[ RadSafe ] Scientists say removing all radioactive waste from defense sites impractical

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

Removing all radioactive waste from defense sites impractical
Japan opposes IAEA chief's proposal on freezing nuclear fuel cycle
Lawmakers to VY: No easy ride on dry cask storage
Mecklenburg commissioners agree to incentives for nuclear firm
NRC Renews License For Dominion Surry Plant Fuel Storage
Ukraine Secret Service Seizes Uranium at Airport
NY counterterrorism chief says al-Qaida still seeking nuclear weapons
ANALYSIS - Iran's arguments for nuclear power make some sense
=======================================

Scientists say removing all radioactive waste from defense sites 
impractical

WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists have recommended that a significant 
amount of radioactive waste from Cold War bomb-making should remain 
at former production sites, and several locations should be kept open 
longer than planned to treat waste from elsewhere.

Reports by two panels of the National Academies urged the Energy 
Department to revamp its massive $140 billion cleanup plans for 
defense nuclear waste with the goal of transporting less of it to a 
central facility.

This would allow cleanup activities to be completed sooner and cost 
less, the panels said. The current cleanup schedule, involving dozens 
of sites, envisions most waste treatment and disposal to be finished 
in 20 years.

But the scientists also called for greater involvement outside of the 
Energy Department in determining what wastes should be left in place 
and what should be transported to a geological repository. The report 
said the department's credibility on decisions involving waste 
disposal is hampered because the DOE both proposes and approves waste 
disposition plans.

"DOE should not attempt to adopt these changes unilaterally," said 
the panel, suggesting the Environmental Protection Agency or Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission and perhaps an independent group of experts get 
involved in assessing how radioactive wastes should be treated.

This approach was applauded by some environmentalists Tuesday, who 
have argued that DOE has too much power in making waste disposal 
decisions. The report "clearly sent a message that Congress must rein 
in DOE and address the mess that it has made of nuclear waste cleanup 
policy," said Geoff Fettus, a lawyer for the Natural Resources 
Defense Council.

There was no immediate reaction Tuesday from the Energy Department.

States with some of the biggest cleanup challenges - including 
Washington, Idaho and South Carolina - and have argued that high-
level defense nuclear waste should be taken away for deep geological 
burial.

But a National Research Council panel, asked to review the government 
program, concluded that the "recovery of every last gram" of such 
waste "will be technically impractical and unnecessary."

In some cases removing waste could lead to increased human exposures 
to radiation, the panel said. It also said the expense associated 
with retrieval, immobilization and disposition of some of the waste 
in a central repository "may be out of proportion with the risk 
reduction achieved, if any."

An attempt to recover all of this waste - such as the hardened "heel" 
waste attached to the inside of buried tanks at the Hanford site in 
Washington state - could lead to further leaks and contamination than 
if it were left in place, the report said.

Another National Research Council panel issued a companion report. It 
recommended that the Energy Department use waste treatment facilities 
that will handle cleanup efforts at the most contaminated sites to 
treat waste from other defense sites. That would require those 
facilities to stay open longer than planned.

Such use of treatment facilities at the Hanford site in Washington 
state, the Savannah River complex in South Carolina, the Oak Ridge 
facility in Tennessee and the Idaho National Engineering and 
Environmental Laboratory in Idaho would accelerate overall cleanup 
efforts, the report said.

How far the Energy Department should go to clean up the environmental 
damage left over from decades of bomb-making and the pace of the 
cleanup have sparked intense debate between the federal government 
and states. State officials fear they may be burdened permanently 
with waste that will be highly radioactive for thousands of years.

Citizen activists and state officials argue that the federal 
government is required to remove as much of the highly radioactive 
waste left over from bomb-making as is technically possible. Such 
waste, they say, should go to an underground disposal site known as 
WIPP in New Mexico or the Yucca Mountain high-level waste dump 
proposed in the Nevada desert.

"Given the controversy surrounding this issue and the reality that 
not all of the waste will or can be recovered and disposed of 
offsite, the country needs a structured, well-thought-out way to 
determine which wastes can stay," said David Daniel, chairman of the 
panel of scientists that wrote the report on what wastes should be 
exempted from deep geological burial.

The report said that techniques exist that allow the separation of 
the most highly radioactive material, which would go to a central 
repository, from less dangerous waste that can be processed to reduce 
the potential hazard and be allowed to remain where it is.

The panel, however, acknowledged that the implementation of a more 
"risk-based" approach to addressing the waste problem must be handled 
with care and within current rules and the law, or risk resistance 
from states.

The government must determine how best to dispose of the waste "in a 
manner the public can trust," said Daniel, dean of the College of 
Engineering at the University of Illinois.
-----------------

Japan opposes IAEA chief's proposal on freezing nuclear fuel cycle

VIENNA, Feb. 28 (Kyodo) - Japan has notified the International Atomic 
Energy Agency of its opposition to a proposal by the IAEA chief for 
freezing nuclear fuel cycle development work for five years as a way 
to prevent nuclear proliferation, diplomatic sources said Sunday.

Japan opposes the proposal made by Mohamed ElBaradei, director 
general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, because of the negative impact 
it would have on Japan's nuclear fuel cycle work at a nuclear fuel-
reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, the sources said.

Some other countries, including Iran, have also expressed opposition 
to the measure, saying it ignores their rights on the use of nuclear 
fuel for peaceful purposes under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

ElBaradei has called for the freeze to prevent development of nuclear 
weapons from nuclear fuel, such as enriched uranium and plutonium.

He has also emphasized the need to establish an international 
management system for spent nuclear fuel.

The IAEA chief is expected to propose the freeze formally at a 
meeting in May to review the nonproliferation treaty.

ElBaradei has told the Japanese government that he will call on all 
the member nations of the IAEA to accept the freeze, but suggested 
Japan and some other developed nations may effectively be exempted 
from the measure, saying it would be implemented on a voluntary 
basis, the sources said.

Japan, however, has decided to oppose the measure because it believes 
that if it did not, it would have to observe the rule as a country 
that has always fully cooperated with the IAEA, they said.

One of the sources said Japan may have to suspend the operation of 
the Rokkasho spent nuclear fuel-reprocessing plant if the freeze is 
implemented.

A Japanese governmental commission has concluded that reprocessing 
spent nuclear fuel is a better option for Japan than burying it, 
although experts have said it is more economical to bury spent 
nuclear fuel.

In line with the nation's nuclear fuel cycle policy, Japan Nuclear 
Fuel Ltd. began an initial test run of the Rokkasho plant in 
December.

Once in operation, the plant will extract uranium and plutonium from 
spent nuclear fuel from power plants throughout Japan for reuse as 
fuel.
--------------------

Lawmakers to VY: No easy ride on dry cask storage

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Lawmakers on Wednesday warned the owners of 
the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant that their push to store highly 
radioactive waste in dry casks on the plant grounds in Vernon won't 
come quickly or easily.

And in a harbinger of what could become a major test of wills if not 
a protracted legal battle, Entergy Nuclear's top official in Vermont 
would not rule out trying to use federal law to pre-empt state law on 
the plant's storage of spent nuclear fuel at its site in Vernon.

"I have given no consideration to that," said Vermont Yankee site 
Vice President Jay Thayer. "Our focus is going through the 
legislative process."

Vermont has a law dating from the late 1970s that exempts the Vermont 
Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., from a requirement that anyone seeking 
new radioactive waste storage in the state must formally petition the 
Legislature first.

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. no longer owns the plant, though. 
Last year, Vermont Yankee's Statehouse lobbyist asked late in the 
session to have inserted into the state's general fund budget bill a 
provision adding the words "its successors and assigns" to the VYNPC 
exemption.

Some lawmakers cried foul, saying the legislative committees that 
normally oversee Vermont Yankee never were given an opportunity to 
review the provision, and it died.

Vermont Yankee is back this year, asking for a one-word change saying 
that would have the exemption apply to the Vermont Yankee site, 
rather than the corporation.

Thayer told a joint meeting of the House and Senate Natural Resources 
committees that the plant still wants to "seek clarification of the 
exemption."

Rep. Steve Darrow, D-Dummerston, then asked what the plant might do 
"when it becomes clear to you that's not what you're going to get 
from the Legislature."

Thayer's response: "I can't answer that this morning."

Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, followed that with a question 
about the formal petition process under which the plant would ask the 
Legislature for permission to build more storage capacity for highly 
radioactive waste. "Do you foresee initiating that process?" Klein 
asked.

Thayer replied, "With all due respect I do not." Thayer insisted that 
the only plan the company has is to try to persuade lawmakers to 
include it in the exemption that applied to previous owners.

The exchanges came during a hearing that was mainly devoted to a 
briefing for committee members on the plant's plan to store high-
level radioactive waste in 36 casks on its grounds.

Plant officials sought to emphasize the safety of the casks and the 
fact that they can be used both for storage and transportation of 
waste that will remain radioactive for thousands of years.

The committee also was treated to two videos played by a witness for 
the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition that showed 
explosives like those contained in widely distributed shoulder-
launched missiles penetrating casks similar to those Entergy wants to 
use at Vermont Yankee.

As part of their briefing, plant officials distributed to committee 
members and the media a packet that included a multi-color aerial 
photo of Vermont Yankee.

That distribution came a little more than three years after a 
Brattleboro Reformer photographer was detained by police for taking 
pictures at Vermont Yankee under a 1917 treason law.
-------------------

Mecklenburg commissioners agree to incentives for nuclear firm

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A divided Mecklenburg County board of 
commissioners voted to give $192,000 to a company that designs and 
build nuclear facilities as an incentive to stay in Charlotte.

The county money, plus a grant from the city, will match a $350,000 
state grant to Framatome ANP, which employs about 420 people.

The incentive package, which will refund the company 90 percent of 
its property tax over eight years, was assembled after officials 
learned Virginia was trying to convince Framatome to move its 
operations there, where the company already has several offices in 
Lynchburg.

The money will help Framatome relocate from downtown Charlotte to new 
offices near the University of North Carolina-Charlotte's campus, 
county manager Bobbie Shields told commissioners Tuesday. Shields 
said the company will invest about $4.1 million in a new facility and 
add 100 new jobs. He said jobs at the company pay an average of 
$75,000 a year.

Framatome, which is based in France and has 13,700 employees 
worldwide, has U.S. operations in a number of states, including 
Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia.

The company designs and build nuclear power plants and research 
reactors and supplies nuclear fuel.

In debating the incentives Tuesday, Mecklenburg County commissioners 
split along party lines. Democrats voted for the incentives, arguing 
they would keep high-paying professional jobs in the county. 
Republicans countered that there was no proof Framatome would leave 
without the grants.

GOP commissioner Dan Bishop questioned Shields so vigorously that 
board chairman Parks Helms, called it a "cross-examination."
-------------------

NRC Renews License For Dominion Surry Plant Fuel Storage

CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said 
Tuesday that it has officially renewed a license allowing Dominion 
Resources (D) to store nuclear fuel at its Surry nuclear plant in 
Virginia after the plant's reactors retire.

The agency in December granted Dominion the first-ever 40-year 
license renewal for a dry cask spent fuel storage installation. On 
Tuesday, the NRC confirmed the license has been officially issued 
following a review of maintenance and inspection requirements.

"The license includes strict conditions to monitor potential effects 
of aging on the integrity of the casks," said E. William Branch, 
director of the NRC's Spent Fuel Project office, in a release. "These 
conditions include additional inspections to be conducted by the 
licensee and continuous monitoring of radiation at the boundary of 
the dry-cask storage facility."

Surry was the first plant to achieve NRC approval for a dry-cask 
spent fuel storage facility in 1986, and it's now the first plant to 
get a 40-year extension to the original 20-year operating license for 
that facility.

Because Surry's spent fuel pools are filled to capacity, continued 
use of dry cask storage is "essential" for the reactors there to 
continue running, the NRC said in December. The license renewal means 
Dominion can continue storing fuel at Surry beyond 2032 and 2033, 
when the operating licenses for the facility's two 813-megawatt units 
expire.

There are now 30 sites like Surry's storage facility in the U.S., 
according to the NRC.

The NRC approved Surry's 40-year storage site extension by granting 
Dominion an exemption from regulations that currently allow 20 years. 
When granting the exemption, the NRC emphasized that it still 
considers dry casks a temporary solution until a permanent nuclear 
reactor waste storage site is opened.

Nuclear plants typically need to cool spent fuel in storage pools for 
at least five years. But the pools have held waste for far longer, 
and are packed at many plants, because the federal government hasn't 
yet opened a long-planned central nuclear dump. The government was to 
start accepting nuclear plant waste in 1998, but it currently expects 
its planned Yucca Mountain site in Nevada will be ready in 2010, any 
many believe it will take years longer.

The Surry site features two thick reinforced concrete pads that can 
each hold 28 16-foot storage containers, and Dominion is building a 
third pad, a spokesman said in December.

When fully loaded with fuel, the containers weigh 103 to 119 tons. 
Each container costs about $1.2 million.
------------------

Ukraine Secret Service Seizes Uranium at Airport

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's SBU security service arrested a man at 
Kiev's airport who had a case containing radioactive uranium-238 in 
his car, the Emergencies Ministry said Tuesday.

It said the man was detained at Boryspil airport, Ukraine's main 
international gateway, with 582 grams of uranium. It did not say when 
the arrest took place or whether he had been attempting to leave the 
country.

"SBU officers detained the person who was moving a case with a 
radioactive substance -- Uranium-238 -- in his car," the ministry 
said in a statement. It said ministry specialists had seized the 
case.

A ministry official said an investigation had been launched. SBU 
officials were not immediately available for comment.

Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is normally found, can 
theoretically be used to make nuclear "dirty bombs," but it is often 
used in gun ammunition and armor because of its high density.

Ukraine gave up its share of the Soviet nuclear arsenal after 
independence in 1991 but remains home to some of Europe's largest 
nuclear power stations. The country is trying to strengthen security 
and border controls as it now borders three member states of the 
enlarged European Union.

Eastern Europe's vast pool of nuclear technology is of major concern 
to the United States and the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, as it 
remains open to theft and black market trade.
------------------

NY counterterrorism chief says al-Qaida still seeking biological, 
nuclear and chemical weapons

LYON, France (AP) - The counterterrorism chief of New York's police 
department said Wednesday that al-Qaida is pressing on with its 
secretive efforts to develop chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

NYPD counterterrorism commissioner Michael A. Sheehan insisted that 
officials believe Osama bin Laden's terror network has not succeeded 
in developing such weaponry.

"We are very concerned they are still trying to seek chemical, 
biological or radiological weapons," he told reporters on the 
sidelines of an Interpol bioterrorism conference in Lyon.

"We don't have any information that at this time they have that 
capability, but we do know they're trying to get it," Sheehan said of 
al-Qaida, declining to provide specifics.

He said al-Qaida's abilities appeared to have declined since the 
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States because the terror 
network lost bases in Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces ousted the 
Taliban regime that year.

"However, we still know they are very much out there - and capable," 
Sheehan said. "We don't underestimate their ability to bounce back as 
a serious threat of terrorism."

The threat was not just al-Qaida, but could be any type of terrorist 
organization "or some type of deranged person," Sheehan added.

At the start of the two-day conference Tuesday, Interpol Secretary-
General Ronald K. Noble noted how al-Qaida has stated its intention 
to use biological agents, and posted instructions for making them on 
the Internet.

More than 500 people - law enforcement officials, scientists and 
counterterrorism officials from 155 countries - are attending the 
conference, which Noble said was the largest gathering of police in 
history.
------------------

ANALYSIS - Iran's arguments for nuclear power make some sense

TEHRAN, March 2 (Reuters) - Iran's argument that despite vast oil and 
gas reserves it needs nuclear power to meet booming energy demand 
holds more water than U.S. officials give credit.

But Tehran, which denies U.S. accusations that it is secretly seeking 
nuclear arms, is on shakier ground with its insistence on producing 
its own fuel for atomic reactors through uranium enrichment -- a 
costly endeavour, both economically and politically, for the Islamic 
state.

In the absence of a "smoking gun," Washington often says the fact 
Iran is the No. 2 producer in OPEC and sits on the second biggest 
natural gas reserves in the world is enough to make its atomic 
ambitions suspicious.

The Foreign Affairs Select Committee of Britain's parliament said 
last March that based on a study it commissioned: "It is clear ... 
that the arguments as to whether Iran has a genuine requirement for 
domestically produced nuclear electricity are not all, or even 
predominantly, on one side."

Some U.S. arguments against Iran "were not supported by an analysis 
of the facts" the committee added, noting that much of the natural 
gas flared off by Iran -- which U.S. officials say could be harnessed 
instead of nuclear power -- was not recoverable for energy use.

Iranian officials are quick to point out that before the 1979 Islamic 
revolution, which brought clerics to power, the United States firmly 
supported its ally the Shah's plans to build up to 23 atomic reactors 
by 1994.

"At that time we were the second biggest oil producer in the world. 
Now we are the fifth and our population has almost tripled," Ali 
Akbar Salehi, an adviser to Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and an 
expert on nuclear affairs, told Reuters.

HEAVY ENERGY CONSUMER

Nearly 40 percent of Iran's 4 million barrels a day oil output is 
consumed locally. Iran imports hundreds of millions of dollars' worth 
of gasoline a year to meet demand.

"It's true we're an energy-rich country, but we are a heavy consumer 
as well," said Salehi.

Precious oil export revenues, on which the state-dominated economy is 
highly dependent, would be wasted on electricity production, Iran 
says. Natural gas is more valuable as feedstock for petrochemical 
plants, it adds.

"Despite being very rich in energy (resources), nuclear energy makes 
perfect sense," agreed Pavel Baev, an analyst at the Oslo-based 
International Peace Research Institute.

With a youthful population of nearly 70 million and a fast-growing 
economy, energy consumption is rising by around 7 percent annually. 
Iran estimates that it may need capacity to generate some 90 GW by 
2020, from about 31 GW at present.

About three quarters of current electricity needs come from gas-fired 
power stations, and the rest from hydroelectricity or oil.

Iran is experimenting with wind power and geothermal energy but says 
it wants to produce at least 7 GW from nuclear power by 2020. The 
first 1,000 MW reactor, being built with Russian help in the southern 
port of Bushehr, will come onstream next year.

Nuclear energy is cleaner than fossil fuels and its higher cost of 
production does not take into account the opportunity cost lost from 
the more profitable uses for hydrocarbons and likely future penalties 
for burning fossil fuels, Iran says.

"Iran wants to ... change its energy portfolio in favour of clean and 
renewable sources, as recommended by the Kyoto protocol," Mohammad 
Hossein Adeli, Iran's ambassador to the UK, wrote in the Financial 
Times last month.

Iran is not the only resource-rich country to diversify its energy 
needs away from hydrocarbons. Fellow OPEC member Venezuela meets more 
than 70 percent of its electricity demand from hydroelectric power. 
Russia, a major oil exporter with huge gas reserves, is a leading 
nuclear energy power.

ENRICHMENT NOT VIABLE

But Moscow, which hopes to play a major role in Iran's nuclear energy 
expansion plans, says Iran's attempt to develop a full atomic fuel 
cycle, including uranium enrichment -- the most sensitive aspect of 
its nuclear programme -- is not economically viable.

"There is technically proven data, which shows the creation of a full 
cycle for a country with less than eight to 10 reactors worth 1,000 
megawatts each, is not feasible and in fact ruinous," Alexander 
Rumyantsev, head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, said on Monday. 
"We keep telling this to the Iranians."

Iran has paid a high political cost for refusing to scrap uranium 
enrichment, which can be used to make bomb-grade, as well as reactor, 
fuel.

It risks being hauled before the U.N. Security Council and could even 
face military attack unless it can reach agreement on its atomic 
plans in talks with the European Union.

But Tehran says it has learned from past experience that it cannot be 
dependent on others.

"We need to spend $10 to $12 billion to build the seven nuclear power 
plants," said Salehi. "Imagine after building them they say we cannot 
supply your nuclear fuel, what should we do? We cannot challenge the 
world to give us the fuel, so we have to have security of supply."

-------------------------------------
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/