***************************************************************** 03/17/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.66 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief In Washington For Talks With Bush, Us Offi 2 [NYTr] Did US foil its own WMD planting op with friendly fire? 3 US: [NYTr] Kerry Knew There Were No WMDs When He Voted for War: 4 Hi Pakistan: Blix criticizes Bush, Blair --> 5 National Post: Blix book a bible for war's opponents 6 UK Independent: Spain's PM ups pressure on Blair: 'You can't organis 7 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Official: No Proof of Iran Nukes 8 AFP: UN nuclear chief says Iranian cooperation crucial to unravel 9 St. Petersburg Times: Russian-Iranian accord on spent nuclear fuel t 10 Hi Pakistan: Iran allow N-inspections to resume unconditionally 11 Daily Times: Iran’s bomb programme can’t be ruled out: IAEA 12 Las Vegas SUN: Khatami: Iran Will Work With Nuke Agency 13 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Increasing `nuclear Deterrent' 14 ITAR-TASS: NKorea may continue peace N-program if dumps military nuk 15 US: Star Telegram: Security questioned at U.S. nuclear sites 16 US: SF Chron: Intelligence failure, misinterpretation or deceit? / M 17 US: HF: Energy Bill Too Weighted Down to Power the Country 18 US: Khilafah.com: Rumsfeld Caught Lying, Yet Again 19 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog chief meets US CIA director 20 Toronto Star: Ontario to spend billions on power 21 Daily Times: Nukes are last line of defence: Rashid 22 Daily Times: Nuclear scientists detention challenge goes to SC 23 Daily Times: IAEA wants more cooperation from Pakistan 24 Daily Times: US has no additional leverage with Pakistan: Faisal 25 Daily Times: US wants India to play role of nuclear policeman 26 Daily Times: Powell arrives to discuss N-leaks 27 Hi Pakistan: No IAEA inspection - Rashid 28 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan came out of N-crisis safely: No question of ro 29 Hi Pakistan: Display of equipment in US angers Libya --> 30 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan – the lone target - 31 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear assets in safe hands, no question of sharing th 32 CBC News:Ontario sets electrical overhaul at $40B NUCLEAR REACTORS 33 US: [CMEP] Davis-Besse Shutdown Shows Regulatory Flaws 34 US: Davis - Besse Nuclear Plant Is Shut Down Today [3/17/2004] 35 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Annual Performance Assessment of Pilgrim Nuc 36 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Performance of Palo Verde Nuclear Plant 37 US: NRC: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a 38 Bellona: Britain might become nuclear dustbin 39 US: Oakland Tribune: Sierra Club sues over security risks 40 US: Brattleboro Reformer - Editorials: A neighborly thing 41 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Appeals target Diablo facility 42 US: TimesDaily: NAACP opposing approval of Entergy nuclear plant exp 43 US: toledoblade: Davis-Besse electricity production shut down again 44 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Senate calls for Yankee assessment 45 US: Platts: Davis-Besse is temporarily reconnected to grid 46 US: WNNE: Residents React To Upgrade At Aging Power Plant 47 US: NRC: Pursuant to 10 CFR 110.70(b)(1) ``Public notice of receipt 48 US: NRC: Notice of Receipt of License Amendment Request From Sequoya 49 US: Newsday: NRC to boost oversight of Oyster Creek nuclear power p 50 US: Forbes: TVA's Tenn. Sequoyah 1 nuke still shut after trip 51 US: Business Centre: Manley report on OPG to recommend more private NUCLEAR SAFETY 52 [du-list] the US fist-print on our shared globe w/ oppressive 53 US: The Herald: Crews train for radiation accident 54 BBC: Plea over Gulf War syndrome 55 US: Las Vegas SUN: Bio-chem releases at Test Site explained 56 US: Las Vegas SUN: Biological, chemical tests near 57 US: Pahrump Valley Times: Do you not know? 58 US: NRC: NRC Proposes $21,000 Fine to Alaska Department of Transport NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 59 US: Salt Lake Tribune: More potty talk 60 Las Vegas RJ: JOHN L. SMITH: Just ask tunnel workers whether we have 61 US: Nebraska StatePaper.com: Nuclear Political War Between Nelson, J 62 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Negligence casts pall over Yucca 63 US: Las Vegas SUN: Nuclear expert: Send waste to Michigan 64 Las Vegas SUN: State sues DOE for loss of Yucca oversight funds 65 Las Vegas SUN: Nye commission opposes giving water to Las Vegas 66 US: Philadelphia Inquirer: Camden County files federal lawsuit to ha 67 NEWS.com.au: PM defends N-dump site 68 US: Gloucester Times: Camden County freeholders sue GEMS Trust 69 US: Courier Post: Lawsuit filed on radioactive water plan 70 News & Star: DON’T WANT SCOTTISH N-WASTE 71 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada files new lawsuit over Yucca Mountain nuke NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 72 DOE: 04ER04-13; Operating/Runtime Systems for Extreme Scale Scientif 73 KRT Wire: Contractor Says Winner of Hanford Nuclear Site Contract Br 74 AP Wire: Los Alamos to transfer subcontractor jobs to UC 75 MSNBC: INEEL Reveals Nuclear Waste "A Threat" To Aquifer 76 Oak Ridger: DOE security training critiqued in report 77 Oak Ridger: More Libyan weapons material destined to come to Oak Rid 78 Oak Ridger: Elements rediscovered at sites worldwide and in Oak Ridg OTHER NUCLEAR 79 Google News Alert - nuclear 80 The Hindu : Fusion fuels furore 81 Technology Review: Hype about Hydrogen ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 UN Nuclear Watchdog Chief In Washington For Talks With Bush, Us Officials Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:00:53 -0500 UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG CHIEF IN WASHINGTON FOR TALKS WITH BUSH, US OFFICIALS New York, Mar 17 2004 3:00PM The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency is in Washington today for talks with senior officials of the United States on a range of issues, including the agency's verification of Iran's nuclear programme. Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/high_level_talks1703.html">IAEA), is scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and other senior officials, a UN spokesman said. The high-level working meetings will focus on current efforts to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime. On Monday Mr. ElBaradei said Iran would accept the return of IAEA inspectors on 27 March. Over the weekend, the Agency's Board of Governors 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. 2004-03-17 00:00:00.000 ________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml ***************************************************************** 2 [NYTr] Did US foil its own WMD planting op with friendly fire? Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 16:01:04 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [This is an old report, from Dec 8 2003.] Sent by barbara gaines on EMMAS list US tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblowerUS tried to plant WMDs, failed: whistleblower Daily Times Monitor of Pakistan http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_12-8-2003_pg1_9 According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to "plant" WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by "friendly fire", the Environmentalists Against War report. Nelda Rogers is a 28-year veteran debriefer for the DoD. She has become so concerned for her safety that she decided to tell the story about this latest CIA-military fiasco in Iraq. According to Al Martin Raw.com, "Ms Rogers is number two in the chain of command within this DoD special intelligence office. This is a ten-person debriefing unit within the central debriefing office for the Department of Defense." The information that is being leaked out is information "obtained while she was in Germany heading up the debriefing of returning service personnel, involved in intelligence work in Iraq for the DoD and/or the CIA. "According to Ms Rogers, there was a covert military operation that took place both preceding and during the hostilities in Iraq," reports Al Martin Raw.com, an online subscriber-based news/analysis service which provides "Political, Economic and Financial Intelligence". Al Martin is a retired Lt Commander (US Navy), the author of a memoir called "The Conspirators: Secrets of an Iran-Contra Insider," and is considered one of America's foremost experts on corporate and government fraud. Ms Rogers reports that this particular covert operation team was manned by former military personnel and "the unit was paid through the Department of Agriculture in order to hide it, which is also very commonplace". According to Al Martin Raw.com, "the Agriculture Department has often been used as a paymaster on behalf of the CIA, DIA, NSA and others". According to the Al Martin Raw.com story, another aspect of Ms Rogers' report concerns a covert operation which was to locate the assets of Saddam Hussein and his family, including cash, gold bullion, jewelry and assorted valuable antiquities. The problem became evident when "the operation in Iraq involved 100 people, all of whom apparently are now dead, having succumbed to so-called 'friendly fire'. The scope of this operation included the penetration of the Central Bank of Iraq, other large commercial banks in Baghdad, the Iraqi National Museum and certain presidential palaces where monies and bullion were secreted." "They identified about $2 billion in cash, another $150 million in Euros, in physical banknotes, and about another $100 million in sundry foreign currencies ranging from Yen to British Pounds," reports Al Martin. "These people died, mostly in the same place in Baghdad, supposedly from a stray cruise missile or a combination of missiles and bombs that went astray," Martin continues. "There were supposedly 76 who died there and the other 24 died through a variety of 'friendly fire', 'mistaken identity' and some of them-their whereabouts are simply unknown." Ms Rogers' story sounds like an updated 21st-century version of Treasure Island meets Ali Baba and the Bush Cabal Thieves, writes Martin. "This was a contingent of CIA/ DoD operatives, but it was really the CIA that bungled it," Ms Rogers said. "They were relying on the CIA's ability to organise an effort to seize these assets and to be able to extract these assets because the CIA claimed it had resources on the ground within the Iraqi army and the Iraqi government who had been paid. That turned out to be completely bogus. As usual." "CIA people were supposed to be handling it," Martin continues. "They had a special 'black' aircraft to fly it out. But none of that happened because the regular US Army showed up, stumbled onto it and everyone involved had to scramble. These new Iraqi "asset seizures" go directly to the New US Ruling Junta. The US Viceroy in Iraq Paul Bremer is reportedly drinking Saddam's $2000 a bottle Napoleon-era brandy, smoking his expensive Davidoff cigars and he has even furnished his office with Saddam's Napoleon-era furniture. g/n * To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://tania.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 3 [NYTr] Kerry Knew There Were No WMDs When He Voted for War: Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 16:18:50 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Sent by Michael Givel http://www.tikkun.org/index.cfm/action/current/article/218.html Kerry Told There Were No WMDs in Iraq--Before He Voted for the War U.N. Weapons Inspector Reveals Personal Conversation with Kerry Scott Ritter | 02.10.2004 Kerry, Too, Needs to Clear the Air On April 23, 1971, a 27-year-old Navy veteran named John Kerry sat before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and chided members on their leadership failures regarding the war in Vietnam. "Where is the leadership?" Kerry, a decorated hero who had proved his courage under fire, demanded of the senators. "Where are they now that we, the men they sent off to war, have returned?" Kerry lambasted those who had pushed so strongly for war in Vietnam. "These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude." Today, on the issue of the war in Iraq, it is John Kerry who is all pious rectitude. "I think the administration owes the entire country a full explanation on this war-not just their exaggerations but on the failure of American intelligence," Kerry said following the stunning announcement by David Kay, the Bush administration's former lead investigator in Iraq, that "we were all wrong" about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in that country. The problem for Sen. Kerry, of course, is that he, too, is culpable in the massive breach of public trust that has come to light regarding Iraq, WMD and the rush to war. Almost 30 years after his appearance before the Senate, Sen. Kerry was given the opportunity to make good on his promises that he had learned the lessons of Vietnam. During a visit to Washington in April 2000, when I lobbied senators and representatives for a full review of American policy regarding Iraq, I spoke with John Kerry about what I held to be the hyped-up intelligence regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. "Put it in writing," Kerry told me, "and send it to me so I can review what you're saying in detail." I did just that, penning a comprehensive article for Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association, on the "Case for the Qualitative Disarmament of Iraq." This article, published in June 2000, provided a detailed breakdown of Iraq's WMD capability and made a comprehensive case that Iraq did not pose an imminent threat. I asked the Arms Control Association to send several copies to Sen. Kerry's office but, just to make sure, I sent him one myself. I never heard back from the senator. Two years later, in the buildup toward war that took place in the summer of 2002, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Kerry sits, convened a hearing on Iraq. At that hearing a parade of witnesses appeared, testifying to the existence of WMD in Iraq. Featured prominently was Khidir Hamza, the self-proclaimed "bombmaker to Saddam," who gave stirring first-hand testimony to the existence of not only nuclear weapons capability, but also chemical and biological weapons as well. Every word of Hamza's testimony has since been proved false. Despite receiving thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails demanding that dissenting expert opinion, including my own, be aired at the hearing, Sen. Kerry apparently did nothing, allowing a sham hearing to conclude with the finding that there was "no doubt" Saddam Hussein had WMD. Sen. Kerry followed up this performance in October 2002 by voting for the war in Iraq. Today he justifies that vote by noting that he only approved the "threat of war," and that the blame for Iraq rests with President George W. Bush, who failed to assemble adequate international support for the war. But this explanation rings hollow in the face of David Kay's findings that there are no WMD in Iraq. With the stated casus belli shown to be false, John Kerry needs to better explain his role not only in propelling our nation into a war that is rapidly devolving into a quagmire, but more importantly, his perpetuation of the falsehoods that got us there to begin with. President Bush should rightly be held accountable for what increasingly appears to be deliberately misleading statements made by him and members of his administration regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. If such deception took place, then Bush no longer deserves the trust and confidence of the American people. But John Kerry seems to share in this culpability, and if he wants to be the next president of the United States, he must first convince the American people that his actions somehow differ from those of the man he seeks to replace. "Where is the leadership?" John Kerry asked more than 30 years ago, questioning a war that consumed life, money and national honor. Today this question still hangs in the air, haunting a former Navy combat veteran who needs to convince a skeptical nation that he not only has a plan to get America out of Iraq, but also possesses the leadership skills needed to avoid future ill-advised adventures. [Scott Ritter, former UN chief inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, is the author of Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America. This article was previously published in Newsday.] * To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://tania.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 4 Hi Pakistan: Blix criticizes Bush, Blair --> March 18 2004 UNITED NATIONS: Former UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said on Monday that US President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had lost credibility. "The world isn't safer now that Saddam Hussein is out of power" and it was clear 10 months ago that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "I think they had a set mind," Mr Blix said on the NBC News programme "Today" as he began a ten-day American tour to promote his book "Disarming Iraq," in the week marking the first anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. "They wanted to come to the conclusion that there were weapons," he said. "Like the former days of the witch hunt, they are convinced that they exist, and if you see a black cat, well, that's evidence of the witch." In an address to the faculty and students at the New York University later on Monday night, Mr Blix said he did not share the Bush administrations' view that the war had made the world a safer place. "Sorry to say it doesn't look that way," he said. "If the aim was to send a signal to terrorists that we are determined to take you on, that has not succeeded." Mr Blix said the United States should have known months ago that there were no weapons to be found. "By May I knew there was nothing because the Americans had interrogated so many Iraqis by then and even offered money and still they found nothing." Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part ***************************************************************** 5 National Post: Blix book a bible for war's opponents Arms inspector preaches to the converted Steven Edwards March 17, 2004 NEW YORK - Waiting in line for Hans Blix to sign their just-purchased copies of his book yesterday, French diplomats at the United Nations eagerly pointed to pages where the former UN weapons inspector tells how President Jacques Chirac had predicted Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. The French and their backers had been right, and the United States and Britain had been wrong, went their elated commentary. Could Washington have any more egg on its face after failing to find evidence Saddam Hussein had nuclear, biological and chemical weapons? Judging by the whispers, most of the people lined up in the narrow third-floor corridor where Mr. Blix was signing his tome Disarming Iraq had participated in the chant against the Iraq war last year. As a measure of Mr. Blix's popularity at the internationalist-minded organization, the moderator of the news conference held immediately after the book signing introduced him as "one of our favourite guests." He replied that he was "touched" to be back among friends. For critics beyond the UN, Mr. Blix's legacy is not one to be celebrated. Though mandated by the UN Security Council to verify Iraq's claims it had disarmed, Mr. Blix instead turned the inspections into a hunt for the proscribed weapons. At news conference after news conference last year, he reported his inspectors had found no "smoking gun." This gave the impression it was the inspectors' job to find weapons, rather than Iraq's job to show it had none. "Mr. Blix allowed the Iraqis to shift the burden of proof of disarmament away from them and onto the inspectors," one Blix critic noted. "This precedent-setting Blixism does not bode well for future inspections of other rogue regimes." Mr. Blix himself mused yesterday as to why Iraq had not "bent over backwards" to co-operate with his inspectors. "Was it pride?" he said. "Or maybe Saddam thought it wouldn't make a difference. Or maybe he still had something to hide." Even Mr. Blix was not sure on the eve of the U.S.-led attack what was behind Iraq's evasiveness. "I could not say in the middle of March that there were no weapons of mass destruction," he admitted. "They did not co-operate very well and they kept suspicion alive that they still had weapons." But while the mood in post-9/11 Washington was not to take chances, France, Germany and Russia thought otherwise. France even threatened to use its veto power in the Security Council to block U.S. and British efforts to unite the 15-member body. It wasn't clear at the time the extent to which backers of the French-led position were acting on principle or on their own private desire to see the world's only superpower thwarted. Certainly within the UN itself, there has never been a shortage of officials who cherish the chance to criticize the United States. For them, Mr. Blix has come to personify America's "mistake," now that it's clear Saddam was either too proud or too stupid to open up to the inspectors, and that the Iraq war was not necessary if ridding the country of weapons of mass destruction was the only goal. "To me, he is a hero," said Gil Baltis, an employee of the UN Department of Management, as he waited patiently in the book-signing line. "History has proven him right. We must try to imagine what would have happened if the UN had given a green light to the invasion of Iraq, and if they had been proven wrong in the end." Khaled Aljbaili, who works in the Arabic translation service, said: "He is a great man. I was happy to hear about his book. He is a model to UN employees -- a man who freely speaks his own mind against these hard powers during a difficult time." At least one Canadian official joined the more than 200 who snapped up editions of the book yesterday and got them signed. At the news conference, a journalist for the Baltimore Sun "regretted" Blix's resignation as inspection chief last summer. Another from the Arab television network al-Jazeera suggested his only fault was not to have assumed from the beginning that Iraq had no weapons. Mr. Blix disagreed when asked if he thought George W. Bush, the U.S. President, had "deceived" the American people. "Misled them, yes," he said. "They were convinced there were weapons of mass destruction." Mr. Blix gloats in his book that letting the inspectors wrap up their work might have averted war. Of course, Saddam would then have been free to continue his tyrannical rule and the mass graves would have remained unknown to the world. © National Post 2004 Search canada.com About Us Advertise Site Map Privacy [http://www.canwestglobal.com/privacy.html] Terms FAQ Our Partners Copyright © CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. CanWest Interactive Inc. is an affiliate of CanWest Global Communications Corp. [http://www.canwestglobal.com/] Copyright & Permission Rules [http://www.canada.com/aboutus/copyright.html] [http://www.canada.com/] ***************************************************************** 6 UK Independent: Spain's PM ups pressure on Blair: 'You can't organise a war with lies' By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid and Ben Russell 16 March 2004 Spain's incoming Socialist Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the unexpected victor in Sunday's general election, launched a withering attack on Tony Blair and George Bush yesterday over their decision to go to war in Iraq. Announcing that the 1,300 Spanish troops currently stationed in Iraq would be pulled out by the summer, the quietly spoken leader declared: "You can't organise a war with lies. "Mr Blair and Mr Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism," he added in remarkably frank comments for the next prime minister of Europe's youngest democracy and fifth largest economy. Mr Zapatero was speaking a day after his Socialist Workers' Party's surprise election victory over the ruling Popular Party, which under the leadership of Jose Maria Aznar had strongly supported the war in Iraq. He told Spanish radio his triumph was a consequence of the conflict's unpopularity with voters. But a more immediate explanation for the swing was last Thursday's bomb attacks on Madrid which left 200 people dead. The Government initially attempted to blame the Basque separatist group, Eta, for the atrocity. When it became apparent that groups affiliated to al-Qa'ida were almost certainly responsible, many Spaniards used the ballot to vent their anger at the Government's support for the war, which they blamed for making the country a target of Islamic terrorists. In another blow to the British Government, Mr Zapatero also promised to relaunch his country's policy of co-operation with Europe, turning his back on Mr Blair's attempt to establish an alternative sphere of influence in the EU. "Military intervention in Iraq was a political mistake," Mr Zapatero said yesterday. "It divided more than it united, there were no reasons for it. Time has shown that the arguments for it lacked credibility. You cannot bomb by chance." Downing Street and the White House avoided commenting on Mr Zapatero's attacks, focusing instead in the need to co-operate against terrorism. President Bush placed a congratulatory call, expressing hope that the two countries would still co-operate on fighting terrorism, while avoiding the decision to withdraw Spanish forces from Iraq. Mr Blair's spokesman said the Spanish people's decision would be respected. The two leaders are not expected to meet for more than a month ­ an extraordinary delay in the context of the political alliance and close friendship forged between Mr Aznar and Mr Blair. Mr Blair and Mr Zapatero spoke by telephone yesterday in what the spokesman said was a "warm and friendly" conversation. "It was a wide discussion but I'm not going to go over the detail of it," the spokesman said. "Mr Zapatero said his number one priority is fighting terrorism and there we agree." But fallout from the Spanish election has emboldened Mr Blair's critics at home. Yesterday, he was accused of having increased the threat to Britain from militant Islamic terrorism by attacking Iraq. Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, and Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, joined a string of Labour MPs in challenging Mr Blair's judgement and warning that Britain faced a heightened risk of attacks from al-Qa'ida. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said the war had not increased the threats facing Britain. "I do not believe we are less safe as a result of the action that we have taken," Mr Straw said. "And I believe that over the medium term, still more the long term, we will be much safer." He told the BBC: "No one should get the idea that somehow if you were a country which was opposed to the military action in Iraq, you are less of a target for al-Qa'ida and these terrible Islamic fanatics. Not at all." But fresh fears about security in Britain were raised when it emerged that suspicious packages had been sent to four "diplomatic premises" in London yesterday ­ although last night it appeared the packages did not contain harmful material. The Socialists are expected to take office in Spain in about a month's time, after overseas votes are counted, legislators take their seats in parliament and Mr Zapatero receives the approval of King Juan Carlos to form a government. • British troops invading Iraq had such poor protective equipment that they would have faced serious casualties if Saddam Hussein had possessed chemical or biological weapons, a report declares today. The Commons Defence Select Committee study found that logistical blunders resulted in troops lacking "critical items" such as ammunition, body armour and protective clothing. A shortage of armoured vehicle filters and nuclear, chemical and biological suits could have resulted in "severe" consequences for British soldiers if Iraq had used weapons of mass destruction. UK Independent Ltd. ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: U.N. Official: No Proof of Iran Nukes Thursday March 18, 2004 12:01 AM By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency told Congress on Wednesday ``the jury is still out'' on whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons. ``I don't have any specific proof,'' Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told a Congressional panel on a day in which he also urged President Bush to open a dialogue with Iran on its nuclear program. ``They are mulling it over,'' ElBaradei said after a 45-minute White House session with Bush and another meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security assistant. U.S. intelligence agencies are convinced Iran is edging closer to producing nuclear weapons. ElBaradei told members of Congress, however, that he did not have specific proof. ``I have to be certain,'' he said. The U.N. official said he was careful with statements about Iran's nuclear intentions. ``This could make a difference between peace and war,'' he said. At the White House, ElBaradei told reporters that Iran was cooperating fully with U.N. inspectors after barring inspections for two weeks. They are to resume March 27. Still, Bush expressed concern about Iran's program, said ElBaradei. ``My answer is that the jury is still out,'' ElBaradei said. ``We would like to continue to work hard on inspecting Iran before we come to a conclusion.'' After meeting with Bush, ElBaradei said he hoped he would have a more definitive assessment of Iran's nuclear activities by June, when he is due to give his next report to the IAEA Board of Governors. Iran suspended inspections last weekend after the U.N. agency adopted a resolution deploring recent discoveries of uranium enrichment equipment and other suspicious activities that Iran had failed to reveal. Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani, had described the IAEA resolution as ``unfair and deceitful.'' Though ElBaradei called the two-week suspension ``regrettable'' and ``a bad precedent,'' he said the inspection that was postponed was not time-sensitive and thus probably didn't offer Iran an opportunity to hide anything. And now, he said, Iran is ``back on track.'' U.N. inspectors are due to return to Iran on March 27. ``I think today Iran is cooperating fully,'' ElBaradei said. ``I expect them to be fully cooperative, to be fully transparent, to provide all information in the most detailed manner. ... We need 100 percent cooperation.'' Iran says its nuclear activities are designed to generate electricity. The Bush administration suspects Iran is developing nuclear weapons. ``There certainly is no reason why they need to have nuclear energy given all their vast oil and gas resources,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. ``So we continue to have concerns about their behavior and about their nuclear program.'' ElBaradei seemed to endorse Bush's recent call for a ban on allowing any additional countries to acquire the ability to enrich uranium or reprocess spent fuel for plutonium - even if the stated intent is to build civilian nuclear power facilities. ``We believe there is enough supply in the world that we do not like to see many other countries developing reprocessing capability, enrichment capability, provided that we provide assurance of supply,'' ElBaradei said. His White House visit came after Bush gave a speech at the National Defense University last month in which the president singled out the IAEA for criticism. Bush called for the creation of a special committee to focus on safeguards and verification and to ensure that nations comply with international obligations, and he complained that nations such as Iran have been allowed to sit on the IAEA board of governors. The agency is seen as ineffective by many in the administration who cite its failure to stop weapons programs in Libya, North Korea and other countries. Separately, ElBaradei was pleased with what he has heard during his Washington stay on the intelligence the United States is willing to provide the inspectors. At a meeting Tuesday with CIA Director George Tenet, he said he received ``assurance that the agency will get as much intelligence as we can get from the CIA and other intelligence agencies.'' ``We all understand that we need intelligence, we need resources, we need technology for us to do a good job,'' he said. ^-- Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Barry Schweid in Washington contributed to this story. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 8 AFP: UN nuclear chief says Iranian cooperation crucial to unravel atomic program [http://www.spacewar.com/] WASHINGTON (AFP) Mar 17, 2004 UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday he was confident his agency can answer questions about whether Iran is secretly developing atomic weapons as long as its inspectors are allowed into the country. "As long as we are on the ground, as long as we get cooperation from all countries that have supplied technology to Iran I am confident that we will make progress," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief ElBaradei said after meeting in Washington with US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage. ElBaradei's comments came as Iran's top nuclear policy-maker Hassan Rowhani said in Tokyo that Tehran is to accept an IAEA inspection unconditionally from March 27, after having said the mission that was to take place last week would be postponed until the end of April. "The 27th has been confirmed," Rowhani told a news conference, referring to remarks on Monday by ElBaradei that Iran had agreed to let its inspectors into the country on that date. ElBaradei, who is to meet in Washington Wednesday with US President George W. Bush, said a report he is to prepare for a June IAEA meeting in Vienna is "crucial." The "ball is clearly in Iran's court" to provide the cooperation needed for the IAEA to absolve it of military intentions with nuclear technology, ElBaradei had said earlier in the week. Since February 2003 the IAEA has been trying to determine whether Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, or dedicated to secretly developing nuclear weapons as the United States claims. In Washington, US state department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said that the time has come for Iran "to come clean fully, unequivocally and completely" on its nuclear activities. Iran had put off inspections scheduled for last week in order to protest a tough resolution by the IAEA against Tehran for hiding sensitive parts of its nuclear program. Elbaradei said it was "in the interests clearly of Iran and of the international community" if "I am able to report in June that we are making good progress in understanding the Iranian program." He said Iran had "stated since last October that they have made the strategic decision to come clean, to declare everything to us." But their failing to declare that they had designs for sophisticated P2 centrigures for making highly enriched uranium that could be weapon-grade "was a setback," ElBaradei said. Non-proliferation analyst Jon Wolfsthal said the IAEA is looking for weapons designs in Iran since Libya had obtained such designs from an international black market. "If Libya got them and we think North Korea got them, then everybody thinks Iran got them too," Wolfsthal said. ElBaradei said the inspections starting March 27 were "to clarify some of issues around the P2 and going to the pilot plant (for making enriched uranium) at Natanz (in southern Iran) to make sure it is locked, it is sealed, it is not operational." Iran had pledged in October to suspend the enrichment of uranium as a confidence-building measure with the IAEA. ElBaradei met Tuesday with CIA director George Tenet to discuss curbing black market trafficking in nuclear technology, an IAEA spokeswoman said. ElBaradei had said in February that the IAEA needed more intelligence help from countries like the United States. "Sometimes information came to us that was not very timely," he said, referring to the agreement the United States and Britain reached with Libya for Tripoli to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs. ElBaradei said the IAEA didn't know about it "until Libya announced it," in December, after months of secret talks with Washington and London. ElBaradei is pushing in Washington a broad agenda of tightening the non-proliferation regime, including better control of nuclear material worldwide through such measures as tougher export controls by individual countries. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 9 St. Petersburg Times: Russian-Iranian accord on spent nuclear fuel to be signed by summer RBC, 17.03.2004, Moscow 14:52:39.An agreement on returning spent nuclear fuel from Iran to Russia will be signed before this summer, Radzhab Safarov, the head of the Russian Center for Modern Iran Studies, declared at a news conference. According to him, the delay in signing this accord was due to the lack of agreements of the sides about price policies. Former Russian atomic minister Alexander Rumyantsev was to visit Iran on February 15 to sign this agreement. However, the visit was canceled, although Iran had declared that positions of the sides had been agreed fully. Safarov noted that "Russia is playing wait and see in respect to Iran", which is due to pressure by the USA and other western countries. He believes Russia should be more active within the framework of nuclear cooperation with Iran, taking into account Iranian plans to build another 6 reactors over the next 20 years. Successful accomplishment of construction of the first reactor at the nuclear facility in Bushehr will obviously influence development of Russian-Iranian cooperation, Safarov said. As a result of the delay in putting the first Bushehr reactor into operation, negative attitude towards cooperation of the two countries is growing in Iran, he added. RosBusinessConsulting All rights reserved. © 1995-2003 RosBusinessConsulting (095) ***************************************************************** 10 Hi Pakistan: Iran allow N-inspections to resume unconditionally --> March 18 2004 TOKYO: Iran’s top nuclear negotiator on Tuesday said Tehran would allow international nuclear inspections to resume unconditionally later this month, in the first official statement from Iran that it has backed off from a threat to freeze out UN inspectors. Hasan Rowhani, on a three-day visit in Japan, was responding to a weekend announcement by the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, that Iran was ready to allow inspectors back into the country starting March 27. "It is certain. And it will be without any conditions," Rowhani said during a news conference in Tokyo. Iran had said on Saturday that it was indefinitely shutting out IAEA inspectors, after the agency’s 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. Rowhani’s remarks were the first by an Iranian official to confirm the inspectors’ imminent return. "Iran is working on nuclear development for peaceful uses. Iran has never wanted to create any nuclear weapons and does not intend to do so," said Rowhani, who also heads Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. While Tehran insists its nuclear activities are for the generation of electricity, Washington suspects it has a secret program to build nuclear weapons and had called for even harsher language in the agency’s resolution. Asked about the allegations, Rowhani said: "The United States has made many groundless statements." He said Washington should present to the IAEA any evidence it has to back its suspicions. "Then we want inspectors to come and check," Rowhani said. Rowhani met with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi later Tuesday to discuss bilateral relations. Most of the 2 1/2-hour meeting was devoted to the latest developments in nuclear inspections, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Kawaguchi welcomed Tehran’s decision to lift its ban on inspectors but encouraged it to do more to regain the confidence of the international community, the official said. Rowhani reiterated Iran’s commitment to peaceful nuclear activities, he said. Last month, Japan closed an estimated US$2 billion deal with the Iranian government to develop the Azadegan oil field, believed to be one of the largest in the Middle East. The deal had been opposed by the United States over fears that the money could go to nuclear proliferation. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 11 Daily Times: Iran’s bomb programme can’t be ruled out: IAEA Thursday, March 18, 2004 * White House plays down suggestion of Iran dialogue * Iran to continue nuke cooperation with IAEA * Russia says Iran nuke project faces obstacles WASHINGTON: The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, said on Wednesday he could not rule out the possibility that Iran had an atomic weapons programme. Speaking to a House subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, ElBaradei was asked if Iran had taken the step to nuclear weaponization. “We have not yet seen that, but I am not excluding that possibility,” said ElBaradei, the head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency. White House: The White House played down suggestions that a new US dialogue with Iran could help resolve a growing controversy over Tehran’s nuclear programme on Wednesday. “We have not received any official proposals from Iran,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. “There are a number of serious concerns we have with regard to Iran ... that they need to work to address. Obviously, we’ve always said in the past that there are established channels of communication when we have issues of mutual concern to address.” Iran to continue cooperation: Iran will continue to cooperate with the UN’s atomic watchdog as long as US “plots” to send Iran’s case to the United Nations Security Council are ineffective, President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday. He said Washington, which accuses Iran of building a secret atomic arms programme, had “tried its utmost” at last week’s meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send Iran’s nuclear case to the Council for possible sanctions. “We will continue our cooperation with the agency as long as we know the US plots are not effective,” Khatami told reporters after a cabinet meeting. Russia: Russia’s plan to build a nuclear power station in Iran in defiance of the United States has run into obstacles, a senior nuclear official said on Wednesday. US criticism of Russia’s nuclear ties with Iran and disagreements between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have already prompted industry insiders to say Russia may kill off the $800 million project in Bushehr. “The problem has to do with additional equipment Iran needs to buy,” the head of Russia’s Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, Andrei Malyshev, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency. “Part of the equipment required to finish construction (of the Bushehr nuclear plant) has to be bought in Europe where there is a ban on sales of such equipment to this country.” Malyshev’s remarks were the first official indication Bushehr’s construction was not on track despite Moscow’s previously upbeat stance. —Reuters Home | Foreign Israel wants to destroy Gaza: Arafat 30 dead in Kurd-Arab clashes in Syria Ten killed in ethnic clashes in Kosovo ‘China-France drills aim at Taiwan polls’ Madrid bomb probe in ‘decisive phase’: Spain ‘Mercenaries’ face murder charge Bush wants world to stand firm against terrorism Kerry declares victory, fires back at Bush Intelligence sharing a big challenge for Europe NATO vows solidarity against terror REGION: Afghan elections may be delayed till August Afghan warlords to field candidate against Karzai New Taliban chief for southern Afghanistan UN and donors threaten to pull out of Nepal India to deploy 130,000 troops, police to guard elections Khatami admits defeat on reform plan Japan hopes for better ties with Iran Iran’s bomb programme can’t be ruled out: IAEA Tigers warn of ‘irreparable damage’ Profile of Suu Kyi sold uncensored in Myanmar US engineered Roh impeachment, says North Korea Greece, Turkey start security talks on Cyprus Egypt could add annex to Israel peace treaty Israel signs up for EU navigation project Bush likely to slap investment sanctions on Syria Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 12 Las Vegas SUN: Khatami: Iran Will Work With Nuke Agency ALI AKBAR DAREINI ASSOCIATED PRESS TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran played down its brief freeze on international inspections, saying Wednesday it was willing to work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency and resolve contentious issues over its weapons program. President Mohammad Khatami said Iran will cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to prove its nuclear program is peaceful - as long as American calls for tougher treatment of Iran are not successful. Iran announced an indefinite freeze on further inspections of its nuclear program after the IAEA board of governors censured Tehran last week for hiding suspicious activities. However, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said then he did not expect any substantive delay - and Iran later reversed itself. Inspections will resume March 27. Iran insists its nuclear activities are for the generation of electricity. The United States suspects Iran of undertaking a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Khatami said Wednesday the freeze was meant to show Iran's displeasure with the IAEA resolution and be "a warning to the IAEA not to be influenced by the U.S." The Iranian president said Tehran will not accept any decision denying Iran the right to possess the whole nuclear-fuel cycle - including uranium enrichment, a process that can create fuel for nuclear reactors or material for bombs. But he emphasized that Tehran's policy was based on cooperating with the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA. "We have no obligation toward anybody other than what our interests require," Khatami said. "We cooperate with the IAEA voluntarily." The United States accuses Iran of deceiving the IAEA and has lobbied for Iran to be declared in breach of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Washington also wants Iran's activity referred to the U.N. Security Council, where economic sanctions could be imposed. Meanwhile, an Iranian nuclear official said U.N. inspectors visiting later this month will verify the nation's suspension of uranium enrichment at a facility in central Natanz and discuss other issues, including centrifuge systems advanced enough for weapons use that Tehran failed to report to the IAEA. "The inspectors will discuss the few things Iran had not mentioned in its report and check the cameras at Natanz to make sure that uranium suspension by Iran is being implemented," said Iran's chief delegate to the IAEA, Amir Zamaninia. Natanz, a site at the foot of a mountain in an otherwise barren desert some 200 miles south of Tehran, is Iran's only uranium enrichment facility. In its report to the IAEA in October, Iran said it offered a "complete account of Iran's past and present" nuclear activities. But the discovery of an advanced P-2 centrifuge that Iran had not reported to the U.N. agency raised new concern. The P-2 centrifuge system could enrich uranium for weapons use. Washington said the finding raises "serious concerns" about Tehran's intentions, but Iran said it was not required to report the system because it never got beyond the research stage. "The P-2 issue has been played up in the media," Zamaninia said. "We believe suspicions will be eased when inspectors visit different sites and talk to the authorities." ElBaradei, who met with State Department officials, reminded reporters in Washington that Iran had made "a strategic decision to come clean" and its leaders "understand they must come forward." Khatami said Iran has suspended uranium enrichment temporarily to build trust with the IAEA. "Possessing technology for the nuclear fuel cycle is our right and nobody can deny us of this right under international regulations," he said. -- ***************************************************************** 13 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Increasing `nuclear Deterrent' By SANG-HUN CHOE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea declared it is strengthening its "nuclear deterrent," raising the stakes Wednesday in its standoff with South Korea and the United States. South Korea's interim leader called for a stronger alliance with Washington, dismissing a claim by the North that the South's parliamentary impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun last week reflected U.S. interference to "install an ultra-right pro-U.S. regime" in Seoul. With the unprecedented impeachment spawning uncertainty, South Korea has ordered heightened military vigilance against the North. It is also going ahead with annual joint military exercises with the United States, scheduled to begin Sunday, to test the allies' defense readiness. Pyongyang on Wednesday accused Seoul of "kicking up a racket of confrontation with the North." "This attitude ... is a grave provocation to the compatriots in the North," said North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, a government agency handling relations with the South. There are fears that Pyongyang may use the South's leadership crisis to stall six-nation nuclear talks aimed at defusing the nuclear standoff. North Korea said Wednesday it was strengthening its "nuclear deterrent" - its term for nuclear weapons development. The North blamed the United States for the lack of breakthroughs in last month's six-nation talks, and accused Washington of raising tensions on the Korean peninsula by holding the joint military exercises. Washington and Seoul say the annual drills, which run through March 28, are routine exercises. "The Korean people, who consider independence to be their life and soul, are keeping a close eye on the U.S. moves, while further strengthening the self-defense nuclear deterrent to cope with them," said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA. A second round of six-nation talks ended in Beijing in late February with little progress. Washington insisted on a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of all the North's nuclear facilities. Pyongyang said it would dismantle its nuclear programs only if the United States provides economic aid and security guarantees. The talks involved the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan. They agreed to meet again by July. Prime Minister Goh Kun - who is leading South Korea's government until the Constitutional Court rules on whether to oust Roh or to restore his suspended presidential powers - moved quickly to dismiss the North's threats. Amid political uncertainty, "establishing a solid security posture is more important than anything else," Goh said in a speech Wednesday at the Air Force Academy's graduation ceremony. "We must further strengthen our alliance with the United States," he said. South Korea's parliament voted Friday to impeach Roh for alleged election-law violations and incompetence. The Constitutional Court has 180 days to rule. North Korea has bitterly denounced the impeachment, initiated by South Korea's conservative opposition - which favors a tougher stance toward the North. "The U.S. is chiefly to blame for the incident," KCNA said. "The U.S. egged the South Korean political quacks, obsessed by the greed for power, on to stage such incident in a bid to install an ultra-right pro-U.S. regime there." About 1,500 people protested the impeachment Wednesday night in Seoul. The number of protesters was sharply lower than the 50,000 who gathered over the weekend to hold candles and chant for Roh's reinstatement. -- ***************************************************************** 14 ITAR-TASS: NKorea may continue peace N-program if dumps military nukes [ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia] 17.03.2004, 12.38 TOKYO, March 17 (Itar-Tass) - Pyongyang should, apart from returning to the system of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, dispel suspicions of the international community around the programme on developing chemical weapons and attack missiles if it wants to continue peaceful nuclear development studies. This idea was expressed by a high-ranking official of the U.S. administration in an interview with the Kyodo Tsushin news agency, published on Wednesday. “If North Korea takes a strategic decision on ditching weapons of mass destruction – not only nuclear, but also chemical as well as ballistic missiles, -- the road to peaceful uses of nuclear energy will open to it,” he emphasized. The American official instanced Libya as an example “which should be followed by the people’s republic”. Pyongyang expressed readiness “to freeze only nuclear military development studies” in exchange for economic aid, including in the energy sphere, at the second round of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear programme with the participation of the two Korean states, China, Russia, the United States and Japan, which ended in Beijing late in February. The meeting of the Six resulted in an understanding to resume the dialogue before next June and in setting up a working group to study technical issues. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, ***************************************************************** 15 Star Telegram: Security questioned at U.S. nuclear sites | 03/17/2004 | By Dave Montgomery Star-Telegram Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Security forces at the nation's nuclear facilities are being weakened by deteriorating training programs, manpower shortages, long hours and fatigue, raising doubts about their ability to respond to terrorist attacks, according to investigations by federal inspectors and a public watchdog group. Ten nuclear weapons facilities, including the Pantex site near Amarillo, have curtailed or eliminated key elements of a training curriculum designed in part to fend off terrorist attackers, the Department of Energy's inspector general reported Tuesday. One site dropped 40 percent of the required 320 hours of basic police training, the report said. "Inconsistent training methods may increase the risk that the department's protective forces will not be able to safely respond to security incidents or will use excessive levels of force," said the audit by Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman. Other recent inquiries have questioned the level of security ringing the nation's 65 nuclear power plants, which also are considered potential targets for terrorist attacks. The Washington-based Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, which scrutinizes a wide range of federal programs, charged last week that nuclear power plants are "not even close" to being prepared for a potential terrorist threat. Most plants would have to quadruple their security to adequately confront terrorist attackers, said POGO Director Danielle Brian. The number of security forces at one unidentified plant, she said, drops by as much as 25 percent on weekends and holidays, in violation of a plant security plan ordered after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Peter Stockton, a POGO investigator, said that manpower shortages at nuclear facilities have often forced guards to log more than 50 to 60 hours of overtime a week, resulting in "a horrendous fatigue factor." "If these guys were attacked," he said, "they wouldn't know which end is up." Two senior members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee charged this month that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is weakening fire protection regulations designed to ensure that a nuclear reactor can be safely and automatically shut down in the event of a fire caused by a terrorist attack or accident. "Now is not the time to weaken fire safety at nuclear reactors," Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, said in a March 3 letter to NRC Chairman Nils J. Diaz. "As you know, Al Qaeda continues to place nuclear reactors at the top of its terrorist target list." Pantex, the nation's only facility where nuclear weapons are assembled, drew dubious national attention in January after disclosures that workers taped together broken pieces of a high explosive being removed from the plutonium trigger of an old warhead. A federal oversight agency said the incident risked a "violent reaction." The 3,500-employee weapons plant, 17 miles northeast of Amarillo, was included among the sites reviewed in the DOE inspector general's assessment of training programs. The Department of Energy earlier conducted a centralized training program in New Mexico but, in May 2001, allowed nuclear plants to individually conduct on-site training, provided they adhered to a core curriculum. The auditor, however, concluded that each of the sites, including Pantex, had eliminated or substantially modified "significant portions of the training while others were not using realistic training delivery methods." Only one site conducted basic training in the use of a shotgun, Friedman said. Seven sites modified or reduced the intensity of training "for skills that some security experts characterized as critical," including handcuffing, hand-to-hand combat and vehicle assaults. The report did not elaborate on procedures at each site, and Pantex officials could not be reached to comment. POGO's Stockton, who has conducted extensive research at all the facilities, said Pantex generally takes training "more seriously" than many of the other sites. Some of the facilities, the report said, used "unrealistic training methods" that fell short of introducing guards to the real-life situations they might confront in a terrorist attack. Vehicle assault training, for instance, used wooden mock-ups or vehicles with the glass removed, apparently to avoid injuries. Moreover, said the report, none of the sites conducted training in rappelling, even though it is part of the required curriculum for special response teams. Several sites excluded training with shotguns and batons because they didn't have the equipment. Friedman said that "anything less" than realistic training "may rob the trainee of the exposure to the levels of force, panic and confusion that are usually present during an actual attack and increase the possibility of an inappropriate response." The findings could give Democrats ammunition to bolster their election-year assertions that the Bush administration has failed to adequately safeguard the nation against another terrorist attack. Markey said the review shows that security at the nation's nuclear complex is "woefully inadequate" and ill-prepared to defend against terrorists "who are highly-trained, well-armed and suicidal. "The Bush administration cannot continue to nickel and dime security training at nuclear weapons labs," said the Democratic lawmaker. He said guards should be required to meet "tough fitness standards" and be spared from working "excessive overtime." Dave Montgomery, (202) 383-6016 dmontgomery@krwashington.com [dmontgomery@krwashington.com] ***************************************************************** 16 SF Chron: Intelligence failure, misinterpretation or deceit? / Missing weapons of mass destruction force experts to re-examine prewar assumptions Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer [kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which served as the prime rationale advanced by President Bush for the war that began a year ago this week, have vanished like a desert mirage, and the issue has become potentially troubling for a president seeking re-election. It is now universally acknowledged, even by members of the administration, that intelligence mistakes were made. It's too early to say whether they were as great as past fumbles, such as the failure to anticipate the Tet offensive in Vietnam in 1968, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the fall of the Soviet empire in 1989-91. But the public and Congress are grumbling. "The fact that the intelligence assessments before the war were so wildly off the mark should trouble all Americans," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. David Kay, the former chief of U.S. weapons inspections, confessed in January to the Senate: It "turns out that we were all wrong probably ... and that is most disturbing." But was it really an intelligence failure? Or was it a failure by the policy-makers and battle planners in the White House and Pentagon who used the intelligence to make the case for war? Or even deliberate deception, as some have charged? In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the United Nations what he described as compelling evidence for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The speech impressed many Americans; an ABC News poll showed that almost 60 percent regarded the speech as "hard proof ... that Iraq possesses banned weapons." Also impressed was Bay Area resident Jay Davis, a veteran weapons inspector, physicist and former head of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. "Those who are not convinced by this (Powell) evidence will not be convinced by any evidence," Davis said in a Chronicle interview at the time. In an interview last week, Davis said he had no doubts at the time. "I would have bet my house on it, that we would have found chemical weapons," he said. "And the huge surprise is that we found none." What went wrong? In hindsight, Davis says, he should have realized there was a simple reason to doubt that Iraq retained chemical weapons. The chemicals in the weapons tend to break down over time; only wealthy, technically advanced nations such as the United States, the former Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and World War II-era Japan ever developed chemical weapons that could withstand prolonged storage. So Iraqi chemical weapons might have deteriorated into uselessness by 2003, he now says. "I didn't think it through," Davis admits. "It was a damned discoverable thing that other people brighter than I should have known. The lesson of life is that the 'obvious' isn't." Still, before the invasion, a few independent U.S. experts did question the Bush administration's interpretations of the intelligence data. Even the CIA's reports on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) contained caveats. Oddly, the most aggressively skeptical of the war's well-qualified observers was not an intelligence officer at all. He was ex-Marine Maj. Scott Ritter, the former lead inspector for the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) Concealment and Investigations team in Iraq. "There simply is no evidence of a factual nature that sustains the allegation by the Bush administration or British government that Iraq today possesses weapons of mass destruction," Ritter told The Chronicle in late March 2003. He stuck to his guns later, when U.S. officials or troops incorrectly reported finding possible WMD sites early in the conflict. In retrospect, says Jonathan B. Tucker of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies' Washington office, "I guess (Ritter) can claim vindication: He was right when everyone thought he was simply an apologist for the Iraqi government." Tucker recalls Ritter as being "probably the toughest or the most gung-ho of the (weapons) inspectors involved in trying to penetrate the Iraqi deception system during the early 1990s.'' "Sometimes people jump from one extreme to the other," he said. In a recent interview, Ritter dismissed talk of an intelligence failure, because, in his view, the Bush administration and CIA knew all along that the Iraqis had no WMDs and were "lying to the Congress and the American people." Ritter dismissed CIA defenders who say the agency's reports bristled with caveats. "They lie by caveating. You can write an intelligence report in a manner which protects you (from critics later) because you put in the appropriate caveats," Ritter said. "It's a wink and a nod." Angelo Codevilla, a noted intelligence expert who supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq because he felt Hussein thumbed his nose at the United States, believed it was a mistake to use alleged WMDs to justify the attack. He was not impressed when Powell, in his U.N. speech, played a recording of a cell- phone conversation between Iraqi officials that supposedly exposed their scramble to hide WMD-related work. Codevilla warned The Chronicle at the time: "I'm afraid they (the conversations) are anything but conclusive." Codevilla, who was with the Hoover Institution at Stanford and now teaches international relations at Boston University, blames the botched intelligence on a long-standing cultural crisis within the CIA. In the mythology of espionage, colonialism and nation-building, figures such as Britain's T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) deeply loved, understood and participated in the cultures whose secrets they aimed to penetrate. By contrast, Codevilla complained, "we now have a huge CIA station in Baghdad, and the people there ... don't speak Arabic, they're afraid to walk outside except under escort by soldiers, they're working through translators. We are talking about a basic, fundamental incapacity to get a grip on the situation." He contrasted their isolation with a friend "who used to be a CIA officer in Iran ... He was in love with Iran; he wanted to know and feel and touch everything Iranian.'' Davis, by contrast, thinks it's unfair to make the CIA the scapegoat. "Everything I hear from people who know a lot more than I know say the CIA's statements were conservative and accurate," Davis said. "And everything we've learned since the war is consistent with their statements. They were not leading this charge for war." S. Eugene Poteat, president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in McLean, Va., agrees. The CIA's reports included "all the caveats; they use words like 'possible' or 'probable.' ... The choice to go in (to Iraq) was purely the Pentagon or the administration's decision,'' he said. "The problem is not in the intelligence; it was in the use and abuse of that intelligence by others, whoever they were." In discussing the intelligence data, Bush's aides failed to emphasize to the president its uncertainties, Davis suspects. "Condoleezza Rice is the national security adviser to the president, and she is the gatekeeper for this information," Davis said. "She should say (to Bush), 'Gee, we've got two (possible) answers here.' One of the functions of your (presidential) staff is to read the 100-page documents while you get the one-page summary." Tucker, a former U.N. bioweapons inspector in Iraq, says "groupthink" -- the tendency of analysts to think alike -- contaminated their interpretation of intelligence data. "I was very surprised that no WMDs were found," Tucker admits. "I was taken in by this groupthink, this set of preconceived notions, as well as anyone else." What they said and what we know now The supposed existence of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was a major justification for going to war in Iraq. But an investigation by the U.S. Iraq Survey Group, sent by the Bush administration after the fall of Hussein, failed to find such an arsenal. What they said Chemical and biological weapons President Bush: "The (Iraqi) regime has never accounted for a vast arsenal of deadly biological and chemical weapons." -- statement to the United Nations, Feb. 7, 2003 Secretary of State Colin Powell: "We know from Iraq's past admissions that it has successfully weaponized not only anthrax but also other biological agents, including botulinum toxin, aflatoxin and ricin. ... The Iraqi regime has also developed ways to disperse lethal biological agents widely, indiscriminately, into the water supply, into the air. ... Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent." -- statement to the United Nations, Feb. 5, 2003 Nuclear weapons Bush: "The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa ..." -- State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2003 Mobile weapons laboratories Vice President Dick Cheney: "We know ... that (Hussein) had spent time and effort acquiring mobile biological weapons labs, and we're quite confident he did, in fact, have such a program. We've found a couple of semitrailers at this point which we believe were, in fact, part of that program. ... I would deem that conclusive evidence ... that he did, in fact, have programs for weapons of mass destruction." -- Jan. 22, 2004, interview on CNN What we know now Chemical and biological weapons While Iraq at one time undoubtedly possessed both chemical and biological weapons, no stockpiles have been found. David Kay, who headed the U.S. Iraq Survey Group before he resigned in January, told Congress he does not believe weapons stockpiles exist. He said weapons inspectors found evidence that the Iraqis quietly destroyed some stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons in the mid-1990s but did not come clean about the destruction to U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq before the U.S.-led war began. Nuclear weapons The U.S. weapons inspectors have found no evidence of an active Iraqi nuclear weapons program, although there have been suggestions that a rudimentary research program may have been continued. Bush's assertion in last year's State of the Union message that Iraq was attempting to buy nuclear "yellow cake" (uranium oxide) kicked off an uproar last summer after a former U.S. diplomat admitted that at the request of the CIA he had gone to Niger to check the report and had found it to be untrue. Mobile labs Kay has said that the CIA was premature in declaring the trailers to be mobile labs, and that they were probably used to produce rocket fuel or weather balloons. Compiled by Gail Bensinger; research by Johnny Miller and Lois Jermyn. Sources: New York Times; Washington Post; BBC News; Chronicle news services; Guardian newspaper; www.npr.org [http://www.npr.org] . ABOUT THE SERIES This week marks the first anniversary of the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Over the next several days, The Chronicle reports on the impact the war has left one year later. Tuesday: Iraqis prepare for the long journey to self-rule. TODAY: Assessing the work of the intelligence agencies. Thursday: How military buildup benefited Bay Area companies. Friday: The mood on the streets of Iraq on the anniversary of the start of the war. Saturday: The struggles of those recovering from war wounds. Sunday: The increasing number of U.S. military missions around the globe. Monday: A look at the peace activists who protested the war. E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com [kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] . ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ ***************************************************************** 17 HF: Energy Bill Too Weighted Down to Power the Country Heritage Foundation Energy Bill Too Weighted Down to Power the Country by Charli E. Coon, J.D. Backgrounder #1736 March 17, 2004 | [Print PDF] | The good news is that U.S. Senate leaders have drafted a scaled-back energy bill: the Energy Policy Act of 2003 (S. 2095). The Senate bill would slash about $17 billion from the conference report, the Energy Policy Act of 2003 (H.R. 6), making the 10-year price tag for this package around $14 billion instead of $31.1 billion. The bad news is that the new, leaner bill "achieves the same goals the old bill did."1 In other words, special interests would still receive substantial taxpayer subsidies--just not as quickly and as much--due in part to budget gimmicks that delay implementation of most of the provisions until later in 2004.2 For example, large agribusinesses would still be enriched through an ethanol mandate; the coal industry would still receive over $2 billion in subsidies; and uneconomical renewable resources would still be given preferential tax treatment. Moreover, unnecessary programs, studies, and grants would still be authorized--such as a $6.2 million study on the feasibility of converting motor vehicle trips to bicycle trips and $50 million to fund a five-year transit bus demonstration program. Likewise, under the new Senate energy bill, federal spending would continue to increase, and Congress would still interfere with the marketplace. The Senate has just replaced one misguided, billion-dollar, pork-laden bill with another. Regrettably, the new Senate bill still fails to meet the nation's future energy needs. Total energy consumption is expected to increase more rapidly than domestic energy supply through 2025.3 As a result, net energy imports are projected to increase from 26 percent of total U.S. consumption in 2002 to 36 percent in 2025.4 Yet the Senate proposal would do little to narrow the growing gap between supply and demand. Given the major policy flaws in both the conference report and the Senate bill, Congress needs to scrap both pork-laden proposals, go back to the drawing board, and draft a sensible bill that would enhance the nation's energy security and ensure adequate, reliable, and affordable supplies of energy to consumers. A responsible plan would: + Authorize access to domestic energy supplies that are currently off-limits, such as the Rocky Mountains and offshore; + End taxpayer handouts to special-interest groups representing a wide array of large and small businesses, industries, and companies in the energy sector; + Strengthen the country's energy infrastructure by: + Enhancing the nation's electric reliability standards to ensure transmission grid reliability, + Granting the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) limited "backstop" authority to issue permits for interstate electricity lines in bottleneck areas, + Repealing the antiquated Public Utility Holding Company Act, + Reforming the convoluted federal lands permitting process, and + Delaying the FERC plan to create a "standard market design" for the sale of electricity on the wholesale market. + Allow Indian tribes, acting as sovereign nations, to set up their own regulatory systems for energy projects; + Privatize federal power and eliminate the preferences that federal and municipal utilities and electric cooperatives enjoy; and + Allow the market--not Congress--to determine the nation's energy winners and losers. Moreover, the Senate energy bill would set back movements toward a reformed tax code. Not only does the bill contain enough tax arcana to keep many tax lawyers fully employed--thus, moving the Bush Administration away from its goal of simplifying the tax code--but it would also stand as a monument to using the tax code for economic engineering. Quite apart from the need for more energy supplies, it is grossly unfair to ordinary taxpayers--both businesses and individuals--for Congress to use the tax code to benefit a few at the expense of everyone else. Both bills would use the tax code to modify economic behavior, distorting the economic signaling of the marketplace and making the energy sector and the economy more inefficient. For example, if the energy marketplace is signaling that petroleum supplies are currently sufficient, then an effort by Congress to create greater supplies through tax in-centives would drive down spot petroleum prices, distort returns on equity and assets used in exploration, and dislodge plans by companies to heighten their exploration activity when the price of oil justifies it. Cost of Energy Plans A closer look at the conference report and the Senate's new--and purportedly leaner--bill shows just how costly, pork-laden, and irresponsible both proposals are. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that the conference report would increase direct spending by as much as $5.4 billion over the 2004-2013 period5 for such activities as research on ultra-deep wells, coastal restoration in the Gulf Coast, and development of rural electric projects in distressed communities in Alaska. More alarming, however, are the "incentives" purportedly needed to enhance the nation's energy supplies. In fact, these incentives are nothing more than giveaways to special-interest groups to buy their support for the bill. The CBO and the JCT estimate that the tax giveaways would total over $25 billion between 2004 and 2013, making the total price tag about $31 billion over 10 years. The conference report, however, has even more giveaways and needless federal spending than are reflected in the CBO and JCT estimates--including a minimum of $46 billion in new spending authorizations over five years, subject to appropriation action. This figure does not even include other provisions in the bill that authorize "such sums as are necessary." Given the rapid growth in federal spending over the past several sessions of Congress, these new authorizations understandably call into question "promises" for fiscal restraint this year. While less costly than the conference report (the Congressional Budget Office has not yet published an official estimate of S. 2095), the scaled-back Senate bill still uses the federal tax code to load the proposal with giveaways to special interests totaling about $14 billion. For example, the bill would still subsidize production of oil, gas, bio-diesel, and other types of fuels; give generous subsidies to large agribusinesses through a new ethanol mandate; and provide an $18 billion loan guarantee for construction of a natural gas pipeline in Alaska. Giveaways to Special Interests The generous handouts to special interests come in a variety of forms, such as tax credits, tax deductions, tweaks to the tax code, and other changes in existing laws. The tax titles (Title XIII) of both energy bills contain a number of subsidies, including the following: Tax Credit for "Favored" Fuels--Production Tax Credit (PTC) Both the conference report and the Senate bill include a production tax credit (PTC). This market-distorting provision extends preferential tax treatment for uneconomical renewable resources used to produce electricity--including wind, closed-loop biomass, and poultry facilities. The conference report would expand this subsidy to include new resources: open-loop biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy, small irrigation power, and municipal solid waste (the Senate bill would also include bio-solids and sludge). This special-interest handout alone would cost $3 billion over 10 years (2004-2013). Yet, despite two decades of taxpayer subsidies, grid-connected generators that use renewable fuels are projected to remain minor contributors to U.S. electricity supply--increasing from 9.0 percent of generation in 2002 to only 9.1 percent by 2025.6 Generation from non-hydroelectric renewables is projected to increase from a mere 2.2 percent in 2002 to only 3.7 percent in 2025.7 Instead of subsidizing these uneconomical energy sources, Congress should enact legislation that would permit exploration of areas that are currently off limits, such as the Rocky Mountains, offshore, and the Outer Continental Shelf. This legislation--not taxpayer subsidies--is the responsible way to enhance the nation's energy supplies and provide consumers with abundant, affordable, and reliable energy. Tax Breaks for Congressionally "Privileged" Fuels and Alternative Motor Vehicles Both bills also include a variety of provisions that interfere with the marketplace for fuels and the vehicle industry at a cost of $4 billion over 10 years. One scheme creates an artificial market for four select vehicles (so far rejected by the marketplace) by providing a new tax credit for the purchase of hybrid motor vehicles, lean-burn diesel vehicles, alternative-fuel motor vehicles, and fuel motor vehicles. The conference report would also repeal (the Senate bill would modify) the current-law phase-out for the credit for electric motor vehicles. The free marketplace--not Congress--should determine whether consumers want these particular vehicles. Select fuels, such as bio-diesel and certain bio-diesel mixtures, would also receive special treatment by means of a new tax credit. Additionally, the eligibility for the small-producer ethanol credit would double from a production capacity of 30 million gallons per year to 60 million gallons, and cooperatives would be allowed to pass through this credit to their patrons. Taxpayer Subsidies for Specific Residential and Business Property Likewise, the conference report and the new Senate bill include a variety of market-distorting, energy efficiency measures--including tax credits, deductions, and provisions to entice the purchase of specific products; the manufacture of particular appliances; the construction of certain homes; and specified improvements to existing property--at a price tag of $2 billion over 10 years. While conservation and energy efficiency are important components of a responsible energy policy, accurate price signals from the market--not congressional meddling with the market--should determine which energy efficiency measures consumers take and which products they purchase. Subsidies for the Coal Industry Coal-fired electricity generation is expected to continue growing in 2004 and 2005, driven by increasing demand for electricity.8 While coal is essential to electricity production and the national economy, the costs of new, innovative, clean coal technologies should be borne by the industry--not the taxpayers. Both proposals include over $2 billion in handouts to the coal industry over 10 years. Handouts for Oil and Gas Industries Proponents of the generous tax breaks for the oil and gas industries--such as a tax credit for oil and gas production from marginal wells (wells that produce fewer than 15 barrels of oil a day and less than 90 thousand cubic feet of natural gas per day)--argue that these subsidies are not handouts, but merely incentives needed to increase domestic energy supplies. In the conference report, these subsidies would enrich the oil and gas industry by about $7 billion over 10 years. The Senate bill would delay some of these subsidies to make the proposal appear less costly in hopes of garnering votes from fiscal conservatives. However, these incentives are needed only because Members of Congress do not have the political will to ensure that U.S. consumers have adequate, affordable, and reliable supplies of energy. If this were their goal--not special-interest handouts--they would have authorized oil and gas exploration in Alaska, in the Rocky Mountains, and on the Outer Continental Shelf. The tax breaks for the oil and gas industries would likely increase domestic supplies to some degree, but this is the wrong way to do it. Tax Breaks for Reliability The tax tweaks in this category are intended to enhance the delivery of the nation's energy supplies. For example, these provisions shorten the class life and recovery periods for natural gas gathering lines, distribution lines, and electric transmission property. They permit small-business refiners to claim an immediate deduction for up to 75 percent of the costs of complying with environmental regulations on sulfur emissions, and they also modify special rules for nuclear decommissioning costs. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that these handouts would cost taxpayers about $4.3 billion if Congress adopted the conference report. The new Senate bill contains similar provisions. While well-intended, these tax tweaks favor certain investments rather than allowing market signals to determine where those investment dollars should go. Additional Special-Interest Giveaways The conference report also includes miscellaneous tax breaks for a variety of special interests. In fact, one of these taxpayer subsidies even gives a two-year suspension of tariffs on imported ceiling fans. According to The Wall Street Journal, this provision was added as a favor to Atlanta-based Home Depot, Inc.9 While still too costly, the new Senate bill strikes this industry-specific handout from the energy bill. Loan Guarantees Regrettably, Congress's largesse is not limited to the tax title. Buried in both bills are various loan guarantees for specific projects. For example, the report authorizes a loan guarantee of up to $18 billion to support the construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to the lower 48 states--a project that industry has considered too economically risky to attract private investments. Likewise, the bills authorize the Secretary of Energy to make loan guarantees (amounts to be determined by the Secretary) for a variety of clean coal projects around the country--including coal gasification, integrated gasification combined cycle technology, and petroleum coke gasification. While advancing clean power is commendable, the private sector should finance these projects without taxpayer subsidies. The bills also authorize the Secretary of Energy to provide loan guarantees (no amounts given) for the construction of facilities to produce Fischer-Tropsch diesel fuel10 and its commercial byproducts. Likewise, both bills authorize the Secretary of Energy to provide loan guarantees (no amounts given) for construction of facilities to process and convert municipal solid waste and cellulosic bio-mass into fuel ethanol and other commercial byproducts. If these facilities really merit construction, the marketplace will attract the private capital needed without the generous "assistance" of taxpayer dollars. More Excessive Spending Lest any special interest connected to the energy sector be left out of these generous taxpayer subsidies, Congress also created a host of unnecessary programs, studies, and grants. Under the conference report, these new spending authorizations would cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars over the 10-year period. The new Senate bill also includes costly and unwarranted new authorizations, such as $1.1 billion to restore the coastal impact of offshore oil and gas drilling, and $500 million for the development of rural electric projects in Alaska. More Favors for Special Interests Among the major beneficiaries of these handouts are corn farmers and big agribusinesses. One company alone, Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), produces over 40 percent of the nation's ethanol. Under the Clean Air Act of 1990, the federal government mandated reformulated gasoline (RFG) to improve air quality in smoggy cities. RFG requires either methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) or ethanol to make gasoline supposedly burn cleaner.11 Both bills create an artificial market for ethanol by mandating a doubling of its use by 2012. Consumers will pay for ethanol's special treatment with increased prices at the pump. Consumer demand--not congressional favors for special interests--should determine whether there is a viable market for ethanol. Further, due to concerns about ground water contamination, both the conference report and the Senate bill ban the use of MTBE by December 31, 2014, and provide $2 billion in grants to assist producers of MTBE in converting to production of other fuel additives. Given that the federal government established a fuel oxygenate standard that encouraged the use of MTBE, the conference report includes liability protection for producers and users of MTBE during the industry's 10-year phase-out. This safe harbor provision became one of the most contentious provisions in that report. The House approved the conference report on November 18, 2003, by a bipartisan vote of 246 to 180. Due in large part to this MTBE liability protection, however, Senate proponents of the report have been unable to garner the votes necessary to break a filibuster. Senate leaders recently negotiated an agreement on a new energy bill (S. 2095) that deletes the safe harbor provision, and the Senate is expected to vote on the new bill in the near future. Nonetheless, the House and Senate versions will still need to be reconciled before either energy plan can become law. Other generous handouts for ethanol and motor fuels programs in these bills include $12 million for a resource center to further develop bioconversion technology using low-cost biomass for the production of ethanol at the Center for Biomass-Based Energy at the University of Mississippi and the University of Oklahoma; $125 million for research grants and development of renewable fuel production technologies; and $750,000 in grants to producers of cellulosic biomass ethanol and waste-derived ethanol in the U.S. Moreover, in both bills, Congress would continue to meddle with the market by authorizing spending for research and development in specific areas of the energy sector. For example, the conference report authorizes $2 billion over five years for a hydrogen research program and almost $38 billion over five years for other select categories of energy research and development. These include commercial application activities such as $3.9 billion for energy efficiency; $3 billion for renewable energy; $2 billion for nuclear energy; $2.9 billion for fossil energy; and almost $24 billion for science projects. The list of new spending authorizations for unnecessary taxpayer-funded programs, grants, and projects in these bills goes on and on. Congress needs to stop trying to micromanage the energy sector and allow the marketplace do what it does best--choose the nation's energy winners and losers. Conclusion Congress needs to remember that the primary purpose of a comprehensive energy plan is to provide consumers with sufficient, affordable, and reliable energy supplies. Regrettably, neither the conference report on H.R. 6 nor the new, slimmed-down S. 2095 achieves this objective. Instead, both bills simply enrich a wide range of special interests at the expense of taxpayers and consumers. Consumers would be better off without an energy bill than with either of these seriously flawed energy plans. Charli E. Coon, J.D., is Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and the Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Erin Hymel, Research Assistant in the Roe Institute, contributed to this paper. 1. Press release, "Domenici Introduces Lean Energy Bill in Wake of Frist-Daschle Agreement for Swift Consideration," Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate, February 13, 2004, at www.energy.senate.gov/news/rep_release.cfm?id=218069 (February 17, 2004). 2. Update for Tuesday a.m., Environment &Energy Daily, February 17, 2004, at www.eenews.net/EEDaily/Backissues/021704/021704d.htm. 3. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2004 with Projections to 2025, DOE/EIA-0383 (2004), January 2004, p. 6, at www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo. 4. Ibid., pp. 6-7. 5. Congressional Budget Office, Conference Agreement for H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2003, letter to Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, November 18, 2003, at www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=4800sequence=0. 6. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook with Projections to 2025, DOE/EIA-0383 (2003), January 2004, p. 85. 7. Ibid. 8. U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook--January 2004, released January 7, 2004, at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/steo.html. 9. Shailagh Murray and John J. Fialka, "Energy Bill Is Laden with Tax Breaks," The Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2003. 10. Fischer-Tropsch diesel fuel contains less than 10 parts per million of sulfur and is produced from coal or coal waste through liquification. 11. Ben Lieberman, "NY's New Gas Crunch," Competitive Enterprise Institute, November 16, 2003, at www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=3751 (February 6, 2004). © 1995 - 2004 The Heritage Foundation ***************************************************************** 18 Khilafah.com: Rumsfeld Caught Lying, Yet Again Quotation "The problem is that the good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas reserves where there are democratic governments." - Dick Cheney, Bush's Vice President at a 1996 energy conference uploaded 17 Mar 2004 On "Face the Nation." But This Time, a Journalist Actually Threw It In His Face. Thanks to David Sirota of the Center for American Progress for spotting and forwarding this excerpt in which Rumsfeld is caught in a brazen lie by Bob Schieffer of CBS. Sirota also suggests seeing this [LINK] for further proof of Rumsfeld's lie on "Face the Nation." Excerpt from "Face the Nation": SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this. If they did not have these weapons of mass destruction, though, granted all of that is true, why then did they pose an immediate threat to us, to this country? Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase `immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened. The president went... SCHIEFFER: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that. Sec. RUMSFELD: I--I can't speak for nobody--everybody in the administration and say nobody said that. SCHIEFFER: Vice president didn't say that? The... Sec. RUMSFELD: Not--if--if you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em. Mr. FRIEDMAN: We have one here. It says `some have argued that the nu'--this is you speaking--`that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.' Sec. RUMSFELD: And--and... Mr. FRIEDMAN: It was close to imminent. Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, I've--I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate. I'm s--suppose I've... Mr. FRIEDMAN: `No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world and the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.' Sec. RUMSFELD: Mm-hmm. It--my view of--of the situation was that he--he had--we--we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that--that we believed and we still do not know--we will know. Source: Buzzflash.com khilafah.com ***************************************************************** 19 AFP: UN nuclear watchdog chief meets US CIA director [http://www.spacewar.com WASHINGTON (AFP) Mar 17, 2004 UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei met Tuesday with CIA director George Tenet to discuss curbing black market trafficking in nuclear technology, an IAEA spokeswoman said. The meeting at the Central Intelligence Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, near Washington, was "related to the need to discuss ways and means to curb the nuclear black market and trafficking in nuclear materials and parts," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. ElBaradei is to meet in Washington Wednesday with US President George W. Bush. ElBaradei had said in February that the revelations from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, about a clandestine network for spreading nuclear technology were just the "tip of an iceberg" about such illegal trafficking. Khan has admitted to leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. ElBaradei said Khan "was not working alone" and that the whole network must be traced. He said the IAEA, the UN's agency for guaranteeing nuclear non-proliferation worldwide, in trying to piece together what was "a supermarket" of international smuggling of nuclear materials and information such as weapons blueprints the United States has found in Libya. ElBaradei had said in February that the IAEA needed more intelligence help from countries like the United States. "Sometimes information came to us that was not very timely," he said, referring to an agreement the United States and Britain reached with Libya for Tripoli to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs. ElBaradei said the IAEA didn't know about it "until Libya announced it," in December, after months of secret talks with Washington and London. ElBaradei said while flying Sunday from Vienna, where the IAEA is based, to Washington that his agency needs more cooperation from Pakistan in its investigation of Iran's atomic program, which is suspected of developing nuclear weapons. He said he had "been in touch with Pakistan," which 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. Iran claims contamination from particles on the imported components was the source of highly enriched uranium (HEU) discovered by the IAEA at two sites in Iran. HEU can be used both as nuclear fuel in civilian reactors or as the raw material for an atomic bomb. Experts who study the IAEA said the international agency has been relying on intelligence from foreign governments since 1993, when a "watershed" event took place in trying to deal with the North Korean issue. In a presentation to a small group of member states on the IAEA's governing board, the IAEA reached agreement with the CIA to show satellite images of North Korean activities at a nuclear site. "It was a very important point. It showed how important intelligence could be in making a case," an expert said. Since then, the IAEA has been anxious to get as much intelligence as possible from its member states, which include the United States and western European countries, the expert said. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 20 Toronto Star: Ontario to spend billions on power TheStar.com - Wed. Mar. 17, 2004. | Updated at 09:29 PM Government confident it can replace coal-fired power and keep prices competitive CANADIAN PRESS Ontario will embark on what Energy Minister Dwight Duncan billed today as the largest peacetime investment in Canadian history to keep the cost of electricity under control while the province's coal-fired power plants are shut down by 2007. Duncan said it could cost as much as $40 billion to refurbish the problem-prone nuclear power program at Ontario Power Generation while building enough generating capacity to replace the coal-fired plants, which currently generate one-quarter of the province's power. "We are looking at a massive investment of capital going forward," Duncan told a news conference the day after OPG reported a $491-million loss, wrote off the value of the coal plants and released a damning audit of its operations. "It could well be one of the largest peace-time investments in the history of this country, but we must begin. We'll be laying out a strategy for achieving that." That strategy will doubtless include advice from a report by a review committee headed by former finance minister John Manley that examines the future of OPG, which owns the bulk of Ontario's power generating stations. That report, to be made public Thursday, will urge the government to look at joint ventures, partnerships and long-term leases for the operation and maintenance of its nuclear facilities, The Canadian Press has learned. The move would take advantage of outside experts and help reduce the risk to taxpayers for the nuclear plants, sources said. + Report to recommend joint ventures Critics, meanwhile, were warning power consumers to brace themselves. The Liberal plan will send electricity rates soaring, they say, arguing that any possible replacements for the coal plants, such as natural gas, will be substantially more expensive. Estimates suggest the cost of natural gas could be up to 15 per cent higher. Even without the closure of the coal plants, the province is facing an electricity shortage by 2006, thanks in large part to chronic problems at the province's nuclear plants, a report said earlier this year. "There are going to be some rather serious supply issues in the next few years so consumers are going to face rising prices," said Sean Conway, a former Liberal energy critic who works as an energy policy adviser. With the quick closure of the coal plants, the province is setting "a very aggressive timetable" to find replacement energy, which will cost millions of dollars and takes years to build, he said. Instead of closing the coal plants, they should be fitted with technology that reduces pollution, said Don MacKinnon, president of the Power Workers' Union. "What they said previously is that they would only remove them from service when they had replacement (energy) up and running," MacKinnon said. "They simply do not have that and there is no way for them to get there in the timeframe allotted." A shortage of electricity will hurt the province's industrial economy and result in a loss of jobs and businesses, MacKinnon warned. High prices do have a benefit, since they're a built-in incentive for consumers to conserve, Conway said. Indeed, conservation is expected to be a cornerstone of the government's strategy. While Duncan said he couldn't predict future prices, he insisted today that action was necessary at OPG to keep prices from rising. "If we don't respond, prices will go up," he said. "Our plan, when I unveil it, will be designed to take what we've found here and move forward in a way that manages price." Consumers are already bracing for higher prices as of April 1, due to changes put forward by the government last year. The new base price - 4.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 750 kilowatt-hours consumed in a month, climbing to 5.5 cents after that - "is the right price" to cover costs, Duncan said. The previous rate cap, imposed by the previous Conservative government, was 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Those prices will have to remain competitive with neighbouring provinces and U.S. states as the system evolves, Duncan added. The crisis at OPG has been six years in the making, according to an independent audit, conducted by financial firm KPMG, that warns the $6-billion-a-year company is on the verge of financial collapse without a dramatic change of course. A plan drafted in 1998 to overhaul the province's nuclear system had the opposite effect, dragging the company into a financial morass that only got deeper as it struggled to contend with chronic problems at its nuclear facilities. The inefficiencies on the nuclear side forced OPG to rely more and more on costly fossil fuels to generate power. Meanwhile, restrictive rate caps made it impossible for the company to recover its costs. Indications of the coming shift in OPG's course could come Thursday with Manley's report, said New Democrat Peter Kormos, who fears the writeoff of the coal plants is a signal the Liberals are considering privatizing the province's electricity system. "He's clearly laying the groundwork for the breakup of power generation," he said. "The only reason you'd want to do that is to facilitate the sale of it on a piecemeal basis." The private sector is already involved in the province's electricity generating market; several plants have already been built by private companies and the government has put out a call out for proposals to build even more. Conway dismissed the OPG privatization premise, noting that the internal turmoil at the utility outlined by the audit would keep investors away. Duncan said OPG's direction would be determined over the coming months and the government would stick to its earlier commitments, which were to keep the electricity system under government control and ownership. Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All ***************************************************************** 21 Daily Times: Nukes are last line of defence: Rashid Thursday, March 18, 2004 * NA told that Powell’s visit will have no impact on Pakistan’s nuclear stand * Minister accuses Muslim countries of betraying Pakistan * General Jehangir Karamat and Aslam Beg questioned over proliferation * Pakistani nuclear programme may become crucial to US election campaign By Shahzad Raza ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday informed the National Assembly (NA) that nuclear weapons were the country’s last line of defence, and the recent visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell would have no impact on Pakistan’s stand on the nuclear issue. Answering various questions on a Calling Attention Notice from members of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan was pardoned only for proliferating nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. “Dr Qadeer is our hero. But heroes are also human beings and commit mistakes. He was pardoned in view of his services to the country,” the information minister said, adding that the pardon was made in the best national interest. The opposition asked the government to hold a special NA session and bring the nuclear scientists to the house to record their statements. “The nation is not satisfied with the televised apology (by Dr Khan),” commented Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Deputy Secretary General Liaqat Baloch. The information minister said more discussions on the nuclear issue would create difficulties for the country. “We have come out of an explosive situation. Our position is clear and hands clean,” he added. PPPP MNA Sherry Rehman feared that the country’s nuclear programme had come under the direct control of the United States and would be opened for inspection to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The minister said Pakistan was a declared nuclear power and would never compromise on its nuclear capability. Accusing several Muslim countries of betraying Pakistan while revealing the details of nuclear proliferation, he said the nuclear assets were now under safe command and control. Referring to a recent statement by Mr Powell that he would ask the Pakistani officials about the volume of proliferators’ network, PPPP’s Naveed Qamar wanted to know how many army officials were questioned. He also asked about the fate of Dr Khan’s subordinates after the nuclear scientist accepted full responsibility for proliferation. The information minister said the US government had more information than Pakistan on the proliferation of the nuclear technology. He informed the house that two former chiefs of army staff, General Jehangir Karamat and General Mirza Aslam Beg, were questioned on the nuclear issue and investigations of other scientists were under way. On a comment by PPPP Secretary General Raja Pervez Ashraf, who called the government a security risk and accused it of rolling back the nuclear programme, the information minister said 140 million people of Pakistan supported the nuclear programme. PPPP MNA Khurshid Shah said heroes are accused, exiled or disgraced in Pakistan. Pir Aftab Jilani asked if the US secretary of state would urge the Pakistan to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Mr Rashid said that Pakistan’s position on the NPT was clear and Mr Powell was welcome to come and hold discussions. Requesting the opposition to avoid more discussion on the nuclear issue, he said the Pakistani nuclear programme may become an important point of the election campaign in the US. PPPP’s Naheed Khan asked if President Musharraf was also questioned during the investigation, as an advertisement regarding the sale of nuclear technology was published in his tenure. The minister said the Calling Attention Notice was meant to implicate President Musharraf. However, he withdrew his comments after objections by opposition members. Home | National Kashmir remains core issue: PM 4 Americans among 11 killed in Iraq 32 killed in Russian apartment blast 3 Pakistanis freed from Guantanamo arrive home Britain and Pakistan planning to sign PTA: Blunkett APHC to meet Advani on 27th No Polish troops for Iraq MMA meeting postponed as bickering continues JI cancels protest against Powell’s visit District government to survey encroachments in colonies LHC directs AEO to reimburse petitioner LHC delays market fee levy case for today Indian KC alumni say human contact only peace guarantee Munshi Hospital to get new emergency ward Kokeshi dolls exhibition opens Inquiry launched against University of Education head Mumtaz U Kramet (1922-2004) Shahid A Rehman (1943-2004) Ustad Vilayat Khan: India’s sitar wizard Nukes are last line of defence: Rashid $3.5b WB funds for water and power projects Drug sales continue in police presence Gwadar Port to be completed by March 2005 Nuclear scientists detention challenge goes to SC MQM minister, adviser submit resignations to CM NAB takes Waqar Azeem case to SC Opposition in NA walks out Housing scheme for journalists a Gujrat priority Tameer-e-Sarhad programme funds to be released in 3 weeks NA demands ‘zero hour’ debate on important issues Three suspects in aborted bomb attack held Extremists behind car bomb plot, police say Lawyers ready to besiege Governor’s House, parliament MMA MNAs protest scarf ban on PIA PTCL employees demonstrate for permanent jobs Pakistan proposes Rangers-BSF talks on 24th and 27th Principal arrested for sodomy US asked to review Pakistan travel warning Afghan refugees barred from Peshawar match Treasury and opposition denounce terrorism US will prefer status quo in Asia, says Japanese professor ‘Al Qaeda no longer a corporate entity’ WB promises NWFP early release of SAC-II funds Saudi Arabia arrests five reformers 2 Pakistanis killed in Spain attacks Osama not in Pakistan: Faisal OIC reiterates support to Kashmiris France receives terror threat from Islamist group Defeated Spanish PM told media ETA was behind March 11 attacks Turkish police arrests 18 militants Many in Muslim countries and Europe question US motives Cricket can bridge Pakistan-India differences, says Powell Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 22 Daily Times: Nuclear scientists detention challenge goes to SC Thursday, March 18, 2004 Staff Report ISLAMABAD: The spouse of Dr Muhammad Farooq, director of Kahuta Research Laboratories, challenged her husband’s detention in the Supreme Court on Tuesday by filing an appeal against the dismissal of the habeas corpus petition by the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench. An identical appeal was filed earlier against the detention of Major (r) Islamul Haq, principal staff officer to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. This appeal was also filed by the detainee’s spouse. The Lahore High Court ruled on February 23 that the detention of Dr Farooq and other nuclear scientists for de-briefing was justified. Khush Niaz, Dr Farooq’s wife, filed an appeal challenging the Lahore High Court’s judgement through her counsel Advocate Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry. The appeal requests that the judgement be set aside because the life and the liberty of the detainee is in danger since he has been kept in the custody of Inter Services Intelligence and is likely to be handed over to foreign investigative agencies. The appeal also maintained that recent statements made by authorities regarding the detention and investigation suggest that the detainees are in danger. The appeal also calls for the immediate production of the detainees and requests that a case be registered against the respondent for the violation of the law and Constitution. The Federation of Pakistan, through the federal secretary of the Interior and director general of Inter Services Intelligence, has been made the respondent in the appeal. Home | National Kashmir remains core issue: PM 4 Americans among 11 killed in Iraq 32 killed in Russian apartment blast 3 Pakistanis freed from Guantanamo arrive home Britain and Pakistan planning to sign PTA: Blunkett APHC to meet Advani on 27th No Polish troops for Iraq MMA meeting postponed as bickering continues JI cancels protest against Powell’s visit District government to survey encroachments in colonies LHC directs AEO to reimburse petitioner LHC delays market fee levy case for today Indian KC alumni say human contact only peace guarantee Munshi Hospital to get new emergency ward Kokeshi dolls exhibition opens Inquiry launched against University of Education head Mumtaz U Kramet (1922-2004) Shahid A Rehman (1943-2004) Ustad Vilayat Khan: India’s sitar wizard Nukes are last line of defence: Rashid $3.5b WB funds for water and power projects Drug sales continue in police presence Gwadar Port to be completed by March 2005 Nuclear scientists detention challenge goes to SC MQM minister, adviser submit resignations to CM NAB takes Waqar Azeem case to SC Opposition in NA walks out Housing scheme for journalists a Gujrat priority Tameer-e-Sarhad programme funds to be released in 3 weeks NA demands ‘zero hour’ debate on important issues Three suspects in aborted bomb attack held Extremists behind car bomb plot, police say Lawyers ready to besiege Governor’s House, parliament MMA MNAs protest scarf ban on PIA PTCL employees demonstrate for permanent jobs Pakistan proposes Rangers-BSF talks on 24th and 27th Principal arrested for sodomy US asked to review Pakistan travel warning Afghan refugees barred from Peshawar match Treasury and opposition denounce terrorism US will prefer status quo in Asia, says Japanese professor ‘Al Qaeda no longer a corporate entity’ WB promises NWFP early release of SAC-II funds Saudi Arabia arrests five reformers 2 Pakistanis killed in Spain attacks Osama not in Pakistan: Faisal OIC reiterates support to Kashmiris France receives terror threat from Islamist group Defeated Spanish PM told media ETA was behind March 11 attacks Turkish police arrests 18 militants Many in Muslim countries and Europe question US motives Cricket can bridge Pakistan-India differences, says Powell Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 23 Daily Times: IAEA wants more cooperation from Pakistan Thursday, March 18, 2004 * IAEA chief ElBaradei meets CIA Director Tenet to discuss nuclear blackmarket trafficking WASHINGTON: UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday that he had “been in touch with Pakistan”, which has “been cooperating, but I still need more cooperation”. “We want more cooperation from Pakistan in allowing “environmental sampling” to compare centrifuge components of a type sold through an international black market to Iran,” he said during his meeting with CIA Director George Tenet. ElBaradei discussed with Tenet issue of curbing black market trafficking in nuclear technology, an IAEA spokeswoman said. The meeting at the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, near Washington, was “related to the need to discuss ways and means to curb the nuclear black market and trafficking in nuclear materials and parts”, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said. ElBaradei had said in February that the revelations from Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan about a clandestine network for spreading nuclear technology were just the “tip of an iceberg” about such illegal trafficking. He said the IAEA, the UN’s agency for guaranteeing nuclear non-proliferation worldwide, in trying to piece together what was “a supermarket” of international smuggling of nuclear materials and information such as weapons blueprints the United States has found in Libya. ElBaradei had said in February that the IAEA needed more intelligence help from countries like the United States. “Sometimes information came to us that was not very timely,” he said, referring to an agreement the United States and Britain reached with Libya for Tripoli to give up its weapons of mass destruction programmes. Experts who study the IAEA said the international agency had been relying on intelligence from foreign governments since 1993, when a “watershed” event took place in trying to deal with the North Korean issue. Since then, the IAEA has been anxious to get as much intelligence as possible from its member states, which include the United States and western European countries, an expert said. —AFP Home Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 24 Daily Times: US has no additional leverage with Pakistan: Faisal Thursday, March 18, 2004 * Insists Osama cannot be in Pakistan * Investigation found Ashura killings not sectarian Daily Times Monitor LAHORE: Minister for the Interior and Narcotics Control Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat says he is certain that Osama Bin Laden is not hiding in Pakistan because the military has “virtually sealed the border” with Afghanistan. Mr Hayat told BBC’s HARDtalk Pakistan on Wednesday that the United States should not consider it has any greater leverage with Pakistan in its search for Al Qaeda leader as a result of the recent scandal over nuclear proliferation. “Let me be very candid, very explicit, in saying any government – be it the US or any other government – has absolutely no authority, moral or otherwise, to interfere in the internal affairs of Pakistan. And the decision Pakistan has taken, the decision the cabinet has taken, the president has taken, it is the decision of the sovereign government and we certainly do not accept any dictats from anyone outside.” Questioned on Bin Laden’s whereabouts, Mr Hayat said: “We do not believe he’s in Pakistan, because if he had been in Pakistan, certainly by now in view of the nature of the operations, the scale of the operations which have been initiated and conducted over the past two years, certainly he would have been apprehended. He’s not in Pakistan, certainly not. He could be somewhere – this is again, this is a matter of conjecture – he could be somewhere along the border belt, because it’s a very long border as we all know, a 2,500 km-long border [in] which we have [the] most inhospitable terrain anywhere in the world.” Asked whether this could actually mean that Bin Laden is hiding on the Pakistani side of the border, the interior minister said: “The reason why I said he could not be in Pakistan is because we have these 70,000 paramilitary forces patrolling the border. We have virtually sealed the border. The operations which are going on in Wana and South Waziristan recently, they are the outcome of an apprehension that some of the elements connected to the Al Qaeda network’s hierarchy might be hiding in these areas. That is the reason why we are going ahead with these operations but certainly that doesn’t mean that Osama Bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan. “There is a very vast area within Afghanistan itself which, even as we speak today, is out of the impact of the ICEF security network. That is why we have time and again tried to argue and convince the ICEF forces that it is time you multiply your forces.” When questioned about whether he thinks, therefore, that Bin Laden must be hiding somewhere in Afghanistan, he says: “We believe that, from the reports which we’ve had, there is every reason to believe that he could be there.” Discussing the attack on an Ashura procession in Quetta in which more than 50 people were killed, he remarked: “It’s not sectarian; it has been given a sectarian colour. It’s not sectarian; that’s not what we believe, that’s not what our investigations have established...we believe it’s a terrorist attack. It may have certain sectarian connotations and certain sectarian backgrounds but in effect it’s a terrorist incident. It is the work of terrorists.” Home | National Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 25 Daily Times: US wants India to play role of nuclear policeman Thursday, March 18, 2004 NEW DELHI: The United States has asked India to play the role of “regional policeman” and stop the proliferation of nuclear material and sensitive defence equipment to “rogue states.” US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Indian Counterpart Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday confirmed after a meeting that both countries would begin official-level discussions on how the Indian Air Force and the Navy could help the US and its allies stop and search “suspected ships” on the Indian Ocean. “The US will like to see India participate in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) and we had good discussions on how to involve India in the treaty,” Mr Powell told reporters after the meeting. He said Indian and US officials would discuss the modalities of the PSI before India could finally join it. “We are going to increase dialogue on the PSI,” he added. His comments were echoed by Mr Sinha who said both countries shared views on nuclear non-proliferation and efforts to dismantle the international nuclear black market network. He said the US offer would be discussed in detail by officials from both countries. “There is a danger of nukes falling into wrong hands,” he added. He said both countries would deliberate on how India could contribute to the whole process. So far, 11 nations – the Untied Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland and the Untied States – have joined the PSI announced by US President George W Bush last year. Devoid of on any UN control, the PSI is now promoting an aggressive non-proliferation policy unveiled by Washington last month. Sources said the US presented a “non-paper” on the PSI to India last year, but the Indian government was reluctant to discuss it into the open because it was without UN control. PSI clauses contravene the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. Despite the fact that India had been a stanch advocate of the law and other international maritime treaties, the US succeeded in persuading India to participate in the PSI. Home | National Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 26 Daily Times: Powell arrives to discuss N-leaks Thursday, March 18, 2004 * Hails Wana operation * Pledges extra $1 billion to Afghanistan * Karzai pleased with Pakistan’s latest efforts against terrorism By Shaukat Piracha ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan on Wednesday for wide-ranging talks in Islamabad with nuclear proliferation topping the agenda. Mr Powell will meet on Thursday with Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and President Pervez Musharraf and hold delegation-level talks with Pakistani officials led by Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, sources told Daily Times. The US secretary of state is to depart for the Middle East after completing the talks. Economic cooperation, the war against terrorism, Pakistan-India relations and the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq will be discussed. “The major concern of the US is to ensure and seek guarantees from Pakistan that nuclear technology does not fall into the hands of non-state actors,” diplomatic sources said. Mr Powell will also address a press briefing with Mr Kasuri on Thursday morning. The two sides will review the operation against terrorism and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and seek to increase cooperation in this regard. Mr Powell is accompanied by US Under Secretary for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Alan Larson and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca. “Both sides have a substantive economic agenda to discuss”, sources said. The issue of spending the first instalment of US economic assistance worth $300 million is also on the agenda. Agencies add: Mr Powell flew into Islamabad on board a US military plane at around 6:00 pm after a one-day visit to Kabul, where he met President Hamid Karzai, urged women to vote in mid-year polls, and announced an extra one billion dollars in US aid for 2004. Mr Powell’s fourth visit to Islamabad comes a day after Pakistan’s deadliest encounter to date with Al Qaeda and Taliban fugitives hiding along its western border with Afghanistan. At least 39 people, 15 of them paramilitary soldiers, were killed during fierce gunfights on Tuesday with extremists being sheltered by tribesmen in South Waziristan. “The action in Pakistan yesterday suggests that Pakistanis have picked up the pace and we hope they continue to do that,” Mr Powell told a news conference in Kabul. “It shows the intention on the part of Pakistan not to allow these tribal areas to be used as a haven,” Mr Powell said. “We have been doing everything we can to encourage Pakistani leaders especially President Musharraf to be more active (in patrolling the border and preventing infiltrations by militants),” Mr Powell said. He expressed regret for the loss of troops in Tuesday’s operation. Powell said the 13,500-strong US-led military coalition in Afghanistan would be “increasing the pace of operations along the border” and working in tandem with Pakistani forces. “If Taliban elements are forced from Pakistan back into Afghanistan as a result of actions on the Pakistani side of the border, I am sure that our military forces here, working with Afghan forces, will deal with those elements,” Mr Powell said. “I am sure that nothing would be done along that border which is not done without coordination with both sovereigns (Afghanistan and Pakistan).” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was pleased with Pakistan’s latest efforts “to chase terrorists and arrest them”. “Afghanistan will stay firmly with the government of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism in that we are willing to extend every cooperation,” Karzai said Mr Powell urged Afghan women to take part in the country’s first post-Taliban elections during his visit. Observing a voters registration centre at a girls high school, which had been closed by the Taliban, Powell urged Afghan women to exercise their democratic rights. “It’s particularly impressive to see women coming out, women coming out in numbers. This is an exercise in democracy,” he declared. Karzai echoed the concern of many observers when he said the polls may be delayed beyond their June schedule, possibly until August. “If (voter registration) is done on time by the United Nations, the Afghan government is keen to have elections in June, July or in August depending on the preparations,” Karzai said. “The intention is to have the elections on time, (both) presidential and parliamentary. “Together or with a difference in time is something that we have to decide. At this time, it looks like we should be aiming for elections in mid-summer of 2004.” Noting “lots of progress” in rebuilding the war-torn country since he last visited in January 2002, Powell said the US would spend $2.2 billion in aid this year. “The US is in this for the long haul. They (the Afghans) don’t have to hope we will be here. We will be here,” he said. “Without you, I don’t know where we’d be,” Mr Powell told President Karzai, citing rebuilding in Afghanistan and work against terrorism. Home | Main Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] ***************************************************************** 27 Hi Pakistan: No IAEA inspection - Rashid March 18 2004 ISLAMABAD: There was no question of inspection of Pakistan’s nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Minister for Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmad told the National Assembly on Tuesday. "Pakistan has already achieved nuclear technology and the world has admitted this fact, he said in reply to a call-attention notice of the opposition members on the issue of nuclear export. He said investigation into the whole affair was completed. "Some people were found involved in the secret sale of nuclear assets and they are facing trial," he said, adding that two former army chiefs Gen (retd) Beg and Gen (retd) Karamat were also probed and their roles could not be established in the sale of nuclear secrets. He said the nuclear assets were in safe hands. "Pakistan has already installed a nuclear command and control system for the safety of nuclear assets, he said, adding: "No power can eliminate the atomic programme of Pakistan because it has become an established nuclear power recognised by all the countries of the world." The information minister said as far as the issue of pardon given to Dr AQ Khan was concerned, it only dealt with his links to the sale of technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea and if something new came out, the government would look into the issue of pardon. However, he hoped no such thing would come out against Dr AQ Khan at this stage. He said no previous government was found involved in the sale of nuclear assets. About the issue of taking the political parties into confidence over this sensitive issue, the information minister said that the Jamali government had invited all the political parties sitting in parliament to brief them on the issue. But, he regretted, many major political parties boycotted the in-camera briefing. Earlier, PPPP MNAs including Sherry Rehman and Raja Pervez Ashraf questioned the government action against nuclear scientists. They criticised the government for meting out harsh treatment to the national heroes. They said because of poor handling of the issue by the leadership, country’s strategic assets were facing a serious threat from external forces. Meanwhile, taking part in the debate on presidential address, the opposition blasted the government’s economic policies with the assertion that poverty increased in the country during the three-year tenure of Gen Pervez Musharraf government. Farid Ahmed Piracha of MMA argued there was no "genuine" democracy in the country as parliament and cabinet were not "sovereign." The president has spoken about the establishment of a real Islamic welfare state, but the number of people below poverty line was rising as well as inflation, corruption and favouritism, he observed. He said during the tenure of the Gen Pervez Musharraf the internal debt was increasing and it reached Rs 1876 billion while the foreign debt had reached at $34.5 billion. Sahibzada Fazal Karim of the PML-N criticised the government for its "handling" of the nuclear issue. The government, he said, has not been able to control price hike in the country, especially of steel and flour. Nawab Abdul Ghani Talpur said in view of many challenges facing the country, there was need for political reconciliation. He said the agriculture sector was the "most neglected," and that sugarcane growers were not getting minimum price for their produce as determined by the government. Rasheed Akbar Khan of PML-QA pointed out the agriculture sector would face serious crisis if new water reservoirs were not raised immediately. He regretted that some "vested interests" were opposing the construction of new dams. Ghulam Murtaza Satti of the PPPP said the president has talked about turning Pakistan into a modern Islamic welfare state, as envisioned by our forefathers but the ground realities are different. He said, "we are paying only lip service to good governance while the problem of unemployment was getting acute." Advocate Kishan Bheel of the PML-N criticised the government’s foreign policy, saying the "wrong strategy" of the rulers has rendered our borders unsafe. Gul-e-Farkhanda said the president in his speech gave a "bold" assessment of the government’s performance and challenges being confronted by the country. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 28 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan came out of N-crisis safely: No question of rollback, NA told --> March 18 2004 ISLAMABAD, March 16: The government told the National Assembly on Tuesday that Pakistan had come out 'clear' from the nuclear proliferation scandal and there was no question of rolling back its nuclear programme. Responding to a call-attention notice from five PPP members during the morning sitting on a private members' day, Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed denied reports that IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) experts could inspect the country's nuclear programme. An evening sitting of the house was devoted to the continuing debate on President Pervez Musharraf's Jan 17 address to parliament with opposition members criticizing and the treasury benches defending his policies. The information minister said Pakistan's nuclear assets were in safe hands, a command and control system was in place to ensure their safety and security, and that "no person can even think of compromising on the country's nuclear programme". "Our hands are clean," he said about fears of future dangers to the nuclear programme voiced by opposition members. He said there was no use of repeated discussions on the issue. "The problem has been solved and we have come out (of the problem) safely." Answering questions put by the sponsors of the notice, Syed Naveed Qamar, Sherry Rehman, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Khurshid Shah and Pir Aftab Shah Jilani, the minister said no power could cause a threat to Pakistan's nuclear programme as the whole nation and all political parties were united on the issue. Referring to US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Pakistan on March 17-18, he said being a sovereign and independent country Pakistan knew how to defend its rights. The country's stand on the Non-Proliferation Treaty was very clear and "it doesn't matter who is visiting the country," he said without elaborating. Mr Ahmed said Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan would continue to be a national hero though he had committed some 'mistakes' like any other human being. He said a thorough inquiry into the alleged sale of nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea, during which two former army chiefs Mirza Aslam Beg and Jehangir Karamat were also questioned, had found no one guilty except a few scientists. He rejected an opposition demand for convening an in-camera session of parliament to debate the nuclear issue. Two amendments to the rules of procedure proposed by PML-Q member M.P. Bhandara to curtail a frequent recourse to raising points of order and adjournments of the house due to lack of quorum were referred by Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain for further consideration to a house committee, which is yet to be constituted. A motion moved by Mr Naveed Qamar of the PPP, seeking an amendment to the rules of procedures requiring the preparation of a whole year's business calendar for the National Assembly before the start of the parliamentary year, was deferred by chairperson Noorjehan Panezai to the next private members' day after a lengthy debate. Both Mr Bhandara's and Mr Naveed Qamar's motions were supported by various members from the opposition and treasury benches. But the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, Mohammad Raza Hayat Hiraj, said he had some reservations over the wording of the amendment sought by Mr Naveed Qamar and asked the chair to defer the matter to the next private members' day. A furore caused by desk-thumping and slogans by the opposition members to protest against her ruling was cut short by Ms Panezai by adjourning the house until the evening. Prominent among those who took part in the debate on Gen Musharraf's speech were MMA's Farid Ahmed Piracha and Dr Farida, PML-N's Krishan Bheel, PPP's Sher Mohammad Baloch and Chaudhry Wasi Zafar of the PML-Q. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. No part ***************************************************************** 29 Hi Pakistan: Display of equipment in US angers Libya --> March 18 2004 WASHINGTON: Washington offended Tripoli with its "dog-and-pony show" display of Libya's dismantled nuclear weapons, a UN official said on Tuesday. The White House put on the display for the media on Monday of components flown out of Tripoli in late January under a sudden Libyan agreement to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction. "Libya was quite unhappy with this dog-and-pony show because it hurts them domestically (and) in the Arab world," said the senior official close to the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. "It looks like unilateral US disarmament of Libya and Libya wants it recognized as disarmament under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the NPT, and IAEA auspices," the Vienna-based official added. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 30 Hi Pakistan: Pakistan – the lone target - By General (Retd.) Mirza Aslam Beg March 18 2004 The WWII was drawing to a close. The United States, aided by the German scientists completed the development of the first nuclear bomb. Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had to be the first recipients of unimaginable devastation and misery. The American Bomb was not used as a weapon of last resort, or a weapon of warfare but to prove its might and to let the world know who is BIG in the post WWII emerging world order. There was no moral or even tactical ground for the use of an atomic weapon. Japan had been vanquished and was already contemplating surrender. USSR had been shown the path and followed suit by acquiring nuclear capability in 1949. Executing Dr Rosenberg and his innocent wife on the charges of providing nuclear secrets to the Soviets could not redeem the situation. The wheel of nuclear proliferation had been set in motion. Why was Dr Rosenberg scapegoated? Was it just him alone or was it that digging deeper would have unearthed some unpalatable and embarrassing facts about the US programme. That was, perhaps, the only time in history when nuclear proliferation could have been controlled. The US could not or did not do so. Proliferation went on. Great Britain, France and China added nuclear weapons to their arsenals and became the Big Five of the UN Security Council and of the world with unrivaled powers. US helped Israel go nuclear and the two saw India acquire nuclear capability. As it stands today, 44 nations have active nuclear programs and Pakistan is just one of the 44. Pakistan’s bomb was ‘religionised’ by the western media, as ‘the Islamic Bomb’. It is interesting that the media failed to find proper nouns for the other bombs. India’s nuclear test in 1974 destabilised the region and the regional peace was placed in jeopardy. The Indian desire of regional hegemony was not acceptable to Pakistan. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan set to work. Others put in their bit and Pakistan ultimately became a nuclear capable state. While India was pursuing its program nobody opposed it effectively but Pakistan’s programme caused deafening uproar and invited criticism from all corners. Our leaders were warned that they would be made examples of, and the word was kept. In 1998 a new chapter opened up with the Indian nuclear test. The world commented on it for a while and decided to ignore it. The tone of Indian press and the government in the post test days are still ringing in every Pakistani ear. Pakistan ignoring the immense pressure not to conduct the nuclear test went ahead and gave the nation dignity and pride and reestablished the balance of power in the region. Again the word was kept and the leaders were punished. India now aims at rubbing shoulders with the big five in the UNSC and continues its carnage in Kashmir unabated and keeps the regional peace hanging by a thread. In its endeavors India is fully backed by the US and Israel. Israel too, has a free hand at indulging in similar activities in Palestine and the Middle East. Israel is now on its way to making neutron bomb; Venune’s remarks should be taken seriously. And when all that is going on the IAEA, NPT and CTBT members remain docile observers in the arena doing nothing. Who is the Israeli programme aimed at? Afghanistan was demolished, destroyed, with the ostensible objective of looking for a person presumed to be responsible for 9/11 occurrence, and the search goes on with no respite for the Afghanis. In Iraq they went looking for WMDs which are yet to be found despite their advanced surveillance technology and the intelligence machinery. When the WMDs couldn’t be found it should have become morally incumbent on the US to make up the losses and quit. But one tends to forget that Iraqis still have to receive democracy. There is a limit to what can be made up. All know it is about oil and that a Muslim nation had to be cut to size. One is at a loss to understand why North Korea who asserted openly its right to build nuclear weapon was not invaded? What if North Korea was a Muslim Country? While on the other hand Libya was coerced into abandoning its program. Iran underwent similar treatment and had to succumb. It is apparent that making a nuclear bomb is no crime but it certainly is a crime if it is attempted by a Muslim country. The Muslim nations have been dehumanised through a planned and incessant propaganda campaign, and touted as being incapable of managing such devices or even to operate as responsible sovereign states. The reality is far too different. Pakistan, in the coming days, will have to face increased pressure to sign NPT and CTBT. Of the 191 UN members 187 have signed CTBT and 170 have acceded NPT. India, Pakistan and Israel are yet to sign. Pakistan will not sign until India signs because Pakistan’s nuclear program is India specific and aims at a minimum deterrence and its sovereignty will be at stake if it signs unilaterally. No Pakistani Government can risk that. For 15 years the CIA, MI-6, RAW and MOSSAD were intently tracking and gaining penetration into Pakistan’s program. The drama, for the moment, culminated in a stage play with Dr Qadeer Khan at the centre stage. What happened to Dr Qadeer, the allegations and his asking the nations for pardon and the magnanimity shown to him makes one contemplate the extent to which not so powerful a muslin nation can be pushed against the wall. The next step could be more sanctions, at an appropriate time, if Pakistan does not succumb to signing NPT and CTBT. It is ‘between the devil and the deep blue sea’ situation. The five eminent intelligence agencies are expected to meet in Tel Aviv next month to review and plan joint strategy for the attainment of their composite objectives. Pakistan and its nuclear programme naturally will top the agenda. This is sure to increase the pressures on Pakistan and add to its existing load of problems. If the scenario is analysed in the light of the concept of clash of civilizations it emerges that the picture has two faces. One face is the bleak representation imminent from the forgoing. Muslim nations facing the onslaught appear helpless in averting indignity and subjugation and the adversary seems to be gaining. The other face lends hope. Afghanistan has been invaded many times but it was never subjugated. Two super powers could not subdue it and ultimately had to give up. The third one is now taking its chances and is up against tough resistance. The situation is not very different in Iraq either. The invaders are being killed in suicide attacks every day. Kashmir, Palestine and Chechnya present similar picture. Should we consider it as a clash of civilisations? In my view it is more a war of ideas. Gen Abizaid’s words confirm this opinion. “Defeating Islamic extremism in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is a bigger strategic challenge for the United States than finishing the war in Iraq and Afghanistan”. And, “it is a battle of ideas as much as it is a military battle”. The end to this battle of ideas is not visible in any foreseeable future. It will go on, but the dream of a complete subjugation and total control will not be realised either. John F Kennedy said, “The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness. But the men who question the power make a contribution as indispensable”. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Hi Pakistan: Nuclear assets in safe hands, no question of sharing their security with others: Rashid --> March 18 2004 ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Tuesday told the National Assembly that the country's nuclear assets were in the safest hands and there was no question of sharing their security system with any other country. "Command and Control System is already in place for the safety and security of our nuclear assets, thus no question for sharing their security with any other country arises," he said while responding to a calling attention notice by Sherry Rehman, Syed Naveed Qamar, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and Pir Syed Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani. "The nuclear assets are for our defense - these are matters of our honor and pride as these are owned by 140 million valiant people of Pakistan," he said. On a supplementary question by Raja Pervez Ashraf that whether the country's nuclear program was under any threat, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, the spirit and aspirations of 140 million Pakistanis are behind the nuclear program, so no power on earth could cause a threat to our program. He said there was no truth in the news that the IAEA or any team of nuclear inspectors may visit to inspect Pakistan's nuclear program. "We are not in the process of attaining the nuclear capability but we are already a declared nuclear power, so no question of any such thing arises," Sheikh Rashid said. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 32 CBC News:Ontario sets electrical overhaul at $40B [http://www.cbc.ca/news/] Last Updated Wed, 17 Mar 2004 19:52:59 TORONTO - Ontario will have to spend as much as $40 billion to upgrade its aging system of electricity-generating plants, the province's energy minister said Wednesday. Dwight Duncan That price tag would include the cost of refurbishing Ontario's existing nuclear generating stations, and shutting down plants that burn coal, Dwight Duncan said. "We are looking at a massive investment of capital going forward," said Duncan. "Suffice to say that it could well be one of the largest peacetime investments in the history of this country." Duncan made the comments a day after the release of a gloomy audit of Ontario Power Generation. + FROM MARCH 16, 2004: Financial audit raises questions about OPG finances The company revealed Tuesday that it lost $491 million last year. The accounting firm KPMG also warned that the debt-laden utility is on the point of a total financial collapse. In the election campaign that brought them to power last year, Ontario's Liberals promised to shut down all of the province's coal-fired generating plants by 2007. Critics say that such a timetable would not give OPG enough time to replace the generating capacity that the plants provide. They warn that the resulting spike in demand will send consumer prices soaring. Duncan said Wednesday that a price hike is possible, but that it would be a certainty if the government doesn't act. "If we don't respond, prices will go up," he said. "Our plan, when I unveil it, will be designed to take what we've found here and move forward in a way that manages price." For more than a decade, Ontario's regulated price for electricity has been frozen at 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The price will rise to a minimum price of 4.7 cents per kilowatt-hour on April 1. Once a household uses more than 750 kilowatt hours in a month, the rate for additional kilowatt-hours will rise to 5.5 cents. Written by CBC News Online staff [http://cbc.ca/bios.html] Copyright © CBC 2004 ***************************************************************** 33 [CMEP] Davis-Besse Shutdown Shows Regulatory Flaws Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 17:20:43 -0600 (CST) *** Apologies for cross-posting *** *** P R E S S R E L E A S E *** March 17, 2004 Contact: Dave Ritter (202) 454-5176; Erica Hartman (202) 454-5174 Davis-Besse Nuclear Plant Shutdown -- One Day After Restart -- Shows Flaws in Regulatory System STATEMENT of Wenonah Hauter, Director, Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program: Barely 24 hours after the FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company restarted the Davis-Besse nuclear plant, it is being shut down again due to the failure of two types of valves, one of which could allow radioactive steam to be released into the air. Two of these valves at Davis-Besse were found to be inoperable as the reactor was being restarted. While it is appropriate that the plant is being shut down after this discovery, it is troubling that these problems were not identified previously by either FirstEnergy engineers or U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plant inspectors, especially since the valves were likely malfunctioning before the plant's February 2002 shutdown (otherwise, they wouldn't have malfunctioned so quickly) and apparently were not adequately tested during pre-startup exercises of the plant late last year and early this year. Worse, a list of problems that the NRC had with Davis-Besse -- a list that had not been fully addressed at the time that the NRC approved the restart of the plant -- did not even include the malfunction of the valves that caused this recent shutdown. FirstEnergy, in downplaying this event, claims it expected to "find some issues along the way." It is important to note the original cause for shutdown two years ago, the massive corrosion and deterioration of the reactor's vessel head, was itself a problem found "along the way" as the plant was being refueled and inspected for other problems. According to NRC officials, Davis-Besse has the disturbing distinction of being the site for the second and third worst American nuclear incidents after the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979. (The corrosion was the second; coolant problems in 1985 led to the third.) It appears that Davis-Besse is, at best, a mediocre plant that still poses dangers to the surrounding region. This continuing saga highlights what happens when regulators act as promoters of the industry they are supposed to oversee. It is apparent that the NRC is captured by the nuclear industry -- Davis-Besse is a glaring example of this inherent conflict. What other dangers await discovery at the nation's 102 other nuclear reactors -- reactors that have not been the focus of increased industry and regulatory scrutiny for the past two years, as Davis-Besse has? It is astounding that even though Davis-Besse was under a magnifier, officials still missed problems. Again, we call for the NRC to keep Davis-Besse shut down and to penalize FirstEnergy appropriately by revoking its license to operate it. ### Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org. ********** If you would like to be removed from the CMEP ListServ, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe CMEP" in the message. Questions about the CMEP ListServ can be directed to CMEP-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG. To learn more about this and other Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program campaigns, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/ -Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program ***************************************************************** 34 Davis - Besse Nuclear Plant Is Shut Down Today [3/17/2004] Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 11:35:01 -0500 http://www.nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plant-Restart.html Davis - Besse Nuclear Plant Is Shut Down By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 17, 2004 Filed at 10:07 a.m. ET OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) -- Valve problems caused the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to stop producing electricity Wednesday, a day after it was restarted following a two year shutdown because of safety concerns. During the plant's startup Tuesday, operators found three valves that will need to be repaired, said plant spokesman Richard Wilkins. Advertisement The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently granted FirstEnergy Corp. permission to restart the plant, which was shut down more than two years ago after inspectors found that acid had eaten nearly all the way through a steel lid on the reactor. Several temporary halts are part of the restart schedule, which started with output at partial capacity. Had there not been valve problems, operators would have boosted output to 50 percent within days, Wilkins said. ``I've told people that this is going to be a long, methodical process, and we expect to find some issues along the way, and we'll stop and address those,'' Wilkins said. ``It'll add a few days to the process, but we kind of figured we would be finding something, given how long we were shut down.'' Operators hope to have the plant producing electricity again next week, said Todd Schneider, spokesman for FirstEnergy. NRC inspectors are monitoring the process. The damage found at the plant in 2002 -- the most extensive corrosion ever found at a U.S. nuclear reactor -- prompted a review of 68 similar plants nationwide. ***************************************************************** 35 NRC: NRC to Discuss Annual Performance Assessment of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant News Release - Region I - 2004-01 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region I No. I-04-010 March 17, 2004 CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov] representatives of Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., on Wednesday, March 24, to discuss the results of the agencys annual assessment of safety performance at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. Entergy operates the plant, which is located in Plymouth, Mass. The meeting, which will be open to the public for observation, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the John Carver Inn, 25 Summer Street in Plymouth. Before the session is adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from the public on the plants safety performance, as well as the role of the NRC in ensuring safe operation of the facility. The performance period to be discussed is January 1 to December 31, 2003. In addition, NRC staff will provide a brief overview of how the agencys Reactor Oversight Process works. A letter sent from the NRC Region I Office to plant officials addresses the performance of the plant during the period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/pilg_2003q4.pdf [PDF Icon] . Overall, the Pilgrim plant operated safely and met all cornerstone objectives during the period. (Cornerstones are measures of plant performance.) Therefore, at this time the NRC plans to conduct only baseline inspections at the site through September 30, 2005. With regard to security issues, the NRC has issued several orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities and improve guard force readiness since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The agency has also conducted inspections to review the implementation of these requirements and has monitored the action of plant operators in response to changing threat conditions. For calendar year 2004, we plan to continue inspections of order implementation combined with newly developed portions of the security baseline inspection program, the letter states. Current performance information for the Pilgrim plant is available on the NRC web site at: www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/PILG/pilg_chart.html. Last revised Wednesday, March 17, 2004 ***************************************************************** 36 NRC: NRC to Discuss Performance of Palo Verde Nuclear Plant News Release - Region IV - 2004-01 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV No. IV-04-010 March 17, 2004 CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: [opa4@nrc.gov] representatives of Arizona Public Service Co., on Thursday, April 1, to discuss the results of the agencys annual assessment of safety performance at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The facility is located near Wintersburg, AZ. The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. in Estrella Hall at Estrella Mountain Community College, 3000 Dysart Road, Avondale. The public is invited to observe the meeting and NRC officials will be available before the conclusion of the meeting to answer questions from the public on the safety performance of the plant. The performance period to be discussed is January 1 to December 31, 2003. In addition, NRC staff will provide an overview of how the agencys Reactor Oversight Process works. A letter from the NRC to Arizona Public Service Co. addresses the performance of the plant during this period and will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/palo_2003q4.pdf [PDF Icon] . Overall, Palo Verde operated safely and fully met all cornerstone objectives (cornerstones are measures of plant performance). During a January 14 meeting with company officials, NRC staff discussed aspects of the safety conscious work environment at Palo Verde. The NRC believes that the companys assessment, as well as NRC reviews indicate that staff members feel free to raise safety issues to Palo Verde management. But, APS has identified areas where it plans to focus additional attention. These areas include employee awareness and familiarity with the companys Employee Concerns Program and Differing Professional Opinions Process, as well as the effectiveness of the Management Issues Tracking and Resolution program in resolving non-nuclear issues. Additionally, it appears that some workers may not effectively be using the companys problem identification process. Accordingly, the NRC staff will track the licensees initiatives in these areas during an inspection scheduled for May. Current performance indicators for the three units at Palo Verde are available on the NRC web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/PALO1/palo1_chart.html. Unit 2 data is at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/PALO2/palo2_chart.html. Unit 3 data is at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/PALO3/palo3_chart.html. Last revised Wednesday, March 17, 2004 ***************************************************************** 37 NRC: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued a FR Doc 04-5973 [Federal Register: March 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 52)] [Notices] [Page 12717] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17mr04-115] revision of a guide in its Regulatory Guide Series. This series has been developed to describe and make available to the public such information as methods acceptable to the NRC staff for implementing specific parts of the NRC's regulations, techniques used by the staff in its review of applications for permits and licenses, and data needed by the NRC staff in its review of applications for permits and licenses. Revision 3 of Regulatory Guide 1.32, ``Criteria for Power Systems for Nuclear Power Plants,'' provides guidance to licensees and applicants of nuclear power, research, and test reactors concerning methods acceptable to the NRC staff for complying with the NRC's regulations for the design, operation, and testing of electric power systems in nuclear power plants. Comments and suggestions in connection with items for inclusion in guides currently being developed or improvements in all published guides are encouraged at any time. Written comments may be submitted to the Rules and Directives Branch, Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555. Questions on the content of this guide may be directed to Mr. S.K. Aggarwal, (301) 415-6005; e-mail ska[comma]nrc.gov. Regulatory guides are available for inspection or downloading at the NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov] under Regulatory Guides and in NRC's Electronic Reading Room (ADAMS System) at the same site. Single copies of regulatory guides may be obtained free of charge by writing the Reproduction and Distribution Services Section, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax to (301) 415-2289, or by e-mail to Distribution@nrc.gov [Distribution@nrc.gov] . Issued guides may also be purchased from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) on a standing order basis. Details on this service may be obtained by writing NTIS at 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22161; telephone 1-800-553-6847; http://www.ntis.gov/ [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ntis.gov/] . Regulatory guides are not copyrighted, the Commission approval is not required to reproduce them. (5 U.S.C. 552(a)) Dated at Rockville, MD this 4th day of March 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Jack R. Strosnider, Deputy Director, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. 04-5973 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M ***************************************************************** 38 Bellona: Britain might become nuclear dustbin Government might allow British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) to make hundreds of millions of pounds by storing foreign nuclear waste permanently in Britain. 2004-03-17 17:55 Ministers are preparing to sanction a policy which could turn Britain into the "nuclear dustbin of the world" by allowing thousands of tons of radioactive waste shipped to the UK from abroad to be stored here permanently, daily Independent reported on February 2nd. The U.K. government has resurrected the concept of "waste substitution" because it would produce a six-fold reduction in international waste transports—going from approximately 225 shipments to 38—and would speed up British Nuclear Fuels plc’s (BNFL) return of waste from its Sellafield complex to overseas reprocessing customers in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. The U.K. Department of Trade &Industry (DTI) said in late January that a study it had commissioned from NAC Worldwide Consulting on the environmental consequences of ILW substitution showed that approach would achieve "broad environmental neutrality, and at the same time...offer other advantages to the U.K. and the broader international community." According to the experts the main problem is where to store the nuclear waste as the special repository will not appear before 2025. The announcement of the proposed substitution immediately drew fire from environmental groups and the opposition Liberal Democrat party, which claimed such a policy would make the U.K. an international nuclear dump. Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 39 Oakland Tribune: Sierra Club sues over security risks Article Last Updated: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - By Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO -- The Sierra Club has sued the Bush administration, alleging that the federal government has failed to address security risks at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant off the Central California coast. The lawsuit charges that the Bush administration and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have refused to hold hearings on terrorism risks posed by a proposed storage facility for radioactive waste. "The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, caused petitioners to be gravely concerned that the siting and design of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant makes it a vulnerable and attractive target for acts of malice or insanity," according to the lawsuit. The Sierra Club, along with the activist group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, filed the complaint Monday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Built in 1985, the Diablo Canyon facility is owned and operated by Pacific Gas &Electric Co., which has applied for a license to store spent radioactive fuel in dry casks onsite because spent-fuel pools will be full within three years. Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency hasn't seen the lawsuit and wouldn't comment on it directly. But the agency has said previously that a licensing hearing isn't the appropriate venue for addressing national security concerns, he said. Dricks said that the agency believes the Diablo Canyon facility is secure, adding that it has passed tests involving a mock attack force attempting to invade the facility. "Pacific Gas &Electric is meeting the agency's requirements for the physical protection of that site, and they have demonstrated their ability to do so through our numerous inspections," Dricks said. Some experts have complained that the Bush administration hasn't done enough to ensure security at the nation's nuclear plants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and other state and local officials have criticized the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for not holding hearings on vulnerabilities at the Diablo Canyon facility, and have urged the agency to do so. Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies, said that "while the specific points of vulnerability should remain confidential, public debate on this issue is essential." The Oakland Tribune [http://www.oaklandtribune.com] ***************************************************************** 40 Brattleboro Reformer - Editorials: A neighborly thing [http://www.reformer.com/] March 17, 2004 Brattleboro, VT Since it came to town more than a year ago, Entergy Nuclear has shown itself to be less than a model corporate citizen. A sluggish response to directives from the Public Service Board last fall -- which earned the company a $51,000 fine and a delayed hearing schedule -- inspired little confidence among the residents of southern Vermont. And eyebrows were raised again earlier this year when the company jumped the gun on an uprate-related building program that involved moving soil from the plant into a local fill yard that, in turn, sells dirt to the public. Neither of those performances dissuaded the Public Service Board, however. On Monday, the state panel gave Entergy a green light to increase both its power output and its radioactive waste. Even though it was precluded under federal law from reviewing radiological concerns regarding the power upgrade, the Public Service Board offered the only level of meaningful oversight for an uprate that is seen as a critical precursor to the company's stated intention to relicense Vermont Yankee when its license expires in 2012. Entergy's proposal is now in the hands of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has been a veritable uprate clearinghouse. Despite assurances of a rigorous review, federal regulators have not denied a single uprate request from any of the nation's fleet of aging nuclear reactors. The Public Service Board did attach conditions to its approval, including the requirement of an independent assessment. On Tuesday, the state Senate concurred, with the unanimous passage of a resolution that repeats the call for an independent safety analysis. The message from the board, from the Senate, and from many, many residents of southern Vermont has been clear: A comprehensive, independent assessment of the plant's health is required. Entergy must abandon the corporate culture that has exhibited a disdainful disregard for local public opinion. The company must respect this mandate from the people and policymakers of Vermont and work cooperatively and seamlessly to see that it is achieved. It is the neighborly thing to do. ***************************************************************** 41 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Appeals target Diablo facility | 03/17/2004 | Supervisors may hear challenges to spend fuel storage plan on April 20 David Sneed The Tribune SHELL BEACH - Four appeals have been filed of a recent county Planning Commission decision approving an expanded storage facility for highly radioactive spent fuel at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. James Caruso, county planner for the project, said the appeal hearing before the Board of Supervisors is tentatively set for April 20. The appeals cover a familiar range of concerns raised regarding the proposal to remove spent nuclear fuel rods from storage pools and place them in as many as 138 cylinders mounted on a concrete slab on a hillside behind the power plant. These concerns included the vulnerability of the facility to terrorist attack and earthquakes, and concern that the facility, which is intended to be temporary, may be there for many years. The appeals also objected to a Feb. 26 decision by the Planning Commission to remove requirements that plant owners, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., pay $12 million to improve coastal access in the Avila Beach and Port San Luis area and open the coastline around the plant to the public after the plant closes and the storage facility is removed. The appeals were filed by Henriette Groot of Cayucos for the Sierra Club; Rochelle Becker of Arroyo Grande for the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace; David Weisman of Morro Bay; and Carrie Filler and Richard Keller of Morro Bay. This is the first time Filler has appealed a Planning Commission decision. She was disappointed by the commission's decision and has become concerned about the storage facility. "The more I learn the less safe I feel, despite PG&E's PR," Filler said. The fuel storage facility is likely to be eventually appealed to the state Coastal Commission. PG&E also must get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is expected this month. "Safety and security are the number one priorities for this project, and we are going to meet and exceed the safety requirements of the NRC," said Jeff Lewis, plant spokesman. ***************************************************************** 42 TimesDaily: NAACP opposing approval of Entergy nuclear plant expansion Wednesday, March 17, 2004 The Associated Press The NAACP is urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny a bid to expand the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station along the Mississippi River based on concerns that any new redistribution of taxes would again be unfair to black residents. The NAACP is part of a coalition that is asking the federal agency to deny Entergy's application for a permit that could allow a new nuclear reactor to be built at its current electricity-generating site near Port Gibson. "We are concerned about redistribution of taxes as far as Grand Gulf Nuclear Station is concerned," A.C. Garner of the NAACP's local branch said Tuesday. In 1985, when the plant started producing electricity, Claiborne County received $16 million in property taxes. The Legislature, however, changed the law to allocate half the revenue to Claiborne County while the rest was distributed to governments in the 40-plus other counties in Mississippi that are served by Entergy. An attorney from the Baltimore, Md.-based NAACP national office, Jeanette Wipper, said that because the other counties have higher proportions of whites, the tax-redistribution was unfair. Claiborne County has a population of 11,831, of which, 84.1 percent are black, according to the 2000 Census. © Copyright 2003 Times Daily. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 43 toledoblade: Davis-Besse electricity production shut down again for glitch in valves Wednesday, March 17, 2004 BLADE STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES OAK HARBOR, Ohio  Valve problems caused the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to stop producing electricity today, a day after it was restarted following a two year shutdown because of safety concerns. During the plant's startup Tuesday, operators found three valves that will need to be repaired, said plant spokesman Richard Wilkins. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently granted FirstEnergy Corp. permission to restart the plant, which was shut down more than two years ago after inspectors found that acid had eaten nearly all the way through a steel lid on the reactor. Several temporary halts are part of the restart schedule, which started with output at partial capacity. Had there not been valve problems, operators would have boosted output to 50 percent within days, Wilkins said. I've told people that this is going to be a long, methodical process, and we expect to find some issues along the way, and we'll stop and address those, Wilkins said. It'll add a few days to the process, but we kind of figured we would be finding something, given how long we were shut down. Operators hope to have the plant producing electricity again next week, said Todd Schneider, spokesman for FirstEnergy. NRC inspectors are monitoring the process. The damage found at the plant in 2002  the most extensive corrosion ever found at a U.S. nuclear reactor  prompted a review of 68 similar plants nationwide. Davis-Besse was generating electricity Tuesday for the first time since the plant's reactor was shut down Feb. 16, 2002, FirstEnergy Corp said. The utility, which received Nuclear Regulatory Commission restart approval on March 8, has proceeded cautiously because of the amount of time the plant was idle. The reactor was running at 21 percent power yesterday afternoon and may not be taken up to full power for another week, officials said. The two-year outage stemmed from numerous equipment, design, management, and performance issues identified at Davis-Besse after the March 6, 2002 discovery of a near-hole in the plant's old reactor head. The device was one of several things replaced during the outage. © 2004 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 44 Brattleboro Reformer: Senate calls for Yankee assessment [http://www.reformer.com/] March 17, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff MONTPELIER -- The Vermont Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday calling on the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct an independent safety assessment (ISA) of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The vote came a day after the state Public Service Board issued an order granting a certificate of public good to Entergy Nuclear Corporation for its proposed 20 percent power increase, or "uprate" at Vermont Yankee. Under Vermont law the certificate was necessary because the uprate will require physical modifications to the plant. The order stipulates that the NRC complete an "independent engineering assessment" of the plant, before the uprate goes into effect and also states that board may modify the certificate based on the NRC's results. Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, one of the sponsors of the resolution, said that she was disappointed that the board granted the certificate but pleased that it requested an independent assessment. "This high level of change requires a high level of scrutiny," she said, adding that the age of the plant only adds to the cause for concern. The plant, among the oldest in the country, began operating in 1972. The 20 percent power increase sought by Entergy is the most allowed by federal law. Opponents of the uprate have maintained that the aging plant will not be able to operate safely under those conditions. Among those opponents is Sen. Peter Welch, D-Windsor, who had sharp words for Gov. James Douglas. According to Welch, the administration did not come out in support of the uprate until the company agreed to a $20 million payment to the state. Welch said the agreement only increased concerns about the uprate among residents of southern Vermont. "The fundamental issue is whether the proposal is in the public good and can it be done safely," he said, adding that the $20 million should in no way be linked to the decision. Jason Gibbs, spokesperson for the governor, insisted that the administration has not changed its position. "The governor has been consistent. He said that, first of all, safety comes first and that the NRC must determine that Vermont Yankee can accommodate the uprate," he said. Initially the governor's position, said Gibbs, was that he would not support the uprate until, "Entergy could show that it would benefit all Vermonters." He credits the administration for securing the $20 million through "aggressive negotiation." Gibbs added that Douglas supports the PSB's decision, but that at the moment did not consider it necessary for the administration to make an explicit call for an independent safety assessment. "Ultimately (the governor) is relying on the expertise of the NRC," said Gibbs. Vermont Yankee spokesperson Rob Williams said the company was not concerned about the action taken by the Senate. "In the final language of the resolution, there was nothing negative about Vermont Yankee, so we don't oppose it," he said. Despite the board's order and the Senate resolution, it is unclear whether the NRC will act on these recommendations. Because the commission is the sole regulator of nuclear health and safety, it alone decides if such an analysis is necessary. "We can't prohibit them from making the request," said Neal Sheehan, NRC spokesperson for region one. But, he said, decisions are based on NRC evaluations and are done on a "case by case basis." He added that it was too early too say how the commission would respond to the requests for a more rigorous inspection. The NRC review is expected to be completed sometime early next year. Many uprate opponents feel that the commission's review will fall far short of what is needed at Vermont Yankee, pointing out that the NRC has approved every uprate request ever submitted. Peter Alexander, executive director of the New England Coalition, which served as an intervenor in the case, applauded the passage of the Senate resolution, calling an ISA "the conservative and right thing to do." ***************************************************************** 45 Platts: Davis-Besse is temporarily reconnected to grid + Washington (Platts)-- 16Mar2004/547 pm EST/2247 GMT Davis-Besse reconnected to the grid at 5:30 a.m. but its generation will soon be interrupted again, Richard Wilkins, a spokesman for operator FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (Fenoc) told Platts today. He said the 925-MW PWR was up to about 20% power but that plant personnel discovered last night that valves needed to be repaired on the main feedwater line to one of the unit's steam generators. He estimated that the repair, which requires shutting down the reactor, would take "several days." But he said the reactor would have had to go off-line--though perhaps not to zero power--in any case when Fenoc performed a turbine trip test as part of its restart procedure. Wilkins said Fenoc had not yet decided whether to carry out the valve repair, bring the unit back on line, and do the turbine trip test later, or perform the two actions simultaneously. Another factor in the unit's down time, Wilkins said, would be other "emergent issues" Fenoc discovers as it powers up the reactor after a two-year shutdown. Copyright © 2004 - Platts, All Rights Reserved [The McGraw-Hill Companies] ***************************************************************** 46 WNNE: Residents React To Upgrade At Aging Power Plant TheChamplainChannel.com - Plant Owners Take Financial Risk If Vermont Yankee Shuts Down UPDATED: 6:13 pm EST March 17, 2004 BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- Local residents are reacting to the preliminary ruling in favor of a power increase at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Many in the Brattleboro-Vernon area are concerned about the state's decision to grant Vermont Yankee a 20 percent increase in it's power production. Annah Hardin has lived in Brattleboro for seven years, and said she doesn't see the benefits of the power increase. "I know that there's been a lot of problems, but I feel like a lot of them have been shuffled under the rug," she said. Another resident, Timothy Cain, agrees. "I don't like it; I think it's dangerous," he said. Plant officials, including Vermont Yankee spokesperson, Rob Williams, said boosting the power doesn't increase danger to the public. "We're always focusing on safety at the plant," Williams said. Even the New England Coalition -- outspoken critics of nuclear power -- see positives in the state's ruling. "We're actually pleased," said Peter Alexander of the NEC. Alexander said the conditions the public service board put on the plant's power increase will protect consumers because the plant's owners take the financial risk if Vermont Yankee has to shut down because of the power increase. Also, the plant's owners have agreed to an independent engineering study to make sure Vermont Yankee can handle the increase. "The conditions are likely to expose the weaknesses in the plant and bring about some accountability," Alexander said. Not everyone is so convinced. "If there's a real safety assessment, then I'm fine (with the increase)," said resident Marilyn Allen. "That's been the question all along." Resident Bob Immler is skeptical. "It's still very dangerous and all," he said. "There's still no way to dispose of the radioactive waste, ever since the first experimental reactor back in the 40s." Vermont Yankee officials say eight other plants in the country have already done upgrades like this one. They're convinced this one, too, will be safe. The final say on the upgrade will be up to the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commision. That could come some time at the end of this year or next year. Previous Story: + March 15, 2004: Vermont Power Plant Gets Go-Ahead For Boost Copyright 2004 by TheChamplainChannel.com [planews@ibsys.com] . ***************************************************************** 47 NRC: Pursuant to 10 CFR 110.70(b)(1) ``Public notice of receipt FR Doc E4-607 [Federal Register: March 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 52)] [Notices] [Page 12716-12717] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17mr04-114] of an application,'' please take notice that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received the following request for an export license. Copies of the request are available electronically through ADAMS and can be accessed through the Public Electronic Reading Room (PERR) link http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/ADAMS/index.html] at the NRC home page. A request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene may be filed within 30 days after publication of this notice in the Federal Register. Any request for hearing or petition for leave to intervene [[Page 12717]] shall be served by the requestor or petitioner upon the applicant, the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555; and the Executive Secretary, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 20520. In its review of the application for a license to export a utilization facility as defined in 10 CFR part 110 and noticed herein, the Commission does not evaluate the health, safety or environmental effects in the recipient nation of the facility to be exported. The information concerning the application follows. NRC Export License Application for a Utilization Facility Name of Applicant: Westinghouse Electric Description of Facility: Major End Use: For Country of Company. equipment, replacement parts and electricity generation Destination: components for construction of at the Ling Ao Site People's Republic four (4) utilization facilities and San Men Site. of China (pressurized water reactors) of between 900 to 1500 MWe each.. Date of Application: February 25, 2004........... Date Received: Febuary 26, 2004............ Application Number: XR169....................... Approximate Value: $2.5 Billion. Docket Number: 11005472.................... For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Dated this 10th day of March 2004 in Rockville, Maryland. Edward T. Baker, Deputy Director, Office of International Programs. [FR Doc. E4-607 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 48 NRC: Notice of Receipt of License Amendment Request From Sequoyah FR Doc E4-608 [Federal Register: March 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 52)] [Notices] [Page 12715-12716] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17mr04-113] [[Page 12715]] Fuels Corporation, Gore, Oklahoma, and Opportunity To Request a Hearing AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of consideration of license amendment and opportunity to request a hearing. DATES: A request for a hearing must be filed by May 17, 2004. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Myron Fliegel, Fuel Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Telephone: (301) 415-6629; fax: (301) 415- 5955; and/or by e-mail: mhf1@nrc.gov [mhf1@nrc.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has received, by letter dated January 7, 2004 (ML040150463), a request from Sequoyah Fuels Corporation (SFC) for approval of a license amendment to Materials License SUB-1010 to authorize a proposed raffinate dewatering project. The SFC facility, located near Gore, Oklahoma, operated from 1970 to 1993, converting uranium oxide (yellowcake) to uranium hexafluoride, a step in the production of nuclear reactor fuel. From 1987 to 1993, the facility was also used to convert depleted uranium hexafluoride to uranium tetrafluoride. The facility is currently licensed only to possess radioactive material. Originally, the license only permitted possession of source material. However, in a Staff Requirements Memorandum to SECY-02-0095, dated July 25, 2002, the Commission concluded that some of the waste at the SFC site could properly be classified as byproduct material as defined in section 11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as amended (AEA). The SFC facility is an inactive uranium fuel cycle facility. SFC proposed, in a previous request to NRC, to clean up the site by constructing a disposal cell on the site and putting all the contaminated site material in the cell. Among the material that would be disposed of in the cell is raffinate sludge, which was produced as a waste product during operation of the facility. The raffinate sludge is currently stored onsite in three lined ponds, which contain about 1,000,000 cubic feet of sludge containing 15 to 20 percent solids. The sludge must be dewatered before it can be properly disposed of in the cell. SFC has proposed to dewater the raffinate sludge using a pressurized filter press system, which will increase the solids content to approximately 45 to 50 percent and reduce the volume to approximately 485,000 cubic feet. The dewatered raffinate sludge will be put into polypropylene bags and stored onsite prior to disposal in the cell. Each bag will be approximately three feet by three feet by four feet and hold approximately 2000 pounds of dewatered sludge. Temporary storage cells will be built on an existing concrete pad. Each storage cell will be approximately 30 feet wide by 150 long and will hold an estimated 1460 bags of dewatered sludge. The cells will be lined and covered to prevent dispersal of any sludge that leaks from the bags. The NRC staff will review SFC's request to authorize the raffinate dewatering project using NUREG-1620 Rev. 1, ``Standard Review Plan for the Review of a Reclamation Plan for Mill Tailings Sites Under Title II of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978'' and other applicable agency regulations and guidance. If the NRC approves SFC's request, the approval will be documented in an amendment to SFC's license. However, before approving the request, NRC will need to make the findings required by the AEA and NRC regulations. These findings will be documented in a Technical Evaluation Report and an Environmental Assessment. II. Opportunity To Request a Hearing The NRC hereby provides notice that this is a proceeding on an application for a license amendment. In accordance with the general requirements in subpart C of 10 CFR part 2,\1\ ``Rules of General Applicability; Hearing Requests, Petitions to Intervene, Availability of Documents, Selection of Specific Hearing Procedures, Presiding Officer Powers, and General Hearing Management for NRC Adjudicatory Hearings,'' any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding and who desires to participate as a party must file a written request for a hearing and a specification of the contentions which the person seeks to have litigated in the hearing. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- \1\ The references to 10 CFR part 2 in this notice refer to the amendments to the NRC rules of practice, 69 FR 2182 (January 14, 2004), codified at 10 CFR part 2. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- In accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(a), a request for a hearing must be filed with the Commission either by: 1. First class mail addressed to: Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications; 2. Courier, express mail, and expedited delivery services: Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, between 7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., Federal workdays; 3. E-mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, hearingdocket@nrc.gov [hearingdocket@nrc.gov] ; or 4. By facsimile transmission addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, at (301) 415-1101; verification number is (301) 415-1966. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.302(b), all documents offered for filing must be accompanied by proof of service on all parties to the proceeding or their attorneys of record as required by law or by rule or order of the Commission, including: 1. The applicant, Sequoyah Fuels Corporation, P.O. Box 610, Gore, Oklahoma, Attention: Mr. John Ellis; and 2. The NRC staff, by delivery to the Office of the General Counsel, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852, or by mail addressed to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hearing requests should also be transmitted to the Office of the General Counsel, either by means of facsimile transmission to (301) 415-3725, or by e-mail to ogcmailcenter@nrc.gov [ ogcmailcenter@nrc.gov] . The formal requirements for documents contained in 10 CFR 2.304 (b), (c), (d), and (e), must be met. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.304(f), a document filed by electronic mail or facsimile transmission need not comply with the formal requirements of 10 CFR 2.304 (b), (c), and (d), as long as an original and two (2) copies otherwise complying with all of the requirements of 10 CFR 2.304 (b), (c), and (d) are mailed within two (2) days thereafter to the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff. [[Page 12716]] In accordance with 10 CFR 2.309(b), a request for a hearing must be filed by May 17, 2004. In addition to meeting other applicable requirements of 10 CFR 2.309, the general requirements involving a request for a hearing filed by a person other than an applicant must state: 1. The name, address, and telephone number of the requestor; 2. The nature of the requestor's right under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; 3. The nature and extent of the requestor's property, financial or other interest in the proceeding; 4. The possible effect of any decision or order that may be issued in the proceeding on the requestor's interest; and 5. The circumstances establishing that the request for a hearing is timely in accordance with 10 CFR 2.309(b). In accordance with 10 CFR 2.309 (f)(1), a request for hearing or petitions for leave to intervene must set forth with particularity the contentions sought to be raised. For each contention, the request or petition must: 1. Provide a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted; 2. Provide a brief explanation of the basis for the contention; 3. Demonstrate that the issue raised in the contention is within the scope of the proceeding; 4. Demonstrate that the issue raised in the contention is material to the findings that the NRC must make to support the action that is involved in the proceeding; 5. Provide a concise statement of the alleged facts or expert opinions which support the requestor's/petitioner's position on the issue and on which the requestor/petitioner intends to rely to support its position on the issue; and 6. Provide sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with the applicant on a material issue of law or fact. This information must include references to specific portions of the application (including the applicant's environmental report and safety report) that the requestor/petitioner disputes and the supporting reasons for each dispute, or, if the requestor/petitioner believes the application fails to contain information on a relevant matter as required by law, the identification of each failure and the supporting reasons for the requestor's/petitioner's belief. In addition, in accordance with 10 CFR 2.309(f)(2), contentions must be based on documents or other information available at the time the petition is to be filed, such as the application, supporting safety analysis report, environmental report or other supporting document filed by an applicant or licensee, or otherwise available to the petitioner. On issues arising under the National Environmental Policy Act, the requestor/petitioner shall file contentions based on the applicant's environmental report. The requestor/petitioner may amend those contentions or file new contentions if there are data or conclusions in the NRC draft, or final environmental impact statement, environmental assessment, or any supplements relating thereto, that differ significantly from the data or conclusions in the applicant's documents. Otherwise, contentions may be amended or new contentions filed after the initial filing only with leave of the presiding officer. Each contention shall be given a separate numeric or alpha designation within one of the following groups: 1. Technical--primarily concerns issues relating to matters discussed or referenced in the Safety Evaluation Report for the proposed action. 2. Environmental--primarily concerns issues relating to matters discussed or referenced in the Environmental Report for the proposed action. 3. Emergency Planning--primarily concerns issues relating to matters discussed or referenced in the Emergency Plan as it relates to the proposed action. 4. Physical Security--primarily concerns issues relating to matters discussed or referenced in the Physical Security Plan as it relates to the proposed action. 5. Miscellaneous--does not fall into one of the categories outlined above. If the requestor/petitioner believes a contention raises issues that cannot be classified as primarily falling into one of these categories, the requestor/petitioner must set forth the contention and supporting bases, in full, separately for each category into which the requestor/petitioner asserts the contention belongs with a separate designation for that category. Requestors/petitioners should, when possible, consult with each other in preparing contentions and combine similar subject matter concerns into a joint contention, for which one of the co-sponsoring requestors/petitioners is designated the lead representative. Further, in accordance with 10 CFR 2.309(f)(3), any requestor/petitioner that wishes to adopt a contention proposed by another requestor/petitioner must do so in writing within ten days of the date the contention is filed, and designate a representative who shall have the authority to act for the requestor/petitioner. In accordance with 10 CFR 2.309(g), a request for hearing and/or petition for leave to intervene may also address the selection of the hearing procedures, taking into account the provisions of 10 CFR 2.310. III. Further Information In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' details with respect to this action, including the application for amendment and supporting documentation, are available electronically for public inspection and copying from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS). ADAMS is accessible from the NRC Web site 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] . The relevant documents can be found in ADAMS at ML040150463. These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 10th day of March, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Myron Fliegel, Project Manager, Fuel Cycle Facilities Branch, Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. E4-608 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 49 Newsday: NRC to boost oversight of Oyster Creek nuclear power plant [March 17, 2004] in May 2003. asbbas1fonbn LACEY, N.J. (AP) _ Federal regulators said they will increase their oversight of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, resolving a May 2003 incident in which workers failed to notice a power line ruined by water. The increased scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will continue for at least a year and could last longer if problems persist, officials said. Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman, told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune that the agency has not decided how it will boost oversight of the Lacey plant, but occasional visits by specialists are likely. This was the third time in eight years that a damaged power line had gone unnoticed by plant workers, officials said. Sheehan said the extra oversight is needed because lessons learned from the two prior cable failures should have prevented the latest instance. Gina Scala, a spokeswoman for AmerGen Energy Co., which owns the Ocean County plant, said workers would have noticed the faulty line if a human error had not caused it to be mislabeled in 1996. She said AmerGen will forgo its right to appeal the NRC's finding, adding that the agency will not penalize the plant for the problem. Scala said that if the line had not been mislabeled, plant workers would have listed it for replacement in 2001, or about two years before it triggered a chain of events that forced a reactor shutdown on May 20, 2003. The faulty line caused the loss of a power distribution box that allocates electricity to safety-related equipment, and NRC regulations mandated that plant operators shut down the reactor as a precaution. Inspectors discovered the most recent line failure while documenting reasons for the shutdown. A preliminary report issued the same day the shutdown occurred had mischaracterized the event as an electrical malfunction. Although the failed line serves an important function in transmitting emergency power to vital equipment, plant officials said the problem never posed any danger because other contingencies could have kicked in. Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press ***************************************************************** 50 Forbes: TVA's Tenn. Sequoyah 1 nuke still shut after trip [http://www.msnbc.com/] [http://www.msnbc.com/] NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) - The Tennessee Valley Authority said Wednesday its 1,148 megawatt Sequoyah 1 nuclear unit in Tennessee remained shut following an automatic reactor trip late Monday. The unit, in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, had been running at full power prior to the trip, a TVA spokesman said. Spokesman Gil Francis said operators were working to determine what had caused the trip and, although there was no word on when the unit would return to service, the outage is not expected to be lengthy. Meanwhile, the adjacent 1,148 MW Unit 2 continued to run at full power on Wednesday, the U.S. NRC said in a daily report. TVA Nuclear operates the nuclear units of its parent company, TVA. Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service ***************************************************************** 51 Business Centre: Manley report on OPG to recommend more private deals for nuclear plants canada.com network GILLIAN LIVINGSTON Canadian Press Wednesday, March 17, 2004 TORONTO (CP) - A report on the future of Ontario Power Generation will recommend that the government look for more private-sector involvement to operate and maintain the province's nuclear power plants, The Canadian Press has learned. The report, slated for release Thursday, will suggest OPG and the government pursue joint ventures, partnerships and long-term leases for the operation and maintenance of its nuclear power stations. The report will also outline other drastic changes at the power company, sources said. The report will also recommend the power company exit non-core businesses. That usually means selling or shutting down businesses that aren't vital to a company's operation. Another recommendation calls for the power giant to divide itself into two operating divisions - one to handle the nuclear plants, and the other to manage hydro and fossil fuel plants. Other recommendations include moving OPG's headquarters out of Toronto and closer to its plants, as well as a major shakeup of its corporate governance structure. The report comes days after OPG reported a $491-million loss last year, including a $475-million writeoff on the value of coal-fired plants that the Liberal government plans to shut down by 2007. That news was accompanied by the details of a damning independent audit that warned the utility, which owns the bulk of the province's generating stations, is on the verge of collapse if its course isn't altered. The audit blamed part of the utility's problems on a flawed strategy to revamp its nuclear power stations - a strategy that has cost billions more than expected and is years behind schedule. Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said Wednesday that the province will have to embark on a hugely expensive plan to fix OPG and the province's electricity sector, with an estimated cost of between $30 billion and $40 billion. The report, by a three-member review committee headed by former federal finance minister John Manley, was charged late last year to look at OPG's future. Other committee members include Scotiabank chairman Peter Godsoe and former federal energy minister Jake Epp, who is now chairman of OPG. The company has already taken a step in the privatization direction recommended by the committee with a deal in July 2000 with Bruce Power. Under the $625-million agreement, Bruce Power signed a long-term lease with OPG to operate the Bruce Power plant near Kincardine, some 50 kilometres southwest of Owen Sound. Bruce was the first nuclear plant in the province to be turned over to private operators. The deal came as part of OPG's agreement to reduce its share of power generating capacity in the province to no more than 35 per cent within 10 years of what was the planned privatization of the energy sector. Four of Bruce's eight reactors at the plant are currently operating. The current lease runs to 2018, with an option to extend it for 25 years. The move towards more private-sector involvement would take advantage of outside experts and help reduce the risk to taxpayers for the costs to upgrade the nuclear power plants, sources said. However, any moves to privatization will be fiercely rejected by those who believe all power generation must remain in public hands. Any moves to turn power generation capacity over to the private sector will be met with fierce resistance, particularly from the New Democrats, whose mantra is "public power." Privatization means less, not more supply, and higher, not lower costs, said New Democrat Peter Kormos. "The private sector, to generate profits, has to keep the price up and you do that by controlling supply," he said. That will hurt consumers and industry as the price of power rises so that private-sector companies make enough money on their investment, he said. Duncan asked the committee to examine OPG's future role in the electricity market, examine its corporate and management structure, and probe whether it should go ahead with fixing chronic problems at the Pickering nuclear power plant. The request followed several troubling reports that painted a picture of mismanagement and financial trouble at the power utility. A report last fall blamed senior managers for billions in cost overruns and delays in restarting the Pickering A reactors. Three top OPG executives were fired as a result. That was followed by a review of the power company's finances, which found that its results fell $1 billion short of its forecast. © Copyright 2004 The Canadian Press Copyright © CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 52 [du-list] the US fist-print on our shared globe w/ oppressive Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 14:29:50 -0800 According to the Department of Defense publication, "Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country," http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/M05/hst0309.pdf, the United States has troops in 135 countries. Here is the list: Afghanistan Albania Algeria Antigua Argentina Azerbaijan Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burma Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chad Chile China Columbia Congo Costa Rica Cote D'lvoire Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Guinea Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Israel Italy Jamaica Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Jamaica Japan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liberia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Mali Malaysia Malta Mexico Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea Norway Oman Pakistan Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Singapore Sierra Leone Slovenia Spain South Africa South Korea Sri Lanka Suriname Syria Sweden Switzerland Tanzania Thailand Togo Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe This means that the United States has troops in 70 percent of the world's countries. The average American could probably not locate half of these 135 countries on a map. To this list could be added regions like the Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia, Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean island of St. Helena, all still controlled by Great Britain, but not considered sovereign countries. Greenland is also home to U.S. troops, but is technically part of Denmark. Troops in two other regions, Kosovo and Hong Kong, might also be included here, but the DOD's "Personnel Strengths" document includes U.S. troops in Kosovo under Serbia and U.S. troops in Hong Kong under China. Possessions of the United States like Guam, Johnston Atoll, Puerto Rico, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the Virgin Islands are likewise home to U.S. troops. Guam has over 3,200. Regular troop strength ranges from a low of 1 in Malawi to a high of 74,796 in Germany. At the time the most recent "Personnel Strengths" was released by the government (September 30, 2003), there were 183,002 troops deployed to Iraq, an unspecified number of which came from U.S. forces in Germany and Italy. The total number of troops deployed abroad as of that date was 252,764, not including U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States. Total military personnel on September 30, 2003, was 1,434,377. This means that 17.6 percent of U.S. military forces were deployed on foreign soil, and certainly over 25 percent if U.S. troops in Iraq from the United States were included. But regardless of how many troops we have in each country, having troops in 135 countries is 135 countries too many. The U. S. global empire ­ an empire that Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Justinian, and King George V would be proud of. ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 53 The Herald: Crews train for radiation accident Rock Hill, SC Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Federal officials test disaster preparedness By Erica Pippins The Herald (Published March 17‚ 2004) What would happen if there were an accident at the Catawba Nuclear Station? What if plant workers discovered a small fire or explosion affecting one of the crucial pieces of equipment that keeps the reactors going? How would crews react if they discovered a tiny amount of radiation seeping out from the confines of the plant on Lake Wylie? How harmful is radiation that hovers at ground level but is gradually carried airborne by strong westerly winds? The above scenarios were played out by public health and safety officials Tuesday at the county's Office of Emergency Management in Rock Hill as part of a federal evaluation. Roughly 31 Federal Emergency Management Agency evaluators are dispersed throughout nine counties this week to determine how well state and local agencies would react to a disaster at the nuclear plant. Most of the response groups that would be involved if an accident happened at the nuclear station review their action plans annually, while other components are evaluated monthly, said Cotton Howell, York County's emergency management director. FEMA requires a full-scale evaluation of those plans every two years, Howell said, adding that five South Carolina counties, four North Carolina counties and both state's governments participate in the exercise. On Tuesday, officials from Duke Power and state and county medical, safety and utility personnel gathered in an office representing command central, much like they would if a real emergency were to occur. They worked together to make decisions based on different situations outlined in the scenario, including both reactors losing power. Those steps were posted on a computer tracking system so each agency could be aware of what the others were doing. Here are some of the highlights of the exercise: " By 10 a.m., the four area school districts had evacuated and sent students to shelters. " Within that hour, the governor had also declared a state of emergency. " Before noon, people who live within a 10-mile radius of the plant were asked to evacuate and take potassium iodide tablets, pills that protect the thyroid from harmful radiation. " EMS dispatched crews to pick up residents with disabilities, while the S.C. Highway Patrol patrolled evacuation routes, including one blocked off by an overturned truck. While the exercise went well, officials say state and county agencies need to work on better communication and coordination. Some counties had already determined the radiation release was harmful though testing by other agencies showed it wasn't. The South Carolina governor's office also issued its state of emergency order before York County officials were ready to make that call. "As always, we saw areas that we could improve on. Most of those involved communication and the way information was shared," Howell said. "But overall, I would have to say we had a good response. Everybody took their jobs seriously and did a good job dealing with the different obstacles presented to them." In addition to Tuesday's exercise, the FEMA teams evaluated each area's emergency worker decontamination process Monday. A dozen or so schools will have their emergency action plans reviewed today. "The evaluation gives us an opportunity to validate our plans and to find ways to improve the flow of information," Howell said. "I'm proud of how well everybody did." FEMA will release a published report of its findings within the next 120 days. Contact Erica Pippins at 329-4072 or epippins@heraldonline.com. Home [http://www.heraldonline.com/] | Copyright © 2004 The Herald, South Carolina ***************************************************************** 54 BBC: Plea over Gulf War syndrome Last Updated: Wednesday, 17 March, 2004 [Alex Izett] Alex Izett wants a Scottish Parliament inquiry MSPs have demanded to know what the Scottish NHS is doing to help victims of so-called Gulf War Syndrome. They made their plea after hearing a petition from a former soldier. Alexander Izett claims he has been left with brittle bone disease as a result of the nine injections he was given in preparation for the first Gulf War. Mr Izett says up to 2,000 Scottish veterans have suffered from the effects of the inoculations and he wants them to be given special NHS treatment. Last year, a war pensions appeal tribunal ruled that the brittle bone disease suffered by Mr Izett, who is originally from Cumbernauld but now lives in Germany, could be linked to the injections. Many symptoms The decision was hailed by Army veterans as the first official recognition of Gulf War syndrome. The term is associated with a vast array of symptoms including fatigue, nausea, fever and depression. It has been attributed to injections, depleted uranium ammunition or even Iraqi chemical weapons, although some believe it could be psychosomatic. But the Ministry of Defence has never admitted there is any such thing as Gulf War syndrome. This stance has infuriated many veterans who feel that there has never been a proper investigation into the issue. On Wednesday Mr Izett asked the Scottish Parliament to mount its own inquiry. ***************************************************************** 55 Las Vegas SUN: Bio-chem releases at Test Site explained By Launce Rake A federal agency is coming closer to releasing chemical and biological agents at the Nevada Test Site. The National Nuclear Security Administration, an Energy Department agency, hopes to complete an environmental assessment in June that would justify going forward with the plan to test the threat and train for the response to chemical and biological agents, said Mike Skougard, the agency's environmental protection team leader at the Test Site. Skougard spoke to the Nye County Commission on Tuesday, updating the board on the progress of the environmental assessment, a process that began in October. Before the agency can go forward with its plans, it needs to complete the environmental review. Skougard assured the commissioners that the agents to be deployed at the Test Site would not threaten human or most animal life. The agency is studying the impact of releasing the agents through explosives, from moving vehicles and aircraft, in ground spills, in buildings and over water, among other methods. Skougard told the Nye County board that some similar releases have been happening at the Test Site for decades at a hazardous materials training center. "We have been conducting in some cases quite large chemical releases at the Test Site's haz-mat spill center for about 20 years," he said. The agents that would be released include nonlethal chemicals and four kinds of bacteria that are already common in the environment, as well as "killed" or noninfectious influenza virus. "Most of them are probably right around this room right now," Skougard told the board. "We're looking at pretty benign organisms ... We intend to treat these things with a lot of respect. "At no time will any member of the general public be exposed," he said. "It will be up in the interior of the Test Site." Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley said some of her constituents were concerned about the impact the tests might have on birds migrating through the region. Skougard said those birds were unlikely to be affected, but he also noted that the habitat around the release sites could feel the effects. "Release of some chemicals, probably not biologicals, could result in some slight mortality for small animals and plants," Skougard said. Following the presentation, which Skougard said he has done for other state and federal agencies, he said the National Nuclear Security Administration hopes to do five to 20 tests a year for various customers, most of which would be local, state and other federal agencies. Among them would be first-responders to emergency situations. The chemicals and biological agents could mimic the dispersion of potentially dangerous agents that could be unleashed in a terror attack. ***************************************************************** 56 Las Vegas SUN: Biological, chemical tests near By Launce Rake A federal agency is coming closer to releasing chemical and biological agents at the Nevada Test Site. The National Nuclear Security Administration, an Energy Department agency, hopes to complete an environmental assessment in June that would justify going forward with the plan to test the threat and train for the response to chemical and biological agents, said Mike Skougard, the agency's environmental protection team leader at the Test Site. Skougard spoke to the Nye County Commission on Tuesday, updating the board on the progress of the environmental assessment, a process that began in October. Before the agency can go forward with its plans, it needs to complete the environmental review. Skougard assured the commissioners that the agents to be deployed at the Test Site would not threaten human or most animal life. The agency is studying the impact of releasing the agents through explosives, from moving vehicles and aircraft, in ground spills, in buildings and over water, among other methods. Skougard told the Nye County board that some similar releases have been happening at the Test Site for decades at a hazardous materials training center. "We have been conducting in some cases quite large chemical releases at the Test Site's haz-mat spill center for about 20 years," he said. The agents that would be released include nonlethal chemicals and four kinds of bacteria that are already common in the environment, as well as "killed" or noninfectious influenza virus. "Most of them are probably right around this room right now," Skougard told the board. "We're looking at pretty benign organisms. ... We intend to treat these things with a lot of respect. "At no time will any member of the general public be exposed," he said. "It will be up in the interior of the Test Site." Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley said some of her constituents were concerned about the impact the tests might have on birds migrating through the region. Skougard said those birds were unlikely to be affected, but he also noted that the habitat around the release sites could feel the effects. "Release of some chemicals, probably not biologicals, could result in some slight mortality for small animals and plants," Skougard said. Following the presentation, which Skougard said he has done for other state and federal agencies, he said the National Nuclear Security Administration hopes to do five to 20 tests a year for various customers, most of which would be local, state and other federal agencies. Among them would be first-responders to emergency situations. The chemicals and biological agents could mimic the dispersion of potentially dangerous agents that could be unleashed in a terror attack. The National Nuclear Security Administration maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and oversees national nuclear laboratories. ***************************************************************** 57 Pahrump Valley Times: Do you not know? March 17, 2004 Do you not know that these (depleted uranium) rounds were laced with plutonium? Do you not know that the "Gulf War Syndrome" is really plutonium, uranium and heavy metals byproducts poisoning? Do you not realize that neighbors to these ranges are most likely poisoned? As well as the range officers and personnel that worked the ranges? And what about the water run-off? Has your local health department taken soil samples? Water samples? Well samples? I have talked with neighbors of several firing ranges, all of which are sick, poisoned with these elements. Their only hope is in hair elements testing and chelation therapy, both unpopular and disputed in the medical realm, both the only source for saving these folks lives. Blessings, CHARLES M. DRIVER PADUCAH, KENT. For comment or questions, please e-mail [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 58 NRC: NRC Proposes $21,000 Fine to Alaska Department of Transportation News Release - Region IV - 2004-00 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV No. IV-04-009 March 16, 2004 CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: [opa4@nrc.gov] The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has issued a Notice of Violation and proposed a fine of $21,000 against the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, of Anchorage, Alaska, for three willful violations of NRC requirements stemming from an incident in which several employees received radiation exposures in excess of NRCs annual limits for members of the public. None of the workers received an exposure normally expected to cause health problems. In a separate, but related action, the NRC also issued a Notice of Violation and Confirmatory Order to the Alaska Department after determining that its radiation safety officer was discriminated against after raising concerns about potential radiation exposures to other state employees. In a letter to the licensee, Bruce S. Mallett, Administrator of NRCs Region IV office in Arlington, Texas, said that an NRC inspection completed last October determined that the excessive radiation exposures which occurred between 1996 and 1998, were a direct result of inadequately storing nuclear gauges in close proximity to employees. Contributing to the incident, Mr. Mallett said, was a failure by the licensee to perform NRC required evaluations of radiation levels in the affected office space prior to and after permitting employees to occupy it. These two violations are of particular concern, Mr. Mallett said, because each involved willfulness, specifically a careless disregard for NRC requirements. The licensee did not perform adequate evaluations of the dose that affected employees may have received until after the state radiation safety officer prompted this, Mr. Mallett noted. After the officer raised these concerns, the Alaska Department of Transportation discriminated against the individual between 1999 and 2002 by giving him unacceptable ratings in three performance appraisals, denying him a merit increase, issuing verbal admonitions and written reprimands and denying the individuals request for radiation safety officer-related training, an NRC review concluded. In addition, the licensee willfully failed to provide copies of reports on the incident to all of the affected individuals at the same time that those reports were submitted to the NRC in August 2003, as required by NRC. The employees did not receive the report until after prompting by the NRC. The Alaska Department met with NRC officials in Arlington on November 18 and 19, 2003 to discuss the proposed violations. The Department maintained it had not discriminated against the state radiation safety officer, but had taken administrative actions based solely on work performance issues. Nevertheless, the NRC staff concluded discrimination had occurred and issued a Notice of Violation and Confirmatory Order to the Department. The Order includes a commitment by the licensee to establish and maintain an environment where employees feel free to raise safety concerns, developing a plan for training employees and their supervisors and managers on NRCs employee protection regulations and conducting surveys of its employees to gauge the effectiveness of these initiatives. The fine includes $15,000 for multiple instances of radiation exposures to members of the public; the willfulness that caused those exposures; and the licensees poor performance in implementing a radiation protection program, including missed opportunities to have identified the problem earlier and taken corrective actions to prevent the exposures. An additional fine of $6,000 was proposed because of the licensees willful failure to provide reports to the affected individuals no later than the time of submittal to the NRC. The NRC letter, its enclosures, and the Alaska Departments response will be made available to interested members of the public through the agencys electronic reading room at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. Help in accessing these documents is available from the NRC Public Document Room at (301) 415-4737 or at 1-800-397-4209. The company has 30 days from receipt of the letter to either pay the civil penalty or to protest its imposition. Last revised Wednesday, March 17, 2004 ***************************************************************** 59 Salt Lake Tribune: More potty talk March 17, 2004 Given HEAL Utah's use of disturbing verbal imagery and potty talk over the years, it should come as no surprise that a Curtis Bramble, R-Provo) would jokingly coin a moniker they could relate to. HEAL Utah's principal activist has publicly said that legislators "would love to jump in bed with the nuclear waste industry, but what they don't know is the public will look under the covers." Other HEAL Utah activists have also maligned Utah, Tooele County, and the waste industry as a pay toilet. Those who know where HEAL Utah's minds and mouths have been can easily see through their recent pretend outrage. Jay Vance North Salt Lake "> Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune ***************************************************************** 60 Las Vegas RJ: JOHN L. SMITH: Just ask tunnel workers whether we have to worry about Yucca safety Wednesday, March 17, 2004 This was the easy part. And they blew it. The apparent failure of Yucca Mountain contractors to protect their workers from dangerous levels of hazardous dust during the 1995 boring of a gigantic tunnel at the proposed nuclear waste repository was simply inexcusable. Protection of the respiratory system through the use of adequate filtration masks is as basic as the mandated use of a hard hat on the job site. And they managed to botch it. That was the ringing message sent during Monday's U.S. Senate field hearing hosted by Sen. Harry Reid. Nevada's senior senator has been a dogged critic of the Yucca project for two decades. He has argued so long and so loud against the project that the public might be forgiven for occasionally tuning him out. But on Monday morning at the Clark County Government Center, the theme of Reid's protest song changed. He no longer was warning of impending danger. Instead, he made public verifiable instances in which Yucca contractors' lack of attention to fundamental safety precautions already has endangered workers' lives. What made the criticism even more devastating was the fact that the danger emanated from dust exposure, which can result in degenerative lung ailments such as silicosis. Silicosis? And you thought it went out with mining reforms half a century ago. And you believed only miners in Third World backwaters were exposed to such crippling dangers. This was the easy part. This was basic. This was simple. This was preventable. And they blew it. That fact should send shivers through a nation constantly being assured that the Yucca project will be safe from transport to storage. Yucca officials have said the incident was isolated and later corrected. Well and good. Not good enough for former Yucca Mountain tunnel supervisor Gene Griego or former tunnel worker Jeff Dean, both of whom said they suffered from life-shortening lung maladies caused by exposure to harmful silica dust and fibrous minerals during the tunneling. Industrial hygienist Michael Taylor provided chilling testimony when he acknowledged workers were ill informed of the potentially deadly effects of silica dust exposure. Taylor said management was notified in writing of his findings. Better save that correspondence for the lawsuit, Mr. Taylor. Knowing the gravity of the project, and understanding that every move made by DOE contractors would be monitored, there's no excuse for sloppy job site safety. Who knows, maybe the contractors couldn't see the safety manual because of all the dust. Almost comically, DOE spokesman Allen Benson offered that the department's own analysis might have an impact on future contracts. You know, because safety is important. Not so important that coughing workers weren't told to see their personal physicians. But, still, pretty important. Can't have workers choking on dust. It's bad for the image. Although Reid offered up the possibility of an investigation by the inspector general or the General Accounting Office, there was no mention of the silicosis safety issue slowing the Yucca project. "If there isn't negligence here, gross negligence, with the cause of action lying against these contractors, then there isn't one that exists in the world," Reid said of the contractors and, by association, the DOE. "I don't think you can separate them. They're in cahoots." Kicking into overdrive, Reid noted the long list of devastating problems with "things nuclear" from snake-oil salesmen hawking radium as a cure-all in the early 1900s to using a broom to brush off radiation exposure from above-ground testing in the 1950s. "Then we come along with nuclear waste and they say, `Don't worry about it.' But look at this. Look what this is doing. If they don't care enough about the people digging this hole in the ground out there, do they care about the kids in the playgrounds, the kids going to church and going past businesses? ... "There is no reason for silicosis. There is no reason. It's totally preventable." He's right. This was the easy part. John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 61 Nebraska StatePaper.com: Nuclear Political War Between Nelson, Johanns Wednesday, March. 17, 2004 Political nuclear war continues in Nebraska. Ground Zero is a dispute over who has been responsible for what in the fight over a multi-state dump for low-level radioactive waste. Gov. Mike Johanns says U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson should take the fallout for a $151 million judgment against the state, awarded to utilities that wanted to use the proposed dump. Nelson, who was governor when the state denied a permit to build the controversial dump in Boyd County, says his administration acted properly. The license was rejected on the basis of scientific evidence showing that the chosen site wouldn't have been safe. The war of [http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2004/03/17/local/10046845.tx t ] Tuesday. Johanns has acknowledged that some sort of tax increase might be needed to pay the judgment. Nelson has said there was plenty of money available to the state when Johanns succeeded him as governor; and that responsible fiscal policy would have avoided any need for higher taxes regardless of any judgment. Johanns is a Republican and a possible opponent for Democrat Nelson in the 2006 Senate race. Johanns said Tuesday that Nelson was "fighting for his political life." "He's certainly trying to spin this in a way that it's everybody's fault except his own," Nelson said Johanns has mishandled the issue. "My successor has had five years to deal with this issue," Nelson said Tuesday. "I wonder why he didn't work on a settlement of this issue before it went to trial." Nelson previously criticized U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, calling him an "activist judge" who ruled against Nebraska in the nuke waste lawsuit, and simultaneously built an unfair trial record. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the $151 million judgment entered by Kopf. The state is appealing. Johanns criticized Nelson for criticizing the courts. In another development: Some folks are having fits because Rick Soper, chairman of the Kimball County Board, said his county might be willing to host a nuclear dump. Johanns has speculated that agreeing to build the dump for a multi-state compact might help settle the on-going lawsuit. Soper's remark prompted Sharlet Morgan to launch a petition to have Soper recalled from office. Last week, Soper said that hosting a nuclear dump might be good for the area economy, and that it could be considered on that basis. "We fought this dump in 1988, 1989 and successfully kept it out of here," Morgan said. "Then it went to Boyd County. - and our views haven't changed," Morgan said. © 2004 Nebraska StatePaper.com ***************************************************************** 62 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Negligence casts pall over Yucca LAS VEGAS SUN Testimony at a congressional hearing Monday in Las Vegas confirmed what has been feared now for weeks, that people's lives are at risk because safety standards during drilling at Yucca Mountain in the 1990s were not followed. Dust containing toxic silica, which causes the incurable and ultimately fatal lung disease known as silicosis, was swirling about unprotected workers for years as a five-mile, 25-foot-diameter tunnel was being drilled through the mountain. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., listened Monday as workers described conditions inside the mountain. The issue only became public in January, after former workers had lodged complaints following illnesses. In response, the Energy Department set up silicosis screening tests for former workers and issued this statement: "Regulatory limits for airborne silica were exceeded at various times during the tunnel mining operations at Yucca Mountain from 1992 to 2000. During early work at the site, respiratory protection was available but requirements for its use were not consistently applied. Some workers may have been exposed to airborne silica." From the testimony Monday, however, it appears that thousands of workers were exposed and that the "respiratory protection" consisted of useless hardware-store-variety masks. Silicosis is entirely preventable with proper respiratory masks, good ventilation and enough water that can be sprayed to keep the dust down. Unfortunately, work proceeded at a blistering pace without those safeguards, according to testimony. Workers said that heavy dust clouds were a constant presence because managers were more interested in meeting deadlines than safety standards. A safety technician who works at Yucca for the Los Alamos, N.M., national laboratory testified that workers "knew better than to file official complaints ... you did not stick around long if you complained." Another safety expert, who works for the Energy Department, confirmed that the air inside Yucca con tained unsafe levels of silica and that workers were not suitably protected. The inspector general's office of the Energy Department is investigating the conditions at Yucca Mountain during the drilling. Did contractors knowingly subject workers to deadly silica levels? Did the Energy Department cover it up? These are the central questions. That such questions must be investigated leads to another central question: How are we to believe that Yucca Mountain will be a safe burial ground for the nation's nuclear waste? So far, all we have is the Energy Department's guarantee. Just ask the Yucca workers what that's worth. ***************************************************************** 63 Las Vegas SUN: Nuclear expert: Send waste to Michigan Peninsula ground considered stable By Mary Manning A former member of a nuclear waste review panel said Tuesday that a peninsula in Michigan would offer a better, more stable environment than Yucca Mountain to lock up highly radioactive waste. Paul Craig said he favors Michigan rather than the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear repository site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas because of the stable ground there. "My favorite site?" he said. "The northern peninsula of Michigan." Michigan's peninsula contains layers of clay with copper metal, said Craig, a retired engineering professor and former member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. "That copper has been there for a billion years," he said. The copper in Michigan would keep radioactivity in place, Craig said. He said the radioactivity could spill out of the repository at Yucca Mountain. He said the Michigan peninsula could safely store the waste for up to 1 billion years. The Energy Department searched for a site for the nation's nuclear waste more than 20 years ago and by law was required to look for a site where the geology could hold in the radioactivity. In 1987 Congress voted to narrow the search to Nevada. Since then the Energy Department has been studying the volcanic ridge as it prepares to apply for a license to build the repository. The studies have included looking at how well the rock will hold back the radiation and whether water will seep through the rock and potentially carry radiation into the groundwater. The Energy Department continues to pursue the site for the planned repository and plans to apply for an application to build it. Nevada's Yucca Mountain is an area prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity, features that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that must permit the Energy Department to build a repository, has put at the top of a list of problems with the site. The Energy Department proposes to use the metal alloy C-22 for its storage containers to bury the waste at Yucca, Craig said. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has questioned the corrosion rates of the C-22 metal in numerous reports. The 11-member technical review board's mandate is to evaluate technical and scientific activities undertaken by the Energy Department at Yucca Mountain. The Energy Department, led by former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., has not made its case for burying 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Craig said. Energy Department scientists once thought Yucca's volcanic ash layers were dry. They discovered that water ran through the mountain, perhaps fast enough to corrode, erode and allow radiation to escape long before the 10,000-year life of the repository ends, Craig said. "The present proposal for Yucca Mountain is not compelling," Craig told about 50 people who attended a Sierra Club forum at Winchester Community Center on Tuesday. As a member of the technical review board from 1996 until January when he resigned, Craig listened to the studies, research reports and technical explanations produced by the Energy Department. "The problem is the models are so complex, no one understands them," Craig said. "I can tell you, I spent a great deal of time with them and I can't understand them." However, Craig sympathized with the Energy Department's daunting task after Congress set a deadline of 1998 for opening a repository. After the department missed its goal, nuclear utilities sued and could collect millions of dollars in damages. Energy Department officials insist that the department will submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency by December. "I don't see any way the DOE (the Energy Department) can submit an application," Craig said. "If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepts the DOE's application, there may be a problem with the NRC." If another repository site cannot be found, Craig said that nuclear power plants could safely store spent fuel in dry casks for up to a century. "Above-ground dry cask storage is safe and acceptable scientifically," he said. The problem with Yucca stems from an institution bent on keeping to a schedule, Craig said. ***************************************************************** 64 Las Vegas SUN: State sues DOE for loss of Yucca oversight funds By Cy Ryan and Suzanne Struglinski CARSON CITY -- Nevada filed suit today in a federal court, charging the Energy Department has shortchanged the state $4 million this fiscal year to oversee the development of a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the suit was brought in the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia and names Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham as a defendant. The lawsuit says the state and local governments were entitled to receive $5 million in grants from the nuclear waste fund but has received only $1 million. The state wants a federal court to stop all of the department's licensing activities on the proposed federal nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, until it receives the full $5 million in oversight money. The suit also wants the court to direct the department to make the grants. "There is not a way in the world we are going to be an effective participant in the licensing without it," said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. The state has three other legal complaints pending against the department in the federal court. Oral arguments took place Jan. 14 and state lawyers expect a decision this spring. In the latest lawsuit, Nevada says the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, which guides the Yucca project, requires the department to issue grants to the state and local governments for work on the project. Loux reminded the department of a 1995 letter sent to Congress by the agency's chief financial officer that says the department has to send states and local governments oversight money, regardless of what Congress does. The Energy Department did not request any money for state or local government oversight for this year. Congress approved $1 million for the state's oversight on the project anyway, which was lower than the $5 million the state has received in the past. Loux said it is important the state receive the additional money as it prepares for the licensing process the project will face in the next few years. The Energy Department says it will submit an application for a license to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December. Because of the lack of funds, the state has not been able to do some scientific work, hire litigation case managers or prepare documents for the license support network, Loux said. Loux 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. He has not received any response to the letter, one sent more than a year ago by Gov. Kenny Guinn or one sent in December by Sandoval. The department requested $2.5 million in oversight for the state for 2005, but Loux said that will not be enough. The Energy Department has set aside $16 million to $25 million just to pay its lawyers in the same period, Loux said. "To expect Nevada to get by on $2.5 million is pretty unrealistic," he said. Loux said there is a "whole host of studies that need to be conducted." He said the state wants to examine the issue of the corrosion of the nuclear packages to be buried. And it wants to look more at the hydrology of the area. "We intend to drill more holes" to examine the site, Loux said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also requires all of the documents to be filed electronically. Loux said many of the state's documents are old and he must hire an administrator to handle this task. Loux said the state will file a motion for an expedited review of the case since it will need to have the money in time to finish its work on schedule to meet the department's December deadline. Sandoval said the lawsuit comes "at a time when our scientific and technical experts are preparing critical studies to aid the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its safety evaluation." Sandoval said that Abraham and the Energy Department have turned a cold shoulder to efforts by the state to get the money. Sandoval said the withholding of money is "an outrage and tragically it's just the latest in a long record of deception, rule-bending and law-breaking in order to make the case for an unsuitable site. "It defies law, and strangles our ability to account for the health and safety of Nevadans," Sandoval said. Gov. Kenny Guinn supports the lawsuit, said the governor's press secretary, Greg Bortolin. ***************************************************************** 65 Las Vegas SUN: Nye commission opposes giving water to Las Vegas By Launce Rake Nye County commissioners on Tuesday emphatically reaffirmed Tuesday their opposition to the Southern Nevada Water Authority's applications for rights to ground water in adjacent Lincoln and Clark counties. The water authority, seeking water rights it applied for more than a decade ago under the auspices of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, is seeking State Engineer Hugh Ricci's approval to take out 17,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Three Lakes and Tikaboo valleys in northwest Clark County and southwest Lincoln County. Hearings are scheduled to last five days next week on the issue. Among those protesting are Inyo County in California, White Pine County, Ely, and several federal agencies. All the protesters share a concern: that the use of the water from the Nevada counties could ultimately affect groundwater supplies over a huge swath of the state and into California. The state engineer and his staff next week will hear the evidence and arguments from both the water authority and protesters on the issue. By state law, Ricci must make the potentially tough decision on how much water can be taken from the water authority's planned wells without affecting either the habitat or existing water rights throughout the region. The decisions often come months after the hearings. The water authority, which has accelerated its effort to tap groundwater resources to supplement the limited and drought-threatened supply from Lake Mead, has said it only wants to draw a sustainable amount of water from the planned Three Lakes and Tikaboo wells. The 17,000 acre-feet that water authority hydrologists estimate can be taken without harm from the valleys is about enough water for 85,000 people. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or about enough water for a typical family for one year. Nye County commissioners and staff, who met with water authority officials last week, gathered in closed session at their meeting in Pahrump to discuss the issue before restating their opposition to the water authority applications. Commissioner Joni Eastley said simply that her county would not withdraw its existing protests to the water authority's applications, a move immediately seconded by Commissioner Patricia Cox. The vote was 5-0 against the water authority's plans. Commissioner Midge Carver, whose district includes much of northern Nye County all the way to parts of Pahrump, asked for support in opposing the water authority's plans. "There is truly a need for us to protect our water resources," Carver said. She urged "anyone and everyone" to attend next week's water hearing in Carson City, or to submit written comments to the state engineer's office to oppose the applications. After the vote, Carver said Pahrump and the rest of Nye County fears the example of Owens Valley in California. Once a water-rich area, the Owens Valley has seen much of its water flow downhill to serve Los Angeles after fighting the city, sometimes violently, for decades. "It's always been the same issue for anyone who watches the Owens Valley," Carver said. Although the water authority's experts say the wells would be safe and sustainable, Carver said the hydrology of the West is still not completely understood, and that makes people nervous in her county. "There's no one that knows exactly what's going on underground," Carver said. Nye County Chief Deputy District Attorney J. Ronald Kent said his county must oppose the water authority's plans in the short term, but he said the county would listen to the Clark County agency and keep Nye's options open in the long term. Vince Alberta, spokesman for the water authority and its sister agency, the Las Vegas Valley Water District, said his agencies will continue to work with Nye County and other concerned stakeholders in an effort to defuse the opposition and find mutually satisfactory solutions. He noted that while the water authority and water district applied a decade ago for water rights in Nye County, those resources are not part of the existing conceptual plan for development of "in-state water resources." Most of those resources would come from Lincoln and White Pine counties north of Clark County. "We've just started opening up the dialogue" with Nye County, Alberta said. "This is the beginning of the process. There will be lots of discussions with all the stakeholders. "The fact that they (Nye County's representatives) have intervened in the state engineer's hearings assures them that they will be involved, as will anybody else who intervened," Alberta said. "Ultimately, if this is going to succeed, everybody's going to have to work together. ... That's going to be critical going forward." One prominent county in the discussions over water rights has withdrawn its protests: Lincoln County, which a year ago struck a deal with the Clark County agencies to divide up its water rights, preserving some for its own economic development while providing potential water for Las Vegas. Carver suggested that such a solution to the dispute might not work for her constituents. "People I know in Lincoln County don't think it was a good deal," she said. "Consequently, by that logic, I wouldn't think it would be a good deal for anyone." She added that even in Clark County, some people would oppose the efforts to draw groundwater down to the urban area. "I know a lot of people in Las Vegas," Carver said. "I know they're not necessarily in favor of this." ***************************************************************** 66 Philadelphia Inquirer: Camden County files federal lawsuit to halt proposal for GEMS landfill | 03/17/2004 | Officials want other options for the Superfund site. A judge is to rule soon on the current cleanup plan. By Elisa Ung Inquirer Staff Writer CAMDEN - With a federal judge expected to rule any day on whether a controversial cleanup of the GEMS landfill can go forward, Camden County officials yesterday sought another way to stop the plan. They filed a lawsuit attempting to force GEMS officials to find another way to treat the former Superfund site in Gloucester Township. Backed by the state, the county has protested the cleanup plan, which would flush thousands of gallons of slightly radioactive groundwater - treated to meet drinking-water standards - through county sewer lines to the treatment plant in Camden. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed the plan. The county's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Camden, asks that a judge force the GEMS Phase II Trust to stop its plans for the treatment, require it to provide some financial and other documents the county has requested, and direct it to seek other treatment alternatives, such as treating and discharging the groundwater on-site. "The filing of this lawsuit is the result of the arrogance, the complete disregard for public safety, and the violation of the fiduciary duty by the GEMS Phase II Trust," said County Freeholder Louis Cappelli. The landfill was a 60-acre private dump operated by Gloucester Environmental Management Services. The GEMS Trust, a group of about 300 firms that dumped pollutants there from the 1950s to the 1980s, agreed in 1996 to pay $30 million for the cleanup. It was unclear how, if at all, the county's lawsuit would affect the imminent decision by U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle on the state motion challenging the plan. GEMS attorney Gary Lesneski said he had not heard about the lawsuit until yesterday and would not comment until he had read it. At a court hearing in January, Lesneski argued that the state had no scientific evidence for its claims of danger and was merely bowing to political pressure from environmental groups. Gov. McGreevey in December signed a law that seeks to ban the wastewater flow. But at the January court hearing, Simandle questioned whether the law was based on scientific fact or public reaction. The judge said that there had been "a great deal of hysteria" over the cleanup that may have misled residents to think they were in danger, and that the cleanup plan had been revised to address concerns over the radioactivity. The County Municipal Utilities Authority is awaiting Simandle's decision, said deputy director Andrew Kricun, who was unaware the county had filed yesterday's lawsuit. Contact staff writer Elisa Ung at 856-779-3997 or eung@phillynews.com [eung@phillynews.com] . ***************************************************************** 67 NEWS.com.au: PM defends N-dump site (March 18, 2004) THE site chosen in the South Australian outback for a controversial nuclear waste dump was the right spot, Prime Minister John Howard said today. The Federal Government is planning to put a low-level radioactive waste dump about 20km east of Woomera in the state's north. Mr Howard said the Government had been through an exhaustive process to choose the site despite facing widespread criticism. "Everyone can find a reason why it shouldn't be somewhere, but the experts told us that the site identified was the most appropriate and therefore we have accepted their advice," he told ABC radio in Adelaide. The Federal Government has applied to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency for a licence to set up a low-level radioactive waste repository near Woomera. The application followed an extensive search for a suitable site stretching back several years. South Australia has opposed the proposal from the start and continues to pursue the issue in the federal court. It also failed in an attempt to have the proposed site declared a park, when the Federal Government moved to acquire the land through special regulatory provisions. AAP Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEDT (GMT+11). ***************************************************************** 68 Gloucester Times: Camden County freeholders sue GEMS Trust Wednesday, March 17, 2004 By Shawn Menzies smenzies@sjnewsco.com The Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the group charged with funding the cleanup a former landfill now Superfund site in Gloucester Township, citing several complaints including the GEMS Phase II Trust's failure to publicly disclose its finances. "The filing of this lawsuit is the result of the arrogance, the complete disregard for public safety and the violation of the fiduciary duty by the GEMS Phase II Trust," said Camden County Freeholder Louis Cappelli, Jr. "This trust operates in a cloak of secrecy reminiscent of governmental agencies that existed under the former Soviet Union." [http://ads.nj.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.nj.com/xml/stor y/Gloucester%20County%20Times/l/local_news/@StoryAd?x] Attorney Dennis Riley, appointed by the Gloucester Township Council to serve on the trust, said he could not comment because he had not seen the suit. The suit states the trust failed or neglected to provide to county officials copies of certain financial and accounting records and to consider and discuss cleanup alternatives at the site and their cost-effectiveness. The suit also charges breach of duty at the hands of the trust. The trust is to finance the first 10 years of a 30-year cleanup of the Superfund site; the suit alleges that the trust's refusal to seek out cleanup alternatives could negatively affect taxpayers. Camden County officials are also asking the cleanup plan be abandoned in favor of on-site remediation; the current plan would discharge contaminated water into public sewers, from where it would be sent to the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority for treatment before being released into the Delaware River. The trust's plan has the endorsement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Gloucester Environmental Management Services (GEMS) site was used as a landfill for more than three decades before it was closed and listed near the top of the federal government's list of the worst toxic dumps in the nation in the early 1980s. During the second phase of the recent cleanup, radionuclides were found in the groundwater. Further test results found levels of uranium in the water. The detection of uranium led state officials to request from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission a list of several companies that held federal licenses to handle and dispose of uranium and also dumped at the site. Although the landfill is located in Camden County, the issues have been closely monitored by neighboring counties because of waterways near the Superfund site that run through South Jersey. "I think it's a step in the right direction for the protection of people in Camden County and also of Gloucester County," said Ed Knorr, of Monroe Township-based Green Action Alliance. "It's an important tool into trying to understand why the GEMS Trust and the EPA are not dealing with the concerns of residents, local and state government and environmental groups." The complaints in the suit could be furthered with the help of a new state law signed by Gov. James E. McGreevey in December, which prohibits the trust's proposed cleanup and calls for the trust to release an accounting of funds. "We are going support this complaint," said Sharon Finlayson, chairwoman of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. "It has important information and hopefully it will open the door for considering the alternatives for remediation at the site. And that's what we want." Gloucester Co. Times ***************************************************************** 69 Courier Post: Lawsuit filed on radioactive water plan [http://www.courierpostonline.com Wednesday, March 17, 2004 County doesn't want landfill water discharged into sewers By LAWRENCE HAJNA Courier-Post Staff CAMDEN The stalled plan to send contaminated groundwater from the GEMS Landfill Superfund site in Gloucester Township to Camden County sewer mains faces a new hurdle. On Tuesday, the Camden County freeholder board filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court aimed at holding up the proposed discharge. It seeks a restraining order to prevent the GEMS Phase II Trust, former users of the long-closed dump, from proceeding with the plan should a judge rule in its favor. It also maintains the trust has "breached its fiduciary duty" to the county by failing to provide an accounting of its cleanup spending. Opponents have long argued for this disclosure to learn why the trust won't pay for a full-scale treatment plant at the landfill to remove conventional contaminants as well as radium and uranium. The county argues it is due this accounting because it is a minor party in a federal settlement paying for the landfill's cleanup. The county contributed about $30,000 toward the multimillion-dollar cleanup years ago because it disposed a small amount of trash at the landfill, officials said. "The filing of this lawsuit is the result of the arrogance, the complete disregard for public safety, and the violation of the fiduciary duty of the GEMS Phase II Trust," Freeholder Louis Cappelli Jr. said at a news conference. Gary Lesneski, an attorney for the trust, declined comment because he had not seen the lawsuit. The proposed discharge to sewer mains triggered a political firestorm when the public learned about it nearly two years ago. Opponents fear residents along the route through the heart of Camden County could be exposed to radioactivity if mains backed up. They also fear potential threats to public health from accumulation of radionuclides in sewage sludge and in the Delaware River after discharge from the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, which operates county sewer lines. The trust and federal Environmental Protection Agency have argued the radionuclides are naturally occurring. The state, however, late last year raised concerns that the radioactivity could have resulted from past dumping. Regardless of the source of radioactivity, the trust argues a pretreatment plant it built at the landfill, now idled for more than a year by legal battles, can treat the water to drinking water standards for radionuclides. Contaminated water continues to flow into a tributary of Big Timber Creek pending resolution of the sewer discharge plan. U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle is expected to rule soon on a state motion that seeks to compel the trust to consider full on-site treatment. The CCMUA is also fighting the discharge to its mains, a plan it initially agreed to. County Counsel M. Lou Garty said the county has been considering a lawsuit for several months. She explained the county is taking the action now to be "proactive" should Simandle allow the CCMUA discharge to commence. Environmentalists welcomed the suit. "The bottom line is that residents don't trust the trust because of their actions," said Cindy Rau-Hatton of the local group Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment. "We need to support the freeholders in this to be proactive to make sure that we have the safest remedy at GEMS, not just for now but also because it is such a long-term project." The discharge is expected to last 30 years, 10 years under the direction of the trust and the balance under the state Department of Environmental Protection. Fran Boyle is a former CCMUA employee who lives in Gloucester Township. "You always hear about the water going back into the river, but the sludge that's going to be generated by this is probably the worst," he said. "You've got employees dealing with incineration, the employees handling it, mechanics working on pumps. You've got so many people involved who've never even been considered." Reach Lawrence Hajna at (856) 486-2466 or lhajna@courierpostonline.com [lhajna@courierpostonline.com] [http://www.courierpostonline.com/ ***************************************************************** 70 News & Star: DON’T WANT SCOTTISH N-WASTE Published on 17/03/2004 Concern: Elaine Woodburn By Stephen Meredith WEST CUMBRIAN councillors say proposals to transfer nuclear waste from Scotland to Sellafield are “totally irresponsible” and would bring no economic benefit to the area. They have declared their intention to oppose the plans to transfer the low-level waste from the Dounreay plant to Cumbria. Nuclear regulators say waste pits at Dounreay are full and the other national disposal site – Sellafield – is the only alternative to dump around 12,000 cubic metres of waste by 2012. That would mean up to two containers a week being brought to West Cumbria, most probably by road. But Copeland Council believes nuclear waste should be contained in the area of its origin and work should be speeded up to build a new facility north of the border. Labour councillor Brian Dixon, speaking at the council’s executive meeting this week, said the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate were acting “totally irresponsibly”. “The benefit to Scotland is to the detriment of the people of Copeland. Enough is enough,” he said. Referring to the proposals as “scandalous”, he added that the public would feel West Cumbria was becoming the waste dumping ground of the world and feared any jobs created would go to people from outside the area. Fellow councillor Allan Holliday said the time had come to look at an alternative long-term solution. “Nuclear waste will never be safe,” he said. “Every time it is brought here it makes Copeland that little bit less safe.” He said the council should challenge the proposals at every level. Council leader Elaine Woodburn said there would come a time when it would not only be low-level waste that would be planned for Copeland. She said the scheme would have no benefits for Copeland but that they would probably have to accept it. “We probably won’t have a choice,” she told the meeting. A spokesman for Dounreay said waste pits in Scotland were full and they have been instructed by Government regulators to transfer the waste to Drigg. “If disposal sites exist, we should use them until such a time that we have a new one,” he said. “That could be in 10 years’ time. “We recognise this is a sensitive issue for the people of Copeland but we are complying with the regulations.” Copeland Council say they want more involvement in the recommendation process and want to see a presentation of the proposal before they consider their position further. What's your view of this story? Email the News &Star at news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk [news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk] or post it on our Forums ***************************************************************** 71 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada files new lawsuit over Yucca Mountain nuke trash dump Today: March 17, 2004 at 9:31:08 PST By BRENDAN RILEY ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A new lawsuit against the federal Department of Energy, over its proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada, was filed Wednesday by state Attorney General Brian Sandoval. The lawsuit, filed in the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., says Energy Secretary Spencer and the DOE violated federal law by failing to provide oversight funds to the state and to local governments affected by the proposed dump. "It's an outrage and, tragically, it's just the latest in a long record of deception, rule-bending and law-breaking in order to make the case for an unsuitable site," said Sandoval. "It defies law, and it strangles our ability to account for the health and safety of Nevadans." The lawsuit says the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires grants from an $8 billion-plus "nuclear waste fund" funded by nuclear utility rate fees. The act provides that all expenses of nuclear waste disposal "should be the responsibility of the generators and owners of such waste." Sandoval said Congress requires the grants to ensure that Nevada can appropriately evaluate the health, safety, and environmental impacts of the dump, and participate in a meaningful way in upcoming Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing proceedings, beginning in December, for the project. "This fiscal year, DOE reduced Nevada's oversight grant from $5 million to only $1 million, at a time when our scientific and technical experts are preparing critical studies to aid the NRC in its safety evaluation," Sandoval said. "It's a blatant conflict of interest when the agency in charge of funding your participation to sabotage your participation. That's not what Congress had in mind." The lawsuit asks the Court to suspend all of DOE's licensing activities for the Yucca project until Abraham complies with the law, and it requests the court to direct DOE to make the requisite grants. Secretary Abraham didn't reply to a February 2003 letter from Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn about the funding, or to a December 2003 letter from Sandoval on the need for the funds as licensing proceedings start, Sandoval said. He added Yucca program Director Margaret Chu ignored a detailed request from Robert R. Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, for establishment of a reasonable funding mechanism that would ensure Nevada could participate meaningfully in the NRC proceeding. President Bush approved the Yucca project in 2002 despite Nevada's strong opposition and Guinn's veto of the project. The Energy Department wants to obtain a license promptly and begin accepting shipments of the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste in 2010. Yucca Mountain is 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. --- On the Internet: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/ [http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/] -- ***************************************************************** 72 DOE: 04ER04-13; Operating/Runtime Systems for Extreme Scale Scientific FR Doc 04-5997 [Federal Register: March 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 52)] [Notices] [Page 12648-12651] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17mr04-60] [[Page 12648]] Computation AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice inviting grant applications. SUMMARY: The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) of the Office of Science (SC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for research grants in the area of operating and runtime systems for extreme scale scientific computation. Partnerships among universities, National Laboratories, and industry are encouraged. The full text of Program Notice 04-13, is available via the Internet using the following Web site address: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.science.doe.gov/production/gran ts/grants.html] . DATES: Preapplications referencing Program Notice 04-13, should be received by March 26, 2004. Formal applications in response to this notice should be received by 4:30 p.m., Eastern Time, May 4, 2004, to be accepted for merit review and funding in Fiscal Year 2004. ADDRESSES: Preapplications referencing Program Notice 04-13, should be sent via e-mail using the following address: osruntime.preproposal@science.doe.gov [ osruntime.preproposal@science.doe.gov] with a copy to fjohnson@er.doe.gov [ fjohnson@er.doe.gov] . Formal applications referencing Program Notice 04-13, must be sent electronically by an authorized institutional business official through DOE's Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) at: http://e-center.doe.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://e-center.doe.gov] . IIPS provides for the posting of solicitations and receipt of applications in a paperless environment via the Internet. In order to submit applications through IIPS your business official will need to register at the IIPS Web site. IIPS offers the option of using multiple files, please limit submissions to one volume and one file if possible, with a maximum of no more than four PDF files. The Office of Science will include attachments as part of this notice that provide the appropriate forms in PDF fillable format that are to be submitted through IIPS. Color images should be submitted in IIPS as a separate file in PDF format and identified as such. These images should be kept to a minimum due to the limitations of reproducing them. They should be numbered and referred to in the body of the technical scientific application as Color image 1, Color image 2, etc. Questions regarding the operation of IIPS may be E-mailed to the IIPS Help Desk at: HelpDesk@pr.doe.gov [ HelpDesk@pr.doe.gov] or you may call the help desk at: (800) 683-0751. Further information on the use of IIPS by the Office of Science is available at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.science.doe.gov/production/gran ts/grants.html] . If you are unable to submit the application through IIPS, please contact the Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science at: (301) 903-5212 or (301) 903-3604, in order to gain assistance for submission through IIPS or to receive special approval and instruction on how to submit printed applications. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Frederick Johnson, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, SC-31/Germantown Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20585-1290, telephone: (301) 903-3601, fax: (301) 903-7774, E-mail: fjohnson@er.doe.gov [fjohnson@er.doe.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Forum to Address Scalable Technologies for Runtime and Operating Systems (FAST-OS) has conducted a series of workshops focused on issues associated with operating and runtime systems for very large computing systems used for high end scientific modeling and simulation. This workshop series was sponsored by the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research of the DOE Office of Science. The most recent workshop was held in July 2003, and the final report, together with other results of the workshop series may be found at: http://www.cs.unm.edu/fastos [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.cs.unm.edu/fastos] . An interagency workshop, the Workshop on the Roadmap for the Revitalization of High-End Computing was held in June of 2003. Section 5 of the workshop report addresses runtime and operating systems. The charter of the researchers that produced this section was to establish baseline capabilities required in the operating systems for projected High-End Computing systems scaled to the end of this decade and determine the critical advances that must be undertaken to meet these goals. The report is available at: http://www.itrd.gov/hecrtf-outreach/20040112_cra_hecrtf_report.pd f [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.itrd.gov/hecrtf-outreach/200401 12_cra_hecrtf_report.pdf] . Background Operating and Runtime Systems (OS/R) Operating and runtime systems provide mechanisms to manage system hardware and software resources for the efficient execution of large scale scientific applications. They are essential to the success of both large scale systems and complex applications. By the end of this decade petascale computers with thousands of times more computational power than any in current use will be vital tools for expanding the frontiers of science and for addressing vital national priorities. These systems will have tens to hundreds of thousands of processors, an unprecedented level of complexity, and will require significant new levels of scalability and fault management. The overwhelming size and complexity of such systems poses deep technical challenges that must be overcome to fully exploit their potential for scientific discovery. Applications require multiple services from OS/R layers, including: resource management and scheduling, fault-management (detection, prediction, recovery, and reconfiguration), configuration management, and file systems access and management. Current and future large-scale parallel systems require that such services be implemented in a fast and scalable manner so that the OS/R does not become a performance bottleneck. The current trend in large-scale scientific systems is to leverage operating systems developed for other areas of computing-- operating systems that were not specifically designed for large-scale, parallel computing platforms. Unix, Linux and other Unix derivatives are the most popular OS's in use for high end scientific computing, and these all reflect a technological heritage nearly 30 years old with no fundamental mechanisms to support parallel systems. Without reliable, robust operating systems and runtime environments the computational science research community will be unable to easily and completely employ future generations of extreme systems for scientific discovery. The application research community will miss important scientific opportunities in areas such as computational fusion, nanotechnology, and computational biology that are on the threshold of rapid advance through the innovative use of extreme-scale scientific computation. New investments in both basic and applied research are required to maintain the creative pace established by terascale computation for scientific discovery. Background: High-End Computing Revitalization Task Force (HECRTF) and Academic Research During the past summer, several federal agencies with interests in high performance computing participated in the HECRTF and developed a plan for future government investments in high-end computing. As part of this plan a renewed emphasis has been placed on coordination of federally-funded [[Page 12649]] research in this area. As a major contributor to the HECRTF activity, the Office of Science is a leading participant in the coordination of research investments. The research activities described in this Notice have been coordinated with participating HECRTF research agencies, and this coordination will continue throughout the lifetime of the research activities. Additional information on the HECRTF may be found at: http://www.itrd.gov/hecrtf-outreach/index.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.itrd.gov/hecrtf-outreach/index. html] . The Opportunity and the Challenge By the end of this decade extreme scale systems will be available that are based on a variety of challenging architectures ranging from distributed memory clusters of unprecedented scale to the systems resulting from the DARPA High Productivity Computing Systems program that are likely to be based upon innovative architectural concepts, such as PIMs, FPGAs, and complex memory hierarchies that have no analog in today's terascale systems. Systems with tens to hundreds of thousands of processors and new architectural concepts will differ greatly in scale and complexity from today's systems, and this difference will place new and very difficult challenges on OS/R design and implementation. There are many fundamental questions in operating system and runtime research that must be explored in order to enable scientific application developers and users to achieve maximum effectiveness and efficiency on this new generation of systems, including (but not limited to): Ease of use. Application users need a coherent, cohesive picture of these huge systems--they need to be able to look at jobs running on 100,000 processors in a meaningful way. Support for architectural innovation. Current operating systems often limit hardware innovation through the use of a hardware abstraction layer that cannot support innovative hardware paradigms. Dynamic support for multiple management policies. Current operating systems limit application development through the use of fixed resource management policies rather than dynamic policies responsive to changing application needs. Leveraging mainstream technology. Strategies are needed that enable OS/R systems developed to meet specialized needs of the HEC community to leverage the talents and technology development of the mainstream open source OS community. Support for fault tolerance. Extreme scale systems will require innovative new approaches to OS/R support for fault detection and management. Interrupts are likely to be the norm rather than the exception during any lengthy application run. Rethinking the OS in terms of scalability and usability. We need to determine how HPC requirements differ from those of general computing. HPC requirement differences will surely continue to dictate innovation in both OS structure and exported interfaces. Scalability of operating systems. What should an operating system for a hundred thousand processor machine look like? Is a hierarchical approach best? How can the operating system make a fundamentally unreliable machine, in which some components are always broken, continue to effectively function? Self awareness and optimization. How can an extreme scale system (hardware and software) monitor and adapt to meet changing requirements of long running applications? Technical challenges such as these represent an opportunity for basic and applied research to provide new insights into mechanisms for harnessing the potential of next generation extreme-scale systems. Investment Plan of the Office of Science The Secretary of Energy recently released a twenty year vision and plan for research facilities in the Office of Science in the document, Facilities for the Future of Science: A Twenty-Year Outlook. A copy of the plan may be found at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/Sub/Facilities_for_future/20-Year-Outlook-s creen.pdf [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.sc.doe.gov/Sub/Facilities_for_f uture/20-Year-Outlook-screen.pdf] . The plan contains a prioritized list of new research facilities, and the number two priority is an UltraScale Scientific Computing Capability (USSCC), which will increase by at least a factor of 100 the computing capability available to support open scientific research and which will reduce from years to days the time required to simulate complex systems of interest to the Department. When fully realized, the computing capability of the USSCC will enable computation-based scientific advances that are unachievable by current large-scale computing systems. USSCC systems will place new and critical demands on operating systems and runtime environments to support complex applications and enable these systems to reach their full potential. The research supported by this notice is a critical step towards developing OS and runtime systems able to meet these needs. Solicitation Emphasis This notice is focused on research and development of operating and runtime systems which enable the effective management and use of extreme-scale systems (petascale and above) for scientific computation. The overall goal of this notice is to stimulate research and development related to operating and runtime systems for petascale systems in the 2010 timeframe. It is likely that these systems will include a combination of commodity and custom components, with different systems reflecting different degrees of customization. The research into runtime and operating systems must be driven from the needs of current and future applications. The primary focus is on supporting the needs of existing and anticipated SC and other DOE applications; however, the resulting systems should address issues related to the broader HEC code base. An ultimate and perhaps idealistic goal would be to develop a unified runtime and operating system that could fully support and exploit petascale and beyond systems and autonomously adapt for performance, upgrades, security, and fault tolerance. The activities supported by this notice may be a combination of basic and applied research, development, prototyping, testing and ultimately deployment. Example Research Topics Runtime and operating systems provide the glue that bind running applications to hardware. The research activities supported by this activity need to bridge the gap between new languages and/or programming models and next-generation hardware, including interactions with novel architectures. Consequently, there are a wide variety of research topics that are appropriate for this effort. A brief listing of candidate topics is provided below, but research in other relevant areas and combinations of areas is encouraged: Virtualization. A key aspect of OS/R systems is that they provide ``virtual devices.'' Virtualization must balance ease of use by detail hiding vs achieving scalability and performance by exploiting details. Adaptation. Traditionally, runtime and operating systems have been designed to provide a fixed set of services and to provide a single implementation for each of these services. Future runtime and operating systems will need to provide different sets of services and/or different implementations of these services based on the needs of applications and/or characteristics of the underlying system. [[Page 12650]] Usage models. Large machines have typically been used in batch mode. Other modes of operation, including interactive usage for computational steering will also need to be supported in the future. Metrics. Metrics, benchmarks, and test suites are needed to evaluate progress and guide design. Challenges include determining what to measure and how to generate understandable analyses. Benchmarks and test suites must accurately reflect the needs of applications. Support for fault handling in OS and run-time. Many jobs will encounter an interrupt in service during their execution. Research is needed to address all aspects of fault tolerance, including fault detection, anticipation, management and tolerance. Research in checkpointing systems is also needed. Memory hierarchy management. It is clear that the memory hierarchy is going to become deeper and/or more complex. Applications will need significantly improved support for managing memory. Security. Scalable security mechanisms are needed to support new authorization, authentication and access control requirements. Common API. Research in common runtime/OS API's is required to greatly enhance application portability and ease the introduction of new systems. The current POSIX standard has been beneficial to the general community, but it is lacking in the support of high-end systems. Scalable, single-system image. In principle, the ability to treat a very large system as a single system has many advantages and provides significant simplifications from an end user perspective. However, it is not clear what the technical trade-offs are for single system image technology at extreme scale, and additional research is needed. Parallel and Network I/O. Some classes of future HEC systems will have specialized interconnect fabrics to provide communications and data movement among processors or groups of processors or storage devices. Operating systems and/or runtime systems will be required to share, schedule, and control these resources. OS Support for efficient interprocessor communication. Standard OS's do not recognize the concept of a parallel job. Support is needed for global operations which minimize local variations and avoid degradation of performance for the whole job. Light-weight low-level communication paradigms. Research in light-weight and low level communication mechanisms is needed to improve scalability and performance. Community Building An important goal of this notice is to foster the development of an active research community in operating systems and runtime environments for high end systems. In order to meet this goal the following are mandatory requirements for awardees: All developed code must be released under the most permissive open source license possible. This is to enable other researchers and vendors to build upon research successes with a minimum of intellectual property issues. Each research team should plan to send representatives to annual or semi-annual PI meetings and give presentations on the status and promise of their research. Meeting attendees will include invited participates from other relevant research communities, including the Linux community. Objectives of these meetings are to foster a sense of community and serve as a venue for exchange of information. These meetings will also serve as a means to exchange information on complementary programs including the DARPA HPCS program, NNSA ASC program and SciDAC. Frameworks and Novel Approaches Operating system and runtime research often requires a large overhead of supporting infrastructure code, such as device drivers, that must be developed before undertaking the core ideas of the research. This may be alleviated if an existing OS framework, such as Linux, K42, or Plan9, is chosen as a base of the research. Applications to this notice may choose to use an existing framework for their OS/ Runtime research or they may propose to develop a new framework as part of the research activity. Any proposed new framework must be described and discussed at the community PI meetings. Smaller novel approaches are also encouraged. Testbed Strategy Testbeds are essential to the future of the research sponsored by this notice, and the development of an effective testbed strategy is an important overall objective. Each proposal should contain a section which discusses the characteristics of the test environments necessary for the research and identify the time frames in which specific testbed support will be required. Operating system and runtime applications to the ASCR base programs through the Continuing Solicitation for all Office of Science Programs Notice 04-01, found at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.science.doe.gov/production/gran ts/grants.html] , which may have the potential for contributing to extreme scale systems, should so indicate. Collaboration Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with researchers in other institutions, such as universities, industry, non-profit organizations, federal laboratories and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), including the DOE National Laboratories, where appropriate, and to include cost sharing wherever feasible. Additional information on collaboration is available in the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program that is available via the Internet at: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Colab.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/grants/Co lab.html] . Program Funding It is anticipated that up to $3 million annually will be available for multiple awards for this program. Initial awards will be made late in Fiscal Year 2004 or early Fiscal Year 2005, in the categories described above, and applications may request project support for up to three years. All awards are contingent on the availability of funds and programmatic needs. Annual budgets for successful projects are expected to range from $500,000 to $1,500,000 per project although smaller projects of exceptional merit may be considered. Annual budgets may increase in the out-years but should remain within the overall annual maximum guidance. Any proposed effort that exceeds the annual maximum in the out-years should be separately identified for potential award increases if additional funds become available. DOE is under no obligation to pay for any costs associated with the preparation or submission of applications if an award is not made. Preapplications Preapplications are strongly encouraged but not required prior to submission of a full application. However, notification of a successful preapplication is not an indication that an award will be made in response to the formal application. The preapplication should identify on the cover sheet the institution(s), Principal Investigator name(s), address(es), telephone, and fax number(s) and E-mail address(es), and the title of the project. A brief (one-page) vitae should be provided for each Principal Investigator. The preapplication should [[Page 12651]] consist of a two to three page narrative describing the research project objectives, the approach to be taken, a description of any research partnerships, the duration, and an annual cost estimate. Merit Review Applications will be subjected to scientific merit review (peer review) and will be evaluated against the following evaluation criteria listed in descending order of importance as codified at 10 CFR 605.10(d): 1. Scientific and/or Technical Merit of the Project, 2. Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach, 3. Competency of Applicant's Personnel and Adequacy of Proposed Resources, 4. Reasonableness and Appropriateness of the Proposed Budget. The evaluation of applications under item 1, Scientific and Technical Merit, will pay particular attention to: (a) The potential of the proposed project to make a significant impact in operating systems and runtime research. (b) The demonstrated capabilities of the applicants to perform basic research related to operating systems/runtime and transform these research results into software that can be widely deployed. (c) The likelihood that the methodologies and software components that result from this effort will have a substantial impact on the operating system research and vendor community outside of the projects. The evaluation under item 2, Appropriateness of the Proposed Method or Approach, will also consider the following elements related to Quality of Planning: (a) Quality of the plan for effective coupling of operating system and runtime research, with application needs and transition to testbed environments. (b) Quality and clarity of proposed work schedule and deliverables. (c) Quality of the proposed approach to intellectual property management and open source licensing. Note that external peer reviewers are selected with regard to both their scientific expertise and the absence of conflict-of-interest issues. Non-federal reviewers may be used, and submission of an application constitutes agreement that this is acceptable to the investigator(s) and the submitting institution. Reviewers will be selected to represent expertise in the technology areas proposed, applications groups that are potential users of the technology, and related programs in other Federal Agencies or parts of DOE, such as the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) within DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration. Information about the development and submission of applications, eligibility, limitations, evaluation, selection process, and other policies and procedures including detailed procedures for submitting applications from multi-institution partnerships may be found in 10 CFR part 605, and in the Application Guide for the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program. Electronic access to the Guide and required forms is made available via the World Wide Web at: http://www.science.doe.gov/production/grants/grants.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.science.doe.gov/production/gran ts/grants.html] . The Project Description must be 20 pages or less, including tables and figures, but exclusive of attachments. The application must contain an abstract or project summary, letters of intent from collaborators, and short vitae. The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number for this program is 81.049, and the solicitation control number is ERFAP 10 CFR part 605. Issued in Washington, DC on March 10, 2004. Martin Rubinstein, Acting Director, Grants and Contracts Division, Office of Science. [FR Doc. 04-5997 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P ***************************************************************** 73 KRT Wire: Contractor Says Winner of Hanford Nuclear Site Contract Broke Partnering Pact | 03/16/2004 | By Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 12 - Apollo Inc. is accusing the winner of a Hanford contract worth up to $22.7 million of breaking an agreement to partner with the Kennewick business in the contract bid proposal after obtaining Apollo's proprietary information. A federal judge in Spokane is to hear arguments today on Apollo's request that work on the contract be halted while the case is heard. The winner of the bid, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, said an agreement between the two firms was never signed. Parsons said in court papers that it decided to drop Apollo as the lead contractor in its proposal just days before bids were due after learning that Apollo might not be able to meet bid requirements. In February, Hanford contractors Fluor Hanford and CH2M Hill Hanford Group awarded the contract to Parsons for custom metal fabrication work at Hanford. The contract included $9 million worth of work, but renewals could bring its value to $22.7 million. A collaboration between Parsons, a subsidiary of an international corporation, and Apollo, based in Kennewick, began less than a week after an amendment was added to the request for bids, saying that a company that teamed with a small business would be favored. Parsons considered four locally based small businesses before choosing Apollo to approach, according to court documents. Representatives of Parsons and Apollo met June 10, and Apollo executives believed an agreement was reached that neither company would proceed without the other, according to court documents. "In the teaming process, sensitive, confidential and proprietary information would be disclosed and exchanged which would not, but for such teaming agreement, occur," say court documents filed by Apollo's attorney, Diehl Rettig. On June 16, representatives of the two companies agreed on the wording of a teaming agreement. Apollo believed it was final, according to court documents. Two days later, Apollo gave Parsons pricing and other sensitive information, according to Apollo's documents. But Parsons officials said they reminded Apollo that the agreement would not be final until both sides signed it. According to the agreement, any confidential information should be marked as "proprietary" but none of Apollo's information was, according to Parsons. On June 27, 10 days before the bid was due, Parsons discovered that Apollo had more serious Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations than the contract specifications allowed, according to Parsons' court documents. "(Parsons executives) were surprised and, in fact, shocked, by this discovery," said court documents. On July 1, Parsons dropped Apollo from the bid proposal, on which Parsons was the lead preparer. Parsons argued in court documents that it did not rely on Apollo information for its bid proposal, which then was submitted separately. Apollo has been awarded other Fluor contracts and had no relevant safety violations regarding the prefabrication contract, Rettig said. Apollo also submitted a separate bid proposal. Fluor ranked it third among the proposals received. ----- To see more of the Tri-City Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to [http://www.tri-cityherald.com] © 2004, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash. Distributed by Knight ***************************************************************** 74 AP Wire: Los Alamos to transfer subcontractor jobs to UC | 03/17/2004 | Associated Press LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - Los Alamos National Laboratory plans a major restructuring that will increase the number of permanent workers by about 25 percent and turn thousands of subcontractor and temporary workers into permanent employees. The employees would work for the University of California, which manages the nuclear weapons laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. About 8,500 people currently work for the university at the lab, which subcontracts with other companies for various services. Lab officials said the move could save taxpayers $20 million, which could go toward other work at the lab. Rich Marquez, the lab's associate director for administration, said Los Alamos subcontracts about 30 percent of its labor. However, those jobs had not been studied to see whether they would cost less as full-time positions. Lab director Pete Nanos said he asked for an analysis of "contingent worker" positions in December as part of a business improvement plan to see if any jobs would be more appropriate under UC. The lab identified 3,000 positions, mostly clerical workers and consultants, for review. Nanos said the lab is evaluating the assignments and hopes to begin advertising new positions as soon as May. Los Alamos hopes to fill most of the jobs by midsummer and the rest by November. The jobs would be open to anybody, including current contract employees. The lab said current employees will not receive special consideration, but that an applicant's "demonstrated skill, knowledge and ability to perform the job will be considered." Labor representatives said the move is overdue but expressed concern about how the lab will handle the transition. "Contractors will finally find some assurance that they are UC employees" who will receive university benefits, said Manny Trujillo, president of the lab's University Professional and Technical Employees union. The lab has been managed by UC since it began more than six decades ago, but Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said last year the contract should go out to bid after scandals at the lab, including missing computers containing sensitive information and allegations of misused funds and lax controls. ***************************************************************** 75 MSNBC: INEEL Reveals Nuclear Waste "A Threat" To Aquifer KBCI-TV Government figuring out way to deal with beryllium contamination By Jon HanianKBCI-TV Updated: March17, 2004 March 17 - It is not the kind of news you want to hear from a place that warehouses nuclear waste. Carbon 14 contamination has been discovered near buried blocks of Beryllium, a known carcinogen. The contamination turned up in a monitoring well at the INEEL and while officials say it has not reached the aquifer they admit there is a risk it could. Kathleen Trever, heads up the state of Idaho's INEEL Oversight Committee."The Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Idaho are looking at taking action now to reduce the spread of contamination." Beryllium is used in nuclear reactors. There are 11,000 pounds of it buried at the INEEL. Environmentalist call the discovery an unacceptable risk that the federal government is not seriously addressing according to Jeremy Maxand of the Snake River Alliance. "The Department of Energy is constantly trying to save money and time by short cutting clean up. And a year or two from now when they complete the risk assessment, our fear is they will want to leave that waste in place." State Officials say they would love to remove the waste but say the problem is there is no place for it to go at the moment. "So we need to find an action that we can do in the near term to prevent the spread of contamination," says Trever. The contamination was actually discovered in September of 2002 but officials say it has taken until now to figure out what to do about it according to Bruce Byrum, a spokesman for the INEEL.Idaho 2 News asked Byrum why the information about this contamination discovered in 2002 is just coming to light in March of 2004. "We are not just releasing now that this is a contaminant of concern. We are just addressing now how we are going to reduce the risk of the carbon-14 in the sub surface disposal area." Byrum also indicated the information about Carbon-14 threats at the site was contained in a previously released "baseline risk assessment". Idaho 2 News has not been able to independently confirm that claim. Officials want to inject a slurry like wax around the Beryllium to entomb it according to Trever. "And this is the type of substance we are proposing to use to seal off the blocks. But environmentalist call that a short term fix for an environmental ticking a time bomb over our aquifer that needs defusing now. • Idaho 2 News [http://www2.kbcitv.com/] About MSNBC.com | Newsletters ***************************************************************** 76 Oak Ridger: DOE security training critiqued in report Story last updated at 1:00 p.m. on March 17, 2004 IMPACT: 'Defense tactics training should be as realistic as possible,' according to a review of the programs. By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] At 10 of the 12 Department of Energy sites reviewed by the organization's Inspector General Office, significant modifications were made to the basic protective force and special response teams' core training curriculum. According to a report, the "Oak Ridge complex" was part of the review, which also involved DOE's Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. Apparently, the inspection did not focus on any given Oak Ridge site, but on the training in general. "Inconsistent training methods may increase the risk that the department's protective forces will not be able to safely respond to security incidents or will use excessive levels of force," Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman's office warned in the report. None of the 10 sites included instruction in rappelling, a core curriculum course for special response team training, the report indicated. In addition, Oak Ridge made modifications in curriculum areas involving shotguns and batons. Although it's not clearly acknowledged in the report, officials indicated that any Oak Ridge deviation from DOE's training program was formally approved. The Inspector General's Office made a series of recommendations intended to help DOE evaluate the impact of observed training modifications and determine whether the security police officer core curriculum needs to be updated. In addition, the Inspector General also recommended that DOE provide additional guidance clearly defining modifications requiring prior approval and/or notification. "Defense tactics training should be as realistic as possible," the Inspector General's report said. "Anything less may rob the trainee of the exposure to the levels of force, panic, and confusion that are usually present during an actual attack and increase the possibility of an inappropriate response in high stress situations." ***************************************************************** 77 Oak Ridger: More Libyan weapons material destined to come to Oak Ridge Story last updated at 2:06 p.m. on March 16, 2004 DISPLAY: Federal officials showcased a fraction of the items extracted from Libya earlier this year during a press event Monday. By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the shipment earlier this year of 55,000 pounds of nuclear material and other sensitive equipment from Libya to Oak Ridge was just the "tip of the iceberg." And, while key government officials acknowledged that more Libyan material will be heading to the Y-12 National Security Complex, they declined to provide a timeline for the work. Pat Galardo guards Libyan weapons components brought to Oak Ridge for storage. The large white cylinder is not from Libya, but was as an example of a uranium hexafluoride cylinder. Galardo was part of the security team assigned to monitor a national press tour Monday at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The information was revealed Monday during a press tour Abraham led of non-classified Libyan nuclear weapons materials and components that are being stored at the Oak Ridge plant. For the event, three white tents were set up in one of the main parking lots at Y-12, with one housing around 50 crates of parts and equipment associated with weapons work and four centrifuges, which are used in the production of weapons-grade uranium. The material was extracted from Libya in late January by a U.S.-led team, including some Oak Ridge experts, and ultimately transported to Y-12. All the material on display Monday was from Libya except for a uranium hexafluoride cylinder, which was displayed as an example, according to Dennis Ruddy, president and general manager of BWXT Y-12 - the company that manages the Y-12 plant for the federal government. Uranium hexafluoride is a feed material for enriching uranium. Marie Moffitt/Staff An armed security officer, Terry Ham, guards a stack of crates that were transported from Libya to the Y-12 National Security Complex in January. Security was tight for the press event. Roadblocks were set up on at least a portion of Bear Creek Road - the main Y-12 entrance - while numerous guards armed with M-4 assault rifles were visible to the local and national media representatives who gathered to see the Libyan material and get a briefing on the government's non-proliferation work. "What you have witnessed in my opinion is a big, big victory in this administration's efforts to combat weapons of mass destruction," Abraham told the press shortly after guiding them on a tour of the material. "They brought all this material, along with Libya's detailed nuclear weapons designs, back to the United States for evaluation, testing and destruction," he said. "This 55,000 pounds of nuclear materials and equipment constitute the largest recovery by weight ever conducted under U.S. nonproliferation efforts." Classification specialists reviewed the material before it was displayed Monday. Abraham said the items showcased for the media only represented a fraction of what was brought into Y-12 in January. "The first shipment contained designs, material and equipment determined by U.S. and British experts to be the most sensitive items in the Libyan nuclear weapons program," Abraham said. "All the ingredients were available for a weapons program to be developed." Marie Moffitt/Staff Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham talks about centrifuge casings removed from Libya. The casings house the rotating machinery in a uranium enrichment centrifuge. The January shipment also included four cylinders of uranium hexafluoride, which have already been inspected by the International Atomic Energy Agency and shipped to a facility in Ohio. And, reportedly, a ship transporting around 500 tons of material associated with Libya's weapons program is expected to dock at a port - possibly in North Carolina - later this month. Abraham confirmed that the nuclear portion of the ship's cargo is destined for Oak Ridge. While Y-12 has historically been viewed as a weapons producer, the facility is also active in programs to help reduce the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Oak Ridge plant is the nation's principal storehouse for bomb-grade uranium. Marie Moffitt/Staff This map shows transportation routes of Libyan nuclear weapons materials to other destinations. On his visit to Oak Ridge's "Fort Knox of Uranium" Monday, Abraham was accompanied by representatives from the Department of Energy, the National Security Council and the State Department. In addition, U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, was on hand to get an up close look at the Libyan material. The congressman reassured journalists that the Libyan material is stored safely at Y-12. In recent months, the Oak Ridge weapons plant has been scrutinized for security woes by the watchdog group known as the Project On Government Oversight. The organization has repeatedly maintained that Y-12 could not adequately protect its stockpile of bomb-grade uranium in the event of a terrorist attack. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, right, discusses centrifuge machines that were removed from Libya. All the equipment needed to assemble and run uranium enrichment centrifuges was present in Libya. Also pictured is U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District. ***************************************************************** 78 Oak Ridger: Elements rediscovered at sites worldwide and in Oak Ridge, too Story last updated at 11:33 a.m. on March 16, 2004 By: Dick Smyser | Editor's License Until Jim and Jenny Marshall came to town last week to talk about "Rediscovery of the Elements," I'd mostly forgotten that one of these elements they've been rediscovering was discovered right here in Oak Ridge. In 1946 Charles Coryell, Larry Glendenin and Jack Marinsky produced and separated promethium -element 61 - from material irradiated in the now historic Graphite Reactor at what then was still known as Clinton Laboratories, now Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The discovery was announced in 1947 and, according to a publication prepared for ORNL's 25th anniversary celebration, the discoverers first considered engraving the name of the Anderson County Seat in scientific history by naming the new element clintonium. (Clinton was one of the indigenous names used by the highly secret Manhattan Project so as not to attract attention.) Also considered for the new element's name was phoenicium after Phoenix, the bird that rose from ashes. But instead, according to the ORNL anniversary account, it was named for Prometheus, the Greek god who stole fire from heaven for use by mankind "dramatizing the way the element was produced as a result of nuclear fission, but also warning of the danger of punishment by the vulture of war." At the Marshalls' Community Lecture at the American Museum of Science and Energy Thursday night yet another element with close Oak Ridge ties was discussed. Francium, number 87 on the periodic table, was discovered by Marguerite Perey at the Curie Institute of Paris in 1939. She is the aunt of Francis Perey, ORNL physicist also well-known for his sailing adventures. Perey was in the lecture audience and he and Marshall exchanged animated comments about this and other discoveries. The Marshalls have been traveling the world in recent years seeking to visit the sites of all of the 116 elements now listed on the periodic table. Promethium brought them to the Graphite Reactor two years ago, this connection with ORNL leading to their lecture, one of the annual series sponsored by Friends of ORNL, a group of mostly ORNL retirees. Marshall is professor of chemistry at University of North Texas in Denton and his wife is a high school teacher. There is a discernible excitement about the Marshalls as they tell of their quest which has taken them to multiple countries on multiple continents. He talks and she deftly projects a succession of colorful images of streets, buildings and mostly open countryside where they have ventured, often on only the vaguest directions, seeking out a house, a laboratory, a field, an excavation - wherever the discovery, some dating back centuries, was believed to have been made. One especially scenic site, Marshall said, was in the Scottish highlands, where strontium was first identified. Marshall told of one particular day in Paris when they awoke to find public transportation shut down by a strike. Forced to walk they came upon a number of sites, including the Curie Institute where Madame Curie did her landmark studies on radium. Also, while not really part of their search but still interesting, during this day of walking they found the home of the discoverer of mayonnaise, an example, Marshall said, of the surprises that await the curious. One locale of special Oak Ridge relevance was the site where the German scientist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered uranium while experimenting with pitchblende. This was in 1789 and he named the new element in honor of the discovery of the planet Uranus just eight years before in 1781. Another Oak Ridge connect was the Marshalls' visit to University of California at Berkeley, the campus of E.O. Lawrence - lawrencium, element 118 - and Glenn T. Seaborg - seaborgium, element 106. Both Lawrence and Seaborg were prominent nuclear scientists, Seaborg serving in the 1960s as chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and a frequent visitor to Oak Ridge, as also was Lawrence, author of the electromagnetic process at Y-12 that produced the enriched uranium that fueled the atomic bomb dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. There are other elements with names reflecting nuclear history - fermium (Enrico Fermi), einsteinium (Albert Einstein), rutherfordium (Ernest Rutherford), bohrium (Niels Bohr), universitium and californium. Marshall reminded that, of the elements named for scientists, Seaborg was the only one still alive when his naming occurred, this in 1994. Marshall has designed and copyrighted a colorful periodic table on which each element is identified not by its name and number but by an illustration suggesting it. Example: hydrogen, an exploding dirigible, the 1937 crash of the Hindenburg, the hydrogen-filled German zeppelin, on arriving in New Jersey after a transatlantic flight, a dramatic eyewitness radio broadcast making history. Other symbolism: a banana for potassium, teeth for calcium, an "Open" sign for neon, a rising clutch of balloons for helium and the faces of the scientists so honored. Other images referenced in Marshall's colorful repartee: the 1940s movie "Madame Curie" starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon and a bottle of Mendelevium Russian vodka with the periodic table on the label. During their stay the Marshalls visited the Spallation Neutron Source construction site and revisited the Graphite Reactor. Also, before the lecture there, they toured the museum and were especially moved by the display of the letter from Pfc. Joe R. Cardwell to his brother David on learning that he - David - had been part of the Manhattan Project here. The letter expresses the infantryman's immense gratitude for Oak Ridge's effort that spared him from likely combat on the Japanese mainland. Their second trip to Oak Ridge, the Marshalls said, was memorable not only as a return to the site of the discovery of promethium, but also as it renewed their sense of awe at what was accomplished here in just three years, 1942 to 1945 - three years critical to the conclusion of World War II. - RDS ***************************************************************** 79 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:06:00 -0800 (PST) SECURITY questioned at US nuclear sites Kansas City Star - Kansas City,MO,USA WASHINGTON - Security forces at the nation's nuclear facilities are being weakened by deteriorating training programs, manpower shortages, long hours and ... See all stories on this topic: DAVIS-BESSE Nuclear Plant Is Shut Down San Jose Mercury News - San Jose,CA,USA OAK HARBOR, Ohio - Valve problems caused the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant to stop producing electricity Wednesday, a day after it was restarted following a ... See all stories on this topic: ARAB MKs Wish to Close Israel's Nuclear Plant Arutz Sheva - Israel Three Israeli-Arab Knesset Members have submitted a bill calling for the closure of Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona. The three ... See all stories on this topic: NRCTO meet with PSEG to discuss safety issues at nuclear power ... Today's Sunbeam - Salem,NJ,USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) managers Thursday to discuss the environment for raising and ... See all stories on this topic: POWELL to Discuss Fight Against Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation ... Voice of America - Washington,DC,USA ... Afghan border. He will also seek more information on the proliferation ring of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The ... See all stories on this topic: IRAN reaffirms nuclear inquiry cooperation ABC Online - Australia President Mohammed Khatami is reaffirming Iran's willingness to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog to close the file on the Islamic republic, but insists ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR Assets In Safe Hand : Rashid Pakistan News Service - Lahore,Pakistan ... Pakistan : March 17 (PNS) - Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Tuesday told the National Assembly that the country's nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: RUSSIAN-IRANIAN accord on spent nuclear fuel to be signed by ... RosBusinessConsulting - Moscow,Russia RBC, 17.03.2004, Moscow 14:52:39.An agreement on returning spent nuclear fuel from Iran to Russia will be signed before this summer, Radzhab Safarov, the head ... See all stories on this topic: INEEL Reveals Nuclear Waste "A Threat" To Aquifer MSNBC - USA By Jon Hanian. March 17 - It is not the kind of news you want to hear from a place that warehouses nuclear waste. Carbon 14 contamination ... NUCLEAR equipment seized in Libya displayed in US Borneo Bulletin - borneo,Brunei Darussalam Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham speaks about nuclear weapons and components brought from Libya to the Y-12 National Security Complex during a press tour ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 80 The Hindu : Fusion fuels furore Thursday, Mar 18, 2004 IT HAD all the makings of a fun day out, for academics at least. U.S. government officials had summoned a handful of scientists from labs across the country to a confidential meeting in Arlington, Virginia. Not long into the meeting, a scientist — Rusi Taleyarkhan, of Purdue University in Indiana — showed a slide of his recent results. Immediately, the meeting descended into farce and fury. That was last June. Later this month, the research that triggered the furore will be published in a journal owned by the American Physical Society. Taleyarkhan's results suggest that his team succeeded in triggering nuclear fusion, , by doing little more than blasting a beaker of acetone with sound waves. Attempts to harness the power of nuclear fusion, a potential source of limitless clean energy, have so far required vast, multibillion-dollar test reactors. In comparison, Taleyarkhan's fledgling reactor could be built with loose change, and is no bigger than a couple of coffee cups. Too good to be true? "It's difficult for me to say I believe it because it's so implausible,'' says Larry Crum, a physicist at the University of Washington. The story of why Taleyarkhan's claim caused such a stir reveals much about the machinations of modern science. It is a tale of how the process of science, like any other business, is shaped by egos, rivalry and vested interests. It all began in late 2001. At the time, Rusi Taleyarkhan was a researcher at the U.S. department of energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and one of a small group working on `sonofusion', an improbable but potentially groundbreaking new field of science. The idea behind sonofusion is simple. If the conditions are right, blasting a jar of liquid with ultrasound can rip tiny holes in the liquid and slam them closed again, thousands of times a second. Get the bubbles to generate enough heat, and you might just be able to make atoms in the surrounding liquid fuse together; a simple way, in theory at least, of producing nuclear fusion. It sounds easy, but if it were, it would have been done decades ago. The showstopper is that the temperatures needed to generate fusion are mind bogglingly high, at least ten million degrees Celsius, the temperature at the heart of the Sun. Many scientists doubt that sonofusion will ever get as hot as that. The highest temperature produced this way, to be soon reported in the journal Physical Review Letters by Seth Putterman's group at the University of California, Los Angeles, is one million Celsius. Taleyarkhan took a beaker of acetone and bombarded it with pulses of neutrons. The idea was that the neutrons would strike molecules in the acetone and create tiny bubbles, each around 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. He then blasted the beaker with ultrasound, which stretched the tiny bubbles until they were a few millimetres across, before swiftly crushing them again. The hydrogen atoms in the acetone were swapped for deuterium, a form of `heavy hydrogen'. With everything in place, Taleyarkhan flicked the on switch. Several months later, some of the country's experts on sonofusion were in for a shock. Each received a paper in the post from Science with a request to review it and send back their opinion. The paper, by Taleyarkhan, described how his desktop experiment had produced nuclear fusion. ``It was very sloppy,'' says Ken Suslick, a physicist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The reviewers pointed out a series of what they regarded were serious flaws in the work. One issue that caused concern was that Taleyarkhan's proof of fusion rested on having detected neutrons, which he claimed were produced by nuclear fusion reactions. But as Suslick points out, Taleyarkhan was blasting neutrons into the experiment. How did he know he wasn't detecting the neutrons he was pumping in? Taleyarkhan also claimed that his experiment produced tritium, another radioactive by-product of fusion reactions. The reviewers said Taleyarkhan's lab was probably contaminated with the stuff. One referee thought the paper was so bad that he contacted Oak Ridge National Laboratory and urged it to hold an internal inquiry; if the paper was published it could put the institution's reputation at risk, he believed. Although no inquiry was ordered, another scientist at Oak Ridge, Mike Saltmarsh, and his colleague, Dan Shapira, set about trying to replicate it using more sensitive equipment. They couldn't get the same results.Undermining the work of those under the same roof, in the same field, is not done lightly in science. Having criticised the paper so heavily, Suslick and two other reviewers, Crum at the University of Washington and Seth Putterman at the University of California in Los Angeles, were in for another shock. In March 2002, Science published the paper, defending the decision to publish in an accompanying editorial, which said the journal's mission was to bring interesting science to the public. Immediately the three drafted a letter of complaint and sent it to Don Kennedy, the editor of Science, who is based at Stanford University. When Kennedy refused to publish the letter, the scientists posted it on the Internet. It contained a damning criticism of Taleyarkhan's paper. To go public with their criticisms was an extraordinary move. They also demanded to see the positive comments Science must have received that persuaded the journal to overrule them and publish the paper. Again, Science refused. By this point the scientific community had been cleaved into two uneven factions: those who thought Taleyarkhan might be on to something and those that thought he was at best a sloppy scientist. Taleyarkhan says now that it's nothing more than a case of sour grapes. Despite rejecting the criticisms, Taleyarkhan set about repeating his experiment in the hope of getting good enough data. In June 2003, he took his results along to the government meeting in Arlington to share it with others. But he succeeded only in reigniting the controversy. Taleyarkhan's paper will appear in the journal Physical Review E, later this month. While many still refuse to accept Taleyarkhan's claims, Crum believes that it's time scientists at least accept he might be on to something. "Scientists are going to have to face the fact that this is now two papers published in major journals,'' he said. The only way to determine the truth in science is to have someone reproduce the effect you find. If it's really true, someone will find it. Nature doesn't cheat.'' — Guardian News Service The Hindu Group: Home [http://www.hinduonline.com/] ***************************************************************** 81 Technology Review: Hype about Hydrogen [http://www.technologyreview.com/ For all the buzz about future highways filled with hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars, the technological—and environmental—high ground will belong to gasoline-electric hybrids for decades to come. By Joseph J. Romm March 17, 2004 Hydrogen and fuel-cell cars are being mightily promoted. The U.S. Department of Energy has made them the central focus of its clean energy efforts. The state of California has said it will in the next few years build a "hydrogen highway," with hydrogen fueling stations every 20 miles along major highways. General Motors is spending more than a quarter of its research budget on fuel cell vehicles and Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for R&D and planning, said in February that the company will have a commercially viable fuel cell vehicle by 2010. [''] Yet for all this hype, hydrogen cars are likely to remain inferior to the best gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius in virtually every respect—cost, range, annual fueling bill, convenience, safety—through at least 2030. The Prius will even have lower overall emissions of many pollutants than cars running on the hydrogen that is likely to be available at fueling stations for the foreseeable future. And a premature push toward hydrogen cars would undermine efforts to reduce the heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions that cause global climate change. For hydrogen cars to become both practical from a consumer's perspective and desirable from an environmental perspective will require at least three major technology breakthroughs. In addition, the nation will have to shift its energy policy dramatically toward renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. Don't get me wrong. I am a strong proponent of hydrogen as a possible fuel for the future. In fact, I helped oversee the Department of Energy’s program for clean energy, including hydrogen, for much of the 1990s—during which time we increased funding for hydrogen technologies tenfold. I believe that continued research into hydrogen remains important because of its potential to provide a pollution-free substitute for oil post-2030. But going beyond R&D at this point to actually building the hydrogen infrastructure—as many advocate—is both unjustified and unwise. As Peter Flynn, an engineering professor at the University of Alberta, concluded in a 2002 study of the effort to commercialize natural gas vehicles: “Exaggerated claims have damaged the credibility of alternate transportation fuels, and have retarded acceptance, especially by large commercial purchasers." Let’s briefly look at why hydrogen cars are still a long way from making sense. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************