Contract for spent fuel storage site in Finland. Posiva, the Finnish firm responsible for
building a final spent fuel repository, has signed an exclusive contract with Eurajoki town, the
site of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, for the disposal facility. The company has applied to
the government for a policy decision on building the repository. It is expected that the decision
would be favorable and would take about a year, after which the parliament has to ratify it.
The facility is to be built 500 meters deep in bedrock. It is designed to hold 2,600 metric tons
of heavy metal, which is based on a 40-year lifetime of the four Finnish nuclear reactors. Building
costs are estimated at more than US$200 million. The storage site could, however, be enlarged by
5,000 tons, in case two new nuclear reactors from each 1,500-MW would be built. It could also be
enlarged if the existing reactors would run longer.
The deal includes a US$8.1-million low-interest loan to the city of Eurajoki to build a new senior
citizens' home. The old building for the elderly is to be leased by Posiva for its headquarters for
US$0.2 million a year.
According to opinion polls, about 60% of Eurajoki citizens want the repository. Another reason to
build it near Olkiluoto is the fact that about 800 metric tons of spent fuel is in interim storage
there, compared with 200 tons at Loviisa. Until two years ago the spent fuel from Loviisa was sent
to Russia for reprocessing. NuclearFuel, 31 May 1999
New public consultation for British MOX plant. Deputy Prime Minister
Prescott told Parliament June 11 a further round of public consultation on the economic viability
of the new Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) will be held. That's the good news. The bad news is that the
government has allowed the initial testing of SMP with uranium. The government's provisional view
is that full operation of SMP would be justified, but that a final decision would depend on the
outcome of the new consultation.
Owner BNFL stated that the uranium test run of the SMP would take around nine months to complete.
If the final decision is against operation of the SMP, BNFL would finance the estimated £2
million (£1=US$1.61) of cleaning the plant. As a result of licensing delays, the SMP has so
far cost BNFL over £20 million, at £1.5 million per month.
For the public consultation, which will end on July 23, 1999, the government is to provide four
documents:
- A fuller version of an earlier report from PA Consultants. The earlier version had all significant financial data removed for commercial confidentiality reasons. Mr. Prescott himself described this report as being unreasonable for public consultation.
- A BNFL statement with an updated assessment of the MOX market.
- The decision to allow uranium commissioning of the SMP.
- A document explaining the reasons for a further consultation.
Opponents called the approval for the uranium test run as "bizarre", as the new consultation
might indicate significant doubts about the SMP's viability. The four documents will be shortly
available on internet:
www.environment/detr.gov.uk/ras/index.htm
CORE Briefing, 12 June 1999
Thieves steal radiation alarm. A new theft occurred at the Kola nuclear power plant in
mid-May. This time the thieve(s) removed two items of equipment, which were part of the automatic
radiation monitoring system at the plant's fourth reactor unit. The plant lost control over the
radiation levels in unit 4 hall for 24 hours, but managed to regain it.
The incident was not reported to the police until May 27. According to the Murmansk daily, the
Polyarnaya Pravda, the plant's security manager said they tried to commission an internal
investigation, but failed to identify the thieve(s).
The radiation monitoring system, 30 electronic dosimeters, was delivered and installed through the
EU TACIS program in 1997-98.
On April 8 this year, a theft in the plant's turbine machinery led to an automatic shutdown of
unit 1. The thief was arrested a few weeks later. Bellona, 2 June 1999
MOX-Plutonium shipments. The US government has accepted plans to ship weapons-useable
plutonium fuel from the UK and France to Japan without the use of a military escort ship. The
material is being transported in the form of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies. Approval for the
plans is at odds with past interpretations on security arrangements for such shipments. The
combined orders are estimated to contain 450 kg of weapons-useable plutonium. The UK element of the
shipment consists of eight MOX fuel assemblies fabricated in BNFL's small MOX Demonstration
Facility (MDF) at Sellafield, and are destined for Kansai Electric Power Company's Takahama power
station.
A larger order (around 32 assemblies) for Tokyo Electric Power Company has been fabricated in
Belgium and will be loaded onto the ships in France. Greenpeace demanded that the shipment of MOX
from Belgium to France be called off after an official from the Belgian Interior Ministry has
admitted terrorists could seize the plutonium fuel. The transport of the Japanese plutonium-MOX
fuel has been stalled since May 25. According to Greenpeace, Belgian authorities plan to deliver
some 250 kg of plutonium contained in MOX nuclear fuel in four trucks to the La Hague reprocessing
complex in France, from where it will be shipped to Japan. CORE Briefing 9/99, 21 May
1999 / Kyodo, 3 June 1999
Restart Tokai Mura soon. The Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission has approved the re-opening of the Tokai Mura reprocessing plant which was closed in March 1997 following an explosion which exposed 37 workers to low-level radiation (see WISE News Communique 468.4653: "Explosion at PNC Tokai reprocessing plant"). The commission states that after a year-long investigation it was satisfied the plant was safe to operate. The plant must now await the approval of the local prefecture. N-Base briefing 183, 6 June 1999
Netherlands: Petten reactor converts to LEU. In early June, the European Union decided to convert its reactor at the Petten nuclear research center in the Netherlands to use Low Enriched Uranium. The Petten reactor was one of the few research reactors in the world left still using High Enriched Uranium fuel. Due to pressure by the US, most research reactors have converted to LEU fuel. The Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) program, which started in 1978, requires the US to promote the use of LEU fuel. The program is intended to reduce international commerce in bomb-grade uranium. With the decision to convert, the spent fuel can be sent back to the US. But because the spent fuel cooling basin on site is full and it takes some time to organize the transport to the US, the reactor has to be temporarily shut down or another option has to be found. And legally, there is such an option: a license had already been given (even before the decision to convert) to store the spent fuel temporarily in the facility for low-level waste in the national radioactive waste storage facility at Borssele. There is much opposition against this option and anti-nuclear groups stated they would block the transports. Volkskrant (Nl.), 4 June 1999
June 12 Cape Canaveral report. Over 50 people from across Florida gathered at the front
gate of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 12 to protest the Cassini fly-by and the growing
effort to nuclearize and weaponize space by NASA and the Air Force.
The rally ended with nine people speaking from their hearts about each one of the Global Network's
list of "Objectives & Demands" which were featured on a big poster. The nine people then took
that poster, and another large poster listing the recent six-rocket launch failures (wasting more
than US$3.5 billion), to the front gate, and tried to deliver them to Gen. Roy Bridges (director of
the space center). Guards scurried away from the group, not wanting to take the posters. The group
then tied the two large posters to the front gate, reminding one of Martin Luther nailing his list
of demands on the church door.
Other activities on June 12, International Action Day against the Cassini Fly-by, took place in
Puerto Rico, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, UK and several locations in the US. Global Network
Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, 14 June 1999 / No Fly-by Newsletter,
June 13 1999
UK: company linked to BNFL runs inquiry. A company that conducted a government inquiry
into the safety of nuclear waste transportation has business links with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.
(BNFL). Nukem Nuclear Ltd. gave BNFL's nuclear transport methods a clean bill of health in the
beginning of May. Opposition MPs and anti-nuclear campaigners are demanding a new independent
report. But the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions said there were bids for
the contract ranging from £40,000 to £80,000 (£1=US$1.61). Nukem was chosen after
a tendering process held under European Union law. It offered "the best package in terms of ability
to carry out the work" and the job was done independently.
According to BNFL's latest annual report, it has teamed up with Nukem to decommission Windscale
Pile 1, the remains of the first reactor built on the Cumbrian Sellafield site. In addition, BNFL
owns 50% of the Dutch-British-German uranium consortium, Urenco. The other 50% is owned by Uranit
Deutschland, half of which is owned by RWE Energie AG, Nukem's parent company. Nukem is also
involved in a £27-million contract for the decommissioning of the Berkeley Magnox nuclear
power station near Bristol, which is overseen by BNFL. And Nukem's German parent company, Nukem
Nuklear GmbH, and BNFL are part of a consortium involved in stabilizing the Chernobyl four
sarcophagus. The Independent (UK), 29 May 1999
Swiss may end reprocessing... Swiss environment minister Moritz Leuenberger has announced that the government is to propose amendments to the nuclear laws to end reprocessing of spent fuel once the present contracts with Sellafield and La Hague expire in about four years. The government is also due to announce later this year when the country's five nuclear power reactors will close. The Minister also said there would be a resumption of nuclear transports - suspended after contamination was found on transport flasks last year - and a new study on disposing of low-level nuclear waste so it can be retrieved from a repository. The new proposals must be approved by parliament and possibly a referendum. N-Base Briefing, 11 June 1999
Chernobyl-1 fuel to unit 3. Ukraine: Fuel is being transferred from the shut-down Chernobyl-1 to fuel Chernobyl-3, the only unit still operating at the site, in an attempt to save money. Nuclear power plants in Ukraine are finding it increasingly hard to pay for their fuel because of non-payment of electricity bills by consumers. UI News Briefing, 9-15 June 1999
Cooperation Syria and Russia. Russia and Syria have signed a new bilateral agreement to cooperate on designing, building and operating nuclear power and research reactors in Syria. The two countries first agreed to build a nuclear research reactor in Syria in 1983. UI News Briefing, 9-15 June 1999
Smile! The US' utility Commonwealth Edison threw a thank-you picnic in early May for workers at its La Salle County nuclear power station, because both generators were running for the first time since 1996. But about 170 employees - no managers - became sick with flu-like symptoms. The County Health Department is investigating possible food poisining. "We obviously feel bad that this happened", a company spokesman says. The Wall Street Journal, 25 May 1999
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