Various radiation news articles

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

The following articles were received today... The article regarding 
Taiwan Power Company is of specific interest to me since I am going 
there and doing a NVLAP on-site assessment in Marchh ... 
--------------------

  LONDON  - A nuclear reactor in Scotland was 
shut  down Friday after a fire broke out in the turbine hall but 
there were no injuries or risk to public safety, Scottish Nuclear 
said.   ``There was a fire alert at the Hunterston 3 in Ayrshire  
about one o'clock. The smoke detectors were activated as a result of 
equipment failure in the turbine hall, a conventional (non-nuclear) 
part of the plant,'' a spokesman said.   Scottish Nuclear, part of 
British Energy Plc added that the  fire was extinguished and there 
was no radioactive leak.   ``It was smoldering caused by a part of 
the plant .... A  rotating part of the turbine possibly started to 
wear and smoulder,'' British Energy explained after a preliminary 
assessment of the cause.   No flames were reported and the local fire 
brigade dealt  with the incident.   ``The safety of public was not at 
any time compromised. The  reactor was shut but the other one is 
operating,'' the spokesman added.   The reactor was expected to be 
back in use some time over  the weekend. 
----------------------

 CHICAGO, Jan. 24 -- The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
has fined ComEd $650,000 because of operations problems at its LaSalle
Nuclear Generations Station in north-central Illinois. 
 The utility was fined for a June 28 incident in which a contractor 
injected a foam sealant into a cooling system water intake tunnel
forcing the shutdown of two reactors. 
 The contractor was attempting to repair cracks in the concrete 
service water tunnel. The reactors were down until the material was
removed and the intake equipment and cooling system passed an
inspection. 
 ComEd was fined $600,000 for planning and performing the sealant 
injection as minor maintenance without documented instructions and
procedures and for failing to take immediate action to correct the
problem. 
 The utility was fined an additional $50,000 for violating operations 
 and testing of safety-related cooling system equipment. 
 NRC Regional Administrator Bill Beach said, ``These violations are 
very significant. The injected foam sealant material created a
significant safety issue by threatening to block the intake of both
unit's safety-related service water systems, systems required to
mitigate the consequences of a design basis accident.'' 
 ComEd acknowledged its performance was unacceptable and says a new 
management team is in charge of the station near Seneca, Ill. The
utility has until Feb. 24 to pay the fine or request a hearing. 
-------------- 

  BUDAPEST, Jan 24 - The head of Hungary's only  
nuclear power station said on Friday the plant, which is due for
privatisation later this year, should stay in majority state hands. 
  ``It would be preferable to sell only a minority stake in  
Paks,'' Jozsef Szabo, general manager of Paks nuclear plant, told a
news conference, adding that financial rather than strategic investors
should be targeted. 
  Paks, along with its owner, national electricity company  
Magyar Villamos Muvek (MVM), is expected to be privatised this 
year but neither the size nor the type of the offer has been 
decided. 
  Hungary's only nuclear plant, Paks produced 14.18 billion  
kilowatt hours of electricity in 1996, supplying 40.8 percent of
domestic production, he said. 
  Oil and gas powered stations produced 29.8 percent of the  
total, coal fired stations 27.2 percent and other sources 2.2 
percent. 
  Hungary also imported 2.19 billion kilowatt hours of  
electricity last year. 
  Szabo said the plant posted 250 million forints ($1.5  
million) of pre-tax profit over sales of 46.7 billion forints 
last year and it has a break-even business plan for this year. 
  Paks reduced its workforce last year by 400 to 2,900, as a  
result of outsourcing and rationalisation, he said. 
  Soviet-built Paks, which became operational in 1982, had its  
best-ever safety record in 1996, Szabo said. 
  He added that the plant was among world leaders in terms of  
capacity utilisation, which last year was over 85 percent. 
  The country's nuclear law, passed late last year, calls for  
the plant to take out an insurance policy for a maximum 20 
billion forints worth of damages, with the state footing a 
further 15 billion in case of an ``event'', Szabo said. 
  He added that domestic insurers, in a pool led by Hungaria  
Biztosito, would offer four billion forints' worth of coverage, 
with an international pool being organised to cover the other 16
billion forints. 
  Paks is planned to be operational until 2030, some 15 years  
beyond its originally planned lifespan after an overhaul of its 
safety-critical systems in the next five to seven years. 
  But Szabo thinks Hungary will still need a second nuclear  
plant. 
  ``It definitely would need a second plant to become  
operational between 2005 and 2010,'' he said. 
  MVM's medium-term plans drafted in 1996 did not include the  
prospect of a second nuclear plant and a nuclear expert, who 
spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the political 
climate was not favourable for such a decision. 
  ``This would require long-term thinking and a four-year  
election cycle hardly allows it,'' he said. ``The prerequisite for
such a decision would be long-term stability''. 
---------------

  TAIPEI, Jan 24  - State utility Taiwan Power Co has  
begun seeking a three-year uranium supply to fire its three 
nuclear plants in a routine move that nonetheless could rekindle
anti-nuclear protests and raise eyebrows in rival China. 
  The public notice comes at a time of growing popular  
opposition to Taiwan's pro-nuclear policy as well as a new 
dispute with South Korea over Taipower's deal to ship nuclear 
waste to North Korea. 
  The tender also could rekindle frictions with arch rival  
China, which voiced concern in August over Taiwan's unsuccessful
efforts to import uranium from Australia. 
  China, Taiwan's arch rival since a civil war split them in  
1949, said in August that uranium was no "ordinary commodity" 
and called its export to Taiwan a highly sensitive issue. 
  Beijing, which has a nuclear arsenal and nuclear power,  
strongly opposes sales of strategic or advanced arms to Taiwan, 
which it regards as a renegade province that must be unified 
with the mainland -- by force if it pushes for independence. 
  Environmentalists have waged a vocal but losing war against  
Taipower's construction of a fourth nuclear station and rioted 
in October after the state managed to overturn parliament's veto of
its $4.1 billion budget. Opponents say Taiwan does not need nuclear
power and has no place to store nuclear waste. 
  The plant is rising on the outskirts of the capital Taipei.  
  Taiwan's nuclear waste dump at Lanyu island is almost full  
and local opponents have extracted a government pledge to remove the
dump by 2002. Taipei has been seeking sites overseas, including China,
the Marshall Islands and Russia. 
  Seoul hopes to persuade Taipei to back out of its contract  
to ship up to 200,000 barrels of nuclear waste to North Korea, 
citing environmental risks to the Korean peninsula due to the 
questionable safeguards of its cash-starved Stalinist rival. 
  Pyongyang's nuclear power programme caused international  
uproar in the early 1990s. The United States and others alleged 
the programme aimed to develop nuclear weapons. 
  Taiwan's foreign ministry on Friday defended Taipei's  
determination to work with North Korea as "correct". 
  The economics ministry had spoken more bluntly on Thursday,  
saying no "political interference" by Seoul could stop what it 
called a purely business activity. 
  Two contracts to import up to 750,000 pounds (340,000 kg) of  
uranium a year would specify delivery in September 1997, March 
1998 and March 1999, a Taipower official said. 
  The deadline to enter the tender is 0830 GMT on February 27  
and results should be available the next day. The tender is open to
any uranium exportable to Taiwan. The United States, Canada and
Namibia have been main suppliers. 
  Bids for Taipower's uranium tenders must comply with a 1971  
safeguards framework reached with the International Atomic 
Energy Agency and the United States, utility officials said. 
  Australia bans export of uranium to Taiwan due to  
differences in safety regulations, but has been studying whether
Taiwan's non-proliferation safeguards were adequate. 
  Taipower has three operating nuclear power stations, each  
with two reactors, which consume a total of 2.5 million pounds 
of uranium fuel rods a year. 

Sandy Perle
Technical Director
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

Personal Homepages:

http://www.netcom.com/~sandyfl/home.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1205