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Foes of U.S. nuclear project air first TV ad
Index:
Foes of U.S. nuclear project air first TV ad
Entergy Considering New Nuclear Plant
Greenpeace set to fight Lucas Heights nuclear reactor decision
Strike lowers French nuclear power output-union
South Carolina Plutonium Standoff Intensifies
Nuclear-powered plant may be solution to water crisis
Report recommends nuclear agency identify bone ash samples
Japan processes dismantled Russian nuke into MOX fuel
===================================
Foes of U.S. nuclear project air first TV ad
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foes of President Bush's plans to put a
permanent nuclear waste depository in Nevada warned in their first
television advertisement Tuesday the project could be prone to
accidents and a target for terrorists.
The spot, designed to drum up public opposition to the project, was
announced at a rally on the steps of the U.S. Capitol shortly after
proponents held a news conference to say they were confident they
would win needed U.S. congressional approval for the proposed
facility.
"After decades of confirming scientific research and billions of
dollars spent, it's time for the federal government to fulfill its
obligation to safely store the nation's used nuclear fuel," said Rep.
Joe Barton, a Texas Republican who supports the nuclear depository
and serves as chairman of a House of Representatives energy
subcommittee.
The House and Senate must decide within a few months whether to
sustain or overturn Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of plans by the
Bush administration to bury thousands of tons of nuclear waste from
across the nation at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, making it the nation's
permanent nuclear waste depository.
Foes concede they will be unable to prevent an override by the
Republican-led House, but they contend could win in the Democratic-
led Senate in an uphill battle. Both chambers must vote to override
to put the project back on track.
Guinn has also challenged the project in court, arguing that despite
government assurances to the contrary, the depository would be
unsafe. Opponents also say the shipment of radioactive waste through
44 states to the facility also would pose risks.
"This is not just a problem for Nevada, it is a problem for the
country," Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid of Nevada told the rally,
sponsored by hundreds of state and local public interest groups.
Reid announced the first of what he said would be a number of
nationwide TV ads against the project. The ad campaign will begin
airing Tuesday in Vermont.
The 30-second spot shows trucks laden with nuclear waste and declares
the proposed facility would mean such traffic "right through the
towns we live in."
"Nuclear accidents are inevitable, and terrorists attacks will become
harder than ever to prevent," the announcer says. "Only the Senate
can stop this now. Call your senators today."
Guinn has said his state plans to spend around $10 million in its
campaign against the project, scheduled to open in about 2010.
Proponents, who include members of the nuclear industry as well as
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's biggest business group,
plan to dig deep into their pockets to win approval.
Both sides have hired a small army of lobbyists to make their
respective cases on Capitol Hill.
---------------
Entergy Considering New Nuclear Plant
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Entergy Corp. has notified the federal Nuclear
Regulatory Commission that it is considering building a nuclear power
plant in Port Gibson, Miss.
Entergy officials said the company will take at least three years to
decide whether to build the plant.
Entergy Nuclear, a subsidiary of the New Orleans-based utility, on
Tuesday became the third company to notify the federal Nuclear
Regulatory Commission of plans to seek an ``early site permit'' for a
new nuclear plant. President Bush last year called on energy
companies to resurrect the nuclear power plant construction business,
which has been dormant since the mid-1980s after the 1979 accident at
Three Mile Island.
The company said nuclear energy is an alternative to natural gas,
which fuels most of the country's newest power plants.
``Having (the nuclear) option available is in the best interest of
our power consumers, Entergy and the nation's energy independence,''
the company said.
Entergy officials began considering building a nuclear plant a year
ago after a severe shortage of natural gas sent the price of natural
gas-generated electricity soaring.
Entergy officials have said a new nuclear plant becomes economically
viable when the price of natural gas consistently tops $5 per million
British thermal units. Although prices in south Louisiana topped $10
per BTU last year during the shortage, they fell back after supplies
strengthened.
In recent weeks, natural gas has been trading around $3 per million
BTU.
Economic conditions of the power market will be the main factor in
deciding whether to build the plant, the company said.
Entergy spent the past nine months studying seven of its existing
nuclear plant sites, including Waterford III near Hahnville and River
Bend near St. Francisville, to determine which site had the best
conditions for building a new reactor, Entergy Nuclear spokesman Carl
Crawford said.
Entergy already has one nuclear plant at Port Gibson. Transmission
lines linking that plant to the region's power grid have enough
capacity to handle another reactor because original plans called for
two units at the site, Crawford said. The second unit was started but
later abandoned.
The application will take about a year to prepare and cost the
nuclear subsidiary about $9 million, including a $5.4 million
application fee from the NRC, Crawford said.
The federal Department of Energy has offered to pay for as much as 50
percent of the application cost, he said. The rest will be covered by
Entergy Nuclear.
Customers of the parent company's regulated electricity utilities,
which include Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Louisiana, will not pay
for any of the application charges.
Exelon, a Chicago-based power utility and the nation's biggest
nuclear plant operator, became the first company to start the early
site permit application process on March 20. Dominion Resources,
based in Richmond, Va., followed two weeks later.
-----------------
Greenpeace set to fight Lucas Heights nuclear reactor decision
April 17 - Australian Broadcasting Company - Greenpeace has secured a
Federal Court hearing next month in which it will seek to overturn
the decision to allow construction of a new nuclear reactor in
Sydney. Greenpeace says there is no waste management strategy for the
project. Construction has already begun at the Lucas Heights site on
Sydney's southern outskirts, where the replacement nuclear reactor
will be built by an Argentinian firm. Greenpeace has separate
concerns about the ability of the company to build a working
reactor, but it is the issue of how the reactor's operator, the
Australian Nuclear Science Technology Organisation, will deal with
nuclear waste that will be aired in the Federal court. Spokesman
James Courtney says Greenpeace will argue without a proper strategy
and the nuclear safety agency should not have given the go-ahead for
the three year construction program.
---------------
Strike lowers French nuclear power output-union
PARIS, April 16 (Reuters) - French nuclear workers said they have
lowered electricity output in a one-day strike on Tuesday, but
Electricite de France made reassurances that French power supplies
will not be disrupted.
"Production has been lowered but we will only know by what quantity
by the end of the day. It is difficult to assess," a union spokesman
said.
Workers in the nuclear industry, including state-owned EdF, which
operates all of France's nuclear plants, are protesting against what
they claim are worsening working conditions and planned the strike to
coincide with the build-up to the first round of presidential
elections on April 21.
"We cannot comment on the strike but as with all previous strikes we
can reassure customers that the supply will not be disrupted," said
an EdF spokeswoman.
The last strike by EdF workers on March 14 to protest against energy
deregulation, cut 6,000 megawatts (MW) of nuclear production
capacity, a mere fraction of total French nuclear output of 62,360
MW.
EdF also has in total a national power production capacity of 115,000
MW and depends largely on thermal power plants for emergency supplies
of power.
The union is expecting to gather about 3,000 workers to demonstrate
outside the National Assembly early on Tuesday afternoon, officials
said.
Traders said EdF's trading arm was a heavy buyer in the French power
cash market on Monday to cover its shortfalls for the strike. Day-
ahead baseload power prices for Tuesday jumped nearly eight euros a
megawatt hour to trade at a high of 34.50 euros.
--------------
South Carolina Plutonium Standoff Intensifies
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Gov. Jim Hodges isn't backing down from the
federal government just because the Energy Department says it's ready
to begin shipments of plutonium to South Carolina next month.
Hodges had said previously that he's ready to send state troopers to
intercept the truckloads or even lie in the road himself to stop
them. His spokesman renewed those calls on Monday upon learning that
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wants to start the shipments
around May 15.
``The governor made it very clear that the 30-day notice would
escalate the situation,'' spokesman Jay Reiff said. ``Troopers
blocking shipments is an option. Legal avenues will be aggressively
pursued. You use every feasible tool.''
Abraham said in a letter to Hodges that it was ``essential'' to begin
the shipments to meet a schedule for closing the Rocky Flats weapons
facility in Colorado by 2006.
The Bush administration wants to transport excess plutonium from
weapons facilities around the country to the department's Savannah
River complex near Aiken, where it will be made into mixed oxide fuel
to run commercial nuclear reactors.
Hodges has vowed to intercept any shipments unless he gets firm
agreement - subject to federal court enforcement - that the plutonium
will not remain in South Carolina permanently.
By giving the 30-day notice required by Congress, Abraham issued a
clear signal to Hodges that the Bush administration intends to pursue
the shipments, over the governor's objections if necessary, Energy
Department officials said.
A spokesman for the department would not discuss how the federal
government would react to troopers at the state's borders or
lawsuits.
It's not in the government's best interest to talk about ``armed
confrontation,'' spokesman Joe Davis said. ``We think we can get
these issues resolved.''
In a separate letter to key members of Congress, Abraham said his
intention is to begin shipments of 76 trailer loads of plutonium
from Rocky Flats shortly after May 15, continuing through June, 2003.
Reps. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Spratt, D-S.C., were working
on legislation that could break the impasse, Graham
spokesman Kevin Bishop said. A bill under consideration could require
that plutonium not be left in the state permanently.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., called the department's decision ``great
news'' and said he would work with South Carolina's
congressional delegation to ease the state's concerns.
The standoff over the shipments escalated last week when Abraham
rejected a demand from Hodges that a federal judge oversee the
enforcement of any agreement on the plutonium shipments.
Abraham outlined what he called a string of concessions to ease the
governor's concerns. Among them is a formal commitment to
take the plutonium back if the conversion plant falls behind schedule
or runs into funding trouble.
But Hodges told Abraham he wants more assurances in a formal consent
agreement that would allow a federal judge to oversee the
process.
Abraham rejected the courts' involvement, saying it would amount to
``an attempt to conduct ... national security and foreign policy
affairs through the judicial process'' and ``goes beyond what we can
do.''
On the Net:
Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov
Hodges' office: http://www.state.sc.us/governor/
----------------
Nuclear-powered plant may be solution to water crisis
April 16 - Australian Broadcasting Company - A retired nuclear
scientist believes a nuclear-powered desalination plant could be the
eventual solution to the water crisis facing Eyre Peninsula.
Professor Henk Debruin, who lives in Port Lincoln, says that while
the
option would not be a short-term solution, he feels it is a viable
option in the long-term. "The reactor makes very hot water to run the
generator, and after it's done that job, the waste steam is still
very hot and that can be used for desalinating water," he said. "In
fact, it's an ideal combination, because at the present, most of
that waste steam - the heat, the energy - disappears."
---------------
Report recommends nuclear agency identify bone ash samples
April 16 - Australian Broadcasting Company - The Australian Radiation
Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is to
make information about the identity of ashed bone samples used in
nuclear fallout research available to next of kin. The bone
samples were used in research between 1957 and 1978. The announcement
comes after a report to the Federal Health Minister,
Kaye Patterson, by an ethics committee. ARPANSA head John Loy says
meticulous records of the bone samples were kept,
making identification possible. He says the report recommendations
suggest hospitals holding samples not contact next of kin, but
be ready to offer counselling and help with disposal of remains.
--------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------
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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