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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Bush Administration Reaffirms Concern Ove
2 Washington Times: Defending against Pyongyang's nukes
3 North Korea agrees to nuclear talks, wants rewards              
4 BBC: Date set for fresh N Korea talks 
5 Washington Post: N. Korea Agrees to New Nuclear Talks 
6 KoreaTimes: Working-Level Nuclear Talks Due on May 12 
7 US: Spectrum: Nuclear tests take spotlight at debate - 
8 US: KRT Wire: Wilson claims Cheney targeted him for discounting uran
9 US: Public Citizen: Lawmakers Should Not Resurrect Energy Bill
10 Bishop Offers Vanunu Unlimited Sanctuary in Church
11 UN Nuclear Agency Fights Not Just Weapons But Diseases Of Mass Destr
12 St. Petersburg Times: Russia and Hungary sign protocol on cooperatio
13 Reuters: Britain to block sale of BAE submarine yard -paper         
14 Daily Times: OP-ED: Vanunu can blow the whistle on America 
15 Daily Times: We won’t allow inspection of N-assets - Akram 
16 Japan Times: Mayors of 582 cities campaign to abolish nuclear weapon
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
17 US: Alert: Stop taxpayer money for new reactors
18 US: Today's Sunbeam: Nuclear complex gets approvals to expand storag
19 US: NRC: FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Issuance o
20 US: projo.com: Action postponed on legal change sought by Vt. Yankee
21 US: projo.com: Douglas OK with start-up before missing rods found   
22 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo panel may hear public voice
23 Globe and Mail: Police probe nuclear firm after bribery allegations 
24 US: Reuters: Exelon shuts Ill. Dresden 2 nuke again
25 BNN: Bulgaria Urges Probe About Alleged Corruption in Choosing 
26 News & Star: N-PLANT MEANS WE NEED TOP HOSPITAL 
27 US: Brattleboro Reformer: VY amendment delayed
28 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting Notice
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
29 [DU-WATCH] Iraq: DU Weapons Cause Dangerous Rise in Radiation
30 US: E Magazine: Do Cancers Cluster Around Atomic Plants?
31 US: [DU-WATCH] Bush admin knows about health effects of du
32 US: [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] San Francisco Bans Irradiated Food in
33 US: [RADFOOD] Irradiated Food Ban in San Francisco Schools!
34 US: Guardian Unlimited: Pentagon: Uranium Didn't Harm N.Y. Unit
35 US: NRC: Notice for Opportunity to Comment on Model Safety Evaluatio
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
36 US: [NukeNet] Radioactive Wastewater Spills Into Rhine
37 Las Vegas RJ: EDITORIAL: Yucca quality 
38 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: No real plan for hauling nuke waste
39 Las Vegas SUN: Former NRC member helping DOE on Yucca
40 US: Newsday: GAO Criticizes Feds Over Nuclear Dump
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
41 Daily Times: OP-ED: Rescuing nuclear non-proliferation 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
42 DOE: Agency Information Collection Extension
43 Tri-City Herald: Committee approves legislation allowing Hanford are
44 Rutland Herald: Senate to seek AG's opinion on 'four words' 
45 Contra Costa Times: Critics: Lab plans clash with cleanup strategy
46 Workers Finish Razing Last Uranium Production Building At Fernald
47 Oakland Tribune: Lab expansion is called threat to future
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
48 [DU-WATCH] "coming home" page
49 Google News Alert - nuclear
50 [DU-WATCH] DU Press Release verses the real story
51 Las Vegas RJ: Anti-nuclear crusader Bert Pfeiffer dies 
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Bush Administration Reaffirms Concern Over NK Nuclear Program   
 
      Updated Apr.29,2004 11:07 KST   
 
The Bush administration has reaffirmed its concern about North 
Korea's nuclear ambitions. The comments came as a major American 
newspaper reported intelligence officials now believe Pyongyang 
has more nuclear weapons than previously thought. 

It was front page news in Wednesday's Washington Post. The Post 
reported that the United States is preparing to increase its 
estimate of North Korea's existing nuclear arsenal. It quoted 
intelligence officials as saying the number of suspected nuclear 
weapons is likely to rise from one or two to at least eight. 

When asked about the report, White House Spokesman Scott 
McClellan said he is not aware of any new estimate, but did not 
deny the intelligence community might be working on one. 

Mr. McClellan says the Bush administration has serious, long 
standing concerns about North Korea's nuclear ambitions. He 
defended the president's emphasis on diplomacy in resolving the 
matter, saying it is important to keep making progress in the 
six-party talks. He said America's goal remains a nuclear-free 
Korean peninsula. 

At the State Department, Spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters 
there was no new official estimate from the intelligence 
community. He was also asked about the likelihood another round 
of talks could be held soon. 

"Consultations are actively underway on the subject of convening 
a meeting of the six-party working group in the near future. 
Hopefully, an announcement can be made soon," he said. 

Mr. Ereli said a meeting could take place as early as May, but 
added there is no agreement yet on a specific date. 

VOA News 
*****************************************************************
 2 Washington Times: Defending against Pyongyang's nukes
 
Editorials/OP-ED - April 29, 2004

dangers posed by other members of the Axis of Evil. North Korea,
in particular, has not been deterred from its plans to assemble
a large arsenal of nuclear weapons. Next month, a multi-agency
report is expected to be released that will raise the official
U.S. estimate of North Korea's nuclear-warhead count from two to
eight. London's International Institute for Strategic Studies
estimates that North Korea's current capability is to build four
to eight nuclear weapons a year but that production will
increase to as many as 20 per year by 2010. Washington and the
world should not ignore this growing nuclear capacity. 
 
The threat to American troops in Asia from North Korea is
imminent; the threat to our land is pending. Pyongyang already
has tested missiles that can reach U.S. troops in Japan and
perhaps hit Hawaii  and the delivery systems are constantly
being updated with the assistance of Red China. It will not be
long before North Korea's Communists will be able to hit the
West Coast, if they don't have the range already. Opponents of
missile defense  especially congressional Democrats  complain
that the technology is too expensive. Between now and 2009,
Washington has allocated $53 billion to develop missile defense.
In these dangerous times when rogue states are realizing their
long-held dreams of nuclear arms, it is necessary to spend
whatever it takes for protection from missile attack. 
<IMG
SRC="http://www.washingtontimes.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads
/new.washtimes.com/editorials/ed-house.htm/561638387/Middle/defau
lt/empty.gif/33666362653733643430393161633030"  WIDTH=2 HEIGHT=2
ALT="" BORDER=0 BORDER="0">
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shtimes.com/editorials/ed-house.htm/561638387/Middle/default/empt
y.gif/33666362653733643430393161633030] 
 
Those against missile defense also argue that the major
threat to America comes from terrorists sneaking across our
borders. That suggests a false choice. We do not have the luxury
to defend against one or the other of these twin threats. We
need to counter both. 
 
There has been some good news on the defense front this
week. On Tuesday, Gen. Ron Kadish, the Air Force officer in
charge of U.S. missile defense, announced that 10 missile
interceptors will be deployed by the end of the year that should
be able to protect all of the United States from North Korean
missiles. There are important tests scheduled over the next few
months, but even if these trials fail, the nation must remain
committed to the concept of knocking incoming nukes out of the
sky. 
 
Yesterday was North Korea Freedom Day at the U.S. Capitol.
Today, there is no freedom in the gulag state, so it is helpful
that protestors brought attention to human-rights atrocities
there. 
 
Even after last week's train explosion that killed or
injured at least 1,500 North Koreans, the government refused to
open its borders to let in relief trucks from the South. This is
not a surprise from a regime that has starved to death hundreds
of thousands of its own people. While this is a tragedy,
Pyongyang's nuclear weapons put the Stalinist dictatorship of
Kim Jong-il in a position to kill millions outside of its
borders as well. The threat has to be stopped. The missile
shield is promising but can only be considered a short-term
approach. Eventually, North Korea will have to be disarmed. 
 

 
*****************************************************************
 3 North Korea agrees to nuclear talks, wants rewards              

Thu Apr 29, 2004 05:47 AM ET                                                            

By Yoo Choonsik 

SEOUL (Reuters) - Leader Kim Jong-il agreed North Korea would
join a first round of six-party working level talks on his
nuclear programmes on May 12 after a visit to China this month,
media and officials said on Thursday. 

The lower-level talks to focus on detail rather than strategy
would be the first concrete result of two rounds of high-level
talks involving China, Russia, the two Koreas, the United States
and Japan in Beijing in the past year on North Korea's nuclear
weapons ambitions. 

The breakthrough came when the reclusive Kim made a rare visit
to Beijing this month and met Chinese President Hu Jintao to set
the May 12 date, Japan's Kyodo news agency said. 

Kim's trip came just days after a visit to Beijing by U.S. Vice
President Dick Cheney, who brought more evidence of North
Korea's efforts to develop a nuclear force. 

"There is no period set, there are no specific topics fixed,"
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck told reporters. 

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when U.S. officials
say communist North Korea disclosed it was working on a secret
programme to enrich uranium for weapons, in violation of an
international agreement. 

North Korea said it expected to discuss a reward for freezing
its nuclear plans but any breakthrough depended on Washington. 
"The DPRK side will attend this meeting to discuss the proposal
'reward for freeze'," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement
carried by the official KCNA news agency. DPRK is short for the
North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea. 

The proposal involves the North freezing nuclear plans in return
for compensation. 

The two protagonists to the talks are at odds on many issues,
including how to proceed on a U.S. offer to provide security
assurances if North Korea agrees to the complete, verifiable and
irreversible dismantling of its nuclear arms programmes. 

"Everything will depend on the U.S. attitude," the North's
Foreign Ministry said. "The U.S. attempt to while away time,
insisting on its wrong assertion, would not do it good, either.
The DPRK is by no means impatient."                            
 China, host of the six-party talks, and Russia said they hoped 
the working-group meeting would be a success.

"We hope all parties can make efforts to make the meeting work," 
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news 
conference in Beijing, confirming the May 12 date.

South Korea's Lee suggested only one working group meeting in 
Beijing was likely before the next round of six-way talks.

"As far as I know if North Korea wanted to have talks just once 
then there will be talks only once," he said.

The talks were expected to last about five days, Kyodo said.

The United States recently notified China it had accepted a May 
12 date for the inaugural working group meeting, Kyodo said.

TAKING STANDS

Discussion was likely to focus on the U.S. demand for complete, 
verifiable and irreversible dismantling, Lee said.

North Korea said that was unacceptable, but has in the past used 
tough words to boost its position before making a compromise.

"If the U.S. insists on this stand, the DPRK does not feel any 
need to sit at the negotiating table with it," the Foreign 
Ministry said.

One analyst said North Korea may soon cease its denials of a 
programme to enrich uranium to weapons grade, enabling progress.

"I believe North Korea will admit it has a uranium enrichment 
programme during the upcoming working-level talks or a third 
round of the six-party talks," said Hajime Izumi, Korea expert at 
Shizuoka Prefectural University near Tokyo.

The six parties have held two rounds of senior-level talks on the 
North's nuclear programmes, the first in August 2003 and the 
latest in February this year. They made little progress on how 
North Korea's nuclear programmes might be dismantled and its 
energy and security concerns addressed.

In the February talks in Beijing, the six agreed to meet again 
before mid-year and to start working-level talks before that to 
discuss the dispute. No progress had been reported since.

U.S. officials said on Wednesday Washington was working on a new 
intelligence estimate that is expected to find North Korea's 
nuclear weapons programmes more threatening than previously 
thought.

Asked about such a report, South Korea's Lee said: "When we asked 
the U.S. government about this report they explained that this 
report was groundless."

North Korea said last year it had restarted a frozen nuclear 
reactor and completed making weapons-grade plutonium from fuel 
extracted from the plant.

Pyongyang has reversed its reported admission to the United 
States that it had the uranium-based programme. 
*****************************************************************
 4 BBC: Date set for fresh N Korea talks 
 
  Last Updated: Thursday, 29 April, 2004
 
[North Korean spent nuclear fuel rods in Yongbyon] 

North Korea says it has reprocessed thousands of spent nuclear 
fuel rods                                                               

A fresh round of talks aimed at curbing North Korea's nuclear 
programme is to begin next month, South Korea has said. 

The six-party talks are to begin on 12 May in Beijing, South 
Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck said. 

Representatives of the two Koreas and China will be joined by 
envoys from the US, Russia and Japan at the talks. 

North Korea and the US are locked in confrontation over 
Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme; two rounds of talks to 
date have not produced an agreement. 

The May discussions will be lower-level talks aimed at clearing 
the way for a high-level meeting in June. 

Correspondents say China is seen as the key mediator in the 
nuclear standoff. 

The second round of six-nation aimed at resolving the crisis 
ended in Beijing in February without a final agreement. 

But the countries involved in the talks agreed to set up 
lower-level working groups to resolve specific problems before 
the June round of high-level negotiations. 

The nuclear crisis was sparked in October 2002 when US officials 
said North Korea had admitted to having a secret uranium-based 
nuclear programme, in violation of a 1994 agreement. 

It has since restarted a mothballed nuclear power station, thrown 
out United Nations nuclear inspectors and pulled out of the 
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. 

North Korea says it has reprocessed thousands of spent nuclear 
fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear facility, from which extracted 
plutonium can be used to manufacture nuclear bombs. 

The US insists that Pyongyang must dismantle its nuclear 
facilities. But Pyongyang says it will only do so in return for 
economic and energy aid, and security guarantees from Washington. 





*****************************************************************
 5 Washington Post: N. Korea Agrees to New Nuclear Talks 

(washingtonpost.com)
 
Six-Way Diplomatic Discussion to be Held in Beijing 

By Anthony Faiola and Edward Cody
 Washington Post Foreign Service
 Thursday, April 29, 2004; 12:38 PM 

TOKYO April 29 -- North Korea agreed Thursday to a round of 
lower-level diplomatic talks starting May 12 aimed at dismantling 
it nuclear weapons program, but bluntly stated through its 
official news service that Pyongyang must receive a "reward" for 
taking even the preliminary step of a nuclear freeze. 

Agreement on the new round of talks, to be held in Beijing 
between mid-ranking delegations from the United States, China, 
Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea, was confirmed 
Thursday by other participating countries, including China and 
South Korea. The new negotiations follow two previous rounds 
involving higher ranking diplomats from the six nations, but 
which failed to yield significant results. 

Although diplomatically at a lower level, the start of "working 
group" talks were hailed by Chinese and South Korean officials as 
step toward breaking the stalemate over North Korea's nuclear 
ambitions. But the Pyongyang government's statement on Thursday, 
attributed to a North Korean Foreign Ministry source on its 
official KCNA news service, immediately signaled just how far 
apart the two main participants -- the United States and North 
Korea -- remain from reaching a meaningful agreement. 

The Bush administration has taken a hard-line position that North 
Korea must agree to a complete, verifiable and irreversible 
dismantling -- now known as CVID -- of its nuclear programs 
without any immediate benefits up front. North Korea maintains 
that talks must address its demands for economic and diplomatic 
compensation, including oil shipments and a dropping of existing 
sanctions against it, in exchange for a temporary freeze. It is 
also demanding security assurances from Washington -- something 
the Bush administration has said it is willing to provide only 
within the context of a regional agreement involving North 
Korea's neighbors. 

Many U.S. officials are skeptical the working-level talks will 
yield much progress, in part because there is little incentive 
for either Pyongyang or Washington to reach an agreement before 
the U.S. presidential elections in November. 

On Thursday, North Korea publicly restated its demand of "reward 
for freeze." But the Bush administration has been loath to even 
use the word "freeze" at the negotiating table so far, believing 
it sounds too similar to a suspension deal on North Korea's 
nuclear programs reached in 1994 with the Clinton administration 
but which later fell apart. Instead, the Bush administration has 
said a freeze would only be acceptable if it were clearly tied to 
further steps toward dismantlement. 

U.S. official say the North Koreans admitted to breaking the 
Clinton agreement in late 2002, and since then, North Korea is 
believed to have made significant headway on its nuclear arsenal. 
The Washington Post reported this week that U.S. intelligence 
officials are set to raise its estimate of the number of nuclear 
devices Pyongyang now possesses from two previously to at least 
eight weapons. 

Urgency is mounting among the various nations involved in the 
talks over the impasse between Washington and Pyongyang. In 
particular, the governments in Beijing, Moscow and Seoul have 
urged Washington to be more flexible to prevent Pyongyang from 
officially becoming the world's newest nuclear power. 

Chinese officials suggested that despite North Korea's public 
demands, "this time the agenda will be open, and all the parties 
can present their views," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry 
spokesman, Kong Quan. "The basic goal is to prepare for the next 
round of six-party talks" between higher-ranking officials. 

Kong said China remains in contact with the five other nations 
involved in the talks and is working to narrow the agenda and 
duration of the working-group talks. 

Kong declined to say if the seemingly polarized positions have 
come any closer, adding: "China's goal is to accumulate 
consensus." 

Kong, at a regular ministry briefing, called on all governments 
involved in the talks to be patient. That was seen as an appeal 
to the Bush administration. Indeed, Vice President Cheney on his 
recent Asian tour suggested that time is running out on the 
Chinese-led diplomacy. 

"There is a saying in China, that you must be very patient to 
achieve results," he said. 

The nuclear issue was a centerpiece of a surprise summit held 
this month in Beijing between Chinese leaders and North Korea's 
ruler Kim Jong Il. But Kong evaded questions on whether North 
Korea's agreement to attend the working-level talks resulted from 
Kim's visit. 

However, he recalled a statement closing those talks in which the 
Chinese government quoted Kim as saying North Korea "will 
continue to adopt 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." 

Cody reported from Beijing. Staff writer Glenn Kessler 
contributed to this report from Washington. 

               © 2004 The Washington Post Company
*****************************************************************
 6 KoreaTimes: Working-Level Nuclear Talks Due on May 12 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times   

By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter

 A working-group meeting for the six-party talks, aimed at 
preparing for the full-scale negotiation to resolve the standoff 
over North Korea¡¯s nuclear programs, will be held on May 12 in 
Beijing, officials said on Thursday.

 Each of the six nations _ the two Koreas, the United States, 
Japan, China and Russia _ announced they have agreed to start the 
first working-level meeting as they agreed during the 
second-round talks in February.

 As the closing date and agendas have yet to be fixed, the 
upcoming get-together draws keen attention over whether it could 
lead to substantial fruits.

 ``The closing date has not been decided in advance,¡¯¡¯ a South 
Korean Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. 
``Very candid and in-depth discussions are expected in the 
upcoming meeting.¡¯¡¯

 The official explained Pyongyang and Beijing first made the 
proposal for the schedule right after Kim Jong-il, the North 
Korean leader, visited China on April 19 to 21 and then was 
agreed upon amongst the other four participating nations.

 Ning Fukui, Beijing¡¯s special envoy for Korean Peninsula 
affairs, came to Seoul yesterday to discuss agendas of next 
month¡¯s meeting with South Korean officials.

 After meeting today with Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, 
who has been the chief Seoul delegate to the previous two rounds 
of six-party talks, Ning will fly to Washington and Tokyo 
successively for similar purposes.

 The North Korean nuclear impasse erupted in October 2002, when 
the U.S. claimed that Pyongyang had broken their 1994 nuclear 
freeze agreement by launching a secret weapons program.

 Two rounds of six-party talks hosted by China to smooth out the 
crisis have so far failed to narrow differences over the U.S. 
demand and the North¡¯s denial that it was running an 
enriched-uranium program.

 The U.S. wants a complete, verifiable and irreversible 
dismantling (CVID) of all nuclear programs held by the North, 
while Pyongyang demands a security guarantee and compensation in 
return for its abandonment of the nuclear ambitions. 

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 04-29-2004 17:31         
*****************************************************************
 7 Spectrum: Nuclear tests take spotlight at debate - 

thespectrum.com
 
Thursday, April 29, 2004   

 Republican hopefuls take questions in bid to gain 2nd
Congressional seat

 By Jennifer Weaver jweaver@thespectrum.com 
  
Jud Burkett/Daily News 
Vying for the right to face Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, in
November's general election, GOP congressional candidates John
Swallow, left, and Tim Bridgewater, right, listen as fellow
candidate David Wilde fields a question during a debate
Wednesday in Cedar City. 

CEDAR CITY -- Michelle Thomas of St. George, brandishing a cotton 
ball taped to her arm, remained seated while asking the three 
Republican 2nd Congressional District candidates their positions 
on nuclear testing at the debate Wednesday sponsored by Southern 
Utah University Center of Politics and Public Service and KCSG. 

"I would stand but I haven't been able to stand for 26 years 
because I am a downwinder and I am passionate about this 
subject," Thomas said. "I'm much more passionate than your senior 
Senators and I'm wondering among the three of you...how are you 
going to bring that up with your two very, very senior Senators 
who have voted for (nuclear testing) to happen again." 

As with other Southern Utah questions posed by Dan Matheson and 
audience members during the two-hour debate, which included 
positions on education, water development, juvenile crime, and 
public lands, candidates Tim Bridgewater, John Swallow and David 
Wilde responded with differing points of view. 

"I think it's important to send an effective leader to Congress," 
said small business entrepreneur, Bridgewater as the designated 
first responder. 

"My dad was a downwinder. He received money under the RECA 
(Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) payments ... I think we 
understand it here in Utah more than anybody else in the world 
can understand it and we have to make the argument, 'Can I win 
that battle?' I don't know. But can I fight that battle and be 
heard? Absolutely," Bridgewater said. 

Swallow, former state senator from Sandy, responded by 
recognizing the political organization of the Senate and House 
and speaking on how he would rally representatives from both in 
making influential decisions, including those about nuclear 
testing in Nevada. 

"When I talk about how I'm going to lead out on these issues and 
these fights, I'm going to work closely with my delegation and 
with those great senior Senators," Swallow said. "But I'm not 
going to be held hostage by anybody. I'm going to fight for the 
people of Utah, and whatever I feel like is the right, with my 
conscious." 

He added, "I will go up and work with my legislative leadership, 
in Congress and in the House of Representatives and I will say to 
them, 'Look we've got a problem in the West. ... We've paid our 
price, we've done our turn. It's someone else's turn to do this. 
If we have to do it all, it's going to happen somewhere else.'" 

Wilde -- a Salt Lake County Council member -- validated Thomas' 
fervor on the issue and acknowledged that he's not educated on 
every issue brought to his attention. 

"I like to listen to what other people have to say and I like to 
hear all points of view, and I then like to make a fair and 
reasonable decision recognizing that I have a responsibility for 
certain people that I represent," Wilde said. "I want to take 
that same attitude as a member of Congress, to be an advocate for 
the people I represent, but also to recognize that I have a 
certain responsibility to the United States of America as a 
whole, to try to do the right thing for this country as a whole." 

All three candidates said they wanted less federal oversight and 
more local control, but they dissented in which methods would be 
best to accomplish the feat. Bridgewater said he wanted to cut 
government taxes and change the tax code while Swallow said he 
would bring local Utah voices to Washington, D.C. with coalitions 
to address federal committees and appropriation councils. Wilde 
suggested he'd shrink the federal government by allowing federal 
mandates without funding, such as the No Child Left Behind Act, 
to be turned over to states' control. 

With various polls showing Swallow and Bridgewater to be 
neck-and-neck, with Wilde close behind, the race in the 2nd 
District is anticipated to be a nail biter. The winner in the 
upcoming Republican state convention, May 7, will compete for the 
seat held by incumbent Rep. Jim Matheson, D-2, in the general 
election in November. 

"This is a hot district," said SUU President Steve Bennion. 
"There are only a handful of very competitive Congressional races 
throughout the country and I think this is going to be one of 
them that not only Utah will be watching closely, but the entire 
nation will be watching closely." 

Originally published Thursday, April 29, 2004
 
 Copyright ©2004 The Spectrum. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 8 KRT Wire: Wilson claims Cheney targeted him for discounting uranium claims

| 04/29/2004 | 

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY

 Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. diplomat told Knight Ridder on 
Thursday that Vice President Dick Cheney's office mounted a 
campaign to discredit him after he challenged President Bush's 
claim that Saddam Hussein had secretly tried to buy uranium in 
Africa for nuclear weapons. 

The campaign, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV charged, 
included calls to reporters revealing that his wife was an 
undercover CIA officer. 

Wilson spoke the day before a book he's written, "The Politics of 
Truth," goes on sale. 

He visited the West African nation of Niger in February 2002 on a 
CIA-sponsored trip to examine the claim that Iraq had tried to 
buy uranium there. Wilson found no evidence to substantiate the 
allegation and briefed officials in Washington. 

Nevertheless, in his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003, 
Bush said Iraq had secretly tried to buy uranium in Africa for a 
nuclear weapon. 

"According to a number of sources from different walks of life, 
there was a meeting held in March (2003) in the offices of the 
vice president ... chaired by either the vice president himself 
or more likely Scooter Libby, in which the decision was made to 
do a `work-up' on me," Wilson said. "In other words, to find out 
everything they could about me." 

Libby is Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. 

"They clearly came across my wife's name and they decided to put 
my wife's name out on the street" as part of a "campaign to drag 
my wife into the public square and beat her to get at me," Wilson 
said. 

White House spokesman Scott McClellan didn't respond to Wilson's 
allegation and questioned his motives instead, saying Wilson 
supports Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, Bush's Democratic 
rival in the November election. 

"Mr. Wilson has publicly stated that he has a political agenda 
aimed at defeating the president," McClellan said. 

Cheney's spokesman, Kevin Kellems, answered a call for comment 
but had no immediate response. 

Wilson said he'd endorsed Kerry, but that his book was mostly 
about his 23-year diplomatic career, which included running the 
U.S. Embassy in Baghdad during the run-up to the 1991 Persian 
Gulf War, when he was deputy chief of the mission. 

In writing about the uranium episode, Wilson said he was 
exercising his right to hold his government "accountable." 

He said he based his allegation about Cheney's office on "what 
people inside Washington have told me, people who are close to 
it, people who for one reason or another are unwilling to speak 
out or be heard themselves, journalists who have told me that 
this White House is absolutely ruthless to them." 

The publicity is almost certain to revive questions about the 
bogus, exaggerated or fabricated intelligence that the president 
used in making his case for war. American troops have suffered 
their highest monthly casualty toll this month since invading 
Iraq in March 2003. 

The book also is expected to draw new attention to a U.S. grand 
jury probe into who in the White House leaked the identity of 
Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. It's a federal crime to disclose 
the names of U.S. intelligence officers. 

Wilson said he didn't know who leaked his wife's identity to 
syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak and five other journalists 
in July 2003. 

"It's not that I can actually point my finger and say this is the 
guy who did it, because I am not doing the investigation," Wilson 
said. 

Only Novak disclosed Plame's name, in a column on July 14, 2003, 
in which he said his sources were two senior administration 
officials. 

Novak's piece appeared 12 days after The New York Times published 
an opinion piece by Wilson in which he disclosed that he'd 
conducted a secret mission to Niger and said that by using the 
uranium allegation, the Bush administration had "twisted" 
intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." 

Knight Ridder reported in June 2003 that the CIA had warned the 
White House some 10 months before the speech that the allegation 
hadn't checked out. 

In his 2003 State of the Union address, the president told the 
country that "The British government has learned that Saddam 
Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from 
Africa." 

The charge was intended to bolster Bush's contention that the 
Iraqi dictator had to be ousted because he was hiding biological, 
chemical and nuclear weapons programs that he could use to arm 
terrorists.   

*****************************************************************
 9 Public Citizen: Lawmakers Should Not Resurrect Energy Bill
 
April 28, 2004 

Statement of Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook 

In what is yet another attempt by Republicans to force a bad 
energy bill down the countrys throat, 

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has dredged up the bill  minus 
its tax package  and offered it as an amendment to the Internet 
tax bill. The third time is a charm, is what Domenici must be 
thinking. But for the sake of U.S. consumers, it should be three 
strikes and out  for good. 

On Tuesday, most Senate insiders were declaring that there would 
be no movement on the energy bill until fall, but much can change 
in a day. Aside from a political process that warrants much 
criticism due to its questionable ethics and closed-door 
negotiations, the energy bills contents have great potential to 
severely damage consumers pocketbooks and the fragile economy. 

Even without the $10.5 billion giveaways to the oil, gas, coal 
and nuclear industries  now attached to the corporate tax bill  
and without the liability waiver for MTBE producers, the bill is 
still a bad deal for consumers. Of most concern is the proposed 
repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), which 
industry insiders agree will result in massive consolidation of 
utility ownership, rather than the promotion of competition, as 
repeal advocates claim. Enacted in 1935, PUHCA has for nearly 70 
years limited the investment of utility profits in unrelated 
business ventures, prohibiting expansion-minded corporations from 
using captured ratepayers to fund risky investment schemes that 
do nothing to improve service reliability or keep electricity 
rates low. 

PUHCA also has prevented the creation of an oil, electric and 
natural gas cartel, since PUHCA prevents oil companies from 
owning electric and natural gas public utilities. Repealing PUHCA 
would therefore open up at least $1 trillion dollars worth of 
utility assets for purchase by any company, including oil 
companies. This includes $600 billion in investor-owned electric 
utility assets, $300 billion in municipal-owned electric assets 
and $100 billion in natural gas distribution assets. Repealing 
PUHCA would eliminate any effective method of limiting the size 
of such holding companies. It is therefore the largest dollar 
figure at stake in the bill, although the public has remained 
largely unaware of this. 

If PUHCA is repealed, consumers will lose the ability to demand 
accountability from conglomerates that will acquire our essential 
public utilities and expand utility revenues without federal 
oversight. No responsible lawmaker should support this bill. ### 

 
[http://www.citizen.org/about/articles.cfm?ID=6272]              
*****************************************************************
 10 Bishop Offers Vanunu Unlimited Sanctuary in Church
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:41:38 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #13

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO SUPPORTIVE LISTS

In this Alert:
1. Bishop Offers Vanunu Unlimited Sanctuary in Church
      - Update and three recent newspaper articles
2. Writing to Mordechai

=================
1. Bishop offers Vanunu unlimited sanctuary in church

Dear Supporters of Mordechai Vanunu,

      Since his release from prison last week, Mordechai Vanunu has been 
staying in an apartment at St. George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem as the 
guest of Anglican Bishop Riah Abu al-Assal.
      The presence of such a notorious and threatened guest has posed some 
practical challenges for the church.  Yet despite the pressure from press, 
paparazzi, Israeli security agents, and stalking right-wingers, Bishop Riah 
al-Assal, just back from a trip to Jordan and Lebanon, on Monday assured 
Vanunu of unlimited sanctuary.
      Mordechai has been permitted by state authorities to receive approved 
visitors, and he is not, for the time being, giving interviews.  His 
brother Meir is with him at the Cathedral.  Visiting supporters report 
Mordechai is doing very well, considering the sum of his experiences over 
the last week, and he is eager to leave Israel. An appeal to the High Court 
of the various restrictions on his liberty is expected to be heard within 
weeks.  If necessary, other diplomatic options may then be pursued.

      The following press reports provide background on this development:

Anglican Bishop Offers Vanunu Unlimited Sanctuary in Church
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent*
JERUSALEM, April 28 - Anglican Bishop Abu Al Assal has offered Mordechai 
Vanunu unlimited sanctuary at St. George's church's guest house in East 
Jerusalem. The Bishop, who returned on Monday from a trip to Jordan and 
Lebanon, put an end to waves of speculation about Vanunu's future residence 
- one report had Vanunu about to move to a larger Anglican church in Nazareth.
      Last night, Bishop Assal held a dinner for Vanunu, to express his 
support for the former nuclear technician who was recently freed from 
Shekma Prison. Vanunu and his brother Meir have not left the grounds of St. 
George's church for days.
      This week, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which is 
representing Vanunu, and Israeli security officials worked out procedures 
for examining journals and letters confiscated from Vanunu's prison cell. 
Under the terms of this agreement, ACRI attorney Dan Yakir will receive a 
special security clearance, and will be authorized to review the disputed 
materials.
      The most controversial item is a journal which Vanunu says he wrote 
in 1991, and which reportedly features written explanations and drawings 
relating to production processes at Dimona nuclear reactor.
      Yehiel Horev, the chief security officer for the Defense Ministry, 
has indicated that this journal justifies the imposition of security 
restrictions on Vanunu, on the grounds that he still possesses classified 
information about the reactor and the will to disclose it. ACRI says the 
journal belongs to Vanunu and that it is needed for the preparation of a 
High Court petition calling for lifting current restrictions on him.

Bishop Fears Murder Attempt on Vanunu
By Ian MacKinnon
The uncertain fate of the Israeli whistle-blower given church sanctuary
JERUSALEM, April 27 - The Anglican bishop who has given Mordechai Vanunu, 
the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower, sanctuary in a Jerusalem cathedral said 
yesterday that he had grave concerns for the life of the Christian convert 
amid threats from Jewish extremists.
      "My fear is that someone with a gun will come in here and get him," 
the Right Rev Riah Abu al-Assal, Bishop of Jerusalem, said. "We wouldn't 
like anything to happen to him anywhere in the world, least of all while 
he's in the sanctuary of a church."
      However, the bishop, who is thought to be under pressure from the 
Israeli authorities to evict Mr Vanunu from St George's  Cathedral, 
declined to give an open-ended commitment to allow him to stay as long as 
he wished.
      Despite real fears for Mr Vanunu's safety from extremists - Yitzak 
Rabin, the former Prime Minister, was assassinated by a right-wing Jew - 
security around the cathedral's residential compound in east Jerusalem was 
non-existent yesterday.
      Occasional visitors were buzzed through the electronic front gate and 
permitted to wander unchallenged through the high-walled gardens of gravel 
paths, roses and ancient olive trees where Mr Vanunu, 50, had been seen 
eating lunch in the afternoon sun.
      The Israeli Government has not offered protection to Mr Vanunu, who 
is widely detested for leaking the country's nuclear secrets to The Sunday 
Times in 1986. Tommy Lapid, the Justice Minister, said dismissively that Mr 
Vanunu, who was in jail for 18 years, had hundreds of supporters around him 
to ensure his safety.
      Family members refused to divulge Mr Vanunu's next move, but conceded 
that he could not rely on the Church's hospitality indefinitely. Meir 
Vanunu, his brother, said they were aware of the cathedral's delicate 
position in relation to the Israeli authorities.
A lawyer from Israel's civil rights' association, which is helping Mr 
Vanunu to fight restrictions that prevent him leaving the country for at 
least a year, said that the case could take a month to come before the 
Supreme Court and up to three months to conclude. Part of the petition due 
to be filed by the end of the week will include fears for Mr Vanunu's 
safety if he is forced to remain in the country for 12 months, particularly 
since Israel's security establishment leaked his planned address.
      "There's no more hated man in Israel than Mordechai Vanunu," Meir 
Vanunu said. "Without a shadow of doubt, while he remains here his life is 
at risk. If he can't have security in a church, where can he have it?"
      The bishop, who had given up his living quarters to Mr Vanunu while 
he was out of the country until his return yesterday, said that he would 
have to consult church authorities and Mr Vanunu to decide on the next 
steps for the guest.Nevertheless, he believed that it was the Church's duty 
to provide sanctuary to those in fear for their lives, just as Jews had 
received shelter in convents and monasteries during the Second World War.
      "If the Church is not a shelter, where is?" Bishop al-Assal said. 
"The Church doesn't offer sanctuary to every homeless person that comes 
along. But those in need, like Mordechai Vanunu, who have spent a long time 
in prison and suffered for their beliefs, deserve our help."
      The bishop said that if the Israeli authorities did not want Mr 
Vanunu to remain, they would have to put their demands in writing. Two 
police officers who had visited Mr Vanunu at the church on the night of his 
release turned up again yesterday at his quarters.

'Protect Vanunu' Plea to Archbishop
By Ian MacKinnon
JERUSALEM, April 26 - The Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu 
yesterday abandoned plans to worship at the Anglican cathedral where he has 
taken refuge, for fear that an assassin would infiltrate the congregation.
      Mr Vanunu's brother, Meir, appealed to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to press Israel to allow his brother to leave the country.
      The Israeli Government says that Mr Vanunu may not leave for at least 
a year because it says he could reveal more secrets and endanger national 
security. But the Government has also declined to offer Mr Vanunu any 
protection, despite threats against him.
      Right-wing thugs from the outlawed Kahane movement clashed with Mr 
Vanunu's supporters and threw stones at his car as he completed 18 years in 
jail last week. One extremist, Itamar Bengevir, flung himself at the car 
and turned up outside the Jerusalem cathedral's residential quarters the 
next day, pledging to stalk the "traitor". "We will pursue Vanunu wherever 
he goes," Mr Bengevir told The Times last night. "He's hiding in church. 
Why's that? Because he's afraid of us. Wherever he goes we'll be there. 
He'll never be able to walk free until the last day of his life. My 
suggestion to him is to go back to prison. He'll never lead a normal life."
      An Israeli human rights group demanded that the justice department 
should investigate the editor of the mass-circulation Maariv on "suspicion 
of incitement to murder". A reader poll asked what should happen to Mr 
Vanunu with one option: "Kill him".
      Mr Vanunu, who was jailed for leaking nuclear secrets to The Sunday 
Times, yesterday remained hidden inside the cloistered gardens of St 
George's, with only two church wardens as security.
      Mr Vanunu was offered sanctuary by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, 
the Right Rev Riah Abu al-Assal, after his planned temporary address in 
Jaffa was leaked by the security establishment. Within hours, Mr Vanunu 
fulfilled a long-held desire by taking Holy Communion.
      However, his brothers Meir and Asher recognize that the lodgings at 
the cathedral are only a temporary solution. Mr Vanunu is expected to leave 
the compound today where he had been staying in the quarters of the bishop, 
who returns to the country today.
      Hopes that the Government would relent and allow him quietly to leave 
the country to avoid further embarrassment appeared groundless.
      A spokesman in Ariel Sharon's office said that Mr Vanunu's release 
conditions were set because he was a security risk, adding: "The less we 
talk about him the quicker he will fade into oblivion."

=================
2. Writing to Mordechai

At this time, you may send letters and cards of support (no books or 
valuables, please) to:
Mordechai Vanunu
c/o the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
POB 43384
Tucson, AZ 85733

We are still not certain where Mordechai can receive mail, nor whether he 
will be permitted to receive all mail from overseas.  The U.S. Campaign 
will hold this mail and have it delivered to Mordechai as soon as we are 
assured it will reach him.
=================
If you would like to receive these alerts directly, please subscribe by 
sending a blank e-mail to free_vanunu-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

- END -
Jack Cohen-Joppa
Associate Coordinator
U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
POB 43384
Tucson, AZ 85733
Phone/Fax 520-323-8697
freevanunu@mindspring.com
<http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu>http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 11 UN Nuclear Agency Fights Not Just Weapons But Diseases Of Mass Destruction Too
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 11:00:47 -0400

 

 
UN NUCLEAR AGENCY FIGHTS NOT JUST WEAPONS BUT DISEASES OF MASS DESTRUCTION 
TOO
New York, Apr 29 2004 11:00AM
The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, better known for its 
efforts to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction, today 
drew attention to its role in another battle – the war against 
diseases of mass destruction. 

Scientists at the International Atomic Energy Agency <"http://www.iaea.org/About/index.html"> 
(IAEA) research laboratories near Vienna 
are targeting malaria-transmitting mosquitoes with a radiation-based 
method called the “sterile insect technique” to stanch a 
disease that kills as many as 3,000 people each day in sub-Saharan 
Africa alone. 

“The IAEA multi-year project is designed to support national, regional 
and global efforts, including those of the World Health Organization 
(WHO), to combat the disease,” the Agency said in a news 
release spotlighting recent press reports on its role in the war 
on malaria, still among the world’s biggest health threats. Up 
to 500 million cases of malaria are clinically diagnosed each year. 


The “sterile insect technique” has a long track record against health-threatening 
insects, including the tsetse fly that transmits 
sleeping sickness. 
 2004-04-29 00:00:00.000 

________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml
*****************************************************************
 12 St. Petersburg Times: Russia and Hungary sign protocol on cooperation in nuclear
projects 

RosBusinessConsulting - News Online
 
      RBC, 29.04.2004, Moscow 19:30:22.Russian Energy Minister
Viktor Khristenko and Hungarian Ambassador to Moscow have signed
a protocol to the intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in
constructing the Paks power station in Hungary, the Russian
ministry announced. The two parties have signed the agreement in
December 28, 1966. Russian-Hungarian cooperation in peaceful
nuclear projects is based on this agreement. The protocol
provides a legal base for the ongoing cooperation in nuclear
fuel supplies and return of nuclear waste to the country of its
origin. Hungary's joining the EU might have affected
Russian-Hungarian cooperation in peaceful nuclear projects, but
the two parties have proved their intention to cooperate
further, the ministry stressed in its written release.

      Similar power stations are built in the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Lithuania. 17 contracts on nuclear fuel supplies to
theses countries are effective currently. After negotiations
with the EU, the union has agreed with Russia on validity of the
existing contracts after the upcoming expansion. 

   Send your comments and suggestions to  [webmaster@rbc.ru] 
Send your notes and suggestions to  [max@rbc.ru] 
All rights reserved © 1995-2000 RosBusinessConsulting 
*****************************************************************
 13 Reuters: Britain to block sale of BAE submarine yard -paper              
         
Wed Apr 28, 2004 08:10 PM ET                                                            

LONDON, April 29 (Reuters) - The British government is insisting 
that defence firm BAE Systems' sale of its shipbuilding arm does 
not include its submarine yard, citing concerns about security, 
the Telegraph reported on Thursday. 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is concerned over a change of 
control of Britain's only nuclear submarine builder, the 
newspaper reported, citing an unnamed MoD source. 

The source told the paper that the MoD was also keen to ensure
"security of supply for Britain's armed forces." 

Earlier this week BAE, Europe's biggest defence company, said
was viewing the possible sale of its UK naval shipbuilding
operations. 

Neither the MoD nor BAE were immediately available to comment.

But the Telegraph quoted an unnamed BAE source as saying the
company remained committed to selling the whole division. 
The report comes amid press speculation of a rift between the
company and the MoD. 		 		

   [http://www.reuters.com]
*****************************************************************
 14 Daily Times: OP-ED: Vanunu can blow the whistle on America 

April 30, 2004    


—Uri Avnery 

The world must be prevented by all available means from hearing, 
from the lips of a credible witness, that the Americans are full 
partners in Israel’s nuclear arms programme, while pretending to 
be the world’s sheriff for the prevention of nuclear 
proliferation

In the darkness of a cinema, a woman’s voice says: “Hey! Take 
your hands off! Not you! YOU!” This old joke illustrates the 
American policy regarding nuclear weapons in the Middle East. 
“Hey, you there, Iraq and Iran and Libya, stop it! Not YOU, 
Israel!”

The danger of nuclear arms was the main pretext for the invasion 
of Iraq. Iran is threatened in order to compel it to stop its 
nuclear efforts. Libya has surrendered and is dismantling its 
nuclear installations. So what about Israel?

This week it became clear that the Americans are full partners in 
the creation of Israel’s ‘nuclear option’.

How was this exposed? With the help of Mordecai Vanunu, of 
course. Throughout the week, a festival was being celebrated 
around the prisoner, who was released on April 21st. The security 
establishment has not stopped harassing him even after he has sat 
in prison for 18 years, 11 of them in complete solitary 
confinement — a treatment he himself described on leaving the 
prison as ‘cruel and barbaric’. After he was ‘set free’, 
far-reaching restrictions were imposed on him (e.g. he is 
forbidden to leave the country, is restricted to one town, cannot 
go near any embassy or consulate, may not talk with foreign 
citizens). All this under the colonial British emergency 
regulations that were condemned at the time by the leaders of the 
Jewish community in Palestine, as ‘worse than the Nazi laws’.

Not, God forbid, because of any desire for revenge!

The security people declared from every podium that this is not 
revenge for all the shame Vanunu caused the security services, 
and is by no means just more persecution, but an essential 
security requirement. He must not be allowed to leave the country 
or to speak with foreigners and journalists, because he is in 
possession of secrets vital to the security of the state.

Everybody understands that he has no more secrets. What can a 
technician know after 18 years in jail, during which technology 
has advanced with giant steps? But gradually it is becoming clear 
what the security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in 
a position to expose the close partnership with the United States 
in the development of Israel’s nuclear armaments.

This worries Washington so much that the man responsible in the 
State Department for ‘arms control’, Under Secretary John Bolton, 
has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it 
appears, can cause severe damage to the mighty superpower. The 
Americans are afraid of sounding like the lady in the dark 
cinema. (By the way, this John Bolton is an avid supporter of the 
group of Zionists neo-cons who play a central role in the Bush 
theatre. He opposes arms control for the United States and its 
satellites, and was installed in the State Department against the 
wishes of the Secretary of State himself.)

In the short address Vanunu was able to make to the media 
immediately on his release, he made a strange remark: that the 
young woman who served as bait for his kidnapping, some 18 years 
ago, was not a Mossad agent, as generally assumed, but an agent 
of the FBI or CIA. Why was it so urgent for him to convey this?

From the first moment, there was something odd about the Vanunu 
affair. 

At the beginning, my first thought was that he was a Mossad 
agent. Everything pointed in that direction. 

How else can one explain a simple technician’s success in 
smuggling a camera into the most secret and best-guarded 
installation in Israel? And in taking photos apparently without 
hindrance? How else to explain the career of that person who, as 
a student at Beer-Sheva University, was well-known as belonging 
to the extreme left and spending his time in the company of Arab 
fellow-students? How was he allowed to leave the country with 
hundreds of photos? How was he able to approach a British paper 
and to turn over to British scientists material that convinced 
them that Israel had 200 nuclear bombs?

Absurd, isn’t it? But it all fits, if one assumes that Vanunu 
acted from the beginning on a mission for the Mossad. His 
disclosures in the British newspaper not only caused no damage to 
the Israeli government, but on the contrary, strengthened the 
Israeli deterrent without committing the government, which was 
free to deny everything.

What happened next only reinforced this assumption. While in 
London, in the middle of his campaign of exposures, knowing that 
half a dozen intelligence services are tracking his every 
movement, he starts an affair with a strange woman, is seduced 
into following her to Rome, where he is kidnapped and shipped 
back to Israel. How naïve can you be? Is it credible for a 
reasonable person to fall into such a primitive trap? It is not. 
Meaning that the whole affair was nothing but a classic cover 
story.

But when the affair went on, and details of the yearlong daily 
mistreatment of the man became public, I had to give up this 
initial theory. I had to face the fact that our security services 
are even more stupid than I had assumed (which I wouldn’t have 
believed possible) and that all these things actually had 
happened, and that Mordecai Vanunu was an honest and idealistic, 
if extremely naïve, person.

I have no doubt that his personality was shaped by his 
background. He is the son of a family with many children, who 
were quite well-off in Morocco but lived in a primitive 
‘transition camp’ in Israel, before moving to Be’er-Sheva, where 
they lived in poverty. In spite of this, he succeeded in getting 
into university and got a master’s degree, quite an achievement, 
but suffered, so it seems, from the overbearing attitude and 
prejudices of his Ashkenazi peers. Undoubtedly, that pushed him 
towards the company of the extreme left, where such prejudices 
were not prevalent.

The bunch of ‘security correspondents’ and other commentators who 
are attached to the udders of the security establishment have 
already spread stories about Vanunu ‘imagining things’, his long 
stay in solitary confinement causing him to ‘convince himself of 
all kinds of fantasies’ and to ‘invent all kinds of 
fabrications’. Meaning: the American connection.

Against this background one can suddenly understand all these 
severe restrictions, which, at first sight, look absolutely 
idiotic. The Americans, it seems, are very worried. The Israeli 
security services have to dance to their tune. The world must be 
prevented by all available means from hearing, from the lips of a 
credible witness, that the Americans are full partners in 
Israel’s nuclear arms programme, while pretending to be the 
world’s sheriff for the prevention of nuclear proliferation.

“And the lady cried: “Not you! YOU!”

Uri Avnery is a leading Israeli writer and peace activist and a 
former member of Knesset Home | Editorial           


      EDITORIAL: We need security-sector reform OP-ED: Rescuing 
nuclear non-proliferation —N Hassan Wirajuda OP-ED: The gods of 
globalisation —Akbar S Ahmed OP-ED: Vanunu can blow the whistle 
on America —Uri Avnery 
 
      OP-ED: Terrorism and the Internet —Gabriel Weimann SECOND 
OPINION: Polluting religion without purifying politics —Khaled 
Ahmed’s Urdu Press Review PURPLE PATCH: Military Depreciation of 
Strategy —Bernard Brodie LETTERS: ZAHOOR'S CARTOON:   

  

  
            
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] 

  


*****************************************************************
 15 Daily Times: We won’t allow inspection of N-assets - Akram 

 Friday, April 30, 2004    

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Wednesday said that while it 
supported non-proliferation and disarmament it would neither 
accept any demand for access to its nuclear installations, nor 
allow inspection of its nuclear assets and facilities.

“We will not share any information — technical, military or 
political — that could affect our national security and 
interests,” Pakistanan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram said, 
while speaking on the UN Security Council resolution on 
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

He said Pakistan would continue developing its nuclear, missile 
and related strategic capability to maintain the minimum credible 
deterrence in relation to its eastern neighbour, which he said 
had embarked on an extensive programme to develop its nuclear 
weapons, missile technology and acquire conventional arms.

“We have proposed creating a Strategic Restraint Regime in South 
Asia. We hope to promote such a regime under the composite 
dialogue recently agreed between India and Pakistan,” he said. Mr 
Akram said that an experts’ level meeting on nuclear confidence 
building measures would be held next month. 

Mr Akram said Pakistan believed that preventing WMD proliferation 
by ‘non-state’ actors and by states should be best addressed on 
universal and ‘non-discriminatory’ forums.

He said biological weapons were most likely WMD that could be 
acquired by terrorists and others and therefore a universal and 
an equitable verification mechanism to prevent proliferation of 
biological weapons was more essential than ever. “We hope that 
negotiations to elaborate international treaties on the issues 
addressed in the present resolution will be initiated and 
concluded as soon as possible, thus relieving the Security 
Council of the exceptional responsibilities it has assumed under 
this draft resolution,” he said.

He said several states, including Pakistan were not party to the 
Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, the Nuclear Suppliers Group or 
the Missile Technology Control Regime. He said the nuclear 
non-proliferation regime needed to realise the reality of the 
existence of nuclear weapons in South Asia. He said the 
recognition of this reality would enable Pakistan to cooperate 
more in efforts to promote the objectives of non-proliferation 
and nuclear disarmament.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said in Islamabad 
on Thursday that Pakistan, with the help of other member 
countries, evolved a fairer and effective text of the recently 
passed UN Resolution on weapons of mass destruction and ensured 
that it did not have any loopholes.

“Pakistan played a key role in steering the Security Council 
towards a balanced and sound course of action,” the spokesman 
said. 

He said that Pakistan had voted for the resolution because “we 
subscribe to the central objective of the resolution to prevent 
terrorists and other non-state actors from developing or 
acquiring weapons of mass destruction”. —APP Home | Main           


      American forces start pulling out of Fallujah: Ten US 
troops killed in a day EU concludes cooperation deal with 
Pakistan $701 million aid package for Pakistan sent to US 
Congress 
 
      Brokers hope foreigners will register: Qaeda men too scared 
to register: Brig Shah Bush says he answered every question by 
9/11 panel Major power breakdown We won’t allow inspection of 
N-assets: Akram Canadian Muslims getting Sharia courts   
            
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by 
WorldCALL Internet Solutions [http://www.wcis.com.pk] 
*****************************************************************
 16 Japan Times: Mayors of 582 cities campaign to abolish nuclear weapons

  Friday, April 30, 2004   

UNITED NATIONS (AP) Led by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 
leaders of 582 cities worldwide are campaigning to abolish 
nuclear weapons by 2020.

 Representing the likes of London, Berlin, Toronto and Tel Aviv, 
they call themselves Mayors for Peace.

 Speaking at a news conference Wednesday at the United Nations, 
Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said the group, formed in 1982, 
has been aiming to gain wider support over the last year due to 
the war in Iraq and the attention paid to weapons of mass 
destruction.

 As mayor of the first atomic-bombed city, Akiba said he speaks 
for hibakusha "who have gone through a living hell and have been 
warning the world that . . . no one else should go through that 
experience."

 "We represent those voices who say the nuclear weapons threat is 
real," he said.

 Local government leaders involved in Mayors for Peace say they 
fulfill a role in the nuclear debate that national leaders cannot 
because they are closer to the concerns of their cities' 
residents and can cooperate closely with other local-level 
governments around the world.

 "We are elected people who answer to ordinary people in the 
street. And we are much closer to them than (central) 
governments," said Jenny Jones, deputy mayor of London.

 The group hopes to spur public support for the campaign over the 
next year, leading up to the next Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty 
review conference in 2005. Its goal is to convince governments to 
sign onto a "road map" for the elimination of nuclear weapons by 
2020, said Akiba, president of the group.

 A Mayors for Peace delegation, which includes Nagasaki Mayor 
Itchu Itoh, Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Yael Dayan and Waitakere, 
Auckland, New Zealand Mayor Bob Harvey, has made a presentation 
at the United Nations and visited the Chinese, Russian and other 
U.N. diplomatic missions in New York City to drum up support for 
the initiative -- and generally found people to be supportive, 
Akiba said. "What we have seen and accomplished here is very 
encouraging," he said.

 Asked about how the group proposes keeping nuclear weapons from 
terrorists, Jones said that is a concern that local government 
officials in London spend a great deal of time worrying about.

 "The terrorist threat is huge," she said. "We spend a lot of 
money trying to find out about potential terrorist threats. This 
is exactly why we need to abolish nuclear weapons."

 The Japan Times: April 30, 2004 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 17 Alert: Stop taxpayer money for new reactors
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:41:50 -0700

 
<x-flowed>

ALERT ALERT ALERT

CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY!

TELL THEM TO OPPOSE MORE TAXPAYER MONEY FOR NEW NUCLEAR POWER AND TO OPPOSE 
THE ENERGY BILL

Two bills are coming to the Senate floor that must be stopped. Senate 
Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) has been promising to pass 
the energy bill (most recently S. 2095) by splitting it and adding it to 
other pending legislation. He is doing just that with these two bills.

The first bill, called the Internet Tax Non-discrimination Act of 2003" (S. 
150) and having nothing to do with energy, looks like it will be voted on 
today, Thursday, April 29, 2004. Through a bizarre and convoluted 
legislative process, the policy part of the energy bill (S 2095) will be 
added as an amendment. We must stop S 2095. See NIRS fact sheet 
(http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/S2095factsheet.htm for specific reasons why 
this bill is bad.

The second bill, called the Corporate Tax Bill or FSC/ETI bill, (S 1637), 
may be up for debate as early as next week. Domenici has threatened to add 
the 1.8 cents per KwH production tax credit (PTC) for nuclear power to this 
bill as an amendment. The other tax provisions of the energy bill are 
already added. While we have no language yet because he hasn't officially 
offered the nuclear amendment, we feel quite sure the language won't 
change. This tax credit will amount to at least 6 billion dollars of 
taxpayer money being used to build new atomic reactors, and could reach as 
much as $15 or even $19 billion over its lifetime. Again, we must stop 
these tax credits. The best way to do this is stop this amendment before it 
is added so even if the bill doesn't appear next week, call anyway! For 
more specifics on the PTC, please see 
http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/ProductionTaxCredits.htm

Call your senators now--the message is: OPPOSE THE ENERGY BILL IN ALL 
FORMS: Both the policy (S 150) and tax (S 1637) sections. Especially tell 
them you DON'T WANT TAX BREAKS FOR NUCLEAR POWER.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or toll free at 1-800-839-5276.

Michael Mariotte
Cindy Folkers
Nuclear Information and Resource Service


JOIN THE BE SAFE COALITION!

Dear Friends,
BE SAFE recently helped organize 47 Three Mile Island 25th Anniversary BE 
SAFE events in 19 states to promote precautionary actions on nuclear hazards.

Has your group endorsed the BE SAFE Precautionary Platform? Please do so 
today! Visit www.besafenet.com/platform.htmlor see the BE SAFE Platform and 
coupon below and email me your endorsement. Thanks.

Join with hundreds of other groups in sending a message to the White House 
in support of precautionary actions on nuclear and toxic hazards. We will 
deliver the Platform early next year to the newly elected President. Please 
endorse it today!

Anne Rabe
BE SAFE
Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ)
518-732-4538, annerabe@msn.com
1265 Maple Hill Rd., Castleton, NY 12033

BE SAFE Platform

In the 21st century, we envision a world in which our food, water and air 
are clean, and our children grow up healthy and thrive. Everyone needs a 
protected, safe community and workplace, and natural environment to enjoy. 
We can make this world vision a reality. The tools we bring to this work 
are prevention, safety, responsibility and democracy.

Our goal is to prevent pollution and environmental destruction before it 
happens. We support this precautionary approach because it is preventive 
medicine for our environment and health. It makes sense to:

Prevent pollution and make polluters, not taxpayers, pay and assume 
responsibility for the damage they cause;

Protect our children from chemical and radioactive exposures to avoid 
illness and suffering;

Promote use of safe, renewable, non-toxic technologies; and

Provide a natural environment we can all enjoy with clean air, swimmable, 
fishable waters, and stewardship for our national forests.

We choose a "better safe than sorry" approach motivated by caution and 
prevention.
We endorse the common-sense approach outlined in the Blueprint's four 
principles listed below.

BE SAFE Platform Principles
HEED EARLY WARNINGS
Government and industry have a duty to prevent harm, when there is credible 
evidence that harm is occurring or is likely to occur -- even when the 
exact nature and full magnitude of harm is not yet proven.

PUT SAFETY FIRST
Industry and government have a responsibility to thoroughly study the 
potential for harm from a new chemical or technology before it is used -- 
rather than assume it is harmless until proven otherwise. We need to ensure 
it is safe now, or we will be sorry later. Research on impacts to workers 
and the public needs to be confirmed by independent third parties.

EXERCISE DEMOCRACY
Precautionary decisions place the highest priority on protecting health and 
the environment, and help develop cleaner technologies and industries with 
effective safeguards and enforcement. Government and industry decisions 
should be based on meaningful citizen input and mutual respect (the golden 
rule), with the highest regard for those whose health may be affected and 
for our irreplaceable natural resources not for those with financial 
interests. Uncompromised science should inform public policy.

CHOOSE THE SAFEST SOLUTION
Decision-making by government, industry and individuals must include an 
evaluation of alternatives, and the choice of the safest, technically 
feasible solutions. We support innovation and promotion of technologies and 
solutions that create a healthy environment and economy, and protect our 
natural resources.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support the Be Safe Platform.
Take precautionary action to protect our health & environment.

Be Safe Platform Endorsement
____ Yes, I endorse the Be Safe Platform.
____ Yes, our organization endorses the Be Safe Platform.

Please provide contact information below to verify your Platform 
endorsement. Thank you.

Name:__________________________________________________________________

Group:__________________________________________________________________

Address (St., Town & 
Zip):__________________________________________________________

Email:__________________________________________________________________

Phone:__________________________________________________________________

Website:________________________________________________________________

Please send to: CHEJ, P.O. Box 6806, 150 S. Washington St., Falls Church, 
VA 22040, 703-237-2249, or email annerabe@msn.com, or go to 
http://www.besafenet.com


This is the NIRS E-Mail Alert list. You are on this list because you signed 
up on our website, at a NIRS table at a concert, on a petition, or directly 
to NIRS. Your name and address are never sold, rented, or traded with 
anyone for any reason.

For address changes or to unsubscribe, just send an e-mail to 
nirsnet@nirs.org. If you have friends or colleagues who would like to be on 
this list, have them send a note to nirsnet@nirs.org

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 18 Today's Sunbeam: Nuclear complex gets approvals to expand storage

Thursday, April 29, 2004
By BILL GALLO JR.
Staff Writer

LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK TWP. -- The operator of the three nuclear 
reactors here won two key approvals Wednesday night which would 
allow the company to expand its storage facilities for spent 
nuclear fuel using the "dry cask" method at the Artificial Island 
complex.

The action by the Lower Alloways Creek Township Planning Board 
came after nearly two and a half hours of review of the plan and 
questions from board members, and some of the handful of the 
members of the public present.
Information from Our Advertisers

The board voted 6 to 3 to grant approval for conditional use and 
6 to 3 for preliminary site plan approval. A request for final 
site plan approval was withdrawn by PSEG Nuclear, operator of the 
Hope Creek, Salem 1 and Salem 2 nuclear units, at Wednesday's 
meeting. That request is expected to be taken up by the board 
when it meets again May 26.

Among those voting against the approvals was LAC Mayor Jeff 
Dilks, who also sits on the planning board. He said there 
shouldn't be a rush to approve PSEG's request.

"I don't see what difference a couple of months would make," 
Dilks said. "Give us a chance to digest what we've heard here 
tonight.

"This is an issue that is long-term," Dilks said. "It is an issue 
of great security."

The approvals granted Wednesday are just one step in the lengthy 
process to begin use of the "dry cask" storage method for spent 
nuclear fuel. The spent fuel assemblies are now stored in pools 
of water when they are taken from the core of a nuclear reactor. 
In these pools the used fuel assemblies are cooled by the water 
which also acts as a shield preventing the release of radiation.

With the dry cask method, the assemblies are stored in large 
metal canister-like containers outdoors on a concrete pad. The 
giant canisters are filled with helium and stored in an upright 
fashion. There they are cooled by the circulating air.

Roy Anderson, president and chief nuclear officer for PSEG 
Nuclear, said the utility wouldn't be requesting expanded storage 
capabilities at the Island if the federal government had made 
good on its promise to have a national waste storage facility up 
and running by 1998.

With many deadlines past for the opening of the national 
depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, many of the more than 100 
operating nuclear plants around the U.S. are close to running out 
of room to store spent fuel, including the three plants here at 
the Island.

Anderson said the utility has already paid $400 million into a 
fund to help pay for the off-site storage at a central location.

"Until that time we are committed to store fuel safely," Anderson 
said.

Not all in the audience felt the plan was a good idea.

"The current proposal for dry cask storage facility just adds one 
more terrorist target to the Island," said Norm Cohen, 
coordinator for the Unplug Salem Campaign, the group which has 
advocated the closing of the nuclear plants.

With the expectation of a large crowd, the board moved the 
meeting to the gymnasium at the Lower Alloways Creek Township 
School in Canton. But of the approximately 40 people who turned 
out, less than 10 were members of the public. The rest were 
either township officials or part of the contingent from PSEG or 
representatives from the state Department of Environmental 
Protection or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The Hope Creek reactor is scheduled to run out of room to store 
spent fuel in 2007, just three years away. Salem 1 is expected to 
run out of room in 2011 and Salem 2 in 2015, according to PSEG 
Nuclear.

The need for additional fuel storage is one nuclear plant 
operators around the country are grappling with.

The government now says its target date for opening Yucca 
Mountain for receipt of waste is 2010.

And nuclear plant operators note that with more than 100 plants 
around the U.S. each operator will have to take their turn to 
ship the waste to Yucca Mountain.

Brian Gustems, PSEG project manager for the dry cask project, 
offered a detailed presentation on how the dry cast storage 
system would work.

In his presentation, he said the pad site will be designed to 
hold up to 200 casks.

One of the stipulations imposed when the conditional use was 
granted was that the approval was for a five-year period and 
during that time only 20 casks from Hope Creek may be stored on 
the site.

The action Wednesday night granted approval for PSEG Nuclear to 
use the pad area for spent fuel storage only for the Hope Creek 
nuclear reactor. Additional approvals will be needed to use the 
site for spent fuel storage at the two neighboring units, Salem 1 
and Salem 2, officials said.

The pad site, however, will be built with enough room for use by 
all three plants.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the need for alternative 
storage began to grow when pools at many nuclear reactors began 
to fill up with stored spent fuel. Utilities began looking at 
options such as dry cask storage for increasing spent fuel 
storage capacity.

The first dry storage installation was licensed by the NRC in 
1986 at the Surry Nuclear Power Plant in Virginia.


Copyright 2004 Today's Sunbeam. Used with permission.
*****************************************************************
 19 NRC: FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company; Notice of Issuance of 
 
                         FR Doc 04-9692 
[Federal Register: April 29, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 83)] 
[Notices] [Page 23540-23541] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29ap04-78]                         
 
Director's Decision Under 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given 
that the Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, has 
issued a Director's Decision with regard to a letter dated August 
25, 2003, filed by Greenpeace pursuant to section 2.206 of title 
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) on behalf of the 
Nuclear Information & Resource Service and the Union of Concerned 
Scientists (collectively, the Petitioners). The Petitioners 
requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take 
enforcement actions against FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company 
(FirstEnergy), the licensee for Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station 
in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and also requested that NRC suspend the 
Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant restart until certain
 
[[Page 23541]] conditions have been met. As basis for the request 
to have the NRC take enforcement actions against the licensee, 
the Petitioners stated that FirstEnergy has failed to complete 
commitments related to the NRC's 50.54(f) design basis letter 
(issued on October 9, 1996), and referred to numerous design 
basis violations dating back to plant licensing (corresponding to 
Requests 1 and 2 in the Petitioners' August 25 letter). The 
Petitioners also requested that the NRC suspend the Davis- Besse 
license and prohibit plant restart until all design basis 
deficiencies identified in response to the NRC's 50.54(f) design 
basis letter are adequately addressed, the plant probabilistic 
risk assessment (PRA) is updated to reflect design flaws, and no 
systems are in a ``degraded but operable'' condition 
(corresponding to Requests 3, 4, and 5 in the Petitioners' August 
25 letter).
 
In a letter dated October 7, 2003, the NRC informed the 
Petitioners that the issues in the Petition were accepted for 
review under 10 CFR 2.206 and had been referred to the Office of 
Nuclear Reactor Regulation for appropriate action. A copy of the 
acknowledgment letter is publicly available in the NRC's 
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) under 
Accession No. ML032690314. A copy of the Petition is publicly 
available in ADAMS under the Accession No.
 
ML032400435.
 
The Petitioners' representatives met with NRC staff on September 
17, 2003, to provide additional details in support of this 
request. This meeting was transcribed and the transcript is 
publicly available on the NRC Web site as a supplement to the 
Petition (http://www.nrc.gov/ 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/] 
reactors/operating/ops-experience/vessel-head-degradation/ 
controlled-correspondence.html). The licensee responded to the 
Petition on October 20, 2003 (ML033421458). This response was 
considered by the staff in its evaluation of the Petition.
 
In a letter dated November 26, 2003 (ML033010172), the NRC 
provided to the Petitioners its evaluation of their ``immediate 
action'' requests. The staff considered the Petitioners'' 
requests to suspend the Davis-Besse license and prohibit plant 
restart until certain conditions have been met to be equivalent 
to ``immediate action'' requests because the Davis-Besse licensee 
might complete all necessary restart activities, and the NRC 
staff might complete all necessary oversight activities, before 
the staff could finalize the Director's Decision on this 
Petition. Requests 3, 4, and 5 in the Petitioners' August 25 
letter were considered immediate action requests, and the staff's 
November 26 evaluation is repeated in Section II.D of the 
Director's Decision for completeness.
 
The NRC sent a copy of the proposed Director's Decision to the 
Petitioners and to the licensee for comment on February 5, 2004 
(ML040280003). Neither the Petitioners nor the licensee provided 
comments on the proposed Director's Decision.
 
The Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation has 
determined that the Petitioners' first request for enforcement 
based solely on failure of the licensee to complete commitments 
represents a misinterpretation of the agency's enforcement 
policies regarding commitments and therefore is denied. The 
Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation has also 
determined that the Petitioners' second request for enforcement 
based on numerous design basis violations is in effect being 
granted by the actions already taken by the staff. The reasons 
for these decisions are explained in Director's Decision 
DD-04-01, the complete text of which is available in ADAMS, or is 
available for inspection at the Commission's Public Document Room 
(PDR), located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike 
(first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records 
are accessible from the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room on 
the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter 
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS should 
contact the NRC PDR reference staff at 1-800- 397-4209 or 
301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . A copy 
of the Director's Decision will be filed with the Secretary of 
the Commission for the Commission's review in accordance with 10 
CFR 2.206 of the Commission's regulations. As provided for by 
this regulation, the Director's Decision will constitute the 
final action of the Commission 25 days after the date of the 
decision, unless the Commission, on its own motion, institutes a 
review of the Director's Decision in that time.
 
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 22nd day of April, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
J.E. Dyer, Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9692 Filed 4-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 20 projo.com: Action postponed on legal change sought by Vt. Yankee   

| Providence, R.I. | AP's The Wire
 
04.28.2004 9:05 P.M.    

By DAVID GRAM
Associated Press Writer 	

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant's
lobbyists lived to fight another day as lawmakers on Wednesday
put off action on a small language change in state law that
could be key to the plant's future. 

The plant's lobbyists have been working to avoid the need to ask
the Legislature for permission to build concrete bunkers at the
Vernon reactor site to store spent nuclear fuel, which is highly
radioactive. 

A 1977 law requires the Legislature's approval before anyone
builds a new nuclear waste repository in Vermont. But the law
also exempted Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., allowing
temporary storage of the high-level radioactive waste in the
plant's spent fuel storage pool. 

Anti-nuclear activists have been questioning whether that
exemption extends to the plant's new owners, Mississippi-based
Entergy Nuclear. 

The exemption is important to Vermont Yankee. Plant officials
have said the fuel pool is close enough to being filled that
without a new waste storage solution, the plant would have to
shut down by 2008, four years short of its 2012 license
expiration date. 

Plant officials say they plan to formally ask permission this
summer to build "dry-cask storage," in which concrete bunkers
would be built on the Vernon site to accommodate additional
high-level waste. 

Seeking to secure the exemption from the 1977 law, Vermont
Yankee lobbyist Gerard Morris succeeded in persuading the Senate
Appropriations Committee to add a provision to the state's
fiscal 2005 budget bill that would refer to the Vermont Yankee
Nuclear Power Corp. and then add the words "its successors and
assigns" - meaning Entergy would be covered by the exemption. 

Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor and the Senate's assistant
majority leader, has been a key player in pushing the plant's
agenda. Campbell, a lawyer, said he believes the Entergy should
have the right to the same exemption given Vermont Yankee's
previous owners. "It's just a legal question," he said in an
interview. 

Campbell was one of several lawmakers who were flown to Las
Vegas and taken to nearby Yucca Mountain, site of a planned
permanent high-level waste repository, in December. Vermont
Yankee paid for the trip. 

The Yucca Mountain site has been approved by Congress but is
tied up in lawsuits, meaning that after nearly half a century,
the U.S. nuclear industry has not resolved what it will do with
its many tons of highly toxic radioactive waste. 

Vermont Yankee lawyer John Marshall told the Senate Finance
Committee on Wednesday the new wording would "clarify" the
Legislature's intent. He read pieces of committee deliberations
and legislative journals from 1977 and later years when the law
was amended to try to prove his case. 

Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington and chairwoman of the committee,
joined some other members of the panel in expressing doubts.
They also complained that the language change was slipped into
the budget bill late in the session, rather than going through
the normal hearings in the committees that oversee Vermont
Yankee. 

Committee members elicited an acknowledgment from the plant's
lobbyists that they had known about the issue at least since
mid-March, six weeks ago. Lawmakers said they were kept in the
dark about the company's plans. 

"We were not aware that this was going to be an amendment to the
appropriations bill," Cummings said. 

The Finance Committee ended up working out a deal with the
Appropriations Committee in which the latter panel agreed to
withdraw the amendment containing the Vermont Yankee language,
in exchange for a promise that it would be considered as an
amendment to a later bill. 

Cummings said her panel would take more testimony on the matter
in the meantime. 

Marshall said Vermont Yankee believed that the 1977 Legislature
meant for Vermont Yankee to have a "site exemption, rather than
an exemption just for the owner" from the requirement that new
waste sites be reviewed by the Legislature. 

But committee members, during the hearing and in interviews
later, pointed to several changes at Vermont Yankee since the
26-year-old law was enacted. 

They include the sale to Entergy, the plant's planned 20 percent
power boost, Entergy's stated desire to extend Vermont Yankee's
license beyond 2012, and the still unfulfilled promises that the
federal government will ship high-level waste from Vermont
Yankee and other nuclear plants to a permanent disposal site. 	 
 
Providence Journal newsroom at (401) 277-7303. 
© Belo Interactive Inc.   
*****************************************************************
 21 projo.com: Douglas OK with start-up before missing rods found      

 | Providence, R.I. | AP's The Wire
 
        04.29.2004 7:31 P.M.    

By DAVID GRAM
Associated Press Writer 	

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Gov. James Douglas said Thursday he won't
object if the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant ends its current
refueling outage and starts up again without first finding
radioactive waste discovered missing last week. 

"The storage of the spent fuel rods is an issue that's related
to but still different from the operation of the plant, and I
don't think that it will necessarily hold up the restart of the
plant next week," Douglas said at his weekly news conference. 

The governor noted that one of the reactors at the Millstone
nuclear station in Connecticut discovered in 2000 that spent
nuclear fuel had disappeared - the only other time such a thing
has happened at a U.S. nuclear plant. 

The Millstone plant was later allowed to resume operations
despite the fact that the missing fuel still has not been found. 
Meanwhile, at the Vermont Yankee plant in Vernon, technicians
launched a robot Thursday to search the bottom of the spent fuel
storage pool for any sign of two highly radioactive spent fuel
segments that turned up missing last week. 

The three-inch high device carried cameras and lights looking
forward and backward and a robotic arm, Vermont Yankee's owner,
Entergy Nuclear, said in a statement. 

The fuel rods, one 7 and the other 17 inches long and each about
as thick as a pencil, were discovered missing last week from a
special bucket-like container on the bottom of the spent fuel
pool, where they had been assumed to have been since 1979. 

"We take this investigation very seriously," said John Hoffman,
an Entergy team manager. "We have brought together the necessary
resources and technical expertise to conduct a thorough
investigation. Our goal with the camera work is to find the
segments in the pool or to eliminate the pool as a possible
solution." 

On another front related to the state's lone reactor, Deputy
Attorney General J. Wallace Malley said it may take until early
next week before his office can produce an advisory opinion for
lawmakers. That opinion concerns a change Entergy is seeking in
a 26-year-old state law providing an exemption to Vermont Yankee
from a requirement that siting a new nuclear waste site in
Vermont requires approval by the Legislature. 

"We're moving as fast as we can," Malley said. "In a perfect
world we could produce something by midday tomorrow, but it
might push over into early next week. ... It's not a
lighthearted issue. So we want to do it right." 

Current law conveys the exemption to legislative review of new
waste siting to "Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation," the
plant's corporate entity before it was sold to Entergy Nuclear
nearly two years ago. 

Now Entergy is planning to ask for permission to build new waste
storage on its Vernon property, and some nuclear critics have
been questioning whether the exemption applies to the plant's
new owners. 

Entergy sought to have the words "its successors or assigns"
added after "Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation" in the
applicable section of state law, and tried to add the change to
the bill outlining the state budget for the next fiscal year. 

Several senators complained that Vermont Yankee had bypassed the
normal legislative review process. The measure was removed from
the budget bill, with lawmakers saying they wanted to study it
before possibly adding it to later legislation. 	   

Providence Journal newsroom at (401) 277-7303. 

© Belo Interactive Inc.   
*****************************************************************
 22 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo panel may hear public voice

| 04/29/2004 | 

[http://maps.SanLuisObispo.com

Judge's rulings could broaden safety committee participation

 David Sneed The Tribune

GENERAL - A state judge is recommending several changes be made 
that could enhance public participation in the Diablo Canyon 
Independent Safety Committee. 

The committee is mandated by the state Public Utilities 
Commission and holds meetings locally several times a year to 
review safety issues at the nuclear power plant. However, public 
participation in these meetings is minimal and plant owner 
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has asked in the past that the panel 
be disbanded to save money. 

Julie Halligan, a CPUC judge, has ruled that PG&E and the Dean of 
Engineering at UC Berkeley should no longer nominate members to 
the committee, and that members should have specific knowledge 
about nuclear safety. She also ruled that all committee meetings 
should be videotaped and aired on local public access stations. 

The changes were requested by the San Luis Obispo Mothers for 
Peace and supported by the staffs of the CPUC and the state 
Energy Commission. To become final, the changes must be adopted 
by the CPUC as part of PG&E's rate contract with the state, which 
is expected to be adopted in May. 

"We hope this will set a new era of oversight for Diablo Canyon, 
especially during the a time of expanded on-site storage of high 
level radioactive waste and steam generator degradation at PG&E's 
nuclear plant," said Rochelle Becker with the Mothers for Peace. 

PG&E officials say they support most of the changes but will 
argue against changing the nominating process. With the removal 
of PG&E and the engineering dean, only the CPUC itself can make 
nominations, said Jeff Lewis, plant spokesman. 

"We believe the current process has worked, and we don't see a 
need to change it," Lewis said. "We don't feel the commission has 
the resources and the background necessary to assess those who 
are qualified." 

Once nominated, committee members are appointed by the governor, 
attorney general and state Energy Commission. 

Halligan accepted most -- but not all -- of the Mothers for Peace 
changes to the safety committee. She did not require that the 
committee's office be moved from Monterey to San Luis Obispo and 
that a local public member be named to the panel. 

The commission could require the office be moved even without the 
judge's recommendation, Becker said. 

"An office here full time is necessary," she said. "It will give 
the committee a better sense of the community's opinions and 
concerns."   

*****************************************************************
 23 Globe and Mail: Police probe nuclear firm after bribery allegations   
 
[http://www.globeandmail.com

Thursday, Apr. 29, 2004   

By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has turned over to police and its 
internal auditors a letter alleging corruption involving 
Bulgarian government officials and the marketing of a nuclear 
plant to the East European country. 

A company spokesman said the federally owned nuclear agency 
received the unsigned letter late last week and gave it to 
police. 

"We obviously take it seriously," AECL spokesman Ian Dovey said 
yesterday. "We followed our standard operating procedures and 
we've turned it over to our internal auditor people and to the 
RCMP," he said. 

The Globe and Mail has also received a copy of the letter, which 
alleges that corrupt Bulgarian government officials want bribes 
of $40-million (U.S.) to $80-million in return for approving the 
project. 

It stated that some of the money would be funnelled to the 
officials through overpayments that would be made to local 
Bulgarian subcontractors chosen to work on the project. 

Other payments would be made to agents working on cementing the 
deal. 

The letter, which contained many detailed allegations, said it 
was written to alert AECL management about possible breaches of 
Canadian and Bulgarian law. 

The AECL is part of an international consortium interested in 
working on a mothballed Bulgarian nuclear power station worth an 
estimated $1.6-billion (Canadian) at a site near Belene. 

The Bulgarians halted work on the project in 1990 for cash 
reasons, but the government of Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg 
Gotha wants to restart construction. 

Controversy has often swirled around AECL's bidding for 
nuclear-plant contracts in developing countries, with allegations 
of kickbacks or excessive fees paid to marketing agents on 
previous sales in Argentina, China, and South Korea. 

Mr. Dovey said the company has engaged in no wrongdoing in 
Bulgaria. 

Paying bribes is a violation of the federal Corruption of Foreign 
Public Officials Act, which prohibits such payments by Canadians 
or Canadian companies. 

The letter was also sent to New Democrat MP Joe Comartin, who 
plans to turn it over to Natural Resources Minister John Efford 
and Auditor-General Sheila Fraser. "Given the past practices of 
the industry, it warrants an investigation," Mr. Comartin said. 

The Canadian company is considered a long shot for the contract 
because the Belene plant initially was started using Soviet-style 
nuclear technology that is different from the Candu design 
developed by AECL. 

Other companies involved in the AECL group include Ansaldo 
Nucleare, part of an Italian defence and energy company, SNC 
Lavalin, the big Canadian engineering firm, and Bechtel Corp., a 
U.S. engineering company, according to Mr. Dovey. 

AECL is in the early stages of working on a bid, Mr. Dovey said. 

He added that the company was approached by the Bulgarians, who 
said they were interested in Canada's nuclear technology and 
asked AECL to become involved. "It's all very, very preliminary 
right now," he said. "We're pursuing an opportunity there, but we 
haven't made a bid." 

Bulgaria is ranked by Transparency International, a Berlin-based 
international corruption watchdog, as a country with a high level 
of graft because of a poorly paid civil service and a lack of 
strong democratic traditions. 

At the Bulgarian Embassy in Ottawa, chargé d'affaires Ivan 
Danchev said he is unaware of any allegations about the Belene 
project. 

He said his country, "as everywhere else in Europe," has problems 
with corruption. "This is something that is in the attention of 
the authorities. Of course, this is on the agenda of the 
government."   

*****************************************************************
 24 Reuters: Exelon shuts Ill. Dresden 2 nuke again

Apr 29, 2004 07:17 AM ET 		 		 		 		

NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp. manually shut its 800 
megawatt Dresden 2 nuclear unit in Illinois on Thursday, the 
company told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in an event 
report. 

The company said it shut the unit due to a spurious trip of
reactor recirculation pump. 

The company said it was trouble-shooting to determine the cause
of the trip. 

The unit was operating at 66 percent of capacity and was
increasing power after a work outage at the time of the trip. 
The prior outage started on about April 24. 

Meanwhile, the adjacent 800 MW Unit 3 held steady at 98 percent
of capacity. 

The Dresden station is located in Morris, Illinois, about 60
miles southeast of Chicago. 		 		

*****************************************************************
 25 BNN: Bulgaria Urges Probe About Alleged Corruption in Choosing 
Contractor to Build Nuclear Plant
 				
     Bnn, Bulgarian news network - online news agency \ Áíì,
 				 				 				 				 				 				
  ['www.bgnewsnet.com / Bulgarian News network' ]    				    
				     					 				   							
  19:31 - 29.04.2004

SOFIA (bnn)- The Ministry of Energy urged Thursday a probe about 
allegations of corruption a Canadian company has made in 
Bulgaria’s selection of a contractor to build its second nuclear 
power plant.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has turned over to police and its 
internal auditors an unsigned letter saying Bulgarian government 
officials want bribes of US$40 million to US$80 million in return 
for approving the project, Canadian daily Globe and Mail 
reported.
 
“It is of Bulgaria’s best interest to clarify the case and if 
there is an attempt of abuse of powers it will be punished,” the 
ministry said. It said it would continue talks with AECL on the 
project.
 
The daily quoted the letter as saying that some of the money 
would be funneled to the officials through overpayments that 
would be made to local Bulgarian subcontractors chosen to work on 
the project. Other payments would be made to agents working on 
cementing the deal, the letter said.
 
AECL is part of an international consortium interested in working 
on a mothballed Bulgarian nuclear power station worth an 
estimated some US$1 billion at a site near the Danube port of 
Belene.
 
Bulgaria suspended the project in 1990 for cash reasons and 
environmentalist opposition, but the government of Prime Minister 
Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha wants to restart construction.
 
The government has to chose between two basic options for the 
plant _ an AECL-made CANDU heavy water reactor or a VVER-1000 
type of reactor proposed by other international bidders including 
U.S. Westinghouse, Russian Atomexportstroy and Czech Skoda. /bnn/  
    
Bulgarian News Network (BNN)
*****************************************************************
 26 News & Star: N-PLANT MEANS WE NEED TOP HOSPITAL 
 
Published on 29/04/2004 
By Andrea Thompson

COPELAND Council leader Elaine Woodburn says West Cumbria must 
have high quality hospital care because of its closeness to 
Sellafield.

Her call followed a meeting between councillors and health bosses 
to discuss the future of the West Cumberland Hospital in 
Whitehaven.

The hospital is the subject of a review – the third in five years 
– of health care in North Cumbria.

While all four of the options being looked at see the development 
of the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, two see either the 
closure of the West Cumberland Hospital or its downgrade. Only 
one option puts both hospitals onto an equal footing.

Ms Woodburn said: “This community needs a high quality hospital, 
not least because of having one of the world’s largest nuclear 
facilities down the road.”

She is calling on the people of West Cumbria to fight to save 
services at the Whitehaven hospital.

“We have already lost services at the West Cumberland and seen a 
deterioration of others. That has to stop and it’s down to the 
community to speak out and make that stop.

“What we need is a high quality hospital here in Copeland. 
Anything outside Copeland would add on more time if, God forbid, 
there was a serious accident at Sellafield.”

A public meeting will be held before the end of June so the 
public can hear about the different options first hand, and Ms 
Woodburn urged everyone to attend. 

She and fellow councillors Geoff Blackwell (health portfolio 
holder), Dorothy Wonnacott (shadow health portfolio holder), and 
the council’s general manager Dr John Stanforth met with Marie 
Burnham and Eric Urquhart of the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals 
NHS Trust and Nigel Woodcock and Bernard Kirk of the north and 
west primary care trusts last week.

Copeland councillor Brian Dixon wants health chiefs to say: “ 
enough is enough – we want a continuation of health care in West 
Cumbria”.

What's your view of this story? Email the News &Star at 
news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk [news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk] 
or post it on our Forums

*****************************************************************
 27 Brattleboro Reformer: VY amendment delayed

border="0"> [http://www.reformer.com/]   

April 29, 2004 Brattleboro, VT                                                                                 
 			 								 					
By CAROLYN LORIÉ Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO -- Legislators spent hours on Wednesday wrangling 
with the intent of a 25-year-old amendment to a 27-year-old law 
and whether it was meant to address Vermont Yankee's need for dry 
cask storage.

 The uncertainty led to the withdrawal of a last-minute amendment 
tacked onto the House appropriations bill that would have allowed 
the plant to bypass legislative approval for dry cask storage.

 The amendment, added on by the Senate Appropriations Committee, 
pertained to a 1977 bill requiring legislative action for the 
building of a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel or 
radioactive material.

 In 1979, there was an amendment granting an exception to "any 
temporary storage by Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power 
Corporation...," the plant's previous owner.

 The present owner, Entergy Nuclear, lobbied for a second 
amendment, asking that the exception be granted to "Vermont 
Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation, its successor or assigns." 

"What we're asking for is a clarification to remove ambiguity," 
said Entergy attorney John Marshall, who argued that the 
exception was intended to cover the plant and not merely who owns 
it.

 Entergy plans to apply for dry cask storage this summer. As 
required by Title 30 of Vermont law, the company must seek a 
certificate of public good from the Public Service Board.

 Marshal said that the company will still seek the board's 
approval, but sought the amendment as a way of avoiding 
litigation over the uncertainty of the 1977 law.

 The finance committee, however, was not pleased with the 
amendment.

 "Something like this should not appear at the last moment. It 
takes thoughtful consideration," said Sen. Roderick Gander, 
D-Windham, a member of the finance committee.

 The appropriations committee agreed that the amendment would be 
withdrawn, with the understanding that the finance committee 
continue to hear testimony on the issue. Testimony is expected to 
continue this afternoon.

 One possibility is that a version of the amendment may 
ultimately be added to the fee bill.

 Among the concerns raised by finance committee members was that 
the original intent of the law was for the temporary storage of 
fuel rods in the spent fuel pool and not for long-term storage in 
dry casks.

 In 1977, the nuclear industry was operating under the assumption 
that the federal government would soon provide a permanent 
storage site for high-level waste, namely the long-awaited Yucca 
Mountain repository in Nevada. The site is expected to open in 
2010.

 According to Entergy spokesman Rob Williams, the 1977 law was 
meant to prevent the Department of Energy from creating permanent 
low-level waste sites in Vermont, which was being considered at 
the time. The intent, he added, was not to prevent Vermont Yankee 
from being able to temporarily store fuel in dry cask storage.

 But with Yucca Mountain still under construction and a long list 
of facilities waiting to unload their waste, some are questioning 
how temporary the dry cask storage will be.

 "The word, temporary, has taken on a non-traditional meaning," 
said Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, the chairwoman of the 
finance committee.

 Sen. Mark MacDonald, D-Orange, argued that legislators in 1977 
could not have been considering such factors as Vermont Yankee 
being owned by an out-of-state company or the proposal that the 
plant increase its power generation by 20 percent. The "uprate" 
is expected to push the need for dry cask storage from 2008 to 
2007 or earlier.

 MacDonald added that accepting such an amendment might affect 
future decisions regarding the operation of Vermont Yankee, 
including whether its license is extended in 2012.

 John Sales, deputy commissioner of the Public Service 
Department, agreed with Marshall's assessment that the language 
used in the original law would be subject to litigation.

 He added that the department did not have a position as to what 
the intent of the law was but would adhere to whatever changes 
were made by the current Legislature.

 The office of the Attorney General is expected to give an 
opinion today regarding the proposed changes.

 In addition to testimony from Marshal and Sales, state auditor 
Elizabeth Ready testified before the finance committee. A former 
senator, Ready was chairwoman of the Senate Natural Resources 
Committee and a member of the Vermont State Nuclear Advisory 
Panel.

 Ready pointed out that in 1993, the state entered into a compact 
with Texas and Maine in which all high-level waste would be 
shipped to Texas.

 "I think the [Legislature] was very, very clear about rejecting 
nuclear waste of any kind," she said. "The question is, are you 
going to continue to provide storage for high-level waste 
indefinitely."

 Several legislators were critical of Entergy for not addressing 
the issue sooner, accusing the company of trying bulldoze the 
amendment through.

 Rep. Steven Darrow, D-Putney, who has been a vocal opponent of 
Vermont Yankee's uprate, attended Wednesday's hearing.

 "This isn't a simple little change," Darrow said. "It is an 
enormous public policy change. They could have had it addressed 
by a separate stand-alone bill, but they remained silent. 
Instead, they tried to slip it in by throwing four words into the 
appropriations bill. And they got caught red-handed."

 Carolyn Lorié can be reached at clorie@reformer.com. 
[clorie@reformer.com.]                          
 		   			 		   	 	
       Copyright ©1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc., a 
*****************************************************************
 28 NRC: Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Meeting Notice
 
                         FR Doc 04-9690 
[Federal Register: April 29, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 83)] 
[Notices] [Page 23541-23542] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29ap04-79]                         
 
In accordance with the purposes of Sections 29 and 182b. of the 
Atomic Energy Act (42 U.S.C. 2039, 2232b), the Advisory Committee 
on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) will hold a meeting on May 5-8, 
2004, 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The date of this 
meeting was previously published in the Federal Register on 
Monday, November 21, 2003 (68 FR 65743).
 
Wednesday, May 5, 2004 (Closed) 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m.: Safeguards and 
Security (Closed)--The Committee will hear presentations by and 
hold discussions with representatives of the Office of Nuclear 
Regulatory Research and the Office of Nuclear Security and 
Incident Response regarding safeguards and security matters.
 
Thursday, May 6, 2004, Conference Room T-2B3, Two White Flint 
North, Rockville, Maryland 8:30 a.m.-8:35 a.m.: Opening Remarks 
by the ACRS Chairman (Open)-- The ACRS Chairman will make opening 
remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting.
 
8:35 a.m.-10:30 a.m.: Use of Mixed Oxide (MOX) Lead Test 
Assemblies at the Catawba Nuclear Station (Open)--The Committee 
will hear presentations by and hold discussions with 
representatives of the NRC staff and Duke Cogema Stone and 
Webster (DCS) regarding the license amendment submitted by DCS to 
obtain NRC authorization to use MOX lead test assemblies at the 
Catawba Nuclear Station.
 
10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: Risk Management Technical Specifications 
(Open)--The Committee will hear presentations by and hold 
discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding the 
status/overview of the initiatives associated with the risk 
management technical specifications, and the staff's evaluation 
of the proposals for pilot application of the initiative on 
Risk-Informed Completion Times.
 
1:15 p.m.-3:15 p.m.: Trial/Pilot Implementation of Regulatory 
Guide 1.200, ``An Approach for Determining the Technical Adequacy 
of Probabilistic Risk Assessment Results for Risk-Informed 
Activities'' (Open)--The Committee will hear presentations by and 
hold discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding 
insights gained from the trial/
 
[[Page 23542]] pilot implementation of Regulatory Guide 1.200. 
3:30 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: Good Practices for Implementing Human 
Reliability Analysis (Open)--The Committee will hear 
presentations by and hold discussions with representatives of the 
NRC staff and their contractors regarding the draft report on 
Good Practices for Implementing Human Reliability Analysis, as 
well as the ongoing efforts associated with the application of 
the methodology, ``A Technique for Human Event Analysis 
(ATHEANA).'' 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Preparation of ACRS Reports 
(Open)--The Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports on 
matters considered during this meeting, as well as proposed ACRS 
reports on Divergence in Regulatory Requirements Between U.S. and 
Several Other Countries, and Resolution of Certain Items 
Identified by the ACRS in NUREG-1740 Related to Differing 
Professional Opinion on Steam Generator Tube Integrity.
 
Friday, May 7, 2004, Conference Room T-2B3, Two White Flint 
North, Rockville, Maryland 8:30 a.m.-8:35 a.m.: Opening Remarks 
by the ACRS Chairman (Open)-- The ACRS Chairman will make opening 
remarks regarding the conduct of the meeting.
 
8:35 a.m.-10:30 a.m.: Potential Adverse Effects from Power 
Uprates (Open)--The Committee will hear presentations by and hold 
discussions with representatives of the NRC staff regarding 
adverse effects experienced as a result of core power uprates and 
status of ongoing and proposed activities of the industry and the 
NRC staff to address this issue.
 
10:45 a.m.-11 a.m.: subcommittee Report on Fire Protection Issues 
(Open)--The Committee will hear a report by and hold discussions 
with the Chairman of the ACRS Subcommittee on Fire Protection 
regarding matters discussed during the April 23, 2004 
Subcommittee meeting.
 
11 a.m.-12 Noon: Future ACRS Activities/Report of the Planning 
and Procedures Subcommittee (Open)--The Committee will discuss 
the recommendations of the Planning and Procedures Subcommittee 
regarding items proposed for consideration by the full Committee 
during future meetings. Also, it will hear a report of the 
Planning and Procedures Subcommittee on matters related to the 
conduct of ACRS business, including anticipated workload and 
member assignments.
 
12 Noon-12:15 p.m.: Reconciliation of ACRS Comments and 
Recommendations (Open)--The Committee will discuss the responses 
from the NRC Executive Director for Operations (EDO) to comments 
and recommendations included in recent ACRS reports and letters. 
The EDO responses are expected to be made available to the 
Committee prior to the meeting.
 
1:15 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: Preparation for meeting with the 
Commissioners (Open)--The Committee will discuss topics scheduled 
for meeting with the NRC Commissioners in June 2004.
 
2:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Preparation of ACRS Reports (Open)--The 
Committee will discuss proposed ACRS reports.
 
Saturday, May 8, 2004, Conference Room T-2B3, Two White Flint 
North, Rockville, Maryland 8:30 a.m.-12 Noon: Preparation of ACRS 
Reports (Open)--The Committee will continue discussion of the 
proposed ACRS reports.
 
12 Noon-12:30 p.m.: Miscellaneous (Open)--The Committee will 
discuss matters related to the conduct of Committee activities 
and matters and specific issues that were not completed during 
previous meetings, as time and availability of information 
permit.
 
Procedures for the conduct of and participation in ACRS meetings 
were published in the Federal Register on October 16, 2003 (68 FR 
59644). In accordance with those procedures, oral or written 
views may be presented by members of the public, including 
representatives of the nuclear industry. Electronic recordings 
will be permitted only during the open portions of the meeting. 
Persons desiring to make oral statements should notify the 
Cognizant ACRS staff named below five days before the meeting, if 
possible, so that appropriate arrangements can be made to allow 
necessary time during the meeting for such statements. Use of 
still, motion picture, and television cameras during the meeting 
may be limited to selected portions of the meeting as determined 
by the Chairman. Information regarding the time to be set aside 
for this purpose may be obtained by contacting the Cognizant ACRS 
staff prior to the meeting. In view of the possibility that the 
schedule for ACRS meetings may be adjusted by the Chairman as 
necessary to facilitate the conduct of the meeting, persons 
planning to attend should check with the Cognizant ACRS staff if 
such rescheduling would result in major inconvenience.
 
In accordance with Subsection 10(d) P.L. 92-463, I have 
determined that it is necessary to close a portion of this 
meeting noted above to discuss and protect information classified 
as national security information as well as unclassified 
safeguards information pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552b(c)(1) and (3). 
Further information regarding topics to be discussed, whether the 
meeting has been canceled or rescheduled, as well as the 
Chairman's ruling on requests for the opportunity to present oral 
statements and the time allotted therefor can be obtained by 
contacting Mr. Sam Duraiswamy, Cognizant ACRS staff 
(301-415-7364), between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m., e.t. ACRS 
meeting agenda, meeting transcripts, and letter reports are 
available through the NRC Public Document Room at  [pdr@nrc.gov] 
, or by calling the PDR at 1-800-397-4209, or from the Publicly 
Available Records System (PARS) component of NRC's document 
system(ADAMS) which is accessible from the NRC Web site at 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
or 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collecti 
ons/]  (ACRS & oc-collections/ (ACRS & ACNW Mtg 
schedules/agendas).
 
Videoteleconferencing service is available for observing open 
sessions of ACRS meetings. Those wishing to use this service for 
observing ACRS meetings should contact Mr. Theron Brown, ACRS 
Audio Visual Technician (301-415-8066), between 7:30 a.m. and 
3:45 p.m., e.t., at least 10 days before the meeting to ensure 
the availability of this service. Individuals or organizations 
requesting this service will be responsible for telephone line 
charges and for providing the equipment and facilities that they 
use to establish the videoteleconferencing link. The availability 
of videoteleconferencing services is not guaranteed.
 
Dated: April 23, 2004.
 
Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9690 Filed 4-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 29 [DU-WATCH] Iraq: DU Weapons Cause Dangerous Rise in Radiation
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:14:31 -0500 (CDT)

 
From: UMRC Marlene Liden [mailto:marlene@umrc.net]
Sent: April 28, 2004 7:05 AM
Subject: 040427 TehranTimes: "U.S. Use of DU Weapons Causes Dangerous Rise
in Radiation Level in Iraq"

Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:24:04 -0400
Subject: [NucNews] U.S. Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Causes Dangerous
Rise in Radiation Level in Iraq

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/28/2004&Cat=2&Num=016
U.S. Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons Causes Dangerous Rise in Radiation
Level in Iraq
April 27, 2004 Tehran Times

TEHRAN (MNA) - Canadian research centers have reported that during the war
against Iraq the U.S. military used depleted uranium (DU) weapons which
caused the radiation level to rise at least 300 times above normal, and the
weapons caused similar effects in Afghanistan.

U.S. troops have recently begun removing contaminated topsoil in Iraq,
taking it to an unknown location.

Scientists believe the next generation of children of citizens of both
countries exposed to DU will suffer from higher rates of birth defects and
cancer.

The Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) issued a report based on a 13-day
survey throughout the primary conflict zones in urban and rural areas of
central and southern Iraq on October 2003, according to Risq News.

The team performed radiation surveys, nuclide analysis, interviewed
civilians and community leaders, collected biological and field samples, and
investigated the possible health effects of depleted uranium contamination
on Iraqi civilians.

According to the report, the U.S. has used uranium oxide deposits as strong
explosives in common and fire bombs.

The most disturbing circumstance was observed in the U.S. occupied base in
southwestern Baghdad in the Auweirj district. It is close to the
international airport and hosts one of the largest coalition bases around
Baghdad, occupying the operational headquarters of the Iraqi Special
Republican Guard. The area was subject to considerable aerial bombing and
rocket fire prior to the coalition ground forces' arrival followed by
several ground skirmishes along the main routes to the international airport
and western entrances to the city.

Departing the coalition-occupied base was a long, a steady stream of
tandem-axle dump trucks carrying full loads of sand, heading south away from
the city. Returning from the south was a second stream of fully loaded dump
trucks waiting to enter the base. As the team passed the base9s main
entrance, the gates were opened to reveal bulldozers spreading soil while
front-end loaders were filling the trucks that had just emptied their loads
of soil (silt and sand). The arriving trucks were delivering loads of sand
into the base while the departing trucks were hauling away the base9s
topsoil.

The method of topsoil removal and replacement at U.S.-occupied bases, living
facilities, and administrative buildings is mechanically resuspending tons
of potentially contaminated particulate. The dust clouds are lofting above
and spreading over the entire area -- 5,000,000 residents in Baghdad alone.
It is also exposing thousands of U.S. military personnel and the many
frequent foreign visitors including NGO staff, reconstruction crews,
business and trade delegates, and diplomatic and foreign service employees.

It9s not just UMRC that has reported the high level of radiation in Iraq,
many American journalists and researchers have also confirmed the reports.

The situation in Afghanistan is worse, with tests showing even higher levels
of radiation than Iraq.

Soldiers in Desert Storm (Persian Gulf War I) knew the danger of uranium
toxicity from U.S. and British ordnance, and many believe that Gulf War
syndrome is caused by exposure to depleted uranium.

At a recent international conference on uranium contaminated weapons held in
Hamburg, Germany, researchers and witnesses from the U.S., Britain, Canada,
Italy, Japan, Greece, Spain, Iraq, and Afghanistan presented various types
of undeniable evidence and documents to illustrate the connection between
depleted uranium and Gulf War syndrome.

--
Posted for educational and research purposes only, ~ in accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 ~

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 30 E Magazine: Do Cancers Cluster Around Atomic Plants?
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:48:20 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
May/June 2004 issue of E, The Environmental Magazine.

The Nuke Next Door
Do Cancers Cluster Around Atomic Plants?
By Trish Riley

Raised on fresh fruits and vegetables by his vegetarian mother, Ty-Michael 
Schmidt never even had a cold or ear infection before the age of five. Then 
doctors found a tumor in his abdomen. His mother, and some scientists, 
suspect the tumor has something to do with the fact that he lives near a 
nuclear power plant.

I never knew a child with cancer until my son,says Audra Schmidt of Hobe 
Sound, Florida. Now I know nothing but kids with cancer. At least 50 kids 
in our local area have it.

But theres not a cancer cluster in the neighborhood, according to the St. 
Lucie County, Florida Health Department, which conducted an in-depth study 
of the homes of 28 children with cancer. During the same period, another 12 
cases were identified in near-by Martin County. Tests were conducted on 
water, soil, air and dust for 561 different chemicals and potential 
contaminants. The results were negative for all chemicals tested.

e79ab6.jpg

Debi Santoro with her four-year-old daughter, Jadyn, whose cancer is now in 
remission.

©TRISH RILEY

We have yet to find any commonality,says James Moses, director of 
environmental health for St. Lucie County. We are dealing with 30 cases 
from 1981 to 1997. There was no cancer cluster.

The study continues, though, because it did find a marked increase in 
childhood cancers of the brain and central nervous system: 15 diagnosed in 
three years, nine within a seven-month period. The report notes that the 
trend should be monitored and perhaps studied further.

Health officials did not test for Strontium 90 (Sr-90), a radioactive 
carcinogenic byproduct of nuclear fission. The Radiation and Public Health 
Project (RPHP), a nonprofit research center in New York City, recently 
released a study linking increased incidence of childhood cancers to areas 
near nuclear power plants. The study was published in the peer-reviewed 
Archives of Environmental Health last year.

Of the 14 areas studied, the two counties closest to the reactors in St. 
Lucie County had the highest cancer rates,says principal researcher Joseph 
Mangano, national coordinator of the RPHP. Mangano says the Florida State 
Cancer Registry lists four cases in St. Lucie County for children under 10 
from 1981 to 1983, but this increased to 30 cases from 1996 to 1998. 
Accounting for a near doubling of population, the incidence still 
represents a 40 percent increase, compared to an average national increase 
of 11 percent in childhood cancers.

The RPHP has also been studying radiation levels in baby teeth of children 
around the country. Dubbed the Tooth Fairy Project, (see Your Health, 
Glowing in the Dark,May/June 2002), researchers report higher levels of 
Sr-90 near nuclear power plants, including St. Lucie and Miami-Dade 
counties. Water samples indicate higher levels of Sr-90 in areas within 20 
miles of the nuclear power plants than in more distant locales. The study 
also found that the levels of Sr-90 in the teeth of children diagnosed with 
cancer were nearly twice as high as levels in children who do not have cancer.

These results are hotly disputed by the multi-billion dollar nuclear power 
industry. Their claims are false,says Rachel Scott, spokesperson for 
Florida Power and Light, which owns the St. Lucie and Miamis Turkey Point 
nuclear power plants. Cancer levels are not higher in South Florida. The 
levels of Strontium 90 are not higher in South Florida, according to the 
Florida Department of Health and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The nuclear industry blames any Sr-90 still in the environment on residual 
effects of bomb testing. But a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report 
says because of decay, insignificant levels of Sr-90 remain in the soil and 
atmosphere from the bomb tests that ended 40 years ago.

This touches a nerve in the nuclear power industry,says Stephen Lester, 
science director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ). 
These plants are releasing small quantities of low-level radiation every 
day. The amounts may seem insignificant, but when you look at 50 cities, 
you can see it slowly has an impact.

At least two families were sufficiently convinced to file suit against 
Florida Power and Light because of their childrens illnesses, which include 
one death. A huge thing at stake here is the state of nuclear power 
plants,says Nancy LaVista, attorney for the plaintiff families. If in fact 
it is giving cancer to our children, we have a right to know and a duty to 
protect all citizens of Florida.

St. Lucie and Martin County families have joined forces to create a packet 
detailing their childrens illnesses. Its not so much for our children, who 
are already sick,says organizer Debi Santoro, whose four-year-old daughter, 
Jadyn, contracted cancer when she was six months old. Its for the children 
to come. These children are dying and theyre not going to die in vaintheyre 
going to help other children.In another part of the country, New Yorks 
Westchester and Suffolk counties and the state of New Jersey have 
appropriated funds to study areas near nuclear plants where cancer clusters 
are suspected.

A 2003 report released by the European Committee on Radiation Risk found 
the risk from low-level radiation to be significant, concluding that the 
present cancer epidemic is a consequence of exposures to global atmospheric 
weapons fallout in the period 1959 to 1963 and that more recent releases of 
radioisotopes to the environment from the operation of the nuclear fuel 
cycle will result in significant increases in cancer and other types of ill 
health.

Meanwhile, U.S. industry officials insist on labeling the reports junk 
science,and eagerly push a nuclear energy agenda. The federal government 
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently promoting legislation 
to renew interest in nuclear power and encourage the development of more 
new nuclear power plants for the first time since the Three Mile Island 
nuclear accident in 1979.

Stephen Lester of CHEJ suggests the power industry adopt his organizations 
new Be Safe Campaign. Its based on the fundamental principle of public 
health that says, if it is dangerous or has the potential to harm, proceed 
with caution.

Now 10, Ty-Michael Schmidt spent a year in the hospital undergoing radical 
experimental treatment for a rare form of cancer. Doctors have never been 
particularly encouraging about his prognosis, giving him only six months to 
live when he was diagnosed four years ago, but he is in remission and hes 
beaten the odds thus far. Doctors say his cancer can be traced to fetal 
cells, meaning it developed in utero.

For now, RPHP researchers recommend that concerned people try a remarkably 
simple precaution: drink only water that comes from a deep, protected 
source or that has been filtered to remove Sr-90 particles (such as by 
reverse osmosis). If only Audra Schmidt and the dozens of other parents of 
ill children in her community had known that.




 > 
</x-flowed>


Attachment Converted: e79ab6.jpg: 00000001,1fc3aa93,00000000,00000000
*****************************************************************
 31 [DU-WATCH] Bush admin knows about health effects of du
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:14:04 -0500 (CDT)

 
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=art
icle&sid=720 The Bush Administration knows about the health and the
environmental consequences of using depleted uranium but it doesn't
care.

By Mick Youther

When I first heard the term depleted uranium, I thought it must be
uranium after the radioactivity was gone. I was wrong.

Depleted uranium (DU) is the highly toxic and radioactive byproduct
of the uranium enrichment process.... Depleted uranium is roughly
60% as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium, and has a half
life of 4.5 billion years. As a result of 50 years of enriching
uranium for use in nuclear weapons and reactors, the U.S. has in
excess of 1.1 billion pounds of DU waste material.-- Dan Fahey,
Metal of Dishonor (1997)

More ordinance was rained down on Iraq during the six weeks of the
Gulf War than during the whole of the Second World War.

Unknown to the public or the Allied troops at the time, much of it
was coated with depleted uranium (DU)-- Felicity Arbuthnot, New
Internationalist, September 1999

The Pentagon and the United Nations estimate that the U.S. and
Britain used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of armor-piercing shells made of
depleted uranium during attacks on Iraq in March and April [2003]--far
more than the 375 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War.-- Seattle Post
Intelligencer, 8/4/03

Since the U.S. military's widespread use of DU in the Gulf became
known in 1991, the Pentagon has struggled to suppress mounting
evidence that DU munitions are simply too toxic to use. It has
cashiered or attempted to discredit its own experts, ignored their
advice, impeded scientific research into DU's health effects and
assembled a disinformation campaign to confuse the issue.--
Environmental Magazine, May/Jun 2003

When I spoke out within the military about how bad [depleted uranium]
was, my life ended, my career ended. I received threats, warnings,
sent to the reserve from full active duty."-- Dr. Doug Rokke, former
Army Major, who was in charge of the military's environmental
clean-up following the first Gulf War, ABC News, 5/5/03 (Thirty
members of Rokkes cleanup team have already died, and he has 5,000
times the acceptable level of radiation in his body, resulting in
damage to his lungs and kidneys, brain lesions, skin pustules,
chronic fatigue, continual wheezing and painful fibromyalgia.

After the Gulf War, Rokke was assigned to make a training video to
teach soldiers how to handle depleted uranium. It was a never shown
to the troops.)

..General Calvin Waller told NBC's Dateline that
neither he nor General Norman Schwartzkopf were ever told about the
health hazards of DU.-- Military Toxics Project's Depleted Uranium
Citizens' Network, 1/16/96

Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign
policy.-- Henry Kissinger, quoted by Bob Woodward in The Final Days
(1976)

Our studies indicate that more than forty percent of the population
around Basra will get cancer. We are living through another Hiroshima--
Dr.

Jawad Al-Ali, an oncologist and member England's Royal Society of
Physicians, quoted by islamonline.net, 5/15/03

The leukemia rate in Sarajevo, pummeled by American bombs in 1996,
has tripled in the last five years. But it's not just the Serbs who
are ill and dying. NATO and UN peacekeepers in the region are also
coming down with cancer.-- Baltimore Chronicle, 12/5/01

Drought-stricken Afghanistan's underground water supply is now
contaminated by these nuclear weapons. Experts with the Uranium
Medical Research Center report that urine samples of Afghanis show
the highest level of uranium ever recorded in a civilian population.--
Amy Worthington, Idaho Observer, April 2003

By now, half of all the 697,000 U.S. soldiers involved in the 1991
war have reported serious illnesses. According to the American Gulf
War Veterans Association, more than 30 percent of these soldiers
are chronically ill and are receiving disability benefits from the
Veterans Administration.-- Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto,
Swans Commentary, 2/2/04

Gulf War Syndrome not only killed, maimed, and made soldiers sick,
they brought it home. In a study of 251 Gulf War veterans' families
in Mississippi, 67 percent of their children were born without eyes,
ears or a brain, had fused fingers, blood infections, respiratory
problems or thyroid and other organ malformations.-- Leuren Moret,
environmental geologist, San Francisco Bay View, 11/7/01

In America, war means money - lots of it - and to the corporations
which profit from war, our soldiers are nothing more than an
expendable item.

The Pentagon and the military corporations clearly consider
contamination of their own soldiers as an acceptable cost.-- S.R.

Shearer, The End Times Network, 5/10/99

How can we do this to our soldiers, their families and the other
victims of war? How can anyone think this is a good idea?

------ Mick Youther is an Instructor in the Department of Physiology
at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. You can email
your comments to Mick@interventionmag.com

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 32 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] San Francisco Bans Irradiated Food in
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:46:37 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
San Francisco Unified School District Bans Irradiated Food!

Last night, the SF Board of Education voted unanimously to ban
irradiated foods in all of their school meal programs, for five years.
This vote came after months of organizing parents, community groups,
teachers, and students.  San Francisco is now the sixth school district
in California (and the 8th in the country) to pass such a ban.  Read the
press release below.

Pass a ban in your school district!  To download a free organizing kit,
visit www.safelunch.org   Contact Tracy Lerman tlerman@citizen.org or
510-663-0888 x 103 for more info.


PUBLIC CITIZEN * PARENT VOICES

NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:  April 27, 2004

Contact: Tracy Lerman, (510) 663-0888 x
103

San Francisco School Board Bans Irradiated Food from School Lunch
Program
Concerned Parents and Consumer Groups Praise Decision

         SAN FRANCISCO - In a unanimous vote last night, the seven
members of the San Francisco Board of Education followed five other
California school districts by  passing a resolution that forbids the
116-school system from purchasing irradiated food for any of its meal
programs for five years.  This resolution follows a USDA decision to
include irradiated ground beef in the National School Lunch Program,
which provides free or reduced price school lunches to 27 million
children annually; 61% of SFUSD's students qualify for the federally
subsidized meal program.

         California is leading the country with a new trend of banning
irradiated food from their school cafeterias in order to safeguard
students who would otherwise have no way to protect themselves from
eating meat that has been treated with the controversial irradiation
technology.  Federal law states that while irradiated meat must be
labeled in grocery stores, it does not have to be labeled when served
in cafeterias, restaurants, or hospitals.

         "The USDA clearly ignored the will of the public when it
approved irradiated foods for the National School Lunch Program," said
Mark Sanchez, school board commissioner and co author of the resolution.
   "San Francisco's ban will send the USDA a message that they can't use
our children as guinea pigs for this questionable technology."

         In May 2003, the USDA decision to approve irradiated meat for
the school lunch program was controversial because the federal agency
sided with industry over parental concerns.  More than 400 comments from
Californians were submitted during the open comment period.  Of the
thousands of comments in total, 93% opposed the proposal to include
irradiated meat in children's lunches.  In March, the Parent Advisory
Council to SFUSD voted 14-1 in favor of banning irradiated meat from San
Francisco schools.  The Student Advisory Council and the United
Educators of San Francisco, the union representing San Francisco public
school teachers, also support the ban.

         "The growing number of school districts banning irradiated foods
is evidence of an increasing demand for wholesome, healthy, and
nutritious food in schools," said Tracy Lerman, an organizer for Public
Citizen's safe lunch campaign based in Oakland, Calif.  "I applaud the
San Francisco school board for prioritizing the health of
their students by banning this nutritionally bankrupt food."

         Irradiation exposes food to a dose of ionizing radiation to kill
bacteria; however, research has shown that it depletes essential
nutrients and vitamins from the food and also produces chemicals that
are known or suspected carcinogens.  Last year, the Los Angeles Unified
School District passed a similar ban on irradiated meat, calling it
"ludicrous" to use children as a test group for eating irradiated food
when the long-term health effects are unknown.

         To date, no school district has purchased irradiated meat
through the USDA for the 2004-2005 school year.

###

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Lerman
Senior Organizer
Public Citizen, California Office
1615 Broadway, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
ph: 510-663-0888 x 103  f: 510-663-8569
tlerman@citizen.org
www.citizen.org/california

Keep irradiated food out of your child's lunch!
Visit www.safelunch.org to find out more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**********
To unsubscribe, please send a email to tlerman@citizen.org with 
"unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the subject line. 

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 33 [RADFOOD] Irradiated Food Ban in San Francisco Schools!
 
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:18:55 -0500 (CDT)

 
NEWS RELEASE

April 28, 2004

San Francisco School Board Bans Irradiated Food from School Lunch
Program

Concerned Parents and Consumer Groups Praise Decision

SAN FRANCISCO - In a unanimous  vote last night, the seven members of
the San Francisco Board of Education followed five other California
school districts by passing a resolution that forbids the 116-school
system from purchasing irradiated food for any of its meal programs for
five years.  This resolution follows a USDA decision to include
irradiated ground beef in the National School Lunch Program, which
provides free or reduced price school lunches to 27 million children
annually; 61% of SFUSD's students qualify for the federally subsidized
meal program.

California is leading the country with a new trend of banning
irradiated food from their school cafeterias in order to safeguard
students who would otherwise have no way to protect themselves from
eating meat that has been treated with the controversial irradiation
technology.  Federal law states that while irradiated meat must be
labeled in grocery stores, it does not have to be labeled when served in
cafeterias, restaurants, or hospitals.

"The USDA clearly ignored the will of the public when it approved
irradiated foods for the National School Lunch Program," said Mark
Sanchez, school board commissioner and co-author of the resolution.
"San Francisco's ban will send the USDA a message th at they can't use
our children as guinea pigs for this questionable technology."

In May 2003, the USDA decision to approve irradiated meat for the
school lunch program was controversial because the federal agency sided
with industry over parental concerns.  More than 400 comments from
Californians were submitted during the open comment period.  Of the
thousands of comments in total, 93% opposed the proposal to include
irradiated meat in children's lunches.  In March, the Parent Advisory
Council to SFUSD voted 14-1 in favor of banning irradiated meat from San
Francisco schools.  The Student Advisory Council and the United
Educators of San Francisco, the union representing San Francisco public
school teachers, also support the ban.

"The growing number of school districts banning irradiated foods is
evidence of an increasing demand for wholesome, healthy, and nutritious
food in schools," said Tracy Lerman, an organizer for Public Citizen's
safe lunch campaign based in Oakland, Calif.  "I applaud the San
Francisco school board for prioritizing the health of their students by
banning this nutritionally bankrupt food."

Irradiation exposes food to a dose of ionizing radiation to kill
bacteria; however, research has shown that it depletes essential
nutrients and vitamins from the food and also produces chemicals that
are known or suspected carcinogens.  Last year, the Los Angeles Unified
School District passed a similar ban on irradiated meat, calling it
"ludicrous"  to use children as a test group for eating irradiated
food when the long-term health effects are unknown.

To date, no school district has purchased irradiated meat through the
USDA for the 2004-2005 school year. ###

*Go to www.safelunch.org for more information on irradiated food in
school lunches or to download a copy of our National School Lunch
Program Organizing Kit.*

********************
If you would like to be removed from the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe radfood" in the message.

If you would like to be added to the radfood list, send an email to listserv@listserver.citizen.org with the words "subscribe radfood" in the message.

To learn more about food irradiation, visit our website at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/

Questions about the radfood list can be directed to RADFOOD-request@LISTSERVER.CITIZEN.ORG
-Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program
*****************************************************************
 34 Guardian Unlimited: Pentagon: Uranium Didn't Harm N.Y. Unit
 
From the Associated Press        

[UP] 

Friday April 30, 2004 12:31 AM

By ADAM ASHTON 

Associated Press Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of a National Guard military police
unit who said they fell ill after exposure to depleted uranium
in Iraq did not have abnormal levels of the metal, Pentagon
officials said Thursday. 

The results did not reassure at least one of the soldiers. 

Members of the 442nd Military Police Company, based in
Orangeburg, N.Y., had complained of headaches, soreness and
insomnia. A private test this month indicated that four of them
had unhealthy levels of uranium in their urine. 

Further tests by the military showed that depleted uranium
exposure did not cause the ailments, the Pentagon said. 

``Those people all had normal levels of uranium in their
urine,'' said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of the
Deployment Health Support Directorate. 

Depleted uranium is the hard, heavy metal created as a byproduct
of enriching uranium for nuclear reactor fuel or weapons
material. It is about 40 percent less radioactive than natural
uranium, Kilpatrick said. 

``As long as this is exterior to your body, you're not at any
risk and the potential of internalizing it from the environment
is extremely small,'' Kilpatrick said. 

Most studies have indicated that depleted uranium exposure will
not harm soldiers. But a 2002 study by Britain's Royal Society
said soldiers who ingest or inhale enough depleted uranium could
suffer kidney damage. The report cautioned its results were
inconclusive and recommended a long-term study of soldiers
exposed to the metal. 

About 1,000 soldiers returning from Iraq have been tested for
exposure to the metal. Of those, three showed unhealthy levels
in urine samples. All three had fragments embedded in their
bodies, Kilpatrick said. 

Soldiers must choose to take a test for depleted uranium. All
members of the 442nd will be able to take one if they ask,
Kilpatrick said. Twenty-seven members of the unit have been
tested so far. 

One company member, Sgt. Ray Ramos, said the latest results did
not reassure him. He has suffered from migraine headaches,
breathing problems and pain in his elbows since returning from
Iraq in September. 

An earlier test suggested depleted uranium may have been
partially responsible for his pain. He said he will pursue a
third test from an independent doctor to compare the results. 

``When I become ill, or possibly become ill later on, I want to
have things in place,'' said Ramos, 41, of New York City. 

The Pentagon is monitoring a group of 70 veterans from the first
Gulf War who have pieces of depleted uranium embedded in their
bodies. Kilpatrick said none of them has shown health problems
related to depleted uranium. 

Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of the Nuclear Policy
Research Institute and a Gulf War veteran, said the military
should test all soldiers returning from Iraq to determine
whether fears about the metal are valid. 
  
      Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
 35 NRC: Notice for Opportunity to Comment on Model Safety Evaluation on 
 
                         FR Doc 04-9691 
[Federal Register: April 29, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 83)] 
[Notices] [Page 23542-23546] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29ap04-80]                         
 
Technical Specification Improvement to Eliminate Requirements to 
Provide Monthly Operating Reports and Occupational Radiation 
Exposure Reports Using the Consolidated Line Item Improvement 
Process AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
ACTION: Request for Comment.
 
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the staff of the Nuclear 
Regulatory
 
[[Page 23543]] Commission (NRC) has prepared a model safety 
evaluation (SE) relating to the elimination of requirements for 
licensees to provide monthly operating reports (MORs) and 
occupational radiation exposure reports (ORERs). The requirements 
to submit MORs and ORERs are imposed on licensees through 
technical specifications. The NRC staff has also prepared a model 
no significant hazards consideration (NSHC) determination 
relating to this matter. The purpose of these models is to permit 
the NRC to efficiently process amendments that propose to remove 
the requirements for these reports. Licensees of nuclear power 
reactors to which the models apply could request amendments 
confirming the applicability of the SE and NSHC determination to 
their reactors and providing the requested plant-specific 
verifications and commitments. The NRC staff is requesting 
comments on the model SE and model NSHC determination prior to 
announcing their availability for referencing in license 
amendment applications.
 
 
DATES: The comment period expires May 28, 2004. Comments received 
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, 
but the Commission is able to ensure consideration only for 
comments received on or before this date.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted either electronically or via 
U.S. mail.
 
Submit written comments to: Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, 
Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, 
Mail Stop T-6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555- 0001.
 
Hand deliver comments to 11545 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 
Maryland, between 7:45 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays. 
Copies of comments received may be examined at the NRC's Public 
Document Room, located at One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville 
Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland.
 
Comments may be submitted by electronic mail to CLIIP@nrc.gov 
[CLIIP@nrc.gov] . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William 
Reckley, Mail Stop: O-7D1, Division of Licensing Project 
Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555- 0001, telephone 
301-415-1323.
 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background Regulatory Issue Summary 
2000-06, ``Consolidated Line Item Improvement Process for 
Adopting Standard Technical Specification Changes for Power 
Reactors,'' was issued on March 20, 2000. The consolidated line 
item improvement process (CLIIP) is intended to improve the 
efficiency and transparency of NRC licensing processes. This is 
accomplished by processing proposed changes to the Standard 
Technical Specifications (STS) in a manner that supports 
subsequent license amendment applications. The CLIIP includes an 
opportunity for the public to comment on proposed changes to the 
STS following a preliminary assessment by the NRC staff and 
finding that the change will likely be offered for adoption by 
licensees. This notice is soliciting comment on a proposed change 
to the STS that removes requirements for providing MORs and 
ORERs. The CLIIP directs the NRC staff to evaluate any comments 
received for a proposed change to the STS and to either 
reconsider the change or to proceed with announcing the 
availability of the change to licensees. Those licensees opting 
to apply for the subject change to technical specifications are 
responsible for reviewing the staff's evaluation, referencing the 
applicable technical justifications, and providing any necessary 
plant specific information. Each amendment application made in 
response to the notice of availability would be processed and 
noticed in accordance with applicable rules and NRC procedures.
 
This notice for comment involves the elimination of requirements 
in the administrative controls in technical specifications for 
licensees to submit selected reports. The removal of the 
requirements to submit MORs and ORERs was proposed by the 
Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) in Revision 1 to STS 
Change Traveler TSTF-369, accessible electronically from the 
Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) 
Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet (ADAMS Accession 
Number ML040050211) at the NRC web site 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
.
 
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems 
in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the 
NRC Public Document Room Reference staff by telephone at 1- 
800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov 
[pdr@nrc.gov] . Applicability This proposed change to remove 
requirements for MORs and ORERs is applicable to all nuclear 
power reactors.
 
To efficiently process incoming license amendment applications, 
the staff requests each licensee applying for the changes 
addressed by TSTF-369 using the CLIIP to address the following 
plant-specific verifications and regulatory commitments. The 
CLIIP does not prevent licensees from requesting an alternative 
approach or proposing the changes without the requested 
verifications and regulatory commitments. Licensees choosing to 
request an approach different than that described in this notice 
should submit applications with appropriate plant- specific 
justifications for the proposed changes and an analysis of the 
issue of no significant hazards consideration. Variations from 
the approach recommended in this notice may require additional 
review by the NRC staff and may increase the time and resources 
needed for the review.
 
Each licensee requesting approval to revise their technical 
specifications using the CLIIP will make a regulatory commitment 
to provide to the NRC the information defined in Generic Letter 
97-02, ``Revised Contents of the Monthly Operating Report,'' by 
the 21st of the month following the end of each calendar quarter. 
This coincides with the schedule for the submission of 
performance indicator data associated with the Reactor Oversight 
Process. The regulatory commitment will be based on use of an 
industry database (e.g., the industry's Consolidated Data Entry 
(CDE) program, currently being developed and maintained by the 
Institute of Nuclear Power Operations).
 
Public Notices This notice requests comments from interested 
members of the public within 30 days of the date of publication 
in the Federal Register. Following the staff's evaluation of 
comments received as a result of this notice, the staff may 
reconsider the proposed change or may proceed with announcing the 
availability of the change in a subsequent notice (perhaps with 
some changes to the SE or proposed NSHC determination as a result 
of public comments). If the staff announces the availability of 
the change, licensees wishing to adopt the change will submit an 
application in accordance with applicable rules and other 
regulatory requirements. The staff will in turn issue for each 
application a notice of proposed action, which includes a 
proposed NSHC determination. A notice of issuance of an amendment 
of operating license will also be issued to announce the removal 
of the reporting requirements for each plant that applies for and 
receives the requested change.
 
 
[[Page 23544]] Proposed Safety Evaluation U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Consolidated 
Line Item Improvement, Technical Specification Task Force (TSTF) 
Change Traveler TSTF-369, Elimination of Requirements for Monthly 
Operating Reports and Occupational Radiation Exposure Reports.
 
1.0 Introduction By application dated [DATE], [LICENSEE NAME] 
(the licensee), submitted a request for changes to the [PLANT 
NAME], Technical Specifications (TSs) (ADAMS Accession No. 
MLxxx). The requested change would delete TS [5.6.1], 
``Occupational Radiation Exposure Report,'' and TS [5.6.4], 
``Monthly Operating Reports,'' as described in the Notice of 
Availability published in the Federal Register on [DATE ] (xx FR 
yyyyy).
 
2.0 Regulatory Evaluation Section 182a. of the Atomic Energy Act 
of 1954, as amended, (the ``Act'') requires applicants for 
nuclear power plant operating licenses to state TS to be included 
as part of the license. The Commission's regulatory requirements 
related to the content of TSs are set forth in 10 CFR 50.36, 
``Technical specifications.'' The regulation requires that TSs 
include items in five specific categories, including (1) safety 
limits, limiting safety system settings, and limiting control 
settings; (2) limiting conditions for operation (LCOs); (3) 
surveillance requirements; (4) design features; and (5) 
administrative controls. However, the regulation does not specify 
the particular requirements to be included in a plant's TSs.
 
The Commission has provided guidance for the content of TSs in 
its ``Final Policy Statement on Technical Specification 
Improvements for Nuclear Power Reactors' (58 FR 39132, published 
July 22, 1993), in which the Commission indicated that compliance 
with the Final Policy Statement satisfies Section 182a. of the 
Act. The Final Policy Statement identified four criteria to be 
used in determining whether a particular item should be addressed 
in the TSs as an LCO. The criteria were subsequently incorporated 
into 10 CFR 50.36 (60 FR 36593, published July 19, 1995). While 
the criteria specifically apply to LCOs, the Commission indicated 
that the intent of these criteria may be used to identify the 
optimum set of administrative controls in TSs. Addressing 
administrative controls, 10 CFR 50.36 states that they are ``the 
provisions relating to organization and management, procedures, 
recordkeeping, review and audit, and reporting necessary to 
assure operation of the facility in a safe manner.'' The specific 
content of the administrative controls section of the TS is, 
therefore, related to those programs and reports that the 
Commission deems essential for the safe operation of the 
facility, which are not adequately covered by regulations or 
other regulatory requirements. Accordingly, the staff may 
determine that specific requirements, such as those associated 
with this change, may be removed from the administrative controls 
in the TS if they are not explicitly required by 10 CFR 
50.36(c)(5) and are not otherwise necessary to obviate the 
possibility of an abnormal situation or event giving rise to an 
immediate threat to the public health and safety.
 
The impetus for the monthly operating report (MOR) came from the 
1973-1974 oil embargo. Regulatory Guide 1.16, Revision 4, 
``Reporting of Operating Information--Appendix A Technical 
Specifications,'' published for comment in August 1975, 
identifies operating statistics and shutdown experience 
information that was desired in the operating report at that 
time. In the mid-1990s, the NRC staff assessed the information 
that is submitted in the MOR and determined that while some of 
the information was no longer used by the staff, the MOR was the 
only source of some data used in the NRC Performance Indicator 
(PI) Program of that time period (see NRC Generic Letter (GL) 
97-02, ``Revised Contents of the Monthly Operating Report''). 
Beginning in the late 1990s, the NRC developed and implemented a 
major revision to its assessment, inspection, and enforcement 
processes through its Reactor Oversight Process (ROP). The ROP 
uses both plant-level PIs and inspections performed by NRC 
personnel. In conjunction with the development of the ROP, the 
NRC developed the Industry Trends Program (ITP). The ITP provides 
the NRC a means to assess overall industry performance using 
industry level indicators and to report on industry trends to 
various stakeholders (e.g., Congress). Information from the ITP 
is used to assess the NRC's performance related to its goal of 
having ``no statistically significant adverse industry trends in 
safety performance.'' The ITP uses some of the same PIs as the PI 
Program from the mid-1990s and, therefore, the NRC has a 
continuing use for the data provided in MORs. The NRC also uses 
some data from the MORs to support the evaluation of operating 
experience, licensee event reports, and other assessments 
performed by the staff and its contractors.
 
Licensees are required by TSs to submit annual occupational 
radiation exposure reports (ORERs) to the NRC. The reports, 
developed in the mid-1970s, supplement the reporting requirements 
currently defined in 10 CFR 20.2206, ``Reports of individual 
monitoring,'' by providing a tabulation of data by work areas and 
job functions.
 
The NRC included data from the ORERs in its annual publication of 
NUREG-0713, ``Occupational Radiation Exposure at Commercial 
Nuclear Power Reactors and Other Facilities,'' through the year 
1997, but no longer includes the data in that or other reports.
 
3.0 Technical Evaluation 3.1 Monthly Operating Reports As 
previously mentioned, the administrative requirements in TSs are 
reserved for ``the provisions relating to organization and 
management, procedures, recordkeeping, review and audit, and 
reporting necessary to assure operation of the facility in a safe 
manner.'' The current use of the information from the MORs is not 
related to reporting on or confirming the safe operation of 
specific nuclear power plants. Instead, the data is used by the 
NRC to assess and communicate with stakeholders regarding the 
overall performance of the nuclear industry. Data related to PIs 
for specific plants are reported to the NRC as part of the ROP. 
The staff has determined that the MORs do not meet the criteria 
defined for requirements to be included in the administrative 
section of TSs and the reporting requirement may, therefore, be 
removed.
 
Although the MORs do not satisfy the criteria for inclusion in 
TSs, the NRC staff nevertheless has a continuing need to receive 
the data in order to compile its reports on industry trends and 
to support other evaluations of operating experience. In 
addition, information such as plant capacity factors that are 
reported in the MORs are useful to the staff and are frequently 
asked for by agency stakeholders.
 
The NRC staff interacted with licensees, industry organizations, 
and other stakeholders during the development of the Consolidated 
Data Entry (CDE) program (currently being developed and 
maintained by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operation), 
regarding the use of an industry database like CDE to provide 
data currently obtained from MORs.
 
These discussions also involved the related Revision 1 to 
TSTF-369, ``Removal of
 
[[Page 23545]] Monthly Operating Report and Occupational 
Radiation Exposure Report.'' As described in Section 4 of this 
safety evaluation, the licensee is making a regulatory commitment 
to continue to provide the data identified in GL 97-02, following 
the removal of the TS requirement to submit MORs, and will, 
therefore, continue to meet the needs of the NRC staff for the 
ITP and other evaluations. The use of an industry database such 
as CDE is more efficient and cost-effective for both the NRC and 
licensees than would be having the NRC staff obtain the needed 
information from other means currently available. Should a 
licensee fail to satisfy the regulatory commitment to voluntarily 
provide the information, the NRC could obtain the information 
through its inspection program (similar to the process described 
in NRC Inspection Procedure 71150, ``Discrepant or Unreported 
Performance Indicator Data'') with the cost passed on to the 
licensee.
 
The only significant changes resulting from the adoption of TSTF- 
369 are that the information will be provided quarterly instead 
of monthly (although the operating data will still be divided by 
month) and the form of the reporting will be from a consolidated 
database such as CDE instead of in correspondence from individual 
licensees.
 
The change of reporting frequency to quarterly has some 
advantages for both the staff and licensees, since it will 
coincide with the collection and submission of the ROP PI data. 
In terms of the specific method used to transmit the data to the 
NRC, the licensee has committed (see Section 4.0) to provide data 
identified in GL 97-02 on a quarterly basis. The staff believes 
that the most efficient process for licensees and the NRC will be 
for all licensees to use a system such as CDE. Such systems have 
advantages in terms of improved data entry, data checking, and 
data verification and validation. The NRC will recognize 
efficiency gains by having the data from all plants reported 
using the same computer software and format. Although the data 
may be transmitted to the NRC from an industry organization 
maintaining a database such as CDE, the licensee provides the 
data for the system and remains responsible for the accuracy of 
the data submitted to the NRC for its plant(s). The public will 
continue to have access to the data through official agency 
records accessible on the Agencywide Documents Access and 
Management System (ADAMS).
 
3.2 Occupational Radiation Exposure Reports The information that 
the NRC staff needs regarding occupational doses is provided by 
licensees in the reports required under 10 CFR Part 20. The data 
from the Part 20 reports are sufficient to support the NRC 
trending programs, radiation related studies, and preparation of 
reports such as NUREG-0713. Accordingly, the NRC's limited use of 
the ORER submitted pursuant to the existing TS requirements no 
longer warrants the regulatory burden imposed on licensees. 
Therefore, the staff finds it acceptable that TS [5.6.1] is being 
deleted and the ORER will no longer be submitted by the licensee.
 
[Note: For stations with both boiling and pressurized water 
reactors (i.e., Salem/Hope Creek and Millstone) and for stations 
with both operating and shutdown reactors (e.g., Dresden, Indian 
Point, Millstone, San Onofre, Three Mile Island), the NRC staff 
uses information provided in the ORERs to apportion the doses 
reported under 10 CFR Part 20 to the different categories of 
reactors at a single site. The licensees for facilities with 
different reactor types at a single site and those having both 
operating and shutdown reactors at a single site will include in 
their applications a regulatory commitment to provide information 
to the NRC annually (e.g., with their annual submittal in 
accordance with 10 CFR 20.2206) to support the apportionment of 
the station doses to each type of reactor and to differentiate 
between operating and shutdown units. The data will provide the 
summary distribution of annual whole body doses as presented in 
Appendix B of NUREG-0713 for each reactor type and for operating 
and shutdown units.] [The licensee's application included 
editorial and formatting changes such as the renumbering of TS 
sections to reflect the deletion of the sections related to MORs 
and ORERs. The NRC staff has reviewed these changes and found 
that they do not revise substantive technical or administrative 
requirements, and are acceptable.] 4.0 Verifications and 
Commitments In order to efficiently process incoming license 
amendment applications, the staff requested each licensee 
requesting the changes addressed by TSTF-369 using the CLIIP to 
address the following plant- specific regulatory commitment.
 
4.1 Each licensee should make a regulatory commitment to provide 
to the NRC using an industry database the operating data (for 
each calender month) that is described in Generic Letter 97-02 
``Revised Contents of the Monthly Operating Report,'' by the 21st 
of the month following the end of each calendar quarter. This 
coincides with the schedule for the submission of performance 
indicator data associated with the Reactor Oversight Process. The 
regulatory commitment will be based on use of an industry 
database (e.g., the industry's Consolidated Data Entry (CDE) 
program, currently being developed and maintained by the 
Institute of Nuclear Power Operations).
 
The licensee has made a regulatory commitment to provide the 
requested data via an industry database (i.e., the CDE) by the 
21st of the month (coinciding with the schedule for the 
submission of performance indicator data associated with the 
Reactor Oversight Process) following each calendar quarter.
 
[4.2 Each licensee [(operating different reactor types at a 
single site) or (possessing both operating and shutdown reactors 
at a single site)] will include in its application a regulatory 
commitment to provide information to the NRC annually (e.g., with 
its annual submittal in accordance with 10 CFR 20.2206) to 
support the apportionment of station doses [(to each type of 
reactor) or (to differentiate between operating and shutdown 
units)]. The data will provide the summary distribution of annual 
whole body doses as presented in Appendix B of NUREG-0713 for 
each reactor type and for operating and shutdown units.
 
The licensee has made a regulatory commitment to provide 
information to the NRC annually to support the apportionment of 
the station doses to each type of reactor and to differentiate 
between operating and shutdown units.] The NRC staff finds that 
reasonable controls for the implementation and for subsequent 
evaluation of proposed changes pertaining to the above regulatory 
commitment(s) can be provided by the licensee's administrative 
processes, including its commitment management program. The NRC 
staff has agreed that NEI 99-04, Revision 0, ``Guidelines for 
Managing NRC Commitment Changes,'' provides reasonable guidance 
for the control of regulatory commitments made to the NRC staff 
(see Regulatory Issue Summary 2000-17, ``Managing Regulatory 
Commitments Made by Power Reactor Licensees to the NRC Staff,'' 
dated September 21, 2000). The staff notes that this amendment 
establishes a voluntary reporting system for the operating data 
that is similar to
 
[[Page 23546]] the system established for the ROP PI program.
 
5.0 State Consultation In accordance with the Commission's 
regulations, the [STATE] State official was notified of the 
proposed issuance of the amendments. The State official had [(1) 
no comments or (2) the following comments--with subsequent 
disposition by the staff].
 
6.0 Environmental Consideration The amendment relates to changes 
in recordkeeping, reporting, or administrative procedures or 
requirements. The Commission has previously issued a proposed 
finding that the amendment involves no significant hazards 
consideration, and there has been no public comment on such 
finding (FR citation and date). Accordingly, the amendment meets 
the eligibility criteria for categorical exclusion set forth in 
10 CFR 51.22(c)(10). Pursuant to 10 CFR 51.22(b), no 
environmental impact statement or environmental assessment need 
be prepared in connection with the issuance of the amendment.
 
7.0 Conclusion The Commission has concluded, based on the 
considerations discussed above, that (1) there is reasonable 
assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be 
endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) such 
activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission's 
regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendments will not be 
inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and 
safety of the public.
 
Proposed No Significant Hazards Consideration Determination 
Description of amendment request: The requested change would 
delete Technical Specification (TS) [5.6.1], ``Occupational 
Radiation Exposure Report,'' and [5.6.4], ``Monthly Operating 
Reports,'' as described in the Notice of Availability published 
in the Federal Register on [DATE] (xx FR yyyyy).
 
Basis for proposed no significant hazards consideration 
determination: As required by 10 CFR 50.91(a), an analysis of the 
issue of no significant hazards consideration is presented below: 
1. Does the proposed change involve a significant increase in the 
probability or consequences of an accident previously evaluated? 
Response: No.
 
The proposed change eliminates the Technical Specifications 
reporting requirements to provide a monthly operating report of 
shutdown experience and operating statistics if the equivalent 
data is submitted using an industry electronic database. It also 
eliminates the Technical Specification reporting requirement for 
an annual occupational radiation exposure report, which provides 
information beyond that specified in NRC regulations. The 
proposed change involves no changes to plant systems or accident 
analyses. As such, the change is administrative in nature and 
does not affect initiators of analyzed events or assumed 
mitigation of accidents or transients.
 
Therefore, the proposed change does not involve a significant 
increase in the probability or consequences of an accident 
previously evaluated.
 
2. Does the proposed change create the possibility of a new or 
different kind of accident from any accident previously 
evaluated? Response: No.
 
The proposed change does not involve a physical alteration of the 
plant, add any new equipment, or require any existing equipment 
to be operated in a manner different from the present design.
 
Therefore, the proposed change does not create the possibility of 
a new or different kind of accident from any accident previously 
evaluated.
 
3. Does the proposed change involve a significant reduction in a 
margin of safety? Response: No.
 
This is an administrative change to reporting requirements of 
plant operating information and occupational radiation exposure 
data, and has no effect on plant equipment, operating practices 
or safety analyses assumptions. For these reasons, the proposed 
change does not involve a significant reduction in the margin of 
safety.
 
Based upon the reasoning presented above, requested change does 
not involve a significant hazards consideration.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 21st day of April 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Robert A. Gramm, Chief, Section 1, Project Directorate IV, 
Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9691 Filed 4-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 36 [NukeNet] Radioactive Wastewater Spills Into Rhine
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:41:53 -0700

 
<x-flowed>



http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Germany-Radioactive-Spill.html

Radioactive Wastewater Spills Into Rhine
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 28, 2004


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Filed at 6:10 p.m. ET

KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) -- About 8,000 gallons of
radioactive water poured into the Rhine river in
southwestern Germany after a pump malfunctioned at
a nuclear plant, a power company said Wednesday.

The water leaked into the river Saturday night
when a valve was mistakenly left open, but he said
the health risk was minimal, said Dirk Ommeln of
Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany's
third-largest energy company.

``The water was lightly contaminated,'' said
Ommeln, who likened the radioactivity exposure of
drinking a gallon of the water to having a dental
X-ray.

The 7,900-gallon leak was not reported to the
state Environment Ministry until Monday, prompting
criticism from the local government, which
requires immediate reporting for all incidents.

The ministry also said the contamination was not
strong enough to pose a health risk.

The spill occurred during testing of high-speed
valves that move wastewater into tanks. An
unexpected increase in pressure blew out one
valve, allowing the contaminated water to enter
the Rhine.






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 37 Las Vegas RJ: EDITORIAL: Yucca quality 
 
Thursday, April 29, 2004
 
The news on Yucca Mountain is rarely good, yet Department of 
Energy officials just pin the happy faces to their lapels and 
plow forward.
 
 Three years ago, the General Accounting Office found that the 
DOE's quality assurance on the project -- a major factor in 
determining approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- 
was lacking.
 
 Now a new GAO report that will be released this week finds the 
DOE has failed to make significant progress in fixing the 
problems.
 
 The department "is not yet in a position to demonstrate to NRC 
that its quality assurance program can ensure the safe 
construction and long term operation" of Yucca Mountain, the 
report concludes. Predictably, as if we were all in the movie 
"Groundhog Day," DOE officials argue that they are addressing all 
the concerns and will have everything in ship shape by the time 
they file for a license application.
 
 Rewind to 1998: GAO finds software and science model problems. 
DOE says it will work to correct them.
 
 Rewind to 2001: GAO says problems remain. DOE says it will work 
to correct them.
 
 Here we are today: GAO finds quality assurance problems. DOE 
officials smile and say everything will be fine.
 
 Where's Bill Murray in all this?
 
 Sen. Harry Reid correctly notes that all this indicates the 
Yucca program is "a mess." In addition, though, the government's 
insistence on continuing to pour millions into this boondoggle 
indicates how politics rather than science has been the driving 
force here since Day 1.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 38 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: No real plan for hauling nuke waste

 LAS VEGAS SUN

 Safety concerns about the Energy Department's intention to
transport nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain were raised this week
by Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. The deadly material, packed in
specially designed rail and truck casks, would be shipped over a
24-year period from 131 sites in 39 states. Gibbons asked about
any plans to train first-responders in the event a truck or
train carrying the loaded casks has an accident.

 On its Yucca Mountain Project Web site (www.ymp.gov), the
department says, "In an emergency, state, local and tribal
governments are responsible for the safety of their residents
and responding to accidents in their jurisdictions." The
department, which plans to begin shipments in six years, goes on
to say that it is required by Congress to "provide technical and
financial assistance to states and tribes for training public
safety officials in procedures for safe, routine transportation
and emergency response procedures. This assistance would begin
about three to five years before shipments start."

 The question, however, one that has also been posed many times
by this newspaper, was about a "plan." A few sentences on a Web
site is not a plan. Police, firefighters, ambulance and hospital
crews and local government officials in cities, towns and
villages all over the country need training -- and a real plan
for receiving it.

 The stark truth is that there is no real plan. And the General
Accounting Office this week revealed another stark truth. Much
of the backup material for the Energy Department's "science"
showing that Yucca Mountain can safely store the waste for
10,000 years is incomplete or lacks a source for its
conclusions. Without sufficient backup material, used by fact
checkers to prove or disprove designs, there could be "adverse
health and safety consequences" at Yucca Mountain, the GAO says.
An insufficient transportation plan could lead to the same
consequences all along the way. The Energy Department intends to
apply this year for a license to operate Yucca Mountain. The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission should reject what will obviously
be a rushed and highly flawed application. 

*****************************************************************
 39 Las Vegas SUN: Former NRC member helping DOE on Yucca

By Suzanne Struglinski 
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com [suzanne@lasvegassun.com] >
 SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU 

WASHINGTON -- Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Greta
Joy Dicus is helping the Energy Department work on its license
application for the Yucca Mountain project, an arrangement that
would violate federal rules if she was working for a private
applicant or for Nevada.

 Former members of the the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are
prohibited from working for private licensees, such as
commercial nuclear power plants, for one year after the
expiration of their terms on the commission.

 Dicus' term on the commission expired in June 2003.

 But because she is consulting for another federal agency and
not a private licensee, her consultant work is allowed,
according to commission's General Counsel Office.

 Dicus started a $24,940 contract in February for "License
Application Consultant Services," according to a list of Energy
Department contracts. Her contract with the department runs
through Feb. 20, 2005.

 The DOE anticipates submitting its license application for the
nuclear waste storage site planned at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas, by the end of the year.

 A copy of Dicus' consulting contract was not immediately
available, so it is unclear exactly what type of work she is
doing.

 Joe Egan, of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, the Virginia
law firm hired by Nevada to handle Yucca Mountain legal issues,
said that although the contract may not violate the letter of
the law it certainly violates the spirit of the one-year
prohibition.

 Allowing Dicus to help the Energy Department with its
application provides the department with an unfair advantage,
Egan said. Dicus or any other former federal employee that has
worked on things related to Yucca Mountain could not represent
the state during the upcoming licensing hearings.

 A July 31, 2002, decision by the U.S. Office of Government
Ethics barred former Energy Department or Nuclear Regulatory
Commission employees from representing parties other than the
federal government in the licensing proceedings.

 John Bartlett, the former director of the Yucca project, has
been a consultant to Nevada on Yucca matters.

 Based on the ruling, Bartlett cannot be called as a witness
during the licensing hearings or represent the state in any way,
said attorney Martin Malsch.

 "It's a double standard," Egan said. "It's another way they
slant the rules in their favor."

 The current chairman of the commission could quit tomorrow and
go to work for the department, but could not represent Nevada,
Egan said.

 While the commission has agreed that permanent geologic
disposal of spent nuclear fuel is the best option, it has not
yet taken a position on whether Yucca Mountain could fulfill
that need.

 Former President Bill Clinton nominated Dicus to the commission
in 1996. She served for two years, was reappointed in 1998 and
served as chairwoman for a year in 1999 until former Chairman
Richard Meserve was appointed to the post. 



*****************************************************************
 40 Newsday: GAO Criticizes Feds Over Nuclear Dump
 
   [http://www.newsday.com]

        By Associated Press
 	 	
 	April 29, 2004, 2:27 PM EDT

LAS VEGAS --            

Failure by the Energy Department to fix "persistent" problems in 
the way it backs up scientific findings could delay the opening 
of a national nuclear waste dump in southern Nevada, according to 
a preliminary federal report. 

A draft report by the General Accounting Office in Washington, 
D.C., criticizes the Yucca Mountain Project's quality assurance 
program, which is designed to verify science and safety issues. 

In the report, auditors said the Energy Department is not ready 
to demonstrate to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that its 
quality assurance program can "ensure the safe construction and 
long term operation of the repository." 

The report by the congressional watchdog agency said the problems 
could delay licensing for the repository, which the Energy 
Department wants to open in 2010. 

Margaret Chu, chief of the Yucca Mountain Project and the Energy 
Department's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, 
cited "major deficiencies" in the draft report. 

"Where GAO sees 'continuing problems,' we see a measurable record 
of progress to date and a commitment to continuing improvement in 
the future," Chu said. 

The project is still on track to submit a licensing application 
to the NRC in December, Chu said. 

The report cited problems with computer software, models 
scientists use to show how the repository will work and the 
origin of the data used to make the conclusions. 

Auditors said technical weaknesses could undercut the 
government's ability to show that 77,000 tons of the nation's 
most radioactive waste can be stored safely inside Yucca 
Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. 

The Energy Department has used more than a thousand data sources, 
almost 60 computer models and more than 400 computer codes to 
simulate how the repository will perform. 

Engineers say special metal alloy casks containing spent fuel can 
be placed in a grid of mined tunnels 1,000 feet underground, to 
remain for tens of thousands of years under temperatures hot 
enough to roast a turkey. 

A separate NRC evaluation released two weeks ago reached a 
conclusion similar to the GAO. It said the licensing process 
would be delayed if the Energy Department did not improve 
technical documentation. 

A final copy of the GAO report is expected to be released by 
Friday to Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., who 
requested it last year. 

* __ 

On the Net: 

Yucca Mountain project:  [http://www.ymp.gov/] 

General Accounting Office:  [http://www.gao.gov/] 

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press 
*****************************************************************
 41 Daily Times: OP-ED: Rescuing nuclear non-proliferation 

 Friday, April 30, 2004    

—N Hassan Wirajuda 

One of the best ways to strengthen the non-proliferation regime 
now would be to implement fully the agreements that have already 
been reached. Selectivity and narrow reinterpretation can only 
weaken the Treaty

As a declared non-nuclear weapon state, Indonesia has always 
striven for nuclear non-proliferation — indeed, for a world free 
of nuclear weapons. But the cause of nuclear non-proliferation is 
now in deep trouble, as countries are once again tempted to 
acquire the means of oblivion.

For over three decades, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 
(NPT) has been the cornerstone of the world’s non-proliferation 
regime, a position that derives from growing acknowledgement of 
the legal and normative standards that it established. Adherence 
to the NPT has increased steadily, reaching a stage of near 
universal acceptance.

But there is a general feeling that implementation has fallen 
short of expectations, particularly with regard to nuclear 
disarmament. Moreover, there is increasing concern over 
non-compliance and the associated risks of proliferation — to 
worrisome states, particularly in Asia, and, even more ominously, 
into the hands of private individuals and terrorist 
organisations.

In the face of these threats, what can be done to strengthen the 
non-proliferation regime?

The NPT regime stands on three pillars: non-proliferation, 
nuclear disarmament, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The 
Treaty envisages the construction of each pillar through a 
matching series of steps taken by both nuclear weapon states and 
non-nuclear weapon states. Strengthening the non-proliferation 
regime in order to confront today’s challenges would require no 
more than following this strategy.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case since 1995, when the 
NPT Review and Extension Conference made the duration of the 
NPT’s validity indefinite. The Conference, which included the 
original five nuclear weapon states (the United States, Russia, 
China, France, and Great Britain) as well as a great number of 
other UN members, did not reach consensus on a “Final 
Declaration.” But it did adopt three other decisions, entitled 
Strengthening the Review Process for the Treaty, Principles and 
Objectives for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, and 
Resolution on the Middle East. These constituted a unified 
package that was meant to be implemented in its entirety.

Five years later, the 2000 Review Conference finally adopted a 
Final Document, which contained concrete measures, including “13 
practical steps” for systematic and progressive efforts to 
achieve nuclear disarmament. The evolution of the NPT — its 
adaptation to new environments and problems that were not 
anticipated at the time of its adoption — appeared to ensure the 
Treaty’s continuing effective implementation.

But actions speak louder than words, and challenges to the NPT 
regime have continued to undermine its basic principles, causing 
considerable backsliding. Today, the challenges posed by 
proliferation are more complex than ever:

*       proliferation of nuclear weapons technologies by one de 
facto nuclear-capable state;

*	one stated withdrawal from the NPT; 

*	one case of non-compliance;

*       increasing assertion of the role of nuclear weapons in 
military doctrines;

*       improvements in nuclear weapons by some nuclear weapon 
states.

The possibility that non-state actors could acquire nuclear 
weapons and other weapons of mass destruction poses an especially 
grave new threat. Confronting it effectively will require the 
support of all NPT signatories.

But a continuing imbalance and selectivity in the emphasis placed 
by different states on the Treaty’s three pillars damages the 
unity that the NPT regime needs. In particular, imbalances in 
implementing the NPT obligations by the nuclear haves and 
have-nots are sharpening. For example, some countries want to 
develop smaller and “usable” nuclear weapons designed for 
pre-emptive or preventive military action. Many non-nuclear 
weapon states, particularly those from the developing world, 
remain frustrated with the fact that peaceful nuclear cooperation 
is yet to be fully realised.

These challenges to the non-proliferation regime not only 
jeopardise the credibility, efficacy, and viability of the 
Treaty; they have also cast a long shadow of doubt on the future 
of nuclear disarmament itself. Deliberations and negotiations 
both within the NPT regime and in other areas of disarmament have 
reached a difficult stage, if not a stalemate.

To jump-start progress, all NPT signatories should re-affirm that 
the Treaty’s provisions are mutually reinforcing and must be 
pursued jointly and faithfully. The most dangerous force eroding 
the Treaty’s credibility is the inclination of some 
nuclear-weapon states to reinterpret at will the package of 
agreements reached in the past.

Despite the NPT’s shortcomings, the overwhelming majority of 
non-nuclear states fully comply with their Treaty obligations. 
This constrains the number of nuclear weapon states, thus 
fulfilling one of the NPT’s most important goals.

One of the best ways to strengthen the non-proliferation regime 
now would be to implement fully the agreements that have already 
been reached. Selectivity and narrow reinterpretation can only 
weaken the Treaty. Developing a new set of non-proliferation 
mechanisms would be a waste time that we cannot afford, because 
any new protocol would have a dubious legal basis and encourage 
further imbalances in implementation. If we are serious about 
saving the non-proliferation regime, the time to act is now. 
—DT-PS

Dr N Hassan Wirajuda is Minister for Foreign Affairs of the 
Republic of Indonesia Home | Editorial           


      EDITORIAL: We need security-sector reform OP-ED: Rescuing 
nuclear non-proliferation —N Hassan Wirajuda OP-ED: The gods of 
globalisation —Akbar S Ahmed OP-ED: Vanunu can blow the whistle 
on America —Uri Avnery 
 
      OP-ED: Terrorism and the Internet —Gabriel Weimann SECOND 
OPINION: Polluting religion without purifying politics —Khaled 
Ahmed’s Urdu Press Review PURPLE PATCH: Military Depreciation of 
Strategy —Bernard Brodie LETTERS: ZAHOOR'S CARTOON:   

Daily Times - All Rights Reserved [http://www.wcis.com.pk] 
*****************************************************************
 42 DOE: Agency Information Collection Extension
 
                         FR Doc 04-9710 
[Federal Register: April 29, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 83)] 
[Notices] [Page 23500] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr29ap04-31]                         
 
AGENCY: U.S. Department of Energy. ACTION: Notice and request for 
comments.
 
SUMMARY: The Department of Energy (DOE), pursuant to the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, intends to extend for three 
years, an information collection package with the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) concerning the Renewable Energy 
Production Incentive. The package covers the collection of 
information concerning annual applications from the owners of 
qualified renewable energy generation facilities for the 
consideration of renewable energy production incentive payments. 
This information is used by the Department to determine if the 
applicant's facility qualifies for these payments and to 
determine the amount of net electricity produced that qualifies 
for these payments. This information is critical to ensure that 
the Government has sufficient information to ensure the proper 
use of public funds for these incentive payments. Comments are 
invited on: (a) Whether the extended collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the 
agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
of the proposed collection of information, including the validity 
of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
 
 
DATES: Comments regarding this proposed information collection 
must be received on or before June 28, 2004. If you anticipate 
difficulty in submitting comments within that period, contact the 
persons listed in the ADDRESSES section as soon as possible.
 
 
ADDRESSES: Written comments may be sent to: William J. Raup, 
Office of Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs (EE-2K), 
Department of Energy, Washington, DC 20585, or by fax at (202) 
586-1233 or (202) 586- 3485 or by e-mail at 
william.raup@ee.doe.gov [william.raup@ee.doe.gov] . Sharon A. 
Evelin, Acting Director, Records Management Division, IM- 
11/Germantown Bldg., Office of the Chief Information Officer, 
U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave SW., Washington, 
DC 20585- 1290. or by fax at 301-903-9061 or by e-mail at

 
sharon.evelin@hq.doe.gov [ sharon.evelin@hq.doe.gov] . FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
or copies of the information collection instrument and 
instructions should be directed to the two individuals specified 
in the ADDRESSES section.
 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This package contains: (1) OMB No.
 
1910- 0068; (2) Package Title: Renewable Energy Production 
Incentive; (3) Type of Review: renewal; (4) Purpose: To provide 
required information to receive consideration for payment for 
qualified renewable energy electricity produced in the prior 
fiscal year; (5) Respondents: 75; (6) Estimated Number of Burden 
Hours: 450.
 
Statutory Authority: Energy Policy Act of 1992, P.L. 102-486, 42, 
U.S.C. 13317 Issued in Washington, DC on April 23, 2004.
 
Sharon A. Evelin, Acting Director, Records Management Division, 
Office of the Chief Information Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-9710 Filed 4-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 43 Tri-City Herald: Committee approves legislation allowing Hanford area study 

This story was published Thursday, April 29th, 2004 

By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington, D.C., bureau 

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee approved legislation Wednesday 
authorizing a study of whether to include a Hanford reactor, 
which produced plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, 
and other facilities at the nuclear reservation dating from the 
Manhattan Project in the national park system. 

The original bill would have included just Hanford's B Reactor in 
the study. But the version approved by the Senate Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee on a unanimous voice vote includes 
all of the reservation in the study area. 

The B Reactor, a linchpin of the crash program to develop nuclear 
weapons during World War II known as the Manhattan Project, was 
the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Work 
on the B Reactor was started just months after Enrico Fermi first 
demonstrated a controlled nuclear reaction. Less than a year 
later, the reactor was producing the plutonium used in the "Fat 
Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki in the summer of 1945. 

The reactor was one of nine eventually built at the reservation 
along with a number of other facilities to process the plutonium. 

The bill, now headed to the Senate floor, calls for a one-year 
study to determine whether the Hanford facilities, along with the 
Los Alamos National Laboratory and town site in New Mexico and 
the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee, should be operated by the 
National Park Service as the Manhattan Project National 
Historical Park. 

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a sponsor of the bill and a 
member of the energy committee, acknowledged a decision to 
protect facilities instrumental in the development of nuclear 
weapons could be controversial. 

"It could be an issue," she said. "But from a science and 
technology standpoint, it was an incredible feat." 

The contributions made by Hanford workers to national security 
should not be forgotten, Cantwell said. 

"We need to preserve the B Reactor so that future generations 
will better understand the work of our nuclear veterans, their 
dedication to our country and the difficult issues our country 
faced during the nuclear arms race," Cantwell said. 

The Bush administration has been cool to the idea because the 
sites involve extremely large facilities with potentially major 
maintenance costs and possible safety issues. The administration 
has been mostly focused on reducing the current 
multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog at existing national 
parks and historic sites rather than adding new ones. 

The legislation requires the National Park Service, in 
consultation with the departments of Energy, Defense and State 
and tribal and local officials, to conduct the study. The study 
is expected to cost between $500,000 and $750,000. 

Similar legislation has been introduced in the House by U.S. Rep. 
Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and referred to the House Resources 
Committee. Hastings said he was optimistic the legislation could 
be enacted by Congress this year. 

"I'm pleased the Senate committee has marked up -- it's great 
news because it puts our proposal one step closer to becoming 
reality," he said. 

© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 44 Rutland Herald: Senate to seek AG's opinion on 'four words' 

 Apr. 29, 2004

By SUSAN SMALLHEER Herald Staff 

The state Senate will get an opinion from the Vermont attorney 
general's office on whether "four little words" benefiting the 
owner of Vermont Yankee must be added to a 1977 state law 
regarding the storage of high-level radioactive waste. 

The controversial four-word amendment, which would add the words 
"its successors or assigns" after Vermont Yankee's original owner 
in the law, is either a housekeeping measure or a distortion of 
state law and legislative intent, depending on who you talk to. 

On Wednesday, the language, which had been tacked on to the state 
budget bill, was removed and the matter sent to the Senate 
Finance Committee for further study and to take testimony, 
according to Sen. John Campbell, D-Windsor, the Senate majority 
leader. 

Campbell, a Quechee attorney, said he agreed to sponsor the 
four-word amendment as a way of clarifying the intent of 1977 
legislation. 

But Campbell said he agreed to withdraw the Entergy Nuclear 
amendment Wednesday because of the confusion it was creating. 

He said he asked the attorney general's office for a legal 
opinion on whether the amendment was needed, and what its intent 
would be, if adopted. 

The attorney general's office will also look at the impact the 
proposed change would have on other statutes regarding Yankee and 
nuclear power. 

Campbell said the attorney general's office told him it would 
have an opinion in a day or so. 

He said Gerry Morris, a State House lobbyist who works for 
Entergy Nuclear, the current owner of Vermont Yankee, had 
requested the amendment and had presented the proposed amendment 
last week to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which 
ordinarily does not handle nuclear issues. 

The two Senate committees that do, Senate Finance and Senate 
Natural Resources and Energy, were bypassed. 

Campbell blamed some of the problem on "poor drafting of the 
statute" back in 1977. While it mentioned Vermont Yankee Nuclear 
Power Corp., the original owner, he said it did not mention any 
possible transfer of ownership. 

But Campbell said he later realized there were implications 
beyond that. 

"Potentially, it's a more significant problem than this one 
issue," he said. "We need to have an opinion. We want to make 
sure there's proper oversight. It's a safety issue. A lot of 
people have a deep con-_cern about the missing fuel rods and the 
cracks. Everyone's concerned." 

Campbell referred to the recent news that Entergy Nuclear 
disclosed last week that it couldn't account for two pieces of a 
spent fuel rod, and that several cracks were discovered in the 
steam dryer at the top of the reactor. Sen. Mark MacDonald, 
D-Orange, a critic of Entergy who serves on the Vermont State 
Nuclear Advisory Panel, said the Entergy amendment had 
ramifications for the future operation of Vermont Yankee that 
wasn't being discussed or acknowledged. 

MacDonald said the law was adopted after the owners of Vermont 
Yankee, the state's only nuclear power plant, proposed a second 
nuclear reactor for the Shoreham-Orwell area in the mid-1970s. 

He said he wanted to see any increase in the production of 
nuclear waste at Vermont Yankee come before the Legislature. This 
includes the extension of its federal license, which expires in 
2012, or the currently proposed power increase, which would also 
increase nuclear waste, he said. 

"For the Legislature to surrender, willy-nilly, any say it has in 
this manner, is an awful thing to behold," said Raymond Shadis, 
staff adviser for the New England Coalition. 

"The hidden meaning in the four little words is the Legislature 
surrenders its right to represent the people on this important 
issue," he said. Dry cask storage is in many ways environmentally 
superior to long-term storage in a fuel pool, he said, but the 
public must know that it will be long term storage, lasting more 
than 100 years. 

"The public is really sensitive to this issue and needs to be 
consulted by the Legislature," he said. 

Robert Williams, spokesman for Entergy, said the amendment was a 
simple matter. 

"The Legislature's intent was clear and it exempted the Vermont 
Yankee site. This clarifies that the Public Service Board has 
jurisdiction to hear the request to expand the storage capacity," 
he said. 

Williams said Entergy planned to submit its proposal to store 
high-level radioactive waste outside the reactor building on the 
plant's Vernon grounds, because it is running out of storage 
capacity. 

"That's been our intent all along, to file with the Public 
Service Board," he said. 

Williams said Entergy had no position on the legal opinion. 

"It's appropriate; if they would like the attorney general's 
opinion, they would ask for it," he said. 

Morris, Entergy's Montpelier lobbyist, has told legislators that 
the company plans on filing for the so-called dry cask storage 
this summer. Williams, however, said he had no target date for 
the submission. 

On the issue of the missing fuel rods, Williams said that the 
company expected to put a remote underwater camera in the spent 
nuclear fuel pool today, to try and locate the two missing 
pieces. 

Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com. 
  
            Copyright © 2004 Rutland Herald
[http://www.rutlandherald.com/] and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus
*****************************************************************
 45 Contra Costa Times: Critics: Lab plans clash with cleanup strategy

 | 04/29/2004 | 

By Guy AshleyBy Guy Ashley

 CONTRA COSTA TIMES

TRACY - Critics continued to bash plans for expanded use of 
radioactive materials at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on 
Wednesday, claiming they would conflict with current projects to 
clean up environmental contamination at the lab and its Site 300 
test location here. 

New projects "will put a strain on cleanup budgets," said Peter 
Strauss, an environmental scientist who works with the watchdog 
group Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment. 
"You'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul.'' 

As federal investigators were reporting this week that it might 
be necessary to remove plutonium and weapons-grade uranium from 
Livermore and other sites due to terrorism risks, the lab moved 
forward with hearings on plans to double the amount of plutonium 
it stores and to increase by nearly 10 times the limit of 
radioactive tritium that lab scientists can have in use. 

After four local hearings with the public this week on the lab's 
draft 10-year environmental assessment, which revealed lab plans 
to increase its radioactive materials, a final session will be 
held Friday in Washington. 

Investigators with the General Accounting Office reported Tuesday 
that security upgrades at nuclear facilities ordered after the 
Sept. 11 attacks may not be achieved by a 2006 deadline and that 
it might be necessary to remove plutonium and weapons-grade 
uranium because of terrorism fears. 

Federal officials also acknowledged that concerns about 
inadequate security planning have prompted a new round of 
terrorism risk assessments at the nation's nuclear facilities. 
One concern is that officials have not adequately explored the 
possibility that suicide bombers could break into a facility 
storing weapons-grade materials and fashion a crude weapon to 
detonate on site, putting surrounding communities in peril. 

Worries about security deficiencies have focused on Livermore 
because, with nearly 7 million people living within a 50-mile 
radius, it is the closest to dense residential areas of the 
approximately seven facilities nationwide handling weapons-grade 
nuclear materials. 

The environmental draft plan also calls on the lab to initiate 
research on how to make new plutonium "pits," the nuclear core of 
nuclear weapons, and to use tritium as targets for the world's 
largest laser, which will soon be completed. 

Just as they did at a hearing in Livermore on Tuesday, criticisms 
of the 2,000-page draft ranged from specifics about project 
proposals to gut-level opposition to the latest step in nuclear 
weapons research those proposals signal. 

Caroline Courtright, a Sonoma County resident, noted that the 
document identifies 108 buildings on the Livermore site that fall 
below current seismic safety standards yet includes no plans to 
retrofit them. 

"There should be no increases in the use of plutonium and tritium 
until those upgrades are completed,'' she said. 

Many of the comments Wednesday focused on the lab's Site 300 
testing location in the Altamont hills between Livermore and 
Tracy. 

Critics noted that residential areas are encroaching on the 
once-remote location and that a contamination cleanup there could 
be compromised by new testing programs. They also asserted that 
endangered plants and animal species in the area, such as rare 
native grasses, red-legged frogs and tiger salamanders, would be 
at greater risk. 

GAO REPORT ON SECURITY CONCERNS 

Despite upgrades in security since the Sept. 11 attacks, a 
General Accounting Office report released Tuesday outlined 
security concerns at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, including 
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The findings included: 

• Steps taken by the Department of Energy to increase security 
readiness have been expensive and resulted in fatigue, retention 
problems and less training for most sites' security forces. 

• New security measures do not take into account the possibility 
of a large-scale attack and estimate a smaller terrorist 
aggression than what is believed possible by the intelligence 
community. 

• Development of new security designs were delayed because of the 
DOE's lengthy review period and a sharp debate on what terrorist 
threats the labs actually face. 

• The criteria used by the DOE for determining when facilities 
may need protection against threats may not be sufficient. 

• The DOE has been slow in developing any implementation plan or 
budget for the security measures. The GAO now believes the 
deadline for meeting the new security requirements by the end of 
fiscal year 2006 may not be realistic. 

TRACY - Critics continued to bash plans for expanded use of 
radioactive materials at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on 
Wednesday, claiming they would conflict with current projects to 
clean up environmental contamination at the lab and its Site 300 
test location here. 

New projects "will put a strain on cleanup budgets," said Peter 
Strauss, an environmental scientist who works with the watchdog 
group Tri-Valley Citizens Against a Radioactive Environment. 
"You'll be robbing Peter to pay Paul.'' 

As federal investigators were reporting this week that it might 
be necessary to remove plutonium and weapons-grade uranium from 
Livermore and other sites due to terrorism risks, the lab moved 
forward with hearings on plans to double the amount of plutonium 
it stores and to increase by nearly 10 times the limit of 
radioactive tritium that lab scientists can have in use. 

After four local hearings with the public this week on the lab's 
draft 10-year environmental assessment, which revealed lab plans 
to increase its radioactive materials, a final session will be 
held Friday in Washington. 

Investigators with the General Accounting Office reported Tuesday 
that security upgrades at nuclear facilities ordered after the 
Sept. 11 attacks may not be achieved by a 2006 deadline and that 
it might be necessary to remove plutonium and weapons-grade 
uranium because of terrorism fears. 

Federal officials also acknowledged that concerns about 
inadequate security planning have prompted a new round of 
terrorism risk assessments at the nation's nuclear facilities. 
One concern is that officials have not adequately explored the 
possibility that suicide bombers could break into a facility 
storing weapons-grade materials and fashion a crude weapon to 
detonate on site, putting surrounding communities in peril. 

Worries about security deficiencies have focused on Livermore 
because, with nearly 7 million people living within a 50-mile 
radius, it is the closest to dense residential areas of the 
approximately seven facilities nationwide handling weapons-grade 
nuclear materials. 

The environmental draft plan also calls on the lab to initiate 
research on how to make new plutonium "pits," the nuclear core of 
nuclear weapons, and to use tritium as targets for the world's 
largest laser, which will soon be completed. 

Just as they did at a hearing in Livermore on Tuesday, criticisms 
of the 2,000-page draft ranged from specifics about project 
proposals to gut-level opposition to the latest step in nuclear 
weapons research those proposals signal. 

Caroline Courtright, a Sonoma County resident, noted that the 
document identifies 108 buildings on the Livermore site that fall 
below current seismic safety standards yet includes no plans to 
retrofit them. 

"There should be no increases in the use of plutonium and tritium 
until those upgrades are completed,'' she said. 

Many of the comments Wednesday focused on the lab's Site 300 
testing location in the Altamont hills between Livermore and 
Tracy. 

Critics noted that residential areas are encroaching on the 
once-remote location and that a contamination cleanup there could 
be compromised by new testing programs. They also asserted that 
endangered plants and animal species in the area, such as rare 
native grasses, red-legged frogs and tiger salamanders, would be 
at greater risk. 

GAO REPORT ON SECURITY CONCERNS 

Despite upgrades in security since the Sept. 11 attacks, a 
General Accounting Office report released Tuesday outlined 
security concerns at the nation's nuclear weapons labs, including 
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. The findings included: 

• Steps taken by the Department of Energy to increase security 
readiness have been expensive and resulted in fatigue, retention 
problems and less training for most sites' security forces. 

• New security measures do not take into account the possibility 
of a large-scale attack and estimate a smaller terrorist 
aggression than what is believed possible by the intelligence 
community. 

• Development of new security designs were delayed because of the 
DOE's lengthy review period and a sharp debate on what terrorist 
threats the labs actually face. 

• The criteria used by the DOE for determining when facilities 
may need protection against threats may not be sufficient. 

• The DOE has been slow in developing any implementation plan or 
budget for the security measures. The GAO now believes the 
deadline for meeting the new security requirements by the end of 
fiscal year 2006 may not be realistic.   

*****************************************************************
 46 Workers Finish Razing Last Uranium Production Building At Fernald
 	 	 	
[http://www.cincinnati.com]       

Building At Fernald 

[http://www.fernald.gov] 

WCPO.com neither endorses nor guarantees the
content or availability of external links. 									

 Reported by: 9News Web produced by: Liz Foreman Photographed by: 
9News 4/29/04 4:24:49 PM 

Workers brought down a four-story steel and concrete building on 
Thursday, the last building that had been used for uranium 
processing at a government site that supported production of 
nuclear weapons. 

Workers wearing protective gear along with hard hats and boots 
needed about two hours to raze the so-called "pilot plant." 
During the Cold War, the 40-year-old building was where former 
employees tested uranium processing methods before they went into 
production. 

Other neighboring structures were demolished earlier this week. 
Several former administration buildings still are standing, 
awaiting their turn to be razed. 

It is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's $4 billion cleanup 
of radioactive wastes at the 1,050-acre site in the Fernald 
community, 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati. The plant processed 
uranium metal for the government's nuclear weapons program from 
1951 until 1989, when production ended to prepare for the site's 
cleanup. 

Workers have demolished dozens of buildings on the site since 
1997. The overall cleanup and removal of radioactive wastes at 
the site is scheduled to be completed in 2006, Energy Department 
officials say. 

Taxpayers are paying about $320 million a year for the ongoing 
cleanup that also includes removal of tainted soils and 
radioactive sludge. 

The site is to be left as undeveloped parkland after the cleanup 
is done. Fewer than 200 acres will be reserved for permanent 
storage of low-level radioactive wastes, surrounded by a buffer 
zone. 

*****************************************************************
 47 Oakland Tribune: Lab expansion is called threat to future
 
Article Last Updated: Thursday, April 29, 2004 -
 		   	 	
Activists question Livermore facility's environmental impact
report in 2nd day of hearings

By Ken McNeill, STAFF WRITER

TRACY -- Nuclear watchdogs and others again questioned the need 
for the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to double its weapons-grade 
plutonium capabilities and increase its tritium workload during 
the second day of public hearings on the lab's future. 

Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration 
officials listened Wednesday to comments on a 2,500-page 
environmental impact statement on the lab's 10-year plan to 
explore new and modified H-bomb designs, including smaller, more 
portable weapons. 

"I believe this new generation of mini-nukes is the greatest 
threat to the world today," said Richard Marak, a chaplain at 
Palo Alto Community Church. "Nuclear weapons and nuclear power 
are part of our past. Not our future." 



Activists challenged the potential effects of the lab's plans, 
which include increasing its plutonium limits from 1,540 pounds 
to 3,300 pounds; increasing its limit of tritium -- a radioactive 
gas -- nearly tenfold; building a prototype, robotic factory line 
for making plutonium atomic-bomb cores; vaporizing plutonium into 
its rarer isotopes that are useful for full-scale weapons 
experiments; exploring

 genetic manipulations of biowarfare agents; and using weapons 
materials in laser experiments inside of the National Ignition 
Facility. 

Nearly all those in attendance said more nuclear research will 
only add to nuclear proliferation throughout the world. 

"Where the U.S. could show leadership is eliminating and cutting 
back the use of nuclear weapons," said John Huntoon, 74, of 
Stockton. 

Others also were concerned that the plan's environmental impact 
document is inadequate. 

The document analyzes the effects of the lab's plans on such 
things as risk to human health, air quality, water, noise, 
contamination, waste, terrorist attacks and more. 

Among its findings is that because of the increases in tritium 
experiments, there could be a "minor increase in radiological 
emissions." 

Exposure to an individual living near the Livermore Lab boundary 
could increase from 0.023 millirem per year to 0.33 millirem per 
year. Exposure to an individual living on Site 300 boundary near 
Tracy could increase from 0.021 millirem per year to 0.055 
millirem per year. 

By comparison, the average person receives 50 millirems per year 
from medical procedures, such as X-rays, and up to 300 millrems 
per year from natural sources, such as the sun. 

The environmental document says exposure to lab employees could 
increase risks of latent cancer fatalities from 0.017 to 0.075 
over the 10-year period. 

Additionally, speakers said the document does not take a wide 
enough look at the range of potential attacks from terrorists. 

It does not consider a commercial airliner strike similar to the 
terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. 

"If only small planes were considered, then the full risk of 
terrorist attacks have not been considered," said Gary Bailey of 
Sunnyvale. 

Meanwhile this week, the U.S. Department of Energy and its 
weapons arm -- the National Nuclear Security Administration -- 
were under fire because contract security forces may not be 
capable of repelling terrorist attacks at the half-dozen 
locations used for keeping plutonium and highly enriched uranium. 

Congress' investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, 
reported that even though the Energy Department upgraded the 
terrorist threat to its weapons facilities in 2003, the agency 
still is guarding against a "significantly smaller" terrorist 
force than intelligence agencies say might attack and try to 
steal or detonate a bomb's worth of nuclear material. 

Based on whistle-blowers' accounts and Livermore's ability to 
repel mock assaults, the Project on Government Oversight is 
pressing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to remove the lab's 
entire plutonium and enriched uranium inventory -- enough for 
more than 100 nuclear weapons and proposed to double over the 
next decade -- into an impregnable fortress in the Nevada desert.

 The public comment period on the Livermore Lab's Draft Site-wide 
Environmental Impact Statement will continue Friday in 
Washington, D.C. The public comment period ends May 27. Written 
comments can be sent to Tom Grim, Document Manager, NNSA 
Livermore Site Office,

 L-293, 7000 East Ave. Livermore, CA 94550-9234. 

©2004 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
*****************************************************************
 48 [DU-WATCH] "coming home" page
 
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:18:05 -0500 (CDT)

 
http://www.duckdaotsu.org/cominghome_hub_page.html

Heartbreaking.

Drew

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Visit the web site of the Financial Times at  http://www.ft.com

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 49 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:50:33 -0700 (PDT)

 
N. Korea Agrees to New Nuclear Talks
Washington Post - USA
... the start of "working group" talks were hailed by Chinese and South
Korean officials as step toward breaking the stalemate over North Korea's
nuclear ambitions ...
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53194-2004Apr29.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53194-2004Apr29.html>

GAO Criticizes Feds Over Nuclear Dump
Miami Herald (subscription) - Miami,FL,USA
... by the Energy Department to fix "persistent" problems in the way it
backs up scientific findings could delay the opening of a national nuclear
waste dump in ...
<http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8550690.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8550690.htm>

UNION accuses Wackenhut of lax nuclear security
South Florida Business Journal - Fort Lauderdale,FL,USA
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has called reports of
a security lapse at a nuclear site guarded by Wackenhut Corp. ...
<http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/04/26/daily47.html?jst=b_ln_hl>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2004/04/26/daily47.html%3Fjst%3Db_ln_hl>

GREENS sensing victory on nuclear issue
Frankfurter Allgemeine - Frankfurt,Germany
... Then, on Tuesday, China delivered a decision on a nuclear issue that
had triggered tensions between the Greens and their senior coalition partner
in Berlin ...
<http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/docmain.asp?rub=%7BB1311FCC-FBFB-11D2-B228-00105A9CAF88%7D&doc=%7B0DE99BBB-2046-4DEE-AD97-12586A076B01%7D>
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ELBARADEI asked Israel to give up its nuclear arsenal
Islam Online - UK
... Agencies) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Secretary
General Mohamed ElBaradei will visit Israel in July to promote a "nuclear
weapon-free zone ...
<http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/29/article07.shtml>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-04/29/article07.shtml>

PREMIER: peaceful solution to Korean nuclear issue hopeful
Xinhua - China
BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that a
peaceful solution to the Korean nuclear issue is still hopeful given that
all sides ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/29/content_1447998.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-04/29/content_1447998.htm>

NUCLEAR Regulatory Commission Approves License Extension for ... 
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
... Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA
Corporation (NYSE: SCG - News), announced today that the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission ...
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040429/clth050_1.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040429/clth050_1.html>

POLICE probe nuclear firm after bribery allegations
The Globe and Mail - Canada
... turned over to police and its internal auditors a letter alleging corruption
involving Bulgarian government officials and the marketing of a nuclear
plant to ...
<http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040429.wxaecl29/BNStory/National/>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040429.wxaecl29/BNStory/National/>

HERB Woodeshick to Retire as PPL's Susquehanna Nuclear Plant ... 
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
... April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Herbert D. Woodeshick, PPL Corporation's longtime
community representative and spokesperson for the Susquehanna nuclear
power plant ...
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040429/phth015_1.html>
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NUCLEAR tests take spotlight at debate
St. George Daily Spectrum - St. George,UT,USA
... a cotton ball taped to her arm, remained seated while asking the three
Republican 2nd Congressional District candidates their positions on nuclear
testing at ...
<http://www.thespectrum.com/news/stories/20040429/localnews/319403.html>

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 50 [DU-WATCH] DU Press Release verses the real story
 
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:15:33 -0500 (CDT)

 
Over the past week, news is being conjured out of nowhere. How can a 
non-meeting at H Clinton's office be worthy of a press release?

It boggles the mind how the partisan politics of the US serves up 
spin; showing the medical condition of US forces is of no concern 
unless it can be leveraged to get votes and funding. 

MTP, NPRI, the NGWRC and a host of NGO's who did nothing for 
veterans, who repeatedly refuse to acknowledge the work of 
independent researchers and science, who post and support only papers 
and people who say the effects of urnaium internal contamination are 
not conclusive, who support the DoD and DVA chemotoxicity-only scam 
and the retained shrapnel-only lie, who have not spent a single penny 
getting a vet tested for urnaium, are crawling out of their holes, 
cramming into Clinton's office, making news out of nothing, selling 
their souls to hobb-nobb with the Senator. Makes my skin crawl. 

Here's the real story: 

The As Samawah situation of US National Guards, and Dutch and 
Japanese troops, exposed to uranium weapons' residues is the 
beginning of a mess more substantial than Gulf War I or its off-
spring, Gulf War Illness. Fact is, a way more uranium has been 
dispersed there since 1991 than during Desert Storm. With the long 
term deployment of a large number of Coalition troops the medical 
problems following Desert Storm have and will continue to pale in 
comparison. If UMRC's team members' can be contaminated after two 
weeks in Iraq, what will Coalition troops be acquiring after 6 months 
to a year's stay there and what about the troops exposed for the 4 or 
5 weeks of active combat. Sanchez likes to drive around in his 
HumVee; he should get his urine bioassayed.  

The focus on As Samawah is really relatively insignificant. 
Contamination levels are much higher elsewhere. The UK pilot on 1st 
Armoured Div Desert Rats proves this. According to the DU Oversight 
Board, the troops have "several hundred nanograms" of uranium in 
their urine - over 1000's of % above normal - and its undepleted 
urnaium - pointing to exposure from other than battlefield DU 
weapons. How come no one is investigating this? Could be the UK 
opposition is not clued in. The DUOB veterans and non-MoD members 
have a moral and ethical obligation to bring this to the press. They 
continue to be made into fools as the MoD has shut down the DUOB 
website and prevented the DUOB members from access to the OIF urnaium 
follow-up program. This is a travesty for UK troops.  

Now comes the scramble to collect piss.

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 51 Las Vegas RJ: Anti-nuclear crusader Bert Pfeiffer dies 
 
Thursday, April 29, 2004

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MISSOULA, Mont. -- Bert Pfeiffer, a retired University of
Montana zoology professor and social activist who played a key
role in warning the public about the hazards of nuclear fallout,
died Saturday. He was 88.
 
 Despite poor health, which confined him to a wheelchair the
past few years, Pfeiffer remained mentally sharp and full of
humor, said Jesse Bier, Pfeiffer's longtime friend.
 
 Pfeiffer was tireless in his efforts to call attention to
dangers associated with radioactive fallout from nuclear
testing, long before most scientists considered it an issue. 
Although public officials tried to silence his research about
the radiation hazards of atomic bomb testing in Nevada in the
late 1950s, he and other like-minded scientists continued their
anti-nuclear crusade in the 1960s and 1970s. Pfeiffer conducted
pioneering research of the environmental impacts of war.
 
 In 1995, his research was validated when government files on
the Nevada tests were opened. The health and science community
lauded Pfeiffer for pursuing the health hazards caused by
nuclear fallout, despite government stonewalling.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
    
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