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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 AU The Age: ONA staff doubted Iraq WMD claims
2 AU The Age: Opposition claims 'spin' in WMD leak - Iraq
3 Daily Times: OP-ED: Of nuclear secrets and horrors —Hans B Bremer
4 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Denies Acquiring New Nuclear Device
5 War Wire: Iran not enriching uranium: foreign minister
6 Guardian Unlimited: Officials to Meet Before N. Korea Talks
7 Korea Herald: Little headway seen in 6-party talks
8 Korea Herald: Lawmakers slam leniency on N.K. abuses
9 BBC: US says 'no change' on N Korea
10 CNEWS World - China won't confirm weapons reports
11 JoongAng Daily: Seoul offers aid to North for nuclear freeze
12 Japan Times: Officials discuss tactics for six-party talks
13 US: Spectrum: Feds can't win our trust for nuclear tests - Opinion -
14 US: RGJ: Plan would add federal oversight of scientific review
15 UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief To Visit Libya Again To Verify Non-prolife
16 [NukeNet] Intel Official: Nuke Plants High On Al Qaeda
17 Rediff: 'Khan visited Timbuktu for uranium'
18 BBC: Russia denies failure of missiles
19 NEWS.com.au: Howard in new revolt from MPs
20 FT: Musharraf says no to nuclear site inspections
21 Courier-Mail: Revolt rolls minister on war payouts
22 Daily Times: ‘Government must produce scientists in court’
23 Hi Pakistan: Drop the bomb! -
24 Hi Pakistan: Arab silence over WMD scandal is perplexing - Media Wat
25 Hi Pakistan: Govt rules out nuclear compromise -->
26 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan's govt not involved in N-transfer: US -->
27 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear scientists reject govt charges -->
28 Hi Pakistan: Blix denies saying Iraq had WMDs -->
29 Hi Pakistan: No compromise on nuclear, Kashmir issue - says Rashid
30 Hi Pakistan: To cover up or not to cover up!
31 Hindu News: India rules out first use of nukes
32 Hi Pakistan: Government mishandled nuclear issue - Opposition
33 Hi Pakistan: Government proposes nuclear and conventional pact with
34 Indian Express: Global N-black market: Via China to Pak, Libya
35 NewIndpress: Pak proposes 'no N-war' pact with India -
36 CS Monitor: Russia's Mountain of WMD
37 War Wire: Pakistan, India agree on timetable for peace talks
NUCLEAR REACTORS
38 US: Fwd: New report available: U.S. NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AND NATIONAL
39 US: TMI 25th Anniversary Actions: Join In!
40 US: Michigan Daily: Loss of reactor hurts 'U' nuclear program
NUCLEAR SAFETY
41 [du-list] Fwd: Fw: Fw: John D. Bankston sends you Atomic
42 [du-list] the Balkan (or Gulf War) Syndrome
43 [du-list] DU in the news - 18th Feb. 04
44 Re: [du-list] quantity of DU used in Iraq
45 US: Hawk Eye: Harkin fears claims files lost
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
46 NWTRB Meeting: 3-9 Las Vegas
47 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Say it ain't so (Utah Waste Bill)
48 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Err toward caution
49 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Thanks to Urquhart
50 Chillicothe Gazett: Competitor not being seen as threat to USEC -
51 Las Vegas SUN: Nuke security study could affect Yucca fight
52 ABQjournal: Domenici Energy Bill Addresses Waste From Uranium Enrich
53 US: Carlsbad Current-Argus: High-level waste ban passes Senate
54 US: Waste News: Hazardous waste management firm loses $8.6 million i
55 US: Gallup Independent: Convention to mark activist group's impact o
56 AU ABC: Report urges waste dump plan be abandoned.
57 AU ABC: Democrats say NSW report damages nuclear dump case.
58 Paducah Sun: "Vision" sought on future for Paducah plant
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
59 Rocky Mountain News: Nuclear workers 'refocus'
60 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers seek compensation answers
61 Oak Ridger: State gives OK to AC plan for old landfill
62 Oak Ridger: K-25 alarm investigation continues
OTHER NUCLEAR
63 [du-list] DU in the news - 17th Feb. 04
64 Google News Alert - nuclear
65 USATODAY: First large-scale industrial atom smasher may meet wreckin
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 AU The Age: ONA staff doubted Iraq WMD claims
- - http://www.theage.com.au
February 18, 2004 - 6:30AM
A former analyst with the prime minister's key intelligence
organisation said there were doubts within the agency about
claims of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
Carl Ungerer, who left the Office of National Assessments (ONA)
in 2002, said there were doubts in the agency about claims that
would be made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to justify
the war against Iraq.
Another former analyst Andrew Wilkie said there was a clear
understanding within ONA's senior management levels about the
federal government's own policy objectives on Iraq.
A report into the intelligence agencies and their advice on Iraq
is due to be released on March 1.
Although confidential, it is now an open secret that the report
will back another inquiry into the issue.
Dr Ungerer, now with the University of Queensland but who served
as former opposition leader Simon Crean's national security
adviser, said it was clear there were doubts within ONA about
claims of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
He said ONA received almost no raw intelligence from overseas
agencies against which it could judge claims about Iraq.
Despite that, there were doubts in ONA about the claims, and
these were expressed in heavily qualified reports to Mr Howard
and the government.
"I think there were doubts about all of this material," he told
ABC television.
"There were doubts both within the Australian intelligence
community and within the US and British intelligence
communities."
Dr Ungerer said claims made by Mr Howard in February last year
that Australia knew of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear
weapon capabilities were plainly untrue.
"Australia knew no such thing. We had no independent verification
of that, we had no ability to corroborate what assessments that
others were making that was a possibility," he said.
"For him to stand up and say that, ultimately responsibility has
to come back to the prime minister in the way in which those
statements were made to the public."
Mr Wilkie said senior managers in ONA changed his assessment of
the situation in Kabul in Afghanistan because of political
concerns.
He said his analysis was that it would be dire to return Afghan
asylum seekers to Kabul as the government planned.
©2003 AAP
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd. | contact us
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2 AU The Age: Opposition claims 'spin' in WMD leak - Iraq
- www.theage.com.au
By Mark Forbes Foreign Affairs Correspondent Canberra
February 18, 2004
The Howard Government is leaking details of a parliamentary
inquiry into pre-Iraq war intelligence in an attempt to "spin"
media coverage, the Opposition said yesterday.
Selected media outlets have allegedly been provided with details
of the unpublished parliamentary report by Government figures,
who claim it clears the Government of doctoring Iraq intelligence
but criticises spy agencies.
The report is believed to recommend a further investigation into
intelligence covering Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as the
committee was unable to get to the bottom of the issue.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said yesterday he was not
concerned with the leaking of the confidential report as "we have
a free press... and I don't quarrel with that".
However, Mr Ruddock defended a proposed police investigation into
a weekend report in The Age that suggested Australian
intelligence agencies advised the Government that Iraq may not
have possessed effective WMD.
Such information might not be intended for the public domain as
it had national security implications, Mr Ruddock said. "That's
the background to why you would have an inquiry, and I don't in
any way apologise for the fact that security organisations need
to be able to operate in that environment," he said.
Late on Monday, Office of National Assessments head Peter
Varghese said he had discussed The Age report with ASIO director
general Dennis Richardson and Defence Department secretary
Richard Smith.
They decided to investigate if the revelations breached national
security. If so, they would also refer the story to the federal
police, Mr Varghese told a Senate committee.
The Government could also launch its own investigation to
identify the source of the story, he said.
Defence Minister Robert Hill stepped in to prevent Mr Varghese
discussing the detail of the story. He said it was "not
appropriate to ask about the tenor of advice given to
Government".
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the
Government, which was backgrounding journalists about the
unreleased parliamentary inquiry into the issue, was in "spin
control" over Iraqi WMD.
Mr Rudd warned the Government it would still be responsible for
the performance of the intelligence community on Iraq. An
independent commission of inquiry was imperative, he said.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government would
consider a new inquiry if it was recommended when the report was
released on March 1.
Mr Downer said his formal statements on Iraq were drafted in his
department and checked with the ONA for accuracy.
"I have had another look at those assessments (and they) slightly
vary here or there, but I never saw an assessment saying Saddam
Hussein had no WMD, that this whole thing is a great furphy, it
was sexed up, it was a conspiracy, George W. Bush - I hate him,
stick pins in a model of him," he said.
An article to be published in The Bulletin today states that at
least one significant, uncorroborated claim against Iraq was
included in a report because it fitted the Government's hawkish
stance. Australian claims that aluminium tubes were intended to
produce nuclear weapons were used against the advice of defence
experts, the article says.
Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd | contact us
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3 Daily Times: OP-ED: Of nuclear secrets and horrors —Hans B Bremer
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
In a country like Pakistan, with a decades-old tradition of
governments indulging in secretiveness and stupefaction, the vast
majority of people must be blissfully unaware of what nuclear war
would mean
AS PAKISTANI AND INDIAN FOREIGN ministry officials sat down
together in Islamabad for their first round of talks about talks
on Monday, I was perhaps not the only one hoping that the two
sides would be able to agree to put certain nuclear issues on the
agenda of their composite dialogue. Pakistan has suggested that
nuclear and conventional disarmament should be discussed. By all
means, yes, but let us not forget the horse before we deal with
the cart. How about trying to put proper mechanisms in place
which could ensure that no action by one side is misinterpreted
by the other in a dangerous and possibly irreversible way?
In the bad old days of the cold war between the Americans and the
Soviets, some sick mind came up with the concept of ‘mutually
assured destruction’, also known as MAD. Without knowing how many
deliverable nuclear weapons Pakistan and India have at their
disposal, MAD maybe out of reach, but something else probably
isn’t: MAC, or ‘mutually assured crippling’. A first strike,
accidental or intentional, followed by a retaliatory strike
would, to all intents and purposes, throw this subcontinent back
into the Stone Age.
Excerpts from a book in one of the Sunday papers made me wonder
how aware people in Pakistan and India were of the dangers and
horrors of nuclear weapons. I can’t speak for India, but I would
hazard a guess that in a country like Pakistan, with a
decades-old tradition of governments indulging in secretiveness
and stupefaction, the vast majority of people must be blissfully
unaware of what nuclear war would mean.
In the 1980s, the Americans produced a movie called The Day
After, while in Britain the BBC showed a TV drama by the name of
Threads. Both give chilling accounts of the immediate and
long-term effects of a nuclear exchange and should be required
watching in every declared and undeclared nuclear state. And if
you can’t get hold of either film, think about what Albert
Einstein told prominent Americans in a telegram in May 1946: “The
unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes
of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
In the meantime, the book in question by Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zia
Mian tells us that “Islamabad’s civil defence budget is a
laughable $40,000 and the current year’s allocation has yet to be
disbursed.” If this figure is correct, and assuming Pakistan’s
population is 140 million, it translates into expenditure of less
than 20 paisas per person per year for attempts at protecting the
masses from nuclear attack.
Not laughable? Okay, but then at least it should make you cry.
I’m not even sure that kind of budget is enough to provide
adequate protection for a select group of those who are
reverentially referred to as high-ups. Well, never mind, funds
can always be diverted from other sources.
Having mentioned Pakistan’s tradition of official secretiveness
and stupefaction, why is it that Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan
Jamali, speaking in late January about the ‘debriefing’ of
nuclear scientists, felt the need to tell us to “let the
government do its job and nobody must challenge its
jurisdiction?” At least he said ‘jurisdiction’ and not
‘decisions’. And last Thursday the PM urged senior editors and
columnists to refrain from speculative stories, saying Pakistani
journalists should read foreign news reports carefully before
drawing any conclusion. Ignoring for a moment the fact that my
passport is dark red rather than dark green: we try to, Sir, we
really do. Let parliament pass a Freedom of Information Act and
any need for speculation will diminish or even disappear.
And so to those dreaded foreign news reports. According to
Sunday’s Washington Post, investigators have discovered that the
nuclear weapons designs obtained by Libya through what the paper
relentlessly calls a Pakistani smuggling network originated in
China. The Post quotes government officials and experts as saying
that “the bomb designs and other papers turned over by Libya have
yielded dramatic evidence of China’s long-suspected role in
transferring nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s.”
The paper speaks of documents containing instructions for
assembling an implosion-type nuclear bomb that could fit on a
ballistic missile. Now, I am completely incapable of speculating
as to whether this is true or not. All I know is that the
experience of the past few weeks tells us there is a fair chance
that this story will be confirmed by someone as being correct, or
that it will nevertheless become part of a domain on which
certain decisions are based.
If only we could be certain that the current deluge of facts and
speculations about nuclear proliferation is not weakening
Pakistan’s position in this week’s preparatory talks with India
or in the real and tough negotiations that are to follow.
Hans B Bremer is a German journalist based in Islamabad Home |
Editorial
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by
WorldCALL Internet Solutions
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4 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Denies Acquiring New Nuclear Device
Today: February 17, 2004 at 7:05:12 PST
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday said
Tehran had not acquired any nuclear equipment that had not been
declared to international inspectors - though it was interested
in the technology.
Kamal Kharrazi also said the U.N. International Atomic Energy
Agency had been informed of all Iranian research. He also said
Iran had the potential to produce nuclear fuel for sale abroad
but did not have a ready supply. Last week, Iran said it had the
right to produce and sell the fuel.
Kharrazi said Iran had been studying the designs of a P-2
centrifuge, which could be used for making weapons-grade
uranium. He said the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency had been informed of his country's research.
"The P-2 centrifuge device is a research program. We have done
research in this regard, and the IAEA has been informed of
this," Kharrazi said. "We try to utilize any new models in the
industry."
Last week, diplomats in Vienna told The Associated Press that
U.N. inspectors sifting through Iran's nuclear files had
discovered drawings of the P-2, more advanced than the P-1 model
Iran has acknowledged using to enrich uranium.
On Sunday, Kharrazi was quoted as saying that Iran had made an
"important achievement" in possessing the technology to enrich
uranium, and insisted the project would be for peaceful use. He
said that once Iran had produced nuclear fuel, it would market
it under the strict supervision of the IAEA, the United Nations'
nuclear watchdog.
"This is an industry which can both be used by our plants and
supplied to the international markets," Kharrazi was quoted as
saying Sunday by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or
IRNA. "No one can deprive us of this natural, legal and
legitimate right. This industry is strictly for peaceful use."
On Tuesday, he said those comments were in response to U.S.
efforts to restrict countries like Iran from acquiring nuclear
technology.
Washington suspects Iran is conducting a secret program to build
nuclear weapons, but Tehran insists its program is geared only
toward energy production.
To dispel suspicions Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program,
it signed an additional protocol to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty late last year allowing unfettered
inspections of its nuclear sites. It also suspended its uranium
enrichment program insisting it was a voluntary, temporary
goodwill gesture.
Preliminary investigations by inspectors working for the IAEA
indicated enrichment equipment in Iran matched drawings of
devices found in Libya and supplied to Tripoli by an illicit
network headed by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's
atomic bomb.
--
*****************************************************************
5 War Wire: Iran not enriching uranium: foreign minister
WAR.WIRE
TEHRAN (AFP) Feb 17, 2004
Iran's foreign minister denied Tuesday that the Isl0amic
republic had already enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, just
days after he offered the product for sale on the international
market.
"Iran has the capacity and the potential, but certain people
imagined that the fuel was already ready," Kamal Kharazi was
quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
Kharazi said he had also been reacting to a recent call from US
President George W. Bush that only a limited number of countries
should be permitted to trade in nuclear materials.
"As a country that is capable of producing nuclear fuel, the
Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to sell it on the international
market," Kharazi had said on Saturday.
The foreign minister also confirmed Tuesday that Iran is studying
the development of a new centrifuge.
"Some people are trying to make a big issue about this," he said.
"This is only a research programme."
Diplomats at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna said last week
that UN nuclear weapons inspectors in Iran had found blueprints
for an advanced uranium enrichment centrifuge, the G2, that
Tehran had failed to declare even as it was claiming to be
providing full disclosure on its atomic energy program.
Enriched uranium is used as fuel for nuclear reactors but can
also be used for making atomic bombs.
But the diplomats said the discovery was not a "smoking gun" the
IAEA could use to take Iran before the UN Security Council, where
it could face sanctions.
Nevertheless, the discovery has raised fresh alarms and has
placed the Islamic republic -- accused by the United States of
trying to develop nuclear weapons -- under further scrutiny ahead
of the publication of a new IAEA report on Iran's controversial
bid to generate atomic energy.
The IAEA board had given Iran until last October 31 to reveal all
details of its nuclear program.
In addition, Iran had promised Europe's "big three" that it would
suspend uranium enrichment, yet appears to be working within a
narrow definition of that suspension.
WAR.WIRE
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6 Guardian Unlimited: Officials to Meet Before N. Korea Talks
Tuesday February 17, 2004 1:01 PM
By SOO-JEONG LEE
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Senior officials from the United
States, Japan and South Korea will meet in Seoul next week ahead
of crucial talks on communist North Korea's nuclear weapons
programs, a South Korean official said Tuesday.
Six-nation talks aimed at resolving a 15-month-old nuclear
standoff are scheduled to take place Wednesday next week in
Beijing. The United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two
Koreas are taking part.
Ahead of the talks, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck and
Japanese Foreign Minister Director General Mitoji Yabunaka will
meet next Monday and coordinate their policies, a South Korean
Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The new round of nuclear talks is expected to discuss an offer by
North Korea to freeze its nuclear programs as a step toward what
the Bush administration hopes will be a complete dismantling of
them.
North Korea has said it will freeze its nuclear activities if
Washington provides free oil shipments, lifts economic sanctions
and removes the North from its list of countries that sponsor
terrorism.
Washington has demanded that North Korea first start dismantling
its nuclear programs.
The nuclear dispute flared in October 2002 when U.S. officials
said North Korea admitted running the uranium-enriching program
in violation of international agreements.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Guardian Newspapers Limited
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7 Korea Herald: Little headway seen in 6-party talks
(shj@heraldm.com) By Seo Hyun-jin
2004.02.18
With Pyongyang and Washington presenting hard-line stances
in a war of nerves ahead of crucial talks on North Korea's
nuclear threat, experts expect negotiations to fall short of
agreement on substantive issues.
They do, however, believe the sides will be able during talks a
week from now to come up with a mechanism for keeping alive the
dialogue.
Disputes between the two sides mostly surround North Korea's
secret nuclear weapons program using highly enriched uranium,
which is expected to be a decisive factor for the talks to
succeed.
"I am not optimistic about the talks," said Kim Keun-sik, a
professor at Kyungnam University. "Negotiations could rupture
when the United States pressures the North to come clean on its
uranium-based nuclear program."
Top officials from South Korea and the United States hold hands
before starting talks on diplomatic and defense issues yesterday.
From left are USFK Commander Leon LaPorte, Foreign Minister Ban
Ki-moon, U.S. Amb. Thomas Hubbard and Defense Minister Cho
Young-kil.
The Washington Post reported Monday that U.S. officials would
reject North Korea's offer to freeze its plutonium-based nuclear
activities in return for economic and political concessions from
the U.S. side. Washington wants Pyongyang to address its
clandestine uranium scheme as it admitted to in 2002 in the fresh
round of six-party talks beginning Feb. 25 in Beijing. Though
Washington insists it has hard evidence, Pyongyang vehemently
denies such claims.
U.S. officials have increased their pressure on North Korea after
Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan said this month he sold
nuclear secrets to the North.
"If the United States and the North continue to confront on the
uranium issue, participants of the talks will have to be
satisfied with agreeing on their next gathering or on
establishing a working group for their consultations in between
the talks," Kim said.
He added Washington for political reasons will maintain its
policy of dragging out a resolution of the North Korean nuclear
issue until it finishes the November presidential election.
The second round of talks, meanwhile, will involve the two
Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The first
round in August in Beijing ended without any progress due to the
tug-of-war between North Korea and the United States.
Amid rising concerns about North Korea's failure this time to
reveal the uranium program, some South Korean officials said the
countries would discuss ways to keep talks going on a regular
basis.
"We decided to suggest measures to regularize six-party talks,"
a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. "We
are currently working out details for that."
The United States has insisted on the North's voluntary
revelation of its uranium use because as with Libya's program, it
is difficult to locate such activity, say observers.
"It is very hard to find the uranium program unless North Korea
voluntarily declares it like Libya," Deputy Foreign Minister Lee
Soo-hyuck said.
Libya pledged in December to give up its banned weapons programs
and the United States in return rapidly moved to restore
bilateral relations.
"North Korea needs to make a strategic choice - and make it clear
to the world as Libya has done - that it will abandon its nuclear
weapons programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible
manner," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in
Washington on Friday.
North Korea and the United States capped their first nuclear
crisis in 1994 by concluding the Agreed Framework in which the
North promised to freeze the plutonium program in return for
economic assistance from the U.S. side. The North has reactivated
it amid the ongoing tension.
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8 Korea Herald: Lawmakers slam leniency on N.K. abuses
(soyoung@heraldm.com) By Kim So-young
2004.02.18
Opposition lawmakers yesterday lashed out at the government for
what they called its leniency toward North Korea's human rights
abuses, making reference to recent allegations that the
communist state tested chemical weapons on political prisoners.
The Seoul government has dismissed as groundless the allegations
raised by North Korean refugees, saying they often make
unauthenticated statements.
"Specific evidence continues to emerge that unimaginable,
horrible things are happening to North Koreans but the
government is ignoring (Pyongyang's) human rights abuses," said
Rep. Choi Myung-hun of the Millennium Democratic Party during a
parliamentary interpellation session on foreign and security
affairs.
A South Korean human rights group presented last week an
unauthenticated document detailing the North's chemical weapons
testing on humans, following a series of reports in the Western
media based on similar allegations.
Lawmakers also jostled during the question-and-answer session
over the relocation of American troops out of Seoul, President
Roh Moo-hyun's foreign policy and six-party talks about North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Beginning with an inquiry on political affairs Monday,
legislators will question Roh's Cabinet members today on the
economy and tomorrow on social affairs. Prime Minister Goh Kun
and related ministers are attending the session.
Opposition lawmakers from the Grand National Party and the
Millennium Democratic Party lambasted the government for its
"independent" diplomacy and strained relations with Washington,
saying anti-American sentiment might have prompted the recent
U.S. decision to move all troops out of Seoul.
The main opposition GNP also accused the Roh Moo-hyun
administration of turning a blind eye to what it called North
Korea's continued brinkmanship tactics and demanded stricter
countermeasures. As an example the party cited the tour in
January by visiting American scientists of a plutonium-based
nuclear power plant in Yeongbyeon.
But members of the pro-government Uri Party called on the
government to promote inter-Korean economic cooperation projects
under way in the North regardless of the nuclear crisis and
extend financial support to the troubled tour program to Mount
Geumgang. They also called for early summit talks between
President Roh and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
During the parliamentary session following last month's heated
controversy over relations with Washington, pro-U.S. GNP
lawmakers expressed concern over a possible security fallout
from the relocation of all American troops south of Seoul.
"President Roh's independent diplomacy, combined with
anti-American sentiment, is weakening the Korea-U.S. alliance
and generating security and economic concerns," said GNP
lawmaker Cho Woong-kyu.
Rep. Maeng Hyung-jyu from the same party raised questions about
how the government would finance the troop relocation and keep
its pledge to increase the defense budget at the same time.
South Korea agreed last month to shoulder all the costs of the
relocation, estimated between $3 billion and $5 billion.
But Uri Party lawmakers called for further negotiations on the
readjustment plan, saying the relocation was part of an overall
U.S. strategy to restructure its overseas forces.
"As the relocation is being made according to a shift in the
U.S. military strategy, both countries should share the cost
equally," said Rep. Chang Young-dal.
Former Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan was dismissed because of
his failure to rein in his staff, which leveled critical remarks
against the president's policy of advocating more independence
from the United States and "more equal" relations between the
two countries. Several other Foreign Ministry officials were
replaced or transferred.
Legislators stressed with one voice the need for a peaceful
solution to the nuclear problem but displayed different opinions
about how to bring it about.
While opposition lawmakers suggested linking inter-Korean
economic cooperation with the nuclear issue, members of the de
facto ruling Uri Party insisted the government speed up
bilateral cooperation in order to gain more leverage over the
impoverished country.
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9 BBC: US says 'no change' on N Korea
Last Updated: Monday, 16 February, 2004
[John Bolton]
John Bolton has been meeting Chinese officials ahead of talks
A US envoy has said Washington will not offer concessions to
North Korea before next week's six-nation nuclear talks.
Speaking in Beijing, John Bolton said the US would not change its
demand that the North must dismantle its weapons programme.
He suggested Pyongyang follow the example of Libya which said it
was renouncing its nuclear weapons programme in November.
The talks on the nuclear stand-off are due to start on 25
February.
"I don't think our position has changed from what it's been for
quite some time," Mr Bolton, who is a US undersecretary of state,
told reporters in Beijing.
He has been in the Chinese capital meeting officials ahead of the
talks.
"The issue really is whether North Korea is prepared to make the
commitment for the complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantlement of its programmes," he said.
Weapons technology
North Korea has said it will freeze its nuclear programme in
exchange for oil shipments and security guarantees from the
United States.
Mr Bolton said that there was no difference between China and the
US about how to tackle the North Korean nuclear issue.
China is North Korea's last main ally and has played a key role
in organising the six-nation nuclear talks, which also include
the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia.
They will be the first talks since the admission by Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan that he supplied information on
weapons technology to North Korea.
Mr Bolton said that had corroborated the US belief that Pyongyang
has not only a plutonium-based nuclear program, but also a
uranium-based one.
North Korea has denied the existence of such a programme.
A previous round of six-nation talks ended in Beijing in August
without resolution.
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10 CNEWS World - China won't confirm weapons reports
Tue, February 17, 2004
BEIJING (AP) - China expressed concern Tuesday about reports that
Chinese nuclear weapons designs were found in Libya, but refused
to confirm them or say whether it was investigating the alleged
technology transfer.
Experts say documents handed over in December by Libya include
plans of a warhead of 1960s Chinese design. But they say the
plans probably were obtained via Pakistan, whose former chief
nuclear scientist has admitted spreading weapons technology.
"The Chinese side is very concerned about these reports," Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. "The Chinese side is
consistently opposed to the proliferation of nuclear equipment
and technology."
However, Zhang didn't answer when asked repeatedly at a regular
news briefing whether China believed the Libyan designs were
Chinese, whether it offered to review the designs or how Libya
might have obtained Chinese technology.
She wouldn't say whether the findings would affect Beijing's
dealings with Pakistan, a close ally.
China, Pakistan's main arms supplier, is widely assumed to have
been Islamabad's key supplier of much of the clandestine
technology used to establish it as a nuclear power in 1998.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi renounced nuclear weapons in
November and has opened the country's weapons laboratories to
international inspectors. Blueprints and accompanying documents
handed over by Libya are now in the United States under the seal
of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
China has tried in recent years to portray itself as a
responsible global citizen worthy of trust and, by extension,
foreign investment.
In December, the government issued a lengthy report on what it
would do to prevent weapons proliferation and abide by
international rules on arms sales.
© 2004, CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. All
*****************************************************************
11 JoongAng Daily: Seoul offers aid to North for nuclear freeze
In exchange for a verifiable freeze of North Korea's nuclear
program, the South Korean government is prepared to provide
energy aid and, gradually, security assurances to the North, a
senior government official said yesterday. The official stressed
that the freeze must ultimately lead to the dismantling of
Pyeongyang's effort to build nuclear arms.
Under the plan, the South Korean government intends to propose a
modified three-step process to resolve the nuclear standoff at
the upcoming six-party talks in Beijing on Feb. 25. Seoul has
consulted with the United States, Japan, Russia and China, and
they are said to have responded positively to the new overture.
The South Korean official who did not wish to be identified
said yesterday that "the government intends to maintain the
three-step framework that we proposed at the first round of
talks in August, and we have detailed our response to the
North's proposal for compensation for freezing nuclear
activities." He added, "If the nuclear freeze that North Korea
mentions ultimately leads to nuclear dismantlement, then we will
possibly provide energy aid."
As to what constitutes energy aid, the official said the
government would consider providing coal or crude oil rather
than electricity.
In the first round of the multilateral discussions, which took
place in Beijing last August, Seoul proposed a similar process:
The first phase would be for the participating nations to
express their willingness to solve the issue; the second phase
was to provide corresponding measures for North Korea's
implementation of nuclear dismantlement; and the third was for
an overall improvement in relations among the parties.
During the first round, North Korea offered a four-step process,
in which the first step involved declaring its intention to give
up its nuclear program in return for Washington's resumption of
fuel oil supplies and expanded humanitarian food aid. The second
step was freezing of nuclear activities in exchange for
America's signing of a non-aggression pact with Pyeongyang and
providing energy supplies. The third phase in the North's plan
would involve Pyeongyang resolving concerns related to its
missile system in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations
with the United States and Japan. In the final phase, the North
would dismantle its nuclear facilities after the completion of
the construction of two light-water reactors.
The government source added, "The solution to the nuclear
problem is for the participating nations to pledge security
assurances to the North in exchange for their expressing
willingness to dismantle the nuclear programs. And when the
North concludes the dismantlement, the countries will then
provide written security guarantees."
Meanwhile, during a National Assembly hearing yesterday, Foreign
Minister Ban Ki-moon said, "If North Korea declares that it will
pursue complete, verifiable dismantling of its nuclear program,
it is our position that we can comprehensively provide energy
aid, economic cooperation as well as security."
In preparation for the six-party talks, which begins on Feb.
25, Deputy Minister Lee Soo-hyuck will visit Tokyo today to meet
with his counterpart Mitoji Yabunaka. Two days before the talks
in Beijing, South Korea, the United States, and Japan will meet
in Seoul to coordinate their positions.
Seoul's three-step proposal
1. The six nations express their willingness to resolve the
nuclear crisis.
2. In return for North Korea's promise to dismantle its nuclear
arms programs, the parties will undertake several measures:
* In return for a freeze of the North's nuclear programs, the
South offers energy aid.
* North Korea express its intention to dismantle the nuclear
programs; the other parties promise security assurances.
* North Korea completes dismantling, and other parties will
provide written security assurances.
3. The parties improve relations overall.
by Oh Young-hwan jieho@joongang.co.kr>
2004.02.17
*****************************************************************
12 Japan Times: Officials discuss tactics for six-party talks
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Staff report
Senior Japanese and South Korean officials agreed Tuesday to
urge North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons
development program during the six-party talks next week.
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo Hyuck met with Vice
Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi in Tokyo to discuss how the two
nations will respond if North Korea promises during the talks to
freeze its nuclear activities, a Japanese official said.
Officials of Japan, South Korea, the United States, North Korea,
China and Russia are scheduled to meet Feb. 25 in Beijing to
defuse tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
The official said Lee and Takeuchi discussed conditions for
Japan and South Korea to provide Pyongyang with energy
assistance, including supplies of heavy fuel oil.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said in December it was ready
to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for energy aid
and being removed from the U.S. list of nations that support
terrorism.
Lee, scheduled to leave Tokyo on Wednesday, also met with Mitoji
Yabunaka, director of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Yabunaka visited Pyongyang last week for bilateral talks with
North Korea, and briefed Lee of his trip, which focused on North
Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Japan Times: Feb. 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
13 Spectrum: Feds can't win our trust for nuclear tests - Opinion -
thespectrum.com
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
IN OUR VIEW
The travesty of justice that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s
appears to be on the verge of happening again. Last year,
Congress passed legislation that allows for research into a new
generation of nuclear weapons.
The legislation allows only for research, and lawmakers who
supported the bill point out that before any testing could be
done, Congress would have to vote again.
Pardon us if we Southern Utah residents don't trust the federal
government on this issue. We've been lied to before, and the
price has been countless lives because of nuclear fallout that
was released into the atmosphere during tests in the Nevada
desert. Some people died of cancer. The "lucky ones" have faced
debilitating ailments.
Rep. Jim Matheson appears to be one of the few people in
Washington, D.C., who grasps the high level of concern from Utah
residents. On Friday, Matheson announced plans to file a bill
that would require far greater monitoring if the tests do resume.
It also would call for the creation of a center for studying the
effects of radiation on human health. So far, only Iodine 131 has
been studied in such great detail.
Some lawmakers will, no doubt, say such a bill is unnecessary
because of the required second vote in Congress. Many of those
same lawmakers will likely say that the study of a new generation
of weapons is necessary.
This issue shows just how large the gap is between many members
of Congress and constituents. It's easy to sit thousands of miles
away and determine that such studies will begin and end with
computer simulations. History doesn't back up that argument.
If computer simulations show these to be viable weapons, they
will be tested. Military leaders would be remiss if they didn't
want to see a new tool work before putting it to use in battle.
That's not their fault. It's responsible leadership on their
part.
The argument will be made that the tests will be underground. But
photographs from past underground tests show the enormous craters
that are created. And when that earth is removed by the blast,
toxic radiation is released into the air. The pictures of smoke
rising from the ground in past tests don't lie.
It is true that we know more about these tests now than we did in
the 1950s and '60s. But forgive us when we tell members of the
federal government that we don't trust them. Any data collected
during tests almost certainly would be deemed classified because
of national security interests. That means, once again, the
people downwind from the tests would have little or no real
information.
Matheson's bill addresses that issue. It is a positive step
toward accountability for the federal government. Still, the best
solution would be not to perform these tests upwind from any
population centers.
Call or write your lawmakers. Let them know you don't want to be
put in harm's way. If these weapons are allowed to be tested, the
first victims will likely not be a hostile enemy of the United
States. It will be our nation's own citizens again.
Originally published Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Copyright ©2004 The Spectrum. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
14 RGJ: Plan would add federal oversight of scientific review
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
2/16/2004 11:38 pm
Behind all those federal regulations -- from ones that limit how
much pollution cars can belch into the air to others that protect
the food supply from the spinal cords of mad cows -- are groups
of scientists who make sure those regulations are backed by
accurate research.
But officials at some Nevada research facilities are concerned
that a Bush administration plan would block new health and
environmental regulations unless the science used to justify them
passes a uniform peer review process overseen by the White House
Office of Management and Budget.
That would inject politics into reviews of scientific research
and ultimately could influence who decides whether it’s safe to
put a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, said the leader of one local
environmental organization.
The proposed regulation would require a new layer of OMB-approved
review of research that leads to new federal regulations, said
Chad Kolton, the OMB press secretary.
Such scientific peer reviews already are conducted, he said.
But under the proposal, academic scientists who receive grants
from, say, the Environmental Protection Agency, would be
discouraged from sitting on peer review panels. However,
scientists from the private sectors, such as the coal or auto
industry, would not.
The peer review process in place has been very successful in
ensuring regulations used to protect the health and safety of
Americans are based on sound science, said Linda Brinkley, vice
president of research at the University of Nevada.
“Science and politics should not mix, as it will be the citizens,
as well as the scientific enterprise generally, who will be the
losers,” she said.
Brinkley said there is no reason to create another layer of
review by a panel of scientists that would exclude academic
experts who receive grants from federal agencies while allowing
scientific experts with connections to industry.
Kolton said the OMB’s intent is to make sure such peer reviews
are conducted in a uniform manner for all federal agencies.
“Some agencies have done it but not as effectively,” Kolton said.
“This extends the OMB’s involvement by strengthening our
coordinating role specifically as it regards scientific reviews.”
The proposed change in peer reviews does not require
congressional action and could go into effect within the next
couple of months, Kolton said.
Some critics see it as another example of the Bush
administration’s effort to undercut scientific findings to delay
or completely halt the passage of regulations that would cost
regulated industries millions of dollars.
“This looks like an attempt to have more control over science as
well as to advance the policies this administration holds dear,”
said John Hadder, coordinator for Citizen Alert in Northern
Nevada that tracks environmental issues and government
accountability.
“This would take the peer review process out of the hands of the
wider scientific community and put it into the hands of
hand-picked scientists, which is of very great concern to us,” he
said. “Someone doing research for General Motors should not be on
a peer review committee that’s looking at research that could
lead to regulations dealing with auto emissions.”
Hadder said the politicizing of future peer review panels could
have an impact on who determines what is really “sound science”
when it comes to deciding if it’s safe to store the nation’s
nuclear waste in Southern Nevada.
“It’s possible it could impact Yucca Mountain,” he said. “If it
goes through this new peer review process, the Bush
administration could push it through with safety standards that
are much weaker.”
Steve Wells, president of the Desert Research Institute, said the
job of scientists who serve on such peer review panels isn’t to
push a certain agenda but to ensure that any federal regulations
are based on the best scientific information.
The DRI and the University of Nevada, Reno have scientists who
are unpaid members of peer review panels and receive only
expenses and an occasional small honorarium, he said.
Wells has been asked to be a member this year of a review panel
that will evaluate all the U.S. Army’s research programs for the
first time in a decade.
Wells said the DRI has received grant money from the U.S. Army
for various research projects, “but that doesn’t mean I won’t go
in and give them my best scientific opinion.”
Under the Bush administration plan, Wells said the best
scientific minds could be excluded from peer reviews if those who
have done past research for federal agencies are discouraged from
serving on the panels.
“That’s a concern all of us have,” he said.
But Wells said he wouldn’t exclude scientists who do research for
industry, either, because peer reviews that typically include
both academic and industry researchers provide a broader
perspective.
“It’s been a pretty good system so far, and people are pretty
honest about it,” said Wells. “So I don’t understand why the
Office of Management and Budget has to be included in this
process.”
Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
15 UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief To Visit Libya Again To Verify Non-proliferation
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 10:00:23 -0500
UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG CHIEF TO VISIT LIBYA AGAIN TO VERIFY NON-PROLIFERATION
New York, Feb 17 2004 10:00AM
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency will visit
Libya at the beginning of next week to review progress in verifying
that all of the North African country's nuclear activities are
placed under safeguards and designed exclusively for peaceful purposes.
The Director-General of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, will meet with senior Libyan
officials on 23 and 24 February during his second visit since
Tripoli announced in December that it would fulfil all obligations
under regimes covering the non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction.
In that regard, Libya has agreed to take the necessary steps to
conclude an Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement under
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which will provide the
IAEA with broader inspection rights, and to pursue a policy of
full transparency and active co-operation with the Agency.
On his first visit in late December, Mr. ElBaradei was accompanied
by an IAEA team of experts to initiate an in-depth process of
verification of Libya's past and present nuclear activities.
The visit followed meetings in Vienna between Mr. ElBaradei and Matooq
Mohamed Matooq, Assistant Secretary for Services Affairs of
the General People's Committee of Libya, informing the IAEA of Libya's
decision to eliminate "materials, equipments and programmes
which lead to the production of internationally proscribed weapons."
After the visit Mr. ElBaradei said Libya's nuclear programme was
"at an early stage of development." Last month the IAEA agreed with
the United States and the United Kingdom that they would remove
"sensitive" equipment and material from Libya while the Agency
verifies that the country is free of weapons of mass destruction.
2004-02-17 00:00:00.000
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16 [NukeNet] Intel Official: Nuke Plants High On Al Qaeda
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:37 -0800
http://www.nytimes.com
http://snipurl.com/4kfb
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-security-qaeda.html
U.S. Intelligence Official: Qaeda Posed Plane
Threat
By REUTERS
Published: February 17, 2004
Filed at 3:26 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda has deployed
operatives to hijack planes and fly them into
targets in an echo of the Sept. 11 attacks and is
looking at derailing trains possibly carrying
hazardous material, according to a top U.S.
intelligence official.
Robert Hutchings, chairman of the National
Intelligence Council which reports to the CIA
director, did not give details of the plots but
provided the most recent public outline from an
intelligence official of the al Qaeda threat.
The network, blamed for the Sept 11, 2001, attacks
that killed 3,000 people, seeks targets that would
strike a blow to the U.S. economy, Hutchings said
in a Jan. 14 speech to the International Security
Management Association in Arizona, the text of
which was posted on Feb. 4 on the NIC's Web site.
``Soft targets, including the U.S. stock market,
banks, major companies, and tall buildings are a
primary focus of active al Qaeda planning,'' he
said.
Those targets are seen as easier to hit than U.S.
government buildings and major infrastructure,
which have higher security, Hutchings said.
Al Qaeda has looked at derailing trains, perhaps
carrying hazardous materials, to attack U.S.
interests, he said.
Nuclear power plants, water treatment facilities,
and other public utilities are high on al Qaeda's
target list, he said.
The U.S. government is concerned that al Qaeda
will try to take its ability to build truck bombs
as demonstrated by past attacks in Kenya, Saudi
Arabia, and Turkey, and marry it with toxic or
radioactive material to increase the damage and
psychological impact of an attack, Hutchings said.
``My biggest worry, however, is how far al Qaeda
might have progressed in being able to deploy a
chemical, nuclear, or biological weapon against
the United States or its allies,'' he said.
U.S. authorities have found several examples of al
Qaeda adjusting its tactics to circumvent
increased airline security, Hutchings said,
without providing details.
``Although we have disrupted several airline
plots, we have not eliminated the threat to
airplanes,'' he said. ``There are still al Qaeda
operatives who we believe have been deployed to
hijack planes and fly them into key targets.''
The United States has beefed up security at
airports and on airlines. There were a spate of
flight cancellations since late December because
of potential threats.
U.S. authorities have succeeded in disrupting the
network, Hutchings said. ``We have disrupted
scores of plots at home and abroad -- plots that
were audacious in terms of the numbers of attacks
under consideration and their global scope,'' he
said.
_______________________________________________________________________
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17 Rediff: 'Khan visited Timbuktu for uranium'
Shyam Bhatia in London | February 17, 2004 19:12 IST
The London accountant who accompanied Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to
Timbuktu on three occasions in 1998, 1999 and 2000 says the
'father' of the Pakistani bomb witnessed the digging of a well,
toured an ancient Islamic library and enjoyed the views of the
desert.
A remote outpost in the middle of the West African desert,
Timbuktu usually attracts explorers associated in the popular
mind with the adventures of the comic character Tin Tin.
And Pakistani dissidents told rediff.com the reason for Khan's
visit to Timbuktu, part of landlocked West African state of
Mali, was to prospect for uranium.
They say Khan's purchase of a hotel in the town, which he named
the Hendrina Khan Hotel after his wife, was a cover to his real
interest in the precious uranium needed for nuclear bombs.
But Abdul Ma'bood Siddiqui, a partner in the London accountants
firm Reddy, Siddiqui and Watts, says he has no knowledge of any
uranium prospecting. "What uranium is there in Timbuktu?" he
asked when he was contacted on the telephone.
"We went three times. There is a village there, people are very
poor there, we went to help them. We dug a well that is why we
went there. There are other villages nearby you will get more
information if you go there.
"There is a desert there. There is also an ancient Islamic
library there. Once upon a time it was part of a big
civilization," Siddiqui said.
Siddiqui is the author of a book on Timbuktu that Hurmat
publications of Islamabad published in 2000.
In it the author describes three journeys he made to Timbuktu in
the company of the renegade scientist who has been pardoned by
President Pervez Musharraf for his role in disseminating nuclear
weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
"In February 1998 I received a call from Tahir Mian, a dear
friend of mine and a very close associate of Dr Khan. He lives
in Dubai and is a computer businessman. He said that Dr A Q Khan
is planning a visit to Timbuktu and you are invited to join him.
"My joy knew no bounds at the prospect of spending a few days
with Dr Khan. I reached Dubai on February 19, 1998 and met Dr
Khan. He had with him one Mr Hank, a Dutch businessman dealing
in air filtration system, solar energy, metallurgical machinery
and materials; Lt Gen Dr Chauhan, former surgeon general of
Pakistan Army and now director general of KRL (Khan Research
Laboratories); and Brigadier Sajwal. Dr Khan told us that we
would fly to Timbuktu via Casablamca in Morocco and Bamako,
capital of Mali."
After stopping over in Casablanca and attending a dinner where
Pakistani ambassador to Morocco Azmat Hussain was also present,
the group flew to the Mali capital of Bamako and then chartered
a private plane to fly them to Timbuktu.
"We had only a few hours in Timbuktu, which we spent in sight
seeing. We returned to Dubair by the same route", Siddiqui
writes.
One year later in February 1999 Siddiqui again agreed to
accompany a Khan-led group back to Timbuktu. This time Khan was
accompanied by his chief scientific adviser, Dr Fakhrul Hasan
Hashmi, Brigadier Tajwar, director General of Security at KRL
and other senior officials of the Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission. This time the group flew via Sudan, Nigeria, Niger
and Chad.
In February 2000 Siddiqui describes how 'we were again air borne
for Timbuktu', this time from Dubai to Khartoum, then to Niamey,
capital of Niger, where ambassador Brigadier Nisar, hosted a
dinner in honour of Khan.
"Niger has big uranium deposits," Siddiqui notes without further
comment. On February 29, 2000 the group returned back to Dubai
after visiting 10 African cities.
Describing Khan as 'very down to earth' and 'sharif', Siddiqui
told rediff.com: "I did not know he was such a famous man. I am
a literary man, whether I went there or not, the others were
going in any case. I did not know the others."
Pakistan's Nuclear Bazaar
*****************************************************************
18 BBC: Russia denies failure of missiles
Last Updated: Tuesday, 17 February, 2004
[Arkhangelsk, one of Russia's largest Soviet-built nuclear
submarines (file photo)]
Mr Putin had been due to watch the launch from this submarine
The Russian navy has denied reports that two ballistic missiles
failed to launch from a submarine during a military exercise in
the Barents Sea.
A spokesman for Russia's Northern Fleet said there had been no
"unforseen incidents" during Tuesday's exercise.
But Russian news agencies quoted a Northern Fleet official as
saying the launch had failed, apparently because of a satellite
error.
President Vladimir Putin was on a submarine watching the
manoeuvres.
The reported missile failure comes weeks before the presidential
election, in which Mr Putin is widely expected to win a second
term.
Interfax and Itar-Tass, quoting an unnamed navy officer, reported
that a signal from a military satellite had blocked the launch.
No further explanation was given.
Missile tests
The missiles had been due to take off from a nuclear submarine,
the Novomosskovsk, with Mr Putin watching from another submarine,
the Arkhangelsk.
Itar-Tass said the Novomosskovsk was to test-fire two ballistic
missiles in succession at a practice target more than 5,000km
(3,107 miles) away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far
East.
The president's arrival at Severomorsk naval base, on Russia's
Arctic coast, had received wide television coverage in Russia. Mr
Putin was filmed wearing navy gear on Monday night as he chatted
with sailors on board the Arkhangelsk submarine.
The planned manoeuvres had been described in the Russian media as
the largest show of military might since Soviet times. Ten ships
and six nuclear submarines had been due to take part.
In August 2000, just months into Mr Putin's term as president, a
nuclear submarine, the Kursk, sank in the Barents Sea, killing
118 sailors.
*****************************************************************
19 NEWS.com.au: Howard in new revolt from MPs
(February 18, 2004)
By Chris Jones
PRIME Minister John Howard has faced his second backbench revolt
in less than a week -- this time over a planned shake-up of
veterans' entitlements.
Just five days after Mr Howard had to fight to persuade his angry
colleagues to dump the generous superannuation scheme for federal
politicians, his backbench yesterday forced him to review federal
Cabinet's planned changes to the entitlements given to war
veterans.
Veterans Affairs Minister Danna Vale had been due to table in
Parliament the Government response to an independent review of
the entitlements, with veterans' leaders flown to Canberra for
the unveiling yesterday.
But a near revolt when the plans were shown to the morning's
Coalition party room meeting forced the Prime Minister's dramatic
rethink.
Thirteen of the Coalition's 87 backbenchers -- including
Queensland MP Peter Dutton, Victorians Bruce Billson and Chris
Pearce, and NSW MPs Joanna Gash and Gary Nairn -- rose in the
meeting to voice concerns about the planned changes.
A Coalition spokesman said specific concerns were raised about
the proposed new eligibility to entitlements -- including the
Gold Card -- by former prisoners of war, people involved in
nuclear tests and members of the British Commonwealth Occupation
Force in post-World War II Japan.
But it is understood the biggest concern was Mrs Vale's plans to
link the pension paid to TPI (totally and permanently
incapacitated) veterans to inflation rather than rises in the
average male total weekly earnings.
Mrs Vale's reforms were expected to cost the Government an extra
$110.6 million over five years, and linking the pension to
earnings growth was forecast to cost another $66 million.
The TPI pension is now worth 91 per cent of the average male
total weekly earnings for single veterans and 109 per cent for
couples, but there are concerns about it falling behind if linked
to inflation at a time of strong wages growth.
The meeting was the second fiery party room the Prime Minister
has had to front in recent days.
On Thursday, in what was described at the time as the most fiery
Coalition party room meeting in years, he was accused of being
"spooked" by Opposition Leader Mark Latham as he outlined his
plans to follow Labor's move to cut back on parliamentary
superannuation.
Mr Howard was forced to draw on his authority to restore
discipline at the meeting, getting to his feet and saying: "I've
decided this is an issue and I'm not going to bleed on this."
Federal Parliament, Page 4
The Courier-Mail
Copyright 2003 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT+11).
*****************************************************************
20 FT: Musharraf says no to nuclear site inspections
By Edward Luce and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: February 17 2004 21:17
Pakistan would in no circumstances permit foreign inspectors to
enter the country and monitor its nuclear weapons or civil
nuclear facilities, General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military
president, said on Tuesday.
"This is a very sensitive issue," he said. . "Would any other
nuclear power allow its sensitive installations to be inspected?
Why should Pakistan be expected to allow anybody to inspect?"
Gen Musharraf's comments, in a detailed interview with the
Financial Times, came less than two weeks after he pardoned A. Q.
Khan, the "father of Islamic bomb", following the scientist's
public confession that he had passed on nuclear technology to
other countries, believed by western officials to be Libya, North
Korea and Iran.
But Gen Musharraf, whose "rogue scientist" account of the scandal
was endorsed last week by George W. Bush, the US president, said
he was confident no further proliferation would take place from
Pakistan.
"We are not hiding anything . . . what is the need of any
inspection? What for?" he said. "We will co-operate with any
organisation, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or anybody.
But don't treat us as if we do not know what we are doing. We are
doing everything according to international standards."
Gen Musharraf said Pakistan's investigation into A. Q. Khan's
proliferation ring had not uncovered any evidence that other
countries had received nuclear secrets from Pakistan. But
diplomats and nuclear experts have said that Libya has handed
over to the IAEA nuclear weapons designs of Chinese origin that
it obtained from a Pakistani-led nuclear trading network.
Gen Musharraf did concede that it was likely the design for
centrifuges, which are needed to enrich uranium to weapons-grade
material, had been transferred to Iran.
But he denied that nuclear weapons technology had been exchanged
for North Korean ballistic missile technology. "Whatever we
bought from North Korea is with money," he said. Pakistan had
bought conventional surface-to-air missiles from North Korea in
2002 during a period of tension with neighbouring India.
Gen Musharraf said Pakistan had no intention of freezing its
nuclear weapons programme. It was self-sufficient and would not
require the import of more material or designs from abroad. "We
will never stop our nuclear and missile programme," he said.
"That is our vital national interest. It is totally indigenous
now. Whatever had to be imported and procured has been obtained."
Pakistan would not try to match India's nuclear weapons
development but he confirmed that in the next few weeks it would
test-fire its Shaheen II, a missile with a range of 2,000km. "We
are not interested in competing with India," he said. "If they
want to reach 5,000km or have intercontinental ballistic
missiles, we are not interested in those. We are only interested
in our own defence." Additional reporting by Stephen Fidler in
London
© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004. "FT" and
"Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. Privacy
*****************************************************************
21 Courier-Mail: Revolt rolls minister on war payouts
18 February 2004
Chris Jones, national political reporter
A BACKLASH from angry government backbenchers has forced Veterans
Affairs Minister Danna Vale to delay the release of her
long-awaited response to an independent review of veterans'
entitlements.
Mrs Vale had been due to table her response to last year's Clarke
review in federal Parliament yesterday.
But angry scenes in the morning's Coalition joint party room
meeting prompted Prime Minister John Howard to instead order a
rethink of the document's content.
Thirteen of the Coalition's 87 backbenchers rose in the meeting
to voice their concerns about the Government's proposed response
to the review.
The review, chaired by Justice John Clarke, QC, was commissioned
in 2002 to address a wide range of complaints about access to
veterans' entitlements.
It is understood Mrs Vale's proposed response contained a number
of new rules covering eligibility to entitlements, access to Gold
Card benefits and funding for rehabilitation.
A Coalition spokesman said the backbenchers voiced concerns on
issues including eligibility and the treatment of prisoners of
war, people involved in nuclear tests and members of the British
Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan.
It also is understood other MPs raised concerns about ensuring
pensions were indexed to keep pace with inflation.
The spokesman said the backbenchers had insisted the Government
made the right response to the Clarke review given the level of
grievance among veterans about the review, and the fact a federal
election was due this year.
"It was important that it be a response that could be sold in the
veterans' community," the spokesman said.
The Clarke review made 109 recommendations, including a
wide-ranging restructure of disability and compensation pensions
plus extra benefits for widows and disabled veterans.
Mrs Vale has already ruled out one of the recommendations, that
future Gold Card benefits be means tested.
In question time, West Australian Labor MP Graham Edwards –
himself a Vietnam War veteran – called on Mrs Vale to explain why
the Government's response to the Clarke review had been rejected
in the joint party room.
Mrs Vale said only that she was planning a late afternoon meeting
with veterans' leaders, who it is understood had been flown to
Canberra for the expected release of the Government's response.
"We will be responding to the review very shortly," Mrs Vale
said.
© Queensland Newspapers
*****************************************************************
22 Daily Times: ‘Government must produce scientists in court’
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for the detained scientists have said that the
government was bound to produce their clients in the court, even
if they were arrested under the Security of Pakistan Act.
The lawyers — Chaudhry Akram, Shah Khawar and Barrister Tariq
Mahmood Khokhar — filed a rejoinder on Tuesday in reply to the
government before the LHC division bench of Justices Maulvi
Anwar-ul-Haq and Justice Mansoor Ahmed. The scientists’ lawyers
said the ISI had not been authorised to arrest anyone under the
Security Act of Pakistan. They said the nuclear scientists were
in the ISI’s custody. The lawyers argued that according to this
law a captive should be produced within 15 days of arrest. They
said the petitioners had been in ISI custody for the last three
months and were not produced in court.
They said the government was constantly changing stance on the
nuclear scientists’ detention. They said the deputy attorney
general for Pakistan and federal standing counsel had stated that
the scientists had not been arrested and they were being
interrogated by intelligence agencies, but then the government
admitted that they were in state custody under the Army Act.
They said AGP Makhdoom Ali Khan had stated in his reply that the
scientists were arrested under the Security of Pakistan Act.
—Staff Report Home | Main
Security concerns delay tour itinerary India against
playing Tests in Karachi or Peshawar PHF names 18-member squad
for Athens Olympics Fleming pulls Kiwis level Pakistan feel need
for speed ahead of India series Murali wants to race with Warne
Ponting bats for sledging mates Imran Nazir’s ton keeps Sialkot
in command Indian golfers arrive in Pakistan after a seven-year
gap Left arm fast bowlers included in cricket camp Paradorn
Srichaphan pounded in Rotterdam COAS Squash pre qualifiers begin
Tauqeer, Naveed rescue Faisalabad in Patron’s Trophy SAF Games
athletics and swimming trials Army Blues make flawless start
Wrestling team leaves for Iran Murali wary of playing in
Australia Pakistani cyclists leave for Sri Lanka today Jimenez
chasing back-to-back Asian wins at Malaysian Open
Armstrong tests his form at minor Portuguese event Saulnier
ousts Ginepri at St Jude Classic Singapore beat Pakistan 5-0:
Japan crush Malaysia in Uber Cup qualifiers Greeks hit back at
THG claims Zico warns Japan against complacency Aussie cyclists
face Olympic ban over drug code Manchester United say no offer
for takeover received Shaq considers Olympic return Cycle race
today Motor-bike race Freeman relieved Olympic pressure is off
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by
WorldCALL Internet Solutions
*****************************************************************
23 Hi Pakistan: Drop the bomb! -
By I Hassan -->
February 17 2004
It is extraordinary how propaganda can make black, white
or evil, good. The way the eulogising of the nuclear bomb in
this country has made the most evil thing into a lifesaver is
really worth going into deeper. In the process the perpetrator,
Dr Qadeer Khan has been turned into a worshipful saint. A major
part of the latter process has been done by the doctor himself
spending 50 million rupees of our money (he had the key to
Pakistanis treasury for 30 years) in praise of himself. With
this, money he is said to have bought editors, publications and
even a whole edition of a book written by a foreigner and
published overseas in which the writer had written a whole
chapter on the great doctor, exposing him. The doctor bought up
the whole edition of the book (every single copy, whenever it
was to be found) removed physically the section pertaining to
him and having his own version of himself printed, inserted that
into each copy of the book, rebound it, making it appear as the
original and distributed the book. This operation was out of the
50 million rupees expended for self-praise. One must be moved at
the audacity of it but one must note the efficiency of it, for
he is a hero!
What is heroic about building the weapon of mass destruction?
Those who did so, 60 years ago, are as evil as he and those who
used it then on a defenceless people, Japan, were the biggest
criminals in the world, and this particularly when the Japanese
were already parleying for surrender and peace.
A notion has been spread that a nuclear bomb is a shield for us,
and makes us invulnerable. Nothing could be further from the
truth. A nuclear bomb is so horrendous that every nation would
devise means for ensuring that they are not at the receiving
end. The best method of achieving that is to neutralise the one
who is likely to throw bombs at one.
In the case of India and Pakistan, admittedly India had the bomb
first. As long as Pakistan did not have one, Pakistan was safe
for India could not fear and did not fear that Pakistan would
drop one on India. The destructive power of the bomb is such
that, whoever drops it first, is the winner. In order to escape
the fate of being the first recipient, it is evident that the
moment there is a threat from an adversary, to pre-empt that
threat, the threatened party is obliged to adopt this course.
In Pakistan, the bomb is made out to be a deterrent. This is a
fools’ paradise. First of all, it needs to be said that despite
the fact that India has not once attacked Pakistan, and the
latter has started each of the three wars with India. The fact
that India had a nuclear bomb did not deter Pakistan from
attacking India, and particularly at the time of Kargil, India
could have retaliated with a bomb. That would have put paid to
Pakistan. That India did not do that goes to the credit of India.
If India remained ‘deterred’ despite provocation on three times,
then the only bomb we have to fear is our own which attracts
retaliation and retribution.
Pakistan being as small (compared to India) as it is can be
obliterated. India cannot, for if Pakistan is able to drop a
bomb or two, there is enough room in the peninsular India which
cannot be reached by Pakistan, so that means that whilst
Pakistan can be totally annihilated and wiped off the map, India
(of sorts) can continue to function.
The only deterrence is not to have the bomb. This has already
been proved. Each time Pakistan has fought India, the latter has
not used the bomb. As said earlier, each time Pakistan was not
deterred by India’s bomb. If Pakistan continues to pat its bomb,
in the end, India might be persuaded to use it and terminate the
whole thing.
Since it has been proved that the best deterrence is not to have
the bomb, it is better to get rid of it sooner, than later. The
billions of dollar that have been wasted in lining the pockets
of the good doctor Qadeer, could have been used for building
Pakistan in education, health care and general welfare of the
people.
What is the point of this rivalry with India? We are a small
nation vis-‡-vis India, the same as Nepal. We should settle down
without tilting at the windmills. We should live in peace with
India as good neighbours. The approach now adopted by both the
countries is right. We should stop bomb toting. We would have
nothing to fear.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
24 Hi Pakistan: Arab silence over WMD scandal is perplexing - Media Watch
February 17 2004
Weapons of mass destruction scandals are gaining momentum in the
United States, as well as Britain. The two major war allies, who
violated Iraq’s sovereignty without an international mandate last
year, are now scrambling to show that they were simply behaving
with honourable motives when they marched into Baghdad, leaving
behind uncounted corpses of innocent Iraqis. The intelligence was
botched, tampered with and "sexed up". As a result, an inquiry in
the US is about to unfold while new ones (aside from the baffling
Hutton report that oddly enough exonerated British Prime Minister
Tony Blair) are expected to be unleashed in Britain soon.
Analysts everywhere predict the scandals will persist for quite a
while. Political scapegoats have either been located, or are in
the making: The BBC is paying for Blair’s inflated intelligence,
while the CIA’s George Tenet is likely candidate to be blamed for
the Americans’ own fraudulent war pretences.
Expectedly, the opposition in both countries is learning how to
exploit the WMD sham in their favour. US Democratic presidential
candidates’ nit picking obliged President Bush to agree to an
independent inquiry. "I, too, want to know the facts", a suddenly
doubtful Bush told reporters. Meanwhile, in Britain, despite his
undeserved exoneration, one can hardly claim that Blair emerged
from the tragic death of Dr David Kelly unscathed; the prime
minister’s record is now dotted with discord. The British public
is little impressed with his performance, especially with people
such as Robin Cook tailgating him. "Now that even the White House
has admitted they may have got it wrong, it’s embarrassing to
watch our government still trying to deny reality. The game is
up", the former foreign secretary said.
Every frivolous detail that was once seen as fleeting and
inconsequential is likely to be brought up, time and again. I
doubt if we’ve seen the last of BBC’s Andrew Gilligan. But, it’s
almost certain that former US Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neil,
who revealed Bush’s intentions to oust Saddam Hussain from power
even before the attacks of September 11, 2001, will make more
informative TV appearances in the near future. The political
consequences of his revelations are now more pertinent than ever
before. But still, justice is far from being served in Iraq.
Little can be done to bring back those who so unjustly perished,
the collateral damage of Bush’s quest to rid the world of alleged
WMDs.
Those who genuinely opposed the war knew that all hell was about
to break loose in Iraq, considering the many alarming factors
already at play, including the fundamentalist mindset of Bush’s
ruling elite, rooted in a strange mix of religious zealots,
ideologues and corporate interests.
This moral vindication must be used to re-charge efforts to bring
an end to the international crisis created by this band, which
shrewdly employed the justified fear of terrorism to espouse
re-calculated wars, evoking more anxiety and greater chances of
violence.
Allowing the US and Britain to maintain their pre-emptive logic
will keep Arab countries at the centre of Washington and London’s
wargames. What it greatly needed is a collective and robust
international stand, centred in the Arab world, aimed at
countering the seemingly unchallenged US foreign policy and
imperial designs.
To achieve this, Arabs must cease falling into their reactive
role, only rejecting accusations of aiding or harbouring
terrorists but never pro-actively confronting Washington and its
neo-conservative band. Destabilising the US and British
administrations in this particular time is essential, but only
useful as a short-term strategy.
Arabs must abandon their standard position of simply fighting off
accusations, and take part in mounting a pressure campaign
against those who led an illegitimate war in the hunt for weapons
that only seemed to exist only in "sexed up" intelligence
reports.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part
*****************************************************************
25 Hi Pakistan: Govt rules out nuclear compromise -->
February 17 2004
ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: The government on Monday ruled out any
compromise on the country's nuclear deterrent after opposition
parties in the Senate voiced fears of harm from what they saw as
wrong handling of the ongoing proliferation issue.
"Pakistan is out of a dangerous stage," Information Minister
Sheikh Rashid told the upper house after more than four hours of
debate on opposition adjournment motions on the issue, crediting
President Pervez Musharraf for what he called reassuring the
world even at the risk of his life that Pakistan was a
responsible state fully capable of handling its nuclear
technology.
A total of 18 senators took part in the debate, which started
late in the evening and went into late night, most of them being
from opposition parties. They accused the government of
mishandling the issue and questioned its position of blaming only
scientists for the alleged transfer of nuclear technology to
Iran, Libya and North Korea through a global black market
network.
Most opposition speakers cast doubts over the government's case
against nuclear scientists, including Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan,
father of the country's nuclear bomb. They called for a more
credible investigation and an open trial.
Several of them saw a possibility of involvement of other organs
of the state, who oversaw the nuclear programme. But there were
no real fireworks as both sides of the political divide had
agreed not to exploit what they called sensitive matters bearing
on national security. Some suggested in-camera debate.
Sheikh Rashid reiterated Pakistan's position, saying that neither
the government nor any of its institutions was ever involved in
nuclear proliferation since the start of the country's nuclear
programme in mid-1970s, adding that it would not happen in the
future as well.
But while assuring the opposition parties that the ruling
coalition felt as strongly as they about the national security,
he said: "Anybody casting an evil eye at our nuclear technology
will have his eye gouged." However, he said Pakistan would
"fully" cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency "in
the mandate given to it by its board of governors," helping it
break up the international black market network.
"Pakistan would like to reiterate that as a responsible nuclear
state, we are alive to our international responsibilities," the
minister said in a prepared statement, that was punctuated with
his usual off-the-cuff oratory.
"We totally share international concerns on proliferation and
condemn all (such) acts in the strongest terms. It has never been
a state policy to share our (nuclear) capability with any other
state or individual.
"We would like to reassure the world community that having taken
strict cognizance of proliferation acts of the past at our own
initiative, the government of Pakistan has taken strong measures
to eliminate the possibility of recurrence of similar activities
in the future," he said.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
26 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan's govt not involved in N-transfer: US -->
February 17 2004
BEIJING: The United States on Monday praised President Pervez
Musharraf for handling the issues relating to the nuclear
proliferation.
"We praise Pakistani government and President Pervez Musharraf
for their correct handling of a very difficult problem," US
Under-secretary of State for Arms Control and International
Security John Bolton said at a news conference after bilateral
talks with the Chinese officials.
Mr Bolton said the US did not think that the Pakistani government
or top leaders were involved in the transfer of nuclear
technology to Libya, Iran or North Korea.
"I don't detect any involvement by the top leadership of the
Pakistani government, I don't see any issue there," he said in
reply to a question. "I think President Musharraf has handled
this very difficult problem correctly, he remarked.
"I think the United States had a very important dialogue with
President Musharraf over the past couple of years, particularly
Secretary of State Colin Powell's conversations with President
Musharraf.
"We emphasize to him the importance that we put on avoiding
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and delivery
system," Mr Bolton said. The under-secretary held talks with two
Chinese vice foreign ministers in the second round of Sino-US
security talks.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
27 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear scientists reject govt charges -->
February 17 2004
RAWALPINDI – Wives of three detained nuclear scientists
have filed rejoinders in the Lahore High Court while responding
to the stance of federal government on the scientists activities.
The Federation of Pakistan last week filed a detailed reply with
the LHC on the issue, saying that the held scientists were
detained under Security of Pakistan Act 1952 after being
suspected of nuclear proliferation.
According to the contents of rejoinders filed by Mrs Tahira
Nazir, wife of Dr Nazir Ahmed; Begum Khush Niaz, wife of Dr
Farooq Mohammed; and Mrs Nilofar Islam, wife of Major (Retd)
Islamul Haq; the petitioners alleged that reply of respondents
indicated their mala fide intentions to make the held scientists
a scapegoat.
The reply of respondents was a mere statement which was casual
in nature, evasive and without any substance, stated one of the
rejoinders. It was further alleged that arrests of nuclear
scientists were illegal and unconstitutional followed by long
and humiliating detentions.
“The respondents want to keep the detainees in their illegal
custody to perpetuate their agenda and to please American
President George W Bush and his administration which is
basically supporter of the present regime in Pakistan,” stated
the petitioners in rejoinders.
“The accusations of transfer of nuclear technology are false and
respondents are using it for their own interest and not the
national interest,” added the rejoinder.
The cells where the detainees were kept are virtually black
holes and improper and inadequate food was served once in 24
hours, it further stated.
Complaining about constant threats, the families of the
detainees feared for their lives and liberties in the days to
come.
It was prayed before the LHC that detention of held nuclear
scientists may be declared illegal and unconstitutional and
their release be ordered.
The clubbed habeas corpus petitions are challenging the arrest
and detention of Brigadier (Retd), Sajawal Malik, Brigadier
(Retd) Iqbal Tajwar and Dr Nasimuddin.
A division bench of the LHC comprising Mr Justice Moulvi Anwarul
Haq and Mr Justice Mansoor Ahmed is hearing these petitions.
Advocates Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry, Shah Khawar and Zafar Iqbal
are representing the petitioners while Attorney General (AG)
Makhdoom Ali Khan and Deputy Attorney General, Chaudhry Mohammed
Tariq were appearing on behalf of the respondents.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
28 Hi Pakistan: Blix denies saying Iraq had WMDs -->
February 17 2004
MADRID: Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said on
Spanish radio here on Monday that at no point had he ever said
that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction.
He was speaking on Spain's SER radio and was responding to a
question about statements by the Spanish government, which based
its justification for supporting the invasion on UN claims that
Iraq possessed the weapons.
Mr Blix stressed that nowhere in his report had it contained such
a claim. He said that his team's last report had constantly
underscored that as far as biological or chemical weapons or
missiles were concerned, there were many question marks.
"It noted that many Iraqi statements were erroneous. That left
open the possibility that there could have been some weapons, but
nowhere did our report state that there were weapons," he said,
according to a transcript of the interview released by SER radio.
Iraq had claimed to have weapons of mass destruction and had then
said it had destroyed them, Mr Blix said. Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Maria Aznar, whose right-wing Popular Party is seeking
re-election next month, was one of the staunchest supporters of
the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
The opposition has not let up in pressing Mr Aznar's government
to explain its statements about the weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
29 Hi Pakistan: No compromise on nuclear, Kashmir issue - says Rashid
February 17 2004
ISLAMABAD: The Senate was assured that there can never be any
compromise on Pakistan's nuclear programme or Kashmir issue.
Winding up debate on the recent nuclear events in the House, the
Minister for Information, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said Pakistan's
nuclear programme was meant for its defence and the country will
not give it up.
The Minister said as a responsible nuclear power, Pakistan has
given a commitment to the world community that it will not
involve in nuclear proliferation.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
30 Hi Pakistan: To cover up or not to cover up!
- By Imran Munir Awan -->
February 17 2004
It seems that General Musharraf would have us confer the title of
Pakistan's National Philosopher on him. That is, of course,
besides all the other grandiose and comfy titles and designations
he has bestowed upon himself!
The General is obviously in no humour to let the weight of his
numerous decorations get in the way of his venturing into the
realm of philosophy. Inspired yet again through some mysterious
agency, he seems to have stumbled upon the path leading to our
country's glorious future.
His philosophical dimension came into full public view during his
February 5th press conference. While trying to clarify the issue
of Dr AQ Khan's confession regarding nuclear proliferation, the
General trained his guns at some politicians, former army men
and, more specifically (ludicrously, too!), the press. 'Don't
blame the government, even if you know it is in the wrong,' he
pontificated. In other words, 'Just keep your mouth shut when you
know the truth about the government's involvement in some shady
activity.'
In case you might be wondering if truth is to be an outlaw in his
system of philosophy, it is not so. The General is after all an
honourable man. He is not banning truth altogether; only when it
might expose the government as corrupt and dishonest rather than
individuals!
Surely such a controversial edict as this has got to be screaming
for attention. After all, the General was trying to redefine the
universal system of ethics and morality. It might be argued that
the General was being ironic, but nothing whatsoever in his tone
or manner of delivery offers the slightest hint of that. But, of
course! Who knows if it was an ingenious flash of irony.
The press, however, can only laugh at such a suggestion. It is
not the job of journalists to protect or cover up the wrongdoings
of any particular government. They must always have people's
interest supreme in their minds. Besides, what is the point in
having a 'free' press if it is not to dig out and expose the
truth behind the deliberate smoke screens created by the corrupt
and the inefficient?
What General Musharraf said could at best be termed as a
knee-jerk reaction to how our media were dealing with the issue
of nuclear proliferation. He appears averse to the idea that
sometimes criticism should be taken gracefully. Bent upon proving
his intellectual superiority over everyone else's, the General
assumed a highly intimidating and contemptuous tone in the press
conference. 'I know everything and you know nothing; so you'd
better keep quiet!' he seemed to be implying.
Is it any wonder that he cites our 'national interest' in danger
if we ever point the finger of blame at the government? He is
rather miffed to see the press using the term 'national interest'
in inverted commas. One expects him to understand that we are
only doing our duty by writing it as such, as long as anyone,
including himself, keeps confusing it with the interest of the
government. They are two distinctly different concepts and it is
only fair that a distinction be made in writing as well.
If one were to follow the General's system of philosophy, there
would be little scope for the press to operate at all. It is
impossible to accept the suggestion that the press should cover
up the corruption and inefficiencies of the government lest the
international community declare us a corrupt, irresponsible and
untrustworthy country.
Is there anything, one may ask, that the ruling clan, top
government officials and the bureaucrats are perhaps supposed to
do to serve their nation's interest? If they didn't have rogues
and scoundrels in their ranks, busy devising schemes to serve
themselves most of the time, it is hard to conceive how such a
situation would ever arise when the press might be asked to do
the extremely reprehensible job of covering up the truth.
Perhaps, then, we should not write about the egotism and
shallowness of many of our politicians either? Nor about the
growing instability caused by the religious extremists who are
only dealt with half-hearted measures? Nor even about honour
killings and the government not giving a hoot about it? And, of
course, never about the General's ever expanding grip on power,
which he likes to think, is best suited to the country's needs?
After all, talking about all these issues would send out a wrong
signal to the world and they might think we are corrupt,
extremist and undemocratic!
Like it or not, truth would be out sooner or later by the sheer
force of its truthfulness. It can never be damaging to our
national interest in the long run. Suppressing the truth will
only turn us into contemptible knaves, not passionate patriots.
We prove our love and loyalty to our country by being truthful.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
31 Hindu News: India rules out first use of nukes
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 : 1745 Hrs
President Abdul Kalam presenting a memento to a Buddhist monk of
Bangladesh at the international conclave on Buddhism in New
Delhi on Tuesday. Photo: PTI
New Delhi, Feb.17. (UNI): President A P J Abdul Kalam today said
India would not use nuclear weapons first, and asserted that if
all the countries decided to dismantle nuclear weapons
completely, India would be the first to do so.
"If every nation possessing nuclear weapons decides to dismantle
completely, we will be the first to do so," he said while
inaugurating the "International Conclave on Buddhism and
Spiritual Tourism."
Dr Kalam said it was self-defence for which nuclear weapons were
developed and nation had to become a nuclear weapon country. "At
no time, we will use them, unless someone uses against us."
He said India had always been advocating a total disarmament in
the world.
In this context, he recalled how he had to face an uncomfortable
question from a young Buddhist monk, during his visit to Bodh
Gaya last year.
Dr Kalam said he was taken aback when the monk asked: "Mr
President you have made a weapon, which can carry a nuclear
warhead and you are in search for peace now? How are they
compatible?"
In his turn to give an appropriate answer, Dr Kalam went back to
2500 years in history, citing the example of Emperor Ashoka who,
after seeing the bloodshed in the Kalinga war, had started
preaching ahimsa since then.
In the last century, Mahatma Gandhi further gave a new dimension
to ahimsa and dharma in the freedom movement of India.
"I have given this answer to that young monk."
Pointing out that many wars were being launched on this planet,
ignoring the United Nations, Dr Kalam said: We have been
experiencing cross-border terrorism for the past 50 years.
"It has been causing death and suffering more than a war. This
pain is in my mind."
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu
*****************************************************************
32 Hi Pakistan: Government mishandled nuclear issue - Opposition
February 17 2004
ISLAMABAD: The Senators from Opposition benches strongly
criticized the government on the nuclear issue and said that it
has failed to handle the issue properly.
Taking part in debate on nuclear issue the opposition members
from PPP, PML (N), MMA, ANP, BNM said that elected
representatives of the people was kept aloof and things were kept
secret from the people of Pakistan while the international media
was openly discussing the issue.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
33 Hi Pakistan: Government proposes nuclear and conventional pact with India
February 17 2004
(12:40 PST) -->
ISLAMABAD: Government has asked India to negotiate a joint
agreement to lower the threat of a nuclear or conventional war,
and to scale back the arms race between the two countries,
officials said today.
"There should not be an open-ended race for strategic or
conventional arms. It also aims to limit the risk of a nuclear
conflict and a missile race."
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
written permission and prior consent of the webmaster.
*****************************************************************
34 Indian Express: Global N-black market: Via China to Pak, Libya
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Reuters
Beijing, February 17: China is investigating a US newspaper
report that Chinese atomic bomb plans had been discovered in
Libya after being sent there from Pakistan and stopped short of a
denial.
A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the
report on Tuesday, saying only that an investigation was under
way and reiterating China's opposition to nuclear proliferation.
"China expresses its concern about the relevant reports. We are
trying to learn more about the circumstances," Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue told a news conference.
The Washington Post, citing government officials and arms
experts, reported on Sunday that documents turned over by Libya
yielded "dramatic evidence" of China's long-suspected role in
transferring nuclear knowhow to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
"The Chinese position is very clearcut. China consistently has
been opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology
and supports the international community's efforts to prevent
nuclear proliferation," Zhang said.
More World HeadlinesTerror attack on Saudi 'imminent'Outsourcing
cry, Bush doesn't careWoman lived with sister's corpse for a
yearDr Khan spent millions to buy loyaltyMusharraf handled
N-issue correctly: USWe need US and Bush is doing good to the
world
© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
35 NewIndpress: Pak proposes 'no N-war' pact with India -
Newindpress.com
Tuesday February 17 2004 19:15 IST
AFP ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has asked India to negotiate a joint
agreement to lower the threat of war between the nuclear-armed
rivals as the two sides entered a second day of peace talks on
Tuesday, officials said on Tuesday.
They said Pakistan made the proposal on the opening day of the
three-day talks on Monday, laying an agenda and time-frame for
the dialogue aimed at settling all outstanding issues including
Kashmir.
Foreign ministry officials from both sides were expected to draw
up the agenda for Wednesday's talks between Indian Foreign
Secretary Shashank and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar.
A foreign ministry official said Pakistan hoped that its
suggestion for "strategic restraint regime" would become part of
the agenda.
"The proposal calls on the two sides to negotiate the threshold
for minimum nuclear deterrence," said the official, asking to
remain anonymous.
"There should not be an open-ended race for strategic or
conventional arms. It also aims to limit the risk of a nuclear
conflict and a missile race."
"The outline has already been prepared and it is a comprehensive
document which has been agreed to by both the sides at the
highest level. What is required now is that we start the (peace)
process sincerely," Shashank was quoted as telling the Associated
Press of Pakistan.
e-mail: info@newindpress.com
*****************************************************************
36 CS Monitor: Russia's Mountain of WMD
| csmonitor.com
Commentary > The Monitor's View
from the February 18, 2004 edition
"We have more work to do," President Bush told the world in a
speech on WMD proliferation last week. That particular sentence
referred to the "Nunn-Lugar" program to dismantle, destroy, and
secure weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Bush's one-liner puts the "under" in "understatement." The
program championed by former Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Richard Lugar
is grossly behind schedule. What was supposed to be accomplished
in 10 years is now in its 13th year, and the work is not even
half done.
Since 1991, all of the nuclear weapons from Ukraine, Kazakhstan,
and Belarus have been removed; 6,252 nuclear warheads have been
deactivated; and more than 20,000 scientists employed in WMD have
found peaceful work. That's progress.
But it leaves more than 7,000 warheads to go, and hundreds of
metric tons of highly enriched uranium and plutonium to properly
secure. Most of the 40,000 tons of chemical weapons - much of it
in suitcase-size shells - has yet to be destroyed.
Some critics, noting the administration's decreased budget
request for 2005, argue that more funding would speed things up.
The real need here, however, is not money but political will.
Serious bureaucratic delays are stalling efforts, preventing
allocated money from being spent. The wrangling covers everything
from physical access at Russian facilities to liability concerns.
Pouring money into a system where it gets stuck in bottlenecks
can't do much good. These problems could be more speedily
resolved if they received sustained attention at the highest
levels in the White House and the Kremlin.
www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2004 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
37 War Wire: Pakistan, India agree on timetable for peace talks
WAR.WIRE
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Feb 17, 2004
Nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India Tuesday broadly agreed
on a timeframe for a long-term engagement to resolve the
festering Kashmir dispute and other divisive issues, officials
said.
Senior foreign ministry officials of the two countries hammered
out the understanding in two days of talks after the south Asian
giants returned to the negotiating table on Monday in a new quest
for peace after a hiatus of more than two years.
"A broad understanding was reached on the modalities and
timeframe for commencing the composite dialogue," both sides said
in identical statements released separately.
The officials will submit their recommendations to the meeting of
the Indian and Pakistan foreign secretaries on Wednesday.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank arrived here Tuesday for the
upcoming meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar.
The statement issued after Pakistani and Indian officials held a
new round of talks Tuesday, did not elaborate on whether the two
sides agreed to all the items in the proposed eight-point agenda
discussed Monday.
Earlier a foreign ministry official told AFP Pakistan has asked
India to negotiate a joint agreement to lower the threat of war
between the nuclear-armed rivals.
A foreign ministry official said Pakistan hoped that its
suggestion for "strategic restraint regime" would become part of
the agenda.
"The proposal calls on the two sides to negotiate the threshold
for minimum nuclear deterrence," said the official, asking to
remain anonymous.
"There should not be an open-ended race for strategic or
conventional arms. It also aims to limit the risk of a nuclear
conflict and a missile race."
Shashank told Pakistan's state-run news agency APP in New Delhi
before his departure that the delegations had prepared a
comprehensive document.
"The outline has already been prepared and it is a comprehensive
document which has been agreed to by both the sides at the
highest level. What is required now is that we start the (peace)
process sincerely," APP quoted him as saying.
The concept of the "strategic restraint regime" was first raised
at 1998 talks between the two sides and referred to again in the
Lahore Agreement of February 1999.
The Indian delegation called on Khokhar Tuesday morning before
going for talks at the nearby hill resort of Murree, where a
broad understanding was reached, officials said.
The talks in Islamabad followed a landmark summit between
President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee on the sidelines of a South Asian summit in Islamabad
last month.
Indian officials proposed dialogue on implementation of the
commitment made by Pakistan in the January 6 statement on the
issue of cross-border terrorism and infiltration in Kashmir,
sources in the Indian camp told AFP.
A joint statement issued after the talks last month said
President Musharraf "reassured Prime Minister Vajpayee that he
will not permit any territory under Pakistan's control to be used
to support terrorism in any manner."
The talks follow several confidence-building measures launched by
India and Pakistan including a November 26 ceasefire along the
heavily militarised Line of Control that divides Kashmir between
the two countries.
After a 10-month tense military standoff, both countries launched
a peace initiative in April and have since restored full
diplomatic relations, resumed communication links and lifted a
mutual ban on flights over their territories.
Bilateral ties had earlier plunged to their lowest ebb after a
bloody attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 which
India blamed on militants from Pakistan. The rival neighbours
massed more than a million troops along their common border in
battle-ready positions.
However, US-led international diplomacy averted a feared nuclear
conflict between the traditional rivals who have fought three
wars, two of them over the Kashmir dispute, since independence in
1947.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
38 Fwd: New report available: U.S. NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AND NATIONAL
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:36 -0800
>Envelope-to: done@energy-net.org
>Delivered-To: done@greens.org
>From: "Albert J. Fritsch"
>To:
>Subject: New report available: U.S. NUCLEAR INDUSTRY AND NATIONAL SECURITY
>Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 11:59:09 -0800
>**N O T I C E O F P U B L I C A T I O N**
>
>See below to order advance copies!
>
>Questions? Please contact us at:
>publications@earthhealing.info
>
>**************************************************
>Yggdrasil Institute, a project of
>Earth Island Institute, announces the release of:
>
>CRITICAL HOUR: THREE MILE ISLAND,
>THE NUCLEAR LEGACY,
>AND NATIONAL SECURITY
>
>by Albert J. Fritsch, Ph.D.,
>Arthur H. Purcell, Ph.D.,
>and Mary Byrd Davis, Ph.D.
>
>ISBN 1-878721-05-4
>
>Details online: www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/news.html
>
>**************************************************
>
>The report reviews the troubled history of the
>"civilian" nuclear industry in the United States
>and calls for a phase out of nuclear energy in
>light of the attack of September 11, 2001.
>
>
>Ordering Information for Critical Hour
>Format: E-book on CD-Rom
>Price: $29 (includes shipping and handling)
>Available for purchase (VERISIGN secure server) online:
>https://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/don_pub.html
>
>Website managers: Please feel free to post this
>announcement on your website or mailing list. THANKS!
>
>Questions? Please contact us at:
>publications@earthhealing.info
>
>**************************************************
>
>SYNOPSIS
>
>Is it a good idea to live next door to a nuclear
>power plant? Do we have to rely on nuclear power
>to meet future national electricity demand? Critical
>Hour tells you why the right answer to both questions
>is "no" and why nuclear power is incompatible with
>21st century environmental, economic and terrorism
>consciousness. With the 25th anniversary of
>Three Mile Island (TMI) - this country's worst nuclear
>power accident - as a background, Critical Hour takes
>you from the dawn of nuclear power, through the accident,
>and into a safer nuclear-free the future. Some
>information never before in print will surprise you: Did
>you know, e.g., that some critical signs pointed to the
>possibility of sabotage (or what today we would call
>terrorism) as a cause of the TMI accident?
>
>Producing electricity always carries environmental risks,
>but Critical Hour makes the definitive case for why producing
>electricity through the nuclear option entails unacceptable
>risks. A cliché about the environmental risks of coal, which
>was yesterday's prime energy source for producing electricity,
>tells us: "There are only two things wrong with coal. You
>can't mine it and you can't burn it." As Critical Hour documents,
>nuclear, once thought to be the ideal substitute for coal, has
>the same problems. There really are just two things wrong with
>nuclear power, a pitifully simple technology from a pure
>scientific standpoint: You can't make it safe, and you can't
>make it reliable. Nuclear power installations are the embodiment
>of Murphy's Law, which reminds us that if anything can go wrong,
>it will. From corroding pipes to misplaced records, the technical
>and management complexity of nuclear power makes nuclear systems
>expensively and often dangerously unworkable.
>
>And these facilities present distressingly inviting targets to
>potential terrorists. As horrendous as the thought is to
>contemplate, the fact is that if the 9-11 hijacked airliners had
>stopped short of their World Trade Center targets and crashed into
>New York's Indian Point nuclear facility the casualties could have
>been significantly higher.
>
>Critical Hour is much more than a book about nuclear power. It
>is a coalescing of findings and recommendations on the nation’s
>energy and domestic security future from three seasoned
>environmental professionals who have been closely involved with
>nuclear power issues in their distinguished careers.
>
>**Albert J. Fritsch is a lifelong public interest scientist who has
>devoted over three decades to furthering understanding and
>implementation of low environmental impact energy alternatives.
>**Arthur H. Purcell, an environmental educator and international
>policy analyst, was a senior staff member of the President’s
>Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island.
>**Mary Byrd Davis is an organizer researcher, and writer on nuclear
>and environmental issues, who co-authored the first book on French
>military nuclear waste and wrote the only guide to the French
>nuclear infrastructure.
>
>These individuals have come together in Critical Hour to develop a
>fact-filled and informed perspective that provides needed guidance
>on shaping a future that meshes national environmental, economic,
>and security interests with its energy interests.
>
>
>As our society searchers for ways to develop more sustainable sources
>of energy for the future, Critical Hour dramatically illustrates the
>non-sustainable role of nuclear power in this future. The triple
>dilemma of dangerous aging of the nation’s hundred-plus nuclear
>reactors and the tremendous costs of retiring them, the
>ever-increasing high-level radioactive waste being stored at these
>facilities (and their potential for falling into terrorist hands),
>and the vulnerability of these reactors to terrorism makes nuclear
>the antithesis of sustainable energy.
>
>Half a century ago we looked forward to the prospect of nuclear
>reactors going on line and achieving critical mass to generate
>electricity from nuclear fission. A quarter of a century later
>Three Mile Island showed us what is wrong with nuclear power.
>
>Today it is time we realize that, as the book’s title suggests,
>the critical hour has come to begin rapid phase out of nuclear
>power to minimize the economic environmental and security
>challenges its continued operation will pose.
>
>
>
>**************************************
>
>Ordering Information for Critical Hour
>Format: E-book on CD-ROM or hard copy
>Price: $29 (includes shipping and handling)
>ISBN 1-878721-05-4
>
>Available for purchase from Yggdrasil Institute,
>a project of Earth Island Institute at:
>https://www.earthisland.org/yggdrasil/don_pub.html
>
>NOTE: Orders through Earth Island Institue are
>protected with VERISIGN secure server!
>
>Questions? Please contact us at:
>publications@earthhealing.info
>
>**************************************
"><"<>"><"<>"><"<>"><"<>"><"<>"><"<>"
Organizing is
Sorting in to smaller piles,
Then dealing with them.
Don Eichelberger
Abalone Alliance Safe Energy Clearinghouse
http://www.energy-net.org
San Francisco Green Party
http://www.sfgreenparty.org
California State Green Party Issues Working Group Co-coordinator
http://www.greens.org/california/
Green Community/GreenWorks project for sustainable small businesses
http://www.sfgreenworks.org
2940 16th St., #309
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone 415-861-0592
done@energy-net.org
done@greens.org
*****************************************************************
39 TMI 25th Anniversary Actions: Join In!
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:26 -0800
NIRS Action Alert!
March 22nd to 28th "TMI 25th Anniversary Anti-Nuclear Days of Action"
Local and national actions will be taking place to prevent nuclear hazards
and stop the nuclear power relapse (see below for a list of actions already
scheduled).
March 28, 2004 marks the 25th anniversary of the Three Mile Island (TMI)
nuclear meltdown in Pennsylvania, USA. As part of the BE SAFE precautionary
campaign (spearheaded by the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice,
www.chej.org), NIRS/WISE is calling for an International Week of Action
from March 22nd to 28th to commemorate the disaster and to oppose the
"Nuclear Power Relapse." A broad and diverse coalition of groups plans
events for the week leading up to the anniversary addressing such issues as:
1) Prohibit new nuclear power plants and license extensions; four U.S.
sites are targeted for new reactors (Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi and
Virginia), as are countries like Finland; and dozens of older reactors are
applying for 20 year license extensions, including TMI 1.
2) Require radioactive cleanups to be protective of children's health and
drinking water, with no exemptions for military or commercial sites.
3) Halt the deregulation of nuclear waste that would allow toys, toasters
and other consumer products to be made of nuclear waste and contaminate
landfills and drinking water supplies.
4) Stop the Yucca Mountain and Skull Valley high-level waste dumps and the
national unprecedented dangerous radioactive waste transport schemes.
5) Halt the nuclear power industry's "cradle to grave" assault on Native
Americans and people of color from uranium mining and milling to waste
dumping.
Events are already coming together:
--In Washington, D.C. NIRS/WISE will lead a press conference together with
the CHEJ's Environmental Health Alliance.
--Near TMI, Three Mile Island Alert, Pennsylvania Environmental Network,
and other groups will show a Smithsonian Institution timeline of the
disaster; exhibit Robert del Tredichi's 1979 photos entitled "The People of
Three Mile Island;" hold a press conference featuring health and nuclear
experts; tape oral histories from those who lived through the disaster; and
promote potassium iodide distribution downwind from the still-operating TMI
Unit 1. There will also be a candlelight vigil at 4 a.m. on March 28th at
TMI's front gates, commemorating the very moment the disaster began.
--Unplug Salem and Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch plan protest rallies at the
Salem/Hope Creek and Oyster Creek reactors in New Jersey.
--Additional events are coming together around the U.S. and, hopefully,
internationally.
NIRS/WISE encourages groups in the U.S. and around the world to commemorate
TMI's 25th anniversary by holding an event in their locale. Ideas for
events range from setting up information tables at community centers, to
holding press conferences or protests against new reactors or other nuclear
facilities targeted at your area, to other creative ideas.
Another idea would be to host a movie night/letter writing party to watch
"China Syndrome" (which, ironically, had just started playing in cinemas in
1979 when the TMI accident happened) and take action on current nuclear
issues affecting your community.
NIRS/WISE and BE SAFE can assemble info packets to be used at your movie
night/letter writing party or other events, including stickers, post
cards/petitions on current campaigns, nuclear fact sheets, and other
materials. NIRS/WISE will be publishing a special issue of The Nuclear
Monitor on the 25th anniversary and lessons learned in mid-March. Please
let us know, by March 4, what actions your group is planning so we can
include them in this edition. Bulk copies of this special issue will be
available for you to use at your events, please contact NIRS in Washington
for information and prices--basically just whatever it costs us to print
the extra copies (nirsnet@nirs.org, 202.328.0002).
Check out the BE SAFE website at www.besafenet.com and sign on to the
precautionary statement of principles to be used as part of a large
campaign to redirect the U.S. government to protect people first.
Contact Kevin Kamps (kevin@nirs.org) or Diane D'Arrigo (dianed@nirs.org) at
NIRS (202.328.0002) or Anne Rabe, BE SAFE, 518.732.4538, annerabe@msn.com
for additional ideas or information. And please let us know about your
event so we can keep a complete list of what's happening where!
This is the NIRS E-Mail Alert list. You are on this list because you signed
up on our website, at a NIRS table at a concert, on a petition, or directly
to NIRS. Your name and address are never sold, rented, or traded with
anyone for any reason.
For address changes or to unsubscribe, just send an e-mail to
nirsnet@nirs.org. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to be on
this list, have them send a note to nirsnet@nirs.org
*****************************************************************
40 Michigan Daily: Loss of reactor hurts 'U' nuclear program
Feb. 17, 2004 Advanced
By Alison Go, Daily Staff Reporter
In the year since the University completed shutting down the Ford
Nuclear Reactor on North Campus due to financial concerns, the
University has been unable to meet the needs of students affected
by the loss.
While students in programs ranging from geological sciences to
engineering used the reactor, one of the programs most affected
by its decommissioning is the Nuclear Engineering and Radio
Sciences department.
This is a real loss to the department, said NERS Prof. John Lee,
chair of the department. This was one of the three flagship
nuclear reactors around the country.
The NERS undergraduate and graduate programs were once the
top-ranked programs in the country, according to U.S. News and
World Report rankings. Now, the programs are ranked fifth and
tied for third, respectively, said Anthony Francis, the
Universitys associate vice president for research.
I am very sad and worried that it will take a considerable effort
and time to make up for our lost ranking and to improve the
program to the quality that students expect, Lee said.
However, other University officials say that a nuclear reactor is
not necessary for a top-ranked school in nuclear engineering. The
University of California-Berkeley, the third-ranked school for
undergraduate nuclear engineering this year, has never had a
nuclear reactor.
What would be an interesting test is the effect (the
decommissioning) has in the upcoming years, Francis said.
Students who are now in NERS said the University has done little
to alleviate the inconvenience caused by the loss of the reactor.
Nuclear engineering students who would have used the reactor on
campus now use the Dow Chemical Co. reactor in Midland. The
commute takes about two hours and in some cases requires van
rentals for transportation.
Students who had ongoing research projects that required the use
of the reactor are now able to receive money through the vice
president for researchs discretionary funds, but Francis said he
has not received any requests for funding.
Aside from the effects on students already in NERS, the
University has also seen a decrease in the numbers of students in
their NERS program.
Undergrad students are now going to schools that do have a
reactor, Sorensen said.
Recruiting efforts have also been affected by the
decommissioning.
In respect to education and recruiting, it was a big loss, said
Dave Jordan, Engineering graduate student and outreach chair of
the Universitys chapter of the American Nuclear Society. Nuclear
engineering is sometimes difficult to demonstrate and this was
very tangible.
The decommissioning of the reactor has also narrowed the options
for laboratory requirements that seniors are required to fill,
which were previously held primarily at the reactor site. NERS
has adjusted their courses to compensate for the change.
While the University Board of Regents decided to decommission the
nuclear reactor in 2000, the final stages of shutting down the
reactor were completed last summer.
Because the reactor was principally used by parties outside the
University, its $1.2 million annual expenditure made it difficult
for the University to justify keeping it running, Francis said.
At the time of the decision, the reactor was in need of
substantial repair such as the replacement of building and
electrical systems a third of which was urgent or high priority.
Similarly, increased security since the Sept. 11 attacks has
raised the costs of operating the reactor, Francis said.
The reactor was one of the relatively few remaining units run by
a university. Because they can be operated with the necessary,
the trend has been moving toward government-run reactors, Francis
said. The University of Michigan certainly did not lead the way.
However, some students maintain that the cost of the reactor was
worth the convenience and advantage.
The knowledge the reactor has taught me isnt something you can
get from a textbook and is priceless, said Engineering graduate
student Reuben Sorensen. Before, you got some hands-on
experience. Now, you dont really have a chance to enjoy the
science of it.
When the regents were making the decision, students and
professors in the nuclear engineering department made a
substantial effort to obtain government grants to pay for the
reactors use.
We made our protest in due fashion, but we lost the battle, Lee
said. Apparently, the money came in too late and wasnt enough
The reactor was originally commissioned in the 1950s, just after
World War II. The community recently saw the introduction of
nuclear weaponry, while a significant number of citizens of
Michigan lost their lives in the war, Francis said. (At the
time), as a memorial, it seemed appropriate to demonstrate the
peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Lee recently requested the construction of an accelerator-based
neutron generator, which would replace some of the former
functions of the reactor.
It wont be a substitute, but well have to get by, Lee said.
Loss of reactor hurts 'U' nuclear program Post your feedback on
this topic here No feedback has been posted yet. Please post
yours!
© 2004 The Michigan Daily. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
41 [du-list] Fwd: Fw: Fw: John D. Bankston sends you Atomic
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:24 -0800
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Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:29:28 -0700
Subject: Fw: Fw: John D. Bankston sends you Atomic Veterans Petition for
Justice Petition
Message-ID: <20040217.143400.3932.1.rucon1@juno.com>
X-Mailer: Juno 5.0.33
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=--__JNP_000_6449.6465.3fbd
From: Richard U Conant
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Assist atomic veterans. please sign this petition.
Dick Conant
2424 Venetian Way SW
Albuquerque, NM 87105-7236
Tp: 505-877-3707 Fx: 505-877-2119 e-m: rucon1@juno.com
JOIN:Veterans Party of NM & VP of America. Out The Door In 2004!
JOHNBANKS1007148@aol.com":
Let me know what has to be done on the receiving end.
----------
bbc0bc.jpg
Atomic Veterans Petition for Justice
View Current
Signatures -
Sign
the Petition
----------
To: The White House Clerk to send to the President of the United States
To: The White House of the United States of America
Atomic Veteran’s Petition for Justice
Wars and Nuclear explosionss not only cause physical damage to humans and
structural losses, but they are destructive environmentally to all natural
resources from the outer regions of the universe down to the infaunal that
burrow in the substrates of the ocean floor. It is understandable wars are
necessary when our sovereignty is in jeopardy or homeland is attacked
without provocation. When nations are gifted with intelligent leaders they
will find an alternative to devastating and ruinous wars if at all possible.
The number of early infirmities and deaths are statistically projected in
the initial strategic plans of attacks synonymously with the taskmaster’s
abilities to judge the taskforce’s enemies. However, our foolish White
House leaders at the end of WW11 egregiously and sadly elected to remove
any doubt in calculating the number of casualties during the Occupational
Duties in Japan. The White House leaders unwisely choose to inclusively use
our famous Headquarters, Second Pioneer Battalion, Pictorial Arrowhead,
Second Marine Division Troops, that served in WW11 and other supporting
units, 410,000 more or less, as human experimentations. This inane decision
was made without consideration to our Loyal Marines. Historical Records and
Division books will prove that many battles were won by many Marines at
different times serving in this great Marine Division protecting our
Country for freedom. Our leaders at the time yearned to study what effects
from exposure to ionizing radiation would have on humans. Notwithstanding
top secrets for 50 plus years the effects proved to be deadly as warned by
some Nuclear Physicist beforehand. Two hundred thousand, 200,000, out of
the 410,000 died an early death at an average age of 57. The others of us
have suffered every second of our lives along with family members who cared
for us. Our Doctors made wrong diagnoses by not knowing that we were
exposed to excessive amounts of ionizing radiation further compounding our
severe radiation sickness.
The Government repeatedly stated that we were not exposed to harmful
amounts of radiation. Mathematicians and Nuclear Physicist have proven our
Government made wrong decisions in calculating radiation because their
formula included guesswork in determining the amounts of radiation we were
exposed to. If we were not exposed to harmful amounts of radiation, what
was the purpose of secrecy for half a century before leaking out to the
public? We have pled 58 years for medical support without being
administered an aspirin. I understand now that we are not allowed to have a
Judge to hear our case. To me, I consider this trampling on our
Constitutional Rights and infringing on our Citizenship’s. We 18 year olds
in WW11 served proudly with pride for your freedom and now veterans that
were exposed to radiation need your vote in petitioning the White House for
us to have Simply Justice. All other resources have been exhausted. We were
taught in our intensive training not to leave a comrade behind for any
reason if possible, yet our own Government left us in harms way. The evil
inhumane acts awarded to all atomic veterans, are not characteristic of
America principles so you can help right these wrongs by petitioning in
favor of ATOMIC VETERANS. Our Legacy must continue until Justice is served.
To view information formalized by Professionals Online please use Keyword:
or your favorite Search Engine: Dr. Rosalie Bertell--Senate Testimony
affecting atomic veterans, Shaw Pittman DOD Allegedly Cover Up Medical
Records.
For how ionizing radiation personally affected myself go to: “Invisible
Enemies Of Atomic Veterans,” And How They Were Betrayed. www.trafford.com
Search or Keyword: John D. Bankston to review some descriptions.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
View Current
Signatures
----------
The
Atomic
Veterans Petition for Justice Petition to The White House Clerk to send to
the President of the United States was created by Atomic Veterans and
written by John Bankston. This petition
is hosted here at
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/petition.html
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Atomic Veterans Petition for Justice
View Current
Signatures -
Sign
the Petition
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To: The White House Clerk to send to the President of the United States
To: The White House of the United States of America
Atomic Veteran’s Petition for Justice
Wars and Nuclear explosionss not only cause physical damage to humans and
structural losses, but they are destructive environmentally to all natural
resources from the outer regions of the universe down to the infaunal that
burrow in the substrates of the ocean floor. It is understandable wars are
necessary when our sovereignty is in jeopardy or homeland is attacked
without provocation. When nations are gifted with intelligent leaders they
will find an alternative to devastating and ruinous wars if at all possible.
The number of early infirmities and deaths are statistically projected in
the initial strategic plans of attacks synonymously with the taskmaster’s
abilities to judge the taskforce’s enemies. However, our foolish White
House leaders at the end of WW11 egregiously and sadly elected to remove
any doubt in calculating the number of casualties during the Occupational
Duties in Japan. The White House leaders unwisely choose to inclusively use
our famous Headquarters, Second Pioneer Battalion, Pictorial Arrowhead,
Second Marine Division Troops, that served in WW11 and other supporting
units, 410,000 more or less, as human experimentations. This inane decision
was made without consideration to our Loyal Marines. Historical Records and
Division books will prove that many battles were won by many Marines at
different times serving in this great Marine Division protecting our
Country for freedom. Our leaders at the time yearned to study what effects
from exposure to ionizing radiation would have on humans. Notwithstanding
top secrets for 50 plus years the effects proved to be deadly as warned by
some Nuclear Physicist beforehand. Two hundred thousand, 200,000, out of
the 410,000 died an early death at an average age of 57. The others of us
have suffered every second of our lives along with family members who cared
for us. Our Doctors made wrong diagnoses by not knowing that we were
exposed to excessive amounts of ionizing radiation further compounding our
severe radiation sickness.
The Government repeatedly stated that we were not exposed to harmful
amounts of radiation. Mathematicians and Nuclear Physicist have proven our
Government made wrong decisions in calculating radiation because their
formula included guesswork in determining the amounts of radiation we were
exposed to. If we were not exposed to harmful amounts of radiation, what
was the purpose of secrecy for half a century before leaking out to the
public? We have pled 58 years for medical support without being
administered an aspirin. I understand now that we are not allowed to have a
Judge to hear our case. To me, I consider this trampling on our
Constitutional Rights and infringing on our Citizenship’s. We 18 year olds
in WW11 served proudly with pride for your freedom and now veterans that
were exposed to radiation need your vote in petitioning the White House for
us to have Simply Justice. All other resources have been exhausted. We were
taught in our intensive training not to leave a comrade behind for any
reason if possible, yet our own Government left us in harms way. The evil
inhumane acts awarded to all atomic veterans, are not characteristic of
America principles so you can help right these wrongs by petitioning in
favor of ATOMIC VETERANS. Our Legacy must continue until Justice is served.
To view information formalized by Professionals Online please use Keyword:
or your favorite Search Engine: Dr. Rosalie Bertell--Senate Testimony
affecting atomic veterans, Shaw Pittman DOD Allegedly Cover Up Medical
Records.
For how ionizing radiation personally affected myself go to: “Invisible
Enemies Of Atomic Veterans,” And How They Were Betrayed. www.trafford.com
Search or Keyword: John D. Bankston to review some descriptions.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
View Current
Signatures
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The
Atomic
Veterans Petition for Justice Petition to The White House Clerk to send to
the President of the United States was created by Atomic Veterans and
written by John Bankston. This petition
is hosted here at
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42 [du-list] the Balkan (or Gulf War) Syndrome
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:17 -0800
Antonietta Morena Gatti is a physicist and bioengineer, and is the
founder and the director of the Laboratory of Biomaterials of the
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). She is the
discoverer of the presence of micro- and nano-particles in
biological tissues and of their pathological effects. The European
Community appointed her Coordinator of the international group in
charge of the nanopathology study.
Stefano Montanari is a pharmacist and a scientific consultant. He
has collaborated with Dr Gatti for about 25 years.
THE SO-CALLED "BALKAN-SYNDROME": A BIO-ENGINEERING APPROACH
Dr Antonietta M. Gatti Dr Stefano Montanari
It is a well-known fact, widely reported by media, that a non-
negligible number of veterans of the Gulf War (1990-91) showed what
according to medicine are mutually unrelated symptoms. Some of those
can be attributed to stress: headache, for example, or sleep
disturbance, or forgetfulness, or an impaired concentration. Other
symptoms like fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and shortness of
breath are somewhat harder to classify, but cancers, various and, in
some cases, extremely unusual diseases of the genitourinary system,
an increased incidence of birth defects among veterans' children and
disorders of the blood and the haemopoietic organs must be due to
causes that cannot be legitimately ascribed to stress. Other
pathologies Gulf War veterans are suffering from, like sudden death
and Lou Gehrig's disease are under investigation as to their
meaningfulness.
But the problem is unfortunately wider and not limited to that group
of military population.
Very similar symptoms are being displayed by soldiers who served in
the former Yugoslavian territory during the so-called Balkan War,
made worse by an unusually high incidence of Hodgkin's and non-
Hodgkin's lymphomas. Staffers of humanitarian missions and
Yugoslavian residents as well are suffering from the same diseases.
Professor Edo Hasanbegovic, chief of the Paediatric Clinic of
Sarajevo, denounced how leukaemia is on the increase in children
throughout the Yugoslavian Federation, but mainly in children coming
from Velika, Kladusa and Buzim, towns located close to the Croatian
borderline.
An explanation to all that was offered when in March 2000 NATO
revealed that Depleted Uranium (DU) shells had been employed in the
Balkans and in 2001 traces of radioactivity were detected by the
United Nations Environment Protection agency not far from Sarajevo,
in a barracks at Han Pijesak and in two places inside a factory in
Hadzici.
It is a frequently observed fact that radioactivity is a triggering
factor to cancer, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki tought a painful lesson
about that. So, uranium was immediately seen as the obvious
scapegoat to blame.
For a better understanding, it is necessary to know that DU was used
to make a component of some shells used in that war, but
radioactivity played no role in that choice. High density and
hardness are the features that made those projectiles, called
kinetic penetrators, particularly fit for piercing even very thick
armours. DU is what is left over when most of the highly radioactive
isotopes of uranium are removed for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear
weapons. The DU used in armour-piercing munitions is also used in
civilian industry, primarily as ballast, for stabilizers in
airplanes and boats. As a matter of fact, uranium is a mixture of
three isotopes: U235, U234, and U238. When the content of U235 is
below 0.711%, uranium is classified as "depleted", and the blend
used in the Balkans contained less than 0.2% of that isotope.
DU is approximately 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium
and emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles
can hardly pass through the skin, while beta particles are blocked
by most garments, and the amount of gamma rays, a form of highly
penetrating energy, emitted by DU is very low.
The radioactivity produced by those weapons is certainly not
healthy, but its full responsibility for such an unusual health
situation looks at least doubtful if observed from a scientific
standpoint.
In addition to that, another piece of evidence is raising a further
doubt about the radioactive origin of the pathologies: A higher-than-
expected quantity of lymphomas and symptoms identical to those
suffered from by the Balkan War's veterans was observed in Italian
soldiers who had never served in any theatre of war nor had ever
come near to radioactive weapons. The condition all those soldiers
shared was serving in firing grounds.
In the meantime, someone tried to blame the multiple vaccinations
soldiers underwent during the so-called Operation Desert Storm, but
without being able to give any scientific demonstration to that
thesis.
As a matter of fact, in addition to the usual vaccines against
tetanus-diphtheria, hepatitis B, poliovirus, meningococcal, typhoid
and yellow fever, the American troops were treated with Botulinum
Pentavalent, unlicensed in the United States, intended to counteract
botulism.
Then they were treated with a vaccine against anthrax, a drug proven
to be teratogenic. In fact, women receiving it are warned not to
have children for at least three years.
Finally troops received Pyridostigmine bromide, not a vaccine, but a
pre-treatment against nerve agents. That drug, normally used for
myasthenia gravis, is not approved by the Food and Drug
Administration as a nerve gas antidote and its side effects are
potentially very dangerous.
But those medicines were administered to US troops only, while the
Gulf War Syndrome affected also civilians and soldiers of other
nationalities.
Thus, no answer was given to the question: why do people living in
theatres of war and soldiers working under particular conditions
contract those diseases with such an alarming frequency?
Our Laboratory of Biomaterials of the University of Modena and
Reggio Emilia (Italy) is engaged in checking bioptic and autoptic
samples coming from patients belonging in the classes described
above. It is an indisputable fact that all samples contain inorganic
micro- and nano-particles, while it may be interesting to observe
that none of them show any trace of uranium.
>From the technical point of view, those very small fragments can be
detected by using an innovative technique of electronic microscopy
we developed and that has been already described in literature.
What we found were very small bits, sometimes agglomerated, of
simple or combined metals: Fe-Si, Cu-Cl-Zn, Si-Ti-Fe-Al, Si-Bi, Si-
Pb, Fe-Cu-Zn, Cr-Fe-Ni, Fe-Mn and, but just once, Zr alone.
The spherical shape, hollow in the larger sizes, of many particles
proves their formation under a very high temperature, a condition
compatible with that of the explosion of a DU shell.
DU projectiles hit very different targets, but specially buildings
and armaments like, for example, tanks, and when they do, the
temperature in the core of the explosion exceeds 3,000°C, which is
more than enough to have all solid matter sublime and, in some
cases, form new metal alloys. That gas expands over a large volume
of atmosphere, then, rapidly, the matter becomes solid again taking
the shape of very small spheres (down to 10-8 m diameter), stays
suspended in the air and is carried away over distances depending on
atmospheric conditions like wind, rain, snow and pressure. This
phenomenon was studied in 1977-78 at the US Air Force base of Leglin
(Fla).
After some time, all the air-borne particles fall slowly down and
settle on grass, vegetables, fruit or expanses of water where they
become inevitably a guest of food and drink to animals and men
alike. Even if that unwanted presence is known in advance but very
often it is utterly ignored - getting rid completely of inorganic
particles can be very difficult. A good wash eliminates a great
quantity of debris from fruit or vegetables, but cauliflowers, for
example, cannot be cleaned thoroughly because of their rough
surface, while those particles that settle in the tissues of animals
that ate contaminated grass and men eat as meat can't be taken away
at all.
Keeping in mind the well-known, even if never widely publicized,
phenomenon studied at Leglin and the new science of nano-pathology,
an explanation to the unanswered question becomes easy.
People present in firing grounds and in the theatres of war, and
being a soldier or a civilian makes no difference, breathe in micro-
and nano-particles while they are suspended in the air as an
aerosol, then eat and drink them along with vegetables and water.
We have amply demonstrated with our researches that once debris that
size (10-9 10-5 m) enter the body, be it via the digestive or the
respiratory system, they can easily negotiate the luminal tissues
and either be captured by the tissue itself which acts the way a
filter does, or be transported by the blood or the lymph until they
end their travel in some organ (for instance the kidneys and the
liver). Lymph nodes, for example, are the organs where lymphomas
start and develop and where, in all pathological cases checked, we
found the presence of inorganic particles. But also all the other
pathologic specimens we had the possibility to observe show clearly
and without any single exception the presence of debris.
It is important to underline that none of the particles we found is
biodegradable.
Just to give a further confirmation about the applicability of the
theory according to which the so-called Balkan Syndrome has an
environmental, nanopathological origin, particles found in the
diseased tissues of soldiers and civilians, and particles found in
the ground of the territories where the pathologies were contracted
are mutually compatible.
If no uranium was ever detected, that does not necessarily mean
there is none somewhere in the tissues of the patients. The fact is
likely to be due to its quantity, which is extremely scarce when
compared with the huge masses of the targets that sublime and that
contain no such element. It is also possible that uranium particles
had been captured by tissues but, probably because they did not
reach a critical threshold, did not trigger any disease and, as a
consequence, we did not have the chance to receive and study the
samples.
In conclusion, DU's responsibility is only indirect, and it is not
its radioactivity to blame, but the very high temperature that
uranium produces once the shells of which it is a component hit the
mark.
It is then possible that the Balkan Syndrome has a multi-factorial
origin including radioactivity and vaccinations, but the main cause
is without any doubt a nanopathological one.
For further information about nanopathology
www.biomat.unimo.it/eng/nanopat.htm
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43 [du-list] DU in the news - 18th Feb. 04
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:39 -0800
THE Forgotten Bomb in the Basement
The World Crisis Web - Ireland
... In Iraq it used cancer-engendering depleted uranium and non-precision
cluster bombs leaving a trail of limbless children in their wake. but
all in a good ...
<http://www.world-crisis.com/more/417_0_1_0_M/>
DOMENICI Energy Bill Addresses Waste >From Uranium Enrichment
ABQ Journal (subscription) - Albuquerque,NM,USA
... The DOE already has more than 700,000 tons of depleted uranium, mostly
packed in cylinders and stacked in huge piles, at plants in Ohio and Kentucky.
...
<http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/apenrich02-17-04.htm>
MARINE dies in accident
Agana Pacific Daily News - Agana,GU,USA
... The Marine was pulled from the battle tank -- which has steel-encased
depleted uranium armor -- about 6:32 pm and taken to Naval Hospital in
Agana Heights ...
<http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/20040218/localnews/429338.html>
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44 Re: [du-list] quantity of DU used in Iraq
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:16 -0800
Hi Felice, Hi Jack, et al
Quoting from post:><> ><> ><>I do not believe there was ANY used in
bunker busters, and the best
estimate from published sources comes in at 110 - 176 tons fired by
tanks and A-10s over the last year in Iraq.<>< <>< <)^^^><
What about 30mm DU rounds from Apache chain guns, hust have ben lots of
those + there were downed Apaches that left behind DU ballast?
Also, in some article I read that there were European tanks that had radium
dials that were destroyed? Do you know anything about that?
And why don't you believe there were any bunker busters used?
Elaine <>< <>< <)@@@><
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45 Hawk Eye: Harkin fears claims files lost
Monday, February 16, 2004 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
Senator decries government's handling of weapons workers benefit
claims; Cites letter from ailing former worker.
By MATTHEW LeBLANC
mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
Adding to complaints leveled by former Iowa Army Ammunition Plant
employees angry over the pace at which federal workers'
compensation claims are reviewed, Sen. Tom Harkin said last week
he fears that many of the claims may have been lost or "purged"
by government officials.
In letters to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Energy Secretary
Spencer Abraham Friday, Harkin, D–Iowa, asks for information
about missing claims filed by some former IAAP employees under
the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
Harkin cites "a sick former worker" who says the Labor and Energy
departments may have lost health compensation claims filed by
former IAAP employees who have work–related cancer.
"If true, this is alarming and deeply disturbing," Harkin writes.
"In order for these nuclear weapons workers to receive
compensation for this injustice, detailed records of their
illnesses and possible exposures must be maintained."
The EEOICP, administered by the Labor and Energy departments, has
come under fire in recent months by critics who say the program
is not working to full capacity. Passed by Congress in 2000, the
program has yet to process thousands of compensation claims filed
by sick and dying former Energy Department workers, according to
a report by the General Accounting Office in October. Critics
also have charged that the DOE's handling of the claims is "an
insult" to former workers.
Claimants have complained that they've been told to send the same
health information to federal officials numerous times, though
Friday's letters were the first to EEOICP administrators
concerning the loss of health and claims records.
"I would appreciate an immediate response regarding the accuracy
of this report," Harkin tells Chao and Abraham in the one–page
letters. "If records are being destroyed, how will you maintain
critical information sufficient to support worker claims and
appropriate determinations?"
The Atomic Energy Commission (later the DOE) assembled,
test–fired and disassembled nuclear weapons at the 19,000–acre
Middletown plant from the 1940s to the mid–1970s. The work has
been linked to cancer and other illnesses, making some former
employees eligible for one–time $150,000 federal compensation
payments.
Harkin's letter is the latest in a series of letters, information
requests and proposed legislation surrounding the EEOICP
stretching back to September. Sen. Charles Grassley, R–Iowa,
tried in vain to insert an amendment into a mammoth spending bill
last year that would have switched control of some of the
compensation claims to the Labor Department. The move, he said,
would have expedited the claims process.
Grassley, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R–Alaska, and other members
of Congress have pushed for a review of the EEOICP, arguing that
thousands of sick workers may never receive payments for which
they're eligible. All of the efforts have been stalled by Senate
subcommittees.
The senators also have sought information about the lagging
claims process from the Department of Energy. The information has
not surfaced, though an Energy spokesman said it will be turned
over "in a timely manner."
Energy Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow told the Senate Energy
Committee last week that it could take three years to process all
the claims.
"Everybody vastly underestimated the scope of the program," he
said Tuesday.
As of Feb. 10, according to Labor Department statistics, 1,602
claims have been filed by former IAAP workers, while only 39
payments have been made. The GAO, Congress' investigative arm,
said that only 6 percent of EEOICP claims filed by workers in
nine states have been completely processed.
Last week, Harkin urged the Bush administration to issue rules
allowing some former IAAP employees to receive immediate
compensation payments. His office has not received a response
from Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, who
oversees the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health.
"Any compromise of relevant worker records is almost certain to
make this already arduous process less successful," Harkin said
Friday.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free
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46 NWTRB Meeting: 3-9 Las Vegas
FR Doc 04-3298
[Federal Register: February 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 31)]
[Notices] [Page 7529-7530] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17fe04-135]
NUCLEAR WASTE TECHNICAL REVIEW BOARD
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Meeting
Panel Meeting: March 9-10, 2004--Las Vegas, Nevada: The U.S.
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's Panel on the Natural
System will meet to discuss how components of the natural [[Page
7530]] geologic system would work together to isolate radioactive
waste in a Yucca Mountain repository.
Pursuant to its authority under section 5051 of Pub. L.
100-203, Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987, members of
the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board's Panel on the
Natural System will meet in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday, March
9, and Wednesday, March 10, 2004. The panel will discuss issues
related to a proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada,
particularly how components of the natural geologic system would
work together to isolate radioactive waste. The meetings will be
open to the public, and opportunities for public comment will be
provided. The Board is charged by Congress with reviewing the
technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as stipulated in the Nuclear
Waste Policy Amendments Act.
The panel meeting will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel;
4255 South Paradise Road; Las Vegas, NV 89109; (tel.)
702-369-4400; (fax) 702-369-3770. The meetings are tentatively
scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. each day. Meeting times will be
confirmed when agendas are issued, approximately one week before
the meeting dates.
The purpose of the meeting is to examine aspects of the
natural system that control transport of radionuclides from Yucca
Mountain. Water flow will be the primary factor controlling that
transport. The meeting is structured to consider the aspects of
water flow and associated hydrogeologic phenomena that are
important for estimating the amount of time required for the
transport of radionuclides from the repository horizon to the
regulatory boundary. The meeting is designed to gather
information to help address the following questions.
What is the median travel time of a molecule of water from
the repository horizon at Yucca Mountain to the regulatory
boundary?
How much might travel time change for a radionuclide in that
water, considering all factors relevant to radionuclide
transport? Are all of the factors equally likely?
Are the DOE's radionuclide transport estimates conservative,
realistic, or optimistic?
What is the technical basis for these estimates? What is the
Board's assessment of the technical validity of the technical
basis? What can be done to improve the technical basis of the DOE
estimates?
How much could the technical basis be improved by 2010 if
the DOE pursues a rigorous scientific program?
On Tuesday, the meeting will focus on features and processes
relevant to water flow and radionuclide transport in the
unsaturated zone. Presentations will be made on unsaturated flow,
sorption, matrix diffusion, colloid-facilitated transport, and
radionuclide transport abstractions for total system performance
assessment (TSPA). Evidence in the rock strata for evaluating the
influence of climate change in the repository also will be
presented.
On Wednesday, the features and processes relevant to water
flow and radionuclide transport in the saturated zone will be
discussed. Presentations will be made on the role of climate in
the deposition of sediment that can slow radionuclide transport,
the representation of climate in TSPA, ground-water flow of the
Death Valley region and the Yucca Mountain site, sorption, matrix
diffusion, colloid-facilitated transport, and radionuclide
transport abstractions for TSPA.
The agendas on both days will conclude with roundtable
discussions of the topics presented. Time will be made available
at the end of each day for public comments. Those wanting to
speak are encouraged to sign the public-comment register at the
check-in table. A time limit may have to be set on individual
remarks, but written comments of any length may be submitted for
the record.
Detailed agendas will be available approximately one week
before the meeting. Copies of the agendas can be requested by
telephone or obtained from the Board's Web site at
http://www.nwtrb.gov. Transcripts of the meetings will be
available on the Board's web site, by e-mail, on computer disk,
and on a library-loan basis in paper format from Davonya Barnes
of the Board's staff, beginning on April 9, 2004.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Crowne Plaza hotel
for meeting participants. When making a reservation, please state
that you are attending the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
meeting. To receive the meeting rate, reservations should be made
by February 20, 2004.
For more information, contact the NWTRB: Karyn Severson,
External Affairs; 2300 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 1300;
Arlington, VA 22201- 3367; (tel.) 703-235-4473; (fax)
703-235-4495.
Dated: February 5, 2003. William D. Barnard, Executive
Director, Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. [FR Doc. 04-3298
Filed 2-13-04; 8:45 am]
*****************************************************************
47 Salt Lake Tribune: Say it ain't so (Utah Waste Bill)
February 17, 2004
I suffered through a hearing recently on House Bill 145,
which would close a loophole in the current law to require level
of nuclear waste that comes to Utah.
Envirocare: "We're not seeking hotter waste than Class A (the
lowest level), but we don't want you to have the authority to
stop us from seeking higher levels, which we won't seek, of
course." The committee was relying on advice mainly from one
Department of Environmental Quality official, Bill Sinclair.
Which part of all this did I imagine? The DEQ has long since
approved Envirocare's request for hotter B and C waste. And
didn't the public just finish stopping Envirocare from bringing
in hotter-than-A loophole waste from Ohio? I just wish I imagined
at least some of it, especially the voteless adjournment.
Garrett Delavan
Salt Lake City
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
48 Salt Lake Tribune: Err toward caution
February 17, 2004
The Utah Legislature has a responsibility to protect and
safeguard the citizens of Utah. The Legislature decides safety
this in the name of protecting citizens. Certainly, taking a
strong, active role in deciding what types and limits of
potentially dangerous waste are accepted into the state fits the
responsibility of the lawmakers.
Requiring the approval of the Legislature and governor on
increased amounts of radioactive waste would seem a minimal
requirement (House Bill 145). It seems like the perfect time to
err on the side of caution. After all, Utah may become the
caretaker of the waste for generations to come. Therefore we
better know what we are accepting.
Susan Corth
Salt Lake City
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
49 Salt Lake Tribune: Thanks to Urquhart
February 17, 2004
I want to thank Rep. Stephen H. Urquhart, R-St. George, for
sponsoring House Bill 145. It is good to know we have
state.
I was disappointed to hear that in its first discussion of
the bill, after two hours of debate, the Public Utilities and
Technology Committee adjourned without voting on the bill, which
would require legislative and gubernatorial approval before
higher concentrations of radioactive waste could be dumped in
Utah.
If Envirocare won't say how much more radioactivity will
come to their site, where the waste would come from or the
number of shipments of special nuclear material that would be
covered by the change, we need to know what they are trying to
hide.
My other question is when is enough enough? Are we going to
let Envirocare expand yet again with regulators making the
decision and not elected officials?
Amy Dabb
Holladay
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
50 Chillicothe Gazett: Competitor not being seen as threat to USEC -
chillicothegazette.com
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
By GREG WRIGHT and DANIEL PRAZER
Gazette Washington Bureau and The Gazette Staff
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Enrichment Corp. will not raise money for
a $1.5 billion uranium refining plant in southern Ohio until it
tests its uranium processing technology next year, company
officials said.
In contrast, competitor Louisiana Energy Services already has
investors such as Westinghouse for a $1.2 billion uranium
processing facility in Lea County in southeast New Mexico,
spokesman Marshall Cohen said. Louisiana Energy also has
contracts to sell half the uranium fuel it produces during the
first decade after its plant opens in 2008.
Both USEC and Louisiana Energy will process uranium fuel for
nuclear power plants in the United States and overseas.
Although Louisiana Energy Services is ahead on investors and
sales, it is not a threat to the USEC plant that should open in
Piketon in 2010, said Jeff Combs, president of Ux Consulting in
Roswell, Ga. Combs' group tracks the uranium fuel market.
"I would say there is enough of a market for both of them," Combs
said.
USEC will process uranium fuel with about 5 percent of the
electricity needed for the 50-year-old gaseous diffusion method.
Louisiana Energy officials claim their process is 10 times more
efficient than gaseous diffusion, although analysts say it is not
as fuel-efficient as USEC's method.
USEC will test its processing method at the Piketon plant next
year before raising the cash to build the full-scale facility.
"I don't expect we'll have investors brought in at this stage,"
U.S. Enrichment spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said. "Once the
demonstration is up and running will be a closer time."
The lead cascade, as the demonstration facility is known, will
not produce enriched uranium, but provide the data that shows the
feasibility of the centrifuge process. Construction will begin
this year on the test facility, with the cascade going online in
2005.
"Once the demonstration facility has begun operation, we expect
to attract investors and partners," said USEC spokeswoman Angie
Duduit, based at the Piketon plant.
"We have beat several milestones in a row, we have accelerated
our process by more than a year, and we are focused on achieving
commercial deployment by the end of the decade and we believe our
technology will be the most efficient in the world."
But the delay worries some officials at the Paper,
Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International
Union, which represents workers at the Piketon plant. Although
the union is confident the test will go well, the project could
attract fewer investors if Louisiana Energy's plant pulls far
ahead, said Philip Potter, a private consultant to the union.
"I think a lot is riding on that test facility and how well it
works," Potter said. "And, frankly, we're optimistic that it will
work."
They may have no need to worry, Combs said. The market for
uranium for power plants is growing modestly and is more
profitable, with uranium fuel for power plants selling at $15.50
a pound, up from $10 a pound last year.
Originally published Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Place an ad Copyright ©2004 Chillicothe Gazette. All rights
*****************************************************************
51 Las Vegas SUN: Nuke security study could affect Yucca fight
Today: February 17, 2004 at 11:34:26 PST
By Suzanne Struglinski
WASHINGTON -- An ongoing study examining the security of nuclear
waste stored at power plants could support Nevada's arguments
against Yucca Mountain or it could give the Energy Department
more reason to move nuclear waste to Nevada faster.
Nevada officials want the nuclear waste kept at nuclear power
plants rather than sent to the proposed federal storage site at
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The Energy
Department has used the possible security risks of on-site
storage at the plants as one of its reasons for pushing to get
the Yucca Mountain repository done by 2010.
At last week's first meeting of a 15-member National Academies
of Sciences panel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said other
analyses on spent nuclear fuel storage pools at power plants are
overly conservative compared with more up-to-date data.
Farouk Eltawila, head of systems analysis and regulatory
effectiveness, told the panel that since the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, more security measures have been put in place. Eltawila
also reminded the panel of the "robust" construction of the pool
holding the used nuclear fuel. NRC is in the midst of its own
study looking at the security of spent fuel pools.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the comment "concurs with what
I've been saying for some time now" that the best place for the
waste is the spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants until an
alternative to Yucca can be found.
"I urge the Department of Energy to take advantage of this safe
and fiscally responsible method rather than rushing to transport
(nuclear waste) across the country to Nevada."
Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said the report
in no way changes the need for Yucca.
"It doesn't change anything from what we've said all along,"
Singer said.
He explained that the industry has always known on-site dry cask
and fuel pool storage systems were safe but that "it was never
meant to be there on a permanent basis."
He said the academy declared that a geologic repository was the
best way to store the waste forever, and the industry still
believes that ultimately burying it underground is the safest
way.
Kevin Crowley, Board on Radioactive Waste Management director,
who is also leading the study, said a classified version of the
report is set to be done in June and the panel hopes to release
an unclassified version within six months.
If the study found that nuclear waste cannot be stored safely
on-site, the department would have another reason to move the
waste to Yucca, but if the study finds the waste is fine where it
is, Nevada's arguments against the site could be stronger.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer for the Union of
Concerned Scientists, said the department's security argument is
a weak one.
"I don't know why DOE tried to make that argument, it never made
any sense," he said.
At operating plants spent fuel cannot be moved out of the pools
for least five years, Lochbaum said.
So even if Yucca does open, there would still continue to be
nuclear waste stored at nuclear power plants around the country.
Opening Yucca would mean there would be "the existing number of
pools plus one," Lochbaum said. "They are not reducing (the
number of storage sites), but increasing it by one."
The Energy Department was supposed to take the waste in 1998 but
failed to complete a repository on time, forcing the nuclear
utilities to continue to pay for the plan to store the waste
while paying for their own temporary storage on site. The nuclear
industry maintains it can safely store the waste but the on-site
options are not designed for permanent disposal.
Craig Nesbitt, spokesman for Exelon, which operates 10 nuclear
power plants in three states, said the logistics and long-term
planning associated with having to build more on-site storage
should not have to be done "when you can safely store it in one
place."
"It doesn't have to be done, but we're saying that it should be
moved," Nesbitt said.
It can cost a nuclear plant up to about $15 million to build a
dry cask facility on site, with each dry cask costing about $1
million, experts have said.
The key question, Nesbitt said, is: "Do you want this material
scattered or in one place?"
*****************************************************************
52 ABQjournal: Domenici Energy Bill Addresses Waste From Uranium Enrichment
abqjournal.com
February 17, 2004
The Associated Press
EUNICE — The latest version of an energy bill by U.S.
Sen. Pete Domenici contains provisions to help Louisiana Energy
Services get rid of radioactive waste that would be generated by
a uranium enrichment factory it wants to build near Eunice.
Uranium processing generates a type of waste that cannot be
dumped legally anywhere in the United States. Such waste
requires processing before it can be shipped to a low-level
nuclear waste dump, but no U.S. facility can do that.
LES has said there's a good chance a private company could
begin the process after the factory is built in southeastern New
Mexico.
"Our preferred strategy continues to be the private
deconversion," said Marshall Cohen, vice president of
communications for LES.
Cohen said a provision inserted by Domenici, R-N.M., would
give LES the option of delivering uranium byproduct — waste
— to the U.S. Department of Energy if plans to contract with
a private company fall through.
In December, the company told Gov. Bill Richardson it would
remove the waste in a "timely manner." LES president Jim Ferland
wrote that there would be no disposal or long-term storage
beyond the life of the factory.
Ferland's letter said a concrete pad for temporary storage
"will only be of a size necessary to hold a few years' worth, no
more." LES's application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
describes a storage pad, to be built in stages.
Last month, state officials sought more information on how
long waste would be kept at the facility and where it eventually
would go.
It's unclear what the government would do with LES waste.
The DOE already has more than 700,000 tons of depleted uranium,
mostly packed in cylinders and stacked in huge piles, at plants
in Ohio and Kentucky.
LES has said its preferred long-term option would be to
dispose of the waste in an old uranium mine in Colorado. The
mine owner said he's not licensed to take such waste and is not
willing to do so.
Domenici's bill also gives the NRC a maximum of two years to
act on LES's application for the enrichment plant, which was
blocked earlier in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Chris Gallegos, an aide to Domenici, has said the senator
plans to introduce legislation this year to ensure New Mexico
doesn't get stuck with the waste indefinitely. Gallego said no
decision has been made about which bill the legislative language
might be attached to.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
53 Carlsbad Current-Argus: High-level waste ban passes Senate
Updated: February 16, 2004 - 09:24:33
By Walter Rubel/Current-Argus Santa Fe Bureau
SANTA FE — The Senate passed a bill on Monday that would prohibit
the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear
fuel at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
The bill — which passed 23-18 — would give the secretary of the
environment the authority to revoke WIPP’s state hazardous waste
permit if the law was violated. Sen. Carroll Leavell, R-Jal,
referred to it as a “feel-good” bill.
“I’m not sure there’s any need for this,” Leavell said. “This is
something that needs to be studied. We’re a long way from having
high-level waste come to this state.” He and Sen. Don Kidd,
R-Carlsbad, both made the point that WIPP has operated safely
ever since its opening.
“Isn’t this bill just strictly drawn to cause conflict between
the Department of Energy and the state?” Kidd asked. “This type
of anti-WIPP bill and anti-DOE bill might make us chest bump and
feel good, but it’s not in the best interest of the state.”
But the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, said it
was necessary to give the state the authority to ensure the
federal government continues with plans to create a storage
facility for high-level waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and
ensure that WIPP retains the function for which it was originally
intended.
“We want to take a pre-emptive step to make sure the Department
of Energy keeps its obligation to Yucca Mountain,” Cisneros said.
“It shouldn’t come to New Mexico. Take it to Nevada.”
The Department of Energy has sought to reclassify sludge produced
in the reprocessing of nuclear fuel at the Hanford site in
Washington state from high-level to a lower level so it would
qualify for storage at WIPP.
Gov. Bill Richardson has denounced the plan and said the state
would take steps to block it.
Sen. Timothy Jennings, D-Roswell, said he attended meetings when
the WIPP site was originally proposed. And, while there was some
discussion of a small pilot test plot for high-level waste, the
stated intent of the plant was to store low-level transuranic
waste, he said.
“What they said is, ‘We’re going to have low-level transuranic
waste.’ That’s what they said. I was there,” Jennings said. “The
agreements made between this state and the federal government
were about low-level waste. We’ve done our part.”
Sen. William Payne, R-Albuquerque, questioned the
constitutionality of a state law that would conflict with federal
law.
“To say that a level of waste that is allowed in the rest of the
country is not allowed in New Mexico does raise some
constitutional issues,” he said.
Sens. Kidd and Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Albuquerque, both suggested
that the bill was sending the wrong message at a time when the
federal government was in the process of closing as many as 25
percent of its military bases.
“I hope that when this goes over to the House, they will see
things a little differently than this body did,” Beffort said.
Copyright © 2004 Carlsbad Current-Argus, a Gannett Co., Inc.
*****************************************************************
54 Waste News: Hazardous waste management firm loses $8.6 million in 2003
Wastenews.com
BOISE, IDAHO (Feb. 17) -- American Ecology Corp. lost $8.6
million, or 52 cents per share, on revenue of $57 million last
year due to a $21 million write-off of assets during the first
quarter. This compares with a profit of $18.8 million, or $1.15
per share, on revenue of $46.8 million for 2002, the company
said.
For the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, the Boise-based hazardous
and radioactive waste services company earned $3.1 million, or 17
cents per share, on revenue of $16.9 million, compared with a
loss of $415,000, or 3 cents per share, on revenue of $11.7
million for the fourth quarter of 2002.
"The continuing, strong performance of our core disposal
business demonstrates the company´s ability to grow operating
profit year to year." Chief Financial Officer Jim Baumgardner
said. "Net earnings for 2003 were adversely affected by a large
one-time write-off in the first quarter, higher legal expenses,
and significant expenditures for discontinued operations that we
do not expect to recur in 2004."
Entire contents copyright 2004 by Crain Communications Inc.
All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
55 Gallup Independent: Convention to mark activist group's impact on Navajo concerns
January 16, 2004
Kathy Helms Diné Bureau
FORT DEFIANCE — After 65 years, the Navajo Nation is still
seeking healing for wounds resulting from uranium mining. Open
sores remain in the form of contaminated soil and groundwater,
abandoned mine sites which have yet to be reclaimed, ailing
workers who have not been compensated for their cancers and
survivors of those workers who still seek recognition of what
they believe are related birth defects and illnesses.
The Third Annual din Bidziil Coalition Convention kicks off at 6
p.m. today in the Farmington Civic Center with its mission:
"Healing the Uranium Legacy" through "One Mind, One Voice, One
Prayer."
A special concert to benefit uranium dependents and anti-mining
efforts will open the convention.
The concert features Ethnic D Generation, Vincent Craig, Keith
Secola, Native Roots, Irene Bedard and Denie, Tasha Terry,
Clearence Clearwater, Gilbert Bedoni, Lil' Dre, and Paintings.
Tickets, which are $15 a person or $25 for two, will be sold at
the door. The concert is from 6 p.m. to midnight.
From 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, various speakers will address a
variety of issues affecting the Navajo community, including
compensation for uranium dependents, a ban on further uranium
mining; the national energy bill which is expected to resurface
during this session of Congress; Navajo government reform; the
San Francisco Peaks and other sacred sites; Navajo water rights;
Black Mesa/Peabody Coal issues, the Bennett Freeze; and grazing
and farming rights.
A Dinner and awards ceremony to honor the warriors and "Defenders
of dinetah" will follow, along with more music, fellowship and
kinship, according to Norman Brown, spokesman for din Bidziil.
Brown was presented a proclamation on Tuesday evening by
Farmington Mayor Bill Stanley, welcoming the convention to his
city.
The proclamation states: "Whereas the city of Farmington
acknowledges the Navajo people's contributions to the Four
Corners area, and whereas this convention will provide a forum
for a dialogue of respect and harmony on healing the uranium
legacy, and whereas, bringing communities together to work toward
common goals results positively for the city of Farmington, the
Navajo Nation, and the entire Four Corners area, now therefore
the mayor of the city of Farmington, N.M., does hereby proclaim a
welcoming of the healing of the uranium legacy benefit concert
and din Bidziil Convention to the Farmington Civic Center Jan. 16
and 17."
Changing times
Brown said the past two conventions have resulted in positive
change in that the Executive and Legislative branches of the
Navajo Nation government are willing to listen to the grassroots.
"It took a couple of years to build to this process now. The very
issues we were talking about two years ago are now evolving. For
example, the Peabody issue. It has always been the stance of din
Bidziil to end the use of the N-aquifer."
The other issue is Navajo water rights.
"For two years, we've never wavered. And now, we believe that
certain delegates are standing on the position of the grassroots
people," Brown said. "We shouldn't be at this place where we have
to oppose another political view from another Navajo, but now we
believe that the thinking of the grassroots is going to prevail,"
he said.
But two of the most critical issues, and the reason for this
weekend's gathering, "is to stop uranium mining on Navajo and to
develop a new set of laws to control that issue," Brown said.
"The second one is developing support for new amendments to RECA
(Radiation Exposure Conservation Act) for spouses, and dependents
and downwinders of uranium workers." Another focus of the group,
also seen as critical, is downsizing the Navajo Nation Council
from its present 88 members.
Brown said din Bidziil has been asked by the grassroots people
and communities to push those issues. "Our role has been to
create awareness of these issues: the Bennett Freeze, the sacred
sites on Joint Use Areas, Save the Peaks in Flagstaff. These are
very important issues that we feel need to be addressed by the
council.
"There's this mechanism within the tribal council which alarms
us. That mechanism is catering to outside corporations, energy
corporations, and we want more input into what is being
negotiated for us.
"If the Navajo Nation government fails to lead our people, then
we'll create our own leaders. We've got three years now (before
the next election), and we're going to build that capacity on
Navajo to develop our own leaders in our own communities and
develop that political power base to step from this old, tired
system of good-ole-boy, old-guard politics."
Council members are removed based on their performance, he said.
"We want to define that performance through our political
participation, through our citizenship, and build that capacity
so they will have to listen to us. The grassroots people have
every right to remove their leaders if they are not following the
wishes of the communities.
"More than anything, the Navajo philosophy of leadership is
totally based on the people's wishes and needs. It didn't focus
around one individual. It focused around the community and the
clanship, the kinship."
On the agenda
Brown said the convention will open with Farmington's Mayor
Stanley doing the welcoming, followed by a prayer and moment of
silence for all of the uranium radiation victims of the 65 year
legacy. Council delegate LoRenzo Bates, Democratic presidential
candidate Dennis Kucinich, and former vice presidential candidate
Wynona LaDuke also will speak at the convention. LaDuke once ran
as a vice presidential candidate for the Green Party with Ralph
Nader.
"She's a dear friend of our people," Brown said.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. and Council Speaker
Lawrence Morgan also have been invited to speak, though their
appearance has not been confirmed. Phil Harrison, a champion of
Navajo uranium workers who has devoted his life to helping
victims, will be keynote speaker at the convention.
Saturday afternoon will be devoted to caucuses on the issues.
"At the end of the day, we're going to have a statement
resolution to the federal government, the Executive and
Legislative branches regarding those concerns, and
recommendations for action," Brown said. din Bidziil also has
been added to the agenda of the Navajo Nation Council for the
winter session, he said.
All chapter presidents and vice presidents have been invited and
are urged to attend as guests of honor. Leaders from the various
agencies also have been invited, though so far, only Western,
Eastern, and Northern Agency representatives have been confirmed.
Brown said it is critical that Western Agency be involved because
it is an area where water and the uranium issues are still a big
problem" and because it is believed that the proposed San Juan
water rights settlement agreement will set a precedent for the
bigger stem of the Colorado River, which entails the entire
Western Agency.
The time is ripe for the grassroots to move forward, Brown
believes. "This Navajo giant this grassroots giant it's on one
knee now and it's going to stand pretty soon. This is the first
step toward Navajo independence. What that means is complete
control over our resources, complete control over our government,
complete control over our destiny. This gathering is that first
step," he said.
The event is sponsored by din Nationalists, ENDAUM-CTT, Navajo
Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, Navajo Dependents of Uranium
Workers Committee, Save the Peaks Committee, and dine Boholnii.
For more information, call (505) 368-5728 or e-mail
navajoworld@excite.com, dinehbidziil@yahoo.com, or
mailto:dinehbidziil@yahoo.com.
Contact the Gallup Independent Please send the Gallup Independent
feedback on this website and the paper in general. E-mail:
gallpind@cia-g.com By mail: The Independent PO Box 1210 Gallup,
NM 87305 500 N. 9th Gallup, NM 87301
All contents property of the Gallup Independent. Any duplication
or republication requires consent of the Gallup Independent. Feel
free to send any questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com
*****************************************************************
56 AU ABC: Report urges waste dump plan be abandoned.
First Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 . 10:20pm -->
The Australian Conservation Foundation says a New South Wales
parliamentary report on the safety of transporting radioactive
waste represents a major blow to the Federal Government's plans
for handling the material.
The report, leaked to the ABC, and which was tabled yesterday
in New South Wales Parliament, says transporting radioactive
waste is too risky.
It says plans for a radioactive waste dump in South Australia
should be abandoned.
ACF campaign officer David Noonan says the report comes at a
time when the nuclear regulatory body ARPANSA, which would
licence such a repository, will take evidence at a public forum
in Adelaide next week.
"The committee has made it clear that they believe that the
repository in South Australia and the associated transport of
reactor waste, that it cannot be justified and it should be
abandoned," he said.
"And that if the Federal Government persists in this proposal,
the New South Wales Parliament and Government should legislate
in the same way as [South Australian] Premier [Mike] Rann has
already done on the South Australian side of the border.
"[New South Wales] Premier [Bob] Carr should legislate to
prohibit that transport of reactor waste across those unwilling
communities right through New South Wales."
The South Australian Government's legal bid to prevent the
construction of a low-level radioactive waste repository in the
far north continues later this year, with an appeal before the
full bench of the Federal Court.
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
57 AU ABC: Democrats say NSW report damages nuclear dump case.
18/02/2004. ABC News Online
The Australian Democrats in South Australia believe the Federal
Government's push for a low-level radioactive waste dump near
Woomera has been seriously dented by a New South Wales
parliamentary report.
With 170 truckloads of waste at Sydney's Lucas Heights reactor
awaiting removal, the report says transporting radioactive waste
by road is too risky, and calls for plans for waste dumps in
Australia to be abandoned.
The Democrats' South Australian leader, Sandra Kanck, says it
is potent ammunition for opponents of the dump.
"The results of this New South Wales inquiry add strength to
the position of the South Australian people in relation to
fighting against this dump," Ms Kanck said.
Ms Kanck will be among those making a submission to a forum in
Adelaide next week, conducted by the federal nuclear regulatory
body, ARPANSA.
ARPANSA will decide if a licence should be issued for the dump,
for which the Federal Government has forcibly acquired land near
Woomera.
Meanwhile, the operator of the Lucas Heights reactor has moved
to dispel concerns about the road transport of radioactive waste.
Ron Cameron, the acting executive director of the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which
operates Lucas Heights, says the transport safety issue is
exaggerated.
"Every technical assessment that has ever been done ... shows
that this has an excellent safety record," he said.
"For example, round the world, many tens of thousands of such
transports occur every year and there has never been an incident
which has affected the health of people."
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
58 Paducah Sun: "Vision" sought on future for Paducah plant
- Paducah, Kentucky
Monday, February 16, 2004;Paducah, Kentucky
Public support is asked by a citizens' group for complete
cleanup that will allow use of the factory for other purposes.
By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
A citizens' group wants the Department of Energy to clean up the
Paducah uranium enrichment plant to be fit for other use after it
closes early next decade.
But a draft "vision" falls short of that goal and public support
is needed to persuade federal bureaucrats not to leave the
factory uninhabitable once most of its 1,300 workers are gone,
the group says.
Among other things, the DOE plan assumes that massive
groundwater contamination beneath the plant would be left for
nature to clean up, rather than spend as much as $140 million
trying to eliminate sources of the pollution.
"We don't believe that will get us to the point that the plant is
safe for humans and the environment," said Bill Tanner, chairman
of the plant citizens' advisory board. "We're also concerned that
it wouldn't permit reindustrialization, so it would have a severe
economic impact."
The issue gained greater significance last month when USEC Inc.
announced that starting in 2010, it will replace the outdated
plant with gas centrifuge technology in Piketon, Ohio. Closing
the Paducah plant is expected to take several years after USEC
gradually switches from one technology to the other.
DOE officials say the vision document is merely a tool that
looks at hazards and health risks. They say it isn't binding and
doesn't affect agreements such as one signed last fall with the
state of Kentucky to accelerate cleanup. Mark York, spokesman for
the Kentucky Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet, said
the state will respond to the plan by Friday's deadline.
Comments received by Friday will be addressed at a 7 p.m.
workshop on Feb. 26 at the DOE Information Center, 115 Memorial
Drive. The department will take comments after that, but plans to
submit a final document to Washington headquarters by March 30.
Seeking consensus, Tanner is talking with community leaders,
plant neighbors, environmental groups and others. He will meet
Wednesday with the executive committee of the Paducah Area
Community Reuse Organization, which is promoting other industrial
uses for the plant. The citizens' board will discuss the plan
again Thursday at its monthly meeting in the same building as the
information center.
"We're trying to get their input, but more importantly we're
asking these groups to provide a letter of endorsement," Tanner
said. "We have to start somewhere, and if we're able to provide
headquarters with more unified voice, we'll get more attention."
Tanner said the board recommends that:
Work start immediately with DOE, PACRO and the Greater Paducah
Economic Development Council to determine which plant buildings
have potential for other industrial use. They should not be torn
down but cleaned up enough to be safe for new occupants.
Governmental laws be checked so that new tenants aren't liable
for past contamination. Brownfield regulations exclude superfund
sites such as the Paducah plant, but DOE regulations do indemnify
certain companies that use government property.
DOE establish long-term agreements to provide free municipal
water to 121 customers — mostly homes and some businesses — in
return for not using wells that are or could become contaminated.
Agreements are now for five years, said Tanner, superintendent of
West McCracken Water District. "They need to remove that doubt
and make it permanent,"
Currently, DOE spends $70,000 to $100,000 a year providing city
water. The plan calls for continuing that practice, but also
taking other measures ranging from putting enforceable
restrictions on groundwater use to acquiring property rights.
Tanner said there is no technology to clean up the groundwater,
but the board wants to be sure that "we've done all we can do"
scientifically before the water is left to nature. Regulators
insist on source cleanup, but even so, it will take hundreds of
years to make the aquifer reach drinking water standards, DOE
says. Without cleanup, it could take thousands of years.
Director John Anderson said a chief PACRO concern is the
condition of buildings and other resources that make the plant
marketable. Among other things, the group wants to clean and
recycle contaminated nickel, but there is a national safety ban
by DOE on putting scrap metal at its plants into commercial use.
"The concern we have is that we work through this as a
community," Anderson said. "I don't think it needs to be just the
advisory board and PACRO. The whole community and DOE have roles
to play."
PACRO faces extinction because of Energy Department cutbacks.
Tanner said his board is concerned and may recommend other means
to keep PACRO alive to help market the plant.
Last August, seven of the board's 18 members quit, claiming DOE
was hiding information about conditions at the plant and
rejecting board recommendations. One was former chairman Mark
Donham, who continues to attend meetings.
Donham said he is worried about many "variances" in the new
end-use plan compared with an older one, such as not cleaning up
sources of groundwater pollution and not digging up uranium
burial grounds. He said $1 billion has been spent so far with
little to show for cleanup.
"This should be of great concern to Paducah," he said, "because
there is going to be no reindustrialization of that site with a
contaminated groundwater plume under it and uranium still buried
there."
The draft is available on the Web at
www.bechteljacobs.com/pad_reports.shtml or at the DOE
Environmental Information Center, 115 Memorial Drive, 554-3004.
Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.
*****************************************************************
59 Rocky Mountain News: Nuclear workers 'refocus'
Safety mishap spurs Rocky Flats briefings
By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News
February 17, 2004
Rocky Flats managers and 3,200 workers met Monday to "refocus" on
safety after a series of mishaps at the former nuclear weapons
factory.
Last Thursday, black smoke billowed from a tunnel as workers were
preparing it for demolition. The mishap occurred barely a week
after Rocky Flats contractor Kaiser-Hill was fined $500,000 by
the Department of Energy for safety violations in 2002 and 2003
that involved "significant lack of attention or carelessness."
"We want to get people to refocus, and have a frank discussion
with management about some of the deficiencies" cited by the
Energy Department, said Kaiser-Hill spokesman John Corsi.
Safety discussions and briefings will wrap up todayand workers
will fully resume demolition and cleanup by Wednesday, Corsi
said.
The latest accident occurred when workers were filling an
uncontaminated tunnel under Building 991 with foam.
The material becomes heated as it solidifies, Corsi said. But it
is unclear why it produced black smoke that had to be doused by
firefighters.
Firefighters were still on the scene Monday, monitoring hot
spots, Energy Department spokeswoman Karen Lutz said. No one was
hurt.
Building 991 was used for final assembly of nuclear bomb cores in
the 1950s and then for storage and shipping of finished bomb
cores and other nuclear weapons parts. In recent years, nuclear
waste was stored there before being packaged and shipped to a
storage site in New Mexico.
Cleanup of 991 was finished, and the building had been certified
as contamination-free and ready for demolition, Corsi said.
imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5438
*****************************************************************
60 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers seek compensation answers
This story was published Tuesday, February 17th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
Senators and scientists are asking why certain rules have yet to
be adopted in a program announced 3 1/2 years ago to compensate
Hanford and other nuclear workers for certain illnesses.
In 2001 the federal government started accepting claims from
workers or former workers for $150,000 in compensation if they
developed cancer because of radiation exposure on the job.
For workers at Hanford and many other sites, the payment is based
on whether there is at least a 50 percent likelihood that cancer
of any type was caused by radiation. The decision is based on an
evaluation of their medical records, work history and radiation
exposure.
But workers at some sites, such as the gaseous diffusion plant in
Paducah, Ky., the requirements are more lenient. By order of
Congress, any workers there may be automatically compensated if
they have one of 22 cancers and worked in jobs where they should
have had their radiation exposure monitored.
For workers at Hanford to be automatically compensated like
workers in Kentucky, they must petition to be part of a group
designated a "special exposure cohort." The designation would
cover groups of workers whose radiation doses could not be
accurately estimated.
But the U.S. Health and Human Services Department has yet to
issue regulations for the designation.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., headed a bipartisan effort
last week to urge HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to take action.
Among the 18 senators signing a letter sent to Thompson were
Washington's Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria
Cantwell.
"Our atomic weapons program workers, who are true Cold War
heroes, helped protect our nation and deserve nothing less," the
letter said.
Procedures for designating special exposure cohorts were proposed
and then withdrawn under heavy criticism in 2002. HHS tried again
in 2003 and a comment period on the new rules ended in May.
However, those rules have not been adopted.
"No one will give us a straight answer" about the delay, said
Richard Miller, a policy analyst with the nonprofit Government
Accountability Project. But the delay appears to be taking place
at the political, rather than the bureaucratic, level, he said.
A scientific board, which includes Wanda Munn of Richland, also
sent a letter to Thompson last week about the delay. It is
charged with issuing advice on whether worker groups meet
eligibility requirements for a special exposure cohort.
"Potentially eligible classes of workers have been and continue
to be blocked from filing petitions to become members of the
Special Exposure Cohort because these regulations have not been
issued," said the letter from the Advisory Board on Radiation and
Worker Health.
Despite the delay in issuing rules for the special cohort
exposure group, Hanford workers still may apply for individual
determinations in the nuclear worker compensation program. They
are eligible for not only the $150,000 payment, but also coverage
of medical expenses related to their condition retroactive to the
date they apply.
All cancers are considered, in addition to lung disease caused by
beryllium at Hanford or silicosis because of exposure at other
sites.
Many applicants to that program also have been frustrated by its
slow progress. Just 22 cancer claims have been paid at Hanford,
although federal officials are promising the pace will pick up
now that research has been completed to estimate radiation
exposure to different types of workers at different places at
Hanford since the '40s.
To apply for the program, call 783-1500 or 1-888-654-0014.
Workers, former workers or surviving family members may apply.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
61 Oak Ridger: State gives OK to AC plan for old landfill
Story last updated at 1:32 p.m. on February 17, 2004
LANDFILL: State finally gives its OK to a $1.35 million
remediation plan for the old Blockhouse Valley landfill in South
Clinton.
By: Donna Smith | Oak Ridger Staff
donna.smith@oakridger.com
CLINTON - The state has finally agreed with Anderson County on
how to remediate a landfill that closed in 1985, a decision that
County Attorney David Clark said will cost the county at least
$4.5 million less than previously estimated.
The Record of Decision sent to the county by the Tennessee
Department of Environment and Conservation Division of Superfund
doesn't mean the county is finished with the landfill, Clark
said, but instead that the state agrees with the county on the
landfill not being as dangerous as once thought and upon the
county's less-expensive means of mediation.
"What we're through with is the mystery of what will happen,"
Clark said, alluding to speculations during the past five years
that the state's order to clean up the site would end up costing
the county millions of dollars, in addition to state fines.
Cost of the plan is $1.35 million and the county will have to
monitor the site for 10 years, as opposed to other proposed
plans for 20- and 30-year monitoring.
ARCADIS Geraghty &Miller, an Oak Ridge environmental consulting
firm hired to work on a remediation plan for the old Blockhouse
Valley landfill site, formed a plan that includes thickening and
replacing parts of a clay cap that was placed over the materials
at the landfill in the 1980s. The company has planted hybrid
poplar trees on the cap, which will work to reduce water going
into the waste buried below and help the waste to decompose
faster. Also, under the plan, water runoff from the site is now
going into a dammed storm water pond via storm water ditches and
culverts. Groundwater is going into a manmade wetland spring.
Clark said this is only the second time that such a remediation
plan has been used in the state.
The landfill operated between 1973 and 1985 and the state
Division of Solid Waste Management cited the landfill for
numerous violations during that time.
The state Superfund Division began investigating the landfill
in 1989, reportedly in connection with the American Nuclear
Corp. site contamination. The state conducted a site
investigation under contract with the Environmental Protection
Agency. Groundwater from nearby residents' wells was tested, as
well as leachate, and the samples detected heavy metals and
organic compounds at elevated concentrations. The landfill was
added to the Superfund site list and the state ordered the
county to conduct a remedial investigation/feasibility study, to
post warning signs and to restrict access to the site.
Another company, Black &Veatch, conducted an investigation for
EPA in 1996 as a follow-up and that company recommended no
further remedial action planned and it was dropped from the
Superfund national priority list. The landfill site was deferred
to the state Superfund division for final disposition.
A company called PRC investigated the site later in 1996.
Anomalous radioactivity was detected in groundwater and leachate
samples, indicating the possibility that contaminated material
was deposited in the landfill.
However, the county contracted with ARCADIS, which determined
that anomalous activity detected were "false positives" and that
there were no potential health risks for nearby residents.
Radionuclide concentrations were within natural background
levels.
The old landfill occupies approximately 30 acres of a 290-acre
tract of undeveloped land owned by the county and located
northeast of Oak Ridge, across Melton Lake, in South Clinton.
*****************************************************************
62 Oak Ridger: K-25 alarm investigation continues
Story last updated at 1:32 p.m. on February 17, 2004
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
paul.parson@oakridger.com
Between 40 to 50 people have been interviewed so far in
connection with a nuclear criticality alarm that could've been
tampered with in a building at the Oak Ridge K-25 site.
Bechtel Jacobs Co. is conducting an investigation into the Feb.
4 incident as is Duratek Federal Services, which has a contract
with Bechtel Jacobs to remove asbestos from the K-25 building.
Some of the people were probably interviewed by both companies,
according to Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs.
Hill said the two companies will probably "compare notes" on
the investigation this week, with a report to the Department of
Energy to likely follow. Bechtel Jacobs is under contract with
DOE to oversee cleanup work at the K-25 site.
Based on the investigation, Hill said it now appears that six
fuses were removed from the alarm in question, with one of those
being partially reinserted. Earlier, Bechtel Jacobs reported
that three fuses for the alarm system in question were removed
and partially reinserted.
Hill would not speculate if the partially inserted fuse caused
the alarm to sound in the K-25 building.
There are around 15 criticality alarms systems throughout the
K-25 building. The alarm systems are designed to alert personnel
in the event of a nuclear criticality - an uncontrolled nuclear
chain reaction.
Since the K-25 building was used to enrich uranium initially
for nuclear weapons and later for nuclear fuel, the building
contains residual uranium and some other nuclear materials. In
addition, the building, which is scheduled for demolition, still
contains uranium processing equipment and hazardous materials
such as asbestos.
When the alarm went off earlier this month, it resulted in the
evacuation of around 250 people. No personnel injuries or
contamination were reported due to the incident.
*****************************************************************
63 [du-list] DU in the news - 17th Feb. 04
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:59:15 -0800
BLAIR FACES 'PEACE' CHALLENGE ON VISIT TO PARTY CONFERENCE
North Scotland Press and Journal - Aberdeen,Scotland,UK
... Mr Flint said his precarious state of health was due to the effects
of depleted uranium and the "cocktail" of vaccines and tablets he had
to take before going ...
<http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=84092&command=displayContent&sourceNode=83929&contentPK=8862047>
SOLDIERS DON'T USE URANIUM PROTECTION MASKS - ASSOC PRESIDENT
Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - Italy
16 - Italian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq do not wear protective
masks that impede inhalation of depleted uranium dust, wrote Falco Accame
...
<http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200402161848-1185-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia>
SCOTLAND: Gulf veteran wins DU claim
Green Left - Australia
... appeal by 1991 Gulf War veteran Kenny Duncan. Duncan is the first British
soldier to win recognition for depleted uranium poisoning. ...
<http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/571/571p15b.htm>
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64 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:05:18 -0800 (PST)
WOLF Creek nuclear plant going again
Kansas City Star (subscription) - Kansas City,MO,USA
... Friday morning. The nuclear plant, which at full power produces 1,235
megawatts of electricity, can power 800,000 homes. The southeast ...
See all stories on this topic:
EDITORIAL: Nuclear nonproliferation
Asahi Shimbun - Tokyo,Japan
These countries embarked on nuclear weapons development programs under
the cover of peaceful uses of atomic energy by evading inspections by
the International ...
See all stories on this topic:
IRAN Denies Acquiring New Nuclear Device
Kansas City Star (subscription) - Kansas City,MO,USA
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday said Tehran had not acquired
any nuclear equipment that had not been declared to international inspectors
...
See all stories on this topic:
US, China Share Same Desire on N. Korea Nuclear Issue, say ...
Voice of America - USA
... That could indicate the two nations are at odds over how to persuade
North Korea to abandon its efforts to build nuclear weapons. ...
See all stories on this topic:
PAKISTANI legislators debate nuclear case
International Herald Tribune - Paris,France
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan More than a week after President Pervez Musharraf pardoned
Pakistan's top nuclear scientist for sharing nuclear technology with Iran,
North ...
See all stories on this topic:
PUTIN conducts grand nuclear war games
The Hindu - Chennai,India
17 (PTI): Ahead of next month's presidential polls, Russian President Vladimir
Putin today went out to the Barents Sea on board a nuclear submarine of
the ...
See all stories on this topic:
SEOUL offers aid to North for nuclear freeze
Joongang Ilbo - Seoul,South Korea
In exchange for a verifiable freeze of North Korea's nuclear program, the
South Korean government is prepared to provide energy aid and, gradually,
security ...
See all stories on this topic:
WE will not first use nuclear weapons: Kalam
Deepika - India
New Delhi, Feb 17 (UNI) President APJ Abdul Kalam today said India would
not use nuclear weapons first, and asserted that if all the countries
decided to ...
See all stories on this topic:
CHINA silent on nuclear transfers to Libya
Al-Jazeera - Qatar
China has refused to confirm or deny reports that US officials have discovered
nuclear weapons designs in Libya believed to have come from China via
a Pakistani ...
See all stories on this topic:
PUTIN watches Russia's nuclear shield falling apart
Bellona - UK
The Northern Fleet's nuclear war exercises that are currently underway
in the Barents Sea almost ended in great embarrassment for the Russian
Navy when a ...
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65 USATODAY: First large-scale industrial atom smasher may meet wrecking ball
Posted 2/17/2004 12:12 AM Updated 2/17/2004 11:48 AM
FOREST HILLS, Pa.
(AP) — The grand scope of the nation's first
large-scale industrial atom smasher may also lead to its demise.
The 5-million volt van de Graff generator, completed in 1937,
rises several stories and is about 30 feet in diameter.
The 5-million-volt van de Graff generator, the
nation's first large-scale industrial atom smasher, was
completed in 1937.
By John Heller, AP
With the former Westinghouse research facility in Forest Hills
possibly being put up for sale, new owner Viacom can't find any
takers for inverted steel pear-shaped structure.
The Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., the Senator John
Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center and the Carnegie
Science Center have declined to accept the atom smasher as is,
said Dean Reed, a senior engineer with Viacom.
"It's a size thing," he said.
The atom smasher was so far ahead of its time that when
Westinghouse decided to build it in 1936, it would be another
three years before the discovery of nuclear fission revealed the
possibilities of nuclear power.
The van de Graff generator quickly became the centerpiece of one
of the world's first private nuclear physics program.
Westinghouse physicists created nuclear reactions by bombarding
target atoms with high-energy particles. They accelerated those
particles down a vacuum tube from the top of the structure to a
pressure vessel 47 feet below.
The size of the generator allowed scientists to make very
precise measurements. In 1940 research done at the Forest Hills
site led to the discovery of the photo-fission of uranium, part
of the process involved in the generation of nuclear power,
according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers.
The work that followed at the site, built solely on faith that
nuclear reactions would eventually have practical applications,
led to more major technological advances.
One of the original research fellows at the Westinghouse site,
William E. Shoupp, helped the company become a leader in nuclear
research ranging from reactors in submarine propulsion (the
Nautilus) to the development of the country's first commercial
nuclear plant.
The Shippingport reactor, about 35 miles west of the research
complex, became the first commercial nuclear generator in the
United States to go online in 1957.
The Smithsonian is interested in displaying the inner workings
of the atom smasher, Reed said.
"It would be too bad to see it go," Reed said.
The Forest Hills atom smasher is one of 50 historical
"milestones" listed by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers.
In 2000, the atom smasher was designated historically
significant by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation,
but that does not provide any legal protection.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© Copyright 2004 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
*****************************************************************
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