China wants to join int'l thermonuclear reactor project

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

Index:



China wants to join int'l thermonuclear reactor project

GE unit to compensate Japan's TEPCO for reactor checks

Water leak found at TEPCO nuke reactor in Niigata Pref.

Corrosion Found at TVA Nuclear Reactor

Ex-Pa. Nuke Workers Seek Compensation

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



China wants to join int'l thermonuclear reactor project



TOKYO, Jan. 23 (Kyodo) - China has officially expressed its desire to 

participate in a project to build an international thermonuclear 

experimental reactor (ITER), Japanese government officials said 

Thursday.



Beijing notified the participating governments, namely Japan, Europe, 

Russia and Canada, early this week through its embassies, they said.



Last December, China attended an ITER intergovernmental meeting in 

Spain as an observer.



Analysts said they believe China will not propose a site of its own 

for the construction of the reactor.



''In addition to sharing the construction cost, perhaps we can also 

look forward to (China's) support for the village of Rokkasho in 

Aomori Prefecture that Japan is proposing'' as a site candidate, an 

official of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and 

Technology said.



China's participation is expected to be discussed at the next 

conference on the project, scheduled to be held Feb. 18 in St. 

Petersburg, Russia.

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



GE unit to compensate Japan's TEPCO for reactor checks



TOKYO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - A General Electric Co unit said on Thursday 

it would pay compensation to Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc for its 

failure to fully implement contracted safety checks on one of TEPCO's 

nuclear reactors.



A spokeswoman at Tokyo's General Electric International Inc (GEII), a 

GE affiliate, said the company had acknowledged its failure to meet 

the terms of a maintenance contract with TEPCO.



"We have agreed to pay compensation," she said, adding that she did 

not know how much TEPCO was seeking.



A spokesman at TEPCO, Japan's largest power utility, said: "We have 

told GE of our decision to seek compensation...and we will begin 

taking the necessary steps."



He declined to comment on a figure for the compensation.



GEII's error came to light after revelations last August that TEPCO 

had falsified safety data at its reactors.



Following those revelations, TEPCO has been conducting safety checks 

on all its nuclear reactors. During the course of these checks it 

discovered a crack that went virtually all round a portion of the 

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa No 2 reactor's core shroud.



The TEPCO spokesman said a subsequent investigation revealed that 

GEII had failed to check all 34 areas that it was contracted to do 

during routine checks in January 2001 at the nuclear reactor, which 

is located in Niigata prefecture in northern Japan.



The GEII spokeswoman said it had acknowledged the mistake in a report 

on its own investigation into the matter, which it had submitted to 

TEPCO on Wednesday.

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



Water leak found at TEPCO nuke reactor in Niigata Pref.



TOKYO, Jan. 23 (Kyodo) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) discovered 

a water leak in the No. 2 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear 

power station in Niigata Prefecture during an inspection Thursday, 

the company said.



There was no external radiation leak, TEPCO said.

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



Corrosion Found at TVA Nuclear Reactor



CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - Leaking reactor coolant caused minor 

corrosion to a reactor at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Sequoyah 

nuclear power plant but was never a safety problem, a Nuclear 

Regulatory Commission spokesman said.



It was the second case of boric acid corrosion in the nuclear power 

industry since more severe damage was reported in March 2001 at the 

Davis-Besse plant in Ohio.



The damage at the Sequoyah plant's Unit 2 reactor was discovered 

following an unrelated shutdown on Dec. 26, according to an NRC 

notice.



``It is just some residue with slight corrosion, but they did find it 

and they didn't find any evidence of serious problems elsewhere,'' 

Ken Clark, an Atlanta region spokesman for the NRC, said Tuesday.



TVA spokesman John Moulton said the corrosion at the Sequoyah plant 

near Soddy-Daisy caused a ``slight indentation on the reactor vessel 

head that did not require repair.''



``NRC was notified, but there was no threat to the health and safety 

of employees and the public,'' Moulton said Tuesday. He said the leak 

was repaired and the reactor was returned to service.



The NRC notice said the corroded area was about 0.125 inches deep and 

about 4.6 inches long.



In 2001, workers at the Davis-Besse plant near Toledo found a 

pineapple-sized hole etched through a reactor's 6-inch-thick steel 

lid. Only a thin liner prevented radioactive coolant from spilling 

out of the reactor. More than $400 million is being spent on repairs.



In November, boric acid corrosion from a coolant leak was discovered 

at TXU Energy's Comanche Peak plant in central Texas, the NRC said.



TVA operates five nuclear reactors in Tennessee and Alabama as part 

of a system that provides electricity to 8.3 million people in 

Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, 

Georgia and Mississippi.

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



Ex-Pa. Nuke Workers Seek Compensation



NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. (AP) - Every week, 72-year-old Floyd Clark meets 

half a dozen of his old work buddies at the local Eagles Club to talk 

about building nuclear reactors for submarines during the Cold War.



But the men - retired machinists and maintenance workers from the 

former Westinghouse Government Services Co. in nearby Cheswick - 

aren't there to reminisce.



They're busy planning to lobby Congress to include the nuclear 

reactor plant in a federal program that gives $150,000 payments and 

medical care to Cold War-era workers who became ill from overexposure 

to radioactive materials or beryllium, a metal that can cause lung 

disease.



The retired workers believe they - and possibly more workers around 

the country - were victims of a bureaucratic oversight when Congress 

approved the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation 

Program.



The workers said they built reactors for the Navy's nuclear 

propulsion program. But Cheswick was categorized as a commercial 

nuclear plant and didn't qualify as an approved Energy Department 

facility nor an atomic weapons employer, said Kevin Davis, spokesman 

for the Office of Naval Reactors.



As a result, most of the 1,600 people employed during the height of 

Cheswick's production - except those who worked at the plant's 

nuclear fuels division between 1971 and 1972 - were excluded from the 

benefits.



``They're compensating the people who made the bullet, not the gun 

that shot the bullet,'' said retired maintenance worker Alan Beattie, 

70, who had benign tumors removed from his chest.



The compensation program was primarily intended to provide for 

workers whose health was affected by nuclear weapons-related work 

done for the Energy Department or its contractors, Davis said. So 

far, the Energy Department has identified 350 facilities.



The exclusion of Cheswick came as a shock to the workers. They said 

the plant, about 25 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, built reactors for 

many of the Navy's atomic submarines.



``We just couldn't believe we weren't included in that list. 

Westinghouse-Cheswick was probably known more for conducting nuclear 

work than any place around (western Pennsylvania),'' Clark said.



The Labor Department will only pay those who worked at an approved 

facility during the arms buildup and who prove they developed cancer 

or another qualified illness, program director Pete Turcic said. 

Expanding the program would take an act of Congress, Turcic said.



That's exactly what the former Cheswick workers have set out to do. 

At least 120 former workers at the plant have been found to have 

developed cancer or other illnesses, said Anthony Cortazzo, president 

of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1914. 

Some have died and their claims are being carried on by surviving 

family members.



Organizers plan to hold a meeting Feb. 9 to rally more people to 

their cause.



Cheswick workers contend that any monitoring done at the plant would 

have been insufficient because radiation detection was still 

primitive. Retired maintenance worker and cancer survivor Dan 

Moretti, 72, said many workers didn't know how to use monitoring 

devices and plant safety officials wouldn't have known how much 

radiation was too much.



The men say they wore cotton jumpsuits in and out of ``hot'' zones 

and only occasionally wore a cotton mask.



``We were required to change and shower after work, but when we ate 

lunch, we ate with our work clothes on,'' Clark said.



Critics also say the compensation program has been too slow. Clark's 

attorney, Philip McCalister, said two of his clients who received 

approval have yet to receive their checks.



In the two years since the program began accepting applications, 

nearly 38,000 claims have been filed, according to the program's most 

recent figures. Of that, 7,022 have received final approval and 6,711 

have been denied.



Workers say they are optimistic about being included in the program 

and are encouraged by the support of Reps. Melissa Hart and John 

Murtha. But as retirees get older and even more dying, those leading 

the charge call it a race against time.



``The idea now,'' Beattie said, ``is to outlive the decision.''



On the Net:



Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation, Labor Department: 

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/owcp/eeoicp/main.htm



International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: 

http://www.ibew.org/index.html



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

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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