House Panel OKs Nev. Waste Site

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

Index:



House Panel OKs Nev. Waste Site

Ohio Nuke Workers May Face Danger (my personal comment included)!

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



House Panel OKs Nev. Waste Site



WASHINGTON (AP) - The House moved closer to approving Yucca Mountain 

in Nevada as the nation's nuclear waste burial site Thursday as a 

committee cleared the measure for floor action despite concerns about 

hauling the radioactive material over U.S. highways.

 

A congressional resolution that would overrule Nevada's rejection of 

the waste dump was pushed out of the Energy and Commerce Committee by 

a 41-6 vote. Supporters predicted overwhelming approval by the full 

House.

 

Yucca Mountain, a volcanic ridge line in the Nevada desert 90 miles 

northwest of Las Vegas, was selected by President Bush in February as 

the nation's repository for used reactor fuel now kept at power 

reactors around the country.

 

Nevada, as was its right under federal law, filed an objection that 

would kill the proposal unless Congress overrides the state's action. 

The House is expected to take up the override within two weeks.

 

``It will be an overwhelming vote of support'' for the Nevada waste 

site, predicted Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.

 

Nevada, which has long fought federal attempts to ship 77,000 tons of 

radioactive waste into the state for permanent burial, has expected 

the House all along to support the Bush decision. State officials 

plan to focus their fight on the Senate, where Democratic leaders 

oppose going ahead with the waste site at this time.

 

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham welcomed the broad support in the 

House committee and said he remains convinced the Yucca site has been 

studied sufficiently over almost two decades to conclude it will 

protect public health and safety. Some of the waste will remain 

dangerously radioactive for more than 10,000 years.

 

Separately, two independent scientists argued in an article Thursday 

that the government was moving too quickly to embrace Yucca Mountain 

while many outstanding scientific questions remain about the ability 

of the mountain and manmade underground barriers to contain the waste 

for as long as it will remain dangerous.

 

``A project of this importance ... should not go forward until the 

relevant scientific issues have been thoughtfully addressed,'' wrote 

the researchers, Rodney Ewing, a geologist at the University of 

Michigan, and Allison Macfarlane, director of the Yucca Mountain 

project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

``The present sense of urgency is driven not by an understanding of 

the properties of the Yucca Mountain site, but rather by larger-scale 

policy decisions concerning nuclear power and national security,'' 

they wrote in the article in Science magazine.

 

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the outstanding scientific 

issues will be resolved as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

considers a license application for the Yucca Mountain facility. 

``We've performed the necessary science to move to the next step,'' 

Davis said.

 

``I think we're voting somewhat blindly today,'' said Rep. Anna 

Eshoo, D-Calif., speaking of the lingering scientific questions. 

``Unfortunately the administration has rushed ahead on the 

decision.''

 

Other Democratic critics of Yucca Mountain expressed misgivings about 

transporting the waste in thousands of truck or rail shipments to the 

Nevada site. Most nuclear power plants are in the eastern half of the 

country.

 

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that with trucks full of waste 

``leaving sites every four hours for 24 years,'' the plan will create 

``a potential mobile Chernobyl.'' That's the Soviet Ukraine city 

where a disastrous nuclear accident occurred at a power plant two 

decades ago.

 

``We will have a new national nightmare,'' argued Markey.

 

Supporters of the site countered that there have been thousands of 

shipments of nuclear material without an accident involving radiation 

releases.

 

Abraham said at a news conference after the House vote that it was 

``a preposterous assertion'' that the waste would be safer at scores 

of locations in 39 states than it would be buried at a single 

location under tight security.

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



Ohio Nuke Workers May Face Danger

By JOHN SEEWER



NOTE: The title states DANGER, yet the article itsekf states that the 

particles didn't pose any danger. Another example of poor jouralism, 

simply to increase readership. I also provide the joufnalist's name, 

which I normally do not include.



TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A nuclear power plant's radiation detection 

equipment was improperly set and may have allowed workers to carry 

tiny radioactive particles outside on their clothing, federal 

regulators said.

 

Five workers left the Davis-Besse nuclear plant about a month ago 

with the particles, said FirstEnergy Corp., which operates the 

plant near Toledo.

 

The particles don't pose a health risk because they generate 

radioactivity at a low level, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said.

 

While the situation is unusual, particles have been carried out of 

other plants before, NRC spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said 

Thursday.

 

``It's only in past five to 10 years that equipment has been able to 

pick up the particles,'' she said.

 

Workers typically wear protective clothing in nuclear plants, then 

remove their suits in a safe area where they are screened to make 

sure radioactive particles do not escape.

 

One of three devices used to screen Davis-Besse employees was set to 

detect whole body counts of radiation instead of the type of 

particles that stuck to the clothing, the NRC found in a report 

issued this week.

 

The detection equipment was set to find radiation inside the body, 

FirstEnergy said.

 

``For what we were using it for, we thought it was adequately 

calibrated,'' FirstEnergy spokesman Richard Wilkins said.

 

The plant has been shut down for refueling since February and during 

that time inspectors found leaks allowed boric acid to eat a hole in 

the 6-inch thick steel cap that covers the plant's reactor vessel.

 

It will remain shut down until at least September.

 

The contract workers who carried out the particles had been in a 

highly radioactive area of the plant and were working on a steam 

generator.



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

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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