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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 CounterPunch: Doug Giebel: Someone Knew There Were No WMDs
2 MSNBC: Nuclear Weapons: Saddam and the Scam Artists
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: BAI to Inspect Power Companies   
4 JoongAng Daily: Power plants, railroads keep North poor
5 AFP: NKorea says Japan on verge of having nuclear weapons
6 KoreaTimes: Seoul Officials to Depart for Beijing for Nuke Talks 
7 US:  Terrorist Threat Level To US Nuclear Weapons Will Take Up To 5 
8 US: Media Matters: Limbaugh goes mainstream
9 US: New York Times: Nuclear Weapons Program Could Get Own Police For
10 albawaba.com: Iran FM: Better trust being built with Europe over nuc
11 PTI: US not to accept India, Pak as N-weapon states
12 Scotsman: Nuclear holocaust on a hair trigger
13 Guardian Unlimited: UK role in nuclear build-up under fire
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
14 Bellona: Chernobyl reactor needs new cover 
15 US: Press Herald: Two energy proposals boost Maine's power position.
16 US: Toledo blade: DAVIS-BESSE: NRC cites utility for incorrect recor
17 BulletinWire News: Hanau sale dead, for now                         
18 US: ONN. Ohio News Now: Regulatory agency cites Davis-Besse plant; w
19 US: Charleston.Net: Nuclear regulators criticized for waiving plant 
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
20 UPI: Radiation exposure high in Japan - 
21 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast cleanup may take 10 years
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
22 US: Buffalo News: Talks may aid N-waste project
23 US: projo.com: Inspectors to search waste sites South Carolina and W
24 Las Vegas RJ: JOHN L. SMITH: Yucca Mountain joins death, taxes and c
25 Las Vegas SUN: Bush choosing to go around Yucca Mountain issue
26 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Don't reward Yucca lie 
27 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Nevada GOP surrenders on Yucca project
28 Japan Times: LDP member's appearance at antinuclear rally protested
29 US: Charleston.Net: Nuclear sludge would stay in S.C. under Senate p
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
30 Response form of the 2004 World Conference
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
31 AFP: US plans new elite force to guard nuclear facilities
32 ABQjournal: Sandia Labs' Nuke Reactor Will Close
33 Tri-City Herald: Hanford could get federal security 
34 The State: S.C. lab to research nuke wa
35 SF Chronicle: U.S. wants to remove plutonium from lab 
36 SF Chronicle: Nuke watchdog at odds with Energy Dept. on lab's futur
37 Albuquerque Tribune: Move to rid some lab uranium praised           
38 Tri-Valley Herald: Energy chief orders tighter security
39 Daily Camera: Flats oversight groups calls for independent review
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
40 Google News Alert - nuclear
41 Google News Alert - nuclear
42 [DU-WATCH] CADU News 17
43 Bellona: Classified oil
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 CounterPunch: Doug Giebel: Someone Knew There Were No WMDs
 
 May 8 / 9, 2004 

By DOUG GIEBEL 

Ever since the Bush Administration began publicly spinning out 
its catalog of reasons for invading Iraq, this writer has 
questioned and written about the alleged existence of Iraq's 
weapons of mass destruction. More important, however, is my 
growing conviction that members of the administration knew the 
WMD did not exist in Iraq before the invasion went forward. The 
following account of what one might consider "circumstantial 
evidence" has been described by others as an "unique" or 
"unusual" point of view, perhaps because the perspective was 
hidden in plain sight and was therefore missed by investigative 
journalists and others hoping to find some signed or tape 
recorded "smoking gun." 

In discussing his book "Plan of Attack" with a television 
interviewer, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward emphatically 
stated that before the invasion of Iraq Woodward was firmly 
convinced the still-missing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) 
really existed. Woodward is equally convinced the president and 
members of his administration also believed Saddam Hussein had 
WMD and moreover was prepared to use them. During his most recent 
press conference, President Bush referred almost wishfully to 
WMD, suggesting they might still be found somewhere in Iraq. As 
Woodward describes in detail, George W. Bush is a man of 
conviction, and his strong belief in the existence of WMD may 
never be shaken. Of course, one way or another, WMD may still be 
found. 

Belief and conviction, however, are not always based on evidence. 
Before coalition troops invaded Iraq, many experts both inside 
and outside of government repeatedly stated the supposed weapons 
no longer existed. Since no WMD have turned up, David Kay and 
others have said "all" of us were fooled, and the Bush 
Administration claims it relied on "the best information 
available" in deciding WMD posed a growing or an imminent threat. 
These positions are misleading, since not "all" experts were 
taken in, and the "best" intelligence information was the 
information ignored or rejected by those who sought to wage war 
against Saddam. Instead, Bush, Blair and their colleagues 
apparently relied on the worst intelligence. To some observers, 
this reliance deliberately dismissed those who were not singing 
the proper hymn. 

Woodward may be correct to assume President Bush and some of his 
closest advisors sincerely trusted in the presence of Saddam's 
WMD, but someone close to the invasion plans most assuredly 
believed something else. There is sufficient evidence to suggest 
insiders knew well before the coalition entered Iraq that no WMD 
would be encountered. If so, it also suggests these individuals 
knew the case for the existence of WMD was bogus from the 
beginning. 

In early February 2003 as the U.S. and its "coalition" rushed to 
build up the invasion force, Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei 
obtained concessions from Saddam Hussein permitting U-2 
overflights and interviews with four top Iraqi scientists. At 
this point, however, further diplomacy was not an option for the 
Bush Administration. A month later, as war drums beat louder and 
faster, the U.N. pulled its personnel, including weapons 
inspectors, from Iraq. The British Foreign Office and Israel both 
warned of a very high risk of attack, including the possible use 
of chemical and biological weapons. The hysterical tone was 
heightened with advice to British subjects: exit Kuwait and 
Israel immediately. 

Did the Bush and Blair warmakers suspect or know that if U.N. 
inspectors remained much longer in Iraq they'd return a verdict 
of "No WMD"? Were they concerned Saddam might further comply with 
U.N. resolutions, thus undercutting a supposed reason for the 
invasion: Iraq's non-compliance with those resolutions? As Blix 
and ElBaradei were succeeding, the Bush Administration declared 
diplomacy had nearly run its course. Was that because some in 
Washington feared Saddam might capitulate sufficiently to U.S. 
demands and thus remove the urgency, the necessity, of an 
invasion? Diplomacy, threats and inspections were working too 
well. Bush and Blair had to pull the plug or their grandiose 
design would be deflated. 

Once the undeclared "war" began: 

1. Coalition troops did not encounter WMD on the swift march to 
Baghdad and beyond. 

2. WMD have not been employed by the "insurgents" against the 
"occupiers." 

3. Although Woodward describes President Bush as a "risk taker," 
the president and his closest advisors are not so daring they 
would foolishly risk losing the cherished next election by 
sending troops into a cauldron where WMD would be unleashed with 
calamitous consequences. 

4. Saddam's arsenal was promoted to include massive but 
unverified amounts of chemical, biological and possibly even 
nuclear weapons. The exact composition of these spectacular 
weapons was never clearly identified. Coalition troops 
encountering weapons capable of killing "thousands" and 
"millions" of human beings (as hammered home in administration 
statements) would surely have suffered untold losses. Although 
protective gear was issued to coalition personnel, there could be 
no guarantee this gear would work. What gear would protect 
against nuclear attack? Advance "special forces," coalition 
sources inside the country and the unprotected citizens of Iraq 
would surely not survive if WMD were to be unleashed on a massive 
scale. 

5. Most significantly, the Pentagon actively encouraged hundreds 
of reporters to be "embedded" with coalition troops. The few 
reporters who survived vicious WMD attacks would have sent out 
real-time pictures and descriptions of the carnage, horrifying 
the viewing and reading public around the globe. Does this seem 
to be the sort of risk Bush, Blair and their ambitious colleagues 
would willingly take? Could Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, 
Powell and other big-wigs pose for photo-ops in a "Portable 
Phonograph" landscape polluted beyond imagining? 

According to reports, some American military personnel were 
astonished when no WMD materialized. Recently Australia's 
newspaper "The Age" reported, "Australian troops fighting in Iraq 
were told in an official briefing days before entering the 
country that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to launch 
weapons of mass destruction against its neighbours." The news 
must have relieved anxiety for Aussie troops. Surely if Australia 
knew, it seems reasonable to assume some in the U.S. command 
structure also knew. Why didn't U.S. military leaders clue in 
their troops, too? 

On the battlefield, few in the military or in the press wore 
their protective gear with any regularity. Writer Paul de Rooij 
questioned whether the WMD scare was "propaganda" as early as 
April, 2003. Even the notorious "red zone" where the greatest 
danger from WMD was supposed to have existed appears to have been 
a propaganda hoax. 

Further, it seems wildly improbable Saddam's military would wait 
until invading troops were within this fantasy "red zone," 
because the zone encompassed the area surrounding Baghdad. It is 
more reasonable to assume WMD would be utilized in the Shia 
south, where the population was hostile to Hussein and his 
government. Decimating both his Shia enemies and the coalition 
invaders (killing two birds with one WMD stone) makes more sense 
than waiting until the population of Baghdad (and Saddam) would 
be subjected to the much-touted poisons. Would Iraq's military 
explode nuclear weapons within Baghdad's perimeter? 

Before the war, Pentagon planners assumed only 60,000 troops 
might be necessary to oust Saddam Hussein. General Tommy Franks 
originally asked for a mere five divisions, approximately 75,000 
troops -- small compared to the eventual 250,000 personnel who 
were deployed for the invasion. At about the time Franks was 
making his modest troop request, Vice President Cheney falsely 
rang the WMD alarm in his Nashville speech to the Veterans of 
Foreign Wars, proclaiming, "Simply stated, there is no doubt that 
Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no 
doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our 
allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive 
regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with 
his neighbors -- confrontations that will involve both the 
weapons he has today, and the ones he will continue to develop 
with his oil wealth." Cheney's "no doubt" speech occurred before 
the CIA submitted its October 2002 WMD report. Would war 
strategists, convinced of Cheney's frightening claim, plan to 
send in a 60,000 or 75,000 or even a 250,000 member military if 
they believed Saddam's "aggressive," amassed and awesome arsenal 
truly existed? Would hundreds of media representatives replete 
with cameras, satellite phones and television connections be 
invited along for the ride into Cheney's particularized Hell? 

Near the conclusion of his now-infamous State of the Union 
address (January 2003), President Bush proclaimed Iraq had 
"25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million 
people . . . materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 
liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people 
to death by respiratory failure . . . the materials to produce as 
much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such 
quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold 
thousands . . . upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering 
chemical agents . . . an advanced nuclear weapons development 
program . . . a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on 
five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb . . . gone 
to elaborate lengths, spent enormous sums, taken great risks to 
build and keep weapons of mass destruction. But why? The only 
possible explanation, the only possible use he could have for 
those weapons, is to dominate, intimidate, or attack." And yet 
against such a staggering defense system, the U.S. and its 
coalition blithely amassed men and women on Iraq's border, 
unconcealed from Saddam, and marched toward the Land of WMD with 
remarkably little concern Saddam had capability to kill "several 
million . . . millions . . . untold thousands" including "nuclear 
weapons." 

By March 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, citing Iraq's 
"record of lying and deceit," claimed, "Iraq had and still has 
the capability to manufacture these kinds of weapons, that Iraq 
had and still has the capability to manufacture not only chemical 
but biological weapons, and that Iraq had and still has literally 
tens of thousands of delivery systems, including increasingly 
capable and dangerous unmanned aerial vehicles." It now seems 
clear Iraq was not the only nation with a "record of lying and 
deceit." 

Then in April 2003, Prime Minister Tony Blair wryly advised, 
"Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass 
destruction, I suggest they wait a bit." We're still waiting. 

We must not forget: as President Bush and his "coalition of the 
willing" geared up for war with Iraq, some in his administration 
predicted the event would be a "cakewalk." Compared to what would 
have likely occurred had Saddam fought to the death with WMD, the 
march to appropriate Iraq was indeed a cakewalk. It seems strange 
such sophisticated and politically astute leaders could be 
totally convinced of the existence of weapons of mass destruction 
and at the same time tell the world the war would be an easy go; 
that is, unless they were secretly convinced no WMD existed in 
the first place. Bob Woodward and others in the gullible press 
and public failed to consider obvious signals regarding what 
increasingly appears to have been an elaborate hoax perpetrated 
on coalition troops, the press and the world's citizens. 

With convincingly-deadpan expressions, those responsible for the 
invasion of Iraq still face cameras and say "we were misled." 
What they really mean is, "You were misled." Those who 
stage-managed the majestic design of Operation Iraqi Freedom knew 
there were no WMD long before the armies crossed into Iraq. 
Although unspoken, this fact remains one of the most egregious 
lies of our young new century. 

Doug Giebel is a writer and analyst who lives in Big Sandy, 
Montana. He welcomes e-mail responses: dougcatz@ttc-cmc.net. 


Weekend Edition Features for April 24 / 25, 2004 

WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   

*****************************************************************
 2 MSNBC: Nuclear Weapons: Saddam and the Scam Artists

  A 'nuclear program' in Iraq? A soldier searches a mobile
laboratory in 2003  

  By Mark HosenballNewsweek

May 17 issue - Vice President Dick Cheney once famously declared, 
shortly before the outbreak of war, that Saddam Hussein had, "in 
fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." When no such weapons turned 
up, administration officials said that what Cheney really meant 
to say was that Iraq had "started reconstituting its nuclear 
program," which is what the CIA, in a secret (but later 
declassified) October 2002 intelligence analysis sent to the 
White House and Congress, said that "most" U.S. intel agencies 
believed.

But judging from some of the evidence turned up by U.S. search 
teams in Iraq after the war, even the CIA's more cautious prewar 
assessment may have been overheated. According to an intelligence 
source, one of the more significant files relating to Iraqi 
nuclear ambitions found in the archives of the Baghdad 
headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Saddam's intelligence service, 
included documents that reported an approach Iraq received in 
2000 from a middleman based in Nairobi, Kenya. The file said that 
the middleman could supply Iraq with quantities of diamonds, 
cobalt and uranium, all produced in the mineral-rich Congo. But 
the file also included a note, apparently made by a Mukhabarat 
officer, indicating that Iraq did not take up the middleman's 
deal. The note indicated that the offer should not be pursued 
because Iraq's alleged WMD programs were under too much 
international scrutiny at the time. It added that Iraqi 
intelligence should "maintain contact" with the middleman in case 
it became easier for Baghdad to buy sensitive commodities in the 
future.

Also found in Iraqi government files after the war were what 
appeared to be an offer from Pakistan made in 1993-1994 to supply 
Iraq with what amounted to a whole nuclear-weapons program. 
Though his name was not on the documents, some U.S. investigators 
suspect that the man behind this offer was A. Q. Khan, the father 
of Pakistan's "Islamic bomb" program, who earlier this year was 
rep-rimanded—but not penalized—by his government for running 
what probably was the world's most damaging 
nuclear-weapons-proliferation ring. And U.S. intelligence 
officers found several Iraqi-government file cabinets full of 
offers Saddam had received for quantities of "red mercury," a 
supposedly ultrapowerful nuclear material that scientists say 
does not really exist. U.S. intelligence sources say that what 
the documentation really seems to show is that while Saddam never 
lost his lust for nukes, over the last several years Iraq in 
effect had become a favorite target of the world's nuclear scam 
artists. At best, the evidence suggests, Iraq's A-bomb program 
was in hibernation. A senior Defense official familiar with the 
work of the Iraq Survey Group, the U.S. team that hunted Saddam's 
WMD, said that evidence collected after the war indicated Saddam 
wanted a nuclear program—but it probably "was not being 
aggressively pursued."© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.


�MORE FROM NEWSWEEK PERISCOPE  

© 2004 MSNBC.com
*****************************************************************
 3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: BAI to Inspect Power Companies   
 
      Updated May.9,2004 18:42 KST   

  The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea will make a special 
inspection from Monday on the Korea Electric Power Corporation, 
the Korea Electricity Commission, and the Korea Power Exchange to 
check on their reorganization plans for the power industry and 
the actual conditions of their business reforms. A BAI officer 
said that the current power reserve rate is 15~17 percent, but 
because power companies are trying to build their own power 
plants, concerns over oversupply of power generation and 
different standards for electricity billing could add to the 
burdens customers have to deal with. The officer added that BAI, 
therefore, launched an investigation, after seeing the need to 
analyze the policy reform results of these institutions. 

BAI also announced that it will look into whether or not the 
investment plan for power transmission and distribution facility 
is adequate, whether the decision to provide additional funds for 
the disposal of nuclear waste was appropriate. It also said BAI 
would investigate why the power wholesale market opening plan was 
delayed. This plan would allow electricity to be traded like 
regular market products. 

(Kwon Kyeong-bok, kkb@chosun.com ) 

*****************************************************************
 4 JoongAng Daily: Power plants, railroads keep North poor

  2004.05.08       

  North in Need: Part 5 of 6   

  During a visit to North Korea last year, a Korea Agricultural
Machinery Industry Cooperative businessman was surprised to see
that the farm had stored all its machinery in a warehouse at a
time when farmers should be busy.

 But this is a familiar sight for those well-acquainted with the
North's energy crisis. Despite agricultural aid from the outside
world, the problem North Koreans are now facing is not a lack of
farm equipment but a shortfall in the electricity required to
operate the machines. 

Unfortunately, the question of whether to provide energy aid to
North Korea is one of the most sensitive issues in international
society because of the North's nuclear program. 

The United States, in particular, is very critical of any
proposal to provide any type of energy to the Kim Jong-il
regime. 

The dire situation the North faces when it comes to developing
social overhead capital like railroads, ports and roads is not
too different from the energy shortages from which it suffers.

Because of the large amounts of capital required, support from
international financial agencies or multinational consortiums is
essential for upgrading North Korea's infrastructure, especially
its railroads. 

But in order to get international society involved, a solution
to the North's nuclear crisis must come first.

 North Korea experts believe that once the North's nuclear
weapons problem is solved, providing it with coal and heavy oil
will be essential in order to increase the short-term electric
generation of the country. Discussions regarding this subject
are already going on in the ongoing six-nation talks on the
North Korean nuclear issue. 

"Sending 500,000 tons of heavy oil worth 900 billion won to 1
trillion won ($77.2 million to $85.8 million) to North Korea
annually as loans will not hamper South Korea's economy," said
the state-run Korea Energy Economics Institute's research
fellow, Kim Kyoung-sool. "Also, with over 10 million tons of
coal in the government's stockpiles, the costs to maintain the
coal are quite high and sending some of it to the North is a
possible solution," he added.

 A reasonable support plan, should the North's nuclear weapons
program be ended, is repairing existing thermoelectric power
plants or building new generators altogether. But this won't
come cheaply, as estimates from the institute put the cost of
refining North Korea's thermoelectric power plants at 1.35
trillion won. 

"It would cost considerably less to repair North Korea's current
power plants," said an official from the state-run Korea
Electric Power Corporation. "But it might be better to just
build new power plants because all the existing ones are
outdated and are likely to break down again."

 Many North Korea experts say the situation surrounding North
Korea's railroads is even worse than its energy crisis. 
Most of the North's national resources that play a vital part in
its economy are linked by rail with industrial areas. As a
result, it is essential that North Korea's rail system work
properly in order for the country to have any chance to revive
its economy. But with restoration costs expected to reach
astronomical levels, it will not be an easy matter, even if the
North agrees to dismantle its nuclear programs, a step that
would enable it to receive international loans for the upgrade. 

According to a joint investigation by North Korea and Russia in
September 2001, railroad upgrade costs would be about 40 billion
won per kilometer. This means it would cost 2.2 trillion won to
4 trillion won to improve 1,000 kilometers of railroads, which
is only 20 percent of the total length of the North's tracks. 

Another obstacle is the lack of profitability in the North
Korean railroad system. "It will take a long time for other
countries to recover any loans to North Korea for the
development of the North's railroad sector, because the amount
of goods transported by rail there is so small," said Nam
Sung-wook, professor of North Korean studies at Korea
University. That apparent contradiction between vital links to
resource-rich areas and low usage is, in reality, another sign
of the low economic output of the country. 

Most experts say that while it is important for North Korea to
continue the ongoing construction of sections of the
cross-border railroads that lie in the North, it is also
important for it to reconstruct the remainder of its rail system
while seeking loans from international economic agencies or
multinational consortiums to avoid taking on more of a financial
burden than it can bear.
 
by Special Reporting Team enational@joongang.co.kr>   

Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
*****************************************************************
 5 AFP: NKorea says Japan on verge of having nuclear weapons

SEOUL (AFP) May 08, 2004

 North Korea Saturday claimed Japan was about to possess nuclear 
weapons, in its latest attack on one of the countries preparing 
to meet next week to discuss the impasse over Pyongyang's own 
atomic ambitions.

The report on North Korea's state news agency KCNA charged that 
Japan had secretly pursued a nuclear capability while the world's 
focus was on other countries' arms proliferation.

"Japan's nuclear weaponization has been pushed ahead at the phase 
of practical implementation, going beyond the stage of 
discussion," the report said.

"As a result, there are ample conditions for the descendents of 
Samurais buoyed by fever for reinvasion to have access to nuclear 
weapons any moment."

Preliminary negotiations take place next week in Beijing aimed at 
clearing the way for a new round of six-nation discussions on the 
issue of Pygongyang's alleged nuclear weapons programme.

Two rounds of the talks -- involving the two Koreas, China, 
Japan, Russia and the United States -- have so far failed to 
narrow differences between the United States and North Korea.

Japan, the only country in the world to have experienced a 
nuclear attack, has a number of nuclear power stations but is a 
signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear 
Weapons.

However, the KCNA report added: "It is a serious miscalculation 
and foolish dream if Japan thinks it can hide truth behind its 
nuclear issue and achieve its wild ambition for nuclear armament 
by hyping other's 'nuclear issue'."

Japan and North Korea last week renewed talks over the kidnapping 
of Japanese citizens by the Stalinist state in the 1970s and 
1980s.

Tokyo has been pushing Pyongyang to allow the relatives of five 
returned Japanese abductees to settle in Japan.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 6 KoreaTimes: Seoul Officials to Depart for Beijing for Nuke Talks 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation   

By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter

 South Korean officials will depart for Beijing on Monday to 
attend the first six-party working-group talks, which begin 
Wednesday to deal with the North Korean nuclear crisis, Foreign 
Ministry officials said on Sunday.

 Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief delegate to the main six-party talks, 
will lead the Seoul delegation for the meeting aimed at preparing 
for the third round of plenary discussions anticipated sometime 
by the end of June.

 The South Korean delegates will have preliminary talks with 
their Chinese counterpart on Monday. On Tuesday, they will also 
hold bilateral discussions with the United States, Japan and 
Russia before having a trilateral meeting with officials from the 
U.S. and Japan.

 However, it is unclear whether the two Koreas will be able to 
sit side by side before the start of the working-group talks, 
which will be held without a fixed closing date.

 During the second round of six-party nuclear talks held in 
Beijing in February, the participants agreed to hold another 
round in the Chinese capital by the end of June and create a 
working group to prepare for the main talks.

 In the working-group meeting, the six countries are expected to 
have more frank and in-depth discussions on such thorny issues as 
``compensation-for-freeze'' measures.

 Cho's North Korean and U.S. counterparts will be Ri Gun, deputy 
director general of the North's foreign ministry, and Joseph 
DeTrani, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean affairs. 

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 05-09-2004 17:26         
        
*****************************************************************
 7  Terrorist Threat Level To US Nuclear Weapons Will Take Up To 5 Years To Be Ready For
 
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 01:33:28 -0400

 

    Please pass this around as widely as possible-
especially to media.

>The Congressional auditors also noted that it
took the Energy Department 21 months to write the
new >threat assessment and said that preparing to
meet the new threat level would take up to five
years.



    What might this mean about the "safety" of
commercial nuclear power plants and what we've all
been told?


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/politics/08NUKE.html
Nuclear Weapons Program Could Get Own Police Force
By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: May 8, 2004


ASHINGTON, May 7 - Facing questions about whether
terrorists could steal nuclear weapons material or
technology, the secretary of energy said Friday
that he was considering the creation of a federal
police force to replace the private guards used by
the weapons program for decades.

     Advertisement


The secretary, Spencer Abraham, also said that the
department would reduce the number of places where
weapons fuel is stored and would consider whether
it had underestimated the threat posed by
terrorists.

In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the
department increased its estimate of the number of
attackers and the grade of arms that its nuclear
weapons plants should be prepared to repel. But
that estimate, produced last May, has been
challenged by the General Accounting Office, which
said that the estimate was smaller than what other
government experts postulated.

The Congressional auditors also noted that it took
the Energy Department 21 months to write the new
threat assessment and said that preparing to meet
the new threat level would take up to five years.

On Thursday Mr. Abraham, speaking to guards near
the department's Savannah River Site in South
Carolina, confirmed the complaints of some of the
department's fiercest critics. He said that the
guards at some weapons plants and laboratories
were putting in so much overtime that there was
not enough time to train them. And he said that
many department employees were afraid to point out
security problems to their superiors, calling it a
"failure of leadership" in the Energy Department.

The situation, he said, "calls for a change in our
management culture."

He also proposed to address the disappearance of
classified material on computer storage devices.
In June 2000, two hard drives were missing at Los
Alamos National Laboratory for 11 days. The F.B.I.
investigated but made no arrests.

Mr. Abraham said he would move the department
toward "diskless" computing within five years. The
department will also move to eliminate mechanical
door keys, because guards keep losing them, he
said.

Shortly before Mr. Abraham spoke, the Senate Armed
Services Committee gave the department a rare
victory on environmental policy. The committee
announced that it had adopted language, as part of
the defense authorization bill for next year, that
would make clear that the secretary of energy has
the power to allow highly radioactive wastes to be
left in place in aging steel tanks at Savannah
River, and not pumped out, solidified and shipped
to Yucca Mountain in Nevada for burial.

Last year, after the department proposed leaving
much of the waste in the tanks, an environmental
group, the Natural Resources Defense Council,
sued, arguing that a 1982 law, the Nuclear Waste
Policy Act, required that high-level waste be
buried in a deep repository. South Carolina
supported the suit, as did Idaho and Washington,
which have similar tanks, and Oregon, which is
across the Columbia River from the tanks at the
Hanford Site in Washington.

A Federal District Court in Idaho ruled for the
environmental group and the states. The Energy
Department is appealing - following a pattern of
arguing that it is exempt from environmental laws.

Kyle E. McSlarrow, the deputy secretary of energy,
contended in an interview this week that the law
allowed the energy secretary to define which waste
is hazardous enough to require deep burial. Mr.
McSlarrow added that the law on nuclear waste
disposal was "not a model of clarity and
direction."

With the issue thrown into flux by the court, Mr.
McSlarrow said, "we're not allowed to clean out
these tanks," because no one knows how clean they
have to be.

But Geoffrey Fettus, a lawyer at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, said the department was
trying to change the law without any hearings,
through a committee that does not usually deal
with the issue.

"It is our position that the Nuclear Waste Policy
Act should apply in South Carolina as it does
elsewhere," Mr. Fettus said. "We have every
indication that there's quite a floor fight
coming."





*****************************************************************
 8 Media Matters: Limbaugh goes mainstream
 
Rush returned fire, attacked media focus on his Iraqi prisoner
abuse rants 

On May 7 -- while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered his 
personal apology for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. 
military personnel before the Senate and House Armed Services 
Committees on Capitol Hill, saying that the wrongdoings were 
"fundamentally un-American" -- radio host Rush Limbaugh defended 
the prison abuse for the fifth straight day and attacked media 
coverage of the controversial remarks Limbaugh made on , May 4, 
May 5, and May 6. 

Meet the New Rush, Same as the Old Rush 

A Media Matters for America Analysis of The Rush Limbaugh Show 
Limbaugh: Women "Actually Wish" for Sexual Harassment 
Limbaugh: "A Chavez is a Chavez. We've Always Had Problems with
Them" 

In December 2002, columnist E. J. Dionne argued that nationally
syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh's "new respectability is the
surest sign that the conservative talk network is now bleeding
into what passes for the mainstream media." [Dionne column, The
Washington Post, 12/6/02] In January 2003, Dionne declared,
"Rush Limbaugh has now been mainstreamed." [CNN, Reliable
Sources, 1/4/03] 

Recent coverage of Limbaugh in The Washington Post and The New
York Times confirms Dionne's contention that Limbaugh is
enjoying a newfound respectability in the mainstream media. 

For example, on April 26, The Washington Post described Limbaugh
simply as a "Republican"; on April 24, the Post described
Limbaugh as a "radio commentator" but did not mention Limbaugh's
party affiliation or ideology. And on March 23, the paper
reported Vice President Dick Cheney's guest appearance on
Limbaugh's show but did not even mention Limbaugh's party
affiliation or ideology. 

Likewise, New York Times articles from March 23, March 24, and
March 25 referred to Cheney's appearance on "the syndicated Rush
Limbaugh radio program" or, alternatively, "Rush Limbaugh's
radio program." 

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, however, apparently
thinks that Limbaugh's acceptance by the mainstream media is not
the result of having "been mainstreamed" but, rather, that
Limbaugh simply is "mainstream." 

In 2002, after Senator Tom Daschle criticized Limbaugh for his
"attacks" on public figures, Kurtz said on CNN that Limbaugh
criticizes Democrats "mostly about policy. Not in a way, to my
ear at least that much different than you hear on the cable
shout shows every night." [CNN, Inside Politics, 11/21/02] Kurtz
also defended Limbaugh in his "" column on Washingtonpost.com: 

Has Tom Daschle lost a couple of screws? Did the normally
mild-mannered senator accuse Rush Limbaugh of inciting violence?
He came pretty darn close. There were cameras there. You can
watch the replay. 

We can understand that Daschle is down, just having lost his
majority leader's job and absorbed plenty of blame for this
month's Democratic debacle. 

What we can't understand is how the South Dakotan can suggest
that a mainstream conservative with a huge radio following is
somehow whipping up wackos to threaten Daschle and his family. 

Has the senator listened to Rush lately? Sure, he aggressively
pokes fun at Democrats and lionizes Republicans, but mainly
about policy. He's so mainstream that those right-wingers Tom
Brokaw and Tim Russert had him on their Election Night coverage. 

Is Limbaugh really the policy-focused "mainstream conservative"
Kurtz portrays him to be? Or is Dionne right that Limbaugh has
"been mainstreamed" -- that is, he's as extreme as ever and has
been granted unjustified "new respectability" by the media? 

Media Matters for America monitored The Rush Limbaugh Show from
March 15 to April 29. During that time, Limbaugh used the term
"femi-Nazis" eight times; he suggested that women want to be
sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with
terrorists; he twice resurrected long-discredited right-wing
claims that Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was
murdered; he repeatedly called Senator John Kerry a "gigolo"; he
called environmentalists "total wackos"; he called Howard Dean
"a very sick man"; he said Democrats "hate this country"; he
referred several times to Democratic National Committee Chair
Terry McAuliffe as a "punk" ... and so on. 

On March 17, Limbaugh -- referring to remarks made by Senator
John Kerry that were picked up by a microphone -- told
listeners, "I'm proud to be a member of the lying crook
Republican attack machine." One week later, Limbaugh reassured
his listeners that his radio program is "a choo-choo train of
truth." 

We report. You decide. Below, Media Matters for America has
listed 77 recent comments that Rush Limbaugh made on-air during
the national broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show [with the
show's air date in brackets]. 

Limbaugh Makes Sexist Comments: 

1) Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual
harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they
actually wish would happen to them sometimes. [4/26/04] 

2) Will it be the Democratic insiders' dream of Kerry and John
Edwards? Or maybe the media's dream team of Kerry and John
McCain. Or will it be the femi-Nazi dream team of Kerry and
Hillary. [4/5/04] 

3) Some funny comments from the femi-Nazis at the pro-abortion
rally in Washington yesterday. Not many. It didn't take long for
us to put together our montage, but we'll let you hear it when
we come back. [4/26/04] 

4) Oh, if you missed the "morning update" today, the femi-Nazis
have really stepped into it. Karen Hughes just said some of the
-- well, the most innocent, true, great stuff. And the
femi-Nazis have assumed she was comparing them to the
terrorists, which she wasn't. But now they've linked themselves
with the terrorists. [4/29/04] 

5) [W]e got the femi-Nazi uprising over comments made by Karen
Hughes. [4/29/04] 

6) Today's morning update, for those of you who missed it, let
me share it with you. Angry Democrats and radical femi-Nazis are
demanding an apology from Karen Hughes, presidential adviser,
over some remarks that she made on CNN. Now, since very few
people watch CNN any more, let me tell you what she said. While
the femi-Nazis' pro-abortion march was taking place in
Washington on Sunday, Karen Hughes, on CNN, was asked how the
issue of abortion would play in the elections. [4/29/04] 

7) So, to Eleanor Squeal [sic-"Smeal"] and the Pro-Choice crowd,
the femi-Nazis who marched in such rage and anger on Sunday,
we're so sorry. [4/29/04] 

8) What is Eleanor Squeal [sic-"Smeal"] doing? Shut up.
[4/29/04] 

9) On Hannity & Colmes last week, Sean Hannity asked Patricia
Ireland, who I guess was most recently with the Young Women's
Christian Association, ahem, about placards reported in the
crowd among the pagan ladies. [4/29/04] 

10) The purpose -- Al Gore wants this channel to create a
liberal version of the FOX News channel. We've already got CNN.
We got CNN Headline News. We've got, for all intents and
purposes, PMS-NBC. [4/5/04] 

11) Well, Rich Lowry has a column today, National Review Online,
and Time magazine has just discovered that stay-at-home moms are
women who have made legitimate choices to stay home and raise
their young children -- a cover story. Time magazine has
headlined the case for staying home, and the magazine, according
to Lowry, reports without sneering or condescension, the trend
toward more new mothers leaving the workforce. Yes, it's a
trend. It started years ago when the feminist movement decided
that their best friends were going to be German shepherds. You
know. So that's -- well, it's true. You go to the right airports
and you can see it. [3/19/04] 

12) Several liberal Democrats, most of whom did not support
Kerry during the primaries, asked his national chair babe,
former Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who was
appearing at a House Democrat caucus meeting, why the Party's
presumptive presidential nominee has not responded more
forcefully to Republican broadsides on his patriotism and his
service in Vietnam. [4/29/04] 

13) All right, there's a story here from The Washington Post,
Lois Romano, who've I've -- I've dealt with Lois Romano, but she
was pretty good. Pretty good reporterette. [4/9/04] 

14) That was Star Jones, resident member of The View, recently
engaged -- from what I'm told, amazingly so -- and she's joking
about sending a weapon of mass destruction at Bush. And here
these babes are all upset that they're going to miss American
Idol tonight. Well, tough toenails! Going to miss -- ? You
liberals have been out there demanding and clamoring to see Bush
put himself through this, and now he's doing it, and you're all
bent out of shape that he's going to force you to miss American
Idol? What is your IQ, about that of a pencil eraser? [4/13/04] 

15) Oh, gosh, that hurts, my friends. It reminds me of my first
wife. Ah! Gee! It is just painful to hear this, and then she
[Hillary Clinton] starts yelling everywhere -- Dawn, you can
smile. She's in there shaking her head. She's -- she's here in a
den of sexists, folks, and she puts up such a game front.
Chauvinists, I should say. We're not sexists, we're chauvinists
-- we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we
think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what
women want. [4/15/04] 

16) Then here comes this Joe Wilson clown whose wife was the CIA
babe that Novak ostensibly was responsible for spreading
information of her identity. [4/5/04] 

17) Now if Hilary does become Kerry's VP, will she have to
change her positions to be on the same page with Kerry or will
Kerry have to change his? (laughter) Don't forget that testicle
lock box, folks. (laughter) Just as we haven't talked about it
in awhile does not mean (laughter) that it's -- that it's been
buried. [4/15/04] 

18) If I were Bob Woodward, I would be on a lookout for Mrs.
Clinton and her testicle lockbox, because she has just been
snookered, like every other Liberal, by believing what Woodward
says is in his book in these interviews, as opposed to what's
actually in these books, or this book, because it's exactly what
she claims she needs in an administration. [4/21/04] 

Limbaugh Makes Racially Charged Comments: 

19) And then what if -- there are all kinds of little Communist
regimes in -- what if [Fidel] Castro shows up and says I endorse
Kerry? The Black Caucus would like that, but Kerry wouldn't.
[3/19/04] 

20) Look. It's one thing to say you like it. It's OK. But to try
to pass this off as something that you've intellectually
examined and have assigned value you to -- ah, sorry, Senator
[Kerry]. And I'm not going to believe this business that you
don't like heavy metal. I mean, I think heavy metal's probably
your anthem. You know, from the Vietnam era and all that. But
here, again, don't stand up for white music. Associate yourself
with rap. [4/5/04] 

21) The -- the gang culture has given us rap, elements of rap,
or rap has influenced -- whichever. They are intertwined.
[4/7/04] 

22) OPEC announced a cancellation of its 10 percent cutback in
production so -- and there's some little strife going on in
Venezuela with that wacko, Cesar Chavez, down there. Hugo. Hugo,
Cesar -- whatever. A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had
problems with them. So the bottom line is that I don't think
supplies are going to be interrupted. [3/26/04] 

23) We are reviewing the testimony, the grilling, the
interrogation of noted criminal Dr. Condoleezza Rice who
appeared before the law today, the 9/11 Commission attempting to
assign blame and seeking to affix it to the Bush administration
via beating up on the girl. Only in Washington when the girl is
a Republican and a black can you beat up on her. Couldn't do
this if she were representing a Democrat administration
regardless of her color, but especially given that she's black.
This couldn't even have happened had she been in a Democrat
administration. Nobody would have had the guts to say that she
needs to testify beyond what she said behind closed doors. But
since she's a Republican, since she has the audacity to be a
black woman Republican, why, it's OK to beat up on the girl. And
they tried to beat up on the girl today, folks, and she hit them
below the belt. [4/8/04] 

Limbaugh Finds Common Cause Between Democrats and Terrorists: 

24) I'm going to tell you is what's good for Al Qaeda is good
for the Democratic Party in this country today. That's how you
boil this down. And it doesn't have to be Al Qaeda. What's good
for terrorists is good for John Kerry. All you got to do is
check the way they react. [3/15/04] 

25) So the only real question is, if Al Qaeda's active and
capable, what are they going to do? Because we know what they
want: they want Kerry, they want the Democrats in power. They'd
love that -- I mean, based simply on what they're saying and how
they're reacting to what happened in Spain. I'm not guessing.
[3/15/04] 

Media Matters for America notes: According to , an apparent Al
Qaeda letter that surfaced in March stated that the group
supports Bush's reelection: "The statement said it supported
President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him
to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John
Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader 'more foolish
than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than
with wisdom.' ... [The letter added,] 'Kerry will kill our
nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the
cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and
Muslim nation as civilization. ... Because of this we desire you
(Bush) to be elected.'" [Reuters, 3/17/04] 

26) They [Democrats] celebrate privately this attack in Spain.
[3/16/04] 

27) I mean, if you wonder -- if you want the terrorists running
the show, then you will elect John Kerry, who is a bed brother
with this guy who just won election in Spain. [3/18/04] 

28) I'm telling you, we're in the midst of a huge liberal
crackup. They are so motivated by the quest for power. They are
so motivated by rage and hatred, that they are not in power. And
they focus that on Bush. That they have aligned themselves
unwittingly -- I'm going to grant them that -- with those who
intend harm on this country. [3/24/04] 

29) You don't hear the Democrats being critical of terrorists.
In fact, you hear the Democrats saying, "We've got to find a way
to get along with them." [4/5/04] 

30) Senator [Ted] Kennedy, a simple question. Does it please you
to learn who your friends are? Does it excite you, Senator
Kennedy, to learn that the militant, firebrand, murderer of
American civilians and military personnel is on your side,
Senator Kennedy? Does it encourage you? Does it invigorate you?
Does it inspire you, Senator Kennedy, to know that a murdering
Al Qaeda-related terrorist has taken up your argument for use
against his enemy? How does that make you feel, Senator Kennedy?
Does it embarrass you? Because it should. Or does it probably
excite you and think you're making headway now. You've got the
enemy aligned with you. [4/8/04] 

31)It's never that people are evil, or bad, because remember the
elitist Liberals of today are skeptical of the difference
between good and evil. This is why people like liberal Democrats
in the country will look at what's happening in Madrid and
what's happening in Baghdad today and they'll see George Bush as
a greater threat than the people setting off the bombs. And
these are the people that want to oust Bush. The people who
remain skeptical of the fact that there is any difference
between right and wrong, or good and evil. [3/17/04] 

32) Let me ask you a question. Who do you think the terrorists
enjoy watching more on TV? Aljazeera or the commission coverage
in the United States? I say it's a toss-up. I say the terrorists
are having trouble making up their minds which is better for
them -- the press coverage of the commission hearings in this
country or Aljazeera, their own network in the Middle East.
[3/29/04] 

Limbaugh Suggests Democrats Hate America and Like Dictators: 

33) [Speaking about Democrats] I don't know who they are, I
don't know what they believe, but I can't relate. I can't
possibly understand somebody who hates this country, who was
born and raised here. I don't understand how you hate this
Constitution. I don't understand how you hate freedom. I don't
understand how you hate free markets, but that's who elites are,
because freedom and free markets challenge their power. It's the
only thing I can come up with. I know it's much more insidious
and hideous than that, but I still can't relate to it. [3/16/04] 

34) The Democrats believe that the presence of the US military
is what makes the world dangerous. The Democrats, liberal
Democrats in this country, believe, and have for a long time,
that the U.S. military is the focus of evil, is the primary
agent provocateur for all of this. That if we weren't the way we
are, the terrorists wouldn't hate us. And if we weren't as big
as we are, if we weren't as powerful as we are, if we weren't as
decadent -- whatever. Well, they won't say "decadent," because
they support that. [3/18/04] 

35) [Daschle parody]: Hi and welcome back to the Tom Daschle
Show... The country is suffering, and, ah -- and we're happy
about that here at the Tom Daschle Show because it's -- while
it's bad for the country, it's great for our party, and that's
what's important. [4/5/04] 

36) We are not going to commit the same mistakes [in Iraq that
we made in Vietnam]. There's not a person in Washington, DC,
alive that has anything to do with this who is going to see to
it that those same mistakes are made again. This is wishful
thinking on the part of the Democrats. And once again they
undercut the morale of the military. [4/6/04] 

37) Well, Senator Kennedy, it's different people running the
show now with a different objective than existed in Vietnam. And
what he's engaging in here [in suggesting an Iraq-Vietnam
parallel], folks, is wishful thinking. [4/6/04] 

38) Senator Kennedy has just told us what he hopes happens. He
wants a quagmire. [4/6/04] 

39) We've got elements of one of the two major political parties
in this country doing things, saying things, taking steps that
are designed to demoralize. And if they're not designed to
demoralize, they are certainly resulting in either one of two
things: the demoralization of our troops who hear them, or
they're providing motivation and inspiration for the enemy, all
in the silly selfish quest for their own political power.
[4/7/04] 

40) This is why, folks, you cannot, we cannot entrust liberals
with the defense of this country. They will not do it. They will
not defend the American military. They will cut and run every
time. They will not defend freedom. They will not defend this
country. [4/7/04] 

41) The Liberals put their party and their quest for power above
national interests. They wouldn't join with Reagan during the
Cold War. Defended the Soviets. Tried to make Gorbachev the hero
of the world. Iraqi freedom, George W. Bush. Then we had the
situation down with the Contras in Nicaragua. Democrats did
everything they could to support the Contras and their client
state, the Soviet Union. We've got Iraqi Freedom. [4/13/04] 

42) These people have become the mainstream thought -- thinkers,
generators of the Democratic Party. It's who they are. They hate
this country. They hate the military of this country. [4/15/04] 

43) Castro's the kind of guy that Kerry would probably lionize,
to tell you the truth. [3/15/04] 

Limbaugh Ridicules Kerry's Marriage: 

44) He's [Kerry] been a senator with no name on legislation, his
own name not on legislation. I mean, he's been there, but he's
basically a skirt-chaser, folks. He's a gigolo. He has not been
somebody that a lot of people have taken seriously. [3/16/04] 

45) [On James Carville of CNN defending Kerry]: "So he's out
defending a gigolo." [3/16/04] 

46) Kerry is cheap. Most gigolos are. I mean -- I think it -- I
think it goes with the, with the definition. [4/7/04] 

47) The fact that he's [Kerry] a gigolo is just funny to me. You
know, that fact that he -- he has no passion, and the fact that
he's a dullard and a dry ball, those are funny things to me.
[4/8/04] 

48) Are you really -- you're not -- the intern story, whatever
that is -- that affair story -- that's not over. I'll guarantee
you." [3/16/04] 

49) Speaking of that, I saw a picture on the attack Internet
today of Kerry kissing Teresa Heinz last night after the
Illinois primary, and I'm not -- folks? This woman does not look
like she wants to be kissed at the moment she's being kissed.
Her arms are down at her side and her lips -- I mean, it looks
like -- it just doesn't -- I say, in full attack mode here, it
just doesn't look affectionate, but it could have been that he
surprised her. He probably never kisses her and it gave and it
gets -- I'm just kidding. But you should see the picture. It
just looks like -- let's put it this way, folks, when you dream
of kissing a woman, this is not what it looks like. [3/17/04] 

50) [W]hat do you consider a fair wage? John Kerry considers a
fair wage a wife with 500 million. So, he had to find a company
that had one. Well, there aren't too many of these companies
that have little heiresses running around that are single, have
500 million that some guy can marry into. [3/23/04] 

51) Because see, Al Gore's daddy was a senator and Al Gore's
daddy worked his way up from wealth and power to wealth and
power. I mean, he got more of it than anybody ever dreamed of
for having as little to go on. I mean, he's one of those old
boys. You know how that worked back then. Then John Kerry's
daddy is his wives. (laughter) I mean, he's a gigolo. Everybody
knows this. There's nobody in our party really has much respect
for this guy and you can see it last night, but I can't say
that. I mean, you got sugar daddy wife back then. You got sugar
daddy wife now. He worked his way up from a blue blood to a
platinum American Express card, and it doesn't have his name on
it. [3/26/04] 

52) We have a new, little Kerry song here, my friends. Paul
Shanklin [Rush Limbaugh show's "man of many voices"] had to put
his testicles in a lock box in order to sing this song.
[4/20/04] 

53) John Kerry does not look young, and he does not look like
the future. John Kerry looks like Lurch from The Addams Family
and that's a family that got up out of caskets every day to go
about their business. [3/25/04] 

54) Now you've heard Kerry talk about the fact that when people
have criticized his legislation, his voting record, "Well, you
don't know how these things work. You've never been there.
You're just a little peon. You've never married rich women like
I have. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't
drink brandy from snifters. You use Styrofoam cups. I'm a real
man and I know what I'm talking about. And I'm just telling you,
you can't hit me on my record, because you're challenging my
patriotism, and I served in Vietnam, so shut the f*** up,"
that's your John Kerry response. [3/29/04] 

Limbaugh Says Environmentalists are "Nuts": 

55) [Speaking about environmentalists] These people are nuts,
folks. They're absolute wackos. They're total wackos. And yet
they represent quite a bit of thinking in the Left of this
country. They are not -- I mean to us, they're fringe, but the
-- the Left fringe is more and more defining them as their
mainstream. ? Well, that's part of it. I -- you know, there's --
there's no question there's commerce competition here. I have no
question, because she does run this co-op, but make no mistake
that these are a bunch of people that look at capitalism as an
enemy of the people. And are trying to influence thinking in
that, in that. I mean, that's what the modern environ --
environmental movement is about, folks. [4/7/04] 

Limbaugh: Howard Dean "Very Sick"; McAuliffe a "Punk": 

56) In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen, Howard Dean, truly, a
very sick man, said yesterday, President Bush's decision to send
troops to Iraq appears to have contributed to the bombing deaths
of 201 people in Spain. [3/17/04] 

57) You know, Howard Dean is a -- I mean, it was already
demonstrated that he was a sick man. This is why we were hoping
he would get the nomination. [3/17/04] 

58) They came out and did their speeches in time for the punk,
Terry McAuliffe, to come out, who, by the way, Page Six today,
the gossip page column of the New York Post, Page Six, says that
if Kerry wins that the punk will become the ambassador to the
court of St. James. That's Great Britain for those of you in Rio
Linda. [4/6/04] 

59) We have here, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Punk, Terry
McAuliffe, he was on The Today Show today. ? So the Punk wormed
his way onto The Today Show today. [4/16/04] 

60) Then Terry McAuliffe, the punk, came out, and he introduced
a video and it was a John Kerry campaign video that started off
with Vietnam footage, and testimony before the Congress, the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and his appearance on Dick
Cavett with some other veteran... Then after the video was over,
here came the punk back. The punk walked back out there,
McAuliffe, and introduced Kerry. [3/26/04] 

Limbaugh Attacks Welfare Recipients 

61) Can you imagine some poor welfare recipient in Arizona,
doesn't know what's up. Doesn't know why the check's not as big.
Doesn't know why the food stamps don't stick to whatever he
tries to mail. [4/8/04] 

Limbaugh Makes Xenophobic Remarks 

62) We had an attack in Weird-zakistan or whatever -- one of
these Zakstan places. Uzbekistan, yes, whatever it is. They're
all Weird-zakistan to me, but -- How many Zakistans are there
over there? Seems like a new one pops up every day. You can't
keep track of them. I'm a geography expert and I've never heard
of some of these. I don't expect Ron Wyden (sp?) to know where
it is, but I would think I would. Now I've heard of Uzbekistan,
but there was one the other day that I -- that I -- Kazakistan,
Kazikstan, oh, I've heard of those. But it looked like
Weird-zakistan to me. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. [3/30/04] 

63) Why is the United States of America almost always alone in
carrying this burden? We are almost always alone, Senator Kerry,
because Europe is fat and lazy, spoiled by our bailing them out.
[4/9/04] 

64) A French journalist has been kidnapped in Iraq, but I don't
believe it. I think the guy surrendered. [4/13/04] 

65) As I said yesterday, truce is an old Arabic word. Goes way,
way back in Islamic-Arabic culture, and it means, "We will get
you later." [4/16/04] 

66) The UN preaches hate, preaches anti-Semitism and
anti-Americanism. [3/26/04] 

67) [Referring to new Spain's new Prime Minister] Hey, locoweed.
[3/17/04] 

Limbaugh Says Peace is "Not Healthy," Trashes September 11
Families: 

68) I'm almost going to come out in favor of war every 10 years
so that we always have a group of people in this country that
know what it's like. It's not healthy to go without a war for
all these many years, because you get people that are born and
grow up, and don't know what one is, and then the war happens,
you start firing ammunition, and they think the world is coming
to an end. When the truth is we're kicking ass over there.
[4/9/04] 

Note: It's worth keeping in mind that, while Limbaugh wants to
have a "group of people in this country" who know what war is
like, he didn't want to be in that group himself: Limbaugh
didn't serve in Vietnam and told Jeff Greenfield in 1992, "I did
not want to go." 

69) Some of these families [of 9/11 victims] I think are
auditioning for co-host of The Today Show. [4/9/04] 

70) We had a typically snooty, silly little Liberal on the phone
who wanted to take potshots at me for daring, daring to say that
some of the 9/11 family members are close to becoming or have
become Democrat operatives. [4/9/04] 

Limbaugh Suggests the Clintons are Murderous, Again: 

71) That's why I'm telling you, whoever briefed Janet Reno,
start searching Fort Marcy Park [in suburban Northern Virginia
where Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster's body was
found after he committed suicide], folks. [4/13/04] 

72) They [the Clintons] know that -- they're pretty confident
Kerry is going to lose and if Kerry wins there's always Fort
Marcy Park. So they're rolling the dice on this. [4/15/04] 

Limbaugh Makes Weird, Sexually Charged Comments: 

73) Little news here about all of our children. "Princeton
University faculty have approved a plan Monday to combat rising
grades by limiting the number of A's that it awards to
undergraduates. The faculty voted 156 to 84 to implement the
plan, making Princeton the first college or university to
formally curb grade inflation by rationing A's, said the dean of
the college, Nancy Weiss Malkiel, who proposed the plan." And
I'm not sure that's how she pronounces her name. "Under the
guidelines, which go into effect in the fall for Princeton's
4,600 undergraduates, faculty are expected to restrict the
number of As to 35 percent in undergraduate courses." Sounds to
me like this is just a -- a -- sort of a -- a secret ways to
reduce the number of affairs between professors and students.
[4/28/04] 

74) Duke University has now decided that students, college
students at Duke, 8:00 classes are too early. They're going to
eliminate 8:00 classes because the students are showing up dead
tired. Now what this means to me is that more professors are
having affairs with students. And there's a reason for the
fatigue. [4/19/04] 

75) Republicans did not make a big issue of [Richard] Clarke
being granted executive privilege or having it claimed by
Clinton in '99, because they understood that there's a
legitimate constitutional issue here. But somehow all the
reporting on this issue has missed this, because these new breed
of White House reporters came from covering the Lewinsky
scandal, and all these cable networks, or from Court TV, or some
such thing, and they basically are, you know, just -- just
entertainment gossip columnists that have been assigned the
White House beat. 

This is not the old days where Tom Brokaw had to be on The Today
Show for 44 years before he got the White House beat, and then
after that he gets the anchor job or whatever the pattern was. I
mean, they didn't pluck these guys out because they turn on
little 18- to 24-year-old girls that they hope to be watching.
They're just going for lookers these days, let's be honest,
everybody knows this. 

And that's now happened to the network news as well. You can't
find an ugly person on TV. Well, subjective, everybody might
find somebody ugly, but it's hard to find ugly people on the
news anymore. The news used to be full of them. You know,
journalism was a haven for the ugly. Politics, you know, as they
say show biz for the ugly, and the news is part of politics. 

I mean, you go back and look at -- do I have to mention any
names? Let's just face it, Walter Cronkite's not going to have
anybody undressing in front of the TV saying, "Oh, please, only
me, Walter." Isn't gonna happen. Eric Sevareid, same thing,
Brinkley, Huntley, all these guys. No, they were respected
journalists. [3/30/04] 

76) All of this August 6th PDB, why the White House declassified
it on a Saturday? And why they did it on a Saturday to bury it
during the news cycle on the day before Easter and on and on.
And everybody says, "Look at this, it's out." And Bill
Schneider, I saw Bill Schneider on CNN, he can barely contain
himself. My folks, he was orgasming on the air. [4/13/04] 

77) And we have people, all three sexes listen to this program.
[4/5/04] 
Posted to the web on Sunday May 2, 2004 at 6:05 PM EST 
Copyright � 2004 Media Matters for America. All rights reserved. 
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy 
*****************************************************************
 9 New York Times: Nuclear Weapons Program Could Get Own Police Force
 
 By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: May 8, 2004

[W] ASHINGTON, May 7 � Facing questions about whether terrorists 
could steal nuclear weapons material or technology, the secretary 
of energy said Friday that he was considering the creation of a 
federal police force to replace the private guards used by the 
weapons program for decades.

 The secretary, Spencer Abraham, also said that the department 
would reduce the number of places where weapons fuel is stored 
and would consider whether it had underestimated the threat posed 
by terrorists.

 In response to the Sept. 11 attacks, the department increased 
its estimate of the number of attackers and the grade of arms 
that its nuclear weapons plants should be prepared to repel. But 
that estimate, produced last May, has been challenged by the 
General Accounting Office, which said that the estimate was 
smaller than what other government experts postulated.

 The Congressional auditors also noted that it took the Energy 
Department 21 months to write the new threat assessment and said 
that preparing to meet the new threat level would take up to five 
years.

 On Thursday Mr. Abraham, speaking to guards near the 
department's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, confirmed the 
complaints of some of the department's fiercest critics. He said 
that the guards at some weapons plants and laboratories were 
putting in so much overtime that there was not enough time to 
train them. And he said that many department employees were 
afraid to point out security problems to their superiors, calling 
it a "failure of leadership" in the Energy Department.

 The situation, he said, "calls for a change in our management 
culture." 

He also proposed to address the disappearance of classified 
material on computer storage devices. In June 2000, two hard 
drives were missing at Los Alamos National Laboratory for 11 
days. The F.B.I. investigated but made no arrests. 

Mr. Abraham said he would move the department toward "diskless" 
computing within five years. The department will also move to 
eliminate mechanical door keys, because guards keep losing them, 
he said.

 Shortly before Mr. Abraham spoke, the Senate Armed Services 
Committee gave the department a rare victory on environmental 
policy. The committee announced that it had adopted language, as 
part of the defense authorization bill for next year, that would 
make clear that the secretary of energy has the power to allow 
highly radioactive wastes to be left in place in aging steel 
tanks at Savannah River, and not pumped out, solidified and 
shipped to Yucca Mountain in Nevada for burial.

 Last year, after the department proposed leaving much of the 
waste in the tanks, an environmental group, the Natural Resources 
Defense Council, sued, arguing that a 1982 law, the Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act, required that high-level waste be buried in a deep 
repository. South Carolina supported the suit, as did Idaho and 
Washington, which have similar tanks, and Oregon, which is across 
the Columbia River from the tanks at the Hanford Site in 
Washington.

 A Federal District Court in Idaho ruled for the environmental 
group and the states. The Energy Department is appealing � 
following a pattern of arguing that it is exempt from 
environmental laws. 

Kyle E. McSlarrow, the deputy secretary of energy, contended in 
an interview this week that the law allowed the energy secretary 
to define which waste is hazardous enough to require deep burial. 
Mr. McSlarrow added that the law on nuclear waste disposal was 
"not a model of clarity and direction."

 With the issue thrown into flux by the court, Mr. McSlarrow 
said, "we're not allowed to clean out these tanks," because no 
one knows how clean they have to be. 

But Geoffrey Fettus, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense 
Council, said the department was trying to change the law without 
any hearings, through a committee that does not usually deal with 
the issue. 

"It is our position that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act should 
apply in South Carolina as it does elsewhere," Mr. Fettus said. 
"We have every indication that there's quite a floor fight 
coming."

         Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home|
*****************************************************************
 10 albawaba.com: Iran FM: Better trust being built with Europe over nuclear program
 
Al Bawaba - Middle East News and Information 

  08-05-2004, 10:29  
  
Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his country's 
diplomatic efforts, including his latest trip to Germany, Belgium 
and Denmark, have built better trust between the country and 
Europe over Tehran`s nuclear program.
 
The minister, upon arriving back Saturday morning, made an upbeat 
assessment of the outcome of his trip, which he described as 
"positive."
 
According to IRNA, Kharrazi said, "Overall, it was needed that 
authorities of the European Union, including Germany, Belgium and 
Denmark, which follow up Iran's nuclear file, be briefed on the 
country`s nuclear developments." 

"There was a positive development in negotiations with officials 
of these countries concerning Iran's nuclear file and given the 
Islamic Republic`s cooperation and the important steps which it 
has taken, better trust has been built," he said. 

Kharrazi reiterated Tehran's "full cooperation" with the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), predicting that "We 
will witness notable achievements in the future in this regard."
 
The Iranian foreign minister stressed that all outstanding issues 
must be tackled between Tehran and the nuclear watchdog agency 
before a key session of the IAEA board of governors in June. 

"(IAEA chief Mohamed) Elbaradei has expressed satisfaction with 
the positive trend of cooperation concerning Iran`s nuclear 
issues; naturally, this trend must continue so that all 
outstanding issues are settled and we reach a final solution in 
the next session," he said. (Albawaba.com)                                                        
  
� 2004 Al Bawaba   
*****************************************************************
 11 PTI: US not to accept India, Pak as N-weapon states
 
Monday, May 10, 2004   

 Press Trust of India

 Washington, May 9: The United States had taken steps to 
strengthen its ties with India and Pakistan to advance its 
regional goals and these moves should not be seen as US accepting 
the South Asian nations as nuclear weapon States under the Non 
Proliferation Treaty, a senior State Department official has 
said. 

"We have taken steps recently with both countries (India and 
Pakistan) to strengthen relations in order to advance our 
regional goals, enhance the fight against terrorism, and to 
secure cooperation from both countries on export controls. 

"These steps should not, however, be taken to suggest that we 
have 'accepted' the status of either country as a nuclear weapon 
state under the NPT. We have not," US Assistant Secretary of 
State for Non-proliferation, John S Wolf, said at the third 
session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review 
Conference of the Treaty in New York. 

He said the US would not reward either country for their 
decisions to acquire nuclear weapons or for the 1998 tests. 

"Our focus in South Asia has been and remains on preventing 
actions that would undermine the global non-proliferation regime 
and regional stability - be it through nuclear testing, 
deployment, nuclear use, or proliferation to other countries," 
Wolf said. 

"We hope that India, Israel, and Pakistan would eventually join 
the Treaty as non-nuclear weapon States, he said, adding India 
and Pakistan remained ineligible under the US law and policy for 
any significant assistance to their nuclear programs. 

Wolf said the US also urged Pakistan to continue to take steps 
necessary to end the activities of the dangerous nuclear 
proliferation network spawned by A Q Khan. 

"It is up to Pakistan and numerous other countries in which this 
multinational network operated to take the necessary measures to 
shut down the network and to implement comprehensive measures to 
prevent any recurrence. 

Wolf said US believes Khan's network took advantage of weak laws, 
and weak enforcement. 

"We urge the countries involved to review and strengthen their 
export controls and their capabilities to administer new 
controls," he said.

� 2004: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
*****************************************************************
 12 Scotsman: Nuclear holocaust on a hair trigger
 
Sun 9 May 2004   			 			
 		   	 	
SCOTT PETERSON IN MOSCOW 

IT PROMISED to be a quiet evening when Lt Col Stanislav Petrov 
settled into his commander’s seat at the Soviet nuclear early 
warning centre near Moscow, but within minutes he was in the 
middle of what was perhaps the most dangerous drama of the Cold 
War. 

An alarm sounded, warning screens blinked and to Petrov’s 
horror a computer map showed the hostile launch of a US nuclear 
warhead. 

The decision the colonel made on September 26, 1983, in those 
vital minutes - that the computer, and the elaborate early 
warning system that he helped build were wrong - may have 
prevented a nuclear holocaust. 

Twenty years later, there is growing concern that a similar 
nuclear miscue could happen again. Despite the Cold War being 
consigned to political history, the US and its former rival still 
have thousands of missiles aimed at each other’s major cities 
on hair-trigger alert. 

And plans devised by former presidents Bill Clinton and Boris 
Yeltsin to create a joint command centre to prevent a 
catastrophic accident have foundered amid Russian bureaucracy and 
US preoccupation with the new nuclear threat from North Korea. 

But experts on both sides are now planning to issue a wake-up 
call designed to convince both governments that close 
co-operation to prevent accidental nuclear conflict is more vital 
than ever. 

Petrov remembers every moment of that nightmare evening. "Every 
second counted," he said. "My legs were unsteady, my hands were 
trembling, my cozy armchair became a hot frying pan. It only got 
worse. Within five minutes the computer registered five more 
launches and the alarm flashed: ‘Missile Attack.’ 

"I wish I could say there is no chance of it [today]. But when we 
deal with space - when we [play] God - who knows what will be the 
next surprise?" 

At presidential summits in both 1998 and 2000, the US and Russia 
announced plans for a joint, real-time warning system in Moscow. 
The blueprint, drawing on American’s sophisticated satellite 
network and Russia’s wide radar net, promised to keep better 
tabs on the superpower arsenals as well as on terrorist threats. 

But now dreams of joint efforts have ground to a halt and neglect 
has left Russia’s system in disrepair. 

"The fact is, the Russians are flying blind," said Jon Wolfsthal, 
a nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for 
International Peace in Washington. 

"There are huge portions of their periphery that are unmonitored 
because their satellites are down, and they’ve lost a number of 
[Soviet-era] radar sites." 

Growing concern has been augmented by a string of Russian 
military accidents, from failed test missile launches to a sunken 
nuclear submarine. 

After a secret year-long investigation into the 1983 incident, 
Petrov said the false readings that shocked him and his team were 
attributed to a rare but predictable reflection off the earth. 
The system was fooled again in 1995, when Russians briefly 
thought that a scientific launch from Norway was a nuclear-tipped 
US missile heading their way. 

Yeltsin reportedly brought out the launch suitcase called the 
"nuclear football" - perhaps the closest it’s ever come to 
being used in Soviet or Russian history - before deciding there 
was no need to respond. 

"There are examples of weather satellite launches, the full moon 
rising, flocks of geese - all these horror stories in history," 
said Wolfsthal. 

When Clinton and Yeltsin first announced plans to build the 
centre in 1998, it was heralded as a breakthrough. And when 
Vladimir Putin replaced Yeltsin as president and signed the deal 
in 2000, the White House touted it as a "milestone in ensuring 
strategic stability". 

Bruce Blair, president of the Centre for Defence Information in 
Washington, who oversaw the detailed research with Russian 
scientists, said: "We looked at detections of the US system 
operating alone, and the Russian one alone, and found the 
combined performance would be 20% to 70% better." 

Russian missile officers used a US command centre in Colorado for 
months at the end of 1999 to familiarise themselves with the US 
early-warning system and to be on hand during the millennium New 
Year to ensure direct contact with Moscow in case any computer 
bug affected the Russian system. 

"It was incredibly useful, and built a lot of trust between 
early-warning groups on both sides," said Wolfsthal. "But in the 
end, they went away, and we’re left without real-time sharing." 

The joint project, first envisioned for completion in mid-2001, 
has foundered on everyday issues of what Russian taxes should be 
paid for imported US equipment, and legal concerns about 
liability. 

"It’s a lack of political will on both sides," said Vladimir 
Dvorkin, a former major general in Russia’s nuclear forces. 

The mundane points stalling the project are surprising security 
experts. "If you’re a lawyer at the State Department, 
[liability and taxes] may be very important issues," said 
Wolfsthal. "But if you are concerned about the geostrategic 
survival of the human species, they are minuscule in their 
relevance." 

Experts on both sides are now to begin a year-long exercise 
examining the need for the joint centre. 

"We want to show what can happen without this centre," said Pavel 
Zolotarev, a former Strategic Forces major general. "We’ll get 
these results in a year, but who knows when we will be able to 
convince the leadership?" 

Over the past decade, the US has spent roughly £3.9bn funding 
nuclear-threat-reduction programmes to control "loose nukes" and 
to secure weapons-grade nuclear material and scientific expertise 
that might be easy targets for terrorists. But the £560m total 
spent per year on all threat reduction amounts to less than 
one-third of 1% of US defence spending. 

Experts estimate that there is a total of 30,000 assembled 
nuclear weapons around the world and enough bomb-grade material 
to create nearly a quarter million more. 

A version of this article orginally appeared in the Christian 
Science Monitor
 
MAXIMUM ALERT
 
IN THE weeks and months leading up to the drama of September 26, 
1983, several developments had inflamed US-Soviet relations: 

• The Soviet military shot down a Korean passenger jet on 
September 1, killing all 269 people on board, including many 
Americans. Soon after, the KGB sent a flash message to its 
operatives in the West, warning them to prepare for possible 
nuclear war. 

• The American leadership began referring to the Soviet Union 
as an "evil empire". 

• After the ‘Star Wars’ speech by President Ronald Reagan, 
right, on March 23 the Soviets feared such a system would 
increase the likelihood that the United States would launch a 
first strike since it would no longer fear retaliation. Russian 
strategy was to fire its arsenal immediately after receiving 
indications of an attack. 

• The US and Nato organised a military exercise that centred 
around using tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. Soviet leaders 
were concerned this was a cover for an actual invasion.                   

2004 Scotsman.com
*****************************************************************
 13 Guardian Unlimited: UK role in nuclear build-up under fire
 
Mark Townsend
Sunday May 9, 2004
The Observer 		

Britain's role in helping to design and test nuclear weapons for 
the Bush administration's planned expansion of the US atomic 
arsenal needs to be fully explained, experts have warned.

Government officials are pushing for an agreement that will 
guarantee Anglo-US collaboration on nuclear weapons for the next 
decade. Scientists will exchange information across the Atlantic 
on the design, technology and testing of bombs.

This coincides with American attempts to embark on a 
multi-million dollar expansion of its nuclear arsenal. President 
George Bush also wants to lower the notification period for 
nuclear weapons testing from three years to 18 months.

Experts believe the UK is quietly creating facilities capable of 
designing and building a new generation of atomic weapons, a 
charge denied by the government.

This belief has provoked accusations of hypocrisy following Tony 
Blair's denunciation of states suspected of developing their own 
nuclear deterrents.

An Observer investigation into Anglo-US nuclear co-operation 
reveals frantic activity in the last 12 months, with British 
scientists visiting key US nuclear laboratories on 190 occasions. 
A total of 219 UK personnel visited the Los Alamos testing site 
in Nevada, where the most recent underground explosions were 
triggered.

Scores of physicists and systems engineers were hired to work at 
the Aldermaston nuclear plant in Berkshire, which is to have a �2 
billion upgrade. It will be equipped with the world's most 
powerful laser, able to create a new nuclear weapon.

This comes as the government is spending �400,000 on offices in 
Washington to facilitate a closer relationship between the UK and 
US on a nuclear weapons programme.

Experts say this flurry of activity raises profound questions 
over the direction of the UK's nuclear programme and this 
country's close relationship with the US as it prepares to test a 
new generation of weapons. The British American Security 
Information Council, an independent think tank in Washington, 
believes the UK must now be explicit about its intentions.

Nigel Chamberlain, a nuclear analyst there, said: 'All these 
elements together raise questions about the direction the British 
government is going. We can only work with the information we are 
given, and what we have does raise legitimate concern.'

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon will not rule out the option of a 
first-strike nuclear policy against rogue states, and the 
government has kept open the possibility of building a successor 
to the Trident submarine.

Yet it is the level of activity between the US and UK at a time 
of international outrage over Iraq that alarms most observers. In 
the year up to 31 March, UK scientists visited all America's 
major weapons laboratories. Most popular were the Los Alamos 
laboratories where key tests were conducted in 2002 into the 
properties of plutonium.

The escalation in the US nuclear strategy coincides with the 
upgrading of Aldermaston, where Britain's nuclear capability is 
maintained. Its new Orion laser will simulate conditions 'found 
at the centre of a star or within a nuclear detonation'. A 
planned hydrodynamics facility could create data to equal that 
previously available from underground nuclear tests.

Critics believe all this suggests more sophisticated requirements 
than those needed to maintain Britain's nuclear weapons, as the 
Ministry of Defence claims.

An MoD spokesman said: 'We have no plans for a replacement for 
Trident and no plans to build any new type of nuclear weapon.' 
The recruitment at Aldermaston only replaced retiring scientists, 
and the Anglo-US liaison was no different from that in past 
years, he said.
 	
[UP] 

Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
 14 Bellona: Chernobyl reactor needs new cover 

Ukraine is seeking offers to build a replacement concrete
container for a wrecked Chernobyl nuclear reactor. 

2004-05-06 13:11

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development issued an 
invitation for tenders for the so-called New Safe Confinement 
(NSC) in March. 

The new shelter, an arch-shaped structure, will be assembled in a 
safe area near Unit 4 and then slid across the old shelter, which 
was built in 1986 to cover the destroyed reactor. This method 
aims to minimise radiation exposure for workers on the site. With 
a height of 100 meters and a span of 250 meters, the arch will be 
big enough to house the Statue of Liberty. It is designed to 
provide a solid containment for the remnants of the reactor for 
at least 100 years, and will be fitted with equipment to 
undertake works which may become necessary in future, such as 
deconstruction of parts of the old shelter. Completion is 
scheduled for 2008. 

The tender follows talks between Hans Blix, chairman of the 
Chernobyl Shelter Fund Donor Assembly, and Ukrainian President 
Leonid Kuchma in Kiev last week. The meeting, attended by 
ambassadors of various donor countries and representatives of the 
EBRD, was held to discuss some of the challenges in the 
implementation of the shelter plan. The shelter plan is financed 
through the EBRD-managed Chernobyl Shelter Fund. Twenty-eight 
donor governments have until now pledged more than �700 million 
to the fund, and a G7-led initiative is underway to raise 
additional funds required to complete the programme. 

The programme also includes stabilisation of the existing 
shelter, an integrated monitoring system to survey the radiation 
situation, structural stability and seismic events, as well as 
substantial investments in waste management, site infrastructure, 
health, safety and radiation protection. The reactor was then 
encased in a concrete sarcophagus, but there have been fears it 
has been crumbling under the impact of radiation.
   
  Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge 
Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: 
webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 
38 38 62  * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
 15 Press Herald: Two energy proposals boost Maine's power position.

 Growing demand from New Brunswick could give Maine a buyer for
its vastly underutilized generating capacity. --> 

Business News]   

  Sunday, May 9, 2004 

Two energy proposals boost Maine's power position.

By TUX TURKEL, Portland Press Herald Writer

A projected electricity shortage in eastern Canada is presenting 
an opportunity for Maine to sell surplus power to the Maritimes, 
creating new revenue for the state's power-generating stations. 

Several hurdles still exist, but the expected Canadian shortfall 
could help re-start idled Maine plants that burn wood waste and 
mean additional output from existing generators. It also could 
provide a ready market for wind turbines proposed for Maine, 
including a $68 million project at Mars Hill in Aroostook County. 

New England utilities have been buying Canadian power for years, 
especially in the summer, when air conditioning use in the region 
is high. And until now, Canada could meet its own winter heating 
demands without importing power from Maine. 

Now that's changing. And beyond the opportunities for Maine, 
energy planners see the potential to create a more efficient, 
reliable transmission grid that allows more power to flow between 
New England and eastern Canada. 

Energy officials from neighboring New Brunswick have been meeting 
recently with their counterparts in Maine to express their 
interest in a new transmission line between the province and the 
state, to handle the extra power that will be needed in the 
Maritimes later this decade. 

"My world sees more power coming from the south," said Bill 
Thompson, New Brunswick's deputy energy minister. "You have it 
available." 

It's less expensive for the province to buy electricity from 
Maine in the winter, Thompson said, than to build major new power 
plants in New Brunswick. At the same time, the provincial 
government wants to increase the share of power coming from 
renewable resources. That may open a new market for Maine 
generators that use water and wood waste, as well as the proposed 
wind turbines. 

"If there's a big wind farm in Maine," Thompson said, "that's to 
our benefit." 

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to this cross-border energy exchange 
is the lack of transmission capacity connecting Maine and New 
Brunswick. The existing line is 30 years old and too small to 
handle more power. 

Long-standing attempts by Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. to build an 
84-mile transmission line from Orrington to New Brunswick fell 
apart last year, following opposition from environmental groups 
over the proposed route through undeveloped forest. Now Bangor 
Hydro, which is a subsidiary of a Nova Scotia based energy 
company - Emera, Inc. - has revived its plans. 

The utility is working with landowners, regulators and 
environmentalists to find an acceptable route and secure 
financing for the $85 million project. It hopes to announce a 
decision this summer and complete the line by 2006. 

This second connection could provide a new outlet for Maine's 
electric generators. 

Maine has more than 3,500 megawatts of generating capacity, 
enough power to run more than 3 million homes. The state needs 
only around 2,100 mw to meet its peak needs. 

That leaves 1,400 mw that can be exported. The most obvious 
market is southern New England, but bottlenecks on the 
transmission line between Maine and New Hampshire have limited 
the amount of energy Maine can ship south. So the prospect of new 
customers to the north is appealing to state officials and plant 
owners. 

New Brunswick has roughly the same amount of generating capacity 
as Maine, but two key events are threatening some of that output. 

One involves the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant. The 
635-megawatt reactor has provided 30 percent of the electricity 
used in the province since it went on line in 1983. The plant's 
owner, New Brunswick Power, wants to extend the station's life 
with a multimillion-dollar retrofit that will take Point Lepreau 
out of service for 18 months, beginning in 2007. 

The second event is a plan by NB Power to convert a 1,000 mw 
oil-fired plant near St. John to a lower-cost fuel called 
Orimulsion, a mix of bitumen and water. Orimulsion, however, is 
produced only in Venezuela. 

NB Power spent hundreds of millions of dollars for the upgrade of 
its Coleson Cove plant, but Venezuela recently backed out of the 
supply deal. The utility has launched a $2 billion lawsuit, 
trying to recover the cost of the conversion and extra fuel 
expenses. 

In the past, New Brunswick could count on Quebec for extra 
electricity. But Quebec's surplus is drying up, and the province 
wants that power at home now. 

These and other supply problems mean New Brunswick will be short 
170 mw of capacity in the winter of 2007-2008, according to 
Thompson. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which are hooked 
to New Brunswick through a regional power grid, also face tight 
winter supplies. These shortfalls present opportunities for 
Maine. 

One interest group that's looking for opportunities is the 
Independent Energy Producers of Maine. 

Developers invested $2 billion in Maine in the 1980s and 1990s, 
building biomass plants and refurbishing hydro dams. They created 
hundreds of jobs in the process. 

But the industry has been hit hard by price competition under 
utility deregulation. Of the dozen biomass plants scattered 
around rural Maine, only seven are operating, and most of them 
only on a month-to-month basis. This has greatly reduced the need 
for loggers, truckers and other workers who formerly supplied 
waste wood to these plants. If the plants ran more frequently, 
some of those jobs could come back. 

"We're watching it cautiously, in hopes that new markets could 
open for us," said Dave Wilby, the group's executive director. 

The energy from these plants has tended to be more expensive than 
the new fleet of natural-gas fired generators in New England. But 
Wilby and others say that agreements between the New England 
governors and eastern Canadian premiers to combat global climate 
change, and Canada's ratification of the United Nations Kyoto 
Protocol to cut emission levels, may level the playing field. It 
will expand the market in Canada for cleaner energy, despite the 
price differences. 

"If they're interested in buying renewable power from Maine," 
Wilby said, "we're open for business." 

New generators also could benefit, including a wind farm planned 
for Mars Hill in Aroostook County. The project, by Evergreen Wind 
Power LLC, would feature 33 turbines and generate up to 50 mw. 

Better transmission ties between Maine and New Brunswick could 
open the door for other energy projects and more power supply 
options in northern Maine. Currently, the 35,000 homes and 
businesses served by Maine Public Service in Presque Isle are 
connected through New Brunswick. The area has no direct tie to 
the New England power grid. 

These issues are among those being discussed by state officials 
who have met with their counterparts and utility representatives 
from New Brunswick. 

Tom Welch, chair of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, said a 
new connection between Maine and New Brunswick would be very 
useful for both regions. It would allow Maine to send surplus 
power north in the winter, when it's needed in the Maritimes. And 
it would let Maritime generators ship energy to southern New 
England in the summer, when demand peaks. The net effect, Welch 
said, is that fewer new power plants would be needed in New 
England and eastern Canada. 

Better integration of the Maine and New England power grids also 
would boost the overall reliability of the regional transmission 
system, Welch and others said. Last summer's record blackout, 
which hit customers from the Midwest to the Northeast, has 
underscored the need to upgrade electric links and have redundant 
connections. 

A larger system also could be good for New England's air quality 
and electric costs, according to Tony Buxton, a Maine lawyer and 
energy expert who is working with Bangor Hydro on its 
transmission line proposal. In the summer, Buxton said, the 
region calls on expensive, inefficient oil and coal generation to 
help meet peak demand. There would be less need for these plants 
if more power could come from Canada in the summer. 

Because New England and the Maritimes power grids are separately 
regulated in their respective countries, Buxton said, they won't 
be joined in a legal fashion. But both sides increasingly see the 
benefits of combining the power systems on an economic basis. 

"Finally," he said, "this barrier between the two nations is 
breaking down." 

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at: 

 Copyright � 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.          
*****************************************************************
 16 Toledo blade: DAVIS-BESSE: NRC cites utility for incorrect records
 
Monday, May 10, 2004 

Article published Saturday, May 8, 2004
 
 FirstEnergy won't be fined for error
 
By TOM HENRY BLADE STAFF WRITER

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday cited FirstEnergy 
Corp. for failing to provide complete and accurate records about 
Davis-Besse's interior paint coatings, but let the utility off 
the hook without a fine.

The federal agency empowered to police the nuclear industry has 
not fined FirstEnergy in the wake of its shutdown on Feb. 16, 
2002, which led to discovery of a dangerously corroded reactor 
head.

Davis-Besse, by the NRC's conservative estimates, had a reactor 
head so corroded that the power plant 30 miles east of Toledo was 
within five months of a nuclear accident as serious as Three Mile 
Island's in 1979.

The NRC yesterday hit FirstEnergy with a Severity Level III 
violation for providing false information about the coatings. The 
utility could have faced a base fine of $55,000, with the 
possibility of it being higher due to a variety of factors.

Instead, the NRC waived the fine, at FirstEnergy's request.

Jan Strasma, NRC spokesman, said the agency was pleased that the 
utility had volunteered information about the coatings and had 
agreed to repaint and scrape most of the affected areas prior to 
the March 8 restart.

There was another mitigating factor: The NRC's five-year statute 
of limitations had expired.

Records show that FirstEnergy filed the false information with 
the NRC on Nov. 11, 1998, a report alleging that paint coatings 
inside Davis-Besse's reactor containment area were "qualified." 
Qualified coatings are not as prone to chip as unqualified 
coatings.

The issue rose after the NRC learned in early 2003 that paint 
chips and fibrous insulation could clog Davis-Besse's emergency 
coolant system during a major accident. A clogged cooling system 
could complicate the task of cooling the hot reactor and open the 
possibility of a core meltdown, officials have said.

On Sept. 15, FirstEnergy conceded that its 1998 information was 
in error. Five weeks later the NRC performed an on-site review of 
FirstEnergy's records from Oct. 20 through Oct. 24.

On Nov. 12 - five years and a day after the 1998 report had been 
filed - the NRC held an exit meeting with FirstEnergy to present 
its preliminary findings. The agency issued a report documenting 
an apparent violation on Jan. 28, then gave the utility its 
standard 30 days to contest it. FirstEnergy on Feb. 27 
acknowledged that it was in violation of NRC regulations, but 
asked that no fine be imposed due to its cooperation.

Jim Caldwell, the NRC's Midwest regional administrator, said in 
his letter to FirstEnergy yesterday that although he's waiving 
the fine, he's still issuing the violation "to emphasize the 
importance of providing complete and accurate information to the 
NRC."

But David Lochbaum, a high-profile nuclear industry watch dog, 
said the only take-home message he got from Mr. Caldwell's letter 
was that if utility officials "can stonewall the agency for five 
years, [they] can get away with it."

Mr. Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned 
Scientists, said he was incensed that the NRC had let FirstEnergy 
off with another warning, saying it's the latest example of how 
the agency has gotten too cozy with the industry it's supposed to 
regulate.

"We need to get an NRC that's not evil and not inept," he said. 
"It's just unbelievable."

Mr. Strasma said the NRC did not stall its enforcement process 
until the statute of limitations expired. A decision on a fine 
could not have been made before the Nov. 12 meeting because the 
NRC was only at the point of giving its preliminary findings at 
an exit meeting.

"It's not like the traffic cop writing a ticket on the spot. We 
have to do things according to our legal procedures," he said.

Mr. Lochbaum said he believes the NRC should have been 
questioning the quality of paint coatings and other materials 
immediately after the pineapple-size cavity was discovered in 
Davis-Besse's reactor head on March 6, 2002. He said the NRC 
needs to either speed things up or get Congress to pass laws that 
give the agency more time.

In August, the NRC classified the faulty design of Davis-Besse's 
emergency coolant system as a problem that had "substantial 
safety significance." The agency issued a "yellow" finding 
against FirstEnergy, but did not levy a fine because it claimed 
there was no evidence of willful misconduct.

A yellow finding is one notch below the most serious issued by 
the NRC - its "red" finding for problems deemed to be of the 
highest safety concern. The NRC issued a red finding against 
FirstEnergy on Feb. 25, 2003, for letting Davis-Besse's reactor 
head become so corroded that it nearly burst.

The degradation was unprecedented in U.S. nuclear history. The 
NRC has delayed consideration of a civil fine until a criminal 
probe by the U.S. Department of Justice is completed.

A grand jury in Cleveland has been considering whether criminal 
charges should be filed for endangering public safety.

Richard Wilkins, a FirstEnergy spokesman, said the utility was 
pleased to avoid a fine, although he and other company officials 
have said in the past they expect the company to receive one for 
the reactor head problem.

FirstEnergy earlier this week was ranked No. 1 on a list of 30 
major utilities that have made political contributions to 
President Bush, with $865,877 in donations since 1999.

For earlier stories on Davis-Besse, go to 
www.toledoblade.com/davisbesse

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com or 419-724-6079.

� 2004 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., 
Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 
*****************************************************************
 17 BulletinWire News: Hanau sale dead, for now                                                
 		
BulletinWire | May 7, 2004
                   
Chinas plan to purchase a plutonium reprocessing plant in Hanau, 
Germany, from Siemens AG has stalled amid protests, according to 
a Chinese official, speaking before a visit to Germany by Chinese 
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.
 						
The contacts are terminated, Kong Quan, a spokesperson for Chinas 
Foreign Ministry, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (April 27). I do 
not think that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will address the issue 
with the German side.
 						
The plan to sell the plant, known as Hanau 2, to China was 
announced in December 2003 and met immediate protest from 
anti-nuclear activists and members of Germanys governing 
coalition. China said it intended to use the plant to make 
mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for use in its nuclear power plants; 
protesters contended that China could use the plant to make 
fissile material for nuclear weapons. 
						
In the May/June 2004 Bulletin, Tony Wesolowsky reported that one 
group of protesters, led by the German branch of the 
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War 
(IPPNW), started a campaign to outbid the Chinese government for 
the plant, or, at the very least, to raise public awareness of 
the issues related to the deal.
 					
Review past editions of BulletinWire. >>> 											 											

Even if sufficient funds were raised, Siemens would be unlikely
to sell them the plant, Wesolowsky reported. They are only
interested in selling it to China because of the business in the
nuclear field that would ensue as a consequence of the deal, an
IPPNW specialist told Wesolowsky.
 													
 													Despite the apparent end of negotiations, Siemens
officials continue to express interest in answering Chinas call
for expanding its energy production capabilities. Following Wens
visit to a Siemens plant in Berlin�part of his recent
trip�Siemenss chief executive said he still hoped to sell the
plutonium plant to China. Meanwhile, Wen continued to reassure
those who questioned Chinas intent (Die Welt, May 2).
 													
elements would be solely and exclusively for the purpose of the
peaceful use of nuclear energy, Wen said.
 													
 by Tony Wesolowsky, May/June 2004                                                                                                                                                                                                      
											
 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 27, 2004
 														 													   												 											
*****************************************************************
 18 ONN. Ohio News Now: Regulatory agency cites Davis-Besse plant; waives fine

May 9, 2004   

OAK HARBOR, Ohio The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited 
FirstEnergy Corp. for providing false information about paint 
inside the reactor building at its Davis-Besse nuclear plant six 
years ago. 

The agency waived a potential $55,000 fine.The federal agency 
determined Davis-Besse officials incorrectly reported in 1998 
that the paint was safe and unlikely to come off in the event of 
an accident, James L. Caldwell, a regional administrator for the 
commission, said in a letter sent to the company on Friday.

Paint fragments could have clogged an emergency sump screen in 
the event of a coolant loss, FirstEnergy officials later told the 
commission. FirstEnergy managers reported the problem to the NRC 
after they discovered it during a 2003 review of reports filed by 
their predecessors.

The incorrect paperwork claiming the paint met standards was 
filed on Nov. 11, 1998, according to Caldwell's letter.The fact 
that the company reported the problem is one reason the agency 
waived the fine, according to Caldwell's letter. 

The other reason is that the five-year deadline for
imposing a fine had expired before it was reported.FirstEnergy
has replaced the questionable paint with coatings that meet
standards.Davis-Besse, located along Lake Erie about 30 miles
east of Toledo, started producing electricity again in March
after it was shut down for more than two years. 

It was closed for routine maintenance in February 2002, and 
inspectors a month later found corrosion on the reactor vessel, 
where leaking boric acid had eaten almost through a 6-inch-thick 
steel cap.The damage led to a review of 68 similar plants 
nationwide.                         

Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
 19 Charleston.Net: Nuclear regulators criticized for waiving plant fine 

05/09/04
 
Associated Press 

OAK HARBOR, OHIO--The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said an 
energy company provided it with false information about a 
potential danger at a nuclear plant six years ago, but the agency 
waived a potential $55,000 fine.

 A nuclear industry watchdog group criticized the decision, 
saying the NRC was too "cozy" with the companies it is supposed 
to regulate.

 James L. Caldwell, a regional administrator with the commission, 
told FirstEnergy Corp. in a letter Friday the fact the company 
reported the problem at its Davis-Besse plant was one reason the 
fine was waived.

 He also wrote that a five-year deadline for imposing a fine had 
expired before the problem was reported.

 But David Lochbaum, a safety engineer with the Union of 
Concerned Scientists, said waiving the fine when there was a 
clear violation shows the commission did not do its job.

 "We need to get an NRC that's not evil and not inept," he said. 
"It's just unbelievable."

 The commission determined plant officials incorrectly reported 
in 1998 that paint inside the room that houses the nuclear 
reactor was safe and unlikely to come off in an accident.

 Paint fragments could have clogged an emergency sump screen if 
there had been a coolant loss, FirstEnergy officials reported to 
the commission in 2003, after a review of earlier reports.

 FirstEnergy has replaced the questionable paint with coatings 
that meet standards.

 Davis-Besse, located along Lake Erie about 30 miles east of 
Toledo, was closed for more than two years because of corrosion 
inspectors found on a reactor vessel, where leaking boric acid 
had eaten almost through a 6-inch-thick steel cap. 

The plant started producing electricity again in March.

 The finding led to a review of 68 similar plants nationwide.

 
Copyright � 2004, The Post and Courier, All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
 20 UPI: Radiation exposure high in Japan - 

(United Press International)

  May 07, 2004 			   

Tokyo, , May. 7 (UPI) -- The Japanese government says the 
collective radiation exposure for nuclear plant workers in Japan 
has remained highest in the world for four straight years.

 The measure compared the exposure of workers among major 
countries with similar facilities, the Kyodo News reported 
Friday.

 The report has prompted Japan's nuclear safety agency to begin 
studying how to improve maintenance procedures to catch up with 
the world trend of reducing exposure.

 The agency hopes to come up with improvements by the next 
meeting on the Convention on Nuclear Safety in 2005 after Japan's 
situation was criticized at the last meeting in Vienna in April 
2002.

[UPI Perspectives]                                                                    
*****************************************************************
 21 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast cleanup may take 10 years

| 05/09/2004 | 


CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION

KEVIN O'HORAN and DANA SANCHEZ

 Herald Staff Writers

TALLEVAST - It may be weeks, months or more before Tallevast 
residents know whether a leak of toxic chemicals from the former 
American Beryllium Co. plant has given them life-threatening or 
life-altering diseases. 

And cleaning up the mess could take up to 10 years. 

Time, community leaders say, is something Tallevast residents are 
running out of. 

"We don't have 10 years," said Laura Ward, president of FOCUS, a 
community group. "We've already hit the 20-, 30- or 40-year mark 
where things are starting to show up." 

The key known factor is that toxic chemicals leaked from the 
plant sometime over the past four decades. Tests at the 1600 
Tallevast Road site have found the metals beryllium and chromium 
in soil on-site, and trichloroethylene and other liquids in 
groundwater on-site and off-site. 

But Florida health department investigators say they don't know 
how long it will take to determine whether residents were exposed 
enough to the chemicals to cause cancer, kidney damage or other 
ailments linked to the materials. The chemicals apparently were 
first discovered when Lockheed Martin Corp. surveyed the site to 
sell the land in the late 1990s. 

The Manatee County environmental management department is doing a 
thorough investigation, said Commissioner Jonathan Bruce. 

"I don't know what the findings are," Bruce said. "I expect a 
briefing on the status this week." 

Years of neglect 

Over the past three years, the community started collecting its 
own health data from residents and former American Beryllium 
employees. Analysis is not yet complete. 

Taking matters into their own hands is the result of years of 
neglect, residents say. As a community, Tallevast residents say 
they have been long overlooked. 

Bruce said he has heard the concerns of residents. 

"If there's a problem, we've got to deal with it," Bruce said. "I 
don't care if it's Lakewood Ranch or Tallevast. All these 
communities need to be treated the same if there's something of 
negative consequence going on." 

The phone in Ward's home has been ringing off the hook since the 
story broke Friday. Other media have contacted her for 
interviews. 

"We need our story told," said Wanda Washington, a lifetime 
resident of Tallevast. 

Former employees at American Beryllium say they came into contact 
with contaminants every day. Beryllium, in powder form, produces 
a fine dust that was present in the air where Charlie Ziegler 
worked for 21 years. 

Several of Ziegler's co-workers, he says, died of berylliosis - a 
lung inflammation caused by inhaling dust or fumes that contain 
beryllium. In some cases, the disease may be delayed up to 20 
years after exposure. 

"We know these carcinogens cause illness," Ward said. "There are 
multiple illnesses." 

Florida Department of Environmental Protection investigators, 
overseeing cleanup activities at the site, have turned to the 
local health department to check for links. 

"At this point, we're not even really to a point that we can 
adequately comment on what we're specifically looking at," said 
Charles Henry, environmental health director for the department's 
Manatee County office. 

Residents say that cases of cancer are increasing in the 
community, as are miscarriages, birth defects and more. 

"DEP has shared some of the technical data with us," Henry said, 
"some of the possible stressors out there of concern." 

Determine findings 

To determine health effects, the health department has to know 
what chemicals have been found and in what amounts. But to know 
whether a person living in the area actually received a hefty 
enough dose to cause problems, investigators must determine how 
much of a given chemical made its way into the water supply or 
the soil of a yard. 

They then must figure out how much a person came into contact 
with the chemical. Contamination from soil on a fenced and 
guarded site may not pose much danger, but drinking tainted 
groundwater might cause problems. 

The plant began operations in 1961 as Visioneering Co. Inc. and 
continued under various owners for almost 40 years. Part of the 
processing involved piping used process water to treatment and 
holding ponds on the east end of the five-acre property. Lockheed 
officials, who bought the plant in a larger corporate acquisition 
and shut it down, found that the concrete lining the ponds had 
cracked at some point, leaking water contaminated with toxins to 
the soil and groundwater. 

It's common knowledge that lax or nonexistent environmental 
controls 40 years ago can affect people's lives today, Bruce 
said. 

"I'm very concerned about things that went on in the past when 
there weren't as tight environmental controls," he said. 

Lockheed's most recent findings were submitted to the Florida 
Department of Environmental Protection in December 2003. They 
showed that the contamination extends to the north for about 100 
feet and roughly 200 feet to the east, flowing under Tallevast 
Road and 17th Street East and under all or parts of 10 
homesteads. 

Investigators check not only whether there are cancers, but 
whether the rate in the community is beyond what would be 
expected for a similar group of people - that is, for age, race 
and other factors. 

It can make for a time-consuming process, noted Lindsay Hodges, a 
spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Health. 

"It really depends on the specific site, the needs of that site," 
she said. "It's really based on that site and what information 
they're seeking." 

Residents need tests 

Tallevast residents want to know the full extent of what Lockheed 
and the county intend to do, Ward said. 

"We haven't approached Lockheed for anything except information," 
she said. "We haven't asked for anything but that the wells be 
tested and the results be given to us. We've asked for split 
samples." 

Lockheed officials are working with community leaders to identify 
homes that need to have their drinking water supplies tested, as 
well as trying to pinpoint what homes may have received possibly 
tainted soil dug up from the site years ago. 

And DEP regulators continue working with Lockheed on further 
testing of soils and groundwater in the area to better gauge the 
spread of contaminants. 

"We're going to try to get together with Lockheed Martin in the 
next couple of weeks to get them moving on that," said Mike 
Gonsalves, waste cleanup supervisor at DEP's Tampa office. 

If those tests reveal other chemicals of concern, he noted, "it 
could take a couple more months" to get data for the health 
study. 

Some of the legwork has started, Henry said, including the 
initial look at the data and alerting state health experts in 
Tallahassee that their services soon might be needed. 

"When there's a concern that an environmental pollutant may be 
spreading to an area that might be causing health effects in our 
community, there's a tremendous amount of data that must be 
looked at to make sure our community is safe," Henry said. 

Tallevast residents are no longer willing to rely on the 
assurances of government agencies or business leaders that 
there's nothing to worry about, Ward said. 

"You don't need a bunch of written things to show that there are 
multiple health problems," she said. "We don't want to go into 
battle with anyone. We just want someone to come in and be 
truthful with us. I don't know what we're supposed to do, or who 
we're supposed to believe." 

POSSIBLE TALLEVAST CONTAMINANTS 

� Beryllium: Gray, light metal similar to aluminum and used in 
aerospace and electronic equipment. Listed by federal regulators 
as a cancer-causing compound, beryllium also may affect the 
gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. 

� Chromium: Steel-gray metal similar to platinum. Listed as a 
cancer-causing compound, the material also may irritate the skin 
or lungs or lead to heart and kidney damage. 

� Dichloroethane: Oily liquid with odor and taste of chloroform. 
A breakdown product of trichloroethylene, the material can cause 
kidney damage. 

� Trichloroethylene: Mobile, liquid solvent that can cause 
symptoms similar to alcohol consumption. Listed as a 
cancer-causing chemical. 

� Vinyl chloride: Colorless gas that may be produced as 
trichloroethylene decomposes. Cancer-causing chemical also shown 
to irritate the skin. 

SOURCES: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Merck & 
Co. Inc.   

*****************************************************************
 22 Buffalo News: Talks may aid N-waste project
 	
News Washington Bureau Chief
5/8/2004 				   					

WASHINGTON - The nuclear waste cleanup at the West Valley 
Demonstration Project may have dodged a bullet as a result of 
talks between Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and a South 
Carolina Republican who sponsored legislation curtailing work 
there. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., filed a bill at the request of the 
Bush administration that would permit its Department of Energy to 
downgrade the threat of high-level wastes at West Valley and 
other nuclear remediation facilities in five other states. 

The effect of the bill would be to allow the department to bury 
the contaminated waste tanks and buildings at the project 30 
miles south of Buffalo instead of removing the dangerous wastes 
to a permanent site, as called for in a 1982 federal law. 

Environmental groups have said this proposal could lead to 
further contamination of the Great Lakes watershed from dangerous 
nuclear materials leached from West Valley. 

The project, one of the largest federal efforts in the state, 
underpins much of the economy of Southern Erie County and 
Northern Cattaraugus County. 

Blake Zeff, a spokesman for Schumer, said Friday that Schumer 
spoke with Graham and told him that his legislation threatened 
the project in New York State. 

Graham, Zeff said, reworked the bill so that it would affect only 
the waste remediation project at Savannah River, S.C., and would 
not involve any other state. 

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Schumer wrote to Graham 
and other congressional leaders protesting the legislation. 

Projects in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico are also 
threatened by the DOE drive to cut costs. 

The compromise reached Friday in the Senate Armed Services 
Committee does not entirely remove the threat from the West 
Valley program. 

The House still has not considered its version of the DOE 
legislation. 

The Bush administration still wants to reduce funding for nuclear 
remediation by $350 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. 

The administration has said it plans to withhold that amount 
unless DOE succeeds in its efforts to downgrade the definitions 
of what constitutes high-level waste. 

Zeff said the threatened cut of $350 million affects only 
military- related projects and not the West Valley program, which 
is devoted to removing wastes from a failed commercial 
reprocessing experiment of the 1960s. 

*****************************************************************
 23 projo.com: Inspectors to search waste sites South Carolina and Washington         

 | Providence, R.I. | AP 

05.08.2004 09:42 A.M.   

The Associated Press    

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Entergy Nuclear will send investigators
to South Carolina and Washington state to try and track down two
pieces of highly radioactive fuel rod missing from the Vermont
Yankee nuclear power plant. 

General Electric Co., the manufacturer of the missing fuel, will
come to Vermont as well to inspect fuel assemblies in the spent
fuel pool as part of the investigation, said Robert Williams,
Entergy Nuclear spokesman. 

Since the two fuel rod pieces were discovered missing April 20,
25 years after they were removed from the reactor core,
attention has focused on either the storage pit at the nuclear
reactor or low-level radioactive waste sites in South Carolina
or Washington. 

Vermont Yankee periodically removed low-level waste that had
been placed in the storage pit and shipped it to a long-term
facility. The last time that occurred was in 2000, according to
Williams. 

If the fuel was mistaken for low level radioactive waste and
sent to either site, federal officials with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission say it poses no immediate danger since it
would have been placed in protective shielded canisters. The
biggest problem, they said, is that the high level radioactive
fuel remains dangerous for far longer than low level waste -
10,000 years long. 

Remote cameras, which have been placed in the Vermont Yankee's
40-foot-deep spent fuel pool have failed to turn up anything,
Williams said. 

Next week technicians and engineers will be doing an "in depth
review" of the videotapes taken by the various remote cameras,
he said. 

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp., which owned the reactor for
30 years before selling it to Entergy Nuclear two years ago, had
a long-standing contract with Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc., of
Barnwell, S.C., which operates a low-level radioactive waste
site. 

Deborah Ogilvie, spokeswoman for Chem-Nuclear, didn't return a
call for comment. 

Only one other nuclear facility has lost used nuclear fuel. The
Millstone 1 reactor in Connecticut discovered spent fuel rods
were missing in 2000. That plant has been shut down since 1995.
	   
Providence Journal newsroom at (401) 277-7303. 

� Belo Interactive Inc.   
    
*****************************************************************
 24 Las Vegas RJ: JOHN L. SMITH: Yucca Mountain joins death, taxes and coy
 
Sunday, May 09, 2004
 
politicians as inevitable 

Gov. Kenny Guinn sent a clear message last week when he
appointed longtime Yucca Mountain shill Ace Robison to the
Colorado River Commission: 

Nevada's fight against the nuclear waste dump is all over but
the shouting. It's finished. Failed. Kaput. 

In a word, it's inevitable. 

If you don't think so, you don't know Guinn's longtime friend,
Ace Robison. At 60, Robison symbolizes the persuasive soft sell
Yucca's proponents have made in rural Nevada. 

Both in his capacity as a Department of Energy congressional
liaison and spokesman and as a private consultant paid to
promote Yucca's dubious virtues, Robison has stood at the
forefront of a fight most Nevadans feel strongly about. 

Problem is, he's been on the other side. 

The wrong side. 

Robison, whose Robison/Seidler Consulting receives hundreds of
thousands of dollars to encourage rural community support for
the project, counters, "I told the governor that from the
beginning of time I have never been particularly enthusiastic
about nuclear waste being stored in Nevada. But the reality of
it is, I've always assumed that it was inevitable." 

I wonder if the fact he's been on their payroll for so many
years has fueled his assumption and colored his definition of
reality. 

If Yucca is inevitable, it's an inevitability Robison has sped
by lobbying Lincoln and Esmeralda counties on behalf of the
repository's proponents and dangling the elusive dream of future
employment opportunities in economically strapped rural
communities. 

In Robison's interview with Guinn, he assured the governor he
wasn't in love with Yucca, but he believed it was coming, and
Nevadans needed to negotiate for benefits before it was too
late. Yucca's critics long have maintained that any benefits
from the project would be far outweighed by its real and
perceived dangers. 

Robison's message: I don't necessarily support their cause. I
just mouth their dogma, cash their checks, and undermine the
opposition. 

Oh, someone get me a barf bag. 

"When my integrity is impugned because I happen to disagree ...
I'd like my response to be, 'Hey, I've been involved with this
issue longer than any of you guys have,' " he said. 

That's true. 

Back in 1982, as a staffer for Sen. Paul Laxalt, Robison was
assigned the then-fledgling nuclear waste storage issue. He
recalls sharing Laxalt's early view that the repository was
inevitable. 

That view was bolstered in the six years Robison spent as a DOE
liaison and spokesman. His belief only grew stronger after his
private consulting firm received hundreds of thousands to sell
Yucca's inevitability. 

He has been remarkably consistent. 

Robison, a fourth-generation Nevadan with family roots in
Logandale, appears to be about as square and sincere as they
come. He has a wealth of political experience and has carved out
powerful alliances over the years in Nevada and Washington. One
of his friends is U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada's most outspoken
opponent of Yucca Mountain. Reid said Friday he had "no
criticism of Ace Robison," whom he called a longtime supporter. 

In making the appointment, Guinn said Robison's political
experience will help Nevada on the CRC. 

Besides, Reid and Robison ask: What do Yucca and the DOE have to
do with the Colorado River Commission? 

Glad you asked, fellas. 

As a CRC member, Robison will be tasked with watching how
aggressively the DOE attacks the massive cleanup of the Atlas
Minerals Corp. uranium tailings site on the banks of the
Colorado River outside Moab, Utah. The Atlas site, among the
largest in America, daily leaks more than 100,000 gallons of
radioactive water into the Colorado, according to a recently
released study by the American Rivers environmental
organization. 

Let's just hope the DOE's man Robison doesn't decide the
contamination of the Colorado by the Atlas site is inevitable. 
The governor's spokesman, Greg Bortolin, said of Robison's
appointment: "This by no means should send a signal that the
governor has softened his stance or anything like that. But I
guess some people will draw that conclusion." 

You might say it was inevitable. 

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and
Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.
 
 
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
 25 Las Vegas SUN: Bush choosing to go around Yucca Mountain issue
 
By Paul P. Craig

 Paul P. Craig, a contributor to Writers on the Range (a news 
service covering issues affecting the West), was a member of the 
Nuclear Waste Technical Review from 1996 until January 2004. 
Craig also is professor of engineering emeritus at the University 
of California at Davis. 

 WEEKEND EDITION

 May 8 - 9, 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 non-partisan 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 that 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.

 In its haste to meet deadlines, the Bush administration has a
pattern of putting politics ahead of science. History reveals
plenty of examples of how that approach can lead to disaster.
The Challenger space shuttle was lost because its O-rings froze.
NASA engineers knew of the problem, but management wanted to
keep the launch deadline. Last year a presidential commission
concluded that the shuttle Columbia was lost for similar
reasons: Management put deadlines over safety.

 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. 

*****************************************************************
 26 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Don't reward Yucca lie 

May 07, 2004 

Las Vegas Sun

 WEEKEND EDITION

 May 8 - 9, 2004

 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry reminded Nevadans
last week about an anniversary of sorts regarding Yucca
Mountain. Kerry noted it was this time four years ago that
George Bush promised this state's residents, in a letter to Gov.
Kenny Guinn, that he wouldn't approve sending nuclear waste to
Nevada's Yucca Mountain unless it was scientifically safe to do
so. "But after the election, President Bush caved (in) to
special interests, broke his promise to Nevada and proceeded to
do his utmost to turn the state into a nuclear waste dump,"
Kerry said. Bush, in 2002, did persuade Congress to approve the
plan to build a dump at Yucca Mountain. But a campaign spokesman
for Bush, Tracey Schmitt, responded last week that the president
"has been clear and consistent that the decision regarding Yucca
Mountain should be based on the very best science."

 So who's right?

 In order to answer the question, it's important to consider
that in February 2000, a few months before Bush's pledge, the
Republican-controlled Congress voted overwhelmingly to weaken
federal regulations so it would be easier to send nuclear waste
to Nevada, possibly as early as 2007. But Democratic President
Clinton vetoed the legislation, saying it would be a step
backward in determining the scientific suitability of Yucca
Mountain. Ultimately, 34 senators -- including Democrat John
Kerry of Massachusetts -- voted to sustain the president's veto
on May 2, 2000, forestalling for at least another year any
attempt to fast-track nuclear waste to Nevada. While the
Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Al Gore, was on
record strongly supporting the veto, Bush had remained silent.
It was only a day after the Senate's failure to override
Clinton's veto that Bush revealed his pledge, saying that he,
too, would use sound science in deciding Yucca Mountain's fate.

 Questions lingered about Bush's commitment, though, especially
since the nuclear power industry, which had been trying for
years to accelerate a final decision on Yucca Mountain, had
lavished him with campaign contributions. Finally, as the race
tightened in Nevada with just a few weeks left in the
presidential election, Bush running mate Dick Cheney came to Las
Vegas and claimed that there was no difference between Gore and
Bush on Yucca Mountain. The 2000 election was close and enough
Nevadans trusted Bush's pledge of fairness on Yucca Mountain
that this state, after having twice given its electoral votes to
Clinton, went for Bush.

 Despite Bush's vow of fairness to Nevada, the new
administration immediately went about making preparations for
Yucca Mountain. Less than a year after Bush was sworn into
office, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham recommended that Bush
go forward with a nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Bush fought hard
to get the dump approved by Congress, which Congress did in
2002, although it was clear that it would be dangerous to
transport nuclear waste cross-country and there were serious
doubts about the safety of its burial in Yucca Mountain. The
independent General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative
arm, reported that there were 293 scientific questions about
Yucca Mountain that still hadn't been resolved. Going forward
wasn't about sound science, it was all about hardball politics,
allowing the nuclear power industry to cash in its chits at the
expense of a sm all state such as Nevada. Kerry, meanwhile,
remained committed to Nevada's interests, voting against Bush's
nuclear waste p! lan.

 It is obvious now to everyone that George Bush's election in
2000 carried terrible consequences for Nevada's fight against
Yucca Mountain. Yet in this election year the same Republican
leaders in Nevada, including Guinn, who said four years ago that
we should trust Bush, now downplay the differences they have
with him on Yucca Mountain. They say this is just an issue where
they "agree to disagree." To the people who live here, Yucca
Mountain is not an issue where either side could be right. Yucca
Mountain carries the potential of disaster for this state. Top
Nevada Republicans, by actively backing Bush for another term,
are rewarding the man who lied when he led Nevadans to believe
that this state would get a fair shake on Yucca Mountain. 
 
*****************************************************************
 27 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: Nevada GOP surrenders on Yucca project
 	 	 	
May 9, 2004     				 				
                         
Guy W. Farmer

 At its statewide convention in Reno last weekend, the Nevada 
Republican Party surrendered to the federal government on the 
noxious Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump issue in a pathetic 
political performance that placed the interests of the nuclear 
energy industry above the best interests of the people of the 
state of Nevada.

 This total capitulation on an issue of such vital importance to 
our state will cost the GOP and President Bush thousands of votes 
next November.

 Appeal capital correspondent Geoff Dornan reported that Nevada 
Republicans approved a platform plank that supported "enforcement 
of environmental regulations to solve scientifically demonstrated 
problems using methods which have undergone peer review ...." 
Blah blah blah. A second GOP platform plank urged the state "to 
negotiate with the federal government to minimize the effects of 
federal control and use of lands in Nevada" without mentioning 
Yucca Mountain. In other words, our Republican friends want to 
negotiate a big payoff with the Feds in exchange for turning the 
Silver State into the nation's nuclear waste dump. Thanks but no 
thanks!

 These stealthy platform planks undercut GOP elected officials - 
including Gov. Kenny Guinn, Attorney General Brian Sandoval, Sen. 
John Ensign and Congressman Jim Gibbons - who are fighting the 
nuclear dump proposal in Congress and in the federal courts. 
"I've always opposed Yucca Mountain," Gibbons said after his 
party's surrender to the U.S. Energy Department and the nuclear 
power industry. "I don't think it's a good idea to ever give the 
inference of negotiating."

 "We're still at a very critical point and negotiations should 
not be held while we're in court," added Gov. Guinn, while 
Sandoval observed that his party's action "could create at least 
some thought in Washington that there is some sympathy in Nevada 
(for the toxic waste dump)." Happily for us, these elected 
officials recognize that more than 70 percent of Nevada voters 
oppose the Yucca Mountain project, as well they should.

 On the other hand, some Republican politicians couldn't wait to 
board the nuclear express. "I'm absolutely convinced there's no 
significant risk (from nuclear waste)," declared Assembly 
Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick of Gardnerville, "and I'm 
absolutely convinced that if we don't negotiate soon, we're going 
to get nothing." GOP U.S. Senate candidate Richard Ziser chimed 
in to the effect that since the nuclear waste dump is inevitable, 
"we'd better benefit from it in some way." In other words, if 
political rape is inevitable, just lie back and enjoy it. Good 
thinking, guys; your checks are in the mail.

 Last time I wrote about this subject a Yucca Mountain bureaucrat 
accused me of politicizing the issue. Well, of course I'm 
politicizing it because it is political. It's never been about 
"sound science," to use the president's unfortunate choice of 
words.

 In 1987, national politicians decided to dump the nation's most 
highly radioactive waste on us because Nevada was perceived to be 
a remote desert state with few residents and little political 
clout. Fortunately, however, the political equation has changed 
in our favor since then and our bipartisan congressional 
delegation, led by Sen. Harry Reid, the second-ranking Democrat 
in the Senate, has been fighting President Bush and the DOE at 
every turn to keep more than 77,000 tons of deadly poison out of 
our state.

 But the Nevada Republican Party has now bought into a 
multi-million-dollar propaganda campaign financed by DOE and the 
nuclear energy industry. The Yucca Mountain dump is inevitable, 
they say, so shut up and accept it and we'll throw some federal 
dollars at you - sort of like dragging hundred-dollar bills 
through trailer parks (Remember that one?). That's what I heard 
at a local Republican women's luncheon last month when a retired 
Yucca Mountain engineer attempted to convince his audience that 
highly radioactive nuclear waste is safe and good for us. I was 
pleased when a couple of well-informed ladies challenged his rosy 
scenario.

 The inevitability argument is the cornerstone of a 
multi-million-dollar PR campaign financed by the nuclear energy 
industry and enthusiastically endorsed by the Bush White House 
and DOE; however, retired UC/Davis engineering professor Paul 
Craig, who resigned from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board 
in protest last January, explained what they're up to in an 
Appeal column last Wednesday.

 "The big reason for the rush (for Yucca Mountain approval) is 
that the nuclear industry is desperate for the government to take 
nuclear waste off its hands," he wrote. "The result is a clear 
case of the tail wagging the dog. Protecting the public should 
come first." Prof. Craig added that he hopes his resignation from 
the Review Board "will bring attention to what's going on at 
Yucca Mountain."

 We should be listening to experts like Prof. Craig instead of to 
weak-kneed politicians who have decided to get into a dangerous, 
radioactive bed with the White House and DOE. Remember what Gov. 
Guinn said at a public hearing three years ago: The nuclear waste 
storage issue "is paramount to the health and safety of every 
Nevadan and every American whose home, school or place of 
business sits along the proposed path that the deadliest 
substance on earth" will travel. Although a few political 
turncoats are willing to mortgage the future health and safety of 
our children and grandchildren for federal handouts, most of us 
recognize a bribe when we see one.

 So let's just say "NO!" to those who are willing to sell out the 
state of Nevada for federal dollars.

 Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. 
diplomat, resides in Carson City.

All contents � Copyright 2004 nevadaappeal.com
*****************************************************************
 28 Japan Times: LDP member's appearance at antinuclear rally protested

  Sunday, May 9, 2004   

 AOMORI (Kyodo) A lawmaker from the pronuclear Liberal Democratic 
Party made an appearance Saturday at an antinuclear gathering in 
Aomori Prefecture, host to a core nuclear fuel facility, causing 
ripples within the governing party.

 Delivering a speech at the rally in the city of Aomori, Taro 
Kono urged that uranium testing, which paves the way for 
full-fledged operations of the spent fuel reprocessing plant, be 
postponed.

 "We must pause and deepen national debate" on the issue, he 
said.

 Kono's plan to deliver the speech drew a protest from the LDP's 
Aomori prefectural chapter. It sent a letter to Prime Minister 
Junichiro Koizumi, who heads the LDP, to register its objection 
to Kono's speaking engagement at the gathering.

 Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, hosts a major complex of 
facilities, now being built, to reprocess spent fuel from nuclear 
power plants.

 The LDP backs the government's policy of promoting nuclear power 
generation, including establishing a nuclear fuel cycle.

 Kono, a son of Yohei Kono, speaker of the House of 
Representatives, has expressed caution over the reprocessing of 
spent nuclear fuel, given the massive cost and other factors.

 Kono said in his speech that "discussions over how to dispose of 
spent uranium fuel have not been settled in Japan."

 Despite divided opinion within the party over his visit to 
Aomori, Kono said he believes the visit will not be meaningless 
if people nationwide learn that the reprocessing issue is up for 
discussion.

 The Japan Times: May 9, 2004 (C) All rights reserved 
*****************************************************************
 29 Charleston.Net: Nuclear sludge would stay in S.C. under Senate plan 

05/08/04

Change would allow reclassification of residue as low-level 
waste, not requiring shipment 

Associated Press 

WASHINGTON--A Senate committee has endorsed a provision that 
would allow the Energy Department to leave thousands of gallons 
of highly radioactive sludge in tanks at a federal nuclear site 
in South Carolina.

 Energy Department officials expressed hope the breakthrough also 
might help forge an agreement with Washington and Idaho officials 
on treatment of millions of gallons of liquid radioactive waste 
kept at DOE facilities in those states.

 The Energy Department has been unable to reclassify some of the 
90 million gallons of radioactive waste kept in tanks at federal 
facilities in Washington state, Idaho and South Carolina so it 
would not have to ship it to a special high-level waste 
repository.

 In a settlement announced Friday, the Senate Armed Services 
Committee agreed to put into a defense bill a provision that 
changes the Nuclear Waste Policy Act so the department may 
reclassify the sludge as low-level waste and keep it in the tanks 
instead of shipping it to the repository.

 The change in the nuclear waste law had been sought by Sen. 
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said the change was needed to 
implement an agreement between the Energy Department and the 
state over how the sludge should be handled. The committee action 
was limited to waste at the Savannah River site near Aiken, S.C.

 Washington's two senators, who unlike Graham are not on the 
defense panel, had objected to the change. They fear it might 
increase pressures on their state and Idaho to reach similar 
settlements over waste in tanks at DOE's Hanford facility near 
Richland, Wash., and the INEEL site in Idaho.

 The Graham provision was approved late Thursday during a closed 
committee meeting where the defense legislation was being 
completed and was made public Friday.

 The department claims the residual sludge, the byproduct of Cold 
War bomb making, is too expensive to extract. Instead, the 
government says, it can be diluted by mixing it with grout to 
reduce radioactivity levels and stay in place.

 A federal judge in Idaho ruled last year that reclassifying such 
sludge as low-level waste violated the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. 
The department quickly began pushing members of Congress to 
change the law.

 Tanks at the Savannah River site contain about 34 million 
gallons of liquid radioactive waste from Cold War-era bomb 
making. Graham said the agreement with DOE would allow the sludge 
lining the bottom and sides of the tanks to be covered by grout 
in place, which would save $16 billion in cleanup costs and 
shorten the cleanup time by 23 years.

 The provision, Graham said, still "allows South Carolina and DOE 
to define high-level waste in a very reasonable manner. ... 
There's nothing going to be left behind ... that will not be 
secured through environmental remediating to protect South 
Carolina." 

State officials in Idaho and Washington oppose any changes in the 
law unless they are assured the states will have a final say in 
how waste will be handled.

 The changes put into the defense bill "would minimize the role 
of (state) regulators in overseeing decisions regarding this 
waste's disposal," argued Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and 
Patty Murray of Washington in a letter to Sen. John Warner, 
R-Va., the Armed Services Committee chairman. They said it would 
give the Energy Department the go-ahead "to define what 
constitutes cleanup." 

Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow said the change in the 
law, once it is approved by Congress and the agreement with South 
Carolina is signed, will ensure continued cleanup of the waste 
tanks at Savannah River.

 McSlarrow said negotiations were continuing with Idaho and 
Washington "so that we can devise a solution that will work for 
these other states as well." He has said the department would 
make no decision to change the law beyond South Carolina without 
involving the states.

Copyright � 2004, The Post and Courier, All Rights Reserved.
webmaster@postandcourier.com		 	   
*****************************************************************
 30 Response form of the 2004 World Conference
 
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 16:01:23 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
Dear friends,

When we sent the following invitation and information of the 2004 World 
Conference against A and H Bombs (Aug. 2-9, Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in 
April, we forgot to attach a response form.  If you have action plans on 
Aug. 6 and 9 (Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days) and if you have a message to the 
World Conference, please fill in and send back the attached response form 
to us.

We will list up your action plans andmessages and distribute them to 
participants of the Conference both in English and Japanese.  And they will 
be also kept in the record of the World Conferene (English version).

Sorry for this inconvenience and thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Yayoi Tsuchida
In charge of International Relations
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Organizing Committee,
World Conference aginst A & H Bombs
2-4-4 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8464 Japan
Phone: 81-3-5842-6034 Fax: 81-3-5842-6033
E-mail: <mailto:antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp>antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp

Invitation & Information:
2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 2 - 9, 2004

Dear friends,

   We are pleased to inform you that the 2004 World Conference against A and
H Bombs will be held on Aug. 2-9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, with a
preliminary theme, "Abolish Nuclear Weapons Now!"

Provisional program:
Aug. 1:      Information Meeting for overseas delegates (evening)
Aug. 2-4:  International Meeting (Hiroshima)
                    Opening & Plenary sessions (Aug. 2), Plenary session 
and workshops (Aug. 3)
                    Closing Session (Aug. 4)
Aug. 4-6:  2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs � Hiroshima:
                            Opening Plenary (Aug. 4), Workshops (Aug.5), 
Closing Plenary (Aug. 6)
Aug. 8-9: 2004 World Conference against A & H Bombs � Nagasaki:

The US/UK war on Iraq shook the world.  International situation over peace
and nuclear weapons has drastically changed.  This past year has proved that
the unjust war that trampled an international order for peace, has failed.
Lies, on which the war was conducted, have been revealed one after another.
Criticism has been increasing on the dangerous US nuclear policy, coupled
with its preemptive attack strategy.

The year 2005 will mark the 60th year of the atomic bombings, and the NPT
Review Conference will be held during the same year.  The 2003 World
Conference against A & H Bombs launched an international signature campaign
"Abolish Nuclear Weapons Now! Let there be no more Hiroshimas and no more
Nagasakis", to make the year 2005 epochal in making real advances for the
abolition of nuclear weapons.  This signature campaign is now spreading over
the world, with supports and endorsements coming from more than 48
countries.

    The 2004 World Conference must be a jumping board for the year 2005.
With grassroots movements as a basic driving force, the World Conference has
developed cooperation with national and local governments of different
countries that are active in the efforts to achieve the abolition of nuclear
weapons.  This year's World Conference will provide a place for people from
across the world, from national governments to NGOs, to further strengthen
their global solidarity beyond boundaries.

We sincerely call on you to take active part in the World Conference, by
joining or sending your representative to the Conference.  For detailed
background information, please refer to the attached �Call� for the 2004
World Conference, issued by the Organizing Committee.

We look forward to your positive reply.


Yours in peace,

Organizing Committee, World Conference against A & H Bombs


___________________________________________
Organizing Committee,
World Conference aginst A & H Bombs
2-4-4 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8464 Japan
Phone: 81-3-5842-6034 Fax: 81-3-5842-6033
E-mail: <mailto:antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp>antiatom@topaz.plala.or.jp




</x-flowed>

Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\response form.doc"
*****************************************************************
 31 AFP: US plans new elite force to guard nuclear facilities

WASHINGTON (AFP) May 08, 2004

 The United States plans to create a new elite security force, 
fashioned after the US Army Rangers or Navy Seals, to protect its 
nuclear weapons facilities from terrorist attack, the government 
has announced. 

"The hallmark of this force will be advanced tactical skills, 
intensive training, and the highest professional and physical 
fitness standards," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday, 
addressing workers at the Savannah River nuclear weapons site in 
South Carolina. 

He said the force, drawn from disparate units currently guarding 
nuclear weapons plants and storage sites, could be trained and 
fully deployed within two years.

The move follows repeated warnings by the US Central Intelligence 
Agency that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been trying 
to get access to fissile materials or a ready-made nuclear bomb 
in order to use it against the United States and its allies. 

It also comes in the wake of at least two stinging congressional 
reports that cited the Energy Department's failure to provide 
adequate security for radioactive materials in the United States 
and broaden cooperation with foreign partners to prevent nuclear 
theft by potential terrorists abroad. 

One of the surveys conducted by the General Accounting Office in 
2003, the investigative arm of Congress, said its authors could 
not ensure security contractors employed by the nuclear labs "are 
working to maximum advantage to protect critical facilities." 

Another study, made public by the GAO last year, said about 250 
so-called "sealed sources" containing strontium-90, cobalt-60, 
cesium-137, plutonium-238, plutonium-239 and other radioactive 
materials are reported lost or stolen in the United States each 
year, though most of them are eventually recovered.

But the most damning expose of security inadequacies in the US 
nuclear complex came three years ago from the Project On 
Government Oversight, a non-governmental watchdog. 

During an exercise conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory, 
the erstwhile home to the Cold War-era Manhattan Project, in 
October 2000, mock terrorists were able to gained control of 
sensitive nuclear materials which, if detonated, would have 
endangered significant parts of the western states of New Mexico 
and Colorado, the group said.

In an earlier test at the same laboratory, a US Army special 
forces team was able to "steal" enough weapons-grade uranium for 
numerous nuclear weapons and carry it from the facility in a Home 
Depot garden cart, according to the report. 

In another drill conducted in neighboring Colorado, Navy Seals 
were able to make a hole in a chainlink fence surrounding the 
Rocky Flats nuclear complex outside Denver and easily "steal" 
enough plutonium to make several nuclear bombs. 

What is more, the commandos were not even discovered until they 
were leaving the complex, the groups pointed out.

In his Friday's speech, Abraham acknowledged that the skill 
levels and qualifications of US nuclear security guards "vary 
widely."

He also complained that there was "insufficient uniformity in 
training" among security personnel, while staffing levels across 
the US nuclear complex were "no longer based on common criteria." 

The secretary said he had recently asked Congress to allow him to 
re-allocate 55 million dollars from the department's 2004 budget 
for boosting nuclear security.

  WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
 32 ABQjournal: Sandia Labs' Nuke Reactor Will Close
 
Saturday, May 8, 2004 

Albuquerque Journal--> John Fleck--> By Journal Staff Writer

     The Department of Energy plans to shut down a small Sandia 
National Laboratories nuclear reactor within three years as part 
of an initiative to improve nuclear weapons security, Energy 
Secretary Spencer Abraham announced Friday.

     Closing the Sandia Pulsed Reactor is one of a number of 
steps being taken to reduce the vulnerability of U.S. nuclear 
materials to terrorist attack, Abraham said during a South 
Carolina speech.

     Among them was a commitment by Abraham to move nuclear 
materials out of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Technical Area 
18, a canyon-bottom research center that officials have said is 
difficult to defend and vulnerable to terrorist attack.

     The DOE has promised in the past to move the nuclear 
materials out of TA-18, but critics say the department has been 
moving slowly.

     Among the other measures being considered, Abraham said, is 
the creation of a federal security force to protect U.S. nuclear 
weapon sites. The work is now done by contractors.

     Abraham's speech came 10 days after a critical report from 
Congress' General Accounting Office questioning whether 
sufficient steps were being taken to protect U.S. nuclear weapon 
sites against terrorist threat.

     The Sandia Pulsed Reactor is a small nuclear reactor that 
uses uranium to generate pulses of radiation for nuclear weapons 
research. Among its functions is testing weapon parts to ensure 
they can withstand the radiation of a nuclear battlefield and 
still function.

     The reactor's uranium is the only significant quantity of 
weapons-grade nuclear materials at Sandia, according to 
congressional testimony April 27 by Danielle Brian. She is the 
head of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group 
that has in the past complained about security at the reactor 
site.

     Abraham said the work done with the reactor would be 
replaced over the next three years with computer simulations.

     Moving the nuclear materials out of Sandia and the Los 
Alamos research area is part of a broader effort to reduce the 
number of sites with enough nuclear material to be attractive to 
terrorists, Abraham explained.

     DOE and Sandia officials did not say where the uranium would 
be taken.

     "We're still reviewing the Secretary's remarks and beginning 
to look at what changes these new initiatives will bring to the 
labs," Sandia spokesman John German said in a statement issued 
Friday afternoon. "Sandia's management will be working closely 
with DOE and NNSA on these new initiatives over the coming 
months."

     Sandia and DOE had been planning on building a new 
underground reactor building to house the Pulsed Reactor, but 
that project was canceled a year ago because of cost, according 
to DOE budget documents.
 
Copyright Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
 33 Tri-City Herald: Hanford could get federal security 

This story was published Saturday, May 8th, 2004 

By Annette Cary Herald staff writer 

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is considering establishing an 
elite federal force to protect weapons-grade nuclear materials at 
Department of Energy sites nationwide, including Hanford. 

The idea is one of several possible changes Abraham outlined 
Friday to better protect DOE nuclear facilities from terrorists. 

"Since the stakes are so high, everything is on the table," 
Abraham said in a speech in South Carolina at a gathering of top 
DOE security officers. 

Hanford has not produced plutonium since the end of the Cold War. 
But more than 4.4 tons of weapons-grade plutonium remain stored 
and guarded at the nuclear reservation after more than four 
decades of production. 

Abraham is proposing an elite military unit comparable to the 
Delta Force, the Army Rangers or the Navy SEALS. 

"The hallmark of this force will be advanced tactical skills, 
intensive training and the highest professional and physical 
fitness standards," he said. 

When the force is created, it would allow DOE to address issues 
such as uniform employment conditions throughout DOE, Abraham 
said. That could include new benefits, such as a 20-year 
retirement option. 

For decades, security has been the responsibility of the prime 
contractor at Hanford, currently Fluor Hanford, although it 
sometimes has been assigned to a subcontractor. Since 1993, 
Hanford security forces have focused on nuclear security, and the 
Benton County Sheriff's Office has handled traffic and some other 
non-nuclear duties. 

The changes proposed by Abraham could include separating the 
protective force contract from the site management and operating 
contracts. Or it could include one contractor for all sites that 
have special nuclear materials. 

More input is needed before a concrete plan is announced, but 
Abraham said he expects to move quickly. 

"I expect that within two years we will have a program that will 
enable us to improve and build our protective forces into a 
uniform group capable of fully meeting the immense challenges of 
an ever-changing security environment," he said. 

Abraham's announcement came after an April 27 report by the 
General Accounting Office criticized DOE's anti-terrorism 
efforts. 

The office rebuked the department for taking two years to develop 
what has been dubbed a design basis threat, a classified document 
that analyzes the potential size and capabilities of terrorist 
forces that might attack nuclear sites. The department requires 
contractors at its nuclear sites to provide a large enough force 
and enough equipment to defend against such a threat. 

Abraham also acknowledged recent reports of security lapses, such 
as lost keys, at DOE sites other than Hanford. 

Among the other changes he is proposing are upgrading security 
systems to keyless entry and enhancing protections of classified 
computer information. 

More training would be done to make workers aware of cyber 
security threats and to instantly alert sites across the DOE 
complex to threats. The initiative also could lead to tighter 
policies about what information is available to the public on the 
Internet. 

Consolidating weapons-grade nuclear materials at fewer sites also 
could keep them from falling into the wrong hands, Abraham said. 
Plutonium stored in vaults at Hanford is expected to be 
transferred eventually to another site, possibly Savannah River, 
S.C., but no plan has been approved. 

Officials at Hanford and at Pacific Northwest National 
Laboratory, DOE's lab in Richland, were waiting for more details 
Friday to determine how the proposed changes could affect them. 

� 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
 34 The State: S.C. lab to research nuke wa
 
 05/08/2
 
Savannah River center gets national designation, eligible for
huge grants

 By C. GRANT JACKSON

 Business Editor

SAVANNAH RIVER SITE  The nations newest national laboratory 
will focus on developing technology to help clean up nuclear 
waste, U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday. 

As expected, Abraham named the Savannah River Technical Center a 
national laboratory, a designation long sought by South Carolina 
as a way to attract millions in federal research dollars, and the 
jobs that follow. 

The Savannah River National Laboratory will be able to compete as 
an equal with Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and other national 
laboratories for major research projects. 

The designation also should help ensure the future of the 
Savannah River Site, which once produced material for nuclear 
weapons, but more recently has been focused on cleaning up waste 
from their production. While Abraham wouldnt discuss specifics, 
he said future missions at SRS will be significant and robust. 

All of our national laboratories enjoy special status that makes 
them more likely places for important research efforts to take 
place, Abraham said. That can attract major research partners. 

Joining Abraham were Gov. Mark Sanford and U.S. Reps., Gresham 
Barrett, R-S.C., and Max Burns, R.-Ga. 

Sanford paid tribute to those who worked at SRS over the past 50 
years, calling them pioneers. We build from that foundation with 
the success today, he said. 

U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a videotaped statement, 
The national lab designation is like going from single-A 
baseball to the World Series. 

The potential research and development opportunities that could 
come to SRS and South Carolina from the designation are 
staggering and on the cutting-edge of technology, he said. 

Graham, who remained in Washington on Friday for the Iraqi 
prisoner abuse hearings, has worked on getting the national 
laboratory designation for 10 years. Abraham and Sanford praised 
his effort. 

The Savannah River National Laboratory is run under the contract 
for SRS by the Westinghouse Savannah River Co. It has an annual 
budget of $132 million with the majority of work involving 
projects supporting the Department of Energys Office of 
Environmental Management and National Nuclear Security 
Administration. Some 750 people, including chemists, material 
scientists, and mechanical, metallurgical, electrical and 
chemical engineers work for the lab. 

The federal government bought $3.1 billion in goods and services 
in South Carolina during 2002  and $1.5 billion was spent in 
Aiken County, with nearly all of that going to Westinghouse. 

The depth of the areas feeling for SRS was seen in the yard 
signs lining the highway welcoming Abraham. At one elementary 
school along the route, children stood against a fence waving 
flags and holding signs. 

The activities of the lab will be directed by the Department of 
Energys Office of Environmental Management. Savannah River will 
be the only full-time national laboratory to fall under the 
Environmental Management offices umbrella, Abraham said. 

The Bush administration considers our responsibilities for 
mitigating the risks and hazards posed by the legacy of nuclear 
weapons production among our very highest environmental 
priorities  the secretary said. 

But nuclear cleanup certainly will not be the labs only focus. 
The designation, in fact, will allow the lab to do broader 
research, said Keith Wood, the labs director. 

The center has a wide range of expertise, including hydrogen 
energy, nonproliferation and counterintelligence, environmental 
science, waste processing, homeland security, robotics and 
materials technologies. 

Much of the labs work in hydrogen is being done in connection 
with South Carolinas research universities, he said. 

Harris Pastides, USC vice president for research, said the 
university has strengths in three of the labs areas: hydrogen, 
homeland security and environmental cleanup. 

I would think from our perspective we go back now and boost 
those areas even more, so that we will be worthy partners for the 
people here at the national lab, Pastides said. 

Wright and Pastides said they were disappointed Savannah River 
was not selected when the Department of Energy released $150 
million last week in hydrogen storage research projects. 

But Wright said the national laboratory status will put Savannah 
River in a better position to compete next time. 

This is a nine-inning game. We were not the first up to bat. But 
we are in this for the long haul, Wright said. 

It was a disappointment to us, but the strength is here at 
Savannah River National Lab, he added. There is strength in the 
state. Its a long game and we expect to win.   

TheStateOnline
*****************************************************************
 35 SF Chronicle: U.S. wants to remove plutonium from lab 

Security concerns at Livermore cited
 
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau        

Saturday, May 8, 2004

Washington -- Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said Friday he 
wanted to remove weapons-grade nuclear material from the Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory because of concerns over the lab's 
ability to protect radioactive material from terrorists and its 
location in the densely populated Bay Area. 

University of California officials, who manage the weapons lab 
for the Energy Department, insisted the proposal was only being 
studied by the agency and that even if it was approved, the 
removal of the weapons material might be a decade or more away. 
But Abraham made clear that he saw the storage of plutonium and 
enriched uranium at Lawrence Livermore as a serious safety issue. 

"While the requirements of stockpile stewardship mean that we 
must retain nuclear materials at Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory today, over the long term we should look for a better 
solution," Abraham said during a speech in South Carolina. 

The announcement could have far-reaching consequences for the 
lab, one of the nation's top nuclear weapons research facilities 
along with its sister lab, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New 
Mexico. 

Livermore officials had recently proposed doubling the amount of 
plutonium stored at the lab in Alameda County -- from 700 to 
1,500 kilograms -- to allow its scientists to research new ways 
of forming plutonium "pits," the baseball-size chunks of 
fissionable material that are the key component of a nuclear 
bomb. Abraham's intentions expressed in his speech Friday will 
undermine that effort, which is already opposed by some local 
residents and anti-nuclear groups. 

The secretary's position could ultimately lead to a major shift 
in the mission of the lab, which was founded in 1952 by physicist 
Edward Teller, who pioneered the hydrogen bomb. Any significant 
change at the lab would have ripple effects on Livermore's 
economy, which is heavily dependent on a facility that has about 
8,700 employees and a $1.5 billion annual budget. 

Abraham's speech came after a stinging report last week by the 
General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, 
which questioned Lawrence Livermore's ability to protect its 
supplies of plutonium and other nuclear materials from a 
terrorist attack. 

A separate report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board 
-- a congressionally mandated advisory group to the Department of 
Energy -- found flaws in the lab's safety plan for Building 332, 
the plutonium building. 

Some local residents and government watchdog groups have said 
Livermore should not be permitted to maintain stores of 
weapons-grade nuclear material because of its location next to 
busy Interstate 580 and the town of Livermore -- as well as the 
rest of the Bay Area. The Project on Government Oversight - - a 
Washington, D.C., group that monitors nuclear safety -- praised 
Abraham's announcement. 

"We believe (Lawrence Livermore) is in an impossible situation, 
given that it's in the middle of a residential community," said 
Danielle Brian, the group's executive director. "It cannot 
adequately use all the techniques necessary to protect a facility 
that houses plutonium and highly enriched uranium. When it was 
built, it didn't have such a dense population around it. Time has 
overtaken the original vision for the lab." 

But lab supporters said removing all the nuclear material from 
the lab could undermine the central mission of the lab and its 
scientists -- assuring the reliability of the nation's nuclear 
weapons. 

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, whose district includes the 
lab, said Abraham was right to limit the number of sites that 
store radioactive elements, but she warned against removing 
material critical to the lab's research. 

"Currently, there is excess nuclear material at Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory that can be removed if another 
location is found to store it," Tauscher said. "But some special 
nuclear material must remain at the laboratory if it is to 
perform its essential national security mission." 

Abraham's comments could further complicate UC's effort to 
continue managing Livermore and its other Energy Department labs. 
Congress passed a bill last fall requiring the university's 
contracts to run Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory to be put out to competitive bidding. Abraham had 
announced a year ago that UC would have to bid to manage Los 
Alamos, which it has run for more than 60 years, and several 
potential bidders are eying the $2 billion-a-year contract. 

UC is widely seen as more likely than other competitors to win 
the Livermore and Berkeley contracts, in part because the labs 
are located close to the university's flagship Berkeley campus. 
But stripping Livermore of its nuclear materials could shift more 
of the weapons research work to Los Alamos -- the lab that UC is 
most in danger of losing. 

Abraham made the remarks during an awards ceremony for Energy 
Department facility security officers in Aiken, S.C. The 
secretary outlined a new strategy for lab security that included 
a proposal to create a new elite team of highly trained guards to 
safeguard nuclear materials. Abraham also said his agency would 
move toward a "diskless" computer system to avoid past 
embarrassments involving missing disks and hard drives containing 
nuclear secrets. 

Without mentioning the recent reports criticizing Livermore, 
Abraham cited "a number of issues raised" about the security of 
materials at all the weapons labs. Early next year, he plans to 
deliver to Congress a review of the nation's nuclear weapons 
complex that will include his plan to consolidate nuclear 
materials into fewer sites with better protection. 

"As part of that review, we will consider whether certain 
essential work performed at Livermore could be relocated to allow 
us to remove the category 1 and 2 special nuclear materials 
stored there," he said. 

But there is internal debate at the Energy Department about 
whether removing nuclear material from Livermore is a good idea. 
Linton Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security 
Administration, told a congressional panel last month that he 
opposed moving plutonium away from Livermore, saying it could 
hinder the lab's stockpile stewardship work. 

Abraham's speech drew fire from some Democrats, who said the 
agency had been slow to fix security problems at the labs. Rep. 
Edward Markey, D-Mass., a longtime critic of the nuclear labs, 
said he was skeptical Abraham would follow through on his words. 

"Instead of deciding to move plutonium out of Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory," Markey said, "the secretary has only 
announced he will think about doing so." 

The issue also became part of the presidential race as Democratic 
candidate Sen. John Kerry criticized Abraham's comments and 
accused the Bush administration of failing to protect the labs. 
Kerry's campaign cited the claim in the report prepared by the 
General Accounting Office that if terrorists penetrated 
Livermore, they could assemble a "dirty bomb" within minutes. 

"Security personnel do not have high-powered weapons, 
door-breaching explosives or helicopters to defend the site," 
Kerry said in a prepared statement. 

But Livermore officials deny the lab is vulnerable, saying there 
is a multilayered defense system to protect nuclear materials -- 
including a well- trained security force. 

Until Abraham releases his report to Congress early next year, 
the university plans to try to convince the secretary of the need 
to keep at least some nuclear material at the lab. 

"This is all part of long-term strategy," said UC spokesman Chris 
Harrington. "... We look forward to working with the secretary 
and providing input." 

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com. 

�2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
*****************************************************************
 36 SF Chronicle: Nuke watchdog at odds with Energy Dept. on lab's future
 
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer        

Saturday, May 8, 2004

 [San Francisco Chronicle] 

The fate of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is turning 
into a confrontation of two Washington titans -- the U.S. 
secretary of energy and the head of the secretive agency that 
oversees the nation's nuclear weapons complex. 

Some lab-watchers are confident Livermore can remain a busy hive 
of nonmilitary scientific research whether it remains a nuclear 
weapons lab or not, they said Friday after Energy Secretary 
Spencer Abraham announced that he would investigate the 
possibility of moving all of Livermore's plutonium to a more 
secure site, far away from the suburbs that increasingly encroach 
on it. 

Yet within Livermore lab, pressure for continued nuclear weapons 
work remains strong. That pressure could force a confrontation 
between Abraham and Linton Brooks, czar of the National Nuclear 
Security Administration, which oversees the huge U.S. nuclear 
weapons complex from Livermore to Savannah River, S.C. 

Brooks' testimony to Congress last week and lab officials' 
comments Thursday made clear their belief that they can continue 
to safely operate the lab's plutonium facility in Livermore 
without endangering workers or residents. 

But Abraham's speech Friday implicitly expressed a lack of 
confidence in those reassurances. 

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government 
Oversight in Washington, said the Bush administration was split 
over what to do about the nuclear weapons complexes. "There is a 
divide between the secretary's intentions and what (the nuclear 
security agency) wants to happen. (The agency) is really in bed 
with the labs, and it's trying to protect the labs at whatever 
cost. 

"Abraham wants to drag the complex kicking and screaming into the 
post- 9/11 world ... (while the nuclear security agency) is 
digging in its heels and trying to protect the lab's interest 
over the nation's interest at all costs." 

In his testimony April 27 to the House Government Reform 
subcommittee, Brooks said plutonium should stay at Livermore so 
scientists there can assess the reliability of the nation's 
nuclear arsenal. Alluding to proposals to consolidate all U.S. 
weapons-grade plutonium at a single site, Brooks countered: 
"Consolidation is not a panacea." 

The big question raised by Abraham's announcement Friday is: If 
Livermore loses its plutonium cache, what is the lab's future? 

"I don't want to go there,'' said Livermore spokesperson David 
Schwoegler in brief remarks. "It's too early to speculate on 
plutonium being moved out of here. ... We look forward to working 
with (the Energy Department and the nuclear security agency) on 
the studies that are mentioned" by Abraham in his speech. 

Lab officials have long touted the nonmilitary applications of 
Livermore technology built mainly for military reasons, such as 
their huge super-laser - - the National Ignition Facility, still 
under construction -- which could be used to simulate 
astrophysical phenomena such as exploding stars. 

Should its half-century-long plutonium era end, "there's plenty 
(of nonmilitary work) for Livermore to do ... all kinds of 
environmental and energy work and biomedical work," says a 
frequent critic, Christopher Paine of the Natural Resources 
Defense Council in Washington. 

Anti-nuclear groups do not typically praise actions by the Bush 
administration, but some were quick to commend Abraham's speech. 
The speech is "actually quite significant and all to the good," 
said Paul Leventhal, founding president of the Nuclear Control 
Institute in Washington. 

Surrounded by highways, suburbs and airfields, "all they've got 
(for protection at Livermore) is a fence," Leventhal charged. 
"They're counting on their guard force to defeat an adversary. 
But if you had an adversary comparable to 9/11, a suicidal 
adversary coming in large numbers from several directions, 
(Livermore guards) would be extremely hard pressed to fend them 
off." 

If the plutonium leaves Livermore, where should it go? Abraham's 
speech didn't explore this unavoidable topic, but in interviews 
Friday, outside analysts suggested possible destinations: 

-- The Device Assembly Facility, a highly secure bunker at the 
southern Nevada nuclear test site, where the United States 
exploded nuclear bombs for four decades. 

-- Pantex Plant in rural Texas, whose Web site identifies it as 
"America's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly 
facility." Some 12, 000 plutonium "pits" -- roughly 30 to 40 
tons' worth of spherical cores from dismantled nuclear weapons -- 
now rest in igloo-style bunkers at Pantex, 17 miles from 
Amarillo. 

-- Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the nation's 
first atomic weapons facility, where the first A-bomb was 
developed in 1945. One advantage of Los Alamos is that its staff 
has extensive experience in working with plutonium. In fact, Los 
Alamos currently stores considerably more plutonium than 
Livermore does. 

E-mail the author at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com. 

Page A - 9 

�2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
*****************************************************************
 37 Albuquerque Tribune: Move to rid some lab uranium praised                     

By James W. Brosnan

Tribune Reporter

 WASHINGTON - Proposals to remove all weapons-grade uranium from 
Sandia National Laboratories could remove a tempting terrorist 
target, a government watchdog group says.

 On Friday, Energy Secretary Spence Abraham said all 
weapons-grade nuclear material will be gone from New Mexico's two 
national labs within three years. 

He announced the initiative while outlining a series of new 
security measures at Department of Energy labs, which have come 
under fire for security gaffes.

 Abraham said use of the Pulsed Nuclear Reactor, a 3-by-6-foot 
machine that uses plates of uranium to fire bursts of radiation 
to validate computer codes, would be phased out and its fuel 
removed. 

"Brute force" is no longer needed because computers can now 
simulate the effects of radiation, he said. 

Removing the uranium will take away a tempting terrorist target 
and could save the Department of Energy as much as $30 million a 
year in security costs, said the Project on Government Oversight, 
a watchdog group.

 There is enough uranium in the reactor to set off a 1-kiloton 
explosion, said Pete Stockton, a senior investigator for POGO and 
a former special assistant to Gov. Bill Richardson when he was 
secretary of energy in the Clinton administration.

 Last month, Abraham announced that all weapons-usable nuclear 
material would be removed from the Technical Area-18 at Los 
Alamos National Laboratory. 

Abraham also announced two other steps to improve security at the 
labs over the next five years: 

"Diskless" workstations will replace personal computers to reduce 
the possibility of data theft. Computer monitors and keyboards 
will be linked to a central computer in a room constantly guarded 
by two people.

 Biometric locks and other keyless devices will replace keys and 
key cards. Lost keys have become a significant security issue for 
the labs.

 Abraham said the department also would consider replacing some 
of its private security guards. Abraham said the department might 
establish "a special, elite federal force" to protect facilities 
that use weapons-grade material, which is enriched uranium or 
plutonium. Or it could issue a contract to one company to guard 
those sites, he said.

 John German, a Sandia spokesman, said the security force of 
about 170 uniformed officers at the Albuquerque lab are Sandia 
employees, rather than contractor employees.

 Rep. Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat, said, "I am pleased the 
Department of Energy has taken this long overdue step. Many 
reports and experts have called on this administration to take 
action to remedy some of the past incidents of lax security." 

One of those Abraham will have to persuade to back his plan is 
Sen. Pete Domenici, the Albuquerque Republican who chairs the 
Senate Energy Committee and the appropriations subcommittee that 
funds the department's budget. 

Domenici said he will work with Abraham on the plan, "but I 
continue to have concerns that security costs are outpacing any 
growth in the Department of Energy's budget."

 Domenici added that he favors consolidation of nuclear material 
"where it it makes financial sense and will not undermine the 
program."

 The Associated Press contributed to this story

� The Albuquerque Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 38 Tri-Valley Herald: Energy chief orders tighter security
 
  5/9/2004   
 
Abraham stresses improvement, will leave plutonium at Livermore
for now

By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER

Dropping previous Bush administration assurances that U.S. 
nuclear-weapons sites were secure against terrorist attack, 
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on Friday ordered sweeping 
reforms to include shipping some unsecure atom-bomb ingredients 
to a Nevada desert fortress and eliminating keys and portable 
electronic secrets nationwide. 

"We must improve," Abraham said. "We must adapt to a world that 
changed three Septembers ago, if we are going to successfully 
protect this complex in the future." 

Yet the Energy Department undergoes a major security overhaul on 
average every three years, and the practical impact of Abraham's 
reforms -- how much more secure will nuclear weapons sites be -- 
was debatable. Many elements rehashed earlier decisions and 
delivering the remainder will take years. That would require 
re-election of the Bush administration and Abraham staying in a 
post where the average tenure is less than three years. 



Nonetheless, said Peter Stockton, a former House investigator of 
weapons sites and Clinton administration nuclear-security 
adviser, "If they implement this, this is the biggest thing any 
administration has done in 30 years." 

Abraham ordered replacement over five years of hundreds of 
thousands of physical locks with electronic ones, easing the risk 
of lost keys -- which plagued Lawrence Livermore lab last year. 

"For the most part, I am convinced they are rare lapses in 
security," Abraham said, mentioning the lost keys and reports of 
poor performance in test assaults on weapons sites. "But frankly, 
rare or not, they are unacceptable. And the failure of any and 
all levels of management to address instances such as these will 
not be tolerated." 

The secretary proposed swapping classified desktop computers used 
by weapons scientists and engineers with networked, driveless 
computers that won't write secret data to portable disks. That 
reduces the risk of an insider slipping reams of digitized bomb 
secrets or intelligence into their pocket and out the door. 

Removal of plutonium at multiple defunct or cleanup sites -- from 
Richland, Washington's Hanford to Boulder, Colorado's Rocky Flats 
Environmental Technology Site to Ohio's Fernald site -- would be 
accelerated. That would shrink or eliminate almost half of the 
Energy Department's nuclear-material storage sites. 

Abraham promised to move four of five small, experimental 
reactors out of a virtually indefensible canyon bottom at Los 
Alamos National Laboratory by the end of 2005 and remove 
bomb-grade fuel from a test reactor at Sandia National 
Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., in three years. Dismantling 
the Sandia Pulse Reactor would end the storage of bomb-grade 
material at Sandia. 

They would be shipped to the Device Assembly Facility, a hulking 
bunker of thick steel doors and earth-covered, concrete walls 
bracketed by gun towers with unimpeded lines of fire for hundreds 
of yards. 

Most of those decisions were made already, some during the 
Clinton administration. 

Abraham stopped shy of the three heftiest security reforms that 
he was weighing: federalizing hundreds of security officers at 
U.S. nuclear weapons sites and removing nuclear bomb materials 
from an Idaho lab and Lawrence Livermore nuclear-weapons lab, 
housing the nation's largest non-military stock of bomb 
ingredients on the outskirts of a major metropolitan terrorist 
target, the Bay Area. 

"We will consider whether certain essential work performed at 
Livermore can be moved so as to remove the special nuclear 
materials that are there," Abraham said. 

He talked of boosting standardized training over two years and 
perhaps creating a federal, tactical nuclear-defense force then. 

Aides to the secretary said he plans to make the Idaho and 
California decisions by the end of 2005. 

Livermore managers were relieved. They acknowledge some of the 
lab's three-quarter ton of plutonium and hundreds of pounds of 
enriched uranium is surplus but senior weapons officials say 
Livermore cannot study aging effects on nuclear weapons or better 
ways to rebuild weapons without a significant supply of the 
heavy, radioactive gray metal. 

They are eyeing new weapons-related research and development 
plans entailing a doubling of the lab's plutonium stock and 
day-to-day workload over the next decade. 

"The laboratory wholeheartedly supports the initiatives announced 
today," said lab spokesman David Schwoegler in a prepared 
statement. "The laboratory shares the secretary's commitment to 
enhanced security and to ensuring a safe laboratory." 

Marylia Kelley, head of a lab watchdog and nuclear-disarmament 
group, said Abraham missed a chance to eliminate an outdated 
plutonium storage facility, Livermore's top-secret Superblock, 
that is as much at risk of earthquakes and accidents as a 
tempting target for terrorists. 



Abraham's action, announced at a "shoot-off" competition of the 
nation's nuclear defense teams at Savannah River Site in Aiken, 
S.C., caps 27 years of investigations and reports warning that 
Energy Department security was critically flawed or broken. 

Over those years, the agency itself generally awarded security 
marks of "satisfactory" or "outstanding" to its nuclear weapons 
factories and labs, allowing bonus payments to contractors such 
as the University of California who perform more than 80 percent 
of the Energy Department's work. 



The security failures behind most of Abraham's fixes were raised 
years ago, well before Sept. 11: security poor but graded highly 
(1977), lack of standard security training (1986); faulty 
accounting for nuclear materials (1991 and 1996); 10,000 missing 
classified documents at Livermore (1991); lax security for Los 
Alamos' experimental reactors (1994); "questionable" security for 
Livermore's plutonium facility (1999 and August 2001); lax 
computer security (1999 and 2000.) 

Tri-Valley Herald All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
 39 Daily Camera: Flats oversight groups calls for independent review
 		 		
 Mailing address: Broomfield Enterprise 1006 Depot Hill Road, 
Suite G Broomfield, CO 80020
   

Officials cite public mistrust of clean-up work 

By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer May 8, 2004

Members of a Rocky Flats oversight group called this week for an 
independent review of tests on the future wildlife refuge lands 
at the former nuclear trigger-making site. 

Soil covering the area slated for a National Wildlife Refuge is 
undergoing testing for contaminants. Clean-up contractor 
Kaiser-Hill Co. outlined the methodology and depth of recently 
conducted and ongoing sampling research in the 6,000-acre buffer 
zone. 

 The land will transfer to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 
a refuge after the targeted December 2006 clean-up deadline. 
Department of Energy officials backed the contractor's analysis 
that contaminated areas at the site on Broomfield's southwestern 
border have been identified. 

Broomfield City Councilman Gary Brosz, also a member of the Rocky 
Flats Coalition of Local Governments, questioned the independence 
of the testing, especially in light of a "real problem in public 
perception." 

"In the public's eyes, I think there's a very real mistrust of 
everything you guys say," Brosz told site officials, suggesting 
officials include independent review during sampling plans. 

Brosz said a key reason for testing the area is to address public 
perception about whether the buffer zone, as the future refuge 
lands are known, will be clean enough to support public access 
once it becomes a refuge. 

Tests have been conducted by dividing the site into 30-acre 
grids, from which five samples are drawn. The samples from each 
grid are combined for a composite. Any tests exceeding certain 
levels of contaminants are followed with more intense analysis, 
officials said. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is soon expected to conduct 
follow-up testing. 

Other state and local government officials questioned whether an 
independent review was warranted and cost-effective considering 
regulatory oversight by the state health department, the EPA, the 
coalition, environmental groups and others. 

"If we do something, we need to make sure the money is well spent 
because money is hard to come by in these United States right 
now," said Arvada City Councilwoman Lorraine Anderson, a 
long-time coalition member. "We shouldn't just be wasting it on 
making sure everyone has warm, fuzzy feelings about Rocky Flats." 

Steve Gunderson, a state health department regulator over the 
site, cautioned the site has just 18 months until anticipated 
closure and any action suggested should add value to the cleanup. 

Several groups have argued there may still be hidden waste at the 
site and that contaminants may be high in areas to be transferred 
to the refuge. 

Environmental Information Network director and biologist Paula 
Elofson-Gardine said it is a mistake for the public to be brought 
out to the site. She also questioned the validity of the site's 
sampling. 

"Thirty acres is a hell of a lot of space to only do five samples 
in," Elofson-Gardine said. "Even one acre is a big space." 

She is pushing for further testing, including additional aerial 
photograph studies, last conducted in 1989. 

Site officials "have a very high confidence" they aren't missing 
any substantial dumping sites, as some in the public fear, said 
Lane Butler, manager of environmental restoration programs for 
Kaiser-Hill. Multiple areas on the site have been identified over 
the years as places waste, from nuclear material to construction 
debris, was customarily dumped at the site, Butler said. 

"It just doesn't seem reasonable if you have all sorts of open 
sites available that somebody would go out in the middle of the 
night and dig a hole," Butler said. 

The discussion is scheduled to continue at the group's June 7 
meeting, focusing on whether independent analysis should be done 
and what the scope of that analysis should be. 

Several environmental groups, members of the public and city 
leaders �particularly from Boulder, Boulder County and Superior � 
have expressed concerns about lingering effects on the public of 
Rocky Flats' part in nuclear weapon production from 1952 to 1989. 
The site at Broomfield's southwestern border once housed 
manufacturing operations for plutonium triggers for nuclear 
weapons.   

Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company. 
All rights
*****************************************************************
 40 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 13:05:34 -0700 (PDT)

 
N.KOREA Says Japan About to Have Nuclear Arms
Wired News - USA
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Saturday accused Japan of being on the
verge of possessing nuclear weapons. The charge, carried ...
<http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=861583&tw=wn_wire_story>

FEDERAL guards, more security weighed for nuclear weapon sites
Arizona Daily Sun - Flagstaff,AZ,USA
... to increase security at nearly a dozen government facilities that hold
highly radioactive material that could be used to fashion a crude nuclear
device. ...
<http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=86894>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm%3FstoryID%3D86894>

IRAN FM: Better trust being built with Europe over nuclear ... 
Albawaba Middle East News - Amman,Middle East
... efforts, including his latest trip to Germany, Belgium and Denmark,
have built better trust between the country and Europe over Tehran`s nuclear
program. ...
<http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=276389&lang=e&dir=news>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3%3Fsid%3D276389%26lang%3De%26dir%3Dnews>

ONE Hard Push For Nuclear Power Plants
Zaman - Turkey
Turkey is rehashing ideas about the construction of nuclear power plants,
an issue that has been moot for some time due to financial problems and
objections ...
<http://www.zaman.com/?bl=economy&alt=&trh=20040508&hn=8358>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.zaman.com/%3Fbl%3Deconomy%26alt%3D%26trh%3D20040508%26hn%3D8358>

US: Israel may strike nuclear facilities in Iran
Jerusalem Post - Jerusalem,Israel
Israel may be preparing to attack Iranian nuclear facilities within the
year, according to US administration assessments reported on Army Radio
Saturday morning ...
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1083998346048>

NUCLEAR Weapons Program Could Get Own Police Force
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
ASHINGTON, May 7 � Facing questions about whether terrorists could steal
nuclear weapons material or technology, the secretary of energy said Friday
that he ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/politics/08NUKE.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/politics/08NUKE.html>

AS Energy Dept. Calls for Improved Security at Nuclear Facilities ... 
Yahoo News (press release) - USA
WASHINGTON, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Applauding the US Energy Department's
new initiative to improve security at nuclear weapons facilities, the
nation's largest ...
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040507/dcf046_1.html>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040507/dcf046_1.html>

NUCLEAR plant exposure levels raise eyebrows
Japan Times - Tokyo,Japan
Nuclear plant workers in Japan have suffered the world's highest collective
radiation exposure for four consecutive years, prompting the Nuclear and
Industrial ...
<http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040508b5.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5%3Fnn20040508b5.htm>

ISRAEL to Reveal Nuclear Weapons to UN: Jerusalem Post
Merh News Agency - Tehran,Iran
... Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the US President George W.
Bush have planned to use a ploy in line with recognition of the Israeli
nuclear weapons by ...
<http://www.mehrnews.com/wfNewsDetails_en.aspx?NewsID=76843&t=International>

REL, NTPC to foray into nuclear sector
Sify - Delhi,India
... private sector group, Reliance, and the public sector power major National
Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), are planning to diversify into nuclear
generation. ...
<http://sify.com/finance/equity/fullstory.php?id=13470861>

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 41 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 13:04:59 -0700 (PDT)

 
WHATEVER happened to nuclear free?
Stuff.co.nz - New Zealand
As National questions our ban on nuclear ships, and others call for atomic
power, Joanna Wane asks: whatever happened to nuclear-free New Zealand?
...
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2902056a1861,00.html>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2902056a1861,00.html>

NUCLEAR Weapons: Saddam and the Scam Artists
Newsweek - New York,NY,USA
... Vice President Dick Cheney once famously declared, shortly before the
outbreak of war, that Saddam Hussein had, "in fact, reconstituted nuclear
weapons." When ...
<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4934329/>

'US won�t accept India as nuclear weapon state'
Sify - Delhi,India
... India and Pakistan were only meant to advance its regional goals and
did not amount to a tacit admission of the South Asian nations being nuclear
weapon states ...
<http://sify.com/news_info/fullstory.php?id=13471284>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://sify.com/news_info/fullstory.php%3Fid%3D13471284>

NUCLEAR regulatory agency cites Davis-Besse plant, waives fine
Canton Repository - Canton,OH,USA
By The Associated Press. OAK HARBOR � The Nuclear Regulatory Commission
has cited FirstEnergy Corp. for providing false information ...
<http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=13&ID=160921&r=1>
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NUCLEAR holocaust on a hair trigger
Scotland on Sunday - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK
IT PROMISED to be a quiet evening when Lt Col Stanislav Petrov settled
into his commander�s seat at the Soviet nuclear early warning centre
near Moscow, but ...
<http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=528832004>

UNITED States plans new elite force to guard nuclear facilities
Daily Times - Pakistan
... The United States plans to create a new elite security force, fashioned
after the US Army Rangers or Navy Seals, to protect its nuclear weapons
facilities from ...
<http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-5-2004_pg4_2>
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<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp%3Fpage%3Dstory_9-5-2004_pg4_2>

NKOREA says Japan on verge of having nuclear weapons
Channel News Asia - Singapore
SEOUL : North Korea claimed Japan was about to possess nuclear weapons,
in its latest attack on one of the countries preparing to meet next week
to discuss the ...
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/83911/1/.html>
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THE nuclear divide stays wide
Bremerton Sun - Bremerton,WA,USA
On one side, there were about 50 people with the Ground Zero Center for
Nonviolent Action, a Poulsbo group that annually protests nuclear weapons
on Mother's ...
<http://www.thesunlink.com/redesign/2004-05-09/local/469222.shtml>

UK role in nuclear build-up under fire
Guardian - UK
Britain's role in helping to design and test nuclear weapons for the Bush
administration's planned expansion of the US atomic arsenal needs to be
fully ...
<http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1212678,00.html>

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 42 [DU-WATCH] CADU News 17
 
Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 11:27:57 -0500 (CDT)

 
                             CADU NEWS 
                        ISSUE 17 Spring 2004

             Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, Bridge 
            5 Mill, 22a Beswick St, Ancoats, Manchester 
                               M4 7HR
                 Tel/Fax: +44  (0)161 273 8293      
                       email: info@cadu.org.uk
                 website     http//: www.cadu.org.uk

                         MoD Forced to Pay 
                              Pension 
                        for DU Contamination

A former soldier has become the first veteran to win a war 
pension appeal after suffering depleted uranium poisoning 
during the Gulf War, it has emerged.Kenny Duncan took the 
Ministry of Defence to the Pensions Appeal Tribunal Service 
over his claim that he suffered depleted uranium poisoning 
during active service in Iraq.

The father of three, from Clackmannanshire, served with the 
Royal Corps of Transport as a specialist tank transporter 
during the first Gulf War in 1991.Part of his job was to move 
Iraqi tanks destroyed by depleted uranium shells. Mr 
Duncan's case relied on blood tests carried out by Dr Albrecht 
Schott, a German biochemist, which revealed chromosome 
aberrations caused by ionising radiation. The tribunal found 
that Mr Duncans exposure to the uranium was attributable 
to his service in the Gulf.

Dr Schott's research formed part of a study of 16 British 
veterans of conflicts in the Gulf, Bosnia, and Kosovo, which 
found that they had 14 times the usual level of chromosome 
abnormalities in their genes, raising fears that they will pass 
cancers and genetic illnesses to their offspring. Kenny 
Duncan believes that his children's health problems are linked 
to his service in the Gulf war. All three were born with 
deformed toes and low immune systems.

When he retired from the army in 1993, due to ill health, 
Duncan received only a half-pension. The PATS decision 
means that his pension will now be reassessed. Duncan said: 
It is just a huge relief to have someone in authority say that 
you have been poisoned by this stuff and that you are not 
telling lies. It is now time for the [defence ministry] to tell us 
what went wrong... I doubt that I will benefit much financially 
from this, but it wasn't about the money, it was about the 
principle of the thing.

His wife Mandy said: 'It's scandalous that while we are 
suffering with the 
consequences of what the Government has done, politicians 
are just thinking about money.'

                         New Campaigning and
                  Information Pack Available from 
                                CADU

A new campaigning pack and information pack will soon be 
available from CADU. The pack has a comprehensive 
information section about DU weapons, petitions, campaigning 
postcards, and advice on how to take effective action against 
DU. 

To put in an order contact the CADU office. Affiliates to 
CADU will be able to order the pack at the specially 
discounted rates of 
#2.50 (+50p P+P)
                                  .
                   WHO Scientists Report into DU 
                           Cancer Dangers 
    Suppresse
    d
An expert report by three leading radiation scientists cautioned 
that children and
adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing 
DU. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health 
Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr 
Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that 
it was deliberately suppressed. Baverstock also believes that if 
the study had been published when it was completed in 2001, 
there would have been more pressure on the US and UK to 
limit their use of DU weapons in last years war, and to clean 
up afterwards. Our study suggests that the widespread use of 
depleted uranium weapons in Iraq could pose a unique health 
hazard to the civilian population, Baverstock told the Scottish 
Sunday Herald. There is increasing scientific evidence the 
radioactivity and the chemical toxicity of DU could cause more 
damage to human cells than is assumed.

Baverstock was the WHOs top expert on radiation and health 
for 11 years
until he retired in May last year. While he was a member of 
staff, WHO refused to give him permission to publish the 
study, which was co-authored by Professor Carmel Mothersill 
from McMaster University in Canada and Dr Mike Thorne, a 
radiation consultant . Baverstock suspects that WHO was 
leaned on by a more powerful pro-nuclear UN body, the 
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). I believe our 
study was censored and suppressed by the WHO because they 
didnt like its conclusions. Previous experience suggests that 
WHO officials were bowing to pressure from the IAEA, whose 
remit is to promote nuclear power, he said. 

                   Gulf War Vets Babies 50% more 
                    likely to have Birth Defects
A major Ministry of Defence-funded survey study from the 
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found 
that babies whose fathers served in the first Gulf war are 50 
per cent more likely to have physical abnormalities. They also 
found a 40 per cent increased risk of miscarriage among 
women whose partners served in the Gulf.

Increased risks of genital, urinary and renal abnormalities and 
deformed limbs, bones and muscles were found in the Ministry 
of Defence-funded survey. Of 13,191 pregnancies among the 
partners of male Gulf veterans, 686, or 5.2 per cent, had some 
form of physical abnormality, compared with 342, or 3.5 per 
cent, of the 9,758 non-Gulf pregnancies. 

The survey didnt find increased risks of other types of birth 
defects nor stillbirths among veteran pregnancies. Female 
veterans were also found to be at no greater risk of 
miscarriage.

The MoD have been hawking this study as the definitive study 
into pregnancy outcomes among veterans for some time so it 
was difficult for them to downplay it. Although they still tried: 
An MoD spokesman said: It is important to note the
researchers have cautioned that the findings may be susceptible 
to recall bias, and that it is a comparison with a control group 
in which miscarriage may have been under-reported. 
Extensive recall bias in remembering your own childrens birth 
deformities seems a little far-fetched!

Similar evidence was found in US research from a Veterans 
Administration study, published within the last year, that shows 
children of Gulf War vets have twice the normal rate of birth 
defects. A US study  released this month shows women who 
served in the first Gulf War suffered three times the normal 
rate of miscarriages in the period just after the conflict. 

                     MoD Issues DU Warning Card 
                              to Troops

The MoD has issued a card to all troops serving in Iraq in 
areas where DU has been used. The card reads:
[front]DU Information Card 
(introduced 03.03) F Med 1018

You have been deployed to a theatre where Depleted Uranium 
(DU) munitions have been used.

DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal, whch has the 
potential to cause ill health.

You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during 
your deployment.

[back]Further Information 

You are eligible for a urine test to measure uranium. If you 
wish to know more about having this test, you should consult 
your unit medical officer on return to your home base.

Your medical officer can provie information about the health 
effects of DU.

Information is also available on the MOD [Ministry of 
Defense] web site: 
www.uk/issues/depleted_uranium/index.htm

It is good to see the MoD deviating from their normal line that 
DU poses no health risks and taking some responsibility 
towards serving soldiers, if only to cover their own backs. Yet 
the card raises many questions: Why is DU still being used if 
they know it to be a danger? What about Iraqi citizens, who 
are not being issued with cards nor offered tests? Why arent 
all troops given inexpensive urine tests considering many wont 
know the risks? The British military is definitely  increasingly 
being caught on the back foot about its use of DU weapons.

                        Scottish Anger at DU 
                            Contamination

DU is still contaminating the military firing range near 
Kirkcudbright in the south of Scotland, according to an 
unpublished MoD survey, reports the Sunday Herald (11 April 
2004). Since 1982 over 90 shells have been misfired or have 
malfunctioned and scattered fragments of DU across the 
ground. Despite searches, some of the fragments have never 
been recovered.

Higher levels of contamination have sometimes been found at 
points where malfunctioning DU rounds or fragments landed 
on the range, but this has been removed when MoD clean-up 
levels were exceeded, the report states. Other areas were less 
contaminated, but fenced off as a matter of good practice. 
But, the report adds: Some projectiles and fragments have not 
been recovered... There are also a small number of areas where 
it would be advantageous to carry out further intrusive 
investigations to investigate some apparently anomalous 
monitoring results.

Local concern about the risks was highlighted when peace 
activists took to the streets to hand out cards that are 
deliberately designed to mimic those handed to troops in Iraq. 
The focus of our action on April 16 is to highlight the 
hypocrisy of the MoD issuing warning cards to our troops, but 
not to the civilians they supposedly protect.

                 Political Heat Rises in the US as 
                    Soldiers Test Positive for DU
Four soldiers in the US have tested positive for DU, leading to 
hundreds of troops referring themselves for tests and political 
questions being asked about troop safety and testing.

After the recent news that British troops had tested positive for 
DU (see CADU News 16) a newspaper in the US paid to have 
9 soldiers who had been staying in a 
contaminated area tested for DU and were experiencing 
unexplained ill-health. Four of the nine, three of whom were 
Puerto Rican,  tested positive in tests carried out by Dr. Asaf 
Durakovic, of the Uranium Medical Research Center. The 
army said that only three soldiers of a 1000 tested had returned 
positive results, causing doubts about the accuracy of their 
tests. The soldiers had repeatedly tried and failed to get DU 
tests through the army.

The soldiers were from the New York National Guard and had 
been staying in Samawah, the scene of previous heavy fighting. 
Thered been a lot of fighting in Samawah before we got 
there, said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, one of the soldiers who 
tested positive. The place was dusty as hell, and the 
sandstorms were hitting uspretty good. He said, I got sick 
instantly in June. My health kept going downhill with daily 
headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my 
stomach.

Since then up to 800 G.I.s  have handed in their 24-hour urine 
samples, and hundreds more are waiting for appointments. But 
several independent uranium experts who reviewed one of the 
first official lab results that military doctors provided to a 
soldier last week are questioning whether the Armys testing 
methods are adequate.
They are using an instrument that apparently isnt very 
accurate, said Glen Lawrence, a professor of biochemistry at 
Long Island University. The instruments they used are just 
not sophisticated enough to give accurate readings, agreed 
Leonard Dietz, who invented one of the instruments for 
measuring uranium isotopes. Sen.Hillary Clinton took up the 
issue with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. 
Richard Myers at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services 
Committee. Myers vowed to upgrade uranium tests for G.I.s 
and to shake up the system to improve the screening and 
tracking of troops who may have been exposed to uranium 
dust in the Iraq war.Weve got to do a first-class job for our 
troops, said Gen. Richard Myers.

However in a Pentagon memo from Army Assistant Surgeon 
General Richard Ursone he was found to state performance of 
routine screening laboratory, radiologic and 
electrocardiographic tests in this setting is extremely low yield 
and is discouraged.  Even if giving those tests is supported 
by evidence-based medicine, they may be deferred if the soldier 
is without symptoms and the laboratory tests will delay release 
from active duty. 

                 Dutch Troops Moved Belatedly from 
                       Same Contaminated Area
When Dutch troops arrived in the same army base in Samawah 
that the DU contaminated US soldiers had been staying in, 
they measured unacceptably high levels of  radioactivity. Sgt. 
Juan Vega, senior medic with the US 442nd, told the New 
York-based Daily News the Dutch swept the area around the 
train depot with Geiger counters and their medics confided to 
[me] they had found high radiation levels.
The Dutch were ordered instead to pitch camp in the desert. 
Yet troop transfer from the area was delayed by three weeks, 
while the new camp was under construction leading to 
unnecessary exposure to DU for Dutch troops.

                 Iraqis at Risk of DU Contaminated 
                             Scrap Metal
 
Numerous eyewitness reports from respected sources have 
arrived saying that tanks and armoured vehicles hit by DU 
ammunition are being smelted down in Iraq. The contaminated 
metal is being recycled in a huge smelting facility near Basra, in 
southern Iraq, under the auspices of the British Army and 
being turned into prefabricated bridges, litter bins and even 
pots and pans according to the Independent Newspaper 
correspondent Robert Fisk. Children have also been reported 
collecting parts from the tanks to raise extra money for their 
families. This practice obviously puts Iraqis at  risk both while 
collecting the metal and using any objects it is turned into.  
Professor Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor at the 
University of Sunderland and a Government Advisor on Gulf 
War illnesses says: Taiwan springs to mind, where 
radioactive material was used in building structures and 
deaths and illnesses were so great, they had to be demolished. 
I would be very unhappy about using these materials, it would 
be a disaster for workers, a disaster for those living in the 
vicinity and it would be a real toxic brew also containing 
mercury, cadmium and numerous other lethal pollutants.
If the UK and US militaries had cleaned up all risk areas and 
removed all destroyed vehicles this could have been avoided. 
The British Government claimed that it was putting up safety 
signs to keep locals away although observers in Iraq say this 
has often not been the case. Jo Wilding, who is currently in 
Iraq running a circus for Iraqi street children said,  There is a 
huge tank cemetery near Daura where all the burnt-out 
military hardware has been dumped, and there are children 
working there, cutting pieces off the tanks for a small amount 
of money, and there are no warnings at all. I asked one of the 
boys if hed been told anything at all about the dangers, and 
he said some British journalists told him it might be 
dangerous, but he had no other source. 
In response to a Parliamentary question Adam Ingram, 
Minister of State for the Armed Forces, replied: There is no 
known legitimate operational smelting plant in the Basra 
region. A small number of illegal mobile smelting plants used 
for smuggled copper and aluminium have been found and 
closed down. There is no evidence they had been used to smelt 
tanks. Military vehicles known to have been hit by DU 
munitions within the southern sector of Iraq controlled by the 
British military have been clearly marked. Arrangements are 
currently being negotiated with the US for a contractor to 
collect and store these military vehicles.

                US Miltary Searching for Replacement 
                                to DU
It would appear the US Department of Defense is not as 
confident about its use of DU in weapons as it likes to imply. 
According to a company, Liquidmetal Technologies, it is 
working hard with them to develop a replacement for DU. The 
companys website (www.liquidmetal.com) claims: 
Awarded a series of multi-year, multi-million dollar 
contracts by the Department of Defense, Liquidmetal alloys 
technology is currently being developed for use as a Kinetic 
Energy Penetrator (KEP) rod. The KEP, the key component of 
the highly effective armor piercing ammunition system, 
currently utilizes Depleted Uranium (DU) because of its 
density and self-sharpening behavior. Ballistic tests conducted 
by the Army have proven that the Liquidmetal. tungsten 
composite KEP exhibits self-sharpening similar to the DU 
KEP. As a result, the Department of Defense is working 
closely with Liquidmetal Technologies to develop a new class 
of effective and environmentally benign KEP rods. 
(Emphasis added)
The US military has always been particularly belligerent about 
its use of DU weapons but it seems activist pressure is getting 
to them too!

               Gulf War Syndrome Legal Case Collapses
An eight-year, multimillion pound legal battle by more than 
2,000 veterans for compensation for Gulf War Syndrome has 
collapsed after legal aid was withdrawn. This does not mean 
that the veterans were not sick but rather that a specific cause 
would have to be proved. To succeed in their claim against the 
MoD the veterans would have to produce scientific evidence 
not only that their illness was caused by their service in the 
1991 Gulf war, but also that the MoD had been negligent. In a 
reversal of pension awards the burden of proof would be on 
them as claimants to prove their case.
In the face of the collapse there has been a growing call from 
top QCs and politicians for an independent inquiry into the 
illnesses suffered by veterans. Lord Morris of Manchester said 
he would deliver a letter to the prime minister calling for an 
inquiry and ex gratia payments to veterans. The collapse of the 
legal battle means that the government can no longer pass the 
buck to the courts, said Mr Paul Tyler, MP. The fact that the 
legal case has petered out in no way  implies that the illnesses 
have petered out - far from it.

                Alliant Techsytems Gets New DU Order
Nukewatch, in the States, reports that Alliant Techsystems, 
outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, the nations biggest assembler 
of uranium munitions, announced this week that it was 
awarded new contracts for 120-millimetre battle tank 
ammunition for the M1A1 main battle tanks. The contract is 
worth $38 million. As Alliant has removed all references to 
uranium or depleted uranium in its public notices, web pages 
and press releases, it can only be inferred at this point that the 
newest contracts are for uranium weapons. The tanks have 
always used DU ammunition in the past.   [see: 
www.nukewatch.com]

                 Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To 
                    Depleted Uranium In Gulf War 
                              Veterans

U.S. Veterans who were exposed to DU during the 1991 Gulf 
War have continued to excrete it in their urine for 6-8 years 
after their exposure, according to a new study published in the 
journal Health Physics. The study indicates that soldiers may 
absorb DU uranium particles through inhalation, ingestion, or 
wound contamination, said Roberto Gwiazda, lead author of 
the study. Using isotope analysis of urine, similar to new tests 
available in the UK, it was revealing that DU was present in 
the urine of a significant number of soldiers  without embedded 
shrapnel but with potential exposure through inhalation, 
ingestion, or wound contamination.
 
                           DU in Sardinia
 Activists in Sardinia, Italy, have called for an immediate halt to 
   all DU testing at the Salto di Quirra test range and the U.S. 
   military base of La Maddalena following what they describe as 
     a series of anomalies. They claim there are higher than 
   average rates of cancer and birth deformities in the area and 
 that the military activity is causing irreversible damage to the 
   image of our island and a risk to the already fragile economy.
Protests have also followed the death of Sardinian Corporal 
Major Valery Melis of Hodgkins lymphoma. Melis served as a 
Peacekeeper in Bosnia and Macedonia. The army consistently 
denied him care and medical costs up to his death. More than 
20 men are thought to have died from illnesses linked to their 
service in the Balkans, where DU was used in the 1990s.

                    Japanese Hostage was Anti-DU 
                             Campaigner
One of the 3 Japanese hostages, kidnapped in Iraq in dramatic 
fashion in April, was there because of his anger at the US/UK 
use of DU weapons. Noriaki Imai, 18, had gone to investigate 
their effects in Iraq. Japanese DU activists worked tirelessly for 
his release launching an international campaign to explain the 
hostages good intentions and antiwar stance.

                          New Reports on DU
Investigations of  environmental impacts from the deployment 
of depleted uranium munitions
by Dr. Hari Sharma
-Examination of environmental DU contamination in air and 
soil through analysis of residents tissue of  Basra, Iraq. 
Available from the Military Toxics Project at: 
tara@miltoxproj.org.t. 

Audio reports from the recent MIT seminar Depleted 
Uranium Weapons: Toxic Contaminant or Necessary 
Technology? can be downloaded at:
http://web.mit.edu/tac/www/recentforums.html

                     DU Protests in Warwickshire
The protesters staged a demonstration outside DM Kineton 
arms depot  protesting against the storage of weapons 
containing DU - which could lead to widespread radioactive 
contamination if there was a serious accident or terrorist 
attack.
Long Itchington resident Richard Williams was part of the 15-
strong group, who called themselves the Warwickshire 
Weapons Inspectors. He said: We succeeded in getting our 
message across, but we didnt have any joy in our attempts to 
get into the base itself.
We want people to be aware of what is really going on here. 
These weapons could cause a major contamination of this 
densely-populated region if there was an accident. This could 
lead to mass evacuation, and the sealing-off of a large area of 
the Midlands for decades, even centuries - as has happened in 
Chernobyl.

                      EC to probe DU pollution
SNP Shadow Minister for Europe Neil MacCormick MEP 
raised concerns in the European Parliament last month and the 
commission have now agreed to look into possible pollution 
stemming from the firing from Dundrennan range.
The MEP had claimed in the European Parliament that 
depleted uranium shells littering the seabed in the Solway Firth 
breach international law. He said that dumping low-level 
radioactive waste in the sea was illegal, even if there was no 
conclusive evidence that it is harmful.

                        Child Victims of War
Child Victims of War is raising money to have the urine of 
Iraqi children tested for DU. To find out more contact them at: 
17 Anstey Street, Easton, 
Bristol, BS5 6DG, UK 
or on Tel: 44 (0)20 8567 4237/ (0)117 902 6534.
info@childvictimsofwar.org
www.childvictimsofwar.org

                    'Friendly Fire' Newsletter 1
                                ICBUW
The first edition of the newletter of the International Coalition 
to Ban Uranium Weapons is now available online prior to the 
next meeting of the coalition in Brussels in May. Full of 
original material Friendly Fire can be found at: 
www.bandepleteduranium.org

                      Plans to Dump Low Level 
                   Radioactive Waste in Landfills
The government is examining plans to relax safety limits to 
allow low-level radioactive waste from civil and military 
nuclear plants to be dumped in landfill sites around the 
country.Contaminated metal and other materials from reactors 
and related facilities could also be recycled into household 
products, such as food containers and furniture. Radioactive 
rubble could be used to build roads, or used in other major 
construction projects.
Materials contaminated by twice todays legal limit of 
plutonium and up to 250 times todays legal limit of 
radioactive tritium could be disposed of along with ordinary 
rubbish, or reused in consumer goods.
ACTION: Please contact Defra and the Government to tell 
them this is unacceptable, -  before its too late.

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 43 Bellona: Classified oil
 

Commentary

ST. PETERSBURG�British Petroleum claims that Russia has oil 
reserves of 60 billion barrels. This very modest figure gives 
rise to the thought that it was no coincidence that a law 
declaring Russia's oil reserves to be a state secret came into 
force in February 2004.

Alexander Sutyagin, 2004-05-06 10:15

Russia's real oil and gas reserves have not proved to be as vast 
as the Russian political elite's fevered imagination would have 
had it. Given Russia�s current export rates for oil resources, 
the country could well become an oil importer in the foreseeable 
future.

  A map of supposedly classified oil reserves in the Barents Sea
area.   

  Bellona   

It was apparently for this reason that on November 11th 2003, 
President Vladimir Putin approved a change�encoded in special 
Federal Law No. 153�to Article 5 of the Federal Law On State 
Secrets. The change added the quantity and volume of reserves, 
methods, locations and amounts of extraction, production and 
consumption of Russia's strategically valuable fossil-fuels to 
the list of state secrets. 

The list of natural resources that were classified was spelled 
out in the Russian Government's Special Decree No. 210 of April 
2d 2002, which included "information on the balance of subsurface 
reserves of oil and gas dissolved in oil." 

It is however possible that the explanation is much simpler, and 
that because nobody can ever be entirely sure of anything in 
Russia�especially in such a dense field as geology�it was decided 
to classify reserve volumes of oil in order to avoid the headache 
of measuring them precisely. End of story. 

Federal Law No. 153 came into force three months after it was 
officially published, that is, in February 2004. 

It follows that any official�be it a former or current head of 
the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Industrial and 
Energy, the Prime Minister or even the President himself�who, 
with full knowledge of Federal Law No. 153, has given an account 
publicly or in print of the country's oil reserves should be 
brought to justice with a vengeance. 

We can only hope that the Federal Security Service, or FSB, 
reports back to society on the responsibility borne before the 
law by the above-listed officials. 

Interestingly, information on Russia's oil reserves appears 
regularly in British Petroleum's BP Statistical Review. 

According to the news agency Media-Press, a report citing BP that 
appeared on the web site RusEnergy on April 19th 2004, Russia has 
confirmed oil reserves of 60 billion barrels, and that it is 
extracting 7,698,000 barrels per day as of June 2003 with a 
consumption of 2,469,000 barrels. For the purposes of comparison, 
according to the SHANA agency, Iran has proven reserves of 130 
billion barrels, an extraction of 3,729,000 barrels per day with 
a consumption of 1,350,000 barrels. 

This comparison is extremely depressing for the Kremlin's 
'dreamers'�who therefore do indeed have something to hide. 

It is telling that the amendment to the Law On State Secrets 
mentions not just reserves, but also hydrocarbon extraction, 
production and transport volumes, while the list of state secrets 
includes only reserves. If the expanded list had been adopted, it 
would have been possible to imprison not only the whole of the 
government along with the analysts of all shades that surround 
it, but any Russian who has heard the government recite its 
figures. 

According to an April 4th report on the Russian news web site 
Gazeta.ru, entitled "Competition for State Secrets," by Igor 
Ivanov, the editor of the site�s Russian Focus section, the 
Government is looking at similar plans for the further 
classification in the oil sector. The new head of the Natural 
Resources Ministry, Yury Trutnev, has already refused to accredit 
any foreign journalists to the ministry. 

Meanwhile, the shareholders of oil giant Sibneft have proposed to 
amend the oil company's regulations so that the company's 
co-owners cannot have access to information classified as a state 
secret. Above all, the proposition affects the company's foreign 
management and owners, and fits in well with the increasing 
themes of secrecy, adjusting the investment regime, the exclusion 
of foreigners from the oil sector, and Russia's boomerang 
transformation back into a bogeyman of aggression, opacity and 
corruption. 

Also worthy of consideration is that, according to Article 7 of 
the Law on State Secrets, classified information and state 
secrets do not include information on emergency incidents; 
natural disasters; the state of the country's ecology; threats to 
the population's security and health, or breaches of the law by 
federal bodies and their respective heads. Above all, it is the 
activity of functionaries which is punishable by law under this 
sort of classification. 

While the General Prosecutor has been dealing with law-abiding 
functionaries, the Moscow City Court managed to sentence 
researcher Igor Sutyagin to fifteen years in prison. My namesake 
had no access to classified information, and consequently had no 
idea about what constituted state secrets. After all, at the end 
of the 1990s the list itself was a state secret. 

All that was necessary was to put him in prison, so they put him 
in prison. For Russia, the story is as sad as it is common. 

Alexander Sutyagin, Monitoring BTS/Bellona St. Petersburg. He can 
be reached at greenalex99@mail.ru.
   
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Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62  * P.O.Box 
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
    
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