***************************************************************** 05/05/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.108 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 KoreaTimes: NK Ups Offensive on US Ahead of Nuke Talks 2 US: [DU-WATCH] MacNamara and Caldicott: Still on the Edge 3 US: NRC: Radiac Research Corporation, Brooklyn, New York; Receipt of 4 US: Las Vegas RJ: Former official makes nuke claim 5 US: IBLV: Editorial: Block the nuclear pollution subsidy 6 UN Nuclear Watchdog Fights Heavy Water, Sustains Fresh Water 7 Reuters: UK govt redeems special shares in five energy firms Wed 8 Pravda.RU: Father of Pakistani atomic bomb simply stole secret mater 9 EUpolitix: Nuclear battle back on 10 IAEA: IAEA's Work for World's Development Goals Highlighted 11 FT: Nuclear deadlock 12 Guardian Unlimited: EU faces nuclear terror threat NUCLEAR REACTORS 13 US: NRC: Entergy Nuclear Generation Company, Entergy Nuclear Operati 14 US: Free Lance-Star: Green coalition fights new nukes 15 Interfax: Investment in new nuclear power plants growing 16 US: Brattleboro Reformer: Waste storage at VY debated 17 US: WIStv: Duke Power's possible land sale worries Lake Wylie reside 18 Sofia Morning News: N-Plant Bribe Allegations "Made in Bulgaria" 19 US: NRC: Note to Editors: NRC Issues Information on Studies Related 20 US: NRC: NRC Provides Update on Review Process for Vermont Yankee Up NUCLEAR SAFETY 21 US: [DU-WATCH] EPA to nuke US farms, parks & playgrounds/purging 22 US: [du-list] Plutonium Files: How the US secretly fed 23 US: [DU-WATCH] UK: Gulf War syndrome veteran hunger strike 24 Democracy Now!: Rep. Waters On New Haitian Gov't; U.S. Assassinates 25 news24: 'Crude nukes' a real threat 26 ICH: The Truth About Depleted Uranium Weaponry NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 27 US: [Fwd: [NukeNet] Stop Radioactive Waste from BeingDumped in Your 28 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca contractor may get $85 million in bonuses 29 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca contractor has incentives 30 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca splits race, parties 31 US: Pahrump Valley Times: DOE delays waste delivery to Test Site 32 Guardian Unlimited: BNFL's nuclear fission targets clean-up market 33 Nevada Appeal: Blowing the whistle on Yucca flaws - 34 AU ABC: Nuclear dump claims absurd - McGuaran. 35 News & Star: BNFL ADMITS NUCLEAR POWER STATION NEAR-MISS 36 Yucca Mountain Update: Volume 2 Issue 5 ~ May 3, 2004 37 Pahrump Valley Times: RAIL OR ROAD? Amargosans pro Yucca Mountain NUCLEAR WEAPONS 38 Asia Times: Part 2: Preemption and an arms race with itself US DEPT. OF ENERGY 39 Tri-Valley Herald: Details of lab threats sought 40 Oak Ridger: ORNL's Blackmon among nation's top young scientists 41 Oak Ridger: Energy chief releases salary 42 Oak Ridger: Making room for more DOE waste 43 Oak Ridger: Large material an issue for disposal 44 Colorado Daily: Udall letter wins some Rocky Flats document access 45 idaho mountain express : INEEL: tanks clean-up advancing OTHER NUCLEAR 46 Google News Alert - nuclear 47 Google News Alert - nuclear 48 DBJ: Tuor named president, CEO at Kaiser-Hill - 49 Times and Democrat: Nuclear scientist explains technology shift 50 NRC: Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes: Meeting ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 KoreaTimes: NK Ups Offensive on US Ahead of Nuke Talks 05-05-2004 17:30 Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation North Korea is stepping up its verbal offensive against the United States, its usual tactic to raise its negotiating power, ahead of the May 12 working-level round of talks concerning Pyongyang's nuclear programs. The North's offensive is focused on the United States' ''hostile policy,'' citing its insistence on the unconditional dismantling of the North Korea's nuclear programs and its recent decision to keep North Korea on the list of states sponsoring terrorism. The North Korean Foreign Ministry last week accused Washington of blocking peaceful resolution of the problem ahead of the working-level talks, taking issue with the United States' insistence on North Korea doing away with its nuclear programs in a ''complete, verifiable and irreversible'' manner. In its Tuesday edition, Rodong Simmun, the North Korean newspaper giving the ruling Workers Party's official line, also criticized the United States of double standards. It claimed that Washington was turning a blind eye to Israel's nuclear arsenal because it is a U.S. ally, while focusing on the issue of the North's nuclear deterrence. The newspaper said that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), an international pact used by the U.S. to pressure the North into giving up its nuclear arsenal, is unfair and promotes the interest of one party at the cost of others. Pyongyang also expressed its displeasure at being designated a sponsor of terrorism by the United States. Its Foreign Ministry said that this indicated the unchanged nature of United States' hostile policy toward Pyongyang. On its official web site, Pyongyang declared, ''We will deal with Washington's hostile policy sternly and do our utmost to fight against it.'' In the same issue, Rodong Simmun argued that while the United States is ostensibly engaged in negotiations for the peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, it is secretly conducting preparations for a second war against North Korea. The North Korean media also focused on the necessity of removing U.S. forces from the Korean peninsula as a precondition for lasting peace, repeating its traditional stance on the issue. ***************************************************************** 2 [DU-WATCH] MacNamara and Caldicott: Still on the Edge Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 01:58:53 -0500 (CDT) Hi all, Just read this, from a week ago: http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/printer_042704E.shtml Article follows: Still on Catastrophe's Edge By Robert McNamara and Helen Caldicott Los Angeles Times Monday 26 April 2004 In a flash, U.S. and Russia could hurl thousands of missiles at each other As we continue to grapple with the United States' vulnerability to terrorist attack, we fail to recognize the most serious danger, one that is overlooked by politicians and emergency management agencies alike. Thousands of Russian nuclear warheads are targeted on the U.S. How can this be, after the end of the Cold War nearly 15 years ago? Unfortunately, the targeting strategy of Russia and the United States has changed little, despite a profound change in relations between these two nations. Most people believe that the threat of nuclear attack - whether by accident, human fallibility or malfeasance - has disappeared. Yet a January 2002 document from the U.S. Foreign Military Studies Office, titled "Prototypes for Targeting America, a Soviet Military Assessment," states that New York City, for example, is the single most important target in the Atlantic region after major military installations. A U.S. Office of Technology Assessment report, commissioned in the 1980s, is still relevant. It estimated that Soviet nuclear war plans had two one-megaton bombs aimed at each of three airports that serve New York, one aimed at each of the major bridges, two at Wall Street and two at each of four oil refineries. The major rail centers and power stations were also targeted, along with the port facilities. It's also instructive that a recent Federal Emergency Management Agency report on nuclear-attack preparedness contains a map that depicts New York City obliterated by nuclear blasts and the resulting firestorms and fallout. Millions of people would die instantly. Survivors would perish shortly thereafter from burns and exposure to radiation. And New York would not be the only devastated city. According to a report on nuclear war planning by the National Resources Defense Council, Russia aims most of its 8,200 nuclear warheads at the U.S., and the U.S. maintains 7,000 offensive strategic warheads in its arsenal, most of which are targeted on Russian missile silos and command centers. Each of these warheads has roughly 20 times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Of the 7,000 U.S. nuclear warheads, 2,500 are maintained on hair- trigger alert, ready for launching. In order to effectively retaliate, the commander of the Strategic Air Command has only three minutes to decide if a nuclear attack warning is valid. He has 10 minutes to find the president for a 30-second briefing on attack options. And the president has three minutes to decide whether to launch the warheads and at which targets, according to the Center for Defense Information. Once launched, the missiles would reach their Russian targets in 15 to 30 minutes. A nearly identical situation prevails in Russia, except there the early warning system is decaying rapidly. As always, the early warning systems of both countries register alarms daily, triggered by wildfires, satellite launchings and solar reflections off clouds or oceans. A more immediate concern is the difficulty of guaranteeing protection of computerized early warning systems and command centers against terrorists or hackers. The two nuclear superpowers still own 96% of the global nuclear arsenal of 30,000 nuclear weapons. It is clear that their nuclear planning and ongoing targeting are the major threats to national security. The Senate and House armed services committees and foreign relations committees must address these ongoing and unresolved threats to the people of the U.S. and, indeed, the planet. Russia and the U.S. are now self- described allies in their fight against global terrorism. Their first duty in this effort should be immediate and rapid bilateral nuclear disarmament, accompanied by the other six nuclear nations (France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan and Israel), along with U.N. Security Council action to ensure that no other nations - particularly Iran and North Korea - acquire nuclear weapons. According to Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a clear road map for nuclear disarmament should be established. Time is not on our side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Robert McNamara was secretary of Defense for presidents Kennedy and Johnson; Helen Caldicott is a pediatrician and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 3 NRC: Radiac Research Corporation, Brooklyn, New York; Receipt of FR Doc 04-10160 [Federal Register: May 5, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 87)] [Notices] [Page 25146] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05my04-112] Request for Action Under 10 CFR 2.206 Notice is hereby given that by petition dated November 3, 2003, Mr. Michael B. Gerrard, representing Neighbors Against Garbage, et al. (petitioners), have requested that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) take action with regard to Radiac Research Corporation Brooklyn, New York, a licensee with the New York State Department of Labor. By letter dated December 17, 2003, NRC staff informed Mr. Gerrard that his letter dated November 4, 2003, submitted on behalf of Neighbors Against Garbage, was being considered under 10 CFR Part 2.206 and that his request for emergency action had been denied. The petitioners requested that the NRC use its authority to protect the common defense and security under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to close the Radiac facility. As the basis for the request, the petitioner stated that the radioactive waste storage operation adjoining a hazardous waste transfer and storage operation at the Radiac Research Corporation in Brooklyn, New York represented a significant risk. The request meets the criteria for evaluation pursuant to 10 CFR 2.206 of the Commission's regulations and will be reviewed accordingly. The request has been referred to the Director of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards. As provided by Section 2.206, appropriate action will be taken on this petition within a reasonable time. A copy of the petition is available for inspection in the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image files of NRC's public documents. These documents may be accessed through the NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] . If you do not have access to ADAMS or if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, contact the NRC Public Document Room (PDR) Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737 or by email to pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 27th day of April, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Martin J. Virgilio, Director, Office of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards. [FR Doc. 04-10160 Filed 5-4-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 4 Las Vegas RJ: Former official makes nuke claim Wednesday, May 05, 2004 Clinton appointee says he's been told Bush intends to resume testing By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- A former Clinton administration official on Tuesday said he has been told the Bush administration intends to resume nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site no later than 2008. "I've been told off the record by a Defense Department official that definitely the expectation was that he was to resume testing in 2007, 2008," said Frank von Hippel, who served in 1993 and 1994 as assistant director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology. "I asked why, and basically it was that the (national) labs need more work to do," von Hippel said. Von Hippel, now a professor of public and international affairs at Princeton University, declined to disclose the name of the Defense Department official but said he is a member of the Bush administration. Von Hippel said the conversation occurred about a month or two ago. The National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department branch that runs the test site, has repeatedly denied there are any plans to resume nuclear blasts at the test site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "(NNSA chief) Linton Brooks has said in congressional hearings that there is no policy change, there are no plans to test, and the Bush administration supports the moratorium on testing," Anson Franklin, NNSA's governmental affairs director, said Tuesday. "I would certainly take congressional testimony over some third-hand rumor that was reported in somebody's press conference," Franklin said. The Defense Department did not respond to von Hippel's comments. Von Hippel was speaking at a news conference by the Arms Control Association, a private nonprofit group that is critical of the Bush administration's nuclear weapons policy. In an interview after the news conference, von Hippel said the Defense Department official told him the Bush administration wants to develop smaller nuclear weapons that may prove useful in destroying nuclear arsenals stored underground. "I don't think this is a prediction, but is a heads-up that some folks inside the Defense Department, if they had their druthers, this is they way they would see nuclear weapons policy," von Hippel said. The last nuclear weapons blast at the test site occurred Sept. 23, 1992. Since July 1997, the government has conducted subcritical experiments at the test site to check the safety and reliability of weapons without causing nuclear explosions. Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina, the second-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, also criticized the Bush administration's nuclear weapons policy at Tuesday's news conference Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 5 IBLV: Editorial: Block the nuclear pollution subsidy www.inbusinesslasvegas.com In Business Las Vegas April 30, 2004 Editorial This week a consortium of some of the biggest energy companies in the United States asked the federal government for $400 million in subsidies to help develop advanced reactors that one day could be used at nuclear power plants. The plans to create a more advanced nuclear reactor, needless to say, caught our attention since the federal government wants to build a high-level nuclear waste dump in Nevada. The dump, if it ever does get a federal license to open, isn't supposed to accept more than 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste. There are concerns that the high level nuclear waste from the power plants already online will easily exceed the 77,000-ton limit for Yucca Mountain. If a whole new generation of nuclear power plants is built, then just exactly where would all the radioactive waste go? Technically, another dump in the nation could be built as a burial site for the extra radioactive waste, but that would never happen. Politically, there just would be too much opposition to a dump built elsewhere, a situation that would mean the extra waste would be destined for Yucca Mountain. That would mean even more potential for shipping accidents and terrorist attacks near and in Las Vegas, not to mention the same dangers posed to hundreds of cities and towns all along the highways and railways that nuclear waste would have to travel cross-country before arriving here. The nuclear power companies, in seeking the federal subsidies, tout nuclear power as a safe source of energy that doesn't pollute the environment. Please. If nuclear waste is so safe, why has every state in the nation fiercely worked to keep from being targeted as the nation's nuclear waste dump? Some industries are deserving of tax breaks or subsidies, especially when it comes to research and development that actually creates a benefit for the nation. Such government assistance should be limited, though, to those industries that either have a proven track record or show great promise. Nuclear power, which fails on both counts, continues to be expensive and dangerous to produce. Rather than wasting federal taxpayer money on a worthless industry, we'd much rather see the federal government offer breaks to genuinely dean sources of energy, or even return the money to taxpayers. Now wouldn't that be something? ***************************************************************** 6 UN Nuclear Watchdog Fights Heavy Water, Sustains Fresh Water Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 12:00:54 -0400 UN NUCLEAR WATCHDOG FIGHTS HEAVY WATER, SUSTAINS FRESH WATER New York, May 5 2004 12:00PM The United Nations nuclear watchdog may well sniff out plutonium-producing heavy water in its war against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but in a less heralded programme it is also working to sustain dwindling freshwater supplies for the worlds thirsty masses. Such activities by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency<"http://www.iaea.or.at/NewsCenter/News/2004/developgoals.html"> (IAEA) highlight how nuclear science and technology can help boost incomes and support broader-based efforts for meeting basic human needs, especially in the world's poorer countries, according to the agencys latest Staff Report. IAEA cited its use of isotopic tools to encourage sustainable water management in South America, China, Namibia, Indonesia, El Salvador and many other countries across the globe. The Guarani Aquifer System, for example, shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and considered one of the most important fresh groundwater reservoirs, is just one of 73 IAEA projects looking at how dwindling freshwater supplies can be sustained. In an international effort, the IAEA is focussing on finding ways for all four countries to share the aquifer in a way that will not cause it to run dry in the future. A nuclear tool, called isotope hydrology, is used to give scientists indispensable information on how much water is available, its quality, how quickly it is replenished and where it flows from. Piecing that information together reveals how the precious resource can best be managed. The report noted Secretary General Kofi Annans speech to the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York last week outlining just how vital water management is. "Tensions over water could even generate conflict, within and across borders, although water also offers great opportunities for cooperation, Mr. Annan said then. So the stakes are high. Without an integrated approach, we could face a tangle of problems. But with one, we could generate a cascade of progress." Land degradation is also firmly on the IAEAs agenda. For example, since 1997 it has supported six countries Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Tunisia in the fight to turn arid wasteland into economically productive fields. Efforts have paid off with salt-tolerant plants now growing in the wastelands, providing sources of food or income for farmers. 2004-05-05 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 ***************************************************************** 7 Reuters: UK govt redeems special shares in five energy firms Wed May 5, 2004 06:35 AM ET (Adds analyst comment, industry comment) LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Britain will remove an obstacle to takeovers in the energy sector by redeeming special shares in five firms, the government said on Wednesday, a year after a European court ruled such holdings were illegal. The Department of Trade &Industry said on Wednesday it was redeeming special shares in National Grid Transco (NGT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , Viridian Group Plc (VRD.I: Quote, Profile, Research) (VRD.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , Phoenix Natural Gas, Scottish Power (SPW.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and Scottish &Southern Energy (SSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research) . It will keep special shares in nuclear generator British Energy (BGY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) but with modified powers. British Energy is currently in the midst of restructuring after a near collapse. The move could rekindle long-standing market talk that Scottish Power and Scottish &Southern could merge, although analysts and industry executives felt this was unlikely. "We do not believe that redemption will herald a raft of takeover bids," said ING analyst Fraser McLaren. Special shares were put in these companies as the government privatised the British power sector during the 1980s and 1990s. The special shares all have a nominal value of one pound ($1.80) and were designed to protect public interest. However, the British government had been set to redeem them after the European Court of Justice ruled last year that these shares contravened European laws. Redeeming them generally means the British government does not have to give its consent if a party wants to take a substantial stake in one of the companies. Sources close to Scottish Power and Scottish &Southern did not feel that the government's decision would change the competitive landscape. "Last year's European ruling effectively cleared any takeover obstacles. This is just a tying-up of the knots," said one source. Regarding British Energy, the DTI said that anyone looking to buy more than 15 percent of British Energy's shares would still require government consent. Government approval would also be required for the disposal of a nuclear power station by British Energy. ***************************************************************** 8 Pravda.RU: Father of Pakistani atomic bomb simply stole secret materials from Dutch firm [PRAVDA.RU] Last update:05/06/2004 06:50 MSK 13:34 2004-05-05 Justice bodies of the Netherlands propose to open criminal proceedings against the Dutch accomplice of Pakistani atom scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The Pakistani in the 1970s stole secret materials from the Dutch firm Urenco. He used them in developing Pakistan's atomic bomb, announced the prosecutor's office of the Netherlands. The Dutchman, Henk S., whose full name is not revealed, is suspected of delivering various strategic materials to Pakistan. In particular, he is suspected of illegally supplying in 1999 to Pakistan pressure gauges of the Baratron type. It is believed that they were sold to a Pakistani company linked with Qadeer Khan's research laboratories. These gauges are used in fuel tanks of Pakistani rockets. They figure on an international list of strategic goods whose export is banned. Henk S. is also suspected of supplying to Pakistan in 2002 different kinds of industrial bearings, both ball and magnetic ones. They are categorised as dual capable materials which can be used both for civilian and military purposes. In particular, they can be used in atomic bombs and in missiles carrying a nuclear warhead. According to the prosecutor's office, Henk S. also took out of the Netherlands, without appropriate permits, 20 kilogrammes of triethanolamine, which can be used as a raw material for the manufacture of a toxic agent - the mustard gas. Henk S. is also suspected of delivering from the Netherlands to Pakistan a number of other goods which can be used for military purposes. The scandal around Pakistan's nuclear programme that erupted over volunteer evidence of the father Abdul Qadeer Khan about supplying nuclear technologies to Iran, Libya, and North Korea has gradually petered out, while Abdul Qadeer was amnestied by Pakistan's President Perwez Musharraf, who cited the special services rendered by the scientist to the Pakistani nation. RIAN Copyright 1999 by "Pravda.RU [http://www.pravda.ru/] ". When ***************************************************************** 9 EUpolitix: Nuclear battle back on National governments will be fighting to keep their nuclear powers from Brussels next week, as controversial proposals appear once again on the table. The so-called ‘nuclear package’ is up for debate EU ambassadors at their weekly behind the scenes meeting (known as Coreper) on Thursday, with no sign that things have eased since the last time it was discussed, in November 2003. The UK, Germany, Sweden and Finland remain opposed, and are quite likely to find support in the newly enlarged Europe – particularly from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. And environmentalists will be writing to member states asking them to abstain from voting, in the hope of garnering enough opposition to have the proposals thrown out. Friends of the Earth Europe are hopeful that Thursday will prove to be the end of the nuclear package, but industry insiders are not so sure. “I don’t think the issue will crash at this stage”, one source told this website, predicting instead further wranglings at a technical level in the Atomic Questions Group. The proposals have been changed several times since they were originally adopted at the start of 2003 – in effect leading to a gradual watering down. But the opposing governments are still worried that by accepting these new nuclear laws they would be sacrificing more power to Brussels. National representatives next week will discuss the possibility of separating the most controversial of the proposals – that on safety – from that relating to nuclear waste. As it stands the safety proposal seems to pose no threat to national authorities, but governments are worried about the precedent it could set. A 2001 European Curt of Justice (ECJ) ruling boosted the commission’s authority on nuclear safety issues. After this date the commission suddenly found itself empowered to regulate on the safety of nuclear power plants; until then it had only really been concerned with the dangers of radioactive exposure. The 2001 decision remains theoretical as no new laws have been passed based on it, but the nuclear package could change this. Many feel that increasing the commission’s safety powers was misguided, with one insider pointing out that “judges in the court obviously aren’t safety inspectors”. A coalition of member states has asked the commission to re-examine the issue, currently enshrined in the 1957 Euratom Treaty. Austria last year tabled a proposal – with the backing of Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Luxembourg and Estonia – asking that Euratom be updated before being grafted onto the European constitution. And green groups also object to the fact that the body supposedly charged with overseeing nuclear safety – Euratom – is also responsible for promoting the “speedy establishment and growth of the nuclear industry”. Published: Wed, 5 May 2004 11:44:08 GMT+01 Author: Emily Smith 2004 EUpolitix.com About EUpolitix ***************************************************************** 10 IAEA: IAEA's Work for World's Development Goals Highlighted IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) IAEA http://www.iaea.org/ Austria Energa > Nuclear Noticia n: 23227 Agencia emisora: mi 05 May 2004 The IAEA's work is contributing to progress towards global development goals for helping people in the world's poorer countries. Activities in key areas of water and environment were among those reviewed at the latest session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at the UN in New York. The IAEA's activities highlight how nuclear science and technology can help boost incomes and support broader-based efforts for meeting basic human needs. The Guarani Aquifer System, for example, is just one of 73 IAEA projects looking at how the worlds dwindling freshwater supplies can be sustained. The aquifer is shared by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and is considered to be one of the most important fresh groundwater reservoirs. Its an international effort, with the IAEAs focus on finding ways for all four countries to share the aquifer in a way that wont cause it to run dry into the future. A nuclear tool, called isotope hydrology, is used to give scientists indispensable information about how much water is available in the aquifer, its quality, how quickly it is replenished and where it flows from. Piecing that information together reveals how the precious resource can best be managed. The Agency is using such isotopic tools to encourage sustainable water management in China, Namibia, Indonesia, El Salvador and many other countries across the globe. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan outlined just how vital water management was at the CSD session, which concluded 30 April. "Poor water management degrades and squanders a precious resource. It is linked to the urbanization of poverty, since rural impoverishment rooted in water and land-tenure issues drives people to migrate to already crowded cities - and most often to their growing slums. Tensions over water could even generate conflict, within and across borders, although water also offers great opportunities for cooperation. So the stakes are high. Without an integrated approach, we could face a tangle of problems. But with one, we could generate a cascade of progress," the Secretary General said. Land degradation is also firmly on the IAEAs agenda, as its works toward sustainable development of the earths resources in a way that allows social progress and economic development. For example, since 1997 the IAEA has supported six countries - Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, and Tunisia - in the fight to turn arid wasteland into economically productive fields. Efforts have paid off with salt-tolerant plants now growing in the wastelands, providing sources of food or income for farmers. Among its roles, the IAEA is serving as lead partner for a number of projects under the Partnerships for Sustainable Development initiative born at the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002. 04/05/2004 Ms noticias de IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) : IAEA to Implement Safeguards Additional Protocols in the EU IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) , Viena (Austria) mar 04 May 2004 Energa > Nuclear 2002-2004 NoticiasB2B, S.L.; Tel. (34) 934 414 008 - info@noticias.info [info@noticias.info] ; Todos los derechos reservados. ***************************************************************** 11 FT: Nuclear deadlock Published: May 5 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: May 5 2004 5:00 President George W. Bush has long since painted himself into a corner over the North Korean nuclear crisis, dismissing Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, as a loathsome "pygmy" and branding his impoverished nation a member of the "axis of evil". When it comes to insults, Pyongyang's Communist propaganda machine is more than a match for Washington. Senior US officials such as Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton have been labelled psychopaths and "human scum". Such childish exchanges do not bode well for the painfully slow negotiations over the future of North Korea's secret nuclear weapons programmes. Yet the rare interviews with North Korean officials by Selig Harrison, the US expert on Korea (whose report was published in yesterday's Financial Times), reveal a different side to Mr Kim's regime. Men such as Kim Yong-nam, deputy to the North Korean leader, declared their desire for friendship with the US, promised never to sell nuclear materials to terrorists and repeated their offer of a phased dismantling of nuclear weapons development in exchange for aid. This does not mean they can be trusted, any more than they can trust Mr Bush after his invasion of Iraq. Nor does it suggest they have gone soft; Kim Yong-nam - concluding from CNN that Mr Bush was distracted by Iraq and the US presidential campaign - made a chilling threat to use the time available to strengthen North Korea's nuclear deterrent. But the measured tone of the interviews does show that North Korea is ready to negotiate. Such an opportunity to secure peace in north-east Asia must not be ignored. All sides should make the most of the six-nation working group due to meet in Beijing next week. North Korea cannot expect the Americans to agree to a phased nuclear disarmament plan without watertight procedures for full inspection and verification. China, host of the talks and traditional ally of North Korea, should not be squeamish about applying pressure on its old friends in order to secure a verification arrangement that will undoubtedly be painful for the secretive Pyongyang regime to accept. The Bush administration also needs to modify its stance. It is not good enough to complain about nuclear blackmail and insist there is no alternative to full nuclear disarmament as a precondition for aid. The glaring examples of atomic weapons secretly acquired by Israel, India and Pakistan (now an important non-Nato ally of the US) show this to be nonsense. There is no better moment for negotiations than when both sides are vulnerable. North Korea's economy, even with reform under way, is in desperate straits, and Washington knows it. The US, bogged down in Iraq, is in no mood for a military conflict in Asia, as Pyongyang is well aware. It is time for both sides to put the insults behind them and do a deal that is both verifiable and fair. ***************************************************************** 12 Guardian Unlimited: EU faces nuclear terror threat Ian Black in Brussels Wednesday May 5, 2004 [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Osama bin Laden or like-minded terrorists could kill thousands of people and wreak global havoc by detonating a crude nuclear device in the heart of Europe, security experts warned yesterday. "We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe," said the former US senator Sam Nunn, who helped organise Black Dawn, a war-gaming exercise conducted by the EU, Nato and others. "To win this race we have to achieve cooperation on a scale we've never seen or attempted before," he said, insisting far greater efforts were needed to ensure nuclear material could not be obtained by terrorists. Mr Nunn was speaking after the closed-door simulation attended by the EU's security supremo, Javier Solana, and his counter-terrorism coordinator, Gijs de Vries, who was appointed after the Madrid bombings in March. The EU is stepping up its efforts to help the US combat nuclear proliferation, despite differences over Iraq. "The threat of catastrophic terrorism is not confined to the United States or Russia or the Middle East," said Mr Solana. "The new terrorist movements seem willing to use unlimited violence and cause massive casualties." Officials were asked in the first part of the exercise how they would respond to intelligence showing al-Qaida had obtained enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb. In the second part they were confronted with computer projections and video displays illustrating the impact of a 10-kilotonne device exploding at Nato's sprawling headquarters near Brussels airport. The notional attack immediately killed 40,000 people and injured 300,000, swamping hospitals, as a radiation cloud spread panic across Belgium and the Netherlands and plunged the world economy into turmoil. "Once you are in this phase there are no good options," said Michle Flournoy, of the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who helped prepare the exercise. Al-Qaida is thought to have made repeated attempts to buy highly enriched uranium and has contacted Pakistani scientists to learn how to use it. "The exercise tended to underscore the overall message that prevention is the only option," said Mr Nunn. He said the G8 countries had failed to keep pledges to provide funding to destroy and safeguard weapons of mass destruction in Russia and former Soviet republics. "It's too easy for the G8 to have a photo opportunity ... to have press conferences, make a bunch of pledges, go home and everybody forgets about it," Mr Nunn said. "That must not happen." Rolf Ekeus, a former head of the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, warned that Europe could be a prime target for nuclear terrorists because of the ease with which extremists could hide and recruit in the Muslim communities, and because Russian nuclear material could be more easily smuggled into Europe than the US. "Europe has become the breeding ground, the place where planning for terrorism takes place," he said. [http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/flash/0,5860,408196,00.html] The euro France | Germany | Italy | Austria | Cyprus | Turkey Useful links [http://europa.eu.int/index-en.htm] [http://www.europarl.eu.int/home/default_en.htm] [http://ue.eu.int/en/summ.htm] [http://europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm] [http://curia.eu.int/en/index.htm] [http://www.cor.eu.int/] [http://www.esc.eu.int] [UP] Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 13 NRC: Entergy Nuclear Generation Company, Entergy Nuclear Operations, FR Doc 04-10161 [Federal Register: May 5, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 87)] [Notices] [Page 25146] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05my04-111] Inc.; Notice of Withdrawal of Application for Amendment to Facility Operating License The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the Commission or NRC) has granted the request of Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (ENO or the licensee) to withdraw its January 16, 2004, application for a proposed amendment to Facility Operating License No. DPR-35 for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, located in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. ENO supplemented its application by letter dated February 25, 2004. The proposed amendment requested approval of an engineering evaluation performed in accordance with facility Technical Specification (TS) 3.6.D.3 to justify continued power operation with safety relief valve (SRV)--3A and SRV--3D discharge pipe temperatures exceeding 212 degrees Fahrenheit for greater than 24 hours as required by TS 3.6.D.4. The Commission had previously issued a Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment published in the Federal Register on February 17, 2004 (69 FR 7522). However, by letter dated March 26, 2004, the licensee withdrew the request. For further details with respect to this action, see the application for amendment dated January 16, 2004, as supplemented by letter dated February 25, 2004, and the licensee's letter dated March 26, 2004, which withdrew the application for license amendment. Documents may be examined, and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the internet 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's PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1- 800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 26th day of April, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Travis L. Tate, Project Manager, Section 2, Project Directorate I, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 04-10161 Filed 5-4-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 14 Free Lance-Star: Green coalition fights new nukes [fredericksburg.com] Environmental coalition details reasons for opposing new reactors at North Anna By RUSTY DENNEN Date published: 5/5/2004 Reactors could damage lake, fish, NRC told New nuclear reactors on Lake Anna could harm fish, affect recreational users, and siphon off water needed by creatures downstream, according to papers filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Public Citizen, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service yesterday asked the NRC to deny Dominion Virginia Power's request for an early site permit to add one or more reactors at the Louisa County power plant. "The two existing reactors use a lot of water" for cooling purposes, said Michele Boyd, spokeswoman for Public Citizen in Washington. One or two more reactors could push the supply past the limit, she said. About 1 million gallons a minute of water are required to cool each reactor. After it goes through the power station, water about 15 degrees warmer flows to cooling lagoons, and eventually back into the 13,000-acre lake along the Spotsylvania County line. "In 2001, when we had the drought, they were pulling on so much water, they were within a foot or so of having to shut down the plant," Boyd said. That year's combination of drought and drawdown of the lake to cool the reactors left docks high and dry, and cut the amount of water running over the dam into the North Anna River. Additional hot water released by new reactors could harm the lake's population of striped bass, Boyd said, citing a study done by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The coalition also said in its filing that Dominion's application does not adequately address other safety and environmental concerns, such as the potential of a terrorist attack, and disposal of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel stored on the site. That waste is supposed to be shipped to a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Ariz., beginning in 2010. Richard Zuercher, spokesman for Dominion's nuclear operations, said the utility has addressed these issues and is confident that new reactors would not harm the lake or the environment. "I have talked to our folks about temperatures in the lake and the potential effects on aquatic life, and what we are seeing is that there would be no negative impact," Zuercher said. At Dike 3, where water goes back into the main lake, "the water would be a little warmer," Zuercher said, but only a degree or two higher than the surrounding lake water, and not enough to do any harm. Striped bass, he said, would simply move to a cooler part of the lake's water column. Zuercher said any new reactors would not affect the lake's water level. No alterations in the cooling system or lagoons would be required because the power station and lake were initially designed for four reactors. He said the company already has taken steps to lower the plant's intake pumps to deal with future droughts. Zuercher suggested that many of the coalition's arguments are far-fetched. "These folks want to see nuclear power shut down. They are not accountable for any statements they make unlike us, where we have to follow all the regulations and science and demonstrate that we're having a minimal impact on the environment." Dominion will have an opportunity to respond to the coalition's filing, and the NRC will decide whether the group's objections are valid. Dominion filed an early site permit application with the NRC last September to give it the option of building up to two new reactors on Lake Anna. The application allows companies to resolve safety, environmental protection and emergency planning issues before deciding to build. Utilities in Mississippi and Illinois have also filed for early site permits. Dominion says it has no immediate plans to build any reactors, but that it wants the option available. The permit would allow Dominion to "bank" the site for 20 years. It will take until fall 2006 for the application to wend its way through the permit process. A draft environmental impact statement is in the works and will be the subject of a public hearing later this year. In March, Dominion joined a consortium of utilities applying for funds through the U.S. Department of Energy to prepare a combined construction and operating license for future reactors. To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com Date published: 5/5/2004 The Free Lance-Star (through 3/2001). To contact all other newspaper departments, please call 540-374-5000. Copyright 2004, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Va. ***************************************************************** 15 Interfax: Investment in new nuclear power plants growing Updated: May 5 2004 5:55PM (MSK) MOSCOW. May 5 (Interfax) - Investment in the construction of new nuclear energy capacity is growing and will reach 24 billion rubles this year, compared with 22.2 billion rubles last year and 14.5 billion rubles in 2001, Rosenergoatom General Director Oleg Sarayev said at a press conference. "There is activity in investment. But due to the rising cost of materials and equipment it is basically insignificant," he said. Rosenergoatom uses this money to complete generating blocks that are nearly finished, to increase the utilization ratio and to handle radioactive waste, he said. Sarayev said the company plans to launch the fifth block at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in June 2005. A commission is working at the plant to determine the cost of completing the block. "The results will be announced in May and the actual cost will be determined," he said. He said building a new block at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant cost more because a new automated control system was built. "This is a new system that will be the foundation for future plants," he said. 1991-2004 Interfax ***************************************************************** 16 Brattleboro Reformer: Waste storage at VY debated [http://www.reformer.com/] May 05, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By CAROLYN LORI Reformer Staff BRATTLEBORO -- Depending on who you ask, dry cask storage at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is inextricably related to the "uprate" and license extension, or a completely separate issue to be considered on its own terms. According to officials at Entergy Nuclear, which owns the plant, and the Vermont Department of Public Service, without the 20 percent power increase, Vermont Yankee will run out of storage space in its spent fuel pool in 2008, or in 2007, if the uprate occurs. In either case, the plant will exhaust its current spent fuel capacity several years before its license expires in 2012, making dry cask storage a necessity. Not so, says Arnie Gundersen, industry whistleblower and an expert witness for nuclear power watchdog group, the New England Coalition. "There is absolutely no need for dry cask storage until 2012. Let's face the issue that this is really about, which is extending the life [of the plant] by 20 years," said Gundersen. As a former vice-president at a nuclear engineering firm, Gundersen was in charge of building fuel racks and said that he is very familiar with how to extend the capacity of spent fuel pools. "Creative minds could certainly get three or four years more," said Gundersen of the Vermont Yankee fuel pool. Not so, says state nuclear engineer Bill Sherman and Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams. According to Sherman, the pool has been "reracked" -- a process of rearranging the fuel racks to allow for more space -- three times. Williams echoed this sentiment, saying the pool has been consolidated as much as possible and that, furthermore, dry cask storage is in the public interest. "The sooner it goes to dry cask storage, the sooner it will go to Yucca Mountain," said Williams, referring to the long-delayed federal nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The site is expected to open in 2012, although many are skeptical that it will open at all. As the Senate Finance Committee considered an amendment to the House Appropriations Bill last week, allowing Entergy to bypass legislative approval for dry cask storage, some worried that accepting dry cask storage might signal tacit approval of the uprate and license extension. Public Service Department Commissioner David O'Brien considers such concerns to be unfounded. "I don't see dry cask storage as a harbinger of relicensing," said O'Brien, adding that decisions regarding uprate, storage and license extension need to be made independently of each other. Many local anti-nuclear activists disagree with this assessment. "Entergy's approach has been incremental but there should be no mistake about their true intentions," said Peter Alexander, executive director of the coalition. "Their master plan calls for uprate, dry cask storage and license extension. Dry cask storage is a less dangerous alternative that the spent fuel pool but should not be used to facilitate the production of even more radioactive waste." Vermont Yankee is expected to apply to the Public Service Board this summer for approval of dry cask storage. As the law now stands, Entergy will also be required to petition the Legislature for approval. There has been speculation, however, that the company will take the issue to court if the amendment is not passed. Ed Anthes of Nuclear-Free Vermont said that while dry cask storage is the safer long-term option, he believed there "needs to be a really thorough examination. It shouldn't get slipped in like Entergy tried to do." Copyright 1999-2004 New England Newspapers, Inc., ***************************************************************** 17 WIStv: Duke Power's possible land sale worries Lake Wylie residents May 5, 2004 (Rock Hill-AP) May 5, 2004 - Lake Wylie residents worry that Duke Power plans to sell land near the Catawba Nuclear Station could make evacuation more difficult in the event of a disaster. Duke Power officials say the company hopes to sell 580 acres near the lake's western edge north of Rock Hill to a single residential developer later this month. Company officials say Duke wants to sell the land because the company considers it non-essential. Duke acquired the property decades before it began operating the nuclear station in 1985. York County zoning administrator Mike Scott says a developer could build about two homes per acre or as many as 12 townhouses per acre. About 120 families live on the peninsula now. There is one two-lane road that passes by the nuclear plant and crosses a bridge to serve the residents. posted 7:40am by [crees@wistv.com] [http://www.worldnow.com] All content Copyright 2000 - 2004 WorldNow and WISTV. All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 18 Sofia Morning News: N-Plant Bribe Allegations "Made in Bulgaria" SOFIA NEWS AGENCY [http://www.novinite.com/] Politics: 5 May 2004, Wednesday. The unsigned letter, which contains claims for corrupt practices connected to Bulgaria's second nuke, has been written in Bulgaria according to Bogomil Manchev, one of the people mentioned in the list. The names of more than 10 Bulgarian, Canadian and European politicians are reportedly involved in the unsigned letter that contains claims for corrupt practices, dealing with the construction of the second power plant in Belene. Manchev, who is Risk Engineering manager, told local Darik Radio that this was an attack aimed at Bulgaria's Prime Minister. Just a day earlier Darik Radio said it had received the full text of the letter by an MP of the Canadian Democratic Party Joe Comartin. People close to Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg, his sister Maria Luisa and Energy Minister Milko Kovachev reportedly feature in the anonymous letter, involving the Canadian Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL). The letter fingers the people as eventual recipients or intermediaries in the corruption scheme. At the end of April Canadian Globe and Mail Daily cited an unsigned letter, exposing an attempt for USD 40 M bribes wanted by Bulgarian government officials to approve AECL's project. The AECL is part of an international consortium interested in completing the construction of Bulgaria's second nuclear power station at a Danube site near the town of Belene. Bulgaria and Canada later refuted the bribe claims. All Rights Reserved Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also ***************************************************************** 19 NRC: Note to Editors: NRC Issues Information on Studies Related to the Davis-Besse Reactor Head News Release - 2004-05 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] No. 04-053 May 4, 2004 Given the level of interest in corrosion damage of the reactor vessel head at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio, the NRC has made available findings from the latest analysis and testing relevant to the subject. Laboratory tests on materials similar to the Davis-Besse reactor vessel were used to verify an analytical method which was then applied to the degraded condition found at the plant. The results show that the reactor would have likely continued to operate safely for several months, at least until the end of its originally planned operating cycle, if the plant had not shut down for inspections in February 2002. The results also show the reactor vessels stainless steel cladding would have likely withstood pressures at least 125 percent of what is encountered in normal operation. The findings are summarized in a memo, from the agencys Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research to the Executive Director for Operations, provided with this note. MEMORANDUM TO: William D. Travers Executive Director for Operations FROM: Ashok C. Thadani, Director /RA/ Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research SUBJECT: UPDATE ON STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT OF DAVIS-BESSE REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL HEAD WITH CORROSION WASTAGE CAVITY My memorandum to you dated January 8, 2003, summarized RES activities related to the degradation of vessel head penetration nozzles in pressurized water reactors, including estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the Davis-Besse RPV head in the as-found condition on February 16, 2002, and how long Davis-Besse could have operated before the cladding failed. My memorandum noted several uncertainties in the analyses, including those related to cracks found in the cladding. The attachment to the memorandum stated that the licensee would determine the depth of the cracks in the cladding and that the presence of cracks might necessitate a revision of the calculations and could possibly reduce the pressure margin identified in the original calculations. This memorandum updates the January 8, 2003, memorandum, specifically addressing the influence of the cracks on the pressure necessary to fail the cladding and how long Davis-Besse could have operated before the cladding failed. Since the original calculations, additional work has been done in the following areas: + Clad disk tests of samples with simple cavity and clad crack geometries, + Characterization of cracks in the Davis-Besse cladding, + Fracture toughness characterization of the Davis-Besse cladding, + Development of a detailed finite element model of the Davis-Besse wastage cavity and cladding as they were on February 16, 2002, and + Peer review by an independent external panel to review the experimental activities and the approach for the analytical work. Our analyses of the pressure necessary to fail the cladding used two representations of the cladding cracks to provide understanding of the sensitivity to crack size. For the longer and deeper of these two crack representations (with length of 2 inches and depth 0.1 inches, consistent with an ASME Code representation for the multiple cracks in the cladding), estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the cladding range from 2700 to 3300 psi (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median pressure of 3000 psi. For a shorter (0.66 inches) and shallower (0.065 inches) representation, estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the cladding range from 3900 to 6550 psi (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median pressure of 5250 psi. Considering the uncertainties in predicting the failure pressure for multiple flaws, in our engineering judgment the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks is the more appropriate model. Thus, our judgment is that the margin against failure ranges from a factor of 1.2 to 1.5 of the operating pressure, with a median value of 1.4. These estimates are in agreement with the forensic evidence that the operating pressure of 2165 psi was insufficient to produce crack initiation. The margin against failure at the relief valve setpoint (2500 psi) ranges from a factor of 1.1 to 1.3 of the setpoint pressure, with a median value of 1.2. Finally, we used a simplified model of the cavity geometry in Davis-Besse to estimate how long after February 16, 2002, Davis-Besse could have operated without failure of the stainless steel cladding. For the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks, this model predicts an operating time of 2 to 13 months (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median estimate of 5 months. For the shallower depth crack of 0.065 inches (and length of 2 inches), estimates of the operating time range from 3 to 13 months (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median estimate of 8 months. There are significant uncertainties regarding the rate and direction of cavity expansion (for example, was the cavity continuing to grow? - our analysis assumes that the cavity was growing) and the rate of stress corrosion crack growth in the cladding. With our engineering judgment that the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks is the more appropriate model, it is our conclusion that Davis-Besse could have operated for 2 to 13 months without failure of the cladding, with a median value of 5 months. A more complete description of the experimental and analytical work performed is attached to this memorandum. At present we are preparing input for an Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) analysis of Davis-Besse and finalizing the detailed documentation of this work, including the experimental testing, characterization of the cracks in the Davis-Besse cladding, the analytical modeling efforts, and the external panel review. In accordance with normal Agency process to evaluate the risk significance of operating conditions at nuclear power plants, the ASP analysis will evaluate the risk from the degradation of the reactor vessel head at Davis-Besse. A final engineering and analysis report will be issued when we report on the preliminary results and findings of the ASP analyses in early summer. ATTACHMENT STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT OF DAVIS-BESSE REACTOR PRESSURE VESSEL HEAD WITH CORROSION WASTAGE CAVITY A memorandum from A. Thadani (RES) to W. Travers (EDO) dated January 8, 2003, summarized RES activities related to the degradation of vessel head penetration nozzles in pressurized water reactors, including estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the Davis-Besse RPV head in the as-found condition on February 16, 2002, and how long Davis-Besse could have operated before the cladding failed. The memorandum noted several uncertainties in the analyses, including cracks found in the cladding. The attachment to the memorandum stated that the licensee would determine the depth of the cracks in the cladding and that the presence of cracks might necessitate a revision of the calculations and a possible reduction in the pressure margin identified in the original calculations. Since the original calculations, additional work has been done in the following areas: + Clad disk tests of samples with simple cavity and clad crack geometries, + Characterization of cracks in the Davis-Besse cladding, + Fracture toughness characterization of the Davis-Besse cladding, + Development of a geometrically accurate finite element model of the Davis-Besse wastage cavity and cladding as they existed on February 16, 2002, and Peer review by an independent external panel to review the experimental activities and the approach for the analytical work. This additional work is described below, along with an update to the calculations using the best available information and modeling available to the staff. Clad Disk Tests The failure calculations reported in the January 8, 2003, memorandum were based on a failure model which depended only on the strength of the cladding material, and is characterized as a net-section collapse model. It was chosen based on limited failure testing of thin plate specimens performed by EPRI well before the discovery of the Davis-Besse RPV head degradation. Initial testing was performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to confirm that this model was appropriate for cladding material, and in particular for cladding material containing cracks. The initial test results clearly indicated that the failures were dependent on the fracture toughness of the cladding and not just its strength properties. Additional testing was performed to validate this finding. ORNL performed a total of 11 tests of clad disk specimens machined from the pressure vessel of a canceled plant (note this was not cladding from the Davis-Besse RPV head). The geometry of these tests was simplified, with a circular 6-inch diameter cavity machined through the ferritic steel to provide an exposed cladding surface as the test piece. The circular cavity in these samples was similar in overall size to the cavity at Davis-Besse, but the surface area of exposed cladding in the tests (~ 28.3 square inches) was greater than at Davis-Besse (~16.5 square inches). The difference between the test configuration and the Davis-Besse condition is due to the J-groove weld in the Davis-Besse RPV head, which could not be incorporated into the ORNL tests. However, since the tests were designed to validate the failure model, this difference was not significant. Three of these tests were performed with no cracks in the cladding. The remaining tests had flaws machined into the cladding with a 2-inch length and depths ranging from 10% to 85% of the clad thickness. These tests demonstrated that, in the presence of cracks in the cladding, failure would occur consistent with a ductile tearing fracture mechanics model rather than the net-section collapse model used in the earlier analyses. Therefore, the failure model was revised and additional material property testing was initiated to provide appropriate properties for the Davis-Besse cladding. Cladding Cracks Based on work at BWXT Service (initially funded by FirstEnergy and then continued by RES funding), the Davis-Besse cladding was found to contain a complex network of stress corrosion cracks having a total extent on the surface (length) of ~2 inches. The longest contiguous portion of these cracks (0.66 inches in length) was in the central portion of the cracking coincident with the deepest cracking. However, the shorter crack segments were close to this longest segment but slightly offset from the axis of the crack. A maximum depth of 0.1 inch (40% of the cladding thickness) and an average depth of 0.065-in. (26% of the cladding thickness) were measured in this region. The maximum flaw depth occurred in small fingers that are characteristic of stress corrosion cracking. The 0.1 inch deep fingers were identified over ~20% of the central 0.66 inch of the crack network. An additional, and very important, finding of the forensic examination is that the stress corrosion cracks in the Davis-Besse cladding showed no evidence of ductile tearing at the operating pressure (2165 psi), a necessary precursor to cladding failure. This finding provides a reality benchmark for our analysis of pressure margins reported below: a realistic model of the Davis-Besse as-found condition will not predict initiation of a ductile crack at the operating pressure for the conditions that existed on February 16, 2002. Geometrically Accurate Model A finite element model was developed that provides a geometrically accurate representation of the as-found Davis-Besse configuration, including the size and shape of the exposed cladding surface, the J-groove weld, and the control rod drive mechanism (CRDM) nozzles in the RPV head. Based on the flaw size information described above, two crack configurations were incorporated in the finite element model. A crack 2 inches long and 0.1 inch deep was adopted to represent the network of flaws in the cladding (essentially an envelope around the cladding cracks) since the shorter crack segments were close to the longest contiguous segment. This characterization of the crack network in the Davis-Besse cladding is consistent with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Code rules regarding modeling of multiple cracks and with traditional fracture assessments of cracked components. A separate analysis included a crack 0.66 inch long and 0.065 inch deep based on the dominant crack in the cladding, as described previously. These two characterizations of the cracks were used to address the uncertainty in the failure pressure predictions caused by the multiple cracks. The 2 inch long crack provides a traditional prediction while the 0.66 inch long crack provides a more optimistic prediction. External Review Panel To provide an independent perspective on the experimental and analytical work, an external review panel, composed of the following individuals, was formed: + Dr. William Shack of Argonne National Laboratory and the ACRS. Dr. Shack has expertise in materials analysis and corrosion. + Dr. Gery Wilkowski of the Engineering Mechanics Corporation of Columbus. Dr. Wilkowski has expertise in fracture testing of both laboratory test specimens and large structural components and in fracture analysis of structural components. + Professor James Joyce of the United States Naval Academy. Professor Joyce has expertise in fracture analysis and testing. The review panel met with the staff and ORNL in early December 2003 and had several discussions with the staff after that time. Each reviewer submitted an independent letter to the staff (ADAMS accession ML041030107 and ML041110832), but all reviewers raised the following themes: + While the clad disk tests provide useful information on the failure characteristics of the cladding, they should not be taken to represent the conditions that existed at Davis-Besse. Estimates of the Davis-Besse structural integrity should be based on a finite element analysis that represents much more closely the geometric conditions that existed at Davis-Besse on February 16, 2002, combined with laboratory data on the strength, toughness, and failure characteristics of the stainless steel cladding. + The clad disk tests should have additional instrumentation to permit differentiation of crack initiation and failure. + A better characterization of the crack network that existed in the Davis-Besse cladding is needed to support a realistic assessment of the as-found condition. + Evidence on the fracture morphology of the cladding cracks does not suggest that failure was imminent on February 16, 2002. These suggestions were incorporated in the final clad disk tests and analyses described previously. Updated Estimates of Davis-Besse Failure Conditions As-Found Condition on February 16, 2003 Ductile tearing fracture analyses were completed for the two crack characterizations, using the geometrically accurate finite element analysis of the cavity. This analysis accounted for the variability in strength and toughness properties of the stainless steel cladding. The variability in material property data was obtained directly from measurements on the Davis-Besse cladding. The strength and fracture toughness properties of the Davis-Besse cladding determined from the testing performed under this program were compared to values obtained for the cladding tested in the clad disk tests and to values previously obtained for archival cladding material. This comparison revealed that the Davis-Besse cladding has similar strength to the archival cladding material and the cladding from the clad disk tests, with the fracture toughness for the Davis-Besse cladding lower than that for the clad disk tests and higher than that for the archival cladding material. For the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks, estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the cladding range from 2700 to 3300 psi (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median pressure of 3000 psi. For the shorter and shallower crack, estimates of the pressure necessary to fail the cladding range from 3900 to 6550 psi (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median pressure of 5250 psi. Considering the uncertainties in predicting the failure pressure for multiple flaws, in our engineering judgement the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks is the more appropriate model. Thus, our judgement is that the margin against failure ranges from a factor of 1.2 to 1.5 of the operating pressure, with a median value of 1.4. These estimates are in agreement with the forensic evidence that the operating pressure of 2165 psi was inadequate to produce crack initiation. The margin against failure at the relief valve setpoint (2500 psi) ranges from a factor of 1.1 to 1.3 of the setpoint pressure, with a median value of 1.2. To provide an independent check on the ORNL analyses, the staff had one of the peer review panel members develop an estimate of the failure pressure. The panel member used an empirical approach that relies heavily on structural integrity assessment procedures developed and validated for ductile fracture by the gas transmission pipeline industry. Those estimates of failure pressures are consistent with the estimates developed by ORNL and reported above. Continued Operation Beyond February 16, 2002 This analysis accounted for the variability in both the rate of cavity enlargement (assuming that the cavity was continuing to grow) and the rate of stress corrosion crack growth due to the concentrated boric acid solution inside the wastage cavity. To overcome the lack of empirical evidence on the cavity and crack growth rates, expert opinion was used to estimate these parameters and their variability. For the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks, this model predicts that Davis-Besse could have operated for 2 to 13 month (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively) without failure of the cladding, with a median estimate of 5 months. For a crack with a shallower depth of 0.065 inches (and length of 2 inches), estimates of the operating time range from 3 to 13 months (at the 5th and 95th percentiles, respectively), with a median estimate of 8 months. There are significant uncertainties regarding the rate and direction of cavity expansion (for example, was the cavity continuing to grow? - our analysis assumes that the cavity was growing) and the rate of stress corrosion crack growth in the cladding. With our engineering judgement that the ASME Code representation of the cladding cracks is the more appropriate model, it is our conclusion that Davis-Besse could have operated for 2 to 13 months without failure of the cladding, with a median value of 5 months. Future Activities Detailed documentation of this work is under preparation, including the experimental testing, characterization of the cracks in the Davis-Besse cladding, the analytical modeling efforts, and the external panel review. A final engineering and analysis report will be issued in conjunction with the report on the preliminary results and findings of the Accident Sequence Precursor (ASP) analysis in early summer. Last revised Wednesday, May 05, 2004 ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: NRC Provides Update on Review Process for Vermont Yankee Uprate Request News Release - 2004-05 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] No. 04-055 May 5, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced it will utilize a new engineering assessment inspection as part of its review of Entergy Nuclears request to increase the power output of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant by 20 percent. The NRCs intentions are discussed in the agencys reply to the Vermont Public Service Boards (PSB) request for assurances about Vermont Yankees reliability following an uprate. Although the NRCs regulatory authority does not cover reliability specifically, the agency oversees many safety-related systems and functions that contribute to a plants reliable operation. The agency remains committed to ensuring continued safe operation of Vermont Yankee. I have given the Governor my assurances on this, NRC Chairman Nils Diaz said. In addition to its substantial uprate review process, the NRC has decided to also conduct a new engineering design inspection, which has been under development for several months to enhance the Reactor Oversight Process. The inspection will provide additional information for the NRC and be responsive to the PSBs concerns. The NRC staff considered a number of factors, including the Boards request for an independent engineering assessment, and concluded it is appropriate to conduct this engineering inspection at Vermont Yankee, Chairman Diaz said. The NRC will use the new inspection to proactively identify any latent issues in a nuclear power plants design, focusing on those components and systems devoted to safety. The design inspection will include an evaluation of changes to the plants licensing basis to ensure safety margins remain adequate. At Vermont Yankee, the inspection process will involve three weeks of on-site inspections and more than 700 hours of direct inspection time. The NRCs inspection team of approximately six will include experienced NRC inspectors, some of whom have not had recent oversight involvement with Vermont Yankee, and at least two contractors with experience in reactor design. The agency will share the inspection schedule with Vermont officials to facilitate state representative participation, as allowed by NRC regulation and policy. The NRC will not approve the Vermont Yankee uprate, or any proposed changes to a reactors license, unless the agency can conclude the changes can be implemented safely. The full text of the NRCs letter to the PSB is provided. Mr. Michael H. Dworkin, Chairman Vermont Public Service Board 112 State Street, Drawer 20 Montpelier, Vermont 05620-2701 Dear Mr. Dworkin: I am responding on behalf of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to your letters dated March 15 and 31, 2004, regarding the request by Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC, and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (Entergy), to amend the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station license to increase the power level of the facility. In those letters, the Vermont Public Service Board requested that the NRC conduct its review of the proposed power uprate in a way that would provide Vermont a level of assurance about plant reliability equivalent to an independent engineering assessment. The NRC has decided to conduct a detailed engineering inspection that we believe will be appropriate for addressing our oversight responsibilities and is also responsive to the Boards concerns. This inspection will be performed as part of a new engineering inspection program that the NRC has been developing to enhance the Reactor Oversight Process. NRC regulations and its oversight process focus on ensuring nuclear safety, whether the facility is operating at power or shut down. The NRCs statutory authority does not extend to regulating the reliability of electrical generation. The NRC recognizes, however, that there is some overlap between attributes that result in safe operation and those that contribute to overall plant reliability. The Commission understands that the Board is concerned about the reliability of Vermont Yankee following an increase in power level, especially in light of operational issues that have occurred at some other plants that have recently implemented extended power uprates. The NRC recognizes the importance of these issues and is taking steps to ensure that they are satisfactorily addressed to maintain safety. For example, in response to instances of steam dryer cracking at some boiling water reactors, outside technical experts are assisting NRC staff in performing an audit of General Electric's analyses related to steam dryer performance and specific issues related to Vermont Yankee. We continue to engage the industry to ensure resolution of these issues and will consider additional regulatory action, if needed. The NRCs established review process for power uprate applications is independent, thorough, and comprehensive. A description of the review process is enclosed. Engineering assessments have always been an integral part of the NRCs safety activities. Under our current Reactor Oversight Process, NRC resident inspectors and regional specialists routinely evaluate the work performed by the licensees engineering organization to determine whether engineering analyses adequately support safe operation. Over the past several months, the NRC has been developing a new engineering inspection program which we intend to pilot at selected plants. The NRC staff considered a number of factors, including the Boards request for an independent engineering assessment, and concluded it is appropriate to conduct this engineering inspection at Vermont Yankee. This new engineering assessment inspection incorporates the best practices of the existing and past engineering inspections. The NRC will use this inspection to verify that design bases have been correctly implemented for a sampling of components across multiple systems and to identify latent design issues. The inspection process uses operating experience, risk assessment, and engineering analysis to select risk-significant components and operator actions, and will ensure that adequate safety margins exist. Although the specific sampling of components is still being developed, it will include components from multiple systems that are potentially affected by a power uprate such as the emergency core cooling systems, the containment system, power conversion systems, and auxiliary systems. The inspection will be performed by a team of approximately six inspectors, including some NRC inspectors who do not have recent oversight experience with Vermont Yankee and at least two contractors with design experience. Three weeks of on-site inspection and over 700 hours of direct inspection time will be conducted. This level of effort exceeds that of the biennial safety system design inspection. The Commission believes it is appropriate for addressing the NRC's oversight responsibilities and is also responsive to the Boards concerns. The NRC staff will inform the State of Vermont of the schedule for this inspection to facilitate participation by State representatives, consistent with NRC policy. The NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) will also review the Vermont Yankee power uprate request. The ACRS is a statutory committee that reports directly to the Commission and is structured to provide a forum where experts representing many technical perspectives can provide advice that is factored into the NRCs decision-making process. The NRC staff will provide the results of its review efforts, including relevant inspection findings, to the ACRS for review. After the ACRS completes its review, it will make an independent recommendation regarding whether the proposed power uprate amendment should be approved. The NRC will not approve the Vermont Yankee uprate, or any proposed change to a plant license, unless the NRC staff can conclude that the proposed change will be executed in a manner that assures the publics health and safety. In response to your request, the NRC staff has taken a close look at proposed inspections and technical reviews to ensure that they will identify and address potential safety concerns for operating at uprated power conditions. The staff has concluded that the detailed technical review, prescribed in the Extended Power Uprate Review Standard, coupled with the normal associated program of power uprate and engineering inspections, will provide the information necessary for the NRC staff to make a decision on the safety of operation of Vermont Yankee under uprated power conditions. The Commission believes that the results of NRC reviews and inspections, particularly the new engineering inspection, will assist in addressing the Boards concerns regarding the future reliability of Vermont Yankee. The NRC staff is prepared to meet with the Board to explain further our review process and scope, including the engineering assessment inspection. Sincerely, /RA/ Nils J. Diaz Enclosure: Established NRC Power Uprate Review Process Established NRC Power Uprate Review Process The NRCs established review process for power uprate applications is independent, thorough, and comprehensive. A team of engineers with specialties in a minimum of 17 different technical areas will review the Vermont Yankee power uprate application. The NRC plans to expend about 4000 hours to perform a comprehensive assessment of the engineering, design, and safety analyses related to the uprate. The NRCs Review Standard for Extended Power Uprates guides the staff in its review of the application. The Review Standard also provides guidance for determining when and what type of audits should be performed at the plant or vendor sites, as well as for performing our own confirmatory analyses and independent calculations to supplement the review. The NRCs review of the power uprate application also includes on-site inspections. NRC inspections will review selected activities and modifications made to allow operation at higher power levels to verify that changes to plant systems will support safe plant operation and are in accordance with Vermont Yankees licensing and design bases. The NRC will use Inspection Procedure 71004, Power Uprates, as well as a number of our baseline inspection procedures to inspect issues specifically related to power uprate. These inspections will assess changes that could impact the integrity of barriers (e.g., higher flow rates which could increase vibration at specific support points), safety evaluations, plant modifications, post maintenance and surveillance testing, heat exchanger performance, and integrated plant operation. Additionally, our other baseline inspection activities, while not specifically directed at power uprate activities, will provide additional information about Vermont Yankees ability to operate safely at a higher power level. The NRC will adjust, as necessary, our technical review, audit plans, confirmatory analyses, or inspection activities if any issues are identified which may have a bearing on our decision on the Vermont Yankee power uprate application. For example, a recent examination of the steam dryer at Vermont Yankee identified cracks on both interior and exterior structures of the steam dryer. The steam dryer is an important component in the process for converting steam to electrical energy, but is not used to mitigate any accidents. The NRC is interested in steam dryer cracking because of the potential for parts to break loose and impact the performance of safety-related equipment. Entergy has indicated that the cracks are in low-stress, low-steam flow areas of the dryer and not in the areas where cracks were observed at other plants that implemented extended power uprates. NRC inspectors monitored Entergys steam dryer inspection activities, and we will thoroughly review Entergys follow-up actions as part of our evaluation of Vermont Yankees request to operate at a higher power level. Assessment of engineering has always been an integral part of the NRCs safety mission. In the 1990s, the NRC performed extensive reviews at plants across the country to determine if licensees were operating plants in accordance with their design bases. As part of this review, two team inspections were conducted at Vermont Yankee in 1997. One of these inspections was led by staff from NRC headquarters and included six contractors. In 1998, the NRC conducted an engineering inspection, as well as a team inspection to address operability issues resulting from Vermont Yankees configuration improvement program. Under our current Reactor Oversight Process, NRC resident inspectors and regional specialists routinely evaluate the work performed by the licensees engineering organization to determine whether the engineering analyses adequately supports safe operation. Our inspectors conduct both routine engineering inspections, as well as an in-depth team inspection every two years. Since the Reactor Oversight Process was implemented in 2000, the NRC has conducted two such safety system design team inspections. Enclosure Last revised Wednesday, May 05, 2004 ***************************************************************** 21 [DU-WATCH] EPA to nuke US farms, parks & playgrounds/purging Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 01:22:54 -0500 (CDT) hear the whole thing today to light the necessary fire under your butt to assert democracy now against these most malicious fascist criminals: http://www.democracynow.org/ Headlines for May 4, 2004 - Report: Bremer Warned in Nov. of Prison Abuse - Iraqi Editor of U.S.-Funded Newspaper Resigns - Ex-NSA Head Calls For US Withdrawal From Iraq - Group: Bias Attacks Against Muslims in US Up 70% - Syria Foils Mossad Assassination Plot Against Hamas California Drops Diebold, Palast on Purging Minority Ballots We take a look at California State Secretary Kevin Shelley's decision to ban Diebold electronic voting machines in four counties and we speak with investigative reporter Greg Palast about disenfranchisement and the presidential election. Colorado's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant We speak with Colorado University professor Len Ackland about the former plutonium-processing Rocky Flats nuclear bomb making plant. Ackland is author of the book Making A Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West that examines the four-decade history of Rocky Flats. Grand Jury Accuses Justice Department of Rocky Flats Nuclear Cover-Up We speak with Wes McKinley, a Colorado rancher and the foreman of a grand jury that investigated activity at Rocky Flats about the charges he makes in his new book The Ambushed Grand Jury: How the Justice Department Covered Up Government Nuclear Crimes and How We Caught Them Red Handed. Recycling Plutonium: How the EPA Plans to Disburse Toxic Waste From the Lowry Landfill to the Sewage System and into CO Farmlands We speak with Colorado University Environmental Studies professor Adrienne Anderson about the Lowry Landfill. Citizen groups claim the landfill is widely contaminated with highly radioactive plutonium and other deadly wastes. The EPA now wants to treat the contaminated groundwater at the landfill and discharge it into the Denver metro sewage system. ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 22 [du-list] Plutonium Files: How the US secretly fed Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 14:42:20 -0700 scroll to the bottom for today's headlines and dem now's other in-depth stories such as this: Wednesday, May 5th, 2004 Plutonium Files: How the U.S. Secretly Fed Radioactivity to Thousands of Americans http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357230 Denver-based journalist Eileen Welsome reveals how as a reporter for the tiny Albuquerque Tribune (circulation 35,000) she uncovered one of the country's great Cold War secrets: the U.S. government had knowingly exposed thousands of human Guinea pigs with radiation poisoning including 18 Americans who had plutonium injected directly into their bloodstream. In a Massachusetts school, seventy-three disabled children were spoon-fed oatmeal laced with radioactive isotopes. In an upstate New York hospital, an eighteen-year-old woman believing she was being treated for a pituitary disorder, was injected with plutonium. At a Tennessee clinic, 829 pregnant women were served "vitamin cocktails" containing radioactive iron, as part of their regular treatment. No these are not acts of terrorism by common criminals. These are just some of the secret human radiation experiments that the U.S. government conducted on unsuspecting Americans for decades as part of its atom bomb program. In a gruesome plot that spanned 30 years, doctors and scientists working with the US atomic weapons program, exposed thousands of unwilling and unknowing Americans to radiation poisoning to study its effects. For years, the experiments by the U.S. government and the identities of their human guinea pigs were covered up. Then after a six-year investigation, investigative reporter Eileen Welsome uncovered the names of 18 people who were injected with plutonium in the 1940s without their knowledge by federal government scientists. In 1993, she published her finding in The Albuquerque Tribune and later received the Pulitzer Prize for her work. Another six years later, Welsome published "The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War." The book gives a detailed account of the unspeakable scientific trials conducted by the U.S. government that reduced thousands of American men, women, and even children to nameless specimens. * Eileen Welsome, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and author of "The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War." Headlines for May 5, 2004 - Pentagon: 25 Prisoners Have Died In U.S. Custody - State Department Delays Release of Human Rights Report - Senators Criticize Pentagon Secrecy Over Iraq Prison Abuse - 138,000 Troops To Stay in Iraq until End of 2005 - Disney Blocks Distribution of New Michael Moore Film - Senate Blocks Overtime Law Changes --Rep. Maxine Waters Calls on Congress Not To Recognize New Haitian Government --U.S. Assassinates Two Shiite Clerics Organizing Nonviolent Resistance ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 23 [DU-WATCH] UK: Gulf War syndrome veteran hunger strike Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 01:57:42 -0500 (CDT) GULF WAR SYNDROME UK SUPPORT GROUP PO BOX 2340 STOKE ON TRENT STAFFORDSHIRE ST2 7WG 01782 765642 or www.gwsuk.org.uk chairman@gwsuk.org.uk PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GULF WAR SYNDROME VETERAN STARTS HUNGER STRIKE PROTEST. A DESPERATE VETERAN OR A GULF WAR SYNDROME MATYR? As of midnight May 1st 2004 Mr Alex Izett a former soldier and veteran of the 1990-91 Gulf War has commenced a personal protest at the treatment of Gulf War Syndrome veterans by the UK Ministry of Defence by going on hunger strike. In an unprecedented move Mr Izett followed his action by telling Gulf War Syndrome UK Support Group that he is now prepared to jeopardise his own health and safety and possibly his life in order to bring attention to the plight and suffering of all Gulf War Syndrome veterans. Although Gulf War Syndrome UK Support Group does not condone the actions now being taken by Mr Izett we do hold empathy with all who have been affected by their Gulf War service. Many Gulf era veterans now feel betrayed by the country they gave loyal service to. Mr Izett gave service in a standby role during the Gulf War of 1990-91 and now considers that he suffers with health related problems associated with Gulf War Syndrome. Mr Izett now believes that not enough has been done to address the issues of Gulf War Syndrome and feels that the only way to bring attention to the outstanding issues is by embarking on a hunger strike. Gulf War Syndrome UK Support Group is very concerned about the action being taken by Mr Izett and feels that more should be done in an effort to address the issues raised. When Mr Izett was asked to give service to his country he consented without question, he was given preparation for war service and was subsequently held in reserve, surely this individual and the many hundreds if not thousands of sick and disabled veterans now deserve the right to redress. Gulf War Syndrome UK Support Group now calls upon the British Government and the Ministry of Defence to instigate a full public inquiry into Gulf War Syndrome. We would also like to see full and proper medial assessment,treatment and compensation for all affected Gulf War Syndrome veterans. This is requested in order to protect the health of past, present and future veterans of the Gulf theatre of Operations. For further details refer Mr Justin Harvey (chair) on 01782 765642 Or Mr Terry Walker (Group Sec) on 01904 449851 ____________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - Communicate instantly..."Ping" your friends today! Download Messenger Now http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/download/index.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/Sj.0lB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-watch-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 24 Democracy Now!: Rep. Waters On New Haitian Gov't; U.S. Assassinates Two Shiite Clerics; Plutonium Files: A Cold War Secret Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 15:20:35 -0400 = = = = = = = = = DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST May 5, 2004 http://www.democracynow.org Welcome to Democracy Now!'s new daily email digest. Please forward this to friends and family and encourage them to subscribe. (If you wish to unsubscribe see information below.) = = = = = = = = = TODAY'S SHOW: Wednesday, May 5 * Rep. Maxine Waters Calls on Congress Not To Recognize New Haitian Government * The new US-supported Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue arrived in Washington Tuesday for his visit since the U.S. helped oust President Jean Bertand Aristide. Waters is calling on members of Congress not to recognize the new prime minister. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357220 * U.S. Assassinates Two Shiite Clerics Organizing Nonviolent Resistance * As the tense standoff between the United States and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr continues in Iraq we go to Najaf and Hilla to get a report from Aaron Glantz of Free Speech Radio News on the killing of two Sheikhs by U.S. soldiers in Hilla. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357225 * Plutonium Files: How the U.S. Secretly Fed Radioactivity to Thousands of Americans * Denver-based journalist Eileen Welsome reveals how as a reporter for the tiny Albuquerque Tribune (circulation 35,000) she uncovered one of the country's great Cold War secrets: the U.S. government had knowingly exposed thousands of human Guinea pigs with radiation poisoning including 18 Americans who had plutonium injected directly into their bloodstream. Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357230 * Headlines for May 5, 2004 * - Pentagon: 25 Prisoners Have Died In U.S. Custody - State Department Delays Release of Human Rights Report - Senators Criticize Pentagon Secrecy Over Iraq Prison Abuse - 138,000 Troops To Stay in Iraq until End of 2005 - Disney Blocks Distribution of New Michael Moore Film - Senate Blocks Overtime Law Changes Listen/Watch/Read http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/05/1357214 = = = = = = = = = COMING UP ON DEMOCRACY NOW! Thursday, May 6 * TBA = = = = = = = = = NEWS FROM "THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULERS" BOOK TOUR * TONIGHT: A Benefit for KRCL in Salt Lake City, UT * Time: 5:30 - 6:30 PM Pre-Event Reception at Art Barn Time: 7 PM Free Event Location: University of Utah/Libby Gardener Concert Hall 1375 East Presidents Circle For tix: call Donna at KRCL: (801)363-1818 * TOMORROW: Amy Goodman in Seattle & Bellingham, WA * Time: 12 PM Location: University of Washington Husky Union Building Auditorium Event free with purchase of book Additional tickets are available for $5 at all stores, while supplies last. For more information contact the University Book Store http://www.ubookstore.com or (206) 634-3400. A Benefit for KUGS and Whatcom Peace & Justice Committee Time: 7:30 PM Location: Bellingham High School Performing Arts Center 2020 Cornwall Avenue For tix, contact: Village Books 1210 Eleventh Street, Bellingham, (360) 671-2626 For more information on "The Exception to the Rulers" and a complete schedule of tour cities, go to: http://democracynow.org/book/ "The Exception To The Rulers" is currently # 5 on the San Francisco Chronicle and # 24 on the New York Times bestseller lists. = = = = = = = = = ABOUT DEMOCRACY NOW! Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 200 stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, community, and National Public Radio stations, public access cable television stations, satellite television (on Free Speech TV, channel 9415 of the DISH Network), shortwave radio and the internet. The program is hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. = = = = = = = = = Now real-time CLOSED CAPTIONED on TV! You can also listen to and watch all Democracy Now! shows online: http://www.democracynow.org To bring Democracy Now! to your community, go to: http://www.democracynow.org/bringDNtoyou.html = = = = = = = = = To Subscribe, go to http://www.democracynow.org/maillist.pl = = = = = = = = = To unsubscribe, go to http://www.democracynow.org/maillist.pl?op=removeme&email=news@energy-net.org&emailid=30896 ***************************************************************** 25 news24: 'Crude nukes' a real threat www.news24.com Brussels - The world is not paying sufficient attention to the threat of a possible nuclear attack carried out by extremists, experts said Tuesday after running a simulation of a terrorist nuclear strike on Nato headquarters in Brussels. "It is inexcusable for world leaders to not address the problem of securing nuclear material" which could fall into the hands of terrorist groups, former United States senator Sam Nunn told reporters at the end of a war games seminar in Brussels. For now, Nunn said, extremists had trouble procuring nuclear material but that task was not being made hard enough. "The most effective, least expensive way to prevent nuclear terrorism is to lock down and secure weapons and fissile materials in every country and in every facility that has them." More than 50 officials and experts from 15 countries took part in the private seminar, organised by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Among them were the European Union's foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana and the former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Rolf Ekeus. They acted out a doomsday scenario entitled "Black Dawn", which supposed that al-Qaeda had secured some enriched uranium from a civil nuclear research centre in Europe and had managed to build a nuclear bomb. In the scenario, al-Qaeda operatives explode their bomb at Nato headquarters, killing 40 000 people immediately and injuring another 300 000. Crude nuclear device "It is well within (al-Qaeda's) operational capabilities to recruit the technical expertise needed to build a crude nuclear device," the authors of the scenario claimed. "A terrorist nuclear attack on US or European interests is consistent with al-Qaeda's objectives and its profile." The seminar paid particular attention to Russia, where large quantities of nuclear material are stocked under inadequate supervision. "The scenario is fictitious but it is based on real facts," said CSIS expert Michele Flournoy, a former Pentagon expert. "There is ample evidence that they (al-Qaeda) are going down this route." She cited the discovery in 2001 at an al-Qaeda base in Afghanistan of documents giving details of how to make a nuclear bomb. Participants in the seminar, who included ambassadors and representatives of European institutions and Nato, recommended a series of priority actions. These included the need to secure stocks of nuclear material, speed-up the dismantling of tactical nuclear weapons and to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation regimes. "We are in a race between co-operation and catastrophe," Nunn said. ***************************************************************** 26 ICH: The Truth About Depleted Uranium Weaponry - http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6143.htm] "The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology. "~~Michael Parenti, political scientist and author By Vincent L. Guarisco 05/04/04 "ICH" Ever notice how crafty the inventors of modern weaponry working for the Pentagon are -- giving their weapons misleading names that deliberately give the opposite impression of the actual intended use? None is more Orwellian, nor more ghoulish, than "Depleted Uranium," or its even less intrusive acronym -- "DU." Since the early 80's, the all-too-aware world has sounded the alarm about depleted uranium, from a full-blown international outcry to United Nations warnings transmitted through blood-stained pages of the Geneva and Nuremberg conventions to the echos of wooden mallets feverishly slamming down in the world court at the Hague. The message is very clear -- the radiation level in depleted uranium is NOT depleted, in fact, it WON'T be depleted to any safe degree for about two billion years. In retrospect, that's a long time to beg for forgiveness, not only for what we have done, but for what we continue to do on multiple battlefields. Fact---only approximately 14 percent of Americans at best understand the full matrix surrounding depleted uranium. Listen up -- depleted uranium is a deadly weapon of mass destruction that has been banned by virtually every nation on the planet. Its illegal use by the United States breaks all existing international treaties, conventions, protocols, and articles of war. It was first introduced into our arsenal around 1983 under the leadership directives of then President George H. W. Bush, and used in the first Gulf War in Iraq to the tune of 350 tons of exploded poison. The main difference between father Bush and his son is that junior unleashed his radioactive arsenal mainly in Iraqi urban centers and civilian neighborhoods, rather than in desert battlefields. Untold thousands of Iraqi people, U.S. soldiers, and coalition troops will pay the price for generations in chronic illness, widespread cancers, long-term disabilities and genetic birth defects. Last year, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters into Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. In his May 15, 2003 report, http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0515/p01s02-woiq.html staff writer Scott Peterson tells of seeing children playing on top of a damaged tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad -- a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, Peterson pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. The families who survived the tragic decade of sanctions, and the recent shock-and-awe bombing campaign of Baghdad may not survive the radiated aftermath of this continued military sacrilege. The highly toxic "Highway of Death" in 1991 after Desert Storm was only a warm-up session compared to what is happening in Iraq during Enduring Freedom under George W. Bush. DU was introduced into our arsenal under the pretension that by incorporating this radioactive concoction into our munitions, it somehow makes them more armor piercing. Even if this is true, what they (the marketing department) forget to mention is that DU is perhaps the most lethal time-released agent ever to be unleashed on mankind except for maybe one exception -- its kin -- the Atom Bomb. Its poisonous effectiveness continues to take life long after the tanks, fighter jets, helicopters, Bradley vehicles, unmanned drones and troops have long gone, put simply, DU is a prolonged latent kiss of death that genetically keeps on embracing for generations to come. It's a fact that other nations will forever hold us responsible for what our government has done in our name, they fully understand that we are willing participants who supply the needed funds that build these weapons; ignorance is not an acceptable excuse for war crimes committed against humanity! This will not soon be forgotten or forgiven. Because I'm the offspring of an Atomic Veteran, and have witnessed what can happen to loved ones exposed to radiation, I hereby claim my right to rename DU --"Death Unlimited." May this horrible name always serve as a subliminal reminder whenever you hear others fraudulently attempting to reference it otherwise. The documented track record associated with DU is a hideous reality, a carcinogenic killer causing birth defects, lung disease, kidney disease, leukemia, breast cancer, lymphoma, bone cancer, and neurological disabilities, etc. When DU munitions explode, it becomes an atomized dust devil that fills the air with a blanket of radioactive poison, which travels in the wind and is easily inhaled and ingested. Then it enters the soil polluting ground water and infecting the food chain. Eventually, the uranium extends past its immediate epicenter impacting the surrounding environment. This stuff is nothing to play with. What is most astonishing is that most Americans have never even heard of DU, and few (14%) fully understand what it is, where its being used, and who is being targeted by its usage. DU is one of the Pentagon's best-kept secrets, its most widely-used genocidal weapon for wiping out entire populations quietly and covertly. Sara Flanders, co-director of the International Action Center and coordinator of the DU Education Project, writes http://www.coastalpost.com/03/09/11.htm that the Pentagon "continues to assert that there are no 'known' health problems associated with DU. But Army training manuals require anyone who comes within 75 feet of any DU-contaminated equipment or terrain to wear respiratory and skin protection." Although the Bush Pentagon denies publicly that DU weapons can cause sickness, it's own internal reports warn that the radiation and heavy metal of DU weapons could cause kidney, lung and liver damage and increased rates of cancer. Flanders says the Pentagon continues to deny health problems associated with DU. But Army training manuals require anyone who comes within 75 feet of any DU-contaminated equipment or terrain to wear respiratory and skin protection. Who comes up with this crazy stuff? Was DU conceived somewhere deep some murky hushed corridor of the Project for a New American century (PNAC)? Or perhaps it came from some other think tank that funded a secret scientific lab deep in the belly of the Atomic energy weapons program? What was the dialogue? Did they say---gee, let's invent a quiet nuclear weapon that can surreptitiously be deployed inside conventional weaponry to progressively eliminate our enemies (and their families) long after we are gone to help reduce future risks of blowback, retribution and revenge? They had to entertain the idea that every plan has a degree of downside -- surely they knew that by using these weapons in battle our own troops would be exposed too, in fact, even more so because they store, transport, handle and load these DU munitions into the very guns that fire them. So why do they continue with this knowing full well the danger to our own troops? Do they purposely shorten the lifespan of our soldiers to shave several costly years off healthcare and pension plans? What are we to think about all this? Are they premeditated murderers? According to Dr. Doug Rokke, U.S. Army health physicist who led the first clean-up of depleted uranium after the Gulf War, "Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity." (Listen to Rokke's interview on the subject at http://traprockpeace.org/RokkePressConf23July03.html ) Rokke's own crew -- 100 employees -- was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. "When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," Rokke said. However, after performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 staff members died, and most others -- including Rokke himself --developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems. "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension," Rokke said. Unbelievable? Think again. Or better yet---ask the more than 150,000 Gulf War Vets who have filed claims after previously serving in Iraq's toxic wastelands during the first Gulf War. After doing so, they were shamelessly denied their benefits by the risk management boys who said that Gulf War Syndrome was a figment of their imagination. Heck, the masters treat their dogs better then them! Is it any wonder that Uncle Sam took away their M-16's before they returned home? With arms in hand, I would love to know which way those same gun barrels would point after receiving such crap in the VA after serving so valiantly. Conspiracy theory? Everyone can't be wrong, so answer me this---why in Sam-Hell does the Pentagon continue to use these weapons even though there is an overwhelming abundance of scientific data from around the globe to back these claims? George W. Bush justifies his continued carnage with a convenient "Saddam Hussein was a horrible dictator who gassed his own people and threatened his neighbors..." But Admiral Gene LaRocque, who fought the Cold War as a commander of a nuclear-armed carrier task force in Europe and served as a war planner in the Pentagon, says war has become a "spectator sport" for most Americans. LaRocque said: "I had been in thirteen battle engagements, had sunk a submarine, and was the first man ashore in the landing at Roi. In that four years, I thought, What a hell of a waste of a man's life. I lost a lot of friends. I had the task of telling my roommate's parents about our last days together. You lose limbs, sight, part of your life-for what? Old men send young men to war. Flag, banners, and patriotic sayings... "We've institutionalized militarism. This came out of World War Two... It gave us the National Security Council. It gave us the CIA, that is able to spy on you and me this very moment. For the first time in the history of man, a country has divided up the world into military districts.... You could argue World War Two had to be fought. Hitler had to be stopped. Unfortunately, we translate it unchanged to the situation today... "I hate it when they say, "He gave his life for his country." Nobody gives their life for anything. We steal the lives of these kids. We take it away from them. They don't die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them." Are George Bush and his Pentagon guilty of war crimes against the people of Iraq? By unleashing this most deadly of weapons of mass destruction, are they demonstrating reckless disregard for the health and safety of American troops? You be the judge. *Vincent L Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City AZ., a contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime member of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Reprint permission is given as long as article content is not altered or changed and credit is given to the author. Replies welcomed at: vincespainting1@hotmail.com [vincespainting1@hotmail.com] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info Information Clearing House ***************************************************************** 27 [Fwd: [NukeNet] Stop Radioactive Waste from BeingDumped in Your Landfill Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 08:13:21 -0700 -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [NukeNet] Stop Radioactive Waste from BeingDumped in Your Landfill or Becoming Your Next Household Product! Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 21:09:02 -0400 From: Bill Smirnow To: Bill Smirnow Act Now before May 17 to stop this outrage! Mitzi Bowman, Coordinator, Don't Waste Connecticut (DWC) (203)389-2067 ----- Original Message ----- From: Lisa Rainwater van Suntum To: upthesun@cshore.com Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 12:36 PM Subject: LARGE FONT: NIRS Action Alert: Stop Radioactive Waste from BeingDumped in Your Landfill or Becoming Your Next Household Product! Stop Radioactive Waste from Being Dumped in Your Landfill or Becoming Your Next Household Product! NIRS RADIATION ALERT and UPDATE (5/2004) Nuclear Power and Weapons Waste to go to Regular Landfills and other "Non-Regulated Management" Environmental Protection Agency joins Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Departments of Energy and Transportation in Deregulating Radioactive Waste Comments due to EPA by MAY 17, 2004 (note deadline extended) Email to: a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov Attn: Docket OAR-2003-0095 ACTIONS: 1) Send a letter to the new EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt telling him what you think of the EPA's proposed action, encouraging him withdraw it. leavitt.michael@epa.gov Administrator Mike Leavitt, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1101A, Ariel Rios Building, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Washington, DC 20460 2) Comment to EPA and get organizations and landfill boards to do so at a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov Docket No. OAR-2003-0095 The proposal is on the EPA website (www.epa.gov/radiation). You can load your comments on EPA's website to prevent your email address from becoming public. 3) Let your elected officials know how you feel about these dangers by sending them a copy of your letter to Secretary Leavitt, comments to EPA, NRC, DOT and DOE and telling them about your position on federal rules that exempt nuclear waste from controls. Background: The US Environmental Protection Agency is planning to make a new rule that would allow nuclear waste to go to places that are not licensed for radioact ive materials. (68 FR 22:65120-65151, Nov 18, 2003) The goal appears to be to redefine radioactive materials, no matter what their source (nuclear power, nuclear weapons, naturally occurring or other), based on EPA-calculated and projected risks. The new category of nuclear materials (dubbed Below Regulatory Concern in 1986) would supposedly not need radioactive regulatory controls. EPA does not consider all the potential health effects of radiation and hazardous materials in estimating the risks. They have never demonstrated the accuracy of their predictions. 1) First, EPA would allow mixed radioactive and hazardous wastes to go to facilities permitted for hazardous waste only (RCRA C hazardous waste dumps and processors). 2) Second, radioactive waste (not mixed with hazardous) could be permitted to go to places that do not have radioactive licenses or regulations, such as regular garbage dumps or incinerators or hazardous sites. Since it would no longer be regulated for radioactivity, it could go to regular recyclers. EPA justifies this by claiming they will provide an acceptable level of protection, even though many sites already leak. 3) Third, EPA suggests that a "non-regulatory approach" to management of radioactive waste is an option and requests creative ideas for "partnering" with waste generators or other schemes to relieve the regulatory burden. Nothing would prevent radioactive materials from going to recycling facilities and being mixed with the normal recycling streams which are made into everyday household items like toys, cookware, personal use items, cars, furniture and civil engineering projects like roads and buildings. 4) EPA's rule threatens to preempt existing state laws that prohibit nuclear waste going to solid waste sites. VT, ME, OH, WI, IL, MN, CO, OR, PA, CT, WV, NM, IA, are among states that have passed such laws and regulations. OK, GA and VA passed resolutions in one or both houses and counties and towns in many other states have resolutions against this action. Notify your state and local officials to comment and uphold your protections against nuclear power and weapons wastes! 5) This dangerous proposal dovetails neatly into the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's rulemaking to deregulate and release radioactive material from control, ironically called "Control of Solids." The NRC is considering options for deregulating nuclear waste including continuing the current case-by-case procedures, starting new release procedures that are based on projected risks, sending the waste to sites that are not licensed for nuclear materials. NRC is considering "restricted" release of nuclear waste with special conditions that NRC would not enforce, but "someone" would. The upshot is that NRC and EPA are joining forces to allow nuclear power and weapons waste, now generally required to be regulated and controlled, to be released to waste sites and processors never designed to take radioactive materials and to the marketplace where it will come into routine daily contact with us, our kids and environment. 6) To make matters even worse, the US NRC and US Department of Transportation on 1-26-04 finalized new transport regulations (TSR-1) that would exempt various levels of hundreds of radionuclides from regulatory control in transit. This will make it easier for NRC and EPA to deregulate nuclear wastes since they will no longer require regulation, labeling or control as radioactive material during transportation. (This is especially distressing in light of increased security concerns about transport of nuclear materials that could be used for dirty bombs. More unregulated nuclear materials will be on the roads, rails, barges and aircraft.) NIRS is challenging DOT & NRC on this. 7) Finally, the Department of Energy is doing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on releasing nuclear materials from its sites. In 2000, DOE halted the commercial recycling of potentially radioactive metals from radioactive areas, but wants to resume it. DOE does allow radioactive metal out for unregulated disposal and sends radioactive soils, concrete, asphalt, plastic, wood, equipment, buildings, sites and more- out for recycling or unregulated disposal. EPA is helping make the DOE practices legal. For more information contact: Diane D'Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), 1424 16th Street NW #404, Wash, DC 20036, dianed@nirs.org, 202 328-0002 x 16. See NIRS website under Campaigns at www.nirs.org for more info and actions. Diane D'Arrigo Nuclear Informatino and Resource Service 1424 16th St NW suite 404 Washington, DC 20036 202 328 0002 ext 16 dianed@nirs.org http://www.nirs.org _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 28 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca contractor may get $85 million in bonuses Wednesday, May 05, 2004 Rewards for meeting deadlines, performance incentives add up on nuclear waste repository By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Yucca Mountain Project's primary contractor could earn as much as $85 million in government bonuses for meeting deadlines and performance incentives over the next two years, according to contracts. Aiming to file a nuclear waste repository application by year's end, the Department of Energy has negotiated rewards for Bechtel SAIC Co. LLC to keep the program on schedule, and for work quality. The operations and management contractor could earn $11 million for meeting a July 26 deadline to complete a draft license application, and $15.3 million to have final license documents ready by Nov. 30. Bechtel SAIC, which employs 1,500 in Southern Nevada, could earn the largest bonus, $22.1 million, if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepts the license application for formal review. A contract also stipulates $21.3 million in awards for "world-class quality" program management. There also are awards of $6.8 million for developing repository engineering and construction specifications by April 15, 2005; $1.7 million for developing construction designs by Sept. 30, 2005; and $6.8 million upon satisfying Nuclear Regulatory Commission requests for project information. Potential bonuses for Bechtel SAIC first were reported this week by The Energy Daily, a trade publication. The publication said it obtained contract documents through a Freedom of Information request. Portions of the documents also were obtained by the Review-Journal. The Energy Daily reported the Yucca contract incentives appeared to be in line with common practice among federal agencies. A Bechtel SAIC spokesman said any comment would come from the Energy Department. A DOE spokesman referred questions about the contract to the department's Office of Repository Development in Las Vegas, where an official could not be reached. The documents suggest Bechtel SAIC got a fee of $33 million after completion of the site recommendation that formalized Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste storage in 2001. The documents indicate the company could earn a maximum $133.2 million in various award fees and performance incentives between April 1, 2001, and March 31, 2006. It could not be determined Tuesday how much the company already has earned in incentives on top of a $1.7 billion license preparation contract. The contract states the performance fees are subject to the amounts of money appropriated to the project each year. Congress generally has approved less than the Energy Department has requested. The contract disclosure prompted new criticism of the Yucca Mountain Project from Nevada state officials. The potential bonuses "say volumes about why they are rigid about the schedule," said Bob Loux, executive director of the state Agency for Nuclear Projects. Noting recent audits detailing shortcomings in license preparations, "it's clear they are much more interested in driving a schedule than they are about the quality of the work," Loux said. "It's outrageous the Department of Energy has come to Congress asking for $880 million this year, and they are using some of that money to give Bechtel a $50 million bonus to keep Yucca Mountain on track to reach some arbitrary dates," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. A portion of the bonus would be decreased up to 3 percent per day if an NRC decision to docket the application is delayed longer than 91 days "because of contractor deficiencies." Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 29 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca contractor has incentives By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department has $85 million in incentives waiting for its Yucca Mountain project contractor to meet upcoming deadlines for the license application and other work on the project, according to its contract. Seven different multi-million dollar "performance based incentives" aim to keep Bechtel SAIC Co. on track to get the department's license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December and keep the process moving until 2006. The company has had a $1.8 billion contract with the department since November 2000 to operate and manage work at the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The contract runs through March 2006. Bechtel will earn $22 million if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission accepts the department's license application by March 2005. The contract says this deadline is important so the commission can begin its review, complete it within three years, "and for NRC to issue the Construction Authorization at the end of the 3 year NRC review period." Prior to that, it would also earn $11 million for completing a draft license application by July 26 and $15 million for a submitting a final draft of the application by Nov. 30. Each bonus decreases by certain percentages for every workday missed after the deadline. Allen Benson, Yucca Mountain project spokesman, said the bonus agreement was signed about a year ago and bonuses are not uncommon in department contracts. ***************************************************************** 30 Las Vegas SUN: Yucca splits race, parties Sen. Kerry says Bush lied to state By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- The party lines being drawn for the presidential race in Nevada have a landmark -- Yucca Mountain. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and his supporters say those two words should provide a key reason for Nevadans to vote against George W. Bush. Kerry on Tuesday pointed to the anniversary of then-candidate Bush telling Nevada he would not allow nuclear waste to be stored in Nevada "unless it's been deemed scientifically safe." Two years after winning Nevada in the election, Bush approved storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Bush said at that time that he was satisfied that it would be safe. In Nevada's numerous lawsuits to try to stop the project, the state argues that the science upon which that conclusion is based is flawed. Democrats have said this would be an issue in the state, and say Nevadans voted for Bush because of that promise, helping him win the presidency. Republicans have downplayed the importance of Bush's statement. In a statement, Kerry said "President Bush caved to special interests, broke his promise to Nevada and proceeded to do his utmost to turn the state into a nuclear waste dump." "For 16 years, I have helped Nevada fight the repository, and when I'm president, you'll have the White House working for your top priority, instead of selling you out to the special interests," Kerry said. Bush campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the president "has been clear and consistent that the decision regarding Yucca Mountain should be based on the very best science." "Sen. Kerry continues to play politics with Yucca Mountain in an effort to distract Nevadans from his own troubling record," Schmitt said. Democrats believe his answer will help define this year's debate in Nevada. "At the time I stated it wasn't worth the piece of paper it was written on and that once elected he would go ahead with it," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said. "I was, unfortunately, psychic, that's exactly what happened." The debate has many state Republicans trying to walk a fine line of supporting the president while opposing the repository. Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican who supports the president's return to the White House, "agrees to disagree" with the president on the Yucca Mountain issue, spokesman Greg Bortolin said. "It's an old argument," Bortolin said. "I think they both respect that this will be decided in the court." The state is still awaiting the outcome of six legal challenges in federal court against several aspects of the project. Bortolin said the Guinn and the president "are on the same page on almost everything else," and the governor has "excellent relationships" with key administration officials. Yucca Mountain "is one issue. One issue doesn't dictate the governor's support," Bortolin said. Guinn, Porter and other prominent Republicans, including Attorney General Brian Sandoval Rep. Jon Porter and Rep. Jim Gibbons, support Bush but came out against the Nevada Republican Party's decision to include in its platform an effort negotiate "to minimize negative impacts from federal control and exploitation of federally managed lands in Nevada." The platform plank originated among representatives from rural Nevada who want to maximize benefits for the state if the department moves ahead with the project. "There really is nothing to negotiate," Bortolin said. "There is a misconception and lack of understanding by those who say this." The Nuclear Energy Institute, which strongly supports the site, insists the science is sound, the site is suitable and says Bush made the right decision on it. "We don't think it's a partisan issue," said Terry Freese, director of NEI's legislative program. "The industry welcomes any expressions of support for that approach whether by local officials from either party or party platforms from either party." ***************************************************************** 31 Pahrump Valley Times: DOE delays waste delivery to Test Site May 5, 2004 By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - The Department of Energy said Friday it will put off plans to begin transporting radioactive waste from Ohio to Nevada while it studies whether the material can be legally buried at the Nevada Test Site. The department had planned next month for the first of roughly 3,700 truck shipments containing a special type of potent radioactive waste stored in silos at a former uranium processing plant 18 miles north of Cincinnati. But DOE deputy general counsel Marc Johnston told Attorney General Brian Sandoval in a letter Friday no waste will travel from the Fernald complex before Nevada is given 45 days advance notice. Johnston could not say how long it may take the Energy Department to sort out legal issues that Nevada officials raised earlier in the month in trying to block the shipments. A DOE spokesman in Washington confirmed the letter but had no further comment. A department spokesman at the Fernald facility was not available Friday. The department's action appeared to defuse at least temporarily a new fight between the federal government and the state of Nevada over nuclear waste. The state already is battling the Energy Department over plans to open a high level waste repository at Yucca Mountain. As a result of the DOE pledge, Joe Egan, a Virginia attorney hired by Nevada to handle nuclear waste matters, said the state will put off a federal lawsuit it planned to file next week to block the Fernald shipments. "We think they blinked," Egan said of the Energy Department. "It could be 10 years before we get that 45 days notice." The Energy Department also notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the delay in its waste disposal plans. The state had filed an emergency petition asking the NRC to step in and take control of the waste. Later Friday, Sandoval warned the Energy Department in a return letter not to remove the waste from silos "or do anything else that might create some health and safety situation in Ohio." Explaining the letter, state attorneys said they feared DOE might purposely create an emergency to justify speedy disposal of the waste to Nevada. Rep, Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the Energy Department now might seek legislation from Congress to clear a path from Fernald to Nevada for the waste shipments. "We dodged a temporary bullet," Berkley said. "The real question is whether or not they have the legal authority to ship this stuff and dump it at the test site." Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., maintained the proposed shipments from Ohio "are simply unlawful. It is my hope that DOE will formally abandon any plan to transport the waste to NTS." Sandoval had argued the Fernald waste was misclassified for burial at the Test Site, and could not be buried in Nevada under federal law and the Energy Department's waste disposal regulations. Cleanup workers at Fernald were scheduled in May to begin shipping up to 7,000 containers of radioactive waste material and slurry that is stored in three silos. Two of the 20-foot-tall concrete silos hold 240,030 cubic feet of potent waste materials tainted with by-products of high-grade uranium. The third silo, from where initial shipments were to be made, contain 137,700 cubic feet of low-level thorium waste. The Energy Department and its cleanup contractor, Fluor Fernald, began planning to dispose of the material at the Nevada Test Site after Envirocare of Utah, a commercial radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County, withdrew an offer to accept the waste. Fluor Fernald has been overseeing the cleanup of the 1,050-acre complex in southwestern Ohio where the government once processed uranium for use in nuclear weapons production. The $4 billion decontamination is expected to be completed by 2006. The government has routinely buried low level waste -- research and medical materials contaminated with short-lived radioactive isotopes - in two specified areas of the Test Site. But state officials said the waste from Fernald was more potent and long-lived, and would pose more of a threat to the environment. Jeff Wagner, a spokesman for Fluor Fernald, said he was not aware of the Energy Department letter and could not say what any schedule changes might mean for Fernald cleanup. "While this issue has been taking place with the state of Nevada and DOE headquarters, we've continued to move forward with what we have to do at the site," Wagner said. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 32 Guardian Unlimited: BNFL's nuclear fission targets clean-up market David Gow Wednesday May 5, 2004 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] British Nuclear Fuels yesterday accelerated its break-up and paved the way for an eventual partial privatisation by setting up a stand-alone company to exploit the annual 3bn nuclear clean-up market. State-owned BNFL said British Nuclear Group would compete with big US contractors such as Bechtel and Fluor for contracts to clean up nuclear sites in Europe and the US - including its own, such as Sellafield. The new operation, with an annual turnover of about 2bn and initially employing 15,000 people, is due to come into being on April 1 next year, to coincide with the start of the government's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The NDA, being established under the energy bill, will be responsible for 50bn of civil, public-sector nuclear liabilities in the UK alone, a clean-up operation likely to last a century or more. Lawrie Haynes, BNG's chief executive, who previously ran the Highways Agency and worked for BAE Systems, has promised to "challenge every assumption about our business and fundamentally change people's perceptions of the entire business". The new business is expected to generate operating earnings of 100m-200m a year and will be one of four stand-alone operations under the BNFL holding company - which itself is due to change its name next year. The businesses, apart from BNG, are Westinghouse, the nuclear reactor designer and builder, NSTS, a specialist science and technology operation, and - still to be set up - SFS, the spent fuel operator which will run the Thorp and Sellafield reprocessing units. The government has ruled out a public-private partnership structure for the whole of BNFL, but Westinghouse has already been seen as an early candidate for a trade sale, and BNG similarly could be offloaded. The new business, according to Mr Haynes, will be "ambitious, results-driven, lean and dominant" and "out-behave" its competitors by exceeding the NDA's strategic objectives. But BNG, which is cleaning up parts of the Chernobyl complex in Ukraine, will inherit cost overruns on two US clean-up contracts and, initially, the entire and deeply controversial Sellafield operation. It will also run the ageing Magnox nuclear power plants, which are under an accelerated closure programme, before cleaning them up. Special report The nuclear industry Graphics The Mox ships' journey around the world (pdf) [http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/09 /17/nuclear_ship.pdf] Nuclear map of Britain US nuclear map Useful links British Energy [http://www.british-energy.com/] Department of Trade and Industry [http://www.dti.gov.uk/] British Nuclear Fuels Ltd [http://www.bnfl.co.uk/website.nsf/default.htm] Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament [http://www.cnduk.org/] Greenpeace [http://www.greenpeace.org/homepage/] HSE nuclear glossary [http://www.hse.gov.uk/nsd/ilrwglos.htm] UK atomic energy authority [http://www.ukaea.org.uk/] National Radiological Protection Board [http://www.nrpb.org.uk/] Friends of the Earth [http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/dump_nuc lear/index.html] World Nuclear Association [http://www.uilondon.org/] World Nuclear Transport Institute [http://www.wnti.co.uk] [UP] Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 33 Nevada Appeal: Blowing the whistle on Yucca flaws - Paul P. Craig www.nevadaappeal.com Wednesday, May 05, 2004 Don't ask questions when you don't know the answers: That's the rule of thumb for trial lawyers who don't want courtroom surprises. The Bush administration has a different rule of thumb when it comes to the science of storing nuclear waste: Ask as few questions as possible and ignore answers you don't like. Until last January, I served as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, exploring the safety of a proposed national, high-level, nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Congress created the nonpartisan, 11-member board to provide technical advice about Yucca Mountain to the secretary of energy. Its members all scientists and engineers with expertise relevant to Yucca Mountain were appointed by the president from a list submitted by the National Academy of Science. The board concluded that the present design for Yucca Mountain is deficient, and unless it is changed, the nation's high-level waste repository is likely to leak. Our conclusion has been ignored. For the Bush administration, the development of Yucca Mountain for nuclear storage was a foregone conclusion. The Department of Energy is spending over a half-billion dollars on Yucca this year, almost all of it for getting a license application in to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2004. The administration wants to begin construction as soon as possible and is committed to burying waste by 2010. The big reason for the rush is that the nuclear industry is desperate for the government to take nuclear waste off its hands. The industry sees the waste problem as standing in the way of relicensing old reactors and building new ones. It's pushing the Bush administration hard, and the administration seems all too anxious to respond. The result is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. Protecting the public should come first. Unfortunately, designing the Yucca Mountain repository turned out to be far more complex than had been anticipated. There's been one surprise after another. Yucca Mountain was selected as the site because it is located in the desert, and it was thought the arid climate would keep the waste dry. It turns out the mountain is wet. It was thought that the water wouldn't move the waste underground very quickly. Wrong again. Water moves through the mountain so fast that in order to meet the regulatory requirements for isolation from the biosphere, the Department of Energy had to add better-engineered waste containment canisters to the design. It now turns out that those canisters are likely to corrode. Every member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board I served on reached that conclusion, and it was the essence of our report delivered to the Congress and the secretary of energy last November. The report was ignored. I hope my resignation from a review board shouting in the darkness will bring attention to what's going on at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Here's my advice: Slow down. The nuclear waste is going to have to sit for thousands of years. We might as well take the time to make sure we bury it safely. I also think President Bush should instruct the Department of Energy to build up science programs instead of shutting them down. If the science shows that the project can be accomplished, then by all means apply for a permit. It is true that the science might once again bring up new problems. There's no way to know in advance that's the nature of science. But for now, there's no technical reason to rush. The urgency is entirely political. A sound repository is probably achievable, if time is taken to get the science and engineering right. Meanwhile, nuclear waste can be safely stored for many decades on site in dry casks, giving us time to find a reliable, long-term solution. Rushing ahead with a flawed design is a mistake. Unfortunately, it's a mistake the Department of Energy is rushing to make. Paul P. Craig is professor of engineering emeritus at the University of California at Davis and was a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review from 1996 until January 2004 ***************************************************************** 34 AU ABC: Nuclear dump claims absurd - McGuaran. 05/05/2004. ABC News Online "Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online"> [http://www.abc.net.au/] Update: Wednesday, May 5, 2004. 6:40pm (AEST) The Federal Science Minister rejects South Australian Government claims that the Commonwealth has left the door open for the establishment of a medium- or high-level radioactive waste dump in the state. State Environment Minister John Hill says he has obtained hundreds of documents under a Freedom of Information application, which show the Federal Government may still be considering allowing a high-level radioactive dump in South Australia. But Senator Peter McGauran says the documents relate to old opinion polling on the dump issue. "The South Australian Government is clutching at straws," he said. "This is an old poll totally unrelated to Government policy and has been published by myself a year ago. "The idea that there's some conspiracy or hidden agenda or secret plan is as absurd as the State Government's opposition to the repository, which is the only responsible way to store their own waste." 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ***************************************************************** 35 News & Star: BNFL ADMITS NUCLEAR POWER STATION NEAR-MISS Published on 05/05/2004 Vulnerable: The Chapelcross nuclear plant near Annan, as seen from Rockcliffe Marsh By Stephen Meredith SELLAFIELDS owner British Nuclear Fuels has admitted that a Hercules military aircraft came within a few hundred feet of its vulnerable power plant near Annan and not at the West Cumbrian site as previously thought. In December, the large RAF transport plane breached the no-fly zone around the aging Chapelcross nuclear power station just 15 miles north of Carlisle but the incident has only just been confirmed. An investigation is still being carried out. In March, the Sunday Express claimed a world exclusive for its report under the headline: A second from nuclear disaster. It claimed a jet came within 100ft of crashing into a cooling tower at Calder Hall, Sellafields defunct nuclear power station. But now the revelation about the Chapelcross incident seems to have cleared up the mystery which surrounded the Sunday Express report, which was categorically denied by BNFL and the Government. It appears the report simply confused the location of the incident, mistaking Chapelcross for Calder Hall. A BNFL spokesman confirmed that an incident had taken place at Chapelcross. Following the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, the Government doubled the restricted air space around nuclear installations to a radius of 2.3 miles. Since then, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has investigated 32 complaints that restricted areas have been infringed. They insist there was never any danger of a crash. But Welsh Labour MP Llew Smith, who has been researching nuclear near misses, said: The consequences should a crash occur, would be an unimaginable catastrophe. The MoD also disclosed that the no-fly zones over three other nuclear plants in the UK had been breached five times in the past three years. 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 ***************************************************************** 36 Yucca Mountain Update: Volume 2 Issue 5 ~ May 3, 2004 [Yucca Mountain Update -- A Publication of the State of Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects] Volume 2 Issue 5 ~ May 3, 2004 http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste IN THIS ISSUE... - Railroaded by the DOE, by Geoff Schumacher, editor, Las Vegas Mercury - Additional information on rail shipments to Yucca Mountain - Outrage of the Week Railroaded by the DOE by Geoff Schumacher, editor, Las Vegas Mercury Copyright Las Vegas Mercury April 15, 2004 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced earlier this month that it intends to use trains rather than trucks to transport most of the nation's high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The federal agency's reasoning is that trains are safer than trucks. This may be true, considering that trains don't encounter nearly as many variables as trucks negotiating America's perilous highways. But it would be a stretch to suggest that trains eliminate the possibility of accident or disaster. Anybody who keeps a casual eye on the news knows that trains sometimes derail and crash, sometimes run into each other and sometimes are terrorist targets. The DOE also has released the preferred route of its planned rail line between Caliente, site of an existing rail hub in Lincoln County, and Yucca Mountain. Like so much of the DOE's activity concerning Yucca Mountain, this scheme is completely lacking in common sense. The route, starting in Caliente, heads west, then veers north, then west again, then south, skirting the Nevada Test Site and Nellis Range, not to mention Area 51. This circuitous route measures about 320 miles--three-quarters of the mileage between Las Vegas and Reno--with cost estimates starting at $880 million. As the crow flies between Caliente and Yucca Mountain--directly across the high-security federal installations--the distance is half that. T[Click on image for larger version. (Graphic courtesy Las Vegas Review-Journal)] he DOE's primary motivation for the meandering rail route is to appease Las Vegas. For years, the strongest opposition to Yucca Mountain has come from Las Vegas, which fears the dump would put its economy and the safety of residents and tourists at tremendous risk. Particularly alarming has been the prospect of trucks laden with deadly radioactive waste coursing through the city. The horrors of a nuclear waste shipment being involved in an accident in, say, the Spaghetti Bowl are not difficult for Las Vegans to imagine. The government thinks that by keeping the waste out of the Las Vegas area--thus, the railroad option--it will reduce opposition to the dump. But Las Vegans know this issue too well to be swayed by this relatively minor maneuver. "If the DOE thinks the Nevada [congressional] delegation's commitment to halting the Yucca Mountain project will somehow lessen because they have bypassed more heavily populated areas in favor of Caliente, the department is completely mistaken," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. Most of the rail route is on federal land, which means the government wouldn't have to buy up many private parcels. But it's more complicated than that. Much of the 300,000 acres of public land the DOE covets is used by ranchers for grazing cattle. The ranchers have been leasing this land for decades, putting up fences and digging wells at their own expense. Cutting a wide swath through this rangeland for a rail line could put some of them out of business. Longtime rancher Joe Fellini told the Las Vegas Sun last week: "It takes years and years to build these ranches, and with one stroke of a bureaucrat's pen, they're gone. Hell, we've been here 130 years." Some folks in Lincoln County support the nuclear waste dump--as well as this new railroad project--in the belief that it could boost their economically stagnant region. The railroad's construction certainly would bring some good jobs to the area, but once it's finished in a couple of years, the work disappears. Its unlikely Yucca Mountain would create more than a handful of permanent jobs in Lincoln County, and that meager benefit could be offset by losses in the ranching industry. The DOE has received support from Congress and President Bush to proceed with Yucca Mountain, and the agency is acting as if it's a done deal. But it's premature to consider Yucca Mountain a foregone conclusion. The state's lawsuits against the DOE are still pending, with possible court rulings this summer. Plus, the state is now considering other lawsuits it might file. Meanwhile, the DOE has yet to apply for a license to operate the dump. The process of obtaining a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is likely to start toward the end of this year and take at least two years. The licensing process is based primarily on science, not politics, which puts the DOE at a disadvantage. The Yucca Mountain project's momentum also could be slowed significantly, if not halted altogether, by November's presidential election. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic Party nominee, voted against Yucca Mountain in 2002, and he has gone out of his way in recent months to draw a sharp distinction between his and President Bush's stance on the issue. If Kerry wins the election, the project's future is far less certain. Nevadans undoubtedly have Yucca Mountain fatigue. It's been a long, drawn-out fight, with ample reasons to lose hope that it can be won. But they must not give up now. The federal government wants Nevada, which does not even have a nuclear power plant within its borders, to bear the entire nation's nuclear waste burden. This is wrong and unfair, not to mention unsafe. For Nevada, Yucca Mountain is, first and foremost, an idealistic fight. It's not about a handful of jobs in depressed rural counties. It's not about which transportation option is safer, because they are all inherently unsafe. It's not even really about whether the government can invent a metal canister capable of containing the waste for 400 years or 4,000 years. Yucca Mountain represents a galling abuse of political power, a venal manipulation of the democratic process by the nuclear power industry and its puppets in Washington. Nevada is right and the federal government is wrong. The government's plan to sacrifice Nevada so that other states can be rid of the waste they created must not be allowed to stand. (Used with permission of Las Vegas Mercury. For more information visit http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2004/MERC-Apr-15-Thu-2004/23648819 .html) Additional information on rail shipments to Yucca Mountain (1) A Caliente rail spur does not prevent waste from being shipped through Las Vegas Studies done for the State of Nevada on rail routing suggest that the railroads could find it expedient to route spent fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) shipments along southern cross-country rail corridors, meaning that shipments would come west on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to Barstow, Calif., and then back up the Union Pacific line through Las Vegas to Caliente. That's because (1) according to DOEs pronouncements, it will be the railroads that will ultimately select the rail routes for SNF and HLW shipments and (2) bad weather and heavy traffic congestion along northern cross-country rail corridors would very likely make the southern routing option attractive, at least for a significant portion of each year. Under this scenario, Las Vegas could see over 80 percent of waste that is destined for Yucca Mountain, even if a Caliente rail spur is built. Even if the railroads do not employ a southern routing strategy, hundreds of shipments of spent fuel from all of the California, Arizona and Texas reactors (and possibly from reactors in Washington and Oregon) would reach a Caliente rail spur via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line, connecting with the Union Pacific line in Barstow and on to Caliente through Las Vegas. Theses findings are contained in a study done for the State of Nevada by Planning Information Corporation (PIC) of Denver, titled, The Transportation of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Waste: A Systematic Basis for Planning and Management at National, Regional, and Community Levels. In that report, PIC examined recent rail industry mergers and acquisitions, traffic levels, and weather considerations along the northern cross-country rail corridor. PIC concluded that the railroads might very well seek to avoid nuclear waste shipments along the high-traffic-density mainlines, especially through Nebraska. Under these circumstances, the report found that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line from Kansas City to San Bernadino County, Calif., would become the primary east-west rail corridor, meaning that most waste would still pass through Las Vegas to reach a Caliente rail spur or intermodal facility. (2) DOEs estimates of the numbers of rail shipments are substantially understated DOE has been asserting that only 175 rail shipments per year would be needed to move waste from reactors around the country to Yucca Mountain. DOE's mostly rail scenario in the Environmental Impact Statement for Yucca Mountain indicates that it would take between 10,725 shipments over 24 years (447 per year) and 22,057 shipments over 38 years (580 per year) to move spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste from generator locations to the proposed repository. The estimate of 175 shipments per year was invented by DOE in an attempt to minimize public concerns about the actual number of shipments. It assumes that all waste would be transported by rail using large rail shipping casks, with at least three casks per train. It ignores the fact that almost 2,500 barge and/or heavy haul truck shipments would be needed to get waste from reactor sites to the nearest railheads. It also ignores the thousands of heavy haul truck shipments that would be required to move the large overweight casks from the railhead in Nevada. DOEs recently announced alternative of shipping legal weight truck casks by rail to a Caliente intermodal transfer facility would dramatically increase the number of shipments required to as many as 108,000 over 38 years. Even if DOE is able to ship five casks per train, there would still be 21,600 cross-country rail shipments required and another 21,600 truck shipments within Nevada. These numbers do not count the thousands of shipments needed to move waste from reactors to rail yards at the point of origin in order to put together trains for the cross-country trip. Outrage of the Week DOEs True Colors Shine Through in Dispute with New Mexico For those officials and citizens who think Nevada can negotiate with the DOE over Yucca Mountain and conclude agreements for benefits or anything else that are worth more than the paper theyre printed on, listen up. The State of New Mexico, which long ago rolled over and went along with a DOE repository for lower level transuranic waste, found out again this week just how much DOEs promises are worth. In a dispute with the States Environment Department over the permissibility of disposing highly radioactive sludge from DOEs Hanford, Washington facility at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, DOE has abruptly cut off funding for the states technical oversight agency. In response, the New Mexico Environment Evaluation Group (EEG) has had to issue lay off notices to its staff and announce that the agency will close its doors effective April 30th. Never mind that the creation of EEG and DOEs commitment to fund it were cornerstones of New Mexicos decision not to oppose the WIPP program in the late 1970s and early 1980s. True to form, DOE resorted to retaliation and extortion when the state had the audacity to demand that DOE adhere to the law and state and federal environmental regulations in determining what waste can be disposed of at WIPP. New Mexico and the federal government have, over the years, worked out very specific and supportable criteria and regulations governing transuranic waste at WIPP. But DOE, seeking to shortcut the process for dealing with troublesome waste at Hanford, decided unilaterally that it could simply define away the problem. Just call the Hanford waste transuranic and ship it off to New Mexico. When the states regulatory agency balked and pointed out that DOE would be in violation of federal laws as well as state regulations, not to mention DOEs own waste acceptance criteria for WIPP, DOE retaliated by cutting off funds to the states WIPP oversight entity. DOE would undoubtedly have preferred to cut off money to New Mexicos regulatory agency, but since DOE wasnt providing money to the Environment Department, it went after the nearest target of opportunity, the EEG, which is the state agency that deals with oversight of DOEs technical program and activities at WIPP. This isnt the first time New Mexico has been subjected to this type of blackmail. In January, 2000, DOE unilaterally withheld the annual $20 million payment of highway funds that Congress had directed DOE provide to the state as part of the negotiated benefits package contained in the land withdrawal legislation for WIPP. DOE took the action in retaliation for New Mexico seeking to enforce a requirement that DOE post a surety bond for the WIPP facility. DOEs action cost the state over $7 million in bond payments that came due and could not be paid using the WIPP highway funds. Nevadans have no reason to think that DOE will act any differently with this state than it has with New Mexico. Weve already had a taste of DOEs disregard for the state and its citizens when imperatives of cost and schedule come into conflict with health and safety considerations in the recent revelations about the intentional exposures of Yucca Mountain tunnel workers to dust containing deadly silica and other hazardous minerals. If DOE cannot live up to even the most fundamental agreements involving established and well-recognized environmental and health and safety regulations, how can anyone, with the possible exception of self-delusional nuclear industry lobbyists, expect the Department to honor agreements dealing with benefits and other commitments? Nevada should not have to re-learn the lessons that New Mexico and other states have had to learn the hard way. We welcome comments and story ideas for this newsletter. For media information, please contact Tom Bradley, Brown & Partners, at (702) 876-5611 or via e-mail at tbradley@brown-partners.com. For a text-only version of this newsletter, please contact tbradley@brown-partners.com To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this newsletter, please e-mail nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us. Do not reply to this e-mail. ***************************************************************** 37 Pahrump Valley Times: RAIL OR ROAD? Amargosans pro Yucca Mountain May 5, 2004 By MARK WAITE PVT Local residents and officials with the U.S. Department of Energy chat in front of a large pro-Yucca Mountain display during an open house on the Caliente rail corridor proposal at the Longstreet Inn and Casino Monday. AMARGOSA VALLEY - Consultants outlined better alternatives than a rail corridor to Yucca Mountain from Caliente, but many local residents who showed up for a U.S. Department of Energy open house Monday expressed hope a rail line would just bring jobs to the area. Staff at the Longstreet Inn and Casino set up chairs in the meeting room for the occasion, but the Energy Department elected to go with an open house format, in which attendees could give their remarks individually to two stenographers seated against a far wall, view the different pro-Yucca Mountain exhibits and ask questions from DOE representatives. Glenn Kennedy, plant manager for IMV Nevada, a company mining for suspension clays, drilling mud, wallboard compounds and kitty litter near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, said if the DOE allows the railroad for purposes other than shipping nuclear waste his company could compete with his competitor's freight costs back east. "If we were able to ship products to the East Coast or the Mississippi we'd have a freight advantage on them," Kennedy said. While the open house concerned the rail line specifically, many local residents addressed the entire Yucca Mountain Project. "My viewpoint is if the government spent billions out there it's eventually going to happen," Kennedy said. "If we can get some government assistance, I think everybody in Amargosa is for it." "We've been hearing about this for 25 years. We knew it was a done deal to start with," said Jerry Happeny from Amargosa Valley. Local resident Lee Renegar admitted his bias right off the bat, saying he was a construction manager at Yucca Mountain back in 1993-94. "My opinion is, at this point in time, I'm not afraid of Yucca Mountain per se. It's a done deal, get as much as you can," Renegar said. He predicted it would bring jobs to Amargosa Valley. "Those guys aren't going to want to drive back and forth to Las Vegas every day. I did it for two years." "Yucca Mountain's going to happen. There's no ands, ifs or buts about it," Edgar McDowell said. "What about us living out here? Give us the wealth, give us some jobs." When Kennedy voiced community support for the project, however, he might have overlooked local resident Debbie McCracken, who farms pistachios with her husband Ralph within sight of Yucca Mountain. The McCrackens have been vocal opponents of Yucca Mountain and once were shown on nationwide TV. Debbie McCracken mocked a large display that carried the words: "all nuclear materials destined for Yucca Mountain would be in a solid form that would not burn, explode or leak." "So why are we here?" McCracken asked. "It's an insult to Nye County residents' intelligence." Larry Gruenwald traveled from Pahrump to attend the open house. He said the problem isn't the rail line, but people's lives being sacrificed for nuclear waste, like the so-called downwinders in Utah, who suffered health effects from aboveground nuclear testing during the Cold War. "I don't think we're having a problem with prevailing winds but what happens when it gets into our water supply?" Gruenwald asked. "If the canisters are so safe why don't we bury them where we create this nonsense, not have such a concentrated area?" Bob Halstead, a transportation advisor for the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, listed a few reasons why a Caliente rail route could be derailed. Halstead said there could be numerous environmental or cultural impacts uncovered along the 319-mile route; the DOE admits only one percent of it has been surveyed. He said the Caliente route has the least possible economic benefits and the DOE should consider routes like a rail corridor to Ludlow, Calif., on the old Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. "How many show stoppers are out there? I would guess there's quite a few," Halstead said. Besides endangered species and Indian cultural artifacts, ranchers and miners would be affected, he said. When it comes to ranch holdings on the route, Halstead predicted, "They're going to have to buy that operation." The Caliente route is economically beneficial only to the City of Caliente, he said. Caliente Mayor Kevin Phillips has been a strong supporter of the proposed route. "What you want is a rail line that gives you a plant location," Halstead said. He added the Caliente rail route would still require a lot of trainloads of nuclear material to pass through Las Vegas, particularly if the Burlington-Northern Railroad will be transporting it. Jeff Taguchi, a former Nye County Commissioner who said he's now doing consulting work, pushed the idea of extending a rail line southward from Hawthorne to Yucca Mountain, a distance of about 230 miles, then continuing it south to connect with rail lines along the Interstate 15 corridor instead of a one-way, dead end rail line. There is already an existing rail bed from the old Tonopah and Tidewater railway that could be used from the Hawthorne Army Depot, he said. Taguchi said the Caliente route would have to traverse three mountain ranges. He predicted doom for local tourism if nuclear waste has to be shipped by truck down U.S. Highway 95 until the Caliente rail route is completed. Ed Goedhart, manager of the Ponderosa Dairy, said the DOE should've selected the Caliente-Chalk Mountain Corridor, which would've cut through the Nellis Air Force Range saving 100 miles. "Isn't the shortest distance between two points a straight line?" Goedhart asked. "If they're worried about our safety why don't they put it straight through?" The Department of the Air Force blocked the straight route. Goedhart said D and H Mining Company in Beatty, for one, has mining claims on both sides of the proposed rail route paralleling Highway 95. He said the two-lane road from Beatty to Amargosa Valley is dangerous enough as it is. "Why not make a compromise on the federal government's part and give up part of their quote, unquote, training range?" Goedhart asked. "It shows they're not willing to compromise at all." Goedhart asked when the DOE would gather local input on mixed use of the rail line. "I for one could benefit from a rail spur in Amargosa Valley but I don't hold out much hope they're going to have mixed use." Robin Sweeney, Nevada transportation project manager for the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, responded, "That's actually one of the things we're asking for input on is dual use." The Energy Department needs a corridor 200 feet wide, in many areas less than 60 feet, Sweeney said. "Where we should build that in this corridor is exactly what we need (from the public)," she said. Sweeney said that Nevada and other states didn't want the DOE to build a rail line in the Las Vegas area. He added the Energy Department received feedback saying more people were comfortable with the open house format. Halstead, however, said members of the public could've learned more information from other audience members in a formal public hearing. DOE spokesman Allen Benson said the rail corridor would be subject to an environmental impact statement, in which the public will have other opportunities to comment. While Caliente has been identified as the preferred route in the Federal Register, Abby Johnson, a nuclear advisor to Eureka County, said the secondary choice, the Carlin corridor from Interstate 80, hasn't been entirely ruled out until a record of decision on the final EIS is issued. She said the DOE would've had more political problems dealing with other Nevada counties on the Carlin corridor, than just two counties - Lincoln and Nye counties - on the Caliente corridor. "It's certainly easier to work with a county in an area that is actively seeking the project," Johnson said. A DOE representative said 62 people signed in during the four-hour open house. None of the Nye County Commissioners, who attended a commission meeting in Tonopah Tuesday, were in attendance. For comment or questions, please e-mail webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com [webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright Pahrump Valley Times, 1997 - 2003 ***************************************************************** 38 Asia Times: Part 2: Preemption and an arms race with itself [http://www.atimes.com By Ritt Goldstein (Part 1: US neo-cons and war) A nuclear and conventional arms race is being waged by the administration of US President George W Bush. Yet the Pentagon acknowledges that the "typical arms race dynamic in which the adversary seeks to match or emulate our capabilities is not now plausible", US conventional power being unassailable. But hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spending are in question, with many observers seeing a preemptive nuclear war potentially in the offing. In a February 23 report for the US Congress, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) highlighted that the administration believes that America must be prepared to strike preemptively at any threat it perceives as warranting such. The report also warns that some analysts conclude the administration presently "foresees the possible preemptive use of nuclear weapons against nations or groups that are not necessarily armed with their own". The ongoing weapons effort undertakes to "push the envelope in nuclear design", ensuring that US weapons designers "are at the leading edge of understanding what might be possible in nuclear weapons", according to the Department of Defense (DoD). Asia Times Online came across an outline of America's military future in a February 2004 report by the Defense Science Board, an influential DoD panel established to advise the secretary of defense, now Donald Rumsfeld. The report is entitled "Future Strategic Strike Forces" (FSSF), and while reportedly not yet available for public release, a logical reason for that could lie in suppressing the fallacies on which much of the document appears built. An example of such reasoning was presented in "analyzing" the US military's shortcomings in Iraq. While it is now widely accepted that Iraq never possessed any weapons of mass destruction (WMD), FSSF urges a US$3 billion intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system be funded because "we have not found the WMD we know are there, even with teams on the ground". While such logic amply serves to deflect the true reality of circumstances, the willingness to significantly act on such misconception provides alarming potential. The report's authors perceive that: "For targets posing a time-urgent concern, low-yield, low-fission nuclear weapons may be the only choice." Critics speculate that a "nuke them now and apologize later" policy may be evolving. Notably, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith has repeatedly offered pronouncements aimed at combating the public's perception of an unwarranted and dangerous administration move towards nuclear conflict. Feith has emphasized that the administration's efforts were making "the use of nuclear weapons less likely", and that the nuclear threshold will remain high. Though, it was Feith who had previously been in authority over the Pentagon's now discredited Office of Special Plans, blamed by critics for blatant propagandizing. John Pike of Global Security, a leading US security and defense expert, told Asia Times Online that everyone in Washington understands that the nuclear threshold is being lowered, but the question is "whether you think that's the good news or the bad news". Pike added that nuclear hawks are "basically attempting to renuclearize the military", after the first president Bush, and then president Bill Clinton, made substantive strides away from nuclear deployments. Regarding Feith's assurances, Pike said: "He's saying that for people who want to hear that ... some people are easily bewildered." But worse still is what many analysts see as the developing reality. CRS pointedly has noted that with America's conventional military might, it would be "difficult" to envision circumstances in which there was "a military need to launch a preemptive strike with nuclear weapons in the opening phases of a conflict". But a psychological basis may supercede the military one. The executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, Daryl Kimball, has described nuclear weapons as "mass terror weapons whether used by the United States or another country". And while it's paradoxically the "war on terror" which is the administration's rationale, the Iraqi war has helped spawn a new Pentagon focus, one "on how we will fight, not who we will fight", according to the CRS, with nuclear weapons now categorically named in the available US arsenal. Notably, in a December 2003 report entitled "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism", one of America's foremost military strategists, Dr Jeffrey Record, argued that terrorists, "given their secretive, cellular, dispersed, and decentralized order of battle ... are not subject to conventional military destruction." Record and numerous other military strategists have argued that "intelligence and muscular policework" is the best counter-terrorism approach. And CRS has noted that "al-Qaeda presents few if any targets that would be suitable for nuclear weapons". Commenting on one aspect of the motivation lying behind the administration's efforts, Pike observed: "They [the nuclear hawks] have believed for a long time that nuclear weapons are the answer, and we have just got to figure out what the question is." A similar theme of weaponry providing "answers" runs throughout the Defense Science Board's report, FSSF. Here a new "Defense Triad" is envisioned, comprised of: nuclear and conventional weaponry; active and passive homeland defenses; and a "responsive infrastructure", meaning a vastly enhanced and expanded military-industrial complex. FSSF postulates: "Modern defense planning requires the US to develop acquisition programs that are more flexible and responsive. Such programs must build on and sustain the US industrial base." FSSF perceives successful defense as US industry cranking out an "array of potential alternative solutions", paralleling Pike's vision of answers looking for questions. The report urges a "departure from current practice in which requirements are developed and levied on the services ... this [new] development architecture will lead to rapid, spiral developments of capabilities", which critics have termed a financially ruinous US arms race with itself. While the Pentagon's new defense plans will feed hundreds of billions dollars to US industry, reports indicate that the majority of both US industry and military have not eagerly courted the administration's "largesse". But critics charge that weapons programs filling corporate coffers can ensure very filling campaign contributions, allowing the administration's efforts to continue. And the administration's push is clear, with its thrust to develop a "bunker-busting" mini-nuke for $485 million, even illustrating a willingness to mislead Congress, and separately, to have apparently even contravened US law. The FSSF is among those documents championing the bunker-buster, what has been termed the robust nuclear earth penetrator (RNEP). It is meant to destroy deeply buried bunkers, even those hidden under substantive rock. FSSF describes it as a "clean, low-yield nuclear weapon". It adds that the nuclear detonation would be "contained", ensuring that if detonated against a "near-urban facility", it "may avoid nearly all collateral casualties". By contrast, Dr Sidney Drell, a Stanford University physicist and longtime advisor to America's nuclear program, observed that such a detonation, if only 1 kiloton, could potentially eject a million cubic feet of radioactive debris, fallout. The CRS has similarly found that an underground detonation of a 5 kiloton weapon near a city such as Damascus or Baghdad, could cause over 200,000 fatalities, with a slightly higher figure of additional casualties growing over the following two years. In order to pursue such "clean" and "contained" nuclear weaponry, Congress had lifted a ban on research of such low-yield devices that was mandated by a law named Spratt-Furse. The Defense Authorization bill of 2004 did so in November 2003, repealing Spratt-Furse, but under the proviso that no more than limited research be done on any nuclear weapons without explicit Congressional approval. But the administration began work on its low-yield nuke program in January 2002, almost two years prior to Spratt-Furce's repeal. According to the Bush administration's own December 31, 2001 Nuclear Posture Review (a classified document of which excerpts have been made publicly available), which is the official declaration of US nuclear weapons policy: "The NNSA [National Nuclear Security Administration - in charge of nuclear weapons programs] has initiated a program to energize design work on advanced concepts [the term applied to the low-yield nuclear weapons program] at the three design laboratories." Confirming this, an August 2003 interview with C Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratories (a nuclear weapons research facility), noted that the "administration gave us the OK to begin researching about a year ago". But Spratt-Furse was in force until November 2003. Nuclear expert Joseph Cirincione, director for non-proliferation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Asia Times Online: "I think there's a good question about whether the concept work done under the Nuclear Posture Review violated the law [Spratt-Furse] or not." Facts suggest that the administration contravened the Spratt-Furse Law in what critics term its blind rush for mini-nukes. But the questions don't stop there. In its push for the RNEP, the NNSA has submitted a five-year budget. The Arms Control Association's Daryl Kimball told Asia Times Online: "They do not do this for every weapon system ... it does make it clear that they intend to move ahead with development." However, such a decision is, by law, that of the US Congress, with Congress having thus far only authorized a study, nothing more. On March 8, the CRS pointedly observed in a report: "The FY2005 [budget] request document seems to cast serious doubt on assertions that RNEP is only a study." The Bush administration appears to be in the process of usurping Congressional authority. However, the implications go beyond RNEP. In a January 22 letter to the head of the NNSA, Linton Brooks, both the ranking Democratic member, Representative Peter Visclosky, and the Republican chairman, David Hobson, of the House of Representatives sub-committee overseeing nuclear weapons funding, castigated Brooks for alleged misrepresentations to them. The two sub-committee leaders accuse Brooks of providing "hollow assurances", noting his actions lead them to "question the sincerity" of Brooks' assertions, adding that Brooks' conduct betrays the "actual intent of the Advanced Concepts work proposed by the administration". At issue was a limitation that had been placed on the Advanced Concepts proposal, with Hobson and Visclosky both admonishing: "You are well aware of our reservations about embarking on significant new nuclear weapons design initiatives under the advanced concepts proposal." Brooks appears to have ignored Congressional limitation, evidenced by a December 5, 2003 memo to weapons labs. In his memo, Brooks declared that the labs were "free to explore a range of technical options ... without any concern that some ideas could violate a vague and arbitrary limitation". The memo also urged weapons design teams to "engage fully with the Department of Defense", so as to "take advantage of this opportunity to ensure that we close any gaps that may have opened in past decades in our understanding of the possible military applications of atomic energy". The sub-committee's letter of rebuke pointedly noted the need for "Congressional review" before proceeding, expressing particular concern that Brooks' memo conveyed to the weapons labs nothing more than "unbridled enthusiasm for new weapons designs and for seeking new military missions for nuclear weapons". As Global Security's Pike observed: "They have believed for a long time that nuclear weapons are the answer, and we have just got to figure out what the question is." And the facts do suggest this is the mindset dominating an administration in an arms race with itself, forecasting a "war on terror" "quite possibly measured in decades" in order to legitimize its position. "The script they're reading from is right out of 1984 ... the perpetual war on the distant frontier," said the NRDC's Christopher Paine, a man who's forebear had signed America's Declaration of Independence, creating the United States. TOMORROW - Part 3: Iran, North Korea and problems of proliferation Ritt Goldstein is an American investigative political journalist based in Stockholm. His work has appeared in broadsheets such as Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, Spain's El Mundo and Denmark's Politiken, as well as with the Inter Press Service (IPS), a global news agency. (Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.) material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form without written permission. Copyright 2003, Asia Times Online, 4305 Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/policies.html] ***************************************************************** 39 Tri-Valley Herald: Details of lab threats sought Article Last Updated: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 - Livermore officials review the lab's 10-year environmental impact statement with an abundance of questions By Mike White, STAFF WRITER LIVERMORE -- City officials want more information about potential terrorist threats to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Officials also want more information about the possible traffic impacts of adding 500 new lab employees over the next decade. These and other comments were part of the city's review of the lab's 10-year environmental impact statement. Staff members will send a letter to the lab outlining their concerns. The environmental report, conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration, assesses the environmental impacts of lab operations on land uses and community services. Councilman Mark Beeman said the report should include information about a terrorist attack on the lab, such as what would happen if a plane taking off from Livermore Municipal Airport intentionally flew into the facility. Tom Grim, document manager with the U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration, said terrorism-related data can not be reviewed by the public. Before the department approves the plan, such information will be reviewed by the energy secretary, he said. "My concern is the risk to the community," Beeman said. "Tell me something that will reassure me that it is not a threat." Grim responded, "It is a classified document. I am not at liberty to discuss that." In the comment letter that will be sent to the lab, the city will ask that Livermore's Congressional representatives review the classified information. Grim said members of Congress will have the authority to review the information. "It is contrary to an (environmental impact statement) that a question important to the public is not in there," Councilman Tom Reitter said. Besides the terrorism-related questions, Reitter also said the city's comment letter should ask the lab, "What measures will be taken to avoid accidental releases of toxic materials?" The public comment period for the environmental impact statement will end May 27. That period already has been expanded from the required 45 days to 90 days. The council's review of the documents was delayed because of discussions about possible conflicts of interest. Four council members have connections to the lab -- Reitter is a lab employee and Marj Leider and Mark Beeman are former lab scientists; Councilwoman Lorraine Dietrich's husband works at the lab. Prompted by a question from Reitter, City Attorney Charles Lamoree said Reitter did not have a conflict of interest because he was not directly involved with the environmental studies, among other reasons. Anyone interested in commenting on the environmental impact statement can write Tom Grim, U.S. Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration, Livermore Site Office, L-293,7000 East Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550-9234. 2004 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers ***************************************************************** 40 Oak Ridger: ORNL's Blackmon among nation's top young scientists Story last updated at 11:55 a.m. on May 5, 2004 from staff reports Jeffery C. Blackmon, 36, of Oak Ridge National Laboratory is one of five Department of Energy recipients of the latest Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers presented Tuesday in a White House ceremony. Blackmon, who studies astrophysics in the lab's Physics Division, is being cited for his pioneering work performed at ORNL's Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility toward understanding stellar explosions, according to a news release. Officials said the Presidential Early Career Awards program was established in 1996 to encourage and recognize the work of the nation's young scientists and engineers. Jeffery C. Blackmon In those years, ORNL researchers have received 11 of the awards. Physics Division researchers have accounted for five PECASE awards. ORNL Director Jeff Wadsworth said that Blackmon's recognition underscores the laboratory's thrust toward the next generation of scientists. "[Blackmon's] award signifies not only his own tremendous potential and achievements, but also the path ORNL is taking toward becoming the research institution of choice for scientists in the most creative times of their careers," Wadsworth said. Blackmon's nuclear astrophysics research has delved into the nuclear processes behind stellar explosions such as novae and supernovae. These stellar events are responsible for the creation of most of the elements in the universe. ***************************************************************** 41 Oak Ridger: Energy chief releases salary Story last updated at 11:06 a.m. on May 5, 2004 INFORMATION: Newspaper requesting salaries for the presidents of the major DOE Oak Ridge contractors. By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] According to Gerald Boyd, the salary he earned in calendar year 2003 as manager of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Operations office was $142,500. On top of that, he also received a $6,500 performance award. Boyd released the information Tuesday to The Oak Ridger, saying he felt he should be open about his salary instead of the newspaper having to file a Freedom of Information Act request. A member of Boyd's public affairs staff, Walter Perry, declined to release that information when it was requested last week by the newspaper. Perry said The Oak Ridger would have to file a FOIA request to get the salaries of Boyd and other top DOE managers in Oak Ridge. While Boyd didn't want to personally release any of the salaries for the officials that report to him (stating he didn't feel like it was his place to do so), he did say there are 10 senior executive service members - including him - that work at DOE's Oak Ridge Operations office. He said the senior executive service members make somewhere between $104,000 and his salary of $142,500. Boyd also noted none of these senior executives made more than him in 2003, nor did they receive a larger bonus in that calendar year. Two FOIA requests were filed by this newspaper on Friday prior to Boyd and UT-Battelle voluntarily releasing information this week that was actually requested last week. The Oak Ridger is seeking dollar figures associated with workforce reductions at DOE's Oak Ridge facilities and the salaries of the Top 10 high-ranking Oak Ridge federal officials. Chris Morris with the Energy Department's FOIA office confirmed on Tuesday that The Oak Ridger's requests had been received. However, it's unknown how long it will take to actually receive the requested information. Morris also asked if the newspaper would be willing to pay for any copying costs that were incurred. DOE allows for 100 pages free of charge per request, but starts charging for copied materials after that page count. The Oak Ridger informed him that since the majority of the requested information should be public record , then the newspaper would not pay for the information. Morris then said his supervisor might combine the requests - since they were similar - essentially reducing the amount of free pages from 200 to 100. Morris said this was a typical procedure when FOIA requests filed by the same person or company were similar. On Monday, UT-Battelle spokesman Billy Stair released the information concerning workforce reductions at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which the company manages for the federal government. Company officials said they were unaware they were asked to provide the information to The Oak Ridger last week. According to Stair, severance packages associated with workforce reductions totaled $10.5 million in 2003, $4.2 million in 2001 and $10.8 million in 2000. There were no workforce reductions in 2002. This morning, The Oak Ridger also began requesting the salaries for the presidents of the major DOE Oak Ridge contractors. Requests have so far been sent to UT-Battelle, BWXT Y-12 and Bechtel Jacobs Co. ***************************************************************** 42 Oak Ridger: Making room for more DOE waste Story last updated at 11:33 a.m. on May 5, 2004 MATERIAL COUNT: 'We're probably right at 170,000 cubic yards, maybe a little more.' By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] What's being considered a final design plan will be submitted to regulators this week regarding the first expansion of an Oak Ridge waste disposal site. That plan could be sent to state and Environmental Protection Agency officials as early as Thursday, with a 30-day review period expected to follow. It's likely the plan will be accepted since there has been a lot of coordination between the regulators and the Department of Energy, according to John Michael Japp, a program manager in DOE's Oak Ridge Environmental Remediation Group. Marie Moffitt/Staff Workers dump some scrap metal from a cleanup project at the Oak Ridge K-25 site at the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. While the material is unloaded, water is sprayed to keep the dust down. Currently, DOE's Environmental Management Waste Management Facility has two cells that can hold a total of 400,000 cubic yards of material. One of those cells has been accepting waste since early 2002 while the second cell could be active in the next couple of months. "We're probably right at 170,000 cubic yards, maybe a little more," Japp said Tuesday. The site is used for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste and mixed waste from local cleanup efforts. The waste includes soil sludge, building debris and scrap equipment. Rick McNutt, a subcontractor technical representative for Bechtel Jacobs Co., said the waste disposal site receives around 30 to 40 trucks of material a day. This waste comes from several cleanup projects, including work at the Oak Ridge K-25 site and the Atomic City Auto Parts site. The expansion of the disposal site, which includes two new waste cells, will increase its capacity by about 800,000 cubic yards, bringing the total capacity to 1.2 million cubic yards. Washington Earth Tech Disposal Cell will tackle the expansion project under a $19.8 million contract with Bechtel Jacobs - DOE's environmental manager in Oak Ridge. Marie Moffitt/Staff The disposal site will soon undergo an expansion that will add two new waste cells to the pictured area. The expansion will increase the site's capacity by about 800,000 cubic yards, bringing the total capacity to 1.2 million cubic yards. Later this year, officials are expected to prepare a preliminary design to show the maximum site capacity for the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. This could increase the waste site's capacity to somewhere around 2 million cubic yards. One issue that will have to be addressed is the site's "record of decision" - a legal document that spells out a specific action. This document calls for a capacity of 1.7 million cubic yards, officials noted. Japp suggested that an amendment or addendum to the record would have to be made regarding a future expansion that could result in a total of six waste cells. The second expansion would likely happen in the 2007 time frame. Located on Bear Creek Road near the Y-12 National Security Complex, the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility is operated by Duratek Federal Services Inc. ***************************************************************** 43 Oak Ridger: Large material an issue for disposal Story last updated at 11:35 a.m. on May 5, 2004 CLEANUP OFFICIAL: 'It's gonna be a lot of scrap metal material.' By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com] From the junkyard to the burial ground: That's the route 46,000 tons of scrap metal will travel in the near future. All of the material - mostly surface contaminated - can be found in what's known as the K-770 scrap yard, located near the Clinch River and outside the fence of the Oak Ridge K-25 site. A massive mound of scrap metal is one of the first things that catches a visitor's eye. And, more than 800 storage boxes filled with scrap metal are scattered across the 20-acre-plus site. Marie Moffitt/Staff Mike Travaglini, environmental engineer and program manager with the Department of Energy, stands in front of a massive mound of scrap metal at the K-770 scrap yard, located near the Clinch River and outside the fence of the Oak Ridge K-25 site. Workers will begin the process of removing the scrap yard's material in July, according to Travaglini. While perusing the scrap yard, one might come across a couple of rust-covered trucks and equally time-worn pieces of heavy equipment such as bulldozers. Workers will begin the process of removing the unused material in July, according to Mike Travaglini, environmental engineer and program manager with the Department of Energy. Washington Safety Management Solutions, formerly Westinghouse, will be responsible for the K-770 cleanup project, which should be completed by February 2006. The scrap yard opened in the 1960s and received a vast majority of its material in the 1970s, according to Travaglini. All of the scrap yard's material - around 46,000 tons or 100,000 cubic yards - will be sent to the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility, located on Bear Creek Road near the Y-12 National Security Complex. Travaglini said Tuesday that cleanup officials haven't run across anything that won't be accepted at the disposal site, but suggested there's still a possibility that could happen. However, some of the material at the K-770 scrap yard is large and exceeds physical requirements for disposal at the site. Marie Moffitt/Staff Pictured is one of the rust-covered bulldozers at the Department of Energy's K-770 scrap yard. All of the scrap yard's material - around 46,000 tons or 100,000 cubic yards - will be sent to the Environmental Management Waste Management Facility. "We have issued a variance for some of that large equipment so they don't have to cut it up quite as much," said Rick McNutt, a subcontractor technical representative for Bechtel Jacobs Co. - DOE's Oak Ridge cleanup contractor. McNutt said he expects about 20 to 30 truckloads a day from K-770 once the cleanup project ramps up. "It's gonna be a lot of scrap metal material," he said. "Most of it will be coming over in bulk." There are also three buildings at the K-770 scrap yard that will have to be demolished. In addition, the Washington Safety Management Solutions' contract calls for the company to do cleanup work on the K-1064 scrap yard as well as some other sites at the K-25 site. ***************************************************************** 44 Colorado Daily: Udall letter wins some Rocky Flats document access By RICHARD VALENTY Colorado Daily Staff Writer Regulatory agencies overseeing the cleanup of the former Rocky Flats plutonium trigger manufacturing plant could now have access to previously sealed grand jury information, but the public is unlikely to see the documents. John Suthers, United States Attorney from the District of Colorado, wrote a letter dated April 19, 2004 to Congressman Mark Udall, D-Boulder, stating that agents from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) could review "65 boxes of documents" from the Rocky Flats grand jury investigation of 1989-1992. According to Jeff Dorschner, U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman, this doesn't mean that an unlucky EPA staffer will be stuck in a basement reading 65 boxes of testimony. "The U.S. Attorney has said that if an authorized representative of (CDPHE, EPA or DOE) makes a formal request in writing to him, he will try to accommodate that request," said Dorschner. "However, most of the documents are protected by a grand jury secrecy law, Rule 6 (e). Also, it is entirely possible that some of the documents in our possession are classified, and can only be reviewed by someone with a top-secret security clearance." FBI agents raided Rocky Flats in 1989 to investigate alleged environmental crimes involving, in part, illegal disposal and storage of radioactive waste on the site. In August 1989, a Special Grand Jury was convened to hear the allegations, but the U.S. Department of Justice ended the investigation in March 1992. Rockwell International, the former plant operator, was fined $18.5 million. Wes McKinley, Flats grand jury foreman, cannot speak about parts of the investigation due to Rule 6 (e), but still believes that some information about alleged Flats environmental crimes needs to become public knowledge. In March 2004, McKinley and attorney Caron Balkany, Esq., released the book "The Ambushed Grand Jury," which in part described some of the alleged environmental crimes at the Flats site, including illegal incineration of plutonium-contaminated waste and improper waste dumping. After "Ambushed" was released, Udall started seeking information from agencies involved with the Flats cleanup. On March 16, 2004, Udall wrote letters to CDPHE and EPA asking what the agencies were doing regarding allegations from the book. Both agencies responded and included statistical evidence of Flats environmental sampling and monitoring. Udall received a letter dated April 5, 2004 from McKinley, Balkany and former Flats employee Jacque Brever, asking Udall to request that the U.S. Justice Department release "all documentary evidence of contamination at Rocky Flats which now lies sealed in the basement of the Justice Department offices in Denver." Udall responded by sending a letter to Suthers, dated April 13, 2004 stating that if the Justice Department had "any information that would be useful to this important work, I think it should be provided to those responsible for the cleanup." Laurence Pacheco, Udall spokesperson, said Udall wants cleanup workers and regulators to have every possible piece of information at their disposal. The site could become open for human recreational activity as a National Wildlife Refuge within several years, and Pacheco said Udall is "pleased" that Suthers responded to his request to release documents. Steve Gunderson, Rocky Flats project coordinator for CDPHE, said his department could already be familiar with some of the sealed material. "We, of course, have read the grand jury book,' said Gunderson. "Certainly there are people in our department that were involved in Rocky Flats at the time of the investigation, and some of them were part of a deposition process. Certainly, some of the material in the 65 boxes comes from the health department to begin with." Gunderson said there has been extensive testing of the Flats surface soil, but the sealed documents could provide useful information about possible improper dumping that would allow contamination to seep deeper into the ground. "More of our focus will be to compare their allegations of where stuff was dumped and buried with what we know about where waste was dumped and buried," said Gunderson. According to Gunderson, his agency could begin work on deciding what information to request within "about two weeks," after meeting with his attorney and EPA representatives. ***************************************************************** 45 idaho mountain express : INEEL: tanks clean-up advancing Energy Department project remains controversial : Wednesday, May 5, 2004 [http://www.mtexpress.com/ Produced & Maintained by Idaho Mountain Express, Box 1013, Ketchum, ID 83340-1013 208.726.8060 Voice 208.726.2329 Fax By GREG MOORE Express Staff Writer The U.S. Department of Energy has made considerable progress cleaning tanks that contain high-level radioactive wastes located above the Snake River Aquifer, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratorys new manager said last week. However, a potential funding freeze next year could stall the cleanup--a move that Wood River Valley activists say amounts to extortion by the DOE to get its way on the controversial project. During the past six months, INEEL Manager Elizabeth Sellers has been meeting with community leaders throughout southern Idaho to apprise them of cleanup progress and of the DOEs future projects at the site. No Wood River Valley government officials attended Sellers talk at the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum on Thursday, but a dozen local citizens did. Sellers reported accelerated progress on cleaning both the sites 10 high-level liquid waste tanks and on a demonstration cleanup project at the notorious Pit 9, which contains solid radioactive wastes contained in drums buried underground. The liquid-waste tanks store solvents used to clean equipment used in the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. They contain both radioactive material and hazardous chemicals. Some of the pipes connecting the tanks have leaked in the past, allowing some of the liquid to contaminate the soil. However, INEEL spokesman Brad Bugger said the leaks have been repaired. The tanks lie about 500 feet above the aquifer. Sellers said workers have cleaned five of the tanks and started on a sixth two weeks ago. "Were cleaning these things up as clean as you can possibly get them," she said. The liquids are to be consolidated into three tanks pending a decision on what to do with them next. The project has been controversial since it began about two years ago. The DOE would like to characterize the material removed as "mixed transuranic waste," which would allow it to be disposed of at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico rather than at the proposed, but not yet opened, high-level waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Yucca Mountain repository is designed to contain penetrating radioactive materials that need to be shielded and handled remotely, and that give off heat. WIPP, a series of caverns dug out of a large salt deposit, is designed to contain drums of transuranic waste, which contain plutonium and americium. Those materials are radioactive, but are hazardous only through ingestion, and the drums containing them can be handled directly. Even if it receives the necessary approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Yucca Mountain is not expected to be open to receive waste shipments until 2010. Bugger said the department believes the wastes can be removed from INEEL sooner if they can be sent to WIPP. The federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires radioactive material "resulting from" the processing of nuclear fuel to be characterized as high-level waste, and sent to Yucca Mountain. But the DOE contends that the liquids stored at INEEL were used only indirectly in reprocessing as cleaning solvents, and therefore should not come under the acts definition. Bugger acknowledged that like high-level radioactive waste, the liquids contain penetrating, heat-giving radioactive materials, but said those are in small enough quantities that the wastes could be safely handled at WIPP. However, environmentalists objected to the DOEs position and brought suit in federal court. Last July, District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill agreed with the plaintiffs, and ordered the DOE to proceed on a course toward sending the wastes to Yucca Mountain. The DOE has appealed. The departments fiscal 2005 budget states that if the case is not decided by next year, it will withhold $97 million allocated for the liquid-waste cleanup at INEEL, as well as money for similar cleanup efforts at Hanford, Wash., and Savannah River, S.C. "That is a real strong-arm tactic," contended Hailey resident David Kipping, chair of INEELs Citizens Advisory Board, in an interview. "Theyre saying, Unless we get our way, were not going to give you the money to clean up anything." Bugger said the DOE simply doesnt want to ask Congress for money that it wont be able to spend. He said the cleanup will not be able to proceed until the department knows how it will have to solidify and package the wastesand it wont know that until it knows where it will be sending them. An additional wrinkle is that even if the DOE succeeds in reclassifying the wastes, they may not be accepted at WIPP. The state of New Mexico is in the process of modifying the DOEs hazardous waste permit to prohibit reclassifying high-level waste. A hearing on the question is scheduled for June. "The fact of the matter is that the DOE has always handled it as high-level waste," said Jon Goldstein, communications director for the New Mexico Environment Department, "Theyve playing with words." The outcome of the court case will also determine how the DOE deals with the contaminated soil below the tanks. Bugger said the department is just in the "investigative stage" on that issue, but hopes to have the contaminated area either capped or cleaned out by 2006. Kipping contended that the longer the DOE continues its court fight, the more threat the wastes pose to the environment. "The longer it sits there and the more it rains, the greater the chance that it will get into the aquifer," he said. He called the situation "a great big mess." [http://www.sunvalley-realestate.com/homefinder] [City of Ketchum] [Sun Valley Home Values] --> The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. [http://www.mtexpress.com/subform.htm] to the Idaho Mountain ***************************************************************** 46 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 13:27:23 -0700 (PDT) IN Its Fiftieth Year, Nuclear Society Forecasts Golden ... Yahoo News (press release) - USA LA GRANGE PARK, Ill., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating a tradition of innovation, attendees will explore the legacy and the future of nuclear technologies at ... PAKISTAN tightens nuclear control BBC News - London,England,UK Pakistan's cabinet has approved a draft bill to tighten rules on the export of nuclear technology. It follows a UN resolution last ... See all stories on this topic: NRC says it will conduct extra review of Vermont nuclear plant Providence Journal (subscription) - Providence,RI,USA MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant will get a more thorough inspection than usual before it is allowed to boost power by 20 percent, the ... See all stories on this topic: IRAN Will Keep Its Side of Nuclear Agreement: Kharrazi Tehran Times - Tehran,Iran ... AFP) -- Iran reiterated Wednesday that it would stick to its commitments to cooperate with the UN's atomic energy watchdog over its nuclear program, and urged ... See all stories on this topic: JOHN Armstrong: National's nuclear report lands quietly New Zealand Herald - Auckland,New Zealand In the convenient shadow of the foreshore hikoi, the National Party releases its long-awaited report recommending a watering down of the iconic anti-nuclear law ... See all stories on this topic: GROWING fears Syria developing nuclear weapons Maariv International - Israel Senior State Department officials believe Damascus was also one of Pakistani rogue nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's clients. ... See all stories on this topic: PAKISTAN tightens controls on nuclear proliferation GEO - World ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Wednesday moved to tighten controls on the export of nuclear weapons technology following a UN resolution calling on members to prevent ... N. Korea Will Not Sell Nuclear Weapons to Terrorist Groups Chosun Ilbo - South Korea The British newspaper Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday that North Korean high-ranking officials said North Korea would not sell nuclear materials to ... See all stories on this topic: GERMAN FM: Civilian nuclear technology, Iran`s mullahs legitimate ... Persian Journal - Iran German FM Fischer said on Wednesday that nuclear program for civilian purpose is Iran`s mullahs legitimate right. In a meeting with ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR waste transportation plans to be aired Mohave Valley News - Laughlin,NV,USA ... of Decision 6450-01-P Department of Energy, Record of Decision on Mode of Transportation and Nevada Rail Corridor for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 47 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 21:24:41 -0700 (PDT) IRAN denies a secret parallel nuclear program to produce A-bomb IranMania News - Iran TEHRAN, May 2 (AFP) - Iran on Sunday denied that it has secret parallel nuclear program aiming to produce atomic weapons, as claimed by the main Iranian armed ... See all stories on this topic: IRANIAN FM to seek European support over nuclear program IranMania News - Iran ... Minister Kamal Kharazi will meet European leaders this week ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting to review Tehran's nuclear program, a ... See all stories on this topic: TOSHIBA, GE Plan Study for Alabama Nuclear Plant, Kyodo Says Bloomberg - USA ... have applied to conduct a feasibility study to build a nuclear power plant in the state of Alabama, Kyodo News reported, citing company sources it did not ... See all stories on this topic: REVIEW offers rare peek at nuclear lab Sacramento Bee - Sacramento,CA,USA ... The nuclear weapons lab wants to build a 40,000-square-foot center for testing high explosives at its Site 300 east of Tracy, plans scrutinized last week at ... See all stories on this topic: WORLD has no feasible project yet to liquidate nuclear waste ITAR-TASS - Moscow,Russia MOSCOW, May 2 (Itar-Tass) - The world has no new feasible projects so far to liquidate stockpiled waste of nuclear production facilities and industrial nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR waste ruling faces challenge Kansas City Star (subscription) - Kansas City,MO,USA ... in the debate, to be taken up by the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, are hundreds of underground tanks at three plants that make nuclear bombs in ... See all stories on this topic: NATIONAL 'holds fire' over results of nuclear review New Zealand Herald - Auckland,New Zealand National party leader Don Brash has conceded it will be difficult to sell to voters any change in New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation. ... [THE World in Words]Rescuing nuclear non-proliferation Korea Herald - Seoul,South Korea As a declared non-nuclear weapon state, Indonesia has always striven for nuclear non-proliferation - indeed, for a world free of nuclear weapons. ... NUCLEAR Mystery Georgian follows trail of H-bomb lost in 1958 Winston Salem Journal - Winston-Salem,NC,USA ... At the time, it was routine for crews in training to carry transportation-configured nuclear bombs, with the detonation capsules removed to prevent a nuclear ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 48 DBJ: Tuor named president, CEO at Kaiser-Hill - 2004-05-04 - The Denver Business Journal [http://www.bizjournals.com/] Denver The Kaiser-Hill Board of Managers announced Tuesday that Nancy Tuor will assume the position of president and chief executive officer of Kaiser-Hill Co. LLC, which is performing the cleanup and closure of Rocky Flats. Tuor most recently served as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Kaiser-Hill and held numerous other executive positions since joining the company in 1995. She oversaw the development of a comprehensive plan to accelerate the closure project, which is now seven percent ahead of schedule and under budget, according to a prepared statement by Kaiser-Hill. "Nancy Tuor is a talented, innovative and committed leader with a firm understanding of what it takes to get the job done safely at Rocky Flats," Ralph Peterson, chairman of the Kaiser-Hill Board of Managers and CEO of CH2M Hill, said in a statement. "She is respected throughout the Denver business community and brings with her a wealth of experience in nuclear cleanup and decommissioning." Tuor replaces Alan Parker, who will transfer to CH2M Hill as executive vice president. Mark Spears, formerly vice president and produce manager for Kaiser-Hill, will replace Tuor as chief operating officer and executive vice president. Tuor has served on the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce board of directors for the past eight years and was recently named co-chair of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation board of directors. Tuor is also a member of the CH2M Hill board of directors, a parent company of Kaiser Hill. Kaiser-Hill began the Rocky Flats closure project under the direction of the U.S. Department of Energy in 1995. The project is expected to be completed by December 2006 and will turn the former nuclear weapons plant into a wildlife refuge. 2004 American City Business Journals Inc. ***************************************************************** 49 Times and Democrat: Nuclear scientist explains technology shift to O-W students; visit designed to stir students' interest in science [webmaster@timesanddemocrat.com] By LEE HENDREN, T Staff Writer "We actually have the basic technology to the place where we can actually put water instead of gasoline into a vehicle and have it go," the federal government's senior nuclear technology official said Tuesday. William D. Magwood IV, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, spoke to about 120 students at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. Martin Scott and Ted Motyka of the Savannah River Technology Center demonstrated a remote-controlled model car powered by hydrogen. "What we have is an actual fuel cell vehicle," Magwood said. "You put distilled water into the container, and it uses a solar cell to do electrolysis to convert the water to hydrogen and oxygen." The oxygen is released into the air and "the hydrogen is fed into a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell. That's a fuel cell we're very interested in for the future. It could be used for future vehicles," Magwood added. Gasoline is a fossil fuel derived from oil. "We get it from places we don't necessarily like, and it causes pollution" by emitting carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, Magwood said. A hydrogen powered vehicle "emits nothing more than water vapor," he said. "I'm optimistic that this is something that the kids we'll talk to today will see well within their lifetimes." "Maybe even some of the people we'll talk to today will become the scientists that really bring this technology home 15 or 20 years from now," Magwood continued. "And that's really what we're trying to get to here. We're trying to really show these students, not just how it might apply to the long-term, but how they can build careers to try to solve these technical issues," he said. Solutions won't be easy. "We're trying to find the most efficient ways to split water" to make hydrogen, and then to identify the best ways to store hydrogen, Magwood said. This will require "advanced materials, advanced electronics and advanced chemical technologies," he said. "There's a lot of work that needs to be done. These kids may be the people who get us there. We'll see." "We're just getting started. The president started the national hydrogen fuel initiative just a little more than a year ago. This program is now galvanized to put the kinds of research in place to get this done," Magwood said. "If this is successful, we will have seen the peak of oil use in the United States," he said. "It doesn't mean you'll ever completely eradicate the use of foreign oil, but I think in the long term future, we'll see our dependency on foreign oil go down." Magwood asked the students what came to mind when they thought of nuclear power. Most did not reply; two or three said they thought of nuclear bombs. "South Carolina gets more than half of its electricity from nuclear power," he said, adding, "Nuclear plants can't blow up." Before meeting with the O-W students, Magwood said he'd noticed students are making career choices "a lot earlier than I thought they would. By the time they get to be sophomores and juniors in high school, they're pretty much sure what they want to do." Many aspire to careers in the areas of life sciences, he added. Based on Magwood's conversations with various students, this was also true of the group at O-W. None indicated an interest in becoming a scientist. "I'd like to see more interest in the physical sciences -- engineering, electronics, physics," Magwood said. Those areas do offer "promising careers," said Dr. James A. Anderson, dean of the School of Engineering Technology and Sciences at South Carolina State University. "Right now in the technology and science areas. we're hundreds of thousands of jobs short, and it's getting worse," Anderson said. SCSU is trying to "turn that around," he continued. "In addition to seminars like this, we also have an annual science and technology day" for high school students. The goal of such programs is to encourage students to consider and prepare for careers in the sciences or technology, said Henry West, a physics teacher at O-W. "A lot of times, they don't realize the opportunities that we have right here in town. We want to expose them early to South Carolina State and the fact they do have a nuclear engineering program and the fact it's such a hot field. Just the fact that we have it here in town makes such a difference," West said. "And then to have such great people like Dr. Magwood come out and do presentations for us, that really helps a lot. It shows us we have the potential to grow." Magwood's entourage also included Eduardo Farfan of SCSU's nuclear engineering program and John Gutridge, head of the nuclear education programs at the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy. T Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com [lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com] or by phone at 803-533-5552. E-mail this page [http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2004/05/05/news/news7.eml] Print version [http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2004/05/05/news/news7.prt] Copyright 2004, The Times and Democrat ***************************************************************** 50 NRC: Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes: Meeting FR Doc 04-10159 [Federal Register: May 5, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 87)] [Notices] [Page 25146-25147] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr05my04-113] Notice AGENCY: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will convene a teleconference meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Medical Uses of Isotopes (ACMUI) on May 13, 2004. The topic of discussion will be ``ACMUI Vote on the Dose Reconstruction Subcommittee's Recommendation Relating to the NRC's Method of Dose Reconstruction.'' TIME: The Thursday, May 13, 2004, teleconference meeting will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Public Participation: Any member of the public who wishes to participate in the teleconference discussion may contact Angela R. Williamson using the contact information below. [[Page 25147]] FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Angela R. Williamson, telephone (301) 415-5030; e-mail arw@nrc.gov [arw@nrc.gov] of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Conduct of the Meeting: Leon S. Malmud, M.D., will chair the meeting. Dr. Malmud will conduct the meeting in a manner that will facilitate the orderly conduct of business. The following procedures apply to public participation in the meeting: 1. Persons who wish to provide a written statement should submit a reproducible copy to Angela Williamson, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Two White Flint North, Mail Stop T8F5, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Hard copy submittals must be postmarked by May 10, 2004. Electronic submittals must be submitted by May 12, 2004. Any submittal must pertain to the topic on the agenda for the meeting. 2. Questions from members of the public will be permitted during the meeting, at the discretion of the Chairman. 3. The transcript and written comments will be available for inspection on NRC's Web site (http://www.nrc.gov [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov] ) and at the NRC Public Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-2738, telephone (800) 397-4209, on or about June 1, 2004. Minutes of the meeting will be available on or about June 14, 2004. This meeting will be held in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (primarily Section 161a); the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App); and the Commission's regulations in Title 10, U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Part 7. Dated: April 29, 2004. Andrew L. Bates, Advisory Committee Management Officer. [FR Doc. 04-10159 Filed 5-4-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************