***************************************************************** 03/18/05 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 13.62 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body 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 ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 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! ~ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 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 Sponsor --------------------~--> > > DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources > > often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! > > http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.WnJAA/cUmLAA/7XSolB/TM > > ------------------------------------------------ --------------------~-> > > > > 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 > > abolition-caucus-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > > Do not include a subject line or any text in the body of the message. > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/abolition-caucus/ > > > > <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > > abolition-caucus-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > > <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 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 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a home for your web domain? We recommend our provider, Hosting Direct https://support.hostingdirect.net/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=nucnews ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/RzSHvD/UOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 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. * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 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. Recent TalkBack comments about this article Comment on this article No comments currently in TalkBack, be the first one to post! Comment on this article © 2004 Lancaster Newspapers PO Box 1328, Lancaster PA 17608, (717) 291-8811 Terms of Service Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 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:/ Attachment Converted: dde4c.jpg: 00000001,092ccf51,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: dde56.jpg: 00000001,092ccf52,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: dde74.jpg: 00000001,092ccf53,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: dde7d.jpg: 00000001,092ccf54,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 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.†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,†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.†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 ~ NucNews Links and Expanded Archives - http://nucnews.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a home for your web domain? We recommend our provider, Hosting Direct https://support.hostingdirect.net/cgi-bin/affiliates/clickthru.cgi?id=nucnews ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 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. ---------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 3/15/05 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************