Humboldt Bay nuclear plant - search for missing fuel rods

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

Index:



Humboldt Bay nuclear plant - search for missing fuel rods

Reactor restarted at Czech nuclear plant

Korean arrested in Russia for nuclear trade

Group plans to seek Nevada benefits for hosting Yucca Mountain

Four Guatemalans detained after shooting video of nuclear plant

NRC to meet PSEG before N.J. Hope Creek nuke restart

Lab facility's future uncertain with move of nuclear materials

US ponders how much monitoring needed against attack

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



Humboldt Bay nuclear plant - search for missing fuel rods



EUREKA, Calif. (AP) - Workers with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will 

vacuum the bottom of a storage pool at its Humboldt Bay nuclear power 

plant near Eureka as part of a continuing effort to find four pounds 

of missing radioactive fuel rods.



Sediment at the bottom of the 30-foot-deep pool may be hiding pieces 

of a fuel rod authorities discovered was unaccounted for in June, 

said PG&E spokesman Jeff Lewis.



"It's possible the segments are on the bottom of the pool," Lewis 

said Tuesday. "There's never been any evidence to suggest or support 

a theft or diversion of these segments."



PG&E began searching for the fuel rod segments in July, shortly after 

the company discovered a discrepancy in its records for the nuclear 

plant, which was closed in 1976. The facility continues to produce 

electricity using natural gas.



Records from a 1968 meeting indicate a 7-foot-long fuel rod was 

removed from the plant's fuel assembly, and three pieces were cut 

from it and shipped to an Ohio nuclear facility for analysis.



But conflicting documents also indicate the rods were either placed 

in the storage pool or sent with the entire fuel assembly - 

consisting of 49 rods - to a New York facility for reprocessing in 

1969.

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



Reactor restarted at Czech nuclear plant



PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - The reactor at the Temelin nuclear 

power plant near the border with Austria was restarted Wednesday, an 

official said.



Plant spokesman Vaclav Brom said the plant's first unit, which had 

been shut down since Dec. 24 for minor adjustments to the cooling 

system of the non-nuclear part, should be reconnected to the 

country's power grid late Wednesday or early Thursday.



The plant's second unit, which underwent similar adjustments earlier 

this month, was running at full capacity Wednesday, Brom said.



Construction of the plant's two 1,000-megawatt units, based on 

Russian designs, started in the 1980s. The reactors later were 

upgraded with U.S. technology, but they have remained controversial 

because of frequent malfunctions.



The station, 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of the Austrian border, 

has been a source of friction between the two countries. 

Environmentalists in Austria demand it be closed, while Czech 

authorities insist it is safe.

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



Korean arrested in Russia for nuclear trade



MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Russian police detained a South Korean 

citizen on Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling radioactive materials 

into the Russian Far East, media reported.



Itar-Tass news agency cited prosecutors in the Pacific city of Yuzhno-

Sakhalinsk as saying the man, identified as Kim Jong-hon, worked for 

a South Korean firm suspected of illegally trading sensitive 

materials.



The South Korean embassy in Moscow could not confirm the report and 

it was not immediately clear where the materials had come from.



RIA-Novosti news agency said Kim's detention followed the seizure of 

13 devices containing radioactive material earlier this month in the 

port of Korsakov, across the sea from Japan's Hokkaido island.



RIA said the devices contained low-enriched uranium-238 -- a highly 

toxic material mainly used in ammunition and armour plating. Experts 

say it can be theoretically used to make a nuclear "dirty bomb."



The devices' radiation levels were 200 times above normal, news 

agencies said.



Prevention of illegal trade in radioactive materials in Russia has 

become a big issue for the West after this year's discovery of a 

global nuclear black market run by the Pakistani scientist Abdul 

Qadeer Khan that supplied technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.



Russia, with its vast nuclear arsenal and dozens of atomic sites 

scattered across the country, has vowed to do more to prevent 

radioactive materials falling into the wrong hands, but the West says 

much more needs to be done.



There is also speculation that individual Russian nuclear scientists, 

underpaid since the Soviet collapse, may be secretly selling 

sensitive technology to what Washington calls "rogue" states. Russia 

denies such activity is taking place.

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



Group plans to seek Nevada benefits for hosting Yucca Mountain



LAS VEGAS (AP) - A group of Nevada business, union and local 

officials plans to push the state to get economic benefits from the 

federal plan to store the nation's most radioactive waste at Yucca 

Mountain.



The 16-member group wants the state to negotiate for tax benefits, 

research grants, highway funding, educational opportunities or other 

federal benefits if the Energy Department stores 77,000 tons of spent 

nuclear fuel 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.



"I think there was a definite time period when we shouldn't have been 

in those negotiations, but I think that time has passed," said Monte 

Miller, chief executive of KeyState Corporate Management in Las Vegas 

and a founder of the group calling itself "For A Better Nevada."



Gov. Kenny Guinn, state Attorney General Brian Sandoval and Nevada's 

congressional delegation are united against the planned repository. 

They say negotiating for benefits is not an option.



"I continue to believe that we need to prevent Yucca Mountain and I 

do not agree with attempts to negotiate with the federal government 

because there are no benefits the state could possibly reap from the 

site," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.



The state won one of several legal challenges against the Energy 

Department earlier this year, and plans to raise more objections when 

the department seeks a repository operating license application from 

the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.



The group issued a news release Tuesday saying it is neither for nor 

against the Yucca repository, but will focus on "capturing any and 

all economic opportunities and benefits possible for Nevada."



Chris Barrett, a Reno advertising consultant coordinating the group, 

told the Las Vegas Sun the group formed following debate in the 2003 

Legislature about raising taxes. He said members decided waste 

storage in Nevada is inevitable and the state should organize to get 

benefits.



The announcement lists Nye, Lincoln and Esmeralda county and Caliente 

and Pahrump elected officials, a prominent Clark County auto dealer 

and casino owner, a Teamsters union executive, a southern Nevada real 

estate developer and an Elko businessman and several northern Nevada 

and Reno residents and business owners.



Barrett told the Sun the group has no budget and is not affiliated 

with or funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington-based 

industry advocacy group.



Former Nevada Gov. Bob List, an Nuclear Energy Institute consultant, 

has been the highest-profile public official in the state to publicly 

favor the Yucca Mountain project.



"I certainly think it will be a little less lonely out there," List 

said of the new group. "I think it's a big step. We'd be foolish to 

let the opportunity pass us up."



Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., released 

results of a poll this month that they said showed 70 percent of 

state residents oppose the Yucca repository and 57 percent said the 

state should continue fighting it.



The poll also found 38 percent said Yucca "is inevitable and nothing 

can be done about it," down 5 percentage points from a similar poll 

in January 2002.

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



Four Guatemalans detained after shooting video of nuclear plant



LIMERICK, Pa. (AP) - Four Guatemalan men who attracted attention by 

operating a video camera near a nuclear power plant were not involved 

in terrorism, authorities said, but three were turned over to 

immigration officials.



FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said Tuesday that it appears the four 

men from Guatemala were making a "tourist video," highlighting 

portions of the area that happened to include footage of the Limerick 

Generating Station.



"It was just a coincidence, a bad choice of photos," Williams said. 

"We found no evidence of any criminal terroristic activity on the 

tapes."



But authorities determined that three of the men were in the country 

illegally and turned them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs 

Enforcement. The fourth man was released.



The men, whose names were not released, were spotted making the video 

Monday afternoon by a delivery driver who called police.

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



NRC to meet PSEG before N.J. Hope Creek nuke restart



NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

will likely not allow New Jersey based energy company Public Service 

Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) to restart its 1,100-megawatt Hope Creek 

nuclear unit in New Jersey until at least Jan. 5.



In a statement on Monday, the NRC said its staff would meet with 

representatives of PSEG on Jan. 5 to discuss the results of an NRC 

special inspection of Hope Creek in response to a steam line failure 

and shutdown with complications that occurred on Oct. 10.



The meeting in Swedesboro, New Jersey about 20 miles north of the 

power station will be open to the public. Hope Creek is located in 

Hancocks Bridge in Salem County about 40 miles south of Philadelphia.



After Oct. 10, the NRC sent a team of five full-time and four part-

time members to evaluate the circumstances surrounding the event. The 

review included, among other things, an assessment of whether PSEG 

could have prevented the steam pipe failure and an independent 

evaluation of equipment and human performance that complicated the 

shutdown.



In addition, the Jan. 5 meeting will include a review of issues 

associated with a vibration in the plant's B reactor recirculation 

pump and exhaust piping for the high-pressure coolant injection pump.



The NRC staff expects to finish its assessments by Jan. 5. However, 

if the agency has not completed its work by that time, the commission 

would either delay the Jan. 5 session or conduct a subsequent meeting 

with PSEG that would also be open to the public.



Any delay of the Jan. 5 meeting would likely delay the restart of the 

reactor. The unit, which can generate enough electricity to power 

more than a million homes, has remained shut since Oct. 10 for a 

refueling and maintenance outage.



PSEG Nuclear, a unit of PSEG's PSEG Power LLC subsidiary, owns and 

operates the Hope Creek station.



In December, Chicago-based energy company Exelon Corp. , the biggest 

nuclear power operator in the United States, agreed to acquire PSEG. 

Pending regulatory and shareholder approvals, the companies expect to 

complete the deal in 2006.



On Jan. 17, Exelon's Exelon Generation expects to take over operation 

of the three nuclear units located at the Hope Creek site, which PSEG 

Nuclear now operates. Those units include Hope Creek and Salem units 

1 and 2.

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



Lab facility's future uncertain with move of nuclear materials



LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Officials are pondering the future of a Los 

Alamos National Laboratory facility as the Department of Energy 

clears out its nuclear material and builds another facility in Nevada 

to take its place.



Located at the bottom of a canyon, scientists have used the Los 

Alamos Critical Experiments Facility to conduct experiments on 

nuclear criticality - the point at which a nuclear reaction is self-

sustaining.



But concerns over its vulnerability to terrorist attack prompted the 

government to start work on a Nevada facility.



The Energy Department has been working to move the area's highly 

enriched uranium and plutonium to the Nevada Test Site, northwest of 

Las Vegas, and plans to relocate the most sensitive weapons-grade 

nuclear material by September 2005. The remaining material will be 

moved by 2008.



A couple of shipments have been made so far.



Nancy Ambrosiano, a lab spokeswoman, said the future of the area 

after the nuclear material is gone remains unclear. The "funky, old 

building with little appeal," as she described it, could be 

decontaminated and closed or turned into a space for something else, 

she said.



"Tear it down, and clean it up," said Jay Coghlan, director of 

Nuclear Watch of New Mexico.



The area, known as Technical Area 18, is one of the most dangerous 

places at the lab where maximum radiation exposure to the public from 

an accident there is estimated at 1,100 rem - more than double a 

lethal dose - according to an independent federal safety board that 

advises the Energy Department.



TA-18 has also had an important history at the lab. There, Emilio 

Segre noted the presence of a spontaneous neutron emitter in 

plutonium - a discovery that set the course for plutonium-based 

weapons.



The national criticality safety program, which defines safety 

standards for handling, processing and storing special nuclear 

materials, also originated there. Today, hundreds of inspectors 

securing nuclear facilities throughout the world also receive 

training with real nuclear materials there.



"TA-18 houses the Western Hemisphere's largest collection of machines 

for conducting nuclear-safety evaluations and establishing limits for 

operations," according to an Energy Department document.



It is unclear whether the closure of TA-18 will mark the end of 

criticality experiments at Los Alamos.



"I don't know what the final programmatic call will be," said Gerald 

Schlapper of the DOE's Los Alamos office. "It's my impression that 

most - if not all - of the criticality safety training will be 

conducted at the Nevada Test Site."



There is no other location at Los Alamos lab where the experiments 

could be held unless a new facility were built, he said.



"And if you're building a new facility at the Nevada Test Site, it 

doesn't make sense to me to duplicate the effort here," Schlapper 

said.



In the meantime, Gov. Bill Richardson has said he does not want Los 

Alamos scientists to conduct any criticality experiments until safety 

concerns are resolved. An independent federal safety board has listed 

several problems, including a lack of controls, at TA-18.



The Energy Department has said the number of planned experiments has 

been cut back and the experiments should be completed by summer 2005.

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



US ponders how much monitoring needed against attack



LIVERMORE, California, Dec 29 (Reuters) - At Lawrence Livermore lab 

in northern California and other national labs, U.S. scientists are 

hard at work devising new inventions to monitor unlikely but horrific 

dangers that could stem from future terrorist attacks.



One such device is a black box about two-thirds the size of a 

refrigerator that seeks signs of anthrax, plague, smallpox or other 

biological attacks. A circular knob on the top acts as the sensor and 

an antenna transmits information.



The inside fuses a chemistry set with a computer brain. If an attack 

agent is suspected, the device performs a DNA test.



"This is something that is in place for the very unlikely but very-

high-consequence act," said John Dzenitis, who helped develop the 

Autonomous Pathogen Detection System.



Given the huge price tag and technical limitations, do the latest 

high-tech inventions to detect biological, chemical or other 21st 

century threats adequately address present-day security needs?



So many experiments are under way at Livermore that the lab sometimes 

resembles quartermaster Q's gadget shop in the James Bond films. "If 

you hear a bang, it's an experiment going on," Charles McMillan, who 

oversees Livermore's high explosive division, said as he led a 

visitor through the high-security lab.



His unit, which has the cryptic name of "B Division," has developed a 

hand-held device to detect radiation and determine its source 

material. "I think every bomb squad should have one of these," said 

Mike Dunning, one of RadScout's developers.



But as with many of these cutting-edge devices, there are 

limitations. The portable device which refrigerates germanium crystal 

to minus 280 Fahrenheit (-173 Celsius) is just a bit smaller and 

lighter than a car battery -- which could be burdensome.



Could they make it any smaller? "Regrettably the laws of science 

don't allow us to do this right now," Dunning said.



A division of Ametek Inc. says it has this year sold more than 50 of 

its slightly larger radiation detectors based on earlier Livermore 

research for $50,000-$75,000.



At the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 

scientists have developed a system that zaps a truck with high-energy 

neutrons to seek hidden explosives. But the device takes five minutes 

and will not detect less than 500 lb (227 kg) of explosives.



Livermore's biological detector, which might cost about $100,000 a 

pop when mass produced, will work only in a limited area against 15 

specific biological agents. "A small release that might not impact 

many people you might not be able to detect," said Dzenitis.



"You pick the places you care about the most," he said. "You can 

imagine a lot of these in Manhattan."



The detector also requires weekly checks. But that is an improvement 

over a manual system at the 2002 Olympics that was checked every four 

hours, Dzenitis said.



AT WHAT PRICE?



Researchers are clearly seeking smaller, cheaper devices.



"It is a matter of cost. Ultimately what you would like is for ... 

every guy at an airport to have a radiation detector the size of this 

pen that costs a buck," said Bruce Goodwin, Livermore's associate 

director for defence and nuclear technologies. "And by the way they 

should all be hooked together on a wireless network linked to a 

computer looking for detection patterns."



"I don't think we are there yet and part of the problem is the 

detectors are too big and too expensive."



Since the September 2001 attacks, the United States has invested 

billions in new domestic security devices. This year, for example, 

Northrop Grumman has been installing a $175 million Postal Service 

biohazard detection system.



Some security experts say that deploying any new type of device, even 

if expensive, will eventually spur lower costs.



"By forcing the deployment of these, we will create a market, we will 

enable manufacturers to increase production, and as you do that (you) 

move away from making Rolls Royces to making, you know, Hondas," said 

Brian Jenkins, director of the National Transportation Security 

Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute.



A member of an aviation safety commission in the Clinton 

Administration, Jenkins cited the recent fall in the cost of 

explosive detection machines at airports. He also pointed to the 

London subway system, which now has 5,000 of once expensive closed-

circuit video cameras.



"That generally has been the trajectory of most technologies, whether 

we talk about computers or automobiles. They get better and they get 

cheaper," he said.



Yet even with greater cost savings and better technology, the devices 

will never provide total security, experts say, just enhanced safety 

and at the cost of many billions.



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

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) 296-1144



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

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



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