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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 SF Chronicle: ANALYSIS / New revelations on Iran heighten pressure o
2 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Failed to Disclose Nuke Experiments
3 Las Vegas SUN: Six-Nation North Korea Nuclear Talks Open
4 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea, U.S. Delegates to Meet in China
5 US: Administration Favors Nuclear Free-For-All
6 Las Vegas SUN: U.S. Intelligence Agencies Have Hard Time
7 Las Vegas SUN: Libyans Helping U.N. Probe Nuke Market
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
8 US: [NukeNet] N.R.C. Staff Finds No Risk in Indian Pt. Cooling
9 US: & What About The Nukes?: Climate Collapse/Pentagon/World Bank
10 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet March 
11 US: NRC: NRC Finds No Significant Environmental Impact from Extended
12 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Site of Indian Point talk may shift
13 US: NRC: Draft Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability
14 US: NRC: State of Utah: NRC Staff Draft Assessment of a Proposed
15 US: YDR: Reactor shutdown no threat - 
16 DW: German Nuclear Industry Rejects Calls to Close Plants 
17 Belfast Telegraph:  Helping Chernobyl's kids
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
18 [du-list] studies link birth defects to gulf war
19 US: Deseretnews.com: Family hopes story will stop dangerous tests
20 Bellona: Lack of environmental impact study puts British-funded dism
21 US: Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: There is hope yet
22 US: RGJ: Washoe judge decides Fallon family's leukemia trial will be
23 YellowTimes.org ''Depleted uranium: The war crime that has no end''
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
24 NRC: NRC to Meet with Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel Plant Officials Marc
25 NRC: NRC Issues License to U.S. Enrichment Corporation for Lead Casc
26 US: Deseretnews.com: Utah loses a round in battle on N-waste
27 US: Gleaner: Plants fear power drain
28 US: Las Vegas SUN: Energy Dept. wants to withhold nuke cleanup funds
29 US: Salt Lake Tribune: State is handed a setback in waste fight 
30 Australian: Abbott can force through N-dump 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
31 L.A. Daily News: Laboratory implicated in illnesses
32 Seattle Times: Health-care contractor at Hanford investigated
33 Tri-City Herald: Inquiry focuses on DOE contractor 
34 Daily Camera: Flats plans call for limited public access 
35 Oak Ridger: Y-12's facelift moving forward 							 							 							
36 Oak Ridger: Small emergency drill a Y-12 							 							 							
37 Idaho Statesman: Congressmen irked by INEEL contract
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
38 Google News Alert - nuclear
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 SF Chronicle: ANALYSIS / New revelations on Iran heighten pressure on Bush
 
Robert Collier, Chronicle Staff Writer        Wednesday,
February 25, 2004
  
A new report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency suggesting that 
Iran's secret nuclear programs are more extensive than had been 
earlier believed adds new pressure on the Bush administration to 
either increase attempts to overthrow the regime or recognize the 
power of the country's Shiite ayatollahs. 

Coming after the Iranian clerics' bare-knuckled grab of power in 
widely criticized parliamentary elections Friday, the revelations 
left Washington policymakers at a crossroads in their attempts to 
promote democracy and stop nuclear weapons development, analysts 
say. 

Along with European nations -- which share the American distaste 
for Iran's Shiite Islamic extremism but have taken a more 
conciliatory line -- conservatives in Washington are pushing hard 
for a change in policy, saying they will insist that Iran, one of 
the two remaining members of the administration's "axis of evil," 
be put in the American crosshairs. There is even pressure to 
support the Mujahedeen Khalq, an anti-Tehran guerrilla group that 
has had off-again-on-again relations with the United States over 
many years and now is on the State Department's list of terrorist 
organizations. 

The report by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency stated 
that Iran has failed to fully comply with an agreement reached 
with European officials in October, in which Iran pledged not to 
develop nuclear weapons and promised to release all information 
related to its clandestine development of a civilian nuclear 
power industry. The report said IAEA investigators in Iran had 
discovered the existence of advanced designs for P-2 centrifuges 
-- which experts say would be most suited for making highly 
enriched uranium for weapons, not for civilian uses -- and had 
found traces of polonium, a rare material that could be used for 
nuclear weapons. 

Experts say the results are highly suspicious but do not 
constitute a "smoking gun," because the programs discovered could 
be used for civilian nuclear power, as the Iranian government 
claims. Still, the disclosures ensure that Iran will face 
continued skepticism about its pledge to remain free of nuclear 
arms. Any hope in Tehran that the country will soon be able to 
win trade and investment concessions from the West are dead, 
analysts said. 

Iranian officials, briefed about the report by IAEA 
Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, pledged Tuesday to take 
stronger steps to suspend their uranium enrichment program, as 
they had promised in October. The officials said that Iran, which 
earlier shut down its enrichment plant but continued to assemble 
gas centrifuges, will stop the assembly and testing of 
centrifuges. 

The Bush administration praised the toughness of the report and 
said it will continue to work within the IAEA to press Iran for 
results, but U.S. officials parried reporters' attempts to draw 
strong criticism of Tehran. 

"I haven't seen anybody here say they've lied," said State 
Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "I don't think anybody has 
said that the information that they provided wasn't more or less 
correct. What we've said is it was not complete." 

Boucher also took a mild stance on the controversial elections, 
and suggested that the administration wants to keep the door open 
to negotiations with the hard-liners. 

"It was not an electoral process that met international 
standards." he said. "We are willing to engage Iran on specific 
issues of mutual concern in an appropriate manner, if we decide 
it's in our interest to do so." 

Many U.S. conservatives are angry at what they see as the Bush 
administration's unwillingness to confront Iran, which President 
Bush in 2002 linked with Saddam Hussein's Iraq and North Korea's 
Stalinist regime as a three-state "axis of evil.""We're three 
years into (the Bush administration) and we don't have an Iran 
policy," said Michael Ledeen, an analyst at the American 
Enterprise Institute who was a highly influential advocate of 
last year's Iraq invasion. "Iran is the leading supporter of 
terrorism in the world, and we claim to be in a war against 
terrorism. Maybe we should stop coddling them. Maybe we should 
support democracy." 

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a member of the House International 
Relations Committee, is pushing the Bush administration to take 
the Mujahedeen off the terrorist list and let the group's 3,500 
fighters out of the quarantine where they are kept on a military 
base north of Baghdad. 

"We should no longer be constrained to play an aggressive role 
with Iran, " Tancredo said. "By preventing elections, they've 
given us an opportunity to do what I think we should have done 
for a long time. There should be aggressive support for 
opposition parties inside Iran and dissident groups outside 
Iran," he said, citing the Mujahedeen as the leading example. 

Many analysts said that by ignoring election fraud while focusing 
mainly on nuclear weapons, the United States will be seen by 
Iran's neighbors and around the world as enforcing a double 
standard. 

"Just as the United States has dealt with (Libyan leader Moammar) 
Khadafy on nuclear issues, with no mention of democracy, we'll be 
seen as not serious on democracy stuff, like nuclear is all that 
matters," said Michael McFaul, an Iran expert at Stanford's 
Hoover Institution. 

Currently, the U.S. and European governments give no overt aid to 
Iranian reformers, and any move to do so would immediately cause 
the recipients to be jailed by Iranian authorities, analysts say. 

"Frankly, there's not much that the United States is going to 
do," said Shireen Hunter, a senior fellow at the Center for 
Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I think there 
will be a cooling-off period, but the United States will be 
willing to continue dialogue," probably using the Europeans as 
proxies, she said. "There is no reason to expect a big revolt by 
the Iranian people in the near future." 

Some analysts say that the United States should teach by example 
in Iraq, where Shiites comprise a long-downtrodden majority of 
the population. The Bush administration has been resisting calls 
by Iraqi Shiite leaders for full democratic elections by the June 
30 deadline for handing over power from the U. S. occupation, 
apparently fearing that the Shiites would win national power and 
would install an Iranian-style theocracy. 

"If something like grassroots democracy were allowed to develop 
in southern Iraq, that would be a pretty powerful message to the 
Shiites that the United States is practicing what it preaches," 
said Juan Cole, professor of Middle East history at the 
University of Michigan. 

"The best way of bringing democracy to Iran is by practicing it 
in Iraq." 

E-mail Robert Collier at rcollier@sfchronicle.com. 

Š2004 San Francisco Chronicle

*****************************************************************
 2 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Failed to Disclose Nuke Experiments

February 24, 2004 

 By WILLIAM J. KOLE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - 

U.N. nuclear agency inspectors uncovered evidence of previously
undisclosed nuclear experiments in Iran, according to a copy of
an agency report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. 

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors combing Iran for
evidence of a nuclear weapons program found traces of polonium,
a radioactive element that can help trigger a nuclear chain
reaction, the internal report said. 

It said that Tehran never mentioned working with polonium in
past declarations of its nuclear activities. 

The report to the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors said the
agency found traces of polonium last September. It said the
element "could be used for military purposes ... specifically as
a neutron initiator in some designs of nuclear weapons." 

Polonium also can be used to generate electricity. 

The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Saber
Zaimian, declined to comment on the IAEA report, saying his
organization was studying it. 

Diplomats familiar with the IAEA's efforts to lay bare Iran's
shadowy nuclear program characterized the discovery as more
potential evidence of Tehran's alleged weapons ambitions. 

"It's not the smoking gun, but it's one of the links," one
diplomat said on condition of anonymity. 

The revelation was likely to hurt Iran's efforts to persuade the
world that its nuclear program is peaceful and geared only to
generating electricity. 

Under international pressure last year, Iran pledged to
cooperate fully with the IAEA in efforts to prove it was not
interested in nuclear weapons, including opening its activities
to full outside scrutiny. 

Iran suspended its enrichment program last year but continues to
make centrifuges for enriching uranium despite international
criticism that such actions violate the spirit of its pledge to
stop all enrichment activities. 

On Monday, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
Washington was concerned that Iran continues to withhold
information despite the IAEA's insistence that it come clean. 

"They have divulged some parts of that program, but they still
have a long way to go," Boucher said in Washington. "And it's
not clear to us at this point that Iran has made a strategic
decision to abandon its efforts at nuclear weapons production." 

The IAEA board convenes next month to reassess the country's
nuclear threat. 

The report said the IAEA is more concerned with the discovery
earlier this month of an advanced centrifuge system that can
enrich uranium for weapons use. The White House has said the
finding raised "serious concerns" about Iran's intentions. 

Although Iran has not explicitly acknowledged possessing the
so-called P-2 centrifuge, its Foreign Ministry has said if such
equipment were in the country, it would be at a research stage
and not in use. Iran has acknowledged having thousands of
less-advanced P-1 centrifuges. 

Confronted by evidence last year, Iran acknowledged hiding
nearly two decades of nuclear activity, including importing
enrichment technology linked to the black market network of
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. 

Those imports of equipment and expertise have allowed Tehran to
create a domestic production line of centrifuges that can be
used both to process uranium for power and to enrich it to
levels high enough to manufacture warheads. 

The IAEA, along with the United States and other nations, wants
Iran to scrap its enrichment program altogether. Tehran has
refused. 

--- 

On the Net: 

IAEA, www.iaea.org 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 3 Las Vegas SUN: Six-Nation North Korea Nuclear Talks Open

Today: February 25, 2004 at 11:00:28 PST 

 By AUDRA ANG ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BEIJING (AP) - 

U.S. and North Korean top envoys held rare, face-to-face talks
Wednesday on the sidelines of six-nation negotiations on the
North's nuclear program, in which South Korea offered the North
compensation to abandon its atomic weapons ambitions. 

Meetings closed on their first day with an agreement that the
Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia would
continue talking after the current round is done - a tacit
admission that more work will probably be needed. 

Despite an outwardly amiable atmosphere, the tensions of the
moment - and the 16-month standoff between the United States and
the North that led to it - were clear. While Washington insists
the communist North dismantle its nuclear program, the North
says it first wants economic and humanitarian aid and assurances
that America won't attack. 

The North's chief delegate, Kim Kye Gwan, said Wednesday he
would be "maintaining our principles" hours after his country
issued a last-minute demand for compensation for shutting down
the program. 

Demanding compensation is a common maneuver for the North, which
often announces hard-line positions and sometimes uses threats
to pressure negotiating partners. 

Washington's delegate said nothing but a wholesale elimination
of the nuclear activities would do, while also reiterating that
the United States has "no intention" of invading the reclusive,
communist North. 

"The United States seeks complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantlement of all North Korea's nuclear programs, both
plutonium and uranium," Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James
Kelly said in opening remarks. 

Later, Kelly spent more than an hour in the Diaoyutai state
guesthouse, where the North Korean delegation was located,
according to China's official Xinhua News Agency, quoting
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. 

No details from the unusual high-level contact were immediately
available from either side. North Korea and the United States
have no diplomatic relations and technically remain in a state
of war interrupted by a 51-year armistice. Most of their
diplomatic contacts are indirect. 

Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said
Wednesday's talks were "sincere, frank and pragmatic" but
suggested more meetings would be necessary after this round. 

"The six parties affirmed solving the nuclear question through
peaceful means. Whatever questions or difficulties arise, the
talks process should be continued," Liu said. 

One option would be "working-level" talks among lower level
officials, he said. An ending date for the meeting hasn't been
set, though the first round, in August, lasted three days. 

Liu reiterated China's desire for a nuclear-free Korean
Peninsula, but said North Korea's security concerns also need to
be addressed - a reference to Pyongyang's demand for guarantees
the United States won't invade. 

At issue are allegations that Pyongyang has a uranium-based
weapons program as well as its known plutonium-based one. North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il's government has denied having a
uranium-based program. 

The dispute erupted in October 2002 when Washington said
Pyongyang acknowledged the existence of a nuclear program that
violated a 1994 agreement binding the impoverished country to
renounce nuclear development in exchange for oil and other aid. 

The current round of talks convened after months of efforts to
get all six countries on board. Both rounds have been brokered
by Beijing - North Korea's last major communist ally and an
important economic partner of the United States. 

After Wednesday's session, South Korea said it had proposed
"countermeasures" if the North froze its nuclear program and
showed signs of dismantling it. Seoul's head delegate, Lee
Soo-hyuck, said he presented the proposal during the opening
session. 

"If it is such a freeze, we can push for countermeasures," Lee
told reporters, using a term that is believed to refer to
compensation for the North's giving up its nuclear ambitions. 

He didn't elaborate, and it was unclear whether the United
States had directly endorsed the proposal. 

Last week, South Korean officials said Seoul was ready to resume
energy aid to its communist neighbor after the dispute is
resolved and the North dismantles its nuclear programs. 

Lee said he had told North Korea that its freeze must cover all
nuclear programs and be followed "in a short period of time" by
steps toward a complete and verifiable dismantling of nuclear
capabilities. 

"A nuclear freeze should be an inseparable part of nuclear
dismantlement. A nuclear freeze itself is not the goal.
Dismantlement must be the goal," Lee said. He called on the
North to address the uranium allegations. 

The New York Times reported that the North will be offered fuel
oil aid in return for a pledge to freeze and eventually
dismantle its program. It said the offer was expected to be made
by South Korea, not the United States, at the talks. It was
unclear if that was the same as the offer disclosed by Lee. 

A senior administration official in Washington refused to tell
The Associated Press if an informal agreement had been made but
said some U.S. allies have indicated a willingness to offer
North Korea incentives. 

The North also wants a nonaggression treaty with the United
States, but Kelly said it had nothing to worry about. 

"The United States has no intention of invading or attacking the
DPRK," he said, using the initials for the North's official
name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 4 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea, U.S. Delegates to Meet in China

Today: February 25, 2004 at 0:40:30 PST 
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea and the United States will hold
bilateral talks Wednesday on the sidelines of a six-country
meeting about the North's nuclear program, the Chinese
government said. 

The goverment's official Xinhua News Agency quoted Lee
Soo-hyuck, the leader of South Korea's delegation. Sources said
the meeting would be held Wednesday afternoon at the state
guesthouse where the main talks were held earlier. 

North Korea and the United States have no diplomatic relations
and are technically in the middle of a state of war interrupted
by a 51-year armistice. 

The U.S. delegation is led by Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly, while Pyongyang's is headed by Vice Foreign Minister Kim
Kye Gwan. 

The United States insists that North Korea dismantle its nuclear
program. The North says it first wants economic and humanitarian
aid and assurances that Washington won't attack. 

Other countries participating in the second round of six-party
talks are China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 5 Administration Favors Nuclear Free-For-All
 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:44:07 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/161479_firstperson23.html?searchpagefrom=1&searchdiff=1
     Administration Favors Nuclear Free-For-All
     By Glen Milner
     The Seattle Post Intelligencer

     Monday 23 February 2004

      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.

-------

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*****************************************************************
 6 Las Vegas SUN: U.S. Intelligence Agencies Have Hard Time

Today: February 25, 2004 at 0:10:25 PST 

 GEORGE GEDDA ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - When it comes to assessing enemy weapons
threats, U.S. intelligence agencies have a hard time getting it
right. 

They overestimated Iraq's programs a year ago and underestimated
those of Iran and Libya. 

It is unclear to the sleuths just how far along North Korea's
weapons program is. 

Getting a handle on threats from abroad has been a problem for a
long time. After World War II, American officials were surprised
at how much of Japan's stockpiles of weapons had gone
undetected. 

Obtaining accurate reads on enemy firepower is perhaps the most
crucial challenge the nation is facing, says David Kay, the
former head of the U.S. weapons inspection team in Iraq. 

Kay's message is clear: If the intelligence is correct,
policy-makers have a better shot of doing the right thing. If it
isn't, the resulting policies are likely to be flawed. 

Recently, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that the damage
caused by the apparent U.S. misperceptions about Saddam
Hussein's weapons will take time to heal. 

"People are going to be very suspicious when one talks to them
about intelligence," he added. "And they are going to be very
suspicious when we try to use intelligence to justify certain
actions." 

But good information on an enemy's intention may be more
important than ever as terrorists clandestinely seek doomsday
weapons for attacks on the United States. Many are happy to risk
death to advance their causes. 

The Bush administration's National Security Strategy, set forth
a year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, made the case for
preventive action against enemies - and stressed the need for
good intelligence. 

"America will act against such emerging threats before they are
fully formed," it says. "We cannot defend America and our
friends by hoping for the best. So we must be prepared to defeat
our enemies' plans, using the best intelligence and proceeding
with deliberation. ... The only path to safety is the path of
action." 

The war with Iraq began six months after the new doctrine was
issued. And now, with no weapons stockpiles uncovered, there are
many who share Annan's concern about the reliability of
intelligence as a basis for going to war. 

It is unclear whether there is a connection, but the
administration's instincts toward unilateralism seem far more
muted these days. President Bush is using multilateral
approaches to deal with weapons programs in Iran and North
Korea. Sabre-rattling has all but disappeared. 

And the assignments handed to intelligence agencies seem
ever-more demanding. 

One can only imagine the challenge of tracking, say, chemical
shells pilfered by terrorists from a warehouse in Russia. Former
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who chaired the Senate Armed Services
Committee, says, "Once they leave the source, it's like finding
a needle in a haystack." 

Then there is the question of what policy-makers should do with
the intelligence they receive. Vice President Dick Cheney once
said before the Iraq war that Saddam Hussein had "reconstituted"
his nuclear program. 

CIA Director George Tenet does not share that stance. "We said
Saddam did not have a nuclear weapon, and probably would not
have been able to make one until 2007 to 2009," the CIA chief
said recently. 

Tenet says intelligence analysts were "quite worried" about
surprise attacks and what they didn't know, given Saddam's
history of deception. Estimates also indicated he had biological
and chemical weapons and other programs. "Whether it stands up
or it doesn't stand up over the course of time is something
we're going to look at quite carefully," Tenet told the Senate
Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. 

Satellite photos can be a useful intelligence tool, but they
can't detect what's happening in an underground tunnel or read
the minds of enemy decision-makers. 

Human intelligence can provide some answers. However,
reliability is often a problem. Kay believes that part of the
difficulty the United States had in Iraq was bad information
from on-the-ground sources. 

"The secrecy and corruption in Iraqi society meant that accurate
intelligence from reliable sources was very hard to get," Kay
says. 

Tenet acknowledges that the U.S. record in Iraq concerning human
intelligence "was mixed." 

He also says intelligence successes should not be overlooked,
pointing out that, among other breakthroughs, covert officers
helped expose the nuclear smuggling activities of Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and his supply network, as well as
the capture of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, reputed mastermind of the
Sept. 11 attacks. 

--- 

EDITOR'S NOTE - George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The
Associated Press since 1968. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 7 Las Vegas SUN: Libyans Helping U.N. Probe Nuke Market

February 24, 2004 

 By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - 

Libya is helping U.N. experts understand the shadowy
international black market in weapons equipment and expertise,
the nuclear agency chief said Tuesday. 

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, spoke after meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister
Abdul Rahman Shalgam, at the end of two days of talks on the
scrapping of Tripoli's nuclear arms program. 

ElBaradei called his talks with Libyan officials "very helpful
... in providing information on routes of supply, extent (and)
scope" of the black market chain. 

He said he was leaving Libya with a better "understanding of
parts of the puzzle that were not very clear to us before." 

ElBaradei praised Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and other
officials for "complete openness and transparency" since the
North African nation's decision in December to rid itself of its
weapons of mass destruction programs. 

"Part of that program has already been eliminated, and we still
have some work to eliminate other parts that are less
sensitive," ElBaradei said, speaking of the nuclear component. 

He pledged his agency's support for peaceful Libyan nuclear
programs in the field of agriculture and industry, once the last
vestiges of military activity have been dismantled and removed. 

Shalgam urged other nations in the region to follow Libya's
example and use nuclear energy only "for the sake of prosperity
and progress." While not naming any particular countries, his
comments appeared directed at Israel, which has never
acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons. 

Libya was able to work for two decades on a secret nuclear arms
program because of imports of black market technology and
know-how. 

During his visit, which shed light on the illicit network
linking Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mideast, ElBaradei said new
countries with illicit nuclear arms programs may be revealed
through investigations by his agency and national intelligence
services. 

Libya, one of the key customers of the nuclear peddlers, has
blown the whistle on the head of the network, Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, and more than a dozen of his
middlemen. 

ElBaradei said he believed Libya likely could be declared free
of its nuclear weapons program by June. 

"I think it is going very smoothly, very well, and the Libyans
have confirmed again their full cooperation, their readiness to
settle all the questions we have," he told reporters after
meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mating M. Mating, who heads
Libya's nuclear activities. 

However, some key elements of Libya's nuclear weapons program
are still in place three months after its government pledged to
scrap them, ElBaradei said. He did not elaborate, but another
delegation member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
centrifuge equipment that can enrich uranium to weapons grade
still remained assembled and in Libya. 

Other equipment already has been shipped to the United States,
which along with Britain negotiated the process that led in
December to Libya's declaring its weapons programs - and its
desire to scrap them. Also in the United States, under IAEA
seal, are drawings of a 1960s nuclear warhead supplied by Khan's
network. 

Another delegation member said much of the investigative work
into the nuclear supply chain would likely be wrapped up within
three months. But ElBaradei cautioned of possible surprises
ahead. 

"We are still trying to understand the network, we are still
trying to see whether other countries have received technology,
have received weapons designs," he said. "We are putting the
pieces of the puzzle together and trying to understand whether
there is any additional work ... for us in the future." 

"We are getting the names of more individuals, more companies,"
not only from Libya but "many different sources," ElBaradei
said. 

--- 

On the Net: 

International Atomic Energy Agency: www.iaea.org 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 8 [NukeNet] N.R.C. Staff Finds No Risk in Indian Pt. Cooling
 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:44:03 -0800

 
<x-flowed>


David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert at the Union of
Concerned Scientists, said Monday in a telephone
interview that in the absence of a plant-by-plant
analysis, there was no basis for concluding that
Indian Point or other reactors were safe. He said
there had been plenty of time in the last 20
years, since the problem became obvious, to
conduct such studies.

The commission expects that by 2007, the problem
will be analyzed at all reactors and fixed where
needed.





  My editorial comment:

   Once again, the precautionary principle and
simple sanity/common sense are being ignored by
the NRC and industry [ if seperable] and the
public, environment and economy are part of
contemptous grave experiments by these offending
entities. As Dave Lochbaum stated, they've had 20
years to conduct these experiements and haven't.
Immediate shut downs should be enacted across the
country.

  Please call your Senators & Reps and demand
shutdowns and call to their attention that NRC
and industry are never to be trusted and that NRC
needs to be replaced by a real objective watchdog
until nuclear power is completely and irrevocably
phased out.

Congressional switchboard for calls: 202-224-3121
& 877-762-8762. Please Call!


  http://www.nytimes.com
   http://snipurl.com/4pcu

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/nyregion/24nuke.html

N.R.C. Staff Finds No Risk in Indian Pt. Cooling
System
By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: February 24, 2004


ASHINGTON, Feb. 23 - The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission staff has apparently decided that the
two Indian Point nuclear reactors in Westchester
County pose no special risk of having their
emergency cooling systems clog with debris in the
first few minutes of an emergency, despite an
Energy Department study that singled them out as
especially susceptible to such a failure.

      Advertisement


The commission staff reached its conclusion in a
draft of a report written in response to a
petition by two nonprofit groups critical of
Indian Point's safety, the Union of Concerned
Scientists and Riverkeeper. The groups had asked
that the plants, in Buchanan, N.Y., be shut down
and fixed promptly.

The report is marked "proposed" because it has
been sent to the two groups for their comment, but
one of the three members of the commission, Edward
McGaffigan, said it was "the staff's best
description so far of their position.'' The
plant's owner, Entergy Corporation, has said that
the reactors are safe.

Eight years ago, the commission recognized the
problem cited by the two groups: that in case of a
major pipe break, the leaking water or steam would
scour off pipe insulation and even paint. That
debris, engineers fear, would wash into the sump
in the reactor basement, then clog the pumps that
are supposed to draw in the leaked water and
recycle it back into the cooling system to prevent
a meltdown.

In February 2003, the Los Alamos National
Laboratory, acting as a contractor to the
commission, studied the problem and said the
Indian Point reactors were among those t in the
nation likely to face the hazard.

But the commission staff's new report argues that
that study "did not model individual plants in
sufficient detail to provide information for
drawing conclusions about the operability of a
particular sump." The staff said that data in the
report was not verified with the plant operators,
and Entergy had said that the pumps would not draw
in the spilled water as fast as the Los Alamos
study assumed. The plant also has design features
that the Los Alamos study did not consider, the
staff said.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert at the Union of
Concerned Scientists, said Monday in a telephone
interview that in the absence of a plant-by-plant
analysis, there was no basis for concluding that
Indian Point or other reactors were safe. He said
there had been plenty of time in the last 20
years, since the problem became obvious, to
conduct such studies.

The commission expects that by 2007, the problem
will be analyzed at all reactors and fixed where
needed.

Mr. Lochbaum pointed out that the Davis-Besse
reactor, near Toledo, Ohio, analyzed the
possibility of debris clogging its sump after it
was shut down in March 2002 because the top of its
reactor vessel had corroded nearly all the way
through. If the top had ruptured, the water
inside, pressurized to more than 2,000 pounds per
square inch, would have blown the thermal
insulation off the top of the vessel, experts say.

Davis-Besse's operators concluded that the
water-intake opening for their pumps was too
small, and installed an opening that was 25 times
larger, he said. But Davis-Besse ranked as one of
the safer plants in the Los Alamos study.



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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 9 & What About The Nukes?: Climate Collapse/Pentagon/World Bank
 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:44:06 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

    Click On URL [below] For Missing Hyperlinks.


   My questions pertain to the story below-
hopefully someone has an answer or at least likely
answer. If you do, please respond:

   1. How would this mass chaos and
physical/environmental radical changes including
an ice age or ice age like conditions effect the
440 [about] nuclear power plants [ NPPs] and their
waste around the globe? What would happen if one
or many are simply flooded over Atlantis style?
What would happen if they are buried by land
and/or rock?
What happens if they are in an area that is simply
inaccessable and left running without any human
control?

2. Ditto with nuclear weapons, their monitoring
systems, nuclear waste dumps?



   Any/all responses or educated views to these
questions are welcome. Maybe we can help mitigate
a catastrophe or catastrophes before they happen?
Any thoughts?


   http://www.greenpeace.org

http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=415878
   World Bank, Pentagon: global warming red alert
       Weather of mass destruction bigger threat
than terrorism

             Sun 22 February 2004
             UNITED STATES/Washington, DC


             A world thrown into turmoil by
drought, floods, typhoons. Whole countries
rendered uninhabitable. The political capital of
the Netherlands submerged. The borders of the US
and Australia patrolled by armies firing into
waves of starving boat people desperate to find a
new home. Fishing boats armed with cannon to drive
off competitors. Demands for access to water and
farmland backed up with nuclear weapons. Sound
like the ravings of doom-saying environmental
extremists? It's actually from a report
commissioned by the Pentagon on how to ready
America for the coming climate Armageddon.


             Fifteen years ago, some of us were
warning of the impacts of fossil fuels on the
climate. The science was less conclusive than
today, but we, along with most climatologists,
believed that the consequences were of such
magnitude that immediate action was prudent.
Today, environmentalists aren't the only ones
saying that. The World Bank and the Pentagon have
both commissioned studies which finally admit that
our world is in serious peril, and the biggest
threat to our future is not terrorism, but our own
dependence on fossil fuels. In other words, "We
have met the enemy, and he is us."

             This year, the small circle of
remaining climate "skeptics" -- scientists and
politicians who don't believe that global warming
is happening, or who refuse to accept a human
element in its making, narrowed so far that
Exxon/Mobil and the President of the United States
may soon be the sole, shrill naysayers.

             Sir David King, Chief Scientist in
Tony Blair's government, has said that global
warming is a greater threat than terrorism. Hans
Blix, who ran the UN weapons inspection programme
in Iraq, says the same thing.

             And now, two of the most conservative
institutions in the world, the Pentagon and the
World Bank, have received studies recommending
immediate action to address imminent threats posed
by global warming, with the Pentagon's report
warning that global warming is a greater threat
than terrorism.

             World bank: "global warming requires
immediate action"

             Earlier this month the Financial Times
revealed that the World Bank was rejecting the
recommendations of an independent panel that they
had appointed. The panel's mission was to assess
the environmental, institutional, poverty, and
human rights impacts of the World Bank's
investments in "extractive industries:" gas, coal,
oil, and mining. Their recommendation was to phase
out all investments in fossil fuels over the next
eight years:

             "The WBG [World Bank Group] should
aggressively increase investments in renewable
energies by about 20 percent annually. WBG lending
should concentrate on promoting the transition to
renewable energy..."

             The World Bank's current energy
lending dedicates 6 percent to renewables, 94
percent to oil. In rejecting the recommendation of
the independent panel, the Bank is targeting $US
300-500 million annually in loans promoting
development of oil -- and the slow cooking of our
planet.

             Pentagon: "global warming requires
immediate action"

             The Pentagon's planning scenario says
that global warming "should be elevated beyond a
scientific debate to a US national security
concern." It declares that "future wars will be
fought over the issue of survival rather than
religion, ideology or national honour."

             It envisions the need to turn the US
and other rich western countries into
"fortresses," armed against an angry tide of
people displaced by rising sea levels or unable to
grow food, and running for their lives.

             The report doesn't hem and haw the way
the White House does. It doesn't speak in tortured
sentences to suggest that the scientific community
isn't convinced. It hasn't been proof-read and
edited by Exxon/Mobil. It says it plain:

             "Rather than decades or even centuries
of gradual warming, recent evidence suggests the
possibility that a more dire climate scenario may
actually be unfolding."

             The report was commissioned "to
develop a plausible scenario for abrupt climate
change that can be used to explore implications
for food supply, health and disease, commerce and
trade, and their consequences for national
security."

             Here's the "plausible scenario" that
the Pentagon envisions:

             "By 2005 the climatic impact of the
shift is felt more intensely in certain regions
around the world. More severe storms and typhoons
bring about higher storm surges and floods in
low-lying islands such as Tarawa and Tuvalu (near
New Zealand). In 2007, a particularly severe storm
causes the ocean to break through levees in the
Netherlands making a few key coastal cities such
as The Hague unlivable. Failures of the delta
island levees in the Sacramento River region in
the Central Valley of California creates an inland
sea and disrupts the aqueduct system transporting
water from northern to southern California because
salt water can no longer be kept out of the area
during the dry season... As glacial ice melts, sea
levels rise and as wintertime sea extent
decreases, ocean waves increase in intensity,
damaging coastal cities. Additionally millions of
people are put at risk of flooding around the
globe (roughly 4 times 2003 levels), and fisheries
are disrupted as water temperature changes cause
fish to migrate to new locations and habitats,
increasing tensions over fishing rights."

             The Pentagon foresees fishing wars
between Spain and Portugal. Pakistan, India, and
China - all armed with nuclear weapons - skirmish
at their borders over refugees, access to shared
rivers, and arable land. Bangladesh becomes
uninhabitable. Drought hits the American
breadbasket. Britain's weather begins to resemble
Siberia. India, South Africa, and Indonesia are
ripped apart by civil war.

             And ultimately, the report forecasts a
decrease in the planet's human carrying capacity,
leading to sharp reductions in the world's
population due to starvation, disease, and war.

             Bush: "the jury is still out on global
warming."

             But so far, George Bush is sticking to
the line that the Kyoto treaty was "unscientific,"
that "the jury is still out" on global warming,
and that everyone "misunderestimates" him.

             Actually, Mr. Bush, the jury's been in
for some time, and now even a report commissioned
by your own Pentagon is saying you're wrong.
Perhaps it's time you focussed on the real
terrorist threat to our planet: the oil companies
like Exxon which continue to fund your
re-election, and whose interests you continue to
defend at the expense of our future.

             While you're pursuing policies that
accelerate the production of greenhouse gases and
continuing to deny the existence of a threat, the
World Bank is being told it has to stop
subsidizing Armageddon, and the Pentagon is
war-gaming ways to survive a catastrophe it's
calling plausible.

             If you were willing to launch a
pre-emptive war on enemies you believe may someday
think about attacking the US, wouldn't it seem
prudent to take pre-emptive action against climate
change?

             Take action

             Tell the head of the World Bank to
reconsider and start phasing out support for
fossil fuels now.

             Don't buy Exxon. Don't buy Esso.

             More information

             Read the full report.







             The future of British summer?



                         Key findings of the
Pentagon Report (source: The Observer)
                           a.. Future wars will be
fought over the issue of survival rather than
religion, ideology or national honour.
                           b.. By 2007 violent
storms smash coastal barriers rendering large
parts of Holland inhabitable.
                           c.. In California the
delta island levees in the Sacramento River area
are breached, disrupting the aqueduct system
transporting water from north to south.
                           d.. Between 2010 and
2020 Europe suffers an average annual temp drop of
6F degrees. Weather patterns in Britain begin to
resemble Siberia.
                           e.. Nuclear arms
proliferation is inevitable. Japan, South Korea,
and Germany develop nuclear-weapons capabilities,
as do Iran, Egypt, and North Korea.
                           f.. A 'significant drop'
in the planet's ability to sustain its present
population will become apparent over the next 20
years.
                           g.. Rich nations like
the US and Europe would become 'virtual
fortresses' to prevent millions of migrants
fleeing flooded or starving lands.
                           h.. Deaths from war and
famine run into the millions until the planet's
population is reduced to a point the earth can
support.
                           i.. Access to water
becomes a major battleground. Nile, Danube and the
Amazon are all mentioned as high risk.
                           j.. Europe will face
huge internal struggles as it copes with massive
numbers of migrants washing up on its shores.
                           k.. Bangladesh becomes
nearly uninhabitable because of a rising sea
level, which contaminates inland water supplies.


                         Read the full report here.



             Related stories
              US climate criminals descend on talks
              Greenpeace obtains smoking-gun memo:
White House/Exxon link
              What is the cryosphere, and why
should we care?
              Wind: more jobs and power for same
investment
              Pay up, Exxon
              Where has all the ice gone?








print   send

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 10 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet March 4 - 6 in Rockville, Maryland
 
News Release - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail:   
  No. 04-027     February 24, 2004   
  

Reactor Safeguards will hold a public meeting March 4 - 6 in
Rockville, Md. The committee will discuss, among other items,
license renewal applications for the H.B. Robinson and V.C.
Summer nuclear plants and a review of the AP1000 advanced
nuclear reactor design. 

The meeting, which is open to the public, will be held in Room
T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545
Rockville Pike. A portion of the AP1000 discussion, scheduled
from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on March 4, may be closed to
discuss proprietary information. The meetings will begin at 8:30
a.m. each day. 

A complete agenda is available on the NRCs Web site at this
address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/agenda/2004/51
0.html. 

For additional information, please contact Sam Duraiswamy, at
301-415-7364, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.   



  


 	Last revised Wednesday, February 25, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 11 NRC: NRC Finds No Significant Environmental Impact from Extended Operation of Virgil C. Summer
                         Nuclear Station
News Release - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail: opa@nrc.gov  
  No. 04-028     February 25, 2004   
  


The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued its
final environmental impact statement on the proposed renewal of
the operating license of the Virgil C. Summer nuclear power
plant. In its statement, the NRC found there are no
environmental impacts that would preclude license renewal for an
additional 20 years of operation. 

The V.C. Summer nuclear facility is located 26 miles from
Columbia, South Carolina. The current operating license expires
on August 6, 2022. South Carolina Electric and Gas Company, the
operator of the plant, submitted an application for renewal of
the license on August 6, 2002. 

As part of its environmental review of the application, the NRC
held two public meetings near the plant to discuss the scope of
the review and a draft version of the environmental impact
statement for the facility. Comments were received from members
of the public, local officials and representatives of State and
Federal agencies. 

Copies of the statement are available electronically on the NRC
web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437
/supplement15/index.html. The report also is available for
public inspection at the NRCs Public Document Room, located at
One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland, or by calling 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737.   



  


 	Last revised Wednesday, February 25, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 12 JOURNAL NEWS: Site of Indian Point talk may shift

 By ROGER WITHERSPOON
 THE JOURNAL NEWS
 (Original publication: February 25, 2004)

 A technical briefing by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns 
Indian Point, was to be held next month at the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission's regional offices in King of Prussia, Pa., about 150 
miles from Westchester County. The decision to hold it so far 
from the region drew criticism from civic groups and elected 
officials. 

"If there is going to be a hearing on this issue, then the people 
who would be most affected by it should be able to be there," 
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, said yesterday. "It is not fair to put 
the hearing anyplace where it would be a giant inconvenience to 
attend it, and Pennsylvania is nowhere near Westchester." 

Engel and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, jointly wrote NRC Chairman 
Nils Diaz yesterday asking him to shift the technical briefing to 
Westchester County to "afford the communities most affected by 
the storage facility the opportunity for meaningful review and 
comment." 

U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Middletown, also wrote NRC Regional 
Director Hubert Miller last week stating that the meeting should 
be convenient for the communities hosting the nuclear plants. 
Hinchey also asked for a formal, recorded hearing before an 
administrative law judge, rather than an informal briefing with 
no record. Agency officials said a decision on the location would 
be made soon. 

Entergy is seeking to place its spent fuel rods in 185-ton dry 
casks that would sit on a huge concrete pad at Indian Point. The 
casks, called Holtec Hi-Storm 100s, have been approved for use by 
the NRC, but been dogged with controversy, with critics 
contending they are poorly made and unreliable. 

Gary Shaw, of the Croton Close Indian Point civic group, 
complained that holding a meeting on the issue so far from 
Westchester "is an insurmountable obstacle to the people who 
would most immediately be affected with toxic waste." 

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said so-called "technical meetings," 
such as the pending one on Indian Point, are usually held at the 
agency's regional office. "But there has been considerable 
interest in holding the meeting closer to the plant," he said. 
"Whenever we can accommodate the public, we aim to do so, and we 
are considering it." 

In a technical briefing, which is open to the public, Entergy 
officials would explain their proposal in detail and answer 
questions from NRC staff. Entergy officials declined comment 
yesterday. 

Sheehan said the NRC intended to hold a subsequent briefing for 
the public in Westchester, where NRC officials would "explain how 
we go about reviewing these types of requests and what our 
history has been with these storage systems." 

But that type of briefing would not provide the public with the 
types of details released in the technical briefing, he said. 

  - - - - - - -914-694-9300 - -  
  Copyright 2004 The Journal News, . Inc. newspaper serving 
Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of 
*****************************************************************
 13 NRC: Draft Regulatory Guide; Issuance, Availability
 
                         FR Doc E4-374 
[Federal Register: February 25, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 37)] 
[Notices] [Page 8706-8707] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr25fe04-121]                         
 
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued for public 
comment a proposed revision of a guide in its Regulatory Guide 
Series. Regulatory guides are developed to describe and make 
available to the public such information as methods acceptable to 
the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the NRC's 
regulations, techniques used by the staff in evaluating specific 
problems or postulated accidents, and data needed
 
[[Page 8707]] by the staff in its review of applications for 
permits and licenses.
 
The draft guide is temporarily identified by its task number, DG- 
7004, which should be mentioned in all correspondence concerning 
this draft guide. Draft Regulatory Guide DG-7004, ``Standard 
Format and Content of Part 71 Applications for Approval of 
Packaging for Radioactive Material,'' is the proposed Revision 2 
of Regulatory Guide 7.10. This revision is being developed to 
provide guidance on developing Quality Assurance Programs with 
respect to the transport of radioactive materials in Type B and 
fissile material packages.
 
This draft guide has not received complete staff approval and 
does not represent an official NRC staff position.
 
Comments may be accompanied by relevant information or supporting 
data. Written comments may be submitted by mail to the Rules and 
Directives Branch, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; or they may be 
hand-delivered to the Rules and Directives Branch, Office of 
Administration, at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. Copies of 
comments received may be examined at the NRC Public Document 
Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. Comments will be most 
helpful if received by April 25, 2004.
 
You may also provide comments via the NRC's interactive 
rulemaking Web site through the NRC home page 
(http://www.nrc.gov). This site provides the ability to upload 
comments as files (any format) if your Web browser supports that 
function. For information about the interactive rulemaking Web 
site, contact Ms. Carol Gallagher, 301-415- 5905; e-mail 
cag@nrc.gov. For technical information about Draft Regulatory 
Guide DG-7004, contact Mr. J. Pearson at 301-415-1985 (e- mail 
jjp@nrc.gov). Although a deadline is given for comments on these 
draft guides, comments and suggestions in connection with items 
for inclusion in guides currently being developed or improvements 
in all published guides are encouraged at any time.
 
Regulatory guides are available for inspection at the NRC's 
Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD; the 
PDR's mailing address is USNRC PDR, Washington, DC 20555; 
telephone 301-415-4737 or (800) 397-4209; fax 301-415-3548; 
e-mail pdr@nrc.gov. Requests for single copies of draft or final 
regulatory guides (which may be reproduced) or for placement on 
an automatic distribution list for single copies of future draft 
guides in specific divisions should be made in writing to the 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, 
Attention: Reproduction and Distribution Services Section, or by 
fax to 301-415-2289; e-mail distribution@nrc.gov. Telephone 
requests cannot be accommodated. Regulatory guides are not 
copyrighted, and NRC approval is not required to reproduce them. 
(5 U.S.C. 552(a)) Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of 
February, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Mabel Lee, Director, Program Management, Project Development and 
Support, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research.
 
[FR Doc. E4-374 Filed 2-24-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 14 NRC: State of Utah: NRC Staff Draft Assessment of a Proposed
 
                         FR Doc E4-375 
[Federal Register: February 25, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 37)] 
[Notices] [Page 8703-8706] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr25fe04-120]                         
 
Amendment to Agreement Between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
and the State of Utah AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Third notice of a proposed amendment to the agreement 
with the State of Utah; request for comment.
 
SUMMARY: By letter dated January 2, 2003, Governor Michael O.
 
Leavitt of Utah requested that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC) enter into an amendment to the Agreement with 
Utah (the Agreement) as authorized by section 274 of the Atomic 
Energy Act of 1954, as amended (Act).
 
Under the proposed amendment to the Agreement, the Commission 
would relinquish, and Utah would assume, an additional portion of 
the Commission's regulatory authority exercised within the State. 
As required by the Act, NRC is publishing the proposed amendment 
to the Agreement for public comment. NRC is also publishing the 
summary of a draft assessment by the NRC staff of the portion of 
the regulatory program Utah would assume. Comments are requested 
on the proposed amendment to the Agreement and the staff's draft 
assessment, which finds the program to be adequate to protect 
public health and safety and compatible with NRC's program for 
regulation of 11e.(2) byproduct material.
 
The proposed amendment to the Agreement would release (exempt) 
persons who possess or use certain radioactive materials in Utah 
from portions of the Commission's regulatory authority. The Act 
requires that NRC publish those exemptions. Notice is hereby 
given that the pertinent exemptions have been previously 
published in the Federal Register and are codified in the 
Commission's regulations as 10 CFR Part 150.
 
 
DATES: The comment period expires March 15, 2004. Comments 
received after this date will be considered if it is practical to 
do so, but the Commission cannot assure consideration of comments 
received after the expiration date.
 
 
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following 
methods. Please include the following phrase ``Utah Amendment'' 
in the subject line of your comments. Comments will be made 
available to the public in their entirety. Personal information 
will not be removed from your comments.
 
Mail comments to: Michael T. Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives 
Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of 
Administration, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
 
E-mail comments to: NRCREP@nrc.gov. Fax comments to: Chief, Rules 
and Directives Branch, at (301) 415- 5144.
 
Publicly available documents related to this notice, including 
public comments received, may be viewed electronically on the 
public computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), 
O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland.
 
The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee.
 
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after 
November 1, 1999, are also available electronically at the NRC's 
Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this site, the 
public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Document Access 
and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image 
files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to 
ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located 
in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference 
staff at 1- 800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to 
pdr@nrc.gov.
 
[[Page 8704]] Documents available in ADAMS include: the request 
for an amended Agreement by the Governor of Utah including all 
information and documentation submitted in support of the request 
(ML030280380); NRC comments on the request (ML031810623), Utah's 
response to NRC comments (ML032060090); Utah's additional 
clarification (ML033640565), and the full text of the NRC Staff 
Draft Assessment (ML040370585).
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dennis M. Sollenberger, Office 
of State and Tribal Programs, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001. Telephone (301) 415-2819 or e-mail

 
DMS4@nrc.gov.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Since section 274 of the Act was added 
in 1959, the Commission has entered into Agreements with 33 
States.
 
The Agreement States currently regulate approximately 16,850 
material licenses, while NRC regulates approximately 4550 
licenses. NRC periodically reviews the performance of the 
Agreement States to assure compliance with the provisions of 
section 274. Under the proposed amendment to the Agreement, four 
NRC licenses will transfer to Utah.
 
Section 274e requires that the terms of the proposed amendment to 
the Agreement be published in the Federal Register for public 
comment once each week for four consecutive weeks. This third 
notice is being published in fulfillment of the requirement.
 
I. Background Section 274d of the Act provides the mechanism for 
a State to assume regulatory authority from the NRC over certain 
radioactive materials \1\ and activities that involve use of the 
materials.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------- \1\ The radioactive materials are: (a) Byproduct 
materials as defined in section 11e.(1) of the Act; (b) byproduct 
materials as defined in section 11e.(2) of the Act; (c) source 
materials as defined in section 11z. of the Act; and (d) special 
nuclear materials as defined in section 11aa. of the Act, 
restricted to quantities not sufficient to form a critical mass.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
---------- In a letter dated January 2, 2003, Governor Leavitt 
certified that the State of Utah has a program for the control of 
radiation hazards that is adequate to protect public health and 
safety within Utah for the materials and activities specified in 
the proposed amendment to the Agreement, and that the State 
desires to assume regulatory responsibility for these materials 
and activities. The radioactive materials and activities (which 
together are usually referred to as the ``categories of 
materials'') which the State of Utah requests authority over are: 
the possession and use of byproduct material as defined in 
section 11e.(2) of the Act and the facilities that generate such 
material (uranium mill tailings and uranium mills). Included with 
the letter was the text of the proposed amendment to the 
Agreement, which has been edited and is shown in Appendix A to 
this Notice.
 
The proposed amendment to the Agreement modifies the articles of 
the Agreement that: --Specify the materials and activities over 
which authority is transferred; --Specify the activities over 
which the Commission will retain regulatory authority; and 
--Specify the effective date of the proposed Agreement.
 
The Commission reserves the option to modify the terms of the 
proposed amendment to the Agreement in response to comments, to 
correct errors, and to make editorial changes. The final text of 
the amendment to the Agreement, with the effective date, will be 
published after the amendment to the Agreement is approved by the 
Commission and signed by the Chairman of the Commission and the 
Governor of Utah.
 
Utah currently regulates all radioactive materials covered under 
the Act, except for conducting sealed source and device 
evaluations which will remain under NRC jurisdiction, and the 
possession and use of 11e.(2) byproduct material, which would be 
assumed by Utah under the proposed amendment to their Agreement. 
Section 19-3-113 of the Utah code provides the authority for the 
Governor to enter into an Agreement with the Commission. Section 
19-3-113 also contains provisions for the orderly transfer of 
regulatory authority over affected licensees from NRC to the 
State. After the effective date of the Agreement, licenses issued 
by NRC would continue in effect as Utah licenses until the 
licenses expire or are replaced by State issued licenses. The 
regulatory program including 11e.(2) byproduct materials is 
authorized by law in section 19-3-104.
 
The NRC staff draft assessment finds that the Utah program is 
adequate to protect public health and safety, and is compatible 
with the NRC program for the regulation of 11e.(2) byproduct 
material and the facilities that generate such material.
 
II. Summary of the NRC Staff Draft Assessment of the Utah Program 
for the Control of 11e.(2) Byproduct Materials The NRC staff has 
examined Utah's request for an amendment to the Agreement with 
respect to the ability of the Utah radiation control program to 
regulate 11e.(2) byproduct material. The examination was based on 
the Commission's policy statement ``Criteria for Guidance of 
States and NRC in Discontinuance of NRC Regulatory Authority and 
Assumption Thereof by States Through Agreement,'' referred to 
herein as the ``NRC criteria'' (46 FR 7540, January 23, 1981, as 
amended by policy statements published at 46 FR 36969, July 16, 
1981, and at 48 FR 33376, July 21, 1983).
 
Organization and Personnel. The 11e.(2) byproduct material 
program will be located within the existing Division of Radiation 
Control (Program) of the Utah Department of Environmental 
Quality. The Program will be responsible for all regulatory 
activities related to the proposed amendment to the Agreement.
 
The Program performed an analysis of the expected Program 
workload under the proposed amendment to the Agreement and 
determined that a level of three technical and one administrative 
staff would be needed to implement the 11e.(2) byproduct material 
authority. The distribution of the qualifications of the 
individual technical staff members will be balanced with the 
technical expertise needed for 11e.(2) byproduct material (i.e., 
health physics, hydrology, engineering). The Program currently 
has and intends to initially use existing qualified staff to 
conduct the 11e.(2) byproduct materials activities. At least two 
staff are qualified in each of the three technical areas 
identified in the Criteria: health physics, engineering, and 
hydrology.
 
The educational requirements for the 11e.(2) byproduct material 
program staff members are specified in the Utah State personnel 
position descriptions, and meet the NRC criteria with respect to 
formal education or combined education and experience 
requirements. All current staff members hold at least bachelor's 
degrees in physical or life sciences, or have a combination of 
education and experience at least equivalent to a bachelor's 
degree. Several staff members hold advanced degrees, and all 
staff members have had additional training plus working 
experience in radiation protection.
 
The Program also plans to hire three new staff into the program 
to supplement the existing staff (two professional/technical and 
one administrative). New staff hired into the Program will be 
qualified in accordance with the Program's training and 
qualification procedure to function in the areas of 
responsibility to which the individual is assigned.
 
 
[[Page 8705]] Based on the NRC staff review of the State's need 
analysis, current staff qualifications, and the current staff 
assignments for the 11e.(2) byproduct material program, the NRC 
staff concludes that Utah will have an adequate number of 
qualified staff assigned to regulate the 11e.(2) byproduct 
material workload of the Program under the terms of the amendment 
to the Agreement.
 
Legislation and Regulations. The Utah Department of Environmental 
Quality (Department) is designated by law to be the implementing 
agency. The law establishes a Radiation Control Board (Board) 
that has the authority to issue regulations and has delegated the 
authority to the Executive Secretary the authority to issue 
licenses, issue orders, conduct inspections, and to enforce 
compliance with regulations, license conditions, and orders. The 
Executive Secretary is the director of the Division of Radiation 
Control in the Department.
 
Licensees are required to provide access to inspectors. The law 
requires the Board to adopt rules that are compatible with 
equivalent NRC regulations and that are equally stringent. Utah 
has adopted R313-24 Utah Administrative Code that incorporates 
NRC uranium milling regulations by reference, with a few 
exceptions, and other regulatory changes needed for the 11e.(2) 
byproduct material program. The NRC staff reviewed and forwarded 
comments on these regulations to the Utah staff. The final 
regulations were sent to NRC for review. The NRC staff review 
verified that, with the one exception of the alternative 
groundwater standards, the Utah rules contain all of the 
provisions that are necessary in order to be compatible with the 
regulations of the NRC on the effective date of the Agreement 
between the State and the Commission. The alternative groundwater 
standards were addressed in a separate Commission action (see 68 
FR 51516, August 27, 2003, and 68 FR 60885, October 24, 2003) and 
will be resolved prior to the Commission's final approval of an 
amendment to the Agreement with Utah. The NRC staff also 
concludes that Utah will not attempt to enforce regulatory 
matters reserved to the Commission.
 
Evaluation of License Applications. Utah has adopted regulations 
compatible with the NRC regulations that specify the requirements 
which a person must meet in order to get a license to possess or 
use 11e.(2) byproduct material. Utah will use its general 
licensing procedures, along with the additional requirements in 
R313-24 specific to 11e.(2) byproduct material. Utah will use the 
NRC regulatory guides as guidance in conducting its licensing 
reviews.
 
Inspections and Enforcement. The Utah radiation control program 
has adopted a schedule providing for the inspection of licensees 
as frequently as the inspection schedule used by NRC. The Program 
has adopted procedures for the conduct of inspections, the 
reporting of inspection findings, and the reporting of inspection 
results to the licensees. The Program has also adopted, by rule 
based on the Utah Revised Statutes, procedures for the 
enforcement of regulatory requirements.
 
Regulatory Administration. The Utah Department of Environmental 
Quality is bound by requirements specified in State law for 
rulemaking, issuing licenses, and taking enforcement actions. The 
Program has also adopted administrative procedures to assure fair 
and impartial treatment of license applicants. Utah law 
prescribes standards of ethical conduct for State employees.
 
Cooperation with Other Agencies. Utah law deems the holder of an 
NRC license on the effective date of the proposed Agreement to 
possess a like license issued by Utah. The law provides that 
these former NRC licenses will expire either 90 days after 
receipt from the Department of a notice of expiration of such 
license or on the date of expiration specified in the NRC 
license, whichever is earlier. Utah also provides for ``timely 
renewal.'' This provision affords the continuance of licenses for 
which an application for renewal has been filed more than 30 days 
prior to the date of expiration of the license. NRC licenses 
transferred while in timely renewal are included under the 
continuation provision.
 
III. Staff Conclusion Subsection 274d of the Act provides that 
the Commission shall enter into an agreement under subsection 
274b with any State if: (a) The Governor of the State certifies 
that the State has a program for the control of radiation hazards 
adequate to protect public health and safety with respect to the 
agreement materials within the State, and that the State desires 
to assume regulatory responsibility for the agreement materials; 
and (b) The Commission finds that the State program is in 
accordance with the requirements of subsection 274o, and in all 
other respects compatible with the Commission's program for the 
regulation of materials, and that the State program is adequate 
to protect public health and safety with respect to the materials 
covered by the proposed Agreement.
 
On the basis of its draft assessment, the NRC staff concludes 
that the State of Utah meets the requirements of the Act. The 
State's program, as defined by its statutes, regulations, 
personnel, licensing, inspection, and administrative procedures, 
is compatible with the program of the Commission and adequate to 
protect public health and safety with respect to the materials 
covered by the proposed amendment to the Agreement.
 
NRC will continue the formal processing of the proposed amendment 
to the Agreement which includes publication of this Notice once a 
week for four consecutive weeks for public review and comment.
 
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day of February, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Paul H. Lohaus, Director, Office of State and Tribal Programs.
 
Appendix A Amendment to agreement between the United States 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State of Utah for 
discontinuance of certain commission regulatory authority and 
responsibility within the State pursuant to section 274 of the 
Atomic Energy Act, as amended Whereas the United States Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Commission) 
entered into an Agreement on March 29, 1984 (hereinafter referred 
to the Agreement of March 29, 1984), with the State of Utah under 
section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended 
(hereafter referred to the Act) which became effective on April 
1, 1984, providing for discontinuance of the regulatory authority 
of the Commission within the State under chapters 6, 7, and 8 and 
section 161 of the Act with respect to byproduct materials as 
defined in section 11e.(1) of the Act, source materials, and 
special nuclear materials in quantities not sufficient to form a 
critical mass; and Whereas, the Commission entered into an 
amendment to the Agreement of March 29, 1984 (hereinafter 
referred to as the Agreement of March 29, 1984, as amended), 
pursuant to the Act providing for discontinuance of regulatory 
authority of the Commission with respect to the land disposal of 
source, byproduct, and special nuclear material received from 
other persons which became effective on May 9, 1990; and Whereas, 
the Governor requested, and the Commission agreed, that the 
Commission reassert Commission authority for the evaluation of 
radiation safety information for sealed sources or devices 
containing byproduct, source or special nuclear materials and the 
registration of the sealed sources or devices for distribution, 
as provided for in regulations or orders of the Commission; and 
Whereas, the Governor of the State of Utah is authorized under 
Utah Code Annotated
 
[[Page 8706]] 19-3-113 to enter into this amendment to the 
Agreement of March 29, 1984, as amended, between the Commission 
and the State of Utah; and Whereas, the Governor of the State of 
Utah has requested this amendment in accordance with section 274 
of the Act by certifying on January 2, 2003, that the State of 
Utah has a program for the control of radiological and 
non-radiological hazards adequate to protect the public health 
and safety and the environment with respect to byproduct material 
as defined in section 11e.(2) of the Act and facilities that 
generate this material and that the State desires to assume 
regulatory responsibility for such material; and Whereas, the 
Commission found on [date] that the program of the State for the 
regulation of materials covered by this amendment is in 
accordance with the requirements of the Act and in all other 
respects compatible with the Commission's program for the 
regulation of byproduct material as defined in section 11e.(2) 
and is adequate to protect public health and safety; and Whereas, 
the State and the Commission recognize the desirability and 
importance of cooperation between the Commission and the State in 
the formulation of standards for protection against hazards of 
radiation and in assuring that the State and the Commission 
programs for protection against hazards of radiation will be 
coordinated and compatible; and Whereas, this amendment to the 
Agreement of March 29, 1984, as amended, is entered into pursuant 
to the provisions of the Act.
 
Now, Therefore, it is hereby agreed between the Commission and 
the Governor of the State, acting on behalf of the State, as 
follows: Section 1. Article I of the Agreement of March 29, 1984, 
as amended, is amended by adding a new paragraph B and 
renumbering paragraphs B through D as C through E. Paragraph B 
will read as follows: ``B. Byproduct materials as defined in 
Section 11e.(2) of the Act;'' Section 2. Article II of the 
Agreement of March 29, 1984, as amended, is amended by deleting 
paragraph E and inserting a new paragraph E to implement the 
reassertion of Commission authority over sealed sources and 
devices to read: ``E. The evaluation of radiation safety 
information on sealed sources or devices containing byproduct, 
source, or special nuclear materials and the registration of the 
sealed sources or devices for distribution, as provided for in 
regulations or orders of the Commission.'' Section 3. Article II 
of the Agreement of March 29, 1984, as amended, is amended by 
numbering the current Article as A by placing an A in front of 
the current Article language. The subsequent paragraphs A through 
E are renumbered as 1 through 5. After the current amended 
language, the following new section B is added to read: ``B. 
Notwithstanding this Agreement, the Commission retains the 
following authorities pertaining to byproduct material as defined 
in section 11e.(2) of the Act: 1. Prior to the termination of a 
State license for such byproduct material, or for any activity 
that resulted in the production of such material, the Commission 
shall have made a determination that all applicable standards and 
requirements pertaining to such material have been met; 2. The 
Commission reserves the authority to establish minimum standards 
governing reclamation, long-term surveillance or maintenance, and 
ownership of such byproduct material and of land used as a 
disposal site for such material. Such reserved authority 
includes: a. The authority to establish terms and conditions as 
the Commission determines necessary to assure that, prior to 
termination of any license for such byproduct material, or for 
any activity that results in the production of such material, the 
licensee shall comply with decontamination, decommissioning, and 
reclamation standards prescribed by the Commission; and with 
ownership requirements for such materials and its disposal site; 
b. The authority to require that prior to termination of any 
license for such byproduct material or for any activity that 
results in the production of such material, title to such 
byproduct material and its disposal site be transferred to the 
United States or the State of Utah at the option of the State 
(provided such option is exercised prior to termination of the 
license); c. The authority to permit use of the surface or 
subsurface estates, or both, of the land transferred to the 
United States or the State pursuant to 2.b. in this section in a 
manner consistent with the provisions of the Uranium Mill 
Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978, as amended, provided that 
the Commission determines that such use would not endanger public 
health, safety, welfare, or the environment.
 
d. The authority to require, in the case of a license for any 
activity that produces such byproduct material (which license was 
in effect on November 8, 1981), transfer of land and material 
pursuant to paragraph 2.b. in this section taking into 
consideration the status of such material and land and interests 
therein, and the ability of the licensee to transfer title and 
custody thereof to the United States or the State; e. The 
authority to require the Secretary of the Department of Energy, 
other Federal agency, or State, whichever has custody of such 
byproduct material and its disposal site, to undertake such 
monitoring, maintenance, and emergency measures as are necessary 
to protect public health and safety, and other actions as the 
Commission deems necessary; and f. The authority to enter into 
arrangements as may be appropriate to assure Federal long-term 
surveillance or maintenance of such byproduct material and its 
disposal site on land held in trust by the United States for any 
Indian Tribe or land owned by an Indian Tribe and subject to a 
restriction against alienation imposed by the United States.'' 
Section 4. Article IX of the 1984 Agreement, as amended, is 
renumbered as Article X and a new Article IX is inserted to read: 
Article IX In the licensing and regulation of byproduct material 
as defined in section 11e.(2) of the Act, or of any activity 
which results in the production of such byproduct material, the 
State shall comply with the provisions of section 2740 of the 
Act. If in such licensing and regulation, the State requires 
financial surety arrangements for reclamation and or long-term 
surveillance and maintenance of such byproduct material: A. The 
total amount of funds the State collects for such purposes shall 
be transferred to the United States if custody of such byproduct 
material and its disposal site is transferred to the United 
States upon termination of the State license for such byproduct 
material or any activity that results in the production of such 
byproduct material. Such funds include, but are not limited to, 
sums collected for long-term surveillance or maintenance. Such 
funds do not, however, include monies held as surety where no 
default has occurred and the reclamation or other bonded activity 
has been performed; and B. Such surety or other financial 
requirements must be sufficient to ensure compliance with those 
standards established by the Commission pertaining to bonds, 
sureties, and financial arrangements to ensure adequate 
reclamation and long-term management of such byproduct material 
and its disposal site.'' This amendment shall become effective on 
[date] and shall remain in effect unless and until such time as 
it is terminated pursuant to Article VIII of the Agreement of 
March 29, 1984, as amended.
 
Done in Rockville, Maryland, in triplicate, this [day] day of 
[month, year].
 
For the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Nils J. Diaz, Chairman.
 
Done in Salt Lake City, Utah, in triplicate, this [day] day of 
[month, year].
 
For the State of Utah.
 
Olene S. Walker, Governor.
 
[FR Doc. E4-375 Filed 2-24-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 15 YDR: Reactor shutdown no threat - 

York Daily Record [ydr.com]                      

Mechanical problems caused Peach Bottoms Unit 2 reactor to be
shut down Sunday. 

By SEAN ADKINS Daily Record staff Wednesday, February 25, 2004 

Operators manually shut down Peach Bottom Atomic Power Stations
Unit 2 reactor Sunday after a series of mechanical problems.

Last week, control room workers monitored an air leak in the
reactors condenser  equipment used to turn steam into water.

The condenser pumps that water back to the reactor.

On Tuesday, plant officials determined the leak came from an
expansion joint caused by routine wear and tear of the system,
said Dana Melia, spokeswoman for Exelon Generation. Exelon
co-owns and operates the power station.

 	That type of wear and tear is typical of any steam plant,
Melia said.

 	That leak caused a loss of vacuum  a piece of equipment found
inside the condenser, she said.

 	The shutdown caused no threat to public health or the plants
ability to distribute electricity, Melia said.

 	Peach Bottom Atomic Power Stations Unit 3 was not affected by
its neighbors shutdown and continues to function at full power.

 	The second units reactor is designed to go into automatic
shutdown if the vacuum level drops to a specific set point,
Melia said.

 	On Sunday, operators elected to manually take the reactor
offline and bring the unit to a cold shutdown.

 	(A shutdown) is safer when its manual rather than
automatic, Melia said. You have more control over it.

 	All equipment used to carry out the shutdown functioned as it
should, Melia said.

 	They did what they were supposed to do, said Diane Screnci,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The
plants systems responded as expected.

 	Soon after the 3:11 p.m. shutdown, the plant notified its
resident NRC inspector of the units problems.

 	The commission is having its inspector look into the cause of
the shutdown, Screnci said.

 	As for Exelon, officials are investigating the cause of the
leakage and what steps are necessary to bring the plants second
reactor back online, Melia said.

 	We are trying to determine why it happened, she said.

 	Plant officials will use the shutdown as an opportunity to
conduct routine maintenance of the site such as the checking of
valves.

 	While Melia did not say when the reactor would return to
service, Screnci said the time frame is more a matter of days
rather than months.

 	Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2047 or sadkins@ydr.com. 


Copyright Š York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000


*****************************************************************
 16 DW: German Nuclear Industry Rejects Calls to Close Plants 

Deutsche Welle | 25.02.2004

Vulnerable? The Biblis nuclear power plant in Hesse.                                       

Five nuclear power plants should be closed down early because 
they are vulnerable to a terror attack, according to a government 
watchdog. The nuclear industry doesn't seem to agree with the 
assessment.

The operators of Germany's nuclear 18 power plants insist there 
is no need to re-open negotiations with the government on the 
closure of their facilities, according to German daily Der 
Tagesspiegel. 

But some see things differently, including Heide Moser, the 
health and consumer protection minister for the northern German 
state of Schleswig-Holstein. She has urged Federal Environment 
Minister JĂźrgen Trittin to invite the power station operators to 
join him in a fresh round of talks. "It would be a good idea for 
the federal environment minister to hold talks on shutting down 
individual reactors earlier than planned," she told the paper. 

Schleswig-Holstein is home to the BrunsbĂźttel reactor, one of 
the five the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) wants 
to see closed down. The other reactors are in the federal states 
of Baden-WĂźrttemberg (Philippsburg 1 and Obrigheim), Bavaria 
(Isar 1) and Hesse (Biblis 1). The agency says these reactors are 
older models and have insufficient safeguards against a Sept. 
11-style terror attack in which a passenger plane would be 
crashed into a nuclear plant. 

"Better than nothing" but still "inadequate" 

The operators said they have agreed a "catalogue of measures" 
with the government which covered all the relevant security 
precautions. Environment minister JĂźrgen Trittin was therefore 
well aware of their plans to protect nuclear power plants from 
terror attacks, they said. 

The energy spokesperson for the Greens, Michaele Hustedt, said 
the government's present catalogue of measures was "better than 
nothing", but still "inadequate." She backed calls for fresh 
talks between the government and the operators on early closure 
saying the power produced by the older reactors could be taken 
from newer reactors instead. 

Nuclear power to be phased out in 20 years 

The government says there is no need to panic. Horst Kubatschaka, 
the Social Democrat parliamentarian with special responsibility 
for nuclear power, criticized the BfS for going public with its 
findings. "It would have been better if they had spoken to us 
first," he told Der Tagesspiegel. 

Germany is planning to phase out nuclear power over the next 20 
years, irrespective of any measures to cope with the threat of 
terror. Nuclear power is an emotionally-charged topic in Germany: 
The transport of spent nuclear fuel attracts regular public 
protest and the Greens' party, the junior partners in Chancellor 
SchrĂśder' centre-left coalition, grew out of the anti-nuclear 
protest movement of the 1970s and 80s.DW staff (mc)
				 				   			
*****************************************************************
 17 Belfast Telegraph:  Helping Chernobyl's kids

By Ciaran O'Neill
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk 25 February 2004 	

A HUGE fundraising drive is under way to raise the Ł240,000 
needed to bring a group of children on a life-saving visit to the 
North West. 

An estimated 100 children are expected to travel from Chernobyl 
in Ukraine in July to spend three weeks with local families. 

Medical experts insist that the children, all of whom have 
ongoing health problems as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear 
disaster in 1986, benefit greatly from their time in Ireland, 
with some doctors claiming that the trip adds years on to the 
children's life expectancy. 

Members of the Chernobyl Children's Aid North West, which 
organises the annual holidays, today appealed for more families 
to become involved. 

"It is a great opportunity to provide these children with a bit 
of happiness," said CCANW director Sheila Rodgers. 

"We have a large number of families already involved but the more 
families come forward, the more children we will be able to bring 
over from Chernobyl." 

A major explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear station on April 25, 
1986, caused contamination across a huge area. 

It was after meeting a group of children from Chernobyl in Dublin 
in 1994 that the Carndonagh group decided to set up the charity. 

"After seeing for myself the impact of this disaster on the 
health of these children I felt that I had to do something. 

"In our first year of operation, we brought over 20 children but 
the number has steadily grown since. 

"We try to encourage the families to treat the child as a member 
of their own family," Sheila explained. "We also stress that the 
visit is not about spoiling them with material goods. 

"It is simply about them getting the chance to enjoy 
uncontaminated food and water and fresh air for a few weeks." 

A number of fundraising events are to be held in the North West 
in the coming weeks to raise money for the charity. 

"We work on a completely voluntary basis and put a lot of effort 
into fundraising each year," she said. 

"It costs approximately 350 euro to bring each of the children 
over and we are hopeful that people will support our fundraising 
events." 

Anyone who would like further information about becoming involved 
in the charity can contact Sheila on (00353) 749374793 or Dominic 
Bradley on 71383523.           

in print | Contact us | Š 2004 Independent News and Media (NI) a 
*****************************************************************
 18 [du-list] studies link birth defects to gulf war
 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:44:09 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Studies link birth defects, Gulf War
Pentagon says there is no proven correlation
09:22 AM CST on Tuesday, February 24, 2004
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV

News 8 has been looking at questions about birth
defects among the children of Gulf War veterans for
eight years. Vets said their kids had more birth
defects than non-Gulf War vets. WFAA producer P.J.
Ward has been gathering data from scientific journals,
and News 8 is now able to report that data.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cedric Miller of San Antonio is now twelve years old,
conceived and born just after his father returned from
the first war in the Persian Gulf.

Cedric suffers from Goldenhar Syndrome. He's had
sixteen surgeries to repair and construct his face and
body since he was born.

"The face was underdeveloped," said Cedric's father
Steve Miller. "There was no eye on the left, there was
no ear, the thumbs didn't work and there were some
other things going on."

Cedric is literally a poster child for a controversy
between veterans, scientists and the government. Just
after the first Gulf War, those returning from duty
said that their children were being stricken with
birth defects at an alarming rate.

Steven Miller, Cedric's father, testified before
Congress. Like tens of thousands of other fathers who
served in the Gulf, he was exposed to a cocktail of
chemicals.

Miller fathered a normal child before the war. After
he returned, Cedric was born. Goldenhar cases like
Cedric's were a signal to vets that something was
amiss. The Department of Defense said there was no
evidence, but many scientists said there was.

"The Gulf War vets had a three time higher risk of
having Goldenhar Syndrome," said Maria Araneta, an
epidemiologist at the University of California at San
Diego.

Araneta knows Goldenhar normally happens to just one
child in 26,000. But back in 1997, when she analyzed
the birth records of 34,000 babies born to Gulf War
vets, she found five cases of Goldenhar.

The number was unusual, but not big enough to be
statistically significant, according to the Department
of Defense. To this day, Pentagon officials maintain
there's no correlation between Gulf War service and
higher birth defects.

"There hasn't been any statistical difference in the
deployed and non-deployed populations as far as birth
defects in their children," said Dr. Michael
Kilpatrick of the Department of Defense.

Pentagon researchers continue to study the issue.

"They've funded a lot of studies," said Betty Mekdici
of the non-profit organization Birth Defect Research
for Children. "I think they've funded some studies so
that they could show us we were wrong and make us go
away."

Mekdici's organization collects data from parents
across the country. She's now discovered 26 cases of
Goldenhar among Gulf War veterans.

"Goldenhar is so rare that when we started to see that
blip, we knew that something was going on," Mekdici
said.

Government officials said Mekdici's numbers aren't
valid. But the more studies Araneta does, the more
evidence she finds.

"The results have changed, because the methods in
ascertaining birth defects have improved," Araneta
said.

News 8 found documentation from an internal Veterans
Administration study, published within the last year,
that shows children of Gulf War vets have twice the
normal rate of birth defects.

A Department of Defense-funded study showed children
of male Gulf War vets have three times the average
rate of heart defects.

And a study just released this month shows women who
served in the first Gulf War suffered three times the
normal rate of miscarriages in the period just after
the conflict.

Back in San Antonio, Cedric Miller faces five more
surgeries to lengthen his jaw and create a new left
ear. His sister and father help him face the emotional
minefield he navigates every day.

"He wants to look like everybody else, but no matter
what happens, he's still the same to me," sister
Larissa Miller said.

The military pays for none of his medical needs,
because his father is no longer in the Army.

"If he needs me for any reason, no matter where I am,
I'll come," said Larissa.

No one knows if the war exposures that may have harmed
Cedric are still in Iraq. But 100,000 potential
mothers and fathers are now returning from service in
the Gulf. This time, more women than ever were close
to the chemicals and toxins of the front lines.

So, is this new crop of veterans potentially in
danger?

"There are a lot of exposures in any warfare
environment that are reproductive toxins, so I think
that's something we have to take into account with any
returning army," Mekdici said.

The Department of Defense is keeping better track of
returning vets than it did after the first Gulf War,
but the problem is complicated. More husbands and
wives are in the war together than ever before,
meaning that two parents, rather than one, may be
carrying the toxins that produce birth defects.

More science needs to be done, and better statistics
need to be kept of birth defects to further research
into the issue.

It should also be noted that Texas is one of the
largest states not to have a birth defect registry
program.

E-mail: bharris@wfaa.com (reporter), pjward@wfaa.com
(producer)




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*****************************************************************
 19 Deseretnews.com: Family hopes story will stop dangerous tests
 
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
 	   	 
By Lee Davidson
Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON  Bonnie Adamsson-Vorwaller of Austin, Texas, listed 
an eyebrow-raising cause of death in obituaries this month for 
her late husband, Alan D. Vorwaller, age 43.

       It was: repeated and continual exposure to nuclear, 
chemical and biological warfare agents while he was growing up in 
Tooele, Utah.

       Now, I have interviewed hundreds of Utahns who blame 
cancer on atomic testing upwind in Nevada; dozens more who 
suspect nerve gas mishaps at Dugway Proving Ground ruined their 
health; and a few who blame ills on germ weapons tests there.

       But Bonnie is the first who ever claimed that all three  
merged in a grim reaper's cocktail in the Utah winds  combined 
to kill a loved one. She says she didn't just dream that up, that 
it comes from some of the top doctors in Texas (and in the 
nation).

       Alan's story is timely because of other news this month. 
That includes President Bush this month budgeting to allow 
resuming underground nuclear testing in Nevada (and Rep. Jim 
Matheson, D-Utah, introduced a bill seeking to block that unless 
Congress gives permission first).

       Also, stories revealed quiet plans by the Army to add four 
temporary germ labs at Dugway. And, the National Academy of 
Science urged more aggressive monitoring of nerve gas at Deseret 
Chemical Depot to ensure safety as such arms await destruction.

       Bonnie's story began three years ago while she watched TV 
in Texas, where they had moved. "He let out a scream like I had 
never heard before," she says.

       A trip to the emergency room revealed that "his pelvis had 
broken in half" for no apparent reason. Tests revealed tumors in 
the hip. "But the cancer didn't start there. It had spread from 
his lungs and metastasized to the bone. He had tumors in his 
bones from his shoulders to his knees, and we had no clue until 
then," she said.

       Doctors asked how long he had smoked. Never. Did his 
parents smoke then? No, they are Mormons. Was he around smoke at 
work? No. Did he work in a coal or uranium mine? No. Because of 
his uniqueness, he attracted attention from the top cancer and 
bone doctors at the University of Texas and their national 
colleagues.

       Bonnie says doctors told her Alan had a non-small cell 
cancer that grows slowly at well-defined rates  "and to have the 
amount of cancer he did, he would have had to smoke three packs a 
day for 30 years." She asked how he could have gotten it. "The 
doctor said, ask yourself where he was 30 years ago."

       That would be downwind of atomic tests  and radiation can 
cause such cancer.

       Alan went through years of radiation and surgery and 
appeared to be beating the cancer. Then doctors found another 
type of cancer on (not in) his lungs. It was strange  reacting 
to chemicals as would ovarian cancer in women. Doctors asked if 
he had been around biologically engineered germs, or maybe 
gene-damaging nerve agents.

       As Bonnie read up on nerve agents, she found that VX (the 
gas that killed sheep near Dugway in 1968) could also cause nerve 
tingling, shooting nerve pain and temporary paralysis. She said 
her husband suffered that as a youth  after Scout camps or 
hunting trips in the desert near Dugway. She blamed it for the 
new cancer.

       In a final problem before his death, Alan suffered 
105-degree fevers. Doctors told Bonnie fevers from tumors do not 
go above 103. She said they did cultures to seek a cause and 
ruled out everything except exotic viruses.

       She said doctors said they wouldn't be surprised if the 
cause were a long-dormant virus he might have picked up years 
earlier, maybe eating rabbits he hunted near Dugway. "With that, 
germ, chemical and nuclear testing helped kill my husband," she 
said.

       Alan had lost his job before he lost his life. Medical 
treatments cost more than $2.5 million, much of which Texas paid. 
Bonnie said she couldn't afford to bury him at first  but help 
from doctors, nurses, church friends and family finally allowed 
it.

       Laws do not allow her to sue the government for tests done 
for national defense, and fault would be hard to prove anyway. 
She also does not qualify for federal downwinder compensation  
which is limited to a few counties around southern Utah. She 
warns, "I think others are going to go through what we did in 
time."

       She urges fellow native Utahns to be screened for cancer. 
She was  and lung and ovarian tumors were found and treated. She 
adds that she hopes Alan's story will help stop more dangerous 
tests and work. "I don't want this to happen to anyone else."

Deseret Morning News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson can be 
reached by e-mail at lee@desnews.com

 Š 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 20 Bellona: Lack of environmental impact study puts British-funded dismantlement 
of two Russian subs on hold

SEVERODVINSK, NORTHWEST RUSSIA - British Under-Secretary of State 
of Trade and Industry Nigel Griffiths this Tuesday toured 
Severodvinsk in Northwest Russia to inspect progress on the 
British-funded dismantlement of two Oscar I class submarines. 
Unfortunately for Griffiths, the inspection took place under a 
cloud, as no environmental impact study on the submarines' Ł11.5m 
($21.5m) has yet been performed, the discovery of which has 
caused an enforced cessation of the project's major work.

  An Oscar II class submarine, similar in design to Oscar I
class submarines, at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk.   

  Photo: Sevmash   

Andrey Mikhailov, Igor Kudrik, 2004-02-25 14:00

The submarine dismantlement operation is being carried out at
the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk in the Arkhangelsk
region. The main contractor for the British side is the Sevmash
shipyard, also located in Severodvinsk. 

On February 14th, Yury Dyachenko, chief environment protection
inspector of the Chief Directorate of Natural Resources, issued
a stern warning to Sevmash for not providing environmental
impact study documentation in time on. He said that he might
suspend all the work on the two Oscars unless Sevmash could
furnish a satisfactory explanation for beginning the project
without the study. 

Shipyards scramble to find the study
 The first reaction from Sevmash was that the documents had at
one time been in their possession, but had mysteriously
disappeared. Other sources at Sevmash said that the full
documentation package was sent by post to Britain, but that
Sevmash itself had forgotten to photocopy the documents for its
own use. 

The official explanation came on February 20th, when the
commission of the Chief Directorate of Environmental Resources
held a meeting on subject of the missing documents. Top brass
from both Sevmash, Zvezdochka and other officials were present. 

Sevmash admits it hasnt performed an impact study
 The Shipyards' representatives admitted that no environmental
impact study has yet been performed due to the fact that it was
a pilot projector a first time experiment in dismantling
decommissioned Oscarsand since the 2003 financial year was
nearing its end, it was decided to start preparation work on
dismantling the two submarines without a finalised environmental
impact study. 

The Shipyards' officials also said that they were basing their
decisions in the pilot project on documentation developed for
Yankee class submarines, project 667A. Yankee class submarines
are first generation strategic submarines, whereas Oscars are
third generation cruise missile submarines, implying myriad
structural differences. 

The meeting resulted in a 40,000-rouble fineequivalent to
$1,400for Sevmash and a decision by the Directorate of
Environmental Resources to suspend all decommissioning
operations which are beyond the scope of documentation developed
for Yankee class before the environmental impact study is
completed. This means the British-funded Oscar I class
dismantlement will not move forward until an environmental
impact study based on documentation for Oscar I class is
produced. 

The environmental impact study is being carried out by the Onega
bureau, based in Severodvinsk. 

An array of smaller operations falling within the parameters of
Yankee class sub documentation that are currently being carried
out on the two submarines include unloading of the equipment and
the removing removable plating on the submarines' hulls.

  K-159   

  K-159 doomed by expectations of Western funding, Northern
Fleet Chief Suspended Over K-159 Sinking and other background on
K-159 
  
500,000 pounds for documentation

 The funding for the decommissioning is carried out under
auspices of the British Department of Trade and Industry, or
DTI. The project commenced in summer 2003 was a British
contribution to the Group of Eight industrialised nations' $20
billion Global Partnership pledge. The objective of the British
project was to determine its long-term sustainability, and make
recommendations on the feasibility of further similar
initiatives. 

David Field, the project director from RWE NUKEMthe British
firm that is performing the consulting work necessary for the
projecttold Bellona Web in a telephone interview that DTI
selected these two Oscars because they are "low risk" subs. Both
of the submarines are relatively newthey were commissioned in
1980 and 1981they have both been defuelled and were already in
the area of Severodvinsk shipyards, therefore no risky towing
operations were involved. 

Charles Davies, Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Oslo,
told Bellona Web in a telephone interview that the Oscar
dismantlement is a pilot project, and the low risk factor was
central to selecting these subs in order to gain first hand
experience in performing such operations. 

Both Davies and Field were surprised to hear of the
documentation snafu, specifically concerning the environmental
impact study. 

"We spent Ł500,000 on the documentation and we thought it
included environmental assessment," Davies said. 

K-159 sinking prompts change of polices

 After the dramatic sinking of K-159, a November class submarine
that went down on August 30th 2003killing nine of the 10 crew
members aboardThe Bellona Foundation called on western nations
providing funding for nuclear remediation projects in Russia to
spend their money prudently. Though the K-159 was not towed
using western funding, it illustrated in morbid detail the
slip-shod practices employed in dismantling Russia's fleet of
derelict decommissioned subspractices no western nation would
wish to be responsible for funding. 

"Western donors cannot simply give financial support without
reviewing each stage of the process they are fundingfor example
the process of dismantling a nuclear submarine," Alexander
Nikitin, former submarine captain first class and currently
chairman of Bellona's St Petersburg branch, said shortly after
the K-159's accident. 

The K-159 was being towed by tug-boat to the Polyarny shipyard,
near Arctic city of Murmansk for dismantlement when its tow line
snapped and it sank during the early morning hours of August
30th, one day out to sea. The bulk of funding for dismantling
the K-159and 15 other non-strategic submarines that were to be
towed from Gremikha, a semi-abandoned naval base in the eastern
part of the Kola Peninsulawas to come from Western donor
countries. But the sinking put sub towing indefinitely on hold
by order of Sergei Ivanov, Russia's former Minister of Defence. 

Norway pioneered the efforts of the international community to
fund the dismantlement of non-strategic submarines when it
signed a contract last summer with Russian shipyards to
dismantle two Victor II class submarines. Both submarines had
been located at Gremikha and towed to a dismantlement site for
destruction. The dismantlement of these two Victors is well
underway, but the sinking of K-159 was a cold shower for the
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which coordinates such
projects. 

As a result of pressure from the StortingNorway's
parliamentand Bellona, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
eventually adopted a new scheme for dealing with dangerous waste
and nuclear material in Russia. The new scheme suggested that
Norwegian Radiation Protection Authorities, or the NRPA, is
responsible for the technical part of nuclear remediation
projects and evaluates the environmental risk assessments
provided by Russia prior to commencing such projects. 

Commenting on why Britain did not follow a similar line when
contracting to destroy the two Oscars, DTIs Field said: "We did
not follow the same practice as Norway does now, since the
submarines were of low risk." 

Davies of Britain's Oslo embassy added that "[w]e shall evaluate
all the documents generated during the decommissioning and
before that we shall not contract for new submarines." 

There are only two Oscar I class submarines in the Russian Navy,
both of them were operating in the Northern Fleet. As for the
sheer number of submarines that have been decommissioned from
the Soviet-era figure of 250, 192 have been taken out of
service116 of those in the Northern Fleet. Overall, 91
submarines have been entirely dismantled, 58 of those being
Northern Fleet submarines. 

Seventy-one submarines that have been taken out of active
service await dismantlement with their spent fuel still on
board. Of those, 36 are located in the Northern Fleet in bases
on the Kola Peninsula and Arkhangelsk region. 

Mikhailov reported from Severodvinsk and Kudrik reported from
Oslo.   

  Publisher: , President: 
Information: , Technical contact: 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 21 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: There is hope yet

Today: February 25, 2004 at 8:53:22 PST 

 LAS VEGAS SUN

 Near the small community of Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno
in Churchill County, 16 children were diagnosed with leukemia
between 1997 and 2002. Three have died. A panel of experts, led
by a doctor from the federal Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention, spent two years looking for a reason. In its final
report delivered this week in Fallon, the panel concluded: "The
causes of childhood leukemia, including those from Churchill
County, Nevada, remain unknown."

 The panel studied the children themselves. It studied the
water, the soils, the air and dust. It studied pipelines
bringing jet fuel to the local Naval base. It looked at
population changes. Nothing could be found to explain the
leukemia cluster.

 In April 2001 the Senate Environment and Public Works committee
conducted a hearing in Fallon. Its members, including Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., ultimately
concluded that monitoring of such clusters and follow-up
investigations must remain top priorities. We agree. This type
of commitment is the only hope for someday finding an answer. 
 
*****************************************************************
 22 RGJ: Washoe judge decides Fallon family's leukemia trial will be in Reno
 
Reno Gazette-Journal

Wednesday | Feb 25, 2004

Frank X. Mullen Jr.

A Washoe County judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by the 
family of a Fallon child who died of leukemia will be heard in 
Reno, not in Churchill County.

In denying the city of Fallons request for a change of location 
for the leukemia cluster suit, Washoe County District Judge 
Steven P. Elliott noted that at least one defendant, the Santa Fe 
Pacific Pipeline company  does business in and resides in 
Washoe County. Nevada law allows a change of venue only when none 
of the defendants live in the county where a suit is filed, 
Elliott wrote.

Calvin R.X. Dunlap, Jernees lawyer, said Tuesday he is pleased 
to win the first round in what promises to be a complicated case. 
He said many lawyers will be flying in from other states and it 
makes sense to have the case heard in Reno, which has more 
accommodations than Fallon.

Don Lattin, Fallons lawyer, said the city will appeal the 
decision. He said Nevada law requires that when a county or city 
is named as a defendant in a lawsuit the case should be heard in 
the venue of the government entity.

Richard Jernee, whose son, Adam, 10, died of leukemia in 2001, 
last year filed the lawsuit against Fallon, the pipeline company 
and others. Adam was one of 16 Fallon-area children diagnosed 
with leukemia since 1997. Two other patients also have died.

Experts said the chances of the Fallon cluster being random are 
one in 232 million. Government scientists have been unable to 
find an environmental cause and said Monday they dont recommend 
further scientific testing.

Jernees lawsuit and another brought by the family of Stephanie 
Sands, who also died of leukemia in 2001, alleges the leukemia 
outbreak was caused by pollution from local industries, including 
the jet fuel pipeline that runs through the center of town. The 
suits also allege that Fallon city officials knew about the 
pollution but covered up the areas environmental problems.

The pipeline owners have denied their line caused any health 
problems in Fallon. Fallon city officials did not return phone 
calls Tuesday.  

Š Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett 
*****************************************************************
 23 YellowTimes.org ''Depleted uranium: The war crime that has no end''
 
YellowTimes.org is completely reliant on individual reader
contributions. This allows us to keep our independence. 	   	 	

Printed on Wednesday, February 25, 2004 @ 00:00:24 CST   (
   
  	
[Guest Editorial]  By Paul Rockwell
 YellowTimes.org Guest Columnist (United States)
 Originally printed at  http://www.unobserver.com/

(YellowTimes.org)  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 2003, 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 encourages your comments: rockyspad@earthlink.net

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 24 NRC: NRC to Meet with Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel Plant Officials March 3 to Discuss
Facility Safety Performance

News Release - Region II - 2004-00

 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region II
  No. II-04-006   		        February 25, 2004   
  CONTACT:     Ken Clark (404) 562-4416
 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417     E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov  
  


Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials will meet with officials
of the Westinghouse commercial nuclear fuel plant in Columbia,
South Carolina, on March 3 to discuss the agencys latest review
of the facilitys safety performance. 

The meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Main Administration
Building on the Westinghouse site, and is open to observation by
the public. NRC officials will be available before the close of
the meeting to answer questions from interested observers. 

The NRC review evaluates Westinghouse safety performance in the
major areas of safety operations, safeguards, radiological
controls, facility support and special topics and covers the
period from December 30, 2001, through December 6, 2003. 

The review found that Westinghouse had conducted its activities
safely and securely, but procedural compliance problems
continued to present a challenge and warrant additional
oversight. 

Westinghouses performance will result in extra inspections in
the area of procedural compliance and NRC evaluation of the
companys corrective actions in that area. The NRC will also
increase management review of corrective actions and re-evaluate
performance halfway through the normal 24-month licensee
performance review period for such NRC-licensed fuel facilities. 

A copy of the NRC letter to Westinghouse which outlines details
of the review is available by contacting OPA2@nrc.govor from the
NRC web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html as document
ML040410004.   



  


 	Last revised Wednesday, February 25, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 25 NRC: NRC Issues License to U.S. Enrichment Corporation for Lead Cascade Uranium Enrichment
                            Facility
News Release - 2004-02
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail: opa@nrc.gov  
  No. 04-026     February 24, 2004   
  

U.S. Enrichment Corporation Inc. (USEC) to construct and operate
a uranium enrichment test and demonstration facility at the
Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in Piketon, Ohio. 

The American Centrifuge Lead Cascade Facility, also known as the
Lead Cascade, will be based on the U.S. Department of Energys
centrifuge technology for enriching uranium for use in producing
fuel for nuclear reactors. The Lead Cascade will consist of up
to 240 full-scale centrifuges, which will recycle the enriched
and depleted uranium; the only withdrawals of uranium from the
cascade will be small samples for quality control analysis. The
license authorizes the facility to possess and use up to 250
kilograms of uranium hexafluoride for up to five years. 

USEC applied for the license to build and operate the facility
on February 12, 2003. In January, the NRC issued an
environmental assessment, concluding there would be no
significant environmental impact from the facility, and a safety
evaluation report, concluding that USECs proposed programs
would provide adequate safeguards and protection for the health
and safety of workers, the public and the environment. The NRC
held off issuing a license at that time until USEC had finalized
lease arrangements for the facility with DOE, which owns the
Portsmouth plant. 

USEC intends to follow construction of the Lead Cascade with a
full-scale uranium enrichment plant using centrifuge technology.
On January 12, USEC announced plans to build this centrifuge
plant at the Piketon site. USEC is expected to submit a license
application to the NRC for this facility this August. 

For more information about uranium enrichment, see the NRCs
Fact Sheet at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/enrichm
ent.html.   



  


 	Last revised Tuesday, February 24, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 26 Deseretnews.com: Utah loses a round in battle on N-waste
 
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
 	   	 
D.C. appeals court rules NRC has jurisdiction

By Jerry Spangler
Deseret Morning News

The state lost yet another round in its
legal battle to keep high-level nuclear waste out of Utah when a
Washington, D.C., federal appeals court ruled Tuesday the
nuclear Regulatory Commission has jurisdiction to license
private nuclear waste facilities.

       Furthermore, the court ruled that even though the
Department of Energy would not take over private nuclear storage
facilities, nothing in the law or the congressional debates
"suggests that Congress intended to prohibit private use of
private away-from-reactor facilities."

       The ruling is one of a litany of setbacks for the state,
which has lost on almost every issue it has raised. In this
case, the state argued the NRC did not have jurisdiction to
license private waste facilities under the nuclear Waste Policy
Act  an argument rejected by the D.C. court.

      "The state has brought this up over and over and over
again," said Sue Martin, spokeswoman for Private Fuel Storage,
the consortium of nuclear power facilities seeking to store
44,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel on lands owned by the Skull
Valley Band of Goshutes in Tooele County.

       "I think it was one of the first contentions the state
filed and had dismissed. And they have continued to raise it in
various forms. Hopefully, this decision puts that issue to rest
once and for all."

       Paul Murphy, spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark
Shurtleff, whose office argued the case, said the assistant AGs
involved could not be reached for comment.

       The state has lost its claims that the proposed facility,
which would store nuclear fuel rods in above-ground storage
casks, would not withstand earthquakes; that it would compromise
wilderness qualities; and that PFS did not have the financial
wherewithal to build and manage the facility.

       The state Legislature also passed a series of laws
intended to block PFS, or at the very least tax it heavily. But
the federal courts rejected those as unconstitutional.

       The state's only victory was a temporary one. The NRC
ruled that the possibility of military aircraft crashing into
the site was a potential danger, prompting PFS to scale back the
size of its proposal and then re-submit the issue for NRC
consideration. That issue has not yet been decided.

       PFS is proceeding with its plan to store the waste
despite the indictment of tribal leader Leon Bear on corruption
charges. Also charged by the Justice Department was Sammy
Blackbear, a leader of the opposition to the waste plan, who is
accused of fraud in connection with tribal funds.

       The Legislature has appropriated hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the legal fight to keep PFS from using Tooele County
as a "temporary' waste site (the leases are for 20 years with a
20-year renewal). Lawmakers are again considering whether to
continue funding the legal battles.

       Former Gov. Mike Leavitt, now administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, vowed the waste would come to
Utah over his dead body. Gov. Olene Walker, while not as graphic
in her depiction of her opposition, has pledged to continue the
fight.

       Tuesday's ruling focuses on obscure wording in the Atomic
Energy Act, which gave regulatory authority to the nuclear
Regulatory Commission, and a later law, the nuclear Waste Policy
Act. The former specifically gave the NRC the authority to
regulate nuclear waste, but the latter is more vague.

       State attorneys pounced on that discrepancy, but the
appeals court ruled there was nothing in the nuclear Waste
Policy Act that would negate authority granted under the earlier
law.

       "There is no basis to conclude that in enacting the NWPA,
Congress implicitly repealed or superseded the NRC's authority,"
the ruling states.

E-mail: spang@desnews.com
	 
 Š 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 27 Gleaner: Plants fear power drain

By CHUCK STINNETT, Gleaner staff 831-8343 * 

February 24, 2004

Thousands of western Kentucky jobs could vanish in several years 
because a shortage of electricity might force the Alcan and 
Century aluminum smelters to shut down, officials from around the 
region were warned Monday. 

The Alcan smelter near Sebree and the Century smelter in Hancock 
County consume vast amounts of power -- 840 megawatts of 
electricity, around the clock. 

 That's enough to run 10 cities the size of Henderson, Alcan 
consultant Allen Eyre told a gathering of some 40 officials. 

But the smelters' existing contracts with LG Energy Marketing 
expire in 2010 and 2011, and there's no certainty that power will 
be available from LG or other sources afterward to keep them 
running. 

That could put out of work some 1,510 workers at the two smelters 
who earn an average of nearly $45,000 per year, plus another 
4,500 indirect jobs, Eyre warned. 

Officials here have been meeting on the subject for a year or so. 
Because the smelter closings could affect so many people in so 
many counties, Henderson County Judge-executive Sandy Watkins on 
Monday gathered elected officials from 10 western Kentucky 
counties as well economic development agents, representatives of 
Alcan and Big Rivers Electric Corp. and others. 

"I've got to get all the players in western Kentucky to 
understand we're in this together," Watkins said. 

"We don't have a smelter" in Owensboro, Daviess County 
Judge-executive Reid Haire remarked. "But our citizens go to work 
at smelters in Henderson County, Warrick County (where Alcoa is 
located), Hancock County." The closure of two of those smelters 
would ripple through the Owensboro economy, he indicated. 

"The only way you're going to solve your problem is to work 
together as a group to save your plant," Bob Arnold, executive 
director of the Kentucky Association of Counties, said. 

Eyre outlined several possible solutions: 

- Power provider Big Rivers could build a second coal-fired 
turbine-generator at its D.B. Wilson power plant in Ohio County. 

However, another nearby project, Peabody Energy Corp.'s proposed 
Thoroughbred power plant in Muhlenberg County, already has 
secured an air quality permit, and Eyre said it's unlikely that 
environmental agencies would permit Big Rivers to build new 
generators, too. 

- Big Rivers could gain access to power by buying a portion of 
the 1,500-megawatt (MW) Thoroughbred plant. 

- The anticipated closing of the government's uranium enrichment 
plant at Paducah might free up 3,000 MW in the region. 

- Big Rivers could negotiate to gain access to more electricity 
from the generating stations it has leased to LG subsidiary 
Western Kentucky Energy Corp. 

But all of those solutions carry considerable risk for the 
parties, would cost lots of money -- and haven't been agreed to 
by anyone. 

Some in attendance, such as Henderson community leader Dr. John 
Logan, expressed frustration that officials have been talking 
about the problem for a year, but still have no solution. 

"Let's come back in 30 days with a plan," Logan urged. "I want to 
see something happen. I've got other things to do." 

Others said the matter can't be resolved that fast. 

"If you're looking for a plan to how to save the smelters in 30 
to 60 days, we can't do it," Big Rivers President and CEO Mike 
Core said. 

"We're working hard with Alcan and Century to come up with an 
answer that may not come out for a few months," Core said. 

"Maybe 30 days is too short," Logan replied. "But if you don't 
set a goal, you'll never achieve it." 

He said that as much as $500 million for clean coal technology in 
Kentucky could emerge from a U.S. Senate energy bill, and 
officials here should strive to secure those funds. 

At Watkins' urging, several county officials indicated they would 
try to contribute some funds to hire a professional consultant to 
assist with the effort. 

Further, the West Kentucky Corp., a regional economic development 
agency, agree to administer the effort, while several officials 
from around the region agreed to serve on a steering committee. 

"We're going to bring this group together," Steve Zea, executive 
director of West Kentucky Corp., said, "to identify, criteria for 
providing low-enough-cost electricity to not only make the 
aluminum industry viable, but to keep western Kentucky 
competitive."  

Š 2004 The E.W. Scripps Co.
*****************************************************************
 28 Las Vegas SUN: Energy Dept. wants to withhold nuke cleanup funds

Today: February 25, 2004 at 8:53:22 PST 

By Suzanne Struglinski 
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>

 WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department wants to withhold $350
million in federal money earmarked to clean up radioactive sites
unless Congress or a court grants it authority to classify
radioactive waste as high-level or low-level material.

 The department has been trying to overturn a July 2003 federal
court ruling that said it did not have the power to classify
radioactive waste into high- and low-level categories.

 Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the department thought it
had the power to separate millions of gallons of radioactive
liquids stored in tanks at former nuclear weapons construction
plants with the intention of leaving low-level waste on site
instead of moving all of the waste to the proposed permanent
repository at Yucca Mountain.

 Energy Department officials said the plan was to reduce the
volume of waste set to go to Yucca and save as much as $29
billion, while reducing cleanup timelines.

 But the court said this violated the 1982 nuclear waste law
since it specifically says liquid waste produced by fuel
reprocessing is high-level that needs permanent geological
storage -- not just the portions the department wants to store
there. The department expects the permanent storage site to open
at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, by 2010.

 DOE attempts in Congress last year to amend the law failed.

 The department's Savannah River site in South Carolina has more
than 34 million gallons of the liquid waste, the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has more than 900,000
gallons and the Hanford Site in Washington State has more than
53 million gallons of radioactive material underground and
on-site, all from nuclear weapons construction activities.

 The Energy Department says if it does not get the authority to
classify the waste as it see fits, it will need to find
permanent storage for more waste than it intended and more than
Yucca could hold. Federal law allows Yucca Mountain to accept
77,000 tons of nuclear waste, but the department has to go to
Congress in 2007 and tell it what it plans to do with the waste
beyond that limit.

 For the fiscal year 2005 budget, which begins Oct. 1, the
department requested $5.9 billion for its Defense Site
Acceleration Cleanup program, but noted $350 million of it will
be requested only if it can get the Nuclear Waste Policy Act
clarified in its favor.

 If Congress agrees with the department and clarifies the
language, $249 million would go to general operation and
maintenance while $52 million would go to a waste processing
facility at the Savannah River site, $24 million would go to a
facility in Idaho, and about $23 million would go to another
facility at Savannah River, according to budget documents.

 The department wants to be able to determine which waste should
be disposed at Yucca and which waste is "not properly considered
high-level waste requiring, as a scientific matter, disposal in
a geologic repository," according to its budget request.

 The department has challenged the federal court decision to the
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in addition to trying to get
Congress' help.

 Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has said the department is not
seeking to reclassify waste, but instead looking for
"confirmation from Congress of our long-standing authority to
classify various material from reprocessing according to the
risk it presents so that it can be disposed of in a manner
appropriate to those risks."

 But translates into the department just trying to change rules
it does not like, Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects, said.

 "This is the typical, arrogant, 'We're above the law' approach
DOE likes to do with everything they do including Yucca
Mountain," Loux said. "On every subject it is either their way
or no way in their minds."

 Nevada does not have a cleanup site that would lose money
through the proposal but the change would indirectly affect
Yucca Mountain since it has to do with the waste destined for it.

 The state's congressional delegation has said the issue is more
about the department trying to alter the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act, which guides the Yucca project, and its usual disregard for
its own rules.

 Last year the House accepted a motion offered by Rep. Jay
Inslee, D-Wash., telling energy bill negotiators to not accept
the department's request for the authority, based on the impact
it could have on Idaho, Washington, South Carolina, where those
plants are located, and possibly other states.

 At that time Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, who is now waiting final
confirmation to take over the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, said he had no intention of including the
department's change in the energy bill.

 However, in an extension of his remarks made on the House floor
and just inserted into the Congressional Record, Barton, said it
is important that the department find a conclusion to the
situation and that he would consider a change if the state and
the department could reach an agreement.

 "Without clarification of DOE's authorities with respect to
high level wastes, we may experience cleanup delays as DOE tries
to settle this in the courts," Barton said.

 Meanwhile, earlier this month Thomas Cochran, Natural Resources
Defense Council director of nuclear programs, and attorney Geoff
Fettus sent a letter to the governors of Idaho, South Carolina,
Washington and Oregon asking if they have been in private
negotiations with the department over these changes.

 The council asked the states to refuse to be "bullied, one by
one" by the department trying to get them to agree to a change
separately rather than together and in an open process.

 The affected states all have agreement with the department on
how cleanup will be completed.

 Fettus said so far he has heard from an Oregon official, who
insisted the state is not involved in any negotiations with the
department. He was waiting to hear back from the the others. 


 
*****************************************************************
 29 Salt Lake Tribune: State is handed a setback in waste fight 

February 25, 2004  
 
By Judy Fahys 

    A federal court dealt a swift blow Tuesday to one of Utah's
central arguments against a proposed nuclear waste storage
facility in Skull Valley. 

    State attorneys argued before the court only last month that
Congress never gave the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission the
authority to license storage sites such as the one proposed for
the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation, but the D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed Tuesday. The court sided with
the nuclear agency, Goshute leaders and Private Fuel Storage,
the consortium of nuclear-power companies seeking to build the
facility. 

    A PFS spokeswoman said the state, the facility's primary
opponent, had lost a key argument in its case against the
project, which would provide up to 40 years of storage for used
nuclear plant fuel rods that are now outside power plants
nationwide. 

    "This ruling," she said, "should put that [argument] to
rest." 

    However, almost identical arguments lie at the heart of a
separate appeal now before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Denver. That three-judge panel has yet to rule in the
case, which originated when PFS sued the state over laws enacted
by the Legislature to thwart the project and which were then
thrown out by Utah District Judge Tena Campbell. 

    The case decided on Tuesday began when the state
unsuccessfully tried to challenge the federal licensing process
before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself. 

    The state appealed to the Washington, D.C., court. 

    Utah's attorneys pointed to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of
1982 as evidence that Congress specifically only allowed waste
storage at the reactor until permanent disposal is developed. 

    "We hold that [a specific provision of the 1982 waste policy
law] does not repeal or supercede the NRC's authority under the
Atomic Energy Act," the D.C. court said. 

    Said a disappointed Utah Assistant Attorney General Denise
Chancellor: "The court called it how they saw it." 

    Under the license being sought by PFS, up to 44,000 tons of
the high-level waste would be held in containers on concrete
pads stretched over 100 acres. 

    While Tuesday's ruling is another loss for the state,
efforts continue on a number of fronts to fight the facility,
which the state considers a health and safety risk. 

   Whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission finally approves or
rejects the license, the losing side is expected to appeal. 

    fahys@sltrib.com
    
Š Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 30 Australian: Abbott can force through N-dump 

[February 26, 2004]
 	 	
By Rebecca DiGirolamo

THE Howard Government has the power to override the nation's 
chief nuclear regulator to force through the construction of a 
radioactive waste dump in South Australia, it was revealed 
yesterday.

The federal government authority within the Australian Radiation 
Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency Act was disclosed at a 
public forum in Adelaide, sparking fresh threats of legal action 
from the Rann Government. 

South Australian Environment Minister John Hill told the forum 
that the public consultation process had been "contrived and 
controlled by Canberra" all along. 

He warned ARPANSA chief executive John Loy, who is charged with 
the final decision on the dump, that the process placed him in an 
"impossible position". 

Under Section 16 of the ARPANSA Act, Health Minister Tony Abbott 
can, in the public interest, direct Dr Loy to approve 
construction of a radioactive waste dump at Site 40a, near 
Woomera, 500km north of Adelaide. 

Dr Loy was collecting evidence at the forum yesterday and will 
continue to do so today, before making his final decision on 
whether to approve the commonwealth's licence application to 
site, build and operate the dump at Site 40a. 

Opening submissions at the public forum, Mr Hill raised doubts 
over Dr Loy's capacity to make an objective decision with Section 
16 looming over him. "That (Section 16) puts enormous pressure on 
ARPANSA because they know what the federal Government wants them 
to find, and that creates a perception of bias," he said. "That 
potentially leads to a legal opportunity for the South Australian 
Government." 

Mr Hill later told The Australian that Crown law advice received 
earlier this week suggested the commonwealth's use of Section 16 
of the ARPANSA Act could trigger avenues of Federal Court action 
by the Rann Government on the argument of bias. 

The Rann Government is currently pursuing an appeal, due to be 
heard by the full bench of the Federal Court in May, against the 
commonwealth's urgent compulsory acquisition of Site 40a after it 
successfully argued the swift "land grab" was made under the 
public's interest. 

But Dr Loy raised questions about the Rann Government's latest 
legal interpretation of the ARPANSA Act. 

"I don't think that legal power really exists (and) if it were 
exercised, it would be enormously controversial both politically 
and in terms of its legal power and effect," Dr Loy said. 

"From my point of view, I certainly wouldn't accept that 
happening. 

"I could resign." 

While Dr Loy felt the legislation had not compromised his 
authority, he did acknowledge the decision would be a difficult 
one. 

"These are difficult issues I have to grapple with." 

South Australian Labor senator Penny Wong called on Mr Abbott to 
immediately rule out using Section 16 in the licensing process of 
the dump. 

"The South Australian community wants to see whether or not the 
federal Government will go through the proper process or whether 
it will ride roughshod over the community's interests." 
		 		 		 

Š The Australian   
*****************************************************************
 31 L.A. Daily News: Laboratory implicated in illnesses

/www.dailynews.com

Article Published: Monday, February 23, 2004 -
 		   	 	
Plaintiffs' experts say nearby facility caused cancer cases

By Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

 Dozens of residents across the San Fernando and Simi valleys 
developed cancers and other conditions from toxics released at 
Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab and other facilities, 
according to experts hired by plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the 
company.

 According to court documents released Monday, the experts were 
able to find links between exposure to toxics from Rocketdyne and 
illness among individuals in the community -- claims the lab's 
owner, Boeing, steadfastly denies.

 "Since 1959, the government and Rocketdyne.... have covered up 
the fact that the west San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley have 
been exposed to huge quantities of carcinogenic chemicals and, 
most difficult for us to fathom ... the government and Rocketdyne 
basically lied to the public and told the public nothing got 
off-site," said attorney A. Barry Cappello, whose Santa 
Barbara-based law firm, Cappello &Noel, represents the 
plaintiffs. 

"Our experts have now been able to sit down and determine how 
much of an exposure each of our clients had."

 A Boeing spokesman said there is absolutely no evidence of any 
health threat posed by Rocketdyne's operations.

 "It's a theory that reaches unsupportable conclusions," said 
Boeing's Dan Beck, who said the case involved only eight 
individuals. "They still have not represented any scientific 
evidence of a public health threat."

 The Daily News disclosed in 1989 that nuclear and chemical 
contamination had been found at the field lab between the San 
Fernando and Simi valleys, where Rocketdyne conducted nuclear 
energy and rocket-engine testing for the government for decades. 
The site is now under a federally mandated environmental cleanup.

 A pair of UCLA studies of workers found higher cancer mortality 
rates among those in some jobs at the lab, and other studies are 
now trying to determine whether contamination could have made 
people in the community sick.

 Cappello's firm is handling the main case stemming from 
contamination at the site. The case, filed in 1997 and now 
heading toward trial in U.S. District Court, involves more than 
300 individuals, their families and the estates of those who have 
since died.

 The plaintiffs' team of eight hired experts said releases from 
the field lab, as well as from Rocketdyne's other two facilities 
in the West Valley, likely caused the cancers and other injuries 
among those residents studied.

 The experts found links to lung, brain, kidney and bladder 
cancers, as well as Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but not 
breast cancer, Cappello said.

 "Plaintiffs' exposure to hazardous substances released from 
Defendants' facilities, in reasonable medical probability, was a 
substantial factor in contributing to the risk of developing 
their injuries or cancer," court documents said.

 An additional 23 plaintiffs have injuries whose cause could not 
be confirmed and 17 had fear of cancer because they had been 
exposed, the documents said.

 The plaintiffs lived around the area and inhaled various toxins 
from 1948 through the mid-1980s, the attorneys said.

 The experts pointed to a 1959 "meltdown" of an experimental 
reactor that released as much as 260 times the amount that 
escaped during the incident at Three Mile Island, as well as 
ongoing operations at Rocketdyne's Canoga Park and De Soto Avenue 
facilities that sent chemicals into the air.

 Lisa Mascaro, (818) 713-3761 lisa.mascaro@dailynews.com

             Copyright Š 2004 Los Angeles Daily News Los Angeles 
*****************************************************************
 32 Seattle Times: Health-care contractor at Hanford investigated
 	 	 	
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
 			 			 			 			
By The Associated Press
 			 			
YAKIMA  The U.S. Department of Energy announced yesterday it has 
begun formally investigating a private contractor that monitors 
and provides health care to workers at the Hanford nuclear 
reservation. 

The department's Office of Independent Oversight and Safety 
Assurance last week began investigating allegations of fraud, 
supervisor misconduct and medical-records mismanagement at the 
Hanford Environmental Health Foundation, a nonprofit Department 
of Energy contractor. 

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham also asked the department's 
inspector general to investigate the allegations. 

In a five-page news release, the Hanford Environmental Health 
Foundation denied the allegations yesterday, saying independent 
investigations last fall concluded the claims were false. 

The announcement follows several inquiries in recent months into 
whether Hanford workers have been harmed by vapors from 177 
underground tanks that hold about 53 million gallons of 
radioactive waste. 

Allegations of misconduct by the foundation include violation of 
patients' medical-privacy rights, employee harassment and 
mismanagement of employee medical care, the Energy Department 
said in a news release. 

Since 1965, the foundation has been a contractor to the Energy 
Department, providing medical services to more than 11,000 
federal and contract employees at Hanford. 

The group lost out in the competitive-bid process in January, 
however, and its current contract expires in March. 

The nonprofit Government Accountability Project published a 
report in September 2003, contending toxic vapors escaping from 
the waste-storage tanks had hurt workers. 

Copyright Š 2004 The Seattle Times Company More local news 
*****************************************************************
 33 Tri-City Herald: Inquiry focuses on DOE contractor 

This story was published Wednesday, February 25th, 2004 

By Annette Cary Herald staff writer 

The Department of Energy has started a formal investigation into 
allegations of supervisor misconduct, fraud and medical records 
mismanagement by officials at the Hanford Environmental Health 
Foundation. 

The foundation, commonly called HEHF, denied the allegations. The 
nonprofit organization retained an investigator last fall who 
found them to have no basis in fact, according to a written 
statement by HEHF. 

The foundation has provided occupational medicine services to 
workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation since 1965 but lost a 
bid award in January to retain the contract. Many of the 11,000 
Hanford employees it serves work around highly radioactive 
material and hazardous chemicals. 

The DOE investigation was announced Tuesday as concern has built 
among government agencies and others about the health and safety 
of Hanford workers, particularly those who work around massive 
underground waste tanks. 

DOE announced Tuesday that it had sent its Office of Independent 
Oversight and Safety Assurance to Hanford to review allegations 
about HEHF's conduct as a federal contractor. It also will review 
safety changes and improvements made starting in March 2002 by 
CH2M Hill Hanford Group. It is the contractor in charge of 
emptying and maintaining underground tanks holding highly 
radioactive waste from Hanford's days of plutonium production. 

"Ensuring the safety and health of our workers is paramount and I 
will not tolerate any action by any contractor that will 
undermine worker safety," Abraham wrote in a letter to the 
inspector general. 

Allegations were made from within HEHF to DOE in September 2003. 
DOE's inspector general's office then referred the complaints to 
DOE's Richland office. That investigation continues, and the 
results are pending, according to DOE. 

Apparently after the HEHF employee complaints, the Government 
Accountability Group, or GAP, released a report saying workers at 
Hanford's underground tank farms were falling ill after being 
exposed to chemical vapors from the tanks. 

CH2M Hill does not believe any of its workers have experienced 
permanent health problems, although it has acknowledged some 
workers have suffered symptoms after briefly breathing ammonia 
fumes. 

The watchdog group GAP is concerned about whether workers might 
have long-term health effects or later develop cancer from 
breathing vapors vented from the tanks. It said the 149 older 
single-shell tanks hold more than 1,200 chemicals. 

DOE last week said that it invited the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health to visit Hanford for a technical 
review of safety procedures at the tank farms. NIOSH had received 
a confidential request to investigate from Hanford workers. 

In addition, last week a spokesman for state Attorney General 
Christine Gregoire said the state official was concerned that DOE 
was not looking into allegations of health issues at Hanford and 
that the state would investigate. 

Tom Carpenter of GAP said he was concerned the DOE investigation 
would not be thorough or impartial. 

Although the GAP report about tank vapors included criticism of 
HEHF, DOE investigators had not contacted GAP or workers from 
whom the group had heard complaints, Carpenter said. 

"All we want is the allegations investigated by a trustworthy 
organization without an ax to grind," he said. 

Also in response to DOE's announcement, the Oversight and 
Investigation Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce 
Committee asked for more information. 

Allegations of misconduct by HEHF include violation of patient's 
medical privacy rights, employee harassment and mismanagement of 
employee medical care, according to DOE. 

"HEHF's record of service to the workers of the site is one of 
outstanding quality and HEHF stands fully behind its 
performance," said HEHF in a five-page statement released in 
response to the allegations. 

It said the allegation of release of medical privacy rights arose 
from an incident when HEHF shared testing results on five Coyote 
Ridge prisoners with another Hanford contractor in fall 2002. Why 
prisoners were being tested was not clear Tuesday. 

HEHF believed sharing the test results would avoid or minimize 
danger to human safety, it said. 

HEHF also has been accused of modifying patient records to 
indicate a worker's condition was not related to work, which 
could benefit the contractor who employs the worker, according to 
the contractor. It's accused of letting injuries go undiagnosed 
or unrecorded. 

"There is no empirical or even anecdotal evidence that any of 
HEHF's independent medical judgments have been incorrect, or that 
there is any systemic bias toward non-occupational diagnoses," 
according to HEHF. 

HEHF has no financial incentive to avoid recording occupational 
injuries, it said. Although HEHF is required to consider the 
needs of contractors as it provides services, quality patient 
care always is its first priority, it said. 

In fact, unlike some other DOE sites, HEHF is a prime contractor 
to DOE and acts independently of other prime contractors. 

In another allegation, HEHF was accused of changing restrictions 
for workers sensitized to beryllium based on discussions with 
other contractors. 

The final decision on work restrictions is based on HEHF's 
independent medical judgment, according to HEHF. But rather than 
writing restrictions that call for no work around beryllium or no 
tank farm work, HEHF writes restrictions that quantify exposure 
and activity. It's the contractor employing the worker that 
decides how to protect the person within those parameters, HEHF 
said. 

"To rehash these allegations at this time serves no constructive 
purpose, unless the underlying motivation is to damage HEHF's 
reputation during the DOE public procurement of occupational 
health services for Hanford," according to HEHF. 

DOE announced in January that it was awarding Hanford's 
occupational medicine contract to AdvanceMed of Reston, Va. All 
the bids had high quality proposals, but the costs for performing 
the work varied significantly, a DOE official said then. 

However, HEHF and another losing bidder filed protests, and HEHF 
continues to hold the contract until the protests are resolved. 

DOE's Richland office received information on allegations against 
HEHF on the last day of fiscal year 2003. 

DOE gave HEHF an overall rating of "good" for the year, and it 
earned 90 percent of its performance fee. 

HEHF recently paid for a full-page advertisement in the Herald 
for the public to review its accomplishments. It listed 
accomplishments such as accreditation by the Joint Commission on 
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. It was selected as the 
Washington State Psychological Association as the first winner in 
its Psychologically Healthy Workplace competition in the 
nonprofit employer category. 

Š 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 34 Daily Camera: Flats plans call for limited public access 

One trail would open in first year, others postponed for five 
years 

By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer February 25, 2004

Though the latest incarnation of plans for a wildlife refuge at 
Rocky Flats add more public uses, all public access would be 
limited in the first five years, wildlife officials said. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the comprehensive 
conservation plan and environmental impact statement for the 
wildlife refuge Friday. Rocky Flats, a former nuclear munitions 
trigger-making site, is located at the southern boundary to 
Broomfield. 

The land, surrounding a 300-acre core once known as one of the 
most contaminated sites in America, would allow for several major 
trails, hunting and horseback riding areas. 

Initially, horses weren't allowed in the refuge proposals 
released last spring, but public comment fueled the change, said 
Laurie Shannon, wildlife service planning team leader for the 
refuge. 


   more information
 


  Upcoming meetings The U.S. and Wildlife Service will hold 
public meetings regarding the draft conservation plan and 
environmental impact statement for the Rocky Flats wildlife 
refuge, starting March 10 in Westminster. A Broomfield meeting 
will be March 18 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Broomfield 
Community Center, Lakeshore Room 3, 280 Lamar St. Written 
comments also will be accepted through April 12 at: Rocky Flats 
NWR, Comprehensive Conservation Plan, Laurie Shannon, Planning 
Team Leader, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rocky Mountain 
Arsenal, Building 121, Commerce City, CO 80022 or 
rockyflats@fws.gov. For more information, visit 
http://rockyflats.fws.gov. 

Flats options Four options for the Rocky Flats wildlife refuge: 
Option A calls for continuing wildlife management efforts already 
under way, focusing almost entirely on the Rock Creek 
drainageway. Cost per year: $164,000. Option B is the preferred 
alternative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and allows for 
public access to trails and areas for equestrian and hunting 
activities. Cost per year: $543,000. Option C outlines an 
extensive restoration project for the site to try to return the 
land to its original condition. Cost per year: $824,000. Option D 
features a visitor center and expanded educational and scientific 
uses, as well as numerous trails and other public use 
opportunities. Cost per year: $1,037,000.   

  



Hunting is proposed for youth and the disabled with an idea to 
expand after two years to able-bodied adult hunters should 
control of certain animal populations prove necessary, said 
refuge manager Dean Rundle. 

Broomfield City Councilman Gary Brosz, who serves with overseers 
on the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, called the 
plan to postpone public access in the so-called buffer areas 
around the industrial core overly conservative. 

"I would have no hesitation once this industrial area is cleaned 
up  to the level it's going to be cleaned up  taking my family 
across there. In fact, I look forward to it," Brosz said. 

He also opposed the suggestion that no dogs be allowed on site, 
in the interest of wildlife there, saying dogs would be no more 
disturbing to wildlife than already established packs of coyotes. 

Boulder County, Boulder and Superior officials and some community 
activists have pushed for limited, if any, access to the site, 
instead urging conservation only. 

Former Boulder City Councilwoman Lisa Morzel said she was 
concerned about the previous life of the land and that the public 
may not be aware of some issues that might remain, such as any 
lingering contamination. 

The plans detailed four alternatives for the wildlife refuge, 
expected to open sometime after clean-up of the site, scheduled 
for completion by December 2006. Price tags vary widely based on 
the amount of public access proposed there. 

The wildlife service supports an option that would allow some 
public access and would cost $543,000 per year to operate, or 
$8.6 million over 15 years. The conservation plan covers the 
first 15 years of the refuge. 

"We believe this is the alternative that best balances the 
purposes outlined in the national refuge act ... and public use," 
Shannon said. 

Former City Councilman Hank Stovall agreed, saying local leaders 
have worked with the wildlife service on the plan for more than a 
year. 

"It's got a reasonable cost and it provides reasonable access," 
he said. 

An option for extensive public use  which would include more 
trails and a visitors center and education program  would cost 
nearly twice as much, or $16.6 million over the 15 years. A plan 
to do little more than continue current wildlife management would 
cost $3.7 million over the same time frame while a plan to do 
extensive restoration would cost $11.5 million. 

The money to actually implement the plans has yet to be 
appropriated by federal lawmakers, however.   

  			 		
*****************************************************************
 35 Oak Ridger: Y-12's facelift moving forward 							 							 							
 
Story last updated at 12:12 p.m. on February 25, 2004

PROJECT: Officials are expected to begin site preparation for
construction on a new highly enriched uranium storage facility
later this year. 

By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff


As of this month, 130 buildings - totaling 700,000 square feet -
have been demolished at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

It's all part of a modernization effort at the Oak Ridge
weapons plant.

"By the time we're finished with this, it's going to run into
billions of dollars to put a new face on the plant," said Dennis
Ruddy, president and general manager of BWXT, which manages Y-12
for the federal government.

Brett Pate/Y-12 National Security Comples                                         
				 				
Lennie Russell and Tom Evans with Foley Construction discuss the 
work taking place on a facility for non-nuclear materials.                                                                                          

Construction of Y-12 started in the early 1940s as part of World 
War II's Manhattan Project. The uranium enriched at Y-12 
ultimately fueled the "Little Boy" bomb, which was dropped on 
Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of the war in 1945.

Y-12's modernization plan was actually unveiled in the late '90s.

To date, according to plant officials, more than $20 million of 
modification and repairs to existing buildings have been 
completed while well over six acres of roofs have been repaired 
or replaced. In addition, approximately $30 million in new or 
refurbished equipment has been installed in various facilities.

One aspect of Y-12's modernization effort is a new highly 
enriched uranium storage facility, which Ruddy calls a "pivotal" 
part of the plant's facelift.

Design of the $250 million storage facility has been completed, 
with site preparation for the construction work to begin later 
this year. The storage facility will be about the size of at 
least three football fields and will be built in an area that is 
currently a parking lot, officials said this month.

In the past, however, Y-12 representatives have said the storage 
facility would be the size of four football fields. A Y-12 
official could not confirm this morning if the size of the 
facility was actually being reduced.

Brett Pate/Y-12 National Security Comples                                         
				 				
Mark Sollenberger, left, and Dennis Ruddy talk about the 
construction of a $50 million manufacturing facility to recycle 
and purify non-nuclear materials at the Y-12 National Security 
Complex. Sollenberger is the project's manager while Ruddy is 
president and general manager of BWXT, which manages Y-12 for the 
federal government.                                                                                                

Y-12 is the nation's principal storehouse for weapons-usable 
uranium. And, last month, the plant received around 55,000 pounds 
of equipment from Libya's nuclear weapons program, including 
so-called feedstock and centrifuge parts - both of which are used 
to enrich uranium for weapons use.

One project that's currently under way at Y-12 is the 
construction of a $50 million manufacturing facility to recycle 
and purify non-nuclear materials.

"It's about 30 to 33 percent complete," said Mark Sollenberger, 
the project's manager.

According to Sollenberger, the facility should be completed later 
this year, with a readiness review tentatively scheduled to begin 
in October and run through March 2005. The facility is expected 
to begin operations in 2005.

And, while buildings are going up at Y-12, they are also coming 
down. The 130 structures that have been demolished so far vary in 
size, with some reducing the plant's footprint by 400 square feet 
while others cut the total plant size by 75,000 square feet.

Additional buildings beyond their useful life will be demolished 
under Y-12's Infrastructure Reduction program, which 
decommissions and demolishes old, unneeded and unused buildings 
to reduce maintenance costs and clear the way for construction of 
new facilities as part of the plant's long-term modernization 
plan. 

*****************************************************************
 36 Oak Ridger: Small emergency drill a Y-12 							 							 							
 
Story last updated at 12:31 p.m. on February 25, 2004

By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com

A small-scale emergency drill took place today at the Y-12 
National Security Complex.

The drill is considered to be a routine operation. A larger 
exercise is expected to take place later with participation from 
state representatives.

Y-12 officials could not release the drill scenario to The Oak 
Ridger this morning.

Y-12 plays a major role in the security of the nation by its 
production and refurbishment of weapons components, storage of 
nuclear material and prevention of the spread of weapons of mass 
destruction. 







*****************************************************************
 37 Idaho Statesman: Congressmen irked by INEEL contract

 Simpson demands federal explanation for no-bid deal 

For the second time in a month, Idaho´s Republican congressional 
delegation is at odds with the federal government over 
contracting decisions for the Idaho National Engineering and 
Environmental Laboratory.

The delegation criticized the Energy Department for awarding a 
contract for safeguards and security at the Idaho Falls lab 
without competitive bidding to a non-nuclear security company.

U.S. Rep. Michael Simpson said the no-bid deal with the native 
Alaskan corporation Alutiiq appears to contradict the federal 
government´s policy of demanding rigorous competition for new 
contracts.

U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Michael Crapo questioned the company´s 
capability to handle something as critical as security at a 
nuclear laboratory.

He demanded the Energy Department explain the security decision 
and several others that he claimed leave the INEEL too exposed 
to failure.

In a memorandum earlier this year to employees at both INEEL and 
the adjacent Argonne National Laboratory-West, the Energy 
Department´s Idaho operations manager said the contract with 
Alutiiq is in line with the goal of supporting small business.

Beth Sellers said it also will give the winner of the operating 
contract for the research program the ability to focus more fully 
on laboratory development.

Sellers said the company was expected to subcontract with 
Wackenhut Services to provide security at INEEL just as it has 
for military police services on Army posts throughout the United 
States and at the space and missile command in the Marshall 
Islands. 

Edition Date: 02-25-2004 
		

*****************************************************************
 38 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:18:09 -0800 (PST)

 
PAKISTAN to maintain nuclear edge: spokesman
Xinhua - China
25 (Xinhuanet) -- Pakistan will maintain competitive edge of its nuclear
program and enhance this capability qualitatively and quantitatively,
Foreign Office ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/25/content_1331886.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/2004-02/25/content_1331886.htm>

TOWN Commission Approves Firing Range At Nuclear Complex
NBC30.com - Hartford,CT,USA
WATERFORD, Conn. -- The Watertown Zoning Commission has approved plans
for a firing range at the Millstone nuclear power complex. ...
<http://www.nbc30.com/news/2872718/detail.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.nbc30.com/news/2872718/detail.html>

ALEXANDER TO CHAIR HEARING ON NEW NUCLEAR POWER
WBIR-TV - Knoxville,TN,USA
Lamar Alexander, who considers nuclear power a cleaner alternative to burning
fossil fuels, said Tuesday he plans to hold a hearing on the future of
nuclear ...
<http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=17147>

NUCLEAR Management Co. Selects Plateau 4 LMS to Strategically ... 
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
25 /PRNewswire/ -- Plateau Systems, the leading provider of enterprise
software that manages learning and knowledge readiness, announced today
that Nuclear ...
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040225/dcw044_1.html>

ISRAELI Nuclear Arsenal a Mystery to UN Watchdog
Reuters - United States
VIENNA (Reuters) - The extent of Israel's atomic weapons program is a mystery
to the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the agency's chief said in an
interview ...
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4438275>
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/newsArticle.jhtml%3Ftype%3DworldNews%26storyID%3D4438275>

US Criticizes Iranian Nuclear Report
Voice of America - USA
... United States says Iran's report to the International Atomic Energy
Agency was neither complete nor accurate and Tehran should come clean
on its true nuclear ...
<http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=9C410B54-C1F2-4D84-BC309796EC5E6B01>
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.voanews.com/article.cfm%3FobjectID%3D9C410B54-C1F2-4D84-BC309796EC5E6B01>

US team visits N.Korean nuclear site
ITV.com - UK
A US delegation has been the first outsiders to visit a North Korean nuclear
complex since UN inspectors were expelled a year ago. ...
<http://www.itv.com/news/1397789.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.itv.com/news/1397789.html>

IRAN Defends Decision Not to Disclose All Nuclear Information
New York Times - USA
25 Iran's top security official said today that his country was not required
to declare every aspect of its nuclear research programs, including advanced
...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/international/middleeast/25CND-TEHR.html?ex=1078376400&en=df2b13e6606b69be&ei=5062>
See all stories on this topic:
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NUCLEAR emasculation - By Dr SM Rahman
Hi Pakistan - Lahore,Pakistan
... Most gladiators fell, a few survived. Their survival was not relished.
A similar game is on in the nuclear coliseum. The Muslim ...
<http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en55239&F_catID=&f_type=source>
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US, NKorea meet in quest to solve nuclear crisis
Channel News Asia - Singapore
BEIJING : North Korea and the United States held an ice-breaking meeting
on the sidelines of six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear programme,
as they sought ...
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/72688/1/.html>
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