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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US FORCES UNLOADED WMD'S IN IRAQ FOR "DISCOVERY"
2 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Officials Say Iraq War Worthwhile
3 [NYTr] Iran, in Reversal, to Allow in Nuke Inspectors
4 Iran Accepts New UN Inspections Starting Next Week, Iaea Chief Repor
5 BBC: Iran 'readmits nuclear watchdog'
6 Hi Pakistan: No plans to quit nuclear treaty, says Tehran - Inspecto
7 Hi Pakistan: ElBaradei hopes to wrap up Iran investigation by year's
8 IAEA: IAEA Board Resolution on Nuclear Safeguards in Iran
9 Reuters: Iran Promises to Allow Nuclear Inspections Again
10 AU ABC: Iran promises resumption of nuclear inspections.
11 Las Vegas SUN: Iran May Harden Position Against IAEA
12 Las Vegas SUN: S. Korea Urges N. Korea to Hold Talks
13 US: Gallup Independent: Navajo poverty cited in pursuit of fed funds
14 Haaretz: Vanunu denied visits after he spoke to another prisoner
15 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan will not compromise on nuclear programme - Kas
16 Hi Pakistan: IAEA’s cooperation demand from Pakistan ambiguous - Ana
17 Hi Pakistan: UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from Pakista
18 SABC: SA made its atomic bombs alone: De Klerk
19 Maariv International: Bill to shutdown Dimona nuclear reactor tabled
20 Maariv International: Vanunu: Israel is falling apart
21 IAEA: Libya Signs Additional Protocol on Nuclear Safeguards
22 Planet Ark: Japan power deregulation may spur consolidation
NUCLEAR REACTORS
23 EU Business: EU offers Armenia 100 million euros to shut down nuclea
24 Daily Yomiuri: Fukui to permit pluthermal plan
25 Daily Yomiuri: Pluthermal plan must be made a reality
26 US: Sun News: Agency lists nuclear plant safety concerns
27 US: TheBostonChannel.com: Salem Case A Glimpse At Atomic Smuggling
28 US: NRC: General Atomics Model No. Rg-1 Package; Issuance of
29 Japan Times: Fukui governor OKs use of MOX fuel
30 CBS News: Nukes For Sale
31 US: WCAX-TV: Vermont Yankee Gets State Approval to Raise Power
NUCLEAR SAFETY
32 Implications of the Use of Depleted Uranium
33 [DU-WATCH] Soldiers Denied Health Care
34 US: NRC: Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material;
35 US: RGJ: Experts to discuss uranium test results
36 US: toledoblade: 'Total safety culture' a crucial mind-set for moder
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
37 US: [RADMETAL] EPA Rad Waste Deregulation is Dangerous, Unnecessary
38 US: [PUBCIT_PRESS] Serzone lawsuit; low-level nuclear waste
39 US: Fwd: [NukeNet] EPA Rad Waste Deregulation is Dangerous,
40 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain workers exposed to dangerous materials
41 Las Vegas RJ: DOE to detail screening program
42 US: Rocky Mountain News: Boulder butte's future at stake
43 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada may sue over Yucca oversight funding
44 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca workers must register for silicosis screeners
45 Slovak news: Nuclear storage by 2030
46 EurekAlert: INEEL designing prototype system for Yucca Mountain repo
47 RGJ: Articles on Yucca Mountain inaccurate - W. John Arthur III
48 US: Independent: Nuclear waste site a thorn in Nebraska's side
49 KVBC: Yucca Workers Claim Exposure to Toxic Dust
50 US: Gallup Independent: Uranium sites will need constant upkeep
51 Yucca Mountain Update: Volume 2 Issue 3 ~ March 12, 2004
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
52 news24: SA's nuke power destroyed - FW
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
53 DOE: Inventions and Innovation Funding Opportunity Announcement
54 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Rocky
55 AP Wire: FIU environmental research effort questioned
56 heraldtribune.com: Group wants impact statement on nuclear shipment
57 U.S. Newswire: Energy Officials to Testify Before Congressional
58 Hawk Eye: New Orleans company missed January deadline for IAAP
59 Oak Ridger: Move to help sick workers
60 KRNV: Reid accuses DOE of pushing safety over speed at nuke dump
61 WIStv: Columbia, SC: Greenpeace wants statement on DOE plans to
OTHER NUCLEAR
62 Google News Alert - nuclear
63 SF Chronicle: REINING IN OUR WEAPONRY / Is U.S. Air Force lost in sp
64 CBC: Sempra, Carlyle to buy 10 AEP power plants in Texas for US$430
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 US FORCES UNLOADED WMD'S IN IRAQ FOR "DISCOVERY"
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:46:35 -0600 (CST)
VHeadline.com Venezuela
Venezuela's Electronic News -- http://www.vheadline.com
BREAKING NEWS
US media ignores: United States' forces unloading Weapons of Mass
Destruction (WMD) in Iraq prior to "discovery"
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=16359
TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) -- Over the past few days, in the wake
of the bombings in Karbala and the ideological disputes that delayed
the signing of Iraqs interim constitution, there have been reports
that US forces have unloaded a large cargo of parts for constructing
long-range missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the
southern ports of Iraq.
A reliable source from the Iraqi Governing Council, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that US forces,
with the help of British forces stationed in southern Iraq, had
made extensive efforts to conceal their actions. He added that the
cargo was unloaded during the night as attention was still focused
on the aftermath of the deadly bombings in Karbala and the signing
of Iraqs interim constitution.
The source said that in order to avoid suspicion, ordinary cargo
ships were used to download the cargo, which consisted of weapons
produced in the 1980s and 1990s.
He mentioned the fact that the United States had facilitated Iraqs
WMD program during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war and said that some
of the weapons being downloaded are similar to those weapons,
although international inspectors had announced Saddam Husseins
Baath regime had destroyed all its WMD.
The source went on to say that the rest of the weapons were probably
transferred in vans to an unknown location somewhere in the vicinity
of Basra overnight. Most of these weapons are of Eastern European
origin and some parts are from the former Soviet Union and the
Eastern Bloc. The US obtained them through confiscations during
sales of banned arms over the past two decades.
This action comes as certain US and Western officials have been
pointing out the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been
discovered in Iraq and the issue of Saddams trial begins to take
center stage. In addition, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans
Blix has emphasized that the US. and British intelligence agencies
issued false reports on Iraq leading to the US attack.
Meanwhile, the suspicious death of weapons inspector David Kelly
is also an unresolved issue in Britain.
------ Occupation Forces Official Claims to Have No Information
About Transfer of WMD to Iraq -------
A security official for the coalition forces in Iraq said that he
has not received any information about the unloading of weapons of
mass destruction in ports in southern Iraq.
Shane Wolf told the Mehr News Agency that the occupation forces
have received no reports on such events, but said he hoped that the
coalition forces would find the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction
one day.
Coalition forces and inspectors have so far been unable to find any
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The US invaded Iraq under the
pretext that Iraq possessed a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
The original report was carried in Saturday's editions of The Teheran
Times
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2 Las Vegas SUN: Bush Officials Say Iraq War Worthwhile
By KEN GUGGENHEIM ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Bush administration officials continue to hold out hope that
weapons of mass destruction stockpiles will be found in Iraq.
But even if they're not, they say, the war to topple Saddam
Hussein was still worthwhile.
The Iraqi leader, now in U.S. custody, represented "the most
dangerous regime in the world's most dangerous region," national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the
Press."
With Friday marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the
war, the administration is aggressively defending its handling
of the war. It blanketed the Sunday network news shows with its
top military and diplomatic officials, who stressed the danger
posed by Saddam and highlighted progress in rebuilding Iraq.
The war has become a top issue in the presidential campaign.
Democrats say President Bush's poor planning and failure to
build a broader international coalition have left the United
States mired in a conflict with an extraordinary cost in lives
and tax dollars.
Bush built the case for war around intelligence that Saddam had
stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and an advanced
nuclear weapons program. But U.S. inspectors have found no
stockpiles and say the nuclear threat was overstated.
The CIA's former chief weapons inspector, David Kay, has urged
Bush to admit that the intelligence was wrong. But Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declined to concede the point
Sunday, saying 1,200 inspectors are continuing to look for
easily concealed weapons in a country the size of California.
"I think it's perfectly proper to reserve final judgment until
we've been able to go through that process, run down those leads
and see what actually took place," Rumsfeld said on CBS' "Face
the Nation."
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Saddam never lost his
intention to have weapons of mass destruction and he had the
capability and infrastructure to build them.
Powell had laid out the administration's case against Saddam in
a speech before the United Nations one month before the war.
Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if he felt responsible for giving bad
information, Powell said: "I wasn't giving the world bad
information. I was giving the world the information that we had
at the time we had it."
Powell rejected suggestions by some Democrats that the
administration intentionally provided misleading information.
"We may not find the stockpiles. They may not exist any longer.
But let's not suggest that somehow we knew this" before the war,
he told ABC's "This Week." "We went to the United Nations, we
went to the world with the best information we had. Nothing that
was cooked."
Powell said the failure to find weapons doesn't take "away from
the merit of the case" for war.
"I don't think this takes away from the rightness of this, to
remove this dictator, make sure that there would be no weapons
of mass destruction in the future," he said.
Asked on CNN's "Late Edition" if the war in Iraq was worthwhile
given that 564 U.S. soldiers have died there, Rumsfeld said,
"Oh, my goodness, yes. There's just no question ... 25 million
people in Iraq are free."
--
*****************************************************************
3 [NYTr] Iran, in Reversal, to Allow in Nuke Inspectors
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 16:03:01 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
AFP via Yahoo - 15 March 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&e=5&u=/afp/20040315/ts_afp/iran_nuclear_iaea_040315152514
Iran agrees to let nuclear inspectors in: ElBaradei
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran has agreed to let United Nations inspectors into the
country by the end of the month, reversing an earlier decision to stop
inspections, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, said.
Iran had put off inspections scheduled for last week to protest a tough
resolution by the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) against
Tehran for hiding sensitive parts of a weapons program that the United
States claims is devoted to secretly developing nuclear arms.
"I was informed this morning by the Iranian authorities that the new date
for inspectors' arrival in Iran would be on 27th of March, ElBaradei told
reporters Monday during a visit to Washington, where he is due to meet
Wednesday with US President George W. Bush and national security advisor
Condoleezza Rice.
"Although this delay is regrettable, nonetheless it is still within our time
schedule for the conduct of investigations" in leading up to a meeting in
June of the IAEA board of governors that is to rule on Iran's cooperation,
ElBaradei said.
"I hope and trust there will be no further delays in respect to any future
inspection in Iran. It is clearly in the interest of Iran to cooperate fully
with the IAEA."
ElBaradei told reporters over the weekend that he and Bush, who made a major
speech on non-proliferation in February, agree on the need for tougher
export controls on nuclear technology in the wake of reports of a
Pakistani-run nuclear black market that supplied programs in Iran, Libya and
North Korea.
Both Bush and ElBaradi have said they want the IAEA to have a mandate for
tougher inspections of national atomic programs through an additional
protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
ElBaradei's visit follows an IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna that
passed a resolution condemning Iran for hiding sensitive nuclear activities.
Experts have said Iran could be developing the technology to make atomic
weapons, even while honoring the NPT by claiming its nuclear program is
peaceful. Much of sensitive nuclear technology, such as enriching uranium,
can have both civilian and military applications.
The IAEA said in a report issued last month that Iran had failed to report
possibly weapons-related atomic activities despite promising full
disclosure.
Iran had not told the IAEA it had designs for sophisticated "P-2"
centrifuges for enriching uranium nor that it had produced polonium-210, an
element which could be used as a "neutron initiator (to start the chain
reaction) in some designs of nuclear weapons," the report said.
This was despite Iran's claim last October that it had given the IAEA a full
picture of its nuclear program.
ElBaradei wants to eliminate the danger that nuclear fuel declared for
peaceful uses could also be used to make atomic bombs by having a
multilateral body make the fuel, rather than letting individual states do
it.
The United States has however stressed setting a "moratorium or cut-off
date" after which countries that have not mastered the fuel cycle would stop
trying to do this, ElBaradei said.
ElBaradei has said he and the US president would also discuss efforts to
verify Iraq's alleged nuclear weapons program as he feels the IAEA needs "at
one point to go back and finish the job."
The IAEA had said before the war that it did not think Iraq had nuclear
weapons capabilities, despite the Bush administration's claim that Iraq
possessed weapons of mass destruction.
ElBaradei was to meet Monday with US Senator Richard Lugar, head of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a champion of non-proliferation, who
co-sponsored a law to help keep nuclear material from the former Soviet
Union under secure control.
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4 Iran Accepts New UN Inspections Starting Next Week, Iaea Chief Reports
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:00:54 -0500
IRAN ACCEPTS NEW UN INSPECTIONS STARTING NEXT WEEK, IAEA CHIEF REPORTS
New York, Mar 15 2004 2:00PM
Iran will accept the return of weapons experts from the United Nations
nuclear watchdog agency later this month, its Director-General
announced today in Washington, D.C.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), said: "I was informed this morning by the Iranian authorities
that a new date for the next round of <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/iranres1503.html">IAEA
inspections would be
27 March."
While voicing regret that this represents some delay, he said it
was still within the Agency's timetable for conducting a probe.
Mr. ElBaradei also said that he hoped there would be no further postponement
of any future inspections in Iran. "It is clearly in
the interest of Iran to cooperate fully with the IAEA and adopt a
policy of proactive cooperation so that the IAEA can clarify outstanding
issues as early as possible," he said.
On Saturday the IAEA Board of Governors, meeting in Vienna, adopted
a strongly worded resolution on Iran's omissions in reporting
its clandestine nuclear ambitions, calling on Tehran to take a number
of steps to rectify the situation. Mr. ElBaradei is due to report
back to the Board on the matter in May.
2004-03-15 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:
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*****************************************************************
5 BBC: Iran 'readmits nuclear watchdog'
Last Updated: Monday, 15 March, 2004
[IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei]
Mohammed ElBaradei said Iran had given a new date for inspections
The head of the United Nations' nuclear agency, Mohamed
ElBaradei, says Iran has agreed to let UN inspectors back into
the country later this month.
Iran banned IAEA inspectors after the agency issued a resolution
accusing Tehran of secret nuclear activities.
But IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tehran had told him the
"new date for inspectors arriving [was] March 27."
Iran, which says its nuclear activities are for peaceful
purposes, called the halting of visits a technical problem.
Mr ElBaradei said the delay was regrettable, but he said the
inspections were still on schedule.
If there's no smoking gun, there's no 800-pound gorilla ... I see
no reason why we should not be able to have at least most of it
wrapped up by the end of the year
Mohamed ElBaradei
Hassan Rowhani, secretary general of Iran's Supreme National
Security Council, urged the International Atomic Energy Agency
board to "bring a closure to Iran's case".
Mr Rowhani said that resolving the problems with the IAEA was
"not very complicated".
The United States has accused Iran of developing a secret weapons
programme and wants the International Atomic Energy Agency to
declare the country in breach of the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
Deadline
On Sunday, Mr ElBaradei said the IAEA hoped to end its
investigation of Iran's nuclear programme by the end of this year
if no evidence was found that Tehran worked on the development of
nuclear weapons.
"If there's no smoking gun, if there's no 800-pound gorilla ... I
see no reason why we should not be able to have at least most of
it wrapped up by the end of the year," he said.
Mr ElBaradei said allowing UN inspectors to return quickly would
help dispel suspicions that Tehran had something to hide.
Iran imposed a freeze on inspections in retaliation to an IAEA's
resolution on Saturday "deploring" Iran's failure to report some
nuclear activities.
The IAEA censured Iran for omitting key atomic technology from an
October declaration, although it tempered the criticism with
praise for Tehran's increased nuclear openness.
The watchdog has a June deadline to present a judgment on Iran's
nuclear activities.
*****************************************************************
6 Hi Pakistan: No plans to quit nuclear treaty, says Tehran - Inspectors' return
negotiable -->
March 15 2004
TEHRAN: Iran again warned on Sunday that it could revise the
level of its cooperation with the international nuclear watchdog
after condemnation of its atomic programme but said it has no
plans to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also left open the
return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors which
Tehran suspended after the strong IAEA resolution against it, but
said this would have to be renegotiated.
"The method of cooperation could change if the realities are
ignored," Asefi told a press conference, while adding, "the
question of cooperation is not at issue." Asefi was reacting to
Saturday's US-backed IAEA resolution condemning Iran for hiding
possibly weapons-related nuclear activities.
"We have cooperated with the IAEA and we are still interested in
this cooperation because we are clear on our objectives and
intentions", he said, recognising that European allies had "done
what they could" to assist Iran.
"We were expecting (more) from them, but the Europeans did what
they could," Asefi said. "We have not noticed any violation of
their obligations," he added. In October, the German, French and
British foreign ministers persuaded Tehran to fully cooperate
with the IAEA and suspend uranium enrichment.
Asefi said remarks on Wednesday by Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi
indicating that Tehran could break ties with the IAEA had been
misinterpreted. Kharazi had said: "We are engaged in cooperation
(with the IAEA), and for this to continue the cooperation has to
be bilateral. If one side does not respect its obligations, the
cooperation will end."
Asefi branded the IAEA resolution "unfair and insulting," saying
the cancellation of the inspection team's visit was Tehran's
response to it. "The necessary coordination will take place with
the IAEA for the visit of the inspectors and the conditions and
date of their arrival will be the subject of discussions", Asefi
added.
"We will not allow anyone to speak of the Islamic republic in
this manner," Asefi warned. He dubbed "unacceptable" IAEA demands
for a complete accounting of Iran's nuclear activities, stressing
that Tehran had "nothing to hide."
And he said that the refusal to allow in the inspectors should
not be used as a pretext to refer Iran to the UN Security
Council, which could decide to implement sanctions.
But senior diplomats in Tehran said such rampant threats were
customary and often hot air, even if they should be taken
seriously, and that it was not the first time Iran had refused to
welcome IAEA inspectors.
"There are public statements and then there is work behind the
scenes. What we see is Iranians continuing to cooperate. They
took part in all the meetings in Vienna," said one diplomat. "The
question is whether Iranians have any choice other than
cooperation and whether those who extol a breach are able to
enforce their views," he said.
"It is not what happens at the IAEA meetings which count, but at
least what happens between the meetings," another diplomat said,
"and if the resolution highlighted the deficiencies, it also
stressed that the Iranians have shown cooperation".
The IAEA, which verifies the NPT, has since February 2003 been
working to determine whether Iran's nuclear programme is
peaceful, or geared towards secretly developing atomic weapons,
as the United States has charged.
It is to review the Iranian programme in June and Tehran's
decision to put off the inspection could mean the inspectors
would not have enough time to file a full report, a diplomat said
in Vienna.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
7 Hi Pakistan: ElBaradei hopes to wrap up Iran investigation by year's end
March 15 2004
(10:30 PST) -->
WASHINGTON: Chief of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Mohamed ElBaradei said on Sunday that investigation of Iran’s
nuclear programme could be wrapped up by the end of this year if
the origin country, gave IAEA further information.
Talking to newsmen in a flight to Washington, he said Iran should
declare all information about its nuclear programme forthwith.
Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran should declare information today,
which it had concealed so far violating the international
agreements, and added that it will be far better for Iran that
according to him will help resolving the crisis.
ElBaradei is scheduled to meet President J.W Bush on Wednesday.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
*****************************************************************
8 IAEA: IAEA Board Resolution on Nuclear Safeguards in Iran
+ [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace]
Staff Report
15 March 2004 [Mr. Amir H. Zamaninia, Board of Governors, March
2004]
Mr. Amir H. Zamaninia (right) at the IAEA Board of Governors
meeting. (Credit: D. Calma/IAEA)
+ Story Resources
+ Iran Resolution, 13 March 2004 [pdf]
+ Iran Report to Board [pdf]
+ Iran Board Statement, 13 March 2004
+ Board Chairman Comments, 13 March 2004 [pdf]
+ NPT Director General Board Statement
+ Iran Timeline
+ IAEA Board
The IAEA Board of Governors adopted a resolution 13 March on the
IAEA's verification of Iran's nuclear programme. Among other
points, the resolution notes "outstanding issues" and questions,
and requests Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to report back
to the Board on these matters before the end of May, in advance
of its next meetings scheduled to start 14 June.
Iran responded to the resolution in a statement to the Board 13
March by Mr. Amir H. Zamaninia, Director-General for
International Political Affairs of the Foreign Ministry of the
Islamic Republic of Iran. The statement addresses issues raised
in the resolution.
In his comments, Board Chairman Antonio Núńez García-Saúco of
Spain noted that "many divergent views continue to exist as well
as possible different interpretations with regard to parts of
this resolution."
See Story Resources for links to the Iran resolution, the
Director General's report on safeguards in Iran, Iran's
statement of 13 March, and the Director General's Board
statement of 8 March. Copyright 2003-2004, International Atomic
Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna,
Austria
Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail:
Official.Mail@iaea.org [Official.Mail@iaea.org]
*****************************************************************
9 Reuters: Iran Promises to Allow Nuclear Inspections Again Mon
Mar 15, 2004 06:55 AM ET
By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will allow the resumption of U.N. nuclear
inspections, which it halted last week in protest at a tough
resolution on its atomic program, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator
was quoted as saying Monday.
Iran's decision to freeze nuclear inspections has fueled U.S.
charges Tehran is trying to hide parts of its extensive nuclear
sector because it has a secret program to build an atom bomb.
Negotiator Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of Iran's Supreme
National Security Council, did not specify when inspectors from
the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be
allowed back.
"We will definitely reach an agreement with the agency on the
resumption of inspections," the official IRNA news agency quoted
Rohani as saying ahead of an official visit to Japan.
Iran suspended the inspections last Friday as the IAEA board of
governors drafted a resolution criticizing it for failing to
report sensitive research and equipment which could be used to
make atomic bomb material.
IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Saturday Iranian officials had
promised to give him an answer later this week to his calls for a
swift resumption to the IAEA inspections.
Analysts said the decision to halt inspections could push
European Union countries closer to Washington's tough stance on
Iran's nuclear program.
Iran strongly denies U.S. accusations it is pursuing nuclear
weapons and says its atomic program is geared solely to producing
electricity.
ElBaradei said inspectors had intended to go to the Natanz plant
in central Iran to verify that uranium enrichment there had been
suspended as Tehran has promised.
HARD-LINER WANTS END TO COOPERATION
He said the IAEA wanted "to make sure it is locked and that it is
sealed, that it is not in operation."
*****************************************************************
10 AU ABC: Iran promises resumption of nuclear inspections.
15/03/2004. ABC News Online
Australian Broadcasting Corp
Iran will allow the resumption of United Nations nuclear
inspections, which it halted last week in protest at a tough
resolution on its nuclear program, Iran's chief nuclear
negotiator was quoted as saying.
But negotiator Hassan Rohani, secretary-general of the Supreme
National Security Council, did not specify when the inspectors
of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be
allowed back.
"We will definitely reach an agreement with the agency on the
resumption of inspections," the official IRNA news agency quoted
Mr Rohani as saying.
Speaking to reporters before leaving on an official visit to
Japan, Mr Rohani said the suspension of IAEA visits was a
"technical matter".
He did not elaborate.
Iran suspended the inspections last Friday as the IAEA board of
governors drafted a tough resolution, criticising Iran for
failing to report sensitive nuclear research which could be used
to make bomb material.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday that Iranian
officials had promised to give him an answer later this week to
his calls for a swift resumption to the IAEA inspections.
Several Western diplomats said they suspected Iran may have
frozen inspections because it had something to hide.
Analysts said the decision to halt inspections could push
European Union countries closer to Washington's tough stance on
Iran.
Closure
Iran strongly denies US accusations that it is pursuing nuclear
weapons and says its atomic program is geared solely to
producing electricity.
Mr Rohani called on all members of the IAEA board to cooperate
with Iran to "bring a closure to Iran's case".
But an influential hardline commentator appointed by Iran's
Supreme Leader said Iran would never get a fair hearing at the
IAEA and called for Tehran to halt cooperation with the agency.
"It is now definitely obvious that the IAEA, in its sly moves
and by killing time, is trying to deprive Iran of nuclear
technology," Hossein Shariatmadari, president of the hardline
Kayhan publishing group, wrote in the English-language Kayhan
International on Thursday.
Mr Shariatmadari, whom many analysts say is a close confidant of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran should "stop
all cooperation with the IAEA" and resume uranium enrichment.
Iran agreed last year to suspend uranium enrichment and allow
snap checks of its nuclear sites as confidence-building
measures.
Mr Shariatmadari suggested giving the IAEA a three-month
ultimatum to pronounce Iran's nuclear program peaceful and allow
it to develop atomic technology to generate electricity.
Should the IAEA fail to meet the ultimatum, Iran should withdraw
from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he said - a
move which would put Iran's nuclear program out of reach of
nuclear inspectors and safeguards.
Iranian government officials have repeatedly denied Tehran
intends to follow North Korea's example by exiting the NPT.
Western diplomats have often considered such threats by
hardliners in Iran to be aimed chiefly at the domestic audience
and have little bearing on policy.
Mr Shariatmadari addressed this theory and urged officials to
disprove it.
"We should stop sitting on our hands and do something to respond
to such humiliating treatments by first of all stopping further
IAEA inspectors' visits to Iran," he wrote.
"In other words, we should shape up now or ship out for good."
-- Reuters
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
11 Las Vegas SUN: Iran May Harden Position Against IAEA
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -
Iran indicated Sunday it could harden its position against the
U.N. nuclear agency, a day after freezing international
inspections to protest a critical resolution by the watchdog
agency.
On Saturday, Tehran said it was indefinitely barring inspectors
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, hours after its
35-nation governing board adopted a resolution that said it
"deplores" recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment
and other suspicious activities that Iran had failed to reveal.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Sunday the
resolution's tone "was unfair and insulting. We don't allow
anybody to talk to us in such language."
He said no date has been set for when inspectors would be
allowed back into the country, but first "realities must be
taken into consideration."
"If realities are not seen, it's possible that the method of our
cooperation with IAEA may change," Asefi told a press
conference. "Barring the inspectors from visiting Iran should be
interpreted in this context."
Asefi did not specify what actions Iran might take.
However, the spokesman later insisted Iran's "cooperation with
IAEA is not being questioned. We are willing to cooperate
because we are transparent in our intentions and goals."
The agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei and senior U.S.
officials planned to discuss the weekend's developments at a
meeting Monday in Washington. ElBaradei also was expected to
meet with President Bush.
Iran insists its nuclear activities are for the generation of
electricity. The United States suspects Iran is undertaking a
secret program to build nuclear weapons and had called for even
harsher language in the resolution.
Diplomats familiar with the work of IAEA said that a lengthy ban
on inspections would be a huge obstacle to the agency's efforts
to deliver a judgment by June on the nature of Tehran's nuclear
past and present.
But in Vienna, ElBaradei said he was sure Iran would overturn it
soon.
"I'm pretty confident that Iran will understand that we need to
go within the time scheduled, and the decision to delay the
inspection will be reviewed and reversed within the next couple
of days," ElBaradei said.
The U.S. envoy to the IAEA, Kenneth Brill, condemned the freeze.
"This is a measure of their 'full cooperation' - their
postponing the very thing that they are called on to do by their
obligations," Brill told reporters.
The United States has been lobbying for the IAEA to declare Iran
in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to refer
Iran's activities to the U.N. Security Council, where economic
sanctions could be imposed.
The IAEA resolution holds off on taking such action until the
board of governors meets again in June.
Asefi said he was certain that Iran's nuclear dossier will not
be referred to the council because of "Iran's cooperation with
IAEA, and the other reason is that we didn't conceal anything."
--
*****************************************************************
12 Las Vegas SUN: S. Korea Urges N. Korea to Hold Talks
By SANG-HUN CHOE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -
South Korea urged North Korea on Monday not to use an
impeachment crisis in Seoul as an excuse for stalling six-nation
talks on its nuclear weapons programs, amid signs of a rupture
in inter-Korean relations.
A North Korean delegation did not show up for economic talks
scheduled to begin Monday in South Korea, citing political
instability in the South after Friday's unprecedented
parliamentary impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
Acting President Goh Kun, in charge of South Korea until the
Constitutional Court rules on whether to unseat Roh, has issued
daily statements aimed at reassuring the outside world.
But the cancellation of Monday's economic discussions raised
fears that the communist North may use the prospect of
leadership change in Seoul to complicate six-nation talks aimed
at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear programs.
"If North Korea uses the impeachment as an excuse to be
reluctant or to try avoiding six-party talks, we'll have to
question North Korea's commitment to seeking peaceful resolution
to the nuclear issue," South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon
said.
Ban said he will dispatch his deputy, Lee Soo-hyuck, to Beijing
on Tuesday to discuss convening a third-round of nuclear talks
without hitches.
Last month, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and
Japan held a round of nuclear talks aimed at easing tensions
over the North's nuclear program, but negotiations ended without
a major breakthrough. They agreed to meet again by July.
The political crisis began Friday, when - in a spectacle
televised live - the opposition-dominated National Assembly used
security guards to drag out screaming and kicking pro-Roh
lawmakers. It then passed a bill impeaching Roh for alleged
election-law violations and incompetence.
The move appeared to be backfiring on the opposition, as public
surveys showed the popularity of the small Uri Party, which
supports the president, surging ahead of the April 15
parliamentary polls.
Tens of thousands of Roh supporters have converged on downtown
Seoul every night since the impeachment to protest against the
opposition.
Police said 35,000 people showed up Sunday night, chanting
"nullify impeachment" as they waved candles and demanded that
Roh be reinstated.
On Sunday, North Korea condemned South Korea's presidential
impeachment as a U.S.-masterminded "coup" in its first comments
on the crisis.
"This is not merely an internal affair of South Korea. It is a
political rebellion staged by a handful of political quacks
quelling the mind-set of tens of millions of South Korean
people," the North's official KCNA news agency said late Sunday,
citing a North Korean government spokesman.
North Korea's dispatch accused Washington of masterminding Roh's
impeachment, saying: "It was none other than the United States
that sparked such disturbing development."
South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party, which led
the impeachment drive, has called for a tougher stance on North
Korea and a stronger alliance with the United States. Roh has
unsettled conservative South Koreans by seeking more
independence from Washington.
The two Koreas had agreed to hold economic talks in the South
Korean city of Paju. But the communist North on Sunday urged
they be moved to the Northern city of Kaesong because of the
"very unstable" political situation in the South. The South
rejected it.
--
*****************************************************************
13 Gallup Independent: Navajo poverty cited in pursuit of fed funds
March 12, 2004
By Kathy Helms Diné Bureau
FORT DEFIANCE Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., in
testimony Thursday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee in Washington, D.C. on two bills to amend the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Action of 1977 (SMCRA), urged the
committee to increase the tribe's allocation of reclamation funds
collected annually, extend the reclamation fee deadline, and
allow the Navajo Nation to become self-regulating.
President Shirley said the reauthorization issue is of utmost
importance to theNavajo Nation. "Many Navajo people live in
conditions that the everydayAmerican cannot comprehend." While
the needs are not unique among Nativenations across America, he
said, the statistics could help the committee betterunderstand
why the allocation of reclamation fees is so important.
"Fifty percent of the Navajo population live below the poverty
level, andthe unemployment rate hovers around 50 percent," he
said. "Seventypercent of the Navajo people lack domestic and
municipal water for everyday use.Seventy-eight percent of the
public roads are dirt-based, with little or no gravel.Sixty
percent of the Navajo Nation lack basic communication services.
Sixty percentof the Navajo Nation lacks electrical power lines."
While the president said he was not there to decry the Navajo's
substandard qualityof life, "I would like the members of this
committee to know that throughSMCRA, the Navajo Nation has a
vehicle to address these needs, and we have implementedprojects
in accordance with the priorities of SMCRA."
According to the president, the Navajo Nation has contributed an
estimated $170million to the Reclamation Fee Collection Trust
pursuant to SMCRA and has receivedas its share an estimated $87
million. Of that, the Navajo Abandoned Mine Land(AML) Program has
spent about $57 million on AML reclamation efforts.
In 1990, SMCRA was amended to include reclamation of abandoned
mines such asuranium and copper. Since 1988, Navajo AML has
inventoried about 1,300 abandonedcoal and non-coal mines on the
Navajo Nation, covering more than 27,000 squaremiles. In 1994,
Navajo AML completed all known abandoned coal mines, and as
aresult, applied for and received certification for completion.
As of 2002, 80percent of the remaining non-coal mine problem
areas have been addressed at acost of more than $25 million.
Because many of the problem sites had been addressed, the Navajo
ReclamationPlan was amended to implement Public Facility
Projects, or PFPs, in chaptersand communities impacted by mining
activities.
"To date, the Navajo Nation, through the Navajo Nation Council
ResourcesCommittee, selected and approved 31 PFP's through
partnership and leverage funding," thepresident said. "These
PFP's are funded by the 50 percent of reclamationfees collected
annually on the Navajo Nation ..."Up to $300,000 of PFP fundscan
be used per project for construction, renovation, repair or
expansion ofpublic facilities, and main electrical power and
water lines.
"The Navajo Nation has complied with the requirements of SMCRA
and we haveproperly utilized our share of reclamation fees in
accordance with the prioritiesset forth in SMCRA. The Navajo
Nation strongly opposes any amendment ... thatwill deny us our
reclamation allocation and divert it to states who have notyet
completed reclamation activities," the president said.
"We believe it fundamentally unfair to punish a certified tribe
like theNavajo Nation by taking the annual reclamation fees we
contribute to the AMLfund and redirecting it to states that are
not certified. This would effectivelypenalize the Navajo Nation
for taking the responsibility to reclaim the mosthazardous and
harmful externalities associated with mining on its land."
Jeffrey Jarrett, director of the Office of Surface Mining
Reclamation and Enforcement,told the Senate committee that both
bills S. 2049 and S. 2086 seek to reauthorizeOSM's authority to
collect the AML fee, set to expire on Sept. 30, 2004.
However,Jarrett said, S. 2049 will solve problems with the
existing program in a mannerthat is consistent with the Bush
Administration's budget and program priorities.
The Administration's legislative proposal seeks to focus more AML
funding onthe areas most damaged by this nation's reliance on
coal for industrial developmentand wartime production. "We cannot
support the provisions in S. 2086 thatcall for additional funding
because they are inconsistent with the Administration'sbudget and
program priorities," Jarrett said.
Even if OSM were to use all of the AML fees collected between now
and Sept. 30when the fee collection authority is set to expire,
as well as the unappropriatedbalance of $1.5 billion, "there
would still be insufficient funds to addresshealth and
safety-related surface mining problems because of the fund's
currentdistribution formula," he said. "We view the Sept. 30
expiration ofthe current AML fee collection authority as an
opportunity to reform that authorityand the distribution formula
and put it on track."
SMCRA requires that all money collected from tonnage fees
assessed against industryon current coal production be deposited
into an account established within theAML fund. Fifty percent of
the fee income generated from current coal productionin any one
state, or 50 percent from production on Indian lands, is
allocatedto an account established for that state or tribe having
jurisdiction.
Twenty percent of the total fee income is allocated to the
Historic ProductionAccount and each state or tribe is entitled to
a percentage equal to its percentageof the nation's total
historic coal production, or coal produced prior to 1977.Once the
state or tribe certifies that all abandoned coal mine sites have
beenreclaimed, it is no longer entitled to further allocations
from the historicproduction account.
Jarrett said 93 percent of hazardous sites are located in Eastern
states. However,coal mining has now shifted largely to Western
states, most of which have noabandoned coal mine sites left to
clean up. Therefore, less and less money isbeing spent to reclaim
the hundreds of dangerous, life-threatening sites.
Bill S. 2049 would change the statutory allocation of fee
collection, with allfuture AML fees collected, plus the existing
unappropriated balance in the RAMPaccount placed into a new
single account. Grants to states with coal problemsremaining
would be distributed from that account based upon historic
production,according to Jarrett.
No non-certified state or tribe could receive an annual
allocation that wouldexceed 25 percent of the total amount
appropriated for those grants each year.Existing state and tribal
share accounts would not receive any additional feescollected
after Sept. 30, 2004. The current unappropriated balance would
eitherbe given to certified states and tribes in payments spread
over 10 years (FY2005-2014), subject to appropriation; or,
non-certified states and tribes wouldreceive their unappropriated
balances in annual grants based on historic production,Jarrett
said.
Non-certified states or tribes completing abandoned coal mine
reclamation beforeexhausting the balance in their state share
account, would receive the balancein equal annual payments
through 2014. Non-certified states and tribes whichexhaust their
state share balance before completing reclamation would
continueto receive annual grants based on their historic coal
production.
In contrast, S.2086 would continue to allocate 50 percent of the
fees collectedto that state or tribal share account without
regard to their coal reclamationneeds. S. 2086 also endorses
eliminating future allocations to the RAMP fund,but makes
portions of the accumulated unappropriated balance available to
non-publicland certified states. S. 2086 also proposes to lower
reclamation fee rates by10 cents per ton, or about 29 percent,
for surface mining and 20 percent forlignite and coal mined by
underground methods. This bill also requires a minimumannual
grant of $2 million for all states and tribes regardless of their
certificationstatus.
President Shirley said, "We have been a faithful and active
participantin SMCRA and we ask that you increase and/or continue
our tribal share allocation..., promptly release our unallocated
trust fund balance of $30 million, andextend the expiration date
to Sept. 30, 2018.
"We urge the Committee to adhere to the principles of
self-determinationand allow the Navajo Nation and other Native
Nations the opportunity to applyfor primacy ... We have been
working toward assuming primacy for almost 30 years.Allow us to
take the final step," he said.
Friday March 12, 2004 Selected Stories: Only 3 bids so far to
operate Red Rock Park
Shirley cites Diné poverty in pursuit of mining funds School
district to vote on requiring student unforms Tribal heads blame
each other for D.C. cancelled meetings Zuni firefighters also
helping pueblo's economy Deputy under investigation for sexual
misconduct Eyesore motels to star coming down in April Deaths |
Home | Daily News | Archive | Subscribe | Please send the Gallup
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
questions or comments to gallpind@cia-g.com [gallpind@cia-g.com]
*****************************************************************
14 Haaretz: Vanunu denied visits after he spoke to another prisoner
March 15, 2004 Adar 22, 5764 Israel
By Baruch Kra [baruchk@haaretz.co.il] and Yossi Melman
[ymelman@haaretz.co.il] , Haaretz Correspondents
The Prisons Service cancelled Mordechai Vanunu's visitation
privileges after the jailed nuclear whistle-blower talked to
another prisoner Sunday at the Shikma prison.
The prisoner Vanunu spoke to was put in isolation for several
hours, and after questioning it became clear that he did not
initiate the conversation with Vanunu, and only answered a
question posed to him during a walk in the prison yard.
The Shikma prison inmates are not allowed to make any contact
with Vanunu, but the prisoner said he was not familiar with the
regulations, because he was transferred to the Shikma prison
recently.
Vanunu, who is set to complete his 18 year prison sentence on
April 21, submitted a request for a passport with the Prison
Service almost a month ago, security sources told Haaretz last
week.
The Prisons Service transferred Vanunu's request to the chief
security officer of the Defense Ministry, Yehiel Horev, and the
Shin Bet security service, but the application never reached the
only body authorized to issue Israeli citizens with passports,
the Interior Ministry, as it is being held up by the Shin Bet.
An Interior Ministry official confirmed last week that no
application from Vanunu had been received, and that any such
application would be weighed in conjunction with the relevant
security officials.
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is due to rule in the coming days
what restrictions will be placed on Vanunu after he is released
on April 21. Mazuz and Justice Minister Yosef Lapid have both
hinted of late at various government forums that the main
restriction likely to be imposed on the former nuclear technician
is a blanket ban on overseas travel. It is highly unlikely,
therefore, that he will be issued a passport, and an appeal to
the High Court of Justice is almost certain to follow.
Even before Vanunu's release from prison, however, there are
already differences of opinion between Mazuz and Horev as to how
Vanunu's freedom will be restricted. Horev, whose proposals to
re-arrest Vanunu on an administrative detention order or to place
him under house arrest have already been rejected by the prime
minister, the defense minister and the attorney general, is
seeking to ensure that a wide-ranging package of restriction is
in place when Vanunu finally leaves jail.
Mordechai Vanunu, who is to be released next month, has
submitted a request for a passport.
© Copyright Haaretz. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
15 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan will not compromise on nuclear programme - Kasuri
March 15 2004
KASUR: Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on Sunday
said that no compromise would be made on nuclear programme of the
country.
The foreign minister said that the international community should
accept the ground realities and recognise India and Pakistan as
atomic powers.
He said that Pakistan had never indulged in proliferation of
atomic technology and added that Pakistan's nuclear programme was
totally for defence purpose.
Kasuri said that Pakistan and India should take steps for
elimination of poverty and backwardness for the betterment of
their masses.
The minister said that Pakistan had taken a number of concrete
steps for the elimination of terrorism, sectarianism, extremism
and promotion of religious tolerance in the society.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
16 Hi Pakistan: IAEA’s cooperation demand from Pakistan ambiguous - Analyst
March 15 2004
WASHINGTON: IAEA chief Mohammad Al Baradi said that Pakistan is
cooperating in investigations of Iran’s atomic Program, but more
cooperation needed in this regard.
While talking to Geo, senior analyst Nayyer Zaidi has said that
the exact nature of cooperation required to the commission from
Pakistan would definitely be told to the Pakistan Government as
they don’t described in the statement what they really want from
Pakistan.
But they further stated that even if Iran would not cooperate
fully, with the help of country of origin, they would complete
their investigations by the end of the year.
Initially, when allegation was made on Pakistan, IAEA had took
stance that they got the information from Iran but now they
asking Pakistan to disclose details of transfer .
Nayyer Zaidi termed this as a pressure tactics and quoted the
statement of Iran’s Atomic Program chief Hasan Rohani that Iran
denied the inspection in protest against the resolution passed by
35 countries to brought it under pressure and Iran would later
announce when the team of IAEA would carry out inspection.
Khatmi Government was responsible for the acts against Pakistan
with reference to Iran’s nuclear program and right after that as
the elections were announced, Iran’s supreme leader had ousted
large number of members from electoral process and hard liners
had strengthened their hold over the power in elections. Nayyer
Zaidi stated that now hard liners have hold on government affairs
in Iran, so they have announced that they would not permit
inspection of the nuclear installations.
Colin Powell’s statement was quite harsh with a straightforward
message that not only United States but other nations of the
world wouldn’t get silent over the Iran’s nuclear program that
means the 35 IAEA member countries will impose sanctions on Iran
after the June deadline.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
17 Hi Pakistan: UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from Pakistan
: IAEA chief (09:45 PST) -->
March 15 2004
WASHINGTON: The UN nuclear watchdog needs more cooperation from
Pakistan in its investigation of Iran's atomic program, which is
suspected of developing nuclear weapons, the watchdog's chief
Mohamed ElBaradei said.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general
Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters on a flight from Vienna to
Washington that he had "been in touch with Pakistan."
Pakistan has "been cooperating, but I still need more
cooperation" from them in allowing "environmental sampling" to
compare centrifuge components of a type sold through an
international black market to Iran, ElBaradei said.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the
*****************************************************************
18 SABC: SA made its atomic bombs alone: De Klerk
[http://www.sabcnews.com/]
South African Broadcasting Corporation Copyright ©
[FW de Klerk, the former South African president]
March 15, 2004, 15:45
F W de Klerk, the former president, said today that Pretoria had
developed atomic arms in the apartheid era without outside help
and that all material from the scrapped weapons had been
accounted for. South Africa voluntarily dismantled its nuclear
arms before the 1994 end of white rule.
There has long been speculation it received foreign assistance
for the programme, with Israel, a close ally of the apartheid
regime, the prime suspect. "We developed our own
uranium-enriching process which is unique in the world," De
Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in
1993, told a group of foreign correspondents in Johannesburg.
"The fact is we did it on our own, we didn't shop in the
international black market for technology and enriching
processes."
There have been growing concerns in the West about an emerging
black market in nuclear material and technology. The
international atomic energy agency (IAEA) has stepped up its
investigation of illicit procurement networks since Abdul Qadeer
Khan, the father of Pakistan's atom bomb, confessed earlier this
year to leaking nuclear secrets to other countries. Washington
has sent investigators to South Africa to probe a possible link
to an illicit network in nuclear technology.
De Klerk reiterated that all the material it had used had been
accounted for by his government and the IAEA. Every milligram of
material that went into the 6 1/2 devices we had completed by the
time I took the decision (to scrap them) were properly accounted
for. I didn't decide to have an atomic bomb and then change my
mind. When I became the leader I inherited this fact."
He said the weapons had not been built for "attacking purposes"
but as a deterrent because of a perceived Soviet threat to South
Africa during the Cold War. He also said that he rued the huge
costs of the programme. "I think back on the billions which went
into all this, what could have been done with all those
billions?" - Reuters
*****************************************************************
19 Maariv International: Bill to shutdown Dimona nuclear reactor tabled
Hadash-Ta’al
3.16.2004
MKs say safety hazard prompted them to take action. MK Eldad:
Hadash is what needs to be shutdown.
[contact@maariv.co.il?subject=Arik Bender]
Hadash-Ta’al an Israeli Arab Knesset faction is to propose an
unusual bill on Wednesday – to shut down Israel’s nuclear
reactor in Dimona.
MK Issam Makhoul first initiated the bill, and was later joined
by MKs Mohammad Barakeh and Ahmad Tibi. According to the three
law-makers, “The information and research that has so far
accumulated is that the life expectancy of a nuclear reactor is
about 40 years, after which the number of malfunctions rises
sharply turning the radioactive materials into an environmental
hazard that poses a threat to the region”.
The MKs added, “The blanket of secretiveness that has
surrounded the reactor till now has prevented non-governmental
supervision which in turn prevented the public and the Knesset
from estimating the real dangers of the reactor”.
The Hadash-Ta’al members claim that some of the information
recently exposed, raises concerns that the reactor is a health
hazard for its workers. They also point their fingers at the
articles published by international media, which clearly indicate
the reactor poses a threat to the region.
This isn’t the first time MK Makhoul has stirred controversy
surrounding nuclear-related issues. He is one of the leading
operatives working for the benefit of nuclear whistleblower
Mordechai Vanunu. In addition, Makhoul has demonstrated near the
nuclear site in the past.
MKs from across the political spectrum lashed out against the
proposed bill and its initiators. Ehud Yatom (Likud) said, “I
suggest that proposed bills concerning matters of state security
be tabled by people who actually care about state security and
not by those who attempt, time and time again, to seek ways to
harm it”.
According to MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union), “I recommend to
Israel’s Nuclear Energy Commission to file a petition with the
High Court of Justice and demand that Hadash be shut down”.
The criticism of the proposed bill was also heard from left-wing
benches. MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) said, “Bills of this nature
are inadequate. They do not belong in the legislature. The public
debate on the Dimona plant should be conducted on the public
sphere. The Hadash-Ta’al faction is attacking the subject of
the reactor not because of its safety hazards but for other
reasons”.
(2004-03-15 13:25:47.0)
Make Maariv International Your Home Page
*****************************************************************
20 Maariv International: Vanunu: Israel is falling apart
3.16.2004
Nuclear spy tells fellow prisoner he intends to leave country;
sees no need to reveal more state secrets.
Vanunu: Israel is falling apart Nuclear spy tells fellow
prisoner he intends to leave country; sees no need to reveal
more state secrets.
[contact@maariv.co.il?subject=Tal Yamin-Wolvovich]
Confiding to a fellow prisoner in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon,
nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu said he saw no need to leak any more
state secrets since “Israel was falling apart anyway”.
The conversation took place yesterday (Sunday) in the prison
courtyard when a fellow prisoner approached Vanunu and engaged
him in conversation. In view of the prohibition against talking
with Vanunu, the prisoner was immediately taken away and placed
in solitary confinement. Interrogated by General Security Service
officials, the prisoner recounted that Vanunu told him he
predicted “the end of the State of Israel” and intended to
leave the country as soon as he was released. Vanunu’s 18 year
prison term is due to end in April.
Vanunu also told the prisoner that right-wing activist and fellow
inmate Noam Federman was making life tough for him, cursing him
and inciting other prisoners against him. He felt vindicated that
he was being released while extremists like Federman remained in
jail.
With Vanunu’s approaching release, security officials have been
examining options for restricting his freedom and preventing him
from disclosing further state secrets. One option under
consideration will be to confiscate his passport and bar him from
leaving the country. Last week, it was reported that Vanunu has
filed a request to obtain an Israeli passport upon his release.
(2004-03-15 00:07:00.0)
© Maariv International 2004 All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
21 IAEA: Libya Signs Additional Protocol on Nuclear Safeguards
+ [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace]
Board Adopts Resolution, Libya Signs Additional Protocol
Staff Report
10 March 2004 [Libya: Signing of the Additional Protocol]
Signing ceremony of the Additional Protocol. (Credit: D.
Calma/IAEA)
Libya today signed an Additional Protocol to its Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards agreement, giving IAEA
inspectors greater authority in verifying the country's nuclear
programme. Mr. Matooq Mohamed Matooq, Assistant Secretary for
Services Affairs of the General People's Committee of the
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and IAEA Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei signed the Protocol that requires Libya
to provide expanded declaration of its nuclear activities. The
Protocol grants IAEA inspectors broader rights of access to sites
in the country allowing them to provide assurance about both
declared and possible undeclared activities. Libya has stated its
intention to act as if the protocol is already in place, pending
its formal entry into force.
Also on 10 March, the IAEA Board adopted a resolution on the
Agency's continuing verification of Libya's nuclear programme.
Late last year, Libya announced its decision to eliminate all
materials, equipment and programmes leading to the production of
internationally proscribed weapons - including nuclear weapons.
Since then the IAEA has been working closely with the Libyan
authorities to gain a complete picture of Libyas nuclear
programme and history.
Dr. ElBaradei said signing the Protocol was an indication of
Libya's commitment to move away from weapons of mass destruction.
"It will allow the Agency to verify that nuclear activities in
Libya are used only for peaceful purposes." Libya would continue
to reap the full benefits of nuclear applications for peaceful
uses such as energy, agriculture and medicine, he said.
In his March report to the IAEA Board, Dr. ElBaradei stated
"following the disclosure of its undeclared nuclear activities,
Libya has granted the Agency unrestricted access to all requested
locations, responded promptly to the Agencys requests for
information, and assisted the Agency in gaining a full picture of
its nuclear programme... This active cooperation and openness is
welcome, and will facilitate the Agency's ability to complete its
verification of Libya's past nuclear activities. As in the case
of Iran, the Agency also requires the full cooperation of the
countries from which the nuclear technology and material
originated."
To date Additional Protocols are in force in only 54 States. "I
reiterate my call on all States that have not done so to conclude
and bring into force their respective safeguards agreements and
additional protocols," Dr. ElBaradei said. Copyright 2003-2004,
International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer
Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0;
Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: Official.Mail@iaea.org
[Official.Mail@iaea.org] Disclaimer
*****************************************************************
22 Planet Ark: Japan power deregulation may spur consolidation
JAPAN: March 16, 2004
TOKYO - Japan's power utilities, regional monopolies that have
been protected by national policies for decades, face stepped-up
competition in their areas next year and analysts expect a period
of consolidation in the sector as a result.
In April 2005, after a series of steps to open up the sector, the
government plans to remove certain transmission charges that
ensure the local monopoly is still usually the cheapest option.
The 10 existing utilities will then fight it out for customers in
a tough electricity market, where growth is expected to be
minimal in coming years, said Masanori Maruo, a utilities and oil
analyst at Deutsche Securities Ltd.
"The number of utilities will be reduced to nine or eight within
a decade, and only the top two, Tokyo Electric and Kansai
Electric, are certain to be winners," Maruo said. "Smaller
producers will be weeded out."
After the end of World War Two, with power stations devastated,
the Japanese government assigned one utility to each area in
order to ensure a stable power supply. Since then, the utilities
have supplied customers within their designated areas at
regulated rates.
In 1995, the government began to encourage competition to cut
bills, allowing non-utilities to generate and wholesale power.
In 2000, power producers were allowed to sell electricity outside
their designated areas at negotiated rates to big industrial
customers that use more than 2,000 kilowatts of power.
Next month, that will be extended to customers that use more than
500 kilowatts, such as local supermarkets, and about 40 percent
of the power industry will then be deregulated.
A typical household receives 50 kilowatts of electricity.
These moves still leave one big obstacle to real competition
among the 10 utilities - the so-called "pancake" structure, under
which a utility has to pay charges to use a rival's cables every
time its electricity goes into that rival's monopoly area.
This will be eliminated in April next year.
According to analyst Maruo, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO)
(9501.T: Quote, Profile, Research) can sell power to a big retail
customer at 15.28 yen per kilowatt-hour in its designated Tokyo
area.
TEPCO's price would rise to 17.05 yen in the Chubu area of
central Japan, which includes Nagoya city, because of charges it
would need to pay there to Chubu Electric Power Co (9502.T:
Quote, Profile, Research) .
TEPCO's electricity would rise to 17.41 yen per kilowatt-hour if
it travelled to the western Kansai area, where Osaka city is
located, because of payments to Kansai Electric Power Co (9503.T:
Quote, Profile, Research) . That compares with Kansai Electric's
rate of 14.29 yen to a customer of the same size.
PANCAKES
These accumulated transmission charges are likened by some to
layers of pancakes, hence the name.
"Elimination of the pancake will create an environment that will
prompt electricity sales to wider areas and competition between
utilities," said Tomohiro Ihara, deputy director of the
electricity market division at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry (METI).
Without the charge, TEPCO's price would drop to 15.82 yen per
kilowatt-hour in Kansai, according to Maruo's calculation.
TEPCO could sell power to a customer of the same size in the
northeastern Tohoku area at 14.92 yen, lower than the 15.19 yen
charged by the local monopoly Tohoku Electric Power Co (9506.T:
Quote, Profile, Research) , according to analyst Maruo.
TEPCO, Japan's biggest power company, has 17 nuclear reactors
dotted around the country that could provide power at competitive
rates.
Deregulation will encourage business customers to start seeking
cheaper electricity, Maruo said, giving the example of a big
retailer that might issue a tender to buy power at a bulk rate
for its outlets from a single utility, regardless of the
geographical locations of the outlets.
While the government hopes the elimination of transmission
charges will open the way for small companies to enter the power
business, size will probably be crucial, Maruo said.
TEPCO and Kansai Electric, the top two utilities, run many power
generators in a plant and would have more room to cut costs to
generate cheaper electricity than smaller producers that have
only one or two units in a plant, he said.
"The power environment will be harsh for smaller producers
because demand will not grow much," Maruo said.
A government report in February forecast that growth in
electricity demand would average just 1.3 percent per year until
2010, 1.2 percent in the following 10 years to 2020 and only 0.3
percent in the decade to 2030. Electricity demand growth averaged
3.8 percent annually in the 30 years to 2000.
Story by Ikuko Kao
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
*****************************************************************
23 EU Business: EU offers Armenia 100 million euros to shut down nuclear plant
eubusiness.com
15 March 2004
The European Union renewed pleas to Armenia Monday to close a
nuclear power station in an earthquake-prone zone, saying it
would provide 100 million euros (122 million dollars) in
compensatory aid.
The Soviet-built Metzamor plant, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of
the Armenian capital Yerevan, supplies 40 percent of the energy
in the former Soviet republic.
It was commissioned in 1980 but closed temporarily because of an
earthquake in 1988.
"Safety is very important to us," said Torben Holtze, head of the
European Commission delegation here.
"The EU will give Armenia 100 million euros to create alternative
energy production when Armenia sets a date for the closure of the
power plant," he told journalists.
But Armenian Finance Minister Vardan Khachatrian said his country
would need a billion dollars to compensate for losses if the
nuclear plant closes.
The question of closure was "a very painful question for us," he
said. "We will not close the plant until we have alternative
energy sources."
He said construction of a gas pipeline between Iran and Armenia
set to begin this year would speed moves towards alternative
energy.
The nuclear plant was closed down temporarily in 1988 because of
an earthquake at Spitak, but resumed operating in 1995 in order
to help stave off a national energy crisis.
The EU signed an accord with Armenia on closing the plant this
year but Armenia has failed to meet this deadline.
Officials here say the plant is capable of operating until 2018.
Gaguik Markossian, the plant's director, said in December that
international credits and aid had allowed Armenia to make many
safety improvements at the plant, which includes two 440-megawatt
reactors, only one of which is in operation.
With electricity supplies reduced to three or four hours a day
and industry in crisis, one of the reactors was restarted in
1995. Since then about 35 million dollars (28 million euros) have
been spent on various safety improvements.
The Institute for Applied Ecology in Austria says the Armenian
plant, along with similar units in Bulgaria, is among the most
dangerous in Europe. Text and Picture Copyright © 2004 AFP. All
other copyright © 2004 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This
material is intended solely for personal use. Any other
reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material
without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly
forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered
actionable.
Powered by ICP Europe © Copyright © 2004
*****************************************************************
24 Daily Yomiuri: Fukui to permit pluthermal plan
Yomiuri Shimbun
Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa on Monday said his prefectural
government would permit Kansai Electric Power Co. to order
plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel (MOX) from overseas for two
KEPCO power reactors in Takahamacho.
The announcement signified an end to a suspension of operations
at the nuclear power plants over controversy surrounding data on
the fuel.
Nishikawa said he would notify KEPCO's president of the decision
this week.
The fuel is a blend of oxidized uranium and plutonium and will be
used under the so-called pluthermal plan in which plutonium will
be used in conventional nuclear reactors.
The implementation of the plan in the Takahamacho plant has been
suspended since 1999, when British Nuclear Fuel Ltd. was found to
have falsified data on MOX fuel.
However, Nishikawa said: "The Nuclear Safety Commission has
concluded the measures are appropriate. Therefore, I believe that
the safety of the fuel has been confirmed."
"I'll continue to insist that Kansai Electric provides detailed
reports so I can monitor the plan's safety," the governor said.
KEPCO plans to sign a contract for the production of MOX fuel by
the end of March and to start the pluthermal project in 2007.
Nishikawa also indicated his intention to approve the
construction of No. 3 and No. 4 reactors in Japan Atomic Power
Co.'s Tsuruga Power Station.
The governor said he would officially notify the company of his
intention later this month.
The planned reactors will be improved versions of pressurized
light-water reactors with an output capacity of 1.54 million
kilowatts each.
After obtaining the governor's approval, Japan Atomic Power will
ask the central government for permission to alter the nuclear
plant.
The company also will ask the prefectural government to permit
about 50 related projects, including reclaiming land.
Electric power companies are hoping the Fukui governor's green
light for the use of MOX fuel will boost the plan to promote
nuclear fuel recycling, which has been delayed for a variety of
reasons.
However, a power utility executive said, "Unless Tokyo Electric
Power Co., the largest company in the industry, resumes its
pluthermal plan, the entire plan won't progress."
His view expressed industry uncertainty that the resumption of
the pluthermal project by KEPCO, the nation's second-largest
power utility, would help other firms advance their own
pluthermal projects.
Power companies say they need such projects to avoid a
continually increasing buildup of used fuel in storage
facilities.
Every year, Japanese nuclear power plants generate about 1,000
tons of used fuel.
According to the Federation of Electric Power Companies, 10,310
tons, or about 60 percent, of the storage capacity of 10 major
electric power firms are in use.
The federation reconfirmed in December its 1997 policy that
pluthermal projects would start in 16 to 18 nuclear reactors by
fiscal 2010.
But industry experts have voiced doubt TEPCO has not offered any
predictions on when it could resume such projects in Fukushima
and Niigata prefectures. The projects were canceled following the
discovery in the summer of 2002 that the company had covered up
problems at its power plants.
Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun
*****************************************************************
25 Daily Yomiuri: Pluthermal plan must be made a reality
Yomiuri Shimbun
At long last the plutonium-thermal project, which will use a
mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel to generate power in an
ordinary nuclear plant, has taken steps toward realization.
The Fukui prefectural government Monday decided to approve a plan
by Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) to manufacture MOX fuel
overseas for use in the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at its Takahama
nuclear power plant in the prefecture.
If Japan is to continue using nuclear power in the future, the
pluthermal project must be made into a reality.
The storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel at the nation's
nuclear plants are reaching full capacity, meaning that those
plants that are unable to refuel will be forced to suspend
operations.
If the spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed to extract plutonium,
the plutonium can be processed into MOX fuel and the volume of
stored spent fuel can be reduced.
===
Project vital to power industry
But if the pluthermal plan is not realized, the power industry
will be severely affected.
The nation's electric power industry is planning to carry out the
MOX project at 16 to 18 nuclear reactors across the nation by
fiscal 2010. Because it will be the first time reprocessed spent
nuclear fuel is used in nuclear reactors, KEPCO's plan must
proceed without problems.
According to the Atomic Energy Commission, an advisory panel to
the prime minister, MOX fuel has already been used at 55 nuclear
reactors in nine countries overseas. It is not considered a
particularly challenging task, technically speaking. But there
has been no progress on the project in Japan since 1997, when the
electric power industry drew up the pluthermal plan.
The current standstill is chiefly due to a spate of
irregularities involving the pluthermal project and nuclear power
generation.
KEPCO's plan to use MOX fuel for nuclear power generation was
first stalled in 1999, when a scandal in which British Nuclear
Fuels PLC doctored inspection data on MOX fuel it produced for
one of KEPCO's plants surfaced.
The Fukui prefectural government will approve KEPCO's overseas
manufacturing order for MOX fuel, as it has given the company
high marks in its efforts to improve its quality control system.
But it is necessary to make sure that preparations are perfect so
as not to repeat the same mistake.
===
TEPCO must regain trust
For Tokyo Electric Power Co., negotiations with local governments
over its pluthermal project have returned to the starting line
after the nation's largest power company was found in 2002 to
have doctored inspection data at its nuclear plants. It must take
steps to overcome the distrust felt by local governments and
residents as soon as possible.
To use uranium more effectively, the government has set the
realization of a nuclear fuel cycle, centering around
reprocessing plutonium from spent fuel, as a national priority.
The nation's first private-run reprocessing plant, scheduled to
be put into operation in 2006, is now under construction in
Rokkashomura, Aomori Prefecture.
The nation's electric power industry has already commissioned
Britain and France to reprocess plutonium, with about 30 tons of
plutonium already extracted from spent fuel. Once the
reprocessing plant in Rokkashomura begins operations, about five
more tons of plutonium can be extracted every year.
Moves to reinforce international controls over plutonium are
under way, particularly in light of the nuclear arms development
issue in North Korea. As an advocate of the peaceful use of
plutonium, Japan should not invite unnecessary concern from
abroad.
Japan must see the realization of the pluthermal plan through to
its conclusion.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, March 16)
Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun
*****************************************************************
26 Sun News: Agency lists nuclear plant safety concerns
| 03/15/2004 |
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C.
Progress Energy: No serious threat
By Brock Vergakis
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has some concerns about
the safety of the Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant near Southport,
N.C.
The commission will meet with Progress Energy to discuss an
internal report that points out problems with the nuclear plant's
reactor feedwater pump speed control systems.
Ken Clark, a spokesman for the nuclear commission, said that
although the control systems need to work properly, the
commission doesn't consider the problem a serious safety threat.
Progress Energy officials requested the conference to discuss
their evaluation of the study's preliminary findings.
The commission uses a color- coded system of green, white, yellow
and red, that increases with significance.
If the commission rules there is a problem, it would fall into
the white category, which means it's of low to moderate safety
significance.
Clark said nuclear power plants are designed to shut down in the
event of a problem like the one being discussed.
"At this point, it's not a violation. That's why we're having a
regulatory conference where our questions are considered," Clark
said. "It's the NRC's policy to have this type of thing corrected
before it becomes a more significant problem." IF YOU GO What |
Brunswick Nuclear Power Plant regulatory conference
When | 1 p.m. Wednesday
Where | U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region II office,
Atlanta Federal Center, 61 Forsyth St., SW, Suite 24T20, Atlanta;
meeting open to public
Contact BROCK VERGAKIS at (843) 399-8745 or
[bvergakis@thesunnews.com] .
*****************************************************************
27 TheBostonChannel.com: Salem Case A Glimpse At Atomic Smuggling
Switches Can Detonate Nuclear Weapon
POSTED: 7:20 am EST March 15, 2004
SALEM, Mass. -- The package mailed from an office park looked no
different than the other packages picked up from Salem businesses
that day, but it was the contents that spurred federal agents to
track the parcel to South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and
Pakistan.
The package mailed in September contained 66 high-speed
electrical switches called triggered spark gaps, each the shape
of a spool of thread and the size of a soda can. In small
numbers, they are used in hospitals to break up kidney stones. In
large numbers, they can detonate a nuclear weapon.
The box from PerkinElmer Inc. eventually ended up in the hands
of a supplier for the Pakistani army. The case provides a rare
glimpse into the underworld of nuclear smuggling -- and a
reminder of how difficult it is to catch smugglers.
"You try to catch enough of it so that you deter people," Gary
Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms
Control, told the Boston Sunday Globe. "It's like street crime...
It's just a continuing battle."
Tipped off by PerkinElmer employees and an anonymous source
abroad, U.S. officials arranged for the box's dangerous contents
to be disabled before it was shipped and tracked to nuclear
supplier, Israeli businessman Asher Karni.
Karni was arrested on Jan. 1 in Colorado and charged in federal
court in Washington, D.C., with violating U.S. export laws. His
lawyer refused to comment on his case.
Prosecutors allege that Karni's South African company, Top-Cape
Technology, often served as a middleman for foreign clients
banned from buying directly from U.S. firms, according to court
documents.
Last summer, Karni was contacted by Humayun Khan, a Pakistani
businessman who counts the Pakistani military among his clients.
Khan allegedly asked Karni to provide 200 triggered spark gaps -
enough to detonate up to 10 nuclear bombs, according to
specialists.
After unsuccessfully trying to buy them in Europe, Karni
approached Zeki Bilmen, of Giza Technologies Inc., a company
based in New Jersey that does not face the same purchasing
restrictions as foreign companies.
Karni asked Bilmen to buy the switches and ship them to South
Africa, where Karni said they were needed at a hospital. Bilmen
agreed. Bilmen's lawyer said Giza deals with thousands of
products a year and did not know enough about this one to notice
that the order was unusual.
In July, Bilmen placed the order with PerkinElmer
Optoelectronics, based in Salem, for 200 triggered spark gaps at
$447 each.
The order got attention from a PerkinElmer specialist employed
to monitor sales and make sure they comply with regulations.
"It was such a huge quantity. A hospital buys one or two," said
Daniel Sutherby, a PerkinElmer spokesman.
PerkinElmer contacted U.S. officials, who told the company they
already were tracking Karni's request following an anonymous tip
from South Africa, Sutherby said.
U.S. investigators tracked the package until it arrived at
Khan's office in Islamabad. For the last leg of the journey, the
package was labeled "scientific equipment" and addressed to
"AJKMC Lithography Aid Society." No public record could be found
in Pakistan of such an organization.
In an interview with the Globe, Khan said he had no idea why the
package had been shipped to his street address or what AJKMC
Lithography is. He denied ever having seen the package.
He said the e-mails sent in his name to Karni had come from an
employee who has since disappeared. Khan said he is no longer
able to import goods from the United States.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
28 NRC: General Atomics Model No. Rg-1 Package; Issuance of
FR Doc E4-554
[Federal Register: March 15, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 50)]
[Notices] [Page 12185-12186] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15mr04-119]
Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact
Regarding a Proposed Exemption The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC or Commission) is considering issuance of an
exemption, pursuant to 10 CFR 71.8, from certain requirements of
10 CFR 71.38 ``Renewal of a certificate of compliance or quality
assurance program approval'' to General Atomics Company. The
exemption would permit renewal of Certificate of Compliance No.
6703 for the Model No. RG-1 radioactive material transportation
package even though General Atomics Company, the certificate
holder, did not request renewal at least 30 days before the
expiration of the Certificate of Compliance. Therefore, as
required by 10 CFR 51.21, the NRC is issuing this Environmental
Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact.
Environmental Assessment (EA) Identification of the Proposed
Action: Requirements for renewal of a certificate of compliance
are specified in 10 CFR 71.38. Specifically, 10 CFR 71.38(b)
states: In any case in which a person, not less than 30 days
before the expiration of an existing Certificate of Compliance or
Quality Assurance Program Approval issued pursuant to the part,
has filed an application in proper form for renewal of either of
those approvals, the existing Certificate of Compliance or
Quality Assurance Program Approval for which the renewal
application was filed shall not be deemed to have expired until
final action on the application for renewal has been taken by the
Commission.
Certificate of Compliance No. 6703, Revision No. 5, expired on
May 31, 1990. General Atomics Company requested renewal on May
29, 1990. Although the renewal application was dated before the
certificate expiration date, it was not at least 30 days before
expiration.
The certificate was deemed to have expired on May 31, 1990, and
NRC terminated use of the package by letter dated June 13, 1990,
stating that the termination was due to the late filing of the
application.
General Atomics Company by application dated February 26, 2004,
has again requested renewal of Certificate of Compliance No.
6703. Although this renewal application from General Atomics
Company is not timely, as defined in 71.38(b), NRC proposes to
renew Certificate of Compliance No. 6703 for approximately an
18-month period to authorize use of the package for the limited
shipments identified in the renewal application.
The Model No. RG-1 package is a radioisotope thermoelectric
generator (RTG). It is approximately cylindrical, is 18 inches
high, and has a base diameter of 14 inches. The package
incorporates a fixed radioactive source within a main housing
that is closed by a bolted closure flange. The radioactive source
is a maximum 8,300 curies of strontium-90 titanate doubly
encapsulated in a Type 304L stainless steel liner and Hastelloy C
capsule. The thermoelectric module, that converts the radioactive
heat source into low voltage electrical power, and uranium and
tungsten shields are also fixed within the main housing. The
package has an electrical connector, top end lifting lugs, and a
bottom flange used for package tie-down. The device is designed
to be transported and operated as an integral unit. It is
designed for marine use at sea depths which may result in
external pressures up to 10,000 psi. The package weighs
approximately 800 pounds. The Need for the Proposed Action: The
proposed exemption would allow renewal of Certificate of
Compliance No. 6703 for the Model No. RG-1 package for a limited
period of time (approximately 18 months) for the purpose of
authorizing the shipment of two packages from the General Atomics
Company site in San Diego, California, to the Los Alamos National
Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for storage and final
disposition.
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action: Continued use of
certain Type B packages previously-approved by the NRC (including
the Model No. RG-1 package) is authorized under general license
by the provisions in 71.13(a). Section 71.13 includes several
restrictions with respect to continued use of these packages,
including limited fabrication of new units (71.13(a)(1)) and
limited modifications to the package that can be authorized
(71.13(c)). Renewal of Certificate of Compliance No. 6703 would
allow continued use of this package, subject to the conditions
specified in 71.13, the general license provisions of 71.12, and
the Certificate of Compliance. The Certificate of Compliance will
be renewed for approximately an 18-month term that will expire on
September 30, 2005. The following condition will be included in
the renewed certificate: This certificate authorizes a one-time
shipment from General Atomics Company site in San Diego,
California, to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos,
New Mexico, for two packages (Serial Nos. -001 and -002). The
potential environmental impact of transporting radioactive
material pursuant to 10 CFR part 71 was initially presented in
the ``Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes,'' for the proposed
rule to amend 10 CFR part 71 (40 FR 23768(1977)). The
environmental statement was published in 1977 as NUREG-0170,
Volumes 1 and 2. A categorical exclusion for transportation
package approvals is given in 10 CFR 51.22(c)(13). NUREG-0170
included an evaluation of environmental impacts from three parts:
The radiological impact from normal, incident-free transport, the
risk of radiological effects from accidents involving vehicles
carrying radioactive materials, and all non-radiological impacts.
The principal unavoidable environmental effect was found to be
the population exposure resulting from normal transport of
radioactive materials. The much smaller risk from accidents that
have the potential for releasing radioactive material from
packages will always be present, but such accidents have a very
small probability of occurrence. The calculated, unavoidable
non-radiological impact resulting from transport amounts to about
two injuries and one fatality every five years, from
transportation accidents from all radioactive material transport.
Other non-radiological impacts such as the use of vehicle fuel
and other resources were found to be insignificant.
The assessment included impacts due to shipments such as the RG-1
package, that is, shipment of sealed, industrial sources within
accident- resistant packages.
The RG-1 package design was originally approved by NRC on
November 28, 1972. The Certificate of Compliance was subsequently
renewed on January 23, 1975; February 6, 1980; and May 30, 1985.
Although the renewal application in 1990 was filed late, there is
no indication that the renewal request would have been denied if
the application had been
[[Page 12186]] timely. No specific design or safety problems were
identified as contributing to the decision not to renew the
certificate.
Because it considered shipments similar to the shipments proposed
in the RG-1 package, it is concluded that the environmental
impacts of the proposed action would not change the potential
environmental effects assessed in the 10 CFR part 71 rulemaking
(40 FR 23768 (1977)). Therefore, the NRC has determined that
there will be no significant environmental impacts as a result of
approving the exemption for the one-time shipments of the two
Model No. RG-1 packages. Alternatives to the Proposed Action: The
following alternatives were identified that could eliminate the
need for an exemption to 71.38. The identified alternatives are:
(1) Denial of the exemption request (i.e., the ``no-action''
alternative), (2) repackaging the radioactive sources in an
alternative, certified transportation package, and (3)
repackaging the RG-1 device within a certified transportation
package i.e., overpacking the RG-1 package). The no-action
alternative would result in the sources remaining at the current
location for the indefinite future, since funding for recovery of
these sources is currently available, but may not continue to be
available indefinitely. This alternative would increase the
likelihood of loss of control of this radioactive material that
is currently stored at some expense from a facility that no
longer has a use for this material. It is judged that the sources
would eventually need to be transported from the facility, in
which case any environmental impacts associated with transport
will also be incurred. Therefore, it is concluded that the
no-action alternative is not desirable and does not reduce
environmental impact.
General Atomics Company has stated that it knows of no currently-
certified packagings that could be readily made available and
used to transport the sources. Other packages designed for the
transport of RTG sources are not suitable and cannot be used for
transporting sources designed for the RG-1 package. This is
because the sources and transport package, which also serves as
the RTG device housing and radiation shield, are designed as an
integral unit and are not intended to be separated for the useful
lifetime of the source. Other transportation packages that could
be used for these sources would likely need design modifications
to safely accommodate these sources, and the certificates of
compliance for these alternative packages would almost certainly
require amendment to authorize these specific sources. These
design and certificate changes would constitute a lengthy and
expensive process that would not result in an increase in safety
for these shipments. Transferring the sources from the RG-1
package would also require handling the ``bare'' sources, that
is, handling the sources outside of the package's radiation
shielding. This process can be accomplished; however, it is an
evolution that presents significant safety risk and potential
radiation exposure to workers. In addition, General Atomics
Company has decommissioned and dismantled its hot cell facility,
which would further complicate source removal. It is judged to be
desirable from a safety and environmental impact perspective to
limit the handling of the sources outside the shielded
configuration.
Handling the bare sources would not be required if the RG-1
package could be placed within another certified transportation
package. However, a package that can accommodate the RG-1 package
and is authorized for transport of the type of source in the RG-1
package does not currently exist.
It is therefore concluded that safety is enhanced if the RG-1
package is expeditiously shipped intact with its integral
sources.
Agencies and Persons Consulted: On March 1, 2004, Mr.
Richard Boyle, Chief of the Radioactive Materials Branch of the
U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Hazardous Materials
Technology, was contacted about the EA for the proposed action
and had no comments. In addition, on March 1, 2004, Mr. James
Shuler, Health Physicist, Office of Environmental Management,
U.S. Department of Energy, was also contacted and had no
comments. The NRC has determined that a consultation under
section 7 of the Endangered Species Act is not required because
the proposed action is administrative/procedural in nature and
will not affect listed species or critical habitat.
The NRC has also determined that the proposed action is not a
type of activity having the potential to cause effects on
historic properties because it is an administrative/procedural
action. Therefore, no further consultation is required under
section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.
Conclusion: Granting the exemption to the timely-renewal
provision that authorizes the shipments proposed in the Model No.
RG-1 package will result in insignificant environmental impact.
These shipments fall well within the number and types of
shipments considered in NUREG-0170, which found that the
transportation of radioactive materials in the U.S. results in
acceptably small radiological and non-radiological impacts.
Sources Used: 1. General Atomics application dated February 26,
2004, ML040650103.
2. ``Final Environmental Statement on the Transportation of
Radioactive Material by Air and Other Modes,'' NUREG-0170, Vols.
1 and 2, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC,
December 1977, ML022590265.
Finding of No Significant Impact The environmental impacts of the
proposed action have been reviewed in accordance with the
requirements set forth in 10 CFR part 51.
Based upon the foregoing EA, the Commission finds that the
proposed action of granting an exemption to 10 CFR 71.38(b) by
renewing Certificate of Compliance No. 6703 for limited shipments
without a timely application being filed will not significantly
impact the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the
Commission has determined that a Finding of No Significant Impact
is appropriate, and that an environmental impact statement for
the proposed exemption is not necessary.
For further details with respect to the exemption request, see
the General Atomics Company renewal application dated February
26, 2004. The renewal request and request for exemption was
docketed under 10 CFR part 71, Docket No. 71-6703. These
documents are available for public inspection at the Commission's
Public Document Room, One White Flint North Building, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD, or from the publicly available
records component of NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and
Management System (ADAMS). These documents may be accessed
through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet
at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
. If there are problems in accessing the documents located in
ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff
at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by e-mail at pdr@nrc.gov
[pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 3rd day of
March, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Nancy L. Osgood, Senior Project Manager, Spent Fuel Project
Office, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. E4-554 Filed 3-12-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
29 Japan Times: Fukui governor OKs use of MOX fuel
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
PUBLIC TRUST SAID REGAINED
FUKUI (Kyodo) The Fukui Prefectural Government effectively gave
the go-ahead Monday for restarting a process leading to Japan's
first use of reprocessed spent nuclear fuel for burning in
reactors.
Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa expressed his intention to allow
Kansai Electric Power Co. to manufacture overseas mixed
uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel for use in the No. 3 and No. 4
reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant.
Nishikawa said he will formally convey the prefecture's decision
to Kepco's president before the end of the week.
With the consent, Kepco is expected to sign a contract with an
overseas company by the end of this month on MOX production and
to actually introduce the fuel in the reactors in fiscal 2007,
starting in April that year, sources close to the utility said.
The governor said he decided to restart the MOX project, which
has been stalled since 1999 due to a safety data falsification
scandal, after Kepco took a series of measures last October to
prevent a recurrence of data falsification.
"We appreciate the measures taken by Kepco to regain the trust
of local residents," Nishikawa told a news conference.
The measures included stationing Kepco staff overseas to inspect
the MOX manufacturing process, establishing a double-checking
system to ensure that manufacturers strictly manage data on the
nuclear fuel, and asking third parties to verify the data.
Nishikawa also indicated the prefectural government will require
Kepco to submit reports on each stage of the inspection of
imported MOX fuel.
The national government and Riichi Imai, mayor of Takahama, which
hosts the nuclear plant, earlier endorsed the measures, which
prompted the prefecture to follow suit.
Some antinuclear groups reacted angrily to Nishikawa's
announcement. Green Action Kyoto submitted a petition to the
governor not to give a formal go-ahead for restarting Kepco's MOX
program.
The Kyoto-based group said measures taken by Kepco are still
insufficient to guarantee the safety of the MOX fuel to be
imported.
It also submitted a letter of protest to the prefectural
government, saying the governor's statement is an act of betrayal
for many local residents and the group will continue to take
action against the MOX program.
Since 1997, the national government has pushed for use of MOX at
conventional nuclear power reactors as a key to its policy of
recycling spent nuclear fuel.
Kepco's MOX plan was originally approved by the national
government in 1998 and by the Fukui Prefectural and Takahama
Municipal governments in June 1999.
But the plan stalled after the coverup scandal, which broke when
it was revealed in September 1999 that British Nuclear Fuels PLC
had doctored inspection data on MOX it had produced for the
Takahama plant. The imported MOX fuel was subsequently shipped
back to Britain.
Japanese power utilities, including Kepco and Tokyo Electric
Power Co., plan to introduce MOX as fuel at 16 to 18 nuclear
reactors by 2010.
The Japan Times: March 16, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
30 CBS News: Nukes For Sale
| March 15, 2004 13:49:30
(Photo: AP / CBS)
The fact is that any country with the means and the money has the
opportunity to build a nuclear weapons program.
CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton (Photo: CBS)
TESTING TIMETABLE
The last nuclear tests by known nuclear powers:
Russia
October 24, 1990
Britain
November 26, 1991
United States
September 23, 1992
France
January 27, 1996
China
July 29, 1996
India
May 13, 1998
Pakistan
May 30, 1998
(Israel is also widely believed to possess nuclear weapons but
is not known to have ever carried out a test)
(Sources: Council for a Livable World, Federation of American
Scientists)
(CBS) Tom Fenton, in his fourth decade with CBS News, has been
the networks' Senior European Correspondent since 1979. He
comments on international events from his "Listening Post" in
London:
A recent news item out of Africa should have rung alarm bells.
It was a brief government statement after a meeting between
Nigeria's chief of defense staff and Pakistan's top military
official.
The Nigerian general praised Pakistan's nuclear program; and the
chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, General Muhammad
Aziz Khan, offered "to assist Nigeria's armed forces to
strengthen its military capability and to acquire nuclear
power."
Nuclear power?
That rang an alarm bell somewhere. The Nigerian Defense Ministry
retracted the statement within hours and denied that there had
been any discussion between the two countries about nuclear
cooperation.
There was also a quick denial from Pakistan. A government
spokesman called it "a baseless story and a conspiracy to hurt
our image." The Pakistani military issued a statement: "Pakistan
is a responsible nuclear state. It fully understands its
obligation toward non-proliferation."
End of story? Pakistan hoped so
Nigerian officials are blabbermouths. Two months ago, they
announced that North Korea had offered to share missile
technology with them. North Korea quickly issued a denial.
The clear implication of the latest Nigerian slip of the lip is
that Pakistan, a key American ally in the war against terrorism,
is not only an admitted nuclear proliferater. It is a serial
proliferater that can't stop doing what comes naturally.
Nigeria is a relatively rich, oil-producing country. It also has
a growing Muslim population — just the sort of country that
Pakistan might be likely to offer nuclear "assistance." The list
of countries to which Pakistan has already transferred nuclear
technology includes Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea.
Some of this was well known by Western experts. Then, last
month, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear
weapons program, publicly confirmed it all in an 11-page
statement. Khan is a Pakistani national hero and was immediately
pardoned by Pakistan's military ruler, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf.
Musharraf said he had just learned that Khan had been selling
nuclear weapons technology since the 1980's without the
knowledge or approval of the government.
Almost no one believes that Khan could have been running a major
nuclear technology transfer business on his own. Gen. Musharraf
told me himself in January that Pakistan's nuclear weapons
program is so tightly controlled by the military that nothing
could go missing without his knowledge.
The Bush Administration has not made an issue of this
transparent fig leaf because Gen. Musharraf's position in
Pakistan is precarious, to say the least. He has been the target
of several recent assassination attempts. A decision by
Musharraf to punish Khan would have unleashed a wave of public
anger.
Khan is only the tip of the iceberg. An estimated 50,000
scientists and engineers work in Pakistan's civil and military
nuclear programs. The speedy pardon of Khan sent the worst
possible message to any who might be considering proliferating.
One who clearly was is Dr. Bashiruddin Mahmood, who was
associated with Pakistan's nuclear program for more than 30
years. Dr. Mahmood is a Muslim fundamentalist who believed that
the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan should serve as a model
for Pakistan.
Prior to September 11, 2001, he made visits to Afghanistan and
reportedly held "technical" discussions with Osama Bin Laden
about the manufacture of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons. After an investigation, the Pakistani government
decided in January 2002 not to press charges against Mahmoud. He
was let off with a minor reprimand.
In the field of nuclear proliferation, Pakistan is the worst
problem, but not the only problem.
Late last year, Iran was forced to admit it has a nuclear
program, but still insists it is intended only for electricity.
We now know that United Nations nuclear inspectors found traces
of weapons-grade uranium in Iran. The samples were found on
uranium enrichment equipment that had been imported from
middlemen in five different countries.
The recent revelations by Libya, after it decided to abandon its
own nuclear weapons program, show how widespread the problem is.
There is an international black market in the technology
required to manufacture the fissile material for a nuclear
weapon. Companies in both Southeast Asia and Western Europe have
been caught offering their wares in what amounts to a back
alley, nuclear know-how supermarket.
The fact is that any country with the means and the money has
the opportunity to build a nuclear weapons program. That should
not be forgotten in the current debate on weapons of mass
destruction.
By Tom Fenton
©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
31 WCAX-TV: Vermont Yankee Gets State Approval to Raise Power
Montpelier, Vermont, March 15, 2004
Entergy, the company that owns Vermont Yankee, has won state
permission to raise the power of the state's nuclear power plant.
. But there were a number of conditions, including a federal
review of the plant.
Currently Vermont Yankee can provide electricity to 510-thousand
homes....and it wants to boost its output by 20 percent. But
before that can happen it needs state and federal approval.
Monday, it got a boost from Vermont regulators. The Vermont
Public Service Board approved the upgrade. The board said in a
statement the upgrade " would promote the general good of the
state by providing additional power to the New England power grid
and economic benefits to Vermont."
But there were conditions on the approval--including that the
federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission "conduct an independent
engineering assessment of Vermont Yankee." and the board also
weighed in on where the money would go.
The state stands to get 20 million dollars from the upgrade..the
Douglas administration wanted it directed to a handful of
areas..including cleaning up Lake Champlain and the Connecticut
River. The board did not approve that..the board ruled the money
be paid to the general fund for distribution as determined by the
legislature and Governor. -3-
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2001 -
2004 WorldNow and WCAX. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
32 Implications of the Use of Depleted Uranium
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 19:27:46 -0600 (CST)
Forwarded with Compliments of Free Voice of America (FVOA): Accurate
News and Interesting Commentary for Amerika's Huddled Masses Yearning
to Breathe Free. NOTE: Thanks to Rick Davis for this tremendously
important information. -- kl, pp
Subject: Implications of the Use of U.S. Depleted Uranium
PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY, ESPECIALLY TO YOUR U.S. FRIENDS - DON NORDIN
The Implications of the Use of U.S. Depleted Uranium Weapons in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq
(Don Nordin's interview with Leuren Moret)
Hello, this is Don Nordin. You're listening to the Monday
Brownbagger (Vancouver Cooperative Radio - 102.7 fm) of February 23,
2004 and I will have on the line in a moment a guest from Berkeley.
Her name is Leuren Moret. She is an independent scientist and
international expert on radiation and public health issues. She is on
the organizing committee of the World Committee on Radiation Risk, an
organization of independent radiation specialists, including members
of the Radiation Committee in the EU parliament, the European
Committee on Radiation Risk. She is an environmental commissioner
for the City of Berkeley. Ms. Moret earned her BS in geology at U.C.
Davis in 1968 and her MA in Near Eastern studies from U.C. Berkeley
in 1978. She has completed all but her dissertation for a PhD in the
geosciences at U.C. Davis. She has traveled and conducted scientific
research in 42 countries. She wrote a scientific report on depleted
uranium for the United Nations sub commission investigating the
illegality of depleted uranium munitions. Marian Falk, a former
Manhattan Project scientist and retired insider at the Livermore Lab,
who is an expert on radioactive fallout and rainout, has trained her
on radiation issues.
(Don) So let's get into it. I'll ask you to tell the folks what
depleted uranium is.
(Leuren) Depleted uranium basically is the radioactive trash from
the nuclear weapons and the nuclear power plant programs, and three
isotopes of uranium occur in nature, so when it is mined those three
isotopes are extracted from the ore. The DU is about 99.9% U-238,
0.72% U-235 that is the fissionable isotope used in nuclear bombs and
reactor fuel, and there's just a trace of U-234 left in a tenth of a
percent of the remainder. So what they do is they make a gas out of
it, and they extract half a percent of the U-235 and what is left,
which is 99.95% of what they mine, is called depleted uranium because
it is depleted in U-235. It does not mean that it is depleted in
radioactivity; it's actually very radioactive.
(Don) What kind of a half-life do these constituents of the depleted
uranium have?
(Leuren) The half life of U-238, which is the majority of what we're
talking about, is 4.5 billion years and it's actually a component of
meteorites, planets, stars, space dust and it is distributed
throughout the earth at about 2.4 parts per million, and because it
is radioactive, it releases tiny amounts of heat over time and that
is why we have a liquid or molten interior in the earth. It's from
the decay of U-238.
(Don) Do you have any idea of how much depleted uranium the U.S. has
in its national inventory?
(Leuren) Yes, the U.S. has about a million tons of depleted uranium.
Most of it is stored in canisters as uranium hexafluoride, and it's
just really an environmental problem. There is no place to dispose
of it so in 1974, against the advice of the Department of Energy,
the Department of Defense began testing and manufacturing weapons
made out of DU and the first system was manufactured by Hughes
Aircraft. It was called the Phalanx System developed by the Navy and
within six months of the Navy testing it, they had sold it to 14
branches of the U.S. military and other countries. We have now sold
DU weapons systems to 29 countries.
(Don) In what kind of weapons is this DU used?
(Leuren) Well, depleted uranium is made in every caliber [and used
in projectiles] for handguns, tanks, cannons, all the way up to large
bombs weighing more than 5,000 lbs [and also used in the body of] the
Warthog airplane. So everything from handguns to bombs practically
has...many have conventional weapons for ammunition but they also
have them in depleted uranium. A lot of systems are interchangeable.
You can put a DU warhead in a bomb or a conventional warhead in the
same bomb.
(Don) Did I hear you say they're using depleted uranium in the
actual airplanes themselves?
(Leuren) Oh, yeah. The US Air Force and the US Army are the largest
users of depleted uranium. For instance, [DU is] very, very
frequently used in the A-10 Warthog, but other [military] planes, and
weapons systems carried by many planes, have DU.
(Don) Now why would they use it in the construction of an airplane itself?
(Leuren) Oh, depleted uranium or uranium metal is nearly twice as
dense as lead and so instead of using larger amounts of a dense
material like lead, they can use smaller amounts of depleted uranium
as ballast in planes, so they use it in commercial planes and in
military planes as ballast along the wings and the tail to balance
the plane. [It's] very similar to the lead lugs they put on tires
when we go and get our tires balanced.
(Don) Well, I guess, anyway, the DU being in the wings and tail
wouldn't be of any significant threat to the occupants of the plane
itself.
(Leuren) It's not to the occupants of the plane; it is to crash site
investigators when a plane crashes. There was depleted uranium in
whatever hit the Pentagon on 9-11 and I'm the only journalist in the
world who even wrote an article about it. The German science journal
Nature picked up my article and actually wrote its own [article]
based on the interviews I did. It's used in golf clubs
it's used in
many, many surprising things and because there is so much of it,
which the Department of Energy has, they're trying to find ways to
dispose of it. And there are proposals now to put it inside building
blocks to construct buildings with. So if this continues we'll be
living in radioactive buildings and then the terrible thing is that
when the aluminum from planes or the metal from planes is recycled,
the DU is not removed, so the metal that is re-manufactured will
contain radioactive DU mixed in with it.
(Don) Now, of this one million tons of depleted uranium in the
United States
how is that stored?
(Leuren) Oh, it's stored at, for instance, Oakridge, Tennessee.
There's a big nuclear weapons lab facility there and it's stored as
uranium hexafluoride gas in huge drums, and they're just stacked
outside on top of each other. It's also stored at Portsmouth, Ohio
and other locations--Hanford in Washington State.
(Don) So the storage issue itself must be quite problematic.
(Leuren) It's very problematic and the canisters that it's stored
in, the big drums, are subject to corrosion on the outside and the
barrels that are stored closest to the ground and subjected to
moisture and heat and bacterial action corrode faster.
(Don) Now, in the bombs that were dropped on Iraq and Afghanistan,
what percentage of depleted uranium would be typically used in those
bombs?
(Leuren) That's a classified piece of information, but I would
suspect that much of [the bombs' weight] is the depleted uranium
ballast, and because it's so dense and heavy, as it falls there's a
lot of kinetic energy [produced] and when it hits the ground or when
a uranium shell hits a target, that kinetic energy is converted into
heat. So when the bomb hits the ground, you can actually identify
depleted uranium bombs because the uranium is very hot. Probably some
of it is liquid or molten and there is a shower of tiny pieces of
depleted uranium that are on fire. It splutters all over the place
and at least 70% is aerosolized into particles and fumes and dust of
radioactive depleted uranium oxides that are smaller than bacteria or
viruses. These [particles] are hundreds and thousands of times
smaller than blood cells, so it's inhaled by anyone in the
contaminated areas, both enemy and our own soldiers. And [those
particles] go directly into the bloodstream and are distributed like
fairy dust throughout the body. And it's insoluble so the body
cannot excrete it and it just destroys a person's body over time.
(Don) So it's likely that practically all the individuals, let's say
in Baghdad including the U.S. Marines, are contaminated with depleted
uranium now.
(Leuren) Anyone within 1,000 miles of Iraq; anyone within 1,000
miles of Afghanistan is potentially contaminated now. It's not just
the people [living] in the country. Anyone going to Iraq or
Afghanistan now will become contaminated. There's no way to escape
it.
(Don) Now, for the average soldier over there, what types of
reactions would this likely be causing in the body?
(Leuren) In the first Gulf War they used an estimated 340 or 350
tons of DU and the amount used is increasing every year. So there
were terrible effects from that [which people know as] the Gulf War
Syndrome. In Afghanistan a thousand tons were used, three times as
much. The entire country, the water supplies, the infrastructure were
bombed, and now in last March and April they used at least 2,200
tons, which is eight to ten times more than what they used in Gulf
War One, and like Afghanistan, they bombed the whole country, the
towns, the cities, the villages, the water supplies, the whole
infrastructure of the country. So civilians and soldiers will be
experiencing skin rashes, which is the heavy metal effect; they will
have dental problems, respiratory problems. It's causing heart damage
and brain damage. The effects will be much more severe and much
faster now than what we know of in Afghanistan or the first Gulf War
in 1991.
In Kuwait, which is downwind [of Iraq], and DU was used in Kuwait,
doctors are reporting three times the number of congenital heart
problems with newborn babies. Those are the birth defects.
Gulf War soldiers who served in 1991 had normal babies before the
Gulf War. [In a study of 251 Gulf War veterans by the Department of
Veterans Affairs, it was determined that 67% of the babies born to
soldiers after the Gulf War had severe birth defects]. They were born
without brains, without eyes, [with] organs missing, without legs or
arms, or they had terrible radiation related blood diseases for
instance.
(Don) How many years is this effect likely to go on?
(Leuren) It will be forever. The half life of depleted uranium is 4
and a half billion years, but even worse, over time as the
Uranium-238 decays, it transforms four times into much more
radioactive daughter products or daughter isotopes and they are more
radioactive than uranium-238 by millions and billions of times, so
the level of radioactivity will increase over time, and that's why we
call depleted uranium the Trojan Horse of Nuclear War. Depleted
uranium is a nuclear weapon and it is a weapon of mass destruction
under the U.S. government definition of WMDs.
(Don) Now you have done some comparison, I believe, as to the
radiation effects from the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in relation to
the radiation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Would you like to talk about
that?
(Leuren) Yes. In October 16 to 19, 2003 there was a very, very
excellent and very important world conference on depleted uranium
weapons held in Hamburg, Germany. Two hundred people from 20
countries and five continents attended [including] scientific,
medical, legal experts, organizers, and activists and there were also
Iraqi medical doctors and scientists there. And I've never been to a
conference like that. It was very, very interesting, very informative
and sometimes difficult to have all of the affected parties involved.
But some of the talks presented very important facts, and a Japanese
physicist, professor Yagasaki from Okinawa, presented one of them.
He had calculated the atomicity equivalent of the Nagasaki bomb to
depleted uranium, and the atomicity means the number of radioactive
atoms. So he calculated that 800 tons of depleted uranium is the
atomicity equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. So [the total
atomicity], roughly estimating the amount of depleted uranium weapons
used in Afghanistan and Iraq and former Yugoslavia, is approximately
equivalent to 400,000 Nagasaki bombs. In all of the testing by the
nuclear states during the Cold War, the [atomicity] equivalent of
only 40,000 [Nagasaki] bombs was [produced], so this is roughly ten
times the amount of radiation that was released during nuclear
weapons testing. This is just an absolutely horrendous amount of
radiation.
The U.S. has staged a nuclear war in Iraq and in the Middle East and
Central Asia, and the northern half of India all the way through
Turkey and Iran and the Russian oil-rich states, the Caspian oil
region, and half of Egypt, Israel and the Saudi Arabian peninsula.
These areas are now all contaminated.
(Don) There are measurable signs of depleted uranium in those countries?
(Leuren) There was before. There was in the Saudi Arabian
peninsula, Kuwait, Hungary, Greece--this was all reported after the
1991 bombing. Over time, [with] these very dry climates, the extreme
dust storms and wind storms transport the radioactive material. The
dust, as atmospheric dust, [is] scattered all over Europe. It's
transported across the Atlantic to North Carolina and the southern
United States coastal areas, the Caribbean, and these dust storms
carry sand all over Europe. I've lived in England in the 1960s and
70s, and sometimes Sahara dust was on our windshields in the morning
in the streets. It's known from mediaeval times.
(Don) So it seems to me that, especially now and in future years,
not so future either, with the lowering of our quality of food and of
our immune system, that even in the fringe areas and areas around the
world where there's not so much of this dust, that DU is going to
have an effect on [the number of] cancer deaths.
(Leuren) Well I am a geoscientist, so I study the earth and earth
processes. [I do] research at U.C. Davis--I haven't finished my
dissertation yet, but my research has been on atmospheric dust. I
was studying the ice record, glaciers on the top of the Andes and
Greenland and Antarctica and on top of the Himalayas, Mount
Kilimanjaro in Africa, and [the study of] these ice records on
glaciers are like the study of tree rings. They have an annual record
of the dust transported around the world and also atmospheric gases,
and the radiation released each year is preserved in each layer of
ice. So we know from volcanic eruptions, like Mount Pinatubo in the
Philippines, that the dust from volcanoes, the volcanic dust and ash,
is globally mixed throughout the entire atmosphere in one year. So
whatever they have been bombing with is, in one year, globally mixed
throughout the entire atmosphere.
And right now the world is in a global cancer epidemic and other
radiation related diseases, which is a result of the Cold War weapons
testing. We've added ten times as much radiation to the Middle East
and Central Asia. Much of it will remain in the area recycling
through the waters, the dust, the food, and the air. It's
inescapable. But a lot of it will also be transported throughout the
world. And remember that cancer starts with a single atom of
uranium, a single alpha particle or gamma ray released from one atom
under the right conditions. So it doesn't just affect humans, it
affects all life. Everything will mutate, will be affected, if it's
exposed under the right conditions.
(Don) Well, the question that comes to mind is: Do the people who
are waging war against the world in the United States and those that
are releasing depleted uranium to be used in these weapons, realize
the effects of depleted uranium on the environment and on people?
(Leuren) Of course. The United States has since spent 300 billion
dollars-that's a conservative estimate up to 1995-on nuclear weapons
development. I worked at two nuclear weapons laboratories: The
Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and the Lawrence Livermore Lab. This entire
time they have conducted detailed and very extensive studies on the
biological effects of radiation. They absolutely know everything
about the impact on the environment and on human health of what they
are doing, and when I worked at Livermore from 1989 to '91, [before]
I finally walked out one day and became a whistleblower, I watched
teams of radiation experts leaving that lab monthly, weekly, yearly
traveling to radioactive contaminated sites all over the world,
taking collections of plant materials and living materials like the
fish out of the rivers or the lagoons. [They also studied] the human
guinea pigs, people at Chernobyl, at the Pacific Islands where
nuclear weapons were tested and even Americans [in the] the nuclear
weapons program and the nuclear power plant program. They have
special laboratories at Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab and Livermore.
They have special units with instruments to measure the radiation and
samples, freezers to keep the samples in, and in the labs that I've
worked in, there are charts with defective sperm on the walls. I
remember walking by them every day. They know everything.
(Don) So if they know the effects of depleted uranium on people,
does that not then make them the highest type of war criminals?
(Leuren) These are the highest types of war criminals. These people
have developed weapons of mass destruction knowing full well what the
health and environmental effects are, and they have spent tremendous
amounts of money and effort to hide this from not just the American
people, but from the global community. They have constructed a huge
and a very connected apparatus of scientists, scientific journals,
medical professionals, academic institutions, secret radiation labs,
and nuclear weapons laboratories. We have over 550 national
laboratories in the United States-I think the number has been reduced
maybe to 250, but there were over 3,500 facilities in the United
States, which functioned as part of the nuclear weapons complex.
There's no way that they don't know everything and the international
nuclear-I call them the nuclear Mafia-has mostly been controlled by
the United States. It's all to hide the health and environmental
effects.
(Don) They seem not to be only the highest types of criminals, but
they seem to be insane. I mean only an insane...
(Leuren) It's a culture of insanity! You're absolutely right. I
worked at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. I saw people go to work
every day. Their friends were dying of cancer. Some of them had
cancer. You know that a nuclear weapons lab paycheck is about 30 to
40% more than scientists would make in a private sector academia. So
people get addicted to that money and their wives die of brain
cancer. Their children die of leukemia and they still go to work
every day.
(Don) Yeah, George W.'s son and progeny are going to be affected for all
time.
(Leuren) George Bush Jr., our president now, he and all of his
siblings have learning disabilities as a result of being exposed to
nuclear weapons testing fallout during the Cold War. And his toddler
sister died of leukemia when she was just a couple of years old. His
whole family has been affected by nuclear weapons testing. This is
the insanity of it. They do it anyway.
(Don) Yeah, it doesn't bode very well to be ruled by people that are
brain cell deficient, that's for sure.
(Leuren) Well, it's had a tremendous effect on the I.Q. and the
learning ability of all American children. The SAT scores, the
average SAT scores for the entire population of 18 year-olds,
teenagers in their last year of high school when they are given the
SAT tests, declined from 475 which was the average score for 20 years
before bomb testing started and it started in about 1946. By 1963 the
SAT scores for children born that year, [those children] exposed in
utero to the radiation and receiving brain damage, [declined
nationwide] to 425. As soon as the test ban treaty was signed
between the U.S. and Russia in 1963, SAT scores started going up
again. But what the United States did was sacrifice an entire
generation of children to test nuclear weapons. The same thing is
happening now because of nuclear power plants and one out of twelve
children have learning disabilities in the U.S. What cost is that to
our society?
(Don) Hasn't Baghdad, and maybe even the whole country of Iraq, been
made virtually an area that is not suitable for living in now?
(Leuren) Oh, and the regions within a thousand miles. The Middle
East and Central Asia are radioactive. People shouldn't be living
there; nothing should be living there. And I began to read--I
couldn't believe it--when I started researching it, I just couldn't
believe it. I couldn't believe what had happened. I couldn't
believe they were using depleted uranium in the amounts they were
using. And when that Japanese professor calculated the atomicity
equivalent of Nagasaki bombs, I started making maps of the areas
contaminated and when I saw the map with circles drawn around
Afghanistan and Iraq with a one thousand mile radius, I knew there
was a deeper purpose. But I still couldn't understand why they'd
used it. No other country has used it. The U.S. broke a 46-year
taboo in 1991 and used it. No other countries have used it since
then.
There has to be a reason, and I began to read The Grand Chessboard
by Brzezinski. Anyway he, Zbigniew Brzezinski--it's called The Grand
Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geo-strategic Imperative--wrote
it in 1998 but it's a blueprint, absolutely, for U.S. foreign policy
being carried out in Central Asia and the Middle East. And they have
basically bombed the major oil rich regions in the Eurasian area.
This is not going to stop. It's going to continue.
Call-In Portion of Interview
(Caller #1) Listening to your guest. Great topic. Good guest!
I've just got a few things to say. I was just thinking about this.
I think you are absolutely right when you say that the people who
are doing these kind of things to humanity, there is no other reason:
they must either just be insane or incredibly sinister and perhaps
another reason exists that maybe we don't really think about. Has
anyone ever thought that maybe these leaders, these mad bombers and
serial killers such as George W. Bush and his father-what about the
theory that these people are really reptilians from another dimension
or planet perhaps who have invaded our human areas and who are
carrying out their own agenda?
(Don) Well I don't know if I'd like to degrade the reptilian race by
saying they're reptilians. (Laugh)
(Caller #1) OK. I don't know what other reason exists other than I
didn't realize people are [so] completely sinister and I throw in a
guy like George W. Bush, of course. But I'll just hang up now and
listen to your comments and perhaps your guest's comments. Thank you.
(Caller #2) Well, I'd just like to discuss for example Helen
Caldicott, who has been active in struggling against nuclear weapons
proliferation, and there are groups out there struggling against
radiation and all different types of organizations fighting to reduce
the amount of damage done through militarism and international
aggression and so on. But there seems to be a real lack of
democratic decision-making processes within these organizations.
(Don) That's for sure.
(Caller #2) Yeah. There is very little in the way of public
involvement and there is virtually no democratic decision-making that
is taking place just based on the empirical information relevant to
the decisions to be made, rather than the persuasive, coercive
influence of leadership elements and PR firms, advertising agencies,
media organizations, and different groups within these organizations.
I wonder if maybe she could speak to that, if there is any
organization she's aware of that are more democratic?
(Caller #3) I just had a question for Leuren. I was wondering which
countries in Europe would be safe from contamination? Where would it
be safe to visit?
(Don) I think she's said that basically the whole world is
contaminated but it's just to a lesser degree. I would imagine that
there's a gradual [reduction] of radioactivity away from the central
bombing areas, but we'll go back to Leuren.
(Leuren) In terms of less contaminated areas, I would think Europe
would be OK. Turkey is in the region of potential contamination and,
if you are going for short visits, you have a better chance of not
becoming contaminated. Of course there is no safe level of radiation
exposure, but the people living in these regions, chronically exposed
24 hours a day to air borne [and] water borne [radiation], and [to]
food contaminated with radiation, will be the most affected. It's
just everywhere.
It's really, I think, the greatest tragedy that humanity has faced.
So I feel terrible about people who went to Iraq as human shields, to
media who were there-they're all contaminated. And when I was in
Japan last summer I met the human shield people from Japan-they're
sick with depleted uranium exposure and over time it just continues
to act in the body. So people really need to think about where they
are going and be aware of the potential risk.
Now the other question the gentleman had about this need for
openness and democracy in the decision-making process [concerning]
the nuclear weapons program, nuclear power plants, and now the DU,
because it's all the same-it's alpha, beta, or gamma exposure
internally whether it's coming out of nuclear weapons, nuclear power
plants, or depleted uranium or the radioactive weapons. The problem
is that the secrecy has allowed these programs to be developed when
they do tremendous harm to human health and all species, as well as
the impact on the environment.
And right now the United States is gearing up for a nuclear war. We
now have nuclear weapons spending at the highest level ever-even
[than] during the Cold War. It's higher now than during the Cold War
and the United States has no enemies. This is causing other countries
to also increase nuclear weapons development and what I was shocked
to discover in my research is that Japan and Germany are now tied in
second place. They have passed Russia in nuclear weapons
development. And the deeper purpose for all of this is to play
nuclear blackmail and to frighten other countries into developing
their nuclear weapons and thinking they need them. For instance,
India is afraid of Pakistan. Pakistan is afraid of India. Japan is
afraid of North Korea. North Korea is afraid of South Korea. So
everyone is developing nuclear weapons and what's really happening is
the US is manipulating these countries rimming China to develop
nuclear weapons programs and we are enticing them to be our nuclear
partners with China as a common and the real enemy.
(Don) I have so many more questions to ask you. One of the ones I
wanted to ask is, what about the groundwater? Is that going to be
contaminated for all time and how far away [from the areas of
conflict] would it be contaminated?
(Leuren) The groundwater is contaminated of course. Over time, as
the leftover bullets and ammunition that did not burn degrade and
weather with the heat, and [with] the cold and seasonal changes-rain,
snow, and the wind-[depleted uranium contamination] migrates into the
groundwater. So there's just a constant new supply of depleted
uranium oxides and metal which will be released into the air and
migrate through the ground into the groundwater.
A study that the United Nations Environmental Program released last
March 2003 reported that 25% of the bare metal, uranium bullets and
weapons in the soil in Yugoslavia, had dissolved since 1998. So if
25% of the munitions buried in the ground dissolved in four or five
years in a wet climate, it will be slower in desert areas, but it's
going to continue contaminating groundwater, soil, food and air.
(Don) And I think-you have mentioned that these particles go down
into very fine sizes, so [I would imagine] there's no way they can be
filtered out of the water.
(Leuren) There's no way to filter it out. It goes through all gas
masks. It goes through all filters. These particles are a tenth of a
micron or smaller. A red blood cell is seven microns and a white
blood cell is about ten microns, so they are much, much smaller than
even blood cells.
(Don) Before we wrap it up, I would like you to give us contacts on
the website where people can find more information.
(Leuren) People can go to an excellent website:
http://www.mindfully.org
and just do a Google search on my name, Moret.
They can also go to:
http://www.traprockpeace.org That's the Traprock Peace Center in
Connecticut. They have an excellent website. Lots of people get a
lot of good information from it and they have a lot of information on
depleted uranium.
Those are probably the two best websites that I know of.
There's a letter to Congressman McDermott that I wrote. They could
do a Google search on "letter to McDermott". He's a Congressman from
Seattle, Washington who has introduced a bill in Congress, and I
wrote him a letter with a lot of details. The attachments and the
references are also on the website with a letter. That's on the
mindfully.org website, and then [there's] my testimony for the
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan of December 13, 2003,
which is also on the mindfully.org website. That [testimony] has
fourteen questions that the prosecutor sent me to answer, and there
are questions like: What does the U.S. government know about DU? (My
answer was twelve pages long). What is the connection between
depleted uranium and fourth generation nuclear weapons? And then,
what are the environmental and human effects?
(Don) What I think has to happen is [that] some organizations in
Vancouver have to get together and bring you into Vancouver for a
large meeting.
(Don asks remaining callers to give comments only)
(Caller #4) Well I was wondering about the possibility of certain
plants being used to decontaminate the human body and [the] possible
development of bacteria that might be used for that purpose also?
(Don) I was asking for comments. We don't have time for questions now.
(Caller #4) Well my comment is that it is one big inhumane,
parasitic, military-industrial, ecocidal and social atrocity.
(Don) Thank you.
`
Last comment of Leuren Moret:
(Leuren) I would like to read a quote from Henry Kissinger.
"Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in
foreign policy". This is what the elite believe about our military.
I am now working with an international group of scientists and
radiation experts. We are forming a World Committee on Radiation
Risks comprised of honest researchers to help citizens, elected
officials, affected populations and individuals to learn the truth
about radiation, and to work toward an international moratorium on
depleted uranium and other radioactive weapons. So watch for us.
The European Committee on Radiation Risk, within the European
Parliament, has just published an excellent report on low-level
radiation and you can get it at:
http://www.euradcom.org
And now the citizens of the world, the scientists of the world, the
radiation experts of the world--we have to all work together and it's
not hopeless. But people need good information.
=======================================================================
*****************************************************************
33 [DU-WATCH] Soldiers Denied Health Care
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:59:50 -0600 (CST)
[Obviously, the US miliotary has something very embarassing to hide. One
thing is over 30 thousand soldiers evacuated for "nono-combat" reasons.
Another is possible radiation illness. If the US military had clear
conscience, but shortage of doctors, a logical thing to do would be to
release the ill soldeires to their communities to be cared by local doctors
and families. - PB]
1. Soldier Denied Health Care After Speaking with Journalist
2. Sick Soldiers Wait for Treatment
3. Sick, Wounded U.S. Troops Held in Squalor
---------
4. From a soldier (?): Iraqi Chemicals and symptoms
Soldier Denied Health Care After Speaking with Journalist
Mark Benjamin
United Press International
http://www.upi.com
Posted 3/3/2004
Summary: Congress, veterans groups, and the press should immediately launch
a full investigation into this Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran's allegation
he suffered retaliation from the military for speaking with reporters about
substandard military healthcare. A series of three UPI articles about this
major scandal are posted here. They describe the "squalor" more than 1,000
wounded, ill, or injured service members were forced to endure while on
"medical hold."
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
GI Denied Health Care After Speaking Out
March 2, 2004, WASHINGTON -- An Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran says Army
officials at Fort Knox, Ky., refused him medical treatment after he talked
publicly about poor care at the base, which helped spark hearings in
Congress.
Fort Knox officials charged that soldier, Lt. Jullian Goodrum, with being
absent without leave and cut off his pay after he then went to a private
doctor who hospitalized him for serious mental stress from Iraq, Goodrum
said.
"They are coming after me pretty bad," said Goodrum, 33, a veteran who has
served the military for more than 14 years, including the first Gulf War and
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
He showed United Press International a form from Fort Knox that states that
Fort Knox officials "do not want him in medical hold." Some soldiers are
kept on medical hold during treatment while the Army determines their
status.
Goodrum has now been hospitalized in a locked mental ward at the Walter Reed
Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. after turning himself in there Feb.
9. Doctors there say he has post-traumatic stress disorder from Iraq and
major depression, and they worry he could hurt himself. He is not allowed to
go down the hall from the inpatient psychiatric clinic for a Coke without an
escort.
Goodrum said stress from Iraq, and the way he has been treated by the
military since he returned, has made him so depressed he is lucky to be
alive. He also has injuries to both wrists, in part from loading 65-pound
shells on the USS Missouri when he was in the Navy in the first Gulf War.
The ship pounded Iraqi troops in Kuwait and took fire from Iraqi tanks. An
Iraqi Silkworm missile missed her bow by 30 yards.
Goodrum appeared in an Oct. 29 UPI (see full article below) about more than
400 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox who were waiting weeks and
sometimes months for medical treatment.
That article, and an article on a similar situation at Fort Stewart, Ga.,
sparked a series of hearings in Congress -- including a Jan. 21 appearance
by Col. Keith Armstrong, garrison commander at Fort Knox, before a panel of
the House Armed Services Committee.
Fort Knox spokeswoman Connie Shaffery said privacy rules prohibit her from
commenting on Goodrum's case, unless he signed a waiver saying otherwise. He
declined. Shaffery said a soldier who does not show up for duty is absent
without leave.
"If a soldier is not at his or her duty station and is not in an authorized
leave or pass status, he is absent without leave," Shaffery said. "When a
soldier is listed as AWOL, it stops all pay and benefits. When instructed to
return and they do not comply, that is a violation."
After appearing in the UPI article on Oct. 29, Goodrum asked for medical
care on or about Nov. 7. He said he told Fort Knox officials that he was
having a breakdown.
"I said I was having problems. I told them I felt like I was having a
breakdown right there," Goodrum said. Goodrum said Fort Knox told him to go
away. A handwritten note in Goodrum's records from Nov. 7 says, "Colonel
Stevens do (sic) not want this patient to be in medical hold."
Goodrum said he then drove down an interstate highway at 5 miles an hour
through rushing traffic. He said he was completely dysfunctional because of
a combination of PTSD and what he says was retribution from his chain of
command for speaking up about poor medical care at the base. He said he
could have wound up dead.
"A truck could have run right over me," Goodrum said about that day. "It was
a complete nervous breakdown."
Goodrum, a member of the Army Reserve, was named the 176th Maintenance
Battalion's "Soldier of the Year" in 2001. He has received a host of awards,
including the combat action ribbon, and positive reviews from superior
officers.
"Lt. Goodrum is a truly outstanding junior officer," reads one performance
evaluation from 2002. "In addition to his technical competence, he
demonstrates great leadership potential. ... Promote to captain and select
for advance military schooling."
Goodrum said his problems began in Iraq, working under combat conditions in
a transportation company. There, he said, safety violations -- including the
use of "deadlined" or broken vehicles -- resulted in the death of a 22-year
old soldier. Goodrum appealed to the Army's Inspector General and Congress
when he returned home.
After Goodrum sought medical help at Fort Knox on Nov. 7 and was denied,
Goodrum's civilian doctor hospitalized him for PTSD and alerted Fort Knox.
Dr. Vijay Jethanandani wrote Fort Knox Nov. 15 that Goodrum needed medical
leave until Dec. 7. The doctor kept officials there up to date on Goodrum's
condition in a series of five letters.
"Unfortunately, recent intimidation, threats of being arrested for staying
on medical leave from his superiors has resulted in recurrent psychiatric
symptoms," Jethanandani wrote Dec. 3. "Until 11/26/03, Mr. Jullian Goodrum
was progressing fairly well."
"It does not help that Mr. Goodrum was in combat with a unit in Iraq, where
a superior officer ignored safety protocol jeopardizing the safety of
soldiers and resulting in the death of one man," Jethanandani wrote.
"Instead of following up on his complaints, it appears that some of his
superiors on stateside may be penalizing him for reporting his superior
officer in Iraq."
In the wake of the Fort Stewart and Fort Knox stories, last fall
Undersecretary of Defense David S.C. Chu ordered that if medical care is not
available on base, "medical commanders shall promptly refer patients to
other military, Veteran Affairs, or civilian sources of care."
Goodrum said he showed Chu's memo to Fort Knox officials, but it did not
help. "I told them they were ignoring an order from the undersecretary of
Defense," Goodrum said.
Goodrum's medical files shows that Walter Reed medical staff also have been
unable to get Fort Knox medical officials to discuss his case. "Patient is
currently assigned to the medical hold company in Fort Knox, Ky., and to a
Capt. Savage. Capt. Savage has NOT returned any phone calls from this
office," his record states.
Soldiers at Fort Knox contacted UPI about another situation they consider a
sign of poor care.
On Feb. 11, a soldier on medical hold at Fort Knox who served in Iraq
apparently attempted suicide in the barracks. He was attached to a Special
Forces unit in Iraq.
Soldiers there said he deeply slashed both of his wrists, spraying blood in
the barracks hallway and around his room before being rushed to the
hospital.
"If it was not for about three guys, if they had not applied direct pressure
and immediate pressure, he would have died," said a soldier at Fort Knox who
knows him.
Soldiers said they worry that Army officials did not act aggressively to
address his problems, including heavy drinking, that appear to have surfaced
since Iraq.
Shaffery said she could not comment on that case, either. "We are sensitive
to psychiatric or suicide issues with all of our population," she said.
2222222222222222222222222222222222
Sick Soldiers Wait for Treatment
October 29, 2003, FORT KNOX, Ky. -- More than 400 sick and injured soldiers,
including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort
Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of
soldiers said in interviews.
The delays appear to have demolished morale -- many said they had lost faith
in the Army and would not serve again -- and could jeopardize some soldiers'
health, the soldiers said.
The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls
"medical hold," like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances (see
full article below) waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.
The apparent lack of care at both locations raises the specter that Reserve
and Guard soldiers, including many who returned from Iraq, could be
languishing at locations across the country, according to Senate
investigators.
Representatives from the office of Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., were at Fort Knox
Wednesday looking into conditions at the post.
Following reports from Fort Stewart, Senate investigators said that the
medical system at that post was overwhelmed and they were looking into
whether the situation was Army-wide.
Army officials at the Pentagon said they are investigating that possibility.
"We are absolutely taking a look at this across the Army and not just at
Fort Stewart," Army spokesman Joe Burlas said Wednesday.
"I joined to serve my country," said Cpl. Waymond Boyd, 34. He served in
Iraq with the National Guard's 1175 Transportation Company. He has been in
medical hold since the end of July.
"It doesn't make any sense to go over there and risk your life and come back
to this," Boyd said. "It ain't fair and it ain't right. I used to be
patriotic." He has served the military for 15 years.
Boyd's knee and wrist injuries were severe enough that he was evacuated to
Germany at the end of July and then sent to Fort Knox. His medical records
show doctor appointments around four weeks apart. He said it took him almost
two months to get a cast for his wrist, which is so weak he can't lift 5
pounds or play with his two children. He is taking painkilling drugs and
walks with a cane with some difficulty.
Many soldiers at Fort Knox said their injuries and illnesses occurred in
Iraq. Some said the rigors of war exacerbated health problems that probably
should have prevented them from going in the first place.
Boyd's X-rays appear to show the damage to his wrist but also bone spurs in
his feet that are noted in his medical record before being deployed, but the
records say "no health problems noted" before he left.
"I don't think I was medically fit to go. But they said 'go.' That is my
job," Boyd said.
Fort Knox Public Affairs Officer Connie Shaffery said, "Taking care of
patients is our priority." Soldiers see specialists within 28 days, Shaffery
said and Fort Knox officials hope to cut that time lag.
"I think that we would like for all the soldiers to get care as soon as
possible," Shaffery said.
Shaffery said of the 422 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox, 369 did not
deploy to Operation Iraqi Freedom because of their illnesses. Around
two-thirds of the soldiers at Fort Stewart did serve in Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
Soldiers at Fort Knox describe strange clusters of heart problems and
breathing problems, as did soldiers at Fort Stewart and other locations.
Command Sgt. Major Glen Talley, 57, is in the hospital at Fort Knox for
heart problems, clotting blood and Graves' disease, a thyroid disorder. All
of the problems became apparent after he went to war in April, he says. He
is a reservist.
Talley said he was moved to Fort Knox on Oct. 16 and had not seen a doctor
yet, only a physician's assistant. His next appointment with an
endocrinologist was scheduled for Dec. 30.
"I don't mind serving my country," Talley said. "I just hate what they are
doing to me now." Talley has served for 30 years. He was awarded two Purple
Hearts in Vietnam.
Sgt. Buena Montgomery has breathing problems since serving in Operation
Iraqi Freedom. She said she has been able to get to doctors but worries
about many others who have not.
"The Army did not prepare for the proper medical care for the soldiers that
they knew were going to come back from this war," Montgomery said. "Now the
Army needs to step up to the plate and fix this problem."
In nearly two dozen interviews conducted over three days, soldiers also
described substandard living conditions -- though they said conditions had
improved recently.
A UPI photographer working on this story without first having cleared his
presence with base public affairs officials was detained for several hours
for questioning Tuesday and then released. He was told he would need an Army
escort for any further visits to the base. He returned to the base
accompanied by an Army escort on Wednesday.
This reporter also was admonished that he had to be accompanied by an Army
public affairs escort when on base. The interviews had been conducted
without the presence of an escort.
After returning from Iraq, some soldiers spent about eight weeks in Spartan,
dilapidated World War II-era barracks with leaking roofs, animal
infestations and no air conditioning in the Kentucky heat.
"I arrived here and was placed in the World War II barracks," one soldier
wrote in an internal Fort Knox survey of the conditions. "On the 28th of
August we moved out. On 30 Aug. the roof collapsed. Had we not moved,
someone would be dead," that soldier wrote.
Shaffery said all of the soldiers have moved out of those barracks. "As soon
as we were able to, we moved them out," Shaffery said. The barracks now
stand empty and have been condemned.
Also like Fort Stewart, soldiers at Fort Knox claimed they are getting
substandard treatment because they are in the National Guard or Army Reserve
as opposed to regular Army. The Army has denied any discrepancies in
treatment or housing.
"We have provided, are providing, and will continue to provide our
soldiers -- active and Reserve component -- the best health care available,"
Army spokesman Maj. Steve Stover said Oct. 20. He said Army policy provides
health care priority based on a "most critically ill" basis, without
differentiation between active and our Reserve soldiers.
"Medical hold issues are not new and the Army has been working diligently to
address them across the Army," Stover said.
"They are treating us like second-class citizens," said Spc. Brian Smith,
who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom until Aug. 16 and said he is having
trouble seeing doctors at Fort Knox. The Army evacuated him through Germany
for stomach problems, among other things. "My brother wants to get in (the
military). I am now discouraging him from doing it," Smith said.
"I have never been so disrespected in my military career," said Lt. Jullian
Goodrum, who has been in the Army Reserve for 16 years. His health problems
do not appear to be severe -- injured wrists -- but he said the medical
situation at Fort Knox is bad. He said he waited a month for therapy. "I
have never been so treated like dirt."
3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Sick, Wounded U.S. Troops Held in Squalor
October 17, 2003, FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Hundreds of sick and wounded U.S.
soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war are languishing in hot
cement barracks here while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see
doctors.
The National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers' living conditions are so
substandard, and the medical care so poor, that many of them believe the
Army is trying push them out with reduced benefits for their ailments. One
document shown to UPI states that no more doctor appointments are available
from Oct. 14 through Nov. 11 -- Veterans Day.
"I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and I have done
everything the Army has asked me to do," said Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels,
a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company. Buckels served in the
Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first
Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated
like a third-class citizen."
Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get
doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since
doubling over in pain there.
After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of
his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi.
"They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still
trying," Buckels said.
One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart -- home of
the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes on their return from Iraq,
approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National
Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a
sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.
The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical
hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what
benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result.
Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an
appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or
months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment.
The soldiers said professional active duty personnel are getting better
treatment while troops who serve in the National Guard or Army Reserve are
left to wallow in medical hold.
"It is not an Army of One. It is the Army of two -- Army and Reserves," said
one soldier who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, during which she
developed a serious heart condition and strange skin ailment.
A half-dozen calls by UPI seeking comment from Fort Stewart public affairs
officials and U.S. Forces Command in Atlanta were not returned.
Soldiers here estimate that nearly 40 percent of the personnel now in
medical hold were deployed to Iraq. Of those who went, many described
clusters of strange ailments, like heart and lung problems, among previously
healthy troops. They said the Army has tried to refuse them benefits,
claiming the injuries and illnesses were due to a "pre-existing condition,"
prior to military service.
Most soldiers in medical hold at Fort Stewart stay in rows of rectangular,
gray, single-story cinder block barracks without bathrooms or air
conditioning. They are dark and sweltering in the southern Georgia heat and
humidity. Around 60 soldiers cram in the bunk beds in each barrack.
Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt
to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between
otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite
wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows
have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say
they have to buy their own toilet paper.
They said the conditions are fine for training, but not for sick people.
"I think it is disgusting," said one Army Reserve member who went to Iraq
and asked that his name not be used.
That soldier said that after being deployed in March he suffered a sudden
onset of neurological symptoms in Baghdad that has gotten steadily worse. He
shakes uncontrollably.
He said the Army has told him he has Parkinson's Disease and it was a
pre-existing condition, but he thinks it was something in the anthrax shots
the Army gave him.
"They say I have Parkinson's, but it is developing too rapidly," he said. "I
did not have a problem until I got those shots."
First Sgt. Gerry Mosley crossed into Iraq from Kuwait on March 19 with the
296th Transportation Company, hauling fuel while under fire from the Iraqis
as they traveled north alongside combat vehicles. Mosley said he was healthy
before the war; he could run two miles in 17 minutes at 48 years old.
But he developed a series of symptoms: lung problems and shortness of
breath; vertigo; migraines; and tinnitus. He also thinks the anthrax vaccine
may have hurt him. Mosley also has a torn shoulder from an injury there.
Mosley says he has never been depressed before, but found himself looking at
shotguns recently and thought about suicide.
Mosley is paying $300 a month to get better housing than the cinder block
barracks. He has a notice from the base that appears to show that no more
doctor appointments are available for reservists from Oct. 14 until Nov. 11.
He said he has never been treated like this in his 30 years in the Army
Reserves.
"Now, I would not go back to war for the Army," Mosley said.
Many soldiers in the hot barracks said regular Army soldiers get to see
doctors, while National Guard and Army Reserve troops wait.
"The active duty guys that are coming in, they get treated first and they
put us on hold," said another soldier who returned from Iraq six weeks ago
with a serious back injury. He has gotten to see a doctor only two times
since he got back, he said.
Another Army Reservist with the 149th Infantry Battalion said he has had
real trouble seeing doctors about his crushed foot he suffered in Iraq.
"There are not enough doctors. They are overcrowded and they can't perform
the surgeries that have to be done," that soldier said. "Look at these
mattresses. It hurts just to sit on them," he said, gesturing to the bunks.
"There are people here who got back in April but did not get their surgeries
until July. It is putting a lot on these families."
The Pentagon is reportedly drawing up plans to call up more reserves.
In an Oct. 9 speech to National Guard and reserve troops in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, Bush said the soldiers had become part of the backbone of the
military.
"Citizen-soldiers are serving in every front on the war on terror," Bush
said. "And you're making your state and your country proud."
====================================
444444444444444444444444444444444444
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2004 9:59 PM
Subject: Iraqi Chemicals
Hi gents
Chemicals sold to Iraq 1985-1990.
Bacillus Anthracis:
Anthrax is an often fatal infectious disease due to ingestion of spores. It
begins abruptly with high fever, difficulty in breathing, and chest pain.
The disease eventually results in septicemia (blood poisoning), and the
mortality rate is high. Once septicemia is advanced, antibiotic therapy may
prove useless, probably because the exotoxins remain, despite the death of
the bacteria.
Clostridium Botulinum:
A bacterial source of botulinum toxin, which causes vomiting, constipation,
thirst, general weakness, headache, fever, dizziness, double vision,
dilation of the pupils, and parlysis of the muscles involving swallowing. It
is often fatal.
Histoplasma Capsulatum:
Causes a disease superficially resembling tuberculosis that may cause
pneumonia, enlargement of the liver and spleen, anemia, an influenza like
illness, and an acute inflammatory skin disease marked by tender red
nodules, usually on the shins. Reactivated infection usually invovles the
lungs, the brain, spinal membranes, heart, peritoneum, and the adrenals.
Brucella Melitensis:
A bacteria that can cause chronic fatigue, loss of appetite, profuse
sweating when at rest, pain in joints and muscles, insomnia, nausea, and
damage to major organs.
Clostridium Perfringens:
A highly toxic bacteria that causes gas gangrene. The bacteria produce
toxins that move along muscle bundles in the body, killing cells and
producing necrotic tissue that is then favourable for further growth of the
bacteria itself. Eventually, these toxins and bacteria enter the blood
stream and cause a systemic illness.
USA also shipped "Escherichia Coli" (E. Coli), genetic materials, as well as
human and bacterial DNA.
Some of the companies that supplied stuff:
1.American Type Culture Collection
2.Alcolac International
3.Matrix-Churchill Corp
4.Sullaire Corp
5.Pure Aire
6.Gorman-Rupp
7.Hewlett-Packard
8.AT&T
9.Bechtel
10.Caterpillar
11.Dupont
12.Kodac
13.Hughes Helicopter
I suggest you tick the symptoms that you have. It makes very interesting
reading.
For example my Battallion + K.O.S.B. went down with "Dysentry" (we were at
Mary Hill P.O.W. Camp, just South of Area Ray the entry point into Iraq)
date around 21 feb. The doctor said he thought I had T.B. then Appendicitus
and finally Dysentry ( curiously you would have thought that he knew what
dysentry was like after all he must have seen 500-1000 men!)
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34 NRC: Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material;
FR Doc 04-5736
[Federal Register: March 15, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 50)]
[Proposed Rules] [Page 12088-12091] From the Federal Register
Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15mr04-21]
Public Meeting AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Advance notice of public meeting.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) are convening a workshop
with an opportunity to discuss any operational concerns for
implementing the recently revised transportation regulations in
10 CFR part 71 and 49 CFR parts 171 through 178. Part of this
workshop will include discussions to obtain a path forward on the
portion of the proposed rule concerning 10 CFR part 71 change
authority for dual-purpose certificate holders that was not
included in the final rule.
DATES: The workshop will be held on April 15, 2004, from 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The workshop will be conducted at the NRC Auditorium,
Two White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Pstrak, Office of Nuclear
Materials Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, telephone: (301) 415-8486;
email: [ dwp1@nrc.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background On January 26, 2004, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a final rule (69 FR
3632) that amended the domestic transportation regulations to
make them compatible with the 1996 Edition of the International
Atomic Energy Agency standards, and to codify other requirements.
NRC coordinated this rulemaking and final rule publication with
the Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that consistent
regulatory standards were maintained between NRC and DOT
radioactive material transportation regulations, and to ensure
joint publication of the final rules. The DOT also published its
final rule on January 26, 2004 (69 FR 3632). Both rules become
effective on October 1, 2004. During previous rulemakings, both
agencies recognized that implementing new requirements often led
to questions on specifically what was expected or how a new
regulation was to be exercised. To foster an open dialogue with a
view towards understanding where uncertainties exist regarding
the new requirements, NRC and DOT are seeking views during this
open forum.
On April 30, 2002, the NRC published a proposed rule for a major
revision of 10 CFR part 71, Packaging and Transportation of
Radioactive Material (67 FR 21390). Among other items, the
proposed rule included a set of provisions that would allow
certificate holders for dual-purpose (storage and transport)
spent fuel casks, designated as Type B(DP) packages, to make
certain changes to the transportation package without prior NRC
approval. When the final rule was issued on January 26, 2004 (69
FR 3698), the change authority provisions were not adopted.
The NRC staff determined that implementation of this change could
result in new regulatory burdens and significant costs, and that
certain changes were already authorized under current part 71
regulations. The NRC concluded that additional stakeholder input
was needed on the values and impacts of this change before
deciding whether to adopt a final rule providing change
authority. The following background paper will be used to guide
the discussion during the April 15, 2004, workshop.
Discussion Paper 10 CFR Part 71 Change Authority Purpose The
purpose of this Discussion Paper is to identify additional input
stakeholders may wish to provide with respect to the values and
impacts of the proposed rule regarding 10 CFR part 71 change
authority for dual-purpose package certificate holders.
Plan for Resolution This Discussion Paper is being issued as the
first step in addressing concerns identified with the
implementation of the change authority as proposed in 10 CFR part
71. This Discussion Paper identifies specific information that
the staff feels will be useful in adequately evaluating the
values and costs of implementing the change authority contained
in the proposed rule. The staff plans to hold open, public
discussions with stakeholders, to collect and evaluate the
information, and to then propose a resolution to the Commission.
The resolution will consist of issuing a final rule or
withdrawing the change authority proposal.
Provisions of the Proposed Rule The proposed 10 CFR part 71
established a new subpart I for Type B(DP) packages, and other
related and conforming provisions.
Subpart I specified requirements for applying for a Type B(DP)
package approval, the contents of the application, and the
package description and evaluation. The proposed Sec. 71.153
would require the application for a Type B(DP) package to include
two parts. The first part, specified in Sec. 71.153(a), is a
package application which is the same as the application
requirements currently in effect for a Type B(U) package,
including essentially the same package evaluation and performance
standards. The second part is a new safety analysis report that
among other things includes ``an analysis of potential accidents,
package response to these potential accidents, and any
consequences to the public.'' It is this second part, the
``safety analysis report'' as described in Sec. 71.153(b), and
the associated potential accidents and consequences, that would
introduce additional, new requirements for the Type B(DP)
packages.
The safety analysis report is the document that would be used to
evaluate changes that could be made to the package design or
operation without prior NRC approval. The safety analysis report
would include the identification and evaluation of potential
accidents, which are not necessarily limited to the hypothetical
accident conditions that are currently used in part 71. It was
envisioned that the safety analysis report would develop an
inclusive and rigorous identification and evaluation of potential
accidents. Accidents to be
[[Page 12089]] considered could address both external natural
events and man-induced events. Man-induced events could include
transportation accidents and other accident types. It was also
envisioned that accident probabilities would be established,
which is a departure from the existing part 71 hypothetical
accident conditions. In this regard, the safety analysis report
and its accident analysis are similar to the use of those terms
in 10 CFR part 72, the regulations that pertain to spent fuel
storage casks.
The consequence evaluation could also include other aspects not
embodied in the current part 71 regulatory framework. For
example, release limits for accident conditions are specified in
the current regulations, and not dose limits. For the new safety
analysis report, the identification of maximum exposed
individuals and populations may need to be addressed in the
context of the transportation of the casks. Environmental
consequences, including pathway analyses, could also be required.
Transport routes and population distributions may be needed for
the evaluation, unlike current part 71 standards that are
fundamentally route and mode independent.
Type B(DP) package certificate holders would be authorized to
make certain changes to the package design and operations based
on the provisions in Sec. 71.175(c) of the proposed rule. The
change authority would be tied to the safety analysis report
required by Sec. 71.153(b). Table 1 compares the proposed
provisions with the current rule with respect to evaluations and
information that may be required in a package application. The
table also identifies the type of information that may be needed
in order to evaluate changes made under the provisions of Sec.
71.175(c). Table 1.--Comparison of Information and Evaluations
Required Between Type B(DP) and Type B(U) Packages
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------- Provisions of the
proposed rule Applicable sections for type B(DP) package
under under proposed Type B(DP) package Type B(U)
package subpart I subpart I
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------- Application for
Package Approval.. 71.153(a)............
yes....................... yes. Meets Package Approval Standards
71.153(a)(2), 71.157. yes....................... yes. Under
Subparts E.
Meets Performance Standards Under 71.153(a)(2), 71.157.
yes....................... yes. Subparts F.
Meets Quality Assurance Standards 71.153(a)(3), 71.159.
yes....................... yes. Under Subparts H.
Demonstrate Safe Use of Package... 71.153(b)(2).........
yes....................... no. Evaluate Potential Accidents,
71.153(b)(3)......... yes....................... no. Package
Response, and Consequences to Public.
Justification for At Least 20 71.153(b)(4).........
yes....................... no. Years Usage.
Licensing Period for CoC.......... 71.163............... up to
20 years............ typically 5 years.
FSAR.............................. 71.177(a)(1) & (2)...
yes....................... no. Periodic Updates of
FSAR.......... 71.177............... yes.......................
n/a. Maintain Record of Changes........ 71.175(d)............
yes....................... n/a. Submit Reports of Changes &
71.175(d)(2)......... yes....................... n/a. Summary of
Evaluation.
OK for International ..................... no
(not recognized under yes.
Transportation. IAEA
regulations).
NRC Approval Needed for Changes in 71.167,
yes....................... yes. the Terms, Conditions, or
71.175(c)(1)(i). Specifications in CoC.
Identify Potential Accidents that 71.153(b)(3),
yes....................... no. Will be Evaluated.
71.175(c)(2). Provide Frequency of Occurrence of
71.175(c)(2)(i)...... yes....................... no. an
Accident.
Evaluate Consequence of an 71.175(c)(2)(iii)....
yes....................... no. Accident.
Evaluate Whether Changes Will 71.175(c)(2)(v)......
yes....................... no. Create Possibility of an Accident
of Different Type.
Establish SSC Important to Safety. 71.175(a)(3)(i) &
yes....................... no. (ii).
Provide Probability of SSC 71.175(c)(2)(ii).....
yes....................... no. Malfunction.
Evaluate Consequence of SSC 71.175(c)(2)(iv).....
yes....................... no. Malfunction.
Evaluate Whether Changes Will 71.175(c)(2)(vi).....
yes....................... no. Create Different Result of SSC
Malfunction.
Define Design Basis Limit for a 71.175(c)(2)(vii)....
yes....................... no. Fission Product Barrier.
Evaluate Whether Changes Will 71.175(c)(2)(vii)....
yes....................... no. Exceed Design Basis Limit for a
Fission Product Barrier.
Identify Method of Evaluation Used 71.175(a)(2).........
yes....................... no. in Establishing the Design Basis.
Determine Whether Change is a 71.175(c)(2)(viii)...
yes....................... no. Departure From the Methods of
Evaluation Described in FSAR.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------- Concerns With
Implementation Identified by NRC Staff Section 71.153(b) of the
proposed rule states that an application must include a safety
analysis report describing an analysis of potential accidents,
package response to these potential accidents, and any
consequences to the public. This provision departs from the
standard part 71 package application (as described in Sec.
71.153(a)) in that an applicant must now assess potential
accidents and their consequences to the public from these
accidents. Similar to part 72 accident analysis, the accidents to
be evaluated could include natural and man-made phenomena, but in
the context of truck, rail, or vessel transport activities. The
types of information needed for the accident analysis may include
population densities by route; highway, vessel, and railway
accident rates; and cask and vehicle performance in collisions
and fires. This information may not be readily available, and
could require significant expenditures for both applicants to
produce this information and for NRC to develop guidance
documents and review the information. Consequences to the public
may include radiological and non-radiological consequences, and
may include environmental assessments of potential releases of
radioactivity. In addition, the information may require
identification
[[Page 12090]] of specific routes and modes of transport, unlike
current package approvals. It is noted that this information
would be required in addition to the package application
described in Sec. 71.153(a). Changes Currently Authorized Under
Part 71 Coupled with these concerns, staff recognized that the
regulatory structure of part 71 already allows certain changes to
the package without prior NRC approval. For transportation
packages, the NRC approves the package design, and the
Certificate of Compliance is the approval document that specifies
the design (including packaging and radioactive contents) and
package operations that are necessary for safe transport.
Typically the Certificate of Compliance includes these essential
elements: Specification of the design by reference to the design
drawings, specification of the authorized contents, and reference
to documents that relate to the use and maintenance of the
packaging and to the actions to be taken before shipment. These
drawings and documents identify the design and operational
features that are important for the safe performance of the
package under normal and accident conditions. Features that do
not contribute to the ability of the package to meet the
performance standards in part 71 are not necessarily included as
conditions in the Certificate of Compliance. In general, changes
to the design or operations that are not conditions of the
Certificate of Compliance must be evaluated to assure that they
do not affect safety but do not require prior NRC approval.
The staff believes that many changes made to a dual purpose cask
under the provisions of 10 CFR 72.48, may also be made without
prior NRC approval in the current regulatory structure of part
71, without explicit change authority. Changes to the conditions
in the part 71 Certificate of Compliance would require prior NRC
approval, even for Type B(DP) packages. Therefore staff concluded
that, considering the development of the new information in a
safety analysis report as described in the proposed Sec.
71.153(b), and with the existing ability to make certain changes
to the package design and operation without prior NRC approval,
the benefits of implementation of the new rule may not outweigh
the costs.
Input Invited From Stakeholders To assist staff in estimating the
values and impacts of implementation of the proposed rule, staff
is inviting stakeholders to provide certain information.
Specifically, staff is seeking estimates of the costs associated
with development of a safety analysis report evaluating potential
accidents, package response, and consequences to the public.
Estimates are also needed with respect to the savings that could
result from exercising the change authority, for example, the
numbers and types of amendments that would not need to be
prepared and reviewed. A set of questions has been developed to
guide stakeholders in providing this information. The questions
are listed in the attachment to this paper. In addition,
stakeholders may provide any other relevant information that they
believe could be useful in providing staff with a factual basis
for evaluating the values and impacts of the proposed rule.
NRC staff is planning a workshop to be held on April 15, 2004, to
discuss the impact of the revised 10 CFR part 71. As part of the
workshop, the staff plans to hold a session devoted to the
proposed change authority rule. The staff plans to make a
presentation that explains the proposed rule and changes
authorized under the current part 71 regulations. Stakeholders
are invited to participate by providing the requested information
in written form to be collected at the workshop and in open
workshop discussions.
Part 71 Change Authority Questions To facilitate dialogue at the
April 15, 2004, meeting, NRC staff prepared the following
questions. In addition, stakeholders are welcome to provide
written information to the contact above. Written information is
requested by April 30, 2004. Anything received after that date
will be considered only if practicable. NRC will consider
stakeholder comments in identifying a regulatory solution. NRC
staff is requesting fact-based input regarding the costs and
benefits associated with the proposed change authority. It is
requested that the information provided be as specific as
practical, with identification of actual experiences, if
applicable.
Implementation of Proposed Change Authority Rule How would
Certificate Holders address the new requirements? How would
potential accident scenarios be developed? How would accident
frequencies be determined? How would consequences be evaluated
(address potential releases, populations exposed, environmental
pathways)? How would modes of transport and transportation routes
be identified and considered in the accident and consequence
analysis? How would package suitability for a period of twenty
years be demonstrated? How would structures, systems and
components (SSCs) be determined and identified in the final
safety analysis report (FSAR)? How would the probability of SSC
malfunctions be determined? How will the design basis limit for a
fission product barrier be defined? How will the methods of
evaluation used in the FSAR be determined and identified? How
will the changes made under the proposed rules be tracked,
documented, and controlled? Costs of the Proposed Change
Authority Rule What are the costs of developing an application
containing the requirements of 71.153? What guidance documents
would be needed from NRC? What level of NRC staff review of the
Type B(DP) package application would be anticipated? What are the
costs in preparing FSAR updates, including the basis for changes
made under 71.175? Benefits of the Proposed Rule How many
certificate amendments would be saved using the change authority
(quantify in terms of numbers and complexity)? What operational
or time savings would result from change authority? What other
benefits are anticipated (quantify if possible), such as cost of
NRC review, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, schedule delay?
Changes Made Under Change Authority in 10 CFR 72.48 That Relate
to Part 71 What is the stakeholder experience with actual changes
made under 72.48 (numbers, types, complexity)? How many of the
changes made under 72.48 would require a corresponding change to
the part 71 Certificate of Compliance (numbers, types, and
complexity)? What changes (types and number) that were made under
72.48 would still require a part 71 Certificate amendment
considering the ability to use the proposed part 71 change
authority? Changes Desired Under Subpart I Identify types of
changes that are considered beneficial that would fall under the
change authority.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 9th day of March 2004.
[[Page 12091]] For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
David W. Pstrak, Transportation and Storage Project Manager,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 04-5736 Filed 3-12-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
35 RGJ: Experts to discuss uranium test results
Reno Gazette-Journal]
3/14/2004 08:02 pm
State environmental regulators are scheduled to discuss recent
water sampling for uranium in Yerington-area wells at a public
meeting March 24.
The Nevada Division of Environmental Testing said tests in
December revealed that eight of 27 wells tested had uranium
concentrations that exceeded state and federal drinking water
standards. The experts also will discuss potential health effects
of uranium.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Casino West Convention
Center, 11 N. Main St., Yerington. Officials will be there from 6
p.m. with a display of water sampling results.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett
Co.
Inc. [http://www.gannett.com] Newspaper.
*****************************************************************
36 toledoblade: 'Total safety culture' a crucial mind-set for modern world
Monday, March 15, 2004
By MICHAEL WOODS [mwoods@theblade.com]
BLADE SCIENCE EDITOR
Accidental explosions plagued the DuPont family's gunpowder mills
in Delaware during the 1800s. One blast hit every 14 months,
despite safety measures that included fitting horses with rubber
boots to keep their shoes from kicking up sparks.
Each killed workers and splattered red ink on the company balance
sheet.
Patriarch Irenee DuPont decided to make managers more safety
conscious. His major change, according to legend, was to relocate
their offices directly above the gunpowder production area.
With technological disasters, medical errors, and other accidents
haunting modern society, that story has become the icon for a
mind-set called "total safety culture."
Few agree on how to define it or measure it. But a good safety
culture is the new guardian angel for nuclear power plants,
space-shuttle flights, and other risky activities.
"At long last, safety culture is back from the graveyard of
forbidden lexicon in this country, and oh, be still my heart,"
said Dr. Thomas E. Murley.
Dr. Murley, a former top U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
official, in the late 1980s pioneered total safety culture ideas
in the nuclear power industry.
"The nuclear industry was not very comfortable with that concept
back then," he said, recalling one meeting of the commissioners
who govern the NRC. "The staff was told in so many words, 'Don't
use that concept.' In fact, I was told, 'Don't even use that
language.'
"So safety culture then went by the wayside," Dr. Murley added.
"It wasn't in our regulations. We didn't need it."
The term "safety culture" originated in fallout from the 1986
Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, the world's worst.
Explosions at the reactor, located in the Ukraine, contaminated
400 square miles and caused at least 30 deaths. The International
Atomic Energy Agency blamed it on a "poor safety culture."
Safety culture lapses have gotten blame for some of the most
costly, high-profile technological disasters and near-misses in
recent history, including:
Ď The February, 2003, Columbia disaster, which killed 7
astronauts and destroyed a $2 billion space shuttle: The Columbia
Accident Investigation Board report identified NASA's "broken
safety culture" as the underlying cause.
Ď The 1986 Challenger disaster, which claimed seven astronauts
and another space shuttle: Investigators found NASA committed a
classic safety culture lapse - not heeding the warnings of its
own engineers about launching under dangerous conditions.
Ď The 2002-04 hole-in-the-reactor-head incident at the
Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station near Toledo: Over time, a
collection of boric acid around nozzle heads led to a hole that
nearly ate through the protective reactor cap.
Adm. Harold Gehman, the chairman of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board, said the focus on safety culture represents
a revolution in society's approach to investigating accidents.
Investigators, he noted, once were satisfied with blaming
accidents on equipment failure or human error.
"They find the widget that broke, " Admiral Gehman explained.
"They find the person in the cause chain closest to the widget
that broke. They require that the widget be redesigned or
replaced and the person fired or retrained, and then call it a
day. And they do not go far enough to find out why did this
happen."
That approach, Admiral Gehman added, can set the stage for
accidents to repeat.
Total safety culture includes identification of hazards and other
elements of traditional safety programs, according to Rick
Williams, corporate safety director for Alcoa. But it is not just
a new buzzword for those traditional efforts.
"I do see a clear distinction," said Mr. Williams, who serves on
a newly reorganized safety advisory panel that will monitor
safety culture at NASA.
"A true safety culture is one in which every person in the
organization recognizes his responsibilities to the organization
and works to improve the system. There is a recognition that
accidents are not inevitable and, while lofty, zero accidents is
the goal.
Safety culture goes way deeper with senior leaders committed to
the idea and playing a personal role to change behaviors," he
said.
Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, said the focus on safety culture recognizes
that the root causes of accidents are "in the system." And the
system must change to prevent mistakes and catch problems before
anyone gets hurt.
"We need to let go of outdated ideas on how to deal with errors,"
Dr. Clancy said. "We need to shift from 'naming, blaming, and
shaming' to learning from errors, so they never happen again."
Admiral Gehman said investigators are looking deeper - beyond the
immediate causes and into the "system" - the background
environment of the organization where accidents occur.
Safety culture involves the value an organization places on
avoiding accidents. If it is the highest priority, the
organization has a positive safety culture. If not, the safety
culture is negative.
Official definitions of safety culture differ, and get awkward.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's widely used definition
says safety culture is "that assembly of characteristics and
attitudes in organizations and individuals which established
that, as an overriding priority, nuclear plant safety issues
receive the attention warranted by their significance."
Dr. E. Scott Geller, who heads a noted consulting firm called
Safety Performance Solutions, offers an easier definition:
"In a total safety culture, employees not only feel responsible
for their own safety, they feel responsible for their peers'
safety, and the organizational culture supports them acting on
their own responsibility. Individuals have the necessary tools
and self-esteem to actively care for the safety of co-workers."
NASA is using outside consultants to "completely transform" its
safety culture and and stated that it wants to make noticeable
progress by summer.
Safety culture lapses at Davis-Besse were so glaring that the NRC
last year considered adopting formal regulations on safety
culture for the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power plants.
Early in 2002, technicians discovered that rust had eaten a
football-sized hole through a 6.5-inch-thick wall of its reactor
vessel head. The vessel holds nuclear fuel in a bath of water
pressurized to 2,200 pounds per square inch.
Only a thin steel liner, bulging and cracked, kept radioactive
material from fire-hosing out. By some accounts, it could have
been a catastrophe.
Investigations blamed a bad safety culture fostered by
FirstEnergy Corp., which owns Davis-Besse.
Consider just one safety culture lapse - FirstEnergy's failure to
encourage a questioning attitude among workers. When rust
particles mysteriously began clogging air-conditioning filters at
the plant, workers did not ask, "Why?" They just changed the
filters more often.
Expert teams, dispatched by NRC, have been monitoring
Davis-Besse's safety culture since 2003, and will continue as the
plant returns to operation.
NRC's own safety culture has gotten plenty of flak.
"Six major reviews conducted since 1979 have found chronic and
significant problems with NRC's regulatory culture," the U.S.
General Accounting Office noted in a 1999 report.
The agency's inspector general detailed the problems after a 1998
employee survey, which uncovered classic indicators of a bad
safety culture. "Employees report that communicating problems
results in a 'shoot the messenger' syndrome," the report said.
"Many employees say there is fear among the staff of making a
mistake, leading to a 'CYA' syndrome."
David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer with the Union of
Concerned Scientists, said the negative safety culture remains a
problem.
"UCS gets lots of calls from NRC staffers concerned about safety
but afraid to pursue it for fear of losing their careers," Mr.
Lochbaum said. "It is ridiculous for workers at a federal
regulatory agency to be afraid to voice their safety concerns.
"The fact that NRC will not enforce safety regulations is the
biggest safety culture problem of a nuclear variety. It makes the
safety culture problems at Davis-Besse pale by comparison."
Awareness about the organizational roots of accidents began in
so-called high-hazard organizations. They include nuclear power
plants, aviation, chemical manufacturing, and other activities
where accidents can spell widespread harm. In the late 1990s, the
ideas quietly took root in the ealth-care industry and other
areas where accident consequences are more personal.
The famous 1999 Institute of Medicine report "To Err is Human:
Building a Safer Health System," put medical safety culture
efforts on a fast track. It concluded that more people die each
year from medical mistakes than highway accidents.
The report sparked more interest in medical safety cultural
improvements. The Veterans Administration, for instance, which
has the largest hospital system in the United States, has focused
on safety culture changes to prevent errors in those 172
institutions.
In medicine, as in the nuclear power industry, NASA, and
elsewhere, experts are trying to determine exactly which cultural
changes pay the biggest dividends in reducing accidents,
according to Dr. David Nash, the chairman of the department of
health policy at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in
Philadelphia.
Michael Woods can be reached at mwoods@national press.com.
© 2004 The Blade.The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St.,
Toledo, OH 43660
*****************************************************************
37 [RADMETAL] EPA Rad Waste Deregulation is Dangerous, Unnecessary
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 14:16:10 -0600 (CST)
*** Apologies for cross-posting ***
This e-mail contains three items:
(1) A notice of the extension to May 17 of the comment period on the
EPA proposal to deregulate some kinds of radioactive waste.
(2) A Public Citizen press release on the EPA radioactive waste
deregulation proposal.
(3) A special event notice for anti-nuclear activists living near the
Salem and Hope Creek nuclear reactors in southern New Jersey. (From
Norm Cohen of the UNPLUG Salem Campaign.)
===========
EPA COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED
The EPA has extendedto May 17 the comment period on its proposal to
deregulate some kinds of radioactive waste. (The proposed rulemaking is
titled "Approaches to an Integrated Framework for Management and
Disposal of Low-Activity Radioactive Waste.") The Federal Register
notice of the extension may be viewed here:
http://snipurl.com/53ys
If you have not already done so, you may submit prepared comments to
the EPA via Public Citizen's Web site at this URL:
http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/alert/?alertid=5325981
(Sample comments are available on this page, which you may send as-is
or modify if you so choose.)
===========
*** P R E S S R E L E A S E ***
For Immediate Release: March 15, 2004
Contact: Dave Ritter (202) 454-5176; Shannon Little (202) 588-7742
Public Citizen Warns Against Proposal to Dump Nuclear Waste into
Community Landfills
Forcing Radiation Exposure on Public Sets Dangerous Precedent
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen today asked the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposal to allow nuclear waste
to be dumped in standard community landfills or other non-licensed
facilities. The EPA is considering a plan to allow "low-activity"
radioactive waste to be disposed in dumps and landfills that are not
licensed for or designed to contain it.
This proposal, on which the EPA is now seeking comment, would permit
certain radioactive wastes to be treated as if they were non-radioactive
and exempted from standards designed to isolate and contain radiation
and prevent the public from being exposed to radiation. The EPA teamed
with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to formulate the
deregulatory rulemaking. Having the ability to dump nuclear waste in a
regular community landfill would save the nuclear industry millions of
dollars, since it costs less money to send nuclear waste to a regular
community landfill -- where your household trash is sent -- than it does
to properly store the waste in a licensed facility.
" 'Low-activity' radioactive waste does not mean that the waste doesn't
pose a hazard to human health or the environment," said Wenonah Hauter,
director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment
Program. "It's ludicrous for the EPA, whose stated mission is 'to
protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment,' to
suggest that we roll back existing regulations on the management of
nuclear waste materials."
There are several problems with EPA's proposal:
(1) It introduces an option to allow mixed radioactive and hazardous
wastes to be dumped in facilities that have permits only for hazardous
wastes. This is unacceptable, since hazardous waste dumps are not
designed to isolate and contain radiation and there has not been
substantial research into how radioactive and chemical pollutants react
when mixed together in the environment and the human body.
(2) It would allow radioactive waste to go to sites such as standard
garbage dumps, incinerators or hazardous waste sites that do not have
licenses or regulations for handling it or maintaining it safely.
(3) The EPA's notice does not identify regulatory barriers that would
prevent the nuclear wastes from going to recycling facilities and
contaminating the recycling streams that feed the production of everyday
household items like cookware, toys, cars and furniture. No
restrictions are described that would keep commercial materials and
projects such as roads, bridges and buildings free of this
contamination.
"The EPA's non-regulatory approach to managing waste by 'partnering'
with nuclear waste generators works to protect industry, not the
public," said David Ritter, policy analyst with Public Citizen.
"Unfortunately, the real motivation behind the EPA's proposal is to
coddle nuclear waste producers. The whole idea should be dumped."
Whether the EPA proceeds with the plan may depend on the nature and
volume of the comments it receives. If the EPA decides to move forward
with the proposal, it will draft a rule after the comment period ends on
May 17.
To read the comments Public Citizen submitted today to the EPA, please
visit http://www.citizen.org/documents/epalowlevel.pdf
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org
===========
CLOSE THE SALEM NUKES NOW
The UNPLUG SALEM Campaign
321 Barr Ave., Linwood NJ 08221
609-601-8583/601-8537; ncohen12@comcast.net
http://www.unplugsalem.org/
Date: 03/10/04
For Immediate Release and Community Calendars:
PSEG NUKE SAFETY WHISTLEBLOWER INVITED TO SPEAK AT 3/28 RALLY
A whistleblower who has provided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with
detailed information on safety culture problems at all three of PSEG's
nuclear power plants has been invited to be the featured speaker at the
upcoming UNPLUG Salem Protest to be held Sunday, March 28th, 2-4 pm, on
the access road leading to Artificial Island, in Lower Alloways
township. Rain location will be the Salem Quaker Meetinghouse, on route
49 in downtown Salem.
This will be the first time the PSEG whistleblower will be speaking in
public. He will describe the reasons why he decided to go to the NRC
with his safety concerns, and will discuss those concerns in detail on
March 28th.
The protest will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the meltdown at
the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside of Harrisburg, Pa. The rally
is entitled: "No TMI on the Delaware."
In addition to the whistleblower there will be a large number of other
expert speakers, including: Dave Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for
the Union of Concerned Scientists; Joe Mangano, chief researcher for the
Radiation and Public Health Project; Jim Riccio of Greenpeace; Paul
Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Tony Totah,
marine biologist for Clean Ocean Action; Jane Nogaki, Pesticide
Coordinator for the NJ Environmental Federation; Dr. Judith Johnsrud of
Three Mile Island Alert; and Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition.
Also speaking will be Frieda Berryhill, who has opposed nuclear power
from before the Salem Nukes were built; Maya von Rossum, Delaware
Riverkeeper, Grace Costanzo of the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch; and Roy
Cannon and Matt Ahearn of the Delaware and New Jersey Greens.
Entertainment will be provided by the Eco-Chorale, and the protest will
be powered by solar power provided by LBI Solar.
The NRC's annual assessment letters, dated March 3rd, continues to
point out the NRC's concerns with the poor safety culture at both the
Salem Nukes and Hope Creek: "Cross-cutting issues involved Instances of
ineffective, untimely problem solving and corrective actions (and)
numerous inspection findings which indicate that weaknesses continue."
Please join us on March 28th to make sure that Salem and Hope Creek do
not become our own TMI on the Delaware.
CONTACT: Norm Cohen, 609-601-8583
**********
If you would like to be removed from the RADMETAL ListServ, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe radmetal" in the message.
Questions about the RADMETAL ListServ can be directed to RADMETAL-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG.
To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/
-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
*****************************************************************
38 [PUBCIT_PRESS] Serzone lawsuit; low-level nuclear waste
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 16:47:09 -0600 (CST)
Public Citizen Press Releases
Providing the latest information about Public Citizen activities
-------------------------------------------
Public Citizen issued the following three press releases, March 15
1. FDAs Failure to Act on Serzone is Illegal
2. Public Citizen Warns Against Proposal to Dump Nuclear Waste into
Community Landfills
3. As President Bush Starts Spending Campaign Cash, His List of
Big-Money Bundlers Grows by 39
*******************************************************************************
FDA's Failure to Act on Serzone is Illegal
Deaths and Injuries from Liver Toxicity Mount as Agency Tarries, Public
Citizen Says in Lawsuit
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen today sued the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) over its failure to act on a petition Public
Citizen filed more than a year ago seeking a ban of the antidepressant
drug nefazodone. The drug is marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as Serzone
and has been linked to a mounting number of deaths and serious injuries
from liver failure.
Public Citizen's suit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia, asks the court to find the FDA's delay illegal and
to require the agency to act. Serzone's liver toxicity is a danger to
public health, and the FDA's slow decision process continues to put
patients at risk of death or serious injury, the lawsuit says.
In March 2003, Public Citizen sought a ban on Serzone, citing 21 cases
of liver failure and 11 deaths between 1994, when nefazodone was first
marketed, and the spring of 2002. A supplemental petition, submitted to
the FDA in October 2003, included an analysis of the FDA Adverse Event
Reports Database. That analysis showed that, from April 1, 2002, through
May 12, 2003, there were 33 additional reports of liver failure -
including nine deaths - for a total of 55 patients with liver failure,
including 20 deaths.
The liver toxicity dangers of nefazodone are compounded by the fact
that it inhibits a key enzyme that is involved in the metabolism of
about half of all prescribed drugs including itself, so nefazodone
increases the toxicity dangers of other drugs a patient may be taking.
Also, by inhibiting this enzyme, nefazodone can increase its own
concentration, with potentially toxic results. Serzone has not been
shown to be more effective in controlling depression than other drugs in
its class, but it is uniquely and unpredictably toxic.
"It is grossly negligent for the FDA to allow doctors to continue to
prescribe and patients to continue to take Serzone," said Sidney Wolfe,
M.D., director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "It's a shame
that we must sue to force the agency to fulfill its obligation to
protect public health."
Nefazodone has already been removed from the market in Canada and
Europe and is scheduled to be taken off the market in Australia and New
Zealand in May. Since January 2002, a "black box" warning has been
included in its U.S. packing insert, warning of life-threatening liver
damage and recommending that physicians advise patients to be aware of
signs of liver problems. This strategy has clearly failed to curb the
subsequent cases of liver failure and death caused by the drug, Public
Citizen's lawsuit said.
"The FDA has a legal responsibility to protect the public from unsafe
drugs, and it is shirking that duty," said Michael Kirkpatrick, an
attorney with Public Citizen and the brief's author. "Nefazodone is a
danger and should be withdrawn now."
During the past 30 years, Public Citizen has successfully petitioned
for bans of 15 drugs and biologic agents, including Rezulin (for
diabetes), Redux (for weight loss) and the dietary supplement ephedra.
Public Citizen's March 2003 and October 2003 petitions are on the Web
at
www.citizen.org/hrg/drugs/mind/index.cfm?ID=7943&relatedpages=1&catID=126&secID=1672.
A copy of today's lawsuit is available on the Web at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Complaint_final.pdf.
************************************************************************
Public Citizen Warns Against Proposal to Dump
Nuclear Waste into Community Landfills
Forcing Radiation Exposure on Public Sets Dangerous Precedent
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen today asked the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposal to allow nuclear waste
to be dumped in standard community landfills or other non-licensed
facilities. The EPA is considering a plan to allow "low-activity"
radioactive waste to be disposed in dumps and landfills that are not
licensed for or designed to contain it.
This proposal, on which the EPA is now seeking comment, would permit
certain radioactive wastes to be treated as if they were non-radioactive
and exempted from standards designed to isolate and contain radiation
and prevent the public from being exposed to radiation. The EPA teamed
with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to formulate the
deregulatory rulemaking. Having the ability to dump nuclear waste in a
regular community landfill would save the nuclear industry millions of
dollars, since it costs less money to send nuclear waste to a regular
community landfill - where your household trash is sent - than it does
to properly store the waste in a licensed facility.
"Low-activity" radioactive waste does not mean that the waste doesn't
pose a hazard to human health or the environment," said Wenonah Hauter,
director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment
Program. "It's ludicrous for the EPA, whose stated mission is 'to
protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment,' to
suggest that we roll back existing regulations on the management of
nuclear waste materials."
There are several problems with EPA's proposal:
- It introduces an option to allow mixed radioactive and hazardous
wastes to be dumped in facilities that have permits only for hazardous
wastes. This is unacceptable, since hazardous waste dumps are not
designed to isolate and contain radiation and there has not been
substantial research into how radioactive and chemical pollutants react
when mixed together in the environment and the human body.
- It would allow radioactive waste to go to sites such as standard
garbage dumps, incinerators or hazardous waste sites that do not have
licenses or regulations for handling it or maintaining it safely.
- The EPA's notice does not identify regulatory barriers that would
prevent the nuclear wastes from going to recycling facilities and
contaminating the recycling streams that feed the production of everyday
household items like cookware, toys, cars and furniture. No
restrictions are described that would keep commercial materials and
projects such as roads, bridges and buildings free of this
contamination.
"The EPA's non-regulatory approach to managing waste by 'partnering'
with nuclear waste generators works to protect industry, not the
public," said David Ritter, policy analyst with Public Citizen.
"Unfortunately, the real motivation behind the EPA's proposal is to
coddle nuclear waste producers. The whole idea should be dumped."
Whether the EPA proceeds with the plan may depend on the nature and
volume of the comments it receives. If the EPA decides to move forward
with the proposal, it will draft a rule after the comment period ends on
May 17.
To read the comments Public Citizen submitted today to the EPA, please
visit http://www.citizen.org/documents/epalowlevel.pdf.
****************************************************************
As President Bush Starts Spending Campaign Cash, His List
of Big-Money Bundlers Grows by 39
WhiteHouseForSale.org Web Site Tracks Information in a Searchable
Database With Information About 455 Rangers and Pioneers Identified by
Bush-Cheney Campaign
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Since its last announcement on February 9, the
Bush-Cheney re-election campaign has added 39 names to its ranks of
major contribution bundlers, increasing to 455 the total number of
Rangers and Pioneers. This elite group has provided at least $64.2
million for the president's record-breaking drive to raise as much as
$200 million, according to Public Citizen's WhiteHouseForSale.org.
The Bush-Cheney campaign on Friday disclosed the names of six new
Rangers and 33 new Pioneers. In addition, 16 fund-raisers who previously
attained the status of Pioneer in the 2004 election cycle have moved up
to the rank of Ranger. According to fund-raising totals tracked by
WhiteHouseForSale.org, the Bush campaign now has raised at least $159
million to spend during a primary season in which he is unopposed.
The financial sector, which has consistently provided the greatest
number of Bush's Rangers and Pioneers, added some influential Wall
Street names to the list of those who are investing heavily in the
president's re-election. On the day after they hosted a $1.6 million
fund-raising event in Long Island, Morgan Stanley executives Phillip
Purcell and Richard F. Powers III were included on the campaign's list
of new Rangers. So was the event's co-chairman, Geoffrey T. Boisi, the
former head of investment banking at JPMorgan.
"Financiers account for a third of Bush's new elite donors, including
top executives from JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia and Bank of
America," said Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public
Justice, which worked with Public Citizen to create
WhiteHouseForSale.org. "It's almost as if these banks had a huge
regulatory scandal that they're trying to defuse."
Also new to the list is Otis B. Ingram, government affairs committee
chairman for the Forest Landowners Association, which advocates for tax
breaks for forestry companies and the loosening of environmental laws
such as the Endangered Species Act.
Based on the new data, states that have provided the greatest number of
Rangers and Pioneers are Florida (51), Texas (50), California (40), New
York (40) and Georgia (20). Those totals reflect the latest additions,
which include eight new Rangers or Pioneers from New York, five from
Georgia, four from Florida and four from Kentucky, where Bush attended a
fundraiser on Feb. 26.
In the past 10 days, the Bush-Cheney campaign has held seven major
fundraisers - five of which Bush attended. During this period of intense
fund raising, the Bush-Cheney campaign made its first outlay of campaign
money on television advertisements in 17 states that have been
identified as battleground states for the November election.
"Elite fundraisers who represent special interests are funneling
outrageous amounts of money into the president's campaign," said Public
Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "Every time those ads appear on our TV
sets, we should worry about what favors are expected in exchange for the
funds to put them there."
WhiteHouseForSale.org, which was created to track contributors to
Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, is updating its searchable database
with the names of the new Rangers and Pioneers, along their home states,
employers and occupations. The Bush campaign now has 187 Rangers, those
fundraisers who bundle at least $200,000 in individual contributions,
and 268 Pioneers, who each have brought in at least $100,000.
Puerto Rico, where Vice President Dick Cheney made a fundraising visit
on Feb. 20, has now placed its first name on the Ranger and Pioneer list
Ranger Cesar Cabrera, executive director of the Puerto Rico G.O.P
and the San Juan developer whom Bush appointed to the Freddie Mac board
of directors. So far, only Rhode Island and North Dakota are not
represented among the Rangers and Pioneers.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.
###
-------------------------------------------
To be removed from this list send an email to pcpress@citizen.org with "unsubscribe pubcit_press" in the message.
Please visit our website at www.citizen.org
*****************************************************************
39 [NukeNet] EPA Rad Waste Deregulation is Dangerous,
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 18:02:22 -0800
>This e-mail contains three items:
>
>(1) A notice of the extension to May 17 of the comment period on the
>EPA proposal to deregulate some kinds of radioactive waste.
>
>(2) A Public Citizen press release on the EPA radioactive waste
>deregulation proposal.
>
>(3) A special event notice for anti-nuclear activists living near the
>Salem and Hope Creek nuclear reactors in southern New Jersey. (From
>Norm Cohen of the UNPLUG Salem Campaign.)
>
>===========
>
>EPA COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED
>The EPA has extendedto May 17 the comment period on its proposal to
>deregulate some kinds of radioactive waste. (The proposed rulemaking is
>titled "Approaches to an Integrated Framework for Management and
>Disposal of Low-Activity Radioactive Waste.") The Federal Register
>notice of the extension may be viewed here:
>http://snipurl.com/53ys
>
>If you have not already done so, you may submit prepared comments to
>the EPA via Public Citizen's Web site at this URL:
>http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/alert/?alertid=5325981
>
>(Sample comments are available on this page, which you may send as-is
>or modify if you so choose.)
>
>===========
>
>*** P R E S S R E L E A S E ***
>
>For Immediate Release: March 15, 2004
>Contact: Dave Ritter (202) 454-5176; Shannon Little (202) 588-7742
>
>Public Citizen Warns Against Proposal to Dump Nuclear Waste into
>Community Landfills
>
>Forcing Radiation Exposure on Public Sets Dangerous Precedent
>
>WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen today asked the U.S. Environmental
>Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposal to allow nuclear waste
>to be dumped in standard community landfills or other non-licensed
>facilities. The EPA is considering a plan to allow "low-activity"
>radioactive waste to be disposed in dumps and landfills that are not
>licensed for or designed to contain it.
>
>This proposal, on which the EPA is now seeking comment, would permit
>certain radioactive wastes to be treated as if they were non-radioactive
>and exempted from standards designed to isolate and contain radiation
>and prevent the public from being exposed to radiation. The EPA teamed
>with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to formulate the
>deregulatory rulemaking. Having the ability to dump nuclear waste in a
>regular community landfill would save the nuclear industry millions of
>dollars, since it costs less money to send nuclear waste to a regular
>community landfill -- where your household trash is sent -- than it does
>to properly store the waste in a licensed facility.
>
>" 'Low-activity' radioactive waste does not mean that the waste doesn't
>pose a hazard to human health or the environment," said Wenonah Hauter,
>director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment
>Program. "It's ludicrous for the EPA, whose stated mission is 'to
>protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment,' to
>suggest that we roll back existing regulations on the management of
>nuclear waste materials."
>
>There are several problems with EPA's proposal:
>
>(1) It introduces an option to allow mixed radioactive and hazardous
>wastes to be dumped in facilities that have permits only for hazardous
>wastes. This is unacceptable, since hazardous waste dumps are not
>designed to isolate and contain radiation and there has not been
>substantial research into how radioactive and chemical pollutants react
>when mixed together in the environment and the human body.
>
>(2) It would allow radioactive waste to go to sites such as standard
>garbage dumps, incinerators or hazardous waste sites that do not have
>licenses or regulations for handling it or maintaining it safely.
>
>(3) The EPA's notice does not identify regulatory barriers that would
>prevent the nuclear wastes from going to recycling facilities and
>contaminating the recycling streams that feed the production of everyday
>household items like cookware, toys, cars and furniture. No
>restrictions are described that would keep commercial materials and
>projects such as roads, bridges and buildings free of this
>contamination.
>
>"The EPA's non-regulatory approach to managing waste by 'partnering'
>with nuclear waste generators works to protect industry, not the
>public," said David Ritter, policy analyst with Public Citizen.
>"Unfortunately, the real motivation behind the EPA's proposal is to
>coddle nuclear waste producers. The whole idea should be dumped."
>
>Whether the EPA proceeds with the plan may depend on the nature and
>volume of the comments it receives. If the EPA decides to move forward
>with the proposal, it will draft a rule after the comment period ends on
>May 17.
>
>To read the comments Public Citizen submitted today to the EPA, please
>visit http://www.citizen.org/documents/epalowlevel.pdf
>
>###
>
>Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
>based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit
>www.citizen.org
>
>===========
>
>CLOSE THE SALEM NUKES NOW
>
>The UNPLUG SALEM Campaign
>321 Barr Ave., Linwood NJ 08221
>609-601-8583/601-8537; ncohen12@comcast.net
>http://www.unplugsalem.org/
>
>Date: 03/10/04
>
>For Immediate Release and Community Calendars:
>
>PSEG NUKE SAFETY WHISTLEBLOWER INVITED TO SPEAK AT 3/28 RALLY
>
>A whistleblower who has provided the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with
>detailed information on safety culture problems at all three of PSEG's
>nuclear power plants has been invited to be the featured speaker at the
>upcoming UNPLUG Salem Protest to be held Sunday, March 28th, 2-4 pm, on
>the access road leading to Artificial Island, in Lower Alloways
>township. Rain location will be the Salem Quaker Meetinghouse, on route
>49 in downtown Salem.
>
>This will be the first time the PSEG whistleblower will be speaking in
>public. He will describe the reasons why he decided to go to the NRC
>with his safety concerns, and will discuss those concerns in detail on
>March 28th.
>
>The protest will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the meltdown at
>the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside of Harrisburg, Pa. The rally
>is entitled: "No TMI on the Delaware."
>
>In addition to the whistleblower there will be a large number of other
>expert speakers, including: Dave Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for
>the Union of Concerned Scientists; Joe Mangano, chief researcher for the
>Radiation and Public Health Project; Jim Riccio of Greenpeace; Paul
>Gunter of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Tony Totah,
>marine biologist for Clean Ocean Action; Jane Nogaki, Pesticide
>Coordinator for the NJ Environmental Federation; Dr. Judith Johnsrud of
>Three Mile Island Alert; and Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition.
>
>Also speaking will be Frieda Berryhill, who has opposed nuclear power
>from before the Salem Nukes were built; Maya von Rossum, Delaware
>Riverkeeper, Grace Costanzo of the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch; and Roy
>Cannon and Matt Ahearn of the Delaware and New Jersey Greens.
>
>Entertainment will be provided by the Eco-Chorale, and the protest will
>be powered by solar power provided by LBI Solar.
>
>The NRC's annual assessment letters, dated March 3rd, continues to
>point out the NRC's concerns with the poor safety culture at both the
>Salem Nukes and Hope Creek: "Cross-cutting issues involved Instances of
>ineffective, untimely problem solving and corrective actions (and)
>numerous inspection findings which indicate that weaknesses continue."
>
>Please join us on March 28th to make sure that Salem and Hope Creek do
>not become our own TMI on the Delaware.
>
>CONTACT: Norm Cohen, 609-601-8583
>
>_______________________________________________________________________
>Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/
>Change your settings at:
>http://chrome.nocdirect.com/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net
*****************************************************************
40 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca Mountain workers exposed to dangerous materials, DOE says
Today: March 15, 2004 at 15:05:47 PST
By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Workers drilling the first tunnel at the
nation's nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert were
exposed to dangerous levels of silica and other cancer-causing
dusts in the 1990s, an Energy Department official acknowledged
Monday.
Dust masks and respirators were not mandatory, and not all Yucca
Mountain project workers used them, said Gene Runkle, the senior
Yucca Mountain safety adviser for the federal Office of Civilian
Radioactive Waste Management.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., collected testimony Monday in Las Vegas
from Runkle, two former tunnel workers in ill health, two
industrial hygienists and a physician.
The senator, the son of a miner who died of lung disease, then
accused the federal agency of sacrificing workers' health in its
haste to dig the first 5-mile tunnel at Yucca Mountain.
"DOE ignored the threat," Reid said after cutting off comments
from Runkle and concluding the Las Vegas field hearing of the
Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on Energy and
Water. "What has taken place here is just absolutely wrong."
Runkle later defended project administrators' and engineers'
efforts to "balance operations and the safety requirements at
the time."
"There were safety processes in place and they were taken into
account," he said, adding that safety standards became stricter
over time.
Runkle heads a silicosis and lung disease screening program that
the Energy Department created in January for current and former
tunnel workers. He appeared Monday on behalf of Margaret Chu,
chief of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management and
the Bush administration's top Yucca Mountain official.
A mandatory respirator protection program began in March 1996,
the same year work was stopped for two weeks - from Aug. 20 to
Sept. 13 - due to high dust levels at the site, Runkle said.
"We have recognized that we exceeded some of the regulatory
limits in the 1990s," Runkle said.
The focus Monday was mostly on silica, a mineral that exists
naturally in desert soils and in the rocks at Yucca Mountain, 90
miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Long-term exposure to inhaled silica has long been known to
cause silicosis, a chronic and progressive lung disease with
symptoms including coughing and shortness of breath.
Gene Griego, 52, a former tunnel worker now being treated for
silicosis, and Jeffrey Dean, a former Yucca Mountain miner
diagnosed with a similar disease, said workers also faced a
threat from exposure to airborne specks of carcinogenic erionite
and mordenite.
Reid and other Nevada officials are fighting the Energy
Department's plan to store 77,000 tons of the nation's nuclear
waste at the repository beginning in 2010.
--
*****************************************************************
41 Las Vegas RJ: DOE to detail screening program
Monday, March 15, 2004
Hearing to spotlight toxic dust exposure in Yucca tunneling By
KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Lax enforcement of guidelines to protect Yucca Mountain workers
from inhaling toxic dust while they drilled a five-mile tunnel
in the mid-1990s has led to an aggressive program to screen
thousands who might have been exposed, an Energy Department
safety expert will tell a U.S. Senate field hearing today.
Gene Runkle, senior safety adviser for the agency's Office of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said he plans to tell
members of the Senate Energy and Water Subcommittee that his
office has received 240 responses to the 2,400 letters sent
earlier this year to current and former workers about the
screening program.
That is in addition to 93 workers who have participated in a
medical surveillance program that was established in 1998.
In the program, two cases of silicosis, a degenerative lung
disease, were diagnosed in 2000. In both cases, the employees
had previously worked in other mining operations.
Runkle said those who respond to his letters will be
interviewed and examined for health effects from breathing air
inside the tunnel while miners bored through veins of silica and
other minerals.
"Basically what we're going to indicate is that we have
received employee concerns for silicate exposures," Runkle said
in a telephone interview Friday.
"We have investigated those concerns (and) in response to that
we have found some exposure levels exceeded the regulatory
standard," he said.
As a result, the Energy Department announced a silicosis
screening program in January that will employ specialists from
the University of Cincinnati to conduct interviews, examinations
and take X-rays. The cost of the contract this year is expected
to be $680,000 based on screening between 1,200 and 1,500
people.
Last week, a lawsuit was filed by a North Las Vegas man who
alleges he was exposed to toxic dust while federal contractors
carved the Yucca Mountain tunnel.
The lawsuit filed by Gene Griego seeks class action status on
behalf of tunnel workers.
Tunnel workers blame chronic lung ailments on inhaling dust
laden with silica including a cancer-causing fibrous mineral,
erionite, and a sister mineral, mordenite, during the tunnel
excavation from 1994 to 1997.
Griego, a Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory employee, worked
as a tunnel supervisor during the excavation.
One former industrial hygienist for Energy Department
contractor Kiewit Construction has said she was told to falsify
her field notes about silica dust levels inside the tunnel and
that she was fired after she complained about the record-keeping
practice.
Kiewit Construction bored the 25-foot-diameter tunnel. A stop
order was issued in 1996 to launch a more rigorous enforcement
program that required workers to wear respirators during the
tunneling effort.
Kiewit did not immediately comment on the lawsuit, filed late
Thursday against it and other contractors.
Before the 1996 stop order, Runkle said, "the records indicate
there was not always full enforcement of respiratory protection."
The field hearing is at 10 a.m. at the Clark County Government
Center. Griego is scheduled to testify.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
42 Rocky Mountain News: Boulder butte's future at stake
Nick Halsey, a Lakota, walks along the top of Valmont Butte in
January. Indian tribes visited the butte for centuries and
consider it a sacred spot. Descendants of white settlers feel the
same about a cemetery at the butte's bottom. Boulder is trying to
decide what to do with the land.
City to decide what to do with site loved by Indians, others
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News March 15, 2004
BOULDER - The history of Colorado is contained in one butte
rising majestically just east of town.
Generations of American Indians climbed 200 feet to the top of
Valmont Butte to pray amid a panoramic view of mountain and
plain.
European settlers gouged rock from one side of the butte to pave
streets in downtown Denver. They buried their dead on a quiet
mesa on the other side of the butte.
The settlers milled gold and fluorspar at a plant that still
stands at the foot of the butte. Radioactive waste from a
long-defunct chemical plant in downtown Boulder was dumped in the
mill's tailing pond.
"It's a one-of-a-kind place. It's the story of the West," said
Carol Affleck, a local preservationist whose grandparents arrived
in the area as newlyweds in 1895.
Now the city, which acquired the butte in 2000, along with
adjoining properties, is trying to decide what to do with it.
A special place
At issue is how much public access to allow to a butte still
sacred to the Indians, as well as how to preserve remnants of the
mill, which is considered to be of historic value.
Meanwhile, some residents are challenging proposals floated
informally to build on the city's adjoining parcels a fire
department training center and a plant to process bio-solids from
sewage.
Those uses clash with the butte's tranquility and the old
cemetery, which is still used, opponents say.
The butte is relatively unknown in a city that draws its identity
from the much bigger mountains on the west side of town. But
those who have been to the top of Valmont Butte say it provides a
spectacular view.
"I can understand why people used this as a gathering area," said
city Councilwoman Crystal Gray, who is the only member of the
panel who has been to the top. "You can see the sun rising and
the moon setting at the same time. It's really quite dramatic.
"Sometimes those things transcend cultures."
City planning director Peter Pollock has invited a citizen panel
to discuss land use in the area at a series of open meetings
beginning March 31. Indians will be included.
He will brief the City Council on the issue Tuesday.
Pollock said the city plans to protect the butte itself, which
was purchased by Boulder with open space funds and is a "unique
geological and natural feature."
The adjoining parcels were not purchased with open space money,
so the land is available for other city uses. Pollock said,
however, that the fire training center and bio-solids plant are
not done deals.
The city owns 103 acres in the -area, just across the city line
in unincorporated Boulder County. The butte, prominent from many
points, juts out of a hogback that parallels Valmont Road.
The question of what to do with the land received little public
discussion until last New Year's Eve. That's when police and
sheriff's officers broke up a religious ceremony by Indians at a
sweat lodge just below the butte's pinnacle. Police said they
believed the two dozen participants were trespassing on city
property, although the Indians have several keys to the gates.
The incident was particularly embarrassing in a city that prides
itself on tolerance for minority religions. City Manager Frank
Bruno has since apologized.
For Indians, the incident dredges up centuries of bad blood.
"I was thrown off land I have every legal right to go pray on,"
said Robert Cross, the Lakota ceremonial leader who was ushered
off the butte on New Year's Eve.
Cross, who lives in Denver, said white people don't see the
religious significance of the land they took from the Indians.
David Swallow, a Lakota spiritual leader, agreed. "When I walk on
it, I feel the spirit of my ancestors and the people before the
time when the railroad train came," Swallow said. "I feel the
'holiness,' in English terms."
Nick Halsey, a Lakota who at one time lived at the bottom of the
butte as caretaker, said Christians and Jews have the same
feeling for holy sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
As he mounts the butte, Halsey says a prayer at the site of the
aborted New Year's Eve ceremony.
"I've been saying prayers for some time. The spirit knows my
prayers," Halsey said. "I always say, 'You know what we want,'
and then I thank the spirit for the breath of life."
An Indian place
Archaeological evidence clearly shows that Indians of many tribes
visited the butte over the course of millenniums, said
anthropologist Charles Cambridge, of Boulder. Cambridge, a
Navajo, earned his doctorate at the University of Colorado and
teaches at Metro State College.
He said religion and the hunt were intertwined at the butte.
"When you're growing up, you're taught that things that you take
from the world must be compensated for in some manner. The
balance must be maintained, and so prayers are said if you take
something from the ground, like corn," Cambridge said.
"When you're a hunter - when you're hunting bison or when you're
hunting antelope or deer - when you kill the animal, you're
taking something from the world, and so you must compensate in
some manner, and that would be chants and that type of thing."
Valmont Butte was an ideal location from which to spot herds of
animals, say prayers and ask permission to conduct the hunt,
-Cambridge said.
Contemporary accounts by white settlers record 1860 as the last
communal hunt by 400 Arapahoes.
A sacred place
But Indians continued to be attracted to the butte.
Cross said his uncle surmised the significance of the butte 30
years ago.
Cross and his uncle found the kind of rocks they needed for a
sweat lodge ceremony at the foot of the butte when they were
trying to revive native ceremonies in the Denver area.
"He (the uncle) pointed out different things that were signs
natives had been in that area," Cross said.
Halsey, the former caretaker, said he heard about the butte from
his grandfather on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
"We left it alone. We didn't want people to know about it,"
Halsey said. "We didn't want it to be disturbed.
"Now it's time to talk about it and reclaim it as a sacred site,"
he said.
That's what descendants of the white settlers feel about their
cemetery on a mesa at the bottom of the butte.
Europeans established the town of Valmont not far from the butte
in 1860. It prospered in the 19th century as a railroad junction,
serving trains hauling rock from the butte.
The exact number of graves in the 3-acre cemetery is unknown,
-because some are unmarked. The area also is thought to contain
Indian remains.
"It's a very important, sacred place to the pioneer families and
to friends and relatives of those who are buried there," Affleck
said.
"I wonder whether the city would contemplate putting a (fire
training center and bio-solids plant) next to Columbia Cemetery,"
said Affleck, referring to the cemetery in a Victorian-era
section of Boulder.
A place to contemplate
Among the marked graves is that of Frank A. Polzin, a blacksmith
and Spanish-American War veteran who died in 1933.
His great-granddaughter, Lee Ann McGinty, still lives in Valmont.
She has three other relatives buried in the cemetery.
"It's sacred to me. It's my connection to the past, to my
family," -McGinty said. To her, the idea of building a fire
department training center and a bio-solids plant nearby is
"appalling."
Affleck and Halsey spoke last week before the City Council,
urging preservation. The irony is not lost on either of them.
Halsey noted that he's on the same side as the descendants of
white settlers.
"It feels good . . . because we're with the descendants working
for the same cause," Halsey said.
Halsey and several other Indians said they don't want to close
the butte to all but Indians. But, they said, it should be
reserved for quiet contemplation. An educational center would be
more appropriate than a fire training center, Halsey said.
City Councilwoman Gray said protecting the area will be
complicated. She said soils at the top of the butte are fragile
and may not withstand large numbers of visitors trooping to the
top for the view.
"That's going to be the challenge - what's going to be
accessible."
The rest of the council is scheduled to visit the butte on April
3. A vote on a plan tentatively is set for the fall, Pollock
said.
morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 442-8729
*****************************************************************
43 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada may sue over Yucca oversight funding
By Suzanne Struglinski
WASHINGTON -- If the Energy Department does not increase the
state's Yucca Mountain project oversight funding by today,
Nevada is prepared to file a another lawsuit this week.
Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear
Projects sent a letter to the department Feb. 23 threatening
more legal action if it did not allocate an additional $4
million to the state to continue its work on the Yucca project.
Congress gave the state only $1 million, which is lower than
the $5 million it received in past years. Gov. Kenny Guinn and
Attorney General Brian Sandoval wrote the department last year
on the issue, but received no response.
Loux said he had received nothing from the department so far,
but he had not received today's mail yet. He said it is "very
likely" a lawsuit would be filed this week if he does not
receive anything.
"We will respond," said Yucca Mountain Project spokesman Allen
Benson on Friday, but could not say what the response would say
or if the department would satisfy today's deadline.
The case would be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia.
The state already has three other legal complaints pending
against the department in the same court. Oral arguments took
place Jan. 14 and state lawyers expect a decision sometime this
spring.
*****************************************************************
44 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca workers must register for silicosis screeners
Today: March 15, 2004 at 9:46:04 PST
By Suzanne Struglinski
For more information about the silicosis screening, call (866)
716-1542.
WASHINGTON -- Former miners or employees who worked in tunnels
at the Energy Department's Yucca Mountain Project need to watch
their mail for information on the free silicosis screenings now
available through a new program.
Gene Runkle, senior safety adviser for the department's office
of civilian radioactive waste management who also manages the
program, said 1,200 letters went out in the past two weeks to
people who could need testing. The department has sent out 2,400
letters in all since it announced the screening program in
January.
Runkle was to testify at a Senate field hearing in Las Vegas
today, along with Margaret Chu, who heads the entire project,
and Clark County resident Gene Griego, who recently filed a
class action lawsuit against department contractors for his
exposure to silica that he says has made him sick.
Silica is a naturally occurring mineral in the rock at Yucca
Mountain, but dangerous if dust particles are inhaled. The
particles collect in a person's lungs and over time can cause
silicosis, which causes coughing and shortness of breath.
The department announced on Jan. 15 that it would offer free
silicosis screenings to any employee from 1992 to the present
who was involved in the tunneling and underground operation or
set up experiments at the proposed nuclear waste storage site at
Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Since then, Runkle said, the department has been working with
contracting companies to identify employees who spent time in
the tunnels. So far 2,400 workers have been listed, but Runkle
said this does not mean all of those employees worked in the
tunnels. The department estimates 1,200 to 1,500 employees may
have been exposed to airborne silica.
The Center to Protect Workers' Rights has contacted local
building construction trade unions in Southern Nevada to see if
any of their members might need screenings, Trish Quinn, a
project manager with the center said.
The department will also work with the Internal Revenue Service
to find new addresses for letters that get sent back to the
department. Runkle said
Identified workers should receive a letter from W. John Arthur,
the project's deputy director of repository development, that
explains the program. A second letter should come from the
University of Cincinnati, which is conducting the study, seeking
basic information such as name, age, address and when and what
type of work the person did at the mountain. Workers can
register by mail or a toll-free phone number, 866-716-1542.
A call to the number brought a recording asking to leave name
and telephone number for someone to return the call.
Once registered, workers will receive a medical consent form
and confirmation letter, followed by a telephone interview from
Zenith Administrators, a benefit administration company
contracted by the University of Cincinnati. So far, 28
interviews have been conducted.
After the interview, Zenith then schedules a medical exam with
a doctor who specializes in pulmonary problems. Right now the
doctors are in Las Vegas, since the department feels most of the
people needing tests will be in Nevada, but Runkle said if
enough people were in another region, a doctor could go there.
Michele Boyd, a legislative representative for Public Citizen,
who has been trying to track the process said it is "very
frustrating."
"You have to receive the letter to know where to go," Boyd
said. "The information is just not available. It's not an easy
process."
So far, 240 people have signed up for screening. Worker
interviews started last week and medical exams could start this
week, Runkle said.
The exams include lung tests, a chest X-ray, a regular physical
exam and a blood test, which includes a cholesterol screening.
Runkle said silicosis has no effect on cholesterol, but since
1998 employees covered under the Silica Protection Program
created by the department receive a cholesterol screening and it
wanted to keep the program consistent. Workers who spend or are
anticipated to spend more than 20 days in the tunnels get chest
X-rays and a physical to be properly fitted for respiratory
protection equipment.
Before 1996 the department had little protection or
requirements for protection while digging was going on at Yucca.
"My understanding is they were looking at monitoring data and
did not detect any high levels of silica," Runkle said.
Allegations that employees changed the data so they would not
have to require the protections are still being investigated by
the department's inspector general office.
*****************************************************************
45 Slovak news: Nuclear storage by 2030
Slovakia's English language newspaper March 15 - 21,2004,
Volume 10, Number 10
[http://www.sme.sk]
From press reports
THE COSTS of a deep underground nuclear waste deposit site are
estimated at Sk71.13 billion (€1.75 billion), according to a
document on the nuclear fuel cycle back-end policy to be
discussed by the government, the news wire SITA wrote.
The deep nuclear storage site should be built in 2030 at the
latest and should start operations in 2037, the Economy Ministry
said.
The document warns that, in its current form, the responsible
government fund could cover only 39 percent of the costs of the
nuclear policy. [3/15/2004]
Copyright © 1998-2003 The Rock spol. s r.o. All rights
reserved.
*****************************************************************
46 EurekAlert: INEEL designing prototype system for Yucca Mountain repository
Public release date: 15-Mar-2004
Contact: John Walsh
jhw@inel.gov [jhw@inel.gov]
208-526-8646
DOE/Idaho National E & E Laboratory [http://www.inel.gov/] INEEL
designing prototype system for Yucca Mountain repository
The U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory is designing a prototype
remote-controlled system that will permanently close the waste
packages of spent nuclear fuel before final disposal in the
proposed federal repository being studied at Yucca Mountain in
Nevada. The INEEL will also build and test the system at the
Idaho laboratory.
Federal law designated Yucca Mountain as the site to be studied
for licensing as the national repository for commercial and
government spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste. If the
repository is licensed, INEEL's Waste Package Closure System will
be a key element of the facility's operation.
The INEEL-designed closure system will be used to demonstrate
the operations and equipment, and may be used in the operator
training facility. The prototype will be constructed and operated
at the INEEL.
Philip Wheatley, Yucca Mountain relationship manager, said the
project takes advantage of INEEL's established expertise. "The
INEEL has been designated as the DOE lead lab for Nuclear Energy
Technology. We have a proven history of spent fuel canister
welding process development. This expertise will help the Yucca
Mountain Project and help meet the nation's need for the safe
storage of nuclear waste," Wheatley said.
Wheatley added that other areas of expertise -- in particular,
robotics, hot cell operations and design, systems engineering and
automated welding developed by the Laboratory in receiving,
handling, storing and transporting spent nuclear fuel -- made the
INEEL attractive to the Yucca Mountain Project team.
In developing the waste package system, INEEL engineers faced a
number of technical challenges. The waste package is two
containers, one nested within the other, with three lids. The
package can be various diameters and heights. INEEL engineers are
integrating off-the-shelf equipment in the design of the closure
system. However, the team has had to develop new or modified
equipment for some parts of the operation, for instance, a tool
to remotely purge and fill the inner container with helium.
The task becomes more challenging and complex because the high
radiation fields require the entire operation to be done
remotely.
As designed, a cart will move a waste package into the
processing cell where all the operations occur. Three separate
lids will be installed and welded onto the container using two
weld torches rotating around the container on tracks. All the
welds undergo one or more inspections visually, ultrasonically,
with eddy current, or by a combination of these methods. The
inner container will be filled with helium (to prevent
corrosion), sealed and leak tested. Stress mitigation on the
welds will be performed on the outer lid followed by another set
of inspections. Once the waste package closure is complete, it is
ready for placement in the repository.
Wheatley noted the INEEL is working on a number of other
repository-related projects, including support in preparing the
license application, analysis of criticality events, surface
facility design, verification and validation of software for
modeling the repository and preparing a corrective management
plan for systems.
"The waste package closure project will be a significant piece
of work for the next three or four years," Wheatley said. "This
work allows the INEEL to apply some of our core competencies to
help meet the nation's nuclear technology development mission.
Engineering and other capabilities used for Yucca Mountain will
contribute to future reactor development work."
###
The INEEL is a science-based, applied engineering national
laboratory dedicated to supporting the DOE's missions in energy,
national security, science and environment. the INEEL is operated
for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho.
[[ Back to EurekAlert! ]]
*****************************************************************
47 RGJ: Articles on Yucca Mountain inaccurate - W. John Arthur III
Reno Gazette-Journal
W. John Arthur III
Monday, March 15, 2004
Two Gazette-Journal articles (both on Feb. 19) present an
inaccurate picture o an important, complex national program, the
Yucca Mountain Project. I am referring to the articles about
comments by Paul ' Craig, a former member of the Nuclear Waste
Technical Review Board, and William Barnard, the board's
executive' director.
The mandate of the board, whose 11 members the president
appoints, is to evaluate the technical and scientific validity
of activities undertaken by the secretary of Energy as they
relate to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca
Mountain. We meet' with the full board and with topic-specific
board panels throughout the year. We take what they say
seriously. Therefore, the inaccuracies and misstatements in your
stories call for a clarification of basic facts about the
proposed repository and our relationship with the boar
Waste to be placed in the repository cannot "leak" because it is
not liquid. The waste will be either: ceramic pellets, resistant
to degradation and covered with a corrosion-resistant metal
cladding, or a former liquid "vitrified" into a hard glass form.
The issue is that in the future water will reach the repository
and cause the waste canisters, cladding and ceramic or glass
material to deteriorate - and then to move the waste, bit by
bit, through the rock some thousands of years later. DOE has
spent more than 20 years studying how much water. might reach
the waste, how, fast and what can be done to minimize it.
The two decades we have worked on the repository program can
hardly be descried as "rushing ahead." In fact, several
utilities have filed suit against DOE for going too slowly.
In the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, Congress required the proposed
repository to use a system of multiple barriers, i.e., both
natural and man-made. Working together, these barriers would
protect the waste from potential moisture and slow any waste
movement.
We never assumed that the mountain itself would be the only
barrier to waste movement. It is prudent to use sturdy,
corrosion-resistant materials to contain the waste.
Double-walled waste packages will be structured to last for
thousands of years. They will have a thick inner vessel -
stainless steel - for structural strength, plus an outer metal
barrier highly resistant to corrosion - Alloy-22. Yucca Mountain
provides a location that would be isolated, dry and secure,
which would protect these waste packages and isolate the waste
from the accessible environment.
We are reviewing the board's recent report on waste package
corrosion and have requested the opportunity to discuss the
report with the full board when we complete our evaluations.
Your articles misrepresent our relationship with the board. We
have had an ongoing dialogue with the board since its inception
in 1987. They and other scientific and regulatory bodies bring
fresh insight on this project. Our interactions involve an
ongoing exchange of ideas that improve the path forward for the
proposed repository. Indeed, we have changed the design and
thermal strategy in response to board concerns.
We believe our changes have addressed the board's issues, but we
understand that scientific opinion can differ. Nevertheless, we
will continue to work with the board and our regulator, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to ensure that we develop a
design that protects
See all stories on this topic:
FEDS Show Off Seized Libyan Nuclear Arms
ABC News - USA
March 15 — Claiming one victory in the fight against weapons of mass
destruction, US officials on Monday displayed a few examples of the tons
of nuclear ...
See all stories on this topic:
FUKUI OKs use of reprocessed spent fuel at nuclear plant
Japan Today - Tokyo,Japan
FUKUI — The Fukui prefectural government gave the go-ahead Monday for
restarting a process leading to Japan's first use of reprocessed spent
nuclear fuel for ...
See all stories on this topic:
IRAN to Lift Freeze on Nuclear Inspections Starting March 27
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
... tense talks of the agency in Vienna, where Iran sought to quash and
then soften international censure of its failure to fully disclose its
clandestine nuclear ...
See all stories on this topic:
NUCLEAR Bombshell: The Truth that John Kerry Knows
Times of India - India
... Two, according to Khan’s friends, General Zia-ul Haq directed him
to respond to the 1987 Iranian overtures for nuclear technology but told
him not to go too ...
See all stories on this topic:
AFP should prepare for 'nuclear 9/11'
ABS CBN News - Quezon City,Philippines
... According to a study of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University, it will be a mini-nuclear one on the Grand Central
Station at Manhattan ...
IRAN says time not right for nuclear inspections, talks with USA
Albawaba Middle East News - Amman,Middle East
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Hassan Rowhani
arrived in Tokyo Monday to discuss bilateral ties, Iran's nuclear issues,
regional ...
See all stories on this topic:
NUCLEAR waste site a thorn in Nebraska's side
Grand Island Independent - Grand Island,NE,USA
... $315 million shortfall this year, the news that the state may have
to pay $151 million as a result of the recent court ruling in the decades-old
nuclear waste ...
See all stories on this topic:
IRAN not to abandon peaceful nuclear activities at any cost: ...
Payvand - Iran
Tehran, March 15, IRNA -- Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
said here Sunday Iran is determined to use nuclear energy for peaceful
purposes ...
See all stories on this topic:
SA nuclear technology was destroyed, says De Klerk
Mail & Guardian (subscription) - Johannesburg,South Africa
South African nuclear technology developed during the apartheid era was
destroyed later under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA ...
See all stories on this topic:
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63 SF Chronicle: REINING IN OUR WEAPONRY / Is U.S. Air Force lost in space?
Theresa Hitchens [chronfeedback@sfchronicle.com] Monday, March
15, 2004 [San Francisco Chronicle]
At last, Congress may be waking up to one of the most critical
strategic blunders the administration of President Bush is
preparing to make: the weaponization of outer space. Late last
month, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D- Walnut Creek, became one of the
first members of Congress to actively challenge the U.S. Air
Force on its new strategic plan to turn space into the next
battlefield, bristling with orbiting weapons designed to attack
satellites, ballistic missiles and even targets on Earth.
Tauscher's pointed questions to Air Force Undersecretary Peter
Teets and Air Force Space Command Chief Gen. Lance Lord at a Feb.
25 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee confirmed that
the service already has started down this dangerous pathway.
Since the inauguration of Bush and the appointment of Donald
Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, the question of space weapons
has been lingering in the administration's in-box. There is a
high- powered faction within the administration that sees space
as the next "high frontier" to be dominated by the U.S. military,
and a critical future enabler of the pre-emptive strike strategy
articulated by the White House in the wake of Sept. 11. While the
administration has not formally revised the Clinton-era National
Space Policy that has long been viewed as eschewing space
weapons, the Pentagon nonetheless seems to have given the Air
Force the green light to proceed in developing them. Until
recently, Air Force leaders have been coy about their long-term
intentions for space warfare, focusing instead on the carefully
crafted "corporate message" that U.S. space assets -- military,
intelligence and commercial -- are vulnerable and need to be
protected. Any discussion of offensive space weapons was gingerly
deflected, or downplayed with assurances that the service is
primarily interested in "reversible and temporary" methods of
disrupting enemy use of satellites during future conflicts. Air
Force officials are painfully aware of the political sensitivity
of space weapons, and with good reason. Since the dawn of the
space age, the American body-politic has never been comfortable
with the concept. For example, in a poll earlier this month by
space.com, an online news and information source for space
professionals and enthusiasts, 66 percent of respondents said
Pentagon plans for "space defense" would prompt a dangerous new
arms race, whereas only 34 percent believed the plans would
"deter space wars." But the service's gloves came off with the
Feb. 17 release of the new U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight
Plan. The document details a stunning array of exotic weapons to
be pursued over the next decade: from an air-launched missile
designed to knock satellites out of low orbit, to ground- and
space- based lasers for attacking both missiles and satellites,
to "hypervelocity rod bundles" (nicknamed Rods from God) designed
to burst from space into the atmosphere at high speeds and slam
into deeply buried bunkers. Far from being aimed solely at the
protection of U.S. space capabilities, such weapons are instead
intended for offensive, first-strike missions. Tauscher is right
to be concerned about the wisdom of the Air Force plans. U.S.
unilateral weaponization of space is likely to set off a space
arms race that in the long-run will undercut, rather than
enhance, U.S. national security and global stability. Up to now,
most nations of the world -- with the exception of the United
States -- have expressed a desire to ban space weapons under an
international treaty. The U.S. military's obvious interest in
space weapons, however, has led some countries, such as China and
India, to consider countering with their own anti-space programs.
A space arms race would have no true winners. Launching and
maintaining satellites and spacecraft is exorbitantly expensive.
Satellites also are inherently vulnerable; therefore space-based
weapons would be high-value, "use them or lose them" assets --
resulting in itchy trigger fingers during a crisis. Indeed, past
Pentagon war games have found that use of space weapons often led
to rapid escalation of hostilities -- in some cases straight to
all-out nuclear war. Finally, destroying satellites will create
debris, already recognized by the international space community
as a threat to future safe operations in space. Tauscher has
taken a first step toward forcing the "space hawks" in the Bush
administration to explain their misguided goal of space dominion.
Here's hoping others in Congress will follow her lead. Theresa
Hitchens is vice president of the Center for Defense Information
(www.cdi.org), a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, and the
director of the CDI Space Security Project. [graphical line] Page
B - 7
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
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64 CBC: Sempra, Carlyle to buy 10 AEP power plants in Texas for US$430
million
[http://www.cbc.ca/]
09:18 PM EST Mar 15
SAN DIEGO (AP) - Sempra Energy and a private investment fund
agreed to buy American Electric Power Co.'s Coleto Creek Power
Station in Texas and nine other Texas power plants for $430
million US, the companies said Monday.
Coleto Creek is a 632-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Goliad
County, Texas. The sale will allow Columbus, Ohio-based American
Electric to reduce debt, the companies said.
Under the agreement, Sempra and the private equity fund,
Carlyle/Riverstone, will be joint owners of the 10 plants with
combined generating capacity of 3,813 megawatts. The transaction
includes six active power plants capable of generating 1,950
megawatts and four inactive power plants with capacity of 1,863
megawatts.
San Diego-based Sempra Energy is the parent of utilities Southern
California Gas and San Diego Gas &Electric. It also has
subsidiaries that own power plants and trade electricity.
In addition to Coleto Creek, the other five operating power
plants included in the acquisition are: the 697-megawatt Barney
M. Davis natural gas and oil-fuelled plant near Corpus Christi;
the six-megawatt Eagle Pass Hydro Power Station on the Rio Grande
River near Eagle Pass; the 182-megawatt J.L. Bates Power Station,
a natural gas-and-oil fueled plant in Hidalgo County; La Palma
Power Station, a 255-megawatt natural gas-and-oil fueled
generating facility in San Benito; and Laredo Power Station, a
178-megawatt natural gas-fueled power plant in Laredo.
The agreement is expected to close by July 1.
American Electric said the book value of assets being sold to
Sempra Energy was about $266 million at Dec. 31, 2001.
On March 1, Saskatoon-based uranium miner Cameco Corp. made a
$333-million-US bid for American Electric's more than one-quarter
interest in the South Texas Project nuclear plants.
But the balance of STP is held by Texas Genco with 30.8 per cent,
San Antonio City Public Service Board 28 per cent and Austin
Energy 16 per cent - and all three partners have a 90-day right
of first refusal on the stake sought by Cameco (TSX:CCO).
© The Canadian Press, 2004
[http://www.cp.org/]
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