2nd man held over bribery of Japanese nuclear watchdog official

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

Index:



2nd man held over bribery of Japanese nuclear watchdog official

Energy Dept. Ends Waste Disposal - Weldon Springs

Pataki Announces Safety Review of Indian Point Plant

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



2nd man held over bribery of Japanese nuclear watchdog official



TOKYO, Aug. 2 (Kyodo) - The former president of a waste management 

firm was arrested Friday on suspicion of bribing a government 

official to obtain information on the business needs of the nuclear 

industry, police said.



Osamu Ishikura, 52, former owner of the company based in Tsukuba, 

Ibaraki Prefecture, turned himself in to authorities two days after 

Toshiyuki Takahashi, 45, a deputy division chief at the Nuclear and 

Industrial Safety Agency, was arrested Wednesday.



Ishikura admitted to obtaining information from Takahashi, but denied 

allegations that he had bribed Takahashi, saying he only lent money 

to him.



Takahashi is suspected of receiving a total of 10.5 million yen in 

bribes from August 1999 through January this year from Ishikura and 

Yoshinori Okamoto, a 39-year-old former board member of a Shizuoka-

based computer software company. Okamoto was also arrested Wednesday.



Investigators allege Takahashi, a chief safety inspector of Japanese 

nuclear power plants, began passing information to the pair in 1998 

when he was working in a Diet science and technology office serving 

lawmakers.



They said the information concerned business uses of and potential 

clients for computerized designs of nuclear plant facilities, 

desalination projects and other industrial projects.



The two allegedly used the information to start new businesses, but 

they failed to take off, apparently due to a lack of technological 

skills.



Takahashi, a former technician at the defunct Science and Technology 

Agency, worked in the House of Representatives office from 1998 until 

January last year, when he was transferred to the Nuclear and 

Industrial Safety Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade 

and Industry.

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



Energy Dept. Ends Waste Disposal - Weldon Springs



WELDON SPRING, Mo. Aug 1 (AP) - After 16 years and $852 million, the 

Energy Department said Wednesday it has completed the disposal of 

hazardous debris left over from an old ordnance plant.



The Army manufactured explosives at the Weldon Spring plant 30 miles 

west of St. Louis during World War II. From 1958 to 1966, the Atomic 

Energy Commission used the site to produce uranium and thorium for 

atomic weapons.



Officials determined that improper storage of radioactive and 

chemical waste polluted the plant and a nearby quarry. Work that 

begin in 1986 included the removal of 43 buildings and millions of 

tons of soil, debris and waste.



The waste is now housed in a seven-story tall mound beneath layers of 

rock, clay, soil and synthetic liners. ``It is a safe, well-designed, 

well-constructed facility,'' Energy Department spokesman Walter Perry 

said.



Over the years, area residents have said the site may be responsible 

for cancers involving young children, but health officials found no 

link.



The site will cost $850,000 to maintain. Officials have not yet 

formed a plan to contain uranium-tainted groundwater that surfaces in 

springs at a nearby wildlife area.



Tests show the uranium level is still within federal guidelines and 

the water is not used by people for drinking, officials said.

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



Pataki Announces Safety Review of Indian Point Plant



New York Aug 2 (NY Times) A mid mounting criticism from Democrats, 

environmentalists and Westchester County residents, Gov. George E. 

Pataki yesterday announced a safety review of the Indian Point 

nuclear plant and its evacuation plan.



For the first time, the governor left open the possibility of 

shutting down the plant. When asked about that prospect, he said, "We 

rule out no option," a turnabout for an administration that has 

scolded Democrats who called for closing Indian Point and accused 

them of jeopardizing the downstate power supply.

 

Mr. Pataki announced that he had hired James Lee Witt, the director 

of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Clinton 

administration, to review the safety of all New York communities near 

nuclear power plants, starting with Indian Point. Mr. Witt will not 

report his findings on Indian Point, on the Hudson in northern 

Westchester County, until after the November election, in which the 

governor will stand for a third term.



The governor said that whatever Mr. Witt concludes, "we will base our 

decision on that report."



The state will pay Mr. Witt's consulting firm up to $800,554 for the 

study's first phase, which will also look at the possible effect an 

accident at the Millstone nuclear plant in Waterford, Conn., would 

have on Fishers Island, off Long Island. 



In naming a prominent member of a Democratic administration, the 

governor voiced something less than confidence in his fellow 

Republicans in the Bush administration. Early this year, he asked the 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission and FEMA to review standards for 

nuclear emergencies, but they rebuffed him, saying that the current 

rules were fine.



"I wish that we could simply say that we can sit back" and wait for 

the federal government to act, he said. "I don't think we can afford 

that."



Critics, including the Democrats running against him, charged 

yesterday that Mr. Pataki was belatedly voicing concerns that they 

had long expressed, and only because he was worried that otherwise 

the issue would hurt him in the election.



"The governor's action is a first good step," said Alex Matthiessen, 

executive director of Riverkeeper, a group dedicated to preserving 

the Hudson. "I'd say he's very late coming to this. I certainly think 

he would not have acted if not for the growing public pressure to 

shut down these reactors. Until now, he's said almost nothing on this 

issue."



The Entergy Corporation, the giant power company that owns the two 

Indian Point reactors, said it welcomed Mr. Witt's review. "He 

brings credibility to this process and we welcome the opportunity to 

work with him," said Jim Steets, a company spokesman. "We 

see this as an opportunity to improve any part of the plans we can, 

but also to say that we've done a good job preparing."



A groundswell of fear about Indian Point has been building in 

Westchester County for years, and it accelerated after the Sept. 11 

World Trade Center attack. Time and again, local residents and 

officials have noted that one of the jetliners that crashed into the 

trade center flew directly over Indian Point and could have slammed 

into the reactors instead.



The two Democrats running for governor, Andrew M. Cuomo and H. Carl 

McCall, have repeatedly called for the plant to be shut down 

until the reactors and the region's evacuation plan can be proved 

safe, and have scolded the governor for resisting. Riverkeeper has 

been broadcasting radio ads assailing both the plant and the 

governor.



Each year, the governor must decide whether to certify the evacuation 

plan for each nuclear plant, usually a routine matter. This 

year, local officials and environmentalists fiercely lobbied Mr. 

Pataki to withhold certification, arguing that the evacuation plan 

was a 

farce and noting that no other nuclear plant in the country is in 

such a densely populated area.



Mr. Pataki certified the plan in late January, though federal 

officials said the plant would have continued to operate even if he 

had refused. The governor also asked for a review of federal safety 

standards, and asked the federal government to make potassium iodide 

pills available to local residents. The pills offer some protection 

against thyroid cancer from radiation exposure.



Mr. Witt's report is due on Dec. 30.

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

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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