Nuclear Power

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co. and Japan's Hitachi Ltd. said Monday that they planned to pool their nuclear units in a $2-billion enterprise they hoped would capture more contracts as power suppliers gear up to build a new generation of plants. The two companies, which already have a joint venture for nuclear fuels, have also teamed up on a bid to build a nuclear power plant that merchant power company NRG Energy Inc. aims to build in Texas.

The Soviet Union has scrapped six nuclear power projects because of earthquake danger or tougher standards imposed after the Chernobyl accident, a top Soviet official said Friday. Although official media have reported the cancellation of several projects because of growing public opposition, the list provided by Minister of Atomic Power Nikolai F. Lukonin was the first comprehensive report on the state of the Soviet nuclear power industry.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Wednesday that nations can fight the threat of global warming by increasing the use of nuclear power and allowing free market forces to deal with the problem. Thatcher said the "greenhouse effect" caused by carbon dioxide emissions poses clear dangers to the world. "We are seeing a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide reaching the atmosphere," she told General Assembly delegates during a seminar on global warming.

"Nuclear Power Won't Fix Our 'Greenhouse' " (Column Left, Nov. 30) is a fine example of sensationalistic journalism unsupported by the scientific facts. When reading Helen Caldicott's writings one must keep in mind that she is not a radiation scientist who has spent countless hours studying the effects of radiation on man, but someone who has made a name for herself by making exaggerated claims regarding nuclear power. She claims to be concerned about public health, but the clean use of nuclear energy could prevent the thousands of deaths caused by the burning of fossil fuels every year in this country alone.

Ten years ago this week the scare headlines were about Three Mile Island. Today's are about apples and global warming. Three Mile Island was an accident, a single, startling event. There were fears that the so-called hydrogen bubble above the water in the power-plant reactor might explode and spread radiation. After the headlines subsided, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission explained (30 days after the accident) that the fears were exaggerated and the bubble never could have exploded at all.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced Monday that his nation, which lacks the oil reserves of some of its Middle East neighbors, would build several nuclear power plants to meet rising energy demands in coming decades.

Re "Iran bomb feasible by 2010, U.N. official says," May 25 United Nations' sanctions and American saber-rattling reveal the Bush administration's fear of taking direct action against Iran's uranium enrichment program. It is this knowledge that strengthens the bonds among Russia, China and Iran and gives Iranian President Ahmadinejad the courage to quickly make nuclear weapons. INA LOGAN Fullerton Re "Arabs make plans for a future with nuclear power," May 26 It doesn't matter how fast Iran accelerates its nuclear program.

Ralph E. Lapp, who helped create atomic weapons from the early days of the Manhattan Project and then spent his life informing the public about the dangers of fallout but touting the relative safety of nuclear power, has died. He was 87. Lapp died Sept. 7 in Alexandria, Va., of pneumonia following surgery. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., Lapp was a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he also earned his PhD.

A technician accidentally removed the wrong fuses and shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, causing two valves to malfunction and release steam into the air, an official said. No radioactive material was released in Friday's incident and no one was injured, but a safety system was activated and operators had to declare an "unusual event," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Greg Cook.

The Soviet Union today named a new head of the state committee responsible for safety in the atomic power industry, one month after his predecessor was removed in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident. Tass said the new head was Vadim Malyshev, 54, who since 1973 has run a nuclear power plant at Beloyarsk, east of the Ural mountains. His predecessor, Yevgeny Kulov, was removed in July, three months after the Chernobyl disaster.