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U.S. to rejoin international fusion project
Index:
U.S. to rejoin international fusion project
Pa. Nuclear Plant Declares Emergency
NY struggles with Indian Pt nuke evacuation plan
Los Alamos whistle-blower suspended, group says
Scant Compensation for Sick Nuke Workers
UN confident no plutonium gone from Japan nuclear plant
================================
U.S. to rejoin international fusion project
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (Kyodo) - The United States said Thursday it will
rejoin a major international research project to generate electrical
power through nuclear fusion.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced the administration's
decision at a speech at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New
Jersey, calling it an ''essential next step in the U.S. energy
research program.''
Abrams said the U.S. will join the negotiations for the construction
and operation of a thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), a
project now undertaken by Canada, the European Union, Japan and
Russia.
The four members have been negotiating ITER construction and
operation since last year, and China has recently joined the
negotiations as well, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
ITER would be the first fusion device to produce a burning plasma and
to operate at a high power level for sustained periods of time.
The U.S. withdrew from the project in 1999, citing among other things
the ITER construction cost.
Japan, Russia, and the EU have since redesigned the proposed
experimental reactor and have come up with a new plan which would cut
costs in half. The three parties have been calling the U.S. to rejoin
the project since.
Although the project would cost $5 billion, the U.S. estimates the
actual cost shared by the U.S. would be around 10% of the total.
Under a new proposal, all parties agree to share the cost and provide
the components in kind.
The U.S. plans to send scientists to an ITER meeting scheduled in St.
Petersburg in Russia next month, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
------------------
Pa. Nuclear Plant Declares Emergency
BERWICK, Pa. (AP) - A higher-than-normal release of radioactive gas
from a nuclear power plant prompted officials to declare a low-level
emergency Wednesday night, but they said the public was never in
danger.
The higher-level release from the PPL Susquehanna plant near Berwick
lasted less than an hour, company spokesman Herbert D. Woodeshick
said.
The release had twice the radioactivity of normal gas releases but,
because levels are normally low, there never was a threat to the
public, Woodeshick said.
The plant continued to run at full power, and the cause of the
incident was under investigation, Woodeshick said.
The release was classified as an ``unusual event,'' the lowest of the
four emergency classifications established by the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for nuclear power plants.
--------------------
NY struggles with Indian Pt nuke evacuation plan
NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - While New Yorkers struggle to come up
with a better evacuation plan for neighbors of the Indian Point
nuclear power plant, federal officials said on Thursday they still
back the existing plan.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) told Reuters it is
supporting the old plan while working on improvements to enhance
security. Local governments that argue the evacuation plan is
inadequate want the plant shut down immediately.
However, only the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) can
shut a reactor and only after giving the plant owner a chance to
correct any problems.
New York Gov. George Pataki has until Friday to decide whether to
review and approve the current plan and send it to FEMA, which is
something he must do every year by January 31 or ask for an
extension.
Dennis Michalski, a spokesman at the state's Emergency Management
Office, said it would be difficult for the governor to certify the
plan since the four counties near the giant plant have already said
they cannot support the plan.
Indian Point came under close scrutiny by the counties after the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center, just 40
miles south of the plant.
The governor said in a statement on Thursday that he "strongly urged
FEMA and the NRC to consider the concerns raised by the counties and
continue working with the state to ensure that these plans will
protect our residents in the event of a nuclear emergency.
Several groups that want Indian Point shut down hope the governor's
rejection would be the first step toward achieving their goal.
Closing Indian Point, which generates about 20 percent of New York
City's electricity, would come at a tremendous cost.
Entergy Corp. <ETR.N>, the New Orleans-based energy company that
owns Indian Point, would likely sue to recover any losses linked to a
closure.
At the same time, regional energy officials have raised concerns that
shutting one of the most economical plants in the state would boost
electricity costs while putting power-starved New York City at risk
of California-like blackouts.
WHAT FEMA DOES
FEMA evaluates state and local drills and plans to ensure public
health and the safety of residents living in the vicinity of a
nuclear power plant.
FEMA has not finished its review of the latest emergency planning
exercise at Indian Point but is widely expected to recommend changes
that address some local concerns.
The latest practice drill of the emergency plan at Indian Point was
in Sept. 2002. Federal law requires that such drills are conducted
every other year.
During a drill, plant workers and local and state law enforcement and
emergency services respond to a mock emergency.
Because of concerns following the World Trade Center attacks, the
governor hired James Lee Witt -- the former head of FEMA -- to
conduct an independent evaluation of the 2002 drill at Indian Point.
His report, issued a few weeks ago, found the current evacuation plan
for Indian Point would not adequately protect residents in the event
of a disaster.
The independent report made several recommendations for improvements,
which FEMA said it was incorporating into its own report to be issued
in the coming weeks.
After FEMA issues its report and makes a recommendation to the NRC,
it is up to the NRC to determine what steps, if any, Indian Point
needs to take to improve its emergency planning.
------------------
Los Alamos whistle-blower suspended, group says
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico (Reuters) - The Department of Energy has
suspended a senior safety manager at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL) without explanation after he criticized the lab for the unsafe
storage of plutonium-contaminated waste, a watchdog group said
Wednesday.
DOE officials deny the suspension had anything to do with the
employee's safety investigation, but critics of the lab say the
action is another example of whistle-blower retribution at the
nuclear lab that developed the first atomic bomb.
Christopher Steele worked for the Department of Energy's National
Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) and was in charge of ensuring
the laboratory followed federal nuclear safety requirements. He was
put on administrative leave without pay in November, said the Project
on Government Oversight, which has made public charges about a number
of problems at the lab.
A spokesman for NNSA confirmed that Steele was on administrative
leave but said the move had nothing to do with the charges outlined
by the watchdog group. Officials at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory would not comment and Steele was not immediately available
for comment.
"LANL was unhappy with him because he wasn't signing off fast enough
on safety requirements," said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator
with the group in Washington, D.C.
Steele charged in a memo in August 2001 the lab had conducted
unauthorized and unsafe storage of nuclear waste, Stockton said.
"They believed he was a thorn in their side, and bang, he's gone,"
Stockton said.
Steele was investigating, among other things, the storage of
radioactive waste - mostly clothing, tools and other contaminated
items - that was being kept temporarily in a steel shed. The storage
did not meet federal safety requirements, Stockton said.
The Energy Department fined the lab $220,000 in late December for a
serious breach of safety.
Dennis Martinez, deputy director for Energy Department's NNSA office
in New Mexico, said he could not release information relating to
Steele's administrative leave, calling it "a personnel matter."
"There is absolutely no connection between Chris Steele's status
today and the (nuclear safety violation)," Martinez said.
In a separate incident, two lab investigators were fired in November
after issuing a report that charged the lab with extensive corruption
and mismanagement.
Former Los Alamos Director John Browne and other top managers
resigned about a month ago, following security mishaps, theft and
corruption allegations that tarnished the reputation of the famed
nuclear lab.
------------------
Scant Compensation for Sick Nuke Workers
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - Jerry Tudor never survived the wait. He was
one of the first people to apply for a federal program designed to
atone for illnesses suffered by Cold War-era nuclear plant workers
who were exposed to toxic chemicals.
Tudor waited and waited for compensation as cancer ate away at his
body. He died Jan. 4.
``My husband wasn't advocating money for himself,'' said his widow,
Ruby Tudor. ``He said from the beginning that it would be a death
benefit ... because the federal agencies were dragging their feet.''
Tudor's case highlights the frustration thousands of nuclear workers
and their families are experiencing as compensation gets caught up in
the slow wheels of the federal government.
Nearly three years after the government launched the Department of
Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program, two-thirds
of almost 38,000 claims are unresolved.
Announced in 2000 by the Clinton administration, the compensation
program was intended to help ailing government and contract employees
exposed to cancer-causing radiation or the lung-damaging metals
silica and beryllium, often without their knowledge.
Program director Pete Turcic at the Department of Labor said the
program covering 600,000 workers at 317 sites in 37 states was
daunting to set up, but is now making headway.
The government so far has paid nearly $442 million in restitution and
$5.8 million in medical bills on 6,100 claims. About half of the
claims were filed by workers, the rest by families of those who are
deceased.
The government doesn't track how many workers have died while waiting
for benefits.
Each worker or surviving family gets $150,000 in cash. The total
payout could reach $1.7 billion over 10 years, according to
estimates.
To date, 6,700 claims have been rejected, mostly because the worker's
illness or work site was not covered under the program. A total of
13,950 cases are pending.
The largest block - 10,292 claims, including Tudor's - were sent into
a bureaucratic purgatory to decide how much radiation each cancer-
stricken worker received and what part played in their illness.
Only 14 of these ``dose reconstructions'' are complete. Turcic said
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which is
conducting the dose studies, should be picking up the pace and have
all 10,000 completed within a year.
Turcic stressed this is a ``claimant friendly process'' in which a
sick worker ``does not have to prove any exposure at all,'' only that
he is ill and worked in an area where there was a ``99 percent
confidence level'' that he was exposed.
But it was an ordeal for Tudor, according to his widow and Harry
Williams, president of Coalition for a Healthy Environment, an Oak
Ridge sick worker group.
Tudor worked for 28 years in an electroplating unit at the weapons
plant known as Y-12 in Oak Ridge, about 25 miles west of Knoxville.
Built to help develop the atomic bomb in World War II, the plant
today makes parts for every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal.
Tudor's work was classified and he held a top-security ``Q''
clearance. When officials handling his sick worker claim called to
get his work history over the phone, he said he could only talk about
it face-to-face. They consented, but it caused delays.
Williams, 57, worked throughout the DOE complex for 20 years before
going on disability in 1996 with a litany of illnesses - from heart
disease to nerve damage.
He credited Tudor with bringing sick workers from the Oak Ridge
weapons plant and Oak Ridge National Laboratory into the sick workers
movement that began in 1999 at the K-25 plant. More than 8,000 of the
38,000 claims have come from Oak Ridge.
Tudor, who suffered from chronic depression, heart disease and other
illnesses, went on disability in 1995, then spent years looking for a
doctor willing to help him link the illnesses to his workplace.
``Nobody would help him,'' Ruby Tudor said. ``We hit a brick wall
everywhere we turned.''
Two years ago, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. ``It was all
over his body, in his bones and lymph nodes before they caught it,''
his widow said.
Last year, Tudor expressed doubt about ever getting money from the
government. ``I don't believe I will live to see the compensation,''
he said at a rally in May.
He entered Methodist Medical Center on Dec. 10, his 37th wedding
anniversary. He celebrated his 56th birthday Dec. 12. Three weeks
later, he died.
``He was just an awfully young man to have all of that,'' Ruby Tudor
said, but the sick worker movement ``gave Jerry something to focus on
besides himself. He spoke up every chance he got.''
Department of Labor:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/owcp/eeoicp/main.htm
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
Department of Energy: http://www.energy.gov/
------------------
UN confident no plutonium gone from Japan nuclear plant
VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said
Tuesday it was confident that 440 pounds of plutonium thought to be
missing from a Japanese nuclear plant had not been lost or diverted
for use in atomic weapons.
In 1987, the Japanese government began investigating the amount of
plutonium stored at a spent-fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai after
the International Atomic Energy Agency said records showed 440 pounds
of weapons-grade plutonium were unaccounted for.
The government probe found no plutonium had disappeared from the
plant and that the root of the problem was imprecise measurement and
sampling techniques at the Tokai plant. The IAEA is confident "that
no nuclear material has been diverted from the facility," IAEA chief
Mohamed ElBaradei said from New York.
Japan's confidence in its nuclear power industry has eroded steadily
since a 1999 radiation leak at a different fuel-reprocessing plant in
Tokai killed two workers.
The Tokai reprocessing plant under investigation was built in the
early 1970s using 1960s' design and technology. The IAEA began
inspecting it in 1977.
The IAEA has regularly stated in its annual reports that safeguards
at the facility needed improvement, particularly regarding the
measurement of the amount of nuclear material contained in the waste
produced.
The IAEA's conclusion that no plutonium had been diverted from the
plant followed a six-week review of historical data and a thorough
analysis of plant operator declarations from as far back as 1977.
The plant was now using more precise methods of measurement, approved
by the IAEA, to avoid discrepancies in plutonium measurements from
reoccurring, the IAEA said.
-------------------------------------------------
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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