***************************************************************** 04/18/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.93 ***************************************************************** 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 [DU-WATCH] Radiation in Iraq equals 250.000 Nagasaki Bombs. 2 Las Vegas SUN: Rice Denies Book's Claim on Iraq Decision 3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Cheney Voices Concern Over N.Korean Nucle 4 Xinhuanet: DPRK turns down US request of nuclear dismantlement 5 Japan Times: Seoul should offer Bush a dose of reality 6 KoreaTimes: Implications for S-N, ROK-US Relations 7 Guardian Unlimited: Report: N. Korean Leader Heads to China 8 US: [NukeNet] Bioterror goes local-Newsday 9 US: TVC: PUBLIC HEARINGS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT - Dates, Ti 10 US: Why There's No Need To Test Nuke Weapons By USA 11 PRAVDA.Ru: USA is ready to start five wars every year - 12 Salt Lake Tribune: Envoys of three countries wind up energy summit 13 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Public deserves far more information on nucle 14 US: deseretnews: U.S. lags in gutting chemical weapons 15 US: SF Chronicle: Assessing the risk of nuclear terrorism / 16 US: Deseretnews: Demo targets nuclear testing 17 US: U.S. Newswire: Recommendations from the Western Governors' 18 [DU-WATCH] Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #1 19 More on Vanunu 20 [DU-WATCH] anti-nuke activists stop train carrying DU to russia 21 Australian report on Vanunu release. 22 Lawyers Appeal "A Special Prison Just for Mordechai Vanunu." 23 [free_vanunu] LAWYERS APPEAL “A SPECIAL P 24 Vanunu - release restrictions appealed. 25 Toronto Star on VANUNU 26 Las Vegas SUN: Israeli Nuke Whistleblower Makes Appeal 27 NEWS.com.au: Israel keeps nuclear smokescreen 28 Bellona: Sutyagin Appeal Filed 29 Sunday Herald: Think tank dismisses wind farms as expensive, unrelia 30 Sunday Herald: Think tank: nuclear power is better for us than wind 31 Haaretz: Vanunu appeals limitations to be imposed after release 32 Peer.org: 15-YEAR OLD WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ACT IS A FAILURE 33 UKAEA: Fifty years of forward thinking 34 WorldNetDaily: Strange bedfellows 35 UK Independent: Vanunu released to life of 'internal exile' 36 CNW Telbec: CNA push for nuclear in canada 37 ABS-CBNNEWS: A whistle blower mightier than Israel 38 AU ABC: Mordechai Vanunu to be released after 18 years in jail NUCLEAR REACTORS 39 US: Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook Station joins suit over Yucca Mounta 40 gainesville times: She signs 'to Russia, with love' - 41 US: portclinton news herald: What we said - 42 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nation watching Diablo lawsuit 43 US: JOURNAL NEWS: Riverkeeper urges seniors to help close Indian Pt. 44 Hi Pakistan: Production of power plants' equipment to be increased 45 US: Columbus Telegram: NPPD wind farm's size still up in air 46 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Cracks found in Yankee plant during outage 47 US: Argus Online: Report encourages pursuit of new nukes NUCLEAR SAFETY 48 US: [DU-WATCH] Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America! 49 [DU-WATCH] Scots danger from missing du fragments 50 [DU-WATCH] Radioactive Sardinia 51 [DU-WATCH] FW: AMERICANS WANT EQUAL MIDEAST ACCOUNTABILITY 52 [DU-WATCH] New report on Health in Iraq one year later 53 US: [DU-WATCH] Sick guard members blame depleted uranium 54 New York Daily News: Boroughs - Albor Ruiz: Cleanup time in Vieques 55 NEWS.com.au: Uranium drink impact 'not lengthy' NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 56 Las Vegas RJ: HAVING THEIR SAY: Power of the Polls 57 Las Vegas RJ: LETTER: Citizen board on top of groundwater contaminat 58 Bellona: EC: Sellafield must clean up nuclear waste pond 59 CNSC: EA: Screening Report – MDS Nordion Waste Diversion Program 60 US: KVIA: NM governor vows to keep WIPP open 61 US: KVIA: Carlsbad reacts to argument over WIPP 62 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes demand leader quit NUCLEAR WEAPONS 63 Vanunu profile 64 [DU-WATCH] FW:After 18 Years in prison, Mordechai Vanunu's day US DEPT. OF ENERGY 65 Tri-City Herald: Power trip 66 Tri-City Herald: BPA deal could hold line on rate spike 67 Tri-City Herald: DOE watches demolition 68 amarillo.com: Pantex finishes repairs to contain blast matter 69 CorpWatch.org Nuclear Weapons: Who Profits? Who Pays? 70 Idaho Statesman: Department of Energy offers company a bonus 71 Daily Camera: Flats officials attempt to build trust OTHER NUCLEAR 72 Google News Alert - nuclear 73 Google News Alert - nuclear ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 [DU-WATCH] Radiation in Iraq equals 250.000 Nagasaki Bombs. Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:45:45 -0500 (CDT) Source: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar04/Nichols0327.htm Date: March 27,2004. By: Bob Nichols. In Spanish: http://www.rebelion.org/imperio/040409nichols.htm As a writer I do not have a set of words to describe what 142 Degrees in the shade is like. I've seen 120 D. in Phoenix and 110 D in the spa's sauna I use. One hundred forty-two degrees leaves me speechless. Try to imagine 142 D temperature while wearing a helmet, long sleeve shirt, long pants, a bullet proof vest, boots, and carrying a 70 pound pack. By contrast the Inuit of Alaska and Canada have thirty-seven words to precisely talk about different kinds of snow. So, since the temperature is heating up in Iraq it seemed like a good time to float this story to different Internet sites and news publications. There was one story in 2003 of one 19 year old British soldier whose military job was to work in a British tank. In Iraq. In the summer. Word is, from London, that he forgot to drink enough water and he literally cooked in his tank. But, this story is not about the temperature in Iraq. You can bet, though, the weather will be really important for those Americans unfortunate enough to still be in Iraq this summer. This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, 120 mm tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered to help our side in the war of us against them has Uranium in it. Lots of Uranium. In the case of a cruise missile, as much as 800 pounds of the stuff. This article is about how much radioactive uranium our guys, representing us, the citizens of the United States, let fly in Iraq. Turns out they used about 4,000,000 pounds of the stuff, give or take. That is a bunch. Now, most people have no idea how much Four Million Pounds of anything is, much less of Uranium Dust (UD), which this stuff turns into when it is shot or exploded. Suffice it to say it is about equal to 1,333 cars that weigh three thousand pounds per car. That is a lot of cars; but, we can imagine what a parking lot with one thousand three hundred and thirty three cars is like. The point is: this was and is an industrial strength operation. It is still going on, too. No sir-ee, putting Four Million Pounds of Radioactive Uranium Dust (RUD) on the ground in Iraq was a definitely "on-purpose" kind of thing. It was not "just an accident." We, the citizens of the United States, through our kids in the Army, did this on purpose. When the uranium bullets, missiles, or bombs hit something or explode most of the radioactive uranium turns instantly to very, very small dust particles, too fine to even see. When US Troopers or Iraqis breathe even a tiny amount into their lungs, as little as One Gram, it is the same as getting an X-Ray every hour for the rest of their shortened life. The uranium cannot be removed, there is no treatment, there is no cure. The uranium will long outlast the Veterans' and the Iraqis' bodies though; for, you see, it lasts virtually forever. But, it gets worse. Seems an Admiral who is the former Chief of the Naval Staff of India wanted to know how much radiation this represented. He also wanted to express the amount in a figure that the world, especially the non American world, could easily understand. The Admiral decided to figure out how many Nagasaki Atom Bombs it would take to deliver the equivalent of the total amount of radiation deployed in Iraq in 2003 in Four Million Pounds of uranium. The Admiral also wanted to figure out how much radiation the United States Military Forces have deployed in the last Five American Wars, the so-called Five Nuclear Wars. That is a simple enough task for somebody like the Naval Chief of Staff for a country that is a member of the Nuclear Club. Using the Nagasaki bomb for the measuring stick is a particularly gruesome twist, though. For those of you in the States who do not know it, the United States Military Forces dropped two nuclear Bombs on Japan at the close of World War II. The whole world remembers that. One Atom Bomb was dropped by Americans on the city of Hiroshima, the other on the city of Nagasaki three days later. About 170,000 people were incinerated immediately. It was a really big deal. It is a measuring stick that plays very well in the rest of the world; but, not very well on Fox News (Fair & Balanced) (c) or the rest of the Fox-like American media. The Department of Energy still lists the Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonations as "tests." The admiral released the data months ago at a scientific conference in India. This article is the first report of the data in the United States. It will first be released on the Internet. The admiral in India calculated the number of radioactive atoms in the Nagasaki bomb and compared it with the number in the 4,000,000 pounds of uranium left in Iraq from the 2003 war. Now, believe me, it is a lot more complex than that; but, that is essentially what the experts in India did. How many Nagasaki Nuclear Bombs equal the Radiation loosed in the 2003 Iraq war? Answer: About 250,000 Nuclear Bombs. How many Nagasaki Nuclear Bombs equal the Radiation loosed in the last Five American Nuclear Wars? Answer: About 400,000 Nuclear Bombs. Who would do something like this? We would. The only people in the history of the world to engage in Nuclear Wars are Americans, citizens of the United States. Allegedly, the Germans and Japanese of WWII also wanted to engage in nuclear wars, except the American Military beat them to the draw, so to speak. Respected academic scholars could debate forever whether or not Herr Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany, would have deployed uranium munitions in the Sudetenland if the weapons had been available. Certainly the Germans knew just as much about uranium wars as we did at the time. It seems doubtful that Adolph Hitler would have ordered the use of uranium munitions there because the Sudetenland was so close to the Fatherland, Nazi Germany. An American General named Leslie Groves was in charge of the bomb making operation called The Manhattan Project. In 1943 The War Department knew exactly what uranium bullets and bombs were good for. If the nuclear weapons did not detonate in Japan, the use of uranium bullets and bombs were the fall back position. It was not till Ronald Reagan was President in 1980 did the re-named Defense Department resurrect the deadly radioactive uranium bullets, bombs, and missiles. No wonder his popular nick-name was Ronnie Ray-Guns. The American Military knew the symptoms of radiation poisoning in 1943 too; starting with the irritated sore throat through to an agonizing death from being cooked from the inside out. President Bush promised to invade twelve countries in the 2003 State of the Union speech. I believe the man. For some reason, some misguided Americans do not believe him, or think he was "exaggerating." The rest of the world has every reason to believe him, though. Not to worry, the President has plenty of raw material for radioactive uranium munitions left. There are more than 77,000 Tons stored at the 103 nuclear waste plants and the several Nuclear Weapons Labs in the US. Each one makes another 250 pounds of radioactive material a day for radioactive bullets, bombs, and missiles. Not to put too fine a point on it; but, that is enough for 40.5 more gloriously successful campaigns like the 2003 Nuclear War in Iraq. Every year about this time the Southern winds leave a fine desert sand on the windshields of cars parked outside in Continental Europe and Britain. Soon this sand dust will carry a surprise. Thanks to the Americans. Thanks to us. We did this to the world. And, we wonder why they hate and despise us so. These uranium weapons' indiscriminate killing effect gives a whole new meaning to the age old term: cannon fodder. In Iraq, what goes around, comes around. If not the uranium munitions themselves, the uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces, time bombs slowly ticking away the lives of the gullible and the ignorant with their very own internal radiation source, the cannon fodder of the 21st Century American Nuclear Wars. Put your ending to this article next. A lot of people have done everything we can think of to stop these nuclear wars. Even more specifically to stop the use of uranium as a munition and shut down the nuclear power plants. We have tried and failed for years. Why don't you give it a try? Can't hurt anything! Write what steps you would take to turn this situation around. Contact me at: bobnichols@cox.net. Bob Nichols writes in Oklahoma City and is the Editorial writer for DemoOkie.com. Bob Nichols is a contributing writer for LiberalSlant, Democratic Underground, OnlineJournal, AmericaHeldHostage, and other online dot com publications. Mr. Nichols is a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer and other print publications. He lives and works in Oklahoma. He is a member of CASE -- Citizens' Action for Safe Energy, and President of the Carrie Dickerson Foundation. CASE has successfully killed two serious, well funded attempts to build Nuclear Power Plants in Oklahoma and several attempts to site what is now known as the "Yucca Mountain Reactor Dump" in Oklahoma. All these efforts to build nuclear facilities have failed. CASE won every time. Copyright 2004, Bob Nichols. All rights reserved. Permission for reposting is allowed provided the complete text and attribution are kept intact. [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 2 Las Vegas SUN: Rice Denies Book's Claim on Iraq Decision Today: April 18, 2004 at 17:16:08 PDT By WILLIAM C. MANN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - National security adviser Condoleezza Rice forcefully disputed on Sunday an assertion that President Bush decided in early January 2003 to invade Iraq, three months before official accounts say the decision was made. The statement, in Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book about the run-up to war, is "simply not, not right," Rice said. Bush said at a prime-time news conference on March 6 that a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing action was days away. Ten days later, having failed to win approval, the resolution was withdrawn, and the assault began March 20. Rice did not deny the private conversation between her and Bush just after New Year's Day in which Woodward said the decision was made, but she said the writer had misinterpreted what was said. She said Woodward also misread another comment attributed to her, that since Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld knew of the "go" decision and Secretary of State Colin Powell did not, perhaps Bush should tell Powell. In the January meeting, Rice said on CBS' "Face the Nation," she and Bush were at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, considering the Iraq situation. In such sessions, she said, Bush "kind of thinks out loud." "He said, `No, I think we probably are going to have to go to war. We're going to have to go to war.' And it was not a decision to go to war," Rice said. "That decision he made in March, when he finally decided to do that." She said the Powell misunderstanding grew from her comment to Bush that "If you're beginning to think that the diplomacy is not working, it's probably time to have a conversation with the secretary of state. I'm sure he would have, in any case." Rice said she meant that Bush should ask Powell "his sense of how the diplomacy was going" and that Bush had thought diplomacy would not succeed. "But I just want it to be understood: That was not a decision to go to war. The decision to go to war is in March. The president is saying in that conversation, I think the chances are that this is not going to work out any other way. We're going to have to go to war. Woodward also wrote in "Plan of Attack" that Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, about the war plan on Jan. 11. That was two days before Bush told Powell, Woodward wrote. "I just can't let this impression stand," Rice said. "The secretary of state was privy to all of the conversations with the president, all of the briefings for the president. They were in almost daily contact about what was going on at the United Nations." She was asked: "So he knew that Bandar was being told?" "I certainly knew, and I suspect that Colin would not have been surprised, going through the Gulf War experience, that one of the allies that you had to be certain understood what might happen if the president decided to go to war was the Saudis," Rice said. "But it's just not the proper impression that somehow Prince Bandar was in the know in a way that Secretary Powell was not. It's just not right. Secretary Powell had been privy to all of this. He knew what the war plan was." -- ***************************************************************** 3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Cheney Voices Concern Over N.Korean Nuclear Issue Updated Apr.18,2004 14:31 KST Dick Cheney On the final leg of his three-NATION Asian tour U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney met with South Korean acting president Goh Kun and voiced concerns about recent information providing evidence of North Korea's nuclear capabilities. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney addressed concerns about North Korea's alleged nuclear weapons program. During talks with South Korean acting president Goh Kun in Seoul on Friday, Cheney touched upon a recent New York Times report that Pakistan's top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan saw three nuclear bombs in North Korea five years ago. Prime Minister Goh for his part stressed the need to see progress as soon as possible at the six-nation talks aimed at resolving the nuclear situation. He added the U.S. and other allies must work to prevent the North from using the multilateral dialogue process to build up a nuclear deterrent force. The acting president also told Cheney that preparations are well underway to send 3,600 South Korean troops to help reconstruction efforts in Iraq by June as planned, despite mounting violence there. Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said on Thursday, Washington would respect whatever decision the incoming South Korean parliament makes with regards to the country's troop deployment plan to the Middle East. The comments were made while speaking with members of the media at the State Department where Mr. Armitage also said that at present he believed the Korean government is standing firm on its decision to dispatch troops to Iraq. Cheney wrapped up his two-day visit to the country with a speech to American troops stationed at the Yongsan Army Garrison in downtown Seoul. "Living on the border between freedom and tyranny, the people of Korea understand the urgency of our cause in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the Middle East." Cheney left for Washington on Friday afternoon closing his three-nation Asian tour that also took him to Japan and China. Arirang TV ***************************************************************** 4 Xinhuanet: DPRK turns down US request of nuclear dismantlement www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-04-18 22:43:21 PYONGYANG, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Sunday that the United States had no right to ask the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear program. "It is ridiculous enough for the United States to force an 'irreversible dismantlement' (of nuclear program) upon the DPRK," as pokesman for the Foreign Ministry was quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) as saying in response to US Vice President Dick Cheney's remarks towards the DPRK during his week-long Asian tour. During his first visit to China as US vice president, Cheney reiterated that the DPRK should completely dismantle its nuclear program in a verifiable and irreversible manner. "The DPRK has no idea of dealing with the United States any longer if the latter insists on the disgusting complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement," said the spokesman, adding that "the DPRK is seriously contemplating a measure to counter the US off-repeated demand that it scrap its nuclear program first." The spokesman also denied that the DPRK had any relations with the al-Qaeda terror network. "It is quite understandable that the United States can not sleep in peace, terror-stricken by al-Qaeda, but its unreasonably linking the DPRK to such an organization is an expression of total ignorance and nothing but a far-fetched attempt to justify its hostile policy towards the DPRK," said the spokesman. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 5 Japan Times: Seoul should offer Bush a dose of reality Sunday, April 18, 2004 By EUGENE B. KOGAN Special to The Japan Times WASHINGTON -- "A friend in need is a friend indeed," a saying goes. South Korea's decision on April 2 to send some 3,600 troops to Iraq is a fitting illustration of the adage. The deployment will make South Korea the largest U.S. coalition partner in Iraq after Britain. Unlike his predecessor, who once declared that he "won't kowtow to the Americans," acting South Korean President Goh Kun has said a strengthened relationship with Washington is his top foreign policy priority. Given this strategic outlook, the decision by the South Korean government to send troops to Iraq could not have come at a better time. Goh must remember, however, that a strong friendship is founded not only on a supporting posture in a time of need, but also on a candid dialogue about mutual concerns. Seoul must remind Washington about the urgency of resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula -- the issue that the Bush administration, overburdened by commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, seems to have put on the back burner. Goh should communicate this message to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who visited South Korea this weekend as part of his six-day Asia tour. Upon his return from North Korea in early January, Jack Pritchard, the former Bush administration envoy for negotiations with that country, quoted Kim Kye Gwan, the North's vice foreign minister, as saying "time is not on the U.S. side. The lapse of time will result in the quantitative and qualitative increase in our nuclear deterrent." According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, North Korea restarted the 5 Mwe reactor in February 2003. And Siegfried S. Hecker, senior fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory at the University of California, who accompanied Pritchard on the trip to North Korea, noted in his trip report that the reactor would produce 6 kg of plutonium a year. Kim reportedly told the U.S. delegation in January that this plutonium would be used to "strengthen our deterrent." The Bush administration has not taken this important point seriously. In the State of the Union Address on January 20, President George W. Bush mentioned North Korea just once in passing, noting that "along with nations in the region, we're insisting that North Korea eliminate its nuclear program." The lack of urgency in the Bush administration's actions indicates that Washington does not see the resolution of the nuclear standoff on the Peninsula as an important foreign policy priority. Goh must warn his American counterpart against making this serious strategic mistake. Active engagement by the United States is critical if the crisis is to be defused. First, the U.S. must provide written assurance to North Korea that the stated goal of nuclear disarmament is not an Iraq-style masquerade for regime change. Proclaiming one day that North Korea must completely and irreversibly dismantle its nuclear program, while simultaneously asserting that Kim Jong Il's regime is a powerful reminder that "freedom is not free," sends an unmistakable signal to Pyongyang that the U.S. is trying to cheat them into giving up their nuclear deterrent only to destroy the regime afterward. Clearly, this approach hinders rather than helps the efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff on the Peninsula. South Korea, along with other nations, participating in the six-way negotiations, must urge the U.S. to stop sending conflicting messages to Pyongyang -- signals that stymie the very fledgling progress that the allies have been working hard to advance. Second, the Bush administration must not allow the negotiations with Pyongyang to be dictated by considerations of domestic politics. This is a presidential election year in the U.S., and the administration's unyielding demand for CVID (complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement) of North Korea's nuclear program, smacks more of political expediency than of hard-nosed realism. The claim that the multilateral talks are somehow going to yield the grand prize of CVID may be a good sell at home, but in the real world, it is strategically unacceptable. So far, this demand has been buying time for North Korea, not for the U.S., South Korea and our regional allies. The Bush administration must agree to negotiate a freeze of North Korea's nuclear program first, which would give the six nations a breathing space. So far, the administration has refused to consider this gradualist approach, which it regards as a failed, Clinton-era negotiation strategy. The alternative is to keep insisting -- for months or even years -- on the grand prize of CVID, while Pyongyang continues to build its nuclear arsenal. The choice should be clear: to freeze, if not yet shut down, the North Korean nuclear Wal-Mart sooner rather than later. This may not be as politically desirable as CVID for Bush's re-election campaign, but it is both possible and necessary under the present strategic conditions. It is time to get serious and realistic about negotiating a peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. This message from Goh to Bush would be a sign of a robust and frank relationship between the two nations and the two leaders. Eugene B. Kogan is an independent international affairs analyst reporting from Washington, D.C. The Japan Times: April 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 6 KoreaTimes: Implications for S-N, ROK-US Relations Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation This is the second in a series of articles by foreign experts on the outcome of the April 15 general elections. _ ED. By Ralph A. Cossa President of the Pacific Forum CSIS The South Korean political landscape has changed dramatically, and one must assume irreversibly, as a result of the April 15 National Assembly elections. The torch has indeed been passed to a new generation; that much is clear. What is less clear is what this means, both in the near and long term, for ROK-U.S. and South-North relations. No immediate changes are expected, of course, as attention now rapidly shifts to the Constitutional Court, where the already slim prospects that it would uphold the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun, have become even slimmer. The April 15 vote, which handed the pro-Roh Uri Party a majority of seats in the National Assembly, is clearly seen as a vote of confidence in Roh and against those who sought to impeachment him. Presuming that President Roh returns to the Blue House, one would expect that he would quickly proclaim his continued faith in the ROK-U.S. alliance and his continued insistence that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons ambitions if it wants to normalize ties with the ROK and the world in general. While the far left of center Democratic Labor Party which, with 10 seats, now becomes the third largest party has promised to introduce legislation to withdraw the 600 ROK soldiers currently in Iraq and not send the other 3,000 already approved for deployment, it is doubtful that this will occur, even though there will be many in the now majority Uri Party who would be sympathetic toward this cause. In this regard, the fact that the somewhat left of center Uri gained an absolute majority is probably good news, since it would otherwise have had to lean further leftward to form a governing coalition with the DLP. While the Uri Party has been considerably more sympathetic toward, and tolerant of, North Korea than its conservative opponents, Pyongyang is likely to be disappointed if it expects rewards for its role in promoting the Uri victory. The North was more openly vocal about this election than at any time in the past and, in its Pyongyang-centric view of the world, no doubt now believes that the Roh government ¡®¡¯owes¡¯¡¯ it for this support. But, when President Roh uses the term ``reciprocity,¡¯¡¯ this is clearly not what he has in mind. While aid and economic development may be more forthcoming, there are limits to how generous any ROK government can or will choose to be, short of some positive movement on the nuclear issue. In short, in the near term there will likely be less change than many anticipate. The long-term impact is harder to assess. For the first time in his troubled presidency, President Roh will have a mandate to lead, but it is not clear what direction he wants to go in the foreign policy arena. Ironically, many of the U.S. force structure changes and realignments being pushed by Washington seem to coincide with Roh's and the Uri Party's desires. But how we go about attaining this mutual goal of a reduced footprint and enhanced leading role for the ROK in its own defense will be increasingly important. Seoul will have to be seen more and more as the driver of this train rather than the caboose being pulled along by Washington Korean nationalism may also prove to be a double-edged sword. Koreans have long had a tendency to see insults from Washington where none was intended while overlooking intentional slights from Pyongyang. At what point will Pyongyang's refusal to deal with Seoul as an equal on security issues run up against President Roh's and the Uri Party's insistence in a ``leading role¡¯¡¯ in settling the crisis, a position that Washington has now wisely accepted and openly promotes? Washington and Pyongyang may soon discover that they will both have to become more attentive to ROK sensitivities if they want to see future progress with a reinvigorated President Roh. While sensitivity is not a Washington hallmark, it may prove to be an even greater challenge for Pyongyang. 04-18-2004 18:05 ***************************************************************** 7 Guardian Unlimited: Report: N. Korean Leader Heads to China Sunday April 18, 2004 2:46 PM SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il crossed into China Sunday in a special train for a summit to discuss the North's nuclear weapons program with the Chinese president, South Korea's state-run television reported. KBS-TV, citing Chinese diplomatic sources it didn't identify, said Kim's entourage was expected to arrive in Beijing on Monday. During his four-day visit, the North Korean leader will meet President Hu Jintao and other senior Chinese leaders to discuss the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and other issues of mutual concern, KBS said. A group of Chinese officials greeted Kim when his train made a brief stop just across the river border with China, KBS said, quoting unidentified witnesses. Chinese authorities had beefed up security around the train station. China has hosted two sessions of crucial talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs. The two rounds, also involving the United States, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas, ended without much progress. Kim has visited China twice in recent years. In January 2001, he visited Shanghai's stock exchange and foreign joint-venture companies, seeing for himself changes brought by capitalist-style economic reforms. He also traveled to China in May 2000, but that visit wasn't announced until after he had returned home. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 8 [NukeNet] Bioterror goes local-Newsday Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 09:07:18 -0700 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [NukeNet] Bioterror goes local-Newsday Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:44:50 -0700 From: marylia@earthlink.net (marylia) To: marylia@earthlink.net Dear colleagues: The following "viewpoint" was written by Ron Russell of the San Francisco Weekly and published in Newsday, which operates out of NY. This follows on an excellent series that Ron wrote for the SF Weekly. And, while it isn't written exactly the way I would have done it -- it is a quite interesting take on the biowarfare agent labs popping up everywhere. I heartily commend it to your attention. Peace, Marylia Bioterror goes local BY RON RUSSELL Ron Russell is a staff writer at SF Weekly in San Francisco. April 18, 2004 Ask Marylia Kelley why so few Americans seem bothered by the federal government's push to build biological research labs to experiment with some of the deadliest pathogens known to humankind - even when those labs are under their noses - and she's at a loss for words. "The simple answer is, 'Nobody knows.'" It's a conclusion borne from her experience as a community activist in Livermore, Calif., home to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a heavily-guarded compound set amid vineyards, cow pastures and expensive tract homes near San Francisco. Since the early 1950s, much of the nation's top-secret nuclear weapons research has been conducted there. Long a magnet for anti-nuclear protesters, Lawrence Livermore now is on the front lines of the Bush administration's biodefense buildup, with the Department of Energy aiming to build a new high-security "hot lab" there for handling toxic agents such as anthrax, bubonic plague, botulism and Q fever. As head of a local group that opposes the lab, Kelley sounds the alarm about the government's plans, decrying the potential for an airborne release of pathogens as the result of accident or sabotage. Lawrence Livermore lies next to an active earthquake fault. And while the Energy Department insists that the hot lab will be safe, it released an environmental assessment that was skimpy on details and amazingly dismissive of the potential for pathogens to be accidentally released in a catastrophe, including an earthquake. By contrast, a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council calculates that at least 9,000 people could die in the San Francisco Bay area and tens of thousands of others could be sickened by an anthrax release brought about by only "light" damage to the biolab as the result of a quake. At countless coffee klatches and before church and school groups, Kelley shares such findings and gets a consistent response. "People seem genuinely shocked to learn that the government would want to put something this potentially dangerous so close to a population center," she says. "But that's about as far as it goes. For whatever reason, there isn't yet a willingness or ability to mobilize great numbers of people." The situation is similar across the country. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the anthrax scare that followed, Congress appropriated $6 billion for defenses against germ warfare. The result is an all-out rush among competing government agencies to build high-security hot labs for handling toxic biowarfare agents. Using an arcane national environmental law, Kelley's group has filed suit in federal court to successfully prevent the Livermore hot lab from going online pending a judge's review. But beyond that, and some scattered protests here and elsewhere, there's been no groundswell of opposition to any of the more than two dozen hot labs that either have opened or are in development across the country. The labs' critics say that the public's complacency is particularly vexing because the facilities aren't confined to hinterlands far from population centers. A hot lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, just a sea breeze away from Houston, is set to open this spring. Another, under the auspices of Boston University and the National Institutes of Health, is being built on Boston's south side. Livermore is within 50 miles of 7 million people "It's analogous to what happened with nuclear energy," says Bob Civiak, a physicist and former policy analyst with the Office of Management and Budget, who is among those concerned about the labs. "In its infancy, there was not even any NIMBY opposition. It took a few accidents in the '50s and '60s where some workers were injured for that to materialize. Sadly, I think the same will be true of the biolabs." Others see the absence of widespread opposition as peculiar to the times. "Everything changed with 9/11," laments Steve Erickson, who heads a Utah watchdog group that has long kept a skeptical eye on the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds, where there are plans to expand an existing hot lab. "The government has managed to sell a mind-set in which the fear of not developing defenses against bioterror outweighs people's concerns about this stuff being done beneath their feet." That mind-set isn't a tough sell in Livermore, where more than half of Lawrence Livermore's 8,500 full-time employees (not counting part-timers and subcontractors) reside. Just about everybody in town has a friend or relative who works at LLNL. Livermore's official seal has three things on it: a wine leaf, a cowboy and the atom, the nuclear lab's symbol. Even the newsletter of one the largest churches in town features a cross inside an atom on its masthead. But Kelley is undaunted. "Public awareness about these things doesn't happen overnight," she says. "It has to start somewhere." Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vprus183761512apr18,0,823414,print.st ory?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines Marylia Kelley Executive Director Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) 2582 Old First Street Livermore, CA USA 94551 - is our web site address. Please visit us there! (925) 443-7148 - is our phone (925) 443-0177 - is our fax _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 9 TVC: PUBLIC HEARINGS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT - Dates, Times, Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 09:08:16 -0700 Subject: [NukeNet] PUBLIC HEARINGS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT - Dates, Times, Key issues, Where to submit written comments, Invitation to participate Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:19:55 -0700 From: marylia@earthlink.net (marylia) To: marylia@earthlink.net Dear friends and colleagues: Below is an article that offers important information on public hearings on nuclear weapons development that are coming up the last week of April in Livermore, CA, Tracy, CA and Washington, DC. I have also included where to send written comments and a summary of key points. Please participate in this historic opportunity to make a difference. Don't let it pass you by. More info at www.trivalleycares.org. And, feel free to reprint or re-distribute the article, pasted below. Thanks. Peace, Marylia PUBLIC HEARINGS ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT -- YOUR CHANCE TO INFLUENCE U.S. POLICY AND PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT By Marylia Kelley and Tara Dorabji From Tri-Valley CAREs' April 2004 newsletter, Citizen's Watch Today, at Livermore Lab, the U.S. government develops earth-penetrating nuclear bombs, each containing the explosive power of many Hiroshimas, and researches so-called "mini-nukes," partial Hiroshimas with yields of less than 5 kilotons. And, future nuclear weapons programs will be bigger, costlier and more deadly, according to a draft environmental study. The Nuclear Policy Context Much has been written about the Bush Administration's "Nuclear Posture Review" and subsequent "National Security Strategy of the United States," which advocate preventive war wherein America may preemptively bomb any where, any time, with any weapon (including nuclear) for any reason of its own choosing. But, where does nuclear policy become operationalized? The answer lies right here in the Bay Area, at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Livermore Laboratory. Every nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal was developed at Livermore, 45 miles east of San Francisco, or at the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. Livermore Lab is now redesigning the B83 nuclear "lay down" bomb to give it earth penetrating capability. With a top yield on more than one megaton, the B83 is the most powerful nuke in the current U.S. stockpile. Escalation Meets Environmental Law Amid this new nuclear build-up, the clock has run out on the Livermore Lab's National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) coverage. NEPA is the country's most fundamental environmental law. Livermore Lab's operating document is called a Site Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) and the last one, completed back in 1992, is obsolete. Therefore, the DOE must conduct a fresh environmental study of Livermore Lab -- and the recently-released draft gives the public a rare glimpse into the extensive and dangerous new nuclear operations planned for the next ten years. Moreover, according to the law, DOE must provide public hearings and solicit public comment on its plans before moving ahead. "At the end of this month, the public will have a once in a decade opportunity to influence nuclear weapons policy and the future direction of Livermore Lab," pointed out Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs' Executive Director. "Will we be silent and let them develop new nukes? Will we let them bring thousands of pounds more plutonium into Livermore? Hell, no" Kelley vowed. New Weapons Programs Revealed The draft SWEIS contains 2,000-plus pages that lay out a full buffet of dangerous new programs to be implemented at Livermore Lab over the coming decade. They include: * More than doubling the plutonium storage limit at Livermore Lab, from 1,540 pounds to 3,300 pounds, enough for more than 300 nuclear bombs. * Making Livermore Lab the place to design and test new technologies for producing "pits" (plutonium bomb cores) at the "Modern Pit Facility," a new bomb plant capable of turning out up to 450 new plutonium pits per year (and 900 if run on double shifts, which would approximate the combined nuclear arsenals of France and China - every year). The DOE site that will host the Modern Pit Facility has yet to be chosen. * Vaporizing plutonium at Livermore Lab and shooting laser beams through the hot plutonium to separate its isotopes for various weapons experiments. To do this, Livermore plans to increase 3-fold the amount of plutonium that can be used in any one room at a given time, from 44 pounds to 132 pounds. * Adding plutonium, highly-enriched uranium and lithium hydride to the mix of experiments to be conducted in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) mega-laser when its construction is completed at Livermore Lab. These experiments will increase NIF's utility to weapons research while adding to its cost, environmental damage and nuclear proliferation risks. * Manufacturing radioactive tritium targets for NIF on site at Livermore Lab, which will increase the amount of tritium allowed to be "at risk" at a time in any one room by nearly 10-fold, from just over 3 grams to 30 grams. * Preparing for a return to full-scale underground nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site by developing new diagnostics at Livermore Lab to enhance U.S. "readiness" to conduct these tests, which were halted in 1992. * Collocating a bio-warfare agent research facility at a nuclear weapons lab -- without adequately analyzing the environmental and nonproliferation risks of this action. Retired staff scientist Marion Fulk warns of impending health and environmental damage if these programs are not stopped. "I know first-hand that Livermore Lab has not been able to keep its contamination inside the fence line," he said. "Today, it's already a Superfund cleanup site. If these programs go forward, there will be more accidents, spills and releases of plutonium, tritium and other radioactive materials into the environment. Cancer is only the tip of the iceberg. Many illnesses will result." Public Hearings: Your Voice is Needed "The public's voice is urgently needed at the hearings. We must speak up for peace and the future of our environment," according to Tara Dorabji, the Outreach Director for Tri-Valley CAREs. "It is our responsibility to show up and use the opportunity to oppose new nuclear weapons and the dangerous new Lab programs that enable them." Public hearings will be held at three locations: o On Tue., April 27, the hearings will be held in Livermore at the Double Tree Club Hotel at 720 Las Flores Road. There will be a 1 PM session and a 6 PM session. o On Wed., April 28, public hearings will be held in Tracy at the Holiday Inn Express at 3751 N. Tracy Blvd. Sessions will begin at 1 PM and 6:30 PM. o On Fri., April 30, a public hearing will be held in Washington, DC at 10 AM at DOE Headquarters, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW. Written comments may be submitted beore May 27, 2004 to: Tom Grim, Document Manager, U.S. DOE, NNSA, L-293, Livermore Site Office, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550. Or email to tom.grim@oak.doe.gov. To volunteer, call us at (925) 443-7148. And, for more information including a flier, fact sheet and PDF of the SWEIS summary document, visit our web site at www.trivalleycares.org. ends Marylia Kelley Executive Director Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) 2582 Old First Street Livermore, CA USA 94551 - is our web site address. Please visit us there! (925) 443-7148 - is our phone (925) 443-0177 - is our fax _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 10 Why There's No Need To Test Nuke Weapons By USA Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 01:00:50 -0400 http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04182004/commenta/158068.asp Public deserves far more information on nuclear testing By Bill Evenson When the first President Bush halted nuclear weapons testing in 1992, he surely didn't anticipate that the moratorium would later be shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Fortunately, U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett is in position to lift the veil. The simple scientific fact is that there is no need for the United States to test a nuclear weapon now or in the foreseeable future. Here's why: The directors of the nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories give the arsenal an annual checkup. Every year since the moratorium has been in place, they have delivered the same diagnosis: no problems. They haven't asked for a nuclear test; they haven't even hinted that tests are needed. It's not surprising. When the elder Bush halted testing, a multibillion-dollar Stockpile Stewardship Program was developed to maintain the reliability of the 8,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenal. Part of that program focuses on alerting scientists to any problem that might develop in one of the nuclear weapons -- an early warning system. Indeed, scientists now know more about the arsenal than they ever would have under the old testing program. All of this would be part of the public discussion about testing if it weren't for one thing. The annual report from the lab directors is classified. It's only through leaked information that the public can learn that the arsenal doesn't need testing. We don't need tests to develop new nuclear weapons. There are more than 1,000 good reasons that back up this point. The United States generated a warehouse of information when it carried out 1,030 nuclear tests over nearly 50 years. Advertisement Literally many dozens of different nuclear weapons designs have been tested and are capable of being built. In fact, there is already a tested design for every currently proposed "new" weapons concept. This is not a controversial point. An advisory panel for the federal agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons concluded that new nuclear weapons do not need to "involve any radical departures from previously considered or even implemented systems." Getting that advisory panel information was like pulling teeth. It took a reporter two years and a Freedom of Information Act request to do it. Testing benefits our nuclear adversaries more than it benefits us. It's a good bet that if the United States broke the moratorium, others would follow. And while at best we would get marginal gains in our weapons program, China could make major threatening upgrades. In particular, China would probably integrate multiple warheads on each missile and develop new warheads for advanced solid-fuel rockets. Chinese officials have said that they will consider a resumption of testing in response to the U.S. nuclear policies outlined in the Nuclear Posture Review that the Defense Department submitted to Congress in December 2001. We might draw our own conclusions on the matter. Unfortunately, the review is classified. Clearly, something has to be done to open up the process. We shouldn't have to rely on leaks and Freedom of Information requests. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, recently introduced a bill addressing the issue of radiation containment and nuclear testing. It is a nice step on behalf of concerned downwinders, but more has to be done. Significant decisions should not be made behind closed doors and imposed on us with little warning. Such decisions require public understanding and deliberation. In the case of the Iraq war, the Bush administration engaged the public months ahead of time in an effort to build support. We should expect no less in the case of a nuclear weapons test. Yet, there is no federal requirement to provide ample public notification of a proposed nuclear test. Worse yet, the entire testing program is veiled in secrecy. This is no way to alleviate public apprehension. In fact, it encourages suspicion. In a recent hearing in Washington, Bennett pressed a Department of Energy (DOE) official with questions to determine whether a nuclear test is currently in the works. It is not at all reassuring that it took a U.S. senator to get answers that should be publicly available. Bennett should encourage the Department of Energy to open up the process. At the very least, he should call for public notification of any proposed test with ample time for deliberation. What's ample? Eighteen months is reasonable -- it takes that long to plan and carry out a nuclear test anyway. If DOE has a strong enough case for testing, then surely they wouldn't worry about a little public discussion. ----- Bill Evenson is a professor of physics and associate dean of the School of Science and Health at Utah Valley State College. http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04182004/commenta/158068.asp ***************************************************************** 11 PRAVDA.Ru: USA is ready to start five wars every year - 04/17/2004 16:20 The network of mobile bases throughout the globe is the backbone of the new US military doctrine. Recently US Defense Minister Donal Ramsfeld gave the Pentagon the assignment to adopt the new military strategy called "10-30-30", reported the Defense News newspaper. According to the new military doctrine, after the political decision made in Washington to use military force in a certain area on the globe, the US troops must be able to be deployed in this area within 10 days. In the 30 days to come US military is supposed to smash the enemy troops and deprive the enemy of the opportunity to renew its resistance to Americans in foreseeable future. Within the next 30 days the US troops must regroup and be ready for executing the next military assignment in another region. Earlier the US military doctrine stipulated conducting one big (nuclear) war and 1-2 local military conflicts simultaneously. Today the doctrine draws no distinction between the types of wars. The "10-30-30" strategy (2 months and 10 days per war) provides the US military and political leaders with the opportunity to conduct minimum five military operations every year. Nuclear weapon may be used as well - it is considered as usual military weapon. In fact, this strategic decision is the second stage of the "reforming the US military bases abroad" announced in May 2003. This reforming is about changing the locations of the US military bases. The Pentagon decided to abandon big military bases in Germany, Italy, Japan and Turkey and create so called "light bases". In particular, the US troops from the big military base in Germany will be transferred to Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and other East European countries. The same principle will be applied to the big US military bases in Japan, Italy and Turkey since 2006. Currently Washington uses 736 military bases and objects in the USA and worldwide. Dispersal of the big and middle-sized bases will increase the US military presence on the globe significantly. The new areas for deploying the US troops are the former Soviet republics (along Russian borders), Africa and even Australia. All the surface of our planet will be controlled from the Pentagon. In addition to ground military bases, the USA plans to construct Naval universal multifunctional platforms consisting of the so called modules. Military units, artillery, Air Force, equipment will be deployed on the platforms to ensure conducting wars within 30 days. The use of universal multifunctional platforms brings new element to the US military diplomacy. Washington will not have to negotiate the issue of deploying its military with the governments of other countries. Several multifunctional platforms will be brought to the shores of the country, and the military base will be created without paying lease for using the country"s territory. The total number of US military bases and objects in the USA and abroad Type of military / Type of military object Big bases Medium-sized bases Small objects Total Army 381 1 8 390 Navy 44 5 4 53 Air Force 275 7 7 289 Marine Corps 2 2 0 4 Total 702 15 19 736 Vadim Soloviev Vladimir Ivanov The network of mobile bases throughout the globe is the backbone of the new US military doctrine. Recently US Defense Minister Donal Ramsfeld gave the Pentagon the assignment to adopt the new military strategy called "10-30-30", reported the Defense News newspaper. According to the new military doctrine, after the political decision made in Washington to use military force in a certain area on the globe, the US troops must be able to be deployed in this area within 10 days. In the 30 days to come US military is supposed to smash the enemy troops and deprive the enemy of the opportunity to renew its resistance to Americans in foreseeable future. Within the next 30 days the US troops must regroup and be ready for executing the next military assignment in another region. Earlier the US military doctrine stipulated conducting one big (nuclear) war and 1-2 local military conflicts simultaneously. Today the doctrine draws no distinction between the types of wars. The "10-30-30" strategy (2 months and 10 days per war) provides the US military and political leaders with the opportunity to conduct minimum five military operations every year. Nuclear weapon may be used as well - it is considered as usual military weapon. In fact, this strategic decision is the second stage of the "reforming the US military bases abroad" announced in May 2003. This reforming is about changing the locations of the US military bases. The Pentagon decided to abandon big military bases in Germany, Italy, Japan and Turkey and create so called "light bases". In particular, the US troops from the big military base in Germany will be transferred to Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and other East European countries. The same principle will be applied to the big US military bases in Japan, Italy and Turkey since 2006. Currently Washington uses 736 military bases and objects (see the table below). Dispersal of the big and middle-sized bases will increase the US military presence on the globe significantly. The new areas for deploying the US troops are the former Soviet republics (along Russian borders), Africa and even Australia. All the surface of our planet will be controlled from the Pentagon. In addition to ground military bases, the USA plans to construct Naval universal multifunctional platforms consisting of the so called modules. Military units, artillery, Air Force, equipment will be deployed on the platforms to ensure conducting wars within 30 days. The use of universal multifunctional platforms brings new element to the US military diplomacy. Washington will not have to negotiate the issue of deploying its military with the governments of other countries. Several multifunctional platforms will be brought to the shores of the country, and the military base will be created without paying lease for using the country"s territory. Vadim Soloviev Vladimir Ivanov Read the original in Russian: (Translated by: Andrey Nesterov) L1999-2002 "PRAVDA.Ru". When reproducing our materials in ***************************************************************** 12 Salt Lake Tribune: Envoys of three countries wind up energy summit April 17, 2004 By Brent Israelsen The Salt Lake Tribune ALBUQUERQUE -- Western governors, Canadian premiers and Mexican officials agreed Friday to work together to ensure a more reliable, affordable and environmentally friendly energy supply for their constituents and economies. The general agreement came at the conclusion of a three-day North American Energy Summit -- attended by about 700 people but only two from Utah state government -- in which participants recommended numerous proposals, many of which are expected to be considered for action at the Western Governors Association's regular meeting in June. Though the topics ran the gamut from nuclear power and electricity transmission to global warming and hydrogen, most of the discussion focused on boosting energy efficiencies and developing more "clean" and renewable energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal sources. As a result of the conference, "clean energy has made a major stride in the West," declared New Mexico's Bill Richardson, a Democrat who chairs the association, which sponsored the event. It was unclear, however, whether the momentum on clean energy will continue into the near future. Richardson will soon turn the association's reins over to Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican. On Friday, Owens was noncommittal on his support of clean-energy initiatives proposed by Richardson and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not present but signed a letter challenging his colleagues to pursue a goal of 10 percent renewable energy by 2015 and a 20 percent boost in energy efficiency by 2020. "I just saw the letter yesterday for the first time," said Owens. "It represents Bill and [Schwarzenegger's] position but I haven't looked at it in any detail." Utah Gov. Olene Walker could not attend the energy summit because of her busy schedule, said spokeswoman Amanda Covington. "She had state energy experts represent her at the conference and has asked them to report back to her once they return," said Covington. "She is heavily involved with the Western Governors regional energy planning, transmission and conservation efforts." Rick Sprott, state air quality director, and Tom Brill, director of the state energy office, were at the conference. Richardson said he pushed for the summit largely because the federal government has failed to enact energy policies that would wean the country from imported oil or that would improve the environment. "The states are the true innovators in creating a strong, sustainable energy policy," Richardson said. Gary Doer, the premier of Manitoba, Canada, said the recent shift in America's discussion of clean energy has been "dramatic." "Any long-term solution must include conservation and efficiencies, must include innovation and all the renewable energies . . . as well as the cleaner fossil fuels. The old debates are over," said Doer. A complete list of the summit's recommendations on energy issues can be found at . "> Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune ***************************************************************** 13 Salt Lake Tribune: Public deserves far more information on nuclear testing April 18, 2004 [PHOTO] Bill Evenson By Bill Evenson When the first President Bush halted nuclear weapons testing in 1992, he surely didn't anticipate that the moratorium would later be shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Fortunately, U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett is in position to lift the veil. The simple scientific fact is that there is no need for the United States to test a nuclear weapon now or in the foreseeable future. Here's why: The directors of the nation's three nuclear weapons laboratories give the arsenal an annual checkup. Every year since the moratorium has been in place, they have delivered the same diagnosis: no problems. They haven't asked for a nuclear test; they haven't even hinted that tests are needed. It's not surprising. When the elder Bush halted testing, a multibillion-dollar Stockpile Stewardship Program was developed to maintain the reliability of the 8,000 nuclear weapons in the arsenal. Part of that program focuses on alerting scientists to any problem that might develop in one of the nuclear weapons -- an early warning system. Indeed, scientists now know more about the arsenal than they ever would have under the old testing program. All of this would be part of the public discussion about testing if it weren't for one thing. The annual report from the lab directors is classified. It's only through leaked information that the public can learn that the arsenal doesn't need testing. We don't need tests to develop new nuclear weapons. There are more than 1,000 good reasons that back up this point. The United States generated a warehouse of information when it carried out 1,030 nuclear tests over nearly 50 years. Literally many dozens of different nuclear weapons designs have been tested and are capable of being built. In fact, there is already a tested design for every currently proposed "new" weapons concept. This is not a controversial point. An advisory panel for the federal agency that oversees the nation's nuclear weapons concluded that new nuclear weapons do not need to "involve any radical departures from previously considered or even implemented systems." Getting that advisory panel information was like pulling teeth. It took a reporter two years and a Freedom of Information Act request to do it. Testing benefits our nuclear adversaries more than it benefits us. It's a good bet that if the United States broke the moratorium, others would follow. And while at best we would get marginal gains in our weapons program, China could make major threatening upgrades. In particular, China would probably integrate multiple warheads on each missile and develop new warheads for advanced solid-fuel rockets. Chinese officials have said that they will consider a resumption of testing in response to the U.S. nuclear policies outlined in the Nuclear Posture Review that the Defense Department submitted to Congress in December 2001. We might draw our own conclusions on the matter. Unfortunately, the review is classified. Clearly, something has to be done to open up the process. We shouldn't have to rely on leaks and Freedom of Information requests. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, recently introduced a bill addressing the issue of radiation containment and nuclear testing. It is a nice step on behalf of concerned downwinders, but more has to be done. Significant decisions should not be made behind closed doors and imposed on us with little warning. Such decisions require public understanding and deliberation. In the case of the Iraq war, the Bush administration engaged the public months ahead of time in an effort to build support. We should expect no less in the case of a nuclear weapons test. Yet, there is no federal requirement to provide ample public notification of a proposed nuclear test. Worse yet, the entire testing program is veiled in secrecy. This is no way to alleviate public apprehension. In fact, it encourages suspicion. In a recent hearing in Washington, Bennett pressed a Department of Energy (DOE) official with questions to determine whether a nuclear test is currently in the works. It is not at all reassuring that it took a U.S. senator to get answers that should be publicly available. Bennett should encourage the Department of Energy to open up the process. At the very least, he should call for public notification of any proposed test with ample time for deliberation. What's ample? Eighteen months is reasonable -- it takes that long to plan and carry out a nuclear test anyway. If DOE has a strong enough case for testing, then surely they wouldn't worry about a little public discussion. ----- Bill Evenson is a professor of physics and associate dean of the School of Science and Health at Utah Valley State College. "> Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune ***************************************************************** 14 deseretnews: U.S. lags in gutting chemical weapons [deseretnews.com] Sunday, April 18, 2004 By Lee Davidson Deseret Morning News WASHINGTON — The nation's program to destroy chemical arms, which includes an incinerator at Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot, continues to fall further behind schedule as costs skyrocket, congressional researchers say. "The program continues to falter because several long-standing management, organizational and strategic planning weaknesses remain unresolved," according to an update this month by the U.S. General Accounting Office, a research arm of Congress. The GAO noted it has sounded similar alarms in many of the 25 reports it has issued since 1990, including one just last September. But even in the seven months since that last report, it said the program managed to fall even further behind schedule and saw costs increase more because of "ongoing incidents during operations, environmental permitting issues, concerns about emergency preparedness and unfunded requirements." All chemical arms were originally required by international treaty to be destroyed by April 29, 2007. The United States plans to seek an extension of that deadline to 2012, but the GAO warned, "Unless the Chem-Demil Program is able to resolve the problems that have caused schedule delays to destroy the stockpile, the United States will likely risk not meeting the (extended) deadline." Also, costs for the program increased from an estimated $15 billion in 1998 to an estimated $23.7 billion in 2001. The GAO said the Defense Department last year identified another $1.4 billion beyond that, "and this estimate is certainly going to rise further, given the information we obtained on schedule delays from fiscal year 2005 budget documents and from program officials." As of last month, the program had destroyed 27.6 percent of the 31,500 tons of chemical arms it had originally stored at nine sites. Deseret Chemical Depot in Tooele County originally stored 44 percent of the total national stockpile, and has managed to destroy about half of that so far, the GAO said. A site at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific has completed destroying all its stockpile. A site at Anniston, Ala., has destroyed 5 percent of its stockpile, and another at Aberdeen, Md., destroyed 8 percent of its stockpile. Other sites in Colorado, Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky and Arkansas have yet to begin destruction of their stockpiles. The GAO noted that despite several reorganizations of the program, the changes have "not streamlined the program's complex organization" and many questions remain "about the roles and responsibilities of its various offices." It added, "The program lacks strategic and risk management plans to guide and integrate its activities" — although it said the Defense Department reported it is working on that. The GAO added, "In the past, because the program used a crisis management approach, it was forced to react to, rather than control, issues. We believe a risk management approach would allow DOD (the Department of Defense) and the Army to proactively anticipate and address potential problems that could adversely affect program schedule, costs and safety." E-mail: lee@desnews.com © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 15 SF Chronicle: Assessing the risk of nuclear terrorism / Experts differ on likelihood of 'dirty bomb' attack James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, April 18, 2004 After two wars and more than two years of efforts to plug holes in America's post-Sept. 11 defenses against surprise attacks, no threat is regarded as more alarming, more complex or more filled with vexing uncertainties than nuclear terrorism. President Bush solemnly declared two months ago that nuclear weapons were "the greatest threat to mankind," and he acknowledged they were becoming easier to acquire. Just last week, the Department of Energy announced it was accelerating a program, in the face of mounting criticism, to take back the roughly 19 tons of highly enriched uranium the United States has supplied over the years to sometimes lightly guarded reactors in countries such as Iran, Pakistan, South Africa and Mexico. "I will tell you that the threat is real," Paul Longsworth, the Energy Department's deputy administrator for defense and nuclear nonproliferation, said in an interview. "There will be additional steps." The president, working with several dozen countries, has put in place a program called the Proliferation Security Initiative to intercept shipments of illicit bomb-making materials and to tighten controls on the export of equipment that can be used in the bomb-making process. The Bush administration also has proposed measures to prevent countries that do not already have the technology for creating reactor fuel from acquiring it, even for commercial power reactors open to inspection. Yet, frustrated by what she says has been the administration's lethargic response to this dire threat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said earlier this month she was co-sponsoring legislation to accelerate the programs for securing the tons of weapons-grade material left in the former Soviet bloc to keep it away from terrorists, and she has exhorted the administration to take a more urgent approach to the problem. All these measures underscore the reality that -- as nearly every expert agrees -- the threat of nuclear terrorism is in a class by itself in terms of how to measure the real likelihood and its potentially horrific impact and what to do about it. A key problem is that, while the probability of a successful strike is regarded as extremely low, the subject is shrouded in a fog of uncertainty so dense that many studies of the issue lead to what researchers often admit are debates built on faith as much as science, with little agreement except that a single strike could alter the course of history in a million-degree burst of heat and light. "Very quickly this argument becomes theological," said Brian Jenkins, a government adviser on terrorism for 30 years and a senior official at the Rand Corp. think tank in Santa Monica. "Like theology, there are nonbelievers. There are also those who see the apocalypse. The truth is, this is an analytical dilemma and there is no answer. It is a statistically remote, high- consequence event." Nikolai Sokov, a former Russian arms control negotiator who is now a senior researcher at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, has written two long, cautious reports on the possible theft of so-called "suitcase nukes" or weapons-grade material from Russia's bulging arsenals, considered one of the most likely sources for a terrorist bomb. Still, he admits, the leads he found in his voluminous research often ended up relying on unsubstantiated rumors, guesses, half-truths, reports that merely reflected older reports or deliberate misinformation -- a confusing array of dead ends murkier than the information on most other kinds of weapons terrorists might use. "In my opinion, the threat is pretty remote," said Sokov, who has presented his research to the Defense Department. "It is extremely difficult to get such a weapon, even a real 'dirty bomb.' At the same time, this is one of those cases where you cannot allow yourself a single failure. You cannot be wrong even once." Few have been more strident in warning of the consequences and pressing for a stronger U.S. response than Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a senior defense official in the Clinton administration. In articles and a coming book, "Nuclear Terror: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe," he argues that the Bush administration has not done nearly enough to secure nuclear materials that could be stolen and fashioned into a bomb, particularly in Russia and former Soviet bloc countries. He has said that if the Bush administration fails to take tougher measures to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists, a strike is likely within this decade. But he also admitted in an interview that any such statement is a stab in the dark, unlike predictions about attacks with conventional weapons. "There's no scientific method you can apply to measure this," said Allison. "You are talking about an event that is low-probability and infrequent, even unprecedented. It's like being hit by a meteor or something." David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a leading Washington think tank on nuclear weapons issues, said that to some immeasurable degree, the chances of such a strike do appear to be growing, particularly because of revelations about how Pakistan was able to spread weapons technology with the help of businessmen in places like Malaysia and Dubai. He agreed with Allison that the Bush administration needed to do more, and quickly, to safeguard the hundreds of tons of weapons-grade uranium in Russia. That fuel could be transformed into a nuclear device or an effective dirty bomb, which would disperse a lethal cloud of radioactive dust. "What's not understood is why we haven't been hit by one already," said Albright of dirty bombs. He added that he placed the probability of terrorists developing a working nuclear-fission bomb -- in which the detonation triggers a nuclear chain reaction releasing an immense burst of energy, as at Hiroshima and Nagasaki -- at "less than 1 percent." Karen Clark is president of AIR Worldwide, a Boston-based firm that is a pioneer in measuring the probability of catastrophic events, using complex mathematical models, for use by insurance companies. Her firm has done an intensive analysis of the prospects of terrorists using a nuclear weapon within the United States. She said that they concluded the likelihood had risen somewhat, but not for all types of attacks. "The probability has gone up," said Clark. "But the probability has gone up more for smaller kinds of attacks and down for something that requires more coordination and complexity," because intelligence, security, vigilance and defenses have improved since Sept. 11. That troubles some experts. "We ought to be in a situation where we're much safer now than we were on 9/11," said Matthew Bunn, a nuclear proliferation expert at Harvard's Kennedy School. "And we can't say that." He calls himself a pessimist, estimating that the likelihood of a terrorist nuclear attack in the range of 5 percent. Bunn said the Bush administration has not done nearly enough to push forward programs for securing the many tons of highly enriched uranium -- the easiest fuel to transform into a working bomb -- left in the former Soviet Union in facilities that have lax security. Enough fissile material to make thousands of nuclear devices is stored in often-vulnerable sites in Russia and the former Soviet republics, he said, and American-assisted programs to beef up the safeguards are going far too slowly. The administration has proposed spending $650 million in the coming fiscal year on efforts to prevent nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, according to Bunn's analysis. But that, he noted, is only an 8 percent increase from 2001, the last Clinton budget and the last year before Sept. 11. That amount equals just 0.2 percent of the entire defense budget, which Bunn says is not nearly enough, given the grave impact of such an attack. Longsworth, the Energy Department's nonproliferation chief, said the Bush administration recognized it had to speed up these programs, and he acknowledged that "the appetite" for nuclear weapons had grown, along with easier access to nuclear bomb-making technology and uncertainties about the source of potential threats. "You can't guess where the next non-nation or non-state actor or the next Libya will come from," said Longsworth, but he added that he felt the administration was spending enough and moving fast enough to secure nuclear materials. Michael May, a former director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where U.S. nuclear weapons are designed, and now a professor emeritus at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford, said the technological hurdles to a terrorist bomb remain, realistically, quite high. He discounted the possibility terrorists could make use of a stolen warhead because of all the sophisticated security devices built into them. He also said it would be all but impossible for a non-state terrorist group to develop the capability of making its own weapons-grade uranium, because of the industrial infrastructure required. The real fear, he said, is that terrorists could steal or buy from corrupt officials weapons-grade uranium, either from Russia or perhaps a country like Pakistan, where many government and military officials are sympathetic to radical Islamists. Getting that material is far more difficult than actually creating a workable weapon, he said. "Scientists have been pointing to this possibility for years," May said. "What higher priority can there be? It's not a high-likelihood event, but the results are so catastrophic you have to pay attention." He said that a relatively small, 1 kiloton bomb -- about one-fifteenth the size of the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima -- would kill most of the people within an 800-meter radius, or about a half-mile. Depending on the direction and speed of the winds, the fallout could spread for miles and poison huge numbers of people. Bunn helped prepare a study at Harvard that estimated a 10-kiloton weapon detonated in Manhattan could kill 500,000 people and cause $1 trillion in immediate economic disruption. One problem with a nuclear attack is that, unlike other kinds of attacks, there is no way of mitigating the devastation. "Once it happens, there's nothing to do except pick up the wounded and care for them," said May. That's a key reason Feinstein introduced the legislation seeking to prevent the theft of bomb materials. "The current approach will take 10 to 20 years to complete, at the current rate of about one facility per year," she said. "This is a time frame out of sync with near-term dangers." According to Allison, it is now estimated that there are perhaps 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world, mostly in the United States and Russia, but there is enough highly enriched uranium and plutonium stored around the globe for 240,000 more warheads. Also, there is evidence that Pakistani weapons scientists have met with Islamic extremists interested in obtaining bombs, and the U.S. military has found al Qaeda documents in Afghanistan demonstrating the group's interest in learning the technology and obtaining the materials to create the weapons. "The main certainty is that if we keep the fissile material out of their hands, we stop them from building weapons," said Bunn. "The key is, you have to secure the material at the site before it is stolen. The good news is we know how to do that. The issue is having a sustained political will." E-mail James Sterngold at jsterngold@sfchronicle.com. ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ ***************************************************************** 16 Deseretnews: Demo targets nuclear testing [deseretnews.com] Sunday, April 18, 2004 Environmental reviews part of Matheson bill By Lynn Arave Deseret Morning News Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, admits he's a "one-trick pony" this year — nuclear testing remains his No. 1 issue. "I speak about this wherever I go," he said. His latest discussion on the subject was at a Salt Lake "Town Meeting" Thursday night in the Student Union at the University of Utah, where some 70 people listened to his concerns and asked questions. He hosted a similar town meeting one month ago in St. George. Also on Wednesday, he spoke to students at Murray High School and to some senior citizens in Murray on nuclear testing. He hopes to have more such meetings in the future. Matheson, 43, whose father — former Gov. Scott Matheson — died at age 61 from a radioactive-fallout generated cancer, has consistently opposed plans to develop and fund a new generation of nuclear weapons. Last month, he introduced the "Safety for Americans from Nuclear Weapons Testing Act" (HR 3921), which would require the federal government to conduct an environmental review to assess health and safety aspects before resuming any nuclear weapons tests. Matheson said his bill centers on one word: accountability. "The goal now is to increase awareness," he said, explaining that even some St. George businesses, who don't care for his politics, recently passed a resolution supporting his bill. "I'm going to pursue every way I can figure out." Utah's senators and other representatives have not weighed in on the issue yet, according to Matheson. However, he said he knows it takes a long time to get such a bill through Congress — especially one like this that is assigned to three House committees. A push by the military to develop new types of nuclear weapons — including ones that could penetrate deep bunkers — is behind his bill. This act also requires Congress to authorize any future nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, requires government and independent monitoring of radiation releases and provides funding to further study health effects from nuclear fallout. Atomic testing in Nevada is believed to have put thousands of Utah families — especially those in the southern part of the state — at risk. "Downwinders" is a group that is also opposed to such testing. There could have been more than 2,200 nuclear tests — one every eight days — during a 47-year period that ended in 1992. Up to 500 may have been open-air explosions. Even the United Kingdom tested its nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Range. Matheson's bill would stop nuclear testing anywhere in the U.S. — even Alaska. More information on Matheson's bill is available on his Web site: www.house.gov/matheson E-mail: lynn@desnews.com © 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company ***************************************************************** 17 U.S. Newswire: Recommendations from the Western Governors' Association North American Energy Summit and Western Governors' Statements 4/16/2004 4:37:00 PM To: National Desk and Energy Reporter Contact: Karen Deike of the Western Governors' Association, 720-840-3526 (April 16) or 303-623-9378 (After April 16), ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., April 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following are comments from Gov. Bill Richardson, chairman, Western Governors' Association (WGA); Gov. Bill Owens, WGA vice chairman; Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizona; Gov. Mike Rounds, South Dakota; and Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Wyoming, on the North American Energy Summit: -- Gov. Bill Richardson, Western Governors' Association chairman: "This has been a very productive, bipartisan energy summit. "I appreciate the hard and productive work of my fellow governors, especially my friend and Vice Chair of WGA, Colorado Governor Bill Owens. "We have shown that a united West may not be too hard to achieve. "We can, in fact, unite around the goal of creating a diversified energy supply. "Governor Schwarzenegger and I, as the co-Lead Governors for energy, supported establishing some ambitious goals for the summit - the kind of goals that produce serious results. "No more "talk-talk-talk." The time has come to turn our region's energy policy around. "The states are the true innovators in creating a strong, sustainable energy policy. "And the Governors, Premiers, and energy officials are enacting visionary new incentives for a diverse energy policy which reduces our dependence on foreign oil. "Here at the North American Energy Summit, we laid the foundation for greater regional cooperation toward sustainable energy policies that will reduce dependence on foreign oil and create a lot of jobs in our region. "And we did that in a bipartisan way, in the WGA tradition. "We brought together entrepreneurs, investors, scientists, policy makers, industry, and clean energy advocates -- and for three days we were able to discuss common areas of agreement. "Now, as a result, we can proceed aggressively to have a more diverse and sustainable energy policy that will reduce risk to consumers and stabilize economies. "Governor Schwarzenegger and I presented a basic framework for a new western clean energy policy that has been improved upon by the Summit participants. "I was impressed by the useful, specific proposals for financing new clean energy technologies and projects. "The deliverables from this Summit included: -- progress on renewables marketing and trading among western states, with a plan for implementation in 2005 -- agreement to include Alberta in the western grid's transmission protocol -- release of a major new report suggesting best practices for coal bed methane development, agreed to by industry, landowners, and environmentalists -- a piercing new study showing how energy demand in the growing border region can be partly met by implementing basic energy efficiencies. "I couldn't be more impressed by the hard work -- the successful work -- of the 700-plus Summit attendees and participants. "I want to commend them not only for bringing forward important ideas, but also for working together so constructively. "Some of these participants have fought a lot in the past - but I heard never a discouraging word in the past three days, and there was some quality listening happening all through this fine hotel. "And now, I look forward to working with my co-Lead Governor on energy, Governor Schwarzenegger, whom I thank in absentia, to talk to our fellow Governors and develop a strong clean energy resolution that will be passed at the Western Governors' Association annual meeting to be held in Santa Fe from June 20- 22. "I look forward to seeing you there. -- Gov. Bill Owens, Colorado, WGA vice chairman: "The Summit demonstrated great cause for optimism in the West. Not only is our environment getting better all the time, but we have a region rich in resources that can meet our energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner." -- Gov. Janet Napolitano, Arizona: "Arizona could be the next Persian Gulf of solar energy. We already have a solar energy industry located there (Arizona). A lot of technical advancement in the solar energy arena is being accomplished in Arizona, and as everyone knows, we're a state where the sun shines. We average well over 320 days of sunshine per year, and that's one of our greatest resources, and we ought to use it." -- Gov. Mike Rounds, South Dakota: "Few things are more important to our country than energy. The Energy Summit has been a good opportunity for the Western states to come together to discuss how best to ensure that we have an efficient, reliable, environmentally friendly, and low- cost energy supply for generations to come. "From the South Dakota perspective, we can be an important part of building that future. We have the potential to be a national leader in renewable fuels. Next year our state will produce more than 400 million gallons of ethanol, and we are beginning to take advantage of the incredible wind power potential in our state. By working with private industry, other states, and our Native American tribes, I believe that we can make the production of renewable energy a driving force in South Dakota's economy." -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Wyoming (4/14/04) "The thing that is intriguing about this conference is that it takes that notion that you're to have multiple sources of energy, that you're going to try to develop them in some orderly fashion over time so that at the end of the day you've actually addressed the problem, instead of sort of responding to a near-term crisis." ------ Editor's Note: Recommendations from the North American Energy Summit, governors' statements and downloadable photos are available on the WGA Web site at: . /© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ ***************************************************************** 18 [DU-WATCH] Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #1 Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:37:26 -0500 (CDT) Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #1 PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO SUPPORTIVE LISTS In this Alert: 1. Restrictions on Vanunu's release announced 2. Action to Take 3. Recent articles & links of interest ----------------- 1. Restrictions on Vanunu's release announced On Thursday, April 8, a letter was given to Mordechai Vanunu detailing the restrictions the government intends to enforce following his release from prison April 21. Vanunu will have one week to appeal. An Israeli civil rights group is prepared to argue for his complete freedom, because he will have completed his entire sentence behind bars. Press reports say that the document, signed by Minister of the Interior Avraham Poraz, remind Vanunu that he is still bound by the secrecy agreement that he signed when he went to work at Dimona, and that if he violates this agreement he will be prohibited from using telephone/internet and might lose his freedom. He would reportedly be prohibited to go within 100 meters of a foreign embassy, or within 300 meters of Israel's international borders or the Occupied Territories. Also, an order prohibiting him from leaving the country will soon be delivered to Mordechai. As soon as details of the restrictions are confirmed, we will post an alert to this list and ask you to protest by phone, fax or e-mail to appropriate offices of the Israeli government. ----------------- 2. Action to Take In the meantime, please telephone the Israeli Embassy in your country. Tell them that you are concerned about Mordechai Vanunu and watching the situation closely, and demand he be set free without restriction by April 21. Washington, DC Political Department Tel: (202)364-5581, 5582 Fax: (202)364-5490 Press Office Tel: (202) 364-5538 Fax: (202) 364-5610 Ottawa, Canada Tel. (613)567-6450 Fax: (613)237-8865 E-mail: embisrott@cyberus.ca London, United Kingdom Tel: 0207 957 9500 Fax: 0207 957 955 E-mail: info-assist@london.mfa.gov.il The Hague, The Netherlands Tel: 070-3760500 Fax: 070-3760555 E-mail: ambassade@israel.nl ----------------- 3. Recent articles & links of interest From the Spring 2004 issue of I Am Your Spy, newsletter of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu: "I won. I'll be free. The gates and the locks will be opened. They didn't succeed in breaking me..." - Mordechai Vanunu, to his brother Meir, February 2004 After almost 18 years behind bars - nearly 12 of those in solitary confinement - Mordechai Vanunu will walk out of Israel's Ashkelon Prison on April 21, his conscience still whole, his motive still urgent. In a recent letter to the U.S. Campaign, Mordechai wrote: "We've succeeded in overcoming this long time of silence. Thanks to all the campaigners and supporters in many states. You were my voice, my conscience - you kept all these issues of secret nuclear weapons in the center and followed my path. "Very soon I'll be free. I'll be glad to meet you and to share with you my experiences, my views and work to continue that first act - for the abolition of nuclear weapons in all the world [several words censored out of the letter]. That is our mission and future target. We'll not rest until we see a new international agreement to ban, abolish all kinds of nuclear weapons. "Thank you for all the help and encouragement you sent me for the past 18 years. The reward you will get is to see me free, alive and very firm, strong in our way for peace and for the abolition of nuclear weapons. We believe it is possible and we can witness it in our lifetime, exactly as we celebrate the end of the cold war. "Our message is - The end of nuclear weapons is possible." More stories from this issue and links can be found at http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu ================= Mordechai Vanunu's Meaning for the Nuclear Age by Daniel Ellsberg http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/20040309ellsberg.html The Man Who Knew Too Much by Robert Fisk http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/20040326independent.html ================= If you would like to receive these alerts directly through April, 2004, please subscribe by sending a blank e-mail to free_vanunu-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Thnak You! ~~~~~~~~~~ Jack Cohen-Joppa Associate Coordinator U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 19 More on Vanunu Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 12:05:51 -0500 (CDT) http://www.labournet.net/world/0404/vanunu1.html Free Prisoner of Conscience, Mordechai Vanunu, With No Restrictions! Report by The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons Published on LabourNet UK 17/04/04 The International Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu April 14, 2004 The restrictions that the Israeli government intends to impose on Prisoner of Conscience Dr. Mordechai Vanunu, a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, after his release, as have appeared in the Israeli press, constitute an intolerable, unjustified and arbitrary violation of basic human rights, including freedom of movement and freedom of expression. The restrictions and prohibitions which the Sharon-Lapid government intends to impose characterise tyrannical regimes, and it is not surprising that the order was signed by the Homeland Defense Commander, based on the Draconian State of Emergency Regulations, the legacy of the British Mandate. We wish to remind the public that former Prime Minister Menachem Begin and two former Justice Ministers, Yaisov Shimchon Shapira and Dov Yosef, denounced the regulations as being Nazi in nature. Dr. Mordechai Vanunu, who was kidnapped nearly 18 years ago in a terrorist act of the Israeli government, should not have spent one day behind bars. He fulfilled his civil duty when he revealed, by means of the free press, information about the manufacture of nuclear weapons in Israel, information that was and is of importance to every citizen. By doing so, Vanunu exercised the democratic principle of the publics right to know. However, once Vanunu completes the entire prison term to which he was sentenced, his rights as a free citizen must be respected. The restrictions which the Israeli government intends to impose on Vanunu are a continuation of the mistreatment that began at the moment he was kidnapped. We strongly denounce and protest the continued harassment of Dr. Mordechai Vanunu by the Israeli Authorities and call on all people of conscience, in Israel and around the world, to join the struggle to lift all of these restrictions. We hope, that judges who are committed to human rights are to be found within the Israeli justice establishment, who will declare these restrictions to be illegal, and who will enable the soon-to-be released Prisoner of Conscience to live as a free person wherever he chooses. On April 20-21 Mordechai Vanunus supporters will gather outside Shikma Prison in Ashkelon. Details about these events will be publicised close to the dates. The Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons PO Box 7323, Jerusalem, Tel 02 - 625 4530, 051-368236 The International campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu ================ DEMO PLANNED for Manchester http://www.labournet.net/world/0404/vanunu2.html Vanunu to be Released - Drop the Restrictions! Report by Jacqui Published: 17/04/04 Hiya everyone, On Wednesday 21st April, the Israeli whistleblower and prisoner of conscience, Mordechai Vanunu is due to be released from Ashkelon prison after 18 years. However, the Sharon-Lapid government has imposed draconian restrictions on Vanunu, restrictions which mean he cannot approach any borders or embassies and is barred from any communication with foreigners even those residing in Israel - this includes face-to-face meetings, telephone, fax or email contact. He has also been told that he cannot have passport privileges and so cannot leave the country. Vanunu can choose his town of residence but once chosen he cannot leave the city limits unless he reports his intentions to the police force. These restrictions will be in effect for 6 months after his release and 'his behaviour' will be reviewed after that. If Vanunu does not try to circumvent the prohibitions the restrictions might be lifted, however if officials consider he has violated these restrictions he could be placed on trial. DOES THIS SOUND LIKE FREEDOM TO YOU? If it doesn't and you want to protest about these restrictions and express your concern for Mordechai Vanunu then join Greater Manchester & District CND at 12 noon in St. Ann's Square, Manchester on Wednesday 21st April. We are hoping to have a telephone link with our friends who will be at Ashkelon prison to greet Mordechai when he is released. EXTRA INFO Mordechai Vanunu was the first nuclear inspector imprisoned for telling the truth. He was a technician at Dimona, Israel's nuclear installation, from 1976 to 1985. He discovered that the plant was secretly producing nuclear weapons. His conscience made him speak out and in 1986 he provided the Sunday Times in London with the facts and photos that they used to tell the world about Israel's nuclear weapons programme. His evidence showed that Israel had stockpiled up to 200 nuclear warheads, with no debate or authorisation from its own citizens. On 30th September 1986, Mordechai was lured from London to Rome. There he was kidnapped, drugged and shopped to Israel. After a secret trial he was sentenced to 18 years for 'treason' and 'espionage' though he received no payment and communicated with no foreign power. He was held in complete isolation for 11 1/2 years, only allowed occasional visits from his family, lawyer and a priest, conducted through a metal screen. Jacqui ***************************************************************** 20 [DU-WATCH] anti-nuke activists stop train carrying DU to russia Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:41:30 -0500 (CDT) German source stories at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/04/79612.shtml, http://de.indymedia.org/2004/04/79569.shtml German anti-nuclear activists say they now know when uranium is railed from a plant in Gronau near the Dutch border to Rotterdam for shipment to Russia to be enriched. They report that on 6 April about 30 protesters almost stopped a 19-car train carrying depleted uranium from Gronau, Germany?s only uranium enrichment plant. Udo Eichenplanke (at nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de) wrote that the protesters were active in the evening in Steinfurt-Borghorst, M|nster and Bad Bentheim. He wrote that the depleted uranium is to be enriched in Russia and afterwards to be transported back to Gronau. "That means ample possibilities of blocking and stopping the things on the way back." Another writer on German IndyMedia pointed out that three to four such transports happen every year. "Apparently it's very cost-effective to do the whole procedure with and in Russia, as it was officially pointed out to NDR radio." "Congratulations! At last we're able to put a spanner in the Atom Mafia's works at its most vulnerable point!" Udo Eichenplanke wrote that this was the first time the M|nsterland region anti-atom initiatives were able to crack the secrecy around the nuclear transports to Russia and draw public attention to the dangerous cargo by several protest actions. "A transport accident could contaminate huge areas." Depleted uranium is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. It is both toxic and radioactive. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the radioactivity of depleted uranium effectively lasts forever. ( http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/metal_leftbooks.htm) These transports are licensed only by the German border police and the federal railways authority, Udo Eichenplanke points out. "They are carried out by the same company which this summer will try in vain to move 18 Castor transports from Dresden to Ahaus - Nuclear Cargo!" ( http://www.anti- atom.de/nuccargo.htm, more at http://www.wigatom.de and htpp://www.bi- ahaus.de). Udo Eichenplanke's account of the near-stoppage: "In Steinfurt-Borghorst a big deployment of police including a fat chopper of the border police had closed off the railway station. Despite this several demonstrators managed to get on to the rails for a short time. Attracted by the large number of police, many onlookers also watched the atom train roll through at 7.45 p.m. "In M|nster there were two protest actions at the old freight station and directly in the main station. The border police seized and temporarily held one person in the first action. "Between 8.40 and 9.25 p.m. the train stood for about 45 minutes at the level of Alfred-Krupp-Weg for shunting and ran twice through the M|nster main station, unguarded by either railway or border police! "In Bad Bentheim the atom train again stood more than 1 = hours in the station between 10.15 and 11.55 p.m. A spontaneous vigil of nuclear opponents formed at the rail-road crossing Nordring. "At about midnight the extremely long train left Germany headed for Rotterdam, from where the nuclear cargo is shipped to Russia. "So you see that there are enough points of attack to stop uranium transports. These are not yet as heavily guarded as Castor transports. These trains run all over the place without border police onboard, just with a driver! "The anti-atomic initiatives have made plain with their actions that they are able to demonstrate against transports spontaneously at several places simultaneously. "It is a scandal that the depleted uranium is delivered to Russia. Even depleted uranium can still be used for military purposes. "The Gronau uranium enrichment plant must be closed down immediately, because in Gronau the atomic fuel is produced that keeps the atomic power stations running and is later to be brought to the Ahaus interim storage hall as highly radioactive waste. "Anyone talking of getting out of nuclear power can't be allowed to promote the start of the atomic spiral. "But up to now the Social Democrat-Greens government of North-Rhine Westphalia has approved every expansion of the Gronau uranium enrichment plant. That clearly contradicts the abandonment of nuclear power pledged by Social Democrats and Greens." A licensing procedure for a massive expansion of Gronau is currently in progress. Environmentalists are demanding that the NRW government refuse the permit. The owners of the plant admitted just days ago to another disturbance in its operation.. Activist groups say they will step up their protests against transports to and from Gronau. They say the actions on 6 April were also the kick-off for the hot phase of resistance against the planned Castor transports from Dresden to Ahaus. "We call on all to demonstrate against the highly controversial atomic transports on 18 April in Ahaus and on 2 May in Gronau at the respective Sunday Strolls." On 26 April at 6 p.m. there will be a large demonstration at M|nster main railway station to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown. From 29 April to 2 May there will be a resistance weekend in Ahaus directly in front of the interim storage hall against the Dresden transports. On 30 April there will be a "Free&Outside Festival. (e-Mail:: nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de & Homepage:: http://www.nixfaehrtmehr.de.) camp ikks reports that camping will be possible at the resistance camp from 29 April to 2 May. "It's on a good paddock and all facilities will be laid on. So come along!" Meanwhile the NRW government has said it's preparing to litigate against the trucking of waste from Dresden-Rossendorf. It says it's asked a high-calibre lawyer to cheek out the juridical possibilities. "We want to exhaust all legal and political avenues to prevent the transports," said interior minister, Fritz Behrens, a Social Democrat. The state of Saxony is determined to truck 951 spent fuel rods 600 km across Germany from Dresden to Ahaus. Behrens demanded that "the inner-German nuclear waste tourism" must end at last. He called the "unnecessary assignment of thousands of police" irresponsible. After the terrorist attacks in Madrid the police had more important things to do. Social Democrat members of the federal parliament (Bundestag) from NRW have also spoken out against the transports to Ahaus. Their group leader, Hans-Peter Kemper, warned the Saxon government that solidarity between east and west Germany cannot be a "one-way street". Kemper pointed out that there is at the decommissioned research reactor in Rossendorf a hall of the same construction as the one in Ahaus. The only difference was that it hadn't yet been licensed as an interim storage for the rods. "Saxony can't just say 'we'll do without the licence and we'll send the stuff to North-Rhine Westphalia'," Kemper warned. He said a run of more than 600 kilometres presents high security risks and enormous traffic disturbances. Policing would cost NRW 50 million euros. The co-governing NRW Greens want to stop the transports by changing the law on giving up nuclear power. Their leaders in the state, Environment Minister Bdrbel Hvhn and Education Minister Michael Vesper, are demanding that if necessary the state should litigate in the supreme court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and the highest administrative court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht). Hvhn and Vesper also demanded that the Social Democrats in the NRW government intervene with federal Social Democrat leaders to change the nuclear exist law so that it requires interim storages to be set up also for research facilities at their locations. This is of central importance to stopping transports, they say. WigA has posted various possible routes from Rossendorf to Ahaus: Variant A: Rossendorf-A4-Dresden-Chemnitz-Gera-Jena-Erfurt-Eisenach-A7- Kassel-A44- Paderborn-Unna-A1-Kamen-A2-Recklinghausen-Gelsenkirchen-Bottrop-A31- Ahaus Variant B: Rossendorf-A4-Dresden-A14-Leipzig-Halle-Magdeburg-A2- Braunschweig-Hannover- Minden-Bad Oeynhausen- Variant B1: Bielefeld-Hamm-Kamen-(onwards like A) Variant B2: A30-Osnabr|ck-Bad Bentheim/Nordhorn-(Landstra_e)-Ahaus Transports can start from 27 May. More information at www.wigatom.de; www.nixfaehrtmehr.de; www.bi- ahaus.de; homepage http://www.wigatom.de ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 21 Australian report on Vanunu release. Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 11:11:49 -0500 (CDT) SEE BELOW: Dr Ephraim Sneh who chairs the Israeli Knesset's Defence Policy Committee sez: This is someone who did terrible damage, violated the law, and we had to bring him to justice. And you imagine that we can do other things to him? INTERVIEWER: Such as? EPHRAIM SNEH: You imagine, but we insisted to bring him to justice. Here's a reminder that bringing Vanunu to Israeli justice involved not extradition proceedings but kidnap. We recall the story that he was kidnapped in Rome,and placed in a crate which was loaded onto an Israeli ship as "Diplomatic Baggage". All this in preparation for a secret trial. Michael ================= http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1089464.htm This is a transcript from AM. The program is broadcast around Australia at 08:00 on ABC Local Radio. Mordechai Vanunu to be reased after 18 years in jail Australian Broadcast - Saturday, 17 April , 2004 08:28:00 Reporter: Jane Hutcheon HAMISH ROBERTSON: Scores of activists are now on their way to the Middle East ahead of the release from prison of Mordechai Vanunu the man who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program in 1986. Mr Vanunu, who worked as a junior technician in the Dimona nuclear plant, is due to complete his full 18-year sentence for treason and espionage on Wednesday. And, as our Middle East Correspondent Jane Hutcheon reports, an Australian priest is looking forward to a very special reunion. JANE HUTCHEON: Surrounded by pilgrims, we meander through the Christian quarter of Jerusalem's old city, but Father David Smith's thoughts are elsewhere, with the young Israeli technician he befriended years ago. DAVID SMITH: We really thought, I think everybody thought that over 18 years, people would forget him. It's extraordinary when you think that the momentum of support over the years has actually grown over those years rather than diminished. JANE HUTCHEON: Father David had been an apprentice priest when Mordechai Vanunu walked through the stately doors of St John's Church in Sydney's Darlinghurst in the winter of 1986. They shared a love of existential philosophy and became firm friends. Mr Vanunu had left his job at the secretive Dimona nuclear plant the previous year, but not before taking dozens of photographs which lead scientists to believe that Israel was capable of producing at least 200 nuclear warheads. It was in Sydney that Mordechai, or Morde, renounced his Jewish faith, converting to Christianity at St. John's. DAVID SMITH: I think Morde's conversion came at the time when he was struggling with issue about what he did with those photographs, what he did with the story he had, and he was on a spiritual quest when he came to Australia. He was trying to make that decision and I think his decision for Christ was very much a decision to go with that story to tell the world what he knew. JANE HUTCHEON: But Father David has now learned he may not be able to greet the man he's been writing to for 18 years. The Israeli Government has imposed severe restrictions on Mr Vanunu to take effect after his release. He can't leave the country, approach embassies, borders, or talk to foreigners. The state still believes he has more secrets to expose and the majority of Israelis view him as a traitor, including Labour politician Dr Ephraim Sneh who chairs the Israeli Knesset's Defence Policy Committee. EPHRAIM SNEH: This is someone who did terrible damage, violated the law, and we had to bring him to justice. And you imagine that we can do other things to him? JANE HUTCHEON: Such as? EPHRAIM SNEH: You imagine, but we insisted to bring him to justice. JANE HUTCHEON: Most of Mr Vanunu's family, originally from Morocco, have disowned him because of his religious conversion. But his younger brother Meir, who was given political asylum in Australia, has remained by his side and says his brother has been treated more severely than a murderer. MEIR VANUNU: I think it has to do with the fact that he coupled the two most sensitive issues in this country the nuclear issue and Christianity. JANE HUTCHEON: This weekend, as his international supporters rally to his side, they have little doubt about his actions. Father David Smith. DAVID SMITH: Did Morde do the right thing? Absolutely. I think Morde felt, and still feels, that he had a duty, not only to the world but to his own country, in particular to this country, to tell his people what was going on. Morde's expressed no regrets about publicising the story and I don't think he has any reason to. JANE HUTCHEON: Mordechai Vanunu's supporters, including Father David, believe his actions have helped Israel and may ignite a much needed debate about the state's weapons of mass destruction at a time when other producers in the region are under close scrutiny. This is Jane Hutcheon in Jerusalem for Saturday AM. ***************************************************************** 22 Lawyers Appeal "A Special Prison Just for Mordechai Vanunu." Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 09:03:14 -0700

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Lawyers Appeal "A Special Prison Just for Mordechai Vanunu."
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 21:20:58 -0700
From: U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu <freevanunu@mindspring.com>
To: Recipient List Suppressed:;


GenevaNews Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 18, 2004 Contact: Jack Cohen-Joppa, U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu 520-323-8697 Editors: Background info at www.vanunu.com. Call Jack for contact phone numbers in Israel. INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION AS LAWYERS APPEAL "A SPECIAL PRISON JUST FOR MORDECHAI VANUNU." Lawyers representing Mordechai Vanunu on Sunday appealed Israel's plan to bar the long-imprisoned nuclear whistleblower from travel within or outside of Israel, and from all contact with foreigners, when he is released from prison on Wednesday. Vanunu has spent nearly 18 years in prison, most of it in solitary confinement. "This is just the continuation of his confinement with different conditions," said Oded Feller, of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). "Pentagon Papers" whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg declared from San Francisco, "The outrageous and illegal restrictions proposed to be inflicted on him when he finally steps out of prison should be widely protested and rejected, not only because they violate his fundamental human rights but because the world needs to hear this free man's voice." The ACRI's Oded delivered Vanunu's appeal to Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Home Front commander Major General Yair Naveh, who both signed the decree. If rejected, Vanunu's appeal will then be brought to Israel's High Court. Mordechai Vanunu has served his full 18 year sentence. He has no more nuclear secrets to tell about Dimona, and he has promised never to name other workers he knew. "For his loyalty to the public interest he has been excessively punished. To restrict his right of free movement and free speech upon his release would bring the treatment of Vanunu to new, unimaginable levels of illegality and cruelty." said Fredrik S. Heffermehl of Norway, Vice President of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). The nearly 100 human rights and anti-nuclear activists from 14 countries in Israel to welcome the prisoner to freedom "will not be able to greet him face-to-face, shake his hand, embrace, or break bread with Vanunu without putting him at risk to be immediately arrested and returned to prison," said Rayna Moss of the Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons. "This is a destructive decision for Mordechai" said Mary Eoloff of Minnesota. Mary and her husband Nicholas Eoloff adopted Vanunu several years ago and are among the rare few permitted to visit the prisoner. They have prepared a room in their home to help him reestablish his life, but now may not even be allowed to correspond with their son. A visit scheduled at the prison for Monday, April 19 could be their last words with Mordechai for the foreseeable future. "This is an outrageous injustice not fitting for a democratic nation," said Felice Cohen-Joppa, Coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, who is now in Israel. "With these restrictions, the Israeli government is building a special prison just for Mordechai Vanunu." The U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu asks people of good will to call or fax the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, and demand that the restrictions be dropped and Mordechai Vanunu be permitted to leave Israel immediately after his release from prison on April 21. -30- In 1986, at the height of the Cold War, Mordechai Vanunu's clandestine photos from inside the Dimona nuclear center exposed its secrets and confirmed Israel to be a major nuclear weapons power. Kidnapped by Israeli agents just before his story was told in The Sunday Times of London, Vanunu was convicted of espionage and treason in a secret trial. He acted out of a belief that in a democracy, people should know about and debate such a pivotal issue as nuclear weapons. ============ ***************************************************************** 23 [free_vanunu] LAWYERS APPEAL “A SPECIAL P Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 09:14:12 -0700 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [free_vanunu] LAWYERS APPEAL “A SPECIAL PRISON JUST FOR MORDECHAI VANUNU.” Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 19:56:32 -0700 From: Janice Rothstein To: Alliance Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #5 PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO SUPPORTIVE LISTS AND FORWARD TO MEDIA IN YOUR COMMUNITY ======================= U. S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 18, 2004 Contact: Jack Cohen-Joppa, U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu 520-323-8697 Background info at http://www.vanunu.com Call Jack for contact phone numbers in Israel. INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION AS LAWYERS APPEAL "A SPECIAL PRISON JUST FOR MORDECHAI VANUNU." Lawyers representing Mordechai Vanunu on Sunday appealed Israel's plan to bar the long-imprisoned nuclear whistleblower from travel within or outside of Israel, and from all contact with foreigners, when he is released from prison on Wednesday. Vanunu has spent nearly 18 years in prison, most of it in solitary confinement. "This is just the continuation of his confinement with different conditions," said Oded Feller, of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). "Pentagon Papers" whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg declared from San Francisco, "The outrageous and illegal restrictions proposed to be inflicted on him when he finally steps out of prison should be widely protested and rejected, not only because they violate his fundamental human rights but because the world needs to hear this free man's voice." The ACRI's Oded delivered Vanunu's appeal to Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Home Front commander Major General Yair Naveh, who both signed the decree. If rejected, Vanunu's appeal will then be brought to Israel's High Court. Mordechai Vanunu has served his full 18 year sentence. He has no more nuclear secrets to tell about Dimona, and he has promised never to name other workers he knew. "For his loyalty to the public interest he has been excessively punished. To restrict his right of free movement and free speech upon his release would bring the treatment of Vanunu to new, unimaginable levels of illegality and cruelty." said Fredrik S. Heffermehl of Norway, Vice President of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). The nearly 100 human rights and anti-nuclear activists from 14 countries in Israel to welcome the prisoner to freedom "will not be able to greet him face-to-face, shake his hand, embrace, or break bread with Vanunu without putting him at risk to be immediately arrested and returned to prison," said Rayna Moss of the Israeli Committee for Mordechai Vanunu and for a Middle East Free of Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons. "This is a destructive decision for Mordechai" said Mary Eoloff of Minnesota. Mary and her husband Nicholas Eoloff adopted Vanunu several years ago and are among the rare few permitted to visit the prisoner. They have prepared a room in their home to help him reestablish his life, but now may not even be allowed to correspond with their son. A visit scheduled at the prison for Monday, April 19 could be their last words with Mordechai for the foreseeable future. "This is an outrageous injustice not fitting for a democratic nation," said Felice Cohen-Joppa, Coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, who is now in Israel. "With these restrictions, the Israeli government is building a special prison just for Mordechai Vanunu." The U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu asks people of good will to call or fax the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, and demand that the restrictions be dropped and Mordechai Vanunu be permitted to leave Israel immediately after his release from prison on April 21. -end- In 1986, at the height of the Cold War, Mordechai Vanunu's clandestine photos from inside the Dimona nuclear center exposed its secrets and confirmed Israel to be a major nuclear weapons power. Kidnapped by Israeli agents just before his story was told in The Sunday Times of London, Vanunu was convicted of espionage and treason in a secret trial. He acted out of a belief that in a democracy, people should know about and debate such a pivotal issue as nuclear weapons. ***************************************************************** 24 Vanunu - release restrictions appealed. Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 11:42:34 -0500 (CDT) http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/416722.html HA'Aretz (Israel) 18/04/2004 Mordechai Vanunu appeals limitations to be imposed after release By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu appealed Sunday against the restrictions on his movements following his release, which is scheduled for Wednesday. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) handed the appeal, at Vanunu's request, to Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Home Front commander Major General Yair Naveh, who both signed the order to restrict his movements upon his release. Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, has served an 18-year sentence, much of it in solitary confinement, for revealing details of Israel's atomic capabilities to a British newspaper. Poraz is expected to express Sunday his opposition to issuing Vanunu with a passport. Naveh has already issued a list of restrictions for Vanunu, including banning him from meeting foreign nationals, or leaving the area in which he has chosen to reside. Other restrictions include keeping at least 100 meters away from foreign embassies and an embargo on discussing his former work at the nuclear plant or the circumstances surrounding his kidnap from Rome and his subsequent trial in Israel. But ACRI says that the limitations are harsh punishment, which infringe on a person's basic rights. ACRI also asserts that Vanunu has already been punished enough for the crimes for which he was convicted. "This is just the continuation of his confinement with different conditions," said Vanunu's lawyer, Oded Seller. "These are the most serious restrictions." Seller said that if Vanunu's request to ease the restrictions is denied, he will appeal to the Supreme Court. Vanunu has expressed a desire to live abroad, Seller said. In addition, he would like to be in contact with his adoptive parents, who are Americans from Minnesota. ***************************************************************** 25 Toronto Star on VANUNU Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 11:58:53 -0500 (CDT) http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1082239810782&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968 Toronto Star Canada Sun. Apr. 18, 2004. MITCH POTTER Israel still fears whistleblower Vanunu to remain under `town arrest' after 18-year term JERUSALEM He left Israel on a mission of conscience to tell the world his country's deepest nuclear secrets, only to be reeled back for retribution by the long and perfumed arm of the Mossad, which beckoned with the false promise of sex. Eighteen years later, imprisoned whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has done his time and is about to write the next chapter in a spy odyssey worthy of John Le Carr. On Wednesday, Vanunu will walk away from his maximum-security cell in the coastal town of Ashkelon. But freedom is hardly certain for the former nuclear technician, now 50, though his sentence for crimes against Israel will have expired. According to new rules set down by Israeli security officials, Vanunu will be placed under a unique form of "town arrest." He may live in any place of his choosing within Israel but will not be permitted to leave that place without prior consent. He will be denied a passport and is forbidden from having any contact with the outside world, including foreign nationals living in Israel. The Israeli government defends the draconian limits of Vanunu's release as a de facto gag order. They fear he has more to tell, and is dying to tell it. But it is hard to imagine what more he could say than he did in 1986, when the Sunday Times of London spilled the atomic beans, revealing Israel to be the world's sixth-largest nuclear power, with an arsenal containing as many as 200 thermonuclear warheads. "All he wants is to leave Israel and never come back," Meir Vanunu told the Star after a rare visit with his imprisoned brother last week. "He doesn't want to be here an additional minute more than he has to .... He spent the first 12 years of his term in solitary confinement and they have him back in solitary again. But he is in an unbelievably good mood after all he has suffered. They have not broken him. He is still the Mordechai I remember." The Moroccan-born Vanunu has long been vilified in Israel, and not only for his revelations about the goings on at Dimona, the top-secret nuclear facility in Israel's southern Negev Desert. He is also despised for his conversion to Christianity, which happened in Australia some 19 years ago, shortly after he quit his nine-year job at the secret facility to go backpacking. In Sydney, Vanunu got a job driving taxi and became a member of an Anglican congregation, which, by coincidence, was debating the Church's stand on nuclear weapons. Vanunu told his fellow parishioners about Dimona. And he told at least one them, a Colombian national named Oscar Guerrero, about the two rolls of undeveloped film in his backpack film containing clandestine shots from Dimona, including models of various bombs. With Vanunu's blessing, Guerrero began to shop the story. Newsweek, among others, had no interest in so hot a potato. But in August, 1986, the Sunday Times bit, dispatching correspondent Peter Hounam to Sydney and eventually flying Vanunu to London so experts could question him in depth. Little did Vanunu know that the Mossad, Israeli's famed spy agency, was already on his tail. Then, as now, Israel maintained a policy of "nuclear ambiguity," neither confirming nor denying its weapons capabilities. According to several sources closest to the Vanunu saga, the Mossad's political masters were closely watching Vanunu's trajectory toward London. "Shimon Peres knew Vanunu was going to tell the story," says Jerusalem filmmaker Nissim Mossek, whose Mordechai Vanunu, Who Are You? is the most complete and unflinching documentary on the affair. "They were thinking, `Okay, so he is going to open the ambiguity a bit more.' But when the Sunday Times called the Israeli embassy for comment prior to running the story, the Israelis were shocked at the number of dots that had been connected. They tried everything to kill the story, Mossek says. "And at the same time, Peres arranged the kidnapping." It was a beguiling, almost Rubenesque blonde in Leicester Square that proved Vanunu's undoing. When their eyes met, he initiated contact: "Are you a tourist like me? Why don't we go for a coffee?" "Cindy" was her name, a beautician on holiday from America. She seemed to share his artistic appreciation, warmly suggesting a trip to the Tate Gallery. In the next days, Vanunu and Cindy became inseparable. And then they vanished. On Oct. 5, London readers awakened to a front-page photo of the Dimona reactor and three pages of coverage ranking Israel as a major nuclear power. And two months later, Vanunu resurfaced in an Israeli courthouse. Holding his hand out to photographers, he revealed his fate in black ink-on-flesh: "Vanunu M was hi-jacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86. 21.00. Came to Rome by fly BA504." The Times' Hounam put the rest of the story together. How "Cindy" lured Vanunu to Rome, promising a carefree getaway at a relative's apartment. How a Mossad team closed the honey trap upon arrival, assaulting Vanunu and pressing a hypodermic syringe into his arm. How Vanunu was transferred by speedboat to an Israeli navy ship disguised as an aging cargo vessel. And how he landed a week later, shackled, at Mossad headquarters, where a copy of the Sunday Times was tossed at him with a snarling: "See the damage you have done." Vanunu was convicted of treason in closed trail but spared the death penalty by a three-judge panel. His father renounced him because of his religious conversion. A few years ago, he was formally adopted by Americans Nick and Mary Eoloff, anti-nuclear activists from Minnesota. They are agitating to win a U.S. passport for Vanunu but have had no success. Nor did "Cindy" emerge unscathed from her assignment as a modern-day Mata Hari. After Vanunu's capture, Hounam undertook a new investigation, ultimately identifying her as Mossad agent Cheryl Hanin. The American-born Hanin has spent the last 18 years ducking journalists. Last month, she was confronted again about her role in Vanunu's capture by St. Petersburg Times correspondent Susan Taylor Martin. She now lives in a gated community in Orlando, Fla., where she has worked as a real estate agent specializing in luxury homes. "I have no interest in talking," was all Hanin would say. Hundreds of Vanunu's international supporters are converging on Israel this week to attend his release, including Irish peace activist Mairead Corrigan Maguide, who won the 1976 Noble Peace Prize and nominated Vanunu for the award in 2001. But for Meir Vanunu, who was himself forced to leave the country "because of the political persecution I faced for supporting Mordechai," a bitterness remains. "I spent 18 years building and sustaining an international campaign of lawyers, activists and celebrities lobbying on Mordechai's behalf," he says. "I even sat down with Brian Mulroney when he was still your prime minister. He promised he would follow up but nothing happened. "Is there another example in modern times where somebody who speaks to a newspaper has an entire country mobilized against him and the whole world is silent, including the great liberal country of Canada?" But many Israeli analysts say the irony is that, by forcing Vanunu to live a restricted life in a home country where he no longer wants to live, the government is inadvertently bringing new attention to the nuclear program at the core of the story. "I don't know if its stupidity or cruelty," says filmmaker Mossek. "But by not really letting him go, they keep the story alive. "If they just release him, he has a press conference and poof, it is forgotten. But this way, it goes on and on and they do 10 or 20 times more harm to Israel than Vanunu ever did." In recent months, the revival of the story has ignited new debate on nukes within Israel. Some commentators have suggested Vanunu ultimately did the country a favour by sending a clear and irrefutable signal to the Arab world of Israel's deterrent capabilities. But the debate does not extend beyond what do to with Vanunu. There remains in Israel scant little public knowledge of the weapons he exposed. "Look, Shimon Peres is the father of the program," says Mossek. "And you can understand that in 1956, with the memory of the holocaust so fresh, why he would try to build such a weapon. "But who is in charge? Why is no there open debate on what is going on there. Why do we need to be able to destroy Cairo 10 times over? We are not allowed to speak about it or know about it." David Kimche, a former Mossad operative foreign ministry officer, says Israel has "shot off its own foot" by mishandling Vanunu's release at a time when a U.S.-led coalition searches in vain for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "It would always be a bad time for this kind of thing to come back again, but this is especially bad." Which invites the question: Why the big secret that is no secret at all? Why doesn't Israel just declare its membership in the club of known nuclear powers? "It is a good question and I have no answer for it," says Kimche. "There is a very strong case to be made for Israel going legitimate. There always was. "But somehow, I doubt very much the revival of the Vanunu story will lead to any massive change of policy. Israel will just weather this storm, like the ones before it." ***************************************************************** 26 Las Vegas SUN: Israeli Nuke Whistleblower Makes Appeal Today: April 18, 2004 at 12:11:08 PDT ASSOCIATED PRESS JERUSALEM (AP) - The man who exposed Israel's nuclear weapons program to the world appealed a series of restrictions Israel has said it will impose on him after he is released from prison later this week. Concerned that Mordechai Vanunu's release after 18 years will refocus unwanted attention on its nuclear capabilities, Israeli security has said it will impose several restrictions on him. He will be prevented from traveling abroad for a year, from contacting foreigners and from discussing his work at the nuclear reactor and the circumstances surrounding his capture. He also will be required to inform the security services of his whereabouts. "This is just the continuation of his confinement with different conditions," said Vanunu's lawyer, Oded Seller. "These are the most serious restrictions." Vanunu asked the Interior Ministry and Israeli army on Sunday to cancel the restrictions, Seller said. If the request is denied, Vanunu will appeal to the Supreme Court, he said. Vanunu wants to live abroad, Seller said. In addition, he would like to be in contact with his adoptive parents, who are Americans from Minnesota. Vanunu, 50, told The Sunday Times of London in 1986 what he learned during his nine years of work as a technician at Israel's nuclear reactor. He was to be released Wednesday. Vanunu has said he has nothing more to reveal about his work at the reactor. Using the information and pictures Vanunu provided, experts estimated Israel had the sixth-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. -- ***************************************************************** 27 NEWS.com.au: Israel keeps nuclear smokescreen From correspondents in Jerusalem April 18, 2004 FOR the past 40 years, Israel has sought to maintain a veil of secrecy over its nuclear capacity even if Mordechai Vanunu's revelations erased any shred of doubt about its possession of an atomic arsenal. Ever since the 1965 inauguration of the Dimona plant in the southern Negev desert, the one-time workplace of the whistleblower Vanunu, Israel has consistently refused to deny or confirm that it possesses nuclear arms. But even before Vanunu, who is to be released on Wednesday after 18 years in prison, leaked details of the program to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in 1986, the official policy of ambiguity had left few people fooled. Israel currently has two nuclear facilities, the reactor at Dimona in the Negev desert built with French aid and capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and a smaller research reactor at Nahal Sorek, south of Tel Aviv. Under an understanding with the United States dating back to 1969, Israel has committed itself to abstain from any comment on its nuclear potential and not to carry out nuclear tests. In return, the United States does not pressure Israel to adhere to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which would oblige the Jewish state to submit its nuclear facilities to international supervision by the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency's Director General Mohamed ElBaradei recently urged Israel to give up its nuclear arsenal, claiming it spurred a regional arms race. “I am not happy with the status quo, because I see a lot of frustration in the Middle East due to Israel's sitting on nuclear weapons or nuclear weapons capability, while others in the Middle East are committed to the NPT,” he told the Israeli daily Haaretz. As an extra precaution, the whole program is also covered by military censorship, which the Israeli media regularly bypasses by quoting foreign publications. According to these “foreign experts”, Israel has used its reactor at Dimona to produce around 200 nuclear warheads. Peter Hounam, the journalist who first broke the Vanunu story for the Sunday Times, criticised Israel's “gall” for still failing to come clean about its capabilities but said it was determined not to upset its allies in Washington. But its decision to try to gag Vanunu at all costs even after his release was likely to backfire and serve to increase demands for clarity, he added. “I think that the international reaction to the way he is being treated will add to the impetus for the UN” being given access to the Dimona plant, he told AFP. “Everything about this stinks of hypocrisy,” he added. No Israeli leader has ever broken the long-standing taboo by unequivocally recognising the existence of a nuclear arsenal, but allusions have become less and less oblique. The former premier Shimon Peres, considered the father of Israel's nuclear program after reaching agreement with France back in 1956 for the provision of a nuclear reactor and uranium, effectively confirmed its existence in an interview with French television in 2001. “The suspicion and the fog which surround this project are constructive, for it increases our power of deterrence,” said Peres in a documentary on Dimona. Peres, who was director at Israel's defence ministry in the 1950s, has no sympathy for Vanunu's decision to turn the spotlight on the nuclear issue. Agence France-Presse Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10). ***************************************************************** 28 Bellona: Sutyagin Appeal Filed Lawyers for arms control researcher Igor Sutyagin filed an appeal to the Supreme Court protesting his conviction for treason, the English-language daily The Moscow Times reported. 2004-04-15 12:05 A City Court judge sentenced Sutyagin to 15 years in prison last Wednesday after he was found guilty of state treason in the form of espionage. Lawyer Anna Stavitskaya said the defense is protesting the replacement for no good reason of the judge and jury after the trial had begun and claiming that Judge Marina Komarova had misdirected jurors to ignore the non-classified nature of the information Sutyagin had passed on, the paper reported. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 29 Sunday Herald: Think tank dismisses wind farms as expensive, unreliable polluters - Leading economist tellsgovernment atomic energy is best policy By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Nothing could be more guaranteed to reawaken old hostilities. Forget wind power, the government is to be told, go for nuclear power instead. When an influential Scottish think tank unveils its proposals this week to replace the renewable turning of turbines with the radioactive decay of chain reactions, it will reopen a bitter argument that many thought was resolved. For the David Hume Institute, an Edinburgh-based fan of the free market, there is no real choice. Wind farms are expensive, unreliable and will wreck the countryside, it says, and nuclear reactors are a better way of reducing the pollution causing climate change. Plans for any new nuclear power stations in Britain were shelved by the government in a white paper on energy policy more than a year ago. Instead, Scottish and English ministers have enthusiastically backed a major expansion in the number of wind turbines, both on land and at sea. But on Thursday the David Hume Institute is due to publish a 70-page report that will challenge the government to think again. A copy of the report, commissioned from the Scottish economist Professor David Simpson, has been leaked to the Sunday Herald. Simpson was the founding director of the Fraser of Allander Institute in 1975 and professor of economics at the University of Strathclyde until 1988. From 1989 to 2001, he was an economic adviser to pension company Standard Life, and is now a trustee of the David Hume Institute, which is primarily concerned with market approaches to public policy. He is due to give a talk about his report Tilting At Windmills: The Economics Of Wind Power at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Thursday evening. One person he thanks for helping him is the engineer Robin Jeffrey, who helped build the Torness nuclear station in East Lothian, and who for a decade led the troubled nuclear company, British Energy. Simpson contends that the cost of generating electricity from wind power is twice as high as from nuclear power and gas. The extra costs of renewable energy are currently adding about 2% to domestic electricity bills, he says, and this is going to grow. He claims that if the government achieves its target of generating 20% of electricity from wind power by 2020 it will cost consumers between £1.2 billion and £2bn extra each year. Between £2.5bn and £4bn will also have to be invested to upgrade the electricity transmission and distribution networks. Because turbines only turn when the wind blows, the amount of power they provide inevitably fluctuates. Simpson says they will never produce more than 20% of Britains electricity and can make no substantial contribution to a reduction in carbon emissions. He suggests the erection of large numbers of tall turbines would also damage beautiful scenery, kill birds and interfere with military radar, and that this is why proposed wind farms have provoked passionate hostility in many parts of the country. Government should take advantage of the renewables review coming up in 2005/6 to reconsider the nuclear option. If they are approved as being safe by the nuclear inspectorate, the lives of some existing nuclear plants could be extended, he argued. Nuclear power avoids extra network costs, emits no greenhouse gases, and, as a baseload generator, contributes to security of supply. Government needs to ensure that solutions are developed within reasonable timescales for the management and disposal of nuclear waste if popular acceptability is to be gained. But Simpsons assumptions and conclusions are already under fierce attack . His suggestion that wind is twice as expensive as nuclear power is dismissed as totally misleading by one of the governments leading energy advisers. Gordon MacKerron, an economist who helped write a review of energy policy for the Cabinet Office in 2002, said that nuclear costs are highly uncertain and wind costs, though highly variable, are sometimes quite low. He argued that in future the costs of wind power should fall as a result of technological development and larger scale use, adding that the intermittency of wind power will not raise serious cost issues until the scale of wind generation is an order of magnitude higher than now. He said: Nuclear costs are inherently uncertain because all Europe and the US lack recent construction experience. In practical terms, little contribution to carbon emission reduction could be made by building new nuclear stations before 2020 because of the length of the overall planning process needed. Friends of the Earth Scotland pointed out that nuclear power has been resoundingly rejected by the free market which Simpson espouses. Luckily, British Energy went into economic meltdown before it was allowed to go into a nuclear meltdown, observed Dr Dan Barlow, the charitys head of research. Those who back nuclear over renewables and increased energy efficiency completely fail to acknowledge the deadly radioactive legacy nuclear power has created and continues to create. Trying to solve climate change with nuclear power would be jumping out of the frying pan into the radioactive fire. There are currently two major nuclear power stations operating in Scotland: Torness in East Lothian and another at Hunterston in North Ayrshire. A smaller plant, Chapelcross, in Dumfries and Galloway, is due to close next year, and prototype reactors at Dounreay in Caithness are being decommissioned. Simpsons report is also criticised by the global environment group WWF . The group argues that wind power is one of the cheapest ways of producing electricity in Scotland, while nuclear power has proven to be expensive, uneconomic and dangerous. According to Dr Richard Dixon, WWF Scotlands head of policy, onshore wind power is crucial now but will be supplemented by offshore wind and wave power in years to come. No sensible planner would rely solely on wind, he said. It is strange that an economist is so negative about a source of energy that is basically free. It is even stranger that he supports the nuclear industry when the costs and risks are so massive that the City has repeatedly refused to get involved. 18 April 2004 © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 30 Sunday Herald: Think tank: nuclear power is better for us than wind farms - By Rob Edwards, Environmental Editor A new demand for the government to dump wind farm plans in favour of building more nuclear power stations will be launched this week. A report by the influential David Hume Institute, a free-market think tank based in Edinburgh, will urge ministers to reconsider the nuclear option. Plans to build wind farms should be abandoned, it says. But the report is dismissed as totally misleading and economic madness by environmentalists. . The report, which has been leaked to the Sunday Herald, is due to be unveiled at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Thursday. Compiled with the help one of the nuclear industrys most senior figures, it says nuclear power is half the price of wind power. Government backing for renewable sources is currently adding 2% to domestic electricity bills, and could end up costing consumers an extra £2 billion a year, the report says. According to the director of the David Hume Institute, Brian Main, this is a stealth tax. The report was commissioned from Professor David Simpson, founding director of the Fraser of Allander Institute in Glasgow and a former professor of economics at the University of Strathclyde. He says he was assisted by Robin Jeffrey, former boss of troubled nuclear company, British Energy. But Gordon MacKerron, a senior government energy advisor, says it is totally misleading to say nuclear is cheaper . The cost of nuclear is highly uncertain, he says, and wind costs are sometimes quite low. The report is condemned in even stronger terms by Friends of the Earth Scotland, who have opposed nuclear power since the 1970s. Reactors create a deadly radioactive legacy that Britain has still not figured out how to deal with, says the groups head of research, Dr Dan Barlow. A return to nuclear power would be environmental as well as economic madness. Despite decades of support and billions of pounds in subsidy it remains an uneconomic, unsafe and unwanted technology. Last night, Simpson defended his report and said the costs he quoted came from the Royal Academy of Engineering. But he agreed nuclear waste was a problem. I would not be in favour of proceeding until there was an acceptable waste management strategy in place, he said. 18 April 2004 © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved y ***************************************************************** 31 Haaretz: Vanunu appeals limitations to be imposed after release News Updates Sun., April 18, 2004 Nisan 27, 5764 Israel By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu appealed Sunday against the restrictions on his movements following his release, which is scheduled for Wednesday. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) handed the appeal, at Vanunu's request, to Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Home Front commander Major General Yair Naveh, who both signed the order to restrict his movements upon his release. Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, has served an 18-year sentence, much of it in solitary confinement, for revealing details of Israel's atomic capabilities to a British newspaper. Poraz is expected to express Sunday his opposition to issuing Vanunu with a passport. Naveh has already issued a list of restrictions for Vanunu, including banning him from meeting foreign nationals, or leaving the area in which he has chosen to reside. Other restrictions include keeping at least 100 meters away from foreign embassies and an embargo on discussing his former work at the nuclear plant or the circumstances surrounding his kidnap from Rome and his subsequent trial in Israel. But ACRI says that the limitations are harsh punishment, which infringe on a person's basic rights. ACRI also asserts that Vanunu has already been punished enough for the crimes for which he was convicted. "This is just the continuation of his confinement with different conditions," said Vanunu's lawyer, Oded Feller. "These are the most serious restrictions." Feller said that if Vanunu's request to ease the restrictions is denied, he will appeal to the Supreme Court. Vanunu has expressed a desire to live abroad, Feller said. In addition, he would like to be in contact with his adoptive parents, who are Americans from Minnesota. Mordechai Vanunu is set to be released on Wednesday, after 18 years in jail. (Archives) © Copyright Haaretz. All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 32 Peer.org: 15-YEAR OLD WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ACT IS A FAILURE Peer News For Immediate Release: Friday, April 9, 2004 Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337 Anniversary Sees Few Protected, Paralyzing Backlogs & Fear of Retaliation Washington, DC  On the eve of its 15th anniversary, the federal Whistleblower Protection Act is in shambles, cut apart by limiting court decisions, plagued by long delays with fewer civil servants winning cases than ever before, according to figures released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). On October 10, 1989, President George H.W. Bush signed the Whistleblower Protection Act into law after unanimously passage by both houses of Congress. Congress had passed the same bill in 1988 but President Reagan pocket vetoed the legislation at the end of his last term. Today, despite a spate of high profile exposés by federal civil servants, the Whistleblower Protection Act has become largely irrelevant: + Whistleblowers Rarely Win: In the last decade, whistleblowers' have won only one of 85 decisions on the merits before the Federal Circuit. Since 1999, the Merit Systems Protection Board has ruled against whistleblowers in 25 out of 27 decisions on the merits; + The Office of Special Counsel Does Not Fight For Whistleblowers: OSC, the agency that is supposed to act as the civil service cop on the beat has not sued on behalf of a single whistleblower in recent years. Typically, OSC will dismiss a complaint even when it finds for the whistleblower but the agency does not agree voluntarily to take corrective action; and + Long Delays for No Results: Nearly a third of OSCs retaliation cases have been pending for more than 2 years without a result (167 of 598 cases pending in October 2002). This week the General Accounting Office issued a report faulting persistent backlogs at OSC and the absence of a strategy for reducing them. By just about every measure, the Whistleblower Protection Act has been a failure, stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch whose organization represents federal employees who raise public health and environmental and concerns. The few whistleblowers who win their cases do so in spite of and not because of the law. The Bush Administration has appointed a new Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, who had been at the Justice Departments Office of Faith Based Initiatives. Bloch has vowed to end the backlogs but early indications are that OSC is reducing the backlog by simply dismissing complaints and whistleblower disclosures. The performance of the Office of Special Counsel has been far less than special, commented Ruch, noting that Bloch has yet to take a position on pending legislation [S 1358 (Akaka) and HR. 3281 (Platts)] to strengthen the Whistleblower Protection Act. The last survey of federal employees showed that less than 8% of employees seeking help from OSC were even partially satisfied with the results a customer satisfaction rate that would put any business into bankruptcy. ### Read the GAO Report: “U.S. Office of Special Counsel—Strategy for Reducing Persistent Backlog of Cases Should Be provided to Congress”(Issued April 7, 2004) See how whistleblower disclosures of waste, fraud and abuse are piling up at OSC View the latest OSC Report to Congress Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local, state and federal resource professionals, working to protect the environment. PEER . 2001 S Street, NW . Suite 570 . Washington DC . 20009 Tel:(202) 265-7337 . Fax (202) 265-4192 . info@peer.org [Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility] ***************************************************************** 33 UKAEA: Fifty years of forward thinking [UKAEA Golden Jubilee logo] UKAEA is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. It was on 19 July 1954 that the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was formally established under the Atomic Energy Authority Act. Our task then was to pioneer the development of nuclear power in the UK. Today UKAEA is still a pioneering organisation, with two equally challenging missions. At Dounreay, Windscale, Harwell and Winfrith, we are decommissioning redundant nuclear facilities and restoring our sites for the use and benefit of future generations. At Culham, we are making a key contribution to the development of fusion as a clean technology for future power generation. Chief Executive Dipesh Shah comments: UKAEA has an outstanding history of innovation, and we can look back on a proud past as we work to guarantee a long and successful future. UKAEA plans to celebrate its Golden Jubilee throughout the 2004/05 financial year with a series of events for all its stakeholders. And look out for our Jubilee web pages which will be launched later on in the year. Real cutting edge technology [Cutting sodium tanks at Dounreay] An oxy-acetylene cutter is making short work of the tanks that were used to store liquid metal for the coolant system in Dounreays Prototype Fast Reactor. The cutter is breaking up four of the ten tanks in the sodium tank farm, each with a capacity of 143 tonnes, into manageable pieces. The other six are either still in use or being retained as part of the Sodium Inventory Disposal Plant. The work, by JGC Engineering and Technical Services, involves stripping the tanks of lagging and other external attachments, and removing all traces of sodium. The cutting process begins at the top of the tank, where a square starter piece is removed. The cutter then works its way along both sides of the tank, biting off square pieces, row by row, until everything is cut up. The tank jacket is 25mm thick and as the machine cuts into the steel, it sends up a shower of sparks. Project supervisor George Campbell explains, Before starting the cutting process, the tank is linked up to the water vapour nitrogen plant to remove any residual sodium. This process, successfully trialled at Janetstown, turns any sodium residues into salt water. There is no radiological contamination present, so we are able to dispose of the tank cuttings as clean waste. This means the waste can be taken off site to a licensed landfill site for burial. Watch Europes oldest reactor being taken apart [Cameras recording GLEEP decommissioning] UKAEAs operation to dismantle the GLEEP reactor at Harwell is being captured on camera. GLEEP was the first reactor to be built in Western Europe, and operated for 43 years before shutdown in 1990. Initial decommissioning took place in the mid 1990s, and late last year the final stage began as contractors moved in to dismantle the graphite reactor core. Cameras have been recording the work every step of the way, and you can see the progress for yourself with our photo gallery and video clip in the Decommissioning section. GLEEP photo gallery GLEEP dismantling video clip Dipesh Shahs speech to BNES [Dipesh Shah UKAEA’s CEO] UKAEAs Chief Executive, Dipesh Shah, was the speaker at the BNES Western Branch dinner on 24th March. Mr Shah spoke about his impressions since joining UKAEA, his background in the North Sea oil and gas industry and his plans for the companys future. UKAEA moves up a gear [Decommissioning work at Harwell] UKAEA continues to make good progress in preparing for the forthcoming changes to the management of the civil nuclear decommissioning sector. Monday 15th March saw the company submit its Near Term Work Plan to the Liabilities Management Unit (LMU), setting out detailed two-year plans for the nuclear liabilities work at each of the five sites it operates. In addition, UKAEA is launching its new business information system at the end of March and is preparing for the introduction of shadow contracts with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which is taking over the management of the UKs civil decommissioning programme in 2005. Attention is also focussed on delivering the companys next Lifecycle Baseline plan - describing the whole restoration programme for each site - to the LMU in June. Stephen White, UKAEAs Director of Business Improvement, explains: The successful delivery of these key processes and systems is central to ensuring that UKAEA is in the strongest position to operate as a contractor to the NDA. If we maintain the same level of determination and energy shown so far, Im confident we will achieve all the vital milestones necessary to prepare for our future under the NDA. View the corporate and site summary brochures here. ***************************************************************** 34 WorldNetDaily: Strange bedfellows APRIL 17 2004 © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The neo-crazies want to invade Iran and the loony-lefties want universal nuke disarmament. So, strange as it seems, they have each charged that if the Iranians are "allowed" to begin full-scale operation of their uranium-enrichment facility at Natanz or their nuclear power reactor at Bushehr, Iran will soon be producing "fissile" material with which to make nukes and/or to give to terrorists. Now, Natanz and Bushehr will be subject to International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards agreements. Furthermore, Iran will have signed an Additional Protocol, which gives the IAEA the right to inspect any facility in Iran, not just Natanz and Bushehr. So, by making these charges, the neo-crazies and loony-lefties are essentially attempting to discredit the IAEA nuke proliferation prevention regime. Consider Natanz, first. The bomb we dropped on Hiroshima was a "uranium-fission" nuke. But not all uranium is "fissile." In fact, only about 0.3 percent of the atoms in natural uranium are fissile. Since all uranium atoms have the same chemical properties, the very rare fissile isotopes – U-235 – can't be chemically separated from the non-fissile isotopes. Bushehr will "burn" uranium fuel that is "enriched" to about 3 percent U-235 by almost literally throwing out many of the heavier U-238 atoms. "Weapons-grade" uranium is at least 90 percent U-235. So many U-238 atoms have to be thrown out from a ton of natural uranium that only a few pounds of weapons-grade uranium remain. Nevertheless, the loony-lefties charge the Iranians can modify Natanz to produce just pounds of output, rather than tons, and the stupid on-site IAEA inspectors will never notice, nor be competent enough to perform a simple test to determine isotopic composition of the output. To their credit, the neo-crazies now realize the IAEA inspectors are neither stupid nor incompetent. They want an excuse to invade Iran. But they learned a lesson when they invaded Iraq, citing an urgent need to destroy the nukes and nuke programs the IAEA insisted weren't there. As the whole world now knows, the IAEA was right. They weren't there. Now, the IAEA similarly says that Iran has no nukes or nuke programs to destroy. So, the neo-crazies say, "Maybe not now, but as soon as the Natanz facility is up and running, the Iranians will abrogate their Safeguards agreement, throw the IAEA inspectors out and begin producing weapons-grade uranium by the ton. We must never allow Natanz to begin operating." And maybe Natanz won't begin operating, now that the Pakistani connection has been revealed. But how about Bushehr? Well, the bomb we dropped on Nagasaki was a "plutonium-fission" nuke. As uranium fuel is "burned" in the Bushehr nuclear reactor, a small amount of plutonium will be "bred." Initially, the Pu-239 isotope, which is "fissile," will be produced. But, as more fuel is burned, more and more non-fissile plutonium isotopes will be produced – some of them highly radioactive. All plutonium atoms have the same chemical properties. Therefore, when the "spent fuel" is chemically "reprocessed," the plutonium can be separated out. But "weapons-grade" plutonium must be about 90 percent U-239. So there is a definite limit to the length of time – about a year – the fuel can be allowed to remain in the operating reactor if weapons-grade plutonium is to be produced. But the IAEA will see to it that the Russian-supplied fuel will remain – on average – in the safeguarded Bushehr reactor for more than four years. Hence, the plutonium recovered from Bushehr fuel will belong to Russia, will not be "weapons-grade," and will be highly radioactive. The loony-lefties say that a terrorist wouldn't care if the nuke he made from stolen reactor-grade plutonium was essentially a fizzle. It would still terrorize. Of course, the loony-lefties make similar charges about any and all nuclear power plants, wherever sited. However, the neo-crazies don't make similar charges about other nuclear power plants. They just want an excuse to invade Iran and an un-safeguarded Iranian reactor would do just fine. So, the neo-crazies say, "Maybe Iran doesn't have nukes or a nuke program, now, but shortly before Bushehr has operated a year, Iran will abrogate its Safeguards agreement, throw out the IAEA and proceed to separate out enough "weapons-grade" plutonium from the Bushehr fuel to make a few nukes. "We must never allow Bushehr to begin operating." Will the neo-crazies prevail, or the IAEA? Well, the Russians and the European Union made a deal with the Iranians; sign and adhere to the IAEA Additional Protocol and we'll see to it that Bushehr is just the beginning. Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. [WorldNetDaily.com] webmaster@worldnetdaily.com ***************************************************************** 35 UK Independent: Vanunu released to life of 'internal exile' By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem 18 April 2004 Mordechai Vanunu, the man who first revealed that Israel had nuclear weapons, is "demoralised, worried and angry," as he finally prepares for the end of his 18-year prison sentence this week. In one of the more grudging and unusual prison releases of recent times, Mr Vanunu, 49, is due to walk out of jail on Wednesday at the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon and into a series of heavily confining restrictions, amounting to a form of internal exile. Mr Vanunu, a former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, spent almost 12 years of his sentence in solitary confinement after he was lured to Rome in 1986 and then drugged and kidnapped by Mossad agents after talking to The Sunday Times in London about Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons programme. According to his brother Meir, Mr Vanunu feels subdued and frustrated after warnings by the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet that he will be subject to tight controls on his movements. These were laid down in emergency legislation imposed during the British mandate in 1945 and never revoked by Israel. Meir Vanunu, who will be among more than 100 friends, campaigners and well-wishers outside the Shekma prison, says in The Independent on Sunday today that two months ago his brother was "excited about coming out, saying 'they didn't break me!' Now I fear for him. There are still plenty of people who regard him as a traitor." His supporters say the restrictions - which they intend to challenge in the High Court - bar him from talking to foreigners, including by telephone, fax or even email, and from going within 100 metres of a foreign embassy and within 300 metres of ports, airports, or border crossing points. Mr Vanunu will be allowed to live in a town or city of his choosing but will be forbidden to leave its limits unless he first reports to local police. If he adheres to the restrictions they will be reviewed after six months, but a separate order by the Ministry of the Interior forbids him to travel abroad for at least a year. He has indicated he wants to emigrate to the US and become an American citizen. Rayna Moss, a campaign member, said yesterday: "These are ludicrous restrictions, which only serve to show that Israel has been in a state of emergency for 50 years. They are doing it as a warning, telling people: if you tell the public the truth, this is what will happen to you." Adopting a doctrine of "nuclear ambiguity" - which campaigners say was fatally undermined by Mr Vanunu's revelations - Israel has never officially admitted to having nuclear weapons. But the CIA has estimated that it has between 200 and 400 of them. Mr Vanunu, born in 1954 into a family of religious Moroccan Jews who emigrated to Israel in 1963, spent three years in the army before being honourably discharged and going to work at Dimona. While there, he also studied philosophy at Ben Gurion University and came to the attention of the security services after becoming increasingly disenchanted with Israeli policies, and forming a radical group with other Jewish and Arab students. He began to take photographs in secret inside Dimona. But after being fired in 1985 he travelled to Australia and converted to Christianity. During a discussion on peace and nuclear arms at his local church in Sidney he was heard discussing some of his activities at Dimona by a freelance Colombian journalist who later approached the press. After he had been interviewed by The Sunday Times - but before the article appeared - he met, and was attracted to, a woman called "Cindy", apparently an American tourist. She persuaded him to accompany her to Rome. He was then kidnapped by Mossad and transported to Israel by sea, confronted with the by now published exposé, and convicted in a closed court of treason and espionage. UK Independent Ltd. ***************************************************************** 36 CNW Telbec: CNA push for nuclear in canada 19 avril 2004 Recherche The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) Supports A Balanced Approach For Ontario's Electricity Sector OTTAWA, April 16 /CNW/ - Murray Elston, President of the CNA, supports the direction set out by the Government of Ontario to meet the province's future energy supply needs with a balanced mix of electricity baseload power generation, including nuclear energy, and encouragement for private sector participation. "A balanced approach to future electricity generation which includes nuclear is vital to meeting not only Ontario's electricity requirements, but is a worldwide trend" said Mr. Elston, responding to Minister Dwight Duncan's new vision for the province's electricity sector announced yesterday in Toronto. "Nuclear energy provides 23.4% of electricity in OECD countries including 20% in the United States and 80% in France. In Ontario, nuclear energy is the workhorse of electrical generation providing about 45% of the province's electricity, powering almost one in two homes and businesses in Ontario". The nuclear industry is pleased to work with the Government of Ontario as the newly created Ontario Power Authority begins to identify ways to ensure long-term energy supply and create the right climate for the private sector to support and build the thousands of megawatts of electricity generation that will be needed over the coming decades. "While conservation efforts are an important part in keeping the lights on in Ontario," said Mr. Elston, "nuclear energy will be needed to help provide the 25,000 megawatts of electricity that Ontario will need by 2020. Today, the 17 nuclear power reactors operating in Canada help keep the air clean by avoiding emissions of about 85 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, per year - about 12% of Canada's total greenhouse gases," said Mr. Elston. "Further developments in nuclear technologies will provide more prospects for greater efficiency and future capacity in new reactor builds, such as the Advanced CANDU Reactor by Atomic Energy of Canada," said Mr. Elston. The Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) is a non-profit organization established in 1960 to represent the nuclear industry in Canada and promote the development and growth of nuclear technologies for peaceful purposes. For further information: Claudia Lemieux - Director, Communications and Media Relations, Canadian Nuclear Association, Tel.: (613) 237-9082, Fax: (613) 237-0989, E-mail: lemieuxc@cna.ca CANADIAN NUCLEAR ASSOCIATION - Renseignements sur cet organisme ***************************************************************** 37 ABS-CBNNEWS: A whistle blower mightier than Israel www.abs-cbn.com Sunday, April 18, 2004 10:40 PM By RENATO REDENTOR CONSTANTINO Vanunu’s only crime was to warn the world of the madness that had caused the leadership of his country, Israel, to stockpile up to 200 nuclear weapons. Mightier than the government of Israel. One man. He has been incarcerated for almost 18 years, 12 spent in solitary confinement, yet he remains freer than his tormentors could ever hope to be--the government of Israel, which continues to languish in the prison of its singular cowardice. His name is Mordechai Vanunu, whistle blower extraordinaire and the world’s first independent nuclear inspector. On April 21--the day before Earth Day, a fitting occasion--Vanunu will walk out of Israel’s Ashkelon Prison with his conscience intact and his motive no less urgent. The prisoner of conscience is a family hero, an icon of the global peace movement, a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize and a citizen of the world. If only for the message that Vanunu continues to carry and the example of his sacrifice, the Philippine government should be sending a peacekeeping force not to Iraq but to Israel. To receive Vanunu. To embrace him. To provide palpable support to a man who best embodies what is presumed to be a collective aspiration of the world the abolition of all nuclear weapons. From 1976 to 1985, Vanunu had been a technician at Dimona, Israel’s nuclear installation in the Negrev desert. It was at Dimona where he learned of and documented Israel’s secret production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. The world learned of Israel’s clandestine armory when the London Sunday Times published Vanunu’s interviews and photographs as its banner story on October 5, 1986. Photographs that revealed nuclear weapons devices, neutron bombs, deliverable warheads and “the underground plutonium separation facility where Israel was producing 40 kilograms annually.†In 1986. When America was still in bed with Saddam. Vanunu’s only crime was to warn the world of the madness that had caused the leadership of his country, Israel, to stockpile up to 200 nuclear weapons. An act of conscience for which Vanunu would be kidnapped and drugged--five days after the Sunday Times published his interview--and shipped to Israel to be sentenced in a secret trial to 18 years’ imprisonment Israel started the nuclear arms race in the Middle East yet today it remains the only country in the Middle East that is not party to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. Israel is the world’s sixth largest nuclear power yet the Dimona nuclear weapons factory, which Vanunu exposed, and Israel’s biological and chemical weapons factory in Nes Zion, remain closed to international inspection. Vanunu. The man who diagnosed what was wrong with the world in a poem he wrote in prison: “I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic, the driver. They said, Do this, do that, don’t look left or right, don’t read the text. Don’t look at the whole machine. You are only responsible for this one bolt, this one rubber stamp.â€â€œWhat we should be most concerned about is not some natural tendency toward violent uprising, but rather the inclination of people faced with an overwhelming environment of injustice to submit to it,†said the historian Howard Zinn. “Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide, and slavery--have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.†Vanunu chose disobedience, chose to obey his conscience instead, and was forced to spend the next 18 years of his life behind bars. Was it worth it? For this giant of a man, the answer is an emphatic yes. “We’ve succeeded in overcoming this long time of silence. . . You were my voice, my conscience--you kept all these issues of secret nuclear weapons in the center and followed my path, “ wrote Vanunu recently to his supporters in the U.S. “We’ll not rest until we see a new international agreement to ban, abolish all kinds of nuclear weapons. . . We believe it is possible and we can witness it in our lifetime . . . The end of nuclear weapons is possible.†“The dreams men dream in sleep are mist and shadow, said Barrows Dunham. “The dreams men dream while waking can be­ come the substance of a world.†True. “I won. I’ll be free. The gates and the locks will be opened. They didn’t succeed in breaking me,†wrote Vanunu, to his brother Meir last February. Giant, how do we repay you? We are all caught up in the thousand and one things that life imposes daily, but we will try. For starters, this Wednesday, on April 21, at the Embassy of Israel in Makati City, a small Filipino family will bring a garland of flowers to welcome you. And all of you who are free--especially this Wednesday--come and join and break bread. Tell Israel that it must get rid of its nuclear weapons and that it must sign the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons treaty. Send your letters and flowers to Israel’s embassy at Trafalgar Plaza, H.V. de la Costa Street, Salcedo Village. Each flower stem will serve to welcome Vanunu and each petal will symbolize the abolition of a nuclear missile. *** Dr. Mordechai Vanunu was kidnapped nearly 18 years ago in a terrorist act of the Israeli government and he should not have spent even one day behind bars and yet, as if all these were not enough, the Israeli government still intends to enforce barbaric restrictions on the Nobel Peace Prize nominee after his release from prison on April 21. Another display of the moral bankruptcy of a government all too often erroneously called “the only democracy in the Middle East.†Vanunu will be forbidden to leave city limits unless he reports his intentions to the local police force; he will not be allowed to approach any border terminal, including Ben-Gurion International Airport, the country’s ports, or borders with the Palestinian Authority; he is forbidden to be in contact with foreigners--whether in face-to-face meetings or by telephone, fax, or e-mail--including foreign citizens residing in Israel; he is not allowed to approach foreign embassies and divulge details to anyone regarding the Dimona plant where he worked or the circumstances of his being kidnapped and transported to Israel; and he will not have passport privileges, and therefore, cannot leave the country.Vanunu has formally asked to renounce his Israeli citizenship as a way to prevent the government from confining him to the country after his release from prison. Send your messages of concern regarding the inhumane restrictions on Vanunu to H.E. Yehoshua Sagi, ambassador of Israel, at fax number 894-1027 and via e-mail at pressil@info. com.ph. *** Comments welcome at xioi@ excite.com Please send your comments or feedback to newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com RENATO REDENTOR CONSTANTINO/TODAY ***************************************************************** 38 AU ABC: Mordechai Vanunu to be released after 18 years in jail Australian Broadcasting Corp AM - Saturday, 17 April , 2004 08:28:00 Reporter: Jane Hutcheon HAMISH ROBERTSON: Scores of activists are now on their way to the Middle East ahead of the release from prison of Mordechai Vanunu – the man who revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program in 1986. Mr Vanunu, who worked as a junior technician in the Dimona nuclear plant, is due to complete his full 18-year sentence for treason and espionage on Wednesday. And, as our Middle East Correspondent Jane Hutcheon reports, an Australian priest is looking forward to a very special reunion. JANE HUTCHEON: Surrounded by pilgrims, we meander through the Christian quarter of Jerusalem's old city, but Father David Smith's thoughts are elsewhere, with the young Israeli technician he befriended years ago. DAVID SMITH: We really thought, I think everybody thought that over 18 years, people would forget him. It's extraordinary when you think that the momentum of support over the years has actually grown over those years rather than diminished. JANE HUTCHEON: Father David had been an apprentice priest when Mordechai Vanunu walked through the stately doors of St John's Church in Sydney's Darlinghurst in the winter of 1986. They shared a love of existential philosophy and became firm friends. Mr Vanunu had left his job at the secretive Dimona nuclear plant the previous year, but not before taking dozens of photographs which lead scientists to believe that Israel was capable of producing at least 200 nuclear warheads. It was in Sydney that Mordechai, or Morde, renounced his Jewish faith, converting to Christianity at St. John's. DAVID SMITH: I think Morde's conversion came at the time when he was struggling with issue about what he did with those photographs, what he did with the story he had, and he was on a spiritual quest when he came to Australia. He was trying to make that decision and I think his decision for Christ was very much a decision to go with that story to tell the world what he knew. JANE HUTCHEON: But Father David has now learned he may not be able to greet the man he's been writing to for 18 years. The Israeli Government has imposed severe restrictions on Mr Vanunu to take effect after his release. He can't leave the country, approach embassies, borders, or talk to foreigners. The state still believes he has more secrets to expose and the majority of Israelis view him as a traitor, including Labour politician Dr Ephraim Sneh who chairs the Israeli Knesset's Defence Policy Committee. EPHRAIM SNEH: This is someone who did terrible damage, violated the law, and we had to bring him to justice. And you imagine that we can do other things to him? JANE HUTCHEON: Such as? EPHRAIM SNEH: You imagine, but we insisted to bring him to justice. JANE HUTCHEON: Most of Mr Vanunu's family, originally from Morocco, have disowned him because of his religious conversion. But his younger brother Meir, who was given political asylum in Australia, has remained by his side and says his brother has been treated more severely than a murderer. MEIR VANUNU: I think it has to do with the fact that he coupled the two most sensitive issues in this country – the nuclear issue and Christianity. JANE HUTCHEON: This weekend, as his international supporters rally to his side, they have little doubt about his actions. Father David Smith. DAVID SMITH: Did Morde do the right thing? Absolutely. I think Morde felt, and still feels, that he had a duty, not only to the world but to his own country, in particular to this country, to tell his people what was going on. Morde's expressed no regrets about publicising the story and I don't think he has any reason to. JANE HUTCHEON: Mordechai Vanunu's supporters, including Father David, believe his actions have helped Israel and may ignite a much needed debate about the state's weapons of mass destruction at a time when other producers in the region are under close scrutiny. This is Jane Hutcheon in Jerusalem for Saturday AM. [ border=] ***************************************************************** 39 Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook Station joins suit over Yucca Mountain Portsmouth, NH Sunday, April 18, 2004 By Susan Morse smorse@seacoastonline.com SEABROOK - The owners of Seabrook Station have joined a multi-lawsuit against the federal government over the Department of Energy’s failure to open Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a storage site for nuclear waste. FPL Energy Seabrook Station filed the lawsuit earlier this year, according to spokesman Al Griffith. In doing so, it joins other nuclear plant owners nationwide in suing the federal government, including utility company Florida Power &Light, the umbrella organization for FPL Energy. Florida Power and Light filed a suit on behalf of its Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear plants six years ago, Griffith said. Other nuclear power plants are at capacity for storing spent fuel rods and have turned to dry cask storage on site. Seabrook Station will reach capacity in four to six years, Griffith said. Being the newest nuclear power plant in the nation, "we don’t have the space issues other plants have," he said. Dry cask storage began in the late 1970s when pools at many nuclear reactors began to fill up with stored spent fuel, according to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Web site. In dry cask storage, spent fuel that has already been cooled in the spent fuel pool for a year is surrounded by inert gas inside a cask container. The casks are typically steel cylinders welded or bolted closed, surrounded by steel, concrete, or other material. Seabrook Station’s spent fuel pool, located underground, is at half capacity, Griffith said. Within four to six years, station owners will have to make a decision on storage and space. The Yucca Mountain site, designated as the nation’s nuclear storage waste facility, has been held up by lawsuits filed by the state of Nevada against the federal government. | Portsmouth Seacoast Online is owned and operated by Seacoast Newspapers. Copyright © 2004 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please read our Copyright Notice and Terms of Use. Seacoast Newspapers is a subsidiary of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., a Dow JonesCompany. ***************************************************************** 40 gainesville times: She signs 'to Russia, with love' - Local News - Sunday, April 18, 2004 By Jim Chapman When the Soviet Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded in 1986, Anna Leonova was a young doctor in neighboring Belarus, a republic of the former USSR. The resulting radioactive winds brought trouble. "They described it as a black rain," Anna said. "We started having new diseases, new symptoms," she said. "You could put a spoon against a patient's neck or chest and it stuck magnetically." "Medical people came from around the world and no one knew how to treat it," Anna said. "Vodka was the main treatment." And the fallout took its toll on the weakest. "Aged people and children were mostly affected," she said. Chernobyl left a deep scar on Anna; her own mother died of cancer. In 1991, she came to the United States to visit a friend and decided to stay. She later married an American and became Anna Casto. And she learned English. Today she is a nurse at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center and she's using her artistic talents in a special way to help kids who suffer from the Chernobyl accident. I'll get to that talent in a moment. As a footnote, I first met Anna in 1999 when my appendix ruptured. She smiled patiently as I constantly called for more painkillers and made tropical bird sounds following a middle-of-the-night emergency surgery. Since then, she's been on duty many times as family and friends have been in the hospital. And I always feel better when I see Anna. But back to the story. Anna, who began oil painting a year and a half ago, has blossomed into quite an artist. When Patrick and Jennifer Ceska of Oliver Galerie D'Art at Main Street Gallery on the Square spotted her paintings, they encouraged her. "We've been after her to show for a while," Patrick said. "Her work is unique and colorful." "It has a magical sparkle in the way she interprets the landscape," Jennifer said. Beginning April 23, Anna's oil paintings will be on exhibit, and here's the cool part: All of the profits will go to help three very special children who suffer from the Chernobyl disaster. One child was born with holes in her heart, another with a brain cyst and another has thyroid problems. They need to be flown to Europe for additional treatment. But few folks have the resources for such. Currently even a doctor earns only $150 per month in Russia. So Anna paints to help these kids, and to express a bright song of life despite life's hard licks. And almost 20 years after Chernobyl, Anna is still taking care of the sick in Belarus, just like she takes care of us here in Hall. Way to go, Anna. Jim Chapman's book "The Call of the Wild Wasn't Long Distance" is sold at The Times (770) 532-1234. E-mail: jchap man@gainesvilletimes.com. Originally published Sunday, April 18, 2004 Copyright ©2004 The Times. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 41 portclinton news herald: What we said - Saturday, April 17, 2004 EDITORIALS MONDAY on former nuclear plant workers waiting for aid: Of the 22,000 eligibile workers who have filed for help, fewer than 400 have even been told about the validity of their claims. This an emotional and financial tragedy heaped on top of a health tragedy. And, we fear, it could simply be an example of people with little real political clout getting results from the government. This is a problem that must be solved. We are neglecting people who made sacrifices for the good of our country, sacrifices that helped to keep us safe and helped in efforts to maintain peace around the world. Our representatives should demand that this process become more effective. TUESDAY on supporting the new football coach: The naming of Toby Hammond as the new football coach at Port Clinton High School provides new hope and new challenge. Hammond, who comes to the Redskins from Tiffin Calvert High School, has a successful track record and a sensible attitude. He knows that he's the man who has to make the tough decisions and provide the motivation, but he's fully aware that the success or failure of the football program depends on a lot more than him. It's important that the community not undermine the efforts. It's important that the community provide the positive support that gives Hammond and the athletes he is coaching a chance to succeed. WEDNESDAY on providing mental health care for children: With some fanfare, the governor last week announced an action plan to improve mental health services for Ohio's children and eliminate the practice of requiring parents to relinquish custody of children in order to obtain mental health care. The action, of course, came on the heals of a Cincinnati Enquirer series, partially printed and localized in this newspaper, that reviewed the sad state of affairs in dealing with mental health issues for Ohio's children. ... Why did it take a series of newspaper articles to prod the governor into action? It's too bad that the governor and others will respond to negative publicity faster than they will respond to the needs of the people of Ohio. THURSDAY on Terra's color matching program: In a time when too many college graduates hunt unsuccessfully for the starts to their careers and other young people struggle to find good-paying jobs, the Terra Community College color matching program should be getting more attention. Good-paying jobs are going unfilled, scholarships are going unclaimed and openings remain in the nationally respected program. ... It appears to be a great opportunity at a time when good-paying jobs are not plentiful in our area. We suggest that young people give the program a look. FRIDAY on the reopening of the Island House Inn: Five months after an early morning fire resulted in extensive smoke and water damage and shut down the historic hotel, The Island House Inn reopened Thursday. The remodeled facility has an elegant look that solidifies its position as a classy anchor to the Port Clinton downtown area. Owners Dave and Pam Waleri and Jim Ziebert have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in restoring the inn. It should be good for their business. It definitely is good for Port Clinton. Originally published Saturday, April 17, 2004 Copyright ©2004 News Herald. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 42 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nation watching Diablo lawsuit | 04/18/2004 | Local activists want more say in nuclear plant safety, take case to federal court David Sneed The Tribune San Luis Obispo County has quickly become a national test case for public involvement in nuclear power plant safety. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has required significant improvements in nuclear plant security. But many communities -- including those in San Luis Obispo County -- are demanding a greater role in making nearby nuclear facilities safer from attack and are complaining about agency policies that discourage such participation. On March 15, local nuclear activists sued the federal government to force public hearings on the environmental impacts of a terrorist attack on a proposed storage facility for highly radioactive waste at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. "We need to identify security concerns before it's too late and vet those issues directly with members of the public who face the greatest danger," said Pat Veesart of the Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. For the activists group Mothers for Peace, the suit is a high-water mark of 33 years of advocacy and opposition to Diablo Canyon. With it, the group accomplished something rare -- it forced a question of nuclear safety out of the hands of the NRC and into the federal courts. And the group gained some high-profile allies. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and state attorneys general from Washington, Utah and Massachusetts, as well as San Luis Obispo County, have all filed briefs supporting the activists' request for public hearings. "Mothers for Peace (has) had the dogged determination to take this fight further than anyone," said Jim Warren, executive director of the North Carolina Waste Awareness Network, a nonprofit group that monitors nuclear waste issues. The federal government and nuclear industry oppose the hearings. They say the hearings are not required and would reduce security at nuclear plants by revealing too many details about security precautions. "It's like putting a combination lock on your house and writing the combination on the front door," said Jeff Lewis, Diablo Canyon spokesman. "The more you expose security, the less you have of it." NRC critics counter that specific aspects of plant security should remain confidential. But these can be reviewed by local governments in special closed-door hearings while still allowing the general public to participate in a broader debate on security. The case -- San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- will be heard this summer by a federal court of appeals in San Francisco. The outcome of the case has serious national implications, legal experts say. It will determine whether state and local governments have a meaningful oversight role in protecting not only nuclear power plants but also shipments of nuclear waste to a centralized storage repository, said David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for Washington state. "Many states have nuclear power plants, and many will have shipments of nuclear waste through their states," Mears said. "We have an obligation to ensure that our citizens are protected and federal government follows the law." In March, the NRC issued Pacific Gas and Electric Co. a license to build the dry-cask storage facility, which will begin operation in 2006, at Diablo Canyon. The facility can hold as many as 138 dry casks, each containing as many as 32 depleted but still highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies. Outside interest Washington officials are interested in the case because the state has both the nuclear-powered Columbia generating station near Richland and the federal Department of Energy's Hanford Station where nuclear waste is stored. Critics of the NRC say its refusal to hold hearings before issuing a license for the Diablo Canyon storage facility is eroding public confidence in nuclear security and is depriving the agency of valuable insight from local governments, which would share the burden of dealing with a terrorist attack. "More importantly, the NRC has cut itself off from the practical benefit of the unique local knowledge that the county's citizens and elected representatives would bring to a consideration of alternative measures to mitigate the environmental impacts of terrorist threats," San Luis Obispo County lawyers wrote in their friend-of-the-court brief. State and county attorneys point out that the NRC has procedures in place that allow it to hold closed-door hearings on sensitive security matters. Only state and county lawyers and prescreened members of the public would be allowed to participate, and they would be prohibited from revealing any classified details. "No one could seriously believe that the county would fail to comply with any protective order," the county counsel wrote in his brief. A case in point There is no better example of the agency's refusal to consider local public input than the Diablo Canyon storage proposal, agency critics contend. Not only did the NRC refuse to hold public hearings, it ignored recommendations by the county to make the facility safer, citing rules that reserve the authority to regulate security and radiation health issues to the federal government. While state and local governments are generally pre-empted from regulating storage of high-level nuclear waste, the rules are not ironclad. For example, the state of Minnesota has limited its Prairie Island nuclear plant to 17 dry casks. The county Planning Department examined the vulnerability of the proposed storage facility as part of its environmental impact report. It concluded that the facility could be vulnerable to attacks using a wire-guided antitank missile from a boat or an impact from an explosive-laden smaller aircraft. Planners recommended a series of security enhancements to minimize that threat, many dealing with making the facility more robust. None of the recommendations were incorporated into the NRC license for the Diablo Canyon facility, issued March 22. "Perhaps more than any other single case, this illustrates how the NRC has denied the public any access to the decision-making process in protecting the plant from terrorist attack," said Diane Curran, the attorney representing Mothers for Peace. "I don't know of any other case that has been presented quite so graphically." Measures of security NRC and nuclear-energy officials respond to public concerns about safety by pointing out that nuclear power plants lead the way in industrial security. Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, nuclear plants were guarded by well-armed paramilitary security forces. They also cite studies that have concluded that the dry cask canisters that will be used at Diablo Canyon could withstand rocket attacks and impacts by planes. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the industry has spent more than $500 million to enhance security. Much of this additional protection is in the form of more armed guards and road barriers that would prevent terrorists from getting close to nuclear plants. Nationally, nuclear plants employ some 7,000 security guards. "The bottom line is that these plants were safe and secure before 9/11, and they are even safer now," said Mitch Singer, a spokesman with the industry lobbying group, the Nuclear Energy Institute. Critics of the NRC acknowledge that many security improvements have been made. But these, too, are done behind closed doors and without community involvement, said Denise Chancellor, Utah assistant attorney general. "The state and public have no ability to review what they are doing and give input," she said. There were good reasons for this, said Dave McIntyre, an NRC spokesman. The agency needed to act quickly after the terrorist attacks, and the agency's public rule-making process would have taken too long. "Rule making can take a couple of years," McIntyre said. "The threat environment required quick action." 'Remote and speculative' Utah officials have been dealing with the NRC for seven years as they challenge various aspects of a proposed private storage dump for high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Goshute Indian Reservation. In fact, it was the NRC's ruling on the Utah case that set the precedent for the agency's decision not to hold Diablo Canyon public hearings, said Charles Mullins, a senior attorney with the NRC. The commission ruled that it does not have to consider terrorism when doing the environmental analysis of a proposed nuclear storage facility because attacks by terrorists are "remote and speculative events." Instead, the agency has conducted an industrywide assessment of security at commercial nuclear power plants across the country. The numerous generic security enhancements mandated by the NRC since Sept. 11, 2001, are the result of that assessment, Mullins said. State attorneys reject the idea that terrorist attacks are speculative and cite the Bush administration's frequent warnings about them. "As we all know, everyone's perception of the risk of terrorist attack has changed dramatically since Sept. 11," Mears said. Mothers for Peace estimates that it will need $100,000 to finance the lawsuit. It has formed a new group, called the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility, which allows businesses and organizations to support the lawsuit without joining Mothers for Peace, said Rochelle Becker, longtime Mothers activist. One business that has joined the alliance is Guayaki, a San Luis Obispo-based yerba mate tea company. Guayaki prides itself on being environmentally responsible and is concerned that not enough is being done to protect Diablo Canyon from a terrorist attack, said Candi Pemberton, company spokeswoman. "We are not saying we don't want nuclear energy," Pemberton said. "We are just saying we need to be hyperaware of the consequences." Going through the motions Before it could file its lawsuit, Mothers for Peace had to exhaust all of its administrative appeals within the NRC, a process that took more than two years. During that time, the group had to file numerous requests, briefings, appeals and other legal motions. It is a daunting and expensive process that other nonprofit groups faced with similar high-level nuclear waste issues have not been able to complete, said Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Some groups didn't even want to try, and others did but didn't go about it as efficiently as the Mothers for Peace did," Lochbaum said. "They've been around a long time and have a lot of relationships with state and local officials." Becker, the most visible face of Mothers for Peace, has been active with the group for 28 years. She said persistence is one of its main assets. "It helps to have a history," she said. "We didn't lose heart when the NRC decided against us. In fact, we would have been shocked if they hadn't." The group got its name from the small group of founding women. They were opposed to the Vietnam War and later shifted their focus when Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant was proposed in the 1970s. Not everyone admires the work of the group. Mothers' history of opposition to nuclear power undercuts its contentions that it is interested in improving security at Diablo Canyon, Singer said. "They are an avowedly antinuclear group interested in shutting Diablo Canyon down," he said. "We question their motivations." But Mothers for Peace has earned the respect of other nuclear watchdog groups across the country. They are closely tracking the progress of the lawsuit. "We think it is an investment in our future as well," said Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, in Harrisburg, Pa. "This suit will impact all nuclear power plants in the country, and I can't think of a better group to carry it forward than Mothers for Peace." ***************************************************************** 43 JOURNAL NEWS: Riverkeeper urges seniors to help close Indian Pt. By RANDI WEINER THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: April 17, 2004) Ann Furman already knew she wanted the Indian Point power plant to close; Murray Forman wasn't sure. Both were among two dozen senior citizens who attended a two-hour discussion yesterday about Westchester County's nuclear power plant led by members of Riverkeeper, an environmental organization campaigning to shut the plant. "I want to form a framework in my mind about what's taking place at Indian Point," Forman, 75, of Monsey, said. The Rockland County Senior Health Care Coalition invited two Riverkeeper representatives to talk about the health dangers of Indian Point for its monthly seniors meeting. The subject originally was scheduled for March 18, but was canceled because of bad weather. Yesterday, about 24 people met in the Spring Valley campus of Rockland Community College to listen to Kyle Rabin and Lisa Rainwater talk about the dangers of Indian Point's facility, which they said was a unique terrorist target that isn't being treated like one. Its safety measures are inadequate and its plans to store waste material in what essentially is an open football-sized cement pad is bad science and bad safety, they said. "New York City is a target for terrorists: the Hudson River is a navigational point," Rabin said. "The key issue is 'Can we protect people in the advent of a nuclear release? Is there an emergency plan?' The plans are inadequate. They're unworkable. They're unfixable. If you can't have an emergency plan that works, the plant should not be open." He pointed to the large number of people who live within 10 miles of the plant in Buchanan and the tens of thousands more who live within 50 miles who would have to try to get away on a constricted road system. Rabin's criticisms were disputed by Jim Steets, communication manager for Entergy, which owns the Indian Point plant. Everything the plant does is within the approved guidelines of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the operations of nuclear plants, he said. "We took (security) seriously before 9/11 and are required by NRC regulations to meet specific practices. We've spent $30 million on security upgrades since 9/11," he said, citing new fencing, more security guards, more surveillance systems, better identity checks for people with business in the plant and procedures to keep out unauthorized people. He said that the building's structure was examined after Sept. 11 to detect weaknesses, and that the inch-thick steel protection for radioactive areas, including pools to cool spent fuel rods, was adequate to protect the plants from attack by air. "These were very capable superstructures intended specifically to protect the spent fuel and radioactive materials before 9/11," he said. "It's not like we've done an awful lot since 9/11, but we had capability before 9/11 and that included protecting the reactor." Steets also said that the plans to store waste material in the open in steel-lined cement casks is a proven, safe way to handle the issue and is approved by the NRC. Rabin urged the audience to get involved in the movement to close the plant by writing to politicians, attending meetings and telling their friends to do the same. "This campaign to close Indian Point nuclear power plant is continuing to gain momentum," he said. "Our government needs to spend more money and research on the study of nuclear power plants." Furman, 72, of Chestnut Ridge, said she originally came to see what she could do to help close the plant. She applauded Riverkeeper for their presentation. "I thought it was very good. I thought they covered a great deal. I think they're really doing a good job bringing it to the public's attention, but there still has to be more," she said. Rainwater, the outreach coordinator for Riverkeeper's Indian Point effort, said she felt the meeting went well. "I think most of the people knew about Indian Point and knew some of the design flaws, but didn't have all the facts," she said. "I think they came away today with a better understanding of the issues and what they can do to help in the fight to close Indian Point. I think in the end, they were all convinced." Forman said that the meeting contained information he hadn't been aware of, describing his opinion on closure as "borderline." However, he said, he now is convinced that something needs to be done. "There are emissions that are released into the air and it goes somewhere," he said. "My present thinking is it should be closed." Copyright 2004 The Journal News, . Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties in New York. Use of ***************************************************************** 44 Hi Pakistan: Production of power plants' equipment to be increased --> April 19 2004 ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) has decided to increase the local production of mechanical equipment and sophisticated components and parts required for the upcoming nuclear power plants , including Chasma Power Plant-II. Sources said here that the government had initially agreed to provide Rs462 million for the "Infrastructure Facility for Support &Research and Development Activities in Designs &Manufacture of Mechanical Equipment Project" to be formally approved by the Planning Commission anytime soon. The main objective of the project is to provide design and development facilities of fabrication-based mechanical equipment for the "classified projects of the PAEC and strategic projects of the country." According to an official estimate and assessment of the Chinese supplier of the Chasma-2 project, the PAEC would be able to design and produce more than 200 equipment with the existing facilities. The project shall substantially increase indegenization as a result. The project shall be located within the premises of the Nuclear Equipment Workshop Project-3 (NEW-3) in Taxila, Rawalpindi district. The PAEC informed the Planning Commission that currently there was no organization that could carry out similar jobs of the needed size, precision and quality of standards and confidentiality as the NEW-3. However, some work is being carried out in Pakistan Welding Institute of the PAEC. The Nuclear Equipment Workshop is already making contributions to the PAEC programmes. It has designed, produced and supplied mechanical equipment and parts, which were not importable in the country due to embargoes, bans and sanctions on Kanupp, KRL, Suparco, and NDC. The project shall increase the indigenous share in the supply of mechanical equipment and parts for the national projects such as C-2, C4-1, KCI, etc. "Restrictions on the supply of equipment and machinery for our national objectives justify granting of top priority to the project so as to march fast on the road leading to indigenization and local manufacturing in all areas," the PAEC informed the Planning Commission. "The project will result in facilitating more working area, handling and testing facilities, design activities through computerized systems and shall result in more production for the classified projects. "As such unit cost for these manufacturing activities for a larger variety of products cannot be given," the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission said. The project requires no additional manpower as NEW-3 Project already has sufficient administrative and managerial staff, skills and unskilled labour, the PAEC maintained. Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 45 Columbus Telegram: NPPD wind farm's size still up in air By CLARK GRELL, Telegram Staff Writer COLUMBUS - The size of a future Nebraska energy source is still up in the air. A request to determine the size of a wind turbine farm near Ainsworth was put on hold at Friday's Nebraska Public Power District board of directors meeting. Earlier, during the president's report, NPPD President and CEO Bill Fehrman asked for approval of the wind farm's final size. The suggested size was 60 megawatts, however, some NPPD board members thought it would be best to fill the plant's capacity of 75 megawatts (50 towers). "Adding 15 (megawatts) is very small," board member Larry Kuncl of Columbus said. "I believe we should build that site to its capacity." According to Beth Boesch, NPPD corporate communication senior manager, NPPD customers have expressed an interest in a 60-megawatt wind farm but some were not supportive of adding the extra 15 megawatts. In a presentation to the board at its December meeting, it was shown that the cost of a 75-megawatt wind farm would be nearly $100 million, or $1,332 per kilowatt. A 50-megawatt wind farm would cost NPPD $68.9 million, or $1,392 per kilowatt. The extra 15-megawatts would mean an additional $20 million dollars. "We've got to respect our customers' opinion," board member Ken Schmieding of Seward said. "I feel we're obligated at taking one step at a time." The board voted 6-5 in favor of moving forward with the 75-megawatt wind farm. Voting in favor of the resolution were Kuncl, Gary Thompson of Beatrice, Ralph Holzfaster of Paxton, Warren Cook of Norfolk, Mary Harding of Lincoln and board chairman Wayne Boyd of South Sioux City. "Looking at the numbers, I don't think it's going to have a huge impact," Boyd said. Voting against it were Schmieding, Bruce Gustafson of Holdrege, Darrell Nelson of Oconto, Doralene Weed of Kearney and Dennis Rasmussen of Lincoln. Following the vote, Nelson recommended the board postpone the decision until the May meeting. The board voted 7-4 in favor of the move, with Thompson, Kuncl, Harding and Boyd voting against the postponement. Boesch said constructing a 75-megawatt plant would only slightly increase energy rates for NPPD customers. "It's something customers are concerned with, as well as NPPD," she said. Boesch stressed how important it is to listen to what the customers feel about the progress with the wind farm and added the next step is to go back out and get more feedback from them. The topic will likely be brought up at a NPPD customer meeting Thursday in York. "We need to be sensitive to what (the customers) want," Thompson said. "A year ago, some customers were questioning a five, even a 30-megawatt (wind farm)." In December, the board approved plans to build 30-megawatts with the ability to expand to 75 down the road. In other business: -- The board approved the sale of taxable auction rate bonds in the amount of $53 million to used for financing a number of capital projects at Cooper Nuclear Station in Brownville. -- A number of projects were approved during the nuclear committee report. A capital project of $271,000 for new reactor vessel level controls at Cooper was approved as well as a $607,600 contract for repairs of the reactor torus. A $900,000 remote monitoring system for Cooper was also approved. -- A $1 million capital project was approved for Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland. The money will go toward modifications of the unit two boiler. -- A bid of $3.7 million to install 40 water wells near Gerald Gentleman Station was approved. -- A task authorization was approved with Piedmont Management &Technical Services Inc., and with Team Associates, LLC, to provide project management services for an estimated amount of $1 million each. -- During the president's report, Fehrman reported a surplus of more than $10 million. The goal by the end of the year is to have a surplus of $15 million. -- A change in NPPD's jury duty policy was approved unanimously. Before, employees attending jury duty would continue to receive pay but would have to pay back NPPD the money earned as a juror. According to Fehrman, NPPD monitored more than $5,000 the last two years in jury duty pay but money was lost processing the checks. Employees will now get to keep their jury duty checks. Reach Clark Grell at 563-7534 or clark.grell@hotmail.com Email this story Print this story [oas:fremontneb.com/news:Bottom] --> This Page Last Updated Apr 17, 2004 - 09:36:09 pm CDT Copyright © 2004 Columbus Telegram ***************************************************************** 46 Brattleboro Reformer: Cracks found in Yankee plant during outage April 18, 2004 Brattleboro, VT An aerial view of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, Vt. Cracks have been discovered in a cooling system at the nuclear power plant. The cracks in the plant's steam dryer system were discovered after similar cracks were found at other nuclear reactors with the same boiling water design. (AP Photo/Vermont Yankee Corporation) By DAVID GRAM Associated Press MONTPELIER -- A Vermont Yankee nuclear plant component believed by some to be at risk for cracking if the plant is allowed to boost its power output is doing so already, plant officials acknowledged Friday. Workers at the plant, which is in the midst of an outage to refuel and get modifications needed to produce up to 20 percent more power, replaced four welds in the steam dryer as a result of the problem, the plant's law firm wrote in a letter to the Public Service Board. The repairs to the steam dryer are not expected to affect the approximately four-week expected length of the refueling outage, or the plant's plans to boost its power output. The reliability of the steam dryer has been raised as an issue by critics of the power boost, including the nuclear watchdog group New England Coalition. Steam dryer cracking has been a problem at other plants' of similar design to Vermont Yankee after they have increased their power output. Jay Thayer, Entergy Nuclear's site vice president for Vermont Yankee, said the cracks at Vermont Yankee were not in parts of the steam dryer that had caused problems at other plants. "These were in non-stressed areas of the dryer that are not exposed to heavy steam flows," Thayer said in a statement released by the plant. "In fact, the components of the dryer that carry most of the load -- the ones that presented the problems at other plants -- are in good shape. However, in accordance with our uprate engineering analysis, those will be replaced with heavier steel plates." The plant's planned increase from 540 to 650 megawatts rated capacity has been conditionally approved by the Public Service Board and is undergoing review by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A key issue raised by the New England Coalition is how thorough an inspection the 32-year-old reactor will get before it is allowed to increase the stresses on various plant components to produce more power. Coalition leaders have said that when the NRC reviews a proposal for such a power increase, it usually does a paper review of reports from the plant, rather than a top-to-bottom physical inspection. The cracks in the steam dryer were found by inspectors from General Electric, Vermont Yankee's original designer, plant officials said. "A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector has performed a review of the inspection results," the plant said in a press release. Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry engineer who has been acting as an expert witness for New England Coalition in Public Service Board hearings, said in an e-mail sent to media outlets Friday that the discovery pointed out the need for more thorough inspections at the plant -- particularly before it gets permission to increase its power output. Gundersen said that during the board hearings, Vermont Yankee and nuclear engineer William Sherman of the state Department of Public Service "touted how thorough the VY in-service inspection program was. Yet these cracks went undetected for years. "So much for the theory that the plant has been well inspected for the last 30 years," Gundersen added. "Just another reason we need an independent inspection of VY." Plant officials said the four three-inch weld sections were removed and rewelded. Both locations were then stiffened with steel plate. Two other cracks -- one of them 14 inches long -- were deemed "inconsequential." Plant officials said they would take no immediate action to repair them but would check them during future Vermont Yankee outages. Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 47 Argus Online: Report encourages pursuit of new nukes Article Last Updated: Saturday, April 17, 2004 - By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER The Bush administration argues in a new report that lifting a decade-old ban on low-yield nuclear weapons development poses little or no harm to U.S. efforts at discouraging the spread of nuclear arms abroad. In delivering the report to Capitol Hill last week, the nation's top nuclear-weapons executive wrote that "there is no reason to believe that repeal has had, or will have, any practical impact" on other nations' pursuit of new nuclear arms or on international efforts to discourage those pursuits. At worst, wrote Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, ending the ban "will slightly complicate U.S. nonproliferation diplomacy." Stanford arms-control expert Dean Wilkening said the administration probably is right in asserting that its nuclear research won't be a direct driver for global proliferation. "Allowing a certain amount of research to go forward, I don't think that would be terribly destabilizing or conflict with our nonproliferation objectives," said Wilkening, director of the science program at the university's Center for International Security and Arms Control. "However, if we were actually to build or test or deploy an arsenal with such weapons in it, that could present serious problems." Congress asked for the report last year in repealing a 1994 law that forbid research leading to production of nuclear arms with explosive yields of less than 5,000 tons of TNT, roughly a third as powerful as the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945. Critics led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, warned that U.S. pursuit of the banned "mini-nukes" and "micro-nukes" would undermine American efforts to stop nuclear programs in other countries and perhaps make battlefield use of nuclear arms more likely. The Bush administration's report dismissed both arguments. It said low-yield nuclear weapons don't blur distinctions with conventional bombs or lower the "very high" threshold for nuclear use. The report stresses that "no president would be inclined to employ any nuclear weapon, irrespective of its explosive power, in anything but the gravest circumstances." As support, the administration makes its first public acknowledgement that "from the 1950s and continuing through today, the U.S. nuclear stockpile has contained warheads capable of producing very low nuclear yields." In fact, all 7,500 U.S. nuclear weapons are multi-stage explosives capable of delivering less than five kilotons of yield, variable in many cases to a few hundred tons of TNT. The administration report also says that terrorists and foreign nations will make their own decisions on acquiring nuclear capabilities regardless of what the United States does in nuclear-weapons research. Some analysts say the report tosses aside proliferation concerns too glibly. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has criticized U.S. plans for low-yield weapons and other new nuclear arms. "Double standards are being used here. The U.S. government insists that other countries do not possess nuclear weapons. On the other hand they are perfecting their own arsenal. I do not think that corresponds with the (Nuclear Non-Proliferation) treaty they signed," IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei said last September. David Culp, legislative liaison for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a congressional monitoring arm of the Quakers, said U.S. pursuit of new, low-yield weapons provides ammunition to weaponeers in other nations, including Russia. Contact Ian Hoffman at ihoffman@angnewspapers.com ©2004 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 48 [DU-WATCH] Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America! Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:09:33 -0500 (CDT) Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America! By Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret. I am a member of Veterans For Peace, an organization of thousands of combat veterans. All of us have put our life on the line for this country. Most of us opposed the recent invasion of Iraq. We also opposed the first Gulf War, and the sanctions that followed. We opposed the slaughter of fleeing Iraqis on the Road to Basra. We opposed the use of Depleted Uranium munitions. And we opposed the lies upon which the first Gulf War was based. But there was one good thing about that first Gulf War. It ended. And without a wholesale invasion of Iraq. Why? Herebs what the first President Bush wrote about that in his memoirs: bTrying to eliminate Saddam would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. There was no viable exit strategy we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.b My brothers and sisters, it is just too darn bad his son canbt read! Ibve been severely criticized for speaking out in opposition to this war. So have you, probably. Webre told that webre aiding and abetting the enemy. Web re told that we should support the president no matter what. Webre told that patriotism demands that we support the war. They say that webre abusing the freedoms that our troops are in the Middle East defending. They say we should be ashamed to be protesting while the troops are in the desert protecting our right to do so. Well I say, Hogwash! I feel an affinity for the troops over there in Iraq. They are my comrades in arms. I admire their sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand why some of them believe they should be there. They have neither the experience nor the wisdom to see past the lies they have been told. The truth is, they are not over there protecting our freedoms. Our freedoms are not under attack from Saddam Hussein or the remnants of his Baathist party. Our freedoms are under attack by John Ashcroft. They are threatened by John Poindexter. They are trampled by Donald Rumsfeld. They are disdained by Dick Cheney. And they are not even understood by George W. Bush. The battle to preserve our freedoms is not taking place in Baghdad and Tikrit. It is taking place in Central Park in New York City, in Lafayette Park in Washington DC, in Ghirardelli Park in San Francisco, and in River Front Park in Melbourne, Florida. The front lines go right down US 1 and up New Haven Avenue. It is we, here at home, who are the foot soldiers battling to preserve our cherished freedoms by exercising them, in spite of opposition and ridicule. It is we who protect our civil rights through speaking out. We are the Minutemen sounding the alarm against tyranny. We are upholding the spirit of the American Revolution. We are preserving the freedoms that the troops in the desert have a right to come back to. The troops getting shot at in Iraq are not protecting us. We are protecting them, and their honor and their freedoms. We have just completed a forced march through hostile territory to defend their freedoms and ours, and the ideals America was founded on. We are protecting this nation by speaking truth to power. Let us do it loudly and fearlessly and courageously and joyfully, for we are the true patriots! Here is the truth that we proclaim. This war has nothing to do with national security or freedom or democracy or human rights or protecting our allies or weapons of mass destruction or defeating terrorism or disarming Iraq. It has to do with money. It has to do with oil. And it has to do with raw imperial power. It is based on a pack of lies. And it is wrong. Those who forced this war on an unwilling world are guilty of flagrantly violating the U.S. Constitution, the UN Charter, and international law. What they have done is illegal, immoral, unconstitutional and TREASON. Itbs been said that somewhere in Texas there is a village looking for their idiot. Now that may be funny, but it misses the point. George W. Bush is not an imbecile. He is a TRAITOR. Before this war started, we knew it would fracture NATO, split the United Nations, separate us from our allies, and destroy the great nation we inherited from our fathers who died in World War II. And it has. We knew it would make our beloved country feared and hated, an outcast from the world community, a pariah among the peoples, and the number one rogue nation on earth. And it has. It has done so based on a pack of lies. My sisters and brothers, that is not stupidity. That is TREASON. We knew this sadistic corporate war would incense the Arab world, provide thousands of new Osama bin Ladens, and enormously increase the terrorist threat. And it has. We knew it would further endanger the American people and destroy our national security. And it has. That is not stupidity, it is TREASON. The cabal of neoconservatives at PNAC who planned this war (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle, Jeb Bush) even before W became president, knew the American people would not stand for it unless there was a new Pearl Harbor. 9/11 supplied that. Our government was warned. They were warned by the Clinton Administration. They were warned by 11 other countries. And they were specifically warned by an FBI agent that one of them was planning on flying a hijacked airliner into the World Trade Center. They not only ignored the warnings, they made sure no fighter jets were scrambled to stop it. If they had just done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to be followed, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. This is not stupidity, it is TREASON. As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by and watch our security destroyed by a president who went AWOL rather than fight in Vietnam. Honor requires that I call this by its right name. It is TREASON. As one who has devoted his life to the security of this country, I will not stand by and watch an appointed president send our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs for the oil companies without calling it by its right name. It is TREASON. I joined the Air Force to protect our borders and our people, not the financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, and Exxon. Webve had enough corporate wars. No more Iraqs. No more El Salvadors. No more Kosovos. No more Colombias. These are not isolated incidents of stupidity. They are part of a long, bloody history of foreign policy being conducted for the financial benefit of the wealthy few. It is a new colonialism. It violates our Constitution. It endangers our people. And it is TREASON. As a pilot who flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam, I can tell you that the best thing our government can do for its combat veterans is to quit making more of them. Peace is patriotic; a preemptive war is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, a war crime, and TREASON. I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. That includes a renegade president. Wake up, America! It is time for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the whole oil mafia to be removed from office and indicted for TREASON. We are the people. We are sovereign. We are the patriots. The whole world is with us. Never allow anyone to intimidate you into silence. Wake up, America! Itbs time to speak truth to power. God bless America, and God save us from the traitors in our government. Dr. Robert Bowman was a Col. in the USAF who flew over 100 combat missions in Vietnam. He was Chief of Technology Assessment under President Jimmy Carter and is a Catholic Bishop of The Apostolic Society of Franciscan Communities. email: isss@rmbowman.com, web site: www.rmbowman.com. He has been President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies since 1982. Before that he was Vice-President of Space Communications Company; Manager, Advanced Space Programs for General Dynamics; and Director, Advanced Space Programs Development for DoD, directing the bStar Warsb programs. Law Offices of Indira Rai-Choudhury 1201 Cornwall Ave. Suite 108 Bellingham WA 98225 360-676-0200 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 49 [DU-WATCH] Scots danger from missing du fragments Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:05:13 -0500 (CDT) Scots danger from 'missing' DU fragments: Army range lost pieces of killer shells By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Sunday Herald, 11 April 2004 Depleted uranium (DU) is still contaminating the military firing range near Kirkcudbright in the south of Scotland, according to an unpublished Ministry of Defence survey. Since 1982 over 90 shells have been misfired or have malfunctioned and scattered fragments of DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic, across the ground. Despite searches, some of the fragments have never been recovered. Local concern about the risks is going to be highlighted this week, when peace activists take to the streets to hand out cards to members of the public warning that DU could make them ill. The cards are deliberately designed to mimic those handed to troops in Iraq, and revealed by the Sunday Herald in February. Over the last 22 years over 6500 DU rounds have been fired at the Dundrennan range, near Kirkcudbright. The shells are meant to pass through shoreline target screens and drop more than two miles out to sea. But the latest official report passed to the Sunday Herald says that 79 have broken up in flight, 10 have hit the ground and four hit the target gantry. The report was written by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Radiological Protection Services at Alverstoke in Hampshire. "Higher levels of contamination have sometimes been found at points where malfunctioning DU rounds or fragments landed on the range, but this has been removed when MoD clean-up levels were exceeded," the report states. Other areas were less contaminated, but fenced off "as a matter of good practice". But, the report adds: "Some projectiles and fragments have not been recovered." The report reveals the results of the latest and most comprehensive survey of the range, which was carried out between September 2001 and March 2002. "There are some isolated areas of DU contamination close to firing points and target gantries and it is recommended that any discrete fragments of DU should be removed from these areas," the report concludes. "There are also a small number of areas where it would be advantageous to carry out further intrusive investigations to investigate some apparently anomalous monitoring results." One of the most polluted areas was around the Raeberry firing point and target, on cliffs overlooking the Solway Firth. But there the radiation readings were confused by the discovery of a luminous radium dial in an abandoned tank. The report recommends that this should be disposed of as radioactive waste and the area resurveyed. It adds: "Given the known history of malfunctions that have occurred at the site in the distant past, it is very encouraging that this wide-ranging survey has resulted in the discovery of a relatively small number of previously undiscovered DU fragments." This is not, however, how it is seen by some local residents, who claim that there are many incidences of leukaemia along the Solway coast. "We are not at war, but we live in a theatre of DU testing and this has the potential to cause ill health," said Chloe Bruce from the Galloway Coalition for Justice and Peace. The coalition is planning to distribute DU health warning cards in Kirkcudbright and Castle Douglas on Friday, prior to a public meeting in the evening. "The focus of our action on April 16 is to highlight the hypocrisy of the MoD issuing warning cards to our troops, but not to the civilians they supposedly protect," declared Bruce. The MoD cards say: "You have been deployed to a theatre where depleted uranium (DU) munitions have been used. DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal which has the potential to cause ill-health. You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during your deployment." DU is a very hard metal produced as a waste product by the nuclear power industry. It is regarded by British and US armed forces as the best available material for armour-piercing shells, and has been extensively used in battles in Iraq and the Balkans. The British Army's Challenger 2 tanks fire a 120-millimetre DU round. DU "has a unique battle-winning capability", says the MoD report. "At present no satisfactory alternative material exists to provide the level of penetration needed to defeat the most modern battle tanks." A spokesman for the MoD insisted on Friday that the risks from DU contamination at the Kirkcudbright range were "minimal, to say the least". The ministry carried out a comprehensive programme of monitoring at the site. "It shows that levels of depleted uranium present a negligible risk to health," he said. "There is no reliable scientific or medical evidence to link DU with ill-health of either service personnel or the general population." ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 50 [DU-WATCH] Radioactive Sardinia Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:06:00 -0500 (CDT) Translated from the Italian by Patricia (Pandora Project - Italy) Comitato Sardo Gettiamo le Basi (Name of the association) OBJECT: Radioactive Sardinia, image damage Date (20/03/04) The tourist season is near, while a clear and reliable information about the eventual contamination, and the risks for the inhabitants and the tourists, caused by the devastating USA and NATO war-like activities in Italy, is far from being present. The accident occurred on last October to the nuclear submarine of the II U.S.A. Fleet and the long series of death and pain happenings centred around the Interforce Shooting-range of Salto di Quirra (place of military training in the Cagliari city countryside) have underlined the bare evidence of the inadequate, or careless cure (which one is the worst behaviour?) of the authorities to guarantee the safety to the environment and the right to the safety and health of the Sardinian people and their hosts. The absence of certainties about the environmental and sanitary impact of the U.S. military base of La Maddalena (Sassari province) and the endless experimentation and military training in the area of Quirra (Cagliari) has caused an irreversible damage to the image of our island and the risk to endanger the alredy fragile economy of Sardinia, based upon the healthiness and environmental quality of its territory and products and the beauty of its coasts and sea. Since too much a long time, we insistently asked for independent and serious investigations, for a reliable scientifical control of the huge Sardinian areas used by world-wide armies, aviations and marines (*). The military and political heads have answered with a flood of chatters and common places to deny the evidence and try to persuade us that everything is normal: the terrifying percentage of 20 tumors of the emolymphatic system on 150 inhabitans of Quirra, the 30% of birthrate of children with genetical modifications and serious malformations during the year 1998 in Escalaplano town (Cagliari), the 28 children with serious malformations born and the 30 new cases of tumors registered during just one year around the military base of La Maddalena. These authorities, pushed by the public opinion, has made a fantastic scene of self-called scientifical researches; these investigations haven't investigated at all, and furthermore they sound like a burning offence to the dignity, intelligence and sensibility of the Sardinian population. An example of this was the attempt of the Public Health System ASL n.8 to demonstrate that the emolymphatic tumors in Escalaplano were due to the sudden presence of arsenic in the well water. Another ridiculous example was the visible research of the DRs CUCU-RICCOBONO to detect traces of Depleted Uranium in n. 03 shovelful of soil. Continuing the series: the improbable report of the military Procura (attorney), presented in advance by the ex-commander of PISQ Gen. Carlo Landi, talks about the Quirra area: "there is no trace of any kind of Uranium", element that is notoriously present in every part of the soil; missiles, rockets and radio-targets fall freely on the beaches, sheep stables and vineyards "because of the Mistral wind". The monitoring system about the Maddalena has been judged unreliable by the Health and Defence ministry since the year 1988. Furthermore there have been amazing discoveries of "natural" deposits of Thorium 234 and seaweeds incredibly greedy of radioactive Thorium (**) nearby the U.S. atomic base of La Maddalena. Basta! Stop! The time of chatters and of the scientifical slapstick must be ended now!. The authorities have to demonstrate now, before the tourist season too is compromised, that living together with nuclear propelled submarines and nuclear weapons does not expose the population to any kind of risk, they have to show us how the Quirra area is not the centre of leaukemia. They have to show it with verifiable data, numbers, percentages; they have to indicate the metodologies, analysis types and name of laboratories, giving to the scientific community the possibility to verify the results. We invite all the Councils and the tourist operators to calculate how much the damage cost because of the endless shadows about this matter. We invite all the people and economic operators to present the bill to the responsibles of the lacking controls and of the contamination and to ask for: - The immediate stop of all the deadly activities taking place on the Quirra Training area, at least until the science has not found a satisfying explanation of all the anomalies. - The accomplishment of the Regional Council Of Sardinia document that asks for the dismantling, in reasonable and agreed time, of the U.S. Military basis of La Maddalena. Comitato Sardo Gettiamo Le Basi Phone n. 0039 070 82 34 98 - 0039 338 61 32 753 (*) This is my note. The Italian people cannot have information about the nationality of the armies that came and trained in the Sardinian base, because this is a Ministry of the Defence reserved information, not to be told in name of OUR SECURITY. (apparently the most greedy in the whole mediterranean sea!) ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 51 [DU-WATCH] FW: AMERICANS WANT EQUAL MIDEAST ACCOUNTABILITY Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:19:41 -0500 (CDT) WASHINGTON, April 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a clear break with U.S. policy and in direct opposition to Congressional attitudes, a majority of Americans now believe that Congress should hold Israel accountable for maintaining programs of weapons of mass destruction and for its human rights violations in the Palestinian Territories, according to the Council for the National Interest. A poll conducted by Zogby International for the Council for the National Interest and released today shows that 56 percent of Americans agree and 29 percent disagree that Congress should pass an Israel accountability act on weapons of mass destruction and human rights violations. Nearly one in three (30 percent) strongly agrees. Fifteen percent are not sure. As might be expected, Muslims were strongly in favor of such an act (72 percent), but so were a surprising percentage of Jews (45 percent). This flies in the face of repeated Congressional efforts, spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other pro-Israeli organizations, to penalize Arab governments for their support of Palestinian independence and failure to rein in "terrorists." The Syria Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 2003 and signed by President Bush on December 11 last year, promises economic and other sanctions against Syria for its support of "terrorist" organizations and for its "failures" to heed UN Security Council and Congressional resolutions. Currently Congress is considering a "Saudi Arabia Accountability Act," which promises sanctions if Saudi Arabia doesn't stop the private financing of "terrorism" and doesn't cooperate more fully with U.S. anti-terrorist efforts. Support for an Israel accountability act came primarily from Democrats and independents (61 percent), 18-29 year-olds (69 percent), progressives (70 percent), and liberals (72 percent), but also a plurality of Republican voters (46 percent). People with annual household incomes of $25,000-$34,999 were strongly in favor (70 percent), and also those with $75,000 and above (61 percent). There has been much written on the support of Israel by the conservative (Born Again) Christian group, but the Zogby poll showed the opposite: 49 percent agreed with an Israel accountability act and 34 percent disagreed, although many held no opinion at all. A majority of African Americans agreed with holding Israel accountable. The Council for the National Interest, which is circulating a petition to send the act to Congress and the President, is a D.C.- based nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that promotes a balanced policy toward the Middle East. A public forum on the Accountability Acts on March 17 received wide publicity. The draft act is available on the CNI Web site ( http://www.cnionline.org ), which has received thousands of signatures since it was first circulated on the Internet April 2. --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 52 [DU-WATCH] New report on Health in Iraq one year later Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 12:36:58 -0500 (CDT) A very interesting new report from medical aid for third world. Please circulate cheers davey garland (Pandora DU project) Please find below a new report made by Belgian doctor Geert Van Moorter, as a result of his fact-finding mission in Iraq in March 2004, for the Belgian NGO Medical Aid for the Third World. More English-language materials, including Dr. Van Moorter's Baghdad diaries, and some pictures can be found at www.health-now.org. Please feel free to publish or distribute this report. In such case, we would be grateful to receive a copy. We are planning to bring Iraqi war victims to Belgium for treatment. Financial support for this project can be sent to account number 000-1617383-05 on the name of "Midecine pour le Tiers Monde asbl" at the "Banque de la poste, Brussels", with international codes: IBAN: BE 96 0001 6173 8305 BIC: BPOTBEB1 Thank you very much. Bert De Belder Coordinator, Medical Aid for the Third World One year after the fall of Baghdad: how healthy is Iraq? REPORT of Medical Aid for the Third World by Dr. Geert Van Moorter, M.D. based on a fact-finding mission to Iraq, March 2004 Dr. Geert Van Moorter was already in Iraq on various missions for the Belgian non-governmental organization Medical Aid for the Third World, in April 2002; before, during and after the war in March/April 2003; in July/August 2003; and in March 2004. He made, together with Iraqi doctors and health workers, an at random survey on the health situation and the health care infrastructure in Iraq, after one year of occupation. He visited hospitals and clinics in Baghdad and Basra. On a health conference in Basra, he was able to talk to colleagues from all over the country. He had contacts with Unicef, the World Health Organization, the new Ministry of Health and with several war victims of last year. Dr. Van Moorter is specialized in emergency medicine and tropical diseases. He made a study and published on child mortality and has experience in public health and post traumatic stress disorder. (Contact: geert.van.moorter@skynet.be, tel. +32 (0)486 79.37.98. Medical Aid for the Third World, info@g3w.be, tel. +32 (0)2 209.23.60) Summary: Increase in child mortality expected The purchasing power, the food situation and the living conditions of the majority of the population have all deteriorated. Half of the active population has no job and no income. The prices of basic necessities, food and transportation have doubled or tripled. The quality of the drinking water is not being controlled, the sewage system of Baghdad has been damaged by the bombings, garbage is often not collected. Iraq has become one big garbage belt. All this brings Unicef to the conclusion that child mortality will probably increase further, if it hasn't already done so. Medical infrastructure and medicines: no improvement The medical infrastructure and the medical material were already outdated and malfunctioning as a result of the twelve years' embargo. One year after the onset of the war, these have not yet been renewed. War victims and other patients do not receive optimal treatment. Complicated operations cannot be performed. Everything is lacking, including medicines for acute as well as chronic ailments. This results in deteriorating conditions or even the death of patients, and in extra handicaps for the wounded. On March 17, right after the explosion at the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad, we helped care for victims in the Ibn Al Nafis hospital. We observed there that there were no disposable gloves, no appropriate intravenous fluid to treat shock, to ultrasound, no well-functioning monitors, Findings: 1. Testifying about the situation in the hospitals is made difficult. Access to hospitals is very limited, the press is not allowed to enter. It was only with difficulty and through personal contacts with medical doctors that we could enter several hospitals. Doctors who dare to testify before the camera are intimidated and put under pressure. We talked to two doctors who had given an interview. Afterwards, someone from the Ministry of Health visited them. They were forced to sign a letter stating that they wouldn't give any interviews anymore, or else that they would lose their job in the hospital. 2. The purchasing power, the food situation and the living conditions have deteriorated. An increase in child mortality is to be expected. According to the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority, the US administration led by Paul Bremer), 35% of the active population is jobless. Other sources speak of 60 to 70%. During the embargo, several foodstuffs were distributed for free among the population, mostly dry goods such as rice, tea, beans, sugar, wheat, milk powder, oil, salt and things such as washing powder and soap. This distribution is being continued, but regularly some goods are lacking. E.g. in March, there was no rice. As a consequence, everybody was forced to buy rice on the free market, which pushed prices up. And anyhow, the food that is not contained in the food basket - vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, cheese, eggs, - has to be bought on the market. Their prices have increased two- or threefold over the past year. The majority of the population has less cash available, while the cost of living has increased. Their purchasing power has diminished, access to food is less assured. Unicef notes that malnutrition today is higher than after the first Gulf War of 1991, and the number of people with acute malnutrition rose sharply in the first months after the onset of the 2003 war. The provision of electricity in Baghdad has deteriorated. Water services are still in worse condition than before the war, and nobody knows the quality of the drinking water. In some places there is still no water coming out of the faucet. The sewage system was already in precarious condition before the war. It has been hit by the bombings and hasn't been repaired ever since. In many poor quarters of Baghdad, dirty water is standing in the streets. Garbage collection is not yet well organized. Garbage is all around the place. The three main factors that influence child mortality (under five mortality) at the level of the family are the purchasing power, the food situation and the living conditions. All three of them have deteriorated over the past year in Iraq. The local Unicef representative confirmed that child mortality will probably increase further, if it hasn't already done so. 3. Insecurity creates psychological traumas. According to the director of the psychiatric center in Baghdad, lots of children are faced with serious emotional and behavioral problems as a direct result of the war, the fear, the hate, the occupation. This is what is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Symptoms of this are bedwetting, aggressive behavior (verbal and physical), sleeping and eating disorders, depression, fear, nightmares, concentration and memory disorders, auto-mutilation, developmental disorders and phobias. Repeated exposure to war dead and wounded has resulted in widespread emotional and psychological traumas among medical emergency teams of doctors and nurses. Together with the bad economic situation, the insecurity is today's major problem, causing quite some psychosomatic disorders. There is insecurity because of the presence of the occupation troops. And there is the problem of the inefficiency of the police, which has led to an increase in criminality. 4. Access to health care is severely limited. The problems with the telephone networks make it difficult to impossible to call an ambulance. Because of the insecurity, patients as well as doctors don't dare go to the hospital at night. We experienced ourselves how, after a major car accident, an unconscious patient could not be brought to the hospital in an ambulance. He had to be brought with a taxi. High transportation costs are another factor that renders going to the hospital difficult. Same thing with the road blockades. A recent Unicef report states that less than 50% of the Iraqi population has access to the health care they need, because of the insecurity. 5. The hospital infrastructure has not improved over the past year. We visited some 25 hospitals, clinics and pharmacies. Nowhere had any new medical material arrived since the end of the war. The medical material, already outdated, broken down or malfunctioning after twelve years of embargo, had further deteriorated over the past year. In places where looting had taken place, there is now less material than before, as in Baghdad's rehabilitation center, which is supposed to provide the entire country of prostheses and physiotherapy. Or as in the burns section of the Al Nour Hospital, where there is no possibility of sterile treatment, as a result of which all patients with major burns are doomed to die. Or as in the intensive care unit of the Kahdemya Hospital - which has 8 of the 16 high intensive care beds for Baghdad -, where only three respiration machines are functioning. 6. Medicines and medical material are lacking. In the hospitals, some specific medicines are lacking, e.g. for burns. In several emergency units, specific live-saving drugs are not available. In the popular clinics there is a constant lack of medication. The Ministry of Health itself is distributing lists of medication, where for every drug the amount of products delivered is mentioned. We saw one such list containing 32 products. For 10 of them 0% had been delivered! Many patients don't get their medicines, or they get only half of the dose they need. Results: life quality diminishes, while the risk at early death increases. This is the case for e.g. epilepsy, hypertension, angina pectoris, diabetes, chronic asthma, Doctors may prescribe, but patients, who used to get their medicines for free, have to buy them now on the private market. For most of them, this is beyond reach. And many needed drugs are not always available on the market. There are also doubts as to the quality of these medicines, as they are not being stored in optimal conditions. There is also a lack of disposable material, such as gauze, cotton, syringes, gloves, sutures, In one popular clinic we visited, three doctors had to share one single stethoscope, while one and the same iron tongue depressor was being used for all patients. 7. The plans of the CPA and the Ministry of Health are no solution. Until last year, a number of contracts for medical material that had been signed by the previous regime were blocked by the UN Sanctions Committee 661. 90 % of them because of a US veto, 10 % because of a British veto. It concerned contracts for a total value of more than 500 million dollar. This money, which came from the sale of Iraqi oil in the framework of the oil-for-food program, was available on a UN account in New York. After the lifting of the sanctions, this money has been turned over to the CPA, and yet those contracts have not yet been executed. The CPA and the interim government are now talking about new plans to invest in medicines and medical equipment. This can at most be part of the solution, but even then it is a case of 'too little, too late'. There are plans for a new pediatric hospital of more than 50 million dollar. This money would be put to better use by upgrading the existing hospitals. Much of the money will go to expensive US firms, and it can be feared that these investments will have a high PR value. This is a case of combating the symptoms in order to divert attention from the real prevention of illness and disease, by attacking the root causes such as purchasing power, the food situation, the living conditions, the insecurity. In any case, these investments will not free the occupying power of its duty to guarantee all necessary services to the Iraqi population, as it is stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention. Security, jobs, an income, food and decent living conditions are all part of this. All these factors have a major impact on public health. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 53 [DU-WATCH] Sick guard members blame depleted uranium Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 13:01:30 -0500 (CDT) Might be worth folk letting the army times that their doctors aren't particular quoting good medicine here in their diagnosis? davey http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2810214.php April 09, 2004 Sick Guard members blame depleted uranium By Jane McHugh Times staff writer Headaches and joint aches, ever-present nausea, overpowering fatigue and pain when swallowing. Those are among the symptoms reported by a group of military police officers who were evacuated out of Iraq for other injuries, mostly orthopedic. Must be radiation poisoning, the sick soldiers from the New York National Guards 442nd MP Company think. The Army says that tests so far dont support that, though medical experts continue to test 442nd soldiers. The Army basically said it was battle fatigue, that it was all in my head, said Sgt. Agustin Matos of the 442nd, who is in medical hold at Fort Dix, N.J. He said he and three buddies tested for above-average levels of toxic depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is formed when enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium in the making of fuel for nuclear reactors. The DU is recycled by the defense industry into anti-tank projectiles and tank armor plating. During war fighting, when the projectiles are fired or the plating blown up, DU particles become airborne, seep into the water and sink into the ground, entering the food chain. People ingest DU without even knowing it. Some veterans groups blame DU for Gulf War syndrome. The 442nd, whose soldiers are mostly police officers, firefighters and prison guards from the New York City area, is supposed to report back to the Dix demobilization station in a few weeks. Because of the evacuated soldiers who have complained about DU-type symptoms, the entire company will be tested for radiation exposure upon arrival, said a senior Army physician who spoke on condition of anonymity. Late last year, nine stateside medical hold soldiers in the 442nd were tested by one of the worlds preeminent authorities on nuclear medicine, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, who is on the staff at Georgetown University Medical School. Durakovic is an Army veteran of Operation Desert Shield and has worked at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Durakovic couldnt be reached for comment. But according to The New York Daily News, which hired him to do the testing, four of the nine, almost certainly in Durakovics words, inhaled radioactive dust, probably from exploded American shells made from DU. Matos was identified as one of the four. Basically, its in our lungs and theres no treatment. Its almost like asbestos, theres nothing you can do about it, he told Army Times. Sgt. Jerry Ojeda said he was one of the five who tested for acceptable levels of DU. Yet he said in a telephone interview that he feels sick, with tiredness during the day and sleeplessness at night, pounding headaches, body aches and lack of sex drive. The Army physician said urine samples collected by the Army on April 2 will be tested at Walter Reed, the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (CHPPM), and the Centers for Disease Control. These soldiers have a lot of medical concerns and were going to help them as best we can, the doctor said. But exposure to depleted uranium does not cause headaches, rashes, overactive bladder or anything like that. Uranium naturally occurs in the environment and every day you eat, drink and breathe it. The 442nd soldiers in medical hold were in Samawah, Diwanaya and Najaf. In Samawah last summer, they camped at a huge dilapidated train depot and train repair yard. Coalition soldiers from the Netherlands looking for a place to camp had measured high levels of radioactive material at the depot and moved far away from it, Ojeda said. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 54 New York Daily News: Boroughs - Albor Ruiz: Cleanup time in Vieques Albor Ruiz is a columnist for the Daily News. Tomorrow, April 19, will mark five years since David Sanes Rodríguez was killed on Vieques. And during that time, much has changed on that little Puerto Rican island. Sanes Rodríguez, a 33-year-old civilian security guard, was accidentally killed in 1999 by a U.S. Navy pilot who dropped two 500-pound bombs on the island - but missed his intended target. However, the young man's death was not in vain: It ignited a firestorm of protest that culminated with the May 1, 2003, Navy pullout from Vieques, which it had mercilessly used for target practice for more than 60 years. Yet, after six decades of problems, peace and fairness for the almost 10,000 U.S. citizens who inhabit the 55-square-mile island mean much more than just an end to the bombing. "If they do not eliminate the military toxins accumulated over six decades of bombing, the Navy will continue to kill our people for a long time to come," said Ismael Guadalupe, spokesman for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, one of the main groups that opposed the Navy's presence. And two years after the Navy stopped military exercises, Guadalupe's words ring as true as when he uttered them. "There hasn't been any cleaning," Guadalupe said Friday from the committee's office in Vieques. "The Puerto Rican government is asleep at the wheel. The Department of Justice has no interest in cleaning the island." A lot needs to be done. After all, what the Navy left behind was an unfortunate legacy of poisonous chemicals, toxic waste, illness, poverty and God knows how much unexploded ammunition sprinkled on the island's beautiful beaches. Among Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities, Vieques has the highest cancer mortality rate. And despite official denials, there is no mystery to this health crisis. In addition to leaving behind unexploded bombs, the Navy, by its own admission, dropped napalm on Vieques and fired uranium-tipped shells there that were never recovered. "These poisonous remnants remain," said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens). "And they need to be cleaned up before one can honestly say the Navy has fully vacated the island of Vieques." Actually, in May of 1999, one month after the death of Sanes Rodríguez and the start of the civil disobedience campaign in the bombing zone, the Navy admitted it had fired depleted uranium projectiles during maneuvers in February of that year. Yet the people of Vieques have never been tested for uranium contamination. "The Puerto Rican Health Department has been totally negligent for not examining our people," declared committee member Nilda Medina. "We have no doubt that the very high cancer incidence among our population is related to depleted uranium and other military toxics." Summing up the current situation in Vieques, Guadalupe sounded proud, frustrated and militant - all at the same time. "Make no mistake the withdrawal of the Navy was a great triumph of the people," he said. "But the cleaning of the island has not happened. We are still getting sick and dying in our own homes. We have won a battle but not the war." After 60 years of bombing the island, the Navy should not wait any longer to clean the environmental mess it left behind. Protecting their health is the least Washington should do for the long-suffering people of Vieques. Originally published on April 18, 2004 All contents © 2004 Daily News, L.P. ***************************************************************** 55 NEWS.com.au: Uranium drink impact 'not lengthy' (April 19, 2004) ENERGY Resources of Australia chief executive Harry Kenyon-Slaney told shareholders today the company deeply regretted an incident where some workers drank uranium-contaminated water. Speaking at ERA's annual general meeting, he said the number of people who reported mild symptoms after showering in or drinking some of the water was now 28. "The advice we have received to date is that anyone exposed to the affected water is unlikely to suffer any long term health effects," he said. ERA's Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory was shut down on March 24 after its water supply became polluted with uranium and chemicals. Workers at the mine had reported suffering nausea, headaches and stomach cramps after drinking contaminated water. Earlier this month, the mine resumed full operations after passing environmental and safety tests. Mr Kenyon-Slaney said several investigations were under way into the cause of the incident and the company would comment further when those reports were complete. "What I can say is that the company will not shy away from tackling any management operational issues raised in the reports, whether this be a requirement for a thorough process integrity check or other comprehensive action." AAP Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10). ***************************************************************** 56 Las Vegas RJ: HAVING THEIR SAY: Power of the Polls Sunday, April 18, 2004 Teen voters share concerns about war in Iraq, Yucca Mountain and other issues By JOHN PRZYBYS REVIEW-JOURNAL Click image for enlargement. llustration by DAVID STROUD/REVIEW-JOURNAL What best illustrates the mind-set of Southern Nevada's soon-to-be-minted young voter? Is it senior Ashley Derr's Republican convictions, or Cimarron-Memorial High School classmate Pat Ahern's independent leanings? Is it Cimarron-Memorial senior Rena Brown's concern about a proposal to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain? Senior Gustavo Batres' opposition to a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages? Senior Kristina Lewis' worries about terrorism? The answer: All of the above. Attempting to paint a picture of Southern Nevada 18-year-olds who'll be voting in their first election this fall is a bit like looking for portraits in a constantly moving kaleidoscope. But while prospective young voters here occupy just about every point of the political/ideological spectrum, they do have a few things in common. First, they're excited about casting their first ballots. And, second, they are, by and large, a politically astute group. Doug Jydstrup, a Cimarron-Memorial High School government teacher, says many of his students this semester are "a little bit more political than most. It's divided just like, well, like the country." Derr, who's in Jydstrup's honors government class, jokes that she's excited about voting because "I can cancel out my government teacher's vote." With his vote, says classmate Ahern: "I'm finally able to be in control, in some way. My opinions are probably going to be heard, not directly but indirectly. I mean, I'll be able to actually have some type of voice." With a vote, "you kind of feel power," says Brittany Burns, a senior at Coronado High School. "You always hear about elections when you're younger, but it's not like you can really do something about them." Most of this year's crop of young voters aren't apathetic, notes Joseph Caruso, a government teacher at Cimarron-Memorial High School. "This year they're more aware of what's going on," he says. "I think students are openly concerned with our involvement in Iraq and, of course, the threat of terrorism and the need for national security." Jydstrup has seen ebbs and flows in students' political interest over the years. This year, he says, "it seems like a lot of people are interested in the Bush-versus-Kerry thing. George Bush, just like in this country, stimulates some polarized opinions." That's probably not surprising, says David Damore, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Generally, Damore says, the more competitive and intense the political campaign, "the more you're going to see turnout go up, (as well as) hopefully, knowledge. "If it's a hot contest, the media gives it more attention, candidates spend more money, and that sparks voter interest." John Racek, a government teacher at Coronado High School, says the heated presidential campaign has provided fodder for spirited classroom discussions. "Every time there's a presidential election, I try and have a running dialogue practically every day of the week about what's happened throughout the campaign season," he says. From the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Racek says, "we talked about different aspects of the campaign, negative campaigning, the advertisements that come out, what stands people are taking, and how campaign managers and campaign officials try to sway the public's mind." What are the hot-button issues among this year's crop of soon-to-be voters? "Definitely the war," Burns says. "I know that's a big one and that, of course, is what we talk about mostly in class. "I think it's such a crucial question, sending people off to a dangerous place. Of course, different people think differently on that." Kristina Lewis, a senior at Cimarron-Memorial, considers terrorism a key issue in the election. "I'm from New York and it had a big impact on my life when (the 9-11 attacks) happened," she says. "When we go back there, I just want to know I'm safe." For senior Rena Brown, the federal government's plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is a prime issue. Brown says she's from Alamo, and waste being trucked to the site "will be traveling through my town. So if there is a spill or accident or something, it would affect a lot of my family." Yet, young voters' opinions about such issues are as diverse as those of any voting group. For example, Caruso says, "I have some (students who are) very much in favor of having Yucca Mountain here because of the financial aspect of it: The money we could gain from the government would take a positive role and perhaps help the state get out of debt." In addition, the teachers say they're seeing about equal numbers of students who identify themselves as Democrats and Republicans, as well as students who consider themselves independent or third-party voters. Damore says young voters' political attitudes tend to be "malleable" at this stage in their lives. "By the time they get to their early 30s, it's pretty much set," he says. "That period between 17 and 25 is when they go out in the world and make some lifetime decisions." However, for all of their diversity, voters ages 18 to 25 also generally account for the lowest voter turnout of any demographic group, Damore adds. As a result, "a lot of times, politicians aren't going to bother (with them) because their turnouts are low," he says. "It's easier to talk to seniors because you know they're going to vote." Students say they may not necessarily -- and certainly don't feel the need to -- vote the way their parents do, but do believe their parents' attitudes toward voting probably influence their own. "I think our parents, the way they raised us, has a lot to do with it," says Joeley Garcia, a senior at Cimarron-Memorial. Garcia says her parents take voting seriously and that the family does talk politics at home. But, she adds, "I know some people who aren't like that." An intense, high-profile issue may help to spur greater political participation by new voters. For example, Keith Skroback, a government teacher at Eldorado High School, says the Vietnam War and the military draft galvanized young voters in the '60s. Today, the war in Iraq may play a similar role. "With Eldorado being so close to Nellis (Air Force Base), we've got a lot of kids with parents in the Air Force or affiliated with the Air Force in one way or another," Skroback says. "So there is some awareness of (the war), at least." All of the government teachers have invited voter registration officials to their classes so that students may register. "It's been almost overwhelming how many want to become registered," Racek says. And, Skroback says, "I think most of them are pretty serious." Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 57 Las Vegas RJ: LETTER: Citizen board on top of groundwater contamination Sunday, April 18, 2004 To the editor: In response to the March 30 article, "Study criticizes efforts to trace groundwater," which detailed a report published by Citizen Alert related to groundwater contamination at the Nevada Test Site. Contamination of groundwater at the test site occurred as a result of historical underground nuclear testing activities, and this issue has been the focus of extensive multi-year studies by a team of scientists. In addition, the Community Advisory Board for Nevada Test Site Programs has been working on this issue since 1995. Established in 1994, the board is a group of volunteer residents from throughout Nevada who provide citizen concerns and input to the U.S. Department of Energy on its environmental management activities at the test site. The board has devoted large amounts of time investigating the effects of historical underground nuclear testing on the groundwater at the test site. The primary concern of the board is the potential for contaminated groundwater to move off the test site to adjacent private land. Over the years, the advisory board has been highly involved in reviewing and commenting on the strategy that the DOE uses to address groundwater contamination. The board has held public meetings in Las Vegas, Pahrump, Amargosa Valley and Beatty to inform stakeholders of this issue -- as well as of other environmental management projects -- and to seek citizen input. Because of citizen concerns, On Oct. 6, 2000, the board formally requested that an independent peer review of the strategy being used to address groundwater contamination be conducted. As a result, the DOE funded a peer review, which was independently convened by the Institute for Regulatory Science. The peer review panel held public meetings in Las Vegas to gather information related to its study. Upon completion of its work, the board sponsored a public meeting at which the peer review panel discussed its conclusions and addressed further concerns and recommendations from the board and the public, which included a representative from Citizen Alert. As a result of the recommendations submitted by the board, and based on the findings of the peer review panel and stakeholder input, the DOE is modifying some of its strategy so that it is more accurate in its strategic objective and is committed to increasing data collection in key areas. The DOE recognizes that the Pahute Mesa/Oasis Valley area is of high importance to the board and Nevadans and continues to focus a considerable amount of resources in this area. Carl Gertz, the assistant manager for environmental management at the test site, has even gone a step further by inviting the board to recommend locations for additional sentinel/monitoring wells, based upon the years of study and evaluation the advisory panel has undertaken. The board is currently in the process of evaluating the necessary data to make a defensible recommendation. This has proven to be quite a challenge as the geologic and hydrologic conditions of the Pahute Mesa/Oasis Valley are extremely complex. Since this offer was extended, the board has met many times with DOE officials and staff to ask additional questions and to request the necessary information so that we can make the responsible recommendations, as Mr. Gertz has requested. To ensure that all information is carefully evaluated and represented, the board has requested copies of the Citizen Alert report and will meet with its representatives to address the concerns cited. We are committed to representing all Nevada stakeholders and look forward to the opportunity to address these specific concerns and hear any other constructive input that Citizen Alert can provide on environmental management issues at the Nevada Test Site. CHARLES A. PHILLIPS LAS VEGAS The writer chairs the Community Advisory Board for Nevada Test Site Programs. To learn more about the board, visit www.ntscab.com. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 58 Bellona: EC: Sellafield must clean up nuclear waste pond A forty-year-old radioactive waste storage pond at Britain’s Sellafield nuclear power installation—whose waste content is unknown—has become the centre of a European Commission, or EC, intervention that has requested British authorities to develop a plan to dismantle the aged storage pond by May. Bellona will inspect the pond in June. This row of old buildings at Sellafield is an inch from becoming a ghost-town. Working with them to take waste from among them will be complicated. Richert Hauglin Erik Martiniussen, 2004-04-15 12:21 The aged storage pond, which was built in the late 1950’s, was originally used to hold spent nuclear fuel, or SNF, for reprocessing and eventual production of weapons grad plutonium. The storage pond is now closed, but still contains between 300 and 450 tonnes of SNF. Some of the waste within the pond has corroded or disintegrated, making the fuel removal and cleaning request from the EU especially difficult to fulfill. Unfamiliar with the contents British authorities will now have to clean up the old storage pond, officially refereed to as B30, but nicknamed “dirty 30” by workers at Sellafield. The EC has requested Britain develop a comprehensive plan for removal of the waste before the end of May 2004. If it misses that deadline, it may be necessary too take the United Kingdom government before the European Union, or EU, Court of Law. Removal and destruction of the nuclear waste may be difficult. Because of the radiation near dirty 30, workers at the plant can only spend one hour at a day near the pond. Parts of the spent fuel have corroded, and no one knows precisely how much waste the pond is holding. This is exactly what worries the EC. Since the EC first gained accesses to the plant in 1986, the B30 pond has been a security issue. But little has been done from the British side to improve conditions, and it seems evident patience has run out in Brussels, home to the EC and other branches of EU government. According to an EC document cited in the British daily “The Sunday Herald,” the EC is “strongly concerned about the situation regarding radioactive contamination of the environment surrounding the pond.” According to the Euratom treaty from 1957, every European country within the 15—soon to be 25— member EU is obliged at all times to know the precise amount of fissile materials it possess. Because the British government have no information about, or control over, the contents of B30, it’s impossible to keep an accounting of dirty 30. This, according to the EC, is a violation of Euratom. The financially troubled British Nuclear Fuel plc, or BNFL, which owns the Sellafield nuclear facility, has told the commission that the derelict storage pond contains approximately 1,300 kilograms of plutonium. Of those 400 kilograms are likely corroded and lying at the bottom of the pond with other radioactive waste and sediment. Radioactive leaks According to The Sunday Herald, leaks have also occurred at the pond. Other tank installations at Sellafield have leaked in the past. Most notable, however, have been technetium-99, or Tc 99, leaks into the ground water. BNFL has begun efforts to reduce these leaks, which come from another tank on the Sellafield territory. Bellona inspected this tank installation in Spring, 2003. BNFL has also agreed to let Bellona representatives inspect the B30 storage pond in June this year. Bellona wants to speed up decommissioning and clean-up work at Sellafield. Many old buildings in the plant’s industrial area are in significant disrepair. This is especially so in Sellafield’s now disused military complex, where weapons-grade plutonium was produced for British nuclear bombs. These plants are now empty—polluted ghost towns inside Sellafield. Catastrophic fire In October 1957, a catastrophic fire started in one of the military reactors at Sellafield. The fire caused two large spills of radioactivity. The largest spill happened early on the Friday, the 11th of October of that year. In a desperate attempt to extinguish the fire, Sellafield fire units doused the reactor with large amounts of water. No one knew at that time what the results of fighting the reactor fire with water would be. It could have caused a explosion, but fortunately the water snuffed the fire out. The price was a massive cloud-like spill of radioactive steam, which drifted south through most of England and further, into the air over Europe. By 11 o’clock on that catastrophic friday, firefighters brought the fire under control. Over 20 percent of the reactor was destroyed, and workers in the area were exposed to radiation levels 150 times higher than established limits. People in the local population were exposed to radiation levels of 10 times the maximum lifetime dose. The old reactor is now hermetically closed. It’s still uncertain how it would be possible to dismantle the damaged reactor. In addition to the old military reactor, the British authorities have before them the task of decommissionin the first military reprocessing plant at the Sellafield, known as B204. This plant has been shut down since an accident in September 1973. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 59 CNSC: EA: Screening Report – MDS Nordion Waste Diversion Program Environmental Assessments [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission / Commission Canadienne de Request for Public Comment The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) invites public comment on the Screening Report concerning the Environmental Assessment of the MDS Nordion Waste Diversion Program. This environmental assessment is being conducted pursuant to the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The public comment period ends on May 17th, 2004. The Screening Report is based on an Environmental Assessment Study Report prepared by MDS Nordion in response to Environmental Assessment Guidelines approved and issued by the CNSC on December 12th, 2003. Interested parties should address their written comments to the CNSC environmental assessment project manager at the address indicated below. CNSC staff will review and address all comments received before submitting the Screening Report to the CNSC for approval and decision under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. All comments received regarding the Screening Report will be public information. Copies of the Screening Report are available at the following locations: Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Library 280 Slater Street, 4th Floor Ottawa, ON K1P 5S9 Ottawa Public Library Hazeldean Branch 50 Castlefrank Road Ottawa ON K2L 2N5 Ottawa Public Library Main Branch 120 Metcalfe Street Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5M2 Ottawa Public Library Beaver Brook Branch 2500 Campeau Drive Ottawa ON K2K 2W3 Written comments on the Screening Report document should be submitted by regular mail or by e-mail before May 17th, 2004 to: Michael J. Rinker Environmental Assessment Specialist Processing Facilities and Technical Support Division Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission P.O. Box 1046, Station B Ottawa, ON K1P 5S9 Telephone: 1-800-668-5284 E-mail: ceaainfo@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca For more information on the environmental assessment process, please refer to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency web site at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca. The CNSC regulates the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada's international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. ***************************************************************** 60 KVIA: NM governor vows to keep WIPP open 04.16.04 Governor Bill Richardson said Friday the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad isn't in any danger of being shut down. Richardson issued a statement a day after Environment Secretary Ron Curry threatened to shut down WIPP in 30 days over a U.S. Department of Energy push to store radioactive sludge there. Curry also threatened to block a planned expansion of WIPP in 2006. Richardson on Friday said WIPP can and should continue to operate and current shipments would not be affected by the high-level waste issue. WIPP, which is near Carlsbad, is an underground waste dump for defense-related nuclear waste. A federal judge ruled last summer that high-level waste, such as the sludge, is prohibited at WIPP. All content © Copyright 2002 - 2004 WorldNow and KVIA. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 61 KVIA: Carlsbad reacts to argument over WIPP 04.18.04 officials are reacting to strong statements about the nearby Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. Environment Secretary Ron Curry's threats to stop shipments to the underground dump in 30 days has drawn furor from the officials worried about Carlsbad's economy. Mayor Bob Forrest says Curry's comments upset the community. But Governor Richardson says there's no need to worry. Following Curry's comments, the governor has issued a statement saying the Energy Department waste disposal site isn't in danger. Curry threatened to shut down WIPP if the D-O-E continues its push to store radioactive sludge there. He also threatened to block a planned expansion of WIPP in 2006. But Richardson said current shipments won't be affected by the flap over high-level waste. All content © Copyright 2002 - 2004 WorldNow and KVIA. All ***************************************************************** 62 Salt Lake Tribune: Goshutes demand leader quit April 18, 2004 [PHOTO] Mary Allen finds an escape from the shouting and name-calling occurring during the meeting held in the building behind her on Saturday. Two Bureau of Indian Affairs police officers stood by during the six-hour meeting. (Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune) By Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune SKULL VALLEY GOSHUTES' VILLAGE -- Skull Valley Goshutes took steps Saturday to strip power from their leader, Leon Bear, who's facing federal charges of embezzlement and tax fraud even as he is seeking to bring a nuclear waste-storage site worth billions to tribal land. During a semiannual tribal meeting, opponents teamed up to block Bear and vice chairwoman Lori Skiby from doing any more tribal business, demanding his resignation within 10 days and putting the tribal council all of the adult tribal members in charge. It was not clear Saturday what impact such a shake-up might have on the Goshutes' agreement to store spent reactor fuel, a project masterminded by Bear, on 100 acres across the road from the tribal village. "We stopped him in his tracks," said Rex Allen, a disputed tribal secretary whose resolution to unseat current leaders was embraced by others displeased with the criminal charges. Margene Bullcreek, who proposed a formal petition to remove Bear and Skiby, predicted Bear would fight, possibly appealing to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). But she said the opposition is too strong. "People got together, even those for the waste." Bear and Skiby refused to comment after the vote. But Lawrence Bear, Leon Bear's uncle and Skiby's father, backed the embattled administration. "They are still in command as far as I'm concerned," said the former tribal chairman. Infighting has grown fierce since Bear signed the storage-site lease with a nuclear consortium called Private Fuel Storage (PFS) in 1997. Bear's administration has not publicly disclosed how much the tribe can expect from the waste project, and Bear's critics say he has cut them off from the benefits of tribal ventures while favoring his supporters. Opponents have sought help from the courts, the BIA and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is reviewing the storage project license. On Saturday, two BIA police officers stood by during the six-hour meeting. Tribal members and visitors could be seen stepping out into the wind and rain for respite from the shouting and name-calling that peppered the meeting. Leon Bear adjourned the meeting after people flocked to sign Allen's and Bullcreek's measures and before he could put his own proposals to a vote. It was the first Goshute gathering since the U.S. Attorney for Utah indicted Leon Bear in December on three counts of embezzling $160,952 from tribal programs and three counts for tax fraud. Prosecutors allege that Bear reported being unemployed on his personal tax filings while being paid more than $192,316 for tribal business. Bear has denied any wrongdoing. Still, critics traveled from throughout the Mountain West to blunt a rumored effort to get the tribe to pay for his defense in the criminal case. They also were angry about his new home, a $100,000 ranch house that was the first one financed by the new tribal housing authority. Also cheering for Bear's removal were Miranda Wash and Sammy Blackbear, who say they became the vice chair and secretary three years ago but are not recognized as leaders by the BIA. With her administration and their attorney also facing federal indictments prosecutors allege they withdrew money from tribal accounts illegally Wash was happy that the leadership fight might finally be ending. "We're hoping it's going to be better for the tribe," she said. fahys@sltrib.com © Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 63 Vanunu profile Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 00:19:35 -0500 (CDT) http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=44584 Mordechai Vanunu: imprisoned hero, Nobel prize nominee, victim, or traitor? Posted: 04/16 From: Guardian [blank.gif] The Guardian profile: Mordechai Vanunu An imprisoned hero, a Nobel prize nominee, a victim, or a traitor: Israel's nuclear whistleblower represents many things to many people. How will he and his country react when the day of his release from jail dawns next week? Duncan Campbell The Guardian (London) Friday April 16, 2004 Nearly 18 years ago, a young Israeli nuclear technician went to London to reveal the secrets of his country's atomic weapons programme to the world. Then, lured to Italy by an Israeli secret service agent, he was drugged, gagged, bound and returned to Israel, where he was convicted of treason and espionage and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. Next week, after serving most of that sentence in solitary confinement, he will finally be released. Mordechai Vanunu is 49 and has become a symbol for the international peace movement. He has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize, and a long-running campaign has sought his release. When he finally walks out of the gates of Shekma prison next Wednesday, to be met by scores of his supporters from a dozen different countries around the world, he will not be allowed to leave the country for at least six months, or communicate with any foreigner. Born in 1954 in Marrakesh, Morocco, into a large and deeply religious Jewish family which emigrated to Israel in 1963, Vanunu served for three years in the sappers' unit of the Israeli Defence Force after he left school. He held the rank of sergeant and was given an honourable discharge. He then became a technician at the nuclear reactor centre in Dimona. He worked there from 1976 to 1985, when he was made redundant. At the same time, he was studying philosophy at Ben Gurion university and already beginning to feel uncomfortable about a number of his government's policies. He was also beginning to come to the attention of the authorities, not least because, along with four other Jewish students and five Arab students, he had formed a radical group, called Campus. He was also an admirer of his professor, Evron Pollakov, a radical who had refused to serve with the Israeli army in Lebanon and had been jailed as a result. The security services noted Vanunu's increasing radicalism, his professed sympathy for the Palestinians, and the fact that he had links with an organisation called the Movement for the Advancement of Peace. By now he was starting to suffer what he later described as a crisis of conscience while working at the Dimona plant, which was clandestinely producing nuclear weapons. He started to take photos of the plant, without having made a decision to do anything with them. As he later explained: "It crossed my mind, of course, but I just wanted to think over my future and make plans to see more of the world." Made redundant in 1985, he used his $7,500 payoff to travel round the world, visiting Nepal, Burma and Thailand before arriving in Australia, where he booked into a hostel in the Kings Cross district and found himself odd jobs as a hotel dishwasher and later a taxi driver. "The people are friendly," he wrote to a former girlfriend. "They drink a lot of beer." At around this time, he introduced himself to the local church, St John's, where he was made welcome by the Rev John McKnight, who was well known in the area for his work with homeless people and drug addicts. He gradually decided to convert to Christianity, being baptised as an Anglican in 1986 - a move that was to alienate him from his parents and most of his 11 brothers and sisters. At the church, during a discussion on peace and nuclear proliferation, Vanunu divulged some of the knowledge that he had gained at Dimona. By chance, a freelance Colombian journalist called Oscar Guerrero was working at the church. He heard about Vanunu and encouraged him to tell all. Guerrero contacted the Australian press, but without success. He headed for Europe and approached the Sunday Times, which assigned the investigative journalist Peter Hounam and the Insight team to the story. In the summer of 1986, Hounam flew to Sydney to assess the strength of the allegation that Israel, despite its denials, was secretly developing a nuclear arsenal. "I liked him straight away," said Hounam this week as he prepared to set off to Israel for Vanunu's release. "We spent 12 days together and he answered all my questions in a very straightforward way. He spoke about his disillusionment about what was going on in Israel." It was agreed that Vanunu should come to London, where he could talk to nuclear scientists in the peace movement and be debriefed. Hounam continued to interview him, and the paper prepared to publish the revelations. However, before the story had even appeared in the Sunday Times, Vanunu disappeared. He had grown frustrated with a delay in publication, and was upset by a piece in the Sunday Mirror which wrongly accused him of being a hoaxer. Crucially, he had also met a woman, "Cindy", who he believed was an American tourist. She seemed to be attracted to him, and was critical of the Israeli government. Hounam told him: "Morde, this woman might be lying, she might be a Mossad plant," but Vanunu thought she was genuine. "Cindy" paid for air tickets to Rome, said that her sister had a flat on the outskirts of the city, and suggested that they could have a holiday there. Vanunu believed her until the moment he entered the flat and was overpowered by two men. He was injected with a drug, smuggled on to a ship and taken back to Israel. At Mossad's headquarters, he was shown a copy of the Sunday Times story which had appeared on October 5 and told: "See the damage you have done." Convicted of treason and espionage at a closed trial, Vanunu was jailed for 18 years. The first eleven and a half were spent in solitary confinement. There was fear for his mental health as he grew increasingly despairing. For the first part of his sentence, the light in his cell was kept on all the time. Since being allowed to mix with other prisoners, his health has apparently improved considerably. He has read voraciously, for many years studying Kant, Sartre, Camus and Nietzsche, but more recently reading historical works, and in particular the history of the US. He listens to opera on a cassette player and hopes to travel eventually, possibly settling in Minnesota with Nick and Mary Eoloff, a couple from the peace movement who have gone through an adoption process to name him as their son. His natural parents are still alive, but it has mainly been his two brothers, Meir, a photographer in Israel, and Asher, the deputy head of a high school there, who have supported him during his long incarceration. "It's a terrible tragedy," said Hounam. "I've been waiting since 1986 for this moment. I want him to be able to resume his life, maybe get married and have kids. It's been a scandal what has happened to him." Although denounced as a traitor by his government and the subject of frequent allegations about his motives in some of the Israeli press, his actions have won him international support. Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon papers in an attempt to end the war in Vietnam in the 70s, has described Vanunu as "heroic" and often refers to him as such in his public speeches. Sabby Sagall, one of the founding members of the London-based Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East, said: "He is one of the bravest and most inspirational people of our time. If Bush and Blair want to find weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, Vanunu has told them where to go." Professor Joseph Rotblat, a Nobel peace prize winner, has also been outspoken in his support. Among those flying to Israel this weekend are Bruce Kent, vice-president of CND, and the actor Susannah York. Ernest Rodker, the secretary of the campaign, said: "He is in some physical danger if he remains in Israel. A talkshow host called for him to be wiped out recently." Rodker said that Vanunu had a wide range of correspondents who had kept in touch with him over the years. He hoped that, if Vanunu wanted to come to Britain, he would be allowed to do so - Britain had a responsibility towards him because he was in effect lured away while on British soil. It was believed at the time that Vanunu was not seized in Britain because the Israeli government did not want to embarrass Mrs Thatcher. Over the years, pleas for his release or for a less harsh jail regime met with little response. The Israeli government position was made clear in 1997 when President Ezer Weizman said at a press conference in London: "He was a spy who gave away secrets, and the fact that he did so for conviction rather than for money makes no difference. He was a traitor to his country." In one of the hundreds of letters that Vanunu wrote in prison, he said he saw himself as a free man. "I'll stay free, to prove that I was right to reveal the madness of the Israeli nuclear secrets. I am not a spy, but a man who helped all the world to end the madness of the nuclear race." Life in short Born: October 13 1954, Morocco Life 1963: family emigrates to Israel 1971-74: military service in army 1976-1985: technician at Dimona nuclear reactor centre. Travels in far east before arriving in London to talk to Sunday Times September 1986: disappears. October 1986: Sunday Times publishes his story. November 1986: Israel admits it has him in custody. March 1988: convicted of treason and sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. Vanunu on impending release "I'll be free, I won. The gates and the locks will be opened. They didn't succeed in breaking me or driving me crazy." Vanunu on future "I have no interest in fighting the state. I want to live a normal life, a simple life, as a free man outside of Israel" ***************************************************************** 64 [DU-WATCH] FW:After 18 Years in prison, Mordechai Vanunu's day Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:18:50 -0500 (CDT) 18 yrs in prison for doing the right thing: ---------- http://www.wrmea.com/archives/April_2004/0404010.html After 18 Years in Prison, Mordechai Vanunu's Day of Freedom Nears By Delinda C. Hanley [snip] . Thousands of people work at two aging nuclear plants in Dimona, the BBC report revealed, as well as at other nuclear plants in Nahal Suryak, south of Tel Aviv, Raishon Liston, and Haifa. Because of Israel#58808; failure to monitor environmental safety, the documentary charges, employees at the nuclear reactors, as well as at Israel#58808; biological institute at Nes Tziona, are at risk. Nes Tziona has been the site of fires, spills, and explosions of toxic gas. Former workers who are ill#59583;ncluding more than a hundred with cancer#59575;re denied compensation because Israeli authorities pooh-poohed their claims that they worked with nuclear material. Victims are warned that, if they complain, they will end up like Vanunu. Deeply disturbing footage also shows a Palestinian youth writhing in convulsions after exposure to an unknown new gas used by the Israelis in Gaza in February 2001. Israel claimed it was tear gas, but doctors had no idea how to treat 180 convulsing patients exposed to the mysterious gas. The Israeli Embassy in London lobbied the BBC to postpone the broadcast of #28108;srael#38646; Secret Weapon.?The BBC buckled, delaying its originally scheduled spot and instead showing it late the following night. After the documentary aired, the BBC received record amounts of mail. When the Washington Report asked the BBC how to purchase the documentary, we were told the BBC has no plans to sell a video of the documentary, and reminded that it is illegal to copy, sell or distribute the copyrighted documentary. #28108;srael#38646; Secret Weapon?has not been shown on U.S. network television. Americans wishing to see the film may contact their local stations to request a U.S. showing#62729;r move abroad. It is rumored that Canada soon will release another documentary on Vanunu. The Israeli press already is discussing the whistleblower#38646; #36009;rime?and speculating about damage control measures after his release. Former Mossad chief Shavit, who retired from the intelligence agency in 1996 and now chairs the International Policy Institute for Counterterrorism at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, told Haaretz that he fears Vanunu will spill more state #36899;ecrets?upon his release from prison. In his letters from prison, according to Haaretz, Vanunu has vowed to keep campaigning to expose Israel#38646; non-conventional weapons capabilities. Shavit has called for Vanunu to be legally silenced after his release. #34502; propose gagging this man,?he said. #34957;he main consideration should be his intent to go on causing damage to Israel. And who will guarantee that he will only speak the truth? What is to stop him imagining things??br> According to unnamed security sources, the Justice Ministry may refuse to issue Vanunu an Israeli passport in order to prevent him from leaving the country, and may subject to military censorship any press interviews he gives. If Vanunu attempts to discuss state #36899;ecrets?he could face arrest and a new trial, the Haaretz report warns. In 1986 the international community allowed Israel to kidnap Vanunu on foreign soil, try him in secret and incarcerate for 18 years a man guilty only of whistleblowing. The world is watching now to see if Israel will allow Vanunu, who has paid a heavy price for his convictions, to enjoy life and freedom. For too long the world has turned a blind eye to Israel#38646; nuclear arsenal. In recent months, however, the climate has changed. Libya, Iran, North Korea, India and Pakistan now discuss their weapons programs, and Israel#38646; neighbors are calling for a nuclear- free Middle East. It may be in Israel#38646; interest to take this opportunity to join the nearly 150 nations which have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and to come clean about its nuclear and biological weapons programs. For more information on Mordachai Vanunu, or to send financial support to help him after his release, contact: The U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu P.O. Box 43384 Tucson, AZ 85733 phone/fax: (520) 323-8697 e-mail: freevanunu@m... or visit the Web site: www.nonviolence.org/vanunu --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! 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Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 65 Tri-City Herald: Power trip This story was published Saturday, April 17th, 2004 By Jeff St. John Herald staff writer For the daring Pasco line crew of the Bonneville Power Administration, performing a high wire act isn't that shocking. Sure, there's a little bit of a jolt from working alongside live 500-kilovolt transmission lines, said BPA lineman Terry Hildreth. But when your job includes climbing a 200-foot-tall transmission tower, getting into a cart dangling in the air and rolling it along the aluminum and steel cables that carry electricity from the Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant to Eugene, Ore., electrical shock is just one of many safety issues to contend with. "This is the best and the safest crew I've worked with," said Hildreth, 52, a lineman since 1977, as he stood under the transmission lines running across Highway 240 in Richland. Up above, fellow linemen Brent Thompson and Nick Wenzl and foreman Toby Cossairt stood in orange carts that hung from the transmission cables by pulley arms, rolling them slowly down the "belly" of the drooping cables. The towers marched north and south, each carrying three sets of three cables on either side of each massive structure. About a year ago, the Pasco crew put in a request to cut the power for several weeks on the lines running along the east side of the towers, so these linemen could replace the triangle-shaped spacers that keep the groupings of three cables from rubbing together and breaking down. "One side's down, but the other side's hot, so we're picking up a lot of induction," Hildreth pointed out. The "hot" lines along the towers' west side, bound for Arlington, Ore., caused an induction current of about 150 volts to run down the steel tower and into the earth. "You can feel it -- it kind of makes you want to jump away," Hildreth said. That's why the linemen are careful to "ground" the current with a series of safety measures before they start their climb up the tower, he said. A BPA helicopter flew the carts up and carefully hung them on the transmission cables, along with ladders and bundles of new spacers to be installed. The pilot's job required precision flying, especially when he placed the cart so its pulleys caught on the narrow cable. When one of the carts had a problem with the drive that powers it along the lines, the helicopter plucked it off the tower and dropped it to earth. The linemen on the ground fixed it and had it back up on the tower within 15 minutes. Lineman Ryan Bingham recalled two years ago, when his cart's drive failed and sent him rolling helplessly down the transmission line's belly until he hit a spacer and stopped, almost throwing him from the cart. Of course, he was harnessed to the cart, which kept him from falling to his death. "It's one of those things that goes with the profession," lineman Stefan Schildt said of the tolerance of heights he and his fellow linemen need on the job. The men on the ground hauled up canvas bags, filled with tools, coats, food and water, to the men in the carts. The crew expected to work all day Friday to cover about eight spans of lines between towers, each about a quarter-mile. Eventually, the linemen planned to run all the way to where the lines cross the Columbia River into Morrow County in Oregon. "You're working hard enough so that you're pretty sore" at the end of the day, Schildt said. But sometimes the weather behaves. "(Thursday) it was pretty inclement," he said. "But I was just in a shirt, and I stayed pretty warm." © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 66 Tri-City Herald: BPA deal could hold line on rate spike This story was published Saturday, April 17th, 2004 By Chris Mulick Herald staff writer The Bonneville Power Administration announced a deal Friday to cut and defer payments owed to PacifiCorp and Puget Sound Energy in a move that could head off another rate increase this fall. The agency, which sells all the power generated at 30 federal dams and the nuclear plant north of Richland, had expected an increase somewhere near 5 percent would be needed Oct. 1. The deal announced Friday would keep rates about 6 percent lower than they otherwise would be for the next two years. BPA and other federal agencies also are mulling a plan that would curtail summer spill operations at dams to save a few percentage points more. But BPA Administrator Steve Wright in a press release called the private utility deal "the single greatest action we can take" to keep rates down next year. Retail ratepayers, after costs are filtered through their utilities, aren't likely to see drastic changes one way or the other this fall. "I don't think you'll see any great rate reduction but it will help stabilize them," said Benton REA Manager Chuck Dawsey. The agreement encapsulates part of a larger settlement that was rejected by public utilities in January. About 70 such utilities sued Bonneville in 2001 arguing the agency gave private utilities more benefits in the last rate- setting process than they are legally entitled to at the expense of the public utilities, who by law are first in line at the BPA trough. Anticipating their power purchase contracts would be challenged, PacifiCorp and Puget Sound Energy signed them after Bonneville offered the utilities a contingency plan that included $200 million in payments if a lawsuit were filed. Without a deal that $200 million would be due by Sept. 30, 2006. Under the plan announced Friday, Bonneville will eliminate half the amount and defer the remaining $100 million into the next five-year rate period, which begins Oct. 1, 2006. In exchange, the private utilities will be guaranteed power sales contracts with terms outlining benefits that are nearly identical to the ones they now enjoy. Though the agreement will help cut rates, it does not settle the public power lawsuit, which will go forward. "They get it both ways," said Bonneville spokesman Ed Mosey. Bonneville is taking comments on the plan through May 14 but the deal, unlike the failed settlement agreement, does not need to be ratified by public utilities to go forward. "Utilities in general are supporting it as the least of several evils," Dawsey said. "It's certainly a step in the right direction," said Franklin PUD Manager Jean Ryckman. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 67 Tri-City Herald: DOE watches demolition This story was published Saturday, April 17th, 2004 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer When Hanford workers got ready to tear down the plutonium-contaminated 233-S laboratory, one of their first steps was to give the interior a fresh coat of paint. It was part of a new demolition method that officials at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and other Department of Energy nuclear sites are watching closely as they search for better cleanup methods. Instead of scrubbing as much radioactive contamination as possible from the laboratory before demolition began, workers glued it in place. The goal was to haul away huge pieces of the building for disposal with the contamination intact. "We had a lot of pessimists who thought we would have to stop work as soon as we started," said Jeff Riddelle, deputy project manager for contractor Fluor Hanford. But the new method appears to be a success, reducing risk to workers and the environment. On Friday, little remained of the four-story laboratory except a few multiton blocks of reinforced concrete on the first floor. The project is the first "open-air" demolition of a highly contaminated building in a DOE complex and the first demolition of a Hanford plutonium processing facility. Earlier this year, Fluor finished stabilizing and packaging 20 tons of material containing plutonium left over from Hanford's days of producing plutonium for the nation's weapons program. Now it has turned its Plutonium Finishing Plant workers to the task of deactivating and demolishing laboratories and buildings used to produce plutonium. In 1956, the solution backed up through a defective valve. Two employees were seriously contaminated and contamination spread out the dampers and doors of the building across 200 square feet of ground. In 1963, a fire spread through four floors of the building and scattered an estimated 2 to 6.6 pounds of plutonium dust and residue in the building. Officials never determined whether some new processing equipment caused the fire or malfunctioned because of the fire. When workers got ready to dismantle the building last year, "it was horribly contaminated," Riddelle said. Plans developed in the mid-1990s called for the building to be cleaned of radiation using liquid solutions. That would have left Hanford with yet more contaminated waste to dispose of -- the used liquid -- and caused some radiation to be airborne during the cleaning. Instead, DOE agreed to try open-air demolition. "We chose the approach because it minimized the time to do the job," said Tony Umek, a Fluor project director. That meant less time workers would be exposed to radiological and industrial hazards. Workers used two ways to fix contamination in place before demolition started. A latex-based paint was applied with an airless sprayer, said Tom Orgill, manager for the demolition project. Some equipment was left in the building and also had its radioactive contamination glued in place. A soil-cement was used to cover rubble, debris and contaminated soil around the lab. "It binds dust to anything," Orgill said. Trucks rolled in on a huge yellow carpet of plastic, used to keep their wheels free of any contamination on the ground near the building. The least contaminated parts of the laboratory building, such as offices, were demolished with a huge, clawlike shear that chewed through the cement. It worked in a cloud of mist created by a Fog Cannon to make sure any radioactive dust stirred up fell to the ground. As work progressed to the more heavily contaminated plutonium processing area, workers switched to carefully sawing the remainder of the building into 39 chunks of reinforced concrete as heavy as eight tons each. As much as possible, the work was hands-off. On Friday, workers in double suits of protective gear, face masks and respirators stood back and watched a rotary saw grind through 12-inch concrete walls. Once a block was sawed off, a crane lifted it away. The cut edges, which hadn't been coated with protective paint, were wrapped in clingy, clear plastic wrap. Then the piece was bundled in black plastic and packed into a steel container to be trucked to a permanent waste dump for radioactively contaminated rubble in the center of Hanford. Most of the waste will be buried at Hanford, but some of the more highly contaminated pieces from the site are expected to be sent to an underground waste repository near Carlsbad, N.M. In the 4,000 times that workers have entered the site since work began in late October, no skin contamination has been recorded, Riddelle said. Extensive air sampling has shown no migration of dust off the work site, said Nick Ceto, Hanford project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the lead regulator on the project. The work is about 90 percent complete and Fluor expects to wrap it up in May. One uncertainty is the weather. Work is stopped anytime the wind blows at least 12 mph because of the risk of spreading dust with radioactive contamination. The next step will be putting down concrete as a cap over the dirt. It will keep water from driving contamination deeper into the soil. With hundreds of other contaminated buildings waiting to be torn down at Hanford, open-air demolition likely will be used again after EPA, DOE and Fluor analyze the safety and success of the project. The Rocky Flats, Colo., nuclear site, which is much closer to populated areas, is particularly interested in evaluating how the new method worked. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 68 amarillo.com: Pantex finishes repairs to contain blast matter 04/18/04 Gravel Gerties have been a pillar of Pantex nuclear safety.--> By JIM McBRIDE jim.mcbride@amarillo.com The Amarillo Globe-News Closing the Gaps: Pantex's Gravel Gerties are patched up, after a six-year wait, to reduce the risk of plutonium particles escaping through small openings during a blast inside them. Courtesy Photo TALK AMARILLO [Forums] "I wish the editorial staff at the Globe news would THINK before they commit themselves to an opinion in the paper's editorial pages. Their support of the President's attempts to ammend the constitution to ban gay marriage is LAME at best, and certainly uncaring towards their fellow citizens." - From tjaybob43 [Join this discussion] For decades, Gravel Gerties have been a pillar of Pantex nuclear safety. The specially engineered nuclear weapons assembly cells - named after a popular Dick Tracy comic strip character - are designed to contain an accidental high explosive blast and limit dispersal of radioactive materials during such an extremely unlikely scenario. Several years ago, Pantex safety experts learned radioactive materials could spew from cell openings - pipe openings, door gaps and structural cracks - during a high-explosive blast, raising potential concerns about off-site radioactive contamination. About six years ago, then-Pantex contractor Mason &Hanger Corp. issued a work order to seal cell openings identified by safety experts. But the work order was never completed, officials said. Contractor BWXT Pantex, which took over the Pantex contract in 2001, discovered the work order and completed the overdue repairs. "BWXT Pantex discovered the work order to make these repairs while reviewing outstanding work orders. These repairs have been completed," Joe Papp, BWXT Pantex's system engineering section manager, said in response to Globe-News inquiries. In September, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board cited renewed concerns about "cell leak path areas" where radioactive materials could vent during an explosive accident. "The staff was briefed on recent progress and a path forward to reduce the amount of radioactive material which could potentially be released through gaps around doors, pipe penetrations, blast valves and through structural cracks in the event of a high explosive violent reaction in assembly/disassembly cells," according to a recent safety board report. At the time, Pantex halted all work in all nuclear weapons assembly cells for about two weeks while safety experts reviewed the issue as a "unreviewed safety question." John Conway, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board chairman, said the issue is not a particularly serious one, but one that has captured the attention of the board and Pantex safety experts. "I do not consider it a serious one because it's mostly calculations," Conway said. "The seriousness would be of having a detonation. It wouldn't go nuclear, but it would spread plutonium. The worst thing is it would kill somebody in there." Conway said Pantex was able to continue operating while the work order was pending because its calculations showed that off-site radioactive releases would not have exceeded federal guidelines during an accident. "That is one of the reasons that, with the work order pending, they were still able to operate," he said. "You don't like to have work orders that were considered priority, then put aside and then nobody complied with it. It went for what it appears to be six years." Papp said Pantex last year discovered additional "cell pathways" not previously identified in other safety studies. "While the additional pathways could potentially increase the off-site effects, Pantex remained below the off-site exposure guidelines," Papp said. Papp said studies that calculate the theoretical effects of a high-explosive blast in an assembly cell are conservative and take the most extreme accident scenarios into account. Such calculations normally estimate the power of such a blast and the amount of plutonium that would be vaporized and forced through cracks or other openings, Conway said. "The small size of these pathways, the construction of the cells and limits placed on the amount of nuclear material allowed in each cell would limit the amount of material dispersed to levels below the federal guidelines to protect public health and safety," Papp said in a statement. "Since that time, BWXT Pantex has filled the structural cracks, which were minor. We are currently looking into other ways to reduce the pathways through our continuous improvement program." Conway said federal government guidelines for off-site radiation are 25 REM - Roentgen Equivalent Man - a measure of radioactive exposure and its biological effects on human tissue. "There's a general rule when you are trying to plan that you never have more than 25 REM at the fence. ... You plan to make sure you don't get anything off-site," he said. "If, in any way conceivable when you do your calculations, that it could exceed 25 REM outside the fence, that's it. You cannot operate." Papp also said nuclear materials are not normally released through cell pathways during regular operations. ***************************************************************** 69 CorpWatch.org Nuclear Weapons: Who Profits? Who Pays? Source: Stop The Bombs Posted: April 17, 2004 The April Action of the Stop the Bombs campaign in Oak Ridge, Tennessee will include a Nonviolence Workshop/strategic caucus planning session on Saturday, April 17, 2004 and a Rally, March, and Direct Action for Peace on Sunday, April 18, 2004 at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Plant in Oak Ridge, TN. Next year, Bechtel will make more than $1 billion dollars on "atomic energy defense activities" at the same time childcare subsidies for 365,000 children are slashed from the budget because "we can't afford it." The money spent on the US nuclear arsenal, nearly $40 billion a year, is stolen from social programs. This year's April Action will address the economics of bomb production and will provide an opportunity for students, people of faith and others to talk together about ways to strengthen the abolition movement in the United States. Sunday's march for peace in Oak Ridge to the Y12 plant, where thermonuclear secondaries are still being produced for the the US arsenal, is expected to end with nonviolence direct action/civil disobedience. For more information, contact OREPA at 865 483 8202 or visit www.stopthebombs.org FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. CorpWatch is making this article available in our efforts to advance the understanding of corporate accountability, human rights, labor rights, social and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. CorpWatch 1611 Telegraph Avenue., #702 Oakland, CA 94612 USA Tel: 510-271-8080 URL: http://www.corpwatch.org Email: corpwatch@corpwatch.org-- ***************************************************************** 70 Idaho Statesman: Department of Energy offers company a bonus www.idahostatesman.com IDAHO FALLS — The Department of Energy is offering an Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory contractor up to $27 million if it completes additional cleanup work before its contract ends next year. To earn the bonus, Bechtel BWXT Idaho has to complete the additional work without any extra money for operations and meet safety and regulatory standards. The energy department allocated $385 million for the regular cleanup work in fiscal year 2004. While bonus work is nothing new, this time Bechtel officials say the award money will be shared among INEEL workers. “We´re not asking people to work faster, but smarter, and to put their discretionary effort into it,” Deputy Cleanup Manager Frank Russo said. If the work is completed in time, managers can earn up to $5,000 each, professional workers can earn up to $3,575 and union-represented trade workers can earn up to $2,450. But to earn the entire bonus, the company will have to do in 10 months work that was scheduled to be completed over five years, INEEL spokesman Joe Davis said. The projects include tearing down several old facilities, taking care of buried waste, putting spent nuclear fuel in dry storage and cleaning up areas where high-level radioactive waste was stored. However, Doc Detonancour, local president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy workers union, said the workers he has talked to have not been affected by the bonus offer. “The workers think they won´t get anything anyway, because they have no control over it,” he said. “They see it as something that´s been put out there that they´ll never be able to grasp.” Edition Date: 04-18-2004 ***************************************************************** 71 Daily Camera: Flats officials attempt to build trust Mailing address: Broomfield Enterprise 1006 Depot Hill Road, Suite G Broomfield, CO 80020 David R. Jennings Former Broomfield City Councilman Hank Stovall and current Councilman Gary Brosz, who also serves on the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments, were among those in the audience Wednesday for a public forum on opening the area to public use after cleanup is completed. Public forum designed to explain wildlife refuge, site cleanup By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer April 17, 2004 About 75 people trekked into a basement room in the Broomfield city building Wednesday night, armed with questions and their understanding of the history at Rocky Flats, the former nuclear trigger-making site at Broomfield's southwestern border. Many of the accounts were wrapped in a binding of mistrust — mistrust of the Department of Energy, which operates the site, mistrust of regulators like the state health department overseeing cleanup and mistrust of Kaiser-Hill Co., the firm cleaning the site. The agencies called the forum after four public meetings regarding public access to a planned wildlife refuge on the site elicted concerns about the safety of such a plan and the level of cleanup. Agency officials traded statistics on cleanup levels and other issues with several members of the audience, who also came with studies and statistics of their own. The main theme emerging from several in the audience was a mistrust of official information about cleanup and residual radioactive material officials admit will be left behind in the 400-acre industrial core of the site. "There's not a lot of faith in the information coming from the site," Arvada resident Hildegard Hix told agency officials. "Is it possible to have truly independent people to back up what you say you've done? History is what is making it difficult for the public to believe what you say." Many at the meeting said officialshave released inconsistent reports in the past on the amount of contaminated material on the site. Denver resident Judy Danielson further questioned what type of information about contamination will be given to people venturing onto possible trails and other public areas of the refuge. "If we don't notify them, we are socially irresponsible," Danielson said. Several people expressed concerns about hidden, as well as known residual contamination on the site. Others wanted a better understanding of the quality and type of sampling being conducted of air, soil and water there. Boulder resident Erin Hamby, a member of the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, asked officials to make available methodologies and data sites they used to study contamination at Rocky Flats. Still others wanted to know how the impact of contamination and radiation doses on humans and animals are being studied. A comprehensive risk assessment is studying those impacts, said Robin Blackburn of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Once public trust is violated, it's very difficult to recover and trust was violated by several incidents over the years," said Joe Legare, assistant manager for Environment and Stewardship for the energy department's Rocky Flats office. Legare said the site officials are trying to rebuild trust with a transparent clean-up process. He and others also said the site is conducting a thorough cleanup. The site, which lines the southern borders of Broomfield and several Boulder County communities, is set for cleanup by December 2006. It is then to transfer to the Fish and Wildlife Service for creation of the refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service is framing plans for use of the refuge, ranging from extensive public use to simple conservation. Several local government officials said the meeting went a long way to freshening public discussion on the ongoing cleanup. "I applaud the agencies for coming up with the idea to do this, to try to rebuild that trust with the public. I think it made progress in that respect," said Broomfield City Councilman Gary Brosz, who serves on the Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments. ***************************************************************** 72 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:40:04 -0700 (PDT) HEAD of Pakistan's nuclear ring made repeated visits to uranium- ... San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA TIMBUKTU, Mali – The disgraced father of Pakistan's atomic bomb made repeated trips to several uranium-rich African nations with his nuclear chiefs and ... See all stories on this topic: HUNDREDS recall loss of nuclear submarine 'Thresher' WHNS - USA ... Maine-AP -- More than 200 relatives and friends gathered at a naval shipyard in Maine over the weekend, to remember those lost when the nuclear submarine USS ... PUBLIC deserves far more information on nuclear testing Salt Lake Tribune - Salt Lake City,UT,USA When the first President Bush halted nuclear weapons testing in 1992, he surely didn't anticipate that the moratorium would later be shrouded in a veil of ... See all stories on this topic: ISRAEL keeps nuclear smokescreen The Australian - Australia FOR the past 40 years, Israel has sought to maintain a veil of secrecy over its nuclear capacity even if Mordechai Vanunu's revelations erased any shred of ... See all stories on this topic: CHENEY Voices Concern Over N.Korean Nuclear Issue Chosun Ilbo - South Korea ... Dick Cheney met with South Korean acting president Goh Kun and voiced concerns about recent information providing evidence of North Korea's nuclear capabilities ... See all stories on this topic: ONTARIO Split Over Nuclear Power Plant Centre for Public Opinion and Democracy - Vancouver,BC,Canada 18, 2004 – Residents of Ontario are divided over re-starting the nuclear reactor at the Pickering power plant, according to a survey by OraclePoll Research ... AMERICANS Assess Defence Shield, Nuclear Weapons Centre for Public Opinion and Democracy - Vancouver,BC,Canada ... When assessing weapons of mass destruction, 60 per cent of respondents believe the US should only use its arsenal in response to a nuclear attack. ... See all stories on this topic: THINK tank: nuclear power is better for us than wind farms Sunday Herald - Glasgow,Scotland,UK A new demand for the government to dump wind farm plans in favour of building more nuclear power stations will be launched this week. ... See all stories on this topic: DPRK turns down US request of nuclear dismantlement Xinhua - China ... Xinhuanet) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Sunday that the United States had no right to ask the DPRK to dismantle its nuclear program ... BEYOND the Nuclear Family Bremerton Sun - Bremerton,WA,USA ... family of sorts. "Our conscious intent is to create relationships larger than the nuclear family," said Judith, 45. "It's an important ... 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/ ***************************************************************** 73 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2004 13:50:07 -0700 (PDT) NO advantage in repairing nuclear plant, expert says The Globe and Mail - Canada Fredericton -- Fixing up New Brunswick's aging nuclear-power plant would have no clear economic advantage over building a new, fossil-fuel plant, a nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: US nuclear industry set for growth Taipei Times - Taipei,Taiwan By David Teather. Twenty-five years after the US suffered its worst nuclear accident, the moribund atomic energy industry has begun to show signs of life. ... See all stories on this topic: IRAN'S FM to visit Italy to discuss nuclear issue and Iraq IranMania News - Iran TEHRAN, April 17 (AFP) - Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi is to visit Italy on Sunday to discuss nuclear issues and Iraq, the state news agency IRNA said ... NEVADA no longer wants Cold War nuclear waste AZ Central.com - AZ,USA LAS VEGAS - Nevada asked US regulators to block shipments of waste from a Cold War-era nuclear plant in Ohio. The request to the ... See all stories on this topic: US expects to work closely with Seoul on nuclear issue after ... Channel News Asia - Singapore WASHINGTON : The United States said it expected to work closely with Seoul to tackle the North Korean nuclear crisis following a reformist party's landmark ... See all stories on this topic: ISRAELI nuclear whistleblower to be released Indian Express - New Delhi,India ASHKELON (ISRAEL), APRIL 16: Back in the mid-1980s, when the world was rivetted by the terrifying Chernobyl meltdown and fears of nuclear Armageddon, Mordachai ... See all stories on this topic: CRACKS found in nuclear plant during outage Providence Journal (subscription) - Providence,RI,USA MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A Vermont Yankee nuclear plant component believed by some to be at risk for cracking if the plant is allowed to boost its power output ... See all stories on this topic: THE Canadian Nuclear Association (CNA) Supports A Balanced ... CNW Telbec (Communiqués de presse) - Canada ... of Ontario to meet the province's future energy supply needs with a balanced mix of electricity baseload power generation, including nuclear energy, and ... See all stories on this topic: IRAN Expects Its Nuclear Dossier to Be Closed: Official Tehran Times - Tehran,Iran ARAK, Central Province (MNA) – A United Nations nuclear inspection team will visit Iran before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of ... SPOKANE, Wash., Court Refuses to Let Attorney Return to Nuclear ... Miami Herald (subscription) - Miami,FL,USA ... court in Spokane. About 1,800 people have a suit pending against former Hanford nuclear reservation contractors. They claim they ... 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/ ***************************************************************** 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: *****************************************************************