Aomori governor blasts government for hiding nuclear data

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

Index:



Aomori governor blasts government for hiding nuclear data

METI admits compiling data on cost for burying spent nuclear fuel

N.M. Lab Finds Missing Classified Disk

Perry to Repair Faulty Instrument

U.S. Air Crews Look at Radiation Risk From Flying

Israel Energy Commission Unveils Web Site

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



Aomori governor blasts government for hiding nuclear data



AOMORI, Japan, July 8 (Kyodo) - Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura, whose 

prefecture hosts a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, criticized the 

government Thursday for hiding data on the cost of disposing of spent 

nuclear fuel.



"It is extremely regrettable," Mimura said during a meeting with 

Nobuyori Kodaira, director general of the Agency for Natural 

Resources and Energy.



The governor said the government's mishandling of the data could lead 

people in Aomori to distrust Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy.



Kodaira visited the prefecture to apologize for the hiding of the 

data.



The nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho in the prefecture is 

scheduled to become operational in July 2006.



On Monday, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry formally 

admitted that it failed to publicize an estimate made in 1994 saying 

the cost of burying spent nuclear fuel is much lower than the cost of 

recycling it.



The former head of the energy agency, Kazumasa Kusaka, told a 

parliamentary session in March there was no such data. Kusaka is now 

the vice minister for international affairs at the trade ministry.



On Thursday, representatives of the Federation of Electric Power 

Companies also held talks with Aomori officials. The federation is 

believed to have concealed similar nuclear data in 1996.



"We never intended to conceal them. We thought they were not worth 

publicizing," Teruaki Masumoto, vice chairman of the federation, said 

during a meeting with Aomori Vice Gov. Takeshi Ebina.



"There is no change in the need for recycling" spent nuclear fuel, 

Masumoto said.



Ebina said it will be difficult to convince the public of the 

necessity for promoting a recycling policy "by merely saying that 

Japan is a country with scarce natural resources."



"It is necessary to explain the issue from a perspective of energy 

security, even if there is a cost difference," he said.



The federation announced Wednesday that it failed to disclose data 

showing that the cost of burying spent nuclear fuel is about 30 

percent lower than recycling it.



In June, the prefecture publicized a draft safety pact to be 

concluded with Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. for conducting trial 

operations using uranium at the Rokkasho plant.

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



METI admits compiling data on cost for burying spent nuclear fuel



TOKYO, July 5 (Kyodo) - The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry 

formally admitted Monday it drew up an estimate in 1994 saying the 

cost of burying spent nuclear fuel is much lower than the cost of 

recycling it.



"It was regrettable that we did not know about the existence of such 

a document and we want to apologize for giving the wrong reply to the 

Diet," Vice Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hideji Sugiyama said 

at a news conference.



But Sugiyama stressed that the ministry did not intend to conceal the 

data. The ministry is now investigating why it was not aware of the 

data's existence, he said.



The estimate by an advisory panel to the Natural Resources and Energy 

Agency in February 1994 put the cost of burying spent nuclear fuel at 

0.348 yen per kilowatt-hour of power generation, compared with 1.336 

yen for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.



During a committee session in the House of Councillors in March, 

Kazumasa Kusaka, then director general of the agency, said there was 

no cost estimate other than for reprocessing.



According to METI officials, the document was presented during a 

closed-door session of a government advisory panel on nuclear issues 

as a reference for discussions. The panel members agreed not to 

publicize it, the officials said.



Critics say the government concealed the information purposely to 

avoid public calls for a review of its nuclear fuel recycling policy.



Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa also apologized 

over the case on Sunday.



Sugiyama said METI has already submitted the document to the Atomic 

Energy Commission and hopes that further discussions, including a 

review of the data, will be carried out at the commission.



Regarding possible punishment of people concerned in the 

nondisclosure of the information, the top METI bureaucrat said he 

wants to discuss the matter with Nakagawa.

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



N.M. Lab Finds Missing Classified Disk



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A classified floppy disk reported missing 

from a government nuclear weapons lab was found Friday, but officials 

were tight-lipped about details surrounding the incident.



The disk was listed as missing during a June 30 inventory at Sandia 

National Laboratories. The lab said the floppy disk came from a 

military organization.



"The disk was always under the control of individuals authorized to 

possess it," said Ron Detry, Sandia's vice president of integrated 

security and chief security officer.



Detry cited a procedural error in the disk's transfer between lab 

organizations, but lab officials declined to comment on where the 

disk was found or any other details.



"We are relieved the disk has been found. But in my mind, the nature 

of the near miss of this recent incident is far too close for 

comfort," Sandia Director C. Paul Robinson said. "We must find better 

ways and procedures for ensuring the protection of such material."



Sandia officials notified the Energy Department and the National 

Nuclear Security Administration about the disk.



Robinson said he has asked Detry to lead a task force to improve the 

management of classified electronic information and removable media.



The incident at Sandia came on the heels of another security breach 

at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where two items identified only as 

removable data storage devices with classified information turned up 

missing during a special inventory.

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



Perry to Repair Faulty Instrument



July 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A monitoring instrument at the 

Perry Nuclear Plant will be repaired today after it indicated a false 

reading in a plant ventilation system this morning.



The ventilation system processes and filters gas from the plant's 

turbine. The instrument monitoring the system indicated higher than 

normal levels of radiation, which automatically activated additional 

monitors. Those monitors all indicated normal readings.



Plant technicians took multiple gas samples to verify that the single 

reading was incorrect, and began inspecting the defective monitor 

early Tuesday morning. There was no release of radiation to the 

environment, and the plant continued to operate at full power.



In accordance with plant procedures, an Alert was declared at 3:44 

a.m. and terminated at 9:01 a.m. An Alert is the second lowest of 

four emergency classifications as outlined by the Nuclear Regulatory 

Commission (NRC). All appropriate governmental agencies were 

notified.



The Perry Nuclear Plant is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating 

Company, a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp.

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



U.S. Air Crews Look at Radiation Risk From Flying



DALLAS (Reuters) - Airline crews already have their hands full with 

concerns about stepped up security, congested airports and travellers 

who have had one drink too many.



One more item to add to that list may be radiation exposure.



The union for pilots at American Airlines is trying to increase 

awareness among air crews that they are being exposed to enough 

cosmic radiation to fall into a U.S. government regulated category of 

radiation workers.



The longer a person travels on a jet, the higher the jet travels and 

the closer the jet flies to the north or south poles, all increase 

exposure to cosmic radiation, which comes from deep space and the 

sun. The Earth's atmosphere largely shields us from cosmic radiation, 

but planes fly where the atmosphere is thin.



"It is clear that there are health risks associated with a career of 

flying," Federal Aviation Administration researchers wrote in a 2002 

report on radiation exposure of air crews.



Some of the routes that had the highest radiation exposure included 

flights between Tokyo and New York, London and Los Angeles, as well 

as between Athens and New York, it said.



The exposure levels for air crews fall well within federal guidelines 

for safe exposure for a healthy adult but the Allied Pilots 

Association (APA) said the radiation exposure could present risks for 

the fetus of a pregnant woman. A fetus has developing cells that are 

more likely to be damaged by exposure to radiation than a adult.



"For your average passenger, who flies occasionally, it is not an 

issue. For air crew members who fly more than 75 hours or more a 

month, that certainly adds up," said Captain Joyce May, an American 

Airlines pilot who is the deputy chairwoman of the APA's Aeromedical 

Committee.



HIGHER ALTITUDES, INCREASED RISK



The problem has become more acute as jets are flying at higher 

altitudes. The high-altitude flights help to cut down on jet fuel 

use, but they also increase exposure to cosmic radiation.



May said that total radiation exposure doubles with every 6,500 feet 

(1,980 meters) of climate altitude.



"For a jet cruising at 39,000 feet (11,890 meters), the total 

radiation is about 64 times higher than at sea level. If you drop 

down to 33,000 feet (10,060 meters), it is only about 35 times 

greater than sea level," she said.



May and the union are calling for more thorough training for air 

crews so that they better understand their exposure risks to 

radiation. They are asking for better tracking of the radiation 

exposure of crew members and studies to see if the exposure presents 

any long-term health risks.



A typical air crew member may experience about 200 millirems to 400 

millirems more exposure to ionising radiation than the general 

population per year. The pilots and flight attendants working routes 

over the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean will likely top 500 millirems of 

radiation exposure.



Galactic cosmic radiation is high energy and penetrates all parts of 

an aircraft equally, scientists said. It is also ionising radiation, 

meaning it can penetrate the human body and disrupt the healthy 

function of cells.



RADIATION WORKERS



The United States does not have any regulations for air crews on 

radiation exposure, but several European countries classify air crews 

as radiation workers and monitor their exposure levels.



There are no definitive studies linking cosmic radiation exposure for 

air crews with health risks, May said, but she did note one medical 

study showed that pilots had three to four times the rate of 

malignant melanoma -- a type of skin cancer -- than the general 

population.



In order to give some perspective, workers at the Los Alamos Nuclear 

Laboratory, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, have an annual safety 

limit of 2,000 millirems of exposure. It tries to limit radiation 

exposure for a pregnant woman to 500 millirems for the term of her 

pregnancy.



Other federal agencies have a safe, annual exposure level of 5,000 

millirems.



Tom Buhl, a top health physicist at Los Alamos, said that while air 

crews may meet the U.S. minimum standard of radiation workers, he 

does not think they should be classified as such because they do not 

face the risk of a large, unexpected dose of radiation.



"On an airplane, the radiation field is pretty well known. You have a 

pretty good understanding of what that radiation is," Buhl said.

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



Israel Energy Commission Unveils Web Site



JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel offered a faint glimpse into its secretive 

nuclear program when its atomic energy commission launched a Web 

site.



However, Internet surfers hoping to find details of the country's 

nuclear secrets or even a clear picture of the reactors will be 

disappointed.



Until now, Israel has kept its two nuclear facilities shrouded in 

secrecy and refused to discuss speculation it has developed one the 

world's largest atomic arsenals, saying only that it would not be the 

first country to introduce such weapons in the region.



The unveiling of the Web site Sunday came just days before Mohamed 

ElBaradei, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency, was to arrive 

in Israel for a two-day visit. ElBaradei was expected to press Israel 

for at least a tacit acknowledgment that it has nuclear weapons or 

the means to make them.



However, Gideon Shavit, spokesman for the Israel Atomic Energy 

Commission, said the timing of the Web site launch was coincidental 

and that it was not a harbinger of a new, more open Israeli nuclear 

policy.



The site does not mention Israel's nuclear capabilities.



"We are not going to put everything on the site," Shavit said, adding 

that the commission wanted to keep a low profile. "No company does 

that."



The English version of the site gives a short history of the IAEC and 

shows two pastoral pictures of the Dimona and Sorek reactors, peeking 

out in the distance from behind lush flower beds and a palm tree.



The Hebrew site is more developed, with links to research 

publications, commission press releases and even a section on 

community involvement - features that will soon be added to the 

English site, Shavit said.



Israel has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, so it does 

not formally have to declare itself a weapons state or agree to curbs 

on its nuclear activities.



Israel has covered its tracks well, apparently developing much of any 

weapons program in the laboratory or buying knowledge instead of 

relying on testing and other easily detectable activities.



ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said 

Israel should start talking seriously about a Middle East free of 

nuclear arms whether or not it owes up to owning them. Earlier this 

year, he condemned the imbalance caused in the Middle East because of 

"Israel sitting on nuclear weapons."



Israel's doctrine of "nuclear ambiguity" - never formally confirming 

or denying it has such weapons - is meant to scare rivals while 

denying them the rationale for developing their own nuclear 

deterrent.



But this ambiguity suffered a setback in 1986 when nuclear technician 

Mordechai Vanunu sold photographs taken inside the Dimona reactor to 

The Sunday Times of London. Based on the pictures and Vanunu's 

testimony, experts concluded that Israel had the world's sixth-

largest stockpile of nuclear weapons.



The new site emerges about a month after Israel's Mossad intelligence 

agency launched its own Web site.



Security officials have said the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security 

agency, also is considering unveiling a Web site.



"More and more organizations have Web sites and now so do we," Shavit 

said.



On the Web: http://www.iaec.gov.il/



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

Sandy Perle

Sr. 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@dosimetry.com

E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net



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

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



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