventive measures could limit any danger to civilians. 



It said most veterans of the Gulf War or Balkans conflicts were unlikely to suffer 

from heavy metal poisoning. 



A by-product of nuclear reactors, depleted uranium (DU) is used not for its low 

radioactivity but as a cheap, heavy tip that helps armour-piercing shells batter 

through steel plate. 



"For the majority of soldiers on the battlefield it is unlikely there will be any adverse 

effects on the kidneys," Professor Brian Spratt told a news conference. 



"The concerns that we have are about soldiers who have the highest levels of 

exposure to DU, those surviving within struck tanks or those working for long 

periods cleaning up contaminated vehicles after a battle." 



Spratt said a few hundred U.S. servicemen and an unknown number of Iraqi 

soldiers would have been exposed to the most dangerous levels of DU. 



The report also warned that DU particles in the ground near attack sites could 

contaminate the soil and pose a risk if some of the soil is swallowed by children. It 

also suggested the topsoil in heavily contaminated areas should be removed and 

water quality should be monitored for any contamination. 



"It is very difficult to predict whether contamination of a local water supply will occur 

in these areas because there are too many uncertainties and variables," said 

Spratt. 



Water samples in areas where DU shells were used have been examined and 

there has been no sign of contamination but the scientists said monitoring should 

continue because contamination could take decades. 



FEAR OF CANCERS 



Concerns about the health effects of the armour-piercing depleted uranium shells 

used in the Gulf War and the Balkans arose last year after peacekeepers in Bosnia 

and Kosovo said they had developed leukaemia after exposure to the material. 



Iraq also says there is a link between depleted uranium in 



weapons and an increase in leukaemia and other cancers. 



In an earlier report, the Royal Society concluded that the levels of DU soldiers were 

exposed to were not high enough to raise their risk of leukaemia. But it added that 

very high amounts could cause a very small increased risk of lung cancer. 



Scientists have been hampered in their research into the health effects of DU 

because there is no accurate test to measure very small levels of the element in 

the human body. 



Spratt said a sensitive test could be available by the end of the year but he added 

that just testing positive for DU does not mean someone will suffer from health 

problems. 



The report called for more research into the effects of DU and long-term studies of 

soldiers exposed to high levels to determine any link to kidney disease and lung 

cancer. 



Depleted uranium shells are favoured by the United States, Britain and France 

among others as the best and cheapest ammunition available to smash enemy 

armour. Some 40,000 rounds were fired in the Balkans by U.S. ground attack 

aircraft during the Kosovo conflict and in 1995 in Bosnia. 

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



Irish nuclear protesters plan postcard blitz on UK

  

DUBLIN, March 15 (Reuters) - Irish campaigners said on Friday they were 

planning to bombard British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles with 

postcards to protest against the Sellafield nuclear plant. 



Sellafield's presence across the Irish Sea on England's northwest coast has been a 

long-running source of friction between the two countries, with repeated calls from 

Ireland for the plant to be shut down on safety grounds. 



The campaign group hopes to send nearly 1.5 million postcards to homes in the 

Irish Republic, urging people to forward them to Blair's Downing Street residence, 

Charles' London home at St James's Palace and Sellafield itself. 



The campaign is spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of Irish rock star Bono from the 

band U2, and has the support of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. 



"We are working round-the-clock trying to put this together, but it is dependent on 

us being able to raise the money to do it," said a spokesman for the campaign. 



"This is not a government initiative, but an official from the Taoiseach's (prime 

minister's) office met Ali Hewson to discuss it and the Taoiseach is supportive of 

the campaign," a spokesman for Ahern told Reuters. 



Under the group's draft plans the postcard sent to Blair would show a close up of a 

human eye with a message urging the British PM to "look me in the eye and say 

Sellafield is safe." 



The prince would be sent a postcard depicting Ireland ravaged by fallout from a 

nuclear accident with the message: "Wish you were here." 



A third postcard addressed to Norman Askew, chief executive of Sellafield's 

owners British Nuclear Fuels, would show a pair of lips and the slogan: "Tell us the 

truth." 



The spokesman for the campaigners, who are seeking financial support from Irish 

businesses, said they hoped to launch the postcard blitz in April. 



On Friday Ireland's public enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke held talks in Oslo with 

Norway's Environment Minister Borge Brende to discuss their opposition to 

Sellafield, which O'Rourke said "threatens every man, woman and child in Ireland." 



Last year, Ireland unsuccessfully applied to the Hamburg-based International 

Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for an injunction to block the start up of a 472-

million pound ($673.2m) nuclear fuel manufacturing plant at Sellafield. 

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



Swedish Nuclear Plants Considered

  

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - The Swedish government has suggested a new 

approach to phasing out nuclear power that would give the industry a greater say 

on when to close the reactors. 



The suggestion, part of an energy proposal unveiled Friday, was welcomed by the 

power industry while nuclear opponents worried it would slow down the phasing-

out process. 



Energy Minister Bjoern Rosengren insisted the government still was committed to 

pull the plug on nuclear power but added it would take time. 



``In my opinion, it will take 30 to 40 years before it can be phased out,'' he told 

Swedish radio. 



About half of Sweden's energy supply comes from nuclear power plants. 



The plan will be presented to the 349-seat Riksdag, or parliament, next Thursday. 

It was not clear when a vote would be held. 



The energy proposal also suggested introducing a system of ``green certificates'' 

that would boost incentives to use renewable energy sources, such as hydro and 

wind power. 



In 1980, following a referendum, parliament decided to close the Scandinavian 

country's 12 reactors by 2010. But Sweden has since moved away from a specific 

deadline and has closed only one of the reactors at Barsebaeck. 



Parliament has set a tentative date for closing another in 2003. 



The new proposal, based on a German model, suggested giving the power 

industry a fixed amount of energy to be produced at the 10 remaining reactors. 

Power companies would then decide on their own when to close the plants. 



The chief executive of Sydkraft, one of Sweden's largest power companies with 

stakes in the reactors, said it would be hard to replace nuclear power efficiently. 



``To substitute for it without heavy economical or environmental consequences for 

society is a very demanding task,'' Sydkraft's Lars Frithiof said in a statement. 

``Sweden will therefore rely on nuclear power for many years in the future.'' 



Nuclear opponents applauded the government for keeping its commitment to 

phase out nuclear energy but said the plan could cause further delays. 



``Before, it was elected officials who decided the pace. Now, the industry, which 

doesn't want to dismantle, makes the decisions. It could slow down the process,'' 

Greenpeace spokesman Dima Litvinov said. 



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

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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