Interactive communication key in nuke energy policy-making: report

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

Index:



Interactive communication key in nuke energy policy-making: report

Japan Hopes to Build Nuclear Fusion Plant

Tokoku Electric virtually decides to scrap Maki nuke plant project

Areva, Siemens win 3 bln euro Finland plant deal

Genome map shows how bacterium gobbles radiation

Iran's Rafsanjani says nuclear deal foils US plot

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



Interactive communication key in nuke energy policy-making: report



TOKYO, Dec. 19 (Kyodo) - Interactive communication among the 

government, businesses and the public is the key to restoring public 

confidence in nuclear power, which has been undermined by a string of 

accidents and scandals, a government report said Friday.



In the White Paper on Nuclear Energy, issued after a five-year 

hiatus, the Cabinet Office's Atomic Energy Commission urges the 

government and the private sector to "promote broad-based public 

hearings aimed to deepen mutual understanding" with the public in 

facilitating their nuclear power policies.



The commission said the report, first issued in 1957, is usually 

published on an annual basis but the latest edition was delayed due 

largely to serious incidents that fueled safety concerns over the 

last five years.



In September 1999, Japan's first-ever nuclear accident occurred at 

the Tokaimura plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, run by JCO Co., when two 

workers bypassed required steps and poured too much uranium into a 

processing tank using buckets.



The act caused a nuclear fission chain reaction and the workers 

exposed themselves to extremely high doses of radiation and later 

died. Ensuing probes found that 663 people, including residents in 

surrounding areas, had been exposed to lesser amounts of radiation.



The accident was followed by a disclosure last year that Tokyo 

Electric Power Co. falsified safety reports, damaging public trust in 

the power industry and forcing the company to temporarily shut down 

all 17 of its nuclear reactors for safety checks.



Although the closures stirred fears about major power shortages in 

Tokyo and its vicinity, they were averted due partly to unseasonably 

cool weather during the summer when electricity consumption reaches 

its peak.



According to the report, submitted to Friday's cabinet meeting, the 

thermal-power plants used as replacements for the closed nuclear 

reactors emitted about 42 million tons of carbon dioxide, an amount 

equivalent to 3.4% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in Japan.



It thus said that nuclear power generation, which has become the core 

electricity resource for Japan, plays an important role in coping 

with global warming.



The report said nuclear power plants in Japan generated 294.9 billion 

kilowatt hours with 52 active reactors across the country, or 31.2% 

of the total domestic electric power generation, in fiscal 2002 that 

ended in March.



The troubles involving JCO and Tokyo Electric Power led the 

government to revise relevant laws to enhance safety procedures and 

step up its activities to organize public seminars and symposiums.



"It is important to make efforts to reach policy consensus via 

interactive communication based on objective data" on pending 

problems and government policies, the report said.



A commission official said, "It's necessary to boost the transparency 

of the policy-making process by publicizing what the government 

thinks more broadly than ever. That is the message of this report."

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



Japan Hopes to Build Nuclear Fusion Plant

 

TOKYO (AP) - Japan is confident it can win approval from an 

international consortium to build the world's first large-scale 

nuclear fusion plant, an experimental project that would generate 

energy by reproducing the sun's power source, an official said 

Friday.



Japan and France are the finalists in a bidding war for the 

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, which is 

expected to cost $12 billion over 35 years. The project's sponsors - 

the European Union, the United States, Russia, South Korea, China, 

Japan and Canada - are set to reach a final decision on Saturday at a 

meeting in Washington.



Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry official 

Hidekazu Tanaka said he believes Japan's site, Rokkasho village on 

the main island's northern tip, has the edge going into the weekend 

vote.



"We are fairly certain we won't lose," Tanaka told The Associated 

Press. "For a resource-poor country like Japan, the benefits of such 

a project would be huge."



The ITER project, first proposed more than a decade ago, is designed 

to study the potential of fusion power as a cleaner alternative to 

fossil fuels, such as coal and oil. Fossil fuels are expected to run 

short in about 50 years.



Fusion, which powers the sun and stars, involves colliding tiny atoms 

at extremely high temperatures and pressure inside a reactor. When 

the atoms fuse into a plasma they release energy that can be 

harnessed to generate electricity.



Fusion power produces no greenhouse gas emissions and only low levels 

of radioactive waste. The reactor would run on an isotope of 

hydrogen, an abundant source of fuel that can be extracted from 

water.



And because fusion reactors don't consume uranium or plutonium - the 

fuel of conventional, fission reactors - and don't use an atomic 

chain reaction, there is little risk of a radioactive meltdown.



Scientists say it's also nearly impossible to package the reactor's 

contents into a weapon.



"You can't build a bomb from this kind of reactor," said Masaaki 

Inutake, a professor of fusion research at Tohoku University in 

Sendai, north of Tokyo.



The stakes are high because the project means jobs, government 

subsidies and prestige.



Tokyo faces stiff competition from France's bid to promote its 

proposed site - the southeastern town of Cadarache, which has 

considerable EU backing.



There are also some concerns about earthquakes in Japan that could 

affect the reactor.



With an international research team expected to live near the 

reactor, Rokkasho's frigid, snowy winters also make it less appealing 

than Cacarache, which has a temperate climate and is in France's 

southern Provence region.



But Japan is hoping Rokkasho's location near the sea will sway the 

debate.



Tanaka, the ministry official, said Rokkasho is 3 miles from a major 

port, meaning that sea water can be pumped for fuel and that heavy-

duty reactor parts, such as a massive superconducting magnetic coil, 

can be transported by ship in one piece. France's site, about 43 

miles inland, would need the coil to be shipped in pieces and 

assembled later.



Rokkasho already has an industrial complex, including a nuclear fuel 

disposal and reprocessing plant scheduled to be finished in 2006.



Even if Tokyo manages to secure the deal, it may have to persuade a 

wary public, following a recent spate of accidents and cover-ups of 

lax safety practices at nuclear power plants.



Japan relies on nuclear power for 30 percent of its energy. But many 

communities have resisted plans to build more plants since Japan's 

worst nuclear accident in 1999. That accident, at a fuel-reprocessing 

plant north of Tokyo, was caused by an uncontrolled reaction that 

killed two workers and exposed at least 600 people to radiation.



"We will have to do lots of PR to reassure the public," said Tanaka.



The project won't be cheap, either.



With Japan's economy struggling through a long-running slowdown and 

public debt at historic highs, the government will have to dig deep 

to fund the $5.3 billion cost of construction over 10 years and 

another $6.4 billion for the reactor's equipment and day-to-day 

operations for 25 years after building is completed.



It will also have to pay for the electricity to power the reactor. 

Once the reactor is running, it should generate some 20 times the 

energy required to get it started.



But Inutake, the fusion researcher, said the technology hasn't yet 

been refined to the point where it will run at a self-sustaining 

burn.



"Attaining that would be a milestone," he said. "Before building an 

economical reactor, we need to confirm that we can do it in an 

experiment. That's why this is so important."

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



Tokoku Electric virtually decides to scrap Maki nuke plant project



TOKYO, Dec. 19 (Kyodo) - Tohoku Electric Power Co. announced Friday a 

decision to effectively give up the construction of a nuclear power 

plant in the town of Maki in Niigata Prefecture following the Supreme 

Court's ruling against advocates of the project.



"It is physically impossible to build (the plant) by moving its 

reactor core," Tohoku Electric President Keiichi Makuta told 

reporters in Tokyo.



"It is also unpractical to leave the project idle for future 

implementation," he said.



On Thursday, the top court ruled against the project's advocates who 

had attempted to gain control of land earmarked for the plant from a 

local citizens' group that bought the land.



If the power supplier formally decides to scrap the project, it will 

follow a recent decision by Kansai Electric Power Co., Chubu Electric 

Power Co. and Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to freeze their joint 

nuclear power plant project in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture.



But unlike the Suzu project, the Maki project is included in the 

government's basic plan for the development of power sources and 

would be the first such project to be scrapped.



Tohoku Electric will study "all options" for the Maki project, 

including its freeze, and will draw a conclusion "shortly," Makuta 

said.

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



Areva, Siemens win 3 bln euro Finland plant deal

 

PARIS, Dec 18 (Reuters) - French nuclear energy services firm Areva 

said on Thursday a consortium that included it and Germany's Siemens 

signed a 3 billion euro ($3.70 billion) deal with Finnish utility 

Teollisuuden Voima Oy to build a nuclear power plant in Finland.



The pressurized water reactor plant, at the Olkiluoto site, would 

have a capacity of about 1600 MWEs and is due to begin commercial 

operations in 2009.



Areva's Framatome unit would supply the nuclear island for the 

turnkey project and Siemens would supply the turbine island.



Civil construction and a major part of supply and installation work 

would be contracted to local Finnish companies, Areva said.

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



Genome map shows how bacterium gobbles radiation



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bacterium that can remove uranium 

contamination from groundwater may also be able to generate 

electricity, U.S. researchers said Thursday.



Scientists who deciphered the gene map of Geobacter sulfurreducens 

say it has more than 100 genes that should enable it to make chemical 

changes in metals that would generate electricity.



Writing in the journal Science, they said the bacterium might be 

useful in generating electricity deep underwater, for instance, and 

might be far more useful than previously thought in cleaning up the 

environment.



"The genome of this tiny microorganism may help us to address some of 

our most difficult cleanup problems and to generate power through 

biologically based energy sources," U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer 

Abraham said in a statement.



"This genome sequence and the additional research that it makes 

possible may lead to new strategies and biotechnologies for cleaning 

up groundwater at DOE (the Department of Energy) and at industry 

sites."



The team at The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland 

and at the University of Massachusetts found G. sulfurreducens had 

100 or more genes that appear to encode for various forms of c-type 

cytochromes. These are proteins that help move electrons back and 

forth.



It also has genes that help it find metallic compounds. Plus the 

bacterium, previously thought to be able to exist only in the absence 

of oxygen, may have genes that would allow it to function when oxygen 

is present.



"We've provided a comprehensive picture that has led to fundamental 

changes in how scientists evaluate this microbe," said Barbara Methe, 

the TIGR researcher who led the study.



The first Geobacter species to be discovered, G. metallireducens, was 

found in sediments from the Potomac River, which separates Maryland 

from Virginia in the Washington D.C. area.



G. sulfurreducens was found in a soil sample in Oklahoma that was 

contaminated by hydrocarbons -- breakdown products of fossil fuel 

combustion.



University of Massachusetts researcher Derek Lovley and colleagues 

have previously found that G. sulfurreducens can convert uranium that 

is dissolved in water to a solid compound called uraninite, which can 

then be removed.



The bacteria removed about 70 percent of the uranium from a 

contaminated underground aquifer.

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



Iran's Rafsanjani says nuclear deal foils US plot



TEHRAN (Reuters) - Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani 

said Friday by signing up to U.N. snap nuclear checks of its nuclear 

facilities, Iran showed its atomic ambitions were entirely peaceful.



"They (the U.S.) wanted to accuse Iran of having nuclear weapons, but 

this has foiled their plots," the influential ex-president told 

worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran, broadcast live on state 

radio.



The United States has said Iran's nuclear program is a smokescreen 

for building atomic weapons.



Rafsanjani said Iran, which has always said its nuclear scientists 

are working on ways to meet booming electricity demand, now expected 

technical assistance with its atomic program.



Thursday, Iran signed an agreement at the International Atomic Energy 

Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna allowing the U.N. nuclear 

watchdog to conduct snap inspections across its territory.



The signature to the Additional Protocol to the 1968 nuclear Non-

Proliferation Treaty (NPT) comes nearly 18 months after an exiled 

Iranian opposition group sparked an international crisis by saying 

Tehran was hiding several large nuclear facilities. The allegations 

proved to be true.



Rafsanjani cautioned that full approval for the signature would take 

time. It must be sent to parliament as a bill then approved by the 

Guardian Council.



Analysts say Iran's reformist government would never have embarked on 

the deal without the green light from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali 

Khamenei who has the last word on all state matters.



Rafsanjani heads the powerful Expediency Council that arbitrates 

between the predominantly reformist parliament and the 12-member 

hardline supervisory body, the Guardian Coucil.



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

Sandy Perle

Vice President, Technical Operations

Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.

3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.globaldosimetry.com/



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