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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Huttonise history: the verdict 
2 Las Vegas SUN: Senate Panel to Review Bush Info on Iraq
3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: FM reaffirms Iran nuke plan peaceful 
4 AU SMH: Iran admits new level of nuclear readiness 
5 Korea Herald: Seoul, Beijing to discuss nuclear issue   
6 BBC: Malaysia denies US nuclear claim 
7 Haaretz: Vanunu among record 173 Nobel nominees       
8 NEWS.com.au: Nuclear trafficker, says US (Malaysia)
9 Daily Times: "Nuclear states must cooperate to stop proliferation"
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
10 Bellona: Upcoming EU enlargement revives long-standing nuclear battl
11 US: SJ Mercury: Truck leaks toxic hydrazine outside Diablo Canyon nu
12 US: Beacon Journal: Nuclear plant gets good news
13 US: Las Vegas SUN: Ohio Nuclear Plant Found Much Improved
14 US: toledoblade.com: NRC notes progress at Davis-Besse
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
15 US: [Fwd: [du-list] Immediate Release: US admits DU risks in Militar
16 US: [DU-WATCH] LETTER FROM A SOLDIER'S MOTHER: SOLDIER'S ARE NOT
17 [DU-WATCH] Radioactive debris
18 [DU-WATCH] Medact report on the Legality of DU weapons
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
19 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear waste freeze 
20 Las Vegas RJ: Nevada's Republicans hear from 'Bush's political pit b
21 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Test shows no dust hazard 
22 Las Vegas RJ: Bush nominates Reid aide to NRC 
23 Bellona: Sellafield: The fight continues
24 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Disregard for safety
25 Las Vegas SUN: Reid adviser nominated for nuke panel
26 Las Vegas SUN: State says no dust problem at Yucca
27 US: Las Vegas SUN: Transfer of fuel rods 'not necessary'
28 RGJ: Reid calls for Yucca closure
29 SF Chronicle: Nevada gaining clout in the political arena / 
30 US: MSNBC: New twist in nuclear waste debate
31 Las Vegas SUN: GOP Chair: Bush "has been true" to Nevadans on Yucca 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
32 Las Vegas SUN: Photo of U.S. Hiroshima Victim in Display
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
33 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers learn about benefits 
34 Oak Ridger: Budget cuts loom, Wamp talks impact to OR 							 						
35 Oak Ridger: TVA plans job cuts 							 							 							
36 CBC: Fernald to lay off 100 workers - 
37 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho 
38 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
39 Google News Alert - nuclear
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Huttonise history: the verdict 
		 	
On February 3, we invited you to speculate on how Lord Hutton, 
author of the controversial report on the inquiry into the death 
of Dr David Kelly, might have interpreted episodes from history. 
Copies of the new Guardian book, The Hutton Inquiry and its 
Impact, were the prizes on offer. Below are the 10 winners, 
followed by a few that narrowly missed the cut.             
		
Thursday February 12, 2004              
		
The winners:

Hutton on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ:

"I am satisfied that the decision to crucify Jesus Christ was one 
that was made after an independent and rigorous trial by Pontius 
Pilate. I am further satisfied that Pilate's questioning of him 
was appropriate and that the Jewish and Roman authorities fully 
exercised their duty of care towards him.

From the evidence I have heard, I conclude that Pilate acted 
impartially throughout, although I cannot entirely rule out the 
possibility that he was subconsciously influenced by thousands of 
people - led by the Jewish elders - shouting: "Crucify him, 
crucify him."

The issues of whether the trial before the Jewish elders was 
fair, whether Jesus Christ is the son of God, and whether he 
deserved to die fall outside my remit, and I therefore wash my 
hands of them." Peter Walsh

Hutton on Adam and Eve:

The story of Original Hutton, into which all Blairites are born 
and upon which the New Labour religion is based. Previously based 
on the Anglican church, the government is currently based on the 
church of Can-Find-an-Angle. That has necessitated an inquiry 
into the Bible. The Genesis report, as revealed by the Sun from 
impartial sources:

Serpent: unauthorised meeting with Eve - expelled from the Garden

Eve: became wise (as promised) but misrepresented serpent's words 
- expelled from the Garden

Adam: didn't check Eve's sources and notes - expelled from the 
Garden

God: was untruthful saying that Adam and Eve would die from the 
fruit, but, as He was previously believed to be a reliable 
source, the allegation that He lied on purpose was unfounded (He 
previously claimed to be omniscient, but now blames faulty 
intelligence) - exonerated and will remain in the government (er, 
Garden) forever

Fruit: not found, but search continues Gretchen Lippett

Hutton on the 1987 hurricane: "I conclude with confidence that 
the alleged "hurricane" in October 1987 never actually occurred. 
My reasons are as follows. Firstly, hurricanes are confined to 
the western Atlantic, from which the UK is far removed. Secondly, 
I researched the weather records for that month, concentrating on 
Scotland, since average winds speeds are highest there. No 
hurricane force winds were recorded there throughout that month. 
Thirdly, it was claimed that many trees in southern England had 
been uprooted, but, during a tour there last week I saw no fallen 
trees at all; indeed, many were young and healthily growing. 
Finally, on checking the weather broadcasts, I discovered the 
source of this misconception. A woman in France had told Mr 
Michael Fish that a hurricane was coming, but he categorically 
denied that during his forecast. Ironically, it appears that his 
public denial may actually have been the source of this entirely 
unfounded allegation. Dr Martin Thomas

Hutton on the battle of the Somme: Quotations from Hutton's 
"Inquiry into the battle of the Somme"

"I completely exonerate General Haig. He is the model of 
authority and honesty. Who could not be impressed by this man, 
his posture, moustache, shiny boots and the rows of ribbons 
pinned to his uniform?

"Anyone reading the 'German Somme Defences' dossier - prepared 
for General Haig by his intelligence and PR officers - would have 
unquestionably accepted its two central conclusions: that the 
risk level of the attack was zero, and that boredom would be the 
army's most dangerous enemy.

"Since General Haig's actions were wholly based upon the 
information in the dossier, he can in no way be responsible for 
the 58,000 casualties suffered on the 1st July or the additional 
360,000 suffered up until November 1916. We all know how 
dangerous it is to stop a military process - just ask Count von 
Schlieffen." Robin Flowers

Hutton on the death of Thomas a Becket: "I find the allegation by 
the Broadsheet of the Borough of Canterbury and its reporter, 
Andrew of Gillingham, that four knights acting on the orders of 
King Henry murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket to be totally 
without foundation and tantamount to libel.

"Archbishop Becket was a well known eccentric and I totally 
accept the evidence of the respected knights that he repeatedly 
ran at, and impaled himself upon, their swords when they entered 
the cathedral to make confession. 

"The suggestion that the knights had previously had any 
communication with King Henry is a gross calumny on the part of 
the BBC.

"While the allegation that there had existed some dispute between 
the archbishop and the king is regarded by some as important, it 
is outside the remit of my inquiry and has no bearing on my 
investigation."

The Lord Brian de Hutton John Wright

Hutton on Guy Fawkes: "As for the lighted taper in his hand, I am 
persuaded that Mr Fawkes' explanation, that he was lighting his 
pipe, is to be accepted. The wisdom of his action is no doubt 
open to question. But it is undoubtedly the case that the large 
number of barrels stacked against the walls partially, if not 
wholly, obscured the NO SMOKING signs. Questions regarding the 
contents of these barrels are, of course, beyond the scope of 
this inquiry." J V P Whittle

Hutton on the Hutton report: 1. My terms of reference were:

"Urgently to conduct an investigation into the Inquiry by Lord 
Hutton"

2. I consider the terms of reference required me to consider the 
circumstances preceding and leading up to the Inquiry of Lord 
Hutton, in particular (1) they might have an effect on his state 
of mind and influenced his actions preceding and leading up to 
his Report or (2) they might have influenced the actions of 
others affecting Lord Hutton preceding and leading up to his 
Report.

3. The term "report" is an Establishment expression, the meaning 
of which lacks clarity when authorised by the PM. It is capable 
of two meanings. It could mean "an account or statement of a 
judicial opinion", or it could mean a "whitewash designed to 
please the Government", at odds with the evidence and reality. If 
the former, then indeed the Hutton Report could not be called a 
Report. However, in the context, I believe it was the latter 
definition that was required, and was delivered. Matthew Turner

Hutton on the 1966 World Cup final Germany win 1966 World Cup 
final, despite England scoring more goals

Even as Bobby Moore held aloft the cup in front of jubilant 
English supporters, Lord Hutton, an impartial spectator, declared 
Germany the winner. 

"Having sat through the whole proceedings, it is my considered 
opinion that three of the goals, all from the boot of Geoff 
Hurst, were unreliable. 

"In contrast, Germany's goals were more convincing. My verdict: 
England 1 Germany 2."

Alf Ramsey, while disappointed with the verdict, immediately 
tendered his resignation, much to the dismay of the English fans. 
"Whitewash," said one, with a banner urging Alf to stay. "It's 
all a load of bollocks," said another. David Grundy

Hutton on the birth of British printing and William Caxton:

(Body text printed in white)

Matt Buck

Hutton on the death of King Harold: 28 January, 1067.

His Royal Highness, in his terms of reference, commanded me to 
conduct "an urgent inquiry into the apparent suicide of Harold" 
who was found in a field in Hastings with an arrow through his 
eye. He had apparently led a mass suicide of his followers, 
12,472 of whom also apparently suicided [sic] by falling on 
swords, arrows, clubs, spears, etc.

This inquiry, "frankly", took place amid widespread allegations 
that Our Royal Highness, William, (known as "the Conkerer" for 
his boyhood devotion to that traditional English pursuit) staged 
an "illegal invasion" of England. These allegations are beyond my 
strict remit (but between you and me, HRH is a really top bloke).

I find that Harold invited HRH to Hastings for a picnic, but 
chose to kill himself, along with his large catering staff, when 
the soufflés dropped.

Case closed.

Baron Hutton Colin McKerlie

The best of the rest:

Hutton on the death of Ann Boleyn: "I am satisfied that Ms Boleyn 
took her own life by severing her neck from her body. In the 
months leading up to her death, she was under considerable 
pressure, particularly following gross allegations of adultery 
and her consequent trial for treason. No blame can be attached to 
the King for the emergence of the allegations for, as he himself 
said in evidence, "once it became public that the spouse of the 
monarch was accused of an adulterous affair with her brother, it 
was only a matter of time before Ms Boleyn's identity was made 
manifest". The comment by the King's agent to London criers, 
characterising Ms Boleyn as "a goggle-eyed whore" (for which he 
subsequently apologised) was regrettable, but had no bearing on 
the tragedy.

"I was particularly impressed by the evidence of the Doctor of 
Physick who cited the possession of six fingers as indicative of 
suicidal tendencies." Catherine Emerson

Hutton on the Battle of Waterloo: Monsieur Hutton reports to 
Napoleon I on the causes of the inconveniences encountered in 
Waterloo.

"It appears that Marshall Grouchy lost the address of his 
correspondent, the Duke of Wellington, so that the two could not 
meet to solve their differences and your majesty had to intervene 
on behalf of Marshall Grouchy. 

"The secret service, having not informed you of the presence of a 
certain Mr Blucher and of some Prussian acolytes of his, your 
highness was inconvenienced in his conversation with the Duke. 
Insulted by Mr Blucher's bad manners, your majesty rightly 
refused to have anything to do with such gross character and 
withdrew to Paris.

"The Press inflated the affair and gave undue weight to what 
happened to the other 120,000 French soldiers in the field. Their 
behaviour during an ordinary weekend of vacation abroad was 
misinterpreted and reported with grave inexactitudes. 

"For example, it was reported that they had breakfast at 6am, 
while we were given ample evidence to prove that it did not take 
place before 6.15am.

"I suggest therefore that, before any announcement of pretended 
defeats in battle, the Press should be required to exhibit in 
Paris all the corpses of the pretended dead soldiers as well as 
an official statement of Your Majesty's about the battle's 
outcome." Luca Einaudi

Hutton on the charge of the Light Brigade: From the Manchester 
Guardian, evening edition of December 1 1854 

Hutton censures poet laureate for 'Light Brigade'; commanders 
escape unscathed 

This morning, Lord Hutton rendered public the results of his 
inquiry into the events of the battle of Balaclava on October 
25th. The peer was entrusted with this task after Alfred, Lord 
Tennyson, in his ode to the soldiers of the 13th light dragoons, 
insinuated incompetence on the part of its commanders Lords 
Raglan and Lucan with the words "someone had blundered". Hutton 
reports that Tennyson is entirely to blame for mistaken reporting 
and failing to check his sources. By contrast, the learned judge 
refused to believe that officers in Her Majesty's service could 
commit such a blunder. In particular, testimony that Lord Raglan 
had indeed given the vague, disastrous order to "charge those 
guns" was entirely disregarded. 

Thus Tennyson, as representative of the critical media of our 
free realm, emerges severely chastened, while Lords Raglan and 
Lucan have been utterly cleared of any incompetence or 
misconduct. 

This journalist unhesitatingly labels the report a whitewash. 
Fabio del Piero

Hutton on the sinking of the Belgrano: Her Majesty's Government 
has accorded in me, Lord Denyng Mutton-Widgery-Pokery, on this 
Third day of December 1982, the duty to report on the 
circumstances of the sinking of the warship Belgrano. My report 
before the House consists of 79 pages, 31,289 words total, of 
which I now read you a summary: 

"Evidence offered by the Argentine government, the Houston Space 
Satellite and various drunken RAF and naval personnel that the 
Belgrano was outside territorial waters cannot be substantiated. 
Moreover, when the Captain of the Belgrano was requested to 
remove his warship, the reply ' ****** off ' was clearly heard. 

"On the Prime Minister's personal intervention, we now know that 
the Belgrano WAS sunk in territorial waters and that it was only 
freak winds which caused it to be found underwater 350 miles west 
of the Falklands.

This matter is now closed. Now is the time to move on. Russell 
Telfer

Hutton on the sinking of the Titanic: Summing up, Lord Hutton 
stressed that the crew of the ship were "emphatically not to 
blame" for the tragedy which cost many lives. Although His 
Lordship accepted that the crew may have been "subconsciously" 
aware of an infantile desire by their superiors to break records 
for the transatlantic crossing, claims that undue pressure was 
put on them to ignore warnings and proceed willy-nilly into the 
unknown were "without foundation". 

Animadverting briefly to the fact that the speed of the ship was, 
given the conditions, contrary to generally accepted and well 
established international maritime convention, His Lordship said 
that this "was beyond the terms of his remit" and that the blame 
for the tragedy lay fairly and squarely with the iceberg, which 
had clearly drifted south "without proper authorisation" very 
early in the morning. Diarmuid Deeney

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

*****************************************************************
 2 Las Vegas SUN: Senate Panel to Review Bush Info on Iraq

Today: February 13, 2004 at 10:05:13 PST 

 By KEN GUGGENHEIM ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - 

The Senate Intelligence Committee will expand its review of
intelligence on Iraq to examine whether the Bush administration
accurately described the information it had on Saddam Hussein's
weapons. 

The committee will examine "whether public statements and
reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. government
officials (between the 1991 Gulf War and the Iraq War) were
substantiated by intelligence information," committee leaders
said in a statement Thursday night. 

The panel is nearing completion of a report expected to be
extremely critical of the intelligence agencies' collection and
analysis of prewar intelligence. Since the inquiry began in
June, Democrats have insisted that the commission also examine
whether the administration distorted intelligence to help build
the case for war. Republicans have refused and both sides have
accused the other of using the traditionally bipartisan
committee for political purposes. 

The expansion of the inquiry is not expected to delay the
release of the committee's report. It is not clear how long it
will take to review the administration statements or whether its
findings on those statements would be released before the
November election. 

Pressure for the expanded inquiry grew after the former chief
weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, said last month that
intelligence agencies had wrongly concluded Iraq had large
chemical and biological weapon stockpiles and an advanced
nuclear weapons program. That intelligence served as President
Bush's main argument for war. 

Bush last week appointed a bipartisan commission to examine
intelligence agencies' work on Iraq and other U.S. adversaries.
The commission is led by Laurence Silberman, a former federal
appeals court judge and ambassador to Yugoslavia, and Charles
Robb, a former two-term Democratic senator and Virginia
governor. 

In addition to examining public statements, the Senate committee
will review intelligence activities involving the office of
Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, and
intelligence provided by the Iraqi National Congress, the
leading exile group. 

Democrats have charged that the Office of Special Plans under
Feith functioned as a renegade intelligence agency, feeding
policy-makers uncorroborated intelligence from the group. The
Pentagon has said the office was a small operation set up to
review intelligence produced by other agencies. 

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., called the expanded
inquiry "a refinement and to a great extent a restatement of the
committee's ongoing review of prewar intelligence." 

The panel's top Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia,
said outstanding issues remain, "but we've made a lot of
progress, and its clear that were moving in the right
direction." 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 3 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: FM reaffirms Iran nuke plan peaceful 

IranNews Tehran Times Iran Daily   

  2004/02/13   

Rome, Feb 13 - Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi here on Thursday 
rejected recent allegations against Iran regarding its nuclear 
energy activities, stressing that the Islamic Republic is 
pursuing no plan for production of nuclear weapons.

 Kharrazi told reporters before a religious conference that Iran 
is determined to continue cooperation with the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and that Tehran will cooperate with 
the IAEA inspectors.

 Iran's foreign minister was speaking in reaction to the remarks 
by US under secretary of state John Bolton in Berlin that Tehran 
is still continuing a nuclear program. 

Kharrazi said Iran's nuclear energy program is meant for civil 
purposes, and that the Islamic Republic has a legitimate right to 
promote its nuclear energy technology. 

MM/S   


  Copyright 2004, 
All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
News Network 
Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
*****************************************************************
 4 AU SMH: Iran admits new level of nuclear readiness 

www.smh.com.au [Sydney Morning Herald Online]   

By David Sanger and William Broad in Washington

February 14, 2004
 		 	   	   		
The Iranian Government, confronted with new evidence obtained 
from the secret network of nuclear suppliers surrounding the 
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, has acknowledged that it 
possesses a design for a far more advanced high-speed centrifuge 
to enrich uranium than it had revealed to United Nations 
inspectors. 

The centrifuge, called a Pak-2 because it is a second-generation 
Pakistani design, would allow Iran to produce nuclear fuel far 
more quickly than the equipment it revealed to the International 
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last year. But it is unclear whether 
Iran succeeded in building the new equipment. 

Diplomats said they would not be surprised if Dr Khan were the 
source. He is the father of Pakistan's atom bomb and recently 
admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. 

Iran's new statements to the IAEA, which last year compelled it 
to open to fuller inspections, mark the first evidence that 
Tehran did not tell the full truth when it turned over to the 
agency documents that it said described all the important 
elements of its program to enrich uranium. The enrichment 
program, Iran admitted at the time, had been conducted in secret 
and out of the view of international inspectors for 18 years. 

The revelation has also touched off a debate within American and 
European intelligence agencies over whether the Khan network also 
sold a full weapon design to Iran, similar to the one found in 
Libya. 

"It's natural to question whether the Iranians got everything the 
Libyans did," one senior Administration official said. "Why 
wouldn't they?" 

A US undersecretary of state, John Bolton, said Tehran's plan was 
apparent. "There's no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to 
pursue a nuclear weapons program," he said. 

Western diplomats in Vienna said the IAEA uncovered designs for 
an advanced enrichment centrifuge that should have been mentioned 
in Iran's October declaration of its atomic program. Tehran said 
at the time its declaration was complete and has always denied it 
was trying to make a nuclear bomb. 

"The burden of proof is on the one who makes the allegations," 
Iran's Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, said. "Certainly we are 
not following any program to produce weapons." 

He said the uranium enrichment was intended solely for fuelling 
nuclear power plants. "We do not have anything to hide and we are 
ready to be inspected more seriously by IAEA inspectors". 

Diplomats in Vienna said the agency compiled a stack of evidence 
suggesting Iran already had more sophisticated uranium enrichment 
designs than it had admitted. "Partly the evidence came from 
Libya, and partly from the network of suppliers and from member 
states" of the agency, a senior European diplomat said. 

Another official said the agency had privately charged Tehran 
with hiding that fact from the inspectors. The Iranians strongly 
denied any effort to deceive, the official said. Some Western 
experts said Iran's stance had some merit. 

"The truth is somewhere in the middle," one official said, adding 
that the degree to which Iran disclosed details of its technology 
last year was the heart of the dispute. 

Meanwhile, Russia has defied US pressure to sever nuclear ties 
with Iran. 

The Russian Atomic Energy Minister, Alexander Rumyantsev, said 
Moscow would sign a deal with Iran next month to ship nuclear 
fuel for the country's power plant at Bushehr. 

The New York Times, Reuters 

Copyright  © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.     | contact us 
*****************************************************************
 5 Korea Herald: Seoul, Beijing to discuss nuclear issue   
        
(shj@heraldm.com) By Seo Hyun-jin

2004.02.14
    
China's senior diplomat arrived in Seoul yesterday to discuss 
preparations for six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear threat, 
which will kick off later this month. 

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet Foreign Minister 
Ban Ki-moon, Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin and Deputy 
Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck today. 

Wang, chief delegate to the nuclear talks, is expected to convey 
North Korea's position on eliminating its nuclear weapons 
developments and on U.S. countermeasures to resolve the 15-moth 
nuclear standoff. 

China has played an active role in mediating the second round of 
the talks, which will also involve the two Koreas, the United 
States, Japan and Russia, in Beijing beginning Feb. 25. 

Before flying to Seoul for a three-day visit, Wang held 
consultations in Tokyo with Japanese officials on the nuclear 
tension surrounding Pyongyang. 

The participants are making last-ditch efforts to produce 
tangible results from the upcoming talks because their first 
gathering in Beijing six months ago ended without making any 
progress. 

South Korea, the United States and Japan want North Korea to come 
clean about all of its atomic weapons programs, including its 
controversial uranium enrichment scheme. 

North Korea has denied having any such uranium program. 
*****************************************************************
 6 BBC: Malaysia denies US nuclear claim 
 
  Last Updated: Friday, 13 February, 2004
 
By Jonathan Kent BBC, Kuala Lumpur   

[PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ]                             
Mr Abdullah questioned the evidence for Malaysia's alleged role                                                             

Malaysia has hit back at remarks made by US President George W 
Bush alleging the country had a role in the trafficking of 
nuclear secrets. 

Mr Bush suggested Malaysia was involved in a network run by the 
Pakistani nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. 

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has questioned the quality of US 
intelligence into the scandal. 

The government-owned New Straits Times newspaper accused Mr Bush 
of double standards and hypocrisy. 

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was adamant. He said there was no 
such thing as Malaysia's involvement, and he asked where 
President Bush was getting his evidence. 

Earlier this week, Mr Bush highlighted the part the country 
played in plans by Dr Khan to pass nuclear technology to 
countries like Libya and North Korea. 

Mr Bush accused a Malaysian-based businessman, BSA Tahir, of 
being Dr Khan's financier and chief money-launderer. 

Abdullah Badawi said Mr Tahir was not under immediate threat of 
arrest and was free to move around Malaysia as he wished. 

The president also drew attention to Malaysian factories that Mr 
Tahir commissioned to make parts for the Libyan nuclear programme 
- factories owned in part by Abdullah Badawi's son. 

His company maintains it was not told what the parts were for. 

The Malaysian government is clearly concerned to distance the 
country from the growing scandal. 

In an editorial, the New Straits Times accused Mr Bush of 
hypocrisy for cutting funds to some non-proliferation programmes, 
while spending more on his country's nuclear weapons. 

*****************************************************************
 7 Haaretz: Vanunu among record 173 Nobel nominees       

Update: 13/02/2004 13:29   
    
  By Reuters and Haaretz Service   	 
    
OSLO - Jailed Israeli atomic whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, the 
head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei 
and former Czech President Vaclav Havel are among a record 173 
nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize.     

The Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Friday that the number of 
nominees - 129 individuals and 44 organizations - beat a former 
record of 165 for 2003 when the award went to Iranian lawyer 
Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman laureate.

"I'm speculating about Vanunu [winning], although I don't think 
that the Nobel Committee will be sufficiently daring to provoke 
Israel," said Stein Toennesson, director of the Peace Research 
Institute, Oslo.

Vanunu will be freed in April after an 18-year jail term for 
treason for leaking details of Israel's secret nuclear program.

The deadline for mailing nominations for the award, named after 
Sweden's Alfred Nobel, passed on February 1. The list of names is 
secret but some people publicize their choices. The winner will 
be announced in October.

"We have received nominations from around the world," said Geir 
Lundestad, director of the Institute. "The prize has become ever 
more global." 

Lundestad said he had received thousands of e-mails protesting 
news last month that U.S. President George Bush and British Prime 
Minister Tony Blair were on the list despite failure to find 
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason they had 
cited for invading the country.

Other nominees included former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans 
Blix and ElBaradei, the head of the UN's International Atomic 
Energy Agency. The two worked together on inspections in Iraq 
before the U.S.-led war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.

Nobel watchers say that work seems too long ago to win in 2004 - 
especially when the 2002 Prize went to former U.S. President 
Jimmy Carter in what the head of the Nobel committee called a 
"kick in the legs" to Bush's policies on Iraq.

Even so, ElBaradei has kept a high profile with nuclear safety 
worries from Pakistan to Libya. French President Jacques Chirac, 
who opposed the war, is among politicians on the list.

The European Union and Havel, a perennial favourite for leading 
Czechoslovakia's 1989 "Velvet Revolution" from communism, have 
been nominated to mark the eastwards expansion of the EU to 25 
states from 15 from May 1.

Pope John Paul was again nominated, but the secretive five-member 
awards committee is widely believed to object to his conservative 
moral teachings, like opposing birth control.

Other nominees range from Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya to U.S. 
senator Richard Lugar and ex-senator Sam Nunn for a campaign to 
dismantle ageing Soviet nuclear weapons.         

  © Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 8 NEWS.com.au: Nuclear trafficker, says US (Malaysia)

(February 14, 2004)
 	 	 	 
Rohan Sullivan in Kuala Lumpur
 				 				 
MALAYSIA'S leader has questioned US intelligence on his country's 
role in a global nuclear trafficking network, saying the man US 
President George W. Bush called its "chief financial officer and 
money launderer" would not be arrested, for now.
                                                                  
"He is on his feet and free to move around," Prime Minister 
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said of Bukhari Sayed Abu Tahir, allegedly 
a middleman who helped Pakistan's top nuclear scientist sell 
equipment and know-how to Iran, Libya and North Korea. 

Malaysia has said President Bush is unfairly singling Malaysia 
out with his assertions about its role in the network run by 
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

 "There is no such thing as Malaysia's involvement," Mr Abdullah 
said yesterday. "I don't know where Bush is getting his evidence 
from." 

The Government-controlled New Straits Times newspaper accused Mr 
Bush of "double standards and hypocrisy" and compared his drive 
against nuclear proliferation to "the sham of his weapons of mass 
destruction theory behind the invasion of Iraq". 

President Bush said Khan and his associates used a company in 
Malaysia to make parts for centrifuges, which can be used to 
enrich uranium for weapons, and that front companies had been 
used to "deceive legitimate firms into selling them tightly 
controlled materials". 

The Malaysian company does not deny making the parts, but says it 
did not know what they were for. 

Both US officials and the Vienna-based International Atomic 
Energy Agency said the components were clearly for nuclear use, 
disputing Malaysian police assertions that they could have had 
other purposes. 

Tahir, a Sri Lankan based in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, 
but who is at present in Malaysia, operated a computer company to 
order centrifuge components from a Malaysian factory using 
designs from Pakistan, President Bush said in a speech on 
Thursday. 

Other parts came from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, he 
said. 

"Tahir acted as both the network's chief financial officer and 
money launderer," President Bush said. 

"He was also its shipping agent, using his computer firm as cover 
for the movement of centrifuge parts to various clients." 

The President demanded tougher laws to stop the illicit spread of 
weapons technology. 

The Malaysian-made parts were seized in October in a shipment of 
items bound for Libya. 

The seizure was central to uncovering Libya's nuclear program, 
which was allegedly helped by Khan. 

The Malaysian company, Scomi Precision Engineering, says it 
supplied 14 partly finished machine components, ordered by Tahir, 
to Dubai. It says it understood the parts were for use in the oil 
and gas industry. 

The company's parent, Scomi Group, is majority-controlled by 
Kamaluddin Abdullah, the prime minister's only son, who does not 
play an official management role in the company. 

Malaysia's leader has promised that the police investigation into 
the matter will be conducted "without fear or favour". 

Police say they have found no evidence of wrongdoing by Scomi. 

Malaysian police have been investigating Tahir, who is married to 
the daughter of a former Malaysian diplomat, a senior official 
said. 

"Malaysian police have spoken to him and asked him a lot of 
questions," Abdullah said. 

Police say they are not detaining Tahir because he has apparently 
broken no local laws. 

Malaysia has ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but 
it is unclear whether its laws allow criminal prosecution for 
nuclear parts trafficking.                              

The Courier-Mail
 				 							 				 					 						 						
Copyright 2003 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT+11).                            
*****************************************************************
 9 Daily Times: "Nuclear states must cooperate to stop proliferation"
 
Friday, February 13, 2004    

WARSAW: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri called on 
Thursday for cooperation between nuclear states to prevent 
criminal groups getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

“The greatest danger that US President George W Bush rightfully 
pointed out is the threat of non-state actors,” Mr Kasuri told a 
news conference on the second and final day of a visit to Poland.

“You deal with non-state actors by interacting with states,” he 
said, adding “cooperative engagement, constructive engagement 
with nuclear states” was needed.

He was referring to a call from Bush on Wednesday for global 
support for tighter curbs on nuclear know-how. Mr Kasuri 
reiterated that Pakistan was not involved in nuclear 
proliferation, saying Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan would have acted in a 
personal capacity and not on behalf of his country.

“If there has been cooperation it was on a personal level, not 
the state of Pakistan,” he said, ruling out any collaboration 
with the North Korean authorities on missile technology. “We have 
a more advanced programme than Korea has. If there has been 
cooperation it was on a personal level, not the state of 
Pakistan,” he said.

He also said international investigations had shown that Libya 
and Iran had not become nuclear powers. “Despite proliferation 
Libya and Iran were unable to become nuclear powers,” he said.

“It is very unlikely that if states cannot get nuclear weapons, 
how can groups have them?” Questioned during the news conference 
on prospects for relations with archrival India following a peace 
initiative, he called for “flexibility.” “There will be no 
solution unless there is flexibility on both sides,” he said. 

Pakistan and Poland have signed a memorandum of understanding on 
bilateral consultations between the two countries’ foreign 
ministries.

The ministers signed the MoU during a two-day official visit by 
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri to Poland. Mr Kasuri and 
his Polish counterpart, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewiec, led the talks 
that focused on bilateral relations.

The two sides discussed bilateral and international matters of 
mutual interest. The Polish minister said both countries enjoyed 
strategic importance, and that Pakistan and Poland shared common 
views on various issues. 

Their wide-ranging talks also included bilateral cooperation in 
energy, coal mining, sugar beet, agricultural machinery, exchange 
of students and scholars, and scientific cooperation.

Mr Kasuri briefed his counterpart about developments in 
Afghanistan. He also mentioned the positive developments in the 
Pakistani-Indian relations. They also shared their perceptions on 
developments related to their respective regions.

The two sides also agreed that in view of a rapidly evolving 
contemporary situation, such periodical consultations and 
exchange of views were very useful. Deputy Prime Minister and 
Minister for Interior and Administration Jozef Oleksy to discuss 
important issues of common interest. 

They shared the desire to intensify cooperation. 

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri also met Polish 
President Aleksander Kwasniewski and discussed bilateral 
relations.

During the talks, he briefed the Polish president on the latest 
developments in Pakistani-Indian relations, the South Asian 
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit and other 
international issues of mutual interest. 

“The importance attached by Pakistan to Poland was underlined 
along with our desire to give momentum to the bilateral 
relationship,” a Foreign Office statement said in Islamabad.

Earlier, Mr Kasuri met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister 
for Interior and Administration Jozef Oleksy and discussed 
important issues of common interest. They shared the desire to 
intensify cooperation both political and economic as well as 
within the framework of international forums Mr Olezsy briefed Mr 
Kasuri on the European integration and Poland’s participation in 
that process. —Agencies Home | National           

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions
*****************************************************************
 10 Bellona: Upcoming EU enlargement revives long-standing nuclear battle
 
BRUSSELS—On the first of May later this year, the European Union 
will take 10 new member states on board, five of which are still 
operating nuclear power plants with so-called high-risk reactors. 
Four of the new Member States run Soviet design reactors—the 
VVER-440-230 and the fatally flawed, Chernobyl style RBMK 
series—all in need of maintenance or, better, complete shut-down.

  The flags of the European Union's current Member States
flutter in Brussels.   

Soizick Martin; Charles Digges, 2004-02-10 16:51

The question of what to do about these reactors issues has sent
the EU on a quest to codify new nuclear safety standards, but
the international intricacies militate against simple
standardization finding common ground raises many questions.
Chief among these is, will the inclusion of these reactors on
the EU grid lead to a revival for Europe’s nuclear industry? 

A short history of nuclear power in Europe
 The use of nuclear energy in Europe has been legally governed
by the 1957 Euratom Treaty since the inception of the European
Community. The treaty provides safeguards to for the safe
operation of nuclear installations and the use of nuclear
materials that are similar to those provided by the UN’s
International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. Unlike the IAEA,
however, Euratom sets no standards that have the force of law on
nuclear safety and radioactive waste. 

By the 1970’s nuclear power programmes in Europe had worked up a
substantial head of steam and were diverging along very
different paths. So were the national systems for regulating
them. Cooperation between the EU’s biggest nuclear powers was
governed, over time, by a “non-binding acquis” built on common
fundamental principles. 

With May’s planned enlargement of the EU to the east, a number
of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors in the countries to be
incorporated will soon be part of the European Community.. It
has therefore become an urgent task for the European Commission,
or EC, to harmonize its nuclear safety regulations. An EC policy
paper, authored three years ago entitled “Agenda 2000” called
for this harmonization process to be addressed immediately. 

In response, the EC released a package in November 2002,
including proposed directives defining the basic safety
principles for nuclear installations—both during operation and
decommissioning—within the EU. The set of proposals, which aim
to become directives for the definition of safety at European
nuclear power plants, are known as the “Nuclear Package.” 

“While we can be proud of having an excellent level of nuclear
safety in the EU, the shortcomings in nuclear legislation in the
run-up to enlargement need to be overcome,” EC Vice-President in
charge of energy and transport Loyola de Palacio said in a
January 30th 2003 statement about the nuclear package. 

“These proposals for directives are being adopted at a time when
the Court of Justice recently confirmed the [European]
Community’s legislative power with regards to the safety of
nuclear facilities.”

  EC’s ‘nuclear package’ to harmonise atomic energy in expanded
EU—but environmentalists cry foul   

  The European Commission’s “nuclear package”—a raft of
legislative proposals for nuclear energy and waste safety that
many environmentalists consider a smokescreen for further
European Union atomic development—was debated at the European
Parliament in October.

But the Nuclear Package’s jurisdiction has been disputed on many
fronts. In a report to the Committee on Industry, External
Trade, Research and Energy Esko Olavi Seppanen, a United Left
Party MEP and Rapporteur on the directive, challenged the ECs
legal basis for even making its suggestions in the nuclear
safety package. 

The European nuclear industry has likewise criticized—for
somewhat different reasons— what it sees as the Commissions
unjustifiable expansion of its Jurisdiction, and called for
member states to retain their own national responsibility over
nuclear regulation. 

In his report, Seppanen added the EC was attempting to expand
its jurisdiction to nuclear legislation, and that the Nuclear
Package’s Safety Directive fails to evaluate potential problems
of current nuclear safety regulation.

 The Nuclear Package and its authority
 The Nuclear Package has been heavily criticised by
environmentalist and Green MEPs, alike. Their objections centre
mainly on the fact that the document fails to introduce clear
and precise nuclear safety standards that are legally
enforceable. Proposals to introduce these safety standards at a
later date would be insufficient, say environmentalists and
Green MEPs. 

Since the package’s first draft was publicized in November,
2002, its proposed Nuclear Safety Directive has been through
many rewrites which some observers say has taken out its biting
teeth. For instance, each EU nation in the original document was
to report on its progress toward realizing the nuclear safety
directive every year. In its present draft form, the package
stipulates nations have only to report every three years on
their progress. 

It has been criticised as a set of mere “common safety
principles” recommended to member states. Environmentalists and
some MEPs argue it will bring about no significant changes in
nuclear safety. All EU and candidate countries that have nuclear
power plants are, furthermore, already party to the
International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA’s, Nuclear Safety
Convention, whose responsibilities are similar to that which is
codified in the nuclear package. 

“The whole annex on decommissioning of nuclear facilities has
been removed from the [Nuclear Safety] Directive and there is no
intention of addressing the issue of segregated funds under the
Euratom Treaty,” said Antony Froggatt an independent nuclear
analyst, according to EUenergy.com. 

This would mean that money gathered for the funds could unfairly
support the development of the nuclear industry—funds that can
be used for more or less anything involving nuclear development
on the continent. This, in its turn, would create a market
distortion as other EU energy sectors do not receive such
generous funding.

  Lithuania's controversial Soviet-built Ignalina Nuclear Power
Plant.   

An introduction to the EU’s ‘new’ reactors 

Agenda 2000 makes clear the EC’s desire to see not only the
closure of Soviet-built first generation, high risk reactors,
like the RBMK-1000 and VVER 440-230 but also stipulates safety
upgrades and oversight for second generation reactors, such as
the VVER 440-213 and VVER-1000 in order to bring them up to
speed with western and international safety guidelines. 

The EU’s new nuclear countries, come May, are Lithuania, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia—each of them
operating controversial and unsafe reactors. With the exception
of Slovenia, which operates a Westinghouse PWR-664 reactor, the
rest are Soviet-built reactors. The future admission into the EU
of Romania and Bulgaria—with its notorious Kozlodui nuclear
power plant—will bring more Soviet built VVER 440/230 and
VVER-1000 reactors into the EU. Bulgaria’s entrance into the EU,
though, depended on its agreement to shut down Kozlodui’s
reactor units No. 3 and No. 4, which will be done by 2006. Its
first two reactor units were shut down in December of 2002. 

Most off these reactors and the plants that operate them have
come under a cloud of controversy at one time or another.
Ignalina is notorious for its poor security. In 1992, a group of
plant workers smuggled an entire uranium fuel assembly out of
the plant on the under-carriage of a truck. Some 80 kilograms of
the uranium have been recovered. But 15 kilograms—enough to make
a crude nuclear device—remain missing. 

As a condition of Lithuania’s entrance into the EU, Vilnius
grudgingly agreed to shut down Ignalina’s two RBMK-1500
reactors, both of which were deemed too dangerous to upgrade.
The Baltic state counts on electricity exports to other Baltic
states as well as to Belarus and Kaliningrad, Russia. 

The shut down project will be accompanied by EUR500m in aid, the
French Daily Le Monde reported. Ignalina’s first reactor, under
Lithuania’s agreement with the EU, will be shut down in 2005 and
the second in 2009. Initial plans had been to run the reactors
until 2014 and 2017, respectively. 

Lithuania would like the EC to foot the bill for disposing of
Ignalina’s waste, but, given that the plant will continue to
work for some time—thus earning a profit—this would represent
market distortion in the eyes of the EC. 

The Slovakian Mochovce and Bohunice plants’ eight combined
reactors were the target of a June 1998 anti-nuclear campaign
spearheaded by non-nuclear Austria over Mochovce’s four
Soviet-built VVER 440-213 reactors and the plant’s
Framatom-Siemens safety device. The plant is located some 180
kilometres from Vienna. While assessing Slovakia’s entrance into
the EU, it was agreed that the two VVER 440-230s at Bohunice
would be shut down by 2006 and 2008, respectively.

  The Temelin NPP besieged by Austrian anti-nuclear protestors. 
 
  www.waldviertelekademie.at   

The Czech Republic’s Temelin nuclear power plant, or NPP—which
also operates two VVER-1000 Soviet-type reactors—is located 60
kilometres from the Austrian border and has also long been a
lighting-rod of Vienna’s anti-nuclear angst. The plant received
upgrades from Westinghouse. In 2001, and an EU-supervised deal
was brokered giving Austria the right to conduct safety
inspections at the Temelin plant. 

But Austrian anti-nuclear outrage was again poured on the
Temelin facility last November, when the Czech government’s
deputy trade and Industry minister announced far-reaching plans
to build a new reactor at the facility beginning in 2009 and
finishing by 2015. The Czech government denied cabinet plans for
more reactors, but Austria was not mollified. It remains unclear
what the Czech government’s official line on the new reactor is. 

In Hungary, the four Soviet-type VVER 440-213 reactors at the
Paks NPP, 120 kilometres south of Budapest, were declared by the
EU as adaptable to international safety standards. Later, in
April 2003, an accidental warming of the combustion cells
provoked a leakage of radioactive gas at the plant. 

EC optimistic about dealing with the Soviet reactors…
 As motley an assembly of reactors that four of the 10 new EU
states will bring with them, Derek Taylor, the EC’s head of unit
on nuclear safety, said that their safety levels were within
expected norms. 

“The level of safety in the accessing Members States is less an
issue than it was three or four years ago,” he said in an
interview with Bellona Web. “The soon-to-be new Members States
have been fully involved in the EU’s activity for years now,
especially through our Nuclear Safety Working Group. We have a
good network now and a quality exchange of information. There
will be no big surprise as of the 1st of May”. 

Taylor predicted the EU’s enlargement may bring a more pro
nuclear atmosphere among Member States because there is no
moratorium on nuclear pursuits for countries entering the EU.
The need for harmonising EU nuclear standards and the adoption
of the Nuclear Package is therefore more critical than ever.

  Underground storage tunnels for high-level nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain.   
  www.lbl.gov   

…though nuclear waste management will be a headache
 
Taylor noted that the most critical nuclear question as the new
states enter the EU is what to do about the waste arising from
the soon-to-be-decommissioned Ignalina plant in Lithuania. 

“Even Russia and Ukraine have not found a good solution so far.
And this might be our biggest headache for now,” said Taylor. 

From the Commission’s point of view, direct disposal in special
geological repositories is the best option, but aside from being
expensive, there are only two countries in the world—the United
States and France—that has even attempted to build a geologic
repository. 

The US project, at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, has been fraught
with safety problems and cost over-runs. Potential leaks have
also been discovered, and the project as a whole has received a
sour reception from the American public. The site is also
completely booked, so when it does finally begin to receive
high-level waste, a new Yucca Mountain will have to be found and
built. It is, nonetheless, the position of the EC to cite and
build geologic repositories. 

“Concerning Ignalina, nobody has yet defined a long-term
management route for RBMK—The Russians do not reprocess it and,
until now, simply store it (probably in casks) awaiting a
solution,” said Taylor. “This being the case, I see no
alternative to the eventual direct disposal of the fuel as
high-level waste. At the moment, there would appear to be no
option but for this (geological) disposal site to be in
Lithuania.” 

Taylor’s words underscore that, at present, there is very little
that can be done with the waste that is produced by the Soviet
reactors the EU will be bringing under its wing. Spent fuel from
the VVER 440 reactor is currently sent to Russia’s Mayak’s RT-1
reprocessing facility in the southern Urals—the world’s most
radioactively contaminated place. 

Many of the plants whose countries will be joining the EU, like
Kozlodui and Paks, already do this. Kozlodui sends spent
VVER-1000 fuel—which Mayak is incapable of reprocessing—to
Zheleznogork in Central Siberia where it awaits recycling at
RT-2, a reprocessing facility that will not be finished for
another 30 years, according to Russia’s Ministry of Atomic
Energy, or Minatom. Spent fuel from the RBMK series is not worth
recycling at all because of the extremely scant amount of
uranium its reprocessing yields. Therefore, it simply has to be
stored or—in the long run—buried in a geologic repository Moscow
has been promising to build. And Russia is keen to open its
long-planned repository to the world. 

“There are lots of places to put waste in Russia,” said Taylor
in a January interview with Science magazine. “The problem,
Taylor noted, is the lack of adequate legislation and regulation
governing the nuclear industry. Russia, moreover, has its own
problems with securing spent nuclear fuel, especially leftovers
from its decommissioned submarines. 

“If they can’t manage that property, why send them more?” Taylor
asked. 

On fear of antinuclear campaigners, noted Taylor in his Science
interview, is that some countries will use repositories to
revive their nuclear programmes. Closing the fuel cycle would
deprive critics of a potent argument: that it is irresponsible
to build new nuclear poweer plants until there is a solution to
the problem of high-level waste. 

“Nuclear waste has been seen as the Achilles’ Heel of the
industry,” Taylor told Science. 

  Bellona Position Paper: Import of spent nuclear fuel to Russia
  
  The Russian State Duma, the lower house of the Russian
parliament, approved three bills allowing the import of spent
nuclear fuel in summer 2001. In July 2001, Russian President
Vladimir Putin signed the the controversial bills into law. 
&nbsp;Read Bellona's position paper &raquo;  

Will the EU keep shipping to Russia?

 Whether soon-to-be EU countries will continue shipping
radioactive waste to Russia is a question that puts the EU in a
difficult ethical position. At the root of the problem is
Russia’s ambiguity about what it intends to do with the spent
nuclear fuel imports it currently receives, and the EU has
different guidelines on how exporting nuclear waste for storage
or recycling as a “resource” are handled. When legislation
allowing for the import of radioactive waste into Russia was
passed in 2001, Moscow initially said radioactive waste would be
both stored and reprocessed, but, in reality, it sits in storage
while Russia scrapes kopeks together to simply sustain what
reprocessing industry it has, which is focussed mainly on
reprocessing naval fuel. 

The EC has a clear injunction against the shipping of
radioactive waste to countries for storage or recycling that do
not have the "technical, legal or administrative resources" to
manage it safely. But if the waste is to be reprocessed, a
so-called Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel
Management and Radioactive Waste must be developed to govern the
return of Russian reprocessed fuel—something no current EU
country posseses with Russia. Such agreements will likely have
to be formalized for those accessing nations that export
radioactive waste to Russia should the EU decide to permit such
exports 

The conundrum for the EU, therefore, is whether radioactive
waste shipped to Russia from Bulgaria’s Kozlodui plant, for
example, constitutes spent nuclear fuel that will be stored in
Russia permanently, or whether it is a resource that will be
reprocessed and reused. In other words, can Kozlodui’s spent
VVER-1000 fuel be said reasonably to be a resource if it has to
sit for three decades while facilities to reprocess it are
built? If not, is Russia considered by the EU as having the
"technical, legal or administrative resources" to keep it in
long term storage?

  Bellona's Position Paper: Transparency and control over the
nuclear safety projects in Russia   
  
  Since the signing of the Multi-Lateral Environmental Protect
in the Russian Federation agreement, known as MNEPR, in
Stockholm last May, a number of European countries, as well as
Japan, and Canada, have pledged significant amounts of funding
for nuclear safety projects in Russia. But the money may as well
stay home if proper safety and transparency evaluations are not
carried out. 

&nbsp;Read Bellona's position paper &raquo;  
     

Nuclear Package gets the EP’s green light—but what happens with
the radwaste?

 On January 13th 2004, the European Parliament adopted, in
Plenary Session, two non-biding resolutions on the EC proposed
Directives—meaning a green light for the nuclear package. The EP
clarified, however, that the responsibility for the safety of
nuclear installations should remain with the nuclear regulatory
officials of the Member States. The Parliament also suggested
the establishment of a “Regulatory Authority Committee” that
would be comprised of representatives from these national
regulatory agencies, which would carry out reviews in accordance
with the Nuclear Safety Directive. 

But many environmentalists and MEPs remain alarmed by the
proposed Directive on Waste Disposal. It favours the citing of
geologic repositories and does not prohibit the export of waste
to third countries. 

This runs counter to the desires of the EP’s Environment
Committee, which at the end of last year called for an EU wide
ban—which included the new Member States—on the export of
radioactive waste. It has also infuriated many
environmentalists, who say the proposed directive leaves open
the possible trade in nuclear waste within and outside Europe,
primarily with Russia.

  Bulgaria Signs Spent Nuclear Fuel Housecleaning Deal With
Russia   
  
  A government agreement with Ukraine has paved the way for the
first round of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) imports to Russia from
Bulgaria's Kozlodui nuclear power plant since a financial
scandal about payments for past shipments shut them down last
year. The shipments, routed through Ukraine, are expected to
resume by the end of this year, Bulgarian officials said.

What European officials think of exporting waste to Russia
 At present, the EC is required to authorise exports of nuclear
materials from any member state to a third country, thus
ensuring that the receiving country meets EU and international
waste storage or recycling standards. 

In the opinion of many highly-placed EC officials who have
spoken with to Bellona Web, Russia simply does not meet that
criteria. According to one EC official, the consensus is that
Russia cannot guarantee the safety and security of any
radioactive imports, as its facilities are thought by the EC to
be inadequate for the safe management of even that spent fuel
generated within the country itself. 

Nonethelesss, the language of the Nuclear Package does not
sufficiently reassure Green MEPs and environmentalists that
oppose exports on the grounds of exploiting less fortunate
nations. 

“People who have not benefited from the European Union’s nuclear
installations should not carry the burden of dealing with our
nuclear waste”, said Green MEP Bart Staes, Rapporteur from the
Environment Committee on the Directives and also Chairman of the
Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. 

The Nuclear Package will first be discussed at the level of the
committee of permanent representatives, better known as COREPER.
Each of the 15 Member States has a permanent representative,
which together form COREPER. The Nuclear Package will then be
discussed at Council level in March and May. 

Five currrent Member States still oppose the proposed directives
and proposed an alternative legislative route that would remove
the proposed directives and replace them with non-binding
legislation. 

“If these countries continue to insist on their proposals, then
they have sufficient votes under the qualified majority voting
system that is required under Article 31 of the Euratom treaty
to block the introduction of the directives,” said nuclear
expert Antony Frogatt, 

Taylor told Bellona Web that “if [the Nuclear Package] is
blocked until the actual accession of the Candidate countries
[enter the EU], it should then be adopted by the EU of 25,” said
Taylor. 

“For us, it would be good if the package would be adopted before
the end of the current Commission’s mandate [which runs out
November 1st 2004].” 

Controversy over Euratom loans
 Another non-binding resolution on Euratom loans to finance
nuclear power plants in Member States came into effect with
Janauary’s vote on the Nuclear Package in the EP. Euratom loans
have long been a lighting-rod for controversy, and critics say
that Euratom is allowed given more financial support than other
European energy industries. With this money, opponents of the
package say, the nuclear industry is able to make larger capital
gains, against which it can borrow for even more cash, thus
skewing the European energy market in favour of nuclear power. 

In an apparent effort to avoid this impression, MEPs in January
underscored that “Euratom funding should not be given for
increasing efficiency, per se, as the EC had suggested. Instead,
the should only be given for “improving safety, decommissioning
of installations, as well establishing facilities for storage
and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.” 

MEPs also urged that the loans should also be given to increase
nuclear safety in Central and Eastern European countries,
Russia, Armenia and Ukraine. 

But for the Greens/EFA groups in the EP, the notion of urging
loans for safety—in Europe or other places—was not nearly strong
enough. Rapporteur on the Euratom loans and German MEP Hiltrud
Breyer, who had sponsored a number of amendments to the text
that would have only authorised loans for the improvement of
safety in reactors already in operation in the Member States. 

“We had objectives when we drafted this opinion,” she said in a
recent statement, referring to the proposed amendments. “Firstly
to make the highest possible safety measures the top priority
for already operating nuclear installations. And secondly, to
forbid further distortions to the energy market through
back-handed EU subsidies [to the nuclear industry].” 

In January, none of the Green amendments were adopted and Breyer
withdrew her name from the Euratom report. Breyer explained, in
harsh terms, her withdrawal on the Greens/EFA website 

“This is yet another example of the European Commission’s
keenness to promote nuclear energy,” she wrote. “It is
absolutely scandalous that MEPs support the funding of new
nuclear projects within the Union.”

  EU countries scramble to create national strategies for
emissions quota trading   

  International climate politicking toward the end of 2003 was
focused on getting Russia to make up its mind about whether or
not it will sign the Kyoto Protocol. Though it is still unclear
whether Russia—whose signature on the Protocol, or lack
thereof—will make or break the emissions deal, Moscow, through
its Ministry of Economic and Trade Ministry has on a number of
occasions indicated that it will sign the protocol, most
recently last in December.   

During last year’s debates over the European Convention and the
future of the EU, chaired by former French President Valéry
Giscard d’Estaing, disputes over the Euratom’s treaty were just
as heated. 

Environmental observers pointed out that the Euratom Treaty has
never been subject to any serious amendments in its 47-year
history, and was inked for the support and development of
nuclear energy at time when the future of the then-new and
barely tested energy source was unclear. The environmental group
Friends of the Earth Europe started a campaign against the
Euratom Treaty, supported by politicians and numerous other
environmentalists. 

Bellona participated and spoke out in favour of abolishing the
outdated treaty. Bellona’s main objection in the debate was that
Euratom distorts the energy market at a time when the EU is
trying to create a more liberalised electricity market. In spite
of this key development for EU electricity and the Union’s
economic environment, nuclear power continues to receive
significantly more political and economic largesse from the
Community. 

The main reason to eradicate the Euratom loan system, say its
critics, is that these loans represent an outdated subsidy for
the development of nuclear technology. These subsidies are not
available for the development of other sources of
energy—including alternative renewable sources—which have to get
by with less support from the Community. 

EC taking another look at nuclear power
 Another example of this is the current request before Energy
Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and Mario Monti, the EC’s
Competition Commissioner. They are considering a bid from the
United Kingdom’s financially distraught British Energy, or BE,
which runs the UK’s nuclear facilities, for Ł3.8 billion. The
money would be used to balance out several years’ worth of
draining profits and mismanagement. 

“Normally, a company that cannot pay its bills either goes
bankrupt or raises its prices. For BE, and for the nuclear
industry generally, this would have obvious implications in the
wider energy market” wrote Friends of the Earth Europe in a
statement after BE publicly announced its losses. “So instead,
Mrs. de Palacio is arguing that, because Euratom requires
promotion of nuclear development, the UK subsidy plan should get
the green light.” It is as yet unclear whether BE will get the
subsidy. 

What is clear is that Energy Commissioner de Palacio seems to be
dusting off the annals of nuclear power and taking a hard look
at investing in its development.

One pro-nuclear argument making the rounds recently relies on
Kyoto Protocol requirements to fight against greenhouse gases
emissions. Nuclear advocates argue that the EU can not limit its
dangerous emissions without nuclear power, which does not emit
carbon dioxide. But it is the transport, not the power, sector
that is responsible for most greenhouse gasses. It is also a
widely held belief that Europe will eventually have to adopt
renewable energy sources for the long-term future. 

But this seems very much on the back burner at the moment,
especially following Berlin’s January conference on renewable
energy sources, which was co-organised by the EC. The conference
was a run-up to the June Bonn conference, which is meant as a
follow-up to the Johannesburg Sustainable Development Summit.
The conference was shooting for a commitment from the EU to
produce 20 percent of its energy with renewable sources by 2020.
The current objective is to reach 12 percent renewables by 2010. 

Bellona’s opinion is that Europe will not be able to reach Kyoto
Protocol goals without renewables or the development of a
hydrogen-based energy society. 

France as an engine for nuclear power growth in the EU
 In Paris on January 17th 2004, several thousand people took to
the streets and demonstrated against the so-called “return of
nuclear power”. Anti-nuclear movements from France and abroad
have been fighting against the French government’s plans to
start building a raft of new reactors in France and abroad. The
French energy plans were discussed during the government’s 2003
public consultation held last spring. 

The system of public consultation is meant to open government
policy to public scrutiny and debate, but environmentalists
brushed the 2003 consultation aside as a false debate, saying
the government had already made its decision in favour of
expanding nuclear power. 

France’s history with nuclear power begins in 1973, during the
first major OPEC oil crisis. The French government began
exploring the nuclear option to guarantee its energy
independence. Because of that early experimentation, France now
has 58 nuclear reactors operating in 19 nuclear power plants
that produce 78 percent of the country’s electricity.
 
France’s state-own EDF—which runs France’s reactors—also exports
part of its production to several European countries. 

At the end of 2003, France won a contract to build a new reactor
for Finland, the only country in the current countries of the EU
that is planning on building reactors. The Finns will be getting
a so-called European Pressurised Reactor, or EPR, which was
developed by the French-German Areva-Siemens concern beginning
in the 1980s. 

Framatom, a subsidiary of Areva, and one of the EU’s two major
nuclear construction firms, is now waiting to build a second EPR
in France as well as conducting large-scale overhauls and
replacements of French reactors. Some observers have noted that
Finland’s contract will probably bring the backing for another
new EPR, this one located in France. 

If France complete the reactor in Finland, their reasoning goes,
it will be easier to get funding for an EPR in France. But this
is hardly news: prior to France’s official decision on energy
policy, France’s Minister of Energy Nicole Fontaine declared she
was in favour or large-scale renewal of the country’s
electro-nuclear base. 

Environmental groups and anti-nuclear movements are distressed
by France’s lack of transparency in its recent nuclear dealings
and its avoidance of substantive public debate. They blame the
tight ties that have grown over many years between the
government and the country’s powerful nuclear lobby, which now
seem inseparable. 

Framatom has stated that the EPR generation of reactors is much
safer as well a more efficient, producing one kilowatt per hour
for 10 percent less the cost of older reactors. Framatom has
also claimed that risks of a major accident in the EPR is ten
times less than the risk associated with other common reactor
types in Europe. 

But, from the point of view of reducing nuclear waste and
boosting nuclear security in Europe, Framatom’s points are
untenable, environmentalists note. The waste produced by EPRs
still contains—like any other commercial reactor—reactor grade
plutonium, an attractive concept for a terrorist with plans to
make a so called dirty bomb. 

It is estimated by some scientists that the EPR reactor is
technologically outdated, having collected dust on engineering
drawing –boards for a number of years before the Finnish
contract was awarded. There is also, according to a report
commissioned in 2000 by France’s former Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin, no urgency in building new reactors in France. The study
noted that France’s current reactors are safely operable until
2025 to 2035.

  An engineering schematic of the ITER reactor.   
  iter.com   

France battling for the ITER reactor

 Despite these findings, France is locked in heated competition
with Japan to win a research initiative to built the worlds
first fusion device to produce thermonuclear energy at the level
of an electricity-producing power station. Called the
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER—which,
its researchers point out, also means “the way” in Latin—the
project is headed by China, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Russia,
Canada and the United States. 

A fierce battle erupted between France and Spain to be selected
as the site for ITER. Eventually Cadarache France was selected
to be the European candidate for the prestigious 30-year, EUR12
billion project. But on January 9th, France’s hopes were reigned
in when US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced that
the US would support the Japanese site of Rokkasho-Mura for the
ITER project. Abraham cited “technical reasons” for the choice,
but France’s negative attitude to the US invasion of Iraq may
have played a larger role in the decision. 

France and the European Commission reacted to the US endorsement
of Japan by saying they could unilaterally begin an ITER project
of their own. 

For environmentalists, the battle over the ITER reactor, and
whether France and the EC will push ahead with it on their own,
represents the make or break point for the continental nuclear
industry. Analysts at Wise Paris, a French-based independent
organization providing information and analysis on the plutonium
industry and nuclear energy policies, agree. In recent years,
the nuclear industry as a whole has been on shaky footing, and
the ITER project will once again put it in the energy limelight.
The Wise Paris analysis noted that the French government’s
aggressive support for the project was a fight for the very
survival of the nuclear industry, and that France would not part
gently with a generation’s worth of nuclear experimentation.

  Belgian Green MEP Paul Lannoye.   

Will nuclear myths become reality?

 This point of view was shared by Paul Lannoye, a Green MEP from
Belgium who was instrumental in making his country opt out of
nuclear development. 

“A mere 5 years ago [the nuclear industry] thought they were
dead themselves”, he said in an interview with Bellona Web.
“EPR’s improved safety and technology is a myth, but as all
myths, it has an impact to a public that is not well informed.
But the industry needs to maintain its competence in order to
survive.” 

Lannoye also noted that the US-Russian MOX plutonium disposition
agreement—which involves the help of several European nations,
including France—presented special problems for nuclear
expansion. The principle behind the MOX plan is for Russia and
America to dispose of 34 tonnes a piece of surplus weapons grade
plutonium. Weapons-grade plutonium oxide would be mixed uranium
oxide and burned in conventional reactors.
 
But environmental watchdogs, including Bellona—as well as
members of the Russian-American teams that are trying to realize
the MOX programme—see almost insurmountable problems with the
plan. 

From an environmental and nuclear security point of view, MOX
would give Russia and the United States the capability of
creating closed plutonium fuel cycles, in which the MOX
fabrication plants Russia and America plan to build would play a
key role in fabricating plutonium fuel. This would lead not only
to foreseeable and unforeseeable environmental disaster, and
would threaten world security with unbridled plutonium
production. 

For Russia, especially, a plutonium based nuclear economy has
been a sort of Holy Grail for years. Add to that the fact that,
after Russia and America burns their agreed-upon 68 tonnes of
surplus weapons grade plutonium, each country has at least 70 to
120 tonnes more surplus plutonium that does not fall under the
US-Russian Plutonium Disposition Agreement of 2000. Thus the MOX
program, with its billion dollar expenses and environmental
hazards, is a mere drop in the non-proliferation bucket. 

Given that Russia views its weapons plutonium stocks as viable
fuel, the US driven non-proliferation effort could therefore
easily backfire in a proliferation disaster of untold
proportions. 

“This is a disastrous and absurd option,” Lannoye said of the
MOX plan. “The EU has so far adopted an ambiguous position and
has no official position regarding this issue. It only agrees
that plutonium proliferation must be addressed and MOX is a
possible solution”. 

Belgium opted out of assisting MOX efforts in 2002 when the
Belgonucléaire nuclear concern was asked by Washington test the
validity of the MOX option. The United States did not—and still
does not—have the infrastructure to experiment with the
fabrication of MOX fuel elements. According to Lannoye, the
request for assistance “was rejected under the pressure of the
Greens that were then part of the Belgian government.” 

“We threatened to withdraw ourselves from the government if it
approved such a project.” 

France, however, took the project at its Cadarache site. 

Semi-secret Pu shipments to Cadarache for MOX fabrication
 Beginning October last year, the United States Department of
Energy, or DOE, began pursuing a plan to ship "up to 140
kilograms" of weapons grade plutonium to France for processing,
the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, reported. The 140
kilograms of weapons grade plutonium is enough to make 50 or
more nuclear bombs. The decision was made at a time when the
French government ruled that information on plutonium transports
and all other nuclear matters are state secret for the pupose of
national security. 

The NRC information published the information on document
quietly released on October 7th, 2003. The plan, revealed in an
export licence filed with the NRC, presents an unacceptable
proliferation and safety risk and should be cancelled, according
to Greenpeace International, which played a role in publicising
the event. 

The DOE plans to export the weapons grade plutonium to France
from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico via the
Charleston Naval Weapons Station in South Carolina, reported the
website Nuclear Free Seas Flotilla. 

The plutonium is placed in containers on a lightly-armed
British-flagged transport vessel and escorted by a similar
vessel to the port of Cherbourg, France. It would then be turned
over to France for protection and taken to the Cadarache
plutonium facility, recently closed by French safety authorities
due to seismic safety concerns. 

At Cadarache, operated by the state-owned nuclear concern
Cogema, the weapons grade plutonium would be processed into MOX
lead test assemblies, or LTAs, and then shipped back to the U.S.
under limited protection. The overland shipment in France will
be especially risky as routes and methods for plutonium shipping
are widely known and vulnerable, Greenpeace France has said. The
US lacks a MOX plant in which to fabricate the LTAs though the
DOE is hoping to build such a plant, at a cost of approximately
$2 billion, at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. 

DOE has refused requests by international environmental and
non-proliferation organizations to prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement, or EIS, on the shipment, as mandated by the US
National Environmental Policy Act, NEPA. DOE officials reached
by Bellona refused to comment on why no EIS had been performed,
though they did acknowledge the shipments. 

The French Government regulation, released in August, against
revealing information about nuclear matters threatens to
suppress information disclosed by the media, local authorities,
regulatory bodies and even the nuclear industry itself. 

The French authorities and Cogema are particularly incenced
about information on the plutonium transports disclosed on the
www.stop-plutonium.org website by Greenpeace launched a legal
challenge against the French Government and was joined by French
scientific, research and journalists associations, inclusing
Wise Paris, Reporters Sans Frontieres and Journalists for Nature
and the Environment.

  Bellona Position Paper: Mixed Oxide Fuel Revitalising the
Reprocessing Industry   

  The MOX approach aims to revitalise the plutonium economy and
the global reprocessing industry. Bellona believes this will
lead to a closed plutonium fuel cycle.
&nbsp;Read Bellona's position paper &raquo;   

EU Enlargement and the MOX debate

 It is clear that US, Russian and French authorities would like
to suppress as much information about MOX as possible. But the
enlargement of the EU will doubtless have an impact on the MOX
debate—which is a crucial issue when the EU’s relationship to
Russia and other former Soviet states is taken into account.
None of these countries have the technical or financial means to
operate plutonium elimination projects. The EU, under enormous
strain from Russia on the development of trade relations after
the expansion, may end up selling Russia European technology for
plutonium disposition should the currently foundering US Russia
MOX efforts fail. 

“This might be debate to come in the future if the EU goes in
that direction,” Lannoye said. 

He added that EU candidate countries tend to take their cues
from Washington. 

“The Candidate countries are generally quite conformist and they
have shown in many circumstances that they are prompt to follow
the US way,” Lannoye said. “And the US has proved they are
proactive towards nuclear development.” 

Lannoye noted that the nuclear industry says reinvigorating
nuclear power serves a dual function: It helps in the struggle
against carbon dioxide emissions and also is instrumental in the
fight against weapons of mass destruction. The revival of the
nuclear industry, however, would cause neither or these: Most
greenhouse gasses are related to transportation, and growing
amounts of spent nuclear fuel increase proliferation risks. 

“The key element of this debate is Russia and the
non-proliferation challenges,” Lannoye said.

  Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko.   
  Kremlin.ru   

Complications in nuclear trade relations after EU expansion 
The EU and Russia are important partners in the energy field:
53percent of Russia’s oil exports go to the EU, representing 16
percent of total EU oil consumption. Sixty two percent of
Russia’s natural gas exports go to the EU, making up 20 percent
of total EU natural gas consumption. The EU-Russia Energy
Dialogue, which was launched in October 2000 “to make progress
in the definition and arrangements for the EU-Russia Energy
Partnership,” covers oil, gas, electricity, coal, nuclear power
and energy efficiency. 

Russia also supplies 25 percent of Europe’s natural and enriched
uranium, a guaranteed amount that Moscow is concerned will be
negatively affected by EU enlargement. According to Deputy
Atomic Energy Minister Valery Govorukhin, Russia reaps an annual
$150m from the sales—a cash crop that Russian Deputy Prime
Minister Viktor Khristenko said in a recent interview with
Itar-Tass, Russia intends to preserve. Additionally, Russia
supplies nuclear fuel to all of the Soviet built reactors that
will fall under EU jurisdiction as of May 1st. 

According to Govorukhin, as quoted by Itar-Tass, Russia’s
“Atomic Energy Ministry is aiming at preserving its market
niche, not at increasing its quota for delivering these
materials to European countries." 

Khristenko, who has been the most vocal official for Moscow
maintaining its 25 percent export right, as well as maintaining
its hold on nuclear fuel sales to the countries holding Soviet
built reactors, told Itar-Tass in early February that he is
ready for “intensive talks” with the EU on the subject. 

“A mandate for conducting negotiations on the import of natural
and enriched uranium for its delivery to the European atomic
energy market has been received from the government members of
the EC,” Khristenko said. 

According to Khristenko, problems are already arising as
candidate states transfer to the EU’s system of uniform
standards and certifications for imports. Under this system, a
candidate state will have to certify that imports from Russia
are in accordance with EU standards. This system is most
dramatically affecting imports of Russian electricity,
automobiles and nuclear fuel. To defray these difficulties,
Khristenko suggested the creation of joint certification centres
in Russia and the EU with all points to be negotiated before May
1, Nuclear.ru reported. 

In an early February email interview, EC Head of Unit on Nuclear
Safety Taylor confirmed that the Commission adopted in December
a proposal for the negotiating mandate with Russia, about which
Khristenko spoke. 

“The main objective of an agreement is to effectively agree on a
limit to the amount of Russian uranium that should be imported
into the EU which would increase in percentage terms—as a
percentage of total EU supply—as a direct result of
enlargement,” Taylor wrote. “The most important part is not so
much the natural uranium (as we no longer have an EU uranium
mining industry, so have to import all our supply) but enriched
uranium, as we still have two important uranium enrichment
organisations.” 

Those organisations are URENCO and EURODIF, Taylor wrote, which
might have a difficult time competing if enriched Russian
uranium were dumped onto the European market. 

Russia’s total annual export of nuclear technology and materials
to all the countries it exports to is valued at some $3 billion,
Govorukhin said. This figure includes deliveries of fresh
nuclear fuel for nuclear power plants, the construction of new
nuclear plants and reactors in a number of countries—which
include at present Iran, India and China—and supplies of
enriched uranium for the production of nuclear fuel, he said. 

Beyond nuclear questions, the expansion of the EU is going to
drastically change the geopolitical situation in Europe and its
relationship to Russia, Khristenko said, according to Pravda.ru.
Some 35 percent of Russian exports currently go to the EU and
that will grow to 50 percent after expansion. A broadened EU
will thus have a “controlling stake” in Russia’s foreign Trade,
he said. If EU-Russian negotiations over uranium imports take
that same turn, then Europe could indeed be inundated with
Russian nuclear fuel with no place to put it but reactors.   

  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
*****************************************************************
 11 SJ Mercury: Truck leaks toxic hydrazine outside Diablo Canyon nuclear plant

 | 02/13/2004 | 
          
Associated Press
         
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - A leak of highly toxic hydrazine from a 
delivery truck outside Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant 
prevented 1,100 employees from leaving the facility for nearly 
two hours Thursday while another 75 people were stuck on a nearby 
beach, authorities said. 

The leak was discovered around 12:30 p.m. during inspection of a 
truck delivering the hydrazine solution to Diablo Canyon from a 
Univar USA distribution center in Commerce. 

Employees at the Pacific Gas and Electric plant who were set to 
end their shift at 4:30 p.m. were told they could not leave, as 
were other people at nearby Port San Luis, said Mike Cole, 
spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire 
Protection. 

The CDF's hazardous materials team responded to the incident at 
the plant on the San Luis Obispo County coast near Avila Beach, 
160 miles northwest of Los Angeles. 

The hydrazine evaporated by 4:30 p.m. but employees weren't 
allowed to leave until about two hours later after clean up crews 
determined it posed no danger, Cole said. The end product once 
hydrazine evaporates is mostly water, he said. 

"The hydrazine evaporated and it was pretty much over," he said. 

Inspectors found 10 to 15 gallons of the hydrazine - an 
anticorrosive used in the plant's boiler system - had escaped 
through a gasket and pooled atop a stainless steel container, 
said Dwight Landry, vice president of operations for the 
Kirkland, Wash.-based Univar. 

He said the 5-high container was enclosed in a trailer. 

"There is no danger to the public. It is contained," Landry said. 

Although pure hydrazine is used as rocket fuel, the 35 percent 
hydrazine solution was not flammable, but could be fatal if 
inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin, Cole said. 

PG&E spokesman Jeff Lewis said the plant's security measures led 
to discovery of the leak. 

"Our security personnel stopped the truck and identified the 
leak," Lewis said. "Now the CDF and the county is doing 
everything that they should be doing."   

The Mercury News | 
*****************************************************************
 12 Beacon Journal: Nuclear plant gets good news

| 02/13/2004 | 

Federal inspections find no big obstacles to Davis-Besse restart; 
no decision made

 By Jim Mackinnon

 Beacon Journal business writer

PORT CLINTON - Now it's federal regulators who are saying the 
Davis-Besse nuclear plant is getting closer to restarting. 

It was two years ago this month that FirstEnergy Corp. shut down 
Davis-Besse for what it thought would be a fairly routine 
refueling and federally mandated safety inspection. 

About three weeks after powering down the plant, workers found a 
pineapple-sized rust hole that extended nearly all the way 
through the 6-inch-thick steel top of the reactor. That set off 
reverberations still being felt by the Akron utility and the 
nuclear power industry. 

FirstEnergy has spent more than $550 million in repairs and for 
replacement power, but the 883-megawatt plant just 25 miles east 
of Toledo has yet to make enough electricity to light a reading 
lamp. A series of missed restart dates since 2002 damaged 
FirstEnergy's credibility with the public and investors. 

Now Davis-Besse appears close to getting a restart decision from 
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

The NRC and FirstEnergy share blame for allowing boric-acid 
corrosion to damage the reactor. 

Thursday afternoon, the NRC concluded that two critical 
inspections found no significant obstacles to restarting the 
power plant. At a second meeting in the evening, FirstEnergy 
formally asked the NRC for permission to restart, saying the 
plant is safe. 

According to the NRC, FirstEnergy in the past two years has 
completed 27 of 31 ``checklist'' items required for the reactor 
to be fired up. Two of the remaining items -- checking off on the 
two NRC reports presented Thursday afternoon -- were expected to 
be completed by the conclusion of the second meeting. 

The commission's ``management and human performance'' inspection, 
while concluding that it found no obstacles to a restart, 
determined that someDavis-Besse staff members have less 
confidence in plant management now than was found in a March 2003 
survey. 

The NRC's ``restart readiness'' inspection determined that, 
although it found minor violations, there was nothing to prevent 
the plant from restarting. A similar inspection in December found 
widespread problems that would have prevented giving a go-ahead. 
Those issues have largely been resolved, the NRC said. 

Jack Grobe, chairman of the NRC oversight panel for Davis-Besse, 
said he cannot say when the commission will make a decision. ``I 
cannot project at this point if it's days or weeks,'' he said. 

Before coming to any conclusion, the oversight panel needs to 
review additional reports, Grobe said. When those reviews are 
completed, the oversight panel will make a recommendation to Jim 
Caldwell, the NRC administrator for the region that includes 
Ohio. 

``By no means is the panel ready to indicate the plant is ready 
to restart,'' Grobe said. 

But the panel also has not found the need to order additional 
inspections at the plant, he said. 

Once the panel submits its recommendation to Caldwell, he will 
consult with senior NRC officials before deciding whether to 
allow Davis-Besse to restart. 

More than 300 people filled the Camp Perry clubhouse for the 
evening meeting. 

The Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Public Citizen asked 
the NRC to withdraw FirstEnergy's license to runDavis-Besse, 
saying the Akron utility has not proved it can run the plant 
safely. The group also criticized the NRC's role in allowing 
plant safety to deteriorate for years. 

FirstEnergy executives outlined all the steps the company has 
taken to repair Davis-Besse and make sure its staff can run the 
plant safely. The reactor is now at normal operating pressure. 

The changes over the last two years included replacing the 
damaged reactor-vessel head with a never-used one bought from a 
Michigan plant; performing numerous plant upgrades and repairs; 
revamping senior management; and improving staff training and 
procedures. 

Grobe said he is still troubled by what he sees as inconsistent 
handling of issues by Davis-Besse staff members. 

``You don't have to be perfect to be authorized to restart,'' 
Grobe said. But the NRC wants to see consistent performance, and, 
ideally, improving performance, he said. 

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or   

*****************************************************************
 13 Las Vegas SUN: Ohio Nuclear Plant Found Much Improved

February 12, 2004 
 By JOHN SEEWER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

PORT CLINTON, Ohio (AP) - Operators of a nuclear plant shut down
for two years asked regulators Thursday for permission to
restart the plant, saying it's ready to operate safely after
repairs and management changes. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors said earlier in the day
that plant operations and worker performance have improved
markedly, but an oversight panel said it needed time before
signing off on a restart. 

The plant owner, FirstEnergy Corp., said an emphasis on safety
has been renewed since the plant was shut down and a longtime
acid leak was detected. FirstEnergy has spent $300 million on
repairs and other changes at the Davis-Besse plant just east of
Toledo. 

"We have created a solid foundation for sustaining an
overarching and relentless focus on nuclear safety," said Gary
Leidich, president of FirstEnergy's nuclear operating company. 

Plant operators cleared one of the two biggest hurdles by
getting the positive reviews from the NRC inspectors. The
inspectors had found widespread problems during a review in
December. 

Still needed is the NRC oversight panel's approval. "I cannot
project whether it will be days or weeks," said panel chairman
Jack Grobe. 

In February 2002, inspectors found extensive corrosion on the
reactor vessel, where leaking boric acid had nearly eaten
through a 6-inch-thick steel cap. It was the most extensive
corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear reactor. 

FirstEnergy officials, during their pitch for restart, told
regulators that they have made thousands of changes at the
plant, including replacing the damaged reactor vessel head and
completely overhauling management. 

Rick Skokowski, who led the team that reviewed the plant's
readiness, said three minor problems in operations were
detected, but they were not widespread and would not prevent
safe operations of the plant. 

In December, the NRC panel said it didn't think Davis-Besse was
ready because an inspection revealed numerous operator errors.
None of the problems rose to the level of a safety concern, but
regulators were troubled that the errors were being repeated. 

FirstEnergy promised to review the problems and managers spent
the next 10 days retraining workers. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

FirstEnergy Corp.: http://www.firstenergycorp.com

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 14 toledoblade.com: NRC notes progress at Davis-Besse
 
Friday, February 13, 2004 

  Article published Friday, February 13, 2004
 
  [Photo] 
Yesterday's hearing at Camp Perry attracted a crowd of 400,
including Clevelanders Aleksandar Veljkovic, left, and his son
Zeljko. Dozens of plant employees also attended. 

( THE BLADE/ALLAN DETRICH ) 

By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

PORT CLINTON - FirstEnergy Corp. yesterday got the word that it 
has passed two of the biggest remaining inspections at 
Davis-Besse, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission still could 
take a month or longer deciding whether the plant is safe to 
operate again.

James Caldwell, the NRC’s Midwest regional administrator chosen 
by the agency to ultimately decide if the plant’s ready for 
restart, said he expects to deliberate at least two to three 
weeks after receiving a recommendation from the NRC’s oversight 
panel.

That panel could meet several times in private before making a 
recommendation, according to its chairman, Jack Grobe. He refused 
to state how many times, when, or where the panel will meet 
before it makes its recommendation. All he would say is that his 
panel "needs to have confidence Davis-Besse can be operated 
safely now and will continue to be operated safely in the 
future."

Jan Strasma, an NRC spokesman, said there is little chance the 
panel would finish its work and forward any recommendation before 
the middle of next week.

The NRC last night cut off public observation of the process 
following a boisterous, four-hour meeting in Camp Perry’s 
clubhouse. A standing-room-only crowd of nearly 400 people 
attended.

Dozens were plant employees frustrated by the shutdown, which 
hits the two-year mark on Monday. Many of them had signed a huge 
banner with the words "A Start to a New Beginning - Built to 
Last. The Plant is Ready ... And So Are We!"

But the NRC also heard from a number of critics, many still angry 
by what they see as collective actions by FirstEnergy and the NRC 
over the years that put northern Ohio on the brink of 
experiencing the nation’s first potential meltdown since Three 
Mile Island in 1979.

Davis-Besse has been idle since Feb. 16, 2002, because 
uncontrolled acid from the plant’s reactor nearly burned a hole 
through the massive device’s lid. That would have allowed 
radioactive steam to form. Subsequent investigations showed the 
plant’s emergency coolant system probably would not have worked. 
Numerous management, performance, and design issues have been 
revealed throughout the outage.

FirstEnergy still needs to address four items on the NRC’s 
restart checklist, but the federal agency has no plans for 
additional team inspections.

The company yesterday passed the last two team inspections, one 
analyzing the plant’s so-called safety culture and another 
assessing its overall fitness for restart.

Results of the latest safety culture inspection, designed to show 
whether the plant is free of intimidation, showed Davis-Besse 
management and staff "were clearly not aligned in a number of 
areas," Geoff Wright, a NRC inspection team leader, said. And he 
said many employees, based on more than 75 recent interviews and 
discussions with six focus groups, appeared to have even less 
confidence in FirstEnergy management than in March, 2003.

"Notwithstanding the concerns cited, we have found there has been 
an improvement in safety culture over the past 18 months," Mr. 
Wright said.

Even Sam Collins, the NRC senior official from Washington who 
came under fire for letting Davis-Besse stay online six weeks 
longer than some of his staffers had wanted, questioned how the 
team ended up concluding the plant’s safety culture had improved 
enough for restart.

A separate group of inspectors that assessed the plant’s overall 
fitness noted considerable improvements since issuing a scathing 
report in mid-December.

Its leader, Rick Skowkowski, an NRC senior resident inspector at 
the Byron nuclear complex near Rockford, Ill., said that 
inspection team found three minor violations but "no reason [the 
plant] can’t be safely operated."

FirstEnergy spent more than half of the four-hour session 
detailing its accomplishments in an attempt to win support for 
restart from the oversight panel and Mr. Caldwell.

Gary Leidich, president and chief nuclear officer of FirstEnergy 
Nuclear Operating Co., told the NRC that his company now has a 
"relentless" safety focus. "This is the beginning of a new era at 
Davis-Besse," he said.

For earlier stories on Davis-Besse, go to 
www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse

© 2004 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., 
Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 
*****************************************************************
 15 [Fwd: [du-list] Immediate Release: US admits DU risks in Military
 
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 22:33:01 -0800

 
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Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 23:29:05 -0500
Subject: [du-list] Immediate Release: US admits DU risks in Military Conference
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Document shows that Military well aware of dangers of using DU in populated
areas. Children at risk from DU in battle areas, as well as US soldiers and
civilian population. Document cites chromosomal damage, cancer risks, risks
to food and water supplies.

See http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html for links to
Col. Wakayama 2002 conference presentation and links to other US documents
that show US has been aware of DU risks for years.

********

Depleted Uranium (DU) Munitions
COL J. Edgar Wakayama
OSD/DOT&E/CS
August, 2002 

Read this report for the military's own view on risks to health and the
environment.

At http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html
download PDF version of PowerPoint Presentation (or rtf version for low
bandwidth). PDF version is 2.6 mg.

The report was presented at the 5th Annual Testing and Training Symposium &
Exhibition, 19 - 22 August 2002, National Defense Industrial Association

Overview

Among its warnings, the report recognizes that it is not safe to leave shell
fragments in the body as per US military policy; warns that uranium would be
solubilized and redistribute to various tissues as early as one day after
implantation; highlights the special risks faced by children in the battle
area, with risks to water and food supplies; recognizes risks of cancer,
lung fibrosis, and DNA damage from DU deposited in bones.

The report recommends health monitoring of children, soldiers and civilians;
epidemiological monitoring of cancer incidents of soldiers (what about
civilians and soldiers' children?), including urine uranium testing, kidney
function tests and neurological evaluations; removal of heavily contaminated
soil in areas populated with civilians; and long term water and milk
sampling in imact site.

One Recommendation is missing. Stop the production, stockpiling and use of
'depleted' uranium munitions.



Charles Jenks, attorney at law
President of the Core Group
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-1633; Fax 413-773-7507
charles@mtdata.com
http://traprockpeace.org



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 16 [DU-WATCH] LETTER FROM A SOLDIER'S MOTHER: SOLDIER'S ARE NOT
 
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:49:46 -0600 (CST)

 
To Jay, Re:Your letter from a US Army Soldier To:
freethoughtinmedia@yahoo.com

Jay

I have a daughter who just deployed to Iraq, she is still in transit.
Before they left, their Col. went on a dry run.  He came back to
fill them in on what to expect.  They will be stationed way out in
the middle of "nowhere," living in tents, limited running water and
electricity, will be equal to being in prison......she has served
the last 17 years feeding the troops in the mess hall.  Getting up
before the crack of dawn, and working till the last pot was cleaned.
When they went out on maneuvers, she cooked and fed the soldiers,
did not do combat duty.  Her mess company has been reassigned all
of a sudden in the last couple of months, before deploying...because
all overseas mess halls have been contracted out to Brown & Root,
run by civilians.  The battalion will be eating MRE's......& on a
severe ration of bottled water, to be transported in.  The Commander
advised them to plan on losing the average of 25 lbs., due to
dehydration from water rations and Iraqi germs, their immune systems
are not used to.  They will be sitting ducks out there, for nothing?
She is packing an M16, dressed in combat uniforms......ready for
what?

Every soldier in her company is in the same boat, they have had
spatula's and spoons in hand for years...not combat trained (except
boot camp and possible couple times a year target practice. The
field training, was doing their ordinary duties)

They are not part of the "Special Forces" patrolling and 'military
policing'.  Just because there are not enough troops, they throw
these untrained for combat soldiers out to the wolves?

I've heard that this Iraqi war is the largest deployment since the
WWII.

For what?  9/11?  There were 3000 lives lost in 9/11.  Just how
many of those lives were actually U.S. natural born citizens?
Subtract the non citizens and visitors, what do we come up with,
as far as numbers go?  When we've lost the equivilant of lives, in
Iraq......do we quit?  When is enough, enough?  Do we keep on killing
Iraqi's, and losing troops, till dooms day?  Bush has already
identified himself as the "WAR PRESIDENT".  When do American voters
wise up and kick the killer out of our White House.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Can someone please tell me, why the USA troops are there?  Miles
from anywhere and nowhere?  Watching over the bush gold, oil?  Why
isn't everyone asking questions, demanding answers? Why are people
just accepting the bush propaganda?

Meanwhile, the influx of foreign terrorists keep growing and carrying
out more sophisticated attacks with greater accuracy.  Our Intel
cannot track them, or hack into their method of communications,
which they obviously have to communicate with each other to carry
out their attacks.  Our military cannot come up with suitable convoy
equipment, to detect even the simplest types of roadside bombs.
And instead of setting off and destroying the bombs from a safe
distance, they insist on trying to "disarm" them with humans, who
end up being blown to smithereens.

That airhead Rumsfeld, the politician, is running the show, telling
the Pentagon what to do, that's why?

I am thoroughly fed up with this whole bush crap.

--------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!?

Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online
*****************************************************************
 17 [DU-WATCH] Radioactive debris
 
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 01:01:07 -0600 (CST)

 
[Due to complaints about the traffic on du-watch and associated cc
and bcc lists, I will be bunching postings. Comments please off-list.
-PB]

"To date, the site has not been fenced off or marked by warning
signs. In fact, as Mr Toyoda conveyed to RISQ, 'he was horrified
to find that many children were playing near and around the abandoned
guns'."

1. Prof. Dr. A. Schott.  British Veteran Kenny Duncan First To Win
War Pension Tribunal 2. RISQ.  DU Contamination in Iraq: Dutch
troops refuse to remove radioactive debris 3. American Friends
Service Committee.  Dr. Al Ali on Situation in Iraq & Impacts of
D.U. Weapons

11111111111111111111111111111111111 From: Albrecht Schott
[mailto:albrecht_schott@arcor.de] Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004
Subject: DU, Chromosome Aberration Test

World Depleted Uranium Centre, WODUC Prof. Dr. A. Schott, Berlin

British Veteran Kenny Duncan First To Win War Pension Tribunal

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Chromosome test, originated and paid by Prof. A. Schott, Head
of WODUC, bhelped to sway b(Kenny Duncanbs wife) the War Pensions
Appeal Tribunal heard in Edinburgh, 2.2.04, that K. Duncan from
Scotland has been poisoned by Depleted Uranium (DU) during the 1991
Gulf War. This Decision is a landmark in the struggle of the worldwide
66,000 DU contaminated veterans of the 1991 Gulf War (and the
uncounted number of the 2003 Gulf War). K. Duncan served as tank
transporter: Iraqi tanks, destroyed by DU Weapons, fired by British
and US forces. So he inhaled the radiological and chemical poisonous
DU dust. Uranium is an alpha-emitter. Alpha-radiation is known to
make chromosome breaks. The tribunal realized that K. Duncan had
been exposed to DU dust during his service in the 1991 Gulf War.

Mandy and Kenny Duncan have three children born after the 1991 war.
All three are heavily congenital damaged. The sever health problems
require weekly treatment and special school training. Their illnesses
are attributable to genetic damage caused by DU.

The statement of NGVF-Association b... it must be noted that these
tests had been paid for by the Charity.b (Press Release, 3rd February
2004) is not correct.

Details about DU you find in the WODUC-brochure bFluch und TragC6die
des Uran-Missbrauchsb, Berlin 2004.

Prof. Dr. A. Schott Head of WODUC

Tel. +49 30 823 45 45 Fax: +49 30 831 11 17 E-Mail:
albrecht_schott@arcor.de

2222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
http://www.risq.org/article282.html DU Contamination in Iraq: Dutch
troops refuse to remove radioactive debris RISQ News, 12 February
2004 Author: M.H.J. van den Berg

Residents of As Samawah in Southern Iraq are unduly exposed to
radioactive debris as Dutch troops stationed in the area refuse to
remove remnants of war contaminated with depleted uranium (DU).

This is the principle finding of a report obtained by RISQ from
Mamoru Toyoda, a Japanese researcher and journalist who has been
investigating DU-contamination in Iraq, and who visited the town
of As Samawah last month. Equipped with a Geiger counter, Mr Toyoda
measured radiation levels 300 times higher than normal in town, at
the site of an abandoned anti-aircraft artillery stand.

Responding in detail to questions raised by RISQ, Mr Toyoda says
the marks he found on the guns render it more than likely that the
radiation is due to the impact of depleted uranium ordnance. According
to local residents, the area was a military target twice in 1991
and 2003, when it came under heavy fire from US aircraft.

Immediately after "the war of the invasion", as residents called
it, US military cleared the area, picking up unexploded ordnance
and other debris. However, they refused to remove the artillery
pieces without any explanation. Later, when residents asked Dutch
troops, stationed in the area since August last year, to remove the
artillery, they too refused to do so.

To date, the site has not been fenced off or marked by warning
signs. In fact, as Mr Toyoda conveyed to RISQ, "he was horrified
to find that many children were playing near and around the abandoned
guns".

Mr Toyoda's finding comes shortly after Dutch troops found a depleted
uranium shell in the area of the kind commonly used by the US
Airforce against armoured targets. Both findings suggest that there
may be more areas contaminated with depleted uranium in As Samawah.
However, since the US government has so far been unwilling to
disclose any information on DU-firing locations, the question remains
as to where exactly such sites are located.

Of course, the lack of reliable information bears, before all, on
concerns about the health and safety of the local population but
it also implicates Dutch troops and the newly arriving Japanese
units. The main problem is that the troops only know of areas
contaminated more than ten years ago, during the Gulf War in 1991.
About areas that have been contaminated recently, they have received
no information.

Copyright RISQ 2003, 2004. All rights reserved | www.risq.org.

3333333333333333333333333333333 Dr. Al Ali on Situation in Iraq &
Impacts of D.U. Weapons February 9, 2004

Friends,

Apologies for the long silence. Last month, following the World
Social Forum in Mumbai, I had the privilege of hear Dr. Jawad Al-Ali,
Director of the Oncology Center in Basra (southern Iraq) speak at
the Japan Peace Conference in Okinawa. Dr. Al Ali's talk (see below)
provides a grim description of conditions now prevailing in southern
Iraq.

Far more disturbing was Dr. Al Ali's description of the effects of
depleted uranium on the people of Southern Iraq and his report that
more depleted uranium munitions were used in this war than in 1991.
Despite having followed reports and debates about D.U. for the past
decade, I found his report and power point presentation much worse
than I had anticipated.

Dr. Al Ali's power point presentation can now be found on a sub-page
the American Friends Service Committee's Peace & Economic Security
Program's web site: http://www.afsc.org/newengland/pesp/effects-of-wars.ppt
It is 42 Megabytes, so it will take a while to load for most
connections. The photographs were taken by the Japanese photo
journalist Takashi Morizumi.

They are quite graphic, not unlike some of the worst photographs
from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so caution is advised. Please note
that the text of his talk explains what you will see on the power
point presentation.

Since my conversations with Dr. Al Ali, I have been informed that
the Middle East Council of Churches has recently been able to provide
a meaningful, but relatively small, supply of cancer medicines to
Basra.

Inquiries are now under way to see how more can be supplied.

American Friends Service Committee

---------- EFFECTS OF WARS AND THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM ON IRAQ
By Dr. Jawad Al-Ali Director of the Oncology Center Basrah, Iraq
Japan Peace Conference Naha, Okinawa ? January 29 - February 1,
2004

During the last 50 years, Iraq passed through many wars. The more
destructive one is the 1991 war (gulf war 2). In this war the [...]``

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 18 [DU-WATCH] Medact report on the Legality of DU weapons
 
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 01:05:39 -0600 (CST)

 
The following is extracted from a report by a UK charity
named Medact on the health consequences of  DU weapons.
The working paper two is on the legality of DU weapons and
other weapons.The report can be seen in full at:
http://www.medact.org/tbx/pages/sub.cfm?id=775.
Please note the use of bold is the author's own.

Depleted Uranium

Status in international humanitarian law: No international
treaty currently bans the production or use of DU
weapons. Indeed, DU weapons are not chemical or biological
weapons, therefore they cannot be considered to be illegal
under the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the 1996
Chemical Weapons Convention. They are not nuclear weapons
either and thus cannot be banned under the 1970 Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty. However:

(1) the use of DU weapons goes against established principles
of humanitarian law, notably principles of the Geneva
Conventions and some UN guidelines relative to:
- the protection of civilian populations (See Articles 48 and
51.4 above)
- the limitation of unnecessary human suffering (Art.35.2)
- the limitation of damage to the environment (Art. 35.3 and
55.1)

    Art. 35.2: It is prohibited to employ weapons, projectiles and
    material and methods of warfare of a nature to cause
    superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering
    Art. 35.3: It is prohibited to employ methods or means of
    warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause
    widespread, long- term and severe damage to the natural
    environment
    Art. 55.1: Care shall be taken in warfare to protect the
    natural environment against widespread, long-term and
    severe damage. This protection includes a prohibition of the
    use of methods or means of warfare which are intended or
    may be expected to cause such damage to the natural
    environment and thereby to prejudice the health or survival
    of the population

    Until scientific studies establish the precise health
    impact of DU on the human body, armed forces
    should refrain from using DU weapons on the
    battlefield, and especially in built-up areas, for fear
    of committing potential war crimes (Doug Rokke,
    The Sunday Mirror 3.8.03). The effects of depleted
    uranium are indiscriminate and even when used on
    military targets, DU weapons leave a chemical and
    radioactive toxic residue which can spread over
    large areas.
As for the environmental damage, several studies by the UN
Environment Programme (Unep) highlight the negative
environmental effects of DU. Through studies in Kosovo,
Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Unep found
that contamination levels are generally very low, limited to a
couple of metres around the impact of the projectile, and do
not constitute an immediate radioactive or toxic hazard for the
environment or human health (Unep 2003b). But the report on
Bosnia and Herzegovina, published in March 2003, while
confirming low levels of ground contamination, found proof of
groundwater contamination (seven years after the conflict) and
recommended the use of alternative water sources. Also, Unep
scientists detected air contamination in some of the sites
studied and recommended a decontamination of the buildings
in use on these sites. If damage to the environment is thus
proved, the use of DU should be contrary to article 35.3 of
Protocol I.

(2) after NATO's use of DU weapons in the Kosovo campaign
in 1999, the Council of Europe parliamentarians called for a
world ban on the production, testing, use and sale of DU
weapons, asserting that NATO's use of DU would have "long
term effects on health and quality of life in South-East Europe,
affecting future generations" (Council of Europe 24.1.01).

(3) the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities issued two Resolutions (United
Nations 1996a; United Nations 1997) on the need to stop the
production and use of weapons of mass destruction, including
DU weapons:

    The Sub-Commission [] urges all States to be guided in their
    national policies by the need to curb the production and the
    spread of weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate
    effect, in particular nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, fuel-
    air bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, biological weaponry and
    weaponry containing depleted uranium (United Nations
    1996b)

Although DU weapons are not illegal, their use goes against
basic principles of international humanitarian law as (1) they
have the potential to contaminate groundwater reserves and
pollute the air (2) they have the potential to cause cancer and
have other long- term negative health effects on combatants
and civilians. Moreover, the use of anti-tank DU weapons and
bunker buster DU-tipped bombs on above ground civilian
targets in the centre of Baghdad during the war increased
urban populations exposure to DU, which can only exacerbate
the potential negative effects of DU on civilians. This is why
many people believe that DU should be made illegal under
international customary law.

*****************************************************************************
*
***************
The Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, Bridge 5 Mill, 22a
Beswick Street,
Ancoats, Manchester, M4 7HR Tel./Fax.: +44 (0)161 273 8293
E-Mail info@cadu.org.uk     Website: http://www.cadu.org.uk

Affiliation costs to CADU are #8 a year unwaged/student and #10 a
year waged. For this you will receive campaigning materials and
CADU's quarterly newsletter. Our newsletter is also available free
of charge by E-Mail (send us a message with 'Subscribe CADU
News' as the subject). Please send your cheque draft or postal
order in # sterling to the address above.
*****************************************************************************
*
***************
*****************************************************************
 19 Salt Lake Tribune: Nuclear waste freeze 
 
February 13, 2004   
 
    Utahns got a nasty surprise last October. They learned that
trainloads of uranium mill tailings contaminated by highly
Ohio might be headed here for disposal within a couple of years. 
 
    Envirocare of Utah, which disposes of low-level nuclear and
hazardous wastes, eventually withdrew from the project because
of the controversy. But the affair exposed anomalies in the
federal classification system for nuclear wastes and how
congressional skulduggery in the way certain wastes are labeled
could result in radioactive materials being shipped to Utah that
otherwise would be banned as too hot under state law. 
 
    To prevent a similar occurrence, a bill now under
consideration would require the Legislature and the governor to
approve any disposal facility's receiving of waste with a higher
concentration limit for radioactive atoms than is allowed under
an existing approved license for the specific type of waste. 
 
    The Legislature should pass House Bill 145. But on Tuesday,
a House committee took no action on it. If that decision stands,
the Legislature will have dodged its responsibility to protect
the health and safety of Utahns. 
 
    Opponents of HB145, including Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, argue
that the members of the Legislature do not have the technical
expertise to evaluate radiation licensing issues and that the
state should rely, instead, on its regulators who oversee
radiation control. The Legislature should set the standards and
the regulators should carry them out. 
 
    In theory, that is reasonable. But the October surprise from
Fernald, Ohio, showed that untoward problems may arise if
certain wastes are reclassified and the state has no method in
place to stop them. 
 
    Besides, Envirocare's steady efforts over the years to
accept hotter wastes and the revolving door between the company
and regulators both argue for heightened vigilance by elected
officials. 
 
    A state legislative task force currently is studying issues
of radioactive and hazardous waste. Its report is due in another
year. HB145 is an outgrowth of concern within the task force
over the Fernald affair. The bill's sponsor is the co-chairman
of the task force, Rep. Stephen Urquhart, R-St. George. 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
    Envirocare currently has two license amendments pending. In
one, the company seeks to accept greater volumes of Special
Nuclear Material (plutonium and enriched uranium) than it
already accepts, but not in higher concentrations than it
already takes. In another, it seeks to receive mixed wastes
containing both hazardous and low-level Class A radioactive
waste. While the amendment for mixed wastes would push nearer
the legal ceiling, the company says both amendments fall within
the Class A concentration limits currently allowed by Utah law. 
 
    The bill essentially would freeze limits on concentrations
of radioactive materials at current licensed levels unless the
Legislature and governor specifically approve a change. That is
a prudent move until the task force's work is done. 
 
    
 
   
 
   
 
              
 
  
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
 20 Las Vegas RJ: Nevada's Republicans hear from 'Bush's political pit bull' 
 
Friday, February 13, 2004

By ERIN NEFF REVIEW-JOURNAL

Ed Gillespie shakes hands with Louis Willis and Rosalie Williams 
after speaking Thursday at the Clark County GOP headquarters. 
Photo by John Gurzinski.

Democrats intend "to run the dirtiest campaign in modern
presidential politics," Republican National Committee Chairman
Ed Gillespie said during a visit to Nevada on Thursday.
 
 In a keynote speech to about 250 Republicans at the Washoe
County Lincoln Day Dinner, Gillespie said "everything's on the
table."
 
 "We know that everything means making slanderous charges
against the president of the United States, funneling money to
shadow organizations, engaging in voter suppression tactics and
spreading lies on the Internet," Gillespie said.
 
 The speech, which came two days before the Nevada Democratic
precinct caucuses and one day before likely Democratic nominee
John Kerry visits Las Vegas, coincided with the official start
of the Bush-Cheney campaign's engagement with Kerry.
 
 The campaign sent 6 million e-mails Thursday with a video
discussing what the campaign calls Kerry's hypocrisy on issues.
 
 Gillespie would not comment on an Internet report that
Democratic frontrunner John Kerry, who is scheduled to visit Las
Vegas today, had a two-year affair with a woman starting in
spring 2001.
 
 The Kerry camp had no comment on the Drudge Report allegations.
 
 Gillespie at first said he didn't know about the report. He
later acknowledged he was aware of the report, but said he did
not have enough information to comment.
 
 "Right now, I won't comment on it because I don't know about
it," Gillespie said. "That doesn't mean if I know about it, I'll
comment on it."
 
 Local Kerry spokeswoman Erin Bilbray said the intern allegation
was "simply floated because the president's numbers are so bad
and they needed something to distract attention."
 
 Kerry is set to arrive in Las Vegas today from Wisconsin. His
visit will begin about 6:30 p.m. with a reception for
fund-raisers at Perry Rogers' home. Kerry then will speak at
Valley High School from 8 to 9 p.m. and is expected to meet with
voters Saturday morning before Clark County's Democratic
precinct caucuses at Chaparral High School.
 
 Gillespie has been traveling the country in advance of other
primaries or caucuses, spending time in Iowa, New Hampshire and
South Carolina during votes in those states.
 
 He began his trip to Nevada on Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas
with a speech to grass-roots activists at the Clark County GOP
headquarters.
 
 During brief remarks to local Republicans pledging to work as
team leaders for Bush-Cheney '04, Gillespie offered nothing
partisan and took no shots at Kerry.
 
 "Nevada has five electoral college votes, and that was the
difference in 2000," Gillespie said, noting if 10 votes per
precinct had "gone the other way, we would not have won Nevada."
 
 Gillespie was less subdued when answering questions from
reporters about Kerry.
 
 "He has a lack of judgment to where our priorities should be,"
Gillespie said, referring to votes Kerry cast to reduce defense
and intelligence spending in 1995. 
At the Reno speech, Gov. Kenny Guinn introduced Gillespie as
"President Bush's political pit bull."
 
 As evidence of Democratic dirty tricks, Gillespie cited a New
York Post report about Teresa Heinz Kerry donating $50,000 to
the League of Conservation Voters before that group endorsed her
husband's candidacy.
 
 The Kerry campaign said the Heinz Family Foundation often
donates to environmental causes, but has not contributed to the
League of Conservation Voters in the past three years. The
campaign said Kerry won the group's endorsement because of his
96 percent voting record on the group's causes.
 
 Local Kerry co-chairmen, state Sen. Terry Care and former
Congressman Jim Bilbray, criticized Gillespie's speech.
 
 "Nevadans want a debate over real issues like the Bush
administration's belief that shipping American jobs overseas is
good for our economy, the 3 million jobs lost under George W.
Bush, and why he broke his promise and is shipping millions of
tons of nuclear waste to our state," the statement read.
 
 The state Democratic Party also hammered the proposal to store
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
 
 Gillespie, 42, is a former director of 21st Century Energy
Project, a consortium of groups currently lobbying on behalf of
the energy bill proposed by congressional Republicans at Bush's
request.
 
 The energy bill contains $750 million a year in tax breaks for
construction of nuclear power plants, among other items of
concern to environmental activists and those opposing Yucca
Mountain.
 
 Gillespie deflected a question about whether Bush or Kerry was
stronger on Yucca Mountain by saying: "Yucca Mountain will be an
issue, but so too, will health care and jobs, terrorism and
securing the homeland. There are lots of issues."
 
 Gillespie also spent some of his visit defending Bush against
charges that he did not show up for National Guard duty in
Alabama during the Vietnam era.
 
 He said Bush has answered all questions about his National
Guard duty, and he again criticized Democratic National
Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe for saying Bush was AWOL.
 
 "Terry McAuliffe has become the John Wilkes Booth of
presidential character assassination," Gillespie told the crowd
at the Peppermill hotel in Reno.
 
 He suggested national media will reject a document showing Bush
visited an Air Force dentist while in Alabama. "Well, that only
proves his teeth were there, but do you have any proof of the
rest of his body being there," he said the media will respond.
 
 Democratic National Committee press secretary Tony Welch said
Gillespie was "hyperventilating" and had not laid to rest
criticism about Bush's military service.
 
 "The president, and not a single Democrat, declared on national
television that his military records would clear up this
controversy," Welch said. "So far, the records have done just
the opposite."

Carson City Bureau Chief Ed Vogel contributed to this report.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 21 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Test shows no dust hazard 
 
Friday, February 13, 2004
 

State environmental inspectors find tailings from tunnel stable,
in compliance By KEITH ROGERS and STEVE TETREAULT
REVIEW-JOURNAL
 
A pair of state environmental inspectors checked a massive
tailings pile near the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
burial site Thursday to see if it posed a blowing dust hazard
but found the project to be in compliance with the Clean Air
Act. 
Caren Campbell, an environmental scientist for the Nevada
Environmental Protection Division's Bureau of Air Pollution
Control said the tailings of fragmented rock are stable and site
records were in order. She said she observed no dust blowing in
a 25 mph wind. 
"There was certainly nothing out there that indicated a
violation or even a possible violation. Everything looked
impeccably well kept," she said after returning from the site,
100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 
But Campbell said neither she nor her colleague, Greg Rabb, an
environmental scientist for the division's federal facilities
bureau, collected samples from the pile to analyze for toxic
materials. 
"That is something that is not in my scope. We don't take
samples of rock or materials," she noted. 
Former workers from the five-mile, 25-foot-diameter tunnel that
loops through the mountain have said they encountered a potent,
cancer-causing fibrous mineral, erionite, during the excavation
between 1994 and 1997. They believe they contracted silicosis
and other chronic lung ailments from inhaling dust inside the
tunnel and they fear that the tailings from the excavation which
are piled outside still contain erionite and other materials
covered by the Toxic Substances Control Act. 
The state's inspection Thursday didn't include the tunnel
because the division has no jurisdiction inside it. 
Campbell said she has routinely inspected the site once a year
about this time, taking notes and photographs for an annual
report. She said she had intended to visit the Yucca Mountain
site later but the inspection was moved up in the wake of the
allegations raised by the former tunnel workers. 
Department of Energy spokesmen in Las Vegas and Washington noted
there is ongoing air monitoring at the site, including a
monitoring tower by the muck pile. Prior to Thursday, the site
was last inspected for air quality in April 2003. 
DOE spokesman Joe Davis in Washington said the state
Environmental Protection Division has conducted five tests since
1994 on air quality at Yucca Mountain with respect to silica
"and we have never been out of compliance." 
Allen Benson, a spokesman for DOE's Office of Repository
Development in Las Vegas said on any given day there are about
150 workers on site, mostly maintenance workers but also
scientists from national laboratories. The scientists continue
to gather data from ongoing tests on how the mountain can
sustain heat from 77,000 tons of decaying spent reactor fuel and
highly radioactive defense wastes that will be entombed there. 
He said said current workers in the program have been notified
of upcoming opportunities for free silicosis screening, and DOE
continues to track former workers. 
Davis said workers and former workers who test for silicosis can
get assistance from DOE in reconstructing their industrial
health records and for seeking workers' compensation from the
state. 
Regulations to guard the health and safety of workers from
exposure to erionite at Yucca Mountain appear to have fallen
through the cracks of agencies typically charged with those
duties. 
Bob Loux, who directs Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, said
federal environmental officials have informed him that their
agency doesn't have jurisdiction over erionite fibers in the
form that they're found at Yucca Mountain. 
"They say while the material is listed in the TSCA (Toxic
Substances Control Act) they only enforce it as it is used in
pharmaceuticals and pesticides," Loux said about his
conversation with an Environmental Protection Agency official in
San Francisco. 
What's more baffling, he said, is why years ago the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration relinquished its authority to
police activities at the Department of Energy site through a
memorandum of understanding. 
A copy of that 1992 memo says, in part, "Nothing in this
agreement will relieve DOE of its responsibility for the safety
and health of employees. Any safety and health program
documentation developed with OSHA input remains the sole
responsibility of DOE." 
Richard Fairfax, national director of OSHA's enforcement
programs, said the memo, like similar agreements OSHA has forged
with other agencies, pertains to employees of contractors at
government-owned facilities. 
"We do have jurisdiction over Department of Energy federal
employees but not contractors," he said. 
As for the agreement with DOE, Fairfax said, "We've had some
conversations about the need to update it but neither of us has
started working on it yet."
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 22 Las Vegas RJ: Bush nominates Reid aide to NRC 
 
Friday, February 13, 2004
 

Nominee senator's Yucca Mountain adviser By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Thursday upheld his end of a
deal with Sen. Harry Reid by nominating the Nevadan's chief
adviser on the Yucca Mountain Project to become a top nuclear
industry regulator.
 
 The White House announced that Bush has chosen Gregory B.
Jaczko, a native of Albany, N.Y., to fill a vacancy on the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
 If confirmed by the Senate, Jaczko's five-year term would
include consideration of applications by the Department of
Energy to license, build and operate a nuclear waste repository
at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
 
 Reid, who strongly opposes the Yucca Mountain program, held up
action on dozens of Bush administration appointees last fall to
influence the White House to put Jaczko's name forward. Jaczko
is a physicist who also teaches at Georgetown University.
 
 Bush finally agreed after Reid extended his blockade to ensnare
Mike Leavitt, the former Utah governor nominated to head the
Environmental Protection Agency.
 
 "They said that was the deal they made, and I appreciate them
following through," Reid said Thursday night.
 
 Reid said Jaczko was well-qualified to uphold the NRC's mission
to protect public health and safety. The NRC regulates nuclear
reactors, the handling of nuclear substances and nuclear waste
facilities. 
"Dr. Jaczko will hold the welfare of the American public in the
highest regard as he functions in his role of overseeing the use
of nuclear materials," Reid said.
 
 Jaczko, 33, faces a Senate confirmation process that is
expected to begin with a hearing before the Environment and
Public Works Committee. A committee spokesman said he was not
certain when nominations would be considered.
 
 Jaczko would not be made available for comment "while he's
being reviewed and scrutinized," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen
said.
 
 Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said the group
had no immediate comment. Industry officials have opposed
Jaczko, believing he would be biased against the Yucca project
from his association with Reid.
 
 Reid said the nuclear industry shouldn't fear Jaczko, who he
said would be "fair and impartial."
 
 Reid said he received no promises the White House would support
Jaczko beyond sending his name to the Senate. He said he would
be on the lookout for foot-dragging in the confirmation process.
 
 "I'll be patient for a while," Reid said while declining to set
a timeline.
 
 Jaczko holds a doctorate in theoretical particle physics with a
minor in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University lecturing on
arms control, nuclear power and nuclear waste.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 23 Bellona: Sellafield: The fight continues
 
New Bellona Report:

At a conference being held in London today, The Bellona 
Foundation is presenting a new and revealing report about 
Britain’s notorious Sellafield plant. The report concludes that a 
new treatment process based on a chemical called 
tetraphenylphosphonium bromide, or TPP, could be the start of a 
new, Tc-99 discharge free era. 

Hanne Bakke, 2004-02-13 10:02

The extensive report was published in Norwegian in September 
2003, and is being presented to the British public in English 
translation at a round table conference on Sellafield Tc-99 
discharges in London, organized by The Bellona Foundation and 
“Lofoten mot Sellafield,” another Norwegian NGO.

  Bellona report Nr 8-2003 Sellafield   

  Bellona's new report on Sellafield and its comprehensive 
illustration of the plant presents new information about the 
dumping and spreading of radioactive waste. 

The 82 page, colorprint report can be ordered in printed version 
by e-mailing 

Discharges could stop in March

 The report is being presented at the right place at the right 
time, said Bellona's Erik Martiniussen, author of the report. The 
TPP experiments have been carried out for the past four months, 
and if the results show that the Tc-99 discharges are effectively 
cleansed, it will mean a stop to the radioactive discharges in 
the North Sea, he said.

  Sellafield's Tc-99 discharges to possibly end by March   

  The British Environmental Agency has confirmed that a special
new technology for treating waste at the Sellafield nuclear
reprocessing plant that began last June is working and is
retaining discharges of radioactive Technetium-99, or Tc-99,
from the plant's regular releases of liquid radioactive refuse
into the Irish Sea. 

Enough plutonium for 4000 nukes

 The new report documents how Sellafield has polluted the Irish
Sea with nuclear discharges for fifty years. As a result, the
Irish Sea is the world’s most radioactively polluted ocean. The
report reports extensively on how this radioactive waste has
affected the marine environment. 

The report also maps out the new challenges the Sellafield plant
is faces for the future: Even if the Tc-99 discharges end as a
result of the new cleansing method, there remains the massive
job of cleaning up the plant site. Sellafield has always been a
central part of the British nuclear programme, and as of today
there are over 80 tonnes of pure plutonium stored on the
facilities grounds. This amount is enough to produce 4000 atomic
bombs, and is one of the largest plutonium storage facilities in
the world. 

Plutonium unsafely stored

 Bellona considers the plutonium storage not to be adequately
secured. In the report, Bellona urges that the plutonium be
transferred to a lasting and stable form that is not suited for
making weapons. One option is to immobilize the plutonium,
meaning to mix it with other highly-radioactive material and
mold it in ceramic structures for decades of storage in an
appropriate facility. 

The report also focuses on other legacies the last decades of
the British nuclear program has left behind.
 
 2004-01-19 Sellafield
 Sellafield’s Tc-99 discharges to possibly end by March

 2003-10-10 Sellafield
 Sellafield launches trial waste treatment for technetium 99

 2003-07-09 Sellafield
 BNFL Announces Ł1 Billion Loss

 2003-07-03 Sellafield
 Ireland Fails to Secure Sellafield Information

 2003-07-01 Sellafield
 Britain Must Consult Ireland Over Sellafield

 2003-06-22 Sellafield
 British minister requests Sellafield to halt all Tc-99
discharges

 2003-06-10 Sellafield
 British government taken to international court over Sellafield

 2003-05-15 Sellafield
 — Disappointing Sellafield-meeting

 2003-05-14 Sellafield
 Challenge Blair on Sellafield-discharges

         2003-04-25 Sellafield
 Bellona calls for a one-year moratorium on Tc-99 discharges

 2003-04-08 Sellafield
 Delays in Sellafield waste treatment

 2003-03-18 Sellafield
 - Not constructive to stop discharges

 2003-03-11 Sellafield
 Tc-99 conference at Sellafield

 2003-01-21 Sellafield
 - Tc-99 discharges must stop

 2002-12-12 Sellafield
 Continued discharges of Tc-99

 2002-11-08 Sellafield
 The Vulnerability of the UK's Nuclear Facilities to Terrorism

 2002-09-20 Sellafield
 Sellafield customers in trouble

  Publisher: , President: 
Information: , Technical contact: 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 24 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Disregard for safety

Today: February 13, 2004 at 9:32:14 PST 

 Sen. Harry Reid wants the U.S. Energy Department to stop work
at the Yucca Mountain project until state environmental
officials have had a chance to determine if workers are being
endangered by unsafe conditions there. In mid-January the Energy
Department announced it would set up a silicosis screening
program for current and past workers who have dug tunnels at
Yucca Mountain, which is where the federal government wants to
bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste.

 The Energy Department acknowledged that workers may not have
had the most current safety protection from 1992 to 2000.
Silica, which is naturally occurring in rock, is dangerous if
it's inhaled through dust. There is even concern that there is a
present danger at the project, which prompted Reid's request to
halt work, because dust from rock and dirt piles left from the
tunneling could be blown around in windy conditions and harm the
workers.

 The whole idea of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is
unsound, because the mountain can't safely contain the waste and
because of the transportation dangers created by shipping
nuclear waste cross-country. So it shouldn't be too surprising
that the Energy Department's lack of concern for safety has even
extended to the project's own employees. Congress should
investigate the matter to see if the Energy Department's zeal to
move the project quickly along resulted in the department taking
shortcuts involving the safety of its workers. At the very
least, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham should listen to Reid
and stop work on the project until state environmental officials
have an opportunity to determine what danger exists to workers
on the Yucca Mountain project. 
 
*****************************************************************
 25 Las Vegas SUN: Reid adviser nominated for nuke panel

Today: February 13, 2004 at 10:06:38 PST 

By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com>

 WASHINGTON -- The White House formally nominated Greg Jaczko,
Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's nuclear adviser, for a spot
on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday.

 This reverses the White House's original rejection last year of
Reid's recommendation that Jaczko's take one of the open seats.

 Although the White House would not say why it originally did
not want Jaczko, critics have pointed out his previous work
against the Energy Department's plans to store 77,000 tons of
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas. The NRC will decide whether the Energy Department will
get a license to operate the repository.

 Jaczko, 33, now works on appropriations as well as nuclear
issues for the senator, but was one of Reid's key staffers
working against the Yucca Mountain project when Congress had to
vote on it in 2002. Congress eventually approved the projected
and the president allowed it to move forward that July.

 His anti-Yucca work sparked conflict-of-interest grumblings
among the project's supporters, who oppose his nomination,
especially since Reid came out against former Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board Chairman Michael Corradini for pro-Yucca
comments he made in a newspaper editorial. Corradini maintains
he had no conflict, but resigned last month anyway.

 If confirmed by the Senate, Jaczko would be one of a
five-member commission that ultimately will decide if the Energy
Department can move forward with construction plans for the
Yucca Mountain project. The department expects to submit its
license application to the NRC by the end of the year.

 Jaczko's term would expire in 2008, just around the time the
department would hope to get the license application approved
and begin construction on the facility.

 Angered by the White House's lack of explanation for the
rejection, Reid delayed the confirmation of Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Mike Leavitt and several other
executive branch nominees last fall.

 But under commission rules, Bush had to nominate at least one
Democrat, so the White House eventually agreed to nominate
Jaczko in October and Leavitt was approved to take over this
agency soon after.

 "The NRC's mission is to protect public health and safety,
promote defense and security and protect the environment," Reid
said in a prepared statement. "Given Dr. Jaczko's eminent
qualifications, I can think of no one better to uphold that
standard."

 Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said Jaczko can not talk to the
media now since he is under review for the nomination but he did
release a statement saying "I appreciate the President's intent
to nominate me for the nuclear regulatory commission . It is an
honor to be nominated, and I look forward to serving the nation
as a member of the NRC."

 Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said the
industry group would support any nominee that could impartially
evaluate what comes to the commission.

 "We do still have question's about Jaczko's ability to evaluate
issues objectively," Singer said. "We wait to see how things
work out."

 Singer noted that the nomination does not stem from the White
House's support for Jaczko but from the deal made with Reid.

 Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was "extremely pleased" with the
announcement saying his "experience, integrity, and knowledge
will serve the commission well."

 "I am proud to have played a role in his nomination through
communication with the White House, and I look forward to Greg's
confirmation," Ensign said.

 Jaczko began in the field studying physics and philosophy as an
undergraduate at Cornell University. He earned his doctorate in
particle physics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and
applied for an American Institute of Physics fellowship and, in
1999, ended up working in the office of Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass,
for a year, before working for Reid on the Environment and
Public Works Committee. He is also an adjunct professor at
Georgetown University. Jaczko would replace Commissioner Greta
Joy Dicus. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, of
which Reid is a member, will conduct the nomination hearings but
nothing has been scheduled at this point. Reid said he is
"confident that Dr. Jaczko's nomination will now move quickly
through the Senate." 


 
*****************************************************************
 26 Las Vegas SUN: State says no dust problem at Yucca

Today: February 13, 2004 at 11:28:11 PST 

By Cy Ryan <cy@lasvegassun.com> SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

 CARSON CITY -- The state Division of Environmental Protection
said today an investigation at Yucca Mountain Thursday showed
there were no violations of blowing dust regulation.

 Division Administrator Allen Biaggi said there were winds of
about 25 miles per hour while the inspectors were at the site
for a "good chunk of the day." He said they did not see any dust
coming off piles of tailings from the tunnel.

 "The piles were in stable condition," Biaggi said. He said
during similar inspections in 2001, 2002 and 2003 there was no
blowing dust. During last year's inspection there were 35 mile
per hour winds, he said.

 The Energy Department is boring a large tunnel at Yucca
Mountain as the potential burial ground for nuclear waste. And
the rocks and dirt being removed from the tunnel are dumped
outside the area.

 "We're in clean air compliance," he said. "We don't have
authority for air quality in the tunnels or the ventilation
system or any of the building.

 "Our focus is the generation of dust from these piles."

 Allen Benson, a spokesman for the Energy Department, which
operates the site, said it was "no surprise" that state
officials did not find any dust violations in its inspection of
rock and dirt piles at Yucca Mountain.

 Benson said there have been five previous inspections by state
officials and the project has never been cited.

 "We maintain our own air maintenance system and we have never
exceeded the limits," said Benson. "We're happy to have an
independent, objective inspection that verifies that we are
doing what we need to do," he said. 


 
*****************************************************************
 27 Las Vegas SUN: Transfer of fuel rods 'not necessary'

Today: February 13, 2004 at 11:41:30 PST 

Officials say on-site storage of waste safer than thought

 SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

 WASHINGTON -- The risks of storing more used radioactive fuel
rods from nuclear power plants in onsite pools are less than
previously thought despite the new specter of terrorism, Nuclear
Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday.

 This new study could diminish the Energy Department's argument
that leaving waste onsite at nuclear power plants poses a strong
enough threat that it needs to be moved to the proposed Yucca
Mountain nuclear waste storage site, critics of the proposal say.

 Farouk Eltawila, who directs NRC's division of systems analysis
and regulatory effectiveness, told a National Academy of
Sciences panel that "previous NRC studies are overly
conservative" and don't "take advantage of all the work that we
have done the past 25 years."

 The new classified study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed,
will be shown to the scientific panel today. The study shows
that more spent fuel rods can be stored safely in pools of water
next to reactors and that the storage facilities are well
protected against potential terrorist attacks, Eltawila said.

 The storage pools are typically about 25 feet wide by 20 feet
high, constructed to allow for convective cooling and with racks
for storing the rods.

 The implications of the new study are that power companies
would not have to spend money transferring the fuel rods to dry
storage casks until they can be buried at a permanent repository
now under construction at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

 "Not only does it cost too much, it's not necessary," said John
Vincent of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top
trade group.

 But it also implies to some Yucca opponents that waste can just
stay in the pools and on-site instead of coming to Nevada.

 The Energy Department has used security as one of its top
reasons for moving nuclear waste from commercial sites to Yucca,
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, saying that leaving the
material where it is posed a high security risk.

 But Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for
Nuclear Projects, said the security threat was the department's
way of "exploiting" the stronger security concerns after the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

 "The real issue here is that it was never a real health and
safety problem," Loux said. "DOE manufactured that to get more
people to vote for Yucca."

 The national repository idea, approved by Congress in 1982,
stemmed from the need to have an "end game" for the nuclear
waste and to provide a plan to build more nuclear power plants,
Loux said.

 Some of Nevada's congressional delegation said the study showed
this threat was unfounded and said the risk of transporting the
waste was a much more real threat.

 "I have always supported dry cask storage for nuclear waste,
because it is the safest possible storage method," Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev, said. "This report proves, yet again, that we can
store nuclear waste safely, efficiently, and economically at the
site of our nuclear reactors."

 Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who is on a House Intelligence
Committee trip overseas, released a statement saying that the
Yucca Mountain Project "has never taken advantage of all the
technological advances made over the past 25 years."

 He said the Energy Department still needs to address the
security issues of transporting nuclear waste and transporting
"the most dangerous substance known to man past schools,
hospitals, and communities is unwise, unsafe and completely
unnecessary."

 Adam Mayberry, spokesman for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said the
congressman had not reviewed the study but called the report
"encouraging in our fight against Yucca Mountain."

 Although he hasn't yet seen the study, Princeton University
professor Frank von Hippel called its conclusion an attempt to
save electric power companies billions of dollars. He said
allowing more high-density storage of nuclear waste will only
heighten the terrorism risks.

 "It's very sad," said von Hippel, a frequent critic of the
nuclear industry and its regulators. "The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has been captured by the industry."

 The National Academy panel is meeting this week at Congress'
request to review the safety and security of commercial nuclear
spent fuel until a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain is
completed sometime during the next decade.

 Von Hippel and German scientist Klaus Janberg pointed to their
own research showing that the risks are greater than the NRC
believes. They also noted that Germany and Switzerland require
their spent fuel pools to be built inside containment buildings,
a feature that the United States doesn't require.

 Sun reporter Suzanne Struglinski and the Associated Press
contributed to this story.

 
 
*****************************************************************
 28 RGJ: Reid calls for Yucca closure
 
Friday | Feb 13, 2004

Reno Gazette-Journal] 
	
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — Nevada state inspectors visited the construction site 
of the nation’s nuclear waste dump Thursday where work continued 
despite Sen. Harry Reid’s call for a shutdown until officials 
determine whether rock tailings pose a health hazard.

“All work at Yucca Mountain should stop until we can gauge the 
extent of this problem,” Reid, D-Nev., said in a statement 
accusing the Energy Department of rushing to build the repository 
while failing to protect workers from potentially toxic silica 
dust.

Reid, who failed to marshal the votes to stop the project when 
Congress approved it in 2002, said he wants a congressional 
hearing on the health issue.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the federal agency has 
complied with air safety standards at the site 90 miles northwest 
of Las Vegas, he said.

“Since 1994, we have been — by state measures — in compliance,” 
Davis said. “Our records indicate all air quality regulatory 
limits have been met.”

Davis said work would continue and the agency welcomed more 
inspections.

The state, which is trying to stop Yucca Mountain, has authority 
under the federal Clean Air Act to inspect tailing mounds as a 
possible air quality hazard.

Reid said he was “outraged” by what he called the Energy 
Department’s “obsession with keeping to a schedule” to open the 
repository in 2010.

The government wants to move 77,000 tons of the nation’s most 
radioactive waste from sites in 39 states to Nevada and entomb it 
1,000 feet below the volcanic ridge at the western edge of the 
Nevada Test Site.

Allen Biaggi, administrator for the Nevada Division of 
Environmental Protection, said two state inspectors from Las 
Vegas were expected to report the results of their inspections on 
Friday.

They were assigned this week to examine volcanic rock tailings 
unearthed during excavation of a 5-mile long exploratory tunnel 
from 1994 to 1997.

The state action came after former Yucca Mountain workers blamed 
lung problems on toxic dust inhaled during tunneling, and the 
Energy Department acknowledged last month that workers might have 
been exposed to fibrous silica dust.

The federal agency said it was offering former workers free 
health screenings for silicosis, a potentially deadly lung 
disease.

“If the material is dangerous in the tunnel, it very well could 
be dangerous outside the tunnel,” said Bob Loux, Nevada’s top 
state nuclear projects administrator.

Davis said the DOE also was preparing a response to a Jan. 29 
letter Reid sent Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham seeking 
information about health and safety protection at the site.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, 
and Jon Porter, R-Henderson, backed Reid’s call for Yucca 
Mountain work to stop.

Berkley compared Yucca Mountain workers with Nevada Test Site 
workers who contracted silicosis after tunneling for underground 
nuclear weapons tests.

Congress in 2000 and 2001 set up compensation funds for nuclear 
workers in Nevada and other states who contracted silicosis, 
chronic beryllium disease or cancers that could be traced to 
job-related exposures.

Berkley said the lawmakers were researching whether Yucca 
Mountain workers qualified for compensation under the nuclear 
worker law.     

© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Newspaper. Use of this
*****************************************************************
 29 SF Chronicle: Nevada gaining clout in the political arena / 
Saturday's caucuses expected to heavily favor Sen. Kerry
 
Steve Friess, Chronicle Correspondent        Friday, February 13, 
2004

Las Vegas -- There are just a paltry 22 delegates at stake 
Saturday in Nevada's Democratic caucuses. The outcome is such a 
foregone conclusion that top supporters of former Vermont Gov. 
Howard Dean and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards are already 
conceding a likely loss to the front-runner, Massachusetts Sen. 
John Kerry. 

In the state's largest region, Clark County, organizers say that 
attendance by a mere 1,000 of the more than 250,000 registered 
Democrats would be considered record-breaking. Yet if the 
weekend's contest is entirely predictable, appearances here this 
week by both Kerry and Republican National Committee Chairman Ed 
Gillespie reflect that the nation's fastest-growing state is 
poised to play its most significant role ever in a presidential 
election. 

Historically, Nevada has gone Republican in every presidential 
race since 1964, except for Bill Clinton's victories in 1992 and 
1996, when third-party candidate Ross Perot siphoned off votes 
from the GOP nominees. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush beat 
Democrat Al Gore here by 3.6 percent of the state vote. 

This time, neither campaign is taking any chances on the Silver 
State's five electoral votes. 

"Nevada is a major battleground state in November," said Billy 
Rogers, state coordinator for former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's 
campaign, who admits he expects Dean to show poorly on Saturday. 
"If Democrats can win Nevada, they're in pretty good shape in the 
national election. It is extremely important." 

The state is now considered a toss-up, largely because it is 
evenly divided between registered Republicans and Democrats and 
has some of the nation's fastest-growing populations of both 
Republican retirees and Democratic union workers. Plus, some 
observers think President Bush will be harmed by his support of 
placing the national nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain 
near Las Vegas, seen as a unique wedge issue that could bring 
fence-sitting Republicans to support a Democratic candidate. 

All this means more attention from the parties and the candidates 
than ever before, pundits and campaign operatives insist. 
Already, several Democrat- aligned special interest groups are 
focusing on the state. The liberal MoveOn. org, for instance, 
bought local TV advertising time during the Super Bowl in Nevada 
and four other states to air an anti-Bush commercial that the NFL 
and CBS refused to broadcast nationally during the game. 

Kerry is scheduled to appear tonight at a rally at a high school 
and then a reception at a private home, followed by a visit to 
the Clark County caucus meetings on Saturday. He sent former 
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros here 
earlier this week to address a Latino business group in Las 
Vegas. 

The Republicans clearly think it's important, too. The 
Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign already has opened a headquarters in 
Las Vegas, and first lady Laura Bush is due to visit the state on 
Thursday. Gillespie came to Las Vegas Thursday to rally campaign 
workers and then flew to Reno to speak at a dinner. Vice 
President Dick Cheney was here last month to raise $100,000 for 
U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and former President George H.W. 
Bush spoke in Reno in late January at the Safari Club 
International convention. 

"We've become a lot more relevant after what happened in the 2000 
election, and both Democrats and Republicans are starting to 
account for the importance of electoral votes in smaller states," 
said Republican operative Steve Wark, who is running anti-gay 
activist Richard Ziser's campaign to unseat Democratic Sen. Harry 
Reid. "They're not taking any votes for granted. Obviously you're 
not going to spend as much time in Nevada as you would in 
Florida, but you're going to see more money and a lot more 
organizational effort coming to Nevada." 

The rise of Nevada as a presidential player -- and a source of 
campaign contributions -- denotes the decline of the stigma of 
being associated with a state known famously for sin, gambling 
and debauchery. "That disappeared a long time ago," said Las 
Vegas Sun columnist Jon Ralston, the state's most prominent 
political pundit. "They discovered the gaming money is much more 
important than the image problem of coming to Sin City Central, 
especially now that there's gaming all over the country." 

Kerry is likely to harp on the Yucca Mountain issue, which he has 
consistently opposed in the Senate. Bush fast-tracked the site 
and pushed it through Congress in 2002 after promising during the 
2000 campaign to wait until studies were completed on its 
structural viability. 

"People are starting to understand that the president can kill 
Yucca Mountain and that Bush lied to Nevadans," state Democratic 
Party spokesman Jon Summers said. "They're seeing there's hope 
that a Democratic president, with a stroke of a pen, can end the 
Yucca Mountain project." 

First, of course, Kerry needs to actually win the delegates 
necessary for the nomination, so part of this visit is aimed at 
ensuring his momentum remains intact. 

"Once you're on a roll like this, you can't trip," said 
Democratic activist Robert Forbuss, Nevada finance chairman for 
Kerry's campaign. "If you trip in a state like Nevada, it becomes 
big news. He can't win Tennessee and Virginia one day, then fall 
here the next." 

After that, Forbuss predicted, "Both of them -- Bush and Kerry -- 
will be back in (Nevada) to get the vote and also to get the 
financial support from the community. We should see a lot more of 
that than ever." 

Page A - 3 

©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
*****************************************************************
 30 MSNBC: New twist in nuclear waste debate

Regulators say more can be stored onsite in pools  

  The Associated Press  

Updated:Feb. 13, 2004

WASHINGTON - The risks of storing more used radioactive fuel rods 
from nuclear power plants underwater in adjacent pools are less 
than previously thought despite the new specter of terrorism, 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Thursday.

Farouk Eltawila, who directs NRCâ€™s division of systems analysis 
and regulatory effectiveness, told a National Academy of Sciences 
panel that â€śprevious NRC studies are overly conservativeâ€ť and 
donâ€™t â€śtake advantage of all the work that we have done the 
past 25 years.â€ť

The new classified study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, 
will be shown to the scientific panel on Friday. The study shows 
that more spent fuel rods can be stored safely in pools of water 
next to reactors and that the storage facilities are well 
protected against potential terrorist attacks, Eltawila said.

The storage pools are typically about 25 feet wide by 20 feet 
high, constructed to allow for convective cooling and with racks 
for storing the rods.

The implications of the new study are that power companies would 
not have to spend money transferring the fuel rods to dry storage 
casks until they can be buried at a permanent repository now 
under construction at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

â€śNot only does it cost too much, itâ€™s not necessary,â€ť said
John Vincent of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industryâ€™s
top trade group.

Although he hasnâ€™t yet seen the study, Princeton University
professor Frank von Hippel called its conclusion an attempt to
save electric power companies billions of dollars. He said
allowing more high-density storage of nuclear waste will only
heighten the terrorism risks.

â€śItâ€™s very sad,â€ť said von Hippel, a frequent critic of the
nuclear industry and its regulators. â€śThe Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has been captured by the industry.â€ť

The National Academy panel is meeting this week at Congressâ€™
request to review the safety and security of commercial nuclear
spent fuel until a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain is
completed sometime during the next decade.

Nation looks for way out of nuclear waste
  
Von Hippel and German scientist Klaus Janberg pointed to their 
own research showing that the risks are greater than the NRC 
believes. They also noted that Germany and Switzerland require 
their spent fuel pools to be built inside containment buildings, 
a feature that the United States doesnâ€™t require. Â© 

2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
  
*****************************************************************
 31 Las Vegas SUN: GOP Chair: Bush "has been true" to Nevadans on Yucca Mt.
 
 By SCOTT SONNER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

RENO, Nev. (AP) - President Bush "has been true" to Nevadans 
about Yucca Mountain despite Democrats' claims he misled the 
state about his support for the nuclear waste dump, the GOP's 
chairman said Thursday. 

Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said 
he understands that most Nevadans' opposition to the repository 
planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas is an "important issue" 
in the upcoming election. 

But he said it does "not break cleanly along party lines" and is 
one of only a number of issues that will play a role in the race 
in Nevada in November. 

Bush, who narrowly won Nevada in the last election, said during 
the 2000 campaign his position on Yucca Mountain was the same as 
Democrat Al Gore's and that he would base his decision on the 
best scientific evidence. 

But Jon Summers, spokesman for the Nevada Democratic Party, said 
Thursday that Bush "broke his promise to wait for `sound science' 
and approved the project" the day after Energy Secretary Spencer 
Abraham recommended the site on Feb. 14, 2002. 

"They weren't misled," Gillespie told reporters before a keynote 
address to the Washoe County Lincoln Day Dinner Thursday night at 
a hotel-casino in Reno. 

"This is where Democrats need to be careful. We can have a policy 
disagreement and that is a valid discussion and discourse," he 
said. 

"The fact is, the president was accurate when he said (in 2000) 
that he had not made any decisions - that he was going to look at 
this, consider the scientific data, the evidence, and that a 
temporary siting would not be good policy," Gillespie said. 

"He has been true to all those points," he said. 

"Now you can disagree over whether or not the permanent location 
at Yucca Mountain is good or bad policy. But once again we see 
the Democrats instead of discussing the policy making personal 
attacks that are baseless." 

Gillespie said Bush's primary commitment to Nevadans during the 
2000 campaign was that Yucca Mountain would not be used as a 
temporary site for storage until a permanent repository was 
selected and waste sent to the permanent facility. 

"And it's not been a temporary site," he said. 

"What the president said is if we are going to do this, let's do 
it right - do it the proper way and do it in a way that makes 
sure all the proper measures are taken for a permanent site," he 
said. 

Gillespie dismissed Democrats' claims it will buoy their efforts 
to win Nevada's five electoral votes in November. 

"This is an issue that Democrats and Republicans in Nevada all 
feel strongly about. Democrats and Republicans in other parts of 
the country feel strongly on the other side as well," he said. 

"There are a lot of other issues Nevadans are going to cast their 
vote on in November," he said, including jobs, health care, 
education and `winning the war on terrorism." 

"Looking at all those issues, I feel confident the president is 
going to carry the state again," he said. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 32 Las Vegas SUN: Photo of U.S. Hiroshima Victim in Display

Today: February 13, 2004 at 10:45:10 PST 

 By GARY SCHAEFER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) - Near where the atomic bomb detonated
over Hiroshima, the faces of the victims silently appear and
fade on a wall of television monitors in a relentless display of
the attack's terrifying human toll. 

Amid the thousands of faces, one stands apart: that of Cpl. John
Long Jr., U.S. Army Air Force. 

Long, who died in the blast while being held by the Japanese,
last month became the first American serviceman to be enshrined
at a memorial here, throwing light on the little-known story of
U.S. prisoners of war who perished at Hiroshima. 

"It shows how indiscriminate the slaughter was," said Shigeru
Aratani, a curator at the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall
for the Atomic Bomb Victims. "Enemies and friends, soldiers and
civilians, women and children - they were all killed." 

Long bailed out of his B-24 bomber as it was shot down near
Hiroshima days before the Aug. 6, 1945 bombing. The 27-year-old
steelworker from New Castle, Pa., was among at least 10 American
POWs killed in the attack. 

The flier's picture provides one of the few hints at Hiroshima's
Peace Park of a tale that was unpublicized for decades. 

The names of seven American POWs have been added since the 1970s
to an official book of victims updated annually by the city, but
the list is encased in a stone cenotaph and is not visible to
the public. 

The American prisoners were absent from the memorial hall, which
opened in 2002 and displays 9,000 bomb victims for 700 visitors
a day, until Long's 35-year-old great nephew, Nathan Long,
offered the airman's photo last month. 

Long says the portrait is a "small story" compared to the
catastrophic suffering of Japanese victims. But he said it has
big implications for the way Americans remember the bomb. 

"I think most Americans would look at all those Japanese faces
and say, 'That's too bad. A lot of Japanese people died.' But
you get one American face and they might feel a little more of a
connection," said Long, who grew up in Japan and works in Tokyo
as a teacher. 

The bombing killed some 140,000 people. Thousands of Koreans
brought to Japan as forced labor died, as did Americans of
Japanese descent who were trapped after war broke out. 

But the POWs are among the least remembered casualties - their
fate wasn't widely known until researchers digging through
archives began to document the story in the 1970s. 

An important clue came in 1977 when a professor from Hiroshima
University found a Japanese list of 20 American POWs listed as
killed in the atomic attack. 

Some of those names were later found to belong to prisoners who
had been killed elsewhere in grisly experiments that the
Japanese military apparently wanted to hide. 

The others were the crews of three aircraft - two B-24 bombers,
including Long's, and a Helldiver dive bomber - shot down near
Hiroshima on July 28, 1945 after a raid on Japanese warships in
nearby Kure. 

One of the first American scholars to investigate, Stanford
University professor Barton Bernstein, said the U.S. military
claimed a fire had destroyed personnel files needed to verify
the matter. 

But records obtained by researchers through the Freedom of
Information Act in the 1980s confirmed at least 10 U.S. airmen
were listed killed in the blast, Bernstein said. 

"We had difficulty prying it out of the Pentagon," he said,
adding he suspects the U.S. casualties were not made public
after the war to "block any moral doubts" about dropping the
bomb. 

Thomas Cartwright, the pilot of Long's bomber, said the families
of some of the POWs struggled to learn details of their deaths
from military authorities who were slow to act on information he
provided. 

Cartwright, now 80, was saved when he was transferred from
Hiroshima to Tokyo for interrogation five days before the atomic
blast. 

"I think the military would like this to fade away," he said
from his home in Moab, Utah. 

Cartwright, who has written a book about his experiences titled
"A Date with the Lonesome Lady: A Hiroshima POW Returns,"
remembers Long as the "coffee drinker of the crew" - a likable
but serious gunner who spent his money on tools instead of
liquor. 

Long's sparsely captioned picture at the Hiroshima memorial -
which lists just his name and occupation - tells visitors very
little. But for some his face says everything. 

"I wonder if there was any consideration given to them before
the attack?" asked visitor Alice Carol Caldwell, 64, of
Starkville, Miss., whose eyes welled with tears as she looked at
Long's face. 

Japanese boys listened quietly as a curator told Long's story. 

"He was fighting for his country," said Keiichi Hatanaka, 14.
"I'm sure he never imagined he would be killed by his friends." 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 33 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers learn about benefits 

This story was published Friday, February 13th, 2004 

By Annette Cary Herald staff writer 

Former and present Hanford workers are struggling to understand 
the benefits of different programs set up to address their health 
problems. 

A meeting with U.S. Department of Labor officials in Richland on 
Thursday night drew nearly as many questions about other programs 
as the one administered by Labor. About 130 people packed the 
Richland Labor Temple at a meeting organized by the Paper, Allied 
Chemical and Energy International Union. 

The program administered by Labor offers $150,000 in compensation 
for workers at Hanford or other federal nuclear sites who 
developed certain illnesses, dating as far back as World War II. 

If the federal government determines that cancer suffered by 
workers or former workers had at least a 50 percent likelihood of 
being caused by radiation on the job, they or surviving family 
members are eligible for the payment. 

"All cancers are covered under the act," emphasized Pete Turcic, 
director of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program for the Department of Labor. Some medical 
costs also may be paid. 

In addition, the program pays $150,000 to workers with chronic 
beryllium disease, a lung illness caused by exposure to the metal 
beryllium, which is used in the nuclear industry. If tests show 
workers or former workers are susceptible to developing the 
illness, they are eligible for medical monitoring. 

The program does not cover illnesses to exposure to other 
chemicals and toxic materials from work at Hanford. 

Instead, workers can apply for state workers' compensation under 
another program covering toxic exposure. However, congressional 
auditors have been critical of that program, saying at the end of 
2003 that it faced a seven-year backlog. 

The Labor program also is separate from programs established to 
diagnose and study health problems of former workers. 

The Department of Labor program covering radiation-induced 
cancers also has been slow to start, but Turcic told skeptics 
Thursday that the goal is to start figuring the radiation doses 
of 200 applicants a week. Information about what radiation 
different types of workers in different places at Hanford might 
have received has just recently been compiled for the 
compensation program. 

Several retired workers asked how they could prove their 
radiation doses if records have been lost or they were sent into 
contaminated areas without radiation badges. 

Turcic said many variables were being taken into account when 
doses were calculated to give workers a fair result. 

Others wanted to know what proof of cancer must be provided. 

A death certificate or a medical record of diagnosis, Turcic 
said. 

Turcic had some questions for the crowd, also. 

Labor is trying to figure out why just 3,290 of 51,000 claims 
filed nationwide are from Hanford workers. 

Lack of information about the program was one problem, he was 
told. Other people said some cancers occurred decades ago or 
workers had died and their survivors had not filed a claim. In 
some cases, elderly former workers have been concerned that their 
memories are no longer sharp enough to answer questions about 
their employment 40 or 50 years ago. 

Workers at the Energy Employees Compensation Resource Center in 
Kennewick are available to help and the process is designed to be 
friendly to applicants, Turcic said. For information or to file a 
claim, call 783-1500 or 888-654-0014. 

n Reporter Annette Cary can be reached at 582-1533 or via e-mail 
at acary@tri-cityherald.com. 

© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 34 Oak Ridger: Budget cuts loom, Wamp talks impact to OR 							 							 							
 
Story last updated at 12:00 p.m. on February 13, 2004

CONGRESSMAN: 'We need to excerpt some fiscal discipline.' 

By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
paul.parson@oakridger.com

While House Republicans want lower federal spending than
President Bush has proposed for fiscal year 2005, U.S. Rep. Zach
Wamp, R-3rd District, said he believes Oak Ridge's missions will
remain in good shape.

"I have no fear about our site," the congressman said in a
phone interview Thursday afternoon.

However, Wamp admitted it's going to be a tough budget year.
Following a two-and-a-half hour meeting Wednesday, top House
Republicans and rank-and-file lawmakers said they would consider
trimming President Bush's $2.4 trillion FY 2005 budget,
including his requests for defense and domestic security
increases.

"We need to excerpt some fiscal discipline," Wamp said.

Given that cuts are looming, the one area where Oak Ridge could
have a fight in the FY 2005 budget process is funding for
Department of Energy cleanup efforts, according to the
congressman.

During the Wednesday meeting, Wamp said he heard a lot of
people questioning what projects - across the board - need to be
done now vs. later. Some media outlets reported that Republicans
said almost everything but Social Security and Medicare were
potential savings targets.

That's why, according to Wamp, it's important to show that
progress is being made in the area of cleanup. He said it will
also be essential to prove that it costs more to postpone
cleanup efforts rather than doing them now.

"We have to educate and collectively convince members of
Congress," Wamp said.

While the congressman is gearing up to begin the appropriations
hearings for the FY 2005 budget in March, he said he is still
working on an issue pertaining to the current fiscal year's
budget. DOE's FY 2004 cleanup budget is facing a so-called
shortfall of a little less than $35 million, with around $29.2
million actually impacting missions.

The congressman has talked with Jessie Roberson, DOE's
assistant secretary for Environmental Management, regarding a
"reprogramming request" to get some of the money back.

"We are making progress," Wamp said.

According to DOE officials, the federal agency is drafting a
list of areas and projects that could be impacted by the budget
shortfall. 







*****************************************************************
 35 Oak Ridger: TVA plans job cuts 							 							 							
 
Story last updated at 11:01 a.m. on February 13, 2004

KNOXVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee Valley Authority said it will cut 
its work force with a combination of layoffs and early 
retirements as part of an effort to compete under deregulation. A 
memo from TVA chief Ike Zeringue to employees outlines steps for 
the planned layoffs and the organization's effort to become a 
leaner operation before facing outside competition. The Knoxville 
News Sentinel reported the memo saying TVA will finish 
cost-cutting reviews by Feb. 23, then begin asking employees to 
voluntarily resign or retire. TVA would then announce the layoffs 
April 22. TVA spokesman John Moulton said he doesn't know how 
many people will lose their jobs in the layoffs until cost 
reviews are finished and early retirees tallied.

"All employees were informed of the status of the program 
reviews," Moulton said. "These program reviews will provide 
managers with information to determine if a program should be 
eliminated, outsourced or continued. We will do all these things 
before we determine where there might be a surplus staffing 
situation."

An agreement with TVA's Engineering Association calls for 
incentives for employees that volunteer to resign or retire, 
including severance pay, retirement benefits and some medical 
coverage.

Employees who are laid off will receive severance and retirement 
benefits, but they are not eligible for medical benefits.

Union representatives remained skeptical that TVA would handle 
the layoffs appropriately.

"I don't want any of our people forced out," said Keith Craig, 
international representative for the International Brotherhood of 
Electrical Workers. "At the same time, we understand TVA has to 
make some business decisions."

Craig said the union is still seeking details on TVA's plans.

In the memo to staffers, Zeringue said the board approved the 
job-reduction plan Jan. 14.

The changes are part of a focus by the TVA to become more 
competitive in preparation for deregulation.

"Our customers are telling us they want choice when buying 
electricity," Zeringue said in the memo. "And customer choice 
means that TVA will not be able to count on the stable revenues 
we have enjoyed for so long."

The Knoxville-based agency has 13,245 employees and supplies 
electricity to 158 distributors in Tennessee and parts of 
Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and North 
Carolina.

On the Net: Tennessee Valley Authority: http://www.tva.gov 







*****************************************************************
 36 CBC: Fernald to lay off 100 workers - 

2004-02-12 - 

Cincinnati Business Courier
 
Fluor Fernald said it will lay off 100 more workers to realign 
staffing needs as the cleanup of the former Fernald uranium 
processing plant in Crosby Township nears completion. 

The company said 43 employees -- 17 salaried workers and 26 
union-represented wage employees -- already have been released. 
The company also ended the assignments of 35 subcontractor and 
teaming company employees. 

More reductions will be made in February and early June, 
resulting in a total of about 100 layoffs, the company said. 
Those affected include maintenance staff and managers, waste 
engineers, construction coordinators, and project controls 
specialists. 

This is the fifth round of layoffs at the site in three years, 
with a total of 552 employees involved in either voluntary or 
involuntary separations. Fluor Fernald continues to employe about 
1,169 salaried and wage employees. 

Flour Fernald also said it is on schedule to complete the cleanup 
project at the 1,050-acre plant by December 2006 or sooner. This 
spring, the company's Waste Management Division will complete the 
removal and disposal of 31 million pounds of nuclear product, 7.8 
million cubic feet of low-level waste and 163,912 gallons of 
liquid mixed waste. 

The company also expects in March to complete the demolition of 
the last uranium production complexes. 

© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
 
*****************************************************************
 37 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho 
 
                         FR Doc 04-3214 
[Federal Register: February 13, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 30)] 
[Notices] [Page 7210-7211] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13fe04-59]                         
 
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory AGENCY: 
Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting (full board conference call).
 
[[Page 7211]]
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Idaho National 
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The Federal Advisory 
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public 
notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Tuesday, March 3, 2004, 12 Noon.
 
 
ADDRESSES: To obtain conference call access numbers, please 
contact Ms. Lori McNamara at (208) 528-8718.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL CAB 
Administrator, North Wind, Inc., 545 Shoup Avenue, Suite 200, 
Idaho Falls, ID 83402, Phone (208) 557-7885, or visit the Board's 
Internet home page at http://www.ida.net/users/cab.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in 
the areas of future use, cleanup levels, waste disposition and 
cleanup priorities at the INEEL.
 
The objective for the March 3rd Conference Call of the INEEL 
Citizens Advisory Board is: To finalize a draft recommendation 
addressing the Draft request for Proposals for a new INEEL Site 
Contractor Public Participation: This meeting is open to the 
public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Board facilitator either 
before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral 
presentations pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board 
Chair at the address or telephone number listed above. Request 
must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable 
provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. 
The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Gerald C. Bowman, 
Assistant Manager for Laboratory Development, Idaho Operations 
Office, U.S. Department of Energy, is empowered to conduct the 
meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of 
business. Every individual wishing to make public comment will be 
provided equal time to present their comments. Additional time 
may be made available for public comment during the 
presentations.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through 
Friday except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by 
writing to Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL CAB Administrator, at the 
address and phone number listed above.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on February 10, 2004.
 
Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-3214 Filed 2-12-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 38 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky 
 
                         FR Doc 04-3215 
[Federal Register: February 13, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 30)] 
[Notices] [Page 7211] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr13fe04-60]                         
 
Flats AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Rocky Flats.
 
The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) 
requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the 
Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Thursday, March 4, 2004, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: College Hill Library, Room L268, Front Range Community 
College, 3705 West 112th Avenue, Westminster, CO.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ken Korkia, Board/Staff 
Coordinator, Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 
93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, Golden, CO, 80403; telephone 
(303) 966-7855; fax (303) 966-7856.
 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in 
the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and 
related activities.
 
Tentative Agenda: 1. Presentation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service on the Draft Comprehensive Conservation 
Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the Future Rocky Flats 
National Wildlife Refuge 2. Other Board business may be conducted 
as necessary Public Participation: The meeting is open to the 
public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Board either before or 
after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral statements 
pertaining to agenda items should contact Ken Korkia at the 
address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be 
received at least five days prior to the meeting and reasonable 
provisions will be made to include the presentation in the 
agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to 
conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly 
conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make public 
comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present 
their comments.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the office of the Rocky Flats Citizens 
Advisory Board, 10808 Highway 93, Unit B, Building 60, Room 107B, 
Golden, CO 80403; telephone (303) 966-7855. Hours of operations 
are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Minutes will also 
be made available by writing or calling Ken Korkia at the address 
or telephone number listed above. Board meeting minutes are 
posted on RFCAB's web site within one month following each 
meeting at: http://www.rfcab.org/Minutes.HTML. Issued at 
Washington, DC on February 9, 2004.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-3215 Filed 2-12-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 39 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:51:16 -0800 (PST)

 
AGAINST US wishes, Russia to send nuclear fuel to reactor in Iran
Kansas City Star (subscription) - Kansas City,MO,USA
MOSCOW - (KRT) - Twice in the past month Russia has dealt a blow to the
Bush administration's efforts to limit the spread of nuclear fuels and
curtail ...
<http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/7949427.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.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/7949427.htm>

LAPSES in nuclear security found
Houston Chronicle - Houston,TX,USA
NEW YORK -- Security at two US nuclear weapons facilities was breached
at least three times in mock terrorist drills despite heightened concerns
after the Sept ...
<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2400508>
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.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2400508>

HOW can Ahern take the Nuclear Egg out of the Sellafield Omelette ... 
Politics.ie - Ireland
Labour Party Spokesperson on Nuclear Safety, Deputy Emmet Stagg, has accused
Energy Minister Dermot Ahern of "complete hypocrisy" in his attitude towards
...
<http://www.politics.ie/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3474>
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.politics.ie/modules.php%3Fname%3DNews%26file%3Darticle%26sid%3D3474>

DIRTY bomb can spell nuclear disaste . . .
Newindpress - Chennai,India
WASHINGTON: Even a small nuclear weapon explosion in India or Pakistan
could produce more casualties than those resulting from the atomic bombings
of Hiroshima ...
<http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEH20040213100146&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&>

NUCLEAR craze
Hindustan Times - New Delhi,India
The reported proposal by the armed forces to build hundreds of nuclear
shelters along our border with Pakistan, the LoC included, appears wrong-headed.
...
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_571816,00120003.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.hindustantimes.com/news/181_571816,00120003.htm>

A nuclear credibility problem
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN,USA
President Bush's call for a crackdown on nuclear proliferation is the right
message from a flawed messenger. The first step for ...
<http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/7946201.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.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/7946201.htm>

US Pressures Tehran Over Reported New Nuclear Findings
Radio Free Europe - Prague,Czech Republic
Prague, 13 February 2004 (RFE/RL) -- A senior US official says there is
no doubt Iran is continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. The ...
<http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/2/DE50F459-D92C-499B-ABAA-272EF256B3A1.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.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/2/DE50F459-D92C-499B-ABAA-272EF256B3A1.html>

ISLAMABAD accused of nuclear 'cover-up'
Financial Times (subscription) - London,England,UK
... disgraced "father of the Islamic bomb", have accused Islamabad of indulging
in a cover-up to protect the Pakistani military from being tainted by
the nuclear ...
<http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982536042>
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://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer%3Fpagename%3DFT.com/StoryFT/FullStory%26c%3DStoryFT%26cid%3D1075982536042>

IRAN failing to comply on nuclear agreement, US says
Ha'aretz - Israel
WASHINGTON - Iran has not fully committed to abandoning its nuclear weapons
program and is not living up to its agreement to provide information about
its ...
<http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/394078.html>
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<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/394078.html>

MALAYSIA defies Bush over nuclear arrest
Financial Times (subscription) - London,England,UK
Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister, has accused President George
W. Bush of using unreliable US intelligence to implicate Malaysia in a
global nuclear ...
<http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982531025>
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://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer%3Fpagename%3DFT.com/StoryFT/FullStory%26c%3DStoryFT%26cid%3D1075982531025>

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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
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