Nuclear Watchdog Uncovers Fault in Russian Nuclear Power Plant's Safety System

Moscow - In October 2008 Rostekhnadzor [the Federal Service for Ecological,
Technological and Nuclear Monitoring] uncovered metal deformation in the
Novovoronezh nuclear power plant's control and safety system, which was the
only deviation in the operation of the Russian nuclear power plants
registered last month, the agency's press service said on Friday [7
November].

According to Rostekhnadzor data, metal deformation was uncovered
during visual inspection of metal in the thermal bracing of connecting pipes
[teplovyye rastyazhki patrubkov] of the control and safety system of the
fourth power-generating unit of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant on 14
October. According to standard measurement equipment, the level of
radioactivity has not changed; on the INES scale reading is "off scale".

A commission is investigating the fault, reads the statement. [Passage
omitted]

Source: RIA Novosti news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1301 gmt 7 Nov 08

Thousands in Germany protest nuclear transport
BERLIN (The Associated Press) - Nov 8

Almost 15,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators protested Saturday against a
shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste being transported to a storage site in
northern Germany, police said.

German police were working to free three demonstrators who had chained
themselves to railway tracks near the western city of Woerth, preventing the
shipment from crossing from France into Germany.

Some 300 farmers used tractors to block the main road to the storage
site in the town of Goerleben, where another 14,500 people protested, local
police said.

Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent each year to
France and Britain for reprocessing and then is returned to the Goerleben
site - a traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests.

The protest movement has faded, however, since 2003 when the
government set a two-decade timetable for closing Germany's 17 nuclear power
plants. Activists complain that the timetable is too slow, and that the
Goerleben storage site is unsafe.

The latest shipment of reprocessed waste was being carried in 11
atomic waste containers on a train, which crossed northeastern France
without incident on Friday and arrived at the German border early Saturday.
It was scheduled to reach the German city of Dannenberg on Sunday, where it
would be transferred to trucks for the final journey to Goerleben.