Exelon eyes Illinois nuclear site for early permit

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

Note: There will be no news distributions between May 1 - 5, while I 

am away



Index:



Exelon eyes Illinois nuclear site for early permit

HHS Issues Final Rules To Assist Compensation Of Nuclear Workers 

Russia retires nuclear reactor, a Cold War symbol

Finns divided over more nuclear power plants -poll

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



Exelon eyes Illinois nuclear site for early permit



SAN FRANCISCO, April 30 (Reuters) - Exelon Generation said on Tuesday 

it has selected its Clinton nuclear power station in Illinois as the 

site for the possible addition of a new nuclear reactor.

 

Exelon has previously notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

(NRC) of its intention to submit an application by June 2003 to 

"bank" a potential site for a new nuclear reactor, but until now has 

not identified the site.

 

The company said in a statement, however, that it has not yet decided 

whether to construct a nuclear plant at the site.

 

It will only apply for an early site permit, which gives a company 

the option of building a new nuclear reactor on its land for up to 20 

years without specifying the reactor type or committing to 

construction.

 

Review and approval of the application is expected to take 18 to 30 

months, Exelon said.

 

The permit process, which examines a site for safety, environmental 

factors and emergency preparedness among other things, is the first 

step in the NRC's new, streamlined licensing process and has not yet 

been tested.

 

Exelon said it chose the Clinton site in DeWitt County, Illinois, 

partly because it was originally designed for two units. The site 

currently houses a 950-megawatt reactor.

 

The Clinton plant is owned and operated by AmerGen, a joint venture 

of Exelon Corp. <EXC.N> and British Energy <BGY.L>.

 

Exelon Nuclear, a division of Exelon Generation, is the largest 

nuclear plant operator in the nation. It owns and operates 17 

reactors at 10 stations.

 

Exelon Generation is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.

 

Exelon said it is has not made a decision on the type of reactor 

design it may chose to use if it proceeds.

 

Earlier this month, Exelon Corp. said it is dropping out of an 

international consortium developing a smaller, cheaper kind of 

nuclear plant, the so-called pebble bed modular reactor, which is is 

currently in the design stage.

 

Two other companies -- Entergy Nuclear, a unit of Entergy Corp. 

<ETR.N>, and Dominion Resources Inc. <D.N> -- are also preparing 

early site permits for possible new nuclear reactors.

 

But the two companies also emphasized that, although they want to 

keep their options open, they have no plans to build new nuclear 

plants at present.

 

No commercial nuclear power plant has been ordered in the U.S. since 

the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, when there was a 

partial meltdown of a reactor core.

-----------



HHS Issues Final Rules To Assist Compensation Of Nuclear Workers For 

Job-Related Cancers



WASHINGTON, April 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Health 

and Human Services (HHS) today issued two final rules under which the 

department will provide scientific expertise to assist decision-

making under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 

Program Act of 2000.

 

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will use these regulations in 

processing claims by current and former employees of nuclear weapons 

production facilities and their survivors who seek compensation for 

certain cancers caused by occupational radiation exposures but who 

are not requesting compensation under the "Special Exposure Cohort" 

provisions of the Compensation Act.  The Special Exposure Cohort 

includes workers who were employed at specific production or test 

sites designated in the Act.

 

"Today's rules establish strong scientific methodologies to help 

carry out this complex and important program," HHS Secretary Tommy G. 

Thompson said.  "These methodologies, which have been reviewed by the 

public, by scientific experts, and by the independent Advisory Board 

on Radiation and Worker Health, will help to provide the civilian 

veterans of the Cold War or their survivors with claims assessments 

that are as fair, timely and equitable as possible."

 

The final rules, "Methods for Radiation Dose Reconstruction" and 

"Guidelines for Determining the Probability of Causation," address 

comments from the public and an independent advisory board.

 

The final rule on dose reconstruction establishes the methods that 

will be used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 

(CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 

in estimating claimants' past occupational exposures to radiation, in 

cancer cases referred to CDC/NIOSH by DOL.

 

Under an interim final rule issued for public comment last October, 

CDC/NIOSH began to conduct dose reconstructions for initial claims 

referred by DOL, pending public comment and completion of a final 

rule.  Issuance of the final rule allows CDC/NIOSH to begin 

transmitting dose reconstructions to DOL, when completed, for use in 

processing claims.

 

The final rule on probability of causation specifies the scientific 

guidelines that DOL will use in determining whether it is at least as 

likely as not that an energy employee's cancer was caused by 

occupational exposure to radiation at nuclear weapons production 

sites.  To the extent that the science and data involve 

uncertainties, those uncertainties will be handled to the advantage 

of the claimant.  The final rule follows a proposed rule that also 

was issued for public comment last October.

 

Both the interim rule on dose reconstruction and the proposed rule on 

probability of causation also were reviewed by the Advisory Board on 

Radiation and Worker Health, which was established by the 

Compensation Act to advise HHS on its duties under the Act.  The 

Advisory Board found that the rules were fair, that they make the 

best use of current science, and that they meet the expressed intent 

of Congress to give the benefit of the doubt to claimants in 

instances where scientific uncertainties exist and radiation records 

are limited or do not exist.

 

The methods and guidelines rely on well-established scientific 

procedures and principles for estimating radiation exposures and 

determining radiation-related cancer risks.  They take into account 

available radiation exposure and health data, including information 

obtained from the work sites and from parties with expertise on 

exposure conditions at the work sites, which includes the employees 

themselves.  CDC/NIOSH is drawing on scientific models developed by 

the National Cancer Institute.

 

Under the final rule, HHS also will obtain reviews by the Advisory 

Board on Radiation and Worker Health, with public input, for the 

purpose of keeping the implementation of the rules in step with 

scientific progress on dose reconstruction and probability of 

causation.

 

The two final rules will be published in the May 2 Federal Register 

and also will be available online at http:// Copies may be obtained 

by calling 1-800-35-NIOSH (1-800-356-4674).

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



Russia retires nuclear reactor, a Cold War symbol



MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is to turn the world's first nuclear 

reactor and erstwhile Cold War triumph into a museum almost 50 years 

after it started operations, the Atomic Energy Ministry said Tuesday.

 

The plant in Obninsk, a small town 60 miles south of Moscow, was 

unveiled by the Soviet government on June 27, 1954 as the first 

nuclear generator of electric power.

 

It was a triumph for Soviet science over the United States in the 

race for nuclear power during the darkest days of the Cold War. The 

reactor was used for military research as well as civilian power 

needs.

 

On Monday, almost 48 years after its birth, the reactor was retired 

amid pomp and ceremony with nuclear scientists and Atomic 

Energy Ministry officials standing by. The ministry said the shutdown 

went smoothly.

 

The Obninsk plant was similar in design to the reactor at Chernobyl, 

site of the world's worst radiation disaster in 1986. Chernobyl, in 

the Ukraine, was shut down in 2000.

 

"(Obninsk) is not only the world's first nuclear power station, but 

the first one to be taken out of service correctly," Nikolai 

Shingaryov, head of the ministry's information policy department, 

suggesting the Obninsk shutdown would set the standard for future 

closures.

 

"It was (closed down) for purely economic reasons ... it could have 

continued to work, but it had not been profitable for a long time 

and was working off government subsidies," he told Reuters.

 

He said the plant would be turned into a nuclear museum.

 

When it first went on line, the Obninsk reactor helped Soviet 

scientists research the possibility of propelling submarines with 

nuclear 

power. Military research continued for years, although the plant also 

provided for local power needs.

 

The small government-funded, water-cooled reactor had not produced 

electricity since 1968, but was still used for experiments and 

to warm the town's centrally distributed hot water supply.

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



Finns divided over more nuclear power plants -poll



HELSINKI, April 30 (Reuters) - Finns stand divided over controversial 

plans to build a fifth nuclear power plant just one month before 

parliament is due to vote on the issue, a poll released on Tuesday 

showed.

 

Some 44 percent of 1,500 Finns surveyed were in favour of building a 

new plant while the same percentage opposed the plans, the 

poll by agency Taloustutkimus for Social Democratic paper Uutispaiva 

Demari showed.

 

Supporters say more nuclear energy is needed to meet growing 

electricity consumption and enable a reduction in greenhouse gas 

emissions. Opponents say the risks involved are too high and the 

question of nuclear waste disposal is still unanswered.

 

The government passed to parliament in January a proposal by energy 

group Teollisuuden Voima to build a new nuclear reactor in 

Finland. The move comes at a time when the rest of Western Europe is 

shifting to alternative forms of energy.

 

Keenest in favour of building more nuclear power plants, according to 

the poll, were supporters of the Conservatives and the Social 

Democrats, the two main groups in the country's five-party coalition.

 

Opposition was strongest among supporters of the Left Alliance and 

the Green Party, junior members of the coalition.

 

One in 10 of those surveyed were undecided. The margin of error for 

the poll, conducted in March, was three percent.

 

The party positions were roughly in line with a previous poll of 

members of parliament published earlier in the month.



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

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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