(September 12, 1991) The Northern European Nuclear Information Group (NENIG) is circulating the following alert:
(358.3545) WISE Amsterdam - The European Parliament's Committee on the Environment is undertaking an investigation into the transportation of radioactive material in the European Community (EC). The investigation follows the October 1990 resolution adopted by the Parliament which called for: a ban on transporting spent nuclear fuel on roll-on/roll-off ferries; for all such shipments to be carried on ships especially built for carrying radio-active materials (known as "purpose-built" ships); an end to the import and export of irradiated fuel to and from the EC; and the eventual ban on the transportation of all spent nuclear fuel.
The investigation will examine the transportation of nuclear waste, including spent fuel, and the storage of nuclear waste, and will make recommendations on new EC health and safety standards.
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* In a recent policy document the UK Labour Party joined the campaign for safe nuclear transports by calling for a ban on the use of non-purpose built ships and a halt to imports on roll-on/roll-off ferries. * The UK government has admitted that new safety standards for roll-on/roll-off ferries, prepared after the 1987 Herald of Free Enterprise disaster in which 193 people died, will not be fully implemented until the end of this decade. Ferries which fail to meet the new safety standards will still be allowed to use UK ports until at least the year 2000. |
It is important that the Environment Committee and the full Parliament are made aware of the international concern over the pollution, health, and safety threats from transporting nu-clear materials across our seas and by aircraft. It is particularly important that the European MPs (Members of Parliament) are made aware of the concern in non-EC countries.
The Committee should be urged to ap-prove new safety and health standards which would introduce an immediate ban on transportation by sea and air of spent fuel in non-purpose built vessels -- and the eventual ban on all such transports -- linking the storage of all radioactive wastes, including spent fuel, to where the waste is produced at sites on the surface where it can be monitored and retrieved in the event of problems. The more representations the Committee receives -- from governments, MPs, political parties, trade unions, fishing, agricultural and environmental organisations, and individuals -- the better. Letters should be sent to:
The Secretariat
Environment Committee of the European Parliament
European Parliament
97-113 rue Belliard
1047 Brussels
Belgium
A full list of the members of the Environment Committee is available from the NENIG office if you wish to write to individual Members of Parliament. It would be helpful if you sent a copy of any representations you make to NENIG.
Source and Contact: NENIG
Bain's Beach, Commercial Street
Lerwick, Shetland
tel: Lerwick (0595) 4099; fax: (0595) 4082.
(September 12, 1991) The promised temporary disposal site for the waste from the tragic 1987 accident at Goiania, Brazil, is now to become site of the final depository...
(358.3542) WISE Amsterdam - The CNEN (National Commission of Nuclear Energy) has begun construction on the definitive waste dump for the nuclear waste generated by the accident which occurred after a capsule of cesium-137 was discovered in the ruins of a former radiation institute. The capsule, from a radiotherapy machine, was opened and its contents were spread through the central Brazilian town by local people who did not know what it was, but were apparently fascinated by the cesium's luminosity (see NCs 281.2428 and 282.2843). That was three years and eight months ago.
In May of this year it was announced that the waste dump would be built over the next two months by the Italian group "Casagrande". The same group is also responsible for building the waste dump for Chernobyl. The Goiania waste site is estimated to cost US$40 million.
The site chosen is 100 meters from where the waste is now -- where it was temporarily stored by the Abadia de Goiania Municipality, 20 km from Goiania City. The city has 1.2 million inhabitants. The choice was made through an agreement between the CNEN, the Casagrande group, and the Goiania government. The priorities were based on the geographical aspects, but of principal concern was the ease with which the drums, containing 13.4 thousand metric tons of nuclear waste, could be transported. The site is an open area of 3.6 thousand cubic meters, with a cement floor, without a cover.
"EASY SOLUTION"
Jose Julio Rosental, the CNEN physicist who in 1987 was responsible for work on the initial decontamination operation in Goiania, has been chosen to manage the project. Rosental says he believes that any problems over the environmental impact will be easily solved because constant monitoring by CNEN and the Environment Office at the temporary waste site confirm that there has been no damage to the site's surroundings. Or so he says. He also says that when deterioration of the lead drums containing the waste is discovered during the monitoring, the drums' contents are transferred to other drums. However, questions arise as to how this monitoring is done -- whether it is done visually or by using radiation monitoring equipment operated by trained technical people is not explained. Also not explained is at what point in their deterioration the drums are replaced. Further questions as to Rosental's capabilities arise when we remember that his management of the initial cleanup attempt in 1987 was a total mess: technical people and at least four police became contaminated; many workers participated in the decontamination without proper protective clothing; the machines quickly broke down; measurements were inaccurate; victims who were them-selves radioactive were transported in ordinary ambulances which afterwards were kept in service for two days until someone remembered that they had to be decontaminated; the hospital did not have enough disposable clothing nor enough isolated rooms for the victims; and at least two nurses and one doctor were contaminated.
The CNEN has registered the contents of each drum. This will be useful now because the Casagrande group requires the neutralization of all the organic nuclear waste (or what's left of it -- some of it was burned in an open area during the initial decontamination process). During this phase the waste must be consolidated, as some of the drums were not filled, and CNEN will have to decrease the amount of empty space left in them. This operation was to have begun in June or July. Accord-ing to Rosental, the operation poses no big risk because it will be carried out one drum at a time and in the same place at which the drums are now stored -- that is, out in the open. For Rosental the risk may be zero, but CNEN itself is playing it safe and will not give out any estimates on what the chances are of an accident happening that would result in contamination of the technical team involved. Neither Rosental nor CNEN admit to any possibility at all for further spread of contamination. However, given past history...
Casagrande has taken on the task to look for sponsors for its work in Brazil. The Italian government is willing to give support to the project as it is interested in seeing Casagrande develop more technical knowledge involved in nuclear waste management. (Already, Casagrande is considered to be one of the best in its field in Europe.) The group has been trying to build the deposit for two years; now it has the necessary politic support. (The previous CNEN direction wanted the deposit built with Brazilian technology.)
The accident initially killed four people: Isabel Batista dos Santos (20 year old), Admilson Alves Souza (18 years old), Leide das Neves (6 years old), and Maria Gabriela Ferreira (36 years old). The government also acknowledges that it was responsible for another 110 direct victims (people with an especially high level of contamination). However, many more people were directly affected. According to CNEN, another 600 people were victim to the accident, but the "Associacao de Vitimas" (Victims Association) estimates that in fact there were another 3,000 victims. Until today no one has been made legally responsible.
Until now, there has only been one court proceeding, and that is ongoing. A case has been filed by the Federal Police against the physicians C. Bezerril, C. Dourado, A. Monteiro, and the physicist O. Texeira. They are the only ones being accused, as the Federal Police considered both CNEN and the "Delegacia de Vigilancia Sanitaria" (Regional Office of Public Health), both of which are responsible for the regulation of machines, to be innocent. The suit, in which more than 8,000 pages have been filed, has been waiting the judge's decision for more than a year.
Since the witnesses were first heard, there have already been three judges involved in the case. (In the Brazilian system, this is unusual.) Now the victims have joined under one association and are working to collect all the information they need to sue the State for medical care and economic compensation.
The association points out that agreements with the Department of Health have come to nothing. The State Government created the "Fundacao Leide das Neves" to care for the victims, but today the foundation is in an almost ruinous situation. There is a shortage of medicine and professionals. The technical staff was diminished and the foundation has today one dentist, two psychologists, three social assistants, and three doctors to give care to the 110 acknowledged victims.
The State awarded the victims 118 pensions (between Cr18,130 and Cr49,800 per month per person -- approximately US$43 - $120). However, as of May of this year, distribution of these pensions had been delayed (along with all public salaries, due to Brazil's financial crisis) for a period of four months. In May, the victims began the process of trying to make contact with the authorities in order to receive their money.
CLAIMS
Despite the fact that the Fundacao Leide das Neves considers the victims to be in satisfactory health and that the recuperation and decontamination has been more successful than all expectations, the victims themselves have many claims. Terezinha Nunes Fabiano, president of Associacao das Vitimas, condemns "the lack of concern that the authorities are showing" and hopes to obtain access to the courts in order to proceed against the State. She herself claims loss of vision and constant stomach and skin problems. She further claims that her daughter, Natasha, suffers from acute anemia.
Several children were contaminated -- one before birth. All of them appear to be normal, at this time. Some of the contaminated women later became pregnant. One of them is Nora Nel, who said she stopped taking precautions against conception when doctors said her husband, who was highly contaminated after opening the capsule, was infertile. The child was born normal and is apparently in good health.
Perhaps the victim with more apparent troubles is Geraldo Guillerme. In May his foot was operated on. His leg is in a cast and he says that the irradiated skin is rotting away, day by day. Everybody claims to have less resistance, constant flu symptoms, and allergies. Leide's mother has skin problems, Edson Fabiano is loosing his vision, and Sanatana Fabiano has psychological problems. All of them are under care of the foundation.
[For further information on Goiania, see also NC 354.3512]
Sources:
Contacts: Carlos Avelina, UPAN, Caixa Postal 189, 93.001 Sao Leopoldo (RS), Brazil; fax: +55 512 926617.
(September 12, 1991) The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) now believes that the problems that caused Niagara Mohawk to declare a rare site area emergency on 13 August at its Nine Mile Point-2 reactor (1150 MWe BWR designed by General Electric) may be generic (see NC 357, in brief). What the agency does not know yet, however, is how many other plants may be vulnerable to similar failures.
(358.3547) WISE Amsterdam - In addition, it was later revealed that more plant systems failed than Niagara Mohawk admitted at the time of the incident. Originally it was reported that the plant had lost use of its control room annunciators -- the lights and buzzers that inform reactor operators there may be a problem in the plant. Normally, loss of the annunciators would require operators to pay closer attention to the controls than usual but would not require a plant shutdown.
As the 13 August incident progressed, the NRC reported that the plant had also lost use of its "full rod core display" and Automatic Power Range Monitor, meaning that the operators were unable to determine the condition of the core. In fact, the reactor had automatically scrammed (shut down in an emergency situation), but at first the operators did not know that. Balance of plant instrumentation was also lost.
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Other General Electric-designed reactors face problems as well. Over the summer the NRC sent out notices to utilities with GE Mark I and Mark II Boiling Water Reactors to warn them of a previously unidentified and unmonitored radiation path that could result in extremely high off-site contamination. |
Last week the NRC reported that six to 12 other systems failed during the incident as well. The agency refused to describe all of the systems that went down, but they included the feedwater condensate system -- which forced operators to use an emergency system to keep the core cool -- and the reactor water cleanup system. The NRC said a full report, presumably including a detailed listing of component failures, would be completed by late September.
The revelation that more systems failed than was previously reported may help explain why Niagara Mohawk appeared to have difficulty in reaching a safe shutdown level. Although the control room instrumentation was restored within about 35 minutes, at 6:22 AM, the plant did not reach safe shutdown until late in the afternoon. At 11:00 AM, well after the incident theoretically was over, the utility evacuated non-essential personnel from the plant site.
Confusion seemed to have characterized the utility's initial response. According to informed observers, operators at first were not sure whether a radiation release had occurred. At least some radiation monitors were knocked out during the incident and the utility sent employees around the site with portable monitors to learn whether or not there had been a release.
The utility's emergency response came under criticism from some observers. Reportedly, Niagara Mohawk used hand-lettered emergency signs -- which had actually been prepared for an emer-gency drill the week before at the nearby Fitzpatrick reactor -- at local government offices. The word "drill" was reportedly crossed out. Some government employees did not realize that an emergency had been declared and thought the signs had been left over from the earlier drill.
The incident began at 5:48 AM when a main transformer shorted out, sending a power surge back into the plant. The surge knocked out five circuit breakers attached to the so called "Uninterruptible Power Supplies" (UPS). When the circuit breakers failed, so did the instrumentation, and the reactor scrammed. It is not yet clear what caused the failure of the other plant systems.
It is the failure of these circuit breakers that concerns the NRC, because it may reveal a generic safety problem for all plants, or at least those that use circuit breakers from the same manufacturer, which is as yet unnamed.
Nuclear critics have pointed out that this type of unexpected generic failure is exactly the reason why citizens must have the right to bring new safety issues into reactor licensing hearings before operation. The Johnston/Wallop National Energy Strategy, and a 1989 NRC rule, which is being challenged by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) in court, would do away with such hearings and create a one-step licensing procedure.
Source: The Nuclear Monitor, 26 Aug. 1991, p.1.
Contact: NIRS
1424 16th Street NW, Suite 601
Washington DC 20036
USA
tel: +1-202-328-0002.
(September 12, 1991) In February 1980, at Civaux, France (near to Poitiers), a project to build four nuclear power reactors of 900 MW each was launched 1980 by René Monory, Minister of Economy in the government of Valéry Giscard D'Estaing.
(358.3543) WISE Amsterdam - Opposition was quickly organized, led by the Socialist Party and the French labor union CFDT (Confederation Française Democratique du Travail). In less than a week, 15 departmental associations came together to form a coalition to fight construction, organizing major demonstrations at the site (4000 people in October 1980). After the presidential election, followed by the promises from the Socialist candidate Mitterrand, the project was frozen. Unfortunately, in 1982 it was launched again, this time as a project involving two 1300 MW PWRs.
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POST CARD CAMPAIGN |
Since 1985, when construction was begun, work has advanced slowly and undergone regular delays. In the meantime, the disaster at Chernobyl occurred, reawakening the French anti-nuclear movement, which, after Mitterrand's election, had pretty much disbanded. Militants in the CFDT quickly created a committee "Chernobyl is Enough", which gathered 10,500 signatures for a petition against the plant. It was an encouraging action, but without any continuation. Then in 1989 it was the "green wave" and a renewed opposition. Symbolic actions were held during the summer. Six hundred people attended a meeting with Antoine Waechter and Didier Anger. But the coalition of the dozen or so groups that participated did not survive.
Birth of Stop-Civaux
In September 1990 members of a regional group, SOS Gâtine, proposed the formation of an association opposing the plant's construction that would function independently of the political parties and trade unions, thus creating "Stop-Civaux". Since then, the originality of the association's actions and its insight has brought it recognition. A year after its formation Stop-Civaux had 400 members.
Stop-Civaux is preparing for long-term action. The first reactor theoreti-cally will start up in 1997. The group is organizing its members to be able to intervene in public meetings and to assure a regular presence at markets. In November 1990, the group organized a walk with 80 participants between Poitiers and Civaux. The walk's theme was "Civaux is two steps from your home". In April 1991, in preparation for a demonstration to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Chernobyl, the association organized a canoe trip down the Vienne river.
Major work on the enclosure of the first reactor and some of the annex buildings has already been done. So now Stop-Civaux is working to draw attention to the weakness of the financial arguments made by those who insist that as so much money has already been spent on construction, it should continue. Already, some 900 million francs (approximately US$54 million) have been spent, but this is only about 5% of the estimated total price for the completion of both reactors. But the money is not the only argument.
Problems for EDF
Amidst the problems for Electricité de France (EDF), the French utility building the plant, that of the porous ground has been solved by injecting hundreds of cubic meters with con-crete. The water supply. Water levels of the Vienne river, from which the reactors will draw their cooling water, are very irregular. During the summer, its level drops to half of what it is during the winter season. (And half of the pumped water will escape as steam.) In winter, on the contrary, the high waters flood regularly over the surrounding fields. The inundation of these fields could be a source of radioactive pollution. EDF's answer to this problem is to say it will stop plant operation during periods of low and high waters. This will reduce operation by some 2000 hours a year.
To improve plant operation during the periods it is functioning, EDF is considering use of the barrier which lies upstream, in the department of the Creuse. This will not be appreciated by tourists and by those who live there and will see then that the level of their lake will drop several meters during the summer. Stop-Civaux is planning a study which it will carry out with the association of fishermen to investigate the effects of EDF's proposed modifications.
Also, when the project was first resurrected, EDF had originally planned for the construction of two 1300 MW reactors... now it is building two 1450 MW reactors. This means the utility will face the numerous technical problems involved in building a new generation of plants, as shown by the example of Chooz, in the Ardennes.
Another problem for EDF is the local people. The population from the Poitou Charente region knows very well the stakes and the consequences involved in nuclear development. They have already been confronted with plans for building nuclear waste dumps at Neuvy-Bouin, in Deux Sèvres, and at Ségré and Maine-et-Loire. Two-hundred-fifty communes from Deux Sèvres and elected officials from Vienne demanded that the nuclear waste should instead be disposed of at the site of production. In a rural department where the elected officials are trying to raise the value of local products, being host to a nuclear waste dump would not exactly help their cause. The resistance put up by these people resulted in a retreat by l'ANDRA, the agency responsible for radioactive waste disposal.
Broadening the Opposition
EDF has announced that Germany will finance 25% of the Civaux plant. This financing will be done within the framework of agreements between three German companies over the distribution of electricity. As a result, EDF will be able to participate up to 15% in the budget for the restructuring of electricity supply in East Germany. So now that the French nuclear industry is becoming more international, Stop-Civaux feels the need to build opposition first on the national level, and then on a European-wide level.
On the national level, EDF recognizes it has a nuclear overcapacity of eight reactors. Thus it becomes obvious that construction of the nuclear power plant at Civaux is part of an effort to revitalize the French nuclear industry through anticipated sales on the international level. For Stop-Civaux, opposition to this plant is a matter of denouncing France as the nuclear park of Europe.
Source: SILENCE (France), September 1991
Contact: Stop-Civaux
4 rue de la Chaîne
86000 Poitiers
France
tel: 48 01 84 64.
US research reactor contaminates city sewer.
(September 12, 1991) The research reactor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is apparently responsible for abnormally high radiation readings in the city's sewage system. It seems that the University has been dumping liquid radioactive material into the sewage system and has also burned radioactive waste in a local incinerator. Burning of the waste concentrates radioactive material into ash, and in this case the ash set off radiation alarms at a local landfill. The NRC says a preliminary investigation indicates the material is below releasable limits but will continue to evaluate the situation.The Nuclear Monitor (US), 26 Aug. 1991, p.7
Radioactive frogs. After an exceptional breeding season, scores of leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) have started to migrate from two ponds on the grounds of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee (US). The trouble is that, in the 1940s and 1950s, these ponds were used for storage of intermediate-level liquid radioactive waste. After one frog was run over on the site and found to be contaminated, the lab's health physics staff closed a stretch of road near the ponds and began sampling other frogs for contamination. Those that are found to be clean are dropped into an uncontaminated creek; those that are not are taken back to the contaminated ponds. Some staff became alarmed when one frog was found in the basement of a lab office building, but a spokesperson said there is little to worry about as the frogs are not contaminated externally. According to him, they only pose a threat to health if eaten and this species is not edible.Nature (UK), 8 Aug. 1991
Krypton releases
An article in the British daily "The Guardian" (13 Aug.) quotes a spokesperson for British Nuclear Fuels as saying, "The removal of krypton-85 [a by-product of burning nuclear fuel at BNFL's new Sellafield plant] does not warrant building a multi-million [pound] plant". It seems that an estimated ,50-to-,100 million is too much to spend to ensure that an increase in fatal skin cancer and a change in global weather patterns do not occur. Sellafield is not the only plant to produce krypton-85 (which is also linked to acid rain). Kr-85, a radioactive inert gas, is a by-product of burning nuclear fuel and is released routinely from all reprocessing plants. After its emission, it remains almost completely in the atmosphere, where at present its worldwide concentration is increasing by about 4% per year due to its relatively long radioactive half life -- almost 11 years. (See also NCs 314.2137 and 317.2179.) Further information on the effects of Kr-85 discharges are available from the following people: David Lowry, EPIC, 258 Pentonville Rd., London N1 9JY, UK; and Nigel Harle, Borderland Archives, Cortenbachstraat 32, 6136 CH Sittard, Netherlands. In addition, BUND offers an information pack -- in German -- concerning the danger to the climate caused by the use of fossil energy sources and nuclear energy. It can be ordered for a cover charge of DM 5.- including postage by sending a crossed check (or equivalent amount in coupons response international) to the BUND Energy Group, Erbprinzenstr. 18, D-7800 Freibur, FRG (catchword: "Energy-Danger to Atmosphere").
Soviet (dis)union: Kazakhstan N-testing ground ordered closed. On 29 August the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan ordered the closing of the nuclear testing ground in Semi-palatinsk, where tests have been carried out since 1949. A presidential statement says the people of Kazakhstan "have done their duty." By agreement with central Soviet ministries, the nuclear testing grounds will be turned into a research center. Compensation for damage to local residents' health, and aid for economic and social development will be paid by central Soviet sources. According to Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation, 85% of the USSR's nuclear weapons are deployed in Russia while the rest are currently in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Following its declaration of independence, the Ukraine will withdraw the nuclear weapons in its territory.World Perspectives magazine (US) (via GreenNet, nuc.facilities, gn topic 107, 30 Aug. 1991)
Radioactive (non)monitoring by UK. The UK government has confirmed that there is no statutory requirement for shipments of radioactive material to be monitored when they arrive in the UK. The admission came after NENIG highlighted the transport of a flask containing irradiated spent fuel from India to Dounreay. The flask was shipped on an ordinary cargo vessel to the English port of Felixstowe and was taken by truck to Dounreay. Indian nuclear authorities certified that the flask was clean when it left their reactor and it was only three days after the flask arrived at Dounreay (a month after leaving India) that it was monitored--and discovered to be contaminated. Further checks at Felixstowe showed the wooden cradle the flask had been shipped on was also contaminated.NENIG Briefing 47 (Shetland), 2 Sept. 1991
Fire protection material puts plants at risk. Tests conducted at the River Bend reactor in Louisiana (US) show that the plant's "THERMO-LAG" fire protection material is totally inadequate. According to the tests, the THERMO-LAG material, which is used to separate and protect safety-related electrical cables from fire, began failing within 45 minutes. Complete disintegration occurred within 82 minutes. The NRC is now interested in knowing whether other plants are using this material or whether other plants using similar material have adequately tested their fire barriers. What the NRC has failed to mention is that the deficiencies were first brought to their attention by a River Bend whistleblower and not the utility.The Nuclear Monitor (US), 26 Aug. 1991, p.7
Crack found in Japan's newest power plant. A cracked blade was discovered in the low-pressure turbine section of the 579 MW Tomari-2 PWR during interim inspection in late July, three and a half months after the unit was commissioned commercially. The newest power plant in Japan, which entered commercial service 12 April, had been undergoing an interim inspection since 27 July after 309 cracked blades were found inside the older, but similar, Tomari-1 during a maintenance outage. The cracks occurred on a welded portion of the blades, which are designed to be thinner and lighter than older models, officials said. The plants' turbine components were designed and fabricated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The plant is expected to be off-line another two months.Nucleonics Week, 8 August 1991, p.2
Mussels shut down US reactor. The Millstone Unit-3 reactor in Connecticut was forced to shutdown 25 July when zebra mussels -- a growing problem in the Northeast and Great Lakes -- clogged the intake water to the emergency diesel generators cooling system. reducing the intake from 3,000 gallons per minute to a mere 500 gallons per minute with in five hours.The Nuclear Monitor (US), 26 Aug. 1991, p.7
Anti-nuclear Canadian provincial minister replaced. Ontario anti-nuclear energy minister, Jenny Carter, was fired last month by Ontario Premier Bob Rae. Eight months ago Rae had confirmed Carter's anti-nuclear views. Along with Carter, two other ministers were also fired in a cabinet shuffle aimed, sources suggested, at making his embattled cabinet more acceptable to the province's business and industry leaders. Rae has taken an increasingly pragmatic view of nuclear power, which represents about 60% of Ontario Hydro's potential generating capacity. Carter left office unrepentant about her demand for a nuclear moratorium. Her successor as energy minister is William Ferguson, a former alderman, union official, and social worker. His position on energy issues is unknown, and he declined to comment.Nucleonics Week (US), 8 Aug. 1991, p.1
US charges Pakistani in illegal export case. The US Department of Justice intends to seek an indictment against a Pakistani citizen arrested in Germany on charges connected with attempted illegal nuclear exports. The exports are now said to have been financed by the Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI). Inam-Ul-Haq, a retired Pakistani brigadier general, was arrested on arrival at Frankfurt, Germany on 11 July and charged with possession of forged travel documents. German authorities are now processing a request to extradite Ul-Haq to the US. Ul-Haq disappeared in 1987 when Arshad Pervez, a Canadian-born Pakistani citizen, was brought to trial for trying to illegally export maraging steel and beryllium metal from a US firm to Pakistan in violation of export laws. Pervez, who testified that he had been employed by Ul-Haq, was convicted. Despite the conviction, the US Congress approved nearly US $500 million in aid to Pakistan for fiscal year 1988. The case is now seen to be of particular interest because court documents claim that BCCI, a Pakistani bank whose overseas operations were shut down in a worldwide sweep in July, supplied approximately US$300,000 for the purchase of nuclear materials in the US. According to the "Daily Muslim", a newspaper published in Islamabad, when Ul-Haq was arrested he was carrying important documents linking him to BCCI.Nucleonics Week (US), 8 Aug. 1991, p.10
Radiation release at US plant. On 12 August, maintenance workers at the Haddam Neck nuclear plant in Connecticut left a valve open in the reactor coolant system, leading to a 20 gallon-per-minute leak and a radiation release ranging from 100 microcuries per second to 1800 micro-curies per second. The leak lasted about 20 minutes before it was noticed and contained by plant personnel. The NRC says this amounted to less than 0.5% of the "allowable" annual dose limit to the general public.The Nuclear Monitor (US), 26 Aug. 1991, p.7
Fire at UK Magnox reactor. Water used to put out the flames when a turbine hall roof caught fire on 2 August at the Hinkley Point A magnox station dripped onto equipment associated with one of the auxiliary generators. This caused the generator to fail, which in turn tripped the 330-MW A-1 reactor. The fire was caused by an overheated tar pot being used by contractors doing maintenance work on the turbine hall's flat roof. The blaze was limited to a small portion of the roof and was put out shortly afterwards by county and utility fire teams. There were no injuries and no radiological release and the event was classified as level 0 (having no safety significance, on the International Nuclear Events Scale). Hinkley Point A-1 was returned to service 4 August.Nucleonics Week (US), 8 Aug. 1991, p.13
Atomic lab flooded/India. The Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Bombay is struggling to recover from damage caused by muddy rain water that entered a half-kilometer-long laboratory block, ruining valuable equipment. On 8 June, after unprecesented monsoon rain and a landslide from an adjoining hill, the building's entire basement, in which the laboratory facilities are located, was under two-and-a-half feet of water mixed with mud. Equipment damaged included an electron linear accelerator imported from the UK, spectrometers, and a uranium laser separator used to produce 30% enriched uranium. BARC's director says that half of the damaged equipment was salvaged and that all facilities would be brought back into operation within two months. Some senior scientists at BARC, however, say this claim is unattainable and there is, according to an article in "Nature", a general feeling that research in at least some divisions will be set back by two or three years.Nature (UK), 25 July 1991
Leak shuts Canadian reactor. A heavy-water leak shut down Ontario Hydro's Pickering-3 reactor on 7 June, just two weeks after it underwent pre-operational testing. The unit had been shut down since 3 June for replacement of all fuel channels. It is the third of Hydro's first power reactors to be retubed. The leak, caused by a ruptured valve seal, allowed some 3,300 gallons of heavy water to pour into the heat-exchanger chamber within the confinement during a two-hour period before the valve was temporarily repacked. Hydro management claims no employees "sustained" any radiation exposure.Nucleonics Week (US), 20 June, 1991, p.20
"Deadly deception -- General Electric, Nuclear Weapons & Our Environment." On the fifth anniversary of its international GE boycott, INFACT released this 30-minute documentary. The film documents in powerful terms how GE's nuclear weapons work has wreaked havoc on the environment, harmed GE workers, and damaged the lives and livelihoods of residents near GE plants. Produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker DEbraa (ie, Debra) Chasnoff, the documentary makes controversial use of portions of GE's television image advertising, contrasting GE's ads with the stories of people who have been hurt by GE's actions. "Deadly Deception" conveys the true power of grassroots action.
Though filmed in the US, the message comes across to people the world over: corporate production and promotion of nuclear weapons must be and can be stopped. Since its release in June, the film has won a number of awards, including First Place in both the Marin County and Earthpeace International Film Festivals. Plans for distribution of the video include local and national cable television, broadcast, an aggressive advertising campaign, and massive grassroots promotion. Copies can be ordered by contacting the INFACT National Office, 256 Hanover Street, Boston MA 02113, US or by calling 1-800-688-8797. Costs: For VHS: US$18 postpaid; for 3/4" and international video formats: $29. Postage and handling included.
(September 12, 1991) [The following is reprinted from "Atoms & Waste". It represents the beginning of a larger report that will detail the flow of depleted uranium weapons in the Gulf War and in the future. The report is part of an ongoing campaign. In the words of its authors, "Underlying this picture is a uranium waste cycle in which nuclear power and toxic warfare will progressively reinforce each other. In view of the United Nations sponsorship of the war against Iraq, we believe that a ban on uranium weapons and armor should be proposed in the council of the UN with support of massive petitions from a full coalition of organizations devoted to sustainable energy and disarmament." Work on the report is still in formation and the authors would like to see this preliminary article circulated among international groups that might be interested in joining the campaign or have contributions to the report itself.]
(358.3546) WISE Amsterdam - War has always been a mortal business. Through the present century, however, warfare has taken on an increasing dimension of morbidity in the medical sense of lingering toxicity and illness. Chemical arsenals ranging from mustard gas in World War I to Agent Orange in Vietnam have filled veterans' hospitals, and the polluting processes of weapons production have enveloped larger and larger civilian populations at home.
Industrial toxicity is becoming an ever present characteristic of the battlefield as horrendous new limits of environmental devastation are exceeded. To an extent that is not yet fully known, the Gulf War, fought by armies in gas masks among seas of burning oil, has probably strewn Iraq and Kuwait with record quantities of armaments made of the nuclear industry's largest waste category: depleted uranium.
In the midst of heightened interest in Iraq's nuclear program, little-noticed evidence has come forward that the western forces also used another kind of nuclear initiative. For example, an industry newsletter reported in March that a fire spreading from the engine compartment of an American tank into a compartment filled with uranium weapons has resulted in disposal of the tank at the Barnwell waste dump in South Carolina. And a 10 June article in "The Wall Street Journal" on uranium weapons adds three other instances of radioactive tanks being buried in Saudi Arabia and Germany. Possible radiation effects on military personnel is a question reportedly being investigated by Sen. Alan Cranston's Veteran Affairs Committee.
Dead Weight, Live Rounds
Uranium is the only element mined from the earth which is 99.3 percent useless in its pure form. This is because only the fissionable U-235 isotope yields the energy used in bombs and power plants. Thus the 0.7 percent natural content of U-235 must be enriched up to about 5 percent for power plants and 90 percent for bombs. The leftover U-238, depleted of over half of its U-235 content, now forms a national stockpile -- or wastepile -- of one billion pounds.
Depleted uranium or DU has a toxicity similar to that of lead (the maximum airborne concentration for lead in [US] federal regulations is 0.05 milligrams per cubic meter and for uranium is 0.25 milligrams). However, DU is also slightly radioactive, yielding radon gas in its hundred-million-year decay chain. It also retains about 0.3 percent of the slowly fissioning U-235 isotope. The contact dose rate from DU is about 200 millirems -- or about a year's normal background radiation -- per hour.
Only the military has been able to exploit the sole useful characteristic of depleted uranium: dead weight. Compared to a gallon of water weighing 8 pounds, or a gallon of steel at 60 pounds, or of lead at 90 pounds, a gallon of uranium weighs 152 pounds. Concentrating maximum force upon a single point is what ordnance designers do, and multiplying the weight of a projectile by 2.5, as we do when we substitute uranium for steel, increases the moment of force to the same extent. As an inevitable consequence, more and more uranium ammunition, alloyed for hardness with 2 percent molybdenum, has been introduced into military arsenals over the last few decades.
Logically enough, more and more uranium is also being incorporated into tank armor. Currently being looked at in Congress, the M1A2 tank, which will succeed the M1A1 model made famous in the Gulf War, is said to contain twice as much uranium as it's predecessor. The 1991 federal budget calls for the acquisition of 36 million pounds of DU metal for the "National Defense Stockpile" over the next 10 years.
A Global Marketplace
Many of the big names in the arms market -- Remington, Olin, Honeywell -- have manufactured uranium rounds of various sizes. After a start in 1958, Nuclear Metals of Concord, Massachusetts, continues to produce DU ordnance. Activist-writer Mary Jane Williams of Concord says the plant has discarded half a million pounds of uranium waste onsite and is the state's largest industrial generator of low-level radioactive waste. As "The Wall Street Journal" article makes clear, Nuclear Metals is spearheading lobbying efforts under way to incorporate more and more uranium into the Pentagon's materials stockpile.
Among other long-operating manufacturers, Aerojet Heavy Metals of Jonesboro, Tennessee, takes its feed material directly from the uranium hexafluoride/tetrafluoride stream between a General Atomics plant in Oklahoma and the DOE enrichment facilities. Target Research, near Dover, New Jersey, began DU manufacturing in 1982 with a license for 6000 kilograms.
There's also the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant near Kansas City, run for a number of years on contract by Remington Arms. For about three decades, Lake City has test-fired over 100,000 rounds of 5-inch DU ammunition leaving 7,655 pounds of shell fragments and 3 million cubic feet of contaminated sand to clean up. A recent review of cleanup sites by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) says the Army has set aside $750,000 for this purpose at Lake City.
The NRC's "Site Decommissioning Management Plan" also describes the Soft Target Range at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where 70,000 kilograms of DU projectiles have been test-fired into the area of approximately 5 miles by 2 miles. Many unexploded rounds complicate the cleanup at sites like Aberdeen, and an added hazard is that uranium is pyrophoric at high temperatures, burning spontaneously in oxygen and leaving small fires to distribute dispersed particles. Other military DU test ranges with similar problems have been documented by the Military Toxics Network at locations like Grayling, Michigan, and Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana. Citizen Alert has acquired records of bombing runs by A10 aircraft using uranium missiles in the Nevada desert.
Export to the international weapons market represents another dimension of DU proliferation. Some NRC export licenses, such as one for 375,000 DU rounds to the Saudi Arabian Navy in 1979, are clear enough in their purpose. Others, such as a license for 126,000 kilograms of DU in the same year to Cogema of France for the manufacture of flywheels and yachting keels, seem to be suspect.
Waste into Weapons
From the point of view of the nuclear industry, making a profit from one of its most intractable waste streams looks like a win-win game. In the wars of the future, however, uranium-plated tanks and stockpiles of DU ammunition could turn battlefields into radio-active wastelands. All wars are dirty wars, but economic pressures and the drive for global supremacy are scorching the planet with military sacrifice zones. Warfare with conventional arms will continue to escalate as one of the world's greatest environmental threats, and reduction of armed conflict will continue to be the capstone of every thoughtful environmental program.
Source: Atoms & Waste (US), 17 July 1991. Atoms & Waste is a publication of Don't Waste U.S., a Washington DC-based public interest organization which seeks to halt the generation of radioactive wastes from atomic power and atomic weapons.
Contacts: Kemp Houck, Don't Waste U.S., 2311 15th Street NW, Washington DC 20009, US; tel: +1-202-328-0498.
Lenny Siegel, Military Toxics Campaign, 222B View Street, Mountain View CA 94041, US; tel: +1-415-961-8918.
Grace Bukowski, Citizen Alert, Box 5391, Reno NV 89513, US; tel: +1-701-827-4200.
(September 12, 1991) The General Electric Corporation has given notice that it intends to cancel its 34-year contract with the US Department of Energy for the manage-ment and operation of the Pinellas Plant in Florida. GE produces the neutron generator -- the nuclear bomb "trigger" -- at this plant.
(358.33544) WISE Amsterdam -GE's quitting Pinellas is a significant victory, because it is one of the original demands issued by INFACT when it launched its GE Boycott campaign in 1986. It also represents a victory for the Immanuel Community, a local peace and justice group which has held vigils at the plant gates every Friday since 1982. "GE out of Pinellas" has been a rallying cry for both groups.
Although the Boycott is not the only factor in GE's decision, it is a major one. The financial impact of the Boycott has greatly increased, and GE is especially concerned about the increase in lost medical sales and the expansion of the campaign internationally. The announcement also coincided with INFACT's release of a 165-page report documenting environ-mental abuses at Pinellas and at other GE nuclear weapons-related facilities.
An INFACT study produced earlier this year reports significant changes in GE's nuclear weapons work overall, for the period 1986 (when the GE Boycott began) to 1989. First there is evidence that GE's revenues for nuclear weapons-related production has taken an absolute drop, from US$4.6 billion at the height of the Reagan-era buildup in 1986 to $3.3 billion in 1989. This is a 28% drop, significantly greater than the overall industry average.
GE's nuclear weapons work has also dropped relative to the company's own overall financial picture, ie., nuclear weapons revenues now account for only 6% of GE's total business (1989) versus 12% in 1984. Despite the company's public denials, it is clear that something or someone is having an impact on it's nuclear weapons business.
INFACT sees these as the first steps and urges the company to continue withdrawing from nuclear weapons contracts until it is nuclear-weapons-free. But both GE and INFACT still have a long way to go. GE continues to be involved in projects such as the Trident nuclear submarine and missile, the B-2 "Stealth Bomber, the Minuteman, MX, Aegis and Patriot "Cruise" missiles, "Star Wars," the SP-100 nuclear reactor for outer space...
Source: INFACT Nuclear Weaponmakers Campaign International Newsletter, Spring/Summer 1991.
Contact: Infact International, PO Box 80013, Minneapolis MN 55408, US; tel: 612-927-8727.
(September 12, 1991) The International Atomic Energy Agency's OSART-safety team which visited the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in June recommended the shutdown of the Kozloduy units 1 to 4 because of their poor physical condition (see WISE News Communique 356.3527).
(358.3548) WISE Amsterdam -They didn't examine the newer VVER-1000 units 5 and 6, but these units may not be able to continue operation either, since both Bulgarian and Soviet personnel are leaving because the government is not paying them in hard currency. At unit-5 the number of shifts have been cut down from five to four. With a total of 3,538 MW net capacity at it's six units, Kozloduy provided more than a third of Bulgaria's power in 1990, according to IAEA figures.
On 18 July the European Community (EC) announced a program to help Bulgaria improve the near-term safety of the Kozloduy reactors. The US$13 million emergency aid will include quick backfits and repairs proposed recently by the IAEA, including actions "of an industrial character": a six-month improvement plan elaborated by the Bulgarians with the WANO (World Association of Nuclear Operators); and "active twinning" between Kozloduy and nuclear power plants in the EC. (Electricité de France's Bugey plant has already begun such a program). The industrial actions could include anything from fixing leaking pipes and broken elevators to "cutting the grass so the dust doesn't spread", someone familiar with the plan said.
Earlier there had been a discussion between Germany and mainly France about shutting down the plants. Germany's Environmental Minister, Klaus Töpfer, ordered the immediate and indefinite closure of the plants. Other countries were saying Töpfer was "overreacting", because of the strong opposition against nuclear power in his country and because of the fact that he had shut down the Greifswald reactors for safety reasons and that because the Kozloduy plants were much more dangerous, he had no other alternative.
A Bulgarian official said on 9 July that the two oldest reactors at Kozloduy would be closed within four to five weeks. It is still unclear if Bulgaria will shut down the two units permanently and much will depend on what help the international community can provide. The German firm RWE is already supplying about 500 MW to Romania "and we will examine whether Germany can provide power to Bulgaria via existing direct-current couplers and replace the power, say, with power from France," one European official said.
Sources:
Contact: Danko Ivano, Ecoglasnost, Boris I Street 98 B, BG-1126 Sofia, Bulgaria.