[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Yucca nuclear dump nears US congressional approval
Index:
Yucca nuclear dump nears US congressional approval
Business Groups Urge Action on Yucca Mountain
Tainted MOX fuel faces protests on return to England
Australian protest fleet sets sail to intercept nuclear shipment
Japan set to rate nuclear plants for safety-report
A-bomb victims seek more lenient recognition system
=======================================
Yucca nuclear dump nears US congressional approval
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate seems ready to give final
congressional approval as early as Tuesday to President Bush's
decision to bury nuclear waste from across the nation in Nevada's
Yucca Mountain.
Senior Republican aides say unofficial head counts show a majority of
the Democrat-led Senate supports the proposal to put the nation's
first permanent nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
Backers plan to introduce a motion Tuesday for the Senate to
immediately begin consideration of the proposal, aides said. If it
passes, there will be up to 10 hours of debate before a vote is held
on whether to proceed with the $58 billion project.
Approval would be a major victory for the Bush administration and the
nuclear power industry, which sees a permanent disposal site as a key
to a sound energy policy.
But it would be a big defeat for the state of Nevada and
environmentalists, who argue the facility, along with shipments of
nuclear waste to it, would pose an unacceptable danger.
STUDIES SHOW SITE SAFE
The Bush administration contends $4 billion in studies over the past
two decades have shown Yucca Mountain to be a safe and sound site for
a nuclear waste repository.
"We have a firm majority of the Senate in favor of it," one
Republican aide said Monday.
"There is ample support to get this done," another Republican aide
said.
"They do seem to have the votes," conceded an aide to a Democratic
senator who is expected to endorse the proposal, which is being
challenged in court by Nevada.
Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, both Utah Republicans, announced
they would back the Yucca project Monday after they were warned in a
letter from U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that if the
facility was rejected it would "significantly raise the likelihood"
that nuclear waste would be stored at a temporary site in their
state.
"A lot of senators are going to vote for Yucca, because if they don't
they know the nuclear waste could end up in their states," a Senate
Republican leadership aide said,
DASCHLE DENIED
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, sent a
letter to Bush Monday urging him to tell Senate Republicans to delay
a vote on Yucca Mountain until the chamber completes work on a bill
to crack down on the recent spate of corporate scandals.
But Senate Republican leaders decided to push ahead, aides said.
"We always knew this would be an uphill battle," said Tessa Hafen, a
spokeswoman for Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat
who has helped lead the charge against it.
"But we haven't given up," Hafen said. "Senator Reid is still working
the phones and the Senate floor."
Final congressional approval would clear the way for the Energy
Department to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license
the project, scheduled to open in 2010 and hold 70,000 tons of
radioactive material. The Senate will vote on a resolution to
override Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto in April of Bush's decision
to accept a recommendation by Abraham to build the facility in
Nevada.
A similar resolution passed the Republican-led House of
Representatives in May on a bipartisan vote of 306-117.
Nuclear power plants produce more than 20 percent of the country's
energy. The so-called spent fuel from those plants is highly
radioactive and is being stored in tanks -- usually on the plant
site. Many of those waste storage tanks are nearly full. The
government has faced lawsuits for failing to meet a 1998 deadline to
open a permanent nuclear waste storage site.
--------------------
Business Groups Urge Action on Yucca Mountain
ST. PAUL, Minn., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The following letter was sent
today to U.S. Senators Paul Wellstone and Mark Dayton, urging them to
support a resolution to approve Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as repository
site for spent nuclear fuel. The letter is signed by the Minnesota
Chamber of Commerce and 23 local chambers of commerce.
July 8, 2002
The Honorable Mark Dayton
United States Senate
SR - 346 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Paul Wellstone
United States Senate
136 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senators Dayton and Wellstone
Recently, the House of Representatives passed by a bipartisan
majority of 306-117 a resolution approving Yucca Mountain in Nevada
as the site of a long-term repository for spent nuclear fuel and
military nuclear waste. We call upon the Senate to do the same by
passing S.J. Res. 34, which would authorize the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a
license to operate the Yucca Mountain repository. We urge you to
support S.J. Res. 34 and oppose any procedural votes that would
preclude the full Senate from debating and voting on the resolution.
The Yucca Mountain repository is long overdue. The Nuclear Waste
Policy Act of 1982 obligated the DOE to build a repository by 1998,
but the DOE has defaulted on that obligation. Until Yucca Mountain
is approved, nuclear waste will continue to accumulate at 131 sites
in 39 states with no long-term disposal plan. Yucca Mountain is a
vital component of a responsible nuclear waste management strategy.
Yucca Mountain is the most studied piece of real estate on the
planet. Hundreds of scientific studies and two decades of research
have shown Yucca Mountain is a suitable location for a repository.
Only after Yucca Mountain consistently emerged as the most suitable
site did Congress direct in 1987 that it would be the sole site for
further study.
Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to begin the process of
finding a long-term solution to nuclear waste disposal. Congress
must now approve Yucca Mountain by July 26, 2002. If Congress does
not approve Yucca Mountain by that date, DOE will cease operations at
the site and a different long-term disposal site will have to be
developed.
We urge the Senate to pass S.J. Res. 34 without delay so DOE may
continue pursuit of a responsible, long-term nuclear waste disposal
plan.
Sincerely, (multitude of Chamber of Commerce Orgnizations)
------------------
Tainted MOX fuel faces protests on return to England
LONDON, July 8 (Kyodo) - Antinuclear activists are gearing up a
protest campaign to oppose the shipment of plutonium-uranium mixed
oxide (MOX) fuel from Japan to England.
A British nuclear-fuel transport ship, the Pacific Pintail, left
Takahama, western Japan, last Thursday with a cargo of 3,680
kilograms of rejected MOX fuel bound for Sellafield, England.
Critics say the MOX fuel contains enough plutonium to make 50
Hiroshima-size nuclear bombs.
Organizers of the ''Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla'' campaign say a
flotilla of protest boats from Britain, Australia, New Zealand,
Ireland and South America are expected to greet the Pacific Pintail
when it reaches the Irish sea in late August on the final leg of its
voyage to Sellafield.
Antinuclear protesters say protest boats may join the Pacific Pintail
if it passes New Zealand and Australia or South America and shadow
the vessel all the way to England.
Parliamentarians in the Welsh national parliament are also preparing
to sign a motion opposing the shipment.
Last week the Irish government reiterated its concern about the
shipment, calling it ''an unacceptable risk to the environment of
Ireland and the health and economic well being of its population.''
The MOX fuel on the Pacific Pintail was manufactured by British
Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) on behalf of Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co.
and arrived in Japan in 1999.
In September of the same year, it was revealed that quality assurance
data on the fuel had been falsified by NNFL workers. Japan demanded
that the fuel be returned and the British government and BNFL agreed
to that demand together with a compensation package.
Andrew Clemence, an organizer of the ''Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla''
campaign, said they were campaigning against the shipment because of
the risk of an accident or terrorist attack on the cargo.
''There will be boats from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South
America and Ireland. Our aim is to meet the Pintail in the Irish Sea
and perform a peaceful demonstration,'' Clemence said.
''We don't intend stopping it, because the shipment is, as we say,
dangerous and we don't want to endanger it,'' he said.
Clemence, who lives in the Welsh County of Pembrokeshire, on Wales'
southwest coast, said many people living in Wales fear the prospects
of a resumption of the MOX trade with Japan.
''This could become a regular thing...The aim of the flotilla will be
to draw people's attention to what's going on,'' he said.
BNFL argues that its transport arrangements are safe and secure and
comply with all regulations.
-------------------
Australian protest fleet sets sail to intercept nuclear shipment
Jul 7 (Australian Broadcasting Company) The first of the Australian
protest vessels in a flotilla of boats from Australia and New
Zealand, planning to intercept a nuclear shipment, have set sail
from Sydney. An Aboriginal smoking ceremony and half-a-dozen
Greenpeace protest boats votes have farwelled the two 55 foot
yachts, the Love of Gaia and Kailea, as they set sail from Lavender
Bay in Sydney Harbour. They will join seven ships, from New Zealand
and two from Vanuatu, planning to intercept a shipment of plutonium
as it passes through the Pacific and Tasman Sea on its way from
Japan to Britain. The skipper of the Love of Gaia, Inigo Wijnen, says
they are making a symbolic gesture. "[We're] making a symbolic line
across the Tasman Sea to show that we're against the shipment and we
think it is very dangerous," he said. Tomorrow, the third Australian
yacht in the protest fleet will leave Ballina on the New South Wales
far north coast.
------------------
Japan set to rate nuclear plants for safety-report
TOKYO, July 6 (Reuters) - Japan plans to rate its nuclear power
plants for safety, a move that may improve monitoring of risk-prone
plants in the industry, which has seen its share of troubles,
Japanese media said on Saturday.
Officials at the Nuclear Power and Industrial Safety Agency, a part
of the nation's trade ministry, were quoted as saying that all
plants will be rated in terms of their operating performance,
including the number of failures at reactors, Kyodo news agency
reported.
Reactors that are at the lower end of the rating scale will be the
subject of more intense monitoring, while those with higher ratings
will be subject to fewer inspections.
The officials were quoted by Kyodo as saying that the new rating
system would enable the agency to focus on risk-prone plants,
adding that surprise inspections will be used to keep plants on their
toes.
Agency officials were not available for comment.
Energy-starved Japan operates 52 commercial nuclear reactors, which
supply roughly a third of its power.
But troubles at the reactors have been frequent.
In May, radioactive water was found leaking at the Hamaoka power
plant, some 150 km west of Tokyo, just a day after it had been re-
opened following similar leaks last year.
The nuclear industry has been sharply criticised after a series of
accidents, including Japan's worst-ever in 1999 at a uranium
processing plant in Tokaimura, north of Tokyo, in which two workers
were killed.
----------------
A-bomb victims seek more lenient recognition system
TOKYO, July 9 (Kyodo) - A total of 19 victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki asked three prefectural
governments Tuesday morning to recognize them as sufferers of
radiation sickness in the first such group application and a bid to
seek more a lenient recognition system.
The application in Aichi, Ishikawa and Kumamoto prefectures came in
line with policies of the Japan Confederation of A-Bomb and H-
Bomb Sufferers' Organizations, which terms the current recognition
system ''too severe and inhumane.''
''Many A-bomb victims gave up hopes to be officially recognized as
sufferers under the current severe system, but they have decided
to apply as they have suffered more as they are getting older,'' said
an official of the confederation.
Other A-bomb victims will file the same applications later in the day
with five other prefectural governments, bringing the total number
of applicants to more than 70.
The applicants will be eligible for special medical benefits worth
139,600 yen per month if the governments recognize that their
diseases were caused by exposure to radiation from the atomic
bombings on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945.
They said they will file a class action suit if their applications
are rejected. Another 80 A-bomb victims whose applications were
previously rejected are ready to join, the confederation said.
Some 30% of applications have been approved since fiscal 1993. The
approval rate topped 50% in fiscal 1999 and 2000, although it
dropped to 26% in fiscal 2001, according to the confederation.
Of 285,620 A-bomb victims as of the end of March, only 2,169, or
0.76%, are recognized as sufferers of radiation sickness, according
to the health ministry.
Regarding the group application, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister
Chikara Sakaguchi told a news conference that although he recognizes
some say the current recognition system is too severe, he does not
believe it is necessary to revise it at present.
The eight prefectural governments to which the A-bomb victims have
applied and will apply are Hokkaido, Chiba, Tokyo, Aichi, Ishikawa,
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kumamoto.
-------------------------------------------------
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
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.
You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/