[ RadSafe ] Thousands march in anti-nuclear protest in western France

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Thousands march in anti-nuclear protest in western France
~100 rally against nuclear power in peaceful demonstration in Germany
Bulgarian left opposes closing nuke plant for EU
U.N. nuclear watchdog ends meeting on safety in nuclear power plants
Official: Iran to Resume Nuke Enrichment
Libyan-bound nuclear parts may have gone to another country
Criminal probe still hangs over Davis-Besse operator
Progress Energy considering new nuclear plant
Radioactive Waste Leaves Colo. in Cleanup
Iran does not need nuclear fuel cycle - France
UC to Continue Managing Berkeley Lab
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Thousands march in anti-nuclear protest in western France

NANTES, France (AP) - Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators marched 
Saturday to commemorate the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and demand an end 
to government plans to build a nuclear plant in western France.

The protesters, braving rainy conditions, lined up to form the French 
words for "Nuclear kills the future, let's abandon it" - visible from 
the sky - as part of the demonstration in western Nantes.

Police and organizers from activist group Sortir du Nucleaire 
estimated that about 6,000 people took part in the rally, which 
centered on remembrance of the April 26, 1986, explosion in 
Chernobyl, Ukraine. Many marches were planned across France this week 
to mark the anniversary.

The marchers also protested government plans to build a pressurized-
water nuclear reactor in the northwestern region of Normandy in 2007.
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~100 rally against nuclear power in peaceful demonstration in Germany

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - About 100 people, including many children, 
protested the use of nuclear power by Germany, police said Sunday.

The peaceful demonstration was aimed at marking the planned shutdown 
of Germany's oldest nuclear plant, police said. There were no 
arrests.

The 36-year-old plant in Obrigheim, southwestern Germany, is 
scheduled to be shut down by the end of May, part of a national plan 
to phase out the use of atomic energy by 2020.

Germany is the first major industrialized nation to renounce nuclear 
technology. Under a deal negotiated after years of wrangling between 
the government and power company bosses, all of Germany's 19 nuclear 
reactors are to close in the next 15 years.

The Obrigheim reactor is only the second to be shut down, after a 
plant in Stade, near Hamburg, was closed in November 2003.
----------------

Bulgarian left opposes closing nuke plant for EU

SOFIA, April 22 (Reuters) - Bulgaria should seek EU permission to 
keep two reactors at its Kozloduy nuclear plant running after 2006 
although it has promised to shut them down, the opposition Socialist 
Party said on Friday.

The Union, whose members will sign an accession treaty with Bulgaria 
on Monday, has warned the poor Balkan state to close the Russian-
built reactors as agreed or risk delaying its expected entry in 2007.

But reformed-communist BSP said it would try to keep them open, a 
comment likely to ratchet up pressure on the government of former 
king Simeon Saxe-Coburg before summer elections.

"We will look for any possibility to solve this issue in a way which 
will be more beneficial for Bulgaria," BSP leader Sergei Stanishev 
told a news conference.

The BSP is expected to unseat Saxe-Coburg's centrist National 
Movement for Simeon II in the June 25 vote and analysts said the 
party was trying to use Kozloduy to extend an already wide lead in 
opinion polls.

The country closed the first two of the plant's six blocks in 2003, 
while two more are to remain on line after 2006.

With average wages of only 150 euros a month, many Bulgarians fear 
closing Kozloduy's third and fourth reactors could drive up energy 
prices.

The Socialists say studies show they could be kept open safely until 
around 2015, but Brussels has taken a firm stance on nuclear closures 
in new members and rejected a similar plea from Slovakia earlier this 
month.

"There's really no chance to talk about reopening the energy chapter 
just two or three days ahead of signing the accession treaty," a 
diplomat from an EU state told Reuters.

"We also don't think it gives the appropriate message right now to 
the European Union and the international community."

Stanishev also said the BSP wanted to hold a referendum on Bulgaria's 
EU accession treaty this autumn, despite a government plan to ratify 
the pact in parliament before the assembly dissolves in the runup to 
the election.

But he said the party would still support the treaty if Saxe-Coburg's 
centrist government took it to a vote next month as planned.

"If there is a vote to ratify the EU treaty, we will back it," 
Stanishev said. "The BSP would not risk Bulgaria's EU accession in 
2007."
-----------------

U.N. nuclear watchdog ends meeting on safety in nuclear power plants

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency on Friday 
concluded a series of meetings aimed at improving nuclear power plant 
safety worldwide.

Participants in the meetings, which began April 11, are members of 
the Convention of Nuclear Safety, which requires countries to 
maintain a high level of safety in the operation and regulation of 
nuclear power plants.

The meeting reviewed progress under the convention. Such meetings are 
held every three years at the Vienna-based International Atomic 
Energy Agency.

The treaty, signed by 65 countries, entered into force in 1996. It 
does not carry any controls or sanctions to force members to adhere 
to its principles. Instead, signatories are obliged to submit reports 
to the convention meetings for peer review.

The convention was created as a response to the 1986 Chernobyl 
nuclear power plant accident. All of the world's 441 nuclear power 
plants are operating in countries where the convention is in force, 
the agency said.
----------------

Official: Iran to Resume Nuke Enrichment

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran will resume uranium enrichment regardless of 
the outcome of its negotiations with three European powers over its 
nuclear program, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

Speaking to reporters five days before Iran is to resume nuclear 
talks with France, Britain and Germany, Hamid Reza Asefi said the 
Europeans appeared to be serious in seeking an agreement with Iran. 
But he added that any settlement had to respect Iran's right, as a 
signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to enrich uranium.

The Europeans have been offering economic incentives in the hope that 
Iran will turn its temporary suspension of uranium enrichment 
activities into a permanent freeze.

Asefi said Iran would not continue its suspension of enrichment for 
long.

"It is not a matter of a year, but months," he said of the 
suspension, which was imposed last year to boost confidence ahead of 
negotiations.

"If Iran feels that the Europeans intend to waste time by prolonging 
the talks, Iran won't insist on continuing the talks."

The United States, backed by Israel, believes Iran is using a 
civilian nuclear development program as a cover to make atomic 
weapons. It has threatened to refer Iran to the U.N. Security 
Council, which can impose sanctions, but has held off pending the 
negotiations with the Europeans.

The Europeans also have called on Iran to abandon enrichment, a 
process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors and, taken to a 
higher level, material for bombs.

Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely for the generation of 
electricity and has offered to provide safeguards of its good 
intentions.

"We will put the issue of uranium enrichment on our agenda and, after 
some time, we will resume doing it. We will do it whether the talks 
with the Europeans lead to failure or agreement," Asefi said.

Asefi said that while the talks had moved slowly and had failed to 
meet Iranian expectations, they had not been a total failure.

Earlier this month, President Mohammad Khatami said the negotiations 
with Europe had been difficult, but they were making progress. They 
are due to resume April 29.
----------------

Libyan-bound nuclear parts may have gone to another country: 
officials

GENEVA (AP) - Nuclear weapons-making equipment that was being 
smuggled to Libya but never arrived is believed to have been diverted 
to the government of another country rather than to a terrorist 
group, officials said Friday.

Confirming a report in the Los Angeles Times, officials who spoke on 
condition of anonymity in another European country said 
investigations in several countries have yet to locate the missing 
material.

The investigators concluded that there is a strong likelihood that 
the sophisticated material was sold to an unidentified customer by 
members of the network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear 
scientist who has admitted passing on bomb-making technology to other 
countries, the officials said.

The dispatch was based in part on court records filed by German 
prosecutors in their bid to extradite Gotthard Lerch, a German 
engineer who lives in Switzerland.

But Folco Galli, spokesman for the Swiss Justice Ministry, said he 
was unable to comment on the documents because the ministry doesn't 
rule on guilt in deciding on extradition requests.

Revelations that some of the parts had gone missing first surfaced 
last year, when German prosecutors filed for the extradition of 
Lerch, who is accused of being part of a plan to deliver centrifuge 
components made by a company in South Africa to Libya between 2001 
and 2003.

Libya's covert nuclear development was in violation of the Nuclear 
Nonproliferation Treaty, to which the country is a signatory. Libya 
has since pledged to scrap its nuclear program.

The German prosecutors said last year that parts were shipped to 
Dubai and loaded onto a German-registered freighter with false 
customs papers, headed for Libya, but were not believed to have made 
it to their destination.

The missing equipment could be used in an elaborate national program 
to make nuclear weapons, but the long-term, sophisticated process 
required would likely need a government's resources rather than any 
group's, said officials, who spoke on the additional condition that 
their location be undisclosed.

The German court documents say that a senior investigator for the 
International Atomic Energy Agency told German prosecutors that two 
rotors for an advanced type of centrifuge had been delivered to 
Libya, officials said.

However, seven other rotors reached the network's base in Dubai, 
United Arab Emirates, and were supposed to go to Libya but remain 
unaccounted for, the officials said.

Other sophisticated parts, tools and material also vanished.

Some of the missing material goes into making centrifuges which can 
enrich uranium to a level that can be used for nuclear bombs.
-----------------

Criminal probe still hangs over Davis-Besse operator

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A proposed record fine handed down to the 
operator of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant didn't scare investors.

Now what hangs in the air is an ongoing federal grand jury probe into 
whether FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. gave false statements to 
federal regulators.

The grand jury is close to wrapping up its work, according to U.S. 
Attorney Gregory White. Parent company FirstEnergy Corp. has been 
told it likely will face charges.

FirstEnergy's stock didn't take a hit from the $5.45 million fine 
that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed Thursday, saying the 
plant failed to stop an acid leak that nearly ate through a 6-inch-
thick steel cap on the reactor vessel.

In fact, the company's stock price went up the day of the 
announcement and rose 41 cents on Friday, closing at $42.38 on the 
New York Stock Exchange.

Analyst Hugh Wynne of New York-based Bernstein & Co. said the bigger 
question hanging over the company and its stock is the criminal case.

"These fines are relatively small given the size of the company," 
Wynne said. "It's a spit in the bucket."

Investors may be relieved that the matter is nearing an end on the 
regulatory side and that the NRC's findings did not include any 
surprises about Akron-based FirstEnergy.

Many also knew a big fine was coming, said James Halloran, an analyst 
at National City Private Client Group in Cleveland.

"The market has had years to dissect this whole thing," he said.

Investor reaction shouldn't be too much of a surprise. FirstEnergy's 
stock has stayed steady despite its problems at Davis-Besse. A 
FirstEnergy spokesman said Friday the company was still reviewing the 
fine and declined comment.

The plant along the Lake Erie shore near Toledo has been under a 
constant watch by federal regulators since 2002 when a routine 
inspection revealed the leaking boric acid on the reactor cap.

It's not clear how close the plant was to an accident, but it was the 
most extensive corrosion ever seen at a U.S. nuclear reactor.

The plant was closed for two years but returned to full power last 
April. Since then, the NRC had continued increased oversight at the 
plant.

Halloran said the company has made a good faith effort to fix what 
went wrong and has paid a lot of money for what may have been "very 
poor management."

FirstEnergy spent $600 million making repairs and buying replacement 
power because of the two-year shutdown.

The NRC said on Thursday that FirstEnergy restarted the Davis-Besse 
plant in 2000 without completing a required cleaning and inspection 
of the reactor vessel head, then misled the agency about what it had 
done.

The agency could have fined the company $75.8 million. Still the fine 
more than doubled the previous record sanction imposed by the agency.

FirstEnergy has 90 days to appeal the fine.
-------------------

Progress Energy considering new nuclear plant

NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Utility Progress Energy Inc. said on 
Thursday it is considering building a new nuclear power plant to meet 
growing demand for electricity in its service area, joining a growing 
list of companies expressing interest in nuclear generation.

The company, which is also considering coal and natural gas 
generation to meet its growing needs, said that because it expects it 
may need new generation in the Carolinas by 2017, it would need to 
file a ten-year plan with regulators by 2017.

"We are like every other utility that is going to need baseload ... 
When you look at the options there are not that many," said Progress 
spokesman Rick Kimball. "Coal, gas, and nuclear are still probably 
the best technologies that we have available. To dismiss nuclear as 
one of those options is ridiculous."

Raleigh, North Carolina-based Progress operates two electric 
utilities that serve about 2.9 million customers in North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Florida.

Kimball said the Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina and the 
Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida could both be candidates for a 
new unit. He said building in a preexisting site would be cheaper 
because the infrastructure for a plant would already be in place.

The U.S. nuclear industry has been virtually frozen since the 
accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, the worst nuclear accident in 
U.S. history. No company has followed through with plans to build a 
new nuclear plant since the accident.

However, U.S. President George Bush has backed renewed construction 
of nuclear plants as part of his energy policy. Perhaps as important, 
some prominent environmentalists have begun to support nuclear power 
because the plants produce hardly any greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of these developments, the industry has seemed revitalized 
with utilities like Exelon , Entergy , Southern Co. , and Dominion 
joining consortiums to apply for licenses that could lead to nuclear 
plants being built.

If Progress' interest in building a new nuclear plant continues, 
Kimball said it would likely file for a separate operating license 
than the ones being pursued by NuStart Energy, a nuclear consortium 
of which Progress is a member.

Duke Energy , also based in North Carolina and a NuStart member, has 
recently expressed interest in building new nuclear generation as 
well.
-----------------

Radioactive Waste Leaves Colo. in Cleanup

DENVER (AP) - The last shipment of high-level radioactive waste in 
the $7 billion cleanup of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons 
plant rumbled off to a dump site in New Mexico.

Since 1999, almost 95,000 barrels of waste have been shipped from 
Rocky Flats, where plutonium triggers were manufactured during the 
Cold War. The Department of Energy has called it the largest and most 
complex project of its kind to date.

Tuesday's last high-level radioactive waste shipment was in three 
containers, containing 11 barrels and one box.

"The nearby communities definitely can feel safer now because this 
was the last of the heavy stuff," said Ken Korkia of the Rocky Flats 
Citizens Advisory Board.

The waste - including contaminated clothing, tools, rags and other 
debris and residues - was trucked from the site just west of Denver 
to a repository in an ancient salt bed formation near Carlsbad, N.M.

The 10-year project is expected to be complete by November, a year 
ahead of schedule. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to use a 
portion of the 6,240-acre site as a wildlife refuge.

Critics have said the site will not be safe because the cleanup did 
not include sites where radioactive waste was illegally dumped or 
buried.

But as the Rocky Flats project winds down, the project may set a 
standard for similar cleanups in other states.

In Washington state, the cleanup of a 560-square-mile plutonium 
production site at the Hanford nuclear reservation has been under way 
for more than a decade, slowed by technical, political and budget 
problems and questions about worker safety. Hanford contains the 
nation's largest volume of radioactive waste.

In Idaho, officials of the Idaho National Laboratory hope to complete 
a cleanup by 2012.

"Our success at Rocky Flats is a great inspiration to those other 
sites as well. Six years ago, seven years ago, the problems at Rocky 
seemed insurmountable," said Clay Sell, deputy secretary of energy.
-----------------

Iran does not need nuclear fuel cycle - France

PARIS, April 18 (Reuters) - Iran does not need to develop a complete 
nuclear fuel cycle in order to achieve its civilian nuclear power 
ambitions, a senior French disarmament official said on Monday.

France, Britain and Germany have demanded Iran renounce its nuclear 
fuel programme, in exchange for economic and political benefits, to 
allay Western suspicions Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb.

Philippe Carre, head of the Foreign Ministry's disarmament section, 
said the EU3 wanted objective guarantees from Iran that its atomic 
programme would not be used for military purposes.

"We do not see in the Iranian civilian nuclear programme any 
justification for mastering the full fuel cycle," Carre told a 
briefing on next month's review conference for the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York.

After heavy U.S. lobbying of Iran's nuclear fuel supplier Russia, 
Iran agreed to return spent fuel to Russia from its Russian-designed 
Bushehr reactor, which comes on stream in 2006.

"We don't think that, in order to run the current Iranian civilian 
power station programme, there is a need for a separate complete fuel 
cycle," Carre said.

EU diplomats last week said French President Jacques Chirac has been 
pushing the European Union to drop its refusal to contemplate 
allowing Iran to enrich uranium.

That, despite European and U.S. fears Iran could use the technology 
to build weapons, a goal that would breach undertakings Tehran made 
as an NPT signatory.

Iran says it needs nuclear technology to meet the booming energy 
needs of its economy and denies atomic weapons ambitions. It has 
frozen its enrichment programme pending talks with the EU3 but 
refuses to give it up permanently.

Instead, Tehran is pressing to be allowed to retain a small-scale 
enrichment programme that the International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA) would closely monitor.

"We have to examine (the proposals) in a great deal of detail and in 
no way prejudge the view taken on it," Carre said.

Tehran has yet to dispel misgivings about its nuclear plans and 
diplomats on Monday said Iran was failing to cooperate fully with an 
IAEA probe into Iranian officials' meetings with smugglers linked to 
Pakistani atom bomb-maker Abdul Qadeer Khan.

The diplomats said the 1987 and 1994 meetings may reveal whether 
Iran's programme originally intended to produce electricity or an 
atomic bomb, as Washington alleges.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said France, which 
produces the bulk of its electricity from nuclear power, wanted to 
strengthen the NPT at the May 2-27 review conference.

France wanted nuclear technology exporters to take more 
responsibility for where their material ended up, notably on uranium 
enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing.

Paris also backed increased IAEA controls, notably via the NPT 
Additional Protocol which provides for snap inspections of nuclear 
sites by U.N. inspectors.

Mattei said France also wanted the international community to take 
firmer steps to punish breaches of the treaty and a greater role for 
the U.N. Security Council.
----------------

UC to Continue Managing Berkeley Lab

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - The University of California - criticized in 
the past for its management of three national laboratories - has won 
the federal government's permission to continue running one of those 
labs for another five years.

The Department of Energy awarded the $2.3 billion contract Tuesday 
for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which UC has overseen 
since it was founded by Nobel Prize winning physicist Ernest O. 
Lawrence in 1931. There were no other bidders.

Despite the lack of competition, UC President Robert C. Dynes noted 
that energy officials were prepared to turn down the univerity's bid 
if it did not pass muster.

Yet to come are decisions on whether the university will continue to 
manage two nuclear weapons labs: Lawrence Livermore in northern 
California and Los Alamos in New Mexico.

Science and engineering research is conducted at Lawrence Berkeley, 
including work on developing an alternative to carbon-based fuels.

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Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc. 
2652 McGaw Avenue
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