***************************************************************** 01/12/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.8 ***************************************************************** 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 US: Rocky Mountain News: Cheney stands by Bush's Iraq policies 2 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Experts¡¯Visit to NK Raises Questions on 3 BBC: N Korea shows 'nuclear deterrent' 4 BBC: Analysis: Opening up Yongbyon 5 Korea Herald: N. Korea shows U.S. 'nuclear deterrent' 6 SF Chronicle: American delegation visits disputed North Korean nucle 7 NEWS.com.au: N Korea shows off nuclear 'deterrent' 8 CS Monitor: Skepticism swirls around North Korea trip 9 UK Independent: Pressure mounts on North Korea over atomic weapons p 10 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Urges U.S to Accept Nuke Freeze 11 SF Chronicle: The man who knew the 'evil empire' would fall 12 [EMMAS] Sweden to Fund New Blix-Led Weapons Body NUCLEAR REACTORS 13 US: [NukeNet] Strike by Operations Staff Looms at Indian Pt. 14 War Wire: Staff of Czech nuclear plants preparing strike on January 15 US: Tennessean: TVA tests waters for more nuclear power - 16 US: Rutland Herald: Yankee's request sent back 17 US: Toledo Blade: Davis-Besse prepares to fix leaky backup pump 18 Daily Times: Nucleus of a nuclear power 19 ITAR-TASS: Kola nuclear plant stops planned target for power generat 20 US: MHTR: NRC to discuss alleged violation at Point Beach 21 Calgary Herald: Canada needs to support and expand its nuclear indus NUCLEAR SAFETY 22 [DU-WATCH] seeking candidates for Iraq 23 US: [RADFOOD] New Newsletter Issue! 24 US: [DU-WATCH] A Pole In Rumsfeld's Shop 25 [DU-WATCH] The truth in Iraq 26 [du-list] DU in the News - 11th Jan. '04 27 War Wire: Thieves leave Russian military naval yard without power 28 War Wire: Germany buys anti-radiation pills for people near nuclear 29 US: Paducah Sun: Safety Among Old Neighbors NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 30 US: Deseretnews: 3 Goshutes plead innocent to theft, fraud 31 AU SMH: Accident prone - 32 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes, lawyer plead innocent 33 Korea Herald: 'SNU nuclear dump not feasible' 34 US: RGJ: Radioactive waste shipments through Albuquerque protested 35 US: RGJ: Keep speaking up on nuclear waste 36 US: Courier Journal: EPA refuses to ban use of sludge for fertilizer 37 Northern Times: Nuclear dump fears raised again - but MP says it's s 38 Las Vegas SUN: NEVADA FOCUS: Crucial court showdown set on 39 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada Nuclear Waste Case Set for Court NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 40 Tri-Valley Herald: Pentagon rescues Berkeley lab's atom smasher 41 Dayton Daily News: New post renews Hobson's fervor OTHER NUCLEAR 42 Google News Alert - nuclear 43 Google News Alert - nuclear 44 U.S. Newswire: US, Japan to Work Together on Fuel Cell and Hydrogen 45 Las Vegas SUN: Cost of New Space Initiative Unclear ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Rocky Mountain News: Cheney stands by Bush's Iraq policies VP, due in Denver Monday, calls war 'perfectly justified' By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News January 10, 2004 WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday defended the Bush administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq as "perfectly justified," despite a scathing new report that cast doubt on many of the administration’s prewar claims. In a telephone interview in advance of his scheduled fund raising trip to Denver on Monday, Cheney told the Rocky Mountain News that he stands behind the intelligence used to justify the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, and that documents found in Baghdad since then support suspicions that the former Iraqi regime had terrorist ties. "I think we were perfectly justified in doing what we did," Cheney said. "I think the American people support it overwhelmingly. And I don’t have any qualms at all about the decisions that were made." Cheney’s comments came a day after the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released a report claiming that the Bush administration misrepresented the threat of Iraq’s alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs and the suspected terrorism connection. In response to the report Thursday, Secretary of State Colin Powell defended his prewar presentation to the United Nations, but conceded he had not seen "smoking gun, concrete evidence" of a link between the former Iraqi regime and terrorist organizations. In Friday’s interview, Cheney said there was new evidence in documents found in Baghdad concerning Abdul Rahman Yasin, a suspect in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Yasin was questioned by the FBI following that earlier attack on the twin towers, but he was released and fled to Iraq. The Iraqi government long maintained that it had imprisoned him in 1994, and CBS conducted a jailhouse interview in 2002. But Cheney said new documents suggest a more sinister link. "We now know based on documents that we’ve captured since we took Baghdad that they put him on the payroll, gave him a monthly stipend and provided him with a house, sanctuary in effect, in Iraq in the aftermath of ...the ’93 attack on the World Trade Center," Cheney said. Cheney still has plenty of skeptics among those who study global terrorism. "While there may be indications that Abdul Rahman Yasin may have worked for the fallen Iraqi regime, evidence significantly linking al-Qaida to Saddam Hussein still remains unconvincing," said Rita Katz, director of The Search for International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Institute, a Washington-based research group. Despite persistent criticism about the prewar claims and the coalition’s failure to find major stashes of chemical or biological weapons, Cheney said the intelligence reports about weapons of mass destruction left the Bush administration little choice. "Based on that, there wasn’t any way the administration could ignore those findings of the intelligence community in terms of thinking about the threat that Saddam Hussein represented," Cheney said. Cheney is scheduled to appear Monday night at the Hyatt Regency Denver, downtown, at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Bush-Cheney ’04. It is his second campaign visit to Colorado in the past three months, after a November appearance at a fund-raiser for Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Bush carried Colorado in 2000, and a recent Rocky Mountain News-News 4 poll showed he enjoys relatively strong support for both the war in Iraq and his job performance overall. Cheney, who has long battled heart problems, appeared at the fund-raiser in November just days after Campbell, a two-term senator, acknowledged he was being treated for prostate cancer. "We actually didn’t talk about it very much," Cheney said. "His prognosis was good. He dealt with his prostate problem. There’s no reason in the world why he can’t serve another term, and I fully expect he will." Cheney was asked whether he sympathized with the way Campbell has been hounded by persistent questions about his health. "I believe it was my situation since I was 37 years old," said Cheney, who turns 63 this month. "I haven’t found it to be inhibiting at all in terms of a political career." 2003 © The E.W. Scripps Co. Privacy ***************************************************************** 2 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Experts¡¯Visit to NK Raises Questions on the Updated Jan.11,2004 21:02 KST by Yi Ha-won (may2@chosun.com) Republican Richard Lugar, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his aide Keith Luse enter Korea at the Incheon International Airport on Sunday. The men are members of the U.S. delegation who visited secretive Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea. With North Korea's foreign ministry having announced that the private U.S. nuclear experts were shown the country¡¯s "nuclear deterrent," interest and speculation about the nature and motivations behind the North's nuclear armaments is growing. Korean and United States officials think it is highly likely that the North's publicizing of its "deterrent" will significantly influence the second round of six-way talks. The U.S. and Korea have long believed the North has probably developed two to three nuclear bombs, but have had a hard time developing negotiating strategies for lack of accurate intelligence. The North's definition of "nuclear deterrent" is a wide-ranging one, since it includes 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that can be turned into plutonium for use in nuclear weapons, storage facilities for nuclear weapons, and nuclear weapons materials. U.S. and Korean officials believe it is likely that the North did not show the group facilities that are unknown and that it has been working on in secret. Sunday's New York Times said the group was probably shown facilities for producing bomb fuel, rather than an actual weapon. The Washington Post says that they were probably shown recently reprocessed plutonium. Given what has been revealed about the visit, it is most likely the group was shown the nuclear fuel facility known as the "August industrial establishment" and radiochemical laboratory known as the "December industrial establishment." ***************************************************************** 3 BBC: N Korea shows 'nuclear deterrent' Last Updated: Saturday, 10 January, 2004 [Yongbyon nuclear plant] Yongbyon had been closed to outsiders for over a year North Korea says it has revealed its "nuclear deterrent" to an unofficial delegation from the United States. The US team confirmed they had seen the secret nuclear complex that Washington believes is being used to develop nuclear weapons. They were the first group from outside North Korea to visit the Yongbyon facility since the North expelled UN inspectors at the end of 2002. The visit came amid efforts to arrange new six-nation talks on North Korea. DELEGATION MEMBERS John Lewi Professor of international relations Sig Hecker Former head of Los Alamos Laboratory Jack Pritchard Ex-member of US National Security Council Frank Jannuzi Congressional aide Keith Luse Congressional aide Members of the delegation, headed by Stanford University Professor Emeritus John Lewis, said they could not give details of their visit until their findings were reported to Washington. But North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying: "As everybody knows, the United States compelled the DPRK to build a nuclear deterrent. "We showed this to Lewis and his party this time." The BBC's Charles Scanlon, in Seoul, says the North seems intent on proving to the United States that it is not bluffing about its nuclear capabilities. It has been frustrated by Washington's apparent lack of urgency and its refusal to negotiate directly, he adds. The US and North Korea have been locked in a stand-off over the Communist state's nuclear weapons programme since UN inspectors were expelled in 2002. Earlier this week, North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear programme in an apparent attempt to defuse the crisis. But six-country talks aimed at resolving the issues may not resume until next month. 'Not inspectors' The Bush administration appeared to distance itself from the five-day visit, but our correspondent says US officials will be very interested in what the delegation saw. [Sig Hecker] I feel a ve deep obligation to first inform the US Government officials about our trip Sig Hecker Delegation member Professor Lewis said the "full story" of the visit would be released "roughly in a week". He said the delegates had been allow to visit all the places they had requested to view. "What we saw in the DPRK were related to the whole of the issues, not just the nuclear issue," he said. "We were not there to negotiate, we were not there to be inspectors." Fellow delegate Sig Hecker, who headed the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1985 to 1997, said: "I feel a very deep obligation to first inform the US Government officials about our trip, what we saw and what we learned." The delegation also met military, scientific and political figures. 'Bad timing' In 1994, North Korea agreed to halt activities at Yongbyon, 90km (50 miles) north of the capital Pyongyang, under a deal with the United States. But after that agreement broke down in late 2002, North Korea claimed to have finished reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods being stored at Yongbyon - enough to help it build up to six more nuclear weapons. Foreign intelligence agencies have been sceptical about the claims, but have been unable to check them. US President George W Bush's administration withdrew support for a congressional visit to North Korea in October because it said the timing was not appropriate. ***************************************************************** 4 BBC: Analysis: Opening up Yongbyon Last Updated: Saturday, 10 January, 2004 [Charles Scanlon] By Charles Scanlon BBC correspondent in Seoul [North Korean spent nuclear fuel rods in Yongbyon] Opening the door to Yongbyon's facilities is seen as a big step North Korea said nothing about opening its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon until the American delegation had already left the country. It then released a brief statement saying it had shown what it called a "nuclear deterrent force" to its guests. The Foreign Ministry said it had been compelled to build a deterrent because of United States policy. The Americans, including an academic, a nuclear scientist and congressional aides were given all requested access. But the US inspectors said they would not give details of their findings until they had briefed the administration. 'Open access' North Korea began referring to its "deterrent" last year after it expelled UN monitors from Yongbyon. [John Lewis, head of American delegation, on arrival in Beijing] There has been massive media interest in the US visit to facilities Until then it had always insisted that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes. The Foreign Ministry statement said the aim of the visit was "to give Americans an opportunity to confirm the reality by themselves". It said if it helps the US drop its ambiguous view on the North's nuclear activities it could help bring a peaceful solution. North Korea claims in recent months to have reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods that were extracted from the reactor a decade ago, and which would produce enough plutonium for about six atomic bombs. Reassurance The North seems intent on proving to the United States that it is not bluffing about its nuclear capabilities. It has been frustrated by Washington's apparent lack of urgency and its refusal to negotiate directly. [The northern half of the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon] US intelligence has been watching from the air for years Last week North Korea repeated an offer to freeze its nuclear programme in return for economic aid and an end to sanctions from Washington. That was seen as a sign that the North was serious about dialogue. But the United States continues to insist that the regime give up its nuclear ambitions for good and scrap all its nuclear facilities. The United States has estimated for a decade that North Korea already has two nuclear weapons. But convincing evidence that the regime is building a more substantial arsenal would be seen as a serious escalation. Threats North Korea has threatened in recent months to test or even sell a nuclear device. The United States has been trying to work with regional powers to convince North Korea to abandon its weapons programme. It is hoping for a new round of negotiations in Beijing in February, despite the failure to make progress at a first session last August. [Anti-North Korean demonstration in South Korea] South Koreans continue to vent their anger at the regime in the North North Korea is trying to inject more urgency into the process to force concessions from the United States. But it is taking a substantial risk. The Bush administration remains deeply divided over how to deal with North Korea. Influential figures in the administration have never been convinced of the value of dialogue. Some see regime change as the only long-term solution and have argued for sanctions and a naval blockade to force it into submission. Much will depend on how convincing the North Koreans were during last week's presentation at the Yongbyon facility. ***************************************************************** 5 Korea Herald: N. Korea shows U.S. 'nuclear deterrent' By Kim So-young and Reuters 2004.01.12 The first outsiders in a year to visit North Korea's Yeongbyeon nuclear complex were tight-lipped when they arrived in South Korea yesterday for further consultations on the ongoing crisis. No foreigners were given access to the site since the communist state expelled U.N. inspectors at the end of 2002. Two of the group, Keith Luse and Frank Jannuzi, both U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee aides, declined to comment on the inspection upon arrival at Incheon International Airport. They also would not speculate on reactions to their visit coming out of Pyongyang and Washington. "It is simply premature and speculative for anyone to draw conclusions (on what we saw) based on the comments out of Pyongyang and Washington," Luse said. He and Jannuzi must first report to their Democratic and Republican Party bosses, he said. The unofficial U.S. delegates are scheduled to meet South Korea's Foreign Ministry officials today to brief them on the results of their five-day visit to North Korea. John Lewis, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and two others returned to the United States after leaving North Korea. North Korea said Saturday it had shown the U.S. delegation its "nuclear deterrent" and hoped that would provide a basis for a peaceful settlement of the 14-month-old row with the United States over its nuclear activities. "The world is now watching whether the U.S. has a true will to settle the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula on the principle of simultaneous actions and peaceful co-existence," the North's official Korea Central News Agency said. Last week, North Korea offered to freeze its nuclear activities in a move that has raised hopes for a fresh round of talks. Luse refused to comment on what the North meant by showing its so-called nuclear deterrent. "But I would say our trip there gave us opportunities to raise a number of other issues such as the prison camps in North Korea," he said. Officials and analysts in Seoul predicted diplomatic efforts to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program were certain to be affected by the trip. Prof. Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University said North Korea's comments about nuclear deterrence underlined Pyongyang's desire to speed up negotiations with Washington. "The North might be referring to plutonium by 'nuclear deterrence.' As the United States has rebuffed Pyongyang's repeated nuclear claims, Pyongyang might have displayed to the visitors its nuclear reprocessing facilities and plutonium," Koh said. He said the ball was now in the U.S. court, saying Washington could either react negatively to the outcome and thus raise tensions or move quickly to end the nuclear standoff. The United States suspects North Korea may have resumed reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods into plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. The Washington Post also reported yesterday that North Korea might have shown the U.S. delegation what the communist state described as reprocessed plutonium. Officials said the date of the resumption of six-party talks over the nuclear program could be delayed as Washington and Seoul now need time to reassess the dispute. The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The first meeting ended without agreement in August in Beijing. The second round is widely expected in February but some observers believe it could be delayed until at least June. The United States said in October 2002 North Korea admitted to a clandestine uranium enrichment program to build nuclear weapons, which U.S. officials say violated a 1994 agreement by the North to freeze its nuclear program. ***************************************************************** 6 SF Chronicle: American delegation visits disputed North Korean nuclear facility but won't say what it saw JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Friday, January 9, 2004 (01-09) 21:52 PST BEIJING (AP) -- An unofficial delegation of Americans who visited North Korea said Saturday they saw the country's disputed Yongbyon nuclear facility but said they couldn't give details until information about their trip was reported to Washington. The visit came as the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas were trying to arrange a new round of talks on ending the standoff over the North's nuclear program. The five-member American delegation was allowed to see all of the sites they had requested, said one member, John W. Lewis, a Stanford University professor emeritus of international relations. "We did go to Yongbyon," Lewis told reporters after arriving at Beijing's Capital Airport from Pyongyang. He was referring to the nuclear facility that has been closed to outsiders since North Korea expelled U.N. inspectors at the end of 2002. However, the Americans said they wouldn't give any more details about the visit, which began Tuesday, until two delegation members who are on the staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee had reported to Washington. Lewis stressed that the trip was a private effort aimed at improving understanding of North Korean issues. "We are a private delegation," he said. "We were not there to negotiate. We were not there to be inspectors." North Korea has been under international pressure to give up its nuclear weapons programs. But the communist regime is digging in with its hardline rhetoric, heralding tough negotiations. On Friday, the communist state said that it would be foolish for the United States to expect it to follow the example of "some Middle East countries," an apparent reference to Libya's decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman hinted that the recent decisions by Libya and Iran to allow intrusive inspections of their suspected weapons programs would not affect its strategy. "The United States is hyping recent developments in some Middle East countries, the cases orchestrated by itself," the spokesman said, without citing Libya and Iran by name. "It is seized with hallucination that the same would happen on the Korean Peninsula and some countries echo this 'hope' and 'expect' some change." In comments carried by North Korea's official KCNA news agency, he said North Korea "has never been influenced by others and this will not happen in the future." "To expect any 'change' from the DPRK stand is as foolish as expecting a shower from clear sky," the spokesman said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "It is the historical truth that peace is won and defended only with strength." Last month, Libya said it was giving up its weapons of mass destruction after months of secret talks with the United States and Britain. Washington said it hoped other countries would follow Libya's example, which was designed to get the United States to lift sanctions. Iran also agreed last month to allow international inspections of its nuclear programs, though it insists those activities are peaceful. Earlier this week, North Korea said it would freeze its nuclear programs in exchange for U.S. aid and removal from Washington's roster of nations that sponsor terrorism. Secretary of State Colin Powell has called the offer a "positive step" and said prospects for resuming negotiations had improved. South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan said the offer would help create an atmosphere favorable to a fresh round of talks. For months, the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas have been attempting to arrange a new round of six-nation negotiations on the nuclear crisis. The first round in August ended with little progress. Washington has rejected the North's proposals in the past, saying it wants North Korea to begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers any concessions. The crisis flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 deal requiring the North to freeze its nuclear facilities. Washington and its allies cut off free oil shipments, also part of the 1994 accord. · Printer-friendly version · Email this The San Francisco Chronicle ***************************************************************** 7 NEWS.com.au: N Korea shows off nuclear 'deterrent' (January 12, 2004) NORTH Korea said yesterday it had shown its "nuclear deterrent" to an unofficial US delegation that visited the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which had been closed to outsiders since Pyongyang expelled UN inspectors more than 12 months ago. A member of the delegation, which included experts and former government officials, said the five Americans were allowed to see everything they requested but it was not clear if the "nuclear deterrent" was a bomb. Delegates refused to provide further details until they reported to Washington. The visit came amid efforts to arrange a new round of six-nation talks on ending the stand-off over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program, which Pyongyang says is necessary to defend the country against a possible US invasion. A first round of talks in August ended without much progress. "As everybody knows, the United States compelled the DPRK to build a nuclear deterrent," North Korea's official KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. "We showed this to Lewis and his party this time," the spokesman said, referring to one of the delegates, John Lewis, a Stanford University professor emeritus of international relations. The delegates, who returned to Beijing yesterday, would not say how much time they had spent at Yongbyon. Professor Lewis said they met North Korean military, foreign affairs, scientific and economic officials but would not identify them or talk about what they discussed. "We are a private delegation," he said. "We were not there to negotiate. We were not there to be inspectors." US officials believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear bombs and could make several more within months. North Korea has never confirmed or denied having atomic weapons. The visit was to "ensure transparency as speculative reports and ambiguous information about the DPRK's nuclear activities are throwing hurdles in the way of settling the pending nuclear issue", the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "Transparency serves as a basis of realistic thinking and, at the same time, a basis for solving the issue." The delegation also included Sig Hecker, a former director of Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico; Jack Pritchard, a former staff member of the US National Security Council and a former State Department official; and two staff members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Associated Press Copyright 2003 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT+11). ***************************************************************** 8 CS Monitor: Skepticism swirls around North Korea trip | csmonitor.com from the January 12, 2004 edition By Robert Marquand and Don Kirk SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA  A US delegation that included a noted Los Alamos expert is briefing US officials and allies this week regarding its five-day, headline-grabbing trip to North Korea, which included a visit to a nuclear facility that was closed more than a year ago. Yet despite what appears to be a bid by North Korea to create an atmosphere of great expectations, the trip is unlikely to alter the stalemate over talks or to play a role in negotiations in Beijing later this month, say analysts, some of whom feel the trip was "overplayed" by American media. Even worries expressed by senior US officials that the trip will be used by the North to mollify or gain leverage with other members of the six-party negotiating nations seems unfounded, they argue. "The trip will provide a few new data points that may be used by the US administration," says Scott Snyder of the Asia Foundation in Seoul. "Yes, the North can say 'we let outsiders visit the Yongbyon facility,' but I don't believe the Chinese or the South Koreans will be willing to go along with the idea that this constitutes something to be used in the official process." The unofficial US team, invited by North Korea, did not conduct an actual inspection: The delegation was not allowed to bring monitoring equipment into the nuclear facility, which includes a reprocessing plant and a five-megawatt experimental reactor, and were not allowed to bring samples back out. "They went for three days of inspections, but looked at the plant in the midst of formalities, meetings, and under complete guard," says a senior foreign policy aide to a US Senator. "So what will this actually do? What did they take with them - geiger counters? We know the North has at least two bombs." While two team members, congressional aides Keith Luse and Frank Januzzi, confirmed the visit to the nuclear complex at Yongbyon, they refused to comment on North Korean claims that they had seen the North's "nuclear deterrent." The Washington Post reported on Sunday that North Korea might have shown the team reprocessed plutonium. According to Januzzi, the delegation held wide-ranging talks with military and government officials. "We discussed not only the nuclear issue but also human rights, prison camps, economic reforms, abductions and the military-first policy," he says. The delegation also included Jack Pritchard, a former State Department official who resigned last year over differences with the White House on the North, and Siegfried Hecker, a former head of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, birthplace of the US atomic program. North Korea's nuclear program Does North Korea have the bomb? Can its missiles reach the US? Is it selling weapons technology? US preemptive strike: an option? Can US verify end of program? Map source: The Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute Some experts speculate the North's invitation was due to frustration with a lack of progress in talks, and is designed to pressure the Bush team. One possible cause for the visit was to allow officials from the isolated North to talk with unofficial American interlocutors. Yet sources say even these Americans would have described to them "the current reality factor" - that nuclear weapons development will not enhance Pyongyang's security and will continue to keep it isolated. During much of last year, the North Korean nuclear program was one of the testiest questions facing the Bush administration. The White House has argued that the North must conduct a "complete and verifiable" dismantling of its programs. Last week, the North stated that it would be "folly" for the US to hope that Pyongyang would follow the recent path of Libya, which has agreed to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs. The stalemate has caused a number of senior advisers to question whether any progress can be made on the North Korean issue without direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang - resulting in clearly defined "sticks and carrots" on a range of additional questions, including fuel, humanitarian aid, and human rights. More details surrounding the visit are expected to emerge after the team completes its briefings in Washington, including a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Jan. 20. www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2004 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 UK Independent: Pressure mounts on North Korea over atomic weapons programmes By Hans Greimel in Seoul 12 January 2004 United States officials arrived in Seoul yesterday as pressure mounted on Washington to accept North Korea's offer to freeze its atomic weapons programmes. The delegation has already been shown the North's main nuclear complex at Yongbyon in a suspected attempt by the Communist regime to convince the US that it possesses nuclear weapons and to strengthen its negotiating powers. Washington has previously rejected North Korea's offer of a freeze. But the US called Pyongyang's latest proposal a "positive step forward" and South Korea has welcomed the plan. Russia and China are trying to broker a compromise whereby a freeze would have to be in place before negotiations could begin. Chinese diplomats are expected to float the proposal next week in Washington. The US delegation said it was shown everything it asked to see at the nuclear facility in Yongbyon, but would not give details. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the group had been shown recently reprocessed plutonium. Jack Pritchard, a member of the delegation, urged Washington to accept Pyongyang's offer before North Korea strengthened its nuclear arsenal. Mr Pritchard, a former US State Department official, wrote in The Korea Herald on Friday: "It is urgently important that the United States stop the programme now before Pyongyang becomes a limited nuclear weapons state." North Korea says it will freeze its nuclear programmes, if Washington lifts sanctions, resumes shipments of heavy oil and removes the North from the US State Department's list of terrorism-sponsoring countries. The US has demanded that North Korea first dismantle its nuclear programmes. Two experts from the delegation, Keith Luze, a Republican aide, and Frank Jannuzi, a Democrat, were scheduled to meet South Korean Foreign Ministry officials today. UK Independent Ltd. ***************************************************************** 10 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Urges U.S to Accept Nuke Freeze Today: January 11, 2004 at 19:30:24 PST By HANS GREIMEL ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A day after showing American delegates its "nuclear deterrent," North Korea marked the anniversary of its withdrawal from an international nuclear treaty by resolving to bolster its defenses against a possible U.S. attack. Yet as the communist North kept up its typically harsh anti-American rhetoric on Sunday, North Korea's official KCNA news agency also urged Washington to accept Pyongyang's offer of a freeze on its program as a first step toward resolving the crisis over its atomic weapons programs. The American delegates arrived in Seoul on Sunday after a visit to the North in which officials reportedly showed them recently reprocessed plutonium - the fuel for atomic bombs - to convey the extent of development and what might be curbed if the programs were suspended. The five delegates were the first outside visitors to the Yongbyon nuclear plant since Pyongyang expelled U.N. inspectors a year ago. International and domestic pressure is mounting for the Bush administration to accept the North's offer of a freeze as a compromise to rekindle six-nation talks on the nuclear standoff. While previously rejecting such offers, the United States - against the backdrop of the delegation's visit - called Pyongyang's latest proposal a "positive step forward." South Korea hailed the plan as creating "atmosphere" for new negotiations. Meanwhile, Russia and China were working to broker a compromise that reportedly calls for a freeze as a first step toward resuming six-nation talks on the Koreas crisis. Chinese diplomats are expected to float such a proposal next week in Washington, according to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency. The American delegation has said it was shown everything it asked to see at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility, but delegates would not give details until they had briefed superiors in Washington. One delegate, Jack Pritchard, has urged Washington to "pocket" Pyongyang's offer of a freeze before North Korea is able to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and its negotiating hand. North Korea is believed to already have one or two nuclear weapons, and could soon build several more with reprocessed plutonium. "It is urgently important that the United States stop the program now before Pyongyang becomes a limited nuclear weapons state," the former U.S. State Department official wrote in an editorial published Friday in the Korea Herald. The piece was written before he left for North Korea. The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002 when Washington accused North Korea of running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 agreement. A U.S.-led international coalition cut off free oil shipments being supplied under the accord, and North Korea expelled U.N. inspectors from Yongbyon. On Jan. 10, 2003, North Korea quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, a 1968 accord that tries to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. In marking the anniversary of the move, North Korea's official KCNA news agency said Sunday the country has resolved to "keep strengthening self-defensive means to check the nuclear pre-emptive attack of the U.S." The North has insisted it needs nuclear weapons as a deterrent against a possible U.S. attack. It says it will freeze its nuclear programs as a first step if Washington lifts sanctions against it, resumes shipments of heavy oil, and removes North Korea from the State Department list of countries that sponsor terrorism. In response, the United States has demanded that North Korea first verifiably begin dismantling its nuclear programs before receiving any concessions. Two U.S. congressional aides from the delegation were scheduled to meet South Korean Foreign Ministry officials on Monday. Republican aide Keith Luse and Democratic colleague Frank Jannuzi are East Asia experts for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They work respectively for Republican committee chairman Richard Lugar and Joseph Biden, the panel's ranking Democrat. "There have been comments out of Pyongyang and also out of Washington in terms of what we did or did not see in Yongbyon," Luse said after arriving in Seoul. "It is simply premature and speculation for anyone to draw conclusions based on comment out of Pyongyang and Washington." Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Washington Post reported on its Web site Sunday that the group had been shown recently reprocessed plutonium. The material had not been placed in an atomic bomb, and North Korea intimated it was willing to freeze its weapons development to resolve the crisis, the paper said. North Korean experts say Washington is unwilling to extend any concessions for a freeze it can't verify. But Washington could meet North Korea halfway by meeting more mild demands, such as resuming oil shipments to the energy-starved country, said Yu Suk-ryul, an expert on North Korea at the Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security, an affiliate of South Korea's Foreign Ministry. The United States and its allies had been delivering 147 million gallons of annual free oil shipments to the North until last year, when the oil supply was halted the amid the nuclear dispute. "The issues need to be solved incrementally, step by step, and a freeze is the first stage," Yu said. "The other points can be worked out or negotiated once they talk." The United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas have been trying to hold new talks since a first round in Beijing in August ended without much progress. All contents © 1996 - 2004 Las Vegas Sun, Inc. ***************************************************************** 11 SF Chronicle: The man who knew the 'evil empire' would fall / Reagan adviser offers fascinating look at collapse of the Soviet Union from inside the White House Reviewed by Martin Rubin Sunday, January 11, 2004 Vixi Memoirs of a Non-Belonger By Richard Pipes YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS; 264 PAGES; $30 The bloated, self-important memoirs of recently retired high government officials have become an all-too-familiar feature of the publishing world in recent decades. Large advances have been given to, among others, Colin Powell (after his stint as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; we may no doubt expect another tome after he leaves the State Department), George Shultz and most recently Madeleine Albright for books that have left readers and accountants alike disappointed. But in "Vixi" (Latin for "I have lived"), we have, modestly published from a distinguished university press, that rare genuine article: a fascinating look at the corridors of power from one who not only occupied a high position but is also prepared to use his considerable intellect and integrity to give us an honest and perspicacious portrait of what actually went on there. Richard Pipes, for many years a professor of Russian history at Harvard University, served as chief adviser on Soviet and East European affairs on President Reagan's White House National Security staff and thus was present at the creation of a policy that arguably -- and Pipes would so argue strenuously -- brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe. And not simply present as an observer either, because he may with some justice claim that he is the author of the lonely and antinomian position in "Sovietology" that the U.S.S.R. was inherently unstable and thus prone to collapse. Indeed, his entire academic career was devoted to a hardheaded analysis of the Soviet system and of the revolution that had created it, which led him to question the conventional wisdom that the Soviet Union's (nuclear) military capability rendered it a permanent fixture on the world stage. And so, in his new capacity in the Reagan White House, he was able to put his point of view into the receptive ears of the president and have the satisfaction of seeing his judgment empirically vindicated, although by then he had long since completed his two-year (1981-83) stint in Washington. Those of us who follow the controversy that swirls around the current White House national security adviser as she attempts to coordinate (or control, depending upon whose point of view is being reflected) policy will enjoy Pipes' lively account of the turf battles he fought with the State Department under, successively, Alexander Haig and George Shultz. Also timely is his pithy summary of French policies and tactics during his days in Washington: "The French also frequently spited us. The reason was mainly their frustration that the United States, which they regarded as a half-civilized upstart nation, had become since World War II the leading Western power. They had no objections to being defended by it, but they acutely resented American hegemony and at every occasion opposed us and our policies." Pipes is worth reading on more than his particular field of expertise, although his insights there are consistently original and trenchant. A seasoned observer of politics and a student of history over many decades, he is adept at using his broad knowledge to illuminate, for instance, his take on the varieties of Marxism: "The sights [in the Soviet Union] that met my eyes proved to me once more that culture is more important than ideology: that ideas accommodate to the cultural soil on which they fall. Thus Marxism in Scandinavia, where traditions of property and law were relatively strong, evolved first into social democracy and then into the democratic welfare state. In Russia, where both traditions were weakly developed, it reinforced the autocratic, patrimonial heritage. In China, it produced something very different from Soviet communism." Born in Poland to a prosperous family in 1923, Pipes brings to his narrative the fruits of his particular experiences. He witnessed from his own home's window the triumphant entry of Adolf Hitler into defeated Warsaw, and as a Jew had the narrowest of escapes -- first from his native land and then from Europe, arriving in the United States in the summer of 1940. This tale is told calmly but is still both scary and edifying to read: So much ingenuity and luck produced a happy ending for him and his parents, but there is that terrible knowledge of how dire the consequences would have been if any one of dozens of things had gone wrong. Indeed, one of the aspects of "Vixi" that imbues it with a special poignancy is that, yes, Pipes has indeed lived, while so many of his friends, family and compatriots were not allowed to do so. Although this memoir is avowedly a public one, the glimpses Pipes has afforded of his private life are attractive. The references to his marriage of more than half a century strike just the right note, and he can even startle the reader with an ingenuous and frank avowal of his religious faith: "Neither then [at age 8 or 9] nor since have I experienced any doubts about God's existence or benevolent guidance. Nor did I ever feel the need to prove either. Indeed, God's existence is all that I was absolutely certain of for His presence was everywhere; all else seemed and still seems to me conditional and problematic." But "Vixi" is firmly rooted in people as well as in ideas. There is a clear-eyed portrait of Ronald Reagan that, while leaving the reader in no doubt that on balance Pipes is an admirer, nonetheless provides a startling portrait of inattentiveness and disengagement. Suffice it to say that Nancy Reagan will not love it, nor will die-hard fans of the former president who do not want to admit those flaws. Similarly, fans of Alexander Haig and George Shultz will not be thrilled by their portraits in "Vixi"; Henry Kissinger gets off more lightly, perhaps because Pipes responds to his sense of humor. The sages Isaiah Berlin and Edmund Wilson, both close friends of Pipes', are portrayed with affection and admiration, although neither escapes unscathed in his final estimation of them. "Vixi" is perhaps the most refreshing and valuable memoir to emerge from Washington in many years. Of course, Pipes has the advantage of historical triumphalism, given the course of Russian and East European history in the past two decades, and thus has no need to argue his case as pleadingly and defensively as say, Henry Kissinger, whose Ost-Politik was exactly the kind of conventional wisdom Pipes was engaged in overthrowing. But he is a gracious winner, able to apportion due credit to others and unwilling to allow himself to be so caught up in success that he does not realize the very real problems now facing Russia. There is a great deal of wisdom in "Vixi," and it informs the present as it illuminates the past. Martin Rubin is a California biographer and critic. · ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ ***************************************************************** 12 [EMMAS] Sweden to Fund New Blix-Led Weapons Body Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 04:42:37 -0600 (CST) ----- Forwarded message from viviane ----- Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 02:39:04 -1000 Good idea. Let them start with the US and Israel. Viviane ========== http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3978295&from Email=true Sweden to Fund New Blix-Led Weapons Body Thu December 11, 2003 12:02 PM ET By Patrick McLoughlin STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - The Swedish government said Thursday it had decided to finance an independent international commission on weapons of mass destruction to be led by former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix. Blix walked a diplomatic tight-rope earlier this year when his searches for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were evidence central to the U.N. debate on the U.S. case for going to war. The 75-year-old retired from his U.N. post earlier this year. Sweden, which had been neutral during the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States, criticized the U.S.-led war on Iraq because it did not have United Nations' approval. Sweden's contribution of 13 million crowns ($1.76 million) will fund the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission until it reports its findings in 2005. The body aims to bring a new impetus to international efforts to promote disarmament and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the missiles that carry them. "I am convinced that the commission, under the capable leadership of Hans Blix, can help inject new energy into the global efforts aimed against weapons of mass destruction," Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said in a statement. "The existence of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons represent a serious threat to international peace and security and new initiatives are needed in the efforts for disarmament and nonproliferation," she added. No further details on the commission were released. Blix was not available for comment. The Swedish government said he would name the commission's 14 members and present its work plans at a news conference on Dec. 16. Blix, who writing a book, entitled "Weapons of Mass Destruction" has continued to be maintain his close contacts with the field. Sunday he had dinner in Stockholm with Freivalds and the visiting head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, who has proposed toughening the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Blix told Reuters last month that the new commission would comment on major events of the day concerning weapons of mass destruction, including worries about Iraq's neighbor Iran. He also said he had doubts that Iran engaged in a civilian energy program aimed at making a nuclear bomb. The United States has long accused Iran of using a civilian nuclear energy program as a front to build a bomb. Blix told Reuters that his new commission would tap the resources of major international research institutes and be headed by leaders in the field, including a prominent American. ($1=7.373 Swedish Crown) ========= *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.*** ----- End forwarded message ----- ################################################################# " Social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not through the mass." Emma Goldman To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE to the emmasdance list send email to with the message subscribe/unsubscribe emmasdance. [No subject is needed.] "If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution." Emma Goldman ################################################################# ***************************************************************** 13 [NukeNet] Strike by Operations Staff Looms at Indian Pt. Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:54:10 -0800 Nuke Terrorism Site: http://www.tmia.com CRAC-2 Report: http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html [Greatly Watered Down But Still E-Y-E Opening] http://www.nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/10/nyregion/10nuke. html Strike by Operations Staff Looms at Indian Pt. Nuclear Plant By LISA W. FODERARO Published: January 10, 2004 aintenance and operations workers at the Indian Point nuclear power plant were making preparations for a possible strike in the event that negotiations between their union and Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plant's owner, do not yield a new contract within eight days. While Entergy expressed confidence that a walkout would be averted, a spokesman for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America said the two sides were far apart on basic issues like salaries and health benefits. Advertisement Last month, workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a walkout, and this week union members were signing up for picket duty. "Given the status of the talks, I would say they are on a collision course with a strike," said Steve Mangione, a spokesman for Local 1-2. "They are miles apart on the key issues and still very far apart on issues that are usually settled by now." The contract, set to expire at midnight Jan. 17, affects 276 workers at the Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor. The contract for an additional 282 workers at the adjacent Indian Point 2 reactor will not expire until June, and those workers would not participate in a walkout, union officials said. There would be no impact on the security of the plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., Entergy officials said, because the security force, which guards the two reactors against terrorism or other crimes, is not covered by the contract. Entergy has a plan in place to keep Indian Point 3 running in the event of a walkout. The plan calls for the substitution of management personnel for the maintenance and operations workers. Jim Steets, an Entergy spokesman, said the company could also borrow employees from any of the other nine nuclear power plants the company owns, including Indian Point 2. In the meantime, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is devising its own strategy to deal with a possible walkout. The agency has two inspectors monitoring operations at Indian Point during the normal day shift, said Neil A. Sheehan, a spokesman. In a walkout, the number of inspectors would increase to provide round-the-clock coverage, he said. Mr. Sheehan said the agency had reviewed Entergy's contingency plan and considered it acceptable. Labor walkouts at nuclear power plants are not common, he said, but they do occur. Last summer, for instance, there was a 76-day walkout by electrical workers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, N.J., Mr. Sheehan said. And in 1983, workers staged a walkout for nine weeks at Indian Point 2 when that reactor was owned by Con Edison, according to Mr. Steets, and the plant operated continuously during the walkout. "They did exactly what Indian Point would do if they had a walkout," Mr. Sheehan said of the owners of the Oyster Creek plant. "They deferred a lot of work and they had managers who were trained to handle the key responsibilities, including the job of control-room operator." Still, union officials questioned the ability of managers to step into the shoes of workers with years of experience. According to Mr. Mangione, in recent weeks management-level employees at Indian Point 3 have shadowed operations and maintenance workers for two 12-hour shifts. "They are basically getting a 24-hour crash course in how to run a nuclear power plant," Mr. Mangione said. "The elected officials should be very concerned that Entergy is playing Russian roulette with public safety. No matter what they say, they cannot guarantee the safe operation or the security of Indian Point." Entergy officials sounded confident that if a walkout were to occur, the plant would continue operating without incident. "We've been preparing for the possibility of a strike for quite some time," Mr. Steets said. "Many of the management staff have performed these duties before." _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://chrome.nocdirect.com/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 14 War Wire: Staff of Czech nuclear plants preparing strike on January 20 WAR.WIRE PRAGUE (AFP) Jan 10, 2004 Trade unions representing staff of the Czech Republic's two nuclear plants, at Dukovany and Temelin, are preparing a strike on January 20 to press demands for pay rises, they announced Saturday. Unionists are asking for an annual rise of 12.5 percent, more than twice the amount offered by the Czech electricity company CEZ (Ceske energeticke zavody), which has proposed a five-percent hike. "The strike will show employees' unity," said Temelin union chief Frantisek Haman after a union meeting. Before a final decision on any industrial action CEZ management and unionists are to pursue their talks for a settlement in the next days. The Temelin plant is located just 60 kilometers (36 miles) across the border from Austria and for years has been the center of controversy between the two countries. Austria has denounced security measures at the plant and is concerned about its impact on the environment. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 15 Tennessean: TVA tests waters for more nuclear power - Sunday, 01/11/04 By NAOMI SNYDER Staff Writer The unused plant in Bellefonte, Ala., is a prime location for expansion. BELLEFONTE, Ala. — At the Bellefonte plant in northern Alabama, unused cooling towers loom 500 feet over the landscape. Roped-off turnstile doors draped in cobwebs lead to a wide foyer and a reception desk where no one ever sits. The Tennessee Valley Authority hasn't given up hope on this nearly complete but never used nuclear power plant. It still spends about $2.8 million a year maintaining the plant, where construction was halted in 1988. Despite overbuilding nuclear power plants in the 1970s and '80s, which cost the utility billions, TVA has not abandoned its dreams for more nuclear power. The public utility, whose electricity ultimately reaches some 8.3 million customers in the Tennessee Valley region, was the first in the country to decide to restart an unused nuclear unit when its board committed $1.8 billion in 2002 to rebuild a reactor at its Browns Ferry plant near Athens, Ala. It also is in talks with other utilities on construction of the country's first new nuclear plant in decades, pinning its hopes on bringing that plant to Bellefonte. ''TVA is committed to a diverse mixture of generation that makes sense for the ratepayers,'' TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough said. ''The nuclear power industry has proven in recent years that nuclear power is safe and reliable.'' The TVA has three operating nuclear power plants that produce about 25% of its power. It reapplied last week for a 20-year extension on its license for the Browns Ferry nuclear reactors. Hoping for a future low-cost energy supply, and an easier way to meet clean air requirements, the utility is working to restart a third unit at its Browns Ferry plant. And it is in the midst of a cost study with General Electric and Toshiba to develop a new type of boiling water reactor to use at its Bellefonte site, looking for a way to bring that nuclear plant online. TVA also is in talks with other utilities interested in starting the country's first nuclear power plant in almost 20 years. Those utilities, Entergy Corp., Dominion, and Exelon Corp., have applied for early site permits at some of their current plants. Industry officials said plants won't necessarily be built there, but the companies are taking a look at the possibilities by starting the regulatory process early. Entergy has applied for Port Gibson, Miss.; Dominion has applied for North Anna Power Station 40 miles north of Richmond, Va.; and Exelon has applied for Clinton Power Station in central Illinois. TVA officials, who haven't applied for any permits, have their eyes on Bellefonte. ''We think we have an excellent site,'' said TVA board member Bill Baxter, who said there's an increased interest in nuclear power at TVA. Bellefonte looks good to TVA because it already has gone through the permitting process, and the plant itself is almost complete. Partnering with other utilities to build a plant could minimize the cost and, therefore, the risk. It's too early to say whose site would work, said Marilyn Cray, Exelon's vice president of nuclear project development. Exelon was one of several utilities, including the TVA, that met with the Department of Energy last month to talk about licensing a new reactor. If the TVA teamed with investor-owned utilities to build a nuclear plant, it would be the first such partnership for the more than 60-year-old federal corporation. TVA's relationship with nuclear power has been rocky. The utility launched an ambitious nuclear power program in the 1960s, by some accounts the largest nuclear construction program in the world. As it added more debt, Congress continued to increase its debt limit. The costs continued to escalate. By 1977, two of its plants tripled in cost over their original estimates, and two others were double their original estimates, according to Edwin Hargrove, who wrote the book Prisoners of Myth: The Leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The cost was passed on to consumers. TVA increased rates 88% between 1978 and 1984, according to business professors Dennis Logue and Paul MacAvoy in a report published earlier this year. They said TVA grew fourfold from being a $4.8 billion utility to a $19.4 billion one during the construction phase for its nuclear program, compared to an industry average of threefold. Of the 17 units under construction, eight were eventually canceled. As did other utilities at the time who overbuilt, TVA had overestimated demand. The energy crisis and an economic downturn in the 1970s lowered the need for electricity. New regulatory requirements after the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania added new costs to plants under construction. TVA spent about $26.7 billion on its nuclear program, which now is valued at about $11.1 billion. (Part of that is the $4 billion TVA estimates is the value of the unused Bellefonte plant). Even the plants that did get built had some problems. In 1975, a worker burning a candle to test for air leaks started a fire at Browns Ferry that burned uncontrolled for seven hours. Although no one died, and there was no release of radiation, it certainly didn't make the plant look good. Questions about whether TVA could meet the government's requirements led TVA to shut down the plant in 1985. It was reopened in the '90s. The disaster that was TVA's nuclear construction program during the '70s and '80s has created some skeptics. MacAvoy and Logue said TVA's governance structure failed to act quickly enough to address problems and stop the overconstruction. The TVA has little oversight about its decisions, which mostly are left to Congress to second-guess. The two professors advocate privatizing TVA. ''They have not had a long history of good decision making,'' Logue said. Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, has followed TVA for decades. ''TVA has an institutional bias towards nuclear power that continues to get them into trouble,'' he said. Smith doesn't want to see any new nuclear plants built, citing safety and environmental concerns, and he thinks TVA's plans to invest nearly $2 billion in Browns Ferry will harm the organization. TVA and the industry are moving ahead. ''A lot of people in the industry are very nervous about those mistakes,'' said Jack Bailey, TVA's power and operation planner. ''You have to be very thorough.'' Bailey said forecasting techniques are better now, and TVA won't be diving into the construction of six or seven plants at once. Federal licensing also has improved, encouraging TVA and other utilities to think the process will be easier and cheaper. McCullough also takes pains to emphasize that TVA will be careful this time around. He said TVA spent $20 million conducting a thorough analysis of bringing Browns Ferry Unit 1 back online. Browns Ferry's new unit is expected to cost about 2.7 cents per kilowatt hour when it comes on board in 2007, while high natural gas prices lately have driven up the cost of that power to 5 cents per kilowatt hour, he said. (TVA's actual natural gas generation is small). Plus, the high cost of clean air regulations have made coal, which generates more than 60% of TVA's power, more costly. A new coal plant cost about 4 cents per kwh. TVA used clean air regulations to justify a recent wholesale rate increase of 7.4% for residential and commercial customers. (Industrial customers got a 2% decrease because TVA said they were paying too much and needed help generating jobs). The performance of the nuclear reactors has improved, and they are now winning industry awards for efficiency and quality management. ''TVA has learned some lessons along the way,'' McCullough said. And although TVA would like to use the old Bellefonte site, it has no immediate plans to do so and will remain cautious, he said. ''We wouldn't do anything until it's justified from an economic and environmental point of view,'' he said. Why does the closed Bellefonte Nuclear Plant cost $2.8 million to operate each year? After spending $4.6 billion to build the plant, construction was stopped in 1988 with one reactor unit 88% finished and another 57% done. To keep the plant from deteriorating and to protect it, TVA has 28 employees there who keep the building, generators and turbines in good shape, periodically giving them a dry run so they can be used or sold. Bellefonte also has a switchyard for transmission lines running through north Alabama and 12 megawatts of diesel power generation that runs occasionally. © Copyright 2003 The Tennessean A Gannett Co. ***************************************************************** 16 Rutland Herald: Yankee's request sent back January 10, 2004 By SUSAN SMALLHEER Herald Staff Federal regulators have sent back Entergy Nuclear's application for a 20 percent power increase at Vermont Yankee, saying it was incomplete and did an inadequate job of reviewing some safety concerns. Meanwhile, Vermont state nuclear engineer William Sherman went on the record with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, raising concerns about the safety of a key aspect of how Entergy proposes to handle additional heat generated by the extra power production. The NRC, in a letter dated Dec. 15 that became public Friday, said it wouldn't start the "official clock" of its review process until the additional information was provided by Entergy. "Through the acceptance review, the NRC staff also noted that in many review areas there was insufficient information provided to arrive at an adequate safety conclusion," wrote Cornelius Holden, the director of projects for the Division of Licensing Project Management.The NRC said the application was incomplete, even after Entergy filed three supplements in October. The initial application was filed in September. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said that NRC staff would still evaluate other aspects of the application that had been deemed satisfactory. But he said the 12 months the NRC sets aside for its detailed evaluation of such power increases would not begin until later. Entergy spokesmen did not return repeated telephone calls and e-mail messages Friday asking for comment about the decision's effect on the $60 million project at the Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon. Vermont regulators are relying on a detailed technical review by the NRC of the so-called power uprate. Sheehan said the Entergy application to amend its license and change the way it operates the plant was nearly 300 pages long. "Review has not ground to a halt," he said. But Sheehan said a preliminary review by NRC staff showed "three major areas" that were incomplete and needed additional information. While the internal temperatures of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor will remain the same, the 20 percent power increase will produce 20 percent more heat and steam. Sherman, the state nuclear engineer, in a letter dated Dec. 8, raised many of the same concerns about the increased pressure in the containment structure. He noted that previous federal regulations were "unequivocal" that what the company was proposing to do about containment pressurization was not permitted. Those concerns were also raised last week by Paul Blanch of West Hartford, Conn., a nuclear engineer and industry executive turned whistleblower. He is testifying against the Entergy plan next week on behalf of the New England Coalition, an anti-nuclear group. Blanch, who worked as a consultant for Entergy at its Indian Point reactor as recently as last year, said he is "pro-nuclear" but that Entergy's plans could put Vermonters at serious risk. He cited the increased likelihood of a serious accident at Yankee because of the increased heat after the uprate. Sherman wouldn't return telephone calls Friday, sending word through a department attorney that he was preparing for next week's hearings. Blanch, who said he has known Sherman for more than 20 years when they both worked in the nuclear industry, said it was an amazing coincidence that they both came up with the same concerns - considering the thousands of documents Entergy has produced. "Entergy is reducing the margin of safety," Blanch said, by increasing the pressure in the main safety system, or containment, surrounding the reactor. The increased pressure, in the event of an accident, could lead to failure in pumps that must feed cooling water into the reactor, he said. "They are producing more heat which presents more of a challenge to the containment structure," Blanch said. He said the NRC would be ignoring its own regulations if it allowed the increase in pressure, a charge that Sheehan denied. Raymond Shadis, staff advisor and counsel to the New England Coalition, said Friday that since Entergy's application was incomplete, a decision probably wouldn't come for at least six months. "There's no great penalty to Entergy," he said. "The Public Service Board's decision is not an immediate necessity." Entergy had told Vermont regulators last year that it needed a decision by last fall in order to start construction on the necessary repairs and retrofits to phase in the 20 percent power increase over two years. But because of delays in turning over information to project opponents, the earliest date for a decision from the state is now tentatively set for mid-March. Hearings on that project information start Monday in Montpelier. Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. Copyright © 2003 Rutland Heraldand Barre-Montpelier Times Argus ***************************************************************** 17 Toledo Blade: Davis-Besse prepares to fix leaky backup pump Article published Saturday, January 10 2004 By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER FirstEnergy Corp. yesterday backed Davis-Besse down from the optimum temperature and pressure levels it had been holding the plant’s reactor at in preparation for restart. The company did that so it can repair a steam leak it found in a backup pump a few days ago. The length of time to do the work was not immediately known, but it was presumed the task would take at least three or four days, Richard Wilkins, a spokesman for the utility, said. Davis-Besse has been heated up for days in a nonnuclear mode in anticipation of getting Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to start drawing nuclear power and producing electricity again for the first time since Feb. 16, 2002. The reactor had been at 530 degrees and 2,155 pounds per square inch of pressure, which the company has identified as the plant’s optimum holding levels in Mode 3. That mode is the highest phase of start-up FirstEnergy is allowed to achieve before it gets NRC approval to make the transition to nuclear power. In nonnuclear modes, the reactor draws heat from reactor cooling pumps. Control rods remain inserted to prevent nuclear fission. A minor leak had been identified a few days ago on an auxiliary feed-water pump. After realizing the leak would not seal itself off and was slowly getting worse, the company reduced reactor temperature early yesterday to 272 degrees and pressure to 255 psi so that workers could fix the problem, Mr. Wilkins said. The decrease slipped the reactor from Mode 3 to Mode 4. It can return to Mode 3 within hours after the work is completed, officials said. A public update on the plant’s status is planned for Jan. 21 at 6 p.m. during the NRC’s monthly meeting in the Oak Harbor High School auditorium. The final meeting prior to a restart decision has not been scheduled. The NRC has said it plans to notify the public of that meeting at least 10 days in advance. No makeup date has been scheduled yet for a return visit by the NRC’s Restart Readiness Assessment Team, which originally planned to meet back at Davis-Besse on Monday. The assessment team is a group of resident inspectors from other Midwest nuclear plants that is to spend at least another week reviewing FirstEnergy’s job performance at Davis-Besse prior to restart. Following an 11-day inspection in December, the team concluded the utility was not ready. For earlier stories on Davis-Besse, go to www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse ***************************************************************** 18 Daily Times: Nucleus of a nuclear power Monday, January 12, 2004 DR Rafi M Chaudhri (1903-88) was remembered at the Government College University in Lahore last week as the Physics Department celebrated the 100th birth anniversary of its great founder. Dr Chaudhri taught many of the physicists who went on to work in Pakistan’s nuclear programme: 44 of the 50 came from the GC Physics Department. That is why the GC is considered the nucleus of Pakistan’s nuclear power. Professor Dr Rafi Muhammad Chaudhri (1903-1988) was a Sitara-e-Khidmat, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, MSc, PhD, professor and head of physics at the GC and director of the High Tension and Nuclear Research Laboratory (1948 to 1965). He taught at Aligarh University from 1923 to 1929 and proceeded to Cambridge in 1929 on a scholarship awarded by the Nawab of Bhopal. He worked under Professor Ernest Rutherford, a Nobel Laureate and the discoverer of the nucleus. Dr Chaudhri’s contemporaries at Cambridge included gifted physicists such as JJ Thomson, Kapitsa, Cockroft, Blackett, Oliphant, Massey, Walton, Lawrence, CTR Wilson, Aston, Occhialini and many others, whom Lord CP Snow in his last book ‘The Physicists’ calls the ‘founding fathers’ of modem physics. Dr Chaudhri returned from Cambridge in 1933 and joined the Aligarh University in 1938, working there until 1948 when the government of Pakistan invited him to join the GC as professor and head of the physics department after Sir Mark Oliphant wrote to Muhammad Ali Jinnah recommending him. In 1952, he single-handedly planned and installed a 1.2 million volt high-tension generator at the college. The machine is in the High Tension and Nuclear Research Laboratory (HTL) for atomic research in the GC and was the first machine of its kind in South Asia. He served as the HTL director after retirement until 1965. Dr Chaudhri was an avid lover of books, his son Colonel Azhar Chaudhri said at the memorial event in GC. “He preferred to save his books rather than his family at Partition, when the British government provided security guards and a vehicle to him to safely migrate to Pakistan,” Colonel Chaudhri said. Dr Tahir Hussain, amongst his pupils in Aligarh University, recalled that he was a great patriot. “When I went to see Dr Chaudhri at GC he asked me to work in Pakistan. He would not let me go back to India, and at last I had to migrate,” Dr Hussain said. Dr Samar Mubarakmand, though not one of Dr Chaudhri’s student, said he was like his father. “The most difficult day in my life was to take charge of the HTL from Dr Chaudhri in 1965-6.” Dr Saeed A Durranni from the University of Birmingham said he was a remarkable teacher. “I found that for Dr Chaudhri, physics was the be-all and end-all. He seemed to eat, drink, breathe and sleep physics. It was the habit of hard work that he wanted to inculcate in his students. He came to the lab at the break of day and didn’t go home until around 9 or 10 pm.” Dr Durrani said he once told Dr Chaudhri, when the later was in a good mood, “Sir, the reason almost all your sons and daughters are reading physics at college is so that they can see something of their father - for you are apparently never at home!” “When I met him when he was 85, he was still in the same spirit and after listening to him speak about physics, I felt as if I was a young student in his lab 35 years earlier.” He called Dr Chaudhri the quintessential teacher, one who moulded the personality of each of his students. Dr Hameed A Khan, executive director of COMSATS, who was also a student of Dr Chaudhri’s, said his teacher was very strict, especially regarding punctuality. “His love for practical work was evident from the fact that if a student was in the HTL all day, he would be most pleased with him. He didn’t encourage anyone reading in the lab. This was to be done at home, after lab hours,” he said. Dr Khan said most of his students had to stay in the lab until it was dark, and though it wasn’t mandatory to come to the lab on Saturdays and Sundays, Dr Chaudhri particularly liked that, for he came to the lab seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, including during the Eid holidays. Though science was close to his heart, he never lost sight of the well being of his students. He always appreciated the hard work done by his students. He never punished hard working students for their mistakes. “Whatever basic research I learnt, I learnt from that great scientist,” Dr Khan said. Physicist Dr Sheikh Aftab Ahmad said Dr Chaudhri created a great working atmosphere in the department. “The department was like a family,” he said. “He was a great scientist who wished great success in science for his students. He didn’t make the atomic bomb but made physicists who did that job.” “The physics community of the country owes Dr Chaudhri immense gratitude for rebuilding the physics department of the GC which was greatly denuded and weakened after Partition,” said another pupil of Dr Chaudhri’s, Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, who is presently advisor to the prime minister. “Dr Chaudhri was an excellent teacher. He always came prepared to deliver lectures and the class was fully attentive and immersed in what was being taught.” “When I went abroad for my PhD, he came to see me off at the railway station. He said good words to my father regarding me. I recall that when the train pulled out of the station, I could see my sad, frozen as a statue, and Dr Chaudhri on his left, waving his white handkerchief enthusiastically.” Dr Ahmed said when he worked in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Chaudhri declined several invitations to visit him. “In November 1986 in Lahore, he surprised me by accepting an invitation to an exhibition inaugurated by then president Gen Ziaul Haq. The chairman of the PAEC, Dr Muneer Ahmad Khan (also a student of Dr Chaudhri), was able to arrange a meeting between Dr Chaudhri and Gen Haq. He proudly informed the president that Dr Chaudhri was his teacher. “The president responded by telling Dr Chaudhri that he had produced students of remarkable calibre, and raised his hands to his forehead to salute Dr Chaudhri.” Dr Ahmed said this left a glow in Dr Chaudhri’s eyes. “He thanked me for introducing him to the president and immediately left the centre. Little did I know that it would be my last meeting with Dr Chaudhri. He was not only a distinguished physicist and learned teacher, but also an honest, genuine person totally free of ethnic or sectarian prejudice.” Dr Tariq Siddiqui, former vice chancellor of Quaid-e-Azam University, said young teachers should model themselves on Dr Chaudhri because he had taught his students the most important thing: hard work. The participants in the ceremony thanked Dr Hassan Shah, head of the department, for arranging the memorial. Dr NM Butt came up with the idea of hosting the event. —Waqar Gillani Home | National Composite dialogue next month Eleven killed in Kashmir violence 4 models for resuming India-Pakistan talks More organisations likely to be banned for terrorism Lawyers’ protest convention today Pakistan nets 22 Indian fishermen Indians due today to discuss bus accord Qorei gives backing for two-state settlement ARD condemns HBL privatisation Police clueless about attacks on Musharraf Single currency will boost peace and trade: Asghar Pervaiz calls Punjab investor friendly ‘Govt pushing Pakistan to civil war’ Amer wants action against land grabbers to continue No tender needed for small uplift schemes Rain-fed areas committee set up Musharraf-Vajpaee meeting to be fruitful, hopes Leghari Lack of traffic education causing accidents Qazi and Fazl unfair to smaller MMA parties, says Mir JI demands NA education debate FCC underpass 40 percent complete Dental disease increases risk of heart attack Abida Sultaan’s memoirs launched Clash between police and public in Islampura Adult centres Teachers threaten protest against privatisation of schools Nucleus of a nuclear power Shaista offered job and house Bar presidents elected in Multan, Sahiwal, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala Christian leaders want priest’s killers caught Kashmir road, take me home, says elderly Pakistani Convent funfair attracts children Text of Benazir’s interview IPU concerned over Zardari’s detention Reemployment policy irks PTCL officials NWFP cabinet satisfied over law and order NWFP to get Rs 90m from WB Al Qaeda hunt on North West frontier follows old tracks US helping strengthen Musharraf’s security Indian scepticism about Musharraf waning Afghanistan’s stability tied to Indo-Pak peace Saudi Arabia launches satellite news channel 3,000 desert Afghan army EU wants Arabs back war court EU official meets IAEA chief before heading to Iran Pilot killed in armed attack Top Iraqi cleric rejects US plans for interim government Five die as truck crashes into passenger vans Mohmand Agency official wants poppy eradication Man kills wife, turns gun on himself 2 injured as taxi collides with train Navy chief off to France, UAE Hameed Jatoi dies at 90 Hizb claims to killing 770 Indian soldiers Newspaper workers’ wage award case on 14 Aziz calls on Karzai Basit Haqqani laid to rest Qazi for dialogue between US and Muslims Daily Times - All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 19 ITAR-TASS: Kola nuclear plant stops planned target for power generation [ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia] 11.01.2004, 15.47 [Kola nuclear power station (TASS Photo)] MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - In 2003, the Kola nuclear power station (KolAES) generated 9,918 million kWh of electricity or two percent more than the planned target of the Federal Energy Commission of Russia, Tass learnt on Sunday at the pres centre of the Rosenergoatom Concern. The press centre specified that the overfulfilment “totalled 323.7 million kWh, or topped the figure for the 12 months in 2002”. According concern specialists, “generation of power at KolAES is to rise to ten billion kWh in 2004”. “All in all, KolAES generated 266 billion kWh of electricity since the start of the station’s operation”, the press centre added. The press centre noted that “four power units operate at the station now with an aggregate load of 1,370 MW”. Rosenergoatom reported that one set is “ at a stand-by, and there are no malfunctions in the operation of the station”. The radiation background on the grounds of KolAES “is in line with the level of normal operation of nuclear power blocks and is not above natural background figures”, the concern reported. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 20 MHTR: NRC to discuss alleged violation at Point Beach Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter - Lakeshore Update: Posted Jan. 10, 2004 From staff reports TWO CREEKS — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a conference Tuesday in Lisle, Ill., to discuss an apparent violation associated with making changes to the emergency plan for the Point Beach Nuclear Plant, without receiving prior NRC approval. During a special inspection at Point Beach last year, NRC inspectors discovered that the plant staff had made changes to the Emergency Action Level procedure, which reduced the effectiveness of the emergency plan, without approval from the NRC. Emergency Action Levels designate specific events or indicators that would signal to station personnel how to classify the emergency. The purpose of the conference is to discuss the apparent violation and provide the company an opportunity to respond and to provide details of its corrective actions. Enforcement action will not be determined at the meeting. A decision, if any, is expected in upcoming weeks. Kiel man dead in Fond du Lac fatality FOND DU LAC — A 46-year-old Kiel man was killed Friday after a two-vehicle collision at 6:47 a.m. on Highway 175 and Lost Arrow Road in Fond du Lac County. Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Nick Evans said the man had been driving a sport utility vehicle south on Highway 175 when he came upon a Waste Management truck stopped on the road, picking up garbage. The man swerved to avoid the truck, crossed the lane of traffic and entering a ditch. The SUV, which continued traveling, hit a culvert and broadsided a tree on the driver’s side of the vehicle. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, Evans said. The man’s name is being withheld, pending notification of relatives. U.S. Senate GOP hopefuls at library MANITOWOC — A primary election candidate forum will be held at the Manitowoc Public Library on Monday at 7 p.m., featuring the three Republican challengers to U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold. Addressing the monthly meeting of the Manitowoc County Republican Party will be Russ Darrow, Timothy Michels and State Sen. Robert Welch. Youth dance registration begins MANITOWOC — The Manitowoc Parks & Recreation Department is taking registration for the youth dance program, to begin Monday and Tuesday. Classes are held at the Manitowoc Senior Center, 3330 Custer St. Fees are $25 for residents and $30 for non-residents. Class size is limited. The classes are as follows: n Little Steppers — ages 5 to 7 will learn the basics of tap, jazz and ballet. Tuesday/Thursday from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. n Movers and Shakers — Youth 8 to 11, on Monday and Wednesday from 6:45 to 7:30 p.m. n Toe Tappers — Youth 11 to 13 on Tuesday and Thursday from 7:45 to 8:45 p.m. n Talented Teens — Youth 14 to 16 on Monday and Wednesday from 7:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Volunteer tax training offered MANITOWOC — Volunteer Income Tax Assistance training will be offered free of charge to people who are willing to devote time during the upcoming tax season to help taxpayers with their individual tax returns. VITA volunteers provide free tax assistance to lower income taxpayers with simple tax returns. The training will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 23 and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 24 at Silver Lake College. If interested, call Ken at 686-6216 by Thursday. Big Brothers Big Sisters sessions set MANITOWOC — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Manitowoc County will be offering information sessions to learn about the program. Meetings will be held at the Big Brothers Big Sisters office at 810 Washington St., Manitowoc: n Noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday n Noon to 1 p.m. Jan. 17 n Noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 14 n Noon to 1 p.m. Feb. 18 For additional information, call Big Brothers Big Sisters at 684-7445. Mariners Trail group to meet MANITOWOC — The Friends of the Mariners Trail has recently formed with the mission to assist in the operation, upkeep, promotion and future development of the trail. Plans are currently underway to hold a Trail-a-Thon event on Aug. 14. A meeting of the group will be held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 28. For more information, contact John Brunner at 684-8088. LWV will host Patriot Act forum MANITOWOC — The League of Women Voters of Manitowoc County will host a public forum to discuss the Patriot Act at 7 p.m. Thursday, in the Balkansky Room at the Manitowoc Public Library. Presenters will include John C. Peterson, an attorney with Peterson, Berk & Cross, S.C., and Alan Engelbert, director of the Manitowoc Public Library. The public is invited to attend. For more information about LWV or the meeting, call board member Jennifer Balma at 683-9112. Copyright © 2003 ***************************************************************** 21 Calgary Herald: Canada needs to support and expand its nuclear industry, says Natural Resources Minister John Efford. - canada.com Energy minister pledges support for nuke power Oil and gas drillers warned to respect the environment Kate Jaimet CanWest News Service Saturday, January 10, 2004 "The nuclear industry is a very, very important industry to the future of Canada," he said in an interview with CanWest News Service. "First of all, there's a need for the nuclear development, there's a need for more power and it's environmentally friendly. . . ." However, Efford said he could not promise that Ottawa will continue subsidizing nuclear power to the extent it has in the past. In 2003, Ottawa gave a $178.8-million subsidy to Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that designs and builds CANDU nuclear reactors. "Before I make any comment on what should or shouldn't be (subsidized), I'm going to talk to the finance minister on the priorities government must set down," said Efford. Besides a growing nuclear industry, he said he envisages large hydroelectric dams as important to future energy development. "We've got a lot of opportunities for developing hydro in Labrador. Newfoundland has got a lot of opportunities to create major megawatts of energy for Canada, for parts of North America," he said. "That's a golden opportunity." Efford also said the government must continue to support drilling for oil and gas. But, he cautioned, "we have to develop the oil industry with the full impacts of the environment in mind." While he sees alternative sources like wind playing a role in Canada's energy in the future, Efford said they are not about to contribute significantly to the power grid at present. "We're a distance back from energy developed by wind power," he said. While wind power installations are minimal in Canada, supplying only 317 megawatts of power, the industry is much more advanced in Europe and United States, where turbines provide thousands of megawatts of electricity. Efford's support for the nuclear industry comes at a time when Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. is promoting a "nuclear renaissance," hoping to build 20 new reactors across the country in the next 20 years. No nuclear reactors have been built in Canada since Ontario's Darlington station was completed in 1993 at a cost of $14 billion. © Copyright 2004 Calgary Herald Copyright © CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 22 [DU-WATCH] seeking candidates for Iraq Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:01:34 -0600 (CST) From: psi@riseup.net [mailto:psi@riseup.net] Sent: January 6, 2004 18:08 Subject: [psi-news] ` la recherche de candidatEs pour l'Irak // seeking candidates for Iraq [French snipped] The Iraq Solidarity Project (ISP) is seeking applications from candidates interested in going to Iraq for a minimum of three months during the year 2004. This is not remunerated work but rather activism, but of course the travel and subsistence expenses are covered by the project. Started as a Montreal group which participated in the Iraq Peace Team before and during the recent invasion, we have sent a total of four short-term delegations to Iraq during the last year. In 2004, the Iraq Solidarity Project (ISP) will contribute to the independent, international monitoring of occupation forces and of the corporate reconstruction of Iraq, and provide protective accompaniment to Iraqis under the occupation. A crucial step in this direction consists in establishing a stable presence in Iraq, in close collaboration with the International Occupation Watch Center (see www.occupationwatch.org ). We expect to send a first long term delegate around mid-February for a minimum of three months. Following this person, another delegate will take the relay for a similar period, etc. Ideally, we are looking for candidates with : => a demonstrated commitment and experience in solidarity work (including international solidarity and accompaniment work) or other relevant activism; => a certain amount of knowledge of the "Iraqi issue"; => the intent to commit firmly to this project, beyond the three-month stay in Iraq; => lots of initiative, but also a demonstrated ability to work collectively, to accept common guidelines, to be supportive within a team framework; => good skills in terms of writing and/or public speaking to communicate the lessons of all this work; => a good knowledge of French, English and, if possible, Arabic; The deadline to send in your application for the February departure is Monday, 19 January. But you can obviously signify after that date your interest and availability to leave for Iraq later this year. ++++++++++ If you are interested, available and have the required qualities, please do not hesitate to apply : (and also do so, even if you are not quite sure that you meet all the requirements) (1) first, by communicating with ISP immediately to receive a copy of our detailed project for 2004 Email : psi@riseup.net Telephone : 514-521-5252 (2) and then, by emailing at the above address your detailed responses to the questions below, prior to 19 January (see Application Form) (3) if possible, by participating in the work of our group (meetings, tasks) before you leave, i.e. right now ! (4) by planning to take part in a few mandatory orientation meetings, which will take place during the two weeks prior to departure. Those whose application will not have been selected for February 2004, but who remain interested by the project, are obviously most welcome to attend those meeting as well. ++++++++++++ APPLICATION FORM A. Personal information Name : Postal Address : Phone Number : Email Address : Occupation : student ___ work ___ (where ? in what field ?) unemployed ___ other ___ (specify) Fluency in French : spoken___ written ___ Details : Fluency in English : spoken___ written ___ Details : Fluency in Arabic : spoken___ written ___ Details : Other languages : Nationality(ies) and passport(s) : Relevant specific skills (photography, video, theater, websites, etc.) Political Affiliation in Quebec or elsewhere (if any) Health problems that we should know about ? B. Do you feel confident that your currrent knowledge of Iraq is adequate for the work you would do with ISP ? Also indicate any contacts you may have in Iraq. C. What are your motivations to volunteer to go to Iraq within the framework of the ISP project ? Will you also be pursueing personal objectives through this trip to Iraq (if so, what are they) ? D. What relevant experiences and skills are you bringing to the implementation of this project ? (If we do not know you already, please provide names and contact info of individuals who can attest that experience). E. How is this project of monitoring the occupation in Iraq and accompanying the Iraqi people in continuity with your past experience ? or likely to strengthen the solidarity work in which you are currently engaged ? F. During what period, in 2004, are you available to stay in Iraq for the ISP project ? G. What do you think the extent of your involvement in PSI work will be when you return from Iraq ? H. Please very briefly present your views on these questions : => the forms of resistance which you consider legitimate and those which you consider illegitimate in resisting a foreign occupation; => the causes of the invasion of Iraq; => the limits of your role, as a non-Iraqi international, in regards to resistance to the occupation of Iraq. => your ability (or lack of) to work collectively with persons who might not share your views on the previous subjects; I. Please indicate here any additional information or viewpoint which you consider important to share with us in relation to your application for this project. We are eagerly waiting for your response! Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 23 [RADFOOD] New Newsletter Issue! Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:06:05 -0600 (CST) **New Bi-Monthly Newsletter Issue!** The Jan/Feb 2004 issue of our Food Irradiation Alert! newsletter is up on the web. Check it out for new food irradiation updates and stories on our testing of chemicals in irradiated ground beef, events during the International Anti-Food Irradiation Week, and more! http://www.citizen.org/documents/foodalertjan04.pdf ******************** If you would like to be removed from the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe radfood" in the message. If you would like to be added to the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "subscribe radfood" in the message. To learn more about food irradiation, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/ Questions about the radfood list can be directed to RADFOOD-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG -Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program ***************************************************************** 24 [DU-WATCH] A Pole In Rumsfeld's Shop Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 01:17:25 -0600 (CST) http://www.amconmag.com/12_1_03/feature.html December 1, 2003 issue Copyright ) 2003 The American Conservative In Rumsfelds Shop: A senior Air Force officer watches as the neocons consolidate their Pentagon coup. By Karen Kwiatkowski Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski recently retired from the U.S. Air Force. Her final posting was as an analyst at the Pentagon. Below is the first of three installments describing her experience there. They provide a unique view of the Department of Defense during a period of intense ideological upheaval, as the United States prepared to launchfor the first time in its historya preventive war. In early May 2002, I was looking forward to retirement from the United States Air Force in about a year. I had a cushy job in the Pentagons Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, International Security Affairs, Sub-Saharan Africa. In the previous two years, I had published two books on African security issues and had passed my comprehensive doctoral exams at Catholic University. I was very pleased with the administrations Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sub-Saharan Africa, former Marine and Senator Helms staffer Michael Westphal, and was ready to start thinking about my dissertation and my life after the military. When Mike called me in to his office, I thought I was getting a new project or perhaps that one of my many suggestions of fun things to do with Africa policy had been accepted. But the look on his face clued me in that this was going to be one of those meetings where somebody wasnt leaving happy. After a quick rank check, I had a good idea which one it would be. There was a position in Near East South Asia (NESA) that they needed to fill right away. I wasnt interested. They phrased the question another way: We have been tasked to send a body over to Bill Luti. Can we send you? I resisteduntil I slowly guessed that in true bureaucratic fashion and can-do military tradition my name had already been sent over. This little soirie in Mikes office was my farewell. I went back to my office and e-mailed a buddy in the Joint Staff. Bob wrote back, Write down everything you see. I didnt do it, but these most wise words from a trusted friend proved the first of three omens I would soon receive. I showed up down the hall a few days later. It looked just like the office from which I came, newer blue cubicles, narrow hallways piled high with copy paper, newspapers, unused equipment, and precariously leaning map rolls. The same old concrete-building smell pervaded, maybe a little mustier. I was taking over the desk of a CIA loaner officer. Joe had been called back early to the agency and was hoping to go to Yemen. Before he left, he briefed me on his biggest project: ongoing negotiations with the Qatari sheiks over who was paying for improvements to Al Udeid Air Base. I was familiar with Al Udeid from my time on the Air Staff a few years before. Back then we seemed to like the Saudis, and our Saudi bases were a few hours closer to the action than Al Udeid, so the U.S. played a woo-me game. Now that we needed and wanted Al Udeid to be finished quickly and done up right, it was time for the emirs to play hard to get. Joe gave me the rundown on counterterrorism ops in Yemen and an upcoming agreement with the Bahraini monarch to extend our military-security agreement, locking in a relationship just in case those Bahraini experiments with democracy actually took off. I had an obligatory meeting with the deputy director, Paul Hulley, Navy Captain. This meeting followed a phone call in which I hadnt been as compliant as I should have been with a Navy Captain, and since Paul had handled my bad attitude with candor and grace, I was determined to like himand I did. I gave him my story: I was a year from retirement and, more importantly, I was in a car pool. Id be working a 7:15 to 17:30 schedule. He was neither charmed nor impressed. He advised that Id need to be working a lot longer than that. Then we stepped in to meet Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Bill Luti. I knew Luti had a Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts and was a recently retired Navy Captain himself. At this point, I didnt know what a neocon was or that they had already swarmed over the Pentagon, populating various hives of policy and planning like African hybrids, with the same kind of sting reflex. Luti just seemed happy to have me there as a warm body. My second omen was the super-size bottles of Tums and Tylenol Joe left in his desk. The third occurred as I was chatting with my new office mate, a career civil servant working the Egypt desk. As the conversation moved into Middle East news and politics, she mentioned that if I wanted to be successful here, I shouldnt say anything positive about the Palestinians. In 19 years of military service, I had never heard such a politically laden warning on such an obscure topic to such an inconsequential player. I had the sense of a single click, the sound tectonic plates might make as they shift deep under the earth and lock into a new resting positionor when the trigger is pulled in a game of Russian roulette. I had never worked for neocons before, and the philosophical journey to understand what they stood for was not a trip I wanted to take. But my conversations with coworkers and some of the people I was meeting in the office opened my eyes to something strange and fascinating. Those who had watched the transition from Clintonista to Bushite knew that something calculated had happened to NESA. Key personnel, long-time civilian professionals holding the important billets, had been replaced early in the transition. The Office Director, second in command and normally a professional civilian regional expert, was vacant. Joe McMillan had been moved to the NESA Center over at National Defense University. This was strange because in a transition the whole reason for the Office Director being a permanent civilian (occasionally military) professional is to help bring the new appointee up to speed, ensure office continuity, and act as a resource relating to regional histories and policies. To remove that continuity factor seemed contraindicated, but at the time, I didnt realize that the expertise on Middle East policy was being brought in from a variety of outside think tanks. Another civilian replacement about which I was told was that of the long-time Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk, Larry Hanauer. Word was that he was even-handed with Israel, there had been complaints from one of his countries, and as a gesture of good will, David Schenker, fresh from the Washington Institute, was serving as the new Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk. I came to share with many NESA colleagues a kind of unease, a sense that something was awry. What seemed out of place was the strong and open pro-Israel and anti-Arab orientation in an ostensibly apolitical policy-generation staff within the Pentagon. There was a sense that politics like these might play better at the State Department or the National Security Council, not the Pentagon, where we considered ourselves objective and hard boiled. The anti-Arab orientation I perceived was only partially confirmed by things I saw. Towards the end of the summer, we welcomed to the office as a temporary special assistant to Bill Luti an Egyptian-American naval officer, Lt. (later Lt. Cmdr.) Youssef Aboul-Enein. His job wasnt entirely clear to me, but he would research bits of data in which Bill Luti was interested and peruse Arabic-language media for quotations or events that could be used to demonize Saddam Hussein or link him to nastiness beyond his own borders and with unsavory characters. While I was still hoping to be sent back to the Africa desk, I was also angling to take the NESA North Africa desk that would be vacated in July. During this time, May through mid-July, the news in the daily briefing was focused on war planning for the Iraq invasion. Slides from a CENTCOM brief appeared on the front page of the New York Times on July 5. A few weeks later, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered an investigation into who leaked this information. The Air Force Office of Special Investigation was tasked to work with the FBI, and everyone in NESA was supposed to be interviewed. My interview, by two fresh-faced OSI investigators, occurred sometime in July. One handed me a copy of an article by William Arkin discussing Iraq-war planning published in May 2002 in the Los Angeles Times and asked if I knew Arkin. I didnt recall the name, but when I checked I learned that he had spent time at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Apparently, Arkin had facilitated a leak six weeks before, but it hadnt caused a fuss. I pointed out that I did know a person with major SAIS links who probably knew Arkin. They leaned forward eagerly. Have you ever heard of Paul Wolfowitz? They looked puzzled, so I called up the bio of the deputy secretary and showed them how he ran SAIS during most of the Clinton years. I suggested the investigation look at the answers to the cui bono question. I also told them no one in the military or at CENTCOM would leak war plans because as Rumsfeld accurately said, it gets people killed. But the politicos who were anxious to get the American people over the mental hump that the Bush administration was going to send troops to Iraq were not military and had both motive and opportunity to leak. During the summer, I assumed the duties of the North Africa desk. Part of my job was to schedule and complete two overdue bilateral meetings with longtime U.S. security partners Morocco and Tunisia. Bilateral meetings historically included a tailored regional-security briefing addressing Weapons of Mass Destruction threats and status. In planning my upcoming bilateral agendas and attendee lists, I discovered that Bill Luti had certain issues regarding the regional-security briefing, in particular with the aspects relating to WMD and terrorism. There had been an incident shortly before I arrived in which the Defense Intelligence Officer had been prohibited from giving his briefing to a particular country only hours before he was scheduled. During the summer, the brief was simply not scheduled for another important bilateral meeting. Instead, a briefing was prepared by another policy office that worked on non-proliferation issues. This briefing was not a product of the Defense Intelligence Agency or CIA but instead came from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. At the end of the summer of 2002, new space had been found upstairs on the fifth floor for an expanded Iraq desk. It would be called the Office of Special Plans. We were instructed at a staff meeting that this office was not to be discussed or explained, and if people in the Joint Staff, among others, asked, we were to offer no comment. We were also told that one of the products of this office would be talking points that all desk officers would use verbatim in the preparation of their background documents. About that same time, my education on the history and generation of the neoconservative movement had completed its first stage. I now understood that neoconservatism was both unhistorical and based on the organizing construct of permanent revolution. I had studied the role played by hawkish former Sen. Scoop Jackson (D-Wash.) and the neoconservative drift of formerly traditional magazines like National Review and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation. I had observed that many of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon not only had limited military experience, if any at all, but they also advocated theories of war that struck me as rejections of classical liberalism, natural law, and constitutional strictures. More than that, the pressure of the intelligence community to conform, the rejection of it when it failed to produce intelligence suitable for supporting the Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States agenda, and the amazing things I was hearing in both Bush and Cheney speeches told me that not only do neoconservatives hold a theory based on ideas not embraced by the American mainstream, but they also have a collective contempt for fact. By August, I was morally and intellectually frustrated by my powerlessness against what increasingly appeared to be a philosophical hijacking of the Pentagon. Indeed, I had sworn an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, but perhaps we were never really expected to take it all that seriously To be continued ______________________________________________ In a coming installment, Lieutenant Colonel Kwiatkowsi relates what happens when a group of Israeli generals treads the well-worn (for them) path to Douglas Feiths office. December 1, 2003 issue Copyright ) 2003 The American Conservative ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/9rHolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 25 [DU-WATCH] The truth in Iraq Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 00:20:06 -0600 (CST) Subj: [counter-recruitment] The truth in Iraq Date: 01/05/2004 6:14:10 AM Pacific Standard Time From: saroj@eudoramail.com (Saroj Earl) Reply-to: counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com To: counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com First-hand news vs. CNN Dahr Jamail, Electronic Iraq, 31 December 2003 Today on Palestine Street near Mustanceria University in Baghdad, a car packed with explosives was exploded as a US patrol passed. I saw at least one Humvee flipped upside down and another sitting nearby, completely incinerated; as soldiers, tanks, Bradleys, and Hummers had the area completely sealed. Razor wire was strung across the street, keeping the area clear. Meanwhile soldiers went building to building pulling out all the men, and inside of their sealed perimeter stood a group of at least 25-35 men, all most likely to be detained. I stood by the razor wire watching them taking men with their hands tied with plastic ties out of buildings. The young soldier near me saw an Iraqi man staring at him, and yelled at him, "What the fuck are you looking at motherfucker!?" He points his gun at him. "Get the fuck out of here. You like what you see? I said fuck off!" My translator asked the Iraqi to please just walk away, as he stood glaring at the soldier. We are told soldiers went through the dorms of the nearby university and pulled many young men out in order to detain them. Each scene I've visited like this has revealed a policy that seems to be that the military will seal off the area for several blocks around where a patrol has been hit, then go house to house, building to building, and just pull men out for either questioning, or more likely, detaining them. We were hoping to take pictures, and find out what happened. But the usual policy of the military here of preventing photos of US military hardware wreckage was in force. The first soldier we'd come upon said to us, "Sure you can take pictures. Then I'll take your camera." Our translator said that some Iraqis nearby said they'd watched soldiers take the camera from a man and smash it on the ground. We move to the other side of the street and another young soldier is watching the crowds, very tense. He only speaks to us with one sentence responses, but even more with one or two word responses. His eyes constantly scan for threats. I speak with several soldiers, all of them very down. An Iraqi man asks one of the troops if people were hurt, a rather silly question. The response was, "Yes. What do you think? Many people are dead." As mentioned above, one Hummvee has been flipped completely upside down by the blast. At least three soldiers are dead, maybe more. Certainly civilians are killed, as the entire front of a nearby building is ripped off by the blast, pieces of plaster and ceiling dangling limply in the air from the second floor of this usually crowded shopping area near the college campus. We move to another area near the border of razor wire to try to get a better view of the wreckage. We stand talking with the soldiers. They are very down, not talking much, other than asking one of us, "You bang an Iraqi chick yet? Can you get good hash here? Go to Europe, they got the really good shit there man." Another soldier pointed out the group of soldiers who were sent to the scene first to clear the area and take detainees, and said of his fellow troops, "Those are the war criminals." The mood is extremely tense, and needless to say, morose. One of the soldiers tells us they won't be letting any journalists inside the perimeter until they clear the wreckage -- so we decide to head back home. Back at the hotel I check the news and see that CNN has reported on the strike on the patrol. On CNN, according to Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey on CNN, commander of the US Army's 1st Armored Division speaking of this attack, "An explosion near a U.S. military convoy in a crowded area of Baghdad wounded five U.S. soldiers and three Iraqi civil defense personnel." The soldiers on the scene had gloomily told me, first hand, quite a different story while we gazed at the two incinerated Humvees in front of a nearby building with the side of it blasted into tatters. Dahr Jamail is a freelance journalist and political activist from Anchorage, Alaska. He has come to Iraq to bear witness and write about how the US occupation is affecting the people of Iraq, since the media in the US has in large part, he believes, failed to do so. Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 26 [du-list] DU in the News - 11th Jan. '04 Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:54:11 -0800 TALK back to the media, January 10 Rocky Mountain News, CO This is great. Turns out scientists were wrong to claim that exposure to depleted uranium munitions are harmful. News media critic ... <http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_2565644,00.html> WHAT They Don ' t Want You To Know Lew Rockwell, CA ... The Ministry of Defense, which has admitted that British tanks fired depleted uranium in and around Basra, says that British troops "will have access to ... <http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/pilger2.html> ANTI-WAR play scorches Bush and the case for war Daily Star, Lebanon ... with her boyfriend, Private Perez (Jay R. Martinez). "Do you think there's depleted uranium in them thar hills?" she asks. ... <http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/10_01_04_c.asp> 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 the Yahoo! Terms of Service. ***************************************************************** 27 War Wire: Thieves leave Russian military naval yard without power AR.WIRE MOSCOW (AFP) Jan 10, 2004 Thieves have left a northern Russian military naval yard and nearby village without electricity after stealing equipment from the local power station, officials quoted by Interfax said Saturday. The Murmansk yard which has ships and nuclear submarines and the neighbouring village have been without power since Friday, the regional electricity company said. Back-up power systems are out of order and with temperatures below zero, the heating station for the village could breakdown if the equipment freezes, an official said. The thieves took cables among other items, probably to re-sell them, the official said cited by the agency. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 28 War Wire: Germany buys anti-radiation pills for people near nuclear plants WAR.WIRE BERLIN (AFP) Jan 11, 2004 Germany has bought 137 million potassium iodide tablets to protect people living near nuclear power plants from radiation exposure in case of disaster, the environment ministry said Sunday. A ministry spokesman said the move was unrelated to current terrorism fears but was based on a recommendation by radiation protection authorities. Potassium iodide is thought to protect the thyroid gland from absorbing radiation. News magazine Der Spiegel reported in an advance copy of its Monday issue that Germany planned to establish seven centers across the country in which people in a radius of up to 100 kilometers (60 miles) could be treated in case of a nuclear emergency. The majority of the tablets would be available at such centers. Germany has agreed to phase out its 19 nuclear power plants over the next two decades due to safety concerns. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 29 Paducah Sun: Safety Among Old Neighbors Sunday, January 11, 2004 SAFETY AMONG OLD NEIGHBORS Better system of warning eyed for Honeywell By Jimmy Nesbitt The Paducah Sun METROPOLIS, Ill.--Honeywell plant officials have met at least twice with local emergency services leaders since the Dec. 22 toxic gas release and are close to finalizing a list of ways to improve communication at the plant if there is another release. A direct phone line between the Massac County Sheriff's Department and the plant is one item on the list, which should be completed sometime this week, plant spokesman Mark McPhee said. Routine communication with people who live within a two-mile radius of the plant is another. McPhee did not want to comment on other changes because he said they have not been finalized. "I think that there definitely needs to be a lot of coordination between Honeywell and the emergency services," Metropolis Mayor Beth Clanahan said. "We all need to work to make sure there is open communication. "I think a lot of times we take for granted that the plant is out there, and that's why something like this brings it foremost in your mind — that this can happen, and we're not immune to this type of thing." Only one resident who lived near the plant showed signs of exposure to low levels of hydrofluoric acid, but if the wind had blown the chemical cloud toward a populated area instead of away from it, many more may have been affected. The release, estimated at about seven pounds of uranium hexafluoride, or UF6, rose 86 feet high, and light winds pushed the chemicals northwest. Although UF6 is mildly radioactive, it is mainly a chemical threat because it emits toxic hydrogen fluoride, or HF, when exposed to moisture in the air, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says. After Honeywell reported the release, Sheriff Bob Griffey said police called the plant several times but never got through. Each time police were sent directly to an automated voice message. "We didn't even know what the leak was" until 30 to 45 minutes after it happened, 911 Director Keith Davis said. "We didn't know how big an area to evacuate or where to. It would have been nice to know (what the leak was) when the call came in. "You're working with an extreme handicap when you don't know what the release is." A county firefighter who worked at the plant and knew what chemicals were produced used a chemical emergency handbook to establish an evacuation area. It was little more than an educated guess, however, considering the firefighter did not know the extent of the leak or the chemical. "They just tried to err on the safe side," Davis said. Risking their own safety, firefighters and police drove and walked door to door, waking and evacuating residents. The officers knew something was wrong but couldn't say exactly why. "That's not an exact science," Davis said. Davis and Griffey said many positive things have come out of the incident. Plant officials have established an open dialogue with emergency services, Davis said. "We all need to be working from the same playbook," he said. NRC officials held a public meeting Tuesday at the county courthouse, where they presented a report to plant officials and took questions from the crowd. They investigated because the release was the plant's fourth since September. The report concluded that the release "had minimal impact on worker or public health and safety." The toxic gas escaped the building when an operator working a double shift did not place the dust collection valves and the system valves in the correct position, the report said. Toward the end of the meeting, a woman questioned the plant's training methods. Plant officials told the crowd that drills for on-site releases were performed annually toward the end of each year. The drill involved local emergency rescue teams and firefighters, they said. Metropolis firefighter Jason Morris, a 10-year veteran, told plant officials that he had never participated in a drill like the one they described. Clanahan, who also attended the meeting, spoke with Morris afterward. "I asked (him), ‘Have you ever been to these?’” Clanahan said. "He said no. He said they go out once a year, have lunch, have a little tour, and that is about it." When contacted by phone, Massac County Fire Chief Mike Childers said he "was really not interested" in making a comment on the department's training history at the plant. Massac County Emergency Services Director O.D. Troutman said he has participated in emergency drills at the plant each year since 1987, when he became director. Troutman said the drills consisted of "whatever they needed me to do." Darren Mays, plant safety and regulatory affairs manager, said the last on-site drill was in November 2002. County and city firefighters were called to participate, but some left to respond to a possible fire near the plant before the drill began. In 2001, the NRC canceled the drill because of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Mays said. Before that, emergency drills for medical, fire and chemical releases had been conducted annually, Mays said. "The NRC comes in and views and critiques us," he said. Mays said he plans to communicate regularly with residents who live within a two-mile radius of the plant to improve evacuation procedures. And officials from USEC recently visited the plant and offered "ways to help us improve our emergency response," Mays said. Like Davis, Clanahan just wants to see that everyone knows his role. "There seemed to be so much confusion about who does what," she said. "I think that's really not the issue. The issue is they should all know what they're supposed to do and when they're supposed to do it. "When you have something like that, that's not a time for confusion." ***************************************************************** 30 Deseretnews: 3 Goshutes plead innocent to theft, fraud [deseretnews.com] Saturday, January 10, 2004 Accused of using unofficial vote to get funds By Doug Smeath Deseret Morning News Accused of using an unofficial election to gain access to tribal funds, three members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes and their attorney pleaded not guilty to all charges in federal court Friday. The three Goshutes — Marlinda Moon, 43, Wendover; Sammy Blackbear, 39, Salt Lake City; and Miranda Walsh, 36, Grantsville — are part of the tiny Tooele County tribe's contingent opposed to the storage of spent nuclear fuel on their reservation. In September 2001 they held an election in which they claim to have taken power from tribal chairman Leon D. Bear. That election was never accepted by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Federal prosecutors accuse the three, as well as their attorney, Duncan Steadman, 57, South Jordan, of creating a false certification of that election and using it to transfer funds among tribal bank accounts and withdraw money from some "in an effort to take control of tribal funds and tribal activities," according to the indictment a federal grand jury returned Dec. 17. The tribe's money came from several sources, including the fuel-storage agreement. The four are charged with one count each of theft from Indian tribal organizations and five counts each of bank fraud and aiding and abetting. In court Friday, prosecutors told U.S. Magistrate Judge Samuel Alba the maximum penalty for the theft charge is five years in prison and/or a fine of $250,000, and the defendants could face 30 years in prison and/or a fine of $1 million for each of the other charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stanley Olsen would not comment on what penalty the government actually plans to seek. They will not be held in jail pending their trial, which is scheduled to begin March 19 and is expected to run about six days. The charges are indicative of a larger struggle within the 120-member Goshute band. A group of tribe members has been vocally opposed to Bear's leadership, especially in regard to his role in negotiating a deal with Private Fuel Storage, a consortium of utility companies that want to store spent nuclear fuel on the tribe's reservation. The dissidents also have questioned Bear's financial credibility, accusing what they have called the "illegitimate Bear regime" of bribery and corruption. After Friday's hearing, Blackbear told the Deseret Morning News the charges against him and his friends fly in the face of the 2001 election, which he said showed that the dissidents have the support of the tribe. "We're standing behind that election," he said. He also said the charges are an attempt to undermine a pending civil-rights lawsuit against the BIA, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the Department of the Interior and others, which he and several other individuals, including Moon, filed in May 2001. It accuses the agencies of discriminatory actions and inactions regarding "an overall discriminatory plan to target Indian reservations for the effectively permanent storage of the nation's high-level nuclear waste." The suit is on appeal before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver after a federal judge in Utah dismissed it in September 2002. On the same day the foursome's indictment was returned, a federal grand jury also charged Bear, 47, of two counts of theft from Indian tribal organizations, one count of theft concerning federally funded programs and three counts of fraud and false statements. He will be arraigned Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Nuffer. His charges stem from another set of alleged financial misdeeds, separate from the events the dissidents and Steadman are accused of. Prosecutors say Bear paid himself off with tribal money through various schemes, including doubling up on travel stipends for himself and paying himself for being tribal secretary when someone else was serving in that role. He is also accused of claiming, on three years' federal tax forms, to have been unemployed and to have earned little or no money in 1999, 2000 and 2001, when in fact he received between $61,902 and $67,167 from the tribe each of those years. Though prosecutors have continually stressed that fuel storage and the charges are separate in the eyes of the court, they become more connected politically and in the eyes of the public. Following the indictments, critics called for a moratorium on the storage plan. "I can't imagine a scenario under which we find it acceptable to store high-level nuclear waste when the leaders or individuals in charge for managing the facility are facing . . . the charges raised here," Dianne Nielson, executive director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, told the Deseret Morning News at the time. E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 31 AU SMH: Accident prone - www.smh.com.au [Sydney Morning Herald Online] January 9, 2004 Incidents at Australia's uranium mines: October 2003: 110,000 litres of radioactive waste liquid at the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in outback South Australia spill out of a tank and are caught in the mine's drainage system. April 2002: run-off containing uranium escapes from the Ranger mine in the Northern Territory and enters the nearby Corridor Creek. February 2002: fourth year in a row that high uranium concentrations are found in water discharged from Ranger to Coonjimba and Magela creeks. January 2002: elevated levels of uranium contamination are found at four checkpoints downstream from the Ranger and Jabiluka mines in the Northern Territory. Source: Senate environment committee Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald. advertise| ***************************************************************** 32 Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes, lawyer plead innocent January 10, 2004 By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune Three members of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians and their attorney pleaded "not guilty" Friday to charges of embezzlement and bank fraud after the four accessed more than $1 million in tribal accounts at the height the tiny band's ongoing leadership struggle. Judge Magistrate Samuel Alba released Marlinda Moon, Sammy Blackbear, Miranda Wash and attorney Duncan Steadman until their March 19 trial. Environmental justice activist Anne Sward Hansen called the government's charges "absurd" in light of the defendants' efforts to get the federal government's help in resolving the leadership fight. "This is the Olympic scandal all over again," she said. "The prosecution can't tell the good guys from the bad guys, so they will indict anyone." While the charges have no direct ties to plans for a high-level nuclear waste storage facility at the Skull Valley Reservation, they stem from a leadership dispute that sprung up after the band signed a lease to host the multibillion-dollar nuclear project in 1997. Moon, Blackbear and Wash have insisted they were elected Skull Valley Goshute chairman, vice chairman and secretary, respectively, at a Sept. 22, 2001, tribal meeting. But prosecutors allege they used bogus legal documents to take control of $1,036,832 in tribal funds at Zions Bank, Brighton Bank and Bank One. The three Goshutes and their attorney were indicted Dec. 17 for one count of embezzling tribal funds and five counts of bank fraud. They face jail time of up to 185 years and penalties of up to $5.25 million. Prosecutors said the banks allowed the defendants to access Goshute tribal accounts based on an allegedly phony election certification and a "court order" from the "the Nato Indian nation," a Provo-based group that claims to be a nationwide tribe and that also tried to claim all of the state land in Utah for American Indians. The defendants were able to withdraw $45,800 from one account and gave $11,000 to Steadman before the accounts were frozen. "The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] did not recognize any change in tribal leadership resulting from the election," said the indictment, "nor did Moon, Blackbear or Wash have the authority to act on behalf of the tribe." But some tribal members dispute that the leadership issue is so clear-cut. Goshutes opposed to the nuclear waste facility have challenged the legitimacy of the tribal executive committee in four other forums: * Blackbear is the lead plaintiff in a case pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that accuses the BIA of supporting an illegitimate tribal government, headed by Leon Bear, who was indicted separately on embezzlement and tax charges Dec. 17. * In a pending case in Utah District Court, former vice chair Mary Allen and her brother, Rex, have been pushing for the court's help in securing an open accounting of tribal funds. Rex Allen said he never gave up his position as tribal secretary, but the Bear leadership says Allen resigned. * Dissidents led by Margene Bullcreek have appealed to the Interior Department's Indian Board of Appeals to help resolve the election controversy. They also have asked Interior Secretary Gale Norton, whose department oversees the BIA, to use her discretion to take up the case directly. Speaking of the Moon leadership team, Bullcreek said at Friday's arraignment: "They were elected, and we consider that being legal even thought the BIA does not recognize that." * Bullcreek, Blackbear and other dissident Goshutes persuaded the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board last year that the leadership dispute and corruption allegations warranted resolution. But the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the nuclear storage project advocated by Bear, dismissed the suggestion. That ruling also could be up for appeal. Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune ***************************************************************** 33 Korea Herald: 'SNU nuclear dump not feasible' (khjack@heraldm.com) By Choe Yong-shik 2004.01.12 Seoul National University will disclose this week its position on a proposal by some of its faculty members to build a nuclear waste dump near the campus, its officials have said. Last Saturday, the school's top administrators, including university President Chung Un-chan, held a closed-door meeting to invite opinions from six representatives of the 63 professors who proposed the controversial project. But a final decision will be left to future meetings. University officials said Chung was expected to respond to the proposal next week after a meeting with proponents of the project. "I had the impression that President Chung was hardly opposed to the proposed plan," said atomic nuclear engineering Prof. Kang Chang-soon after the meeting. Kang played a leading role in starting a petition to support the plan to turn the campus into a nuclear waste dumpsite. Nonetheless, experts and residents say the plan is impractical. "There is little organized opposition to the project within the school, but a growing number of professors have conveyed their opposition to the school administration," said Yoo Keun-bae, the school's chief planning officer. Chang Ho-wan, a geology professor at the university, said he personally welcomed the proposal but that it might be impossible to carry out. "Building a nuclear site on a college campus near the capital is practically impossible, though the idea definitely worked to convince the public that nuclear dumps are safe in theory," said Chang, who leads the association of SNU professors. He argued that the school was surrounded by densely populated residential and commercial areas. Last Wednesday, 63 professors from the prestigious academic institution proposed that the nation's first nuclear waste facility be built inside a tunnel dug out of a craggy mountain adjacent to the campus in southern Seoul. The proposal triggered heated debate. The local district office opposed the proposal, which it said would endanger the safety of hundreds of thousands of residents. Proponents of the project at the state-run school said their proposal was intended to support one of the most urgent national projects, which has been drifting for 18 years. They said they had confidence based on science that it was safe. The proposal followed months of sometimes violent protests by residents of Buan, a southwestern coastal region where the central government in July said it planned to build the nation's first nuclear waste storage facility. Realizing that the Buan project could not go ahead, the government invited other regions to bid for the project by the end of February. ***************************************************************** 34 RGJ: Radioactive waste shipments through Albuquerque protested By MELANIE DABOVICH RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 1/8/2004 03:03 pm ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Protesters shouted “Stop!” and waved signs from an interstate overpass Thursday as a shipment of radioactive waste bound for a nuclear waste dump in southern New Mexico passed through the state’s largest city. The waste, in three huge containers aboard a tractor-trailer, headed east on Interstate 40 on a 1,130-mile journey from the Nevada Test Site through California and Arizona to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. While WIPP routinely receives radioactive shipments, Thursday’s was the first to come from the Nevada site and to travel through urban Albuquerque, home to roughly half a million people. The demonstrators yelled, “Stop, stop!” as the truck passed under the I-40 bridge about 11:05 a.m., honking at the protesters as it went by under escort by two state police patrol cars. Trucks in nearby lanes then also started honking. The protesters, from the Center for Peace and Justice, Stop the War Machine and Citizens for Alternatives to Radioactive Dumping, held up signs reading, “Code Orange: WIPP” and “No WIPP trucks through Albuquerque.” They had a brief run-in with an Albuquerque police officer over the signs after they duct-taped some to the bridge. City ordinance prohibits anything from being fixed to an interstate bridge, and the protesters removed the signs to hold them instead. Stop the War Machine’s Bob Anderson had sent an e-mail to the organization’s members urging them to gather on the bridge to protest “this appalling disregard for Albuquerque.” The shipment arrived at 6:46 a.m. Thursday at New Mexico’s western port of entry near Gallup. There, inspectors carrying radiation detectors scanned for leaks, but found none, said Gary Trujillo, the Department of Public Safety’s chief inspector at the port. The truck left the inspection station at 8:30 a.m., headed for Albuquerque. The waste is contaminated with americium-241. Americium is produced when plutonium atoms absorb neutrons in nuclear reactors and in nuclear explosions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. California had balked at allowing the shipments in July, but the U.S. Energy Department and governors from the four states agreed Oct. 9 to allow 40 to 60 shipments this year on the route, Ralph Smith, a WIPP spokesman, has said. Four similar shipments are planned this month. WIPP is designed to hold defense-related radioactive waste in ancient salt beds 2,150 feet underground. The shipments have been described as contaminated protective gear, tools and equipment that can take thousands of years or more to decay to safe levels. There have been 2,240 shipments to WIPP from various states during the past five years with no release of radioactivity, Smith said. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. Use ***************************************************************** 35 RGJ: Keep speaking up on nuclear waste RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL 1/9/2004 12:16 am Three Western states and Nevada got their way when they stood up to the Energy Department on plans to transport radioactive waste from the Nevada Test Site to New Mexico. They didn’t stop the plan, expected to get under way on Thursday, but they showed how much power they have when they collectively approach a problem that is common to them all. The lesson to be learned is that they can do it again for other disagreeable energy transit and nuclear waste storage policies if they work together. The feds would just have to listen, as they did this time. The governors of Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico got together in October with the Energy Department after California officials objected to the plan to send radioactive material through the desert. The result was that half as many shipments will be transported through the four states, and another route must be found for the other half. It would be easy to condemn California officials for indulging in unreasonable self-interest, since much of the material — contaminated tools, equipment and protective gear — originally came from a California laboratory. But that would be unfair, especially since Nevada has encouraged such cooperative efforts. The truth is that Californians were the catalyst for this joint effort. Also, California’s objections come from knowledge. Officials there understand that it will take thousands of years for the material to decay to safe levels. And, skeptical of the safety level the federal government could provide, authorities also realize that the network of old, ill-maintained roads is not the safest. It’s possible that an accident could trigger a tragedy. Any public servant sensitive to health and safety concerns would make the same objections. This kind of cooperation is a minor victory for states that oppose federal imposition of nuclear policy. But, it’s been a long time coming. Keep speaking up. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. Use ***************************************************************** 36 Courier Journal: EPA refuses to ban use of sludge for fertilizer courier-journal.com Sunday, January 11, 2004 By JAMES BRUGGERS jbruggers@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal In a move with implications for Kentucky and Indiana, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied a petition from 73 labor, environment and farm groups for a national ban on spreading fertilizer made from treated sludge. But the EPA also has said it will further study potential health risks from 15 additional chemicals that are sometimes contained in sludge-derived fertilizers, and may later propose to regulate them. The agency already regulates nine chemicals in the byproduct, such as arsenic and zinc, as well as pathogens. "The EPA is putting together an action plan on how to improve its program, and to address as much as possible any uncertainties," agency spokesman John Millett said last week. The Metropolitan Sewer District is among those that could be affected by the EPA decisions. MSD makes about 80 tons of dried pellets a day that it wants to market as fertilizer for farms, golf courses, stadium grass and gardens by spring, with anticipated revenue offsetting the costs of treating sewage. And Indiana environmental officials have said about 250 municipalities in Indiana have permits to market or apply sewage byproducts, often called biosolids. MSD Executive Director Bud Schardein said he believes the EPA made the correct decision in rejecting the petition. Schardein said properly treated and spread biosolids have not been shown to be harmful, but he said if the EPA decides in the future that it needs to impose new regulatory limits, MSD would comply. It already monitors for at least eight of the 15 chemicals, MSD officials said. MSD applied to the state Division of Waste Management last month for a permit and a waiver of state limits on the amount of nickel, copper and zinc that can be in its fertilizer pellets. Officials are still reviewing the request, said Matt Hackathorn, waste division spokesman. A supervisor in the department told The Courier-Journal in November that approval was imminent because MSD's product was "within what the federal government says is clean." In a letter sent to lawyers representing the coalition of groups that submitted the petition, EPA assistant administrator G. Tracy Mehan III wrote that the agency "has carefully evaluated the information provided in the petition, as well as other sources of information, and has concluded that the facts do not support a moratorium on land application of sewage sludge." Laura Orlando, a spokeswoman for the coalition, recently told the Associated Press that the EPA was "dodging the ball when nobody was looking" by revealing its petition decision on New Year's Eve. "Sewage sludge harms people's health and the EPA should ban its application on land," she said last week. The EPA's decision to consider regulating additional chemicals also announced Dec. 31 was included in its response to a National Academy of Sciences panel that concluded in 2002 that the EPA needed to do more to ensure that farm workers and nearby residents are adequately protected. An EPA analysis found 15 chemicals that could potentially pose unacceptable risks: acetone, anthracene, barium, beryllium, carbon disulfide, 4-chloroaniline, diazinon, fluoranthene, manganese, methyl ethyl ketone, nitrate, nitrite, phenol, pyrene and silver. "EPA will update the concentration data on these chemicals by conducting a targeted sewage sludge survey," the agency said. "The new concentration data and results will serve as a basis for determining whether to propose amendments to the sewage sludge regulations for any of these chemicals." In all, about 5.6 million tons of sewage sludge are used or disposed of each year in the United States; 60percent of that is applied to the land, according to the National Academy of Sciences report. Copyright 2003 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 37 Northern Times: Nuclear dump fears raised again - but MP says it's scaremongering 12 January 2004 A Greenpeace activist is claiming that Sutherland could be at risk of becoming a dumping ground for the UK's nuclear waste. Edinburgh-based Pete Roche sounded his warning as the Government reconsiders its policy for the management of solid radioactive waste. He believes sites identified in the county nearly three decades ago as suitable for the underground disposal of high-level nuclear waste could now once again come under consideration. However, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP John Thurso has dismissed the claim as "extremely opportunist scaremongering" and unhelpful to serious environmentalists who need to take the problem of the legacy of the nuclear industry seriously. "There are no proposals currently for any dumping of highlevel waste on any of the sites pinpointed by Mr Roche and no one in the industry is seriously suggesting it at this time. I do not see the point in trying to frighten people in Caithness and Sutherland, " he said. The UK presently has no longterm management strategy for the high and intermediate-level nuclear waste currently stored in the sites where it originated - or for that likely to arise over the next century. A Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) has been set up by the Government to recommend a long-term solution. It is due to report in 2005. Anti-nuclear campaigner Mr Roche recently spent three months researching areas which have been officially identified as possible nuclear waste sites since around 1976. His findings are available, along with maps of the locations, on the Greenpeace website. He discovered that seven sites in Sutherland were proposed in the 1970s and 1980s as suitable places to dump underground high-level waste which generates its own heat and is considered the most dangerous of all radioactive waste The sites were at Strathy, Altnabreac (on the Sutherland/Caithness border), the Ben Armine area, Rogart, Shin Forest, Scourie, and Loch Laxford to Enard Bay. Mr Roche discovered that an opposition meeting had been held in October 1978 to the proposal for a nuclear dump at Shin Forest, owned by the Forestry Commission. According to Mr Roche there was also stiff opposition at Scourie which resulted in the landowner withdrawing permission. Mr Roche said: "In late 1976 reports began to appear in the press that a team of UK Atomic Energy Authority scientists from Harwell in Oxfordshire had selected the Highlands and Islands and the Scottish Uplands as offering the most suitable granite formations for a high-level nuclear waste dump. There was massive public opposition to the waste programme, but test drilling was only ever carried out at one site near Dounreay at a site called Altnabreac. Finally the government backed down and abandoned the high-level waste programme in December 1981, claiming that it had decided that vitrified (solidified into glass blocks) high-level waste should be stored for at least 50 years until the rate of heat-generation had been substantially reduced." Mr Roche The Northern Times on Wednesday: "The point is that the Government is currently carrying out consultations on what to do with nuclear waste. Should this committee decide that nuclear waste should be dumped in a hole in the ground, then obviously the sites on the maps could be in the frame again because their geology has not changed." He added: "As a consequence of the nuclear industry's activities since 1950, and successive governments' refusal to abandon this technology, every area of the country is once again living with the threat of being chosen as a dump or storage site. Radioactive garbage could soon be travelling to your locality threatening the environment and the health of future generations of residents." Local MSP Jamie Stone commented: "I stand by my party's policy which is above-ground storage, preferably on the site where the waste was generated. Speaking personally as someone who studied geology at university, I have grave doubts regarding the disposal of waste in sedimentary rocks and I remain very much to be persuaded that this could alternatively be workable in igneous rocks such as granite or gneiss." Golspie and Rogart councillor Ian Ross, in whose ward two of the sites are sited, said that as a result of an article in the national press, the issue of a nuclear dump locally had been discussed at a meeting of Rogart Community Council in December. "An understandable degree of concern was expressed by community councillors and members of the public. There has also been contact with NIREX who claim that there are no current considerations of any nuclear dumps in Sutherland, " he said. "I wrote to the Highland Council chief executive in December last year asking him to investigate this matter and to see if we could establish if there was any current substance to proposals for zsuch dumps in the Highlands and in particular the Rogart area. I suspect the newspaper stories are a consequence of the investigative site work carried out in the 1970s, but we need to be ever-vigilant to this threat and to remain aware that there is an ongoing exercise to identify and ultimately develop a national nuclear repository. My own position, and that of Highland Council, is to oppose the import of any nuclear waste to the Highlands - this would totally taint the justifiable claim that the Highlands, and Sutherland in particular, is a clean and safe environment to live in and visit.". ***************************************************************** 38 Las Vegas SUN: NEVADA FOCUS: Crucial court showdown set on national nuclear dump By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS (AP) - The federal government says entombing the nation's nuclear waste beneath an ancient volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert will be safe. Nevada says it's a disaster in the making, and the state shouldn't have to bear the burden of being the nation's nuclear waste dump. So far, the Energy Department has won presidential and congressional approval for the Yucca Mountain project, which it wants to open in 2010 at cost of at least $58 billion - about the same as the International Space Station. On Wednesday, lawyers will squeeze more than two decades of debate and six lawsuits into three hours of oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. If stacked before the bench, the legal briefs might tower 10 feet, said Martin Malsch, a McLean, Va., lawyer representing Nevada. "I think I could hide behind it," he said. A ruling, likely due out in summer, is crucial to both sides. "We'll find out if the DOE is operating a legal project," said Bob Loux, Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's top anti-Yucca aide. "We're going to know this year, ultimately, whether it goes forward to licensing or not." The state couldn't muster the political clout to stop the project before. Now, it hopes the federal court will step in before the Energy Department submits a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "Part of our strategy has always been the court," said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., "(which) could kill it, change direction or slow it down." If the regulatory commission gives the final go-ahead, the Energy Department plans to spend 25 years filling tunnels with special metal casks containing 77,000 tons of nuclear waste. The site would then be sealed, and scientists expect it will remain radioactive for at least 10,000 years. Opponents say Yucca Mountain is seismically active, and that even in the desert enough water would seep through the mountain over the centuries to corrode the metal alloy containers and let deadly radioactivity escape. The Bush administration and the Energy Department say the repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will provide a long-overdue home for the nation's most highly radioactive commercial, industrial and military material. "Yucca Mountain will be a safe site to store nuclear waste," said Joe Davis, Energy Department spokesman. "If we didn't think so, we would not have made the decision to move ahead." In an era of heightened security concerns, it makes more sense to store nuclear waste 1,000 feet below a desert mountain than in aboveground "stationary targets" in 39 states, Davis said. The nuclear industry has argued that a safe place must be found to store the spent fuel accumulating at 103 commercial reactors and various industrial and military sites around the country. "It needs to be done. It needs to be done safely," said Bob Bishop, general counsel for the Nuclear Energy Institute in Washington, D.C. The institute, with 260 corporate members in 15 countries, is the industry's top lobbying arm in Washington and a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits. "Congress declared it a national policy to promote the use of nuclear energy consistent with the common defense and security and public health and safety," Bishop said. "It all comes down to Yucca Mountain." Judy Treichel remembers the earliest hints 30 years ago that a spot at the far western edge of the Nevada Test Site might one day be used to bury the nation's nuclear waste. She was among the first to oppose it when the state Legislature seemed open to the idea. "We've been waiting these many years," said Treichel, director of the nonprofit Nuclear Waste Task Force in Las Vegas. "This tests the entire system - the EPA rule, the NRC rule, the DOE rule, the recommendation, the EIS, the whole gamut. It tests the validity and the science and the constitutionality of everything that was done." Treichel is among those who derided Congress' "screw Nevada bill" in 1987 to reject other sites and consider only Yucca Mountain. The state argues that since then, the Energy Department shaped its rules and findings to ensure that Yucca Mountain meet the qualifications. "Nevada has maintained consistently, since square one, that what has gone on here is a changing of the rules, a changing of the requirements, to make Yucca Mountain work," Loux said. Bob List, Nevada governor from 1979-83, is an NEI consultant and a voice for the Yucca Mountain project. He called the project a 95 percent certainty, and said the state is missing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reap economic benefits from the biggest U.S. public works project ever. "We have to face reality," List said. "In today's dollars, this will cost more than Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, the World Trade Center and the Eurotunnel combined." The cash-strapped state of 2.1 million residents is instead spending $4 million for a team of nuclear law specialists headed by Joe Egan and Malsch to handle the case. They'll challenge Environmental Protection Agency radiation limits for areas around Yucca Mountain, Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing rules and Energy Department environmental standards for studying and recommending Yucca Mountain. They will also challenge the constitutionality of the federal government forcing one state to become the dump for all other states' nuclear waste. "The analogy we draw is that it's as if the president decided to wage war in Iraq and only send people from Nevada to do the fighting," Malsch said. --- On the Net: Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov Nevada Office of Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste Nuclear Energy Institute: www.nei.org Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov -- ***************************************************************** 39 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada Nuclear Waste Case Set for Court Today: January 11, 2004 at 10:45:18 PST By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada officials say a federal appeals court hearing this week on a collection of lawsuits will give the state its best chance to block the government's plans to entomb nuclear reactor waste under a mountain just 90 miles outside Las Vegas. "Part of our strategy has always been the court," said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a leader of the state's fight against the Yucca Mountain project. Reid said he hopes the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will "kill it, change direction or slow it down." For 25 years, the state has lacked the political clout to stop the Yucca Mountain project, failing in Congress and with the White House. The public debate will culminate in oral arguments before the appellate panel Wednesday on a case involving six state lawsuits against the federal government. A ruling is likely this summer. "This is the state's best chance," said Bob Loux, Gov. Kenny Guinn's top anti-Yucca aide. "There's still the licensing arena if we fail, but the playing field is certainly more level in the legal arena than in the political arena." Nevada is challenging Environmental Protection Agency radiation limits for areas around the site, Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing rules, Energy Department environmental standards for studying and recommending the site, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's recommendation, and President Bush's approval. The nuclear energy industry also is suing the government, saying it missed a 1998 deadline for finding a place to store the spent fuel accumulating at 103 commercial reactors and various industrial and military sites around the country. The Energy Department would spend 25 years filling tunnels inside the mountain with metal casks containing 77,000 tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel. The site would then be sealed. Scientists expect it would remain radioactive for at least 10,000 years. Opponents say the Yucca Mountain area is prone to earthquakes, and that even in the desert, enough water would seep through the mountain over 100 centuries to corrode the metal containers and let deadly radioactive material escape. Nevada argues that one state shouldn't have to bear the burden of being the nation's nuclear waste dump. "The analogy we draw is that it's as if the president decided to wage war in Iraq and only send people from Nevada to do the fighting," said Martin Malsch, a McLean, Va., lawyer representing Nevada. If the courts uphold the $58 billion project it would still need a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license. The Energy Department says it will apply for the license this year and open the dump in 2010. The agency insists Yucca Mountain is safe, and will provide a long-overdue repository for the nation's most highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel. "If we didn't think so, we would not have made the decision to move ahead," Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said. Amid terrorism concerns, it makes more sense to store high-level nuclear waste 1,000 feet below a desert mountain than in aboveground sites that amount to "stationary targets" in 39 states, Davis said. --- On the Net: Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management: http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov Nevada Office of Nuclear Projects: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste Nuclear Energy Institute: www.nei.org Nuclear Regulatory Commission: www.nrc.gov -- ***************************************************************** 40 Tri-Valley Herald: Pentagon rescues Berkeley lab's atom smasher 1/11/2004 The 88-inch Cyclotron was to be mothballed over Christmas By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER The Pentagon is rescuing an atom-smashing machine at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from the budget ax to test electronics for military and spy satellites. Under the Bush administration's 2004 budget, the Berkeley lab's 88-inch Cyclotron, a workhorse for nuclear physicists from the 1960s through the 1980s, was to be mothballed over Christmas. But scientists at the nonprofit federal Aerospace Corp. persuaded the Defense Department to keep the cyclotron working, as well as its small crew of engineers and scientists, until at least September 2005. "Without this, we would now be closed," said Claude M. Lyneis, head of the magnetically driven accelerator since 1991. "The president's budget was absolutely clear. We were done." In a new agreement, the U.S. Department of Energy will use $3 million slated for decommissioning the cyclotron instead to keep it running, and the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office will add $2 million a year. The lab now will take on more of a job that its cyclotron has handled for 20 years -- showering satellite parts with charged particles that mimic the effects of cosmic radiation. Scientists place a processor, memory chip or power transistor in a target chamber and flood it with millions of atoms. Lyneis said the beam easily switches between boron, nitrogen, argon, krypton and xenon for what he called an "ion cocktail." They test for the rate of single malfunctions, when an energized particle blasts into a circuit and gives the wrong answer or command. The parts tend to be commercial, even if destined for classified missions, so the tests are unclassified, Lyneis said. In 2003, Aerospace Corp. scientists tapped the cyclotron for 1,000 hours of beam to test satellite parts for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office. That testing could double under the new agreement between the Defense and Energy departments. The Air Force operates several satellite constellations, including the Global Positioning System that provides precise coordinates for military forces and targets on the ground. The NRO is a joint CIA-Defense Department agency that is the nation's lead provider of spy imagery and analysis. The rest of the cyclotron's operation, about 2,700 hours a year, will be devoted to the needs of nuclear scientists at Berkeley lab and students at the University of California, Berkeley. "It is a change of mission, but actually I'm fairly optimistic," Lyneis said. "One of our missions is education of students in physics. This gives us that opportunity." Tri-Valley Herald All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 41 Dayton Daily News: New post renews Hobson's fervor By Mei-Ling Hopgood mhopgood@coxnews.com Saturday, January 10, 2004 WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. David Hobson was not on the House Armed Services Committee that was holding a hearing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in July. He was not a witness, either. He sat in, simply as a local Congress member. But the leaders of that powerful committee, who had driven down a street on the base called Hobson Way to get to the hearing, were sure to pay their proper respects. Vice Chairman Curt Weldon, R-Pa., told the audience, "There is in my opinion, no one who does (his job) better than Dave Hobson. He's aggressive. He's very well-respected on both sides of the aisle. He delivers. "We're very pleased to not just have him here with us as an appropriator, but also to call him our friend. And we look forward to traveling again on Hobson highways in our own congressional districts," Weldon joked. "In fact, I'm willing to rename one of my major streets in Pennsylvania 'Hobson Thoroughfare' if the appropriate dollars are appropriated." A year ago, Hobson who had considered retiring just two years earlier — became chairman of the House Energy and Water appropriations subcommittee, a role that has given him new political focus and more influence in Congress, observers say. Hobson, 67, a Republican from Springfield, controls a $27 billion spending bill that funds energy, water and Army Corps of Engineers projects ranging from flood control along the Mississippi River and science research at universities to nuclear warhead programs and supercomputers. "I have a lot of new friends because of the projects in this bill," Hobson said. The new position brought with it a new agenda, and Hobson — long known for dedication to local interests such as boosting Wright-Pat and Springfield development — has dived into a far-flung, eclectic and, in some cases, high-profile set of issues. He has poured resources into developing Yucca Mountain, a controversial nuclear waste facility in Nevada. He trimmed Bush administration funding requests for nuclear weapons development, worried about fueling another arms race. He scolded the Florida legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush for not wholeheartedly pursuing the cleanup of the Everglades. And he still delivered millions of dollars to Miami Valley projects in the energy and water bill. Hobson's new job has boosted his campaign coffers, as well as his clout. He raised nearly $668,000 in the first nine months of 2003 and is well on his way to raising more than twice as much for this year's election as he did for 2002. At the Wright-Pat hearing, he downplayed the deference directed his way, but his lighthearted words rang true. "I'm now the energy and water chairman, and everybody here's got a water project," Hobson told the audience. "Everybody in the world has got a water project." New power founded partly in defiance A few years ago, when Hobson was approaching 65 and had served a decade in Congress, he pondered whether to end his service or pursue a new leadership role. Then, the Republicans in the Ohio legislature ticked him off when redrawing his 7th Congressional District, extending it to Perry County. It was less Republican and farther from Dayton, a community he knew much better than Columbus. Some state lawmakers were said to be eyeing his seat, if he retired. Partly in defiance, Hobson stayed on. After winning with 68 percent of the vote in 2002, Hobson immediately sought a new leadership role. Since 1999, he had been a "cardinal," one of the 13 chairs of appropriations subcommittees nicknamed for the power they have over federal money. As chairman of the military construction subcommittee, Hobson oversaw $10.6 billion in military construction. Hobson, though talkative, is not one to grandstand or hog the spotlight. But his position as a cardinal gave him a lot of influence, especially with members with military bases in their districts. His four-year limit as military construction chairman was almost up, and Hobson wanted to keep that power. A position on the Energy and Water subcommittee — which was considerably larger and coming open — would give him more. To date, Hobson has traveled to Miamisburg to inspect the Mound project, to Nevada to see Yucca Mountain, to the Florida Everglades to judge the progress of the cleanup and to Russia to monitor the disposal of nuclear weapons. He has toured laboratories in California and Army Corps projects in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. Miami Valley leaders have tailored their own requests for federal money to Hobson's new post. Last year, for instance, the Dayton Development Coalition, asked for and got millions of dollars for sewer and infrastructure improvements at the Dayton International Airport and for environmental cleanup at the planned Tech Town site northeast of downtown Dayton. Previously, the region rarely pursued money in the energy and water bill, officials said. Michael Gessel, coalition vice president for federal government programs, said he has seen a "marked increase in respect and public deference" toward Hobson among lawmakers and others. "As he has risen in the ranks of appropriations, that respect has been rising," Gessel said. "But he has made a big leap." Gessel pointed out Hobson's successful passage of legislation in the House that would establish a "national aviation heritage area" in eight southwest Ohio counties. If it passes the Senate, the bill would authorize $10 million over the next 15 years to promote heritage tourism, develop public educational and cultural programs and preserve certain lands, structures and facilities, many of them related to the Wright brothers. Heritage areas are a tough sell because critics say they infringe on the rights of property owners. Hobson's influence helped pass the bill, Gessel said. Hobson, who yearly secures millions for projects in his native Springfield, also was able to get $6 million for a data center there and $5 million for an another advanced computing center in Clark County. Businesses and interest groups have taken note of Hobson's new role, as well. Contributions through the first nine months of last year, for instance, show the energy, utility and mining industries playing a larger role than in the last election cycle, according to data from Dwight L. Morris &Associates, campaign finance consultants hired by the Dayton Daily News. Also, out-of-state contributions make up a slightly higher percentage of his donations. In August, an Alabama congressman threw a fund-raiser for Hobson in Mobile, where representatives from various agencies, local companies and a university came, met Hobson and contributed to his campaign. Hobson said his staff tries to balance individual donations with those from companies and political action committees, and that contributions do not influence policy or the appropriations bill he controls. "I honestly don't really look a lot at those lists of who's giving and who's not giving," he said. Kara Anastasio, a Democrat from Yellow Springs who is running against Hobson again this year, said such corporate contributions have a "corrupting influence." "A lot of what I see are lots of games, lots of politics," said Anastasio, 36, who works as an office administrator for a Dayton attorney. "Just paybacks and power." New position means broader interests Hobson quickly has developed new interests and pet causes, though he does not always make everyone happy. To the chagrin of some environmentalists and Nevada lawmakers, his top priority has been developing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. Hobson wanted to give the project $765 million for nuclear waste disposal last year, $174 million more than the Bush administration requested. Greg Bortolin, spokesman for Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, said Hobson and other lawmakers would feel differently about the project if their homes were threatened. The state is fighting the project in court. Hobson said he is pursuing the will of the president and Congress, which passed bills supporting the project. "I think that the country has made a decision and we have to implement this decision," he said. "We have to have some way of reducing this waste." On the other hand, Hobson — who voted with President Bush 96 percent of the time last year according to Congressional Quarterly — fought against Bush's efforts to develop new nuclear weapons. In the House version of the energy and water bill, he substantially cut the administration's request for new research on nuclear weapons. "You have to challenge some of those things," he said. "We have too much of a Cold War arsenal." His stand on those two issues put him at odds with Senate leaders. The chair of the Senate Energy and Water appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Pete Dominici, R-New Mexico, supports the research programs, which benefit labs in his state. That subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, is a fierce opponent of Yucca Mountain. After weeks of stalemate, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert asked Dominici and Hobson to come to the Dole balcony on the west face of the Capitol, said Steve Bell, Dominici's chief of staff. There, they hashed out their differences. "I think it's one of the toughest conferences we've ever had," Bell said. Hobson "was charming and he was nice and he was friendly, but he was sticking to his guns." In the end, Hobson managed to get $580 million for Yucca Mountain, $185 million less than he wanted, but $155 million more than the Senate had designated. About $6 billion still went to research into nuclear weapons programs, but Hobson said he trimmed out a lot for new research. He halved the administration's $15 million request for a weapon known as a "bunker buster" and "fenced off" money for some advanced weapons development. It will be released when the administration submits a revised weapons stockpile plan. Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Water subcommittee, said Hobson is an especially effective legislator who does a good job balancing the requests of members and fiscal responsibility, and who is unafraid of challenging his own party. "He's a staunch Republican, but that doesn't matter here," Visclosky said. "He wants to get the job done." Hobson also wrote a letter to Florida leaders, saying the Everglades cleanup was going too slowly. He, along with another appropriations chairman, Canton-area Republican Rep. Ralph Regula, did not approve of the legislature's move to extend the deadline for companies to clean up the wetlands. Hobson's bill says Florida will get federal money for the Everglades project only if the committee sees progress in the cleanup. Environmental groups including the National Audubon Society praised the effort, even though Hobson rarely scores well with such groups. The League of Conservation voters in 2002 gave Hobson only a 9 percent score for "environmentally friendly" votes. They disapproved of his support of Yucca Mountain and his support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. The new job, Hobson said, has "changed me a lot. It's made me much more environmentally conscious." The job has also invigorated Hobson, who lost 30 pounds last year on the Atkins diet. He's seeking re-election this year and wants to stay on as chairman another two years, to give the leadership continuity. "I like being chairman of a committee and being able to make things happen," he said. "It makes it a little harder to walk away." Ken McCall contributed to this report. Contact Mei-Ling Hopgood at (202) 887-8328 or mhopgood@coxnews.com Copyright © 2004, Cox Ohio Publishing. All rights reserved. By using DaytonDailyNews.com, you accept the terms of our ***************************************************************** 42 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 18:03:59 -0800 NEVADA Nuclear Waste Case Set for Court Kansas City Star (subscription), MO ... say a federal appeals court hearing this week on a collection of lawsuits will give the state its best chance to block the government's plans to entomb nuclear ... N. Korea shows US nuclear evidence USA Today North Korea has shown a US nuclear expert new evidence of its ability to make fuel for bombs in an apparent effort to strengthen its demands for aid in return ... TVA tests waters for more nuclear power The Tennessean, TN ... ever sits. The Tennessee Valley Authority hasn't given up hope on this nearly complete but never used nuclear power plant. It still ... CHEN rallies support against nuclear plant China Post, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian canvassed form support yesterday in the central city of Changhua for his plan to scrap a nuclear power plant and to halve the number ... SOLANA travels to Iran to revitalise nuclear talks Financial Times (subscription), UK ... for a two-day visit designed to keep up European momentum for dialogue with Tehran, which last month agreed to greater international access to its nuclear ... NUCLEUS of a nuclear power Daily Times, Pakistan Dr Chaudhri taught many of the physicists who went on to work in Pakistan’s nuclear programme: 44 of the 50 came from the GC Physics Department. ... N. Korea shows US 'nuclear deterrent' Korea Herald, South Korea The first outsiders in a year to visit North Korea's Yeongbyeon nuclear complex were tight-lipped when they arrived in South Korea yesterday for further ... 'SNU nuclear dump not feasible' Korea Herald, South Korea Seoul National University will disclose this week its position on a proposal by some of its faculty members to build a nuclear waste dump near the campus, its ... NK Shows Nuclear Deterrent Force to US Delegation Korea Times, South Korea By Seo Soo-min. North Korea said on Saturday that it showed its ``nuclear deterrent force’’ to a visiting US delegation during the latter’s recent visit. ... KOLA nuclear plant stops planned target for power generation ITAR-TASS, Russia MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) - In 2003, the Kola nuclear power station (KolAES) generated 9,918 million kWh of electricity or two percent more than the ... This once-a-day News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=682e52ddd0720101 Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 43 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:11:03 -0800 N Korea shows off its 'nuclear deterrent' Independent, UK ... delegation was on its way home last night after a visit to North Korea during which, the Pyongyang regime said yesterday, it was shown the country's "nuclear ... VISITORS See North Korea Nuclear Capacity New York Times, NY ... 10 — North Korea declared Saturday that it had shown what it called a "nuclear deterrent" to an unofficial delegation of visiting Americans, but officials ... US inspectors visit N Korean nuclear site Telegraph.co.uk, UK An American delegation has visited North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex for the first time since United Nations inspectors were expelled a year ago. ... N.KOREA reveals "nuclear deterrent" Reuters, UK BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea says it has shown a visiting US delegation its "nuclear deterrent" and hopes this will provide a basis for a peaceful ... NEVADA FOCUS: Crucial court showdown set on national nuclear dump Las Vegas Sun, NV LAS VEGAS (AP) - The federal government says entombing the nation's nuclear waste beneath an ancient volcanic ridge in the Nevada desert will be safe. ... NTH Korea shows 'nuclear deterrent force' to US delegation ABC Online, Australia North Korea on Saturday showed its "nuclear deterrent force" to United States scientists and congressional officials who visited its nuclear site this week, a ... US team visits N.Korea's nuclear complex Reuters, UK BEIJING (Reuters) - A US delegation has visited North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex, the first time outsiders have been allowed into the plant since UN ... Americans visit disputed North Korean nuclear facility - Ha'aretz US delegation visits N. Korean nuclear complex - ABS CBN News US delegation to North Korea visits nuclear facility that was ... US team visits key N Korean nuclear site Sify, India Washington: A US delegation which visited North Korea has revealed that it visited the secret nuclear complex at Yongbyon. "We did ... NATS may dangle nuclear bait Nzoom.com, New Zealand ... When asked if that meant allowing nuclear ships back into New Zealand waters, Brash said a study group is working on the issue and should report back to him in ... US delegation shown DPRK's "nuclear deterrent" capability Xinhua, China 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has shown a US delegation its "nuclear deterrent" capability, South Korea's Yonhap News ... This once-a-day News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=682e52ddd0720101 Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 44 U.S. Newswire: US, Japan to Work Together on Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Research; Supports Bush's Hydrogen Initiative, International Energy Partnerships 1/9/04 10:36:00 AM To: National Desk, Energy Reporter Contact: Tom Welch of the U.S. Department of Energy, 202-586-5806 TOKYO, Jan. 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Spencer Abraham, U.S. secretary of energy, and Goji Sakamoto, senior vice minister of economy, trade and industry of Japan today signed a joint statement of intent to pursue pre-competitive research and development in the field of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. "The United States and Japan both recognize the contribution research and development can make to the development of a hydrogen economy and to cost-effective technologies to meet future global energy needs," Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. "International cooperation is key to achieving the hydrogen and fuel cell program goals outlined by President Bush in his last State of the Union address." Following the signature of a Joint Statement, the two countries intend to bring together appropriate officials and technical experts to participate in workshops and seminars, as well as exchange experts and share information on current polices, technological programs and developments in the area of fuel cells and hydrogen production, storage, and transport technologies. The United States and Japan are members of the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE). On Nov. 20, 2003, in Washington, D.C., Secretary Abraham, joined by ministers representing 14 nations and the European Commission, signed an agreement formally establishing the IPHE. Secretary Abraham called for international hydrogen collaboration in his speech to the International Energy Agency Ministerial Meeting last April in Paris, France. The International Partnership supports the deployment of hydrogen energy technologies, establishing collaborative efforts in hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end-use technologies; common codes and standards for hydrogen fuel utilization; and the sharing of information necessary to develop hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The use of hydrogen as an energy carrier offers several important advantages relative to existing systems. Hydrogen can be derived from multiple feedstocks, which fosters fuel versatility. End-use technologies that employ hydrogen, such as fuel cells, are more efficient and can be used safely while improving the environment and public health. http://www.usnewswire.com/ ***************************************************************** 45 Las Vegas SUN: Cost of New Space Initiative Unclear January 09, 2004 By PAUL RECER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - The cost of a new space initiative to return American astronauts to the moon and then on to Mars would depend on when the nation decided to go and how ambitious the missions turned out to be. President Bush is expected next week to announce a program to establish a permanent human colony on the moon and then, a decade or so later, to send humans to Mars. The bare outline of the president's plan revealed by White House officials follows the footprints of an effort proposed by his father, the first President Bush. The cost of that program was estimated in 1989 at $400 billion to $500 billion. Congress was not in the mood to spring from that kind of an investment in space and the program never left the launch pad. The new moon-Mars program may face similar skepticism from Congress at a time of budget deficits, the Iraq occupation and the war on terrorism. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee, said last fall that the space agency should not expect "an unlimited budget" for any new visionary program. "The federal government has too few resources and too many obligations to give NASA a blank check," said Boehlert in an Oct. 16 statement. "Any vision that assumes massive spending increases for NASA is doomed to fail." During the era of the Cold War, when competition with the Soviet Union was a national priority, NASA enjoyed a generous flow of funds from Congress to finance the moon race. NASA won that race, putting 12 men on the moon and returning them safely, at a cost of $25 billion in 1969 dollars. That same effort today would cost at least $127 billion, allowing for inflation. And the technical challenges and expense of Apollo are pale by comparison with the moon-Mars effort expected to be proposed by the Bush administration. Depending on how elaborate the plans are and how quickly the nation decided to accomplish them, the ultimate costs could be over $750 billion spread over many years. Setting a permanent colony on the moon would require designing and building new heavy lift rockets, spacecraft to take people to lunar orbit and still other spacecraft to ferry them to and from the surface. It would also require developing new techniques of housing and supplying people for long periods of time in a vacuum environment where the temperatures can range from 250 degrees to minus 250 degrees. An expedition to Mars is even more daunting. Just getting there could take months, unless new propulsion systems, using electric rockets, are developed to accelerate the journey. Then, there have to be dependable ways to get people to and from the Martian surface from an orbiting mother ship. And once there, there would be a need for power, probably coming from a compact nuclear generator that has yet to be designed and built. Still another craft may be needed - a robot cargo ship that could deliver supplies to the Mars to await the arrival of humans or to resupply those already there. In the past, some projects, such as the space shuttle, were trimmed back under budgetary pressures from Congress, and some say the first victim of such cost-cutting can be safety. In testimony before Congress last fall, Michael D. Griffin, a former associate administrator for exploration at NASA, said the agency could accomplish major lunar and Martian exploration by increasing the agency's $15 billion budget by $5 billion a year. For this to work, though, there would have to be a change of lifestyle within NASA, he said. "Space activities so far have been largely episodic, when, in fact, the need to become ... a way of life," said Griffin. Much of NASA's manned spaceflight budget is now being drained by the demands of returning the space shuttle to orbit in the wake of the Columbia accident last year. More money may be required. The budget is also hit hard by the need to maintain and continue to build the International Space Station. -- ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************