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Salem Unit 1 Refueling Outage - Best Outage Ever
Index:
Salem Unit 1 Refueling Outage - Best Outage Ever
ScottishPower: Nuclear Energy Agreement Announcement
Citizens' groups propose nuclear-free zone in N.E. Asia
Nuclear disaster drill held in Fukui Pref.
S.Korea Warns North on Nuclear Issue
Duratek Signs Contracts $110.7 Million Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
=======================================
Salem Unit 1 Refueling Outage - Best Outage Ever
HANCOCKS BRIDGE, N.J., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Yesterday at
5:55 pm, PSEG Nuclear operators closed the breaker at Salem Unit 1,
reconnecting the unit to the PJM interconnect and ending the unit's
15th refueling outage. The outage lasted only 26 days, a new record
for duration for the Salem Units.
"This outage, we concentrated on better communications and teamwork
in the field, with an eye on working together to eliminate barriers
that could affect performance," said Harry Keiser, PSEG Nuclear
President and Chief Nuclear Officer. "This effort paid off in our
best outage ever at Salem."
This outage PSEG Nuclear also conducted a thorough visual examination
of the reactor head and found it to be in good condition. The
inspection team removed the insulation covering the head to perform
the inspections and as expected found no boric acid deposits that
would be evidence of a reactor coolant leak.
PSEG Nuclear operates Salem Units 1 and 2, two 1,150 megawatt
pressurized water reactors, and Hope Creek, a 1,100 megawatt boiling
water reactor. The units are located in Salem County, NJ. Salem Unit
1 is currently at 29% power and will gradually be brought up to 100%
power. Salem Unit 2 and Hope Creek continue to operate at 100%
power, with over 130 days of continuous operation.
--------------------
ScottishPower: Nuclear Energy Agreement Announcement
GLASGOW, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2002-- Further to the
announcements made on 16 July 2002, by ScottishPower, Scottish and
Southern Energy and British Energy (the Parties) regarding revised
terms of the Nuclear Energy Agreement (NEA), the Parties welcome
today's decision by Ofgem to approve the revised terms.
The revised terms have also been notified to the European Commission
with respect to the existing exemption of the NEA under Article 81(3)
of the EC Treaty and a response from the Commission is expected
shortly. A further announcement by the Parties will be made then.
-------------------
Citizens' groups propose nuclear-free zone in N.E. Asia
TOKYO, Nov. 7 (Kyodo) - Representatives of two Japanese citizens'
groups on Thursday announced a declaration urging that their proposal
for a nuclear-free zone in Northeast Asia be taken up in
normalization talks between Japan and North Korea.
Tokyo-based Peaceboat and Yokohama-based Peace Depot urged in their
declaration that North Korea reveal the facts of its nuclear weapons
development program, saying the existence of such a program would be
a flagrant violation of major international agreements.
The declaration also says that diplomacy by threats cannot resolve
problems and the United States should also take back its hostile
policy toward North Korea.
The two groups said they also plan to send a citizens' delegation to
North Korea in January to promote peace and nonproliferation of
nuclear weapons.
''The citizens will be the victims of the nuclear problem, and we
must have a pipeline for direct exchanges between citizens (of Japan
and North Korea),'' Peaceboat representative Mari Kushibuchi said.
---------------------
Nuclear disaster drill held in Fukui Pref.
FUKUI, Japan, Nov. 7 (Kyodo) - The central and Fukui prefectural
governments conducted a joint disaster-prevention drill Thursday in
the town of Oi on the assumption that radioactive materials were
leaking from a nuclear reactor.
Local residents, including people living at a facility for the
disabled, took part in the drill.
It is the third such a drill to be held by the state under a law on
disasters involving nuclear reactors that was enacted in December
1999 following the Tokaimura nuclear accident in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The drill was held on the assumption that the No. 3 reactor at the Oi
nuclear power station of Kansai Electric Power Co. had automatically
shut down because the reactor core was damaged and radioactive
materials were leaking from the reactor container.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi monitored the drill through a TV
conferencing system at his office in Tokyo.
He declared a state of nuclear emergency shortly after 8 a.m. and
instructed Fukui Gov. Yukio Kurita, who heads the local task force
for the emergency, to put priority on ensuring the safety of
residents, government officials said.
Officials from the Fukui prefectural government and Oi town gathered
and established the local task force to deal with a possible
disaster.
At Oshima Fukushi Gakuen, a facility for the disabled located about 1
kilometer from the reactor, some 50 residents wearing emergency
rucksacks left the place and headed for an evacuation center at
around 10:30 a.m.
Officials were also sent from neighboring Kyoto Prefecture under an
agreement for mutual assistance in emergency.
Also as part of the drill, Yosaku Fuji, president of Kansai Electric
Power, monitored development of the incident at the head office of
the company in Osaka, company officials said.
---------------------
S.Korea Warns North on Nuclear Issue
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea warned Thursday that inter-
Korean economic projects could be hurt unless North Korea resolves a
dispute over its nuclear program promptly, South Korean pool reports
said.
While avoiding a direct answer to the warning, North Korea appealed
for a continued expansion of inter-Korean cooperation, said the
reports from the North's capital, Pyongyang, where the two sides
opened two days of economic talks, the third since 2000.
The exchange took place amid tension over recent revelations by the
North's communist government that it has been secretly developing
nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United
States.
The United States, joined by its allies, has tried to gain
international support for its campaign to pressure North Korea to
give up its nuclear ambitions.
``In order to further enliven ongoing inter-Korean economic
cooperation, the nuclear issue should be resolved at an early date,''
the reports quoted Yoon Jin-sik, the chief South Korean delegate, as
saying in a speech at the start of the talks.
The chief North Korean delegate, Pak Chang Ryun, said only that his
country was ``seriously contemplating'' the issue, said the reports.
No foreign reporters were allowed to cover the talks.
The meetings were supposed to review inter-Korean economic projects
but South Korean officials made it clear that they could not move on
unless the nuclear dispute was resolved, the reports said.
After admitting to its nuclear program during meetings with U.S.
diplomats in Pyongyang in early October, North Korea later expressed
willingness to resolve the issue if the United States agrees to a
nonaggression treaty. Washington has ruled out any such discussions
unless the North abandons its nuclear ambitions.
Fresh from a visit to North Korea this week, Donald Gregg, a former
U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said Wednesday that North Korean
officials still support the 1994 nuclear pact, which they described
as ``hanging by a thread.''
The 1994 agreement requires North Korea to freeze and eventually
dismantle its nuclear program in return for two light-water reactors
to meet its energy needs.
North Korea has complained that the reactor project is years behind
schedule and not expected to be completed by 2003 as promised. The
U.S.-led international consortium building the reactors says 2003 was
a target date and not legally binding.
Three key members of the consortium - the United States, Japan and
South Korea - were scheduled to meet in Tokyo this weekend
to coordinate their strategy toward the North.
Reflecting North Korea's acute energy crunch, many residential
districts along the street from the airport to the city center in
Pyongyang were dark and without electricity, the pool reports said.
The reports quoted North Korean officials escorting the South Korean
delegation as saying that all available electricity was being
directed to help harvest fall crops.
``That's why we need South-North economic cooperation,'' an
unidentified North Korean escort said in the pool reports.
A group of high-ranking North Korean officials who ended a nine-day
study tour of South Korea early this week requested help in
rebuilding their country's dilapidated economy.
South Korea, along with the United States, is a major donor to
impoverished North Korea. It is currently in the process of sending
400,000 tons of free rice and 100,000 tons of free fertilizer to the
North.
------------------
Duratek Signs Contracts Valued At $110.7 Million for Hanford Waste
Treatment Plant
COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2002--Duratek, Inc.
(NASDAQ:DRTK) announced today that it signed two major
subcontracts worth a combined value of $110.7 million with Bechtel
National, Inc. (BNI).
BNI is the prime contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
for the design and construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment
Plant (WTP).
The Hanford WTP project is one of the DOE's largest and most complex
environmental cleanup projects. The ultimate objective of
the project is to treat 53 million gallons of high-level radioactive
waste stored in 177 underground tanks, at the DOE's Hanford Site in
Southeastern Washington State.
The first subcontract is for research, development, and testing of
pilot-scale melters and glass development formulation for the
vitrification systems. It is a multi-year subcontract with a period
of performance through September 30, 2006 with an estimated value
of $86.7 million over the subcontract performance period.
The second subcontract, a multi-year subcontract with a period of
performance through February 2006, will provide support to
Bechtel for the completion of the full-scale melter vitrification
system design, provide engineering support during melter system
fabrication, melter system assembly and melter system start-up and
commissioning support.
This subcontract is valued at approximately $24 million over the
subcontract performance period.
Robert Prince, Duratek's President and CEO stated, "This award
secures Duratek's key role on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant
project that the Company has been working on since 1998. These
contracts take us through the start-up of the facilities and
positions the Company for additional long-term contracts on the
project."
Duratek provides services and offers technologies for safely managing
nuclear facility operations, radioactive material, and radiological
protection.
-------------------------------------------------
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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