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Tax for nuclear dump draws industry ire
Index:
Tax for nuclear dump draws industry ire
European Regulators Investigating Areva
Hiroshima radiation research body accuses U.S. of planning fund
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Tax for nuclear dump draws industry ire
(CNN) A plan by Republican Sen. Pete Domenici to tack a $446 million
surcharge on utility customers to pay for a Nevada nuclear waste site
drew the ire of nuclear power plant owners Monday.
New Mexico Republican Domenici, a long-time nuclear industry ally,
has drawn rare industry criticism for his plan to raise fees paid by
utility customers by 60 percent in fiscal 2005, which starts Oct. 1.
Domenici aides say the move is needed to deflect an attempt by
Democrat Henry Reid of Nevada and others to choke off funding for the
massive Yucca Mountain storage facility planned in the desert about
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Slated to open in 2010, the underground facility would hold 77,000
tons of waste from the nation's 103 nuclear power plants for 10,000
years.
The Bush administration says it will take $880 million in 2005 to
proceed with a plan to obtain a license from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to construct the repository.
But a House Appropriations Committee panel that oversees Yucca
Mountain funding has proposed $131 million in funding for the 2005
fiscal year, far short of the administration request.
Industry officials called the proposed fees excessive on top of the
$22 billion utility customers have already paid into a construction
fund. Domenici's staff was to brief the utility industry on the
proposal later on Monday.
"We definitely don't believe that imposing additional fees at this
time ... can be justified," said a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy
Institute, the industry's lobbying arm.
But deferring action could stop the project in its tracks, because
funding at the lower level will require the government to lay off
about 70 percent of 2,400 site contractors, a Domenici aide said.
"The alternative is that we in effect declare we will not proceed
with Yucca Mountain," the aide said. "I think industry would be more
concerned about that alternative."
The industry says it has already borne its share of costs.
Since 1983, utility customers have paid a fee of 1/10 of a cent per
kilowatt-hour to a fund that holds about $15 billion earmarked to
develop and build the Yucca facility, which would be the first
permanent U.S. nuclear waste repository.
Domenici, chairman of a Senate Appropriations Committee panel that
oversees Yucca Mountain funding, is expected to propose his plan as
part of a $28 billion 2005 energy and water appropriations bill set
for panel consideration in early July.
Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants has been piling up for
years. An estimated 50,000 tons of it is stored at 72 sites in 33
states, mostly near urban areas in the East and Midwest.
-------------------
European Regulators Investigating Areva
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European antitrust regulators are looking
into French state-owned nuclear power company Areva's planned
acquisition of half of ETC, a company owned by the German-Dutch-
British firm Urenco and specializing in uranium enrichment
technology.
The European Commission said Tuesday it was concerned the joint
venture may result in less research and development in centrifuge
technology "and lead to higher prices for enriched uranium," which is
used to fuel nuclear power plants.
It also expressed concern about creating a "structural link" between
Areva and Urenco, which together control 80 percent of enriched
uranium in the European Union.
The investigation - started May 17 at the request of France, Sweden
and Germany - concerns only competition in the markets for enrichment
equipment and low-enriched uranium used in civilian reactors, the
commission said in a statement.
Areva already owns Eurodif, Europe's largest uranium enrichment
plant.
ETC develops, designs and manufactures centrifuges for Urenco, which
is owned by Germany's RWE and E.On, Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland Ltd.
and BNFL of Britain.
Areva is planning to update Eurodif's technology with a more
economical gas centrifuge plant of the type produced by ETC.
"The commission is concerned that the Areva/Urenco venture could
substantially diminish research and development in the market for
enrichment equipment, as Areva would have little incentive to
continue its R&D efforts," the statement said.
The companies have two months to respond, with an EU decision due by
Oct. 22.
---------------
Hiroshima radiation research body accuses U.S. of planning fund
HIROSHIMA, June 24 (Kyodo) - The Hiroshima-based Radiation Effects
Research Foundation funded by the Japanese and U.S. governments on
Thursday accused the United States of planning to cut its share.
The research foundation's nine-member board of directors worked out a
statement to protest at the plan as going against a Japan-U.S.
agreement to share the costs, Chairman Burton Bennett told reporters.
Bennett said the board of the body studying the effects of radiation
on survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August 1945 will send the statement to the U.S. Energy Department,
State Department and Congress.
Of the organization's 3.7 billion yen annual budget, Japan's Health,
Labor and Welfare Ministry shoulders 900 million yen for Japan's
research and the remaining 2.8 billion yen is shared evenly between
the health ministry and the U.S. Energy Department.
An Energy Department official visited the foundation in mid-March and
told Bennett of the budget cut plan, citing U.S. government policy to
shift the budget to security-related items, without elaborating how
much the department plans to cut, according to Bennett.
Bennett, however, expressed optimism that the United States may
allocate as much as before to the foundation. He said U.S. Ambassador
to Japan Howard Baker has voiced support for the foundation's
activities.
The research foundation was reorganized in 1975 from its predecessor,
the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission that was established in 1946
under the order of U.S. President Harry Truman.
The organization is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Energy
Department and Japanese health ministry.
------------------------------------
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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