Tsuruga to OK Monju reactor renovation after top court ruling

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

Index:



Tsuruga to OK Monju reactor renovation after top court ruling

Lab Scandal Hurts U. of Calif. Contract

US urges firms to make "dirty bomb" treatment

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Tsuruga to OK Monju reactor renovation after top court ruling



TSURUGA, Japan, Feb. 3 (Kyodo) - The city of Tsuruga will give the go-

ahead to renovate the trouble-mired Monju fast-breeder nuclear 

reactor after the Supreme Court clears the reactor of safety 

concerns, Mayor Kazuharu Kawase said Monday.



The move comes in the wake of the central government's decision on 

Friday to appeal a Nagoya High Court decision nullifying its 1983 

approval to build the plutonium-producing reactor in the Fukui 

Prefecture city.



While expressing disappointment with the high court ruling, Kawase 

said the reactor may not be built in the city if the top court judges 

that the reactor poses significant safety threats, suggesting a delay 

in the city's approval.



The reactor began operations in August 1995, but was shut down after 

a sodium coolant leak from the facility sparked a fire in December 

that year.



As part of the government's move to restart the reactor, the Ministry 

of Economy, Trade and Industry approved last December a plan by the 

state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute to renovate Monju 

with a view to reactivating it.



Kawase did not say exactly when the city's approval, which a reactor 

operator had requested by March, would come, saying, ''We'll study 

discussions by the city assembly and a prefecture panel on the 

subject.''



''We invited the facility convinced that the state has taken safety 

measures. But if the appeals court deems its safety level extremely 

low, then we can't let Monju remain in our community,'' Kawase said.



However, he noted the central role the reactor occupies in the 

nuclear fuel recycling project for a country without significant 

natural resources.



''Our city can contribute greatly to research and development'' 

related to the energy recycling project centered on fast-breeders 

like Monju, Kawase said.



Monju, a government-designed 280-megawatt reactor, can create more 

plutonium than it consumes and was to play a key role in the national 

policy of recycling spent nuclear fuel for more energy extraction.



After the 1995 accident, residents living near the reactor in the Sea 

of Japan coastal city and others sued the government to seek a repeal 

of the government approval for building the reactor.



The Fukui District Court rejected the demand in 2000, but on Jan. 27, 

the Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch overturned the lower court 

ruling.



In its ruling, the high court supported the plaintiffs' claim that 

deficiencies in the government's pre-construction safety checks led 

to the 1995 accident and pointed out the plant's structural defects.



The high court decision marks the first time that a Japanese court 

has favored plaintiffs seeking a halt to the construction and 

operation of nuclear reactors.

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



Lab Scandal Hurts U. of Calif. Contract



BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - The partnership between the government and 

the University of California that produced the atomic bomb and the 

hydrogen bomb has survived the discovery of a Soviet spy and a $1 

billion cost overrun.



Now a fraud scandal at the Los Alamos laboratory has raised questions 

about UC's ability to manage the New Mexico lab and led some members 

of Congress and other critics to suggest that - after 60 years - it 

may be time to put the contract up for bid.



``I made clear to them that, No. 1, their contract is in jeopardy 

and, No. 2, one way or another things have to dramatically change 

with regards to procurement and management of material at the site,'' 

said Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., chairman of the House Energy and 

Commerce Committee's oversight and investigations panel, which is 

investigating the lab.



The university, on the strength of such faculty stars as J. Robert 

Oppenheimer and Ernest O. Lawrence, has run the lab for the 

government since it was created during World War II as the 

headquarters of the secret Manhattan Project to build the bomb.



In addition to running Los Alamos, UC has managed the Lawrence 

Livermore weapons laboratory in Northern California since its 

creation in 1952, largely on the initiative of Los Alamos scientist 

Edward Teller. But the Livermore contract does not appear to be as 

seriously jeopardized.



The relationship between UC and the government has had lots of ups 

and downs over the years, and the labs have been rocked by scandal 

before - the botched espionage case against Los Alamos scientist Wen 

Ho Lee, the $1 billion overrun in Livermore's effort to build a 

superlaser, the 1950s unmasking of Los Alamos scientist Klaus Fuchs 

as a Soviet spy.



But the latest furor ``may be the biggest challenge yet,'' said Herb 

York, a veteran of the labs who headed Lawrence Livermore in the 

1950s.



Los Alamos has been rocked by allegations of $2.7 million in missing 

computers and other property and widespread misuse of lab-issued 

credit cards, including an attempt by a lab employee to buy a souped-

up Ford Mustang for $20,000.



The allegations were compounded by charges of a management cover-up 

after two internal investigators who reported the thefts were fired 

in November. In recent weeks, the lab director has stepped down, and 

other top officials have been reassigned.



Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has given his staff until April 30 

to evaluate UC's performance. UC's contract expires in 2005, but 

either side can terminate it at any time.



UC said in a statement that it has taken aggressive action to address 

the shortcomings, including instituting a management shake-up. 

University officials spent the week in Washington, trying to restore 

confidence in their management.



Los Alamos has a budget of $1.7 billion and about 7,500 UC employees. 

Under its laboratory-management contracts with the Energy Department, 

UC gets $17 million in reimbursement for costs and up to about $18 

million in performance-based fees.



The question of whether UC should remain as lab manager has been 

coming up for years.



After World War II ended with Hiroshima and Nagasaki laid waste by 

Los Alamos scientists' handiwork, UC was reluctant to continue the 

partnership. The university has said it manages the labs because the 

government wants it to, not because UC wants to.



Despite the occasional clash, the contract has never been put out for 

bid. UC has long maintained that it would not compete if that 

happened.



With the latest scandal, ``clearly there is a growing sentiment among 

many of our members to put the contract out for open bidding,'' said 

Ken Johnson, spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.



Among potential suitors is the University of Texas, which in December 

made an unsuccessful bid to run Sandia National Laboratories, and has 

Bush administration connections.



Removing UC - at a time when the country is contemplating war with 

Iraq - would be a substantial task. The 15,500 UC employees at Los 

Alamos and Livermore work on everything from ascertaining if aging 

nuclear warheads still work to defending against biological or 

chemical attack.



``You have to think about the good of the program and the benefit to 

the nation of that program and whether you can move all of the 

expertise, which you can't,'' said UC defender Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 

D-Calif.

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



US urges firms to make "dirty bomb" treatment



WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Friday urged 

drug companies to begin marketing pills containing Prussian blue, an 

artist's pigment used for centuries that can also protect people 

exposed to a radioactive "dirty bomb."



The Food and Drug Administration called on pharmaceutical companies 

to apply for licenses to market 500-milligram pills of Prussian blue, 

or ferric hexacyanoferrate(II), saying it "has been shown to be safe 

and effective in treating people exposed to radioactive elements such 

as cesium-137."



Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the action 

was part of an effort to boost production of drugs that could be used 

in the event of another terrorist attack, especially one involving 

radioactive materials.



The FDA said Prussian blue, which binds with radioactive particles 

and expels them from the body, would be the first therapy available 

to decrease radiation exposure. The main side effects were 

constipation and stomach upset.



It said the drug could be used to treat patients with known or 

suspected internal contamination with radioactive thallium, non-

radioactive thallium, or radioactive cesium.



FDA said cesium-137, found in the fallout from the detonation of 

nuclear weapons and in the waste from nuclear power plants, was of 

particular concern because it could potentially be use to build a 

dirty bomb. Exposure to cesium can cause serious illness and possibly 

cancer.



TREATMENT IN BRAZIL



An agency spokeswoman said Prussian blue is produced in the United 

States, but not under pharmaceutical standards. She said it has been 

used experimentally since the 1960s as an orally ingested drug to 

increase fecal excretion of cesium and thallium without it being 

absorbed through the intestines.



There are no other FDA-approved treatments for contamination with 

thallium or radioactive cesium, FDA said.



Prussian blue was used to treat 250 people in Brazil in 1987 after 

they were contaminated with cesium-137 abandoned after use in a 

cancer clinic, helping expel the radioactive materials more quickly.



U.S. authorities are holding Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who was 

captured in May and is accused of plotting with al Qaeda to detonate 

such a device.



A so-called "dirty bomb" involves exploding a conventional bomb 

wrapped in radioactive material that can kill victims in the 

immediate area and spread highly toxic material to humans, causing 

mass death and injury.



Prussian blue was first synthesized in 1704 and has been used as an 

industrial and artist's pigment since 1724.



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

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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