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Nuclear Plant Inspection Rules Eased
Index:
Nuclear Plant Inspection Rules Eased
Man With Uranium Caught at Ukraine Border
U.N. Finds Iran Hid Some Nuke Experiments
Iran 'made radioactive element'
IAEA offers to help Libyan peaceful nuclear plans
GSDF to suspend work in Samawah if radiation detected: Ishiba
=========================================
Nuclear Plant Inspection Rules Eased
WASHINGTON (Feb. 23) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced
Monday that it is relaxing visual inspection requirements at the
nation's nuclear power plants.
The move comes two years after inspectors found that boric acid
corrosion on the reactor head at the Davis-Besse plant along Lake
Erie east of Toledo, Ohio, had nearly eaten through the 6-inch-thick
steel cap.
In response to that, the NRC issued requirements one year ago for
operators at the 69 plants with pressurized water reactors to inspect
the entire reactor head visually for cracks or leaks. The rules
announced Monday would lower that requirement to at least 95 percent
of the plant's reactor head.
An NRC release said it was changing the requirement because of
"information provided in numerous requests for deviation from
portions of the inspection regime."
Still, however, if boron deposits were found near structures that
obstructed the full view of the plant's reactor head, operators would
be required to remove the structure and examine the full reactor
head, the NRC said.
Operators already are required to perform either chemical or
ultrasonic tests on reactor heads. Plants identified as being at high
risk of acid corrosion must perform these and the visual tests more
often.
Another change announced Monday would exempt plants that replace
their reactor heads, such as the Davis-Besse plant, from having to do
the inspections when the plant is shut down for replacement. Going
forward, those plants would be required to complete inspection
requirements for the low risk category.
The Ohio plant, which is owned by FirstEnergy Corp., has been closed
since February 2002.
-----------------
Man With Uranium Caught at Ukraine Border
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukrainian border guards stopped a man trying to
take nearly a pound of uranium into Hungary on Tuesday, an official
said.
Border guards arrested the driver of a passenger van at the Tisa
checkpoint after finding a container containing the potential nuclear
bomb fuel, said border guards' spokesman Yevheniy Bargman.
It was unclear whether the uranium was in natural ore form or had
been enriched for potential use in reactors or weapons.
Bargman said the man told officials he was paid an unspecified sum of
money by men at a nearby gas station to take the material to Hungary
for use "by a dentist's office."
Officials will send the material to Kiev, the capital, for analysis.
It was unclear where the uranium originated.
The United States and other nations repeatedly have voiced serious
concern about the illegal trade in nuclear materials from the former
Soviet Union.
Washington has bolstered programs to assist Ukraine in tightening its
border controls to prevent weapons of mass destruction technology,
materials and illegal weapons from flowing in and out of the country.
----------------
U.N. Finds Iran Hid Some Nuke Experiments
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.N. inspectors in Iran have uncovered
evidence of nuclear experiments that Tehran did not previously
disclose, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday in a
new report warning the country anew to come clean.
The dossier, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press,
dealt the Tehran regime a setback in its efforts to convince the
world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is fully
cooperating with the U.N. agency.
IAEA inspectors combing Iran for evidence of a weapons program found
signs of polonium, a radioactive element that can help trigger a
nuclear chain reaction, the report said. It was distributed to the
agency's 35-nation board of governors ahead of a key meeting on Iran
early next month.
The agency said the traces of polonium-210 were found in September,
and that the element "could be used for military purposes ...
specifically as a neutron initiator in some designs of nuclear
weapons."
Iran never mentioned working with polonium-210 in earlier
declarations of its past and present nuclear activities, it said.
Polonium-210 also can be used to generate electricity, which Iran
contends is the sole purpose of its atomic program. Saber Zaimian,
spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, declined to
comment on the report, saying his organization was studying it.
The revelation came as the IAEA board prepares to convene in Vienna
on March 8 to reassess the Iranian threat amid mounting pressure from
the United States and other countries that contend Iran has been
trying to build an atomic bomb.
Diplomats familiar with the U.N. agency's efforts to lay bare Iran's
shadowy nuclear program characterized the discovery as more potential
evidence of that desire.
"It's not the smoking gun, but it's one of the links," one diplomat
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The IAEA is not satisfied about why the Iranians are experimenting"
with polonium-210, another diplomat told AP. "Their explanation just
doesn't wash."
The IAEA's report, however, suggested the agency is more concerned
with the discovery in Iran this month of an advanced P-2 centrifuge
system that could enrich uranium for weapons use. The Bush
administration, too, has said the finding raises "serious concerns"
about Tehran's intentions.
"The omission ... of any reference to its possession of the P-2
centrifuge design drawings and associated research, manufacturing and
mechanical testing activities is a matter of serious concern,
particularly in view of the importance and sensitivity of those
activities," the IAEA report said.
"It creates suspicions why this was not disclosed to us," a senior
diplomat told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They said it
was a full and final declaration. The question is - is there
something else to be declared? We are trying to create confidence.
This is a real setback."
The agency said Tehran has assured the IAEA it will suspend the
assembly and testing of centrifuges and the manufacture of centrifuge
components by next week. It called on Iran to give a "correct and
complete" accounting of its nuclear activities, but said the
government was "actively cooperating" with the agency.
"As a result of its monitoring activities, the agency is able to
confirm that there has been no operation or testing of any
centrifuges, either with or without nuclear material," at Iran's
pilot fuel enrichment plant, Tuesday's report said.
Confronted by evidence last year, Iran acknowledged hiding nearly two
decades of nuclear activity, including importing enrichment
technology linked to the black market network of Pakistani scientist
Abdul Qadeer Khan.
Those imports of equipment and expertise have allowed Tehran to
create a domestic production line of centrifuges that can be used
both to process uranium for power - or enrich it to levels high
enough to manufacture warheads.
Under international pressure last year, Iran pledged to cooperate
fully with the IAEA in efforts to prove it was not interested in
nuclear weapons, including opening its activities to full outside
scrutiny.
Iran suspended its enrichment program last year but continues to make
and assemble centrifuges despite international criticism that such
actions violate the spirit of its pledge to stop all enrichment
activities.
The IAEA, along with the United States and other nations, wants Iran
to scrap its enrichment program altogether. Tehran has refused to do
so.
-------------
Iran 'made radioactive element'
CNN News Wire (Feb 24) Iran produced and experimented with polonium,
a radioactive element that can be used in the chain reaction that
produces a nuclear explosion, diplomats who have seen a status report
on Iran's nuclear activity told CNN.
The 14-page report was requested by the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) governors to assess Iran when the board next convenes
March 8.
Polonium also can be used for making nuclear batteries to power
remote generators and lighthouses, which the former Soviet Union
frequently did.
Iran told the IAEA that was its use for polonium, though the
diplomats say they believe that to be unlikely.
Western diplomats told CNN the polonium revelations fuel suspicions
and give the impression of a pattern of concealment.
While Iran is allowing inspectors unfettered access, those same
inspectors have discovered undisclosed elements that the Iranians
only admit after being confronted with the evidence, diplomats said.
The diplomats said Iran's actions fall short of its obligation for a
full and complete declaration on all nuclear activity, which it made
last November.
The IAEA report also says Iran failed to declare designs for a
sophisticated P2 advanced centrifuge that can be used to enrich
uranium for nuclear weapons. That alleged failure was revealed
earlier this month.
According to a Western diplomat familiar with the IAEA report,
Europeans and Iranians have struck a deal to fully suspend all
uranium enrichment as required under the additional protocol signed
last fall.
Although Iran has already suspended active enrichment, it has now
also agreed to stop the import, assembling and production of
enrichment equipment, the diplomat said.
Western diplomats told CNN the IAEA has reached no formal conclusion
about the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, saying the
IAEA is "nowhere close to saying Iran has a nuclear weapon."
But the diplomats said the pattern of non-disclosure indicates Iran
has not told the whole story of its nuclear program.
Although the IAEA report says there is no evidence of Iran having a
full nuclear weapons program, the latest revelations point to Iran
experimenting and testing in areas that could be directly related to
a nuclear weapons program.
-------------------
IAEA offers to help Libyan peaceful nuclear plans
TRIPOLI, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The United Nations nuclear watchdog said
on Tuesday it was ready to assist Libya, which has promised to
abandon plans to develop atomic weapons, expand its peaceful nuclear
programme.
"We have discussed ways to expand Libya's peaceful programme,"
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
told a news conference at the end of a visit to Libya, adding that
the IAEA could help with desalination and other peaceful applications
of nuclear technology.
ElBaradei, who hopes to finish dismantling Tripoli's nuclear weapons
by June, said Libya had agreed to the dismantling of a sensitive
uranium conversion plant and, as a goodwill gesture, to convert a
research reactor from highly-enriched uranium to one using low-
enriched fuel.
All the sensitive parts of the nuclear weapons had been removed, he
said, but there were a few issues that need to be clarified. The IAEA
was awaiting the results of environmental samples to back up Libya's
statements about the extent of its weapons-related activities, he
said.
-------------------
GSDF to suspend work in Samawah if radiation detected: Ishiba
TOKYO, Feb. 23 (Kyodo) - Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) troops in
the city of Samawah in southern Iraq will suspend their operations if
any objects emitting radiation are found there, Defense Agency
Director General Shigeru Ishiba said Monday.
"The GSDF will not conduct operations in the area if there are any
objects emitting radiation that does not exist in nature," Ishiba
told the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said last Thursday that shells
tipped with depleted uranium have been found in Samawah, but he said
the level of radiation there poses no risk to health.
The U.S. military admitted to using the shells during the war on Iraq
last year.
Researchers believe depleted uranium, used in Iraq to attack tanks by
U.S.-led forces both in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the Iraq war
last year, causes leukemia and cancer.
------------------------------------
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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