Plutonium Shipping to S.C. Begins

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

Index:



Plutonium Shipping to S.C. Begins

U.S. Searches for Missing Material

Bruce Power moves up restart of Ontario nukes

Russia: Iraq Reactor Plan May Change

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



Plutonium Shipping to S.C. Begins



GREENVILLE, S.C. Aug 2 (AP) - The federal government has begun 

shipping tons of weapons-grade plutonium from Colorado to South 

Carolina despite a lawsuit by critics who fear the fuel will be 

permanently stored in the state.



Energy Department officials briefed Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., on 

the status of the shipments Friday morning, said Allard's spokesman, 

Sean Conway. He said the department probably would not have confirmed 

the shipments had begun unless they had already arrived in South 

Carolina.



The officials told Allard final shipments would be scheduled to leave 

a former weapons plant in Colorado by the end of 2003, allowing the 

site to be turned into a wildlife preserve.



DOE spokesman Joe Davis would not confirm the status of the 

shipments.



``I can't comment specifically on the dates times or schedules nor 

can I comment on whether they have begun or whether they arrived in 

South Carolina,'' he said.



The material has been the subject of a showdown between Gov. Jim 

Hodges and the Energy Department. Hodges once vowed to use state 

troopers to turn back the shipments unless given assurances South 

Carolina would not be a permanent home to the waste.



Hodges fought the shipments for more than a year, holding highway 

roadblock exercises and vowing to lie in front of trucks to keep the 

shipments from crossing the state line.



He lost a federal court fight aimed at blocking the shipments and was 

rebuked by a federal judge when he tried to ban shipments from the 

state after the ruling. He is waiting for a 4th Circuit Court of 

Appeals decision on the issue.



``I think it's bad for South Carolina,'' he said Thursday. ``We're 

going to keep fighting.''



The Energy Department plans to spend $4 billion on a facility that 

would convert 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium into 

fuel that can be used in nuclear power plants as part of a 

disarmament treaty with Russia.



On the Net:



Savannah River Site: http://www.srs.gov

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



U.S. Searches for Missing Material



DETROIT Aug 3 (AP) - Federal agents are searching for a shipment of 

possibly radioactive material unaccounted for after crossing the U.S.-

Canadian border at either Port Huron or Detroit in May.



Government inspectors first became aware of the missing shipment 

about a week after it crossed the border, in early June, officials 

said Friday.



Sensors to detect material at the border showed positive readings 

when checked days after the truck apparently passed, the Detroit Free 

Press reported Saturday.



White House officials said they were taking the missing shipment 

seriously, but pointed out the material could have been for a 

legitimate purpose, such as construction or medical supplies. They 

also said sensors could have shown a false positive reading.



``There is no intelligence information that indicates this is related 

to terrorism,'' said White House Office for Homeland Security 

spokesman Gordon Johndroe. ``We have no credible intelligence that 

indicates al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization has smuggled 

radioactive material into the country.''



Department of Energy nuclear emergency support teams have been 

searching Michigan and the northern Midwest, officials said.

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



Bruce Power moves up restart of Ontario nukes



NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Bruce Power said it expects to restart 

two 750 megawatt units at its Bruce A nuclear power station in time 

to meet next summer's peak electricity demand, several months ahead 

of its earlier schedule.



Company officials said the earlier restart was due to an accelerated 

hearing schedule with Canadian energy regulators.



"We understand our case will have to be made at the hearings to 

justify our restart ... (but we have) high confidence for a 

successful outcome," Bruce Power Chief Executive Duncan Hawthorne 

said in a statement this week.



With the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission hearing expected next 

February, Bruce Power said Bruce A unit 4 could start supplying 

energy as early as April of 2003, well ahead of its summer 2003 

objective.



Hawthorne also said unit 3 could be in service before next summer, 

further helping Ontario meet its power needs during the peak summer 

months.



Electricity demand typically peaks during the summer, when air 

conditioning accounts for about a third of all power used.



Ontario residents consumed an all-time record 25,342 MW of power on 

Thursday, while the Ontario grid imported some 3,000 MW from its 

neighbors in Manitoba and Quebec in Canada and New York, Michigan and 

Minnesota in the United States.



When both units return, Bruce Power will be able to provide another 

1,500 MW of electricity to the Ontario market the Bruce A station 

will provide Ontario with another 1,500 MW, enough to power about 1.5 

million homes.



Bruce A unit 4 was taken out of service in Dec. 1997 and unit 3 in 

May 1998. All four units of Bruce A were shut by the former Ontario 

Hydro, the owner and operator at the time. There are no plans to 

restart units 1 or 2.



Bruce Power estimated the cost to restore the Bruce A units at C$400 

million, which is above the company's initial C$340 million estimate 

due, in part, to security enhancements made after the Sept. 11 

attacks.



To date, Bruce Power has spent about C$195 million on the restart.



Since the province's electricity market opened to competition three 

months ago, Bruce Power said its four operating reactors at the 

Bruce B have worked at a capacity factor of nearly 100 percent.



Bruce Power is a partnership among British Energy Plc <BGY.L>, the 

UK's largest electricity generator, Canada's Cameco Corp. 

<CCO.TO> (15 percent), the largest uranium fuel supplier in the 

world, and the two main unions at the Bruce site, the Power 

Workers' Union (up to 4 percent) and the Society of Energy 

Professionals (up to 1.2 percent).

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



Russia: Iraq Reactor Plan May Change



MOSCOW (AP) - In an apparent bid to soothe U.S. concerns over 

Moscow's growing cooperation with Iran, Russia's nuclear ministry 

said Friday that an ambitious proposal to build six nuclear reactors 

in Iran was a blueprint and could be subject to change.



The government 10-year plan, which was released a week ago, proposed 

building five more reactors in Iran in addition to the one 

Russia is building at the Iranian port of Bushehr - a deal that has 

drawn strong U.S. criticism.



Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham reaffirmed Thursday that Russia's 

nuclear cooperation with Iran remains an ``utmost'' concern 

for the U.S. administration. ``It has been raised to the highest 

levels, we are in the middle of sensitive discussions on this 

matter,'' 

said Abraham, who together with Undersecretary of State John Bolton 

met with Russian Nuclear Energy Minister Alexander 

Rumyantsev on Wednesday.



Rumyantsev was scheduled to hold a news conference Friday to speak 

about his talks with U.S. officials, but it was abruptly 

canceled. Instead, Rumyantsev's ministry released a terse statement 

saying that the program of cooperation with Iran was not 

irrevocable.



The government program ``merely talks about the existing technical 

possibilities,'' the statement read. ``Their implementation will 

depend on many factors, including political.''



In response to the U.S. accusations that Russia's ties with Iran was 

helping advance its nuclear weapons program, the ministry 

reaffirmed that the nuclear cooperation with Iran was limited to 

building the reactor in Bushehr.



Since it was signed in 1995, the $800 million deal to build the 1,000 

megawatt pressurized water reactor in Bushehr has remained a top U.S. 

concern. Russia has shrugged off American protests, saying that the 

nuclear plant would only serve civilian purposes and remain under 

international control.



The controversy over Russia's links with Iran remains a major 

irritant in otherwise warm U.S.-Russian ties, ushered in by Russian 

President Vladimir Putin's support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan 

and other global action against terror after the Sept. 11 attacks.

***************************************************************

Sandy Perle				Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  

Director, Technical			Extension 2306 			

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service	Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.		E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 	

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  	E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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