NEI Letter to Editor (NYTimes) re: Nuclear Plant Safety

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

Note: I will be out of the country Sept. 20 - 29 and there will be no 

news distributions during this time, depending on phone/internet 

connections.  



Index:



NEI Letter to Editor (NYTimes)  re: Nuclear Plant Safety 

Protests as nuclear cargo returns

TEPCO details problems with nuclear safety records

Abraham Urges 'Dirty Bomb' Action

Brazil acknowledges legal sales of uranium to Iraq

6 Japanese electric power firms to seek objectivity in reactor checks



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





Nuclear Plant Safety Surveyed Reactor Guards Feel Vulnerable 

(September 12, 2002) Letter to Editor NY Times



To the Editor:



Re "Surveyed Reactor Guards Feel Vulnerable" (news article, Sept. 

12):



All 103 of our nation's nuclear power plants meet exacting federal 

standards for security programs and for the 6,000 paramilitary 

officers who safeguard them. The plants are among the most secure 

facilities in our nation's infrastructure.



Nuclear plants are the only industrial facilities with established 

security programs that are scrutinized by federal regulators. These 

programs, in place for more than 25 years, are the benchmark for 

other industrial sectors. 



You report that Richard A. Meserve, the chairman of the Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission, said that, even before the Sept. 11 terrorist 

attacks, nuclear power plants "had significant security protections." 

That fact has been universally confirmed by the F.B.I., state 

homeland security officials and a host of governors and congressmen.



SCOTT PETERSON

Vice President

Nuclear Energy Institute

Washington, Sept. 13, 2002

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



Protests as nuclear cargo returns



London Sept 17 (BBC) Anti-nuclear campaigners have dubbed the return 

of radioactive waste to Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria a "degrading 

spectacle". Two heavily-guarded ships, flanked by police, returned 

the plutonium mixed oxide fuel (Mox) from Japan, where it was 

rejected three years ago, on Tuesday morning.  



About six boats of environmental protesters greeted the Pacific 

Pintail and Pacific Teal with a "visual protest" as they approached 

the specially-constructed docks complex. 



Greenpeace claimed there was enough plutonium on board the ships to 

make 50 nuclear weapons if they had fallen into terrorist hands. 

  

But the ships' owners British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) insisted the 

ships were safe - and that the fuel was not as dangerous as 

protesters believed. 



BNFL head of transport Malcolm Miller told the BBC: "The material 

we're carrying is uranium fuel with a small percentage of plutonium 

within it. 



"It hasn't been in a reactor so it's not particularly radioactive at 

all. It's a hard ceramic pellet material which is insoluble in water, 

so we consider it to be a safe transport." 



Campaigners from Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment 

(Core) criticised the scene at Barrow. 



Martin Ford from Core said: "This is a degrading spectacle for the 

town of Barrow. 



"I hope the general public here will question the necessity of having 

to go through this. 



"More importantly, we want to know who is going to pay for this 

massive security operation." 



But very few people turned up to protest on land. 



And other local residents, such as Paul Smith, 44, from Barrow, said 

the nuclear shipments did not bother them. 



"Everybody has got a right to protest haven't they? But it's [BNFL] 

keeping 10,000 people in a job at Sellafield for another five or 10 

years," said Mr Smith. 



The ships are returning five tonnes of Mox to Sellafield after it was 

rejected by Japan in 1999. 



Japan's largest nuclear company Tokyo Electric refused the 

consignment after BNFL admitted quality checks on the width of 

nuclear pellets was falsified by five staff at its Sellafield testing 

facility. 



BNFL was then forced to arrange for the controversial return 

transportation of the radioactive fuel. 

 

The fuel containers are bound for Sellafield

 

According to Greenpeace, the nuclear shipments have been condemned by 

80 governments who denied the vessels access to waters around their 

countries. 



The Pacific Pintail has docked and its cargo - under the guard of 

armed police - loaded onto a train to the Sellafield plant. 



The Teal, which is not thought to be carrying Mox, remains near the 

dock and is expected to unload at evening high tide. 



At Sellafield, the fuel will be stored until officials give the go-

ahead for recycling it into new fuel. 

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



TEPCO details problems with nuclear safety records



TOKYO, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc (TEPCO) said 

on Tuesday it acted improperly in 16 cases regarding the keeping of 

nuclear plant safety records, and that its chairman and president 

would step down over the scandal.



Japan's largest power utility said in a statement that the cases 

included the cover-up of cracks in the core shroud of the No.2 

reactor of its Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in northern Japan.



The shroud is a stainless steel cover that helps support the core 

reactor.



The Trade Ministry said on Friday that TEPCO could have breached the 

law in six of 29 cases in which it is suspected of falsifying nuclear 

safety records.



TEPCO said on Tuesday it had not detected any problems in the 

remaining 13 cases.



Chairman Hiroshi Araki and President Nobuya Minami would resign by 

mid-October to take responsibility for the scandal, TEPCO said, 

adding that they would become advisers to the power firm.



Toshiaki Enomoto, vice president and head of TEPCO's nuclear power 

department, will leave the company on September 30.



TEPCO also said that it planned to cut the salaries of 18 executives. 

Of those, the salaries of three executives would be reduced by 30 

percent for six months.



Minami could not rule out the possibility that TEPCO may revise down 

its earnings forecast for the year to March 2003 because of the 

scandal.



"We see additional fuel oil costs of about 100 million yen ($818,100) 

but it is still too early to say (about the outlook)," he told 

reporters.



TEPCO has restarted a 1.0 million kilowatt (kW) thermal power plant 

to make up for a shortfall in power supply due to the closure of 

several nuclear reactors for safety checks after the scandal came to 

light.



The six cases identified by the Trade Ministry relate to the 

Fukushima No.1 and No.2 nuclear power plants, where some reactors 

could have operated with unrepaired cracks, ministry officials said.



TEPCO had said some of its employees were involved in the 

falsification of nuclear plant safety records, believed to have 

occurred during inspections in the late 1980s and 1990s.



It said it planned to set up a third-party advisory committee 

consisting of outside experts to check its nuclear operations.



Revelations that TEPCO falsified records on nuclear plant safety 

checks have stirred safety concerns in Japan, which relies on nuclear 

power for about a third of its energy needs.

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



Abraham Urges 'Dirty Bomb' Action



VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham appealed 

Monday for concerted action to prevent nuclear material from being 

acquired by terrorists.



Speaking to the general conference of the International Atomic Energy 

Agency, Abraham urged delegates to act immediately to counter the 

threat of so-called ``dirty bombs'' - radiation weapons that rely on 

conventional explosives to blow radioactive material far and wide.



``After 9-11, there could be no doubt - if there ever was one in the 

first place, that terrorists could use nuclear materials to harm 

innocent civilians,'' Abraham said.



He urged world leaders to hold an international conference to discuss 

the threat posed by dirty bombs. The United States and Russia have 

already been meeting to discuss the issue, he said.



While nuclear warheads kill and destroy through the heat and blast of 

giant fission-fusion reactions, dirty bombs rely on conventional 

explosives to disperse radioactive material. The materials for a 

dirty bomb, like cobalt and iridium, are often used in medicine and 

industry.



While not as destructive as a traditional nuclear bomb, dirty bombs 

are easier to build and to use. Abraham pledged $3 million to the 

IAEA to help safeguard nuclear security.



Abraham made scant mention in his remarks about U.S. efforts to 

confront Iraq about possible nuclear efforts, referring briefly to 

President Bush's remarks at the United Nations last week.



Meanwhile, the atomic organization's secretary-general flatly 

declared that the delivery of a nuclear reactor to North Korea under 

a U.S.-brokered deal could be delayed because the government wasn't 

in compliance with agreements allowing inspections.



``If they do not want to delay the delivery of the reactor, they had 

better start cooperating right away - yesterday in fact,'' Director 

General Mohamed ElBaradei said.



The deal, negotiated under former President Clinton's administration, 

gave North Korea two light water nuclear reactors for power 

generation in exchange for abandoning its nuclear weapons program. 

They are to be delivered by 2005.



Under the plan, the IAEA is to inspect facilities to maintain that 

the nuclear material is not diverted for military use. The 

organization hasn't been give the access it needs, putting the 

planned delivery date in question.

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



Brazil acknowledges legal sales of uranium to Iraq



RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 16 (Kyodo) - The small amount of uranium Brazil 

sold to Iraq between 1979 and 1990 were traded legally and could not 

have been used to produce nuclear bombs, the Brazilian National 

Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) said Monday.



The commission was responding to a report in the British newspaper, 

The Times, which quoted an Iraq defector as saying the 

regime of Saddam Hussein could assemble a nuclear bomb within months 

using uranium purchased from Brazil.



According to the newspaper, ''The 1.3 tons of low-enriched material 

bought many years ago from Brazil'' was being enriched in Iraq 

for use in a nuclear weapon.



Brazil's official news agency Agencia Brasil said the International 

Atomic Energy Agency is about to release a statement on the 

case confirming the uranium from Brazil is not being used to produce 

an atomic bomb.



''All the nuclear material Brazil has exported to Iraq remains sealed 

and is not being used for nuclear purposes,'' CNEN chairman 

Jose Mauro dos Santos said.



The uranium sold to Iraq was extracted from mines in the southeastern 

state of Minas Gerais by the state corporation Nuclebras, 

which has since become defunct. The uranium was first shipped to the 

Brazilian Air Force's Center of Advanced Studies and then 

shipped to Iraq through the Port of Santos in Sao Paulo, according to 

the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo.



Brazil sold uranium to Iraq before the United Nations imposed 

restrictive measures on trade with the government of Saddam 

Hussein, according to the nuclear commission.



The uranium sold to Iraq was yellow cake, a type of mineral uranium 

in the first stage of enrichment, far from the stage of processing 

which allows the manufacturing of a nuclear bomb, the commission 

said.



The uranium sales to Iraq took place during the rule of the military 

regime, which ruled Brazil for more than 25 years from 1964 and 

which reportedly had plans to assemble a nuclear bomb and a nuclear 

submarine.

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



6 Japanese electric power firms to seek objectivity in reactor checks



TOKYO, Sept. 15 (Kyodo) - Six electric power producers will seek 

objectivity when they next conduct checks on their nuclear 

reactors in light of the cover-up scandal at the industry leader, a 

Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.



The firms said in the survey that they will do so by excluding 

directors in charge of nuclear power operations from a group 

responsible for checking the authenticity of previous internal 

inspections.



The move comes in response to criticism that Tokyo Electric Power Co. 

(TEPCO) fabricated for years its reports to a nuclear 

industry regulator about dozens of defects, including cracked 

shrouds, found at some of its nuclear reactors.



The survey covered nine electric power producers slated to begin 

checks into previous inspections to find out whether any reports 

had been fabricated. They are to submit by next Friday their plans 

regarding such checks to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety 

Agency.



Of the nine firms, Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Tohoku Electric Power 

Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Chubu Electric Power Co., 

Kansai Electric Power Co., and Shikoku Electric Power Co. said they 

will exclude from an investigative committee directors involved 

in nuclear power operations.



Kansai Electric said it will also set up an auditing group comprised 

of people from outside the firm to double-check the results of the 

upcoming checks, while Chubu Electric said nobody involved in atomic 

power operations will be part of the team to check its 

previous reports.



None of the firms surveyed has decided yet when to finish the 

upcoming checks, although Chugoku Electric Power Co. said it hopes 

to end them at year-end or by next March 31, the end of the current 

fiscal year.



The survey also showed that Tohoku Electric, Chugoku Electric and 

Japan Atomic Power Co. have outsourced their regular reactor 

inspections to General Electric International Inc., which was 

responsible for checks on some TEPCO reactors during which time TEPCO 

covered up some reactor defects.



Hokuriku said the American company had only checked its inspection 

equipment.



The survey also covered Kyushu Electric Power Co.



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

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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