FirstEnergy sees Ohio nuke restarting soon

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

Index:



FirstEnergy sees Ohio nuke restarting soon

TEPCO staff to work at nuclear watchdog body

U.S. let Japan reprocess nuclear fuel for sake of ties

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



FirstEnergy sees Ohio nuke restarting soon



 SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Ohio utility FirstEnergy Corp. , 

beleaguered by a costly effort to restart a damaged nuclear power 

station and suspicions that its power lines triggered the giant 

Northeast blackout last month, may get some good news soon.



The Akron, Ohio-based company is on track to restart its troubled 

Davis-Besse atomic reactor near Toledo, Ohio, in about 4 to 6 weeks 

if it clears two critical hurdles at the plant, said David Lochbaum, 

a nuclear safety engineer and expert on nuclear power plants.



"The company's estimate for an autumn restart is doable," said 

Lochbaum, who closely monitors nuclear safety for the Union of 

Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group.



FirstEnergy must pass a 7-day test of Davis-Besse's safety cooling 

system to make sure there are no leaks, especially at the base of the 

giant vessel that houses the reactor, Lochbaum told Reuters. The test 

is expected to end Sunday.



A discovery of leaks at the bottom of the vessel "would probably 

delay a restart by two to three months. They would have to remove the 

nuclear fuel from the reactor while they did repairs and then 

reload," Lochbaum said.



The South Texas 1 nuclear plant, run by a unit of Centerpoint Energy 

, was forced to close for more than four months for repairs this year 

after a small boric acid leak was discovered beneath the reactor.



The second big hurdle involves design changes in large high-pressure 

safety pumps that flood the reactor core with vast amounts of water 

in an emergency.



NRC HAS LAST WORD



The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the final say on when Davis-

Besse can resume power production, but the 4-to-6 weeks estimate 

could put the restart in the first two weeks of November



The NRC is also reviewing FirstEnergy's efforts to make its employees 

more aware of the need for safe operations at the plant -- its so-

called safety culture -- but Lochbaum said this issue "is not a show-

stopper."



The NRC has allowed other plants to operate as long as progress was 

being made to improve employees' safety awareness, Lochbaum said.



Since Davis-Besse was forced to close, FirstEnergy has missed 

repeated restart targets and spent $449 million on repairs, including 

replacement of the corroded vessel head, and replacement power supply 

costs through June 30 this year.



While the outlook for Davis-Besse appears to be clearing up, 

uncertainty still surrounds events on the company's power grid on 

Aug. 14, the day of the huge blackout.



Canadian-U.S. investigators probing the origins of the blackout have 

cited a collapse of electric voltage on the grid in parts of Ohio and 

Michigan as a possible cause and pointed at FirstEnergy transmission 

lines.



But FirstEnergy CEO Peter Burg defended the utility's actions during 

the blackout at a congressional hearing, and last week told an 

investment conference that events on the company's system "in and of 

themselves could not account for the widespread loss of power."



A joint task force set up by the U.S. Department of Energy and 

Canada's Ministry of Natural Resources is investigating the blackout 

but it's not clear when their probe will be completed.

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



TEPCO staff to work at nuclear watchdog body



 TOKYO, Sept. 22 (Kyodo) Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) employees 

are to work from October at an independent administrative entity that 

will take on some government nuclear plant inspection duties, 

officials familiar with the matter said Sunday.



The 12 staff who have worked at nuclear plants run by the scandal-

tainted TEPCO would be working for an entity that is to supervise it 

and other nuclear power utilities, a move likely to raise serious 

doubts about its independence.



They will be on loan to the new entity from Oct. 1, the day it will 

be launched with about 420 staff, they said. TEPCO had to shut down 

all of its nuclear plants for special safety checks after a scandal 

emerged last year in which it was revealed the operator had falsified 

safety inspection data.



A TEPCO spokesperson told Kyodo News it received a request from the 

state to dispatch employees knowledgeable in nuclear engineering.



Apart from being responsible for some nuclear reactor facilities 

inspections previously done by the state, the new body is to also 

monitor checks carried out by companies.



The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which has jurisdiction over 

the entity, said it will not assign TEPCO employees to a department 

in charge of inspections.



The 12 will be placed in departments in charge of gathering security 

information and assisting in disaster-management activities, it said.



To prevent cover-ups of reactor facility defects by operators, the 

government revised two laws last December to place company 

inspections in the framework of law and toughen punishments for 

violators.



These changes were made in response to the series of defect cover-ups 

and data fabrications involving TEPCO nuclear plants uncovered last 

summer and fall.



An official at the agency of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry 

explained that such employees from power utilities are needed to help 

operate the entity.

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



U.S. let Japan reprocess nuclear fuel for sake of ties



 WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Kyodo) The United States decided in 1977 not 

to insist that Japan refrain from operating a nuclear fuel 

reprocessing plant in Ibaraki Prefecture to maintain good bilateral 

relations, recently declassified U.S. government documents showed.



Then U.S. President Jimmy Carter had once called for a halt on the 

launch of plant operation in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, but Mike 

Mansfield, who had just assumed the post of ambassador to Japan, 

convinced him to reverse his decision.



Mansfield told Carter that stopping the operation of the plant at the 

now defunct Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (Donen) 

would have serious inclement influence on future Japan-U.S. ties, the 

documents indicated.



A telegram from Mansfield urges Washington to compromise on the 

matter quickly.



A memo handwritten by Carter on the margins of the telegram instructs 

then Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to tell Mansfield that the 

president will personally expedite deciding on a compromise and that 

it is all right to ask then Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda to 

promptly present alternatives.



The documents were declassified upon a request for information 

disclosure by Don Oberdorfer, former Washington Post diplomatic 

correspondent who has published a biography on Mansfield titled 

"Senator Mansfield."



Oberdorfer also said he confirmed the contents of communications 

involving Mansfield and Japan in interviews with those familiar with 

the situation.



Many of the declassified documents showed that the administrations 

under Carter and his successor Ronald Reagan treated Japan, as it 

grew into an economic power, more and more as an important political 

ally based on suggestions by Mansfield.



In April 1977, Carter announced a new nuclear power policy which 

placed importance on nuclear nonproliferation such as by promoting 

research for nuclear fuel recycling without the threat of the 

technology being transferred to military use.



He opposed the launching of the reprocessing plant at Donen, the 

predecessor of the current Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, 

as uneconomical. At the time, construction of the facility was close 

to completion amid protests from local residents.



But the Carter administration's real worry was that starting 

operations at the plant could be dangerous as the work there would 

involve extracting plutonium, which can be used for creating nuclear 

weapons.



Mansfield, afraid the situation could rock the bilateral relationship 

with Japan, urged the president in July that year -- a month after 

his posting in Tokyo -- to compromise, according to the documents.



The ambassador said it would not look good for the U.S. to allow 

Britain, France and West Germany to reprocess nuclear fuel but not 

trust Japan in the field and Washington should consider that the 

energy situation was a vital matter for resource-poor Japan.



The documents also indicate that Mansfield asked Carter not to 

pressure Fukuda concerning the bilateral trade friction, which was 

heated at the time, in a memo he handed to the president prior to the 

two leaders' summit talks in 1978.



Mansfield, a former Senate majority leader renowned for his 

contributions to Japan-U.S. ties, served as ambassador to Japan until 

1988 and continued to be a vital link between the two nations 

thereafter. He died in October 2001 at age 98.



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

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/



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/