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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 After many 1000s killed: "No WMD ever existed" says Bush's WMD
2 Las Vegas SUN: Iraq WMD Flap May Bolster U.N. Position
3 UK Independent: Blair defiant over WMDs as aides face Hutton censure
4 Las Vegas SUN: Kay: U.S. Must Explain Iraq WMD Research

5 Korea Herald: Seoul denies plans to build nuclear subs   
6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Expert Says N Korea Has Uranium Program  
7 KoreaTimes: North Korean May Complete Uranium Program in 1-2 Years 
8 Las Vegas SUN: Japan Lawmakers Agree on North Korea Bill

9 US: [DU-WATCH] Nuclear Bunker Busters, Mini-Nukes, and the US
10 IPS-English CANADA: Govt Talks on U.S. Missile Plan Boosts
11 Asia Times: Pakistan polishes its tarnished nuclear image
12 Las Vegas SUN: Pakistan Vows Action in Nuclear Probe
13 Las Vegas SUN: Pakistan: Nuke Scientists Leaked Secrets
14 AU SMH: Inquiry into nuclear experts' land wealth - 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
15 US: [NukeNet] NYT: Safety of Adding to Nuclear Plants' Capacity Is
16 US: NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meeting on Environmental Review for Prop
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
17 US: NIRS Comments on Operator Manual Actions 
18 [DU-WATCH] Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq
19 [DU-WATCH] Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To DU In Gulf War
20 US: [Fwd: SF Irradiated Foods Campaign Update]
21 Uranium in Your Koolaide
22 US: [du-list] 'zapped' veteran fights on
23 [du-list] pleez read! US soldiers caught between Iraq & a hard
24 Bellona: Radioactive metal detected and sent for tests in south-west
25 US: News-Gazette Online: 'Zapped' veteran fights on
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
26 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Nuclear waste lawsuits grow 
27 Las Vegas SUN: Nuclear utilities face deadline for radioactive waste
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
28 [NukeNet] Groups Victorious, Bio-Suit, DOE Withdraws LANL
29 U.S. Newswire - DOE Issues Request for Proposal for Portsmouth 
30 Las Vegas SUN: Watchdog: Nuke Guards Cheated in Drill
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
31 Google News Alert - nuclear
32 [Fwd: [du-list] DU in the news  27th Jan. 04]
33 [du-list] DU in the news -  Jan 26th 04
34 [DU-WATCH] The untimely oddity of Bush's space odyssey, as the
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 After many 1000s killed: "No WMD ever existed" says Bush's WMD
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 00:12:59 -0600 (CST)

 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=484185

Up to 30,000 Iraqis -- many of them civilians, lots of them children
-- and over 500 US soldiers were killed in the US invasion and
occupation of the Gaza Strip, er, Iraq, Bush's top hunter of Saddam's
alleged weapons of mass destruction admits such weapons never
existed. (They DO exist in Israel, though.)

Hmmmm . . . remember Bush's unequivocal statements about WMD
definitely being present in Iraq? Cheney's statements? Blair's
statement that these non-existent weapons could even be deployed
in 20 or so minutes? Rumsfeld's statement that "we know exactly
where they're located . . . they're in the [insert obligatory
Arab-sounding geographic name] area . . . "?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=484185
"If ye love wealth better than liberty ... servitude better  than
.. freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or
your arms ...  May your chains set lightly upon you. May posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen."

- Samuel Adams
*****************************************************************
 2 Las Vegas SUN: Iraq WMD Flap May Bolster U.N. Position

January 25, 2004 

 By CHARLES J. HANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Whatever the political backlash in election-year America, the
U.S. retreat on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction signals a
victory in the larger fight to control the deadliest of weapons.
Sanctions and inspections, the United Nations and global
teamwork appear to have worked in curbing Iraq's ambitions. 

In the lead-up to the U.S. invasion last March, David Kay said
war was the only answer. "If you want to disarm Iraq ... there
is no alternative," wrote the man who would become chief U.S.
weapons hunter. 

But by Sunday, after leaving that job, Kay had concluded that
years of earlier U.N. inspections had "got rid of" weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq. "The weapons do not exist," he told
National Public Radio. 

That finding, if accepted in the corridors of power in
Washington, may help revive a unified, U.N.-led strategy on arms
proliferation, a strategy in which economic pressure, diplomacy
and inspectors supplant the threat of unilateral U.S. attack. 

In North Korea, Iran and wherever else WMD ambitions may grow,
Kay's words could help clear the way again for a peaceful
approach to arms control. 

Official U.S. acceptance may come slowly, however. 

In a futile bid for U.N. support for war last Feb. 5, Colin
Powell flatly told the Security Council that Iraq was making
prohibited arms - with a "conservative estimate" of 100 to 500
tons of chemical weapons on hand. 

By this weekend, the U.S. secretary of state had added only two
little words, wondering aloud to reporters, "What was it? One
hundred tons, 500 tons or zero tons?" 

"Zero tons," or close to it, was always a strong possibility in
the eyes of experts who knew the record of U.N. inspections. But
Bush administration officials, in their overtures to war, never
acknowledged it. 

Those U.N. inspections had unfolded in phases: 

-After the 1991 Gulf War, U.N. teams, sometimes helped,
sometimes hindered by Baghdad, dismantled its nuclear weapons
program and destroyed Iraqi chemical arms. 

-In the mid-1990s, a key defector led U.N. inspectors to
documents proving the existence of a biological weapons program.
But the Iraqis had quietly destroyed the weapons themselves in
the early 1990s, he said. An Iraqi internal communication,
recently uncovered, supports that. 

-Until 1998, inspectors dismantled more arms-making equipment,
but never again found weapons stockpiles. The inspectors were
withdrawn in 1998 in a dispute over CIA spies' infiltration of
the U.N. operation. Baghdad was balking at allowing the U.N.
teams into sensitive Iraqi leadership sites. 

By 2002, Washington contended the Iraqis, in the absence of
inspectors, were again producing banned weapons. But it offered
no hard evidence, only assertions in intelligence reports and
speeches. 

As U.S. troops massed for an invasion late in 2002, Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein allowed U.N. monitors to return. In
some 700 inspections from November 2002 to last March, they
reported finding no evidence of revived weapons programs. 

The U.N. Security Council intended to continue to monitor Iraq's
defense establishment for years to come, but the U.S.-British
invasion aborted that unprecedented plan for intensive arms
control. 

In the nine months since the war, no uncoventional weapons have
been found. Instead, Kay said last October, his 1,500-member
Iraq Survey Group came across signs of Iraqi "intentions" and
"capabilities" to make WMD. President Bush echoed that in his
State of the Union address last week, speaking vaguely of Iraqi
"weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." 

Once again, however, no hard evidence was presented for
international verification. In fact, an Associated Press
investigation in Baghdad found no support for a central
assertion of Kay's October report - that an Iraqi scientist, now
dead, had been doing research possibly related to nuclear bombs. 

To many supporters of multilateral arms control, the Iraq
invasion was, in a sense, an attack also on the idea of relying
on global unity - and not U.S. military force - to face the
perils of the nuclear age. 

"Iraq is a major turning point in how to deal with WMD,"
Patricia Lewis, chief U.N. disarmament researcher, said as Kay's
experts fanned out across Iraq last summer. 

Now, more and more, eyes will turn from Iraq to Washington, to
see how the Bush administration deals with the weapons that
weren't there. 

One test will come as the CIA decides when and how to issue the
weapons hunters' final report. Will that report, sure to
undercut the chief rationale for the U.S. war, come before or
after the first Tuesday in November, the day of the U.S.
presidential election? 

--- 

EDITOR'S NOTE - Charles J. Hanley has covered weapons of mass
destruction issues for more than 20 years and reported on the
Iraq crisis since mid-2002. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 3 UK Independent: Blair defiant over WMDs as aides face Hutton censure
 
By Kim Sengupta and Paul Waugh
 
26 January 2004

At least nine people - six associated with Tony Blair's
government and three from the BBC - could be in the firing line
when Lord Hutton delivers his much-anticipated report into the
death of David Kelly on Wednesday. 

The Independent has learnt late submissions were made by the
nine to Lord Hutton in the closing stages of the inquiry,
following letters from him saying they face possible criticism.
The Prime Minister's name does not appear among those making
final submissions, indicating he is unlikely to receive direct
condemnation. 

Mr Blair insisted yesterday he still believes that evidence of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the justification given for
going to war, will be discovered. But his position was
undermined by Colin Powell, the United States' Secretary of
State, who said that he did not know whether such an arsenal
will ever be found. And Lewis Moonie, a defence minister at the
time of the Iraq invasion, predicted that the Government may
soon have to admit it was wrong about Saddam Hussein's alleged
WMD capabilities. 

Those who put forward late evidence to Lord Hutton include Geoff
Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence; Alastair Campbell, Mr
Blair's former director of communications; John Scarlett, the
chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, tasked with
drawing up last September's Iraq weapons dossier; Richard
Hatfield, the director of personnel at the Ministry of Defence;
Pam Teare, the director of news at the MoD; and Kate Wilson, the
MoD's chief press officer. 

According to senior sources, Ms Wilson and Ms Teare are said to
be facing "low-level criticism", if any, following evidence at
the inquiry they were acting on instructions that originated in
Downing Street. 

From the BBC side, late submissions were made by Andrew
Gilligan, the defence and diplomatic correspondent for Radio 4's
Today programme who claimed that the Government had "sexed-up"
the dossier; Richard Sambrook, the head of news; and Greg Dyke,
the director general. 

The Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard, wrote yesterday to
Lord Hutton asking the judge to provide a list of all
unpublished submissions before the report is presented on
Wednesday. 

The Independent has also discovered that senior officials of the
Defence Intelligence Staff told the Government before the war
that they had "absolutely no idea" how many chemical or
biological weapons Saddam possessed. A memo, written to the
Cabinet Office's Joint Intelligence Assessment staff was sent to
Lord Hutton after he had finished taking evidence and has not
been posted on the inquiry website. A leaked copy of the memo
shows the DIS wanted numerous changes to the dossier drawn up by
JIC, and had to deal with direct questions from Downing Street. 

One such question was: "Can we say how many chemical and
biological weapons Iraq currently has by type? If we can't give
weapons numbers, can we give any idea of the quantity of agent
available?" 

The DIS response, written by its assistant directors of
intelligence, states: "CW [chemical weapons]: we have absolutely
no idea how many chemical weapons or the quantity of agents that
Iraq has. If pressed I would say 'could have tens of tonnes' BW
[biological weapons]', this is almost an impossible question." 

Among the numerous errors the DIS spotted in the first draft of
the dossier was that mustard gas "can kill in minutes". The DIS
pointed out that it would take days for the agent to cause
serious damage. 

An opinion poll for ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme found
that 56 per cent of those questioned believe Mr Blair should
resign if Lord Hutton finds that he, or his staff, have behaved
improperly over the naming of Dr Kelly. And 33 per cent of
voters believes the Government bears responsibility for the
death of the scientist than 11 per cent who blame the BBC. 

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it looked as
though the British public had been "sold a pup" on the threat
which Saddam posed. "What Lord Hutton, depending on how he
interprets his remit, will not be able to do is to get into the
fundamental issue," he said. "The fundamental issue is: Were we
sold a pup? Was this country taken into that war in Iraq on a
dodgy basis?" 	           


UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 4 Las Vegas SUN: Kay: U.S. Must Explain Iraq WMD Research

January 25, 2004 

 By SCOTT LINDLAW ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - 

U.S. intelligence agencies need to explain why their research
indicated Iraq possessed banned weapons before the American-led
invasion, says the outgoing top U.S. inspector, who now believes
Saddam Hussein had no such arms. 

"I don't think they exist," David Kay said Sunday. "The fact
that we found so far the weapons do not exist - we've got to
deal with that difference and understand why." 

Kay's remarks on National Public Radio reignited criticism from
Democrats, who ignored his cautions that the failure to find
weapons of mass destruction was "not a political issue." 

"It's an issue of the capabilities of one's intelligence service
to collect valid, truthful information," Kay said. Asked whether
President Bush owed the nation an explanation for the gap
between his warnings and Kay's findings, Kay said: "I actually
think the intelligence community owes the president, rather than
the president owing the American people." 

The CIA would not comment Sunday on Kay's remarks, although one
intelligence official pointed out that Kay himself had predicted
last year that his search would turn up banned weapons. 

Kay said his predictions were not "coming back to haunt me in
the sense that I am embarrassed. They are coming back to haunt
me in the sense of `Why could we all be so wrong?'" 

Kay told The New York Times in a later interview posted for
Monday's editions that U.S. intelligence agencies did not
realize Iraqi scientists presented Saddam with fanciful plans
for weapons programs and then used the money he authorized for
other purposes. 

"The whole thing shifted from directed programs to a corrupted
process," he told the Times. "The regime was no longer in
control; it was like a death spiral. Saddam was self-directing
projects that were not vetted by anyone else. The scientists
were able to fake programs." 

He said he has had U.S. intelligence analysts some to him,
"almost in tears, saying they felt so badly that we weren't
finding what they had thought we were going to find - I have had
analysts apologizing for reaching the conclusions they did." 

Kay said Iraq did try to restart its nuclear weapons program in
2000 and 2001, but that evidence suggests it would have taken
years to rebuild after being largely abandoned in the 1990s. 

He said it is now clear that the CIA's basic problem was that
the agency lacked its own spies in Iraq who could provide
credible information, but that he does not believe analysts were
pressed by the Bush administration to make their reports conform
to a White House agenda. 

The White House stuck by its assertions that illicit weapons
will be found in Iraq but had no additional response on Sunday
to Kay's remarks. 

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Kay's comments reinforced his
belief that the Bush administration had exaggerated the threat
Iraq posed. 

"It confirms what I have said for a long period of time, that we
were misled - misled not only in the intelligence, but misled in
the way that the president took us to war," Kerry, a White House
contender, said on "Fox News Sunday." "I think there's been an
enormous amount of exaggeration, stretching, deception." 

Hans Blix, the former chief U.N. inspector whose work was
heavily criticized by Kay and ended when the United States went
to war with Iraq, said Sunday the United States should have
known the intelligence was flawed last year when leads followed
up by U.N. inspectors didn't produce any results. 

"I was beginning to wonder what was going on," he told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Weren't they
wondering too? If you find yourself on a train that's going in
the wrong direction, its best to get off at the next stop." 

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said he was surprised Kay "did not find some
semblance of WMD" in Iraq. Roberts said a report on Iraq
intelligence, to be delivered to his panel Wednesday, should
help clarify the CIA's prewar performance. 

"It appears now that that intelligence - there's a lot of
questions about it," Roberts said on CNN's "Late Edition." 

In October 2002, Bush said Iraq had "a massive stockpile of
biological weapons that has never been accounted for and is
capable of killing millions." In his television address two days
before launching the invasion, Bush said U.S. troops would enter
Iraq "to eliminate weapons of mass destruction." 

Kay returned permanently from Iraq last month, having found no
biological, nuclear or chemical weapons nor missiles with longer
range than Iraq's troublesome president, Saddam Hussein, was
allowed under international restrictions. 

But on Sunday, Kay reiterated his conclusion that Saddam had "a
large number of WMD program-related activities." And, he said,
Iraq's leaders had intended to continue those activities. 

"There were scientists and engineers working on developing
weapons or weapons concepts that they had not moved into actual
production," Kay said. "But in some areas, for example producing
mustard gas, they knew all the answers, they had done it in the
past, and it was a relatively simple thing to go from where they
were to starting to produce it." 

The Iraqis had not decided to begin producing such weapons at
the time of the invasion, he concluded. 

Kay also said chaos in postwar Iraq made it impossible to know
with certainty whether Iraq had had banned weapons. 

And, he said, there is ample evidence that Iraq was moving a
steady stream of goods shipments to Syria, but it is difficult
to determine whether the cargoes included weapons, in part
because Syria has refused to cooperate in this part of the
weapons investigation. 

Administration officials have sent mixed signals in recent days
about the hunt in Iraq for illicit weapons. 

While Bush's spokesmen have insisted weapons will yet be found,
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Powell held
open the possibility that they will not. 

Cheney warned in March 2003, three days before the invasion: "We
believe he (Saddam) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear
weapons." 

But in an interview Wednesday with NPR, he said of the weapons
search: "The jury is still out." 

Kay's comments echoed those of dozens of Iraqi scientists who,
in recent interviews with The Associated Press, claimed they had
not seen or worked on weapons of mass destruction in years. 

Only a handful of Iraqi scientists who worked in former
bioweapons and missile programs remained in custody by the time
Kay left Iraq in December. Some of the detained scientists have
been held since April and Kay's conclusions were likely to raise
their hopes for release. 

Kay said he resigned Friday because the Pentagon began peeling
away his staff of weapons-searchers as the military struggled to
put down the Iraqi insurgency last fall. 

Kay hopes to draw on his experiences to write a book on weapons
intelligence. 

--- 

Associated Press writers Katherine Pfleger in Washington and
Dafna Linzer in Bern, Switzerland, contributed to this report. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 5 Korea Herald: Seoul denies plans to build nuclear subs   

 By Choe Yong-shik

 (khjack@heraldm.com)

2004.01.27
      
The Defense Ministry yesterday denied a media report that the 
government was mulling the deployment in 2012 of several 
4,000-ton nuclear-powered submarines.

 The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier in the day that South 
Korea had been working on nuclear submarines since May last year 
as part of efforts to boost its self-defense capabilities against 
regional security threats such as China and Japan.

 Won Jang-hwan, the ministry's chief arms procurement officer, 
said the ministry was studying through 2005 the feasibility of 
developing 3,500-ton submarines at a cost of 1.7 billion won 
($1.54 million).

 But he said the submarines' method of power had yet to be 
decided. Won also said South Korea was not expected to develop 
nuclear-powered submarines independently, as the United States 
has.

 Seoul cannot develop nuclear submarines without approval from 
the International Atomic Energy Agency, as this would violate a 
1991 inter-Korean pact on the denuclearization of the Korean 
Peninsula, he said.

 "Also, there is no need to develop nuclear-powered submarines 
because electric and diesel engines are sufficient to power 
3,500-ton submarines," Won said, discrediting the media report.

 The United States owns two kinds of nuclear-powered submarines. 
Its tactical submarines - designed for smaller-scale military 
actions - range in size from 6,000 tons to 9,000 tons, while its 
strategic submarines for large-scale warfare range from 13,000 
tons to 24,000 tons.

*****************************************************************
 6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Expert Says N Korea Has Uranium Program   
 
      Updated Jan.26,2004 20:01 KST   
 

  by Yi Ha-won (may2@chosun.com)

      Gary Samore, a non-proliferation expert with the 
International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS)./AP   
          

North Korea is pursuing a program to develop nuclear weapons that 
use highly-enriched uranium (HEU), and last year, France and 
Germany caught the North importing related material, according to 
Gary Samore, a non-proliferation expert with the International 
Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in Great Britain. 

Speaking Monday at the Seoul International Forum, Samore said the 
North could possibly create a highly enriched uranium facility 
within one or two years. 

According to Samore, France and Germany stopped a North Korean 
vessel in the Suez Canal in February 2003, and discovered that 
the boat was transporting 200 tons of superstrong aluminum 
tubing. He said the tubes could have been used to produce 75 kg 
of HEU, enough to produce three nuclear weapons. 

The United States believes the North is pursuing a HEU 
development program based on its acquisition of production parts 
in other countries, he said. 

When American scientists and experts visited North Korea in early 
January, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan denied 
that his country has any HEU program. 

The IISS is recognized as an authority on issues of international 
security. Samore worked as a special assistant to President 
Clinton and senior director for Non-Proliferation and Export 
Controls at the U.S. National Security Council. 

In documentation distributed to the press, Samore claimed that 
within a few years, North Korea would be able to produce between 
eight to 13 nuclear weapons a year, if the 50 megawatt nuclear 
reactor agreed on in the 1994 Geneva Agreement and its HEU 
facility are completed. Asked if he believed the North possesses 
the detonation devices needed to construct nuclear weapons, 
Samore noted that the North had been working on making detonators 
since the mid-eighties, so likely has what it believes it needs. 

A government source said Monday that it became aware of the 
information Samore discussed last year, but that the aluminum 
tubes "do not directly lead to the production of highly enriched 
uranium, but are used as material for centrifuges that can make 
HEU.�� 

*****************************************************************
 7 KoreaTimes: North Korean May Complete Uranium Program in 1-2 Years 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times   

By Seo Soo-min Staff Reporter

 North Korea may be able to complete its uranium-based nuclear 
program in as few as one or two years, a prominent United States 
expert said on Monday.

 Gary Samore, senior fellow at the London-based International 
Institute for Strategic Studies, said American intelligence 
assessments show that Pyongyang may be able to complete its 
highly enriched uranium (HEU) program in the middle of this 
decade.

 But Samore, a former deputy to the chief negotiator of the 1994 
Agreed Framework, Robert Gallucci, said the actual completion of 
the program may be delayed because of difficulties in obtaining 
high-tech facilities.

 Asked if he believes North Korea possesses the triggering device 
and other technical means to convert the fissile material into 
nuclear weapons, Samore responded that such a possibility could 
exist because the country has consistently pursued research in 
those areas since the mid-1980s.

 The U.S, however, does not seem to have hard evidence on the 
North Korean HEU program although it is strongly pressuring North 
Korea to come clean on the issue at the next six-party talks, he 
added.

 Samore did stress, though, that there is still time for 
diplomatic efforts to halt and eliminate North Korea��s nuclear 
arsenal while it remains limited to only a handful of nuclear 
weapons.

 In the report Samore and his colleagues published on Jan. 21, 
North Korea��s nuclear capability would increase greatly in the 
next few years to the point where it might be able to produce as 
many as eight to 13 warheads per year. 

ssm@koreatimes.co.kr 01-26-2004 17:20         
*****************************************************************
 8 Las Vegas SUN: Japan Lawmakers Agree on North Korea Bill

Today: January 26, 2004 at 5:35:04 PST 

 By AUDREY McAVOY ASSOCIATED PRESS 

TOKYO (AP) - 

Japan's ruling coalition and top opposition party agreed Monday
on legislation that allows Japan to unilaterally impose economic
sanctions. 

The measure is aimed at pressuring North Korea into resolving a
diplomatic standoff over its past abductions of Japanese
citizens. 

The legislation authorizes the government to independently halt
remittances, stop trade, and impose other restrictions on the
flow of money and goods to and from another country. Japanese
law currently only allows such steps if they are made in
response to a U.N. resolution or another multinational
agreement. 

The bill - which amends the foreign exchange law - doesn't
specifically target North Korea, but was drawn up with the
isolated communist state in mind. 

"We want to pass the bill promptly," said Jin Murai, a lawmaker
from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after meeting
opposition party officials on the amendment. "We need to do so
to most powerfully express the will of Japan." 

The LDP aims to have both chambers of Parliament approve the
bill within the next few weeks. Since the bill's backers - the
LDP, its coalition partner the New Komeito, and the opposition
Democratic Party - together control about 95 percent of the
seats in the more powerful lower chamber of Parliament, its
passage is virtually assured. 

To win Democratic support for the bill, the LDP agreed to
incorporate a provision stipulating that Parliament must approve
any sanctions that are unilaterally imposed by Tokyo on another
country. 

It is unclear whether Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would
impose sanctions once this bill is passed, but his deputy, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, said last week that the law
would give Japan the option of taking punitive measures if
needed. 

The cooperation between Koizumi's LDP and the Democrats on the
amendment underscores the broad support in Japan for moves to
pressure North Korea into addressing the matter of Japanese
abducted by the communist state. 

North Korea acknowledged in 2002 it had kidnapped over a dozen
Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to teach Japanese
language and culture to its spies, confirming for the first time
the suspicions of investigators and family members. But the
North said most of those it abducted had since died and only
provided sparse details of how, angering Tokyo. 

And while five of the surviving abductees have since returned to
Japan, their families are still in North Korea while the two
countries remain locked in a diplomatic standoff. 

Tokyo wants Pyongyang to send to Japan the families left behind
in North Korea before it will resume talks to establish
diplomatic relations and discuss providing economic aid to the
impoverished country. Japan is also pushing the North to
disclose more about those who allegedly died and dozens more
possible kidnap victims Japan believes may be living in the
North. 

A support group for abduction victims' families has pushed for
economic sanctions since last year. The lawmakers involved with
drawing up the bill have been some of the most aggressive
backers of the families and their support group. 

North Korea, meanwhile, has repeatedly stated it would consider
economic sanctions "an act of war." 

North Korean exports to Japan - an important source of income
for the country - totaled $234 million in 2002, according to the
Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency in South Korea. 

Japanese authorities say Koreans living in Japan who back
Pyongyang send millions of dollars to the North every year. 

Many Japanese also advocate sanctions to urge its neighbor to
abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development
programs, especially after Pyongyang test-fired a long-range
missile over Japan's main island in 1998. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 9 [DU-WATCH] Nuclear Bunker Busters, Mini-Nukes, and the US
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 00:47:20 -0600 (CST)

 
Nuclear Bunker Busters, Mini-Nukes, and the US Nuclear Stockpile

PHYSICS TODAY

The Bush administration is contemplating a new crop of nuclear
weapons that could reduce the threat to civilian populations.
However, they're still unlikely to work without producing massive
radioactive fallout, and their development might require a return
to underground nuclear testing.

Robert W. Nelson Congress is currently considering legislation that
would authorize the US nuclear weapons laboratories to study new
types of nuclear weapons:

Earth-penetrating nuclear bunker busters designed to destroy hardened
and deeply buried targets, and agent-defeat warheads intended to
sterilize stockpiles of chemical or biological agents. In addition,
the Bush administration has requested that Congress repeal a 1994
law, banning research that could lead to development of mini-nukes,
low-yield nuclear warheads containing less than the power equivalent
of a 5-kiloton chemical explosion, one-third that of the Hiroshima
bomb.

The actual development of new nuclear weapons would require additional
legislation and would signal a major policy reversal. The US has
not developed a new nuclear warhead since 1988 and has not conducted
a nuclear test since 1992.

And although the Senate did not consent to ratify the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty in 1999, the US continues to participate in a
worldwide moratorium on underground nuclear testing. Currently, US
nuclear weapons laboratories monitor and maintain the existing
nuclear inventory through the Department of Energy's Stockpile
Stewardship Program. (See Raymond Jeanloz's article in Physics
Today, December 2000, page 44.) In support of its request to repeal
the 1994 law, the Bush administration is arguing that the US may
need lower yield nuclear weapons to more credibly deter rogue regimes
possessing chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. But arms control
advocates fear that renewed US development of nuclear weapons would
spark similar actions by other nuclear-armed nations and damage
long-standing efforts to prevent the further proliferation of nuclear
weapons. In addition, critics charge that mini-nukes blur the
distinction between conventional and full-blown nuclear war and
make the eventual use of nuclear weapons more likely.

Whether the US should go forward with actual development of new
types of nuclear weapons will almost certainly be debated vigorously
in Washington, DC for the next several years. Physicists and engineers
have often participated in public debates over nuclear weapons
policy, including new nuclear weapons development.1,2 (See various
related articles in Physics Today, July 1975, November 1989, and
March 1998*.) More important, scientists can help policymakers to
distinguish which technical goals are feasible and which are merely
wishful thinking.

Nuclear weapons advocates in the Bush administration favor missiles
carrying nuclear warheads that could be designed to penetrate the
ground sufficiently to destroy buried command bunkers or sterilize
underground stocks of chemical and biological weapons and yet produce
"minimal collateral damage." Crucial to the debate, therefore, is
an understanding of the capabilities and limitations of earth-penetrating
nuclear weapons. How deeply, for example, can missiles really burrow
into reinforced concrete? How deeply buried must these weapons be
for the surrounding rock to contain the blast? Would the underground
temperatures of a nuclear blast sterilize chemical and biological
agents?3 This article addresses these questions and explains that
the goal of minimal collateral damage falls squarely in the
wishful-thinking category.

Conventional and nuclear earth penetrators

Figure 1 The US Department of Defense (DOD) has tens of thousands
of conventional earth-penetrating weapons capable of destroying
hardened targets like an underground bunker buried within 10 meters
of the surface. As figure 1 illustrates, a typical 2.4-m laser-guided
missile penetrates just a few meters into reinforced concrete and
can create an explosion that leaves a 5-m-wide crater of material.

To supplement its supply of conventional penetrators, the DOD is
also developing conventional agent-defeat warheads that combine the
advantages of a hardened missile casing with a low-pressure incendiary
warhead. Those weapons are designed to penetrate the interiors of
a shallow-buried facility and then ignite a thermocorrosive filling
that can maintain high temperatures for several minutes; the high
temperatures and low pressures are meant to sterilize toxins and
bioagents without dispersing them to the environment. The warhead
may also release chlorine and other disinfecting gases to destroy
any remaining biological agents.4 To judge by the effectiveness of
weapons used in the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the precision,
penetrating capability, and explosive power of conventional
earth-penetrating weapons has improved dramatically over the past
decade, and those trends are likely to continue.

Deeply buried and hardened structures, like a command and control
bunker or a missile silo tens to hundreds of meters underground,
are more immune to conventional explosives, though. Those structures
are difficult to destroy even using an aboveground nuclear explosion:
Until recently, the huge 9-megaton B-53 nuclear bomb was designated
to destroy such targets. Most nuclear weapons now in the US stockpile
were designed to explode in the air or on contact with the ground.
(For a brief summary of basic designs of nuclear weapons, see the
box on page 34.) In either case, the blast wave transmits only a
small fraction of the total yield as seismic energy into the ground;
the large density difference between the air and the ground creates
a mechanical impedance mismatch.

Figure 2 A nuclear device exploded just a few meters underground,
by contrast, couples its energy more efficiently to ground motion
and generates a much more intense and damaging seismic shock than
would an air burst of the same yield.

Figure 2 illustrates the dramatic change in equivalent yield.
Exploding a 10-kt nuclear bomb at a depth of 2 m underground, for
example, would increase the effective yield by a factor of about
20 and result in underground damage equivalent to that of a 200-kt
weapon exploded at the surface.

To exploit that efficiency, in 1997 the US replaced its aging
9-megaton bombs with a lower-yield but earth-penetrating 300-kt
model by putting the nuclear warhead from an earlier bomb design
into a strengthened alloy-steel casing and a new nose cone. When
dropped onto a dry lakebed from 12 km, the missile penetrated a
modest 6 m. But even at this shallow depth a much higher proportion
of the explosion energy would be transferred to ground shock compared
to a surface burst at the same yield.

Were a bomb manufactured using even stronger materials and its mass
increased using a dense internal ballast material--as proposed for
the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), for instance--penetration
depths could improve somewhat. (The Bush administration requested
$15 million to study this improved penetrator.) However, figure 2
illustrates that those improvements would result in only modest
gains in the total depth of destruction. Near the explosion, the
peak pressure of the shock wave is proportional to the bomb yield
and decreases with the inverse cube of the distance from the
explosion. Consequently, the destructive effects of an explosion
can be expressed as a function of a scaled distance, as is done in
figure 2. Most of the benefit of earth penetration is obtained from
the first (scaled) meter of burial.

Figure 3 Still, one might want maximum depth to help contain the
blast. How deeply a missile can penetrate a target depends on the
mechanical response of both missile and target at high dynamic
stress levels. Generally, faster-moving missiles make deeper holes;
that correlation is roughly linear up to speeds approaching 1 km/s.
At higher velocities, however, the correlation breaks down as
materials plastically deform and erode when the impact pressure
from the target approaches the finite yield strength of the penetrator:
Yp b     B=Otv2 (see figure 3). The impact velocity of a missile
made with even the hardest steel casing must remain less than a few
km/s to avoid deformation.

Taking into account realistic materials strengths, 10b20 m is a
rough ceiling on how deeply into dry rock a warhead can penetrate
and still maintain its integrity.

Radioactive fallout

Figure 4 The 10 to 20-m range is far less than the burial depths
needed to contain the radioactive fallout from even small nuclear
explosions. Figure 4 illustrates the stark disparity in the numbers.5
A 1-kt weapon, for example, must be buried at a depth of 90 m to
be fully contained. Also shown is the destructive reach of a
shallow-buried (10b20-m) bunker buster as a function of its yield--that
is, how deep a target a given bomb could destroy. The seismic shock
from the explosion can certainly destroy deeply buried targets. But
weapons like the RNEP would still require very high yields (more
than 100 kt) to destroy targets buried deeper than 100 m.

To appreciate the enhanced effect and the attendant dangers of a
buried explosion, consider the sequence of events that follow
detonation of a shallow-buried nuclear weapon, as diagrammed in
figure 5. The explosion initially vaporizes the surrounding rock
and produces a high-temperature cavity. The initial pressure of the
cavity gases exceeds the pressure from overlayers of hard dirt and
rock by many orders of magnitude. The cavity expands rapidly, sending
outward a strong seismic shock that crushes and fractures rock.

Figure 5 Surface and shallow-buried nuclear explosions produce much
more intense local radioactive fallout than an airburst, in which
the fireball does not touch the ground.6 When the blast breaks
through the surface, it carries with it into the air large amounts
of dirt and debris, made radioactive by the capture of neutrons
from the nuclear detonation, as well as fission products from the
bomb itself. The radioactive dust cloud produced in the blast does
not rise as high as a classic mushroom cloud, but instead typically
consists of a narrow column of vented hot gas surrounded by a broad
base surge of ejecta and suspended fine particles, as shown in
figure 6.

Figure 6 Casualties from an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon would
be due primarily to ionizing radiation from the local fallout. The
total number of fatalities due to radiation sickness depends on
many factors: the population density, the local terrain and weather
conditions, the time allowed to evacuate the area, and the radiation
dose. But straightforward estimates based on empirically determined
scaling laws show that anyone within the roughly 3W0.6 km2 area
covered by the base surge would receive a fatal dose of radiation.3
(W is the explosive energy yield in kilotons of TNT.) For a typical
third-world urban population density of 6000/km2 those estimates
imply that a 1-kt weapon would kill tens of thousands and a 100-kt
weapon would kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Sanitizing stockpiles High temperatures or intense radiation can
destroy chemical or biological agents such as VX nerve gas or
weaponized anthrax.7,8 So, one might naturally imagine that the
temperature and radiation levels produced in a nuclear explosion
would be the ultimate germicide, atomizing shallow-buried stockpiles
of chemical agents before they could disperse into the environment.2
It turns out, however, that most of the ejected crater material
would be unheated and shielded from the initial burst of radiation.
A nuclear blast of yield W would create a crater volume about 105
W m3, which disperses about (2 C 108 W) kilograms of debris.6,9 If
all of the 1012 W calories of energy from the nuclear explosion
were distributed evenly, the mean energy available per unit mass
totals about 5 kcal/kg--sufficient to raise the ejecta temperature
by only 5b10B0C.

Of course, the heat from the explosion is not evenly mixed, but is
confined mainly to a small cavity of vaporized rock and steam that
expands and vents to the atmosphere. Because the mass density of
soil or rock is roughly 2000 times greater than air, the radiation
and high temperatures that are usually associated with a nuclear
blast have a much shorter range in a buried explosion. In fact,
nearly all of the neutron and gamma radiation are absorbed within
just a few meters of the explosion.3 Furthermore, although the
initial temperature can exceed a million B0C, the heat available
to vaporize a cavity of rock extends only to a radius near 2W1/3
m, and the heat necessary to melt rock extends only to about twice
that distance.10 As the cavity expands, the vaporized rock cools
and condenses. For a contained explosion, such as the 1.7-kt Rainier
test at the Nevada Test Site, the remaining gases are mainly
superheated steam and carbon dioxide at temperatures less than 1500
K.11 Beyond the cavity, the temperature falls off rapidly with
distance, reaching the ambient ground temperature within a few
cavity radii (see figure 7). Gases vented from within uncontained
explosions cool even more rapidly.

Figure 7 Containers or munitions filled with chemical or biological
agents that are within the final crater volume would be ruptured
by the same strong ground shock that crushes the rock. But those
agents are unlikely to suffer the high temperatures or radiation
levels that would render them harmless unless they are very close
to the nuclear weapon. More likely is that the cargo of still lethal
chemical and biological toxins would mix with the fallout raining
down from the main cloud or would be dispersed with the ejecta
thrown out in the base surge.

A far more sensible strategy would be to ensure that whatever toxic
material is already stored deep underground simply stays there.
Once the entrances and exits to toxic storage facilities were sealed
up using conventional tactics and the territory captured, the agents
could be safely neutralized.

To test or not to test If Congress does eventually authorize the
development of new nuclear weapons, will the US have to resume
underground nuclear testing in order to certify its warheads? The
answer depends on the design in question, but in most cases nuclear
testing would be unnecessary.

Nearly all the components of a nuclear weapon, including the implosion
of its plutonium core, can be tested absent a nuclear explosion.
The testing engineers simply replace the fissile material with a
chemically identical isotope that does not produce a chain reaction--the
weapon performs nearly every step, but does not deliver a nuclear
yield. That method should be sufficient to test previously certified
designs under new conditions and allow engineers to safely judge
the performance of weapons that would experience the severe shock
of earth penetrators.

If Congress were to opt for low-yield nuclear weapons, nuclear
testing could again be bypassed because of the flexibility already
built into existing warheads. Indeed, every modern warhead in the
US nuclear arsenal has a low-yield mode. By disconnecting the
secondary stage of the thermonuclear reaction and reducing (or
eliminating) the phase that boosts the deuteriumbtritium gas, a
nuclear weapon in the arsenal could be converted into an unboosted
primary fission weapon that delivers a subkiloton yield.

Gun-type designs, described in the box on page 34, are so simple
and robust--one subcritical piece of highly enriched uranium (HEU)
is propelled into another to make a supercritical mass--that they
would also require no testing.

Unfortunately, would-be nuclear terrorists are also likely to
recognize the simplicity of those devices. To minimize the likelihood
of nuclear terrorism, therefore, the number of locations in the
world where HEU can be found should be greatly reduced.

But if Congress were to authorize the nuclear weapons laboratories
at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore to pursue a completely new
design--an implosion device using a boosted primary--the inherent
uncertainties in warhead performance would almost certainly require
that the weapon be fully tested before being certified to enter the
US stockpile.12 Such a decision would have profound consequences.

Since the end of the cold war, nuclear weapons have receded in
importance;

high-precision conventional weapons can now accomplish many missions
that until recently would have required nuclear yields. Were the
US to research and develop new types of nuclear warheads for the
kinds of missions discussed here--bunker busting or targeting
chemical stockpiles--the course change would surely signal a renewed
US belief that nuclear weapons have a broad range of potential uses.
In response, wouldn't foreign nations have a powerful incentive to
develop or improve their own nuclear deterrent?

Were the US to resume underground nuclear testing, it is highly
likely that Russia, China, and other countries would resume their
own programs as well.

Those nations could improve their own nuclear arsenals far more
than would the US, if there was a return to testing. Such a breakdown
in the moratorium would destroy near-term prospects of entry into
force of a comprehensive test ban and profoundly undermine efforts
to limit nuclear proliferation.

I thank Frank von Hippel for originally suggesting this project and
for his thoughtful guidance. I also acknowledge helpful conversations
with Sidney Drell, Harold Feiveson, Steve Fetter, Richard Garwin,
Raymond Jeanloz, Scott Kemp, Zack Halderman, Michael Levi, Michael
May, and Greg Mello.

Robert Nelson is a senior fellow for science and technology at the
Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and a research staff
member of the program on science and global security at Princeton
University.

References 1. S. Drell, J. Goodby, R. Jeanloz, R. Peurifoy, Arms
Control Today 33, 8 (2003).

2. See the article by J. E. Gover and P. G. Huray in IEEE Spectrum
Online at http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/resource/mar03/speak.html.

3. For a more technical description, see R. W. Nelson, Sci. Global
Secur. 10, 1 (2002) and R. W. Nelson, Sci. Global Secur. (in press),
and M. May, Z.

Haldeman, Sci. Global Secur. (in press).

4. For a more detailed description, see the report HTI-J-1000 High
Temperature Incendiary J-1000. Available online at
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/hti.htm.

5. US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, The Containment
of Underground Nuclear Explosions, rep. no. OTA-ISC-414, US Government
Printing Office, Washington DC (October 1989). Available online at
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk1/1989/8909/8909.P
DF.

6. S. Glasstone, P. J. Dolan, eds., The Effects of Nuclear Weapons,
US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (1977).

7. National Research Council, US Committee on Review and Evaluation
of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled
Chemical Weapons:

Phase II, Analysis of Engineering Design Studies for Demilitarization
of Assembled Chemical Weapons at Pueblo Chemical Depot, National
Academy Press, Washington, DC (2001).

8. H. Kruger, Radiation-Neutralization of Stored Biological Warfare
Agents with Low-Yield Nuclear Warheads, rep. no. UCRL-ID-140193,
U. of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore,
Calif. (2000). Available online at
http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/238391.pdf.

9. J. A. Northrop, ed., Handbook of Nuclear Weapon Effects:
Calculational Tools Abstracted from DWSA's Effects Manual One (EM-1),
Defense Weapons Special Agency, Washington, DC (1996).

10. T. R. Butkovich, Calculation of the Shock Wave From an Underground
Nuclear Explosion in Granite, rep. no. UCRL-7762 Reprint-1965-4-l,
U. of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore,
Calif. (1967). Available online at
http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/19093.pdf.

11. R. A. Heckman, Deposition of Thermal Energy by Nuclear Explosives,
rep.

no. UCRL-7801, U. of California, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,
Livermore, Calif. (1964). Available online at
http://www.llnl.gov/tid/lof/documents/pdf/19111.pdf.

12. National Academy of Sciences, Technical Issues Related to the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, National Academy Press,
Washington, DC (2002).

13. R. Serber, R. Rhodes, The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures
on How to Build an Atomic Bomb, U. of Calif. Press, Berkeley (1992).

14. S. Glasstone, P. J. Dolan, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, US
Department of Defense and US Department of Energy, Washington, DC
(1977).

15. R. S. Norris, W. Arkin, H. Kristensen, J. Handler, Bull. At.
Sci. 59, 73 (2003).

16. N. M. Short, The Definition of True Crater Dimensions by Post-Shot
Drilling, rep. no. UCRL-7787, U. of California, Lawrence Radiation
Laboratory, Livermore, Calif. (1964).

17. E. Teller, The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives,
McGraw-Hill, New York (1968).

http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-56/iss-11/p32.html

Senate Subcommittee Approves Money for Nuclear Bunker Busters H.
JOSEF HEBERT / AP 16jul03 WASHINGTONbA Senate subcommittee gave its
support Wednesday for development of "bunker busting" nuclear
warheads and research into other advanced nuclear weapons technology,
days after the House voted to cut funding for the same programs.

The Senate panel refused to cut any of the $68 million the Bush
administration requested for the programs, which critics have argued
would lead to development of a new generation of nuclear weapons
and increase the likelihood of global nuclear proliferation.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee
dealing with nuclear program, said he expects further attempts on
the Senate floor to cut money for the programs, but said he was
confident the degree of cuts being pursued in the House "won't
stand" when a final spending bill is written.

The nuclear programs are part of a $27.3 billion spending bill for
the Energy Department and various other programs that Domenici's
panel advanced for consideration by the full Appropriations Committee,
likely later this week.

On Tuesday, the House counterpart panel advanced its own version
of the spending legislation after Republican lawmakers, to the
surprise of the Energy Department, cut most of the $68 million for
the administration's advanced nuclear weapons research effort.

Domenici said he was shocked by the level of cuts in the House.
"That won't stand," he told reporters.

The Senate bill includes all $15 million the administration has
requested to study the development of an earth-penetrating nuclear
warhead, a so-called bunker-buster; $6 million in early research
into "mini-nukes" of less than 5 kilotons; and $25 million to shorten
the lead time necessary to resume underground nuclear bomb testing
from the current 36 months to 18 months.

The Senate bill also would provide all $22 million sought by the
Energy Department to continue environmental studies for a manufacturing
plant to make plutonium triggers for the existing nuclear arsenal.
The department has said such a plant is needed to ensure adequate
supplies of the plutonium triggers for the aging warhead arsenal.

The House spending bill would cut funding for the plutonium trigger
plant in half, and cut the bunker-buster money by two-thirds, while
eliminating the other funding.

No effort was made Wednesday in the Senate to cut spending for the
programs.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Ca., said she would try to get the
money eliminated once the bill gets to the Senate floor.

"The wheels are beginning to grind toward the development of a new
generation of nuclear weapons," she said, adding that the "mini-nukes"
and bunker busting warheads will make nuclear weapons "more acceptable
for use."

They make these weapons "appear just like other (conventional)
weapons and they are not," she continued.

The United States has suspended bomb tests since 1992 and administration
officials have said they see no reason at this time to resume
testing, but only want to be better prepared to do so if there again
is a need .

Energy Department officials were stunned by the cuts in the House
committee and said they hope to get the money restored when the
full House considers the bill, and will work to keep it in the
Senate legislation.

National Nuclear Security Administration: www.nnsa.doe.gov Bush
Wants Nuclear-Tipped Bunker Buster BYLINE: Barbara Starr, Bill
Hemmer BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: As the president's, Bush and Putin,
get ready to sign that historic arms reduction treaty, the Bush
administration trying to increase one part of its nuclear stockpile:
it wants to add a nuclear-tipped bunker buster. At the Pentagon,
here's Barbara Starr.

STARR (voice-over): Underground caves and bunkers in Afghanistan
shielded Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda fighters for years, until
United States jets started attacking them with conventional bombs.

But no one knows how much was actually destroyed. Afghanistan is
just one example of the many countries that have buried their most
valuable military assets deeper than conventional weapons can reach.

DOUGLAS FEITH, UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The special difficulties
posed by deeply buried, hard targets is something that is very much
at the fore of our minds.

STARR: United States intelligence estimates there are nearly 1,500
underground sites around the world hiding nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons, missiles and command bunkers.

The Bush administration's solution, modifying an existing aircraft
launched nuclear bomb with new electronics and packaging so it can
penetrate hundreds of feet of rock.

But Congress is divided on funding the plan. Many believe it all
amounts to a new nuclear weapon and could spark another arms race.

JOHN PIKE, GLOBALSECURITY.ORG: If the United States embarks on new
nuclear weapons programs, there's no way that the Russians are going
to get left behind.

STARR: Critics way a modified nuclear bomb would still need to be
tested, ending years of United States adherence to a test ban.

The administration insists it is only improving an existing bomb.

GEN. JOHN GORDON, NATL. NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMIN.: We envision it as
a straight modification of an existing system that's out there now,
packaged in a way that could penetrate.

STARR: Physicists say a nuclear bunker buster would still generate
fallout, and there are concerns that it would lower the threshold
for using nuclear weapons rather than keeping them solely for
deterrence.

PIKE: There's no such thing as a small nuclear weapon. It's sort
of like you go into a coffee shop now and it only comes in big,
bigger and biggest.

STARR (on camera): Nuclear politics aside, it is physics that will
limit the ability to destroy underground bunkers. Some enemy targets
could be as much as 300 feet deep.

One expert recently said no weapon can go that far, unless someone
takes it down an elevator.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

Law Offices of Indira Rai-Choudhury, Esq.

1201 Cornwall Ave., Suite 108 Bellingham WA 98225 360-676-0200

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*****************************************************************
 10 IPS-English CANADA: Govt Talks on U.S. Missile Plan Boosts
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 15:14:35 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
ROMAIPS NA IP
CANADA: Govt Talks on U.S. Missile Plan Boosts Peace Movement
By Mark Bourrie

OTTAWA, Feb 23 (IPS) - This country's decision to hold talks with 
Washington on a proposed U.S. missile defence programme has breathed new 
life into Canada's peace movement.

The federal government agreed earlier this month to start official talks on 
joining the defence shield, which would use satellites, radar and 
ground-based weapons to track and destroy ballistic missiles.

New Defence Minister David Pratt acknowledges he does not know the extent 
of Canada's involvement yet but the plan could involve beefing up the 
country's presence at North American Aerospace Defence Command in the U.S. 
state of Colorado.

"The Americans have made it clear that they're rolling out this missile 
defence system in October, and that they're going to be doing it without 
Canadian money and without Canadian territory," Pratt added.

"So the preliminary indications are that this is not going to cost the 
Canadian taxpayer any significant amount."

A decision about joining the missile shield, he said, will be "based on 
Canadian interests, the protection of Canadians in general and the people 
and property of Canada".

Canada opposes using weapons in space, Pratt added at a media briefing last 
week, and the Americans understand that. He also denied that the defence 
shield would spark another arms race.

"We're not going to see thousands and thousands of missiles deployed, as we 
did during the 1970s. I just don't think it's going to happen."

But Ernie Regehr, director of Project Ploughshares, a research group that 
provides information on peace issues to Canadian churches and peace 
activists, says opposition to Canada participating in the missile plan is 
building.

"I believe that when Canadians understand the financial details of this 
plan and its extraordinary limited capacity, they'll see it's a sideshow 
and we should move on to more important things," he said.

Canada is likely to have a federal election in the spring. On Tuesday, New 
Democratic Party leader Jack Layton said he plans to make missile defence a 
major issue in that election.

"This is Star Wars II," said Layton. "The Canadian people should tell the 
government that we don't want any part of it," he said.

Layton was referring to the proposed strategic defence initiative of former 
U.S. president Ronald Reagan (1981-89), which focused on using lasers or 
particle beams to destroy incoming ballistic missiles, and was dubbed 'Star 
Wars'.

Layton's party is raising money for newspaper advertisements that began 
appearing Thursday urging Canadians to oppose joining the new plan.

"It's about Canada's sovereignty and it's about Canada's place in the 
world," Layton said in an interview. "We can either be part of it or we can 
be a voice against it. I believe Canadians are against it."

Regehr said it will be difficult for the NDP to make missile defence a 
major election issue. "It's very unusual that defence issues and foreign 
policy questions are central to Canadian election campaigns, but this is an 
important issue that won't be resolved before the election".

"The peace movement and groups opposed to this plan were always around, 
opposing nuclear proliferation and the trade in small arms, but this issue 
has captured the attention of politicians and the media."

Layton wants to push for a parliamentary vote that he says would flush out 
members of the governing Liberal Party who disagree with the plan to hold 
talks with U.S. officials.

"Mr. Martin doesn't want to have (a vote) because there are too many 
members of his own caucus who don't think it's a good idea," Layton said.

The NDP leader and other opposition politicians believe Martin is using the 
prospect of a missile defence partnership to patch up Canadian-U.S. 
relations, which suffered when his predecessor Jean Chretien refused to 
join in the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Martin appeared to get along well when 
they met earlier this month at the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, 
Mexico, announcing later that Canada will now be able to bid for rebuilding 
projects in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

But street protests against Canada joining the defence plan have already 
spread across the country.

Throwing "missiles" made of cardboard into the air, demonstrators in the 
Atlantic coast city of Halifax protested last Saturday.

Members of the Halifax Peace Coalition waded into the snow, donned placards 
with labels like Missiles, Warheads, Missile Defence and Defence 
Contractor, and started a fusillade of projectiles made from toilet paper 
tubes.

"We're working under the slogan that cardboard missiles are just as 
effective as the real ones and a whole lot cheaper. So that's why we 
decided to do a missile," the coalition's John Diamond told reporters.

Demonstrations were also held in other provinces across the country.

The anti-war Raging Grannies, a group of senior citizens that was formed in 
the 1980s to protest nuclear proliferation, protested a Canadian role in 
missile defence when Martin visited the city of Edmonton in western Alberta 
province, last week.

  "If Canada partners up with the United States, then that makes us also a 
target for the animosity of the countries that hate the United States -- 
with good reason," said Raging Grannies member Marilyn Gaa in an interview.

"Canada has nothing to gain by being a partner in this national missile 
defence (programme). It shows support for a programme which will unbalance 
the stalemated arms race."
*****
+Project Ploughshares 
(http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/ABOLISH%20NUCS/BMD%20Page/BMD.update.htm)
+Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space 
(http://www.space4peace.org/)

(END/IPS/NA/IP/MB/ML/04)


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 11 Asia Times: Pakistan polishes its tarnished nuclear image

By Nadeem Malik 

ISLAMABAD - The story of nuclear leaks from Kahuta, the site of 
the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), Pakistan's main nuclear 
weapons laboratory, to Iran, Libya and North Korea has forced 
Pakistan to investigate some of its key scientists to prove to 
the world that it's a responsible country, not involved in 
proliferation, at least not at the state level. 

According to official statements, the Pakistan government has 
sent official investigators to Iran and Libya, after the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sent a letter to 
Islamabad in the light of its probe into Iran's nuclear program. 
Iran disclosed to the UN inspection agency the names of people 
who provided it with nuclear technology - including Pakistani 
scientists. 

As a result of initial investigations, the Pakistan government 
detained key scientists at KRL, including Major Islamul Haq, the 
principal staff officer of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, known as the 
father of Pakistan's 30-year nuclear program. Two army brigadiers 
dealing with sophisticated construction and engineering 
activities and security matters have also been interrogated. 

Pakistan embarked on its covert nuclear program in the early 
1970s to counter the perceived threat posed by Indian nuclear 
tests. Khan spearheaded the whole exercise throughout this period 
until his replacement two years ago as head of KRL, under severe 
pressure from the United States, which feared connections of 
al-Qaeda elements with some Pakistani scientists. 

Khan was associated with Urenco, a British, German and Dutch 
consortium, in the 1970s in the Dutch city of Almelo. After his 
return to Pakistan, the Dutch government accused him of stealing 
centrifuge plans from the plant. He was tried in absentia and 
convicted; the verdict was later overturned on a technicality. 
Western experts believe that Pakistan used Urenco gas centrifuge 
blueprints and information to build its own facilities. Urenco 
was the first name to appear in various international reports 
with suspicion of being the primary culprit for leaking uranium 
enrichment technology to Iran, Iraq and North Korea. 

The same company has been linked to the construction of a new 
enrichment facility in Hartsville, Tennessee in the United 
States. Urenco has major financial interests in the Louisiana 
Energy Services, which was to construct this plant. According to 
US officials, concerns about Urenco emerged more than 10 years 
ago when thousands of centrifuge parts, based on Urenco designs, 
were discovered by UN inspectors in Iraq after the Gulf War. 

When the US and the IAEA engaged in investigations into the 
Iranian nuclear program, suspicions emerged that its uranium 
enrichment program used technology identical to Pakistan plans. A 
report of the IAEA requested all third countries to cooperate 
closely and fully with the agency in the clarification of open 
questions on the Iranian program, after conducting field 
investigations in recent months in Iran. 

According to some reports, Iran has admitted that its centrifuge 
enrichment program was based on Urenco designs. Urenco is the 
leading firm in design and operation of centrifuges. To enrich 
uranium to weapons-grade, centrifuges are used to process the raw 
uranium into fuel for reactors or fissile material for bombs. 
This process requires machines that spin at twice the speed of 
sound. Pakistan has developed the capability of producing these 
centrifuges. 

Urenco has denied providing technology or blueprints to Iran. 
Investigators are probing the possibilities of obtaining such 
designs and expertise through "middle men and black marketers", 
or theft from a nuclear laboratory, including KRL. The IAEA found 
traces of weapons-grade uranium in two locations in Iran where 
the machines had been assembled and tested. One such facility was 
discovered near Natanz in central Iran, which was similar to 
Urenco designs, but slightly modified. The second one was found 
at Kalaye Electric Company. According to reports, Iranian 
authorities told the IAEA that they bought the enriched uranium 
outside the country "on the black market" through middlemen. 

This is going to be a long international investigation to 
determine who exactly was involved, and how the delivery took 
place. But the Pakistani scientists came under investigations as 
the Foreign Office said that the IAEA and the Iranian government 
had provided information that warranted such investigations to 
determine the veracity of the information and to ensure the 
strict export control regime of the country was not being 
violated. "We do not proliferate," said Masood Khan, Foreign 
Office spokesman. The name of Dr Khan, a national hero in 
Pakistan, appeared in the media when a former Iranian diplomat, 
Ali Akbar Omid Mehr, claimed that Khan had visited Iran in 1987, 
and assumed that it was for some cooperation. 

Pakistani investigators also picked up Dr Mohammad Farooq, a 
senior scientist at KRL dealing with gas centrifuges, in late 
November after receiving information from Iran and the IAEA, 
which indicated "contact persons" in Pakistan. Following 
debriefing sessions of Farooq, Dr Nazeer Ahmad, the director 
general of KRL, Yasin Chohan, the director KRL, and other senior 
scientists were also detained. 

The sale of nuclear designs and components is obviously a very 
secretive business. No one is sure about its exact potential 
threat and capability. It was only after the collapse of the 
Soviet Union in 1991 that reports started appearing indicating 
the scouting of Russian nuclear scientists by aspiring countries 
around the world. An interesting finding of the IAEA was that 
Iran had been conducting research using exotic laser technology 
to enrich uranium for 12 years, and this laser technology 
apparently had come from Russia via European suppliers. Some 
reports claimed that Iran acquired some of the equipment during 
the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). 

Iran informed the IAEA in August 2003 that the decision to launch 
a centrifuge enrichment program had actually been taken in 1985, 
and that Iran had received drawings of the centrifuges through a 
foreign intermediary around 1987. Iranian officials further 
described the program as having consisted of three phases. The 
IAEA has condemned Iran for 18 years of covert nuclear 
activities, but has stopped short of taking Tehran to the UN 
Security Council for possible sanctions. Interestingly, Britain, 
France and Germany have suggested rewarding Iran for cooperating 
since October. 

On December 18, 2003, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Seyed 
Salehi, and the director general of the IAEA, Mohamed El-Baradei, 
signed an additional protocol to Iran's Non-Proliferation Treaty 
(NPT) safeguards agreement, granting agency inspectors greater 
authority in verifying the country's nuclear program. The 
additional protocol requires a state to provide an expanded 
declaration of its nuclear activities and grants the agency 
broader rights of access to sites in the country. The IAEA 
director general is scheduled to provide the next report, on the 
implementation of agency safeguards in Iran, to the IAEA board of 
governors in February, prior to the board's next meeting in 
March. 

Pakistan apparently wants to move forward in its investigations 
before the next IAEA report to make a point that the state was 
not involved in proliferation. The particular concern for 
Pakistani authorities is said to be the fact that nuclear 
programs in Pakistan and Iran are based on highly enriched 
uranium, which was detected by the IAEA at two of the sites in 
Iran. This raises suspicion of close involvement of "some 
individual or individuals in the process", as stated by President 
General Pervez Musharraf at the weekend. 

Musharraf maintained that since the entire program has been 
covert for the past 30 years, autonomy had been granted to 
certain individuals to keep it a secret while acquiring the 
required capabilities. This "freedom of action" appears to be the 
real factor, according to official claims. Officials of the 
Interior Ministry have said that the government has extended its 
probe to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where some 
individuals acted as front men to buy state-of-the-art dual use 
equipment from the international market. 

The recent arrest of Asher Karni, an Israeli citizen living in 
South Africa, at Denver international airport on January 2, 
indicates how such front men act in such deals. The man was 
accused of illegally shipping triggered spark gaps to Pakistan. 
The spark gaps are capable of sending synchronized electronic 
pulses, which can be used to destroy kidney stones - or in the 
nuclear field. 

A recent report of the US on chemical and biological weapons said 
that the IAEA had documented almost 400 cases of trafficking in 
nuclear or radiological materials since 1993. Many such supplies 
are subject to few controls or are poorly guarded, particularly 
in the former Soviet Union. Reports also have cited weak 
protection of spent fuel at nuclear facilities in the US. 

Other experts worry about the security of the nuclear facilities 
in Pakistan, India and other developing countries. An estimated 
1,300 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and 180,000 kilograms 
of plutonium, the main fuels for a nuclear device, exist in 
civilian nuclear facilities around the world. There are nearly 
450 nuclear power plants, nearly 300 nuclear research reactors, 
and 250 nuclear fuel cycle plants around the world. 

In April 2000, customs officers from Uzbekistan discovered 10 
lead-lined containers at a remote border crossing with 
Kazakhstan. These containers were filled with enough radioactive 
material to make dozens of crude weapons, each capable of 
contaminating a large area for many years. The consignment was 
addressed to a company in Quetta, Pakistan, called Ahmadjan Haji 
Mohammed. Quetta, where border controls are virtually 
non-existent, is the main Pakistani crossing into southern 
Afghanistan, and only a six hour drive from Kandahar, the chief 
southern town in that country. 

The US report also mentioned that in 1994, Czech police seized 
three kilograms of highly enriched uranium. During the same year, 
German police seized 360 grams of plutonium. In 2001, Turkish 
police caught two men with 1.16 kilograms of weapons grade 
uranium. 

The report maintains that a crude but deadly radiation dispersal 
device fashioned from stolen nuclear material (from a nuclear 
waste processor, a nuclear power plant, a university research 
facility, a medical radiotherapy clinic, or an industrial 
complex) and a few sticks of dynamite could spread radioactive 
material across an area without a nuclear detonation. Such a 
weapon could kill many, contaminate a square mile for many years, 
and cause widespread panic. 

The US strengthened its export control regime after September 11, 
and recently the US Defense Authorization Bill for fiscal 2004 
incorporated a plan for "the assessment of strategies or options 
for dealing with nuclear-capable nations that may provide nuclear 
weapons to terrorist or transnational groups, and an assessment 
of the effect of the strategy on the nuclear programs of emerging 
nuclear weapons states, including North Korea, Iran, Pakistan and 
India". 

The Iranian and Libyan investigations pointed fingers at 
individuals from Pakistan, and some Dubai-based companies are 
also being mentioned. Some reports claimed that these companies 
bought loyalties of some individuals to provide sensitive 
information to Iran. 

The uranium conversion facility of Iran, according to IAEA 
reports and Iranian claims, was originally based on a design 
provided by a foreign supplier in the mid-1990s. The plant was 
supposed to have been constructed by the supplier under a turnkey 
contract, but the contract was cancelled in 1997 and, according 
to Iran, the supplier did not provide any equipment. Iranian 
authorities said that they received from the supplier the 
blueprint of the facility, including equipment test reports and 
some design information on the equipment, but claimed all the 
parts and equipment for the plant were manufactured domestically. 

Pakistani investigators may have looked at the two major 
facilities in Iran in their probe to find out the extent of 
involvement of Pakistani scientists, but nothing is said about 
the military officials who have actually controlled all the 
operations over the years. 

Pakistan's nuclear program conceived by then prime minister 
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the early 1970s, was supervised in the 
1980s by General Zia ul-Haq and his close associate, Ghulam Ishaq 
Khan, who became president after Zia died in a mysterious plane 
crash. General Aslam Beg replaced Zia as the chief of army staff 
after his death in 1988. The timing of the Iranian nuclear 
advancement and changes in Pakistan coincide. Nuclear 
proliferation due to a deliberate act of some individual, or with 
the connivance of the army, is obviously the responsibility of 
the army chief. 

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Musharraf 
told Associated Press: "The security of all of this is a military 
responsibility. As long as the military of Pakistan remains, 
nothing can go wrong." The president denied involvement of the 
army. He also said that proliferation of nuclear technology in 
the world was not possible without the help of Europe, which has 
all the technical know-how and expertise in the field. 

(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. 
												
Jan 27, 2004                                                                                                                    
													   												 											
material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form 
without written permission. Copyright                                                                                       
2003, Asia Times Online, 4305 Far East Finance Centre, 16 
Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong                                                                                                                                              
*****************************************************************
 12 Las Vegas SUN: Pakistan Vows Action in Nuclear Probe

Today: January 26, 2004 at 3:15:05 PST 

 By SHEIKH SABIR ASSOCIATED PRESS 

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - 

Pakistan's interior minister promised Monday that legal action
would be taken against scientists "at any level" who are
implicated in sales of nuclear weapons technology to Iran as
investigators wind up their questioning of suspects. 

Pakistan began investigating its nuclear program and possible
proliferation to Iran in late November after admissions made by
Tehran to the Geneva-based International Atomic Energy Agency,
the U.N. nuclear watchdog. 

Eight scientists and administrators from the Khan Research
Laboratories, a nuclear weapons facility named after its
founder, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, were being held for questioning. 

"Some people tried to give a bad name to Pakistan for the sake
of their personal interests," Faisal Saleh Hayyat told reporters
in the southern port city of Karachi. "It is our national duty
to unmask them." 

"We will take legal action against them ... so that it becomes
an example for others and no patriotic Pakistani should even
think of selling out Pakistan," he said. 

Hayyat said the questioning of scientists, which the government
has called "debriefings," were in an advanced stage and "will be
completed very soon." 

Investigators are tracking the bank accounts of some scientists.
The News, Pakistan's leading English-language daily, reported
Sunday that foreign bank accounts with funds from sales of
nuclear technology to Iran have been traced back to at least two
senior Pakistani scientists. 

The report, citing unnamed government sources, said one nuclear
scientist had tens of millions of U.S. dollars in financial and
real estate holdings in Pakistan and abroad, including in Dubai.
The report did not name the scientists. 

Other reports have said Khan himself and Mohammed Farooq, a
former director general of the lab, are the main targets of the
probe. 

Hayyat refused to release the names of scientists whose bank
accounts are being examined, although he said, "if someone is
found involved, no one will be spared at any level." 

Pakistan's government has denied it authorized weapons
technology transfers to other countries - including Iran, Libya
or North Korea - but says individuals might have done so for
their own profit. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 13 Las Vegas SUN: Pakistan: Nuke Scientists Leaked Secrets

Today: January 26, 2004 at 9:45:09 PST 

 By MATTHEW PENNINGTON ASSOCIATED PRESS 

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - 

Pakistan's government on Monday made its clearest public
statement yet that scientists of its secretive nuclear weapons
program leaked technology and would face legal action. 

The government said its two-month probe into allegations of
nuclear technology proliferation to Iran and Libya was near
completion. 

"One or two people acted in an irresponsible manner for personal
profit. Money is involved in the matter. I am not naming any
scientist," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news
conference in the capital, Islamabad. 

Ahmed, the top government spokesman, made the comments amid
fevered speculation that leading scientists will face
prosecution. 

Pakistan began its probe into its nuclear program and possible
proliferation to Iran in late November after admissions made by
Tehran to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United
Nations' nuclear watchdog. Allegations also have surfaced that
Pakistani technology spread to Libya and North Korea as well. 

Pakistan's government denies it authorized any transfers of
weapons technology to other countries, but says individuals may
have done so for their own profit. 

Ahmed said three scientists and four security officials of the
Khan Research Laboratories were still detained and that
questioning would wind up within days. 

Media reports have identified the key suspects as the lab's
former director-general Dr. Mohammed Farooq, held for nearly two
months, and the lab's founder, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, long
regarded as a national hero. 

Khan has not been detained, but an acquaintance has said he is
confined to Islamabad and has been questioned many times. Ahmed
said Monday that Khan wasn't under any restrictions. 

Investigators are tracking the bank accounts of some scientists,
and a Pakistani newspaper report Sunday said they had found
accounts of two scientists with millions of U.S. dollars in
transactions tied to the sale of nuclear technology to Iran. The
report did not name the scientists. 

Speaking to reporters in the southern city of Karachi on Monday,
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat promised legal action
against anyone involved in proliferation, saying, "no one will
be spared at any level." 

"We will take legal action against them ... so that it becomes
an example for others and no patriotic Pakistani should even
think of selling out Pakistan," Hayyat said. 

He refused to release the names of scientists whose bank
accounts are being examined. 

The prospect of nuclear scientists being prosecuted has sparked
isolated protests by Islamic hard-liners in Pakistan, who accuse
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf of caving in to the United
States by leveling accusations against scientists who helped
produce the Muslim world's first nuclear bomb as a deterrent
against nuclear-armed rival India. 

On Monday, dozens of supporters of the opposition coalition
Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal and relatives of detained scientists
rallied outside Parliament in Islamabad, chanting, "Go Musharraf
Go!" 

Ahmed said the probe would not compromise Pakistan's right to a
nuclear deterrent against India. 

"For national security, we are committed to defend our national
assets at every cost," he said. "In this, there is no
flexibility in our policy." 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 14 AU SMH: Inquiry into nuclear experts' land wealth - 

www.smh.com.au [Sydney Morning Herald Online]   

By David Rohde in Islamabad January 27, 2004
 		 	   	   		
Pakistani investigators are looking into the vast property 
holdings of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear 
bomb, and into his and other nuclear scientists' bank accounts. 

"Investigators are looking into all dimensions, including 
financial dimensions," a government official said. He said 
offshore accounts formed part of the investigation. 

Eight veterans of Pakistan's bomb program are being held for 
questioning. 

A Pakistani newspaper, News, reported that investigators had 
discovered that millions of dollars were deposited in the Dubai 
bank accounts of two Pakistani nuclear scientists as nuclear 
hardware arrived in Iran. 

The newspaper also said a scientist had been found to have tens 
of millions of dollars worth of financial and real estate 
holdings in Pakistan and overseas, primarily in Dubai. 

The scientist also paid a Pakistani newspaper editor in Islamabad 
to run a publicity campaign, publish books and organise seminars 
praising him, News reported. 

A former intelligence official with knowledge of the inquiry said 
Dr Khan and a close aide, Mohammed Farooq, were its focus. "They 
are not naming them, but we know that the two main suspects are 
A. Q. Khan and Dr Farooq," the former intelligence official said. 

"A. Q. Khan's interests in the real estate have been known to us 
for quite some time. So this has not come as a big surprise." 

Officials are expected to announce soon the results of an inquiry 
into whether the country's nuclear technology was shared with 
Iran and Libya. 

The inquiry was launched after Iran gave the International Atomic 
Energy Agency a list of scientists and middlemen who it said had 
aided its nuclear weapons program. The agency, the United Nations 
nuclear regulatory body, conveyed the names to Pakistan. 

The agency head, Mohamed ElBaradei, has spoken of the existence 
of a nuclear sophisticated black market supplying countries 
illicitly seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. 

"It's obvious that the international export controls have 
completely failed in recent years," a German magazine quoted Dr 
ElBaradei as saying. 

"A nuclear black market has emerged, driven by fantastic 
cleverness. Designs are drawn in one country, centrifuges are 
produced in another. They are then shipped via a third country 
and there is no clarity about the end user. 

"Expert nuclear businessmen, unscrupulous firms, and perhaps also 
state bodies are involved. Libya and Iran made extensive use of 
this network." 

The scale of the nuclear black market has stunned the agency and 
Western intelligence services. 

The agency confirmed on Friday that Libya had used the black 
market to buy equipment for turning uranium into weapons-grade 
material and had acquired designs for a nuclear warhead. 

US intelligence officials say that Pakistan has provided nuclear 
technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, which would make it 
one of the world's most active proliferators. 

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that the 
Government had never approved such transfers or sales, but that 
"some individuals" might have sold technology for personal gain. 

In Rawalpindi on Sunday several hundred people protested against 
the government investigation, hailing the detained nuclear 
scientists as heroes. 

The New York Times, Associated Press,The Guardian 	 	

Copyright  � 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.     | contact us 
*****************************************************************
 15 [NukeNet] NYT: Safety of Adding to Nuclear Plants' Capacity Is
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:07 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/26/politics/26NUKE.html

January 26, 2004
Safety of Adding to Nuclear Plants' Capacity Is Questioned
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 � Safety experts are questioning an effort by the
nation's nuclear industry that has expanded its output by the equivalent
of three large reactors without adding a single new plant.

In the last two decades, nuclear plants have won permits to uprate,
meaning add capacity to reactors, with almost no opposition. With these
upgrades, plus expanded working hours and 20-year extensions on
operating licenses, the nuclear industry has expanded its electrical
output to a point that safety experts say could be dangerous.

For their part, plant owners say they are modernizing in way that can
improve safety.

But a battle line has been drawn over an application by Entergy Nuclear
to raise a reactor's power output by 20 percent.

Some nuclear engineers outside the company hope they can mount a
serious technical challenge to this application so it will not sail
through as the previous 99 applications have.

Entergy Nuclear applied in September to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission for permission to raise the power output of a 32-year-old
reactor it owns, the Vermont Yankee, by 20 percent.

In considering additions of capacity the commission has changed the way
it measures the risk that emergency cooling water, which is needed to
dissipate heat at the higher power level, will boil into steam during an
accident.

If the water turned into steam, it would make cooling impossible, the
fuel could melt, and radioactive material would be released.

The Vermont plant is exempt from some government safety regulations
because it was licensed before they were written, and it is now trying
to reduce its safety margin "far beyond anything that could be licensed
today," said Paul M. Blanch, an engineer with decades of experience in
the nuclear field.

While no one has ordered a new nuclear plant in this country since
1973, except for those that were canceled before completion, the 103
reactors now licensed have not only added capacity but will add the
equivalent of another two or three plants in the next few years,
industry and government experts say.

These uprates, involving mostly minor changes that allow more power
production, helped allow the nuclear industry's share of American power
production to stay around 20 percent even with no new plants.

Plant managers say that the Vermont Yankee, in Vernon, Vt., just north
of the Massachusetts border, was built with enormous unused capacity.
And nuclear experts, even some who say that Vermont Yankee's application
should receive extra close scrutiny, say that increasing power output
can make a plant safer because modernization may include installing more
precise, reliable components.

According to Entergy's plans, when Vermont Yankee is next refueled with
fresh uranium, technicians will put in more of the type that is easily
split to produce energy, and workers will install water pumps that will
deliver more water so the reactor can produce more steam. The company
will also install a new turbine, which takes the energy of the steam and
uses it to turn a shaft, and a new generator, which uses the shaft's
energy to make electricity.

The reactor's current capacity of 524 megawatts of electricity would
rise to 634; one megawatt would keep 1,000 window air-conditioners
running. Experts say this upgrade will probably cost about $60 million
� far less expensive than creating the equivalent by building a new
plant. Fuel expenses would rise somewhat, but not the long-term labor
and maintenance costs.

That economic logic has appealed to the nuclear industry, especially as
the electric industry restructured over the last few years and some
reactors were sold.

"As people began to look at competitive markets and renewing the
operating licenses, they said, `If I make a little more investment in
thi
s plant, I can uprate it even further,' " said Marvin Fertel, the
chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade
group.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's most recent tally, last March,
showed that 79 plants had won permission to increase output and that
seven applications besides that of the Vermont Yankee were pending.

At the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mohammed A. Shuaibi, a senior
project manager, said, "A lot of rigorous analysis, and changes to plant
hardware, are done to make sure the plants continue to be safe at the
higher power level."

Entergy bought Vermont Yankee from a group of New England utilities in
July 2002. One selling point was that it was like a used car driven only
on Sundays � it had never had an uprate and would probably qualify for
a big one.

But at Vermont Yankee, there are questions about the risk that the
emergency cooling water will boil into steam.

At the current maximum allowable power level, the emergency water could
be heated to 183 degrees, well short of the boiling point at normal
atmospheric pressure, 212 degrees. After a 20 percent uprate, that could
rise to 194 degrees.

During an accident the emergency pumps suck in huge volumes of water,
lowering the pressure inside the pump. That could allow bubbles of steam
to develop.

Reactor owners argue that an accident would probably involve a leak,
and that would create steam in the reactor building, keep the water
pressurized in the pump and prevent it from boiling.

Jay K. Thayer, the site vice president for Entergy Nuclear at Vermont
Yankee, said the company's plan was conservative because in an accident,
pressures would be far higher than the company projected in its
application.

"We don't use everything that's available," he said. "We subtract to
assure that there's margin there."

Until the last few years, the commission would not allow such
assumptions to guide its rulings. In the 1990's, two reactors in New
England were identified by the commission as having a risk of boiling at
atmospheric pressure. The owners shut the reactors rather than fix this
and other problems.

But Vermont Yankee has applied under the current rules and has asserted
that pressure would be sufficient during an accident, at least 6.1
pounds at the beginning, and would stay higher than atmospheric pressure
for 50 hours, Mr. Thayer said, leaving a substantial safety margin.

Others argue, though, that there are far too many accident scenarios in
which the atmospheric pressure might not build up � for example, if
there were small leaks or a breach of the containment building during a
terrorist attack or failure of part of the containment system.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned
Scientists, a nonprofit group that is often critical of nuclear safety,
said the commission had previously rejected owners arguments about
pressure preventing boiling water because "it is hard to guarantee the
pressure will always be there when needed."

In general, all reactor safety equipment has to have backups. But
Vermont Yankee was licensed before the backup requirement went into
place. Mr. Blanch and others argue that this loophole could make the
plant vulnerable to a severe accident if a single component failed after
the emergency cooling system was required.

William K. Sherman, the Vermont state nuclear engineer, sent the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission a letter in December expressing doubts
about the reactor's application and its reliance on high pressure in an
emergency.

"What is the safety implication," he wrote, of counting on extra
pressure in an emergency?


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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 16 NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meeting on Environmental Review for Proposed Arkansas Nuclear
                   One, Unit 2 License Renewal
News Release - Region IV - 2004-00
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region IV
  No. IV-04-005           January 26, 2004   
  CONTACT:     Victor Dricks
Phone: 817-860-8128
     E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov  
  


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff invites the public to
provide its comments on Tuesday, February 3, regarding an
application submitted by Entergy Operations to renew the
operating license for the Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO), Unit 2,
nuclear power plant near Russellville, Arkansas. Comments are
invited on environmental issues the public believes the NRC
should consider in its review of the application. 

There will be two sessions held on February 3 at the Holiday Inn
in Russellville. The first session is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
The second session is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. The NRC will host
an open house beginning one hour before the start of each
meeting to provide members of the public with an opportunity to
talk informally with agency staff. 

Both sessions will begin with identical overviews. The NRC staff
will provide a presentation on the license renewal and
environmental review processes, the proposed scope of the
environmental review for the ANO Unit 2 application and the
proposed time frame for the review. Interested government
agencies, organizations and individuals will then have an
opportunity to offer comments or suggestions on environmental
issues they believe should be reviewed or on the proposed scope
of the review. 

Under NRC regulations, the original operating license for a
nuclear power plant has a term of 40 years. The license may be
renewed for up to an additional 20 years if NRC requirements are
met. The current operating license for ANO Unit-2 is due to
expire on July 17, 2018. The Commission unanimously approved
license extension for ANO Unit-1 on June 20, 2001, following a
review of staff recommendations. 

As part of its application, Entergy submitted an environmental
report. That report is available for public review in the NRC
Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, One White Flint North,
11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. In addition, the
Pendergraft Library, located at Arkansas Tech University, 305
West Q Street, Russellville, AR 72801 has agreed to make the
report available for public inspection. The application is also
available on the NRC Web page at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/ano-2.html. 

An existing NRC document, "Generic Environmental Impact
Statement for License Renewal of Nuclear Plants," (NUREG-1437),
assesses the scope and impact of environmental effects that
would be associated with license renewal at any nuclear power
plant site. The NRC staff is gathering information at the
meeting for a supplement to the generic environmental impact
statement that will be specific to ANO Unit-2. It will contain a
recommendation regarding the environmental acceptability of the
license renewal action. 

At the conclusion of the information-gathering process, the NRC
staff will prepare a summary of conclusions and significant
issues and will send a copy to interested persons who
participated in the scoping process. The summary will also be
available for public review at the Pendergraft Library, located
at Arkansas Tech University, 305 West Q Street, Russellville, AR
72801 and will be accessible electronically through the NRC
Public Electronic Reading Room found at
www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Assistance in using the
electronic reading room is available by calling the NRC Public
Document Room at 1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737. 

The NRC staff will then prepare a draft environmental impact
statement (EIS) supplement for public comment and will hold a
public meeting to solicit comments. After consideration of
comments received on the draft, the NRC will prepare a final EIS
supplement. 

Members of the public may also submit written comments on the
ANO Unit-2-specific supplement to the generic environmental
impact statement. Comments should be submitted by February 20,
either by mail to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch,
Division of Administrative Services, Mail Stop T-6-D-59, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. 20555-0001, or
by e-mail to: ANOEIS@nrc.gov.   



  


 	Last revised Monday, January 26, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 17 NIRS Comments on Operator Manual Actions 
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:14 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Hello,
Attached please find a copy of Nuclear Information and Resource Service
comments to NRC proposed rule for interim criteria for enforcement
discretion and guidance for operator manual actions in lieu of long
standing fire code violations at nuclear power stations.

Paul Gunter, Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
1424 16th Street NW Suite 404
Washington, DC 20036
Tel 202 328 0002
http://www.nirs.org

</x-flowed>

Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\Fire-OMA-NIRSComments-InterimCriteria-FRN11262003-Final.doc"
*****************************************************************
 18 [DU-WATCH] Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 00:42:24 -0600 (CST)

 
'In addition people are no longer sure when or what the end will be. No one
knows when they will be going home. They are also working in an environment
where the people they came to help are very hostile.'

======================
From: Kirt Love [mailto:DSBR@gulflink.org]
Sent: January 24, 2004 22:14

Stress epidemic strikes American forces in Iraq

The war's over, but the suicide rate is high and the army is riddled with
acute psychiatric problems. Peter Beaumont reports

Sunday January 25, 2004
The Observer

Up to one in five of the American military personnel in Iraq will suffer
from post-traumatic stress disorder, say senior forces' medical staff
dealing with the psychiatric fallout of the war.

This revelation follows the disclosure last month that more than 600 US
servicemen and women have been evacuated from the country for psychiatric
reasons since the conflict started last March.

At least 22 US soldiers have killed themselves - a rate considered
abnormally high - mostly since President George Bush declared an end to
major combat on 1 May last year, These suicides have led to a high-level
Department of Defence investigation, details of which will be disclosed in
the next few weeks.

Although the overall suicide rate is running at an average of 13.5 per
100,000 troops, compared with a US army average of 10.5 to 11 per 100,000 in
recent years, the incidence of the vast majority of suicides in the period
after 1 May is statistically significant, accounting for about 7 per cent of
all service deaths in Iraq.

The same, say experts, is true for psychiatric evacuations, the majority of
which have taken place after that date, a fact confirmed in recent
interviews by Colonel Theodore Nam, chief of in-patient psychiatry services
at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington. He says no psychiatric
cases at all were evacuated during the major combat. High levels of
psychiatric casualties are expected, despite the US armed forces making an
unprecedented effort to deal with stress and psychiatric disorders during
service in Iraq.

At the heart of the concern is that Iraq may repeat the experience of
Vietnam, which experienced low levels of psychiatric problems during service
there in comparison with the two world wars, but very high levels of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans later.

According to Captain Jennifer Berg, the chairman of psychiatric services at
the Naval Medical Centre in San Diego, whose staff see US Marines returning
from Iraq, military psychiatrists have been warned to expect the disorder to
occur in 20 per cent of the servicemen and women in Iraq.

Although Berg believes some of the problems already reported - including the
suicides and psychiatric evacuations - relate to people's experiences during
the invasion rather than its aftermath, she concedes that the forces'
present conditions of service in Iraq are producing their own problems.

'I think during the combat phase there was a huge outpouring of support at
home. The soldiers were also trained and ramped up for their mission. There
has been a change since then. There is a feeling among troops there that
they have fallen off the public screen. And the longer people are there, the
more we are seeing people come forward with stress reactions.'

Berg believes operating conditions for the 'nation-building phase' of the
Iraq campaign are creating their own kinds of mental health problems - not
least the ever-present threat to US vehicles and troops of the resistance's
home-made mines. These are one of the main causes of death among coalition
troops in the period after 1 May.

'In comparison with the combat phase, what we are now seeing are conditions
of chronic stress which the troops are experiencing every day. It is a
combination of danger, boredom and sleep deprivation, and the knowledge that
they are a long way from home,' said Berg. 'In addition people are no longer
sure when or what the end will be. No one knows when they will be going
home. They are also working in an environment where the people they came to
help are very hostile.'

Already the cases that such doctors as Berg are seeing have what she
describes as 'classic reactions, the basic symptoms of combat stress'.

The psychiatrists have seen symptoms ranging from disturbed sleep, heart
palpitations, nausea and diarrhoea to more obvious behavioural problems,
such as forgetful-ness, aggression, irrational anger and feelings of
alienation.

>From the present period of chronic stress to the personnel, the doctors are
expecting symptoms of depression and generalised anxiety to develop. These
may be exacerbated by underlying existing traumas. The most pronounced cases
have already ended in suicide.

Among them was Army Specialist Joseph Suell, who wrote a last letter home to
his mother before he died of an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol on 16
June. Suell complained to her of the conditions he was living in, without
electricity, water to bathe in, as well as a fear that he would be killed by
an Iraqi sniper.

He complained how badly he missed his wife and daughters during a year-long
posting to South Korea before he was sent to Kuwait and then on to Iraq. He
had been granted compassionate leave.

As he prepared for war it was clear to his family he was in trouble, his
worried wife even intervening to try to secure his return.

Suell's is one of the few suicides to have been reported in the American
media. The Pentagon has refused to say which of its 'non-hostile fatalities'
have been self-inflicted.

The military psychiatrists are puzzled by the suicide rate in Iraq, saying
that it makes little sense in comparison with those in past conflicts.

The accepted wisdom in military psychiatry is that the level of suicides -
far from increasing during wars - drops as the survival instinct kicks in
among the personnel in the conflict zone. Just two suicides were recorded
among US personnel during the entire Gulf war in the Nineties. What is also
unusual about the rate in Iraq, in comparison with Vietnam, Korea and the
Second World War, is that everyone serving in the all-volunteer forces has
already been screened for their psychological suitability. They have also
been briefed on combat stress and trained to counter any suicidal feelings,
following a rash of military suicides which embarrassed the Pentagon in the
late Nineties.

gulflink@yahoogroups.com is a service
of http://www.gulflink.org.

Hosted by: The Desert Storm Battle Registry
A Gulf War Veteran advocacy group!

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 19 [DU-WATCH] Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To DU In Gulf War
 
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 23:46:32 -0600 (CST)

 
Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To Depleted Uranium In Gulf War
Veterans U.S. veterans who were exposed to depleted uranium during
the 1991 Gulf War have continued to excrete the potentially harmful
chemical in their urine for years after their exposure, according
to a new study published in the journal Health Physics.

The study indicates that soldiers may absorb depleted uranium
particles through inhalation, ingestion, or wound contamination,
said Roberto Gwiazda, an environmental toxicologist at UC Santa
Cruz and lead author of the study.

Fine particles of depleted uranium are created when munitions made
with the material strike a target. The new study did not address
the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium, a subject of
ongoing debate, but focused on a technique for detecting past
exposure.

Low concentrations of uranium in the urine are normal due to ingestion
of naturally occuring uranium in food and water. Depleted uranium
is a by-product of the enrichment process used to make nuclear fuel,
in which one isotope of uranium (235U) is extracted, leaving behind
material depleted in that isotope.

Depleted uranium is still weakly radioactive and, like other heavy
metals, can be toxic in high doses. Because of its high density and
other properties, it has been used in armor-piercing ammunition and
in armor for fighting vehicles.

Gwiazda and Donald Smith, professor of environmental toxicology,
developed a sensitive analytical technique to detect depleted uranium
in urine samples. By measuring the relative abundances of different
isotopes of uranium in the urine samples, the researchers were able
to distinguish between natural and depleted uranium.

"This is the only unambiguous way to determine past exposure and
uptake of depleted uranium," Gwiazda said.

The analysis of samples from Gulf War veterans was performed in
collaboration with the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Depleted Uranium
Follow-up Program, which is assessing, treating, and monitoring
veterans who may have been exposed to depleted uranium during the
war.

The researchers applied their technique to three different groups
of Gulf War veterans. The first group of soldiers had shrapnel in
their bodies as a result of "friendly fire" incidents in which their
tanks or armored vehicles were hit by munitions containing depleted
uranium. The second group consisted of soldiers who did not have
shrapnel in them but were involved in the friendly fire incidents
to different degrees, either because they were in the vehicles that
were hit or because they participated in recovery operations. The
third group was a reference group and consisted of soldiers who
participated in the war but not in combat operations.

As expected, the soldiers with embedded shrapnel had high concentrations
of uranium in their urine, and the isotope analysis showed that it
was depleted uranium, presumably being released into their bodies
from the shrapnel.

A more striking finding was the presence of depleted uranium in the
urine of a significant number of soldiers in the second group,
without embedded shrapnel but with potential exposure through
inhalation, ingestion, or wound contamination. The uranium
concentrations detected in this group were, on average, six times
higher than in the reference group, but were still within the normal
range for the U.S. population. Nevertheless, Gwiazda said, it was
remarkable that the signature of depleted uranium could still be
detected so many years after the exposure.

"These samples were taken six to eight years later," he said. The
Veterans Affairs (VA) monitoring program has not reported any
findings of clinically significant health effects related to exposure
to depleted uranium, even in the highly exposed soldiers with
embedded shrapnel.

Any health effects of exposure to depleted uranium may not be
detectable without studying a large number of exposed individuals.
The technique developed at UCSC could be used to screen a large
number of people to identify those with past exposure to depleted
uranium.

In addition to possible health effects in soldiers exposed during
combat, concerns about depleted uranium include environmental
contamination of battlefield sites. Civilian populations may be
exposed through contact with depleted uranium fragments and dust
left in the soil or with contaminated military equipment left behind
after a conflict.

"We don't know if that kind of exposure will have any health effects.
But now we have a technique that enables us to detect past exposure
to depleted uranium," Gwiazda said.

The paper was published in the January issue of Health Physics. The
authors include Katherine Squibb and Melissa McDiarmid of the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, in addition to Gwiazda
and Smith.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040122090433.htm This
story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of
California Santa Cruz.

Law Offices of Indira Rai-Choudhury, Esq.

1201 Cornwall Ave., Suite 108 Bellingham WA 98225 360-676-0200

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 20 [Fwd: SF Irradiated Foods Campaign Update]
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:06:46 -0800

 
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**please forward widely***

Urge Your PTA to Support the Ban on Irradiated Foods in SF USD!
If you teach at, attend or have a child who attends an SF public
school, there is a critical action you can take!  Urge the PTA at your
school to endorse the ban on irradiated foods in SF Schools.  Buena
Vista PTA has already endorsed the ban, and sent letters to the school
board.  Make your school PTA the next to support this important
measure!

Contact Tracy for more info on how to do this at 510-663-0888 x 103 or
tlerman@citizen.org 

Final vote may happen on February 10th Board Meeting!
The School Board has not set a date for the vote on the irradiated food
ban, but it may be on Feb 10th.  We will need to pack the room with
people that support this ban, so save the date. We'll keep you posted as
soon as we know for sure.

We will also need supporters at the Buildings and Grounds Meeting
(before the board meeting), where the measure will be considered.  That
meeting hasn't been scheduled, but we'll let you know the details as
they emerge.

Read this week's Guardian!
This week, the SF Bay Guardian will have an article about irradiated
food and the ban being considered in SF.  Read it!  Tell your friends! 
Write a letter to the editor commenting on it! (send letters to
letters@sfbg.com )

Download a Spanish/English Action Alert from our website:
Action Alerts for the SF campaign are now available to download on our
website, at this link:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/action%20alert%20--%20sf%20usd%20bilingual.doc

Please contact Tracy if you would like stickers, fact sheets, articles,
and other background material on this issue.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Lerman
Senior Organizer
Public Citizen, California Office
1615 Broadway, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
ph: 510-663-0888 x 103  f: 510-663-8569
tlerman@citizen.org
www.citizen.org/california

Keep irradiated food out of your child's lunch!
Visit www.safelunch.org to find out more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



*****************************************************************
 21 Uranium in Your Koolaide
 
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 00:05:32 -0600 (CST)

 
 http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/01/25/1998471

Uranium in Your Koolaide
Ewa Jasiewicz, Occupation Watch
Occupied Basra

DU - What is it?

Depleted Uranium is a highly toxic heavy metal derived from nuclear bomb and
fuel waste. It's heavy weight and pyrophoric qualities cause it to burn-melt
like a blowtorch through steel when a DU coated/loaded penetrator,
self-sharpening by nature, strikes a hard target. It's mainly used to
incinerate battle tanks, and on contact pulverizes into breathable
aerosol-like dust that can travel 26 miles and remains radioactive for 4.5
billion years.

Despite the name "Depleted" Uranium, DU has 60% the radioactivity of natural
uranium, which is pure uranium, and all uranium whether "natural",
"depleted" or "enriched" is a chemical and radiological toxic substance
emitting alpha, beta and gamma particles, all of which have a destructive
effect on the cellular make-up of the human body, ie they attack the human
body at the most essential, primary and vital levels.

Imagine the effect of DU weapons on tanks and compare it to that of the
after-drift and settlement into water systems, soil, vegetation, and the
animal/human body. The energy of a single alpha particle, never mind the
gamma, the heaviest penetrating rays known to science - is more than the
amount required to damage important macromolecules (the glue that holds us
together) such as DNA, RNA, enzymes and proteins. It does this by breaking
molecular bonds and chemical reactions, which alter or destroy the shape,
organization and function of these essential life sustaining molecules. DU
particles have the capacity to penetrate, corrode, crack and break down the
building bricks of human life within the body, through generating cancer. It
can kill, slowly and undetectably at first, with the effects of DU invisible
for the first 4 years of exposure.

According to Dr Durakovic, a former US army colonel and current professor of
medicine, in the course of one year, 1 milligram of uranium emits 390
million alpha particles, 780 million beta particles and associated gamma
rays. This is over one billion high-energy, ionizing, radioactive particles
and rays which can produce extensive biological damage biological warfare
fought out across the inner terrains of the human body: attacking the
ovaries, lungs, lymph nodes, kidneys, breast, blood, bones, brain, stomach
and fetuses. There are over 1000 different cancer types known to medical
science. Cancer means mutated cells. The body's immune system kicks in to
combat the cancerous cells and in doing so begins to attack the whole body.
White blood cells do the fighting. They're designed to attack any foreign
cells, or any foreign object entering the body, be it viruses, mutated cells
or even organs such as mismatched transplanted kidneys. As cancer spreads
through the body, the immune system strategy is to try to defeat it. Cancer
cells divide rapidly, overtake other cells and can spread faster than the
immune system can react. Death envelops when cancerous cells reach a
critical mass in the body, attacking and multiplying through mutating every
cell around them.

An estimated 300-800 TONS of DU were pounded into Iraq during the 1990 Gulf
war.

Lab Rat Nation

DU emerged in the 70s as the USs Cold War weapon of choice  cheap,
abundant and devastatingly effective in busting new top-line Soviet tanks -
US manufacturers had found a captive market and a sustainable enemy.

DU is the modern tyrant's multipurpose must, indispensable for
armor-piercing bullets, casing for bombs, shielding on tanks, counter
weights and ground penetrators on missiles, Cluster Bomb fragments that
penetrate armor and anti-personnel mines.

The destructive effects of DU have been known to scientists, military
strategists and politicians for over 60 years.

A 1943 U.S. War Department proposed the 'Use of Radioactive Materials as a
Military Weapon', defining it as:

1) a terrain contaminating material, the radioactive product of which would
be spread on the ground and would affect personnel. 2) As a gas warfare
instrument, the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size
to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land
vehicle, or aerial bombs

The US government began experimenting on and poisoning its own subjects long
before its military and economic warfare experiments ignited Iraq's already
internal and external war savaged environment. Research by Damacio Lopez,
Executive Director, International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST)
features a 1994 Interim Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments which described intentional releases of radioactive materials
into populated areas prior to 1963 as "Experiments involving intentional
environmental releases of radiation that

(A) were designed to test human health effects of ionizing radiation; or (B)
were designed to test the extent of human exposure to ionizing radiation.

These releases were generally related to radiation warfare tests, the
gathering of intelligence, and the development of instruments. Four such
tests were conducted at Los Alamos, New Mexico, however the Department Of
Energy reports that the number of such tests approximates 250.

The majority of DU shot in the 1990 Kuwait/US war and in this US/UK war was
concentrated on Basra and Baghdad respectively. 1000 to 2000 metric tons are
estimated to have been used by US and to a lesser extent British forces, in
the 2003 Gulf War. (Figure from Dr Jawad Al Ali)

Sitting in Basra's Talimi Teaching Hospital Dr Jawad Al Ali, a renowned
cancer specialist, talks measuredly about his research into the affects of
DU and cancer cases in Iraq's radioactive governorate of Basra.

'The rate of cancer here has multiplied 15 times since the last Gulf war. In
2002 we had 644 deaths from cancer in Basra. We have approximately 123
patients per 100,000 of the population. (Basra's is Iraq's second largest
city with an estimated population of 2-3 million). People living near the
nuclear reactors are affected the worst, but overall, its estimated that
1000-2000 tons of Depleted Uranium were inside Iraqi cities and in west
Basra and between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. A10 planes were dropping it, and
Apaches. Abu Khaseeb, North Rumeilla, and the airport were particularly hard
hit. The results of the DU used in this war will not be seen for another 4-5
years - the incubation period for cancer'.

The staff of Talimi hospital theselves have not escaped the DU seep. 13
doctors and nurses at Talimi have contracted cancer since 1990 - Breast,
testicular and lymphoma. And in terms of US aggression, in 1990 the hospital
itself was the target of a US missile strike which saw its intensive care
unit crushed by shells and rockets, killing four patients and burying a
specialist doctor alive under a collapsed ceiling.

'Workers smelting old tanks and vehicles in Khor Zubier are known to have
contracted leukemia' Tells me Dr Jawad. Hardly suprising, keening over a hot
radioactivity accelerating poisonous metal slop, breathing in re-energized
particles of depleted uranium all day. But, it's scrap metal, it sells on
the market and it brings in the cash to feed families in a country
staggering under 70% unemployment. Pity those particular workers are
unlikely to ever see their children grow up.

'DU is the cause of these cancers but its difficult to prove', explains Dr
Jawad. 'Our patients attest to the fact that cancer rates are skyrocketing.
There is three times more DU in the air than is present naturally. Water and
food are the key contaminated sources, and also the 're-suspension of
particles' - i.e the re-release of DU into the air through strong winds or
the digging up of DU.'

'In Gurna we have found cancer clusters, a director of a school plus two
teachers are suffering from Luekemia there. We know of one person, Doug
Rokke, an American, who was decontaminating tanks. He received 5000 times
the proper dose of DU. He now has slurred speech and dizziness, no cancer as
yet, but, he has been affected'.

Indeed, Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project,
former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University and
onetime US army colonel, was recruited by the US department of defense to
handle the post-first- Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up. He told
Sunday Herald reporters last March, 'A nation's military personnel cannot
willfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the
environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions. To do so is a
crime against humanity. We must do what is right for the citizens of the
world: ban DU.'

Dr Jawad goes on to describe the threat of DU to the most vulnerable sector
of society. 'Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They
have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and
nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and
leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the
lymphoma, which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen
before the age of 12 is now also common.'

'Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen
before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example,
leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one
in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in
his other kidney  he had three different cancer types'. The second is the
clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than
one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two
uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another
specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine
members of her family with cancer'.

Dr Jawad looks exhausted. He slowly toys with his pen. 'The occupation
forces should have protected the stores near the nuclear reactor in Baghdad,
in Twaitha.' The case was well documented by Greenpeace in May. Post regime
fall, impoverished, mostly squatter families were using barrels meant for
toxic nuclear waste to store water for washing, cooking and drinking. 'They
should have known to protect the place but they can now say, 'people stole
the barrels, its their fault and they spread the radioactive materials'.
They will be held responsible for DU contamination, not the forces. And I
think they did this on purpose, this is my opinion, just my opinion'. It
makes sense. In April last year, the Pentagon announced that the US
government had no intention of conducting a post war clean up of DU,
believing that that there was no evidence for long-term affects of DU. The
200,000 US soldiers suffering from mystery fatigue, memory loss, and chronic
muscle and joint pain aka Gulf War Syndrome, not being evidence enough on
their own soil, and the eyeless children, multiple cancer bearing and
leukemia fighting victims filling hospital wards in Basra and Baghdad and
other war-scarred Iraqi cities, are too not evidence enough to seriously
confront the effects of the radioactive killer.

For Dr Jawad, the constant cancer cases (many of which go unreported he
stresses) are a spiraling emergency which needs to be investigated promptly,
efficiently and accurately soon. 'For the past 13 years we were unable to
test people properly, we didn't have sufficient or appropriate equipment.
WHO teams were banned from visiting us and the US took away parts for our
MRE machines and our computer systems, saying that they could be used for
making weapons of mass destruction. We really need special sensitive tissue
testing equipment, but under the sanctions, this was unavailable. And it's
not just lack of equipment, we need physicists and specialist doctors,
people who can help conduct tests and do analysis. A woman from Britain came
to visit me and said that doctors from The Royal College of Physicians would
be coming to conduct studies. But noone has come. We were accused of
spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks
I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to
even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their
own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from
entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters.'

Dr Jawad and his patients have suffered acutely from the kill of the
ecocidal tons of nuclear weapons deployed in the last two gulf wars. The
killing continues. War casualties continue to be hospitalized, expire, and
pile up in the graveyards of Basra. Some of the alive are slowly dying
already, from the first breath of heavily radiated air breathed after The
Fall. Others are set to bring deformed babies into the world, with crownless
skulls or fused fingers, while whole families watch listlessly as taut
bed-bound members reel from the violence of the poison in their veins, in
their flesh.

There are weapons of mass destruction everywhere in Iraq. They were made in
America, bombed over here, and lie left vitiating in the dessert, beside
highways, in demolished homes, rubble buildings; a fine murder dust on the
breeze, upon the water, inside the roasting tissues of a chicken on a spit
in the street, inside the bodies of bone-eating cancer bearing children, or
inside the wombs of women sick with dizziness - just pregnancy or poisoning?
Their birth-days can only tell. But one thing is certain in occupied Iraq
circa 2004, the UK and US governments are guilty of deploying in effect,
biological warfare against the Iraqi civilian population. And the killing
continues. The killing continues.

Resources

Countries using DU or contaminated by DU according to Damacio Lopez,
Executive Director, International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST):
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Czech
Republic, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Israel, Iraq, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Panama, Pakistan, Poland, Puerto
Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Thailand,
United Kingdom, United States and Yugoslavia.
*****************************************************************
 22 [du-list] 'zapped' veteran fights on
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:08 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
'Zapped' veteran fights on


      By PAUL WOOD
� 2004 THE NEWS-GAZETTE
Published Online January 25, 2004



CLICK TO SEE PHOTO
    RURAL THOMASBORO � Doug Rokke has a stack of Army
commendations as big as a suitcase. But he's not
winning much love now from the military, speaking out
all over the world on the dangers of depleted uranium.
    The uranium, with most of the highly radioactive
material taken out to be used in reactors, is heavy
and hot-burning, and shells made from it have been
used by tank crews in both Gulf Wars and Somalia to
penetrate thick steel.
    The health physicist, who retired this fall from
the Army reserves as a major, says the nation has a
debt to its warriors who became ill in the Gulf Wars,
as well as to the Kuwaitis and Iraqis who still have
dangerous weapons in their homeland. Rokke said 320
tons of uranium remain on the ground.
    "My 30-plus-year military career has been dedicated
to ensuring our nation's sons and daughters have
optimal military education and training, they receive
the medical care and applicable pensions that they
earned during service our nation, they are given safe
and effective equipment, and that environmental
contamination caused by military operations is cleaned
up," Rokke, 54, said last week.
    He also has health concerns as close to home as it
gets.
    "I'm zapped," he says. The way to test for uranium
fragments in the body is through urine tests.
    Army documents show a high level for Rokke, though
he says he was not informed of the test results for 2
years after the Army got them.
    Testifying at United Nations conferences about
depleted uranium's health effects, as well as a 1999
"60 Minutes" appearance, have made him well-known and
disliked in Army medical circles.
    Barbara Goodno, a spokeswoman for the Department of
Defense, all but huffs when she speaks about him.
    "Doug Rokke is not now and never has been a
Department of Defense expert on depleted uranium," she
said Thursday.
    "He is a Gulf War veteran, and we thank him for his
service. He was not in charge of the (depleted
uranium) group. He happened to be in theater (of war)
at the time, and he was the go-to guy. But the experts
were the civilian contractors."
    Rokke was a lieutenant in 1991. He was promoted to
captain after Gulf War I, where commendations note the
importance of his work in the cleanup. He was promoted
to major before his retirement.
    But the Army maintains that Rokke's science is
poor, exaggerating how widespread the health effects
of depleted uranium are.
    The Department of Defense's Dr. Michael Kilpatrick
said a study of 90 veterans who were in a vehicle hit
by depleted uranium friendly fire, found no evidence
of unusual cancers.
    "It's very clear that DU outside the body does not
pose a hazard to people," he said. If it enters the
body, he said, researchers are checking for signs of
kidney damage.
    The uranium saves American lives in the long run,
he added.
    "It is a powerful munition for penetrating enemy
armor," he said. "In our own vehicles, the use of it
as armor prevents the penetration of tanks from enemy
fire."
    Rokke believes there are hundreds more who have
been exposed, and has anecdotal evidence of deaths,
including close friends of his. He points to rashes on
his back as evidence of uranium toxicity, and has
kidney problems.
    He never intended to be a whistleblower.
    Rokke grew up in Libertyville. He moved to rural
Thomasboro because his wife, Carol, has farming roots
here. They have two grown sons as well as a living
room full of toys only a grandparent could love.
    Rokke's first experience with the military was the
Air Force right after high school, during the Vietnam
War era. He says he flew 38 missions with the
Strategic Air Command as an electronics operator.
While in SAC, he befriended the late Frank Elliott,
who later commanded Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul.
    After college, Rokke joined the Army National
Guard, then the Reserve. Throughout these years, he
studied at the University of Illinois, where he earned
a doctorate, and wrote papers about physics and
health.
    While in the service, he wrote technical papers on
radiation sickness and produced a training video the
Army never released.
    He vows to continue speaking out now that he is
retired.
    "I owe it to the warriors I served with," he says.




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 23 [du-list] pleez read! US soldiers caught between Iraq & a hard
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:12 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
from the below article:

"I'm telling them to go to their clergy, go to their commanding officers, 
and to claim conscientious objection while in the military, and to fight it 
out like that. But if they're considering pulling the trigger on 
themselves, I'm telling them to desert, just as George Bush Jr. did during 
the Vietnam War." (A gap in Bush's military service record from May 1972 to 
October 1973 has some critics accusing him of desertion.)

<http://www.vancourier.com/015104/news/015104nn1.html>http://www.vancourier.com/015104/news/015104nn1.html

558190.jpg

Carl Rising-Moore displays his 'peace dove' American flag while trying to 
drum up support in Canada for Americans who refuse to serve in the Iraq 
war. Photo by Dan Toulgoet.

Last refuge

By Geoff Olson-contributing writer

At Branch 142 of the Royal Canadian Legion, Christmas lights still hang off 
the bar and decorate displays of wartime memorabilia. At a table in the 
back of the room, light from a CBC TV camera crew casts the features of a 
dozen people in sharp relief. Among them are several American and Canadian 
war veterans who have arrived on a wintry Vancouver night to hear U.S. 
activist Carl Rising-Moore's pitch for what he calls the "Freedom 
Underground."

According to an Associated Press wire story from last November, at least 17 
U.S. troops have committed suicide in Iraq, and the actual number is almost 
certainly higher, prompting demands for answers from family members.

Rising-Moore suspects the suicides are the result of the pressures of 
combat, and lack of control of the situation in the embattled country, 
where U.S. soldiers have been targeted virtually daily in bomb 
attacks-deaths have already topped 500.

"For every death you've got 10 times as many injuries," says Rising-Moore. 
"I've heard 11,000 have been evacuated from illnesses or injuries due to 
combat."

The French weekly magazine Le Canard Enchaine reports that 1,700 U.S. 
soldiers have deserted their posts in Iraq, many of them failing to return 
to military duty after getting permission to go back to the United States. 
They simply disappear off the radar, and some of them may well be in Canada.

Rising-Moore believes the numbers of suicides will rise as U.S. soldiers 
returning to the States choose to take their own lives rather than face 
another tour of duty in Iraq. The so-called "stop-loss" orders to U.S. army 
duty, extending a soldier's tour beyond his or her contractual agreement, 
are expected to be expanded to greater numbers of troops. According to 
reports in the U.S. press, more soldiers due to return from Iraq and 
Afghanistan over the next several months will not be allowed to retire or 
otherwise leave the service for 90 days after they return to their home 
bases, while it's decided whether they'll be reassigned.

The American activist's appearance in Vancouver is part of a cross-country 
effort to petition Canada for safe refuge for U.S. military deserters 
across the border. The "Freedom Underground" he's pitching would be an 
underground railroad, similar to the extensive formal and informal network 
that helped draft dodgers and deserters in B.C. in the '60s.

The question is, given strained U.S.-Canada relations and the fact 
information is shared between the RCMP and their American counterparts, can 
Canadians offer substantive aid to U.S. deserters? That's what Rising-Moore 
is here to find out, although he's quick to add that he regards the 
cross-border escape hatch as the last option for suicidal soldiers. "I'm 
telling them to go to their clergy, go to their commanding officers, and to 
claim conscientious objection while in the military, and to fight it out 
like that. But if they're considering pulling the trigger on themselves, 
I'm telling them to desert, just as George Bush Jr. did during the Vietnam 
War." (A gap in Bush's military service record from May 1972 to October 
1973 has some critics accusing him of desertion.)

Fleeing to Canada should only be an option for soldiers, Rising-Moore says, 
"if all else fails, and they don't see any other way out."

According to U.S. military law, a soldier who fails to report for duty 
within 30 days is AWOL, with a maximum penalty of five years confinement, 
forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and a dishonourable discharge. After 
30 days, he or she is technically a deserter. The maximum penalty for 
desertion in time of war is death, although no U.S. soldier has been 
executed for desertion since World War II.

That hasn't dissuaded some military personnel-the numbers of soldiers going 
AWOL or deserting were high even while the engagement was limited to 
Afghanistan. According to an official in the U.S. Army public affairs 
office, 3,800 soldiers deserted in 2002. Of those, 3,255 were returned to 
military control.

It's not exactly history repeating itself-yet. However, a call has been 
made for staffers on U.S. draft boards, an ominous sign of a new phase of 
war should George W. Bush win the next U.S. federal election. (A democratic 
win doesn't necessarily rule out a draft either.) Some observers wonder if 
the talk of desertion is the sound of the orchestra tuning up before an 
overture of post-'60s draft-dodging into Canada.

There is no accurate count of how many draft dodgers went into exile. 
Immigration figures suggest at least 15,000, according to a 1985 CBC 
report, but the number was most certainly higher. From the late '60s until 
the early '70s, Vancouver was the destination of choice for young American 
men refusing to participate in the Vietnam War. Many of them became 
permanent residents. Family members also joined the exodus.

In 1977, two years after the war ended, President Jimmy Carter declared a 
general amnesty for all draft dodgers. Military deserters were exempted 
from the amnesty, except on a case-by-case basis.

One participant at the legion round-table, World War II veteran Ed Shaefer, 
recalls the draft dodging years. "There was an underground, a real 
underground, in the state of Washington getting people into Canada," he 
says with a trace of pride, "and I was one of those who helped get a lot of 
people into Canada.

"What I had to do is make sure that they were clean shaven, didn't have any 
pot on the them, and dressed nicely. I had two small kids and my wife and I 
would go for a holiday in Canada, and I would come up with them with 
members of the family. There's a place up here that had trailers where they 
could stay. At that time all they had to do is go back to the Canadian 
border, give them $200 and apply for landed immigrant status. It was very 
easy at that time, and you couldn't do that today."

City councillor Jim Green arrived in Canada as an American avoiding the 
Vietnam War. He grew up in South Carolina, where the only jobs available to 
the working class were in the army. He recalls his father, whose life in 
service began with the French Foreign Legion and finished with the American 
Air force, as a "violent, ill-educated man whose life had been war." Not 
surprisingly, long before Green objected politically to violence and war, 
he had a personal resistance.

Green says draft dodgers in Canada had it relatively easy compared to 
deserters, who were mostly poorly educated, working-class kids. When Green 
arrived in Canada, he offered shelter to deserters, since they were much 
less welcome in Canada than draft dodgers, and needed help that much more.

Though never greatly involved with the '60s expatriate American scene in 
Vancouver, Green describes the draft dodgers he's met as "fine people who 
made a great contribution to Canada."

Another participant describes the '60s influx of American draft dodgers as 
a "brain gain" to Canadian society. But for Rising-Moore, talk of draft 
dodgers is just so much speculation at this point, and secondary to his 
chief concern: U.S. military personnel dying at their own hands. Born in 
Canada, but now a U.S. citizen based in Indianapolis-America's 
"geographical and political center"-the 57-year-old says he served 
stateside in the U.S. army between 1964 and 1967, but never saw combat. 
"I've never shot anybody, thank goodness, and I avoided that mess in 
Vietnam, so I feel comparatively well-off compared to some of my brothers 
and sisters in the military."

Rising-Moore's life has been angled toward activism, beginning with his 
involvement with the "Don't Make a Wave Committee," the anti-nuclear 
precursor to Greenpeace. Recalling Rising-Moore's activist years in Canada, 
one of his Vancouver friends says the affable and articulate agitator had a 
preternatural talent for organizing grassroots organizations. "Carl made 
things happen here," his friend says.

By his count, Rising-Moore, who believes the war on Iraq is illegal based 
on international law, has been arrested some two dozen times over the past 
three decades. The last incident made headlines when he joined a group of 
protesters bearing foreign flags who welcomed George W. Bush's motorcade in 
Indianapolis. Rising-Moore, who police say was waving his flag of the UN 
"violently," found himself in court after an altercation with police, with 
his bail set at $20,000.

At the Legion round-table, there is strong support for Rising Moore's 
Freedom Underground-in theory. However, when talk turns to details, the 
political dimensions of the problem complicate the good intentions.

Professional opinions are also mixed. James Laxer is a professor of 
political science at York University, and author of The Border, a study of 
post-9/11 U.S.-Canada relations along the 49th. By e-mail, he says he has 
no doubt that if the U.S. reinstates the draft after the 2004 election, it 
will provoke many draft resisters to seek refuge in Canada, as an earlier 
generation did during the Vietnam War. Most will likely find a "warm and 
helpful welcome" from Canadians, he says, although that warmth is unlikely 
to be reflected at the official level. The federal government has entered 
into border accords with the U.S. that could make the situation of those 
seeking refuge, especially deserters, more difficult than in the past.

Laxer points out that the Martin government has signaled its wish to 
"repair" relations with the Bush White House. He suspects that Deputy Prime 
Minister Anne McLellan, who is in charge of public safety and emergency 
preparedness and the Canadian counterpart to U.S. Homeland Security Chief 
Tom Ridge, will do everything in her power to try to keep Ridge happy. 
"That means her inclination is likely to be harsh with respect to U.S. 
military deserters and other so-called 'high risk travelers'-the two 
governments have already agreed to share intelligence on such people."

If a significant number of Americans seek refuge in Canada, Laxer believes 
it cannot fail to become a political issue. Pressure will have to be 
brought to bear on the Martin government to open the door, as Pierre 
Trudeau so famously did in the past, he says. Back in 1969 at the National 
Press Club in Washington, D.C., Prime Minister Trudeau characterized 
American draft dodgers as good, orderly students who had gained the 
sympathy of many Canadians.

Rising-Moore's perhaps overly optimistic views of Canadian autonomy and 
liberalism are not surprising, since in the 10 years he's been away from 
Canada, he's had little exposure to news north of the 49th. "So what's 
Trudeau up to these days?" he asks me during our interview. "Well, not a 
heck of a lot," I respond. "He's been dead for a few years now."

What would happen to potential deserters in Canada? They'd likely be 
deported, because they'd have no immigration status here, says Vancouver 
immigration lawyer Phil Rankin. "Desertion is not one of the grounds for 
refugee status. During the Vietnam War, nobody got refugee status, even 
though they had a political opinion.

"So they pretty much just deport you across the border and take you to the 
brig." The U.S/Canada extradition treaty doesn't apply to deserters.

As for conscientious objection, this option usually involves refusal to 
serve. Once a soldier has entered into a military contract, the agreement 
is considered binding-unless it's changed from the top down, as in the 
stop-loss orders.

In other words, failing any change in federal policy in Canada, the 
so-called Freedom Underground would have to be just that: below the level 
of official detection or priority to be of any help to fleeing Americans.

However, there is no penalty on the books for harbouring deserters. 
According to Rankin, their non-status in Canada precludes criminal charges 
against Canadians who help them out, although employing a deserter may be a 
different matter.

That won't stop the owner of a Kitsilano restaurant at the round table, who 
says "there's a job waiting" at her restaurant for a deserter seeking 
refuge in Canada.

Rising-Moore tells the group that his role in Canada is to set up a loose 
coalition of Canadians, create some structure on-line and off, then return 
to the U.S. "I'm not living in Canada. I've been gone for 10 years, and I 
can't do this-it has to be Canadians during this period. This is a 
grass-roots effort."

"Given the Nuremberg principles," he adds, "every citizen of every country 
has the responsibility to fight their nation if they feel it's wrong.

"The question is, is this country going to become part of the movement? Is 
Canada going to continue enjoying the reputation of being different from 
the United States, which has gone on decade after decade overpowering other 
nations: Guatemala, Iran, Chile, overthrowing these governments through 
CIA-backed coups?"

The meeting at the legion ends with an agreement in principle that Canada 
should offer safe harbour for deserters who have exhausted all other 
options at home. Representatives from various activist groups promise to 
take the issue to their memberships. With that, Rising-Moore gets up from 
his chair and reaches for a prop accompanying him across Canada. "You've 
all heard of Old Glory," he says with grin. "This is New Glory." He unfurls 
the flag, depicting a dove of peace in flight across the Stars and Stripes, 
with an olive branch in its mouth.

Rising-Moore rolls the flag up and the guests depart. His next stop is 
Victoria, for another meeting similar to this one. Satisfied with the 
response from the participants, the activist tramps outside into the snow 
for a slice of synchronicity. There's a painting on the wall of the legion 
of a dove in flight, trailing the Canadian flag.

When I see him next, Rising-Moore seems a little downcast. He's discovered 
there is little chance for American deserters to maintain any visible 
profile in Canada, and they would be quickly deported if discovered.

That's not all. To put more meat on the CBC TV story that prompted filming 
of the round-table, the producers want footage of the activist returning to 
Canada with a deserter. Rising-Moore says he cannot go this route, as he's 
certain identification on film will endanger fleeing Americans-to say 
nothing of himself. He's hoping he won't see the inside of a jail when he 
returns to his home base in Indianapolis, but remains confident that the 
Bush administration won't pull anything that's not in its interest, 
public-relations-wise, in the months leading up to the U.S. federal election.

In spite of this sobering information, he is heartened that a few Canadians 
he's met have pledged to help U.S. deserters to Canada, regardless of the 
risk.

Asked how he's financing his Canadian campaign, he says it's all out of 
pocket, from money he's saved from construction work in Indianapolis. He's 
had a lifetime of odd jobs, he says; activism is his real work.

Before he departs for a train to the prairies, Rising-Moore leaves me with 
a quote from Gandhi, one of his spiritual/political mentors.

"The future isn't between violence and nonviolence," he says, packing up 
his books and papers. "It's between nonviolence and non-existence."



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</x-flowed>


Attachment Converted: 558190.jpg: 00000001,52b288a7,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
 24 Bellona: Radioactive metal detected and sent for tests in south-western Russia 

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Southern Russia�Transport inspectors discovered a 
metal object Satuday in a railway container at a southern port 
that was emitting a high level of radiation, the Emergency 
Situations Ministry told The Associated Press. 

2004-01-26 15:16

The object, which was not further described, was isolated and
sent from the port of Novorossiisk to a radiation monitoring
center in the nearby Krasnodar region for inspection, said
Sergei Kozhemyaka, a duty officer at the ministry's southern
Russian branch, AP reported.

 He said the object was emitting 4,500 microroentgens an hour, 
which is hundreds of times normal radiation levels, according to 
Russian public health officers. It arrived at the port on January 
14th on a train carrying scrap metal for export from the Saratov 
region, Kozhemyaka said, according to AP. 
  
  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 25 News-Gazette Online: 'Zapped' veteran fights on
 
By PAUL WOOD
 � 2004 THE NEWS-GAZETTE
Published Online January 25, 2004
 
   RURAL THOMASBORO � Doug Rokke has a stack of Army
commendations as big as a suitcase. But he's not winning much
love now from the military, speaking out all over the world on
the dangers of depleted uranium.

    The uranium, with most of the highly radioactive material
taken out to be used in reactors, is heavy and hot-burning, and
shells made from it have been used by tank crews in both Gulf
Wars and Somalia to penetrate thick steel.

    The health physicist, who retired this fall from the Army
reserves as a major, says the nation has a debt to its warriors
who became ill in the Gulf Wars, as well as to the Kuwaitis and
Iraqis who still have dangerous weapons in their homeland. Rokke
said 320 tons of uranium remain on the ground.

    "My 30-plus-year military career has been dedicated to
ensuring our nation's sons and daughters have optimal military
education and training, they receive the medical care and
applicable pensions that they earned during service our nation,
they are given safe and effective equipment, and that
environmental contamination caused by military operations is
cleaned up," Rokke, 54, said last week. 

   He also has health concerns as close to home as it gets.

    "I'm zapped," he says. The way to test for uranium fragments
in the body is through urine tests. 

   Army documents show a high level for Rokke, though he says he
was not informed of the test results for 2 years after the Army
got them.

    Testifying at United Nations conferences about depleted
uranium's health effects, as well as a 1999 "60 Minutes"
appearance, have made him well-known and disliked in Army
medical circles.

    Barbara Goodno, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense,
all but huffs when she speaks about him.

    "Doug Rokke is not now and never has been a Department of
Defense expert on depleted uranium," she said Thursday. 

   "He is a Gulf War veteran, and we thank him for his service.
He was not in charge of the (depleted uranium) group. He
happened to be in theater (of war) at the time, and he was the
go-to guy. But the experts were the civilian contractors."

    Rokke was a lieutenant in 1991. He was promoted to captain
after Gulf War I, where commendations note the importance of his
work in the cleanup. He was promoted to major before his
retirement.

    But the Army maintains that Rokke's science is poor,
exaggerating how widespread the health effects of depleted
uranium are.

    The Department of Defense's Dr. Michael Kilpatrick said a
study of 90 veterans who were in a vehicle hit by depleted
uranium friendly fire, found no evidence of unusual cancers.

    "It's very clear that DU outside the body does not pose a
hazard to people," he said. If it enters the body, he said,
researchers are checking for signs of kidney damage.

    The uranium saves American lives in the long run, he added.

    "It is a powerful munition for penetrating enemy armor," he
said. "In our own vehicles, the use of it as armor prevents the
penetration of tanks from enemy fire."

    Rokke believes there are hundreds more who have been
exposed, and has anecdotal evidence of deaths, including close
friends of his. He points to rashes on his back as evidence of
uranium toxicity, and has kidney problems.

    He never intended to be a whistleblower.

    Rokke grew up in Libertyville. He moved to rural Thomasboro
because his wife, Carol, has farming roots here. They have two
grown sons as well as a living room full of toys only a
grandparent could love.

    Rokke's first experience with the military was the Air Force
right after high school, during the Vietnam War era. He says he
flew 38 missions with the Strategic Air Command as an
electronics operator. While in SAC, he befriended the late Frank
Elliott, who later commanded Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul.

    After college, Rokke joined the Army National Guard, then
the Reserve. Throughout these years, he studied at the
University of Illinois, where he earned a doctorate, and wrote
papers about physics and health.

    While in the service, he wrote technical papers on radiation
sickness and produced a training video the Army never released.

    He vows to continue speaking out now that he is retired. 

   "I owe it to the warriors I served with," he says.
    
 You can reach Paul Wood at (217) 351-5203 or via e-mail at .
 
Copyright 2004 News-Gazette, Inc.   
*****************************************************************
 26 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Nuclear waste lawsuits grow 
 
Monday, January 26, 2004

Utilities want Energy Department to pay for missing deadline for
repository By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
"The vast majority are going to seize on this as a reason to
expedite Yucca Mountain when we know it is unsafe."
REP. SHELLEY BERKLEY, D-NEV.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is facing a new wave of
lawsuits that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars because
DOE missed a 1998 deadline to have a nuclear waste repository up
and running in Nevada. 

While the Yucca Mountain Project has been the subject of
high-profile fights in Congress and within the judicial system
in the past two years, dozens of legal claims by nuclear power
utilities against DOE have been following a quieter path through
the courts. 

That could change in coming months if judges begin ordering
payment of multimillion-dollar awards to the nuclear power
industry, attorneys said.
 
 "An entire industry is engaged in some high-stakes litigation
with the federal government. I would hope this would get
somebody's attention," said Jerry Stouck, a lawyer who has filed
lawsuits on behalf of the Yankee power companies in New England,
among others. 

Utility companies are rushing to the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims before Jan. 31, a statute of limitations deadline.
 
 The date is six years after DOE breached long-standing
contracts with utilities by failing to take ownership of
thousands of tons of their nuclear waste by Jan. 31, 1998,
according to court rulings.
 
 Thirty-one lawsuits were pending at the end of 2003. Another 16
were filed this month, and more are expected before the deadline.
 
 As many as 50 or more may be docketed before the end of the
month, attorneys said. 
"The reality is that every single utility will be filing a
lawsuit," Stouck said. 
Most of the lawsuits do not specify damages. Industry officials
said they could amount to between $38 billion and $61 billion.
 
 A Department of Energy lawyer said those estimates are
overstated by many billions. 
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear
Projects, said the prospect of heavy financial damages
illustrates the pressure the Energy Department is under to get a
repository opened at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
 
 "Certainly these suits have bearing on the schedule that the
Department of Energy is trying to implement with this program,"
Loux said. 

DOE "is clearly getting whipped by the utilities and through
them by Congress to hurry this thing up at the expense of doing
a good job," Loux said. "They are the ones driving the show." 
The lawsuits keep the Yucca program moving forward, said Jay
Silberg, an attorney involved in the lead case against the
Energy Department.
 
 Silberg said utilities ultimately want to get rid of their
nuclear waste. About 40,000 tons of radioactive material has
been generated by plants in 34 states. 

"I honestly believe these lawsuits have kept the pressure on DOE
and Congress and the administration," Silberg said. "There are
limits on how fast anything can move; but left to their own
devices programs will slow, and we don't want that to happen." 
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., predicted legal judgments against
DOE will provide pro-nuclear lawmakers with ammunition to speed
the Yucca project. 

"The vast majority are going to seize on this as a reason to
expedite Yucca Mountain when we know it is unsafe," Berkley
said. "It will give them further evidence to move forward with
what is an insane idea." 

In 2000, President Clinton vetoed a bill that called for nuclear
waste deliveries to Nevada before a repository is built. 
A similar effort last year in the U.S. House was killed by Reps.
Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, both R-Nev. 

"These lawsuits won't help speed up the project, because I
believe Yucca Mountain will never open," Sen. Harry Reid,
D-Nev., said in a statement "The lawsuits are distracting the
nuclear power industry from what they should be doing, which is
looking seriously now at dry cask storage and asking the
government for help with the costs."
 
 The legal problem found its roots 20 years ago in the
government's effort to find permanent disposal of commercial
spent fuel and its own high level waste from nuclear bomb
manufacturing. 

In 1983, the Energy Department signed contracts with 68
utilities and seven other commercial nuclear waste owners. DOE
would begin taking their waste by Jan. 31, 1998, and store it at
a permanent repository or a monitored temporary facility. 
In return, utilities would pay into a waste fund a one-time fee

for spent fuel generated before 1983 and ongoing fees based on
electricity sold.
 
 The fund, earmarked to pay for waste disposal, has generated
more than $17 billion. 
The 1998 deadline came and went.
 
 The Energy Department now says it expects to have a repository
open in 2010, a timeline viewed by some scientists and
government officials as overly optimistic.
 
 "We sue the government because it has broken its promises,"
John W. Rowe, then-chairman of the Unicom Corp., and
Commonwealth Edison, said at a 1999 Senate hearing.
 
 A 2000 merger made Rowe chief executive of Exelon Corp., the
largest nuclear utility.
 
 The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August 2000 that DOE
was liable for missing the 1998 contract deadline and could be
sued for damages. 

Judges in the Court of Federal Claims will decide damage
amounts, based on arguments that involve the amount of waste
each utility holds, when they expected the government to take
ownership of it and the rate at which the Energy Department was
expected to begin moving it to a repository.
 
 The first trial begins March 1 in a case brought by Indiana
Michigan Power Co. for its Donald C. Cook plant in Michigan.
 
 Among major claims, utilities want repayments for what they are
spending to keep nuclear waste stored on-site in dry casks, some
at plants that have been closed, or by re-racking spent fuel
assemblies to create more space in deep water cooling pools. 
They also claim added costs to upgrade security following the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
 
 Several lawsuits in the past week were filed by companies that
have sold interests in power plants. They charge their sales
prices were devalued because of uncertainty over nuclear waste. 
DOE spokesman Joe Davis maintained the cases have little bearing
on DOE's management of the Yucca project. 
"I don't think the lawsuits play into our motivation at all,"
Davis said. "The department has been charged with finding a way
to take care of nuclear waste, whether it comes from commercial
fuel, government waste streams or research reactors. It's bigger
than just the commercial reactors and that's been our major
motivation."
 
 Stouck said the government's liability grows with every day of
delay. He predicted the cases will wind on for another five to
10 years.
 
 "Money is not the only thing the utilities want," Stouck said.
"They want to get rid of their spent fuel."
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 27 Las Vegas SUN: Nuclear utilities face deadline for radioactive waste lawsuits
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A final rush of lawsuits is expected this week 
from utility companies suing the Energy Department for missing a 
1998 deadline to open a national nuclear waste repository. 

"An entire industry is engaged in some high-stakes litigation 
with the federal government," said Jerry Stouck, a lawyer 
handling lawsuits on behalf of power companies including the 
Yankee companies in New England. 

"The reality is that every single utility will be filing a 
lawsuit," Stouck told the Las Vegas Review-Journal for a Monday 
report. 

Thirty-one lawsuits were pending at the end of 2003, and 16 were 
filed this month. More are expected to be filed with the U.S. 
Court of Federal Claims before Saturday, the six-year statute of 
limitations for challenging the failure of the government to meet 
a 1998 deadline for taking ownership of thousands of tons of 
spent nuclear fuel. 

The dispute dates to the government's promise 21 years ago to 
find a place to bury spent commercial nuclear fuel and highly 
radioactive waste from nuclear bomb manufacturing. 

In 1983, the Energy Department signed contracts with 68 utilities 
and seven other commercial nuclear waste owners, agreeing to 
begin taking the waste by Jan. 31, 1998, and store it at a 
permanent repository or a monitored temporary facility. 

In return, utilities paid a one-time fee for spent fuel generated 
before 1983, and began paying into a nuclear waste disposal fund 
based on electricity sold. 

The fund has generated more than $14 billion, according to the 
Nuclear Energy Institute. 

In 2002, four years past the 1998 deadline for opening a dump, 
Congress endorsed President Bush's decision to build the 
repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

Most of the lawsuits do not specify damages. Industry officials 
said they could amount to between $38 billion and $61 billion, 
but the Energy Department said those estimates are overstated by 
billions. 

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Bob Loux, the state's top 
anti-Yucca official, said the prospect of heavy financial losses 
increases pressure on the Energy Department to open the 
repository at Yucca Mountain. 

"Certainly these suits have bearing on the schedule that the 
Department of Energy is trying to implement," said Loux, head of 
the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. 

"It will give them further evidence to move forward with what is 
an insane idea," Berkley said. 

Jay Silberg, a lawyer involved in the lead case against the 
Energy Department, said utilities want to get rid of their 
nuclear waste. About 40,000 tons of radioactive material has been 
generated by plants in 34 states. 

"I honestly believe these lawsuits have kept the pressure on DOE 
and Congress and the administration," Silberg said. 

But Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis downplayed the effect 
of the lawsuits on the Yucca Mountain project. 

"I don't think the lawsuits play into our motivation at all," 
Davis said. "The department has been charged with finding a way 
to take care of nuclear waste, whether it comes from commercial 
fuel, government waste streams or research reactors. It's bigger 
than just the commercial reactors and that's been our major 
motivation." 

The Energy Department says it expects to open the Yucca Mountain 
repository in 2010, although Nevada is fighting the plan in court 
and plans to ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject an 
Energy Department application for an operating license. 

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August 2000 that the 
Energy Department was liable for missing the 1998 contract 
deadline and could be sued for damages. 

The first trial begins March 1 in a case brought by Indiana 
Michigan Power Co. for its Donald C. Cook plant in Michigan. 

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal 

*****************************************************************
 28 [NukeNet] Groups Victorious, Bio-Suit, DOE Withdraws LANL
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:09 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Dear colleagues: Here is news of an exciting partial (but very important)
victory in the lawsuit to prevent the Dept. of Energy from collocating
bio-warfare agent facilities at its nuclear weapons labs without a thorough
environmental and nonproliferation review and public hearings. Feel free to
circulate to your lists and any media you know. Read on... --Marylia

for more information, contact
Marylia Kelley, Executive Director, Tri-Valley CAREs, (925) 443-7148
Jay Coghlan, Executive Director, Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, (505) 989-7342
Alletta Belin, Law Offices of Belin and Sugarman, (505) 310-3466 (mobile)
Steve Volker, Lead Attorney, Law Offices of Stephan Volker, (510) 496-0600

for immediate release, January 26, 2004
ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS VICTORIOUS AS
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WITHDRAWS APPROVAL
OF CONTESTED BIO-WARFARE AGENT FACILITY AT
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Litigation Continues to Prevent Advanced Experimentation Facility for
Bio-Warfare Agents at Lawrence Livermore National Lab Without Proper Review

OAKLAND, CA - Amid growing controversy and federal litigation, the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has revoked approval for its
newly-constructed, advanced bio-warfare agent research facility at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, which was slated to experiment
with dozens of deadly pathogens.

Specifically, the DOE withdrew the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI)
and final Environmental Assessment (EA) that it had issued prior to the
start of construction. The Los Alamos facility, styled a "Biosafety
Level-3" (BSL-3), would have been used for experiments - including genetic
modification - with live anthrax, botulism, bubonic plague and other
agents.

A second proposed bio-warfare agent research facility at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California remains under construction. The
Livermore BSL-3 facility is slated to use the same mix of deadly pathogens
and will also contain a special laboratory to conduct aerosol (spray)
"challenges" of up to 100 small animals at a time.

In withdrawing its approval of the Los Alamos facility, DOE acknowledged
its "continuing obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act
('NEPA') to consider new circumstances and information" regarding this
facility's environmental risks.

DOE's action withdrawing approval of the New Mexico bio-facility is a
second major victory for two environmental organizations, Nuclear Watch of
New Mexico, located in Santa Fe and the Livermore, CA-based Tri-Valley
CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment).

The groups' litigation, filed August 26, 2003 in the federal district court
in Northern California, charges DOE with violating NEPA by approving
advanced research on bio-weapon agents at its two principal nuclear weapon
design labs without conducting a thorough review of the resulting
environmental risks and impacts on international non-proliferation
agreements. The lawsuit asks the court to compel site specific and
programmatic Environmental Impact Statements and public hearings before the
DOE can begin operation at either of the contested facilities.

Last month, in federal district court, Judge Saundra Armstrong issued an
Order prohibiting any shipment of "select agents" - those most capable of
being weaponized - to these proposed bio-warfare agent research facilities
pending the trial of the environmental organizations' lawsuit, scheduled to
begin on April 23, 2004 in Oakland.

The DOE press release, available on the environmental groups' web sites,
admits that it will now need to go back to square one, producing a new
environmental assessment and reviewing anew whether the agency will
undertake a full Environmental Impact Statement - a key demand in the
lawsuit.

"We are elated that our lawsuit has persuaded DOE to abandon its inadequate
environmental assessment," said Nuclear Watch Director Jay Coghlan. "The '
new circumstances and information' which DOE cites likely includes the
strength of our groups' litigation and the weakness of Defendant's case,"
added Mr. Coghlan. "The public can now have better assurance that a
stringent risk analysis will be completed before bio-weapon agent research
begins at a secret nuclear weapons lab with a shoddy environmental, safety
and security record," Coghlan concluded.

"Although we are very pleased that DOE has agreed to withdraw its approval
of the Los Alamos bio-warfare agent facility, we remain concerned that
construction continues on the extremely dangerous Livermore facility,"
stated Marylia Kelley, the Executive Director of Tri-Valley CAREs. "The
serious risks to public health and safety posed by the deadly pathogens DOE
proposed to use at its Los Alamos Lab are even greater at Livermore,
because it is located adjacent to the active Los Positas and other area
earthquake faults, and next to a large metropolitan area," explained Ms.
Kelley. "Our community deserves no less than an immediate halt to the
construction of the Livermore bio-warfare agent facility and for DOE to
withdraw its approval," Kelley added.

"We are gratified that DOE has agreed to withdraw its unlawful approval of
the extremely hazardous bio-warfare agent laboratory already constructed at
Los Alamos," commented plaintiffs' lead attorney Stephan Volker of Oakland,
California. "But DOE's inexplicable failure to halt construction of the
equally dangerous facility at Livermore is a huge mistake. This bio-warfare
agent lab could become a magnet for terrorist attacks, exposing the entire
Bay Area to potential contamination," added Mr. Volker. "Unless DOE
promptly agrees to withdraw approval of the Livermore bio-warfare agent
lab, we will ask the Court to bar operation of this lab to protect the
public's safety," Volker stated.

Biological containment levels range from BSL-1, which handles only agents
not known to cause illness in humans, to BSL-4, which houses agents for
which there are no known cures, such as Ebola. A BSL-3 designation permits
work with virulent pathogens used in both defensive and offensive
biological warfare research.

- 30 -

For further information, please call Tri-Valley CAREs at (925) 443-7148 or
Nuclear Watch of New Mexico at (505) 989-7342. Or, visit their websites at
www.trivalleycares.org and www.nukewatch.org.

A copy of the DOE press release is available on the web in PDF format or by
calling the groups' offices. The legal Complaint, Court Order staying
operations and other background materials are also available on the two
groups' web sites.

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit us
there!

(925) 443-7148 - is our phone
(925) 443-0177 - is our fax



_______________________________________________________________________
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Change your settings at:
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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 29 U.S. Newswire - DOE Issues Request for Proposal for Portsmouth 
and Paducah Environmental Cleanup Activities
 
 1/23/04 5:14:00 PM 

To: National Desk 

Contact: Chris Kielich of the Energy Department, 202-586-5806 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Department of Energy's 
(DOE) Office of Environmental Management issued a Request for 
Proposals (RFP) DE-RP24-04OH20179 to provide environmental 
cleanup services at the Portsmouth and Paducah Gaseous Diffusion 
Plant sites located in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., on 
January 16, 2004. Proposals are due March 16, 2004, 4 p.m. 
Eastern Time. 

The scope of work for the projects will include, but not be 
limited to, the investigation and remediation of specific areas 
at each site (land sites and groundwater); removal of legacy 
waste; facility decontamination and decommissioning (D&D); 
disposal of highly enriched uranium (Portsmouth only); 
maintaining and transferring the DUF6 Cylinders inventories; and 
operating site waste storage facilities in accordance with all 
the applicable laws, regulations, DOE Directives, permits, 
orders, and agreements. It is the department's intent to issue a 
single solicitation and award two Cost-Plus-Incentive-Fee (CPIF) 
contracts, one at each site. 

The period of performance is from the dates of contract awards 
through September 30, 2009. This acquisition is classified under 
the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 
562910, Environmental Remediation Services, with a size standard 
of 500 employees. The anticipated award dates are approximately 
July 2004. This acquisition is 100 percent set aside for small 
business. Parties interested in this solicitation should monitor 
the following website: for the current status and other 
information pertaining to this solicitation. 

/� 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 			 		   		   			 		   		   
*****************************************************************
 30 Las Vegas SUN: Watchdog: Nuke Guards Cheated in Drill

Today: January 26, 2004 at 12:30:10 PST 

 By TED BRIDIS ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - 

Security guards who repelled four simulated terrorist attacks at
a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant had been tipped in advance,
undermining the encouraging results, the Energy Department's
watchdog office said Monday. 

The surprising successes by guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons
plant last summer in Oak Ridge, Tenn., spurred an internal
investigation. It determined that at least two guards defending
the mock attacks had been allowed to look at computer
simulations one day before the attacks. 

The Energy Department's inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman,
declared the exercises "tainted and unreliable." He said each
mock attack cost as much as $85,000 to stage, and he urged the
department to consider his conclusions when awarding contracting
fees for Wackenhut Corp., which employs guards at Oak Ridge. A
spokesman for Wackenhut did not return telephone calls Monday to
The Associated Press. 

A broader investigation uncovered more evidence of cheating
during mock attacks against U.S. nuclear plants over the past
two decades. Results from such simulations are commonly
classified for national security reasons. 

The inspector general said guards in another mock attack in late
2000 or early 2001 were improperly told which building would be
attacked, the exact number of attackers and where a diversion
was being staged. Investigators also said managers substituted
their best security guards for others scheduled to work the day
of attacks; standby guards would sometimes be armed and used to
bolster existing security guards on duty. 

In other cases, security guards disabled laser sensors they wore
to determine whether they received a simulated gunshot. Guards
removed batteries, deliberately installed batteries backward and
covered sensors with tape, mud or Vaseline so they wouldn't
operate properly. 

Investigators said those claims were based on interviews with
current and former guards, which they described as "credible and
compelling." But they acknowledged they could find no
documentary evidence to support the claims of previous cheating. 

"There's no point in doing them if you have people who are going
to cheat," said Richard Clarke, a former senior White House
counterterrorism official. "That's ridiculous. It kind of
defeats the whole point of having these tests." 

The National Nuclear Security Administration, which protects
nuclear plants, said in a letter disclosed Monday that it
already has taken unspecified action. 

An associate administrator, Michael C. Kane, wrote that if the
attack simulations "were in any way compromised so as it skew
the quality of information we have about our ability to protect,
the results could have extremely significant effects in a way
that is entirely unacceptable." 

"We will take all appropriate steps to ensure that is not the
case," Kane wrote. 

The inspector general said two guards at Oak Ridge acknowledged
looking one day in advance at the computer simulations of the
pending mock attacks. The guards denied they did anything
differently to prepare, but Friedman said the information would
have revealed important details that would tip off the guards
about which simulated attack was being launched. 

"It's blatant cheating," said Peter Stockton of the Project on
Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group that has
been critical of security at Oak Ridge, about 20 miles west of
Knoxville. "It doesn't say much for the integrity of the guard
forces and some managers who knew this kind of thing was going
on." 

Computer models had predicted guards at the plant would
decisively lose at least two of the four simulated attacks, all
on June 23. Two other guards identified as improperly looking at
the plans in advance denied doing so, the report said. 

The report came just one week after the Oak Ridge plant
operators replaced the security manager, Judy Johns. A
spokeswoman for BWXT Y-12 L.L.C., which operates the plant, said
she could not immediately say whether the transfer was related
to the inspector general's findings. Johns was given a new
homeland security assignment and replaced by Willis "Butch"
Clements, who previously held the job from 1994 until 1998. 

Citing the federal Privacy Act, the inspector general's report
did not identify any of the Oak Ridge guards. Security at the
plant is handled by Wackenhut, the largest supplier of guards
for U.S. nuclear facilities, including the Nevada Test Site, the
Savannah River Site in South Carolina, Colorado's Rocky Flats
Environmental Technology Site and the Nonproliferation and
Nuclear Security Institute in Albuquerque, N.M. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Energy Department Inspector General:
http://www.ig.doe.gov/pdf/ig-0636.pdf

Y-12 National Security Complex: http://www.y12.doe.gov

Wackenhut Corp.: http://www.wackenhut.com

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 31 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:21:32 -0800 (PST)

 
HOMER Simpson let loose on US nuclear weapons facility
The Register
Homer Simpson has apparently relinquished his post at Springfield nuclear
plant to take up a new position with US Energy Department's Pantex plant
in Texas. ...
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/35122.html>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/35122.html

NUCLEAR utilities face deadline for radioactive waste lawsuits
Las Vegas Sun
... AP) - A final rush of lawsuits is expected this week from utility companies
suing the Energy Department for missing a 1998 deadline to open a national
nuclear ...
<http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2004/jan/26/012610813.html>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2004/jan/26/012610813.html

PAKISTANI denies transfer of nuclear arms data
International Herald Tribune
... Pakistan The commander of the Pakistani Army from 1988 to 1991 said
in an interview on Monday that he never approved the transfer of Pakistani
nuclear ...
<http://www.iht.com/articles/126712.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.iht.com/articles/126712.htm

RUSSIA, Japan call for early talks on DPRK nuclear issue
Xinhua
... Russia and Japan want the second round of six-nation talks on settling
the dispute surrounding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK)
nuclear ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-01/27/content_1288759.htm>

PAKISTAN polishes its tarnished nuclear image
Asia Times Online
ISLAMABAD - The story of nuclear leaks from Kahuta, the site of the Khan
Research Laboratories (KRL), Pakistan's main nuclear weapons laboratory,
to Iran ...
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FA27Df05.html>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FA27Df05.html

NUCLEAR Submarine Project Surfaces Despite Gov't Denial
Chosun Ilbo
With tensions continuing between Korea and Japan over Dokdo Island and
calls being made within Japan for the nation to arm itself with nuclear
weapons, it has ...
<http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200401/200401260034.html>

AMERICANS Meet Gadhafi, Tour Nuclear Site
ABC News
... congressman led a delegation of Americans into uncharted territory
Monday: a meeting with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and a tour of a Libyan
nuclear reactor. ...
<http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040126_1315.html>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040126_1315.html

MUSLIM hard-liners support Pakistan's detained nuclear scientists
New Zealand Herald
Hundreds of Muslim hard-liners have demonstrated in support of Pakistan's
detained nuclear scientists - men hailed as national heroes for creating
the Islamic ...
<http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3545699&thesection=news&thesubsection=world>
See all stories on this topic:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm%3FstoryID%3D3545699%26thesection%3Dnews%26thesubsection%3Dworld

TECHNOLOGY immune to nuclear blast
USA Today
... Their research could help make satellites and cell phones immune to
radioactive interference from solar storms and nuclear blasts, said Boudjouk,
NDSU's vice ...
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-01-26-spintronics_x.htm>

PAKISTAN Would Punish Scientists For Giving Away Nuclear Secrets
MENAFN
Karachi (dpa) - Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat Monday said
any scientist found involved in nuclear proliferation would be taken to
task. ...
<http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story.asp?StoryId=CqbsE0eienJq4nvbHA2LZDgfUv291BgrqDq>

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 32 [Fwd: [du-list] DU in the news  27th Jan. 04]
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:07:07 -0800

 
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Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:03:51 +1300
Subject: [du-list] DU in the news  27th Jan. 04
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>DEMOCRACY Now! 
Exclusive: Wesley Clark Admits Targeting Civilians ...<BR>Democracy Now<BR>... 
questions about his targeting of civilian infrastructure in Yugoslavia,<BR>his 
bombing of Radio Television Serbia, the use of cluster bombs and 
depleted<BR>uranium, ...<BR>&lt;</FONT><A 
href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/26/1632224"><FONT 
face="Times New Roman" 
size=3>http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/26/1632224</FONT></A><FONT 
face="Times New Roman" size=3>&gt;<BR><BR>CLUSTER Bombs: War Crimes of the Bush 
Administration<BR>Common Dreams<BR>... Regarding the use of cluster bombs, among 
other war crimes--the use<BR>of depleted uranium, "the wanton destruction of 
cities and towns," collective<BR>reprisals ...<BR>&lt;</FONT><A 
href="http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0126-04.htm"><FONT 
face="Times New Roman" 
size=3>http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0126-04.htm</FONT></A><FONT 
face="Times New Roman" size=3>&gt;<BR><BR>BAGHDAD to Babylon...(Pt. 
1)<BR>Electronic Iraq<BR>... metal. We tell them they have been hit with 
Depleted Uranium and are<BR>very poisonous.but the men continue with their work 
anyhow. ...<BR>&lt;</FONT><A 
href="http://electroniciraq.net/news/1349.shtml"><FONT face="Times New Roman" 
size=3>http://electroniciraq.net/news/1349.shtml</FONT></A><FONT 
face="Times New Roman" size=3>&gt;</FONT><BR></FONT></DIV>
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 33 [du-list] DU in the news -  Jan 26th 04
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 19:27:05 -0800

 
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URANIUM in Your Koolaid - interview with cancer specialist Dr ...
Infoshop News
Depleted Uranium is a highly toxic heavy metal derived from nuclear bomb
and fuel waste. It's heavy weight and pyrophoric qualities ...
<<http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/01/25/1998471>http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/01/25/1998471>

'ZAPPED' veteran fights on
Urbana/Champaign News-Gazette
... suitcase. But he's not winning much love now from the military, speaking
out all over the world on the dangers of depleted uranium. ...
<<http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=15330>http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=15330>

ONE man and his monsters
Sydney Morning Herald
... Chemical warfare in Vietnam, where children are still affected by it.
Depleted uranium in Kosovo and Iraq. Collateral damage everywhere. ...
<<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/25/1074965437042.html>http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/25/1074965437042.html>

CITIZENS must demand more responsible energy sources than nuclear
Freeport Journal Standard
... With the aid of huge subsidies (tens of billions of dollars) and by
redefining terms (eg depleted uranium waste would be re-classified as
"low level" waste ...
<<http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2004/01/25/opinion/op03.txt>http://www.journalstandard.com/articles/2004/01/25/opinion/op03.txt>


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 34 [DU-WATCH] The untimely oddity of Bush's space odyssey, as the
 
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 01:00:18 -0600 (CST)

 
we shouldn't need to dig too deep to find our outrage--belt it out!

Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 by CommonDreams.org Bush's
Space Odyssey by Michelle Ciarrocca

In response to President Bush's proposed space odyssey, one must
ask why? Why now, at a time of ongoing war and record budget deficits?
Why head off into space at a time when any number of domestic issues
-- from health care to unemployment and education -- are more urgent
priorities?

Bush's vague plan to "gain a new foothold on the Moon" and send
astronauts to Mars, may seem benign, even visionary. Speaking at
NASA headquarters, Mr. Bush explained, "mankind is drawn to the
heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands
and across the open sea." However, if we look beyond the rhetoric,
there is cause for concern. Anyone familiar with recommendations
from a commission on military uses of space chaired by Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, before his appointment, or the U.S. Space
Command's strategic planning documents, is raising eyebrows.

The Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management
and Organization was released in January of 2001. Chaired by Rumsfeld
until his appointment as Bush's Secretary of Defense, the commission
claimed that the U.S. is at risk of a "space Pearl Harbor" due to
a lack of "celestial" military preparedness. It also made a number
of concrete recommendations ranging from the need to develop new
technologies to defend U.S. space assets, to ensuring the U.S. can
deploy weapons in space. The Commission's findings and recommendations
are echoed in the U.S. Space Command's strategic master plan, posted
on its web site, which lays out the overall goal of U.S. domination
of space to protect U.S. interests and investments. The document
warns, "we cannot fully exploit space until we control it."

Although President Bush has made no mention of the military
implications of his new proposal for a Moon base and a Mars mission,
the President's sudden emphasis on space could mark the first step
down a dangerous path. The Space Command's strategic plan clearly
states, "this capability (space) is the ultimate high ground of
U.S. military operations. Air Force doctrine views air, space, and
information as key ingredients for dominating the battlespace and
ensuring superiority." As Bruce Gagnon, director of Global Network
Against Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space, aptly noted "there is
legitimate reason to question the plan for the establishment of
bases on the moon. The military has long eyed the moon as a potential
base of operations as warfare is moved into the heavens."

What also needs to be discussed is the fact that no fewer than eight
Pentagon military contractors were represented on Rumsfeld's space
commission. Companies such as Science Applications International
Corporation (SAIC), the Aerospace Corporation, Litton Industries,
Boeing Corporation, Northrop Grumman and Alliant Techsystems, were
represented on the commission -- all companies that stand to benefit
from the commission's findings. In addition to this previous
commission's recommendations, Bush has decided to form a new
presidential commission to look at how to make his vision a reality.
Heading this commission will be Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., a
former Air Force secretary, AND current board member of Lockheed
Martin -- one of the nation's top aerospace and military contractors.

Meanwhile, over at the Air Force, the assistant secretary in charge
of acquiring military space assets as part of Rumsfeld's new emphasis
on space as a place for exerting strategic dominance is none other
the Peter B. Teets, a former chief operating officer at Lockheed
Martin. On at least one occasion, Teets has told gatherings of
corporate, military, and Pentagon officials that the weaponization
of space is inevitable. It may or may not be inevitable, but if
representatives of companies who stand to profit from it continue
to be put in charge of our space policy, the likelihood of an arms
race in space will be a lot higher. The Bush administration's heavy
reliance on defense executives with interests in military space
ventures calls into question the objectivity of the panel's
recommendations. The true intent of President Bush's rallying cry
to further space exploration could simply be in the name of science,
but these issues need to be seriously discussed beforehand.

Michelle Ciarrocca is a Research Associate at the World Policy
Institute

###

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