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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Straits Times: Will Japan build nukes?
2 Deutsche Welle: Blix Re-opens Old Wounds on Iraq | Europe |
3 TheStar.com: `Heads should roll' over Iraq
4 War Wire: SKorea FM hopes for "visible" progress at new nuclear talk
5 War Wire: NKorea's stubbornness could "subvert" nuclear talks: US en
6 War Wire: NKorea says "ready for both dialogue and confrontation" wi
7 BBC: US envoy slams North Korea denial
8 Hi Pakistan: FO rejects reports on Pak-China cooperation exporting n
9 US: [shundahaialerts] MIDWEST NUCLEAR REALITY CONFERENCE
10 US: Washington Times: Wanted: an energy bill
11 US: KR Washington Bureau: Bush administration accused of suppressing
12 US: TomDispatch: Justice à l'orange
13 US: baltimore sun: U.S. has nuclear double standard
14 US: Heritage Foundation: Chasing the Nuclear Genie
15 US: Salon.com: Old McCheney had a judge
16 Baltimore Sun OpEd on IAEA AdditionalProtocol
17 War Wire: Nuclear black market focus on 'middleman' as Malaysia clea
18 War Wire: Israeli minister says "nuclear spy", set to be freed, coul
19 HIndustan Times: Nuclear proliferation not a bilateral issue, says S
20 NYT: Pakistani Store Blushes Over Nuclear Scandal
21 BBC: Analysis: Pakistan-India talks
22 Haaretz: Israel News - Shots across the bow
23 Haaretz: Eitam worried over Dimona facility's ability to withstand q
24 Straits Times: Khan's apology not the end of story
25 TheStar.com: China to probe claim of Libya-nuclear link
26 Hi Pakistan: IAEA informed of Tehran’s centrifuge research - Kharazi
27 Expressindia: Pakistan's nuclear bazar
28 Expressindia: This tailor isn't happy that Khan cat got out of his b
29 Indian Express: Bush avoided war with Pak due to nukes - Expert
30 Japan Times: Japan, U.S. to get tough on WMD
31 Scotsman.com: Putin's Nuclear Armada Lets Him Down Again
32 Las Vegas SUN: AP: Nuclear Financier Has Ties to Malaysia
NUCLEAR REACTORS
33 US: [NukeNet] NRC presentation/webcast on Three Mile Island -
34 US: NRC: NRC Sends Special Inspection Team to Calvert Cliffs Unit 2
35 War Wire: Russia agrees to help Vietnam build its first nuclear powe
36 US: NRC: NRC Schedules Public Presentation and Webcast on March 3 on
37 US: NRC: Notice of Clarification to Steam Generator Tube Integrity E
38 US: NRC: Revision of the NRC Enforcement Policy: Correction
39 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Subcommittee Meet
40 US: NRC: Sunshine Act; Meetings
41 BDFM: Paris talks to salvage nuclear project
42 US: Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Championing nuclear power
43 US: Ocean County News: Group wants end to N-plant water releases, fi
44 US: Pahrump Valley Times: Bush picks Jaczko
45 REUTERS: China to boost nuclear power as demand soars
NUCLEAR SAFETY
46 [du-list] Fwd: Isotope analysis shows exposure to depleted
47 [du-list] MOD accepts DU has the potential to cause ill health
48 [du-list] MoD DU Information Card as a pdf-file
49 First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
50 US: DenverPost.com: City to remove radium from two more streets
51 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes: Meeting
52 US: Modesto Bee: Uranium, water and you
53 Xinhuanet: Lost radioactive material found in Shaanxi
54 english.eastday.com: Cesium found, steel plant closed
55 US: Las Vegas SUN: Leukemia panel to convene once more in northern N
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
56 Las Vegas SUN: Reid calls for Labor Department investigation
57 US: Buffalo News - Agency may leave West Valley by 2008
58 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes eyemore waste -- everyday trash
59 US: News Journal: EPA changes rules to reduce fish kills
60 US: Las Vegas RJ: Study downplays dangerof storing radioactive fuel
61 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Falsified dust data alleged
62 Chilicothe Gazette: Competitor not being seen as threat to USEC -
63 US: WOWT: Dump Woes Continue
64 US: TheOmahaChannel: Nebraska Must Pay $151 M Nuke Award
65 Japan Times: Tepco chief seeks OK to store nuke waste in Mutsu
66 Pahrump Valley Times: Reality repository
67 Nevada Appeal: A canticle for Yucca Mountain
68 AU ABC: Inquiry rejects nuclear waste transport plan.
69 KLAS: Ex-Nuke Panel Expert Warns of Yucca Mt.
70 Yucca Mountain Update: Volume 2 Issue 2 ~ February 17, 2004
71 Las Vegas SUN: AP Exclusive: Ex-nuke panel expert criticizes Yucca M
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
72 Knox News: Cooling pump problem shuts down ORNL's High Flux Isotope
73 DOE: Notice of Reestablishment of the Electricity Advisory Board
74 Tri-City Herald: Plutonium work finished
75 ABQjournal: DOE Announces Local Management Changes
76 WNXT: DOE is looking for workers impacted by weapons construction
77 WBIR-TV: COOLING PUMP PROBLEM SHUTS DOWN ORNL REACTOR
OTHER NUCLEAR
78 Google News Alert - nuclear
79 Las Vegas SUN: Military closure panel to look at Nevada facilities
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Straits Times: Will Japan build nukes?
- FEB 19, 2004
asia1.com.sg
AHEAD IN ASIA By ANTHONY PAUL
IN AUGUST 1945, Professor Yoshitaka Mimura of Hiroshima's Bunri
University lectured to some Japanese army officers on nuclear
fission. 'A nuclear bomb could be even smaller than a piece of
candy,' he told them, 'but if exploded above a city, it could
destroy 200,000 lives'.
A colonel had a question: 'When can we have that bomb?'
The professor's response: 'I can tell you this much: not before
the end of this war.'
Some 20 hours later, Prof Mimura was standing on a Hiroshima
neighbour's porch when a shock wave hurled him inside the house.
It was 8.15am, Aug 6. The enemy had beaten Japan's scientists to
nuclear fission's awesome goal.
More than 58 years later, the question of whether Japan might
build a nuclear weapon is once again attracting attention. In
Beijing next Wednesday, China, the United States, Japan, Russia
and the two Koreas meet to discuss how to end North Korea's
nuclear- weapons programme. If the talks were to fail, we can
expect renewed calls for revision of Japan's 1971 parliamentary
vote - never to own, produce or allow nuclear weapons on Japanese
territory.
Discussion of the topic has surfaced repeatedly, especially since
Pyongyang fired a missile through Japanese airspace in 1998. The
nuke question has become a regular diversion for Japan's
chattering classes: Mr Nisohachi Hyodo, an author who has
proposed a four-year plan for making Japan a nuclear power, now
has his own programme on a Tokyo radio station.
The most recent major brouhaha over a nuclear-armed Japan came in
2002. In rapid succession, three prominent Japanese speculated
aloud about the possibility of home-grown nukes.
One of the three, Mr Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the then opposition
Liberal Party, caused an uproar by warning China against
excessive militarisation.
'It would be so easy for us to produce nuclear warheads,' Mr
Ozawa said during a lecture. 'We have enough plutonium at our
power plants to make 3,000 or 4,000 such warheads.'
But just how likely is such a development?
There are two sharply differing views - that a nuclear Japan is
inevitable, and that such an idea does not survive scrutiny. A
summary of the two positions:
+
The nuclearists: The Japanese are no strangers to nuclear
physics, the nuclearists point out. In 1943, for example, Japan
completed construction of several cyclotrons (circular particle
accelerators used in the study of nuclear transformations).
The US army dumped these into Tokyo Bay in the Occupation's early
months. But, subsequently, Japan developed a substantial
nuclear-power programme.
Plutonium, one of the two basic materials needed for an atomic
bomb, is a by-product of nuclear power plants. By about 2010,
Japan's three plutonium-producing breeder reactors, plus imports
of the metal from Britain and France, are expected to create a
massive 100-tonne stockpile.
Plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel is usually
weapons-grade Pu-239 mixed with Pu-240 and other elements.
However, isolating the pure Pu-239 needed for a bomb is a
relatively easy step.
Warheads are best developed in laboratories equipped with very
large glass lasers that simulate nuclear explosions by training
energy on pellets of fissionable material. Osaka University's
Institute of Laser Engineering has at least one such machine -
the Gekko XII laser, built for civilian laser fusion power
applications, and said to lead the world in pellet compression.
Japanese manufacturers also appear to be already involved in a
weapons black market uncovered in the wake of the scandal
involving Pakistan scientists' sales of weapons technology. An
International Atomic Energy Agency source revealed on Feb 6 that
an unnamed Japanese company has been exporting parts for a
centrifuge used for uranium enrichment.
So, given all these capabilities, how far from nuclear weapons is
Japan? I put the question to an authority who asked not to be
named.
'A crash programme would give them a warhead probably in less
than a year,' the source told me. 'If Japan wanted to build
nukes, it would need only to add the political will to her
current capability.'
+ The sceptics: For more than 20 years, an old acquaintance of
mine, Mr Makoto Momoi, formerly a Japan Self-Defence College
professor and now a Tokyo-based defence analyst, has disputed the
value of nuclear weapons to Japan.
'Because Japan's population is so densely concentrated,' he
reasons, 'only a submarine-based nuclear force somewhere in the
Pacific would have any second-strike credibility. But who would
be Japan's plausible nuclear target?
'Countries of the former Soviet Union? Unlikely. They have 15 per
cent of population and industry concentrated in 100 cities and
the most important concentrations are west of the Urals, a long
way for a Japanese submarine in the Pacific. China is closer, but
in China's 1,000 biggest cities, there is only 1.4 per cent of
the population.
'There is, though, one nation with 25 per cent of its population
in its 10 biggest cities and they're all reachable from the
Pacific. That nation is the United States.
'So, Russia too far; China too big; only America is plausible -
and, of course, unthinkable. Therefore, to those who talk about a
Japanese nuclear weapon, I say, 'The notion is ridiculous!'
'The five major nuclear powers (US, Britain, France, Russia and
China) can test with relative ease: they have either access to
deserts or the arrogance to test in the Pacific. Japan has
neither deserts nor such arrogance.
'Most importantly, nukes in general have gradually become a less
effective weapon. The reason - development of highly precise
guidance mechanisms for warheads that give us the advantage of
hitting a minute target. Hence there is no need for nukes that
devastate a large area in order to destroy a small target.'
The delay might well have surprised the late Prof Mimura. But
perhaps, like Mr Ozawa, he would also be reassured by the
knowledge that if the Japanese should ever feel the need strongly
enough, they could have nuclear weapons within months.
The writer is a member of London's International Institute for
Strategic Studies and formerly editor-at-large/Asia-Pacific for
Fortune magazine.
Feb 18
*****************************************************************
2 Deutsche Welle: Blix Re-opens Old Wounds on Iraq | Europe |
18.02.2004
Blix Speaks of Personal Anger over Iraq
[The normally mild-mannered Hans Blix revealed an underlying
bitterness left over from the Iraq war.]
Former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix again criticized the
way U.S. and U.K leaders handled information in the run-up to the
Iraq war. He also warned leaders to remain wary of North Korea
during his lecture tour.
Hans Blix is not considered someone who likes to rekindle old
flames. But speaking to journalists in Berlin on Tuesday, the
former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix stressed
that he was still angry about the way U.S. and British government
leaders treated the information obtained by his team in the
lead-up to the Iraq war.
Blix recalled that the inspectors visited nearly 70 sites in Iraq
and never found anything substantial that might have justified
the war. He admitted that many things had remained unaccounted
for, but said more inspections on the ground could have helped
answer important questions.
"We said that you cannot put an equation mark between
'unaccounted for' and 'existing.' And I said that in a statement
to the Security Council quite squarely," Blix explained. "The
U.S. side did not really register this; they didn't care. They
believed more in the defectors in their own intelligence than
they believed in us."
Before the war, Blix presented to the UN Security Council a
173-page report on Iraq's weapons, in which he said that the
country had failed to show it had destroyed all of its anthrax
supplies and Scud missile warheads filled with biological and
chemical agents.
Cooperation between intelligence and inspectors
[A North Korean Scud-B missile, (right) and South Korean missiles
are displayed at the War Memorial Museum in Seoul.] Despite his
experience with Iraq, Blix reiterated his call to use
international inspectors to contain the threat of weapons of mass
destruction elsewhere in the world. He specifically mentioned
North Korea and Libya, where the UN monitoring, verification and
inspection commission could be of vital importance. Blix said he
hoped cooperation between such inspection teams and intelligence
networks would become much closer in the years ahead.
"The satellites see the roofs, but they don't see what's going on
under the roofs and that speaks in favor of cooperation between
intelligence and inspectors," he said. "(Intelligence services)
also have all the electronic eavesdropping that is going on in
the ether... They have spies on the ground. They are spending
billions. The Americans haven't found anything. We also didn't
find anything but at less cost."
Keep North Korea under control
Blix noted, that much more needed to be done to keep North Korea
under control -- despite recent efforts to at least keep the
dialogue going. He commented that in addition to verifying the
extent of a North Korean nuclear program, the country should also
be put under to pressure to reveal whether it has biological and
chemical weapons.
Meanwhile, Blix praised the recent British-Franco-German
initiative to make Iran give up its nuclear program. He said
European foreign ministers Straw, Villepin and Fischer "did the
right thing."
The 73-year old Swede also called on the United States and Russia
to further reduce their nuclear arms capabilities. He said it was
gratifying to see their nuclear arms depots decrease after the
end of the cold war. And yet, they still possessed enough weapons
of mass destruction to blow up the whole planet many times over.
It isn't conducive to making others, who don't have any nuclear
weapons at all, feel safer, he said.
Blix retired as chief UN inspector last summer. He now heads a
Stockholm-based commission on preventing the spread and build-up
of weapons of mass destruction. He is among the 173 nominees for
the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. But observers say it is unlikely he
will be chosen, partly because it was so long ago that he was
head of the UN weapons inspection team.Hardy Graupner (ncy)
*****************************************************************
3 TheStar.com: `Heads should roll' over Iraq
Wed. Feb. 18, 2004. | Updated at 08:54 PM
DANNY JOHNSTON/AP
U.S. President George W. Bush is applauded by the army and
National Guard troops during a speech at Fort Polk, La.,
yesterday in which he defended the U.S. war in Iraq. Fort Polk is
home to more than 6,300 troops who are in Iraq.
`Heads should roll' over Iraq
Adviser wants U.S. intelligence chiefs to quit Cites faulty
conclusions on Saddam's weapons
ERIC ROSENBERG SPECIAL TO THE STAR
WASHINGTON—Richard Perle, a chief proponent of last year's U.S.
invasion of Iraq, yesterday called for the chiefs of the Central
Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency to
step down because of their faulty conclusions that Saddam Hussein
possessed mass-killing weapons.
Perle, a close adviser to U.S. Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, said top officials made no attempt to skew the
intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass
destruction. Instead, he implied, top policymakers relied in good
faith on the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.
"George Tenet has been at the CIA long enough to assume
responsibility for its performance," Perle told reporters,
referring to the director of the agency. "There's a record of
failure and it should be addressed in some serious way."
"The CIA has an almost perfect record of getting it wrong in
relation to the (Persian) Gulf going back to the Shah of Iran,"
Perle said. He called for "a shakeup" in the U.S. intelligence
establishment.
"I think, of course, heads should roll," he said. "When you
discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right
time after time, you change the organization, including the
people.
"I'd start with the head head," Perle said when asked which
heads should roll at the CIA. Perle said the DIA " is in at least
as bad shape as CIA (and) needs new management."
Navy Vice-Adm. Lowell Jacoby has headed the agency since July,
2002.
U.S. President George W. Bush, Rumsfeld and Secretary of State
Colin Powell have said they relied on intelligence from the CIA
and DIA in their assertions that Saddam had stockpiles of
mass-casualty weapons. The claim was the main rationale for the
U.S-led invasion.
David Kay, former head of the U.S. weapons-hunting team in Iraq,
has concluded it was highly unlikely that Saddam possessed
stockpiles of such weapons.
"It turns out we were all wrong, probably, in my judgment, and
that is most disturbing," Kay said last month.
While Kay dismissed the prospect that stockpiles of weapons of
mass destruction would ever be found in Iraq, Perle disputed him
on two relatively minor claims: that Iraq wasn't seeking to
enrich uranium or develop mobile weapons laboratories to
manufacture chemical or biological weapons.
"The jury is still out" on those points, Perle said.
Perle, the former chairman of and current member of the
Defence Policy Board, a senior level advisory panel to Rumsfeld,
was an advocate for overthrowing Saddam, asserting in the months
leading up to the war that the Iraqi dictator's weapons
stockpiles posed a grave threat to the United States.
In the lead-up to the war, Perle regularly warned about Saddam's
reputed arsenal and the danger that would follow if the United
Nations failed to get the Iraqi dictator to disarm.
Tenet was first appointed by president Bill Clinton and
confirmed by the Senate in 1997 and then moved over to the Bush
administration after the 2000 election. His agency has been
criticized for the Iraqi weapons episode and for failing to
detect the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes.
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
4 War Wire: SKorea FM hopes for "visible" progress at new nuclear talks
WAR.WIRE
SEOUL (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said Wednesday he
hopes to see "visible and positive" progress at a fresh round of
six-nation talks next week on the North Korean nuclear stand-off.
Ban said Seoul and other participants are working hard to ensure
the talks will produce tangible results, such as a communique,
when they get underway in Beijing on February 25.
"The government hopes that we will produce visible and positive
outcomes from the second round of talks," he told a meeting with
journalists ahead of a trip to the Middle East.
"For an instance, it would be nice to have something like a joint
statement issued. We continue to work on it."
Ban suggested that participants should designate teams of
officials to discuss detailed issues in order to maintain
momentum for dialogue.
Ban will travel to Washington from March 3-6 and to Tokyo from
March 7-8 for talks with his US and Japanese counterparts to
discuss the outcomes of the second round of six-way talks, the
foreign ministry said.
The first round, held in Beijing in August 2003, ended
inconclusively without any joint statement released.
The new talks will bring the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and
the United States to the negotiating table for the first time in
six months in a bid to break an impasse to the 16-month nuclear
crisis.
The crisis began in October 2002 when the United States said
North Korea had admitted running a clandestine nuclear weapons
program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear
freeze accord.
Pyongyang has denied the claims by Washington, while reactivating
its once-frozen nuclear facilities producing weapons-grade
plutomium to cope with what it calls a possible US "war of
aggression."
But the Stalinist state has offered to freeze its
plutonium-producing facilities if it gets US concessions,
including a resumption of energy aid to Pyongyang.
Washington has urged Pyongyang to first abandon all nuclear
development activities, including the covert uranium enrichment
program, in a verifiable and irreversible manner.
Early this month, Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist Abdul
Qadeer Khan admitted earlier this month that he had passed on
nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran and Libya.
US intelligence officials say Pyongyang already has one or two
crude nuclear bombs made from plutonium diverted from its main
nuclear complex at Yongbyon, 90 kilometres (50 miles) north of
Pyongyang, before 1994.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
5 War Wire: NKorea's stubbornness could "subvert" nuclear talks: US envoy
WAR.WIRE
TOKYO (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
Senior US envoy John Bolton on Wednesday said North Korea's
refusal to discuss its illicit uranium enrichment program
threatened the chances of finding a peaceful solution to the
nuclear arms crisis.
"I think North Korea's unwillingness to discuss the uranium
enrichment program could subvert President (George W.) Bush's
determination for a peaceful diplomatic resolution of the North
Korean issue," Bolton said in an interview with public
broadcaster NHK, without elaborating.
The comments by the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security came just a week before six-nation talks
on the nuclear crisis involving the two Koreas, China, Russia,
the United States and Japan.
Bolton said North Korea should follow Libya's example in
renouncing its weapons of mass destruction and that Washington
would not bow to blackmail if it did not.
"I think the North Koreans could take a look at what recently
happened in Libya," Bolton said.
"The result of this, when we're finished with the dismantlement
will be a completely changed relationship between Libya and the
United States. That same prospect is there for North Korea if the
North Koreans take it."
"The spotlight next week is on North Korea. If they truly want to
get rid of their nuclear weapons program, here is the opportunity
to do it."
"We're not going to submit to blackmail or reward bad behavior,"
he said.
The new talks set to start next Wednesday in Beijing will bring
the six nations to the negotiating table for the first time in
six months in a bid to break an impasse to the 16-month nuclear
crisis.
The crisis began in October 2002 when the United States said
North Korea had admitted running a clandestine nuclear weapons
program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear
freeze accord.
Pyongyang has denied the claims by Washington, while reactivating
its once-frozen nuclear facilities producing weapons-grade
plutomium to cope with what it calls a possible US "war of
aggression."
But the Stalinist state has offered to freeze its
plutonium-producing facilities if it gets US concessions,
including a resumption of energy aid to Pyongyang.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
6 War Wire: NKorea says "ready for both dialogue and confrontation" with US
WAR.WIRE
SEOUL (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
North Korea said Wednesday it was "ready for both dialogue and
confrontation" with the United States, as a top US envoy urged
the communist state to stop brinkmanship in the nuclear standoff.
Top communist party official Choe Thae-Bok said North Korea would
"return artillery fire for enemy's rifle fire" unless the US gave
up its hardline policy.
"The prevailing situation requires us to be ready for both
dialogue and confrontation," Choe, secretary of the Central
Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a speech to a
rally in Pyongyang.
The official Korean Central News Agency quoted Choe as saying:
"It is an unshakeable stand of (North Korea) to return artillery
fire for enemy's rifle fire and react to its hard-line policy
with the toughest stand."
The speech came as the US Undersecretary of State for Arms
Control and International Security, John Bolton, denounced the
North's trademark bargaining tactics of brinkmanship ahead of new
six-nation nuclear crisis talks.
The two Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan will meet in
Beijing on February 25 in a bid to resolve the 16-month standoff
on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
"The spotlight next week is on North Korea. If they truly want to
get rid of their nuclear weapons program, here is the opportunity
to do it," Bolton said Wednesday in an interview with Japanese
public broadcaster NHK.
"We're not going to submit to blackmail or reward bad behavior,"
he said.
Bolton warned that the North's refusal to discuss its uranium
enrichment program could derail the chances of finding a peaceful
solution to the standoff.
The crisis began in October 2002 when the US said North Korea had
admitted running a clandestine nuclear weapons program based on
enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.
Pyongyang has denied the claims by Washington, while reactivating
its once-frozen nuclear facilities producing weapons-grade
plutonium.
But the Stalinist state has offered to freeze its
plutonium-producing facilities if it gets US concessions,
including a resumption of energy aid to Pyongyang.
Washington has urged Pyongyang first to abandon all nuclear
development activities in a verifiable and irreversible manner.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
7 BBC: US envoy slams North Korea denial
Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 February, 2004
By Charles Scanlon BBC correspondent in Seoul
[John Bolton]
John Bolton is in the region ahead of talks in Beijing
A senior US official says Washington's commitment to peace may be
undermined if North Korea continues to deny part of its nuclear
weapons capabilities.
Under-Secretary of State John Bolton was speaking a week before
negotiations on the issue resume in Beijing.
"If they truly want to get rid of their nuclear weapons
programme, here is the opportunity to do it," he said.
The US is urging North Korea to follow the example of Libya and
give up all its nuclear facilities.
United States officials have been talking tough in the run-up to
the new round of talks with North Korea.
Now John Bolton, well known for his hardline views, has given the
strongest warning so far.
He said the US commitment to a peaceful solution could be
subverted if North Korea continued to deny a key part of its
atomic bomb programme.
Strong denial
The North claims to have extracted enough plutonium for several
atomic bombs over the last year.
It has offered to freeze its facilities in return for economic
aid from the United States.
However, it strongly denies American allegations that it is also
running an entirely separate secret programme based on the
enrichment of uranium.
Mr Bolton described the uranium programme as an 800lb (298 kg)
gorilla sitting at the table that could not be ignored.
He said the recent public confession by the Pakistani nuclear
scientist, AQ Khan, had backed up American intelligence about
North Korea's capabilities.
American officials say they will not submit to blackmail or
reward bad behaviour.
They are demanding the total and irreversible scrapping of all
North Korea's nuclear capabilities.
President Bush has said repeatedly that he wants to solve the
problem through regional diplomacy, but some in the
administration are reported to favour tougher measures including
economic sanctions.
*****************************************************************
8 Hi Pakistan: FO rejects reports on Pak-China cooperation exporting nuclear
technology -->
February 19 2004
BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Office on Tuesday rejected the reports
appeared in section of the press that there had been cooperation
between China and Pakistan for transfer of nuclear technology.
Reacting to such reports, a spokeswoman of the Foreign Office
Zhang Qiyue said that China's policy on nuclear non-proliferation
is very much clear, as it never encouraged or assisted any
country for export of nuclear technology.
Replying to questions at the weekly news briefing on the nuclear
issue, she said, "We are seriously concerned about the relevant
reports and are trying to get more information about the issue."
While referring to strictly laws and regulations introduced by
the Chinese government last year to control nuclear
proliferation, she said, "China will continue to extend its
cooperation for strengthening nuclear control regime."
Zhang Qiyue said, the Chinese side is consistently opposing
proliferation or export of weapons of mass destruction. On the
issue of PSI, she stated China also shows its concern on the
possible proliferation of WMD and their delivery vehicles, and
supports international non-proliferation efforts.
At the same time, we believe that the issue of proliferation
shall be resolved through political and diplomatic means within
the framework of international laws, and all non-proliferation
measures shall contribute to peace, security and stability in the
region and the world at large, she added. Re-assuring China's
commitment towards nuclear non-proliferation, the spokeswoman
said, "In future the Chinese government would adopt more measures
to ensure effective and strict implementation of the relevant law
and the regulations."
To a question, Zhang confirmed that the question of nuclear
non-proliferation came under discussion, when the visiting
Undersecretary of State John Bolton met with the Chinese Vice
Foreign Ministers Wang Yi and Zhang Yesui in Beijing yesterday.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part
*****************************************************************
9 [shundahaialerts] MIDWEST NUCLEAR REALITY CONFERENCE
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:49:34 -0800
Shundahai is proud to be involved in this conference. Come out if you
can. These are a bunch of new, dedicated, hardworking folks to join us an
help carry on our struggle for the safety of our Mother Earth and all her
children.
Peace
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2004
MIDWEST NUCLEAR REALITY CONFERENCE (NRC)
http://www.nukereality.org
hosted by Illinois State University SEAC
The numerous safety and environmental concerns surrounding nuclear power
reactors will be discussed at a major regional conference hosted by the
Illinois State University Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC).
The Nuclear Reality Conference (NRC) will be held at Illinois State's
Stevenson Hall February 20-22 and will feature nationally known experts on
nuclear power issues.
Conference topics will include information on the basics of nuclear power,
biological impacts of radiation exposure from power plants, nuclear waste
transportation and storage, and information on alternative energy.
Additionally, there will be a focus on the proposed second nuclear reactor
at Clinton, Illinois. Speakers will include Dave Kraft from the Nuclear
Energy Information Service (NEIS) and Kevin Kamps and Paul Gunter from the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS).
The conference is timely because Exelon Corporation has applied for an
Early Site Permit (ESP) for a proposed second nuclear reactor at Clinton,
Illinois, 25 miles south of Bloomington-Normal and upwind from
Champaign-Urbana and Charleston. The ESP is the first step in securing
federal approval to construct a new reactor. The proposed second Clinton
reactor and proposed new reactors in Virginia and Mississippi, represent
the first actions to build new reactors in the United States in over 20
years. No new reactor has been ordered in the U.S. since 1973; the last
reactor constructed cost over $8 billion.
Once promoted as an energy source "too cheap to meter," nuclear power has
proven to be the most expensive source of electricity. It is also one of
the most complicated and dangerous methods of electrical generation. Spent
fuel rods will remain dangerous for millions of years. No government
anywhere has a better plan for nuclear waste disposal than burying it
underground, risking groundwater contamination and other impacts.
For online registration and the full conference schedule, please visit:
http://www.nukereality.org
Conference Organizers:
Geoff Ower, geoff@nukereality.org, (309)454-1836
Dan Moriarity, dan@nukereality.org, (309)451-1789
Organizations Represented:
Ecology Action Center (EAC) http://www.ecologyactioncenter.org
Energy Justice Network http://www.energyjustice.net
Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) http://www.elpc.org
Illinois Student Environmental Network (ISEN) http://www.isen.org
No New Nukes (N3) http://www.nonewnukes.org
Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) http://www.neis.org
Nuclear Information & Resource Service (NIRS) http://www.nirs.org
Nukewatch http://www.nukewatch.com
SEAC National Youth Power Shift Campaign: http://www.seac.org/energy
Shundahai Network http://www.shundahai.org
Registration information and full conference schedule:
http://www.nukereality.org
-30-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony
with all Creation"
Shundahai Network
PO Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Office: 801.533.0128
Fax: 801.533.0129
mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org
http://www.Shundahai.org
========================================================
It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination
is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say
no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to
save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth."
Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman
of the Board of The Shundahai Network
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*****************************************************************
10 Washington Times: Wanted: an energy bill
February 18, 2004
The nation's chronic energy crises are being abetted by the
chronic failure of Congress to do anything about it. Political
embarrassment will be the least of the consequences of a
Republican-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate
again failing to send a bill that makes substantive improvements
to energy production to the Republican president.
Last week, Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici
introduced a scaled-down version of the energy bill that was
filibustered by the Senate last fall. Its estimated cost of $14
billion is about half of last year's measure, but Mr. Domenici
claims that the bill would still create about 800,000 jobs. A
variety of items were stripped, including liability protections
for producers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), $1.1 billion
in coastal restoration for Louisiana and $500 million for rural
electricity development done by Alaska's Denali Commission. The
bill still includes several needed reforms, such as mandatory
reliability standards for electrical grids, reauthorization of
the Price-Anderson nuclear plant insurance and repeal of the
Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), but is also still
freighted with several unfortunate provisions, including
extensive ethanol subsidies.
The revised bill faces an uncertain future it has been called
doomed in the Senate. New House Energy and Commerce Committee
Chairman Rep. Joe Barton has called passage of the bill a top
priority, but he and many of his colleagues, including Majority
Leader Tom DeLay, do not support the new Senate bill, in part due
to the stripped-out MTBE provisions.
President Bush has repeatedly called upon Congress to pass an
energy bill, and he and other members of his administration,
including Vice President Dick Cheney and Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham, repeatedly tried to break legislative logjams on the
bill. It is not clear whether the administration will back the
new Senate version of the bill, or if administration backing will
be sufficient to produce a new compromise.
Failure to pass a bill would allow electrical grids to continue
to operate without mandatory reliability standards, making
blackouts similar to last year's a possibility. It would also
ensure continued energy shortages and price spikes.
A more subtle effect will be a continued lack of capital
investment in energy infrastructure. Current uncertainties also
discourage spending on other high capital projects such as the
building of new nuclear plants. Should Democrats take control of
either legislative chamber or the executive next November, any
true energy bill will face an even more uncertain future.
This opportunity must not be lost. The Republican-controlled
Congress must find a way to clear an energy bill with significant
production measures this term. It must not continue to feed the
nation's chronic energy shortages.
*****************************************************************
11 KR Washington Bureau: Bush administration accused of suppressing, distorting science
| 02/18/2004 |
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A group of more than 60 top U.S. scientists,
including 20 Nobel laureates and several science advisers to past
Republican presidents, on Wednesday accused the Bush
administration of manipulating and censoring science for
political purposes.
In a 46-page report and an open letter, the scientists accused
the administration of "suppressing, distorting or manipulating
the work done by scientists at federal agencies" in several
cases. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a liberal advocacy
group based in Cambridge, Mass., organized the effort, but many
of the critics aren't associated with it.
White House Science Advisor John Marburger III called the
charges "like a conspiracy theory report, and I just don't buy
that." But he added that "given the prestige of some of the
individuals who have signed on to this, I think they deserve
additional response and we're coordinating something."
The protesting scientists welcomed his response.
"If an administration of whatever political persuasion
ignores scientific reality, they do so at great risk to the
country," said Stanford University physicist W.H.K. Panofsky, who
served on scientific advisory councils in the Eisenhower, Johnson
and Carter administrations. "There is no clear understanding in
the (Bush) administration that you cannot bend science and
technology to policy."
The report charges that administration officials have:
-Ordered massive changes to a section on global warming
in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2003 Report on the
Environment. Eventually, the entire section was dropped.
-Replaced a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
fact sheet on proper condom use with a warning emphasizing condom
failure rates.
-Ignored advice from top Department of Energy nuclear
materials experts who cautioned that aluminum tubes being
imported by Iraq weren't suitable for use to make nuclear
weapons.
-Established political litmus tests for scientific
advisory boards. In one case, public health experts were removed
from a CDC lead paint advisory panel and replaced with
researchers who had financial ties to the lead industry.
-Suppressed a U.S. Department of Agriculture
microbiologist's finding that potentially harmful bacteria float
in the air surrounding large hog farms.
-Excluded scientists who've received federal grants from
regulatory advisory panels while permitting the appointment of
scientists from regulated industries.
"I don't recall it ever being so blatant in the past,"
said Princeton University physicist Val Fitch, a 1980 Nobel Prize
winner who served on a Nixon administration science advisory
committee. "It's just time after time after time. The facts have
been distorted."
White House adviser Marburger, also a physicist, said, "I
don't think that these incidents or issues add up to strong
support for the accusation that this administration is
deliberately acting to undermine the processes of science."
Each example cited was a separate case, Marburger said,
often decided at the agency level for good reasons. He declined
to defend any case.
Russell Train, an EPA administrator in the Nixon and Ford
administrations who spoke on the protesters' behalf, described
the Bush administration's treatment of science and scientists as
so "dictatorial" that it was causing good scientists to leave the
federal government.
James Zahn, a former Agriculture Department
microbiologist, said he discovered accidentally that pig farms in
southwestern Minnesota, northern Missouri and Iowa were emitting
airborne bacteria. Because pigs are often fed antibiotics, Zahn
speculated that airborne bacteria from farms could include
drug-resistant bacteria, which, if breathed by humans, would make
them harder to treat when ill.
Zahn presented his findings at a scientific conference in
2000, but the Bush administration stopped him from publishing his
data 11 times between September 2001 and April 2002, he said.
When Danish researchers sought to learn more about his work, Zahn
wasn't allowed to share his techniques.
"It was truly a new problem with potential impact on
human health," Zahn said.
The protest occurred on the same day that the independent
National Academy of Sciences released its study of the Bush
administration's plans for global warming research. The national
academy's report warned strenuously about the dangers of
politicizing climate change science, but said the Bush research
plan was on the right track, though it noted that it was
underfunded.
James Mahoney, who directs the global warming research
plan, acknowledged that the Bush administration had cut the
research budget from $2.2 billion this year to $1.96 next year.
William Schlesinger, the dean of the School of
Environment at Duke University in Durham, N.C., participated in
the academy's study and the scientists' protest. He gave the Bush
administration's climate plan a grade of B-.
But, he added, the Bush administration's science policy
is too politicized and gets a "D." He said, "Scientists are very
disappointed at this administration's use and regard of science."
For information on the Union of Concerned Scientists' report,
go to:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global-environment/rsi/index.cfm
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Web
site is:
http://www.ostp.gov/
About KRWashington.com
*****************************************************************
12 TomDispatch: Justice à l'orange
a project of the Nation Institute [TomDispatch.com]
compiled and edited by Tom Engelhardt
Okay, you're at the local multiplex, waiting for the main feature
to begin. The ads are on screen, loud and insistent, reminding
you that you could be home watching TV. But there's hope. The
trailers are about to begin. Of course, these days movie trailers
tend to last almost as long as the movies they're previewing,
give away the plots, and show you all the best scenes. So how can
you judge whether the film whose "trailer" I'm about to show you
will be worth catching? All I can suggest is that you get your
popcorn, take your seat, and judge for yourself whether you want
to return in the spring or summer for the main feature.
Imagine, now, that the title flashes on screen -- Justice à
l'Orange it's probably called -- followed by a wall-to-wall cast
of characters. Far too many to absorb in a split second including
our President, vice president, CIA officials, a supreme court
justice, spooks and unnamed sources galore, FBI agents,
prosecutors, military men, congressional representatives and
their committees, grand juries, fuming columnists, an
ex-ambassador, journalists and bloggers, sundry politicians,
rafts of neocons, Vietnam-era National Guardsmen, oil tycoons,
and of course assorted wild fowl (this being the Bush
administration). If the director were Oliver Stone, it might
immediately be retitled: The Bush Follies With Anthony Hopkins,
fresh from his flop in The Human Stain, playing the president.
And the first scene would open -- like that old Jean Luc Goddard
movie Weekend -- with a giant traffic jam. It would be epic. All
of political Washington in potential scandal gridlock. And (as
with Weekend) horns would be blaring, drivers and passengers
arguing. It would be obvious that the norms of civilization were
falling fast and people were threatening to cannibalize each
other. (Remember, Hopkins also played Hannibal Lecter.)
Okay, it's a modern trailer, so let me just give away the plot
right up front: The Bush administration has been in trouble ever
since its arrogance met its incompetence at Intelligence Pass
last summer; ever since Plame Gate began (see below), ever since
George's guys tried to solve their problems -- all those already
nagging lies and exaggerations, all the fun and games that
panicked a country into war -- by throwing CIA director George
Tenet to the sharks, and he refused to walk the plank.
Ever since then, they've been gathering angry constituencies --
in the military, in the "intelligence community," in Congress, in
the bureaucracy, in the media, even on the right -- and trailing
behind them an ever growing gaggle of barely suppressed scandals,
investigative committees, nosy commissions, grand juries, and
intra-bureaucratic buck-passing. Their pattern -- not completely
unfamiliar, if you think back to previous administrations -- has
been to mount the barricades, declare, "Thus far, and no farther…
they shall not pass," and then, when the weather gets heavy, fall
back to the next set of barricades.
The attorney general will not recuse himself; no special
prosecutor will be appointed…. You complete that one. The
president will not testify; the president will testify but only
before one or two people and not under oath… and so forth. If you
watched carefully, you would see the administration slowly and
quietly giving ground for some time on issue after issue, problem
after problem, a sign of weakness -- and an explanation, in part,
for the sudden loss of media docility. (The pack smells blood.)
Recently, the pace has been upped. We're already in the midst of
an early, down-and-dirty presidential campaign. (The President
will remain presidential, concerned only with matters of office;
he will not descend into the pit…The President will descend but
only... you see it's a formula that holds up everywhere.) The
polls tell us that the economy, health care, and jobs are what
most "concern" Americans. As well they should. Figures on the war
in Iraq, while dropping, have remained relatively high for the
president. ("For the first time since the United States invaded
Iraq a year ago," reports Brad Knickerbocker of the Christian
Science Monitorconsidering the latest polls, "the nation is
evenly divided over the war.")
But I think this is deceptive. The truth is that the ragtag
insurgency, the missing WMD, and assorted other problems in Iraq
as well as the steady drip of American casualties -- or rather
the inability to shut it all down there, to deliver the Iraq
promised to the American people -- has driven this administration
before it (just as other administrations were once driven by the
unending war in Vietnam). Issue by issue, the traffic jam in
Washington can be traced right back to that.
So let me now give you just a glimpse of some of the scandals and
investigations piling up which threaten to boil over in the
coming months
Sitting duck
When, in a New York Times op-ed last June, ex-ambassador Joseph
Wilson outed the administration over that fraudulent Niger
yellowcake claim in the President's State of the Union address,
he undoubtedly looked like a moving target. Hard to hit. (His
very mission, among other things, had been requested by the
vice-president's office.) On the other hand, Wilson's wife,
Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent dealing with issues of
nuclear proliferation, looked like a sitting duck. And so figures
high in this administration decided to whack Wilson hard for
embarrassing them (while possibly warning others in the
intelligence community who might be inclined to speak out) by
outing her -- a crime. This was done via a leak to conservative
columnist Robert Novak, who has told a variety of tales about
what how it happened and thanks to whom. Murray Waas reviews this
part of the sordid tale in a piece for the American Prospect
magazine on-line in Plame Gate, a piece that begins:
"Two government officials have told the FBI that conservative
columnist Robert Novak was asked specifically not to publish the
name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame in his now-famous
July 14 newspaper column. The two officials told investigators
they warned Novak that by naming Plame he might potentially
jeopardize her ability to engage in covert work, stymie ongoing
intelligence operations, and jeopardize sensitive overseas
sources. These new accounts, provided by a current and former
administration official close to the situation, directly
contradict public statements made by Novak… The two
administration officials questioned by the FBI characterized
Novak's statements [on how the column came about] as untrue and
misleading, according to a government official and an attorney
official familiar with the FBI interviews."
It's worth noting as well that Waas's information about the Novak
leak comes via another leak - and in a super-secret case before a
grand jury. It's but another sign of the anger bubbling up inside
the Beltway. Many intelligence types and others have been deeply
offended not just by Plame's outing by this administration, but
by the visible lack of any desire on the part of the President to
get to the bottom of the case. The grand jury convened by former
Chicago prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald after Attorney General
Ashcroft finally recused himself is now questioning high
administration officials. James Harding of the British Financial
Times reports (White House braced for outcome of CIA leak probe):
"As the White House seeks to fend off attacks on President George
W. Bush's service record, Washington is alive with talk that it
is readying for another assault on its integrity: indictments
from the CIA leak investigation…
"Over the last 10 days…, senior staff to the president and
Vice-President Dick Cheney have filed in to give testimony to the
grand jury. They include: Scott McClellan, the press secretary,
Mary Matalin, Mr Cheney's former press secretary and now adviser
to the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, Claire Buchan, a deputy press
secretary, and Adam Levine, who previously worked in the White
House communications site. There have also been "tip-offs" that
indictments are in the offing. The names are circulating of
senior staff in Mr Cheney's office."
So it's just possible that someone (or ones) high in the
vice-presidential heavens may go to trial for outing Plame with
10 years in prison at stake.
Spreading canards
In the meantime, on a related front, the administration is also
slowly retreating on the issue of prewar "intelligence" and how
reliable it was. We're talking here about mushroom clouds over
cities and UAVs -- small Iraqi planes -- spraying anthrax across
the East coast. Before the war, these technically improbable, if
not impossible fantasies were passed off as presidential
realities based on "intelligence." (If you want to get a better
bead on the realities of WMD in our world, check out Toronto Sun
columnist Eric Margolis's most recent piece, WMD: A Primer.)
Up until now, the administration has tried to confine
investigations of "intelligence" to the intelligence community
itself, not to how the administration used, abused, and created
"intelligence." So it was a distinct sign of the times when the
Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee decided to
tack in quite a different direction. According to Greg Miller of
the Los Angeles Times (Senate's Iraq Probe To Include Bush,
Aides):
"In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Intelligence
Committee said Thursday that it planned to investigate whether
White House officials exaggerated the Iraq threat or pressured
analysts to tailor their assessments of Baghdad's weapons
programs to bolster the case for war.
"The move puts claims made by President Bush and other senior
officials in his administration squarely in the sights of the
committee's investigation, and could add to the White House's
political troubles as it tries to keep questions about the war
from becoming a drag on Bush's reelection campaign.
"The White House and Republican leaders in Congress had sought
for months to confine the inquiry to the performance of the CIA
and other intelligence agencies, and to insulate the
administration. But the Senate panel voted unanimously Thursday
to expand the probe after some GOP members appeared ready to
break from the Republican position."
In the Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton-eras, one reason administration
scandals gained traction was that the non-presidential party
controlled Congress and so could launch and tailor
investigations. This also left an opening for people in the
Washington bureaucracy to come forward and speak their minds with
some sense of protection. The fact that the White House and
Congress have since 2000 been led by the same party -- a party
intent on imposing a kind of party-line discipline seldom seen
before in Washington -- has retarded this scandal-season.
What's striking then is that Republican Senator Chuck Hagel and
others suddenly jumped sides on the Intelligence Committee on
this matter, opening the way for what will evidently be an
investigation of the Office of Special Plans, the neocon
intelligence operation set up in the Pentagon, and of the
information provided by Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi exile organization,
the Iraqi National Congress, information which, possibly via the
vice-president's office, ended up in the National Intelligence
Estimate that bolstered the war party. (I wonder who will play
Chalabi in the future film, Sex, lies, and mushroom clouds?)
We now know for sure that as Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay,
Knight Ridder's excellent investigative team, report (Majority of
Iraqi exiles slanted stories):
"U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that almost all of
the Iraqi defectors whose information helped make the Bush
administration's case against Saddam Hussein exaggerated what
they knew, fabricated tales or were 'coached' by others on what
to say. As investigations expand into the intelligence used to
justify the war in Iraq, questions are growing about the
defectors' role in building the momentum toward last spring's
invasion. Most of the former Iraqi officials were made available
to U.S. intelligence agencies by the Iraqi National Congress, a
coalition of exile groups with close ties to the Pentagon and
Vice President Dick Cheney's office. The INC had lobbied for
years for a U.S. military operation to oust Hussein."
In other words, our "best" intelligence essentially came from a
single well-coached "witness," Ahmed Chalabi, now sitting on the
Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad -- and there lies a sordid
tale indeed. (Check out Maureen Dowd's latest New York Times
column on Chalabi, the man who wanted to rule Iraq, and Cheney,
the man who may be ruling our country, included below.)
One curious little paragraph from that LA Times piece;
"The former chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq, David Kay, said
recently that he believed an examination of the administration's
claims should accompany the review of the intelligence."
Despite all his initial caveats and seeming attempts to shield
the administration from responsibility for the missing WMD in
Iraq, the improbable David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey
Group, in his statements in Congress seemed to single-handedly
turn the tide of American public opinion and now, bafflingly, he
simply won't shut up. ("David Kay said there was no point in
continuing to hunt for arms he said 'really did not exist. I
think finding them is probably the wrong approach, the wrong
strategy,' Kay told a news conference.") His recent statements
were probably key factors in the Senate Intelligence Committee's
decision to expand its investigation. If you want to check out
this part of the story, read Walter Pincus of the Washington Post
whose Feb. 11 piece began (Study of Rhetoric on Iraq Is Urged):
"David Kay, the former chief U.S. arms inspector in Iraq, said
yesterday that President Bush's new commission on intelligence
should study how the president and his senior policymakers used
the information they received from intelligence agencies. 'The
charges are out there,' Kay said during a talk at the U.S.
Institute of Peace, 'and if there was misuse or distortion, we
need to know it.' He added that he did not believe that was the
case and that he was told to 'find the truth' when he was given
the job of searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
There's a story here re: Kay that I don't think we know. Someday
someone will undoubtedly explain.
Meanwhile, don't forget two other investigatory bodies: There's
that commission the President set up without the help of Congress
to investigate "our" (but not his) intelligence failures which is
to report back long after the election. Then there's the
congressionally mandated 9/11 commission, which has been
struggling obscurely with the President for months over whether
and then how he would share his pre-9/11 daily briefings from the
intelligence community and is now pushing for presidential
testimony on which, again, the Bush administration has slowly
given ground -- and then taken part of it back. Dan Eggen of the
Washington Post writes:
"The White House said yesterday that President Bush plans to meet
only with a limited number of representatives from the commission
investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite a statement
issued Friday that suggested he would meet with the whole panel."
So many bodies, so little time.
Justice à l'orange
Oh, and let's not forget our Veep and his hunting pal Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia, "alone in the rushes," as the Los
Angeles Times put the matter in a devastating and devastatingly
funny editorial recently. ("Scalia insists that neither his long
friendship with Cheney nor the freebie shooting trip will bias
his decision in the pending secret-records case [on Cheney's
energy task force], and he dismisses any suggestion that he
recuse himself. You don't have to know field game to smell a
rotten odor here.")
The justice himself had the following incisive commenton the
matter:
"'[The case before the court] did not involve a lawsuit against
Dick Cheney as a private individual,' Scalia said in response to
a question from the audience of about 600 people. 'This was a
government issue. It's acceptable practice to socialize with
executive branch officials when there are not personal claims
against them. That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack,
quack.'"
Quack, quack indeed.
We know that the vice-president slaughtered pheasants by the
scores at a hunting camp outside Pittsburgh -- this sort of
manufactured massacre using captured fowl makes normal hunters
mad as hell -- and stalked ducks in Southern Louisiana with his
buddy-in-justice. And we're assured that nothing untoward ever
happens in this sort of "social" gathering. But Jane Mayer in her
recent must-read New Yorker profile of the Veep and his little
company that could named Halliburton had this tidbit to offer on
Cheney's hunting habits less than two years after his tenure as
Secretary of Defense ended with the arrival of the Clinton
administration (Contract Sport):
"Cheney was hired by Halliburton in 1995, not long after he went
on a fly-fishing trip in New Brunswick, Canada, with several
corporate moguls. After Cheney had said good night, the others
began talking about Halliburton's need for a new C.E.O. Why not
Dick? He had virtually no business experience, but he had
valuable relationships with very powerful people. Lawrence
Eagleburger, the Secretary of State in the first Bush
Administration, became a Halliburton board member after Cheney
joined the company. He told me that Cheney was the firm's
'outside man,' the person who could best help the company expand
its business around the globe… Under Cheney's direction,
Halliburton thrived. In 1998, the company acquired its main
rival, Dresser Industries. Cheney negotiated the $7.7-billion
deal, reportedly during a weekend of quail-hunting."
Fish, quail. You get the picture. Oh, throw in one other factor
-- the innocent party who was kind enough to take Cheney and
Scalia hunting in Louisiana was, as Tony Mauro of Legal Times
points out:
"Wallace Carline… president of the Diamond Services Corp., an
Amelia, La., oil industry services company. According to Federal
Election Commission records, Carline has donated $4,000 to GOP
candidates and groups since 1998, including $1,500 to Rep. Billy
Tauzin, R-La. [David] Bookbinder [Washington legal director for
the Sierra Club, one of the two parties that has brought the
suit] wants to know who paid for Scalia's trip and lodging, and
whether Carline has links to the energy task force. Carline
declines comment."
Editorial pages around the country demanded, with generally
highspirited, punning headlines, that Scalia recuse himself.
Typical was the Oregonian whose editorial began strongly (Supreme
Indifference):
"If U.S. Supreme Court justices regularly went on hunting trips
or spa vacations with plaintiffs or defendants appearing before
them, they would no longer be seen as the law of the land. They'd
be seen, rightly, as a random gaggle of people who put their
personal lives above the long-term credibility of the nation's
judicial system.
"They might even be seen as quacks."
And most made some version of the following point that appeared
in a Miami Herald editorial:
"The issue isn't the friendship between the justice and vice
president, but rather the cavalier disregard for the customary --
and necessary -- protocol involving judges and parties to a
case."
But really while not wrong, this does miss the essential nature
of this administration, as Jane Mayer commented in a follow-up
interviewto her recent piece at the New Yorker on-line:
"The Halliburton story can be seen as the old Washington
revolving-door story, but on steroids… While Cheney was in the
private sector, working as Halliburton's C.E.O., he spent a great
deal of his time personally lobbying for government credit
guarantees, and he increased the number of subsidies to the
company hugely. So, after years of championing the private sector
and opposing big government, Cheney's own business career was
very much dependent upon the federal government."
Remember when Americans used to blast Japanese and other Asian
"tiger" economies for "crony capitalism." Well, this is the real
thing. It's what "privatization" in Washington or Baghdad really
means. You hunt duck. You make deals. You "rely" on the
government, which, in modern computerese, means that you download
what's valuable in the federal system into the companies of
friends and they download various kinds of support into your
coffers and the door revolves at supersonic speeds. On all this,
more to come, I believe, this spring.
Ducking Vietnam
If you think I can really follow the ins and outs of George
Bush's Vietnam-era military record, think again. But let's simply
start by commenting on the degree to which this administration's
Teflon coating is wearing thin. Walter Robinson of the Boston
Globe brought up the issue of the President's service record,
which had more holes than Swiss cheese, in the 2000 election, but
at that time it gained no traction at all in the media. Here's a
little figure that more than tells the tale. According to Antonia
Zerbisias of the Toronto Star, "A database search of that period
turned up some 13,000 references to former President Bill
Clinton's having avoided the draft -- and only about 50 about
Bush's military career." Think that one over.
Robinson is a dogged journalist and is now back on the job
(Bush's loss of flying status should have spurred probe and Bush
releases his military records). Check out his pieces or a recent
review of the record to date by Richard Serrano of the Los
Angeles Times (What did Bush Do in the Guard?) for some of the
latest details of the Bush story. The White House has fallen back
several times to new lines of defense, starting with that Meet
the Press presidential interview when Bush sort of agreed to
release all documentation on his wartime service. Two very
limited document releases followed, and then last Friday a
document dump that seems to have added up to little. The
president's war(time) record still has more holes than Swiss
cheese.
It's instructive to put the Bush and Clinton records side by side
as Mark Crispin Miller, author of The Bush Dyslexicon and the
upcoming Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order, did in
an unpublished letter to the New York Times:
"To the editors:
"Inevitably, one of your readers has complained of the
'hypocrisy' of Democrats who seek a full accounting of George W.
Bush's military record, yet 'gave Bill Clinton a pass on his
total avoidance of military service."
"This hardy lie should have been buried long ago. Despite his
opposition to the war in Vietnam, Bill Clinton did not dodge the
draft, although he did consider it. His first step was to join
his home state's Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). While
that move would have allowed him to defer the moment of his
formal military service, it also would have meant his ultimately
serving as an officer in Southeast Asia. But that step gnawed at
him, because he did not want some less advantaged Arkansan to
take his place in Vietnam; and so he asked to be removed from
ROTC, so as to take his chances just like everybody else. A few
months later he pulled a high number in the new draft lottery --
a break that bought him time (although it did not mean he never
could be drafted).
"All of this is amply documented. On the other hand, the tale of
Mr. Clinton's sly draft-dodging was based wholly on a dubious,
belated affidavit, suddenly produced in 1992, and said to have
been written by Col. Eugene Holmes, the ROTC officer with whom
the future president had dealt back in the Sixties. That
statement raised more questions than it answered. (The aged
Holmes himself was inaccessible to journalists.)
"While Mr. Clinton agonized about the war, Mr. Bush and his
friends gave it little thought ('I don't think we spent a lot of
time debating it,' he said in 1999). While Mr. Clinton did not
want his place filled by somebody else, Mr. Bush had no such
qualms. With the help of powerful friends, he gained quick
admittance to the Texas Air National Guard, despite the lengthy
wait-list for positions there. And while Mr. Clinton was resigned
to going eventually to Vietnam, Mr. Bush checked 'DO NOT
VOLUNTEER' when asked if he would go to fight that war (which he
supported).
"From the start, this president has postured as the patriotic and
upstanding opposite of bad Bill Clinton. It is now time for us to
rise above the fog of rightist propaganda, and try to see both
men for who they really are."
Another point is amusingly made by Paul Woodward of the War in
Context website, writing of White House explanations of George's
missing Guard time: "Does anyone recognize a familiar line of
White House reasoning here? Lieutenant Bush must have been
present in Alabama because so far no one has proved that he was
absent. Perhaps Hans Blix can shed some light here."
The newest twist on George's splendid Vietnam-era adventure is
the focus not on the Bermuda Triangle that was his Guard "career"
in Alabama, but on how he got into his "champagne unit" of the
Guard in the first place. And it's a fascinating tale of
privilege that adds up to a wealthy version of "draft dodging."
Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard of USA Today, for instance point out
that the recent minor legal brushes on his Guard application had
a certain relevance (Bush driving records disclosed):
"The traffic violations are significant in the context of Bush's
military career. At the time Bush enlisted in the Texas National
Guard, the Air Force typically would have had to issue a waiver
for an applicant who had multiple arrests or driving violations.
An officer who served at the same time as the president, former
Texas Air National Guard pilot Dean Roome, was required by the
Air Force to get a waiver for a $25 speeding ticket when he
enlisted in the Air National Guard in 1967. There is no record of
an enlistment waiver in Bush's military file."
By far the best account I've seen of how George made it into the
Guard -- a tale of influence trading far too complex to explain
here but (and this will surely surprise you) involving among
others a figure from the oil business -- was written recently by
Lou Dubose for the LA Weekly. To whet your appetite I include
just his summary paragraph of the best picture the Bushes could
paint of the process. Check it out, then go read the full piece
for yourself:
"So this is what we're supposed to swallow: A close friend of the
Bush family took it upon himself to get G.W. Bush a billet in the
Air National Guard. A Democratic House Speaker who had nothing to
gain from helping a two-term Republican from Houston did so
because it was the right thing to do - while he was, in the Wild
West of campaign finance, raising money to run for statewide
office. And the younger Bush, after scoring the absolute minimum
on his flight test, was moved to the top of the recruiter's list
by Guard officers who recognized his potential as a flyer. If you
buy that, then you'll buy my Enron stock."
Does all of this matter? I think so, though when pollsters ask
people whether they care about this issue, they generally say no.
So much ancient history. But as with the mess in Iraq, this drip,
drip, drip of little lies and inconsistencies from a man who
walked that aircraft-carrier flight deck in uniform, wears
versions of uniforms when addressing the troops, as he did today,
claims to be a "war president," and appealed to Americans as a
man who was completely trustworthy, has an erosive effect. It's
another issue threatening to drive the President rather than be
driven by him. The effects of all this are likely to be
cumulative. Check out an evocative piece by San Francisco
Chronicle columnist Ruth Rosen on the question of the president's
character included below.
To end, let me cite a joke that seems to catch a truth. This came
to me via a friend's e-list from historian John Baick, who
teaches at Western New England College. It was simply too amusing
to resist:
"After reading President Bush's description of the American
economy of the past ('It used to be, you know, crank somebody out
of high school, and if they could run a backhoe, that's going to
be fine') and considering former Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill's comments about the president's lack of interest in a
2001 economy briefing, I realize that a new investigation should
be added alongside the search for missing National Guard records:
did George W. Bush attend any classes at Harvard Business
School?"
So there we go -- and I haven't covered the fullness of the
terrain. Here, for instance, is British Guardian reporter Julian
Borgeron two more grand juries sitting now in Washington:
"A parallel grand jury [to the one working on Plame Gate] is
looking into the forgery of a document that surfaced in Italy
before the war, purporting to show Iraqi attempts to buy uranium
in Niger. Despite doubts over its authenticity, the document
underpinned US and British claims, since proved groundless, that
Saddam was reconstituting his nuclear weapons programme.
"A third grand jury in Washington is looking into allegations
that a Halliburton subsidiary paid $180m in bribes to secure
lucrative contracts to build a gas plant in Nigeria, at the time
Mr Cheney was chief executive, from 1995 to 2000."
And who knows what still awaits or which of these matters will
burst from the flock and take on a political life of its own, or
how, like multiple drugs ingested by a single system, they will
all interact with each other and the American public. That's the
trailer. I suggest you check out the film when it appears at your
local multiplex. Tom
The Thief of Baghdad By Maureen Dowd The New York Times February
15, 2004
In the Ford White House, Dick Cheney's Secret Service name was
Backseat, because he was the model of an unobtrusive staffer, the
perfect unflashy deputy chief of staff for that lord of the
bureaucratic dance, Donald Rumsfeld.
As James Mann writes in his new book, "The Rise of the Vulcans:
The History of Bush's War Cabinet," Mr. Cheney started out
supervising such lowly matters as fixing a stopped-up drain in a
White House bathroom sink; getting a headrest for Betty Ford's
helicopter seat; and sorting out which salt shakers - the regular
ones or, as he put it, the "little dishes of salt with funny
little spoons" - would be best for stag dinners in the
president's private quarters.
To read more Dowd click here
It Walks Like a Duck The Los Angeles Times February 13, 2004
The judges had finished their discussion, and the subject turned
to an upcoming meeting.
"We could have Justice Scalia speak on ethics," one judge
volunteered to an outburst of laughter.
Another judge, chatting with friends at a social gathering,
mused: "I know a defense lawyer who'd love to take me to a Lakers
game. If it's OK for Justice Scalia, maybe it's OK for me too."
Antonin Scalia has become an embarrassment and the butt of
circulating jokes for many state and federal judges, men and
women who put on black robes every morning and do their best to
decide cases fairly and impartially.
The angry refusal by a justice on the nation's highest court to
step aside in the pending case involving his longtime friend and
hunting buddy, Dick Cheney, could raise unwarranted questions
about the ethics of every judge.
To read more of this LA Times editorial click here
The content of his character By Ruth Rosen The San Francisco
Chronicle Thursday, February 12, 2004
George W. Bush, who describes himself as our "war president,"
actually knows precious little about war, including the one he
launched in Iraq.
In last Sunday's interview with NBC News' Tim Russert, the
president revealed that, absent a scripted speech on a
TelePrompTer, he is unable to defend his decision to invade and
occupy Iraq.
His responses only widened his growing credibility gap. He
insisted that he tried every diplomatic alternative to war, even
though many of us remember how he raced past U.N. weapons
inspector Hans Blix and the U.N. Security Council in his rush to
war. Despite former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's revelation
that the Bush administration planned the Iraq war before the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and chief weapons inspector
David Kay's report that no weapons of mass destruction have been
discovered, Bush still insisted that one day, somewhere, WMD will
be found.
February 18, 2004 at 9:33 am
Tomdispatch.com is researched, written and edited by Tom
Engelhardt, a fellow at the Nation Institute, for anyone in
despair over post-September 11th US mainstream media coverage of
our world and ourselves. The service is intended to introduce you
to voices from elsewhere (even when the elsewhere is here) who
might offer a clearer sense of how this imperial globe of ours
actually works.
An editor in publishing for the last 25 years, Tom is the author
of , a history of American triumphalism in the Cold War era. He
is at present consulting editor for Metropolitan Books, a fellow
of the Nation Institute, and a teaching fellow at the journalism
school of the University of California, Berkeley.
*****************************************************************
13 baltimore sun: U.S. has nuclear double standard
By Bennett Ramberg Originally published February 18, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- President Bush has urged the Senate to approve
legislation that would improve compliance with the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, hoping to encourage Iran and other
nations to follow the U.S. example.
To strengthen treaty safeguards, Mr. Bush wants the Senate to
ratify what is called the Additional Protocol. The protocol
received headlines in the fall of 2003 when the United States
pressed Iran to embrace it. After stonewalling, Tehran signed up,
but left ratification in abeyance.
Unfortunately, the standard Washington proposes to apply to
discourage proliferation may do more harm than good.
The protocol grew out of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. After the
conflict, international inspectors gained access to suspected and
hidden nuclear sites in Iraq. The survey revealed a vast nuclear
weapons enterprise. Equally disturbing, International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards had failed to detect the activity
in advance.
Responding to what appeared to be a systemic monitoring
deficiency, the IAEA initiated the protocol in 1997 to supplement
the standard safeguards agreement. The protocol enhances IAEA
authority to oversee nuclear fuel cycle and related equipment,
materials, research, development, manufacturing and imports. The
agency also gains the ability to initiate inspections of declared
and undeclared nuclear sites more rapidly. The objective: to
deter cheating through better and earlier detection.
The United States signed the protocol in 1998, but the Senate
never ratified it.
Lamentably, the protocol is not mandatory. Of the 184 nonnuclear
weapons parties to the 1968 NPT, only 38 have signed and ratified
the provision. The failure of so many to adopt the protocol
should be troubling.
In his Feb. 11 address to the National Defense University in
Washington, Mr. Bush proposed a remedy: denial of civilian
nuclear assistance to nations that fail to adopt the accord.
While this is a good recommendation, Mr. Bush undermines his
position because of the scope of the protocol he has asked the
Senate to ratify.
In agreeing to the protocol, the administration had to overcome a
conundrum: How does the United States, an acknowledged nuclear
weapons state, apply a monitoring agreement fashioned to prevent
the proliferation of nuclear weapons?
The administration provided a twofold answer: a "national
security exclusion" prohibiting IAEA inspection of all U.S.
nuclear weapons activities and circumscribed IAEA inspection of
civil nuclear sites.
Given the U.S. nuclear status, one can understand the weapons
program exemption. But civil nuclear exclusions promote a double
standard that nonnuclear weapons states raised during
negotiations. At this time, the protocol applied to non-nuclear
weapons states allows no commercial exclusions.
The Bush plan, by contrast, excludes commercial activities
involving "direct national security significance."
And its "managed access" clause goes even further.
Ignoring the Protocol's standard to protect commercial and
proprietary information, Senate testimony reveals that the United
States reserves, "without explanation," the right to make "full
and repeated use" of the national security exclusion to bar IAEA
access to any site. The agency will have "no right to challenge
or question" U.S. action. Further, private American companies can
object to inspections unless subject to an administrative search
warrant "consistent with the Fourth Amendment."
By permitting broad exclusions of civil activities, Washington
diminishes the incentives for non-nuclear weapons states to sign
a protocol that demands that they alone open all of their sites.
The administration contends that its unique application of the
protocol "will help sustain our long-standing record of voluntary
acceptance of safeguards and promote universal adoption" of the
protocol. Given Washington's proposed commercial exemptions, the
U.S. Protocol will encourage the opposite.
Under the circumstances, the Senate would do well either to
reject ratification or to modify U.S. adherence. Rejection
clarifies a fact: The U. S. remains a nuclear weapons state that
the protocol cannot change.
Rejection also will avoid embarrassing rationalizations that
Washington will have to make to justify its civil nuclear
exclusions.
However, if the "symbolic" value of American adherence is as
important as the administration proclaims, the United States
should exact the same inspection standard to its civil sites as
the protocol applies to all non-nuclear weapons states.
In his letter to the Senate, President Bush stated that the
protocol "will bolster U.S. efforts to strengthen nuclear
safeguards and promote the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons."
Regrettably, the crafting he proposes will not do the job.
Bennett Ramberg served in the State Department's Bureau of
Politico-Military Affairs in the first Bush administration.
Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun
*****************************************************************
14 Heritage Foundation: Chasing the Nuclear Genie
[comm: Helle Dale] Chasing the Nuclear Genie
February 18, 2004 | [Printer-Friendly Version] |
It won't be easy to get the nuclear genie back into the bottle.
No sooner had President Bush announced his very worthy initiative
to combat proliferation, in a speech at American Defense
University last Wednesday, than newspaper reports over the
weekend detailed disturbing findings of a trail of nuclear
designs from China to Pakistan to Libya. This is one hot and
scary topic.
In fact, Libya has released a mother lode of information, which
is now being analyzed by experts from the United States and
Britain as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The designs in question were handed over to American officials
after Libya's Moammar Gaddaffi decided to renounce weapons of
mass destruction, presumably to avoid going the way of Saddam
Hussein. Readers of The Washington Times won't be too surprised,
of course; this newspaper's Bill Gertz long since broke the news
of the Chinese-Pakistani nuclear cooperation.
Revelations about Iran's program for enriching uranium are
equally disturbing. Also last week, international inspectors
discovered that Iran had hidden blueprints for a highly
sophisticated centrifuge, capable of producing a key element in
nuclear weapons. This means that even as Iran was pretending to
be cooperating with the IAEA, it was engaged in a double-cross.
Who knows what else they have tucked away.
And overshadowing it all are the revelations about Pakistan's
black-market in nuclear technology, run by the father of
Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A.Q. Khan. Mr. Kahn is accused of
running a veritable Wal-Mart of black market proliferation, as
IAEA chief Moammar ElBaradei has put it. Eager customers included
Libya and North Korea.
Do these deplorable failings of anti-proliferation measures
invalidate the main point of Mr. Bush's speech that "every
civilized nation has a stake in preventing the spread of weapons
of mass destruction"? No. What it does is to reinforce his
message that we must put teeth into the IAEA.
Mr. Bush wants to give the atomic inspection agency an
enforcement arm to verify compliance from member countries. He
also wants known and suspected violators of IAEA rules to be
barred from positions on its board of governors, which seems a
very reasonable idea. Iran, for one, has been able to flout the
rules for 18 years. Most significantly, he appealed to the
Nuclear Suppliers Group, which includes the 40 countries that
sell most nuclear technology, to stop selling equipment to any
country that is not already equipped today to handle nuclear
fuel.
Mr. Bush also announced the addition of three new countries,
Norway, Canada and Singapore, to the group of 11 that already
cooperate with the United States in the Proliferation Security
Initiative (PSI), the purpose of which is to block shipments of
weapons of mass destruction. Directed so far primarily at North
Korea, the PSI represents an inspired bit of multilateral
thinking on the part of the administration, primarily
Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton.
The argument could well be made that our best defense against the
proliferation of nuclear weapons is missile defense. According to
this school of thought, primarily conservative, the nuclear genie
has escaped for good, which means that we might as well get used
to a growing number of nuclear states. Were we dealing only with
state actors that argument might hold, but in an unpredictable
world of international terrorism, even a “dirty bomb,” a
primitive radiation device unleashed by terrorists in a U.S. city
is a nightmare scenario. Missile defense is indeed needed, but
only goes so far.
Another argument, advanced by liberal arms control advocates, is
that we must deal with our own nuclear weapons in order to occupy
the high ground in the nuclear proliferation field. The U.S.
stockpile is indeed shrinking, but the fact remains that we can
account for our weapons and our nuclear fuel. They are not likely
to end up in terrorist hands.
The approach suggested by the Bush administration falls into the
realm of the realistic, somewhere between idealism and despair.
Proliferation takes place mainly within a loop of rogue nations,
Iran, North Korea, formerly Libya and Iraq, and is fed by
scientists and material from Pakistan, China and Russia. Looked
at this way, it is still a deeply troubling, but not
unmanageable, phenomenon.
Our focus needs to be on effectively cutting that loop, and on
disrupting the work of the merry band of rogue states. Provided
the political will is there, that is not an impossible
aspiration.
First appeared in The Washington Times
© 1995 - 2004 The Heritage Foundation All Rights Reserved. Read
*****************************************************************
15 Salon.com: Old McCheney had a judge
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia mocked those who
questioned his ethics by quacking like a duck. He should have
oinked.
By Robert Scheer
Feb. 17, 2004 |
Quack, quack. So much for the constitutionally mandated
separation of powers.
Quack, quack. Say goodbye to judicial integrity. Quack, quack.
Forget about holding the nation's vice president accountable for
his dealings. Quack, quack. Trash the right of citizens to
transparent government. Quack, quack.
Bizarre as it sounds, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
quacked like a duck last week during his defensive denial that a
duck-hunting trip with Vice President Dick Cheney was improper.
According to Scalia, the visit of the two men to the private game
reserve of a top oil executive was merely a pleasant social
engagement.
But Scalia's glib response was disingenuous, coming shortly
before the Supremes will rule on a White House appeal in a case
involving private meetings of Cheney's energy task force. It's
outrageous that he does not intend to recuse himself. - - - - - -
Want to read the whole article? You have two options: Subscribe
now, or watch a brief ad and get a free day pass. If you're
already a subscriber log in here.
Copyright 2004 Salon.com
Salon, 22 4th Street, 16th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103
Telephone 415 645-9200 | Fax 415 645-9204
*****************************************************************
16 Baltimore Sun OpEd on IAEA AdditionalProtocol
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 05:16:16 EST
BALTIMORE SUN
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.nuclear18feb18,0,422232.s
tory?coll=bal-oped-headlines
U.S. has nuclear double standard
By Bennett Ramberg
February 18, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- President Bush has urged the Senate to approve legislation
that would improve compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, hoping
to encourage Iran and other nations to follow the U.S. example.
To strengthen treaty safeguards, Mr. Bush wants the Senate to ratify what is
called the Additional Protocol. The protocol received headlines in the fall of
2003 when the United States pressed Iran to embrace it. After stonewalling,
Tehran signed up, but left ratification in abeyance.
Unfortunately, the standard Washington proposes to apply to discourage
proliferation may do more harm than good.
The protocol grew out of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. After the conflict,
international inspectors gained access to suspected and hidden nuclear sites in
Iraq. The survey revealed a vast nuclear weapons enterprise. Equally disturbing,
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards had failed to detect the
activity in advance.
Responding to what appeared to be a systemic monitoring deficiency, the IAEA
initiated the protocol in 1997 to supplement the standard safeguards
agreement. The protocol enhances IAEA authority to oversee nuclear fuel cycle and
related equipment, materials, research, development, manufacturing and imports. The
agency also gains the ability to initiate inspections of declared and
undeclared nuclear sites more rapidly. The objective: to deter cheating through
better and earlier detection.
The United States signed the protocol in 1998, but the Senate never ratified
it.
Lamentably, the protocol is not mandatory. Of the 184 nonnuclear weapons
parties to the 1968 NPT, only 38 have signed and ratified the provision. The
failure of so many to adopt the protocol should be troubling.
In his Feb. 11 address to the National Defense University in Washington, Mr.
Bush proposed a remedy: denial of civilian nuclear assistance to nations that
fail to adopt the accord. While this is a good recommendation, Mr. Bush
undermines his position because of the scope of the protocol he has asked the Senate
to ratify.
In agreeing to the protocol, the administration had to overcome a conundrum:
How does the United States, an acknowledged nuclear weapons state, apply a
monitoring agreement fashioned to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons?
The administration provided a twofold answer: a "national security exclusion"
prohibiting IAEA inspection of all U.S. nuclear weapons activities and
circumscribed IAEA inspection of civil nuclear sites.
Given the U.S. nuclear status, one can understand the weapons program
exemption. But civil nuclear exclusions promote a double standard that nonnuclear
weapons states raised during negotiations. At this time, the protocol applied to
non-nuclear weapons states allows no commercial exclusions.
The Bush plan, by contrast, excludes commercial activities involving "direct
national security significance."
And its "managed access" clause goes even further.
Ignoring the Protocol's standard to protect commercial and proprietary
information, Senate testimony reveals that the United States reserves, "without
explanation," the right to make "full and repeated use" of the national security
exclusion to bar IAEA access to any site. The agency will have "no right to
challenge or question" U.S. action. Further, private American companies can
object to inspections unless subject to an administrative search warrant
"consistent with the Fourth Amendment."
By permitting broad exclusions of civil activities, Washington diminishes the
incentives for non-nuclear weapons states to sign a protocol that demands
that they alone open all of their sites.
The administration contends that its unique application of the protocol "will
help sustain our long-standing record of voluntary acceptance of safeguards
and promote universal adoption" of the protocol. Given Washington's proposed
commercial exemptions, the U.S. Protocol will encourage the opposite.
Under the circumstances, the Senate would do well either to reject
ratification or to modify U.S. adherence. Rejection clarifies a fact: The U. S. remains
a nuclear weapons state that the protocol cannot change.
Rejection also will avoid embarrassing rationalizations that Washington will
have to make to justify its civil nuclear exclusions.
However, if the "symbolic" value of American adherence is as important as the
administration proclaims, the United States should exact the same inspection
standard to its civil sites as the protocol applies to all non-nuclear weapons
states.
In his letter to the Senate, President Bush stated that the protocol "will
bolster U.S. efforts to strengthen nuclear safeguards and promote the
nonproliferation of nuclear weapons." Regrettably, the crafting he proposes will not do
the job.
Bennett Ramberg served in the State Department's Bureau of Politico-Military
Affairs in the first Bush administration.
Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun
*****************************************************************
17 War Wire: Nuclear black market focus on 'middleman' as Malaysia cleared
WAR.WIRE
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
Malaysia Wednesday welcomed a statement by a senior US official
that the government was not implicated in a nuclear black market
scandal, as attention turned to a shadowy Sri Lankan businessman
living here.
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the truth had prevailed
after US Undersecretary of State John Bolton told reporters that
President George W. Bush had not meant to imply that the
government was involved in shipping centrifuge parts to Libya.
Bolton said at a news conference in Beijing Monday there was
"certainly no whiff of an allegation in the president's statement
that the government of Malaysia had the slightest thing to do
with it".
His clarification followed a protest from Kuala Lumpur after Bush
referred in a major speech last week to the seizure of centrifuge
parts made in Malaysia aboard a ship destined for Libya last
October.
Centrifuges can be used for enriching uranium for nuclear
weapons.
Bolton also appeared to accept the explanation of the company
involved, Scomi Precision Engineering (SCOPE), that it did not
know where the parts were going and thought they were for use in
the oil and gas industries.
He said "perfectly reputable companies" could be given
specifications and manufacture "these devices and not have any
idea what they're ultimately being bound for."
Scomi spokeswoman Rohaida Ali Badarudin told local media
Wednesday the company was pleased with Bolton's statement as "it
cleared us of being associated with the clandestine network."
Malaysia had been outraged by Bush's linking of the company,
which is owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son
Kamaluddin, with the nuclear black market run by Pakistan's
disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has admitted selling
nuclear secrets.
However, questions remain about the role of Sri Lankan
businessman B.S.A. Tahir, who ordered the parts from SCOPE and
was named by Bush as Khan's "deputy, chief financial officer and
money launderer".
Premier Abdullah said Tahir had indeed placed the order and had
been questioned by police but not arrested. Local police were
working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the
investigation, he said.
Abdullah's deputy Najib Razak told AFP Wednesday: "The question
is has he broken any laws? We have to investigate and get the
facts first before we can act on anything."
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Tahir had been a
director of an investment holding company called Kaspadu, until
recently owned by his wife in partnership with the prime
minister's son.
SCOPE's parent, the Scomi Group, is principally owned by Kaspadu,
the paper said.
Scomi spokeswoman Rohaida told the Malay Mail Wednesday that
Tahir's wife had relinquished her shares in Scomi Group in early
January, after the scandal broke.
"The other shareholders were uncomfortable with her association,
with Tahir being her husband," Rohaida was quoted as saying.
The New York Times said Tahir traveled widely, visiting countries
including Morocco, where he negotiated with the Libyans, and
Switzerland, where he met with an engineer who came to Kuala
Lumpur to supervise production of the parts.
Tahir also made trips to Germany and Turkey to meet with
suppliers, the Times quoted investigators as saying.
Scomi said Tahir had told them the parts were being made for Gulf
Technical Industries, a company in Dubai.
The New York Times said the company was owned by British engineer
Peter Griffin, describing him as a longtime supplier to Khan
during the time he was building Pakistan's nuclear capacity.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
18 War Wire: Israeli minister says "nuclear spy", set to be freed, could be
again held
WAR.WIRE
JERUSALEM (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower jailed for 18 years for
exposing Israel's nuclear arsenal, could be placed in
administrative detention following his April release, a cabinet
minister said Wednesday.
Gideon Ezra, parliamentary relations minister, said the Jewish
state's secret services could hold Vanunu "to keep him from
divulging secrets."
Vanunu, 49, worked as a technician at the Dimona nuclear facility
in southern Israel. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in
1986 after giving details about Israel's secret weapons program
to Britain's Sunday Times.
Israeli agents lured Vanunu from London to Italy, where he was
kidnapped and brought to Israel. He was tried in secret and found
guilty of "espionage".
He is due to be released from prison on April 21.
"I visited him myself in his prison cell, where he told me of his
intention to continue to divulge secrets, without expressing the
least regret for what he had done," Ezra told parliamentary
deputies.
Israel has firmly adhered to a policy of "nuclear ambiguity",
never confirming or denying it possesses nuclear weapons. But
foreign experts believe the Jewish state holds at least 200
atomic warheads.
Under administrative detention regulations, Israeli authorities
can detain a suspect for renewable periods of six months without
charges or trial. It is a practice frequently used to detain
suspected Palestinian militants.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
19 HIndustan Times: Nuclear proliferation not a bilateral issue, says Sinha
HindustanTimes.com
Wednesday, February 18, 2004 | Updated: 20:48 IST
Press Trust of India Hyderabad, February 18
Asserting that nuclear proliferation was not a bilateral issue
between India and Pakistan but a matter of global concern,
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday said New
Delhi was concerned at the "flourishing black market" of nuclear
weapons technology.
"Let me make it absolutely clear that is not an Indo-Pak
bilateral issue. We do not wish to make it a bilateral issue. It
is a matter of global concern," Sinha told reporters here.
Asked whether there was any threat to India from black marketing
of nuclear weapons in view of Pakistan's top nuclear scientist AQ
Khan's involvement in the clandestine sale of nuclear know-how,
he said: "There is no threat at this stage. But if it goes on,
there is a danger that the same technology can be acquired by
terrorist groups."
Nuclear proliferation by "Pakistan or anybody else" was an
international issue, he said.
Stating that New Delhi has made its stand very clear on nuclear
proliferation, Sinha said: "We are concerned over flourishing
black market in nuclear weapons technology and its equipment
which enabled various parties to take advantage of the black
market."
The entire international community, he said, was concerned over
the danger of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of
terrorists.
Stating that there was no confusion in the government's mind on
Indo-Pak cricket series, Sinha said he had not seen any note from
the Home Ministry on the reported security concerns.
He quoted Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani as having said that the
Home Ministry's stand on the issue was "clearly misunderstood".
"When we found that it was becoming an issue, the Prime Minister
reviewed the situation and decided to go ahead with the tour," he
said.
He said reviving cricketing ties was part of the
confidence-building measures to improve people-to-people
contacts, and the matches should be played in the true spirit of
the game and sportsmanship.
Sinha said visa norms will also be relaxed to enable people to
visit Pakistan to watch the matches. Asked about United States
reportedly taking credit for the improvement in bilateral
relations between India and Pakistan, Sinha said: "The US
interests in our bilateral relationship is like the interests of
a friend. They are talking to us like how a friend talks. That is
where it stops. There is no other role for any one".
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2004.
*****************************************************************
20 NYT: Pakistani Store Blushes Over Nuclear Scandal
David Rohde/The New York Times A shopping bag from this
Pakistani store was recently found in Libya with nuclear weapons
plans inside.
By DAVID ROHDE
Published: February 18, 2004
[I] SLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 17 — A tinge of panic washed over
the weathered face of Salahuddin Khan when he was asked two
questions. He answered yes to both and immediately wondered aloud
how the news would affect his business.
"I'm afraid American customers won't come here," he said.
Mr. Khan is the owner of Good Looks Fabrics and Tailors, an
Islamabad institution. For the past 25 years, Pakistani
government officials, titans of industry and other luminaries
have streamed here to buy some of South Asia's finest
hand-tailored suits. American diplomats and journalists have been
customers too.
On Tuesday afternoon, rows of rich fabrics lined the store's
brightly lighted walls. A salesman dressed in a sharply cut gray
suit waited eagerly for customers.
Mr. Khan handed out business cards that declared the store's
proud motto: "First in fashion." But he found himself trying to
explain away an unwanted distinction.
Yes, he had answered, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear
scientist who recently confessed to sharing nuclear technology
with Iran, North Korea and Libya, was a regular customer.
And yes, he had heard that American investigators had recently
found a plastic bag from his Islamabad store in a nuclear weapons
facility in Libya. Inside the shopping bag were detailed plans
for a nuclear bomb.
"We've done nothing wrong here," the tailor nervously insisted.
"Dr. Khan did nothing wrong here."
Mr. Khan, who is no relation to Dr. Khan, said he had no idea how
one of his shopping bags ended up in Libya. He said that several
days ago a man he believes was a Pakistani government
investigator stopped by his store and asked the same questions.
Mr. Khan said that Dr. Khan bought suits from his store "once or
twice a year" throughout the 1990's. He was "nice to us," Mr.
Khan said, but he had not been back for the past three years.
As if to prove the store's innocence, a clerk unveiled a large
black plastic shopping bag, pointed to where the store's name and
address was printed, and shrugged. Others questioned whether Dr.
Khan was truly the culprit.
One employee suggested that a foreign client might have taken the
bag to Libya.
"There are many Libyans and Syrians who come here and get their
stitching also," said the clerk, who would not give his name.
A friend visiting Mr. Khan said Pakistan's powerful army was
framing Dr. Khan to hide its own role in nuclear proliferation.
"Why do you just hold Qadeer Khan responsible," he asked a
reporter, and not the "top brass?"
Copyright 2004 | | | | | | Back to Top
*****************************************************************
21 BBC: Analysis: Pakistan-India talks
Last Updated: Wednesday, 18 February, 2004
By Soutik Biswas BBC News Online correspondent in Delhi
[Indian troops patrolling along part of the new barbed wire fence
in Kashmir]
The nations hope the talks will not spark Kashmir violence
This week's India-Pakistan talks in Islamabad may have been
low-key and even rather dull, but they have set out a solid
timetable for peace.
These nations have had their fingers burned too many times in the
past with over-hyped talks - and the subsequent blame game - to
get carried away again.
They will be happy this summit followed the expected path and
will hope its smooth passage can ward off any extremist violence
in Kashmir that might wreck peace prospects.
A series of high-level meetings will begin after the Indian
general elections in April, followed by a crucial summit between
the foreign ministers of the two countries, probably in August.
Further fillip
Analysts say this week's "talks about talks" may have had no
dramatic announcements but they have achieved a firm timetable
for the next six months.
KEY ISSUES
Kashmir Confidence-buildin Terrorism and drugs Trade
and economic co-operation Disputed Himalayan glacier of
Siachen Easing travel restrictions Indian plans to
dam Wullur lake in Kashmir Disputed border region of Sir
Creek marshes, near Gujarat
"The two countries have made very good progress," former
Pakistani foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan told BBC News
Online.
"They achieved what they were supposed to, and a structure has
been worked out with a timeline for the future."
C Rajamohan, foreign policy analyst and a professor of South
Asian studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, said: "The
talks went exactly along expected lines. It was the best that
could have happened given the situation.
"The timetable for the next round of meetings gives both sides
the space and the time they need."
Much can still happen before the resumption of talks in May, but
analysts say that even a major terrorist strike, although
unsettling, would not easily derail the peace process.
"One cannot rule out violent incidents," said Mr Khan.
"But the ethos of the moment is genuine. There is a friendly
atmosphere and sufficient political will on both sides to
continue talks."
[Pervez Musharraf (L) and Atal Behari Vajpayee] Musharraf (left)
and Vajpayee met in Islamabad last month
Dr Rajamohan did not expect an upsurge of violence over the next
few months, but added: "India will gain more confidence to go
forward if the violence doesn't escalate in the coming months."
Mr Khan said a further fillip could be achieved if there were
some movement by the Indian government in Indian-administered
Kashmir.
"If there's a reduction in the violence there, and a lowering of
Indian security presence and some confidence-building, it would
further improve the atmosphere," he said.
New mood
The nuclear rivals have come a long way since the doomed,
over-hyped summit in the northern Indian city of Agra in July
2001 at which they could reach no agreement.
Even the last substantial talks between officials of the two
countries, in October 1998, were scuppered by rival nuclear tests
and mutual suspicion.
But this attempt at talks comes against a sunnier backdrop - the
meeting in Pakistan last month between Indian Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
That was the culmination of a nine-month thaw in relations, begun
when Mr Vajpayee offered a gesture of friendship to Pakistan on a
trip to Kashmir.
*****************************************************************
22 Haaretz: Israel News - Shots across the bow
News Updates Wed., February 18, 2004 Shvat 26, 5764
The rage of innocence
The chamber of Magistrate's Court Judge Noga Ohad was on Monday
of this week the scene of a painful encounter between the
economic situation and the criminal reality.
Uzi David, a former head of the firefighters' committee in Rosh
Ha'ayin, was accused of ordering a fellow committee member to
burn a tire during a protest demonstration by the firefighters
because their salaries hadn't been paid. The prosecution sought,
rightly, to conclude the affair by entering it into the record
but without a conviction, so as not to stigmatize a normative
individual with no previous criminal record. However, David
naively refused: "All I did was wage a struggle for the salaries
we didn't get. Why should I be charged with that? For my just
outcry? What kind of country are we living in? If I did something
wrong, I'm ready to pay the full price and not to waste my time
and the court's time."
Judge Ohad, David's friends in the audience and even the police
prosecutor tried to persuade him to wait a bit, cool down and
understand the implications of a criminal conviction. David, a
man of principle, steadfastly refused. The judge had no choice
but to convict him, on the basis of his confession, of "rioting"
and to sentence him, with obvious reluctance, to a 10-day
suspended sentence for three years.
In this story everyone is right, even though it's filled with
injustice. The state didn't pay the firefighters' salaries, the
state placed David on trial, the state offered a deal, and one
particularly obstinate individual, not ready to play by the
rules, was stained for no good reason. Maybe it would be better
to shift the police effort to file indictments related to public
order to the soccer stadiums? (Moshe Gorali)
Nuclear arsenal
A few months ago, Mordechai Vanunu, the "atomic spy" who is due
to be released in April following an 18-year prison term, decided
to fire his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman. His brothers, Asher and Meir
Vanunu, are trying to persuade him to retract the decision. They
are afraid the authorities will take advantage of the fact that
he has no legal counsel to do him harm.
That fear is not without foundation. Yehiel Horev, the official
in charge of security in the Defense Ministry, wants Vanunu to
remain under supervision even after his release from prison.
Horev is looking at the precedent of Prof. Marcus Klingberg, who
served a lengthy prison term for spying for the Soviet Union and
was kept under supervision for several years after his release,
until he was permitted to go to France. Horev wants to prevent
Vanunu from leaving Israel, for fear he will spark further
discussion of Israel's nuclear weapons.
Horev is proposing that Vanunu be placed in administrative
detention - arrest without trial - after his release; or,
alternatively, that the Interior Ministry decline to issue him a
passport, thus forcing him to stay in Israel, where the
authorities can keep an eye on him. For that, Horev needs the
support of the State Prosecutor's Office and of the attorney
general, who will be in no hurry to authorize measures that they
will not easily be able to defend in the High Court of Justice.
Senior legal experts object to the idea of depriving a former
prisoner of his freedom after his release. Prof. Ron Shapira,
dean of the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University, says it's
impossible to compare Vanunu with Klingberg, because restrictions
were placed on the latter after the court decided to release him
early. "A prisoner who is given early release is under
supervision, like someone who is under the supervision of a
parole officer. Vanunu, though, will serve his full term in
prison."
At the same time, Prof. Shapira believes that "it's all a
question of evidence. If there is intelligence information and a
genuine fear that Vanunu is going to do major damage to the
policy of ambiguity [on nuclear weapons], I see no problem in
placing certain restrictions on his freedom. There is no absolute
freedom." (Yossi Melman)
Deals on meals
This week, the Yedid nonprofit association published a poll
showing that 87 percent of the public supports a hot meal for
children in the education system, from kindergarten until high
school. Who remembers nowadays that 30 years ago there was such
an arrangement, but then everyone demanded that it be terminated,
because it was inefficient. It involved a huge investment in
administration, employees, cooks, equipment, dining rooms,
transportation and distribution, but the food wasn't tasty and
most of the kids refused to eat it. Instead of being engaged in
education, schools were busy with complicated logistics, heating
and cooling food, cleaning up, rotations and collecting money
from parents, who ultimately underwrote most of the unnecessary
cost of the project.
When the 2004 survey was conducted, did anyone explain to the
respondents the huge problems involved in turning a school into a
restaurant? Did anyone tell them that the hot-meal project will
cost a whopping NIS 3 billion a year? Did anyone explain to them
that money on that scale can go a long way toward improving the
quality of education on the periphery and in the disadvantaged
neighborhoods, so that the children will leave school with proper
knowledge and education, which are their only prospects for a
better future? (Nehemia Strasler)
Blogging off
The administrators of the Tapuz Web site were surprised by the
rapid popularity and the media interest in their Blog TV project,
which makes it possible for every surfer who has a basic
video/Internet camera (NIS 80) to open a kind of personal
broadcasting station. The top ratings among the broadcasting
surfers belongs without question to the bold ones, who instead of
talking into the camera about their rich inner world, simply
strip. Tapuz placed the strippers, of both sexes, under the
category of "adults" (which is active from 10 P.M.) and hired a
television person, Aviram Buchris, to help change the project's
lascivious media image.
Tapuz may not look like a cheap porno site, even though some of
its surfers like to do things in front of the camera, but it sure
behaves like one. The site is using a technological trick: When a
surfer goes to Blog TV, his home page gets replaced by that of
Tapuz, without anyone bothering to inform him, not to mention ask
permission.
Guy Eliav, Tapuz CEO: "We didn't see anything wrong with that,
because everyone does it in one way or another. The installation
disk of [the server] Netvision makes Nana the home page, and
every Microsoft browser comes set to MSN. We only do the switch
once, not every time someone enters. And anyone who wants to can
change it back. In any event, we have received a few complaints
and have decided that, beginning with the next version, which
will soon be ready, we will eliminate the switchover." (Gadi
Shimshon)
Shouldering the burden
A driver who pulls over to the side of a highway - to speak on
his mobile phone, pray, relieve himself, or whatever - is
endangering his life. In 2002, 67 people were killed in these
"stopped and was hit" accidents on the shoulders of highways.
Another 63 were killed last year - more than 10 percent of all
those who were killed in road accidents in the country.
The photograph, showing a Honda Accord, license number 58-586-51,
was taken on Monday at 12:30 P.M. on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv
highway, near the Lod interchange. This is not the car of an
ordinary citizen or a certified traffic violator. It's an
unmarked car of the Traffic Police, equipped with speed radar and
a camera.
Speed is the most enforced violation in Israel - every year more
than 300,000 speeding tickets are written. In its zeal to give
out more speeding tickets, the Traffic Police unit allows itself
not only to break the law, which prohibits stopping on the
roadside, but also to endanger the lives of the police and other
drivers.
A spokesman for the Traffic Police responded: "The police are
instructed to take all possible safety measures. Enforcement is
not carried out at a place that is too dangerous to stop at. You
have to remember that 16 percent of all fatal traffic accidents
are caused by speed that is excessive for the road conditions or
higher than what is permitted by law." (Yoav Kaveh)
© Copyright Haaretz. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
23 Haaretz: Eitam worried over Dimona facility's ability to withstand quake
News Updates Thu., February 19, 2004 Shvat 27, 5764
By , Haaretz Correspondent
Housing and Construction Minister Effi Eitam says he is having
sleepless nights worrying about the ability of the nuclear
reactor in Dimona to withstand a serious earthquake.
Responding to an agenda proposal in the Knesset, Eitam said his
ministry had ordered experts to send him and the prime minister a
report about the ability of all security facilities and energy
installations to withstand quakes.
The motion was submitted by Hadash MK Issam Mahoul, who pointed
out that the reactor lies along the Syrian-African Rift Valley
fault line. This could lead to a total destruction of the
country, Mahoul said.
© Copyright Haaretz. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
24 Straits Times: Khan's apology not the end of story
- FEB 19, 2004
By PERVEZ HOODBHOY
MOST new revelations about Pakistan's nuclear scandal focus on
the clandestine supply of uranium-enrichment technology to Iran,
North Korea and Libya by the celebrated bomb-maker, Dr Abdul
Qadeer Khan. (Even though Dr Khan earned his PhD in metallurgy,
not nuclear physics or nuclear engineering, yet press reports
usually call him a 'nuclear scientist'.)
But the documents that Libya turned over to the International
Atomic Energy Agency, and subsequently to the United States, show
that Pakistan supplied more than just equipment for making bomb
fuel. Dr Khan allegedly also supplied a detailed nuclear-weapon
design that US experts say is of a 1964 Chinese vintage passed on
to Pakistan two decades ago.
This disclosure raises interesting new questions because Dr Khan
was peripheral to actual weapons-related work. Pakistan's nuclear
establishment has essentially two divisions. One, once headed by
Dr Khan, is responsible for producing bomb-grade uranium gas
that, when converted to metal, provides the fuel for a nuclear
explosion.
The other division, under the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission
and the National Development Complex (NDC), is responsible for
the conversion of uranium gas to metal, weapons design and
manufacture, and nuclear testing.
Dr Khan was barely mentioned by the head of the NDC, Dr Samar
Mubarakmand, in his victory speeches after the successful May
1998 nuclear tests. Thus the mystery: How could Dr Khan - who had
no need to possess weapons-design information - have handed over
detailed bomb-design documents to Libya?
His televised confession and acceptance of sole responsibility
for proliferation activities has done nothing to reduce suspicion
that there is more here than meets the eye, and of the Pakistani
military's complicity in proliferation.
The export of centrifuge technology by him was unknown to
successive governments in Pakistan, says the country's leader,
General Pervez Musharraf. But for over a decade, Dr Khan had
openly advertised his nuclear wares.
Year after year, Islamabad had banners advertising workshops on
Vibrations In Rapidly Rotating Machinery and Advanced Materials,
sponsored by the Dr A.Q. Khan Research Laboratories (also known
as the Kahuta Research Laboratories). These had obvious utility
for centrifuge technology, essential for producing bomb-grade
uranium.
In earlier years, Dr Khan and his collaborators published a
number of papers on the technical means for enabling centrifuge
rotors to spin close to the speed of sound without disintegrating
- essential for making bomb-grade uranium. It could scarcely be
more blatant. But to make it absolutely certain, Kahuta issued
glossy brochures aimed at 'classified organisations'.
To protect itself, Pakistan's military establishment, fearful of
being labelled a proliferator and of ultimately being deprived of
its nukes, has chosen to sacrifice Dr Khan. Yet his public
confession and apology are unlikely to end the matter.
For the moment, the efforts of some Pakistani bomb-makers to
peddle nuclear secrets appear to have been stymied. But, having
invoked solidarity with Islamists all over the world, these
experts have created a high demand for their skills. While it is
inconceivable any Muslim country will now ask Pakistan for
nuclear weapons, non-state actors are more enthusiastic.
One recalls that two years ago, highly placed members of the
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission wanted to play a role in the
jihad against America. In a fit of Islamic solidarity, they went
to Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden and the Taleban. It is
difficult to believe they were the only ones so inclined.
It is time to give up the fantasy of an Islamic bomb, and it is
past the time to rein in Pakistan's rogue bomb-makers. Their
illegitimate nuclear commerce has created a nightmare for the
reputation, safety and security of their country.
It is difficult to know what Dr Khan meant when he said he had
acted in 'good faith'. After all, what kind of faith allows
putting instruments of mass murder on sale in the black market?
The writer is professor of nuclear and high-energy physics at
Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. Copyright: Project Syndicate
*****************************************************************
25 TheStar.com: China to probe claim of Libya-nuclear link
Wed. Feb. 18, 2004. | Updated at 09:06 PM
BEIJINGChina revealed yesterday it was investigating a U.S.
newspaper report that Chinese atomic bomb plans had been
discovered in Libya after being sent there from Pakistan,
stopping short of denying the allegations.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhang Qiyue declined to confirm or
deny statements by U.S. officials who believe Beijing is still
co-operating with Saudi Arabia on missiles and with Pakistan on
nuclear technology and missiles. She said only that a probe was
underway into the report about transfers to Libya and reiterated
China's opposition to proliferation of nuclear arms.
The Washington Post, citing government officials and arms
experts, reported Sunday that documents turned over by Libya
yielded "dramatic evidence" of China's long-suspected role in
transferring nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
Reuters
Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
26 Hi Pakistan: IAEA informed of Tehran’s centrifuge research - Kharazi
February 19 2004
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign minister on Tuesday said his country had
not acquired undeclared nuclear equipment, though it was
interested in the technology, and that the UN nuclear agency had
been informed of Tehran’s research.
Kamal Kharrazi also said his country had the potential to produce
nuclear fuel to sell internationally but did not have a ready
supply, following on comments last week that Iran 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 programme. We have done
research in this regard, and the IAEA has been informed of this,"
Kharrazi said.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
27 Expressindia: Pakistan's nuclear bazar
Thursday, February 19, 2004
The new century needs a new approach to non-proliferation
JASJIT SINGH
Reacting to the unfolding details of proliferation of nuclear
technology by Pakistan to a number of countries, the head of the
UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed AlBaradei, has
cautioned that this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Given this sophisticated, globally networked nuclear bazaar
working on a perverse free-market principle, he said, “Nuclear
proliferation is on the rise.” He also warned, “If the world does
not change course, we risk self-destruction.” That change of
course logically requires change in the “infectious security
culture” which creates strong incentives for acquisition of
nuclear weapons for perceived legitimate self-defence. This would
be difficult for the US which is heading the other way.
In essence, US President Bush, in his seven-point plan, and
AlBaradei both talk of strengthening the inspections and
safeguards regime with universalised export controls, especially
under the additional protocol to the IAEA safeguards agreement.
AlBaradei also believes no country party to the NPT should be
allowed to withdraw from the treaty (like North Korea). The world
community would have little leverage to influence events if a
powerful industrialised non-nuclear weapons state decides to
withdraw from the treaty. This would inevitably unravel the
nuclear order as it has existed so far. An amendment to the NPT
to bring in this provision, however, would open up a bigger
Pandora’s box.
Bush and AlBaradei differ on the future role of nuclear weapons.
The answer is obvious: their universal abolition, which would
facilitate a more robust non-proliferation global order. The
dominant source of global threat, from non-state terrorist
groups, could hardly be deterred by classical nuclear deterrence
or, for that matter, defended against by measures like missile
defences. But the US administration’s policies actually seek a
renewed role for nuclear weapons in the future, albeit in smaller
quantities.
We find that in spite of tightened control regimes, the nuclear
bazaar has prospered far beyond anything anyone had predicted,
with buyers and sellers from countries around the globe. It would
be short-sighted to assume that this proliferation to Pakistan
and its mushrooming outward from there took place before the
non-proliferation regime was strengthened in the early 1990s.
Pakistan’s nuclear import-export has gone on for a long time, and
damning Pakistan and its army by itself would not eliminate
future dangers.
The basic, and even unpalatable, point must be recognised, that
Pakistan (and India and Israel for that matter) has not been
under any international regime, treaty or legal obligation not to
transfer nuclear technology beyond its frontiers. The only
restraint that could operate grows from its own sense of
responsibility. But when its proliferation to recipients itself
has been pursued in “good faith” and for Islamic causes, as A.Q.
Khan would have us believe, then we need to look beyond the
self-restraint paradigm. After all, General Zia ul-Haq had stated
at an OIC meeting in November 1986 that Pakistan was
collaborating with “some Muslim nations” on uses of nuclear
technology and would welcome cooperation with other Islamic
countries. That is about the time transfers to Iran and Libya
started.
The success of a global non-proliferation regime has been greatly
hampered by the NPT-centric approach to non-proliferation where
the acknowledged weapons states are assumed to be responsible and
the non-nuclear countries bound under denial regimes. This has
been made worse by non-fulfilment of commitments made under the
NPT by responsible members of the international community.
Unfortunately, Pakistan proves the validity of this approach. The
problem in our region has been tied into another Gordian knot by
the US-led India-Pakistan hyphenation. It seems that, in an
extension of its “cap-reduce-eliminate” mantra, the US even
expected India to institute export controls after the 1998 tests
before pressing Pakistan to do so! One can only hope that now the
innate desire for hyphenation would be discarded.
Bush’s seven-point plan affects us with regard to its desire for
universal application of the additional protocol to the IAEA
safeguards agreement. But this would require all nuclear
facilities and infrastructure to be placed under intrusive
international inspection. For obvious reasons, India, which stood
outside the NPT accepting IAEA safeguards only selectively and
maintains nuclear weapons like the P-5, albeit at a very modest
scale, cannot agree to such a proposal. For the protocol to be
acceptable to India, its terms would have to be negotiated to
mutual satisfaction based on ground realities. Although the
traditional non-proliferation community in the US may be expected
to oppose it, this should not pose a major handicap since the
“glide path” agreement for US cooperation with India on nuclear
energy, space, dual-technology, etc, was announced last month
when the scope of recent Pakistani proliferation was public
knowledge.
Conventional wisdom would have it that tightening export controls
would put an end to future proliferation. Such controls are
necessary in the context of increasing privatisation and
globalisation of markets, and technology. But they would remain
of little value where organs of the state, as in Pakistan,
undertake clandestine trade in “good faith” for ideological or
strategic reasons. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are a reality. What
may be possible is to bring Pakistan (and India) into formal,
legally binding commitments. This cannot be the NPT, the wishful
thinking of non-proliferationists notwithstanding. India will not
sign the NPT as that can only be done as a non-nuclear weapons
state.
For India to be an active partner in global non-proliferation, it
must have adequate incentive to be one. One option would be to
evolve a suitable protocol to the NPT which would put it in a
category in accordance with ground realities; but which may open
the way for voluntary IAEA safeguards on its facilities not tied
to national security, join the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and
normalise trade in the nuclear arena. Meanwhile, the new US-India
glide path agreement must be given high priority.
MORE COLUMNSIn 2004, a response to GujaratP3P: a ticking bomb
© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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28 Expressindia: This tailor isn't happy that Khan cat got out of his bag in Libya
Dr Khan was a regular customer at this Islamabad institution,
tailor says he’s afraid he won’t get US customers
DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, FEBRUARY 18: A tinge OF panic washed over the
weathered face of Salahuddin Khan when he was asked two
questions. He answered yes to both and immediately wondered aloud
how the news would affect his business.
‘‘I’m afraid American customers won’t come here,’’ he explained.
Khan is the owner of Good Looks Fabrics and Tailors, an Islamabad
institution. For the past 25 years, Pakistani government
officials, titans of industry and other luminaries have streamed
here to purchase some of South Asia’s finest hand-tailored suits.
American diplomats and journalists have been customers too.
On Tuesday afternoon, rows of rich fabrics lined the store’s
brightly lit walls. A salesman dressed in a sharply cut gray suit
waited eagerly for customers. Khan handed out business cards that
declared the store’s proud motto: ‘‘First in fashion’’.
But the store owner found himself trying to explain away an
unwanted distinction.
Yes, he had answered, Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear
scientist who recently confessed to sharing nuclear technology
with Iran, North Korea and Libya, was a regular customer.
And yes, he had heard that American investigators had recently
found a plastic bag from his Islamabad store in a nuclear weapons
facility in Libya. Inside the shopping bag were detailed plans
for a nuclear bomb.
‘‘We’ve done nothing wrong here,’’ the tailor nervously insisted.
‘‘Dr Khan did nothing wrong here.’’
Khan, who is no relation to Dr Khan, said he had no idea how one
of his shopping bags ended up in Libya. He said that several days
ago a man he believes was a Pakistani investigator stopped by his
store and asked the same questions.
The store owner said that Dr Khan bought suits from his store
‘‘once or twice a year’’ throughout the 1990s. The scientist was
‘‘nice to us’’, Khan added, but had not been back for the past
three years.
As if to prove the store’s innocence, a clerk unveiled a large
black plastic shopping bag, pointed to where the store’s name and
address was printed, and shrugged.One employee suggested that a
foreign client might have taken the bag to Libya. ‘‘There are
many Libyans and Syrians who come here and get their stitching
done also,’’ said the clerk, who would not give his name.
A friend visiting the store owner said Pakistan’s powerful army
was framing Dr Khan in order to hide its own role in nuclear
proliferation. ‘‘Why do you just hold Qadeer Khan responsible,’’
he asked a reporter, and not the ‘‘top brass?’’ The shop owner
ignored both the clerk and his friend, refused to have his
picture taken and voiced his own fear. Journalists and television
news crews, he said gloomily, might soon outnumber customers.—
The New York Times
© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
29 Indian Express: Bush avoided war with Pak due to nukes - Expert
Agencies
Washington, February 18: US President George W Bush chose to
fight the “easier war” with Iraq than to engage in "a more
logical war" with Pakistan because conflict with the
nuclear-armed nation would have led to too many casualties, a US
commentator has said.
“The simple truth is that the US should be engaged in a
gruelling, long-term campaign against Islamist fanatics. But that
sort of war would likely have entailed an invasion of Pakistan
instead of Iraq," Cynthia Tucker, editorial page writer in The
Atlanta Constitution, wrote.
“Pakistan has done everything that Bush falsely claimed Iraq had
done: it sheltered al-Qaeda, and its scientists sold secrets and
parts for making the mother of all WMD - a nuclear bomb - to
North Korea, Libya and Iran. But a war against a nuclear power
like Pakistan may have involved thousands of US casualties. It
would have been a real war.
“Instead, Bush told US we’d stroll into Iraq, overthrow (Saddam)
Hussein, implant democracy and watch it bloom throughout the
region - ultimately bringing peace between Israel and the
Palestinians. In fact, the President still says that. Yet, he
continues to fertilize the soil with American blood," she said.
Tucker claimed that Bush wanted the American public "emotionally
stuck in the horrible aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington," after which his approval ratings soared
sky-high.
“He’d love to flytrap American voters in a 9/11 mind-set until
November - which, he thinks, would ensure his re-election,” she
said.
More World HeadlinesForeign terrorists must leave Pak:
MusharrafAround 200 killed in Iran train blastWe should join
together: Israel to India, USUS Congress honours industrialist B
K ModiKerry all set to give Bush a tough fightPak will never stop
its nuclear and missile programmes: Musharraf
© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
30 Japan Times: Japan, U.S. to get tough on WMD
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Staff report
Senior officials of Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday
to step up efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass
destruction.
Undersecretary of State John Bolton, who oversees arms control
policy, met with his Japanese counterpart, Yukiya Amano, to
discuss WMD nonproliferation and arms reduction, following the
recent discovery of a Pakistani-led nuclear trading network.
Bolton said a recent confession by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the
founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, that he leaked nuclear
secrets abroad showed there are loopholes in international
efforts to tighten control on WMD.
The Japan Times: Feb. 19, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
31 Scotsman.com: Putin's Nuclear Armada Lets Him Down Again
Wed 18 Feb 2004
In a blow to Russia’s military prestige, its much vaunted
nuclear submarine fleet – closely monitored by President
Vladimir Putin – today failed again to successfully launch a
ballistic missile.
The massive exercise in the Barents Sea, the largest since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, comes less than a month before the
presidential election and is broadly seen as part of campaign
efforts aimed at playing up Putin’s image as a leader bent on
restoring Russia’s military power and global clout.
But two launch failures in as many days come as an embarrassment
for Putin and further tarnish the image of the Russian military,
which has been plagued by chronic funding shortages, low morale
and frequent crashes and accidents.
Putin, who is expected to easily win the March 14 presidential
election, went to the Barents Sea on board the giant Arkhangelsk
submarine on Monday to observe manoeuvres set to involve numerous
missile launches and flights of strategic bombers.
But the missile launch from the Novomoskovsk, which military
officials had announced in advance and which was described on the
front page of the official military daily, Krasnaya Zvezda or Red
Star, did not take place.
Russian officials and media made conflicting statements about the
reason for the failure. The naval chief, Admiral Vladimir
Kuroyedov, ended up saying Tuesday that the navy had never
planned a real launch and successfully conducted what he
described as an imitation, “electronic†one.
A Russian website claimed the missile had been launched but blew
up almost immediately.
Then today, in what some Russian media described as the navy’s
attempt to rehabilitate itself after the failure, it sent another
Northern Fleet nuclear submarine to repeat the launch – only to
fail again.
The missile launched from the Karelia submarine started erring
from its designated flight path 98 seconds after the launch and
was blown up by its self-liquidation system, said Russian Navy
spokesman Captain Igor Dygalos.
No one was hurt and an official investigation has begun.
Putin, who donned naval officer’s garb complete with white
scarf and gloves for his two-day submarine cruise, changed into
the green uniform of an officer of the Strategic Missile Forces
on his visit today to the Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia.
Putin watched the successful launch of the Molniya-M booster
rocket, which carried a Kosmos military satellite into orbit. He
also viewed, via video hook-up, the trouble-free lift-off of the
RS-18 ballistic missile from the Baikonur cosmodrome, which
Russia leases from the ex-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan
Russian state-run television channels, which are lavishly
covering the daily activities of Putin, ran footage of the
president watching the launches and congratulating officers in
Plesetsk, but kept mum about the failed launches.
Many Russian newspapers, however, assailed what they described as
a clumsy cover-up of Tuesday’s failed launch, saying that
Kuroyedov’s statement resembled official lies about the August
2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea,
which killed all 118 aboard and badly dented the navy’s
prestige.
“Apparently they decided not to smear President Vladimir
Putin’s participation in the exercise with negative
information,†the Kommersant newspaper said.
Many observers said that the failed launch highlighted the
continuing decline of the Russian military, which has been
plagued by a desperate funding shortage since the 1991 Soviet
collapse.
“The trouble is that there are few experts left and crews are
badly trained,†Retired Admiral Eduard Baltin said. “We
failed to show a potential aggressor that Russia’s nuclear
forces are in full combat readiness.â€
Analysts widely describe Putin’s participation in the exercise
as part of his efforts to revive the military, appealing to
public nostalgia about the nation’s Soviet-era military might
and global prestige.
The Russian military has dismissed media reports that the
military exercises closely resemble Soviet-era simulations of an
all-out nuclear war with the United States, saying that it’s
not directed against any specific country.
At the same time, the military said the manoeuvres reflect
Moscow’s concerns about US plans to develop new types of
nuclear weapons. It has not said when the exercises will end. [
©2004 Scotsman.com
*****************************************************************
32 Las Vegas SUN: AP: Nuclear Financier Has Ties to Malaysia
Today: February 18, 2004 at 5:25:28 PST
By ROHAN SULLIVAN and PATRICK McDOWELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - A Sri Lankan accused of being the
chief financial officer for an international nuclear black
market sat on the board of a company owned by the Malaysian
prime minister's only son, according to documents obtained by
The Associated Press.
The connection indicates that alleged senior members of the
network established by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of
Pakistan's nuclear bomb, were able to woo partners in the
highest levels of society.
In the Malaysian case, the partners said they had no idea deals
were being made to fashion parts that could be used to make
nuclear weapons. The companies involved have cut ties with Tahir
and his wife, Nazimah.
The documents, obtained by AP via searches of publicly
accessible files, reveal a paper trail through privately held
companies that outlines ties between the prime minister's son,
Kamaluddin Abdullah, and the Sri Lankan, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir,
as well as his Malaysian wife.
Malaysian authorities say the accusations against Tahir are
being investigated and he remains free, though under
surveillance.
"The question is, has he broken any law?" Deputy Prime Minister
Najib Razak told reporters Wednesday. "We have to investigate
and get the facts first before we can act on anything."
The men were top executives at Kaspadu Sdn. Bhd. when Tahir
negotiated a deal for a company linked to Kaspadu, Scomi
Precision Engineering, to build components that Western
intelligence agencies allege were for use in Libya's nuclear
program, according to the documents.
President Bush last week called Tahir the "chief financial
officer and money launderer" of the black market network led by
Khan, who has admitted selling nuclear technology and know-how
to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
Kamaluddin's company, the Scomi Group, previously acknowledged
that Scomi Precision Engineering, a subsidiary, fulfilled a
contract for machine parts that was negotiated by Tahir.
Nonproliferation authorities say the parts were for centrifuges
- sophisticated machines that can be used to enrich uranium for
weapons and other purposes - but Scomi says it did not know what
the parts were to be used for.
Rohaida Badaruddin, a Scomi spokeswoman, confirmed Tuesday that
Tahir was a Kaspadu director until early last year, and said it
was likely Kamaluddin encountered Tahir at business meetings.
Kamaluddin was "shocked and surprised" to learn late last year
of Tahir's alleged role in the nuclear network and broke ties
with the Sri Lankan - including asking Tahir's wife, Nazimah
Syed Majid, to sell her shares in Kaspadu, the spokeswoman said.
Kamaluddin has not spoken publicly about the matter and was not
available for comment Tuesday. A security guard at the house
listed on company documents as his residence told AP it was
owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, but that nobody
now lives there.
The AP traced Nazimah, 35, to an apartment in one of Kuala
Lumpur's most exclusive suburbs. She declined comment, except to
say, "My husband is not here; he's away." She said she did not
know where.
But a building security guard said a man he named as Tahir had
come and gone several times from the apartment on Tuesday. On
Wednesday, the telephone line to the apartment was disconnected
and the guard said the couple had left with their two young
children, sending a driver back later to pay outstanding bills.
Abdullah took office last October and was deputy prime minister
at the time of the business dealings between his son and Tahir.
Tahir is believed to have started developing social and business
ties in Malaysia in the mid-1990s, and by 1998 held a society
wedding attended by Khan. Tahir's wife is the daughter of a
former Malaysian diplomat.
The revelations of deeper links between Tahir and Kamaluddin
come as Malaysian officials complain that this mostly Muslim
Southeast Asian country has been unfairly singled out by
Washington for its role in the nuclear black market.
Bush, in his speech last week, alleged Tahir used a Dubai
computer company as a front for Khan's network, and directed the
Malaysian company to produce centrifuge parts based on Pakistani
designs. Bush said Khan's network used front companies to
"deceive legitimate firms into selling them tightly controlled
materials."
A senior U.S. official said during a visit to China on Monday
that Bush doesn't hold Malaysia responsible.
"There was never any suggestion that the government of Malaysia
was involved," said John Bolton, an undersecretary of state,
adding the Malaysian firm might not have known its equipment was
for nuclear use.
Kaspadu is a privately held investment vehicle for Kamaluddin
and a business partner that has a controlling stake in Scomi.
Scomi fully owns Scomi Precision Engineering, which delivered
"14 semifinished components" to Dubai-based Gulf Technical
Industries between December 2002 and August 2003, under the $3.4
million Tahir contract.
The parts were seized in October in boxes marked with Scomi's
name en route to Libya. Scomi says it understood the parts were
for the oil and gas industry, and had no knowledge of the Libyan
connection.
Scomi has previously identified Tahir as a businessman who
approached its subsidiary about the contract, and said
Kamaluddin had no knowledge of the deal because he has no
official management role in Scomi.
But company documents show ties between Tahir, 44, and companies
controlled by Kamaluddin, 36, were closer than previously
acknowledged.
Kaspadu documents list Tahir as being appointed Dec. 16, 2000,
as a company director. Kamaluddin is listed as one of Kaspadu's
four other directors and its "corporate executive."
Malaysian police say Tahir negotiated the Libya-linked contract
around 2001. It was Scomi Precision Engineering's first order,
and it built a factory to fill it.
Kaspadu records show Tahir resigned as a director Feb. 24, 2003.
No reasons were given and the Scomi spokeswoman said she didn't
know why.
Scomi Precision Engineering paid Kaspadu $22,000 in management
fees in 2002, when Tahir was a director.
Other records show that in October 2000, Nazimah, was one of
only three shareholders in Kaspadu. The others are Kamaluddin
and his business partner, Shah Hakim Shahzanim Zain.
Documents show that Nazimah's stake in the company was sold to
Kamaluddin and Kahim in January.
"Late last year, when Kamaluddin and the other shareholder were
informed about the investigation into Tahir, they were shocked
and told Nazimah to cease her shareholding" in Kaspadu, Scomi
spokeswoman Badaruddin told AP. "There was a mutual agreement to
sell the shares."
After an inquiry, Prime Minister Abdullah declared Scomi had
been cleared of wrongdoing; last week he said "there is no such
thing as Malaysian involvement" in the network outlined by Bush.
*****************************************************************
33 [NukeNet] NRC presentation/webcast on Three Mile Island -
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:49:29 -0800
NRC NEWS
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov
www.nrc.gov
No. 04-023 February 18, 2003
NRC SCHEDULES PUBLIC PRESENTATION AND WEBCAST ON
MARCH 3 ON THREE MILE ISLAND ACCIDENT, 25 YEARS LATER
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public presentation
on the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, and how it changed the course of
commercial nuclear power use in this country, at NRC headquarters on
March 3.
The presentation will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the NRC's
auditorium at Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike in Rockville.
It will feature the NRC's Chairman, Nils J. Diaz; Commissioners Edward
McGaffigan and Jeffrey S. Merrifield; the Executive Director for
Operations,William D. Travers; and the agency's historian, J. Samuel
Walker, who has just published the fourth volume of the NRC's history,
Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective.
Immediately following the presentations, there will be a question and
answer session for NRC staff and members of the public.
The discussion will cover some of the accident's key events, as well as
nuclear reactor safety improvements made in response to lessons learned
from the accident, which unfolded from March 28 - April 1, 1979.
Members of the public should plan to arrive early to facilitate
security processing. The entire session will be broadcast live over the
Internet via the NRC's Web site at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.html.
_______________________________________________________________________
Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
Change your settings at:
http://chrome.nocdirect.com/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
*****************************************************************
34 NRC: NRC Sends Special Inspection Team to Calvert Cliffs Unit 2
News Release - Region I - 2004-00
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I
No. I-04-005 February 17, 2004
CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330
Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
Lusby, Md., to follow up on an automatic reactor shutdown in
late January. The two-unit site is operated by Constellation
Energy.
On January 23, the Calvert Cliffs Unit 2 reactor was operating
at full power when one of two steam generator feedwater pumps
shut down. This pump supplies water to the plant's steam
generators, which help cool the reactor and generate steam to
drive the electricity-producing main turbine. The reactor
automatically shut down, as designed.
Following the shutdown, equipment issues complicated the work of
the operators in restoring reactor coolant system temperature
and pressure to normal post-shutdown values. There were no
public health and safety consequences. The NRC resident
inspectors assigned to the site monitored control room
activities following the shutdown.
The four-member inspection team arrived on site today. The
purpose of the inspection will be to independently evaluate
equipment and human performance, and to assess Constellations
root cause evaluation of the event and corrective actions. The
team should be at the facility for about a week.
An inspection report will be issued within 30 days of an exit
meeting for the inspection.
Last revised Tuesday, February 17, 2004
*****************************************************************
35 War Wire: Russia agrees to help Vietnam build its first nuclear power plant
WAR.WIRE
HANOI (AFP) Feb 18, 2004
Russia has agreed to help Vietnam build its first nuclear power
plant, state media said Wednesday.
The pledge was part of a memorandum of understanding signed on
Tuesday by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan and his
visiting Russian counterpart Viktor Khristenko, the Saigon Giai
Phong newspaper said.
The two close allies also agreed on other measures to improve
trade links, including continued co-operation in oil and gas
exploration and exploitation.
The communist nation's nuclear project remains firmly on the
drawing board at the moment, but an interdepartmental committee
on atomic energy was set up in March 2002 with the aim of
building a nuclear power station by 2020.
Development of the country's energy infrastructure is one of the
most significant challenges facing power-hungry Vietnam.
According to government estimates, around 70-80 billion kilowatts
of power will be needed in 2010, with the figure increasing to
between 160 and 200 billion kilowatts by 2020.
Despite being rich in natural resources with a vast network of
rivers and abundant gas, oil and coal reserves, the government
believes the future of its energy production depends on
diversification.
Experts say that Vietnam is not capable of developing nuclear
technology on its own, even though Hanoi profited during the
1980s from information exchanges with the former Soviet Union.
Some Vietnamese engineers have received training on the rudiments
of nuclear energy by their Soviet counterparts. However,
ultimately any realisation of Vietnam's nuclear dreams depends on
overseas help.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
36 NRC: NRC Schedules Public Presentation and Webcast on March 3 on Three Mile Island Accident, 25 Years
Later
News Release - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200
Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail:
No. 04-023 February 18, 2003
presentation on the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, and how it
changed the course of commercial nuclear power use in this
country, at NRC headquarters on March 3.
The presentation will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the
NRCs auditorium at Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike
in Rockville. It will feature the NRCs Chairman, Nils J. Diaz;
Commissioners Edward McGaffigan and Jeffrey S. Merrifield; the
Executive Director for Operations,William D. Travers; and the
agencys historian, J. Samuel Walker, who has just published the
fourth volume of the NRCs history, Three Mile Island: A Nuclear
Crisis in Historical Perspective. Immediately following the
presentations, there will be a question and answer session for
NRC staff and members of the public.
The discussion will cover some of the accidents key events, as
well as nuclear reactor safety improvements made in response to
lessons learned from the accident, which unfolded from March 28
- April 1, 1979.
Members of the public should plan to arrive early to facilitate
security processing. The entire session will be broadcast live
over the Internet via the NRCs Web site at this address:
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/webcast-live.ht
ml.
Last revised Wednesday, February 18, 2004
*****************************************************************
37 NRC: Notice of Clarification to Steam Generator Tube Integrity Event
FR Doc 04-3441
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices] [Page 7661] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18fe04-79]
Reporting Guideline in NUREG-1022, ``Event Reporting Guidelines
10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73'' AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of clarification in reporting guideline for steam
generator tube integrity event.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to make a
clarification in the reporting guideline for serious steam
generator tube degradation contained within Revision 2 to
NUREG-1022, ``Event Reporting Guidelines 10 CFR 50.72 and
50.73.'' The NRC intends to issue an errata to NUREG-1022,
Revision 2. The purpose of this clarification is to ensure that
the NRC receives timely notification of serious steam generator
tube degradation.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In NUREG-1022, Revision 2, ``Event
Reporting Guidelines 10 CFR 50.72 and 50.73,'' steam generator
tube degradation is characterized in Section 3.2.4(A)(3) as being
seriously degraded if the tubing fails to meet the following two
performance criteria: (A) Steam generator tubing shall retain
structural integrity over the full range of normal operating
conditions (including startup, operation in the power range, hot
standby, and cooldown and all anticipated transients included in
the design specification) and design basis accidents. This
includes retaining a margin of 3.0 against burst under normal
steady state full power operation and a margin of 1.4 against
burst under the limiting design basis accident concurrent with a
safe shutdown earthquake. (B) The primary to secondary accident
induced leakage rate for the limiting design basis accident,
other than a steam generator tube rupture, shall not exceed the
leakage rate assumed in the accident analysis in terms of total
leakage rate for all steam generators and leakage rate for an
individual steam generator.
The licensing basis accident analyses typically assume a 1 gallon
per minute primary to secondary leak rate per steam generator,
except for specific types of degradation at specific locations
where the tubes are confined, as approved by the NRC and
enumerated in conjunction with the list of approved repair
criteria in the licensee's design basis documents. The first
performance criteria is commonly referred to as the structural
integrity performance criteria and the second criteria is
commonly referred to as the accident induced leakage performance
criteria. As written, NUREG-1022, Revision 2 implies that the
principal safety barrier (i.e., the steam generator tubes in this
case) would not be considered seriously degraded if it had either
structural or leakage integrity. This is contradictory to
existing NRC regulations which require, in part, that the reactor
coolant pressure boundary (which includes the steam generator
tubes) be designed to permit periodic inspection and testing of
important areas and features to assess both their structural and
leak-tight integrity (refer to General Design Criterion 32 of
Appendix A to 10 CFR part 50) and be designed and tested so as to
have an extremely low probability of abnormal leakage, of rapidly
propagating failure, and of gross rupture (refer to General
Design Criterion 14 of Appendix A to 10 CFR part 50). The
regulations, therefore, indicate that both structural and leakage
integrity criteria must be satisfied and not meeting either one
of the two performance criteria should constitute serious
degradation of the principal safety barrier. Accordingly, steam
generator tube degradation should be considered serious if either
of the two criteria specified in Section 3.2.4(A)(3) of
NUREG-1022, Revision 2, are not satisfied. The intended
clarification involves changing the wording in Section
3.2.4(A)(3) of NUREG-1022, Revision 2 (page 39) from ``Steam
generator tube degradation is considered serious if the tubing
fails to meet the following two performance criteria'' to ``Steam
generator tube degradation is considered serious if the tubing
fails to meet either of the following two performance criteria.''
The NRC will consider any comments it receives pertaining to this
intended change in NUREG-1022, Revision 2.
DATES: Comment period expires March 19, 2004. Comments submitted
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so,
but assurance of consideration cannot be given except for
comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to the Chief, Rules and
Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of
Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Mail Stop
T6-D59, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and cite the publication date
and page number of this Federal Register notice. Written comments
may also be delivered to NRC Headquarters, 11545 Rockville Pike
(Room T6-D59), Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15
p.m. on Federal workdays. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Samuel Lee at (301) 415-1061 or by E- mail to ssl@nrc.gov, or Ken
Karwoski at (301) 415-2752 or by e-mail to kjk1@nrc.gov. Dated at
Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of February, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
William D. Beckner, Chief, Reactor Operations Branch, Division of
Inspection Program Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-3441 Filed 2-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
38 NRC: Revision of the NRC Enforcement Policy: Correction
FR Doc 04-3442
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices]
[Page 7660-7661]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18fe04-78]
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Policy statement: correction.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------
SUMMARY: This document corrects a notice appearing in the
Federal
Register on January 5, 2004 (69 FR 385)), that clarifies that
enforcement action may be taken against non-licensees for
violations of
the Commission's regulations governing the packaging and
transportation
of radioactive material. This action is necessary to: (1)
Include the
deadline for submitting comments on the Enforcement Policy
revision,
which is March 19, 2004 and (2) correct the methods for
providing
comments.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ren[eacute]e Pedersen, Senior
Enforcement Specialist, Office of Enforcement, U.S.
[[Page 7661]]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, at
(301) 415-
2742 or e-mail rmp@nrc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. The EFFECTIVE DATE entry is corrected to read as follows:
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2004. Submit comments by March 19,
2004.
2. The ADDRESSES entry is corrected to read as follows:
ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief,
Rules
and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services,
Office of
Administration, Mail Stop: T6D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hand deliver comments to: 11555
Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.,
Federal
workdays. Copies of comments received may be examined at the NRC
Public
Document Room, Room O1F21, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD.
You may
also e-mail comments to nrcrep@nrc.gov.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 11th day of February 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Michael T. Lesar,
Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-3442 Filed 2-17-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
39 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Subcommittee Meeting
FR Doc 04-3443
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices] [Page 7659] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18fe04-75]
on Planning and Procedures; Notice of Meeting The ACRS
Subcommittee on Planning and Procedures will hold a meeting on
March 3, 2004, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland.
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance, with the
exception of a portion that may be closed pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
552b(c) (2) and (6) to discuss organizational and personnel
matters that relate solely to internal personnel rules and
practices of ACRS, and information the release of which would
constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows:
Wednesday, March 3, 2004--8:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. The Subcommittee
will discuss proposed ACRS activities and related matters. The
Subcommittee will gather information, analyze relevant issues and
facts, and formulate proposed positions and actions, as
appropriate, for deliberation by the full Committee.
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official,
Mr. Sam Duraiswamy (telephone: 301-415-7364) between 7:30 a.m.
and 4:15 p.m. (ET) five days prior to the meeting, if possible,
so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Electronic
recordings will be permitted only during those portions of the
meeting that are open to the public.
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and
4:15 p.m. (ET). Persons planning to attend this meeting are urged
to contact the above named individual at least two working days
prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes in
the agenda.
Dated: February 11, 2004.
Sher Bahadur, Associate Director for Technical Support,
ACRS/ACNW.
[FR Doc. 04-3443 Filed 2-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
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40 NRC: Sunshine Act; Meetings
FR Doc 04-3553
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices] [Page 7660] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18fe04-76] [[Page 7660]]
Dates: Weeks of February 16, 23; March 1, 8, 15, 22, 2004.
Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
Status: Public and closed.
Matters to be Considered: Week of February 16, 2004 Wednesday,
February 18, 2004 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Status of Office of the
Chief Financial Officer Programs, Performance, and Plans (Public
Meeting) (Contact: Edward L. New, 301-415-5646).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of February 23, 2004--Tentative Wednesday, February 25, 2004
9 a.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). Thursday,
February 26, 2004 9:30 a.m. Meeting with UK Regulators to Discuss
Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). 1:30 p.m. Status of Davis Beese
Lessons Learned Task Force Issues (Public Meeting) (Contact:
Brendan Moroney, 301-415-3974).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of March 1, 2004--Tentative Tuesday, March 2, 2004 9:30 a.m.
Meeting with Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes
(ACMUI) and NRC Staff (Public Meeting) (Contact: Angela
Williamson, 301-415-5030).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Wednesday, March 3, 2004 9:30 a.m. 25th Anniversary Three Mile
Island (TMI) Unit 2 Accident Presentation (Public Meeting)
(Location: TWFN Auditorium, 11545 Rockville Pike) (Contact: Sam
Walker, 301-415-1965).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
2:45 p.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1).
Thursday, March 4, 2004 1:30 p.m. Briefing on Status of Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) Programs,
Performance, and Plans--Waste Safety (Public Meeting) (Contact:
Claudia Seelig, 301-415-7243).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Week of March 8, 2004--Tentative Tuesday, March 9, 2004 9:30 a.m.
Briefing on Status of Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards (NMSS) Programs, Performance, and Plans--Material
Safety (Public Meeting) (Contact: Claudia Seelig, 301-415-7243).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
1:30 p.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex. 1). Week of
March 15, 2004--Tentative There are no meetings scheduled for the
week of March 15, 2004.
Week of March 22, 2004--Tentative Tuesday, March 23, 2004 9:30
a.m. Briefing on Status of Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
(RES) Programs, Performance, and Plans (Public Meeting) (Contact:
Alan Levin, 301-415-6656).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 9:30 a.m. Briefing on Status of Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) Programs, Performance, and
Plans (Public Meeting) (Contact: Mike Case, 301-415-1275).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
Thursday, March 25, 2004 1:30 p.m. Briefing on Status of Office
of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR) Programs,
Performance, and Plans (Public Meeting) (Contact: Jack Davis,
301-415-7256).
This meeting will be webcast live at the Web
address--http://www.nrc.gov .
* The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on
short notice. To verify the status of meetings call
(recording)--(301) 415-1292. Contact person for more information:
Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415-1651.
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the
Internet at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html. * * *
* * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred
subscribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like
to be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition,
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic
message to dkw@nrc.gov. Dated: February 12, 2004.
Dave Gamberoni, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 04-3553 Filed 2-13-04; 9:42 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
41 BDFM: Paris talks to salvage nuclear project
Business Day
A GOVERNMENT delegation is set to hold talks with a French
company in Paris tomorrow in a last-ditch bid to revive the
controversial Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) project.
SA's team led by key players from Eskom and the departments of
trade and industry and minerals and energy is desperate for
French energy giant Areva to come on board as an international
equity partner.
Ironically, government postponed this week's nuclear summit in
Parliament to let it woo Areva into investing the full $1bn
required to build the demonstration unit at Koeberg and a fuel
plant at Pelindaba near Pretoria.
Stakeholders fear the project is in danger of collapsing,
especially after it emerged recently that British Nuclear Field,
which has a 22% stake in the company that oversees the
commercialisation of the mini-nuclear reactor, is on the verge of
filing for bankruptcy.
Two years ago US energy heavyweight Exelon pulled out, but only
after it was instrumental in forcing the pebble bed modular
technology onto the US government's energy agenda. Other
shareholders in the PBMR company include Eskom (30%) and the
state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (25%).
The JSE Securities Exchange SA-listed electronics group IST has a
R260m contract for the design of three key systems for the
full-scale demonstration plant at Koeberg, but is awaiting the
goahead from the minerals and energy department.
President Thabo Mbeki, realising the economic benefits of nuclear
energy, set the ball in motion for talks with Areva during his
state visit with French counterpart Jacques Chirac in October.
Areva is a subsidiary of Framatome, the firm that supplied
nuclear reactors to the Koeberg project, and a global expert in
technological solutions for nuclear energy production and
electricity transmission and distribution.
If the PBMR is proven to be able to produce hydrogen at
commercial levels, it may provide an additional huge source of
revenue. The minireactors too, could play a crucial role in
supplementing future energy requirements, given that SA is
expected to face power shortages from 2007 onwards and is trying
to move away from its high dependence on coal as its main energy
source.
Areva spokesman Patrick Germien confirmed from Paris yesterday
that the South African delegation would meet with its CEO, Anne
Lauvergeon.
He said Lauvergeon was interested in striking a deal with SA, but
the details of that agreement would be fine-tuned only at the end
of the week.
"We believe the PBMR is a very important development and we want
a large agreement with SA, including for electricity
distribution," he said.
Environmentalists were up in arms about the postponement of the
nuclear summit until after the elections, claiming that public
debate had been silenced because government officials wanted to
sneak off for talks with Areva.
Feb 18 2004 07:20:18:000AM Sharda Naidoo Business Day 1st Edition
Thursday 19 February 2004 
Back to the top
*****************************************************************
42 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Championing nuclear power
Today: February 18, 2004 at 9:32:53 PST
A Sun article stated that Nevada does not have enough generation
capacity to support our power needs, therefore we must buy on the
open market. The majority of electric generation in the country
comes from fossil fuels -- natural gas, oil and coal. How long
will this supply last and how much will it cost?
We did not provide price supports for natural gas in the 1970s,
so the majority of the gas drilling rigs were dismantled for
scrap and natural gas was vented. Oil and coal are not
environmentally friendly, but since nuclear power was abandoned
there are few choices left.
We currently import 56 percent of all our gas and oil needs. We
are not becoming less dependent upon fossil fuels and it's
guaranteed that these costs will continue to rise. Fortunately
there are alternatives like wind, solar and nuclear. While the
first two are environmentally attractive, the only proven,
low-cost fuel source is nuclear.
Let's face it, we are not the "silver" state anymore. We are the
nuclear state. Hundreds of above- and below-ground nuclear tests
have been conducted just 70 miles north of Las Vegas. The nuclear
waste repository at Yucca mountain will happen. Nevadans receive
more radiation from the sun than just about anyone living in the
USA.
Why not build a nuclear power plant? All the elements are in
place. Our fast-growing demand for electricity, a need to reduce
energy costs, a need to reduce dependency on fossil fuels,
proximity to a nuclear waste repository, a vast expanse of
uninhabitable land and water from the Colorado River.
RICHARD RYCHTARIK
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43 Ocean County News: Group wants end to N-plant water releases, fish kills
The Press of Atlantic City
February 18, 2004
By JARRETT RENSHAW Staff Writer, (609) 978-2015
OCEAN TOWNSHIP - - New Jersey Public Interest Research Group,
coastal groups and several local fisherman gathered downstream
from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power plant Tuesday to highlight
the plant's history of fish kills.
The meeting was intended to rally opposition to the state
Department of Environmental Protection granting a new thermal
discharge permit to the plant.
"The Oyster Creek Plant has had a history of violating the law
and allowing its pollution to kill thousands of fish in local
waterways," said Doug O'Malley, NJPIRG"s clean water advocate.
The current permit for cooling water intake and thermal
discharges has expired, and Oyster Creek is in the process of
renewing the five-year permit.
The Ocean County plant uses water from the South Branch of the
Forked River to cool its reactor, discharging 1.2 billion gallons
daily of heated wastewater and dilution water into a canal that
flows into Oyster Creek.
The most recent fish kill occurred in the fall of 2002, when due
to an unexpected shutdown of the plant there was a dumping of
heated water that raised the temperature of the water to more
than 100 degrees.
The heated water normally is diluted with cooler water, but plant
operators shut down the dilution mechanism to perform scheduled
maintenance on a transformer, according to newspaper accounts at
the time
The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a
$370,000 fine for the fish kill, which is being appealed by the
owners of the plant.
Fisherman said the warmer water is inviting to anglers because it
attracts larger fish, but said the bad outweighs the good.
"There are more striped bass killed by the plant than New Jersey
fisherman catch in a year and that is wrong," said Tom Fote,
legislative liaison for the New Jersey Anglers Association
Officials from the nuclear power plant were not available for
comment.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, billions of
gallons of heated water are withdrawn annually by cooling water
plants.
Withdrawing so much cooling water pulls many organisms into the
intake structure. The water contains many aquatic organisms,
including fish, shellfish, fish larvae and eggs, sea turtles and
others, that are either killed or injured.
The press conference comes on the heels of an announcement by the
EPA that it has developed a systematic way to address fish kills.
The EPA estimates that the new rule will protect more than 200
million pounds of aquatic organisms annually.
It is unclear whether this new rule applies to Oyster Creek.
To e-mail Jarrett Renshaw at The Press:
JRenshaw@pressofac.com
*****************************************************************
44 Pahrump Valley Times: Bush picks Jaczko
February 18, 2004
PRESIDENT KEEPS DEAL WITH REID
By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday upheld his end of a deal
with Sen. Harry Reid by nominating the Nevadan's chief adviser on
the Yucca Mountain Project to become a top nuclear industry
regulator.
The White House announced that Bush has chosen Gregory B. Jaczko,
a native of Albany, N.Y., to fill a vacancy on the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
If confirmed by the Senate, Jaczko's five-year term would
coincide with when the NRC is expected to weigh applications by
the Department of Energy to license, build and operate a nuclear
waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 50 miles north of Pahrump and
20 miles north and east of Amargosa Valley and Beatty,
respectively.
Reid, who strongly opposes the Yucca program, held up action on
dozens of Bush administration appointees last fall to influence
the White House to put Jaczko's name forward. Jaczko is a
physicist who also teaches at Georgetown University.
Bush finally agreed after Reid extended his blockade to Mike
Leavitt, the former Utah governor who the president wanted to
head the Environmental Protection Agency.
"They said that was the deal they made, and I appreciate them
following through," Reid said Thursday night.
Reid said Jaczko was well qualified to uphold the NRC's mission
to protect public health and safety. The NRC regulates nuclear
reactors, the handling of nuclear substances and nuclear waste
facilities.
"Dr. Jaczko will hold the welfare of the American public in the
highest regard as he functions in his role of overseeing the use
of nuclear materials," Reid said.
Jaczko, 33, faces a Senate confirmation process that is expected
to begin with a hearing before the Environment and Public Works
Committee. A committee spokesman said he was not certain when
nominations will be considered because senators were focused on
passing a highway bill first.
Jaczko would not be made available for comment "while he's being
reviewed and scrutinized," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said.
In a statement, Jaczko called it an honor to be nominated and he
looked forward to serving. He would be one of five NRC
commissioners.
Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said the group
had no immediate comment. Industry officials have opposed Jaczko,
believing he would be biased against the Yucca project from his
association with Reid.
Reid said the nuclear industry shouldn't fear Jaczko, whom he
said would be "fair and impartial."
Reid said he received no promises the White House would support
Jaczko beyond sending his name to the Senate. He said he would be
on the lookout for foot-dragging in the confirmation process.
"I'll be patient for a while," Reid said, while declining to set
a timeline.
Jaczko holds a doctorate in theoretical particle physics with a
minor in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He
is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University lecturing on
arms control, nuclear power and nuclear waste.
Since 2001, Jaczko has been Reid's science policy adviser and his
top aide handling the Yucca Mountain Project, representing the
senator in public presentations against the storage of nuclear
waste in Nevada.
Reid said he did not make Jaczko's opposition to Yucca Mountain a
condition for his nomination.
"I have not asked him to vote against the project and I would
never do so," Reid said. "He will weigh the evidence and he will
find out if it is licensable."
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., early in 2003
proposed Jaczko to fill an NRC vacancy customarily occupied by
the Democrats' choice, but the White House tossed Jaczko back.
As the stalemate continued into the fall, Reid began blocking
Bush nominees to become ambassadors, U.S. prosecuting attorneys
and agency executives, and then Leavitt to head the EPA.
The day the agreement was announced on Oct. 4, Reid lifted his
holds, and most of the Bush nominees were confirmed. Leavitt was
approved later in the month.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
45 REUTERS: China to boost nuclear power as demand soars
Reuters, 02.18.04, 4:22 AM ET
By Chen Aizhu
SINGAPORE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Heady economic growth and a
worsening power shortage is prodding China to hasten the building
of nuclear power plants to fill an energy supply gap in the
world's fastest-growing major economy, Beijing-based experts say.
Beijing has drafted a preliminary plan to quadruple nuclear
power capacity to more than 32,000 megawatts (MW) between 2005
and 2020, or roughly two plants a year. China has built only
eight reactors over the past two decades.
"There are strong signals from the government that encourage the
nuke power sector. The sudden power shortage was the trigger,"
said Liu Changxin, deputy secretary general with the Chinese
Nuclear Society (CNS).
The expansion would boost the share of nuclear energy in China's
power mix to six percent in 2020 from 1.4 percent last year,
sharply below wealthy nations' average of 30 percent.
In early 2003, nuclear power was officially listed for the first
time in the national power sector development plan and placed
under the direct charge of China's super ministry, the State
Development and Reform Commission, experts said.
China runs 6,200 MW at eight nuclear generators all in the east
coast and is building another three, which would bring total
capacity to 8,800 MW by the end of 2005.
The country's electricity demand surged at a sizzling 15.4
percent last year to 1.89 trillion kilowatt hours, driven by 9.1
percent economic growth, stretching the supply system and
plunging 22 out of 31 provinces into brown-outs.
Demand is set to expand about 11 percent this year. Analysts
estimate China's power demand would grow at an annual average of
4.3 percent between 2001 and 2025, the fastest in the world.
SHORTAGES TO WORSEN
State media said shortages would worsen this year and supplies
would not catch up with demand for another two years.
This prompted Beijing to rethink its strategies to grow its
power market, the world's second largest, after the United
States, and divert energy sources from coal, which fires
three-quarters of the 384,500-MW installed capacity.
Beijing is evaluating proposals to build four 1,000 MW plants
costing an estimated $6 billion in east China's Zhejiang and
Guangdong province, but no time frame has been set. Each kilowatt
of capacity could cost around $1,600, an industry source said.
China financed most of the existing plants via international
bank loans based on guarantees from the governments of foreign
suppliers. Future projects are likely to seek more diverse
funding, including corporate bonds and foreign stake holdings,
Liu from CNS said.
Hong Kong's largest power utility, CLP Holdings Ltd, is so far
the only firm outside mainland China that owns a 25 percent stake
in the 2,000-MW Daya Bay nuclear power plant.
The pace of future developments, however, could be slowed by a
debate over where China should source its nuclear power
technologies.
"The argument is over whether China should leap to the most
advanced technology from the U.S., or the less advanced French
know-how which dominates the existing reactors and of which China
has had a firm grasp," Liu said.
He said Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse Electric Co, owned by
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, was among the interested suppliers.
China would have to wait at least two to three years before the
most advanced technology from the United States is transferred to
it, he said.
China imported eight of its 11 existing and planned reactors.
Suppliers include France's Framatome and Electricite de France,
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd as well as from Russia.
Industry experts said China's inland provinces such as Hunan,
Hubei and Sichun aimed to have new nuclear power plants and boost
supplies to help attract investments and boost tax revenues. They
shrugged off worries over nuclear safety, citing its tiny share
in the country's power mix and stringent safety measures set in
plant designs.
"We have excessive concerns over nuclear safety. People have
beach vacations in Japan and France where many nuclear plants are
located nearby," said an official with state-owned China National
Nuclear Corp.
For Factbox-China's nuclear power capacity, please double click
on
Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
*****************************************************************
46 [du-list] Fwd: Isotope analysis shows exposure to depleted
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:49:32 -0800
FYI - I have attached the newspaper report and the abstract from
http://www.health-physics.com
The criteria for the reference group do not seem clear to me from
reading the report and abstract.
There is no correlation with health effects. Of course, what about the
Iraqis who have continued to live in (or down wind or downstream from)
areas where DU had been used.
Charles Jenks, attorney at law
President of the Core Group
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-1633; fax 413-773-7507
charles@mtdata.com
http://www.traprockpeace.org
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Karen Ahern"
> Date: February 18, 2004 2:30:36 PM EST
> Subject: Isotope analysis shows exposure to depleted uranium in Gulf
> War Veterans
>
> Â
> please visit the following links:
> http://members.cox.net/jimmoss/index.htm
> or
> http://www.afn.org/~afn64689/
>
> > From: Jim Moss [mailto:JimMoss@c...]
> > Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 11:01 AM
> > To: Gwvm (gwvm@g...);gulflink@yahoogroups.com
>
> Â
> Â http://currents.ucsc.edu/03-04/01-19/uranium.html
> Â
> Â January 19, 2004
> Â
> Â Isotope analysis shows exposure to depleted uranium in Gulf
> War veterans
> Â
> Â By Tim Stephens
> Â
> Â U.S. veterans who were exposed to depleted uranium during the
> Â 1991 Gulf War have continued to excrete the potentially
> Â harmful chemical in their urine for years after their
> Â exposure, according to a new study published in the journal
> Â Health Physics.
> Â Â
> Â These 30mm munitions (jackets and penetrators) are made with
> Â depleted uranium. Photo courtesy of the United Nations
> Â Environment Program
> Â The study indicates that soldiers may absorb depleted uranium
> Â particles through inhalation, ingestion, or wound
> Â contamination, said Roberto Gwiazda, an environmental
> Â toxicologist at UCSC and lead author of the study.
> Â
> Â Fine particles of depleted uranium are created when munitions
> Â made with the material strike a target. The new study did not
> Â address the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium, a
> Â subject of ongoing debate, but focused on a technique for
> Â detecting past exposure.
> Â
> Â Low concentrations of uranium in the urine are normal due to
> Â ingestion of naturally occuring uranium in food and water.
> Â Depleted uranium is a by-product of the enrichment process
> Â used to make nuclear fuel, in which one isotope of uranium
> Â (235U) is extracted, leaving behind material depleted in that
> Â isotope. Depleted uranium is still weakly radioactive and,
> Â like other heavy metals, can be toxic in high doses. Because
> Â of its high density and other properties, it has been used in
> Â armor-piercing ammunition and in armor for fighting vehicles.
> Â
> Â Gwiazda and Donald Smith, professor of environmental
> Â toxicology, developed a sensitive analytical technique to
> Â detect depleted uranium in urine samples. By measuring the
> Â relative abundances of different isotopes of uranium in the
> Â urine samples, the researchers were able to distinguish
> Â between natural and depleted uranium.
> Â
> Â "This is the only unambiguous way to determine past exposure
> Â and uptake of depleted uranium," Gwiazda said.
> Â
> Â The analysis of samples from Gulf War veterans was performed
> Â in collaboration with the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Depleted
> Â Uranium Follow-up Program, which is assessing, treating, and
> Â monitoring veterans who may have been exposed to depleted
> Â uranium during the war.
> Â
> Â The researchers applied their technique to three different
> groups of Gulf War veterans. The first group of soldiers had
> Â shrapnel in their bodies as a result of "friendly fire"
> Â incidents in which their tanks or armored vehicles were hit
> Â by munitions containing depleted uranium. The second group
> Â consisted of soldiers who did not have shrapnel in them but
> Â were involved in the friendly fire incidents to different
> Â degrees, either because they were in the vehicles that were
> Â hit or because they participated in recovery operations. The
> Â third group was a reference group and consisted of soldiers
> Â who participated in the war but not in combat operations.
> Â
> Â As expected, the soldiers with embedded shrapnel had high
> Â concentrations of uranium in their urine, and the isotope
> Â analysis showed that it was depleted uranium, presumably
> Â being released into their bodies from the shrapnel.
> Â
> Â A more striking finding was the presence of depleted uranium
> Â in the urine of a significant number of soldiers in the
> Â second group, without embedded shrapnel but with potential
> Â exposure through inhalation, ingestion, or wound
> Â contamination. The uranium concentrations detected in this
> Â group were, on average, six times higher than in the
> Â reference group, but were still within the normal range for
> Â the U.S. population. Nevertheless, Gwiazda said, it was
> Â remarkable that the signature of depleted uranium could still
> Â be detected so many years after the exposure.
> Â
> Â "These samples were taken six to eight years later," he said.
> Â The Veterans Affairs (VA) monitoring program has not reported
> Â any findings of clinically significant health effects related
> Â to exposure to depleted uranium, even in the highly exposed
> Â soldiers with embedded shrapnel.
> Â
> Â Any health effects of exposure to depleted uranium may not be
> Â detectable without studying a large number of exposed
> Â individuals. The technique developed at UCSC could be used to
> Â screen a large number of people to identify those with past
> Â exposure to depleted uranium.
> Â
> Â In addition to possible health effects in soldiers exposed
> Â during combat, concerns about depleted uranium include
> Â environmental contamination of battlefield sites. Civilian
> Â populations may be exposed through contact with depleted
> Â uranium fragments and dust left in the soil or with
> Â contaminated military equipment left behind after a conflict.
> Â
> Â "We don't know if that kind of exposure will have any health
> Â effects. But now we have a technique that enables us to
> Â detect past exposure to depleted uranium," Gwiazda said.
> Â
> Â The paper was published in the January issue of Health
> Â Physics. The authors include Katherine Squibb and Melissa
> Â McDiarmid of the University of Maryland School of Medicine,
> Â in addition to Gwiazda and Smith.
> Â
>
>
>
ARTICLE LINKS:
Fulltext  |  PDF (167 K)
Health Physics: Volume 86(1) January 2004 pp 12-18
DETECTION OF DEPLETED URANIUM IN URINE OF VETERANS FROM THE 1991 GULF
WAR
Gwiazda, R. H.*; Squibb, K.†; McDiarmid, M.†; Smith, D.*
*
*Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
95064; †School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.
Manuscript received 3 January 2003;
revised manuscript received 23 May 2003, accepted 26 August 2003
For correspondence or reprints contact: R. H. Gwiazda, University of
California, Environmental Toxicology, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
95064, or email at gwiazda@etox.ucsc.edu.
Abstract
Abstract-: American soldiers involved in friendly fire accidents during
the 1991 Gulf War were injured with depleted-uranium-containing
fragments or possibly exposed to depleted uranium via other routes such
as inhalation, ingestion, and/or wound contamination. To evaluate the
presence of depleted uranium in these soldiers eight years later, the
uranium concentration and depleted uranium content of urine samples
were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in (a)
depleted uranium exposed soldiers with embedded shrapnel, (b) depleted
uranium exposed soldiers with no shrapnel, and (c) a reference group of
deployed soldiers not involved in the friendly fire incidents. Uranium
isotopic ratios measured in many urine samples injected directly into
the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and analyzed at a mass
resolution m /Δ m of 300 appeared enriched in 235U with respect to
natural abundance (0.72%) due to the presence of an interference of a
polyatomic molecule of mass 234.81 amu that was resolved at a mass
resolution m /Δ m of 4,000. The 235U abundance measured on uranium
separated from these urines by anion exchange chromatography was
clearly natural or depleted. Urine uranium concentrations of soldiers
with shrapnel were higher than those of the two other groups, and 16
out of 17 soldiers with shrapnel had detectable depleted uranium in
their urine. In depleted uranium exposed soldiers with no shrapnel,
depleted uranium was detected in urine samples of 10 out of 28
soldiers. The median uranium concentration of urines with depleted
uranium from soldiers without shrapnel was significantly higher than in
urines with no depleted uranium, though substantial overlap in urine
uranium concentrations existed between the two groups. Accordingly,
assessment of depleted uranium exposure using urine must rely on
uranium isotopic analyses, since urine uranium concentration is not an
unequivocal indicator of depleted uranium presence in soldiers with no
embedded shrapnel.
©2004Health Physics Society
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47 [du-list] MOD accepts DU has the potential to cause ill health
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:49:26 -0800
Dear all
this wrning card (see below) was sent out by a Gulf
Veteran, please circulate
cheers
>
> MoD Accept DU has the potential to cause ill health
>
> British Troops serving in Iraq are now being issued
> with an F Med 1018.
>
> Why not before the Iraq war, Balkans or Gulf War?
>
> Are service personnel from other nations aware that
> British Troops carry this warning card?
>
> Are Iraqi Civilians aware of this warning card?
>
> Are Civilians aware of this warning card who around
> the world live near test firing range's.
>
> Copies of this card should be made for the Iraqi
> civilians to turn up at British & American Military
> establishments in Iraq and ask for testing as it was
> the US and the UK that used Uranium Munitions.
>
> Please distribute the faxed, photo-copy of the card
> that was sent to me.
>
> REMEMBER The MoD have always told Gulf War 1 Vet's
> DU IS SAFE another demonstration of an UNTRUTH
>
> It was said that DU was experimental during Gulf War
> 1 - then is this another demonstration of the
> breaking of the Nuremberg Code by observing the
> health effects on the Veterans after the War?
MOD Card:
DU Information Card (introduced 03/03) F Med 1018
You have been deployed to a theatre where Depleted
Uranium(DU) munitions have been used.
DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal, which has the
potential to cause ill health
You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during
your deployment
Further Information
You are eligiable for a urine test to measure uranium.
If you wish to know more about having this test, you
should consult your unit medical officer on return to
your home base.
Your medical officer can provide information about the
health effects of DU.
Information is also available on the MOD web site:
www.mod.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/index.htm
________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping"
your friends today! Download Messenger Now
http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html
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48 [du-list] MoD DU Information Card as a pdf-file
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 19:49:24 -0800
Hi Jonny,
See attachment
Henk
----------------------------------------------------------------------
stichting Laka Laka foundation
documentatie en onderzoeks- documentation and research
centrum kernenergie centre on nuclear energy
Ketelhuisplein 43 Ketelhuisplein 43
1054 RD Amsterdam NL-1054 RD Amsterdam
tel: 020-6168294 Netherlands
fax: 020-6892179 tel: +31-20-6168294
fax: +31-20-6892179
www.laka.org
laka@antenna.nl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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49 First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:28:37 -0600 (CST)
First award for depleted uranium poisoning claim
A Reader, 18.02.2004 19:52
DU has been linked to a leukaemia cluster around the MoD range at
Dundrennan, near the Solway Firth. Communities close to the range show
the highest rate of childhood leukaemia in the UK.
MARTIN WILLIAMS February 04 2004
A SCOTS ex-soldier has become the first veteran to win a pension
appeal after being diagnosed with depleted uranium (DU) poisoning
during the 1991 Gulf war.
A Pension Appeal Tribunal Service hearing in Edinburgh accepted
medical evidence provided by Kenny Duncan, of Clackmannan, previously
dismissed by the MoD, which revealed he had become ill after service
in the Middle East.
Mr Duncan, 35, a driver with 7 Tank Transporter Regiment, helped move
tanks destroyed by shells containing the poisonous dust.
He says he has evidence that his children's health problems are linked
to his service. Kenneth, 10, Andrew, eight, and six-year-old Heather,
have symptoms similar to those suffered by some Iraqi children,
including deformed toes, and low immune systems making them
susceptible to asthma, hay fever and eczema.
Mr Duncan has suffered increasing breathlessness and aching joints
which he has linked to DU.
During the conflict, US and British troops fired an estimated 350
tonnes of DU weapons at Iraqi tanks.
Doctors in southern Iraq have reported a marked increase in cancers
and birth defects, and suspicion has grown that they were caused by DU
contamination from tank battles.
DU has been linked to a leukaemia cluster around the MoD range at
Dundrennan, near the Solway Firth. Communities close to the range show
the highest rate of childhood leukaemia in the UK.
Mr Duncan's appeal was launched after he was awarded only about #40 a
week, half the full pension, when he retired from the Army through ill
health in 1993 after nine years' service. His pension will now be
reassessed.
The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association (NGVFA) said the
tribunal decision added weight to its call for a full independent
inquiry into Gulf war illnesses and supported its view that the
government should do more financially to help the victims.
Mr Duncan's case relied on blood tests carried out by Dr Albrecht
Schott, a German biochemist, which revealed chromosome aberrations
caused by ionising radiation.
Dr Schott's research formed part of a study of 16 British veterans of
conflicts in the Gulf, Bosnia, and Kosovo, which found that they had
14 times the usual level of chromosome abnormalities in their genes,
raising fears that they will pass cancers and genetic illnesses to
their offspring.
The test results were dismissed by the MoD as "neither well thought
out nor scientifically sound".
Mr Duncan said yesterday: "It is just a huge relief to have someone in
authority say that you have been poisoned by this stuff and that you
are not telling lies. It is now time for the MoD to tell us what went
wrong.
"For all those veterans who have been going to the doctor with these
ailments and are being told there is nothing wrong with them, this is
for them, and I hope it will help them.
"I doubt that I will benefit much financially from this, but it wasn't
about the money, it was about the principle of the thing."
The ministry said yesterday: "Once we have seen the decision, we will
consider the implications it might have on the MoD."
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/285613.html
*****************************************************************
50 DenverPost.com: City to remove radium from two more streets
Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Parts of Lafayette, Humboldt targeted
By David Olinger Denver Post Staff Writer
Residents on two more Denver streets soon will see hazardous-
materials crews arrive to remove radium from their roads.
The project to decontaminate streets long tainted with a
radioactive element will move this year to two streets just west
of Cheesman Park. The city plans to remove and replace asphalt on
Lafayette Street, between First and 10th avenues, and on Humboldt
Street, between Seventh and Ninth avenues.
The street project began last year and is expected to last four
more years. When completed, the affected Denver streets will be
removed from the federal Superfund list of hazardous-waste sites,
and contractors will not have to worry about exposure to
radioactive dust during street utility projects.
Ali Sogue, the project manager, outlined this year's cleanup area
at a Denver City Council committee meeting Tuesday. He assured
council members that neighborhood residents will be in no danger
during the removal of low-level radioactive materials.
The work sites will be monitored for radioactivity, he said, and
removed materials will be moistened to prevent dust from escaping
the sites.
"Really, there is no health effect. People have been living there
for years and years and years," he said afterward.
He expects this year's street work to begin in June or July.
Denver was a radium processing center in the early 20th century,
when some waste materials known as "tailings" were used in street
constuction. The federal Environmental Protection Agency located
the tailings in the 1970s and labeled them a Superfund site.
According to Sogue, the contaminated materials are now buried
under new layers of asphalt and exposed only during projects that
require digging into affected streets.
Also Tuesday, Denver council members learned the city wants to
revise its lease with the Denver Newspaper Agency for the
building occupied by the Rocky Mountain News.
The city-acquired building is a potential expansion site for the
Denver jail system.
Derek Brown, a city asset-management official, said the revised
lease would pay the city $150,000 a month beginning in 2005 and
assure a tenant through August 2006, when the city may need the
land as a jail site.
Some council members questioned why the proposed lease would let
the newspaper agency use the building without making lease
payments for another year.
Brown said the newspaper agency is paying now to maintain the
building, and the revision would eliminate a provision permitting
the agency to vacate the building with two months' notice. He
also said commercial lease rates have declined significantly in
downtown Denver, and "we felt it was important to keep them in
the building."
--> All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other
*****************************************************************
51 NRC: Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes: Meeting
FR Doc 04-3444
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices] [Page 7659] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18fe04-74]
Notice AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice
of meeting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will convene a
meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes
(ACMUI) on March 1 and 2, 2004. An announcement of this meeting
was originally made in the January 28, 2004 Federal Register.
However, it is necessary to re-announce this meeting because the
NRC staff has since determined that parts of the meeting must be
closed to the public.
A sample of agenda items to be discussed during the public
sessions includes: (1) Dose Reconstruction Subcommittee Findings
in the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Case; (2) Proposed Changes to
Abnormal Occurrence Criteria; (3) Status of
Rulemaking--Recognition of Specialty Board Certifications; and,
(4) Defining Medical Events Involving Prostate Seed Implants. To
review the agenda, see http://www.nrc.gov/ reading-
rm/doc-collections/ acmui/schedules/2004/ or contact arw@nrc.gov.
Date and Time for Closed Session Meeting: March 1, 2004, from 8
a.m. to 10 a.m. This session will be closed so that NRC staff and
the ACMUI may discuss ethical issues and security-related issues.
Dates and Times for Public Meetings: March 1, 2004, from 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m.; and March 2, 2004, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 1
p.m. to 5 p.m. Date and Time for Commission Briefing: March 2,
2004, from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. The public meetings and the
Commission briefing will take place at the addresses provided
below.
Address for Public Meetings: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Two White Flint North Building, Auditorium, 11545 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, MD 20852-2738.
Address for Commission Briefing: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, One White Flint North Building, Commissioners'
Conference Room 1G16, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD
20852-2738.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angela R. Williamson, telephone
(301) 415-5030; e-mail arw@nrc.gov of the Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
Conduct of the Meeting Manuel D. Cerqueira, M.D., will chair the
meeting. Dr. Cerqueira will conduct the meeting in a manner that
will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. The following
procedures apply to public participation in the meeting: 1.
Persons who wish to provide a written statement should submit a
reproducible copy to Angela R. Williamson, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Two White Flint North, Mail Stop T8F5,
11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-2738. Submittals must
be postmarked by February 23, 2004, and must pertain to the
topics on the agenda for the meeting.
2. Questions from members of the public will be permitted during
the meeting, at the discretion of the Chairman.
3. The transcript and written comments will be available for
inspection on NRC's Web site (http://www.nrc.gov) and at the NRC
Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD
20852-2738, telephone (800) 397-4209, on or about March 22, 2004.
Minutes of the meeting will be available on or about May 3, 2004.
This meeting will be held in accordance with the Atomic Energy
Act of 1954, as amended (primarily Section 161a); the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App); and the Commission's
regulations in Title 10, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, part
7. Dated: February 11, 2004.
Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-3444 Filed 2-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
52 Modesto Bee: Uranium, water and you
Modbee.com
Last Updated: February 18, 2004, 08:55:15 AM PST
My first recollection of "uranium" was tied to things like "bomb
shelters" and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Over the past two years,
the word has returned in a more natural form. Uranium is
prevalent in much of our down-deep soil and is normally not
considered a problem in our daily lives. But, then again, this is
California, so what's "normal?"
The Modesto City Council receives monthly reports about water and
the number of wells that have been taken off-line due to
contaminants. The most recent report identifies 17 wells that
have been taken off-line, of which 10 are due to -- yep --
natural uranium.
The good news is that we have a very effective testing system of
our water so we learn of potential problems early. The bad news
is that the only not-so-cost-effective method for bringing those
contaminated wells back on-line is to blend the water with
cleaner water to get the levels of natural uranium below levels
deemed not in our best interest to swallow.
The other bad news is that removing these wells from service can
cause problems keeping water pressure up to adequate standards.
Bottom line is that we don't know how many more wells will fail
or how fast we will need to supplant their loss.
The city of Modesto and the Modesto Irrigation District are
collaborating to provide clean water through a surface water
treatment facility at Modesto Reservoir. The bad news is our 30
million-gallon-per- day phase two expansion won't be up and
running for a couple of years.
So, what do we do until then? Well, we pull our collective heads
out of the sandy loam and conserve like we did back in the
drought years of the '70s.
Kind of makes you wonder where the coming urban sprawl is going
to get its water. Guess.
DENNIS V. JACKMAN
City councilman
Modesto
Copyright © 2004 The Modesto Bee.
*****************************************************************
53 Xinhuanet: Lost radioactive material found in Shaanxi
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-02-18 12:46:13
BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Authorities sealed off a
steel smelter in Northwest China where a stolen canister of
radioactive Cesium-137 was believed to have been mistaken for
scrap metal and melted, officials said Tuesday.
Police had arrested "quite a few" suspects in the theft of
the radioactive material from a power plant building site, said
officials, who declined to be named.
There has been no indication that authorities believe the
canister was stolen to obtain the Cesium.
The steel plant in Shaanxi Province was evacuated and the
surrounding area sealed off after experts searching for the
Cesium on Friday found radioactive contamination at the plant,
the Huashang Post said.
Authorities say the canister was taken from the building site
about two weeks ago. The smelter is about 65 kilometers away.
Cesium-137, which is used in soil-testing gauges in
construction, explodes if it comes in contact with water and can
cause blood diseases, sterility and birth defects.
(Shenzhen Daily-Agencies)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
54 english.eastday.com: Cesium found, steel plant closed
Shanghai Daily news
Officials in Shaanxi Province yesterday ordered a steel factory
to shut down production and seal up all of its slag and billet
after it melted down a stolen canister of radioactive material.
The material, cesium-137, was stolen from a power plant in the
area on February 6.
Police in the city of Pucheng announced yesterday they have
detained three men in connection with the theft.
Zhang Long, director of Pucheng Public Security Bureau, told a
press conference that the cesium was found in a steel plant in
nearby Fuping County.
After the radioactive material was reported missing from a power
plant building site, police began searching a five-kilometer
radius around the construction site.
Last Saturday, technicians armed with Geiger counters detected
radiation at the steel plant, which often bought scrap metal from
nearby companies, according to police officers.
A later test confirmed the stolen cesium was the source of the
radiation, but police say it had already been smelted by the time
it was discovered.
of the steel-smelting furnaces in the steel plant and some slag
have been contaminated," said Wang Jinxuan who helped identify
the source of the radiation.
He said there are three main areas of radiation in the plant,
including a main smelting furnace and a back-up furnace.
Owing to the high radiation, authorities have banned everyone
from entering the contaminated site.
The Provincial Hygiene Supervision Bureau has ordered all steel
workers who came into contact with the steel-smelting furnaces to
register for a medical check-up with local authorities.
A reporter covering the case for Chinese Business View told
Shanghai Daily yesterday that police believe the suspects, all
local villagers, stole the radioactive material while strolling
around the power plant.
They mistook the football-sized canister filled with cesium-137
for scrap metal, but did not open the container.
A recycling vendor bought it from the farmers and then passed it
on to the steel plant where the deadly substance was finally
smelted, he said.
Police say they are still investigating the case and are trying
to track down several other people who are suspected of coming
into contact with the stolen radioactive goods.
Copyright (C) 2000 www.eastday.com. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
55 Las Vegas SUN: Leukemia panel to convene once more in northern Nevada town
ASSOCIATED PRESS
FALLON, Nev. (AP) - An expert panel involved in extensive
studies of a childhood leukemia cluster in this rural northern
Nevada town presents a final report Monday - and no conclusive
answers are expected.
The studies have been the most intensive ever conducted into a
cancer cluster. Hundreds of experts from at least seven state
and federal agencies were involved, spending millions of
dollars.
Dr. Randall Todd, Nevada state epidemiologist, says that if the
panel finds there is something else to study it will go on - but
"there won't be any new findings announced."
"For those interested in talking to people who were actually
involved with setting up the investigation, (they can) see if
they think it was appropriately conducted," Todd said.
Those at the meeting will include Dr. Thomas Sinks, of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Todd and Dr. Malcolm
Smith of the National Cancer Institute.
In the cancer cluster, 16 children were diagnosed and three have
died since 1997. The last child diagnosed in the cluster lived
in Fallon, moved and was diagnosed elsewhere in July 2002.
Convened three years ago, the panel included experts with
extensive experience in pediatric oncology, health effects of
arsenic and investigation of leukemia clusters.
But the studies turned up no link to high levels of naturally
occurring arsenic in Fallon's municipal water, a pipeline
carrying jet fuel to the Fallon Naval Air Station, local
pesticide spraying, high tungsten levels, an underground nuclear
test conducted 30 miles away about 40 years ago, or other
possible causes.
Martha Framsted, health division public information officer,
said the panel has reviewed the final reports from the CDC and
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Leukemia-case
families were getting the report before its public release.
During the 1960s and '70s, the CDC investigated 108 cancer
clusters around the United States, most of them childhood
leukemia, in hope of proving that a virus, a chemical or some
other contaminant caused the disease.
In the end, they found nothing. If the cases in any single place
shared a source, it could not be detected with the tools medical
investigators had at the time.
In the decades since then, the source of these cancer outbreaks
has remained as much a mystery as ever. Not a single geographic
cluster was ever solved to scientists' satisfaction.
---
On the Web:
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/clusters/Fallon/default.htm
http://health2k.state.nv.us/healthofficer/Leukemia/fallon.htm
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/
--
*****************************************************************
56 Las Vegas SUN: Reid calls for Labor Department investigation
into silicosis situation at Yucca
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid called for a federal
investigation into safety practices at Yucca Mountain Wednesday
after the Energy Department acknowledged it had been aware of
the potential for silica-laden dust to become airborne during
mining operations at the planned nuclear waste site.
"Yucca Mountain workers contracted a fatal illness because DOE
wasn't concerned with safety precautions," said Reid, D-Nev.
"Silicosis is a terrible, deadly disease. It is also 100 percent
preventable."
In a letter sent Wednesday, Reid urged Labor Secretary Elaine
Chao to investigate the possibility of silica exposure at the
Yucca Mountain site, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"The DOE's policy of self-regulation, to the extent it enforced
worker health standards, has apparently failed to ensure the
proper safety of its contractor work force," Reid wrote in the
letter.
A Labor Department spokesman said he could not immediately
comment on Reid's letter, which follows former workers' claims
they contracted chronic lung ailments after inhaling silica
during tunnel excavation between 1994 and 1997.
Joe Davis, a DOE spokesman in Washington, D.C., said Reid was
referring to events that happened a decade ago at the site under
the helm of a contractor who had safety measures in place but
"were not adequately enforced in our opinion."
He emphasized the DOE has been in compliance for the past five
years "with all state regulatory requirements with respect to
air quality at Yucca Mountain" and has set up a silica-screening
program to address health concerns of past and current
employees.
Davis said the DOE welcomes an investigation. He said recent
inspections by the Nevada Environmental Protection Division did
not find any violations of the federal or state Clean Air Acts.
In a letter to Reid on Tuesday, Yucca Mountain project director
Margaret Chu acknowledged the DOE was aware of the presence of
silica and the potential for it to become airborne during mining
operations, which began in 1992, and tunnel boring operations,
which began in 1994.
"Dust masks were provided to workers to protect them from
potential exposures to respirable silica during these early
operations, but their use was not mandatory," Chu wrote. "After
1996, more advanced respiratory protection equipment was
provided, and its use was enforced."
Also Wednesday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that a
former employee of the company that built the exploratory tunnel
at Yucca Mountain claimed she was ordered to falsify reports on
toxic dust levels.
Judy Kallas, who was employed as an industrial hygienist with
Kiewit Construction, made the accusation in October 2002 in an
unrelated gender discrimination case against Bechtel Nevada, the
main government contractor at the Nevada Test Site.
In the deposition, Kallas said a Kiewit supervisor told her in
1996 to alter her field notes to show that silica dust levels
were less than they were in the five-mile, 25-foot diameter
tunnel being built in Yucca Mountain, the site selected to
entomb 77,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive
waste.
--
*****************************************************************
57 Buffalo News - Agency may leave West Valley by 2008
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
News Staff Reporter
2/18/2004
The Department of Energy, the lead agency in the nuclear waste
cleanup at West Valley, plans to leave the Cattaraugus County
site by 2008, according to its new draft statement of projected
work there.
"That's the impression I have," said Paul Piciulo, project
director at West Valley for the DOE's partner in the cleanup, the
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which
has been at odds with the DOE about the site's future.
T.J. Jackson, the DOE's acting director at West Valley, disputed
that the DOE is planning to walk away.
"I think that's a stretch," said Jackson, who conceded that the
plan might be perceived as "a major departure from the perception
that DOE was going to be here forever."
Under a plan DOE officials will detail to a citizens group
tonight, the agency outlines a strategy that would have its
contractor pack and ship away whatever radioactive waste it can
that was generated by the 20-year West Valley Demonstration
Project.
The DOE would walk away, at least temporarily, from the
high-level waste that was removed from corroding underground
tanks and transformed into a more stable glass-like solid. That
waste is being stored in canisters behind the 4-foot-thick walls
of the original nuclear fuel reprocessing building, which was
operated by a private company in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The cleanup of the site has cost at least $2 billion.
The DOE will ship the West Valley canisters to the government's
Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada - if it is
developed and the issue of who will pay the storage fee is
resolved. The earliest projected opening of Yucca Mountain is
2010, although the project still has a number of regulatory
obstacles to overcome.
The underground tanks at West Valley would remain in place, as
would the original reprocessing center, an underground ground
water plume contaminated with strontium and a 5-acre federally
licensed radioactive waste dump.
"The tanks are not closed (and) we know that's a DOE
responsibility," Jackson said. "We're working on the final
closure environmental impact statement, which will tell us when
we're done how to close the tanks."
Jackson said the DOE also plans to decontaminate the interior of
the old repro cessing building, which is "more than DOE ever said
it was going to do."
But the ground water plume and the dump, he contended, are not
the responsibility of the federal government under the provisions
of the federal law that established the project.
The DOE's plan is not acceptable, said a spokesman for Rep.
Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, who grew up about five miles from
the site in Springville.
"My boss has made clear to (Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham) on
down that when it comes to nuclear waste, we consider that the
federal government's responsibility," spokesman Michael Brady
said.
It's also not acceptable to the Coalition on West Valley Nuclear
Wastes, which prefers the nuclear waste on the site be exhumed
and placed in aboveground storage for eventual removal.
"The DOE has taken quite a turn and it seems as though they want
no responsibility for the remaining cleanup," said coalition
campaign director Seth Wochensky. "One could argue they're
shirking their responsibility under the West Valley Demonstration
Project."
Piciulo was more blunt. "This is not, in our view, going to
complete all the department's responsibilities under the act," he
said.
e-mail: jbonfatti@buffnews.com
Copyright 1999 - 2004 - The Buffalo News
*****************************************************************
58 Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes eyemore waste -- everyday trash
February 18, 2004
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
A Utah waste company has signed up with the Skull Valley
Band of Goshute Indians to use their reservation to dispose of
household waste from Tooele and Salt Lake counties.
Dubbed the "Tekoi Balefill," the proposed project is moving
fast: The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is weighing
environmental impacts at the site, where up to 62 million tons
of garbage would be buried on 500 acres over the next 25 years,
with an optional 25-year extension. The landfill would be tucked
in the Cedar Mountains, south of the site proposed for
high-level nuclear waste storage and out of sight of the Goshute
village, where about 30 people live.
The venture would be a new disposal site for nonhazardous,
nonradioactive garbage and economic opportunity for the tiny
tribe.
Project spokesman Steve Handy said the Goshutes could expect
at least $15,000 a month in rent and royalties once the venture
was fully operational. Up to 20 workers would help build it and
14 would operate it.
"This is a win for the Goshute Band, a win for the
environment and a win for the burgeoning population and
businesses of Salt Lake and neighboring counties," Handy said.
Handy represents the CR Group, a limited liability
corporation based in Sandy that operates Metro Waste and Metro
Waste Recycling. Handy and LaVarr Webb, a partner in a Salt Lake
City consulting firm, are listed as lobbyists for the CR Group
on Utah's Capitol Hill.
On Friday, the BIA) began circulating a draft environmental
impact statement on the project. The agency will be taking
public comments through March 29.
Plans are to haul 2-ton bales of compacted garbage to the
Goshute reservation from the Metro and Ace transfer stations in
the Salt Lake Valley. The bales would be stacked up to 143 feet
high in 28, 17-acre cells lined with protective material.
The landfill, like the controversial nuclear waste facility,
would not be regulated by the state because it is on the
reservation, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
would have only a small oversight role.
"Even though the EPA has some authority, the ultimate
authority will be the tribal EPA," said Amy Heuslein, the BIA's
regional environmental protection officer.
The tribe plans to hire a consultant to help design, build
and operate the landfill.
Beyond finalizing the environmental review, the tribe and CR
Group must get final BIA approval on the lease, and an
affirmative vote of tribal members.
Tribal Chairman Leon Bear did not respond to calls seeking
comment on the proposed deal. Nor did Lori Skiby, who is listed
as tribal vice chairwoman and director of the Goshutes' EPA
office.
Bear is under federal indictment for embezzlement and tax
fraud. He and the tribe also face a federal court summons over
their involvement in a tax shelter scheme.
"It's an unfortunate distraction," said Handy. "But it has
nothing to do with this project."
fahys@sltrib.com
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
59 News Journal: EPA changes rules to reduce fish kills
www.delawareonline.com : The
From staff reports 02/18/2004
The Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules Tuesday
aimed at drastically reducing fish kills from power plant cooling
water intakes, including a massive generating station along the
Delaware River.
Some 550 plants nationwide would have to consider overhauls to
improve protection at their intakes for fish and other aquatic
life. Federal officials estimated the measure eventually would
cost $400 million a year, while protecting more than 200 million
pounds of fish and other organisms from being drawn into pumps or
fatally trapped on intake screens.
Among the sites covered is the massive 3-billion-gallon a day
Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station operation opposite
Augustine Beach. Nuclear utility officials have paid millions to
New Jersey and Delaware as compensation for killing the
equivalent of hundreds of millions of fish every year.
Similar rules for other industry cooling-water users, including
the more than 400 million gallon-per-day operation at the Motiva
Enterprises Delaware City Refinery, are scheduled to be approved
in November.
Power plants would have years to meet the requirements announced
Tuesday, and could seek additional time for needed studies to
design the improvements.
US][SEARCH] Copyright ©2004, The News Journal.
*****************************************************************
60 Las Vegas RJ: Study downplays dangerof storing radioactive fuel
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Power plants can safely keep more spent rods in pools beside
reactors By JOHN HEILPRIN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials say risks
from storing more used radioactive fuel rods from nuclear power
plants underwater in adjacent pools are less than previously
thought.
Farouk Eltawila, who directs the commission's division of
systems analysis and regulatory effectiveness, told a National
Academy of Sciences panel last week that "previous NRC studies
are overly conservative" and don't "take advantage of all the
work that we have done the past 25 years."
The new study, which has not been peer-reviewed, shows more
spent fuel rods can be stored safely in pools of water next to
reactors and that the storage facilities are well protected
against potential terrorist attacks, Eltawila said.
The pools typically are about 25 feet wide by 20 feet high,
constructed to allow for convective cooling and with racks for
storing the rods.
Implications of the new study are that power companies would
not have to spend money transferring the fuel rods to dry
storage casks until they can be buried at a permanent repository
under construction at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
"Not only does it cost too much, it's not necessary," said John
Vincent of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top
trade group.
A Nevada official said the report underscores that spent fuel
can be kept safely at nuclear power plants for longer periods,
and there should be no rush to ship it to a repository planned
for Yucca Mountain.
"There's no need to hurry here. They have time to find a good
repository," said Bob Loux, executive director of the state
Agency for Nuclear Projects.
State officials maintain Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of
Las Vegas, is unsuited for nuclear waste storage. They say the
Bush administration used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, as a reason to speed repository development, arguing that
spent fuel was not safe at utility sites.
Loux said the NRC study's conclusion that nuclear waste could
be secured if kept on site weakens that argument. He said agency
officials said several years ago that waste would be safe for as
long as 200 years at power plants.
"Our perception is it's never really been a problem," Loux said
of spent fuel stored at reactors. "The Energy Department made it
a problem to manufacture support."
Princeton University professor Frank von Hippel called the
study's conclusion an attempt to save electric power companies
billions of dollars. He said allowing more high-density storage
of nuclear waste will only heighten the terrorism risks.
"It's very sad," said von Hippel, a frequent critic of the
nuclear industry and its regulators. "The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has been captured by the industry."
The National Academy panel is meeting this week to review the
safety and security of commercial nuclear spent fuel until a
permanent repository at Yucca Mountain is completed sometime
during the next decade.
The Stephens Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
61 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Falsified dust data alleged
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Ex-worker says supervisor told her to change notes on levels in
tunnel By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
A former employee of the company that built the exploratory
tunnel at Yucca Mountain has testified she was ordered to
falsify her reports on toxic dust levels in the tunnel where
workers say they contracted lung diseases.
Judy Kallas, formerly an industrial hygienist with Kiewit
Construction, made the claim in an October 2002 deposition in an
unrelated gender discrimination case against Bechtel Nevada, the
main government contractor at the Nevada Test Site.
In the deposition, which the Review-Journal obtained Tuesday,
Kallas said a Kiewit supervisor told her in 1996 to alter her
field notes to make them reflect that silica dust levels were
less than they were midway through the Department of Energy
effort to complete the five-mile, 25-foot diameter tunnel
through Yucca Mountain.
"Yeah, I did complain. Mostly not because the silica dust was so
thick, it's because he was making me change my field notes that
showed that they should have been wearing respirators when they
weren't," Kallas said in the deposition.
Yucca Mountain is the volcanic-rock ridge, 100 miles northwest
of Las Vegas, where the government plans to entomb 77,000 tons
of spent nuclear fuel and highly radioactive waste in a maze of
smaller tunnels that will stretch for 155 miles deep inside the
mountain.
Kallas' deposition adds to a list of allegations about health
and safety practices at the Yucca Mountain Project that former
tunnel workers asserted in late January.
Workers blame chronic lung ailments on inhaling dust laden with
silica including a cancer-causing fibrous mineral, erionite, and
a sister mineral, mordenite, during the tunnel excavation from
1994 to 1997.
Kiewit officials did not return a phone call made late Tuesday
to company headquarters in Nebraska.
A spokesman for the Department of Energy, the agency in charge
of the project, had no comment.
Kallas was fired on Aug. 9, 1996, after having worked about four
months for Kiewit at Yucca Mountain. A copy of her employee
profile states she was fired for "disregard of authority and
directions of supervisor."
But Kallas contends she was retaliated against for complaining
that her superiors ordered changes to her reports about worker
health and safety concerns.
"Whenever we would have field notes when we were in the tunnel
and we would take notes about different things, the levels of
silica and stuff, we would bring our field notes back in,"
Kallas said in her deposition.
"And you don't change your field notes. Whatever you get on your
samples is what it is. He would make me change my field notes,"
she said, referring to supervisor Barry C. McNeill.
"So when the silica levels were high and you were supposed to
slap respirators on these people, they weren't doing it. Then
when they finally did do it, they would put these little
respirators on (so) that after you had them on for 20 minutes
they would not seal against your face," she said in the
deposition.
McNeill, reached late Tuesday by telephone at his Las Vegas
home, confirmed that he had worked for Kiewit during the Yucca
Mountain tunneling effort.
Asked about Kallas' claims that he ordered her to change her
field notes about the dust levels in the tunnel, McNeill said,
"I have no knowledge of that."
Asked to comment on the dust conditions in the tunnel, McNeill
said, "I've seen the movie 'Absence of Malice,' and I have no
comment at this time." He was referring to the 1981 drama
starring Paul Newman and Sally Field.
Attorney Adam Levine, who represents Kallas in the gender
discrimination lawsuit, said his client gave her deposition more
than one year before workers publicly stated their health
problems were because of elevated dust levels in the tunnel.
"She has no stake in the case of silicosis and would have no
reason not to tell the truth," Levine said.
Gene Griego, a Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory employee
who blames his declining lung capacity on inhaling dust when he
worked as a tunnel supervisor, said the deposition confirms
workers' fears that they were not told the truth about the air
quality in the tunnel.
"The workers were never told what was actually in the rock we
were mining," Griego said Tuesday, "and when they did admit
there was silica and when they implemented the respirator
program, they implemented a silica awareness program. But, they
never mentioned the zeolites, the erionite and the mordenite.
They kept that a secret."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
62 Chilicothe Gazette: 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
Copyright ©2004 Chillicothe Gazette. All rights
*****************************************************************
63 WOWT: Dump Woes Continue
Nebraska likely to appeal
Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns says the state will likely appeal
a ruling Wednesday in a nuclear waste lawsuit that could cost
$151 million.
That judgment was imposed for blocking construction of a
low-level radioactive waste dump in the state.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld an
earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln.
Kopf ruled that former Governor Ben Nelson, now a U.S. senator,
engaged in a politically motivated and orchestrated plot to keep
the dump from being built in Nebraska.
Kopf said Nelson's office "directly interfered with the
regulatory process."
"Frankly, I cannot conceive of a stronger case of bad faith in
the performance of a contract," Kopf said.
The dump was to hold waste from Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas,
Louisiana and Oklahoma, which joined in 1983 to form the Central
Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact.
The state could ask the entire 8th Circuit to rehear the case,
which is expected by many to end up before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Commission attorney Alan Peterson was traveling and could not
immediately be reached for comment.
Nebraska officials argued that they refused to license the dump
because of concerns over possible pollution and a high-water
table at the proposed site in Boyd County near the South Dakota
border.
The court rejected those claims.
"The governor had campaigned on a pledge to block construction of
the disposal facility, and an inference of bias against the
facility may be drawn from his early hiring decisions for several
important positions related to the disposal facility," wrote
Judge Diane Murphy. "The record shows that the administration
began to develop and implement a plan to undermine the licensing
process."
Nelson did not immediately return a call to his office Wednesday
seeking comment.
The court also rejected Nebraska's contention that Kopf was wrong
to reject the state's request for a jury trial.
Kopf refused to seat a jury for the case partly because its
members would be made up of taxpayers who ultimately would have
to pay the bill if Nebraska lost the case.
Kopf said the law does not allow jury trials in disputes between
states.
Utilities that generate radioactive waste filed the lawsuit,
accusing Nebraska officials of acting in bad faith by not
licensing the facility in 1998. Other states in the waste compact
later joined the lawsuit.
The battle had its genesis in 1970, when Nevada, South Carolina
and Washington grew tired of accepting low-level radioactive
waste from the rest of the country.
Congress told states in 1980 to build their own dumps or join
regional groups to dispose of the waste, which includes
contaminated tools and clothing from nuclear power plants,
hospitals and research centers.
The other states in the Central Interstate compact voted in 1987
to put the dump in Nebraska.
The fight began soon after, with both sides wrestling in court on
several issues.
Gray MidAmerica TV Interactive Media, LLC
Copyright © 2002-2004
*****************************************************************
64 TheOmahaChannel: Nebraska Must Pay $151 M Nuke Award
Contact KETV 7 [TheOmahaChannel.com] [News]
POSTED: 2:27 pm CST February 18, 2004
Nebraska has lost its appeal of a ruling that it pay $151 million
for blocking construction of a five-state dump for low-level
radioactive waste.
The ruling came Wednesday from the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
The state had asked for a reversal of a lower court's damage
award. It also challenged the judge's refusal to have a jury
trial.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf had ruled that former Gov.
Ben Nelson orchestrated an effort to keep the dump out of
Nebraska. The dump was to hold waste from Arkansas, Kansas,
Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The states joined in 1983 to
form the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact.
Gov. Mike Johanns called the ruling a setback for the state in
its defense of a low-level radioactive waste lawsuit.
"Today's ruling is very disconcerting," Johanns said in a press
release. "With that said, after having spent approximately $25
million defending against this lawsuit and with so much at stake,
it seems to me that it would be prudent to continue to exhaust
our right to appeal."
Read court's decision.
Copyright 2004 by TheOmahaChannel.com. The Associated Press
*****************************************************************
65 Japan Times: Tepco chief seeks OK to store nuke waste in Mutsu
Thursday, February 19, 2004
AOMORI (Kyodo) The president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. asked
Aomori Prefecture on Wednesday for permission to set up the
nation's first interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in
the city of Mutsu by 2010.
Although Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura, who met with Tepco chief
Tsunehisa Katsumata, did not give an immediate go-ahead,
Katsumata told reporters after the meeting the utility believes
it will be possible to start operating the facility as planned.
Amid local worries that the storage facility will become
permanent, Mimura said the prefecture will first examine whether
the reprocessing plant now under construction in the village of
Rokkasho will prove safe.
Interim storage facilities are planned to store spent nuclear
fuel until it is reprocessed.
"We will start considering the interim storage facility after
first assessing the soundness, quality guarantees and other
measures to start the operation of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.'s
reprocessing facility in Rokkasho," Mimura told reporters.
Katsumata accepted Mimura's position, saying, "An interim
storage facility will make sense only when the construction and
operation of the reprocessing plant goes smoothly."
This would be consistent with Tepco's plan to open the storage
facility by 2010, he suggested.
Mutsu Mayor Masashi Sugiyama announced in June plans to allow
the project in the city, which is located near Rokkasho.
According to Tepco, the facility will store about 5,000 tons of
spent nuclear fuel for 50 years, and discussions on how to remove
the fuel afterward will be held with local governments by the
40th year of its operation.
The Japan Times: Feb. 19, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
66 Pahrump Valley Times: Reality repository
February 18, 2004
The Nuclear Test Site began operations in Nye County on Jan 27,
1951. From 1951 to 1992 there were 100 nuclear tests above
ground, and 828 below ground. It hardly seems appropriate to
blame George W. Bush for our problems; he was only 5 years old in
1951.
Nevadans have a right to be concerned about the dumping of
high-level nuclear waste at the Yucca Mountain Repository, but it
will become a reality regardless of our objections.
Ask yourself: Can Nevada achieve a majority of votes in the
Senate and House to designate another location for the needed
waste dump? Or will legislators of the other 49 states, with 99
percent of the lawmakers, decide no new contamination in Iowa,
Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, etc., is preferable to the rights of
the Silver State?
Dreamers hope the courts will prohibit dumping in Nevada, but
judges are pragmatic and realize the accumulated waste of this
nation must be dumped somewhere. If it should become necessary to
change the law to permit dumping in Nevada, how long will
legislators hesitate?
Like it or not, Yucca Mountain is a reality - not New Mexico,
Texas, or any other location. It is time Nevada lawmakers quit
wasting tax dollars on legal maneuvers doomed to failure and turn
their attention to insuring this state has a strong voice to
administer the transport and storage of nuclear waste, as well as
compensation by the federal government for making Nevada the
dumping ground of the nation.
If they want my vote, quit beating this dead horse because it is
an election year and politically correct to be 'anti-dump.' Wake
up and smell the coffee!
Do everything possible to gain an advantage from this bad
situation for the Nevadans who voted for you.
W. E. LOPEZ CRYSTAL
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2003
*****************************************************************
67 Nevada Appeal: A canticle for Yucca Mountain
www.nevadaappeal.com Wednesday, February 18, 2004
BY MICHON MACKEDON For the Appeal
In 1957, a science fiction author named Walter M. Miller Jr.
published "A Canticle for Leibowitz." The book is set in the New
Mexican desert sometime ages and ages hence, in approximately
3000 A.D.
A band of monks has assumed the task of preserving the few words
remaining from the 20th century, written in a language the monks
call "Pre-deluge English." They are thought to contain sacred
keys to the lost culture of the past, a time before "The Deluge,
the Fallout, the plagues, the madness, and the confusion of
tongues."
Brother Francis takes the preservation duty especially seriously
and has copied the ancient words onto lambskin, creating
beautiful illuminated manuscripts. The reader is eventually let
in on a tragic, cosmic joke. The most highly prized holy relic
has been transcribed from a torn piece of paper, on which was
scribbled in the (ancient) text, "Pound pastrami. Can Kraut, six
bagels - bring home for Emma."
I often think quite literally and specifically about those monks
in the desert and their disconnected and fragmentary knowledge
of past languages and culture, making connections between images
from the book and Nevada's nuclear waste dilemma.
A few years back, the Department of Energy assembled a think
tank at the Sandia Laboratory in New Mexico to consider
communications issues related to warning others across eons of
time about permanent radionuclide burial sites. The think tank
included physicists, anthropologists and linguists. They were
asked to consider ways of marking nuclear repositories with
symbols or words which might, in their studied opinions, warn
others about the buried waste in, say, the year 11,992 A.D.
The results were startlingly devoid of imagination and
conviction. One team designed a Landscape of Thorns; another
designed a Message Kiosk with warnings in seven languages,
including English and Mescalero Apache; a third designed a
Menacing Earthworks composed of 1,000-foot-long lightning-shaped
earthen berms.
We might as well leave behind a scrap of paper with a shopping
list.
The Sandia exercise provides just one example of the intricate
relationship between the necessity to safely isolate nuclear
wastes and time itself. Even in the Yucca Mountain cases
recently argued by the state of Nevada in Washington, D.C.,
before the District of Columbia Federal Appeals Court, time
emerged as the most interesting issue under debate.
One case was focused on the current Environmental Protection
Agency standard for radiation releases at the proposed Yucca
Mountain site. Nevada argued that the current EPA regulation is
in violation of the law The regulation holds the DOE to
designing a repository which will meet radioactive release
standards for 10,000 years. Nevada, supported by data produced
by National Academy of Science, has called for new regulations
which will ensure that radiation releases meet the standard for
300,000 years, at which time the proposed repository (if it
operates as designed) will release radionuclides in peak
quantities, delivering what is called a "peak dose" to the
surrounding populations.
If the court requires EPA to rewrite the regulation to account
for 300,000 years of radiation release, Nevada's opposition to
the repository will gain muscle, since the DOE has basically
confessed that it is impossible to design and build canisters
which will last beyond 10,000 years. The DOE reliance on
canisters to store the waste underscores the fact that it has
given up on the mountain itself to isolate the waste, an ironic
reversal given the fact that the original nomination of Yucca
Mountain was based on "strong evidence" that the mountain itself
would provide a permanent and impervious waste barrier.
The strong evidence has since crumbled under intense
investigation of the not-so-impervious properties of the
mountain, leaving the DOE now asserting that manmade barriers
will do the trick.
But the EPA rule raises other time-related issues that can't be
settled in a court of appeals. For example, I question the very
assumption that radiation releases from a proposed repository
can be predicted over time, whether 10,000 years or 300,000
years, especially when considering that the computer models
generating the predictions have been programmed not by gods but
by mere men and women, some of whom maybe vested in the outcome
of the program.
I question the assumption that we can predict the future,
period. Earthquakes, volcanoes, deluges, cataclysmic social
upheavals (the confusion of tongues) may - or may not - take
place near the site. How can a computer model give us the
confidence to stake our future on the "may not"?
So, what do we do as a state and as a nation? First, I recommend
that we buy more of the word in question, that is time, rather
than rely on the assumptions and predictions inherent in the
Yucca Mountain plan. Let's leave the waste where it is for now,
adopting a public policy supporting and funding the dry-cask
storage method accepted by almost all concerned parties as safe
for at least 100 years.
That (small amount of) time will most likely bring technological
breakthroughs which will solve the problems rather then patching
them with predictions. It seems to me that if we can litigate
the issue of radioactive releases over 300,000 years, then we
can certainly afford to take a little more time to study the
problem further.
Michon Mackedon has served as vice chairwoman of the Nevada
Commission on Nuclear Projects since 1986 and as a Western
Nevada Community College professor of English for over 2O years.
She lives and teaches in Fallon.
*****************************************************************
68 AU ABC: Inquiry rejects nuclear waste transport plan.
18/02/2004.
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
Green groups say Riverina councils in southern NSW had a win
yesterday when a state parliamentary inquiry rejected a federal
plan to transport nuclear waste through the region.
Councils in Wagga Wagga, Leeton, Narrandera and Hay were among
17 who objected to the proposal to transport 130 truckloads of
waste through the region on its way from Sydney to South
Australia.
Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner Loretta O'Brien
says there is still a fight ahead in persuading the Federal
Government to drop the plan.
"We've still got a Federal Government that says they'll push
ahead with the proposal," she said.
"I think that it's really important now that the NSW Government
actually gets behind [the] community and uses its force to
actually prevent this proposed transport and dumping of nuclear
waste."
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
69 KLAS: Ex-Nuke Panel Expert Warns of Yucca Mt.
February 18, 2004
(Feb. 18) -- The nation's nuclear waste dump proposed for Nevada
is poorly designed and could leak highly radioactive waste, a
scientist who recently resigned from a federal panel of experts
on Yucca Mountain told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Paul Craig, a physicist and engineering professor at the
University of California-Davis, said he quit the panel last month
so he could speak more freely about the waste dump's dangers.
Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is planned
to begin receiving waste in 2010. Some 77,000 tons of highly
radioactive waste at commercial and military sites in 39 states
would be stored in metal canisters underground in tunnels.
"The science is very clear," Craig told AP in an interview before
his first public speech about the Energy Department's design for
the canisters.
"If we get high-temperature liquids, the metal would corrode and
that would eventually lead to leakage of nuclear waste," Craig
said.
"Therefore, it is a bad design. And that is very, very bad news
for the Department of Energy because they are committed to that
design," he said.
Craig, who was appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review
Board by President Clinton in 1997, planned to speak Wednesday
night at a forum sponsored by the Sierra Club. He said he's
convinced the Energy Department will have to postpone the project
and change to metal less liable to corrode.
"It would require years of delay and my guess is that is what is
going to happen. The bad science is so clear they will be unable
to ignore it forever," Craig told the AP.
The 11-member technical review board outlined its concerns about
the potential for corrosion in a report to the Energy Department
in November about the metal for the canisters, called Alloy-22 --
"an upscale version of stainless steal," Craig said.
It was the most important report the board has produced since
Congress created the panel in 1987, he said, but largely has been
ignored by Congress and the department.
"The report says in ordinary English that under the conditions
proposed by the Department of Energy, the canisters will leak,"
Craig said. "It was signed by every single member of the board so
there would be no confusion."
Energy Department spokeswoman Gayle Fisher in Las Vegas said the
agency had no immediate comment. In Washington D.C., a spokesman
for the industry's Nuclear Energy Institute did not immediately
return telephone calls seeking comment.
The board's report in November said the government had failed to
take into account "deliquescence" -- a phenomenon regarding the
reaction of salt to moisture -- in its plans to operate the dump
at temperatures well above boiling water, or about 200 degrees.
At those temperatures, the metal canisters would heat up, causing
salts in the surrounding ground to liquefy, thus leading to
corrosion, Craig said.
"It turns out the metals which look like they act pretty good at
temperature levels below boiling water -- those same metals act
badly with temperatures that could exist" at Yucca Mountain, he
said.
Craig, who also has served as a member of National Academy of
Sciences National Research Council Board on Radioactive Waste
Management, said he sent his resignation letter to the White
House in January before his term was to expire in April so he
could shine more light on the government's plans.
"When you serve as a member of one of those boards, you cannot
talk about the political consequences of the science or the big
picture. You are supposed to stick to the science and you should
stick to the science," Craig said.
"You cannot have the kind of conversation we are having now if I
was still on the board."
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2004 WorldNow and KLAS. All
Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
70 Yucca Mountain Update: Volume 2 Issue 2 ~ February 17, 2004
[Yucca Mountain Update -- A Publication of the State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects] Volume 2 Issue 2 ~ February 17, 2004
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
IN THIS ISSUE...
- A tale of two realities: Yucca Mountain and its implications
for Nevada
- Yucca Mountain critic Paul Craig to speak Feb. 18 at Sierra
Club meeting in Reno, Nev.
- Outrage of the Week
A tale of two realities: Yucca Mountain and its implications for
Nevada
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the
age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were
all going direct the other way ... .”
The famous opening line in Charles Dickens' classic novel, A Tale
of Two Cities, speaks to the extreme dichotomies that make up our
experience of the world – and of a particular place and time –
and how one’s experience depends very much one’s vantage point.
Recent news articles regarding a University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER) report on
supposed economic benefits of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear
waste dump for Southern Nevada present the State of Nevada with
an example of economic polarity with some Dickensonian
characteristics.
On the one hand, there is a UNLV report that paints a rosy
picture of jobs and revenue to be derived from an otherwise
noxious and unwanted facility – something akin to making a silk
purse out of the proverbial sow’s ear. On the other hand is
another report, done just two years earlier by the same UNLV
group, which depicts the economic impacts of Yucca Mountain in an
extraordinarily negative, even disastrous, light.
So how is it that the UNLV people can see Yucca Mountain as both
the best of times and the worst of times – at the same time? In
the words of another famous, albeit anonymous, observer of human
folly, "Follow the money."
The report painting the bright economic picture was paid for by
the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain project. The
report showing the serious economic risks and costs of the
federal program was commissioned and sponsored by the Clark
County Nuclear Waste Division as part of the county’s assessment
of Yucca impacts.
In the overly-rosy report prepared for DOE, UNLV concluded that
not only was Yucca Mountain good for Nevada’s economy in the long
run, but to halt the project now would mean that economic losses
to the current economy “would be substantial.”
By contrast, in the report paid for by Clark County, the same
UNLV folks warned, “The transportation of nuclear waste [even]
without an accident or spillage of radioactive material through a
large urban community will have adverse impacts on a community
such as Las Vegas which depends on travel and tourism for its
economic livelihood. The maximum economic impact of a
transportation accident … is devastating to any community,
especially one which depends upon travel and tourism as its
economic engine.”
z So which is right? You be the judge. In the DOE report, UNLV
concluded that Yucca Mountain would bring 3,650 jobs to Nevada,
accounting for an average of $131 million per year in additional
real disposable income. In the 2001 Clark County report,
however, UNLV found that, even in a scenario where no
transportation accidents occur, Yucca Mountain would mean a net
loss of almost 5,400 jobs and an annual loss of disposable income
of $282 million. In the event of a serious shipping accident,
more than 50,000 jobs could be lost due to the resultant
disruption to the area’s economy, with an average annual drop in
disposable income of $686 million.
Property values along transportation routes are projected to
decrease an average of 3.5 percent in Clark County, even without
an accident occurring. In the event of an accident or serious
incident, losses in real market value could be between $5.6
billion and $8.8 billion just in Cark County, with additional
declines in Washoe and Elko counties of $2 billion and $129
million respectively.
The tale told by the Clark County report is a far more accurate
portrayal of how Yucca Mountain will impact Nevada than the
unrealistically rosy picture painted by the DOE-funded study.
Reams of research by the State of Nevada and independent social
scientists and economists from around the country have
consistently found that the costs and risks of the Yucca Mountain
project far outweigh any transient economic and employment
benefits that might accrue from the program.
The unanswered question in all of this is why UNLV didn’t attempt
to factor the findings of the report it did for the county into
the DOE report. The answer seems obvious: You can’t paint a
rosy picture when the negative impacts are as great as they are
for Yucca Mountain, and DOE was paying for a rosy portrayal.
It is no coincidence that no other state in the country wants the
nuclear repository project. And it is no mystery why the federal
government is going to such great lengths to jam it down Nevada’s
collective throat.
To paraphrase Dickens, it is a far, far better thing to
recognize that Yucca Mountain represents an unacceptable and
potentially catastrophic risk for Nevada, both in terms of the
negative impacts for Nevada’s economy and to the health and
safety of its citizens, and to continue the fight to assure this
facility never sees the light of day.
Yucca Mountain critic Paul Craig to speak Feb. 18 at Sierra Club
meeting in Reno, Nev.
Paul Craig, who recently resigned from the U.S. Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board (NWTRB) and has since been speaking out
about the design flaws of the proposed Yucca Mountain project,
will be the guest speaker at a Nevada Sierra Club community
discussion Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Bartley Ranch Interpretive
Center, 6000 Bartley Ranch Rd., in Reno, Nev.
Appointed to the NWTRB by President Clinton in January 1997,
Craig submitted his resignation to President Bush effective Jan.
19. Since leaving the NWTRB, Craig – a Professor of Engineering
Emeritus at the University of California, Davis – has become an
outspoken critic of the federal government’s plan to store
77,000 cubic tons of the nation’s high-level nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain.
Craig said he will discuss the history of Yucca Mountain and "how
it got to be what it is today," the science behind the project,
and background on the NWTRB.
A reception will precede Craig’s speech, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Carrie Sandstedt at (775) 324-0448
or carrie.sandstedt@sierraclub.org.
Outrage of
the Week
On Jan. 29, the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Repository
Office held an “affected units of government” (AUG) meeting at
its offices on Hillshire Boulevard in Las Vegas. The meeting was
called to provided the State of Nevada and local governments with
information on DOE’s announced intention to name a preferred
alternative for a rail access line to Yucca Mountain and discuss
DOE’s schedule, budget and other matters.
These meetings have historically involved the State, the eight
Nevada counties and one California jurisdiction that have been
formally designated as “affected units of local government,”
representatives from incorporated cities within Clark County,
tribal representatives, interest groups and members of the
public.
The Jan. 29 meeting, however, represented a disturbing departure
from past meetings. For the first time since DOE began focusing
on Yucca Mountain and interacting with Nevada stakeholders (more
than 20 years ago), an affected Nevada jurisdiction was barred
from attending the meeting.
When the City of Henderson’s representative showed up at the
entrance to the Hillshire facility, he was told by Yucca Mountain
project staff that he wasn’t welcome. He did not have advance
permission to be there, they informed him and, besides, the
meeting room was too small to accommodate attendance from all
jurisdictions that historically had attended. While Henderson
isn’t one of the officially-designated “affected” jurisdictions,
it ‘affected’ by the Yucca project nonetheless and has been an
active participant in AUG meetings for since the mid-1980s.
Ironically, representatives from other non-formally-designated
parties were allowed into the meeting, including the City of
Caliente (whose mayor just happens to be an outspoken supporter
of DOE’s Yucca Mountain activities), a Nevada public interest
group representative, representatives of the Nevada public
relations firm doing work for the nuclear power industry, the
NRC, numerous DOE contractor personnel, and assorted hangers on.
Barring the City of Henderson’s representative from the meeting
was an outrage and an affront to everyone in Nevada. It signals
a new level of arrogance on the part of DOE in its dealings with
stakeholders in Nevada. Coming on the heels of action by DOE and
NRC over the past several months to bar State of Nevada
representatives from pre-licensing meetings where crucial Yucca
Mountain site suitability issues were being discussed (and where
deals among DOE and NRC staff were most likely being cut), the
trend towards exclusionary practices and secrecy is doubly
troubling.
There can be no justification for barring any Nevada
jurisdictions, Indian tribes, or citizens from meetings like the
one held on Jan. 29. There’s nothing classified, sensitive
(except politically), or secret discussed at these meetings that
justifies restricting attendance. Likewise, there are no valid
security reasons to keep anyone out.
The use of facilities – like the Yucca Mountain office on
Hillshire Boulevard - with onerous security requirements and
limited meeting space is nothing more than a transparent excuse
for restricting participation and making it hard for certain
legitimate stakeholders (i.e., those not in DOE’s pocket) to gain
access to Yucca Mountain information.
Interestingly, it’s also a tactic DOE has employed in the past.
In 2001, for example, a public meeting required under the Nuclear
Waste Policy Act to inform Nevadans of DOE’s intent to recommend
Yucca Mountain for development as a repository was held at the
highly secure Nevada Operations Office facility in North Las
Vegas, making it extremely difficult for citizens to attend,
while effectively serving DOE’s desire to limit public turnout.
The shenanigans surrounding the Jan. 29 meeting are even more
troubling because affected Nevada local governments, which will
unquestioningly bear the brunt of DOE’s Yucca Mountain actions if
the project is permitted to go forward, are being told that their
participation in what DOE has always touted as a completely open
and transparent process is no longer welcome. We welcome comments
and story ideas for this newsletter. For media information,
please contact Tom Bradley, Brown & Partners, at (702) 876-5611
or via e-mail at tbradley@brown-partners.com. For a text-only
version of this newsletter, please contact
tbradley@brown-partners.com
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please
e-mail nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us. Do not reply to this e-mail.
*****************************************************************
71 Las Vegas SUN: AP Exclusive: Ex-nuke panel expert criticizes Yucca Mt. design
By SCOTT SONNER ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - The nation's nuclear waste dump proposed for
Nevada is poorly designed and could leak highly radioactive
waste, a scientist who recently resigned from a federal panel of
experts on Yucca Mountain told The Associated Press on
Wednesday.
Paul Craig, a physicist and engineering professor at the
University of California-Davis, said he quit the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board last month so he could speak more freely
about the dangers of the waste dump.
Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is
planned to begin receiving waste in 2010. Some 77,000 tons of
highly radioactive waste at commercial and military sites in 39
states would be stored in metal canisters underground in
tunnels.
"The science is very clear," Craig told AP in an interview
before his first public speech condemning the Energy
Department's design for the canisters.
"If we get high temperature liquids, the metal would corrode and
that would eventually lead to leakage of nuclear waste," Craig
said.
"Therefore, it is a bad design. And that is very, very bad news
for the Department of Energy because they are committed to that
design," he said.
Craig, who was appointed to the review board by President
Clinton in 1997, planned to speak Wednesday night at a forum
sponsored by the Sierra Club. He said he's convinced DOE will
have to postpone the project and change to less corrosive
metals.
"It would require years of delay and my guess is that is what is
going to happen. The bad science is so clear they will be unable
to ignore it forever," Craig told AP.
The 11-member technical review board outlined its concerns about
the potential for corrosion in a report to the Energy Department
in November about the metal for the canisters, called Alloy-22 -
"an upscale version of stainless steal," Craig said.
It was the most important report the board has produced since
Congress created the panel in 1987, he said, but largely has
been ignored by Congress and the DOE.
"The report says in ordinary English that under the conditions
proposed by the Department of Energy, the canisters will leak,"
Craig said.
"It was signed by every single member of the board so there
would be no confusion," he said.
"This board has really good scientists on it, particularly
metals scientists. Those scientists and the metals community,
the knowledgeable metals community, are going to continue to say
this design is not going to work under known conditions."
Energy Department spokeswoman Gayle Fisher in Las Vegas said DOE
had no immediate comment. In Washington D.C., Energy Department
spokesman Joe Davis and a spokesman for the industry's Nuclear
Energy Institute did not immediately return telephone calls
seeking comment.
The board's report in November said the DOE had failed to take
into account a phenomenon known as "deliquescence," regarding
the reaction of salt to moisture under DOE's plans to operate
the repository at temperatures well above boiling water, or
about 200 degrees.
"It turns out the metals which look like they act pretty good at
temperature levels below boiling water - those same metals act
badly with temperatures that could exist" at Yucca Mountain,
Craig said.
He likened the chemical reaction to moisture getting in a table
salt shaker and recalled his mother put grains of rice in the
salt when he was growing up.
"Otherwise the salt would turn into a liquidy slime because salt
absorbs water," he said.
"It turns out the salts in Yucca Mountain would act the same as
the salt in my mother's salt shaker. Liquid could occur at
temperatures well above the normal boiling temperatures of
water," he said.
Craig, who also has served as a member of National Academy of
Sciences National Research Council Board on Radioactive Waste
Management, said he sent his resignation letter to the White
House in January before his term was to expire in April so he
could shine more light on DOE's plans.
"When you serve as a member of one of those boards, you cannot
talk about the political consequences of the science or the big
picture. You are supposed to stick to the science and you should
stick to the science," Craig said.
"Members of the board will talk to you about the science in the
kind of way I am talking about, but they will not go the next
step and say that what is required now is for the president of
the United States to direct the secretary of energy to slow down
the process and go back and get the science right," he told AP.
"You cannot have the kind of conversation we are having now if I
was still on the board."
--
*****************************************************************
72 Knox News: Cooling pump problem shuts down ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
February 18, 2004
OAK RIDGE - Operators had to shut down Oak Ridge National
Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor after a problem developed
with one of the cooling pumps, a lab official said Tuesday.
Jim Roberto, ORNL's associate director for physical sciences,
said one of the pumps automatically shut down Monday afternoon
because of "unexpected behavior" in the electrical circuitry.
That, in turn, required workers to manually halt the nuclear
operations until the research reactor's problem is evaluated and
fixed, Roberto said.
Officials don't yet know what caused the electrical malfunction
and haven't determined the seriousness of the situation, he said.
The reactor has to be shut down for a while before workers can
perform the troubleshooting checks, which were underway Tuesday
evening, the lab official said.
"We've had pump shutdowns in the past that have not been a
serious problem," Roberto said.
Reactor managers had planned to shut down the nuclear facility
Feb. 20 for a mid-cycle maintenance activity to support
installation of new research equipment, he said. Workers will
take advantage of the cooling-pump problem to do the scheduled
maintenance ahead of time and install a new "fast-neutron
filter," he said.
The reactor's safety protocols require that workers do a number
of other inspections because of the unplanned outage, Roberto
said.
Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.
Copyright Clearance] Copyright 2004, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
*****************************************************************
73 DOE: Notice of Reestablishment of the Electricity Advisory Board
FR Doc 04-3431
[Federal Register: February 18, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 32)]
[Notices] [Page 7621-7622] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr18fe04-26]
Pursuant to section 14 (a)(2)(A) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act and in accordance with title 41 of the Code of
Federal Regulations, section 102-3.65, and following consultation
with the Committee Management Secretariat of the General Services
Administration, notice is hereby given that the Electricity
Advisory Board (the Board) has been reestablished for a two-year
period, beginning in February 2004.
The Board will continue to provide balanced and authoritative
advice to the Secretary of Energy on matters concerning
electricity policy issues of concern to the Department;
Department electricity programs and initiatives; current and
future capacity of the electricity system (generation,
transmission, and distribution), regionally and nationally;
identification of issues related to capacity, production,
delivery, reliability, and utility deregulation/ restructuring
and recommendations on policy and Department initiatives to deal
with issues identified; coordination between the Department and
state and regional officials and the private sector on matters
affecting electricity supply and reliability; as well as
coordination between Federal, State, and utility industry
authorities in the event of supply disruption or other
emergencies related to electricity generation and distribution.
[[Page 7622]] The Board members are selected to assure
well-balanced representation in areas relating to energy policy,
renewable energy, environmental science, economics, business
expertise and broad public policy interests. Membership of the
Board will continue to be determined in accordance with the
requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L.
92-463) and implementing regulations. The renewal of the Board
has been determined to be in the public interest, important and
vital to the conduct of the Department's business. The Board will
operate in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the General Services
Administration Final Rule on Federal Advisory Committee
Management, and other directives and instructions issued in
implementation of those acts.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Rachel M. Samuel, U.S.
Department of Energy, ME-75, FORS, Washington, DC 20585,
telephone: (202) 586- 3279.
Issued in Washington, DC, on February 10, 2004.
James N. Solit, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-3431 Filed 2-17-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
74 Tri-City Herald: Plutonium work finished
This story was published Wednesday, February 18th, 2004
By Annette Cary Herald staff writer
One of Hanford's most urgent risks has been nearly eliminated,
with 4.4 tons of plutonium from the nation's weapons program
converted into a form that can be safely stored.
"It won't go critical. It won't leak. It won't give off gas,"
said Michele Gerber, spokeswoman for contractor Fluor Hanford.
The completion of the project, announced Tuesday by the
Department of Energy, brings to a close 55 years of history at
the heavily guarded Plutonium Finishing Plant in central Hanford.
Starting in 1949, the plant, called PFP, turned plutonium
produced in nuclear reactors into metal buttons the size of
hockey pucks for shipment to the nation's weapons production
facilities. The Hanford nuclear reservation produced more of the
plutonium buttons for use in nuclear weapons than any other place
in the nation.
But at the end of the Cold War in 1989, work was abruptly stopped
at the Hanford plant. About 19.8 tons of material containing
plutonium was left in various stages of production and forms.
Because of the amount and variety of materials left at PFP, Keith
Klein, DOE's Richland manager, has called the stabilization work
among the most "risky, complex and technically challenging"
projects in the country.
"It was very unstable before we started work on it," DOE Richland
spokeswoman Colleen Clark said Tuesday.
If improperly handled, plutonium can be at risk for a
criticality, the runaway nuclear reaction that occurs quickly
when a nuclear weapon detonates.
A chemical separation process was used to turn the liquid
plutonium into oxide solids. The solids were "cooked" for at
least two hours in muffle furnaces at about 1,700 degrees
Fahrenheit.
The muffle furnaces, which are about double or triple the size of
a large microwave oven, were used on several forms of plutonium
to drive off water and organic vapors.
In 2003, workers finished a second part of the project, packing
residues into shielded drums. The residues included sand, slag
and bits of a crucible that the finished buttons had been encased
in during production. Some of the drums have already been shipped
to New Mexico for permanent storage.
That left about 6,000 solids, including cubes similar to plastic
used for criticality experiments, metals and oxides, some of
which was brushed off of the leftover buttons. The oxides also
were heated in the muffle furnaces.
That was the final piece of work that was completed this month.
Now, plutonium that won't go to New Mexico -- the solids and
granular oxides -- have been packed into three-layered stainless
steel containers that have been welded shut. Each canister weighs
30 to 50 pounds.
"It's ready now to be moved off site," Clark said. "As soon as we
get the order, we're ready to ship."
DOE is still considering where the nation's plutonium will be
stored long term, but Savannah River in South Carolina appears
the most likely site, and eventually the stabilized plutonium may
go to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. In the meantime, the plutonium is
kept in a guarded vault at Hanford.
Now work shifts to tearing down the contaminated PFP complex.
"Sixty-one buildings will be down to slab in 2009," according to
the work schedule, said Stacy Charboneau, PFP project manager for
DOE.
To do the work, 150 employees will be added to the 700 employees
of the present PFP work force.
Long term, the benefits for the nation will be not only the
reduced risk at PFP, but also reduced costs. The government has
spent $100 million a year on operations at PFP.
A ceremony to mark completion of plutonium stabilization is
planned Friday at Hanford. Among the speakers will be U.S. Rep.
Doc Hastings. Because of security issues, the public cannot
attend.
With stabilization finished, Hanford still must eliminate two
other urgent risks, according to DOE. Hanford workers must
convert highly radioactive waste stored in underground tanks into
safer forms and clean up and remove spent nuclear fuel from
Hanford's production years.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
75 ABQjournal: DOE Announces Local Management Changes
February 18, 2004
The Associated Press
The Energy Department's National Nuclear Security
Administration has announced leadership changes at two
Albuquerque offices, according to a statement released Wednesday
from the agency's Washington headquarters.
Karen Boardman, the manager at the NNSA's office at Sandia
National Laboratories, has been named director of the agency's
service center here. Boardman will take over March 1 for James
Hirahara, who is retiring from the management post.
The service center provides financial, legal, personnel and
other services for a consolidated DOE-NNSA field office system.
At the Sandia site office, deputy manager Patty Wagner will
move up to the manager post. Steve Goodrum, the service center's
deputy associate director, has been named as the site office's
new deputy manager.
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
76 WNXT: DOE is looking for workers impacted by weapons construction
Community Common
Thursday February 19, 2004
Richard Bussa
The United States Department of Energy is looking for nuclear
weapons industry workers and survivors.Employees of the
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, or workers of contractors,
subcontractors, and DOE atomic plant employees in other sites
need to be heard from, Benefits are available.
Funds are available under the Energy Employees Occupational
Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP).
The purpose is to provide compensation for employees who became
ill as a result of work performed in the production and testing
of nuclear weapons.
Site Manager at the Energy Employees Compensation Resource
Center (4320 Old Scioto Trail), Kevin Clausing, indicated that
the biggest problem the agency has is finding people to file
claims.
The DOE knows people are out there but a large number do not
know about their benefits.
Current or former workers or survivors may be eligible for
benefits if the employee has or had radiation-induced cancers,
beryllium diseases or silicosis and was exposed to radiation,
beryllium or silica while working in the nuclear weapons
industry for the Department of Energy or its contractors or
subcontractors.
Benefits include a lump sum payment of $150,000 and payment of
medical expenses from the date of the claim for: Radiogenic
cancers, Chronic Beryllium Disease and Chronic Silicosis.
Survivors, and children if no surviving spouse, of spouses are
eligible for benefits. They should contact Kevin Clausing at
(740) 353-6993 for details.
Once filing a claim the local office will file it with one of
the program's District offices (Cleveland). Once in the District
office an examiner will be assigned to the claim.
After all the necessary employment, medical evidence, and dose
reconstruction (if necessary) have been received, the District
Office will issue a Recommended Decision to the claimant and
send the case to a final Adjudication Branch (FAB) for review.
The FAB will issue a final decision.
Procedures are in place if the claimant disagrees with the
decision. Congress also defined a class of compensation
recipients by establishing a "Special Exposure Cohort," to
include energy employees who worked in Ohio, Kentucky and
Tennessee.
The employee must have been employed for at least 250 workdays
before February 1, 1992, in Portsmouth, Paducah, or Oak Ridge.
To establish eligibility as a Special Exposure Cohort, a worker
(or survivor) must establish that the worker contracted a
specified cancer after beginning employment at one of the three
DOE facilities
The specified cancers are: Leukemia, Primary or secondary lung
cancer, bone cancer, and renal cancers. A number of other
cancers are listed if onset was at least five years after first
exposure. Please contact Kevin Clausing at the Resource Center
for details.
Employees need not have worked just for The Atomic Energy Plant
itself. Phone company, sub-contractors, canteen workers, any
employee position that required on-site work may be eligible.
So far 1,414 cases have been filed and total dollars paid have
been $79,590,000 to former workers of the Piketon plant.
For more information contact any of the staff at the Energy
Employees Compensation Resource Center at 4320 Old Scioto Trail,
Portsmouth. You may call (740) 353-6993, toll free at
1-866-363-6993 or email at portsmouth.center@ch.doe. gov.
[wnxt]
*****************************************************************
77 WBIR-TV: COOLING PUMP PROBLEM SHUTS DOWN ORNL REACTOR
, Knoxville, TN
A cooling pump problem forced officials to shut down the High
Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Jim Roberto, ORNL's associate director for physical sciences,
said one of the pumps automatically shut down on Monday because
of "unexpected behavior."
It required workers to shut nuclear operations down until they
can find the problem in the electrical circuitry, Roberto said.
Officials don't know what caused the malfunction, and the reactor
had to be shut down for a time before workers could continue
troubleshooting checks, he said.
"We've had pump shutdowns in the past that have not been a
serious problem," Roberto said.
Reactor managers had planned to shut down the nuclear facility on
Friday for maintenance. Workers will take advantage of the
cooling-pump problem to do the scheduled maintenance ahead of
time, he said.
2/18/2004 3:08:15 PM
Reporter: Associated Press Copyright
*****************************************************************
78 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 18:48:29 -0800 (PST)
PAKISTAN'S nuclear bazar
Indian Express - New Delhi,India
Reacting to the unfolding details of proliferation of nuclear technology
by Pakistan to a number of countries, the head of the UN’s International
Atomic ...
See all stories on this topic:
CHINA Races to Boost Nuclear Power
Moscow Times - Moscow,Russia
SINGAPORE -- Heady economic growth and a worsening power shortage is prodding
China to hasten the building of nuclear power plants to fill an energy
supply gap ...
See all stories on this topic:
DON'T ignore proven gaps fueling nuclear black market
USA Today - USA
Recent revelations about celebrated Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer
Khan's secret dealings provide a stark moment of truth about the difficulty
of ...
See all stories on this topic:
CHASING the Nuclear Genie
Heritage.org - Washington,DC,USA
It won't be easy to get the nuclear genie back into the bottle. No sooner
had President Bush announced his very worthy initiative ...
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ISRAELI nuclear spy set to be 'freed'
ABC Online - Australia
Mordechai Vanunu, the whistleblower jailed for 18 years for exposing Israel's
nuclear arsenal, could be placed in administrative detention following
his April ...
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N Korea ’ s stubbornness may ‘ subvert ’ nuclear talks
Daily Times - Pakistan
... Wednesday said North Korea’s refusal to discuss its illicit uranium
enrichment programme threatened the chances of finding a peaceful solution
to the nuclear ...
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KL glad to be cleared of nuclear role
Straits Times - Singapore
... lumped together with the bad guys, Malaysia yesterday welcomed a statement
by a senior United States official clearing the government of any role
in a nuclear ...
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‘ US in touch with Pakistan on nuclear assets security ’
Daily Times - Pakistan
“We’ve had an ongoing dialogue with Pakistan, underscoring the importance
of safeguarding Pakistan’s nuclear technologies, making sure they remain
under ...
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LHC reserves verdict in nuclear scientists case
Daily Times - Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench on Wednesday
reserved judgment on the habeas corpus petitions against the detention
of nuclear ...
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GET rid of all nuclear arms
USA Today - USA
... to the wrong problem. Nuclear proliferation is merely a symptom; the
real issue is the nuclear weapons themselves. And, in this ...
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79 Las Vegas SUN: Military closure panel to look at Nevada facilities
All of the nation's bases, including Nellis, will be reviewed by
BRAC
By Suzanne Struglinski
WASHINGTON -- Nevada's congressional delegation says the state's
military installations appear safe from closure, based on
recently published Defense Department criteria that will
determine which military installations it will recommend for
closure or mission changes next year.
Nellis Air Force Base, its auxiliary base at Indian Springs, the
Naval Air Station at Fallon and the Hawthorne Army Depot will,
like all military installations, be reviewed and subject to
possible closure next year through the Base Realignment and
Closure process known as BRAC. The department published the final
checklist of criteria it will use to evaulate the sites in the
Federal Register on Thursday.
The department has eight critieria, but the priority will be
given to a base's "military value," which include its current and
future capabilities on training, warfighting and readiness, the
availability of land and facilities, as well as cost.
Environmental impact, the economic impact on the local community
and how a local community can support the base will also be
considered.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who announced plans in January to
create Nevada's Military Advocacy Commission, said he thinks no
Nevada bases are in jeopardy. Still, he plans to hold the
commission's first meeting in March, spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer
said.
Although Congress can only vote on whatever the BRAC Commission
recommends, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is in "constant touch with
the base and the delegation on this and will fight for whatever
the base needs to survive BRAC," spokesman Adam Mayberry said.
"BRAC has a full scope to look at all locations, but the unique
training operations at the Nellis range, the center at Indian
Springs, and the tremendous work the community and congressional
delegation have done to strengthen Nellis and protect against
encroachment bode well," Mayberry said.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who heads the Senate Readiness and
Management Support Subcomittee said Nellis and Fallon "are not
bases that we have to defend," because of the training that goes
on there.
"The Nevada ranges make Nellis and Fallon completely
indispensible bases for the security of the United States,"
Ensign said. "I can say without a doubt that we are not going to
be touched in BRAC."
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed that the state has the "premier
military bases in the country."
"They're critical to our national security, and any criteria
will reflect that. Nevada's bases have grown, even during times
of overall military cuts, because of their unique assets," Reid
said. "I expect they'll continue to thrive, on their own merit,
for the foreseeable future."
Nellis spokesman Mike Estrada said the base submitted its
answers to the Pentagon's first call for data from all
installations last month and base officials have little to do
with the process beyond providing the Pentagon the information it
needs.
Congress has until March 15 to settle on final criteria. If it
keeps the criteria in tact, the process will be handed over to
the BRAC Commission, a nine-member panel that will be nominated
by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The commission is to review all the military bases and should
send its recommendations for closings or realignment to the
president in September 2005. Congress then has just under two
months to review the report, but can only reject or accept the
whole thing.
Through separate BRAC rounds in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995, the
department closed 97 bases and conducted 55 realignments as well
as 235 minor closures and realignments, according to the
department's press office.
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