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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 PIPA: Americans Continue to Believe Iraq Supported Al Qaeda, Had WMD
2 Pravda.RU What will IAEA report on Iran contain?
3 Daily Times: Iran to continue helping IAEA 
4 AFP: Iranian FM holds nuclear talks with Blair in Britain
5 Las Vegas SUN: China: N. Korea Agrees to Push Nuke Talks
6 Las Vegas SUN: Prospects for N. Korea Nuke Talks Brighten
7 AFP: NKorean leader Kim Jong-Il commits to progress in nuclear talks
8 NRDC: Bush Administration Wasting Billions on Nuclear Weapons
9 US: E Magazine!: Report Accuses Bush Administration of Wasting Billi
10 US: NCPPR: Ten Second Response: Environmentalists Make Last Gasp Att
11 IPS-English MIDEAST: WMD Question Rises Again over Israel
12 FPIF News | Israel's Development of Nuclear Arsenal
13 18 years on, Israel's most famous prisoner emerges, arms aloft
14 BBC: Oil and conflict - a natural mix 
15 Vanunu; takes sanctuary in Anglican cathedral
16 Final Preparatory Session For Nuclear Treaty Review Set To Start At 
17 Threats From Non-state Users Of Wmds Discussed In UN Security Counci
18 Ha'aretz:  FROM GEORGE BLAKE TO VANUNU
19 Guardian Unlimited: Verdict on Vanunu
20 PRAVDA.Ru: Washington's nuclear blackmail - 
21 US: Las Vegas RJ: Reid planning delay tactic 
22 BBC: What to use when the oil runs out 
23 Khilafah.com: Amid fog of secrecy, Israel makes progress on nukes
24 Daily Times: States still exporting N-technology 
25 Hi Pakistan: India's nuclear programme targeted at US - expert
26 Hi Pakistan: The nuclear father - M. A. Sheikh     --> 
27 Hi Pakistan: to scientists at KRL
28 Hi Pakistan: Israel’s nuclear whistleblower walks, denies more to re
29 AFP: Syria says Israel's nuclear "secrets" threaten global security
30 UN Secretary-General: Final preparatory session for nuclear treaty r
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
31 Lincolnwood Review: Chernobyl effects felt by Russians here 
32 US: projo.com: Search for missing nuclear fuel could be a long proce
33 US: projo.com: Reaction to the missing fuel at Vermont Yankee  
34 US: News Max: Nuclear Plant in Vermont Searches for Radioactive Part
35 allAfrica.com: South Africa: IST Wants Clarity On Eskom's Reactor
36 US: Las Vegas SUN: Reid to hold up committee action for NRC nominee
37 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Annual Performance Assessment of Indian Poin
38 US: KATC TV: Missing Spent Nuke Fuel in Wrong Hands?
39 SMN: Czeching out Competition for Bulgarian N-plant
40 US: NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meeting May 19 on Draft Generic Letter o
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
41 US: Ithacan: Physician speaks out on nuclear dangers 
42 Bellona: K-159 to be inspected in May or June
43 Bellona: Radioactive container found in Siberia
44 AxisofLogic: U.S. Military: confirmed case of DU exposure in Iraq
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
45 FOXNews.com: Yucca Mountain's Nuclear Future in Question
46 Las Vegas SUN: DOE reviewing documents NRC expects on Nevada nuclear
47 US: Las Vegas SUN: Earth Day activists: Environment will help sway N
48 US: AU The Age: Aborigines get Jabiluka veto - 
49 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Envirocare's big plan: Operation Iraqi waste 
50 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers to discuss 'hotter' waste shipments
51 US: News Journal: DuPont seeks OK to treat new wastes
52 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca hearing period longer 
53 Guardian Unlimited: Process to cut waste at Sellafield
54 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Technical documents facing close scrut
55 Bellona: Final decision today: Radioactive Technetium-99 to be clean
56 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca workers checked for silicosis
57 Las Vegas SUN: Schedule altered on Yucca questions
58 Las Vegas SUN: Public hearings set on Yucca rail system
59 US: WOWT | Waste Appeal Rejected
60 US: The State: Nuclear waste deal shortchang
61 US: Suburban Advertiser: EPA will revise Foote Mineral site cleanup 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
62 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern
63 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald
64 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Safety steps for Hanford cleanup workers
65 Tri-City Herald: DOE seeks more funds
66 Oak Ridger: UT-Battelle's fate eyed 							 							 							
67 Oak Ridger: New UT president will have role on UT-Battelle board 			
68 amarillo.com: Audit cites delays at Pantex, other labs 
69 Oak Ridger: Dick Smyser -- Lise Meitner: Early nuclear science's sac
70 Oak Ridger: TVA to meet with NRC to discuss Browns Ferry concerns 		
71 WATE: ORNL research reactor to be restarted this week
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
72 Google News Alert - nuclear
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 PIPA: Americans Continue to Believe Iraq Supported Al Qaeda, Had WMD
 
  Thursday, April 22, 2004     [HOME]   
  
  PIPA is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes (
[http://www.policyattitudes.org/] ) and the Center for
International and Security Studies at Maryland (
[http://www.puaf.umd.edu/CISSM/default.htm] ), School of Public
Affairs,  [http://www.umd.edu/] .   
 
Few Perceive Experts as Saying Contrary 

Shifts in Perceptions Could Influence Vote for President 

Perceptions of US Troop Fatalities Having Little Impact on 
Support for War 

Perceptions of World Public Opinion Appear Highly Influential
 							 
College Park, MD: According to a new PIPA/Knowledge Networks
poll, a majority of Americans (57%) continue to believe that
before the war Iraq was providing substantial support to al
Qaeda, including 20% who believe that Iraq was directly involved
in the September 11 attacks. Forty-five percent believe that
evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found. Sixty
percent believe that just before the war Iraq either had weapons
of mass destruction (38%) or a major program for developing them
(22%). 

Despite statements by Richard Clarke, David Kay, Hans Blix and
others, few Americans perceive most experts as saying the
contrary. Only 15% said they are hearing experts mostly agree
Iraq was not providing substantial support to al Qaeda, while
82% either said that experts mostly agree Iraq was providing
substantial support (47%) or experts are evenly divided on the
question (35%). Only 34% said they thought most experts believe
Iraq did not have WMD, while 65% said most experts say Iraq did
have them (30%) or that experts are divided on the question
(35%). 

Not surprisingly, perceptions of what experts are saying are
highly correlated with beliefs about prewar Iraq, which in turn
are highly correlated with support for the decision to go to
war. 

Perhaps most relevant politically, perceptions of what the
experts are saying are also highly correlated with intentions to
vote for the President in the upcoming election. Among those who
perceived experts as saying that Iraq had WMD, 72% said they
would vote for Bush and 23% said they would vote for Kerry,
while among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq did
not have WMD, 23% said they would vote for Bush and 74% for
Kerry. 								

Among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq had
supported al Qaeda, 62% said they would vote for Bush and 36%
said they would vote for Kerry. Among those who perceived
experts as saying that Iraq was not supporting al Qaeda, just
13% said they would vote for Bush and 85% for Kerry. 

Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments: These correlations do
not establish what is causal. However, multivariate regression
analyses suggest that changes in perceptions of what experts are
saying could have some impact on the publics beliefs, attitudes
about the war, and even voting in the presidential election. 

Beliefs about prewar Iraq appear to be also sustained by
perceptions of claims by the Bush administration. Fifty-six
percent said it was their impression that the Bush
administration is claiming the US has found clear evidence that
Saddam Hussein was working closely with al Qaeda, and 38%
perceived the administration saying the US has found clear
evidence that just before the war, Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction. 

Interestingly, varying perceptions of US troop fatalities does
not appear to have much impact. Asked to estimate the number of
US troop fatalities in Iraq, the median estimate was fairly
accurate at 500. However, estimates varied widely, providing the
opportunity to assess attitudes among those with high estimates
as compared to those with low estimates. In fact, there were no
significant differences between these groups when it came to
support for the war or intention to vote for the President. 

On the other hand, a factor that did appear to be strikingly
influential was perceptions of world public opinion on the war
with Iraq. Despite polling showing that the majority of world
public opinion is opposed to the US war with Iraq, only 41% were
aware that this is the case. A 59% majority was unaware of this,
with 21% saying that a majority of world public opinion favored
the US having gone to war, and 38% saying views are evenly
balanced. 

Among those who knew that world public opinion opposed the US
going to war with Iraq, only 25% thought that going to war was
the right decision. Among the group that thought world public
opinion was about evenly balanced, 70% said going to war was the
right decision, and among those who perceived world public
opinion as favoring the war, 88% said going to war the right
decision. 

Steven Kull comments, Americans have always been quite
concerned about the international legitimacy of using military
force, as during the run-up to the war when they very much
wanted UN approval. It may be that when Americans are aware that
world public opinion is critical this weakens their perception
of the international legitimacy of the decision to go to war,
brings back memories of the Vietnam experience and softens
support for the decision to go to war. 

Perceptions of world public opinion are also related to voting
intentions. Among those who are aware that world public opinion
is critical of the war, only 22% said they intended to vote for
President Bushs reelection (Kerry: 75%). Among those who
thought world public opinion was about evenly balanced, Bush
received support from a modest majority--53%, with 40%
preferring Kerry. In the group that perceived world public
opinion as favoring the war, 71% said they intended to vote for
the president and only 25% said they would vote for Kerry.
 
Steven Kull comments, Here too these correlations do not
establish what is causal. However multivariate regression
analyses suggest that changes in perceptions of world public
opinion could have some impact on voting behavior in the
presidential election. 

The poll was conducted with a nationwide sample of 1,311
respondents from March 16-22. The margin of error was plus or
minus 2.8%-4.5%, depending on whether the question was
administered to all or part of the sample. A full report and the
questionnaire can be found at  [http://www.pipa.org] . 

The poll was fielded by Knowledge Networks using its nationwide
panel, which is randomly selected from the entire adult
population and subsequently provided internet access. For more
information about this methodology, go to 
[http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp] . 

Funding for this research was provided by the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation. 								

 For more information on the PIPA/KN study see:
  
  All rights reserved. Program on International Policy Attitudes.
*****************************************************************
 2 Pravda.RU What will IAEA report on Iran contain?
 
      [PRAVDA.RU]         Last update:04/23/2004 05:40 MSK     
        

 Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspected 
Iran's nuclear facilities. 

As a source in the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization reported, 
"the agency's five experts, who have been staying in Iran since 
last week, have visited all of the nuclear facilities they 
planned to, checked the fulfillment of the commitments stop 
production of accessories to the Pi-2 centrifuge, visited the 
heavy water production plant and held the necessary meetings and 
negotiations with Iranian specialists. 

"At the end of this week the IAEA experts will leave Iran. And in 
two weeks, at the beginning of the next month, a new group of 
agency experts will arrive in Iran. They will conduct routine 
inspections." 

The inspections of the Iran's nuclear facilities and the 
subsequent report, which will be delivered at a session of the 
IAEA managers' council in Vienna in June, were required. The 
Iranian dossier will again be the center of the IAEA's attention. 
Depending on the content of the report, the council could decide 
to submit it to the UN Security Council for sanctions on Iran or 
close the Iranian dossier as was done with regard to Libya which, 
according to IAEA leadership, has fully disarmed. 

Iran claims that its nuclear program is peaceful, regards 
continued operation of the programs as a legitimate right of the 
state, rejects all the accusations of its intention to create 
weapons of mass destruction, allows inspections of its nuclear 
facilities and supports continuing its open and transparent 
cooperation with the IAEA. 

© RIAN

  Copyright ©1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". When
*****************************************************************
 3 Daily Times: Iran to continue helping IAEA 

 Friday, April 23, 2004    

LONDON: Iran pledged on Thursday to continue its cooperation with 
the United Nations and Europe on its nuclear programme and said 
it would meet its partners again to move the process forward. 

“We have been working very hard with our collaborators in Europe, 
the three countries, to work out the nuclear issue in Iran and 
big steps have been taken so far,” Foreign Minister Kamal 
Kharrazi told reporters in London after meeting British Prime 
Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. 

Britain, along with France and Germany, has been instrumental in 
persuading Iran to open up its nuclear programme to international 
scrutiny. Iran has agreed to a timetable for atomic checks and to 
submit in mid-May the full details of its nuclear programme and 
ambitions to the United Nations atomic watchdog, the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

“This will be possible through close cooperation between Iran, 
the three countries and the IAEA ... and we are going to meet in 
the future to expedite this process,” said Mr Kharrazi. Iran says 
its nuclear ambitions are confined to power generation but the 
United States accuses Tehran of pursuing a nuclear weapons 
programme. 

President George W Bush said on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran 
would pose an intolerable threat to peace in the Middle East and 
a mortal danger to Israel, adding that any such threat would be 
“dealt with” by the United States and its allies. Iran and the US 
have been enemies since 1980 and some officials now accuse Iran 
of fuelling anti-US sentiment among the Shi’ite Muslim population 
in Iraq. —Reuters Home | National           

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] 
*****************************************************************
 4 AFP: Iranian FM holds nuclear talks with Blair in Britain

[http://www.spacewar.com

LONDON (AFP) Apr 22, 2004

 British Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks in London with 
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi Thursday to discuss 
international concerns about the country's nuclear programmes.

Kharazi had a 40-minute discussion with Blair, preceded by talks 
with his British counterpart Jack Straw, which also covered the 
situation in Iraq, Straw told a joint press conference.

"The key issue we discussed was Iran's progress in respect of the 
nuclear dossier," Straw said, referring to long-running concerns 
about Tehran's nuclear programme.

"We discussed the letters the three European foreign ministers 
sent in August, the agreement which we reached in Tehran on 
October 21 and subsequent discussions, and then we also went on 
to talk about Iraq."

Last October, Straw and his counterparts from France and Germany 
secured Iran's agreement to open its nuclear programme up to 
closer inspections during a visit to Tehran, following up 
previous statements of concern about the issue.

Iran had previously been severely reprimanded by the 
International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear 
watchdog, for failing to reveal a full account of its nuclear 
activities.

Following on from the foreign ministers' trip, in December Tehran 
bowed to international pressure by signing up to an additional 
protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, allowing a 
tougher IAEA probe.

However in an apparent reversal, at the end of last month Iran's 
atomic energy body chief announced that the country had resumed 
work on experimental production of nuclear fuel.

At the press conference, Kharazi said his country had been 
"working very hard" with the European nations to resolve the 
nuclear question.

"Big steps have been taken so far," he said, adding that further 
progress was expected soon.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 5 Las Vegas SUN: China: N. Korea Agrees to Push Nuke Talks

 By AUDRA ANG ASSOCIATED PRESS 

BEIJING (AP) - 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said during a visit to Beijing
that he wants to end the standoff over the North's nuclear
program through dialogue and is committed to a "nuclear
weapon-free goal," China announced Wednesday. 

Kim and Chinese leaders agreed to "jointly pushing forward"
six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, the official
Xinhua News Agency said. The report, issued after the secretive
Kim left the Chinese capital on Wednesday, was China's first
public confirmation of his three-day visit. 

Kim's visit came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney
traveled to Beijing last week and urged Chinese leaders to press
the North to reach a settlement. 

During a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Kim said the
North "sticks to the final nuclear-weapon-free goal and its
basic position on seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue
has not changed," Xinhua said. It said the two leaders "agreed
to continue ... jointly pushing forward the six-party talks
process." 

Kim also met former President Jiang Zemin, who now heads the
commission that runs China's military; Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice
President Zeng Qinghong and Wu Bangguo, the No. 2 leader of
China's Communist Party. 

South Korean media earlier reported that Chinese leaders had
urged Kim to ease his hardline stance against the United States.
The Xinhua account of the meetings didn't mention that. 

Washington insists on a "complete, verifiable and irreversible
dismantling" of all the communist North's nuclear facilities.
Pyongyang says it needs a "nuclear deterrent" against a possible
U.S. attack and would give up its nuclear program only in return
for U.S. security guarantees and economic aid. 

Chinese media had been silent about Kim's trip although it was
widely reported in South Korean media. Following his departure,
Chinese state television showed him hugging each of the leaders
and kissing some of them on the cheek. In his meeting with Hu,
Kim was dressed in a grey Mao-style tunic, while Hu wore a grey
Western-style suit and red tie. 

The last round of six-party talks - involving United States,
China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia - ended in February in
Beijing without no settlement but a pledge to meet again. 

China says the parties hope to do so by July, but have been
blocked by unspecified differences, the Chinese government has
said. 

On Wednesday, Xinhua said the North "will continue to take a
patient and flexible manner and actively participate in the
six-party talks process, and make its own contributions to the
progress of the talks." 

In his meeting with Jiang, "Kim was believed to have expressed a
strong doubt that North Korea would ever get security guarantees
from the United States even if it gives up its nuclear
programs," the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported,
citing unidentified sources in Beijing. 

"Jiang was believed to have told Kim that the possibility of the
United States invading North Korea was very slim, thus
indirectly giving him strong advice for North Korea to change
its hard-line stance against the United States," it reported. 

During his 15-hour train ride home, Kim was expected to visit
the major industrial centers of Shenyang or Dalian in China's
northeast to study government efforts to boost the economy with
outside investment. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 6 Las Vegas SUN: Prospects for N. Korea Nuke Talks Brighten

 By SOO-JEONG LEE ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - 

Prospects for six-nation talks on ending the North Korean
nuclear crisis brightened Thursday as the communist state's
leader Kim Jong Il promised to show "patience and flexibility"
in the negotiations. 

In North Korea's first confirmation of Kim's secretive trip to
China this week, its official news agency KCNA said Kim and
Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to try to resolve the dispute
peacefully through talks with the United States, South Korea,
Japan and Russia. 

The countries are to convene a third round of talks in July
aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons
program. Previous rounds have made little progress. 

"Noting that the DPRK remained unchanged in its main stand for
negotiated peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue with a final
target of denuclearization, (Kim) said that the DPRK would take
an active part in the six-party talks with patience and
flexibility and make contributions to the progress of the
talks," KCNA said. 

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the
North's official name. 

During Kim's visit, China pledged aid to help North Korea's
economic development, KCNA said without elaborating. Chinese
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao also promised to encourage Chinese
businesses to increase dealings with North Korea, it added. 

Aside from meeting President Hu and Wen, Kim met former
President Jiang Zemin. He also met Vice President Zeng Qinghong
and Wu Bangguo, the No. 2 leader of China's Communist Party. 

KCNA said Kim invited Hu to visit North Korea and Hu accepted. 

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said China and
North Korea agreed to work together to promote a new round of
six-nation talks on the nuclear issue, and that the Beijing
leadership would continue its longstanding policy of providing
aid to its impoverished neighbor. 

The United States and other countries hope China can use its
leverage as North Korea's leading supplier of food and energy
aid to get it to disarm. 

North Korea needs outside aid to rebuild its hunger-stricken
economy, and Kim has shown interest in copying China's
capitalist-style experiments. On his way home by train, he
stopped for a tour at the booming Chinese port city of Tianjin,
KCNA said. 

Two fuel trains collided and exploded in a North Korean train
station Thursday, hours after Kim's train passed through, South
Korean media reported. Thousands were reported killed or
injured, the reports said. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 7 AFP: NKorean leader Kim Jong-Il commits to progress in nuclear talks

[http://www.spacewar.com/]

SEOUL (AFP) Apr 22, 2004

 North Korea belatedly confirmed Thursday that leader Kim Jong-Il 
spent three days in China this week and told top leaders in 
Beijing he would use patience and flexibility to end the nuclear 
standoff.

On the day Kim arrived back in Pyongyang, North Korea's official 
Korean Central News Agency released a series of dispatches on 
Kim's secretive "unofficial" visit to China from April 19 to 21 
for a summit with President Hu Jintao.

Kim told Hu that North Korea "would take an active part in the 
six-party talks with patience and flexibility and make 
contributions to the progress of the talks", KCNA said.

The KCNA report came a day after China's official Xinhua news 
agency confirmed the visit following Kim's departure on 
Wednesday. Xinhua used similar terms to describe the visit and 
said Kim had agreed to push forward the six-party talks process 
to end the nuclear standoff peacefully.

The nuclear impasse erupted in October 2002 when Washington said 
the Stalinist state had broken a 1994 nuclear freeze by launching 
a secret nuclear weapons program.

Two rounds of six-way talks hosted by China have failed to narrow 
key differences on how to end the 18-month-old stand-off over 
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

New talks -- which bring together the two Koreas, the United 
States, China, Russia and Japan -- are to open in Beijing by the 
end of June.

Washington is demanding the complete, verifiable, and 
irreversible dismantling of North Korea's nuclear programs, both 
plutonium and enriched uranium, before it will offer concessions 
to the impoverished state.

Pyongyang denies that it is running a uranium scheme, and says it 
is prepared to freeze its plutonium facilities in return for 
simultaneous rewards from the United States.

KCNA said late Thursday in a volley of dispatches on Kim's visit 
to China that the North Korean leader remained firm in seeking a 
peaceful end to the standoff.

"Noting that the DPRK (North Korea) remained unchanged in its 
main stand for negotiated peaceful settlement of the nuclear 
issue with a final target of denuclearization, he said that the 
DPRK would take an active part in the six-party talks with 
patience and flexibility and make contributions to the progress 
of the talks," a KCNA dispatch said, referring to Kim's remarks 
during the summit with Hu on Monday.

KCNA also said the two leaders reaffirmed that the "priceless" 
North Korea-China relationship should develop.

"It is the common will of the two parties and the two peoples to 
further strengthen and develop the bilateral friendship tested 
and established in all storms of history," Kim said in a banquet 
speech released by KCNA.

"The traditional friendship between China and Korea is a 
priceless wealth handed over to us by our veteran leaders and we 
should value it," Hu said in a return banquet speech, according 
to KCNA.

China has long been an ally of the reclusive regime in Pyongyang 
and fought on North Korea's side against US and South Korean 
forces in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday it offered free aid to 
North Korea during Kim's visit to China without specifying the 
amount of donations.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 8 NRDC: Bush Administration Wasting Billions on Nuclear Weapons

[http://www.nrdcaction.org/join/subscribe.asp]    	 	

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Press contact: Christopher Paine, 434-244-5013, or Elliott
Negin, 202-289-2405 

If you are not a member of the press, please write to us at
nrdcinfo@nrdc.org [nrdcinfo@nrdc.org] or see our contact page. 

Stockpile Research and Production, Report Charges

 Administration Is Spending 12 Times More on Beefing Up Nuclear 
Research and Production than Curbing Nuclear Proliferation 

WASHINGTON (April 13, 2004) -- Despite the end of the Cold War, 
the Bush administration is spending 12 times more on nuclear 
weapons research and production than on nonproliferation efforts 
to retrieve, secure and dispose of nuclear weapons materials 
worldwide, according to an analysis of Department of Energy 
programs released today by NRDC (Natural Resources Defense 
Council). Much of the spending on weapons research and 
production, which amounted to $6.5 billion in fiscal 2004, is 
funding costly projects that are "irrelevant to the defense and 
security challenges" that confront the nation, the report found. 
(The report is available here.) 

"The Energy Department is asking Congress for $6.8 billion for 
nuclear weapons projects for next year's budget -- double what we 
spent a decade ago," said Christopher Paine, a senior policy 
analyst at NRDC's Nuclear Program and author of the report. 
"Spending billions to extend the life of thousands of Cold War 
nuclear warheads is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. The 
government could keep a small fraction of those weapons in the 
stockpile and spend the rest of the money to make the world safer 
by eliminating nuclear threats." 

The report, "Weaponeers of Waste," focuses on a half-dozen DOE 
nuclear weapons projects at the nation's nuclear weapons 
laboratories, revealing they are billions of dollars over budget 
and years behind in meeting their goals. The projects are part of 
the "stockpile stewardship" program, whose purpose was to 
guarantee a safe and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile in 
absence of full-scale underground testing. 

"DOE has pursued these projects over the past decade with little 
accountability or oversight, consuming vast sums of money along 
the way," said Paine. "At a time of record budget deficits, it's 
time for Congress to take a hard look at these programs and 
either cancel them outright or cut them back significantly." 

The main projects reviewed are located at the three national 
weapons laboratories: Los Alamos in New Mexico, Lawrence 
Livermore in California, and Sandia in New Mexico and California. 
Among the projects are a gigantic high-energy fusion laser being 
built at Livermore, a facility that is supposed to test the 
"primary," or first stage, of a nuclear weapon at Los Alamos, a 
host of high-speed computer programs at all three labs, and plans 
to resurrect U.S. nuclear weapon production capability by 
manufacturing plutonium pits. All of these projects have proven 
to be costly boondoggles. 

For example, DOE sold Livermore's high-energy fusion laser, the 
massive National Ignition Facility (NIF), to Congress in 1997 by 
saying it would be ready to begin the quest for fusion ignition 
in fiscal year 2005 at a cost of $1.2 billion. Now it appears 
that DOE's weapons laboratory scientists vastly overstated their 
scientific and technical readiness to pursue fusion ignition 
experiments, and that an ignition-ready NIF project will cost as 
much as $5 billion to $8 billion by the time of the first 
ignition demonstration sometime between 2010 and 2014, if it 
happens at all. 

DOE also is pushing for a new facility at South Carolina's 
Savannah River Site to produce tritium, a gas placed in warheads 
to enhance nuclear explosions. The facility, originally due to 
begin production at the end of this year at a cost of $391 
million, will now cost at least $506 million, and startup has 
been pushed back three years, to late 2007. "In a real world 
sense, however, this hardly matters," Paine pointed out, "because 
if the United States adopted a sensible nuclear arms reduction 
policy, the facility would not be needed for decades." 

At $6.5 billion, the current level of annual U.S. spending on 
nuclear weapons greatly exceeds the $4.2 billion (in 2004 
dollars) the nation spent, on average, every year throughout the 
Cold War, which stretched from 1948 to 1991. Over the next five 
years the Bush administration plans to spend $36.6 billion to 
modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile and laboratory production 
complex, including $485 million to develop, test, and begin 
production of the controversial robust nuclear earth penetrating 
warhead. 

Developing a new generation of nuclear weapons could restart an 
international arms race, Paine said, making the world less 
secure. "Essentially we are now in an arms race with ourselves, 
but we could spur other countries, like China and Russia, to jump 
back in." The report recommends that Congress: + Defer action on 
any new facility or weapons refurbishment request until the 
administration submits and Congress approves a plan reducing the 
number of nuclear warheads to sensible levels in a post-Cold War 
world.

 
  + Consolidate the nuclear weapons complex to eliminate Cold War 
redundancies, reduce its size, and curb security costs, which are 
escalating rapidly.

 
  + End funding for the robust nuclear earth penetrator and other 
new nuclear weapon designs.

 
  + End funding for preparations to resume nuclear testing.

 
  + Scrap plans to build a new facility to manufacture plutonium 
nuclear bomb pits and instead replace worn-out pits by 
refurbishing 20 to 50 per year, based on existing recycled or 
recast designs.

 
  + Reinvigorate unilateral, bilateral, multilateral, and 
international efforts to reduce and eliminate national stocks of 
nuclear weapons and weapons-usable nuclear materials.

 
  + Direct DOE to establish an independent outside advisory 
committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to conduct 
peer reviews of stockpile stewardship and technology projects. 

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit 
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists 
dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. 
Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and 
e-activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, 
Washington, Santa Monica and San Francisco. 

Related NRDC Pages Weaponeers of Waste: A Critical Look at the 
Bush Administration Energy Department’s Nuclear Weapons Complex 
and the First Decade of Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship 

© Natural Resources Defense Council     
*****************************************************************
 9 E Magazine!: Report Accuses Bush Administration of Wasting Billions on
Nuclear Weapons Stockpile Research and Production
                                
emagazine.com
                                    
Despite the end of the Cold War, the Bush administration is 
spending 12 times more on nuclear weapons research and production 
than on nonproliferation efforts to retrieve, secure and dispose 
of nuclear weapons materials worldwide, according to an analysis 
of Department of Energy programs released last week by the 
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). 

Much of the spending on weapons research and production, which 
amounted to $6.5 billion in fiscal year 2004, is funding costly 
projects that are "irrelevant to the defense and security 
challenges" that confront the nation, the report found.

 The report, "Weaponeers of Waste," focuses on a half-dozen DOE 
nuclear weapons projects at the nation's nuclear weapons 
laboratories, revealing they are billions of dollars over budget 
and years behind in meeting their goals. 

The projects are part of the "stockpile stewardship" program, 
whose purpose was to guarantee a safe and reliable nuclear 
weapons stockpile in absence of full-scale underground testing.

 Source:http://nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/040413.asp 

A service of E/The Environmental Magazine. Copyright 1995 -
2004. All Rights Reserved.     Copyright Notice   
*****************************************************************
 10 NCPPR: Ten Second Response: Environmentalists Make Last Gasp Attempt to
Kill America's Most Environmentally-Friendly Major Energy Source

DATE: April 22, 2004
 
BACKGROUND: America has nearly one hundred million gallons of 
high-level nuclear waste and over 40,000 metric tons of spent 
nuclear fuel. It presently is scattered in 131 aging temporary 
surface storage sites located in 39 states. 

Since 1978, the federal government has been studying the best 
alternatives for safely storing this material. In 1982, Congress 
passed a law requiring the establishment of a used nuclear fuel 
repository. In 1987, Congress determined that the best location 
for a repository is Yucca Mountain, located in Nye County, 
Nevada, approximately 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

On July 9, 2002, the Senate voted to approve development of Yucca 
Mountain. On July 23, 2002, when President Bush signed H.J. Res. 
87, the final legal hurdle to development was overcome. 

Or was it? 

Anti-nuclear activists now are filing lawsuits in the hope of 
forcing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deny the U.S. 
Department of Energy the construction permit it needs to complete 
the Yucca Mountain project. 

Some activists are Nevadans affected by the NIMBY (Not In My 
Backyard) syndrome, but others have an agenda that is far more 
significant: They believe that if they shut down Yucca Mountain, 
a nuclear power plant will never again be built in the United 
States.
 
TEN SECOND RESPONSE: Should the anti-nuclear activists carry the 
day and halt the Yucca Mountain repository project, they will 
compromise the safety of the American people and increase our 
reliance on less environmentally-friendly energy sources. 

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: Nuclear energy is probably the most 
environmentally-friendly major energy source we have. It also is 
one of the most reliable. Anti-nuclear activists claim to oppose 
the Yucca Mountain repository for safety reasons, but using Yucca 
would be safer than leaving nuclear waste scattered across the 
U.S. 

DISCUSSION: A study by nuclear physicists Gerald E. Marsh and 
George Stanford after the 9-11 terrorist attacks determined that 
the most vulnerable part of a nuclear power plant for a terrorist 
hit is an aboveground wet storage facility for spent nuclear 
fuel. Today, such pools exist. Within Yucca Mountain, however, 
spent fuel would be stored in extremely durable containers under 
1,000 feet of solid rock, far beyond the reach of terrorists. 

If the Yucca Mountain complex is completed, nuclear waste and 
spent fuel will be secured in a single, deeply underground secure 
site in a geographically stable area further from any 
metropolitan area than any of the 131 temporary storage sites 
currently in operation. Presently, more than 161 million 
Americans live within 75 miles of one of the temporary storage 
sites. 

The Yucca Mountain site has been studied for 26 years -- more 
than twice the time it took to plan and complete the moon 
landing. Taxpayers already have invested -- according to an April 
21 Fox News Channel Report by William La Jeunesse -- $8 billion 
in the project. 

A2001 National Academy of Sciences report said "After four 
decades of study, the geological repository option remains the 
only scientifically credible, long-term solution for safely 
isolating waste without having to rely on active management." 

The average American home operates five hours per day on 
nuclear-generated energy. Forty percent of our nation's warships 
operate on nuclear power. Twenty percent of our nation's 
electricity comes from nuclear power. It's time to build a safe 
spent fuel repository.
 

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
 
William La Jeunesse, "Yucca Mountain's Nuclear Future in 
Question," Fox News Channel Report of April 21, 2004, available 
online at 
[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C117831%2C00.html] as of 
April 22, 2004. 

Department of Energy Yucca Mountain Project website at 
[http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov/ymp/index.shtml] 

Nuclear Policy Information Center at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NuclearPolicyCenter.html] 

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, "Terrorism and Nuclear 
Power: What are the Risks?" National Center for Public Policy 
Research National Policy Analysis #374, at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA374.html] 

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, "Stop Worrying About 
Yucca Mountain" National Center for Public Policy Research 
National Policy Analysis #391, at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA391.html] 

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, "Spent Fuel Belongs in 
Yucca Mountain" National Center for Public Policy Research 
National Policy Analysis #397, at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA397.html] 

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, "Yucca Mountain: The 
Right Decision" National Center for Public Policy Research 
National Policy Analysis #415, at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA415.html] 

Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford, "Yucca Mountain: A Simple 
Solution" National Center for Public Policy Research National 
Policy Analysis #409, at 
[http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA409.html] 

Nuclear Energy Institute website at http://www.nei.org 

by Amy Ridenour
 
Contact the author at: 202-371-1400 or 
[aridenour@nationalcenter.org] The National Center for Public 
Policy Research 777 N. Capitol St. NE, Suite 803 Washington, D.C. 
20002   

*****************************************************************
 11 IPS-English MIDEAST: WMD Question Rises Again over Israel
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 14:28:32 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
ROMAIPS MM IK IP=20
MIDEAST: WMD Question Rises Again over Israel
    By Ferry Biedermann
=20
JERUSALEM, Apr 22 (IPS) - A disparate group of demonstrators and=20
international media representatives welcomed Israel's nuclear whistleblow=
er=20
Mordechai Vanunu Wednesday upon his release from prison after completing=20
his 18-year sentence.

    Supporters, international anti-nuclear weapons campaigners and also ir=
ate=20
Israelis to whom he is still a traitor had gathered outside Shikma prison=
  in the=20
southern coastal town of Ashkalon.

    Despite severe restrictions clamped upon him by Israel's security=20
establishment even after his release, Vanunu immediately spoke out agains=
t the=20
state, and made clear he intends to pursue his campaign against Israel's=20
weapons of mass destruction.

    =94Israel don't need nuclear arms, especially now that all the Middle =
East is free=20
=66rom nuclear weapons,=94 he said at an impromptu press conference outsi=
de the=20
prison. Dressed in a simple white shirt and black tie, Vanunu looked neit=
her=20
villain nor hero.

    He called on the government to open up the main nuclear facility at Di=
mona in=20
the Negev desert to international inspections. Vanunu had worked as a=20
technician at Dimona for about a decade from the mid-1970s until 1985.

    In 1986 he made headlines around the world when his story was publishe=
d as=20
a major scoop in the British newspaper The Sunday Times. Vanunu provided=20
the newspaper in London with pictures of the inside of the reactor at Dim=
ona=20
and of the nuclear facilities used for the production of bombs.

    Israel had widely been assumed to be a nuclear power before then, but=20
Vanunu was the first to provide details of the programme. Based on his=20
information experts deduced that the country possessed some 200 warheads.=
=20
That estimate was recently lowered by U.S. intelligence to some 80.

    Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and=
=20
therefore does not have to submit to inspections by the International Ato=
mic=20
Energy Agency (IAEA). The Dimona reactor was built in the late 1950s and =
early=20
1960s by the French, who also provided the first shipment of uranium.

    Vanunu's supporters have always maintained that he acted on principle =
and=20
that he believed the world should be informed about Israel's nuclear arse=
nal. He=20
was reportedly to be paid 100,000 dollars by the Sunday Times for his sto=
ry.

    He never collected the money because even before the story was publish=
ed=20
he was seduced by a female agent of Israel's Mossad secret service and lu=
red=20
to Rome. There he was drugged and taken to Israel where he was put on tri=
al=20
for treason.

    This story too made headlines around the world, and in one famous=20
photograph Vanunu managed to convey the facts about his kidnapping by=20
writing them on his hand and holding it up at the window of a van taking =
him=20
=66rom prison to the courtroom. After that he was held virtually incommun=
icado,=20
and he was led to the courtroom in handcuffs and with a helmet on.

    Vanunu was held in solitary confinement for more than 11 years of his=20
sentence. A friend of his from Sydney, Father David Smith, said that afte=
r that=20
period he was =94a wreck, both mentally and physically.=94

    Vanunu said after his release that he had been held in =94cruel and ba=
rbaric=94=20
conditions. But he said he did not regret what he had done. =94You didn't=
  succeed=20
in breaking me. You didn't succeed in making me crazy. I am ready to star=
t my=20
new life.=94

    He will continue to face tough restrictions imposed on him by the auth=
orities=20
who hold that he still has secrets that can harm Israel's security.

    Vanunu will not be allowed to travel abroad for at least one year, he =
may not=20
even get close to border facilities, ports and airports. He wants to sett=
le in the=20
United States where he has been adopted by an elderly couple while he was=
  in=20
jail.

    Among the restrictions on him are a ban on talking to foreigners witho=
ut=20
permission from authorities. He is not allowed even to participate in Int=
ernet chat=20
without permission.

    Vanunu says he has no additional information that could harm Israel, n=
or does=20
he intend to harm the state.

    Labour leader and former prime minister Shimon Peres who is the archit=
ect of=20
Israel's nuclear weapons programme, defended the restrictions. He said=20
Vanunu was simply a traitor who =94violated the norms and betrayed his co=
untry.=94=20
The majority of the Israelis support their country's weapons programme.

    In the run-up to his release, the authorities seemingly tried to smear=
  Vanunu=20
by releasing what was described as a secretly recorded conversation in wh=
ich=20
Vanunu said he saw no need for a Jewish state, and that Judaism and Islam=
=20
were backward religions.

    After his release Vanunu said these statements attributed to him were =
false=20
and taken out of context.

    He also said that he was treated worse than others by the authorities =
because=20
he was a Christian. Vanunu was born into a traditional Jewish Moroccan fa=
mily=20
but converted in Australia in 1986 after leaving Israel and his job at th=
e nuclear=20
reactor.

    His first stop after his release from prison was St. George Cathedral =
in=20
Jerusalem, the seat of the Anglican Bishop. The Bishop led a service for=20
Vanunu inside the cathedral. (END/IPS/MM/IK/IP/FB/SS/04)
=20

=20
=3D 04220841 ORP006
NNNN

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 12 FPIF News | Israel's Development of Nuclear Arsenal
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:29:30 -0500 (CDT)

 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Whats New at FPIF
"Working to make the U.S. a more responsible global leader and partner"
http://www.fpif.org/

April 22, 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus

The Release of Mordechai Vanunu and U.S. Complicity in the Development of
Israels Nuclear Arsenal
By Stephen Zunes

The recent release on April 22 of Mordechai Vanunu from an Israeli prison
provides an opportunity to challenge the U.S. policy of supporting Israels
development of nuclear weapons while threatening war against other Middle
Eastern states for simply having the potential for developing such weaponry.

(Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and chair of the Peace & Justice
Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He serves as Middle East
editor for Foreign Policy in Focus (online at www.fpif.org) and is currently
conducting research in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.)

See new FPIF commentary online at:
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0404vanunu.html

With printer friendly PDF version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0404vanunu.pdf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Distributed by FPIF:"A Think Tank Without Walls," a joint program of
Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) and Institute for Policy Studies
(IPS).

For more information, visit www.fpif.org. If you would like to add a name to
the "Whats New At FPIF" list, please email: communications@irc-online.org,
giving your area of interest.

Also see our Progressive Response newsletter at:
http://www.fpif.org/progresp/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interhemispheric Resource Center(IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications@irc-online.org

Siri D. Khalsa
Communications Coordinator
Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC)
siri@irc-online.org

IRC Projects Online:
IRC (www.irc-online.org)
FPIF (www.fpif.org)
Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org)
Self-Determination In Focus (www.selfdetermine.org)
Project Against the Present Danger (www.presentdanger.org)
*****************************************************************
 13 18 years on, Israel's most famous prisoner emerges, arms aloft
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 03:44:09 -0500 (CDT)

 
18 years on, Israel's most famous prisoner emerges, arms aloft

Donald Macintyre in Ashkelon
22 April 2004

Unrepentant and unbowed after serving an 18-year jail sentence for revealing
that Israel had nuclear weapons, Mordechai Vanunu left prison yesterday to an
ecstatic welcome from supporters and taunts from a vociferous group of
counter-demonstrators. 

The former technician at the Dimona nuclear plant, who became one of the
world's most famous prisoners, proclaimed as he left the Shikma high-security
jail that he was "proud and happy" to have leaked Israel's atom secrets to a
British newspaper in 1986, and pledged to continue to speak out against nuclear
weapons in Israel and the rest of the world. 

Denouncing the Israeli security services, Mr Vanunu, who spent nearly 12 years
of his sentence separated from other prisoners, said: "You [the security
services] - didn't succeed to break me, to make me crazy. The target of 18
years in isolation is to make me crazy." 

Looking fit in a checked shirt and tie as he emerged, both hands raised in
peace signs, from the jail's inner precincts at just after 11.10am, the
49-year-old clambered onto the prison gates to greet his supporters before
telling reporters that Israel should open the Dimona nuclear reactor to
international weapons inspectors. 

Carmel Martin, one of dozens of American and British supporters outside the
jail - including the CND vice-president, Bruce Kent, and the actress Susannah
York - said Mr Vanunu was "the most important prisoner since Nelson Mandela".
After his defiant and impromptu press conference, Mr Vanunu was driven through
the gates by his brother Meir to tumultuous cheers and chants in Hebrew of
"Vanunu is a hero" from dozens of Israeli peace campaigners but shouts, also in
Hebrew, of "traitor" and "garbage" from anti-Vanunu protesters. Some banged on
the windows and roof of the white saloon as it turned out of the jail while
others passed fingers across their throats as he waved from the back seat. Some
of the counter-demonstrators had earlier shouted "death to traitors". 

Mr Vanunu, who converted to Christianity in Australia after being dismissed
from the Dimona plant in 1985, was then driven to St George's Anglican
cathedral in Jerusalem where he took communion. In an emotional reunion, he was
hugged by a tearful Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times reporter who last saw Mr
Vanunu in 1986 before his story based on the Dimona revelations was published
and just before Mr Vanunu was ensnared, drugged and shipped back to Israel by
Mossad agents. 

Mr Vanunu was escorted into the church by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem,
Riah Abu el-Assal, who told journalists: "He is an Anglican Christian and
expressed his desire to offer thanks to God for his release from prison as his
first act as a free man." 

Earlier Mr Vanunu, whose parents were poor Moroccan Jewish immigrants to
Israel, had claimed that his conversion had played a part in his incarceration.
"I want to tell you something important," he told reporters. "I suffered here
18 years because I was baptised to Christianity. If I was Jewish I wouldn't
have all this suffering." 

Mr Vanunu, who cannot travel abroad for at least a year and is forbidden from
approaching foreigners, embassies or border crossings for six months under the
terms of his release, declared to reporters: "I don't have any secrets. All
this bullshit about secrets is dead. Since the article was published there are
no more secrets. All the secrets are published in the hands of the world. I am
now ready to start my life." 

He added: "I don't have any secrets. I don't want to harm Israel. I want a new
life. I want to go to United States, to marry a wife and to start my life." 

The Israeli government is already bracing itself for the prospect that Mr
Vanunu's release - and the restrictions imposed on him - threaten to revive an
international debate on the country's refusal to admit officially to what is
internationally accepted to be one of the world's most sophisticated nuclear
arsenals. 

Thomas Graham, the former diplomat who advised President Bill Clinton on arms
proliferation, told the BBC World Service that Israel had about 200 warheads
and that it should declare them. Israel argues that its policy of "nuclear
ambiguity" has long protected it against hostile Arab neigbours such as Iran,
Syria and, historically, Iraq which oppose its existence. 

Despite Mr Vanunu's insistence that he has nothing further to reveal, Tommy
Lapid, the Israeli Justice Minister, said yesterday that he was "hell-bent to
do as much harm as he can". He added: "We will keep an eye on him, we will
watch him ... We want to know where he is and we want to know to whom he may or
may not divulge state secrets." 

The Defence Ministry said the security services had confiscated several tapes
and notebooks containing Mr Vanunu's writings on Dimona. Rachel
Niedak-Ashkenazi, the ministry's spokeswoman, insisted: "It was a lot more than
a personal diary. To us this showed an intention and ability to make future use
of it." 

Although his supporters fear for his safety out of jail because of the
undoubted fury that Mr Vanunu invokes among many Israelis, Mr Lapid said no
precautions or special security measures were planned. "He's surrounded by at
least 100 radicals who are worshipping him so I'm sure they'll take care of his
safety," he said. 

Gideon Spiro, the former paratrooper who acts as chief spokesman for the
Israeli Campaign for Mordechai Vanunu, said yesterday that the security issue
was "very serious". He said: "One paper has already posed the question of
whether there will be a Jack Ruby [who shot Lee Harvey Oswald after he had been
arrested for John Kennedy's assassination]." 

Nick Elov, a 74-year-old American who has legally adopted Mr Vanunu in the hope
that he can secure US citizenship, accused the Israeli authorities of
endangering Mr Vanunu by leaking his plan to live temporarily in the holiday
apartments attached to the upmarket Andromeda Hills complex in Jaffa. "This is
irresponsible," he said. "I don't know what they thought they were going to
achieve by that." 

Several residents of the complex made it clear that Mr Vanunu would not be a
welcome neighbour. One resident, Danny Hakim, who emigrated to Israel from
Australia, said he resented the fact that Mr Vanunu, whose family had been
saved from probable death in Morocco by Israel, should now have turned against
his country. "If he comes here I will leave." 

Another, Lior Perry, said he would object both on the grounds of the
community's security and because Mr Vanunu had reportedly told his
interrogators that he was against the concept of the Jewish state. "I get on
with Christians and Muslims here in Jaffa. But the world needs to know this is
a Jewish country." He said he opposed the use of the atom bomb at Hiroshima and
French nuclear tests in Tahiti but added: "Israel is a small country which has
to protect itself in a hostile region." 

It looked last night as if Mr Vanunu might cancel his plans to stay at
Andromeda Hills. Instead family members said he would "drink champagne and hug
his supporters". 

Susannah York said: "[The Israelis] must know that the restrictions only
contribute to them being seen in a very bad light. They cannot go on punishing
him after he served a full sentence." Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour MP who was
outside the prison with his parliamentary colleague Colin Breed, said he had
been cheered that Mr Vanunu looked "peaceful and happy" and added: "It's great
that there were so many young Israeli supporters of Mordechai Vanunu here.
That's the hope." 

Mr Vanunu, who refused to answer questions in Hebrew at his impromptu news
conference in the prison courtyard in protest at the restrictions, was asked if
he saw himself as a hero. He declared: "All those who are standing behind me,
supporting me ... all are heroes. I am a symbol of the will of freedom. You
cannot break the human spirit." 

ISRAEL'S WEAPONS PROGRAMME

Israel is believed to have a nuclear arsenal of an estimated 100 to 200 weapons
which, along with the nuclear reactor at Dimona (right), are neither subject to
controls of the Non-Proliferation Treaty - which Israel has not signed - or
inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

It is also understood to have an active chemical weapons programme, although is
not thought to have deployed chemical warheads on ballistic missiles, which is
prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention signed by Israel in 1993. It
is also believed to have extensive bio-weapon production and research
capabilities, and it is not a signatory of the Biological and Toxin Weapons
Convention. As far as conventional ballistic missiles and systems are
concerned, Israel is armed to the teeth with some of the world's most
up-to-date weapons

Source: Monterey Institute of International Studies 

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=513985
*****************************************************************
 14 BBC: Oil and conflict - a natural mix 
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 10:14:12 -0500 (CDT)

 
BBC NEWS | In Depth | Oil and conflict - a natural mix
By Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

Oil and what it represents - energy - have always been a source of conflict.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had its origins, at least in part, in a
decision by the United States to limit oil exports to Japan in 1941 in
response to the Japanese invasion of China.
Japan was almost totally reliant on imported oil, mainly from the United
States, and it needed oil for its navy.
It concluded that if the American tap was going to be turned off, it would
have to get its oil elsewhere. This was a factor in its decision to invade
the oil-rich Dutch-held Indonesian islands.
Coups and power-play
Japan still relies on imported oil but this now comes substantially from the
Middle East, another part of the world where oil has long played a vital
role.
Britain first became interested in the Gulf because of its maritime
interests, long before oil was discovered.
Then, when oil extraction was developed in the 1930s, the strategic value of
the region increased significantly.
Other powers began to get interested, especially the United States. The West
was determined to secure the Gulf as a main source of its energy.
Oil played its part in a 1953 coup in Iran - organised by the US and
Britain. They managed to overthrow an elected prime minister, Mohammed
Mossadegh, and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi whose reign came to an inglorious
end at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in 1979.
Mossadegh's main sin was to have nationalised the British-owned Anglo
Iranian oil company.
Just how far the United States was prepared to go for oil was shown by the
recent release of documents from the British National Archives.
An intelligence assessment by the British government in January revealed
that in 1973 Washington drew up a plan to seize oilfields in Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait and Abu Dhabi to counter an Arab oil embargo against the West.
One recent study paper by an American military analyst even suggests that
one day the United States and Europe might be in conflict over dwindling
Middle East oil supplies.
The analyst, Major Chris Jeffries, Assistant Professor at the US Air Force
Academy wrote: "Is it unthinkable that the US might enter into an agreement
with the Middle East to secure its supply over the interests of the other
industrialized nations - including Europe?"
Gulf wars
The intervention by the United States and its allies over Kuwait in 1991 was
in large part motivated by a need to secure oil and also to prevent Saddam
Hussein from expanding his access to it.
And, although the more recent war with Iraq had other motives as well, oil
was a factor as the US Vice President Dick Cheney, warning of Iraq's
ambitions, said in August 2002: "Saddam Hussein could then be expected to
seek domination of the entire Middle East [and] take control of a great
proportion of the world's energy supplies..."
But oil does not just produce outside intervention. It can produce internal
abuse of power.
Saddam Hussein himself is a prime example: it was oil that gave him the
resources with which to arm himself.
Looking ahead, new areas of interest are opening up, especially the Caspian
Sea where a new "Great Game" is developing to mirror the rivalry between
Russia and Great Britain in Asia in the 19th Century.
One of the countries at the heart of Caspian Sea development is Azerbaijan
and it is instructive perhaps to recall that its capital, Baku, was once the
capital of the world's oil exports.
That was back in the early 20th Century. Baku became an international city,
with grand villas built by locals who had got rich and foreigners who came
to get rich. The city even put up an ornate opera house to mark its
prestige.
The new black gold
Baku's oil was a target for the German army in World War I and the city was
briefly occupied by a British contingent. It was then taken by the Soviets,
equally keen on getting at the black gold.
Hitler aimed for it again in World War II and predicted that if Germany did
not get oil from the Caucus Mountains it would lose the war.
Looking even further ahead to when the oil runs out or at least
significantly runs down, it may be that the world turns again to nuclear
power.
In which case those countries with uranium deposits would become among the
most attractive. The top ten are: Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South
Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Russia, USA, Uzbekistan and China.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/in_depth/3625207.stm

Published: 2004/04/20 08:55:42 GMT

) BBC MMIV
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 15 Vanunu; takes sanctuary in Anglican cathedral
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:42:58 -0500 (CDT)

 
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/22/1082616268120.html

Vanunu flees to church as new home revealed

Sydney Morning Herals (Australia) April 23, 2004
	 By Ed O'Loughlin, Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem

The Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has taken sanctuary in 
Jerusalem's Anglican cathedral after his release from prison on Wednesday.

Mr Vanunu, 49, had been expected to take up residence in a Jaffa apartment 
after the Israeli Government's decision to block his wish to seek asylum 
abroad following the expiry of his 18-year sentence.

But when details of his address were leaked to Israeli media outlets and 
websites, the former orthodox Jew chose instead to spend his first days of 
freedom in the care of the church that he joined in Australia in 1986.

Supporters of Mr Vanunu have complained of an alleged campaign of 
vilification by the Israeli Government and media which, they say, 
endangers the life of the man who most Israelis regard as a traitor.

His younger brother, Meir, said that for the time being Mr Vanunu 
preferred to stay in the more secure and supportive keeping of the church. 
His plans would be "played by ear".

On Wednesday night the Anglican compound in East Jerusalem hosted an 
impromptu celebration at which Mr Vanunu was able to gather with friends, 
family and supporters who had campaigned on his behalf during his long 
imprisonment for telling a British newspaper about Israel's covert nuclear 
weapons capability. The first 12 years of his sentence were spent in 
solitary confinement.

The security establishment has imposed strict restrictions on whom Mr 
Vanunu can talk with and where he can go, claiming he still has nuclear 
secrets that could damage his country.

With the support of its chief ally, the US, Israel has long refused to 
confirm or deny its possession of nuclear weapons.

However, pictures and information Mr Vanunu supplied to the Sunday Times 
in 1986, before his abduction by Israeli agents in Rome, showed the 
country had produced a sizeable nuclear arsenal at the Dimona nuclear 
plant where Mr Vanunu worked as a technician.

Experts have estimated Israel's 1986 nuclear arsenal as comprising between 
100 and 400 weapons, and many believe the country has continued to design 
and produce new weapons of mass destruction in the years since Mr Vanunu 
was jailed on charges of espionage and treason.

Upon his release from Ashkelon's Shikma prison, a defiant Mr Vanunu said: 
"To all those who are calling me traitor, I am saying I am proud, I am 
proud and happy to do what I did."

He defied government gagging orders by calling for the Dimona plant to be 
opened to international nuclear inspectors.

His plea is likely to be ignored in Israel, where most citizens believe 
the covert development of weapons of mass destruction is necessary to 
prevent the destruction of the Jewish state by Arab forces and the onset 
of a second holocaust.
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 16 Final Preparatory Session For Nuclear Treaty Review Set To Start At UN Headquarters
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:00:24 -0400

 
FINAL PREPARATORY SESSION FOR NUCLEAR TREATY REVIEW SET TO START AT UN HEADQUARTERS
 
New York, Apr 22 2004  5:00PM
At a time when nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament face critical 
challenges, nearly 190 states will gather at United Nations 
Headquarters in New York next Monday for a two-week meeting to help 
prepare urgently needed measures to strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT). 

In a <"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/NPT_PrepCom.html">news 
release on the meeting today the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, stressed that the NPT, 
the world's most widely adhered to multilateral arms control accord, 
confronts a raft of challenges from the Democratic People's Republic 
of Korea's refusal to submit to IAEA verification to the 
discovery of a sophisticated illicit market in nuclear technology 
and materials.

The <"http://www.iaea.org/index.html">IAEA, which is not a party 
to the NPT but is entrusted with key roles and responsibilities under 
it, also pointed to on-going agency efforts to verify the nuclear 
activities of Iran and Libya and the slow progress in nuclear 
disarmament.

The IAEA acts as the international safeguards inspectorate for NPT 
and as a multilateral channel for facilitating the transfer of 
peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

The meeting starting Monday - referred to as a Preparatory Committee 
or 'PrepCom' session - will consider the purpose, operation and 
implementation of the NPT and agree on strengthening measures 
to be approved at the Treaty's upcoming Review Conference in 2005. 
It is the third and final PrepCom session.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei recently voiced hope that 
the conference "will consider urgently needed measures and agree 
on a specific course of action that will help re-engineer the nuclear 
non-proliferation regime and revive the stalling nuclear arms 
control and disarmament process."
 2004-04-22 00:00:00.000 

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 17 Threats From Non-state Users Of Wmds Discussed In UN Security Council
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 20:00:47 -0400

 

 
THREATS FROM NON-STATE USERS OF WMDS DISCUSSED IN UN SECURITY COUNCIL
New York, Apr 22 2004  8:00PM
The United Nations Security Council held an <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8070.doc.htm">open 
debate today on the threat 
to international security posed by weapons of mass destruction 
(WMDs), especially if they should pass through black markets and 
fall into private hands. 

In the debate that attracted about 50 speakers, Ambassador James 
Cunningham of the United States said a draft resolution to be adopted 
in the coming days responded to the growing threat that the 
proliferation of WMDs and the means to deliver them posed to global 
security.

The 15 April draft of the text, a work in progress, would ask Member 
States to take precautions, review domestic legislation and adopt 
new legislation to keep the means of making WMDs away from private 
sectors, or non-state actors.

If non-state actors were able to get such weapons, they could blackmail 
and threaten entire regions, Mr. Cunningham said. Organizations, 
such as al-Qaida, which carried out the attacks on the United 
States on 11 September 2001, had not hidden their desire to acquire 
WMDs. If such groups got them, they could bring destruction 
and suffering on an unimaginable scale.

Ambassador Gennady Gatilov of the Russian Federation said his government 
was one of the initiators of the draft resolution because 
the problem of the proliferation of WMDs was emerging as one of 
the primary threats to international peace and security.

Terrorists would stop at nothing to acquire the components for WMDs. 
In a previous resolution, the Council had highlighted the close 
relationship between international terrorism, organized crime 
and illegal trafficking in chemical, biological and other materials 
and had begun coordinating international efforts to strengthen 
a global response, he said.

Mr. Gatilov supported the establishment of a Security Council committee 
to monitor implementation of the eventual resolution. 

Ambassador Wan Guangya of China, noting that his proposals were already 
reflected in the latest draft, said the Council meeting would 
help improve the text for a security environment in which it 
was vital to strengthen international cooperation and improve the 
non-proliferation regime to respond effectively to threats of terrorism.

To ensure the success of non-proliferation efforts, the text would 
have to recognize the legitimate right of countries to use such 
technologies for peaceful purposes, he said.

The world was now in an "era of wholesale terrorism," when the most 
dangerous technology was becoming available, said Ambassador Jean-Marc 
de La Sablière of France. The international community could 
not remain passive.

France supported inserting references to disarmament obligations 
in the preamble of the text and enhancing the monitoring mechanism, 
he said.

Bringing in such issues as disarmament would risk deadlock and treading 
on the toes of other international disarmament bodies, said 
Ambassador Adam Thomson of the United Kingdom. 

The text promoted the strengthening of multilateral treaties and 
did not rule out future arrangements to deal with any gaps in the 
international framework. It was about a cooperative approach to 
tackling non-state actors, he added.
 2004-04-22 00:00:00.000 

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 18 Ha'aretz:  FROM GEORGE BLAKE TO VANUNU
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 21:59:51 -0500 (CDT)

 
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/418895.html

FROM GEORGE BLAKE TO VANUNU

Ha'aretz -TelAviv  Thursday By Yossi Melman

With a black kerchief around his neck for protection against the sun, Ben 
Birnberg leans on the iron railing at the entrance to Shikma prison in 
Ashkelon. Among the dozens of activists who came here from several 
different countries this week to show their support for Mordechai Vanunu, 
this Jewish lawyer from London stood out. Maybe because unlike most of the 
others, he was once a Zionist and even considered moving to Israel and 
enlisting in the IDF. And he is candid enough to express his appreciation 
for Israel's achievements.

"I'm no longer a Zionist," he said in an interview at a workers' cafeteria 
next to the prison wall. "But I have sympathy for certain aspects of the 
Zionist movement. One can't help but be impressed by what has been 
accomplished here, by the fulfillment of the Jewish renaissance. But I 
also cannot ignore what is being done to the Palestinians, especially the 
abuses of their human rights, and the inhumane treatment of Mordechai 
Vanunu."

Birnberg became aware of Mordechai Vanunu's case in 1987, when Meir Vanunu 
came to London to build up public support for his brother. It was no 
coincidence that Birnberg enlisted in the cause and agreed to be part of 
the special committee that has worked ever since for Vanunu's release. For 
most of his life, he has been involved in political activity and legal 
aid, sometimes pro bono, in leftist British circles. He views the cause of 
worldwide nuclear disarmament as being particularly worthy.

He was born in 1930, Baruch (Benedict) Birnberg. "They named me after 
Spinoza," he says. "My mother studied at Cambridge University and was very 
influenced by the philosopher." His father was born in Romania and 
immigrated to Britain with his family as they fled the pogroms.

His mother came from a distinguished Jewish family with deep roots in 
English society. His parents were teachers and political activists.

During the Spanish Civil War, his mother assisted in the absorption of 
Basque refugees.

The family played an important part in Zionist activity in England.

Birnberg's maternal grandfather was Herbert Bentwich, a friend of Herzl's, 
who toured Palestine in 1897 and spoke at the Zionist Congress in Basel in 
1904. His uncle was Norman Bentwich, the attorney general in the British 
Mandate and one of the founders of Hebrew University. One branch of the 
family settled here and accumulated much property, including lands in 
Zikron Yaakov. "I grew up in a very wealthy home, suffused with Zionist 
and political influences,"

Birnberg said.

"In my youth I was a devout Zionist and when I finished high school I came 
here and lived on Kibbutz Kfar Blum. After the War of Independence, I 
thought of settling here and enlisting in the IDF.

Leon Simon, the president of Hebrew University, advised me to cool my 
Zionist fervor. He told me to get an education in England and to serve in 
the British army and afterward decide if I want to come here."

Birnberg took the advice. He served as an education officer in the British 
artillery corps and then studied history at Cambridge University. That is 
where his outlook changed. "I moved to the left and gave up Zionism," he 
says, adding that he does not regret it.

He recently learned the story of a relative named Israel Friedlander.

"Friedlander worked for the Joint, which helped Jewish refugees during the 
civil war in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution," he says. 
"Cossacks killed him in 1921. In one of the letters he wrote before his 
death, he mentions how concerned he is about the developing conflict in 
Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs. Friedlander was a man of vision, 
like Martin Buber and Gershom Sholem, who saw what was going to happen 
here. The Zionists did not understand the Arabs' opposition."

Birnberg is an attorney by profession, with his own private firm. One of 
the first cases to make his name as a lawyer willing to fight against the 
authorities began in 1964. Dennis Bentley, a mentally impaired young man, 
was executed in 1953 along with his friend Chris Craig, after they were 
convicted of killing a policeman in the course of a store robbery. "His 
sister Iris came to me 11 years later and asked us to help posthumously 
exonerate her brother," he relates. "The judge who sentenced him to death 
was known as a hanging judge. He ignored the recommendations of interior 
ministry officials that he be granted a pardon."

Birnberg handled the case for years. He tenaciously compelled the 
authorities to reopen the legal process anew, after he exposed a series of 
miscarriages of justice that had occurred in the case. After a nearly 
25-year-long battle, Bentley was granted a pardon, and the family was 
awarded 200,000 pounds sterling in compensation.

Unfortunately, the sister, Iris Bentley, died before that and didn't live 
to see the justice that was done for her brother.

Birnberg's firm also represented a woman in a group of four Irish people 
who were convicted of taking part in a terror attack on a pub.

They were called "The Guildford Four." His partner in the firm represented 
one of the four defendants and at the end of the protracted legal battle, 
convinced the British legal system to order a retrial, which concluded 
with an acquittal. The episode was immortalized in the movie "In the Name 
of the Father," in which Emma Thompson played the lawyer. This week 
Thompson sent a letter of support to Vanunu.

The most famous case that Birnberg was involved in was that of the spy 
George Blake. In World War II, Blake served as an officer in the British 
navy. He subsequently joined the foreign ministry and was sent to Korea, 
where he became a prisoner and was recruited by the KGB.

Upon his release from captivity, Blake began to work in the British 
intelligence service, the MI6. He was sent to Germany and there reported 
to his Soviet handlers about a secret tunnel in Berlin, where the British 
had installed important intelligence-gathering equipment.

In 1960, he was arrested, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 42 years 
in prison.

In prison, he became friendly with two left-wing activists, Michael Randle 
and Pat Pottle, who were serving short sentences for disturbing the peace. 
After their release, the two arranged Blake's escape, in an audacious 
operation that sprang him from one of England's most highly secure 
prisons. He fled to East Germany and moved on from there to Moscow.

In 1989, a distinguished publishing house published Blake's memoirs.

British intelligence, furious about the book's publication, filed a damage 
suit against Blake. The court ruled that the second advance that Blake was 
due to receive - for 90,000 pounds sterling - would be confiscated. 
Birnberg represented Blake, for free, in a struggle that lasted about a 
decade and went to three different courts. He lost. The highest court, the 
House of Lords, ruled against Blake in 1999.

Birnberg has meanwhile retired, but the legal struggle continues and has 
also reached the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg.

Does Birnberg see any similarity between Blake's case and Vanunu's ?

"There is a similarity," he says. "In both cases, the punishment was too 
severe. The Vanunu case is more complex, of course. Just putting him on 
trial was illegal, since he was abducted in violation of international 
law. In Britain, they would send the prosecutor's office packing if it 
filed an indictment against a person who was abducted and brought to trial 
against his will. And the treatment he received in prison should also be 
borne in mind. They tried to break his spirit and it's a miracle that he 
survived in those long years.

"He did not pass on vital information that was not already known. The 
British and the Americans certainly knew what was happening in Dimona.

He informed the world, clearly and unequivocally, that Israel has nuclear 
weapons. He stopped Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity, which Shimon 
Peres established.

"And when I see what the authorities are doing to him, I'm ashamed to be a 
Jew. Jews are always victims of wrongs and injustice and it saddens me to 
see them, in their own country, acting like those who persecuted the 
Jews."
*****************************************************************
 19 Guardian Unlimited: Verdict on Vanunu
		 	
	 	 	 		Leader
Wednesday April 21, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]  		
		
The world has changed since Mordechai Vanunu was jailed 18 years 
ago, not least in the field of Israel's nuclear weaponry on which 
he had blown the whistle. The Israeli armed forces now possess 
missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload up to 1,500 
kilometres away, and are developing others with much longer 
range. They have acquired more than 200 nuclear-capable aircraft, 
and have completed the land-air-and-sea triad by buying three 
nuclear-capable submarines. They probably have more nuclear 
warheads than Britain, including thermonuclear warheads. Israel 
is a fully-fledged member of the nuclear club and possessor of 
weapons of mass destruction, with just one difference - that it 
will not admit to the fact. Nor will its US ally: Israel is never 
listed by Washington's intelligence agencies among the countries 
which have acquired WMD. In 1970 President Nixon agreed with 
Prime Minister Golda Meir that if Israel kept its weapons "in the 
basement", the US would not press it. In 1998 President Clinton 
went further, with a pledge to support the enhancement of 
Israel's "deterrent capabilities" - a euphemism for nuclear 
weapons. 

Other Western governments also steer clear of the subject: Israel 
still maintains its "nuclear ambiguity". Yet today is a rare 
opportunity, in the publicity surrounding Mr Vanunu's release, to 
take stock of this perverse silence. Whatever may have been 
argued in the past, the world now demands - and no one is more 
vociferous on the subject than the US - full transparency from 
those who may possess WMD. A war has just been fought with that 
avowed purpose in Iraq. At a time when Iran and Libya have been 
encouraged to take the open road, why should Israel be exempt? 
Any prospect of serious steps against nuclear proliferation, such 
as persuading the new nuclear powers (India and Pakistan as well 
as Israel) to accept international restraints, or working towards 
a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East - which Britain says it 
supports - is stymied as long as the Israeli bomb remains in the 
basement. 

As for Mr Vanunu, we should deplore the inhumane way in which he 
was treated in prison where he spent two-thirds of his time in 
solitary confinement, the leaking of material designed to 
alienate any public sympathy in Israel for him and the 
restrictions now placed on his freedom. He may be a traitor to 
the Israeli state, as Shimon Peres, architect of the nuclear 
programme, called him yesterday, but in exposing a secret which 
needed to be told he has shown a higher duty to wider humanity. 
	 	
Guardian Newspapers Limited
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 20 PRAVDA.Ru: Washington's nuclear blackmail - 
 
04/22/2004 19:06   
  
Will Russia share Iraq's destiny? 

The States continue to "blackmail" Russia claiming they will 
reduce the amount of promised grants for utilization of weapons 
of mass destruction (WMD), in case Russia will not compromise 
certain political and economic aspects. Most likely, Russia will 
never see those promised $20 billion USD meant for the 
liquidation of WMD, writes "Vremya Novostei." 

This has been stated yesterday by Director of political research
Center of Russia Vladimir Orlov. A new program entitled "Global
partnership against the spread of weapons and materials of mass
destruction" has been proposed during the G-8 summit which took
place in Canadian town of Kananaskis in June 2002. In accordance
with the initiative, known as "10 plus 10 over 10", the US plans
to provide half of the money, the rest of the members, including
Russia will provide the rest. The total amount will be issued
for 10 years. 

Today, according to Orlov, this promising program is rapidly 
going down the drain. Time limits of the destruction of 40-tonns 
worth of Russian chemical weapons have to be extended; only 5 
submarines have been cut in pieces so far of almost 200 subs 
total. The reason is simple-no money. 

Japan for instance, promised to contribute $200 million USD and
provided only one or two million. France preferred to keep
quite. About 60%-90% of the allocated funds remain in the
country-donor in a form of a pay to contractor companies. But
even that minimum that makes it to Russia causes nothing but
troubles. 

Russia will inevitably have to increase its financing portion.
This will not be an easy task experts claim, since the country
is in need of twice as much as $20 billion USD. Vice-President
of the American "Nuclear threat reduction initiative" fund Lora
Hallgate has made a rather blatant statement yesterday: "The
problems that are intended to be solved by means of the "Global
partnership" program are those of Russia." 

The US and NATO have been spending heavily in Afghanistan and
Iraq and do not wish (or simply cannot afford) to help Russia.
The US tends to use terrorism threat as its main excuse more
often in order to justify its financial passivity. 

Mrs. Hallgate has made a rather sensational statement the other
day. According to her, terrorists can easily create nuclear 
weapons, in case they have some sort of a fissionable material 
handy. The statement appears to be rather meaningful, especially 
considering that it came out of the mouth of ex-Director of the 
nuclear materials utilization department of the US Department of 
Energy. This gets even more exciting after one takes into account 
the newly adopted US strategic defense plan of nuclear materials. 
What a remarkable position indeed: we refuse to give any money 
and at the same time, we refuse to loosen control. 

In the meantime, nuclear suitcases disappear; Chechen terrorists
make their "dirty bombs" in their underground laboratories and
so on. Isn't it a real Joker? We leave it up to you to decide:
moans of Putin's authoritarianism from across the ocean started
to bore people; the Russian bear is no longer bothered by such
claims and simply ignores them. How else is it possible to
attract his attention? Perhaps, a nuclear war will do?! There is
a vast country with massive supply of WMD and no control
whatsoever! This, as you may have already guessed, poses
potential threat to the civilized world. Let's wave our nuclear
cudgel and perhaps, the bear will fall down on his knees or
simply die. However, the latter will most likely never happen.
After all, present-day master of the White House still needs
Russia. 

Last year, Russia intended to review its own programs concerning
destruction of weapons of mass destruction while relying on
international support. A rather "amorphous" position of the West
regarding the matter was the main reason for such move. 

Partial financing of the program regarding total liquidation of
WMD by the West, which it constantly uses as a "pressure lever
on our country", served as the main reason for such statement.

Such situation leads to the fact that Russia is no longer
capable of making long-term plans concerning construction of
special nuclear and chemical destruction facilities. Unofficial
experts admit that such statements are absolutely valid, since
the US constantly blackmails Russia with the fact that they will
reduce the promised funding for the WMD utilization and attempt
to use this matter as an excuse to get certain political and
economic concessions. 

"The West (mainly the United States) constantly promises us to
provide funding for the WMD utilization," said expert of the
Institute of strategic and Military analysis, Alexander
Khramchikhin to RBC daily. "In the end however, we get much less
the initial promise." 

"The West is really behaving unethically, while trying to
manipulate Russia," states Khramchikhin. "Russia in turn will
least likely to curtail its program of WMD destruction." These
weapons and materials, mainly chemical, are mostly dangerous for
us then they are for them. Our country cannot provide normal
conditions to keep them safe. At times, they are simply lying
around outside.                

  Dmitry Chirkin
 
Read the original in Russian:
http://politics.pravda.ru/politics/2004/1/1/1/16688_NEClEARWEAPON
S.html (Translated by: Anna Ossipova)
 
Pravda.Ru   
    
  L1999-2002 "PRAVDA.Ru". When reproducing our materials in
*****************************************************************
 21 Las Vegas RJ: Reid planning delay tactic 
 
Thursday, April 22, 2004
 

Senator's choice for Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel held up
By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
WASHINGTON -- Announcing he has run out of patience, Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., said he will block bills and nominees for
environmental posts until the Senate schedules a hearing for one
of his aides to join the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 

President Bush nominated Gregory B. Jaczko two months ago to
fill a vacancy on the energy regulatory board, but the chairman
of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has not set
a confirmation hearing. 

Reid held up more than three dozen of Bush's nominees to
homeland security, Justice Department and overseas positions for
more than a month last fall until White House officials agreed
to put forward Jaczko for the NRC. 

Reid revived that strategy this week, notifying the Senate late
Tuesday that, "I will not let anything else move, period," out
of the Environment and Public Works Committee until Jaczko gets
a hearing. 

Jaczko, 33, is a physicist who has been Reid's chief adviser on
science issues and the Yucca Mountain Project. He is up for a
five-year term as one of five NRC commissioners who will judge
the Energy Department's bid to establish a nuclear waste
repository at the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

The nominee is opposed by the nuclear industry, which charges
his association with Reid, the project's chief critic in
Congress, will bias his judgement. A spokesman for the
industry's lobbying organization, the Nuclear Energy Institute,
declined to comment Wednesday. 

Reid said he has spoken with Democrats on the environment
committee about boycotting upcoming business meetings to prevent
a quorum. 
A similar boycott last year delayed consideration of Bush's pick
to head the Environmental Protection Agency, former Utah
governor Mike Leavitt. 

Jaczko "was cleared by the White House. He should be cleared by
the committee," Reid said Wednesday. "It's not as if I got some
derelict for this job, some party hack." 

Reid's threat aims to pressure Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the
environment committee chairman, into moving ahead with Jaczko's
nomination. 

Will Hart, an Inhofe spokesman, said the chairman does not plan
to speed Jaczko. While Inhofe, a supporter of the Yucca project,
has met with Jaczko, "he does not have an opinion at this time,"
Hart said. 

Hart said Democrats have themselves to blame. He said Reid and
Vermont Independent Sen. James Jeffords last year demanded that
Inhofe hold off on moving a nominee for a second NRC vacancy,
Republican nominee Adm. John Grossenbacher, so he and Jaczko
could be confirmed in tandem. 

But after Jaczko's nomination was stalled for months at the
White House, Grossenbacher withdrew and took a job in the
private sector. 

Inhofe "intends to keep his commitment and will schedule a
hearing when we have a new Republican nominee," Hart said.
 
 The White House has not nominated a replacement for
Grossenbacher, and it was not clear Wednesday when one will be
named. 

"There were many qualified candidates. (Democrats) chose to go
with (Jaczko)," Hart said. "They fought their battles and chose
not to move things forward on anyone else. You have to lie in
the bed you made." 

Reid said White House resistance to Jaczko last year "is not my
fault, for heaven's sake. Had they not held up so long, the
admiral would not have dropped out. Partisan politics held up
two qualified men."
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 22 BBC: What to use when the oil runs out 
 
  Last Updated: Thursday, 22 April, 2004
 
By Alex Kirby BBC News Online environment correspondent   

[New York in power cut   AP]                            

New York blackout: Keeping the lights on may be tricky                                                             

Part of the attraction of oil for most of us has probably always 
been its key-turning, switch-flicking simplicity. 

This one substance has given us food, warmth, chemicals, 
medicines, clothing - and above all mobility. 

So it is natural enough for us to look for one neat and simple 
replacement which will be the perfect substitute for oil in all 
its versatile guises. 

But the harsh truth is that nothing is going to be capable of 
doing everything that oil does - not yet, perhaps never. 

Saved for essentials 

So planning for the fast-approaching end of the age of oil means 
accepting we shall have to rely on many partial solutions rather 
than one big one. 

It means accepting that there are some things which only oil can 
do, and making a priority list of essential purposes. Drugs and 
farming would probably come near the top. 

Next come the various other ways of producing energy, most of 
them classed as renewable in the sense that they rely on 
inexhaustible natural resources. 

What are the options if the oil runs dry? 
At-a-glance
	   
Hydropower in its traditional form has been around for a long 
time. It harnesses the power of running water, as watermills have 
done for centuries. 

It is non-polluting, but works only where there is available 
water: building dams is seldom sustainable. 

Wave and tidal power are newer variations which will work in 
countries with coastlines; both have a lot of development ahead 
of them. 

Hydrogen is often seen as the fuel of the future, and one day it 
may be. It is virtually limitless, as it is a constituent of 
water, and is non-polluting. 

But it is hard to store and transport, and at the moment takes a 
lot of electricity to make, either from water or from fossil 
fuels. Its day may come when cheap electricity is available from 
solar power. 

Even in cloudy countries like the UK, photovoltaic cells can 
provide "a power station on your roof". 

Invaluable supplements 

But they cannot provide an uninterruptible supply, so will always 
need some back-up, perhaps in the form of batteries. In 10 years' 
time PVs will probably be competitive on cost with conventional 
energy. 

Wind power: turbines, the modern version of the windmill, can 
provide useful amounts of energy in countries with vigorous 
winds, like the UK. 

They, like solar power, will not produce a round-the-clock 
supply, and often arouse local opposition because of their noise, 
appearance, and threat to birds. 

Biomass includes specially-grown crops like willow, and material 
like bagasse, sugar-cane waste, which power stations can burn. 

One UK station burns chicken droppings and the remains of cattle 
killed during the scare over BSE. In developing countries scarce 
wood is burnt, and also animal dung needed for fertilising the 
exhausted soil. 

Long-term options 

Geothermal energy uses the heat in the Earth's core, either from 
rocks and water near the surface or through drilling deep wells. 
It heats most buildings in Iceland, and is widely used in several 
other countries. 

Ocean energy can generate electricity by using the temperature 
difference between deep ocean water and surface water which has 
been warmed by the Sun. 

One estimate says less than 0.1% of the oceans' solar energy 
would supply more than 20 times the daily energy consumption of 
the US. But using this technology lies a long way ahead. 

[Sea off Greece   AP]                           
Ocean energy has huge potential - some day                                                            

Gas reserves may outlast the oil. There is plenty of coal, but 
little chance of using it without adding to greenhouse gas 
emissions: it is a dirtier fuel than oil. 
z Nuclear power can deliver energy without adding to greenhouse 
emissions in the process, but it has several severe handicaps. 
Many people oppose it because they believe it is dangerous, and 
there is so far no way to dispose safely of nuclear waste. 

Mobility conundrum 

There is also what is called "the fifth fuel" - energy 
conservation, using energy sparingly. Leaving TVs on standby, 
overfilling kettles, forgetting to turn lights off, and 
unnecessary journeys all waste substantial amounts of energy. 

Allied to this is energy efficiency, squeezing all the potential 
out of every unit of energy, as in combined heat and power 
schemes. 

Many of these oil substitutes are available now. Most of the rest 
soon will be, and at an increasingly attractive price. 

The big conundrum is transport, because many of the replacement 
fuels do not lend themselves easily to use in vehicles. 

That apart, all it needs is for us to realise how much we shall 
soon need to turn to these alternatives just to keep the lights 
on. 





*****************************************************************
 23 Khilafah.com: Amid fog of secrecy, Israel makes progress on nukes
 
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land
confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the
Galilee of its Arab population." - Israel Koenig, "The Koenig
Memorandum"         

uploaded 22 Apr 2004
 
DIMONA: Israel's nuclear secrets were once so well hidden that 
the world could only guess whether it had a "bomb in the 
basement" of its Dimona atomic reactor. But 18 years after 
Mordechai Vanunu blew the whistle on the Jewish state as an 
undeclared nuclear power, the question is how far it has advanced 
from an underground programme to the ability to launch atomic 
weapons from land, air and beneath the sea. 

Foreign-based experts who track Israel's murky nuclear 
developments say it is still forging ahead despite a sharp 
reduction in strategic threats from hostile neighbours since the 
US-led invasion of Iraq a year ago. 

Whatever danger Iraq posed faded with the fall of Saddam Hussein. 
Libya, another longtime foe, is voluntarily scrapping its weapons 
of mass destruction. Even Iran, seen by Israel as the greatest 
threat to its existence, has agreed to UN inspection of its 
nuclear plants. 

But Israel, which maintains a policy of "strategic ambiguity", 
never admitting or denying possession of nuclear weapons, has 
been unmoved. "Israel lives in a tough neighbourhood," said John 
Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington think tank. 
"It will take time to digest shifts in the security landscape." 

Nonetheless, with the swirl of publicity surrounding Vanunu's 
release from prison on Wednesday, Israel could face increased 
pressure to come clean about a nuclear capability that foreign 
diplomats and intelligence services have long described as a 
"bomb in the basement". 

MORE AT STAKE?: Outside experts believe Israel has more at stake 
now than in 1986 when Vanunu, a former Dimona technician, leaked 
to Britain's Sunday Times photos and details of what he said was 
a nuclear bomb factory built deep underground in the Negev 
desert. 

The secrets he spilled led to projections Israel had amassed 100 
to 200 warheads, making it the fifth or sixth largest member of 
the nuclear club. More recent US intelligence estimates put the 
number at about 80 bombs. 

The United States has tacitly accepted its ally's nuclear status 
and has not pushed it to sign the non-proliferation treaty, 
keeping Dimona exempt from international inspections. 

But since Vanunu's disclosures, Israel has been anything but 
idle. "They have worked to make their deterrent more survivable, 
to modernise delivery systems," said Wade Boese, research 
director at the Arms Control Association, a US watchdog group. 

Analysts say Israel's nuclear air command consists of U.S.-made 
F-16 and F-4 fighter jets dubbed "Black Squadrons", on 24-hour 
alert at the Tel Nof airbase in central Israel. 

In addition, they say, Israel has dozens of nuclear missiles, 
with its longer-range Jericho-2's capable of striking targets 
1,500 km away, bringing Iran within reach. 

Experts say satellite images show many are hidden in caves 
southeast of Tel Aviv. A spy satellite launch in 2002 was seen as 
a warning signal of Israel's ballistic missile advances. 

As Iran's long-range missiles have fuelled Israel's fears about 
vulnerability of its land arsenal, analysts believe the Jewish 
state has also made strides towards arming its three 
Dolphin-class submarines with modified nuclear missiles. 

Shimmering behind razor-wire fences, Dimona - which Israel once 
tried to pass off as a textile factory - is thought to remain the 
country's sole source of weapons-grade plutonium. 

With Vanunu's whistle-blowing as the last major security breach 
at the plant, experts are increasingly concerned about safety 
conditions there after more than 40 years in operation. 

Arab and Muslim states accuse the United States of applying a 
double standard, tolerating Israel's presumed weapons of mass 
destruction but insisting other Middle East states disarm. 

UN nuclear chief Mohammed ElBaradei recently voiced fears 
Israel's refusal to come out of the nuclear closet would serve as 
an incentive to others in the region to match its arsenal. But an 
Israeli official said: "Ambiguity keeps our foes off balance, 
preventing the arms race from getting out of control." 

Israel has apparently abstained from nuclear testing but, 
according to published reports, it used a veiled threat of 
nuclear retaliation against Syria and Egypt during the 1973 
Middle East war to pressure the United States to airlift arms. 

Public debate on nuclear weapons remains muted in Israel, where 
most people view them as a last line of defence for a tiny 
country surrounded by enemies and an insurance policy against a 
repeat of the Nazi Holocaust. 

But Israeli scholar Avner Cohen, author of "Israel and the Bomb", 
thinks the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is anachronistic and 
that Israel must find a way to calm international nerves while 
retaining a nuclear deterrent. "It's Israel's last taboo and its 
worst-kept secret," he said. 

Source:  Reuters
 
khilafah.com for:
*****************************************************************
 24 Daily Times: States still exporting N-technology 

Friday, April 23, 2004    

SINGAPORE: Rogue states selling nuclear weapons technology and 
parts on the black market are setting up false front companies 
and circumventing international checks by exporting their 
materials through a third country, Japanese and Singapore 
officials said on Thursday. 

“Procurement activities by countries of concern have not lessened 
and indeed are becoming more and more cunning,” said Atsuo 
Shibota from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He 
added that these countries used fake companies to export their 
goods through a third country. 

Shibota was speaking during a ceremony marking an agreement 
between Japan and Singapore designed to stop goods possibly used 
to make nuclear weapons from getting to rogue nations through 
either country. 

He later declined to identify these “countries of concern” but 
Japan is highly concerned over North Korea’s weapons program and 
its illegal export network. Pyongyang has also been accused of 
selling heroin and other illegal drugs to fuel its nuclear 
ambitions. 

The agreement also comes two months after a Singapore-based 
company was accused of exporting aluminum rods allegedly used for 
Libya’s now-defunct nuclear programme which were procured by an 
associate of rogue Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. 

“It is necessary to take proactive steps to prevent the 
proliferation of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and to 
safeguard our national security interests,” said Singapore 
Customs director-general Ng How Yue. 

Under the agreement, Japan and Singapore must inform each other 
of suspect companies intending to export goods, and share 
information on “specifications of controlled items and 
technologies,” a joint statement said. Tokyo is looking to sign a 
similar pact with Hong Kong, another key Asian shipping and 
container center, Shibota said. 

“Preventing the proliferation of weapon of mass destruction and 
related items is becoming increasingly important for the 
sustainable development of the Asian region,” said Shibota, who 
is also director-general of Japan’s Trade Control Department. 

Singapore already has an agreement with Washington to screen all 
sea cargo headed for the United States. —AP Home | National           

      and hosted by WorldCALL Internet
Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] 
*****************************************************************
 25 Hi Pakistan: India's nuclear programme targeted at US - expert
 
April 23 2004     
 
ISLAMABAD: The Indian nuclear programme is targeted at the
United States with high-yield thermonuclear weapons, according
to Bharat Karnad, a member of the Indian defence establishment.
The warning about India's nuclear doctrine targeted against big
powers , especially the US and China, came on the first day of
an international seminar- Arms Race and Nuclear Developments in
South Asia-organized by a think-tank in collaboration with a
German NGO here. 

Speaking on the Indian nuclear doctrine, Mr karnad, a former
member of the group which drafted the doctrine, the National
Security Council of the government of India, said: "The more
substantive danger to India is from the US' insistence that the
Indian deterrent be kept at a sub-operational level which if
resisted or ignored by New Delhi could lead to Washington's
contemplating a disarming first strike." 

Mr Karnad is a consultant engaged with India's Integrated
Defence Staff of the Ministry of Defence, science advisor to the
defence minister, perspective planning directorate and financial
planning directorate of the Army Headquarters and also to the
directorate of concepts and Air War Cell Air Headquarters. 

Talking about recent US interventions and possibility of
engaging with India some time in future, Mr Karnad said the US
could be deterred with a thermonuclear weapon which didn't need
not be accurate. An intercontinental ballistic missile with a
thermonuclear weapon would be deterrent enough, he said. 

He said the scenario was not as far-fetched as it seemed at
first glance considering that the Counter-Proliferation Office
of the Pentagon had planned for precisely such contingencies. 

Dilating on the anxiety in the Indian establishment over
diplomatic, political and technological help given to Pakistan
by the US and China, Mr Karnad said: "These facts as well as its
own great power ambition will compel India to acquire a
genuinely potent thermonuclear force with high-yield weapons and
inter-continental reach as a deterrent and insurance against any
great power machinations." 

The former senior member of the Indian nuclear establishment
said the nuclear doctrine drafting group (NDDG) of the (First)
National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) debated and discussed
the ideas in December 1998 and the doctrine was submitted to the
government as per deadline the following year. 

About future threats and the Indian response, Mr Karnad said
that given China's expansive geostrategic policies and the
United States' aggressive counter-proliferation agenda, "India
will, in all prudence, have to quickly augment its now fairly
thin nuclear force into one featuring high yield thermonuclear
weapons with great clout and reach offered by intercontinental
ballistic missiles, something the doctrine allows." 

Talking on the key concepts in the Indian nuclear doctrine and
reproducing from the text of the doctrine, Mr Karnad said the
deterrent force would feature "high yield weapons which will be
too large in number and diverse to be eliminated even by waves
of disarming counter-force strikes unleashed by the most
powerful country, and which will have sufficiently potent
residual retaliatory capability to inhibit any attacker from
attempting such pre-emption in the first place." 

He said the Indian nuclear doctrine gave an expansive mandate as
any government would ever want to exercise and covered all the
worst case scenarios. "The greater the destruction quotient of
the Indian thermonuclear force and the greater its reach in
terms of the delivery capacity, the more it will blunt the
propensity of the Great Powers- the United States of America and
China in particular - proactively and coercively to use their
nuclear and conventional military prowess to intimidate
India..." 

In January 2003, the Indian Cabinet Committee on Security
approved the draft nuclear doctrine as official doctrine and
went a step further than the NDDG had done in committing the
country to a possible nuclear response to attack from any source
by biological and chemical weapons, he said. 

Mr Karnad said while Pakistan had tried to get some mileage from
touting its 'Islamic Bomb,' it could not realistically extend
nuclear protection to other Islamic states without facing the
possibility of being forcibly disarmed by some great power or
the other acting in concert with India or Israel. 

He said the way the Dr AQ Khan affair has panned out in the
shadow of such implicit threat from Washington is indicative of
Pakistan's extremely limited room to manoeuvre in the nuclear
realm. 

He said part of Pakistan's nuclear programme was already under
US control and its nuclear programme had to be far more
expansive to be of credible threat. Rejecting the suggestions of
a German scholar about nuclear disarmament, Mr Karnad said
Germany is just a protectorate of the US and not a sovereign
country in the nuclear realm. 

Giving an Indian perspective on politico-strategic dimensions of
conventional arms race in South Asia, Dr Raja Mohan, said the
ideas of symmetry and parity could no longer be sustained given
the significant emerging gaps in the economic capabilities of
India and Pakistan. he advanced the argument that the search for
a framework of conventional arms control in South Asia could be
a 'fool's errand.' 
					     							 				 				   				 				
      
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 26 Hi Pakistan: The nuclear father - M. A. Sheikh     --> 
 
April 23 2004     
 
The fifth death anniversary of Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan,
Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (1972-1991),
who developed and led Pakistan’s nuclear programme for two
decades and who achieved international recognition as a nuclear
expert and advocate for the Third World is marked on April 22
(today).

He spent his last days of illness in Vienna, Austria, where he
enjoyed a distinguished tenure with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (1957-1972). He was one of the first Asian
scientists to join the IAEA, and rose to become director of the
Reactor Engineering Division and Member of the Board of
Governors, and was elected Board Chairman in 1986-87.

It was while he was still with the IAEA that Prime Minister
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto requested him to return to Pakistan as PAEC
Chairman at the famous Multan Conference of senior scientists,
where the foundations of the nuclear weapons programme were
laid. It was a historic move as Pakistan thereafter embarked on
a crash program to develop the atomic bomb, and he as the
architect of the nuclear programme would make this dream come
true by 1983 when PAEC conducted its first successful cold
tests. 

Under Munir’s dedicated leadership, Pakistan’s nuclear programme
developed into a multi-faceted and dynamic center of science and
technology, both on the peaceful and deterrence sides. He
established the blueprint and developed the knowhow for
Pakistan’s weapons capability. This includes the fuel and heavy
water fabrication facilities, uranium enrichment and plutonium
reprocessing facilities, nuclear fuel cycle facilities, training
centres and nuclear power reactors.

In addition, the PAEC made formidable strides by developing new
strains of rice and cotton that added billions to Pakistan’s
agricultural output. Nuclear medical centres across the country
have treated hundreds of thousands of cancer patients. Recently
a long-standing dream of his was achieved with the elevation of
the Centre for Nuclear Studies into an internationally
recognised university. He established CNS as a centre of
excellence, to provide the critical element of any nuclear
programme, the trained manpower, which has so far produced over
2000 world-class nuclear scientists and engineers, at a time
when the Western universities refused to allow Pakistanis into
the nuclear field.

He initiated the Kahuta Enrichment Project, as Project-706,
under Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud, in 1974, two years prior to
A.Q. Khan’s arrival in Pakistan. He completed the feasibility
study, site selection for the plant, construction of its civil
works, recruitment of the staff, and procurement of the
necessary materials by 1976. 

The PAEC under Munir remained in charge of the overall bomb
programme, of all the 23 out of 24 difficult steps before and
after uranium enrichment, and he continued to provide technical
support to the enrichment program all along. The PAEC under him
went on to develop the first generation of nuclear weapons in
the 1980s. Munir started work on the bomb itself in a meeting
called in March 1974, in which the secret ‘Wah Group’ was
assigned the task of initiating work on it, prior to the arrival
of A. Q. Khan in Pakistan.

The Chaghi tunnels were constructed under him and were ready by
1980. Munir successfully conducted the first ‘cold’ tests in
March 1983, and the 1998 ‘hot’ tests were their confirmation. He
made Pakistan acquire complete mastery over the nuclear fuel
cycle, which is critical to the development and success of any
nuclear programme. 

The fuel cycle ranges from mining (uranium ore mining from
mines), milling (uranium ore into yellow cake), conversion
(yellow cake into hexafluoride gas, the crucial ingredient for
uranium enrichment through the ‘gas’ centrifuge method used in
KRL). Fuel fabrication (converting enriched uranium into uranium
dioxide, sealing it into metal fuel rods and bundling into fuel
assembly as fuel for nuclear power plants) was accomplished by
PAEC under Munir.

Uranium enrichment would have been impossible without the
hexafluoride gas, and mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle, which
was accomplished by Munir. The highly enriched uranium is then
converted into metal at PAEC and then into bomb cores, which
itself involves very critical technologies, which were as great
a challenge as uranium enrichment or plutonium reprocessing.

Munir had laid solid groundwork for all these technologies,
which enabled Pakistan to acquire nuclear capability by the
early 1980s.

When in 1976 Canada suspended the supply of heavy water fuel and
spare parts for the Karachi nuclear power plant, he took up the
challenge and using indigenous resources produced the Feed for
KANUPP, which is why the Muslim world’s first nuclear power
plant is still running successfully. 

He also upgraded the research reactor at PINSTECH and laid the
groundwork in the 1980s for the 300 MW nuclear power plant at
Chashma. Munir also laid the foundations of the National
Development Complex, under Dr Samar Mubarikmand. Today NDC is a
vital strategic organisation.

PAEC under Munir was also actively developing the plutonium
programme, in spite of the cancellation of the French
reprocessing contract, and went ahead with developing an
indigenous pilot reprocessing plant, which was completed by
1981, known as the ‘New Labs’ in PINSTECH. The PAEC did not
forego the plutonium route, and was successful at developing the
indigenous plutonium production reactor at Khushab, commissioned
recently. This was driven during Munir Khan’s 19-year tenure.
Plutonium is used to develop advanced compact warheads, and
makes more powerful bombs than uranium.

Munir was very modest, and shied away from the
counter-productive boasting of his rivals. He saw Pakistan’s
strength as lying in more than having a bomb, as equally
dependent on a secure economic and political future and
non-isolation in the world. 

As he developed the PAEC programme, so too did he grow in
international stature as one of the leading nuclear policymakers
to represent Third World interests at international fora. A few
years prior to his death, he was made Advisor on Science and
Technology at the Islamic Development Bank to assist in
developing their investment in the sciences in Muslim countries.

Munir Khan did his BSc from Government College Lahore as a
contemporary of the late Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam. He later
went to the USA on a Fullbright Grant and Rotary International
Fellowship where he earned a Master’s in electrical engineering
from North Carolina State University and an MSc in nuclear
engineering from Argonne National Laboratories in Illinois as
part of the Atoms for Peace Programme.

Munir’s vision for Pakistan, and indeed the whole Muslim
community, as a centre for science and technology, was an
inspiration to scientists and colleagues around the world. The
strict controls in PAEC from the time of Munir becoming Chairman
in 1972 ensured that no financial bunglings or material ‘leaks’
would take place. 

He was an example of how a scientist in a very senior and
responsible position could behave with the utmost responsibility
and secrecy in matters of supreme national interest. He was a
man who was obsessed with secrecy, and believed that national
security must be above personal whims and wishes, and abhorred
personal aggrandisement. He spoke rarely to the press, and only
in public, never in private, and he refrained from all
self-projection and never indulged in cheap popularity stunts. 

He never let any journalist in his office or residence, nor did
he crave their attention. For all his sense of responsibility
throughout his Chairmanship, he had to pay a personal price by
remaining unsung. Some believed that keeping silent was a
mistake, and that the people would never know of the
accomplishments of the PAEC and his own contribution.

He was deeply humble, impeccably honest and humane, an avid
conversationalist who in the traditions of most nuclear
scientists, was a connoisseur of arts, especially literature and
Urdu poetry, particularly Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz. And like most
nuclear scientists engaged in changing the destiny of nations,
he used to have long walks. He was a consummate
conversationalist and burst into laughter without prodding. It
was amazing how he had compartmentalised his mind. Manager of a
colossal and highly sensitive nuclear programme, he talked of
other things in the world without even giving a hint about his
identity. His confidence and patriotism did not allow him to
divulge his secrets to any man who did not belong to his trade. 

With superabundant energy, iron will, and an intense patriotic
zeal, he became a lodestar in the history of the nation. He was
known as the ‘Father’ in PAEC circles, yet he remains an unsung
hero whose contributions are largely unknown, and
unacknowledged. His predecessor, Dr. I. H. Usmani, got the
Nishan-i-Imtiaz posthumously after the 1998 nuclear tests, as
did his successor, Dr Ishfaq Ahmed, yet he continues to be left
out.

His detractors have been exposed in the recent proliferation
scandal, and he stands vindicated. He remained associated till
his last day in Pakistan with nuclear issues and continued to
serve the country by sharing his rich 42-year experience in the
nuclear field with PAEC even after retiring as Chairman in 1991.
His greatest legacy is that he made Pakistan a nuclear power by
making the nuclear programme independent of his self. 

Yet even five years after his death, he remains an unsung hero
who along with his team of dedicated scientists and engineers
enabled us to safeguard our honour as a nation. Justice requires
that the falsification of history be rectified. The nation for
which he lived his life, deserves to know the truth. 					    
							 				 				   				 				
      
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 27 Hi Pakistan: to scientists at KRL

April 23 2004     
 
RAWALPINDI: President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday said in 
categorical terms that Pakistan's nuclear programme is 
non-negotiable. 

It is there to stay, he said and urged the nation to develop 
maturity, self-confidence and self-belief as a responsible 
nuclear power. 

The President was addressing the scientists, engineers, 
technicians and other staff of Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) 
during a visit to Pakistan's premier nuclear facility at Kahuta. 
The President highlighted the monumental achievements of KRL's 
proud work force and said that Pakistan owed a debt of gratitude 
to their national heroes for strengthening national security and 
making the country's defence impregnable.

He said that his frequent visits to Kahuta were indicative of the 
high esteem in which he and the nation held the KRL. 

President Musharraf reiterated Pakistan's resolve to further 
strengthen its minimum deterrence needs. He said there were no 
pressures on Pakistan with regard to its nuclear programme and 
the government would not brook any pressures in future as well. 

Earlier, he traced the background of the recent proliferation 
episode and said that Pakistan was in the frontline in the 
international fight against both terrorism and nuclear 
proliferation. 

He said that Pakistan had developed its nuclear capability solely 
for the purpose of deterrence of aggression and defence of 
Pakistan's sovereignty at great sacrifice.

No government had ever been involved in any kind of proliferation 
activities. Those individuals who had indulged in proliferation 
for personal gains had been taken to task and no effort is being 
spared to uproot the network from its roots.

The President explained to the scientists and engineers of KRL 
the rationale for the decisions taken in the recent past both at 
the time of ordering investigations into allegations of 
proliferation against senior Pakistani scientists, as well as at 
the time of emergence of concrete evidence consequent to the 
investigations.

He said that his decisions were always guided by supreme national 
interest and in the proliferation episode too, time has shown 
that the decisions taken were correct and served national 
interest. 

The President said that the episode was behind us and he asked 
the scientists not to be misled by petty politics of vested 
interests and cynics.The President concluded by saying that the 
key fundamental decision of the government was that the nuclear 
programme would have only one direction - a forward one. 

He also reiterated the Government's commitment to 
non-proliferation saying that Pakistan's strategic assets are 
under strict custodial controls and we have a robust Command and 
Control System. 

Later, he had lunch with the scientists and wished them well in 
their continuing efforts to take Pakistan forward.

 					     							 				 				   				 				
      
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 28 Hi Pakistan: Israel’s nuclear whistleblower walks, denies more to reveal    
 
April 23 2004     
 
SHIKMA PRISON, Israel: Israel’s nuclear whistleblower Mordechai 
Vanunu walked free after 18 years in prison Wednesday, insisting 
he was proud at what he had done but denying he had more secrets 
to reveal. "To all of those who are calling me a traitor, I am 
proud and happy that I did what I did," a defiant Vanunu told 
reporters as he left southern Israel’s Shikma prison as a free 
man shortly after 11:00 am (0800 GMT).

The one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern 
Israel was abducted by secret service agents in Italy smuggled 
back to Israel and then jailed in 1986 after leaking details of 
the plant to Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper. Vanunu said his 
treatment had been "cruel and barbaric" but insisted he did "not 
have any more secrets" to reveal.

Hundreds of foreign supporters of Vanunu gathered outside the 
prison to give him a hero’s welcome although he is still widely 
perceived as a traitor by the Israeli public. The supporters 
released doves into the air ahead of his release and then 
showered his car with petals as he was driven away from the 
prison gates.

Opponents however carried banners with slogans such as: "Death to 
the spy, Death to Vanunu." Vanunu, 49, will now be subject to a 
series of sweeping restrictions, including a ban on travelling 
abroad or associating with foreigners without prior approval from 
the Israeli authorities. However he said in an impromptu press 
conference outside the prison that he wanted to travel to both 
the United States and Britain. Vanunu, who has become a cause 
celebre for the anti-nuclear movement, said Israel should rid 
itself of nuclear weapons and open up the nuclear plant to 
inspection by the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic 
Energy Agency (IAEA). "The whole Middle East is free of nuclear 
weapons. Israel does not need nuclear weapons," he said. "Open 
Dimona for inspection. Call (IAEA director general) Mohammed 
el-Baradei to inspect it." Israeli authorities have justified the 
restrictions on Vanunu by warning that he still has more secrets 
to reveal. The Jewish state has never formally acknowledged that 
it possesses nuclear weapons but international experts widely 
believe it has produced around 200 nuclear warheads.

After his release, Vanunu was then driven to east Jerusalem where 
he attended a special prayer service at the Anglican Church’s St 
George Cathedral. Vanunu’s devoutly religious Jewish parents have 
disowned him after his conversion to Christianity. He did not 
speak to reporters but the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, the 
Right Reverend Riah Abu El-Assal, said prayers would be said "for 
Vanunu, his family and friends in the hope that he can live a 
normal life from now on."

"He is an Anglican Christian and expressed his desire to offer 
thanks to God for his release from prison as his first act as a 
free man," the bishop added. Ahead of his release, the director 
of Shikma prison said that confidential information about Dimona 
nuclear plant had been found in Vanunu’s cell. "The security 
services have searched his cell and examined his notebooks and 
letters that he wants to retrieve once he is freed. Anything 
which reveals confidential information has been seized," said 
Yossi Migdad, the director of Shikma prison in the southern city 
of Ashkelon. Migdad said that Vanunu appeared to be "very 
bitter", adding that he did not believe that the whistleblower 
would "respect the restrictions which have been imposed" on him 
after his release from prison.

Justice Minister Tommy Lapid justified the restrictions by saying 
that Vanunu had "promised to do as much harm to Israel as he 
can." "He is a born traitor who ... has betrayed Israel, atomic 
secrets, does everything that the radical left dreams about," 
Lapid told CNN. Vanunu’s brother Meir said he was "extremely 
worried for his safety". "We have seen and heard all sorts of 
comments from the common people on the street that there is a 
threat to his life and the common people allow themselves to 
incite for this kind of action to possibly assassinate him. "This 
situation is unbearable and that’s why to me tomorrow is not 
really a day of freedom (for Mordechai) but a partial release 
with control of the secret services of his daily life for the 
next year or two years," he also told CNN.

 					     							 				 				   				 				
      
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.

*****************************************************************
 29 AFP: Syria says Israel's nuclear "secrets" threaten global security

[http://www.spacewar.com/]

DAMASCUS (AFP) Apr 22, 2004

 The official Syrian press Thursday warned that Israel's policy 
of ambiguity on its nuclear programme "dangerously threatened" 
global security.

"The policy of ambiguity followed by Israel with the agreement of 
the American administration is no longer applicable today because 
it dangerously threatens global and regional security," 
government daily Tishrin wrote.

"The Israeli nuclear arsenal is extremely dangerous and this 
question must be internationalised."

It called on the international community to "undertake serious 
actions to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction 
(WMD), notably those possessed by Israel".

"Continuing to keep silent in regards to Israel and accusing Iraq 
as well as other countries in the region of hiding WMD is playing 
with regional and global security," it said.

It said the release from prison Wednesday of Israeli nuclear 
whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu presented a new opportunity to 
sound the alarm over Israel's nuclear policy.

The one-time technician at the Dimona nuclear plant in southern 
Israel was jailed in 1986 after leaking details of the plant to a 
British newspaper.

Vanunu has become a hero of the anti-nuclear movement and says 
Israel should rid itself of nuclear weapons and open up the 
Dimona plant to international inspection.

"The whole Middle East is free of nuclear weapons. Israel does 
not need nuclear weapons," he said after his release.

Ruling party newspaper Al-Baath said it was time to put an end to 
the "Israeli nuclear threat" which "profits from the cover of the 
United States".

Israel has never admitted to having a nuclear arsenal but foreign 
military experts believe it holds up to 200 warheads.

The United States accuses Syria of seeking to acquire WMD, though 
not of having nuclear ambitions.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 30 UN Secretary-General: Final preparatory session for nuclear treaty review set to start
                       at UN Headquarters
 
22 April 2004 – At a time when nuclear non-proliferation and 
disarmament face critical challenges, nearly 190 states will 
gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York next Monday for 
a two-week meeting to help prepare urgently needed measures to 
strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). 

In a [http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/NPT_PrepCom.html] 
on the meeting today the International Atomic Energy Agency 
(IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, stressed that the NPT, the 
world's most widely adhered to multilateral arms control accord, 
confronts a raft of challenges from the Democratic People's 
Republic of Korea's refusal to submit to IAEA verification to the 
discovery of a sophisticated illicit market in nuclear technology 
and materials.

 The  [http://www.iaea.org/index.html] , which is not a party to 
the NPT but is entrusted with key roles and responsibilities 
under it, also pointed to on-going agency efforts to verify the 
nuclear activities of Iran and Libya and the slow progress in 
nuclear disarmament.

 The IAEA acts as the international safeguards inspectorate for 
NPT and as a multilateral channel for facilitating the transfer 
of peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

 The meeting starting Monday - referred to as a Preparatory 
Committee or 'PrepCom' session - will consider the purpose, 
operation and implementation of the NPT and agree on 
strengthening measures to be approved at the Treaty's upcoming 
Review Conference in 2005. It is the third and final PrepCom 
session.

 IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei recently voiced hope 
that the conference "will consider urgently needed measures and 
agree on a specific course of action that will help re-engineer 
the nuclear non-proliferation regime and revive the stalling 
nuclear arms control and disarmament process."

*****************************************************************
 31 Lincolnwood Review: Chernobyl effects felt by Russians here 
 	 	 
April 22, 2004   

BY MIKE ISAACS STAFF WRITER 

Dr. Robert Rosen of Skokie could not possibly have known the 
extent his skills would be needed when he heard 18 years ago 
about the world's worst nuclear power accident at Chernobyl in 
the former Soviet Union. 

But Rosen has not only seen firsthand the effects of the 
Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Russia; he is helping victims 
recover almost every day, every week. 

"Probably five or six years ago," he said, "we began seeing an 
increase in the number of Russian patients and the number of 
patients who had thyroid conditions," said Rosen who works at 
Rush North Shore Medical Center. "There is no doubt in mind that 
there is a direct correlation." 

As the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster approaches this 
weekend, Rosen wants to send a message to Russians who lived near 
Chernobyl at the time of the accident: Come in and get screened. 

In the first five to 10 years of radiation exposure of the likes 
of the Chernobyl disaster, it is common to see an increase in the 
number of leukemia cases, Rosen said. But a dramatic increase in 
thyroid cancer cases often does not emerge until at least 10 
years after exposure. 

That seems to be playing out on a local level as Rosen began 
seeing the number of thyroid cases jump about six years ago. The 
Chicago area and Skokie in particular have large populations of 
former residents of the former Soviet Union, he said. 

"Most general surgeons probably do 10 to 12 thyroid surgeries a 
year," Rosen said. "I probably do that many in a month now." 

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was located 80 miles north of 
Kiev and had four reactors. In 1986, at about 1:23 a.m. April 
25-26, the chain reaction in one of the reactors created 
explosions and a fireball, which blew off the reactor's heavy 
steel and concrete lid. 

The Chernobyl accident immediately killed more than 30 people. As 
a result of the high radiation levels in the surrounding 20-mile 
radius, 135,000 people had to be evacuated. 

Medical officials said that between 1981 and 1985 - the five 
years preceding the accident - the average thyroid cancer rate 
was four to six incidents per million for Ukrainian children 
under age 15. Between 1986 and 1997, the thyroid cancer rate rose 
to 45 incidents per million. 

Dr. Dean Conterato, radiation oncologist at Rush North Shore 
Medical Center, said that the impact of exposure to radiation is 
even greater for children. 

"Younger people or children less than 18 years old receive higher 
doses because they have a more active thyroid," Conterato said. 
"I think it's certainly true that we've seen more thyroid cancer 
cases in those patients from Russia in recent years." 

Conterato doesn't see everyone who has thyroid cancer - just 
certain patients who need more post-surgery work. He used to see 
an average of a thyroid cancer patient every three years; now he 
sees about two or three thyroid cancer patients every year. 

Most of them have lived near Chernobyl, he said. 

"We know that people exposed to high levels of radiation are more 
at risk of having thyroid cancer in their lifetimes," Conterato 
said. "We know that from Nagasaki for one thing. The risk is 
seven or eight times greater for thyroid cancer." 

Rosen said thyroid cancer is a more common cancer due to 
radiation exposure because it is more "radiation-sensitive" than 
other glands. 

Curable 

In general, highly malignant thyroid cancer when caught early 
enough is 100 percent curable, he said. 

"If left to its own devices, people do die of thyroid cancer," he 
said. "But that's rare. It's one of the most treatable 
malignancies. Thyroid cancer is very treatable." 

Removing the thyroid - a thyroidectomy - is a relatively brief 
and painless operation, Rosen said. Almost all patients go home 
the next day, he said. 

The thyroid has two lobes. The normal process is to remove 
one-half of the thyroid to check for a malignancy. If there is a 
malignancy, then Rosen removes the other half of the thyroid. If 
not, he leaves the other lobe in place for the time being. 

But if the patient is from Russia and especially near the 
Chernobyl area, Rosen immediately removes the entire thyroid. It 
is too common for cancer to emerge down the road even if it has 
not attacked the entire thyroid at the time, he said. 

"The risk of complication in this surgery is very low," Rosen 
said. "With drugs, the person is whole without the thyroid." 

When Rosen sees patients from Russia, he immediately asks if they 
have ever had a thyroid exam. Whether there are symptoms or not, 
he strongly recommends such an exam. 

Children who lived near Chernobyl at the time of the disaster 
were often overlooked for medical treatment, he notes. 

"A lot of kids were not tested for thyroid cancer," he said. 
"That's true even though those kids are under the greatest risk." 

Rosen recommends that all Russians who were exposed to 
Chernobyl's radiation have their thyroids examined at least every 
six months. 

"On any given day, I see at least one new patient who has thyroid 
cancer who was exposed at Chernobyl," he said. "Others have some 
other problem such as breast disease or colon cancer." 

Patients sometimes address the thyroid problem when they have 
symptoms - swallowing problems, an expanding gland, hoarseness or 
trouble breathing when in a prone position. 

"The best thing we as doctors can do is to increase public 
awareness," he said. "People need to be told this is a simple 
process even if they have thyroid cancer but it's important that 
they be tested." 

  Copyright© 2004, Digital Chicago Inc.   
*****************************************************************
 32 projo.com: Search for missing nuclear fuel could be a long process       

04.22.2004 5:27 P.M.    

By CHRISTOPHER GRAFF Associated Press Writer         

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Two missing pieces of a highly
radioactive nuclear fuel rod may have been lost in 1979 and may
never be found, officials said Thursday. 

Engineers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant discovered
the pencil-sized pieces were missing this week when they looked
inside the stainless steel container that documents showed
housed them. 

"They weren't there," said Rob Williams, spokesman for Entergy
Nuclear, which owns Vermont Yankee. 

The last time the pieces can be accounted for was in 1979 when
they were pulled from the Vermont Yankee atomic reactor. At the
time they were part of a 12-foot-long tube that was filled with
enriched uranium pellets. The zirconium tube, though, had
developed holes and was leaking, and it is possible the pieces
were cut off for testing to determine why or simply broke off
the main tube. 

At that point, documents show, the pieces - one the size of a
pencil and the other pencil-thin and about 17 inches long - were
supposedly placed in a specially designed container and placed
in the 40-foot-deep pool at the plant used to store used fuel
rods. 

Williams said an inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
suggested this week that engineers make sure the pieces were
there. The inventory was in response to the discovery four years
ago that two fuel rods were missing from Connecticut's Milestone
Unit 1 nuclear plant. Those fuel rods were never found. 

Engineers for Vermont Yankee and inspectors for the NRC have
launched an investigation to find the missing pieces, which are
highly radioactive and would be fatal to anyone who came in
contact with them. 

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the agency did not believe
"there is a threat to the public at this point." He said the
most likely options are that the pieces are still in the fuel
pool or had been sent to a testing laboratory or a low-level
nuclear waste disposal facility. 

The NRC issued a statement saying the incident "does not pose a
threat to public health and safety as it is highly unlikely that
the material is in the public domain. Given the extensive array
of radiation detectors at the site, it is very probable that the
potentially missing fuel fragments are in a location desigfned
to deal with radioactive waste," the NRC said. 

But U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a critic of the nuclear
industry, said the missing fuel at Vermont Yankee was especially
troubling coming of the heels of the missing Millstone fuel
rods. 

"If nuclear reactor operators are not maintaining strong
controls over nuclear materials, and are unable to account for
their location, how can the public be assured that these
sensitive and potentially dangerous materials are not falling
into the wrong hands?" he wrote in a letter to NRC Chairman Nils
J. Diaz. 

Vermont Gov. James Douglas, a Republican, said he was troubled
by the announcement. "Vermonters, and I among them, have lost
some confidence in the operation of the nuclear power plant at
Vernon," he said. 

Asked about his confidence in the NRC, Douglas said, "I don't
think until we complete this process that I want to begin to
point too many fingers, but it raises issues of confidence in
many players in this drama." 

Douglas said, "I don't want to alarm Vermonters about this. Some
likely scenarios are that the fuel rods are in a relatively safe
place ... but we don't know that." 

The announcement of the missing nuclear material comes at a bad
time for Vermont Yankee, which is seeking permission to increase
its power output by 20 percent. Opponents have maintained the
plant is not safe and quickly latched onto the missing nuclear
material as proof. 

In addition, the announcement of the missing fuel comes a week
after the company announced cracks had been discovered in a
steam dryer. 

"The report of missing fuel pins at Vermont Yankee follows
reports last week that plant workers identified minor hairline
cracking in the plant's steam dryer," said U.S. Sen. Jim
Jeffords, I-Vt. "The public needs to know NRC's assessment as to
the impact of these cracks on continued safety of plant
operations." 

Vermont Yankee is shut down for refueling. 

Williams said the plant's probe into the missing fuel was
following two avenues: Searching the spent fuel pool to see if
the pieces were there and reviewing storage and shipping records
back to 1979 to see if there is any sign the pieces were sent
somewhere. 

He said engineers placed a camera in the pool Thursday to begin
an initial survey of the fuel stored there. 

Sheehan said the Millstone incident marked the first time that a
nuclear plant could not account for used nuclear fuel. The two
fuel rods had last been documented in 1980. The NRC ended up
fining the plant $288,000. 

While the rods were never found, the final NRC report determined
the most likely scenario was that the rods had been sent to a
low-level radioactive waste facility in Barnwell, S.C. 	   

Providence Journal newsroom at (401) 277-7303. 
*****************************************************************
 33 projo.com: Reaction to the missing fuel at Vermont Yankee  

 04.22.2004 6:06 P.M.    

The Associated Press    

Reaction to the discovery of missing fuel rods at the Vermont
Yankee nuclear power plant: 

"This situation does not pose a threat to public health and
safety as it is highly unlikely that the material is in the
public domain. Given the extensive array of radiation detectors
at the site, it is very probable that the potentially missing
fuel fragments are in a location designed to deal with
radioactive waste. If they were removed from the site, this
could only have occurred in heavily shielded, sealed containers
directed to other controlled, safe locations." 

- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission 

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must commit all necessary
resources and make every effort to ensure this material is
accounted for immediately. We expect the NRC to ensure that
Entergy conducts additional inspections of the spent-fuel pool
and the plant and reviews facility records to determine whether
these materials continue to be located on site. We cannot
underscore enough our personal, our state officials', and the
public's concern that these materials are found and secured. We
stand ready to assist the commission and our state in any way
necessary, and we expect prompt and regular briefings with
regard to the investigation's progress." 

- Letter to the NRC from Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords
and Rep. Bernie Sanders. 

"Vermonters, and I among them, have lost some confidence in the
operation of the nuclear power plant at Vernon." 

- Gov. James Douglas, speaking at news conference.         

Providence Journal newsroom at (401) 277-7303. 
*****************************************************************
 34 News Max: Nuclear Plant in Vermont Searches for Radioactive Parts
 
   April 22, 2004 
   
NewsMax.com Wires

Thursday, April 22, 2004 MONTPELIER, Vt. – Engineers at a Vermont 
nuclear plant searched Thursday for two missing pieces of a 
highly radioactive fuel rod while experts acknowledged they might 
never be found.

 The operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, 
reporting the missing pieces Wednesday, said they were not where 
they were supposed to be in the large pool used to store fuel 
rods.

 One of the missing pieces is about the size of a pencil. The 
other is about as thick but is 17 inches long.

 The spent fuel rods are highly radioactive and would be fatal to 
anyone who came in contact with them without being properly 
shielded, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan 
said. Spent nuclear fuel could be used by terrorists to construct 
so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with 
conventional explosives.

 "We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. 
The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the 
pool," Sheehan said. The pieces could also have been sent years 
ago to a testing laboratory or a low-level nuclear waste disposal 
facility.

 The pieces were part of a fuel rod removed in 1979 from the 
Vermont Yankee reactor, which is shut down for refueling and 
maintenance.

 The pool where used fuel rods are stored is 40 feet deep and 
contains 2,789 fuel assemblies.

 The pencil-thin fuel rods are 12 feet long and filled with 
uranium pellets. Sheehan said that the missing pieces might have 
been cut from longer rods for testing or could have broken when 
they were removed from the fuel assemblies.

 The search for the missing pieces was going to include the use 
of a remote controlled camera in the pool as well as review of 
the documents dating back decades that cover shipments and 
movements of radioactive material.

 Sheehan cited the heightened awareness of the need to control 
nuclear material that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "We 
don't want this falling into the wrong hands," he said. "This is 
something we would never take lightly."

 Gov. James Douglas, after speaking Wednesday afternoon with the 
head of the NRC, said he was "very concerned" about the missing 
fuel at the plant, run by Entergy Nuclear.

 "This situation is intolerable," he said.

 In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a 
similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.

 Vermont Yankee is located in the southeastern town of Vernon, on 
the state lines with Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

 The state's Public Safety Department and Homeland Security Unit 
were notified of the missing fuel.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may 
All Rights Reserved © NewsMax.com 
*****************************************************************
 35 allAfrica.com: South Africa: IST Wants Clarity On Eskom's Reactor
 
Business Day (Johannesburg) 

Posted to the web April 22, 2004 
Carli Lourens Johannesburg 

TECHNOLOGY group IST hopes for clarity in the next three to six 
months on the uncertain future of Eskom's Pebble Bed nuclear 
reactor, from which the company stands to derive handsome gains . 
IST landed a R260m contract its largest ever and not far from the 
group's total annual turnover to design systems for a reactor 
demonstration plant last year. 

But lack of funding for the ambitious reactor has led to delays
in the project. It has also meant that IST did not get the
revenues expected to flow from its contract. 

Company CE Harry Coetzee, revealing results for the year to
February yesterday, said the ball had been in Eskom's court
until now, but that there would be some change. 

He suggested the project enjoyed strong government backing and
that the trade and industry department could become more
involved in driving the project, which needed a foreign partner
to put up some of the funds and carry some of the risk. 

Government recently approached French nuclear giant Arev to come
on board. Coetzee said that government would not give away the
crown jewels, suggesting it would not sell a stake in the
project for much less than what its perceived value was. 

He remains optimistic that the project will go ahead. 
Sector analyst Warwick Lucas of Imara SP Reid said that if the
project came off, "it will be a very big kicker" for IST. Even
without it, however, he believed the business had sufficient
growth potential to keep the market interested. 

Coetzee was optimistic about opportunities in other areas .
These include Eskom's R50bn plan to build a new power station
and to reopen mothballed stations. 

The group reported a 17,2% rise in earnings to R26m for the
period , compared with the previous financial year, despite it
being a "tough" year. This was on the back of a 7,7% rise in
revenue to R323,5m. 

Cash flow was reduced by investments worth R62m, comprising
mainly the acquisition of Delkor Technik and development work at
subsidiary IST Dynamics, whose products include parts of weapons
systems for tanks. 

"Dynamics' two major new projects are progressing well," Coetzee
said. The first order for new products is expected later this
year. 

IST shares closed down 3,45% at R1,68 yesterday. 

allAfrica.com

  Copyright © 2004 Business Day. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 36 Las Vegas SUN: Reid to hold up committee action for NRC nominee

By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com 
[suzanne@lasvegassun.com] > SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will block any business
before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee until
one of his aides gets a hearing to fill an open position on the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

 The White House nominated Reid aide Greg Jaczko in February to
sit on the commission, which regulates nuclear power plants and
other nuclear-related projects, including the Energy
Department's plan to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca
Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The NRC will
decide whether the Energy Department will get a license to
operate the repository.

 Senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which
includes Reid, have to approve the nomination before the full
Senate votes on it, but the committee has not scheduled a
hearing yet.

 Reid said he will be "very direct in my opposing anything" that
goes before the committee until a hearing date is set.

 "I am not going to let anything else move, period, until we get
a hearing date set on Greg Jaczko," Reid said on the Senate
floor Tuesday. "Here is a man who is a distinguished scholar in
physics, he worked in the Senate, he is a Democrat, and we are
entitled to have a Democrat on the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission."

 Under law Bush had to nominate at least one Democrat for the
two open seats on the commission. Reid has placed a hold on
dozens of the administration's nominations, including Utah Gov.
Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, after
it rejected his recommendation of Jaczko to serve on the
commission.

 The White House eventually agreed to nominate Jaczko and
Leavitt was approved soon after.

 If approved Jaczko's term on the five-member panel would end in
2008.

 Jaczko, 33, holds a doctorate in particle physics and was one
of Reid's top advisers during the Yucca Mountain fight in the
Senate in 2002. Jaczko now handles appropriations matter for
Reid, but his past work on Yucca issues does not sit well with
site supporters, who think it will make him biased against the
site on the commission.

 The administration's nominee for the open Republican seat on
the commission, Adm. John Grossenbacher, withdrew his nomination
in February and it is unclear when a new one will be named.

 

*****************************************************************
 37 NRC: NRC to Discuss Annual Performance Assessment of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants
 
News Release - Region I - 2004-02
 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION 

Office of Public Affairs, Region I
  No. I-04-022   		        April 21, 2004   
  CONTACT:     Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330
 		Neil A. Sheehan (610) 337-5331   		   E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov
[opa1@nrc.gov]   
  


Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with
representatives of Entergy Nuclear Northeast on Tuesday, April
27, to discuss the results of the agencys annual assessment of
safety performance at the Indian Point 2 and 3 nuclear power
plants. Entergy operates the plants, which are located in
Buchanan, N.Y. 

The meeting, which will be open to the public for observation,
is scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m. at Crystal Bay on the Hudson, 5
John Walsh Boulevard, Peekskill, N.Y. Before the session is
adjourned, NRC staff will be available to answer questions from
the public on the plants safety performance, as well as the
role of the NRC in ensuring safe operation of the facility. 

The performance period to be discussed is January 1 to December
31, 2003. In addition, NRC staff will provide a brief overview
of how the agencys Reactor Oversight Process works. The NRC
also plans to discuss aspects of the agencys licensing and
oversight of dry cask storage systems and independent spent fuel
storage installations. A separate meeting on this topic will be
scheduled in the future. 

A letter sent from the NRC Region I Office to plant officials
addresses the performance of the plant during the period and
will serve as the basis for the meeting discussion. It is
available on the NRC web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/LETTERS/inpt_2003q4.pdf [PDF
Icon] . 

Overall, Indian Point 2 and 3 operated safely during the period.
Performance at the plants continues to slowly improve.
Nevertheless, some weaknesses still exist in the implementation
of corrective action programs at the plants. 

The NRC uses a color-coded system to assess the significance of
problems at nuclear power plants, with green at the low end of
the spectrum, then increasing to white, yellow or red.
During the first half of 2003, Indian Point 2 still had a
yellow inspection finding associated with requalification
examination failures by licensed reactor operators. However, the
NRC staff closed out that finding in May 2003 after concluding
the issue had been appropriately addressed by Entergy. A white
inspection finding related to a degraded control room fire
barrier remained open during the second half of 2003 at Indian
Point 2. After the issue was reviewed by NRC staff inspections
in June and December 2003, the agency concluded in January of
this year that sufficient progress had been made to close out
that finding. 

In addition, the NRC has closed out a substantive cross-cutting
issue in the area of human performance at Indian Point 2 after
finding that sufficient improvements have been made. Another
substantive cross-cutting issue at Indian Point 2, in the area
of problem identification and resolution, remains open, with the
NRC continuing to assess progress toward improvements. 

With regard to Indian Point 3, a Performance Indicator turned
white in June after exceeding a threshold for the number of
unplanned scrams, or shutdowns, per 7,000 hours of operation. A
supplemental inspection to review the root cause of and
corrective actions for the number of unplanned shutdowns was
satisfactorily completed in November 2003. The Performance
Indicator remained white through March 2004 and subsequently
returned to green based on the absence of additional unplanned
shutdowns. 

On the topic of security issues, the NRC has issued several
orders and threat advisories to enhance security capabilities
and improve guard force readiness since the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001. The agency has also conducted inspections to
review the implementation of these requirements and has
monitored the action of plant operators in response to changing
threat conditions. The NRC will continue security inspections
during 2004. 

Current performance information for Indian Point 2 is available
on the NRC web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP2/ip2_chart.html. 

Current performance information for Indian Point 3 is available
on the NRC web site at:
www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/IP3/ip3_chart.html.   



  


 	Last revised Thursday, April 22, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 38 KATC TV: Missing Spent Nuke Fuel in Wrong Hands?

April 22, 2004   

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Engineers at a Vermont nuclear plant 
searched Thursday for two missing pieces of a highly radioactive 
fuel rod while experts acknowledged they may never be found. 

The operators of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant reported 
the missing pieces Wednesday, saying they were not where they 
were supposed to be in the large pool used to store fuel rods. 

One of the missing pieces is about the size of a pencil. The 
other is about as thick but is 17 inches long. 

The spent fuel rods are highly radioactive and would be fatal to 
anyone who came in contact with them without being properly 
shielded, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan 
said. Spent nuclear fuel could be used by terrorists to construct 
so-called dirty bombs that would spread deadly radiation with 
conventional explosives. 

"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. 
The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the 
pool," Sheehan said. The pieces could also have been sent years 
ago to a testing laboratory or a low-level nuclear waste disposal 
facility. 

The pieces were part of a fuel rod that was removed in 1979 from 
the Vermont Yankee reactor, which is currently shut down for 
refueling and maintenance. 

The pool where used fuel rods are stored is 40 feet deep and 
contains 2,789 fuel assemblies. 

The pencil-thin fuel rods are 12 feet long and filled with 
uranium pellets. Sheehan said that the missing pieces might have 
been cut from longer rods for testing or could have broken when 
they were removed from the fuel assemblies. 

The search for the missing pieces was going to include the use of 
a remote controlled camera in the pool as well as review of the 
documents dating back decades that cover shipments and movements 
of radioactive material. 

Sheehan cited the heightened awareness of the need to control 
nuclear material that followed the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "We 
don't want this falling into the wrong hands," he said. "This is 
something we would never take lightly." 

Gov. James Douglas, after speaking Wednesday afternoon with the 
head of the NRC, said he was "very concerned" about the missing 
fuel at the plant, run by Entergy Nuclear. 

"This situation is intolerable," he said. 

In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a 
similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for. 

Vermont Yankee is located in the southeastern town of Vernon, on 
the state lines with Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

The state's Public Safety Department and Homeland Security Unit 
also were notified of the missing fuel. 

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)   

   [http://www.worldnow.com]     Send questions and comments
about this website to the webmaster@katctv.com.
All content © Copyright 2003 - 2004 WorldNow, KATC and
Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 39 SMN: Czeching out Competition for Bulgarian N-plant
 	 	 	 	 	 	
[http://www.novinite.com/]

Sofia Morning News

Business: 22 April 2004, Thursday.

Czech companies have put in a bid for completing work on 
Bulgaria's second Nuclear-plant of Belene.
 
Skoda representatives have informed Bulgarian energy officials 
over the companies' experience in building the Temelin Nuclear 
plant, commissioning since 2003.
 
Banking institutions such as Citigroup, Unicredito and the Czech 
Export Bank have backed the Skoda bid.
 
At the end of last year Bulgaria's Cabinet lifted the ban on the 
construction of Bulgaria's second nuclear plant. The project was 
shelved in 1992 after pressure from environmentalists.

 All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright

Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a
about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff
*****************************************************************
 40 NRC: NRC to Hold Public Meeting May 19 on Draft Generic Letter on Reactor Containment Sump Issue
 
News Release - 2004-04
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION   
  Office of Public Affairs     Telephone: 301/415-8200   
  Washington, DC 20555-0001     E-mail:  [opa@nrc.gov]   
  No. 04-046     April 22, 2004   
  


Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with interested
stakeholders on May 19 in Rockville, Maryland, to discuss a
draft generic letter that asks all operators of pressurized
water reactors for information regarding their containment sump,
an important component of a safety-related water recirculation
system. The meeting will be held in the NRC Auditorium at Two
White Flint North, 11545 Rockville Pike, from 9 a.m. until 11
a.m. 

Members of the public are invited to participate by discussing
the draft letter with NRC staff and asking questions during the
meeting. The meeting is intended to help stakeholders clarify
their understanding of the letter before submitting written
comments. 

The draft Generic Letter is available electronically through the
NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS)
on the NRC web site at:
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/web-based.html, by entering
accession number ML040830518. Help in using ADAMS is available
from the NRCs Public Document Room at 800/397-4209 or
301/415-4737. For further information on the meeting, contact
John Lamb, Project Manager, via phone at 301/415-1446 or via
e-mail at  [jgl1@nrc.gov] .   



  


 	Last revised Thursday, April 22, 2004 	   
*****************************************************************
 41 Ithacan: Physician speaks out on nuclear dangers 

April 22, 2004 - 

Rebecca Gardner/The Ithacan 

Helen Caldicott, an expert on nuclear disarmament, speaks
Tuesday to the Communication and the Human Spirit class about
the dangers of nuclear weapons. The class is taught by John
Hochheimer, associate professor of television-radio.

Elizabeth Quill - Accent Editor
 
 Helen Caldicott was 8 years old and living in Australia when the 
United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. She said she 
remembers the siren sounding. That is how she knew the war was 
over. 

“But I didn’t know the war was over by dropping an atomic bomb on 
Hiroshima and vaporizing and killing about 120,000 people in the 
flesh,” she said. “So the genocide began. Nuclear genocide.” 

Now 65 years old, the doctor has dedicated her life to educating 
the world about the medical dangers of nuclear weapons. 

Caldicott spoke Monday to students and faculty in the 
Communication and the Human Spirit class, taught by John 
Hochheimer, associate professor of television-radio. 

As a teenager she read “On the Beach,” by Nevile Shute, a novel 
about the last survivors of an atomic war. She said it was 
particularly moving for her because Australians were the last 
ones left in the book, awaiting their inevitable death as 
radiation moved south. 

“After that, I never felt safe,” she said. 

During the class, Caldicott discussed her life and 
accomplishments, but she also had a strong messages for students, 
telling them to find their truth and follow it. 

After reading “Female Eunuch” by Germaine Greer, Caldicott said 
she discovered who she was and the power she had. She began to 
act. 

When she was young, Caldicott stopped workers from pruning trees 
outside city buildings and helped prevent the destruction of a 
historic hotel. 

“I didn’t give a hell what anyone thought,” she said. “I learned 
there is always a way to stop something evil.” 

In the early 1970s when France was testing atomic bombs in the 
Pacific, Caldicott was concerned that the fallout could be 
raining down and giving children cancer. 

She wrote a letter to her hometown newspaper and convinced 
editors to run it. Later in her life, she also convinced 
Australia to close down its uranium mines. 

Hochheimer said he first heard Caldicott speak 25 years ago on 
the radio station he worked at in Los Angeles. 

She also spoke at the college in November 2002. “She’s an 
inspiring voice of reason and sanity in a world of crazy,” he 
said. He said he hopes her passion helps students consider a 
whole new level of spirituality and helps them understand that 
they can create change. Caldicott has written five books and in 
her most recent, “The New Nuclear Danger: George Bush’s Military 
Industrial Complex,” she discusses the current administrations 
weapons and foreign policies. She said the issues she is 
discussing are not partisan. 

“Republican flesh burns at the same temperature as Democratic 
flesh,” she said. 

She said she considers herself a physician who is practicing 
global preventative medicine. While living in the United States, 
she founded the Physicians for Social Responsibility. 

Senior Nathan Best had never heard of Caldicott and did not know 
she was speaking until she walked into class. He said the angle 
she took was interesting. 

“Usually you hear this sort of thing from a social scientist and 
a political scientist, but it was really good from a doctor’s 
perspective,” Best said. 

Caldicott said the Hippocratic Oath drives her. Her passion comes 
from love — love for biology and love for life. 
*****************************************************************
 42 Bellona: K-159 to be inspected in May or June
 
The expedition to the sunken K-159 needs a good weather, 
Severnaya nedelya reported. 

2004-04-21 20:19

The specialists of the design bureau Malakhit presented their 
salvage project to the navy in the end of last year. However, 
some details of the operation have to be clarified beforehand 
during the sub’s hull examination. The salvage operation will be 
first tested at the site of the St Petersburg Central Science 
Research Institute. The specialists of the Severodvinsk State 
Centre for Atomic Shipbuilding and the Belomorsk navy base can be 
engaged in the operation, Severnaya nedelya reports.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway



*****************************************************************
 43 Bellona: Radioactive container found in Siberia
 
A container emitting strong radioactivity was found along a 
highway in western Siberia, an Emergency Situations Ministry 
spokesman told The Associated Press Wednesday. 

2004-04-22 14:00

The container, about 20 centimetres square, was found along the 
highway between Yekaterinburg and Tyumen on Tuesday, ministry 
spokesman Viktor Beltsov said, according to AP. The container was 
emitting radiation at a level of 2,800 microroentgens, he said. 
Natural background radiation in that region of Russia is about 50 
microroentgens. There were no immediate details on what substance 
it may have contained or on its origin, the news agency reported.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway



*****************************************************************
 44 AxisofLogic: U.S. Military: confirmed case of DU exposure in Iraq
 	 	 
src="http://www.axisoflogic.com/

  Testing of New York guardsmen: first confirmed cases of Iraq
war depleted uranium exposure

 By Joanne Laurier Apr 21, 2004, 19:06

April 21, 2004 - A group of American soldiers suffering from 
unexplained illnesses due to service in the Iraqi war have been 
diagnosed with radiation contamination likely caused by dust from 
depleted uranium shells fired by US troops. 
  
An investigation funded by the New York Daily News found that 
several members of the 442nd Military Police Company, based in 
Orangeburg, New York, “almost certainly” inhaled radioactive dust 
from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium 
(DU). 
  
A nuclear medicine expert and former Army doctor, Dr. Asaf 
Durakovic, tested nine men who had been battling serious physical 
problems that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah. 
Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium 
in urine samples from four of the soldiers. The men—Sgt. Hector 
Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony 
Yonnone—are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium 
exposure from the war, according to the Daily News report. The 
soldiers contacted the newspaper after six of them were denied 
testing for DU by Army doctors and the three who were tested 
waited months for results. Two in the latter group suspiciously 
tested negative. 
  
Dispatched to Iraq a year ago, the unit, made up for the most 
part of New York policemen, firefighters and correction officers, 
has been providing security for convoys, operating jails and 
training Iraqi police. 
  
“These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were 
military police not exposed to the heat of battle. Other American 
soldiers who were in combat must have more depleted uranium 
exposure,” Durakovic, a colonel in the Army Reserves who served 
in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, told the Daily News. Dr. Durakovic 
is affiliated to the Uranium Medical Research Centre, an 
international association of scientists and physicians—the first 
study organization to detect DU in the urine of Canadian, British 
and US troops who served in the first Gulf War. 
  
The Army and Pentagon, under pressure from veterans’ groups who 
blame DU contamination as a factor in Gulf War Syndrome, have 
conducted studies which essentially concluded that DU exposure 
does not present a major health risk. Gulf War Syndrome is a term 
for a myriad of ailments that afflicts thousands of veterans of 
that war. A Pentagon study published in 2000 concluded that DU, 
as a heavy metal, “could pose a chemical hazard’ but that Gulf 
War veterans “did not experience intakes high enough to affect 
their health.” Pentagon spokesman Michael Kilpatrick said “the 
overwhelming conclusion” from the studies of those who work with 
uranium is that “it has not produced any increase in cancer.” 
  
Kilpatrick also said that the Pentagon has tested some 1,000 
soldiers back from the current war in Iraq and only three have 
come up positive for DU—resulting exclusively from depleted 
uranium shell shrapnel. 
  
The Army contends that only soldiers who suffer retained DU 
shrapnel wounds or who were inside tanks hit by DU shells—forcing 
an immediate inhalation of radioactive dust—are at risk. However, 
the Pentagon’s Kilpatrick claimed that follow-up studies of 
around 70 cases of DU-contaminated veterans from the Gulf War 
exhibited no serious health problems. 
  
  
Gulf War Syndrome 
  
Of the 579,000 American veterans who participated in the Gulf 
War, some 251,000 (43 percent) had sought medical treatment from 
the Department of Veterans Affairs as of July 1999. Approximately 
182,000 (31 percent) filed claims for compensation for medical 
disabilities or damage related to illness or injury. The 
illnesses included leukemia, lung cancer, chronic kidney and 
liver disorders, respiratory ailments, chronic fatigue, skin 
spotting and joint pain, according to the Japanese newspaper 
Chugoku Shimbun. A large number of the veterans’ offspring suffer 
from congenital defects. 
  
In an April 18 article by John Pilger headlined, “This is a war 
of liberation and we are the enemy,” the author states that Dr. 
Doug Rokke, director of the US Army DU project following the 1991 
Gulf invasion, estimates that more than 10,000 American veterans 
have since died as a result of the war, many from contamination 
illnesses. 
  
After an unusual number of leukemia deaths among Italian soldiers 
who served in Kosovo, the European Parliament called for a 
moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons in January 
2003. 
  
Depleted uranium is what is left over when most of the highly 
radioactive isotopes of the element are extracted for use as 
nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. In military applications, 
depleted uranium is primarily used in armor-piercing munitions 
and enhanced armor protection. 
  
Pilger’s article also revealed that during last year’s invasion 
of Iraq, “both American and British forces used uranium-tipped 
shells, leaving whole areas so ‘hot’ with radiation that only 
military teams in full protective clothing can approach them. No 
warning or medical help is given to Iraqi civilians; thousands of 
children play in these zones. The ‘coalition’ has refused to 
allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to send experts to 
assess what Rokke describes as ‘a catastrophe.’” 
  
Sgt. Agustin Matos, one of those who tested positive for DU from 
the New York company, told the Daily News that since his return 
from Iraq he has had constant headaches, fatigue, shortness of 
breath, nausea, dizziness, joint pain and excessive urination. A 
small lesion on his liver has also been discovered. “Before I 
left for Iraq, they tested my eyes and I was fine. Now my 
eyesight’s gotten bad on top of everything else,” Matos said. 
  
According to members of the 442nd, the company was so short of 
manpower that a commanding officer would order an evacuation only 
when a soldier could no longer physically function. 
  
A press release issued by the National Gulf War Resource Center, 
an international coalition of advocates and organizations, 
stated: “The [NGWRC] is very concerned that veterans returning 
from combat in Iraq are being denied testing for exposure to 
depleted uranium and potentially other hazards.... The family 
members of the 442nd are right to be concerned about proper DU 
screening. Both the DoD [Department of Defense] and the VA 
[Veterans Administration] have done a poor job testing and 
evaluating veterans in the past, and it is hard to ignore the 
withholding of information and manipulation of study findings 
from the DoD DU Surveillance Program.” 
  
Isaac Zimmerman of the Uranium Medical Research Centre is a 
research assistant for Dr. Durakovic and a co-author of many of 
the organization’s studies. He told the WSWS: “The 442nd was a 
military police unit and I don’t believe they saw active combat. 
All of the nine soldiers that we tested were sick. Four tested 
positive for DU and six or seven came back with Uranium 236, 
which does not exist in nature, and is only produced in a nuclear 
reaction process. 
  
“The military is continuing to drop DU. I don’t think anybody 
really knows, not even the military, how many tons have been 
dropped. One researcher in England estimates some 1,700 tons, 
which is a lot more than what the military claims. We have also 
tested a number of civilians in Iraq and found that a significant 
number are contaminated. 
  
“I’ve heard second hand that the military is now going to test 
everyone. But we know from past tests that labs with substandard 
methodology were used and therefore the test results were 
negative for DU. It is without doubt that the US military would 
never ask our organization to conduct DU testing on the soldiers. 
The testing of the New York guardsmen was entirely funded by the 
Daily News.” 
  
A statement by Dr. Durakovic, posted on the International Action 
Organization web site, argued that “[d]ue to the current 
proliferation of DU weaponry, the battlefields of the future will 
be unlike any battlefields in history. Since the effects of 
contamination by uranium cannot be directed or contained, 
uranium’s chemical and radiological toxicity will create 
environments that are hostile not only to the health of enemy 
forces but of one’s own forces as well. 
  
“Due to the delayed health effects from internal contamination of 
uranium, injury and death will not always be immediate to the 
battle, but will remain lingering threats to ‘survivors’ of the 
battle for years and decades into the future. The battlefield 
will remain a killing zone long after the cessation of 
hostilities. Environmental contamination will linger for 
centuries posing an ongoing health threat to the civilians who 
reclaim the land and subsequent generations.” 
  
The testing organized by the Daily News on a handful of members 
of one company yielded results that point to the fact that 
thousands of US troops and a vast percentage of the Iraqi 
population are likely to have suffered exposure to depleted 
uranium, absorbing it either by inhaling contaminated dust or 
ingesting it from contaminated water, food and soil. 
  
See Also: Washington conceals US casualties in Iraq [4 February 
2004] More questions on the deaths and illnesses of American 
soldiers [10 October 2003] Thousands of US troops evacuated from 
Iraq for unexplained medical reasons [9 September 2003] Are 
American soldiers in Iraq dying due to depleted uranium? [4 
August 2003] Another US war crime: the use of depleted uranium 
munitions in Iraq [29 May 2003] Ongoing consequences of the Gulf 
War Casualties increase from use of depleted uranium [8 September 
1999] Depleted uranium weapons used in Balkan War expected to 
cause thousands of fatal cancers [5 August 1999]<font 

*****************************************************************
 45 FOXNews.com: Yucca Mountain's Nuclear Future in Question
 
[politics@foxnews.com]  		 	 	 		 		 	   	 
Thursday, April 22, 2004                                                                                                                        

LAS VEGAS — Many fear an anti-nuclear campaign now underway in 
Nevada may kill a project that survived five presidents and cost 
more than $8 billion.                                                                                                                                   

About 50 years ago, American scientists recognized they had to do 
something about the growing problem of nuclear waste. They 
decided the best place wasn't under the ocean or in ice caps or 
on rockets sent into space, but underground. And in 1987, the 
federal government chose Yucca Mountain (search), 90 miles 
outside of Las Vegas.                                                                                                                                    

Yucca Mountain was chosen because it is remote, secure and 
geologically solid, stable and nearly impervious to water.                      
				 			 			 				 
"Of the places I am familiar with, Yucca Mountain is the best. 
I haven't seen any qualities of this mountain that would be 
unfavorable to the safe disposal of nuclear waste here," said 
David Merritt, a Yucca Mountain geologist.                                                                                                                                       

But critics say they aren't convinced, and are doing what they 
can to stop the project from moving forward.                                                                               
			 				 
"We don't know what kind of poison we are putting into the 
environment," said Peggy Maze Johnson of Citizen Alert (search).
			 				 			 			 				 
In December, the Energy Department will ask the Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (search) for a license to finish 
construction  a prerequisite before the commission will even 
consider industry and administration plans to build new nuclear 
power plants.                                                                                                                                    

[politics@foxnews.com] Internships at FOX News Channel (deadline 
to apply is FRIDAY,
*****************************************************************
 46 Las Vegas SUN: DOE reviewing documents NRC expects on Nevada nuclear dump

Today: April 22, 2004 at 9:42:29 PDT 

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Energy Department has begun a broad review
of Yucca Mountain project technical documents after auditors
said shortcomings could delay Nuclear Regulatory Commission
licensing for the national nuclear waste dump. 

About 100 workers at the Office of Repository Development in Las
Vegas are checking documents before filing the formal
application to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's most
radioactive waste at the Nevada site beginning in 2010,
officials said Wednesday. 

The review is expected to take two or three months, delaying
some Energy Department groundwork for filing a license
application to the NRC in December, Timothy C. Gunther, a
project manager, said in Washington. 

The Energy Department still plans to submit information to the
NRC by the end of August on 125 outstanding technical questions
about how effectively the repository will contain the nation's
high-level nuclear waste. 

But Gunther told a NRC advisory board that on several key
repository performance questions, the Energy Department will ask
NRC staff to accept partial reports in August with a promise
that complete paperwork will follow later in the year. 

The new review comes after an NRC team evaluated a sample of
Energy Department technical documents during visits to Las Vegas
in November, December and January. 

Auditors said in a report made public last week that some
documents were unclear or lacked adequate background necessary
for the commission to judge the repository, planned 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas. 

An Energy Department internal review found similar problems,
Gunther told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after his presentation
to the NRC's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste. 

"A light bulb went off that we weren't meeting NRC's
expectations" for document preparation, Gunther said. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said they will continue
to work with the Energy Department as information is made
available. 

"The schedule is the schedule, and we're working within those
constraints," NRC evaluator Tim McCartin told the advisory
board. 

--- 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain Project: http://www.ymp.gov [http://www.ymp.gov] 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
[http://www.nrc.gov] 

Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 47 Las Vegas SUN: Earth Day activists: Environment will help sway Nev. elections

Today: April 22, 2004 at 14:51:18 PDT 

 By SCOTT SONNER ASSOCIATED PRESS 

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Activists celebrating Earth Day predicted
environmental issues will play a key role in Nevada's fall
elections - from the statehouse to the White House. 

"We definitely think it's a winning issue for candidates here,"
Sierra Club organizer Carrie Sandstedt said Thursday. 

"We're getting great response from people who are alarmed that
the Bush administration is rolling back 30 years of progress in
a whole host of environmental laws," she said. 

Leaders of several conservation groups speaking at a blustery
Earth Day news conference outside the federal courthouse in Reno
acknowledged the war in Iraq and the economy are the most
important issues for voters in the presidential race. 

But they insist Nevadans are concerned about environmental
issues, including plans to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca
Mountain, demands on water supplies, U.S. energy policy and
protection of Lake Tahoe. 

"I think it is going to play more of a role here than it has in
the past," said Michelle Kennedy of the Nevada Wildlife
Federation. 

Bob Fulkerson, director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance
of Nevada, a statewide coalition of 43 organizations, said the
conservation movement has grown in the past 20 years since there
were only a couple of paid organizers in the state. 

"Today there are 10 times that amount and many new groups and
boards who are bringing young people along," he said. 

A national coalition of environmental groups, including the
League of Conservation Voters, launched a campaign this week to
help Democrat John Kerry defeat President Bush. 

The groups expect to spend up to $6 million in ads and
door-knocking to contrast Bush's and Kerry's environmental
records. 

Initially, they plan to target Florida, New Mexico, Oregon and
Wisconsin but could include three other swing states - Nevada,
Arizona and Ohio. 

The backing should help Kerry in Nevada, said Frankie Sue Del
Papa, a Democratic activist and former state attorney general. 

"I think the environment will be a `top five' issue in the
elections in Nevada this fall both at the state level and
national level," Del Papa said. 

"When you talk about quality of life in Nevada and concern about
air and water and recreation - from Red Rock Canyon to Lake
Tahoe to Great Basin National Park - it's really on everyone's
agenda," she said. 

Chris Carr, executive director of Nevada's Republican Party,
said the environment needs to be considered but it's not a "make
or break issue" for any candidate in the state. 

"It could actually be a losing issue for Kerry with Ralph Nader
in the race," he said about splitting environmental support. 

"I would say right now the attention is on the war. And in every
presidential election there's always pocketbook issues - taxes,
jobs, the economy." 

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said national environmental groups
don't sway most Nevada voters. 

Such groups as the League of Conservation Voters and Nevada
Conservation League serve primarily as Democratic fronts despite
their nonpartisan claims, he said. 

"It is obvious they are creating these little conservation
leagues around the country in order to support John Kerry's
campaign," Gibbons said by telephone from Washington. 

"They are left-wing special interest groups that pontificate on
environmental protection but stymie every responsible piece of
legislation aimed at protecting the environment," he told The
Associated Press. 

Earth Day has been one of the biggest rallying points for
environmental issues in the United States, activists said at
Thursday's news conference. 

"Thirty four years ago, the underlying purpose was to change
people's attitudes toward the way we treat our planet," said Bob
Goodman, a retired federal land manager and member of the
Lahontan Audubon Society. 

"One of the things that separates the two parties in this
election is that the Democratic Party knows how to spell the
word environment. I'm not sure the other party does," he said. 

Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn takes exception to claims Democrats
have a market on environmental issues, his spokesman said. 

"The chief executive in this state is a Republican and the
environment has been extremely important to him. And he's
supporting the president," Greg Bortolin said. 

Guinn "has worked to keep the sage grouse off the endangered
species list, he's working on wild horse issues, trying to
preserve Walker Lake, working on forest issues at Lake Tahoe and
trying to protect Lake Tahoe," he said. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 48 AU The Age: Aborigines get Jabiluka veto - 

http://www.theage.com.au
 
 April 22, 2004 - 10:05PM
 
Traditional Aboriginal owners signed off on a historic agreement 
ending their long struggle against the controversial Jabiluka 
uranium mine.

The landmark deal gives the owners the right to veto the future 
development of the site in the heart of Kakadu National Park in 
the Northern Territory.

The Northern Land Council (NLC), acting on behalf of traditional 
owners, voted unanimously at its full council meeting to ratify 
the agreement with the mine owner, resources giant Rio Tinto's 
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA).

The long-awaited deal was flagged last July but delayed until now 
to give more time for consultation with traditional owners.

The Jabiluka mine had been the focus of years of bitter and 
violent protests, which culminated in the late 1990s when ERA 
finally won approval to extract uranium from the site.

Thousands of protesters rallied across Australia against the 
mine, with hundreds arrested in demonstrations.

Extracted uranium ore was never processed and sat in a stockpile 
at the site until late last year when it was put back in the mine 
as part of the deal.

Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirrar 
people, said that under the deal ERA had pledged not to carry out 
any mining activity on the Jabiluka Mineral Lease without the 
written consent of the Mirrar people.

The Jabiluka mine decline was backfilled and the site cleaned up 
late last year.

Some of ERA's financial obligations will also be waived under the 
deal.

ERA has paid out more than $7.5 million to the Northern Land 
Council since 1998 as part of an agreement signed with the 
previous mine owners Pan Continental.

"We heartily welcome the NLC's ratification of the agreement," 
Gundjehmi executive officer Andy Ralph said.

"While it has taken many months for the NLC to finally arrive at 
this point, we are happy that there is now Aboriginal consensus 
on giving Mirrar traditional owners true control over their 
destiny in relation to uranium mining.

"This agreement will see the Mirrar people in the driving seat, 
for the first time in 30 years, of mining activity on their 
country."

ERA welcomed the decision and thanked the Mirrar people for their 
"strong leadership". 

Copyright © 2004. . 
*****************************************************************
 49 Salt Lake Tribune: Envirocare's big plan: Operation Iraqi waste 
 
April 22, 2004   

By Robert Gehrke 
The Salt Lake Tribune 
 
    WASHINGTON -- Envirocare of Utah is exploring the
possibility of building a low-level nuclear waste dump in the
Iraqi desert to store uranium-tipped munitions and tank hulls
and rubble contaminated by radioactive shells used by the United
States. 
 
    But the plan is on hold for now because of unrest in the
war-torn nation. 
 
    "Because of events in Iraq, it's obviously not real safe for
civilians to be over there right now," Tim Barney, senior vice
president for Envirocare, said Wednesday. "It's hard to predict
when or if the situation will stabilize to the point where that
can become a reality. It could be years down the road." 
 
    The mutilation of American contractors earlier this year by
an Iraqi mob and kidnapping of other civilian workers have
heightened concerns about safety in the region. Halliburton, a
major contractor in Iraq, has lost 33 employees since the war
started. 
 
    Hundreds of tons of weapons equipped with depleted uranium
were fired at Iraqi tanks during the two Gulf Wars. The depleted
uranium is a byproduct of nuclear reactors and weapons
refinement and is 40 percent less radioactive than normal
uranium. 
 
    The munitions are either large uranium-tipped bullets or
rods of the depleted uranium that are inside special tank-killer
munitions. Rather than losing shape like normal shells, the
uranium's density keeps its shape as it pierces tank armor. As
it passes through the armor the uranium also throws off sparks
that can ignite fuels or ammunition inside the targeted tank. 
 
    Veterans of the first Gulf War have expressed concern that
exposure to the depleted uranium may be to blame for illnesses
they now suffer. 
 
    "Going clear back to the first Gulf War, there's low-level
material that needs to be cleaned up, primarily depleted
uranium," Barney said. "We thought it was protective of the
public health there to centralize that in a disposal facility,
to get it out of the neighborhoods." 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
    After the first war, 23 U.S. vehicles were recovered and
shipped back to the United States for disposal while wrecked
hulls of other burned-out tanks were piled in a "boneyard" in
Kuwait. 
 
    Envirocare envisions a smaller version of the facility it
operates in Clive, Utah, where it could seal contaminated
material in thick cells buried underground. 
 
    The company has hired former Idaho Rep. Larry LaRocco and
his firm to lobby Congress for the project. Company
representatives have met with military officials and members of
Congress to discuss funding the cleanup, although talks are
preliminary. 
 
    Envirocare officers and the company's political action
committee have contributed to political campaigns $107,125 since
1998, according to Federal Election Committee records, with most
of it going to Republican candidates. Khosrow Semnani, the
president and founder of the company, was born in Iran, Iraq's
neighbor to the east. 
 
    Barney said it is hard to know the extent of the
contamination problem, but expects the price tag for the work
would be in "the millions, not the hundred millions." 
 
    Last month, Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of
Deployment Health Support, said about 127 tons of
depleted-uranium munitions had been used by the Army and Air
Force with an unknown amount used by Marines. 
 
    More than 320 tons of depleted-uranium shells were used in
the first Gulf War, the Defense Department has said. 
 
    A study by the World Health Organization said that depleted
uranium "has the potential to have chemical and radiological
effects on health" if exposures were high enough and recommended
that heavily exposed areas should be cordoned off and cleaned up
and the waste disposed of in accordance with international
standards. 
 
    Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center,
which assists veterans of both Iraq wars, said the Defense
Department owes it to veterans to conduct thorough studies of
the health effects and it is a good idea to clean up the uranium
penetrators and damaged vehicles. 
 
    "I don't know if the government is going to want to get
involved in what is clearly turning out to be a problem in
Iraq," he said. "If we have to start being responsible for
things that we shoot up around the world it could be pretty
cost-prohibitive over time." 
 
    The major health concern is the chemical toxicity of the
depleted uranium, rather than exposure to radiation. Fine
particles created when the ordinance strikes the tank or in a
resulting fire can also be inhaled by soldiers in the immediate
area, according to Defense Department studies. 
 
    Last year, a Pentagon report said that there is no evidence
that depleted uranium has caused adverse health effects in
troops, including 90 soldiers exposed to the material in
friendly fire incidents. 
 
    Col. James Naughton of the Army Material Command said at the
time that the weapons give the U.S. troops an advantage they
don't want to lose. 
 
   rgehrke@sltrib.com [rgehrke@sltrib.com]  
 
    
 
    
 
   
 
   
			   				 	 "> 	                 				 
 
  
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
 50 Salt Lake Tribune: Lawmakers to discuss 'hotter' waste shipments 
 
April 22, 2004   

By Judy Fahys 
 
    Hotter or not? 
 
    The question will be examined today by a special panel of 16
lawmakers, who will discuss whether Utah should allow "B and C"
waste from around the nation to be disposed at Envirocare of
Utah in Tooele County. 
 
    "The whole purpose of the [waste] task force was to wrestle
with the tougher questions," said Sen. Curt Bramble, task force
co-chairman and a Provo Republican. 
 
    Lawmakers in 2002 imposed a 21-month ban on class B and C
waste, the "hotter" stuff on the "ABC" scale that state and
federal regulators use for low-level radioactive waste. Class A
waste is the least radioactive but most abundant low-level
radioactive waste, and lawmakers wanted the task force's
guidance in deciding whether to allow hotter waste and, if so,
how to tax it. 
 
    B and C waste can be thousands of times more radioactive
than the class A waste permitted at Envirocare's mile-square
landfill. 
 
    Although state regulators signed off in 2001 on Envirocare's
technical plan for taking B and C waste, politics make that
venture's future uncertain. The governor and the Legislature
must approve the acceptance of any hotter waste. 
 
    Despite the defeat of radioactive waste controls in
Initiative 1 in 2002, Bramble and others wonder if the Utah
public will agree to B and C waste -- even if health and safety
risks appear acceptable and even if it means millions of dollars
in additional state revenue. 
 
    Only two other commercial sites are available for B and C in
the United States, and those will be closed to waste from 39
states beginning in 2008, possibly making Utah the only
commercial disposal option for the radioactive discards of
government and reactor cleanups. The limited market has been a
boon to South Carolina, which this year made an additional
100,000 cubic feet of disposal capacity available in its
state-owned low-level waste to raise $6 million, primarily for
law enforcement salary increases. 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
    Said Bramble: "Envirocare is going to have a very difficult
challenge to get B and C waste. I think that's been evident from
the beginning." 
 
    Although Envirocare reported Tuesday taking in more waste
than ever in 2003, topping its past record of disposing over 14
million cubic feet, vice president Tim Barney disputed the idea
his company had a banner year. He cited increased taxes imposed
by the Legislature and the political approval requirement as
examples of how the company has been "unfairly targeted." 
 
    Barney said the company hoped the task force will look at
the hazardous waste industry as well as the radioactive waste
industry. 
 
    "We hope they would take a broad approach," he said. 
 
    The task force meeting begins at 9 a.m. in Room 403 at the
Utah Capitol. 
 
    fahys@sltrib.com [fahys@sltrib.com] 
 
    
 
    
 
    
 
   
 
   
			   				 	 "> 	                 				 
 
  
Copyright Salt Lake City Tribune
*****************************************************************
 51 News Journal: DuPont seeks OK to treat new wastes

www.delawareonline.com : 

 To handle radioactive, infectious substances, N.J. must approve 

By JEFF MONTGOMERY
 Staff reporter
 04/22/2004

 The DuPont Co. wants to add low-level radioactive wastewater and 
infectious wastes to a list of substances eligible for treatment 
at the company's plant near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, 
according to a company filing with New Jersey regulators. 

DuPont's proposals were part of a state permit renewal 
application submitted last summer to New Jersey's Department of 
Environmental Protection. The News Journal obtained a copy of the 
document this week. 

In the application, DuPont said the company "may consider" the 
treatment of regulated infectious wastes and low-level 
radioactive wastewater as a future part of the commercial waste 
business. The additions would comply with state laws and 
regulations governing medical wastes and radiation protection, 
DuPont said. 

The low-level radioactive wastewater and infectious liquids would 
be in addition to a chemical weapons waste disposal plan and 
other waste markets now under consideration for the Chambers 
Works plant in Deepwater, N.J. 

In the chemical weapons project, DuPont would treat up to 4 
million gallons of caustic byproducts from the destruction of a 
VX nerve agent stockpile in Newport, Ind., and discharge the 
wastewater into the Delaware River. 

DuPont's regular 5-year permit for Deepwater expired in January. 
New Jersey has allowed operations to continue under an extension, 
pending action on the renewal application. Company officials 
described the document Wednesday as "one of the most extensive 
permits in New Jersey." 

"We acknowledge that the new permit may require additional 
requirements," by regulators, the company said Wednesday in a 
written statement. "We look forward to working with NJDEP going 
forward on the renewal process." 

The Chambers Works treatment plant is situated in New Jersey and 
has operated only with New Jersey permits, but its treated 
wastewater emerges from a riverbottom pipe well inside Delaware. 
Regulators in Delaware began examining their authority over the 
discharge after the chemical weapons waste proposal surfaced. 

Regulators in both states and the Delaware River Basin Commission 
have questioned whether DuPont has the necessary environmental 
permits to discharge the military waste. Some regulators and 
citizens groups have expressed concern that the project could 
open the door to additional chemical weapons wastes being 
disposed of at the plant. 

"There's been a suspicion that the Army project really was the 
camel's nose under the tent," said Seth Ross, a Delaware Nature 
Society member who helped develop the group's recently announced 
opposition to the chemical weapon waste project. 

Radioactivity-tainted wastewater has emerged as a public issue 
across southern New Jersey since 2002, when a Gloucester Township 
federal cleanup site proposed pumping uranium-tainted and 
radium-tainted wastewater to a county sewage treatment plant. 
Camden County, N.J., last month filed a lawsuit in U.S. District 
Court to block the treatment plan, which would have sent treated 
discharge into the Delaware River well upstream of Chambers 
Works. 

Chambers Works has released as much as 3.8 million pounds of 
toxic chemicals into the river yearly. But routine public toxic 
release reports are not required on hundreds of chemicals that 
DuPont's renewal application said are released or might be 
released to the Delaware River in relatively small daily amounts. 

The application lists about 300 chemicals and compounds that 
DuPont said are known to be present in the plant's discharge to 
the Delaware River. Another table in the draft permit identifies 
more than 1,000 other chemicals that "may be" found in the 
plant's discharge, although New Jersey now requires testing for 
about 180 substances, ranging from commonplace materials such as 
oil and grease to carcinogens. 

Delaware Water Resources Director Kevin C. Donnelly said the 
variety of wastes handled by the plant warrants close examination 
by environmental regulators. 

"I have to think that the number of chemicals reflects the broad 
set of clients that Chambers Works has and continues to solicit," 
Donnelly said. "I would say it's unusual for most of the 
treatment facilities ... that we have experience with." 

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental 
Control officials said recently that up to 79 percent of the 
phosphorus compounds from the VX wastewater would pass through 
Chambers Works largely untreated. Effects on the river and 
aquatic life, DNREC said, have yet to be studied adequately. 

"I came to the conclusion that Chambers Works has no special 
advantage," DNREC Secretary John A. Hughes said. "You can dilute 
it by throwing it over Niagara Falls. We're talking about 
treatment, and we don't see this. The untreated breakdown 
products are still of sufficient concentration and unknowability 
to give us concern." 

Reach Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or 
[jmontgomery@delawareonline.com] 

        Copyright ©2004, The News Journal.
*****************************************************************
 52 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca hearing period longer 
 
Thursday, April 22, 2004
 
Nevada lawmakersseek even more time By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Soon after Nevada's congressional delegation asked the
Department of Energy on Wednesday to extend the comment period
and offer more public meetings on its plan for building a
nuclear-waste rail line, the federal agency, by coincidence, did
just that.
 
 But the additional time of one week, from May 24 to June 1, was
not the additional 45 days the delegation has sought for
fielding comments on what to include in the Caliente rail
corridor environmental impact statement. 
The additional meetings, one in Las Vegas and one in Reno, fall
short of what the delegation requested for scoping meetings to
be held at areas outside the state.
 
 Those areas, too, the Nevada delegation said, will be affected
by plans to funnel rail cars of spent nuclear fuel to Caliente,
where a 319-mile rail spur will be constructed to haul the
highly radioactive cargo on to the planned Yucca Mountain
repository. 
The five-member delegation of Democratic Sen. Harry Reid and
Rep. Shelley Berkley and Republican Sen. John Ensign and Reps.
Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter sent a letter Wednesday to
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham complaining that the 45-day
comment period "is entirely inadequate."
 
 "The choice of the Caliente, Nevada rail spur alternative will
have wide-ranging implications for shipments of spent nuclear
fuel within Nevada and around the country," the letter states.
It notes that impacts on the nationwide transportation system
have never been adequately assessed.
 
 The delegation asked that Abraham make the comment period a
minimum of 90 days and hold additional meetings on the plan in
Las Vegas and the Reno area as well as "strategic locations
nationwide." 
"Such locations should be chosen based on an analysis of how
shipments from reactors and generator sites would be routed to a
Caliente rail spur," the letter states. "There must be
sufficient number of such meetings to adequately cover key
impacted states and cities through the Yucca Mountain
transportation system."
 
 Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said late Wednesday that
the DOE, at the request of state officials, agreed to hold
additional meetings in Las Vegas and Reno in May. Later, the
DOE's Office of Repository Development issued a news release
that said the public comment period was extended to June 1.
 
 A spokesman for the Office of Repository Development, Allen
Benson, said the timing of the news release was coincidental
because, despite the delegation's letter, his office had gotten
other requests for more comment time and more places for scoping
meetings.
 
 Davis said hearings outside the state are not necessary because
the department only intends to build a new rail line in Nevada. 
Until Wednesday, the department had only scheduled meetings on
three consecutive days beginning May 3 in Amargosa Valley,
Goldfield and Caliente.
 
 Earlier this month, Reid and Ensign sent a letter to Interior
Secretary Gale Norton seeking an extension of the comment period
on withdrawing public land for the Caliente rail corridor while
the Energy Department studies it.
 
 That comment period ended March 29, and the senators sought a
90-day extension before the Interior Department decides on
withdrawing the federal land for the mile-wide corridor. They
have not received a response from Norton's office, according to
a spokeswoman for Reid.
 
 Yucca Mountain is 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The
shipping campaign is expected to last decades.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 53 Guardian Unlimited: Process to cut waste at Sellafield
 
Paul Brown
Thursday April 22, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]  		
 		
The radioactivity routinely discharged from Sellafield and 
absorbed in lobsters and other shellfish as far away as Norway 
will be reduced by 90% from today after a new waste treatment 
begins. 

Years of pressure from the fishing industries of Ireland and 
Norway, ended in British Nuclear Fuels spending £12m on a 
chemical system to extract the technetium-99. 

At first BNFL had said it could not devise a system that did not 
entail excessive cost, but yesterday the company announced a 
breakthrough that would enable Tc99 to be converted into solid 
waste, then kept on land. 

All Tc99 discharges from Sellafield will now be cut by 90%, the 
company said. 

Tc99 began turning up in ever-increasing quantities in lobsters, 
first off Cumbria and then from the Irish Sea, North Sea and off 
Norway. 

The Irish government and environmentalists still want the waste 
stream stopped entirely. Pete Roche of Greenpeace said: "What we 
need now is an end to all reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel."
 	 	
        Special report The nuclear industry

Graphics The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf) 
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09 
/17/nuclear_ship.pdf] Nuclear map of Britain US nuclear map

Useful links
British Energy [http://www.british-energy.com/] 
Department of Trade and Industry [http://www.dti.gov.uk/] 
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd
[http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] 
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] 
Greenpeace [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/] 
HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] 
UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] 
National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] 
Friends of the Earth
[http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc
lear/index.html] 
World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] 
World Nuclear Transport Institute [http://www.wnti.co.uk] 

[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
 54 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Technical documents facing close scrutiny 
 
Thursday, April 22, 2004
 

Review could delay licensing for nuclear waste repository By
STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
 
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has launched a broad review
of technical documents for the Yucca Mountain Project after
auditors turned up shortcomings that could delay licensing for
the nuclear waste repository.
 
 About 100 workers at the Office of Repository Development in
Las Vegas are being assigned to check thousands of pages in
analysis model reports and other papers that will underpin the
department's repository license application to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, officials said Wednesday.
 
 The effort is expected to take two or three months, delaying
some of the Energy Department's groundwork for filing a license
application later this year, said Timothy C. Gunther, a project
manager.
 
 The Energy Department still plans to submit information to the
NRC by the end of August on 125 outstanding technical questions
about how effectively the repository will contain the nation's
high-level nuclear waste.
 
 But Gunther told a NRC advisory board that about half of the
items will be submitted later rather than sooner.
 
 On several key repository performance questions, Energy
Department officials will ask NRC staff to accept partial
reports in August with a promise that complete paperwork will be
forthcoming later in the year, Gunther said.
 
 Energy Department officials say they plan to file a license
application in December. 
The new review was instigated by a NRC review team that
evaluated a sampling of Energy Department technical documents
during visits to Las Vegas in November, December and January.
 
 Auditors said in a report made public last week that they
discovered some of the documents were unclear or lacking
adequate background necessary for NRC to judge the repository
effort.
 
 Shortcomings could cause licensing delays, they warned.
 
 An Energy Department internal review found similar problems,
Gunther said after his presentation to the NRC's Advisory
Committee on Nuclear Waste.
 
 "A light bulb went off that we weren't meeting NRC's
expectations" for document preparation, Gunther said.
 
 NRC officials said they will continue to work with the Energy
Department as information is made available.
 
 "The schedule is the schedule, and we're working within those
constraints," NRC evaluator Tim McCartin told the advisory board.
 
 But the new schedule drew criticism from Bob Loux, director of
Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects.
 
 Loux said Energy Department problems with license preparation
have been well-documented.
 
 "It's the same thing over again," he said. "They just have not
done a very good technical job documenting things."
 
 Loux said he believes the Energy Department is stalling on
completing its technical preparations to avoid exposing its work
to review by Nevada experts.
 
 "I think they believe that if it's out there too soon, people
will have a chance to take it apart," he said.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 55 Bellona: Final decision today: Radioactive Technetium-99 to be cleansed
from Sellafield discharges 

British authorities have finally agreed today to clean out the 
controversial radioactive discharges of technetium-99, or Tc-99, 
from Sellafield using a new technology that reduces the 
discharges by up to almost 98 percent. Bellona, which has 
struggled with British authorities to alleviate the discharges 
into the ocean, sees the decision a victory in a 10-year battle 
for cleaner Irish and Northern seas.

  This picture shows the Sellafield discharge pipeline. Th
research on TPP technology, which will clean out Tc-99 from the
Sellafield discharges, began in autumn.   

Erik Martiniussen, 2004-04-21 11:54

"This is a very important victory for us, and for the environment 
in the Irish and the North Seas," said Frederic Hauge, director 
of Norwegian based Bellona Foundation. Bellona has been fighting 
for years together with Norwegian authorities to halt the 
controversial discharges. 

"Tc-99 has been the most polluting substance discharged from 
Sellafield," said Hauge. "It spreads easily in ocean currents, 
and has been traced all the way up to the Barents Sea. It also 
concentrates in Seaweed and lobster, that is why it has been 
particularly important for us to stop the discharge of this 
single radioisitope." 


It was The British Environment Agency, or EA, and the Nuclear 
Installations Inspectorate, or NII, that finally gave permission 
for the use of a new cleaning technology based on the chemical 
precipitant tetraphenylphosphonium bromide, or TPP. The 
technology was tested this fall, and the results were evaluated 
during the winter. The technology has now been granted permission 
for use on a permanent basis. 

The dumping of Tc-99, from Sellafield's nuclear reprocessing 
plant has caused frustration and outrage in Norway. The 
discharges in recent years have led to a dramatic increase of 
Tc-99 among Norwegian coastal sea products such as lobster and 
seaweed. Tc-99 has also been measured in the Barents Sea as far 
north as the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. In all, the discharges 
equal some 90 terabequerels per year. 

Sellafield's liquid radioactive waste is stored in an onshore 
holding tank. Until last spring, the contents of the tank—which 
were cleansed of almost all toxic substances except for 
Tc-99—were being slowly dumped by portions into the Irish Sea 
three times a year, with the goal of emptying the tank completely 
by 2007.

  Trials shows 95% technetium cleansing rate in Sellafield 
discharges   

  Testing of a new treatment process based on a chemical called 
tetraphenylphosphonium bromide, or TPP, launched last autumn is 
proved to be successful in limiting controversial discharges 
Technitium-99, or Tc-99, from Britains Sellafield nuclear 
facility. &nbsp;Read on &raquo; 
[http://www.bellona.no/en/energy/nuclear/sellafield/32581.html] 

Bellona is satisfied 

At the environmental foundation Bellona, the cheers went through 
the roof when British authorities announced they would adopt the 
technolgy. The decision brings a victorious end to 10 years of 
struggle with British nuclear authorities. Bellona has worked for 
years to end the nuclear spill, and followed the process, step by 
step, until its positive resolution today. 

For the last two years, Bellona has been working intensively 
together with the ad-hoc organisation Lofoten against Sellafield, 
or LmS, as well as with Sellfield’s owner of the nuclear site, 
British Nuclear Fuel Plc, or BNFL, to push for a final solution. 
In April 2003, Bellona, LmS and BNFL arranged a conference at 
Sellafield that turned out to be decisive for the work against 
the Tc-99 discharges at Sellafield 

During that conference, Bellona proved that a limited ban on 
discharges containing Tc-99 could be tried in order to test the 
new TPP technology. Until that point, British government 
officials had repeatedly resisted the theory that the TPP-based 
cleansing technology and said it would have either only an 
insignificant effect on the Tc-99 levels expelled, or, worse, 
would have a negative effect on the marine environment. It was 
also claimed that a halt in the dumping of liquid waste for the 
test period would be technically impossible. 

With this autumn’s full scale testing, answers about the TPP 
technology began to emerge and looked positive. In Tc-99 content 
in Sellafield’s regularly scheduled draining of liquid 
radioactive waste will now be decrease by 97.7 percent when the 
TPP technology is introduced. The TPP technology was turning out 
to be even more effective—aside from the Tc-99, it was also 
cleaning out some of the radioactive strontium-90, or Sr-90, from 
the discharges. 

A cleansing percent of 97,7 percent means that a predicted 
discharge of 240 terabecquerels will be decreased to about 5,5 
terabecquerels.
 
  Bellona Foundation Director Frederic Hauge dressed as Santa
Claus at a Sellafield protest on Trafalgar Square in London in
December, 2001.   

Started under the Olympics

 Requests for permission to use TPP for test purposes were 
submitted to BNFL last fall, but were not granted—at least on a 
permanent basis. Today’s permission from the British EA and NII 
for TPP use on a permanent basis at Sellafield is step in the 
right direction for the environmental movement. 

The hazardous and controversial discharge of Tc-99 started as 
early as in 1994, while Norway basked in the sun of the Winter 
Olympic Games hosted at the Norwegian city of Lillehammer. The 
British government almost secretly started to dumped large 
amounts of Tc-99 into the North Sea. At least they didn’t bother 
to inform Norwegian authorities about it. Most of the spill 
originated from an old tank installation—designated B211 at 
Sellafield—which contained large amounts of liquid radioactive 
waste. While the “cleaning plant” at Sellafield removed most of 
the radioactive plutonium and caesium-137 from the sea dump, the 
Tc-99 leaked right through because their existed no technology 
for its removal. 

The Radioactive fluid quickly spread via the currents in the 
Irish and the North Sea, and in 1996 the Norwegian Radiation 
Protection Authority, or NRPA, started to measure higher 
quotients of Tc-99 along the Norwegian coastline. Especially 
alarming were the concentrations of Tc-99 measured in seaweed and 
lobsters along Norway’s coasts. 

While the concentrations of Tc-99 in Norwegian lobster and 
seaweed in 1996 were next to nothing, current concentrations are 
at some 660 becquerels per kilogram, weighed dry, for some 
samples of seaweed. This is more than half of the 1250 becquerels 
per kilogram that the European Union has set as a limit in the 
event of a nuclear accident. The situation on the coastline 
surrounding the Sellafield plant itself is much more critical: 
Seaweed outside the plant today registers 17,000 bequerels per 
kilogram when measured wet. 

In the late 1990s, negative reactions to the Tc-99 containing 
dumps started pouring in from the Irish, Norwegian, Swedish, 
Icelandic and Danish governments. The successive Norwegian 
Secretaries of State for the Environment—Guro Fjellanger, Siri 
Bjerke, and Børge Brende—all protested against the radioactive 
discharges.

  Bellona's report on Sellafield   
  
  At a conference held in London Friday, The Bellona Foundation 
presented a new and revealing report about Britain’s Sellafield 
plant. The report concludes that a new treatment process based on 
a chemical called tetraphenylphosphonium bromide, or TPP, could 
be the start of a new, Tc-99 discharge free era. &nbsp;Read on  
&raquo; 
[http://www.bellona.no/en/energy/nuclear/sellafield/32551.html] 
  
Bellona adds to the pressure 

Bellona has been engaged in the work stopping radioactive 
discharges from Sellafield since they began, and Bellona 
representatives visited the plant for the first time in 1995. 

During summer 2001 Bellona published a working paper on 
Sellafield. The highly illustrated and illustrative paper was 
published in Norwegian and English, and led to stronger and more 
convincing argumentation than had previously been available. 
Artist and singer, Johs Røde from Ramberg in Lofoten read the 
working paper, and was inspired to action. Together with 
Per-Kaare Holdal among others, he founded the Ad- Hoc 
organisation LmS. 

In January 2002 LmS arranged their first conference regarding the 
discharges in Stamsund, Lofoten. It was the beginning of a 
constructive co-operation between Bellona, LmS and the Norwegian 
government. Since then Bellona and LmS have arranged conferences 
in both Sellafield and London, with the final goal of stopping 
all the discharges of Tc-99.

  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
visit the pond in June.

[http://www.bellona.no/en/energy/nuclear/sellafield/33360.html] 
  
Victory

 The effort and time put into the case has finally paid off. 
Tc-99 dumps are from now on almost non- existent, and the 
population along the Norwegian coastline has all reason to be 
relieved. 

On the other hand, Bellona has not finished its work at 
Sellafield. In June, Bellona has arranged to visit derelict and 
radioactively contaminated buildings at Sellafield that have to 
be decommissioned in a proper way. The buildings have been 
abandoned since the end of the Cold War. Some of them were used 
for making plutonium for the British nuclear weapons programme. 
It’s a difficult and painstaking job to dismantle the old 
buildings because of the vast amounts of nuclear waste still 
locked in the Sellafield area. 
z Bellona wants to speed up this decommissioning and clean-up 
work at Sellafield. Many old buildings in the plant’s industrial 
area are in significant disrepair. But today Bellona 
representatives will have a day of to celebration for the first 
step toward victory before continuing the important environmental 
work still to be done.   

  Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] 
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] 
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway

*****************************************************************
 56 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca workers checked for silicosis
 
By Cy Ryan <cy@lasvegassun.com [cy@lasvegassun.com] > SUN CAPITAL 
BUREAU

 CARSON CITY -- About 300 current or former workers at Yucca
Mountain have signed up so far for free medical examinations to
determine if they suffer from silicosis or other lung diseases
possibly contracted while working in the five-mile tunnel at the
proposed nuclear dump.

 The Energy Department said that as of March 24, about 300
people have responded to an offer to be interviewed and examined
by University of Cincinnati personnel. About 2,400 letters were
sent to current and former employees at Yucca.

 The program was announced in January.

 Allen Benson, spokesman for the Yucca Mountain project, said
Monday the university has started its interviews and will begin
the medical examinations soon.

 The state Health Division issued a public health advisory
Monday suggesting anyone who worked in or near the tunnel or who
spent considerate time near the tunnel from 1992 through 2003
should be screened for possible silicosis or other lung
disorders associated with the inhalation of finely ground
particles of fibrous minerals.

 The division said the inhalation of even small amounts of
silica and other finely ground minerals can result in serious
and potentially life-threatening lung disorders.

 The examinations by the university are free.

 In September 2003 a former Yucca Mountain project employee
alleged to the inspector general's office there that were
excessive amounts of silica and carcinogenic substances in the
air from the drilling in the tunnel and that workers had not
worn proper protective gear.

 Benson said the inspector general's office has not yet issued
its report of its investigation.

 The Energy Department said its study showed the allowable level
of silica was exceeded during some tunnel operations in the
mid-1990s. The agency said it directed more protections
programs. And it started the free screening by the University of
Cincinnati of those current and former workers who felt they
might have been harmed by silicosis.

 Prior to the start of tunnel drilling in 1994, some safety
protections were in place. But the requirements for their uses
by employees were not consistently applied, the Energy
Department said. A stop work order was issued in 1996 to
establish a rigorous protection program and improved dust
control measures were implemented.

 In 1998 the Energy Department said it established the Silica
Protection Program for workers who spent more than 20 days a
year underground. It included chest X-rays, spirometer analysis
and medical examinations. A spirometer is an instrument for
measuring the air entering and leaving the lungs.

 Two cases of silicosis were identified through this program.

 Workers have the option now to continue in the program or the
opportunity of going through the screening program at the
University of Cincinnati, where silicosis and related issues
have been researched for years.

 

*****************************************************************
 57 Las Vegas SUN: Schedule altered on Yucca questions

Energy Department must give NRC answers to many technical
problems

 By Suzanne Struglinski < [suzanne@lasvegassun.com] > SUN 
WASHINGTON BUREAU

 WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has adjusted its schedule
on when it will submit answers to remaining technical questions
about storing nuclear waste in Nevada to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, officials said Wednesday.

 All of the 293 remaining technical questions on the proposed
nuclear waste storage project at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas, still will be submitted to the
commission by August, but now more will come in July, later than
planned.

 The department has responded to 168 of the remaining technical
questions known as key technical issues, and the commission has
deemed 93 complete.

 The commission will use the information when it reviews the
Yucca Mountain project's license application. "Complete" does
not mean the information is right or wrong but that the
commission staff has enough information to draw a conclusion
during the licensing review.

 In March and April the department only submitted nine of the 43
answers it had promised for those months.

 Now it plans to submit 44 answers to the commission in July as
opposed to the 16 originally scheduled. All issues will be
submitted to the commission by August as planned and the
department still intends to submit the project's license
application to the commission by December.

 The department adjusted the schedule since some models and data
had been updated that would have affected the remaining
questions, said Donald Beckman, the manager in charge of
answering the questions for Bechtel SAIC, the Yucca Mountain
project contractor.

 Timothy Gunter, of the department's Office of Repository
Development, said a team will review the technical basis
documents the department uses to justify how it reached its
answers.

 The 100-person team will review the technical basis documents,
even those that are complete, and supporting information to make
sure all of the information the commission will need is there.

 The commission sent a letter to the department last week saying
that the license review process could take longer than
anticipated if the department did not improve how it was
documenting its answers.

 

*****************************************************************
 58 Las Vegas SUN: Public hearings set on Yucca rail system

By Suzanne Struglinski <suzanne@lasvegassun.com 
[suzanne@lasvegassun.com] > SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has added public meetings in
Las Vegas and Reno on the Energy Department's plan to build a
new rail line in Caliente and extended the public comment period
by a week.

 The department's announcement came late Wednesday, the same day
Nevada's congressional delegation wrote Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham asking for an additional 45 days of the public comment
period.

 The department announced a 45-day comment period on April 8
when it formally selected the Caliente route to ship nuclear
waste via train to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas. The deadline was extended to June 1 on Wednesday.

 The nuclear waste storage site still needs final approval but
the department is moving ahead with plans on shipping waste
there.

 "Ninety days is the minimum time required to allow the public
and affected parties to understand and evaluate the proposed
action and prepare comments," the delegation wrote in a letter
to Abraham.

 In addition to asking for the extension, Sens. Harry Reid,
D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., along with Reps. Shelley
Berkley, D-Nev., Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev.,
want more meetings throughout the state and the country beyond
the three currently planned for next month in Amargosa Valley,
Goldfield and Caliente.

 Meetings will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on:

 
+ May 3, Longstreet Inn and Casino in Amargosa Valley.

 
+ May 4, Goldfield Community Center, Goldfield.

 
+ May 5, Caliente Youth Center, Caliente.

 The dates and times for meetings in Reno and Las Vegas will be
announced when they become available.

 

*****************************************************************
 59 WOWT | Waste Appeal Rejected
		 					
www.wowt.com

Multi-million dollar judgment looms
																				
Nebraska is running out of options to avoid paying a $151 million 
judgment in the low-level radioactive waste lawsuit.

On Thursday the state learned its request for a rehearing before 
the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had been rejected 7-3. 
That leaves the U.S. Supreme Court as the final option.

But the nation's highest court could refuse to hear the case, at 
which point the judgment would be final and the state would be on 
the hook for the damages as early as November.

Few expected the full 8th Circuit to rehear the case after a 
three-judge panel ruled against Nebraska in February. Nebraska 
appealed the U.S. District Court decision that it pay $151 
million in damages for blocking construction of a radioactive 
waste dump within its borders.

Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns said it will be worthwhile to take 
the lawsuit to the Supreme Court.

Absent a settlement, if the Supreme Court does not take the case 
Nebraska could be forced to pay for damages it currently does not 
have enough money to pay.

The nuclear waste dump was to hold waste from Nebraska, Kansas, 
Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, which joined in 1983 to form 
the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact. 

In 1998, Nebraska refused to license the dump in Boyd County near 
the South Dakota border because of concerns about possible 
pollution and a high-water table.

The utilities that generate radioactive waste filed the lawsuit 
against Nebraska later that year, accusing state officials of 
acting in bad faith by not licensing the facility. Other states 
in the waste compact later joined the lawsuit.
 											   				     	 						
 		     		   			
Gray MidAmerica TV Interactive Media, LLC                                               
Copyright © 2002-2004                                   
*****************************************************************
 60 The State: Nuclear waste deal shortchang
 
 
 04/22/2
 
By BEN JOHNSON

 Guest columnist

As one of South Carolinas commissioners and chairman of the 
Atlantic Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact, I am concerned 
about a move in the General Assembly that could undermine the 
states nuclear waste disposal program. 

The budget recently approved by the S.C. House would allow 
another 100,000 cubic feet of nuclear waste into the landfill in 
Barnwell County in 2005. This would be in addition to the 50,000 
feet already authorized for next year by the Atlantic Compact 
Act. 

The Senate needs to stop this bad deal in its tracks. This 
proposal would undermine the Atlantic Compact Act, which was a 
real public policy achievement. Further, the deal with 
Chem-Nuclear to dispose of its waste at the Barnwell site is a 
poor business bargain for the state, the result of political 
influence that seeks to suspend the law of supply and demand. 

South Carolinas nuclear waste disposal program successfully 
serves a number of important objectives, including: 

• Preserving disposal capacity for the states own nuclear 
plants. 

• Phasing out importation of waste from outside the region on an 
orderly schedule, with such shipments ending by 2008. 

• Maximizing current market pricing to help meet South Carolinas 
general revenue needs. 

This program was the result of 18 months of study and hearings. 
It was cemented by permanent law in the Atlantic Compact Act 
passed in 2000. But now, it may be significantly altered by 
last-minute, ad hoc budget amendments. 

Chem-Nuclears proposal raises three basic questions, the answers 
to which could have an enormous impact on the states future: 

• Should South Carolina allow more nuclear waste from across the 
nation to come into the state? 

The Atlantic Compact Act preserved capacity for South Carolinas 
future needs and signaled to the rest of the nation that other 
states must become more involved in solving the countrys nuclear 
waste disposal problems. If South Carolina signals a weakness in 
its resolve to close the door on the nations nuclear waste, 
other states will have no incentive to create new disposal 
solutions. And South Carolina would continue to be the nuclear 
waste dumping ground for the rest of the nation. 

• Is the Chem-Nuclear proposal a good deal for South Carolina? 

Instead of a revenue gain of $6 million, the agreement with 
Chem-Nuclear is expected to net the state as little as $1 
million. This low-cost arrangement with Chem-Nuclear would have 
the added detriment of driving down the prices the Budget and 
Control Board can charge its customers for waste disposal and 
lowering projected revenues by as much as $3 million in 2005. 
Adding insult to injury, the cost of handling the extra waste 
from Chem-Nuclear could run the state an additional $2 million. 

• Is South Carolina getting a fair return for this valuable 
asset? 

South Carolinas disposal capacity is worth well more than $500 
per cubic foot. The state now is poised to sell this space to 
Chem-Nuclear at an unreasonably low price of $60 per cubic foot. 

When the Compact Act was passed in 2000, Barnwells remaining 
disposal capacity was almost gone. South Carolina needed to join 
a congressionally approved compact to lawfully preserve disposal 
space for its own waste needs when its seven nuclear reactors are 
decommissioned beginning around 2040. Under the act, 1.8 million 
cubic feet have been reserved for the future needs of the compact 
states  South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. Under the 
act, unused capacity may not be sold. 

As South Carolinas import limits have taken effect, the price 
for disposing of waste at Barnwell has increased dramatically, 
from 80 cents per cubic foot in 1971 to todays prices of more 
than $500 per cubic foot. 

Chem-Nuclear now proposes to buy 100,000 feet of the remaining 
capacity at Barnwell for $6 million. This is $60 per cubic foot 
and a fraction of its real value. 

A poor business deal that could not stand on its own, this 
proposal was craftily paired by Chem-Nuclears friends in the 
House with a measure to raise pay for law enforcement officers. 
The Senate should reject this cynical ploy. 

In 1987, Gov. Carroll Campbell wrote the nuclear waste industry 
and warned, Any suggestion that South Carolina inevitably will 
amend its laws to allow continued operation of the disposal 
facility is speculation and should not be used as the basis for 
any states plans to fulfill its disposal responsibilities. 

Our states legislative leaders thus would be in very good 
company when they announce that South Carolinas nuclear waste 
limits will not be reversed. 

This one is an easy call. 

Mr. Johnson, a Rock Hill attorney, was appointed chairman of the 
Atlantic Compact Commission in 2000. He was a member of the South 
Carolina Nuclear Waste Task Force.   

TheStateOnline
*****************************************************************
 61 Suburban Advertiser: EPA will revise Foote Mineral site cleanup plan                         
 	 			 							 							
  Thursday 22 April, 2004        
       
By:David Bernard

EAST WHITELAND - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has 
announced plans to revise and reissue its proposed cleanup plan 
for East Whiteland's former Cyprus Foote Mineral plant as a 
result of the radioactivity detected there last year.
 				 			
"As it stands now, the plan doesn't mention the possibility of
radioactive material at the site," said Wendy Jastremski,
community involvement coordinator for the EPA's Philadelphia
office. "We want to have all of that documented in the final
plan."

 While the revision will delay the agency's record of decision,
or final plan, and the polluted land's eventual remediation,
township observers said they're satisfied with the attention the
matter has received.

 "We're really pleased at this point that this was done," said
Bill Kolb, chairman of the East Whiteland Environmental Advisory
Council, "because it's essentially what we were asking for in
our comments to the EPA."

 Township manager Terry Woodman described the agency's
announcement as "good news."

 "We're happy that they're going to rescind the proposed plan,"
she said. "And we'll take a hard look at the revised plan, also."

 According to Jastremski, the revision process will focus on
whether the agency's current proposal offers viable solutions
for the removal, transport and disposal of the radioactive
material or whether federal regulations will require that other
measures be taken.

 "We're hoping that we'll be able to re-release (the proposed
plan) this summer," followed by another 30-day public comment
period, she said. "But it'll just depend on how smoothly things
go and the suitability of the remedy."

 Developer Arnon Garonzik of Frazer Exton Development, which
bought the Foote site in 1998 and plans to build 850 units of
age-restricted housing there, declined comment on the revision
and delay Friday. Having just returned to his office after eight
days out of the country, he said he had not yet been notified of
the EPA's plans.

 In a recent interview, Garonzik said he'd been expecting the
EPA's record of decision to be issued this summer and to begin
the site's cleanup in spring 2005.

 The 79-acre site is located at Swedesford and Bacton Hill
roads, near the routes 202 and 30 interchange. From 1942 to
1991, Foote produced lithium metal and other mineral and
chemical products.

 In 1992, the area was federally designated a Superfund
environmental cleanup site. Three parties are financially
responsible for the investigation and cleanup of the land under
the EPA's supervision: Chemetall Foote, the company formerly
known as Cyprus Foote Mineral; the U.S. government, which owned
part of the company during World War II; and Frazer Exton
Development.

 The EPA issued its proposed remedial action plan in August
2003. The $3.8 million cleanup would have consolidated the
site's contaminated soil and filled and capped two quarries
containing lithium and bromate. Nearby residents whose wells had
tested positive for the contaminants would be connected to
public water. The proposal would take about a year to complete
and 13 years before the affected groundwater was free of
pollution.

 During the public comment period that followed the proposal,
residents who had independently researched the site and others
who had once worked in its now-demolished factories raised
questions about the company's apparent role in manufacturing
atomic weapon components and other radioactive materials.

 After conducting additional studies, Frazer Exton Development's
environmental consultants reported finding six limited areas of
radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium in soil
samples. The radioactivity was found only shallowly in the soil,
they said, with no evidence that radioactive waste had been
buried at the site.

 The amount of radioactivity detected at the site was minimal,
the consultants said, less than that of a dental X-ray or flying
in an airplane.

 Kolb, whose Environmental Advisory Council reports to East
Whiteland's board of supervisors at each month's meeting, said
that council members had drafted 16 pages worth of comments on
the EPA's proposed remedial action plan to assist the board in
reviewing the record of decision.

 "Many of the comments led us to believe that the proposed plan
was just not acceptable," he said.

 Fortunately, Kolb noted, the council would now be able to
forward its comments, findings and suggestions to the EPA and
perhaps have them incorporated in the revised proposal.

 "I think the thing is that our comments be considered in the
next proposed plan," he said. "In my experience, there certainly
has been more attention given to public comment for this project
than to most."

 Jastremski agreed. "The reason we investigated about the
radiation was because of the public comment period," she said.
"The more communication back and forth, the better."
 
©The Suburban Advertiser 2004                                     
*****************************************************************
 62 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern 
 
                         FR Doc 04-9148 
[Federal Register: April 22, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 78)] 
[Notices] [Page 21826-21827] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr22ap04-49]                         
 
New Mexico AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting and retreat.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Northern New 
Mexico. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 
Stat. 770) requires that public notice of these meetings be 
announced in the Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Thursday-Saturday, May 20-22, 2004.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Sagebrush Inn and Conference Center, 1508 Paseo Del 
Pueblo Sur, Taos, NM.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Menice Manzanares, Northern New 
Mexico Citizens' Advisory Board, 1660 Old Pecos Trail, Suite B, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505. Phone (505) 995-0393; fax (505) 989-1752 or 
e-mail:

 
mmanzanares@doeal.gov [ mmanzanares@doeal.gov] .
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE and its regulators in 
the areas of environmental restoration, waste management, and 
related activities.
 
Tentative Agenda Thursday, May 20, 2004 9-11:30 a.m. New Member 
Orientation 1-5 p.m. Informal Round Table with Agencies Friday, 
May 21, 2004 8 a.m. to Noon Board Planning and Group Discussion 
1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Team Building Saturday, May 22, 2004 8-10 
a.m. NNMCAB Board Meeting Public Comment Board Business 
Consideration of Recommendations Consideration of Bylaws 
Amendments 10 a.m. to Noon Wrap-up and Board Discussion Noon 
Adjourn This agenda is subject to change at least one day in 
advance of the meeting.
 
Public Participation: The meeting is open to the public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Committee either before 
or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral 
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Menice 
Manzanares at the address or telephone number listed above. 
Requests must be received five days prior to the meeting and 
reasonable provision will be made to include the presentation in 
the agenda. The Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to 
conduct the meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly 
conduct of business. Each individual wishing to make public 
comment will be provided a maximum of five minutes to present 
their comments at the beginning of the meeting.
 
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available at the 
Public Reading Room located at the Board's office at 1660 Old 
Pecos Trail, Suite B, Santa Fe, NM. Hours of operation for the 
Public Reading Room are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday through Friday. 
Minutes will also be made available by writing or calling Menice 
Manzanares at the Board's office address or telephone number 
listed above. Minutes and other
 
[[Page 21827]] Board documents are on the Internet at: 
http://www.nnmcab.org 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nnmcab.org] . Issued at 
Washington, DC on April 16, 2004.
 
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9148 Filed 4-21-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6405-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 63 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Fernald
 
                         FR Doc 04-9160 
[Federal Register: April 22, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 78)] 
[Notices] [Page 21827] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr22ap04-50]                         
 
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
 
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
 
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental 
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Fernald. The 
Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) 
requires that public notice of these meetings be announced in the 
Federal Register.
 
 
DATES: Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 6 p.m.-9 p.m.
 
ADDRESSES: Fernald Closure Project Site, 7400 Willey Road, 
Trailer 214, Hamilton, OH 45013-9402.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Doug Sarno, The Perspectives 
Group, Inc., 1055 North Fairfax Street, Suite 204, Alexandria, VA 
22314, at (703) 837-1197, or e-mail; 
djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com 
[djsarno@theperspectivesgroup.com] .
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of 
environmental restoration, waste management, and related 
activities.
 
Tentative Agenda 6 p.m.--Call to Order 6-6:20 p.m.--Chairs 
Remarks, Ex Officio Announcements and Updates 6:20-7 p.m--Update 
on Silos Projects Issues 7-7:20 p.m.--Report on SSAB Chairs 
Meeting 7:20-8 p.m.--Status of Recommendations 8-8:45 
p.m.--Follow-up to May 10 Fernald Stewardship Summit 8:45-9 
p.m.--Public Comment 9 p.m.--Adjourn Public Participation: The 
meeting is open to the public.
 
Written statements may be filed with the Board chair either 
before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral 
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board 
chair at the address or telephone number listed below. Requests 
must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable 
provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. 
The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Gary Stegner, Public 
Affairs Office, Ohio Field Office, U.S. Department of Energy, is 
empowered to conduct the meeting in a fashion that will 
facilitate the orderly conduct of business. Each individual 
wishing to make public comment will be provided a maximum of five 
minutes to present their comments.
 
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public 
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading 
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW., 
Washington, DC, 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday-Friday, 
except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by 
writing to the Fernald Citizens' Advisory Board, % Phoenix 
Environmental Corporation, MS-76, Post Office Box 538704, 
Cincinnati, OH 43253-8704, or by calling the Advisory Board at 
(513) 648-6478.
 
Issued at Washington, DC on April 16, 2004.
 
Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9160 Filed 4-21-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 64 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Safety steps for Hanford cleanup workers
 	 	 	 	 	 
[seattlepi.com]     

Thursday, April 22, 2004 

 Contractor orders use of respirators 
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RICHLAND -- Workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation will be 
required to wear respirators with supplied air tanks when working 
near some underground tanks holding radioactive waste, a federal 
contractor says. 

The requirement is among several changes announced Tuesday by 
Colorado-based CH2M Hill, the contractor hired to clean up waste 
left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons at 
Hanford. The company has come under fire in recent months amid 
claims by workers that vapors from the tanks have sickened them. 

"We are taking this additional step to address employee concerns 
while we conduct a more comprehensive review," said Dale Allen, a 
senior vice president for CH2M Hill. "The health and safety of 
our workers is our top priority." 

The contractor also is field testing several devices aimed at 
sampling the air around individual workers. They include air 
sampling pumps worn by employees, organic vapor monitors that 
employees will be required to wear on their clothing, close to 
their faces, and badges that change color to indicate the 
presence of ammonia. 

CH2M Hill also has created a new, senior-level position of 
environmental health director to oversee the industrial hygiene 
program and is seeking a national expert to fill the position. 

The company decided to require respirators with supplied air 
tanks because of concerns about nitrous oxide vapors from 
single-shell tanks and double-shell tanks that lack ventilation. 

Supplied air will be required because there is no commercially 
available respirator cartridge that filters nitrous oxide, the 
company said. 

"We have some questions about whether there are additional steps 
that could or should be taken to give employees a higher level of 
confidence on this issue. Until we have a chance to fully look at 
this, we want to provide an additional measure of protection for 
employees," the company said in a news release. 

The action is not in response to a specific vapor exposure 
report, CH2M Hill said. 

State and federal governments are investigating procedures at 
Hanford's tank farms amid allegations that corners are being cut 
to speed cleanup of the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. 

More than 90 workers have sought medical care for exposure at the 
tank farms in the past two years, according to data gathered by 
the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit watchdog 
group. 

For 40 years, the Hanford reservation made plutonium for the 
nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. Today, work there centers on a 
$50 billion to $60 billion cleanup to be finished by 2035 under 
an accelerated schedule pushed by the Bush administration. 

The most deadly waste, about 53 million gallons of radioactive 
liquid, sludge and saltcake, sits in 177 underground tanks less 
than 10 miles from the Columbia River. Plans call for turning 
much of that waste into glass logs and burying it at a nuclear 
waste repository. 

Experts have identified as many as 1,200 chemicals, including 
some known cancer-causing agents, in the tanks. Critics have 
argued that basic respirators can't protect against all 1,200 
chemicals. 

CH2M Hill and the Energy Department, which manages the cleanup, 
say most of the chemicals are diluted and pose no danger to 
workers. Only three -- ammonia, nitrous oxide and butanol -- have 
been found in the tanks' air cavities at levels exceeding 
occupation exposure limits, CH2M Hill said. Workers don't work 
inside the tanks. 

More than 800 people work in the tank farms for CH2M Hill. The 
total work force at Hanford is about 11,000 people.             
   

  [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 
98119 (206) 448-8000
 
 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
[newmedia@seattlepi.com] 
©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
*****************************************************************
 65 Tri-City Herald: DOE seeks more funds
 
This story was published Thursday, April 22nd, 2004 

By Annette Cary Herald staff writer 

An infusion of money from Congress and revised rules are needed 
to speed processing of an estimated seven-year backlog of workers 
compensation cases for employees at Hanford and other federal 
nuclear sites, according to the Department of Energy. 

A DOE program to help nuclear workers get compensation for 
illnesses caused by exposures to toxic chemicals has resulted in 
the payment of a single claim among 23,698 filed in 2 1/2 years. 
One Hanford worker has received about $15,000. 

In contrast, a sister program administered by the Department of 
Labor has paid out about $800 million, including $9 million for 
Hanford workers. It has received 53,189 claims from workers or 
their survivors who believe they developed cancer because of 
exposure to radiation or certain rare lung diseases. 

"We underestimated the level of interest in the program and got 
off to a slow start," said Tom Rollow, director of the Office of 
Worker Advocacy for DOE, at a meeting in Richland this week of a 
federal advisory board. 

DOE could process its backlog of claims in 2 1/2 years with the 
help of an additional $33 million this year and $43 million next 
year, he said. 

The plan does not satisfy one of the program's biggest critics, 
the watchdog group Government Accountability Project (GAP). 

"The approach is if you throw enough money at it, the problem 
goes away," said Richard Miller of GAP. 

GAP would prefer to see the program turned over to the Department 
of Labor, which has more experience with worker compensation 
claims. 

The sister Energy and Labor programs both grew out of a 2000 
admission by DOE that workers at Hanford and other federal 
nuclear sites might have been made ill by exposure to radiation 
or toxins. 

That led to the program administered by the Department of Labor 
to give workers who developed cancer because of radiation 
exposure a $150,000 payment and coverage of medical expenses. 

The Department of Energy was assigned to administer a program for 
workers with a broader range of illnesses because of exposures to 
toxins, including asbestos and heavy metals. Rather than offering 
direct compensation, DOE was told by Congress to direct its 
contractors not to fight valid claims in state worker 
compensation programs. 

DOE says now that the program has been underfunded. 

It's asking Congress to switch $33 million from other unspecified 
programs into the administration of the nuclear compensation 
program, said Rollow at a meeting of the Advisory Board on 
Radiation and Worker Health. That would boost the fiscal year 
2004 appropriation to $59 million. 

Without the money by August, DOE will have to start laying off 
employees administering the program, Rollow said. 

DOE also is asking for legislation changes, such as increasing 
the amount it may pay doctors who assess the claims to determine 
if workplace exposures caused a worker's illness. 

"The physician panel is the major bottleneck in the program," 
Rollow said. 

Recruiting doctors has been difficult because physicians doing 
similar consulting work are often paid two to three times the $68 
an hour the federal program offers, he said. 

The program has 129 doctors reviewing claims now, but each 
averages just four hours of work per month. By June, DOE wants to 
have the equivalent of 20 doctors working full time. 

DOE already has made one change in the program that did not 
require congressional approval. Instead of having each claim 
reviewed by a panel of three doctors, one doctor will do an 
initial review. The doctor has the authority to approve a claim 
or to send questionable claims to a three-physician panel for a 
determination. 

That should reduce by 58 percent the average time doctors spend 
reviewing each claim and save $37 million that will be used to 
speed up claims, Rollow said. 

Critics of the program have pointed out that DOE has spent more 
than $50 million on administering the program to get just one 
claim paid. But Rollow said that's an unfair characterization. 

In fact, DOE has developed about 5,000 cases, many of which are 
waiting for review by a physician panel, and is working on 
developing 14,000 cases, he said. 

But GAP believes much of the problem is DOE's refusal to provide 
helpful information to doctors reviewing the cases. 

The Department of Labor developed site profiles to help doctors 
understand what radiation workers might be exposed to in 
different jobs and at different places at Hanford. 

DOE has not developed comparable site analyses to help doctors 
understand what metals, acids, asbestos or other hazardous 
materials workers may have been exposed to during weapon 
production or cleanup of contaminated sites. 

"Physicians report that they sometimes receive 200 to 1,500 pages 
of documents, which are not indexed, and they must dig though 
this chaotic pile of documents in search of answers -- which may 
or may not be there," GAP wrote in a report on the DOE program's 
problems. 

GAP said DOE had planned to develop site analyses but withdrew 
that plan from the proposal explained this week in Richland. 

GAP also has questioned why DOE has not yet solved its shortage 
of doctors for the program. It has pointed out that its Worker 
Advocacy Advisory Board identified the problem in 2002. 

DOE abolished the advisory board 14 months ago, but DOE is now 
working to appoint a replacement board. The board would serve the 
same function for DOE as the Advisory Board on Radiation and 
Worker Health meeting in Richland serves for the Labor 
Department. 

"A new advisory committee coming at this late date appears to be 
little more than window dressing on a failing program," according 
to the GAP report. 

GAP would like the Department of Labor not only to administer the 
program for claims related to exposure to toxic substances, but 
also to move responsibility for compensation payments to the 
federal government rather than state-regulated or state-run 
worker compensation programs. 

Under the program for exposures to toxic substances, some Hanford 
workers, retired workers or their survivors may be eligible to 
receive lost wages. In addition, workers may be eligible for 
other benefits, such as long-term disability payments or coverage 
of medical costs. 

For more information, call 783-1500 or 1-888-654-0014. 

© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 66 Oak Ridger: UT-Battelle's fate eyed 							 							 							
 
Story last updated at 11:44 a.m. on April 22, 2004

NOTIFIED: DOE notifies company of its intention, but there are
no commitments. 

By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] 

UT-Battelle's relationship with Oak Ridge National Laboratory
might not be headed for divorce.

"We have notified UT-Battelle of our intent to extend their
contract as this process requires a one-year advance
notification," Walter Perry, a spokesman for the Department of
Energy's Oak Ridge Operations office, said this morning. "We are
working the extension package with DOE headquarters at this
time."

Perry did not have details on the extension package to share
with The Oak Ridger.

DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office actually notified UT-Battelle
in a brief letter dated March 31 of its intent to exercise the
contract extension option. DOE's other option would've been to
put the contract out for rebid.

"This notice does not commit the department to an extension,"
Beverly J. Harness, a contracting officer with the local DOE
office, warned in the letter.

UT-Battelle declined this morning to discuss DOE's intent
because all the details have not been hammered out. The
company's current $2.5 billion, five-year management contract
for ORNL is set to expire at the end of March 2005.

Earlier this month, ORNL spokesman Billy Stair told The Oak
Ridger that DOE would be looking for a record of accomplishment
by UT-Battelle when trying to decide the fate of the company's
contract. As examples to support that record, Stair noted the
construction of the Spallation Neutron Source, which is on time
and on

budget, as well as the modernization work that's been done at
ORNL and the safety improvements the company has made at the lab.

Additionally, UT-Battelle has been instrumental in helping to
get the ball rolling on a modernization plan for the aging Oak
Ridge High School, and the company has made numerous
contributions to science labs at various area high schools.

UT-Battelle is a partnership between Battelle and the
University of Tennessee. 







*****************************************************************
 67 Oak Ridger: New UT president will have role on UT-Battelle board 							
 
Story last updated at 11:56 a.m. on April 22, 2004
							 							
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] 

One of John Petersen's duties as the University of Tennessee's 
new president will be to serve on the board of the directors of 
the company that manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

"(The president) has a permanent seat," said Billy Stair, a 
spokesman for UT-Battelle. "Every two years, the role of chair 
rotates between the CEO of Battelle, which is Carl Kohrt, and the 
president of the University of Tennessee."

Kohrt currently serves as chair of the UT-Battelle board.

"It will rotate back next year to UT," Stair said.

UT-Battelle, a partnership between UT and Battelle, has managed 
ORNL for the Department of Energy since April 2000.

Jeff Wadsworth, who serves as president of UT-Battelle and 
director of ORNL, was on travel and unavailable for comment this 
morning. However, Stair said Wadsworth has not met Petersen.

"We kept a very careful distance from the search process," Stair 
said this morning.

Petersen was chosen Wednesday by UT's Board of Trustees to be the 
university's 23rd president. He currently serves as provost and 
executive vice president at the University of Connecticut.

One of the applicants cut from the search process was Bill Madia, 
former director of ORNL and currently is an executive vice 
president with Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. 
Madia did not return calls for comment regarding the selection of 
the new UT president nor did he speak to The Oak Ridger earlier 
this month when he was eliminated from the search process.

Madia's name was frequently mentioned in connection with the UT 
post after he left his job at ORNL in April 2003. In fact, both 
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-3rd District, and Gene Caldwell, a former 
state representative, suggested Madia as a candidate for interim 
president - a position that went to former president Joe Johnson.

When contacted for comment about the new UT president, Wamp 
issued the following statement: "I am pleased that the selection 
process is over and we can prepare for the Petersen era at the 
University of Tennessee. His credentials and experience bode well 
for the task ahead to make the University of Tennessee one of the 
best research and technology institutions in America."

Prior to coming to the University of Connecticut in 2000, 
Petersen was dean of the College of Science and professor of 
chemistry at Wayne State University from 1994 to 2000, according 
to information from UT. Previously he held positions as the 
department head of chemistry and associate dean for research in 
the College of Sciences at Clemson University, and assistant 
professor of chemistry at Kansas State University.

Petersen is expected to be on the UT job July 1. The Associated 
Press reported that Petersen will have a base salary of $380,000, 
a $20,000 expense allowance, use of a university car and use of 
the university president's home. 

*****************************************************************
 68 amarillo.com: Audit cites delays at Pantex, other labs 

04/22/04 [Amarillo Globe News] 

Holdups pushing back critical decisions for Energy Department

 By JIM McBRIDE
jim.mcbride@amarillo.com 
The Amarillo Globe-News 

Project delays at weapons labs and Pantex Plant are holding up 
key weapons data the Energy Department needs for major decisions 
affecting the Modern Pit Facility and nuclear weapons upgrades, a 
government audit says.

 An April audit by the DOE's Office of Inspector General cites 
delays and missed deadlines in a program that detects 
manufacturing and aging defects in nuclear weapons.

 But National Nuclear Security Administration officials disputed 
some of the report's findings and said the agency is on schedule 
to meet deadlines under the Enhanced Surveillance Campaign.

 The surveillance program provides advance warning of 
manufacturing and aging defects that could affect safety or 
reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

 "The tools, methods and technologies are designed to assist in 
making stockpile life-extension decisions, determining when or if 
a new pit facility should be built, and annually certifying the 
stockpile to the president," the audit says. "In our judgment, 
operational delays at Los Alamos, Livermore and Pantex may 
deprive NNSA of the information it needs to make informed 
decisions on topics such as weapon refurbishment schedules and 
building a new pit facility."

 At the time of the audit, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and 
Pantex had not completed scheduled critical work in four of six 
major technical elements in the surveillance program.

 "Using NNSA's own schedule as our baseline, the review disclosed 
that NNSA experienced delays in completing certain Enhanced 
Surveillance Campaign milestones and is at risk of missing some 
future milestones," the audit says.

 Among other problems, auditors questioned delays in accelerated 
aging tests needed to estimate the lifetime of plutonium pits in 
the U.S. stockpile.

 The NNSA has cited concerns about pit aging as justification for 
building the proposed Modern Pit Facility, which will recycle 
plutonium into new pits. Pantex and five other sites are vying 
for the plant.

 Experts will compare results of accelerated aging tests to 
naturally aged plutonium in the stockpile. But delays in the 
program could directly affect decisions on the Modern Pit 
Facility, the audit says.

 "Achieving this milestone is particularly important because an 
FY 2006 milestone regarding construction of the Modern Pit 
Facility may be impacted by the results of these tests," auditors 
concluded.

 This year, NNSA announced it will delay picking a proposed site 
because of congressional concerns about the size of the future 
U.S. nuclear arsenal and future plutonium needs.

 The audit also said Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratories and Pantex did not finish 
critical work on schedule and that delays - some as long as 23 
months - were caused by weak project planning.

 But investigators praised a Pantex program that tracks specific 
goals of the weapons surveillance program.

 The inspector general's office said NNSA managers contend major 
program deadlines were not in jeopardy, but NNSA acknowledged 
challenges in the enhanced surveillance program including 
funding, competing priorities and personnel retention.

 Michael C. Kane, a top NNSA administrator, issued the NNSA's 
response to the audit in a letter.

 "Although NNSA generally agrees with the report, we do not agree 
with the observation that we are at risk of missing future 
milestones that are critical to the success of the Enhanced 
Surveillance Campaign," Kane's letter says. "Over the past two 
years, NNSA has strengthened project management by identifying 
and closely monitoring priority milestones."

[http://www.amarillo.com/]  				 			   		 	
*****************************************************************
 69 Oak Ridger: Dick Smyser -- Lise Meitner: Early nuclear science's sacrificial
lamb                                                                                                                                                                    
 
Story last updated at 11:51 a.m. on April 22, 2004

By: Dick Smyser | Editor's License

I was surprised - disillusioned - when I first came to realize 
that scientists can, in scientific matters, be every bit as 
political as county party chairmen. In the past, I had been 
conditioned that men and women learned in the mysteries of 
physics, chemistry and biology were above rivalries and 
jealousies that might distort their actions toward their peers 
and their work.

Least of all did I suspect that other than the fully deserving 
might be chosen for the most prestigious scientific honors, like 
even the Nobel Prize. Or the reverse - that the truly deserving 
would be consciously shoved aside and someone significantly less 
deserving honored instead.

In time, however, I would hear local scientists who I knew and 
admired tell of other local scientists who they felt had been 
shamefully overlooked at awards time - others from other 
laboratories or universities winning for discoveries that had 
first been made here. Why? Scientific politics.

I can think of three specific local scientists about whom this 
has been said: that they were maneuvered out of winning and, in 
at least one case, blatantly cheated out of an award because of 
favoritism, prejudice. Thus, in my newly enlightened state, I 
readily accept as true Robert Marc Friedman's "Remembering Miss 
Meitner: A one-act drama about physics and betrayal" which was 
performed as a reading at Oak Ridge Playhouse Sunday afternoon.

As a preface to the reading, Lee Reidinger, deputy director of 
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, told how Lise Meitner, in her 
early 40s, came in 1922 from her native Austria to teach at the 
University of Berlin. Then in 1934, after Enrico Fermi discovered 
that radiated uranium seems to transform into new manmade 
elements, Meitner invited Otto Hahn, her former collaborator, to 
join her in the study of these purported new elements.

In 1938 Meitner, with Jewish parents but herself not a practicing 
Jew, is nevertheless forced to flee Berlin for Stockholm leaving 
Hahn to continue their joint experiments. In 1939, Hahn and his 
new collaborator, Fritz Strassmann, announce that the radiated 
uranium atom actually splits into lighter elements.

Meitner, now with Manne Siegbahn at his Stockholm laboratory, 
eyes Hahn and Strassmann's findings and determines that fission 
has occurred. She calls it fission after consultation with her 
nephew, Otto Robert Frisch, a biologist, who likens it to the 
biological process by that name.

All of which sets off massive efforts in numerous countries, 
including especially the United States and Nazi Germany, to 
develop the atomic bomb about which the world learns at 
Hiroshima, Japan in the summer of 1945.

And now come the maneuverings that effectively obscured Meitner's 
original identification of fission and led, instead, in 1946 to 
Hahn winning the Nobel prize for precisely what Meitner was the 
first to do: explain the process as fission.

In Friedman's play, Siegbaum, played by Gene Spejewski, 
acknowledges his advocacy of Hahn for the prize as part of his - 
Siegbaum's - personal desire to return German science to the 
respect in which it was held before being tainted by Nazism. Nor 
does Hahn, played by Charles Crume, express qualms that he was 
honored for what really was Meitner's insight.

Nor is either he or Siegbaum moved by the suggestion by Meitner, 
played by Bonnie Nestor, that, at very least, the prize might be 
shared, she the winner for physics, Hahn the winner for 
chemistry. Hahn, who demeans Meitner by calling her "his little 
lamb," responds only that, in his acceptance speech at the Nobel 
awards ceremony, "I did mention your name."

The slight has a profound emotional effect on Meitner and her 
research. She lived until 1968, dying 14 years before she gained 
some measure of belated acclaim in the designation of Element No. 
109, discovered in 1982, as meitnerium.

Playwright Friedman who, after the reading, acknowledged the 
appropriateness of Oak Ridge as a place for his play to be read, 
was questioned from the audience by Robert Kennedy. In which of 
three ways, Kennedy asked, does Friedman believe Meitner might 
prefer to be remembered: for her original insight about fission; 
as one who was cheated out of a Nobel Prize; as a scientist whose 
work was worthy of having an element named in her honor?

All three, Friedman answered.

In her first lines in the play, Meitner looks out at the audience 
and asks, "Do you mind if I smoke?" Then she answers her own 
question: "Of course you do. Years have passed and many things 
have changed."

My own thought at the reading's conclusion: Indeed many things 
have changed. Given the attention since 1946 to women's rights, 
would Siegbaum and Hahn have dared to do what they did? - RDS 
*****************************************************************
 70 Oak Ridger: TVA to meet with NRC to discuss Browns Ferry concerns 							
 
Story last updated at 11:57 a.m. on April 22, 2004
							 							
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found 
possible violations during an inspection at a nuclear reactor the 
Tennessee Valley Authority wants to restart at the Browns Ferry 
plant in Alabama.

TVA officials are scheduled to meet with the NRC in Atlanta on 
April 28 to discuss the findings and corrections the public 
utility has made.

TVA is working to get Unit 1 at Browns Ferry back on line by 
2007, a job estimated to cost $1.8 billion.

Two reactors are currently operating at the plant in Athens, 
Ala., but Unit 1 has been shut down since 1985 because of safety 
concerns.

The NRC found apparent violations during an inspection on Jan. 29 
with welds repairs in the torus, a doughnut-shaped pool around 
the reactor that catches hot steam released in an accident.

Inspectors discovered some welds were not repaired because there 
were no work orders and no one checked to see if they had been 
done, NRC officials said.

TVA has stopped work on them since and analyzed the problems. 
Most of the welds were correct, Browns Ferry spokesman Craig 
Beasley said.

TVA will have a chance to present its side of the story at the 
meeting with the NRC, and the NRC will announce later whether 
there will be any penalties, commission spokesman Roger Hannah 
said Wednesday.

"TVA initiated a 100 percent review of torus weld repairs, and 
the NRC staff say that review and subsequent corrective actions 
appear comprehensive enough to resolve the problem," the NRC said 
in a statement dated April 19.

Plant officials believe the torus will be operational despite the 
problems.

The NRC reported in November it was satisfied with the work at 
Unit 1 up to that point. 

*****************************************************************
 71 WATE: ORNL research reactor to be restarted this week
  
 [http://knoxville.wate.com

April 21, 2004

OAK RIDGE (AP) -- Officials at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory 
hope to have the lab's research reactor running again by the 
weekend. 

One of the pumps in the High Flux Isotope Reactor automatically 
shut down February 16th. 

Afterward a leak developed in a seal around one of the beam 
tubes, which are used to transport neutrons from the nuclear core 
to research stations outside the reactor pool.

Scientists use the neutrons for experiments on materials. 

Lab officials say the leak has been fixed and they don't think it 
will affect operations. 

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

   [http://www.worldnow.com]     All content © Copyright 2000 -
2004 WorldNow and WATE. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 72 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 15:04:20 -0700 (PDT)

 
HONEYTRAP for a nuclear whistleblower
Independent Online - South Africa
... secrets in 1986. His exposé also fingered South Africa as Israel's
nuclear partner. Vanunu faces a risky future. He cannot leave ...
<http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=vn20040422125558153C388025&set_id=1>
See all stories on this topic:
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NUCLEAR energy.
Latin America Press (subscription) - Peru
... denied having refused to let inspectors of the International Agency
of Atomic Energy (IAAE), an arm of the United Nations, examine a nuclear
plant under ...
<http://www.latinamericapress.org/article.asp?lanCode=1&artCode=3745>
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ISRAEL still making nuclear arms
Omaha World Herald - Omaha,NE,USA
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Israel continues to produce atomic weapons and has
hundreds of nuclear warheads, researchers said as the country released
a man who was ...
<http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=54&u_sid=1074325>
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VT. Nuclear Plant Seeks Missing Fuel Rod
Guardian - UK
...  (AP) - Engineers at a Vermont nuclear plant searched ... Sheehan cited
the heightened awareness of the need to control nuclear material that
followed the Sept. ...
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4007981,00.html>
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FRANCE chastises Iran on nuclear inspections
International Herald Tribune - Paris,France
PARIS In a hardening of Europe's position toward Iran's nuclear activities,
President Jacques Chirac of France has criticized Iran for failing to
comply fully ...
<http://www.iht.com/articles/516403.htm>
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NORTH Korea pledges patience and flexibility in resolving nuclear ... 
San Francisco Chronicle - San Francisco,CA,USA
North Korea said Thursday it would be "patient and flexible" at talks on
ending the standoff over its nuclear weapons programs, adding that leader
Kim Jong Il ...
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/04/22/international0857EDT0498.DTL>
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BUSH Would Not Tolerate Iranian Nuclear Weapon
Payvand - Iran
Washington, 21 April 2004 (RFE/RL) -- US President George W. Bush says
the development of a nuclear weapon in Iran would be "intolerable.". ...
<http://www.payvand.com/news/04/apr/1149.html>
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DOE reviewing documents NRC expects on Nevada nuclear dump
Las Vegas Sun - Las Vegas,NV,USA
... Department has begun a broad review of Yucca Mountain project technical
documents after auditors said shortcomings could delay Nuclear Regulatory
Commission ...
<http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2004/apr/22/042210219.html>
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BRITAIN cuts emissions from Sellafield nuclear plant
Environmental News Network - Berkeley,CA,USA
LONDON — A new chemical treatment will cut emissions of a radioactive
contaminant from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant by 90 percent,
Britain's ...
<http://www.enn.com/news/2004-04-22/s_23085.asp>
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TVA To Fix Defective Welds At North Alabama Nuclear Plant
NBC13.com - Birmingham,AL,USA
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant was cited for an apparent
safety violation after discovering workers failed to identify or account
for ...
<http://www.nbc13.com/news/3031800/detail.html>
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Try Google News:
http://news.google.com/
    
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