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NRC to Test Shipping Nuclear Canisters
Index:
NRC to Test Shipping Nuclear Canisters
Finland to build controversial new nuclear plant
U.S. orders more security at decommissioned nuke plants
Utility Agrees to Buy Reactor Head
Universe's Earliest Light Detected
=================================
NRC to Test Shipping Nuclear Canisters
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct full-
scale tests of nuclear waste shipping canisters as part of the
licensing review for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in
Nevada, commissioners said Thursday.
Opponents of the Yucca Mountain project have expressed concern about
the testing of canisters because the NRC currently relies on computer
modeling and tests on small-scale versions or containers to assure
they will not be dangerously breached in an accident.
NRC Chairman Richard Meserve told a Senate hearing on Thursday that
the computer modeling and limited tests ``are sufficient to assess
the effects of an accident.''
``We have a great deal of confidence in this approach,'' Meserve
separately wrote to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a recent letter,
calling the use of computer models and scale model testing a ``good
engineering practice.''
Nevertheless, when pressed on the issue at the hearing, Meserve
reiterated the NRC plans to ask Congress for money to conduct full-
scale tests of casks that would be used to ship tens of thousands of
tons of reactor waste to the Yucca Mountain site if it is approved as
the country's central radioactive waste storage facility.
Engineers at the Sandia National Laboratory likely would conduct the
test, NRC officials said.
The transportation issue was the focus for the second straight day as
the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee wrapped up hearings
on whether to allow the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project to
proceed.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., committee chairman, has scheduled a June
5 vote on a resolution to override Nevada's objections to the waste
repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The full Senate must
approve the resolution by July 26, or the Yucca project will come to
a halt.
Meserve testified that the Transportation Department will have the
primary role in approving a transportation plan for the waste, now
scattered at commercial reactors and federal nuclear sites in 39
states.
But he said the NRC, which must issue construction and operating
permits for the facility, will approve the canisters to be used for
transport.
Separately, Energy Undersecretary Robert Card rejected criticism that
the administration is pursuing approval for Yucca Mountain without a
plan to get waste to the site.
``I would reject the notion that we don't have a (transportation)
plan,'' Card told the committee. He said an environmental impact
analysis includes potential routes and transportation options.
The Energy Department strongly favors shipping 90 percent of the
waste by rail rather than the Interstate highway system. Using trucks
would require about 2,200 shipments annually, while a rail proposal
would reduce that to about 175, with trains carrying three large
transport casks per shipment.
In separate testimony, Jim Hall, former chairman of the National
Transportation Safety Board and now a consultant for the state of
Nevada, said a transportation plan ought to be completed before
Congress is asked to give the Yucca project its go-ahead.
Hall acknowledged that nuclear waste transport has had a clean safety
record, but added that ``we're talking about volumes and distances
never seen before'' and new concerns about terrorism.
Reid has been trying to convince fellow senators to block the project
and keep the waste where it is.
On the Net:
Energy Committee: http://energy.senate.gov/
-----------------
Finland to build controversial new nuclear plant
HELSINKI, May 24 (Reuters) - Finland decided on Friday to build the
first new nuclear reactor in Western Europe in more than a decade to
meet rising energy demands despite bitter opposition from
environmentalists.
Parliament backed by 107 votes to 92 the coalition government's
controversial proposal to construct a fifth atomic reactor to
guarantee long-term energy supplies, cut its dependence on Russia and
meet greenhouse gas targets.
It will be the first such plant since 1991 when France authorised the
construction of a new reactor.
The Green Party said it may quit the ruling coalition following the
vote, but Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen does not need its support to
survive.
"This will enable us best to fulfil our climate policy objectives and
secure the domestic energy supply and avoid excessive dependence on
imports," Lipponen told Reuters.
The pro-nuclear lobby said it would spur other west European
countries, like Britain, which are lagging behind eastern Europe and
Asia in expanding nuclear power.
"Many countries around the world are already taking this path and
many more are sure to follow," said John Ritch, director-general at
the World Nuclear Association.
Ever since the deadly 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power station explosion
many governments have moved to seek alternative energy sources like
hydro-electric power or natural gas.
The vote comes almost 30 years after the last reactor was ordered in
Finland, which has no oil or natural gas of its own.
The anti-nuclear lobby said construction of the plant ignored health
and security risks, which were even more relevant following the
September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
"This is a decision not only against the environment but a decision
against Finland," said Tobias Muenchmeyer, nuclear expert at
Greenpeace International. "It is unsafe."
The European Union repeated the decision on nuclear energy was up to
each member country.
"The range of choices in member states must be as wide as possible
and I believe that the nuclear option must remain open," EU Energy
Commissioner Loyola de Palacio in a statement.
But the bloc's top environment official said the decision did not
signal the start of a new trend.
European Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom also said it was
not necessary for EU member states to increase use of nuclear power
to meet their goals under the Kyoto treaty against global warming.
"I have a personal view on nuclear (power) but this is their choice,"
Wallstrom, who has in the past made clear her dislike for nuclear
power, told Reuters during an EU environment ministers' meeting in
Spain.
CUT RELIANCE ON RUSSIA
The Finnish government says it needs the reactor to ensure economic
growth continues, meet Kyoto targets and cut its dependence on
Russia, which provides most of its imported energy.
Two thirds is imported and was worth more than 4.5 billion euros
($4.14 billion) in 2000. Sweden and Norway are less reliant on
imports.
Under the 1997 Kyoto pact, rich nations aim to cut gas emissions
blamed for global warming, including carbon dioxide.
Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gas emissions but the issue of
nuclear waste disposal often worries opponents.
Parliament's decision passed largely unnoticed in Helsinki, with only
around 100 demonstrators outside parliament compared to more than
5,000 during an anti-nuclear protest last month.
Environment Minister Satu Hassi, a Green, has hit out against the
government for raising the Cold War spectre of the nation's need to
lessen dependence on Russia.
Nuclear power producer Teollisuuden Voima Oy, controlled by Finnish
industry, is expected to spend up to 2.5 billion euros to build the
reactor. The plant is expected to be operational before the end of
the decade.
The United States is the biggest nuclear energy producer in absolute
terms with France second and Japan third, said Ritch.
No commercial nuclear power plant has been ordered in the United
States since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania,
where there was a partial reactor core meltdown.
"You can confidently expect a new nuclear construction in the United
States within the next five years," Ritch said.
-----------------
U.S. orders more security at decommissioned nuke plants
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In response to general terror threats against
the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday
ordered extra security measures to protect spent fuel stored in water-
filled pools at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants that are
being decommissioned.
Military experts are worried that terror groups may try to wrap such
radioactive material around so-called "dirty" bombs, which when
exploded could contaminate a large area in a city.
The NRC said its order also applied to General Electric's (GE.N)
nuclear fuel storage facility in Morris, Illinois, which was issued
an operating permit by the agency in 1967.
Some of the requirements formalize security measures the NRC called
for after the Sept. 11 attacks, but additional safety steps have been
ordered following a comprehensive security review by the agency.
"The commission views these compensatory measures as prudent, interim
steps to address the current threat environment in a consistent
manner," the agency said.
The NRC said it would not specifically identify what extra security
measures plants will have to take, but generally they involve
increased patrols, installation of additional physical barriers to
plants, vehicle checks farther from the facilities and better
coordination between plant security and law enforcement and military
authorities.
Many of the security enhancements are already in place, but licensees
must start implementing any remaining steps within six months.
Licensed plant operators must give the NRC their schedules within 20
days for implementing the security measures.
After a nuclear power plant is closed and removed from service, it
must be decommissioned.
This involves removal and disposal of radioactive components and
materials, such as the reactor and associated piping, and the cleanup
of radioactive or hazardous contamination that may remain in the
buildings and on the site.
Enhanced security will required at rectors already decommissioned,
including the 849-megawatt Shoreham plant in New York and the Fort
St. Vrain facility in Colorado.
There are also 17 power reactors either in or entering the
decommissioning phase, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
The plants are: Dresden 1, Illinois; Fermi 1, Michigan; Humboldt Bay,
California; Indian Point 1, New York; LaCrosse, Wisconsin; Millstone
1, Connecticut; Peach Bottom 1 and Three Mile Island 2, Pennsylvania;
and Zion 1 and 2, Illinois.
Other plants are: Connecticut Yankee, Connecticut; Rancho Seco and
San Onofre, California; Saxton, Pennsylvania; Yankee Rowe,
Massachusetts; Trojan, Oregon; and Big Rock Point, Michigan.
-----------------
Utility Agrees to Buy Reactor Head
AKRON, Ohio (AP) - The owner of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant on
Thursday said it would replace a 6-inch-thick reactor head that
was eaten nearly all the way through by acid.
FirstEnergy Corp. had considered repairing the existing reactor head
at the 25-year-old plant in Oak Harbor, about 20 miles east of
Toledo. Federal regulators, however, said replacement was a better
option.
``Based on our analysis, replacing the head is our preferred
option,'' said the utility's Lew W. Myers, who is overseeing the
project.
Replacement is expected to cost as much as $75 million, including the
price of the unused reactor head from an unfinished nuclear
plant in Midland, Mich.
The Davis-Besse plant was shut down in February after inspectors
found the hole in the steel reactor vessel cap enclosing the
reactor's core. The rust was caused by a buildup of boric acid from
reactor cooling water that had been leaking from nozzle cracks
since the mid-1990s.
Only a thin noncorrosive stainless steel membrane kept the hole from
bursting open.
It was the most extensive corrosion ever found atop a U.S. nuclear
plant reactor. The discovery prompted inspectors to order an
industrywide review of U.S. plants with similar designs.
On the Net:
http://www.firstenergycorp.com/ir
----------------
Universe's Earliest Light Detected
WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists analyzing tiny variations in the sky's
background radiation have detected the earliest light emitted
at the formation of the universe.
The detailed new images show indications first bits of matter that
would evolve into the stars and planets that exist today.
``We have seen, for the first time, the seeds that gave rise to
clusters of galaxies, thus putting theories of galaxy formation on a
firm
observational footing,'' said team leader Anthony Readhead of the
California Institute of Technology.
``These unique high-resolution observations provide a new set of
critical tests of cosmology,'' he said.
The research, detailed Thursday at a National Science Foundation
briefing, was conducted using the Cosmic Background Imager, a
set of 13 radio antennas located high in the Atacama Desert of Chile.
The instruments were able to detect minute variations in the cosmic
microwave background, the radiation that has traveled to Earth
over almost 14 billion years.
According to the researchers the fluctuations are indications of
those first tentative seeds of matter and energy.
They added that the measurements provide evidence to support the
theory of inflation, which states that the universe underwent a
violent expansion in its first micro-moments. After about 300,000
years it cooled enough to allow the matter to form.
On Friday, a team of European physicists reported similar findings
based on new high-precision observations using a radio telescope
called the Very Small Array located on the island of Tenerife in the
Atlantic Ocean.
The images show the beginnings of the formation of structure in the
early universe, according to the researchers from the Universities
of Cambridge and Manchester and the Instituto de Astrofisica de
Canarias in Tenerife.
The team said that because galaxies must have formed out of the
primeval fireball, they should have left imprints in the radiation in
the form of tiny variations in temperature.
According to the National Science Foundation, the data collected in
Chile is also helping scientists learn more about a repulsive
force called ``dark energy'' that appears to defy gravity and cause
the universe to accelerate at an ever-increasing pace.
``Each new image of the early universe refines our model of how it
all began. Just as the universe grows and spreads, humankind's
knowledge of our own origins continues to expand,'' commented NSF
Director Rita Colwell.
The Science Foundation described the cosmic microwave background as a
record of the first photons that escaped from the rapidly cooling,
coalescing universe about 300,000 years after the explosion known as
the Big Bang that is commonly believed to have given birth to the
universe.
On the Net:
National Science Foundation:
http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/advance/pr0241-images.htm
-------------------------------------------------
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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