Workers overexposed on UK N-subs.
(October 19, 1990) The UK newspaper Observer reports that a leaked confidential memorandum dating from 1972 states that "civilian workers and naval crews on two nuclear submarines were subjected to exceptionally intense doses of radiation in the Seventies". Refit workers on the Polaris sub HMS Renown had to be rotated at four times the normal rate. According to the newspaper report, "Sources close to the military have long claimed that HMS Renown was involved in an early radiation accident at about this time while on service in the Mediterranean." But more serious, says the paper, is a footnote to the memo which states that despite concern over the radiation levels on the Renown, "the boat has no-where near such a radiological problem as HMS Dreadnought", the UK's first nuclear submarine, which was withdrawn prematurely from service in 1981 and decommissioned in 1983. GreenNet, gn.nuclear, gn topic 41, 14 Oct. 1990
Phenix shut down. In what appears to be a repeat of an incident which kept the French fast breeder reactor Phenix closed for repairs for several months last year, a bubble of the inert gas argon is thought to have found its way into the heart of the reactor, causing a sudden drop in energy output. (Last year's incident, which took place during August and September, led to a very dangerous situation in which the reactor was said to be near to an explosion. See also WISE News Communique 326/7, In brief.) The latest incident has raised yet more questions about the future of France's fast breeders. New Scientist (UK), 22 Sept. 1990
Dangerous radiation levels found in Soviet town. In September, Soviet television reported that radiation levels, 35 times the normal background levels, were discovered at west, near the Polish border. The cause was soil contaminated by radioactive material which had been carelessly transferred from one container to another at the railway cargo loading. It puts at risk the local population, houses, a kindergarten and a well used for drinking water. Guardian (UK), 5 Oct. 1990, p.18
"Hot" sands in Enewetak. Enewetak Lagoon, in the Pacific, was a nuclear weapons test site for the US from 1948 to 1958. Afterwards, radioactive hot coral and soil were buried under conrete on tiny Runit Island, which was declared 'off-limits' for 250,000 years! While studying a species of "ghost shrimp", scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, US, (the major US nuclear-arms lab), measured radioactivity in the Lagoon near Runit. They found it "safe" (only a minimal amount of radioactivity) down to depths of 10 inches beneath the surface of the sand. Ghost shrimp, however, burrow possibly as far as six feet below the surface. Core sampling at the depths where the shrimp live revealed extremely hot sand, with radiation levels up to 300 times higher than on the nearby land surface of Runit. The buried radioactive material includes radionuclides with half lives up to 25,000 years. The radioactive sands could have been forced downward by the nuclear bomb blasts or by natural sedimentation processes. They could by unburied, in an instant, by a typhoon. The Lagoon may remain unsafe for tens of thousands of years. Furthermore, the ghost shrimp create further nuclear pollution as they feed: water and sediment from their borrows are three times hotter after they've eaten. Pacific News Bulletin (Australia), August 1990, p.15
Soviet N-plant sinking? The Kalinin nuclear power station, 100 km north of Moscow, could sink into the ground at any time, resulting in another Chernobyl. According to Nikolai Gladkov, chief hydro-geologist with the Kalinin Geological Survey, the station is built on karst limestone which is full of hollows and crevices. Professor Yurj Shcherbakov of the Kalinin Regional Society for the Protection of Nature says the foundations for the two reactors now operating at Kalinin had to be reinforced when the ground subsided during construction. To make matters worse, the two new units now being bout will need subterranean waters for cooling. Gladkov warns that pumping water could cause a "sudden and catastrophic" subsidence. Guardian (UK), 5 Oct. 1990, p.18
Lack of interest in explosion at Soviet N-plant. According to the Guardian newspaper, not only did it take BBC news two weeks to react, it took a telegram to Prime Minister Ryzhkov from Kazakhstan President Nur Sultan Nazarbayev declaring Ust Kamenogorsk an ecological disaster area to stimulate public interest. On 12 Sept. an explosion of hydrogen at the Ulbinsky metallurgical works in Ust Kamenogorsk caused a fire which raged for almost two hours. It released a cloud of toxic gas containing beryllium which hung over residential districts for most of the day before being dispersed by the wind (see also WISE News Communique 339.3389). Days later the streets and houses were still being hosed down to keep poisoned dust from flying into the atmosphere. Added the Guardian, Nazarbayev was no doubt responding to pressure from local environmental and nationalist groups - some of the best organized in the USSR. Guardian (UK), 5 Oct. 1990, p.18
Second reactor to close at Tomsk, Siberia. The first was closed in September as a result of public pressure after seven people were admitted to hospital with radiation poisoning. Doctors also identified 38 others who registered high levels of radioactivity after eating game caught in the forest around the Tomsk nuclear chemical complex, used to store and process nuclear waste from Soviet military reactors. Rivers nearby, including the River Tom, are dangerously contaminated with nuclear wastes. Guardian (UK), 5 Oct. 1990, p.18
French PWR defect. The French government agency responsible for security at nuclear installations, SCISN, has announced that all the 15 PWRs of 1,300 MW capacity have a serious cooling water defect that, in the event of an accident, could make security systems meaningless. taz, 29 Sept. 1990, p.9
High radiation found at Japanese dump. About 50 times as much radioactivity as is found in background radiation has been detected at an industrial waste disposal site in Okayamaken by the Grassroots Citizen's Center in Okayama. Using a portable Geiger counter, the center conducted three tests during July at the dump, which is owned and operated by a waste disposal company in Okucho, Okayamaken. 0.5 milliroentgen of radioactivity per hour at about five centimeters above ground was detected. Because 5400 square meters of the waste site was topped with dirt, the group was at first unable to identify what was buried below. But Hiroaki Koide, a tutor at the nuclear reactor laboratory of Kyoto University who helped with the tests, said traces of thorium and uranium were detected in the surface dirt. He also said that the amount of radioactivity detected is equiva-lent to 50 millisievert, a radiation count that government standards allow for workers at nuclear plants. However, he pointed out, those workers wear special protective clothing and take other precautions to prevent harmful radiation. Following announcement of the findings, local government officials traced the source of the radiation to slag containing ilmenite ore with an exceptionally high radioactivity level which had been dumped at the site. The ilmenite had been imported from Malaysia by Teika, an Osaka-based chemical manufacturer. Daily Yaminri (Japan), 22 and 25 July 1990
US sailors disciplined for revealing ships N-safety problems. Greenpeace Action, the National Lawyers Guild and the family of one of four sailors disciplined for pointing out nuclear safety problems aboard the USS Nimitz will demand that the four crewmen be allowed to meet with civilian attorneys to appeal the reprimands. Greenpeace demanded the whistleblowers be granted immunity from punishment so that they and others are not prevented from speaking honestly about the ship's nuclear operations. The US Navy announced that the four, who are suspected of telling KIRO-TV in Seattle, Washington about reactor safety problems, will no longer be allowed to work on nuclear vessels, and face salary cuts as well. The four said there had been widespread cheating on the exams to certify sailors for reactor operations. A former Nimitz crew member has corroborated those allegations. Greenpeace has learned that reactor reports have been falsified as well. Greenpeace also received written statements from current and former crew members of the USS Finback, a nuclear fast attack sutznarine, describing similar safety problems on that vessel. Greenpeace (via GreenNet, gp.press, gn topic 61, 24 Aug. 1990)
US may grant compensation to victims. On 27 Sept. 1990 the US House of Representatives approved a proposed law to grant compensation to cancer sick US citizens, including those exposed to bomb fallout or radiation at uranium mines. As a start, a fund of US $100 million is proposed. Before the law comes into effect, it must be signed by President Bush. Also on 27 Sept., a 20 kiloton underground nuclear bomb test was carried out at the Yucca Flats site in Nevada, the 7th US bomb test in 1990. taz, 29 Sept. 1990, p.2
Dounreay contract signed. Dounreay signed a new reprocessing contract in Sept. with a research reactor in Germany - the first of 50 contracts it hopes to sign with similar reactors throughout the world (see WISE News Communique 333.3332). The contract is with Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstaib (PTB), the German federal nuclear safety authority, in Lower Saxony. PTB's used fuel storage ponds are full and the reactor would have had to shut down if Dounreay had not agreed to take the 39 fuel elements in store. The fuel elements will probably be transported by sea to the UK. Details of the ports are not yet known. The Northern European Nuclear Information Group says more and more of these contracts will be signed, with more transports of the deadly materials, unless international pressure can stop it. Contact: Chris Bunyan or Rose Young, NENIG, Bain's Beach, Commercial Street, Lerwick, Shetland, tel: +44 595 4099; Prof. Hans Juergen Kirks, operating manager at PTB, tel: +49 531 5920; Monika Griefahn, Press Officer to the Minister of Environment for Lower Saxony, tel: +49 511 1043424. NENIG Press Release, 12 Sept. 1990
Sellafield reprocessing contracts being reconsidered. The UK Observer says the companies operating Britain's nuclear power stations, as well as nine German companies, are re-examining plans to send spent fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing at the THORP, which is supposed to open in 1992 (see WISE News Communique 339.3395). The reasons given are cost considerations. Although the British firms have signed 10-year contracts, they may revoke these. Contracts signed with the German companies include escape clauses. GreenNet, gn.nuclear, gn topic 40, 14 Oct. 1990
Siemens building Czech reactors. Siemens of Germany has been contracted to finish building the two Soviet type LWRs presently under construction at Mochovce, Czechoslovakia. The reactors will be adapted to western type control systems. According to Siemens, this is the first nuclear contract given to a western company since the opening of Eastern Europe. The two reactors, each with 450 MW capacity, have been under construction since 1983 and are scheduled to start operating in late 1993. Siemens' contract partner is the Slovak Energy Association SEP in Bratislava, represented by the foreign trade organization Skoda-Export. taz (FRG), 5 Oct. 1990
"Der Streckenatlas". For several years now groups in Germany have been organizing on the transport of nuclear waste. Through much effort, they have succeeded in uncovering most of the, until now, secret routes of these transports. The result is "Der Streckenatlas", the first comprehensive report on these routes, and the dates and times of the transports. This report is also a summons to activists to use the information included to exert pressure on the atomic lobby by blockading the transports. Available from: Anti AKW Plenum Köln, Viersner Str. 16, 5000 Köln 60 for 4 DM (German-language only.)
"Beurteilung der In- und Auslaendischen Konzepte für Kleine Hoch-Temperaturreaktoren" (Opinion on Domestic and Foreign Designs for Small High Temperature Reactors), a study ordered by Greenpeace from the Oeko-Institut e.V. Darmstadt and written by Lothar Hahn and Britta Nockenberg. The background for this German-language report is the increasing publicity for HTRs by the atomic lobby as a result of the declining number of orders for light water reactors. The study gives the history of the development of the HTR and describes future plans. Included is an introduction to their functioning, their technical weaknesses and safety problems, and, especially important, views on the interest being created for them in developing countries as well as on their possible military uses. Available from: Greenpeace, Vorsetzen 53, 2000 Hamburg 11, FRG, tel: +49 040/311 86-0.