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(Fwd) Some Plants Take Name 'Nuclear' Out
I don't know why this went out with the body of the post.. Am sending
this one more time...
Index:
Some Plants Take Name 'Nuclear' Out
Atomic Experts Examine Kabul Cobalt
Fukui power plant holds nuclear disaster drill
NRC sets April 5 meeting on Ohio nuke corrosion
Federal Regulator Gives Perry Plant Positive Ratings
==================================
Some Plants Take Name 'Nuclear' Out
NEW YORK (AP) - They still make energy by harnessing the power of the
atom, but at least a few plants from Connecticut to Washington state
have scrubbed ``nuclear'' from their signs and stationery.
Anti-nuclear activists say such name changes are an attempt to
mollify a nervous public that still remembers the Three Mile Island
accident 22 years ago and now fears terrorists could target the
plants.
Among the renamed plants is the now-christened Indian Point Energy
Center in Buchanan, N.Y., 35 miles north of Manhattan. Entergy Corp.,
based in New Orleans, decided to remove ``nuclear'' from the name
after completing the purchase of Indian Point's two nuclear
generators last year.
``To identify it as a nuclear site does not fully describe it any
longer,'' spokesman Jim Steets said. ``It wasn't this calculated,
planned thing. We're very proud of the fact that these are nuclear
power plants.''
The name change reflects, in part, Entergy's plans to add a gas
turbine to the site, Steets said. He noted that the decision was made
before the World Trade Center attack, after Entergy completed its
purchase of Indian Point 2 on Sept. 6.
The Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Conn., and the Columbia
Generating Station in Richland, Wash., both deleted nuclear from
their names within the past three years.
The government, the industry and watchdog groups do not keep track of
name changes, but it's clear the changes are not uncommon.
``The industry is trying to use some public-relations spot remover,''
said Paul Gunter of the watchdog group Nuclear Information and
Resource Service in Washington, D.C.
James Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace, called the
practice ``greenwashing.''
``If they're so proud to be splitting atoms why not leave it in the
name?'' he asked.
Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which
represents plant owners, said the naming of plants is done by the
individual companies.
His agency, for one, is proud of its name. ``We have every intention
of keeping our name the Nuclear Energy Institute for the foreseeable
future,'' Kerekes said.
In Connecticut, Millstone's name was changed after its purchase by
Virginia-based Dominion last year. Spokesman Jim Norvelle said the
company calls all of its plants ``power stations.'' Dominion's two
Virginia nuclear stations, North Anna and Surry, each built in the
1970s, never had 'nuclear' in their names.
------------------
Atomic Experts Examine Kabul Cobalt
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Atomic experts came to Afghanistan this
week after radioactive cobalt-60 was found in the abandoned wing of a
hospital - a discovery that raised fears other dangerous materials
might lie forgotten in the country's rubble.
Though radioactive materials can be used to make ``dirty bombs,''
there was no evidence the cobalt-60 was intended for anything but
medical treatment or that it had been tampered with by al-Qaida or
the Taliban, said Capt. James Cameron, head of the peacekeepers'
nuclear, biological and chemical monitoring group.
The team, acting on information from Afghan authorities, discovered
the cobalt-60 at the hospital in the western part of Kabul, Cameron
said. It was housed in a machine for treating cancer and was located
in an abandoned wing of a hospital - surrounded by 10-foot-thick,
lead-lined walls.
The doors of the room were open, and the machine where the cobalt-60
was stored had been pried open. Cameron said the tampering had
probably been done a decade ago during factional fighting that
destroyed large parts of the hospital.
International peacekeepers closed up the machine and sealed the room.
Finds of such dangerous materials are cause for concern, experts
said.
``These sources are very worrying, and particularly in Afghanistan,''
said Tom Clements, executive director of the Nuclear Control
Institute in Washington.
U.S. officials have sounded the alarm about the threat posed by so-
called dirty bombs since Sept. 11, and regulatory authorities have
called for greater monitoring of radioactive materials that could be
used to make them.
The devices use explosives to scatter radioactive material. They are
not nuclear bombs, but could contaminate populated areas and cause
disease and panic, experts say.
Investigators believe the medical equipment was brought to
Afghanistan by the Soviets in 1978. The material inside measured a
still-potent radiation reading of more than 300 curies last week,
Cameron said.
A three-member team from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency arrived on Monday to investigate after the peacekeepers
determined they couldn't handle such the radioactive materials on
their own.
The agency team also toured an out-of-use physics laboratory at Kabul
University that contained several radioactive isotopes that could be
dangerous in the wrong hands, Cameron said.
The energy agency team determined that no hazardous radiation had
contaminated the laboratory or the hospital, but nevertheless
recommended both be secured, a U.N. official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity.
On Monday, crews were to begin transporting the materials from the
physics lab to the hospital wing so they could be safely stored in
the lead-lined room, Cameron said.
The materials eventually will have to be removed to ensure they don't
leak or fall into the wrong hands, but it will be a multimillion-
dollar operation that will require international assistance, Cameron
said.
He said his team will have to investigate other possible radioactive
sources at textile and food factories where the Soviets may have
installed radiation equipment.
Cameron credited Afghans with having kept the cobalt-60 source quiet
during the years when al-Qaida had much influence in the country's
government.
``They as much as anyone realized the potential of the wrong people
getting ahold of this,'' he said.
------------------
Fukui power plant holds nuclear disaster drill
MIHAMA, Japan, March 30 (Kyodo) - A Kansai Electric Power Co. nuclear
power plant in the town of Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, on the Sea of
Japan coast held a nuclear disaster drill Saturday, according to
plant and local officials.
The drill took place at the Mihama nuclear power plant on the
assumption that a major radiation leak similar in scale to the 1979
Three Mile Island accident had occurred, the officials said.
About 2,000 residents, government workers and officials from state-
related entities including the Cabinet Office as well as neighboring
local governments took part, they said.
The prefecture set up a task force at a newly built off-site disaster
control center after being alerted of the accident by Kansai Electric
Power Co. shortly before 6 a.m.
Just before 10 a.m., a state of emergency was issued by Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi. A teleconference was held between the
task force and the state.
Ground Self-Defense Force helicopters were mobilized in the drill and
transported victims.
The accident was based on an emergency shutdown of the No. 3 reactor,
a breakdown in its main water-cooling pump and leakage of radioactive
material outside the plant.
The reactor has a power output of 826,000 kilowatts.
-----------------
NRC sets April 5 meeting on Ohio nuke corrosion
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) - Federal nuclear regulators said on
Thursday they will brief the public next week on the inspection of an
Ohio nuclear plant after deep corrosion was found near the reactor,
prompting fears of problems at 68 similar U.S. facilities.
Concerns have spread throughout the U.S. nuclear industry after a
corroded cavity was found in the reactor vessel head at FirstEnergy
Corp.'s <FE.N> 25-year-old Davis-Besse nuclear power station in Oak
Harbor, Ohio. The vessel head is a massive 17-foot (5.2-metre) wide
piece of carbon steel bolted down on top of the reactor.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently ordered operators of 68
other pressurized water reactors -- more than half of the nation's
103 nuclear generating units -- to look for similar problems by April
2.
During a scheduled refueling outage that began Feb. 16, FirstEnergy
engineers found boric acid had leaked at the base of five of the 69
control rod nozzles that penetrate the reactor. Boric acid is used in
the primary coolant bath surrounding uranium rods in the reactor
core.
At one of the nozzles, the acid had eaten all the way through the 6-
inch (15-cm) thick vessel head.
The corrosion was so severe that a 3/8-inch (1-cm) thick stainless
steel liner inside the reactor was the only barrier left between the
reactor core, which operates under enormous pressure, and the metal
shroud surrounding the reactor vessel.
On March 12, the NRC sent metallurgy experts and engineers to Davis-
Besse to observe FirstEnergy inspectors and to "put the NRC's eyes
and ears right on the spot," an agency spokesman said.
The NRC and FirstEnergy officials will discuss the results of that
inspection at the April 5 public meeting, which will be held at a
high school in Oak Harbor.
The NRC has not yet announced how it and FirstEnergy will resolve the
plant problems or bring the unit back on-line. An agency spokesman
said no new measures toward that end will be outlined at the meeting.
He also said the NRC would not outline any larger industry response
plans at the meeting.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's main lobbying group,
unveiled a study this week which it said showed the problems at Davis-
Besse were not present at the 68 other similar plants.
While FirstEnergy and NRC officials described the corrosion as
"serious," they say it posed no danger to the public because the
entire reactor is housed in a steel-reinforced concrete containment
building.
But the economic implications are huge.
FirstEnergy, based in Akron, estimates that in a best-case scenario,
repairs to the reactor head will take three months and cost up to $15
million.
In a worst-case scenario, it could take two years -- the time needed
to manufacture a replacement reactor vessel head.
While the company hopes judicious welding work can patch the hole,
FirstEnergy officials said they already ordered a new reactor head
from Framatome ANP, Inc. in France for delivery in 2004.
FirstEnergy estimates the cost of replacing the reactor vessel head
at about $20 million.
But downtime at Davis-Besse, which generates 7 percent of
FirstEnergy's electricity, will force the company to spend anywhere
from $10 million to $15 million a month buying replacement power for
the 4.3 million customers served by its seven subsidiary utilities,
the company said.
------------------
Federal Regulator Gives Perry Plant Positive Ratings in Annual
'Report Card'
April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating
Company announced today that the Perry Power Plant scored
positive ratings in its most recent performance report from the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The report indicated plant
employees met all regulatory goals in such areas as plant operations,
radiation safety, emergency planning and plant security.
The report covered the period from April 1, 2001 through December 31,
2001. During that time, the NRC conducted numerous target
inspections at the Perry Plant in addition to the daily monitoring
done by the commission's inspectors stationed at the plant.
"After successfully overcoming some operational challenges in the
2001, the plant has been performing well," says Guy Campbell,
FENOC vice president at Perry. "Most importantly, this annual NRC
report indicates that we operated the plant safely in 2001 and
continue to do so today. The credit goes to our hardworking
employees, who are dedicated to this important principle."
In 2001, the Perry Plant posted a 76.6 percent availability factor
and a 71.8 percent capacity factor, generating more than 7.8 million
megawatt-hours of electricity. Additionally, Perry employees worked
nearly 3.4 million hours since December 31, 2001 without a
serious accident.
Representatives from the NRC will discuss Perry's report at a public
meeting on Wednesday, April 3, at the Tarbuck Educational and
Community Center, 4325 Manchester Rd., Perry, Ohio. The meeting will
begin at 3:30 p.m.
The Perry Power Plant is owned by FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) of
Akron, Ohio, and operated by its subsidiary, FENOC.
FirstEnergy is a register public utility holding company. Its various
subsidiaries produce more than $12 billion in annual revenues and
sell 124 billion kilowatt-hour hours of electricity. Other
FirstEnergy affiliates are involved in the exploration and production
of oil and
natural gas, marketing of natural gas, and energy- related services.
FirstEnergy's electric utility operating companies -- Ohio Edison,
The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison in
Ohio; Metropolitan Edison, Pennsylvania Electric and Pennsylvania
Power in Pennsylvania; and Jersey Central Power & Light -- comprise
the nation's fourth largest investor-owned electric system, based on
serving 4.3 million customers within a 36,100-square-mile area that
stretches from the Ohio-Indiana border to the New Jersey shore.
-------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Director, Technical
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100 Extension 2306
Fax:(714) 668-3149
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
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