[ RadSafe ] Utah governor lobbies in D.C. against radioactive waste plan

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Utah governor lobbies in D.C. against radioactive waste plan
Areva Submits Bid To Sell 4 Nuclear Reactors To China
Japan: Local evacuation manuals to state pref. roles, emergency
Moscow advised Iran against producing its own nuclear fuel
Russia will start supplying nuclear fuel six months before 
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Utah governor lobbies in D.C. against radioactive waste plan

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. lobbied in 
Washington over the weekend against the nuclear-waste repository 
planned for the Goshutes' reservation in Skull Valley.

"I want to make sure the White House is able to follow this issue as 
we proceed," Huntsman told The Salt Lake Tribune's Washington office.

Huntsman met with White House officials during a Republican Governors 
Association dinner Saturday night and in sessions at the National 
Governors Association winter meeting.

He said he emphasized the state's opposition to Private Fuel 
Storage's plan to transport casks of waste from the nation's nuclear 
energy reactors to Utah's western desert.

Huntsman does not know yet whether the Bush administration will side 
with Utah.

"The feedback is they want to follow the issue with us and there's 
only so much detail you can cover at this point," Huntsman said 
Sunday evening. "We will have meetings to follow."

In 2002, the Bush administration signed a pledge to block use of 
federal funds to help build, maintain or transport nuclear waste to 
the Goshute site in exchange for votes from Utah's two Republican 
senators in favor of siting the nation's nuclear waste repository at 
Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

The Yucca Mountain plans face an uncertain future due to 
congressional divisions and court rulings.

Last week, a federal safety advisory board forwarded the PFS 
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for final approval. 
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected Utah's claim that 
chances of an F-16 jet from Hill Air Force Base crashing into the 
waste dump posed too great a risk for the project to proceed.

PFS proposes storing waste in Utah for up to 40 years, after which 
time the casks would be transported to Yucca Mountain for permanent 
storage. Many opponents of the plan contend that once the material is 
in Utah, there will be no incentive to pursue the Yucca plans.
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Areva Submits Bid To Sell 4 Nuclear Reactors To China

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- French nuclear engineering company Areva SA 
(427583.FR) said Monday that its Framatome ANP unit has submitted a 
bid for supplying China with four nuclear reactors.

People familiar with the tender said Westinghouse Electric Co., the 
U.S. unit of state-run British Nuclear Fuels PLC (BNF.YY) and 
AtomStroyExport of Russia also submitted bids by the Monday deadline, 
but neither company could be reached for comment.

Desperate to meet exploding power needs in its rapid 
industrialization, China has launched a tender for four nuclear power 
reactors, carrying a potential price-tag of more than $2 billion 
each.

It represents the largest tender in years for Western and Russian 
nuclear equipment makers, which have suffered from a dearth of 
orders.

The tender is the first phase of a plan to build 32 nuclear power 
plants over the next 15 years.

Beijing has set stringent conditions to ensure that suppliers of the 
first four reactors will help it develop its own nuclear engineering 
industry.

The made-in-China policy is part of a wider effort by the world's 
most populous country to manufacture high-technology products such as 
aircraft and medications, and not just be a workshop for textile and 
toy makers.

Over the past twenty years, China has bought nuclear reactors from 
France, Canada and Russia. Each contract included technology 
transfer, yet China remains deficient in its ability to become self-
reliant in the nuclear sector.

Areva says it has an edge over Westinghouse as it has already sold a 
version of the reactor it will propose to China in Finland, and 
expects another order from French state-owned power company 
Electricite de France (EDF.YY) later this year.

Framatome has built four out of China's nine nuclear plants in 
operation.
-------------------

Japan: Local evacuation manuals to state pref. roles, emergency

TOKYO, Feb. 28 (Kyodo) - Prefectural evacuation manuals will clearly 
define local governments' responsibilities in protecting the public 
in the case of a contingency, and will cover emergency warning 
procedures as well as peacetime preparations, according to a central 
government draft plan obtained by Kyodo News on Sunday.

The draft was compiled by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of 
the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry in line with 
legislation that took effect last September.

The draft will serve as a model to help prefectures compile their 
evacuation plans during fiscal 2005, which starts April 1. 
Municipalities will formulate their manuals during fiscal 2006.

According to the draft, the prefectural manuals include peacetime 
preparations and preventive measures, measures to be taken in the 
event of military attacks, and reconstruction work.

As an "optional entry" for measures against armed attacks, the draft 
says that when prefectures detect any military or terrorist attack, 
they should set up an emergency liaison office and provide 
information to municipal governments without waiting for the state to 
issue a warning.

The liaison office should be upgraded to a task force to be headed by 
the prefectural governor when notified by the central government to 
do so.

When a warning is issued by the state, the governors should 
immediately relay it to all municipalities concerned.

The draft also says that in the case of warnings about ballistic 
missile attacks, prefectural governments should evacuate the public 
to pre-designated facilities, such as concrete buildings and 
underground arcades.

The prefectures should also publicize the evacuation arrangements to 
residents in normal times.

During a contingency, local authorities should implement measures to 
ensure stable living conditions, such as preventing panic buying or 
hoarding of daily necessities, and enabling children to continue 
schooling at evacuation shelters, the draft says.

As for preparation and prevention measures, the draft says 
prefectural governments should always be on 24-hour standby and that 
senior officials should carry mobile phones at all times to ensure 
that they can be reached.

Prefectures are also encouraged to conclude cooperation agreements 
with each other over mutual support for relief supplies and on 
compiling cross-border evacuation plans to prepare for large-scale 
and prolonged contingencies that cannot be handled by one prefecture 
alone, the document says.

In addition, the draft lists examples of supplies that should be 
secured in advance, such as chemical protective suits.

Meanwhile, it suggests that medical supplies such as iodine tablets 
to prevent radiation sickness and smallpox vaccines should be stocked 
by the central government.

The draft will be presented Tuesday to the Fire and Disaster 
Management Agency's panel discussing the issue. After the draft is 
adopted as the model plan, it will be used by prefectures as the 
basis to compile their respective manuals.

The evacuation law was part of legislation that the Japanese 
parliament enacted in March last year to supplement Japan's first 
full-fledged war contingency laws since the end of World War II. The 
contingency laws were introduced in June 2003.
-------------------

Russia's nuclear chief says Moscow advised Iran against producing its 
own nuclear fuel

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's nuclear chief said Monday that Moscow is 
advising Iran against making its own nuclear fuel and has offered to 
build more nuclear reactors in that country after launching the first 
one at the Bushehr plant.

Alexander Rumyantsev, head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, 
spoke a day after signing a deal that obliges Iran to return spent 
nuclear fuel from Bushehr. The requirement is aimed at lessening the 
possibility of Iran extracting plutonium for use in atomic weapons.

The Bush administration has accused Iran of running a covert nuclear 
weapons program and cautioned Moscow against supporting Iran's 
nuclear ambitions. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful 
energy purposes.

The fuel agreement cleared the way for Iran to start the Bushehr 
reactor within the next year and a half.

"The cooperation we have with Iran is in accordance with the current 
international legislation - we are not breaking any regulations set 
by the international community and recorded by the International 
Atomic Energy Agency," Rumyantsev said at a news conference. He 
estimated the Bushehr project would cost more than $1 billion.

Rumyantsev said Russia was urging Iran not to develop facilities to 
produce its own nuclear fuel, arguing it wouldn't be economically 
feasible.

"In a country that has fewer than eight or 10 nuclear reactors ... 
developing an independent nuclear cycle is not only unfeasible, but 
wasteful," Rumyantsev said. "This is what we are telling the Iranians 
and they are studying these materials with interest."

He added, however, that Iran has the right to develop its own nuclear 
fuel system. Such a cycle would require the extraction of uranium, 
its enrichment, turning it into nuclear fuel, using the fuel at 
nuclear power plants and then disposing of it.

"As for the decisions they make ... because they are members of the 
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, nothing forbids them from developing 
their own cycle," Rumyantsev said.

He said Russia would participate in bidding to build six more nuclear 
reactors planned by Iran as well as reactors in Bulgaria, Slovakia 
and China.

Iran's efforts to enrich uranium so it can produce fuel on its own 
are a bigger concern in the international community than its buying 
fuel from abroad because the enrichment process can be taken further 
to be used for warheads.

"No doubt, having a whole cycle allows one to make an atomic bomb," 
said Alexei Yablokov, head of the Environmental Policies Center.

France, Britain and Germany are trying to secure an Iranian 
commitment to scrap the enrichment program in exchange for economic 
aid, technical support and backing for Tehran's efforts to join 
mainstream international organizations. Iran has suspended enrichment-
related activities during the talks with the Europeans.

Rumyantsev said Monday that Russia would ship fuel for the Bushehr 
reactor "when it will be needed there," refusing to say when or how 
the fuel would be shipped.

He said the Iranian side would cover the costs of shipping the spent 
fuel back to Russia. The fuel will be sent back about 10 years after 
being shipped, he said, adding that all shipments of nuclear fuel are 
usually controlled by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International 
Atomic Energy Agency.
------------------

Report: Russia will start supplying nuclear fuel six months before 
commissioning Iranian nuclear power plant

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia will start supplying nuclear fuel to Iran 
approximately six months before the Persian Gulf nation's atomic 
energy plant is commissioned late next year, the ITAR-Tass news 
agency reported Monday, citing Russian Atomic Energy Minister 
Alexander Rumyantsev.

He said about 100 tons of fuel would be supplied.

Rumyantsev and Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadehm, who is 
also the Iranian nuclear agency chief, signed a nuclear fuel 
agreement Sunday in Bushehr, Iran, site of the US$800 million (613.5 
million) Russian-built plant.

The agreement provides for Iran to return spent fuel to prevent any 
possibility Tehran would extract plutonium from it, enough of which 
could be used to make an atomic bomb, and it removes the last major 
obstacle to starting up Iran's first reactor.

Experts have estimated the plant could produce enough plutonium for 
30 rudimentary atomic bombs a year.

The two officials refused to discuss the details of shipping the 
nuclear fuel to Iran and the spent fuel back to Russia, but insisted 
that the agreement respects all regulations concerning nuclear 
activities.

Iranian efforts to enrich uranium so it can produce enough of its own 
fuel to generate power have been a bigger concern in the 
international community than buying fuel from abroad because the 
enrichment process can be taken further to be used for warheads.

France, Britain and Germany are trying to secure an Iranian 
commitment to scrap enrichment plans in exchange for economic aid, 
technical support and backing for Tehran's efforts to join mainstream 
international organizations. Iran has suspended enrichment-related 
activities during the talks with the Europeans.

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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
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