EU, Bulgaria reach deal on nuclear reactor closure

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

Index:



EU, Bulgaria reach deal on nuclear reactor closure

Liability dispute delays Russian nuclear sub clean-up

Parsons - Design New Facility Y-12 National Nuclear Security Complex

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



EU, Bulgaria reach deal on nuclear reactor closure



BRUSSELS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Bulgaria agreed on Monday to close two 

reactors at its Soviet-designed nuclear plant Kozloduy, removing a 

key obstacle to the Balkan country's efforts to join the European 

Union in 2007.



Bulgaria, which along with Romania has been left out of the EU's 

first wave of eastern enlargement in 2004, committed itself to 

closing the plant's number three and four reactors by 2006 but 

secured a last-chance "peer review" inspection from the EU to 

determine if they really are unsafe.



"We have ended this hard fight and secured the best possible terms," 

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy told a news conference after 

a round of accession talks in Brussels.



The closure of Kozloduy is very sensitive in Bulgaria as the plant 

produces about 40 percent of the country's electricity.



Sofia will close Kozloduy's first two units this year. The more 

modern reactors five and six will be allowed to stay open.



By agreeing to shut the third and fourth reactors, Bulgaria was able 

to conclude talks on energy, one of 30 policy areas, or negotiating 

chapters, which need to be agreed with the EU before any country can 

join.



The deal, which increased the number of chapters completed for 

Bulgaria to 23, augurs well for the country's plans to conclude 

accession talks next year and to join by January 1, 2007, at the 

latest, Passy said.



EU aid for closing the reactors still needs to be negotiated, he 

added.



Passy spoke after EU foreign ministers debated plans of the European 

Commission, the bloc's executive arm, to boost aid for Bulgaria and 

Romania to support their membership drive.



EU leaders are to make a final decision on the aid package at a 

Copenhagen summit in mid-December.



The Commission proposes that the two Balkan countries should see 

their shared pre-accession aid rise by 20 percent to 1.23 billion 

euros in 2004 over 2003.



The assistance -- to modernise transport infrastructure, clean up the 

environment, overhaul the farm sector and implement free market 

reforms -- would grow to 1.33 billion euros in 2005 and 1.43 billion 

euros in 2006.

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



Liability dispute delays Russian nuclear sub clean-up



VLADIVOSTOK, Russia Nov 19 (Reuters) - From the warm seas of Russia's 

Far East to the numbing cold of the bleak Northwest, scores of ex-

Soviet nuclear submarines rot in menacing silence, sinking rust 

buckets with the potential to devastate a continent.



But billions of dollars needed to help neutralize the environmental 

threat are on hold because Western states say Russia refuses to 

exempt them from legal liability should anything go wrong while they 

help Moscow clean up its mess.



Experts at an international forum in the Pacific port of Vladivostock 

said an inter-ministry fight, pitting Russia's Foreign Ministry 

against the Defense and Atomic Energy ministries, appeared to be at 

the heart of the controversy.



Russian scientists say the radiation locked inside the corroding 

hulls of 122 decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines, once the 

pride of the Soviet fleet, represents 3,000 times the levels of the A-

bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.



"Early generation submarines are in a desperate state because they 

were not designed with dismantling in mind," Ian Downing, the man in 

charge of British efforts to help Russia put its nuclear house in 

order, told Reuters.



"They haven't been looked after. They are sinking. Most of them have 

still got the spent fuel on board," while others risk capsizing, he 

said on the sidelines of the British-funded forum on decommissioning 

Russia's nuclear submarines. 	   



ALARM BELLS



Some fear that early submarines still have their weapons on board, 

corroded into place, said Downing, director of the Nuclear Industries 

Directorate at Britain's Department of Trade and Industry. "But 

that's informed speculation, shall we say."



Downing said he was absolutely mystified why Russia was refusing to 

grant Britain the same liability exemptions written into U.S. and 

Norwegian accords.



"Nuclear liability never goes away so you need to extend the 

exemption from liability into the future. All previous agreements 

with the Russians have done that.



"When we came to put that condition into our agreement, they said 

'No, we no longer accept the idea of continuing liability'.



"So we said to them, what about all these agreements you've already 

signed? To which they replied, 'They are not enforceable in Russian 

law.'



"That's set some alarm bells going around the world. It's one of the 

reasons the G8 Global Partnership might never fly, unless we get this 

issue sorted. So my parochial problem has become an international 

problem."



That agreement, forged during the June G8 summit of leading 

industrial nations in Canada, would provide Russia with $10 billion 

from the United States and $10 billion from the club's other rich 

members (excluding Russia) over a decade.



Several projects agreed with Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy only 

need the dispute to be resolved to commence. British Prime Minister 

Tony Blair raised the issue in Moscow talks with Russian President 

Vladimir Putin in October. 	   



SUMMIT HAGGLING



The liability issue "caused a lot of trouble at the Kananaskis 

summit," said one British official familiar with the debate. "It was 

quite clear, but not explicit, that they were trying to do a deal. 

They would give in on liability if the G7 would give in on debt 

relief.



"Because they've got into this wider kind of trading thing, they 

cannot do a deal that would undermine their wider objective," the 

official said.



U.S. projects are also suffering from the liability issue, says 

Dieter Rudolph, program director of the U.S. Arctic Military 

Environmental Cooperation program.



"We have been trying to get our own legal agreement for over three 

years and not had any success," said Rudolph, whose program comes 

under the U.S. Department of Defense.



He has only been able to help develop a spent nuclear fuel cask for 

U.S. and Russian submarines by using the existing Cooperative 

Reduction Threat program with Russia, which provides the legal 

protection Rudolph needs.



"I think we all have concluded that the problem really is within the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that their priorities do not appear to 

be the same as the priorities of the Ministry of Defense and the 

Ministry of Atomic Energy," Rudolph said. 	   



RUSSIAN DEFENSE



Valery Lebedev, Russia's deputy minister for atomic energy, told 

Reuters that the stumbling block was a gap in Russian legislation 

which needed "half a year" to be resolved.



"The law on civilian liability for nuclear damage has not yet been 

passed, but is being considered by the State Duma," Lebedev said. 

It has received a first reading already, he added.



The lower house of parliament had also yet to ratify the Vienna 

Convention on civil liability for nuclear damage, which sets minimum 

standards on financial protection against damage from peaceful uses 

of nuclear energy.



The Foreign Ministry, which has come in for most criticism over its 

"blocking" role, told Reuters after repeated requests for comment 

that its experts were unavailable.



The scale of the task facing Russia and whoever eventually agrees to 

help in the great Soviet nuclear clean-up is daunting.



Rough British estimates of the cost of cleaning up the Soviet nuclear 

legacy in the Northwest alone -- where around two-thirds of the 

submarines are anchored -- are enormous.



Defueling the fleet, placing the spent fuel in safe interim storage 

and a modest environmental clean-up program would cost $300 

billion-$400 billion over 30 to 40 years, they say.



Rudolph quoted Russian officials as saying 15 to 20 submarines in the 

Russian Far East were close to sinking, making defueling a 

doubly hazardous process. Two in fact sank, but were subsequently 

refloated.



But despite the frustrations, he retains a qualified optimism. "Five 

years ago when I started, I think the picture we had at that time 

was rather pessimistic.



"Since that time, Russia has put into place a concrete plan to 

address these issues, and we see a way ahead.



"But the two key issues are the legal agreement, the liability issue, 

and funding. But I think a lot of countries have the money 

available but can't spend it until this legal agreement is in place."

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



Parsons to Design New Facility at Y-12 National Nuclear Security 

Complex



PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2002--Parsons has been 

selected to design a new facility for highly enriched 

uranium at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, 

Tennessee. The Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility (HEUMF) 

has an estimated construction value of approximately $90 million and 

will be designed to store highly enriched uranium (HEU) in a 

safe and secure condition.



The HEUMF will be equipped with special monitoring requirements. It 

will also have contained processes and engineered controls to 

maximize worker safety. The facility will contain seismically 

qualified racks for the long-term storage of HEU materials in drums 

or 

special rackable can storage boxes. The HEUMF will provide the Y-12 

National Security Complex with modern materials storage 

facility designed for a 50 year operating life and will replace 

existing storage areas within the Y-12 buildings.



"Parsons is pleased to be selected for the HEUMF project. Our strong 

design and engineering capabilities will benefit the DOE as it 

creates a state-of-the-art facility for the storage of materials 

critical to national security," states Jack Scott, Parsons Group 

President.



Parsons was selected for the design because of its resource of highly 

qualified engineering and design personnel with DOE Q-level security 

clearances and its ability to meet special information security 

requirements. Additionally, the Parsons Oak Ridge office is located 

in close proximity to the complex site. Design of the facility is to 

be completed in November 2003.



"I am proud and excited that Parsons will have a significant role in 

the first major project toward modernization of the Y-12 National 

Security Complex," adds Chuck Bernhard, Manager, and Parsons Oak 

Ridge Operations.



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

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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