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Belgian lower house passes nuclear phase-out bill



Index:



Belgian lower house passes nuclear phase-out bill

Minnesota fight looms over Xcel nuclear waste plans

AECL, Bechtel Forge Closer Ties on Advanced CANDU Reactor

NRC OKs output hike at Progress Energy's Fla. nuke

Irradiated Patients May Set Off Devices

Nev. Outlines Opposition to Waste Site

Leak Prompted Texas Reactor Shutdown

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



Belgian lower house passes nuclear phase-out bill



BRUSSELS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Belgium's lower house early on Friday 

passed a controversial bill to shut down the country's seven nuclear 

reactors by 2025, emulating similar moves by Germany and other 

European countries.



The Chamber of Deputies, which has been passing a slew of bills ahead 

of the Christmas holidays, approved the bill with 86 in favour, 49 

against and five abstaining, according to a chamber spokesman.



The move is controversial because Belgium gets nearly 60 percent of 

its electricity from the reactors, making it the country most 

dependent on nuclear power after France.



The bill, presented by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's cabinet, 

orders the shutting of the reactors after 40 years of use and bans 

the construction of new ones.



"The first reactors will be dismantled by February 2015, the last in 

2025," read a statement from Secretary of State for Energy Olivier 

Deleuze, a Green party member who championed the bill.



Electrabel, Belgium's dominant power utility that operates the 

reactors, denounced the vote.



"We deplore this decision because there is today not any single 

reason, be it technical, economic or ecological, to close the plants 

ahead of time," spokeswoman Francoise Vanthemsche told local VRT 

radio.



Its shares were off 0.3 percent at 236.30 euros.



VIABLE ALTERNATIVES?



Vanthemsche said the government should have conducted a study on 

viable alternatives to nuclear power before introducing such a bill.



The government will invest in solar, wind and other renewable energy 

resources as well as build more gas and co-generation plants to 

compensate for the loss of nuclear power.



The bill, which follows a pledge made by Verhofstadt when it took 

office three years ago, aims at eliminating the risk of a disastrous 

accident at one of the reactors and reducing the dangers of 

radioactive waste.



It goes next week to the Senate, which usually has one to two months 

to call a vote on a bill.



Politicians who opposed the bill doubted that the country would be 

able to meet its future energy needs without paying higher costs for 

it.



But Deleuze has argued that the gradual opening of the country's 

energy market to competition would keep the cost of electricity down.



He has also said the government is obliged to ensure the country gets 

the power it needs to function properly.



One study has foreseen the country relying on natural gas for 85 

percent of its energy needs. Such a heavy reliance on a single source 

has been seen as making the country vulnerable to fluctuating gas 

prices.



Belgium's dilemma is the same as that faced elsewhere in Europe, 

where nuclear energy meets about a third of consumers' needs.



Puilaetco analyst Sophie Rouard said in a research note that the 

motives behind the bill were political rather economic.



"We believe that the bill could still be reviewed (by) other 

governments if there are not enough replacement energy sources," she 

said.

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



Minnesota fight looms over Xcel nuclear waste plans



SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Environmental groups in Minnesota 

pledged to fight Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy's push to store more 

radioactive waste at its nuclear power plants in the state, a move 

likely to stir up debate over where to safely store the nation's 

increasing pile of used atomic fuel.



The battle is also expected to be a hot issue in the new Minnesota 

Legislature convening in January.



The nuclear power industry has been searching for a permanent dump 

site for more than 15 years but has run into tough opposition from 

environmentalists and state legislatures. A site has been selected in 

the Nevada desert but faces legal challenges and is not expected to 

be ready before 2010 at the earliest.



Minnesota environmentalists are angry that Xcel <XEL.N> is 

campaigning to relax state storage limits it agreed to in 1994, and 

they are pressing the company to develop more renewable power 

supplies like wind and solar electricity.



Minnesota chapters of the Sierra Club and the Clean Water Action 

Alliance said they will rally their 85,000 members and other 

environmental groups to thwart Xcel's effort to win the legislature's 

approval for more storage at its Prairie Island and Monticello 

nuclear stations.



"This will be a big fight. There is a broad consensus in the 

environmental community that Xcel has not pushed hard enough to move 

away from nuclear power and develop more supplies of renewable 

energy," Scott Elkins, director of the local Sierra Club, told 

Reuters.



PLANTS THREATENED



Xcel, in a report to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission 

Monday, said the state's limit on nuclear waste storage imposed in 

1994 likely will force the closing of the twin-reactor Prairie Island 

plant in 2007 and the Monticello single reactor in 2010 if more room 

is not approved.



The two plants produce about 1,700 megawatts of electricity, or power 

for 1.7 million homes. The stations -- Minnesota's only nuclear units 

-- account for about 11 percent of the company's total generating 

capacity at 80 plants it operates in six states.



The 1994 Minnesota law limited storage of used nuclear fuel at 

Prairie Island to 17 above-ground concrete containers known as dry 

casks, although the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission had 

permitted up to 48 casks.



The casks now are full, but there is still storage space in a waste 

pool at the plant, an Xcel spokeswoman said.



The Monticello plant puts its waste fuel in a storage pool, which 

will be full by 2010.



Like other nuclear plant operators, Xcel had expected used fuel 

eventually would be shipped to a federal nuclear dump.



Nuclear plants, which generate 20 percent of the nation's 

electricity, have about 44,000 tonnes of waste fuel stored in pools 

and casks -- enough to cover a football field 15 feet (4.6 meters) 

deep -- and are producing another 2,000 tonnes of waste each year.



NEVADA DUMP FIGHT



A $58 billion underground dump is scheduled to open in 2010 at 

Nevada's Yucca Mountain north of Las Vegas and store up to 70,000 

tonnes of radioactive waste for 10,000 years.



The state of Nevada, however, has refused to give up a long-running 

fight to block the waste project and is pursuing court challenges.



Xcel and other utilities also are pushing for a private temporary 

above-ground dump on Indian-owned land in Utah.



In Minnesota, the Prairie Island Indian Community, which is next door 

to Xcel's plant, opposes more storage but said "the tribe has been 

willing to sit down with Xcel and the state to discuss possible 

solutions that would address the tribe's health and safety needs, and 

allow the plant to continue operating."



Others, however, insist that Xcel must stick with the 1994 limits. 

"This debate already happened and a decision was made in 1994 that if 

there was no storage outside Minnesota, then the plant must shut 

down," said Diana McKeown, energy program coordinator for Clean Water 

Action Alliance.



McKeown and the Sierra Club's Elkins also said nuclear plants and 

radioactive waste make tempting targets for terrorists, so Minnesota 

should develop more safe, clean and renewable energy to displace 

nuclear power.



"Security was not on the radar screen in 1994 when the limits were 

set. Now it is a major concern," Elkins said.



Dave Sparby, vice president of regulatory and government affairs at 

Xcel, said "we will ask the legislature to act in 2003 because, if 

nuclear generation is to remain in the state's energy mix, we need to 

make many decisions soon to keep our two nuclear plants operating in 

the future."



If nuclear is not in the mix, Minnesota will have to line up 

replacement power, Sparby said.

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



AECL, Bechtel Forge Closer Ties on Advanced CANDU Reactor



WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atomic Energy of Canada 

Limited (AECL) and Bechtel today announced they will work together on 

the deployment of the Advanced CANDU Reactor(TM) (ACR(TM)).



AECL President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Van Adel and 

Bechtel Nuclear President James Reinsch said that AECL and Bechtel 

will establish a project team in Bechtel's Frederick, Maryland, 

office for the deployment of the ACR in the United States. According 

to Van Adel, the agreement combines AECL's expertise as an innovative 

technology developer and international project manager with Bechtel's 

premier engineering and project management skills.



The ACR is an evolutionary design based on AECL's well-proven 700-

megawatt class CANDU nuclear power plant. It features light-water 

coolant, heavy-water moderator, and slightly enriched fuel. The ACR 

represents a competitive package geared to a 36-month construction 

schedule. It currently is in preapplication review with the U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission and has a parallel licensing track with 

the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.



Reinsch stated that "AECL and Bechtel have had a successful project 

with the construction of two CANDU 6 reactors at the Qinshan Phase 

III site in China. The new ACR agreement is as a logical extension of 

this relationship." First electricity has been generated by one unit 

in China and both units will go on line in 2003. The project is on 

budget and ahead of schedule.

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



NRC OKs output hike at Progress Energy's Fla. nuke



NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

said Friday it approved a request by Progress Energy <PGN.N> unit 

Florida Power Corp. to increase the generating capacity of the 

Crystal River 3 nuclear unit in Florida by 0.9 percent, or 8 

megawatts.



The generating capacity at the unit, located near Red Level, Florida, 

will immediately increase to 903 megawatts, the NRC said in a 

statement.



One megawatt of electricity is roughly enough to power 1,000 homes.



The NRC said it approved the increase after publishing a notice about 

the application in the Federal Register, providing the public an 

opportunity to comment or request a hearing.



No comments or hearing requests were received, the NRC said.



The agency added that its safety evaluation focused on several areas, 

including nuclear steam supply systems, instrumentation and control 

systems, electrical systems, accident evaluations, radiological 

consequences, operations, and other technical specification changes.

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



Irradiated Patients May Set Off Devices



CHICAGO (AP) - Patients treated with radioactive materials may be 

setting off anti-terrorism devices installed in public places, 

according to a medical journal letter detailing a case that occurred 

in the New York subway.



The case involved a 34-year-old man with a thyroid condition who was 

being treated with radioactive iodine.



Three weeks after treatment, he complained to his doctors that he'd 

been strip-searched twice at Manhattan subway stations.



``Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained 

him for further questioning,'' according to the letter in Wednesday's 

Journal of the American Medical Association.



``He returned to the clinic and requested a letter stating that he 

had recently been treated with radioactive iodine,'' said the letter 

from Drs. Christoph Buettner and Martin Surks of Albert Einstein 

College of Medicine.



The experience suggests that radiation detection devices are being 

installed in public places in New York and perhaps elsewhere and that 

patients should be informed of the potential problem, the doctors 

said.



They said they called New York's terrorism task force for advice and 

were told that doctors should give patients letters describing the 

isotope used, its dose and date of treatment. Such letters should 

also include doctors' phone numbers to allow police to verify the 

information, the physicians said they were told.



``Even in the best-case scenerio, however, the patient would have to 

wait during this verification process,'' the doctors said.



Patients may choose to avoid public transportation to escape the 

problem, the doctors said.



Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority 

in New York City, said he knew nothing of the man's case or the 

journal letter.



Michael O'Looney, spokesman for the New York Police Department, said 

police have no record of the incident and have not developed any 

official policy for such circumstances.



Radioactive materials have a variety of medical uses, including 

cancer treatment and diagnostic imaging tests. In the case detailed 

in JAMA, it was used to treat Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder 

that causes excessive production of thyroid hormones.



Former President Bush was treated for the condition with radioactive 

iodine in 1991.

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



Nev. Outlines Opposition to Waste Site



WASHINGTON (AP) - A decision to bury thousands of tons of nuclear 

waste in Nevada should be overturned because the government cannot 

assure the site's geology will keep radiation from seeping into the 

environment, the state of Nevada argues in a court filing.



The brief, filed in a suit challenging the decision to entomb the 

waste at Yucca Mountain, maintains that the Energy Department 

violated the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act by resorting to 

``engineered barriers'' to contain the waste.



In papers filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, 

the state argues that the Bush administration was 

``essentially abandoning'' the 1982 law's ``mandate that the site's 

geology form the primary isolation barrier'' in selecting the Yucca 

Mountain site for waste burial.



The mountain is a ridge of volcanic rock and ash about 90 miles 

northwest of Las Vegas, adjacent to the Nevada Test Site. Last 

February, President Bush declared it scientifically suitable and safe 

as the nation's central repository for 77,000 tons of waste from 

commercial reactors and the government's nuclear weapons program.



After Nevada challenged the decision, Congress endorsed the 

president's declaration in July and overturned what could have been a 

veto of the site by Nevada. The Energy Department is seeking a 

license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and hopes to open 

the waste repository by 2010.



But Nevada, joined by the city of Las Vegas and surrounding Clark 

County, has promised to continue the fight in court and filed a 

number of lawsuits challenging the project.



In a 100-page filing in support of its lawsuit before the appeals 

court, Nevada contends that the 1982 law that directed construction 

of 

a federal nuclear waste repository specifically required that natural 

geology at the site ``form the primary barrier keeping waste from 

people and the environment'' over tens of thousands of years.



The suit also argues that the Energy Department conducted a ``flawed 

environmental review'' of the Yucca site, disregarded 

procedures required under the law in determining the site's 

suitability and failed to assess adequately problems involving the 

transportation of waste to the site.



Yucca Mountain initially was chosen because Energy Department 

scientists believed it had the geology required to contain the 

waste. They later found it did not and adopted a ``total system 

performance'' approach in violation of the 1982 law, the state argues 

in its suit.



Now, the suit maintains, the project relies extensively on manmade 

barriers - metal alloy waste containers and drip shields, for 

example - to keep waste from escaping.



The Energy Department had no immediate response to the Nevada court 

filing.



Nevada officials have made similar arguments repeatedly in public 

meetings and in outlining their opposition to the Yucca Mountain 

project over the years.



Energy Department officials have maintained the site is in full 

compliance with the 1982 requirements, it relies on geology to 

contain 

the waste and the engineered barriers only provide additional 

protection.



Congress declared in 1987 that Yucca Mountain should be the only site 

to be considered for nuclear waste disposal. Since then, 

nearly $7 billion has been spent on studying the area's geology and 

developing a waste package and design.



On the Net: Energy Department's Yucca Mountain site: 

http://www.ymp.gov/



Nevada Yucca Mountain site: 

http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/yucca/state01.htm

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



Leak Prompted Texas Reactor Shutdown



DALLAS (AP) Dec 3  - A reactor at a Texas nuclear power plant was 

shut down after a leak of radioactive water, leading to 

government scrutiny of the utility's plan for finding such leaks.



Operators shut down the TXU Energy's Comanche Peak twin-reactor plant 

well before leakage exceeded federal guidelines, TXU 

spokesman David Beshear said Tuesday. They have since repaired 

leaking and corroded lines.



``There was never a danger to the safety of the plant, the safety of 

the employees or the safety of the public,'' he said. Comanche 

Peak is about 80 miles southwest of Dallas.



A report by Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors said radiation 

monitors inside the plant's Unit 1 sounded alarms after 

recording high radiation readings on Sept. 26.



Radiation levels peaked six more times before operators shut down the 

reactor two days later, the inspectors said.



The leak was found in a small tube carrying radioactive water in one 

of four generators that make steam to turn the reactor's electric 

turbines.



The utility's own report to the NRC said a subsequent TXU check found 

corrosion in 667 other tubes in Unit 1, but none was leaking. 

That number, according to TXU, represented more than 3 percent of the 

tubes.



NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said an inspection of the plant focused on 

Comanche Peak's system for finding and responding to 

leaks.



``What we're interested in is whether they should have picked up on 

this earlier,'' he said.



The utility said it was the first unplanned shutdown of the plant, 

which returned to service Nov. 11.



David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer with the Union of Concerned 

Scientists, said the leak could have quickly developed from 

debris in the water or over time if corrosion had been overlooked.



``If it was missed and they had the opportunity to prevent this in 

the past and missed it, that's one thing,'' he said. ``But if it 

happened randomly, then there was nothing they could do to prevent 

this.''



Lochbaum said similar leaks have shut down about a dozen plants in 

the past decade.



The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, Ohio, has been shut 

down since February because an accumulation of acid nearly ate 

through a 6-inch-thick steel reactor cap. That leak, discovered in 

March, was the most extensive corrosion ever found on a U.S. nuclear 

reactor and led to a nationwide review of 69 similar plants.



On the Net:



Comanche Peak: http://www.txu.com/us/ourbus/elecgen/comanche.asp



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

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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