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Gov't to End Public Nuclear Updates
Index:
Gov't to End Public Nuclear Updates
Nuclear plant due for $706 million repair
Gambling, shellfish and a nuclear reactor
Officials: California man scales fence at nuclear power station
========================
Gov't to End Public Nuclear Updates
WASHINGTON - The government will no longer reveal security gaps
discovered at nuclear power plants, hoping to prevent terrorists from
using the information, regulators said Wednesday.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced the change in policy
during its first public meeting on power plant safety since the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Until now, the NRC has provided regular public updates on
vulnerabilities its inspectors found at the country's 103 nuclear
power reactors, such as broken fences or weaknesses in training
programs.
"We need to blacken some of our processes so that our adversaries
won't have that information," said Roy Zimmerman, director of the
commission's Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, which
was created after the attacks.
NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said commissioners voted to take the step
March 29, but kept it quiet as agency staff worked to implement the
plan. The vote itself was revealed Wednesday.
"We deliberated for many months on finding the balance between the
NRC's commitment to openness and the concern that sensitive
information might be misused by those who wish us harm," commission
Chairman Nils Diaz said in a written statement.
Protection at the nation's nuclear power reactors . located at 64
sites in 31 states . has been ratcheted up since the Sept. 11
attacks. The commission has long been guarded about revealing
specifics of the security efforts.
But that has not stopped accusations of inadequate guard training and
other security lapses.
Congressional investigations have found problems such as a guard
falling asleep on the job and lost keys to sensitive areas. Reports
from the Energy Department's inspector general noted other problems,
such as guards being warned of upcoming security exercises and
inconsistent training from site to site.
Nuclear activists have expressed concern about the adequacy of guard
training, fire protection, the security of pools containing spent
nuclear fuel, and planning for different kinds of attacks.
"The vulnerabilities at a lot of the reactors in this country have
not been addressed," said Jim Riccio, a nuclear policy analyst for
Greenpeace. "Here we are nearly three years from the attacks and I
don't see anything they've done except extending the perimeters of
these facilities."
In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, operators at the nation's
nuclear power plants posted more guards, added security patrols and
reduced access to the installations' most sensitive areas.
Military planes at nearby bases stood ready to intercept any
suspicious aircraft, the Coast Guard patrolled the Great Lakes near
power plants to keep ships away, and many facilities enlisted the
help of National Guard troops.
Some critics have said nothing short of military occupation of the
plants will provide adequate safety. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
(news - web sites) said in May that the possibility of creating a
federal police force to guard nuclear plants was being seriously
discussed.
Paul Gunter, a nuclear expert at the watchdog group Nuclear
Information and Resource Service, said he's worried that plants since
1992 have been allowed to delay implementation of fire protection
equipment for control room cables.
"Our major concern is that the NRC really has to stop protecting the
nuclear power industry from the cost of security and really start
protecting it from the clear and present danger of terrorism," Gunter
said.
-------------------
Nuclear plant due for $706 million repair
David Lazarus
Aug 4 (San Francisco Chronicle) PG&E, which reported a 64 percent
increase in net income Tuesday, wants its customers to pay $706
million -- and possibly more -- to overhaul the utility's Diablo
Canyon nuclear power plant.
State regulators will hold hearings on the utility's request next
month. A decision could come by year's end. At stake is nothing less
than California's energy future.
PG&E says the money, which it would take in through an almost 2
percent increase in monthly bills, is needed to replace Diablo
Canyon's aging steam generators. They produce power from water heated
by nuclear fission.
The utility says this would keep Diablo Canyon operational for at
least the next 20 years and thus provide juice for power-thirsty
homes and businesses. Otherwise, PG&E says, it may have to close the
plant as soon as 2013, creating the potential for a new energy
crisis.
"Diablo generates roughly 20 percent of the electricity that PG&E
customers use," noted John Nelson, a spokesman for the utility.
Opponents of the plan, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, say
the hundreds of millions of dollars sought by PG&E could just as
easily be spent on constructing state-of-the-art, non-nuclear power
plants.
They argue that diverting the money away from Diablo Canyon could
represent the start of a far-reaching plan for statewide energy self-
sufficiency based on a combination of natural-gas-fired plants and
alternative energy sources.
'Better uses for money'
This approach, however, could end up costing almost twice the amount
PG&E is seeking.
"There are a lot better uses for the money PG&E wants," said Rochelle
Becker of Mothers for Peace, an anti-nuclear watchdog group
spearheading the opposition to the utility's plans. "Why should we
just hand it over to them?"
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. submitted its request for the funds in
January as squabbling continued with regulators over the utility's
bankruptcy proceedings.
In its filing, PG&E asked the California Public Utilities Commission
to approve passing along $706 million in Diablo Canyon maintenance
charges to ratepayers.
In the 1990s, the PUC required PG&E to cover such expenses on its
own. But now, after regulatory changes, the utility can fund plant
upgrades and maintenance through approved rate increases.
Passing along such costs to ratepayers is common in the utility
business and is how generators have been replaced at other nuclear
plants nationwide.
Yet PG&E also sought approval in January "to seek recovery in rates
of any amounts above the CPUC-specified reasonable and prudent cost"
for the replacement work, subject to a PUC "reasonableness review."
"That's not normally how we do things around here," observed Truman
Burns, a regulatory analyst in the PUC's Office of Ratepayer
Advocates. "Normally the cost gets nailed down in advance."
In April, Southern California Edison said $680 million will have to
be spent within five years to replace generators at the San Onofre
nuclear power plant it co-owns with San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
San Onofre repairs
The San Diego utility disputes whether the work is justified at this
time, leaving it unclear who will pay for the repairs. Edison, which
owns 75 percent of San Onofre, estimates the work would result in
customers' monthly bills rising by about 2 percent.
Numerous utilities, including Edison, sued a leading maker of steam
generators, Westinghouse Electric Corp., in the 1980s and '90s for
faulty equipment. Most of the suits were settled out of court.
Diablo Canyon uses Westinghouse generators. But PG&E's Nelson said
the equipment has met expectations and in fact has outlasted
machinery at other nuclear plants.
Referendum on the future
Next month's hearings are intended to focus on whether the Diablo
Canyon project offers ratepayers good value for money. But they're
also shaping up to be a referendum on the plant's future.
The 2,200-megawatt coastal facility near San Luis Obispo generates
enough power to light more than 2 million homes.
If the steam generators are replaced as per PG&E's wishes, the plant
is licensed to remain operational until 2025. PG&E is already
studying whether to seek an extension of that license.
Critics point to the potential danger of having a nuclear plant
several miles from an earthquake fault. They observe that PG&E says
it will store nuclear waste -- spent fuel rods -- on a nearby
hillside because there's nowhere else to put it.
Similarly, the utility says it would also store Diablo Canyon's old
generators in concrete structures on a hillside above the plant if
regulators OK the replacement work. Each of the eight generators is
68 feet tall and weighs 800,000 pounds.
Each will remain radioactive for at least 25 years after being shut
down.
"This plant was designed in 1960," said Becker of Mothers for Peace.
"How many of us would want to drive cars designed in 1960?"
Environmentally friendly
Rather than pumping more money into Diablo Canyon, she said,
California should construct environmentally friendly plants to
address the state's energy needs.
A 1,054-megawatt gas-fired plant now being constructed by Southern
California Edison in San Bernardino County is budgeted at about $650
million.
To replace Diablo Canyon, therefore, two such plants would need to be
built at a cost of nearly $1.3 billion.
New plants last longer
According to Becker, they'd be worth every penny.
"You'd have brand new power plants that last decades longer than
Diablo Canyon, and you wouldn't be producing radioactive waste on the
earthquake- prone coast of California," she said. "That's the best
use of our money."
-----------------
Gambling, shellfish and a nuclear reactor
Survival and development on ancestral homelands
LACROSSE, Wis. Aug 3 (Jim Seida / MSNBC) - The Mississippi River has
as many stories as it does bends, and they come at you quicker than a
speedboat bearing down on a raft when you.re trying to race from
headwaters to mouth in just two weeks. On Day 2, we were the common
thread between two disparate story lines spinning out on the same
stretch of river . a Native American tribe that.s trying to
capitalize on its good fortune and an environmental success story
that is returning a long-absent native mussel to parts of the upper
river.
We started our day on the southern outskirts of Minneapolis and drove
about 60 miles southeast to the Prairie Island Indian Community . the
only tribal reservation bordering the Mississippi River.
Like every other native American tribe in the Midwest, the 650-member
Prairie Island tribe was forced from its ancestral homelands along
the river, its members scattered throughout the West after a brief
but bloody revolt known as the Dakota Conflict in 1862. But unlike
the others, the Prairie Island community reclaimed a 534-acre piece
of its ancestral land about 10 miles south of Red Wing, a sandy
island bordered by the Mississippi and the Vermillion rivers.
The tribe also holds a more dubious distinction . its residents
apparently are the closest neighbors of a nuclear plant in the United
States, with some homes just 600 yards from the twin-tower Prairie
Island nuclear power plant owned by Xcel Energy.
The story of the Prairie Island Indians is one of perseverance. The
tribe.s members began trickling back to the island in the late 1880s
and eventually attained the critical mass that led to federal
recognition of the tribe in 1936.
But with only subsistence farming and few local jobs, poverty
remained a way of life for the tribe -- made up mostly of Mdewakanton
Dakota Indians, or .those who were born of the waters. -- until well
into the 1960s.
.My grandparents had absolutely nothing, it was abject poverty at
that time,. said Doreen Hagen, president of the Prairie Island Tribal
Council.
But many of the tribe.s elders remember those years fondly.
Pauline Hamilton, a 78-year-old great-grandmother who grew up on the
reservation, says the casino has been a double-edged sword: "Years
ago there was caring and sharing with one another. That's in the past
now."
.People helped each other,. said Pauline Hamilton, a 78-year-old
great-grandmother whose parents performed for a time in .Wild Bill.
Hickock.s Wild West show. .I don.t ever remember going hungry. There
was a lot of game and fish. The men worked for the local farmers .
(in exchange for) milk and eggs and a few dollars..
That began to change in 1984, when the tribe opened a bingo hall on
the island and began attracting a trickle of residents from Red Wing
and beyond. The trickle became a torrent in 1988, when the hall was
expanded to become the casino-style gambling at what is now known as
the Treasure Island Resort and Casino.
The casino has enabled the tribe to make much needed improvements to
the infrastructure, paving roads, building a school and a health
clinic staffed by doctors from the Mayo Clinic and creating a tribal
police force.
It also has led to .per capita. payments . excess revenue that is
sent each month to tribe members. Prairie Island officials won.t say
how much each member receives, but a drive around the reservation
reveals new high-end vehicles in almost every driveway.
While the money has given tribe members new opportunities, Hagen said
that the biggest benefit has been to give the tribe clout with state
and federal leaders for the first time.
.The casino has made it possible for us to travel to D.C. and see the
representatives, and we also have lobbyists in D.C. and here in the
state to help us with our issues now as well,. she said.
That influence was sorely lacking when the Prairie Island nuclear
plant was built in 1968.
Hagen said that tribe members were first told that the facility would
be a coal-powered plant that would bring jobs to the impoverished
locals. Only later did they find out that the plant was a nuclear
reactor, and the jobs never materialized, she said.
Nor has the plant been a good neighbor in the intervening years,
Hagen said. In one instance, there was an accident that resulted in
an evacuation of the plant, but the tribe was never alerted, she
said.
.The reason we found out was that all the cars were leaving,. she
said. .Everyone was leaving and they forgot to tell us. Luckily we
had a person who worked there who called and said, .You better get
out...
The presence of the plant remains a major concern, both because there
are 17 concrete .casks. with spent nuclear fuel rods stored on the
grounds awaiting development of a permanent federal disposal site and
because tribe members fear it could be a target for a Sept. 11 style
terrorist attack.
A spokeswoman for the Nuclear Management Co. of Hudson, Wis., which
operates the plant for Xcel, had no immediate comment on Hagen.s
comments.
Despite continuing concern over the potentially dangerous neighbor,
the most controvercial topic lately has been the tribe.s lucrative
casino.
Hamilton, the tribal elder, said that some members of the tribe
believe that the easy money is undermining the community.s cultural
identity.
.Years ago there was caring and sharing with one another,. she said.
.That.s in the past now. I don.t know what the future is, you know?.
But Hagen said the benefits of the casino far outweigh the minuses.
.We like to concentrate on the positive parts,. she said. .There are
a few negative things, but nothing that we can.t overcome because we
have the resources to do that..
The 'keystone species'
Less than a mile upriver from the tribe.s new marina, river ecologist
Mike Davis and two assistants are working to cement an environmental
success story by reintroducing the Higgins. eye mussel to a stretch
of water where it has not been seen since the 1930s.
While the disappearance of a particular variety of mussel from the
river might not seem a big loss, Davis said that the shellfish are a
.keystone species. that are an important contributor to a river.s
health.
.They become extremely abundant over time and they bury themselves
into the sediment and become substrata of the riverbed, stabilizing
the river and providing roughness that can be colonized by algae and
aquatic insects that eat the algae, and then smaller fish that feed
on those insects, and then of course the bigger fish,. he said. .. It
creates this sort of positive feedback loop in the ecosystem..
On this day, Davis, who works for the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources, and two crewmembers . Becky Hochstein, a student intern
studying biology at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and Dan
Allen, a former intern who is back for another summer on the river .
are literally crawling around the bottom of the river in scuba gear,
sifting the ooze with their bare hands in search of any and all
mussels. The object of the search is to find out which other types of
mussels are present to determine whether this is prime real estate
for the Higgins. eye as well.
The dive point in the Buffalo Slough, which runs parallel to the main
channel of the Mississippi, turns out to be a mussel gold mine. In
about 20 minutes of diving, Hochstein and Allen pull up bags laden
with 11 species of the shellfish, known by exotic but unofficial
names like the pink heel-splitter, round pig toe, pocketbook and
pimple back.
That leads Davis, a weathered 55-year-old former commercial
fisherman, to mark the site as a likely spot to plant Higgins. eye
mussels that he and his team are hatching using a technique perfected
during the days when buttons were big industry on the river.
The project, which is funded primarily by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers but has drawn participation from numerous state and federal
agencies, aims to establish new colonies of the Higgins. eye mussel
in the upper Mississippi to hedge against the invasive non-native
zebra mussel. The zebra mussel, which grows so thickly on the river
bottom that it .smothers. Higgins. eye mussels, already has spread as
far north as Pepin Lake, only a few miles below where Davis and his
crew are working.
Last year, the project placed 500 Higgins. eye mussels in the upper
river, and that number is due to grow to 1,500 this year and 7,500
next year, Davis said. So far, initial checks on the mussels planted
last year are promising.
.They.re reproducing, whether they establish a self-sustaining
community remains to be seen,. he said.
------------------
Officials: California man scales fence at nuclear power station
Aug 3 (AP) SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. Officials say a man who scaled an eight-
foot-high security fence at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station
told police he didn't know he had been trespassing.
Security officers caught 40-year-old Modesto, California, resident
Craig Billington shortly after he scaled the fence at the nuclear
facility Monday.
A spokesman for plant owner FirstEnergy Corporation says Billington
didn't have any weapons or threatening items. The spokesman says it
looks like Billington was in the middle of a cross-country trip and
the fence got in the way.
Billington faces charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
He was sent to the Beaver County Jail.
------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Senior 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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