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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: David Kay's final report
2 Guardian Unlimited: Admit WMD mistake, survey chief tells Bush 
3 Australian: Parties agreed on WMD report 
4 War Wire: IAEA chief ElBaradei hopes Iran has told the whole nuclear
5 Las Vegas SUN: Inspector Upbeat on Iran Nuke Cooperation
6 Korea Herald: Bush confident of N.K. nuclear settlement   
7 AP Wire: N. Korea Won't Acknowledge Uranium Program
8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Bush Meets With FM Ban   
9 KoreaTimes: Bush Says Dismantling NK Nuclear Programs is A `Paramoun
10 Las Vegas SUN: North Korea to Consider U.S. Nuke Demand
11 Herald: Trident demo appeal may define ‘breach of peace’   
12 BBC: Is Pakistan's nuclear programme dying? 
13 Budapest Sun: Missiles and uranium pass Hungarian borders           
14 AFP: Top US official meets Malaysian premier over nuclear scandal
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
15 US: PW/TMI-25
16 US: [CMEP] NRC Should Revoke Davis-Besse Operating License
17 US: [NukeNet] NRC Should Revoke Davis-Besse Operating License
18 US: [NukeNet] March 7th reminder - Three Mile Island Revisited
19 US: [NukeNet] PALO VERDE NUKE PLANT SHUTTERS
20 US: azcentral Republic: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 
21 Daily Yomiuri: Distrust hinders N-plant reopening 
22 IHT: The reactor that was never finished
23 US: Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush's budget encourages nukes
24 US: Times Argus: Vermont senators want meeting on Vermont Yankee boo
25 UPI: German minister questions nuclear security - 
26 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Feds probe Indian Point 2 wiring
27 Toronto Star: Why nuclear warning sirens won't sound
28 US: Public Citizen: NRC Should Revoke FirstEnergy’s License for Davi
29 CNSC: For Licensees Information Bulletin
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
30 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $3,000 Fine Against Va. Firm over Temporary Lo
31 War Wire: Swedish nuclear watchdog allays fears about missing uraniu
32 AFTENPOSTEN: Swedish uranium may be missing
33 Scoop: Paris: Millions of people contaminated 
34 Toronto Star Voices: Nuclear fallout
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
35 US: Deseretnews: Waste bill resurrected in session's final days
36 Las Vegas SUN: Consultant says DOE won't make 2010 date for Nevada n
37 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Utah is closer to N-waste control 
38 US: Deseretnews: Radioactive waste will bypass Utah
39 Las Vegas RJ: Expert: Yucca launch date will likely be delayed 
40 BBC: Opposition to nuclear waste
41 US: North Adams Transcript: Radioactive debris spills on Rowe road
42 US: TheOmahaChannel.com: State Wants New Hearing On Radioactive Wast
43 US: Pahrump Valley Times: No radioactivity reported off test site 
44 US: Gallup Independent: Feds halt U-mining 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
45 Tri-City Herald: Hanford shop's work
46 ABQjournal: Scientists Debate Success of Los Alamos Supercomputer 
47 PISJ: INEEL's Pit 9 waste retrieval project complete
48 ACA: Proposed Energy Department Budget Would Boost Funds for Nuclear
49 lamonitor.com: Lab, community talk on future of facility 
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
50 Google News Alert - nuclear
51 RGJ: Washoe Planning Commission approves air-monitoring station perm
52 chattanoogan: TVA Plan Has Delayed Summer Drawdown Of Chickamauga La
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: David Kay's final report
 		
When chief weapons inspector David Kay bluntly told the senate 
there were, in fact, no WMDs, he forced a humiliating U-turn in 
Washington and London. Now, in his first newspaper interview, he 
tells Julian Borger that the president must admit he got it wrong                 
 		
Wednesday March 3, 2004
The Guardian 		
 		
When David Kay walked into the US Senate in late January, the 
question of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had become 
entangled in a thick forest of evasions, euphemisms and elisions. 
George Bush's administration and Tony Blair's government insisted 
that some evidence of weapons had been found by the Iraq Survey 
Group (ISG), which Kay had led for seven months, and that much 
more would be uncovered. At the same time, some US officials were 
market testing a new line - that the administration had never 
claimed there were Iraqi weapons stockpiles in the first place, 
just weapons programmes. 

Kay sat down in front of the Senate microphone on January 28, and 
with a few blunt words, swept all that carefully calibrated 
verbiage away. "Let me begin by saying, we were almost all wrong, 
and I certainly include myself here," he told the open-mouthed 
senators. It was a mea culpa - he had been convinced since his 
days as a UN inspector that Saddam Hussein was concealing a 
potentially devastating arsenal - but it was much more than that. 

In simply stating that there were no stockpiles, Kay declared 
that the would-be emperors on both sides of the Atlantic had no 
clothes. His call for a full inquiry ultimately tipped the 
balance in Washington and led to the creation of a bipartisan 
commission to investigate the intelligence fiasco. That, in turn, 
stampeded Blair into the Butler inquiry. 

But nothing stays clear for long when it comes to the 
justification for the Iraq war. Even since Kay's seminal 
testimony there have been attempts to reinterpret what he 
actually said. The media has been accused of focusing on a single 
soundbite, ignoring the ISG's findings that the Iraqis had indeed 
been trying to develop long-range missiles they were not entitled 
to, and had the means to reconstitute their weapons programmes 
once the international pressure was off. 

In person, however, Kay's message is clear. "I was convinced and 
still am convinced that there were no stockpiles of weapons of 
mass destruction at the time of the war," he told the Guardian in 
an interview in Washington. He now believes that any weapons the 
Iraqis had were probably destroyed before 1998. "There were 
continuing clandestine activities but increasingly driven more by 
corruption than driven by purposeful directed weapons 
programmes," argued the 63-year-old former diplomat and sleuth. 

Coming from a hawk and advocate of the Iraq invasion, that is a 
depressing conclusion for an administration at the start of an 
unpredictable election year. Worse still, Kay is now calling on 
the White House to come clean about its mistakes and defend the 
war instead as a liberation of an oppressed people. 

There are no signs of the administration following his advice. 
Even after Kay's testimony, vice-president, Dick Cheney and 
defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld have continued to insist that 
weapons may still be found. A week after Kay's senate appearance, 
Rumsfeld referred dismissively to the "theory that WMD may not 
have existed at the start of the war". 

"I suppose that's possible, but not likely," he said, and went on 
to raise other possibilities, such as the smuggling of Iraqi WMD 
over the border to another country. President Bush has adjusted 
his own rhetoric, using Kay's formula, "weapons of mass 
destruction-related programme activities", when talking about 
what has been found in Iraq in his state of the union speech 
earlier this year. 

Kay clearly admires Bush, and believes he went to war in Iraq in 
good faith because he thought Baghdad was a threat to the 
American people. Nevertheless, he thinks the president has to go 
further to regain public trust. "It's about confronting and 
coming clean with the American people, not just slipping a phrase 
into the state of the union speech. He should say: 'We were 
mistaken and I am determined to find out why'." 

Kay believes the centre of the resistance to a full and frank 
admission comes from the Pentagon and the CIA, but he also 
believes it is up to the White House to overrule them. Otherwise, 
faith in government will be under mined in the same way it was 
during Vietnam. "When you don't say you got it wrong, it leads to 
the general belief that you manipulated the intelligence and so 
you did it for some other purpose. I'm afraid that's going to 
turn out to be because the administration is having such a hard 
time in saying the intelligence is wrong. 

"And the other thing is it makes it very difficult for relations 
with allies. I think we lost the credibility of our intelligence. 
The next time you have to go and shout there's fire in the 
theatre people are going to doubt it," Kay says. 

This stark challenge is all the more painful coming from a man 
the administration had handpicked to lead its search for hidden 
weapons. Of all the experts to emerge from the UN inspections in 
the 90s, Kay had the clearest record of denouncing the Baghdad 
regime for deception and harassment of the inspectors. 

He and his inspection team were once held hostage for four days 
in a Baghdad car park after they came across documents proving 
the extent of the Iraqi nuclear programme before the first Gulf 
war. He stood his ground, and the Iraqi troops were ultimately 
obliged to let him go. 

Before the war, Kay was one of the most fervent supporters of 
military action. And more than two months after the invasion, 
with no signs of an arsenal, Kay came to believe it was because 
the Pentagon was botching the search. In early June, the 
administration decided to take him at his word. It took control 
of the weapons search away from the military and gave it to the 
CIA, which set up the ISG. The CIA director, George Tenet, asked 
Kay to lead the hunt. 

Kay, a veteran diplomat and nuclear weapons expert, set off 
convinced he would find the weapons but within a few weeks of 
interrogating Iraqi scientists and officials, and sending out 
search parties in vain, he began to feel a "great unease" that 
perhaps his assumptions, and those of many of the world's 
intelligence agencies, were built on sand. 

"It wasn't a eureka moment," he recalls. "It was a slow accretion 
from June on. I had millions of dollars of reward money that I 
could have paid for information on weapons and believe me, if 
someone had come in and said this is where they're hidden, we 
would have taken care of them for the rest of their life. The 
fact that no one came forward for it was a worrying concern." 

By the time he flew back to Washington in September to deliver a 
progress report, he was already convinced that no significant 
stockpiles would be found. But he found that some officials in 
the US and Britain were in no hurry to publicise his realisation. 

"At Langley [CIA headquarters in Virginia] at the highest level, 
there was concern about how we were going to deal with the 
[discrepancy between the] prewar intelligence assessments and 
what we were finding, and wanting to delay having to confront 
that ugly fact as long as possible," Kay says. "Because this came 
in the context of the 9/11 investigation and a series of other 
things that are likely to be unpleasant for them. And so this was 
just one more potential hammer blow and they were already 
thinking about how long they could delay it." 

However, he says the Blair government was even more worried about 
the report he was preparing to deliver to Congress in early 
October. "I think the greatest concern about the report in 
October and where it led was in London rather than in 
Washington," he says. "It was a different political issue in 
London than it was here. There was the David Kelly investigation 
that was ongoing. There was far more political concern there than 
what there was here, at least as expressed for me." 

However, Kay says he was never asked directly to amend or delay 
the report. "The Brits expressed their concern about it, and I 
never thought that was inappropriate," he says. "Their concern 
was that everything that was said should be accurate and 
factual." 

In his interim report, Kay told Congress he had failed to unearth 
an arsenal but had found evidence of widespread deception and 
concealment efforts by the ousted regime. He was sent back to 
Iraq, where insurgency against the occupation was taking off. 
"November was probably the worst month I ever had in my life, 
because our people were being attacked as you went out. There was 
a sense of panic in the air. The CPA (the Coalition Provisional 
Authority) was floundering. The military was floundering. I was 
worried that we were still sending teams out to search for things 
that we were increasingly convinced weren't there." 

At the same time, the ISG was being used increasingly for 
counter-insurgency intelligence work, with the result that Kay's 
resources were being drained. The lack of good translators was 
leading to "funny misunderstandings" in interrogations of Iraqi 
officials. By December, Kay had decided to resign. 

Since his departure, Kay says he has experienced no hostility 
from the White House. He met Bush, national security adviser, 
Condoleezza Rice and chief-of-staff, Andrew Card, to explain his 
findings. The president, he recalls, just wanted him to explain 
his reasoning. "He was asking the hard questions. He took the 
lead in the conversation," Kay says. 

He now believes the west's intelligence agencies got it wrong for 
two reasons. First, they were manipulated by Ahmed Chalabi and 
other dissidents whose central interest was ousting Saddam. Just 
mentioning the name of the Iraqi National Congress leader makes 
Kay laugh. "Here's a guy who's so transparent. Chalabi asked me 
in Iraq once: 'Why are you so concerned about WMD? No one cares 
about WMD.' 

"They manipulated us," Kay admits, "but we weren't smart enough 
to detect it, and screen it out, and so the greater shame is on 
us." 

The second factor, in Kay's opinion, was a fundamental cultural 
misunderstanding. The CIA, MI5 and the other western agencies saw 
blatant smuggling at a time when the regime could quite legally 
import basic civilian goods, and came to the conclusion the 
contraband must be military. They failed to understand that 
smuggling was more lucrative. "You had the Turks, the Syrians and 
Jordanians - everyone got a cut, so it became in everyone's 
interest to do it illegally," he says. Meanwhile in Iraq, 
scientists and officials were busy thinking up as many missile 
projects as they could, as a means of extracting funds from the 
regime. 

For all his disillusion in the WMD intelligence, the former 
inspector still believes Bush led his country into war in good 
faith, determined to avoid a repeat of September 11, this time 
with WMD. "After 9/11 the risk level this president was prepared 
to run was different. I have sat as far from him as I am from you 
now [two metres] and I have seen in him the trauma of 9/11," he 
said. "That had an impact on the level of intelligence you had 
before you acted. I think he has a deep and abiding regret that 
he had not acted against [Osama bin Laden] earlier." 

As for the war itself, Kay still believes it was justified - not 
by the Iraqi military threat, which was largely illusory - but by 
the suffering of the Iraqi people. It will probably be the 
justification that Washington and London will ultimately settle 
on. "You spend any time there and you look at the mass graves and 
the destruction of society and the culture," Kay says. "We have a 
history of usually ending up on the right side of wars for the 
wrong reason." 
	
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
 2 Guardian Unlimited: Admit WMD mistake, survey chief tells Bush 

[UP] 

Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday March 3, 2004
The Guardian 		
		
David Kay, the man who led the CIA's postwar effort to find 
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has called on the Bush 
administration to "come clean with the American people" and admit 
it was wrong about the existence of the weapons. 

In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Kay said the 
administration's reluctance to make that admission was delaying 
essential reforms of US intelligence agencies, and further 
undermining its credibility at home and abroad. 

He welcomed the creation of a bipartisan commission to 
investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq, and said the 
wide-ranging US investigation was much more likely to get to the 
truth than the Butler inquiry in Britain. That, he noted, had "so 
many limitations it's going to be almost impossible" to come to 
meaningful conclusions. 

Mr Kay, 63, a former nuclear weapons inspector, provoked uproar 
at the end of January when he told the Senate that "we were 
almost all wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). 

He also resigned from the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), which he was 
appointed by the CIA to lead in the hunt for weapons stockpiles, 
saying its resources had been diverted in the fight against Iraqi 
insurgents. 

"I was more worried that we were still sending teams out to 
search for things that we were increasingly convinced were not 
there," Mr Kay said. 

His call for a frank admission is an embarrassment for the White 
House at the start of an election year. The defence secretary, 
Donald Rumsfeld, has dismissed Mr Kay's assertion that there were 
no WMD at the start of the Iraq war as a "theory" that was 
"possible, but not likely". 

In his state of the union speech in January, George Bush did not 
refer to his prewar claims that Iraq was an "immediate threat" 
but instead said the ISG had found "weapons of mass 
destruction-related programme activities". 

Mr Kay, who was formerly a UN weapons inspector, called for the 
president to go further. "It's about confronting and coming clean 
with the American people. He should say we were mistaken and I am 
determined to find out why," he said. 

A White House official said it was too early to draw conclusions: 
"The ISG is still working, and the commission on this has not 
even started." 

However, Mr Kay said that continued evasion would create public 
cynicism about the administration's motives, which he believes 
reflected a genuine fear of WMD falling into the hands of 
terrorists. He also said that if the administration did not 
confront the Iraq intelligence fiasco head-on it would undermine 
its credibility with its allies in future crises "for a 
generation". 

Mr Kay said that he had become convinced there were no WMD to be 
found several months ago, before presenting an interim report to 
Congress last October saying no stockpiles had been found, but he 
said the CIA and the Blair government were nervous about the 
impact of his conclusions. 

"I think the greatest concern about the report was in London 
rather than in Washington. It was a different political issue in 
London than it was here," he said, referring to the storm around 
the death of his former UN colleague David Kelly. 

Mr Kay said he had been expecting Dr Kelly's arrival in Iraq to 
help the search for biological weapons programmes, and had spoken 
to him shortly before his death. "He never had any doubts about 
Iraq's programmes," Mr Kay said. 
	
Guardian Newspapers Limited
*****************************************************************
 3 Australian: Parties agreed on WMD report 

[March 04, 2004]

GREG SHERIDAN   

MARTIN Indyk should be better known to Australians. After a 
career in Australia as an academic and intelligence analyst 
specialising in the Middle East, he went to work for a series of 
US think tanks, where he was highly regarded.

Indyk briefed Bill Clinton several times before the 1992 US 
election. Clinton was so impressed he appointed Indyk as Middle 
East specialist on the National Security Council. Later Indyk 
served as US ambassador to Israel and assistant secretary of 
state for the Middle East. 

Indyk, a Democrat, was poised to leave office when Al Gore lost 
the 2000 election. Because of the close election result, the Bush 
team was delayed in its transition arrangements. So it asked 
Indyk to stay on for another six months or so. Since he left 
office Indyk, now at liberal think tank the Brookings 
Institution, has become a trenchant critic of Bush foreign 
policy. 

The point here is that Indyk told me not long ago that when he 
left office, in 2001, he was personally convinced by the 
intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. So it 
wasn't an invention of George W. Bush's neo-conservatives, or of 
Tony Blair or John Howard. That's just what the intelligence 
showed. 

This is a vital background to this week's debates following the 
release of the parliamentary report on intelligence on Iraq's 
weapons of mass destruction. 

Everyone is lamenting the intelligence failure that all agencies 
all over the world thought Iraq had more WMDs than it apparently 
did have. Yet all through the 1990s the intelligence failure was 
exactly the reverse, under-estimating -- before 1991 -- Iraq's 
nuclear weapons program and failing to detect its biological 
weapons program. 

Intelligence is never absolutely conclusive and it seems clear 
now that Saddam Hussein, for his own reasons, was actively trying 
to convince the world he had WMDs. The only world leader who 
practised big deception over this issue was thus Saddam. Make no 
mistake, this is a very good report for the Government, which has 
clearly won the politics of the issue, this week, and overall. 
Indeed, astoundingly, yesterday's question time did not see Labor 
ask the Government a single question on the report. 

The chief security questions raised in parliament yesterday 
concerned the disposition of Defence golf courses. From WMDs to 
golf -- that's the judgment of ALP professionals on how this 
issue is running. That is certainly not the way an Opposition 
reacts to a damaging report. 

The report, though its authority is being overstated, nonetheless 
establishes that the Government did not put pressure on the 
intelligence agencies to change their analysis. It reports that 
the Office of National Assessments and the Defence Intelligence 
Organisation believed before the war that Saddam had WMDs. It 
establishes that the Government did not deliberately mislead the 
Australian people on this important issue. 

The report makes a few mistakes. It canvasses the idea that the 
legality of the war could be in question because only the 
presence of large amounts of weapons could constitute the kind of 
threat that justifies pre-emption. This is wrong at several 
levels. First, it was Saddam who intentionally convinced the 
world that he had WMDs so the coalition had to act on that 
assumption. More important, the legal basis of the war was Iraq's 
non-compliance with binding chapter seven UN Security Council 
resolutions. 

In reality, international law is a ropy concept, but if it's 
important to you, the war was perfectly legal on that basis 
alone. Similarly, the shocking revelation that the PM 
occasionally used the phrasing of CIA or MI6 reports rather than 
ONA reports in his parliamentary speeches is about as innocent as 
could be. With no disrespect to the ONA at all, if I were offered 
a leak of a CIA assessment of the Middle East or an ONA one, I'd 
take the former. 

It is a foolish suggestion that Australia should now develop a 
vast human intelligence network in the Middle East. We are still 
not doing enough in our own region. Like the French, Russians and 
Germans, we would have discovered nothing different from what the 
Americans and British believed. 

There is a fantastic amount of sanctimonious humbug being 
spruiked about all this. Carl Ungerer was an ONA analyst on Iraq, 
then later the chief foreign policy adviser to Simon Crean during 
the Iraq war. I have found Ungerer professional, knowledgeable 
and engaging to deal with. But he is writing articles now 
pregnant with the implication that only the political atmosphere 
created by the Government led the intelligence agencies to make 
such flawed assessments about Iraq's WMDs. 

While Ungerer worked for Crean, he presumably was under no 
political pressure from the Government. Yet neither Crean nor 
anybody else expressed the slightest doubt on WMDs. 

This broadly sensible report has the fingerprints all over it of 
the two leading Labor luminaries on the committee, Kim Beazley 
and Robert Ray. Although it was a good report for the Government, 
it is also good for Australia and, paradoxically, good for the 
Labor Party, too. 

It is good for Australia because it reduces the potential for 
poisonous conspiracy theories about the intelligence agencies, 
which could easily have been the result. And it's good for Labor 
because it helps put the Iraq issue to bed. Iraq is the 
Government's issue. As Dick Morris puts it, when you talk about 
your opponent's issue, even if you think you're doing well, you 
lose. 
		 		 		 
© The Australian   
*****************************************************************
 4 War Wire: IAEA chief ElBaradei hopes Iran has told the whole nuclear truth

LONDON (AFP) Mar 03, 2004

 International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed 
ElBaradei said Tuesday that he hoped omissions by Iran in 
disclosing details of its nuclear program would be their last.

"I trust, I hope that this was the last time that something would 
come trickling down again from their past activities," ElBaradei 
said in an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme.

"Large or small, it's important that they declare everything to 
build the confidence," he said.

The IAEA said late last month that Iran had failed to report 
possibly weapons-related atomic activities despite promising full 
disclosure.

It said Tehran had not told the IAEA it had designs for 
sophisticated "P-2" centrifuges for enriching uranium, nor that 
it had produced polonium-210, an element which the agency said 
could be used as a "neutron initiator (to start the chain 
reaction) in some designs of nuclear weapons."

ElBaradei told the BBC he "would not have conceived" 
proliferation on the scale that emerged in February when 
Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan admitted supplying nuclear 
technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.

"I think it is coming as a total shock to pretty much everybody," 
he said.

"It was really beyond anybody's imagination, at least beyond my 
imagination, that this -- such a sophisticated complex network of 
black markets in nuclear facilities, in even bomb design -- has 
been going on underground," he said.

It was "still an open question" whether other countries had 
acquired nuclear equipment or knowledge, ElBaradei said.

"We need national laws to criminalise any effort by any 
individual or companies that aim to illicitly traffic in 
equipment or material that could lead to nuclear weapons 
proliferation," he said.

As for Libya, which late last year decided to abandon all weapons 
of mass destruction programmes, ElBaradei was in no doubt that it 
was only a matter of time before they developed a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA chief said the Iraq war had benefited his work because 
it showed that the country had been effectively disarmed through 
inspection, and people now realised he needed more time to do his 
job.

"I think maybe the positive message that came out of Iraq maybe 
was that the international community will not tolerate 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," he said.

In the wake of spying accusations levelled against Washington and 
London, ElBaradei said he took it for granted that he had been 
bugged.

"It doesn't make you feel good because there is an invasion of 
privacy clearly," he said.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 5 Las Vegas SUN: Inspector Upbeat on Iran Nuke Cooperation

March 02, 2004 

 By PAUL AMES ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog
agency gave an upbeat assessment Tuesday of Iran's cooperation
with international inspectors despite continuing concerns over
the Islamic republic's nuclear program. 

Mohamed ElBaradei said there had been a major in Iran's
relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the
past year. 

"If you look at the big picture, we are clearly moving in the
right direction," the IAEA director-general told reporters,
alluding to Tehran's commitment under pressure last year to
reveal past nuclear secrets and cooperate with agency
inspectors. 

ElBaradei acknowledged, however, relations had been damaged by
discoveries by IAEA inspectors of traces of radioactive elements
and advanced equipment in Iran that could be used to make atomic
weapons. 

"The bad news is that they have some R (research and
development)activities that have not been declared," said
ElBaradei. "That is a setback in the confidence building." 

He confirmed that the IAEA is in contact with Pakistan to verify
Iran's claims that the traces of enriched uranium and
polonium-210 were the result of contamination of components
imported for legitimate nuclear power programs. 

"It's really important for us to get particle samples from
Pakistan," ElBaradei. He praised the Pakistani authorities for
cooperating with the agency and expressed hope they would soon
provide the samples. 

ElBaradei refused to speculate on how the IAEA's board might
react next week when it convenes in Vienna, Austria, to discuss
Iran's nuclear program. 

The United States is seeking a declaration that Iran is in
breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by seeking to
develop nuclear weapons. Iran is hoping a positive declaration
from the agency could lead to the resumption of trade talks with
the European Union. 

ElBaradei was in Brussels to attend an EU conference on nuclear
energy. He was also scheduled to hold talks on Iran and other
proliferation issues with the EU's foreign policy chief Javier
Solana. 

After Iran's decision last year to open up to international
inspectors and halt its uranium enrichment program, and a
commitment by Libya to end weapons of mass destruction programs,
ElBaradei said North Korea had become "the No. 1 proliferation
concern." 

He said the agency had little firsthand knowledge of what was
happening in the Communist state since its inspectors were
thrown out in 2002, but the IAEA was "very concerned" about
North Korea's capability to develop nuclear arms. 

Following revelations of the black-market network in nuclear
technology headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,
ElBaradei said the agency was making good progress in
identifying middlemen in Europe and Asia suspected of
involvement. 

He said the information would be passed on to governments in
expectation that sanctions against illicit traders would "make
sure that this will not be a model for people to follow." 

Reacting to allegations that British intelligence spied on U.N.
officials in the run up to the Iraq war last year, ElBaradei
said he'd seen no evidence that IAEA offices had been bugged,
but said the agency "worked on the assumption that we are bugged
all the time." 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 6 Korea Herald: Bush confident of N.K. nuclear settlement   

By Seo Hyun-jin (shj@heraldm.com) 

2004.03.04
      
U.S. President George W. Bush is confident of a peaceful
resolution to the North Korean nuclear standoff, said an
official accompanying Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon on his
five-day visit to Washington. 

Bush believes progress has been made on the issue, Foreign
Ministry director-general Kim Sook told reporters in the
American capital during the first day of the visit yesterday. 
The U.S. president cited as important the outcome of six-party
talks in Beijing last week that saw participants send a unified
message urging Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons
development, Kim said. 

The U.S. leader made the remarks during his one-hour meeting
with Ban to discuss the results of the nuclear talks involving
the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Local Foreign Ministry officials confirmed with the Korea Herald
details of the meeting between Bush and Ban. 

"Bush said the North Korean nuclear issue is a paramount concern
not only for Seoul but also for Washington and the two countries
share a very clear vision on this," Kim said. 

Bush indicated Washington may offer humanitarian assistance at
an appropriate time considering the famine and food crisis in
North Korea but stressed the North should not miscalculate the
U.S. intention, he said. 

The U.S. administration has refused to offer any concession to
the North before it settles the ongoing nuclear dispute. It has
also ruled out rewards for Pyongyang to abandon nuclear ambition
as this had been promised amid the first nuclear crisis in 1994. 
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed his president's
offer of possible aid to the impoverished North and positive
assessment of the second round of the six-party talks Feb.
25-28. 

"We want to help the people of North Korea, who are in such
difficulty now," Powell was reported as saying in a speech to
the Asia Studies Center of the Heritage Foundation. 

The countries in the nuclear talks "have made it clear to North
Korea that a better future awaits them, that none of these
nations is intent on attacking them or destroying them," he
said. 

Powell was upbeat on the prospects for future multilateral
nuclear talks. 

"We haven't gotten where we need to be," he said. "But what I am
especially pleased about is that we have institutionalized now
the process with working groups and we're already getting ready
for the next meeting." 

The Beijing participants agreed to reconvene talks by June and
establish lower-level working groups for detailed consultations
in between formal discussions. 

Despite their promise to hold regular meetings, Pyongyang and
Washington have barely narrowed down their differences on how to
resolve the 17-month nuclear standoff. 

The U.S. chief negotiator for the talks said, however, Pyongyang
officials had agreed to consider a U.S. demand that it scrap all
its nuclear programs based both on plutonium and uranium. 

Pyongyang's clandestine atomic weapons program using highly
enriched uranium has been a stumbling block because the
communist North denies possessing it and Washington insists it
has hard evidence. 

"The North Koreans came to the table denying a uranium
enrichment program," James Kelly yesterday told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. "It was very clear by the
conclusion of the talks that this is now very much on the
table." 

Washington wants the six-party talks to be expanded to cover
missiles, conventional forces and human rights, he said. 

Meanwhile, Bush appreciates President Roh Moo-hyun's efforts to
ensure a solid foundation to Seoul-Washington relations, Kim
said. Ban delivered Roh's invitation for Bush to visit Seoul
this year, he said. 

The foreign minister is scheduled to meet U.N. Secretary General
Kofi Annan on Wednesday and hold talks with Powell on Thursday
on North Korea policy. 

He will consult with some members of the U.S. Congress and
experts on Korean issues before leaving Washington for Tokyo on
Saturday where he will meet Japanese leaders over the weekend. 

*****************************************************************
 7 AP Wire: N. Korea Won't Acknowledge Uranium Program

| 03/03/2004 |

GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials said Wednesday the chief problem in 
talks with North Korea is the communist country's refusal to 
acknowledge the existence of a secret nuclear weapons program 
based on uranium. 

James Kelly, the State Department's top official on Asia, told a 
Senate panel this week that the North Koreans "wouldn't give us 
any satisfaction" about the long-standing U.S. claim that the 
country is trying to develop a uranium-based bomb. North Korea 
has acknowledged that it has a plutonium-based weapons program. 

Kelly noted that although North Korea continued to deny the 
existence of any such program, it was less vocal in asserting 
that position during the recently ended six-party talks in 
Beijing. 

The North Koreans did agree for the first time to allow the U.S. 
claims about uranium bomb development to be a legitimate part of 
the agenda for future discussions, Kelly said. 

"It was clear by the conclusion of the talks that this is very 
much now on the table," Kelly said. 

Overall, the Bush administration is hopeful that last week's 
talks have laid the groundwork for progress on inducing North 
Korea to eliminate its weapons facilities, officials said 
Wednesday. 

They found the Beijing talks useful even though North Korea 
showed no willingness to meet 16-month old U.S. disarmament 
demands. 

An administration official said Wednesday the five countries that 
joined the discussions with North Korea supported the U.S. call 
for the "complete, verifiable and irreversible" elimination of 
the North's weapons. 

Also participating in the talks were China, South Korea, Japan 
and Russia. 

North Korea's delegates asked their counterparts about the timing 
and the benefits the North would receive in exchange for 
disarmament, the official said. 

The United States has said that North Korea could expect some 
benefits after making a credible strategic commitment to 
eliminate its nuclear facilities. 

Jack Pritchard, a former State Department expert on North Korea, 
said that the North, by making the concession of allowing U.S. 
claims about a uranium-based program to be put on the agenda, was 
simply acknowledging that it was an issue of importance to the 
United States. 

A second administration official, also requesting anonymity, said 
a North Korean official in Beijing told members of other 
delegations during a dinner that he had no authority from his 
country to discuss the uranium bomb issue. 

Another meeting of the six-party talks is expected to be held in 
June. Pritchard said time is on the side of North Korea because 
as the diplomatic process continues without a breakthrough, the 
North has moved ahead with its nuclear programs. 

Kelly alluded to that point on Tuesday when he said it was "quite 
possible" that North Korea had reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods 
to extract plutonium, a key step in nuclear weapons development. 

If reprocessing has been completed, Kelly said, "there would be 
fissionable plutonium that could certainly be turned into a 
significant number of nuclear weapons." 

North Korea said last year reprocessing had been completed but 
U.S. experts said they were unable to provide independent 
confirmation.   

*****************************************************************
 8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Bush Meets With FM Ban   
 
      Updated Mar.3,2004 21:30 KST   
 
The meeting between Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban 
Ki-moon and United States President George W. Bush was not a 
planned one. Ban was initially at the White House to talk with 
National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice. It is extremely rare 
for the U.S. head of state to meet with visiting foreign 
ministers other than during summit gatherings. The meeting lasted 
for approximately thirty minutes and was attended by Rice, 
Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, and Michael Green, 
Director of Asian Affairs for the National Security Council. 

President Bush asked Ban four questions, reported Kim Sook, head 
of the Korean foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau. 
He asked two questions; how Korea views the results of last 
week's six-way talks in Beijing, and whether Korea thinks the 
North really has any intention of renouncing its nuclear program. 

To the first question, Ban said while Korea entirely satisfied 
with the results of the six-way talks, there were nevertheless a 
few positive signs, and to the second question, he responded by 
telling Bush that he believes ultimately North Korea will give up 
its nuclear designs. 

Bush reportedly said he felt the talks were able to deliver the 
North a clear and common message about the need for it to forego 
its nuclear program, and that he has come to be confident that 
the North Korean nuclear issue can be resolved peacefully. 

Bush then asked whether the Korean people are still nervous about 
the relocation of U.S. troops, to which Ban responded by saying 
that some in Korean society are indeed nervous about the moving 
of the U.S. military installation currently in Seoul's Yongsan 
neighborhood, but that "U.S. and Korean military authorities are 
working in agreement to quiet the concerns. 

Bush then said that during a visit to Seoul, he was surprised to 
see an American military base in what for Korea must be expensive 
real estate. He said that the decision was made to relocate the 
installation because some Koreans were upset at the inability to 
put the land there to proper use. 

Finally, Bush asked if the inter-Korean relationship had 
developed to the point where both sides were able to communicate 
by telephone. Ban told him that there ere 38 official contacts in 
2003, and that there would be opportunity for contact in a 
multiparty context during the Association of Southeast Nations 
meeting this year. 

Bush said he believes US-Korean relations are developing on a 
firm foundation, and praised President Roh Moo-hyun for his 
contributions to the relationship, saying he values the special 
relationship he believes he has with Roh. About the possibility 
he might visit Seoul this year in response to an invitation from 
Roh, however, Bush did not give a firm answer, saying only that 
he expects to be very busy. 

(Joo Yong-joong, midway@chosun.com ) 
*****************************************************************
 9 KoreaTimes: Bush Says Dismantling NK Nuclear Programs is A `Paramount Concern' 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times   

By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter

 The President of the United States George W. Bush said Tuesday 
that, by way of last week¡¯s nuclear talks, the U.S. delivered a 
clear message that North Korea should completely dismantle all 
its nuclear programs.

 Bush said a positive outcome from the six-party talks is that 
North Korea has been clearly informed that it should completely 
dismantle its nuclear weapons programs. Bush made this remark 
during a meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon 
at the White House. 

Bush stressed that the nuclear issue is a ``paramount concern¡¯¡¯ 
not only for South Korea but also for the U.S., and that the two 
sides share a clear vision on this, according to Kim Sook, the 
Director-General of the Foreign Ministry¡¯s North American 
Affairs, who accompanied Ban on his U.S. trip. 

``Mr. Bush said he, as the president of the United States, is 
sure the issue can be resolved peacefully,¡¯¡¯ Kim said.

 Bush has repeatedly said he would never tolerate a nuclear North 
Korea. But, while meeting with Minister Ban, he didn¡¯t appear 
impatient with the slow pace of the nuclear talks, according to 
officials.

 ``He seemed to understand this is going to take time,¡¯¡¯ said a 
senior Washington official familiar with the meeting. ``His tone 
was conveying a sense that the talks could continue for much of 
the year.¡¯¡¯

 Experts suspect the North Koreans might be delaying any 
definitive move in hopes that Bush will not be reelected, or to 
complete more nuclear work in the run-up to the November 
election, a period in which they believe the Bush administration 
will not risk a military confrontation.

 Expressing his deep gratitude for South Korea¡¯s participation 
in the Iraqi rehabilitation projects, Bush stressed the 
Seoul-Washington alliance is on good footing. Korea is to send 
some 3,600 soldiers in late April at the request of the U.S.

 ``President Bush said he is thinking much of the special 
relationship with President Roh Moo-hyun, as Minister Ban 
delivered President Roh¡¯s best regards to him,¡¯¡¯ Kim said.

 Bush briefly referred to the realignment of the 37,000 U.S. 
troops stationed in Korea, saying that the U.S. remains committed 
to the security of South Korea. He said he believes the ROK-U.S. 
combined defense capability will not weaken at all due to the 
prowess of high-tech weapons. 

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 03-03-2004 14:50         
        
*****************************************************************
 10 Las Vegas SUN: North Korea to Consider U.S. Nuke Demand

March 02, 2004 

 By BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - 

North Korea agreed in the latest nuclear weapons talks to
consider a U.S. demand that it dismantle its programs based both
on plutonium and uranium, the chief U.S. negotiator told
lawmakers Tuesday. 

"The North Koreans came to the table denying a uranium
enrichment program," Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 

But, in a reversal, he said, "It was clear by the conclusion of
the talks that this is now very much on the table." 

Kelly cited the developments in Beijing as evidence of "a very
different, promising atmosphere" in the latest round of
negotiations. 

As Kelly spoke, Secretary of State Colin Powell avoided
specifics but offered an upbeat assessment of the talks and said
cooperation at the negotiating table with South Korea and other
allies was unprecedented. 

In a speech to an Asian studies group, Powell said North Korea
can expect good relations with its neighbors in the North
Pacific once it ends its program and embraces a policy of
political and economic openness now sweeping the area. 

While the Bush administration has ruled out concessions to North
Korea as a payoff to end its nuclear weapons program, Powell
said without elaboration: "We want to help the people of North
Korea, who are in such difficulty now." 

Referring to the U.S. partners in the six-nation talks that
recessed last week in Beijing, Powell said the United States,
South Korea, Japan, China and Russia "have made it clear to
North Korea that a better future awaits them, that none of these
nations is intent on attacking them or destroying them." 

There was a good deal of progress at the latest round, Powell
said. "We haven't gotten where we need to be," he said, "but
what I am especially pleased about is that we have
institutionalized now the process with working groups and we're
already getting ready for the next meeting." 

Only Monday in Seoul, however, South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun spoke of creating a foreign policy more independent of
the United States. "Step by step, we should strengthen our
independence and build our strength as an independent nation,"
he said in a nationally televised speech. 

On Tuesday, the new South Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon,
met with President Bush and Powell at the White House. U.S.
officials provided no account of the meeting. 

The main theme of Powell's speech to the Asia Studies Center of
the Heritage Foundation, a private research group, was that
democracy was on the rise in Asia. 

Just 40 years ago, he said, only one genuine democracy existed
in East Asia, Japan, and two incomplete democracies, the
Philippines and Malaysia. 

In the rest of Asia, he said, only India had a solid democratic
tradition. 

The common conclusion, accepted even by some Asians, was that
Asian societies had no interest in democratic government, Powell
said. 

Then came democratic successes in South Korea and Thailand and
later Mongolia and Indonesia, Powell said. Taiwan followed, and
then East Timor, and last year half a million people marched
through Hong Kong in peaceful opposition to legislation that
would have curbed civil liberties, he said. 

Powell, in a pointed message to China, said Hong Kong must
remain open and tolerant, even though the former British colony
is under Chinese law. 

He said in another message that the United States strongly
opposes any use by China of force or threats across the Taiwan
Strait, meaning against Taiwan. 

The secretary said, however, that the United States does not
support independence for Taiwan, which China considers a
renegade province. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 11 Herald: Trident demo appeal may define ‘breach of peace’   
 
Web Issue 1954
    
  BRIAN DONNELLY     March 03 2004   
    
  FIVE of Scotland's most senior judges yesterday began hearing
appeals from anti-nuclear demonstrators that could define breach
of the peace.

 Three Trident Ploughsharers campaigners have been backed by
some MSPs in their bid to have their convictions quashed at the
Court of Session.

 They were found guilty of the offence following protests at the
Scottish Parliament and the Faslane base on the Clyde between
1999 and 2002.

 Critics say it is a catch-all offence for police when no other
is available. As a common law offence it can be reinterpreted by
judges' decisions  there is no statutory definition. 

Jane Tallents, 45, of Helensburgh, Margaret Jones, 55, of
Bristol, and Gaynor Barrett, 25, of Exeter, claim their
convictions breached their right to protest under the European
Convention on Human Rights.

 Margo MacDonald, Lothians Independent MSP, gave evidence in
defence of Ms Tallents before she was convicted. 
Ms MacDonald said yesterday: "There is the worry that breach of
the peace is being used too widely and could undermine peaceful
democratic protest."

 The appeal hearing is expected to end today.
   
  Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights
*****************************************************************
 12 BBC: Is Pakistan's nuclear programme dying? 
 
  Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 March, 2004
 
Analysis
By Paul Anderson BBC correspondent in Islamabad   

In all the heat generated by Pakistan's leading nuclear 
scientist, AQ Khan, confessing to nuclear proliferation, 
relatively little attention has been paid to the future of the 
country's nuclear weapons programme. 

[AQ Khan Pakistani nuclear scientist]                           
AQ Khan dramatically confessed to leaking nuclear secrets in 
February.
			 			   		
In the 1970s Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto famously declared 
that Pakistanis would go to any sacrifice to match India's 
nuclear weapons programme, even if it meant the people being 
reduced to eating grass. 

Now they have a nuclear programme, they are discovering that 
weapons technology is a dynamic business which requires constant 
maintenance and upgrading. 

That maintenance has been promised by President Pervez Musharraf. 

But nuclear specialist and journalist Shahid ur Rehman believes 
the president will run into difficulties, the seeds of which were 
sown many years ago. 

"Pakistan's programme was based on smuggled, imported 
technology," he says. "AQ Khan and his friends went shopping all 
over the world with the connivance of the Pakistani army. 

"By contrast, India's programme was not as sophisticated, but it 
was indigenous. If there are curbs on India they will not 
suffer." 

Shahid ur Rehman argues that it will be impossible for Pakistan 
to upgrade its nuclear programme legally. 



"If Pakistan needs a nuclear component, they will have to 
approach the international market. They will not sell it, so 
Pakistan will have to buy it on the black market." 

That means, he argues, that: "Pakistan's nuclear programme is now 
almost half dead. They won't be able to modernise facilities 
which are becoming obsolete. It is a de facto roll back." 

And that is precisely what President Musharraf has promised to 
avoid. 

"We will continue to develop our capability in line with our 
deterrent needs. I am the last man who will roll back," General 
Musharraf promised recently. 

Inspections debate 

So far, there is no obvious pressure on Pakistan to embark on 
nuclear reduction or a roll back. 

But that could come, if or when new revelations about its 
proliferation history come to light. 

The country could also come under pressure to open its facilities 
for inspection. 

[Supporter of AQ Khan]                                  
Many Pakistanis regard Dr Khan as a hero                                                          

"The outside world would be quite justified in asking the 
Pakistani government for proper assurances," says AH Nayyar, a 
physicist and nuclear expert from Qaid-e-Azam University in 
Islamabad. 

"They could demand to inspect the log books of all sensitive 
organisations in Pakistan to make sure every single kilo of 
highly enriched uranium is taken account of. That could be very 
intrusive," he says. 

But as long as President Musharraf is in power, that is extremely 
unlikely. 

"No to an internal independent inquiry and no to United Nations 
inspections teams," he said after AQ Khan's dramatic confession 
last month. 

He might have added 'no' to joining the Non Proliferation Treaty 
(NPT) which has been muted as a possible consequence of the 
proliferation scandal. 

But it has been ruled out by one government official after 
another. 

Pakistan would have to be legally recognised as a nuclear weapons 
state first, which is unlikely, and India would have to join the 
NPT at the same time, which is also unlikely. 

Double standards? 

NPT touches another nerve. There's a widespread belief in 
Pakistan that it is being singled out for scrutiny while India's 
weapons programme is overlooked. 

Take the recent hi-tech agreement between India and the United 
States, on cooperation in nuclear power and space technologies. 

Samina Ahmed, from the International Crisis Group, believes it is 
a green light for proliferation. 

[Launch of nuclear missile at Khan Research Laboratories] Khan's 
Kahuta plant is Pakistan's main nuclear weapons laboratory                                                              

"Transfers of dual-use technology, nuclear technology and space 
technology is violating a basic principle of the Non 
Proliferation Treaty," she says. 

"It is dangerous and counterproductive. 

"Dangerous because with some of the gaps in India's nuclear 
weapons programme being filled in with American support, that 
will encourage India to go ahead with its ambitious nuclear 
programme. 

"And counter-productive because it will lead to other states 
playing catch-up." 

While these argument rage, Pakistan is quietly hoping the whole 
issue will go away. 

Or if it does not, that the focus of attention is turned on what 
President Musharraf says is the real menace - the European 
companies which he says form the backbone of the nuclear black 
market. 

So far though, there is little sign of that happening. 



*****************************************************************
 13 Budapest Sun: Missiles and uranium pass Hungarian borders                                             

Volume XII, Issue 10 		   	 	
 		  
March 4, 2004 		   	 	
 		   			
UKRAINIAN border guards held a Ukrainian citizen on Monday, 
February 23, at the Lamberg crossing station after realizing that 
he was carrying a 400-gram shipment of enriched uranium.

The Hungarian Border Guard Center (HOP) was informed about the 
incident by the Ukranian authorities. Based on their report, 
Sándor Orodán, the spokesman of the HOP said that the man drove 
in his Citröen van to the border station where the vehicle 
underwent routine inspection.

During the check, border guards and customs officers found a 
cylinder-shaped container 25cm in diameter and 33cm in height, 
bearing the yellow-black radioactive hazard sign.

"As the container was suspicious, the officers transported it to 
the radiology institute in Ungvár for further inspection, 
initiated proceedings against the driver and confiscated the 
vehicle," Orodán explained. "Smuggling radioactive materials is 
extremely rare, as it is highly dangerous for the transporter and 
allows for relatively low profit," Orodán commented. Hungarian 
border guards caught weapon and firearm parts smugglers on 22 
occasions in 2003, a slight increase from 19 in 2002, he 
explained. Orodán added that the HOP initiated a meeting with 
Ukranian authorities to discuss the details of the incident.

According to tests, radiation on the outside of the container did 
not exceed normal levels.

When questioned by Ukranian border guards, the driver reportedly 
said the cylinder contained oxygen used for dentistry purposes. 
The man claimed he was fulfilling an order by unknown buyers.

In a separate development, Hungarian daily Magyar Hírlap reported 
that four Turkish trucks were stopped while trying to enter 
Hungary from Romania on Thursday, February 26. They were 
apparently shipping missile parts without the required documents 
from NATO and the Hungarian military. The trucks were said to be 
bound for a West European military base and are currently being 
detained at the Nagylak border station.

The following day, seven more Turkish trucks carrying military 
equipment were stopped at Nagylak on the Romanian border, as they 
also did not have the necessary transit documents.

Eleven trucks are now stranded at the border, each of them bound 
for a military base in Western Europe. Customs Guard spokesman 
Jenô Sípos said the vehicles cannot enter Hungary until they have 
the necessary documents. He would not go into detail regarding 
what military equipment the trucks are carrying.

Copyright 2001 * The Budapest Sun * All Rights Reserved    
*****************************************************************
 14 AFP: Top US official meets Malaysian premier over nuclear scandal

sources

  March 3, 2004 Wednesday                   
                        
  KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A top US official charged with preventing 
the spread of nuclear weapons met Tuesday with Malaysia's prime 
minister, whose son owns a company which has been embroiled in 
the nuclear black market scandal, sources told AFP. The meeting 
between US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of 
Nonproliferation, John Stern Wolf, and Prime Minister Abdullah 
Ahmad Badawi, was not immediately acknowledged by the premier's 
aides.

 They refused to confirm or deny the talks when telephoned 
several times throughout the day. A source involved with Wolf's 
visit told AFP, however, that the envoy had in fact met Abdullah 
Tuesday morning.

 The nuclear issue is a sensitive one here, with opposition 
parties using it as a campaign topic ahead of elections expected 
within a month, while the government has accused Washington of 
unfairly targeting Malaysia.

 The mainly-Muslim Southeast Asian nation has strong trade ties 
with the US but political relations have at times been prickly, 
particularly under former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad who 
retired last October.

 The foreign ministry initially announced that Wolf would meet 
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar and that a news conference 
would be held, but later issued a statement cancelling the 
briefing without elaborating.

 The US embassy also remained tight-lipped about Wolf's 
programme, saying only that he was "meeting with senior 
government officials, discussing ways to increase the existing 
cooperation between the two countries, specifically on 
non-proliferation".

Copyright © 2003 Brunei Press Sdn Bhd. All right reserved.         
*****************************************************************
 15 PW/TMI-25
 
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:08:30 -0800

 
<x-flowed>



You Must Remember This

Just because a quarter-century has passed since the accident at Three Mile
Island doesn't mean we should shut up about it.
SARA KELLY (skelly@philadelphiaweekly.com)


"On March 28, 1979, and for several days thereafter--as a result of
technical malfunctions and human error--Three Mile Island's Unit 2 Nuclear
Generating Station was the scene of the nation's worst commercial nuclear
accident. Radiation was released, a part of the nuclear core was damaged,
and thousands of residents evacuated the area. Events here would cause basic
changes throughout the world's nuclear power industry."

--PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION PLAQUE DEDICATED IN 1999

------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT WAS A GREAT DAY for a nuclear disaster. Unseasonably warm for late March.
Overcast with little wind. Static. Still. So whatever radiation leaked out
would be slow to blow town.

Of course it wasn't such a great day for the people of Middletown and the
other sleepy boroughs along the Susquehanna south of Harrisburg. In fact, it
was their worst day ever.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOUR A.M., AND THE SUN wouldn't rise over the imposing Three Mile Island
Nuclear Generating Station for a couple more hours. A crew was busy doing
routine maintenance--flushing out a filter in a cooling system for the
plant's No. 2 reactor.

When the workers were finished, the few ounces of water that remained in the
pipes got sucked through the system to the air-controlled valves that ran
the main turbines. The turbines shut down suddenly, forcing a high-pressure
plume of steam into the air high above the island. Windows vibrated in homes
a quarter-mile from the plant, jerking residents awake.

Sensing the pressure drop, a safety mechanism stopped the nuclear reaction.
As pressure in the reactor increased, a release valve opened. But instead of
closing after pressure returned to normal, the valve remained open for more
than two hours, spewing thousands of pounds of radioactive sludge onto the
floor of a containment building and exposing some 5 feet of the reactor's
core. Tons of enriched uranium began hurtling toward meltdown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE SCARIEST THING about the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island was that
no one knew what it meant. It would take days to learn how close south
central Pennsylvania--and possibly even the entire East Coast, with ripple
effects felt around the globe--came to a radiation release so devastating it
would render the affected areas unlivable for as long as anyone could
imagine. And it would be years before scientists realized that while the
core didn't melt through the reactor floor and tunnel all the way to China,
its temperature had approached 4,300 degrees. Had it gotten much hotter,
uranium would've run like water.

Then there was the hydrogen bubble. The heat and steam generated from the
zirconium (yes, just like those beautiful fake diamonds they hawk on the
Home Shopping Network) covering the fuel rods started a chemical reaction
that produced hydrogen. And hydrogen, old-timers will recall, was what
turned the Hindenburg into a floating inferno.

Plant workers realized that hydrogen had been building up inside the reactor
for hours when internal air pressure shot up suddenly during an eight-second
explosion that shook the control room and packed the wallop of several
thousand-pound bombs.

Air monitors later revealed increasing oxygen levels in the reactor, a
likely result of radiation so intense it broke the chemical bonds that hold
water together. As hydrogen and oxygen levels continued to increase, so did
fears that TMI's Unit 2 would become an unstoppable 400-ton hydrogen bomb.

H-bombs are 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than atomic bombs. The A-bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 people and
injured nearly as many. The potential for nuclear annihilation was profound.

Retired University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine radiology professor
Ernest Sternglass, a man many perceive to breathe rare air on the fringes of
the antinukes community, argues that all atomic bombings (including those
controlled tests staged in the South Pacific and the American Southwest
after World War II) contribute to health problems around the world. Don't
even get him started on nuclear power plants, which, he argues, do their
greatest damage on a daily basis, when things are running smoothly.

Despite the plant's and politicians' best efforts to maintain a cheery
exterior (showing about the most bravado of his presidency, Jimmy Carter
bravely--or stupidly, depending on who's talking--toured TMI during the
drama's height), things were running anything but smoothly days after the
accident, when Washington grew so worried about the bubble that it
dispatched a Nuclear Regulatory Commission team to TMI.

Once there, workers jury-rigged a "hydrogen recombiner" and installed
150,000 pounds of lead brick to shield the device, just in case. The bomb
threat quickly dissipated, thanks mostly to the venting of radioactive
emissions into the air and radioactive sludge into the Susquehanna River.

While most locals expressed relief when they heard the hydrogen bubble had
been popped, few fully knew at what expense.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

EVEN THOSE MOST DIRECTLY affected have a tough time recalling exactly where
they were or what they were doing when they got the news. "It wasn't like
hearing when Kennedy was shot," says retired three-term Lancaster mayor
Arthur Morris, whose understanding of how events unfolded on that fateful
spring morning in 1979 was little better back then.

After all, he adds, he wasn't convinced anything significant was happening
till enough information leaked out. And even then he couldn't be sure.

"If you hear there's an accident at TMI, you don't know what that means,"
says Morris, who still lives in Lancaster. Though the city is a relatively
safe 23 miles from TMI, it has a vested interest in what happens there since
most of its drinking water comes from the Susquehanna below the plant. But
as far as he knows, says Morris, the water's always tested normal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Dickinson College professor Lonna Malmsheimer
coordinated shortly after the accident revealed a surprisingly apathetic
public. Many interviewees from the Carlisle community surrounding
Dickinson--which is also some 23 miles from TMI--didn't realize there'd been
an accident until a day or two after it happened. Some hadn't even known TMI
existed.

Locals who recalled enough to talk about the partial meltdown's impact on
the community during interviews in 1979 have even less to say about it now.
They're hardly hesitant to talk about it, they say. Sure, tens of thousands
of people evacuated, but for them it wasn't that big a deal.

Nancy Mellerski, a professor of French and film, was in her second year at
Dickinson when the accident happened. In an interview Malmsheimer conducted
shortly afterward, Mellerski, like most of the 400-plus others interviewed
for the project, kept the conversation light.

She and her husband stayed in Carlisle, resisting the temptation to leave
even as concerns over the hydrogen bubble drove off many of their fellow
professors, Dickinson students and local residents.

The main reason they didn't leave, she said at the time, was that they
didn't want to move their pets. "They were holding us hostage," she laughed.

Interviews from both then and now suggest that while TMI's potential victims
were largely concerned about the prospect of a hydrogen bomb exploding in
their own backyards, freakish fantasy scenarios often dominated
conversation. Perhaps these diversions helped people keep their minds off of
more likely threats.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASIDE FROM THE ACCIDENT itself, the problems most commonly associated with
the partial meltdown involved poor communication. In a quarter-century of
retrospect, it's been learned that Gov. Dick Thornburgh and even President
Jimmy Carter, who toured the plant just four days after the accident (to the
fiendish delight of the Saturday Night Live writers who penned the famous
Pepsi Syndrome skit), didn't know the full story.

Most of the interviews conducted with locals at the time involved humor born
of fear. It didn't help that The China Syndrome--about a TV reporter
investigating a conspiracy to cover up safety lapses at a nuclear power
plant--had just been released, and even received a big box-office bump after
the accident.

In her 1979 interview Mellerski spoke at length about jibes she endured from
friends and family who lived outside the area. Most were about
mutation--that the couple would wake up one morning to find that their cats
had grown into saber-toothed tigers.

Both Children of the Damned and Godzilla came up in conversation. There was
a joke about using a hot dog like a canary in a coal mine: When it cooked in
your hand, it was time to leave. There was another one about putting X-ray
film under your pillow at night. And some inscrutable poop joke that brought
new meaning to "nuclear waste."

Twenty-five years later, Mellerski says she rarely thinks of the accident.
She can't remember a single one of those old meltdown jokes--which is no
one's loss, surely.

But she does say plant safety did occur to her on the terrifying morning of
9/11, when the third hijacked plane went off the radar somewhere over
central Pennsylvania. The thought still sends shivers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TMI VISITORS' CENTER might as well be a highway rest stop: a couple
short brick '50s-style bathrooms and a historic marker. Except the road in
front is no highway, and you hardly need a plaque to know what happened
here.

In the shadow of four concrete cooling towers--almost 400 feet each--this
squat earth-tone building sits shuttered. Instead of twin stalls and a
cold-water sink, there are barren chrome clothing racks and other lonely
reminders of the storefront's mercantile past. Hard as it may be to believe,
this was Three Mile Island's gift shop not too long ago.

It's a shame, says Eric Epstein, head of both antinukes organization Three
Mile Island Alert and of the nonpartisan EFMR Monitoring Group, which takes
hourly radiation readings at more than a dozen locations around the
plant--including right here at the visitors' center. "I used to get all my
Christmas presents here."

Then there's the plaque. Five years ago, at the 20th anniversary of TMI's
partial meltdown, the incident officially became part of Pennsylvania
history. Still, there's something strange about seeing the words "worst
commercial nuclear accident" rendered in old-timey type beneath the
commonwealth's stately equine crest.

But in the end it's just another head-scratching monument to the tension
over the years between the folks who argue that the key to avoiding even
more harrowing nuclear accidents in the future is never forgetting what
happened in the past, and those who just want it all to go away.

"In the last 25 years we've been lucky," muses Epstein.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIVE YEARS AGO, in time for the 20th anniversary, this joint was jumping.
We're not talking street carnival, exactly, but for a nuclear accident
anniversary, things were about as festive as they can get.

In those simpler days of early 1999, the gift shop was hopping. A PR flack
for the plant's then-owners took a reporter to lunch in an employee
cafeteria and even convinced her to thrust her hand into the innocuous
waters of a TMI cooling tower. (Five years and still cancer-free!)

She toured the island's undeveloped south end, where plant employees watched
wildlife and stocked their arrowhead collections. And she heard about
efforts to install a fish ladder and to send a Civil War-era skeleton found
on the island to the state historical society for analysis.

That was then. This is 2004, and TMI may be no less salubrious, but it is a
whole lot less friendly. And that can't bode well for the region's future
safety.

Now, except for a couple cars and a full bin of outgoing mail from the
plant--including important-looking packages addressed to the Chicago home
office--tucked away in a makeshift mailbox with a door that doesn't seem to
close, the visitors' center's parking lot is empty.

A plant spokesperson traces the current media-unfriendly environment to
heightened terrorism risks since 9/11. Yet company mail is left in an empty
parking lot, and locals tell tales of civilians accessing the island by boat
or by simply driving past the guard booth. And on at least three occasions
since 9/11, the plant's warning sirens have proven defective during tests.

The visitors' center is a straight shot across the river--within a bazooka's
range, adds Epstein, sunnily--of TMI's matched sets of twin towers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERIC EPSTEIN WON'T SHUT UP about Three Mile Island. Lots of locals feel the
way he does about it. But few can stomach the fight.

Ask him about the plant and he'll invoke Kafka or Carville. Ask him if he's
always so hyper and he'll direct you to his ex-wife. Catch him on the phone
before your morning coffee and you might as well give up.

The man has energy. So the obsession makes sense.

The plant's most vocal critic since even before the accident, the frenetic
44-year-old has managed to turn his TMI obsession into an all-consuming
career. His funny, often manic approach to the subject has made him
famous--or infamous, depending on who's talking.

Epstein's become so well known he's now trying to parlay his name into a
stint in the Pennsylvania Senate. Without TMI, he'd have no chance. As a
Democrat here, he may still have none.

Born in nearby Harrisburg, on whose outskirts he now lives, and radicalized
by his college days out west, Epstein started the watchdog group TMI Alert
in 1977, three years after the island's first power plant went online and
two years before its second started up, partially melted down and was
shuttered for good--all within a couple months in early 1979.

It's not hard to see why Epstein returned to his Pennsylvania homeland.
Picturesque even during winter's steel-gray depths, the Susquehanna River
Valley's all rolling hills and manicured pastures punctuated by the
occasional hardwood stand.

Holding its frosty tinge for more than half the year, the land still betrays
its pioneer days. From the tops of the silt-rounded hills down to the slow,
shallow riverbanks, human progress seems an afterthought. Acres of organic
contours under a winter-white sky.

Then, over almost any high hill within 10 miles of the plant, the quartet of
concrete towers rises like a salt shaker outcropping from the Susquehanna's
center, breaking the bucolic spell. Though they're not directly involved in
energy generation, the towers remain, in most people's minds, a sobering
symbol of nuclear power.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THREE MILE ISLAND IS ACTUALLY two power plants--Unit 1 and Unit 2. The
former is still generating power that feeds into the grid most of us tap for
our electricity. It's changed hands a couple times since the accident,
landing most recently with AmerGen, which, like PECO, is now owned by
Chicago's Exelon. Unlike its predecessor, AmerGen sees little need to broker
positive community relations in the wake of 9/11.

Running a power plant is serious business, after all. Especially when your
plant's the nation's most high-profile--conveniently located a dirty-bomb's
toss from the Harrisburg International Airport. But why talk dirty bomb when
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission already admitted that TMI's reactor
buildings couldn't withstand the direct impact of a jet the size of those
that struck the World Trade Center?

FirstEnergy, which gained fame last August when a large portion of its
northeast grid failed, causing blackouts in New York and beyond, owns TMI's
cooked Unit 2. The company wound up with this ugly hunk of nuclear waste
through a merger deal and is simply holding onto it till either another
ownership shuffle or till Unit 1 closes and the whole island can be retired.

Epstein doubts the damaged reactor will ever be disassembled, the land
beneath it returned to its natural state. It's not clear that would even be
possible.

There are two big barriers standing between TMI and a clean slate: money and
technology. Did we mention money? Lots of it.

The federal government mandates a fund for the decommissioning of the
nation's nuclear power plants, but there's nowhere near enough money in the
pot to cover the astronomical expense. Power customers have already been hit
up for more than their share of "stranded costs" since the industry was
deregulated last decade. How much more will they have to ante up to restore
a wild Three Mile Island?

But why bother arguing how to pay for it when we don't even know how to do
it?

The dead reactor sat untouched for years after the accident, the full extent
of damage to its core a mystery. In the wake of international notoriety that
made Three Mile Island the butt of endless corny jokes, TMI Unit 1, which
had been shut down for refueling and maintenance at the time of the
accident, couldn't restart till the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined
the plant's then-owners, GPU Nuclear, would operate it safely.

As Unit 1 restarted in 1985, workers first ventured into Unit 2 to begin
defueling--a process that dragged on for eight years and that remains
incomplete to this day.

Asked to describe the photos he's seen of the mess in Unit 2, Epstein says,
simply, "nuclear nachos."

TMI's Unit 2 is among the most toxic spots on the planet--a nuclear waste
site so hot no one's been close enough to find out exactly what's happening
inside. Nor will anyone for decades, at least, after its sister plant is
decommissioned.

Though about 99 percent of the fuel has been removed from Unit 2, cleanup
will have to wait till Unit 1 is retired--which could be some 30 years from
now, if AmerGen's license gets extended by the requisite two decades.

What happens till then is anyone's guess. Lacking adequate cash for a
complete cleanup, it's seeming increasingly likely that Unit 2 will wind up
"entombed" in a massive concrete sarcophagus, a gift that keeps giving to
hundreds--maybe thousands--of future generations. Assuming human life lasts
here that long.

Till there's the proper technology and the money needed to employ it, little
will be known about the full extent of damage to Unit 2. The concrete is
getting old. Cracks have been reported in metal samples taken from the
bottom of Unit 2's reactor vessel. There's some speculation that rainwater
is soaking into the reactor basement through holes too small to see. And if
water's getting in, isn't it likely that at least a little radiation's
leaking out?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AT THE BACK END OF THE LOT, behind the TMI Memorial Rest Stop, sits the
plant's training center. Though PW was allowed inside it five years ago,
when GPU was still in charge, it's now off-limits. True enough, with its
colorful flashing buttons, and switches and dials direct from the Atomic
Age, it could only make the nuclear power industry look even more outdated
and dangerous.

But danger, at TMI, is clearly in the eye of the beholder.

In the space between the vacant visitors' center and the training center
sits a dead vegetable garden surrounded by a chain-link fence. On a sign
that describes the "Terrestrial Environmental Study Area," "GPU Nuclear" has
been crossed out in black magic marker.

The Terrestrial Environmental Study Area is a plot the size of a parking
spot that TMI plants yearly to test radiation levels in locally grown
produce. Never mind that the visitors' center sits between the plant and the
garden, and that the winds from the plant usually blow in another direction.

GPU's 1998 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Report listed nothing but
normal levels in the cabbage, tomatoes and sweet corn grown that year.
(AmerGen wouldn't supply a more current report.) Much more interesting are
the report's "rodent results," derived from autopsies conducted on three
mice--yes, three--found around the plant.

Two of the three mice were deemed radiation-free, while the third,
reassuringly found in a plant lunchroom, contained a radioactive material
that "may be due to Three Mile Island Nuclear Station and/or fallout from
prior weapons tests." Too bad GPU's no longer around to explain where
weapons tests were being conducted near Harrisburg. (Hello Professor
Sternglass!)

The report concluded that, based on a sample of three dead mice, "rodents
are not transporting radioactive materials to unrestricted areas." Oh, and
the plant also called an exterminator.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THERE'S LITTLE DOUBT THAT, thanks in large part to the accident at TMI,
there will never be another nuclear power plant built in the U.S. But that
doesn't mean a reduced risk of nuclear disaster in the future. If anything,
it means higher risks as licenses for aging plants are renewed past their
intended life span (about 40 years), capacities are increased, already
overworked staffs are slashed and public accountability decreases as
terrorism fears increase.

AmerGen's license to operate TMI's Unit 1 is set to expire in 2014. But if
TMI's like nearly all the 102 other nuclear power plants now running in this
country, its owner will likely apply for and receive an extension that will
allow it to keep producing energy for another 20 years. By that time the
technology it employs will be almost a century old. And though its
infrastructure will be only about half that, that's still a decade longer
than the plant was designed to last.

Whether the accident at TMI killed or sickened anyone who lived nearby
depends on whom you ask. Since those who like to blame the plant for health
problems tend to be dismissed as cranks in this conservative enclave that
James Carville famously called (and Eric Epstein repeatedly recalls)
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between, there's pressure to
deny.

It's little wonder that Epstein's other pet obsession is the Holocaust. His
mission with both issues remains the same: He wants to make sure no one ever
forgets.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

WILLS ARE STRONG IN THIS PART of Pennsylvania. And change is slow in coming.

The promise of free energy, good jobs and economic growth never quite panned
out for little Middletown and the tiny riverside boroughs that overlook
TMI's portentous towers. But that same stubborn mindset is what keeps locals
from admitting they've been duped.

In a conversation at the 20th anniversary, a nurse and now-former Middletown
mayor who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1992 claimed her
disease was caused by the hair dye she used for 24 years. She's happily
cancer-free today, but she still refuses to cast blame on anyone but
herself.

"People deal with the issue by not dealing with it," says Epstein. But even
he's not so quick to blame TMI for every illness in the region.

All of us are exposed to low levels of radiation every day, from rocks, soil
and the sun. How much radiation exposure a person can safely endure remains
up for debate. But the bottom line, says Epstein, is that radiation exposure
is cumulative--meaning once it's in your body, it's there to stay. So of
course it's important to limit your exposure--"unless you're a dickhead."

Within a couple years of the accident, the plant paid out $20 million in
health claims to more than 15,000 local residents who claimed damages of all
kinds--including economic--from the accident. An additional $5 million was
set aside for the notoriously poorly administered TMI Public Health Fund.

Then in 1985, the year TMI's Unit 1 was restarted, GPU paid out more than
$14 million in settlements. But most of the health studies conducted so far
seem unusually interested in linking increased rates of disease and death to
the stress of merely having survived a nuclear panic.

Ten years after the partial meltdown GPU estimated that two cases of cancer
could've possibly resulted from the accident. But the defunct company (it's
now part of FirstEnergy) quickly contradicted itself, claiming that "those
cases would be undetectable among the 541,000 cancers that will occur
naturally in the 2.2 million people who live in the TMI area."

Since the effects of radiation on the body take so long to surface and can't
easily be traced back to one particular cause, it's impossible to know
exactly how much blame to heap on TMI. And few have the time or attention
span to keep up the fight.

That's why Eric Epstein won't shut up. As grating as his shrill harangues
may seem to those who are their targets, were he not here to remind us what
happened on one great day for a nuclear disaster, the rest of us might not
remember.



Sara Kelly (skelly@philadelphiaweekly.com) is PW's executive editor.


  

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 16 [CMEP] NRC Should Revoke Davis-Besse Operating License
 
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 08:49:30 -0600 (CST)

 
*** Apologies for cross-posting ***
*** P R E S S    R E L E A S E ***

For Immediate Release: March  2, 2004
Contact: Dave Ritter (202) 454-5176; Erica Hartman (202) 454-5174

NRC Should Revoke FirstEnergy's License for Davis-Besse Reactor

NRC to Rule Soon on Operating Status for Problem-Plagued Nuclear Plant

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen has called on the federal government
to disallow a restart of, and revoke the operating license for, the
problem-plagued Davis-Besse nuclear reactor near Toledo, Ohio, which has
been shut down since February 2002. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is expected to decide the idled plant's operational
status soon.

"The Davis-Besse nuclear reactor is a reminder of the inherent problems
and extreme risks of nuclear power," said Wenonah Hauter, director of
Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "It is
time for the NRC to do its job and impose the harshest penalty possible:
withdrawal of the plant's operating license."

>From the time the NRC agreed to postpone a critical inspection of the
Davis-Besse reactor until the discovery of the football-sized hole in
the vital vessel head component three months later, Davis-Besse has
provided a striking example of how not to run a nuclear reactor. It also
highlights the problems that occur when regulators act as promoters of
the industry they are supposed to oversee, Hauter said.

 "Ohio residents have lost confidence in the ability of FirstEnergy
Nuclear Operating Company to run the plant safely and effectively,"
Hauter said.

Consider:

- The cracks, acid leaks and decay that took the Davis-Besse reactor to
the brink of disaster in 2001 were not the first problems at the
relatively young reactor. Davis-Besse was shut down in 1985 due to a
seriously compromised reactor cooling system. At the time, that incident
was widely regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the meltdown at
the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Since then, the reactor
has experienced a plethora of operational problems ranging from faulty
fire protection systems to weaknesses in crucial reactor coolant pumps.

7 FirstEnergy and NRC have both demonstrated that they have little or
no safety culture.  In a report to the NRC, FirstEnergy emphasized
production over safety. It is clear that financial considerations were
behind the company's resistance to shutting down the reactor for safety
inspections by a deadline originally put forth by the NRC. Further, an
independent survey in 2002 showed that many NRC employees perceive a
nationwide "compromise of the safety culture" and that "safety training
is considered to be based on outdated scenarios that leave the security
of the nuclear sites within the United States vulnerable to sabotage."
Only 53 percent of NRC employees think that it is "safe to speak up in
the NRC," according to the survey.

7 The NRC struck a deal with FirstEnergy to delay the shutdown of
Davis-Besse, thereby risking public health and safety. The NRC knew that
Davis-Besse was highly susceptible to cracks and leaks, especially since
the same type of problems had occurred at similar reactors. The NRC
established a Dec. 31, 2001, deadline for full shutdown of the plants
that it believed were of highest risk, of which Davis-Besse was one.
FirstEnergy protested that deadline and requested March 30, 2002, when
the reactor was already scheduled to shut down for a routine refueling.
In the end, the NRC did not issue a shutdown order for Davis-Besse and
instead agreed with FirstEnergy to a Feb. 16, 2002, shutdown date.

- The NRC's own Office of the Inspector General -- its internal
investigative agency -- judged the agency's actions as improper. The
inspector general found that the NRC knowingly permitted Davis-Besse to
operate with reduced safety margins for the industry's "practical"
convenience, and the agency could not assure protection of the public's
health and safety due to these decisions.

7 The emergency evacuation plan for the area surrounding Davis-Besse is
inadequate. From maintaining emergency sirens to notifying the community
of evacuation routes, emergency plans are riddled with holes and are
largely untested. Residents of the Marblehead area, a popular summer
tourist destination, would have to drive toward the reactor for several
miles to evacuate the area quickly by car.

7 FirstEnergy's managers face indictments over decisions that allowed
the acid-burned hole to form in the vessel head of the Davis-Besse
reactor.  A disclosure form filed Nov. 21, 2003, with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission showed that a federal grand jury had
been meeting in Cleveland to consider indictments.  Logic would dictate
that FirstEnergy, which owns and operates two reactors in Ohio and two
reactors in Pennsylvania, should not be permitted to run any nuclear
plant until the Ohio grand jury has ruled. The inquiry also raises
questions as to whether FirstEnergy can be trusted with nuclear
technology.

"FirstEnergy's violations in the operation of the Davis-Besse reactor
have been egregious, and the NRC has failed to act as the strict
regulator that the public expects it to be," Hauter said. "The NRC can
prove it is a serious regulator of the nuclear power industry and work
to safeguard public health and safety by revoking FirstEnergy's
operating license."

###

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.

**********
If you would like to be removed from the CMEP ListServ, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe CMEP" in the message.

Questions about the CMEP ListServ can be directed to CMEP-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG.

To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/

-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
*****************************************************************
 17 [NukeNet] NRC Should Revoke Davis-Besse Operating License
 
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 14:59:20 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
*** Apologies for cross-posting ***
*** P R E S S    R E L E A S E ***

For Immediate Release: March  2, 2004
Contact: Dave Ritter (202) 454-5176; Erica Hartman (202) 454-5174

NRC Should Revoke FirstEnergy's License for Davis-Besse Reactor

NRC to Rule Soon on Operating Status for Problem-Plagued Nuclear Plant

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen has called on the federal government
to disallow a restart of, and revoke the operating license for, the
problem-plagued Davis-Besse nuclear reactor near Toledo, Ohio, which has
been shut down since February 2002. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is expected to decide the idled plant's operational
status soon.

"The Davis-Besse nuclear reactor is a reminder of the inherent problems
and extreme risks of nuclear power," said Wenonah Hauter, director of
Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "It is
time for the NRC to do its job and impose the harshest penalty possible:
withdrawal of the plant's operating license."

 >From the time the NRC agreed to postpone a critical inspection of the
Davis-Besse reactor until the discovery of the football-sized hole in
the vital vessel head component three months later, Davis-Besse has
provided a striking example of how not to run a nuclear reactor. It also
highlights the problems that occur when regulators act as promoters of
the industry they are supposed to oversee, Hauter said.

  "Ohio residents have lost confidence in the ability of FirstEnergy
Nuclear Operating Company to run the plant safely and effectively,"
Hauter said.

Consider:

- The cracks, acid leaks and decay that took the Davis-Besse reactor to
the brink of disaster in 2001 were not the first problems at the
relatively young reactor. Davis-Besse was shut down in 1985 due to a
seriously compromised reactor cooling system. At the time, that incident
was widely regarded as the worst nuclear incident since the meltdown at
the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Since then, the reactor
has experienced a plethora of operational problems ranging from faulty
fire protection systems to weaknesses in crucial reactor coolant pumps.


· FirstEnergy and NRC have both demonstrated that they have little or
no safety culture.  In a report to the NRC, FirstEnergy emphasized
production over safety. It is clear that financial considerations were
behind the company's resistance to shutting down the reactor for safety
inspections by a deadline originally put forth by the NRC. Further, an
independent survey in 2002 showed that many NRC employees perceive a
nationwide "compromise of the safety culture" and that "safety training
is considered to be based on outdated scenarios that leave the security
of the nuclear sites within the United States vulnerable to sabotage."
Only 53 percent of NRC employees think that it is "safe to speak up in
the NRC," according to the survey.

· The NRC struck a deal with FirstEnergy to delay the shutdown of
Davis-Besse, thereby risking public health and safety. The NRC knew that
Davis-Besse was highly susceptible to cracks and leaks, especially since
the same type of problems had occurred at similar reactors. The NRC
established a Dec. 31, 2001, deadline for full shutdown of the plants
that it believed were of highest risk, of which Davis-Besse was one.
FirstEnergy protested that deadline and requested March 30, 2002, when
the reactor was already scheduled to shut down for a routine refueling.
In the end, the NRC did not issue a shutdown order for Davis-Besse and
instead agreed with FirstEnergy to a Feb. 16, 2002, shutdown date.

- The NRC's own Office of the Inspector General -- its internal
investigative agency -- judged the agency's actions as improper. The
inspector general found that the NRC knowingly permitted Davis-Besse to
operate with reduced safety margins for the industry's "practical"
convenience, and the agency could not assure protection of the public's
health and sa
fety due to these decisions.

· The emergency evacuation plan for the area surrounding Davis-Besse is
inadequate. From maintaining emergency sirens to notifying the community
of evacuation routes, emergency plans are riddled with holes and are
largely untested. Residents of the Marblehead area, a popular summer
tourist destination, would have to drive toward the reactor for several
miles to evacuate the area quickly by car.

· FirstEnergy's managers face indictments over decisions that allowed
the acid-burned hole to form in the vessel head of the Davis-Besse
reactor.  A disclosure form filed Nov. 21, 2003, with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission showed that a federal grand jury had
been meeting in Cleveland to consider indictments.  Logic would dictate
that FirstEnergy, which owns and operates two reactors in Ohio and two
reactors in Pennsylvania, should not be permitted to run any nuclear
plant until the Ohio grand jury has ruled. The inquiry also raises
questions as to whether FirstEnergy can be trusted with nuclear
technology.

"FirstEnergy's violations in the operation of the Davis-Besse reactor
have been egregious, and the NRC has failed to act as the strict
regulator that the public expects it to be," Hauter said. "The NRC can
prove it is a serious regulator of the nuclear power industry and work
to safeguard public health and safety by revoking FirstEnergy's
operating license."

###

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.

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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 18 [NukeNet] March 7th reminder - Three Mile Island Revisited
 
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:08:32 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
Reminder -
Unplug Salem will be showing the video Three Mile Island Revisited, this 
Sunday, March 7th, 12:30 PM, at the
Salem Quaker Meeting House, rt 49 in downtown Salem NJ, followed by a 
briefing on the current safety problems at the Salem and Hope Creek Nukes.

And please -  circle the date - 3/28, 2pm;  our TMI Anniversary Protest at 
the Salem Nukes.

norm


From: "Eric Epstein" <ericepstein@comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2004 12:20 PM
Subject: PW





You Must Remember This

Just because a quarter-century has passed since the accident at Three Mile
Island doesn't mean we should shut up about it.
SARA KELLY (skelly@philadelphiaweekly.com)


"On March 28, 1979, and for several days thereafter--as a result of
technical malfunctions and human error--Three Mile Island's Unit 2 Nuclear
Generating Station was the scene of the nation's worst commercial nuclear
accident. Radiation was released, a part of the nuclear core was damaged,
and thousands of residents evacuated the area. Events here would cause basic
changes throughout the world's nuclear power industry."

--PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL AND MUSEUM COMMISSION PLAQUE DEDICATED IN 1999

------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT WAS A GREAT DAY for a nuclear disaster. Unseasonably warm for late March.
Overcast with little wind. Static. Still. So whatever radiation leaked out
would be slow to blow town.

Of course it wasn't such a great day for the people of Middletown and the
other sleepy boroughs along the Susquehanna south of Harrisburg. In fact, it
was their worst day ever.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOUR A.M., AND THE SUN wouldn't rise over the imposing Three Mile Island
Nuclear Generating Station for a couple more hours. A crew was busy doing
routine maintenance--flushing out a filter in a cooling system for the
plant's No. 2 reactor.

When the workers were finished, the few ounces of water that remained in the
pipes got sucked through the system to the air-controlled valves that ran
the main turbines. The turbines shut down suddenly, forcing a high-pressure
plume of steam into the air high above the island. Windows vibrated in homes
a quarter-mile from the plant, jerking residents awake.

Sensing the pressure drop, a safety mechanism stopped the nuclear reaction.
As pressure in the reactor increased, a release valve opened. But instead of
closing after pressure returned to normal, the valve remained open for more
than two hours, spewing thousands of pounds of radioactive sludge onto the
floor of a containment building and exposing some 5 feet of the reactor's
core. Tons of enriched uranium began hurtling toward meltdown.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE SCARIEST THING about the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island was that
no one knew what it meant. It would take days to learn how close south
central Pennsylvania--and possibly even the entire East Coast, with ripple
effects felt around the globe--came to a radiation release so devastating it
would render the affected areas unlivable for as long as anyone could
imagine. And it would be years before scientists realized that while the
core didn't melt through the reactor floor and tunnel all the way to China,
its temperature had approached 4,300 degrees. Had it gotten much hotter,
uranium would've run like water.

Then there was the hydrogen bubble. The heat and steam generated from the
zirconium (yes, just like those beautiful fake diamonds they hawk on the
Home Shopping Network) covering the fuel rods started a chemical reaction
that produced hydrogen. And hydrogen, old-timers will recall, was what
turned the Hindenburg into a floating inferno.

Plant workers realized that hydrogen had been building up inside the reactor
for hours when internal air pressure shot up suddenly during an eight-second
explosion that shook the control room and packed the wallop of several
thousand-pound bombs.

Air monitors later revealed increasing oxygen levels in the reactor, a
likely result of radiation so intense it broke the chemical bonds that hold
water together. As hydrogen and oxygen levels continued to increase, so did
fears that TMI's Unit 2 would become an unstoppable 400-ton hydrogen bomb.

H-bombs are 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than atomic bombs. The A-bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 people and
injured nearly as many. The potential for nuclear annihilation was profound.

Retired University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine radiology professor
Ernest Sternglass, a man many perceive to breathe rare air on the fringes of
the antinukes community, argues that all atomic bombings (including those
controlled tests staged in the South Pacific and the American Southwest
after World War II) contribute to health problems around the world. Don't
even get him started on nuclear power plants, which, he argues, do their
greatest damage on a daily basis, when things are running smoothly.

Despite the plant's and politicians' best efforts to maintain a cheery
exterior (showing about the most bravado of his presidency, Jimmy Carter
bravely--or stupidly, depending on who's talking--toured TMI during the
drama's height), things were running anything but smoothly days after the
accident, when Washington grew so worried about the bubble that it
dispatched a Nuclear Regulatory Commission team to TMI.

Once there, workers jury-rigged a "hydrogen recombiner" and installed
150,000 pounds of lead brick to shield the device, just in case. The bomb
threat quickly dissipated, thanks mostly to the venting of radioactive
emissions into the air and radioactive sludge into the Susquehanna River.

While most locals expressed relief when they heard the hydrogen bubble had
been popped, few fully knew at what expense.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

EVEN THOSE MOST DIRECTLY affected have a tough time recalling exactly where
they were or what they were doing when they got the news. "It wasn't like
hearing when Kennedy was shot," says retired three-term Lancaster mayor
Arthur Morris, whose understanding of how events unfolded on that fateful
spring morning in 1979 was little better back then.

After all, he adds, he wasn't convinced anything significant was happening
till enough information leaked out. And even then he couldn't be sure.

"If you hear there's an accident at TMI, you don't know what that means,"
says Morris, who still lives in Lancaster. Though the city is a relatively
safe 23 miles from TMI, it has a vested interest in what happens there since
most of its drinking water comes from the Susquehanna below the plant. But
as far as he knows, says Morris, the water's always tested normal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Dickinson College professor Lonna Malmsheimer
coordinated shortly after the accident revealed a surprisingly apathetic
public. Many interviewees from the Carlisle community surrounding
Dickinson--which is also some 23 miles from TMI--didn't realize there'd been
an accident until a day or two after it happened. Some hadn't even known TMI
existed.

Locals who recalled enough to talk about the partial meltdown's impact on
the community during interviews in 1979 have even less to say about it now.
They're hardly hesitant to talk about it, they say. Sure, tens of thousands
of people evacuated, but for them it wasn't that big a deal.

Nancy Mellerski, a professor of French and film, was in her second year at
Dickinson when the accident happened. In an interview Malmsheimer conducted
shortly afterward, Mellerski, like most of the 400-plus others interviewed
for the project, kept the conversation light.

She and her husband stayed in Carlisle, resisting the temptation to leave
even as concerns over the hydrogen bubble drove off many of their fellow
professors, Dickinson students and local residents.

The main reason they didn't leave, she said at the time, was that they
didn't want to move their pets. "They were holding us hostage," she laughed.

Interviews from both then and now suggest that while TMI's potential victims
were largely concerned about the prospect of a hydrogen bomb exploding in
their own backyards, freakish fantasy scenarios often dominated
conversation. Perhaps these diversions helped people keep their minds off of
more likely threats.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASIDE FROM THE ACCIDENT itself, the problems most commonly associated with
the partial meltdown involved poor communication. In a quarter-century of
retrospect, it's been learned that Gov. Dick Thornburgh and even President
Jimmy Carter, who toured the plant just four days after the accident (to the
fiendish delight of the Saturday Night Live writers who penned the famous
Pepsi Syndrome skit), didn't know the full story.

Most of the interviews conducted with locals at the time involved humor born
of fear. It didn't help that The China Syndrome--about a TV reporter
investigating a conspiracy to cover up safety lapses at a nuclear power
plant--had just been released, and even received a big box-office bump after
the accident.

In her 1979 interview Mellerski spoke at length about jibes she endured from
friends and family who lived outside the area. Most were about
mutation--that the couple would wake up one morning to find that their cats
had grown into saber-toothed tigers.

Both Children of the Damned and Godzilla came up in conversation. There was
a joke about using a hot dog like a canary in a coal mine: When it cooked in
your hand, it was time to leave. There was another one about putting X-ray
film under your pillow at night. And some inscrutable poop joke that brought
new meaning to "nuclear waste."

Twenty-five years later, Mellerski says she rarely thinks of the accident.
She can't remember a single one of those old meltdown jokes--which is no
one's loss, surely.

But she does say plant safety did occur to her on the terrifying morning of
9/11, when the third hijacked plane went off the radar somewhere over
central Pennsylvania. The thought still sends shivers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TMI VISITORS' CENTER might as well be a highway rest stop: a couple
short brick '50s-style bathrooms and a historic marker. Except the road in
front is no highway, and you hardly need a plaque to know what happened
here.

In the shadow of four concrete cooling towers--almost 400 feet each--this
squat earth-tone building sits shuttered. Instead of twin stalls and a
cold-water sink, there are barren chrome clothing racks and other lonely
reminders of the storefront's mercantile past. Hard as it may be to believe,
this was Three Mile Island's gift shop not too long ago.

It's a shame, says Eric Epstein, head of both antinukes organization Three
Mile Island Alert and of the nonpartisan EFMR Monitoring Group, which takes
hourly radiation readings at more than a dozen locations around the
plant--including right here at the visitors' center. "I used to get all my
Christmas presents here."

Then there's the plaque. Five years ago, at the 20th anniversary of TMI's
partial meltdown, the incident officially became part of Pennsylvania
history. Still, there's something strange about seeing the words "worst
commercial nuclear accident" rendered in old-timey type beneath the
commonwealth's stately equine crest.

But in the end it's just another head-scratching monument to the tension
over the years between the folks who argue that the key to avoiding even
more harrowing nuclear accidents in the future is never forgetting what
happened in the past, and those who just want it all to go away.

"In the last 25 years we've been lucky," muses Epstein.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIVE YEARS AGO, in time for the 20th anniversary, this joint was jumping.
We're not talking street carnival, exactly, but for a nuclear accident
anniversary, things were about as festive as they can get.

In those simpler days of early 1999, the gift shop was hopping. A PR flack
for the plant's then-owners took a reporter to lunch in an employee
cafeteria and even convinced her to thrust her hand into the innocuous
waters of a TMI cooling tower. (Five years and still cancer-free!)

She toured the island's undeveloped south end, where plant employees watched
wildlife and stocked their arrowhead collections. And she heard about
efforts to install a fish ladder and to send a Civil War-era skeleton found
on the island to the state historical society for analysis.

That was then. This is 2004, and TMI may be no less salubrious, but it is a
whole lot less friendly. And that can't bode well for the region's future
safety.

Now, except for a couple cars and a full bin of outgoing mail from the
plant--including important-looking packages addressed to the Chicago home
office--tucked away in a makeshift mailbox with a door that doesn't seem to
close, the visitors' center's parking lot is empty.

A plant spokesperson traces the current media-unfriendly environment to
heightened terrorism risks since 9/11. Yet company mail is left in an empty
parking lot, and locals tell tales of civilians accessing the island by boat
or by simply driving past the guard booth. And on at least three occasions
since 9/11, the plant's warning sirens have proven defective during tests.

The visitors' center is a straight shot across the river--within a bazooka's
range, adds Epstein, sunnily--of TMI's matched sets of twin towers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERIC EPSTEIN WON'T SHUT UP about Three Mile Island. Lots of locals feel the
way he does about it. But few can stomach the fight.

Ask him about the plant and he'll invoke Kafka or Carville. Ask him if he's
always so hyper and he'll direct you to his ex-wife. Catch him on the phone
before your morning coffee and you might as well give up.

The man has energy. So the obsession makes sense.

The plant's most vocal critic since even before the accident, the frenetic
44-year-old has managed to turn his TMI obsession into an all-consuming
career. His funny, often manic approach to the subject has made him
famous--or infamous, depending on who's talking.

Epstein's become so well known he's now trying to parlay his name into a
stint in the Pennsylvania Senate. Without TMI, he'd have no chance. As a
Democrat here, he may still have none.

Born in nearby Harrisburg, on whose outskirts he now lives, and radicalized
by his college days out west, Epstein started the watchdog group TMI Alert
in 1977, three years after the island's first power plant went online and
two years before its second started up, partially melted down and was
shuttered for good--all within a couple months in early 1979.

It's not hard to see why Epstein returned to his Pennsylvania homeland.
Picturesque even during winter's steel-gray depths, the Susquehanna River
Valley's all rolling hills and manicured pastures punctuated by the
occasional hardwood stand.

Holding its frosty tinge for more than half the year, the land still betrays
its pioneer days. From the tops of the silt-rounded hills down to the slow,
shallow riverbanks, human progress seems an afterthought. Acres of organic
contours under a winter-white sky.

Then, over almost any high hill within 10 miles of the plant, the quartet of
concrete towers rises like a salt shaker outcropping from the Susquehanna's
center, breaking the bucolic spell. Though they're not directly involved in
energy generation, the towers remain, in most people's minds, a sobering
symbol of nuclear power.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THREE MILE ISLAND IS ACTUALLY two power plants--Unit 1 and Unit 2. The
former is still generating power that feeds into the grid most of us tap for
our electricity. It's changed hands a couple times since the accident,
landing most recently with AmerGen, which, like PECO, is now owned by
Chicago's Exelon. Unlike its predecessor, AmerGen sees little need to broker
positive community relations in the wake of 9/11.

Running a power plant is serious business, after all. Especially when your
plant's the nation's most high-profile--conveniently located a dirty-bomb's
toss from the Harrisburg International Airport. But why talk dirty bomb when
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission already admitted that TMI's reactor
buildings couldn't withstand the direct impact of a jet the size of those
that struck the World Trade Center?

FirstEnergy, which gained fame last August when a large portion of its
northeast grid failed, causing blackouts in New York and beyond, owns TMI's
cooked Unit 2. The company wound up with this ugly hunk of nuclear waste
through a merger deal and is simply holding onto it till either another
ownership shuffle or till Unit 1 closes and the whole island can be retired.

Epstein doubts the damaged reactor will ever be disassembled, the land
beneath it returned to its natural state. It's not clear that would even be
possible.

There are two big barriers standing between TMI and a clean slate: money and
technology. Did we mention money? Lots of it.

The federal government mandates a fund for the decommissioning of the
nation's nuclear power plants, but there's nowhere near enough money in the
pot to cover the astronomical expense. Power customers have already been hit
up for more than their share of "stranded costs" since the industry was
deregulated last decade. How much more will they have to ante up to restore
a wild Three Mile Island?

But why bother arguing how to pay for it when we don't even know how to do
it?

The dead reactor sat untouched for years after the accident, the full extent
of damage to its core a mystery. In the wake of international notoriety that
made Three Mile Island the butt of endless corny jokes, TMI Unit 1, which
had been shut down for refueling and maintenance at the time of the
accident, couldn't restart till the Nuclear Regulatory Commission determined
the plant's then-owners, GPU Nuclear, would operate it safely.

As Unit 1 restarted in 1985, workers first ventured into Unit 2 to begin
defueling--a process that dragged on for eight years and that remains
incomplete to this day.

Asked to describe the photos he's seen of the mess in Unit 2, Epstein says,
simply, "nuclear nachos."

TMI's Unit 2 is among the most toxic spots on the planet--a nuclear waste
site so hot no one's been close enough to find out exactly what's happening
inside. Nor will anyone for decades, at least, after its sister plant is
decommissioned.

Though about 99 percent of the fuel has been removed from Unit 2, cleanup
will have to wait till Unit 1 is retired--which could be some 30 years from
now, if AmerGen's license gets extended by the requisite two decades.

What happens till then is anyone's guess. Lacking adequate cash for a
complete cleanup, it's seeming increasingly likely that Unit 2 will wind up
"entombed" in a massive concrete sarcophagus, a gift that keeps giving to
hundreds--maybe thousands--of future generations. Assuming human life lasts
here that long.

Till there's the proper technology and the money needed to employ it, little
will be known about the full extent of damage to Unit 2. The concrete is
getting old. Cracks have been reported in metal samples taken from the
bottom of Unit 2's reactor vessel. There's some speculation that rainwater
is soaking into the reactor basement through holes too small to see. And if
water's getting in, isn't it likely that at least a little radiation's
leaking out?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AT THE BACK END OF THE LOT, behind the TMI Memorial Rest Stop, sits the
plant's training center. Though PW was allowed inside it five years ago,
when GPU was still in charge, it's now off-limits. True enough, with its
colorful flashing buttons, and switches and dials direct from the Atomic
Age, it could only make the nuclear power industry look even more outdated
and dangerous.

But danger, at TMI, is clearly in the eye of the beholder.

In the space between the vacant visitors' center and the training center
sits a dead vegetable garden surrounded by a chain-link fence. On a sign
that describes the "Terrestrial Environmental Study Area," "GPU Nuclear" has
been crossed out in black magic marker.

The Terrestrial Environmental Study Area is a plot the size of a parking
spot that TMI plants yearly to test radiation levels in locally grown
produce. Never mind that the visitors' center sits between the plant and the
garden, and that the winds from the plant usually blow in another direction.

GPU's 1998 Radiological Environmental Monitoring Report listed nothing but
normal levels in the cabbage, tomatoes and sweet corn grown that year.
(AmerGen wouldn't supply a more current report.) Much more interesting are
the report's "rodent results," derived from autopsies conducted on three
mice--yes, three--found around the plant.

Two of the three mice were deemed radiation-free, while the third,
reassuringly found in a plant lunchroom, contained a radioactive material
that "may be due to Three Mile Island Nuclear Station and/or fallout from
prior weapons tests." Too bad GPU's no longer around to explain where
weapons tests were being conducted near Harrisburg. (Hello Professor
Sternglass!)

The report concluded that, based on a sample of three dead mice, "rodents
are not transporting radioactive materials to unrestricted areas." Oh, and
the plant also called an exterminator.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

THERE'S LITTLE DOUBT THAT, thanks in large part to the accident at TMI,
there will never be another nuclear power plant built in the U.S. But that
doesn't mean a reduced risk of nuclear disaster in the future. If anything,
it means higher risks as licenses for aging plants are renewed past their
intended life span (about 40 years), capacities are increased, already
overworked staffs are slashed and public accountability decreases as
terrorism fears increase.

AmerGen's license to operate TMI's Unit 1 is set to expire in 2014. But if
TMI's like nearly all the 102 other nuclear power plants now running in this
country, its owner will likely apply for and receive an extension that will
allow it to keep producing energy for another 20 years. By that time the
technology it employs will be almost a century old. And though its
infrastructure will be only about half that, that's still a decade longer
than the plant was designed to last.

Whether the accident at TMI killed or sickened anyone who lived nearby
depends on whom you ask. Since those who like to blame the plant for health
problems tend to be dismissed as cranks in this conservative enclave that
James Carville famously called (and Eric Epstein repeatedly recalls)
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between, there's pressure to
deny.

It's little wonder that Epstein's other pet obsession is the Holocaust. His
mission with both issues remains the same: He wants to make sure no one ever
forgets.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

WILLS ARE STRONG IN THIS PART of Pennsylvania. And change is slow in coming.

The promise of free energy, good jobs and economic growth never quite panned
out for little Middletown and the tiny riverside boroughs that overlook
TMI's portentous towers. But that same stubborn mindset is what keeps locals
from admitting they've been duped.

In a conversation at the 20th anniversary, a nurse and now-former Middletown
mayor who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1992 claimed her
disease was caused by the hair dye she used for 24 years. She's happily
cancer-free today, but she still refuses to cast blame on anyone but
herself.

"People deal with the issue by not dealing with it," says Epstein. But even
he's not so quick to blame TMI for every illness in the region.

All of us are exposed to low levels of radiation every day, from rocks, soil
and the sun. How much radiation exposure a person can safely endure remains
up for debate. But the bottom line, says Epstein, is that radiation exposure
is cumulative--meaning once it's in your body, it's there to stay. So of
course it's important to limit your exposure--"unless you're a dickhead."

Within a couple years of the accident, the plant paid out $20 million in
health claims to more than 15,000 local residents who claimed damages of all
kinds--including economic--from the accident. An additional $5 million was
set aside for the notoriously poorly administered TMI Public Health Fund.

Then in 1985, the year TMI's Unit 1 was restarted, GPU paid out more than
$14 million in settlements. But most of the health studies conducted so far
seem unusually interested in linking increased rates of disease and death to
the stress of merely having survived a nuclear panic.

Ten years after the partial meltdown GPU estimated that two cases of cancer
could've possibly resulted from the accident. But the defunct company (it's
now part of FirstEnergy) quickly contradicted itself, claiming that "those
cases would be undetectable among the 541,000 cancers that will occur
naturally in the 2.2 million people who live in the TMI area."

Since the effects of radiation on the body take so long to surface and can't
easily be traced back to one particular cause, it's impossible to know
exactly how much blame to heap on TMI. And few have the time or attention
span to keep up the fight.

That's why Eric Epstein won't shut up. As grating as his shrill harangues
may seem to those who are their targets, were he not here to remind us what
happened on one great day for a nuclear disaster, the rest of us might not
remember.



Sara Kelly (skelly@philadelphiaweekly.com) is PW's executive editor.







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-- 
Coalition for Peace and Justice 
(http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org); and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign 
(http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave., Linwood, NJ 08221; 
609-601-8583/37; ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace and Justice 
is a chapter of Peace Action (http://www.peace-action.org). "You can say 
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" (Lennon). "Don't be late for your 
life" (Mary Chapin Carpenter).




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</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 19 [NukeNet] PALO VERDE NUKE PLANT SHUTTERS
 
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 19:08:36 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

<http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0303paloverde03.html>http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0303paloverde03.html#



Defect shutters Palo Verde unit

clear3.gif

  grayrule.gif

Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station

Description: Three-unit, uranium-fueled, steam-electric nuclear generating 
station. Palo Verde is a pressurized water reactor.

Location: 50 miles west of Phoenix.

Owners:

APS, 29.1 percent.

SRP, 17.5 percent.

El Paso Electric Co., 15.8 percent.

Southern California Edison, 15.8 percent.

Public Service Co. of New Mexico, 10.2 percent.

Southern California Public Power Authority, 5.6 percent.

Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power, 5.7 percent.

Operator: Arizona Public Service Co.

Power is distributed based on percentage of ownership.

Capacity: 3,890 megawatts from two 1,270 MW units and one 1,360 MW unit. It 
is the largest nuclear power plant in the country.

Plant construction: Construction began in June 1976. Unit 1 was completed 
in January 1986, Unit 2 in September 1986 and Unit 3 in January 1988.

Construction costs: $4.7 billion for construction and $1.2 billion for 
pre-operational and start-up testing, for a total of $5.9 billion.

Emissions: Palo Verde is a zero-emissions facility.

Plant life: 40 years with a possible 20 additional years.

Spent-fuel storage: On site until Yucca Valley repository in Nevada is 
completed.

Regulation: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Three NRC inspectors are on 
site. Arizona Corporation Commission has authority over the plant as it 
affects utility rates.

Employees: 2,000.

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Third incident in month plagues nuclear plant

Max Jarman
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 3, 2004 12:00 AM

A metal alloy with known structural defects is being blamed for a radiation 
leak Sunday that shut down Unit 3, one of three units at Palo Verde Nuclear 
Generating Station, 50 miles west of Phoenix.

It was the third leak of radioactive material at the plant in a month.

The second leak, on Feb. 19, prompted a special investigation by the 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Regulators are concerned about several 
unexpected problems that occurred while the leak inside the unit's steam 
generator was being repaired. The first leak, on Feb. 4, involved a valve 
on a bleed line on Unit 1's reactor cooling system.

Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the NRC, said the three incidents are 
unrelated and don't reflect underlying maintenance or safety problems at 
the plant.

"Overall, they have an excellent operating and safety record," he said.

A preliminary inspection has concluded Sunday's leak was caused by stress 
corrosion cracking, the same phenomenon that caused the Kinder Morgan 
gasoline pipeline rupture in July.

James M. Levine, Arizona Public Service Co. executive vice president in 
charge of generation, explained that Iconel 600, a nickel alloy used to 
make the heater sleeves and other components inside the plant, has been 
found to be particularly susceptible to stress corrosion cracking.

Meanwhile, Dricks said the NRC called for an investigation of the Unit 2 
leak because of several problems encountered during repairs

Specifically, plugs used to cut off the supply of water to the steam 
generator's heating tubes didn't fit properly, delaying repairs for several 
hours. That caused air to get into the line; the air had to be vented into 
an auxiliary building.

The air was scrubbed and treated before it was released to the atmosphere, 
Levine said.

He attributed the ill-fitting plugs to bugs in the two new 800-ton steam 
generators that were installed at Unit 2 during the fall. The two 
generators cost $230 million.

"You don't expect them, but they occur," he said.

The tube leak that shut down the plant Feb. 19 was either the result of a 
factory defect or damage caused as the equipment was shipped from Italy and 
slowly brought over land from a port in Mexico.

The tubes carry water heated to 620 degrees. When the tubes come into 
contact with water inside the steam generator, an explosive burst of steam 
is produced and used to turn electric turbines.

As for air getting into the cooling system, called the hot reactor water 
system, Levine said it is a normal occurrence.

Still, Dricks said the NRC wants to make sure that is the case and that the 
air didn't enter the line in some other way. The agency also wants to be 
sure the plant's operator, APS, reacted properly to the ill-fitting plugs 
and subsequent problem with air in the lines.

"The NRC staff has decided to conduct a special inspection to evaluate the 
adequacy of the APS' response to the situation," Dricks said.

On Feb. 29, workers found traces of boron on a heater sleeve attached to a 
pressurizer for the unit's reactor cooling system. Boron absorbs neutrons 
and is used to control the rate of nuclear fission inside the reactor. Its 
presence on the heater sleeve indicates a leak of radioactive material. APS 
spokesman Jim McDonald said the radiation was hardly detectable and poses 
no safety risk for the plant's employees or the general public.

Discussing Iconel 600's tendency toward stress corrosion cracking, Levine 
said, "We're aware of the problem, and we look for it."

Dricks said that the NRC also is aware of the problems with Iconel 600 and 
has mandated that plant operators regularly test components made of it.

"It's a common phenomenon and generally does not pose a safety concern," he 
added.

Evidence of stress corrosion cracking was found on another Unit 3 heater 
sleeve during a refueling outage last spring and on several sleeves in Unit 
2 when its two steam generators were replaced in the fall. Affected 
components in the new steam generators, including about 13,000 tubes that 
carry water heated by the unit's reactor, are made of more durable Iconel 
690. While the 800-ton generators were being installed, Levine said APS 
went through the unit and replaced all of the Iconel 600 parts with those 
made of Iconel 690.

While the recent leak was minor, stress corrosion cracking was blamed for a 
1993 heating tube rupture inside Unit 2 that dumped 100 gallons of 
radioactive water per minute into the reactor's steam generator and was 
vented into the atmosphere.

Dricks said stress corrosion cracking of components made of Iconel 600 has 
been blamed for recent leaks at the South Texas Project near Houston and at 
Seabrook Station in New Hampshire.

The NRC suggests that particularly damaged components be replaced, but has 
not required that Iconel 600 components be replaced industrywide.

APS' Levine said the leaking Unit 3 heater sleeve will be repaired, but not 
replaced until 2007 when new steam generators will be installed. Iconel 600 
components in Unit 1 will be replaced with a new steam generator next year, 
Levine said. Units 1 and 3 also contain heating tubes made of Iconel 600.

Each of the three units at Palo Verde is capable of generating about 1,300 
megawatts of electricity, enough to light 400,000 homes.






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 20 azcentral Republic: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 

Mar. 3, 2004 12:00 AM 

Description: Three-unit, uranium-fueled, steam-electric nuclear
generating station. Palo Verde is a pressurized water reactor. 

Location: 50 miles west of Phoenix. 

Owners: 


+ APS, 29.1 percent. 


+ SRP, 17.5 percent. 


+ El Paso Electric Co., 15.8 percent. 


+ Southern California Edison, 15.8 percent. 


+ Public Service Co. of New Mexico, 10.2 percent.

 
+ Southern California Public Power Authority, 5.6 percent. 


+ Los Angeles Dept. of Water &Power, 5.7 percent.

 Operator: Arizona Public Service Co. 

Power is distributed based on percentage of ownership. 

Capacity: 3,890 megawatts from two 1,270 MW units and one 1,360
MW unit. It is the largest nuclear power plant in the country. 

Plant construction: Construction began in June 1976. Unit 1 was
completed in January 1986, Unit 2 in September 1986 and Unit 3
in January 1988. 

Construction costs: $4.7 billion for construction and $1.2
billion for pre-operational and start-up testing, for a total of
$5.9 billion. 

Emissions: Palo Verde is a zero-emissions facility. 

Plant life: 40 years with a possible 20 additional years. 

Spent-fuel storage: On site until Yucca Valley repository in
Nevada is completed. 

Regulation: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Three NRC inspectors
are on site. Arizona Corporation Commission has authority over
the plant as it affects utility rates.

 Employees: 2,000.
 Print This | Email This | Most Popular| Subscribe |            
    

 azcentral.com main 
Copyright 2004, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 21 Daily Yomiuri: Distrust hinders N-plant reopening 

Yomiuri Shimbun 

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been slow to resume operations of
nuclear reactors that were suspended after a series of scandals
involving cover-ups of flaws at its reactors due to distrust
among residents toward the electric power company. 

The Fukushima prefectural government Tuesday approved the
restart of the No. 3 reactor at TEPCO's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear
power plant. Although TEPCO reopened the reactor Wednesday, 10
out of 17 reactors remain closed for safety checks after
scandals. 

TEPCO hopes to have 14 or 15 reactors in operation by June, but
it will be difficult to ease people's distrust. TEPCO will have
to work harder to overcome these feelings. 

In April, all 17 reactors run by TEPCO were forced to shut down
because of the scandals. Since May, TEPCO has been gradually
resuming operation of these reactors . 

As of Tuesday, the operation of 11 reactors had been suspended.
Among the 11 reactors, the government verified the safety of
only four reactors--No. 2 and No. 4 reactors at Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant, No. 3 reactor at Fukushima No. 2 nuclear
power plant and No. 1 reactor at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear
power plant in Niigata Prefecture. 

TEPCO has completed inspections of the four reactors to confirm
the airtightness of their reactor vessels. A TEPCO executive
said, "It's technically feasible for another three reactors, in
addition to No. 3 reactor at Fukushima No. 2 nuclear power
plant, to restart operation." 

But the resumption of operations for the three reactors has been
delayed because TEPCO has yet to earn the trust of local
governments. The distrust of local residents toward the safety
of nuclear reactors has not been dealt with since the scandals. 

For example, after the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency
verified the safety of No. 3 reactor at Fukushima No. 2 nuclear
power plant, a pipe leak was brought to light in January. 

In late February, TEPCO President Tsunehisa Katsumata visited
the Niigata prefectural government to explain the preventive
measures the company is taking against such problems. It is
making desperate efforts to win the trust of residents, but
their efforts do not seem to be sufficient. 

It is likely that the usage rate of TEPCO's nuclear power plant
facilities in fiscal 2003 will fall to an average of 30 percent.
The rate will not reach half of the 80.1 percent level of fiscal
2001 before the troubles came to light. 

Moderate weather, which led to lower demand for heating devices
in warm winter, precluded a power shortage in fiscal 2003. 

In Tokyo this winter, the temperature has not fallen below 0 C.
The largest amount of electricity consumption was 49.68
gigawatts in Tokyo in January, less than the maximum output of
54 gigawatts that TEPCO can supply with its current limited
number of operating reactors. Electricity sold in January was
about 24,880 gigawatt-hours or a 4 percent decrease from a year
earlier. 

Due to a record cool summer and warm winter, there was no energy
crisis in fiscal 2003. As it stands, however, it is feared that
a shortage of power may occur again this summer. It is necessary
to resume operation of suspended nuclear reactors soon. 

TEPCO plans to increase the proportion of power generated by
nuclear power plants to about 50 percent of the total power
generated by fiscal 2012. But construction of new nuclear power
plants has become difficult due to a series of troubles. 

In addition, a plan to use plutonium extracted from used nuclear
fuel mixed with uranium in ordinary nuclear reactors has
returned to the drawing board, and it will be difficult to
implement the plan. The atmosphere surrounding the electric
power companies' nuclear power plant projects casts a shadow
over the long-term national energy policy. 

As no measures are seen at present to win the trust of
residents, TEPCO must make efforts to gain their trust if it
wants to restart the reactors, while finding measures to avoid
troubles, improving information disclosure and raising the
awareness of the company employees about safety.   

  

  
  

Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun 
*****************************************************************
 22 IHT: The reactor that was never finished
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
JeanPierre Leng IHT 
Wednesday, March 3, 2004 	   	
 	    
North Korea     NEW YORK 

On the eastern coast of North Korea, one of the most astonishing 
construction projects in the world has stalled. A giant crane, 
used to install 120-ton containment rings for two light-water 
nuclear reactors lies dormant.

This is the construction site of the Korean Peninsula Energy 
Development Organization (KEDO), which employed more than 1,500 
workers for its reactor project. Now only a few hundred remain, 
waiting to learn of the fate of the project for which nearly $1.5 
billion has already been spent.

We should recall the bold and imaginative program set out in the 
1994 U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework that put the nuclear 
reactor project into motion. It froze the North Korean nuclear 
program at Yongbyon, that consisted of an active research reactor 
and three unsafe reactors intended for electricity production, 
and then placed it under International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA) observation. In exchange, North Korea was to receive heavy 
fuel oil annually until KEDO completed the first reactor, which 
would have been proliferation-resistant and safe.

This bargain was intended both to supply North Korea with the 
energy it desperately needed and to assure the nuclear safety of 
the Korean Peninsula, while achieving the progressive elimination 
of further plutonium production.

The start was promising. KEDO, established as an international 
organization in March 1995, developed the infrastructure required 
for a Western-standard construction site in the first two years 
of operation. KEDO and North Korea signed a dozen agreements in 
fields as diverse as privileges and immunities, maritime and air 
transportation, communications and quality assurances. For 
several years, the negotiations represented the only forum where 
North and South Korean diplomats could officially meet. 
Pyongyang, in turn, created an interagency structure whose sole 
purpose was to negotiate with KEDO.

High-level members of all European institutions, including 
Jacques Santer, European Commission president, and Vice President 
Sir Leon Brittan, immediately recognized the merit of KEDO. The 
European Union joined the project in 1996. The EU hoped that the 
two Koreas could replicate through KEDO the miraculous bet made 
in 1951 by six European countries to unite their coal and steel 
production in order to promote peace and reconciliation among 
them.

The executive board (the United States, Japan, South Korea and 
the European Union) oversaw the management of KEDO. The United 
States and the European Union funded the supply of heavy fuel 
oil. South Korea and Japan financed the bulk of the cost of the 
nuclear project. In addition, 27 countries also provided both 
financial and political support. KEDO is served by a lean 
secretariat of 28 diplomats under the leadership of U.S. 
Ambassador Charles Kartman.

The Agreed Framework suffered a severe blow in October 2002 when 
the North Korean government first admitted to a U.S. 
representatives that it had a highly enriched uranium program, 
and then quickly retracted its admission. It is unclear whether 
its admission was a bluff, miscalculation or misunderstanding.

In response, KEDO rushed to suspend fuel oil deliveries. North 
Korea in turn raised the stakes by expelling IAEA inspectors from 
Yongbyon and withdrawing from the Nonproliferation Treaty. This 
led to the disappearance and possible reprocessing of all or part 
of the 8,000 spent fuel rods at Yongbyon, rods that contained 
enough material for four to eight nuclear bombs.

The past 10 years have made it clear that the present crisis can 
only be solved through negotiations. A definitive agreement must 
lead to North Korea's full compliance with nonproliferation 
obligations, and also address the energy shortage it faces. In 
this respect all options are on the table, from the completion of 
the nuclear reactor project to the resumption of fuel oil 
deliveries, or any other conventional energy package.

In eight years, KEDO assembled a wealth of expertise and 
contacts. These resources should not be lost. Among other things, 
one could consider a special economic zone at Kumho in which 
KEDO, in close cooperation with the IAEA, would be responsible 
for the completion of the project and the management of the 
reactors for a minimum period of 30 years.

The new round of six-party talks that opened in Beijing should 
begin a substantive negotiating process. Further delay will only 
hinder the promotion of nonproliferation and a stable Korean 
Peninsula.

Jean-Pierre Leng is an honorary director general of the European 
Commission and since 1997 the Commission representative to the 
executive board of KEDO.        

Copyright © 2004 the International Herald Tribune All
*****************************************************************
 23 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: Bush's budget encourages nukes

Today: March 03, 2004 at 8:47:06 PST 

 

Once again President Bush has shown that he cares more about his
contributors in the nuclear power industry than he does about
the people of Nevada.

 His budget includes more than $800 million for the Yucca
Mountain project, which is an increase of $300 million over last
year.

 This seems like an effort by the president to help the nuclear
power industry build more reactor sites, which produce more
waste to be dumped on Nevada. 

TOM BREDE

 


 
*****************************************************************
 24 Times Argus: Vermont senators want meeting on Vermont Yankee boost 

March 3, 2004 --> 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

MONTPELIER - Vermont's two U.S. senators have asked the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission to hold a public meeting in Vermont on a 
plan to increase power production by 20 percent at Vermont 
Yankee. 

In a letter sent Friday to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt. and Sen. Patrick Leahy, 
D-Vt. cited concerns raised by their constituents. 

"We have been contacted by Vermonters expressing concern 
regarding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) process for 
evaluating such an uprate and requesting an independent review of 
the proposal," the letter said. "We write to share these 
constituent concerns with the NRC and to confirm our 
understanding of the NRC's newly revised guidance and standards 
for conducting the review process." 

The letter didn't ask for a public hearing, a much more formal 
process, akin to the technical hearings that were held in the 
past eight months by the state's Public Service Board. 

The senators said they hoped Entergy Nuclear's application for 
the Yankee increase would be reviewed under the new standards on 
nuclear power uprates adopted by the NRC in December 2003. 

Once Entergy's request for a license amendment to increase power 
is published in the National Register, then a hearing could be 
requested, and Jeffords is keeping that option open once the 
formal review process begins, according to a staffer. 

But Diane Screnci, spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, said late Monday that even after the Entergy license 
amendment is published, the public has 30 days to comment, but 
that a formal public hearing is not one of the options.Raymond 
Shadis, staff advisor for the New England Coalition, an 
anti-nuclear group that has been fighting the power increase, 
said any license amendment could be subject to a public hearing, 
and he said his organization planned on seeking such a review. 

He said what the senators had asked for amounted to a "simple 
public venting session," and not a substantial review of the 
Entergy application. 

© 2003 and Barre-Montpelier 
*****************************************************************
 25 UPI: German minister questions nuclear security - 

(United Press International)
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 
  March 03, 2004 			   

FRANKFURT, Germany, March 3 (UPI) -- Tension is building in 
Germany over plans to use artificial fog to protect the country's 
18 nuclear power plants from terror attacks.

 "The industry concept of protecting nuclear power plants against 
the threat of terrorist airplane crashes with artificial fog is 
not fit in its current form to significantly improve the 
protection of the plants," German Environmental Minister Juergen 
Trittin said, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

 Trittin said the idea would have to be improved to provide 
substantial protection.

 Nuclear power representatives defended their plan, however, 
which they said would provide significant additional protection 
without any negative side effects.

 Some questioned Trittin's motives, saying he was not only 
interested in protecting the public, but was working to reduce 
the amount of nuclear power in Germany.

 Trittin's remarks came after he had evaluated an industry 
security report. Many sectors of German industry were asked to 
submit such reports after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks 
on New York and Washington. 

	   		 		   		 			
*****************************************************************
 26 JOURNAL NEWS: Feds probe Indian Point 2 wiring

 By ROGER WITHERSPOON THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: 
March 3, 2004)

 Federal officials are investigating an allegation that the 
electrical wiring for the critical safety and operating systems 
at the Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant violate federal 
regulations and could be inoperable following an accident or 
assault. 

Three Nuclear Regulatory Commission electrical system experts 
held a closed-door review last night in the Tuxedo Town Hall in 
Orange County with a former Indian Point manager to review 
hundreds of pages of internal documents concerning the condition 
of the plant's wiring. 

The team was led by Peter Habighorst, the NRC's senior resident 
inspector at Indian Point, and included two experts from the 
agency's regional headquarters in King of Prussia, Pa. The 
documents were provided by William Lemanski, a Tuxedo town 
councilman who was manager of software for Entergy Nuclear 
Northeast, which owns the Buchanan nuclear plants, until he 
retired last November. 

Lemanski, in a formal complaint filed Feb. 20 with the NRC, 
contends that the improper wiring began in the mid-1990s when the 
plant was owned and operated by Consolidated Edison, but "Entergy 
has been continually concealing these problems." 

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said yesterday that a special NRC 
panel of a dozen or more experts will review the trio's findings. 

"There is no set size for a panel like this," Sheehan said. "We 
want to have many different perspectives and people with 
different types of backgrounds. It could lead to an opening of a 
formal investigation by the Office of Investigations." 

A finding of similar wiring problems at the Maine Yankee nuclear 
power plant in Wiscasset in 1996 led to the permanent shutdown of 
the plant the following year. 

Entergy, in a written statement, yesterday said that all the 
plant's electrical systems "meet safety requirements," and 
outside experts hired by the company found that wiring violations 
detected by the plant's computerized monitoring system "are 
attributable to the software, rather than actual conditions in 
the plant." 

The statement said Entergy "welcomes a review by the NRC, which 
we believe will confirm our review findings." 

David Lochbaum, nuclear safety systems expert at the Union of 
Concerned Scientists, said the issue raised by Lemanski involves 
"cable separation," which is covered by one of the NRC's most 
stringent licensing regulations. The rule requires each system to 
have duplicate wiring and equipment in different locations so 
that a single accident cannot wipe out multiple safety and 
operating systems. 

Lochbaum, a former consultant at Indian Point 3, said a March 
1975 fire in a single room at the Browns Ferry nuclear power 
plant in Alabama "disabled the entire array of emergency core 
cooling systems. The primary, the backup, and backup to the 
backup systems were all lost." 

As a result of this accident, said Lochbaum, the NRC requires 
plant owners to walk inspectors through each room and "show that 
even if all of the equipment inside that room is destroyed, 
sufficient equipment outside that room survives to allow the 
reactor to be shut down and adequately cooled." 

Lemanski, 57, worked for the New York Power Authority at Indian 
Point 3 for 20 years, and joined Entergy when the plant was sold 
in 2001. He was responsible for the computer system that 
monitored the thousands of miles of electrical cables and ensured 
that the wiring was up to standard. This was particularly 
important, he said in an interview, because modifications are 
frequently made to electrical systems and equipment, and these 
changes must comply with the NRC's regulations. 

But in the mid-1990s, he wrote in his NRC complaint, Indian Point 
2 engineers began disregarding regulations, and "were undermining 
the cable separation and potentially rendering engineered safety 
systems non-functional." 

These violations were discovered, he said, when Indian Point 2 
was purchased from Con Edison later in 2001 by Entergy. The 
computer monitoring system Lemanski managed "produced 329 pages" 
of data showing faulty wiring, and he said he reported the 
discrepancies several times to management. 

"I raised this issue to Entergy from the lowest level to the 
highest in the engineering department in the last two years," he 
said, "and they continually ignored it, delayed it and, to some 
extent, concealed it. And the corrective action program in place 
to preclude this from happening didn't work." 

Lemanski said yesterday that following the formal internal 
complaint last September, Entergy's senior electrical managers 
and members of two outside consulting firms met with him to 
review his records. He said they agreed on the seriousness and 
extent of the problem, "and within a week or two one of the 
managers put together an action plan that was pretty 
comprehensive." 

When he retired, he said, he thought the problem would be 
corrected. But he said he learned in January from former 
colleagues "that Entergy is now trying to alter the logic in the 
computer program to minimize the errors that surfaced. This is 
just a new chapter in an old shell game, and that's why I 
contacted the NRC." 

  Copyright 2004 The Journal News, . Inc. newspaper serving 
Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of 
*****************************************************************
 27 Toronto Star: Why nuclear warning sirens won't sound
                
TheStar.com - 

  Wed. Mar. 3, 2004. | Updated at 09:05 PM  

STAN JOSEY STAFF REPORTER

Sirens intended to warn Pickering residents of a safety risk at 
the nearby nuclear plant are gathering dust in a warehouse after 
local politicians refused to install them, calling them Cold War 
"monstrosities" and a threat to property values.

Pickering council has said it wants no part of $1.5 million worth 
of sirens and other hardware paid for by Ontario Power Generation 
that should have been installed at 27 locations in Pickering and 
two sites in Ajax.

 Nineteen sirens for Clarington, near the Darlington nuclear 
station, are also in limbo.

"We believe in the need for an alerting system, but these sirens 
just don't cut it," said Pickering Councillor Kevin Ashe. "We 
have asked them to go back to the drawing board and come up with 
a better way to notify residents of any imminent danger from the 
nuclear plant."

Pickering council's rejection of the sirens comes after five 
years of consultation between the region and Durham's 
municipalities, during which Pickering did not object to the 
plan, according to regional officials.

An alert system for homes near the plant is required under the 
provincial nuclear emergency plan and is a key point mentioned in 
the recent renewal hearings for the operating licences at the 
Pickering generating station.

Councillor Maurice Brenner said the proposed new emergency alert 
system, which also includes a "black box radio" for every home 
within three kilometres of the plant, is "draconian" and "a 
threat to local property values."

Brenner said local citizens would be "absolutely horrified" if 
they found out one of these "Cold War-era sirens" was going to be 
installed in front of their home.

He said the sirens proved to be "like something you see in old 
movies about wartime prisoner-of-war camps. I don't think anyone 
would want these monstrosities in their front yard." 

Durham Region officials say a consultant's report on alerting, 
completed in 2000, concluded sirens and an in-house alert system 
are the best ways to notify people living close to the plants of 
a potential problem that could require evacuation.

The provincial nuclear emergency plan requires the municipality 
to notify the 20,000 people who live in a three-kilometre radius 
of the Pickering plant within 15 minutes of a nuclear emergency.

The municipality of Clarington, originally in support of the 
siren system, now backs Pickering and will not allow the 
installation at 19 proposed sites around the Darlington nuclear 
generating station.

"I don't think we need any more memories of the Cold War in our 
community," said Clarington Mayor John Mutton.

Ajax, which would get two sirens in a sparsely populated area on 
the border with Pickering, is not opposed.

The sirens and their poles arrived before Christmas and are being 
stored at an Ajax warehouse.

Nuclear energy critic Dave Martin, of the Sierra Club, said 
Pickering politicians should be "ashamed of themselves" for 
turning down the sirens.

"The sirens are the only effective way of warning residents in 
the immediate area of the plant of a potential meltdown or other 
serious problem at the nuclear facility," he said. "There is 
absolutely no justification for putting property values above 
public safety in this matter."

Pickering politicians also are balking at a plan to install more 
than 6,000 "little black box" individual warning devices in all 
homes within a three-kilometre radius of the nuclear plant.

"The sirens and the black boxes would upset local residents and 
likely reduce property values in the Bay Ridges and Liverpool 
west communities," said Brenner. "This would just be another 
blight on the city of Pickering."

Pickering politicians approved a notification plan for the plant 
in 1998 and again in 2000. However the technology to be used was 
left up to a steering committee composed of representatives of 
all of the municipalities, Durham Region and OPG.

The steering committee hired a consultant who recommended the 
siren and black box system as the best solution.

That plan was presented to Pickering councillors in an informal 
caucus on Nov. 17, between the last municipal election and the 
swearing-in of the new council.

Brenner, who was interim mayor at the time, said the councillors 
— without a vote — flatly rejected the sirens.

 He said Pickering council has never held a formal vote or 
discussed the siren plan at a public meeting.



Durham Region Chair Roger Anderson said he was "surprised" at 
Pickering's rejection of the sirens, "because we've all been 
working together on this for years."

Now that Pickering has rejected the system, he said it will be up 
to provincial emergency planning officials and OPG to decide what 
to do next.

"I suppose if they decide to go to a different system of alerting 
then OPG will have to find a buyer to take the sirens off its 
hands. That shouldn't be too hard with all the public safety 
concerns in the U.S. today." Anderson said.

Jim Cowan, of Emergency Planning Ontario, said there is no 
alternative notification plan on the horizon.

Realtor John Nelson of Royal LePage Connect in Pickering said 
sirens in front yards definitely would hurt real estate in the 
area.

"People looking to buy in the area would see these sirens and 
think there obviously must be a safety problem in the area."

He said homes around the plant haven't been a hard sell.

*****************************************************************
 28 Public Citizen: NRC Should Revoke FirstEnergy’s License for Davis-Besse Reactor
 
March 2, 2004 

WASHINGTON, D.C.  Public Citizen has called on the federal 
government to disallow a restart of, and revoke the operating 
license for, the problem-plagued Davis-Besse nuclear reactor near 
Toledo, Ohio, which has been shut down since February 2002. The 
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected to decide 
the idled plants operational status soon. 

"The Davis-Besse nuclear reactor is a reminder of the inherent 
problems and extreme risks of nuclear power," said Wenonah 
Hauter, director of Public Citizens Critical Mass Energy and 
Environment Program. "It is time for the NRC to do its job and 
impose the harshest penalty possible: withdrawal of the plants 
operating license." 

From the time the NRC agreed to postpone a critical inspection of 
the Davis-Besse reactor until the discovery of the football-sized 
hole in the vital vessel head component three months later, 
Davis-Besse has provided a striking example of how not to run a 
nuclear reactor. It also highlights the problems that occur when 
regulators act as promoters of the industry they are supposed to 
oversee, Hauter said. 

"Ohio residents have lost confidence in the ability of 
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company to run the plant safely and 
effectively," Hauter said. 

Consider: + The cracks, acid leaks and decay that took the 
Davis-Besse reactor to the brink of disaster in 2001 were not the 
first problems at the relatively young reactor. Davis-Besse was 
shut down in 1985 due to a seriously compromised reactor cooling 
system. At the time, that incident was widely regarded as the 
worst nuclear incident since the meltdown at the Three Mile 
Island reactor in Pennsylvania. Since then, the reactor has 
experienced a plethora of operational problems ranging from 
faulty fire protection systems to weaknesses in crucial reactor 
coolant pumps.
 

  + FirstEnergy and NRC have both demonstrated that they have 
little or no safety culture. In a report to the NRC, FirstEnergy 
emphasized production over safety. It is clear that financial 
considerations were behind the companys resistance to shutting 
down the reactor for safety inspections by a deadline originally 
put forth by the NRC. Further, an independent survey in 2002 
showed that many NRC employees perceive a nationwide "compromise 
of the safety culture" and that "safety training is considered to 
be based on outdated scenarios that leave the security of the 
nuclear sites within the United States vulnerable to sabotage." 
Only 53 percent of NRC employees think that it is "safe to speak 
up in the NRC," according to the survey.
 

  + The NRC struck a deal with FirstEnergy to delay the shutdown 
of Davis-Besse, thereby risking public health and safety. The NRC 
knew that Davis-Besse was highly susceptible to cracks and leaks, 
especially since the same type of problems had occurred at 
similar reactors. The NRC established a Dec. 31, 2001, deadline 
for full shutdown of the plants that it believed were of highest 
risk, of which Davis-Besse was one. FirstEnergy protested that 
deadline and requested March 30, 2002, when the reactor was 
already scheduled to shut down for a routine refueling. In the 
end, the NRC did not issue a shutdown order for Davis-Besse and 
instead agreed with FirstEnergy to a Feb. 16, 2002, shutdown 
date. 

The NRCs own Office of the Inspector General  its internal 
investigative agency  judged the agencys actions as improper. 
The inspector general found that the NRC knowingly permitted 
Davis-Besse to operate with reduced safety margins for the 
industrys "practical" convenience, and the agency could not 
assure protection of the publics health and safety due to these 
decisions. + The emergency evacuation plan for the area 
surrounding Davis-Besse is inadequate. From maintaining emergency 
sirens to notifying the community of evacuation routes, emergency 
plans are riddled with holes and are largely untested. Residents 
of the Marblehead area, a popular summer tourist destination, 
would have to drive toward the reactor for several miles to 
evacuate the area quickly by car.
 

  + FirstEnergys managers face indictments over decisions that 
allowed the acid-burned hole to form in the vessel head of the 
Davis-Besse reactor. A disclosure form filed Nov. 21, 2003, with 
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed that a federal 
grand jury had been meeting in Cleveland to consider indictments. 
Logic would dictate that FirstEnergy, which owns and operates two 
reactors in Ohio and two reactors in Pennsylvania, should not be 
permitted to run any nuclear plant until the Ohio grand jury has 
ruled. The inquiry also raises questions as to whether 
FirstEnergy can be trusted with nuclear technology.
 

"FirstEnergys violations in the operation of the Davis-Besse 
reactor have been egregious, and the NRC has failed to act as the 
strict regulator that the public expects it to be," Hauter said. 
"The NRC can prove it is a serious regulator of the nuclear power 
industry and work to safeguard public health and safety by 
revoking FirstEnergys operating license." ### 
 
*****************************************************************
 29 CNSC: For Licensees Information Bulletin
 	
[Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission / Commission Canadienne de

04-04 March 1, 2004           
 	
Subject: Invitation to comment on Draft Regulatory Standard 
S-213, Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Nuclear 
Facilities

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is issuing for 
public review and comment a draft regulatory standard, S-213, 
Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Nuclear Facilities. 

The draft standard sets out the quality assurance (QA) program
that a licensee shall implement when required to so by a
condition of an applicable licence in respect of: 
  1. The design, site preparation and construction, operation,
or decommissioning of a Class I nuclear facility; 
  2. The design, construction, or operation of a Class II
nuclear facility; or 
  3. The design, site preparation and construction, operation,
or decommissioning of a uranium mine or mill. 

The CNSC invites interested persons to assist in the further
development of this draft regulatory document by commenting in
writing on the document’s content and potential usefulness.
Please respond by April 15, 2004. Direct your comments to the
postal or e-mail address below, referencing file 1-8-8-213. 

The CNSC will take the comments received on the draft regulatory
document into account when developing it further. These comments
will be subject to the provisions of the federal Access to
Information Act. 

Draft Regulatory Standard S-213,Quality Assurance Program
Requirements for Nuclear Facilities, can be viewed on the CNSC
Internet web site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca. To order a printed
copy in English or French, please contact: 

Administrative Assistant
Regulatory Documents and Research Division
Directorate of Operational Strategies
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
P.O. Box 1046, Station B
280 Slater Street
Ottawa, OntarioK1P 5S9
CANADA 

Telephone:(613) 947-3981
Facsimile:(613) 995-5086
E-mail:consultation@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca 	 							 	   	 	 	

 	 	 	 	
2004-02-09
*****************************************************************
 30 NRC: NRC Proposes $3,000 Fine Against Va. Firm over Temporary Loss of Nuclear Gauge
 
News Release - Region I - 2004-00
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region I
  No. I-04-007   		        March 3, 2004   
  CONTACT:     Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330
 		Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331   		   E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov  
  


The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $3,000
civil penalty against a Virginia company for a violation of NRC
requirements associated with the temporary loss of a portable
nuclear gauge. The device, which contains radioactive material,
is used for industrial purposes such as measuring soil density. 

CTI Consultants, Inc., of Chantilly, Va., reported to the NRC on
November 3, 2003, that one of its employees had left the gauge
in an unsecured condition in the bed of his pick-up truck that
day while driving to a temporary job site in the Chesapeake,
Va., area. As the vehicle traveled along a public highway in
Virginia, the gauge fell out of the truck. About 15 minutes
later, the employee realized it was gone and reported the loss
to the firms Radiation Safety Officer. The NRC and other
authorities were subsequently notified. Shortly after the loss
was reported, local police found the device and returned it to
CTI Consultants. 

The gauge, equipped with 11 curies of cesium-137 and 40
millicuries of americium-241, was determined to be undamaged.
While the radioactive sources remained in the shielded position
even after the device fell off the truck and the period it was
missing was relatively brief, the NRC is proposing the fine
because (1) the failure to control the gauge resulted in the
temporary loss of radioactive material; and (2) such sources can
result in a substantial unintended dose of radiation to an
individual if a source is removed from the shielded position. 

On January 9, the NRC offered CTI Consultants the opportunity to
request a predecisional enforcement conference to discuss the
apparent violation or to respond in writing. In a written
response dated February 6, the company stated that it agreed
with the apparent violation. It also detailed steps taken to
prevent a recurrence. 

The company is required to provide the NRC with a written reply
to the finalized enforcement action within 30 days.   



  


 	Last revised Wednesday, March 03, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 31 War Wire: Swedish nuclear watchdog allays fears about missing uranium

STOCKHOLM (AFP) Mar 03, 2004

 Sweden's nuclear watchdog on Wednesday rejected claims, 
attributed to a US secret service agent, that up to 100 kilos of 
Swedish uranium may have fallen into the wrong hands.

"We keep close tabs on this stuff. None of the uranium is 
missing," said Anders Joerla, a spokesman for the Swedish Nuclear 
Power Inspectorate (SKI).

SKI has disclosed that the Swedish company Ranstad Minerals, 
which recycles nuclear waste into uranium, has shown some 
discrepancies in records on the amount of nuclear waste treated 
and the amount of uranium it has in store.

Since the 1990s, as much as 100 kilos (220 pounds) of the 
potentially bomb-making material is unaccounted for, Joerla said.

But he said such descrepencies were often due to calculation 
errors and there was nothing to indicate that the uranium had 
actually gone missing.

"When you produce uranium from nuclear waste, it's a very complex 
process," Joerla told AFP. "It's very difficult to calculate how 
much uranium is actually in the nuclear products... If you 
overestimate how much uranium is in the products, records will 
show less uranium than expected."

Reports in the Swedish press on Wednesday said the US Central 
Intelligence Agency feared that the uranium that remains 
unaccounted for may have fallen into "terrorist" hands.

A CIA agent quoted by the Swedish daily Expressen also charged 
that Ranstad Minerals was a "security risk".

"We have acted at a high level to get the Swedes to stop the 
company in Ranstad," the agent, whose name was not revealed, told 
the paper. "It is incredible that the the Swedish security police 
haven't stopped (this) company."

Joerla however insisted that SKI keeps all dealings with nuclear 
material under tight supervision.

"We don't have much faith in the CIA," he added. "They couldn't 
find any (nuclear weapons) in Iraq, and they're not going to find 
any missing uranium in Sweden."

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 32 AFTENPOSTEN: Swedish uranium may be missing

[Aftenposten Nettutgaven]    
Updated: 03 Mar, 13:44 (GMT+1)    

Large amounts of uranium may have gone missing from a nuclear 
technology company in Sweden. The American Central Intelligence 
Agency fears a worst-case scenario where the material has already 
fallen into terrorist hands, newspaper Expressen reports.                                                                                                                                        

"The company (Ranstad Mineral) is a security risk and we have 
taken the matter to top level to get the Swedes to stop them," a 
CIA spokesman told the Swedish newspaper. 

The CIA operative claims to know that the little Swedish company 
has educated Syrian nuclear physicists in the treatment of 
uranium. He also has information that a Swedish consultancy has 
sold nuclear equipment to Syria that can be used in the treatment 
of radioactive material. 

"If it transpires that radioactive or nuclear material has been 
sent on from Sweden to Syria then this is a very serious matter 
for Sweden," the CIA source said. 

After a meeting with the CIA operative Swedish authorities raided 
Ranstad Mineral several times and shut the company down on the 
grounds of deficient security. 

"It was one of the worst things I have seen. The company has 
extremely serious deficiencies in its registration system," said 
Carl Magnus Larsson, divisional leader of the Swedish Radiation 
Protection Authority after their inspection. (Aftenposten English 
Web Desk)
 				 		 			 		 	 	 		 		 		 		 
  Publisher: Aftenposten Multimedia A/S, Oslo, Norway.
Telephone: +47 - 22 86 30 00. 
All rights, including copyright and database right, are owned by
*****************************************************************
 33 Scoop: Paris: Millions of people contaminated 
                                
www.scoop.co.nz

  
Thursday, 4 March 2004, 8:54 am
Press Release: Greenpeace          

Millions of people contaminated thousands of deadly cancers and 
Paris evacuated?

Paris -- Major failures in security arrangements for transports 
of weapons-usable plutonium across France pose an enormous 
environmental and health hazard, according to a study 
commissioned by Greenpeace International released today. The 
study reveals that the Areva/Cogema (1) transports, which 
routinely pass through Paris and Lyon, are vulnerable to both 
severe traffic accidents and deliberate terrorist attack that 
could result in catastrophic plutonium contamination, affecting 
millions of people.

The study by independent nuclear engineering consultants Large 
&Associates (2) documents that, in case of serious road traffic 
accidents or terrorist attacks, the plutonium transport 
containers were found to be unable to resist fire temperatures 
and, particularly, fire durations. The fact that the transports 
are frequent (two trucks every 7-10 days), predictable (same 
route every week), and not well protected, renders them 
vulnerable to attack. Depending upon the severity of an incident, 
plutonium fall-out could affect hundreds of square kilometres and 
millions of people in a range of locations, including near the 
Palace of Versailles, across Paris and the outskirts of Lyon (3).

/“A deliberate terrorist attack will seek to maximize the 
devastating effects, so all flasks in a single truck will be 
ruptured, followed by severe fire and long range dispersal and 
will release radioactive contamination. The plutonium fall-out 
plumes cover right across Paris – the health consequences for a 
severe incident in the Versailles tunnel must be considered 
unacceptable,(4)”/ said Dr John Large, author of the study.

The effects of a severe accident or terrorist attack would be 
catastrophic requiring sheltering distances up to 110km from the 
site depending on the incident severity. By way of comparison the 
Eiffel Tower is only 15km from where the transports pass every 
week. The report also recommends a comprehensive assessment of 
the wider social and economic implications given the scale of 
disruption likely to occur to the French economy, public and 
tourism.

The dangers highlighted in the new Greenpeace study were 
confirmed March 2^nd by a French Government appointed Commission. 
It concluded that there does not exist a strategy in France to 
deal with nuclear incidents – either accident or terrorist 
attack. The Director of France’s Nuclear Safety Agency, Andre 
Lacoste, endorsed the findings of the ‘Vrousos’ Commission 
Tuesday.(5)

/“It is the height of irresponsibility by the French plutonium 
industry to persist in these transports when they are one of the 
world’s most vulnerable targets for terrorist attack,"/ said 
Shaun Burnie, of Greenpeace International. “/This study starkly 
reveals that plutonium transports pose a threat to millions of 
people in Paris, Lyon and throughout France. The authorities 
would quite clearly be unable to cope – would they evacuate major 
cities or would they let people live in plutonium contaminated 
zones? It is a wholly unjustified and avoidable risk and must be 
stopped immediately,/” said Burnie.

For more than two years Greenpeace has researched the weekly 
transports of 300 kilograms of plutonium dioxide from la Hague in 
Normandy to Marcoule and Cadarache in Provence. Last February, 
Greenpeace France protested against one plutonium truck in 
Chalon. Activists have also distributed over 15,000 flyers with 
details of the transports to tourists travelling the main 
auto-route from Paris to Lyon.

In May 2003, the campaign launched a citizens inspection website 
which contains details of regular transports. In August, in 
direct response to information provided by Greenpeace on these 
transports, the French Government passed an Arete or decree which 
declared disclosure of information on nuclear materials an 
offence under national security provisions, violation of which 
was liable for 5-10 years imprisonment.

*For further information please contact:*

Shaun Burnie – Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign - +33 
6303 68672

Yannick Rousselet – Greenpeace France Nuclear Campaign - +33 
685806559

Cecilia Goin – Greenpeace International media officer+ 31 6 212 
96 908

 

Copies of the study: 
http://www.greenpeace.org/multimedia/download/1/424600/0/Large_re 
port.pdf,

Main findings of the sutdy: 
http://www.greenpeace.org/multimedia/download/1/424633/0/Large_re 
port.pdf

French version of the study:


http://www.greenpeace.org/multimedia/download/1/424682/0/Large_re 
port.pdf

 

NOOA Hysplit models, and background documentation, photos and 
maps, and video footage of the transports are available at the 
Greenpeace France web site: www.Stop-Plutonium.org and Greenpeace 
International web site stated above.

 

*Notes to editor:*

* *

(1) Areva/Cogema* - *French state-owned nuclear company. 

(2) “Potential Radiological Impact And Consequences Arising From 
Incidents Involving A Consignment Of Plutonium Dioxide Under 
Transit From Cogema la Hague To Marcoule/Cadarache”[1] 
LargeAssociates, March 2004, for Greenpeace International.

Large &Associates, Consulting Nuclear Engineers (UK) is headed by 
John Large who for two decades was a United Kingdom Atomic Energy 
Authority researcher and who has given evidence on the UK nuclear 
industry to the Energy Committee of the House Commons, as well as 
consultancy to the Governments of Japan, Russia, Bulgaria; and 
has published widely on the risks and hazards of nuclear 
materials transportation and the vulnerability of the nuclear 
industry to terrorism. Recently (throughout 2001) John Large 
headed the team of nuclear and naval weaponry experts advising 
and supervising the world’s first salvage of the Russian 
Federation nuclear powered submarine Kursk.

 

(3) Two sample locations analysed in the study are a) as the 
convoy passes round the southern suburbs of Paris, travelling 
eastwards on the A6 route where it passes through the cut and 
cover road tunnel on the A12 near Versailles (2.08E48.48N) about 
20km southwest of the centre of Paris, and b) where the convoy 
passes to the east of Lyon on Route A7 in the locality where the 
road crosses the River Rhône (4.55E48.48N) about 10km to the east 
of the centre of Lyon.

 

(4) The estimated total release of plutonium ranges from 0.5kg up 
to 25kg, to a maximum of just one-tenth of the total amount of 
plutonium carried in each transport convoy. The so-called release 
fraction cited by Large &Associates derives from the U.S. 
Department of Energy’s own calculations contained in recent 
environmental impact analysis, this is in stark contrast to the 
French regulators which assume a worst case scenario of 0.07g 
released. The fall-out patterns were calculated using the NOOA 
Hysplit model and plume rise prediction is by Hotspot. NOAA 
HYSPLIT is the USD Air resources Laboratory air concentration and 
dispersive model and Hotspot is the Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory predictive software for release plumes.The health 
effects are calculated using the European Commission developed 
COSYMA radioactive dispersion and health consequence modelling 
program. Hotspot is also used to provide a check on COSYMA.

“Priority in terms of Radioprotection – conclusions for a better 
population protection against ionizing radiation,” report for 
‘Vrousos Commission’, March 2^nd 2004, under authority of DGRSN, 
Director Andre Claude Lacoste.

Copyright (c) Scoop Media     
*****************************************************************
 34 Toronto Star Voices: Nuclear fallout

TheStar.com 
 
  Wed. Mar. 3, 2004. | Updated at 10:28 PM  

THESTAR.COM STAFF

Pickering council has decided not to put up nuclear warning 
sirens, saying they will hurt property values. We asked whether 
you thought this was the right decision? 

It seems asinine to put property values above safety, especially 
in today's climate. It also appears rather patronizing on the 
part of the politicians not to go to the public on such an issue 
(taxpayer's money paid for those sirens). Richard Kinchlea, 
Guelph, Mar. 3

 The worst siren is a silent one. Ron Bourgoin, Rocky Mount, 
North Carolina, Mar. 3

 I, myself am a citizen of Pickering and am astonished that 
people think that property is more important than inhabitants. 
Paras Lovel, Pickering, Mar. 3

 No sirens because they look ugly? In the same way, the builders 
of the Titanic thought that lifeboats detracted from the design 
and lines of that ill-fated ship. Charles Smedor, Toronto, Mar. 3

 If you have bought a home in Pickering, you are aware of the 
fact that there is a nuclear power plant in the area. The only 
way the sirens could have a negative impact on the value of your 
property is when they sound off. Gregor Flavell, Pickering, March 
3

 I live just off Sandy Beach Rd., which is the main road right 
down to the plant. It'd be nice to think that warning sirens 
might give me a chance to avoid a potential disaster. (Three Mile 
Island, Chernobyl) Property values be damned, my family comes 
first. Chuck McClelland, Pickering, March 3

 Sirens are very ugly and won't contribute to safety. Evacuations 
should be conducted by police and other emergency groups in an 
orderly fashion without panicking the public. Dominic Bevilacqua, 
Pickering, March 3

 The thing people don't understand about the Canadian-designed 
CANDU system is it cannot melt down. It is impossible for a 
Chernobyl-type disaster to happen at any Canadian nuclear power 
plant. I work at Pickering A and the plant may be aging but is in 
no way in any danger of failing. Brad Johnson, Toronto, March 3

 This is ridiculous! The councillors are endangering the people 
that live around this power plant. I'm sure if you asked the 
people living in those houses what they thought, they would come 
out in favour of those sirens. Russell Brown, Peterborough, March 
3

 I have a hard time imagining people opposing a safety system in 
this day and age. Maybe Ontario Power Generation could send out 
registered mail to the residents in case of a disaster. The noise 
pollution and possible real-estate value questions arising from 
the sirens should be the least of your worries, don't you think? 
Sean Tracy, Toronto, March 3

 No one ever wants anything in their backyards, but the reality 
is that no matter where you put the dumps, jails, or power 
plants, it's somebody's back yard. Melissa Woodward, Keswick, 
March 3

 When it comes to making an "informed decision," it appears that 
any elected official, independent of the level of government, 
will always make decisions to ensure re-election and not to 
protect the public. Stephen Kuchurean, Whitby, March 3

 I think I would feel safer seeing them up there now and working 
rather than waiting for the politicians to decide what is best 
and have something happen with no warning. Jane Cooper, Keswick, 
March 3

 In China, we have a fable. It was about a guy who wanted to 
steal a bell. He was afraid that if he dismounted the bell, it 
would ring and people would hear it. He came up with an ingenious 
solution. He covered his own ears when he dismounted the bell. 
You can figure out by yourself what happened next. The moral of 
this story is: Because you don't hear it doesn't mean the danger 
is not there. Chang Li, Toronto, March 3

 The real problem with these alarms is that they will never sound 
and the maintenance and operating costs will be excessive. I used 
to live in Sarnia and we had alarms that would malfunction and go 
off at all hours of the day or night. They were removed and the 
public relied on the media for the rare alarms which occurred. No 
problem. Tom Clyde, Quinte West, March 3

 Where is the world going if acknowledged dangers such as nuclear 
waste are ignored in lieu of ownership and aesthetics? Kristina 
Schwalm, Kingston, March 3

 Pickering has the potential to make a great part of the GTA 
uninhabitable, should there be an accident. Let's phase nuclear 
out. Irene Fraser, East York, March 3

 I find it inconceivable that residents are worried about 
trivialities like "property values" when there is such an obvious 
solution to warning of a potential issue with a nearby reactor. 
Mark Sheppard, Toronto March 3

 I can understand how councillors near the nuclear plant would 
not want to remind their citizens of an aging infrastructure that 
is costing taxpayers billions, is hardly operational and would be 
an absolute nightmare if the unthinkable were to happen. Instead 
of shelving the sirens which are a reminder of the truth, why not 
shelve an outdated and costly power source? Andrew Brooks, 
Toronto March 3

 So now the value of property is greater than the value of human 
life? Lisa Genzer, Toronto March 3

 Sirens will lower property values? If I had to live in that area 
I would insist on having the sirens in the hopes it would help 
raise property values, and potentially save lives! Ken Frenz, 
Mississauga, March 3

 Stop worrying about your property values and start worrying 
about your lives. Would you say the same thing about the tornado 
warning sirens if you lived in an areas that is subject to those 
storms? Kevin McKeen, Austin, Texas, March 3

 All they have to do is install an automated phone system with 
all local numbers and use this to warn everyone. This is done for 
the area around our local prison. It is inexpensive and does not 
remind anyone of the "cold war." Dean Porter, Cranston, R.I., 
March 3

 That’s the problem with nuclear power, no one wants to admit it 
is extremely dangerous. Gracia James, Niagara-on-the-Lake, March 
3

 People buy houses located beside major highways, garbage dumps, 
gas stations, and so on, and it does not seem to affect their 
property value. Adam Szymczak, Windsor, March 3

Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
*****************************************************************
 35 Deseretnews: Waste bill resurrected in session's final days
 
[deseretnews.com] 
 	
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
 	   	 
By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret Morning News

A bill that appeared to be dead was only mostly
dead.

       With no debate, the Senate on Tuesday tentatively approved 
HB145, a bill that puts legislative controls on hotter 
radioactive waste headed to Envirocare of Utah.

       For weeks, the bill was locked in the Senate Rules 
Committee and appeared to be on life support.

       But the second-to-final day of the 2004 Legislative 
session, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, resurrected the bill by 
making some last-minute changes that closed a loophole in the 
legislation that would have allowed Envirocare to take a form of 
uranium in higher concentrations than permitted.

       "This bill is the result of several weeks of dialogue," 
said Bramble, who moved quickly to approve the bill, passing 
20-1. The Senate is expected to pass the bill onto the governor 
for signature by session's end at midnight tonight.

       Neither Envirocare or backers of the bill are exactly 
thrilled with the final outcome but they aren't up in arms about 
it, either.

       "We viewed it as largely unnecessary in the beginning," 
said Tim Barney, senior vice-president of Envirocare. "But we're 
OK with it."

       Jason Groenewold with Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah 
said the legislation isn't all that he hoped it would be but it's 
better than letting the bill die.

       "We're better off than we were," he said. "The bigger 
fight is yet to come. At least now there are better measures of 
control over dumping waste in the state."

       Bramble, and Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, are the 
co-chairmen of a task force looking at waste issues. The task 
force meets through the end of 2004 and will make recommendations 
to the Legislature in 2005.

       Given that Envirocare last year was seeking radioactive 
wastes from Fernald, Ohio, that were hotter than its current 
state license, Urquhart decided to introduce legislation that 
would close a loophole that would have skirted current law 
requiring legislative and gubernatorial approval for hotter 
wastes.

       In its final form, as of Tuesday, HB145 would require 
Envirocare to receive legislative and gubernatorial approval 
before it takes waste hotter in radioactivity than what is 
permitted under its state and federal licenses. It also imposes a 
10 percent gross receipts tax on "mixed waste," which is 
radioactive wastes mixed with hazardous wastes. And it gives some 
flexibility to Envirocare by exempting, from legislative and 
gubernatorial approval, some license amendments pending before 
state regulators.

       For instance, Envirocare could take certain types of 
uranium under a so-called "special nuclear materials" permit 
without political approval.

       It was that exemption that had caused some last minute 
hand-wringing. Bramble had originally wanted to set a limit on 
uranium-235, an isotope used in the making of nuclear warhead. 
But bill proponents said the limit was too high.

       In its final form, the bill simply specifies that 
Envirocare can take U-235 under the limits allowed by the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission.

t-->E-MAIL: donna@desnews.com

 © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 36 Las Vegas SUN: Consultant says DOE won't make 2010 date for Nevada nuclear dump
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department might miss its 2010 target 
to license and open a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada by 
five years, an industry consultant said. 

Nuclear engineering consultant Eileen Supko testified Tuesday in 
a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., that the Yucca Mountain 
project could face six years of review before the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission can issue a construction license. 

"They are not going to have a repository ready until 2015 at the 
earliest," she said. 

Energy Department attorneys sought to discredit Supko's 
testimony, arguing she is neither a construction expert nor an 
authority on project scheduling. 

"It is a firm position and DOE's firm belief it will be operating 
by that (2010) date and DOE has a firm plan to do so," attorney 
Harold Lester said. 

Lester said a Yucca Mountain project manager, Christopher Kouts, 
was expected to testify during the trial on how the Energy 
Department plans to meet the 2010 goal. The department plans to 
submit a license application to the NRC by December. 

Supko is a senior consultant with Energy Resources International, 
a Washington firm that advises utilities on managing their 
nuclear fuel. 

Her testimony came in a U.S. Court of Federal Claims lawsuit over 
government delays in opening a disposal site for highly 
radioactive spent fuel piling up at commercial nuclear reactors 
around the nation. 

Indiana Michigan Power Co., which operates the 2,100-megawatt 
Donald C. Cook Plant near Bridgman, Mich., is seeking $107.7 
million in damages after the Energy Department failed to meet a 
Jan. 31, 1998, deadline to take over nuclear waste generated by 
Cook's two reactors. 

Utility owners and nuclear plant operators have filed more than 
65 similar contract lawsuits against the Energy Department that 
could total billions of dollars in damages. The Indiana Michigan 
case is the first to reach the damages phase. 

Supko testified for the utility, which based its damages claim on 
her estimates of when the Energy Department would be ready to 
accept its nuclear waste. 

She called six years of Nuclear Regulatory Commission license 
consideration "a reasonable schedule given this is a 
first-of-its-kind licensing effort." 

She said further delays could come when the commission considers 
a follow-up license to enable the Energy Department to begin 
accepting waste at a repository, and when the Energy Department 
begins to prepare the Yucca site for construction. 

Supko said the repository opening could be pushed back to 2020, 
although she expected the Energy Department would streamline the 
project. 

She said the project could face further uncertainties if Congress 
does not appropriate enough money for construction, or if the 
Energy Department suffers setbacks in lawsuits filed by Nevada 
and environmental groups. 

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 37 Salt Lake Tribune: Utah is closer to N-waste control 
 
March 03, 2004   
 
By Judy Fahys 
The Salt Lake Tribune 
 
    Lawmakers took another step Tuesday in drawing a line on
low-level radioactive waste. 
 
    Senators voted, 20-1, to pass House Bill 145 and send it to
the House for a final vote. 
 
    The bill is intended to increase the control elected leaders
have over radioactive-waste disposal in Utah, closing a loophole
that has allowed federal and state regulators to approve dozens
of applications for disposal of hotter and more hazardous forms
of chemical and radioactive waste. Once enacted, future disposal
of hotter waste at Envirocare of Utah, a commercial landfill in
Tooele County, would have to be specifically granted by the
Legislature and the governor. 
 
    Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said HB145 accomplished what the
Legislature's waste task force had wanted: stopping a repeat of
last fall's struggle over highly concentrated waste from
Fernald, Ohio, and Niagara Falls, N.Y., that the U.S. Energy
Department was steering to Envirocare. 
 
    The Energy Department had persuaded Congress to re-label the
cleanup sludge to skirt the state's ban on waste classified as
"B" or "C." Envirocare has a license for "A" waste, the lowest
classification on the A-B-C scale. 
 
    In setting new standards for involvement by elected leaders,
the measure did not cap the waste at current hazard levels,
instead allowing Envirocare to incorporate three license changes
now being reviewed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 
 
    Activists lamented that lawmakers had built allowances into
HB145 for increased radioactive concentrations and potential for
dangerous and uncontrolled chain reactions. But they focused
instead on the bigger picture of adding control by elected
leaders. 
 
    "We're still better off than we were," said Jason Groenewold
of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah. 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
    fahys@sltrib.com
 
    
 
    
 
   
 
   
			   				 	 "> 	                 				 
 
  
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
 38 Deseretnews: Radioactive waste will bypass Utah

[deseretnews.com] 
 	
Wednesday, March 3, 2004
 	   	 
State's winters are too harsh for rail transport, DOE contractor 
says

By Donna Kemp Spangler Deseret Morning News

Despite efforts by some Utahns to woo radioactive waste shipments 
from Fernald, Ohio, the Department of Energy's contractor now 
says it has chosen a primary route through Arizona and New Mexico 
that doesn't pose the risk of Utah's harsh winters.


Deseret Morning News graphic  

       Two competing Utah proposals had hoped to persuade DOE's
contractor Fluor Fernald to ship the waste by rail as a safer
alternative, but they have been left out in the cold.

       Charles Judd, president of Cedar Mountain Environmental,
lobbied Fernald officials to send the waste to a rail-to-truck
"transload" facility he wants to build in Tooele County, where
he hopes to open a low-level radioactive waste dump next to a
competing facility — Envirocare of Utah.

       Envirocare was the top choice to take the Fernald waste
via rail but opposition to it prompted the company to dump its
plans. So now the contractor says its only choice is the Nevada
Test Site.

       Judd has now backed off on his plans to pursue the waste.

       "We're still pursuing a transfer facility," Judd said.
"But we are not pursuing the Fernald waste at this time."

       Judd's partner, Stephen Bunn, had also proposed building
a separate but similar facility in Beaver County near Milford.
Bunn received approval for the proposal a year ago but has yet
to build anything on the property. And Beaver County officials,
although supportive of a transload facility, figure the proposal
is dead.

       "It hasn't been discussed in earnest for a year," said
Rob Adams, economic development director for Beaver County.

       Fernald officials are on a fast track to move the waste
by the truckload and won't be using railways to do it.

       "Since Envirocare is out, and the intermodal facility
isn't up and running, I just don't see it happening," said Dave
Hinaman, a Fluor Fernald spokesman. "It's an awful lot of ducks
to line up."

      As soon as October, 15 flatbed trucks carrying highly
concentrated radium-bearing waste will leave Ohio and travel
across the nation's highways over a 13-month period to the
DOE-owned Nevada Test Site.

       "We may use the northern route," Hinaman said of a path
which includes I-80 through Parleys Canyon to I-15 and south to
Nevada. "But since the majority of time will be spent traveling
during winter months, it would obviously dictate using the
southern route more frequently."

       At issue is a $400 million government cleanup project, a
plan to move off-site some 8,890 cubic yards of waste —
high-grade uranium ore that originated in the Belgian Congo
region of Africa — stored in concrete silos at the dismantled
Fernald nuclear weapons plant. The Energy Department promised
Congress to have it cleaned up by the end of 2006.

       Envirocare was pursuing the plan to dump the waste at its
Tooele County landfill, saying it would save $30 million by
shipping the waste by rail. The waste could be moved in 27
trainloads instead of 3,500 truckloads, it said. Company
officials also said the accident rate for trains and trucks
suggest it would be safer to ship the waste by rail.

       When Envirocare backed off on the plan, Judd jumped in.

       Although Judd said he's now not actively pursuing the
proposal for the Fernald waste, he hasn't entirely closed the
door on it.

       "Trucking it is going to be less safe and cost more
money," he said. "If Fernald folks called us up and said they
were interested, I would get back on my soapbox and tell them
rail is a lot safer."

E-mail: donna@desnews.com
	 
 © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company 
*****************************************************************
 39 Las Vegas RJ: Expert: Yucca launch date will likely be delayed 
 
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
 

Engineering consultant says nuclear waste repository won't be
ready until at least 2015 By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Energy is underestimating the
time it will need to license and open a nuclear waste repository
in Nevada, according to an industry expert who said Tuesday a
projected 2010 launch date could be delayed by five years "at
the earliest."
 
 Testifying in a federal lawsuit, nuclear engineering consultant
Eileen Supko said the Yucca Mountain Project faces a potential
six years of review for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to
issue a construction license, double what DOE estimates in
official documents.
 
 Further delays are likely when the NRC considers a follow-up
license to enable DOE to begin accepting waste at a repository,
Supko said, and when DOE begins to prepare the Yucca site for
major construction.
 
 "They are not going to have a repository ready until 2015 at
the earliest," said Supko, a senior consultant with Energy
Resources International, a firm that advises utilities on
managing their nuclear fuel.
 
 Supko said a repository opening could be pushed as far as 2020,
although she expected DOE would take action to streamline the
project. She said DOE already plans to construct the repository
in stages, and initial plans for waste handling facilities at
the site have been scaled back to save construction time.
 
 On the other hand, Supko said the project could face further
uncertainties if Congress does not appropriate enough money for
construction, or if DOE suffers setbacks in ongoing lawsuits
filed by Nevada and environmental groups. 
"No matter what, the 2010 date is unreasonable and the actual
date is farther out in the future," she said.
 
 Supko's remarks came during testimony in a lawsuit in U.S.
Court of Federal Claims over government delays in opening a
disposal site for highly radioactive spent fuel piling up at
commercial nuclear reactors.
 
 Indiana Michigan Power Co., which operates the 2,100-megawatt
Donald C. Cook Plant near Bridgman, Mich., is seeking $107.7
million in damages after DOE failed to meet a Jan. 31, 1998
contract deadline to take over nuclear waste generated by Cook's
two reactors.
 
 Utility owners and nuclear plant operators have filed more than
65 similar contract lawsuits against DOE that could total
billions of dollars in damages. The Indiana Michigan case is the
first to reach the damages phase.
 
 Supko testified for the utility, which based its damages claim
on her estimates of when DOE would be ready to accept its
nuclear waste.
 
 In court, attorneys for the Energy Department sought to
discredit Supko's testimony, arguing she is neither a
construction expert nor an authority on project scheduling.
 
 "It is a firm position and DOE's firm belief it will be
operating by that (2010) date and DOE has a firm plan to do so,"
attorney Harold Lester said.
 
 Lester said a Yucca project manager, Christopher Kouts, was
expected to testify during the trial on how the Energy
Department plans to meet the 2010 goal.
 
 Defending her estimate, Supko said "six years is a reasonable
schedule given this is a first-of-its-kind licensing effort."
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 40 BBC: Opposition to nuclear waste
 
  Last Updated: Wednesday, 3 March, 2004
 
[View of Sellafield]                            
The proposal is to transport solid low level nuclear waste for 
storage                                                             

Plans to transport nuclear waste from Scotland to be stored in 
Cumbria are facing fierce opposition. 

Cumbria County Council is fighting the proposal by the United 
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). 

It would mean low level nuclear waste would be brought from 
Dounreay to be stored at Sellafield and Drigg in Cumbria. 

But the UKAEA says the Health and Safety Executive has insisted 
the waste is stored in Cumbria. 

The council has issued a formal objection to the plans which is 
being supported by all political groups. 

The proposal is to transport solid low level nuclear waste which 
comes from operational and decommissioning activities at 
Dounreay. 

Exhausted facility 

The council says it believes the waste generated at Dounreay 
should be stored there. 

In a statement it said: "The application by the UKAEA to 
transport nuclear waste from Dounreay to Sellafield because 
Dounreay's nuclear waste disposal facility is almost exhausted is 
not acceptable to this county. 

"Nuclear waste should be stored where it is created. If the 
Dounreay site is exhausted than the UKAEA should make plans 
either to extend it or to find another nearby site. 

[Dounreay] 
The UKAEA said it had originally planned to store the waste at 
Dounreay                                                          

"Taking the easy way out and bringing it to Cumbria is not the 
answer. Dounreay should look after its own nuclear waste. 

"THE UKAEA cannot expect Cumbria to accept ever-increasing 
quantities of nuclear waste being stored at Sellafield, 
especially at a time when big job cuts are being threatened. 

"This proposal will do nothing to secure future employment on the 
site and nothing to help the economic regeneration of the local 
area." 

Colin Pulner from the UKAEA said its original plans had been to 
store the waste at Dounreay, but it had been instructed to 
dispose of it in Cumbria by the Health and Safety Executive. 

He said the authority had made an application about transporting 
the waste to Cumbria to the Scottish Environment Protection 
Agency and that application is the subject of consultation. 

He said: "We recognise the sensitivities that exist about 
radioactive waste disposal and radioactive waste transport. 

"The issue is the subject of consultation at the moment so I 
wouldn't say it is cut and dried by any means." 
*****************************************************************
 41 North Adams Transcript: Radioactive debris spills on Rowe road
 
March 03, 2004 North Adams, MA                                                                                 
 			 								 					
By Carrie Saldo

ROWE -- A cargo container holding 46,000 thousand pounds of 
low-level radioactive construction debris from the Yankee Nuclear 
Power Station spilled near a local road intersection Tuesday 
afternoon. No one was injured. 

"The radioactivity is so low that there is no impact to [those 
who live nearby] or the environment or the community," said 
spokeswoman Kelley Smith of the Yankee Atomic Electric Co. "It's 
about as [radio]active as a similar number of logs on a logging 
truck."

 But as a result, all shipments from the plant have been halted
until the Yankee Atomic Electric Co. can determine why a
tie-down that held the waste container to a flat-bed truck
broke, Smith said.

 When the tie-down snapped, the container slid off the truck,
Smith said. The concrete, steel, and re-bar inside spilled onto
the road because the lid to the sealed container broke.

 The accident happened near the intersection of Fort Hill and
Newell Cross roads in Rowe around noon. 

As of Tuesday evening, Yankee had removed the cargo container
from the accident site. Smith said no radioactivity was detected
above the natural "background" radioactivity in the area when it
was surveyed at the scene.

 All concrete and steel should be back at the site within 24
hours.

 The shipment was one of the 10 to 20 trucks that traverse local
roads daily as a part of the plant's decommissioning, Smith said.

 The majority of drivers take the construction debris to Palmer
via Rowe and Whitingham, Vt., where drivers pick up Route 100.
From there, the material is placed on a rail car where it is
ultimately disposed of in Utah.

 Smith said more than 2,000 shipments with similar cargo are
expected to be hauled away by the time the nation's first
nuclear plant is decommissioned in 2005.

 Demolition of the plant began in the fall of 2003 and is
expected to be completed in the spring of 2005.

*****************************************************************
 42 TheOmahaChannel.com: State Wants New Hearing On Radioactive Waste

  Contact KETV 7  

State Wants Full Court To Hear Arguments
Shiloh Woolman, Staff Writer

UPDATED: 1:15 pm CST March 3, 					 					2004

OMAHA, Neb. -- Nebraska filed a petition Wednesday requesting a 
rehearing of arguments in a dispute over low-level radioactive 
waste.

Feb. 18, the state lost its appeal of a ruling that it pay $151 
million for blocking construction of a five-state dump for 
low-level radioactive waste.

The ruling came Wednesday from the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of 
Appeals. The petition filed Wednesday asks that the full court 
reconsider the decision.

"The ramifications of this lawsuit are enormous and we must 
pursue all avenues to find a resolution," said Attorney General 
Jon Bruning in a press release.

Nebraska's petition asks the Court to look at three issues 
including the argument that Nebraska did not consent to a lawsuit 
for money damages. The state also argues that the Central 
Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact does not allow the 
commission to recover money damages for itself and that Nebraska 
was entitled to a jury trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kopf had ruled that former Gov. 
Ben Nelson orchestrated an effort to keep the dump out of 
Nebraska. The dump was to hold waste from Arkansas, Kansas, 
Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The states joined in 1983 to 
form the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact.

Read court's Feb. 18 decision.

        Previous Stories: + February 18, 2004: Nebraska Must Pay 
$151 M Nuke Award       

Copyright 2004 by TheOmahaChannel.com. All rights reserved. This 
*****************************************************************
 43 Pahrump Valley Times: No radioactivity reported off test site 
 
March 3, 2004

NUCLEAR SAFETY ADMINISTRATION MONITORED GROUNDWATER SOURCES,
AIRBORNE PARTICLES 

By MARK WAITE PVT 

No airborne, nor groundwater radioactivity from the Nevada Test 
Site were detected off the site during calendar year 2002, the 
National Nuclear Safety Administration stated in an annual report 
released recently.

 The report includes monitoring by Bechtel Nevada, the management 
and operations contractor at the Nevada Test Site and the 
Community Environmental Monitoring Program, under direction of 
the Desert Research Institute. A monitoring station is located in 
Pahrump next to the old county courthouse, one of 25 monitoring 
stations surrounding the test site that checks airborne 
radioactivity and weather conditions.

 Bruce Harley, Nevada Site Office environmental monitoring 
program manager, in a statement said the environmental monitoring 
results are evidence that activities at the Nevada Test Site are 
being conducted in a manner that safeguards the environment.

 During 2002, 160 air monitoring samples were collected and 
analyzed for radioactive particulates by gamma spectroscope. All 
radionuclides detected by the gamma spectroscope were naturally 
occurring in the environment, except for one sample in which a 
minimum concentration of Cesium-37 was detected. Monitoring also 
included water samples from onsite supply wells, drinking water 
distribution systems and selected off-site water sources analyzed 
for radioactivity. They were found to be in conformance with the 
National Drinking Water Act, the NNSA states.

 A summary of the 262-page report states all discharges of 
radioactive liquids remained on the test site in containment 
ponds and there was no indication of migration of radioactivity 
off the test site through groundwater. Surveillance by DRI 
monitoring equipment indicated there were also no detectable 
diffusion and evaporation of airborne radioactivity offsite.

 The NNSA summary states, however, that contaminated air 
emissions were detected on the test site in 2002, consisting of 
small amounts of tritium, americium and plutonium that were 
released through evaporation of water contaminated by tritium in 
area five, north of Mercury, and from area 10 near the Sedan 
Crater. Tritium is one of the most abundant radionuclides 
generated by a nuclear test.

 Plutonium and americium remaining on contaminated soil at the 
Nevada Test Site from atmospheric nuclear tests in the 1950s 
continues to get kicked up in the dust from recent activity, the 
summary said.

 "Higher than background levels of plutonium are to be expected 
in some air samples because fallout from atmospheric tests in the 
1950s and nuclear safety experiment tests in the 1950s and 1960s 
dispersed plutonium over a small portion of the NTS's surface," 
the summary states.

 The report noted plutonium concentrations have gradually 
decreased, after the termination of nuclear testing in 1992 and a 
reduction in field activities that can cause a re-suspension of 
the radioactive material.

 But off the test site, the NNSA reported no airborne 
radioactivity related to current activities at the NTS was 
detected on any samples.

 Water samples from onsite supply wells and drinking water 
distribution systems were in conformance with the National 
Drinking Water Act, the report states. Off the test site, tritium 
levels in wells averaged 3.83 picocuries per liter, well below 
the safe drinking water limit of 20,000 picocuries. The highest 
samples were collected in Henderson and Boulder City, which 
originated in Lake Mead, residual levels that persist from past 
atmospheric nuclear testing.

 When it comes to groundwater, the NNSA summary states, "no 
radioactivity was detected above background levels in the 
groundwater sampling network surrounding the NTS." It added low 
levels of tritium were found in wells on the test site that were 
used only for monitoring purposes.

 The cumulative radioactive exposure over the entire year in the 
air, as measured at the DRI monitoring station in Pahrump, was 87 
millirem. That's lower than the Amargosa Valley Community Center, 
which measured 112 mrem, Beatty, 160 millirem and Tonopah 149. 
But the NNSA reports the average natural background radiation 
exposure for Los Angeles is 73.6 millirem per year, St. Louis is 
87.9 and Denver, which absorbs more background radiation due to 
its altitude, measured 164.6 millirem.

 "No off-site contamination has been detected," Carl Gertz, 
assistant manager for the Office of Environmental Management for 
the DOE Nevada Site Office, said at a meeting of the NTS 
Community Advisory Board Feb. 11. "We will work diligently to 
make sure this continues."

 There was a call for more aggressive monitoring, however, from 
local researchers.

 "They're dealing with a very, very, large area of contaminated 
groundwater. I haven't been completely satisfied they have a 
sufficient amount of monitoring wells to conclude offsite 
migration is impossible. A lot of this is projections that they 
make," said David Swanson, deputy director of the Nye County 
Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities.

 Nevada Test Site Community Advisory Board member Genne Nelson, 
from Amargosa Valley, said 12 newly installed monitoring wells 
should better detect any radioactive groundwater movement from 
Pahute Mesa, on the northern part of the test site, towards Oasis 
Valley and Beatty 17 miles away.

 While the environmental management program is targeting a 
cleanup of radioactive material from the 828 nuclear tests in the 
past, Gertz said any contamination generated by future tests 
would be the responsibility of those conducting the experiment. 
The Bush administration has talked about resuming full-scale 
nuclear testing on the Nevada Test Site.

 "Sub-critical experiments are going on right now in which 
plutonium is being released into an underground tunnel," Gertz 
said. Sub-critical nuclear testing includes tests that don't 
reach a critical mass.

 While Gertz was disappointed the 2004 budget was cut $9 million, 
to $81 million, he said his office would be able to do a lot of 
work for that amount of money. The environmental management 
program has cleaned up and closed 670 of the 1,042 industrial 
sites on the NTS, he said. They hope to finish those cleanups by 
2008.

 "For these underground explosions we are not going to clean them 
up, we're just going to understand what the contaminant 
boundaries are," Gertz said. 

DOE sites like Rocky Flats in Colorado and Fernald in Ohio are 
being cleaned up for eventual public use; that waste is being 
transported to the Nevada Test Site, which DOE officials admit 
would never be available for public use. Gertz said low level 
bulk waste is dumped in subsidence craters created by past 
underground nuclear tests in area three, and containerized waste 
is buried in area five in shallow-land burial sites.

 "We did a nationwide EIS that indicated Nevada was one of the 
best sites for (disposing) low level waste," Gertz said. The plan 
calls for dumping 3 million cubic feet of low-level waste at the 
test site in 2,300 shipments, he said. "This year already we've 
had over 600 (shipments) as of (Feb. 11)," Gertz said.

 The waste is being shipped to the test site from 26 locations. 
Gertz said generators of that waste are assessed a disposal fee 
of 50 cents per cubic feet.

For comment or questions, please e-mail 
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com Copyright © Pahrump Valley 
Times, 1997 - 2003 
*****************************************************************
 44 Gallup Independent: Feds halt U-mining 
Church Rock, Crownpoint sites on hold 

By Kathy Helms
 Diné Bureau
 
FORT DEFIANCE  A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruling
issued Friday prohibits Hydro Resources Inc. from performing in
situ leach mining at its Church Rock and Crownpoint, N.M., sites
until a financial assurance plan is filed and approved by the
NRC staff. 

The decision by the three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing
Board panel reversed a 1999 decision by now retired presiding
officer Judge Peter Bloch, and remanded the decision for further
proceedings on the adequacy of HRI's financial assurance plan. 

Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and
Southwest Research and Information Center (SRIC) intervened in
the case in response to HRI filing a financial assurance plan
for Church Rock Section 8, which the NRC staff subsequently
approved. Intervenors challenged the adequacy of the plan, and
on Friday, the presiding officer, Judge Thomas S. Moore,
concurred with special assistants Dr. Richard F. Cole and Dr.
Robin Brett that HRI's plan for Section 8 has several
deficiencies that must be corrected. 

Eric Jantz, staff attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law
Center in Santa Fe, whose office represents the Intervenors,
said Monday, "It's not the best we could hope for, but we're not
unhappy with it. We are pleased that the judge didn't approve
the Restoration Action Plan for Section 8 because of the
deficiencies he identified, and that HRI still can't conduct any
ISL mining in Church Rock or Crownpoint." 

Jantz said the Restoration Action Plan/Financial Assurance "is
to protect the public health and aquifer resource once HRI's
operation has ceased. It's just a cleanup plan, basically. The
ruling settles the last issue that had to be litigated with
respect to Phase I, which covers only Section 8 in Church Rock,"
he said. Three other sections Section 17, Crownpoint, and Unit 1
will be litigated in Phase II, "which should start very soon
now," he said. 

ENDAUM and SRIC submitted two written responses to the NRC
regarding HRI's Restoration Action Plan, raising a number of
areas of concern, including concerns about the scope of the
project, groundwater restoration costs, labor costs and the
proposed method of plugging the wells. 

According to the ASLB judicial panel in its Feb. 27, 2004,
Memorandum and Order, the following deficiencies must be
corrected: 
  + HRI, having calculated its surety using a well-plugging
method for Section 8 not yet approved by the State of New
Mexico, must recalculate the well-plugging costs using the same
tremie line method approved by the State for the Mobil Section 9
Pilot Restoration Project for its initial surety well-plugging
cost estimate; 

  + HRI, having improperly assumed the availability of onsite
equipment in calculating its surety estimate, must recalculate
its reclamation costs based on the average costs that two or
more independent contractors, without using HRI's equipment,
would accrue in decommissioning; and, 

  + HRI, having assumed improperly that the laborers an
independent contractor would use would wear "multiple hats," can
either accept the cost estimates proposed by the Intervenor in
recalculating its labor costs or, alternatively, use the average
cost estimates proposed for labor by two or more independent
contractors. 

The judicial panel did not specify a deadline for complying with
the order. 

"They are not able to use their license for Section 8 until they
correct the deficiencies in the Restoration Action Plan and
resubmit it to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff. They
can't begin mining even after that, because they don't have an
aquifer exemption for Section 8 and they don't have an
underground injection control permit for Section 8," Jantz said. 

"They need both of those things to actually sink wells and begin
mining. The jurisdiction is still under question with respect to
who does that, whether it's the Navajo Nation or whether it's
the feds, or whether it's the state of New Mexico," he said. 

"With respect to Section 17, Crownpoint Unit 1, it's probably
pretty clear that the Navajo Nation will have jurisdiction. But
as far as Section 8 goes, that's still kind of a question.
Section 8 is fee land. HRI owns it in fee. That's the most
common form of land ownership in America. It's surrounded by
trust and allotment land, so that's why it's not entirely clear
who might have jurisdiction over that piece of land. The
jurisdiction issues out there are very complex," Jantz said. 

Over a period of years, HRI applied for and received a materials
license to mine uranium ore at four different locations:
Sections 8 and 17, contiguously located in Church Rock, N.M.,
and Unit 1 and Crownpoint, located in Crownpoint, N.M. Soon
after Judge Bloch granted the Intervenors' request for a
hearing, HRI informed him that "at this time" it intended only
to mine Section 8 and had not yet decided to mine the other
sites. 

Consequently, HRI asked Judge Bloch to hold the proceedings
involving Section 17, Unit 1 and Crownpoint in abeyance and to
proceed only with the adjudication of Church Rock Section 8
because any decisions on the other projects were "potentially
years away" and therefore "not ripe for consideration,"
according to the NRC. 

Judge Bloch agreed that only Section 8 was ripe for hearing and
granted HRI's request to limit the proceeding to issues specific
to Section 8 and those issues that challenged the overall
validity of the license. The judge concluded that after the
first phase of the proceeding, he would then decide whether to
proceed immediately with the rest of the case or wait until HRI
had decided to mine the other sites. 

One Aug. 20, 1999, Judge Bloch concluded the first phase of the
proceeding and ordered the parties to file a proposed schedule
for the remainder of the case. HRI filed a motion to place all
issues concerning the remaining sites Section 17, Unit 1, and
Crownpoint in abeyance until it decided to mine the sites. Judge
Bloch agreed it would be wasteful to litigate the issues
concerning these sites if HRI had no present intention to mine
them and put the remainder of the proceeding in abeyance. 

He directed, however, that HRI give eight months' advance notice
before undertaking any mining activities on the sites that have
not been subject to a hearing. The Intervenors, ENDAUM and SRIC,
appealed the abeyance order to the NRC and while it was pending,
Judge Bloch retired. The NRC reasoned that because HRI's license
was for all four sites, litigating one and holding the hearing
on the other three sites in abeyance was illogical and unfair. 

The Commission overturned Judge Bloch's order and ruled that the
hearing should resume within six months to litigate the issues
on the remaining sites, or that HRI should accept an amendment
limiting its license to the already largely litigated Section 8
site. 

Since that time, however, at the request of the parties, the
proceeding was held in abeyance to allow the parties to attempt
to settle the remaining issues for all four sites. However,
according to the NRC, "the parties' settlement efforts proved
fruitless."     

 March 2, 2004

Please send the Gallup Independent feedback on this website and
 Send questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com  


*****************************************************************
 45 Tri-City Herald: Hanford shop's work
 
This story was published Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004 

By Annette Cary 

Work was stopped Monday and Tuesday at a Hanford machine shop 
after a worker questioned whether contaminated machinery was 
being prepared to be shipped for use off the nuclear reservation. 

Tuesday evening the Department of Energy, contractor Fluor 
Hanford and a safety representative for organized labor all said 
that an investigation had turned up no evidence that safety 
measures were inadequate or that federal standards were not met. 

The equipment was in the 272W building in central Hanford where 
an alloy containing beryllium was machined before the nuclear 
reservation stopped producing plutonium. Decades after work is 
done, fine particles of beryllium may remain in dust and can 
cause an incurable lung disease in people with an allergiclike 
sensitivity to the metal. 

Some equipment from the machine shop is being shipped to Parsons 
Hanford Fabricators Inc. in Pasco as part of a new contract to 
turn Hanford fabrication work over to private industry and move 
it off site. 

Parsons already has received three truckloads of equipment from 
Hanford and been told all of it has been certified free of 
beryllium, said Jim Osterloh, vice president of fabrication 
services. 

Parsons is asking Fluor Hanford for additional documentation that 
the equipment is free of beryllium and more information about 
certification procedures, but is confident the equipment it has 
received is clean, Osterloh said. 

Concerns about the equipment were raised Monday by sheet metal 
worker Jim Murphy at Hanford as he watched equipment that he 
believed might be contaminated being prepared for shipping. 

"I guessed that not all the tests needed to certify it clean had 
been done," he said. He called for work to be stopped. 

Any worker who believes there is a safety risk is encouraged to 
call for work to be stopped, said Tim Carter, vice president of 
safety and health for Fluor. Only work at 272W on preparing the 
machinery for shipment was stopped, he said. 

The issue was picked up by Heart of America Northwest, which sent 
a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Monday. The 
letter called for better safety measures to protect workers and 
accused DOE of violating laws that prohibit 
beryllium-contaminated items from being transferred off DOE 
nuclear sites. 

"This puts a whole new generation of off-site workers at risk of 
beryllium disease," said Gerald Pollet, executive director of 
Heart of America. 

Fluor Hanford has taken 144 samples of dust wiped off surfaces at 
the 272W building in recent months, said Fluor spokesman Geoff 
Tyree. 

No beryllium was detected in any of the swipes, Carter said. Air 
samples also came up negative, as work has progressed to 
dismantle or prepare machinery for moving it, he said. 

Three of the pieces of machinery in the 272W shop are suspected 
of being used on beryllium, based on worker accounts of past 
work, said Keith Klein, DOE's Richland manager. But that 
equipment is not among shipments being prepared now, he said. 

If there is any indication that those pieces of machinery are not 
clean as work progresses, they will not be released, Klein said. 
Other officials said more cleaning and testing would be done on 
that equipment. 

A team of DOE, Fluor and organized labor officials were at the 
machine shop Tuesday to investigate safety concerns and make sure 
procedures were being followed to protect workers. 

All workers available were interviewed without management 
present. They had no safety concerns and were up to date on 
conditions at the facility, said John Jeskey, Hanford Atomic 
Metal Trades Council's director of safety for Fluor and two other 
contractors. 

"I wish Mr. Pollet had talked to the people out there working 
every day," Jeskey said. 

Pollet is calling for all workers dismantling and removing 
equipment to use respiratory protection and have their air 
monitored. Workers on the project should have training on 
beryllium contamination, he said. In addition, beryllium 
monitoring results should be posted. 

Those are all federal requirements, he said. 

But Fluor disagreed. Extra steps, such as respiratory protection, 
were not necessary because no beryllium contamination was 
detected, Carter said. 

Pollet said he believes beryllium safety issues go beyond the 
work to dismantle equipment at the 272W building and possibly two 
others in recent months. Hanford needs to protect workers from 
exposure to beryllium with more stringent safety measures 
overall, he said. 

He objects to a policy of calling parts of buildings safe but 
restricting access to other parts of the same buildings because 
of possible beryllium contamination. 

If buildings are posted as having possible beryllium 
contamination in ducts or above 8 feet high, then the area 
workers in below also could be contaminated by beryllium 
particles, Pollet said. 

Pollet recommends that workers at the 272W shop or any other 
building where beryllium might be present request a blood test 
that will indicate if they have been exposed to the metal and 
have developed a sensitivity. Once a worker is sensitized, 
additional exposure to beryllium can lead to the development of 
chronic beryllium disease, sometimes years later. 

© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 46 ABQjournal: Scientists Debate Success of Los Alamos Supercomputer 

March 2, 2004 

The Associated Press 

       LOS ALAMOS   —   The success of Los Alamos National
Laboratory's Q machine, the second-most-powerful computer in the
world, is being debated by the lab and some outside experts. 

    The Department of Energy abandoned plans to complete the
final phase of the supercomputer. Lab officials chalk that
decision up to politics and budgets, saying the existing machine
works fine. 

    But others see Q as a troubled machine whose 8,192
microprocessors are prone to failure. 

    "There was what we call a ¹design flaw' in the
microprocessors," said Darrell Long, a computer-science
professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
"Consequently, the machine fails much more rapidly than one
would expect." 

    Long worked on a review of DOE's national supercomputing
program released in October by a group of scientists that
advises the government on technical defense issues. 

    In addition to the design flaw, the microprocessors that
make up the machine have been discontinued and the company that
made them has been sold. And for all these reasons, Long said
DOE probably made the right decision to abandon expansions on Q. 

    The lab unveiled the first piece of Q in May 2002, saying
the machine would eventually be capable of performing 30
trillion operations per second. Q was to consist of three linked
supercomputers, each sharing a third of the computing power. 

    As it stands, Q is the second-fastest computer in the world,
with a theoretical power of 20 trillion operations per second. 

    John Morrison, who heads up the lab's supercomputing
division, said the lab has encountered problems with Q's
microprocessors. He maintains that it's a successful machine
that fell victim to congressional budget cuts in 2002 and 2003. 

    Lab officials have said one goal of the supercomputing
program in building machines like Q is to push the limits of
technology. 

    Scientists, especially those trying to understand the
complex physics inside nuclear weapons, have intricate questions
about the nature of the world around them. 

    The math and modeling to investigate those questions is so
complex it takes supercomputers like Q to run the calculations. 

    Los Alamos officials say they're debating the lab's next
supercomputer proposal. The question, they say, is whether the
lab should acquire a supercomputer similar to ones ordered by
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or try to leapfrog that
technology and move into uncharted territory again. 

    "That's a political question," Long said. "Who gets the next
big machine? It's kind of a trophy." 
    
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
 47 PISJ: INEEL's Pit 9 waste retrieval project complete

Pocatello Idaho State Journal: 

By Journal Staff 

BOISE - The U.S. Department of Energy has completed waste 
retrieval operations at the Idaho National Engineering and 
Environmental Laboratory's Glovebox Excavator Project at Pit 9.

"This is a significant step forward in cleaning up the INEEL and 
protecting the Snake River Plain Aquifer," Gov. Dirk Kempthorne 
said in a statement distributed Tuesday. "Nearly two years ago, 
we retooled the Pit 9 project to emphasize on-the-ground progress 
instead of paperwork, and today we see the benefits of that 
effort." 
  
Nearly $80 million has been invested in Pit 9 to learn the best 
options for larger-scale retrievals. Kempthorne said the 
experience gained cleaning up Pit 9 will be used to make future 
retrievals more efficient and cost-effective.

Pit 9, about an acre in size, is one of several pits and trenches 
in INEEL's major landfill, the Subsurface Disposal Area, which 
covers some 97 acres. From the 1950s until 1970, portions of the 
landfill received plutonium-contaminated waste from nuclear 
weapons production at the Rocky Flats plant in Colorado. The 
Glovebox Project retrieved over 450 barrels of waste and soil 
from a pie-shaped area within Pit 9. Material contaminated with 
plutonium and similar radioactive elements, known as transuranic 
waste, is slated for disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant 
in New Mexico.

A 1995 court settlement between Idaho and the federal government 
requires removal of transuranic waste from the state. Idaho, the 
Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
hope to begin larger-scale retrieval operations at the landfill 
within a year. "Our priority will be to retrieve areas with 
higher estimated concentrations of plutonium first," said Steve 
Allred, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality director. 

Copyright © 2004 Pocatello Idaho State Journal
 P O Box 431 Pocatello, ID 83204-0431   
*****************************************************************
 48 ACA: Proposed Energy Department Budget Would Boost Funds for Nuclear
Weapons
 
Arms Control Association: Arms Control Today
 
Karen Yourish with Matthew Johnson 

The Bush administration is seeking to boost spending on U.S. 
nuclear weapons programs in fiscal year 2005 to $6.6 billion, up 
5 percent from the $6.2 billion appropriated by Congress for 
fiscal year 2004. That constitutes the bulk of the 
administration’s $9 billion budget request for the Department of 
Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), 
unveiled Feb. 2. In addition to proposing increases for 
controversial research on a potential new generation of nuclear 
weapons, the NNSA request includes funds to maintain the weapons 
stockpile, prevent the spread of weapons to terrorists and rogue 
states, safeguard Energy Department facilities, and modernize the 
infrastructure of the weapons complex.
 
The president’s proposals promise another year of bickering 
between the House and the Senate and between Democrats and 
Republicans over how much money, if any, should be spent on 
programs that could result in the development of new nuclear 
weapons. Last November, after months of back and forth, House and 
Senate appropriators finally agreed to increase spending on 
nuclear weapons programs in fiscal year 2004 by $273 million from 
the previous year—about $150 million less than the administration 
requested but not quite as much as the Senate was willing to 
provide.
 
Already, some congressional appropriators have begun to question 
the Bush administration’s proposals. “With all the proliferation 
threats we now face with countries like Iran, Pakistan, and North 
Korea, are we really sending the right signal to those countries 
and the rest of the world when we embark on nuclear weapons 
initiatives?” Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of the House 
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, asked Secretary 
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a Feb. 12 hearing of the Defense 
Appropriations Subcommittee. 

Nuclear Earth Penetrators 

For fiscal year 2005, Bush has requested $27.6 million for the 
third and final year of an Air Force-led study on enhancing the 
capabilities of two existing, high-yield nuclear warhead 
types—the B-61 and B-83—to penetrate more deeply underground to 
destroy deeply buried and hardened targets. The request for the 
potential new weapon, known as the Robust Nuclear Earth 
Penetrator (RNEP), is a 271 percent increase from Congress’ 
fiscal year 2004 appropriation of $7.5 million, which was half of 
what the administration had requested.
 
Although administration officials have repeatedly argued they 
simply wish to conduct research, the budget request lays out a 
five-year research and development schedule for RNEP. According 
to the plan, NNSA would conclude research at the end of fiscal 
year 2005 and in fiscal year 2006 would begin a three-year 
development phase, after which the NNSA would be ready to produce 
and induct the warhead into the arsenal. Legislation passed in 
the Fiscal Year 2004 Defense Authorization Act would require 
congressional authorization for work beyond the research phase. 
The NNSA budget document estimates that the RNEP research and 
development program would cost $484.7 million through fiscal year 
2009. 

Research on New Warheads 

The Bush administration is also hoping to increase funding for 
the Advanced Concepts Initiative in fiscal year 2005 to $9 
million to study new nuclear weapons concepts, including 
lower-yield weapons designed to strike chemical or biological 
weapons targets.
 
Last year, at the administration’s urging, Congress repealed the 
decade-long ban on research leading to the development of 
low-yield nuclear warheads, which are defined as those with an 
explosive yield of five kilotons or less TNT equivalent. By 
comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a 13-kiloton 
nuclear device.
 
Congress granted the administration’s $6 million request for the 
program in fiscal year 2004, but fenced off $4 million until the 
administration delivers its revised nuclear weapons stockpile 
plan in light of the reductions of deployed warheads outlined 
under the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.
 
At the Feb. 12 House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, 
Rumsfeld said the Energy and Defense Departments are due to 
release the stockpile plan to Congress later this spring. “You’ll 
get your money then,” Hobson said, referring to the $4 million 
withheld last year. 

Enhanced Test Site Readiness 

The Energy Department is asking for $5 million more than was 
appropriated last year to continue preparing the Nevada Test Site 
to be able to conduct a nuclear test within 18 months of a 
presidential order. Under the administration’s request, the 
agency’s test readiness budget would jump 20 percent to $30 
million for work to transition from the current testing readiness 
window of 24-36 months. 

Modern Pit Facility 

The fiscal year 2005 budget request also includes $29.8 million—a 
176 percent increase from the 2004 appropriation—to construct a 
Modern Pit Facility to restart full-scale production of the 
plutonium pits for use in new or refurbished warheads at a rate 
of 150-450 pits per year. Large-scale pit production for nuclear 
bombs ended at the Rocky Flats Plant in 1989 due to severe health 
and safety violations.
 
Congressional critics of the pit facility contend that plutonium 
pits are readily available from existing nuclear warheads that 
are not operationally deployed and that it is premature to design 
and site a facility until the makeup of the future stockpile is 
more clearly defined. Some argue that, with a smaller nuclear 
stockpile, a more modest existing facility at Los Alamos National 
Laboratory could support future stockpile requirements. The 
Energy Department maintains that, regardless of the stockpile 
size, the United States will ultimately require a new pit 
manufacturing capability for new and refurbished plutonium pits.
 
In response to congressional concerns, NNSA at the end of January 
delayed the final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the 
Modern Pit Facility, scheduled for publication in April. The 
decision to push back publication of the EIS also delays 
selection of a preferred site for constructing the facility. 
“Restoring our capability to manufacture plutonium pits is an 
essential element of America’s nuclear defense policy,” Brooks 
said in a statement Jan. 28. “While there is widespread support 
in Congress for this project, I believe we need to pause to 
respond to concerns that some committees have raised about its 
scope and timing.”
 
National Nuclear Security Administration Budget 



      Fiscal Year 2004 Request     Fiscal Year 2004 Appropriated Fiscal Year 2005 Request 

Weapons Activities     $6.37 billion     $6.23 billion $6.57 billion 

Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation     $1.34 billion     $1.33 billion     $1.35 billion 

Naval Reactors     $768 million     $762 million     $798 million 

Office of the Administrator     $348 million     $337 million $334 million 

Total     $8.84 billion     $8.71 billion     $9.05 billion   


Key Weapons Programs Figures are in millions
 


      Fiscal Year 2004 Request     Fiscal Year 2004 Appropriated
    Fiscal Year 2005 Request   
  Robust Earth Nuclear Penetrator     $15     $7.5     $27.6   
  Advanced Concepts Initiative     $6     $6*     $9   
  Test Site Readiness     $24.7     $24.7     $30   
  Modern Pit Facility     $22.8     $10.8     $29.8   



*Congress withheld $4 million pending delivery of nuclear
weapons stockpile report to Congress
 
Arms Control Today encourages reprint of its articles with
permission of the Editor.
 
© 2001 Arms Control Association,
 1726 M Street, NW; Washington, DC; 20036; 
Tel: (202) 463-8270; Fax: (202) 463-8273
*****************************************************************
 49 lamonitor.com: Lab, community talk on future of facility 

By ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor 

For the first time since Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham 
announced his intention to open the management contract for Los 
Alamos National Laboratory to competition 10 months ago, 
officials and employees of the laboratory took their fate 
directly into their own hands.

In a two-hour session Monday morning with the lab's senior 
executive team, followed by a two-hour encounter with the 
community in the afternoon, a committee of the National Academies 
of Science heard what the lab's managers and the people of Los 
Alamos had to say for themselves. The committee was charged by 
the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi-autonomous 
agency within the Department of Energy that oversees the nuclear 
laboratories, to advise them on how to design a request for 
proposal in a way that will not undermine the science for which 
LANL is renowned.

In some respects, LANL officials' task at the hearing was to 
confirm the committee's conviction that science at the laboratory 
is in a class of its own, while raising doubts about the unknown 
consequences of change. 

"Nobody created criteria for what you see after 60 years, there 
is no set of criteria that produced this result," said lab 
Director G. Peter Nanos. "You've been given at least a difficult, 
if not impossible, task."

His strategy, he said, was "to raise the bar by improving the 
institution as much as we can." With Nanos leading the 
presentation, members of the executive team pitched in from time 
to time to underline or add specific details to a point under 
discussion.

Issues of interest to the committee included a number of 
questions about the lab's program for independent, known as 
Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. While LDRD 
commands only 6 percent of the budget, it plays a major role in 
attracting world-class scientists, especially post-doctoral 
students, in underwriting papers published in scientific journals 
and in supporting the laboratories high-profile R awards. It also 
plays an unsung role in the lab's security mission

Don Cobb, associate director for threat reduction, traced the 
development path between pure scientific breakthroughs in quantum 
theory, through quantum information systems, to security 
applications in quantum encryptions.

Susan Seestrom, acting associate director for weapons physics, 
offered a parallel example on the career of proton radiography 
that began with theoretical experiments and is now finding use in 
scanning potential contraband shipments.

The morning session raised explicit uncertainties about the 
reliability of the nuclear stockpile program in an environment in 
which the two primary weapons laboratories might no longer be 
working in a friendly competitive environment. The government's 
stated intention of unyoking the Lawrence Livermore and Los 
Alamos contracts carries additional risks that will have to be 
taken into account, Nanos and others advised the panel.

Committee chair Paul C. Jennings, professor of civil engineering 
and applied mechanics, emeritus, of the California Institute of 
Technology, said during the discussion that the committee's 
charter had been extended to include recommendations on competing 
the contract for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The committee plans to hold hearings in Livermore, Calif., in 
April.

Acknowledging the intramural rivalry between the two laboratories 
and describing its value for both partners in certifying the 
stockpile, Nanos asked, "What if that squabble was not over 
science issues but over market share? What if opinions were 
formed based on competitive advantage in the market place - what 
would your confidence be?"

The afternoon was largely a gripe and worry session, although 
several speakers contributed very specific suggestions for 
language to include in the Department of Labor's request for 
proposal.

Altogether, they offered a more textured picture of the 
complexity of the laboratory's direct influence on lives and 
institutions throughout the region.

Public sector officials, including Rep. Jeanette Wallace, R-Los 
Alamos, school Superintendent James Anderson and County Councilor 
Diane Albert, made strong statements about the interdependent 
relationship between the community and the laboratory and the 
essential role of the community in the lab's scientific 
enterprise.

Bill Harris, a consultant representing the University of Texas, 
read a statement with a list of 10 recommendations, including 
"demonstrated excellence in R and engineering."

William Courtney of Computer Sciences Corporation entered an 
argument for the value of private enterprise in lowering high 
overhead and costs of services, while unburdening scientists from 
the burdens bureaucracy

Others spoke of current personnel problems at the laboratory, 
expressed deep concerns about the fate of their retirement 
benefits, and proposed that governance reforms be included in the 
competitive process that might otherwise never take place.

Jennings said afterwards that the community had raised issues 
about which the committee was not aware, including the value of 
outreach and public service in the area. Impressed by the 
strength of the community institutions, he said of the social 
environment, "It's certainly a sensitive one, sensitive to the 
consequences of change."   

  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 50 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 14:09:55 -0800 (PST)

 
EVIDENCE Bubbles Over To Support Tabletop Nuclear Fusion Device
Science Daily (press release) - USA
- Researchers are reporting new evidence supporting their earlier discovery
of an inexpensive "tabletop" device that uses sound waves to produce nuclear
fusion ...
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040303080222.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040303080222.htm>

PALO Verde Nuclear Generating Station
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Description: Three-unit, uranium-fueled, steam-electric nuclear generating
station. Palo Verde is a pressurized water reactor. Power ...
<http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0303paloverdefacts03.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0303paloverdefacts03.html>

STATE appeals nuclear waste ruling
Kansas City Star - Kansas City,MO,USA
... The nuclear waste dump was to hold waste from Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas,
Louisiana and Oklahoma - which joined in 1983 to form the Central Interstate
Low ...
<http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8096587.htm>

IS Pakistan's nuclear programme dying?
BBC News - London,England,UK
In all the heat generated by Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist, AQ Khan,
confessing to nuclear proliferation, relatively little attention has been
paid to ...
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3526969.stm>

ANOTHER leak is found at Palo Verde nuclear station
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Officials at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station have discovered
a trace amount of boric acid leaking from one of the facility's three
units, the third ...
<http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0302B1-talkera02.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0302B1-talkera02.html>

PROPOSED Energy Department Budget Would Boost Funds for Nuclear ... 
Arms Control Today - USA
The Bush administration is seeking to boost spending on US nuclear weapons
programs in fiscal year 2005 to $6.6 billion, up 5 percent from the $6.2
billion ...
<http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2004_03/EnergyDepartment.asp>

UN casts wary eye at global growth of nuclear power
Environmental News Network - Berkeley,CA,USA
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday
there were signs of a possible increase in the use of nuclear power, despite
...
<http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-03/s_13658.asp>
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GERMAN minister questions nuclear security
Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA
FRANKFURT, Germany, March 3 (UPI) -- Tension is building in Germany over
plans to use artificial fog to protect the country's 18 nuclear power
plants from ...
<http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040303-120045-5922r.htm>

BUSH Says Dismantling NK Nuclear Programs is A `Paramount Concern ... 
Korea Times - Seoul,South Korea
The President of the United States George W. Bush said Tuesday that, by
way of last week’s nuclear talks, the US delivered a clear message that
North Korea ...
<http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200403/kt2004030314492810440.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=google&num=30&newsclusterurl=http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200403/kt2004030314492810440.htm>

US voices new worry on nuclear bomb fuel
International Herald Tribune - Paris,France
... W. Bush's chief negotiator with North Korea has told a Senate panel
that it is "quite possible" that the country has turned all 8,000 of its
spent nuclear fuel ...
<http://www.iht.com/articles/508569.htm>

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 51 RGJ: Washoe Planning Commission approves air-monitoring station permit
 
Wednesday | Mar 3, 2004

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

The Washoe County Planning Commission on Tuesday approved a 
permit for an air monitoring station near Gerlach to gather wind 
and air quality data for a proposed coal-fired power plant that 
would be the biggest in Nevada.

 In the 6-1 vote, Commissioner Mark Sullivan said the board could 
consider only the impact the monitoring station could have on 
Squaw Creek Valley, about 10 miles northwest of Gerlach.

 The station would be a 164-foot-tall tower with weather 
instruments and a small trailer for monitoring equipment to 
collect air quality data required for obtaining federal and state 
environmental permits. The nearest home is two miles away over a 
hill.

 Called the Granite Fox Power Project, Sempra Energy of San Diego 
proposes to build a 1,450-megawatt power plant. It would burn 
enough pulverized coal to provide electricity to at least 1.45 
million households. 

Commissioner Stephen Rogers, a retired nuclear engineer who said 
he worked at power plants for 40 years, was the sole opponent, 
siding with Phyllis Fox, an engineer hired by Gerlach residents.

“I’ve worked too long in the power industry. I agree with what 
she said,” Rogers said, adding pollution from the plant could 
cover several western states.

 Fox, of Berkeley, Calif., said the tower is far too short to 
capture wind measures from the plume coming from the plant 
smokestacks, which she estimated would rise 650 feet.

 And she said the site of the monitoring station would collect 
minimum-case data versus worst-case.

But Sullivan and other commissioners said those weren’t decisions 
for the board to make.

Vince Scheetz, Sempra’s consulting meteorologist, said sonar 
instruments will profile accurately wind flows up to altitudes of 
several thousand feet.

 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Nevada Division 
of Environmental Protection would have to approve the monitoring 
plan.

Consultants for Sempra Energy said they’d return to the planning 
commission for approval of changes if their monitoring plan is 
not approved.

 David Rumsey, a Gerlach rancher, said residents probably would 
decide today to appeal the permit to the county board of 
commissioners. If so, the board would probably hear the case in 
late March or April.

 The power plant site is near a major electricity transmission 
line serving Southern California and a railroad line. It would 
result in 100 permanent jobs and a windfall in property taxes to 
the county.

It would be built on 2,000 acres owned by the Bright-Holland Co., 
controlled by Reno developers Sam and Todd Jaksick.

 Under that company name, they own 28,195 acres northeast of 
Gerlach, including 18,600 acres in the Granite Range northeast of 
the power plant nominated in January by Washoe County for federal 
acquisition.

 In acknowledging outside contacts before the permit was 
considered, all seven planning commissioners reported they 
received a phone call or message from former Gov. Robert List, 
now a lawyer representing Sempra.

 Sullivan said he spoke with List about some of the air 
monitoring station details but said that conversation would not 
affect his decision.

 At the district attorney’s request, the commission added a 
statement to the permit, saying it cannot be relied upon in 
gaining support for any future development.

 While commissioners said the power plant wasn’t on the agenda, 
they urged residents who came to talk about that to speak during 
public comment.

 Rumsey, owner of the Parker Ranch, said a coal-fired power plant 
doesn’t belong in a pristine canyon nearly surrounded by the 
Black Rock Desert National Conservation Area and proposed 
conservation areas. 

“Is this good planning,” he said.

 “What was the point of the NCA other than to preserve this as an 
attraction?” asked Rachel Bogard, of Planet X Pottery, which 
depends on tourists. “I do not believe the financial gain of an 
already wealthy power company or the support of the gross 
over-consumption of Southern California is worth destroying our 
wilderness and community.”

 Charles Watson, Jr., of Nevada Public Lands Task Force, said the 
facility would be one of 96 power plants needed for supplying 
electricity to Yucca Mountain nuclear dump. The Sierra Club also 
registered its opposition to the power plant.

 “Why are they going to build this power plant here,” Watson 
asked. “It’s because they’re forbidden in California.”  

© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Newspaper. Use of this
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 52 chattanoogan: TVA Plan Has Delayed Summer Drawdown Of Chickamauga Lake - 
	
 3/3/2004 - 
Breaking News - Chattanoogan.com
 	
A new TVA management plan includes a delayed summer drawndown of 
Chickamauga Lake to increase recreational opportunities.
		 
The plans says the drawdown of Chickamauga Reservoir currently 
begins on July 1. Under the Preferred Alternative, this drawdown 
would be delayed until Labor Day. 
		 
To help reduce the flood risk at Chattanooga, the spring fill 
would be delayed until mid-May for the upper main-river projects, 
including Chickamauga.
		 
Fluctuations of reservoir levels to strand mosquito eggs and 
larvae on the shoreline would continue until the start of the 
drawdown, it was stated.
		 
TVA officials said no increase in flood damages would occur for 
flood events up to a 500-year magnitude at any critical location 
within the Tennessee Valley, including Chattanooga. (A flood 
event of a 500-year magnitude has a 1 in 500 chance of happening 
in any given year.)
		 
TVA officials said the Preferred Alternative "combines elements 
of the alternatives outlined last summer in the draft 
Environmental Impact Statement, including elements designed to 
enhance navigation, reservoir recreation, tailwater recreation, 
and scenic beauty. Adjustments also were made to avoid or reduce 
unacceptable impacts to other objectives, including flood risk, 
water quality, power supply, aquatic species, wetlands, and 
shoreline erosion."
		 
Under the Preferred Alternative, TVA would no longer target 
specific summer pool elevations. Instead reservoir operations 
"would be aimed at managing the flow of water through the system 
to meet the objectives identified by the public and others who 
participated in the scoping process conducted at the beginning of 
the study. This approach would increase recreation opportunities 
on tributary storage reservoirs by limiting the drawdown of those 
reservoirs from June 1 through Labor Day, as long as rainfall and 
runoff are sufficient to meet project-specific and system-wide 
flow requirements.
		 
"Flow requirements also would be used to protect water quality 
and aquatic resources, ensure year-round commercial navigation, 
and provide an adequate supply of cooling water for TVA’s 
coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
		 
"Additional water—beyond that required to meet flow 
requirements—would be released from tributary storage reservoirs 
only when necessary to preserve the reliability of the TVA power 
system."
		 
Officials said the changes were based on a number of public 
meetings. They said no further public meetings are planned, but 
public comment will be received through April 12.
		 
TVA Director Bill Baxter will be in Chattanooga on Thursday 
morning to discuss the planned changes with the news media.
 		 		
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