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Belgian lawmakers agree to shut down nuclear plants
Index:
Belgian lawmakers agree to shut down nuclear plants
Fire shuts AEP's Cook 1 nuke in Michigan
Hiroshima A-bomb found slightly more powerful than thought
Study Details Steps to Reduce Dirty Bomb Threat
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Belgian lawmakers agree to shut down nuclear plants
BRUSSELS, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Belgium committed itself to a nuclear-
free future on Thursday, passing a law to shut down the country's
seven nuclear reactors by 2025.
The move is controversial because Belgium gets nearly 60 percent of
its electricity from the reactors. The government will invest in
solar, wind and other renewable energy resources as well as build
more gas plants to compensate for the loss of nuclear power.
The bill follows a pledge by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt when he
took office three years ago and aims to eliminate the risk of a
disastrous accident at one of the reactors and reduce the dangers of
radioactive waste.
The decision by Belgium's upper house to approve the bill followed an
earlier vote by the lower house in December.
The bill 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.
-----------------
Fire shuts AEP's Cook 1 nuke in Michigan
NEW YORK, Jan 16 (Reuters) - An overnight transformer fire has shut
indefinitely the Cook 1 nuclear power plant in Bridgman, Michigan,
plant operator American Electric Power Co. <AEP.N> said on Thursday.
The fire in the main transformer at the 1,095 megawatt unit, one of
Michigan's biggest power plants, burned for 35 minutes before it was
put out by plant personnel. One worker was treated for smoke
inhalation, AEP said.
While the fire struck the non-nuclear part of the facility and posed
no danger to the public, it nevertheless prompted AEP to declare an
"unusual event," as required by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, the federal agency that oversees nuclear plant safety.
"Plant operators are investigating the situation," a Cook plant
spokesman said, adding there was no immediate word on when the unit
might resume generating electricity.
AEP, based in Columbus, Ohio, said they have a replacement
transformer available at the plant, which means the repair work would
likely take less time than if a new transformer had to be ordered and
transported to the plant.
The fire did not affect the neighboring Cook 2 power plant, rated at
1,090 megawatts, which continued to run at full power. Together, the
two Cook reactors generate enough electricity to power about 2
million homes.
The units are part of AEP's vast fleet of power plants, concentrated
in the Midwest. The company's generating capacity totals about 42,000
megawatts.
----------------
Hiroshima A-bomb found slightly more powerful than thought
HIROSHIMA, Jan. 16 (Kyodo) - The atomic bomb that was dropped on
Hiroshima in 1945 was slightly more powerful than had been thought,
according to a recent study by experts in Japan and the United
States.
The ''yield'' of the bomb was actually equivalent to 16,000 tons of
TNT explosive, a measure of force, rather than the previously thought
15,000 tons, according to the experts who will be making a
presentation on the subject at a meeting of Japanese and U.S.
researchers in California from Tuesday.
One of them, Masaharu Hoshi, a physics professor of Hiroshima
University, said Japanese and U.S. scholars last year revised the
estimated altitude where the bomb exploded over the western Japan
city to 600 meters from 580 meters.
They then came up with a new formula for computation that would wipe
out discrepancies between estimates of radiation doses and actually
reported doses, he said.
The U.S. scholars then proposed that it may be necessary to revise
the amount of atomic fission, which measures the force of explosion,
so that those estimates and the actual doses match.
The scholars from the two countries have since been working on this
issue, Hoshi said.
He said that the latest revision of the yield is unlikely to result
in changes to the estimated amount of radiation people were exposed
to in Hiroshima.
-----------------
Study Details Steps to Reduce Dirty Bomb Threat
WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Monterey Institute Center
for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) today released an assessment of
the security risks posed by commercial radioactive sources, an
important class of radioactive materials that might be used by
terrorists to fabricate a "dirty bomb."
Until recently, the security of common radioactive sources in
medicine, industry, and scientific research had not been perceived as
a major security concern. But the expressed interest of al Qaeda and
other terrorist groups in radiological dispersal devices (RDDs) has
caused policymakers to seek new measures to ensure these materials do
not fall into the wrong hands.
The report, part of an on-going CNS study on the "Faces of Nuclear
Terrorism," concludes that the challenge of securing commercial
radioactive sources around the world is difficult, but manageable.
It provides practical recommendations to government and industry
that, if implemented, could significantly reduce this component of
the dirty bomb threat over the next five years.
"Commercial Radioactive Sources: Surveying the Security Risks," by
Charles D. Ferguson, Tahseen Kazi and Judith Perera is available at
http://www.cns.miis.edu. Dr. Ferguson is scientist-in-residence at
the CNS Washington, D.C. office. Among the report's major findings:
-- RDDs or "dirty bombs" are generally not weapons of mass
destruction. Few, if any, people would die immediately after exposure
to the ionizing radiation from an RDD.
-- Only a small fraction of the radioactive sources in use today pose
inherently high security risks, and the great majority of these are
under regulatory control in advanced countries.
-- The production of commercial radioactive sources is concentrated
in a handful of countries and enterprises, creating regulatory
opportunities to ensure adequate security in recipient states.
-- U.S. and Canadian export licensing rules, typical of suppliers,
permit the export of most high-risk sources without any governmental
review of the credentials of end-users. Pending new regulations,
Canada has alerted exporters to verify the bona fides of end-users,
but the U.S. has not.
The CNS report urges that several high priority actions be taken to
combat the risks from commercial radioactive sources. These include:
-- Improving source controls by expanding programs to securely
dispose of sources no longer in use ("disused sources") and by
intensifying already active programs to track down and secure lost
and discarded "orphan" sources, especially in the former Soviet
Union.
-- Enhancing regulatory measures by assisting nations with weak
source security rules and by improving export control measures,
especially end-user checks.
-- Preparing now for RDD attacks. Although risks from radioactive
sources can be significantly reduced in coming years, the RDD threat
will never be eliminated. Through public education, training of
first responders, and active planning exercises the impacts of a
future RDD attack could be greatly mitigated.
-------------------------------------------------
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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