News !
MPs
in favor of MOX
The
end of a reprocessing plant
Transport
scandal sways public opinion
Figure of the month
The table gives the contamination levels per measuring point exceeding
the regulatory limit of a given rail car coming into Valognes (transfer
station rail/road) from German nuclear power plants, in the period between
February 1997 and February 1998. The figures prove that high levels
of between 500 and 3,300 times the legal limit were found on a significant
proportion of the 17 measuring points. Although the highest contamination,
of 13,400 Bq, was on a spot "the size of a coin", larger surfaces (the
entire measuring surface of 300 cm2) have been found contaminated up
to 13,000 Bq/cm2. The table also shows that the industry was far from
containing the problem; on the contrary, there is strong evidence to
suggest that the situation had become continually worse over the last
two years.
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MPs in favor of MOX
The French Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Evaluation
has just issued a report, 10 June 1998, concerning the management of
spent fuel, reprocessing, and plutonium. The report reminds us that
the stockpile of plutonium in France is 65 tonnes (as of 1996), which
is "way above the 20 tonnes which (the electricity utility) EDF considers
necessary" for the operation of the MOX plants (this last figure seems
very conservative). The MPs consider that the plutonium stockpile is
higher than it should be. However, instead of recommending to reduce
the production of plutonium, through the reduction of reprocessing throughputs,
the report is greatly in favor of MOX fuel use: After stating its opinion
that the interest for plutonium use in MOX fuel was due to the energy
content of plutonium in spent fuel, as well as in the management of
nuclear waste, the Office wrote:
"In this sense, the following obviously appears to be in the common
interest: "- allowing the number of reactors using MOX fuel to increase
from 16 to 28 very shortly (...); "- studying the introduction of
MOX in the (more recent) 1,300 and 1,400 MWe reactors; "- and especially,
designing the future European Pressurised water Reactor (EPR) in order
to enable it to use more plutonium than it produces (...)"
However, the Office acknowledged it has not taken into account economic
or financial elements (contrary to many electricity utilities, the Office
seems confident that using MOX is an economic asset). Also, MP Robert
Galley brushed aside proliferation concerns by stating for instance
that the idea that there is a possibile terrorism risk "won't hold water"
(ça ne tient pas, ces choses). Office parlementaire d'évaluation
des choix scientifiques et technologiques.
Rapport sur l'aval du cycle nucléaire, by Christian Bataille et Robert
Galley, Members of Parliament, preliminary version presented to the
press on 10 June 1998.
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The end of a reprocessing plant
On 5 June 1998, in a written answer to a Parliamentary Question from
Dr Lewis Moonie MP, the British Science, Energy and Industry Minister
John Battle said:
"The UKAEA have advised me that there is no economic case for supporting
commercial reprocessing at Dounreay over the longer term. The Government
has therefore decided that Dounreay should take on no further commercial
reprocessing work. Reprocessing at Dounreay will therefore come to
an end when the plant has completed reprocessing its own fuel, the
Georgian Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) and its existing commercial
contracts."
The Dounreay reprocessing plant started operation in 1977 and has mostly
reprocessed fast breeder reactor fuel (about 35ÊMT by the end of 1995).
The shutdown of the Dounreay plant, although the stockpile of British
plutonium has reached very high levels, will surely cast a shadow on
the economic justification for the plutonium industry.
Source: Press Release from Department of Trade and Industry dated 5
June 1998, and Worldwide Reprocessing Summary, NAC International, March
1995.
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Transport scandal sways public
opinion
The scandal over the transport of irradiated fuel has lost the nuclear
industry many of its supporters... in Germany, according to an opinion
poll published in the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, on June 8, 1998.
people were asked the following question: "The nuclear industy hid from
the public the fact that shipments from Castor (a generic term used
in Germany for irradiated fuel containers - Editor's note) were sometimes
contaminated. Have the problems over the Castor (shipments) changed
your opinion on nuclear energy?" 28% of respondents declared that they
had been in favor of nuclear energy and still were; 44% said that they
were in favor of a nuclear phase-out before, and still were; and 23%
said that prior to the affair they had been basically for, but were
now against nuclear energy.
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