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Ireland to inspect nuclear plant
Index:
Ireland to inspect nuclear plant
Concerns overruled on N.M. nuclear plant
Residents offer Oyster Creek solutions
Norway nuclear waste languishes
S Korea To Pick Nuclear Waste Site By First Half Of 2005
Malaysia no to nuclear energy
MPs criticise "lack of urgency" over storing nuclear waste
===========================
Ireland to inspect nuclear plant
Dec 10 (BBC) Sellafield is on the west coast of England The Irish
government has been granted unprecedented access to the Sellafield
nuclear processing plant in Cumbria as part of a unique partnership.
The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) and Irish
police will be allowed to visit the site.
The agreement comes after legal action brought by Ireland.
There have been fears from the Irish government that Sellafield
radiation may be responsible for poor health in some people on the
east coast.
The east coast of the country lies across the Irish sea from
Sellafield.
The RPII will also have access to the UK's radiation monitoring
system.
Irish environment minister Dick Roche described the agreement as a
"positive development in our shared interest in managing our
respective positions on the nuclear energy issue".
But Mr Roche stressed that the total closure of Sellafield is the
Irish Government's objective.
Stewart Eldon, British Ambassador to Ireland, said: "The governments
discussed a wide range of issues to ensure that the system of inter-
governmental notification and co-operation is as robust and effective
as it can be."
The Irish government has also been increasingly concerned about the
catastrophic effect a possible terrorist attack on Sellafield would
have on Ireland.
----------------
Concerns overruled on N.M. nuclear plant
Santa Fe, NM, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is going ahead
with plans to build a nuclear plant in New Mexico despite health and
safety issues raised by state regulators.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it will not reconsider an
earlier decision barring the New Mexico Environment Department and
the New Mexico Attorney General's office from pressing their concerns
about the planned uranium-enrichment plant, the Santa Fe New Mexican
reported Friday.
"We are disappointed but not surprised by the NRC's decision," said
Chris Coppin, special counsel to New Mexico Attorney General Patricia
Madrid.
"The attorney general has directed her staff to review all of the
state's options, including a possible appeal of the NRC's recent
decision."
Gov. Bill Richardson said last week he was putting his support for
the proposed plant on hold because of concerns over the storage of
radioactive waste.
-----------------
Residents offer Oyster Creek solutions
TINTON FALLS Dec 10 -- Retiree Sam Attner has a single solution for
the two controversies concerning the way New Jersey should get its
energy: have offshore windmills replace the aging Oyster Creek
nuclear power plant.
Brendan P. Tobin, a Tinton Falls councilman, speaks to the audience
Thursday during a forum on the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in
Lacey.
Attner's idea was pitched among many others during a special meeting
called by Assemblyman Michael J. Panter Jr., D-Monmouth. He held the
meeting to gather perspectives he plans to consider when drafting the
state's official position on whether the nuclear plant should be
allowed to operate beyond 2009 -- when its operating license expires.
Panter asked the approximately 50 people gathered in the Seabrook
Village retirement community auditorium to give him their
recommendations on what the state Legislature should do about the
Oyster Creek operator's plans to apply for a 20-year renewal from
federal regulators in about seven months.
Panter told Attner he would look into his suggestion, which stemmed
from news about two firms wanting to build windmill farms off the
Jersey coast. Acting Gov. Codey said Tuesday that he intends to
impose a moratorium on the placement of offshore windmills until the
state comes up with a policy for the devices.
"I would like to see windmills all over the country," said Attner, a
Seabrook resident.
Panter heard many ideas from Shore area residents and advocacy
groups. The opinions given represented multiple sides of the license-
renewal issue.
One activist called on state officials to immediately close the
reactor, which generates 650 megawatts of electricity. Others said
they wanted the plant closed when its license expires, although many
in that category cited different reasons.
Stephen Collins, a vacuum instrument designer from Oceanport, said
state officials should not turn to fossil fuel-powered plants to
compensate for the loss of Oyster Creek if the reactor closed. The
plant's closure, he said, would hurt the state's energy supply.
"When the environmentalists talk out of the other side of their
mouth, they're talking about global warming," Collins said.
Emissions from fossil fuels, such as coal, have been blamed for what
some scientists call global warming.
The meeting allowed the public more chances to speak than during a
public hearing that was held in Brick on Dec. 2. Advocacy groups on
both sides of the issues dominated that meeting, which the Assembly
Environmental and Solid Waste Committee hosted.
Panter, the committee vice chairman, said he held his meeting after
many constituents told him they could not attend the one in Brick.
Monmouth County residents, he said, wanted to speak about license
renewal or learn more about it.
Panter said he wants the committee to unanimously agree on a
resolution addressing the license renewal but would move ahead alone
if the panel -- five Democrats and two Republicans -- failed to find
a consensus. Panter said he wasn't sure when he would draft the
resolution.
License-renewal critics have said that a state position calling for
the reactor's decommissioning would sway the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, the sole agency responsible for deciding whether Oyster
Creek should operate for an additional 20 years.
----------------
Norway nuclear waste languishes
Dec 10 - Three years after an expert committee urged the building of
a new central repository for Norway's most dangerous nuclear waste
radioactive material is being stored behind garage doors.
Machinist Knut Arne Hov works at the temporary storeroom for nuclear
waste at a garage near the Halden-reactor.
After 50 years of operation, four research reactors at Kjeller and
Halden have produced 16 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste -
chiefly uranium fuel - and 10.1 kilograms of plutonium.
This was poses an extreme potential health hazard for thousands of
years and an extra security risk as an attraction for terrorists
seeking radioactive material for a so-called 'dirty bomb'.
Storehouses for low and medium level nuclear waste are built, but no
facility exists for securing the most dangerous waste.
"We believe it is completely indefensible to have highly radioactive
fuel rods stored under reprehensible conditions in the middle of a
built-up area," said Erik Martiniussen of environmental group
Bellona.
"In the center of the city of Halden there are over 10 tons of highly
radioactive waste. To get to one of these storage points all you need
to do is pass a thin garage door made of aluminum," Martiniussen
said.
The PST (Norwegian Police Security Service) have carried out a
security assessment of the Kjeller and Halden facilities but refused
to disclose how they were finally rated.
In September 2003 the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA carried
out a ten-day long inspection of the nuclear facilities at Kjeller
and Halden and eventually issued strong criticism of the lack
physical security.
Consultant Heide M. Eidet at the Ministry of Trade and Industry
agreed with Bellona that improvements were coming slowly but denied
that they were dawdling.
Eidet said the matter required careful investigation and that they
expected to complete the second phase of preparations in the course
of the next two to three years.
"Afterwards the issue will likely go to political treatment where it
will probably take a lot of time to discuss where storage should be
placed," Eidet said.
----------------
S Korea To Pick Nuclear Waste Site By First Half Of 2005
SEOUL, Dec 10 Asia Pulse -- The South Korean government will try to
select a new storage site for nuclear waste by the first half of
2005, a government source said Friday.
The move comes after a government plan to build a nuclear waste
repository in an island on the West Sea was foiled by strong
opposition from residents early this year.
"The government will decide on a revised site selection procedure by
the end of January," said the official at the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Energy on condition of anonymity.
"A detailed poll of residents in the candidate regions will be made
before a local referendum is held. This should be completed in April
and May."
Roughly 15 candidate sites are on the table, including regions around
existing nuclear power stations, he said.
Once polls show public opinion favoring the building of a waste site,
a referendum will be held to make certain people want such a facility
near their homes, the source added.
In July last year, the government picked Wido Island in Buan, about
280 kilometers southwest of Seoul, as the candidate site for a
nuclear waste repository.
Despite the government promise of huge financial aid, Buan residents
bucked against the choice and held a referendum in February this
year, thwarting the construction project.
South Korea relies heavily on nuclear power for its electricity
supply, and experts have said since the 1990s that a new repository
is urgently needed to handle nuclear waste filling storage areas
inside power plants.
---------------
Malaysia no to nuclear energy
Dec 10 - MALAYSIA would not turn to nuclear power as an alternative
source of energy despite rising oil prices, it said today.
The country should instead harness alternative energy sources from
the sun, water and waves to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, Deputy
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Kong Cho Ha said.
"Nuclear energy is not an option for the Government," Kong was quoted
as saying by the Bernama news agency.
"We should look into other alternative energy sources because
petroleum price is increasing and unstable, causing a lot of problems
to economic growth, especially in developing countries."
Malaysia's energy needs are met mainly by natural gas, coal, hydro
and oil.
----------------
MPs criticise "lack of urgency" over storing nuclear waste
Dec 10 - Proposals to tackle nuclear waste such as blasting it into
space are a waste of time and should not be considered by the
government.
That is the conclusion of an inquiry by peers into the UK's slow
progress in developing a coherent radioactive waste management
policy.
It is nearly 30 years since the Royal Commission on Environmental
Pollution first emphasised the need for a long-term solution to
storing radioactive waste.
Today the House of Lords science and technology committee said it was
"astonished" that the government instructed a new advisory body to
start from a 'blank sheet of paper' when the overwhelming scientific
consensus is that underground disposal or storage is a safe solution.
Committee chairman Lord Oxburgh accused ministers of using "perpetual
consultation exercises" to put off making the crucial decisions.
The peers conclude that the committee on radioactive waste management
(CoRW) lacks relevant scientific and technical expertise and should
stop wasting time considering alternatives to underground storage.
They also said the government should stop using the failure to
develop a long-term radioactive waste management strategy as a reason
for delaying a decision on the future of nuclear power.
The government's failure to consult the chief scientific adviser to
the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is also
criticised and it is urged to appoint new science, material and civil
engineering experts to CoRWM.
"We are dismayed by the government's lack of urgency," Lord Oxburgh
said.
"The UK has generated radioactive waste for more than half a century
and still hasn't decided how to deal with it. Ministers seem to be
using perpetual consultation exercises to put off making the crucial
decisions."
-------------------------------------
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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