Nine Mile Unit 1 begins 35th year of operation

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

Index:



Nine Mile Unit 1 begins 35th year of operation

NRC Gets Complaint On Vt. Yankee's Nuclear Alert System

China To Set Up Independent Nuclear Pwr Corp

Japanese to tighten safety measures at aging nuclear power plants

Sander Perle Elected to CIRMS Executive Committee

Kumatori, who treated victims of U.S. hydrogen-bomb test, dies at 83

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



Nine Mile Unit 1 begins 35th year of operation



SCRIBA, N.Y. (AP) - Over the past three decades, the Nine Mile Point 

Unit 1 nuclear plant has had its share of problems.



In the 1980s, it endured two extended outages that drained the 

finances of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. which built the plant. And 

from June 1988 to June 1991, the 609-megawatt reactor was on the U.S. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission's watch list of the nation's worst-run 

plants.



But on Tuesday, as the reactor marked its 35th year producing 

electricity, the company that runs the plant was only optimistic. 

Constellation has applied for a license extension to run the plant 20 

years beyond the expiration of its original license in 2009.



Over the past five years, the plant, now owned by Constellation 

Energy Group, has been more productive than at any other time in its 

history.



Since 2000, the reactor has produced nearly 87 percent of its maximum 

potential output, and is expected this year to finish operating at 

91.9 percent, said Constellation's site Vice President James Spina.



That would have been hard to predict 15 years ago, when Niagara 

Mohawk was considering an early retirement for Unit 1. But today, 

Spina said, "We do make money on the operation."



The anti-nuclear group Citizens Awareness Network is adamantly 

opposed to any extension, citing the reactor's age and the potential 

for degraded equipment. The Nine Mile Point reactor is the second 

oldest plant operating in the country. Oyster Creek, a near-identical 

plant in Forked River, N.J., is older by two weeks. It, too, is 

seeking to extend its license by 20 years.



"This is an unmitigated experiment in nuclear safety," said the 

Citizen Awareness Network's Tim Judson.



Since buying Unit 1 and its newer, larger Unit 2 sister plant in 

2001, Constellation has spent more than $50 million on improvements, 

he said.



David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned 

Scientists, said many of the problems faced by nuclear plants in 

their early years derived from inexperience.



Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island Unit 2, for example, was three 

months old when it suffered a partial meltdown in 1979. Russia's 

Chernobyl Unit 4 was 19 months old when two explosions destroyed the 

facility and ignited a reactor fire, killing dozens of plant workers 

and requiring thousands of people to be relocated.



By contrast, the rate of significant safety-related events at nuclear 

plants has decreased more than tenfold in the past 15 years, Lochbaum 

said.



Spina said decades of operation throughout the nuclear industry have 

paved the way for greater efficiency. The industry aggressively 

shares information, and the longer the plants operate, the better the 

operators understand them, he said.



But there is a flip side to the wisdom that comes with age, Lochbaum 

said. As plants get older, they are more vulnerable to breaking down 

if not adequately maintained.



"We really haven't had any reactors in the United States operate past 

40, and very few across the globe that have operated past 40, so 

there's not much experience with that," Lochbaum said. "It doesn't 

mean that it's inherent that we'll have a disaster, but it does mean 

that you have to monitor that to ensure that the safety margins are 

there."

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



NRC Gets Complaint On Vt. Yankee's Nuclear Alert System



BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP)--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will 

consider a nuclear watchdog group's complaints about Vermont Yankee's 

emergency alert system.



The New England Coalition got that word Monday from the NRC after it 

complained that emergency alert radios in the area around the plant 

don't work reliably.



The NRC also found fault with the radios in October.



The coalition also says there are problems with a system of sirens 

that would alert residents in the plant's emergency evacuation zone 

in the event of a serious problem at Vermont Yankee.



Plant spokesman Robert Williams says Vermont Yankee is working on the 

problems.

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



China To Set Up Independent Nuclear Pwr Corp



SHANGHAI (AP)--China will set up an independent state corporation to 

oversee the expansion of its nuclear power industry amid efforts to 

satisfy rising energy demand, a power industry official and state 

newspaper said Tuesday.



The State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation will organize tenders 

among equipment suppliers, negotiate contracts and pursue technology 

transfer from foreign companies, the China Daily said.



Its first project will be a pair of power stations in eastern China, 

comprising four third-generation pressurized water reactors that will 

feature greater Chinese involvement in design, construction and 

operation, the newspaper said, quoting Chen Zhaobo, the official 

named to set up the new agency.



"Those would become part of our own technology to develop our nuclear 

power blueprint," Chen said.



The announcement comes as China prepares for a major expansion of its 

nuclear power sector to help eliminate chronic power shortages that 

have crippled industry and blacked-out residential areas over recent 

years.



The report didn't say when the new corporation would be established, 

but said a preparatory committee has already been set up.



China plans to build dozens of plants in coming years at a time when 

few other countries are commissioning new facilities, prompting 

intense competition for business among foreign makers of nuclear 

power equipment.



Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. 

(BNF.YY), is the only U.S.-based maker of pressurized water reactors. 

Its chief rivals for China's business are Framatome, a subsidiary of 

France's Areva (4524.FR); Siemens AG (SI) of Germany; and Russia's 

AtomStroyExport.



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 - providing less than 2% 

of the country's total power supply.



It wants to boost capacity to about 36,000 megawatts by 2020, at 

which time nuclear energy will account for about 4% of supply, far 

below the average of 17% for countries with nuclear power plants, 

according to China Daily.



An official reached at the China Nuclear Industrial Group, 

responsible for running China's nuclear power stations, said the new 

corporation would be under the direct supervision of the Cabinet-

level State Development and Reform Commission.



Its director would hold the rank of a vice minister, said the 

official who asked not to be further identified.



The China Nuclear Industrial Group is a division of the China 

National Nuclear Corp. which took over from the former Ministry of 

Nuclear Industry.

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



Japanese to tighten safety measures at aging nuclear power plants



TOKYO, Dec. 14 (Kyodo) - The government plans to strengthen safety 

measures at aging nuclear power plants nationwide following a fatal 

accident at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Mihama nuclear plant in Fukui 

Prefecture in August, government officials said Tuesday.



The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency plans to unveil on Thursday 

a set of measures, including governmental guidelines on the safety 

checks for operators of such plants, at a meeting of the Advisory 

Committee for Energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and 

Industry in Fukui, the officials said.



The government will strengthen monitoring at the plants, such as the 

thickness of coolant pipes as an increasing number of nuclear power 

plants are reaching 30 years old, the officials said.



Of the 52 nuclear plants in Japan, seven are already more than 30 

years old and the number will rise to 20 in five years.



The August accident at the Mihama plant was caused by a failure by 

Kansai Electric to conduct regular safety checks on a coolant pipe in 

the No. 3 reactor which was badly corroded because it had been left 

unchecked for 28 years since the plant went into operation.



In the accident, five workers were killed and six others injured 

after the pipe ruptured and leaked superheated steam.



Operators of nuclear power plants are currently required to compile a 

10-year safety plan for their nuclear power plants before the 

facilities become 30 years old.



The government will ask the operators to include safety checks for 

certain facilities in the 10-year program under the new guidelines.



The government also plans to create a database of safety measures at 

nuclear power plants in other countries, which will be made available 

for domestic operators of such plants.



It also plans to establish a section in the nuclear safety agency to 

deal with aging nuclear plants.

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



Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc., Sander Perle Elected to CIRMS 

Executive Committee



Calif., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc., a 

leading dosimetry services provider (analytical determination of 

exposure to ionizing radiation), announces Sander Perle, Senior Vice 

President of Technical Operations, has been elected to serve on the 

Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS) 

Executive Committee.  



The CIRMS is an independent, non-profit council that draws together 

experts involved in all aspects of ionizing radiation to discuss, 

review and assess developments and needs in this field.  



Sandy is currently the Chair of the Health Physics Society Standards 

Committee; past Chair of the Electronic Media Committee; member of 

the Symposium Committee; sits on the ANSI N13.11 and ANSI N13.32 

Working Groups and is a member on ANSI N13, N42 and N43. He also 

serves as a member of the NCRP Corporate Resource Development 

Committee and has been a NVLAP technical expert conducting on-site 

assessments at NVLAP accredited facilities since 1993. In June 2004, 

Sandy was promoted to Senior Vice President of Technical Operations, 

for GDS.  



"I look forward to my service on the CIRMS Executive Committee and I 

am pleased to play an active role in furthering the growth of the 

ionizing radiation field," said Perle.  

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



Kumatori, who treated victims of U.S. hydrogen-bomb test, dies at 83



TOKYO, Dec. 13 (Kyodo) - Toshiyuki Kumatori, a prominent figure in 

radiological sciences who treated radiation victims of the 1954 U.S. 

hydrogen-bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific, died 

Saturday from pneumonia at a hospital in Saitama Prefecture, his 

family said Monday. He was 83.



Kumatori served as chief doctor for 16 of 23 crew members of the 

Japanese fishing boat Fukuryu Maru No. 5, which was exposed to 

radiation because of the hydrogen-bomb test in the Marshall Islands 

in March 1954. At the time, he was working at National Tokyo No. 1 

Hospital, now called the International Medical Center of Japan.



Kumatori concluded that the cause of death of crewman Aikichi 

Kuboyama on the Fukuryu Maru, known in English as the Lucky Dragon, 

was radiation exposure.



Kuboyama, the ship's chief radio operator who died about six months 

after the incident, became the first documented person to die from 

radiation exposure from a hydrogen bomb.



The crew members on the boat from Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, were 

fishing for tuna about 160 kilometers east of the test site at the 

time of the hydrogen-bomb explosion. The bomb was 1,000 times more 

powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.



Kumatori also joined a mission to the Marshall Islands twice for a 

survey on health damage to islanders from the bomb test.



A native of Wakayama Prefecture, he served as president of the 

National Institute of Radiological Sciences from 1978 to 1986. After 

retiring from the institute, he served as chief of the Radiation 

Effects Association through 1998.



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

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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