[ RadSafe ] Finnish power company final approval to build fifth nuclear reactor

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Finnish power company final approval to build fifth nuclear reactor
Entergy CEO: nuclear power needs federal guarantees
Entergy Has Interest In Buying Duane Arnold Nuclear - CEO
Thirty kilos of plutonium "missing" from UK site
Dutch revisit sensitive issue of nuclear power, parliamentary debate
Tenth shipment of reprocessed Japanese nuclear waste heading home
Slovak power company to appeal court decision on nuclear plant
Russia's nuke chief to go to Iran to sign deal for spent fuel return
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Finnish power company gets final approval to build fifth nuclear 
reactor

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - The government on Thursday granted energy 
company TVO a construction license for the country's fifth nuclear 
plant, a 1,600-megawatt reactor expected to start producing 
electricity in 2009.

The permit was the final approval for the 3 billion (US$3.9 billion) 
atomic reactor, the first to be built in the European Union in more 
than 10 years and to be constructed by a French-German consortium of 
Framatome ANP and Siemens AG.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, which granted the permit to 
Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, or TVO, said "there were no safety-related 
obstacles to granting the construction license for the nuclear power 
plant unit" at Olkiluoto, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the 
capital.

Olkiluoto is the site of two 750 megawatt nuclear reactors.

In 2002, the government decided to increase the use of nuclear power, 
a decision approved later by a 107-to-92 vote in parliament, the 
country's highest decision-making body.

TVO was the only company to apply for the license last year. It comes 
into force immediately.

Some 60 Finnish companies will be involved in the project, known as 
Olkiluoto 3, the country's largest to date.

Last year, TVO began onsite preparations after it applied for the 
license, and construction of the plant will begin later this year. 
The reactor is expected to be operational for 60 years.

Although environmentalists opposed the idea of a new reactor and the 
Green Party resigned in protest from the previous government 
coalition, surveys have indicated that a majority of Finns approve of 
atomic power.

Safety standards at Finnish nuclear plants are among the highest in 
the world, according to radiation safety officials.

Following the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the 
Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority renewed security 
requirements for new plants demanding protection against strikes by 
commercial and military aircraft. The authority has approved TVO's 
safety plans for the plant.

Besides the two units in Olkiluoto, there are two 500-megawatt 
reactors at Loviisa, 90 kilometers (55 miles) east of Helsinki. The 
four produce more than a quarter of Finland's electricity.

The last time a nuclear reactor was built in the European Union was 
in France in 1991, according to FORATOM, the European Atomic Forum, 
that promotes the use of nuclear power in Europe.
----------------

Entergy CEO: nuclear power needs federal guarantees

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- New nuclear power plants will be built in 
the U.S. only if the federal government provides industry with 
certain guarantees, Entergy Corp.'s chief executive officer Wayne 
Leonard said on Thursday. "We really don't need subsidies, we need 
guarantees," said Leonard, speaking at a utility conference. The 
industry is seeking guarantees that regulations and rules governing 
the permitting and operation of new plants will not change once 
companies have invested in projects, Leonard said. Entergy is the 
second largest U.S. nuclear generator. Congress is expected to try to 
pass energy legislation this year that includes incentives for the 
construction of nuclear plants.
-------------------

Entergy Has Interest In Buying Duane Arnold Nuclear - CEO

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Entergy Corp. (ETR) will evaluate the 
possibility of purchasing Iowa's Duane Arnold nuclear plant, which 
Alliant Energy Corp. (LNT) unit Interstate Power & Light and other 
owners recently decided to sell at auction, Entergy's top official 
said Thursday.

IP&L, which has a 70% stake in the 580-megawatt plant, announced its 
sales plans in December. Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt 
Power Cooperative, which co-own the remaining 30%, agreed to join the 
process earlier this month.

"At this point we certainly have an interest," said J. Wayne Leonard, 
chief executive at Entergy, speaking at an industry conference.

Another company has stated its intentions to buy Duane Arnold at any 
price, Leonard said, but price is an issue for Entergy and the 
company doesn't intend to get into a bidding war. Leonard didn't name 
the other prospective Duane Arnold buyer.

The plant's sellers want to enter an agreement with a winning bidder 
by June 30, after which they'll seek all necessary state and federal 
regulatory approvals for the sale. IP&L has said that it wants to buy 
power from Duane Arnold through 2014, when the reactor's original 40-
year operating license expires. IP&L also wants the new buyer to seek 
a 20-year operating license extension for the plant from the U.S. 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The planned sale furthers a trend of consolidation in the nuclear 
industry. Nuclear plants can be very efficient generators with lower 
fueling costs than coal and natural gas-fired plants. But nuclear 
plants also have high overhead costs that membership in a large fleet 
can help defray.

Entergy, based in New Orleans, is the second-largest U.S. nuclear 
utility after Chicago's Exelon Corp. (EXC).
------------------

Thirty kilos of plutonium "missing" from UK site

LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Nearly thirty kg of plutonium is 
unaccounted for at Britain's biggest nuclear complex, auditors have 
found, adding however that there was no need to worry.

The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) said on Thursday 
in the audit that 29.6 kg of plutonium at Sellafield, northern 
England, was classified as "material unaccounted for" during 2004.

Plutonium can be used as a nuclear fuel and a nuclear weapon, but the 
report said the findings were not a cause for concern. State-owned 
company BNFL operates Sellafield.

"The 2003/04 figures in the attached table conform to the pattern 
over previous years and give no rise to concern over either the 
safety or the security of the operation of UKAEA (and) BNFL..," the 
report said.

A spokesman for the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) said there 
was "no evidence of real losses of nuclear material," while BNFL said 
the unaccounted plutonium was the result of statistical errors.

"None's gone missing, none's been stolen. This is an accounting 
exercise," said a BNFL spokesman.

"Sellafield handles such huge volumes that any small statistical 
error could result in what seems like a big figure," he added.

The amount of Sellafield plutonium that was unaccounted for is within 
the guidelines set by European nuclear regulator Euratom.

Those guidelines state that levels of unaccounted nuclear material 
must not exceed about 1 percent of plutonium throughput.

BNFL said the amount of plutonium unaccounted for at Sellafield 
represented about 0.5 percent of the plant's throughput.
----------------

Dutch revisit sensitive issue of nuclear power, parliamentary debate 
planned

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The Dutch have reopened the sensitive 
nuclear energy debate after a member of the Cabinet suggested that 
the country's only power reactor should remain open beyond a 
previously agreed closure date.

The comments by Foreign Minister Ben Bot of the ruling Christian 
Democratic party have been interpreted by opposition parties as a 
shift in the official government line on nuclear energy.

The Green Left opposition party responded with an immediate call for 
a parliamentary debate, scheduled for next week. It said Bot's 
proposal broke from the official government position and demanded 
clarification.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's government set a 2013 closure 
date in a policy outline adopted in 2003, shortly after coming to 
power.

In reaction to Bot's proposal, two of three ruling government parties 
this week said the use of nuclear energy cannot be ruled out. Only 
the smallest government party, Democrats 66, appeared unwilling to 
change its position.

The politically loaded debate comes amid ambitious projects to build 
an offshore wind park for electricity production and the entry into 
force of the Kyoto Protocol, which sets limits on the emission of 
greenhouse gases to reduce global warming.

The former social democratic government in 1994 set a closure date of 
2004.

Bot said in a speech on Monday that the country should keep all its 
options open as it seeks to meet growing power needs, including 
nuclear energy. Alternatives to traditional energy must be considered 
to counter a growing European dependence on foreign fuel sources, he 
said.

It is unclear if the small high flux reactor could be safely and 
economically converted to extend its lifetime, or if the general 
public would support such a move.

The reactor has been the focus of protests by environmental groups 
for decades. It is owned by the Zuid Nederland Electricity Company 
and has a thermal power of 450 megawatts, enough to power a million 
homes.

But an opinion poll taken Wednesday indicated the public won't 
protest if it stays open.

Of 600 people questioned by professional pollster Maurice de Hond, 66 
percent said they support keeping the reactor open. Only 23 percent 
opposed. Among those who voted for the current government, 85 percent 
backed Bot's idea. The margin of error was unknown.

The Borssele reactor, operational since 1973 on a stretch of the 
North Sea coast in the southern Zeeland Province.
------------------

Tenth shipment of reprocessed Japanese nuclear waste heading home

CHERBOURG, France (AP) - Reprocessed nuclear waste headed for Japan 
was loaded aboard a ship Thursday for the nearly two-month journey 
home, France's state-run reprocessing plant said.

The "Pacific Sandpiper" was loaded with 124 containers of highly 
radioactive waste which was reprocessed at the Cogema plant at nearby 
La Hague.

Trucks traveling under tight security delivered the containers, bound 
in five packages, to this western port.

Details of the sea route were not divulged. The cargo - the tenth 
such shipment to Japan - is to leave on Thursday night and arrive in 
Japan in April.

Japanese electricity companies are under contract with Cogema to 
reprocess the waste from plants in Japan.

The waste is routinely sent on ships to Britain and France for 
vitrification, a process by which it is packed into glass, then 
returned home.

Environmental groups, as well as some Pacific and Caribbean states, 
have said the shipments pose a potential threat.
----------------

Slovak power company to appeal court decision on nuclear plant

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - A Slovak power company announced plans 
Thursday to appeal an Austrian court decision saying that its 
Mochovce power plant should conform to unspecified safety norms or be 
shut down.

Slovenske Elektrarne, which owns the plant in southern Slovakia said 
in a statement that it "decided to submit an appeal" after receiving 
the Austrian ruling.

"The nuclear power plant in Mochovce fulfills all legislative 
requirements of Slovakia and international criteria of safety," the 
statement on the company's web site said. "Its activity is controlled 
by assigned supervisory bodies, which conduct an independent 
evaluation of its activities."

Economics Minister Pavol Rusko told the Slovak newspaper, Sme, that 
the ruling is not binding for Slovakia. He argued that the court 
decision was somewhat like having a Slovak court accuse "a politician 
from America or some Arab country, that he is misbehaving and should 
be punished."

Green party activists in Austria argue that Slovakia - which joined 
the European Union last year - should have to comply with rulings of 
the district court in the capital, Vienna. The firm has several weeks 
to answer the civil complaint, said Andrea Danmayr, a spokesman for 
the Greens.

The plant is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Vienna.

Activists in Austria have long fought for the closure of nuclear 
power plants located in neighboring Slovakia and the Czech Republic. 
But Austria's central European neighbors have argued that their 
plants were safe.
-------------------

Russia's nuclear chief to go to Iran to sign deal for spent fuel 
return

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's nuclear chief said Thursday he would go to 
Iran next week to sign a protocol on returning spent nuclear fuel to 
Russia, the only remaining obstacle to the launch of a Russian-built 
nuclear reactor in Iran.

Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency head Alexander Rumyantsev said 
he would sign the long-delayed protocol in Tehran on Feb. 26, paving 
the way for the deliveries of Russian nuclear fuel for the Bushehr 
reactor, which is set to begin operating in early 2006.

The signing of the protocol has been delayed repeatedly by what 
Iranian and Russian officials have described as technical and 
financial details.

Nuclear agency spokesman Nikolai Shingaryov said that the last 
remaining differences had been solved and the agreement was ready for 
signing. He said that nuclear fuel deliveries could start within a 
month or two after the signing.

The protocol is aimed at reducing concerns that Iran could reprocess 
spent nuclear fuel from the Bushehr reactor to extract plutonium, 
which could be used in nuclear weapons.

The United States and Israel fear that the US$800 million Bushehr 
deal could help Tehran build nuclear weapons. Moscow says that having 
Iran ship spent nuclear fuel back to Russia, along with international 
monitoring, will make any such project impossible.

U.S. officials have praised Russia for making fuel deliveries 
contingent on the fuel return agreement.

Igor Ivanov, the secretary of Russia's presidential Security Council, 
on Thursday told his visiting Iranian counterpart Hasan Rowhani that 
Moscow will continue "helping develop Iran's peaceful nuclear energy 
program."

Washington accuses Tehran of having a secret nuclear weapons program, 
while Iran insists its nuclear activities only serve peaceful energy 
purposes.

An explosion Wednesday near Iran's southern port of Deylam close to 
Bushehr prompted fears of a missile attack, and though U.S. and 
Israeli officials denied any involvement with the blast, it spiked 
oil prices and stirred up fears about the confrontation over Iran's 
nuclear program.

Iranian officials said the explosion was part of construction on a 
dam, but warned that any attack on its nuclear facilities would meet 
a swift response.

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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 at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at earthlink.net 

Global Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/ 
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/