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Japan Nuclear energy policies to stay intact despite false reports
Index:
Japan Nuclear energy policies to stay intact despite false reports
TEPCO president to quit over Japan nuclear scandal
Prosecutors seek jail terms in Tokaimura nuclear case
S.African court fines, expels Greenpeace activists
Brazil says summit considers boosting nuclear power
Feds Probe Ohio Nuclear Plant Owner
Entergy improves safety of NY Indian Pt nuke-NRC
===========================================
Japan Nuclear energy policies to stay intact despite false reports
TOKYO, Sept. 2 (Kyodo) - Japan will maintain its nuclear power policy and ensure
safety, despite confirmation by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) that its employees
have falsified reports on damage at nuclear power plants since 1986, top government
spokesman Yasuo Fukuda said Monday.
''We have no plan whatsoever at this moment (to review the policy). Ensuring safety is
of first priority, and nothing, including the environment and costs, is more important than
ensuring safety,'' the chief cabinet secretary said at a news conference.
Earlier Monday, TEPCO announced that its president and chairman -- Nobuya Minami
and Hiroshi Araki -- will resign to take the blame for cover-ups of damage at the utility's
nuclear power plants.
Speaking at a news conference, Minami admitted his company's employees were indeed
involved in the cover-ups, adding TEPCO will announce a set of measures to punish
those responsible after its full internal investigations are completed.
----------------
TEPCO president to quit over Japan nuclear scandal
TOKYO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The president of Japan's largest power utility said on
Monday he would resign along with four other senior executives to take responsibility for
a scandal over the suspected falsification of nuclear plant safety records.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) is suspected of 29 cases involving falsified repair
records at nuclear reactors.
"I deeply regret the incident and cannot apologise enough," President Nobuya Minami
told reporters. He said he would step down in October while TEPCO's chairman, a vice-
president and two advisers would resign by the end of September.
A reactor at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa power plant in Niigata prefecture, the world's
largest, would be shut down along with four other reactors for urgent safety checks,
TEPCO said.
The reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is one of eight suspected of operating with an
unmended crack in the shroud or other parts of the reactor. The shroud is a stainless
steel envelope that helps to encase and support the core reactor.
Minami said he believes TEPCO employees were involved in data falsification. But he
declined to elaborate, saying details of an in-house investigation would be released by
mid-September.
The scandal has fuelled public anxiety over the safety of Japan's nuclear power
industry, which provides about a third of the resource-poor country's electrical power but
has been heavily criticised for accidents in recent years.
TEPCO and other power utilities have been under intense pressure to cut costs in the
face of industry deregulation which has stoked competition since March 2000.
"It is truly regrettable that the company with strong influence is losing public trust over
this sort of problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters on Monday.
But he ruled out the possibility of a change in the nation's nuclear power policy.
TEPCO shares ended down 2.04 percent at 2,395 yen. The stock has lost about five
percent since last week when TEPCO admitted it may have falsified its safety records.
GOVERNMENT DISAPPOINTED
Minami said he may step down before mid-October, depending on the internal
investigation.
He added that some records may have been falsified in the latter half of the 1990s, more
recently than previously thought.
Early on Monday, he met Trade Minister Takeo Hiranuma who said he was disappointed
and felt Minami should step down, according to Vice Trade Minister Seiji Murata who
read a transcript of Hiranuma's conversation with Minami to reporters.
"This incident is truly unacceptable. It betrayed the public's trust over nuclear energy,"
Hiranuma told Minami, according to transcript. "The government is not in a position to
intervene in personnel issues but I think it is natural for you to resign as president."
Vice Minister Murata said TEPCO would stop operations at five reactors in three
different nuclear plants for inspection, each lasting about 40 days.
The three power plants include the world's largest nuclear power plant -- the 8,210
megawatt Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant -- as well as Fukushima No 1 and No 2 nuclear
power plants, all located in northern Japan.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for Japanese companies as they struggle to
rebuild public confidence after several scandals over product safety, the most recent
involving mislabelled beef at Japan's largest sausage maker, Nippon Meat Packers Inc.
It also deals a fresh blow to public confidence in nuclear safety following Japan's worst-
ever nuclear accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, 140 km (90 miles)
northeast of Tokyo, in September 1999.
That accident exposed hundreds of residents, plant workers and emergency personnel
to radiation. Two plant workers died.
--------------
Prosecutors seek jail terms in Tokaimura nuclear case
MITO, Japan, Sept. 2 (Kyodo) - Prosecutors sought prison terms Monday ranging from
two and a half years to four years for six officials of JCO Co., and a 1 million yen fine for
the company, in connection with a 1999 nuclear accident which caused two deaths and
exposed 663 people to radiation.
The prosecutors made their demands in their closing argument at the Mito District Court,
alleging that JCO and its employees placed priority on work efficiency and failed in its
duty to prevent nuclear accidents.
The six officials are charged with negligence resulting in death, and the company with
violating the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law.
The trial over the accident on Sept. 30, 1999 at a JCO facility in Tokaimura, Ibaraki
Prefecture, which was Japan's worst nuclear accident, began in April last year. The
plant is some 120 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
The prosecutors said in their closing argument that the nuclear accident greatly affected
the residents nearby and shattered the public trust in the safety of the nuclear industry.
It also led to great economic damage, they said.
The six accused, including Kenzo Koshijima, 56, who was the head of the uranium
processing plant in Tokaimura at the time of the accident, have pleaded guilty.
Tomoyuki Inami, president of JCO, a subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., earlier
entered a guilty plea on behalf of the company.
The prosecutors asked for a four-year prison term and a fine of 500,000 yen for
Koshijima, and sentences ranging from two years and six months to three years and six
months in prison for the other five.
The six accused were arrested in October 2000 and are charged with allowing
employees to illegally use buckets to pour a uranium solution.
During the trial, the prosecutors said the accident occurred because the accused failed
to educate employees on matters of nuclear criticality.
A nuclear fission chain reaction occurred when workers using buckets poured too much
of the uranium solution into a processing tank, bypassing several required steps,
according to the indictment.
Two workers -- Hisashi Ouchi, 35, and Masato Shinohara, 40 -- died of multiple organ
failure caused by exposure to radiation. Ouchi died in December 1999 and Shinohara in
April 2000.
The defense lawyers, while admitting the charges, maintain that the state bears some
responsibility for the accident.
They said examinations of the plant by the then Science and Technology Agency were
flawed and that the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., now known as
the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, made unreasonable demands that put
undue pressure on the company.
On the agency's flaws, the prosecutors said the accident came as a result of violations
by the company, and this factor will not change the criminal responsibility of the
accused.
The lawyers also said JCO had been taking disciplinary measures, including the
dismissal of Koshijima effective July 31.
The lawyers' closing arguments are expected to be delivered on Oct. 21.
The prosecutors earlier said Koshijima and other officials approved the illegal
procedures at an in-house safety committee in 1995, leading to compilation of an
unauthorized manual in 1996 that recommended the use of buckets to make the
uranium solution.
Koshijima and the five other officials are also charged with violating the Nuclear Reactor
Regulation Law by compiling the manual without reporting to the government.
Operators of nuclear facilities are required by law to obtain approval from the prime
minister before changing production methods.
-----------------
S.African court fines, expels Greenpeace activists
CAPE TOWN, Sept 2 (Reuters) - A South African court fined 12 Greenpeace activists a
total of 5,000 rand ($473) on Monday after they staged a protest at Africa's only nuclear
power station in an action linked to the Earth Summit.
Prosecutor Liesl America said the 12, who were from nine countries, were ordered to
leave the country.
They were fined 4,000 rand for entering the security area of the Koeberg power station
illegally on August 24 and a further 1,000 rand for failing to disclose the purpose of their
visit aboard the Greenpeace campaign ship Esperanza.
The activists had acknowledged guilt at an appearance last week and Monday's
proceedings at the Atlantis Magistrate's Court outside Cape Town were to pass
sentence.
The Greenpeace protest was the first by environmentalists linked to the World Summit
on Sustainable Development, which ends in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
A failure to agree targets for a switch from carbon-based to "green" energy continued to
divide the summit on Monday as world leaders arrived to finalise a programme to fight
poverty and protect the planet.
The court ordered the return of the activists' boats they used to enter the power station's
small harbour and the equipment they used to scale a five-storey pumphouse and hang
anti-nuclear banners.
"We are delighted that all the activists are now free to go home, but sad for South Africa
that they will leave behind a nuclear facility that can only bring long term pollution and
threat to the country," said protest coordinator Mike Townsley.
He said in a statement the ease with which the Greenpeace campaigners had gained
access to the plant about 30 km (20 miles) north of Cape Town showed its vulnerability
to terrorism.
Greenpeace said the 12 would leave South Africa aboard commercial flights later on
Monday.
---------------
Brazil says summit considers boosting nuclear power
JOHANNESBURG, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Brazil and green groups said on Sunday the
Earth Summit was considering giving a boost to nuclear energy, seen by
environmentalists as a pariah technology blighted by a poor safety record.
They said a paragraph proposed for inclusion in the summit agreement originally
intended to boost renewable energy such as solar and wind power had been amended
to included an open-ended reference to "energy technologies."
The reference, in a passage calling for diversifying energy sources and transfering
energy know-how to poor countries, would be seized on by the nuclear industry as an
opportunity to promote the controversial technology, Brazilian government delegates
and environmentalists argued.
"We do not believe this (paragraph) is the place to put nuclear," Brazilian Environment
Minister Jose Carlos de Carvalho told Reuters.
"This is absolutely outrageous," said Greenpeace policy director Remi Parmentier. "It
would open the way to increasing the world's share of nuclear power."
The clause is part of a sweeping United Nations plan for easing poverty while protecting
the environment which negotiators are struggling to agree before world leaders gather in
Johannesburg on Monday, hoping to sign off on the pact.
Delegates and environmentalists said the energy proposal had been made by the
United States late on Saturday and had the backing of OPEC oil producers and a
number of members of the G77 group of developing countries.
A U.S. delegate confirmed his team had put forward the proposal. Asked if the move
meant Washington was advocating nuclear power, he replied: "It is fair to say that we
advocate all forms of energy technologies."
PRESTIGE SUFFERED AFTER CHERNOBYL
Nuclear energy suffered a blow to its prestige when an blast took place at the Chernobyl
nuclear power station in the former Soviet Union in 1986, the world's worst civil nuclear
accident.
Green groups say nuclear power is not only unsafe but also produces waste which will
stay around for millennia.
But nuclear power still comprises about seven percent of world energy consumption,
especially in the centrally planned energy systems of Russia, Taiwan, the Koreas,
Japan, and France.
And partly because of its military applications, it still soaks up large amounts of taxpayer
money in rich countries.
Between 1974 and 1998, 51 percent of government research and development
spending on energy among the wealthy nations of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development went on nuclear power, although that proportion is now
declining.
Brazilian delegate Suami Coelho said: "The problem with this paragraph is that it
doesn't specifically exclude nuclear."
Green groups say the move threatens hopes of addressing climate change and
pollution.
Advocates of renewable energy say nuclear power plants are not only expensive but
also financially risky because of huge construction and repair costs and environmental
liabilities.
Greens argue that while nuclear plants do not produce the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide, the nuclear process is so expensive the same money invested in efficiency
measures or natural gas-fired power plants would offset more climate change.
Parmentier said: "Ever since we have been confronted with nuclear power we have seen
it was an fundamentally unsustainable technology. It creates very large quantities of
radioactive waste for which there is no solution.
"The proposal, which could be seen as opening the door for more nukes, is making a
farce of this entire summit."
----------------
Feds Probe Ohio Nuclear Plant Owner
CLEVELAND (AP) - Federal regulators are investigating whether the owner of a nuclear
plant where acid nearly ate through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap had altered records
about the damage, the company says.
FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Todd Schneider said Friday the utility was cooperating
with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but would not provide details of the
investigation at the Davis-Besse plant near Toledo.
``Allegations of altered documents and records are part of this investigation,'' Schneider
said.
The plant has been shut down since engineers discovered in March that boric acid had
nearly eaten through the steel cap on the reactor vessel. It was the most extensive
corrosion ever found on a U.S. nuclear reactor and led to a nationwide review of all 69
similar plants.
A second, smaller hole was found later at Davis-Besse.
The NRC has been investigating the corrosion and has said the leak that caused it
should have been spotted as many as four years ago.
Agency spokesman Jan Strasma would not say Friday whether officials were
investigating whether FirstEnergy altered records.
A coalition of 14 environmental and nuclear watchdog groups is urging the NRC to order
an independent review of the plant.
Coalition spokesman David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned
Scientists, said he was told by investigators that the NRC is investigating whether
FirstEnergy backdated videotapes, falsified documents and withheld a photograph to
make damaged to the reactor lid seem less severe than it actually was.
Workers removed the damaged reactor head Thursday and were to begin installing a
replacement. The plant is expected to be operational by October, Schneider said.
The coalition wants the NRC to delay the plant's restart until the agency finishes its
investigation.
-----------------
Entergy improves safety of NY Indian Pt nuke-NRC
NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Recognizing Entergy Nuclear's efforts to improve the
safety of the Indian Point nuclear station in New York, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said it changed the plant's safety ranking to "yellow" from "red."
"It's good to see the NRC recognized our efforts. We spent considerable resources both
monetary and personnel to improve the plant's performance and safety record," Entergy
Nuclear spokesman Jim Steets told Reuters early Friday. Plant operator Entergy
Nuclear is a subsidiary of New Orleans-based utility Entergy Corp. <ETR.N>.
The giant 951 megawatt unit 2, located just 35 miles north of New York City, was the
only plant in the nation still with a "red" finding on the NRC's color-ranking safety
system.
The NRC uses four colors to rank the safety of the nation's commercial reactor. A green
finding indicates little or no safety concern, while white, yellow and red findings show
increasing levels of problems.
Most of the nation's 103 operating reactors have "green" rankings. The plants with
white, yellow and red findings incur increasing levels of NRC oversight at company cost.
The NRC issued the "red" finding to Indian Point 2 in late 2000 following a reactor
shutdown with complications in Aug. 1999 and a steam generator tube failure in Feb.
2000.
Both events occurred while a unit of utility Consolidated Edison Inc. <ED.N> of New
York City still owned the plant. Entergy Corp. bought unit 2 in Sept. 2001.
The NRC said in a statement issued late Thursday that "Entergy has substantially
addressed performance weaknesses underlying those degraded cornerstones to
warrant the designation change."
The "yellow" finding, however, which was issued late last year as a result of control
room operator training deficiencies, will remain in effect.
Safety has long been an issue for Indian Point.
Residents who live near the plant have long opposed the continued operation of the two
reactors because of their spotty safety record and more recently because the station
could be a possible terrorist target, following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The NRC said it will discuss the performance improvements made by Entergy at a
meeting open to the public near the plant on Sept. 4.
***************************************************************
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: sperle@icnpharm.com
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/
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