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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 KRT Wire: Officials: U.S. still paying millions to group that provid
2 AU ABC: Defence review doesn't deal with intelligence
3 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Confirms Buying Nuclear Equipment
4 UK Independent: Iran's elections bolster hardliners and threaten pac
5 Las Vegas SUN: Momentum Builds on N. Korea Nuke Crisis
6 Xinhuanet: China, Japan exchange views on nuclear talks   
7 Asia Pacific News: North Korea's uranium programme at crux of nuclea
8 US: CS Monitor: Hidden defense costs add up to double trouble 
9 US: Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Administration favors nuclear free-f
10 [progchat_action] Drumbeats on Pakistan's nuclear
11 [NukeNet] Japan Terror Alert Maximum At Nuke Facilities & Fire
12 WP: Malaysia Won't Detain Sri Lankan Who Helped Build Nuclear Networ
13 Daily Times: N-programme in safe hands, says Jamali 
14 Hi Pakistan: Powell lauds Musharraf's handling of N-issue
15 Hi Pakistan: EU FMs to discuss Pak N-issue
16 Hi Pakistan: N-plan to stay = Musharraf    
17 Hi Pakistan: IAEA fully informed of nuclear dealings - Iran 
18 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear and poor together 
19 AU SMH: New nuclear chief ready to listen 
20 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA chief heads for Libya 
21 UNI: Nuke bunkers give military advantage to India                 
22 Los Angeles Times: PAKISTAN The Dangers of Despotism 
23 Times-News: Editorial puts too much belief in politicians
24 ITAR-TASS: Russia delegation intends to be active at talks on NKorea
25 AU SMH: Malaysia will not act on nuclear sales affair 
26 JoongAng Daily: Nuances mark pre-talks stances
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
27 US: [du-list] Fw: 3 mile island
28 US: Times Argus: Vernon says it's short-changed on Yankee taxes 
29 Japan Times: No radioactivity leak after blaze at nuclear plant
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
30 =?iso-8859-1?Q?WHO_'suppressed'_scientific_study_into_depleted_
31 [du-list] DU safety fears continue
32 [du-list] DU in the news - 22 Feb. 04
33 [du-list] WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted
34 [du-list] DU: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END
35 [du-list] Depleted Uranium: The war crime that has no end
36 US: [du-list] Must Read Clusterbombs
37 WHO suppressed study of DU cancer fears in Iraq
38 SH: WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted uranium cancer 
39 UK MOD: DU Safety Instructions
40 MOD: Depleted Uranium
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
41 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: True science would doom Yucca site
42 Las Vegas SUN: Columnist Brian Greenspun: Stand must be taken
43 Nevada Appeal: Energy Department's work isn't in vain
44 Nevada Appeal: The betrayal of Nevada on nuclear waste
45 Las Vegas RJ: EDITORIAL: More bungling at Yucca 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
46 Haaretz: Vanunu tells brothers: I have no more nuclear secrets      
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
47 [NukeNet] DOE plan doubles plutonium at Livermore
48 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers need assurances on benefits 
49 Hawk Eye: Alliance backs Energy workers 
50 amarillo.com: Pantex orders storage, safety examination 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
51 Google News Alert - nuclear
52 [NukeNet] Arms Race In Outer Space? Pentagon Prepares To
53 Japan Times: Decision on site for fusion project is put off again
54 TVA official hopes to streamline utility 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 KRT Wire: Officials: U.S. still paying millions to group that provided 
false Iraqi intelligence

 | 02/22/2004 | 

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY, WARREN P. STROBEL and JOHN WALCOTT

 Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense is continuing to pay 
millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi 
opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and 
fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for 
war. 

The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million this 
year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi National 
Congress, or INC, led by Ahmed Chalabi, said two senior U.S. 
officials and a U.S. defense official. 

They spoke on condition of anonymity because intelligence 
programs are classified. 

The continuing support for the INC comes amid seven separate 
investigations into pre-war intelligence that Iraq was hiding 
illicit weapons and had links to al-Qaida and other terrorist 
groups. A probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee is now 
examining the INC's role. 

The decision not to shut off funding for the INC's information 
gathering effort could become another liability for Bush as the 
presidential campaign heats up and, furthermore suggests that 
some within the administration are intent on securing a key role 
for Chalabi in Iraq's political future. 

Chalabi, who built close ties to officials in Vice President 
Cheney's office and among top Pentagon officials, is on the Iraqi 
Governing Council, a body of 25 Iraqis installed by the United 
States to help administer the country following the ouster of 
Saddam Hussein last April. 

The former businessman, who lobbied for years for a U.S.-backed 
military effort to topple Saddam, is publicly committed to making 
peace with Israel and providing bases in the heart of the 
oil-rich Middle East for use by U.S. forces fighting the war on 
terrorism. 

The INC's Information Collection Program started in 2001 and was 
"designed to collect, analyze and disseminate information" from 
inside Iraq, according to a letter the group sent in June 2002 to 
the staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

Some of the INC's information alleged that Saddam was rebuilding 
his nuclear weapons program, which was destroyed by U.N. 
inspectors after the 1991 Gulf War, and was stockpiling banned 
chemical and biological weapons, according to the letter. 

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Knight Ridder, said 
the information went directly to "U.S. government recipients" who 
included William Luti, a senior official in Secretary of Defense 
Donald H. Rumsfeld's office, and John Hannah, a top national 
security aide to Cheney. 

The letter appeared to contradict denials made last year by top 
Pentagon officials that they were receiving intelligence on Iraq 
that bypassed established channels and vetting procedures. 

The INC also supplied information from its collection program to 
leading news organizations in the United States, Europe and the 
Middle East, according to the letter to the Senate committee 
staff. 

The State Department and the CIA, which soured on Chalabi in the 
1990s, viewed the INC's information as highly unreliable because 
it was coming from a source with a strong self-interest in 
convincing the United States to topple Saddam. 

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has concluded since the 
invasion that defectors turned over by the INC provided little 
worthwhile information, and that at least one of them, the source 
of an allegation that Saddam had mobile biological warfare 
laboratories, was a fabricator. A defense official said the INC 
did provide some valuable material on Saddam's military and 
security apparatus. 

Even so, dubious INC-supplied information found its way into the 
Bush administration's arguments for war, which included charges 
that Saddam was concealing illicit arms stockpiles and was 
supporting al-Qaida. 

No illicit weapons have yet been found, and senior U.S. officials 
say there is no compelling evidence that Saddam cooperated with 
al-Qaida to attack Americans. 

The Information Collection Program is now overseen by the DIA, 
the Pentagon's main intelligence arm, which took over when the 
State Department decided to give it up in late 2002. 

The defense official defended the current support of the INC 
effort, saying that it has been of some help to the CIA-led Iraq 
Survey Group, a team that is trying to determine what happened to 
Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. 

INC-supplied informants also have identified insurgents who have 
been waging a guerrilla war that has claimed the lives of more 
than 500 U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqis, he said. 

"To call all of it (INC intelligence) useless is too negative," 
said the defense official, who described the Information 
Collection Program as a "massive" undertaking. 

"You never take anything at face value," he continued. "When the 
INC gives information, we absolutely pursue it. You never know 
what that golden nugget is going to be." 

But a senior administration official questioned whether the 
United States should still be funding the program. 

"A huge amount of what was collected hasn't panned out," he said. 
"Some of it has turned out to have been either wrong or 
fabricated." 

The senior administration official also sought to justify the 
initial decision to support the program. 

Prior to the invasion, U.S. intelligence agencies had no better 
human sources in Iraq, and had no choice but to rely on the INC, 
minority Kurdish guerrilla groups and other sources who claimed 
to have knowledge of Saddam's illegal arms programs, ties to 
terrorist groups and his military forces, he said. 

"The evidence now suggests that at some points along the way, we 
may have been duped by people who wanted to encourage military 
action for their own reasons," he conceded. 

Chalabi apparently is less concerned about the past 

"We are heroes in error," Chalabi was quoted as saying recently 
in Baghdad by The Daily Telegraph of London. "As far as we're 
concerned we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is 
gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is 
not important. The Bush administration is looking for a 
scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants." 

In a related development, U.S. officials said that on top of the 
Pentagon funds, Chalabi's organization asked the State Department 
in August for $5 million in unspent financing that was approved 
by Congress before the war. 

The $5 million has not been released, they said. 

The request for the money follows the awarding to the INC of $3.1 
million in April 2003 following the fall of Baghdad, according to 
a State Department statement. 

State Department lawyers questioned the decision to turn over the 
$3.1 million, said a State Department official. But senior aides, 
anticipating an outcry from Chalabi's supporters in the 
administration and in Congress, opted to release the money, said 
the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.   


*****************************************************************
 2 AU ABC: Defence review doesn't deal with intelligence
 
AM - Monday, 23 February , 2004  08:04:59
 
Reporter: Matt Brown

 TONY EASTLEY: The "lessons learned" document prepared by the 
Defence Department does not deal with the hottest political 
topic, that is the role that intelligence played in the decision 
to go to war.

The Head of the Defence Intelligence Organisation told a Senate 
Estimates committee in November that the DIO advised the 
Government before the war that the state of Iraq's "weapons was 
unknown, and they were likely to be fragile or degraded and in a 
relatively poor state."

Before the war the Government had warned of the dangers that 
Iraq's "stockpiles" of weapons of mass destruction posed to world 
security.

Matt Brown asked Defence Minister, Robert Hill, why the subject 
of pre-war intelligence was not included in the internal review. 

ROBERT HILL: This is about the ADF's experiences and what they 
can learn from those experiences. It's not about the issue of 
strategic intelligence in terms of advice to governments. The 
tactical intelligence issues don't get released publicly. The 
strategic intelligence issues are normally not made public 
either, but they're not here because that's a different task to 
what this is seeking to address.

MATT BROWN: When the Government argued that Iraq still had 
chemical and biological weapons and that it wanted to develop 
nuclear weapons, you didn't go out and say, did you, that the 
Defence Intelligence Organisation thought that the state of those 
weapons was unknown and that they were likely to be fragile or 
degraded and in a relatively poor state?

ROBERT HILL: Um, I think you've got to go back and see what I did 
say and what I said wasn't out of balance with the advice of our 
agencies and interestingly those assessments were much the same 
assessments as all the major intelligence organisations across 
the world.

MATT BROWN: Can you recall telling Australians that Iraq's 
weapons were probably fragile, degraded or in a relatively poor 
state?

ROBERT HILL: I can certainly remember saying we weren't sure of 
the state of the weapons. We know that he's had these weapons. We 
know that he's used them against his own people. He wasn't able 
to give confidence to the international community through the 
Security Council process that they had been destroyed, but the 
actual state – and also there was a lot of intelligence that he 
was still seeking to develop his weapons as well as the delivery 
systems – but you don't, you don't have, unfortunately you don't 
have the full detail until afterwards.

MATT BROWN: When the Government warned that Iraq could pass 
weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, do you recall telling 
the public that the Defence Intelligence Organisation believed 
that the probability of that happening was low?

ROBERT HILL: Well, we believed, well again, go back and see what 
I said. There was always that possibility. We said the most 
horrendous scenario would be if the weapons of mass destruction 
passed from a state player to a non-state player and that was an 
area of concern, a concern expressed by agencies across the 
world.

MATT BROWN: Indeed the Defence Intelligence Organisation said it 
was possible, but they told you that the chances of it happening 
were low.

ROBERT HILL: Well, nobody knows that, you see.

MATT BROWN: Well, they have said it.

ROBERT HILL: It's all very well to speculate on that, but we 
don't know it.

MATT BROWN: But the Head of DIO told a Senate Estimates committee 
that the DIO's assessment was that the probability of Iraq 
passing WMDs to terrorists was low.

ROBERT HILL: I attended these hearings and I attended the one in 
June and I attended the one in November when all this was put on 
the public record.

MATT BROWN: And when you heard Frank Lewincamp telling the public 
that the probability of that happening was low and that that was 
the advice to Government, could you recall telling people before 
the war that the probability was low?

ROBERT HILL: …that in front of me, publicly last year. He said it 
himself.

TONY EASTLEY: Defence Minister Robert Hill, speaking there to 
Matt Brown in Canberra.
*****************************************************************
 3 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Confirms Buying Nuclear Equipment

Today: February 22, 2004 at 7:15:24 PST 

 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS 

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - 

Iran purchased nuclear equipment from international dealers,
including some from the Asian subcontinent, but never knew
exactly where the components came from, the government publicly
confirmed Sunday. 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi's statements appear
to corroborate parts of a report that Malaysian authorities
released last week summing up a three-month investigation into a
nuclear arms black market led by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father
of Pakistan's nuclear program. 

The report said Iran had bought $3 million worth of used
centrifuge parts from Khan's network for enriching uranium. Khan
has admitted selling technology and know-how to Iran, Libya and
North Korea. 

Asefi did not go into details, but confirmed Iran had bought
nuclear materials. He told reporters he could not say what
materials were purchased, and said he didn't know exactly where
they were from. 

"We purchased some (nuclear) parts from some dealers but we
don't know what was the source or which country they came from,"
Asefi told reporters. "It happened that some of the dealers were
from some subcontinent countries." 

Asefi's comments suggest that the equipment was acquired from
the black market network led by Khan. He said Iran had already
disclosed the purchases. 

"We have said from the beginning that we acquired some equipment
from some dealers. We haven't mentioned any specific scientist
or government organization," Asefi said. 

Diplomats say Iran has privately told the U.N. nuclear watchdog,
the International Atomic Energy Agency, that it bought
centrifuge parts from middlemen. They say Iran insists it didn't
know where the parts came from because it was working through
intermediaries. 

Washington suspects Iran of conducting a secret program to build
nuclear weapons, but Iran insists its nuclear program is
peaceful and geared only toward energy production. Asefi
reiterated that claim Sunday. 

"We remain committed to our obligations under the International
Atomic Energy Agency. We've never pursued nuclear arms and will
never do so," Asefi said. 

To dispel such suspicions, Iran signed an additional protocol to
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty late last year allowing
unfettered inspections of its nuclear sites. It also suspended
its uranium enrichment program. 

But diplomats in Vienna have revealed that U.N. inspectors
searching Iran's nuclear files earlier this month found drawings
of high-tech equipment that can be used to make weapons-grade
uranium, including a P-2 centrifuge, more advanced than the P-1
model Iran has acknowledged using. 

Preliminary investigations by inspectors working for the IAEA
indicated they matched drawings of equipment found in Libya and
supplied by the illicit network headed by Khan. 

Asefi said Iran had informed the Vienna-based International
Atomic Energy Agency of its research into the P-2. 

"There was some research work that was not utilized and we had
informed the IAEA about that in due time," he said. 

Earlier this month, Asefi said U.S. sanctions forced Iran to
expand its capability in the field of nuclear energy and seek
self-sufficiency in meeting its nuclear fuel requirements in the
coming decades. 

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his
country had the potential to produce nuclear fuel to sell
internationally but did not have a ready supply. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 4 UK Independent: Iran's elections bolster hardliners and threaten pact on nuclear
inspections
 
By Angus McDowall in Tehran
 
22 February 2004

Hardliners in Iran could pursue a more aggressive nuclear policy 
and crack down on the country's reformists after taking control 
of parliament in an election boycotted by their opponents. 

Pragmatic conservatives struck a deal with Britain, France and 
Germany last November to open Iran's nuclear facilities to 
inspection, hoping a softer international line could buy some 
respite on the scrutiny of domestic issues, such as human rights. 
But many hardliners were deeply unhappy with the deal, and 
Western diplomats believe they see the stifling of domestic 
opposition as an opportunity to pursue a weapons programme more 
rapidly. 

The US, which was suspicious of the deal in the first place, had 
its concern reinforced by the discovery last week of advanced 
centrifugal equipment for enriching uranium to weapons grade. 
Iran had failed to declare the equipment, and has had its 
involvement in the international nuclear black market exposed by 
the downfall of Pakistan's nuclear "father", Abdul Qadeer Khan. 

In a blow to the reformist cause, turnout in Friday's election to 
the Majlis was far below normal levels, but not as low as those 
advocating a boycott had hoped. Nor is the result decisive enough 
for conservatives to claim a strong popular mandate, but that is 
unlikely to stop the unelected religious establishment 
suppressing demands for change. 

President Mohammad Khatami now faces a final year in office 
without the support of a reformist Majlis. When he cast his vote 
on Friday, for an election he had labelled unfair, the President 
wore a telling frown and was rumoured to have written down only a 
few names out of the 30 allowed for each voter. 

With Friday's result a foregone conclusion after the 
disqualification of more than 2,300 reformist candidates, the 
election was all about turnout. Early results suggested 
participation of a little under 50 per cent, dropping to 30 per 
cent in Tehran. "Voting will not make any difference in people's 
lives, it is all just a game. The reformists just let people 
think things were improving, without making any real changes," 
said Khorram, a shopkeeper in Tehran. 

Many going to the polls expressed cynicism about the process, and 
said they only wanted to get the mark in their identity cards 
showing they had voted. Reformists allege rumours were 
deliberately spread to suggest that people who failed to vote 
might have problems with bureaucracy. They say the level of 
spoiled ballots is likely to top 10 per cent, and that many votes 
were cast at random. That could lead to a second round of polling 
in some cities in a couple of months. 

Although the conservatives are now in the ascendant, they are 
deeply divided over how to proceed, with pragmatists favouring a 
softer "bread and circuses" approach to rule and hardliners 
wanting revenge on their reformist enemies. Hojjatolislam Qavami, 
one of the disqualified MPs and chairman of the Majlis legal 
committee, told The Independent on Sunday the opponents of reform 
could become "Taliban-like and limit all legal freedom". Some 
reformists actually hope for a crackdown in the belief that this 
might rekindle public support for them. 

So far hardliners seem to be setting the agenda. But now they 
will need to focus on improving the economy as a pivotal element 
of their strategy to retain power. Economic reform has been 
severely hindered by constant bickering between the Majlis and 
non-elected conservatives in recent years, and can now be pushed 
through more quickly. 	           


UK Independent Ltd.

*****************************************************************
 5 Las Vegas SUN: Momentum Builds on N. Korea Nuke Crisis

Today: February 22, 2004 at 15:50:24 PST 

 By SOO-JEONG LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - 

Efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis intensified
Sunday as the United States and Asian allies met in Seoul to
forge a common stance ahead of crucial six-nation talks. 

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Japanese
Foreign Ministry Director General Mitoji Yabunaka arrived in
Seoul on Sunday to hammer out details with their South Korean
counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck. 

The United States, Japan and South Korea agree that North
Korea's alleged uranium-based atomic weapons program must be
addressed in the upcoming negotiations. 

But South Korea and Japan have recently focused on North Korea's
offer to freeze its nuclear activities as a first step to
resolving the standoff, in return for economic concessions from
the United States. But Washington has demanded that North Korea
first start dismantling its nuclear programs. 

Wednesday's six-way meeting in Beijing between the United
States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan will try to make
progress on those issues. 

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that any
North Korean nuclear freeze must also allow inspections. 

"On the assumption that nuclear inspections should follow, North
Korea's freeze of its nuclear weapons programs must be the first
step toward the ultimate abolition of them, including the one
based on highly enriched uranium," Ban told South Korea's Yonhap
News Agency during a trip to Saudi Arabia. 

North Korea has said it would allow inspections, if a deal is
brokered. But it is unclear how much freedom any outside
inspectors would have in the tightly controlled country. 

Earlier Sunday in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko
Kawaguchi said "everything depends" on North Korea at the
upcoming talks. 

"On the one hand, they could break down in a day," she said of
the talks. "On the other, in a best-case scenario, North Korea
would acknowledge possessing enriched uranium, agree to give up
all its nuclear activities and invite inspections." 

North Korea's alleged uranium-based nuclear program could be a
key stumbling block in the Beijing talks. The nuclear crisis
flared in late 2002 when U.S. officials said North Korea
acknowledged having the program in violation of a 1994
agreement. 

North Korea has since denied having a secret uranium program, in
addition to its plutonium-based one, and on Saturday called the
U.S. accusation a "whopping lie." 

China has annoyed the United States by accepting North Korea's
denial concerning a uranium program. 

Some experts believe, however, that Pyongyang's denial has been
undercut by recent disclosures that the founder of Pakistan's
nuclear weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had assisted the
communist state's uranium program. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 6 Xinhuanet: China, Japan exchange views on nuclear talks   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2004-02-22 19:52:56   

    BEIJING, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese and Japanese 
diplomats methere Sunday to exchange views on the upcoming second 
round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue 
and bilateral relations. 

    Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Japanese Senior 
Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Aisawa Ichiro discussed such 
questions during their meeting in Chinese Foreign Ministry. 

    The Japanese government strictly abide by the principles of 
theJapan-China joint statement and sticks to the "one-China" 
policy. 

    Aisawa was here to attend a similar on Sino-Japanese economic 
ties in the 21st century. 

    The second round of six-party talks, involving China, the 
Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the 
Republic of Korean, Russia and Japan, was set to begin on Feb. 
25.Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 7 Asia Pacific News: North Korea's uranium programme at crux of nuclear talks 

Map showing participants of six-way talks on North Korean nuclear 
crisis   

Channelnewsasia.com
 
 Posted: 22 February 2004 1210 hrs 

BEIJING : A second round of six-nation talks on North Korea's 
nuclear weapons opens this week after months of delays, but there 
is little optimism Pyongyang will address the key issue of its 
uranium enrichment programme.
 
The talks, scheduled to start here Wednesday, come at a delicate 
time, with Libya's renouncement of its weapons of mass 
destruction and Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan confessing 
to supplying nuclear know-how to North Korea.
 
Getting the Stalinist nation to agree to again sit down opposite 
the United States was a small victory itself and may be the only 
significant victory to come out of the meeting.
 
"No substantial progress is likely at the Beijing talks," Selig 
S. Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the US-based Center 
for International Policy and a leading authority on North Korea, 
told AFP.
 
"North Korea is not likely to address the issue of its uranium 
enrichment program until far down the road of normalization with 
the United States when it is satisfied that the United States has 
given up the goal of 'regime change' and is prepared to coexist."
 
Washington has repeatedly made clear that it will be making no 
concessions this week. It wants agreement for a complete and 
verifiable dismantling of North Korea's weapons programs before 
it offers the economic and energy aid and security guarantees 
that Pyongyang wants.
 
This will include an acknowledgement from Pyongyang that it not 
only has a plutonium-based program, which it has offered to 
freeze, but also a uranium-based one.
 
US officials insist that a refusal to discuss this could derail 
any chance of finding a peaceful solution to the 16-month 
standoff.
 
"If the North Koreans don't acknowledge the half of their program 
that deals with uranium enrichment, it's hard to see how you can 
get a complete verifiable and irreversible dismantlement," top US 
envoy John Bolton said last week.
 
The crisis began in October 2002 when Washington 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 called the allegation "sheer lies" and reactivated 
its once-frozen nuclear facilities producing weapons-grade 
plutonium at Yongbyon to cope with what it calls a possible US 
"war of aggression."
 
The goalposts though shifted with revelations by Pakistan's top 
nuclear scientist that he sold Pyongyang plans and components for 
enrichment centrifuges to make bomb-grade uranium.
 
Timothy Savage, a visiting fellow at the Seoul-based Institute of 
Far Eastern Studies who specialises in Korean affairs, said 
China's role will be crucial.
 
"As far as the uranium enrichment program goes, they won't out 
the North Koreans before the North Koreans admit to it, but they 
may try to push them to make the admission," he said.
 
In a sign of how delicate the negotiations are, noone has dared 
say how long they might last.
 
The first round of acrimonious talks between the two Koreas, 
China, Japan, Russia and the United States in Beijing last August 
lasted three days but ended inconclusively.
 
The attitude that Pyongyang brings to the table this time will be 
the determining factor, but it will most likely be to get as many 
concessions as possible.
 
"The fact that they may already have nuclear weapons and that 
there's no way the US can be sure of taking them out in a 
pre-emptive strike is a huge bargaining chip," said Savage.
 
"They'll have the same attitude they've always had, which is to 
demand as much as possible for every concession they make."
 
Washington is likely to bring up Libya's denouncing its atomic 
ambitions as an incentive for North Korea to claw itself out of 
the international wilderness.
 
Harrison though suggested that the talks would bring the crisis 
no nearer to a conclusion -- not because of North Korea but a 
reluctance by the Bush administration.
 
"It is not seriously interested in a settlement, and views the 
negotiations as a way of showing that a settlement is not 
possible and that coercive measures are necessary," said 
Harrison, who has visited North Korea seven times and penned the 
award winning book 'Korean Endgame'.
 
Enriched uranium is used as fuel for nuclear reactors but can 
also be used for making atomic bombs. The US believes North Korea 
has at least one or two nuclear bombs made from plutonium.
 
- AFP
   
*****************************************************************
 8 CS Monitor: Hidden defense costs add up to double trouble 

| csmonitor.com

 Commentary > Opinion: "Economic Scene: A Weekly Column" 
from the February 23, 2004 edition 	
 
 By David R. Francis 

To measure actual spending by the United States on defense, take 
the federal budget number for the Pentagon and double it. That's 
the "rule of thumb" advocated by economic historian Robert Higgs.
	 	 	
Early this month, President Bush requested $401.7 billion for the 
Department of Defense (DoD) for fiscal 2005. So doubling that 
would make total defense/security spending close to $800 billion 
out of a total federal budget of $2.4 trillion.
 
In his budget message, Mr. Bush repeatedly notes the "war on 
terror" in referring to defense, though most of those outlays 
have little to do with that, according to Mr. Higgs, editor of 
the Independent Institute's quarterly review.
 
Like other defense analysts, he adds to the Pentagon cost number 
the nuclear-weapons activities of the Department of Energy, 
including cleanup of radiation-contaminated sites. Bush wants 
Energy Department scientists to develop nuclear "bunker busters" 
and other new weapons. Energy's total defense spending: at least 
$18.5 billion, reckons Higgs.
 
An oft-noted omission from the DoD's 2005 budget is the extra 
costs for activities in Afghanistan and Iraq. For fiscal 2004, a 
supplemental appropriation last November provided $58.8 billion 
for that purpose. The Defense Department hasn't yet put a number 
on 2005 costs, arguing before Congress that it was unknown.
 
"They wanted to avoid sticker shock prior to the election," says 
Christopher Hellman, an analyst with the Center for Arms Control 
and Non-Proliferation.
 
But the White House's Office of Management and Budget indicates 
the 2005 cost would be about $50 billion. Monthly defense 
expenditures in the two nations - the "burn rate" - are running 
between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion per month.
 
There are more hidden defense costs. Higgs includes some $4 
billion in "foreign military financing" plus other foreign aid 
made with defense goals, rather than economic development, in 
mind. For example, the US offered Turkey $6 billion to defray the 
cost of an Iraq war if American troops were allowed to pass 
through the nation - a deal the Turkish parliament rejected.
 
Higgs estimates the State Department and international assistance 
programs "arguably related" to defense add at least $17.6 billion 
to defense costs.
 
Other defense-related costs include care of veterans - hospitals, 
nursing homes, disability payments, pensions, etc. The Bush 
budget calls for $67.3 billion for the Department of Veterans 
Affairs in 2005.
 
Another cost Higgs sees as a matter of defense is the Department 
of Homeland Security. Bush wants $31 billion allocated here next 
year.
 
The largest item noted by Higgs is interest on the national debt 
related to defense spending. Higgs calculates that the 
proportional amount for every year from 1916 - when the debt was 
nearly zero - through 2002 comes to 81 percent of the total debt 
held by the public. The interest charges he attributes to defense 
came to $138.7 billion in 2002.
 
With many numbers still unavailable, Higgs hasn't finished his 
calculations for fiscal 2004. But doubling the DoD budget request 
won't overstate the truth by much, he says.
 
The unwillingness of the Bush administration to ask Congress for 
extra money for Iraq will have "real consequences," says Winslow 
Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Center for Defense Information. 
To cover additional costs, DoD will "raid" its operations and 
maintenance accounts. He says that will mean less training for 
troops and poorer maintenance of military equipment.
 
Some troops in Iraq lack sufficient body armor and equipment 
needed to storm buildings, says Mr. Hellman. Soldiers have also 
reportedly asked families to buy expensive night-vision goggles 
for them.
 
Mr. Wheeler terms the Higgs numbers "a legitimate exercise to 
calculate all conceivable costs of national security."
 
Other defense analysts don't go along entirely with Higgs's 
accounting methods. Yet they do agree that the true cost of 
defense is many billions more than the DoD budget. It's "far in 
excess of what is formally acknowledged," says Loren Thompson, an 
analyst at the conservative Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.
 
The US is "last of the big-time spenders" on defense in the 
world, notes a table from Hellman's Center for Arms Control and 
Non-Proliferation.
 
At the moment, Petter Stålenheim at the Stockholm International 
Peace Research Institute figures the US will account for between 
45 and 50 percent of the world's military spending in 2003. The 
US boosted spending by 6 percent last year; Britain raised 
defense spending 1 percent; France 1.8 percent, and Russia 14 
percent, says Mr. Stålenheim. Germany cut spending a little. 
Italy fell 8 percent. The Bush budget for 2005 calls for a 7 
percent hike in DoD spending.
 
Right now, Wheeler says, the defense budget is "gigantic ... 
compared to any potential foe."
 
Though US defense costs are high, Democrats are not likely to 
push for cuts in an election year when polls indicate the public 
perceives Republicans as stronger than Democrats on defense 
issues.
 
Critics charge that defense spending includes too many wasteful 
"cold war legacy" programs. Here, says Mr. Thompson, critics tend 
to agree with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He has been 
pushing for "transformation" of defense spending by closing 
unneeded bases and shutting down weapons programs unsuited to 
today's wars or threats.
 
With huge budget deficits, the nation can't afford such 
out-of-date weapons systems and programs, Hellman says.
 	 
  www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2004 The Christian Science
Monitor. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 9 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Administration favors nuclear free-for-all
 
[seattlepi.com]     

Monday, February 23, 2004 

GLEN MILNER GUEST COLUMNIST

The next nuclear bomb used for war, because of changes in 
deployment and proximity to new Asian targets, likely will be 
delivered by a Puget Sound-based Trident submarine. 

For the past 40 years, U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarines 
were deployed as a deterrent to nuclear war. The potential for 
provoking a full-scale nuclear exchange was too terrifying to 
consider the limited use of nuclear weapons. 

New U.S. war-fighting plans and the promotion of more useable 
nuclear weapons will affect the deployment of the Trident 
submarine system. Most notable is the doctrine of pre-emptive 
first strike, where any nation considered a threat to the United 
States could be attacked. 

In December 2001, the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review called for the 
development of new tactical nuclear weapons and a resumption of 
nuclear tests. The review claimed, "Many buried targets could be 
attacked using a weapon with a much lower [nuclear] yield than 
would be required with a surface burst." The report also called 
for more "flexible, adaptable strike plans," including "options 
for variable and reduced yields, high accuracy and timely 
employment." 

The Bush administration favors a nuclear free-for-all, confident 
that it will be able to intimidate or destroy all adversaries 
with a varied arsenal of increasingly sophisticated weapons. 
Numerous international arms-control treaties, including the 
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty 
and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, have been abandoned or 
ignored by the United States. 

In November, Congress approved an administration request for 
continued research on nuclear earth-penetrators and a new 
generation of tactical nuclear weapons for possible use against 
terrorists or so-called rogue states such as Iran or North Korea. 
By doing so, Congress and the administration repealed a 
10-year-old ban on research for the development of new nuclear 
weapons with yields less than five kilotons, often referred to as 
bunker-busters or "mininukes." 

A Dec. 5 memo from Linton F. Brooks, of the National Nuclear 
Security Administration, to the three U.S. nuclear weapons 
laboratories, stated, "We are now free to explore a range of 
technical options that could strengthen our ability to deter, or 
respond to new or emerging threats without any concern that some 
ideas could inadvertently violate a vague and arbitrary 
limitation." Addressing new endorsements by Congress and the 
repeal of the ban on low-yield nuclear weapons development, 
Brooks stated, "We should not fail to take advantage of this 
opportunity." 

The Trident missile system has been studied and tested for use 
with a conventional (non-nuclear) warhead. Also discussed by war 
planners is the delivery of a low-yield nuclear weapon by a 
Trident missile. 

While specific issues addressing the delivery of small nuclear 
weapons have been kept secret, there are numerous reasons war 
planners would choose the Trident delivery system, including high 
accuracy, speed of delivery and 4,500-mile range for the 
missiles. 

A Trident missile can reach its target in 10-15 minutes, much 
faster than land-based ballistic missiles, aircraft or cruise 
missiles. The speed of the missile and high trajectory also 
provide the burrowing effect desired for bunker-buster bombs. 

The secrecy of submarine deployment further advances the use of 
Trident missiles in a tactical strike. The delivery would not 
encroach upon the airspace of hostile nations. Those targeted 
likely would never know the missile was coming. 

Nuclear weapons, even ones smaller than used on Hiroshima or 
Nagasaki, will kill on impact and create a surrounding firestorm. 
The resulting radioactive dust will cause slow and agonizing 
death. 

With the advancement of tactical nuclear weapons we must ask 
ourselves, who will give the order to launch? Should we let them? 

On Jan. 17, 2004, 12 people were arrested while blocking the 
entrance to the Trident submarine base at Bangor. The next 
planned non-violent action at Bangor, on May 8, will honor 
Mother's Day. Glen Milner lives in Seattle and is a member of 
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo; Back to top                 


  [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 
98119 (206) 448-8000
 
 Send comments to ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Terms of 
*****************************************************************
 10 [progchat_action] Drumbeats on Pakistan's nuclear
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 11:48:12 -0600 (CST)

 
Much noise over full drums

By Wilson John Editorial The Pioneer Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Drumbeats on Pakistan's nuclear black-marketing are getting louder.

The international community (read Washington) is alarmed and worried
at the rapidly accumulating pile of evidence against Pakistan's top
nuclear scientist, Dr AQ Khan, and a few of his associates for
selling nuclear technology and materials to nations that are
considered "rogue".

(China is not the target yet and hence does not qualify to be a
rogue despite overwhelming evidence.)

The heat and dust being created by the "revelations", obviously
made by muck-raking journalists of influential Western papers, begs
the question: Why does the world get drawn into the carefully planned
and orchestrated propaganda, year after year? First it was the Al
Qaeda; then the WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction); and now a nuclear
blackmarket racket. This is not intended to be in defence of AQ
Khan or Pakistan.

If Dr Khan and his associates in the military and nuclear establishment
have indulged in buying and selling nuclear technology and materials
for several years, they should be punished; that is, if there is
punishment for a crime that qualifies to be categorised as crime
against humanity. If the allegations currently being made in the
media were true, a special court should be set up by the United
Nations to try them. In fact, the first step towards that direction
would be to institute an independent investigation and send UN
Inspectors to Pakistan immediately. But the question that begs an
answer is: Who will be the judge?

Take the case of Pakistan. Pakistan decided to go nuclear after a
humiliating defeat in the 1971 battlefield. Within weeks of the
surrender at Dhaka, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto called a
secret meeting (January 24, 1972, at Multan) of nuclear and military
officials and said he wanted the Bomb. A 125 mw heavy water reactor
became operational near Karachi the same year. It was built with
Canadian assistance. The US was not in the dark about these
developments. Three years after Bhutto's secret meeting, the State
Department prepared a short note on Pakistan and the Non- Proliferation
Issue (January 22, 1975), which said Pakistan was not only building
more power reactors, it was also negotiating with the Belgians for
a heavy water facility, with the Canadians for a fuel fabrication
plant and with the French for a chemical separation plant."These
facilities," the note (since declassified) said, "together with the
heavy reactor, will give Pakistan a virtually independent nuclear
fuel cycle and the opportunity to separate a sufficient amount of
plutonium to build a nuclear weapon....the earliest the Pakistanis
are likely to be able to produce a weapon would be 1980." Just a
year later, so clear was the evidence that Pakistan was buying
nuclear technology and materials from European countries that the
State Department issued a demarche to Pakistan. On June 23, 1983,
the State Department prepared a four-page note for the US President
on "The Pakistani Nuclear Programme", which began on this ominous
note "...There is unambiguous evidence that Pakistan is actively
pursuing a nuclear weapons development program."

Besides the declassified documents, the following findings have
been pieced together from open sources which reveal the involvement
of the United States and other Western nations in helping Pakistan
build the nuclear capability. Pakistan's initiation into the nuclear
club began in 1958, when it was invited to join the Atoms for Peace
Programme launched by the Eisenhower Administration. Two years
later, Pakistan received a grant of $350,000 from the US to build
its first research reactor. In 1962, US supplied a five mw light
water research reactor known as the Pakistan Atomic Research Reactor
(PARR-1). In 1971, the Canadian General Electric Co. completed a
137 mw CANDU power reactor for the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant.
Plans for the plutonium separating facilities designed by the British
Nuclear Fuels Limited were finalised the same year. A Belgian firm,
Belgonucleaire, and a French corporation, Saint-Gobain Techniques
Nouvelles, designed a pilot reprocessing facility called the New
Labs at PINSTECH. In 1976, under a highly secretive project codenamed
706, Pakistan bought components for centrifuges from the Netherlands;

orders for 6500 tubes of specially hardened steel were placed with
Van Doome Transmissie.

Other support components and subsystems were bought from Vakuum
Apparat Technik (high vacuum valves) of Haag, Switzerland and Leybold
Heraeus (gas purification equipment), Hanan, Germany. A year later,
the British subsidiary of Emerson Electric sold 30 high frequency
inverters to Pakistan for controlling centrifuge speeds. In 1987,
West Germany sells a tritium purification and production facility
with a capacity to produce 10g of tritium daily. Tritium can be
used to produce a thermonuclear device. In 1989, German magazine,
Stern reported that "since the beginning of the eighties over 70
(West German) enterprises have supplied sensitive goods to enterprises
which for years have been buying equipment for Pakistan's ambitious
nuclear weapons programme."

There is more evidence gathered from US sources to show how the US
blinks when it wants to. The most basic is the CIA's unclassified
report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to
Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions
www.cia.gov/cia/reports/721_jan_jun2000.html which, since 1999,
have been religiously reporting Pakistan's acquisition of "a
considerable amount of nuclear-related and dual-use equipment and
materials from various sources-principally in the FSU (former Soviet
Union) and Western Europe".

What the CIA would never report is the involvement of the US
Administration and firms in helping Pakistan acquire nuclear weapons
technology at a time when it was forcing the world to sign the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and other non-proliferation agreements.

In May 1990, the intelligence agencies had gathered evidence that
the US Administration was allowing Pakistan to acquire restricted
items for its nuclear arsenal from within US. Well-known investigative
journalist, Seymour Hersh, writing in the New Yorker, March 29,
1993, said, "Many more nuclear-related goods were clandestinely
bought inside the United States by Pakistan than by Saddam Hussein's
Iraq."

The story of Richard M Barlow is equally revealing. He was a CIA
officer working on Pakistan's nuclear programme. In 1987, he
discovered what the State Department and his seniors were telling
the Congress was not exactly what he and his colleagues were digging
out on Pakistan's expanding nuclear weapons development programme.
He resigned a year later. He later joined as an analyst with the
Office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Policy from where too
he had to resign under pressure after he raised strong objections
to the administration's continued support to Pakistan's nuclear
purchases in the US. The only conclusion one can draw from these
findings is the US was not only aware of Pakistan's nuclear weapons
development programme from the beginning but was willingly assisting
the latter to develop the capability, even brushing aside CIA's
intelligence reports on Pakistan's purchases from the west. No one
else had the technology to sell them anyway. So who, in the final
analysis, should stand trial for nuclear proliferation?

Read the complete news at:

http://www.dailypioneer.com

Jai Maharaj http://www.mantra.com/jai Om Shanti

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 11 [NukeNet] Japan Terror Alert Maximum At Nuke Facilities & Fire
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:37 -0800

 
<x-flowed>



  http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Japan-Nuclear-Plant-Fire.html

Fire Breaks Out at Japanese Nuclear Plant
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 21, 2004


Filed at 1:11 a.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) -- A fire briefly broke out Saturday on
the roof of a Japanese nuclear power plant that
was shut down for regular inspections, a spokesman
for the plant's operator said.

No injuries were reported and no radiation was
released in the accident, Shigehisa Osawa, a
spokesman for Chubu Electric Co., said.

The plant in the central town of Hamaoka had been
shut down earlier in the day for regular
inspections when the fire was reported on the roof
of its electricity-generating turbine room, which
is separate from the nuclear reactor, Osawa said.

Firefighters were called and the blaze was
confirmed extinguished about 45 minutes later,
Osawa said.

Rubber roofing is believed to have caught fire
when hydrogen gas used to cool the turbine escaped
from a roof duct, the Kyodo News agency quoted
firefighters as saying. Plant workers had been
removing the coolant from the turbine as part of
their inspection, the report said.


  http://www.nytimes.com


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Japan-Terror-Alert.html



Japan Raises Terror Alert to Highest Level
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 20, 2004


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Filed at 10:41 p.m. ET

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan tightened security at hundreds
of airports, nuclear plants and government
facilities Friday, dispatching armed riot police
to guard against possible terror attacks as the
country dispatches troops on a humanitarian
mission to Iraq.

A National Police Agency official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, confirmed the heightened
security but refused to say whether the government
had new information about a possible terror
strike. He said it was the highest show of
security in Japan since the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq in March 2003.

About 650 vital facilities including U.S. bases in
Japan were put under increased surveillance, the
Yomiuri newspaper and other media reported. Agency
spokesman could not be reached Saturday to confirm
that figure.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Japan
was stepping up security ahead of sending troops
to Iraq. Japan dispatched a destroyer and an
amphibious vessel for the Middle East on Friday.

``Japan for the last few weeks has been taking
some measures to improve the police preparedness
as they prepare to deploy troops to Iraq,'' he
said. ``Japan has kept us apprised of the measures
they are implementing.''

``The measures they are implementing are relating
to police preparedness,'' McClellan added.

The tougher security also follows a failed attempt
to hit the Defense Agency with projectiles earlier
in the week and precedes an expected verdict in
the trial of a cult leader accused of plotting a
1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subways.

The security move sent a shiver through global
financial markets, knocking the Japanese yen to
10-week lows against the U.S. dollar.

The National Police official said riot police
armed with automatic rifles will guard Tokyo and
Kansai international airports and nuclear power
and reprocessing facilities.

A police officer at the Tokyo airport confirmed
Saturday that riot police had been deployed but
declined to elaborate.

Larger police forces were being mobilized and
additional checkpoints set up around the prime
minister's residence, the U.S. Embassy, military
facilities and national and local assembly
buildings, the official said. Security was also
strengthened at ports, railway stations and
shopping malls.

``We are going to beef up security at key
facilities,'' the official said, confirming
reports carried by Kyodo News agency's Japanese
service, national broadcaster NHK and the Web site
of Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper.

Japan is sending 1,000 air, sea and ground forces
for the mission in Iraq, its largest military
deployment since World War II. An advance team of
30 soldiers is already in Iraq.

Many fear that dispatch could draw terrorist
attacks in Japan, and last November an alleged
al-Qaida operative threatened to attack Tokyo if
it sent troops to Iraq. Japan issued a series of
travel advisories and alerts for citizens living
abroad late last year.

On Tuesday assailants apparently attempted to fire
projectiles at Japan's Defense Agency. Two blasts
were heard near the Agency, and police later found
two projectile launchers. There were no injuries
or damage, but local media reported that a leftist
group opposed to Japan's Iraqi mission had claimed
responsibility.

The move also comes ahead of the verdict next
Friday in the case of Shoko Asahara, the former
leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out
the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo
subways that killed 12 people.

Police earlier this week raided offices of the
cult, now named Aleph, concerned it could be
planning reprisals if Asahara is convicted.
Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty.

Beginning in late December, police tightened
security at hundreds of facilities nationwide
during the New Year holidays, and officers went on
round-the-clock watch at train and subway stations
and shipping docks. But the precautions were later
eased.






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 12 WP: Malaysia Won't Detain Sri Lankan Who Helped Build Nuclear Network 

(washingtonpost.com)
 
By Alan Sipress Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, 
February 21, 2004; 2:33 PM 

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb. 21 -- A top Malaysian police 
official said Saturday that the Sri Lankan businessman who helped 
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan build a secret, 
international network for supplying nuclear material and 
equipment had committed no crime and was free to leave the 
country. 

Malaysian authorities have decided not to arrest Buhary Syed Abu 
Tahir or confiscate his passport, said police inspector-general 
Mohamed Bakri Omar in comments carried by the official Malaysian 
news agency Bernama. 

Police had earlier interrogated Tahir, a Malaysian resident, as 
part of a three-month investigation into local activities of 
Khan's nuclear network. On Friday, police released their report, 
which included extensive details from Tahir about how the 
Pakistani scientist provided Iran with components for its nuclear 
program and Libya with enriched uranium and equipment that could 
be used in developing weapons. 

"If he wants to leave [the country], I cannot restrict him," 
Mohamed Bakri said. He added, "The police just investigate and 
we've done that." 

But Mohamed Bakri said Malaysian authorities were willing to help 
make Tahir available to the International Atomic Energy Agency if 
international investigators wanted to question him. 

The senior police commander also left open the possibility that 
Tahir could face legal action in Malaysia from a local company, 
Scomi Precision Engineering, on the grounds that he had misled 
the firm when he directed them to manufacture centrifuge parts 
that could be used in making weapons-grade uranium. These 
components were later intercepted in Italy on a ship bound for 
Libya. Tahir had told police investigators that the parts would 
be used in the petroleum and gas industry, according to the 
police report. 


               © 2004 The Washington Post Company
*****************************************************************
 13 Daily Times: N-programme in safe hands, says Jamali 
 
 Monday, February 23, 2004    

Staff Report

LAHORE: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has said that 
pakistan’s nuclear programme is in safe hands and the US and 
other countries are satisfied with Pakistan’s non-proliferation 
policy.

Talking to reporters at the residence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain 
on Sunday, he said that the operation was a routine matter. Mr 
Jamali said that Pakistan would never allow its territory to be 
used for terrorism and would continue operations against 
terrorists. 

He praised Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s governance, 
saying that he earned a good name for the federal government and 
that other provinces should emulate him. “ I am completely 
satisfied and happy with the Punjab government’s performance and 
congratulate Mr Elahi for his untiring efforts for development in 
the province,” said the PM. Responding to a question about the 
merger of different Pakistan Muslim League factions and the 
differences among them, Mr Jamali said, “We are trying to 
establish the greater Muslim League as soon as possible because 
it is necessary for political stability.” 

He said that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would remain president of 
any eventual united PML because other leaguers including Hamid 
Nasir Chatha, Ejazul Haq and Mian Manzoor Wattoo also agreed on 
his name. Home | National           

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions

*****************************************************************
 14 Hi Pakistan: Powell lauds Musharraf's handling of N-issue

February 23 2004     
    
NEW YORK, Feb 21: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on 
Friday the United States, acting in partnership with others, had 
played a quiet but important role in the reconciliation process 
recently launched between India and Pakistan , and expressed the 
hope that both countries were moving towards a lasting peace in 
the Subcontinent. 

He was speaking to faculty members and students at a day-long 
conference at the Princeton University marking the 100th birthday 
of George F. Kennan, the US diplomat credited with devising the 
policy of containing the Soviet Union during the Cold War. 

Mr Powell observed: "The Pakistani and Indian leaderships both 
have now decided let's talk to each other, let's move forward." 

"We hope they have now turned the corner and are moving down a 
road towards a lasting peace on the Subcontinent," he added. 

"The political negotiations will begin well - will begin soon, 
and we hope they go well. Political dialogue and genuine 
conciliation mark the way forward in this new era," the US 
Secretary of State observed. 

He said: "18 months' ago, one of the great concerns I had as a 
Secretary of State was that a war might break out between these 
two countries, a war that could possibly go nuclear, since both 
have nuclear capability," Mr Powell noted. 

"We have seen all sides sobered by that possibility of war, and 
instead they are moving in the other direction." 

On the involvement of Pakistan's nuclear scientist Dr Abdul 
Qadeer Khan in proliferation activities, Mr Powell praised steps 
taken by President Pervez Musharraf. 

"President Musharraf of Pakistan has done the right thing now to 
get firmer control over Pakistan's technological assets. 

"The international web of proliferation that Dr A.Q. Khan used to 
traffic with Libya, with Iran, with North Korea is being shut 
down even as I speak," he declared. 

Taking questions from the audience, Mr Powell was confronted with 
an accusation that the administration had a double-standard of 
demanding the Palestinians end terror but letting Israel 
terrorize and kill them he prodded Israeli Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon to permit Palestinians to live a better life. 

But he also blamed Yasser Arafat for sabotaging US efforts to 
stop Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis. 

"I put the blame squarely on Arafat," he added. 

Mr Powell cited President Bush's support for creation of a 
Palestinian State and US demands that Israel stop expanding 
Jewish settlements on the West Bank and get rid of outposts 
there. 

Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part 
*****************************************************************
 15 Hi Pakistan: EU FMs to discuss Pak N-issue
 
February 23 2004     
    
BRUSSELS: The foreign ministers of European Union (EU) and its 
accession countries would discuss Pakistan’s nuclear imbroglio in 
the upcoming meeting of the EU General Affairs and External 
Relations Council after Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen 
presents his report on the recent EU troika visit to Pakistan, 
India and Afghanistan, an official source in Brussels told The 
News.

In the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, the current EU 
presidency also plans to ask the EU member states to expedite 
their respective probes into the purported "European roots" of 
nuclear black market. The meeting will also take note of a 
Malaysian police report alleging that some European nuclear 
middlemen have played a key role in the nuclear arms black 
market.

The agenda of the second General Affairs and External Relations 
Council of Ireland’s Presidency in Brussels includes a wide range 
of international, regional and European issues, besides a 
briefing by the head of the troika delegation, Minister Brian 
Cowen, on its meetings earlier this week in India, Afghanistan 
and Pakistan, the EU presidency official said.

The Irish foreign minister in his report to be presented in the 
EU foreign ministers conference, according to the EU official, is 
expected to underline the need for following a multilateral 
approach to deal with the menace of nuclear proliferation. The 
troika delegation, according to the EU official, has already 
conveyed to the Pakistani leaders in Islamabad that the EU does 
not regard the nuclear investigation as an internal issue of 
Pakistan. The president of the EU Council of Minister Brian 
Cowen’s briefing to the EU foreign ministers would follow a call 
by the 15-member states and 10 accession countries underlining 
that the international community, including the EU Member States 
and Pakistan, must work together to root out this deadly trade of 
nuclear technology. The EU foreign minister would also call on 
Pakistan once again to ensure the fullest possible disclosure of 
all relevant information at its disposal to the International 
Atomic Energy Agency, particularly with regard to their ongoing 
verification activities in Iran and Libya, the official said.

The EU troika chief’s report to the EU foreign ministers meeting 
would also include discussions with leaders in New Delhi and 
Islamabad on the EU’s wish to see India and Pakistan adhere to 
the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India and Pakistan are 
unwilling to join the NPT, but the EU presidency says, "It is a 
clear difference between us but it is not an obstacle to our good 
relations".

The Irish foreign minister’s report to be tabled in the EU 
foreign minister’s conference would give a full account of troika 
meetings with the leaders of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.
									 
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part 
*****************************************************************
 16 Hi Pakistan: N-plan to stay = Musharraf    
 
February 23 2004     
    
RAWALPINDI, Feb 21: President Gen Pervez Musharraf reiterated on 
Saturday that Pakistan's nuclear programme was here to stay and, 
being a vital national security interest, will never be 
compromised. He said that far from any misplaced notion of a 
rollback , "we will continue to develop our capability in line 
with our minimum deterrence needs." 

The president was speaking at an impressive ceremony held to hand 
over the indigenously produced Hatf-III (Ghaznavi) Ballistic 
Missile System to the Army Strategic Force Command. 

The solid fuel Ghaznavi Ballistic Missile System, which has a 
range of 290km, was successfully test-fired in 2002 and 2003 with 
excellent results. 

It now forms an integral component of Pakistan's operational 
deterrence system, which also includes the Shaheen series and 
Ghauri intermediate-range missiles, besides the PAF. 

The ceremony was attended by Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff 
Committee, services chiefs and senior military officers and 
scientists. 

The president said that his actions spoke louder than words and 
in the last four years, large number of missile tests of 
different systems as well as handing over of these systems to the 
respective Strategic Missile Groups amply demonstrated his 
government's resolve to consolidate and strengthen Pakistan's 
nuclear deterrence. 

He urged the nation to "come out of the mindset of the eighties" 
when the nuclear programme was in its infancy and could be 
threatened with rollback. 

"Today, Pakistan, by the Grace of Allah, is an acknowledged and 
established nuclear power," the president said. 

The president paid glowing tributes to the scientists, engineers 
and technicians who had made the nation proud by their dedicated 
and professional hard work. 

"By their singular achievements they had forged a strong, 
indigenous capability, which had resulted in substantial 
savings," he said. 

He laid emphasis on the need to further enhance security by 
drawing lessons from the events of past proliferation.-APP 

Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
y
*****************************************************************
 17 Hi Pakistan: IAEA fully informed of nuclear dealings - Iran 

February 23 2004     
    
TEHRAN: Iran's foreign ministry on Sunday stood by its assertions 
that it had fully informed the UN's atomic energy agency of its 
buying of sensitive nuclear components on the black market.

"What we have said from the beginning is that we have acquired 
some equipment from from dealers, from brokers," said spokesman 
Hamid Reza Asefi.

But he asserted that Iran was not aware of which countries the 
components came from.

"We had reported this in due time to the International Atomic 
Energy Agency (IAEA)," he asserted. "We have an honest 
cooperation with the agency."
 					     							 				 				   				 				
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
written permission and prior consent of the webmaster.

  
*****************************************************************
 18 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear and poor together 

By Kunwar Idris     --> 
 
February 23 2004     
    
Sharing his "deepest thoughts on vital national issues" with 
senior military men the other day, the prime minister wondered 
why Pakistan is poor though it is nuclear. The answer at least to 
this deep thought floats on the surface: We are poor because we 
are nuclear. 

Pakistan, as a percentage of its national income, spends twice as 
much on defence as India or Sri Lanka does. Similar, or 
imaginably more adverse, would be the ratio of undisclosed but 
huge investment made in nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan. 

Then, the prime minister wonders why Pakistan, a country of 140 
millions, the seventh largest in world, is not accorded by the 
international community the status it deserves because of its 
number and arsenal. The answer, again, is simple. The status does 
not flow from arms (which we cannot protect) or from multitudes 
(of which the majority is illiterate) but from the state of 
education and economy. 

Compare it with Sri Lanka where only eight per cent of the 
people, almost all from the older generations, are illiterate. 
This is an obvious outcome of public expenditure on education. 

The ratio here is reverse of defence. Sri Lanka spends twice as 
much on education as Pakistan does. On the quality of education 
we impart, the most telling comment came from the late Prof. 
Eqbal Ahmad: Pakistan's best college, he said once, is worse than 
any community college in the black ghettos of America. 

Mr Jamali's lament would make no difference as others' more 
sombre did not in the past. Whatever little increase the previous 
governments made or not so little that Jamali's government might 
now make in the allocation for education (at best it could not be 
more than a percentage point) will be wasted, misapplied or 
misappropriated. 

The example of waste can be seen in the appointment of teachers 
who preferred to be excise peons; of misappropriation in the 
building made for school ending up as an extension to the village 
party chief's homestead; and of misapplication when a medical 
student admitted without merit in a government-run college pays 
as much fee for the full five-year course as a private medical 
college charges for a month. 

The solution lies in encouraging private enterprise in education 
whether the motive is charity, profit or even to proselytize, and 
not let the dead hand of government regulation of fees or syllabi 
fall on the privately-managed institutions. 

A beginning can be made by handing back the nationalized colleges 
to the previous managers whoever are willing to take them. It is 
not known how many, if any at all, students became Christians by 
going to Lahore's Forman Christian College but since its return 
to the missionaries the standards both of discipline and 
instruction in the college have improved dramatically. 

A Ph. D. teacher who had left in disgust has come back from 
Canada at twice the salary. Will Mr Jamali try this course to 
better education and save the government money in the bargain? 
Most likely not, for in politics pious sermons come easier than 
determined actions. 

Mr Jamali cannot be faulted when he says nothing has flourished 
more in the past three decades than corruption. These decades 
were dominated by Ziaul Haq's Islam and PPP-PML's democracy. The 
obvious inference is that religious hypocrisy and political 
opportunism both fuel corruption. Faultier however is his 
expectation that the accountability mechanism now in place would 
deter the corrupt. 

Corruption which had abated a bit in President Musharraf's solo 
three years has come back with a vengeance through the democratic 
route. It is no longer individual, it has dug its roots deep in 
our political culture. That explains the craving for ministries 
and sinecures. Quite obviously twenty-nine ministers in 
Balochistan and twice as many in Punjab are not for public 
service alone. 

If the accountability now has become a part of the system it 
should hold to account first those who run the system (and not 
those who oppose it) before tribunals which stand above the 
system. Currently quite a few who are accused or suspected of 
corruption revel in government or in the party in power. 
Presiding over an accountability court, on the other hand, is 
viewed as a short and easy route for a judge to higher courts. 

The prime minister has spoken of his vision of the ideals on 
which Pakistan is founded and of good governance to implement 
them. Both are jargons devised only to obscure hard, honest work. 
Our home-grown ideologues have distracted attention from this 
plain truth by starting an unnecessary and irrelevant debate on 
Islam and secularism, and the international consultants by 
proposing new and unfamiliar structures of public administration. 
In the process while the ideologues and consultants both thrive, 
the people of Pakistan have been made to appear to the world as 
extremists, intolerant of dissent who are unable to administer 
themselves. 

The president time and again warns a "handful of extremists" (the 
prime minister doesn't do even that) for exposing Pakistan to 
international ridicule and isolation. But that is all he does. 
There is not a single law, harsh or absurd, enacted by Gen. Ziaul 
Haq (or by the rulers before and after him) contravening civil 
rights, freedom of conscience, equality of citizens or 
discriminating against women and minorities which he has 
repealed. All such laws are still being invoked not to reform the 
delinquents but to punish and insult unwary, peaceable citizens 
or to extort bribe from them. 

In translating his vision to reality the first task for the prime 
minister should be to rid Pakistan of extremists and not to seek 
their blessings to sustain his government. 
					     							 				 				   				 				
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part 
*****************************************************************
 19 AU SMH: New nuclear chief ready to listen 

- National - www.smh.com.au [Sydney Morning Herald Online] 

By Richard Macey February 23, 2004
 		 	   	   		
Suspicion of atomic energy would fade over the next 25 years as 
the world confronted global warming and rising demand for power, 
the new chief of the Lucas Heights nuclear research centre has 
predicted. 

Ian Smith, a metallurgist, has been appointed executive director 
of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation 
(ANSTO), replacing Professor Helen Garnett, who left to become 
vice-chancellor of Charles Darwin University. 

Dr Smith, deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Otago, New 
Zealand, who will begin his new job in May, tipped that 
acceptance of atomic energy would continue to spread, 
particularly in Europe. 

"Things are looking more positive," he said, adding that people 
increasingly recognised the environmental threat posed by carbon 
fuels, and that such fuels were not limitless. 

"If one believes the European Union projections . . . nuclear 
power will come back as the world starts moving towards carbon 
taxes. In Europe the feeling against burning coal is pretty 
strong." 

Dr Smith said new technology, such as hydrogen power, would be 
adopted. 

"But someone has to produce the power to make the hydrogen. I 
can't see many options other than nuclear." 

France now produced most of its power from atomic energy, 
reflecting growing public approval of nuclear power. 

"In France there has not been too much fuss . . . nobody has 
heard anything about it." 

Within 25 years the world would see nuclear power as "less of an 
evil than burning carbon fuels". But he doubted Australia would 
build nuclear power stations. "I don't think it is the 
appropriate way for Australia. We have carbon-based fuels and we 
don't have a high-density population." 

The Melbourne-based Uranium Information Centre said the world had 
439 nuclear power reactors last month, with 29 under construction 
and another 35 planned. 

Dr Smith said he would make openness a priority in building 
public confidence in the new nuclear research reactor being built 
at Lucas Heights. 

"An open policy gives people confidence that safety is supreme," 
he said. "My belief is that you have to give people the facts and 
that you have to discuss issues with them. We need to listen to 
them and address their concerns. Both sides need to listen, not 
just talk." 

A Sutherland Shire councillor, Genevieve Rankin, a fierce ANSTO 
critic, said she would give Dr Smith a fair go. "Maybe he will be 
prepared to sit down, talk with the community and turn around the 
incredible culture of secrecy," she said, adding that Lucas 
Heights had been run under "a cold war mentality".              

 	
Copyright  © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
 20 IRIB PERSIAN NEWS: IAEA chief heads for Libya 

IranNews Tehran Times Iran Daily   

  2004/02/22   


Vienna, Feb 22 - UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed Elbaradei will 
visit Libya Monday at a time when revelations from the North 
African state are helping unravel an international smuggling ring 
in atomic weapons equipment and technology.

 "I would think he is going in order to get additional 
information on sources of foreign procurement," Gary Samore, a 
non-proliferation expert at London's international institute for 
strategic studies said.

 Elbaradei's visit Monday and Tuesday will be the Vienna-based 
International Atomic Energy Agency head's second to Libya since 
Tripoli pledged two months ago to dismantle its programs to 
develop weapons of mass destruction, an IAEA spokesman said.

 "It's bound to be a positive trip. The Libyans are determined to 
make this disarmament a success. A lot of information is now 
coming out through other sources. There is not much reason for 
the Libyans to hold back," Samore said.

 A western diplomat close to the IAEA said "things have been 
moving very smoothly" in disarming Libya since it agreed December 
19 with Britain and the United States to give up its drive to 
have weapons of mass destruction. 

SR   

  Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved By Islamic Republic of Iran 
Broadcasting News Network Sponsored By IRIB News Computer Center. 
E-Mail: <font color="#ff0000" face>Webmaster@IRIBNEWS.ir</font> 
*****************************************************************
 21 UNI: Nuke bunkers give military advantage to India                 
     
Sunday, 22 February , 2004, 08:14             
     	
  Washington: India's proposal to build "nuclear fallout 
shelters" along its border with Pakistan is more than a defensive 
maneuver, according to US geopolitical analysts. 

With Pakistan possessing nuclear weapons, the move would seem a 
logical defensive mechanism but the size and the scope of the 
bunkers "indicate their possible use in conventional warfare," 
analysts at Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) said. 

The Indian military has attempted over the last six months to 
significantly widen its technological advantages over the 
Pakistani military, Stratfor said, and the proposed shelter 
construction is another step in that direction. 

Although as shelters they do not offer a significant tactical 
advantage, it was likely that the bunkers would be used for a 
"purposes not entirely related to protection from nuclear 
fallout". Indian Defence Ministry officials have alluded to using 
underground border facilities to protect command centers and 
other key facilities. 

Representatives of Dass Hitachi -- the construction company for 
the shelters -- outlined plans for large bunkers that would 
contain decontamination facilities separate from areas that could 
house and sustain approximately 30 personnel. 

"This description -- with separate decontamination, housing and 
communications facilities -- not only gives an idea of a bunker's 
size, but also makes it seem like something more than a fallout 
shelter," Stratfor said. 

Using underground bunkers to stage troops and equipment is a 
relatively widespread military tactic, Stratfor said. North Korea 
is believed to have hundreds of such bunkers peppered across the 
country. The bunkers are perfect for positioning command and 
control (C2) centers as well as key artillery and missile 
systems. 

Fixed underground C2 facilities grant two key advantages to 
India, the analysts said. First, a static location near the 
likely front means communications along this line can be 
interconnected through high-speed phone and data lines. 

Second, an underground location means that bunkers and their 
communications links become essentially invulnerable to enemy 
attack. 

"Constant, reliable communication is vital to the success of any 
modern military; a network of fixed underground facilities easily 
achieves that goal." "The construction of underground bunkers 
coupled with India's long-term military buildup and modernization 
reveals a widening rift in military capability between Pakistan 
and India."   

  Sify.com hosted at SifyHosting India's first Level 3 Internet 
Data Centre © Copyright Sify Ltd, 1998-2004. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 22 Los Angeles Times: PAKISTAN The Dangers of Despotism 

February 22, 2004 


By Joseph Siegle, Joseph Siegle is the Douglas Dillon fellow at 
the Council on Foreign Relations. 

WASHINGTON ? In recent weeks, an uncomfortable paradox has been 
exposed. While the world's attention was riveted on the 
possibility of Saddam Hussein passing weapons of mass destruction 
to terrorists, it was our close ally in the war on terrorism, 
Pakistan, that was the world's leading proliferator of nuclear 
weapons technology.

North Korea, Iran and Libya all developed nuclear weapons 
programs with the help of Pakistan. Pakistani President Pervez 
Musharraf has tried to sweep these transgressions under the rug.

He claimed that his country's leading nuclear scientist, Abdul 
Qadeer Khan, who has acknowledged his lead role in the transfer 
of the nuclear know-how, acted on his own. The shipment of some 
of the weapons material in military transport, Musharraf would 
have us believe, was done without the knowledge of the army's or 
nation's leaders. In any case, Musharraf, who pardoned Khan, 
asserts that the problem has been handled. Bizarrely, the Bush 
administration seems to agree. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell 
called Pakistani officials "to convey the United States' 
appreciation over the results of the investigations and the 
manner in which they were conducted," according to the Pakistani 
Foreign Ministry. 

The administration justified its position on the grounds that 
Musharraf was a critical ally in the effort to find Osama bin 
Laden and was the only person who could ensure stability and 
moderation in Pakistan. This would seem to be a textbook 
trade-off between national security and democracy. In fact, it 
demonstrates just the opposite. Pakistan has been a major 
proliferator precisely because its authoritarian government is 
largely unaccountable. 

Even during its short experience with elected leaders, the 
military has been beholden only to itself. Our relations with 
Pakistan, consequently, should be considered within the strategic 
framework of a global system of democratic states adhering to the 
rule of law. Advancing this objective is the best way to reduce 
terrorists' access to nuclear weapons technology. Think about it. 
All our security threats ? North Korea, Iran, Syria and nonstate 
terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda ? are rooted in 
autocratically governed societies. 

The greater accountability, transparency, tolerance and 
nonbelligerence typical of democracies are indispensable 
constraints on proliferation and the emergence of transnational 
terrorist threats. The choice is thus not between democracy and 
security but between the strategic and tactical dimensions of our 
foreign policy. Unfortunately, our Cold War tendency to strike 
deals with despots in search of short-term security or economic 
aims is all-too-well established. 

Yet many of the challenges we face today stem from the patterns 
we reinforced during that era. President Bush acknowledged this 
reality in a speech he gave in November: "Sixty years of Western 
nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the 
Middle East did nothing to make us safe." A change in course is 
required. We need to break the pattern that divorces democratic 
ideals from the reality of our actions. 

Instead of glossing over the enormous damage Pakistan has done to 
international security, the U.S. should be firmly pushing to 
reestablish the pre-Musharraf constitution. This would include 
restoring the autonomy of Pakistan's parliament and Supreme 
Court, as well as dissolving the governing authority of the 
unelected national security council. Pakistan's freelancing 
military and intelligence services, closely tied to Taliban and 
Pakistani Islamic radicals, should be reined in, depoliticized 
and made accountable to civilian leaders. Demanding greater 
safeguards against proliferation is not enough. Institutional 
change is needed. Some will say that this is too time-consuming. 

Yet such objections overlook the fact that Pakistan will be a 
major battleground in the war on terrorism for at least the next 
20 years, regardless of when we get Bin Laden. The tens of 
thousands of virulently anti-Western graduates annually produced 
by its /madrasas /assure that. If we don't start setting 
expectations for fundamental change now, then when? Musharraf 
deeply craves international legitimacy. The United States should 
use that lever to impress upon him the need to bring about 
democratic reforms. Generous investment in Pakistan's education, 
health, agriculture and business sectors, as well as closer U.S. 
military ties, would be further incentives. 

Those who contend that restoring democracy in Pakistan would open 
the door to radical fundamentalists should remember that it has 
been under Musharraf's autocratic rule that radicalized Islamic 
parties have gained their greatest political advantage. Fearful 
of losing in the 2002 elections, Musharraf blocked two mainstream 
political parties from participating. As a result, radical 
Islamic parties now control 20% of parliament's seats and are a 
minority partner in Musharraf's governing coalition. Our support 
of authoritarian governments sharpens another inherent 
instability. 

Such governments lack a succession mechanism. When the dictator 
goes, all pledges to abide by the rule of law, avoid corruption 
and fight terrorism go with him. We are dependent on one 
individual, not the institutions of the state. And if he loses 
power suddenly, from a coup or assassination (three attempts have 
been made against Musharraf's life in the last two months), the 
scramble for succession could be highly destabilizing. Continued 
unconditional support for Musharraf increases rather than 
decreases the risks we face. Getting Pakistan back on the path to 
democracy is in the best interests of ordinary Pakistanis and us. 
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at 
latimes.com/archives . TMS

 Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
*****************************************************************
 23 Times-News: Editorial puts too much belief in politicians

    www.magicvalley.com         The Times-News | AG Weekly |
    
    Sunday, February 22, 2004   •   Twin Falls, Idaho   

Your editorial, "Winmill's ruling still aids Idaho's cause on 
waste," in which you advocate that affected states and the 
Department of Energy together work out a solution to 
reclassification of what are now categorized as high-level liquid 
wastes, fails to consider that political leaders, as a rule, are 
not chemists, physicists and nuclear engineers and do not 
understand, therefore, what's in those wastes.

I'm afraid leaving decisions regarding nuclear wastes in the
hands of politicians makes manipulation by the DOE only too easy.

RON BOURGOIN

Rocky Mount, N.C.		  	


Copyright © 2004, Lee Publications Inc.

Magicvalley.com is an on-line division of The Times-News,
published daily at 132 W. 3rd St.,
Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary
of Lee Enterprises.  
*****************************************************************
 24 ITAR-TASS: Russia delegation intends to be active at talks on NKorea

22.02.2004, 12.14

 MOSCOW , February 22 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian delegation
intends to play an active role at the six-party talks on the
North Korean nuclear problem and plans to hold bilateral
meetings with all partners in Beijing. A high-ranking official
of the Russian Foreign Ministry told Tass on Sunday that “much
importance is given to preliminary separate talks with
representatives of North Korea and the United States”. 

Russia will be represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander
Losyukov at the Beijing discussions, as was the case in the
first round in August 2003. Negotiators “expect a clear-cut
statement from Pyongyang that it is ready to give up the nuclear
programme,” the diplomat told Tass on the eve of the talks. 
“These should be practical actions, verifiable and realizable in
agreement with other negotiators”. According to the diplomat,
the sides “will have to discuss what partners in the talks can
suggest in response with respect to security guarantees and a
settlement of other problems of North Korea, including the
energy issue”. 

Losyukov warns against over-optimistic expectations and “does
not expect a breakthrough”. At the same time, in the deputy
minister’s opinion, the United States should “attentively treat
Pyongyang’s readiness to freeze the nuclear programme”.
“Freezing is not the final aim, but an important forward move
and, on its basis, it is possible to reach specific
understandings,” he claimed. 

Russia suggests setting up a working group on a Korean
settlement within the Six. The partners will be represented by
ambassadors at large or senior experts. Losyukov holds that this
working mechanism “can be set up after the new round so as to
help promote the negotiating process in the inter-session
period”. 

“It is necessary to move gradually to the final aim: a complete
settlement of the situation in the peninsula,” he contended.

“But it is necessary to agree the basic principles above all.” 

© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
 25 AU SMH: Malaysia will not act on nuclear sales affair 

www.smh.com.au  [Sydney Morning Herald Online] 


By Mark Baker, Herald Correspondent in Singapore and
agencies
February 23, 2004
 		 	   	   		
Malaysian investigators have confirmed that a Sri Lankan business 
partner of the son of the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi, 
knowingly exported components for Libya's secret nuclear weapons 
program from a company in which they were both big shareholders. 

Despite the finding, Malaysian authorities say they will take no 
action against the businessman, Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir - 
described by the US President, George Bush, as "the chief 
financial officer and money launderer" of the nuclear trafficking 
network established by the rogue Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer 
Khan. 

The scandal is looming as a serious embarrassment for Mr 
Abdullah, who is expected to call national elections within the 
next few weeks at which he is seeking to rebuild the fortunes of 
the ruling United Malays National Organisation on a platform of 
clean and open government. 

After promising an unfettered investigation into the affair - and 
his son's role - Mr Abdullah and his senior ministers have been 
quick to dismiss US allegations that Malaysia has played a 
significant role in the clandestine nuclear arms trade. 

The police chief, Mohamed Bakri Omar, said on Saturday that no 
action would be taken against Mr Tahir, who had committed no 
crimes in Malaysia and was free to leave the country if he 
wished. But the police were willing to help the International 
Atomic Energy Authority if it wished to question Mr Tahir, he 
told The Star. 

The police said Mr Tahir, a Malaysian resident, had admitted that 
he and Dr Khan negotiated with Libyan agents to supply parts for 
centrifuges used in uranium enrichment that were manufactured by 
Scomi Precision Engineering at a plant near Kuala Lumpur. 

The police inquiry finding was made public at the same time as 
the IAEA reported that Libya was operating a more advanced and 
longer-running program to develop nuclear weapons than outside 
intelligence agencies and nuclear watchdogs imagined.           

Copyright  © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.     advertise|
*****************************************************************
 26 JoongAng Daily: Nuances mark pre-talks stances

by Choi Jie-ho jieho@joongang.co.kr> 

2004.02.22 
 
The Russian ambassador to Seoul, Teymuraz O. Ramishvili, told
the JoongAng Daily that his government has two concerns about
the Feb. 25 six-party nuclear talks in Beijing on North Korea's
nuclear programs. He said Russia objects both to North Korea's
acquisition of a nuclear arsenal and using force to prevent that.

 The JoongAng Daily and Joong-Ang Ilbo posed written questions
about the negotiations to Lee Soo-hyuck, South Korea's deputy
foreign minister and its representative at the talks, and to the
ambassadors to Korea of the countries who will meet with North
Korean representatives in Beijing. 

China's ambassador declined to reply; U.S. Ambassador Thomas
Hubbard cited his Feb. 6 interview with the press corps here,
which covered much of the same ground, but declined to comment
on some of the questions.

 All the diplomats agreed that the ultimate goal was a
non-nuclear peninsula, but there were nuances in those comments
that reflect differing national positions. 

South Korea and Japan seemed, based on their ambassadors'
replies, to be at least interested in the idea of providing aid
to North Korea in return for intermediate steps Pyeongyang would
take along the way to ending its nuclear programs. Details, Page
2.
 

*****************************************************************
 27 [du-list] Fw: 3 mile island
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:35 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
This is another case of government agencies covering up the truth.  There 
are many.  Three Mile Island is one, Millstone in Waterford, Ct. another, 
the research of Dr. Thomas Mancuso at Hanford, Washington, Dr. Alice 
Stewart at Sellafield in the UK, etc,etc., research suppressed, researchers 
personally harassed and persecuted when they discovered the 
radiation-cancer connection. Those studying the DU contamination of 
soldiers and civilians are another case in point.  For information on these 
and many others:
Don't Waste Connecticut 
<mailto:upthesun@cshore.com>upthesun@cshore.com  (203)389-2067  and 
<http://www.radiation.org>www.radiation.org, 
<mailto:nirsnet@nirs.org>nirsnet@nirs.org
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:artisan2@optonline.net>Jason Bowman
To: <mailto:upthesun@cshore.com>upthesun@cshore.com
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 1980 9:09 PM
Subject: 3 mile island


----------

----------



Second Phase Of Cancer Study
Stopped Near PA Plant
2-19-4

The cancer specialist hired by the state -- to the tune of $290,000 -- to 
study cancer rates in the Pottstown area has halted his study without 
completing the second phase. Dr. Andrew Baum, deputy director of the 
University of Pittsburgh's cancer institute, confirmed this week that he 
will not conduct the second part of his epidemiological study in which he 
would have interviewed area families struck by cancer. Baum said he stopped 
working on the study in November. He also said he has been "asked" by the 
Pennsylvania Department of Health not to discuss the results of the first 
portion of his study, in which he examined statistics of area cancer cases 
listed in the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry, "until it is accepted." 
Messages left with state Health Department officials were not returned 
before press time. Baum said he submitted the first portion of his report 
to the Health Department months ago and that he is nearly finished with the 
final report he will submit to the state. He said he is concerned about how 
the entire issue has been handled at all levels, noting "it has been 
fraught with missteps almost every step of the way." Baum said he will be 
concerned about his reputation as a cancer researcher "if it takes much 
longer" for the state to release the results of the first phase of his 
study. Despite his involvement with the emotionally charged health study of 
the effects of the nation's most famous nuclear accident at Three Mile 
Island, Baum said he has never had an experience like the one he had trying 
to conduct this study here. "This is the first time I've faced anything 
like this. It was a completely unique experience," Baum said. High on the 
list of unusual events was the fact that the state Health Department, to 
which Baum was submitting his study and with which Baum had some 
disagreements about his preliminary results and methods, was conducting its 
own study. In November, Joel Hersh, director of the state Health 
Department's Bureau of Epidemiology, called a public meeting at Pottstown 
Middle School at which he and a flock of state staffers and scientists 
released their own study. With confusion about the subject of that meeting, 
a paucity of copies of the Health Department's results and a failure of 
their presentation equipment, few characterized the November meeting as a 
successful communication with the community. "I didn't know about the 
meeting in November, and we were not invited to attend," Baum said. "And I 
didn't know they did their own study." Hersh has up until now not released 
any aspects of Baum's study, which Baum said is beginning to cause him some 
concern. The Health Department's public relations office, which said it 
would respond to a request for an interview with Hersh, did not do so 
before press time. Baum made headlines in August, and problems for himself 
and his study, when he told a reporter that his preliminary findings "found 
some evidence of higher (cancer) risk in children" in the Pottstown area 
and noting that "there were small elevations in all cancers." Hersh 
immediately instructed Baum not to make any more statements to the media 
regarding the results of his study until the state and Baum were in full 
agreement on the meaning and method of Baum's findings. But Baum's remarks 
seemed to validate an earlier analysis by Joseph Mangano, a Long Island 
statistician who reviewed the information for free at the request of the 
Alliance for a Clean Environment. Mangano's analysis was the basis for 
ACE's claims that childhood cancer rates in the area have jumped by more 
than 90 percent in recent years. The Health Department study, by contrast, 
which used the same cancer registry statistics as Baum and Mangano, 
concluded that the overall cancer rate in Pottstown is no different from 
that of the rest of the state. The state study looked only at cases in the 
19464 area code, which therefore excluded cases in Chester and Berks 
counties as well as Montgomery County municipalities of Douglass, New 
Hanover and Limerick. The conflicting conclusions, and the state's surprise 
release of its own study, have made conducting interviews with cancer 
victims in the area useless, said Baum. "It's not worth completing," he 
said. "The situation has totally biased the community." And that is why he 
is anxious for the results to be released, he said. "I've done a study and 
it has results and I've been asked not to share it, but I'd like to see a 
tangible timeline for releasing it and if this goes on much longer, I will 
be concerned," Baum said. Taxpayers may be concerned about paying for a 
study whose results are not released to the public and whose parameters are 
duplicated by the department that is supposed to review the independent 
study. Baum said he "is not sure" how much of the $290,000 price tag he 
consumed conducting the first phase of the study. Baum conceded that one 
problem with the study is that the number of cases being examined are so 
few. "The numbers here are very small, and you can find yourself trying to 
make a statistical conclusions from four or five cases," he said. 
http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10991546&BRD=1674&PAG=4 
61&dept_id =18041&rfi=6






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Attachment Converted: 12934b.jpg: 00000001,3513bec6,00000000,00000000
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*****************************************************************
 28 Times Argus: Vernon says it's short-changed on Yankee taxes 

February 21, 2004 

By SUSAN SMALLHEER Herald Staff 

VERNON - The town of Vernon has put Entergy Nuclear on notice 
that it doesn't feel it's getting a square deal on property taxes 
paid for Vermont Yankee. 

The town said its tax stabilization agreement with Entergy was 
void for the next year and sent a letter to the company this week 
saying an independent assessor has been hired to come up with a 
new value for the plant - particularly in light of the fact that 
Entergy is investing at least $60 million in the proposed power 
upgrade at the Vernon reactor. 

Townspeople pricked up their ears, town officials said, when 
Entergy testified before the state Public Service Board last year 
that Vernon would benefit financially from the proposed power 
increase, when in reality the plant's taxable value was going 
down. 

The letter was signed by only three of the five Select Board 
members. The other two, Chairman Michael Ball and Selectwoman 
Margaret Farabaugh, have a conflict of interest: Ball is an 
engineer at Entergy and Farabaugh's husband is an employee as 
well. 

The Yankee plant was sold for $180 million in July 2002 to 
Entergy Nuclear of Jackson, Miss., by its New England utility 
owners. It is currently taxed at $195 million, according to 
William Hammond, chairman of the Vernon listers. 

In 2003, Entergy paid the town about $1 million in municipal 
taxes based an on assessment of $210 million, and is expected to 
pay a little more than $1 million this year, based on a value of 
$195 million. 

The funds represent 63.4 and 58.9 percent of all town tax 
revenue, according to Ball. 

Entergy's school taxes are paid through a separate agreement 
under Act 60. 

While Entergy has said it was sinking at least $60 million into 
the Yankee upgrade, Hammond said he has heard figures as high as 
$80 million. 

Hammond said the town has rejected two proposals from Entergy - 
the most recent in November - that would have changed the way the 
plant is taxed. He refused to say what that change was, citing 
confidential negotiations. 

"We're still looking for an agreement," he said. "They're putting 
all that money into the plant and they're adding value." 

Hammond said the town had established a tax committee last year 
to negotiate a new agreement with Entergy, but the committee 
voted in November to reject Entergy's proposal. 

He said the committee took the proposal to the Select Board and 
they rejected it as well. 

"There was something in it that was not beneficial to the town," 
he said, refusing to disclose what that was. 

Hammond said Entergy Vice President Jay Thayer had sent a letter 
to the town in mid-January cutting off any negotiations on the 
grounds that the two sides were too far apart. 

But about a week later, Thayer sent another letter asking that 
talks resume, Hammond said. 

According to the 2002 tax stabilization agreement, the taxable 
value of the plant has been dropping by $15 million a year. The 
agreement was negotiated with the former owners of Vermont Yankee 
and AmerGen Inc., the first company that tried to buy the reactor 
but ultimately failed. The AmerGen tax agreement was adopted by 
Entergy as an interim measure, Hammond said. 

Brian Cosgrove, spokesman for Entergy, said the company "shares 
the town's desire to reach a positive agreement." 

He declined to say how Entergy viewed the status of the town's 
tax stabilization contract. 

"We certainly haven't made any final decision," he said. 

Hammond said the proposed change in the way the plant is taxed is 
"similar" to the state's recent $20 million agreement with 
Entergy regarding the benefits of the power increase. 

Under that memorandum of understanding, the state will receive 
royalties - or revenue sharing - on the energy generated at the 
plant. 

The agreement is still pending approval by the Public Service 
Board. 

The Vernon Select Board met Monday to discuss the tax 
stabilization situation, most of the discussion behind closed 
doors. On Friday it released a letter it had sent to Thayer after 
it had been reviewed by its attorney. 

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. 

Copyright© 2003 Rutland Heraldand Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
*****************************************************************
 29 Japan Times: No radioactivity leak after blaze at nuclear plant

Sunday, February 22, 2004   

 SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) A facility at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power plant 
in Shizuoka Prefecture caught fire shortly before noon Saturday, 
but the blaze was quickly extinguished and there were no leaks of 
radioactivity, the Shizuoka Prefectural Government said.

 The fire occurred on the roof of a turbine building at the No. 2 
reactor at about 11:30 a.m., when the reactor was undergoing a 
regular inspection.

 In-house firefighters put out the blaze with two fire 
extinguishers.

 Local firefighters confirmed the fire had been completely 
extinguished about 50 minutes later. The blaze burned part of a 
rubber waterproofing wall in the turbine building.

 The fire broke out when an inspector tried to remove hydrogen 
gas from the turbine building as part of preparations to shut 
down the reactor before the inspection began. Fire officials said 
the blaze was probably started by static electricity.

 The Japan Times: Feb. 22, 2004 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 30 =?iso-8859-1?Q?WHO_'suppressed'_scientific_study_into_depleted_
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 10:40:23 -0600 (CST)

 
WHO 'suppressed' scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in
Iraq - [Sunday Herald]
Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used by Allies
in Gulf war pose long-term health risk
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor
http://www.sundayherald.com/40096

22 February 2004
An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq's civilian
population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU)
weapons has been kept secret.
The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and
adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is
radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the
World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith
Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was
deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.
Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when it was
completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on the US and UK to
limit their use of DU weapons in last year's war, and to clean up
afterwards.
Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by coalition tanks and planes
during the conflict, and there has been no comprehensive decontamination.
Experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have so far not
been allowed into Iraq to assess the pollution.
"Our study suggests that the widespread use of depleted uranium weapons in
Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian population,"
Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.
"There is increasing scientific evidence the radio activity and the chemical
toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human cells than is assumed."
Baverstock was the WHO's top expert on radiation and health for 11 years
until he retired in May last year. He now works with the Department of
Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio in Finland, and was
recently appointed to the UK government's newly formed Committee on Radio
active Waste Management.
While he was a member of staff, WHO refused to give him permission to
publish the study, which was co-authored by Professor Carmel Mothersill from
McMaster University in Canada and Dr Mike Thorne, a radiation consultant .
Baverstock suspects that WHO was leaned on by a more powerful pro-nuclear UN
body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"I believe our study was censored and suppressed by the WHO because they
didn't like its conclusions. Previous experience suggests that WHO officials
were bowing to pressure from the IAEA, whose remit is to promote nuclear
power," he said. "That is more than unfortunate, as publishing the study
would have helped forewarn the authorities of the risks of using DU weapons
in Iraq."
These allegations, however, are dismissed as "totally unfounded" by WHO.
"The IAEA role was very minor," said Dr Mike Repacholi, the WHO coordinator
of radiation and environmental health in Geneva. "The article was not
approved for publication because parts of it did not reflect accurately what
a WHO-convened group of inter national experts considered the best science
in the area of depleted uranium," he added.
Baverstock's study, which has now been passed to the Sunday Herald, pointed
out that Iraq's arid climate meant that tiny particles of DU were likely to
be blown around and inhaled by civilians for years to come. It warned that,
when inside the body, their radiation and toxicity could trigger the growth
of malignant tumours.
The study suggested that the low-level radiation from DU could harm cells
adjacent to those that are directly irradiated, a phenomenon known as "the
bystander effect". This undermines the stability of the body's genetic
system, and is thought by many scientists to be linked to cancers and
possibly other illnesses.
In addition, the DU in Iraq, like that used in the Balkan conflict, could
turn out to be contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive waste .
That would make it more radioactive and hence more dangerous, Baverstock
argued.
"The radiation and the chemical toxicity of DU could also act together to
create a 'cocktail effect' that further increases the risk of cancer. These
are all worrying possibilities that urgently require more investigation," he
said.
Baverstock's anxiety about the health effects of DU in Iraq is shared by
Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN Environment Programme's Post-Conflict
Assessment Unit in Geneva. "It is certainly a concern in Iraq, there is no
doubt about that," he said.
UNEP, which surveyed DU contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002, is
keen to get into Iraq to monitor the situation as soon as possible. It has
been told by the British government that about 1.9 tonnes of DU was fired
from tanks around Basra, but has no information from US forces, which are
bound to have used a lot more.
Haavisto's greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU shells have been
repaired and reoccupied without having been properly cleaned up.
Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly what has happened to the
ministry of planning building in Baghdad.
He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had been collected and
recycled as scrap in Iraq. "It could end up in a fork or a knife," he
warned.
"It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around and not to clear it up
where adults are working and children are playing. If DU is not taken care
of, instead of decreasing the risk you are increasing it. It is absolutely
wrong."

) newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved
*****************************************************************
 31 [du-list] DU safety fears continue
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:38 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1461&blz=1

DEPLETED URANIUM SAFETY FEARS CONTINUE

2004-02-20 | It has been reported that the U.K.
Ministry of Defence have performed an astonishing
u-turn on the safety of Depleted Uranium. All serving
personnel working in IRAQ have now been issued with a
Depleted Uranium information card.

( * Ed. Note: Please see copy below. )

For over a decade many 1990-91 Gulf War veterans have
complained of ill health possibly associated with
exposure to DU. To date many veterans still await
tangible testing for their exposures and have faced a
wall of opposition in their efforts to acquire help
and advice.

The decision raises many disturbing questions about
the issues of DU. For instance why were 1990-91 Gulf
war service veterans not informed about the dangers of
DU or given advice cards? Why were they not given
appropriate guidance on the use of DU and why are they
still waiting to be tested for possible
service-attributable exposures?

We have all marvelled at the media images of this
powerful weapon and we have been reassured for years
that Depleted Uranium is safe, so why have the
Ministry of Defence decided to issue the new FMED 1018
DU information cards? The card offers the following
information_

'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'

For many veterans this action and news has come as too
little, too late. To date some 650 Gulf War veterans
have lost their lives and hundreds, if not thousands
have been left sick and disabled by their loyal war
time service. Many of the worlds battlefields have
been left contaminated and civilian populations now
live under the shadow of the Depleted Uranium legacy.

GULF WAR SYNDROME UK SUPPORT GROUP calls upon the
Government to take urgent action in addressing the
issues of Depleted Uranium. We would also like to see
immediate testing for evidence of exposure to Depleted
Uranium and additional Chromosome Aberration testing
of service veterans and affected civilian populations.

For further details refer to http://www.gwsuk.org.uk
and/or
http://www.mod.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/index.htm

* 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. (Name withheld)

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"
http://www.mod.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/index.htm

Related Article

ITALIAN SOLDIERS DON'T USE URANIUM PROTECTION MASKS -
ASSOC PRESIDENT

(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Wednesday February 18, 2004

Feb. 16 - Italian soldiers deployed in Afghanistan and
Iraq do not wear protective masks that impede
inhalation of depleted uranium dust, wrote Falco
Accame, president of the Armed Forces Victims
Association, in a letter to the Italian president.
According to Accame, norms were issued by the United
States in 1993 for the use of masks in order to
"impede the inhalation of uranium oxide that deposits
in the soil of areas bombarded by weapons containing
depleted uranium, which can be carried by the wind."
These norms are in effect for Italian forces since
1999. Accame also said that Italy has had "twenty
deaths for suspected uranium contamination, and around
200 illnesses."

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200402161848-1185-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia




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*****************************************************************
 32 [du-list] DU in the news - 22 Feb. 04
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:43 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
DEPLETED URANIUM: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END, by Paul Rockwell
UN Observer
... replete with graphic details about overcrowded hospitals, US cluster
bomb shrapnel buried in the flesh of children, babies deformed by US depleted
uranium, ...
<<http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1462&blz=1>http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1462&blz=1>

DEPLETED URANIUM SAFETY FEARS CONTINUE
UN Observer
2004-02-20 | It has been reported that the UK Ministry of Defence have
performed an astonishing u-turn on the safety of Depleted Uranium. ...
<<http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1461&blz=1>http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1461&blz=1>


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*****************************************************************
 33 [du-list] WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:48 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Today's Sunday Herald (Scotland) carries the
following. See it on
www.sundayherald.com/40096

WHO 'suppressed' scientific study into depleted
uranium cancer fears in
Iraq

Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU
weapons used by
Allies
in Gulf war pose long-term health risk
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor



An expert report warning that the long-term health of
Iraq's civilian
population would be endangered by British and US
depleted uranium (DU)
weapons has been kept secret.
The study by three leading radiation scientists
cautioned that children
and
adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust
containing DU,
which is
radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked
from publication
by the
World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the
main author, Dr
Keith
Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges
that it was
deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been
published when it
was
completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure
on the US and UK
to
limit their use of DU weapons in last year's war, and
to clean up
afterwards.

Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by
coalition tanks and
planes
during the conflict, and there has been no
comprehensive
decontamination.
Experts from the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) have so
far not
been allowed into Iraq to assess the pollution.

"Our study suggests that the widespread use of
depleted uranium weapons
in
Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian
population,"
Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.

"There is increasing scientific evidence the radio
activity and the
chemical
toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human cells
than is assumed."

Baverstock was the WHO's top expert on radiation and
health for 11
years
until he retired in May last year. He now works with
the Department of
Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio in
Finland, and was
recently appointed to the UK government's newly formed
Committee on
Radio
active Waste Management.

While he was a member of staff, WHO refused to give
him permission to
publish the study, which was co-authored by Professor
Carmel Mothersill
from
McMaster University in Canada and Dr Mike Thorne, a
radiation
consultant .
Baverstock suspects that WHO was leaned on by a more
powerful
pro-nuclear UN
body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"I believe our study was censored and suppressed by
the WHO because
they
didn't like its conclusions. Previous experience
suggests that WHO
officials
were bowing to pressure from the IAEA, whose remit is
to promote
nuclear
power," he said. "That is more than unfortunate, as
publishing the
study
would have helped forewarn the authorities of the
risks of using DU
weapons
in Iraq."

These allegations, however, are dismissed as "totally
unfounded" by
WHO.
"The IAEA role was very minor," said Dr Mike
Repacholi, the WHO
coordinator
of radiation and environmental health in Geneva. "The
article was not
approved for publication because parts of it did not
reflect accurately
what
a WHO-convened group of inter national experts
considered the best
science
in the area of depleted uranium," he added.

Baverstock's study, which has now been passed to the
Sunday Herald,
pointed
out that Iraq's arid climate meant that tiny particles
of DU were
likely to
be blown around and inhaled by civilians for years to
come. It warned
that,
when inside the body, their radiation and toxicity
could trigger the
growth
of malignant tumours.

The study suggested that the low-level radiation from
DU could harm
cells
adjacent to those that are directly irradiated, a
phenomenon known as
"the
bystander effect". This undermines the stability of
the body's genetic
system, and is thought by many scientists to be linked
to cancers and
possibly other illnesses.

In addition, the DU in Iraq, like that used in the
Balkan conflict,
could
turn out to be contaminated with plutonium and other
radioactive waste
.
That would make it more radioactive and hence more
dangerous,
Baverstock
argued.

"The radiation and the chemical toxicity of DU could
also act together
to
create a 'cocktail effect' that further increases the
risk of cancer.
These
are all worrying possibilities that urgently require
more
investigation," he
said.

Baverstock's anxiety about the health effects of DU in
Iraq is shared
by
Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN Environment
Programme's
Post-Conflict
Assessment Unit in Geneva. "It is certainly a concern
in Iraq, there is
no
doubt about that," he said.

UNEP, which surveyed DU contamination in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in
2002, is
keen to get into Iraq to monitor the situation as soon
as possible. It
has
been told by the British government that about 1.9
tonnes of DU was
fired
from tanks around Basra, but has no information from
US forces, which
are
bound to have used a lot more.

Haavisto's greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU
shells have been
repaired and reoccupied without having been properly
cleaned up.
Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly
what has happened
to the
ministry of planning building in Baghdad.

He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had
been collected
and
recycled as scrap in Iraq. "It could end up in a fork
or a knife," he
warned.

"It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around
and not to clear
it up
where adults are working and children are playing. If
DU is not taken
care
of, instead of decreasing the risk you are increasing
it. It is
absolutely
wrong."

22 February 2004

for more info: contact
Richard Bramhall
Low Level Radiation Campaign
bramhall@llrc.org


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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 34 [du-list] DU: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:49 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
DEPLETED URANIUM: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END

by Paul Rockwell
2004-02-20 UN Observer

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1462&blz=1

“Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.” Dr.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health physicist

The international dispatches about the U.S. invasion and
occupation of Iraq - replete with graphic details about
overcrowded hospitals, U.S. cluster bomb shrapnel buried in
the flesh of children, babies deformed by U.S. depleted
uranium, farms and markets destroyed by U.S. bombs ­ do not
make pleasant reading. The mounting evidence from the
invasion of Iraq establishes what many Americans may not
want to face: that the highest leaders of our land violated
many international agreements relating to the rules of war.
Unless we address the war crimes of the Bush administration
- and the prima facie evidence is overwhelming - we betray
our conscience, our country, and our own faith in democracy.

The United States is bound by customary law and
international laws of war: the Hague Conventions of 1889 and
1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the Nuremberg
Conventions adopted by the United Nations, December 11, 1945
- all of which set limits beyond which, by common consent,
decent peoples will not go. Under the Constitution, all
treaties are part of the supreme law of the land.
Humanitarian law rests on a simple principle: that human
rights are measured by one yardstick. Without that
principle, all jurisprudence descends into mere piety and
power. Nor do violations of the laws of war by one
belligerent vindicate the war crimes of another.

Of all the violations of the laws of war by the highest
officials of our country, none is more alarming or
portentous than the widespread, premeditated use of depleted
uranium in Iraq. Eleven miles north of the Kuwaiti border on
the "Highway of Death," disabled tanks, armored personnel
carriers, gutted public vehicles ­ the mangled metals of
Desert Storm - are resting in the desert, radiating nuclear
energy. American soldiers who lived for three months in the
toxic wasteland now suffer from fatigue, joint and muscle
pain, respiratory ailments - a host of maladies often known
as the Gulf War Syndrome.

Ever since the end of Desert Storm, when the Pentagon
unloaded 350 tons of depleted uranium, American officials
have been well aware of the health hazards of the residue
that is collected from the processing of nuclear fuel. When
President Bush and the Pentagon authorized the use of
depleted uranium for the shock-and-awe campaign against Iraq
in March 1983, the Bush administration not only committed a
war crime against the people of Iraq, it demonstrated
reckless disregard for the health and safety of American troops.

Article 23 of the Geneva Convention IV is clear and
unambiguous: “It is forbidden to employ poison or poisoned
weapons, to kill treacherously individuals belonging to the
hostile nation or army, to employ arms, projectiles or
material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.” The
Geneva Protocol of 1925 explicitly prohibits “asphyxiating,
poisonous or other gasses, and all analogous liquids,
materials or devices.”

The radiation produced by depleted uranium in battle is a
poison, a carcinogenic material that causes birth defects,
lung disease, kidney disease, leukemia, breast cancer,
lymphoma, bone cancer, and neurological disabilities.

Depleted uranium is much denser than lead and enables U.S.
weapons to penetrate steel, a great advantage in modern war.
But under the Geneva Conventions, “the means of injuring the
enemy are not unlimited.” When DU munitions explode, the air
is bathed in a fine radioactive dust, which carries on the
wind, is easily inhaled, and eventually enters the soil,
pollutes ground water, and enters the food chain. Unexploded
casings gradually oxidize, releasing more uranium into the
environment. Handlers of depleted uranium in the U.S. are
required to wear masks and protective clothing - a
requirement that Iraqi and American soldiers, not to mention
civilians, are unable to fulfill.

After the Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi hospitals recorded a surge
in cancer and birth defects. Hospital statistics from Basra
show that in 1988 there were 11 cancer cases per 100,000
people. By 2001, after schools, homes, and entire
neighborhoods were leveled from the air, the number
increased to 116 per 100,000. Breast and lung cancer and
leukemia showed up in all areas contaminated by depleted
uranium. Dr. Jawad al-Ali, cancer specialist at the Basra
Training Hospital, noted that, “The only factor that has
changed here since the 1991 war is radiation.” Thirteen
members of his staff, all present when the hospital area was
bombed, are now cancer patients.

The Christian Science Monitor recently sent reporters to
Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium.
Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a
burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of
Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing
shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and
protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward
the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background
radiation.

The families who survived the tragic decade of sanctions,
even the children who recently survived the bombing of
Baghdad, may not survive the radiated aftermath of military
profligacy. Uranium remains radioactive for two billion
years. That's a long time for reconstruction.

According to Dr. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health physicist who
led the first clean-up of depleted uranium after the Gulf
War, “Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.”
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by
exposure to the fine dust. “When we went to the Gulf, we
were all really healthy,” he said. After performing clean-up
operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective
gear), thirty members of his staff died, and most others -
including Rokke himself-developed serious health problems.
Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage,
cataracts, and kidney problems. “We warned the Department of
Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is
beyond comprehension.”

The growing outcry against the use of depleted uranium is
not a matter of minor legal technicalities. The laws of war
prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane
effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be
legally deployed in war when they are known to remain
active, or cause harm after the war concludes. The use of
depleted uranium is a crime whose horrific consequences have
yet to run their course.

Years ago in the midst of France's brutal war in Algeria,
the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre admonished the French
intelligentsia:

“It is not right, my fellow-countrymen, you who know very
well all the crimes committed in our name. It's not at all
right that you do not breathe a word about them to anyone,
not even to your own soul, for fear of having to stand in
judgment of yourself. I am willing to believe that at the
beginning you did not realize what was happening; later, you
doubted whether such things could be true; but now you know,
and still you hold your tongues.”

Paul Rockwell

For addtional information...

Afghan DU Recovery Fund: http://www.afghandufund.org/

Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association:
http://members.shaw.ca/cpva/

Coalición Internacional para la Abolición de las Armas
Radiactivas: http://www.amcmh.org/

The Eos life~work resource centre:
http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/du2012.htm

GULF WAR SYNDROME UK SUPPORT GROUP: http://www.gwsuk.org.uk

Pandora DU Research Project:http://www.pandoraproject.org

Traprock Peace Center:
http://traprockpeace.org/RokkePressConf23July03.html

United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/sc.htm

Uranium Medical Research Centre: http://www.umrc.net/

Uranium Weapons Conference;
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de

-- 

[ Depleted Uranium Archives: http://prop1.org/2000/du/dulv.htm ]

-- 

    Posted for educational and research purposes only,
~   in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107   ~





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*****************************************************************
 35 [du-list] Depleted Uranium: The war crime that has no end
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:54 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
DEPLETED URANIUM: THE WAR CRIME THAT HAS NO END

by Paul Rockwell
2004-02-20 UN Observer

http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=1462&blz=1

“Depleted uranium is a crime against God and
humanity.” Dr.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health physicist

The international dispatches about the U.S. invasion
and
occupation of Iraq - replete with graphic details
about
overcrowded hospitals, U.S. cluster bomb shrapnel
buried in
the flesh of children, babies deformed by U.S.
depleted
uranium, farms and markets destroyed by U.S. bombs ­
do not
make pleasant reading. The mounting evidence from the
invasion of Iraq establishes what many Americans may
not
want to face: that the highest leaders of our land
violated
many international agreements relating to the rules of
war.
Unless we address the war crimes of the Bush
administration
- and the prima facie evidence is overwhelming - we
betray
our conscience, our country, and our own faith in
democracy.

The United States is bound by customary law and
international laws of war: the Hague Conventions of
1889 and
1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the
Nuremberg
Conventions adopted by the United Nations, December
11, 1945
- all of which set limits beyond which, by common
consent,
decent peoples will not go. Under the Constitution,
all
treaties are part of the supreme law of the land.
Humanitarian law rests on a simple principle: that
human
rights are measured by one yardstick. Without that
principle, all jurisprudence descends into mere piety
and
power. Nor do violations of the laws of war by one
belligerent vindicate the war crimes of another.

Of all the violations of the laws of war by the
highest
officials of our country, none is more alarming or
portentous than the widespread, premeditated use of
depleted
uranium in Iraq. Eleven miles north of the Kuwaiti
border on
the "Highway of Death," disabled tanks, armored
personnel
carriers, gutted public vehicles ­ the mangled metals
of
Desert Storm - are resting in the desert, radiating
nuclear
energy. American soldiers who lived for three months
in the
toxic wasteland now suffer from fatigue, joint and
muscle
pain, respiratory ailments - a host of maladies often
known
as the Gulf War Syndrome.

Ever since the end of Desert Storm, when the Pentagon
unloaded 350 tons of depleted uranium, American
officials
have been well aware of the health hazards of the
residue
that is collected from the processing of nuclear fuel.
When
President Bush and the Pentagon authorized the use of
depleted uranium for the shock-and-awe campaign
against Iraq
in March 1983, the Bush administration not only
committed a
war crime against the people of Iraq, it demonstrated
reckless disregard for the health and safety of
American troops.

Article 23 of the Geneva Convention IV is clear and
unambiguous: “It is forbidden to employ poison or
poisoned
weapons, to kill treacherously individuals belonging
to the
hostile nation or army, to employ arms, projectiles or

material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering.”
The
Geneva Protocol of 1925 explicitly prohibits
“asphyxiating,
poisonous or other gasses, and all analogous liquids,
materials or devices.”

The radiation produced by depleted uranium in battle
is a
poison, a carcinogenic material that causes birth
defects,
lung disease, kidney disease, leukemia, breast cancer,

lymphoma, bone cancer, and neurological disabilities.

Depleted uranium is much denser than lead and enables
U.S.
weapons to penetrate steel, a great advantage in
modern war.
But under the Geneva Conventions, “the means of
injuring the
enemy are not unlimited.” When DU munitions explode,
the air
is bathed in a fine radioactive dust, which carries on
the
wind, is easily inhaled, and eventually enters the
soil,
pollutes ground water, and enters the food chain.
Unexploded
casings gradually oxidize, releasing more uranium into
the
environment. Handlers of depleted uranium in the U.S.
are
required to wear masks and protective clothing - a
requirement that Iraqi and American soldiers, not to
mention
civilians, are unable to fulfill.

After the Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi hospitals recorded a
surge
in cancer and birth defects. Hospital statistics from
Basra
show that in 1988 there were 11 cancer cases per
100,000
people. By 2001, after schools, homes, and entire
neighborhoods were leveled from the air, the number
increased to 116 per 100,000. Breast and lung cancer
and
leukemia showed up in all areas contaminated by
depleted
uranium. Dr. Jawad al-Ali, cancer specialist at the
Basra
Training Hospital, noted that, “The only factor that
has
changed here since the 1991 war is radiation.”
Thirteen
members of his staff, all present when the hospital
area was
bombed, are now cancer patients.

The Christian Science Monitor recently sent reporters
to
Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted
uranium.
Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on
top of a
burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts
of
Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by
armor-piercing
shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask
and
protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter
toward
the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal
background
radiation.

The families who survived the tragic decade of
sanctions,
even the children who recently survived the bombing of

Baghdad, may not survive the radiated aftermath of
military
profligacy. Uranium remains radioactive for two
billion
years. That's a long time for reconstruction.

According to Dr. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health
physicist who
led the first clean-up of depleted uranium after the
Gulf
War, “Depleted uranium is a crime against God and
humanity.”
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated
by
exposure to the fine dust. “When we went to the Gulf,
we
were all really healthy,” he said. After performing
clean-up
operations in the desert (mistakenly without
protective
gear), thirty members of his staff died, and most
others -
including Rokke himself-developed serious health
problems.
Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological
damage,
cataracts, and kidney problems. “We warned the
Department of
Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is

beyond comprehension.”

The growing outcry against the use of depleted uranium
is
not a matter of minor legal technicalities. The laws
of war
prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and
inhumane
effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be

legally deployed in war when they are known to remain
active, or cause harm after the war concludes. The use
of
depleted uranium is a crime whose horrific
consequences have
yet to run their course.

Years ago in the midst of France's brutal war in
Algeria,
the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre admonished the French

intelligentsia:

“It is not right, my fellow-countrymen, you who know
very
well all the crimes committed in our name. It's not at
all
right that you do not breathe a word about them to
anyone,
not even to your own soul, for fear of having to stand
in
judgment of yourself. I am willing to believe that at
the
beginning you did not realize what was happening;
later, you
doubted whether such things could be true; but now you
know,
and still you hold your tongues.”

Paul Rockwell

For addtional information...

Afghan DU Recovery Fund: http://www.afghandufund.org/

Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association:
http://members.shaw.ca/cpva/

Coalición Internacional para la Abolición de las Armas

Radiactivas: http://www.amcmh.org/

The Eos life~work resource centre:
http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/du2012.htm

GULF WAR SYNDROME UK SUPPORT GROUP:
http://www.gwsuk.org.uk

Pandora DU Research
Project:http://www.pandoraproject.org

Traprock Peace Center:
http://traprockpeace.org/RokkePressConf23July03.html

United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/sc.htm

Uranium Medical Research Centre: http://www.umrc.net/

Uranium Weapons Conference;
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de

-- 


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 36 [du-list] Must Read Clusterbombs
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:57 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
The following article is about two Afghan women collecting unexploded 
clusterbomblets and risking their lives to clean their enclaves,

Miraki,


Risking Death, 2 Afghan Women Collected
and Detonated U.S. Cluster Bombs in 2001

By CARLOTTA GALL
The New York Times
February 22, 2004

HAJI BAI NAZAR, Afghanistan Two women in this poor farming village have 
emerged as heroines after they witnessed the horror of two small boys being 
killed as they played with little cluster bombs from an American jet. The 
two cleared dozens of the bombs with their bare hands and detonated them, 
protecting the village.

Mine removers learned of their feat when surveying the area for cluster 
bomb strikes a few weeks later. "We told them they were crazy, that they 
could have been killed," said Dr. Nasiri, who is with the the Halo Trust, a 
nonprofit British organization that specializes in removing mines.

The women, Khairulnisah, 50, and Nasreen, 40, started to gather the 
dangerously volatile yellow canisters after the bombing in 2001 and after 
they had witnessed the explosion that killed the two boys and badly injured 
another child. The children had been playing with the two-pound bombs that 
littered the village.

Over several days, the two women cleared 60 or 70 of these cluster bombs 
from the immediate area and detonated them in a hollow at night, according 
to the villagers' accounts, which the Halo Trust vouched for.

In a country where women are subservient to the men of the family and 
excluded from decision-making, the courage of these two quickly took a 
place in local legend.

"One man came and said, `With such a heart, your wife will become prime 
minister,' " said Muhammad Isa, the husband of Ms. Nasreen, with a laugh.

The women are practical and hard-working, with rough hands and calm voices. 
Both said they had decided to clear the bombs out of concern for their 
children. "I was afraid my sons would get injured," said Ms. Nasreen, who 
was the first to pick one up.

"They were all over the street, and there were 10 in our yard," said Ms. 
Khairulnisah, her neighbor. "We were stepping around the bombs for five 
days and we were not touching them. We knew they were dangerous. But after 
the children were killed I decided to do something."

She added: "The men could not go close. They were not brave enough to pick 
them up and they were running back into the house. I was not afraid, I was 
just trusting in God."

The cluster bombs were dropped during the American operation against 
Taliban forces who were occupying the village in October 2001. They are 
armor-piercing missiles that scatter in the air from a larger bomb and can 
shred both humans and tanks.

Up to a third of the bombs do not explode on impact, but lie on or just 
below the surface of the ground, and detonate with the slightest vibration 
or increase in heat, mine removers at the Halo Trust said.

Hundreds were dropped along the front line near the town of Khojar Ghar in 
northern Afghanistan, and The Halo Trust has spent two years clearing 
dozens of bomb strikes in the area. Last fall, they found five new sites on 
nearby hills. They are the most dangerous unexploded ordnance of all, and 
the agency lost two senior leaders clearing cluster bombs in 2002.

The women said they felt endangered by handling the bombs. "Sometimes they 
made a noise, sometimes something turned inside, and that would press on my 
heart, and I would carefully lie them back down," Ms. Khairulnisah said. 
"Those ones I would pick up with a shovel."

Ms. Khairulnisah has "always been like that," said Muhammad Jan, her 
husband. "When the bombing was going on, she would go up onto the roof, 
saying, `Only God can take my life.' " Ms. Nasreen said she sensed that the 
bombs were full of liquid explosive. "Most of the time when I was picking 
them up, they would vibrate and shake my whole arm," she said. "One was so 
hot it was burning my hand and I had to put it quickly in water."

She collected 34 over three days, putting straw around them each time and 
setting fire to small groups of them, causing a big explosion, as she hid 
behind a wall.

"I knew they were dangerous," she said. "I was risking my life for the life 
of others. I was sick for nine days after that. I don't know if it was the 
gas. It smells so bad it makes you want to vomit."

When she began collecting them, she did not tell anyone what she was doing. 
But the explosions frightened the villagers, so she owned up. Her husband 
and son tried to stop her. "I will not pick up your body and I will say you 
committed suicide," her husband told her. But she ignored them.

The men said the women just did not understand the dangers of the bombs. 
"We see the incidents and repercussions of warfare, but the women don't 
know," said Abdullah, 18, Ms. Nasreen's son.

But his mother dismissed that idea. "That's not true," she said. "I saw the 
dead bodies of those children. I knew exactly the consequences but I 
thought we should clean the village of them and protect our children."

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Attachment Converted: 12e9ca.jpg: 00000001,08a3f3ba,00000000,00000000
Attachment Converted: 12ea8c.jpg: 00000001,08a3f3bb,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
 37 WHO suppressed study of DU cancer fears in Iraq
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:43:21 -0600 (CST)

 
http://www.sundayherald.com/40096
Sunday Herald - 22 February 2004
WHO "suppressed" scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq

Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used
by Allies in Gulf war pose long-term health risk
By Rob Edwards,
Environment Editor

An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq.s civilian
population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium
(DU) weapons has been kept secret.

The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that
children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust
containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it
was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO),
which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior
radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed,
though this is denied by WHO.

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when
it was completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on
the US and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in last year.s war,
and to clean up afterwards.

Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by coalition tanks
and planes during the conflict, and there has been no comprehensive
decontamination. Experts from the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) have so far not been allowed into Iraq to assess the pollution.

"Our study suggests that the widespread use of depleted uranium
weapons in Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian
population," Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.

"There is increasing scientific evidence the radio activity and the
chemical toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human cells than
is assumed."

Baverstock was the WHO's top expert on radiation and health for 11
years until he retired in May last year. He now works with the
Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio
in Finland, and was recently appointed to the UK government.s newly
formed Committee on Radio active Waste Management.

While he was a member of staff, WHO refused to give him permission
to publish the study, which was co-authored by Professor Carmel
Mothersill from McMaster University in Canada and Dr Mike Thorne,
a radiation consultant . Baverstock suspects that WHO was leaned
on by a more powerful pro-nuclear UN body, the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA).

"I believe our study was censored and suppressed by the WHO because
they didn.t like its conclusions. Previous experience suggests that
WHO officials were bowing to pressure from the IAEA, whose remit
is to promote nuclear power," he said. "That is more than unfortunate,
as publishing the study would have helped forewarn the authorities
of the risks of using DU weapons in Iraq."

These allegations, however, are dismissed as "totally unfounded"
by WHO. "The IAEA role was very minor," said Dr Mike Repacholi, the
WHO coordinator of radiation and environmental health in Geneva.
"The article was not approved for publication because parts of it
did not reflect accurately what a WHO-convened group of inter
national experts considered the best science in the area of depleted
uranium," he added.

Baverstock.s study, which has now been passed to the Sunday Herald,
pointed out that Iraq.s arid climate meant that tiny particles of
DU were likely to be blown around and inhaled by civilians for years
to come. It warned that, when inside the body, their radiation and
toxicity could trigger the growth of malignant tumours.

The study suggested that the low-level radiation from DU could harm
cells adjacent to those that are directly irradiated, a phenomenon
known as .the bystander effect.. This undermines the stability of
the body.s genetic system, and is thought by many scientists to be
linked to cancers and possibly other illnesses.

In addition, the DU in Iraq, like that used in the Balkan conflict,
could turn out to be contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive
waste . That would make it more radioactive and hence more dangerous,
Baverstock argued.

"The radiation and the chemical toxicity of DU could also act
together to create a .cocktail effect. that further increases the
risk of cancer. These are all worrying possibilities that urgently
require more investigation," he said.

Baverstock.s anxiety about the health effects of DU in Iraq is
shared by Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN Environment
Programme.s Post-Conflict Assessment Unit in Geneva. .It is certainly
a concern in Iraq, there is no doubt about that,. he said.

UNEP, which surveyed DU contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina in
2002, is keen to get into Iraq to monitor the situation as soon as
possible. It has been told by the British government that about 1.9
tonnes of DU was fired from tanks around Basra, but has no information
from US forces, which are bound to have used a lot more.

Haavisto.s greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU shells have
been repaired and reoccupied without having been properly cleaned
up. Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly what has
happened to the ministry of planning building in Baghdad.

He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had been collected
and recycled as scrap in Iraq. .It could end up in a fork or a
knife,. he warned.

"It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around and not to
clear it up where adults are working and children are playing. If
DU is not taken care of, instead of decreasing the risk you are
increasing it. It is absolutely wrong."

Copyright  2004 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088
*****************************************************************
 38 SH: WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted uranium cancer 
fears in Iraq - 

[Sunday Herald]

  Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons 
used by Allies in Gulf war pose long-term health risk By Rob 
Edwards, Environment Editor 
 
 An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraqs 
civilian population would be endangered by British and US 
depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret.

The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that 
children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust 
containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it 
was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation 
(WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a 
senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately 
suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published 
when it was completed in 2001, there would have been more 
pressure on the US and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in 
last years war, and to clean up afterwards.

Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by coalition tanks 
and planes during the conflict, and there has been no 
comprehensive decontamination. Experts from the United Nations 
Environment Programme (UNEP) have so far not been allowed into 
Iraq to assess the pollution.

Our study suggests that the widespread use of depleted uranium 
weapons in Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian 
population, Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.

There is increasing scientific evidence the radio activity and 
the chemical toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human 
cells than is assumed.

Baverstock was the WHOs top expert on radiation and health for 11 
years until he retired in May last year. He now works with the 
Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Kuopio 
in Finland, and was recently appointed to the UK governments 
newly formed Committee on Radio active Waste Management.

While he was a member of staff, WHO refused to give him 
permission to publish the study, which was co-authored by 
Professor Carmel Mothersill from McMaster University in Canada 
and Dr Mike Thorne, a radiation consultant . Baverstock suspects 
that WHO was leaned on by a more powerful pro-nuclear UN body, 
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

I believe our study was censored and suppressed by the WHO 
because they didnt like its conclusions. Previous experience 
suggests that WHO officials were bowing to pressure from the 
IAEA, whose remit is to promote nuclear power, he said. That is 
more than unfortunate, as publishing the study would have helped 
forewarn the authorities of the risks of using DU weapons in 
Iraq.

These allegations, however, are dismissed as totally unfounded by 
WHO. The IAEA role was very minor, said Dr Mike Repacholi, the 
WHO coordinator of radiation and environmental health in Geneva. 
The article was not approved for publication because parts of it 
did not reflect accurately what a WHO-convened group of inter 
national experts considered the best science in the area of 
depleted uranium, he added.

Baverstocks study, which has now been passed to the Sunday 
Herald, pointed out that Iraqs arid climate meant that tiny 
particles of DU were likely to be blown around and inhaled by 
civilians for years to come. It warned that, when inside the 
body, their radiation and toxicity could trigger the growth of 
malignant tumours.

The study suggested that the low-level radiation from DU could 
harm cells adjacent to those that are directly irradiated, a 
phenomenon known as the bystander effect. This undermines the 
stability of the bodys genetic system, and is thought by many 
scientists to be linked to cancers and possibly other illnesses.

In addition, the DU in Iraq, like that used in the Balkan 
conflict, could turn out to be contaminated with plutonium and 
other radioactive waste . That would make it more radioactive and 
hence more dangerous, Baverstock argued.

The radiation and the chemical toxicity of DU could also act 
together to create a cocktail effect that further increases the 
risk of cancer. These are all worrying possibilities that 
urgently require more investigation, he said.

Baverstocks anxiety about the health effects of DU in Iraq is 
shared by Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UN Environment 
Programmes Post-Conflict Assessment Unit in Geneva. It is 
certainly a concern in Iraq, there is no doubt about that, he 
said.

UNEP, which surveyed DU contamination in Bosnia and Herzegovina 
in 2002, is keen to get into Iraq to monitor the situation as 
soon as possible. It has been told by the British government that 
about 1.9 tonnes of DU was fired from tanks around Basra, but has 
no information from US forces, which are bound to have used a lot 
more.

Haavistos greatest worry is when buildings hit by DU shells have 
been repaired and reoccupied without having been properly cleaned 
up. Photographic evidence suggests that this is exactly what has 
happened to the ministry of planning building in Baghdad. 

He also highlighted evidence that DU from weapons had been 
collected and recycled as scrap in Iraq. It could end up in a 
fork or a knife, he warned.

It is ridiculous to leave the material lying around and not to 
clear it up where adults are working and children are playing. If 
DU is not taken care of, instead of decreasing the risk you are 
increasing it. It is absolutely wrong. 22 February 2004 

  © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 39 UK MOD: DU Safety Instructions

OP TELIC Mounting Orders
 
[Ministry Of Defence]     

General Safety Instructions 

SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS - HAZARD MANAGEMENT OF DEPLETED URANIUM ON
OPERATIONS - VERSION FOR OPEN PUBLICATION 

27 February 03 

This document contains the public version of the safety
instructions issued to troops. It differs from the original only
in that contact details and references to internal MOD documents
have been removed. 

INTRODUCTION 

1. These instructions have been prepared by Chief Environment
and Safety Officer (Army) (CESO(A)) and approved by Dstl
Radiological Protection Services (DRPS). They are intended as an
unclassified guide to all personnel who may come into contact
with Depleted Uranium (DU) in operational situations. 

2. PJHQ is responsible for ensuring that these Instructions are
passed down through their operational chain of command to all
units and personnel. 

RADIATION ADVICE 

3. In Theatre Health and Safety is the responsibility of
Commander Joint Operations (CJO). CJO and his chain of command
will be assisted by a Theatre Radiation Protection Adviser (who
may not be in Theatre), and by individual unit Radiation
Protection Supervisors (RPS) (who must be deployed in Theatre). 

4. HQ Land has appointed Dstl Radiological Protection Services
(DRPS) as Theatre Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) on behalf
of CJO. 

HAZARDS FROM DU MUNITIONS 

5. DU is a heavy metal used in some anti-armour munitions. It is
in service with US MBT and ground attack aircraft, UK RAC MBT
and RN shipboard weapon systems. DU is a low specific activity
radioactive material and presents two hazards, radiological and
toxic. Radiation dose rates are detectable when measured very
close to DU munitions, but the dose rate reduces very quickly
with increasing distance. Trials under worst case conditions
indicate that there is no appreciable radiation health risk from
the DU. 

6. The toxic hazard is presented by inhalation or ingestion of
DU dust, or by contamination of open wounds by DU dust. DU dust
is formed as a result of a DU round striking or entering an AFV
or during a fire or explosion involving DU munitions. The UK MBT
shot sub-projectile has aluminium coating over the DU. Trials
have shown there is no risk of inhaling or ingesting DU when
handling intact rounds or when rounds are dropped onto steel
plate from a height of 2 metres. While no contamination has been
found inside MBTs during or after test firing of in service DU
munitions, small traces of DU have been found in the gun barrels
and fume extractor after firing and these represent a small risk
that needs to be taken account when handling and cleaning these
items after firing DU. 

7. It is important that all those likely to come into contact
with DU on the battlefield or on areas used for live fire
training are aware of these hazards and instructions. However,
they should also remember that DU does not present a significant
health risk in most circumstances and is not comparable with NBC
risks. Commanders should not impose measures that will restrict
operational efficiency on account of potential or actual DU use
and neither combat nor life-saving actions should be delayed
because of possible contamination. 

ACTION ON ENTERING CONTAMINATED AREA OR CLOSE TO DU-STRUCK AFV 

8. Monitoring. Dose rates near DU munitions are low and most
personnel do not need monitoring. Those who handle DU munitions
on a regular basis (e.g. tank crews and EOD personnel) or are
likely to find themselves in close proximity to 'unboxed' DU
munitions (e.g. REME turret crews) are to be issued with
Thermoluminescent Dosimeters (TLDs), as supplied by DRPS
complete with instructions for use. Sensitive low level
monitoring (rather than NBC) equipment is required to check
whether a strike is caused by DU. Some UK units (and possibly US
Forces) have this equipment and may be deployed to monitor
suspected DU strikes as necessary. It is recommended that
databases be created at unit level where appropriate to monitor
and record TLD readings. Individual readings should be recorded
as per paragraph 16 below. This information should be preserved
for future use after operations and their medical and personal
records annotated as appropriate. 

9. Recognition. If a DU projectile misses the target it may
eventually come to rest on the surface and be recognised thus:
a. MBT Projectiles. These will take the form of a long thin rod,
pointed at one end, with short stubby fins on the other
(although the latter may become detached by passing through a
soft target). They will look like brass (US) or be black (UK).
The projectile may also be broken up into segments. If the
projectile passes through a soft target (e.g. canvas) it may
leave a circular or star-shaped hole. The exit hole will be
slightly larger than the entry. A hard target struck by DU will
emit a much brighter flash than normal, usually with a greenish
tinge. Impact will result in DU dust settling on the target
exterior and in the immediate area, and, if penetrated, inside
the target. DU dust looks like soot or lumps of charcoal. It
may, over time, develop a green and/ or yellow tinge. b. Ground
Attack Aircraft Projectiles. These are about 4 inches long and
half an inch in diameter, pointed at one end. They may still be
in their windshield (similar to a MBT round sabot) when their
diameter will be about one inch. 

10. Nevertheless, it will often be difficult to know when an AFV
has been struck by DU shot. It should therefore be assumed on
encountering struck AFVs that the shot was DU and suitable
precautions taken against DU dust as detailed below, until the
vehicle can be surveyed for DU contamination. 

11. Avoidance of Contact. Personnel should not touch, pick up or
retain souvenirs from struck AFVs or DU fragments, unless
ordered to do so as part of an authorised clean-up operation.
When doing so, they must use a shovel or similar implement as
fragments can also be very sharp. Note that the discarded sabots
from DU rounds may occasionally be very slightly contaminated.
There is no significant health risk, but hands should be washed
after handling sabot fragments. 

12. Personnel should not climb onto or into vehicles or
structures possibly hit by DU rounds unless required to do so.
Personnel should avoid the surrounding area by at least 50m and
attempt to stay upwind of fires involving DU, such as AFV
casualties. Above all, smoking, eating or drinking should not be
conducted near a target struck by DU. 

13. Entry into DU Contaminated Areas. When it is necessary to
enter DU contaminated areas, exposed skin is to be covered and
especially any exposed wounds. If practicable, NBC rubber gloves
or leather gloves and a dust mask, such as Mask, Air Filtering
Disposable (NSN 4240-99-156-3608) should be worn. If no mask is
readily available, a handkerchief, shemaugh or sweat rag (wet
better than dry) should be used to cover nose and mouth. Full
NBC IPE is not necessary unless prolonged dust-raising
activities are to be carried out, such as extensive repair or
vehicle recovery activities. As little time as practicable
should be spent on the task, attempting to keep general dust
disturbance to a minimum. As soon as possible after task
completion, dust should be brushed off clothing in a controlled
and marked site, any nose/mouth and glove protection being
maintained until contaminated clothing has been removed. Outer
clothing should be changed at the first convenient opportunity
and laundered in the normal way before being worn again. Hands
should then be washed before eating, drinking or smoking. 

14. When operational conditions dictate that DU contaminated
areas must be entered immediately, or when the wearing of IPE is
not possible, dust-raising activities should be kept to a
minimum as far as possible. Damp cloths or similar should be
used to wipe down and decontaminate surfaces. Whenever
practicable, precautions should be taken to limit the spread of
DU dust when moving items that may be contaminated.
Decontamination, covering the equipment with a tarpaulin or
sealing the contamination in place with paint can be considered. 

15. Medical. Wounds that may contain DU must be cleaned at the
earliest opportunity under running water and covered with a dry
dressing. The Surgeon General's Department has disseminated
separate medical instructions to medical staff. Medical staff
should, if practicable, wear filter masks, plastic aprons and
double-layered surgical gloves. Apron and gloves should be
changed between patients. Patients should be wrapped in a
blanket for transport. Contaminated clothing should be cut off
and bagged. 

16. Recording. Personnel that may have been contaminated with DU
are to have that fact annotated in their medical and personal
records. After the operation, they are to be advised by DRPS of
their access to biological monitoring. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO CREWS IN AFVs LOADED WITH DU AMMUNITION 

17. Specific instructions to RAC Regiments are available.
Although the DU risk has been assessed as low, the interior of
AFV containing DU is designated a "Controlled Radiation Area" to
ensure that radiation doses are monitored and kept as low as
reasonably possible. Tank crewmen and turret repair craftsmen
are to be issued with TLD and sufficient additional TLDs held to
allow replacement on a one for one basis. 

TRANSPORT, STORAGE AND DISPOSAL OF DU AMMUNITION 

18. Transport into Theatre. This is the responsibility of DLO.
Until it reaches the MBT, the ammunition is contained in an
Ammunition Container Assembly (ACA), and no significant
radiation is emitted from it. 

19. In Theatre Storage. The ammunition is to remain in the
correct packaging until it is loaded onto the MBT. Wherever
practicable, ACA should be retained for re-packaging rounds not
used during work- up training/operations. After completion of
training/operations, remaining DU rounds must be inspected and
replaced in ACA prior to redeployment or back-loading. Should
the shot be damaged during storage, technical ammunition staff
are to be informed. Once deployed forward, ACA could be struck
by direct/indirect fire causing the propellant charges to
deflagrate, thereby spreading the DU shot as dust and fragments.
The dust is heavy and will not be carried far from the ACA. Once
casualty evacuation has occurred, the area within a 50m radius
should be cordoned off and Theatre HQ informed. 

20. Recovery of DU Rounds/Fragments. The subsequent formal
recovery of any intact DU cores or fragments is a matter for the
civil authorities, but UK troops may wish to assist with such
activities e.g. following work-up training or in providing
advice. In this instance, any intact DU cores or fragments
discovered are to be packed into a sand-filled metal box free of
any holes. A minimum 20mm lining of sand is to surround the DU
fragments. The box is to be closed and sealed to prevent leakage
and marked "CAUTION RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL - DU FRAGMENTS" and a
Trefoil sign applied. Although DU fragments only represent a low
toxicity Alpha source, hazard boxes should not be carried close
to the body. The box should be placed within a suitably marked
area and disposed of under local arrangements. 

AFV RECOVERY 

21. Vehicle Recovery. The first action for recovery crews is to
determine whether DU contamination might exist. This may be
indicated by DU monitors or suspected as the result of known KE
projectile strikes from MBT or aircraft. If DU is thought to be
present the vehicle is to be marked immediately as contaminated,
initially by paint that is easily noticeable at close range but
consistent with vehicle camouflage at a distance. If the vehicle
is repairable, a decision must be made at the highest
practicable level as to whether the need for its return to
battle outweighs the medical risk. Damage will range from total
destruction (K-Kill), through track damage (M-Kill) to simple
ricochet (fight on, but don't touch the scar). 

a. If the AFV is to be returned to battle, the contaminated
areas/components (including ancillaries such as mine ploughs)
must be identified and marked. Crews must be warned. 

b. If not, the vehicle is to be recovered to a marked,
controlled area. The vehicle itself is to be conspicuously
marked. 

c. Before backloading further, the vehicle is to be washed down
externally and, if practicable, radioactive scars masked with
bitumen, then the whole vehicle covered with tarpaulin. It will
still represent a radioactive hazard, and should be clearly
identified as such. The washdown area will itself be
contaminated, and must become a controlled area. 

22. Contaminated Components. Undamaged components from
contaminated vehicles should only be used if a decision is made,
again at the highest practicable level, that the operational
benefits outweigh the risks. Components should be removed and
monitored. If contaminated, they must be decontaminated as far
as practicable and conspicuously marked. Repair and operator
crews must be warned. Vehicles containing these components must
themselves be identified and also marked as contaminated. 

23. Area Clearance. The area around an AFV DU casualty may be
contaminated. Decontamination while operations are in progress
is not feasible. Potentially contaminated areas should be
checked and, if contamination is found, clearly marked with a
50m cordon, and left. Personnel are to be warned of the hazard.
The RPA should be consulted if contamination is found within the
boundary of a base that UK troops may need to occupy during
periods of settled operations. Formal DU clearance outside any
UK bases is a matter for the civil authorities. 

24. Post Conflict. 'A' or 'B' vehicles affected or suspected of
being affected in any way by DU contamination will require
decontamination. Affected vehicles should be preferably
decontaminated in Theatre, with civil authority agreement: 

a. If in Theatre, a decontamination facility will be required,
with arrangements in place for collecting and disposing of
contaminated water and DU debris, as advised by in Theatre RPA. 

b. If recovery to UK is necessary, external decontamination of
the vehicle and sealing of hot-spots as far as practicable must
be carried out. Controlled areas must be established on the
Recovery ship, marked and signed, and crews warned. 

c. Crews/maintainers of UK MBTs that have fired DU must comply
with extant instructions and advice on barrel cleaning,
transport regulations and gun document amendments. There is a
slight risk that low levels of DU contamination may be present
in gun barrels and fume extractors after DU munitions have been
fired. This does not represent a health risk. However, when
practicable, only non-abrasive techniques should be used for
cleaning barrels until they have been monitored. Monitoring
equipment shall be used to determine and record the levels of
contamination present. Gloves should be worn and barrels and
fume extractors wiped with a damp or oily cloth before
maintenance. Similarly, barrel brushes and bore staves should be
wiped after use and related waste cleaning materials disposed of
in accordance with local instructions. 

d. After initial monitoring in Theatre, any AFVs that may have
been struck by DU must be clearly marked as such and the vehicle
or components re-tested on return to Home Base. These markings
must be clearly indicated to any workshop or repair facility
where they are delivered. 

e. Arrangements should be considered in Theatre for the
collection, temporary storage and disposal of any UK equipment
written off as the result of DU contamination. 

  
Instructions Issued to RAC 

SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS FOR RAC REGIMENTS EMPLOYING DU AMMUNITION ON
OPERATIONS - VERSION FOR OPEN PUBLICATION 

27 February 03 

This document contains the public version of the safety
instructions issued to RAC regiments. It differs from the
original only in that contact details and references to internal
MOD documents have been removed. 

INTRODUCTION 

1. These instructions have been prepared jointly by Dstl
Radiological Protection Services (DRPS) and HQ DRAC, with input
from several other defence health and safety agencies. They
apply to crews of CR2 tanks and to other RAC and attached
personnel in the Regiment. They do not cover storage and
transportation of DU in other situations. 

2. Although the radiation risk from DU has been assessed as low,
the interior of an AFV loaded with DU munitions is designated a
"Controlled Radiation Area", under Health and Safety in the
Workplace (H&SW) legislation, to ensure radiation doses are
monitored and kept As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). 

3. All Regimental personnel are to read and follow these
instructions. Particular attention is to be paid to the
instructions concerning contact with debris from DU munitions. 

4. General instructions for all personnel begin at paragraph 21.
The responsibilities of nominated individuals are shown below. 

APPOINTMENTS AND DUTIES 

5. Health and safety is the responsibility of Commander Joint
Operations (CJO). CJO and his chain of command will be assisted
by a Radiation Protection Adviser (who may not be in Theatre),
and unit Radiation Protection Supervisors (RPS) (who must be in
Theatre). 

6. HQ Land has appointed Dstl Radiological Protection Services
(DRPS) as Theatre Radiation Protection Adviser (RPA) on behalf
of CBF. 

7. The Commanding Officer is to appoint a Regimental Radiation
Protection Supervisor (RRPS) (usually the QM(T)) and a Squadron
Radiation Protection Supervisor (SRPS) for each squadron.
Appointments, and changes, are to be published in Regimental
Orders. 

8. RPSs are responsible for: 

a. Ensuring regimental/squadron personnel are aware of these
rules. 

b. Issuing Thermo-Luminescent Dosimeters (TLDs) used for
measuring radiation doses. 

c. Withdrawing used TLDs and despatching them to DRPS for
reading. 

d. Obtaining, from the RPA, and providing advice on DU matters
as required. 

9. Individual tank commanders are responsible for ensuring these
rules are known and followed by their crews. They are to consult
the RPS for advice on DU safety matters as required. 

HAZARDS FROM DU MUNITIONS 

10. DU presents 2 hazards, radiological and toxic. 

11. DU is a low specific activity radioactive material.
Radiation dose rates are detectable when measured very close to
DU munitions, but the dose rate reduces very quickly with
increasing distance. Trials under worst case conditions indicate
that there is no appreciable radiation health risk from the DU,
whereas the use of DU in the L27A1 CHARM 3 shot gives CR2 an
enhanced capability against enemy armour. 

12. The toxic hazard is presented by inhalation or ingestion of
DU dust, or by contamination of open wounds by DU dust. The main
hazard from DU is inhalation of the dust formed during a fire or
explosion involving DU munitions or when DU hits an AFV. 

13. The L27 shot sub-projectile has an aluminium coating over
the DU. Trials have shown there is no risk of inhaling or
ingesting DU when handling intact rounds or when rounds are
dropped onto steel plate from a height of 2 metres. In addition,
no contamination has been found in tanks during or after test
firing of in-service DU munitions, although there is a slight
risk that barrels and fume extractors will have some low levels
of DU contamination after DU munitions have been fired. 

ACTIONS BY RPSS PRIOR TO DEPLOYMENT 

14. The Regimental and Squadron RPSs must ensure that troops,
including BCRs, are aware of the contents of these rules. 

15. The Regimental (or exceptionally the Squadron) RPSs will
contact the DRPS Dosimetry Service, through the logistics chain
of supply, to request sufficient TLDs and holders to allow one
TLD to be issued to each individual. Note that TLD availability
depends on operational circumstances. A delivery address must be
provided - taking account of the likely transit time for the
TLDs. 

ACTIONS BY RPSS PRIOR TO DEPLOYMENT AND/OR IN THEATRE 

16. TLDs will be inserted into their holders and issued by the
RPSs. When sufficient TLDs are available, one will be issued to
each CR2 crewman and the appropriate name, rank and service
number written against the TLD number in the Dosimeter Issue
List that comes with the TLDs. The original Issue List will be
retained by the Regimental RPS and a copy returned to the DRPS
Dosimetry Section. 

17. If operational requirements prevent the issue of one TLD per
individual, a TLD will be issued to the Loader in each AFV. The
name, rank and serial number of the loader and the other members
of the crew will be recorded against the TLD number in the Issue
List. The Regimental RPS will retain the original Issue List and
a copy will be sent to the DRPS Dosimetry Section. 

18. If TLDs are not available, dose assessments will be based on
the time spent in AFVs loaded with DU munitions. RPSs
willcollect this information after essential military activities
have been completed and forward reports to the Regimental RPS.
The number of 24-hour days spent by each individual (identified
by name, rank and serial number) in DU-loaded AFVs is required.
80 x 24-hour days per year is the current peacetime limit. 

19. The Regimental RPS will consider the practicability of
exchanging TLDs in Theatre and will issue appropriate
instructions to Sqn RPSs. TLDs are normally issued for a maximum
of 3 months but they will function over longer periods.
Operational tasks and considerations will take precedence. 

ACTIONS BY RPSS ON REMOVAL OF DU MUNITIONS FROM AFVS 

20. Sqn RPSs will collect all TLDs and holders and forward them
to the Regimental RPS for return to the DRPS Dosimetry Section
when they are no longer required. The original Dosimeter Issue
Lists will be returned with the TLDs and holders. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AFV CREWS AND SUPPORT PERSONNEL 

21. IMPORTANT: BE AWARE OF THESE RULES BUT REMEMBER THAT EXPERT
ADVICE IS THAT DU WILL NOT PRESENT A SIGNIFICANT HEALTH RISK IN
MOST CIRCUMSTANCES. THE RISKS ARE NOT COMPARABLE WITH NBC RISKS
AND ARE TRIVIAL COMPARED TO COMBAT RISKS. NEVER DELAY COMBAT OR
LIFE-SAVING ACTIONS ON ACCOUNT OF POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION. 

RADIATION HAZARD 

22. Radiation Hazard dosimeters (TLDs) are to be issued. Wear or
carry your TLD at all times in a manner that does not interfere
with essential duties. Try to avoid damaging the TLD. It is
preferable that the TLD is worn on the chest or at the waist,
but it will function if carried in a pocket. 

23. Only wear the TLD issued to you and report the loss of a TLD
to the Sqn RPS as soon as practicable. 

24. Direct contact between skin and DU should be avoided
whenever possible. Handling the shot sub-projectile with bare
hands should be minimised. Gloves are not necessary when loading
the gun, which might involve very short periods of contact with
the sub-projectile. However, gloves should be worn when "bombing
up", if the handler prefers to grip the sub-projectile. Handling
the DU shot by the sabot front centring upstand and rear fin
case is recommended, but loading efficiency is more important. 

TOXIC HAZARD 

25. Contamination may be by inhalation or ingestion of DU dust,
or by contamination of open wounds by DU dust. 

26. The main hazard from DU is inhalation of the dust formed
during a fire or explosion involving DU munitions or when DU
hits an AFV. Ingestion of DU is less important, but it is good
practice to take precautions to prevent this. It will be
difficult to know, when an AFV is struck by a KE shot, if the
shot was DU. Crews of struck AFVs should assume that the shot
was DU and take precautions against DU dust as detailed below,
until the vehicle can be surveyed for DU contamination. 

27. Do not touch, pick up or retain souvenirs from struck AFVs
or DU fragments, unless ordered to do so as part of an
authorised clean-up operation, as they can be very sharp; then
use a shovel or similar implement. 

28. Do not climb onto or into vehicles or structures possibly
hit by DU rounds from ground attack aircraft or tanks unless
your duties require it. Avoid the surrounding area by at least
50m and do not touch shrapnel on the ground. Try to stay upwind
of fires involving DU. 

29. When it is necessary to enter DU contaminated areas, cover
exposed skin and especially any exposed wounds. If practicable,
wear NBC rubber gloves or leather gloves and a dust mask, such
as Mask, Air Filtering Disposable (NSN 4240-99-156- 3608). If no
mask is readily available, use a handkerchief, shemaugh or sweat
rag (wet better than dry) to cover nose and mouth. Full NBC IPE
is not necessary unless prolonged dust-raising activities are to
be carried out, such as extensive repair or vehicle recovery
activities. Spend as little time as practicable on the task,
and, as soon as possible afterwards, change your outer clothing
and launder it before it is worn again. Keep the nose/mouth
protection on while removing dust contaminated clothing. Wash
hands as soon as possible afterwards and especially before
eating, drinking or smoking. 

30. When operational conditions dictate that DU contaminated
areas must be entered immediately, or when the wearing of IPE is
not possible, dust-raising activities are to be avoided as far
as possible. Consider using damp cloths or similar to wipe down
and decontaminate surfaces. Avoid eating, drinking or smoking
unless it is absolutely necessary. Wash and change your clothing
as soon as possible afterwards and advise your Medical Officer
(MO) of the event. 

31. Whenever practicable, take precautions to limit the spread
of DU dust when moving items that may be contaminated.
Decontamination, covering the equipment with a tarpaulin or
sealing the contamination in place with paint can be considered. 

32. Wounds that may contain DU must be cleaned at the earliest
opportunity under running water and covered with a dry dressing.
Separate medical instructions have been disseminated to medical
staff by the Surgeon General's Department. 

33. If you believe you may have been contaminated with DU,
consult your MO. He/she will annotate your medical records and
offer advice. 

CLEANING OF BARRELS THAT HAVE FIRED DU MUNITIONS 

34. While no contamination has been found inside MBTs during or
after test firing of in service DU munitions, small traces of DU
have been found in the gun barrels and fume extractor after
firing and these represent a small risk. When practicable, use
only non-abrasive techniques for cleaning barrels until they
have been monitored as described below. Wear gloves and wipe
barrels and fume extractors with a damp or oily cloth before
maintenance. Wipe barrel brushes and bore staves after use and
dispose of waste cleaning materials with other refuse. Wash
hands before eating, drinking or smoking. 

ACTIONS BY REGIMENTAL RPS IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO DEPARTURE FROM
THEATRE 

36. Tank Systems Support (TSS) IPT is to issue, to QMs(T), a
supply of pre-printed self-stick labels to placed in the
documents of guns that have fired DU ammunition. If a
pre-printed label is not available, ensure the following
statement is written in the documents of gun barrels that have
fired DU munitions: 

"There may be traces of depleted uranium within this barrel.
This does not present a significant risk if wet non-abrasive
cleaning techniques are used and hands are washed after work on
the bore or fume extractor. Precautions must be taken to prevent
inhalation of dust during work that might abrade the bore". 

37. Contact TSS IPT to arrange for monitoring of barrels that
have fired DU and advise the RPA of any incidents involving
known or suspected DU contamination. 
Page Modified: 5th May 2003   

*****************************************************************
 40 MOD: Depleted Uranium
 
  [Ministry Of Defence]     

Depleted Uranium News 

01/07/03 The OP TELIC Middle East DU brief has been updated. 
06/06/03 The OP TELIC Middle East DU brief has been updated to
include a summary of DU use in Iraq.  

05/05/03 This website has been updated to reflect the current 
deployment in the gulf (OP TELIC). British forces in the Gulf 
have DU ammunition as part of their armoury and are using it. All 
forces have been issued with safety instructions; Tank crews have 
been issued with specific instructions. Click to read MOD’s OP 
TELIC Middle East DU brief Depleted Uranium 

The UK military field two kinds of DU ammunition; 120 mm 
anti-tank rounds (CHARM 3), fired by the Army’s Challenger tanks 
and 20mm rounds used by the Royal Navy’s PHALANX Close-In Weapon 
System (a missile defence system). DU is a dense, heavy metal 
which makes it ideal for penetrating tanks, and the CHARM 3 acts 
like a self sharpening dart which pierces armour. This gives 
British forces a battle-winning capability and we will continue 
to use these munitions for the foreseeable future.No satisfactory 
alternative material exists to provide the level of penetration 
needed to defeat the most modern battle tanks. PHALANX DU 
ammunition is currently being phased out in favour of tungsten 
rounds which are better suited to this system. 

There have been innumerable claims about the effects of DU, many 
of which are groundless. MOD has compiled some common Facts and 
Misconceptions about DU as a quick reference guide. For further 

DU - The Science [ src=] 

Independent reports on the health effects of using DU in battle,
on the environmental effects of using DU in testing and in
battle, have all supported MOD’s view that except under very
extreme circumstances, DU does not pose a risk to health or the
environment. These include the US RAND Corporation, the US
Institute of Medicine, the Royal Society, the European
Commission, the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the World Health Organisation (WHO). Further details about this
can be found in the documentation on this site. MOD accepts that
there is more to learn, however, and announced its Research
Programme on DU in 2002. We carry out environmental monitoring
of the ranges in the UK where DU has been fired, and have also
assessed sites in the Balkans. A preliminary report on the
Kosovo survey carried out by Directorate of Safety Environment
and Fire Policy (D SEF POL) is linked below. The full report on
this survey will be placed on the web soon. Also to be published
this year is the Bosnia survey. 

DU research programme
www.mod.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/du_research.htm (March 2002) 

Kirkcudbright and Eskmeals Ranges - Comparison of Kirkcudbright
and Eskmeals Environmental Monitoring Data with Generalised
Derived Limits for Uranium (June 2002) 

Preliminary report on Kosovo Survey - Report on the visit to
Kosovo by members of the MOD Enhanced Environmental Monitoring
Programme Team - January 19-23 2001 (January 2001) 

DU - The Weapon 
  
A description of use of DU during the Gulf war (90-91) can be
found here. All soldiers in a theatre of war where DU munitions
are used receive briefing on how to protect themselves sensibly
from any hazard DU may present. MOD also has a biological
monitoring policy to manage health monitoring of any soldier in
a theatre of war where DU is used, which offers a test for DU
exposure to all personnel. MOD has compiled a quick reference
guide to the current deployment - DU in the Middle East. 

For further information on health issues relating to Gulf
service, refer to the Gulf Veterans’ Illnesses Homepage 

Following a consultation exercise, and recognising that veterans
of the Gulf and Balkans are concerned about their possible
exposures to DU in theatre, MOD is currently funding the
development of a retrospective test for DU in urine, which is
being implemented by the independent DU Oversight Board.
Progress of this programme can be viewed on their website at
www.duob.org.uk. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for
Defence and Minister for Veterans, Dr Lewis Moonie, made a
statementon the progress of the first pilot study on 17 December
2002. MOD currently expects to be able to offer a test to
veterans early next year. 

DU Documents     DU - The Facts&nbsp;   DU - The Misconceptions 
  DU Middle East    Gulf Veterans Illnesses
Page Modified: 5th December 2003   
*****************************************************************
 41 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: True science would doom Yucca site

February 20, 2004 

Las Vegas Sun

 WEEKEND EDITION

 Feb. 21-22, 2004

 The federal government, including President Bush, has long been
adamant in its assurances that Yucca Mountain will open only if
"sound science" proves that it will be safe. The mountain, just
90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is being readied as the burial
site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. The amount of
waste planned for burial is overwhelming -- trucks and trains
loaded with the radioactive poison would arrive at Yucca
Mountain daily for the rest our lifetimes and many lifetimes
beyond that. If the science is wrong, the mountain and the water
table below could become contaminated, creating a catastrophe.
This being true beyond dispute, the term "sound science" should
be sacrosanct. Instead it's become a glib, automatic response
from policy makers and politicians.

 In July 2002, Congress and the president approved Yucca
Mountain -- long before hundreds of basic scientific questions
about it had even been addressed. Yet under the mollifying term
of sound science, the public was assured that Yucca Mountain is
no cause for worry. With the exception of most Nevadans, who
have been paying closer attention, the nation invested faith in
the term. This is why we hope Paul Craig continues to speak out
nationally on his well-informed insights.

 Craig is a physicist and professor of engineering at the
University of California at Davis. President Clinton in 1997
appointed him to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. The
board was created by Congress in 1987 to act as an independent
watchdog over the Energy Department's plans for disposing of
nuclear waste and its plans for Yucca Mountain. Last month Craig
resigned from the board, saying that would enable him to speak
more freely.

 In his first interview as an ex-member, Craig said the Energy
Department's design for Yucca Mountain is fatally flawed. "The
science is very clear. ... It's a bad design," Craig said. As
the design stands, metal casks will be filled with highly
radioactive liquid waste. The casks will then be buried in
caverns under Yucca Mountain. The near-boiling temperature of
the waste, Craig said, will heat the casks so much that the
caverns' ground salts will liquify, leading to eventual
corrosion and leaking of the casks. Craig was simply reiterating
the findings of the whole board, which were made public in a
report last November.

 The review board's executive director, William Barnard, speaks
highly of Craig, calling him a respected scientist with a record
of accurately portraying the board's work. Barnard said Craig is
raising valid concerns, adding, "The board always has had
concerns about these high temperatures and now that the data is
coming out, it looks like there is a problem."

 Although the findings about high temperatures and what they
could portend have been out for four months, the Energy
Department has not meaningfully responded. It's only reaction
has been a letter to the board from Margaret Chu, director of
the department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste
Management. "Our analyses do not suggest such results ..." Chu
stated. If "sound science" were truly involved, the Energy
Department would have released those analyses for review by the
board members and other top scientists.

 In going public with his concerns, Craig added to the body of
knowledge indicating a pattern of unsound science by the Energy
Department. The department, for example, has dismissed mounds of
geologic evidence that Yucca Mountain is an unsafe location for
nuclear waste. It has even disregarded the safety of its own
workers at Yucca Mountain. The department admits that it was lax
in enforcing protections against toxic dust as drilling was
carried out in the 1990s. Additionally, a former contract worker
at Yucca Mountain is alleging that her supervisor ordered her to
change her field notes about the levels of toxic silica in the
dust raised by the boring. Last summer, Yucca workers who raised
alarms about the quality of work there were disciplined.

 What we've seen from the Energy Department is a lot of unsound
science. Yet it plunges onward, keeping to its design and its
schedule of opening the mountain by 2010. It must have long ago
decided that the term sound science is code for full speed ahead
on Yucca Mountain. 
 
*****************************************************************
 42 Las Vegas SUN: Columnist Brian Greenspun: Stand must be taken
 
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.


 WEEKEND EDITION

 Feb. 21-22, 2004

 What kind of country are we living in?

 The headline in Thursday's Las Vegas Sun was no surprise:
"Nuclear expert: Yucca unsafe."

 Nevadans have for years been inundated with scientist after
scientist who proclaim that Yucca Mountain is a scientific bust.
The youngest child in this state has a genetic predisposition to
expect that science will continue to pooh-pooh the very concept
of burying the nation's high-level nuclear waste in this state
while the Bush White House continues to proclaim that all the
science is in and Yucca Mountain is safe.

 It has always been a question of politics trumping good science
and, until George W. Bush became president of the United States,
the odds were long that Nevada's families would pay the ultimate
price. With the current occupant of the White House, however, it
was a lock cinch that political considerations would ignore
science and the large campaign contributors in the nuclear power
industry would have their way with this president. The result?
President Bush picked Nevada, and Las Vegans in particular, to
bear the entire burden of this country's radioactive waste
problem. That could be a most deadly decision for the 1.5
million people living and working in Southern Nevada.

 I know that some people here -- some of whom are supposed to be
smarter than that -- believe that the nuke dump is a fait
accompli and there is nothing we can do to stop the federal
government from having its way with us. In fact, there is even a
vocal minority of business people, led by a former governor --
well-paid I suspect by the nuke industry -- who think we should
trade the health and welfare of our children and theirs for a
few dollars. Fortunately, whatever the GOP pollsters wish were
the case, I suspect that an overwhelming majority of Nevada
families still oppose the dump and will do anything they can to
reverse this insane course that the Bushies have us on.

 Right now, the whole matter is in the courts. And as much as I
believe that our cause is just and that our lawyers are right,
it provides little solace considering the fact that our Supreme
Court is given to ignore the Constitution when matters like
states' rights buck up against presidential and congressional
will. Hope, however, does spring eternal, which is about the
same amount of time that the radioactive waste they want to bury
just a few miles from Las Vegas will stay deadly.

 So, what's the latest shockeroo in the ongoing saga of how the
federal government and the Bush White House want to continue to
screw Nevada?

 It is the news that a scientist on the Nuclear Waste Technical
Review Board claims that the Yucca Mountain dump is poorly
designed, which could cause the high-level nuclear waste within
the mountain to leak. The law, until Congress decides to amend
it to fit the ever-changing facts on the ground, says leaks are
not allowed for a minimum of 10,000 years. Oops!

 Actually, the scientist, Paul Craig, is no longer on the
Nuclear Waste Board. The physicist and engineering professor at
the University of California-Davis resigned his position as a
member so he "could speak more freely about the waste dump's
dangers."

 Does anyone else get a chill down their spine just thinking
about what Dr. Craig has done?

 Here's a man whose job it is to oversee this country's only
nuclear waste disposal plan who, in order to say what he thinks
based on what he has learned, has to resign from the very panel
whose job it is to make sure that we are safe from bad science
and presidents who make decisions based on that bad science.

 Whatever happened to freedom of speech and thought? Whatever
happened to government service for the sake of good government?
Whatever happened to the bedrock belief in this country that
those in public service are there to render proper service, not
lip service to some political agenda?

 According to Dr. Craig, he resigned 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," he explained. Huh?

 Let me get this straight. There's a scientist on the Nuclear
Waste Technical Review Board who believes the science is flawed
and that the nuclear waste dump is in danger of leaking that
deadly poison all over, under, around and through the
environment -- starting with the entire Las Vegas Valley -- and
the only way he can speak out about it is to resign from the
board? What happens then?

 Who is left on the board to protect our health and safety if
the people who don't buy what President Bush is trying to sell
us are no longer there? If only the lackeys remain to give
oversight, what kind of oversight will we get?

 Am I the only person who thinks this is nuts? Why doesn't this
guy stay on the board, ask the hard questions, give the press
interviews questioning the bad science, and challenge his
colleagues to come clean with the people, too?

 What is it about our country in 2004 that forces
well-intentioned people from public service just because they
disagree with the prevailing political wisdom? Whatever happened
to the patriots? How long should it take for Sens. Harry Reid
and John Ensign to call for -- no, demand -- a Senate
investigation, invoking every whistleblower law they can find?

 When will our governor, Kenny Guinn, use his bully pulpit to
question President Bush's decision to fast-track the dump in
light of Dr. Craig's life and death concerns? Who will step up
and protect the people of this state?

 What kind of country are we living in that these kind of
questions have to be asked in the first place?

 
 
*****************************************************************
 43 Nevada Appeal: Energy Department's work isn't in vain
 	 	 	
February 22, 2004                                       
 
Nevada Appeal editorial board                    

The canisters will leak. That's pretty much all Nevadans know and 
all they need to know about the "sound science" behind plans to 
store the nation's radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.
 

In frank comments to a Sierra Club forum in Reno last week, 
scientist Paul Craig laid on the line the points Yucca Mountain 
foes have been pounding for years. In trying to contain nuclear 
waste that will be hazardous for thousands of years - perhaps 
300,000 years, an almost-unimaginable span - the U.S. Department 
of Energy's design is seriously flawed.
 

Craig, a former member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review 
Board from the University of California-Davis, said data indicate 
the canisters which are to hold the waste have a "good 
possibility of localized corrosion" in the first 2,000 to 3,000 
years. His assessment was backed up by the executive director of 
the board, which has reported the evidence to the Energy 
Department.
 

What does it mean? It means there's no point in spending billions 
of dollars to ship nuclear waste from around the country and 
store it inside a mountain in the Nevada desert.
 

The basic concept was questionable from the start, but it should 
have become moot when the Energy Department's analysis of Yucca 
Mountain showed that it could not contain the waste geologically. 
As the design shifted toward canisters, it became clear that the 
canisters could be stored just about anywhere - in fact, there 
are many locations better suited than remote Yucca Mountain.
 

The solution is staring the Energy Department in the face. With 
canisters capable of containing it for thousands of years, waste 
should be stored near the facilities which produce it - not 
shipped around the country - until a reasonable and economical 
means is found for reprocessing or neutralizing it.
 

In other words, the Energy Department's work hasn't gone for 
naught. It has bought itself at least a few hundred years for a 
"sound science" solution to catch up to the problem.
 
Copyright Nevada Appeal.
*****************************************************************
 44 Nevada Appeal: The betrayal of Nevada on nuclear waste
 	 	 	
February 22, 2004                                       
 
Guy W. Farmer                    

Last Sunday, I wrote that President Bush betrayed Nevada three 
years ago by approving the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste 
dump despite a campaign promise that his decision would be based 
on "sound science." But if that flawed and dangerous project 
represents sound science, then Nevada is a tropical island. Same 
logic.

In a brief visit to Las Vegas last weekend, Sen. John Kerry, 
D-Mass., who's all but certain to be the Democratic presidential 
candidate this fall, recalled Bush's Yucca Mountain campaign 
promise in 2000. "Nevadans understand better than anyone why so 
many Americans don't trust George W. Bush," the senator said in a 
statement. "Four years ago, candidate Bush promised not to ship 
nuclear waste to your state unless scientifically deemed safe. 
But after the election, President Bush caved to special interests 
and broke his promise to Nevada." And so he did, which is why the 
70 percent of Nevadans who oppose Yucca Mountain will have 
trouble voting for the president in November.

Let's look back at how the U.S. Senate voted on this partisan 
issue in late 2001. Republicans favored the Yucca Mountain dump 
45-3 while Democrats, including Kerry, opposed it by a margin of 
36-15. Only two GOP senators joined Nevada's John Ensign in 
opposing the measure. So much for "sound science." It was pure 
politics.

Speaking in Reno last Wednesday, former Nuclear Waste Technical 
Review Board member Paul Craig charged that the proposed Nevada 
repository is poorly designed and could leak highly radioactive 
waste. "I would never say Yucca Mountain won't work," he said. 
"What I would say is the design they have won't work." At the 
same time, the respected Union of Concerned Scientists asserted 
that "the scope and scale of the manipulation, suppression and 
misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration is 
unprecedented." That's what we've been saying all along.

But the politicians continue to push the Yucca Mountain dump 
because "Nevada is a desert and no one lives there." Right? 
Wrong! And that's why we should keep fighting against a project 
that would damage our tourist-based economy and jeopardize the 
health of our children and grandchildren for generations to come. 
So I applaud the bipartisan efforts of our elected officials to 
derail the Yucca Mountain express.

Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn was as animated as I've ever seen him 
when he accused the U.S. Energy Department and Energy Secretary 
Spencer Abraham - a failed politician from Michigan - of bad 
faith during a public hearing in September 2001. Calling 
Abraham's support of the project "premature and grossly 
irresponsible," the governor said the nuclear waste storage issue 
"is paramount to the health and safety of every Nevadan and every 
American whose home, school or place of business sits along the 
proposed paths that the deadliest substance on earth" will 
travel.

Last November, State Engineer Hugh Ricci did his part by cutting 
off the Feds' water, denying the permits they need in order to 
turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Meanwhile 
Nevada's Harry Reid, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, has 
called for a federal investigation of Yucca Mountain safety 
practices following charges by a former project worker that her 
supervisors ordered her to falsify reports on toxic silica dust 
levels at the site. Reid wants to halt construction pending the 
investigation.

After the Senate's party-line approval of the dumpsite, our 
elected officials vowed to fight on in the federal courts. And 
just last month we won a partial victory in the U.S. Court of 
Appeals in Washington, D.C., which ruled that the government 
should protect people from harmful radiation for 300,000 years - 
a standard urged by Nevada officials and the National Academy of 
Sciences -- instead of the 10,000 years required by the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency. The longer standard could make 
it more difficult for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to 
license the Yucca Mountain dumpsite by the 2010 target date for 
completion.

The Bush administration appealed the court's ruling and sought a 
huge increase in Yucca Mountain funding, from $580 million in the 
current fiscal year to $908 million in fiscal 2005. Of course 
Nevada's bipartisan congressional delegation will do everything 
possible to block the increased funding. For starters, 
congressmen Jim Gibbons, Shelley Berkley and Jon Porter are 
joining senators Reid and Ensign to oppose a $186 million DOE 
appropriation for the study of nuclear waste transportation 
routes, an issue that resonates in many other states including 
Minnesota, where the Legislature is considering a bill to ban the 
shipment of nuclear waste through densely populated areas of the 
state.

By now it's clear that this isn't a scientific issue; it's a 
political issue, and has been ever since Congress passed the 
"Screw Nevada" Bill in 1987, designating Yucca Mountain as the 
only site to be studied in a search for a permanent repository 
for more than 77,000 tons of the nation's most radioactive 
nuclear waste. Since then, the Feds have downplayed safety 
concerns and focused instead on how to make the project a 
reality, which appears increasingly difficult given Nevada's 
growing political clout.

Some misguided Nevadans led by former Gov. Bob List, a paid
lobbyist for the nuclear energy industry, argue that since the
project is "inevitable," we should sell out for large amounts of
federal dollars. These turncoats are willing to mortgage the
future of our children for federal handouts. No thanks! Let's
hold firm and tell the Feds where they can put their nuclear
waste (none of which is generated in Nevada, by the way).

Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S.
diplomat, resides in Carson City.
 
Copyright Nevada Appeal.
*****************************************************************
 45 Las Vegas RJ: EDITORIAL: More bungling at Yucca 
 
Sunday, February 22, 2004
 
The DOE is shocked. Shocked! 

Newcomers to the controversy over whether the federal government 
will excavate a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain (against the 
wishes of most uncompensated Nevadans) can be forgiven if they 
have some trouble following the latest revelations concerning the 
dump proponents' lies, cover-ups and obfuscations.
 
 The reason a newcomer might find it hard to follow these 
revelations is that the federal Department of Energy pretends 
there's still some orderly and lawful process underway to 
determine whether it will be able to dump the nation's nuclear 
waste 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
 
 Last week, the DOE announced it will investigate whether field 
notes were altered to misrepresent tunnel workers' exposure to 
harmful silica dust during construction of the Yucca Mountain 
tunnel ... seven years ago.
 
 After the Review-Journal reported last week on allegations by 
former Yucca Mountain industrial hygienist Judy Kallas, the 
director of the federal Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste 
Management called on Energy Department Inspector General Gregory 
Friedman to investigate how silica dust levels were recorded 
during construction of the Yucca Mountain "exploratory tunnel" 
... seven years ago.
 
 In a deposition taken Oct. 16, 2002, as part of an unrelated 
lawsuit, Ms. Kallas said under oath that she was told what to 
write about the length of time monitors recorded airborne dust 
levels inside the tunnel -- an "exploratory tunnel" big enough to 
hold a freight train. Two freight trains, actually, on atop the 
other. On paper, the dust concentrations would thus be diluted 
over time, making them appear to be lower than they had actually 
been, Ms. Kallas explained. Ms. Kallas said her notes were often 
altered during the four months she worked for project coordinator 
Kiewit Construction, in the spring and summer of 1996. (Kiewet 
dug the tunnel from 1994 to 1997.)
 
 Ms. Kallas was fired for "disregarding the instructions of her 
supervisor."
 
 "I said what they were telling me to do was illegal," she 
testified. "Then they reminded me that the only reason I was 
there was because DOE required somebody with my credentials to be 
there."
 
 The Energy Department has acknowledged officials were aware of 
potentially hazardous silica at Yucca Mountain, but that workers 
were not given effective respiratory protection until 1996. The 
department is now trying to contact more than 1,000 former 
workers and offering them free silicosis screenings.
 
 A thousand former workers. Who started excavating Yucca Mountain 
a decade ago. In fact, the federal government has spent $6 
billion on this project since 1982 -- more than 10 percent of the 
ever-inflating total cost estimate, which has now reached $58 
billion.
 
 If this is an "exploratory tunnel," then opening up the patient 
and removing half the internal organs is "exploratory surgery."
 
 Lies. Bungling. Cover-ups. All in a zealous attempt to have this 
project so far along before the scientists or the courts can 
render a judgment that -- even should the political fix not carry 
the day -- the proponents will be able to say, "Oh, now you tell 
us. But look at how much we've already spent. It's practically 
done. And it's much too late to look at other options now ... "
 
 It's tempting to say these latest revelations call the whole, 
vastly expensive enterprise into question. But the time to "call 
it into question" came long, long ago.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 46 Haaretz: Vanunu tells brothers: I have no more nuclear secrets       

Last Update: 22/02/2004 08:16   
    
  By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent   	 
    
Mordechai Vanunu denies that he knows additional secrets about 
Israel's nuclear capability. Vanunu, in conversations with his 
brothers Meir and Asher at Ashkelon's Shikma Prison, denied that 
he has the ability, or intention, to disclose additional nuclear 
secrets, He is serving an 18-year sentence for divulging 
information.    

Vanunu's denial represent his first response to reports that 
security officials and prosecutors have been discussing the 
possibility of placing restrictions on him when he finishes his 
jail term in two months. Vanunu told his brothers he has been cut 
off from his former place of work at the Dimona nuclear reactor 
for 20 years, and that he does not have any information beyond 
what was published in the British Sunday Times. 

Vanunu denied a report published last week in the newspaper 
Yedioth Aharonoth suggesting that he intends to divulge 
additional nuclear secrets. In this report, a former Shikma 
inmate said that he heard Vanunu express intentions to disclose 
classified information as soon as he is released; the former 
inmate also said that he heard Vanunu express satisfaction 
following Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis. 

Responding to this report, Vanunu told his brothers: "It's all 
fabricated." 

Meir Vanunu, who traveled here recently from his home in 
Australia, told Haaretz that he suspects security officials are 
behind a systematic effort to circulate reports to denigrate his 
brother, and to prepare the Israeli public for the possibility 
that post-prison restrictions will be slapped on him.

Vanunu told his brothers that after his release, he will leave 
Israel immediately and try to settle in the U.S. and study at 
university. Other options include moving to Norway, where a 
university conferred on him a few years ago an honorary 
doctorate, or to Italy, where he lived for a few months and 
converted to Christianity, before he was kidnapped by Mossad 
agents in Rome in 1986 and returned to Israel.

Last week, British journalist Peter Hounam, who worked on the 
original Sunday Times Vanunu disclosure, verifying details in 
London and Australia, visited Israel. His piece on reports 
against Vanunu in Israel's media is slated for publication in the 
Sunday Times on Sunday. 

On Saturday night, Hounam told Haaretz that when he worked on the 
original disclosure, "Mordechai always refused to divulge the 
names of people with whom he worked in the Dimona reactor, and he 
refrained from revealing details about security arrangements 
there. He claimed that such details weren't needed for our 
report, and that such disclosure could put those people at risk."

Hounam added: "Vanunu was motivated by reasons of principle: he 
was concerned that Israel's nuclear program was, in his view, out 
of control, that there wasn't Knesset supervision of the program, 
or public monitoring of any sort. Financial reward was not his 
motive. The fact is that he did not receive money from us for our 
report."

The Sunday Times and an American source relayed funds to support 
Vanunu's legal expenses.
   	 
  © Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 47 [NukeNet] DOE plan doubles plutonium at Livermore
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:52 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Hi -- This ran in the Contra Costa Times (and the Valley Times and other
Knight-Ridder papers in the chain).

Sat, Feb. 21, 2004
DOE plan doubles plutonium at Livermore
By Guy Ashley and Andrea Widener
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

LIVERMORE - Lawrence Livermore Laboratory will house twice the plutonium and
work with nearly 10 times the radioactive tritium it does now if the
Department of Energy gets its way with a new environmental plan for the lab.

The lab will start research on how to make new plutonium "pits," the nuclear
core of nuclear weapons, and restart a program to sort nuclear weapons
material. It will use tritium to get ready for nuclear weapons testing and
as part of targets for the world's largest laser, whose construction is
beginning to wind down.

"It would be a ramp-up" of current programs, said Tom Grim, who is managing
the environmental statement for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear
Security Administration.

The large increases surprised lab watchers, who say the nuclear weapons
program should not be getting bigger 10 years after the Cold War's end.

"They should be headed in the opposite direction," said Marylia Kelley,
executive director of the lab watchdog Tri-Valley Communities Against a
Radioactive Environment. She said she was shocked with the increase.

"They should be doing less nuclear weapons work, and the work they do should
be limited to maintenance of the existing stockpile as it awaits
dismantlement," she said.

The move is part of a boost in nuclear weapons work from the federal
stockpile stewardship program, which aims to maintain the country's nuclear
weapons through experiments and computer simulations rather than underground
nuclear tests.

The proposed 10-year plan would allow up to 3,300 pounds of plutonium to be
stored at the lab at any one time, up from the 1,540-pound standard that has
been in place for years. It would triple the amount scientists can work with
at any one time, and hence the amount that is more likely to be in an
accident, from 44 pounds to 132 pounds.

Much of the increase will probably go to restarting the plutonium atomic
vapor laser isotope separation program, which vaporizes plutonium, then
sorts out the different weights with a laser. Originally developed in the
1980s, the program was shut down after reviews determined it wasn't
practical.

The other new program would test techniques to produce plutonium pits in a
still-proposed pit manufacturing facility.

"We knew these programs both increase the amount of plutonium to be used ...
but they alone, as dramatic as they are, do not answer the question of why
DOE would propose to more than double the storage limit," Kelley said.

Grim said he could not go into classified details of how much plutonium each
program would use.

"What we're trying to do is take a very conservative approach to envelope
the impact" and estimating higher levels than would be used, said Gordon
Guetenberg, who is managing the project for the lab.

The environmental plan, which last came out in 1992, shows increased risk to
the health of those living and working near the lab, in large part because
of the expected increase in tritium, a radioactive form of water.

The environmental report estimates that the proposed changes could increase
risk for workers. If there were a maximum release, the exposure could result
in the chance of 0.075 worker cancer fatalities over a lifetime -- an
increase of the estimate of 0.017 worker cancer fatalities in a lifetime
based on previous allowed levels.

A maximum material handling accident in the Superblock, the lab's plutonium
area, could result in 0.17 to two cancer fatalities within the surrounding
population over 70 years. The DOE estimates the probability of such an
accident occurring is less than once in a million years.

The DOE estimates that approximately 11,000 cancer deaths per year would be
expected to naturally occur in the population of approximately 7 million
persons within 50 miles of the lab.

The expansion would come in building targets for the National Ignition
Facility, the world's largest laser, and as a diagnostic for nuclear tests
-- as part of preparing to test in 18 months rather than 36 months. Lab and
federal officials put the estimates at below what people get every year from
their everyday exposure.

It reveals that the lab is planning to receive waste shipments from another
site. Ten to 14 drums full of waste from closed programs at Lawrence
Berkeley lab will be shipped to Livermore. It would then be processed and
sent out with the 1,000 drums of waste the lab already has waiting to be
sent to a New Mexico storage site. Both labs are waiting for approval from
the state before going forward with the shipments.

"The laboratory view to the public will not change," Grim said.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8007900.htm

--

Marylia Kelley
Executive Director
Tri-Valley CAREs
(Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)
2582 Old First Street
Livermore, CA USA 94551

<http://www.trivalleycares.org> - is our web site address. Please visit us
there!

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 48 Tri-City Herald: Hanford workers need assurances on benefits 

This story was published Sunday, February 22nd, 2004 

Hanford workers are justified in their suspicions about the 
Department of Energy's commitment to fair treatment. 

Bid proposals on three major Hanford contracts don't guarantee 
workers will continue to get the same retirement benefits after 
new deals are reached. 

Union leaders at the site are encouraging workers to alert 
elected officials about their worries that benefits may be 
slashed in new contracts with the corporations hired for cleanup 
projects. 

It's a mistake for the rest of the community to dismiss such 
complaints as someone else's concern. Like virtually everything 
at Hanford, the issue reverberates beyond the site's boundaries. 

The Energy Department's desire to find cheaper, faster, better 
ways to clean up the site is shared by the Northwest, but it's 
difficult to see how disgruntled workers will further those 
goals. 

The success of cleanup programs depends on a skilled, 
knowledgeable work force, much of it approaching retirement age. 

The skills that make Hanford workers important to cleanup 
programs are attractive to other employers, too. As a result, the 
best employees often are the first to bolt when working 
conditions take a turn for the worse or benefits decline. 

Hanford's environmental problems are vast and complex. Hundreds 
of different chemicals and radioactive materials are part of the 
widespread contamination. 

The job requires workers familiar with the hazards. Mistakes are 
usually costly and potentially deadly, and history offers ample 
examples of serious consequences arising from work gone wrong. 

In one of the most infamous incidents, a pair of tank farm 
workers used a rock taped to a rope to check whether a pipe 
leading to a radioactive waste tank was blocked. 

That was more than a decade ago, and although no one was hurt, 
the inexperience and poor judgment of just two workers shut down 
virtually all operations at the tank farm for three months while 
staff was retrained. 

The Energy Department's willingness to put retirement benefits of 
longtime workers at risk encourages an exodus of those most 
likely to prevent similar mistakes from occurring. 

It also weakens relations with those who remain and fuels charges 
that DOE is abandoning policies that have helped prevent serious 
labor strife for nearly 30 years. 

The foundation for labor relations was first outlined in the 
Hanford Site Stabilization Agreement in 1976, a pact that turned 
around the site's reputation for acrimony. 

Among the agreement's key provisions -- Hanford workers were 
given assurances that wages and benefits wouldn't be jeopardized 
every time DOE switches contractors. 

With real progress being made on Hanford cleanup, it's the wrong 
time for the Energy Department to adopt changes that could spark 
the first real labor unrest in decades. 

© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 49 Hawk Eye: Alliance backs Energy workers 
 	
Saturday, February 21, 2004, Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST   

Collection of advocacy groups aim to highlight problems of former 
Department of Energy workers. 

By MATTHEW LeBLANC

Members of a group advocating the reform of a federal worker 
compensation program say they're hopeful a new consortium of sick 
workers and their families will force Congress to retool what has 
been called by lawmakers "an insult" to former Department of 
Energy workers. 

Advocacy groups based in Tennessee, Missouri and Colorado have 
joined in an effort to highlight problems with the Energy 
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program. 

Organizers say the Alliance of Nuclear Workers' Advocacy Groups, 
with more than 1,000 members nationwide, will work to obtain 
compensation payments for former employees who contracted 
illnesses related to their work. 

"There's power in numbers, and it's an election year, so we need 
to get going," said Denise Brock, director of United Nuclear 
Weapons Workers in St. Louis. 

Her group, along with Coalition for a Healthy Environment in Oak 
Ridge, Tenn., and Grassroots Organization of Sick Workers in 
Craig, Colo., will start letter–writing campaigns and ask 
Congress to rethink EEOICP. 

Congress passed the compensation legislation in 2000 after 
several former DOE workers complained of cancers and other 
illnesses they said were related to work at facilities across the 
country. Workers who can prove their illnesses are related to 
work at the facilities are eligible for one–time, $150,000 
compensation payments. 

Alliance organizers say they will push for a system run entirely 
by the Department of Labor, which handles some claims filed under 
EEOICP. 

Harry Williams, director of CHE and a former worker at Oak Ridge 
Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Tennessee, said Friday the alliance 
could provide information to confused former workers unfamiliar 
with the many bureaucratic levels of EEOICP. 

Subtitle B of EEOICP allows Labor Department officials to dole 
out compensation payments for "radiation–related cancers," while 
DOE officials help former workers file state worker compensation 
claims under Subtitle D of the program. 

"It is so bureaucratic that a sick worker can't fight that 
battle," Williams said. "We decided enough is enough, and we're 
going to take them on." 

The action could affect thousands of former Iowa Army Ammunition 
Plant employees. Labor Department statistics show that more than 
1,600 former IAAP workers have filed claims, though only 39 
payments have been made. 

From the 1940s to the mid–1970s, workers at the Middletown 
facility assembled, test–fired and disassembled components of 
nuclear weapons at the 19,000–acre site west of Burlington. 

The work has been linked to cancers and various lung diseases. 
University of Iowa doctors estimate more than 4,000 workers may 
have been exposed to radiation and dangerous chemicals at IAAP. 

The Alliance's Brock said there are participating members from 
Iowa, though she did not have specific numbers. Other members 
include former workers from Ohio, Hawaii, Kentucky and Tennessee. 

Bonnie Thayer, an IAAP worker in the mid–1940s, said she would 
support any Alliance action. She said sick workers deserve 
compensation for years of exposure to radiation and beryllium, a 
metal used to create ordnance casings. 

"If you're going to tell people, 'We're going to do this and 
that,' then just do it," Thayer said. 

EEOICP recently has come under fire from former workers and 
lawmakers who say claims are not being processed expeditiously. 
An October GAO report showed that only 6 percent — or slightly 
more than 1,100 — of more than 19,000 claims handled by DOE 
officials have been processed. 

Statistics show the Labor Department has a much higher completion 
rate for claims under its control. 

Sen. Charles Grassley, R–Iowa, and Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, have 
asked Congress, DOE officials and Health and Human Services 
personnel for information related to the program, though few of 
the documents have been secured. 

A DOE spokesman said last month that information would be 
provided "in a timely manner." 

Grassley told a Senate subcommittee in November that the 
government's handling of EEOICP was "an insult to the Americans 
who served our country working the ammunition plants of the U.S. 
military." 

ANWAG's formation marks the first time site–specific worker 
advocacy groups have come together to try to instigate EEOICP 
reform. 

"What we have to do is learn to speak with one voice," Williams 
said. "What we want to try to do is speak with one voice." 

"ANWAG is going to continue to grow, trade and disseminate 
information and become more vocal in defense of the many sick, 
ailing workers and their surviving family members," Brock said in 
a prepared statement last week.   
  
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 
Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free 
*****************************************************************
 50 amarillo.com: Pantex orders storage, safety examination 

02/22/04
 
[Amarillo Globe News] 

By JIM McBRIDE jim.mcbride@amarillo.com The Amarillo Globe-News 

Pantex Plant officials have ordered a review of plutonium storage 
conditions and safety measures after a weapons lab recently 
detected an "anomaly" in a plutonium pit removed from a nuclear 
depth charge.

 Pantex stores more than 12,000 pits, the radioactive cores of 
nuclear weapons, in a series of heavily guarded underground 
bunkers.

 In the past few years, workers have repackaged thousands of pits 
into safer storage containers after experts determined some drums 
contained corrosive materials.

 John Conway, chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety 
Board, a nuclear oversight agency, said New Mexico's Los Alamos 
National Laboratory detected a pit abnormality during routine 
surveillance work. Pantex regularly examines pits and ships some 
to Los Alamos for more extensive reviews.

 "I think it's being held pretty close," Conway said of the 
investigation into the pit anomaly. "The last briefing I had was 
classified on it. I'm not quite sure what's being made public and 
what's not at this stage."

 On Feb. 4, Los Alamos notified Pantex it detected an anomaly in 
a B-57 pit, officials said. The B-57 is an anti-submarine nuclear 
weapon dismantled by Pantex in the 1990s.

 Pits remaining from Pantex's B-57 dismantlement program are 
stored at Pantex, said Blair Rhodes, lead manager for the B-57 
pit evaluation team. Pits are clad in a non-radioactive metal 
shroud to protect workers from direct contact with radioactive 
materials.

 "For classification reasons, a description of the pit's anomaly 
is not public information," Rhodes said. "LANL officials had 
previously notified Pantex that this type of anomaly was possible 
and that such a condition would not pose safety concerns."

 Rhodes said, however, Pantex suspended all handling of B-57 pits 
and similar pits after it was notified of the problem.

 "These operations will remain suspended pending confirmatory 
evaluation from LANL that it is appropriate for operations to 
resume," Rhodes said.

 Conway said previous anomalies have been detected in Pantex 
pits.

 "There have been anomalies over the years ... what they call 
anomalies, different things they have seen, some changes," Conway 
said. "The question always is: is this something that could have 
an adverse effect on safety or reliability?"

 In 1997, a similar anomaly was detected in a Pantex pit, Rhodes 
said, but Los Alamos experts determined the problem would not 
pose safety concerns. This month, Pantex Site Office asked 
contractor BWXT Pantex to create a special team to evaluate 
"potential Pantex vulnerabilities and safety issues" associated 
with B-57 pit handling, storage, safety and transportation, 
according to a government report.

 A letter to BWXT also asks the contractor to re-examine a 
recently closed investigation of a potential anomaly in a 
different pit type. BWXT also will identify the number of 
affected pits, their storage conditions and the types of storage 
containers they are kept in.

 Conway said the National Nuclear Security Administration has an 
ongoing surveillance program that examines pits to determine 
whether any changes have cropped up during storage.

 "If they see something changing a little bit, they then try to 
appraise what effect, if any, it would have on safety and 
reliability," he said.

 The NNSA, Conway said, constantly reviews any issues that could 
affect the aging U.S. atomic stockpile.

 "As these things age, you want to look at it more carefully," 
Conway said. "In the past, we were always having new weapons 
coming, weapons that were being modified, and new ones that were 
being tested and then going into the stockpile. In the past, we 
never had weapons maintained as long as these current ones have 
because we haven't done (nuclear) testing for a long time."

   
*****************************************************************
 51 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 14:04:35 -0800 (PST)

 
RUSSIA expects final document on DPRK nuclear issue at six-party ... 
Xinhua - China
22 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia hopes that the imminent second round of six-party
talks on nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
will ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/23/content_1325981.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/23/content_1325981.htm>

IRAN confirms buying nuclear equipment
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Seattle,WA,USA
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran purchased nuclear equipment from international dealers,
including some from the Asian subcontinent, but never knew exactly where
the ...
<http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iran%20Nuclear>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp%3Fcategory%3D1107%26slug%3DIran%2520Nuclear>

INDIA'S nuclear weapon state status can come under pressure
Hindustan Times - New Delhi,India
The revelations by Pakistan's nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan show
that Pakistan, China and North Korea, for political, strategic and economic
motives ...
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_581747,0008.htm>

NUCLEAR diplomacy with North Korea since 1985
Reuters - India
On Wednesday North Korean diplomats will join counterparts from the United
States, Japan, South Korea, Russia and China for a second round of six-party
nuclear ...
<http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:40387ff9:ec73bdaf8f94cf?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4409067>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp%3B:40387ff9:ec73bdaf8f94cf%3Ftype%3DworldNews%26locale%3Den_IN%26storyID%3D4409067>

MALAYSIAN link in Libyan nuclear deal
The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
... have confirmed that a Sri Lankan business partner of the son of Prime
Minister Abdullah Badawi knowingly exported components for Libya's secret
nuclear weapons ...
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/22/1077384636115.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/22/1077384636115.html>

IRAN confirms making nuclear purchases
MSNBC - USA
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran publicly acknowledged for the first time Sunday that
it once bought nuclear equipment from middlemen on the Asian subcontinent,
lending ...
<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4345916/>

CHINA, Japan exchange views on nuclear talks
Xinhua - China
... Xinhuanet) -- Chinese and Japanese diplomats methere Sunday to exchange
views on the upcoming second round of six-party talks on the Korean Peninsular
nuclear ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/22/content_1325834.htm>

SPOKESMAN admits Iran bought nuclear parts from ''dealers''
Albawaba Middle East News - Amman,Middle East
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman admitted on Sunday that his country had
bought nuclear components from dealers but did not know where the parts
came from. ...
<http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=270903&lang=e&dir=news>

UN nuclear watchdog chief heads for Libya
Channel News Asia - Singapore
VIENNA : UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei will visit Libya Monday
at a time when revelations from the North African state are helping unravel
an ...
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/72201/1/.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/72201/1/.html>

HIGH Anxiety: Black market nuclear deals are stuff of nightmares
Dallas Morning News (subscription) - Dallas,TX,USA
... Guards are gunned down. Within minutes, the terrorists are in possession
of nuclear weapons or a sizeable supply of enriched uranium. An unlikely
scenario? ...
<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/sundayreader/stories/022204dnsunterrornukes.1d9ca.html>

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 52 [NukeNet] Arms Race In Outer Space? Pentagon Prepares To
 
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 19:18:45 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

  http://www.space4peace.org

----- Original Message -----
From: Global Network
To: Global Network Against Weapons
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 9:47 AM
Subject: PENTAGON PREPS FOR WAR IN SPACE

Pentagon Preps for War in Space
By Noah Shachtman
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62358,00.html

Feb. 20, 2004

An Air Force report is giving what analysts call
the most detailed picture since the end of the
Cold War of the Pentagon's efforts to turn outer
space into a battlefield.

For years, the American military has spoken in
hints and whispers, if at all, about its plans to
develop weapons in space. But the U.S. Air Force
Transformation Flight Plan (PDF) changes all that.
Released in November, the report makes U.S.
dominance of the heavens a top Pentagon priority
in the new century. And it runs through dozens of
research programs designed to ensure that America
can never be challenged in orbit -- from
anti-satellite lasers to weapons that "would
provide the capability to strike ground targets
anywhere in the world from space."

Space has become an increasingly important part of
U.S. military efforts. Satellites are used more
and more to talk to troops, keep tabs on foes and
guide smart bombs. There's also long been
recognition that satellites may need some sort of
protection against attack.
But the Air Force report goes far beyond these
defensive capabilities, calling for weapons that
can cripple other countries' orbiters.

That prospect worries some analysts that the U.S.
may spark a worldwide arms race in orbit.

"I don't think other countries will be taking this
lying down," said Theresa Hitchens, the vice
president of the Center for Defense Information.

The space weapons programs listed in the Air Force
report went largely unnoticed until Hitchens
circulated them in an e-mail Thursday.

"This will certainly prompt China into actually
moving forward" on space weapon plans of its own,
she added. "The Russians are likely to respond
with something as well."

This year, the Air Force will spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to find ways to track enemy
satellites -- and, if necessary, blind those eyes
in the sky.

Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for the U.S. Air
Force Space Command, said $66.4 million is being
spent on a research project to "deny, disrupt and
degrade adversary space-based surveillance and
reconnaissance systems." He said another $79
million is funding efforts to build a
"constellation of optical sensing satellites to
track and identify space forces."

"As we look to the future, space is where our
adversaries are looking to cut us off," Kucharek
said. "We know from the attempted jamming of our
GPS (global positioning system, which relies on
satellites) during OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom)
that our enemies are going to try to deny us from
using space."

But it's unclear whether putting weapons into
space would provide much protection. The arms
themselves could become sitting ducks in orbit --
giving the United States a new weakness, not a new
strength. Satellites are already a weak "center of
gravity" in American militarty planning, argues
Bruce DeBlois, the editor of Beyond the Paths of
Heaven: The Emergence of Space Power Thought.
They're vulnerbale to electronic jamming, orbiting
projectiles and nuclear detonations in near-Earth
space. The space-based weapons would have all of
the same vulnerabilities -- and would make that
center of gravity a more inviting target.

"Simply put, we would posture ourselves as a
target in a volatile context that we create, and
weaken ourselves at the same time," Bruce DeBlois,
the editor of Beyond the Paths of Heaven: The
Emergence of Space Power Thought, told a George
Washington University audience last year.

However, there's more to the Air Force plan than
keeping satellites safe. The Evolutionary Air and
Space Global Laser Engagement, or EAGLE, project
aims to put mirrors underneath an airship 25 times
the size of the Goodyear blimp. In theory,
lasers -- fired from the ground, from space, or
from the air -- would bounce off these blimp-borne
mirrors, to track or even destroy enemy missiles.

Incredible as it sounds, the EAGLE effort is
underway at the Air Force Research Laboratory's
Directed Energy division, sources there confirm.
Also under research at the lab is the Ground-Based
Laser, which, according to the Air Force report,
would shoot "laser beams through the atmosphere"
to knock out enemy spacecraft in low-earth orbit.

Even more outlandish is the Hypervelocity Rod
Bundles research project. That effort calls for
creating a system of metal poles, fired from
space, that could strike anywhere on the planet.
It's a long-held -- and long-ridiculed -- idea.
Keeping the rods from liquefying as they enter the
atmosphere is a daunting task, noted Columbia
University physics professor Richard Garwin in a
2003 presentation (PDF). In order to be considered
effective weapons, he said, the "rods would need
to be orbited at very low altitudes, and could
only deliver one-ninth the destructive energy per
gram as a conventional bomb."

Despite such technical hurdles, space-based arms
are legal. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 only
bans nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction from orbit.

Over the years, American administrations have
looked into developing such weapons -- most
notably, as part of President Reagan's Star Wars
anti-missile initiative.

However, Hitchens said, "no U.S. president has
authorized the deployment of a space weapon, at
least in the white (unclassified) world."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on the other
hand, long has advocated sending arms into orbit.
Just before taking office in 2001, he chaired a
commission on space and national security that
warned that the country could face a "space Pearl
Harbor" (PDF) in the years to come. This calamity
must be avoided, the commission declared,
asserting that the best way to do that is to
"vigorously pursue the capabilities ... to ensure
that the President will have the option to deploy
weapons in space."

But pursuing such a strategy may actually put the
United States in greater jeopardy, argues David
Wright, with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"You're opening a door you might rather not have
opened," he said.

"America is the country with the most satellites,
he explained. By developing anti-satellite
weapons, "it legitimizes systems that the U.S. has
the most to lose from." Other countries could
start pursuing long-taboo space weapons efforts.
And while countries like China don't have the
technical sophistication of the United States,
they already have the capabilities to hurt us in
space -- medium range missiles, and nuclear
warheads.

Wright added, "This could trigger a backlash that
actually leaves the U.S. worse off."



Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in
Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com



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 53 Japan Times: Decision on site for fusion project is put off again

    Monday, February 23, 2004   

 VIENNA (Kyodo) The six parties involved in an international 
nuclear fusion project have again failed to decide on either a 
French or Japanese venue for the $12 billion program.

 The decision, pending since December, may now come in March.

 Senior officials of the parties to the International 
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project ended a one-day 
meeting in Vienna on Saturday without resolving the question.

 Three compromise proposals by a team of experts were presented, 
but Japan and the European Union insisted on their own plans to 
host the world's first prototype nuclear fusion reactor, 
according to Satoru Otake of the science and technology ministry.

 The ITER project is aimed at creating the world's first 
sustained nuclear fusion reaction.

 Japan wants to host the reactor in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, 
while the European Union has selected the town of Cadarache in 
southern France as its candidate.

 The officials instead agreed to hold a meeting of experts in 
early March to compare the two sites in terms of accessibility, 
earthquake dangers and other technical points, the Japanese 
official said.

 After that meeting, a ministerial gathering may be held in March 
or later to make a decision, he said.

 The Japan Times: Feb. 23, 2004 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 54 TVA official hopes to streamline utility 

Sunday, February 22, 2004     
  
 Cost-saving moves to target programs, possible job cuts 

By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press 

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.  The Tennessee Valley Authority's chief
financial officer knows about layoffs, selling off assets and
bankruptcy. 

"It teaches you a lot. It teaches you about efficiency. It
teaches you about how to do your business differently when costs
really matter," Michael Rescoe said recently. 

Rescoe, 51, arrived at the nation's largest public utility in
July from 3Com Corp., a global leader in computer networking
before the telecom bubble burst and two-thirds of its 15,000
employees were let go. 

Before that, Rescoe was chief financial officer at Pacific Gas
and Electric Corp., the nation's largest utility, which sank
into bankruptcy after selling its power plants as a result of
California's fiasco with deregulation. 

With this background, Rescoe comes to the TVA, a
government-owned utility facing its own demons  huge debt,
rising costs of pollution and growing fears it will lose its
70-year monopoly over the 80,000-square-mile Tennessee Valley.
An internal review could reveal as early as tomorrow which
programs will stay and which will go, leading to job cuts for
the utility's 13,245-employee work force by June. 

"It is potentially less employees. But I can't say (how many)
because I don't have the data yet," Rescoe said. 

Although the TVA has been analyzing scores of scenarios for what
the future might hold, options for reducing costs are limited.
"Our costs are machines, fuel and people. So we have to look at
machines, fuel and people. And how we deploy them," Rescoe said. 
Rescoe, a New Jersey native and University of Texas graduate,
was an investment banker before joining one of his clients 
Dallas-based Enserch Corp. He said his experience handling
corporate crises is important in helping the TVA through its
struggles. 

"The career experience is about companies who perceive that they
are in a change process, and the CFO is in a key role ... to
either help the change or frustrate the change," he said. 
"I embrace the future because I think it is exciting. And I
think I can help," said Rescoe, who succeeded David Smith, who
retired. 

TVA Director Bill Baxter said Rescoe's management expertise with
the private sector, utilities and investments "is very
attractive" for the utility, a self-supporting agency with about
$7billion in annual revenues from power sales to about
8.3million consumers in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, North
Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. 

"TVA has some very difficult financial decisions to make ... and
I am glad we've got somebody like Mike Rescoe to help us figure
that out," Baxter said. 

The TVA operates three nuclear plants, 11 coal-fired stations,
29 hydroelectric dams and a 17,000-mile transmission grid. What
is their future? 

"Any time you give up assets, you give up scale. You give up
flexibility. So I am not a fan of giving up assets," Rescoe
said. "Having said that, I am a fan of making your assets more
efficient and changing them through time." 

Many of the utility's fossil-fuel plants were built in the 1940s
and 1950s, and the TVA estimates it may cost up to $3billion for
pollution controls to meet air standards. "The major `what if'
question about our (fossil-fuel) facilities is: Are they the
right assets for tomorrow? They have been just fabulous, and
they are fabulous today. But there is a trend: Nobody is ever
going to want less clean air," Rescoe said. 

Meanwhile, Rescoe said there is no movement to save money by
eliminating nonpower programs that are part of the TVA's
heritage, such as managing the 652-mile Tennessee River
watershed for recreation, navigation and wildlife or economic
development programs. 

Rescoe said it is "pretty clear that our (current) business
model, carrying $25billion worth of debt, is not a good thing.
So if you are an enterprise like ourselves, what do you do to
reduce debt?" 

An investor-owned utility might seek a rate increase, but the
TVA thinks "the right thing to do is to turn inward and look at
ourselves," Rescoe said. "To see if there is a way that we can
do business better, faster, cheaper." 

Copyright 2003 The Courier-Journal.
    
*****************************************************************

NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this 
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
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