Council calls for halt to reactor plans after fault line discovery

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

Index:



Council calls for halt to reactor plans after fault line discovery

Earthquake fault line discovered at nuclear site.

Greens seek Senate support for reactor document release

Greens say Govt's actions on Lucas Heights smacks of cover-up

U.S. Unsure How to Move Nuke Waste

Northeast Utilities to Reimburse Dominion for NRC Fine

Slack controls on radioactive materials pose threat

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



Note: The following 3 news articles were provided courtesy of Ivor 

Surveyor:



Council calls for halt to reactor plans after fault line discovery



June  21, 2002. ABC News Online - Council calls for halt to reactor 

plans after fault line discovery Opponents of Sydney's planned 

replacement nuclear reactor say their argument has been strengthened 

by the discovery of an earthquake fault line at Lucas Heights.  



However, the proponents of the new reactor say they will push ahead 

despite the discovery.  



Sutherland Shire Council has joined Greenpeace in again calling for

the $300 million reactor to be scrapped.



Councillor Geneveave Rankin says the dangers posed by the project are

immense.



The Federal Government's Nuclear Safety Agency says the fault line 

was discovered during recent excavation of the site and further 

studies need to be carried out to determine whether it is safe for 

the reactor to be built there.  



Councillor Rankin says residents are extremely concerned for their 

safety.  



"John Howard should announce today, call a halt to this project, say 

we're going back to the drawing board, we'll sit down, consult with 

the experts, the environment groups and the community and see what's 

the best way forward for our community as a whole," she said.  



Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation spokesman 

Peter Clarke says there may be some minor changes to the plan, but 

not its general location.

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



Earthquake fault line discovered at nuclear site. 



June  21, 2002 ABC News Online -  Earthquake fault line discovered at 

nuclear site An earthquake fault line has been found at the site of 

Sydney's new nuclear reactor.  



The Federal Government's Nuclear Safety Agency has confirmed the 

discovery of the fault and says further studies need to be carried 

out to determine whether the project should proceed.  



The director of the agency's regulatory branch, Don MacNab, says the

fault line was discovered during the recent excavation of the site.



The nuclear reactor is being built to replace the ageing Lucas 

Heights reactor in Sydney's south-west.  



Mr MacNab says little is known about the fault line and whether it

poses any danger.



"We've got to examine the fault line to find its extent [and] to find

its age," he said.



"When we get a final report from the organisation doing the work,

we'll be able to make some judgments about the suitability of the

site, but it doesn't automatically mean that the site's not 

suitable."

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



Greens seek Senate support for reactor document release



June  24, 2002 ABC News Online - Greens seek Senate support for 

reactor document release Greens Senator Bob Brown will ask the Senate 

to order the public release of a Government study into an earthquake 

fault line under the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, in Sydney's 

south.  



The nuclear safety agency is carrying out testing to determine 

whether the fault line will threaten the construction of a new 

reactor planned for the site.  



Senator Brown says the Senate has the power to demand the release of 

a preliminary study into the area's geology.  

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



Greens say Govt's actions on Lucas Heights smacks of cover-up



June 26 - Australian Broadcasting Company - Greens Senator Bob Brown 

says the Government's refusal to table a study  on the Lucas Heights 

nuclear reactor has all the elements of a cover up. 



The Federal Government has rejected a Senate request for it to table 

a  report into an earthquake fault line under the Lucas Heights 

reactor. 



The Government says research on the matter is continuing and the 

details  will not be tabled until that is completed. 



Senator Brown says it is disgraceful that the preliminary findings 

will  not be made public before the Parliament breaks for seven 

weeks. 



"The warning signs are up very much this afternoon that on the second 

 day of sitting before recess, the Minister comes in with a glib  

statement which says, 'we haven't got this report completed yet, 

we'll  see you some time later'," he said.  

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



U.S. Unsure How to Move Nuke Waste



WASHINGTON (AP) - Every year the Navy and a few utilities ship about 

60 loads of highly radioactive used reactor fuel from submarines and 

atomic power plants over short distances, usually by rail, without 

public notice or protest.

 

The national numbers will soar as shipments start moving by rail or 

truck through all but a handful of states if a nuclear waste dump is 

put 90 miles from Las Vegas, as President Bush hopes to do.

 

The Senate plans to decide soon whether to remove the last political 

hurdle to burying the waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain, and opponents 

are using the transportation issue in an uphill effort to sway 

lawmakers to vote against the project.

 

The government has spent $7 billion over two decades studying Yucca 

Mountain as the preferred site for the proposed dump, but it has 

devoted only $200 million to figuring out how to get the wastes 

there.

 

``They're trying to downplay transportation because they know once 

the American people realize their homes lie on these transportation 

routes they'll be outraged,'' said Kevin Kamps, an anti-nuclear 

activist.

 

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has asserted repeatedly that the 

wastes - mostly used reactor fuel - can be shipped safely to Nevada. 

Once there, he has argued, the material will be more secure than at 

dozens of reactor sites in 31 states where it is being stored now.

 

The Energy Department, however, is at least a year away from 

providing any detailed plan on how waste shipments will get to 

Nevada, or how cities and towns along the route might be affected.

 

Also undecided are whether the shipments would be mainly by rail or 

by truck and the design of shipping containers. Railroads have 

suggested that if they are to be the primary carrier, special trains 

should be devoted to the shipments. The government hasn't made a 

decision on that either.

 

The leading Senate opponent of the project, Democratic Whip Harry 

Reid of Nevada, says the Bush administration ``has refused to focus'' 

on the danger posed by hundreds or thousands of waste shipments, most 

of them from the eastern third of the nation.

 

A preliminary Energy Department estimate predicts 10,600 shipments to 

Yucca Mountain over 24 years - beginning in 2010 when the facility 

would open - if most of the waste was moved by train.

 

If trucks are the primary transport, there would be more than 53,000 

shipments. On any given day, several dozen trucks would be on a 

highway somewhere in the country. In all, the waste site would hold 

77,000 tons with 3,000 tons going there each year on average.

 

Abraham recently told senators that as few as 175 shipments a year 

are likely. But that assumes virtually all-long distance shipments 

going by dedicated trains, each carrying two to four railcars full of 

waste and no other cargo.

 

Bob Halstead, a transportation consultant hired by Nevada, calls such 

a scenario unrealistic, saying it would require building a 100-mile 

rail line to Yucca Mountain as well as other rail lines from barge or 

truck connections to at least two dozen reactor sites in the East. 

Shipping costs also would soar, he maintains.

 

Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Energy Department, said the details of 

the transportation plan remain to be worked out in part because the 

department wants to coordinate the program with the states through 

which waste will pass. ``We can move the waste safely,'' he said.

 

He said the focus has been on the approval of Yucca Mountain because 

that is what Congress told the department to do. ``We weren't told to 

study transportation'' prior to a decision on the Yucca facility, 

Davis said.

 

Department officials and the nuclear industry argue it's only logical 

that a detailed transportation plan await a decision on the site 

itself. Others contend the public and lawmakers ought to know details 

of where wastes will travel and how the shipments will be protected 

before they agree to the Nevada dump.

 

``They're trying to slip this through before (the transportation 

questions) are focused on by the American people,'' says Jim Hall, 

former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and now a 

consultant for the state of Nevada.

 

If the Senate affirms overriding Nevada's objections and letting the 

administration proceed with the project, ``the momentum of the 

decision will sweep everything else aside,'' Hall said.

 

Supporters of the Nevada project say critics are ignoring the 

protection afforded such shipments and the fact that wastes have been 

shipped for years without a release of radiation.

 

``It all boils down to the waste canisters,'' says Scott Peters, a 

spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's trade 

group. The cylinders - with 15-inch thick triple-layer walls of steel 

and lead - are designed to withstand severe accidents. Tests have 

shown them to stand up to impacts equal to a 120-mph collision, 

puncture tests and exposure to a 1,475 degree Fahrenheit fire.

 

Still, the September terrorist attacks brought a new dimension to the 

issue and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is re-examining the 

vulnerability of waste shipments to potential terrorist attacks.

 

Tests by the government's Sandia National Laboratory have concluded 

that waste containers could be penetrated by a missile or other high 

energy weapon. Nevada officials say the radiation released from such 

an attack would produce cancers in 48 people at some point in their 

lives and billions of dollars in economic and cleanup costs.

 

On the Net:

 

Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov

 

Nevada: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste

 

Environmental Working Group: http://www.mapscience.org

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



Northeast Utilities to Reimburse Dominion for NRC Fine



WATERFORD, Conn., June 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dominion Nuclear 

Connecticut, a unit of Dominion (NYSE:D) and the 

operator of Millstone Power Station, announced Tuesday that it will 

not contest a $288,000 fine from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission for a violation that occurred while Northeast Utilities 

(NYSE:NU) operated the power station.

 

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000831/DLOGO )  

 

As part of an agreement associated with the sale of Millstone in 

March 2001, Northeast Utilities has agreed to reimburse Dominion 

for the full amount of the fine.

 

In November 2000, prior to the sale of Millstone, NU reported to the 

NRC that two fuel rods in the station's Unit 1 spent fuel pool were 

missing.  A subsequent investigation by NU concluded that the fuel 

pins were cut into segments in 1979 and shipped to a low-level 

radioactive waste facility with other irradiated hardware sometime 

between March 1985 and December 1992. Dominion purchased 

Millstone in March 2001.

 

The NRC accepted Northeast Utilities' findings after conducting an 

independent review. The NRC has also concluded that Dominion 

has controls in place to account for all the remaining used fuel at 

Millstone.

 

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a 

production capability of more than 3 trillion British thermal unit of 

energy per day.  Dominion serves nearly 4 million retail natural gas 

and electric customers in five states.  For more information about 

Dominion, visit the company's web site at http://www.dom.com .

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



Slack controls on radioactive materials pose threat



VIENNA, June 25 (Kyodo) - The International Atomic Energy Agency 

(IAEA) warned in a report released Tuesday that the danger of 

terrorists being able to construct ''dirty'' bombs is rising due to 

slack controls on radioactive materials in dozens of nations around 

the world.

 

The IAEA said in the report that controls on radioactive substances 

such as cobalt 60 are insufficient in more than 100 nations, and 

that thousands of radioactive samples are estimated to be missing in 

countries worldwide.

 

The Vienna-based U.N. agency said it is now relatively easy to obtain 

radioactive materials in most nations, which greatly increases 

the possibility of terrorists using dirty bombs -- conventional 

explosives that would spew radioactive material when detonated -- in 

attacks.

 

The IAEA stressed it is necessary to establish a new control and 

monitoring system for radioactive materials that is based on 

international cooperation.

 

According to the report, there are several million samples of 

radioactive materials in countries worldwide, but over 100 of these 

nations lack the facilities needed to safeguard and control such 

substances, and some do not even have a comprehensive list of 

where such materials are stored.

 

There are also several thousand samples of radioactive material that 

are currently unaccounted for around the world, mainly in 

nations of the former Soviet Union, though some are also reported 

missing in the United States and in European Union (EU) nations.

 

In the U.S., about 1,500 radioactive samples have gone missing since 

1996, and half of which have not been relocated, while about 

70 radioactive samples go missing every year in the EU.

 

The IAEA said in the report that international cooperation to prevent 

nuclear terrorism is progressing, citing the agreement it reached in 

June with the U.S. and Russia to cooperate in searching for and 

securing missing radioactive samples in former Soviet Union nations.

 

The IAEA also called on non-member nations to cooperate in improving 

controls on radioactive materials.







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

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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