Group wants Duke's plan to use fuel at nuclear plant made public

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Index:



Group wants Duke's plan to use fuel at nuclear plant made public

Governor, AG protest secrecy on uranium documents

Council rejects nuclear plant grants for emergency center

NRC Drops Fine Against Tennessee Valley

DOE, state square off in federal court over nuclear waste

Officials study how contamination left Oconee Nuclear Station

First Private RV that Protects Occupants Against Nuclear Radiation

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



Group wants Duke's plan to use fuel at nuclear plant made public



CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A group challenging Duke Energy's plan to test 

fuel containing a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium has focused 

attention on the public's ability to assess the security of nuclear 

power plants.



Charlotte-based Duke plans to begin tests this spring of mixed-oxide, 

which contains weapons-grade plutonium, at its Catawba nuclear plant 

on Lake Wylie in York County, S.C. In theory, terrorists could 

sabotage or steal plutonium once meant to detonate nuclear weapons.



The Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League believes MOX fuel is 

dangerous and wants to stop the tests. But the group has been denied 

access to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents that Blue Ridge 

claims could prove that Duke's security measures aren't adequate.



Blue Ridge argues that Duke should not be granted the exemptions it 

has requested from some security measures for protecting the MOX test 

fuel.



Those measures, such as maintaining a tactical response team and 

erecting additional physical barriers, are tailored for facilities 

that handle plutonium. Duke says the safeguards it already has in 

place perform the same functions.



A hearing on Blue Ridge's security claims was to begin Tuesday at NRC 

headquarters in Rockville, Md. It's closed to the public.



In May, the NRC staff found that Duke has toughened its security to 

protect the MOX fuel. The exemptions Duke seeks are legal and won't 

pose undue risks to public safety, the staff said.



The commission has allowed Blue Ridge's attorney and technical 

expert, who have low-level security clearances, access to some 

material on condition they don't divulge the information.



But the NRC ruled that the group can't see the details - such as the 

size, training and weaponry of an attacking force - of the terrorism 

that plutonium-handling facilities are expected to thwart.



Without that information, the group says, it doesn't know what 

security standard the NRC expects Duke to attain.



"In effect, the commission has tied one hand behind our backs," said 

Diane Curran, Blue Ridge's Washington attorney.



Duke says Blue Ridge has been granted extraordinary access to 

sensitive information, and is grasping at straws to derail the 

project.



"It fundamentally gets back to the point that they have no case," 

said Steve Nesbit, Duke's MOX project manager, "and when they have no 

case they're going to complain about the process."



So far, the NRC and its staff have seemed to agree.



MOX fuel is a joint U.S.-Russia effort to reduce the amount of 

weapons-grade plutonium stored globally. The fuel blends plutonium 

with enriched uranium, the usual fuel for nuclear power plants.



Duke expects to save money on government-subsidized fuel and is the 

only U.S. utility thus far to agree to use MOX.

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



Governor, AG protest secrecy on uranium documents



SANTA FE (AP) - Gov. Bill Richardson and Attorney General Patricia 

Madrid are protesting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision to 

withhold information from the public during hearings on licensing a 

proposed uranium enrichment factory in southeastern New Mexico.



The officials said Friday licensing Louisiana Energy Services' 

uranium enrichment plant should be an open process, and asked the NRC 

to reverse its decision.



State officials also objected in an earlier legal brief filed with 

the NRC, which is concerned that information discussed in licensing 

hearings set to begin Feb. 7 in Hobbs could be useful to terrorists.



The NRC said last month part of the hearing might be closed, although 

the agency said it was unlikely the public would be shut out of the 

whole proceeding.



LES, a consortium of largely European backers, wants to build a $1.2 

billion National Enrichment Facility near Eunice to refine uranium 

for nuclear reactors. Richardson, Madrid and the state Environment 

Department have raised concerns because the process produces a type 

of waste that cannot be disposed of anywhere in the United States.



If the NRC "continues these closed-door, closed-mind policies, it is 

certain to affect our decisions on accepting such a facility in New 

Mexico," Richardson and Madrid wrote.



In October, the NRC cut off access to its massive public documents 

database just before NBC television aired a story suggesting the 

database could provide information useful to terrorists.



According to the state, NRC's staff identified 242 documents in the 

case needing protection - including LES' license application, the 

document on which the case is based.



Richardson and Madrid, in a letter to NRC chairman Nils Diaz, 

contended the NRC's actions were eroding public confidence and "the 

likelihood of a sensible, informed decision" on LES's application.



The decision to withhold some information makes it difficult or 

impossible for the public to participate in an informed way, they 

wrote.



"Although there is some agreement to allow some parties who sign 

confidentiality papers to see more information, there is no denying 

that the commission's decision eliminates opportunities for informed 

public participation, prevents dialogue about potentially important 

issues and provides little public protection," they said.



The government should take steps to make certain the facility is 

protected from a potential terrorist attack once it's operating, not 

by withholding information from the public during licensing, they 

wrote.



"Freedom of information may be the greatest anti-terrorist weapon in 

the United States' hands, because it allows everyone to think about 

potential terrorist threats and design anti-terrorism safeguards," 

they wrote.



Last August, over the protests of Richardson and Madrid, the NRC 

upheld a decision by its licensing board to block the state from 

raising concerns about radioactive waste during licensing.



State officials want the waste moved from New Mexico. LES has been 

holding discussions with companies to build a deconversion facility 

that could treat the waste.

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



Council rejects nuclear plant grants for emergency center



CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The Executive Council is raising questions about 

a proposed emergency operations center in Concord, and has declined 

money from two nuclear plants that would have helped build it.



The Vermont Yankee and Seabrook plants had offered to pay $525,000 

toward an $11 million hub state police dispatch and other safety 

service would use in a disaster.



But councilors declined the money Wednesday, saying they worried it 

might cause electric rates to increase. They also said they needed 

more information about state plans to use federal money to protect 

against disasters.



None of the five councilors doubted the need for increased vigilance, 

but stressed the need to make sure the money is spent effectively.



"Money doesn't fix it," said Councilor Raymond Wieczorek. "You need 

to spend that money effectively."



The federal government already has sent the state $9.3 million for 

the center, but Councilor Peter Spaulding said he's not sure putting 

up a new building is the best way to go.



In recent years the state has received $47 million in federal 

homeland security money to help fire departments, county sheriffs and 

local police officers prepare for catastrophes.



State emergency management director Bruce Cheney said he wasn't sure 

what the council's vote meant for the building project, which has 

been in the works for several years.



The state was one of five selected to receive grants for emergency 

management centers. The money must either be used for the building or 

be returned.



After a lengthy discussion, the councilors declined the power plant 

money but agreed to spend a few million in federal homeland security 

funds for grants to state agencies.



Before the vote, the council urged Gov. John Lynch to craft a plan 

for spending future federal grants. Lynch said two of his staff 

members are examining New Hampshire's homeland security system.



"It will be a very thorough process, a very open process," Lynch 

said. "It will be a very good process going forward."

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



NRC Drops Fine Against Tennessee Valley



KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reached 

a settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority over its treatment 

of a nuclear plant worker who had raised safety concerns.



The settlement announced Tuesday drops the $110,000 fine against the 

TVA, the country's largest public utility. The regulatory agency said 

the work environment at the TVA improved sufficiently since the case 

dating to 1996 at the TVA's Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Chattanooga.



The case involved TVA's treatment of Gary L. Fiser, a chemistry and 

environmental protection program manager who had raised safety 

concerns about the Sequoyah station and filed a Labor Department 

complaint in 1993 partly because of those concerns.



Three years later, Fiser was laid off with hundreds of others. But 

Fiser said his bid for another job within TVA was undermined by his 

whistleblower activities.



The NRC agreed, and proposed a maximum fine of $110,000 against TVA 

in 2001.



The settlement, reached on Nov. 10, ends the case without penalty and 

drops citations against two managers.



TVA provides electricity to 8.5 million people in seven Southern 

states.

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



DOE, state square off in federal court over nuclear waste



YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Energy and Washington 

state squared off in federal court Tuesday over whether the state has 

authority to regulate storage of a certain type of radioactive trash 

at south-central Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.



The waste, known as mixed transuranic waste, typically is debris, 

such as clothing, equipment and pipes left over from nuclear weapons 

production, that has been contaminated both with plutonium and 

hazardous chemicals.



The state of Washington sued the Energy Department in 2003 to block 

shipments of the untreated waste to Hanford out of concern that it 

could be stranded at the site and add more waste to a spot already 

considered the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.



The Energy Department has said the waste eventually will be shipped 

to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico for long-term 

disposal.



And once the waste is designated as destined for WIPP, storage 

requirements do not apply, Mike Zevenbergen, a Justice Department 

lawyer, told U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald on behalf of the 

Energy Department.



The state, however, has the authority to prohibit storage of waste 

already restricted from land disposal, such as hazardous waste, said 

Andrew Fitz, an assistant attorney general for Washington state.



The waste may be safe to be stored at WIPP, but that does not mean it 

is safe to be stored at Hanford, Fitz said.



The fact that such waste "has been sitting at Hanford for 30 years is 

the reason we're here today," he said.



Of particular concern is so-called remote-handled waste, which is 

highly dangerous and cannot be handled by workers. The federal 

government does not yet have the authority or necessary permits from 

the state of New Mexico to store that trash at WIPP, which means 

there is no clear path for it to leave Hanford, Fitz said.



Zevenbergen countered that the Energy Department, in the past, has 

designated waste for storage or long-term disposal at sites before 

having the necessary permits. The agency already has authority from 

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and has submitted an 

application to New Mexico officials, to dispose of remote-handled 

waste at WIPP, he said.



The current lawsuit was filed long before Washington state voters 

approved Initiative 297 last fall. The measure bars the federal 

government from sending any more nuclear waste to Hanford until all 

the existing waste there is cleaned up. That includes mixed 

transuranic waste.



The Energy Department filed suit last month, challenging the 

constitutionality of the measure.



McDonald said he would take his time in ruling, given the complexity 

of the issues and the impact a decision could have on other lawsuits, 

including the I-297 case.



Shipments of out-of-state waste are currently barred under a 

preliminary injunction issued by the court.



For 40 years, the south-central Washington reservation made plutonium 

for the nation's nuclear weapons, beginning with the top-secret 

Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb.



Costs to clean up the highly contaminated site are expected to total 

$50 billion to $60 billion, with the work to be finished by 2035.

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



Officials study how contamination left Oconee Nuclear Station



SENECA, S.C. (AP) - Nuclear officials say the discovery of low-level 

contamination on metal heavy-lifting equipment that had left Oconee 

Nuclear Station is an anomaly and does not pose a major safety 

concern, but environmentalists still are worried.



Workers at a nuclear plant in Arkansas and a contractor in Texas 

found the contamination on the equipment used to replace the steam 

generator in the plant's Unit 3 during a maintenance and refueling 

outage.



The work marked the end of a process to replace 30-year-old steam 

generators and reactor heads on all three units at the plant near 

Seneca.



The contamination that left the nuclear plant on the equipment was 

"substantially less than what is found in a home smoke detector," and 

"posed no danger to workers or the public," said Dayle Stewart, 

spokeswoman for Oconee Nuclear Station.



Ken Clark, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said 

this kind of thing "happens from time to time" and "is not a major 

health or safety concern."



The commission is "doing whatever is possible to keep this type of 

thing from happening," Clark said. "We try to keep exposure from all 

nuclear facilities as low as is reasonably achievable."



Oconee has specific procedures to check that items leaving the plant 

are clean.



"We take it very seriously and are doing a detailed investigation of 

our processes to insure that this does not occur again in the 

future," Stewart said.



The incident at the Oconee plant has happened at other reactors doing 

these kinds of major repairs, said Michael Mariotte, executive 

director of the Washington D.C.-based Nuclear Information Resource 

Service.



Mariotte is concerned that similar kinds of major repairs are taking 

place on the nation's aging fleet of reactors.



"Radioactive materials need extra protection and extra care in 

handling. They need to be moved as little as possible because when 

you move things the risks increase," Mariotte said.



The three reactors at Oconee first went online in the early and mid-

1970s. The old steam generators at Oconee remain onsite in a 

specially designed building, along with other large components 

recently replaced. Oconee has elaborate controls in place to prevent 

release of any radioactive material, Stewart said. There is no fuel 

in reactors during outages, she said.



Before workers go into the containment building, the air inside is 

purged through a filtration system. Throughout the outage all 

outgoing air runs through the filters. Any radioactive materials in 

the air are removed by the filtration system, Stewart said.



Air is sampled inside and outside of the containment building 

throughout the outage, she said.



At the beginning of the outage, a crew goes into the building to 

remove loose contamination. The water used to clean the building is 

collected by sumps and processed to remove the contamination, which 

is handled as low-level radioactive waste. The waste is secured in 

the protected area until it is taken to Barnwell, South Carolina's 

low-level radioactive waste site.



Once the reactor head is removed, fuel is transferred to the spent 

fuel pool, Stewart said. The fuel is transferred through water-filled 

canals that serve as a radiation barrier.



There's still fixed contamination in the building and the possibility 

of loose contamination. Workers who leave a radiation-controlled area 

must remove their protective clothing and go through radiation 

monitoring equipment.



Equipment also is surveyed by radiation technicians before leaving 

the area.



"We've got these elaborate radiological controls in place. The event 

where the equipment left the site with extremely low-level 

contamination is an anomaly," Stewart said.

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



Texas and Florida Companies Partner to Market First Private RV that 

Protects Occupants Against Nuclear Radiation, Biological and Chemical 

Agents



NEWTON, Texas and CLEARWATER, Fla., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- 

Parliament Coach Corp., one of the leading manufacturers luxury motor 

coach conversions, has partnered with Homeland Defense Vehicles LLC 

to create the first high-line motor coach that can protect occupants 

against nuclear radiation from dirty bombs, nuclear accidents, as 

well as, biological and chemical agents that might leak into the 

environment or that could be used by terrorists.



"Many people enjoy the RV lifestyle, but we also live in an era when 

people have some level of fear about terrorism," said Harvey 

Mitchell, chief executive officer of Parliament. "Often times, these 

concerns about terrorism are linked to states where people with RVs 

like to travel -- near ocean ports and border towns or other vacation 

hotspots. We think marketing a luxury coach with the ability to 

protect people from potential harm from terrorists will match a 

consumer demand."



"The Office of Homeland Security has told the American people it is 

not a matter of if another terrorist attack will occur within our 

borders, but a matter of when," said Daniel Ayres, president of 

Homeland Defense Vehicles. "We market filtration systems that can 

protect vehicle occupants from a wide variety of environmental 

threats. We market these systems to emergency responders, and we see 

no reason why consumers shouldn't consider the same type of 

protection for their luxury coaches."



Ayres also pointed out that coaches equipped with the special 

filtration system are also ideal for allergy sufferers. The 

filtration system can keep the motor coach as sterile as an operating 

room. "For some allergy sufferers, allergens are like airborne 

terrorists. With this filtration system, they can travel sneeze-

free."



The luxury motor coaches equipped to protect against dirty bombs and 

biological or chemical agents can cost $1 million or more. The units 

take approximately 12 weeks to manufacture.



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

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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