Tougher Inspections Urged at Nuke Plants

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

Index:



Tougher Inspections Urged at Nuke Plants

Over 40 sites chosen for Japan nuclear-waste disposal

U.S., China to join thermonuclear reactor project

Firms settle with Japan company involved in 1999 nuke accident

Japan, Russia to set up nuclear sub disposal task force

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



Tougher Inspections Urged at Nuke Plants



WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators told operators of the nation's 

nuclear power plants to conduct tougher inspections beginning this 

week in response to acid corrosion found on the reactor cap at an 

Ohio plant.



All 69 plants with pressurized water reactors, including Davis-Besse 

in northwest Ohio, must add either chemical or ultrasonic tests to 

visual inspections for cracks or leaks in reactor heads. Plants 

identified as being at high risk of acid corrosion must perform the 

tests more often.



The order arose from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's internal 

investigation of how it handled corrosion at Davis-Besse, the 

agency's chairman, Richard Meserve, told a Senate Environment and 

Public Works subcommittee Thursday.



Years of visual inspections at the plant, operated by FirstEnergy 

Corp. of Akron, Ohio, missed boric acid leaks that nearly ate through 

the 6-inch-thick steel cap that covers the reactor vessel.



The plant has been shut down since February 2002, when it was closed 

for maintenance. The corrosion was discovered last March.



Both the NRC and FirstEnergy made mistakes in looking for boric acid 

corrosion on plant reactor heads, Meserve said. The hole at Davis-

Besse could have been prevented and FirstEnergy's actions before its 

discovery were ``unacceptable,'' he told members of the subcommittee 

on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Safety.



Sen. George Voinovich, who leads the subcommittee, challenged the NRC 

commissioners on what they are doing with regard to restarting the 

plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and to ensure plant safety nationwide.



``That the plant's safety could have been compromised really troubles 

me,'' said Voinovich, R-Ohio.



The commissioners said safety mechanisms would have prevented a 

catastrophe at Davis-Besse despite reported flaws in the reactor's 

coolant system, which protects against a meltdown. The current system 

is susceptible to clogging and commissioners are working with the 

plant to improve it, they said.



``There was not an impending disaster,'' commissioner Nils Diaz said. 

``It might not have been perfect, but they were there.''



On the Net:



Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov



Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee: 

http://epw.senate.gov/cleanair-108.htm

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



Over 40 sites chosen for Japan nuclear-waste disposal



GIFU, Japan, Feb. 14 (Kyodo) - The predecessor of the state-run Japan 

Nuclear Cycle Development Institute selected more than 40 areas from 

12 prefectures as candidate sites for disposal of high-level 

radioactive wastes in the late 1980s, a citizens group said Thursday.



The candidates sites picked by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel 

Development Corp. (Donen) from 1986 to 1988 were in Hokkaido, Akita, 

Yamagata, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Gifu, Ehime, Kochi, Nagasaki, 

Miyazaki and Kagoshima, according to a Donen report obtained by the 

group, called the Citizens Net Gifu.



The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute said it is not bound by 

the report, but members of the antinuclear group expressed concerns 

that the candidates sites will emerge again if the institute has 

difficulties choosing disposal sites.



While the citizens group obtained the report under the information 

disclosure law, the institute declined to disclose the names of 

candidate municipalities.



The group plans to file a suit to seek full disclosure of the report, 

its members said.



The report said Donen picked sites of 3-5 square kilometers after 

studying results of aerial photos and geological survey to make sure 

they are not close to active faults or residential areas.



Donen planned to reach a decision on the sites but under a 1987 state 

program for development and utilization of nuclear energy it was 

excluded from making the final choice.



At present, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization is soliciting 

disposal sites nationwide, but no municipalities have put themselves 

forward so far.

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



U.S., China to join thermonuclear reactor project



TOKYO, Feb. 13 (Kyodo) - The United States and China will join Japan, 

the European Union (EU), Russia and Canada in a major international 

project to generate electric power through nuclear fusion, Japan's 

education ministry said Thursday.



Representatives of the two countries will attend an intergovernmental 

meeting in St. Petersburg next Tuesday and Wednesday, the Ministry of 

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said.



Representatives from Japan will include Aomori Gov. Morio Kimura, who 

is expected to press the group to build an experimental reactor in 

the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture in his northeastern Japan, 

Japanese officials said.



The international group has finished technical assessments on 

candidate sites for the construction and operation of an 

international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). Such sites 

include locations in France, Spain and Canada as well as Rokkasho.



At the upcoming meeting, group members will begin deliberations on 

each participant's share of funding for the project, the ministry 

said.



Last month, the U.S. announced its decision to rejoin the project, 

shortly after China expressed its desire to participate.



The U.S. withdrew from the project in 1999, citing the project's 

costs among other concerns.



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.



Since the U.S. pullout in 1999, Japan, Russia and the EU have 

redesigned the proposed experimental reactor and come up with a new 

plan that would cut costs in half.



The three parties had been urging the U.S. to rejoin the project.

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



Firms settle with Japan company involved in 1999 nuke accident



MITO, Japan, Feb. 14 (Kyodo) - Firms that saw sales drop in the wake 

of a 1999 nuclear accident in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, have 

reached a 100 million yen settlement with a nuclear processing firm 

that caused the disaster, parties to the case said Friday.



The settlement was reached at the Mito District Court in the 

prefecture between a fisheries firm in the Ibaraki city of 

Hitachinaka and one other company and JCO Co., a uranium processing 

subsidiary of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.



The plaintiffs were asking for 136 million yen in damages.



The settlement is the first of its kind in suits filed over the Sept. 

30, 1999 accident in which a nuclear fission chain reaction occurred 

at JCO's plant, 120 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, exposing more than 

600 people to radiation and resulting in the deaths of two plant 

workers.



In the suit, the two companies were asking for compensation worth six 

months of sales. JCO has already paid the plaintiffs amounts of money 

equal to three months worth of estimated losses following the 

accident, or a total of 47 million yen.



Papers filed with the court and other documents show that the 

plaintiffs saw sales sharply drop after the accident, partly because 

their clients refused to trade with them. Sales at the two companies 

for six months through March 2000 fell by 170 million yen compared 

with the same period a year earlier.

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



Japan, Russia to set up nuclear sub disposal task force



MOSCOW, Feb. 13 (Kyodo) - Japanese and Russian officials in charge of 

a bilateral program to dismantle decommissioned Russian nuclear 

arsenal agreed Thursday to set up a joint task force by April to 

promote the dismantling of retired Russian nuclear submarines in the 

Russian Far East.



The project, first launched in 1993, has made slow progress. Japan's 

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for stepped-up efforts to 

dismantle decommissioned Russian nuclear subs during a visit to 

Moscow in January.



Japan and Russia established the nuclear weapons disposal committee 

in 1993 after Russia's Pacific Fleet was found to have been disposing 

radioactive waste in the Sea of Japan.



At Thursday's meeting, the Japan-Russia nuclear weapons disposal 

committee agreed to begin with the dismantling of Victor-III 

submarines now abandoned in Russian naval bases and agreed to 

intensify work on the project.



The two sides also agreed to set up rules governing the use of funds 

that have been appropriated by the Japanese government for the 

dismantling operation.



Japan has provided 20 billion yen to finance the dismantling 

operation, and 15.8 billion yen remains untouched.



The project has been languishing because of ''slow decision-making 

process'' in Russia, a Japanese government source 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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