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Hitachi To Work With GE On Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Project
Index:
Hitachi To Work With GE On Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Project
Radiation Levels Declining in the Arctic
Armenian authorities arrest man found with radioactive cesium-137
Nuclear initiative on Washington state ballot
U.S. nuclear regulator pitches American reactors to China
Radioactive Materials Seized in Central Russia
Challenges to Millstone license rejected by appeals court
Minor malfunction detected at Hungarian nuclear reactor
Iran expresses interest in purchasing nuclear fuel from West
--------------------------------------------------------
Hitachi To Work With GE On Next-Gen Nuclear Reactor Project
TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Japan's Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo:6501.TO) (6501.TO)
said Monday it will join General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE)'s (GE)
project to develop a next-generation boiling water nuclear reactor in
the U.S. by 2010.
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT), Japan's largest electronics conglomerate by
sales, said the project will strengthen its overseas orders from
countries such as the U.S. and China. The deal, if materialized, will
make up for declining sales from Hitachi's (NYSE:HIT) nuclear reactor
construction projects in Japan.
GE has already completed a basic design for a next-generation
reactor, an upgraded version of a boiling water reactor, or BWR, with
safety features. GE has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission for the design certification, which it may get as early as
next year, according to GE's Japan office.
Corrected October 19, 200404:52 ET (08:52 GMT)
"The energy demand for Japan in coming years seems to be less than
that which electric power companies had expected earlier," said a
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman. " Japanese electric power companies
aren't planning to build many new reactors."
The partners plan to manufacture next-generation reactors and make
them ready for the market by 2010, the Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman
said.
Under the agreement between the two companies, GE will lay out the
basic designs for the reactors. Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) will likely fine-
tune the final designs and manufacture the reactors, Hitachi
(NYSE:HIT) said.
Depending on demand for next-generation nuclear power plants, Hitachi
(NYSE:HIT) may increase its manufacturing plants for such reactors,
but no such details have been decided yet, Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) said.
So far, the two firms do not plan to form a joint venture, the
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman said.
GE and Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) first began collaborating in the area of
BWR technologies in 1967.
The type of reactor the companies plan to build is called an Economic
Simplified BWR, which is capable of producing 1.4 million kilowatts
an hour. Capacity that size would be one of the largest in the world.
Japan's mainstream nuclear reactors today have capacity of 1.35
million kWh.
The next-generation reactors may offer lower operating costs as they
will not use pumps - which require maintenance - to circulate water,
for example. If they prove more cost-effective, the new reactors
could become the mainstream product in coming years.
-By Michele Yamada, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2955;
Michele.Yamada@ dowjones.com
-Edited by Chris Gallagher and Kirsty Mackenzie
Corrected October 19, 200404:53 ET (08:53 GMT)
TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- Japan's Hitachi Ltd. (Tokyo:6501.TO) (6501.TO)
said Monday it will join General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE)'s (GE)
project to develop a next-generation boiling water nuclear reactor in
the U.S. by 2010.
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT), Japan's largest electronics conglomerate by
sales, said the project will strengthen its overseas orders from
countries such as the U.S. and China. The deal, if materialized, will
make up for declining sales from Hitachi's (NYSE:HIT) nuclear reactor
construction projects in Japan.
GE has already completed a basic design for a next-generation
reactor, an upgraded version of a boiling water reactor, or BWR, with
safety features. GE has applied to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission for the design certification, which it may get as early as
next year, according to GE's Japan office.
"The energy demand for Japan in coming years seems to be less than
that which electric power companies had expected earlier," said a
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman. " Japanese electric power companies
aren't planning to build many new reactors."
The partners plan to manufacture next-generation reactors and make
them ready for the market by 2010, the Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman
said.
Under the agreement between the two companies, GE will lay out the
basic designs for the reactors. Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) will likely fine-
tune the final designs and manufacture the reactors, Hitachi
(NYSE:HIT) said.
Depending on demand for next-generation nuclear power plants, Hitachi
(NYSE:HIT) may increase its manufacturing plants for such reactors,
but no such details have been decided yet, Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) said.
So far, the two firms do not plan to form a joint venture, the
Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) spokesman said.
GE and Hitachi (NYSE:HIT) first began collaborating in the area of
BWR technologies in 1967.
The type of reactor the companies plan to build is called an Economic
Simplified BWR, which is capable of producing 1.4 million kilowatts
an hour. Capacity that size would be one of the largest in the world.
Japan's mainstream nuclear reactors today have capacity of 1.35
million kWh.
The next-generation reactors may offer lower operating costs as they
will not use pumps - which require maintenance - to circulate water,
for example. If they prove more cost-effective, the new reactors
could become the mainstream product in coming years.
---------------
Radiation Levels Declining in the Arctic
OSLO, Norway (Oct. 12) - Atomic radiation levels are beginning to
decline in the Arctic, years after Soviet aboveground nuclear weapons
tests and the Chernobyl nuclear accident spewed their fallout over
the region, according to a study released Tuesday.
But the far north, with its fragile ecosystems, remains at risk from
vast depots of aging post-Soviet nuclear weapons, submarines, power
plants and waste in northwest Russia, experts say.
"The Arctic is the most sensitive region for nuclear fallout, yet
parts of the Arctic have the world's greatest concentration of
nuclear materials," Per Strand, of the Norwegian Nuclear Protection
Authority, told The Associated Press.
Since 1991, scientists from the international Arctic Monitoring and
Assessment Program have been keeping track of pollutants that reach
the remote Arctic.
In its 1991-2002 study, released Tuesday, the group said radiation
levels had begun to decline on Arctic land masses.
"The levels are going down in the Arctic, which is a good thing. But
it has taken much longer than in the rest of the world," said Strand,
whose agency led the study in cooperation with the Russian
environment and meteorology agency Roshydromet.
He said it takes longer because tundra vegetation, including mosses,
mushrooms and grasses, absorbs more radiation than most plants.
That radiation is then passed on to animals, such as reindeer, and in
turn to the people who eat them, including the Arctic's indigenous
Sami herders.
Because the region is so vast and the types of radiation are so
varied, Strand could give no overall estimate of the decline.
Citing one example, however, he said Sami reindeer herders in 1965
had average radiation levels of 35,000 becquerels, the unit of
measurement for radiation levels. Those high levels were directly
traced to Soviet nuclear weapons tests that had been halted three
years earlier. In 2002, those levels were down to 3,000 becquerels.
The 1986 Soviet nuclear power plant accident at Chernobyl, in
Ukraine, killed more than 4,000 people and spread its fallout to the
far north. Its impact can still be measured in the Arctic.
The study also looks at other sources of radiation, including a
nuclear armed U.S. B-52 bomber that crashed and burned in Greenland
in 1968. It was carrying four nuclear weapons.
Strand said the greatest threat comes from the Kola Peninsula in
northwest Russia, which has the world's greatest concentration of
nuclear materials.
The Arctic peninsula, bordering Norway and Finland, is home to
Russia's North Fleet, which includes 52 decommissioned and rundown
nuclear submarines, many with nuclear fuel still aboard. At least two
Russian nuclear submarines have sunk while on patrol in the Arctic in
the past 15 years.
The peninsula is also home to depots of nuclear weapons and an old
nuclear power plant. The Norwegian environmental group Bellona also
says about 21,000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies are stored there and
many of the containers are leaking.
Strand said it will take billions of dollars (euros) to clean up.
The Arctic monitoring program was set up to advise the Arctic
Council, made up of the governments of eight Arctic nations: Canada,
Denmark (with Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden
and the United States.
-----------------
Armenian authorities arrest man found with radioactive cesium-137
YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Authorities have arrested a man found with
radioactive cesium-137 in the trunk of his car, a state official said
Monday.
The highly toxic material, which could contaminate large areas if
used in a "dirty bomb," was found Friday and "rendered harmless,"
Ashot Martirosian, chief of the State Atomic Oversight department,
said.
Yerevan resident Gagik Tovmasian was arrested on charges of illegal
trade in radioactive materials, Martirosian said.
It was unclear how the man obtained the material, but various sources
for it exist in Armenia, a small former Soviet republic in the
Caucasus Mountains, Martirosian said.
Various industries use cesium-137 in density gauges and for machine
calibration. Authorities in neighboring Georgia have spoken of the
need to create a storage site for gauges in which cesium-137 was used
to measure the level of gasoline in underground tanks at gas
stations.
Martirosian did not say how much cesium was found, but he said the
substance is very hazardous to human health.
Devices containing cesium-137 can cause serious radiation exposure if
broken and held. Depending on the amount and form, experts say a
dirty bomb made with cesium-137 could spread intense radioactivity
over a section of a city, making it uninhabitable.
In February, Martirosian said a powerful source of radiation was
found on the Armenian-Iranian border, among scrap metal headed for
Iran.
-------------------
Nuclear initiative on Washington state ballot
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - A Washington state ballot measure would bar the
federal government from shipping Cold War-era nuclear waste to the
Hanford nuclear site until the facility is decontaminated.
Supporters of Initiative 297 say voters would be foolhardy to reject
a standard that protects them. Opponents argue that interfering with
the government's disposal plan could spell doom -- especially if
other states follow Washington's lead and ban Hanford waste.
That facility was created during World War Two as part of the
Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. Hanford is the most
contaminated site in the nation.
----------------
U.S. nuclear regulator pitches American reactors for China's growing
nuclear power industry
BEIJING (AP) - The top U.S. nuclear regulator vouched for the safety
of a new Westinghouse nuclear reactor - yet to be built anywhere in
the world - in a sales pitch to supply China's growing power
industry.
Makers of nuclear power equipment are lobbying hard for business in
China, which plans to build dozens of plants in coming years at a
time when few other countries are commissioning new facilities.
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Nils Diaz said the US$1.5
billion (euro 1.2 billion) AP1000 reactor made by Westinghouse
Electric Co. is likely to receive regulatory approval in the next few
months.
"My understanding is that China is looking for an advanced reactor
that provides graded assurance of safety," Diaz said after meeting
with Chinese officials. "They're looking, I think, for ... something
that is state-of-the-art, and the AP1000 is a state-of-the-art
reactor."
China has begun accepting bids to build several new reactors, Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. Whether China will buy
American technology depends on "the result of the bidding as well as
the requirements of the Chinese companies," she added, without
elaborating.
Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., is
the only U.S.-based maker of pressurized water reactors - the design
that China says it wants to pursue.
Its chief rivals for China's business are Framatome, a subsidiary of
France's Areva; Siemens AG of Germany; and Russia's AtomStroyExport.
Some in the United States are concerned about such technology
transfers, citing recent Chinese plans to help Pakistan build
reactors that can produce plutonium, but Diaz said any deal would bar
China from transferring technology to another country.
China has nine nuclear power plants in operation, including French,
Canadian, Russian and Japanese designs, as well as its own model,
with a combined capacity of 7,010 megawatts.
It wants to boost capacity to about 36,000 megawatts by 2020.
The United States, by contrast, has built no new reactors since the
Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.
----------------
Radioactive Materials Seized in Central Russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian security services seized two containers
filled with highly radioactive material at a scrap yard in central
Russia, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday.
Radiation levels at the scene in the Volga town of Saratov, where the
containers with uranium-238 were discovered, were 358 times higher
than normal, Interfax said, citing regional emergency officials.
Nuclear officials in Moscow could not immediately confirm the report.
Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be
theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs."
Russia, which has the world's second biggest nuclear arsenal after
the United States, is under international pressure to do more to
protect its atomic sites from theft and prevent sensitive materials
from reaching the nuclear black market.
Both President Bush and challenger Senator John Kerry have said they
consider nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists the
biggest threat to the United States.
Interfax said homeless people brought the containers to the scrap
yard. It quoted regional nuclear experts as saying officials at the
scene had also found an empty container normally used to transport
uranium.
Uranium-238 is a highly dense and toxic material mainly used in gun
ammunition and armor.
"That type of uranium looks very much like lead so I would not be
surprised if someone had simply mistaken it for it and dumped at the
scrap yard," a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said.
Highly enriched uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors can be used
to make an atomic bomb.
Spent fuel, as well as other by-products of uranium enrichment such
as uranium-238, can produce a "dirty bomb" that needs little atomic
content but spreads radiation when it explodes.
Also Tuesday, a truck carrying radioactive materials was seized at
the far eastern port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Ria-Novosti news
agency reported. No further details were available.
-----------------
Challenges to Millstone license rejected by appeals court
WATERFORD, Conn. (AP)- A federal appeals court has rejected two
appeals by an organization that has been fighting to block operating
license renewals for the Millstone nuclear power complex.
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has dismissed appeals
brought by the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone. The court has
also issued an order disbarring coalition lawyer Nancy Burton of
Redding from serving as legal counsel in federal court.
Last year the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a similar disbarment
order at the state level.
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, is seeking to renew the original, 40-
year operating licenses of the nuclear complex with 20-year
extensions through 2035 at Millstone 2 and 2045 at Millstone 3.
A third reactor, Millstone 1, has been permanently shut down and is
not up for license renewal.
In a statement issued by Judges Roger J. Miner, Jose A. Cabranes, and
Chester J. Straub on Thursday, the court refused to review a Nuclear
Regulatory Commission decision denying the coalition an
administrative law hearing.
Burton had argued that the hearing was a necessary part of the
license renewal process, citing cancer clusters near Millstone,
inadequate steps taken to prevent terrorism and other concerns.
In rejecting Burton's appeal of the NRC decision, the court stated it
could only overturn an NRC ruling if it found the agency's actions to
be "arbitrary and capricious." The coalition did little more than
meet legal requirements that gave it standing to petition for the
hearing, the court ruled.
In a related matter, the court also refused to review an NRC decision
that found the coalition's original petition for a hearing, filed the
day before new hearing rules were enacted, to be premature.
-------------------
Minor malfunction detected at Hungarian nuclear reactor
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - A minor malfunction which did not pose a
nuclear safety threat was detected last week at Hungary's only
nuclear power plant, officials said Tuesday.
During maintenance work at the plant's No. 3 reactor, a cooling pump
in one of the reactor's three safety systems switched off last
Friday, plant spokesman Istvan Mittler said in a statement.
To test the broken pump, a switch from a similar pump from a second
safety system was used, momentarily disabling that second pump as
well. That resulted in having only one safety pump - belonging to the
third safety system - in working order for a few minutes, Mittler
said.
Since the reactor was shut down at the time and the malfunction was
quickly corrected, the incident did not pose a nuclear safety threat,
he said.
The incident was categorized as an "anomaly," the lowest of a seven-
level international classification system for nuclear events.
The No. 3 reactor was expected to be switched back on in the first
week of November, Mittler said.
The Paks plant, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Budapest, provides
around 40 percent of Hungary's electricity production.
----------------
Iran expresses interest in purchasing nuclear fuel from West
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran says it is interested in buying nuclear fuel
from the West, but that it won't give up its right to also develop
its own nuclear technology.
Britain, France and Germany are expected to offer Iran a package of
economic incentives including nuclear fuel to encourage it to abandon
its controversial uranium enrichment program.
The proposal is an attempt to head off a confrontation between Iran
and the U-N nuclear agency. The U-S has been arguing to the agency
that Iran has secret plans to build atomic weapons.
Iran says it's prepared to temporarily suspend some nuclear
activities but that it would not relinquish its right to enrich
uranium.
Iran says its nuclear program is devoted entirely to peaceful
purposes, including generating electricity. Its first nuclear reactor
is due to come on line next year.
-------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614
Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714 Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1902
E-Mail: sperle@dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/
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