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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Guardian Unlimited: Court plea on Iraq war advice
2 Las Vegas SUN: Iraq Nuclear Bomb Authority Wants Probe
3 The Age: Chalabi, Bush's shadowy man in Baghdad - Opinion -
4 Scotsman: Saddam had WMDs destroyed in 91, claim scientists
5 AU ABC: Bush, Blair knew they were hyping war case - Blix. 
6 UK Independent: The Monday Interview: Retired Chief UN Weapons Inspe
7 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA Chief: Scrutiny of Iran to Continue
8 BBC: Iran's nuclear stance criticised 
9 BBC: US blasts Iran nuclear 'stories' 
10 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea May Make New Demands of U.S.
11 BBC: N Korea links nuclear deal to US 
12 US: Independent: Bingaman warns that revised energy bill may get pus
13 UK Independent: Scientist 'gagged' by No 10 after warning of global 
14 AFP: Russia to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya - IAEA
15 PTI: Israel considered destroying Pak n-facilities in 1979
16 BBC: At work with the nuclear police 
17 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear watchdog presses Pakistan for help 
18 FT: Libya's nuclear suppliers held back crucial components  
19 Daily Times: ‘Libyan uranium airlifted to Russia’ 
20 Daily Times: UN sure govt knew of Dr Khan’s activity 
21 Hi Pakistan: IAEA to discuss N-black market issues     --> 
22 Indian Express: Nuke scientist says bomb dad stole his patent
23 Las Vegas SUN: AP: Pakistan Knew of Nuclear Black Market
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
24 US: [NukeNet] NRC Public Meeting on PSEG Safety Culture 3/18, 2pm
25 US: [NukeNet] News report on Sundays meeting in Salem
26 US: [NukeNet] Report on Davis Besse Nuke Plant
27 US: Las Vegas SUN: NRC says Ohio nuclear plant can open after two-ye
28 US: NRC: NRC Approves Davis-Besse Restart
29 US: Cato: Whither Nuclear Power?
30 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting of the 
31 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards: Joint Meeting of 
32 US: News Messenger: Report: D-B should not open again - 
33 US: Beacon Journal: FirstEnergy dissolves `poison pill' defense
34 FT: Chinese close to sale of second nuclear power plant to Pakistan 
35 Xinhuanet: DPRK reiterates simultaneous actions in settling nuclear 
36 US: NRC: Nuclear Management Company, Llc; Notice Of Receipt And 
37 KoreaTimes: [Arrowhead] Editorials on Nuclear Issues 
38 US: Reuters: Both PG&E Calif. Diablo Canyon nukes ramp up
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
39 US: DUEFSSES and CONpensation Shell Game
40 US: [radiation-survivors] -- Fund for radiation victims clears
41 UN Nuclear Watchdog 'seriously Concerned' Over Gaps In Iran's Declar
42 Bellona: Nuclear sub Victor-III Perm to be repaired this year
43 BBC: Crash causes radioactive 'scare' 
44 US: Spectrum: Downwinder clinic opens at DRMC 
45 Evening Times: Radiation scare after crash - 
46 US: Independent: Atomic bomb survivors had 50 times less radiation
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
47 comments on the LES in Eunice, New Mexico
48 US: Las Vegas SUN: EPA Seeks to Expand Toxic Waste Clean Up
49 Las Vegas SUN: Senate budget won't add more Yucca funding
50 Las Vegas SUN: Hearing highlights danger of taking waste to Yucca
51 NMBW: Uranium enrichment facility partners with junior college -
52 US: Gallup Independent U-miners: No need for any more bureaucracy 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
53 DenverPost.com: Public use of refuge on agenda
54 DOE: Office of Science; High Energy Physics Advisory Panel
55 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern
56 DOD: DU EIS Analysis for Nevada test training range
57 KRT Wire: Idaho Contractors Offer Views about Lab Cleanup Contract t
58 Oak Ridger: Friends of ORNL lecture to focus on 'Rediscovery of the
59 lamonitor.com: Features Lecture: 'From Trinity to Frenchman Flat - O
60 Albuquerque Tribune: Raise the rug: We can no longer sweep into hidi
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
61 Google News Alert - nuclear
62 NYT: Choose Me, Japan and France Say as They Court Big Fusion Projec
63 Fuel Cell Today: New Mexico to invest in Hydrogen Technology
64 OSC: discimination statute interpretation
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Guardian Unlimited: Court plea on Iraq war advice

Guardian Newspapers Limited

Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday March 9, 2004
The Guardian 		
 		
A court will be asked today to order disclosure of the advice 
Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, gave the government about 
the legality of the war.

The demand will be made by lawyers acting for Greenpeace. They 
will also seek disclosure of the instructions ministers gave Lord 
Goldsmith before he decided military action against Iraq was 
lawful without a new UN resolution. 

The requests will be made to a district judge at Southampton 
magistrates court, where 14 Greenpeace activists face charges 
relating to the occupation of tanks in February last year at the 
Marchwood military port, near Southampton. 

The 14 are charged with aggravated trespass. They will plead the 
defence of necessity - that they reasonably believed they acted 
to prevent injury. 

The activists are represented by Rabinder Singh QC and Timothy 
Owen QC. In a high court case on behalf of the Campaign for 
Nuclear Disarmament, Mr Singh recently argued, contrary to Lord 
Goldsmith, that UN security council resolution 1441 did not 
authorise military action and the threat posed by Iraq did not 
meet the threshold set out in the UN charter. 

The high court dismissed the CND case on the grounds that it was 
in principle not in the public interest to rule on the 
government's foreign policy. 

Greenpeace lawyers are understood to be considering calling Lord 
Boyce, former chief of defence staff, as a witness. 

Next month, lawyers for protesters charged after entering the air 
base at Fairford, Gloucestershire, will challenge the legality of 
the war at Bristol crown court.
 	
 	
[UP] 

      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
 2 Las Vegas SUN: Iraq Nuclear Bomb Authority Wants Probe

Today: March 08, 2004 at 4:45:35 PST 

 By SAM F. GHATTAS ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - The father of Iraq's nuclear bomb
program, speaking publicly for the first time since U.S. forces
occupied Baghdad, called Monday for a U.N. probe of what nuclear
inspectors knew before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. 

Jafar Dhia Jafar, speaking during a discussion about the
repercussions of the occupation of Iraq organized by the
Beirut-based Center for Arab Unity Studies, said U.N. inspectors
had "reached total conviction" that Iraq was free of nuclear
weapons before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. 

"It was clear that reports of the United Nations to the Security
Council should have been clear and courageous," Jafar said. "I
believe the United Nations should also investigate ... the facts
that were known before the war and why they (nuclear inspectors)
did not declare them to the security council." 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 3 The Age: Chalabi, Bush's shadowy man in Baghdad - Opinion -

www.theage.com.au

March 9, 2004
 		 	   	   		
Before America gives yet more power to this man, it should ask a 
few questions about him, writes Isabel Hilton. 

In the mayhem that followed the explosions in Baghdad and Karbala 
last week, Ahmed Chalabi, an ever more powerful member of the 
Iraqi Governing Council and a Pentagon favourite, was swiftly at 
the scene, behaving like a politician come to offer sympathy. It 
was a shrewd piece of public relations - if you forget the 
responsibility Chalabi bears for Iraq's present tragic condition. 

It was Chalabi, more than any other individual, who helped 
persuade the US that toppling Saddam Hussein would bring peace 
and democracy, and break the link that he alleged existed between 
the Iraqi leader and al-Qaeda. 

In the approach to war, both the US and British Governments 
mobilised a mishmash of arguments in a campaign of persuasion 
that was based not on rigorous analysis of intelligence but on 
the selective use of data and informants. And in this sorry tale, 
no one played a more critical role than the man many proclaim the 
most likely future leader of Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi. 

He has been working to take power in Iraq for a long time. The 
son of a wealthy and influential family in Iraq that lost its 
place with the fall of the monarchy, Chalabi has a long 
association with US intelligence. In the early 1990s, he was 
considered a serious asset by the CIA - but they soon found him 
to be unreliable. 

However, advocates of radical action in the Middle East came to 
power with George Bush. The next steps are now well documented. 
As Richard Perle once complained: "The CIA has been engaged in a 
character assassination of Ahmed Chalabi for years now, and it's 
a disgrace." To bypass such obstacles, an alternative 
intelligence group - the Office of Special Plans - was created. 

But there was still a shortage of evidence on two key points: 
that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and that he had links 
with al-Qaeda. Step forward Ahmed Chalabi, who knows a market 
when he sees one. He claimed his sources inside and outside Iraq 
could supply the necessary evidence. 

In 2001, Colin Powell declared: "He (Saddam) has not developed 
any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass 
destruction... our policies have strengthened the security of the 
neighbours of Iraq." Tony Blair told the Commons in November 
2000: "We believe that the sanctions regime has effectively 
contained Saddam Hussein." These assessments coincided with the 
view of the intelligence services and the inspectors. 

The alternative intelligence, marshalled to make the case for 
war, came overwhelmingly from Chalabi's Iraqi National Council 
and its carefully coached "sources". 

Among the INC allegations that have not been borne out were that 
Saddam had built mobile biological weapons facilities, that he 
was rapidly rebuilding his nuclear weapons program and that he 
had trained Islamic warriors at a camp south of Baghdad. 

Now British defence officials acknowledge that the defectors' 
tales were "shaky" at best. 

On whose judgement was this shaky information included in 
official prewar intelligence estimates of Iraq's illicit weapons 
programs and key statements by US and British politicians? 

On September 12, 2002, for instance, claims by Iraqi military 
officers supplied by the INC that Iraq had been training Arabs in 
"hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities, 
sabotage and assassinations" were given uncritical prominence in 
a White House report. 

And what is now described as an INC "fabrication" - that Iraq had 
mobile biological warfare research facilities - was included in 
Powell's presentation to the UN security Council in February 
2003. 

To give wider credibility to this dubious narrative, Chalabi 
planted stories in newspapers such as The New York Times, stories 
that were then quoted as independent corroborative evidence by 
Bush Administration officials. The paper's now much-criticised 
specialist on WMD, Judith Miller, has acknowledged her 10-year 
association with Chalabi. 

He has admitted that the "evidence" he supplied was wrong. He is 
no longer interested in pretending that there are any WMD in 
Iraq, but nor is he repentant. George Bush may lose the 
presidential election and Tony Blair is trapped in the political 
minefield of the war's aftermath, but Chalabi is a clear winner. 
"We are heroes in error," he told London's Daily Telegraph. Since 
Saddam was gone, "What was said before is not important." 

When the US flew Chalabi in to Iraq by helicopter early in the 
war, along with 700 friends and supporters, he was not remotely 
electable. He did, though, look like a man positioning himself to 
be at the centre of power. 

Last week, Iraq's provisional constitution was agreed. Given 
Bush's need to create a puppet government in time for the US 
elections, power will now remain in the hands of the governing 
council until such time as elections might be held - a promise 
that recedes into the future with each terrorist outrage. The 
longer elections are postponed, the better for Chalabi, who is 
now in control of Iraq's finances and of de-Baathification. 

Perhaps his greatest coup was to gain possession of 25 tonnes of 
captured Saddam documents that could prove useful in the future. 
Before the war, for instance, the Jordanian foreign minister 
criticised Chalabi as untrustworthy. Chalabi then threatened to 
"expose" documentary evidence of the Jordanian royal family's 
close relations with Saddam. The public criticisms stopped. 

With power there also come opportunities for enrichment. US 
authorities in Iraq have awarded more than $US400 million ($A526 
million) in contracts to a company that has extensive family and 
business ties to Chalabi. 

If intelligence is to be of even greater importance in the 
future, its reliability is critical - an argument, perhaps, to 
learn from recent experience. 

But not for the US Defence Department. It plans to spend $US4 
million over the next year buying intelligence on Iraq. And who 
does it plan to buy that intelligence from? 

Step forward Ahmed Chalabi. 

Isabel Hilton is a columnist with The Guardian, London. 	 	

Copyright  © 2004. The Age Company Ltd     | contact us  				   
*****************************************************************
 4 Scotsman: Saddam had WMDs destroyed in 91, claim scientists
 
Tuesday, 9th March 2004                        

SAM GHATTAS IN BEIRUT 

THE row over whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction 
was reignited yesterday, after the former head of the countryā€™s 
nuclear programme said Saddam Hussein ordered the destruction of 
the arms and the means to produce them in 1991. 

Speaking publicly for the first time since United States forces 
occupied Baghdad, Jafar Dhia Jafar called for the United Nations 
to investigate what weapons inspectors knew about Iraqā€™s banned 
weapons programme before last yearā€™s invasion. 

Speaking at a meeting at the Beirut-based Centre for Arab Unity 
Studies, Mr Jafar said UN inspectors had "reached total 
conviction" that Iraq was free of nuclear weapons. 

"It was clear that reports of the United Nations [inspectors] to 
the Security Council should have been clear and courageous," he 
said. "I believe the United Nations should also investigate the 
facts that were known before the war and why [the inspectors] did 
not declare them to the Security Council." 

Mr Jafar, who was once an adviser to Saddam as a head of his 
nuclear programme, was presenting a paper written with Noman Saad 
Eddin al-Noaimi, a former director-general of Iraqā€™s nuclear 
programme, in which the pair denied the country had restarted its 
pursuit of atomic weapons. 

The two men wrote that the former Iraqi leader had ordered the 
elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the means to 
produce them. 

"Saddam Hussein issued orders in July 1991 for the destruction of 
all banned weapons, in addition to the systems to produce them. 
It was carried by the Special Republican Guard forces," the 
scientists said. 

"We can confirm with absolute certainty that Iraq no longer 
possessed any weapons of mass destruction after its unilateral 
destruction of all its components in the summer of 1991, and did 
not resume any such activity because it no longer had the 
foundations to resume such activity." 

US officials repeatedly raised the prospect of an Iraqi nuclear 
threat before the invasion. Three days before the beginning of 
the war, Dick Cheney, the US vice- president, said Iraq was 
"trying once again to produce nuclear weapons", even though Hans 
Blix, the chief weapons inspector, and his nuclear counterpart, 
Mohamed El Baradei, had found no evidence of any weapons of mass 
destruction or programmes to build them in Iraq. 

Inspectors have yet to find conclusive evidence of weapons of 
mass destruction inside Iraq.


*****************************************************************
 5 AU ABC: Bush, Blair knew they were hyping war case - Blix. 

08/03/2004. ABC News Online
 	
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">   

US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair
probably knew they were exaggerating the threat from Iraq when
they were making the case for war, according to former chief UN
weapons inspector Hans Blix.

 The US President and the British Prime Minister ignored the few
caveats in reports from intelligence services on Iraq's nuclear,
chemical or biological weapons programs, he writes in his
account of the months leading up to the US-led invasion.

 Mr Blix says it was "probable that the governments were
conscious that they were exaggerating the risks they saw in
order to get the political support they would not otherwise have
had".

 In an interview from Stockholm, Blix highlighted the now
discredited British claim that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction that could be deployed within 45 minutes.

 "They must have had a half-conscious idea that this was perhaps
a bit of exaggeration...The aim of it I think was to create an
impression in the reader that they were faced with something
very ominous," he said by telephone.

 "If they had been more critical of the evidence they saw, I
think that they should have put some question marks rather than
the exclamation marks that they did," he added.

 Dr Blix was head of the International Atomic Energy Agency from
1981 to 1997 and later chief of UNMOVIC (the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission) until 2003.

 At other points in his new book Disarming Iraq - The search for
weapons of mass destruction, the former Swedish diplomat appears
to soften his criticism of the British and American leaders.

 "I am not suggesting that Blair and Bush spoke in bad faith,
but I am suggesting that it would not have taken much critical
thinking on their own part or the part of their close advisers
to prevent statements that misled the public," he writes.

 "It is understood and accepted that governments must simplify
complex international matters in explaining them to the public
in democratic states.

 "However they are not vendors of merchandise but leaders of
whom some sincerity should be asked when they exercise their
responsibility for war and peace in the world."

 Dr Blix says he too had believed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had illegal weapons.

 But he adds he was unwilling to state it as fact until he saw
concrete proof -- which was never obtained by his teams of
inspectors scouring the Iraqi countryside.

 "A number of intelligence services, including the French, were
convinced that weapons of mass destruction remained in Iraq, but
we had no evidence showing it," Dr Blix wrote.

 He quoted French President Jacques Chirac, staunchly opposed to
war, as saying intelligence services sometimes "intoxicate each
other".

 Nearly a year after the invasion and overthrow of Saddam, the
coalition has not found illegal weapons in Iraq.

 Dr Blix said he believed Mr Bush and Mr Blair had damaged both
their own credibility and that of the United Nations, but that
he expected all to recover in due time.

 Dr Blix said he assumed that he and his inspectors were bugged
by western intelligence agencies to try to find out their
thinking.

 "If they bugged us it is a pity they didn't listen better to
what we said," he added wryly.

 -- Reuters 

© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 
*****************************************************************
 6 UK Independent: The Monday Interview: Retired Chief UN Weapons Inspector
 
By Anne Penketh in Stockholm
 
08 March 2004

Hans Blix is chuckling as he emerges from his study and settles
into an armchair in his spacious Stockholm flat to leaf through
a document. 

The document is no laughing matter: it is the Blair Government's
now-notorious dossier from September, 2002, which framed the
case for war on Iraq, and indirectly led to the death of David
Kelly, the government arms expert. But Mr Blix, the former chief
UN weapons inspector, smiles as he cites examples of the Prime
Minister's "faith-based" approach to intelligence. 

"Listen to this," he says. "This is Blair speaking, 'I believe
the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt'." Mr
Blix is mocking Mr Blair's uncritical view of intelligence,
which prevented the Prime Minister backing down even when the UN
inspectors returned from Iraq unable to report that they had the
"smoking gun" which would demonstrate "beyond doubt" that Saddam
Hussein had rebuilt his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. 

Today he is angry at the lack of attention paid by the British
and American governments to the inspectors' findings in the rush
to topple Saddam. "Why the hell didn't they pay more attention
to us?" he asks. 

When Mr Blix, now 75, was called out of retirement to become
chief UN weapons inspector in March 2000, he suspected that Iraq
retained lethal stocks of WMD. Like other weapons inspectors,
including Dr Kelly, who had witnessed first-hand the "cat and
mouse" game played by Iraq in the 1990s, Mr Blix was hawkish.
After all, under his watch as head of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, the Iraqis had been caught red-handed as they
worked on a clandestine nuclear programme. 

"My gut feelings, which I kept to myself, suggested to me that
Iraq still engaged in prohibited activities and retained
prohibited items, and that it had the documents to prove it," he
says in a new book, Disarming Iraq: the search for weapons of
mass destruction. This is why he would not challenge Mr Blair's
claim on Friday about Saddam's WMD, that in November, 2002, when
resolution 1441 was adopted, "everyone thought he had them". 

But Mr Blix's doubts set in when the inspectors were allowed
back into Iraq at the end of that month, exactly four years
after they were pulled out, as the US/UK bombing campaign of
Operation Desert Fox started. They inspected suspicious sites,
acting on tip-offs from the intelligence agencies, but they
found no credible evidence of WMD. " I said, 'If this is the
best, what is the rest?'" In fact, he adds: "Considering how
misleading much of the intelligence given us eventually proved
to be, perhaps it was a blessing we did not get more." 

He tells of a conversation with Mr Blair, one month before the
war, amid a controversy over the alleged presence of mobile
biological weapons production facilities after the inspectors
had been unable to confirm the intelligence claims. 

"I added that it would prove paradoxical and absurd if 250,000
troops were to invade Iraq and find very little. Blair responded
that the intelligence was clear Saddam had reconstituted his
weapons of mass destruction programme. Blair clearly relied on
the intelligence and was convinced, while my faith in
intelligence had been shaken." 

What Mr Blix still cannot understand is why his doubts and those
of his professional teams of trained inspectors failed to make
an impression on Mr Blair and President George Bush, who
continued to mislead the public with categorical assertions
about the existence of WMD with the fervency of religious
crusaders. He accuses the British and US governments of
"distorting" the reports of the weapons inspectors, who had said
that amounts of chemical and biological weapons remained
unaccounted for. This became an accusation that Iraq "retained"
chemical and biological weapons. 

Worse, he says, the Bush administration actively sought to
undermine the inspectors, accusing them of playing down the
threat from Saddam's WMD, particularly after Mr Blix refused to
brand the discovery of an Iraqi drone as a "smoking gun". He
adds: "I still find it insulting if they believed that our
assessments were prompted by a wish to avoid finding
incriminating evidence." 

He also feels insulted by the lack of consideration with which
Americans treated the inspectors. "I am flabbergasted that the
American military could believe there were such easily available
large stores of this stuff when Unscom (the previous inspection
regime) hadn't seen any, and we hadn't seen any. They had such a
low opinion of the inspectors." 

Mr Blix's doubts increased further after the war, when Saddam's
chief weapons expert, Amer al-Saadi, was taken away in a US
Jeep, still insisting on the official Iraq line that all the WMD
had been destroyed after the first Gulf War in 1991. "It was
only then that I said to myself, 'There is nothing there'." 

Today, in the comfort of his flat scattered with rugs and modern
Swedish paintings and as he embarks on a new career at the head
of an independent Stockholm WMD commission, Mr Blix admits he
feels vindicated for his cautious and critical approach. His old
nemesis, David Kay, the former US chief weapons hunter, threw in
the towel, proclaiming: "We are all wrong." But Mr Blix
maintains he was right. "I don't like to have any glee because
the matter is far too serious for that. But yes, I think the
attitude we had of a critical examination of the evidence, that
is vindicated." 

Although Mr Blix says he is not bitter, he is scathing about the
"faith-based" approach of Messrs Bush and Blair which he says
was tantamount to a "witch hunt". After a conversation with John
Wolf, Assistant US Secretary of State for Non-proliferation, who
is accused of obtaining secret information from his office, he
says: "I understood his formulations to say, 'The witches exist;
you are appointed to deal with these witches; testing whether
there are witches is only a dilution of the witch-hunt'." 

His account is particularly damaging for Dick Cheney, the
Vice-President who continued to insist that Iraq had "nuclear
weapons" long after the evidence proved the contrary. Given Mr
Blix's IAEA background, he is well-placed to know that US
statements about Iraq's nuclear potential were "too alarming or
exaggerated". 

In the light of the bugging revelations, he is clearly smarting.
"Although it's nice they were listening to us, why weren't they
paying attention to what we said? They might have learnt
something." Some leaders did believe the inspectors. Mr Blix
says Jacques Chirac, the French President, had a healthy
disrespect for intelligence. Although the French intelligence
services were convinced WMD remained in Iraq, Mr Chirac's
thinking "seemed to be dominated by the conviction that Iraq did
not pose a threat that justified armed intervention". 

Mr Chirac believed that the intelligence services "sometimes
intoxicate each other". So were the French right? "I think they
were, yes. Chirac was right that the intelligence agencies
intoxicated each other; I think they were right on the second
resolution, they were right also in saying that one should
defer, that one should have more inspections. 

"They did not say that they would always say 'no' to war. The
Americans might have suspected that, but clearly March was too
early a date." So what were Mr Blair's channels that made Mr
Blair so certain of the Iraqi threat? Defectors, certainly.
"They wanted Saddam gone." And the weapons inspectors, many of
whom from the Unscom teams of the 1990s remained as government
advisers. Mr Blix admits they must share the blame. 

"Where was [Mr Blair] getting his information from? He could
have had reports from British agents that went further than the
[Unscom] reports did." Mr Blix does praise the British
Government for pursuing the inspection route - at least in
public - to the bitter end. "I never doubted that Blair was
strongly advocating inspections all the way through; that the
resistance to that must have come from the Americans and mainly
from the Pentagon side. Even to the last they were trying with
the inspection path." 

But how sincere was the Government? "They certainly tried very
hard." Mr Blix takes pains to stress that he is no pacifist.
While he maintains that the Iraqi invasion was unjustified based
on the nature of the weapons threat, "you can take another line,
on humanitarian grounds. I would be in favour of that." From
that perspective, Mr Blix sounds remarkably like Mr Blair, who
complained in his speech on Friday that international law, as
presently constituted, meant that "a regime can systematically
brutalise and oppress its people and there is nothing anyone can
do". 

On the wall of Mr Blix's study is a framed letter from Bill
Clinton, congratulating him after his retirement on his 16 years
at the head of the IAEA. "I don't expect I'll be getting one
from Bush," Mr Blix says drily. 

Disarming Iraq, the Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction,
Bloomsbury, £16.99 

THE CV: 

Born: 1928 in Uppsala, Sweden 

Career: 1963-76, adviser on international law at Swedish Foreign
Ministry; 1978, Swedish Foreign Minister; 1981-97, director
general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (retired1997);
January 2000, executive chairman of the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission; January 2004, chairman
of independent international commission on WMD, based in
Stockholm. 

Married to Eva Kettis, two sons 	           


UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 7 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA Chief: Scrutiny of Iran to Continue

Today: March 08, 2004 at 5:25:37 PST 

 By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - 

The head of the U.N atomic agency on Monday rejected Iranian
demands of an end to international scrutiny, saying Tehran would
remain in the spotlight as long as questions remained about its
nuclear agenda. 

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, spoke at the start of an IAEA board of governors
meeting trying to bridge differences over Iran's nuclear
intentions - and what to do about them. 

Germany, Britain and France want an emphasis on the progress
Iran has made in revealing nuclear activities and cooperating
with IAEA inspectors since the discovery last year of a secret
uranium enrichment program and covert tests that could be
applied toward making nuclear weapons. 

Convinced that Tehran at one point wanted to make nuclear
weapons, Washington, however, wants tough language to dominate
in any resolution adopted by the board. 

Ahead of the meeting, a senior Iranian official on Sunday
demanded an end to the board's scrutiny of its nuclear
activities, insisting that they were never geared toward making
arms. He also demanded that the three European countries deliver
on promises of access to advanced nuclear technology in exchange
for cooperation with the IAEA. 

"We told them that if you don't fulfill your promise everything
will return to day one," Hasan Rowhani said at a meeting with
other senior Iranian officials in Tehran. 

ElBaradei, however, suggested that Iran's nuclear activities
would remain under scrutiny. 

"The issue will (only) be removed form the agenda when we are
done with all the issues that are outstanding," he told
reporters ahead of the meeting. Progress on clearing up question
marks about Iran's past suspect nuclear activities, "depends
very much on the kind of cooperation we hopefully will continue
to receive from Iran," he said. 

"To build confidence takes years and requires absolute
transparency and full openness," said ElBaradei. He said the
board would also discuss agency findings resulting from its
probe of the black market providing Iran, Libya and North Korea
with technology that can be used to make nuclear weapons. 

He described both Iran and Libya - which has acknowledged having
a weapons program and has pledged to scrap it - as in violation
of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty. 

But with Libya commonly accepted as willing to reveal all about
its former nuclear secrets, it is Iran that is under the gun at
the Vienna meeting. 

While insisting it is interested in uranium enrichment only to
generate power and not to arm warheads, Iran has suspended its
enrichment program to defang criticism and ease months of
international pressure. Still, it insists it has every right to
resume such activities, despite international demands that
Iranian enrichment be scrapped, not just suspended. 

Tehran has also allowed IAEA inspectors broad access to its
nuclear programs and has handed over materials requested by
ElBaradei in his investigation of nearly two decades of covert
activities, including purchases from the nuclear black market
that also supplied Libya and North Korea. 

Still, an IAEA report prepared for Monday's meeting of the
35-nation board faults Tehran for continuing to hide evidence of
nuclear experiments unearthed by agency inspectors and again
urges it to come clean. Made public last month, the dossier
dealt the Islamic Republic a setback in its efforts to convince
the world that its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is
fully cooperating with the U.N. agency. 

The report mentioned finding traces of polonium, a radioactive
element that can help trigger a nuclear chain reaction, but
which Iran says it was interested in for generating electricity.
And it expressed concerns with the discovery of a previously
undisclosed advanced P-2 uranium centrifuge system - a finding
that the U.S. administration said raises "serious concerns"
about Tehran's intentions. 

Nia Zamani, a member of the Iranian delegation, told reporters
his country is "working actively with the agency to resolve
outstanding issues." He said any resolution should reflect "this
trend of positive cooperation and outstanding issues being
resolved one after the other." 

U.S. officials don't agree. Undersecretary of State John Bolton
said last week that Iran was exhibiting "a continuing pattern of
deception and concealment." 

"We're absolutely determined ... that we're not going to ease
pressure on Iran," he said in Lisbon, Portugal. 

The German, French and British, feel, however that too much
pressure could backfire, particularly at a time of domestic
political struggle between Iran's moderates and hardliners. 

--- 

On the Net: 

IAEA, www.iaea.org 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 8 BBC: Iran's nuclear stance criticised 
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 8 March, 2004
 
[Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant under construction] 
Iran says the world must accept its nuclear status                                                
		
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog says he is "seriously 
concerned" about omissions in Iran's declaration on its nuclear 
programme submitted last year. 

Mohammed ElBaradei was speaking as the International Atomic 
Energy Agency met to consider how to proceed with Iran. 

But Iran's ambassador said Tehran had never said the dossier was 
complete. 

His US counterpart said Iran had changed its "stories to fit the 
facts" - and suggested the IAEA would be dealing with Iran for 
many years. 

'Misquoted' 

The 35-nation board of governors is discussing a critical report 
on Iran, which notes that Tehran failed to reveal sensitive 
research in a declaration submitted last October. 

Iran had violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for 
many years, Mr ElBaradei said at the Vienna talks. 

[IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei (archive photo)] The IAEA has 
persuaded Iran to permit tougher checks                                            
		
Mr ElBaradei singled out for particular concern Iran's failure to 
declare that it was researching advanced centrifuge designs, 
known as P2, capable of producing highly enriched uranium. 

This, he said, had been "a setback to Iran's stated policy of 
transparency". 

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Vienna meeting, 
Iran's ambassador said their declaration was never intended to be 
a full picture of their atomic past. 

They had been the victim of a "war of propaganda" and "misquoted" 
as saying the declaration was complete, Pirooz Hossein said. 

Last October, Iran said the declaration "fully disclosed" its 
"past peaceful activities in the nuclear field". 

But the US ambassador to the IAEA said the Iranians changed their 
stories each time IAEA inspectors found something that had not 
been declared to them. 

"This [IAEA] board has a lot more work to do and I expect we'll 
be dealing with the Iran issue for many years to come," Kenneth 
Brill said. 

'Clandestine weapons' 

Mr ElBaradei rejected Iran's demands that the IAEA close its 
files on the country's nuclear programme and accept that it is a 
peaceful project. 

The matter would be closed, he said, once the IAEA had completed 
its work on verifying Iran's past activities. 

Iran halted its enrichment programme last year under 
international pressure but has indicated the move is only 
temporary. 

European states led by Germany, France and the UK have favoured a 
more conciliatory approach to Iran, pointing to the complicated 
political situation within the Islamic republic. 

Tough checks 

The IAEA board meeting is also hearing a report on the 
dismantling of Libya's nuclear weapons programme. 

Mr ElBaradei also criticised Tripoli for past violations of the 
NPT and urged similar transparency and openness from them. But 
the IAEA is expected to praise the country for its current 
co-operation. 

Libya made a surprise announcement in December that it was 
scrapping its weapons programmes in a bid to end its 
international isolation. 

At the weekend, the country sent all its known remaining nuclear 
weapons-related equipment to the US as part of a disarmament 
deal. 

An IAEA spokeswoman said Libya, as well as Niger, would sign up 
on Wednesday to the agency's additional protocol, which allows 
tougher inspections of their atomic sites. 

Another issue being raised at the Vienna talks is growing concern 
over the black market in nuclear material and equipment. 

This follows recent revelations that a top Pakistani scientist 
sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. 

Mr ElBaradei said he would be putting forward steps to tighten 
control over nuclear activities. 

*****************************************************************
 9 BBC: US blasts Iran nuclear 'stories' 
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 8 March, 2004
 
[IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei]                                 
The IAEA has persuaded Iran to permit tougher checks                                                                 

A top US official has accused Iran of continuously changing its 
explanations after UN nuclear inspectors find previously 
undeclared activities. 

"The Iranians change their stories to fit the facts," said 
Kenneth Brill, US ambassador to the UN nuclear agency. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be dealing 
with Iran for "many years to come" Mr Brill said. 

He was speaking in Vienna where the IAEA board of governors is 
meeting to consider how to proceed with Iran. 

I think its striking that t more the agency learns the more the 
Iranians have to change their stories Kenneth Brill US ambassador 
to the IAEA       

IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei said he was "seriously 
concerned" about omissions in that declaration - and dismissed 
Iranian calls to drop the issue from the international agenda. 

Iran's ambassador said Tehran had never said the dossier was 
complete. 

'Setback' 

Pirooz Hosseini said his country had been the victim of a "war of 
propaganda" and "misquoted" as saying the declaration was 
complete. 

But according to his US counterpart, Iranian officials had said 
the October report would be "full, complete and represent total 
transparency". 

"When it was proved that was not the case, then the Iranians 
changed their story and said we didn't mean it was going to be 
full and complete," said Mr Brill. 

"I think its striking that the more the agency learns the more 
the Iranians have to change their stories," he said. 

[Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant under construction] 
Iran wants the world to close the country's nuclear file                        
			   		
Iran had violated the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) for 
many years, Mr ElBaradei said at the Vienna talks. 

He singled out Iran's failure to declare that it was researching 
advanced centrifuge designs, known as P2, capable of producing 
highly enriched uranium. 

This, he said, had been "a setback to Iran's stated policy of 
transparency". 

Iran halted its enrichment programme last year under 
international pressure, but has indicated the move is only 
temporary. 

European states led by Germany, France and the UK have favoured a 
more conciliatory approach to Iran, pointing to the complicated 
political situation within the Islamic republic. 



*****************************************************************
 10 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea May Make New Demands of U.S.

March 07, 2004 

 By SOO-JEONG LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Deepening its nuclear standoff with
the United States, North Korea said Monday that it may insist on
the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea as part of a
nuclear disarmament deal. 

North Korea said it would push the new demands if the United
States failed to drop its own demand that Pyongyang "completely,
verifiably and irreversibly" dismantle its nuclear weapons
programs. 

North Korea has said it is willing to give up its nuclear
program in return for energy and economic aid, as well as a U.S.
guarantee it would not invade the communist country. 

But six-nation talks aimed at brokering a deal ended last month
without a major breakthrough. Sides differed over what programs
and nuclear sites would be subject to dismantling and
inspection, South Korean officials have said. 

In a dispatch carried Monday by the country's official KCNA news
agency, North Korea said if the United States continues to
insist on complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement,
it would offer its own counter-demands. 

"We too cannot but demand the complete withdrawal of U.S.
military stationed in South Korea in a verifiable manner, and
also a complete verifiable and irreversible security guarantee,"
the report said. 

North Korea frequently demands that the United States remove its
troops from South Korea, but attaching them to the nuclear issue
would also be a new move. The United States keep 37,000 soldiers
in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. 

The KCNA report was carried by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. 

The new demands, if brought to the negotiating table, could
complicate the next round of six-nation talks between the United
States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan. The sides
agreed to hold another round before July and have planned to
hold working-level meeting before then to iron out details. 

The KCNA report, citing a commentary in the state-run Rodong
Sinmun, said Washington was trying to soften the country's
defenses ahead of a planned war. 

"If the United States drops its demand that North Korea first
give up its nuclear program and switches its hostile policy
toward DPRK, there would be dramatic progress in resolving the
issue." 

DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North
Korea's official name. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 11 BBC: N Korea links nuclear deal to US 
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 8 March, 2004
 
[A US soldier in South Korea]                           

America has had troops in the South since the Korean War                                                                

North Korea has linked a US demand for the dismantling of its 
nuclear weapons programme to the presence of American military 
bases in the South. 

The North's main newspaper played on US demands for "complete, 
verifiable and irreversible dismantlement", or "CVID", of its 
weapons programmes. 

It said the 37,000-strong US forces stationed in the South should 
be "completely and verifiably" withdrawn. 

Recent talks in Beijing failed to solve the stand-off over the 
North's plans. 

It was at those six-party negotiations in February that the US 
again called for CVID. 

"If the United States demands CVID stubbornly, we are obliged to 
demand irreversible security guarantees," said the Rodong Sinmun 
newspaper in an editorial, reported by the North Korean news 
agency. 

Such guarantees would, the paper said, include the "US army 
stationed in South Korea withdrawing completely and verifiably" 
and a peace treaty being signed between Washington and Pyongyang. 

The paper said the US insistence on the complete dismantling of 
the North's nuclear deterrent was "the logic of robbery". 

Correspondents note that the demands outlined in the article 
could complicate the next round of six-party talks. 

The US, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan agreed in Beijing 
to meet again before July. 



*****************************************************************
 12 Independent: Bingaman warns that revised energy bill may get pushed through 

March 4, 2004

By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau 

FORT DEFIANCE  U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., on Wednesday 
cautioned the public not to be surprised if the Annual Energy 
Outlook 2004 to be presented today by the Energy Information 
Administration is accompanied by a move to push the revised 
energy bill now stalled in the Senate. 

Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 
is slated to be the star witness as the EIA presents its report 
on oil and natural gas supply, demand and prices through 2025. 
EIA's policy-neutral reports have enlightened energy lawmakers 
for years, according to Bingaman. 

"The Senate Energy Committee, in particular, has benefited from 
the statistical and analytical work done by this agency's 
independent experts. However, with S.2095 stalled in the Senate, 
don't be surprised if someone tomorrow offers a view that speedy 
passage of this bill will greatly enhance domestic oil and gas 
production, reducing America's reliance on imported oil and gas," 
Sen. Bingaman said Wednesday in a press release. 

Such a claim would contradict another EIA report released just 
three weeks ago, according to the senator. "That assessment, 
requested by Sen. John Sununu, R-NH, analyzed energy production, 
consumption, price and import impacts of select tax provisions in 
the failed energy conference report S.2095's next of kin," he 
said. 

In that report, EIA found that "the total impact on primary 
energy consumption is small," he said. The maximum annual 
difference, according to EIA, is "no more than 0.3 percent." 

Another EIA study and its addendum concluded that a nationwide 10 
percent Renewable Portfolio Standard for electricity would both 
reduce demand for natural gas and lower natural gas prices, 
Bingaman said. 

Such a claim also would disagree with what Interior Secretary 
Gale Norton has told reporters, according to the senator. In an 
interview published Feb. 23 in Greenwire, Secretary Norton noted 
that the Interior Department is relying on regulatory changes and 
monetary incentives to boost domestic energy production. 

"There are a number of areas where for us the energy bill is 
helpful," Norton said. However, "it's not as dramatic as in the 
electricity restructuring or some other areas." 
    
Thursday March 4, 2004 Selected Stories: Navajo Nation as 
America's Swiss banker?
 
Rez man in jail as part of theft ring
 
Contraceptives still at issue as Crownpoint clinic sets to reopen
 
Bigaman warns that revised energy bill may get pushed through
 
Family ed program has 'winner'
 
The little race track that could Diné panel stalled on election 
procedures 
  
Gallup Independent
*****************************************************************
 13 UK Independent: Scientist 'gagged' by No 10 after warning of global warming
threat 

By Steve Connor and Andrew Grice
 
08 March 2004

Downing Street tried to muzzle the Government's top scientific 
adviser after he warned that global warming was a more serious 
threat than international terrorism. 

Ivan Rogers, Mr Blair's principal private secretary, told Sir 
David King, the Prime Minister's chief scientist, to limit his 
contact with the media after he made outspoken comments about 
President George Bush's policy on climate change. 

In January, Sir David wrote a scathing article in the American 
journal Science attacking Washington for failing to take climate 
change seriously. "In my view, climate change is the most severe 
problem we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of 
terrorism," he wrote. 

Support for Sir David's view came yesterday from Hans Blix, the 
former United Nations chief weapons inspector, who said the 
environment was at least as important a threat as global 
terrorism. He told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost: "I think we still 
overestimate the danger of terror. There are other things that 
are of equal, if not greater, magnitude, like the environmental 
global risks." 

Since Sir David's article in Science was published, No 10 has 
tried to limit the damage to Anglo-American relations by reining 
in the Prime Minister's chief scientist. 

In a leaked memo, Mr Rogers ordered Sir David - a Cambridge 
University chemist who offers independent advice to ministers - 
to decline any interview requests from British and American 
newspapers and BBC Radio 4's Today . 

"To accept such bids runs the risk of turning the debate into a 
sterile argument about whether or not climate change is a greater 
risk," Mr Rogers said in the memo, which was sent to Sir David's 
office in February. "This sort of discussion does not help us 
achieve our wider policy aims ahead of our G8 presidency [next 
year]." The move will be seized on by critics of Mr Blair's 
stance over the Iraq war as further evidence that he is too 
subservient to the Bush administration. It will also be seen as 
an attempt to bolster the Prime Minister's case for pre-emptive 
strikes to combat the threat of international terrorism, which he 
outlined in a speech on Friday. 

Sir David, who is highly regarded by Mr Blair, has been primed 
with a list of 136 mock questions that the media could ask if 
they were able to get access to him, and the suggested answers he 
should be prepared to give. One question asks: "How do the number 
of deaths caused by climate change and terrorism compare?" The 
stated answer that Sir David is expected to give says: "The value 
of any comparison would be highly questionable - we are talking 
about threats that are intrinsically different." 

If Sir David were to find himself pushed to decide whether 
terrorism or climate change was the greater threat, he was 
supposed to answer: "Both are serious and immediate problems for 
the world today." But this was not what Sir David said on the 
Today programme on 9 January when the Science article was 
published. 

Asked to explain how he had come to the conclusion that global 
warming was more serious than terrorism, Sir David replied that 
his equation was "based on the number of fatalities that have 
already occurred" - implying that global warming has already 
killed more people than terrorism. 

The leaked memo came to light after a computer disk was 
discovered by an American freelance journalist, Mike Martin, at 
the annual meeting of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in Seattle, where Sir David gave a 
lecture. 

"The disk was lying on the top of a computer in the press room 
and I popped it into the machine to see what was on it," said Mr 
Martin, whose own article is published on the ScienceNow website, 
an online service operated by Science. 

Mr Rogers' memo, written a few days before the Seattle 
conference, was aimed at limiting his exposure to questions from 
US and British media. While in Seattle, Sir David sat on a panel 
of scientists at one carefully stage-managed press conference, 
but his press office said he was too busy to give interviews 
afterwards to journalists. 

Lucy Brunt-Jenner, Sir David's press officer, said she could not 
comment on internal government documents but said it would be 
wrong to suggest that Sir David was in any way muzzled. "Sir 
David had a press conference and he was available to the media at 
three times," Ms Brunt-Jenner said. 

But Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats' environment spokesman, 
said: "It's a clear attempt by the Prime Minister to keep Sir 
David quiet. The Government's chief scientist is the nation's 
chief scientist and I'd expect him to say what he thinks."          
      


UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 14 AFP: Russia to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya - IAEA
 
VIENNA (AFP) Mar 08, 2004

 Russia has agreed to recycle weapons-grade uranium from Libya in 
a move to help Tripoli dismantle its weapons of mass destruction 
programs, the UN nuclear watchdog said Monday.

"Russia agreed to take back the HEU (highly enriched uranium)" as 
it "was the original supplier in the 1980's for the 10-megawatt 
reactor and critical facility at the Tajoura Nuclear Research 
Center near Tripoli," the International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA) said in a press statement.

Russia will "blend down the HEU", which was enriched to 80 
percent, "into low-enriched uranium (LEU), making it unsuitable 
for a nuclear weapon," the statement said.

The HEU was "in the form of fresh fuel, . . . in fuel assemblies 
containing about 13 kilograms of fissile uranium-235, as well as 
about three kilograms of uranium," the statement said.

It said "HEU is a safeguarded fissile material that fuels nuclear 
reactors for research and electricity production but can also be 
processed and used to make a nuclear weapon."

IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said in Libya last month that his 
agency would help the northern African state convert its 
military-oriented nuclear program into a peaceful program.

The recycling of the Tajoura reactor for the LEU -- which Russia 
will return once it is recycled -- rather than HEU is part of 
this.

Libya has since December been dismantling its weapons of mass 
destruction development programs, after reaching agreement on 
this with the United States and Britain.

The HEU was taken out of Libya overnight from Sunday to Monday.

"The 700,000 dollar (560,000 euros) fuel-removal was funded by 
the United States Department of Energy," the IAEA statement said.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 15 PTI: Israel considered destroying Pak n-facilities in 1979

March 08, 2004 22:40 IST

Israel, which successfully destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, 
also considered a pre-emptive strike to destroy Pakistan's 
nuclear facilities, according to State Department papers released 
by the National Security Archive, a private research agency in 
the US.

Newly declassified papers obtained by the Archive shows that at a 
Friday morning session on September 14, 1979 of the US General 
Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament, Assistant 
Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Charles Van 
Doren discussed 'apparent Israeli consideration of military 
action against Pakistan'.

The United States itself, he said, had not discussed (with 
Israel) 'preemption plans'.

The declassified paper provides no further details but it is 
known that A Q Khan, father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, and 
others had described Pakistan's nuclear bomb as an 'Islamic bomb' 
and rich Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya reportedly 
provided financing while China provided technical aid, nuclear 
materials and a design for the bomb.

Blueprints stolen by Khan from the Netherlands enabled Pakistan 
to build centrifuges to refine uranium to bomb-grade.     
    
  © Copyright 2003 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or
*****************************************************************
 16 BBC: At work with the nuclear police 
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 8 March, 2004
 
By Bethany Bell BBC correspondent in Vienna   

Revelations about a nuclear black market that supplied Iran, 
Libya and North Korea with secret technology have put the 
spotlight on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

President Eisenhower's 1953 UN addres led to the IAEA's creation                                                              

This week, the agency's board of governors meets to discuss what 
the future holds for the United Nations nuclear watchdog. 

But how exactly does the IAEA, with its headquarters deep in 
central Europe, try to stop the global spread of atomic weapons? 

Detectives for the world's nuclear police force work out of a 
small laboratory in the Austrian countryside. 

Scientists here are examining small cotton pads covered with 
dust. 

But this is no ordinary dirt. 

These samples have been brought from the floors and ceilings of 
atomic sites around the world. 

Tell-tale particles 

The IAEA's scientists, at the Seibersdorf labs between Vienna and 
the Hungarian border, are on the lookout for signs of clandestine 
nuclear activities. 

Tiny particles discovered here were the first sign of a secret 
nuclear programme in Iran which had gone unnoticed for 18 years. 

[Mohammed ElBaradei] are dealing with an emergency situation, we 
need to build up defence mechanisms and develop long term 
remedies.... Mohammed ElBaradei, IAEA chief          

"With one particle," says the head of the IAEA's Clean Laboratory 
Unit, David Donohue, "you can get some information about what 
kind of nuclear material was being handled and what the intended 
purpose of that material was, what the history of it was. 

"Uranium oxide is very commonly seen, wherever nuclear fuel is 
handled. You can see plutonium from areas where they have been 
preparing plutonium or using plutonium. 

"We can see other radioactive elements too, that could be part of 
a nuclear programme," says Mr Donohue. 

But despite such highly sensitive detection skills, the agency - 
and much of the international community - was caught out by 
revelations that a Pakistani scientist had secretly sold nuclear 
technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. 

Snap checks 

Libya has admitted buying blueprints for atomic weapons. 

The question now is whether other countries did so, too. 

The IAEA's director general, Mohammed ElBaradei and his advisors 
are trying to piece together the extent of the black market in 
nuclear bombs. 

"I won't be surprised if there are new revelations - we are still 
trying to understand this network," says Mr ElBaradei. 

[President Musharraf and AQ Khan]                               
Pakistani scientist AQ Khan (left) confessed to leaking nuclear 
secrets
			 			   		
"We are dealing with an emergency situation, we need to build up 
defence mechanisms and develop long-term remedies which can be 
put in place in the next few months," he says. 

Tougher, more intrusive inspections are a key tool for the 
agency. 

In December, Mr ElBaradei signed an agreement with Iran, which 
gives IAEA inspectors the right to hold snap checks of the 
country's nuclear sites. 

But IAEA spokesperson Melissa Fleming says many countries have 
still not signed up to the IAEA's additional protocol. 

"We believe it should be universal. Certainly the cases of Iran 
and Libya have shown that we need that added authority. 

"We need to be able to inspect, not only in the places that the 
country tells us 'these are our nuclear facilities', but the 
places where we believe we need to go and see," says Ms Fleming. 

Secrets under surveillance 

But although the agency can sound the alarm, it depends on the 
political will of its member states. 

Some countries, notably Iran, have been slow to come clean about 
their nuclear activities. 

[Satellite of view of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility] 
North Korea's nuclear ambitions continue to concern the IAEA                                                                

And then there is the question of money. 

Despite its leading role in stopping the spread of nuclear 
weapons, the agency is often strapped for cash. 

Down in the basement of the IAEA, scientists experiment with the 
agency's remote camera system. 

Cameras in bright blue metal cases have been placed in nuclear 
facilities around the world to monitor any suspicious changes. 

In a world where nuclear weapons are increasingly seen as the 
deterrent of choice, the discovery of more clandestine activities 
seems to be just a matter of time. 


*****************************************************************
 17 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear watchdog presses Pakistan for help 
                    
Ian Traynor in Vienna
Tuesday March 9, 2004
The Guardian 		
		
The UN's chief nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei, yesterday 
appealed to Pakistan for help in resolving suspicions about 
Iran's nuclear activities. 

But informed diplomats said that Pakistan, recently revealed to 
be at the centre of a vast nuclear trafficking network, was 
refusing to provide detailed information or access to nuclear 
facilities. 

Opening a meeting in Vienna of the board of the International 
Atomic Energy Agency, Dr ElBaradei indirectly said Pakistani 
assistance was critical to making sense of the nuclear clues 
found by his inspection teams in Iran. 

Information from Pakistan is also crucial because of recent 
revelations of an extensive black market in nuclear technology 
masterminded by the Pakistani metallurgist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, 
and his confession that he supplied Iran, Libya, and North Korea 
with illicit nuclear equipment. 

"They are not letting us get hold of the discussion with Khan," 
one diplomat said. 

The status of Iran's nuclear programmes is the biggest issue at 
the meeting of the 35-strong board, with the US at odds with the 
EU troika of Britain, France, and Germany over how to deal with 
the Iranians. Those differences persisted yesterday, with 
diplomats shuttling from one meeting to another arguing over the 
wording of a draft resolution. 

One of the biggest riddles concerns traces of highly enriched 
uranium - the fissile material used for nuclear warheads - found 
by UN inspectors in Iran last year and never satisfactorily 
explained. 

The Iranians claimed the traces were imported on equipment bought 
from Khan's network. But the inspectors need to match the samples 
with samples in Pakistan to verify the explanation. 

Otherwise, the inspectors may conclude that Iran was itself 
enriching uranium secretly, a crucial step towards obtaining a 
nuclear bomb. 

"It is essential that the [IAEA] receives full cooperation [from] 
those countries from which nuclear technology and equipment 
originated," said Dr ElBaradei. 

"This is particularly the case with the major outstanding issue 
regarding the low and high enriched uranium contamination found 
[in Iran]." 
	
Guardian Newspapers Limited
*****************************************************************
 18 FT: Libya's nuclear suppliers held back crucial components  

  By Stephen Fidler in London  

  Published: March 9 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: March 9 2004 4:00
 
Libya estimates it paid about $500m (404m, £271m) in pursuit of 
nuclear weapons, much of it to a Pakistani-led black market 
network. Yet, in spite of this expenditure, its dealings with the 
group were beset by suspicions and a growing sense among Libyan 
officials that they were being hoodwinked. 

Western officials and diplomats who have spoken to Libyans 
involved in the programme say they were told of Libyan 
frustration that for each stage needed to build a nuclear weapon, 
the network failed to deliver an important element.

Libya's secret nuclear weapons programme - abandoned along with 
its other non-conventional weapons programmes in December after 
nine months of negotiations with the US and UK - is being 
discussed this week in Vienna by the board of the International 
Atomic Energy Agency.

Expert estimates of the cost of the nuclear programme vary 
between $50m and $500m. A western official who has spoken to top 
Libyan representatives said: "They told us they spent half a 
billion dollars on this nuclear programme . . . over a period of 
years."

Despite spending such sums , Libyans asked themselves whether 
they were getting value for money. One official in Vienna 
described a Libyan "sense of continuous dependency" on the 
expertise of the network led by Abdul-Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani 
scientist who last month confessed to selling nuclear technology 
to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

"The [scientists] were glad to be out of this shady business. 
There was no trust really and they realised they weren't getting 
everything they were promised."

For example, weapons design information obtained by the Libyans 
was incomplete. The designs - based on a Chinese blueprint for an 
implosion weapon provided to Pakistan more than 20 years ago - 
are said to have been carried to Libya, apparently from Pakistan, 
in late 2001 or early 2002.

Libya was also missing the final and most critical stage of its 
uranium conversion equipment. The process converts uranium oxide, 
or yellow-cake, into uranium hexafluoride, the gas that is then 
fed into centrifuges for enrichment into weapons-usable uranium.

Some of the 100-plus machines bought from Spain and Italy to 
build centrifuge parts, at a cost of $100,000 to $150,000 apiece, 
also failed to arrive. And the Libyans had not received a 
majority of the 1m parts needed for the 10,000 P-2 centrifuges it 
planned to build. It is not clear the Libyans negotiated a 
timetable for the parts' arrival. "In each stage, the key unit 
was missing," said one official in Vienna.

David Albright, of the Washington-based Institute for Science and 
International Security, said delays might have been inevitable, 
given the extraordinary complexity of the operation being run by 
the Pakistani network: perhaps, he said, the network was 
genuinely struggling to supply equipment, some of which would 
have had to be machined more than once. "This is a transnational 
organisation working to build something that only sophisticated 
industry and states have done before." However, he added: "The 
whole way to do it is to entice your customer and lead him to 
want to buy more . . . you want to create a dependency."

Yet the Libyan frustration was apparently increased because much 
of the technology was paid for in advance.

Evidence of the lack of trust is contained in a Malaysian police 
report into the Malaysian end of the network, released last 
month. It describes a meeting in Istanbul in 1997 between Mr Khan 
and two Libyans , one of whom attempted to shield his identity by 
identifying himself only as Karim.

Along with surprise at the network's sophistication, the IAEA had 
doubts that the Libyans would have been able to build a bomb. 
"Our people aren't convinced they were up to the job," said one 
official.

* The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog yesterday voiced "serious 
concern" at omissions in Iran's declarations about its nuclear 
activities and rejected a call from Tehran to drop 
investigations, Reuters reports from Vienna. Diplomats from the 
35 member states were seeking a compromise on a draft resolution 
on Iran they said was too weak for the US and too harsh for 
Germany, France and the UK.  
     
    
      © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004. "FT" and
"Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. Privacy
*****************************************************************
 19 Daily Times: ‘Libyan uranium airlifted to Russia’ 

Tuesday, March 09, 2004    

VIENNA: Russia took delivery on Monday of an air cargo of 
highly-enriched uranium removed from Libya as part of moves to 
dismantle Tripoli’s weapons of mass destruction programmes, the 
UN nuclear watchdog said. 

International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming 
said the uranium was 80 percent enriched, very close to being 
pure enough to use in a nuclear weapon. 

“It would have to have been adapted. It’s extremely close,” she 
said. 

An IAEA statement said the airlifted shipment contained about 13 
kg (28.6 lb) of fissile uranium-235 and 3 kg (6.6 lb) of uranium. 
Highly-enriched uranium can be used both in fuelling nuclear 
reactors for research and electricity production, and in atomic 
weapons. 

The IAEA said Russia had supplied the uranium in the 1980s to the 
Tajoura nuclear research facility near Tripoli, from which it was 
removed under the agency’s supervision. 

Russia would now blend it down into low-enriched uranium, making 
it unsuitable for weapons use. 

The airlift was part of Libya’s schedule for dismantling its 
nuclear programme under IAEA supervision after its surprise 
announcement last December that it was renouncing all weapons of 
mass destruction. 

Fleming said earlier that Libya would on Wednesday sign an 
Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, 
permitting intrusive snap inspections to verify its future 
compliance. 

On Saturday, Libya dispatched a shipload to the United States 
containing all the equipment believed to remain from its nuclear 
weapons programme, along with longer-range missiles and 
launchers. —Reuters Home | Foreign           


and hosted by WorldCALL Internet
*****************************************************************
 20 Daily Times: UN sure govt knew of Dr Khan’s activity 

Tuesday, March 09, 2004    

WASHINGTON: Unnamed diplomats in Vienna have been quoted here as 
claiming that Pakistani government leaders had known that Dr A.Q. 
Khan was supplying other nations, particularly North Korea, with 
nuclear technology and designs. 

According to an Associated Press report from the Austrian capital 
which is also the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA), the ongoing investigation by the UN nuclear 
watchdog body has widened beyond looking at Iran, Libya and North 
Korea. The IAEA inquiry is likely to be completed by the middle 
of the year.

The report says, “Despite denials by the Pakistani government, 
investigators now are certain that some, if not all, of the 
country’s decision makers were aware of Mr. Khan’s dealings. One 
diplomat said, ‘In all cases except Pakistan, we are sure there 
was no government involvement. In Pakistan, it’s hard to believe 
all this happened under their noses and nobody knew about it’.” 

The equipment sold to Libya and Iran is said to be of little used 
to terrorist groups which would lack the space, expertise and 
money to set up thousands of centrifuges in series and repeatedly 
recycle isotopes to turn them into weapons grade materials. 

The report repeats what has been said by other experts and 
commentators on the Dr Khan disclosures, namely that traces of 
highly enriched uranium, apparently of Russian origin, found in 
Iran and drawings of a nuclear warhead surrendered by Libya, 
could represent a “potential fast track for terrorists looking to 
build a weapon.” The uranium, apparently sold not by the Russian 
government but by individuals in the black market, carried a 
signature typical of enrichment in the former Soviet Union, the 
diplomats are quoted as saying. They found that although it was 
short of the 90 percent weapons level, it was enriched enough to 
be made suitable for a warhead with much less equipment and 
effort than would be needed with natural uranium. “We’re talking 
a couple of dozen centrifuges, as compared to about 1,000,” 
according to one unidentified diplomat. —Khalid Hasan Home | Main           


Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions
*****************************************************************
 21 Hi Pakistan: IAEA to discuss N-black market issues     --> 
 
March 09 2004     
    
BRUSSELS: Whilst some of the UN nuclear watchdog agency’s 
governors continue arguing that handling of "Dr A Q Khan’s 
network of nuclear proliferators" is not an internal issue of 
Pakistan, the IAEA Board of Governors (IAEA BOG) is all set to 
discuss on Monday the entire gamut of issues related to the 
so-called nuclear black market after the IAEA Director General Dr 
Mohamed ElBaradei formally presents his reports on the 
implementation of NPT safeguards agreement in both Iran and 
Libya, a source in Vienna told The News.

During the course of discussions on ElBaradei’s reports, actions 
taken by the Government of Pakistan to stop alleged illegal 
exports of nuclear technology by prominent Pakistani nuclear 
scientist will also be reviewed in the IAEA Board of Governors 
meeting. The meeting is expected to last at least three days in 
Vienna, the source said.

The IAEA BOG meeting would discuss a wide range of issues on 
nuclear safeguards, non-proliferation, nuclear safety and 
technology issues. The other agenda items of the meeting include 
measures to strengthen international co-operation in nuclear, 
radiation and transport safety and waste management; 
strengthening the IAEA’s activities related to nuclear science, 
technology and applications, and nuclear verification.

Fresh diplomatic briefs, according to the source, continue 
pouring into the chambers of ambassadors and permanent 
representatives accredited to the IAEA after the recent visits to 
Islamabad by the foreign ministers of France, the UK and Germany. 
Declining to reveal the contents of the fresh diplomatic briefs, 
the source said the five members of the UN Security Council 
broadly agree on encouraging Pakistan’s efforts aimed at more 
effective compliance with the international standard of nuclear 
non-proliferation.

Some member states including India, the source said, have, 
however, launched vitriolic criticism on Pakistani stance that 
the "investigation against Pakistani nuclear scientists is an 
internal issue of Pakistan which will be handled according to 
Pakistani law". The opinion delivered by Pakistan’s adversaries 
to the IAEA board prior to its meeting underlines: "It is not an 
internal issue of Pakistan. It is a problem that affects not only 
Pakistan but the entire international community that seeks to 
prevent weapons of mass destruction getting into the hands of 
wrong customers", the source said.

The US and China are expected to defend Pakistani position at the 
IAEA BoG meeting as both the countries and several other members 
of the board have expressed there satisfaction over Pakistan’s 
effort to fully block the smuggling of nuclear technology by 
taking stringent action against country’s top nuclear scientists. 
France, the UK, Russia and some other members of the board 
believe that more steps should be taken to introduce 
international non-proliferation standards more effectively, 
besides what has been accomplished in Pakistan.

Pakistan is also a member of the IAEA board of governors. The 
suggestion aimed at engaging with Pakistan on International 
non-proliferation agenda seems to have won the support of 
majority of the 35 member IAEA board for 2003-2004.

In the meeting to be chaired by the board chief Antonio NŻŅez 
GarcĢa-SaŻco, IAEA chief Elbaradei, according to the source, is 
expected to give an ‘upbeat assessment’ of the cooperation 
extended by Pakistan and Iran to the IAEA. He, however, is 
reported as saying that the IAEA’s relations with Iran have been 
damaged to some extent after IAEA inspectors’ discoveries of 
traces of radioactive elements and advanced equipment in Iran 
that could be used to make atomic weapons.

Despite Iran’s claim that the country did not provide any 
information on Pakistani scientists’ activities to the IAEA, the 
IAEA head has categorically alluded to Iran’s claim that the 
traces of enriched uranium came with the equipment purchased from 
Pakistan.

Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part 
*****************************************************************
 22 Indian Express: Nuke scientist says bomb dad stole his patent
 
International         Tuesday, March 09, 2004       
     
NEW DELHI: An official American website has for years displayed 
the entire process of enriching uranium to 100 per cent purity, 
and interestingly, the patent for it was issued to a Pakistani 
nuclear scientist who claims that Abdul Qadeer Khan stole it to 
make nuclear bombs.

The Pakistani scientist, Mohammad Quader Hussain, got the patent 
in 1995 after having submitted the process to the US patent 
office first in 1982 following Pakistan government’s refusal to 
grant him a patent, the South Asia Tribune said in a special 
report.

Hussain was quoted as telling New York Times earlier that his 
liquid centrifuge process worked and that ‘‘in 1980 a colleague 
(in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission) told him that Dr A.Q. 
Khan, the (then) director of the PAEC, was using his liquid 
centrifuge process.’’

The US government issued patent no. 5417944 in May 1995 and put 
it up on the official site of US patents. The report quotes one 
of Hussain’s colleagues as saying, Khan had entered the PAEC in 
mid-1970s. Hussain was soon fired from PAEC for complaining that 
Khan had ‘‘stolen his entire work’’.

-PTI

© 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 23 Las Vegas SUN: AP: Pakistan Knew of Nuclear Black Market

March 07, 2004 

 By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - 

U.N. investigators are increasingly certain Pakistan government
leaders knew the country's top atomic scientist was supplying
other nations with nuclear technology and designs, particularly
North Korea, diplomats told The Associated Press. 

While rogue nations were the main customers of the nuclear black
market, sales of enriched uranium and warhead drawings have fed
international fears that terrorists also could have bought
weapons technology or material, the diplomats said. 

The investigation has widened beyond Iran, Libya and North Korea
- the identified customers of the network headed by Abdul Qadeer
Khan - they said, speaking on condition of anonymity in a series
of interviews. 

The diplomats' assessment comes about half way through the probe
by the International Atomic Energy Agency and western
intelligence services into the Khan network, whose tentacles
extended from Pakistan to Dubai, Malaysia, South Korea,
Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Britain, the Netherlands and beyond
with potential ties to Syria, Turkey and Spain. 

Investigators told AP they expect to complete the probe by June,
eight months after U.S. officials confronted the Pakistani
government with suspicions about Khan, setting into motion
events that led the father of Islamabad's nuclear program to
confess last month. 

Despite denials by the Pakistani government, investigators now
are certain that some, if not all, of the country's decision
makers were aware of Khan's dealings, especially with North
Korea, which apparently helped Islamabad build missiles in
exchange for aid with its nuclear arms program, said one
diplomat. 

"In all cases except Pakistan, we are sure there was no
government involvement," he said. "In Pakistan, it's hard to
believe all this happened under their noses and nobody knew
about it." 

The diplomats didn't say which parts of the Pakistani government
might have known of Khan's black market activity - military,
political or both. 

Andrew Koch, of Jane's Defense Weekly, said he ran into evidence
that senior military officers knew of Khan's sideline four years
ago when he attended a military technology exhibition in
Karachi. There, the booth of A.Q. Khan's Research Laboratories,
complete with pamphlets offering uranium enrichment equipment,
shared space with displays of electronics, anti-tank missiles
and other items sold by the government defense industry, he
said. 

"I picked up the (Khan) brochures and I inquired whether
everything inside was for sale and was told, 'yes, of course, it
all had government approval and was available for sale and
export,'" he said from Washington. 

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has insisted his
government was not involved. 

"The Pakistani government has never and will never proliferate,"
he told a meeting of world leaders in January in Davos,
Switzerland, pledging to prosecute all "anti-state" elements
found culpable. 

But his pardon of Khan led to speculation the scientist agreed
to keep silent on any government involvement in exchange for
avoiding punishment. 

Much of what was sold were expensive and high-tech uranium
enrichment centrifuge components to Libya - which has confessed
to trying to build weapons of mass destruction - and Iran, which
denies such ambitions and says its enrichment plans are not for
warheads but nuclear power. 

Such equipment would be useless to terrorists lacking the space
and expertise needed to set up thousands of centrifuges in
series and repeatedly recycle isotopes until they were weapons
grade. The tens of millions of dollars needed to buy the
equipment might also be a deterrent. 

But the diplomats identified two recent discoveries - traces of
highly enriched uranium apparently of Russian origin found in
Iran, and drawings of a nuclear warhead surrendered by Libya -
as representing a potential fast track for terrorists looking to
build a weapon. 

The uranium apparently was sold by individuals in the black
market and not by the Russian government and carried a signature
typical of enrichment in the former Soviet Union, the diplomats
said. While short of the 90 percent weapons level, it was
enriched enough to make it suitable for a warhead with much less
equipment and effort than needed to enrich natural uranium. 

"We're talking a couple of dozen centrifuges, as compared to
about 1,000," said one diplomat. 

The engineers' drawings of a nuclear weapon, now under IAEA seal
in the United States, were of Chinese origin. The texts
accompanying them were in both Chinese and English, some
handwritten. China is widely assumed to have supplied much of
the clandestine nuclear technology that Khan used to establish
Pakistan as a nuclear power in 1998. 

With such high-tech drawings and about 50 pounds of highly
enriched uranium, nuclear experts associated with terrorist
groups could make a crude warhead, said one diplomat. 

"The simplest way to go about it is to get ready-made nuclear
material and weapons design, and - from what's been found in
Iran and Libya - both seem to be available on the market," said
another. 

Investigators cannot say whether other countries - or groups -
have the drawings. 

Al-Qaida has shown an interest in acquiring nuclear weapons. 

The U.S. federal indictment of Osama bin Laden charges that as
far back as 1992 the al-Qaida leader "and others known and
unknown, made efforts to obtain the components of nuclear
weapons." 

Bin Laden, in a November 2001 interview with a Pakistani
journalist, boasted of having hidden such components "as a
deterrent." And in 1998, a Russian nuclear weapons design expert
was investigated for allegedly working with the Taliban allies
of bin Laden. 

Another question is whether the Khan network supplied states
other than Iran, Libya and North Korea. Melissa Fleming,
spokeswoman of the Vienna-based IAEA, said answering that was
the agency's "No. 1 priority." 

A possible suspect is Syria, which denies nuclear weapons
ambitions. U.S. officials are divided on whether Syria
constitutes a nuclear threat, with Undersecretary of State John
Bolton at odds with senior intelligence officials who insist
there's no clear evidence implicating the country, diplomats
told AP. 

Several teams of Syrian experts spent time at Ranstad Mineral, a
Swedish plant that extracted uranium for enrichment between 1997
and 2002. The IAEA confirmed sponsoring some visits, as part of
Syria's small-scale peaceful nuclear program. But Bengt Lillja,
owner of the plant, said the Syrians paid several visits later
on their own - and still later, Sweden's nuclear watchdog agency
ordered the plant shut down because of unspecified
irregularities in the extraction process. 

Experts suspect more covert manufacturing operations will be
discovered beyond the centrifuge parts plants identified in
Malaysia. 

A factory in Turkey is being scrutinized, one diplomat familiar
with the investigation said, but declined to go into details
beyond suggesting the plant might also be making missile
components. 

David Albright, a former Iraq nuclear weapons inspector who runs
the Institute for Science and International Security, also
pointed to Turkey, saying, "We know some components (to Libya)
came out of there." 

A diplomat said a company in Spain also was under investigation. 

--- 

Associated Press reporter Susanna Loof contributed to this
report from Stockholm. 

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 24 [NukeNet] NRC Public Meeting on PSEG Safety Culture 3/18, 2pm
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 15:41:44 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
2004
-0153 03/18/2004
2 pm Bridgeport Holiday Inn Interstate 295, Exit 10 Swedesboro, NJ SALEM 1/ 
050-00272 SALEM 2/ 050-00311 HOPE CREEK 1/ 050-00354 Category 1 mtg. Review 
PSEG assessment plan regarding the work environment as presented in a 
2/27/2004 letter. Background info: ML040610856 RI;OE PSEG Glenn Meyer (610) 
337-5211


Category 1 meetings are where the public can observe and make comments to 
NRC at the end of the meeting. We plan to urge PSEG to remain as well to 
answer questions from the public. It is important that UNPLUG Salem members 
and supporters attend this meeting.


Coalition for Peace and Justice 
(<http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org>http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org); 
and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign 
(<http://www.unplugsalem.org>http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave., 
Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583/37; 
<mailto:ncohen12@comcast.net>ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace 
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action 
(<http://www.peace-action.org>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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 25 [NukeNet] News report on Sundays meeting in Salem
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 15:42:01 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
<http://www.nj.com/news/gloucester/local/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1078737344139870.xml>http://www.nj.com/news/gloucester/local/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1078737344139870.xml

Group gives eye-opening message

Monday, March 08, 2004
By Theresa Katalinas
<mailto:tkatalinas@sjnewsco.com>tkatalinas@sjnewsco.com

SALEM -- If it can happen at Three Mile Island it can happen here.

That was the message delivered Sunday afternoon during watchdog 
organization UNPLUG Salem's gathering at the Salem Quaker Meetinghouse on 
Route 49.
spacer9.gif
<http://ads1.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/story/Gloucester%20County%20Times/l/local_news/@StoryAd?x>7af53.jpg 


The meeting, which featured a 30-minute video "Three Mile Island 
Revisited," was used to drum up support for a March 28 protest at PSEG's 
Salem Generating Station in Lower Alloways Creek Township.

Libby Leidolf of Elsinboro, said while she tries to be neutral, the video 
offered eye-opening data -- about higher cancer rates, respiratory problems 
and leukemia -- for residents living near the Harrisburg, Pa., nuclear 
complex following the 1979 nuclear disaster.

"Norm (Cohen of UNPLUG Salem) hit the nail on the head," Leidolf said. 
"There's a certain level of denial that people have."

Cohen, UNPLUG coordinator, stressed to the dozen in attendance that a poor 
safety culture at Artificial Island's Hope Creek and Salem reactors has 
positioned the facilities for nuclear disaster, similar to that of Three 
Mile Island.

"Over a period of time, the mentality changes," Cohen said of plant 
workers. "You learn it's OK to get away with little things."

He said "whistleblowers" call him frequently and talk about work 
conditions, noting a reduced workforce and more overtime. Cohen said the 
combination is a recipe for disaster.

"It's not worth taking a chance just for electricity," Cohen said, adding 
that his group wants to shut down the nuclear complex. "We'll be able to 
get the power we need."

PSEG Spokesman Skip Sindoni countered and said the company is confident in 
its operations. He said the 5 percent reduction in the 1,850 workforce over 
the last year was aimed at efficiency.

"We've had a reorganization over the last year that did result in the 
reduction of personnel," Sindoni said. "You don't need as many people to 
perform the same work."

As far as safety, Sindoni said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses a 
color scheme to rate the 18 indicators on each unit.

"We're green on all our indicators," Sindoni said. "The plant itself is 
healthy."

If conditions were to worsen, Sindoni said colors would warn of potential 
problems as monitors change from green to white, to yellow and finally to red.

Over a year ago, radioactive waste on a worker's shoe exposed a leak at the 
plant which led regulators to conclude that radioactive tritium had leaked 
from a cooling pond used to store spent nuclear fuel.

Cohen, who is self-taught in nuclear issues, claims tritium had been 
leaking since 1999 and PSEG failed to address the situation.

"What if this had not been tritium?," Cohen asked. "The attitude there is 
make money, produce."

Bill Ewen of Alloway Township, said after Sunday's meeting that he is 
concerned about plant safety.

"I want them to be environmentally conscious," Ewen said. "I would like to 
know what they're doing with the leak."

Sindoni said an "extensive remedial work investigation" and numerous 
samples determined where the leak was coming from and helped correct it.
» <http://www.nj.com/sendthispage/sendthispage.ssf>Send This Page | » 
<http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-5/1078737344139870.xml>Print 
This Page
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Copyright 2004 Gloucester County Times. Used with permission.


-- 
Coalition for Peace and Justice 
(<http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org>http://www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org); 
and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign 
(<http://www.unplugsalem.org>http://www.unplugsalem.org); 321 Barr Ave., 
Linwood, NJ 08221; 609-601-8583/37; 
<mailto:ncohen12@comcast.net>ncohen12@comcast.net. The Coalition for Peace 
and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action 
(<http://www.peace-action.org>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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 26 [NukeNet] Report on Davis Besse Nuke Plant
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 15:41:45 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

<http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=12381&id4=OHHP>image001.jpg<http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=12381&id4=OHHP>Keep 
It Closed
Any day now, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will decide whether to 
allow FirstEnergy to restart the nation's worst-run nuclear plant, 
Davis-Besse, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The NRC has forced the plant to remain 
closed since March 6, 2002, when workers discovered a football-sized hole 
atop the nuclear reactor head. 
<http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=12381&id4=OHHP>More. | 
<http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=595&id4=OHHP>How you can help.

Report: <http://www.pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id2=12462>Lessons Not 
Learned: How FirstEnergy and the NRC Fail to Prioritize Safety First at the 
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 3/8/04





Rob Sargent

Senior Energy Policy Analyst

National Association of State PIRGs

29 Temple Place

Boston, MA 02111

P: 617-747-4317

F: 617-292-8057

C: 617-312-7546




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 27 Las Vegas SUN: NRC says Ohio nuclear plant can open after two-year closure
 
 By MALIA RULON ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - A nuclear plant received permission to reopen
after a two-year shutdown over an acid leak that nearly ate
through a protective steel reactor cap, federal regulators said
Monday in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the Davis-Besse
plant along Lake Erie can safely operate following numerous
repairs and changes in management. James Caldwell, regional
administrator for the agency's Region III office in Lisle, Ill.,
approved the restart in a letter sent Monday to the utility. 

The NRC had sent the letter to Ohio lawmakers and later posted
it on its Web site. 

The plant just east of Toledo was closed in February 2002 for
routine maintenance when inspectors found corrosion on the
reactor vessel. 

It was the most extensive corrosion ever at a U.S. nuclear
reactor and led to a review of 68 similar plants nationwide. 

NRC officials blamed plant operators for allowing a breakdown in
safety standards that caused the leak to go unnoticed for years. 

But the agency also came under fire for not detecting the leak
sooner. As a result, regulators have agreed to make changes to
its safety and inspection procedures. 

The plant's owner, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., has spent
about $600 million making repairs and buying replacement power
while the plant was prevented from producing electricity. 

Those expenses totaled $289 million last year and cut
FirstEnergy's profits by $170.3 million in 2002. 

FirstEnergy had hoped to reopen the plant much earlier, but
lingering concerns about its commitment to safety and several
operators errors put doubts into the minds of regulators. 

During the shutdown, regulators also found design flaws in
Davis-Besse's cooling system pumps, which led to prolonged
repairs. 

Company asked the NRC on Feb. 12 for permission to restart the
plant, saying that there was a renewed emphasis on safety. 

They also noted that they had replaced the damaged reactor
vessel head and completely overhauled the plant's management. 

Two teams of NRC inspectors said at the February meeting that
they saw marked improvement in plant operations and worker
performance. 

Those same inspectors found widespread problems during a review
in December, but said none rose to the level of being a safety
concern. 

Environmental groups, though, questioned whether the plant is
really committed to safety first. 

During the shutdown, some critics in Congress questioned whether
the NRC bowed to pressure from FirstEnergy and allowed the
utility to keep Davis-Besse operating despite concerns about the
reactor lid. 

The NRC has rejected allegations that it put profits ahead of
safety. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov

FirstEnergy Corp.: http://www.firstenergycorp.com

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 28 NRC: NRC Approves Davis-Besse Restart
 
News Release - Region III - 2004-01
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region III
  No. III-04-011           March 8, 2004   
  CONTACT:     Jan Strasma (630) 829-9663
 Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662     E-mail: opa3@nrc.gov  
  

reactor vessel head and other safety improvements. The plant
near Oak Harbor, Ohio, is operated by FirstEnergy Nuclear
Operating Company. 

James Caldwell, Regional Administrator for the agencys Region
III office in Lisle, Illinois, approved restart of the plant in
a letter to the utility issued today, subject to the utilitys
compliance with its license requirements and NRC regulations.
(The letter is attached to this news release.) The letter and
supporting documentation will also be available on the NRC web
site: http://www.nrc.gov -- select Davis-Besse from the key
topics menu.
 
Based on the findings of numerous NRC inspections and on the
improvements made by FirstEnergy, Mr. Caldwell told the utility,
 the NRC has reasonable assurance that the Davis-Besse facility
can be restarted and operated safely.
 
During the startup, the NRC will maintain round the clock
inspection coverage of plant activities. Expanded inspection
coverage at Davis-Besse will continue beyond startup. There are
three resident inspectors assigned to Davis-Besse, one more than
the normal staffing. 

With its restart decision, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Order
to FirstEnergy requiring independent assessments and inspections
at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station to provide reasonable
assurance that the long-term corrective actions remain
effective. (The Order is also attached.) 

On February 26, 2004, the NRC Davis-Besse Oversight Panel
recommended to Mr. Caldwell that the plant be permitted to
restart. The panel has coordinated the NRCs regulatory
activities for Davis-Besse during the lengthy outage. Panel
members include managers and staff from the Region III Office,
from NRC Headquarters, and from the NRC resident inspection
staff at the plant. 

Since February 12, when FirstEnergy submitted its restart
request at a public meeting, the Oversight Panel and Mr.
Caldwell reviewed information provided by the utility, the NRC
inspection findings over the past two years, the assessments of
NRC staff members who have been involved with Davis-Besse, and
questions and concerns raised by outside individuals and
organizations. The extensive inspections, conducted by the
agency, have involved about 80 NRC inspectors and contract
experts. 

The oversight panel will continue to coordinate the inspection
and regulatory activities for Davis-Besse until the agency
determines that the plants performance warrants resumption of
the NRCs normal reactor oversight program. 

The panel will continue to hold periodic meetings in the
vicinity of Davis-Besse with FirstEnergy officials to review the
status of ongoing activities at the plant. These meetings will
be open to public observation and participation. 

During the past two years, the NRC staff has conducted some 75
public meetings on Davis-Besse -- most in the vicinity of the
plant -- and held 50 briefings for federal, state, and local
government officials. 

Shortly after the discovery of the reactor vessel head damage,
the agency set up a web site for information related to
Davis-Besse. Numerous documents have been posted there as they
were issued. In addition, the NRC issued monthly newsletters on
the status of its regulatory activities for Davis-Besse. 

  

Attachments: 
Letter to FirstEnergy dated March 8, 2004
 Confirmatory Order dated March 8, 2004 


UNITED STATES
 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
 REGION III
 801 WARRENVILLE ROAD
 LISLE, ILLINOIS 60532-4351 
March 8, 2004 

CAL No. 3-02-001
 EA-03-214 


Mr. Lew W. Myers
 Chief Operating Officer
 FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company
 Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station
 5501 North State Route 2
 Oak Harbor, OH 43449-9760 


  SUBJECT:     APPROVAL TO RESTART THE DAVIS-BESSE NUCLEAR POWER
STATION, CLOSURE OF CONFIRMATORY ACTION LETTER, AND ISSUANCE OF
CONFIRMATORY ORDER   



Dear Mr. Myers: 

This letter removes the restriction the NRC has placed on the
restart of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. The U. S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has completed the
necessary inspection, assessment, and licensing activities to
resolve the issues identified as contributors to the Davis-Besse
reactor vessel head degradation event. This letter also confirms
the commitments in the November 23, 2003, FirstEnergy Nuclear
Operating Company (FENOC) Integrated Report to Support Restart
of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Request for Restart
Approval, and its subsequent updates and transmits an
immediately effective Confirmatory Order. That order requires
annual independent assessments for five years, in the areas of
operations, engineering, corrective actions and safety culture
and requires inspection of key reactor coolant system pressure
boundary components during a mid-cycle outage to ensure
effective assessment and sustained safe performance. 

This letter specifically addresses the following areas:
Confirmatory Action Letter closure, Restart Checklist closure,
confirmation of the commitments made to the NRC in the FENOC
Integrated Report to Support Restart of the Davis-Besse Nuclear
Power Station and Request for Restart Approval, coordination of
the restart decision with other federal agencies, issuance of
the Confirmatory Order, and continuation of enhanced NRC
regulatory oversight of Davis-Besse activities after restart. 

Confirmatory Action Letter Closure 

On February 16, 2002, the Davis-Besse Station was shut down for
its 13th refueling outage. One activity to be accomplished
during the outage was inspection of control rod drive
penetrations through the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) head
pursuant to NRC Bulletin 2001-01. During outage activities, the
licensee identified significant wastage of the carbon steel RPV
head material near Penetration No. 3. The NRC was notified of
the condition and, on March 12, 2002, initiated an Augmented
Inspection Team (AIT) to review the facts surrounding the
degraded vessel head. Also, on March 13, 2002, the NRC issued
Confirmatory Action Letter Number 3-02-001 to Davis-Besse
documenting six commitments required to be accomplished prior to
restarting the reactor. On May 15, 2002, the NRC revised the
Confirmatory Action Letter to address the option of replacing
the RPV head. 

The NRC letter dated December 24, 2002, documented the status of
each item in the Confirmatory Action Letter including closure of
item 6. NRC letters dated January 21, 2003, and July 17, 2003,
clarified the status of Confirmatory Action Letter item 1. NRC
letter dated September 19, 2003, documented closure of
Confirmatory Action Letter items 1 and 2. The basis for
resolution of the remaining Confirmatory Action Letter items not
previously documented in public documents, items 3, 4, and 5, is
included in Enclosure 1. The licensee requested closure of the
Confirmatory Action Letter in a letter to the NRC dated February
23, 2004. All commitments contained in Confirmatory Action
Letter No. 3-02-001 are closed. 

Restart Checklist Closure 

As a result of the findings from the AIT, on April 29, 2002,
pursuant to NRC Inspection Manual Chapter (IMC) 0350, Oversight
of Operating Reactor Facilities in an Extended Shutdown as a
Result of Significant Performance Problems, the NRC Davis-Besse
Oversight Panel (Panel) was chartered to coordinate and oversee
NRC activities needed to verify proper licensee safety
performance. The Panel also ensured appropriate focus was
provided and resources were allocated with regard to reviewing
Davis-Besse improvement initiatives. On August 16, 2002, the
Davis-Besse Oversight Panel issued a Restart Checklist, which
was developed in accordance with NRC IMC 0350. This Checklist
includes issues that required resolution prior to NRC
consideration of restart approval. These issues were identified
based on insights from routine inspections and performance
indicators; results from the AIT and AIT Follow-up inspections;
insights gained from Panel evaluation of ongoing licensee
assessments; and items in the Return to Service Plan and
subordinate Building Block Plans that the licensee originally
submitted to the NRC by letter dated May 21, 2002. 

The Restart Checklist was updated on October 30, 2002, January
28, 2003, and July 2, 2003, in response to NRC assessment of
ongoing activities at the Davis-Besse Station. The updates
addressed issues that needed to be resolved prior to the NRC
consideration of restart approval. 

The NRC staff has completed its inspection, assessment and
licensing activities and has evaluated the effectiveness of the
licensees actions to address the issues that resulted in the
plant shutdown. These items are listed in the Restart Checklist.
The Panels assessment of the licensees actions was based on
resident and region-based inspections, NRR staff reviews,
baseline inspections, and a number of special inspections,
including:"	 Augmented Inspection Team (AIT) of RPV Head
Degradation Event and AIT Follow-Up Inspections (Inspection
Reports (IRs) 02-03 and 02-08) 
  + 

Boric Acid Corrosion Extent of Condition Inspection Parts I and
II (IRs 02-09 and 02-12) 
  + 

Program Effectiveness Inspection Parts I and II (IRs 02-11 and
03-09) 
  + 

System Health Assurance Inspection, Safety System Design and
Performance Capability Inspection, and Design Issues Inspection
- Paths A, B, and C (IRs 02-13, 02-14 and 03-03) 
  + 

Uncontrolled Radioactive Material Release and Substantial
Potential for Overexposure Special Inspections and Radiation
Protection Supplemental (95002) Inspection (IRs 02-06, 02-16 and
03-08) 
  + 

Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Replacement Inspection (IR 02-07) 
  + 

Containment Integrated Leak Rate Test Inspection (IR 03-05) 
  + 

Emergency Core Cooling System and Containment Spray System Sump
Inspection (IR 03-06) 
  + 

Completeness and Accuracy of Information Inspection (IR 03-19) 
  + 

Reactor Coolant System Integrity Inspection (IR 03-23) 
  + 

Corrective Action Team Inspection (IR 03-10) 
  + 

Engineering and Maintenance Backlog Assessment Inspection (IR
03-24) 
  + 

Management and Human Performance Inspection Phases I, II, and
III and Management and Human Performance Follow-Up Inspection
(IRs 02-15, 02-18, 03-12, and IR 04-03) 
  + 

Restart Readiness Assessment Team and Restart Readiness
Assessment Team Followup Inspections (IRs 03-11 and 04-04) 

Additional significant inspections accomplished during the
outage included NRC evaluation of licensee actions to implement
security orders and NRC and Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) evaluation of the biennial emergency preparedness
exercise. 

The Panel has also conducted frequent public meetings with the
licensee to discuss licensee performance and NRC inspection and
assessment results. The results of these meetings were
documented in public meeting summaries and internal Panel
meeting minutes, all of which have been or will be placed in the
NRC Public Electronic Reading Room. 

Enclosure 2 to this letter documents the basis for resolution of
all checklist items. In many instances, the basis consists of a
reference to a previous public document that closed the item.
For those items that have not been previously closed in public
documents, the basis for resolution of those items is described. 

Confirmation of Commitments in the Integrated Report to Support
Restart of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Request for
Restart Approval 

FENOC submitted the Integrated Report to Support Restart of the
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Request for Restart
Approval on November 23, 2003. The report was updated on
February 6, 2004, and February 19, 2004. Appendices A and D of
that report provide commitments to sustain performance
improvement at Davis-Besse. 10 CFR 50, Appendix B, Criterion XVI
requires that actions be taken to prevent recurrence of
significant conditions adverse to quality. FENOC categorized the
occurrence of the RPV head degradation as a significant
condition adverse to quality. The actions described in
Appendices A and D are intended by FENOC to ensure the
improvements realized during the extended outage remain in
place. Please provide written notification to the NRC Regional
III Administrator should FENOC determine that any of those
actions cannot be accomplished consistent with the schedule in
Appendices A and D, or should FENOC determine that revision to
the commitments in Appendices A and D is necessary. 

Coordination of Restart Authorization with other Federal
Agencies 

In accordance with IMC 0350, the NRC staff has coordinated with
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and determined that
there are no offsite emergency preparedness issues that would
impact a decision to approve restart of the Davis-Besse
facility. 

In addition, the Panel and NRC management have been regularly
briefed on the results of the NRC Office of Investigations (OI)
investigation. The federal investigation of possible wrongdoing
is continuing as a joint effort of the United States Attorneys
Office, Cleveland, Ohio; U. S. Department of Justice; and NRCs
OI. An NRC manager has been assigned to monitor the continuing
federal investigation and identify any emerging potential safety
issues. In accordance with the NRCs Enforcement Manual, the NRC
staff has reviewed the investigative results and concluded that
no immediate enforcement action is necessary at this time. These
matters will continue to be monitored and will be appropriately
handled consistent with NRC policies for enforcement and
interface with the U.S. Department of Justice, and any
enforcement related to the events surrounding the reactor head
degradation event will be issued in accordance with NRC
policies. 

Issuance of Confirmatory Order 

To ensure effective assessment and sustained safe performance at
Davis-Besse, the NRC has determined that additional measures are
needed. Therefore, the NRC is issuing a Confirmatory Order to
FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company modifying License No.
NPF-3 requiring annual independent assessments for five years in
the areas of operations, engineering, corrective actions and
safety culture and requiring inspections of key reactor coolant
system pressure boundary components during a mid-cycle outage.
Enclosure 3 contains the Confirmatory Order. 

Continuation of Oversight Panel after Restart Approval 

As discussed during several public meetings, implementation of
the routine reactor oversight and assessment processes will
continue to be suspended. The Davis-Besse Oversight Panel will
continue to provide NRC regulatory oversight at Davis-Besse
until the Panel confirms sustained safe operating performance at
Davis-Besse. The Panel will continue to monitor licensee startup
activities through resident and region-based special
inspections, including a period of continuous observation during
restart of the station. In addition, enhanced inspection
oversight will be provided utilizing the additional resident
inspector at the station, and other focused special inspections
of areas the Panel determines warrant additional oversight. By
separate correspondence the licensee will be provided a copy of
the NRCs inspection plans for the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power
Station during the upcoming 18-month period. 

In summary, the matters contained in the NRCs Confirmatory
Action Letter and Restart Checklist, required to be addressed
before NRC consideration of restart approval have been
adequately resolved and the NRC has reasonable assurance that
the Davis-Besse facility can be restarted and operated safely.
Therefore, the NRC is removing the restriction placed on restart
of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in the Confirmatory
Action Letter. You remain accountable to comply with all
requirements in NRC regulations and the Davis-Besse operating
license as applicable before the plant can restart. Further, the
NRC acknowledges your commitments to take action to prevent
recurrence of significant performance deficiencies at
Davis-Besse and is issuing an immediately effective Confirmatory
Order requiring future assessments and inspections. 

In accordance with 10 CFR 2.790 of the NRCs Rules of
Practice, a copy of this letter, its enclosures, and your
response if you choose to respond, will be placed in the NRC
Public Electronic Reading Room (PERR) link at the NRC website,
namely http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. 

  


        

Sincerely, 


/signed/ 

James L. Caldwell
 Regional Administrator   



Docket No. 50-346
 License No. NPF-3 


  Enclosures:     1. CAL Closure Summary [Available from NRC
Office of Public Affairs]   
        2. Restart Checklist [Available from NRC Office of
Public Affairs]   
        3. Order Modifying License [Attached to news release]   


7590-01-P 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

  


  In the Matter of     )   
        ) Docket No. 50-346   
  FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company     ) License No. NPF-3 
 
  (Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1)     ) EA-03-214   


CONFIRMATORY ORDER MODIFYING LICENSE
 (EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY) 

I. 

FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC, or the Licensee)
is the holder of Facility Operating License No. NPF-3 issued on
April 22, 1977, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or
Commission) pursuant to 10 CFR Part 50. The license authorizes
the operation of Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1
(Davis-Besse), in accordance with conditions specified therein.
The facility is located on the Licensees site in Ottawa County,
Ohio. 
II. 

The discovery of circumferential cracking in some of the control
rod drive mechanism (CRDM) nozzles that penetrate the reactor
pressure vessel (RPV) head at Oconee Nuclear Station, Unit 3, in
February 2001, and Oconee Nuclear Station, Unit 2, in April
2001, raised concerns about the potential safety implications
and prevalence of cracking in RPV head penetration nozzles in
pressurized-water reactors (PWRs). In response to these
concerns, the NRC issued NRC Bulletin 2001-01 on August 3, 2001.
The bulletin required all PWR operators to report to the NRC on
the structural integrity of the CRDM nozzles, including their
plans to ensure that future inspections would verify structural
integrity of the reactor vessel boundary. Davis-Besse was shut
down on February 16, 2002, when it began its 13th refueling
outage, which included an inspection of CRDM nozzles. On March
6, 2002, FENOC employees discovered a cavity in the RPV head.
The cavity was the result of corrosion caused by long-term
leakage of reactor coolant, which contains boric acid, from
small cracks in one of the CRDM nozzles. 

The NRC staff subsequently determined that FENOCs failure to
properly implement its boric acid corrosion control and
corrective action programs was a performance deficiency that
allowed reactor coolant system pressure boundary leakage to
occur undetected for a prolonged time, resulting in RPV upper
head degradation. The NRC determined that the Licensees
performance deficiency had high safety significance, in the Red
range, as documented in a letter to the Licensee dated May 29,
2003 (ADAMS Accession No. ML031490778). 

The NRC took a series of actions in response to the discovery of
the cavity in the Davis-Besse RPV head. An Augmented Inspection
Team was sent to Davis-Besse on March 12, 2002, to collect facts
regarding the conditions that led to the head degradation.
Additionally, the NRC issued a Confirmatory Action Letter (CAL)
to the Licensee on March 13, 2002 (ML020730225), confirming the
Licensees agreement that NRC approval is required for restart
of Davis-Besse. The CAL also documented a number of actions that
the Licensee must implement before restart. By letter dated
April 29, 2002 (ML021190661), the NRC informed FENOC that its
corrective actions at Davis-Besse would receive enhanced NRC
oversight, as described in NRC Inspection Manual Chapter 0350,
Oversight of Operating Reactor Facilities in a Shutdown
Condition With Performance Problems. That enhanced monitoring
began on May 3, 2002, and included the creation of a panel to
provide the required oversight during the plant shutdown and
during and after any future restart until a determination is
made that the plant is ready for return to the NRCs normal
reactor oversight process. 

By letter dated April 18, 2002 (ML021130029), Confirmatory
Action Letter Response - Root Cause Analysis Report, the
Licensee submitted to the NRC its technical root cause analysis
report for the RPV head degradation, as revised by letter dated
September 23, 2002 (ML022750125), Revision 1 to Root Cause
Analysis Report Regarding Reactor Pressure Vessel Head
Degradation. The Licensee concluded that the probable cause of
the degradation was primary water stress corrosion cracking of
the nozzle. The physical factors that caused corrosion of the
RPV head were the CRDM nozzle leakage associated with
through-wall cracking, followed by boric acid corrosion of the
RPV low-alloy steel. The Licensee further concluded that the
large-scale corrosion occurred as a result of a failure to
detect and arrest the leakage until advanced symptoms had
appeared. 

The Licensee submitted to the NRC its nontechnical root cause
analysis by letter dated August 21, 2002 (ML022750405),
Management and Human Performance Root Cause Analysis Report on
Failure to Identify Reactor Pressure Vessel Head Degradation.
In this analysis, the Licensee concluded that there was a lack
of sensitivity to nuclear safety and the focus was to justify
existing conditions. The overall conclusion is that Management
ineffectively implemented processes and thus failed to detect
and address plant problems as opportunities arose. The Licensee
identified a number of root causes for the failure to identify
boric acid corrosion of the RPV head, including: 



  1.     Less-than-adequate nuclear safety focus - A production
focus established by management, combined with minimum action to
meet regulatory requirements, resulted in acceptance of degraded
conditions on the RPV head and other components affected by
boric acid. 

  
            
  2.     Less-than-adequate implementation of the corrective
action program, as indicated by the following:   
              a. Addressing symptoms rather than causes   
              b. Low categorization of conditions   
              c. Less-than-adequate cause determinations   
              d. Less-than-adequate corrective actions   
              e. Less-than-adequate trending   
                  
  3.     Less-than-adequate analyses of safety implications -
Failure to integrate and apply key industry information and site
knowledge/experience, effectively use vendor expertise, and
compare new information to baseline knowledge led to
less-than-adequate analyses and decisionmaking with respect to
the nuclear safety implications of boric acid on the reactor
vessel head and in the containment.   
                  
  4.     Less-than-adequate compliance with the boric acid
corrosion control and inservice test programs - Contrary to
these programs, boric acid was not completely removed from the
RPV head. The affected areas were not inspected for corrosion
and leakage from nozzles and the sources of the leakage were not
determined.   



As documented in NRC Inspection Report No. 50-346/02-15
(ML030380037), dated February 6, 2003, the NRC concluded that
the Licensees management and human performance initial root
cause analyses were not sufficiently broad to identify potential
contributors in the engineering and corporate support areas and
were not developed in an integrated manner to identify
potentially systemic issues. Additional analyses were performed
by the Licensee, including assessments in the areas of
operations, engineering, oversight, and corporate support, and
were evaluated by the NRC, as documented in NRC Inspection
Report No. 50-346/02-18 (ML032050528), dated July 24, 2003.
Following review of the additional FENOC analyses, the NRC
concluded that the Licensees overall nontechnical root cause
assessment was of appropriate depth and breadth to develop
actions to correct and prevent recurrence of the management and
human performance deficiencies associated with the RPV head
degradation. 

Corrective actions taken by the Licensee included the
development of a Return-to-Service Plan, which described FENOCs
actions for Davis-Besses safe and reliable return to service.
The Return-to-Service Plan was initially submitted to the NRC on
May 21, 2002 (ML021430429), and has been revised several times,
most recently on April 6, 2003 (ML031000739). 

The NRC Davis-Besse Oversight Panel established a Restart
Checklist, which lists the essential issues requiring
disposition prior to restart. The Restart Checklist was
originally issued on August 16, 2002 (ML022310034), and has been
revised as necessary by the Oversight Panel based on the results
of NRC inspections and the Licensees assessments. The Restart
Checklist addresses those issues necessary to resolve the causes
of the RPV head degradation so that the Licensee can safely
restart and operate the plant. For example, issues requiring
resolution before the Oversight Panel can consider a
recommendation for restart include (1) the adequacy of
safety-significant structures, systems, and components inside
containment, (2) the adequacy of safety-significant programs,
such as the corrective action program, self-assessment programs,
and the boric acid corrosion management program, and (3) the
adequacy of organizational effectiveness and human performance,
including the effectiveness of corrective actions. 

While the Restart Checklist establishes those essential actions
necessary for safe restart and operation, a key element in
preventing recurrence of a safety-significant event such as the
RPV head degradation is effective Licensee self-assessment.
Given the magnitude, scope, and duration of problems found at
Davis-Besse, and that the Licensees own self-assessments were
not effective in preventing risk-significant performance
deficiencies, additional assurance that the Licensees
self-assessment programs remain effective is essential. 
III. 

To address the issues identified above and ensure sustained safe
performance in plant operation, the Licensee developed the
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station Operational Improvement Plan -
Operating Cycle 14, which was submitted to the NRC by letter
dated November 23, 2003, Integrated Report to Support Restart
of the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station and Request for Restart
Approval (ML033360251) and most recently revised on January 27,
2004 (ML040280597). The Operational Improvement Plan provides
for a managed transition from the Return-to-Service Plan to
normal plant operations and refueling outages. The purpose of
the Operational Improvement Plan is to ensure that improvements
realized during the extended outage remain in place and are
further built upon to improve performance in the future. 

On November 12, December 3, and December 10, 2003, the Licensee
met with the NRC staff regarding the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power
Station Operational Improvement Plan for Operating Cycle 14.
Among other long-term corrective actions, the Operational
Improvement Plan focuses on Licensee initiatives to measure and
sustain achievements in the areas of management and human
performance at Davis-Besse. The Operational Improvement Plan
contains a number of key improvement initiatives, including
continuing actions in the areas of operations, engineering,
safety culture, and corrective actions. 

As assurance that the Operational Improvement Plan initiatives
are sufficient to ensure the continued integrity of the reactor
coolant system and correction of the underlying management and
organizational problems which led to the RPV head degradation,
the Licensee also committed to the following actions. By letters
dated March 31 (ML030930451) and November 14, 2003
(ML033220323), FENOC committed to conduct certain inspections
every refueling outage for leakage from the RPV upper head and
from pressure-retaining components above the RPV head. These
include the CRDM flanges. In addition, by letter dated July 30,
2003 (ML032160384), FENOC committed to conduct similar
inspections of the reactor vessel underside incore monitoring
instrumentation nozzles, including during the Cycle 14 midcycle
outage. As noted in the NRC staff assessment (ML032510339), the
midcycle inspection will help to assure prompt identification of
any significant reactor coolant system pressure boundary leakage
should it develop. The midcycle outage activities will provide
additional confirmation of the material status of the reactor
coolant system. 

Notwithstanding the corrective actions completed to address the
CAL and Restart Checklist and planned by the Licensee in the
Operational Improvement Plan, the NRC requires additional
measures with respect to independent assessments and midcycle
inspections to provide reasonable assurance that the long-term
corrective actions remain effective for those conditions that
resulted in risk-significant performance deficiencies. During
the course of the extended shutdown of Davis-Besse beginning in
February 2002, FENOC conducted a number of thorough evaluations
and self-assessments. Examples include the evaluation of system
design, the assessment of the completeness and accuracy of
docketed information, the evaluation of operational performance
deficiencies during the normal operating pressure test, and the
evaluation of the failure to comply with technical specification
requirements during testing of the steam and feedwater rupture
control system. However, Licensee assessments of operational
performance prior to both the normal operating pressure test and
the NRCs Restart Readiness Assessment Team Inspection in
December 2003 failed to identify a number of deficiencies. NRC
inspections also discovered problems that were not originally
found by the Licensee, most notably in safety culture, in the
corrective action program, and in the quality of engineering
calculations and analyses. These issues indicated weaknesses in
the Licensees ability to assess, find, and correct conditions
adverse to quality. In addition, on November 23, 2003, the
Licensee concluded that the plant, programs, and personnel were
ready to support safe operation, subject to completion of a few,
well-defined work activities prior to restart, and requested the
NRC schedule a meeting as stated in the CAL, and then provide
approval for restart. A meeting was originally scheduled for
December 18, 2003, to discuss restart. However, due to
self-revealing equipment and operational problems and issues
from the NRC Restart Readiness Assessment and the Management and
Human Performance inspection teams, the meeting was delayed.
Given the Licensees previous conclusion that it was ready to
support safe operation, these problems were additional evidence
of inadequate self-assessment. Since then, the NRC recognizes
that FENOC has implemented significant corrective actions
resulting in improved performance and self-assessment
capability. Nevertheless, considering the problems noted above
and going forward, the NRC requires independent outside
assessments to ensure continued effective Licensee
self-assessments and sustained safe performance in the areas of
operations, engineering and corrective actions at Davis-Besse. 

On February 26, 2004, the Licensee executed a consent form in
which it committed to implement the conditions in Section IV
below with respect to future independent assessments of
operations, safety culture, corrective actions, and engineering
at Davis-Besse, and inspections of the reactor coolant system
pressure boundary during a midcycle outage. The independent
assessments will provide important confirmation of the
effectiveness of the Licensees self-assessments and long-term
improvement actions. The reactor coolant system pressure
boundary inspections will assure prompt identification of any
leakage should it develop. The Licensee further agreed that this
Order would be effective upon issuance and waived its right to a
hearing. 

I find that the Licensees commitments, as set forth in Section
IV, are acceptable and necessary and conclude that with these
commitments, plant safety is reasonably assured. In view of the
foregoing, I have determined that public health and safety
require that the Licensees commitments be confirmed by this
Order. Based on the above, this Order is immediately effective
upon issuance. 
IV. 

Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 103, 161b, 161i, 161o, 182 and
186 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, and the
Commissions regulations in 10 CFR 2.202 and 10 CFR Part 50, IT
IS HEREBY ORDERED, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, THAT LICENSE NO. NPF-3
IS MODIFIED AS FOLLOWS: 

1. FENOC shall contract with independent outside organizations
to conduct comprehensive assessments of the Davis-Besse
operations performance, organizational safety culture, including
safety conscious work environment, the corrective action program
implementation, and the engineering program effectiveness.
Ninety days prior to the assessments, FENOC shall inform the
Regional Administrator, NRC Region III, in writing, of the
identity of its outside assessment organizations, including the
qualifications of the assessors, and the scope and depth of the
assessment plans. These outside independent assessments at
Davis-Besse shall be completed before the end of the 4th
calendar quarter of 2004 and annually thereafter for 5 years.
Within 45 days of completion of the assessments, the Licensee
shall submit by letter to the Regional Administrator, NRC Region
III, all assessment results and any action plans necessary to
address issues raised by the assessment results. 

2. FENOC shall conduct a visual examination of the reactor
pressure vessel upper head bare metal surface, including the
head-to-penetration interfaces; the reactor pressure vessel
lower head bare metal surface, including the head-to-penetration
interfaces; and the control rod drive mechanism flanges, using
VT-2 qualified personnel and procedures during the Cycle 14
midcycle outage. The results and evaluation of the inspections
will be reported by letter to the Regional Administrator, NRC
Region III, prior to restart from the midcycle outage, and any
evidence of reactor coolant leakage found during the inspections
will be reported by telephone within 24 hours of discovery to
the Regional Administrator, NRC Region III, or designee. 

If the Licensee determines that submittals made in accordance
with these conditions contain proprietary information as defined
by 10 CFR 2.390, the Licensee shall also provide a
nonproprietary version in accordance with 10 CFR
2.390(b)(1)(ii). The Regional Administrator, NRC Region III,
may, in writing, relax or rescind any of the above conditions
upon demonstration by the Licensee of good cause. 
V. 

Any person adversely affected by this Confirmatory Order, other
than the Licensee, may request a hearing within 20 days of its
issuance. Where good cause is shown, consideration will be given
to extending the time to request a hearing. A request for
extension of time in which to request a hearing must be made in
writing to the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555, and
must include a statement of good cause for the extension. Any
request for a hearing shall be submitted to the Secretary, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ATTN: Chief, Rulemakings and
Adjudications Staff, Washington, DC 20555. Copies of the hearing
request shall also be sent to the Director, Office of Nuclear
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555, to the Assistant General Counsel for
Materials Litigation and Enforcement at the same address, to the
Regional Administrator for NRC Region III, 801 Warrenville Road,
Lisle, Illinois 60532-4351, and to the Licensee. If a person
requests a hearing, that person shall set forth with
particularity the manner in which his interest is adversely
affected by this Order and shall address the criteria set forth
in 10 CFR 2.309(d). 

If a hearing is requested by a person whose interest is
adversely affected, the Commission will issue an Order
designating the time and place of any hearing. If a hearing is
held, the issue to be considered at such hearing shall be
whether this Confirmatory Order should be sustained. AN ANSWER
OR A REQUEST FOR HEARING SHALL NOT STAY THE IMMEDIATE
EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS ORDER. 


        

FOR THE NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 


/signed/ 

J. E. Dyer, Director
 Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation   



Dated this 8th day of March, 2004   



  


 	Last revised Monday, March 08, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 29 Cato: Whither Nuclear Power?
 
POLICY FORUM
 Monday, March 8, 2004

Featuring Richard Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Mineral 
Economics, Pennsylvania State University; Peter Bradford, 
Visiting Lecturer, Energy Policy &Environmental Protection, Yale 
University; and James Hewlett, Industry Analyst, U.S. Energy 
Information Administration. 

The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001 

One of the most interesting aspects of the ongoing debate over 
national energy policy is the political determination to do 
something to subsidize the revival of nuclear power. 

Richard Gordon, however, contends that subsidies are the wrong 
prescription for the industry's woes. The real policy problem, he 
argues, is that the nuclear power industry is burdened by 
unjustifiably strict edicts from the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission. Gordon proposes to eliminate the NRC and its 
regulatory code and to replace it with a regime of strict 
liability for nuclear power generators. Peter Bradford, a former 
commissioner at the NRC, and James Hewlett, a nuclear industry 
analyst at the Energy Information Administration, will comment. 

1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20001-5403
 Phone (202) 842-0200 Fax (202) 842-3490
 All Rights Reserved © 2003 Cato Institute                      
                                                                
  1000 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20001-5403
 Phone (202) 842-0200 Fax (202) 842-3490
 All Rights Reserved © 2002 Cato Institute -->

[ border=]    


*****************************************************************
 30 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting of the 
 
                         FR Doc 04-5104 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10766] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-124]                         
 
Subcommittee on Plant Operations; Notice of Meeting The ACRS 
Subcommittee on Plant Operations will hold a meeting on March 26, 
2004, Room T-2B3, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Friday, 
March 26, 2004--8 a.m. Until the Conclusion of Business The 
purpose of this meeting is to discuss digital instrumentation and 
control research activities, including development of digital 
system reliability models. The Subcommittee will hear 
presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the 
Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, and other interested 
persons regarding this matter. The Subcommittee will gather 
information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate 
proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation 
by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Mr. Marvin D. Sykes (telephone 301/415-8716), five days prior to 
the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made. Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 7:30 a.m. and 
4:15 p.m. (e.t.). Persons planning to attend this meeting are 
urged to contact the above named individual at least two working 
days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes 
to the agenda.
 
Dated: March 1, 2004.
 
Howard J. Larson, Acting Associate Director for Technical 
Support, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. 04-5104 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 31 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards: Joint Meeting of the 
 
                         FR Doc 04-5105 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10766] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-125]                         
 
ACRS Subcommittees on Reliability and Probabilistic Risk 
Assessment and on Plant Operations; Notice of Meeting The ACRS 
Subcommittees on Reliability and Probabilistic Risk Assessment 
and on Plant Operations will hold a joint meeting on March 25, 
2004, Room T-2B1, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland.
 
The entire meeting will be open to public attendance.
 
The agenda for the subject meeting shall be as follows: Thursday, 
March 25, 2004--8:30 a.m. Until 11:30 a.m. The Subcommittees will 
hear the status of the Risk Management Technical Specifications 
program related to Issue 4(b)--Use of configuration management 
for determining technical specification completion times. The 
Subcommittees will hear presentations by and hold discussions 
with representatives of the NRC staff and other interested 
persons regarding this matter. The Subcommittees will gather 
information, analyze relevant issues and facts, and formulate 
proposed positions and actions, as appropriate, for deliberation 
by the full Committee.
 
Members of the public desiring to provide oral statements and/or 
written comments should notify the Designated Federal Official, 
Ms. Maggalean Weston (telephone: 301-415-3151) five days prior to 
the meeting, if possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be 
made. Electronic recordings will be permitted.
 
Further information regarding this meeting can be obtained by 
contacting the Designated Federal Official between 8 a.m. and 
5:30 p.m. (e.t.). Persons planning to attend this meeting are 
urged to contact the above named individual at least two working 
days prior to the meeting to be advised of any potential changes 
to the agenda.
 
Dated: March 2, 2004.
 
Howard J. Larson, Acting Associate Director for Technical 
Support, ACRS/ACNW.
 
[FR Doc. 04-5105 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 32 News Messenger: Report: D-B should not open again - 

thenews-messenger.com

Monday, March 8, 2004   

 NRC, FirstEnergy dispute watchdog group's findings

 By GREG WRIGHT Gannett News Service 

WASHINGTON -- Ohio's troubled Davis-Besse nuclear power plant 
should stay closed because it continues to have equipment and 
safety problems, a government watchdog group's report said today. 

But U.S. Nuclear Regulatory officials said the Ohio Public 
Interest Group's report is flawed. There are no problems with 
pumps and coolant valves that could lead to the reactor 
overheating and releasing deadly radiation, NRC spokesman Jan 
Strasma said. 

And a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., which runs Davis-Besse, 
accused Ohio PIRG of releasing a deceptive report to delay the 
plant's reopening. 

The NRC shut down Davis-Besse two years ago after inspectors 
found a large, corroded hole nearly through the reactor top. 
Since then NRC has pressed FirstEnergy to improve plant safety. 
The Akron-based utility has spent $600 million on safety 
improvements. 

The NRC is expected to announce whether Davis-Besse can reopen 
soon. The plant employs 800 people and supplies electricity to 
businesses and homes in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

"(The report) shows you how well this organization knows the 
plant," FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider said. "Basically, we 
have replaced much equipment and modified more. The plant has 
been thoroughly tested and is ready to restart." 

The Ohio PIRG report claims FirstEnergy has not fixed two coolant 
pumps that would keep the Davis-Besse reactor from overheating if 
it ruptured. There is also a design problem in the plant water 
system valves that could keep cooling water from Lake Erie from 
reaching a damaged reactor, the report said. 

"It literally puts the plant and Ohioans more vulnerable to a 
meltdown," Ohio PIRG spokeswoman Erin Bowser said. 

However, NRC inspectors found no leaking or other problems in the 
valves or any of the plant's four coolant pumps, Strasma said. 
"We've done an inspection looking at that," he said. "We don't 
see it as an issue." 

The Ohio PIRG report also mentioned a Feb. 26 NRC letter that 
criticized FirstEnergy's safety oversight measures. But 
FirstEnergy addressed that problem by agreeing to let an outside 
company check its safety procedures each year, Strasma said. 

Davis-Besse has probably done enough safety improvements to 
reopen, said David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer at the 
Union of Concerned Scientists. Lochbaum said he is more worried 
that NRC has done just 16 of 49 measures it said are needed to 
prevent similar mishaps at the nation's other 103 nuclear power 
plants. 

Ohio PIRG officials called on Gov. Bob Taft to press state and 
federal officials to keep Davis-Besse closed. But Taft is 
"confident in the NRC's ability to regulate the plant," his 
spokesman Orest Holubec said. 

Originally published Monday, March 8, 2004
*****************************************************************
 33 Beacon Journal: FirstEnergy dissolves `poison pill' defense

 | 03/08/2004 | 


Shareholders vote to drop anti-takeover measures

 By Jim Mackinnon

 Beacon Journal business writer

FirstEnergy Corp.'s poison pill anti-takeover defense will soon 
be gone. 

Top executives get added perks if the Akron utility is sold. 

So-called ``supermajority'' voting on shareholder issues may end. 

And there probably will be no more staggered elections of 
directors after 2005. 

Does all of that add up to making $12 billion FirstEnergy a 
likely takeover target by another behemoth utility? 

While possible, that scenario doesn't look probable at least for 
this year, some industry analysts say. 

FirstEnergy itself is mum. The company does not discuss the 
possibility of mergers and acquisitions, spokesman Ralph DiNicola 
said. 

Last month, FirstEnergy directors agreed to end the poison pill 
defense, which would have made the company harder to acquire in a 
hostile takeover, after a majority of shareholders at the 
company's 2003 annual meeting voted to end the measure. Pending 
approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 
shareholder rights plan expires at the end of this month. 

Dropping the defense ``was not designed to make the company 
easier to sell,'' DiNicola said. Instead, that measure and others 
are intended to address better corporate governance practices 
that the board and shareholders want, he said. 

The measures FirstEnergy has or wants to adopt are also becoming 
more common at other publicly held companies, according to the 
Washington, D.C.-based Investor Responsibility Research Center. 

FirstEnergy isn't the first Akron company to announce this year 
it is dropping a poison pill anti-takeover measure -- Goodyear 
Tire &Rubber Co. in early February acted to end its poison pill 
defense as of June 1. 

``Companies that have been targeted in the recent past by 
shareholders with corporate governance proposals repeatedly are 
adopting new corporate governance practices that are more in 
compliance with what shareholders generally regard as best 
practices,'' said Rosemary Lally, who edits the center's 
corporate governance newsletter. 

Companies generally are not doing this out of the goodness of 
their hearts, she said. 

A lot of the corporate governance measures shareholders have 
proposed have received majority votes, she said. ``That's a lot 
of motivation right there.'' 

Shareholder proposals 

From 2000 to 2003, there have been 20 shareholder proposals 
addressing corporate governance issues at FirstEnergy, Lally 
said. ``They've received substantial support, all of them.'' 

FirstEnergy's board will ask shareholders at the company's annual 
meeting in May to approve: 

• Declassifying the board of directors starting in 2005, so that 
all directors are eventually elected annually. Directors elected 
to three-year terms in 2004 would continue to serve until the 
terms expire. Staggering the election of directors makes it more 
difficult to replace the board at one time. 

• Changing supermajority voting, meaning at least 80 percent of 
shares, to two-thirds majority, to make certain amendments to the 
company's governing documents. The company notes in the proxy 
that an 80 percent supermajority vote encourages potential 
acquirers to negotiate directly with the board rather than with 
large shareholders. 

The proxy also shows that the company's compensation committee, 
in conjunction with a consultant's report, in 2003 approved new 
severance agreements with top executives. The agreements give 
them improved retirement, health care and life insurance benefits 
if their employment is terminated under some circumstances within 
three years after a ``change in control'' of FirstEnergy. The new 
benefits are now in effect for FirstEnergy Chief Executive and 
President Anthony Alexander, and kick in for the others as of 
Jan. 1, 2006. 

The changes come as FirstEnergy has struggled financially the 
past two years. While it remains highly profitable and generates 
large amounts of cash, the company has been hurt by the need to 
spend $600 million on its Davis-Besse nuclear power plant, Aug. 
14 blackout-related expenses, higher pension costs, an 
unfavorable New Jersey rate case and more. Still, it continues to 
pay down debt each year. The company also has been shedding what 
it calls nonessential assets. 

Takeover not likely soon 

FirstEnergy's recent actions do raise the question of whether the 
company is a takeover target, said Paul Ridzon, utility analyst 
with McDonald Investments. 

Improving severance benefits ``was more meaningful to me than 
getting rid of the poison pill,'' he said. 

But Ridzon said the climate now doesn't appear right for 
significant utility mergers and acquisitions. 

``I don't think in 2004 we'll see large-scale M and A (mergers 
and acquisitions),'' he said. ``There is no such thing as a 
hostile utility deal.'' 

Two of the more prominent names that have been mentioned as 
potential buyers of FirstEnergy are Dominion Resources Inc. and 
Exelon Corp., he said. 

In the case of Exelon, which was created by the merger ofPECO 
Energy in Philadelphia and Unicom Electric Corp. in Chicago, 
FirstEnergy's geographic territory ``really is the hole in their 
doughnut,'' he said. Virginia-based Dominion, which owns East 
Ohio Gas, and FirstEnergy also would be a good fit 
geographically, he said. 

``I think people probably will sit on their hands for a little 
while,'' Ridzon said. 

``There's a lot of possible (industry) consolidation that could 
take place,'' said Paul Fremont, utility industry analyst with 
Jefferies &Co. in New York. ``There's always speculation.'' 

FirstEnergy stock, while up more than 10 percent since Jan. 1, 
and up more than 30 percent from a year ago, is trading at a 
discount to many of its peers. That means FirstEnergy would be a 
more likely takeover candidate than an acquirer, Fremont said. 

Analyst Warwick Busfield of Oppenheimer &Co. said he doesn't 
think FirstEnergy is a takeover target. 

``Not at all. It's just got too much debt,'' he said. 

In addition, the utility industry does not appear to be in a 
position for significant mergers and acquisitions, Busfield said. 
``Everybody has a lot of debt. Everybody is trying to pay down 
debt.... They are all trying to get their own houses in order.'' 

FirstEnergy's annual meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 18 at 
the John S. Knight Center in downtown Akron. 

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or   

*****************************************************************
 34 FT: Chinese close to sale of second nuclear power plant to Pakistan  

  By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad  

  Published: March 8 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: March 8 2004 4:00
 
China and Pakistan have agreed the technical details for the sale 
of a second nuclear power plant to Pakistan after secret 
negotiations in Beijing last week, officials in Islamabad have 
confirmed. 

Worth about $600m-$700m (566m, £379m), the 300 megawatt plant 
would be built at Chashma, about 280km south of Islamabad, next 
to the first Chinese supplied nuclear power plant, which became 
operational in 1999. The technical details of the proposed plant, 
known as C-2 or Chashma-2, were finalised during the visit to 
Beijing last week by a Pakistani delegation of nuclear officials, 
led by Pervez Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy 
Commission.

Pakistani officials said a price for the sale now had to be 
settled, ending several months of Sino-Pakistani discussions on 
the subject. The proposed agreement was discussed during a visit 
to China by General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, 
last year, although subsequent negotiations have been delayed 
over technical details and the price.

"The deal is now in the final stages," said one Pakistani 
official. The deal underlines the close co-operation between the 
two countries and comes after revelations that a group of 
Pakistani rogue scientists and nuclear officials led by Abdul 
Qadeer Khan, the father of the country's nuclear bomb project, 
sold nuclear know-how and technology to Iran, Libya and possibly 
North Korea.

Dr Khan has been pardoned by Gen Musharraf after he made a 
televised confession but he remains in effect under house arrest. 
The Pakistani leader has assured the US and other western 
governments that his government has plugged all the possible gaps 
used by the group under Dr Khan to supply expertise to foreign 
buyers.

China remains Pakistan's most reliable supplier of defence 
equipment, but Pakistani officials stressed that the two reactors 
at Chashma would be given full safeguards to make certain they 
were used only for generating electricity. Other Chinese joint 
projects with Pakistan include the development of the JF-17 
Thunder fighter aircraft and a new port at Gwadar.

Last night Mr Butt was expected to arrive in Vienna for a meeting 
of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency, his first visit to the IAEA since revelations about Dr 
Khan were made public.

A Pakistani official said he was not due to discuss formally the 
issue of Mr Khan's investigations, but he did not rule out the 
possibility of informal discussions. "Our intention is to try to 
convince the world that all safeguards remain well in place. 
There may be discussions with representatives from other 
countries on the safeguards to prevent any future proliferation."  
     
      © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004. "FT" and
"Financial Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times. Privacy
*****************************************************************
 35 Xinhuanet: DPRK reiterates simultaneous actions in settling nuclear issue

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2004-03-08 17:22:02   

    PYONGYANG, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's 
Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday reiterated its standpoint of 
solving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula by a package 
solution on the principle of simultaneous actions. 

    The DPRK condemned the United States for its lack of 
sincerity in the process. 

    "We put forward a plan of first-phase measures of the package 
solution which had been backed by the other sides," said a 
commentary carried by Rodong Sinmun, the major paper in 
Pyongyang.      

    "We attended the talks with full sincerity and brought 
forward a string of constructive proposals with flexibility and 
magnanimity, from the willing of settling the nuclear issue in 
peaceful way," said the commentary. 

    However, the United States persisted that the DPRK should 
firstly give up nuclear program completely, verifiably and 
irreversibly, instead of bringing any reasonable plan, only 
makinga large blockage to the talks, the commentary stated. 

    "The US behavior made it clear that it had no willing to 
negotiate with the DPRK but to strive for time in the name of the 
talks and carry on its policy of stifling the DPRK to the end," 
itsaid. 

    The commentary said the key of resolving the nuclear issue on 
the Korean peninsula is held in the hands of the United States, 
adding that "if the United States won't change its hostility 
policy against the DPRK, the talks afterward will make no help to 
settle the nuclear issue either." Enditem   

  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 36 NRC: Nuclear Management Company, Llc; Notice Of Receipt And 
 
                         FR Doc E4-478 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10765-10766] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-123]                         
 
Availability Of Application For Renewal Of Point Beach Nuclear 
Plant, Units 1 And 2; Facility Operating License Nos. Dpr-24 And 
Dpr-27 for an Additional 20-Year Period The U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) has received an 
application, dated February 25, 2004, from Nuclear Management 
Company, LLC., filed pursuant to Section 103 (Operating License 
Numbers DPR-24 and DPR-27) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 
amended, and 10 CFR Part 54, to renew the operating licenses for 
the Point Beach Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, respectively. 
Renewal of the license would authorize the applicant to operate 
each facility for an additional 20-year period beyond the period 
specified in the respective current operating licenses. The 
current operating license for the Point Beach Unit 1 (DRP-24) 
expires on October 5, 2010, and the current operating license for 
Point Beach Unit 2 (DRP-27) expires on March 8, 2013. The Point 
Beach Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2 are pressurized- water 
reactors designed by Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
 
Both units are located near the Town of Two Creeks near Two 
Rivers,
 
[[Page 10766]] Wisconsin. The acceptability of the tendered 
application for docketing, and other matters including an 
opportunity to request a hearing, will be the subject of 
subsequent Federal Register notices.
 
Copies of the application are available for public inspection at 
the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White 
Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, 
Maryland, 20582 or electronically from the NRC's Agencywide 
Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Public Electronic 
Reading Room under accession number ML040580020. The ADAMS Public 
Electronic Reading Room is accessible from the NRC Web site at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. In addition, the 
application is available on the NRC Web page at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati 
ons.html , while the application is under review. Persons who do 
not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing 
the documents located in ADAMS should contact the NRC's PDR 
Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, extension 301-415-4737, or by 
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov. A copy of the license renewal application 
for the Point Beach Nuclear Plant, Units 1 and 2, is also 
available to local residents near the Point Beach Nuclear Plant 
at the Lester Public Library 1001 Adams Street, Two Rivers, 
Wisconsin 54241.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of March 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Pao-Tsin Kuo, Program Director, License Renewal and Environmental 
Impacts, Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. E4-478 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 37 KoreaTimes: [Arrowhead] Editorials on Nuclear Issues 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Opinion > Arrowhead   

By Choi Yearn-hong Poet, Professor at University of Seoul 

In a modern, democratic society, the newspaper�Æs role is 
important and critical in shaping citizens�Æ opinions on nuclear 
power and other issues. Citizens acquire knowledge on current 
issues in their society, nation, and the world through 
newspapers. Today, television and Internet media is increasingly 
becoming more popular among citizens, but newspaper media 
continues to affect intellectual citizens, policymakers and think 
tanks. Therefore, assessing major daily newspaper editorials 
covering nuclear issues and affairs is necessary for their sound 
bridging between nuclear science and engineering and the public. 
Bridging the two cultures, science and humanities, is an enormous 
task for modern democratic society. 

Ultimately, the public�Æs understanding of nuclear issues should 
be healthy and sound. In a democratic society, citizens cast 
their votes for the public servants who they agree with most and 
for who they believe will influence and change public policy. The 
citizens also look to their representative government to bring 
light to issues in the good of public interest. If they are not 
well equipped intellectually for societal issues, their choice of 
government representatives and support for certain policy issues 
can be dangerous. This jeopardizes the success of a modern 
democracy.

 The social implications of risk and the public�Æs understanding 
of public challenges to modern society and technology have been 
seriously discussed in the United States and European nations. 
South Korea is starting to discuss the public�Æs understanding of 
science and technology issues, including nuclear power plant 
safety and nuclear waste disposal.

 Many daily newspaper editorials on nuclear issues were 
concentrated on nuclear weaspons, non-proliferation, arms 
reduction talks, and weapons testing bans. The US editorials 
covered the US-Russia arms reduction talks and implementation of 
the treaty, North Korean nuclear weapons program, nuclear 
conflict between India and Pakistan, emerging nuclear power in 
Irabm and Iraq, nuclear lab and spy infiltration of US nuclear 
science and development information, and IAEA inspection and its 
role for world peace. The South Korean editorials covered greatly 
North Korea�Æs suspected nuclear weapons program, long distance 
missiles, and Japan�Æs possible nuclear armament. 

Concentration on nuclear arms is understandable. The mass 
destruction of human civilization is feasible with a possible 
nuclear war, or human mishap at nuclear facilities. Concern for 
nuclear energy, nuclear power plant safety, nuclear waste 
management, nuclear medicine, and nuclear research and 
development issues are scarce, because they are, unlike the 
nuclear arms issue, not at the forefront of concern. This 
research outcome just shows the unbalanced approach by newspaper 
editorial writers on nuclear issues. Readers of newspaper 
editorials can be influenced by the concentration on the nuclear 
weapons issue, and scarcely other issues, resulting in the 
public�Æs understanding of nuclear issues to be quite skewed.

 The US editorial writers defended the scarcity of nuclear issues 
outside nuclear arms issue saying, ``There has been no new 
construction of nuclear power plants since Three Mile Island. 
Nuclear power plant safety has been long proven, so that there is 
no critical issue. Editorials are basically comments on current 
issues. There are no current issues. That is why.�Æ�Æ Some 
writers have also claimed that they were influenced by the 
anti-nuke environmentalists. 

In interviews with more than a dozen editorial writers, I asked a 
couple of questions: ``Is the newspaper educating the public?�Æ�Æ 
and ``Don�Æt you think the newspaper editorials should take a 
balanced approach toward various nuclear issues?�Æ�Æ The first 
answer was, ``Yes, it does.�Æ�Æ The second answer was, ``Yes, 
they should.�Æ�Æ These answers are normative. Mr. JW Anderson, a 
former Washington Post editorial writer and journalist in 
residence at Resources for the Future, an environmental 
think-tank in Washington, told me, ``The newspaper�Æs role as the 
public educator has been diminishing. Its role is becoming more 
as that of entertainer like television. Education belongs to the 
schools and colleges. Don�Æt you think so?�Æ�Æ He added, ``All 
editorial writers attempt to approach evenly on the issues. 
However, they have their own views and they reflect the 
newspaper�Æs image.�Æ�Æ

 A majority of editorial writers accepted the educational 
experiences for a better understanding of nuclear science and 
technology as a part of science policy and/or energy policy. Some 
frankly told me they were not experts on nuclear issues. They 
learned things at news sites, in the street or in the field. 
Their educational backgrounds were diverse. Some studied 
humanities, some social sciences, and very few the natural 
sciences and engineering. They were mainly journalists.

 Harvard, Indiana and Missouri journalist schools have educated 
many of the US and foreign journalists, including Korean 
reporters, editorial writers, and newspaper executive directors. 
The Korean colleges and universities should create similar 
programs to educate journalists.

 The newspaper�Æs role as a bridge between science and the public 
is not particularly visible or conspicuously evident. Their role 
is subdued to populism. Anti-nuclear environmental movements are 
persuading or forcing the newspaper�Æs role as a 
middle-of-the-road mediator or fair and objective educator. 
Newspaper�Æs role as a bridge may be abandoned in the future 
under popular trends. Korean newspapers report on German and 
Scandinavian nations�Æ decision to seek alternative energy 
sources over nuclear power. They do not report on China, India 
and other Asian nations�Æ search for nuclear power. They do not 
report on how much energy can be possibly generated from 
alternative energy sources such as solar, wind or tides in Korea 
in next 10 or 20 years.

 The US reliance on nuclear power is about 10 percent of its 
total energy consumption. However, South Korean reliance on 
nuclear power is about 50 percent of all electric power 
consumption. South Korea�Æs future economic development and 
energy policy should more seriously and frequently be discussed 
in the newspaper opinion pages. A more realistic approach toward 
nuclear energy policy should be discussed in depth. 

03-08-2004 20:04 	 
        
*****************************************************************
 38 Reuters: Both PG&E Calif. Diablo Canyon nukes ramp up

[Reuters]   

 UPDATE - Both PG&E Calif. Diablo Canyon nukes ramp up
Monday March 1, 11:52 am ET 
(Adds company comment)

 NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) - Both of PG&E Corp.'s 1,100 
megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear units in California ramped up over 
the weekend, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power 
reactor status report.

 On Monday, unit 1 was operating at 85 percent of capacity,
while unit 2 returned to full power.

 Both units were operating at 24 percent of capacity on Friday
to avoid the plant's cooling water intakes being clogged by kelp
torn loose by big storm waves pounding the central California
coast last week.

 A spokesman at PG&E, Jeff Lewis, told Reuters unit 1 was
operating at 85 percent of capacity because "the cooling water
temperature is higher than it should be."

 The company found it could keep the water temperature within a
normal range by reducing the unit's power.

 "We expect unit 1 to stay at 85 percent until we get to the
refueling outage when we will deal with the problem," Lewis said.

 Lewis said the unit was scheduled to shut for an "early spring
refueling," but he could not be specific as to what day the unit
would shut.

 The last time the unit, which is on a 24-month cycle, shut for
a refueling outage was from April 28-May 29, 2002.

 The Diablo Canyon station is located in Avila Beach,
California, about 195 miles northwest of Los Angeles. 

Copyright © 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy
*****************************************************************
 39 DUEFSSES and CONpensation Shell Game
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 19:44:08 -0800

 
<x-flowed>
  Please check out the National Nuclear Workers for Justice new web 
site  <http://www.nnwj.com>www.nnwj.com
We think right now we will have the best temp. upraise by having all the 
claimants
contact their state senators..NOW and..remind them that this is an
election year and we are tired of the run around.....the more senators 
involved the
better.  Tell them we are tired of this DOE/DOD  CON-pensation bill for 
sick and dying workers. Please call them and flood the phone lines today 
and tomorrow and maybe we all can suggest a day that we can do it 
together..Please read to the end of this message..NO more divide and 
conquer of the sick and dying workers or we will be fighting this 
CON-pensation bill another Zion years..Manager of the NNWJ
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:EASlavin@aol.com>EASlavin@aol.com
.
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 10:30 AM
Subject: DOEFUSSES and CONpensation Shell Game


Dear Vina and all:
Certain DOEFUSSES (DOE & Friends)  (you know who you are) pushed adoption 
of the DOE's deceptive, unworkable CONpensation bill, a perverse model of 
failure, on the American Congress in 2000.
Certain DOEFUSSES are doing it again.
Speaking of DOEFUSSES, some DOE contractors have allegedly lobbied to keep 
DOE in charge of parts of the CONpensation scheme -- putting Dracula in 
charge of the Blood Bank.
Certain DOEFUSSES (DOE &  Friends) are  now AGAIN proposing crumbs and 
denial of discovery, open hearings, appeals and other  fair procedures for 
the victims of the nuclear weapons machine, from poisoned workers and 
families and communities downwinders and Native Americans, instead of real 
solutions.  Key backers of the controversial 2000 DOE CONpensation "bribe 
bill" in 2000 refused to answer questions or debate (other than 
then-Senator Fred Thompson admitting DOE wrote his bad bill).  Certain 
DOEFUSSES have emotional problems with protected activity and think that 
they (and the DOE CONpensation scheme) are above criticism).  They are 
welcome to swim in DOE's polluted waters, seek DOE jobs, and pander to 
DOE's prejudices.  The First Amendment, in its majesty, supports their 
right to support hierarchical, authoritarian constructs, like no discovery, 
no open public hearings before independent adjudicators, no appeals to 
independent forums, and no judicial review.  Thinking people see right 
through them and coverups, not  "progress," can be seen to be their most 
important product.  Leaving $68 per hour DOE contractor physicians and 
harried nurses at DOE in charge of any aspect of the program is 
CONpensation, not compensation.   Click here: GAP Supports House Bill to 
Reform Nuclear Weapons Workers Compensation Program   Another weak-kneed, 
cowardly Richard Miller reform that is not worthy of the name "reform" is 
another CONpensation CON JOB.  Fair, meaningful, open courts compensation 
legislation -- treating ALL DOE victims fairly and equally -- is worth 
discussing may be viewed in some of the urls below.

Color some of the overawed, overanxious, inexperienced DOEFUSSES (DOE & 
Co.) overly anxious to pass "a bill," any 'ole bill, to put on their 
resumes and to make DOE happy, carving DOE's initials in the U.S. Code and 
into the sick workers' backs.  In 2004, some sick workers have allegedly 
been threatened and called "paranoid" by some of the DOEFUSSES (DOE & 
Friends) in retaliation for their First Amendment protected activity in 
criticizing DOE and its less-than-paternalistic, contemptuous attitudes 
toward "our workers."  You might wish to view the urls below.   Certain 
DOE-driven energumen may think they are "slick" and "tough" and play 
"hardball" by threatening workers into agreeing with DOE
They may even call you names, yell and hang up the phone.
They may commit libel, slander and defamation.
They may even threaten to hold their breath and pout.
They better wise up.
This is the 21st century and those jejune, authoritarian, hierarchical 
tactics are either illegal or going out of style.
Let their be a full, open, public debate on CONpensation, with or without 
DOEFUSSES taking part (they seem overly sensitive to criticism and resemble 
DOE in their retaliatory animus).
Let Congress, government and nonprofit funders know what they do.
Let the merits of worker rights legislation be considered based upon very 
close analysis and open hearings, with no more DOE CONpensation fraud 
foisted off on the victims and the American people.  The whole world is 
watching.
With kindest regards,
Ed
Edward A. Slavin, Jr.
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
(904-471-7023)
(904) 471-9918 (fax)

CONpensation Legislative History
Click here: Victim's Testimonies
Click here: 
<http://www.downwinders.org/slavinhtml.htm>http://www.downwinders.org/slavinhtml.htm
Click here: 
<http://www.downwinders.org/edhouse_final2.htm>http://www.downwinders.org/edhouse_final2.htm
Click here: ALARA: MSRE & K-25: Why House Office Workers Near Decontam'n 
&Decomissio
Click here: Why Not The Best Compensation System For All Nuclear Weapons 
Victims

DOE psychiatrist held liable for malpractice for calling K-25 sick worker 
"paranoid"
Sherrie Graham Farver vs. Dr. Kenneth Carpenter - E1999-01840-COA-R3-CV View
Sherrie Graham Farver vs. Dr. Kenneth Carpenter(Dissent) - 
E1999-01840-COA-R3-CV View


PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN DOL WHISTLEBlOWER CAESES FOR RETALIATION BY FEDERAL 
AGENCIES
Click here: Erickson v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IV, 
2003-CAA-11 and 19, 2004-CAA-1 (ALJ Nov. 13, 2003)
Click here: Erickson v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1999-CAA-2, 
2001-CAA-9 and 13, 2002-CAA-3 and 18 (ALJ Sept. 24, 2002





</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 40 [radiation-survivors] -- Fund for radiation victims clears
 
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 14:02:00 -0600 (CST)

 
 http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Mar/03052004/utah/144981.asp

By Robert Gehrke
The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON -- Senate budget leaders agreed Thursday to fully fund a
compensation program for people suffering from cancer and other illnesses
because of their exposure to nuclear weapons programs and testing.
    If Congress approves the recommendation, which is included in a $2.36
trillion budget blueprint, the Radiation Exposure Compensation trust fund
will not go broke next year, and ailing residents will not be issued
government IOUs.
    President Bush requested an additional $72 million for the compensation
claims, and the Senate Budget Committee included the request in the bill it
sent to the Senate on Thursday.
    Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990 to
compensate uranium miners, millers or ore haulers and so-called
downwinders -- those exposed to radioactive fallout from aboveground weapons
tests in Nevada.
    Claimants sickened by their radiation exposure can receive checks
ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 from the government.
    But for years the program has been plagued by shortfalls.
    In May 2000, the RECA Trust Fund ran dry.
    For 18 months, cancer-stricken claimants received IOUs from the Justice
Department. Many died waiting for their checks to come

The problem was supposedly fixed when Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and others
convinced Congress to approve $65 million a year for the RECA program
through 2011.
    But the program was also expanded to include more people, and the
Justice Department has been processing claims more quickly. As a result, the
General Accounting Office and Congressional Budget Office estimated the
compensation fund would use up its available money by June 2005 and have to
go back to issuing IOUs.
    Several senators, including Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Domenici had
expressed concern about the potential shortfalls and urged the budget
committee to approve Bush's request of an additional $72 million.
    The Justice Department estimates that more than $100 million could be
needed to pay the remaining claimants, although the Congressional Budget
Office puts the figure at $78 million.

   To date . . .

    The government has approved 11,174 claims and paid $735 million to
residents in the following states:

   * Utah
   * Nevada
   * Colorado
   * Arizona
   * Texas
   * New Mexico
   * Wyoming
   * Idaho
   * South Dakota
   * North Dakota
   * Oregon
   * Washington

-----
Are you looking for a good computer help list?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ComputingForSeniors/
----------
http://www.thebreastcancersite.com
Please click today. 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radiation-survivors/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     radiation-survivors-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
*****************************************************************
 41 UN Nuclear Watchdog 'seriously Concerned' Over Gaps In Iran's Declaration
 
Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 11:00:23 -0500

 

 
UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG ‘SERIOUSLY CONCERNED’ OVER GAPS IN IRAN’S DECLARATION
New York, Mar  8 2004 11:00AM
While noting with satisfaction marked progress in cooperation by 
Iran, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency today 
voiced serious concern over gaps in Tehran’s declaration of nuclear 
activities and called on it to take the “vital” initiative to 
provide all relevant information fully and promptly in the coming 


In his first briefing to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 
(<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/bog0803.html">IAEA) 
Governing Board since Iran signed additional safeguards aimed at 
preventing the development of nuclear weapons, <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Statements/2004/ebsp2004n002.html">Director-General 
Mohamed 
ElBaradei also said full cooperation was essential from 
countries from which nuclear technology and equipment for Tehran 


At the same time he welcomed the “active cooperation and openness” 
shown by Libya, which renounced internationally proscribed weapons 
in December, and called the withdrawal by the Democratic People’s 
Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT) a dangerous precedent threatening the credibility of 


The IAEA has been heavily engaged in verifying Iran’s programme since 
early last year and in November strongly deplored Tehran’s past 
breaches of the NPT. At the time Mr. ElBaradei said the agency 
had no proof that Iran's activities were linked to a nuclear weapons 
programme and Tehran consistently denied any such intention. 


Today, he told the Board in Vienna: “I am seriously concerned that 
Iran’s October declaration did not include any reference to its 
possession of P-2 centrifuge designs and related R&D (research and 
development), which in my view was a setback to Iran’s stated 
policy of transparency. This is particularly the case since the October 
declaration was characterized as providing ‘the full scope 
of Iranian nuclear activities,’ including a ‘complete centrifuge 


He noted “with satisfaction” that since October Iran had granted 
IAEA inspectors access to requested sites, documentation and personnel 
and suspended reprocessing and uranium enrichment related activities 
as a confidence building measure. But, he added: “It is 
vital that, in the coming months, Iran ensures full transparency 
with respect to all of its nuclear activities, by taking the initiative 
to provide all relevant information in full detail and in 


Calling for expanded cooperation from countries where nuclear supplies 
originated, Mr. Elbaradei declared: “Hopefully, with no new 
revelations, and with satisfactory resolution of these and other 
remaining questions, we can look forward to a time when the confidence 
of the international community has been restored.”        


In November the Board warned that if further serious Iranian failures 
came to light, it would consider all options at its disposal. 
These options include referring the matter to the Security Council, 


On Libya, Mr. ElBaradei said its failure over many years to declare 
its nuclear material and activities represented a breach of its 
obligation to comply with provisions of its safeguards agreement, 
“and its acquisition of a nuclear weapon design is clearly a matter 


But he added that following Tripoli’s renunciation of weapons of 
mass destruction, it “has responded promptly to the Agency’s requests 
for information, and assisted the Agency in gaining a full picture 
of its nuclear programme,” and agreed to conclude an additional 


On the DPRK, Mr. ElBaradei said the IAEA had been unable to draw 
conclusions on its nuclear activities since Pyongyang terminated 
onsite agency verification activities in 2002, but he welcomed the 
continued six-party talks in Beijing on the nuclear issue, with 
the participation of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, 


He also noted that the IAEA had found increasing evidence of a complex 
black market network in nuclear materials as part of its verification 
of Libyan and Iranian activities. “An important part of 
our investigation is to find out whether the sensitive nuclear 
technologies in question have been spread to any other countries 
 2004-03-08 00:00:00.000 

________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml
*****************************************************************
 42 Bellona: Nuclear sub Victor-III Perm to be repaired this year
 
The Russian navy commander Vladimir Kuroedov agreed that during 
conversation with Mikhail Nenashev, leader of the public movement 
for Russian navy support, Perm newspaper Zvezda reported in 
January. 

2004-03-08 21:20

Russian MP colonel-general Yury Rodionov confirmed this 
information. Victor-III Perm (former K-292) project no.671RTM was 
due to undergo repairs already last year as the Russian Defence 
Ministry allocated money for the first stage of the works, but 
then the funds were used for the broken engine of an active 
submarine, which suddenly needed the service. Perm can be back in 
service in 2005-2006 if the repair works start soon. 

The sub has been waiting for the repairs since 1996. For example, 
its battery should be completely changed. Earlier shipyard Nerpa 
demanded $2.8m, but the Defence Ministry could not afford it, so 
the sub was about to be scrapped then. Luckily, Perm city 
administration established a patronage program to take care of 
the submarine by collecting funds, food, cigarettes, clothes, TV, 
a bus etc. for the needs of the Perm’s submariners. 
  
  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
webmaster@bellona.no
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 43 BBC: Crash causes radioactive 'scare' 
 
  Last Updated: Monday, 8 March, 2004
 
[Police accident sign]                                  
The accident involved a van and three cars                                                              

A van taking radioactive material to a Glasgow hospital was 
involved in a crash with three other vehicles. 

One person was believed to have suffered minor injuries in the 
incident in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, at 0925 GMT on 
Monday. 

A Strathclyde Fire Brigade spokesman said the containers loaded 
on the vehicle were not damaged and the public was never in any 
danger. 

The van was on its way to the Western Infirmary when the crash 
happened. 

As a precaution emergency personnel wore protective clothing but 
none of the containers in the van were damaged. 

The spokeman said: "There was a small contamination scare with 
the containers, which were carried in the normal fashion. 

"They were not damaged and the public was never in any danger." 



*****************************************************************
 44 Spectrum: Downwinder clinic opens at DRMC 

thespectrum.com
 
Monday, March 8, 2004   

 RESEP to help screen for cancers, teach about health

 By PATRICE ST. GERMAIN
 patrices@thespectrum.com 

Nick Adams/The Spectrum 

Carolyn Rasmussen, left, and Becky Barlow, both registered 
nurses, stand in the doorway of the new Radiation Exposure 
Screening Clinic. 

Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program
 
+ If you are a downwinder, worked on-site during nuclear testing 
or worked in the uranium mining industry and need to be screened 
for potential health problems as a result of radiation exposure, 
contact the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program at 
(435) 688-5990. The clinic is located at the Dixie Regional 
Medical Center 400 East campus at 544 S. 400 East. Access the 
clinic through the 600 South Entrance. 

ST. GEORGE -- Ernie Miller remembers the ash from nuclear tests 
falling down around his Henderson, Nev., home when he was a child 
-- ash that landed on the skin and would burn. 

But despite those memories, Miller wouldn't qualify as a 
downwinder. 

It's only the summers, especially the summer of 1962 when Miller 
spent time in Cedar City, that would qualify him as a downwinder. 

Miller, who now lives in Cedar City and is celebrating his 53rd 
birthday today, has health problems but is not sure if it's 
genetic or related to his being a downwinder. But with no 
insurance, Miller said he is unable to go to the doctor because 
he is unable to pay, which is why Miller is pleased that a new 
clinic is opening in St. George. 

The Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program opens its 
doors at the 400 East Campus of Dixie Regional Medical Center on 
Wednesday and already it is almost booked through the month of 
March. 

The clinic is geared to helping downwinders not only be tested 
for cancers related to radioactive fallout, but to educate them 
about the potential health problems and how important early 
screening is. 

Between 1951 to 1958 and in July 1962, an estimated 22,000 people 
living in Southern Utah, northern Arizona and southeastern Nevada 
received a large amount of fallout from above-ground nuclear 
testing conducted at the Nevada Test Site. 

These downwinders, as they have come to be known, show abnormally 
high rates of malignant and non-malignant thyroid disease and 
leukemia and, over the last decade, have shown a 
higher-than-expected incidence of lymphoma and breast and thyroid 
cancers, according to the Utah Cancer Registry. 

RESEP program director Becky Barlow said the new clinic would be 
open five days a week with medical exams taking place on 
Wednesdays. The clinic was made possible by a grant the hospital 
applied for and received. Barlow and Carolyn Rasmussen will be 
running the clinic. Both women are RNs and both are also 
certified pediatric oncology nurses and oncology certified 
nurses, giving them the ability to treat both adults and 
children. They are two of the only 17 nurses is the nation with 
this duel certification. 

Rasmussen said the clinic will bill insurance companies for the 
visit. However, no one will be turned away from the clinic for 
their inability to pay for the services. 

"No one will be turned away," Rasmussen said. "Not only do we 
want to see those with health problems, but healthy people who 
are at risk so we can do early screening and help keep them 
healthy." 

Barlow stressed the fact that, since downwinders are at higher 
risk to develop certain types of cancer, they shouldn't wait 
until there is a problem before going for a screening. 

Barlow said there are preventive procedures for some types of 
cancer and treatment is easier the sooner it is detected. With 
breast cancer, Barlow points out that a lump the size of the head 
of a pin is hard to feel and usually a lump has to be the size of 
a pea before it can be felt. Yet one billion cancer cells can fit 
on the head of a pin. 

"Surgery is the best option (for cancer) but needs to be done 
before it spreads to vital organs," Barlow said. 

The Division of Health Center Management Bureau of Primary Health 
Care sponsors the clinic. Each patient at the clinic will receive 
a thorough physical by a physician with follow-ups and referrals 
made as needed. 

In addition to the physical, the clinic has forms available for 
downwinders to file for compensation under the Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act. 

Miller said he planned on making an appointment at the new 
clinic. 

"I definitely need to be checked out but I can't afford it, so 
this clinic is great news to me," Miller said. 

Originally published Monday, March 8, 2004
 
 Copyright ©2004 The Spectrum. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 45 Evening Times: Radiation scare after crash - 


A VAN carrying radioactive material crashed today sparking a
safety scare. 

Radiation experts were drafted in after the vehicle collided
with three other cars in Peel Park, East Kilbride. 

The radioactive material was stored in a metal canister in the
back of a Vauxhall Astra van. 

It was intended for medical use and had a low radiation level,
police said. 

One female driver was injured in the collision, which took place
in Redwood Avenue at around 9.25am. 

No residents were evacuated during the scare but several
ambulances were rushed to the scene. 

The injured woman was taken to Hairmyres Hospital for
observation. Her injuries are not thought to be serious. 

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: "We carried out
immediate safety precautions. 

"The canister was inspected and was found to be intact. 

"It contained a low level of radioactive material. The casing
wasn't split in the collision." 

Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights

*****************************************************************
 46 Independent: Atomic bomb survivors had 50 times less radiation

- March 5, 2004

U-miners: No need for any more bureaucracy 

by Kathy Helms Diné Bureau 

SHIPROCK  Last Saturday, it was standing-room-only at the 
Shiprock Chapter House. Former Navajo uranium mine workers, 
survivors and downwinders came to stake their claims in health 
and compensation issues. 

About 315 people signed in. Some did not. "We had standing room 
only. I couldn't believe that many people showed up," Phil 
Harrison of the Navajo Uranium Office in Shiprock said earlier 
this week. 

Harrison said those in attendance want a strong representation in 
Washington later this month when he and other members of the 
Navajo Nation lobby for changes in the Radiation Exposure 
Compensation Act and expanded benefits for downwinders. "They 
want us to carry the message that the damages have been done and 
that Washington needs to realize that people have died and 
they're living with pain and suffering," he said. 

"There is no need for any more bureaucracy, and they need to 
realize that. As long as there is legislation that says 
'compassionate payment,' they should honor that and give us the 
benefit of a doubt and pay these people that are entitled to 
compensation," he said. 

A member of the Gamanez family came to Saturday's meeting seeking 
information for her mother, who, after her husband died, 
supported seven children by washing dishes in a Farmington 
restaurant. James Gamanez spent 22 years in the mines, from 1951 
to 1973. 

He had his first surgery in 1979 and later died from exposure 
silicosis, asbestosis, and anthacosis. "The doctor from San Juan 
Hospital said James had the highest exposure among the miners, 
receiving more than 50 times as much radiation as the atomic bomb 
survivor," said one news story. James died, leaving his wife, 
five sons and two daughters. 

"His grandkids want to know how their grandpa died. They say, 'If 
Grandpa was still alive we would have learned lots of Navajo 
words by now,'" his daughter said Saturday. Asking that her name 
not be used, she showed The Independent photographs of the mining 
camp in Monticello, Utah, where she lived as a child. "He worked 
down in Cove, Monument Valley, and Monticello. The last one he 
did was at Gypsum, Colo," she said. A non-smoker, James died at 
age 56. 

"When my dad was working in the uranium, my mother had four or 
five miscarriages. I still need to find out about that too, if 
that is a part of the uranium. I was with him throughout all of 
the time that he was with the uranium, even at the age of 2 or 3 
when he was driving the truck from Cove all the way to Monument 
Valley," she said. Her father transported the uranium ore and she 
and her mother often went with him on trips. 

In the mining camps in the 1960s, "They didn't have signs up 
saying, 'Children stay out,' or 'Children, don't play in here,'" 
she said. "We used to go in there and drink the water because the 
water was cold. We went in there and we played on the tailings 
the waste of the uranium. We'd slide down and we'd be playing 
with them. 

"At Gypsum Valley, my mom used to wash my dad's clothes by hand. 
It was always steaming, and the uranium would get in her face. 
Sometimes he'd be coming from the mine and start sitting at the 
table, just like that, and start eating. No safety," she said. 

"The area that we lived in, it was like a small matchbox (house). 
They would have seven to 10 families in these matchboxes. The 
mine was right near by," the distance from the chapter house to 
the Catholic Church across the street, she indicated. 

"When it was raining, we would be outside playing in it. The 
uranium had a real hard smell that would get into your nose and 
it would tend to make youstart coughing. I remember when my 
uncles came outof the mine. You could hear them coughing and you 
knew it was time for them to come out of there. When they're 
coughing, it doesn't go away." 

One of her aunts had several miscarriages before giving birth to 
two disabled children, she said. Her aunt's husband worked in the 
Four Corners mines. 

"It's hard to talk about the relatives that have gone on that 
worked in the uranium," she said, tears beginning to slide down 
her cheeks. "I lost my dad. Three of my uncles. They all worked 
there at the same time. And to think of them taking the young 
fellows that weren't educated and to have my dad be one of them 
... We were just a guinea pig." 

Her father was in the hospital seven weeks. "Within that seven 
weeks he was on that oxygen machine. They said that he couldn't 
do things on his own. When he passed away, they said he had 50 
percent radiation in him," she said. 

"That's why I plead for the rest of them. Some of them are 
already going. Some are walking now,but in time they won't be 
able to be walking. I'veseen all my uncles going through this and 
it's reallyhard. In a moment they're OK, but it gets them 
rightaway. 

"One thing I notice about Navajo men is that they will not talk 
about themselves. They will not say, 'Yes, I'm hurting.' Us 
ladies, we say, 'My head hurts, honey.' But they won't. This one 
lady was telling me that she was dying of cancer, too. She said 
it feels like somebody putting a knife inside you" and twisting, 
she indicated. "That's how it hurts. I kept thinking about my 
dad. He didn't even complain. Nothing. 

"He would say, 'If I already know that working in the mine would 
get me really sick like this, I wouldn't have worked for the 
uranium mine at all.' ... Now he has grandkids and 
great-grandkids he's never seen. And it's all on account of the 
uranium. If he didn't work there, we would have still had him," 
she said. 

Harrison hopes to present concerns to the National Academies of 
Science later this month. He also hopes to lobby congressmen for 
a field hearing in Navajo Country. "The other thing they want us 
to do is request a field hearing in Window Rock that will start 
the proposed amendment again," he said. 

Both Harrison and Norman Brown of Din Bidziil said those in 
attendance were disappointed and upset that few Navajo Nation 
leaders turned out for Saturday's meeting. "They really want to 
get this thing done. And of course they said, 'Where are our 
leaders?' I think there was only three chapter officials there 
and no council members," Harrison said. 

"People were really upset and they commented further on it: 'We 
put these people in office and here there's a chronic neglect on 
social issues.' I understand what they mean and that's what I've 
been fighting with through five administrations," he said. "A lot 
of these leaders, they practically turn their backs on us. I 
don't know why they're doing that. We have people that have 
serious health problems. A lot of them are in substandard homes, 
a lot of them are on oxygen tanks. They said that we are 
'chronically neglected.' 

"One of the guys said that if people aren't going to get paid, 
they might just as well sue the Navajo Nation because they were 
part of it, and because of their neglect," Harrison said. 

Cora Phillips of the office of Navajo Nation President Joe 
Shirley Jr.said, "The President is still very much in strong 
opposition to any further uranium mining. He still maintains that 
position. There has been some discussion as far as putting in 
Navajo legislation to back it up. He remains committed to helping 
the people as far as the RECA reform effort is concerned. At some 
point in time he will be going to Washington to present those 
concerns to the Department of Justice and our congressmen to 
begin the education efforts." 

Milton Yazzie, a concerned citizen of Black Falls, said there are 
open pit mines in his district that have yet to be reclaimed. 
"They did the ones closer to the highway across Cameron because 
they didn't want the visitors to the Grand Canyon to see them. 
Some of them were used for swimming holes. There have been 
families living close by and they used to swim in them. And then 
in our area, we did the same thing. The color of the water was 
not as milky or as chalky as some of them," he said. 

Yazzie often travels to hearings to speak on behalf on those 
miners still awaiting compensation. "Some already have been 
tested and they've already qualified for their RECA compensation, 
but they're still waiting. They want the people who are working 
on compensation to see if they can push it. Some of them, their 
health is deteriorating so quickly they don't expect to live more 
than four or five more years. They just want to go to a facility 
where they can actually be helped with the pain they are 
experiencing," he said. 
    
Friday March 5, 2004 Selected Stories: Atomic bomb survivors had 
50 times less radiation
 
City's Police Chief Kneale calls it quits
 
Anybody want to run a golf course?
 
Port of Entry cops nail trucker with 338 pounds of pot March Arts 
Crawl to feature photos, books Red Mesa Center opens former arts 
building Ex-mine worker recalls working with uranium Deaths | 
Home | Daily News | Archive | Subscribe | Please send the Gallup 
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*****************************************************************
 47 comments on the LES in Eunice, New Mexico
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 15:42:05 -0800

 
<x-flowed>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  March 2, 2004
Contact: Vina Colley, PRESS, 740-259-4688
or 
<http://us.f130.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=vcolley@earthlink.net>vcolley@earthlink.net

With permission from Vina Colley, president of PRESS and chairperson of 
National Nuclear Workers for Justice, the Citizens Nuclear Information 
Council releases the following statement to be submitted to the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission regarding the proposed uranium enrichment facility in 
Lea County.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________________________________
Statement by Vina Colley, President, Portsmouth/Piketon Residents for 
Environmental Safety and Security (PRESS) on the uranium enrichment 
facility proposed to be built by Louisiana Energy Services (LES) in Eunice, 
New Mexico submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, March 4, 2004

As one who knows first hand the physical horror of radioactive exposure, I 
urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the people of Lea County, New 
Mexico, to reject the application by LES to build a uranium enrichment 
facility outside Eunice.

I was once a healthy young woman enticed by the promise of a secure job in 
an growing industry when I became an electrician at the Portsmouth Gaseous 
Diffusion Plant in Ohio.

Over a period of time, I was exposed to a wide array of radioactive and
hazardous substances which have adversely affected my health.  These
adverse affects include immune system dysfunctional, organic brain syndrome
secondary to TCE exposure, short-term memory loss, thyroid problems
bronchitis, 50% pulmonary dysfunction, osteoarthritis from fluoride
exposure, Fibromylagia, and calcified gramulomas.  I have had three tumors
removed, one of which was in the back of my head, and undergone a total
hysterectomy.

If Lea County is anything like Portsmouth, people there are eager for the 
promise of steady employment.  Given all I and many of my co-workers have 
been through, please allow me to state the obvious: the risk to your health 
-- or the health of your son, daughter, husband or wife -- if you work in 
one of the facilities is not worth any amount of pay or perceived security.

Also, given the fact that the applicant, Louisiana Energy Services, has not 
solved the problem of deconversion and storage of the waste this plant 
would produce, I can only recommend that this application be rejected if 
for that reason alone.  We know from our experience in Paducah, Portsmouth 
and elsewhere that prolonged storage of nuclear waste can and does leak 
into and damage the environment.

If I can save only one individual from suffering the fate I have 
experienced, my efforts will be worth.  By rejecting this application, you 
can potentially save an entire community.

Respectfully.



Vina Colley.


ADDRESSES: Members of the public are invited and encouraged to submit
comments to the Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Mail Stop T6-D59,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Please
note Docket No. 70-3103 when submitting comments. Due to the current
mail situation in the Washington, DC area, commentors are encouraged to
send comments electronically to 
<mailto:LES_EIS@nrc.gov>LES<mailto:LES_EIS@nrc.gov>_EIS@nrc.gov or by 
facsimile to
(301) 415-5398, ATTN.: Melanie Wong.
Note: forwarded message attached.


Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search - <http://search.yahoo.com/?fr=ad-mailsig-home>Find what 
youre looking for faster.

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 48 Las Vegas SUN: EPA Seeks to Expand Toxic Waste Clean Up

Today: March 08, 2004 at 9:20:41 PST 

 By JOHN HEILPRIN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday
proposed adding another 11 sites to its Superfund program for
cleaning up the nation's worst toxic waste contamination. 

The sites range from lead mine wastes threatening downstream
fisheries to an unknown source of drinking well contamination
for thousands of people. 

They are located in nine states - Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri,
Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and
West Virginia - and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. 

EPA officials said the problems found at these sites exemplify a
recent trend in the program handling bigger, costlier and more
complex cleanups. 

"They are the worst of the worst, the real turkeys that the
states don't want to touch," said Randolph Dietz, an attorney
adviser for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response,
which oversees the Superfund program. 

Since the Superfund program began in 1980, the EPA has completed
cleanups at almost 900 sites but has 1,240 on its uncompleted
list. Adding the 11 new sites and others that have been
proposed, would bring the total to more than 1,300, said Thomas
Dunne, the office's associate assistant administrator. 

The new sites are listed by EPA as: Jacobsville Neighborhood
Soil Contamination in Evansville, Ind.; Devil's Swamp in
Scotlandville, La.; Annapolis Lead Mine in Annapolis, Mo.;
Picayune Wood Treating in Picayune, Miss.; Grants Chlorinated
Solvents Plume in Grants, N.M.; Diaz Chemical Corp. in Holley,
N.Y.; Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Plume in Hewlett, N.Y.;
Ryeland Road Arsenic in Heidelberg Township, Pa.; Cidra Ground
Water Contamination in Cidra, Puerto Rico; Pike Hill Copper Mine
in Corinth, Vt.; and Ravenswood PCE Ground Water Plume in
Ravenswood, W.Va. 

--- 

On the Net: 

EPA Superfund: http://www.epa.gov/superfund

-- 


 
*****************************************************************
 49 Las Vegas SUN: Senate budget won't add more Yucca funding

Today: March 08, 2004 at 9:55:48 PST 

By Suzanne Struglinski 

 WASHINGTON -- The Senate's pending budget proposal includes
$303 million less for the Yucca Mountain Project than the Energy
Department requested for 2005, according to Sen. John Ensign,
R-Nev.

 Ensign, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, which passed
its budget resolution last week, said he would not stand for the
department's $880 million request for the proposed nuclear waste
storage site, planned for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

 "My colleagues have come to understand that, when it comes to
Yucca Mountain, my position is not negotiable and I will not
waiver," Ensign said.

 Instead, the resolution includes $577 million for the project,
about the same as was approved for 2004. The Senate resolution
was expected to go to the floor this week.

 The budget resolution serves as a guide for the annual process
to fund federal projects. The House version still needs to be
approved. If if both resolutions contained a lower amount for
Yucca, it does not automatically mean it will get less money,
since lawmakers could shift funds among projects in the upcoming
energy and water spending bill, which actually allocates the
money into the project.

 Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said the senator also took the
department's proposed spending mechanism for the project off the
table. The department wanted to take about $750 million each
year from the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account funded by a
surcharge on nuclear-generated power, and put it directly into
the project.

 Finn said by reducing the budget to $577 million, the committee
removed this option.

 
 
*****************************************************************
 50 Las Vegas SUN: Hearing highlights danger of taking waste to Yucca

Today: March 08, 2004 at 9:55:48 PST 

By Kirsten Searer 
<searer@lasvegassun.com>

 Reps. Jon Porter and Shelley Berkley said they were heartened
Friday by the reactions of congressional members who heard
testimony about the dangers of shipping nuclear waste to Yucca
Mountain.

 The members of a congressional subcommittee on railroads heard
testimony Friday from experts about the proposed rail route that
would go through the Caliente corridor.

 "They were shocked at what they heard in the testimony," Porter
said. "That's a goal of mine."

 More and more congressional members who voted for the Yucca
Mountain projects are seeing problems with it as information
about the project gets out, both Porter, R-Nev., and Berkley,
D-Nev., said.

 The Energy Department now favors transporting the waste mostly
by rail, and an administrator said Friday he hopes to have more
firm plans on the routes through the nation in a month or two.
The current plan would put most of the waste on an extensive new
rail line that would run through Caliente, northwest around the
Nevada Test Site and south to Yucca Mountain.

 But the routes also would transverse the country, and many have
said the rail cars carrying nuclear waste would be a prime
target for terrorist attacks.

 Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., a member of the subcommittee, said
she voted for the Yucca Mountain Project but was upset to hear
testimony Friday.

 Now, Brown said, she is "having second and third thoughts"
about her vote.

 "I made a mistake," she said. "I certainly am going to push
that we do something immediately."

 Richard Bryan, former senator and governor of Nevada, Richard
Bryan testified that the proposed rail routes would pass through
44 states and near 51 million Americans. He said there is no
immediate need for the project, but people in the administration
are trying to push it through.

 Robert Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for
Nuclear Projects, testified that the Energy Department has
mapped out a potential rail route without consulting leaders in
Nevada or the private property owners whose land would be
affected.

 The department has planned out a route based entirely on
"political expediency," he said.

 Stephen Cloobeck, chairman and chief executive of Diamond
Resorts International, testified that the entire Nevada economy
could be wiped out if any sort of leak occurred near Las Vegas
and tourists were afraid to visit here.

 "The effects would be devastating to this community," he said.
"You can kiss the state's economy goodbye."

 Jeff van Ee, who represented the environmental Sierra Club,
also testified that the proposed rail route would cut through
three designated wilderness areas and another area that the
Nevada Wilderness Project soon hopes to protect.

 The testimony heard Friday might not be new to people who have
heard the ongoing debate in Nevada, but Porter said he wanted to
get the message out to other people in Congress and have the
information on the record.

 "This has traditionally been a battle of us against them,"
Porter said.

 By alerting congressional members to the dangers that exist in
transporting the waste around the nation and in their districts,
Porter said he hopes he can win allies in fighting Yucca
Mountain.

 Berkley said several times Friday that she does not believe
that Yucca Mountain will ever open.

 "When more and more of my colleagues become educated on the
problems surrounding nuclear waste and the follies of this
project, it will not be built," she said. "This hearing was
spectacular."

 
 
*****************************************************************
 51 NMBW: Uranium enrichment facility partners with junior college -

2004-03-08 - New Mexico Business Weekly
 
 NMBW Staff 

Students at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs now have the 
opportunity to seek employment and job training with Louisiana 
Energy Services (LES), the Homer, La.-based firm announced. 

Students will be able to receive education and training 
opportunities at LES' National Enrichment Facility, which will be 
built in Eunice in about two years. 

In the meantime, students will receive training and education 
development at the junior college, according to company 
spokewoman April Wade. 

LES expects to begin selecting candidates for permanent jobs upon 
approval of its license application, which could occur in 2006. 

The facility is expected to introduce the world's most advanced 
uranium enrichment technology and provide an alternative domestic 
enrichment supply source to nuclear energy companies. 

"LES is very excited to work with NMJC, which we have found to be 
a very impressive educational institution and facility," said 
Marshall Cohen, vice president of communications and government 
relations for LES in a press release. 

"Through this partnership, we can assure that Lea County area 
students can receive the proper education and training to work in 
the field of uranium enrichment. We will begin developing the 
curriculum with NMJC in the near future," he said. 

Annual facility operations will involved approximately 210 
employees with an estimated annual payroll of $10 million and 
$3.1 million in benefits. Some of the jobs will include 
professional staff, administrative personnel, security guards, 
maintenance technicians, health physics and safety technicians, 
shift supervisors and shift operating technicians. 

Courses and training information will be made public in the near 
future and students will be able to learn about the programs 
through NMJC and the LES information offices in Hobbs and Eunice. 

Dr. Steve McCleery, president of NMJC, said LES has made a 
serious commitment to Lea County and this will help meet that 
commitment. 

"NMJC is elated d about our collaborative educational initiative 
with LES. We consider our partnership an outstanding opportunity 
for our students and for Lea County," he said. 

LES is a partnership of major nuclear energy companies that 
include Urenco, Westinghouse, and U.S. energy companies Duke 
Power and Exelon. 

© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
*****************************************************************
 52 Gallup Independent U-miners: No need for any more bureaucracy 

March 5, 2004

Ex-mine worker recalls working with uraniumBenny Werito, left, 
talks with Andy Charley during a Navajo Uranium Radiation Victims 
meeting Saturday at the Shiprock Chapter House 

by Kathy Helms Diné Bureau 

SHIPROCK  Last weekend, Shiprock. This weekend, Red Rock State 
Park. 

The location may have changed, but the topic of conversation will 
be pretty much the same uranium mining when members of Eastern 
Navajo Din Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) and representatives of 
Hydro Resources Inc. (HRI) take center stage to argue the pros 
and cons associated with startup of an in-situ leach mine in 
Church Rock and Crownpoint, N.M. 

Presentations will be given by both parties, from 9 a.m. to 3 
p.m., on water issues and potential environmental, health and 
social impacts on the surrounding communities. Public comments, 
testimonies, and questions will follow. 

Larry King, a former uranium miner and now a member of ENDAUM, 
grew up about 7 miles north of Church Rock, about a mile east of 
where HRI is planning to conduct in-situ leach mining. 
"Eventually we moved closer to the highway, which puts us less 
than 1,000 feet away from the proposed HRI site," he said. 

King spoke last weekend at the Shiprock meeting about HRI's 
proposed mining on Navajoland. Now 46, he said, "Back in my 
younger days, I remember that where the proposed HRI mine is, 
there used to be a mine. There was also a windmill that used to 
be there. I remember lining up to get the water there in big old 
50 gallon drums. We drank the water right from the spigot, and it 
was good." 

While herding sheep and waiting for them to finish watering, they 
used to play on the surrounding hills. Through education about 
mining activities, he now knows that those hills were "stockpiles 
of uranium." 

United Nuclear Corp. (UNC) bought out the mining company and 
reopened the old mine, he said. "The head frames and everything 
all went up again. All of that mining activity went on for a few 
more years. UNC shut down in 1982, I believe, but old Church Rock 
Mine closed before that. It was quiet for all these years until a 
few years ago. I don't remember the exact year, but it was in 
November when we heard about HRI's proposed in-situ leach mining 
at the old Church Rock Mine site. It's just like reopening some 
bad memories," he said. 

King believes he is the only member of his family exposed to 
uranium, because he used to worked at the UNC mine. "We were not 
told that uranium can be hazardous to your health. They have 
labels on cigarettes that says it's hazardous to your health 
smoking is; but nothing about uranium," he said. 

He began educating himself about the potential dangers of 
exposure to uranium following his layoff from the mine in 1983. 
"I kind of found out about what all uranium does to you because 
of the situation that started coming out about people getting 
cancer in the Four Corners area. It tied back into the old mining 
activities in the Cove and Red Valley areas. I started listening 
to people talking and also reading newspapers. That's when I got 
educated about what uranium does to you and that it's no good 
regardless of what shape or form it's in. It's dangerous to your 
health," he said. 

King worked at UNC from October 1975 to April 1982 when the 
company announced it was shutting down ."They did a massive 
layoff, and at that time, I got transferred over to the UNC 
milling plant" where he went to work taking measures. "At that 
time I didn't know what we were measuring. All I knew is there 
were pipes into the ground around the tailings pond. We used to 
measure water depth in those pipes, which I found out later were 
monitoring wells. Every so often, we used to get water samples 
from those monitoring wells. 

"Years later, I found out that when I was at UNC mine from 1982 
to 1983, what we were measuring when we took those samples from 
the monitoring wells, we were actually monitoring a plume that 
was going in a northeast direction. I didn't find that out until 
a few years ago," King said. "I finally got laid off in April 
1983." 

King first began working in the mines as a laborer in the change 
room, where miners switched from their underground clothing to 
street clothes and vice versa. "I used to sweep all that dirt 
that they brought back from underground, all of the contaminants. 
I swept it up. I didn't wear any type of safety gear or nothing. 
I'd just be sweeping away and all that dust would be just in the 
air," he said. Then he would mop down the room. 

"They had their clothes in baskets with chains attached to them 
and pulleys. It would be hangingabove me and I would be walking 
underneath them andsweeping up all the mud that they brought back 
up from theunderground. Once it dried up, of course, there'd 
bedust particles everywhere. I did that for a whole year until I 
got a position with the Geology Department, and that's when I 
started going underground as an ore prober," he said. 

Once the miners blasted a tunnel in the pile, King would go in 
and probe the stockpile to determine the grade "if it was good 
ore or bad ore," he said. "I was behind the miners for another 
whole year. That's when I transferred over to the Engineering 
Department. From then until April 1982, I was an underground 
surveyor. But I did the same thing. I was always behind the 
miners because I had to measure and also survey the direction 
that their tunnels were going. Every two weeks I would go into 
unventilated areas to measure the advancement of the tunnels, 
because that determines the size of the paychecks for the miners. 

"That's what I did up until April 1982 when they shut down. I 
spent exactly another year at the tailings, measuring those 
monitoring wells and things like that," he said. 

When he went into the unventilated areas it was without any type 
of breathing apparatus or shielding. "They're not going to run 
the fan and ventilation bag just for one person," he said."I 
spent just a few minutes to run in there and measure the 
advancement of the last two weeks of that tunnel and get the 
total footage and then come back out. So I only spent a few 
minutes in each, but still, after doing that for so many years 
..." He wonders what the health effects might be. 

"Every day I'm thankful that I wake up and I'm hopefully still in 
good health. No breathing problems or anything like that. But I'm 
a walking time bomb. Am I going to explode or not? 

"Would I do this all over again? No, I don't think so. Not at 
all," he said. 

One of his main concerns is that the health and compensation 
problems for former uranium miners and their families have not 
been resolved, "and yet, we have this HRI that wants to come in 
and start this whole fiasco all over again. Even though they 
claim it's a method with new technology that's a lot safer, they 
have not convinced me. 

    
Friday March 5, 2004 Selected Stories: Atomic bomb survivors had 
50 times less radiation
 
Independent feedback on this website and the paper in general. 
All contents property of the Gallup Independent. Any duplication 
or republication requires consent of the Gallup Independent. Send 
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*****************************************************************
 53 DenverPost.com: Public use of refuge on agenda
 
Article Published: Monday, March 08, 2004                                         
	 	
By Joey Bunch 
Denver Post Environment Writer
 			
 The makeover of Rocky Flats from a former top-secret nuclear 
weapons complex of Cold War renown to a national wildlife refuge 
is up for debate this week. 

At issue is just how much access the public will get to 6,240 of 
the most scenic and diverse acres along the Front Range, 15 miles 
northwest of Denver. 

The first in a series of meetings starts Wednesday night in 
Westminster. Other sessions will be held through April 12, and 
written comments can be submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service - the lead agency overseeing the proposed management 
plan. 

Four options are under consideration: 

No park development at the site, which would limit public access 
and use. 

Wildlife and habitat conservation measures, with limited public 
use, including about 16 miles of driving, cycling, walking and 
horseback-riding trails along existing roads. 

Refugewide ecological restoration projects to replicate the 
site's predevelopment condition. Limited public use and minimal 
facilities would be included, as well as removing roads, stream 
crossings and other construction. 

Maximum public use, including hunting and 19 miles of new and 
existing trails for all uses, and intensive wildlife and habitat 
management. The site also would include educational programs for 
schoolchildren. 

After years as a nuclear weapons manufacturing plant, Rocky Flats 
will move from the control of the federal Department of Energy to 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the end of 2006, the 
imposed deadline. The site is slated to become a refuge in 2007. 

Contamination-removal workers have been cleaning up the 
radioactive site since 1995 - a taxpayer- funded effort costing 
about $650 million a year. 

Wildlife enthusiasts and local officials have said the open space 
can be a jewel for the undeveloped 20-mile span between Golden 
and Boulder, attracting tourists. 

The site supports the rare xeric tallgrass prairie, other 
grasslands, wetlands and riparian areas, along with a variety of 
wildlife. It also offers inspiring views of the sandstone faces 
of the Flatirons. 

While federal agencies, private contractors, local governments 
and environmentalists have worked together on the refuge 
proposals, their cooperation contrasts with the site's 
contentious past. 

For four decades, until an FBI raid shut it down for safety 
violations in 1989, Rocky Flats built plutonium triggers for more 
than 70,000 nuclear warheads, starting in 1952. The work was done 
on a 385-acre weapons complex surrounded by a sprawling buffer 
zone. 

After the raid and with the Cold War's end, Rocky Flats never 
reopened. 

The site once employed thousands of people. Today, about 3,500 
workers are engaged in the cleanup. As assignments are completed, 
contract workers will be let go. 

By the time the cleanup is complete, contractors will have 
knocked down nearly 800 buildings and shipped deadly plutonium 
and uranium, as well as exposed desks, equipment, rubble and 
other materials, to nuclear waste storage sites in New Mexico and 
South Carolina. 

"The Rocky Flats cleanup will be safe and protective," said Karen 
Lutz, the Department of Energy's spokeswoman based at Rocky 
Flats. "We are transforming Rocky Flats from a national liability 
into an asset of open space and protected wildlife." 

Even after the Department of Energy transfers the site to the 
Fish &Wildlife Service, it will maintain responsibility for long- 
term monitoring of the once-contaminated sites, she said. 

Hearing organizers say the sessions will look forward, not back, 
about managing the future refuge - and not about the controversy 
over its operations or health impacts or the politics of nuclear 
weapon production. 

The 247-page plan is the product of public comments, particularly 
from a series of meetings last year, as well as congressional 
legislation and existing rules of the National Wildlife Refuge 
System. 

"We sought out people's opinions (about) what worked and didn't 
work with the alternatives by holding public workshops and 
soliciting written comments," Dean Rundle, the National Wildlife 
Service manager in charge of Rocky Flats and a similar 
redevelopment at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge 
in Commerce City, said in a statement. 

"People were not afraid to voice differing views about how Rocky 
Flats should be managed as a refuge." 

STATE YOUR VIEWS 

Schedule of meetings on the future management of the Rocky Flats 
National Wildlife Refuge: 

WESTMINSTER 

Wednesday, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

College Hill Library 

Front Range Community College 

Library, Room L-211 

3645 W. 112th Ave. 

BOULDER 

Thursday, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

East Recreation Center 

Mountain View and Flatirons rooms 

5660 Sioux Drive 

ARVADA 

March 17, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

Arvada Center 

6901 Wadsworth Blvd. 

BROOMFIELD 

March 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m. 

Broomfield Recreation Center 

Lakeshore Room 3 

280 Lamar St. 

INFORMATION 

Read the draft plan and other information about the Rocky Flats 
wildlife refuge and learn how to submit feedback online at 
http://rockyflats.fws.gov, or phone (303) 289-0980.                             
 		   			 		   	 	
                                                                  
-> All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other 
*****************************************************************
 54 DOE: Office of Science; High Energy Physics Advisory Panel
 
                         FR Doc 04-5123 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10693] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-58] [[Page 10693]]
 
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the High Energy 
Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP). Federal Advisory Committee Act 
(Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of 
these meetings be announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Sunday, April 18, 2004, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Monday, 
April 19, 2004, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: Hilton Washington Embassy Row, 2015 Massachusetts 
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20036. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT: Bruce Strauss, Executive Secretary, High Energy Physics 
Advisory Panel, U.S. Department of Energy, SC-20/ Germantown 
Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 
20585-1290; telephone: 301-903-3705.
 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of Meeting: To provide advice 
and guidance on a continuing basis with respect to the high 
energy physics research program.
 
Tentative Agenda: Agenda will include discussions of the 
following: Sunday, April 18, 2004, and Monday, April 19, 2004: 
Discussion of Department of Energy High Energy Physics Programs; 
Discussion of National Science Foundation Elementary Particle 
Physics Program; Reports on and Discussions of Topics of General 
Interest in High Energy Physics; Public comment (10-minute rule).
 
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public. If you 
would like to file a written statement with the Panel, you may do 
so either before or after the meeting. If you would like to make 
oral statements regarding any of these items on the agenda, you 
should contact Bruce Strauss, 301-903-3705 or 
Bruce.Strauss@science.doe.gov (e-mail). You must make your 
request for an oral statement at least 5 business days before the 
meeting. Reasonable provision will be made to include the 
scheduled oral statements on the agenda. The Chairperson of the 
Panel will conduct the meeting to facilitate the orderly conduct 
of business. Public comment will follow the 10-minute rule. 
Minutes: The minutes of the meeting will be available for public 
review and copying within 90 days at the Freedom of Information 
Public Reading Room, Room 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 
Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC between 9 a.m. and 4 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
 
Issued in Washington, DC on March 3, 2004.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-5123 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 55 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern 
 
                         FR Doc 04-5126 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10692] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-57]                         
 
New Mexico AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Northern New 
Mexico. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 
Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be 
announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: Cities of Gold Hotel, 10-A Cities of Gold Road, 
Pojoaque, NM.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Menice Manzanares, Northern New 
Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board (NNMCAB), 1660 Old Pecos Trail, 
Suite B, Santa Fe, NM 87505. Phone (505) 995-0393; fax (505) 
989-1752 or e-mail: mmanzanares@doeal.gov.
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in 
the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and 
related activities.
 
Tentative Agenda 1 p.m.--Call to Order by Ted Taylor, Deputy 
Designated Federal Officer (DDFO); Roll Call and Establishment of 
a Quorum; Welcome and Introductions by Katherine Guidry, Acting 
Chair; Approval of Agenda; Approval of January 26, 2004 Meeting 
Minutes 1:15 p.m--Public Comment 1:30 p.m.--Special Election of 
NNMCAB Chair Special Election of NNMCAB Vice-Chair (if 
applicable) 2 p.m--Board Business Recruitment/Membership Update 
Report from Chair Report from DOE, Ted Taylor, DDFO Report from 
Executive Director, Menice S. Manzanares 2004 NNMCAB Retreat, 
Menice S. Manzanares New Business 2:30 p.m.--Break 2:45 
p.m.--Report from Committees Executive Committee--Report on trip 
to Hanford CAB meeting, Tim Delong Discussion on Pros and Cons of 
Constituency Seats on the Board Environmental Monitoring, 
Surveillance and Remediation, Tim Delong Waste Management 
Committee, Jim Johnston Community Involvement Committee, Abad 
Sandoval 5 p.m.--Dinner Break 6 p.m.--Public Comment 6:15 
p.m.--Presentation by Ms. Sandra Martin, Bureau Chief, New Mexico 
Environment Department (NMED) Hazardous and Radioactive Materials 
Bureau Overview of the NMED responsibilities, operations, and 
functions.
 
Overview of the NMED Hazardous and Radioactive Materials Bureau 
7:30 p.m.--Break 7:45 p.m.--Consideration and Action of Proposed 
Bylaws Amendment No. 5, as per Section XII, page 13 of the NNMCAB 
Bylaws 8 p.m.--Recap of Meeting 8:30 p.m.--Adjourn This tentative 
agenda is subject to change in advance of the meeting. Please get 
a copy of the final agenda at the meeting. Public Participation: 
The meeting is open to the public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Committee either before 
or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral 
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Menice 
Manzanares at the address or telephone number listed above. 
Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and 
reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in 
the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to 
conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly 
conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make public 
comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present 
their comments at the beginning of the meeting.
 
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available at the 
Public Reading Room located at the Board's office at 1660 Old 
Pecos Trail, Suite B, Santa Fe, NM. Hours of operation for the 
Public Reading Room are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday through Friday. 
Minutes will also be made available by writing or calling Menice 
Manzanares at the Board's office address or telephone number 
listed above. Minutes and other Board documents are on the 
Internet at: http:http://www.nnmcab.org. Issued at Washington, DC 
on March 3, 2004.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-5126 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6405-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 56 DOD: DU EIS Analysis for Nevada test training range


                         FR Doc 04-5131 
[Federal Register: March 8, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 45)] 
[Notices] [Page 10682] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr08mr04-50] 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Air Force
 
Notice of Intent To Perform an Environmental Analysis for the 
Removal of Used Depleted Uranium Targets From Nevada Test and 
Training Range AGENCY: United States Air Force, Air Combat 
Command. ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental 
Assessment (EA) for the Removal of Used Depleted Uranium Targets 
from the Nevada Test And Training Range (NTTR).


SUMMARY: The United States Air Force is issuing this Notice of 
intent (NOI) to announce that it is conducting an Environmental 
Assessment (EA) to describe the proposed action for removal of 
used depleted uranium (DU) targets used by A-10 aircraft firing 
the 30-Millimeter PGU-14/B API Armor Piercing Incendiary round 
containing sub-caliber high density DU penetrators from the 
Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR). This NOI describes the Air 
Force's proposed scoping process and identifies the Air Force's 
point of contact.

    The proposed EA will be prepared in compliance with the 
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 
4321-4347), the Council on Environmental Quality NEPA Regulations 
(40 CFR 1500-1508); and the Air Force's Environmental Impact 
Analysis Process (EIAP) (Air Force Instruction 32-7061 as 
promulgated at 32 CFR 989) to determine the potential 
environmental impacts of removing targets formerly used by A-10 
aircraft for DU testing and training at the NTTR.

    As part of the proposal, the Air Force will analyze various 
disposal alternatives for DU contaminated targets and debris 
currently located in the 60-Series Ranges (Target 63-10) in the 
Southwest area of NTTR. Because the targets and debris are in 
various conditions and have varied levels of contamination the 
Air Force requires flexibility in considering alternatives to 
dismantle, transport, and dispose/reuse the targets. The targets 
to be disposed fall into two basic categories: (1) Targets that 
can be decontaminated because the DU exists as surface 
contamination or the DU penetrator remains in the entry hole; and 
(2) targets that can not be decontaminated because the DU has 
fused into large areas of the target and it no longer qualifies 
as a usable target. DATES: The Air Force will conduct a series of 
scoping meetings to receive public input on alternatives, 
concerns, and issues to be addressed in the EA and to solicit 
public input concerning the scope of the proposed action and 
alternatives. The schedule and locations of the scoping meetings 
are as follows:

March 23, 2004, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunrise Library, 5400 Harris Ave.,
Las 
Vegas, Nevada March 24, 2004, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Indian Spring 
Community Center, 719 West Gretta Lane, Indian Springs, Nevada 
March 25, 2004, 6 p.m.-8 p.m. Bob Ruud Community Center, Main 
Hall, 150 North Highway 160, Pahrump, Nevada

    The Air Force will accept comments at any time during the 
environmental analysis process. However, to ensure the Air Force 
considers relevant scoping issues in a timely fashion, all 
comments should be forwarded to the address below, no later than 
April 20, 2004. If during the preparation of the EA, the Air 
Force concludes an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is 
warranted, comments received during this scoping period will be 
considered in the preparation of the EIS.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Sheryl Parker, HQ ACC/CEVP, 
129 Andrews St., Suite 102, Langley AFB, VA 23665-2769, (757) 
764-9334 Pamela Fitzgerald, Air Force Federal Register Liaison 
Officer. [FR Doc. 04-5131 Filed 3-5-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 
5001-05-P
 
*****************************************************************
 57 KRT Wire: Idaho Contractors Offer Views about Lab Cleanup Contract to 
Energy Department

 | 03/08/2004 | 

By Kathleen O'Neil, Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho Knight 
Ridder/Tribune Business News

Mar. 8 - The Department of Energy received about 273 comments 
from contractors, employees, legislators, and others when it 
showed what the cleanup contracts will require at the Idaho 
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. 

The comment deadline was Wednesday. 

Comments on the document that will guide contractors who wish to 
run the Idaho National Laboratory were extended until today. 

Among the comments on the cleanup contract were 51 from the Idaho 
chapter of the American Nuclear Society, which has 600 members, 
about both the cleanup and laboratory contracts. 

"I think it's a good start," said IANS president Eric Loewen. 
"These comments are trying to make a document that's better for 
the technical community, the DOE community, and Eastern Idaho." 
One of its major recommendations for the laboratory contract was 
to have it last for 10 years, with an option to renew for another 
10. Currently, contracts are expected to last just five. 

One benefit of a longer contract, Loewen said, is that it's less 
of a risk for the bidders to commit the key talented personnel 
the DOE says it wants. 

"If you're a bidder, and you look at the past two 5-year 
contracts that were not renewed, you'd say it's a risk," he said. 

The Nuclear Society also suggested the DOE allow the laboratory 
to double its tax on laboratory money to keep a pool of internal 
research money at about the same level, instead of cutting it in 
half as it will currently when the cleanup money is taken out of 
the taxable pool. 

The Idaho Congressional delegation expressed the same two 
concerns in a letter it sent to DOE before the requests for 
proposals were released in early February. 

The contractor chosen to run the new laboratory should 
demonstrate international expertise in research, development, and 
deployment of new technologies, the Nuclear Society said, rather 
than expertise in business, which DOE's documents currently 
stress. 

The group also urged DOE to make sure buildings would not be torn 
down that could be used for future research, such as the site's 
large hot cell facility or a large dome built to contain 
destructive reactor tests. 

On the cleanup, the group suggested the DOE finalize a decision 
on how cleanup of nuclear fuel reprocessing waste will proceed, 
so that the contractors will not have to "risk their money and 
reputations" on what the outcome of the agency's legal and 
legislative battle over the issue. 

"They have a great vision for the laboratory, and we applaud them 
for it," Loewen said. "We're trying to have the (bidding 
documents) provide the details." 

To see more of the Post Register, or to subscribe to the 
newspaper, go to http://www.idahonews.com. 

© 2004, Post Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho. Distributed by Knight 
*****************************************************************
 58 Oak Ridger: Friends of ORNL lecture to focus on 'Rediscovery of the
 
Story last updated at 11:47 a.m. on March 8, 2004
Elements' 							 							 							

A chemistry professor at University of North Texas and his wife 
have, for the past five years, been traveling the world visiting 
sites where elements have been discovered. He will tell of these 
explorations at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the American Museum of 
Science and Energy, 300 S. Tulane Ave.

James A. Marshall will talk on "Rediscovery of the Elements" 
about his visitations to these historical scientific locations. 
This is the second in the Seventh Annual Community Lectures 
Series sponsored by Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Marshall has been with the Denton, Texas university since shortly 
after he received his doctorate in organic chemistry from Ohio 
State University in 1966. At UNT he developed a progressive 
program involving primarily conformational analysis utilizing 
carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance coupling constants.

His research program has resulted in more than 100 publications. 
He co-founded the North Texas section of the Materials Research 
Society and served as an officer, including the presidency. He 
has also served as chairman of the Dallas-Forth Worth Section of 
the American Chemical Society.

From 1995 to 2003 he was managing editor of The Southwest Retort, 
an ACS publication of the Southwest region. He was also an ACS 
national tour speaker for many years.

The lecture will be followed by a reception in the museum lobby. 
The public is welcome at both lecture and reception without 
charge.

Three more Community Lectures will follow in this year's series: 
April 1, Jeffrey Wadsworth, UT-Battelle, director of ORNL, "State 
of the Laboratory, 2004"; April 20, Gregory E. Kaebnick, editor 
of The Hastings Center Report, The Hastings Center for research 
on ethical issues in medicine in Garrison, N.Y. and an Oak Ridge 
High School graduate; and May 13, Jane Crews Comfort, a New York 
City choreographer, also an ORHS graduate.

Support for these FORNL lectures comes from UT-Battelle, LLC; 
BWXT, Y-12, LLC; American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
American Museum of Science and Energy and The Oak Ridger. 

*****************************************************************
 59 lamonitor.com: Features Lecture: 'From Trinity to Frenchman Flat - Oral History
and the Bomb' 

"Los Alamos County"

Monitor Staff Report

The Los Alamos Historical Society presents Mary Palevsky, the 
author of "Atomic Fragments: A Daughter's Questions" (University 
of California Press, 2000), lecturing on her current work at 7:30 
Tuesday, at Fuller Lodge, on Central Ave. Palevsky is also the 
director of UNLV's recently established, Nevada Test Site Oral 
History Project, a multi-year, federally-funded program to 
document the contribution of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) to the 
history of the United States.

In her lecture, Palevsky will discuss "Atomic Fragments" and how 
it led to her current work directing the Nevada Test Site Oral 
History Project at UNLV, during which oral history interviews are 
being conducted with over 150 individuals affiliated with the 
site in a variety of capacities during the Cold War. She will be 
conducting several interviews while in New Mexico. 

The NTS Oral History Project has a strong educational component 
and the UNLV graduate students are involved in all aspects of the 
process-preliminary historical research, interviews and 
post-interview dissemination of the oral histories. 
State-of-the-art audio and video equipment is being used to 
record the oral histories, which will be housed in the University 
of Nevada's special collection departments and other venues.

Although oral traditions are as old as humankind, the discipline 
of oral history came into being in the 20th century, with the 
rise of recording technologies. Palevsky will discuss the value 
of oral methods when researching and documenting nuclear history 
and two oral historical focuses as they relate to the Manhattan 
Project, the NTS and the dawn of the nuclear age. The first is 
the notion of "elite oral history", interviews conducted to 
document and preserve the memories of key decision-makers and 
leaders, who can recount firsthand, events of national and 
international significance.

The second is the notion of oral history as a democratizing 
force, one that can capture the points of view of "ordinary 
people" whose involvement in certain historical events was 
crucial, but often remains unknown or anonymous. The NTS Oral 
History Project is dedicated to both aspects of the history of 
the test site. Between 1951 and 1992, 928 nuclear tests were 
carried out at the NTS, 100 atmospheric and 828 underground.

World-class scientists, many at Los Alamos, designed the weapons 
tested there. Lawmakers and diplomats debated and negotiated on 
the national and world stages. Large-scale industrial and 
engineering projects were carried out by private contractors.

In order to accomplish this, tens of thousands dedicated men and 
women carried out the daily work of the test site, administrative 
and technical. And during a half-century of nuclear testing, the 
site's impacts extended well beyond its boundaries-to families, 
communities and regions.

A question and answer session will follow the lecture and 
Palevsky will be signing copies of "Atomic Fragments."   

  © 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.   
*****************************************************************
 60 Albuquerque Tribune: Raise the rug: We can no longer sweep into hiding our growth woes
                         
  [Hal Rhodes] 
V.B. Price 

Wells with contaminated water. Traffic congestion so bad the only 
solution seems to be more congestion. Runaway growth all over the 
metro areas in the state, with no dependable drinking water to 
support it and with existing water supplies diminishing at an 
alarming rate.

 What's wrong here?

 It seems clear. Our leaders have let us down in the past, and if 
it weren't for citizen activists, they'd still be plunging ahead 
as heedlessly as before. And it's all so stupid.

 Who but a dope or a crook would argue that sweeping troubles 
under the rug for future generations to deal with is morally and 
practically superior to taking prudent precautions by planning 
ahead?

 The future is now. The old rug has become so lumpy and dangerous 
we have to do something about it right away, because the dopes of 
the past let it all slide. They weren't prudent in planning, nor 
did they take proper precautions. And we're paying for it.

 If it weren't for tireless individuals, with no private gain in 
mind, who do the hard work in dozens of organizations, 
watch-dogging water, pollution and growth in our state, we'd be 
in a sorry mess. We owe these people a debt of gratitude for no 
longer allowing our leaders to take the easy way out without a 
fight.

 Look what's under our rug right now.

 In a town such as ours, owned lock, stock and barrel by 
development interests, folks are whining about traffic congestion 
in high-growth areas on the West Side. Who's to blame? The guys 
who own the city and the city's historic elected leadership - 
that's who.

 Developers do not want to spend money building roads that take 
care of people who have already bought their houses. They want 
taxpayers to build those roads. And they want us to build other 
roads that force more growth and more money into their pockets. 
The West Side of Albuquerque grew without prudence or planning or 
precaution. The traffic is congested, because the leaders and 
ruling interests who were supposed to think about such things 
didn't bother.

 The same is true for contaminated water. All over the state, 
from Church Rock to Los Alamos to Albuquerque's South Valley, 
we're seeing dismaying signs that what was left for the future to 
solve is now becoming a plague that responsible people would have 
stopped before it started.

 Poisoned wells in Navajo country from uranium mining; suspicious 
radioactive and industrial contaminants seeping from canyons and 
plateaus around Los Alamos National Laboratory that run into the 
Rio Grande and Santa Fe's groundwater; undrinkable water from 
industrial dumping near residential areas around South Broadway - 
what a legacy.

 And in Albuquerque, we're still sweeping the most important 
question of all under the rug. What will we do when our aquifer 
runs dry? Who will our grandchildren blame? And what good will it 
do them?

 Price is an Albuquerque freelance writer, author, editor and 
commentator.

© The Albuquerque Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 61 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 13:12:08 -0800 (PST)

 
OHIO Nuclear Plant Allowed to Reopen
Kansas City Star - Kansas City,MO,USA
WASHINGTON - An Ohio nuclear plant is being allowed to reopen after a two-year
shutdown over safety issues stemming from an acid leak that ate through
a ...
<http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8134949.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.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8134949.htm>

LIBYA to sign accord on snap visits to nuclear facilities: UN
Channel News Asia - Singapore
VIENNA : Libya is to sign an agreement for wider inspections of its nuclear
facilities on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the United Nations International
Atomic ...
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/74424/1/.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.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/74424/1/.html>

UN watchdog to continue investigating Iran nuclear program
Channel News Asia - Singapore
VIENNA : The UN nuclear watchdog said it would continue probing charges
Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons despite Tehran's insistence
the ...
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/74490/1/.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.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/74490/1/.html>

CHINESE close to sale of second nuclear power plant to Pakistan
Financial Times - London,England,UK
China and Pakistan have agreed the technical details for the sale of a
second nuclear power plant to Pakistan after secret negotiations in Beijing
last week ...
<http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1078381592150>
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://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer%3Fpagename%3DFT.com/StoryFT/FullStory%26c%3DStoryFT%26cid%3D1078381592150>

SADDAM Had Nuclear Programme Destroyed Claim Scientists
The Scotsman - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
Two top Iraqi scientists, speaking for the first time since the US led
invasion, today denied that Saddam Hussein had tried to restart his nuclear
weapons ...
<http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2623144>
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://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm%3Fid%3D2623144>

NO foreign pressure to roll back nuclear programme: Jamali
Daily Balochistan Express - Quetta,Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Monday said there
was no external pressure for rolling back the country's nuclear program.
...
<http://www.balochistanexpress.com/frontpage/news.asp?news=2612&page=FrontPage&name=FRONTPAGE>

[ARROWHEAD] Editorials on Nuclear Issues
Korea Times - Seoul,South Korea
In a modern, democratic society, the newspaper’s role is important and
critical in shaping citizens’ opinions on nuclear power and other issues.
...
<http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200403/kt2004030820030911320.htm>

DPRK reiterates simultaneous actions in settling nuclear issue
Xinhua - China
PYONGYANG, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) on Monday reiterated its standpoint of solving the nuclear issue
on the ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-03/08/content_1352478.htm>
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ELBARADEI: N.Korea Set Dangerous Nuclear Precedent
Reuters - United States
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US Says Iran Changes Story on Nuclear Plans
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 62 NYT: Choose Me, Japan and France Say as They Court Big Fusion Project
 
 By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: March 9, 2004

[R] OKKASHO, Japan — If the Japanese have their way, this village 
in northern Japan, an area known for its apples and sea 
cucumbers, will become home to a project that could give birth to 
the energy of the future.

 The project, ITER, for International Thermonuclear Experimental 
Reactor, would try to emulate the sun's nuclear fusion to produce 
safe, clean and inexhaustible energy. The 30-year, $12 billion 
research center would be the second largest international 
scientific project after the International Space Station.

 Officials from six countries participating in the project are to 
meet in March to try to decide between Rokkasho and Cadarache, in 
southern France, even as talks have become increasingly tinged 
with politics.

 After officials failed to decide between the two in a meeting in 
Washington in December, Spencer Abraham, the Bush 
administration's energy secretary, declared that the Japanese 
site was superior.

 The statement angered the Europeans, leading the French prime 
minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, to threaten to withdraw from the 
project and go it alone if France was not selected. In the French 
news media, the dispute over the site is being viewed through the 
prism of the war in Iraq: American support for Japan's candidacy 
in return for Tokyo's backing in Iraq.

 American and Japanese officials dismiss that view, but support 
for the two sites is split along the divisions over the war in 
Iraq: the United States, Japan and South Korea back Rokkasho.

 Japan says the research center, which would be the first of its 
kind in Asia, would be a plus for the region. The Chinese are not 
impressed. They have nuclear power ambitions of their own, and 
they have expressed worries about a site in earthquake-prone 
Japan.

 For decades, scientists have been researching nuclear fusion and 
predicting — repeatedly, skeptics point out — that it could 
become profitable in the next 30 years. 

The ITER project stems from a 1985 research agreement between the 
United States and what was then the Soviet Union. Japan and 
Europe joined the project, followed by China and South Korea. The 
six participants would build the reactor over 10 years. It would 
then operate experimentally for 20 years, providing a basis for 
future reactors, which could begin generating commercial 
electricity around 2050.

 "For the future of humankind, not only for Japan, securing a 
source of energy through scientific research should be an 
option," Toichi Sakata, a director-general in the Ministry of 
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said in an 
interview in Tokyo. "How to use that option is something people 
30 years from now, 100 years from now, will have to think about. 
But it's something we have to prepare for now."

 Not everyone agrees. Masatoshi Koshiba, a Nobel Prize-winning 
physicist, has called on the Japanese government to drop its 
plans, warning of health and environmental hazards.

 "Fusion has not been proven to be safe, and it is too costly," 
Dr. Koshiba said in an interview in Tokyo.

 In nuclear fusion, atoms collide inside a reactor at extremely 
high temperature and pressure, releasing energy that can be 
harnessed to produce electricity. Unlike nuclear fission, the 
process now used in the nuclear industry, fusion reactors do not 
consume uranium or plutonium, but run on isotopes of hydrogen 
found in seawater.

 The Japanese and French each say that they have done more 
advanced research in nuclear fusion, and that they have the 
better location for the international research program.

 Cadarache, the French argue, is already the center for energy 
research in Europe. It is home to 3,500 researchers, including 
400 specialists on fusion.

 Japan argues that the Rokkasho site is next to a port, making it 
easy to deliver large parts for the reactor. Roads and bridges 
leading to Cadarache, about 60 miles from the nearest port, would 
have to be widened at great cost, they say. Rokkasho is already 
home to a uranium enrichment plant and a radioactive waste 
disposal center.

 The surrounding province of Aomori is one of the most 
economically depressed in Japan, and officials there say the 
center would create 100,000 jobs over its 30-year lifespan. "This 
is a project that will completely transform Aomori," Shingo 
Mimura, the governor, said in an interview in Aomori City.

 In Rokkasho, expectations were also high. In an interview, Mayor 
Kenji Furukawa said the village was already planning to open an 
international school and other facilities to accommodate the 
foreign researchers who would be based here. "We expect," he 
said, "that the project would also raise the cultural level of 
the village." 

*****************************************************************
 63 Fuel Cell Today: New Mexico to invest in Hydrogen Technology
 
Author: Andrew Webb Journal Staff Writer                                
Provider: Albuquerque Journal                                           

Gov. Signs Bill To Attract Research 

Efforts to promote hydrogen and other "clean" energy industries 
throughout New Mexico got a boost Thursday. 

Gov. Bill Richardson's signature on House Bill 251, the Advanced 
Technologies Economic Development Act, earmarks $200,000 for the 
marketing and promotion of the state's hydrogen assets to attract 
businesses engaged in hydrogen research. 

The measure also creates a $500,000 fund to make grants to state 
agencies, schools, pueblos and other organizations that want to 
develop clean energy programs. 

The $200,000 "will be used to increase visibility, create 
marketing plans and suggest more initiatives and incentives that 
can be done to increase the hydrogen fuel cell economy in New 
Mexico," says Mike Orshan, director of the Science and Technology 
Office of the state's Economic Development Department. 

That department will work with HyTeP, or the Hydrogen Technology 
Partnership, a year-old industry-promoting partnership of lab 
researchers, companies and state government officials; and the 
Hydrogen Business Council, a group of businesses from New Mexico 
and other states aimed at supporting HyTeP's mission. 

The state began its efforts to attract hydrogen-related 
businesses last year after President Bush proposed a $1.7 billion 
initiative to fund research into what some say could be a "clean" 
alternative to burning fossil fuels. 

Considerable hydrogen research is performed at Los Alamos 
National Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range and other 
facilities. The state is also home to a handful of companies 
developing materials or components for hydrogen fuel cells. 

HyTeP and the business council had pushed for $500,000, but Ken 
Freese, a LANL scientist on loan to the Economic Development 
Department to lead the HyTeP initiative, says $200,000 will help 
the state get started. Other states, including Michigan and Ohio, 
are working to attract hydrogen industry. 

The strategy will include attracting hydrogen-related companies 
to move to or locate research facilities in New Mexico, and 
encouraging the development and use of hydrogen power sources 
around the state, Freese says. 

"New Mexico wants to use the assets it has to attract federal 
funding for demonstration projects and other programs," he says. 

The state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department will 
manage the $500,000 fund to help public agencies convert to 
energy- efficient technologies, from lighting retrofits to 
renewable energy sources like hydrogen fuel cells or solar power, 
says Chris Wentz, division director for the department's energy 
conservation and management division. 

"They focused on public entities because its the taxpayers who 
pay to run them," he says of the grants, which can be requested 
to a maximum of $100,000. (C) 2004 Albuquerque Journal. via 
ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved           
 		
 		 		   		
 			   				 
Related Grants/Funding Stories -- Select -- Technology 
Partnerships Canada Invests $1.4 Million in Stuart Energy 
Technology DevelopmentBush 2005 budget has enough for fuel cell 
research, top DOE official saysConnecticut Fuel Cell Makers Seek 
Exemptions from State Sales TaxesFuel cell experts to testify on 
US hydrogen programsUS Hydrogen Safety, Codes and Standards 
ResearchHouse members eye more funding for fuel cells, question 
efficiency cutsU.S. Navy Offers Grants for Undersea Reformers                              

  9 March 2004   	 

    © 2001-2004 Johnson Matthey plc.  Please review our Terms
*****************************************************************
 64 OSC: discimination statute interpretation

OSC Press Release - PR03_22
 
 U.S. Office of Special Counsel
  1730 M Street, N.W., Suite 218
  Washington, D.C. 20036-4505   


LEGAL INTERPRETATION OF DISCRIMINATION STATUTE 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 2/27/04
 CONTACT: MARY K. MONAHAN
 (202) 254-3600               

    WASHINGTON - Scott J. Bloch, Special Counsel of the U.S.

        Office of Special Counsel (OSC) today announced he is
conducting a review of 	many aspects of the agency, including
personnel, structure of the agency, the backlog of prohibited 
personnel practice cases and disclosure cases, as well as OSC 
policies. We are in the process of evaluating, said Mr. Bloch,

        the backlog of prohibited personnel practices, 
whistleblower disclosures, and Hatch Act cases, to determine how 
best to utilize the resources we have to improve the efficiency 
of our office and better serve the federal merit protection 
system. I have challenged our excellent team to eliminate these 
backlogs by the end of the year. 
	
    In addition, we are reviewing all policies of the office to 
determine the legal basis and prudence of each. In the course of 
this review, we have removed materials from the agency website in 
several policy areas and are conducting a legal analysis of the 
basis on which this office has previously reviewed claims of 
sexual orientation discrimination, particularly the 
significance of the specific language under 5 U.S.C. § 
2302(b)(10). I am dedicated to the principles of fairness and 
nondiscrimination in federal employment for which this Office is 
known. The Office, and I personally, remain committed to 
enforcing all prohibited   personnel practices, including 
discrimination, as the statute says, on the  basis of conduct 
which does not adversely affect the job performance of the 
employee or applicant or the performance of others[,] regardless 
of an individuals orientation. 
	
    "It appears that, beginning five years ago, this Office based   
jurisdiction in this area on the amendment to Executive Order 
11487 made by Executive Order 13087. But Executive Order 11487, 
as further amended by Executive Order 13152, expressly states 
that it 'does not confer any right or benefit enforceable in law 
or equity against the United States or its representatives.' 
Further, Executive Order 11487, as amended, expressly places 
responsibility for its enforcement and implementation in the 
EEOC, not in OSC. This raises questions as to my power to enforce 
this Executive Order and reinforces my decision to conduct a full 
legal review of this policy. Therefore, OSC has removed these 
materials until a thorough legal   analysis can be completed to 
clarify this area of the law.
 	
    Under the oath of office I took, it is my obligation to 
uphold the law, Mr. Bloch continued. First, we must determine 
what the law is when, as here, our enforcement power is not based 
on the plain words of the statute enacted by Congress and 
interpreted by the courts. We intend to continue enforcement for 
all manner of personal conduct that falls within the meaning of 
the statute, and to consult with professionals in my office, as 
well as outside my office, to ensure that a thorough and fair 
legal  review occurs so that OSC gives the full measure of 
justice to all federal employees. 
	
     OSC is an independent investigative and prosecutorial 
agency. Its primary mission is to safeguard the merit system in 
federal employment by protecting federal employees and applicants 
from prohibited personnel practices, especially retaliation for 
whistleblowing. OSC also has jurisdiction over the Hatch Act and 
the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act.

 
    For more information about OSC, please visit our website at
www.osc.gov. 
 

    
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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who 
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for 
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more 
information go to: 
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml> 
    
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