Nuclear waste plan not a security hazard - Ridge

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

Index:



Nuclear waste plan not a security hazard - Ridge

Czech N-plant seen ready for re-start next week

Japan processes dismantled Russian nuke into MOX fuel

Standoff Over Plutonium Shipments

Russia aims to build Vietnam nuclear power plant

Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan

US finds no widespread corrosion at nuclear plants

Radioactivity too high for housing development: Greens

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



Nuclear waste plan not a security hazard - Ridge



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Transportation of nuclear waste to a proposed 

permanent dump site in Nevada could be done safely without undue 

danger of disruption by terrorist attack, U.S. Homeland Security 

Director Tom Ridge said Thursday.

 

Ridge said a review of the proposal by his office had concluded that 

adequate safeguards for transporting nuclear waste had already been 

developed by the Department of Energy and the U.S. military.

 

The proposed Yucca Mountain storage site would be the nation's first 

permanent repository for radioactive waste and has sparked a battle 

in Congress.

 

"We feel very confident that this can be done safely," Ridge told the 



American Society of Newspaper Editors. "We don't believe ultimately 

that (transportation) should be an impediment."

 

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn vetoed the proposal Tuesday and the site's 

fate now rests with Congress, which has 90 working days to sustain or 



override the veto. Guinn has predicted an uphill battle to uphold the 



veto.

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



Czech N-plant seen ready for re-start next week



TEMELIN, Czech Republic, April 12 (Reuters) - The Czech Temelin 

nuclear power station will be ready to hold controlled fission 

reactions at both of its two reactors by the end of next week, a 

plant spokesman said on Friday.

 

The controversial Soviet-designed power station is 60 km (38 miles) 

from the border of fiercely anti-nuclear Austria, which has strongly 

opposed its operation.

 

Temelin spokesman Milan Nebesar told Reuters the plant's first 

reactor, shut for an inspection seven weeks ago, should be ready for 

a re-start from the middle of next week, pending permission from 

Czech nuclear safety regulators.

 

He said the second 981 megawatt (MW) VVER reactor, loaded with fuel 

in mid-March and preparing for the activation of its inaugural 

nuclear fission reaction, should be ready by the end of next week.

 

Temelin's owner, state-owned power utility CEZ (CEZPsp.PR), has been 

testing the first reactor since late 2000, but the full commercial 

launch has been delayed due to a series of glitches in the plant's 

secondary, non-nuclear circuit.

 

The power station, which has been upgraded with western control 

systems, has become a source of unrelenting friction between the two 

central European neighbours. Germany has also opposed Temelin.

 

The EU, however, has said the plant is not an issue in the Czechs' 

drive to join the 15-nation bloc, expected in 2004.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's nuclear watchdog, 



told a news conference at the plant on Friday its team of experts 

inspecting Temelin had found the plant sufficiently protected against 



a security breach.

 

David Rex Ek, head of the agency's team, told journalists the 

station's physical protection by electronic systems, security guards 

and other means was comparable with Western European nucler power 

plants.

 

The watchdog's week-long mission, which ended on Friday, did not look 



at other safety issues.

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



Japan processes dismantled Russian nuke into MOX fuel



MITO, Japan, April 12 (Kyodo) - The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development 

Institute announced Friday it has successfully refined plutonium 

removed from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into plutonium-

uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, which was then burned in a Russian 

nuclear reactor.

 

Officials of the institute said it is the first international 

cooperation effort under which a Japanese institute dismantled 

Russian nuclear weapons

 

The institute has processed about 20 kilograms of plutonium, taken 

from Russian nuclear weapons in cooperation with Russia's Research 

Institute for Atomic Reactors (RIAR), into MOX fuel since 1999.

 

The institute then burned the fuel in the Russian BN600 fast reactor, 



and confirmed there were no abnormalities in the fuel, the officials 

said.

 

The institute is expected to dispose of 20 tons of plutonium to be 

extracted from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons by 2020, the 

officials said.

 

MOX fuel is designed to be used in light-water reactors in the so-

called ''pluthermal process,'' which the Japanese government has 

deemed necessary for its nuclear fuel cycle policy.

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



Standoff Over Plutonium Shipments



COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's governor and the federal 

Energy Department are locking horns over planned plutonium shipments 

to the state - a dispute federal officials say is delaying nuclear 

cleanup nationwide.

 

The Energy Department wants to ship plutonium from a former nuclear 

weapons site in Rocky Flats, Colo., to a plant near Aiken, S.C., 

where it would be converted into fuel for nuclear reactors.

 

Gov. Jim Hodges says he supports the idea, but he won't allow the 

weapons-grade material into the state until the government agrees to 

make the shipping agreement legally binding.

 

It appeared the standoff had ended Thursday after the governor agreed 



to a written proposal from Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that said 



he would send a 30-day notice of when the shipments would begin. But 

Hodges also wanted a consent order filed in federal court that would 

have let a judge order the Energy Department to remove the plutonium 

if it did not meet the terms of the agreement.

 

The department rejected that request, and Hodges said the situation 

is back to square one.

 

Hodges wants the Energy Department to provide a document outlining 

schedules to fund the construction of Mixed Oxide, or MOX, fuel 

treatment facilities, when to expect the shipments and when they 

would leave South Carolina.

 

``All I want to know is whether I've got something I can run down to 

the federal courthouse if they don't honor the terms and get a judge 

to stop shipments,'' he said Thursday.

 

Abraham said the agency addressed Hodges' concerns in the proposed 

agreement by establishing annual funding targets, committing to 

notify the state of all plutonium shipments and including firm dates 

that the material would be removed from the state if the Energy 

Department was unable to come up with the funds to build the MOX 

facility.

 

President Bush included $384 million to fund the plutonium 

disposition program in the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. The 

budget also noted that the project would require funding of $3.8 

billion over the next 20 years, Abraham wrote.

 

The standoff springs from the federal government's plan to clean up 

Rocky Flats, northwest of Denver, and turn it into a wildlife refuge.

 

Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years, 



but it closed in 1989. To meet the 2006 conversion deadline, the 

Energy Department needs to begin shipping plutonium soon, although 

department officials won't give an exact date.

 

The state and federal governments' inability to reach an agreement 

has held up cleanup activities at former nuclear plants across the 

nation, Abraham said. It also jeopardizes the 2000 U.S.-Russian 

plutonium disposition agreement, he said.

 

``We need to move forward with the MOX plant that will be used to 

dispose of the plutonium at issue in order to honor our commitments 

to the Russian Federation,'' Abraham wrote.

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



Russia aims to build Vietnam nuclear power plant



HANOI, April 11 (Reuters) - Russia has offered to build Vietnam's 

first atomic power plant, a senior Russian executive said on 

Thursday, in a long-term project which could take about a decade to 

materialise.

 

The executive from Atomstroyexport, an affiliate of Russia's Ministry 



of Atomic Energy, told Reuters Russian nuclear experts gave 

presentations to Vietnamese officials, including some from state 

utility Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), on Thursday.

 

The executive, who did not want to be identified, said the Vietnamese 



audience included officials from the Planning and Investment Ministry 



and EVN's Energy Institute, which is in charge of planning Vietnam's 

first nuclear plant.

 

"We are interested in building such a plant in Vietnam and Russia is 

ready to do it," the executive said at a business meeting on the 

sidelines of an international trade fair in Hanoi.

 

Earlier this month, Vietnam's official media said energy authorities 

planned to complete a pre-feasibility study for a 2,000-megawatt 

atomic power plant, that would cost about $4 billion, by late next 

year. Local media did not say how Hanoi would fund the project.

 

Vietnam and Russia signed an agreement on cooperation in nuclear 

power last month during a visit by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail 

Kasyanov, but industry sources have said Japan and South Korea are 

also interested in building the plant.

 

The Russian executive said Russia was not concerned about competition 



given its experience in the field. He said it was currently building 

plants in Iran, China and India.

 

Last month official media said Vietnam aimed to start operating its 

first atomic power plant in 2017 or 2019 to meet rising energy 

demand, even though the country has plenty of natural gas and coal, 

and suitable conditions for hydropower.

 

Four possible locations, all in southern Vietnam, have been selected. 



Two are in Ninh Thuan province, one in Binh Thuan and another in Phu 

Yen.

 

Vietnam's official media last week quoted Nguyen Manh Hien, head of 

EVN's energy institute, as saying it would take at least eight years 

to build an atomic plant and around 15 years to train personnel to 

run it.

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



Ohio Utility Offers Repair Plan



WASHINGTON (AP) - An Ohio utility proposed Wednesday the most 

extensive repair job ever done to an operating nuclear power plant to 



repair two spots of acid corrosion on a reactor head.

 

The plan, which must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission, would use a 300-pound, 5-inch-thick stainless steel 

plate, welded into a 13-inch-wide circle around the largest corroded 

area of FirstEnergy Corp.'s Davis-Besse plant on the shores of Lake 

Erie.

 

Two steel plugs would be welded into nozzles to blend over the second 



corroded area, said Jim Powers, a nuclear engineer for the company. 

The nozzles are steel pipes that protect control rods, which are used 



to control the amount of power produced or, in an emergency, shut 

down the reactor.

 

The company stressed that although the rods from the damaged nozzles 

will be moved, the plant will still be able to operate safely. Davis-

Besse is on the lake about 25 miles east of Toledo, Ohio,

 

Last month, inspectors found that longtime water leaks had allowed 

boric acid to eat a 7-inch-wide hole almost through the 6-inch-thick 

steel cap that covers the plant's reactor vessel. The hole was 

stopped by an inner lining made of noncorrosive stainless steel.

 

Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission questioned whether the 

agency would be able to monitor the plant enough to keep the 

corrosion from recurring.

 

``This utility has demonstrated a lack of responsibility, and the 

regulators have demonstrated a lack of oversight. Those are broader 

issues that this repair plan doesn't address,'' said Paul Gunter of 

the Washington-based Nuclear Information & Resource Service.

 

Davis-Besse has been shut down since discovery of the corrosion. 

Since then, federal inspectors have begun a review of the 68 other 

similarly designed pressurized reactors across the country.

 

Preliminary findings of the industrywide review have turned up 

nothing similar to the Davis-Besse damage, the NRC said this week.

 

The repairs, expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million, 

should keep the plant operating until a refueling shutdown in 2004, 

during which FirstEnergy plans to install a new reactor head, said 

company spokesman Todd Schneider.

 

The 24-year-old Davis-Besse plant generates enough power for 450,000 

homes, 24 percent of FirstEnergy's nuclear power capacity.

 

On the Net: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

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



US finds no widespread corrosion at nuclear plants



WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. government-ordered review of 

more than five dozen nuclear power plants has not found any corrosion 



in reactor caps similar to that at the Davis-Besse facility in Ohio, 

a top U.S. energy official said on Wednesday.

 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched an investigation last 

month after a corroded cavity was found in the reactor vessel head of 



the 25-year-old plant owned by FirstEnergy Corp <FE.N>. The agency 

ordered 68 other similar reactors -- more than half of the nation's 

103 nuclear plants -- to look for similar problems.

 

"I am not aware of any other problems they found," U.S. Energy 

Undersecretary Robert Card told Reuters, adding that he had been 

briefed by NRC officials on the matter.

 

"Thus far, there haven't been any surprises or safety issues in the 

nuclear plant review," said an NRC spokeswoman.

 

Card, who was attending a meeting of the National Petroleum Council, 

said the Energy Department was worried that if serious corrosion had 

been detected, some of these reactors could have been shut down for 

up to a year.

 

That was because the companies that make the huge metal reactor caps 

were already behind in filling other orders.

 

He also said the department was worried that shutting down nuclear 

plants would have caused a spike in natural gas prices, as utilities 

would be forced to ramp up generation at plants that run on natural 

gas.

 

"If half the nuclear fleet went down for six months, you'd nearly 

double the natural gas need. It can't be done," he said.

 

Natural gas provides 15 percent of electricity generation, nuclear 

power accounts for 20 percent and coal about 50 percent.

 

During a scheduled refueling outage at the Davis-Besse plant that 

began Feb. 16, FirstEnergy engineers found boric acid had leaked at 

the base of several of the 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 

vessel head, which was 6 inches (15-cm) thick. The vessel head is a 

massive piece of carbon steel 17 feet (5.2 meters) wide that is 

bolted down on top of the reactor to prevent any radioactive material 



from escaping.

 

The corrosion was so severe that a stainless steel liner 3/8-inch (1 

cm) thick 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.

 

FirstEnergy representatives met on Wednesday with officials from the 

NRC to discuss proposed repairs at the Davis-Besse plant. Agency 

approval is needed before work could begin.

 

The company wants to cut the most damaged area at the top of the 

reactor head and cover it with a stainless steel plate.

 

The plate would be 12 to 13 inches in diameter, about five inches 

thick, and weigh between 300 to 400 pounds. It would be welded in 

place using robotic equipment.

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



Radioactivity too high for housing development: Greens



April 13 - Australian Broadcasting Company - Greens MP Robin Chapple 

says new testing of radiation levels at a waste  disposal dump south 

of Bunbury shows they are too high to allow housing  in the near 

vicinity.

 

Mr Chapple says the Dalyellup housing estate will come to within 25  

metres of the dumps, which are still being rehabilitated by 

Millennium  Inorganic Chemicals.

 

The company can use the site until 2010.

 

Mr Chapple says he is not pinning the blame on the company, which has 



 complied with Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) guidelines.

 

However, he says it should be realised that erosion could one day 

expose  the radioactive material, which remains toxic for about 

50,000 years.

 

"What I really come back to is the fundamental issue that the shire 

and  the EPA should not have allowed two totally different competing 

usages  to go next to each other, the area is allowed to continue to 

take waste  for a considerable amount of time at the same time as a 

housing  development is going up next to it," Mr Chapple said.

 

The Shire of Capel says it took advice from Government authorities  

before approving the subdivision plans.

 

A spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection says Mr  

Chapple's concerns are being examined.

 

In the meantime, the developers have agreed not to develop land 

within  75 metres of the disposal ponds. 



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

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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