NRC probes particles from FirstEnergy Ohio reactor

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

Index:



NRC probes particles from FirstEnergy Ohio reactor

Industrial Safety Shines in Refueling Outage at Entergy's Waterford 3

Lucas Heights nuclear reactor's employment clause questioned

Japan nuke reactor detects another minor problem

Fukushima gov't tax panel to propose nuclear fuel tax hike

Gov't, Idaho Agree on Waste Cleanup

Hotline for concerns about nuclear research on stillborn babies  

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



NRC probes particles from FirstEnergy Ohio reactor



WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Four people who worked recently at 

the FirstEnergy Corp.'s <FE.N> Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in 

Ohio were found to have carried microscopic radioactive particles on 

their clothing to outside locations, the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission said.

 

The NRC is investigating the incident in which Davis-Besse radiation 

protection personnel were notified on March 22 that radioactive 

particles were found on a worker's sleeve at the Onconee nuclear 

facility in South Carolina. That worker had last worked at Davis-

Besse.

 

During the mid-February shut-down at the 25-year-old plant in Oak 

Harbor, Ohio, Davis-Besse engineers discovered deep corrosion on the 

top of the reactor vessel.

 

"The licensee's investigation to date has determined that a total of 

13 discrete particles were recovered from four individuals, their 

clothing, residences and hotel rooms in Ohio, South Carolina, Texas 

and Virginia," the NRC said in a statement issued Wednesday.

 

The four people had worked on steam generators at Davis-Besse, which 

shut down in mid-February for a refueling outage.

 

The particles, according to the NRC, "are believed to be byproducts 

of the fission process with relatively low levels of activity." 

Preliminary findings by FirstEnergy, the NRC said, indicate there 

should be no adverse health effects from the particles.

 

FirstEnergy has presented the NRC with a plan to spend $16 million to 

patch the 150-ton reactor vessel head capping the 925-megawatt power 

plant.

 

During an April 10 hearing, NRC officials raised concerns, noting 

that such a repair job has never been attempted on a nuclear power 

plant.

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



Industrial Safety Shines in Refueling Outage at Entergy's Waterford 3



JACKSON, Miss., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- With no lost time accidents 

and only 15 first aid cases, industrial safety was clearly the 

biggest success story in the 11th refueling outage of Entergy's 

Waterford 3 nuclear plant in southeastern Louisiana.

 

The 25-day, 22-hour, 15-minute outage ended Wednesday night, 

following a plant record 400-day continuous run.  This outage 

duration came within four hours of the current world record for units 

designed by Combustion Engineering.  Waterford 3 also trimmed nine 

days from its previous best.

 

Waterford 3, located in Taft, about 25 miles from New Orleans, also 

excelled by experiencing no recordable accidents, as defined by the 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration.  More than 1,000 

Entergy employees and contractors worked during the outage.

 

Also noteworthy during this refueling outage was inspection of the 

reactor vessel head for evidence of nozzle cracking and corrosion of 

the type that has been found in other pressurized water reactors, 

most notably First Energy's Davis-Besse nuclear plant.  Waterford 3's 

head was found to be clean and structurally sound, with no repair 

work needed.

 

In addition to replacing approximately one-third of the reactor's 

fuel assemblies, workers performed a variety of other inspections and 

maintenance of plant equipment.

 

Waterford 3 was last refueled in fall 2000, reconnecting to the grid 

on Nov. 14, 2000, after a 34-day outage that included high 

temperature chemical cleaning of the steam generators, the first use 

of the practice in the United States.

 

Waterford 3, which began commercial operation in 1985, logged several 

significant successes during 2001, including: 

 

*  Achieved capability factor of 99.1 percent (The industry top 

decile entry point is 95 percent.)  

 

*  Generated more than 9.5 million megawatt-hours of power, nearly 

half a million more than in 1993, the year of  the plant's previous 

highest output  

 

*  Earned Star status from the Occupational Safety & Health 

Administration in their Voluntary Protection Plan program. The Star 

distinction is reserved for work sites that demonstrate the highest 

standards of industrial safety, and VPP is an employee-driven 

initiative.  Other Entergy plants that have been certified Star 

plants are Waterford 1 and 2, Arkansas Nuclear One, River Bend and 

Little Gypsy. Grand Gulf has been recommended, with certification 

pending.

 

*  Lowered radiation exposure for employees to only 4.66 Rem. This 

slashed the previous best non-outage year performance by two-thirds, 

easily placing the plant among the best-performing plants in the 

country in this indicator.

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



Lucas Heights nuclear reactor's employment clause questioned



Australian Broadcasting Company - April 18 - The Federal Government 

is being asked to explain why it rejected a  clause in an employment 

agreement for the Lucas Heights replacement  nuclear reactor in 

Sydney, that would have prevented the hiring of  illegal immigrants.

 

The clause was negotiated by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and  

Energy Union as part of its continuing campaign against the use of  

illegal workers in the building industry.

 

CFMEU state secretary Andrew Ferguson says the clause has been an  

accepted part of hundreds of state and federal enterprise bargaining  

agreements, but this time the Office of the Employment Advocate 

rejected  it.

 

"It shows a major inconsistency and, in fact, when we initially 

drafted  this clause, several years ago, it was done with officers of 

the  Department of Immigration," he said.

 

"We've been congratulated by compliance officers helping to deal with 

 illegals on building sites, to clean it up, get the unemployed back 

on  building sites. 

 

"Yet Tony Abbott seems to have a different agenda. 

 

"We know he's an anti-union zealot but this is going too far."

 

The Office of the Employment Advocate says it is not commenting at 

this  stage. 

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



Japan nuke reactor detects another minor problem



TOKYO, April 18 (Reuters) - An advanced Japanese nuclear reactor 

reported a minor problem on Thursday, a week after operations had 

resumed.

 

An official at the state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle development 

Institute (JNC), which operates the 165,000-kilowatt Fugen reactor, 

said it found a higher-than-usual reading of iodine in the cooling 

water during the trial operation but no radiation was leaked into 

outside environment.

 

"We are still running the reactor as the reading of iodine has not 

been high enough," the official said.

 

The reactor, located in western Japan, had restarted on April 12 

after being shut down on April 9 when a small leakage of steam 

containing radiation was detected.

 

The official said it might shut down the reactor again if the reading 

continues to rise because there could be a small hole in a pipe 

covering the fuel rods.

 

The incident on Thursday came just after the government said in its 

White Paper last week that Japan, which operates 52 commercial 

nuclear reactors to supply roughly a third of its power, said its 

nuclear safety record had improved in 2001.

 

The nuclear industry has been criticised after a series of accidents, 

including Japan's worst-ever in 1999 at a uranium processing plant in 

Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, where two workers were killed.

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



Fukushima gov't tax panel to propose nuclear fuel tax hike



FUKUSHIMA, Japan, April 18 (Kyodo) - The Fukushima prefectural 

government tax advisory panel plans to propose an increase in the 

nuclear fuel tax, which is charged on electric powers operating in 

the prefecture, panel members said Thursday.

 

The proposal calls for not only a rise in tax rate, but also for an 

introduction of a new tax to be charged on the volume of nuclear 

fuel, they said.

 

This will be the first time that a tax has been levied on the volume 

of nuclear fuel.

 

At present, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) is the only power firm 

that operates in the prefecture. The company runs two nuclear power 

plants with a total of 10 reactors.

 

The panel is expected to submit a final report to Fukushima Gov. 

Eisaku Sato next Tuesday. The local government will then present a 

bill to the prefectural assembly in June after consulting with TEPCO 

and obtaining approval from the central government, the members said.

 

Currently, the Fukushima government imposes a 7% tax on the value of 

nuclear fuel cores. The tax panel proposes the tax rate be 

raised to 10% and that a new fee of about 10,000 yen be levied on 

every 1 kilogram of nuclear fuel core. If both charges are 

combined, the tax rate will be 16%.

 

Officials at the Fukushima government said revenues from the nuclear 

fuel tax, which is levied on every five-years period, have been 

declining over the past years due mainly to falls in uranium prices.

 

Revenues from the nuclear fuel tax are expected to fall to 14 billion 

yen in fiscal 1997-2002 from a peak of 28 billion yen in fiscal 

1987-1992. If the nuclear fuel tax is raised, revenues are estimated 

to grow to 26 billion to 27 billion yen in the period from fiscal 

2003.

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



Gov't, Idaho Agree on Waste Cleanup



IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) - The federal government will begin within 

two years cleaning up buried radioactive waste in south-central 

Idaho and will pay a series of fines if it misses more deadlines, 

under an agreement reached Wednesday.

 

The cleanup at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental 

Laboratory's Pit 9 has been delayed repeatedly since the late 

1990s. The Energy Department and state started talks a few months 

ago.

 

``This is a major breakthrough toward removing buried waste from 

Idaho because for the first time we have a commitment tied to on-

the-ground performance instead of studies and more paperwork,'' Gov. 

Dirk Kempthorne said.

 

The agreement calls for the Energy Department to remove plutonium-

contaminated material from one section of Pit 9 between March 

and October 2004. The 80 to 100 cubic yards of buried waste will be 

repacked in drums and removed at an estimated cost of $75 

million.

 

The results will allow officials to assess how best to finish the 

project, estimated at $10 billion. The state wants all the waste 

removed and sent to a federal dump in New Mexico, but the Energy 

Department contends it still has the option of stabilizing the 

waste in the ground.

 

The waste was buried in the 1950s and '60s at the site 40 miles 

northwest of Idaho Falls. It is contaminated with plutonium from the 

nation's weapons programs.

 

Under the agreement, the Energy Department will pay $800,000 in fines 

to the state for earlier delays. An additional $5 million will be 

set aside for possible future payments if deadlines are missed.

 

Kempthorne said the money would fund environmental projects.

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



Hotline for concerns about nuclear research on stillborn babies  



Australian Broadcasting Company - April 18 - The Western Australian 

Health Department has established a telephone  hotline so 

that people can register if they have concerns their  stillborn 

babies might have been used in nuclear fallout research.

 

Western Australia took part in a global nuclear monitoring program  

between 1957 and 1978, and bone samples were used for 

measuring  strontium-90 contamination in the environment.

 

The department's deputy director-general, Brian Lloyd, says people 

who  have concerns about their next of kin being involved can call a 

special  hotline number.

 

"We're very keen to work with the health consumers to ensure that 

people  can be informed as soon as we have information and wherever 

necessary we  can arrange for whatever counselling, advice, that is 

necessary can be  given," Mr Lloyd said.





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

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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