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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Al Jazeera: Iran takes defense measures fearing possible attacks -
2 AFP: EU-Iranian talks deadlocked but not about to collapse -
3 AFP: Iran hardliner accuses Europeans of bad faith in nuclear talks
4 Asia Times: An offer that can be refused
5 International Herald Tribune: A softer approach to North Korea
6 Guardian Unlimited Rice: U.S. Awaits N. Korea Answer on Nukes
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N. Korea More Dangerous than Iran: IAEA C
8 Korea Times: Six-Party Dialogue in Jeopardy
9 ITAR-TASS: Russia,China to consult over NKorean nuclear problem on M
10 US: Coalition Decries Withholding of Report Damaging to Nuclear
11 US: [du-list] Good News! EH Norton has reintroduced "Nuclear
12 US: [NukeNet] Calls Needed Re NPT & Markey Letter Opposing Bunker-
13 US: [du-list] 30 arrested in Alliant protest against DU
14 MEPs To Visit US Nuke Weapons Sites
15 US: EPA: EIS/R Comments
16 US: Washington Times: New nuclear countermeasures
17 [NYTr] Vanunu Indicted for Violating Gag Order
18 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, EU Leaders Reach Agreements
19 Times of India: Nuclear noose tightens around Pak
20 Mos News: Russians Will Not Help Anyone Make Nuclear Weapons — Offic
NUCLEAR REACTORS
21 US: Peach Waste: Groups say government hiding nuclear risk
22 US: NRC: DATE: Week of March 14, 2005.
23 US: YDR: Groups say NRC blocked safety report -
24 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY gets passing grades
25 US: JS Online: Energy panel approves sale of Kewaunee nuclear plant
26 US: Capital Times: Nuke plant sale ripped
27 US: APP.COM: Nuclear power can play role in clean-air campaign
28 Mos News: Chernobyl Veterans Win Lawsuit in European Court -
29 US: Green Bay Press-Gazette: Nuclear-plant sale to Virginia company
30 edie news: Nuclear power will play significant role in future
31 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc (SNC), Joseph M. Fa
32 US: NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Vogtle Electric Generat
33 US: NRC: Comment Request
34 US: NRC: Comment Request
NUCLEAR SAFETY
35 US: BoiseWeekly: The Case Against the Plutonium Space Race
36 Independent: Soviet navy 'left 20 nuclear warheads in Bay of Naples'
37 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Cannon resolute on nuke testing
38 US: Hawk Eye: Wait continues for IAAP watchers
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
39 Apparant Lies By USGS Re Yucca Mt. Might Kill Entire Project
40 Capital Reports: Yucca Mountain project documents may have been fals
41 Waste News: Workers may have falsified Yucca Mt. documents, governme
42 MSNBC: Data on Yucca nuclear waste site falsified?
43 LA Times: Inquiry Begins Into Validity of Data About Yucca Mountain
44 US: deseret news: Nuclear storage battle fires up
45 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada officials call for probes of Yucca Mountain fa
46 US: DailyBulletin.com: Mayor demands Wyle answers
47 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Yucca gaffe
48 US: AU ABC: Deep Yellow moots new uranium mine
49 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mtn. Documents May Involve Scientist
50 Las Vegas RJ: Utah factions torn over Yucca discoveries
51 Las Vegas RJ: Reid, Ensign pursue inquiry into Yucca project allegat
52 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Horrifying disclosure
53 Las Vegas SUN: DOE audit in 2000 uncovered problems, Nevada lawyers
54 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion: More fraud at Yucca Mountain
55 Las Vegas SUN: Scientists unsure how deeply Yucca Mountain hurt
56 US: Salt Lake Tribune - Opinion: You keep them
57 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah's congressmen make push against Skull
58 US: Lodinews.com: Lodi seeks federal money for pollution cleanup
59 Public Citizen: Public Citizen to Energy Department: Push Yucca
60 US: AU ABC: Macfarlane talks down uranium boom risks.
61 UKAEA: Dounreay team takes 'British is Best' message to Scottish Tor
62 Pahrump Valley Times: Scientist allegedly falsifies Yucca data
63 ENS: Nevada Senators Ask AG to Investigate Yucca Deception
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
64 [du-list] Cleanup Progress document now available (Oak Ridge
65 Guardian Unlimited: Los Alamos Security Shutdown Costly
66 Tri-City Herald: Nuclear graveyard
67 lamonitor.com: Nanos defends lab shutdown
68 Federal News Service: SECURITY INITIATIVES AT DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY N
OTHER NUCLEAR
69 [du-list] DU in the news - 18th March 05
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1 Al Jazeera: Iran takes defense measures fearing possible attacks -
Aljazeera.com
3/17/2005 4:20:00 PM GMT
"We have taken all the necessary defense measures", Salimi said
Iranian army commander Gen. Mohammed Salimi is warning that
Washington and Israel’s military threats against Iran are very
serious, and that Tehran has taken all needed defense measures
fearing possible attacks.
"We have taken all the necessary defense measures be it on land,
in the air or sea," the Iranian News Agency quoted Salimi as
saying.
He also noted that the U.S. and Israeli threats have existed for
the past 24 years, but "they are more serious than ever at
present in light of the recent declarations by American and
Israeli officials."
"After the regimes were changed in our two neighbors, namely
Iraq and Afghanistan, we believe that U.S. and Israeli strategy
is based on changing the regime in Iran and they are actually
studying which military strategy they should follow," Salimi
added.
However, he asserted that Iran’s military is ready with
different strategies to confront any possible attack after
pinpointing the weak points of the enemy forces (Israel, U.S.).
Yesterday, President George W. Bush repeated his threats, saying
that the U.S. and its European allies would refer Iran’s nuclear
file to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if the
Islamic republic rejected incentives to suspend its nuclear
activities.
"The understanding is, we go to the Security Council if they
reject the offer. And I hope they don't. I hope they realize the
world is clear about making sure that they don't end up with a
nuclear weapon," he said.
Bush maintains that Tehran must "permanently abandon any
enrichment or reprocessing to make sure that Iran does not
develop a nuclear weapon."
The EU big-three; Britain, France and Germany offered Iran
economic incentives to do so "and now we're waiting for an
Iranian response," Bush told a press conference on Wednesday.
Bush’s remarks came as Iran's President Mohamed Khatami asserted
that no incentives would be enough to persuade the Islamic
republic give up its peaceful nuclear technology, yet pledged
the country would make "every effort" to assure the world it was
not seeking atomic weapons.
When asked whether he thinks Iran’s regime needs to be changed,
the American President replied: "I believe that the Iranian
people ought to be allowed to freely discuss opinions, read a
free press, have free votes, be able to choose among political
parties.
"I believe Iran should adopt democracy, that's what I believe".
Copyright 2005 Al Jazeera Publishing Limited
*****************************************************************
2 AFP: EU-Iranian talks deadlocked but not about to collapse -
Friday March 18, 01:15 PM
VIENNA (AFP) - EU-Iranian talks on getting Tehran to guarantee it
is not developing nuclear weapons resume next week with Iran
having already rejected a US initiative to move the deadlocked
negotiations along. But analysts and diplomats said the talks,
which began in December and are to continue at a senior level in
Paris on Wednesday, are in no danger of breaking down since both
sides are still staking out positions in a negotiating process
that has months yet to run.
And Iran has little room for maneuver ahead of presidential
elections in the Middle Eastern country in June, with its nuclear
policy probably veering either to the hardline or pragmatic
depending on who wins, they said.
The United States, which has not ruled out a military strike
against Iran, is for the moment backing the European Union's
effort to convince Iran to give up uranium enrichment, which
makes nuclear fuel but what can also be the raw material for atom
bombs, in return for trade, security and technology rewards.
The United States is helping the Europeans offer incentives,
namely clearing the way for Iran to join the World Trade
Organization (WTO) and to get parts for its run-down civil
aviation fleet.
Iran has however roundly rejected these incentives as
insignificant. Iran has also said that it does not even consider
abandoning enrichment to be on the table in the talks, despite
its having temporarily suspended enrichment as a
confidence-building measure.
Iran says it has the right to the nuclear fuel cycle according to
the terms of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). On
Friday, Iran and the EU were still haggling over the wording of a
joint report for the foreign ministry political directors who are
to meet in Paris, diplomats said.
"The hang-up is that Iran is refusing to allow the word
'cessation' (of uranium enrichment) to appear in the report, even
though the EU3 (Britain, France and Germany who are negotiating
on behalf of the Union) points out that using that word would be
necessary to characterize accurately what the EU3 has been
consistently asking for," a diplomat close to the talks told AFP.
Iran wants there to be wording of "objective guarantees" it would
provide about its nuclear program, although the Iranians are not
offering anything "new or useful," the diplomat said.
Diplomats said Iranian proposals to build a smaller enrichment
plant than one planned or to enrich only to low levels, and not
the highly enriched level that can be bomb-grade, were
unacceptable as compromises.
"We have been clear from the beginning that there is no grey zone
with regard to enrichment," a senior European diplomat said.
"There has been no progress in the talks," said non-proliferation
expert Gary Samore from London's International Institute for
Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank.
But he said "that doesn't mean that the talks will collapse" as
Iran is "not ready for a confrontation" in the UN Security
Council, as the United States would like since the Council could
impose international sanctions on Tehran.
"They are waiting until their domestic house is in order," Samore
said, referring to the June election which will see moderate
President Mohammad Khatami step down.
Another analyst, George Petrovich of the Washington-based
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "The Iranians
aren't going to make any concessions before the elections.
September is when you'd get down to serious business," after a
new president has taken office.
Samore also said that Iran is worried since its ally Syria's
problems in keeping military forces in Lebanon could "weaken
Iran's power to influence Hezbollah" militants in Lebanon who are
backed by both Tehran and Damascus.
Iran's position is also weakened by Washington's lining up behind
the EU on the nuclear issue, with the United States winning a
promise from the EU to back a referral to the Security Council if
the talks with Tehran break down, Samore said.
But Petrovich said Tehran was stronger regionally since changes
in the Middle East were benefitting Shia Muslims, who are in a
majority in Iran and have won elections in neighboring Iraq.
Copyright © 2005 AFP AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
3 AFP: Iran hardliner accuses Europeans of bad faith in nuclear talks -
Friday March 18, 01:18 PM
TEHRAN (AFP) - A leading Iranian hardliner accused European
governments of "deception" and "false promises" in their
negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme. "They decide to give
incentives ... nobody believes such false promises," said
Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a conservative cleric who heads a
powerful watchdog body that vets all legislation and candidates
for public office.
"They are used to lying and blocking progress in other
countries," he told worshippers at the main weekly prayers in
Tehran in a sermon broadcast live by state television.
"Negotiations are nearing the end. Their time must be running
out... they must end this coming year," he said, referring to the
Iranian year that begins on Monday.
Iran is in the midst of negotiations with Britain, France and
Germany, who have been trying to secure "objective guarantees"
that the clerical regime will not use its atomic energy programme
to acquire nuclear weapons.
In exchange, the three European governments are offering a
package of trade, security and technology incentives. The United
States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a cover
for developing nuclear weapons, and has threatened to take the
issue to the UN Security Council.
"America is pressuring Europeans, who do not mind that. Nobody
likes our possession of nuclear technology," Janati charged.
Ideally, the European Union would like Iran permanently to give
up uranium enrichment, which makes what can be fuel for civilian
nuclear reactors but also the explosive core of atomic bombs.
"They make excuses such as: we are scared of its future, we have
to find trust. These are obvious lies and deception," Janati
said.
Copyright © 2005 AFP AFP. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 Asia Times: An offer that can be refused
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
TEHRAN - The Bush administration has offered modest incentives -
of Iran's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and spare
parts for its aging airplanes - rejected by Iran as
incommensurate with the huge nuclear card. In making this
announcement, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made clear
that this decision, reached with the European Three (ie France,
Germany and Britain - EU-3) currently holding nuclear talks with
Iran, implies that if Iran rejected the offer and insists on
resuming its nuclear fuel cycle, then Europe would support the
US's bid to take the matter to the United Nations Security
Council for further action.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said Sunday
in a statement that the country was determined to use nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes, and "no pressure, bribe or
threat" could make Iran give up.
This development is, indeed, troublesome for both Iran-EU
relations as well as US-EU ties, notwithstanding the fact that
the US continues to insist on Iran's permanent suspension of its
uranium enrichment program, whereas the Paris Agreement, signed
between Iran and the EU-3 last November, implicitly if not
explicitly recognizes Iran's right under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) to produce the nuclear fuel necessary for its
reactors and, what is more, invites Iran to join a club of
nuclear fuel-producing countries.
Thus, no matter how urgent the European desire to heal the
trans-Atlantic rift with Washington, vividly demonstrated in
President George W Bush's recent charm offensive in European
capitals, the fact remains that in agreeing to bandwagon with
the US on the next steps toward Iran, Europe has potentially
bargained away its diplomacy and, worse, put at risk its
carefully-cultivated nuanced approach toward Iran; already,
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Dr Hassan Rowhani, has warned
that in light of Iran's full compliance with the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, Iran will immediately
cease negotiations with Europe and resume nuclear fuel
production if Iran's dossier is sent to the Security Council.
From Iran's vantage point, the US's offer above-mentioned is
problematic on several grounds: first, it overlooks that Iran
has legitimately exercised its right to acquire peaceful nuclear
technology, per Article IV of the NPT, and that to ask Iran to
deny itself this right, or part of it, is illegal, from the
prism of international law and international regimes such as the
NPT. Second, per US intelligence's own admission, reflected in
the New York Times on March 10, 2005, there is no reliable
information that Iran has embarked on a secret nuclear weapon
program, notwithstanding the IAEA's widespread inspection of
Iranian civil and military sites and the absence of any evidence
corroborating the US's and Israel's allegations that Iran has a
clandestine weapons program.
Third, Iran has already committed a huge sum of money, in
upwards of US$1 billion, in setting up the nuclear facilities in
Tehran, Isfahan, Arak, etc, which the West is now demanding to
dismantle in exchange for token rewards. The heavy water reactor
alone has cost Iran over $100 million, and per reliable
information relayed to the author by one of Iran's top nuclear
negotiators, recently the British negotiators in Vienna offered
a light water reactor to Iran if it agreed to scrap the heavy
water reactor, an offer which had apparently surprised the
German and French negotiators.
But, this aside, the US and Europe cannot possibly overlook the
role and influence of Iran's national character and collective
psyche, which will be badly bruised if Iran bargains away its
NPT rights to nuclear technology for such modest incentives.
Without doubt, the political backlash inside Iran will be
tremendous, and Rowhani and others involved in such a
humiliating bargain will be the immediate political casualties,
sure to be replaced with more hawkish politicians more apt to
emulate North Korea's path - of exiting the NPT and excluding
any outside inspection of their nuclear facilities.
On the other hand, Iran cannot afford remaining indifferent to
the unique window of opportunity to reach rapprochement with the
West via a mutually-satisfactory nuclear negotiation, one that
would bring tangible economic as well as security rewards to
Iran. To open a parenthesis here, it is worth mentioning that at
a recent international conference on nuclear technology held at
the Center for Strategic Research in Tehran, former president
Ali Akbar Rafsanjani made an apt comparison of Iran and Israel
(for the first time refraining from using the adjective
"Zionist" state and mentioning Israel by name), by stating that
the US's rationale for Israel's nuclear weapons in terms of
Israel's national security worries, should be "logically
extended to other countries". Clearly, Iran is not oblivious to
the post-Yasser Arafat developments and is gearing up to make
necessary adjustments in its Middle East policy, an important
fact conveniently overlooked by the Western media.
What, then, is really important about the US offer is a policy
shift, away from regime change and toward dialogue and even
rapprochement, discernible in the stated willingness to drop the
objections to Iran's membership in the WTO and sale of spare
parts for Iran's Boeing airplanes; the latter would almost
automatically mean a reconsideration of the US sanctions on
Iran, a welcome first step that could, optimistically speaking,
pave the way for the future deletion of all sanctions on Iran,
which have seriously impacted the Iranian economy so far by
chasing away potential foreign investment, particularly in the
ailing energy sector.
Consequently, from Iran's vantage point, it is important to keep
the totality of the picture in mind, the fact that the present
US offer could well turn into the harbinger of more substantial,
and meaningful, compromises in the near future, indeed a
mini-golden opportunity that should not be dismissed out of hand
and studied carefully instead, in the light of the expanding
pool of shared or parallel interests between Iran and the US in
Iraq, Afghanistan, and, indeed, the entire region.
Nevertheless, the problem of Iranian suspicion of the US's real
intentions is a serious one: is the US making this modest
proposal as a symbolic gesture in order to give the appearance
of serious negotiation, when in fact it is merely posturing as a
prelude for tough actions against Iran down the road? Is the
White House serious about steering away from regime change and
willing to normalize relations with a regime that Bush recently
described in his State of the Union address as the world's
foremost state sponsor of terrorism? Indeed, the rather
schizophrenic US policy toward Iran leaves a lot to be desired
and, from Tehran's point of view, is insufficiently reassuring
of the US's benevolent intentions.
Tehran's cynical editorials have already put the accent on the
US's "cunning manipulation of Europe", that is, as part of a
carefully-orchestrated policy to lure Europe from its present
course of action toward Iran, causing a growing atrophy in
Iran-EU diplomacy and a priori garnering a European commitment
to the US's UN sanctions approach "should Iran refuse the
offer".
But, hasn't Europe learnt its lessons from the Iraq fiasco?
Shouldn't the Europeans maintain a healthy skepticism about the
true intentions of the White House, dominated by hawkish
neo-conservatives who openly pen about "war to war" and "axis of
evil". And why should Europe all of a sudden succumb to
forgetfulness vis-a-vis its own Paris Agreement with Iran, which
clearly mentions that Iran's suspension of its nuclear fuel
program "is not a legal obligation" but rather a "voluntary"
confidence-building measure.
In conclusion, the glass of US nuclear diplomacy toward Iran is
definitely more than half empty rather than half full, compared
with Europe, and it would be a pity, for the sake of Middle East
and international peace, if Europe does not pressure the US for
greater transparency of its ultimate intentions toward Iran.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New
Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and "Iran's
Foreign Policy Since 9/11", Brown's Journal of World Affairs,
co-authored with former deputy foreign minister Abbas Maleki, No
2, 2003. He teaches political science at Tehran University.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 International Herald Tribune: A softer approach to North Korea
Friday, March 18, 2005
Mongolia offers itself as a model for change
Officials in the drab Soviet-era government
buildings that dominate the skyline here concede that Mongolia
is used to being an afterthought in global geopolitics. . Yet
even as the great powers grapple with North Korea's nuclear
ambitions, Mongolia has quietly been using its nonthreatening
status to open a dialogue with the North Korean government and
woo its leaders toward change. . The two nations have signed a
friendship treaty and reopened once-closed diplomatic relations.
They are also working together on a range of industrial,
agricultural and commercial projects intended to be of mutual
benefit and to draw on each nation's comparative advantages. .
The primary tool Mongolians are using to engage the North
Koreans is the story of Mongolia's own successful transition
from an isolated Stalinist state to a free-market democracy. .
"I really believe that Mongolia's experience is very much
transferable to North Korea," Prime Minister Tsakhia Elbegdorj
of Mongolia said in an interview. "I think we can become a kind
of transition consultant to them.". Mongolia and North Korea
found themselves at similar crossroads when the Soviet Union,
their common ally and chief benefactor, collapsed in 1991. But
the two countries chose different ways to deal with their
problems. .
While North Korea's continuing Stalinism has brought
it to the brink of collapse, Mongolia undertook a series of
political and economic changes that have revitalized the
country.. In Ulan Bator, the Communist-era structures built in
heroic style to proclaim the power of the workers' revolution
are now crowned with giant neon signs that advertise cellphones
and designer clothing. Incomes have nearly tripled over the past
decade. .
In the evenings, the streets are jammed with cars as a
new generation of Mongolians who have given up traditional
nomadic herding life to work in the city head to recently opened
nightclubs and restaurants.. More significant, the European,
Japanese and American aid and guidance flowing into Mongolia
have been crucial in helping the country develop its democratic
institutions and economy. .
Many Mongolians hope that their
country's transformation can show North Korea that there is life
after Stalinism, and a pretty good life at that. And despite
tough talk from North Korea, Elbegdorj said that North Korea
realizes it needs to change, but is unsure of how to go about
it. .
"They talk to us, listen to us, because we're not Western people
trying to teach them" the Western way of life, said Elbegdorj.
"We are like them, and we are simply sharing our knowledge, our
experience, with them through workshops and meetings.". Pamela
Slutz, the U.S. ambassador in Ulan Bator, said that despite
President George W. Bush's having called North Korea part of an
"axis of evil," the Bush administration is not alarmed by
Mongolia's efforts.
"On the contrary, we support them," Slutz said. . "Mongolia
supports our call for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula," she
added. "We are consulting very closely with them to make sure
what they are doing doesn't undermine U.S. efforts. One reason I
think Mongolia can be quite successful is that it also shares
extensive cultural, diplomatic and ethnicities with North Korea."
.
Ethnically, Koreans and Mongolians, like the Japanese, are not
Han like most Chinese. . This fraternity has become an important
thread in the web of ties that Mongolia is building with the
Koreas and Japan as it pursues its "third neighbor" policy.
This pillar of Mongolian foreign policy is designed to overcome
the disadvantage of being landlocked between Russia and China, by
building close ties with South Korea and Japan, as well as the
United States and India..
But Bat-Erdene Batbayar, a historian and adviser to Elbegdorj who
goes by the single name Baabar, said there were also more
mercantile interests at work. .
The long-term dream, he said, is for North Asia to create a trade
bloc that would reach Europe and generate about $30 billion to
$50 billion in trade for Mongolia over a decade or so. The main
stumbling block is North Korea's self-imposed isolation - another
incentive for Mongolia to encourage reform there..
If North Korea could be coaxed into opening up, a continuous rail
transit could be established between North and South Korea and
Europe, using the trans-Siberian railroad, which runs through
Russia and Mongolia.
The idea has been raised by the Russian president, Vladmir
Putin.. That worries China. "It would like any transit route to
Europe to use as much of its territory as possible," said Stephen
Noerper, professor of Asian affairs at American University in
Washington. .
China is also concerned that Washington is using Mongolia as part
of a strategy to encircle and contain China, he said, so it
doesn't "want anything that articulates a successful democratic
transition to get too much attention.". Shi Yinhong, a professor
of international relations at the People's University in Beijing,
dismisses the idea that Mongolia could have any real effect on
North Korea's nuclear ambitions, or its economic reforms. .
"The indispensable players in this are China and the United
States," he said. . In Mongolia, the official tone toward Beijing
is always respectful. But beneath that is a quiet determination
to resist growing Chinese influence in the region, stemming from
centuries of living under what Mongolia calls the Manchu yoke,
from 1691 to 1921. .
In the past two years, Mongolia has arranged numerous meetings
and conferences with North Korea, despite scowling from China,
which is the biggest source of aid to North Korea. Many of the
sessions have been sponsored by the Northeast Asia Association of
Mongolia, a private research institution with unofficial links to
the government.. Baabar, a co-founder of the association, said he
has traveled to North Korea more than 30 times in recent years,
principally to share with North Koreans how Mongolia has been
opening up its economy..
"Most of the cooperation is being channeled through backdoor
diplomacy because officially the North Koreans say they have no
interest in reform," Baabar said. "But unofficially there is
great curiosity at how our step-by-step movement to the market
system worked. They ask us a lot of questions and want to find
ways to make money." .
The most public result of this has been the friendship treaty
Mongolia and North Korea signed in August 2002. This led to North
Korea's reopening its embassy in Ulan Bator, which had been
closed in 1999. Both countries are also collaborating on large
infrastructure and construction projects and on an ambitious
agricultural development project.. . .
International Herald Tribune All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
6 Guardian Unlimited Rice: U.S. Awaits N. Korea Answer on Nukes
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday March 18, 2005 12:01 PM
AP Photo XLEE101
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer
TOKYO (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated
Friday that the next move in a standoff over North Korea's
nuclear program will be up to the Pyongyang government, and she
played down expectations that her visit to Asian capitals will
produce a breakthrough.
North Korea pulled out of six-nation nuclear arms talks and
announced last month that it has already built a nuclear weapon.
``We need to intensify efforts to not just get the North Koreans
back to the table, that's important, yes, but there is a
proposal on the table from the United States,'' Rice said during
a news conference en route to Japan.
The United States has offered assurances that it has no
intention of attacking North Korea and that Pyongyang can have
other unspecified security guarantees if it renounces nuclear
weapons.
``There's still no answer to that proposal,'' Rice said.
The North Koreans must show now ``whether seriously they wish to
move these talks ahead and whether they are driving toward a
strategic decision or not,'' she said.
The talks hosted by China have been stalled for months, and
there are signs that some of the other nations involved are
looking for alternatives. Rice reiterated the U.S. position
Friday that the six-party talks remain ``North Korea's only path
to better relations with the rest of the world.''
The future of the six-nation talks is on Rice's agenda for
meetings this weekend in Japan and South Korea, and on Monday in
China. Those nations, plus the United States and Russia, have
been negotiating with North Korea.
``It is important to come out and talk with the partners in the
six-party talks in light of the North Korean statement'' about
its nuclear weapon capability, Rice said, but ``I don't by any
means see it as the central issue of the trip.''
Rice will address academics, students and others at a Japanese
university this weekend, and press the Bush administration's
pledge to spread democracy around the world.
Japan and South Korea are democracies, while communist China is
not.
``At a time when the president has said that we're going to put
democracy at the center of our dialogue with every country in
the world, there's no way that we're not going to raise these
issues with the Chinese,'' Rice said.
Among the other topics Rice said she expects to discuss in Asia
are a recent Chinese military buildup and its effect on the
balance of power among Pacific powers, and Chinese economic and
intellectual property policies.
``We have no problems with a strong, confident, economically
powerful China,'' Rice said.
``Obviously, we still have unresolved differences with China, on
human rights, on religious freedom,'' she added. ``We believe
that as China becomes a more open economy, more open to the
world, that it is going to be a natural development that China
is also going to have to open its political system.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: N. Korea More Dangerous than Iran: IAEA Chief
Home> National/Politics Updated Mar.18,2005 20:46 KST
bigger nuclear threat than Iran, CNN reported Thursday.
"We know North Korea has the plutonium that can go into the
bomb... We have not seen any such material in Iran," ElBaradei
told the news channel. He said North Korea represented an
"imminent threat or an imminent danger," saying, "They have that
plutonium... they have the industrial infrastructure, but more
importantly, they said they are doing it." He added, "In Iran we
are active, we are generating information and we know what's
going on, more or less. In Korea, it is an absolutely black
hole."
ElBaradei stressed the need for a tight nuclear control and
surveillance, warning, "A country that can have control of
highly enriched uranium or plutonium is not far away from a
nuclear weapon."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
8 Korea Times: Six-Party Dialogue in Jeopardy
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion
Seoul-Tokyo Conflict Poses a Serious Threat
Deteriorating relations between Seoul and Tokyo because of the
dispute over Tokto are threatening the six-party dialogue. It
will be impossible to resume the nuclear negations without close
cooperation among Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. As Seoul¡¯s
distrust of Tokyo is deepening, it is hard to expect cooperation
between the two neighboring countries in the efforts to bring
Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. With Washington
seriously considering whether or not to continue the
multilateral talks, the confrontation between Seoul and Tokyo,
which sees no solution as Japan turns a deaf ear to South
Korea¡¯s demand that ``Takeshima Day¡¯¡¯ be abolished, would
prompt the United States to opt for the termination of the
dialogue.
Besides the Seoul-Tokyo conflict, a rift between Seoul and
Washington has visibly developed due to their differences over
how to bring Pyongyang back to the forum since the North¡¯s
declaration last month that it has developed nuclear warheads
and will not take part in the dialogue unless the U.S. abandons
its hostile intentions. Washington wants Seoul to stop aid to
the North to compel it to return to the dialogue, which has been
suspended since the third round held in Beijing last June
because of Pyongyang¡¯s boycott. But Seoul made it clear this
week that it would continue to extend aid to the North.
Irritated by Seoul¡¯s ``uncooperative¡¯¡¯ stance, Washington
officials and Congress members have steadily raised their
voices, calling for an end to the six-party negotiations and
referring the nuclear standoff with the North to the U.N.
Security Council. Regardless of their efforts, it is quite
certain that the Bush administration would give up the dialogue
if the North continues to refuse to return to it. In his
appearance at a Senate committee on Tuesday, outgoing U.S.
Ambassador to Seoul Christopher Hill warned that the stalemate
of the negotiations could not go on forever and the U.S. would
seek other ways to stop the North¡¯s nuclear program if there is
no progress. Even though Hill, head of the U.S. team in the
multilateral negotiations, didn¡¯t specify what he meant by
``other ways,¡¯¡¯ referring the nuclear dispute to the U.N.
Security Council was implied.
If the Security Council handles the case, the North won¡¯t be
able to evade economic and otherr sanctions and will be further
isolated from the international community. As a member of the
U.N., the South will be also required to stop aid to the North,
aggravating its economic woes.
In this regard, the North needs to return to the negotiating
table as quickly as possible before Washington loses its
patience. The peaceful resolution to the nuclear confrontation
in the six-party forum is the only way that the North has to
better its economy with the resumption of aid from the global
community.
03-18-2005 15:53
*****************************************************************
9 ITAR-TASS: Russia,China to consult over NKorean nuclear problem on March 24
18.03.2005, 13.23
BEIJING, March 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russia and China will hold
consultations in Beijing over North Korea's nuclear problem on
March 24-25. Taking part in the meeting for Russia will be
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev, an official at the
Russian Embassy told Itar-Tass on Friday.
Alexeyev will have talks with China's Deputy Foreign Minister Wu
Dawei and Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui.
The parties are expected to discuss topical bilateral issues and
sign a plan of inter-departmental consultations.
The meeting will be held in accordance with the accord between
the foreign ministers of the two countries.
The Russian Embassy official described the positions of Moscow
and Beijing on the North Korean issue as "coinciding."
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
10 Coalition Decries Withholding of Report Damaging to Nuclear
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:09:52 -0800
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Eric Epstein
March 16, 2005 717-541-1101
Coalition Decries Withholding of Report Damaging to Nuclear Industry
Groups, Security Experts Seek Meeting With Agency Heads
Harrisburg, Pa. The Nuclear Security Coalition (NSC), an alliance of 47
grassroots and public interest groups, charged the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) with jeopardizing public safety by blocking the release of
a safety and security report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The
NSC said the report confirms the urgent need to lower the density of spent
fuel pools packed with highly irradiated fuel rods at U.S power plants;
including, Peach Bottom 2 & 3 (Delta), Limerick 1 & 2 (Pottstown), and
Susquehanna 1 & 2 (Berwick).
The urgency of taking action was highlighted this week by the disclosure of
a recent report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of
Homeland Security, which found ³the largely unregulated² area of general
aviation remains particularly vulnerable. An NRC report from October 2000
determined the ³spent² fuel pools in certain reactor designs are especially
prone to damage from a plane crash.
Because spent fuel pools are considered among the highest impact targets for
terrorism in the U.S., in late 2003 Congress ordered the National Academy of
Sciences to study current storage methods for commercial spent nuclear fuel
and options to reduce risks. A classified version of the report was
completed last summer; insiders say it confirms concerns that enormous
radioactive fires could result if waste pools were attacked.
But the NRC has repeatedly sought revisions to a still-unreleased public
version of the NAS study. In a today¹s letter, Eric Epstein, Chairman of
TMI-Alert, a safe-energy organization founded in 1977, stated, ³We have
concluded from the NRC¹s response that spent fuel pools are not as
Œwell-engineered¹ and Œrobust¹ as advertised. The National Academy must have
gotten the Œwrong answer¹.²
The Coalition sent a letter to NRC today asking for a meeting directly with
the five NRC Commissioners. In part, the citizens want action on a petition
filed with the NRC in August 2004 urging priority measures at 32 plants
where spent fuel pools are located high inside buildings and surrounded only
by thin roofs and walls. (Please refer to enclosed PDF file). Federal and
state legislators as well as Attorneys General have sent letters of support
for
The petition to the Commission.
There is growing national pressure on the NRC to lower the risk of attack on
³spent² fuel pools, which contain far more radioactivity than do reactors,
and are vulnerable to a variety of attacks by air or ground intruders.
In January, attorneys general from New York, California, Massachusetts and
five other states pressed the NRC to increase plant protections, warning of
³possibly unimaginable nuclear catastrophes² and emphasizing the need "to
reflect the realities of 2005Šterrorists may attack by air or water and in
numbers greater than four." That reference stems from NRC¹s continued
reliance on plant defenses designed against only small, land-based teams of
attackers.
The Coalition has recommended hardening spent fuel against attack instead
of keeping it in high-density pools. Epstein added, ³ Increasing evidence
that nuclear plants are terrorist targets, and warnings by non-governmental
counter-terrorism experts that the U.S. will again be attacked, make
increased plant security a priority.²
In a December 3 letter, the NRC requested that NAS spend ³more time² on the
study in other words, delay issuing any report and subsequent required
remedial action.
Attached please find a copy of the list of airports within 10 miles of U.S.
nuclear power stations which was submitted to the NRC Petition Review Board
as supplemental information on the Nuclear Security Coalition petition for
emergency enforcement action on the GE Mark I & II elevated irradiated fuel
storage pond structural vulnerabilities to aircraft penetration and other
modes of attack.
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\Release of NAS Security Study.doc"
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\BWR 2206 Annex.pdf 1.pdf"
*****************************************************************
11 [du-list] Good News! EH Norton has reintroduced "Nuclear
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:16:13 -0800
[Please spread the word far and wide, and help get your
representatives to sign on. This needs a Move-On type
promotion - please solicit help! et]
NORTON INTRODUCES BILL FOR TRANSFER OF WEAPON FUNDS TO
DOMESTIC NEEDS
Criticizes Bush for Decreasing Funding for Nuclear Threat
Reduction
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2005
http://www.norton.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=10279
Washington, DC — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
reintroduced the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion
Act of 2005 (NDECA) today as Japan and the United States
mark the 60th anniversary of the devastation of Japanese
cities by an atomic bomb by the United States to end World
War II. NDECA would require the United States to disable
and dismantle its nuclear weapons when all other nations
possessing nuclear weapons enact laws to do the same.
NDECA further provides that when our nuclear weapons are
dismantled, the resources used to support nuclear weapons
programs would be diverted to our growing human and
infrastructure needs, such as housing, health care, Social
Security and the environment.
Norton has introduced this bill every year following a
ballot initiative in the District in 1993.
The Congresswoman said: “In addition to the economic cost of
nuclear weapons, the weapons have increased as a
destabilizing force in world affairs.” Norton, a member of
the Homeland Security Committee, said that the threat was
greatest today from inadequately defended nuclear materials
throughout the world. She criticized the Bush
administration for reducing nuclear threat spending since
9/11. Norton said that with 45 million people still without
health care, Social Security without the benefits for the
huge baby boomer generation, an economy burdened with a
dangerous deficit, and millions of Americans pushed back
into poverty, the time has come to begin transferring
funding for nuclear weapons to urgent domestic needs.
Norton’s full introductory statement follows:
Mr. Speaker, today, I am again introducing the Nuclear
Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act (NDECA), as I have
done since 1994. I have introduced this bill every year
based on a ballot initiative passed by D.C. residents in
1993. NDECA will require the United States to disable and
dismantle its nuclear weapons when all other nations
possessing nuclear weapons enact laws to do the same. NDECA
further provides that when U.S. nuclear weapons are
dismantled, the resources used to support nuclear weapon
programs would be diverted to our growing human and
infrastructure needs, such as housing, health care, Social
Security and the environment.
This year’s introduction of this bill has special meaning
because this is the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only the United States has used
an atom bomb, but today the number of nations with this
capability has grown dangerously and continues without
effective intervention by the Bush administration.
In addition to the economic cost of nuclear weapons, the
weapons have increased as a destabilizing force in world
affairs. North Korea, at least in part in response to
stepped up aggressive talk and U.S. policies, has responded
in a dangerously paranoid fashion by announcing that it is
expanding its nuclear capabilities and even that it now has
a nuclear weapon, although these claims have not been
entirely verified. Iran also appears to be pursuing greater
nuclear capability and is resisting inspections. India and
Pakistan have moved back from the precipice of several years
ago but each remains poised with nuclear weapons.
This country must lead the world community in redoubling
efforts to push back the new surge of nuclear proliferation.
Our country would be better able to dissuade other nations
who aspire to become or remain nuclear powers if we
ourselves took greater initiative in dismantling our own
nuclear weapons program. We moved in the right direction
when the Senate ratified the Moscow Treaty in 2003, which
provides that by 2012 both the United States and Russia will
reduce their long-range warheads two-thirds from
approximately 6,000 warheads each to 2,200. However, the
Administration has failed to build on this effort.
According to a recent study, “Securing The Bomb: An Agenda
for Action” (May, 2004; prepared by the Belfer Center,
Harvard University Kennedy School of Government): “Total
nuclear-threat-reduction spending remains less than one
quarter of one percent of the U.S. military budget. Indeed,
on average, the Bush administration requests for
nuclear-threat-reduction spending over FY 2002 2005 have
been less, in real terms, than the last Clinton
administration request, made long before the 9/11 attacks
ever occurred.”
However, the problem today is far more complicated than
nuclear disarmament by nation states. The greatest threat
today is from inadequately defended and guarded sites in
many countries where there is enough material to make
nuclear weapons and many opportunities for terrorists to
secure nuclear materials. Astonishingly, because of the
absence of presidential leadership, less nuclear material
was seized in the two years following the 9/11 attacks than
in the two years immediately preceding the attacks
(“Securing The Bomb: An Agenda for Action”, May 2004).
I serve on the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack
Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee. I know that
threats from nuclear proliferation and available nuclear
material are more dangerous in the post 9/11 era than at any
time since I first introduced this bill in 1994. The way to
begin is closing down nuclear capability here and around the
world.
With 45 million people still without health insurance,
Social Security without the benefits for the huge baby
boomer generation, an economy burdened with a dangerous
deficit, and millions of Americans pushed back into poverty
during the last four years, the time has come to begin the
transfer of nuclear weapons funds to urgent domestic needs.
--
Proposition One Committee
P.O. Box 27217, Washington, DC 20038 USA
202-682-4282 (phone and fax)
prop1@prop1.org | http://prop1.org
~ Peace Through Reason - Convert the War Machines! ~
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12 [NukeNet] Calls Needed Re NPT & Markey Letter Opposing Bunker-
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:16:16 -0800
NukeNet Anti-Nuclear Network (nukenet@energyjustice.net)
> Someone ought to let Markey know and all the
members who signed this
> letter, that the NPT requires us to get rid of
our nuclear weapons--not
> merely to reduce them.
All of us, even outside the USA can and
should call and/or fax Markey and the others
Chairman
House Appropriations Committee
House Armed Services Committee
Ranking Member
House Appropriations Committee
House Armed Services
on these [above] committees via the
congressional switchboard at: 202-224-3121,
202-225-3121 & 877-762-8762. Look around
http://www.house.gov for all members of the
House Appropriations Committee & the House Armed
Service Committee and then let them know that the
US's ongoing possession of these WMDs is illegal
under the NPT's Article VI and that the NPT needs
to be ammended to have it's Article IV remove the
right of anyone to possess a commercial nuclear
power reactor which is, among other things- a BOMB
FACTORY.
-Bill Smirnow
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alice Slater"
To: "FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign"
Cc: ;
;
;
;
;
;
; "Alyn Ware"
; "'doug'"
; ;
"'George Farebrother'" ;
; ;
; ;
;
; ;
; "RAQUET Michel"
; "Monika Szymurska"
;
;
; ;
"carol wolman" ;
;
; "ACHIN VANAIK"
; "Beena Sarwar"
; "Harsh Kapoor"
; "Sri jagadisa"
; "Sukla Sen"
; "Zubeida Mustafa"
; ;
"Shazni" ; "Dimity Hawkins"
;
;
; "Vijai K Nair"
; "Dr. A. H. Nayyar"
; "Sri"
; ;
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2005 6:59 AM
Subject: Re: [abolition-caucus] Markey Letter
Opposing Bunker- Busters
> Hi Friends,
> Someone ought to let Markey know and all the
members who signed this
> letter, that the NPT requires us to get rid of
our nuclear weapons--not
> merely to reduce them. I met Senator Biden on
the train fron Washington
> and he also argued that the Npt doesn't require
us to eliminate our
> nuclear weapons. He is the ranking democrat on
the Senate Foregn
> Relations Commitee!! Obviously we're in
trouble. But Markey and people
> like Woolsey should know better! See Markey's
language:
>
> a U.S. move toward expanding and
> > diversifying our nuclear stockpile is contrary
to our legal
> > obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on
the
> > Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),
which clearly
> > requires the United States to work toward
reducing our
> > nuclear arsenal.
>
> Perhaps David Krieger and Carah Ong an do an
action alert on this with
> their Turn the Tide Campaign. Or maybe the
PNND can set theit colleagues
> straight in the US Congress about US obligations
under thr NPT!!. We need
> help!! Alice Slater
>
>
> > Rep. Ed Markey's Letter Opposing Nuclear
Bunker Busters
> >
> > California Peace Action, March 15, 2005
> >
> >
http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/capa/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=116
> >
> > Chairman
> > House Appropriations Committee
> > House Armed Services Committee
> >
> > Ranking Member
> > House Appropriations Committee
> > House Armed Services
> >
> > Dear Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member:
> >
> > We are writing to urge you to eliminate
funding for the
> > Department for both the Robust Nuclear Earth
Penetrator
> > (RNEP), the so-called bunker buster, and other
new nuclear
> > weapons. Last year the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy
> > and Water zeroed funding for the Department of
Energy's
> > nuclear "bunker buster," and all other
additional funding
> > for new nuclear weapons under Advanced
Concepts, which is
> > now under the Department's new program
Reliable Replacement
> > Warhead.
> >
> > As you know, the Administration's FY2006
budget request
> > includes $4 million to revive funding for the
RNEP, a
> > nuclear weapon intended to destroy deeply
buried and
> > hardened targets such as leadership bunkers or
chemical and
> > biological weapons caches, and an additional
$4.5 million
> > for RNEP testing under the Air Force Budget.
Another $14
> > million would be requested by DOE in FY2007.
According to
> > the DOE Budget request:
> >
> > Activities include participating in integrated
NNSA-DoD
> > integrated product teams for development of
RNEP
> > requirements and programmatic documents; syst
> > em design and
> > integration; planning, cost and risks
analyses, and
> > phenomenology studies.
> >
> > In addition to the Bunker Buster, the Reliable
Replacement
> > Warhead program in the President's budget
raises a number of
> > concerns. This program was added in the
Omnibus Conference
> > last year to replace Advanced Concepts. The
scope and
> > direction of this program must be clearly
defined so that
> > this program does not simply replace the one
Congress
> > canceled last year. The Reliable Replacement
Warhead program
> > requests a whopping $97 million in funding
over the next
> > five years. According to the DOE Budget
Request:
> >
> > Advanced Concepts Initiative... has been
replaced by
> > Stockpile Services Reliable Replacement
Warhead... to
> > demonstrate the feasibility of developing
reliable
> > replacement components that are producible and
certifiable
> > for the existing stockpile. The initial focus
will be to
> > provide cost and schedule efficient
replacement pits that
> > can be certified without Underground Tests.
> >
> > The United States faces a serious national
security threat
> > from the proliferation of nuclear weapons
materials and
> > technologies, most notably in North Korea,
Pakistan and
> > Iran. We believe that the pursuit of new
nuclear weapons
> > such as RNEP sends a dangerously mixed signal
to the rest of
> > the world and erodes our nonproliferation
credibility.
> > Nations that see the U.S. expanding and
diversifying our
> > nuclear arsenal are encouraged to seek or
maintain nuclear
> > deterrents of their own and ignore
nonproliferation
> > obligations. Additionally, a U.S. move toward
expanding and
> > diversifying our nuclear stockpile is contrary
to our legal
> > obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on
the
> > Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT),
which clearly
> > requires the United States to work toward
reducing our
> > nuclear arsenal.
> >
> > In light of the adverse impact of the pursuit
of RNEP and
> > any other new nuclear weapon on international
> > nonproliferation efforts, the fact that RNEP
would
> > inevitably spread high levels of radiation
above ground, and
> > existing U.S. earth-penetrating and other
conventional
> > weapons capabilities, we believe that the RNEP
study and the
> > development of any new nuclear weapons are a
dangerous and
> > wasteful use of taxpayer money. We are also
concerned that
> > shifting funding from the cancelled Advanced
Concepts
> > program into the Reliable Replacement Warhead
program may
> > result in new nuclear warheads moving forward
without any
> > established need or compelling justification.
We therefore
> > ask that you eliminate funds for the RNEP
program and for
> > any program to study or develop new types of
nuclear weapons.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Ackerman, Gary
> > Allen, Tom
> > Baldwin, Tammy
> > Berman, Howard
> > Blumenauer, Earl
> > Capps, Lois
> > DeFazio, Peter
> > DeLauro, Rosa
> > Dicks, Norman
> > Doggett, Lloyd
> > Engel, Eliot
> > Eshoo, Anna
> > Farr, Sam
> > Frank, Barney
> > Grijalva, Raul
> > Holt, Rush
> > Lofgren, Zoe
> > McCollum, Betty
> > McDermott, Jim
> > McGovern, James
> > McKinney, Cynthia
> > Maloney, Carolyn
> > Markey, Edward
> > Matheson, Jim
> > Meehan, Martin
> > Miller, George
> > Nadler, Jerrold
> > Oberstar, James
> > Sabo, Martin
> > Sanchez, Loretta
> > Sanders, Bernard
> > Schakowsky, Janice
> > Serrano, Jose
> > Slaughter, Louise
> > Spratt, John
> > Stark, Fortney Pete
> > Strickland, Ted
> > Tauscher, Ellen
> > Van Hollen, Chris
> > Woolsey, Lynn
> >
> >
> > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups
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>
> ------------------------------------------------
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> >
> > To subscribe to the Abolition Global Caucus,
send an email from the
> > account you wish to be subscribed to:
> > abolition-caucus-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
> > To unsubscribe, send a blank email to
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> >
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13 [du-list] 30 arrested in Alliant protest against DU
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:00:26 -0800
30 arrested in Alliant protest
Posted on Wednesday 16 March @ 19:56:01
by Bert Schlauch Pulse of Twin Cities (Minnesota)
http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1707
Roughly 200 persons protested in front of a weapons plant in
Edina, Minnesota this morning. The Edina police arrested 30
of the protesters for trespassing. The civil disobedience is
in response to violations of international law that
proscribe the use of landmines and cluster bombs, both of
which are allegedly manufactured at by the Edina-based company.
The temperature was in the teens this morning at 7:00 am
when roughly 200 persons gathered in a parking lot near the
Alliant Tech Systems (ATK), a company that has, according to
a quote on their homepage, has “bucked the trend and broken
into the party of larger defense companies.” If the party
they are talking about is making a mint from US tax dollars
by spreading death and destruction, that’s why most of us
were protesting this morning.
The vigil began with the lighting of a candle. The crowd
broke into song singing “Down by the Riverside.” This was
followed by a briefing by an officer from the Edina Police
Department. The officer told us that he respected our right
to protest peacefully — a right he added that all US
citizens have. He passed out instructions for a peaceful
protest and everyone read them aloud.
Someone asked the officer how he could support a company
that is breaking international law. His response is he has
taken an oath to implement Minnesota and U.S. laws. And
that’s the problem. The Bush administration attacks and
threatens countries that it believes have weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) when the US itself is manufacturing and
using WMD. The U.S. acts as if it is above the law. The Bush
administration no longer supports several major treaties,
including the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with
Russia. The administration also announced it will not
support the landmine ban treaty nor environmental and
mercury treaties. Add to this the fact that the US has
withdrawn its support of the International Criminal Court.
By some estimates, 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the
latest war. This figure was released months ago, and the
news reports 20 or more new Iraqis deaths everyday. In
Fallujah, there are reports that the US used a napalm-like
substance and cluster bombs. Has anyone seen photos of a
liberated Fallujah? It was a city of 300,000 inhabitants.
Underlying all of this bad news are the possible risks of
depleted uranium, which has been used throughout Iraq and in
other conflict zones. This “mildly” radioactive element that
is found in US munitions is believed to cause birth defects
and cancer. The US Defense Dept. says there is no evidence
that this is true, but shouldn’t scientific studies be
completed before the Defense Dept. experiments with the
“liberated” people of Iraq and the US soldiers that are
exposed to this radioactive dust? Remember Agent Orange?
With these issues fresh in everyone’s mind, the protesters
walked to the edge of ATK’s property. We were greeted by a
large number of police and ATK employees who lined the
perimeter of their property. ATK security were also on the
roof of the building (you can see them in some of the
photos). Other security members took photos of the vigil
participants with long telephoto lenses.
Only 30 or so of the participants in the vigil elected to
trespass on ATK property to bring attention to this
company’s record. They kneeled down on the driveway at the
entrance to ATK. They were cuffed and carried away to a bus
for processing. No corporate media were present. ||
Bert Schlauch is a longtime activist in the Twin Cities.
--
Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~
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14 MEPs To Visit US Nuke Weapons Sites
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:25:47 -0500
The NPT Treaty went into effect 35 years ago
this month. The USA, Russia, FRance, China & UK
have still not abolished their nuclear arsenals as
mandated in the treaty's Article VI at:
http://www.cornnet.nl/~akmalten/docs.html
From: "Ellisaari Jaakko" pol@motherearth.org
www.motherearth.org
.
*****************************************************************
15 EPA: EIS/R Comments
FR Doc 05-5418
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13190-13191] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-71]
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[ER-FRL-6661-6] Environmental Impact Statements and Regulations;
Availability of EPA Comments
Availability of EPA comments prepared pursuant to the
Environmental Review Process (ERP), under section 309 of the
Clean Air Act and section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental
Policy Act as amended. Requests for copies of EPA comments can be
directed to the Office of Federal Activities at (202) 564-7146.
An explanation of the ratings assigned to draft environmental
impact statements (EISs) was published in the Federal Register
dated April 2, 2004 (69 FR 17403). Draft EISs
ERP No. D-AFS-G65097-NM Rating LO, Tajique Watershed
Restoration Project, Proposes Fuel Reduction and Restore Forest
Health, Cibola National Forest, Torraine County, NM.
Summary: EPA expressed lack of objections to the preferred
alternative.
ERP No. D-NPS-G02014-TX Rating EC2, Big Thicket National
Preserve Oil and Gas Management Plan, Implementation, Hardin,
Jefferson, Orange, Liberty, Tyler, Jasper and Polk Counties, TX.
Summary: EPA expressed environmental concerns with impacts to
jurisdictional wetlands and requests additional information on
the delineation of these wetlands be incorporated in the Final
EIS. Final EISs
ERP No. F-AFS-J65402-WY, Tongue Allotment Management Plan,
Proposal to Continue Livestock Grazing on All or Portions of the
22 Allotment, Bighorn National Forest, Tongue and Medicine
Wheel/Paintrock Ranger Districts, Johnson, Sheridan and Bighorn
Counties, WY.
Summary: EPA continued to express concerns with potential
adverse impacts to water quality and riparian zones from
livestock grazing and recreation. EPA's request for additional
evaluation, disclosure, and mitigation in the Final EIS and
recommendation to eliminate grazing impacts near important
aquatic resources were not addressed.
ERP No. F-AFS-L65405-AK, Shoreline Outfitter/Guide Plan,
Commercial Permits Issuance for Shoreline-Based Activities on
National Forest System Lands, Admiralty Island National Monument,
Hoonah, Sitka and Juneau Ranger Districts, Tongass National
Forest, AK.
Summary: No formal comment letter was sent to the preparing
agency.
ERP No. F-FHW-C40158-NY, Slingerlands Bypass Extension (NYS
Route 85) (P.I.N. 1125.19) Route 140 (Cherry Avenue Extension) to
the Albany City Line, Reconstruction Town of Bethlehem, Albany
County, NY.
Summary: EPA continues to have environmental concerns with
the preferred alternative regarding the adequacy of mitigation
for impacts to forested wetlands.
ERP No. F-FHW-F40419-MN, MN-371 North Improvement Project,
Reconstruction from the intersection of Crow Wing County Road 18
in Nisswa to the Intersection of Cass County Road 42 in Pine
River, Funding, NPDES Permit, and U.S. Army COE Section 404
Permit Issuance, Crow Wing and Cass Counties, MN.
Summary: EPA has no objection to the action as proposed since
previous comments were adequately addressed. Wetland mitigation
issues will be pursued as part of the CWA Section 404 permit
review.
ERP No. F-NIH-G84000-TX, Galveston National Laboratory for
Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Facility at
the University of Texas Medical Branch, Construction, Partial
Funding, Grant, Galveston, TX.
Summary: No formal comment letter was sent to the preparing
agency.
ERP No. F-NRC-E09809-SC, Savannah River Site Construction and
Operation of a Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility,
NUREG-1767, Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale Counties, SC. Summary:
EPA continues to have environmental concerns about the project
regarding the hazardous and radioactive wastes associated with
the exhaust that will be generated during operation of the
proposed facility. However, EPA acknowledges that NRC will
address related air emissions issues during the Clean Air Act
permitting process.
ERP No. F-SFW-L64050-00, Caspian Tern (sterna caspia)
Management to Reduce Predation of Juvenile Salmonids in the
Columbia River Estuary, To Comply with the 2002 Settlement
Agreement, Endangered Species Act (ESA), Columbia River, WA, OR,
ID and CA.
Summary: EPA's concerns associated with tern consumption of
ESA- listed Salmonids, alternative nesting sites and water
quality impacts were addressed in the Final EIS. However, EPA
continued to express concerns over whether the proposed
relocation of terns to newly
[[Page 13191]]
created nesting sites would be successful.
ERP No. F-UAF-G11045-TX, Relocation of the C-5 Formal
Training Unit from Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma to Lackland Air
Force Base, Bexar County, TX.
Summary: No formal comment letter was sent to the preparing
agency.
ERP No. F-USA-G11044-00, Fort Bliss, Texas Proposed Leasing
of Lands, Proposed Siting, Construction and Operation, by the
City of EL Paso of a Brackish Water Desalination Plant and
Support Facilities, EL Paso Water Utilities (EPWU), City of EL
Paso, TX and New Mexico.
Summary: No formal comment letter was sent to the preparing
agency.
Dated: March 15, 2005. B. Katherine Biggs, Associate
Director, Office of Federal Activities. [FR Doc. 05-5418 Filed
3-17-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
*****************************************************************
16 Washington Times: New nuclear countermeasures
Editorials/OP-ED - March 18, 2005 the cusp of developing
"radioprotectants," drugs that guard against acute radiation
syndrome. Since most people who die in a nuclear attack do so
from radiation sickness, these drugs promise great benefits as
safeguards against nuclear terrorism. If they work, they would be
unprecedented. It goes without saying that the federal government
should be doing its utmost to promote them.
Congress started, albeit belatedly, by authorizing funding for
radioprotectants among other counter-WMD drugs in Project
BioShield, a 10-year, $5.6 billion effort signed into law last
July and currently under implementation. We criticized Congress
last year for delaying it. Now, Congress can improve its record
by passing a mostly unheralded bill introduced in the House this
week. The bill, the Radioprotectant Procurement Act of 2005,
would commit the government to developing and stockpiling the
drugs.
*****************************************************************
17 [NYTr] Vanunu Indicted for Violating Gag Order
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:05:35 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
The Guardian - Mar 18, 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1440460,00.html
Vanunu faces new jail term
Whistleblower charged with breaching gag order
By Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
The Israeli nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, is facing another term
in prison after he was charged yesterday with breaching a gag order imposed
on his release from an 18-year sentence last April.
Israeli prosecutors laid 22 charges against Mr Vanunu at a Jerusalem
magistrates court for allegedly exposing nuclear secrets in interviews with
the foreign press and for attempting to visit Bethlehem at Christmas. If
convicted, he faces up to two years in jail.
After he was freed last year at the end of his sentence for revealing the
inner workings of Israel's nuclear weapons programme to the Sunday Times, Mr
Vanunu was served with a court order forbidding him to contact or pass
information to foreigners or to leave Israel.
Mr Vanunu told the Guardian yesterday that he did not know if the charges
were a serious attempt to put him back in prison or simply to silence him
amid an international campaign to have the restrictions lifted when they
come up for renewal in July.
"They have to decide what they want to do with me. The police spent a lot of
time watching me to see what I was doing and now they charged me for giving
interviews to the foreign media. It is a breach of the conditions of my
release. I don't think it is a big offence but maybe they do."
Shortly after he took up residence at an East Jerusalem cathedral on his
release, Mr Vanunu began giving interviews to the Guardian, the BBC and
dozens of other media organisations in defiance of the gag order.
The indictment was filed after the police arrested Mr Vanunu for the third
time in less than a year but he was not held in custody.
The prosecution told the court yesterday that Mr Vanunu systematically and
knowingly had violated the restrictions with interviews in which he
described Israel's Dimona nuclear plant, where he worked as a technician,
and its production capabilities. The indictment said he had also named
atomic materials used at the reactor.
"Since his release Vanunu has maintained contact with numerous foreign
journalists and even told some of them he was aware he was violating the
terms of his release by meeting and exchanging information with them,"
Israel's justice ministry said.
Mr Vanunu, a convert to Christianity, also faces charges of attempting to
leave the country, most notably last Christmas Eve when he was stopped by
the army on his way to attend midnight mass in Bethlehem.
The charges came a day after an Israeli parliamentary committee cancelled a
debate about whether the restrictions on Mr Vanunu should be lifted.
"I have no more secrets to tell and have not set foot in Dimona for more
than 18 years," Mr Vanunu said on Wednesday. "I have been out of prison,
although not free, for one year. Despite the illegal restrictions on my
speech, I have again and again spoken out against the use of nuclear weapons
anywhere and by any nation. I have given away no sensitive secrets because I
have none."
However, in July 2004, the Israeli high court rejected a petition for the
gag order to be removed after the judges determined that he still possessed
sensitive security information even two decades after working at Dimona.
Supporters of Mr Vanunu in Jerusalem for the parliamentary debate included
Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war.
"That, after 18 years of imprisonment and solitary confinement and
mistreatment, a person can still come out sane, articulate, compassionate -
this is the secret that no regime wants its citizens to know," he said.
In other news:
A mob of Jewish religious students attacked and severely beat Palestinian
labourers working on a West Bank settlement yesterday, sending at least five
to hospital. The police said about 40 yeshiva students, some with clubs,
"almost lynched" the eight Palestinians on Nahliel settlement. One is in a
critical condition.
*
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*****************************************************************
18 Guardian Unlimited: Russia, EU Leaders Reach Agreements
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday March 19, 2005 12:46 AM
By ANGELA DOLAND
PARIS (AP) - European leaders formed a united front with Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Friday, emphasizing their common
position on Iran's nuclear ambitions and pressing Syria to
withdraw from Lebanon.
At a joint news conference, Putin and the leaders of France,
Russia and German said there was no contradiction between
Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran and Europe's efforts to
ensure that Tehran is not building nuclear weapons.
``We all have an interest in Iran not having nuclear weapons.
They must not produce them. They must not possess them. But no
one can deny a country the right to have nuclear energy for
civilian and peaceful ends,'' said German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, speaking through a translator.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that although his country
is aiding Iran's civilian nuclear program, Tehran also must
prove that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons.
``Iran must prove that it refuses totally the acquisition of a
nuclear weapon. No other limit exists,'' said the Russian
leader, also speaking through a translator.
The United States is worried that Russia's construction of a
reactor in the Iranian city of Bushehr could help Tehran develop
nuclear weapons. Tehran denies it is seeking the bomb.
But U.S. officials say Russia increasingly has shared their
concerns about Iran's nuclear program and have praised Moscow
for demanding a deal - signed last month - that obliges Iran to
return spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr. The accord is designed
to prevent any possibility that Tehran will extract plutonium
from the spent fuel and use it to make nuclear weapons.
The informal talks were a chance for the Europeans, led by
French President Jacques Chirac, to assure Putin that Europe
wants good relations with Moscow and to gently steer him toward
greater democracy.
``In the relationship between Russia and all of Europe, we see
the keys to peace, democracy and the rule of law taking root
definitively on our continent,'' Chirac said.
At the news conference, the leaders brushed over the toughest
subject - Russia's war in Chechnya, which raised protests from
human rights groups. A few hundred people demonstrated in
central Paris, some shouting, ``Putin, terrorist!''
Chirac, who has pressed for a political solution in Chechnya in
the past, said he raised the issue privately but did not offer
details.
Cooperation and gentle persuasion were the themes of the meeting
to prepare for a larger summit ahead between Russia and the
whole 25-nation European Union on May 10.
France sees the outstretched hand as the best way to elicit
change in Russia, especially with Russia now at the European
Union's doorstep. Eight former Soviet bloc countries joined the
EU in May.
Turning the focus to another Middle Eastern problem, the four
urged Syria to withdraw troops and intelligence services from
Lebanon in accordance with a U.N. resolution.
In a statement, they called for ``the total withdrawal of Syrian
armed forces and security services, who must quickly leave
Lebanese territory.''
The ``outstretched hand'' approach with Russia is in contrast to
the blunter approach President Bush used last month. After
meeting Putin, Bush said: ``I think Vladimir heard me loud and
clear'' about building democracy.
Looking tense, Putin responded that he was ``not the minister of
propaganda.''
---
Associated Press writer Christine Ollivier and John Leiceste in
Paris contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
19 Times of India: Nuclear noose tightens around Pak
REUTERS[ FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2005 11:10:06 PM
VIENNA: Experts representing the world's top nuclear exporters
will visit Pakistan next month to assess whether controls are in
place to prevent illicit exports of sensitive atomic technology,
the group's chairman said.
The team from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the 44-nation
alliance that polices global exports of materials and equipment
that can be used in atomic weapons, should arrive in early
April, NSG Swedish chairman Richard Ekwall said. Pakistan is at
the centre of a probe of a nuclear black market linked to the
father of Pakistan's atom bomb programme, the disgraced
scientist A Q Khan.
Khan's network, established to skirt sanctions to procure
sensitive technology for Pakistan's weapons programme, supplied
Iran, North Korea and Libya with centrifuge technology that can
produce enriched uranium fuel for atomic power plants or bombs.
The government denied any prior knowledge of Khan's network and
vowed to prevent any future illegal nuclear exporting. Ekwall
said the visit to Pakistan was part of the NSG's 'outreach'
programme to states that are not members, but are important for
the global export control regime. He said NSG teams had recently
visited Israel, India and Egypt.
Speaking about those visits and his upcoming visit to Pakistan,
Ekwall said the trips were to 'review and discuss export control
systems of those governments'.
"They (Pakistan) have passed new legislation," he said. "The
visit to Islamabad would give us the opportunity to discuss
about their control systems."
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
20 Mos News: Russians Will Not Help Anyone Make Nuclear Weapons — Official -
NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM
Vladimir Putin and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov with
Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani / Photo: Reuters
Created: 18.03.2005 15:28 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:28 MSK
MosNews
“Do you really think that Russia has crazy people who would help
anyone make nuclear weapons that could land in the hands of
terrorists tomorrow? We have never done it and will never do
so,” Ivanov said.
“On the contrary, we will apply every effort to strengthen
non-proliferation policies,” the official assured Israeli
television in an interview that was quoted by RIA-Novosti news
agency.
Russia is “strongly opposed” to the emergence of nuclear weapons
in Iran, Ivanov emphasized.
“As to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, this is a lawful
right of any state including Iran. We cooperate with Iran only
in peaceful programs under strict control of the IAEA. This
provides a strong guarantee that those programs will not be used
for military purposes,” Ivanov said.
In October 2004 Russia and Iran announced the completion of
construction of Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran — a project the
United States fears Tehran could use to make nuclear arms.
The 1,000-megawatt, $800 million Bushehr plant was due to be
launched in 2005 and reach full capacity in a year later.
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
21 Peach Waste: Groups say government hiding nuclear risk
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:00:10 -0800
Groups say government hiding nuclear risk
Spent radioactive fuel at Peach Bottom and other plants vulnerable to
terrorist attack, they say.
By Ad Crable
Lancaster New Era
Published: Mar 17, 2005 1:54 PM EST
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Public interest groups say spent radioactive fuel
stored at Peach Bottom and 31 other U.S. nuclear plants continues to be
particularly vulnerable to attacks by terrorists.
The groups accuse the federal government of covering up a new study that
backs up that concern.
The Nuclear Security Coalition, which includes such groups as Greenpeace,
Union of Concerned Scientists and the local TMI Alert, says Peach Bottom
and others are particularly vulnerable to an attack by air because spent
fuel is located high inside buildings and surrounded only by thin roofs and
walls.
³Because spent pools are considered among the highest impact targets for
terrorism in the U.S., in late 2003 Congress ordered the National Academy
of Sciences to study current storage methods for commercial spent nuclear
fuel and options to reduce risks,² said Eric Epstein of TMI Alert.
³A classified version of the report was completed last summer. Insiders say
it confirms concerns that enormous radioactive fires could result if waste
pools were attacked,² Epstein said.
He complained that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission continues to make
revisions to a version of the report to delay its release to the public.
³We have concluded from the NRC¹s response that spent fuel pools are not as
well engineered and robust as advertised,² Epstein said.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan denied the agency was trying to keep the
report¹s conclusions from the public.
³The NRC has to balance the need for public openness with national
security,² he said. He said the report should be released to the public in
³the not too distant future.²
Sheehan also said the NRC disagrees with some of the conclusions as
³unreasonable² and not based on solid technical footing.
He said the NRC feels one of the report¹s major conclusions to move spent
fuel to above-ground storage in casks can¹t be accomplished as soon as the
study suggests.
The groups say spent fuel pools contain far more radioactivity than do
nuclear reactors at plants.
The Three Mile Island nuclear plant is not among the 32 plants singled out
as being especially vulnerable to attacks on spent fuel pools.
³That¹s not to say TMI doesn¹t have problems or challenges ‹ they¹re just
not generic in nature,² Epstein said.
The groups urge the NRC to require the plants to store spent fuel in
reinforced bunkers, rather than high-density pools of water.
Peach Bottom, in fact, now stores some of its used fuel in above-ground
concrete casks, but still has some in fuel pools, Epstein said.
In a letter to the NRC, the groups reference the disclosure this week of a
report by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security that found that small
airports remain largely unregulated and could be used by terrorists to
launch another aerial attack.
The groups posted a list of airports within 10 miles of nuclear plants. Two
southern Lancaster County airports were listed for Peach Bottom and one
near Mount Joy was listed for TMI.
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*****************************************************************
22 NRC: DATE: Week of March 14, 2005.
FR Doc 05-5468
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13216] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-107]
PLACE: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
STATUS: Public and closed.
MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:
Week of March 14, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
9:25 a.m. Affirmation Session (Public Meeting) (Tentative). a.
Private Fuel Storage (Independent Spent Fuel Storage
Installation) Docket No. 72-22-ISFSI (Tentative). *The schedule
for Commission meetings is subject to change on short notice. To
verify the status of meetings call (recording)--(301) 415- 1292.
Contact person for more information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415-
1651.
* * * * * ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: By a vote of 5-0 on March 15,
2005, the Commission determined pursuant to U.S.C. 552b(e) and
Sec. 9.107(a) of the Commission's rules that ``Affirmation of
Private Fuel Storage (Independent Spent Fuel Storage
Installation) Docket No.
72-22-ISFSI'' be held March 16, 2005, and on less than one week's
notice to the public.
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the
Internet at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * *
* * The NRC provides reasonable accommodation to individuals with
disabilities where appropriate. If you need a reasonable
accommodation to participate in these public meetings, or need
this meeting notice or the transcript or other information from
the public meetings in another format (e.g., braille, large
print), please notify the NRC's Disability Program Coordinator,
August Spector, at (301) 415-7080, TDD: (301) 415- 2100, or by
e-mail at aks@nrc.gov. Determinations on requests for reasonable
accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301) 415-1969. In addition,
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic
message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: March 15, 2005.
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 05-5468 Filed 3-16-05; 9:25 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
23 YDR: Groups say NRC blocked safety report -
York Daily Record [ydr.com]
By SEAN ADKINS Daily Record/Sunday News
Thursday, March 17, 2005
A coalition of 47 grassroots and public-interest groups have
charged the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission with blocking the
release of a national report focused on the safety and security
of nuclear spent fuel storage.
The Nuclear Security Coalition has issued a letter to the
NRC to request a meeting to discuss the report authored by the
National Academy of Sciences.
The academy is a private, nonprofit organization that
advises the U.S. government on matters of technology, medicine
and science.
Since last year, the NRC and the academy have labored to
create a public version of the classified report.
"The NRC considers the report to contain safeguard
information," said William Kearney of the academy. "We are still
working on releasing a public version of it."
Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said in regard to the
report, the NRC must balance the need for openness with the need
to keep certain information out of the hands of adversaries.
"Protecting homeland security information is a high
priority for (the NRC)," he said.
Eric Epstein said he questions the commission's actions.
"Our personal experience is that the NRC does not act swiftly
enough on security challenges," said Epstein of Three Mile Island
Alert in Harrisburg.
Created in 1977, TMI Alert is a group of activists
concerned about the state and national regulation of the
nuclear-power industry. The organization is a member of the
Nuclear Security Coalition.
Sheehan refuted the Nuclear Security Coalition's charge
and said the commission "was by no means trying to block the
release of the report."
Last year, the U.S Congress requested that the National
Academy of Sciences investigate the safety and security of
commercial spent fuel storage.
Both Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and Three Mile
Island house spent nuclear fuel rods in massive pools at each
site. Since 2000, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station has stored a
portion of its spent fuel in dry casks on a concrete pad at the
site.
The academy's study looked into the potential safety
risks of spent fuel currently stored in pools at commercial
nuclear power plants. The review researched the safety and
security advantages of dry cask versus wet pool storage of spent
fuel.
The project also looked at any potential advantages
regarding dry cask storage designs.
Sheehan said the commission does agree with many of the
project's report findings that have reinforced the validity of
some of the NRC's most recent studies.
"Our studies indicate that the spent fuel storage systems
currently in use are safe and secure," he said.
But the commission does not agree with some of the
report's conclusions, claiming those particular results have
proven unreasonable or lack a sound technical grounding. For
example, the report suggests that nuclear power plants should
move spent fuel from cooling pools to dry casks based on a
quicker timetable, Sheehan said.
Currently, spent nuclear fuel rods cool for a minimum of
five years in pools before being switched to dry casks.
"We do not believe that this is a pertinent move,"
Sheehan said. "We believe the dry cask storage and the spent fuel
pools are safe."
Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2001 or sadkins@ydr.com.
Copyright © York Daily Record 2005 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
24 Brattleboro Reformer: VY gets passing grades
Disaster plan rankles public
March 18, 2005 Brattleboro, VT
By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
VERNON -- Although 2004 was an eventful year for Entergy Nuclear
Vermont Yankee, its annual assessment meeting with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission was not.
Only about 35 people attended the Thursday afternoon meeting
held at the Governor Hunt House on the plant grounds, versus the
more than 500 who showed up last year.
The NRC reported 17 inspection findings for 2004. Fifteen of
the findings were "green," meaning they were of low safety
significance. There was one white finding -- low to moderate
safety risk -- having to do with distribution of the tone alert
radios.
The other finding, which is pending, had to do with the two
fuel rod segments that were thought to be missing last spring.
In a letter to site vice president Jay Thayer, the federal
regulator wrote that, "overall, Vermont Yankee operated in a
manner that preserved public health and safety and fully met all
cornerstone objectives."
Members of the public who attended the meeting had a different
take.
While concerns on a wide variety of issues were voiced, there
was great deal of emphasis on emergency planning, including the
poor distribution of the radios.
Residents who live in the area but are outside of siren
coverage depend on the radios to be notified about emergencies
at the plant. Vermont Yankee was cited for not insuring that
every household that wanted a radio received one.
Plant officials have since implemented a new distribution and
record-keeping plan to remedy the situation. They are also
working on updating the sirens.
But many thought it was too little, too late.
"This is a plant that should not be running. It does not have a
workable notification plan," said Peter Alexander, executive
director of the New England Coalition.
The NRC is considering a petition filed by the coalition
regarding the shortcomings of the emergency alert system.
Ed Anthes of Nuclear Free Vermont gave the five NRC employees
who fielded questions from the public a packet about the
emergency notification plan.
The packet included letters from selectboards and child care
agencies asking Gov. Jim Douglas to reject the plan on the
grounds that it is ineffective.
"Vermont Yankee has been in operation for 32 years, and there
is still no adequate emergency notification system in place,"
said Anthes.
There was relatively little talk about the issues that brought
Vermont Yankee so much public and political scrutiny over the
last year: The missing fuel, the cracked steam dryers and the
transformer fire.
There is still no final decision on what enforcement action
will result from the fuel rod segments that were declared
missing in April 21, 2004. The rods were later found in the
spent fuel.
Also last spring, plant officials announced that about 20
cracks were discovered in the steam dryer. They have since been
repaired but, according to Brian Holian, NRC deputy director of
reactor safety, said they remain a concern in terms of the
pending uprate application.
Other nuclear power plants that have increased power production
have been plagued with steam dryer problems. It is one of the
issues that caused the NRC to delay its decision on the uprate
application.
In June, 2004, there was a transformer fire at the plant that
resulted in a forced shutdown. Vermont Yankee officials took
full responsibility for the fire, saying they had failed to heed
industry experience and advice, resulting in the conditions that
triggered the fire.
They were not fined by the NRC.
While the meeting was subdued compared to last year's raucous,
contentious battle between the public and the NRC, there were
some expressions of frustrations.
Deb Katz of the Citizens Awareness Network has been working on
nuclear issues for almost 15 years. At Thursday's meeting, she
said that over the years, the NRC has grown less concerned with
safety and more concerned with protecting the industry.
"It has gotten to the point where the NRC is meaningless. They
should be fired," she said.
While there were promises to respond to the issues raised,
Alexander of the coalition was skeptical.
"The NRC is responsive on process but frustratingly
unresponsive on content. They appear to listen but it remains to
be seen if they take any substantive action," he said.
Copyright ©1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
*****************************************************************
25 JS Online: Energy panel approves sale of Kewaunee nuclear plant
Consumer groups say new deal still too risky
By THOMAS CONTENT
tcontent@journalsentinel.com Posted: March 17, 2005
State energy regulators said Wisconsin customers will benefit
from its decision to approve the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear
power plant to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va.
Protections added since the $220 million deal was rejected in
November have made it a "better deal" for customers, said Robert
Garvin, a member of the state Public Service Commission.
The commission voted unanimously Thursday to reverse its
November vote against the sale after Dominion offered new
conditions to address the panel's concerns. In November, only
Garvin had supported the deal.
Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and Wisconsin Power
&Light Co. of Madison say they want to sell the plant to relieve
themselves of the risks of running an aging nuclear reactor at a
time when ownership of reactors around the country is being
consolidated by a handful of companies, including Dominion.
Wisconsin utilities welcomed the decision, saying they are
pleased the commission was receptive to changes in the deal.
"They've considered the new conditions that were offered by all
the parties here and have said that addressed their concerns,
and they acknowledged the customer benefits the transaction does
have," said Charlie Schrock, a WPS executive.
The sale is strongly opposed by members of several customer
groups, several of which said Thursday they are considering
whether to appeal the decision once it's put in writing by the
agency.
Conditions agreed to by Dominion "will in fact provide a
meaningful role for the PSC to protect Wisconsin citizens in the
future," said Burnie Bridge, who chairs the commission, during
the panel's meeting in Madison.
Opponents of the deal said several conditions are beyond the
jurisdiction of state regulators and could be thrown out by a
judge at a later date.
"Our belief is Dominion will walk way from those . . .
conditions or promises as soon as it's in their best interest to
do so, and there will be nothing that the PSC can do to stop
them," said Charlie Higley, executive director of the Wisconsin
Citizens' Utility Board, a utility customer group with 10,000
members.
Bridge disagrees, saying that she is convinced that the
conditions offered by Dominion "do address concerns we've
expressed in our last decision in a way that will be legally
binding."
Since November, Dominion agreed to return a portion of a
decommissioning fund to customers and pledged that neither it
nor subsequent owners of the plant will store spent nuclear fuel
from another reactor at Kewaunee.
Dominion and WPS have said previously they expect the sale to
close by June.
Dominion said the acquisition of Kewaunee is projected to add
$15 million to its 2005 earnings. Dominion already operates
nuclear plants in Virginia and Connecticut and is one of several
companies that is considering building a new nuclear plant.
That concerns Higley, who noted that the Kewaunee plant was
designed to accommodate two reactors.
The companies say the sale would provide rate certainty for
customers through a power-purchase agreement negotiated between
the Wisconsin utilities and Dominion. But opponents worry about
the potential for rate shock once that agreement expires, in
2013.
That remains a concern, said Nino Amato, president of the
Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group, a coalition of manufacturers
that participate in utility cases before the commission. Amato
criticized the commission for acting without allowing groups to
present expert testimony.
The sale provides economic benefit for customers through a
power-purchase agreement that will lock in electric prices until
2013 and with the return of $193 million in decommissioning
funds to customers.
The shares of all three companies involved in the sale closed
higher Thursday. Dominion's stock rose 2% to $75.66, WPS
Resources closed up 1% at $54.11, and Alliant, the parent
company of Wisconsin Power &Light, rose nearly 1% to $27.29.
From the March 18, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel
Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights
reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 Capital Times: Nuke plant sale ripped
Groups decry out-of-state deal for power facility
Friday, March 18, 2005 11:24 PM
By Mike Ivey
About Mike
Mike Ivey has been a reporter and columnist at The Capital Times
since 1986. During that time he has covered sports, local news,
environment and business. Ivey has won numerous journalism awards
in his career, including first place for investigative reporting
from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association in 2002.
Consumer advocates are blasting a decision by the state Public
Service Commission unanimously approving the sale of the Kewaunee
nuclear power plant to a Virginia-based energy company.
The three-member panel OK'd the sale to Dominion Resources Inc.
after earlier rejecting the deal over fears the state could lose
authority over the facility. It had voted 2-1 against the sale
in November.
"The PSC has plunged Wisconsin back into the darkness of utility
deregulation," warned Charlie Higley, executive director of the
Citizens' Utility Board.
The Customers First Coalition also expressed disappointment with
the PSC change in direction. "On the basic question of whether
the state should deregulate one of its baseload generating
plants, the commission got it wrong," said David Benforado, a
coalition spokesman and executive director of the Municipal
Electric Utilities of Wisconsin. "It should have stuck to its
guns."
In reversing course, the commission said it was confident
changes in the terms of the deal would assure regulators some
control over the plant, which sits along the shores of Lake
Michigan.
Commission Chairwoman Burnie Bridge said the new deal also
improves the financial results for customers. The deal refunds
$193 million to ratepayers and lets them off the hook for costs
if problems shut down the facility. "I do consider the sale to
be in the economic interest of Wisconsin customers," she said.
Under the deal, Richmond, Va.-based Dominion will pay $220
million to buy the nuclear plant from Wisconsin Power & Light
Co. and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. The Virginia company then
will sell energy back to the two Wisconsin utilities through at
least 2013.
The deal calls for Dominion to pledge not to store out-of-state
nuclear waste at the facility and to clean up any contamination
once it dismantles the plant. Kewaunee's license to operate
expires in 2013, though the plant could get an extension.
In fact, Higley said the PSC's decision makes it more likely
that a new nuclear plant will be built in Wisconsin. Dominion is
one of the leading proponents of nuclear power expansion and is
currently seeking a permit from the federal government to site a
new nuclear plant in Virginia.
"This threatens the health, safety and pocketbooks of
ratepayers," said Higley, adding that Dominion will now become a
major player in Wisconsin energy politics.
Dominion already has a lobby in Wisconsin, and Dominion
political action committees and individuals associated with
Dominion have contributed more than $716,000 to federal
campaigns in 2003 and 2004. Company employees in 2004 also
contributed $2,000 to Gov. Jim Doyle, according to campaign
finance records.
The plant, one of two nuclear power plants in Wisconsin, started
running in 1974. It generates 4 billion kilowatt-hours of
electricity annually, enough to power the Green Bay metropolitan
area as well as homes in outlying Brown, Door, Kewaunee and
Marinette counties.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with about 28,100 megawatts of electric power transmitted over
more than 6,000 miles of transmission lines. It serves more than
5 million customers in eight states, according to the company's
Web site.
Rick Zuercher, a Dominion spokesman on nuclear affairs, said the
company was pleased with the PSC decision but was withholding
comment until the commission delivered its written report on
Thursday's decision, which is expected in several weeks.
The Wisconsin utilities issued a joint statement praising the
sale.
Wall Street reacted positively to the news, as shares of all
three companies involved in the sale closed higher Thursday.
Dominion's stock rose 2 percent to $75.66, WPS Resources closed
up 1 percent at $54.11, and Alliant, the parent company of
Wisconsin Power & Light, rose nearly 1 percent to $27.29.
Associated Press contributed to this report. E-mail:
Published: 9:53 AM 3/18/05
Copyright 2005 The Capital Times
*****************************************************************
27 APP.COM: Nuclear power can play role in clean-air campaign
Asbury Park Press Online
Published in the Asbury Park Press 03/18/05 By ROGER P. SHAW
Because of an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community
that global warming is a serious threat to the world's
environment, one solution is emerging that would have been
inconceivable a decade ago: State governments in the Northeast
may designate nuclear power as a "green" energy source that
merits clean-air credits.
Given that it's the only major energy source available to satisfy
growing energy demands without further loading the atmosphere
with carbon dioxide, nuclear power meets the conditions for
receiving tax credits under a nine-state plan to reduce
greenhouse emissions.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was created three years
ago under the leadership of New York State Gov. George Pataki. In
April, representatives of state agencies and private
organizations from New England and the mid-Atlantic will meet to
establish a market-based system for curtailing carbon-dioxide
emissions from power plants. New Jersey will be among the states
represented at the meeting.
Even though some environmental groups have vowed to walk out if
nuclear power obtains this seal of approval, there are powerful
incentives for including it in the carbon-reduction program.
Greenhouse gas emission-free nuclear plants provide 30 percent of
the electricity in the Northeast, compared to less than 1 percent
from solar and wind energy combined. Since they are intermittent
energy sources, solar and wind cannot be relied on to provide
large amounts of electricity every day. If not for nuclear power,
the region would have to obtain even more of its electricity from
power plants that burn fossil fuels — especially coal, which is
one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases.
Therefore, excluding nuclear power from the carbon-reduction
program would be self-defeating. Without continued and even
increasing use of nuclear power, there is no hope for this region
to get carbon emissions from power plants under control. By
recognizing the important role that nuclear power has been
playing in providing emission-free electricity, state officials
will not just be rewarding its current performance, but will be
encouraging an ongoing contribution.
Our region needs 16 existing nuclear plants to renew their
licenses, allowing them to operate for another 20 years, as well
as new, advanced nuclear plants in the future. Nuclear power
could then continue to play an important role in reducing
greenhouse-gas emissions.
The market-based approach envisioned in the regional initiative
would set an overall level of emissions for carbon dioxide. The
idea would be to reduce emissions to 1990 levels, using a
cap-and-trade system in which electricity companies are
encouraged to use the lowest-cost source of emissions reductions.
The owner of a power plant with high costs to reduce emissions —
a coal plant, for example — could pay another firm with lower
costs to reduce its emissions by the prescribed amount. This
market-based approach saves money and keeps electricity costs
affordable, while achieving the desired reduction in greenhouse
emissions.
Nuclear power would benefit from the cap-and-trade system,
because the production costs of nuclear-generated electricity, on
average, are only a third those of electricity produced from
power plants that burn natural gas. In New Jersey, it would be
easier for utility owners to make progress toward achieving
carbon controls by making full use of the Hope Creek, Salem and
Oyster Creek nuclear power plants. These reactors produce zero
emissions, while gas-fired plants release large amounts of carbon
dioxide into the air.
In addition, natural gas should be reserved for better uses than
electricity production. Residential consumers need natural gas
for heating and cooking purposes, and it's essential to
manufacturers in many petrochemical and other industrial
processes.
It is in New Jersey's interest that nuclear power plants receive
clean-air credit at the upcoming regional meeting. Without more
nuclear power, any strategy for significantly reducing greenhouse
gases in power production will be unworkable. The federal
government and energy industries are recognizing that nuclear
power must be one of the building blocks for a future without the
threat of global warming; it's time for our states to do so as
well.
Roger P. Shaw, Rumson, a nuclear engineer, is the former director
of radiation protection at the Three Mile Island and Oyster Creek
nuclear power plants.
*****************************************************************
28 Mos News: Chernobyl Veterans Win Lawsuit in European Court -
MOSNEWS.COM
Created: 18.03.2005 11:57 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:57 MSK
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of two
Russians who sued their country for failing to increase their
invalid pensions after taking part in the clean-up operation at
the Chernobyl nuclear plant, France Presse reports.
Dmitry Gorokhov, 53, and Rostislav Rusyayev, 54, appealed to the
Strasbourg court because they have not received any pension
increases for radiation injuries, despite the fact Russia issued
the relevant decree in 2001.
The European court ruled that social security authorities in
Russia have to pay $1,200 to each of the plaintiffs in
non-pecuniary damages, for pain and loss of amenity.
As Russia is a member country of the Council of Europe, it has
to validate the the European Court of Human Rights’ verdict.
The catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine
(then a part of the Soviet Union) on April 26, 1986 is widely
regarded as the worst in the history of nuclear power
generation. 30 people were killed immediately after the fourth
reactor of the plant suffered a catastrophic steam explosion
that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and
a nuclear meltdown. Most of the workers who went inside the
reactor after the accident had no protective equipment and that
led to fatal radiation burns.
The explosion produced a plume of radioactive debris that
drifted over parts of the western USSR, Eastern Europe, and
Scandinavia. Large areas of the Ukrainian, Belarusian, and
Russian republics of the USSR were contaminated, resulting in
the evacuation and resettlement of roughly 200,000 people.
A concrete sarcophagus was erected over the plant later, but the
area had already been severely polluted.
Copyright © 2004 MOSNEWS.COM
*****************************************************************
29 Green Bay Press-Gazette: Nuclear-plant sale to Virginia company OK’d
Nuclear-plant sale to Virginia company OK’d"> +
Posted Mar. 18, 2005
Nuclear-plant sale to Virginia company OK’d PSC cites Kewaunee
deal’s potential benefits for ratepayers
By Richard Ryman
One of Wisconsin’s three nuclear power reactors soon will be
under out-of-state ownership.
After receiving assurances of protection for Wisconsin
residents, the state Public Service Commission voted 3-0
Thursday to approve the sale of the Kewaunee Nuclear Plant in
Carlton to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. The sale
will likely be complete before summer.
Burnie Bridge, chairwoman of the Public Service Commission, said
the sale offered “substantial economic benefit to ratepayers
and, with the new conditions offered by Dominion, Wisconsin will
continue to have a voice in the future of the facility as it
impacts our overall economy, health and safety.”
Plant owners Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and
Wisconsin Power & Light of Madison will receive $220 million. In
addition, $193 million from one decommissioning fund — there are
two — will be returned to customers.
Opponents of the sale contend the Public Service Commission will
not be able to enforce new conditions agreed to by Dominion to
earn commission approval.
“In our opinion, these promises are not enforceable,” said
Charlie Higley, executive director of Citizens Utility Board.
“It clearly hinges on whether Dominion wants to be abide by
these. If it doesn’t, there is no way for the commission to
enforce these conditions.”
The selling utilities will continue to purchase electricity from
Kewaunee at agreed-upon rates through 2013, when the plant’s
license expires. They also have exclusive rights to purchase
electricity after 2013 if they choose to do so.
The Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Two Creeks, about four miles
from Kewaunee, has the state’s other two operating reactors.
Point Beach is owned by We Energies of Milwaukee.
Nuclear-plant sale to Virginia company OK’d">
Copyright © 2004
*****************************************************************
30 edie news: Nuclear power will play significant role in future
energy needs
(published on 18-Mar-2005)
Nuclear power is set to play a significant role in providing
future energy needs and reducing carbon emissions, an audience of
delegates at the Energy and Environment Ministerial Roundtable in
London were told this week.
Claude Mandil, Executive Director of the International Energy
Agency (IEA) said he expected nuclear energy to play a very
important role in the future regardless of concerns over waste
disposal and end use.
An idea of the significance nuclear power is likely to take was
given by Mr Liu Jiang, Vice Chairman of the National Development
and Reform Commission of China. Outlining the plans for China's
energy future, Mr Jiang said China was accelerating its nuclear
power development and hoped to top the world in nuclear energy
production in the next 20 years.
"Nuclear energy is clean energy and nuclear power construction
also serves the purpose of achieving a low carbon economy. We
hope to achieve self-reliance on nuclear power by introducing
world advanced 1,000 megawatt pressurised water reactor (PWR)
nuclear power technology."
A number of other countries have said that nuclear will play a
large role in meeting energy needs while helping curb emissions,
including India and Finland which announced plans for its fifth
nuclear power station in 2002.
Nuclear energy remains controversial, however, largely due to
massive industrial leaks such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island
- itself a PWR reactor similar to the ones proposed for China -
and the lack of safe waste disposal options.
More recently though, the industry, particularly in the UK, has
gained negative press due to the massive subsidies it has
received from the Government, for energy production, waste
disposal and for decommissioning (see ).
The controversy around nuclear power has led many other
governments to dismiss its use. Most recently, Irish Environment
Minister, Mr Batt O'Keefe, reiterated the Irish government's
opposition to nuclear energy saying it was not a sustainable
source and that the dangers outweighed the benefits.
In the UK, rumours abound that a new round of nuclear power
station development will commence shortly after the election.
Neither of the two main parties has mentioned nuclear power in
their election campaign literature for the obvious negative
connotations in the public mind, yet neither has dismissed it as
a potential source for the future.
A report in the Independent on Sunday recently claimed that
nuclear companies are preparing bids in readiness for a revision
of the energy white paper which some expect will propose new
reactors to replace older ones nearing the end of their lives.
However, speaking at a press conference after the main
presentations at the Ministerial Roundtable, Patricia Hewitt,
trade and industry secretary dismissed such claims: "The
economics of nuclear power simply do not add up," she said.
"Companies are not exactly queuing up to build them."
Ms Hewitt said that the government had to finish the review of
its climate change programme and then look at whether renewable
energy and energy efficiency measures were delivering the
desired results before another white paper could be produced if
new nuclear construction was needed.
In the meantime, however, the priorities for the UK were energy
efficiency, then renewables, then a look at the nuclear
question, she said.
By David Hopkins
© Faversham House Group Ltd 2005. edie news articles may be
*****************************************************************
31 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Inc (SNC), Joseph M. Farley
FR Doc 05-5365
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13215] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-105]
Nuclear Power Plant, Units 1 and 2; Notice of Availability of the
Final Supplement 18 to the Generic Environmental Impact Statement
for the License Renewal of Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Power Plant,
Units 1 and 2 Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (the Commission) has published a final
plant-specific supplement to the Generic Environmental Impact
Statement (GEIS), NUREG-1437, regarding the renewal of operating
licenses NPF-2 and NPF-8 for an additional 20 years of operation
at Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Power Plant (FNP). FNP is located in
Houston County, Alabama, approximately 16.5 miles east of the
City of Dothan, Alabama. Possible alternatives to the proposed
action (license renewal) include no action and reasonable
alternative energy sources.
Section 9.3 of the final supplement 18 states: Based on: (1) The
analysis and findings in the GEIS (NRC 1996; 1999), (2) the
environmental report submitted by SNC (SNC 2003), (3)
consultation with Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies, (4)
the staff's own independent review, and (5) the staff's
consideration of public comments, the recommendation of the staff
is that the Commission determine that the adverse environmental
impacts of license renewal for Farley Units 1 and 2, are not so
great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy
planning decision makers would be unreasonable.
The final Supplement 18 to the GEIS is available for public
inspection in the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) located at One
White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland,
20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. or from the Publicly
Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from
the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
(the Public Electronic Reading Room).
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, or who encounter
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should
contact the PDR reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737,
or by e-mail to
pdr@nrc.gov. In addition, the Houston Love Memorial Library, 212
West Burdeshaw Street, Dothan, Alabama, and the Lucy Maddox
Memorial Library, 11880 Columbia Street, Blakely, Georgia, have
agreed to make the final plant-specific supplement to the GEIS
available for public inspection.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Jack Cushing, License
Renewal and Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory
Improvement Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555. Mr. Cushing may be contacted at
301-415-1424 or via e-mail at JXC9@nrc.gov. Dated in Rockville,
Maryland, this 9th day of March, 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental
Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 05-5365 Filed 3-17-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
32 NRC: Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Vogtle Electric Generating
FR Doc 05-5366
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13215-13216] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-106]
Plant, Units 1 and 2; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No
Significant Impact The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
is considering issuance of an exemption from Title 10 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) part 50, Appendix G, for Renewed
Facility Operating License Nos. NPF-68 and NPF-81, issued to
Southern Nuclear Operating Company (the licensee), for operation
of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (Vogtle), Units 1, and 2,
located in Waynesboro, Georgia. Therefore, as required by 10 CFR
51.21, the NRC is issuing this environmental assessment and
finding of no significant impact.
Environmental Assessment Identification of the Proposed Action:
The proposed action would exempt the licensee from the
requirements of 10 CFR part 50, Appendix G, footnote 2 to table
1, and allow the licensee to use the methodology in Westinghouse
Commercial Atomic Power Report (WCAP), WCAP-16142, Revision 1,
``Reactor Vessel Closure Head/Vessel Flange Requirements
Evaluation for Vogtle Units 1 and 2,'' to justify eliminating the
reactor vessel/head flange region when determining
pressure-temperature (P-T) limits for the reactor vessel.
The proposed action is in accordance with the licensee's
application dated February 26, 2004, as supplemented on July 8,
and October 22, 2004.
The Need for the Proposed Action: Appendix G of 10 CFR part 50,
contains requirements for P-T limits for the primary system, and
requirements for metal temperature of the closure head flange and
vessel flange regions. The P-T limits are to be determined using
the methodology of American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code (ASME Code), Section XI, Appendix
G, but the flange temperature requirements are specified in 10
CFR part 50, Appendix G. This rule states that the metal
temperature at the closure flange regions must exceed the
material unirradiated RTNDT by at least 120 [deg]F for normal
operation when the pressure exceeds 20 percent of the pre-service
hydrostatic test pressure.
This requirement was originally based on concerns about the
fracture margin in the closure flange region. During the boltup
process, outside surface stresses in this region typically reach
over 70 percent of the steady state stress, without being at
steady state temperature. The margin of 120 [deg]F and the
pressure limitation of 20 percent of hydrostatic pressure were
developed in the mid-1970s using the Kla fracture toughness to
ensure that appropriate margins would be maintained.
Improved knowledge of fracture toughness and other issues that
affect the integrity of the reactor vessel have led to the recent
change to allow the use of Klc in the development of P-T curves,
as contained in ASME Code Case N-640, ``Alternative Reference
Fracture Toughness for Development of P-T Limit Curves for
Section XI, Division 1.'' ASME Code Case, N-640 has been approved
for use without conditions by the NRC staff in Regulatory Guide
1.147, ``Inservice Inspection Code Case Acceptability, ASME
Section XI, Division 1,'' published in June 2003.
However, P-T limit curves can still produce operational
constraints by limiting the operational range available to the
operator during heatup and cooldown of the plant, especially when
considering requirements in the closure head flange and the
vessel flange regions.
Implementing the P-T curves that use Klc material fracture
toughness without exempting the flange requirement of 10 CFR part
50, Appendix G, would place a restricted
[[Page 13216]] operating window in the temperature range
associated with the closure head flange and reactor vessel
flange, without a commensurate increase in plant safety.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action: The NRC has
completed its safety evaluation of the proposed action and
concludes that the more conservative minimum temperature
requirements related to footnote (2) to Table 1 of 10 CFR part
50, Appendix G are not necessary to meet the underlying intent of
10 CFR part 50, Appendix G, to protect the Vogtle, Units 1 and 2
RPVs from brittle fracture during normal operation under both
core critical and core non-critical conditions and RPV
hydrostatic and leak test conditions.
The details of the NRC staffs safety evaluation will be provided
in the amendment and exemption that will be issued as part of
letter to the licensee approving the amendment and exemption to
the regulation.
The proposed action will not significantly increase the
probability or consequence of accidents, no changes are being
made in the types of effluents that may be released off-site, and
there is no significant increase in occupational or public
radiation exposure.
Therefore, there are no significant radiological environmental
impacts associated with the proposed action.
With regard to potential non-radiological impacts, the proposed
action does not have a potential to affect any historic sites.
It does not affect non-radiological plant effluents and has no
other environmental impact. Therefore, there are no significant
nonradiological environmental impacts associated with the
proposed action.
Accordingly, the NRC concludes that there are no significant
environmental impacts associated with the proposed action.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action:
As an alternative to the proposed action, the NRC staff
considered denial of the proposed action (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative).
Denial of the application would result in no change in current
environmental impacts. The environmental impacts of the proposed
action and the alternative action are similar.
Alternative Use of Resources: The action does not involve the use
of any different resource than those previously considered in
NUREG- 1087, ``Final Environmental Statement related to the
operation of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Units 1 and
2,'' dated December 1985.
Agencies and Persons Consulted: On January 6, 2005, the NRC staff
consulted with the Georgia State official, Mr. Jim Hardeman of
the Department of Natural Resources, regarding the environmental
impact of the proposed action. The State official had no
comments. Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the
environmental assessment, the NRC concludes that the proposed
action will not have a significant effect on the quality of the
human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined not to
prepare an environmental impact statement for the proposed
action.
For further details with respect to the proposed action, see the
licensee's letter dated February 26, 2004, as supplemented on
July 8, and October 22, 2004. Documents may be examined, and/or
copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR),
located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly
available records will be accessible electronically from the
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Persons who do not have
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the
documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference
staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 10th
day of March, 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John Nakoski, Chief, Section 1, Project Directorate II, Division
of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 05-5366 Filed 3-17-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
33 NRC: Comment Request
FR Doc 05-5367
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13213-13214] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-103]
AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
[[Page 13214]] ACTION: Notice of pending NRC action to submit an
information collection request to OMB and solicitation of public
comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of
continued approval of information collections under the
provisions of
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).
Information pertaining to the requirement to be submitted:
1. The title of the information collection: Extension.
2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0026.
3. How often the collection is required: On occasion.
4. Who is required or asked to report: NRC employees,
contractors, licensees, and applicants who marry after completing
NRC's Personnel Security forms, or marry after having been
granted an NRC access authorization or employment clearance.
5. The number of annual respondents: 60.
6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the
requirement or request: Total Burden 12 hours (.20 hour per
response).
7. Abstract: Completion of the NRC Form 354 is a mandatory
requirement for NRC employees, contractors, licensees, and
applicants who marry after submission of the Personnel Security
Forms, or after receiving an access authorization or employment
clearance to permit the NRC to assure there is no increased risk
to the common defense and security.
Submit, by May 17, 2005, comments that address the following
questions:
1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the
NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the information have
practical utility?
2. Is the burden estimate accurate?
3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of
the information to be collected?
4. How can the burden of the information collection be minimized,
including the use of automated collection techniques or other
forms of information technology?
A copy of the draft supporting statement may be viewed free of
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB
clearance requests are available at the NRC Worldwide Web site:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html. The
document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60 days
after the signature date of this notice.
Comments and questions about the information collection
requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda
Jo.
Shelton (T-5 F53), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by
Internet electronic mail to infocollects@nrc.gov. Dated at
Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day of March 2005.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information
Services.
[FR Doc. 05-5367 Filed 3-17-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
34 NRC: Comment Request
FR Doc 05-5368
[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices] [Page 13214-13215] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18mr05-104]
AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ACTION: Notice
of pending NRC action to submit an information collection request
to OMB and solicitation of public comment.
SUMMARY: The NRC is preparing a submittal to OMB for review of
continued approval of information collections under the
provisions of
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).
Information pertaining to the requirement to be submitted:
1. The title of the information collection: NRC Form 241,
``Report
of Proposed Activities in Non-Agreement States, Areas of
Exclusive
Federal Jurisdiction, or Offshore Waters.''
2. Current OMB approval number: 3150-0013.
3. How often the collection is required: NRC Form 241 must be
submitted each time an Agreement State licensee wants to engage
in or revise its activities involving the use of radioactive
byproduct material in a non-Agreement State, areas of exclusive
Federal jurisdiction, or offshore waters. The NRC may waive the
requirements for filing additional copies of NRC Form 241 during
the remainder of the calendar year following receipt of the
initial form from a licensee engaging in activities under the
general license.
4. Who is required or asked to report: Any licensees who holds a
specific license from an Agreement State and wants to conduct the
same activity in non-Agreement States, areas of exclusive Federal
jurisdiction, or offshore waters under the general license in 10
CFR 150.20.
5. The estimated number of annual respondents: 167 respondents.
6. The number of hours needed annually to complete the
requirement or request: 1,033 hours (6.18 hours per response).
7. Abstract: Under the reciprocity provisions of 10 CFR part 150,
any Agreement State licensee who engages in activities (use of
radioactive material) in non-Agreement States, areas of exclusive
Federal jurisdiction, or offshore waters, under the general
license in section 150.20, is required to file four copies of NRC
Form 241, ``Report of Proposed Activities in Non-Agreement
States, Areas of Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction, or Offshore
Waters,'' and four copies of its Agreement State license at least
3 days before engaging in such activity. This mandatory
notification permits NRC to schedule inspections of the
activities to determine whether the activities are being
conducted in accordance with requirements for protection of the
public health and safety.
Submit, by May 17, 2005, comments that address the following
questions:
1. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the
NRC to properly perform its functions? Does the information have
practical utility?
2. Is the burden estimate accurate?
3. Is there a way to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of
the information to be collected?
4. How can the burden of the information collection be minimized,
including the use of automated collection techniques or other
forms of information technology?
A copy of the draft supporting statement may be viewed free of
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB
clearance requests are available at the NRC worldwide Web site: .
The document will be available on the NRC home page site for 60
days after the signature date of this notice.
Comments and questions about the information collection
requirements may be directed to the NRC Clearance Officer, Brenda
Jo.
Shelton, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, T-5 F52, Washington,
DC 20555-0001, by telephone at 301-415-7233, or by Internet
electronic mail to .
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 14th day of March 2005.
[[Page 13215]] For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of Information
Services.
[FR Doc. 05-5368 Filed 3-17-05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
35 BoiseWeekly: The Case Against the Plutonium Space Race
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:19:45 -0800
Printed from the BoiseWeekly website: www.boiseweekly.com
POSTED ON MARCH 16, 2005:
The Case Against the Plutonium Space Race
So what happens when the sky begins to fall?
By Karl Grossman
dde4c.jpg dde56.jpg
dde74.jpg
The reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory where plans for producing
Plutonium-238 for use in space satellite power cells will be produced.
dde7d.jpg
Twenty years ago, I began to learn about plutonium-238, the isotope of
plutonium used in space. I was familiar with plutonium-239, built up in
nuclear power plants and used in nuclear weapons. My first book on nuclear
technology, Cover Up: What You ARE NOT Supposed to Know About Nuclear
Power, was published in 1980.
I was reading, in 1985, a Department of Energy publication about plans by
NASA, working with the DOE and several national laboratories, to launch two
space shuttles carrying plutonium-fueled space probes the following year.
One of the shuttles was to be the Challenger.
The publication, DOE Insider, stated that DOE had considered "postulated
accidents" including "launch vehicle aborts, reentry, and impact and post
impact situations." Knowing about the lethality of plutonium-long described
as the most toxic radioactive substance with a particle less than a
millionth of a gram lodged in a lung capable of being a fatal dose-I filed
a Freedom of Information Act request with NASA, DOE and the national labs.
The DOE Insider said "postulated accidents" on the shuttle shots were
studied-what were the results?
I met a wall of resistance. Finally, after protesting the apparent
cover-up, I was sent information in late 1985. There would be serious
impacts, it was acknowledged, if the plutonium was released in an
accident-although NASA and/or DOE personnel had spent considerable time and
Liquid Paper censoring the numbers of people who would be affected.
The agencies maintained, there was "a very small risk of releasing
plutonium-238" because of the "high reliability inherent in the design of
the space shuttle." They gave one-in-100,000 odds for a catastrophic
shuttle accident.
On January 28, 1986, driving to teach my Investigative Reporting course at
the State University at New York, I heard over the car radio that the
Challenger had blown up soon after launch. Stopping at an appliance store,
I viewed the terrible image on scores of TV screens and thought about what
if this accident had happened on the next mission of the Challenger, in May
1986, when 24.2 pounds of plutonium-238 were to be on board.
"Far more than seven people could have died if the explosion that destroyed
Challenger had occurred during the next launch," I wrote in a front-page
editorial for The Nation. And I've been deeply involved doing investigative
reporting on the space nuclear issue ever since.
NASA, incidentally, changed the odds of a catastrophic shuttle accident
soon afterwards-from the one-in-100,000, concocted out of whole cloth, to
one-in-76, about right in light of the subsequent Columbia shuttle
accident. And consider if Columbia had had plutonium on board: radioactive
debris would have splattered over Texas and Louisiana.
I soon learned the accident record in the use of nuclear power in space was
not good. Of the then two-dozen U.S. space nuclear shots, three involved
mishaps. The most serious: in 1964, a satellite with a SNAP-9A
plutonium-238 power system on board failed to attain orbit and fell to
Earth. It broke up dispersing its 2.1 pounds of plutonium-238 fuel as fine
particles. The release caused an increase in global lung cancer rates,
according Dr. John Gofman, professor emeritus of medical physics at the
University of California at Berkeley.
It was relatively easy to identify where the plutonium-238 spread, for
plutonium-238 is rare compared to plutonium-239. "A worldwide sampling
program carried out in 1970 showed SNAP-9A debris to be present at all
continents and at all latitudes," determined a report done by Europe's
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Swedish National Institute of
Radiation Protection. All continents and all latitudes!
And, I learned about the extreme toxicity of plutonium-238.
The good news is that plutonium-238 is not fissile like plutonium-239; it
won't explode. The bad news is that because it has a half-life of 87.8
years compared to 24,500 years for plutonium-239, it is radioactively
hotter. That's why it's used in space: the intense heat of it breaking down
is coupled in what's called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)
to produce electricity.
"Plutonium-238 is about 270 times more radioactive than plutonium-239 per
unit of weight," notes Dr. Arjun Makhijani, the physicist who heads the
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. A factor of 270 to 280 is
cited by physicists.
As a result of the SNAP-9A accident, NASA began doing pioneering solar
energy development. Now all satellites are powered by solar energy, as is
the International Space Station. But NASA and the DOE insist that to send
space devices out into the solar system, plutonium-238 is needed to provide
electricity.
The danger in this program is getting more severe. In 1997, NASA launched
the Cassini space probe with the most plutonium-238 ever used on a space
device-72.3 pounds. Moreover, it had Cassini do two "slingshot maneuvers"
around the Earth-coming back from space and flying in low and fast and
taking advantage of the Earth's gravity to increase its velocity so it
could reach Saturn.
If on either of these Earth "flybys" Cassini had dipped into the
atmosphere, it would have disintegrated and the plutonium-238 released and
"5 billion ... of the world population ... could receive 99 percent or more
of the radiation exposure," acknowledged the NASA's Final Environmental
Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission.
The death toll was estimated by independent scientists as anywhere between
950,000 to 40 million.
Is this kind of enormous risk necessary? Not at all.
Last March, the European Space Agency launched its Rosetta space probe
powered by new high-efficiency solar cells-and ESA made a point of
stressing it was not using plutonium-fueled RTGs on this mission. Rosetta
is to rendezvous with a comet near Jupiter. It will be 800 million miles
from the sun yet energized by solar power.
But the U.S. would stick with plutonium-and now is greatly expanding its
space nuclear program. The $3 billion Project Prometheus has begun-with
much work to be done at Idaho National Laboratory, where also the
production of plutonium-238 is to be "consolidated."
Not only is there to be more plutonium-238 generating systems used in space
but under Project Prometheus, the U.S. would rocket back to the past and
build nuclear-propelled spacecraft-a scheme on which $10 billion was spent
from the 1950s to 1972, when the undertaking was cancelled largely because
of the still-present problem of an atomic rocket falling back to Earth.
For propelling spacecraft, new safe energy technologies have also been
developed. There are "solar sails"-utilizing the ionized particles emitted
by the sun that constitute a force in space. A space device with solar
sails, built in Russia for the International Planetary Society, is to be
launched in coming weeks.
Solar-electric propulsion and is being used now on NASA's Deep Space 1 probe.
Indeed, there is a group within NASA, its Photovoltaics and Space
Environment Branch, which stresses the feasibility of solar power in space.
On its Web site, Dr. Geoffrey, a scientist at the branch, declares: "In the
long term, solar arrays won't have to rely on the sun. We're investigating
the concept of using lasers to beam photons to solar arrays. If you make a
powerful-enough laser and can aim the beam, there really isn't any edge of
sunshine."
Then why the push for space nuclear power?
It's coming from a combination of interests. As "Deep Throat" instructed
Bob Woodward in the Watergate investigation: "Follow the money." Lockheed
Martin, the manufacturer of the plutonium-238 space systems, lobbies
heavily for them. Both Lockheed Martin and Boeing want the business of
building nuclear-propelled rockets under Project Prometheus and push hard
for them. Then there are the national laboratories-including Idaho National
Laboratory-promoting space nuclear power. It's a way to increase their
budgets.
Then there is the military connection.
The U.S. military has long been interested in space-based weapons and
considers atomic power the ideal way to power them. "The fielding of
space-based weapons of devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver
energy and mass as force projection" is projected in a U.S. Air Force Board
report, New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 21st Century. As to
energizing these weapons, it states: "A natural technology to enable high
power is nuclear power in space."
NASA, although established in 1958 ostensibly as a civilian agency, is tied
up with the military especially since the most recent administrator, Sean
O'Keefe, a former Navy secretary, took over.
As Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons &
Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org),
says, the relationship between NASA has never been closer. "Now," says
Gagnon, the notion of "dual use," a civilian/military linkage, "runs
through NASA operations."
In recent days, President Bush nominated Michael Griffin to succeed O'Keefe
as NASA administrator. A prior Griffin position: deputy for technology at
the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization-the federal agency long
involved in developing the Star Wars program. Dual use.
What goes up can easily come down, as Newton said centuries ago.
Putting nuclear poisons above our heads is asking for it. And the
production of plutonium-238 at Idaho National Laboratory presents an
enormous threat-on the ground, too.
Workers at the facility will be impacted. The New Mexican reported in a
front-page story-"Radioactive Mishaps Rising at LANL" -in 1996: "Mishaps in
which workers and equipment have been contaminated with radioactive
substances are on the rise at Los Alamos National Laboratory." The reason?
"Lab officials say the rise in radiation exposure and radioactive mishaps
since 1993 has one primary cause: the Cassini project [and] an ongoing
effort to build radioactive heat sources." Being worked with, it was noted,
was "an isotope of plutonium that is particularly difficult to handle,
plutonium-238, which is many times more radioactive than the better known
plutonium-239 used in nuclear bombs."
People off-site in Idaho can expect radioactive impacts-from accidents and
routine operations.
The processing of plutonium-238 at Los Alamos and the Mound Laboratory in
Ohio has led to plutonium-238 contamination beyond the national laboratory
boundaries.
It's the wrong stuff ... for space and Idaho.
Karl Grossman is author of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear
Threat To Our Planet and writer and narrator of the award-winning TV
documentary Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the
Heavens. He is professor of journalism at the State University of New York
and hosts the nationally broadcast TV program Enviro Close-Up
(www.envirovideo.com).
Karl Grossman will be visiting Idaho to discuss nuclear power in the space
age. He will be in Boise on March 21, 7 p.m. at the First Congregational
Church, 2201 Woodlawn Ave., and in Ketchum on March 22, 7 p.m. at the
Clarion Inn, 6th and Main St. He will continue to tour the State, including
Twin Falls and Pocatello.How radiation can hurt you
URL for this story:
http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=482
p:/
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36 Independent: Soviet navy 'left 20 nuclear warheads in Bay of Naples'
independent.co.uk
By Peter Popham in Rome
19 March 2005
Italy has an unwanted legacy from the Cold War in the form of 20
nuclear warheads on the seabed in the Bay of Naples, left there
by the Soviet navy 25 years ago, it has been claimed.
An expert on Soviet-era intelligence, Mario Scaramella, sent a
memo confirming the existence of the missiles to Guido
Bertolaso, the head of Protezione Civile, Italy's civil defence
agency.
"On 10 January 1970," the memo read, "a submarine of the
November class detached itself from the Fifth Squadron
(Mediterranean) of the Soviet navy with orders ... to place an
imprecise number of tactical atomic torpedoes in the Bay of
Naples. The submarine was armed with 24 nuclear torpedoes of two
different types, for anti-aircraft carrier and anti-submarine
use. They were used to mine the area used by the American
Seventh Fleet."
The Bay of Naples, with the volcanic cone of Mt Vesuvius in the
background, is one of the most famous beauty spots in Italy, as
well as a busy commercial harbour. The city of Naples which
wraps round the bay is the seat of Nato command for southern
Europe. The whole region is also one of the most seismically
active in Europe.
According to Mr Scaramella, the Soviet submarine in question
sank months afterwards with only four nuclear torpedoes on
board, leading experts to conclude that it had laid 20 torpedoes
on the sea floor.
A naval expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was
highly unlikely that the torpedoes would explode. "It's much
harder to make a nuclear weapon explode than a conventional
one," he said. "Every single element has to perform perfectly.
But the torpedoes would be a potential source of contamination.
And the longer they stay on the sea bed, the greater the
corrosion and the higher the risk they represent."
Mr Scaramella said there had long been rumours of nuclear
minefields on the seabed, reported in 2001 in the International
Atomic Energy Agency's "Tecdoc-1242 Inventory of accidents and
losses at sea involving radioactive materials".
"The document includes the marginal note 'not confirmed'," he
added, "to indicate that the Soviet Union had not been able
officially to confirm the episode. But it was not denied, and
the information was circulated to all the embassies in Vienna,
where the agency is based, including the Italian one."
Mr Scaramella told The Independent yesterday that in 2004 the
placing of the torpedoes had finally been confirmed by former
Soviet officials.
Mr Bertolaso told the news weekly L'Espresso: "I have been
assured by members of the armed forces that they are studying
the matter. They said they have known of it for a long time but
have lacked confirmation." The nuclear minefield was said to
have been laid at the height of the Cold War, for activation in
case of war and to cause radioactive contamination.
Mr Scaramella, who is an adviser to an Italian parliamentary
committee on Soviet-era espionage, said he had discovered the
existence of the minefield while following up an Israeli
intelligence report that nuclear material had been obtained in
Naples by Russian gangsters with the help of the Camorra, the
Naples Mafia.
Mr Bertolaso said: "I hope we won't have to look for those
missiles in the Gulf of Naples. I fear that there is everything
down there, from cars on upwards. The technical people I have
spoken to confirm that to find the torpedoes would be an
extremely difficult operation."
But one naval source said he doubted the presence of the
torpedoes. "The chances of them going undetected are extremely
remote," he said.
"Sonar systems today give you a visual picture of the bottom of
the sea. For a busy port such as Naples you map the bottom year
by year. And the Italian navy's mine-clearing capability is very
good."
©2005 Independent News &Media (UK) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
37 Salt Lake Tribune: Cannon resolute on nuke testing
Article Last Updated: 03/18/2005 12:54:08 AM
His support for resumption raises some eyebrows
By Robert Gehrke and Mark Havnes The Salt Lake Tribune
Rep. Chris Cannon's support for resuming nuclear testing in
Nevada has put him in a lonely place in Utah's political
landscape - far from the views of his colleagues in Congress, a
long way from the official state position, and enduring scorn
from victims of Cold War weapons tests.
"Testing nuclear weapons destroyed my family, and a return to
blasting nuclear bombs gives me fear that my state, my family
and my heritage will once again be put at risk," said Eva Marie
Verde, a Salt Lake City Downwinder diagnosed with breast cancer
in 1995. Her father died of brain cancer and her mother and
brother also developed cancer.
In Kanab on Thursday, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. signed a
resolution opposing any resumption of nuclear testing at the
Nevada Test Site. The resolution was passed unanimously by the
2005 Legislature.
The legislation was in stark contrast to statements Cannon
made last week in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, in
which he said he supported testing a nuclear bunker buster bomb
and the existing stockpile of weapons to ensure they work.
In a statement Thursday, Cannon did not back down, saying it
would be "unwise to foreclose the option of ensuring our nuclear
weapons are, in fact, functional.
"In these dangerous times, it is essential that America's
strength be clear and appropriately safe testing may be a
necessary part of maintaining our national defense," said
Cannon, a Republican. "I only support testing that occurs after
careful study of the safety and security of the public and the
environment."
His views set him apart not only from the governor and
Legislature, but from the rest of the Utah congressional
delegation.
"I'm totally opposed to further testing on U.S. soil," said
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Even if it's underground, I don't
want to have the testing done here. If they want to test on some
island somewhere else, that's up to them, but I am totally
opposed to that testing here."
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, reintroduced legislation last
week that would erect obstacles to new nuclear tests.
"I don't think we would ever want to go down this path
again," said Matheson, whose father, the late Gov. Scott
Matheson, died from cancer his family believes was caused by
exposure to testing fallout. "We relied on the federal
government to tell us the truth before and they lied."
The bill would require environmental and safety studies and
congressional approval before tests are conducted. Sen. Bob
Bennett, R-Utah, sponsored a similar bill last year and plans to
reintroduce it in this Congress.
"Senator Bennett is opposed to any resumption of nuclear
testing and has discussed this privately and publicly with Bush
administration officials, and they have no plans now or in the
future to resume nuclear testing," said Bennett's spokeswoman,
Mary Jane Collipriest.
On Thursday, the groups Downwinders Opposed to Nuclear Testing
and HEAL Utah went to Cannon's West Valley City office to deliver
a gift certificate for a hearing aid so the opposition to nuclear
testing wouldn't fall on "deaf ears." The office was closed. A
representative of HEAL Utah is scheduled to meet with Cannon's
chief of staff today.
In Kanab, Michael Lee, chief legal counsel to the governor,
said he blames the death of his father, former Brigham Young
University President Rex Lee, on cancer caused by the tests.
"We all know someone affected by testing after being assured
repeatedly no harm would come from the tests. We know better
than that now," Lee said during a resolution-signing ceremony in
the auditorium of Kanab High School.
He also held up a pamphlet produced in 1957 by the former
Atomic Energy Commission and distributed to residents of
southern Utah, assuring them there was no danger outside the
Test Site boundaries.
"They were wrong," said Lee. "There were a large number of
[people] downwind unfortunately who were affected."
State Rep. Michael Noel, R-Kanab, sponsor of the
resolution, also recognized Jesse Johnson, who proposed creating
a memorial in neighboring Washington County, which received more
fallout than any U.S. county from the tests. The approval of the
monument, called the Wind Wall, is in the resolution and will be
inscribed with names of victims believed to have died from
health problems linked to fallout.
Bennett, Hatch, Cannon and Bishop have all supported studies
of a nuclear bunker buster. President Bush has requested $8.5
million in next year's budget after the House stripped the funds
last year. The administration says it would not test a live
weapon and Hatch and Bennett say it can be studied using
computer models.
Bush has also sought $25 million to prepare the Nevada Test
Site to resume tests within 18 months, if so ordered. Currently,
it would take at least 36 months to resume tests.
Cold War weapons tests at the Nevada site rained radioactive
fallout on residents downwind, afflicting thousands of
unwitting residents with various forms of cancer.
Congress eventually acted to pay Downwinders and to date has
paid 8,875 claims to residents who have been able to prove their
cancers were caused by the radioactive fallout. Cannon worked on
one of the earliest Downwinder lawsuits.
Congress passed a testing moratorium in 1992. President
Clinton extended it and signed a comprehensive test ban treaty,
but the Senate refused to ratify it.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
38 Hawk Eye: Wait continues for IAAP watchers
Friday, March 18, 2005 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
Grassley enters latest round of criticism.
By RANDY MILLER
rmiller@thehawkeye.com
Apparently, the glitch holding up a recommendation to compensate
former nuclear weapons workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant
who contracted cancer is a new report stating that documentation
on radiation exposure levels after 1962 has been declassified.
Office of Compensation and Analysis Support Director Larry
Elliot issued a letter Monday saying that "the revised site
profile describes methods for estimating external doses (of
radiation) incurred after 1962 that do not rely on the use of
classified data, assumptions or methods."
The Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health of the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health decided
last month at a meeting in St. Louis that employees in the
plant's nuclear weapons program should automatically receive
$150,000 if they have been diagnosed with one of 22 cancers
because it was impossible to accurately reconstruct their levels
of exposure.
About 4,000 workers assembled and test–fired nuclear weapons at
the Middletown plant between the late–1940s and the mid–1970s.
Many became ill after exposure to radioactive or other harmful
materials.
In 2000, Congress approved compensation for the nation's former
nuclear weapons workers. Immediate payment was authorized for
workers in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alaska, but workers at
IAAP and a handful of other factories were left out.
Over the past five years, a series of bureaucratic glitches and
an inability to reconstruct radiation exposure levels from
existing records have resulted in fewer than 50 claims from IAAP
workers or their surviving family members being paid.
The advisory board's decision at the Feb. 3 meeting should have
sped up the claims by eliminating the time–consuming effort to
determine the amount of exposure each worker received.
But Elliott's report now further delays moving the
recommendation up the chain of command to Health and Human
Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. Once Leavitt receives the
advisory board's recommendation, he has 30 days to review it and
make his own judgment. Congress then has another 30 days to
check on Leavitt's action.
Some former workers and their families were hoping to have a
final answer by April, but that is unlikely to happen.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, jumped into the fray Tuesday, writing a
letter to both advisory board chairman Paul Ziemer and NIOSH
Director John Howard criticizing them for the continued delays.
Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa's senior senator, chimed in
Thursday, writing Howard demanding answers to a host of
questions and urging an advisory board meeting be scheduled soon
in Iowa "to facilitate an open and constructive discussion on
this matter."
Specifically, Grassley wants to know how "this remarkable
turnabout" has occurred since early February, when a Special
Exposure Cohort evaluation report concluded that the "entire
time period between 1949–1974 involved classified information,
not merely 1949–1962."
In his letter, Grassley asks, "What changed ... from the
issuance of the SEC report and the release of the revised site
profile 5 weeks later? Was any data after 1962 declassified in
that 5–week period?"
Grassley asks for numerous documents in his letter and asks
Howard to respond by March 24.
""I wish to express my frustration concerning the manner in
which this additional information has been presented to the
petitioners, the Advisory Board Members, and me," Grassley
wrote. "If NIOSH believed in January that the methodology for
estimating doses after 1962 did not rely on classified data,
this information should have been made known to the petitioners
and the Advisory Board members (at the Feb. 3 meeting in St.
Louis)."
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
*****************************************************************
39 Apparant Lies By USGS Re Yucca Mt. Might Kill Entire Project
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:27:04 -0500
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nev., said the development "proves once
again that DOE must cheat and lie in order to make
Yucca Mountain look safe."
The discovery of the e-mails "really casts the
project in a real bad light. In lieu of the other
problems, it might be the one that pushes it over
the edge to cancellation," said Bob Loux, Nevada
state Nuclear Projects director and Gov. Kenny
Guinn's chief anti-Yucca administrator.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=7351
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/031705EC.shtml
Documents for Nuclear Waste Project May Have
Been Falsified, Government Says
By H. Josef Hebert
The Associated Press
Thursday 17 March 2005
Washington - Government employees may have
falsified documents related to the Yucca Mountain
nuclear waste project in Nevada, the Energy
Department said Wednesday. The disclosure could
jeopardize the project's ability to get a federal
permit to operate the dump.
During preparation for a license application
to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the
department said it found a number of e-mails from
1998 through 2000 in which an employee of the U.S.
Geological Survey "indicated that he had
fabricated documentation of his work."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the
department is investigating what kind of
information was falsified and whether it would
affect the scientific underpinnings of the
project.
"If in the course of that review any work is
found to be deficient, it will be replaced or
supplemented with analysis and documents that meet
appropriate quality assurance standards," said
Bodman. He said he was "greatly disturbed" by the
development.
The department said the questionable data
involved computer modeling for water infiltration
and climate at the Yucca site, which is 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.
At a House hearing Wednesday, the official who
recently took over the Yucca program in the Energy
Department indicated that the revelations could
further delay the project.
"I assure you we will not proceed until we
have rectified these problems," Theodore Garrish
told Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, chairman of the
House Appropriations subcommittee that controls
the dollars for Yucca Mountain.
Garrish was not asked to elaborate. After the
hearing, he declined to answer reporters'
questions.
Hobson said the problem did not appear too
serious and that he did not think it would throw
Yucca Mountain off track.
"As I understand it this is not a major
impediment and can be corrected very easily,"
Hobson told reporters. "Some people just don't
want to do their job right, so they'll slip it
through rather than doing their job. We don't have
any evidence that somebody directed anybody to do
this."
Chip Groat, director of the Geological Survey,
said the e-mails "have raised serious questions
about the review process of scientific studies
done six years ago."
The disclosure follows other setbacks for the
proposed waste dump. The department has delayed
filing its license application to nuclear
regulators and now acknowledges that the planned
completion of the facility by 2010 no longer is
possible. Garrish told the committee Wednesday
that he couldn't provide a new completion date.
Congress last year refused to provide all the
money sought by the Bush administration for the
project. A federal appeals court rejected the
radiation protection standards established by the
Environmental Protection Agency; the agency is
developing new standards.
Last month, the official in charge of the
Yucca project resigned, citing personal reasons.
The discovery of the e-mails "really casts the
project in a real bad light. In lieu of the other
problems, it might be the one that pushes it over
the edge to cancellation," said Bob Loux, Nevada
state Nuclear Projects director and Gov. Kenny
Guinn's chief anti-Yucca administrator.
Loux said potential water transport - the
issue that some of the questionable work
apparently involved - is critical for the proposed
waste repository.
Water is "the key mechanism at Yucca Mountain
both in terms of infiltrating into the site and in
terms of letting radioactivity release into the
biosphere," Loux said.
Word that documents may have been falsified
"certainly calls into question DOE's ability to
submit any kind of a license application in the
near term," Loux said.
In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Harry
Reid, D-Nev., said the development "proves once
again that DOE must cheat and lie in order to make
Yucca Mountain look safe."
Bodman said the questionable documents were
part of the papers required by the NRC to verify
the accuracy of earlier work in the project.
"The fact remains that this country needs a
permanent geological nuclear waste repository, and
the administration will continue to aggressively
pursue that goal," Bodman said. He said that "all
related decisions have been, and will continue to
be, based on sound science."
*****************************************************************
40 Capital Reports: Yucca Mountain project documents may have been falsified
WASHINGTON (03/18/05) -- Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman has
announced it has been learned that certain employees of the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) at the Department of the Interior
working on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project,
located in Nevada, may have falsified documentation of their
work.
The documentation in question relates to computer modeling
involving water infiltration and climate, and is required as part
of the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s
quality assurance programs that verify the accuracy and
credibility of work that has been completed.
Secretary Bodman released the following statement:
"During the document review process associated with the Licensing
Support Network preparation for the Yucca Mountain project, DOE
contractors discovered multiple emails written between May 1998
and March 2000, in which a USGS employee indicated that he had
fabricated documentation of his work.
"The Department of Energy has initiated a scientific
investigation of the data and documentation that was part of this
modeling activity. If in the course of that review any work is
found to be deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with
analysis and documentation that meets appropriate quality
assurance standards to ensure that the scientific basis of the
project is sound. We are conducting a thorough review of all work
completed by the identified individuals to ensure that other work
was not affected.
"Additionally, we have informed the US Geological Survey and the
State of Nevada. We have initiated an evaluation to determine
if the systematic quality assurance improvements undertaken over
the last four years are sufficient to prevent the reoccurrence of
a similar situation. And we plan to reemphasize to project
personnel the importance of strict adherence to quality assurance
procedures.
"I am greatly disturbed by the possibility that any of the work
related to the Yucca Mountain Project may have been falsified.
This behavior indicated in the emails is completely unacceptable,
and I have referred this matter to the Department of Energy’s
Office of Inspector General for full investigation.
"The safe handling and disposal of nuclear waste and the sound
scientific basis for the repository safety analysis are
priorities for this Administration and the Department of Energy.
All related decisions have been, and will continue to be, based
on sound science.
"The fact remains that this country needs a permanent geological
nuclear waste repository, and the Administration will continue to
aggressively pursue that goal. We are committed to the safety
and protection of the citizens of Nevada as we pursue the
development of the Yucca Mountain project."
U.S. Geological Survey Director Chip Groat has issued the
following statement:
"Serious questions have been raised about quality assurance
practices performed in 1998-2000 by USGS scientists on the Yucca
Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository project for the Department of
Energy. Two actions are underway to investigate these issues.
First, I have referred the matter to the Inspector General for
action. Second, I have initiated an internal review of the
allegations. Once the facts are known, appropriate actions will
be taken. USGS remains committed to maintaining scientific
excellence."
Environmental News Link
30 Palmer Dr. #4-264
Cameron Park, California 95682
Telephone: (530) 676-9334
FAX: (530) 676-9387
Email: capitol@caprep.com
Copyright © 2005 Capitol Reports. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
41 Waste News: Workers may have falsified Yucca Mt. documents, government reveals
[Wastenews.com headlines
By Bruce Geiselman
March 17 -- Government employees working on the Yucca Mountain
nuclear waste repository project may have falsified documents
related to their research, according to the U.S. departments of
Energy and the Interior.
The documentation in question relates to computer modeling
involving water infiltration and climate. Critics said the
possible falsification is further evidence of government
mismanagement of the process for selecting Yucca Mountain for
storing the nation´s spent nuclear fuel and other high-level
radioactive waste.
The discovery provided ammunition to opponents who argue that
the government used faulty science in selecting the site in the
Nevada desert.
"I am both disappointed and outraged by this development, but
hardly surprised," said Nevada Gov. Kenny C. Guinn, a Republican
who has strongly opposed the Bush administration´s attempts to
build the respository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "All
along, the state of Nevada has felt it is our duty to hold the
federal government accountable on the proposed Yucca Mountain
nuclear waste dump because we would be storing the deadliest
substance known to man."
The revelation of possible falsification of documents is
critical because it pertains to questions about whether water in
the area could corrode the underground storage containers at
Yucca Mountain and carry radioactive waste into the environment,
Guinn said.
Department of Energy contractors uncovered evidence of the
possible falsification of documents when examining multiple
e-mails written between May 1998 and March 2000 in which a U.S.
Geological Survey employee indicated he had fabricated
documentation of his work, the department revealed March 16.
The Department of Energy is reviewing all of the work completed
by individuals associated with the e-mails to ensure that other
work was not affected.
"I am greatly disturbed by the possibility that any of the work
related to the Yucca Mountain Project may have been falsified,"
said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. "This behavior indicated in
the e-mails is completely unacceptable, and I have referred this
matter to the Department of Energy´s Office of Inspector General
for full investigation."
The U.S. Geological Survey, part of the Department of the
Interior, also is conducting its own investigation.
"Once the facts are known, appropriate actions will be taken,"
Geological Survey Director Chip Groat said. "USGS remains
committed to maintaining scientific excellence."
Meanwhile, the chairman of a House subcommittee plans to hold a
hearing April 5 to examine the allegations.
"If true, these charges have wide-ranging implications that can
only serve to further jeopardize this dangerous project," said
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., a Yucca Mountain opponent and chairman
of the House Federal Workforce and Agency Organization
Subcommittee. "Undoubtedly, allegations of federal employees
blatantly and purposefully falsifying documentation of Yucca
Mountain will affect nearly every decision that has been made in
the courts and in the U.S. Congress on the development of this
already ill-thought-out scheme."
Public Citizen, an advocacy group, called on the federal
government to abandon the Yucca Mountain project in light of the
recent allegations.
"Coupled with a string of bad news recently for the DOE, the
most recent developments should be the straw that breaks the
camel´s back," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen.
"Inaccurate information about highly dangerous radioactive
material continues to plague the Yucca Mountain project,
confounding the public, the Congress and the government
managers."
The Yucca Mountain project has been the subject of several
legal challenges. The project has received less funding from
Congress than the president requested, and the official in
charge of the project resigned last month. In addition, Energy
Department officials, who had predicted that the site would open
in 2010, recently said the opening would be delayed. They have
not released a new target date.
Contact Waste News government affairs editor Bruce Geiselman at
(330) 865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com
Entire contents copyright 2005 by Crain Communications Inc.
*****************************************************************
42 MSNBC: Data on Yucca nuclear waste site falsified?
Government scientist allegedly indicated documentation was faked
March 16, 2005
WASHINGTON - Government scientists may have falsified documents
related to the $58 billion Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project
in Nevada, the Energy Department revealed Wednesday. The
development could jeopardize the controversial project, which is
still being built and is the only repository for the nation's
waste from commercial nuclear reactors.
E-mails from scientists involved in the project raise serious
questions about the review process of scientific studies done
six years ago, the energy department said.
The department said that during preparation for a license
application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a number of
e-mails were discovered, dating back to 1998 and 2000, in which
an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey “indicated that he
had fabricated documentation of his work.â€
The questionable data involved computer modeling for water
infiltration and climate at the Yucca site, located 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas.
'Serious questions'
In a statement, USGS Director Chip Groat said that "serious
questions have been raised about quality assurance practices
performed in 1998-2000 by USGS scientists on the Yucca Mountain
Nuclear Waste Repository project for the Department of Energy.
"Two actions are under way to investigate these issues," he
added. "First, I have referred the matter to the inspector
general for action. Second, I have initiated an internal review
of the allegations. Once the facts are known, appropriate
actions will be taken. USGS remains committed to maintaining
scientific excellence."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the investigation would
determine whether the scientific underpinnings of the project
are affected.
“If in the course of that review any work is found to be
deficient, it will be replaced or supplemented with analysis and
documents that meet appropriate quality assurance standards,â€
said Bodman. He said he was “greatly disturbed†that work
involving the project may have been falsified.
'Sound science' promised
“The fact remains that this country needs a permanent
geological nuclear waste repository, and the administration will
continue to aggressively pursue that goal,†Bodman said,
adding that “all related decisions have been, and will
continue to be, based on sound science.â€
The project has been bogged in controversy, with
environmentalists opposed to shipping nuclear waste from across
the country to the site.
The nuclear industry supports the project, saying it's needed to
remove crowded power plant sites.
The disclosure follows a string of other setbacks:
+ The Energy Department has delayed filing its license
application to the NRC and now acknowledges that the planned
completion of the facility by 2010 no longer is possible.
+ Congress last year refused to provide all the money sought
by the Bush administration for the project.
+ A federal appeals court rejected the radiation protection
standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
EPA is now developing new standards.
+ Last month, the official in charge of the Yucca project
resigned, citing personal reasons.The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
*****************************************************************
43 LA Times: Inquiry Begins Into Validity of Data About Yucca Mountain
[Los Angeles Times - latimes.com]
March 17, 2005 E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed
THE NATION Inquiry Begins Into Validity of Data About Yucca
Mountain
+ Two U.S. agencies probe whether phony studies supported the
proposed nuclear dump's safety.
By Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer
Two federal agencies launched investigations Wednesday into
evidence that government scientists had submitted phony data to
help prove that a proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada would be safe.
The disclosure could delay the long-troubled project and
undermine assurances that the waste dump would pose no harm to
the public for thousands of years.
But Energy Department officials cautioned Wednesday that even if
some data were falsified, it would not necessarily discredit all
the research.
Department lawyers discovered a series of e-mail exchanges
between scientists that discussed fabricating documentation for
a key scientific study about ground water penetration into Yucca
Mountain.
The study was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, a part
of the Interior Department. It concluded that the deep tunnels
intended to hold radioactive waste inside Yucca Mountain would
remain dry for thousands of years, and that radiation could not
quickly leak into the ground water.
That scientific question is one of the most critical
surrounding Yucca Mountain, a complex engineering project that
is running 14 years behind schedule and could end up costing
$100 billion. The mountain is supposed to safely isolate
radioactive materials for hundreds of thousands of years.
Energy and Interior Department officials said they would launch
investigations into the allegedly fabricated data.
Nonetheless, Wednesday's disclosure inflamed opponents in
Nevada, who long have said that the federal government rigged
its scientific research to get the dump licensed as soon as
possible.
"This proves once again that DOE must cheat and lie in order to
make Yucca Mountain look safe," said Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
"We aren't just talking about false documentation on paper
this is about the health and safety of Nevadans and the American
people. It is abundantly clear that there is no such thing as
'sound science' at Yucca Mountain."
The project is opposed by Republican and Democratic lawmakers
in Nevada, including GOP Gov. Kenny Guinn, who said he was
outraged by the disclosure. The investigations come at a time
when Nevada has won a series of political and legal victories
against the project, setting it back years and raising doubts
whether it will ever be built.
Robert R. Loux, executive director of the Nevada Office for
Nuclear Projects, said the apparent falsification of data raised
grave doubts about the safety of the site and, at the least,
would force the Energy Department to replicate years of past
research to show that rain water does not rapidly flow through
fissures in the mountain.
The Energy Department has done two studies of water penetration
at Yucca Mountain.
The first was conducted by scientists at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, who concluded that water moved through fissures in
the mountain relatively quickly, not in hundreds of years as
previously thought. The study found traces of isotopes created
during atomic bomb testing after World War II, showing rain
water had penetrated the rock in decades.
After the Los Alamos study, the Energy Department contracted
with the USGS, which backed up the department's contention that
water migrated very slowly through the volcanic rock. As a
result, Energy officials concluded that special alloy casks
containing high-level nuclear waste would not corrode for at
least 10,000 years, and that any leakage in future millenniums
would not be flushed into the ground water table.
If the USGS study is discredited, the Energy Department will be
left with one scientific study that fails to support its claims
about the project's safety. A third study is underway at the
University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The Energy Department has issued about 70 different contracts
for studies to examine safety and engineering issues involving
Yucca Mountain. The repository would hold 70,000 metric tons of
high-level waste, most of it from commercial nuclear power
plants across the nation.
Loux said that if the water penetration study was falsified, he
was concerned about the validity of other research into possible
volcanism and earthquakes that could affect the site.
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday that he was
disturbed by the possible fabrications and launched a scientific
review to determine whether the USGS study was deficient.
Meanwhile, USGS Director Charles G. Groat said the e-mails
disclosing the possible fabrications were sent by two scientists
from 1998 to 2000, while the Energy Department was going through
a period of quality assurance and wanted documentation of the
studies.
Officials close to the investigation said that in the e-mails,
the scientists said that they had no idea about the origin and
timing of certain geologic samples involved in the study and
would make up the data. At least two key scientists exchanged
the e-mails, but copies might have been sent to a larger circle
of experts.
The Energy Department has not released the e-mails, although
Nevada officials have made formal requests. The e-mails were
uncovered by attorneys for a private law firm working for the
Department, who were examining millions of e-mails to determine
whether some of them were subject to confidentiality. All the
e-mails eventually will be posted on a website that will be used
during the licensing process for Yucca Mountain.
Grout said he referred the issue to the Interior Department's
inspector general and initiated an internal USGS investigation.
The discovery was disclosed to members of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee on Wednesday and then announced in news
releases by the USGS and the Energy Department.
Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times
*****************************************************************
44 deseret news: Nuclear storage battle fires up
Utah delegation, scientists on opposing sides of issue
[deseretnews.com]
Friday, March 18, 2005
By Joe Bauman Deseret Morning News
The fight over licensing the proposed nuclear storage facility in
Tooele County is glowing as hot as a radioactive fuel rod, with
the Utah congressional delegation petitioning Thursday against
the plant and lawyers for a group of scientists urging the White
House "not to cave in" to the Utahns' political pressure.
Deseret Morning News graphic
Private Fuel Storage has announced plans to build what it
calls a temporary facility for the storage of spent fuel rods
from nuclear power plants on land owned by the Skull Valley Band
of the Goshute Indian Tribe. Although the fuel rods are spent,
they remain highly radioactive, and the company defines
"temporary" as up to 40 years.
As the government's proposed permanent storage site, the
Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada, faces
increasing delays and stiff political opposition from residents
of that state, the PFS facility may be edging closer to final
approval.
On Thursday, the five members of the Utah congressional
delegation sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
registering their "strong opposition" to the NRC's granting a
license to Private Fuel Storage. The action came three days
after an organization called Scientists for Secure Waste Storage
petitioned the White House on the other side of the issue.
In a written statement, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
condemned the PFS proposal as "a reckless, short-term fix for a
pressing national problem." He vowed that the delegation would
"fight this with everything we've got.
"They picked the most dangerous site in the nation to
locate most of our nation's high-level nuclear waste."
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said in the press release that
he is strongly opposed to storing nuclear waste in Skull Valley.
"I continue to believe our best course is to store the waste at
its current locations until Yucca Mountain is ready."
The text of the delegation's letter to Nils J. Diaz,
chairman of the NRC, says the delegation is writing to "register
our strong opposition to . . . granting of a license" to PFS.
It notes that the site is under the flight path of combat
aircraft, referring to planes from Hill Air Force Base whose
pilots train at the nearby Utah Test and Training Range. Many of
the planes carry live ordnance, increasing the danger should an
aircraft crash into the PFS facility.
"With new forms of terrorism threatening our national
security, we find it inconceivable that a government entity
would consider giving its endorsement of the PFS plan without
thoroughly taking into account this added terrorist threat."
Further, wrote the delegation, security for
transportation and storage would not be handled by the federal
government but by private firms.
Consolidating nearly all of the country's private spent
nuclear fuel rods in one above-ground location "creates an
enormous financial liability in the event of an accident during
transportation or storage," they wrote.
On the other side is Scientists for Secure Waste Storage.
A copy of the scientists' position on the matter, sent to the
NRC, was forwarded to the White House by Atlantic Legal
Foundation, New York City. The scientists group includes two
former chairmen of the NRC, a former astronaut and four Nobel
laureates.
A cover letter by Martin S. Kaufman, senior vice
president of Atlantic Legal Foundation, was addressed to David
G. Leitch, deputy counsel to President Bush.
"We write to you because we have been led to understand
that last week one or both United States senators from the state
of Utah met with officials at the White House to urge the
President to override the decision of the ASLB (the commission's
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board) and, if necessary, of the
commission itself," Kaufman wrote.
He addressed issues including reducing America's
dependence on foreign oil (through reliance on nuclear power)
and respecting the Goshutes' position. Also, after seven years
of proceedings, the board examined "all of the safety and
environmental concerns put forward by the state of Utah" and
determined a license should be issued.
"We urge that the administration not cave in to this
political pressure, and allow the regulatory process to take its
course," the letter adds. "We note that the state of Utah has
been an active and vigorous participant in that process, and
should not now try to circumvent it."
E-mail: bau@desnews.com
© 2005 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
45 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada officials call for probes of Yucca Mountain false data
March 17, 2005
By KEN RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada elected officials called Thursday for
the Justice Department to investigate revelations that data
supporting the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump might
have been falsified.
In Washington, Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign asked
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert
Mueller to protect documents and investigate how U.S. Geological
Survey employees falsified data used in scientific studies at
the Yucca Mountain project.
The Nevada officials cited Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman's
revelations Wednesday that work on the project might have been
falsified. Bodman said his department and the U.S. Geological
Survey were investigating.
Reid and Ensign joined Nevada's state Attorney General Brian
Sandoval in asking Gonzales to require the Energy Department to
turn over crucial e-mails and freeze access to a database of
information on the nuclear waste site being built in the desert
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"To the extent fraudulent activity has occurred, no one
connected with the project should be allowed access to the very
data being investigated," Sandoval said.
"Without access to these e-mails, there is simply no way to
ensure public confidence in the pre-licensing activities being
conducted at the Yucca Mountain site," he added.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., called Thursday for Bodman to name
an independent third party to investigate.
Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland in Washington said he
could not immediately respond to the requests.
Energy Department spokeswoman Anne Womack Kolton said she could
provide no details about the documents in question or the
department's investigation.
"We will review the letters and respond in an appropriate
manner," she said.
The flood of calls for investigations came after Bodman revealed
that a U.S. Geological Survey worker involved in the quality
assurance program at Yucca Mountain said in e-mails from May
1998 to 2000 that he fabricated documentation of his work.
The documents involved computer modeling for water infiltration
and climate. Nevada officials say water movement is critical in
determining the integrity of the casks that will hold the waste
and the possible spread of radiation from the repository.
Bob Loux, who leads Nevada's effort to block the project, said
work should stop at the site "until this is investigated so
there is no further damage done."
In her letter to Bodman, Berkley pointed to a federal General
Accounting Office report last year that found deficiencies in
quality assurance in the Yucca project, where the Energy
Department plans to build a federal repository to entomb 77,000
tons of the nation's most highly radioactive nuclear waste.
"Clearly, the failures found by the GAO and the alleged
improprieties acknowledged in your statements (Wednesday) call
into question nearly all scientific findings to date," she said.
All contents © 1996 - 2005 Las Vegas Sun, Inc.
*****************************************************************
46 DailyBulletin.com: Mayor demands Wyle answers
Article Published: Thursday, March 17, 2005 -
By SUE DOYLE Staff Writer
NORCO - Pushing for a 30-day deadline, Mayor Herb Higgins
demanded that a state Department of Toxic Substances Control
official speed up the Wyle Laboratory contamination
investigation.
Higgins said he wanted to know how far contamination was
stretching underground after this past week's findings of
cancer-causing chemicals in groundwater and soil below Hillside
Avenue and Third Street. His comments came after DTSC Project
Manager Juan Osornio went before the City Council on Wednesday
and explained the agency's latest update.
"If it's a problem, I don't want you to tell me in six months.
Eventually you'll have to get out in front of it to see where it
terminates," Higgins said. "Now you don't have a clue, and DTSC
doesn't have a clue."
Osornio said additional sampling of groundwater and soil is
needed before officials will know the underground plume's
extent, and that the next round of tests is scheduled for Third
Street and Temescal Avenue. Soil along the perimeter of homes
where contaminants were found also will be tested.
In water samples taken below Hillside and Third, elevated
levels of trichloroethylene tested at more than 40 parts per
billion, the state's action level. TCE is a cancer-causing
solvent that officials said they believe migrated from the
former Wyle Lab site at 1841 Hillside Ave. It was found in
groundwater about 15 to 20 feet below the ground and in soil
vapors in the latest testing.
DTSC officials have said vapors outside homes do not pose a
risk to residents. But vapors can be threatening if breathed in
for an extended period of time, such as 24 hours a day for 30
years.
Testing a mile or two away from where the latest contamination
was discovered could be hit or miss, said Osornio as he
explained reasons for the agency's step-by-step approach.
Saying that Norco cannot afford to wait any longer for more
testing, city officials want testing by Monday at some locations
close to Wyle's former test facility, where recent heavy rains
have pushed water out of the ground.
These seeps in the ground make it easy to access groundwater
for testing because there's no need for a drill, said Joseph
Aldern, a registered geologist and regional manager of
Kleinfelder, the technical consultant for the city.
Aldern asked Osornio to meet him today in Norco to choose the
testing sites.
"There's one specific spot where water is coming out of the
driveway," Aldern said. "I thought that was a good one to test,
because it's as clear as a bell that it's a seep."
DTSC officials have said groundwater doesn't pose a risk to
residents, because Norco's municipal drinking wells are located
several miles from the former Wyle site.
But the latest findings and heavy rainfall have made the city
test its wells for TCE, perchlorate and other components earlier
than usual. Testing ends Monday.
Results for TCE will be returned one week later. Perchlorate
results take 10 days, said Bill Thompson, Norco's director of
public works.
Thompson said Norco's wells are regularly tested for
contaminants and were next scheduled for testing in April. He
said that contaminants have never been detected in Norco's
municipal wells.
All of the water that serves Norco east of Interstate 15, where
the former Wyle Lab was located, comes from the Arlington
Desalter in Riverside and from the Mills Line, which comes
through Corona, said Jeff Allred, Norco's city manager.
Allred said students at Norco Elementary, Norco Intermediate
and Norco High schools were bringing bottled water to school to
avoid drinking from water fountains. But Allred said there was
no need for such alarm.
"It's imported, clean and of high quality," he said.
Water that serves the west side of Norco comes from Riverside's
Arlington Desalter, the Chino Desalter and Norco's water wells,
which also are on the west side.
Sue Doyle can be reached by e-mail at
sue.doyle@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9347.
Mar. 16: - Meeting to address Wyle lab findings
Mar. 14: - Wyle pollution spreading
Jan. 11: - Norco residents could fear finding contaminants
Jan. 10: - Study: Perchlorate not so toxic
Dec. 31: - Meetings scheduled on Wyle Laboratories
Dec. 28: - Homeowners near Wyle wonder if they'll ever sell
Dec. 14: - State asked to test Wyle site
Nov. 30: - Norco residents call for answers at Wyle meeting
Nov. 9: - Family stuck with land near Wyle
Sep. 11: - Wyle Labs taint local real estate market
Aug. 3: - Panel discusses Wyle Labs health concerns
Jul. 21: - Judge questions billboard ruling
Jul. 14: - House panel OKs water cleanup bill
Jul. 7: - State orders Wyle cleanup
Jul. 2: - Wyle area test results announced
Jun. 23: - Perchlorate plan rejected
Jun. 22: - Panel OKs perchlorate cleanup funds
Jun. 18: - Bill seeks U.S. help in cleanup of perchlorate
Jun. 16: - Norco residents anxious for probe results
Jun. 15: - Residents want 'deep' Wyle probe
May. 28: - Wyle to test soil at homes
May. 25: - Wyle forum planned
May. 12: - Homeowners join suit against builders on Wyle site
May. 11: - State officials say risk is minimal
Mar. 17: - Residents notified of Wyle meetings via bill
Mar. 9: - Group wants medical testing
Mar. 8: - Poor clean-up could make things worse
Feb. 20: - Norco can't replace group
Feb. 19: - New Wyle group proposed
Jan. 29: - Norco found negligent in handling of Wyle site
Jan. 12: - State claims Wyle findings being reviewed for accuracy
Jan. 8: - State to probe Wyle chemical findings
- Scientists to speak on Wyle Labs cleanup
Dec. 11: - Wyle probe to begin soon
Nov. 25: - Discussion becomes environmental debate
Oct. 21: - Residents want more members on Wyle panel
Oct. 16: - Panel to keep public informed on cleanup at Wylie Laboratories
Oct. 9: - State EPA to have Wyle plan available to public
Sep. 25: - Firm hired to oversee testing at Wyle
Sep. 17: - Norco group to relay Wyle findings
Aug. 8: - Grand jury looks at Wyle
Jul. 30: - Centex suit denied as class action
Jul. 16: - Norco officials say geologist to be hired to conduct
tests at Wyle Laboratories
Jul. 1: - Protests fail to halt Wyle transfer
Jun. 30: - State agency takes over Wyle probe
Jun. 25: - Lab officials hope to counteract negative publicity
Jun. 12: - Agency official says spread of development triggered decision
Jun. 9: - Wyle submits cleanup plan
Jun. 1: - Wyle meeting to include development issues
May. 20: - Soil testing near Wyle to begin in weeks
May. 16: - Activists ask for change in government oversight
May. 8: - Agency to test Wyle runoff
May. 7: - Norco City Council hears Wyle testimony
May. 3: - Wyle defends record, actions
May. 1: - Bill may hurt water cleanup
Apr. 25: - Cleanup ordered for Wyle Laboratories
- More studies needed at Wyle site
- Leaders at odds over proposed new homes
Apr. 22: - Planning office has little time for environmental documents
Apr. 21: - Study shows Wyle cancer rates normal
Apr. 14: - Environmental checklist on Wyle Labs site withdrawn
Apr. 8: - Federal EPA promises to assess Norco testing site
Apr. 3: - Official raps Wyle tests Councilman calls for another
look at Wyle
Copyright © 2005 Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
*****************************************************************
47 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Yucca gaffe
March 18, 2005
I was thinking of starting a Gaffe of the Month Club for Nevada
politicians, but now I don't know.
They come too fast for me to keep up. And how would I choose?
Is Oscar Goodman telling fourth-graders he would take gin to a
deserted island more gaffe-worthy than Jim Gibbons "borrowing"
somebody else's speech?
Are either of those apparent brain lapses, amusing as they may
be, as serious as Sen. Sandra Tiffany proposing a bill that
would make it easier for her to do business with the state?
Memo to senator: We might not have noticed you got a $10,000
no-bid contract to advertise state surplus property if you
hadn't introduced Senate Bill 55, which would make it easier for
someone without a dealer's license to sell cars.
But then along came a couple of scientists working for the U.S.
Geological Survey who managed to wipe all those Nevada gaffes
off the map.
Talk about a big one.
Perhaps you've heard of Yucca Mountain, where there's an $8
billion hole in the ground waiting for the Department of Energy
to fill it with the nation's nuclear crap.
(Sorry, but the energy industry guy who last week took exception
to the Appeal's Guy Farmer calling it a "dump" pretty much sums
up my definition of bureaucratic obfuscation. He wants to call
to a "nuclear repository." Fine. Call it an amusement park, if
you want. It's still where they want to bury 77,000 tons of
radioactive waste.)
Anyway, back to the outrage at hand.
A couple of scientists were supposed to be studying how fast it
takes for water to seep through Yucca Mountain. This is
important because water could get to the special alloy casks
holding the radioactive waste, corrode them and eventually allow
the radioactive waste to get into the groundwater. Such an
occurrence would be bad for humans, animals and other life forms
on planet Earth.
The DOE asked the Geological Survey to do the study because it
didn't like the results of the first one, conducted by Los
Alamos National Laboratory. The Los Alamos study found isotopes
from World War II-era nuclear bombing, indicating water had
moved through the mountain in just a few decades.
So the boys at the Geological Survey got busy and came up with a
study that said no, of course not, that water doesn't move
through Yucca Mountain nearly as fast as the numskulls at Los
Alamos claim. It's more like 10,000 years - plenty of time for
those folks in Nevada to forget what's buried in the desert.
Harry Reid will probably be out of office by then, too.
Based on this "sound science," the Energy secretary - good ol'
what's-his-name - told President Bush that Yucca Mountain was a
go. Bush gave it the big thumb's up (although we in Nevada
thought we saw a different finger), and the nation's nuclear
suppository lurches ahead.
Hold on just a minute there, sailor.
This week the DOE, to its credit, announced that some rather
funky e-mails had been discovered. The heroes in this story
ought to be the Energy Department lawyers who have been digging
through a Yucca Mountain of government e-mails and who reported
their findings.
In the e-mails, some scientist apparently wrote he had no idea
where and under what circumstances some geological samples had
been dug up. But that's OK. He'd just make up the details. Good
enough for government work.
Memo to scientists: If you're going to make stuff up, don't
write about it in e-mails to your buddies. E-mail is kind of
like radioactive waste. It stays around a lot longer than you'd
imagine, eventually slips into the information stream and could
someday kill you, a little at a time.
Someday we'll get to read the e-mails ourselves. They're
probably full of geological techno-jargon, so I doubt very much
if they read like this:
Scientist 1: Dude, no docs re Yuc. Ideas? CU 2nite at Hooters ;)
Scientist 2: Happy hr 5 pm. Don't B late. Screw Yucca.
Fictionalize. Who'll know? LOL
So just how big is this gaffe?
Well, you and I are paying for it right now. Government
bureaucrats are rushing to spend our tax dollars to investigate
just what went wrong and how many people they're going to have
to fire to cover their own butts.
Can the Yucca Mountain waste suppository project be saved? You
betcha. The federal government doesn't often pour $8 billion
into a rathole without following up with several billion more.
So what if the project is 14 years behind schedule? So what if
there's still $100 billion to be spent?
The main consequence of the discovery of the smoking e-mails is
that the whole thing will be delayed for a few more years. The
Geological Survey will be looking to fill a couple of open spots
on the scientific research staff.
And the DOE is probably trying to figure out something better
for those lawyers to do than sift through old e-mails.
n Barry Smith is editor of the Nevada Appeal. Contact him at
editor@nevada appeal.com or 881-1221.
All contents © Copyright 2005 nevadaappeal.com
Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701
*****************************************************************
48 AU ABC: Deep Yellow moots new uranium mine
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
20:31 (ACDT)Friday, 18 March 2005. 17:31 (AWST)
A Western Australian uranium exploration company says it is
possible there will be a uranium mine in central Australia in
the next three to five years.
Yesterday, the Federal Government announced an inquiry into the
development of the non-fossil fuel energy industry, starting
with uranium resources.
The Deep Yellow company says it is currently seeking approval to
carry out drilling at Napperby Station, 150 kilometres
north-west of Alice Springs.
The managing director of Deep Yellow, James Pratt, says any mine
at the site would be subject to federal and territory government
approvals.
He says the company would not go ahead with the plan without
community support.
"If we do end up mining we would want that to be of benefit to
the local community and to central Australia and we would want
to consult with anybody who is involved with the process," Mr
Pratt said.
*****************************************************************
49 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mtn. Documents May Involve Scientist
Today: March 18, 2005 at 11:04:19 PST
By ERICA WERNER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
A government hydrologist's e-mails to his supervisor, copied to
seven or eight other co-workers, led the Energy Department to
conclude that documents related to the Yucca Mountain nuclear
waste dump might have been falsified, government officials said.
The U.S. Geological Survey employees remained on the job Thursday
as government investigators and outside scientists tried to
determine the seriousness of the alleged falsifications.
"We don't know whether the science was actually compromised,"
said USGS spokeswoman A.B. Wade.
The documents concerned 6-year-old USGS studies of water
movement in the planned Nevada dump. USGS scientists validated
Energy Department conclusions that water seepage was relatively
slow, so radiation would be less likely to escape.
Other studies have pointed to faster water movement. If it turns
out there was document falsification and it casts doubt on USGS'
conclusions, that could undercut the Energy Department's case
for Yucca.
After a series of setbacks, the government has already backed
off a planned 2010 completion date for its plan to bury the
nation's nuclear waste in the Nevada desert.
Dump opponents said the new disclosures were sure to delay the
project even more, and they pressed Thursday for investigations
that could prompt even more stalls.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign,
R-Nev., sent letters to the FBI and Justice Department asking
them to investigate and seize all Yucca records from government
agencies. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman to appoint a third-party agency to investigate.
Nevada's attorney general, Brian Sandoval, also called for
Justice Department involvement.
"It's very clear that the licensing is not going to be able to
go forward in a timely manner," Reid said in an interview.
"We'll review their letters and respond appropriately," said
Energy Department spokeswoman Anne Womack.
The potentially falsified documents were discovered by Bechtel
SAIC employees working on contract for the Energy Department as
it prepares its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission to open the dump. DOE planned to submit the license
application last year but missed that date and is now aiming for
the end of 2005.
While using a sampling process to review several million
e-mails, the contractors came across about 20 suspicious
messages between May 1998 and March 2000 from a hydrologist
working with a team of 10 or more other scientists on Yucca
water studies, Wade said.
The e-mails were from the hydrologist to his supervisor, and
co-workers were copied. The e-mails suggested the scientist was
falsifying documents related to the study.
It wasn't clear if the supervisor or other co-workers were
actively engaged in the exchange, and the author of the e-mails
is the focus of suspicion, Wade said.
She said a total of about 10 employees were privy to the e-mails
and all but one still work for USGS. She couldn't give details
on their job duties but said they remained in their posts.
USGS is waiting for direction from the department's inspector
general, expected in the next several days, on how to proceed
with the employees and with an internal investigation. The
Energy Department's inspector general is also investigating.
*****************************************************************
50 Las Vegas RJ: Utah factions torn over Yucca discoveries
Friday, March 18, 2005
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY -- The utility consortium proposing to
temporarily store nuclear waste in Utah sees the allegation of
falsified data regarding the planned Nevada storage as advancing
the need for the Utah facility.
State attorneys opposing the coalition's proposal say the
allegations further the argument for keeping the waste at the
nuclear power plants that generated it.
The Department of Energy disclosed Wednesday that scientists on
the Yucca Mountain project may have falsified documents, and, as
a result, they could not provide a projected completion date for
the project. The documents involved computer modeling for water
infiltration and climate at the Yucca site 90 miles northwest of
Las Vegas.
While the Energy officials said any faulty research would be
redone, Nevada opponents of the project saw the development as
one more weapon as their fight to kill the repository.
And if there is no permanent site in Nevada, then it makes no
sense to ship the waste to Utah for temporary storage, Utah
officials argued.
"It makes (Nevada Sen.) Harry Reid's proposal more attractive,
which is to keep the fuel at reactor sites until they can figure
it all out," assistant Utah attorney general Denise Chancellor
said Wednesday.
"Certainly, if Yucca Mountain is not going to go forward, then
why would you ship fuel 2,000 miles across the country to the
(Private Fuel Storage) facility?" Chancellor told The Salt Lake
Tribune. "The whole premise of PFS is that it's a way station
for Yucca and this seems to call that into doubt."
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman also has backed keeping the waste where
it was generated.
Sue Martin, spokeswoman for PFS, the consortium proposing the
storage facility on the Goshutes' reservation in Skull Valley,
said it hopes Yucca Mountain stays on schedule, and the sooner
it is completed, the less time the Utah storage will be
necessary.
"Delays in Yucca Mountain could mean that there is even more of
a need for interim storage such as our facility would provide,"
she told the Tribune.
Chip Ward, an author and an environmental activist, fears the
government may be thinking the same way.
"I think that Skull Valley has always been an emergency Plan B"
-- a fallback facility, he told the Deseret Morning News. "It
was emergency Plan B for nuclear utilities, and now it may be
emergency Plan B for the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). That's
very disturbing."
Ward said Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett should stop
supporting the Yucca Mountain plan.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
51 Las Vegas RJ: Reid, Ensign pursue inquiry into Yucca project allegations
Friday, March 18, 2005
By SAMANHA YOUNG STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU and KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
WASHINGTON -- Nevada senators Thursday petitioned the Justice
Department to launch their own investigation into allegations
that government employees fabricated work relating to the Yucca
Mountain Project.
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI
Director Robert Mueller, the Nevadans requested immediate action
be taken to "preserve and protect" records related to
government's bid to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at the
site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The request by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign,
R-Nev., comes a day after the departments of Energy and Interior
admitted that two workers at the U.S. Geological Survey had
falsified documents with studies on water penetration into Yucca
Mountain.
The issue is a key component of the Bush administration's case
that nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain would be safe for at
least 10,000 years.
Fabricated data regarding possible water seepage into Yucca
Mountain could delay further the troubled project or perhaps
kill the repository site, critics said.
"Given the magnitude of human health and safety implications of
the YMP, we hope that you will act decisively on this request,"
the senators wrote.
Reid and Ensign requested that records such as memos, reports,
e-mails, models, documents and correspondences be gathered from
the departments of Energy and Interior.
They said the net should be cast to the Environmental Protection
Agency, contractors, industry and other government and private
stakeholders associated with the project.
Announcements made yesterday "called into question the quality,
validity and integrity of the scientific review and quality
assurance processes" of the nuclear waste project, the senators
wrote.
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval sent Gonzales a letter
Thursday demanding that the Energy Department immediately make
all e-mails available about the falsification matter and that
the Yucca Mountain database be secured "to protect it from
further manipulation."
"To the extent fraudulent activity has occurred, no one
connected with the project should be allowed access to the very
data being investigated," Sandoval wrote.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the Department of
Energy should cease all operations at Yucca Mountain until the
scientific evidence and studies in question have been reviewed.
"I fully support shutting down Yucca Mountain until all these
questions are investigated and restudied," Gibbons said.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sent a letter to Energy Secretary
Samuel Bodman that requested he appoint an independent
investigation to look into the problem.
Justice Department spokesman Ben Porritt declined to comment.
"I can't confirm receipt of the letter, nor can I confirm any
investigation or any pending investigation," Porritt said.
In Las Vegas, the U.S. Geological Survey's branch chief, Bob
Craig, said the alleged fabrication dealt with processing of
data that were plugged into computer models of how surface water
will move through the mountain under future climate conditions.
The models try to calculate how much of a dose the public would
receive and when from radioactive particles carried by water
from corroding waste containers.
Asked whether the data are in question or the quality-assurance
documents that trace its validity, a spokeswoman for the
Geological Survey's headquarters in Reston, Va., said, "We're
hoping of course it's the documentation and not the data."
"The appearance of impropriety is certainly loud and clear
regardless of which it is," said the spokeswoman, A.B. Wade.
She said investigators are focusing on fewer than 20 e-mails
that were sent about six years ago between a Geological Survey
employee and the employee's supervisor who both work in one of
the survey's offices in California.
The e-mails were copied to "seven or eight" others, Wade said.
She said the Energy Department alerted the Interior Department
to the problem on Monday.
Project officials were aware of quality-assurance problems that
dealt with verifying data and collecting valid, traceable
measurements of Yucca Mountain's geologic features, said Bill
Belke, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's on-site
representative from 1995 to 2002.
In the seven years he looked over the shoulders of scientists as
they studied the mountain, Belke often warned about sloppy
record keeping. He said the Geological Survey scientists had the
highest degree of mishaps and errors.
"A lot of it was carelessness, lack of checks and balances, lack
of paying attention to details. They were always in a hurry to
get the job done without double-checking," he said Thursday.
Although most of the errors were minor items in scientific
notebooks, they did not bode well for the integrity of the
project over the long term, he said.
"If you can't do the little things right now, what confidence do
you have that they'll do the big things right later?" he asked.
The problems, Belke said, were "due to the lack of
accountability, including DOE management."
USGS chief Chip Groat on Wednesday emphasized the severity of
the situation to his some 10,000 agency workers in an e-mail
obtained by the Review Journal.
"It is all of our jobs to safeguard that reputation through
strict adherence to strong science ethics," he wrote. "I take
these charges seriously and I will do everything to ensure that
we continue to maintain our reputation for scientific excellence
and credibility."
Wade said no disciplinary action has been taken against the two
workers. Virginia-based attorney Joe Egan, Nevada's lead nuclear
waste lawyer, said his office has formed a team of experts to
sort through e-mails written by USGS workers in the
quality-assurance area under question by the Energy Department.
Egan said he has documents showing that quality inspectors in
2000 reviewed USGS work from 1997 and 1998 and "uncovered dozens
and dozens of deficiencies and outright fabrications." He
declined to share the paperwork until it can be verified.
"We have documents suggesting they calibrated equipment that was
not yet on site," Egan said. "This isn't just a few mistaken
dates."
Depending on what investigators find, Egan said, the government
might need to go back and redo scientific studies that were part
of the site characterization completed to win congressional
approval of the project in 2002.
If scientific studies are redone, Egan said, Congress might need
to vote on the project again.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
52 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Horrifying disclosure
Today: March 18, 2005 at 9:28:06 PST
LAS VEGAS SUN
The latest revelation that Yucca Mountain is a disaster in
waiting came after Wednesday's disclosure -- by the Energy
Department, no less -- of evidence suggesting that documents in
support of the project's primary safety study may have been
falsified. The evidence is borne out by e-mails among government
scientists. The existence of the e-mails and the critical nature
of their content were confirmed by Energy Secretary Samuel
Bodman.
The e-mails, written between May 1998 and March 2000, focused
on the most important study of Yucca Mountain's capacity to
safely act as the burial site for the nation's high-level
nuclear waste. This was the study by the U.S. Geological Survey,
a branch of the Interior Department, that concluded water would
move extremely slowly underneath the mountain over thousands of
years. It would move so slowly, the study concluded, that there
would be no danger of corrosion to the metal casks containing
the waste.
This study was critical, because earlier studies by the Energy
Department itself suggested that water beneath the mountain
would flow in sufficient quantity to corrode the casks in a
relatively short period of time, say, a hundred years. In that
event, radiation would escape into the environment, creating an
ever-widening and permanent threat to human life. Of course, if
those studies had been considered conclusive, the Yucca Mountain
project would have been forced to shut down. Therefore, the
Energy Department seized on the U.S. Geological Survey finding,
and used it to guarantee the safety of Yucca Mountain.
The e-mails, however, contain evidence that documentation
supporting the U.S. Geological Survey study might have been
falsified. If that indeed happened, the whole basis for claims
that Yucca Mountain can safely contain nuclear waste is
shattered. This is a horrifying turn of events. At stake are the
lives and health of thousands of people, and no less than the
future of Nevada as a place to live. The Energy Department spoke
only generally about the e-mails, but we believe it should
release their contents, verbatim, immediately. It's about time
the public had an insight into the inner workings of the people
responsible for pushing this mad project.
Investigations are under way by the inspector generals of both
the Energy Department and the U.S. Geological Survey. In our
view, this is an insufficient response, as both of these
departments are responsible for generating the data in question
and both have a vested interest in the ultimate opening of Yucca
Mountain. At a minimum, the Government Accountability Office
should be involved. What's really needed, given the magnitude of
this disclosure, is an exhaustive probe by a special prosecutor,
who would be independent of the government.
*****************************************************************
53 Las Vegas SUN: DOE audit in 2000 uncovered problems, Nevada lawyers say
By Mary Manning and Ed Koch
LAS VEGAS SUN
The Energy Department may have known as early as 2000 about
problems with Yucca Mountain "quality assurance" documents,
lawyers working for Nevada said.
After combing through documents posted on a Yucca document
database, the lawyers discovered an Energy Department audit from
2000 that reviewed Yucca documents from 1997 to 1998. The audits
uncovered problems with U.S. Geological Survey documentation,
said Joe Egan, a lawyer leading legal efforts against Yucca
Mountain.
"The audit reveals a whole litany of errors," Egan said.
For example, the audit found that USGS officials claimed that
they had calibrated instruments that did not exist at Yucca,
Egan said.
The discovery seemed to conflict with the Energy Department,
which on Wednesday announced that department officials first
discovered alleged document falsification on March 11.
The department said it had discovered e-mails sent between 1998
and 2000 by two USGS employees that indicate the USGS had
falsified Yucca Mountain documents. Those documents were
designed to verify previously completed scientific work at the
planned underground nuclear waste repository.
The e-mails were discovered as part of a massive Energy
Department review of millions of pages of Yucca documents as it
prepares to submit a license application to build the nuclear
waste repository, Energy Department officials said.
The revelation touched off a firestorm of reaction from Nevada
officials and other longtime Yucca critics who said the news
indicates significant -- even potentially fatal -- flaws in the
Yucca program.
But sources with the Interior Department, the parent agency of
USGS, cautioned that investigations may prove that no actual
scientific work was falsified -- merely the subsequent
documentation of the work.
The Energy Department and Interior Department directed their
inspectors general to investigate.
Egan's legal team is looking to verify the audit document it
discovered and continues to search for further new evidence of
impropriety, he said. It's not clear if that audit had uncovered
the same USGS e-mails in question this week, he said.
"There's no end to where this could go," Egan said.
The Energy Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile in letters sent Thursday to Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller, Sens. Harry Reid,
D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., asked the Justice Department to
investigate -- and to take action to secure Yucca records to
prevent tampering.
In their letter, Reid and Ensign asked Gonzales and the FBI to
"preserve and protect" any memoranda, reports, analyses, models,
documents, correspondence, and other information associated with
the Yucca license application.
"In addition, we request that you seek to protect and preserve
any and all archival electronic messages and all records
previously and currently being reviewed" for the comprehensive
Yucca database known as the Licensing Support Network.
The e-mails "called into question the quality, validity and
integrity of the scientific review and quality assurance
processes associated with the YMP," the letter said.
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, a Republican, sent his
own letter to Gonzales, asking the Energy Department make the
e-mails public.
Sandoval said that the falsified data discovery was "deeply
disturbing" and he too urged Gonzales to order the Energy
Department to secure the entire Yucca Mountain database and
initiate an independent probe.
"If the Yucca Mountain database has been compromised,
independent investigators should be allowed to determine the
extent and the severity of the activity," Sandoval wrote.
Egan said that if Gonzales agrees to seize records, it would be
similar to action taken by the federal government during an FBI
raid at Rocky Flats, Colo., in the 1980s. A federal grand jury
later investigated claims of falsified record-keeping at the
Energy Department facility that processed plutonium for nuclear
weapons.
There is no indication that there has been document tampering,
Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. The request to preserve
documents is precautionary, she said.
Hafen said Reid's office also is trying to determine if a
whistleblower tipped off the Energy Department as to where to
look for falsified records.
"We also are in the process of having representatives from the
Departments of the Interior and Energy come to our offices in
the next couple of weeks" to explain in detail what happened,
Hafen said.
Nevada officials have long said that the issue of how fast
water flows through Yucca Mountain is at the heart of their
argument that Yucca could not safely isolate waste. Water would
corrode metal waste containers and potentially carry radioactive
material into the environment, Yucca critics say.
Energy Department officials say their studies have shown that
water does not move quickly into the repository, which is why
Yucca critics are so interested to know exactly what water
infiltration documents were allegedly falsified.
One critical part of the water-flow research was the discovery
of chlorine-36, a radioactive component of atmospheric atomic
bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean in the 1950s. When Energy
Department scientists discovered traces of it 1,000 feet inside
Yucca Mountain in 1996, the state said it was evidence that
water flowed faster than expected, said Bob Loux, Nevada's chief
watchdog on the federal project.
Although groups critical of Yucca Mountain petitioned the
Energy Department at that time to disqualify the site, saying
the government's own guidelines had been violated, the
repository project continued.
"I think the chlorine-36 data is relevant and hope the Energy
Department will look at it," Loux said.
Peggy Maze Johnson, executive director of the environmental
watchdog group Citizens Alert, said that the state deserves a
full and independent review of all Yucca documents.
"I think it puts every single scientific test under scrutiny,"
Johnson said. "Am I surprised? No. In order to take bad science
to 'sound' science, there has to be some lies involved."
The e-mails in question this week were written between May 1998
and March 2000 and dealt with documentation of scientific
computer modeling of water flow.
While using a sampling process to review several million
e-mails, Energy Department contractors discovered about 20
suspicious messages from a hydrologist working with a team of 10
or more other scientists on Yucca water studies, USGS
spokeswoman A.B. Wade told the Associated Press.
The e-mails were from a hydrologist to his supervisor, and
co-workers were copied, the AP reported. The e-mails suggested
the scientist was falsifying documents related to the study.
It wasn't clear whether the supervisor or other co-workers were
actively engaged in the exchange, and the author of the e-mails
is the focus of suspicion, Wade said. She said about 10
employees were privy to the e-mails and all but one still work
for USGS.
*****************************************************************
54 reviewjournal.com -- Opinion: More fraud at Yucca Mountain
Mar. 18, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
But latest allegation of bogus science will do nothing to halt
repository
This week's news that federal workers might have falsified some
Yucca Mountain Project documents was greeted with Nevada
officials' usual chorus of "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!"
Energy Department investigators are examining data related to
climate and water-infiltration computer models of the planned
nuclear waste repository because a U.S. Geological Survey worker
said in e-mails written between five and seven years ago that he
fabricated some of his documentation.
"There is a level of incompetence and mismanagement that might
not be repairable and could lead to the demise of the project,"
said Bob Loux, chief of the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency,
which monitors the federal government's effort to entomb
high-level nuclear waste inside a ridge 100 miles northwest of
Las Vegas.
"All work on the Yucca Mountain project should be stopped until
an investigation is completed," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.
"The secretary of energy should step forward and call a halt to
all work on efforts to license Yucca Mountain," said Rep.
Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Where have we heard such optimism before?
It was reminiscent of last summer, when a federal appeals court
threw out a key health and safety requirement that the
repository be able to contain radioactive materials safely for
at least 10,000 years, suggesting the period should be
exponentially longer. Republican Attorney General Brian Sandoval
cheered the ruling as the end of the project.
Or when a congressional audit in the fall of 2001 characterized
the project as a "failed scientific process" that suffered from
a "loss of management control." The condemnation led Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., to exclaim, "This is the beginning of the end for
the Yucca Mountain Project."
The latest knock on the Yucca Mountain Project is no more
troubling -- and no more surprising -- than every other
indication that the federal government is manipulating its
science to achieve policy goals. In addressing the potential
ramifications of the distorted data, Theodore Garish, one of the
project's leaders, simply said, "If we find any deficiencies,
the work will be replaced or supplemented." Translation: We'll
make sure the numbers allow us to keep digging -- even if we
have to make up more stuff.
The enthusiasm of Nevada's leaders amounts to rose-tinted
exaggerations. The newest controversy will do nothing to stall
the Energy Department's two-decade campaign to open this
repository. Billions of dollars have been spent. The selection
of Yucca Mountain has been upheld and no other sites have been
studied as alternatives.
Like a sucker at an unlucky slot machine, the federal government
will keep pouring money down this hole until it gets its payout
-- no matter how much it costs.
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2005
Stephens Media GroupPrivacy Statement
*****************************************************************
55 Las Vegas SUN: Scientists unsure how deeply Yucca Mountain hurt
by 'false' data
By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - When President Bush gave the go-ahead to store
the nation's nuclear waste in the Nevada desert, he said the
massive underground project was based on "sound science."
Revelations this week that some Yucca Mountain research might
have been falsified raised questions on just how reliable the
scientific study has been and whether the disclosures will hurt
the underpinnings of the federal plan.
"The perception can't be anything but damaging," said B. John
Garrick, chairman of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, a
panel of scientists assigned by Congress to review the project.
"But we don't know what the impact of this is on the science,"
he said Friday. "Unfortunately, the technical evaluation of this
is going to take a little time."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman revealed Wednesday that recently
discovered e-mails indicated a U.S. Geological Survey worker
fabricated documentation from 1998 to 2000 about computer
modeling involving water infiltration and climate at the site.
Government officials aren't releasing the e-mails or identifying
the specific study in question. Bodman said Energy and Interior
department inspectors general were investigating.
Nevada officials, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev., have asked the FBI and Justice Department to investigate
and seize all Yucca records. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked
Bodman to appoint a third-party agency to investigate and said
"nearly all scientific findings to date" are in question.
The Department of Energy wants to transport as much as 77,000
tons of highly radioactive waste now stored at nuclear reactors
and other sites around the country and bury it at Yucca Mountain
for tens of thousands of years.
Officials opposing the project in Nevada say they believe the
documentation in question related to a crucial report about how
fast water could penetrate ancient volcanic rock at the
wind-swept mountain in the desert, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
"This was the key issue in getting Yucca Mountain recommended
(for presidential and congressional approval) because it has to
do with how much water hits the containers, and corrosion," said
Bob Loux, who heads Nevada's efforts to stop the project.
Loux said Energy Department lawyers told lawyers for the state
that data had been fabricated to support geological survey
conclusions in a 1998-2000 study that contradicted a 1995
finding by Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists.
Robert Craig, U.S. Geological Survey chief on Yucca Mountain
project, said he'd seen the e-mails in question, and denied that
they referred to that key water penetration report.
Craig would not specify what work the e-mails referred to, but
said the USGS had been involved with "perhaps hundreds" of
studies at Yucca Mountain since 1978. He said paperwork, not raw
data, was suspect.
"It is the documentation of the process of using that
information, in other words the modeling, that's in question,"
he said.
Scientists believe that any moisture reaching the superheated
tunnels 1,000 feet below the mountain could create a
mineral-rich brine that eventually would corrode even the most
hardened metal alloy waste containers currently available.
Water also could transport radioactive mineral isotopes deeper
underground, carrying deadly radioactivity to an underground
aquifer stretching toward Death Valley National Park in
California.
"It's not unlike tea dissolving in water," said Steve Frishman,
a geologist and consultant for Nevada on technical elements of
the Yucca project. "Then that tea goes down to the water table.
What DOE is trying to do is find information that says there is
very little water actually moving through the fractures."
The Los Alamos study determined that surface water seeping
through tiny fractures reached tunnels much faster than project
planners originally thought.
The subsequent USGS study called rapid surface seepage through
so-called "fast pathways" in rock unlikely.
A third study, by outside researchers from the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, is under way.
"There had been a lot of controversy and a lot of wondering why
these two studies found completely opposite results," said Jean
Cline, a geologist and UNLV professor who is a principal
researcher in the new study, commissioned in 2003. "It's not
clear why there were different results."
Cline said she could not yet determine what Bodman's revelations
say about the science at Yucca Mountain.
"This could be something absolutely trivial or it could be a
show-stopper," she said. "It's not at all clear."
Craig said he'll welcome the arrival of Energy and Interior
department investigators.
"The sooner the better," Craig said. "This really cuts at the
credibility of our organization. The sooner the investigations
are initiated and reach a conclusion, the sooner we can
continue."
---
On the Net:
Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board: http://www.nwtrb.gov
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov
U.S. Geological Survey: www.usgs.gov
--
*****************************************************************
56 Salt Lake Tribune - Opinion: You keep them
Article Last Updated: 03/17/2005 11:04:52 PM
Just recently there have been two railroad car leaks of
harmful material. How can Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman
Nils A. Diaz be so certain of the safety of the 4,000 casks of
nuclear fuel waste he wants to send to Utah? If he is so
positive they “pose no radiological hazard with the present
weaponry available to terrorists,” perhaps he should store them
in his own back yard.
Carolyn B. Nelson
Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
All material found on Utah Online is copyrighted The Salt Lake
Tribune and associated news services. No material may be
reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt
Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
57 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah's congressmen make push against Skull
Valley
Article Last Updated: 03/18/2005 02:27:16 PM
N-waste storage site: Hatch calls Private Fuel Storage's proposal
"a reckless, short-term fix"
By Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
WASHINGTON - Utah's congressional delegation Thursday pressed
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject a bid to store
44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel on an American Indian
reservation near Salt Lake City, arguing it posed an
unacceptable risk of accident and terrorist strikes.
The delegation said it is "inconceivable" that the NRC would
consider licensing the site proposed by Private Fuel Storage, a
consortium of electric utilities, without taking into account
the new threats of a post-9-11 world.
"The PFS proposal is a reckless, short-term fix for a pressing
national problem," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "We're going to
fight this with everything we've got. They picked the most
dangerous site in the nation to locate most of our nation's
high-level nuclear waste. That's not political rhetoric - it's a
fact."
The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has held lengthy
hearings on the safety aspects of the site, and has ruled
against all objections the state has raised, turning the
proposal over last month to the NRC to decide whether to license
the facility.
PFS proposes to store spent nuclear fuel in steel and
concrete casks on a series of pads on the Skull Valley Goshute
Indian Reservation, 50 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
In addition to the threat of terrorist attack, the delegation
challenged putting the facility in the flight path of an Air
Force testing range, argued the casks that would store the
nuclear waste have not been adequately tested, and questioned
the liability issues of having a private company shipping and
securing the nuclear fuel.
"Due to the possibility of an accidental or deliberate
aircraft crash, concerns over the safety of the waste during
transportation and storage, and uncertainty regarding liability,
the Utah Congressional delegation strongly opposes the granting
of this license," the delegation wrote in its letter to NRC
Chairman Nils Diaz.
The state has asked the NRC for a thorough review of the data
supporting the PFS license application, while PFS has urged the
commission to move quickly. PFS is seeking a license to store
the waste for 20 years, with a possible 20-year extension, until
a permanent repository can be built at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
But questions remain about when, or if, the Yucca Mountain
facility will ever be built. On Wednesday, the Energy Department
revealed that some of the documentation supporting water
infiltration studies may have been falsified by U.S. Geological
Survey scientists.
A review has been ordered, which could delay the site and
opponents say may be the stake through the heart of Yucca
Mountain.
Hatch and fellow Republican Sen. Bob Bennett have said that
rapid development of Yucca is the best way to prevent PFS from
becoming a reality.
"I oppose any decision that would allow storage of nuclear
waste in Skull Valley, and will continue to pursue all available
options to prevent this from taking place," Bennett said.
© Copyright 2005, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
58 Lodinews.com: Lodi seeks federal money for pollution cleanup
Lodi, California, News
By Layla Bohm
News-Sentinel Staff Writer Last updated: Friday, Mar 18, 2005 -
In an effort to get more money to pay for Lodi's groundwater
pollution cleanup, city officials will meet next week with
Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.
They have asked for about $3.6 million in federal money to help
avoid raising water and sewer rates.
Whether the idea will work remains to be seen, but Pombo will
meet with Lodi officials to discuss their request for cleanup
funding, as well as money for a fire and police training center.
"He'll do whatever he can to help them with a number of issues,"
said Pombo's spokeswoman, Nicole Taylor Philbin.
The idea for federal funding was first floated last year by
former City Manager Dixon Flynn, who checked his e-mail one day
and read a newsletter from Pombo. In it, the Congressman
mentioned that he was trying to get funding for a Santa Clara
Valley community facing contamination woes.
Pombo got involved, and on Monday the U.S. House of
Representatives passed a bill to spend $25 million to help about
80,000 residents between Morgan Hill and Gilroy. They are
currently drinking bottled water due to contamination from
perchlorate, a chemical used in the defense industry.
Pombo is now talking to senators in an attempt to get the bill
through the Senate.
Each year, representatives talk to local officials in their
districts and put together spending bills. Then they take the
requests to Washington to be considered for funding.
The city of Lodi has a number of projects that could use
funding, City Manager Blair King said, but officials focused on
two areas: The cleanup and a joint fire and police training
center.
If the city could get about $5.5 million in federal grants and
more money from San Joaquin Delta College, the center would
serve a variety of purposes, Chief Michael Pretz said. When the
center might actually be built is not known.
"If you combine your efforts, you can come up with a bigger,
better project than if you each do it on your own," he said of
the planned project that would also have classrooms for Delta
students.
The most pressing need is money for cleanup, King said. Though
exact cleanup figures are still not known, city officials have
said they expect to eventually raise water and sewer rates to
fund the cleanup.
Lodi is in the process of settling with various parties involved
in a lengthy pollution case, but the city's share of cleanup
will likely cost millions of dollars.
Settlements with some parties, including the News-Sentinel and
Guild Cleaners, is all but complete pending final approval from
a judge and state water officials. One settlement, with Busy Bee
Dry Cleaners, was approved by state officials Wednesday and was
already signed off last month by a judge.
Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com. [E-mail
125 N. Church St. P.O. Box 1360 Lodi, CA 95241 (209) 369-2761
Fax: (209) 369-1084 Newsroom (209) 369-7035 Fax: (209) 369-6706
--> Contact Us ©2005 Lodi News-Sentinel
*****************************************************************
59 Public Citizen: Public Citizen to Energy Department: Push Yucca
Mountain Off the Gang Plank; Statement by Joan Claybrook,
President of Public Citizen
March 16, 2005
Todays announcement that falsified information may have been
used to evaluate the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump
sheds further light on the mismanagement of this entire bungled
process.
It is of grave concern that the U.S. Geologic Survey may have
falsified computer modeling data about Yucca Mountain. Given the
fact that this data is related to water infiltration and climate
which affects the ability of the site to safely contain the
waste the entire scientific basis of the U.S. Department of
Energys (DOE) license application to the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission could be undermined.
This is further proof that the government has relied on
manipulated data, not evidence-based science, in reviewing the
only site being considered for a national dumping ground for the
countrys 77,000 tons of nuclear waste, which remains highly
radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.
In 1998, more than 200 public interest organizations petitioned
the DOE to immediately disqualify the Yucca Mountain, Nevada
site and declare it unsuitable for further consideration as a
high-level nuclear waste repository due to the finding of
chlorine-36 at elevated levels deep within the mountain. The
finding indicated that water flows through Yucca Mountain
quickly, contrary to the prediction of the governments water
infiltration models of the site.
Coupled with a string of bad news recently for the DOE, this
most recent development should be the straw that breaks the
camels back. Inaccurate information about highly dangerous
radioactive material continues to plague the Yucca Mountain
project, confounding the public, the Congress and the government
managers. It is past time for Congress to stop wasting billions
of dollars on this project once and for all.
###
Public Citizen
*****************************************************************
60 AU ABC: Macfarlane talks down uranium boom risks.
18/03/2005. ABC News Online
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
Safe: The Minister says Australian regulations should allay
concerns.
Federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane says Australia is
well-placed to take advantage of a booming uranium market.
The Federal Government has announced an inquiry into the
uranium industry in Australia and a possible expansion of the
country's three mines, including Ranger in the Northern
Territory.
He says environmental and safety concerns should be allayed by
the high level of regulation for the industry.
"It is a very regulated resource and providing we match or we
meet those requirements then Australia is well-placed to take up
the opportunity of exporting more uranium," he said.
But the Australian Conservation Foundation says there should
not be an expansion of uranium mining in Australia.
The foundation's Dave Sweeny says nuclear power is wrongly
being promoted as a panacea for greenhouse gas problems.
"People are accepting that greenhouse is real and needs to be
addressed," he said.
"The bad part is that in that desperation and nervousness that
that realisation has caused, people are jumping onto the wrong
answer.
"You don't solve one serious environmental problem by embracing
another one."
© 2005 ABC| Privacy Policy
*****************************************************************
61 UKAEA: Dounreay team takes 'British is Best' message to Scottish Tories
Fri, 18 Mar 2005
UKAEA Dounreay today set out its ambition to become a
world-class organisation capable of competing with international
contractors to win the right to clean-up Britain's nuclear
legacy.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Scottish Conservatives
in Dumfries, a delegation from Dounreay described how the site
has been transformed since the end of the 1950s experiment in
fast reactor technology and a major overhaul of its
infrastructure and safety standards.
A new generation of engineers and scientists is establishing
Dounreay's reputation for excellence in nuclear decommissioning
as they set about cleaning up the hazardous legacy of Britain's
post-war technological dream.
UKAEA believes the new skills base in environmental restoration
now being developed at Dounreay is a major asset to Scotland and
Britain - and one that can help transform UKAEA into a
competitive British contractor capable of fending off companies
in the US and elsewhere who want to take over the work.
A joint UKAEA and trade union team from the site is meeting
senior political figures from all Scotland's main parties to
raise support for the new era of opportunity at Dounreay and the
ambitious plans of UKAEA to see it develop fully under
British-owned management.
Today the Dounreay team hopes to build on the success of
meetings at the recent annual conferences of the Scottish Labour
and Liberal Democrat parties when the Scottish Conservatives
gather in Dumfries. The SNP's annual conference is in the
autumn.
Norman Harrison, director of UKAEA at Dounreay, said: "The
Dounreay of today is an asset that Scotland and the UK can be
proud of. The commitment of today's UKAEA to the highest
standards of safety and environmental protection is second to
none and will not be bettered by our competitors. I want to
build the broadest possible support for that, and ensure
Scotland and Britain gets the full benefit of our tremendous
potential here at Dounreay."
John Deighan, a T &G union official at Dounreay, said: "We
believe no-one is better placed to safely dismantle a plant like
Dounreay than the people who are doing the job today. That's why
we are standing shoulder to shoulder at the party conferences to
deliver the unequivocal message to our politicians that British
is best."
Ends
. © 2005 www.politics.co.uk. About Us | Editorial
*****************************************************************
62 Pahrump Valley Times: Scientist allegedly falsifies Yucca data
March 18, 2005
By SAMANTHA YOUNG PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Federal workers might have falsified Yucca Mountain
documents, raising new questions about the science used by the
government to justify building a nuclear waste repository in Nye
County.
Candice Trummell, chairwoman of the Nye County Board of
Commissioners, said the announcement was "alarming" and "likely
to be controversial."
"I think it's unfortunate and inexcusable. The USGS, from what
I've heard, has always had the highest standards and
credibility," she said. "I'm hoping this is just a fluke, but
it's a serious fluke and the DOE has a monumental task ahead to
sort out and to verify which documentation is authentic and
which was falsified."
The Energy Department said Wednesday that a U.S. Geological
Survey worker had "indicated that he had fabricated
documentation of his work" in e-mails written between May 1998
to 2000.
The revelation sparked the initiation of several investigations
by the departments of Energy and Interior, including two
inspector general audits that Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman
said would review the scientific data and the paperwork in
question.
"We are also beginning a scientific investigation into the
effects of these actions and these individuals, and if we find
any deficiencies, the work will be replaced or supplemented,"
Theodore Garrish, deputy director of the Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management, said at a House Appropriations
subcommittee meeting where the issue was discussed.
The Energy Department said the documentation in question
relates to computer modeling of climate conditions and water
flow through the mountain 50 miles northeast of Pahrump and 20
miles east and north of Beatty and Amargosa Valley,
respectively, where it wants to build a repository to store
77,000 tons of the nation's deadliest nuclear waste.
Depending on the extent of the problem, the project is certain
to suffer delays if not terminate the plan altogether, said
Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency chief Bob Loux.
"Absolutely it's a major setback. I think it will preclude them
from submitting a license application in the near term," Loux
said. "This combined with all of the other major issues it seems
to indicate to me there is a level of incompetence and
mismanagement that might not be repairable and could lead to the
demise of the project."
Energy Department officials said they were uncertain whether
the falsification involved quality-assurance documents -
designed to verify the accuracy and credibility of scientific
data - or the data.
"It looks like a very small number of individuals," said an
Energy official who requested anonymity. "Everybody needs to be
careful about jumping to sweeping conclusions when it could be a
matter that could be resolved quickly."
Energy Department contractor Bechtel SAIC, which is preparing a
repository license application that would be filed with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, discovered the damaging e-mails.
Bechtel brought the e-mails to the Energy Department's
attention March 11, sources said. A Bechtel spokeswoman
Wednesday referred calls to the Energy Department.
An Interior Department official said at least two government
workers were named in the e-mails, and up to 10 individuals
might have had some involvement. The identities of the workers
could not be learned on Wednesday.
USGS chief Charles Groat said in a statement that "serious
questions have been raised about quality-assurance practices
performed" by his workers.
The Interior Department, which oversees the geological agency,
is conducting its own investigation separate from the Energy
Department.
Nevada lawmakers said any document falsification calls into
question all work involving Yucca Mountain. In the 2000
presidential campaign, Bush vowed that the decision whether to
store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would be based on "sound
science."
"The proponents of Yucca Mountain have said this is all based
on sound science, and now it looks like the science may have
been tampered with, at least the results," said Sen. John
Ensign, R-Nev.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he is preparing a bill allowing
for the storage of nuclear waste where nuclear power is produced.
"This proves once again that DOE must cheat and lie in order to
make Yucca Mountain look safe," Reid said. "We aren't just
talking about false documentation on paper, this is about the
health and safety of Nevadans and the American people."
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who leads a subcommittee overseeing
federal employees, said he has scheduled an April 5 hearing in
Washington on the matter.
"Decisions have been made by Congress and the federal courts
based on the science," Porter said. "We're going to do whatever
we can to get the facts on the table."
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she planned to send a letter
today to Bodman calling for an independent review.
"For the Department of Energy to conduct this investigation is
like the fox watching the hen house," Berkley said.
Bodman repeated his support of the project, issuing a statement
that the Bush administration would continue to pursue
aggressively a permanent geological nuclear waste repository at
the site.
A spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group
that backs the project, declined to comment.
"It's too early to speculate," NEI spokesman Steve Kerekes said.
At the House hearing, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J.,
thanked Garrish for being "up front" about the problem.
"I'm a strong supporter of Yucca Mountain. We don't need any
internal problems to interfere with the work that goes on out
there," Frelinghuysen said.
Committee Chairman Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, who supports the
project, did not comment on Garrish's statements.
Steve Frishman, a geologist and full-time consultant to the
state, said the revelations raise questions about the ability of
Yucca Mountain to contain radioactive particles as they travel
in water moving through the mountain. Indeed, Nye County
consultants have said water travels under Yucca Mountain up
gradient from Amargosa Valley, home to the state's largest dairy
operation and a number of farm concerns.
"This is right at the very heart of DOE's whole case about the
safety of Yucca Mountain," Frishman said.
He said that expensive work DOE has conducted to produce
computer models for its system performance assessment is in
jeopardy.
"We can't trust anything that comes out of the models. ... The
bottom line is the dose to an individual from the repository,"
Frishman said.
"If you have no way to trust the water input into the system,
then you have no way to trust the predicted doses that result
from releases from the repository," he said.
Frishman said the Energy Department will have to reconstruct
quality assurance after the fact or go back and collect more
data, adding costs to the $57.5 billion project.
DOE officials repeatedly have pushed back the date they expect
to deliver 77,000 tons of spent, commercial reactor fuel and
highly radioactive defense waste to the mountain. The repository
opening date has slipped from 2010 to 2012 and most recently
2015.
The project encountered another stumbling block last year when
a District of Columbia appeals court panel determined the
Environmental Protection Agency's 10,000-year radiation safety
standard did not cover peak dose periods hundreds of thousands
of years into the future as recommended by a National Academy of
Sciences.
EPA scientists are reconsidering the rule that required the
Energy Department to show that nuclear particles escaping from a
Yucca Mountain repository would not expose an individual to more
than 15 millirems of radiation annually for a period of 10,000
years.
David Swanson, the project administrator for Nye County's
Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities, which
has oversight jurisdiction on behalf of the county, was
unavailable for comment.
Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Tony Batt and PVT Managing
Editor Doug McMurdo contributed to this article.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2005
*****************************************************************
63 ENS: Nevada Senators Ask AG to Investigate Yucca Deception
Environment News Service (ENS)
AmeriScan: March 17, 2004
WASHINGTON, DC, March 18, 2005 (ENS) - Nevada Senators Harry
Reid, a Democrat, and John Ensign, a Republican, are jointly
calling upon the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the
FBI to investigate falsely documented work at the Yucca Mountain
Project (YMP).
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday that for
years, some employees working on the licensing of the only U.S.
high-level nuclear waste repository have falsified their work
and records.
In a letter sent Thursday, Reid and Ensign asked Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller to
protect any documents, correspondence or other information
associated with the DOE’s work and to initiate an independent
investigation.
"We respectfully request that you take any actions necessary to
preserve and protect any memoranda, reports, analyses, models,
documents, correspondence, and other information associated with
the Department of Energy’s license application for the YMP," the
senators wrote.
"In addition, we request that you seek to protect and preserve
any and all archival electronic messages and all records
previously and currently being reviewed for placement on the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensing Support Network."
Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said, “During the document review
process associated with the Licensing Support Network
preparation for the Yucca Mountain project, DOE contractors
discovered multiple emails written between May 1998 and March
2000, in which a USGS employee indicated that he had fabricated
documentation of his work.
Announcements made Thursday by the Secretary of Energy and the
Director of the U.S. Geological Survey "called into question the
quality, validity and integrity of the scientific review and
quality assurance processes associated with the YMP," the
senators said.
"In light of these questions," the Nevada senators wrote, "we
also are asking that you initiate an independent investigation
of the document review and DOE’s license application" to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the Yucca Mountain Project.
Secretary Bodman has asked the Department of Energy’s Office of
Inspector General to conduct a full investigation.
Yucca Mountain is located in a desert on federal land within the
boundaries of the Nevada Test Site in Nye County, Nevada. It is
approximately 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Yucca Mountain would accept highly radioactive spent nuclear
fuel rods from the nation's 103 nuclear reactors and radioactive
material left from nuclear weapons production.
Plans are to send some 77,000 tons of nuclear waste by road and
rail to the facility, which is supposed to safely isolate this
waste for at least 10,000 years.
Reid and Ensign propose that the nuclear waste be stabilized
where it is at 126 sites in 39 states. Over the past five years,
various studies have faulted the Yucca Mountain Project,
targeting plans to hold the waste at temperatures above the
boiling point of water, and pointing out that the area is
geologically unstable, among many other complaints.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2005. All Rights
*****************************************************************
64 [du-list] Cleanup Progress document now available (Oak Ridge
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:00:29 -0800
Cleanup Progress document now available (Oak Ridge TN)
11:53 a.m. on March 17, 2005
Oak Ridger Staff Reports
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/031705/new_20050317005.shtml
The new edition of "Cleanup Progress: Annual Report to the
Oak Ridge Community" is now available at the Department of
Energy Information Center in Oak Ridge.
The document discusses the status of cleanup on the Oak
Ridge Reservation, including East Tennessee Technology Park,
the Melton Valley area of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and
other reservation sites. It also covers waste management
initiatives and public involvement activities for Fiscal
Year 2004.
"Real cleanup progress is being made just about everywhere
you look on the Oak Ridge Reservation," said Stephen
McCracken, DOE Oak Ridge Operations assistant manager for
Environmental Management. "The accelerated cleanup schedule
provides for cleanup of the reservation's highest priority
cleanup areas by 2008, while saving approximately $1.4
billion through the life of the program through 2015."
Examples of these accomplishments include the shipment of
more that 1,800 cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride
to Portsmouth, Ohio, an 800,000 cubic yard expansion of
disposal capacity at the Environmental Management Waste
Management Facility and the demolition of 11 facilities in
the K-1064 area of ETTP. Updates on these and other projects
are included in the new edition of "Cleanup Progress."
For a copy of the document, visit the DOE Information
Center, located at 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, or call (865)
241-4780.
--
Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~ in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~
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65 Guardian Unlimited: Los Alamos Security Shutdown Costly
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday March 18, 2005 11:01 PM
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Disruptions caused by last year's security
flap at the Los Alamos weapons laboratory may have cost as much
as $367 million because activities were shifted away from the
lab's normal work, members of Congress were told Friday.
Lab officials virtually shut down the facility last July after
reports that two classified computer disks had disappeared. An
investigation later determined they never existed. Some of the
normal activities did not resume until last month.
The laboratory also disclosed Friday that the mystery about the
disks might have been resolved quickly last summer if two
employees had not falsified an inventory sheet showing the disks
existed.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Peter Nanos said the
inventory sheet was signed though no inventory had been taken.
The two individuals were fired, but when pressed at a House
hearing about whether they should be criminally prosecuted,
Nanos said that was not for him to decide.
During the so-called ``stand-down'' at the lab in New Mexico,
thousands of employees were told to stop their normal work and
join the search for the disks, undergo security training and
undertake other safety- and security-related activities. Many of
the workers returned to their normal duties after a month.
Linton Brooks, the Energy Department's undersecretary for
nuclear security, told the House Energy and Commerce
subcommittee on investigations Friday that the $367 million
figure ``represents an upper limit'' estimate of how much the
security-related suspension may have cost the lab in lost or
delayed activities.
The laboratory disagrees, putting the figure at $119 million.
The Energy Department number includes tens of millions of
dollars in indirect costs that should not be attributed
specifically to the work stoppage, according to Nanos.
Whatever the figure, ``the costs are significant,'' said Rep. Ed
Whitfield, R-Ky., the chairman of the investigations
subcommittee.
Several lawmakers questioned why the University of California,
which manages the Los Alamos lab, shouldn't be charged for some
of the costs since, they say, the work stoppage resulted from
security failures related to poor management.
``The university was hired to do the job and they didn't do
it,'' said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. He said letting the
university off the hook was ``outrageous.''
But Brooks told the panel that in all likelihood the government
would absorb the costs because activities related to the work
suspension were covered by the Energy Department's contract with
the university.
Nanos strongly defended the decision to suspend laboratory
operations as ``absolutely the right thing to do'' and said the
cost should not be viewed as lost money. During the stand-down
more than 3,000 issues were found that raised safety or security
concerns.
Nanos said the redirected dollars were an investment in the lab
because the funds were refocused toward safety, security and
compliance activities.
However, if the government were to determine the spending was
not covered under its contract, the university would lose tens
of millions of dollars it had expected to receive from the
government under its contract.
Earlier this year, the Energy Department penalized the
university $5.8 million because of the debacle surrounding the
allegedly lost computer disks and other security and safety
concerns at Los Alamos.
On a broader security issue, Brooks told the subcommittee that
it will not be until fall 2008 that he expects the Energy
Department's nuclear sites to meet the more stringent security
levels demanded in a post-Sept. 11 era of heightened terror
risks.
The tougher requirements were issued last October and the
department previously had said implementation would take several
years. Brooks said facilities where nuclear material is kept
must submit by July implementation plans and a list of resource
requirements to meet the new standards.
``Almost certainly additional resources will be required'' to
meet the new standard, he said, but it's too early to determine
how costly the security improvements will be.
While there have been ``significant security problems'' at Los
Alamos and some other sites where nuclear materials are kept,
Brooks told the subcommittee ``none of the vital national
security assets - nuclear weapons, special nuclear material or
classified material - are at risk anywhere within the nuclear
weapons complex.''
A watchdog group, the Project on Government Oversight, testified
that some facilities such as Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratories in California are unlikely to be able to meet the
tougher standards and that the nuclear material, including
plutonium, should be moved to a safer location.
Livermore officials have said they expect to be able to meet the
new requirements.
----
On the Net:
Los Alamos: http://www.lanl.gov
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
*****************************************************************
66 Tri-City Herald: Nuclear graveyard
This story was published Friday, March 18th, 2005
By Annette Cary, Herald staff writer
Hanford workers are finding some nasty surprises that are
slowing work as they dig up waste and debris buried by early
Hanford workers.
As excavators shovel up dirt and rusted debris from burial sites
as big as football fields not far from the Columbia River,
workers know to expect the unexpected. But they've still been
surprised by what they've found: irradiated nuclear fuel, a
locked safe, plutonium-contaminated equipment and a cache of
five forklifts.
"This shows taking out the burial grounds is the right thing to
do," said Dennis Faulk, environmental scientist with the
Environmental Protection Agency. "It's truly removing an
environmental risk."
For much of the four decades that Hanford produced plutonium for
the nation's nuclear weapons program, the nuclear reservation
was considered not only a place to produce plutonium but also a
permanent dump site for materials contaminated in the process.
Much of the work done in the last decade to clean up the ground
along the Columbia River has removed soil tainted by
contaminated liquids.
Workers knew they would find piping, concrete and contaminated
soil at the effluent pipes leading from the early reactors to
the Columbia River. The only surprise was how much soil they
would have to remove.
But since work started a year ago to dig up waste burial sites
around the B and C reactors, workers have had frequent
surprises.
"You can have a different material in every bucket that comes
out," said Rex Miller, the task lead for contractor Bechtel
Hanford for remediation at the B and C area. "Workers give it a
high degree of respect."
If needed, the excavator operator wears a respirator with
supplied air. A monitor on the bucket shows what vapors are
being released as debris is uncovered.
Unusual items, such as gas cylinders, are set aside. But most of
the debris is hauled to sorting areas and piled to be searched
for potentially harmful items.
The most disturbing find at the B and C reactors' burial grounds
has been nuclear fuel that was irradiated in reactors. Fuel was
supposed to be carefully inventoried.
Workers first discovered a piece of what they thought might be a
fuel rod in a burial ground that's a little bigger than a
football field and as deep as 38 feet. They stopped operations
there and shifted work to a burial ground associated with C
Reactor. But within two weeks, they discovered irradiated fuel
there, too.
The fuel is so radioactive that workers cannot get close to it.
They must stand in baskets suspended from heavy equipment 15
feet above the ground and manipulate the fuel with long-handled
tools.
Now two fuel rods and various broken pieces are enclosed in a
bunker built in the sorting yard by piling up 3,500-pound blocks
of concrete to shield workers from radiation. Heavy equipment
that could lift the blocks is banned from the vicinity.
Eventually, the fuel is expected to go to the K Basins, huge
indoor pools of water where irradiated fuel used to be stored,
then sent to an underground repository for disposal.
Still, Miller said, "That's not the hottest thing we've found."
Instrument wires lowered into reactors to find the temperature
in the core have had higher radiation readings, he said. Those
and other highly radioactive items also have been isolated in a
larger bunker.
Different surprises have been found in Hanford's 300 Area.
In laboratories there, uranium fuel was fabricated that would be
irradiated in the production reactors. Processes that would be
used at the reactors or processing plants in central Hanford
also were tested there.
The site is contaminated, but much of the problem was believed
to be uranium. That's why a safe dug up a couple months ago was
such a surprise.
Hanford workers had pored through thousands of pages of
documents and inventories to try to predict what had been buried
there. But they have found them incomplete.
There were gaps in the record during World War II, and some
materials were referred to by code for security reasons. For
instance, "W" stood for Hanford. And workers now know that "pure
W product" meant plutonium.
Workers first thought when they found the safe that it might
contain classified documents, said John Darby, the task lead for
Bechtel Hanford for the burial ground work at the 300 Area.
Records found since show it was one of three safes used in the
300 Area.
But when part of the back separated as the buried safe was
lifted, workers could see it held a bottle with liquid and was
lined with concrete shot with lead -- for better radiation
shielding.
Inside were six containers. A flask and a jug labeled "Walt's
Group" were still filled with liquid. Radiation monitors showed
the safe is radioactively contaminated, likely from plutonium.
It may have been buried, containers and all, because one of the
containers broke, Darby speculated. Bechtel Hanford is not sure
yet if the liquid, some of it labeled in a scrawl that appears
to say lanthinium fluoride, contains radioactive contamination
or if the outsides of the containers are contaminated.
Part of the challenge is identifying what material might pose a
hazard.
"A lot of it is old, rusted material that's bent up," Darby
said. "They're trying to guess what it was used for and then
what it might be contaminated with."
Some items are obvious, like the five forklifts, evidently
buried after they became contaminated. Nearby, the wheels of an
upside-down flatbed truck trailer protrude from the dirt.
In the sorting piles, workers find objects like a crushed hood
that once stood over a laboratory work bench, boxes of bolts --
and a troublesome, cup-shaped laboratory beaker.
The crusty beaker was discovered in one of the sorting piles at
the 300 Area about the same time as the safe. Like the safe, the
beaker was giving off alpha emitters. Uranium gives off mostly
beta radiation, while plutonium gives off alpha radiation.
Seven people were found to have inhaled airborne contamination
from the beaker, including one worker who inhaled a dose that
was above the administratively set limit but still within the
legal limit.
Work has stopped while new controls are put in place to protect
workers at stockpiles that might have plutonium contamination.
Work also has been stopped for about five months at the two
burial sites to the north, where contaminated fuel was found.
But Hanford workers continue to make progress at other sites
near the B and C reactors. Some burial areas are small enough
that they can be dug up in two days.
About 3,800 tons of debris are being hauled out of the B and C
area each work day to a Hanford landfill. Much is nonradioactive
construction wastes, but the site also held lead bricks, other
heavy metals and batteries.
A pile of 40- and 50-pound metal tubes holding elemental mercury
tainted with radioactive material from past operations to remove
tritium can be seen at another sorting yard.
Workers knew they would find the tubes, but they still require
special handling. The tubes will each have to be cut open, and
an estimated two tons of mercury processed for disposal at a
Hanford landfill.
Work at the B and C area was far enough ahead of schedule that
Bechtel Hanford still expects to have the site excavated and
resown with native plants by a legal deadline in late 2006.
But the surprises buried there likely will change work at the
burial grounds associated with the other seven Hanford reactors
used to produce plutonium along the Columbia River. Excavations
planned at the second group of reactors, the K reactors, may be
delayed nine months to a year.
In fact, delays can be expected both at the reactors and the 300
Area as more planning is done, said Todd Nelson, spokesman for
Bechtel Hanford.
"We get a lot of surprises," Miller said. "It's doing the right
thing when you get the surprises that matters."
© 2005 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
67 lamonitor.com: Nanos defends lab shutdown
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, , Monitor Assistant Editor
Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Peter Nanos told
representatives of Congress this morning that he did not believe
the University of California should pay for the costs of a
lengthy suspension of operations at the laboratory.
"I feel that all the work that we did during the stand down was
authorized under the statement of work," Nanos said during a
hearing of the investigations subcommittee of the House Energy
and Commerce Committee this morning.
Nanos said the laboratory had largely resumed operations within
the first month with its less risky operations after the stand
down last July and the most risky operations were restarted by
February.
The laboratory would be back on schedule with its major
programs, including some missed stockpile tests by the end of
the month, he said
He said the review had found justification in the large number
of problems that had to be fixed before operations could be
resumed, plus ten times that number of problems that needed to
be worked on in the future.
Responding to a question, Nanos said changing culture at an
institution like IBM had taken seven years.
"I'm two years into at least a five-year process," he said.
"We're close to the tipping point."
Earlier in the hearing the nation's chief nuclear officer
answered questions about the discrepancy between LANL's
estimates on the costs of the shutdown, estimated at $136
million, and an estimate prepared by a National Nuclear Security
Administration.
National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator Linton
Brooks said DOE's Albuquerque office had estimated costs up to
$367 million because of what he included in the estimate. He
said the laboratory's estimate was based on a formula for how
employee's effort was charged to the stand down, and it was not
auditable.
The higher figure also included indirect costs of administration
and overhead.
Brooks said a final determination was pending and he thought it
would fall somewhere between the two estimates.
Pressed by the subcommittee chairman, Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky.,
Brooks said the University of California, which has managed the
LANL contract since the inception of the laboratory, had been
held responsible by penalties and a reduction in fee, as well as
by having to face a competition for the contract.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., expressed incredulity that the issue
of stand down-costs was not specifically addressed in the
contract and objected to having those costs put back on the
taxpayer.
Brooks said that opening the contract to competition was a
response to the recent problems with UC, but explained to the
representatives that the university has never profited from the
work of the laboratory.
LANL was a focus of the subcommittee, as the subcommittee
chairman asked, "How we can turn the tide on the bad news at
LANL?" But the meeting also examined security issues in general
throughout the nuclear complex.
Chairman Whitfield asked Brooks to report on steps that have
been taken at each of the NNSA sites to upgrade security.
Stupak, the ranking minority member, sought answer to the
questions of what was still vulnerable and why, as well as what
still needs to be done.
Glenn Podonsky, DOE's director of security and safety
performance assurance, shared the panel with Brooks and was
asked if his efforts were duplicated by a similar function in
the NNSA.
Podonsky acknowledged that the department does a lot of checking
on itself without much improvement, but said his function was
separate and independent.
"We don't want to fall into the same predicament as in past
years - checkers checking checkers," he said. "I don't believe
that's what Ambassador Brooks intends."
Brooks assured the committee that despite delays, nuclear
material from LANL's vulnerable Technical Area 18 site would be
moved by the end of this year.
The subcommittee also heard testimony from Danielle Brian,
Executive Director of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
POGO has been particularly concerned about the nuclear material
that remains at Technical Area 18 at LANL. She expressed doubts
that the new schedule could be met.
"In addition, much of the material will be stored at the Los
Alamos Technical Area 55 for an unknown period of time," she
said. "Security costs are beginning to mount, as the delays
continue."
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
68 Federal News Service: SECURITY INITIATIVES AT DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NUCLEAR FACILITIES
Transcript
Saturday, March 19, 2005 12:25 am
HEARING OF THE OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE
CHAIRED BY: REP. ED WHITFIELD (R-KY)
WITNESSES: LINTON BROOKS, ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL NUCLEAR
SECURITY ADMINISTRATION; DANIELLE BRIAN, PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT
OVERSIGHT; G. PETER NANOS, DIRECTOR, LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL
LABORATORY; GLENN PODONSKY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INDEPENDENT
OVERSIGHT AND PERFORMANCE ASSURANCE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
2123 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
10:04 A.M. EST, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2005
REP. WHITFIELD: Good morning, and I want to welcome everyone to
this hearing today on the review of security initiatives at DOE
nuclear facilities. We appreciate your being here.
The subcommittee will focus on several security matters at the
Department of Energy's nuclear weapons laboratories, weapons
production facilities, storage facilities and environmental
cleanup sites. ...
For questions and comments contact FNS via WEB or by phone:
(800) 211-4020 or (202) 347-1400
Please read FNS Security and Privacy statement before using
this website.
Copyright © 1985-2005, Federal News Service, Inc. All rights
*****************************************************************
69 [du-list] DU in the news - 18th March 05
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 15:16:20 -0800
The Daily Beacon, Wed, 16 Mar 2005 5:05 PM PST
Nation makes only modest strides
http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=16595
Subject: Editorial- Author: Nate Arthur- Published: Thursday, March 17, 2005
Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance, Wed, 16 Mar 2005 1:48 PM PST
USEC Reports Solid Results in Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2004
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050316/165920_1.html
USEC Inc. : -0- *T
U.S. Department of Energy, Wed, 16 Mar 2005 12:25 PM PST
U.S. Department of Energy Selects Portsmouth Infrastructure Services
Contractor
http://www.energy.gov/engine/content.do?PUBLIC_ID=17628&BT_CODE=PR_PRESSRELEASES&TT_CODE=PRESSRELEASE
WASHINGTON , DC â?" The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced its
award of a $48.8 million small business contract to Theta Pro2Serve
Management Company, LLC (TPMC) for infrastructure services at the
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. A second small
business contract for remediation activities at Portsmouth was awarded
earlier this year.
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