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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
line and first line of body
NUCLEAR POLICY
1 AFP: Iran warns UN nuclear watchdog that cooperation is conditional
2 Xinhuanet: Iran expects closure of nuclear case - official
3 AU ABC: Iran urges nuclear watchdog to stay impartial.
4 Korea Herald: 'N.K. engagement must continue'
5 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Kerry Outlines North Korea Policy
6 KoreaTimes: NSC Deputy Chief Says US Pullout is Inevitable
7 Newsday: Opinion: Nuclear deal needed with North Korea
8 AFP: Malaysia won't allow US to question nuclear black market agent
9 AU SMH: Libyan nuclear equipment 'missing' -
10 UPI: Vanunu says he wanted to 'avert holocaust'
11 Bellona: Washington and Moscow agree to repatriate Russian-origin HE
12 Haaretz: Foreign Ministry furious at BBC over Vanunu interview
13 AFP: Libya received clandestine nuclear shipments as late as March
14 Times of India: Pak test fires Ghauri V missile
15 Sun News: Nuclear deal can serve interests
16 AFP: UN atomic agency persisting in dechiphering global nuclear smug
17 Daily Times: PML-N celebrates nuclear bomb anniversary
18 Daily Times: Press Gallery: Is the PML-N calling a spade a spade?
19 Hi Pakistan: Govt ignoring nuclear test anniversary, says PML-N
20 Hi Pakistan: Dr Qadeer allowed to go out: official -->
21 AFP: Malaysian PM stands by use of tough law on nuclear blackmarket
22 Mehr News Agency: Nuclear Chessboard (Part 1)
23 Las Vegas SUN: Weakened European Leaders Head to U.S.
24 Maariv International: Vanunu: I just wanted to let world know
25 Reutes: West's spies missed Libya nuke shipment from Turkey
26 Reuters: Israel Nuke Whistle-blower Wanted to Avoid Holocaust
27 Reuters: Israel's Vanunu Says Fueled by Defiance in Prison
28 Las Vegas SUN: Key Figure in Nuke Trafficking Arrested
29 Las Vegas SUN: U.N.: Libya Nuke Suppliers Spanned Globe
30 Guardian Unlimited Whistleblower: Israel Action Spurred Act
NUCLEAR REACTORS
31 Taipei Times: Nuclear reactor to arrive amid protest
32 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo extends refueling outage
33 Trinidad News: Nuclear power and global warming
34 EU Business: Austria and Slovakia face up to the future of nuclear e
35 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's N-Plant Unit 4 Switched Off Grid
36 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Safe Nuclear Power Deserves Justice
37 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Nuclear Abilities "Obstructed" by EU
38 VNS: France, Viet Nam sign deal for first nuclear power plant
NUCLEAR SAFETY
39 [DU-WATCH] Depleted Morality
40 [DU-WATCH] disinformation and depleted uranium
41 PRAVDA.Ru: Nuclear radiation can improve human health? -
42 US: heraldtribune.com: Plant workers were exposed to high levels of
43 US: GI: Downwinder says med staff told him to 'come back when you're
44 US: Paducah Sun Editorial: Sick workers need real help
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
45 Taipei Times: N-waste sollution???
46 US: Bradenton Herald: Lawyers prepare case for Tallevast
47 US: Bradenton Herald: County racing to bring water
48 US: Bradenton Herald: Owner assures factory site safe
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
49 lamonitor.com: Lab presses its $2.2 billion budget for savings
OTHER NUCLEAR
50 Google News Alert - nuclear
51 Google News Alert - nuclear
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 AFP: Iran warns UN nuclear watchdog that cooperation is conditional
Sunday, May 30, 2004
J©4F(G 10 .1/'/ 1383
TEHRAN, May 30 (AFP) - Iran warned the UN nuclear watchdog
Sunday not to put too much pressure on the Islamic republic lest
its clerical rulers end their cooperation altogether.
"Iran is still bound by its commitments," foreign ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
"There is no sign from our side that we will question our
cooperation, but the agency should not create an atmosphere that
pushes our leadership to doubt this cooperation," he cautioned.
His comments came two weeks before the Vienna-based International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to again examine Iran's
dossier amid ongoing suspicions that Iran is using a bid to
generate nuclear power as a cover for secret weapons development.
Iran insists that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful, and
last year signed an additional protocol to the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) allowing tougher IAEA inspections.
The country has also suspended uranium enrichment, amid
widespread international concern that it was close to producing
weapons-grade material.
"We have shown the greatest cooperation with inspectors and have
placed no restrictions on their work," Asefi said, dismissing
reports from diplomats that IAEA teams have been prevented from
visiting some military sites.
He said Iran was hoping that during its June meeting the IAEA
would examine the Islamic republic's case "without politicising
it and so that the dossier can be closed as soon as possible".
"There is pressure on the agency," he added, referring to
lobbying from the United States, "but if the (IAEA) board of
governors work diligently, there is no reason why the dossier
should not be closed."
Although Iran has been urging the IAEA to pull Iran's case off
the top of its agenda, President Mohammad Khatami has
acknowledged that no such step will be taken during the June
meeting.
©1999-2004 IranMania.com -inquiry@iranmania.com
*****************************************************************
2 Xinhuanet: Iran expects closure of nuclear case - official
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-30 20:10:25
TEHRAN, May 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran expects that its nuclear
case will be dropped from the agenda of the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) because of Tehran's positive cooperation, an
Iranian official said Sunday.
"Iran hopes that given its full cooperation with the IAEA and
its transparency, the agency will adopt an expert, non-political
and legal approach to examine Iran's file and pave the way for
its closure," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.
"The Islamic Republic has disclosed all facilities for the
IAEA inspectors and has nothing to hide," he added.
Meanwhile, he warned that Iran would stop its cooperation if
the country was not rewarded justly.
"There is no sign from our side that we will question our
cooperation, but the agency should not create an atmosphere that
pushes our leadership to doubt this cooperation," he said.
On Thursday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami also sent a
similar warning message, saying Iran could possibly resume its
uranium enrichment and stop cooperation on the snap inspection.
Iran declared a suspension of its uranium enrichment in
November2003 and signed the additional protocol of
Non-Proliferation Treatyin December of the same year.
On May 21, Iran submitted an allegedly full coverage report
on its nuclear activities, holding that IAEA has obtained enough
information to conclude the inspection on Iran's nuclear
activities.
Iran has been consistently denying the US accusation that it
is secretly developing atomic weapons, asserting that its nuclear
research is fully peaceful and US accusation is politically
motivated. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
3 AU ABC: Iran urges nuclear watchdog to stay impartial.
30/05/2004. ABC News Online
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Iran expects the UN nuclear watchdog not to succumb to US
pressure over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities at a board
meeting next month, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
"We are expecting the agency's impartial and non-political
review of Iran's nuclear case in its next meeting," said Hamid
Reza Asefi at a weekly news conference.
Washington accuses Iran of pursuing an illegitimate nuclear
program and had been pressing for Iran to be reported to the UN
Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions on
Tehran.
Tehran says its nuclear program is purely to meet booming demand
for electricity and last week submitted a full declaration about
its nuclear activities to the watchdog before its board of
Governors' meeting in June.
Mr Asefi said the board's decision might change Iran's
cooperative policy with the IAEA.
"Iran has acted honestly and transparently regarding its nuclear
case... we will act based on the new resolution," he said.
Iran's President Mohammad Khatami said on Thursday Tehran might
resume uranium enrichment and halt snap inspections of its
nuclear sites if the IAEA did not recognise Iran's cooperation
at its June meeting.
Iran last year agreed to freeze its uranium enrichment, which
can be used for making a bomb, and signed and agreed to
implement the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) allowing intrusive inspections of its nuclear
sites.
Mr Asefi repeated Iran's call for the IAEA board of governors to
remove Tehran's case from its agenda after its June meeting in
Vienna.
"The ground should be paved for Iran's case to be closed because
Iran has been committed to its promises," he said.
"An atmosphere which fosters doubt among Iranian officials on
Tehran's cooperation with the agency, should not be created."
Diplomats in Vienna said Washington may not push for the IAEA to
report Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions
but it is expected to push hard for a resolution condemning Iran
for not cooperating with the agency.
-- Reuters
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
4 Korea Herald: 'N.K. engagement must continue'
The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper
(hayney@heraldm.com)
By Shin Hae-in
2004.05.29
A former point man on North Korea who fashioned the "sunshine
policy" toward the communist regime yesterday underlined the need
for South Korea to pursue engagement toward Pyongyang despite its
nuclear threats.
Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won told a breakfast meeting
the international community's efforts to dismantle the North's
nuclear development program must parallel the South's push to
improve inter-Korean relations.
"Although the nuclear problem will take time to solve, if the
South and the North build up an environment of mutual trust, the
North's nuclear threats will die down naturally," Lim told a
forum organized by the Korean Council for Unification Education.
Under the former Kim Dae-jung government, Lim crafted the
sunshine policy aimed at giving diplomatic and economic
incentives to the North to induce the Stalinist country to open
up its society.
The engagement policy helped the two Koreas hold the historic
summit meeting in 2000 and start the peace process on the divided
peninsula. Ex-President Kim won the Nobel Peace Prize mainly
because of the sunshine policy.
But Lim and several key aides to Kim were convicted this year of
being involved in Hyundai Group's illegal transfer of money to
the North ahead of the inter-Korean summit talks. Most of the
aides were pardoned in a special amnesty ordered by President Roh
Moo-hyun this week.
Lim said the peacemaking atmosphere since the two Koreas adopted
the 1972 July 4 joint communique had gone back down to "zero" due
to the South's hard-line position opposing the North's nuclear
ambitions.
"Because we cornered North Korea by saying 'either give up the
nuclear weapons or we will give you nothing,' North Korea felt
more insecure, resulting in more stubbornness," he said.
Lim, who also served as chief of the National Intelligence
Service and special adviser on unification to then President Kim,
also emphasized the need for the United States to take part in
the process of Korea's peaceful unification. "For the peace of
the Korean Peninsula, the interchange of the North and the United
States is crucial, and we must continue to work as a bridge."
He added that our policy towards North Korea must be backed up by
agreement from the public as a whole and all parties.
"Although it is only natural for the nation's opinion to become
divided on the North Korea policy matter, the dearest wish of the
nation must not be used as a political tactic."
"We have more to give out than what the North can give us. We
must brace North Korea first, instead of asking them to give
something in return immediately."
*****************************************************************
5 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Kerry Outlines North Korea Policy
Updated May.30,2004 19:07 KST
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Democratic Presidential candidate John
Kerry said Friday that once he is elected President he would
immediately arrange direct discussions with North Korea to solve
the nuclear issue and simultaneously promote the six-party
talks. Kerry criticized the Bush Administration saying that the
present six-party talk has been a failure in settling issues
with North Korea.
Kerry, however, said that he would not give up on the six-party
talks. He said that short-sightedness of President Bush¡¯s
policy on Iraq has provided the time and the means to let North
Korea and Iran speed up their nuclear developments, thus
endangering the safety of the United States. Kerry said North
Korea is considered in every way to be the most threatening
country in the world. He said North Korea and Iran are serious
threats that could directly affect the United States by handing
nuclear weapons to terrorists. Kerry said that, moreover,
President Bush did not consider the North Korea¡¯s nuclear
threat as a grave matter and that Bush accelerated the North's
nuclear development by refusing to hold direct talks with North
Korea and threatening Pyongyang with its preemptive attack
principle.
Kerry, however, said without giving specifics on the
compensation planned out for North Korea in exchange of its
nuclear plant abandonment, that he is willing hold diplomatic
meetings with North Korea to talk about a wide range of issues
such as plans for troops reductions on the Korean Peninsula,
replacements for the armistice agreement and North-South
unification.
(Kang In-sun, insun@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
6 KoreaTimes: NSC Deputy Chief Says US Pullout is Inevitable
Hankooki.com > Korea Times
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
Lee Jong-seok, deputy chief of the National Security Council
(NSC), recently said it is ``inevitable'' for the United States
to reduce its troops stationed in South Korea due to the changing
security conditions around the world.
``It's not an issue that we can solve by grabbing the trouser
legs (of U.S. soldiers to prevent them from leaving South
Korea),'' Lee said at a workshop for lawmakers-elect of the
ruling Uri Party at the National Assembly on Saturday.
``The U.S. is under a process to realign its troops around the
world,'' Lee said. ``So we also have to prepare our own program,
regarding the security on the Korean peninsula, and discuss it
with the U.S.''
Lee said the current security situation is very grave, even
comparing it with the financial crisis in 1997 when South Korea
was enrolled in the IMF tutelage program.
``The government was barraged with a number of grave security
issues at the same time, even though they are supposed to come
one after another in five to 10 years.''
The rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear programs, the
dispatch of Korean soldiers to Iraq, the U.S. plan to reduce its
forces in South Korea and the allegedly shaky Seoul-Washington
alliance were exemplified by Lee as some of the grave issues
mentioned.
Lee said Washington mentioned the possibility of reducing the
U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) in June last year and that the Seoul
government has been preparing to deal with the U.S. relocation
since then.
``The Seoul government's plan was to design our own security
program until the APEC summit in October last year,'' Lee said.
``Under that process, President Roh Moo-hyun mentioned the term
`self-reliance of the national defense' during a speech on Aug.
15 last year.''
Lee explained that the government decided to dispatch additional
Korean troops to Iraq as a way to strengthen ties with the U.S.
``Even though the ostensible purpose of the troop dispatch was to
reconstruct the war-torn country, the decision was made under
consideration of the relationship.''
Lee added that the alliance is currently in a transition period.
``How can we only talk about a happy relations?'' Lee asked.
``Even a married couple have conflicts. South Korea can't deny
the U.S.' superiority in power, but we are now taking steps to
put the relationship on an equal footing.''
im@koreatimes.co.kr 05-30-2004 15:54
Lee Jong-seok
*****************************************************************
7 Newsday: Opinion: Nuclear deal needed with North Korea
Newsday.com
[May 30, 2004]
BY DANIEL PONEMAN AND ROBERT GALLUCCI
Daniel Poneman and Robert Gallucci, former U.S. national security
officials, are co-authors of "Going Critical." This is from the
Los Angeles Times.
Every day, North Korea increases its nuclear capabilities - and
the price it will demand to give them up. Yet the White House
continues to insist that Pyongyang accept all U.S. objectives
before any real deal can be offered to the North. That's a
mistake.
Facing no penalties for defiance or rewards for compliance,
Pyongyang has no reason to back down. And hoping the regime will
implode before it triggers a nuclear disaster gambles recklessly
with global security.
A decade ago, the United States faced a similar problem. By
1993, North Korea could produce and separate its own plutonium
and was building two larger reactors that could have lifted its
bomb-making capacity to industrial scale. It then declared it
would withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Then, as now, North Korea had a brutal, failing regime. Then, as
now, the United States faced no good options: allow North Korea
to build nuclear weapons but try to deter their use; use military
force against its nuclear facilities; or seek a diplomatic
solution with an untrustworthy regime.
Unlike deterrence, diplomacy offered a chance to slow
Pyongyang's nuclear program and was needed to build international
support for stronger measures, including force. So the United
States engaged in a broad multilateral effort, including direct
negotiations with North Korea.
After 18 months of diplomacy, increased military muscle in South
Korea, threats of United Nations sanctions and the intervention
of former President Jimmy Carter, North Korea froze its plutonium
production program and eventually agreed to dismantle it, all
under monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Without that freeze, Pyongyang would by now have amassed an
arsenal of nearly 100 nuclear warheads.
Of course, the story didn't have a happy ending. North Korea
cheated on its pledges by secretly obtaining uranium enrichment
technology. When confronted in 2002 by the United States, it
kicked out the inspectors and later abandoned the
nonproliferation treaty.
Pyongyang has boasted that it has reprocessed all 8,000 of its
spent fuel rods; its erstwhile supplier, Pakistani scientist
Abdul Qadeer Khan, claims to have seen North Korean nuclear
weapons.
So why should we offer Pyongyang another deal? Can diplomacy now
advance U.S. interests? Three lessons from the last Korean
nuclear crisis might help find a way:
Go after the bomb material. Sept. 11 showed that Cold War
doctrines of containment and deterrence won't work. U.S.
diplomats must go after the North Korean program urgently, not
just watch it crank out bomb-grade material as they negotiate
about how to negotiate.
Present a clear choice. We should offer the North security
assurances and energy assistance if it verifiably gives up its
nuclear program under more ambitious monitoring than in 1994. As
with Libya, showing a path to improved relations could prove
pivotal. We should also tell the North that failure to accept
that offer will result in international sanctions, and enlist the
Chinese and other key players to help enforce them.
Design a package that leaves us better off, even if Pyongyang
cheats. No one can be confident that North Korea won't cheat, but
the 1994 deal did buy a verified, eight-year moratorium on
plutonium production. The point is not to trust but to verify
while ensuring that Pyongyang never gets what it really wants
until we do.
Continued diplomatic wheel-spinning just buys Pyongyang time to
build more bombs. As President George W. Bush has said, we cannot
remain idle while dangers gather.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. | Article licensing and reprint
*****************************************************************
8 AFP: Malaysia won't allow US to question nuclear black market agent
WAR.WIRE
KAMUNTING DETENTION CAMP, Malaysia (AFP) May 29, 2004 Malaysia
will not allow US investigators to question a top agent in the
international nuclear black market scandal in detention here, a
minister said Saturday.
Malaysia did not need "foreign intervention" in the case of Sri
Lankan businessman B.S.A. Tahir, who was detained Friday for
involvement in the illicit nuclear network run by Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, said Deputy Internal Security
Minister Noh Omar.
Asked whether officers from the US Federal Bureau of
Investigationwould be allowed to interrogate Tahir, Noh said: "We
have arrested him. What is there to interview? We will solve our
internal problems our own way, we don't need foreign
intervention."
The US on Friday hailed the arrest of Tahir, described by
President George W. Bush earlier this year as Khan's "chief
financial officer and money launderer", saying it could be a
breakthrough in global efforts to dismantle Khan's nuclear
network.
Khan, a one-time national hero credited with making Pakistan a
nuclear power, has admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad but
was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.
Asked whether Malaysia would share information extracted from
Tahir with the United States, Noh he told reporters at a news
conference in this camp where Tahir has begun serving a two-year
detention order: "There is no need, but if they ask, we will have
to see."
He said Tahir had not been arrested under pressure from
Washington, but added that the Sri Lankan had been detained
because his actions exposed the country "to possible threats of
attack by the big powers and to economic sanctions".
Tahir, who is married to a Malaysian and split his time between
business interests here and in Dubai, was arrested Friday at his
home in Kuala Lumpur under the Internal Security Act, which
allows for two-year detention periods which can be renewed
indefinitely.
Tahir, 44, admitted to police that he acted as a middleman for
Khan, and gave details of the proliferation scandal, according to
an official Malaysian police report handed to the International
Atomic Energy Agency in February.
Noh said he had not been detained earlier because investigations
were under way, and revealed for the first time Saturday that
Libyans involved in that country's nuclear weapons programme had
been secretly trained here under an arrangement made by Tahir.
"Since December 2001 (Tahir) has been involved in activities that
are illegal at an international level, that are contrary to
United Nations treaties and resolutions by involving himself in
an illicit international network of nuclear proliferation,
especially in Libya," Noh said.
Tahir had deceived a local company into manufacturing centrifuge
components for Libya's nuclear weapons programme and had
"arranged secretly for technicians from Libya to undergo training
on handling quality control machines that were part of Libya's
nuclear weapons progamme".
The Malaysian link to the international nuclear blackmarket
surfaced earlier this year after it was revealed that a company
owned by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son Kamaluddin
had manufactured centrifuge parts seized on a ship headed for
Libya last year.
A police probe cleared the company, Scomi Precision Engineering
(SCOPE), which said it had been misled about the purpose and
destination of the parts, allegedly ordered by Tahir on behalf of
Pakistan's Khan.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
9 AU SMH: Libyan nuclear equipment 'missing' -
World - www.smh.com.au
Sydney Morning Herald
May 30, 2004
The United States has been told by Libyan intelligence officials
that an important quantity of nuclear equipment secretly
purchased by Libya in a bid to create its own nuclear arsenal
appears to be missing, The Washington Post reported today.
Libya promised last December to abandon its quest for nuclear
weapons in exchange for improved relations with the West.
Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the equipment
included sensitive components of machines used to enrich uranium.
It had been ordered from black-market suppliers months earlier
and was now long overdue, the report said.
US officials said the Libyans wanted to prepare the Americans for
the possibility that more illicit nuclear shipments could
suddenly appear on Tripoli's docks, the paper said.
But despite a search that has spanned the globe, US and
international investigators are still struggling to account for a
number of sensitive parts Libya ordered for construction of its
uranium enrichment plant, The Post said. Advertisement
Advertisement
US and UN investigators have identified many of the network's
operatives and methods and recovered tens of thousands of parts
in a dragnet that has reached from South-East Asia to the Middle
East and Europe, according to the report.
However, the investigators believe that some of the suppliers to
the network have not yet been identified, The Post said.
Copyright © 2004. The Sydney Morning Herald.
*****************************************************************
10 UPI: Vanunu says he wanted to 'avert holocaust'
- (United Press International)
May 29, 2004
JERUSALEM, , May. 29 (UPI) -- Mordechai Vanunu, a technician
jailed for 18 years for leaking Israel's nuclear secrets, as told
the BBC he was only trying to avert a nuclear holocaust.
In his first interview since his release from prison, Vanunu
told the BBC Saturday he does not believe he is a traitor and he
has no regrets.
"I felt it was not about betraying; it was about reporting. It
was about saving Israel from a new holocaust," he said. "I have
no regrets despite the fact I have paid a heavy punishment, a
large price."
Under the terms of his release, Vanunu cannot leave Israel, meet
foreigners or reveal secrets about the Dimona nuclear plant.
"What I did was to inform the world what is going on in secret,"
he said. "I didn't come and say, we should destroy Israel, we
should destroy Dimona. I said, look what they have and make your
judgment."
Vanunu was kidnapped in Italy by Israeli agents in 1986
following a newspaper interview in which he exposed Israel's
clandestine nuclear arms program. He was returned to Israel to be
tried and was subsequently convicted and sentenced.
[UPI Perspectives]
*****************************************************************
11 Bellona: Washington and Moscow agree to repatriate Russian-origin HEU
from 17 countries
Russia and the United States will today sign an agreement geared
toward locking down tonnes of the world’s most dangerous and
poorly guarded nuclear material under the aegis of a tri-lateral
programme between the two countries and the UN nuclear watchdog,
the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.
US Secretary of Energy (left) and IAEA chief Mohammed
ElBaradei announce the Global Threat Reduction Initiative in
Vienna Wednesday.
The Associated Press
Charles Digges, 2004-05-27 14:23
The focus of the $450 m US-Russian driven programme, called the
Global Threat Reduction Initiative, is the result of
long-unheeded warnings from scientists that supplies of highly
enriched uranium, or HEU, at research and university reactors
around the world are particularly vulnerable to theft by
terrorists. The programme will retrieve HEU sent by Moscow to 20
reactors in 17 countries and ship it back to Russia for storage.
“I am pleased to see [US] Secretary [of Energy, Spencer Abraham]
join the chorus of voices that have called for more urgent
action on this front.” said Kenneth Luongo, executive director
of the Russian-American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, which
advises both governments on nuclear policy.
“This was the right decision at a time when terrorist threats
against the US are intensifying. We’ve delayed too long and we
need to move out rapidly on this mission.”
Alexei Yablokov, one of Russia's leading environmentalists and
the president of the Moscow-based Centre for Ecological Policy
of Russia agreed.
"This is a very good step, but the problem is that it should
have been done long ago," he said in a telephone interview.
Over the years, the United States and Russia have exported
several thousand tonnes of uranium—to such an extent that
Yablokov believes it can never be entriely accounted for.
"In priciple, it is a very good idea to collect all used nuclear
fuel which has been spread all over the world, but it is also an
impossible task," he said.
"A huge amount of it will remain in reactors in different parts
of the world, nuclear power plants in different countries will
continue to be a powerful source of weapons-grade nuclear
material."
For this reason, said Yablokob, the Global Theat Reduction
Initiative is more a political than a practical step.
The returned HEU is slated to be stored at the Dmitrovgrad
All-Russia Institute for Atomic reactors, known as NIIAR in its
Russian acronym, according to Russian nuclear officials
interviewed Wednesdday. Dmitrovgrad—situated to the east of
Moscow—has been the beneficiary of much US threat reduction
spending over the past several years to beef-up its security.
Nonetheless, concerns about the safety of the material in
Russia—where breaches are possible at even the most ostensibly
well-secured sites are possible—remain high. Dmitrovgrad
officials could not be reached for comment about the incoming
HEU.
Nikolai Shingaryov, head spokesman for the Federal Atomic Enegy
Agency, or FAEA—the successor organization to the Ministry of
Atomic Energy after President Vladimir Putin’s government
reshuffle last March—acknowledged Russia’s safety shortfalls
Wednesday in a telephone interview. Nonetheless, he said Russia
was up to the job.
"Our protection system against terrorist attacks must be
modernized. We know this. We pay great attention to it." he
said.
Shingarev nonetheless acknowledged "discrepancies" in
inventory-taking at nuclear power plants and "very small thefts"
of radioactive material.
Nuclear experts believe successful implementation of the
US-Russia Global Threat Initiative programme will need some $80
million in funding by US Congress over the next two years.
What’s the meat of the plan?
The plan to transfer the HEU is to spend more money and sharpen
the focus of both the US and Russian governments to repatriate
this fuel, Secretary Abraham told reporters in Vienna on
Wednesday. He will formally sign off on the programme in Moscow
on Thursday with Alexander Rumyantsev, head of the FAEA. US
Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, is also expected be in
attendance, said members of the US embassy staff in Moscow.
"Where 100 years ago authorities had to worry about the
anarchist placing a bomb in the downtown square, now we must
worry about the terrorist who places that bomb in the square,
but packed with radiological material," Abraham told an
International Atomic Energy Agency conference on nuclear safety.
Accelerating and concentrating existing efforts, Abraham said,
the Bush administration will target the “most dangerous, least
secure” nuclear materials first. In seeking to convert research
reactors in the United States and abroad to less dangerous fuel,
the most vulnerable ones will take priority.
Secretary Abraham tours a research reactor in Poland from
which Soviet-origin HEU will be repatriated to Russia.
The Associated Press
The target countries for the Global Threat effort
The programme covers fuel that the Soviet and Russian
governments originally supplied to foreign atomic facilities. In
some cases, those fuel shipments began as early as the 1950s.
The United States also exported nuclear reactors and highly
enriched uranium at the same time, starting with President
Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" programme. More than a
dozen plants using that uranium are still operating in the
United States and elsewhere, but these fuel suppliesaren't
covered under the new agreement with Russia.
Reactors in Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania and Poland are
thought to be among the highest priority targets for the
upcoming “clean-out,” experts said.
Edwin Lyman, senior scientist in the Global Security Program at
the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington told the
Knight-Ridder news service there are substantial quantities of
highly enriched uranium in the former Soviet republic of
Belarus.
“Many bombs worth,” he said.
The other countries covered by the fuel-return program are
Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, North Korea, Egypt,
Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan Latvia, Libya, Vietnam and
Yugoslavia.
Facilities returning their highly enriched fuel to Russia must
agree to convert their reactors to operate on low enriched
uranium, which is considered less of a proliferation threat.
Analysts say the DOE has dragged its feet
Abraham's announcement, months in the making, comes after
criticism from outside analysts and the US Department of Energy,
or DOE’s inspector general that the administration has been
moving too slowly. US Auditors said in February that large
amounts of highly enriched uranium produced in the United States
“were out of US control.”
Just this week, a pair of Harvard University nuclear
researchers, Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier, said in a report
that less fissile material was secured in the two years after
September 11th, 2001, than in the two years before. The makings
for an atomic bomb exist in hundreds of buildings in more than
40 countries, the report said.
Abraham—in Vienna to meet with Mohamed ElBaradei, director
general of the IAEA—intends to acknowledge in his remarks
Thursday during the Global Threat Initiative’s formal singing
that more must be done.
‘We would be fooling ourselves—and endangering our citizens—to
think that these past efforts are enough,’ an advance text of
Abraham’s speech obtained by Bellona Web reads. It describes
“the 21st century's greatest conflict” as a battle between “the
civilized nations of the earth and the terrorists and terrorist
states that would use devastating technologies to destroy them."
Research Reactors and the stuff of ‘dirty bombs’
Efforts to collect, secure and dispose of nuclear material
began long ago, but the new programme offers an “accelerated and
more structured framework” for the work, Abraham said in his
address to the IAEA.
Dirty bombs use lower-grade radioactive isotopes, such as those
used in medicine or research. If a dirty bomb were to be
detonated, the radiation release probably would be small.
Nuclear bombs, by contrast, have cores made of either highly
enriched uranium or plutonium, materials normally kept under
tight security.
Even so, the initiative includes a plan to convert research
reactors using highly enriched uranium to lower grade fuel by
2013, Abraham said. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said there are
100 such reactors in 40 countries.
The biggest worry is that such reactors are usually poorly
guarded.
“Academic and research reactors at universities are simply not
capable of providing a defence against a terrorist assault,”
said Lyman, according to Knight-Ridder. “The great concern is a
paramilitary-type assault on one of these facilities and the
material is forcibly removed.”
Lyman said a US government study found that thieves could carry
off the uranium in a storage pool in about an hour.
Is Russia biting off more that it can chew?
The fuel coming back to Russia is expected to be stored at
Dmitrovgrad, where it will be cooled and eventually downblended,
as highly enriched uranium is in the US-Russian HEU-LEU
agreement, which dilutes Russian HEU to LEU for sale to US
nuclear power reactor operators.
But Russian officials say there is no storage room left at the
country’s only spent nuclear fuel-reprocessing plant, the
beleaguered Mayak Chemical Combine facility in the Southern
Urals near Chelyabinks. Mayak is swamped with fuel taken from
Russia's northern fleet of rusting nuclear submarines and
icebreakers. Indeed, most of the fuel being repatriated could
not even be reprocessed with Mayak’s equipment.
Scientists and some antinuclear activists are optimistic about
the new fuel-return program, but they are also concerned that
Russia is taking on large new imports of highly dangerous
uranium. They point to Russia's poor record in storing and
safeguarding the atomic material it already has.
"Bringing all this back to Russia, yes, it's a little
paradoxical, given all the warnings about proliferation in
Russia," said Lyman.
How far do US safety dollars stretch?
The US DOE is spending some $40 m to help the Russians improve
security at nuclear installations.
Many of the so-called “rapid upgrades” performed on insecure
Russian nuclear sites by the DOE are slap-dash, ad hoc measures,
replacing wooden doors with steel ones, putting iron bars on
vulnerable windows and installing refrigerator-size concrete
blocks to prevent access to nuclear storage casks. Other
measures are more high tech, including closed-circuit TVs,
electronic key-cards, motion sensors, walkie-talkies.
Russian officials have also asked for field-sobriety kits to
test guards at their nuclear facilities.
The new U.S.-Russia programme got something of a test run on
August 22nd, 2002, when military forces from both countries
raided a research reactor outside Belgrade, the capital of then
Yugoslavia.
The 17-hour operation, which cost an estimated $7 m, reportedly
netted 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium, enough for two
nuclear bombs. Because US Congress imposes funding limitiations
on American threat reduction efforts by stopping them short of
environmental rehabilitation, however, the Washington-based
Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nuclear research NGO, spent $3m of
its own funding to cover that.
Two other collections were made last year—14 kilograms of highly
enriched uranium from Romania in September and another 13
kilograms from Bulgaria in December. Experts from the IAEA also
participated.
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
*****************************************************************
12 Haaretz: Foreign Ministry furious at BBC over Vanunu interview
News Updates Sun., May 30, 2004 Sivan 10, 5764 Israel
By Anat Balint, Haaretz Correspondent
The arrest of British journalist Peter Hounam, and the apparent
smuggling of the Mordechai Vanunu interview to London, have
sparked more tensions between Israel and the BBC.
Foreign Ministry officials charge that the BBC is a
"communications organization whose goal is to undermine the
legitimacy of the state of Israel. It promotes hostile coverage
of Israel... and the Vanunu affair proves that the BBC is a
communications entity which shows complete disregard for
journalistic standards and ethics. Their journalistic culture can
be compared to that of media outlets in Arab states, or in the
Palestinian Authority."
One Foreign Ministry source said the ministry will now reevaluate
Israel's relations with the BBC. For five months, leading up to
November 2003, Israel boycotted the BBC.
The Foreign Ministry is furious about what it regards as the
BBC's shirking of responsibility for an interview with former
nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, who was convicted of treason
and recently released from prison. An exclusive interview with
Vanunu is to be broadcast by the BBC this evening (and there was
a report about the interview this morning in The Sunday Times).
"The BBC baldly lied to us after Vanunu's release," says the
ministry official. "It lied when it denied having any connection
with the apartment which was about to be rented for him in Jaffa.
[Journalist Peter] Hounam worked for the BBC, and they are simply
lying on this matter."
The same ministry official charged that the BBC failed to submit
the recorded interview to Israeli censors, even though it is
obliged to do so under Israeli law. The BBC's official statement
about this charge is that the film of Vanunu was produced by an
independent oufit, Magnetic North, for the BBC.
Gideon Meir, who heads the Foreign Ministry's public relations
(hasbara) efforts, commented on Saturday: "Whoever reads Lord
Hutton's report [the British report that charged the BBC with
broadcasting biased information prior to the war in Iraq] and
inserts the name 'Israel' instead of 'Iraq' will lfind that the
things written in the report equally apply."
Speaking on the condition of not being named, BBC representatives
unleashed a series of counter-charges. "It's not true that we
lied," they say. "Hounam has never worked for the BBC. He works
for the Sunday Times and for a private company that sold us the
film, and what he does as an independent journalist is of no
concern to us."
Andrew Steele, head of the BBC's bureau in Israel, said: "The
state of Israel demonstrated a lack of judgment when it arrested
a journalist [Hounam]...I am stunned by the way Israeli security
forces acted in this affair."
Israeli Foreign Ministry officials are also angry about Hounam's
detention for one day last week, which was carried out without
notification given to Israel's diplomatic corps. Yet the ministry
appears to be more incensed by the BBC's behavior, and its
unhappiness stems from a long, complex history with the British
Broadcasting Corporation.
© Copyright Haaretz. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
13 AFP: Libya received clandestine nuclear shipments as late as March
:IAEA
WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) May 29, 2004
Turkey is now seen as a source of centrifuge parts shipped to
Libya's nuclear weapons program, diplomats said Saturday, after
revelations that Tripoli had received new clandestine shipments
of equipment as late as this March.
Libya agreed in December 2003 to dismantle its weapons of mass
destruction programs but last March a container of components for
sophisticated L-2 centrifuges capable of enriching uranium up to
bomb-grade levels arrived by boat in Libya, the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential
report.
The container had "escaped the attention" of the US-led teams
which had seized five containers of centrifuge parts from "the
cargo ship BBC China in October 2003," the IAEA said, according
to a copy of the report obtained by
The IAEA is to further investigate Libya's program to develop
nuclear weapons as questions linger about international smuggling
and uranium contamination, according to the report, which was
released to diplomats in Vienna on Friday.
A senior diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP the agency was
investigating parts that had been manufactured in Turkey and that
this might be the shipment that had arrived in March.
"Turkey has been a site where parts have been manufactured," the
diplomat said, stressing that this was believed to be private and
not connected to the government.
The diplomat confirmed a report in The Washington Post Saturday,
which was sourced to US intelligence officials, that an important
quantity of nuclear equipment secretly purchased by Libya appears
to be missing.
The diplomat said the IAEA was "still looking and knows it should
have more equipment" in hand based on what Libya has said.
He said equipment "could still be in manufacturers' workshops" or
even be en route somewhere.
Libya, along with Iran and North Korea, was clandestinely
supplied nuclear technology and parts by the international
smuggling network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,
the man considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.
Khan built an elaborate international network for manufacturing,
assembling and shipping atomic equipment, especially parts for
high-technology centrifuges, the instrument for making the highly
enriched uranium (HEU) used in atom bombs.
Khan's network had a manufacturing firm in Malaysia and used the
United Arab Emirates as a shipping point.
Diplomats in Vienna named Turkey as both an assembly and
manufacturing point, and said the UAE was also used for assembly
of parts.
One diplomat said details were emerging slowly since the Libyans
"had for more than 20 years run their nuclear program in secrecy
and now all of a sudden they have to talk to foreigners. It's
like a change of regime."
The Washington Post said US officials felt the Libyans wanted to
prepare the Americans for the possibility that more illicit
nuclear shipments could suddenly appear on Tripoli's docks.
The report is to be submitted to a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA
board of governors that opens in Vienna on June 14 and at which
ElBaradei had said in February that he hoped to close the Libyan
dossier.
The IAEA, the UN organization that verifies adherence to
non-proliferation safeguards, has been overseeing Libya's
disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the
United States and Britain.
US officials have evacuated tons of sensitive equipment and
materials to the United States.
IAEA inspectors have found contamination from highly enriched
uranium as well as low enriched uranium on gas centrifuge
equipment in Libya, the report said.
This is similar to HEU contamination that has been found in Iran
on centrifuge parts.
Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore told AFP from the
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that in
Libya this was almost certainly from "contaminated parts bought
from Pakistan."
But as Iran wants to maintain its uranium enrichment capability,
investigators are wondering if the HEU particles found there are
signs of Iranian-done enrichment rather than contamination from
clandestine imports.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
14 Times of India: Pak test fires Ghauri V missile
AP[ SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2004 10:17:46 AM
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan successfully test fired a medium range
nuclear-capable missile on Saturday in an effort to strengthen
the country's defence, government and military, officials said.
The new version of the Ghauri V missile, which has a maximum
range of 1,500 km (932 miles) was test fired from an undisclosed
area of Pakistan , said Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan, spokesman for the
Pakistan Army.
The missile hit its target area, he said. Sultan said Pakistan
had informed its neighbours, including India , before conducting
the test, which was designed to strengthen the country's defence.
"We want to improve our missiles, and today's test was conducted
for this purpose,'' he said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and senior
military and government officials were present when the missile
was test fired, he said, although he would not say where the
firing range was located.
"Such details cannot be disclosed. I can only say that the firing
range and the impact point were in Pakistan ," he said.
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
15 Sun News: Nuclear deal can serve interests
| 05/30/2004 |
NORTH KOREA
DANIEL PONEMAN ROBERT GALLUCCI
Every day, North Korea increases its nuclear capabilities - and
the price it will demand to give them up. Yet the White House
continues to insist that Pyongyang accept all U.S. objectives
before any real deal can be offered to North Korea. That's a
mistake. Facing no penalties for defiance or rewards for
compliance, Pyongyang has no reason to back down.
A decade ago, the United States faced a similar problem. By 1993,
North Korea could produce and separate its own plutonium and was
building two reactors that could have lifted its bomb-making
capacity to industrial scale. It then declared it would withdraw
from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Then, as now, North Korea had a brutal, failing regime. Then, as
now, the United States faced no good options: allow North Korea
to build nuclear weapons but try to deter their use; use military
force against its nuclear facilities; or seek a diplomatic
solution with an untrustworthy regime.
Unlike deterrence, diplomacy offered a chance to slow Pyongyang's
nuclear program and was needed to build international support for
stronger measures, including force. So the United States engaged
in a broad multilateral effort, including direct negotiations
with North Korea.
After 18 months of diplomacy, increased military muscle in South
Korea, threats of U.N. sanctions and the intervention of former
President Carter, North Korea froze its plutonium production
program and eventually agreed to dismantle it, all under
monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Of course, the story didn't have a happy ending. North Korea
cheated on its pledges by secretly obtaining uranium enrichment
technology. When confronted in 2002 by the United States, it
kicked out the inspectors and later abandoned the
nonproliferation treaty. Pyongyang has boasted that it has
reprocessed all 8,000 of its spent fuel rods; its erstwhile
supplier, Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, claims to have
seen North Korean nuclear weapons.
So why should we offer Pyongyang another deal? Three lessons from
the last Korean nuclear crisis might help find a way.
Go after the bomb material. U.S. diplomats must go after the
North Korean program urgently, not just watch it crank out
bomb-grade material as they negotiate about how to negotiate.
Present a clear choice. We should offer North Korea security
assurances and energy assistance if it verifiably gives up its
nuclear program under more ambitious monitoring than in 1994. We
should also tell it that failure to accept that offer will result
in international sanctions, and enlist the Chinese and other key
players to help enforce them.
Design a package that leaves us better off, even if Pyongyang
cheats. No one can be confident that North Korea won't cheat, but
the 1994 deal did buy a verified, eight-year moratorium on
plutonium production. The point is not to trust but to verify
while ensuring that Pyongyang never gets what it really wants
until we do.
Continued diplomatic wheel-spinning just buys Pyongyang time to
build more bombs.
Poneman and Gallucci served in the administrations of former
Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, with
responsibilities for U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy.
*****************************************************************
16 AFP: UN atomic agency persisting in dechiphering global nuclear smuggling
WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) May 30, 2004
The UN atomic agency has vowed to persist in investigating
Libya's now abandoned nuclear weapons program, as much to
discover new facts about Libya as about the international
smuggling network that supplied it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is to further probe
Libya's two-decades-long quest to develop nuclear weapons as
questions linger about highly enriched uranium particles found in
the north African state and a global black market, according to a
confidential IAEA report released to diplomats in Vienna Friday.
Libya's revelations to the IAEA continue to tell as much about
other countries as about Tripoli's activities, diplomats and
experts said.
The report is to be submitted to a meeting of the 35-nation IAEA
board of governors that opens in Vienna on June 14 and at which
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei had said in February that he hoped
to close the Libyan dossier.
The IAEA, the UN organization that verifies adherence to
non-proliferation safeguards, has been overseeing Libya's
disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the
United States and Britain.
Turkey is now seen as a source of centrifuge parts shipped to
Libya's nuclear weapons program, diplomats said over the weekend.
While Libya had agreed in December to dismantle its weapons of
mass destruction programs, in March a container of components for
sophisticated L-2 centrifuges used to enrich uranium up to
bomb-grade levels arrived by boat in Libya, the IAEA said in its
report.
The container had "escaped the attention" of the US-led teams
which had seized five containers of centrifuge parts from "the
cargo ship BBC China in October 2003," the IAEA said.
A senior diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP the agency was
investigating parts that had been manufactured in Turkey and that
this might be the shipment that had arrived in March.
The diplomat confirmed a report in The Washington Post Saturday,
which was sourced to US intelligence officials, that an important
quantity of nuclear equipment secretly purchased by Libya appears
to be missing.
The diplomat said the IAEA was "still looking and knows it should
have more equipment" in hand based on what Libya has said.
He said equipment "could still be in manufacturers' workshops" or
even be en route somewhere.
Libya, along with Iran and North Korea, was clandestinely
supplied nuclear technology and parts by the international
smuggling network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan,
the man considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb.
Khan built an elaborate international network for manufacturing,
assembling and shipping atomic equipment, especially parts for
high-technology centrifuges, the instrument for making the highly
enriched uranium (HEU) used in atom bombs.
Khan's network had a manufacturing firm in Malaysia and used the
United Arab Emirates as a shipping point.
Diplomats in Vienna named Turkey as both an assembly and
manufacturing point, and said the UAE was also used for assembly
of parts.
One diplomat said details were emerging slowly since the Libyans
"had for more than 20 years run their nuclear program in secrecy
and now all of a sudden they have to talk to foreigners. It's
like a change of regime."
Meanwhile, IAEA inspectors have found contamination from HEU as
well as low enriched uranium on gas centrifuge equipment in
Libya, the report said.
This is similar to HEU contamination that has been found in Iran
on centrifuge parts.
Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore told AFP from the
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London that in
Libya this was almost certainly from "contaminated parts bought
from Pakistan."
But as Iran wants to maintain its uranium enrichment capability,
investigators are wondering if the HEU particles found there are
signs of Iranian-done enrichment rather than contamination from
clandestine imports.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
17 Daily Times: PML-N celebrates nuclear bomb anniversary
Monday, May 31, 2004
LAHORE: Political parties celebrated the sixth anniversary of
Pakistan becoming the first atomic power in the Muslim World on
Friday. However federal and provincial governments stayed away
from the event of national importance.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) celebrated the
anniversary. A large ceremony was held in Lahore outside the
Punjab Assembly besides rallies and protest demonstrations
organised by PML-N leaders across the province.
A deputy opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, Rana
Sanaullaha, and PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian
(PPPP) MPAs cut a cake of 20 ponds.
Addressing the gathering, Rana Sanaullaha said under the
leadership of exiled prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif,
Pakistan became the first Islamic nuclear power on this day six
years ago. “But few army generals not only dismissed the elected
government but also deported the Sharif family from Pakistan for
their vested interests,” he added.
The deputy opposition leader said army generals not only
sabotaged the constitution but defamed national hero and nuclear
scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to please the Western countries. A
large number of PML-N activists including its MPAs Ijaz Sheikh,
Malik Nawaz, Kamran Michel, Ajasam Sharif, Mehar Mushtaq, Malik
Afzal Kokhar, Bilal Yaseen and Yawar Zaman attended the ceremony.
From the PPPP, Punjab General Secretary Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan,
Lahore Secretary General Samiullah Khan and Farzana Raja were
present on the occasion. staff report
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
18 Daily Times: Press Gallery: Is the PML-N calling a spade a spade?
Monday, May 31, 2004
By Mubasher Bukhari
May 28 will always be an important date in Pakistan’s history,
because on that date in 1998 Pakistan became a nuclear power by
carrying out successive nuclear tests under Nawaz Sharif’s
government.
Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the pioneer of Pakistan’s nuclear
programme and his daughter Benazir Bhutto developed Pakistan’s
missile technology in her government but PPP’s arch-rival,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is the party’s ally
now, never accepted the Bhuttos as pioneers of the nuclear and
missile programmes of Pakistan till October 1999 and credited Gen
Ziaul Haq with that instead.
When the Nawaz government carried out nuclear tests in response
to India’s explosion in Pokhran, the PPP leaders criticised Mr
Sharif and accused him inviting sanctions on Pakistan. But the
military coup in 1999, which toppled the Nawaz government, forced
a change of heart among old foes.
This year, the PML-N planned to celebrate May 28 as Yaum-e-Takbir
all over the country. The PML-N MPAs cut a cake outside the
Punjab Assembly on Friday.
Earlier, PML-N Parliamentary Party Leader Rana Sanaullah said on
a point of order in the assembly that he wanted to pay tribute to
Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for laying the foundation of Pakistan’s
nuclear programme, Nawaz Sharif for completing Mr Bhutto’s
mission of making Pakistan a nuclear state and Dr Abdul Qadeer
Khan for his services for Pakistan’s defence.
His statement created chaos in the house and the treasury MPAs
started shouting at him. “You should also pay tribute to
President Musharraf for safeguarding our nuclear programme,”
treasury MPA Group Capt (r) Mushtaq Kiani said to Mr Sanaullah.
Other members of the treasury also expressed their faith in
President Musharraf’s leadership and paid tribute to him as Mr
Sanaullah looked on with a sarcastic smile as if he knew that
history would once again change the thoughts of those sitting in
the government today. That has happened often enough in
Pakistan’s brief history.
Later, Mr Sanaullah said outside the house, “Time has taught us
that the truth always remains the truth and a lie dies its own
death. That is the reason we, who used to contradict the PPP’s
claim of having founded Pakistan’s nuclear programme, admit that
and praise Mr Bhutto.”
“Who knows what the future holds. Maybe sometime in the future
Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat will be standing at my place
and will be paying tribute to Mr Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif,” said
Mr Sanaullah as he cut the cake.
Daily Times - All Rights Reserved Site developed and hosted by
WorldCALL Internet Solutions
*****************************************************************
19 Hi Pakistan: Govt ignoring nuclear test anniversary, says PML-N -->
May 31 2004
ISLAMABAD, May 28: PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq on Friday
criticized the government for ignoring the anniversary of
Pakistan's nuclear tests and disowning a great national
achievement.
A cabinet decision during the Nawaz Sharif government had
declared May 28 as 'Youm-i-Takbeer' to commemorate Pakistan
achieving the nuclear power status. Spokespersons for the
government and armed forces were at a loss to explain why the day
was not being officially commemorated.
Each shifted the responsibility to the other to respond to
queries on the matter. Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad,
when contacted as to why the May 28 was not officially
commemorated, said: "You should ask the ISPR".
The ISPR director-general, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, said there was
no reason for not commemorating the day. He said the government
spokesman would be the right person to answer the query.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
20 Hi Pakistan: Dr Qadeer allowed to go out: official -->
May 31 2004
ISLAMABAD, May 28: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has
been allowed to go out of his house in protective custody for one
hour a day, a source told Dawn on Friday.
The source said the daughter of Dr Khan, her children, and other
members of his family had also been allowed to meet him once a
day for one hour. "Dr Khan and his wife are taken outside by the
personnel of an intelligence agency in the evening," the source
said.
The source said the government had started providing regular
medical facilities to Dr Khan and a cardiologist of KRL Hospital,
Dr Saleem Qureshi, has been assigned to provide medical
facilities to Dr Khan on a regular basis.
Copyright 1996-2002 . Hi Pakistan. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
21 AFP: Malaysian PM stands by use of tough law on nuclear blackmarket
suspect
WAR.WIRE
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) May 30, 2004
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has stood by his
government's decision to use a tough security law to detain a Sri
Lankan alleged to be involved in an international nuclear
blackmarket.
Malaysian police detained Sri Lankan businessman B.S.A. Tahir on
Friday under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
Police immediately sent 44-year-old Tahir to the Kemunting
detention centre in the northern Perak state. The ISA allows for
two-year detention periods which can be renewed indefinitely.
"Yes, we used the ISA for this case. The reason we use the ISA is
because it is an issue of the security of Malaysia," Abdullah,
who is on an official visit to China, told reporters late
Saturday.
Abdullah, who is also the internal security minister, said the
investigation into Tahir was continuing.
He was arrested on suspicion of involvement in an illicit nuclear
network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The United States on Friday hailed the arrest, saying it could be
a breakthrough in global efforts to dismantle Khan's nuclear
network.
Khan, a one-time national hero credited with making Pakistan a
nuclear power, has admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad but
was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf.
Tahir is married to a Malaysian and split his time between
business interests in Kuala Lumpur, where he has a home, and
Dubai.
He has admitted to police that he acted as a middleman for Khan,
and gave details of the proliferation scandal, according to an
official Malaysian police report handed to the International
Atomic Energy Agency in February.
WAR.WIRE
*****************************************************************
22 Mehr News Agency: Nuclear Chessboard (Part 1)
Tehran:08:06,2004/05/31
(MNA) -- When Mohammad ElBaradei, with the support of the United
States, was appointed to one of the most important posts of the
United Nations disarmament sector, an Egyptian ambassador, in a
friendly conversation with a high-ranking Muslim diplomat, was
heard saying, “Just because he is Egyptian, Arab, and Muslim
you should not consider his stances in line with ours. Whoever
chose him, it wasn’t Egypt!â€
Many international observers consider ElBaradei’s actions to be
moves on a chessboard directed by the United States. Now if we
look at the activities of the UN and its disarmament institutions
like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after the
suspicious 9/11 attack with the view that they prepared the
political and international pretexts for the United States to
attack Afghanistan and Iraq, then we will understand more clearly
the timely advice of the Egyptian ambassador.
After all, ElBaradei is well aware of the fact that the Islamic
world has the least problems as far as weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) of all the world’s regions.
It seems nobody is even interested in thinking about why, months
after the 9/11 attack, top UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and
Jose Bustani, the director general of the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at the time, stated that
the Al-Qaeda network and the Iraqi regime did not possess WMD and
ruled out the unproved allegations that gave permission for the
U.S. to invade the country. For their efforts, Bustani was
dismissed and Blix resigned, but ElBaradei remained silent and
supported the U.S. position instead of defending the positions of
UN officials.
Even more surprising is the fact that ElBaradei is still calling
for the continuation of weapons inspections in Iraq in order to
discover evidence of WMD, even after the U.S. and Britain have
admitted that their allegations were baseless.
Nevertheless, he will still continue calling for the
establishment of a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East
and the eventual dismantlement of all the world’s nuclear
weapons. The fact that ElBaradei has done nothing about
Israel’s arsenal of 300 nuclear weapons and his chronic
distrust of Islamic countries including Iran, which has remained
committed to all international treaties and is only interested in
using nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, have revealed his
true colors.
After ElBaradei’s mild criticism of the Zionist regime for its
possession of a nuclear arsenal, he was given a warning message
from the Israeli prime minister, who threatened his office and
the IAEA headquarters with a nuclear attack if he repeated the
remarks. If this isn’t the case, then why has the IAEA not
seriously encouraged Israel to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) and the safeguards agreement?
But is there any hope that ElBaradei will choose a different
course and stand up for the truth in regard to Iran’s nuclear
dossier? A review of the following issues indicates that even if
he does feel inclined to act honestly, ElBaradei will not be able
to do so.
Thirty-three years have passed since Iran signed the NPT, during
which time IAEA inspectors have always had access to Iran’s
nuclear installations in line with NPT regulations. Yet, for over
a year Iran’s nuclear dossier has been a serious issue. On
September 12, 2003, the IAEA Board issued a resolution on
Iran’s nuclear dossier requiring the country to deliver a
complete report on its nuclear program to the agency by the end
of October 2003. However, this resolution was finalized without a
vote and the Iranian delegation walked out of the session in
protest, declaring it illegal.
Of course Iranian Foreign Ministry officials in Vienna were
correct in calling it an illegal order, because, according to the
NPT, Iran and other member countries are required to submit
reports on their nuclear installations. These installations are
specifically defined in the NPT and certainly do not include all
facilities of a country’s nuclear program. However, in order to
act transparently and boost international confidence, Iran
accepted the resolution, which was in fact an illegal order
proposed by the United States.
The Tehran Declaration of October 21, 2003 between the European
Union big three (France, Britain, and Germany) and Iran, which
resolved the IAEA’s misunderstandings about Iran’s nuclear
program, was a logical and prudent decision at the time. But
afterwards, in the agency’s November report and ElBaradei’s
March report on Iran’s nuclear dossier, the major powers
prepared the ground to deprive Iran of the concessions it gained
in the Tehran Declaration.
ElBaradei has always expressed appreciation to Iran for its
cooperation with the IAEA, but this does not mean we should
overlook his chronic distrust of the country. After the agency
issued the November resolution, ElBaradei told reporters that
Iran has not reneged on its commitments toward the IAEA. “So
far we have not seen any serious violation or breaches from Iran
except for a few subtle cases regarding its report,†he said.
But only a few minutes later in response to a U.S. reporter he
stressed, “We have given necessary cautions to Tehran to
announce the truth about its nuclear program and of course more
time is needed to prove the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear
activities.â€
However, several days before the March session of the IAEA Board
of Governors, immediately after U.S. officials threatened him
with the same fate as his former counterpart at the OPCW if he
failed to obey White House demands about Iran’s nuclear
dossier, ElBaradei said that much more time would be required to
prove the claims of certain countries and resolve the ambiguities
about Iran’s nuclear program. After the March session,
ElBaradei traveled to the United States to consult with U.S.
President George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, and
Paul Wolfowitz.
According to the NPT, signatory states are required to pursue
negotiations in good faith. Therefore, it is not proper for one
signatory to accuse another of violating the treaty without
evidence.
Iran’s vehement protests against ElBaradei’s March report
were a correct response and obviously show that ElBaradei’s
remarks about Iran were not constructive. After all, he has
always repeated the same sentence to reporters at IAEA Board
sessions: “I have both good and bad news about Iranâ€. They
say diplomacy will not bear fruit unless it is realistic. Here
are a few points from ElBaradei’s March report on Iran’s
nuclear dossier:
(1) ElBaradei’s report consisted of completely false clauses.
(2) ElBaradei’s report was generally not in accordance with the
report of the IAEA inspection team (like previous reports).
(3) The report downplayed the positive points about Iran’s
nuclear program and its cooperation with the IAEA and emphasized
certain ambiguities brought up by third parties and the media.
For example, Iran’s cooperation with the agency was mentioned
throughout the text, but, in the report on Libya, ElBaradei
lauded the country right at the beginning for its extensive
cooperation, even though evidence had proven that Libya
established its nuclear program with the intention of
constructing nuclear weapons. It is common knowledge that the
order of precedence in IAEA documents indicates the level of
significance.
(4) ElBaradei’s previous report mentioned ambiguities about
Iran’s nuclear program from previous decades which were
resolved through the Tehran Declaration.
(5) Besides the false and illegal issues brought up, there are
also unfair clauses in the report which could allow the U.S. to
claim that Iran’s nuclear program is meant for military
purposes. Here are two interesting examples:
(A) The Bismuth project on thermoelectric use was experimentally
implemented 14 years ago and a 43-page report on it was presented
to the IAEA. As mentioned in the report, bismuth is not a nuclear
element and according to the NPT this project does not need any
explanation. If this is the case, than why and according to what
law did Iran present a report on the project to the IAEA?
Clauses 28 and 29 of ElBaradei’s March report are also
interesting to read:
“(28) The IAEA inspectors in September 2003 discovered that the
radioactivation of uranium took place at the Tehran Research
Reactor and Iran had not given any details in this regard. Iran
had also irradiated bismuth over the years 1989-1993. Although
bismuth is not a nuclear element and there is no need to give an
explanation on the project according to the NPT, bismuth
irradiation was taken into account by the IAEA since it produces
plutonium 210, which is a compressed radioactive alpha isotope.
This isotope is not only used for conventional purposes in
radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) and particularly in
nuclear batteries but also has a military use (especially for
designing certain nuclear weapons) if combined with beryllium.
“(29) Iran, in a letter sent to the IAEA on November 13, 2003,
informed the agency that the bismuth irradiation activities were
part of its program to study the production and use of plutonium
210 in RTGs.â€
(B) Although ElBaradei announced during his October trip to Iran
that he would not insist on visiting Iran’s sensitive military
sites and despite the fact that NPT regulations only allowed the
agency to inspect the “announced nuclear installations†that
“hold effective nuclear materialsâ€, as a gesture of goodwill,
Iran permitted the IAEA to inspect seven of the country’s
military centers. However, even this measure failed to convince
ElBaradei to trust Iran.
One of the articles of the additional protocol to the NPT defines
nuclear installations as places where more than a kilogram of
effective nuclear material is used. Iran’s shortcomings on
uranium enrichment are covered by this article.
HL/MS/HG End
MNA
*****************************************************************
23 Las Vegas SUN: Weakened European Leaders Head to U.S.
May 28, 2004
By JOHN LEICESTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS (AP) - Their countries are among the richest, most
powerful on Earth. But politically, European leaders heading to
the United States for a summit with President Bush are walking
wounded.
Taking part in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has hurt the
British and Italian prime ministers, Tony Blair and Silvio
Berlusconi, at home. The leaders of Germany and France are
burdened by sluggish economies. Only Russian President Vladimir
Putin, re-elected in a March landslide, looks strong.
The domestic difficulties of both the Europeans and Bush are one
reason why the June 8-10 Group of Eight summit is not thought
likely to produce breakthroughs on Iraq, the Israel-Palestinian
conflict, global warming or other tricky issues. Give-and-take
can be hard when you negotiate from a weak position.
"It will be a summit of the lame," said global governance expert
Philippe Moreau Defarges, of the French Institute of
International Relations. "We shouldn't expect much."
The last G-8 summit - in France a year ago - was essentially a
kiss-and-make-up between Bush and European leaders he had
angered by going to war in Iraq without United Nations approval.
Although the atmosphere around the purpose-built summit table at
Sea Island, Ga., may be better this time, Iraq again could throw
a wrench in the works.
France, in particular, is pushing Iraq's occupiers to transfer
as much authority as possible to the new Iraqi government meant
to take shape by June 30. Only with real power can the
government hope to be credible, says France, which led European
opposition to the U.S.-led war and has refused to send troops to
Iraq, along with Russia, Germany and Canada.
The other G-8 members - Britain, the United States, Italy and
Japan - all have forces there.
France and other opponents of the war have no desire to see Iraq
plunge deeper into chaos. Germany is helping train a new Iraqi
police force, and European and American security agencies work
closely in investigating, tracking and shutting down terrorists.
But European governments don't necessarily agree with Washington
that the war on terrorism must be global, encompassing not only
Iraq and al-Qaida, but perhaps even Iran and North Korea,
countries Bush once labeled "an axis of evil."
On terrorism, "there are two completely different visions," said
Pascal Boniface, director of the Institute of International and
Strategic Relations in Paris. "We agree on the goal, but
disagree totally on how to get there."
Bush administration proposals for democracy and other progress
in the Middle East may also stumble at Sea Island. European
leaders fear the proposals could detract from efforts to make
peace between Israel and the Palestinians and have offered only
lukewarm support. Even Britain, Bush's staunchest ally in Iraq,
says it's not for Western nations to preach change to the Arab
world.
Reform "must come from the region itself," says German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Economic issues also present minefields. In his preparations for
the summit, French President Jacques Chirac said the United
States is jeopardizing exchange- and interest-rate stability by
financing its economic growth with ballooning deficits. Nor does
the G-8 agree on how to combat global warming.
But G-8 leaders are allies, and won't want to come away from Sea
Island empty-handed. In a reaffirmation of their historical
bonds, most of the summiteers will be coming from June 6
ceremonies in Normandy, France, for the 60th anniversary of the
D-Day landings that helped defeat Nazi Germany.
Instead, the G-8 may find refuge in less divisive issues like
fighting disease and poverty.
Britain and France both have Africa high on their agendas.
Russia is expected to push for faster funding of programs to
dismantle Cold War-era stocks of nuclear and chemical weapons.
Chirac says he wants G-8 nations to legislate against companies
that employ slave labor.
Said William Wallace, a foreign policy expert at the London
School of Economics: "They'll talk a lot about global
development, narrowing the gap between rich and poor, new
initiatives in HIV/AIDS ... because the central issues are too
difficult."
---
On the Web:
Official Sea Island Summit site: http://www.g8usa.gov/
--
*****************************************************************
24 Maariv International: Vanunu: I just wanted to let world know
11 Sivan 5764 31 May, 2004
In his first interview since being released from Prison, nuclear
whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu said he was disappointed and upset
over being accused of committing treason. "I felt they just
wanted to get their revenge on me", said Vanunu during the
interview with the BBC, adding that he wanted to save the State
of Israel from another holocaust.
Vanunu also noted that he didn't feel his actions were treason,
but rather a report, claiming he wanted to inform the world about
what Israel was secretly doing. "I didn't come and say that
Israel or Dimona [site of nuclear reactor] should be destroyed, I
just told the world: 'look at what they're doing and judge for
yourself'", added Vanunu.
In the interview, Vanunu also described his meeting with "Cindy",
the Mossad agent who enticed him to go to Rome, where he was
abducted by Israel in 1986. Vanunu said Cindy was warm and
friendly and used to kiss him "all the time".
Regarding his abduction, Vanunu related how he was jumped by two
people once he entered the house in Rome. Subsequently, a woman
injected him with an unknown substance, while Cindy disappeared.
Vanunu said he became unconscious and later woke up on a large
bed, before being taken out of the house and into a waiting car.
One of the most well-known photographs in Israel's history is the
picture of Vanunu displaying details of his abduction by pressing
his palm against the window of a police van. In the interview,
Vanunu says that initially he also wrote down the nuclear
materials Israel possessed, but subsequently erased it.
Talking about his time in detention, Vanunu said that the Israel
Security Agency and the Mossad used psychological means and
sophisticated brainwashing techniques to break his spirit. Vanunu
says security authorities tried to harm him by using certain
foods, claiming that he was given bread, eggs, cheeses and
chocolate in the hopes that he suffer a heart-attack or other
diseases.
In conclusion, Vanunu declared that he does not regret his
actions, despite the severe punishment imposed on him. The
nuclear spy stressed that he does not want to live in Israel any
longer and is interested in starting a new life in the US or in
Europe.
Israeli opinion of above story:
(2004-05-30 11:15:07.0) Â
Who are you Vanunu? What right do you have in telling the
world about the defense of Israel? Israel has known a lot people
like you through time. When you betrayed Israel, you violated
more than the citizens of Israel. You violated the Force behind
Israel.
1. Â Nuts?
  Richard, Shoham(2004-05-30 12:51:30.17 EST)
Is Vanunu nuts in addition to being a traitor? Come on!! A
diet of bread, eggs, cheeses and chocolate given specifically to
create disease?! It's a typical Israeli diet. If the Authorities
were trying to make Vanunu sick, they're attempting that with
90% of the population! What next? Vanunu forced to brush his
teeth in hopes he chokes on the toothpaste? He should have been
left in jail but Israel's a country of laws. Perhaps Vanunu
should remember that.
© Maariv International 2004 All Rights Reserved
*****************************************************************
25 Reutes: West's spies missed Libya nuke shipment from Turkey
Sat May 29, 2004 08:20 AM ET
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA, May 29 (Reuters) - Four months after U.N. weapons
inspections began in Libya, a shipment of arms-related nuclear
machinery from Turkey slipped past Western intelligence agencies
and reached Libya, an atomic expert said on Saturday.
Libya, which swiftly disclosed the shipment, has also denied
purchasing nuclear materials from North Korea, casting doubt on
news reports Pyongyang secretly provided Tripoli with uranium,
diplomats close to the United Nations said.
In a report issued on Friday and obtained by Reuters, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said:
"One shipment of (centrifuge) components actually arrived in
Libya in March 2004, having escaped the attention of the
(Western) state authorities that had seized the cargo ship BBC
China in October 2003."
"These components that arrived in March were assembled in Turkey
and sent to Libya via Dubai," the atomic energy expert, who is
familiar with the IAEA investigation and its new Libya report,
told Reuters.
There was no suggestion that Libya, which has been cooperating
with U.N. inspectors, tried to hide the shipment. The IAEA said:
"Libya notified the agency of the arrival of this container and
it has since been shipped out of the country."
David Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector and president of
a U.S.-based security think-tank, told Reuters this was a shining
example of the "failure of export controls" that enabled the
creation of an illicit nuclear market.
A diplomat from an IAEA board member country said there may be
more such outstanding orders made before Libya renounced its
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes in December.
Some of these may have yet to reach Libya.
U.S. and British intelligence officials arranged the seizure in
Italy of the BBC China, carrying centrifuge components made in
Malaysia to Tripoli via the Arab emirate Dubai, but they somehow
failed to detect the surprise March shipment.
Turkey was first named as a player in a nuclear black market
linked to the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme,
Abdul Qadeer Khan, in a Malaysian police report based on
testimony of Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman.
There were two Turkish men named in the police report. One had
worked for the German engineering firm Siemens (SIEGn.DE: , , ) .
© Reuters 2004. All
*****************************************************************
26 Reuters: Israel Nuke Whistle-blower Wanted to Avoid Holocaust
Sat May 29, 2004 06:42 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai
Vanunu said he blew the whistle about his country's nuclear
program because he wanted to prevent a new holocaust. "I felt it
was not about betraying, it was about reporting. It was about
saving Israel from a new holocaust," Vanunu said in a BBC program
to be broadcast on Sunday.
In the first interview since his release in April after 18 years
in prison Vanunu told the BBC's "This World" program that he had
not been a traitor and had no regrets.
"What I did was to inform the world what is going on in secret. I
didn't come and say, we should destroy Israel."
"I have no regrets in spite of the fact I have paid a heavy
punishment," he said in a transcript released by the BBC on
Saturday.
Vanunu, 49, worked at Israel's atomic reactor in Dimona in the
Negev desert between 1976 and 1985. He was jailed in 1986 for
treason after disclosing details and photographs of the reactor
to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. The scoop led foreign
experts to conclude Israel had between 100 to 200 nuclear weapons
in its arsenal.
The revelations were extremely embarrassing for the Israeli
government blowing apart the country's long-standing policy of
"strategic ambiguity." Israel hoped that by neither admitting nor
denying its nuclear capability it would ward off a regional arms
race.
When Vanunu was released it reignited the issue and the
government, fearing he could leak more classified information,
put him under close surveillance and slapped restrictions on his
movements, including a one-year ban on travel abroad.
Moroccan-born Vanunu told the BBC he wanted to quit the country
which he said had treated him so harshly.
"I want to leave Israel. I'm not interested in living in Israel.
I want to start my new life in the United States, or somewhere in
Europe, and to start living as a human being."
The BBC interview, conducted through an Israeli intermediary,
will be broadcast on BBC Two at 10.45 p.m. (21.45 GMT).
© Reuters 2004. All
*****************************************************************
27 Reuters: Israel's Vanunu Says Fueled by Defiance in Prison
Sun May 30, 2004 07:12 AM ET
By Pete Harrison
LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
says defiance kept him going during 18 years in prison for
revealing the Jewish state's military secrets.
"I told myself in the first days: Whatever I do, I shall get out
of this prison as strong in mind and body as I am now," he said
in an interview in Britain's Sunday Times, which first published
his revelations about Israel's nuclear capabilities.
Vanunu, 49, worked as a mid-level technician at the Dimona atomic
reactor in the Negev desert between 1976 and 1985. He was jailed
for 18 years in 1986 for treason after disclosing details and
photographs of the reactor.
He was kidnapped by Israel's Mossad spy agency for trial in
Israel after being lured into a "honeytrap" by a female agent.
"To move from being a free man, walking in the streets of London,
to finding oneself in a cell is a huge fall -- like falling from
a very high building," he said. "Watching walls all day can
damage your brain."
Vanunu's leak led foreign experts to conclude Israel had between
100 to 200 nuclear weapons, rather than 20 as previously
estimated. Keen to ward off regional foes but avoid an arms race,
Israel maintains a "strategic ambiguity" around its
non-conventional capabilities.
Since going free from prison last month, Vanunu has been confined
to Israel by a set of probationary restrictions -- including on
his contacts with the press. An Israeli security source said the
Justice Ministry was examining Sunday's interview to see if it
violated the terms of his release.
"I hope they will check and conclude the restrictions are stupid
and lift them," Vanunu told Reuters from the Jerusalem church
where he is lodging.
A Moroccan-born convert to Christianity, Vanunu told the Sunday
Times he blew the whistle because he wanted to prevent a "new
holocaust."
He dealt with the silence of captivity by reading the Bible
loudly to himself, or by singing or praying. And he never
accepted that he would have to endure his full jail term.
Vanunu said the strain of 18 years' imprisonment evaporated
instantly when he was released last month.
"To walk as a free man, to talk as a free man as strong as I was,
to teach all those who tortured me and gave me a hard life that
they did not get anything," he said.
© Reuters 2004. All
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas SUN: Key Figure in Nuke Trafficking Arrested
May 28, 2004
By JASBANT SINGH ASSOCIATED PRESS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Authorities Friday arrested a Sri
Lankan businessman accused of brokering nuclear black market
deals - the most senior figure in the proliferation network of
Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to be jailed since it was
exposed this year.
Buhary Syed Abu Tahir was picked up under a security law
allowing indefinite detention without trial and taken to a
prison camp, three months after police cleared him of breaking
any Malaysian laws for arranging for a company controlled by the
prime minister's son to make centrifuge parts for Libya's
nuclear programs.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who earlier insisted the
police investigation proved there had been no wrongdoing and
that Tahir would remain free, personally signed the detention
order in his capacity as home minister, government officials
told The Associated Press.
The arrest was not publicly announced. Two senior officials
confirmed it to AP but refused to give details.
"He is deemed as a national security threat because of his past
activities in this country," one official said on condition of
anonymity.
The official said Tahir was arrested Friday and taken to the
Kamunting detention camp in northern Malaysia, where security
suspects are held, including about 100 alleged Islamic
militants.
Tahir's arrest is believed to be the only detention of a senior
operative of Khan's network since he admitted in February to
selling know-how and secrets to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan after he made
a public apology.
But the use of the security law to arrest Tahir means he is
unlikely to face charges in open court.
International investigators say Khan's network operated on five
continents and was able to exploit loopholes in international
nonproliferation treaties to provide what International Atomic
Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei called a "nuclear
supermarket."
President Bush, launching a fresh bid to stem global weapons
proliferation after Khan's network was exposed, identified Tahir
as its "chief financial officer and money launderer."
Malaysian police said Tahir told them that in addition to the
Malaysia-Libya deal, he organized the shipment of centrifuge
parts to Libya, and heard Khan talking about other nuclear
deals.
Tahir, 44, owned a computer business in the United Arab Emirates
that allegedly operated as a front for his work as middleman for
Khan and opened up business connections in Asia and Europe.
Tahir cultivated high-level social and business ties in
Malaysia, and married the daughter of a former Malaysian
diplomat in 1998. The ceremony included guests from high-powered
Malaysian business and political circles - and Khan himself. The
couple split their time between Dubai and Malaysia.
Tahir became close to Abdullah's son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, and
was a director of Kaspadu, Kamaluddin's privately held
investment company, for part of the time that the centrifuge
deal was negotiated. Kamaluddin has since cut all ties with
Tahir.
Tahir brokered a contract for Scomi Precision Engineering, or
SCOPE, to build sophisticated components that authorities say
were for Pakistani-designed centrifuges to enrich uranium.
The CIA and Britain's MI6 seized a shipment of the
Malaysian-made centrifuge parts in October on their way to
Libya. The raid was central to exposing Khan's network, and
triggered international investigations into Libyan and Iranian
nuclear programs.
SCOPE insists it believed the machine parts were for use in the
oil and gas industry in Dubai and had no inkling of their
possible nuclear use. Malaysian police said the parts could have
more than one use and cleared the company of any wrongdoing.
Police also found that Tahir had broken no Malaysian laws,
prompting government officials to say he would remain free. It
was not clear if Friday's arrest stemmed from activities subject
to the earlier investigation, or something new.
SCOPE was a subsidiary of Scomi Group, which was in turn
majority owned by Kaspadu.
Scomi Group has since sold SCOPE, along with some other
subsidiaries. Kamaluddin says he had no direct management role
at SCOPE.
News of Malaysia's involvement in the proliferation network was
sensitive for Abdullah because it came just weeks before
national elections. Opposition groups tried to make it an
election issue by accusing Abdullah of whitewashing the police
investigation, but Abdullah won by a landslide.
The scandal created tension between the United States and
Malaysia, which bristled at suggestions it had a wider role in
Khan's network.
Senior U.S. nonproliferation officials said there was no
indication the Malaysian government was involved, but used the
scandal to press Malaysia to tighten export controls on
so-called dual-use items. Malaysia hasn't introduced any new
regulations.
--
*****************************************************************
29 Las Vegas SUN: U.N.: Libya Nuke Suppliers Spanned Globe
May 28, 2004
By GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Suppliers for Libya's nuclear weapons
program stretched over three continents, the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency said in an internal report Friday. Diplomats
identified the former Soviet Union and South Africa as among
them.
Traces of highly enriched uranium were found at some Libyan
sites, according to the the report by the International Atomic
Energy Agency made available to The Associated Press. But it
suggested the uranium entered the country on equipment purchased
abroad.
The report did not name the countries involved in supplying
Libya. However, diplomats close to the agency said on condition
of anonymity that the report indicated the former Soviet Union,
South Africa, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia
supported or served as bases for individuals selling nuclear
components or know-how to Libya.
Other diplomats had earlier named North Korea, as well as
individuals from Pakistan, UAE member Dubai and Malaysia as part
of the black market chain selling nuclear secrets to rogue
nations. One of the diplomats said Moscow had not been
previously linked to Libyan efforts to acquire a weapons
program.
The report said Libya had been cooperative since going public
about its weapons programs in December and pledging to scrap
them. But it said more inspections were needed of its efforts to
enrich uranium - one way to make nuclear weapons.
Its program included purchases of hundreds of centrifuges and
orders for 10,000 more. In their efforts, the Libyans bought
drawings of a nuclear warhead that diplomats identified as
likely originating in China but sold by Pakistan.
The illicit nuclear network headed by Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer
Khan remains the focal point of investigations by the
Vienna-based IAEA as it tries to trace the development of
shipments to Libya, Iran, North Korea and possibly other nations
trying to acquire illegal nuclear technology.
North Korea was drawn deeper into the suppliers' web last week
by diplomats who said it appeared to be the source of nearly two
tons of a uranium compound that Libya handed over to Americans
in January as part of its decision to get rid of weapons of mass
destruction.
The diplomats said the "foreign counterparts ... from a nuclear
weapon state" mentioned by the report as working with Libyan
scientists between 1983 and 1986 referred to Soviet experts.
The Soviets were also the partners in a preliminary contract
signed for a uranium conversion plant that the report noted was
apparently never delivered, said the diplomat, who spoke to the
AP on condition of anonymity.
The diplomats also said that mention in the report of
"centrifuge-related training in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle
East and Southeast Asia," probably alluded to South Africa as
well as Pakistan, Dubai and Malaysia. South Africa had a weapons
program up to the late 1980s.
One of the diplomats suggested that the finding of traces of
enriched uranium on components in Libya could bolster arguments
by Iran - now the main focus of an IAEA probe for suspicious
nuclear activities - that it is not involved in trying to make
weapons. Iran has asserted that traces of enriched uranium found
there came in with equipment from Pakistan and were not produced
domestically.
While the United States and its allies say Tehran tried to make
weapons, the Islamic Republic says it is solely interested in
generating nuclear power.
---
On the Net:
International Atomic Energy Agency, www.iaea.org
--
*****************************************************************
30 Guardian Unlimited Whistleblower: Israel Action Spurred Act
[UP]
Monday May 31, 2004 12:46 AM
By MICHAEL McDONOUGH
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - Israel's nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Israeli invasion
of Lebanon in 1982 influenced his decision to tell the world
about his country's secret nuclear military program.
``It was not a real war. It was an invasion and they give us a
lot of propaganda to justify it,'' Vanunu told British
Broadcasting Corp. TV in his first reported interview since being
released from Israel's Ashkelon prison in April.
``It wasn't a war, it was just an assault on the Palestinians and
Lebanon, just radicalism to invade Lebanon and to fight the
Palestinians,'' Vanunu said in accented English.
``And I find myself, I am identifying, accepting the Arabs' side.
Slowly, slowly I find myself in the left side.''
He said he was also influenced by the fear of nuclear
contamination shared by many people following the 1986 Chernobyl
disaster, and his conversion from Judaism to Christianity.
``I was at the time of breaking barriers, opening a new way of my
life,'' he said.
In 1986, Vanunu gave British journalist Peter Hounam photographs
of Israel's nuclear reactor that were published in The Sunday
Times of London. Based on those pictures, experts said at the
time that Israel had the world's sixth-largest stockpile of
nuclear weapons.
A Mossad agent lured Vanunu to Rome, where he was seized and
brought to Israel. He was convicted of treason for revealing
Israel's nuclear secrets and was imprisoned there for 18 years.
As a condition of his release in April, Vanunu was barred from
speaking to foreigners, including foreign journalists.
The BBC interview was conducted by Yael Lotan, an Israeli
journalist and anti-nuclear activist who said she discussed it
with Hounam beforehand.
In the interview, Vanunu described how he felt when an Israeli
investigator showed him The Sunday Times article based on his
revelations and which was published after his capture.
``I was glad and very happy to see that I succeed, that The
Sunday Times had at last published it, so that my mission was
accomplished,'' he said.
``On the other side I saw, now I am in their hands, they can take
revenge.''
Vanunu said he wasn't allowed to testify during his trial for
treason.
``I was very disappoint and very angry that they blame me of
traitor and high espionage. ... I didn't went to any enemy. ... I
didn't receive orders from any spy organization, I didn't work as
a spy.
``So I felt that they just want to take revenge and punish me as
much as they can,'' he said.
But he added that he didn't regret his actions.
``Despite that I pay heavy punishment, large price, I think it
was worth it. ... I don't think I deserved that punishment.''
In previously released excerpts from the BBC interview, Vanunu
defended his decision to reveal Israel's nuclear secrets.
``It's not about betraying, it's about saving Israel from a new
holocaust,'' he said.
``What I did is to inform the world what is going in secret.
``I didn't come and say we should destroy Israel, we should
destroy (the) Dimona (reactor). I said look what they have and
make your judgment. My view is you should not have this stuff,
these nuclear weapons.
``It's not about betraying, it's about reporting.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
31 Taipei Times: Nuclear reactor to arrive amid protest
www.taipeitimes.com
Sat, May 29, 2004
COMMON CAUSE: Activists from Taiwan and Japan will protest
against the arrival of a second reactor of a kind that they say
has a track record of problems
TAIPEI CNA
An anti-nuclear activist group said yesterday it would hold
rallies to protest the delivery from Japan early next month of
the second of the two reactors for the Fourth Nuclear Power
Plant.
NoNuke Taiwan Union said the advanced boiling-water reactor,
scheduled to arrive next Friday, was exactly the same model as
those used in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in
Japan's Niigata Prefecture which had demonstrated numerous
mechanical defects.
NoNuke Taiwan Union executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (¦ó©v¾±)
said that several environmental protection activist groups in
this country and Japan will launch protests and rallies beginning
on Tuesday to express their opposition to use of the reactors.
The Japanese environmentalists are scheduled to launch a series
of sea-borne protests near Yokosuka Harbor on Tuesday from where
the reactor is being shipped. Similar rallies will be held on
land in a few other Japanese cities, Ho said.
Taiwanese environmental protection groups and social and human
rights groups will protest next week at the Interchange
Association -- Japan's quasi-embassy here -- and in Kungliao,
Taipei County, where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is located.
According to Ho, Taiwan could become only the second country in
the world to use the advanced boiling-water reactors, which have
proven to be unreliable.
Ho quoted Japanese statistics as indicating that the reactors in
the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 6 and 7 plants experienced a number of
problems in the first three and a half years of operation from
1996, mostly as a result of cracks in fuel rods.
Ho lambasted the government and Taiwan Power Co for insisting on
continuing construction of the controversial nuclear plant and on
using the boiling-water reactors, noting that even the Japanese
authorities have refused to endorse the safety of the core
systems.
Japanese legislators have questioned the regulations on export
permission for the reactors to Taiwan. Ho said the Japanese
government replied that "Taiwan should bear the full security
responsibility for the import of the [reactors], and we have no
plans to suspend the export."
The first of the two reactors for the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant
arrived last year, despite protests from residents near the
construction site in Kungliao.
Construction on the controversial power plant is only half
complete after years of political wrangling over the issue dating
back to 2000.
Construction was abruptly halted in October 2000 by the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) just five months after
President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó). The administration ordered a
resumption of construction in February 2001 after a backlash from
the opposition camp.
The government at one point planned to hold a referendum in
Kungliao on the future of the plant, in keeping with the DPP's
policy of creating a nuclear-free country. This story has been
viewed 344 times. + Advertising
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
32 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Diablo extends refueling outage
| 05/29/2004 |
Operators again delay restarting one of nuclear plant's two
reactors
David Sneed The Tribune
GENERAL - Operators at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant have
delayed for the second time restarting one of the plant's two
reactors, extending a refueling outage by more than three weeks.
Plant managers say they need more time to complete repairs to
Unit 1's main electrical generator. Workers are replacing the
copper coils, one of the generator's main components.
The outage, which started March 22, was expected to last 48 days
with the plant set to restart on May 8. The restart is now
scheduled for June 2.
When workers disassembled the generator, they found that resin
had built up inside which had to be removed by hand before the
new coils could be installed. This work and testing of the unit
took longer than expected.
"We've got to do it right," said Jeff Lewis, plant spokesman.
"When you do a major overhaul, it's very important that
everything is just right when you put it back together."
Plant operators initially thought the work would require two more
weeks with the plant restarting before the Memorial Day weekend.
Late this week, the outage was extended for another week.
Lewis said plant managers with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have
not calculated how much the prolonged outage will cost the
utility and ratepayers. The company loses money by generating
only half the power at the plant and also must buy replacement
power on the open market.
Diablo Canyon's two reactors are refueled every 18 months on an
alternating schedule. During each outage about a third of the
reactor's fuel is replaced.
Outages are also used to perform maintenance and repairs at the
plant, such as rewiring the generator. This year is unusual
because both units will be refueled. Unit 2 will be refueled in
the fall.
*****************************************************************
33 Trinidad News: Nuclear power and global warming
/www.trinidadexpress.com
May 29th 2004
"Unless we stop now, we will really doom the lives of our
descendants. If we just go on for another 40 or 50 years faffing
around, they'll have no chance at all, it'll be back to the Stone
Age. There'll be people around still. But civilisation will go."
James Lovelock,
The Independent, May 24
When James Lovelock calls for a massive expansion in nuclear
power generation to ward off the worst effects of climate change,
as he did in a front-page article in The Independent this week,
you have to pay attention. The future may view him as the most
important scientist of the 20th century, and he is revered by the
Green movement, which hates nuclear energy. But now he writes:
"Every year that we continue burning carbon makes it worse for
our descendants and for civilisation... I am a Green, and I
entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded
objection to nuclear energy."
Lovelock is an independent scientist who grew wealthy by
inventing equipment to measure the presence of CFCs, the
chemicals used in spray cans and refrigerators that were
destroying the ozone layer before they were banned. But his real
claim to fame, on a par with Darwin's and Galileo's, was his
insight that the Earth is a living system.
He often regrets having named that system "Gaia" (after the Greek
goddess of the Earth), because the Green movement and various New
Agers started using it as a beautiful metaphor, and delayed its
acceptance as a valid scientific observation for several decades.
But it is finally being accepted by the scientific community
worldwide (with a name change to Earth System Science to placate
the guardians of academic orthodoxy): last December the
scientific journal Nature gave Lovelock two pages to summarise
recent developments in the field.
Lovelock has always been worried about radical climate change,
because the essence of the Gaia hypothesis is that the current
composition of the Earth's air and seas-the global temperature
regime, the salinity of the oceans, even the proportion of oxygen
in the atmosphere-has been shaped over the eons by the activity
of living things. Our planet would be radically different, he
argues, if living things did not actively maintain the status quo
that is so hospitable to life.
The concept of Gaia is no more mystical than the notion that
triple-canopy tropical jungles create a local micro-climate under
their leafy ceiling. The emerging "earth system science" just
studies the hugely more complex system of biological interactions
and feedbacks, involving millions of species, that has evolved
over several billion years to optimise conditions on Earth for
living things. But this system that can lurch into massive change
if some major input (like the proportion of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere) is changed.
Recent evidence, including last summer's unprecedented heat wave
in Europe and new data on the speed that the Greenland ice-cap is
melting, has persuaded Lovelock that global warming is now moving
far faster than most studies anticipated, and will have
calamitous effects on key support systems of human civilisation
like food production in decades rather than centuries. He doesn't
believe that current efforts to reduce the output of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases through the Kyoto accord
(which has still to be ratified, in any case) and the
encouragement of power generation by wind, wave and solar power
can possibly cut carbon emissions enough in time.
"I think we should think of ourselves as a bit like we were in
1938," he said. (He's 84, so he remembers.) "There was a war
looming, and everybody knew it, but nobody really knew what the
hell to do about it." The Kyoto protocol, he said, is "the
perfect analogy for the Munich agreement" because it would solve
nothing: the cuts it mandates in greenhouse gases are tiny, while
it lets politicians look like they are doing something." And the
Greens' attachment to renewable energy is "well-intentioned, but
misguided, like the left's attachment to disarmament in 1938".
So the man who was among the first to warn of climate change says
that there should be a massive expansion of nuclear power, which
produces hardly any carbon, to deal with the inevitable growth of
demand for power without toppling the world into climate change
so abrupt and extreme that it would cause a massive human
die-off. The problems of radioactive waste and the danger of
nuclear accidents are minuscule by comparison, and there is no
third alternative.
Only France and Japan among the developed countries get most of
their electrical power from nuclear energy. No new nuclear power
plants have been built in the United States or Britain for over
20 years: the "fear factor" linked to the accidents at Three Mile
Island and Chernobyl killed the market dead. But those were local
disasters that caused limited local damage, not massive and
irreversible changes for the worse in the whole planetary
environment, and with better design and more attention to safety
they might have been avoided.
Would we be on the brink of massive climate change now if the
nuclear power industry had continued to replace
fossil-fuel-burning plants at the rate we expected in the late
1950s and early 1960s? Almost certainly not. We'd have a much
smaller problem, and more time to deal with it. James Lovelock
has done us all a favour: this debate is long overdue.
- Gwynne Dyer is a London-based
independent journalist whose articles are published in 45
countries.
*****************************************************************
34 EU Business: Austria and Slovakia face up to the future of nuclear energy
(http://www.eubusiness.com/
30 May 2004
Celebrations marking EU enlargement have barely ended but Austria
and Slovakia have already become embroiled in a sharp polemic on
the future of nuclear energy in central Europe.
The fireworks started when Slovakia's Minister of Economy Pavol
Rusko repeated his wish to complete the construction of the two
new reactors in the Mochovce nuclear power station, situated in
the centre of Slovakia just 140 kilometres (88 miles) from the
Austrian capital Vienna.
While Slovakia's intentions are nothing new they have suddenly
had a huge impact because the minister aired them on Austrian
public radio.
Austria has completely renounced the use of nuclear energy and
halted the construction of a power plant after a referendum that
the government lost in
It finds it hard to accept that its neighbours -- virtually on
its doorstep -- operate nuclear power stations over which it has
no control.
Now, at the height of campaigning for the mid-June European
Parliament elections, all the Austrian parties were quick to lash
out at the Slovak plan.
"The plans to develop nuclear power in Slovakia are an insult to
Austria and its European partners," insisted Hannes Swoboda, who
heads the candidate list of the opposition Social Democrats for
the European elections.
The Conservative ruling party reacted similarly.
"This is not a good welcome present on the part of our Slovak
neighbour, only a few weeks after EU enlargement," said Ursula
Stenzel, who heads the party's list for the elections.
But on the other side of the border, the campaign for the start
of the Slovak elections has also started. And there, by contrast,
most parties back developing nuclear energy in order to continue
exporting electricity.
In a country that did not gain independence until 1993, it is
easy to play the nationalist card.
"Slovakia is a sovereign state, it has the right to decide
according to its own interests," Rusko told AFP.
"It is in our strategic interest to build the third and fourth
reactors of the Mochovce power station," he added.
The main opposition leader, Robert Fico, whose party leads the
polls, even goes as far as saying that renouncing the development
of nuclear energy would be "high treason" against the country.
And he called for a "diplomatic war" against Vienna, underlining
that Austria did not succeed in preventing the launch of the
Czech nuclear power station Temelin, another bone of contention
in the region.
Rusko, who heads the small liberal party ANO, added fuel to the
fire by appearing to suggest that Slovakia's commitment to
closing two old reactors at the Jaslovske-Bohunice power station,
one in 2006 and another in 2008, could be reconsidered.
The suggestion deepend Austria's wrath even further.
"Bohunice is one of the most dangerous nuclear power stations in
the world," said the Austrian Greens party.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel intervened by reminding Slovakia
that the closure of the two blocks was included in Slovakia's EU
accession treaty.
"For us it is clear that use has to be made of the treaty, we
cannot have any doubt," he said.
But in a note of appeasement, he defended the right of countries
to use nuclear energy.
In Slovakia too some voices are calling for calm. "Austrians'
phobia against nuclear energy may appear ridiculous but if a
reactor explodes, the radioactive cloud would not disappear
before Vienna," commented the Slovak daily Sme, advocating more
tact towards Austria.
Text and Picture Copyright © 2004 AFP. All other copyright © 2004
EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended
© Copyright © 2004 EUbusiness. All rights reserved. Privacy
*****************************************************************
35 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's N-Plant Unit 4 Switched Off Grid
SOFIA NEWS AGENCY
novinite.com
Business: 29 May 2004, Saturday.
Unit four at Bulgaria's nuclear power plant Kozloduy, 200
kilometres north of Sofia, was switched off the energy grid for
repair works.
The reactor will be reloaded and some new technical amenities
will be installed.
Units three and six keep on working, officials from the plant
announced. The repair works over unit five of the nuclear power
plant is going on schedule.
Also today over 300 people visited Kozloduy nuclear power during
the "Open doors day".
All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright
Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a
real time news provider in English that informs its readers
about the latest Bulgarian news.
*****************************************************************
36 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Safe Nuclear Power Deserves Justice
SOFIA NEWS AGENCY
novinite.com
Point of View: 29 May 2004, Saturday.
By John B. Ritch
International Herald Tribune
Surprising as it may seem, Bulgaria has emerged as a European
energy powerhouse and a key supplier of cleanly generated
electricity to its neighbors. Equally surprising - and
disappointing - is the European Commission's effort to blackmail
Bulgaria in a way that will undermine this capacity.
Exported Bulgarian kilowatts have become crucial for the
countries of the former Yugoslavia, and Greece will need
Bulgaria's cross-border transmissions in August during the
Olympics. When last summer's heat wave hit southeast Europe,
Bulgaria was the only country helping to offset regional
shortages.
Half of Bulgaria's electricity comes from nuclear reactors, as
compared to 30 percent in Europe overall. Among countries just
joining or waiting to join the European Union, Bulgaria's nuclear
sector is the largest. In recent years, Bulgaria upgraded this
asset while instilling a rigorous safety culture. The
International Atomic Energy Agency rates Bulgaria's nuclear
standards and practices on a par with those in Western Europe.
Bulgaria's strategy also supports European goals on climate
protection. Nuclear reactors produce virtually no pollution or
greenhouse gases.
This energy success story owes much to EU aid and expertise.
Bulgaria upheld its side of the bargain in 2002 by deactivating
two old-model reactors to comply with EU demands. These reactors
still produced electricity safely in large quantity, and shutting
them was a painful sacrifice by the Sofia government on the road
to EU partnership.
Now, however, the European Commission insists that two much newer
power plants be shut down in 2006 - well short of normal life
spans - as a condition of Bulgaria's scheduled accession to the
EU in 2007. Construction of advanced replacement reactors will
take at least until 2010, raising the specter of a serious energy
gap that can only be filled, if at all, by burning high-carbon
coal with a severe impact on human health and the environment.
Safety is not the real issue. None of Bulgaria's four operating
reactors resembles the unsafe type involved in the 1986 accident
at Chernobyl. IAEA inspectors have repeatedly concluded that
Bulgaria's reactors meet "all contemporary requirements and best
practices for safe operation of nuclear power plants" of their
vintage.
Instead, the looming crisis arises from an arbitrary EU deadline
that could rupture energy supply for Bulgaria and its neighbors
and weaken Bulgaria's economy just as it enters the EU.
Five years ago, at an early stage of EU accession talks,
Bulgarian negotiators accepted this closure schedule. But Sofia
now seeks a pragmatic reconsideration based on new facts:
Bulgaria's critical energy role and its proven record in nuclear
safety. So far the European Commission has turned a deaf ear.
EU policy seems to emanate from the antinuclear environmentalist
dogma that apparently infuses the team around the European
Commission's president, Romano Prodi. This ideological mindset,
more prevalent in Western Europe than elsewhere, is a liability
for more than just Bulgaria. In an era of crucial environmental
decisions, the myths and mantras of the militant green lobby
continue to inhibit a serious analysis of Europe's genuine energy
choices.
The 21st century's paramount challenge is to sustain modern
societies while saving the global environment. Most energy
analysts recognize that well-managed nuclear power has a central
role in achieving this goal. This is well understood across Asia
and informs policy in Washington and Ottawa, as well as in much
of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The same realization is also dawning again in a Western Europe
that once welcomed, then doubted nuclear power. Finland and
France are starting to build new reactors, public opinion in
Switzerland and Sweden has swung back in favor of nuclear power,
and even a majority in Germany now opposes Green-inspired plans
for nuclear closures.
Meanwhile, having contemplated EU membership with pride in their
national energy policy, Bulgarians ask why they are being
discriminated against. Bulgarians' good will as prospective EU
partners is being jeopardized by the EU itself. Bulgaria's is not
a plea from special interests, but rather a national reaction to
the commission's apparent determination to bully a small country.
Such arbitrariness in Brussels compromises Europe's prospects for
integration as well as its energy policy.
The current European Commission's mandate expires this spring. In
the time remaining, Prodi and his team should seize the
opportunity to review and resolve the Bulgarian impasse.
John Ritch, U.S. ambassador to the IAEA from 1993 to 2001, is
director general of the London-based World Nuclear Association.[
The Team | Link to us | Partners | Top 100-->Top 100
All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright
Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a
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*****************************************************************
37 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Nuclear Abilities "Obstructed" by EU
SOFIA NEWS AGENCY
novinite.com
Politics: 29 May 2004, Saturday.
Bulgaria has emerged as a European energy powerhouse and a key
supplier of cleanly generated electricity to its neighbours,
reads an International Herald Tribune article.
Still, it points out that the European Commission is trying to
blackmail Bulgaria in a way that will undermine this capacity.
Exported Bulgarian kilowatts have become crucial for the
countries of the former Yugoslavia, and Greece will need
Bulgaria's cross-border transmissions in August during the
Olympics, John B. Ritch, the author of the article, points out.
Ritch also pinpointed that half of Bulgaria's electricity comes
from nuclear reactors, underlining that in recent years, Bulgaria
has upgraded its technical amenities.
The Balkan country upheld its side of the bargain in 2002 by
deactivating two old-model reactors to comply with EU demands.
Ritch, who was, US ambassador to the IAEA from 1993 to 2001, and
is now director general of the London-based World Nuclear
Association said that now the European Commission insists that
two much newer power plants be shut down in 2006.[ width=]
All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright
Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a
real time news provider in English that informs its readers
about the latest Bulgarian news.
*****************************************************************
38 VNS: France, Viet Nam sign deal for first nuclear power plant
Viet Name News Service
Saturday May 29, 2004
HA NOI — Viet Nam and France will co-operate to develop Viet
Nam’s fledgling nuclear energy industry.
At a meeting on Thursday with Dominique Maillard, director
general of energy and raw materials at France’s Ministry of
Economy, Finance and Industry, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia
Khiem said Viet Nam was undertaking research to develop the
nuclear energy industry for peaceful purposes, which included
construction the country’s first nuclear power plant.
Technology and safety of the nuclear power plants were at the
top of Viet Nam’s research strategy, said Khiem.
Maillard briefed the deputy PM on outcome of his delegation’s
visit to relevant offices in Viet Nam, and in particular, French
participation in the exhibition on nuclear power technology in
Viet Nam.
France had potential to develop the nuclear power sector and
would be willing to co-operate and assist Viet Nam in
technology, experience and expert training in the field,
Maillard said.
France has a stand at exhibition that opened in Ha Noi on
Wednesday, along with other leading nuclear electricity
producers, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
On the same day, Viet Nam and France signed a nuclear
co-operation for peace agreement.
Deputy industry minister, Nguyen Xuan Thuy and a representative
of France’s Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry signed the
document under which Paris pledged to support Viet Nam develop
its fledgling nuclear technology.
"Viet Nam is preparing to build its first nuclear power plant in
the central coast by 2020," said Vuong Huu Tan, director of the
Viet Nam Atomic Energy Commission. The nuclear power plant is
expected to have a capacity of 2,000-4,000 MW.
Demand for electricity is expected to grow by 13 per cent each
year until 2010 and about 9 per cent between 2011-20.
It is estimated Viet Nam will lack 8 billion KWh by 2015 and up
to 65 billion Kwh by 2020. —VNS
*****************************************************************
39 [DU-WATCH] Depleted Morality
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 00:22:50 -0500 (CDT)
Depleted Morality
The first signs of uranium sickness surface in troops returning from Iraq
By Frida Berrigan
Sergeant Mark Callihan (right) and Staff Sergeant Sean Bach inventory 25mm
depleted uranium rounds at their base in Tikrit, Iraq.
It's a year into the occupation and U.S. troops are being killed at a rate
of more than four a day. These deaths from roadside bombs, suicide
attackers, anti-U.S. militia and mobs of angry civilians make headlines.
More quietly, American soldiers also are beginning to suffer injuries from a
silent and pernicious weapon material of U.S. origin-depleted uranium (DU).
DU weaponry is fired by U.S. troops from the Abrams battle tank, A-10
Warthog and other systems. It is pyrophoric, burning spontaneously on
impact, and extremely dense, making DU munitions ideal for penetrating an
enemy's tank armor or reinforced bunker. It also is the toxic and
radioactive byproduct of enriched uranium, the fissile material in nuclear
weapons.
When a DU shell hits its target, it burns, losing anywhere from 40 percent
to 70 percent of its mass and dispersing a fine toxic radioactive dust that
can be carried long distances by winds or absorbed into the soil and
groundwater. The U.S. Army and Air Force have fired 127 tons of DU munitions
in Iraq in the last year, says Michael Kilpatrick, the Pentagon's director
of the Deployment Health Support Directorate.
At the beginning of April-the deadliest month of the war and occupation so
far-a New York Daily News investigation found that four National Guardsmen
have been contaminated by radioactive dust.
The men were part of the 442nd Military Police Company based in Orangeburg,
New York, which went to Iraq last summer to guard convoys and prisons and
train the new Iraqi police. While the whole company is due back in the
United States by the end of April, a number of soldiers were sent home
early, suffering from persistent headaches and fatigue, nausea and
dizziness, joint pain and excessive urination.
They sought medical attention and testing from the Army but were ignored.
Nine of the returned soldiers, frustrated with this treatment, sought
independent testing and examination from a uranium expert contracted by the
New York Daily News. The independent expert's tests showed four of the
soldiers had high levels of depleted uranium in their systems.
Asaf Durakovic, a physician and nuclear medicine expert with the Uranium
Medical Research Center based in Washington, examined the GIs and performed
the testing. The Daily News quoted him as saying: "These are amazing
results, especially since these soldiers were military police not exposed to
the heat of battle. Other American soldiers who were in combat must have
more depleted uranium exposures."
Second Platoon Sergeant Hector Vega tested positive for DU exposure. He is a
48-year-old retired postal worker from the Bronx and has served in the
National Guard for 27 years. After being stationed in Iraq last year, he
suffers from insomnia and constant headaches.
Durakovic found that Vega and three of his fellow Guardsmen are the first
confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq
conflict. These cases raise the specter of much more widespread radiation
exposure among coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians than the Pentagon
predicted.
Pentagon spokesmen consistently have maintained that depleted uranium is
safe for U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians. In May 2003, the Associated Press
quoted Lt. Col. Michael Sigmon, deputy surgeon for the U.S. Army's V Corps,
saying, "There is not really any danger, at least that we know about, for
the people of Iraq." Sigmon asserted that children playing with expended
tank shells would have to eat and then practically suffocate on DU residue
to cause harm.
Yet, according to a 1998 report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry, the inhalation of DU particles can lead to symptoms such
as fatigue, shortness of breath, lymphatic problems, bronchial complaints,
weight loss and an unsteady gait. These symptoms match those of sick
veterans of the Gulf and Balkan wars. In November 1999, NATO sent its
commanders the following warning: "Inhalation of insoluble depleted uranium
dust particles has been associated with long-term health effects, including
cancers and birth defects." A study that same year found that depleted
uranium can stay in the lungs for up to two years. "When the dust is
breathed in, it passes through the walls of the lung and into the blood,
circulating through the whole body," wrote Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a Canadian
epidemiologist. When inhaled, she concluded, DU "represents a serious risk
of damaged immune systems and fatal cancers."
A four-year study released last year by the Defense Department and Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention also found "significantly higher
prevalences" of heart and kidney birth defects in the children of Gulf War
veterans, though it did not mention DU specifically.
The Pentagon's professions of DU's safety also is directly contradicted by
the Army's training manual, which acknowledges the hazards of DU, requiring
that anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment or
terrain wear respiratory and skin protection. The manual warns:
"Contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption."
The men of the 442nd Company said they had never heard of depleted uranium
and they were not issued dust masks or other protective gear.
Responding to the New York Daily News article, and calls for testing from
Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer New York, an army
spokeswoman told the Associated Press that "the military would test any
soldier that expressed concerns about uranium exposure." At the request of
Representatives Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas) and Robert Filner (D-Calif.), the
General Accounting Office (GAO) now is investigating whether the Pentagon
has ignored the medical consequences of depleted uranium armaments. Based on
the GAO's findings, Filner and Rodruguez are considering the introduction of
legislation to extend service benefits to veterans who develop health
conditions that can plausibly be caused by depleted uranium exposure.
These are steps in the right direction. But the men of the 442 and the
131,000 U.S. and 24,000 Coalition soldiers serving in Iraq deserve more.
They deserve a ban on Depleted Uranium.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/depleted_morality/
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40 [DU-WATCH] disinformation and depleted uranium
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 00:21:33 -0500 (CDT)
DISINFORMATION & Depleted Uranium [DU] - COOP RADIO - Leuren Moret
- May 24 - Noon-1 PM PT LISTEN ONLINE TO COOP RADIO:
http://www.coopradio.org/
COOP RADIO CFRO 102.7 FM Vancouver, B.C.
Date: Monday, May 24, 2004/ Time: 12 1pm PT http://www.coopradio.org/
DISINFORMATION & Depleted Uranium [DU]: "The manipulation of
information, the invention of pretexts, the falsification of reality,
and turning people against their own interests is itself facilitated
by the monopoly control over the media, and the process of neo-liberal
globalization." Halifax International Symposium on Media and
Disinformation July 1-4, 2004 - Dalhousie University - Halifax,
Nova Scotia .
GUEST: Leuren Moret was an Expert Witness at the International
Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan At Tokyo. She is an independent
scientist and international expert on radiation and public health
issues. She is on the organizing committee of the World Committee
on Radiation Risk, an organization of independent radiation
specialists, including members of the Radiation Committee in the
EU parliament, the European Committee on Radiation Risk.
She is an environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley.
Ms. Moret earned her BS in geology at U.C. Davis in 1968 and her
MA in Near Eastern studies from U.C. Berkeley in 1978. She has
completed all but her dissertation for a PhD in the geosciences at
U.C. Davis.
She has traveled and conducted scientific research in 42 countries.
She wrote a scientific report on depleted uranium for the United
Nations sub commission investigating the illegality of depleted
uranium munitions. Marian Falk, a former Manhattan Project scientist
and retired insider at the Livermore Lab, who is an expert on
radioactive fallout and rainout, has trained her on radiation issues.
DU Tribunal Testimony:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren- Moret-ICT13dec03.htm
International Criminal Tribunal For Afghanistan At Tokyo: The People
Versus George Walker Bush - President Of The United States Of America
Tribunal Verdict:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/tokyo_trial_13march04.doc
HOST: Alfred Webre, JD, MEd
Halifax International Symposium on Media and Disinformation July
1- 4, 2004 - Dalhousie University - Halifax, Nova Scotia
*****************************************************************
41 PRAVDA.Ru: Nuclear radiation can improve human health? -
05/29/2004 13:26
Cancer rates in highly radioactive building are
down to 3.6%.
In 1983 a group of 180 apartment buildings was completed in
Taiwan. Somebody had made a serious mistake. They had mixed into
the concrete a considerable amount of highly radioactive cobalt
60.
This meant that ultimately 10,000 people lived in buildings for
from 9 to 20 years so radioactive that they received an average
of 74 mSv of radiation per year in 1983, declining thereafter as
cobalt 60 has a half life of 5 + years. This compares with a
rate of 0.5 mSv above background which is the normal maximum
exposure for radiation workers & total of 15 mSv maximum safe
limit for land fit for habitation according to US government
standards.
According to the linear no threshold (LNT) theory currently in
use world-wide for assessing nuclear risks there is no lower
limit to the level at which radioactivity kills (hence the term
"no threshold") & this, inhabited for a decade & a half before
the radioactivity was traced & measured, should be the site of a
truly massive cancer death rate.
It isn't.
A thorough & methodical tracing of all the 4,000 families by a
team led by W. L Chen of Taiwan's Director of Medical Radiation
Technology of Taiwan's National Yang-Ming University (the full
report is available in English on has resulted in an unequivocal
& spectacular result. Cancer rates in that highly radioactive
building are down to 3.6% of prevailing Taiwanese rates.
For many years there has been an unfashionable alternative to the
LNT theory called hormesis. This is an effect, long observed in
plants & cultures, whereby intermediate level radioactivity
actually stimulates life & improves health. There has been
significant evidence for this (the deaths at Hiroshima did not
appear to fit the LNT pattern, there are places in India & Iran
with background radiation of 15mSv or higher with no observed
increase in cancer & numerous studies of radon in homes have
found a reverse correlation between radon levels & cancer).
Nonetheless, such has been our fear of all things nuclear that
the LNT theory has been absolutely accepted despite the fact that
there has NEVER been any actual evidence for it.
This study, however, is so detailed, has such well-defined
boundary conditions & in proving a reduction in cancers of 96.4%
has such a clear result that there can no longer be any
intellectual doubt whatsoever. Radioactivity, up to 50mSv, is
good for us.
This is reminiscent of the time when Gallileo turned his
telescope to the skies & for all time disproved the, then
politically correct though scientifically shaky, theory that the
Sun revolved around the Earth. True the Pope of the time forced
him to recant or be dealt with as heretics then were. True it
took a long time to bury. However from the time of Galileo's
observations the official theory was dead. Unlike normal life,
in science the truth always wins in the end though sometimes the
end can be a long time coming & much pain may be caused in the
interim. This is because while opinions change repeatable
science results remain the same - that is the nature of the
universe.
The effect of this proof on our nuclear power industries can
hardly be underestimated since with the collapse of the theory
go most of the fears that have so crippled it. The effect on
medicine however cannot even begin to be estimated as the way is
now open for serious research on how hormesis works & how it can
be used to serve mankind. It is interesting to note that the
healing water from the world's great spas has always been mildly
radioactive & medicine has heretofore been unable to find out
why - I wonder what the future holds for such places.
Neil Craig
L1999-2002 "PRAVDA.Ru". When reproducing our materials in
*****************************************************************
42 heraldtribune.com: Plant workers were exposed to high levels of beryllium
Southwest Florida's Information Leader
By SCOTT CARROLL and ROBERT ECKHART
scott.carroll@heraldtribune.com
robert.eckhart@heraldtribune.com
TALLEVAST -- Bosses at the American Beryllium Co. manufacturing
plant warned employees that breathing dust from the coal-like
metal they worked with could be toxic. But the odds of getting
sick, they said, were less than one in 100.
For workers, health concerns were far outweighed by the payoff:
union benefits and wages from $2 to $6 an hour more than at other
area shops.
But as former employees learn more about the damage beryllium can
do, they are wondering whether the gamble was worth it.
"That beryllium will kill you," Charlie Ziegler says.
The fine, black dust that is a byproduct of beryllium production
can cause berylliosis, an incurable, often fatal lung disease.
The federal government, which contracted with hundreds of
companies like American Beryllium to mold the light and durable
metal into components for nuclear weapons and the aerospace
industry, has paid more than $800 million to workers afflicted
with the disease.
Because the dust can scar a person's lungs for 20 years or more
before symptoms emerge, experts say there may be another 800,000
people who have berylliosis and don't know it.
Ziegler, 68, takes pills to clear his lungs and sleeps upright so
he can breathe comfortably -- problems that he traces back to his
21 years at the plant.
The former janitor dumped refrigerator-sized bags full of
beryllium dust as part of his job. Ziegler said his blue uniform
sometimes turned black from the dust.
Ziegler said so far he's tested clean for berylliosis, but he's
worried that his breathing problems will worsen.
"It's like a slow death," Ziegler said. "None of us knew anything
about this disease. They didn't tell us anything."
The American Beryllium plant ran 24 hours a day from 1961 to
1996, employing about 200 people at any one time. Former American
Beryllium President George Allen said he doesn't know how many
people worked at the plant over the years, but estimated that it
was under 1,000.
Employees say the plant was a gravy train, a slow-paced shop that
had lucrative contracts to build pieces of missiles and
satellites for the federal government.
Sworn to secrecy and subject to government background checks,
workers at the Tallevast Road plant helped craft chunks of
Trident missiles and the Hubbell Telescope.
An engineer, Robert Chappele, was diagnosed with the beryllium
disease in 1966. After his diagnosis, Chappele was transferred
from the machine
chine shop to an office. He retired 18 years later. He was 51 and
barely able to climb a flight of stairs.
Chappele worked at the plant with his brother, Bill, who was
named vice president in 1980. Bill Chappele was in charge of
installing safety devices and keeping workers informed about the
dangers of beryllium.
"We did the best we could with the knowledge at the time," Bill
Chappele said. "My conscience is clear."
But Robert Chappele believed that the company had downplayed the
dangers, other family members said.
"He was not bitter, but he was disappointed and felt somewhat
betrayed," said Chappele's son-in-law, Bradenton attorney Wade
Thompson. "He felt it was their fault he had the disease."
Robert Chappele, 70, died last year of stomach cancer. His family
doesn't know whether beryllium poisoning exacerbated the cancer.
Government regulations
Like most of the country's 350 current or former beryllium
plants, American Beryllium was largely self-regulated.
The federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration inspected
the plant five times from 1975 to 1982. Inspectors cited the
plant for a total of 10 violations, including not providing
proper respirators for workers and exceeding indoor air pollution
standards.
OSHA fined the company $280, and state regulators fined the
company $3,000 in 1985 for three violations, including a lack of
training for workers who handled hazardous waste.
OSHA didn't inspect the plant after 1982, and while the company
took its own air quality samples, those results weren't forwarded
to the agency.
Les Grove, director of OSHA's Tampa office, said he doesn't know
why the agency stopped inspecting the plant. But Grove said OSHA
only inspects sites when there is a cause for concern, such as a
worker complaint or death.
OSHA doesn't have the resources to conduct routine inspections or
look over air quality tests, so it relies on the industry to
police itself, Grove said.
"Employers are responsible for ensuring that the employees are
protected," he said.
Allen said the company did a good job of protecting its workers.
That's why the federal fines were small, he said.
The lathes and cutting tools had vacuum systems that sucked in
the beryllium dust, and the entire plant had an air-filtration
system. The company took monthly air quality samples to monitor
beryllium levels and shared the results with the union.
ot masks and coveralls, and handouts outlining safety measures
such as showering each day before going home. They were told
their chances of becoming ill were less than one in 100, former
employees and a former manager said in recent interviews.
But one beryllium expert who visited the ABC plant said quality
control measures were lax.
Dr. Lee Newman, who heads the Division of Environmental and
Occupational Health Sciences at National Jewish Medical and
Research Center in Denver, said he paid an impromptu visit to the
plant in the mid-1980s.
What he saw prompted him to try to convince managers that the
plant was unsafe and that they needed to change the way they
worked.
Newman said there were no barriers between the machinery and
front office. He also said ABC didn't enclose its beryllium
lathes and grinding machines in individual rooms, as other plants
did.
Plants like American Beryllium exposed workers to high levels of
beryllium, Newman said.
"Anybody that worked in that plant should be considered to be at
risk for beryllium disease," he said.
Newman said he urged management to test workers, but they
refused, saying it would be too costly.
When the plant was sold to Lockheed Martin in 1996, swabs of the
plant's walls and ceilings showed beryllium at levels thousands
of times what's considered safe.
One test showed beryllium on the ceilings at 120,000 micrograms
per square foot. When Lockheed cleaned the plant before selling
it to Wire Pro Inc., it agreed to get those levels down to 25
micrograms per square foot. Air quality standards require that
beryllium be kept at or less than 2 micrograms per cubic meter
for every eight hours.
Lockheed spokeswoman Meredith Davis said concentrations of
beryllium on the ceilings and walls were high, but added it's
impossible to deduce anything about the air quality over the
years.
Allen, the former company president, said that if a worker got
lung disease, it's most likely because they didn't follow the
safety procedures.
"If I told you cigarettes are going to kill you and you keep
smoking, what am I going to do?" Allen asked.
Some former workers said they received plenty of warnings about
beryllium; others said they didn't fully understand the danger.
"You knew what you were working with and you knew it wasn't good
for you," said Jim Kearney, an American Beryllium machinist for
15 years. "To the extent of what it can do o you, I'm not sure
they even know that now."
Robert Smith, who worked at the plant for 29 years, said he and
other workers sometimes threw their scrap pieces into a pond next
to the plant.
The company stocked that pond with fish every year for its annual
fishing derby.
"I thought maybe it was OK, because the fish weren't in there
that long before they were being caught," Smith, 75, said. "I
didn't know it was that bad. If I knew, I would've been more
cautious."
Government apology
When Congress passed the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Act in 2000, it acknowledged that the dangers of
beryllium had been understated for decades by a federal
government consumed with keeping up in the arms race.
The language of the act was blunt and apologetic:
"Vendors who supplied the Cold War effort were put at risk
without their knowledge and consent for reasons that, documents
reveal, were driven by fears of adverse publicity, liability and
employee demands for hazardous duty pay . the civilian men and
women who, over the past 50 years, have performed duties uniquely
related to the nuclear weapons production and testing programs .
should have efficient, uniform, adequate compensation for
beryllium-related health conditions."
The law calls for compensation of up to $150,000 for workers
afflicted with beryllium-related diseases. If the person has
died, the money goes to family members. The act also pays for
medical services, including beryllium tests.
To date, the government has approved about 12,000 claims and paid
out $855 million in compensation and medical services. About
17,000 claims were denied.
Most of the claims come from industrial states, like Ohio and
Pennsylvania, with large beryllium plants.
In Florida, workers from eight plants, including American
Beryllium, have filed 560 claims; seven have been approved, for a
total payout of $900,000.
A year ago, government officials organized two town hall meetings
in St. Petersburg to help workers from a Pinellas County plant
file 534 of those claims.
There have been no other outreach efforts in Florida.
Only two former American Beryllium employees have filed claims,
and one of them received $150,000.
But that doesn't mean more workers weren't affected. Most don't
know the program exists, and the government has acknowledged it
has done little to find and notify them.
. . down former workers is especially difficult at plants that
have closed, said Roberta Mosier, deputy director of the Labor
Department's compensation program.
"Given that we've only received two claims from that facility, I
think it's fertile ground," Mosier said.
*****************************************************************
43 GI: Downwinder says med staff told him to 'come back when you're sicker'
By Kathy Helms
Gallup Independent
khelms@frontiernet.net
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. -- At Spirit Mountain Ranch in Flagstaff
this past weekend there was a "one in 10 million occurrence,"
the birth of a white buffalo calf. Some Native Americans would
see that as a sign of rebirth in a time of trouble.
At noon Tuesday (PDT) the National Nuclear Security
Administration's Los Alamos National Laboratory conducted
"Armando," the first underground nuclear "experiment" since
tests were conducted in September 2002. That month, Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory conducted subcritical experiment,
Piano, on Sept. 19. Seven days later, on Sept. 26, Los Alamos
scientists detonated "Rocco." To date, 20 subcritical
experiments have been conducted at Nevada Test Site. Some Native
Americans also would see that as a sign, especially downwinders
caught in nuclear testing during the Cold War.
Last Tuesday at noon, a National Research Council committee
heard from Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., grassroots
uranium workers from Navajo, Acoma Pueblo and Laguna,
downwinders from Kingman Ariz., and as far away as Guam. All but
one of them told the committee that they, their family members
and friends were either sick, dead, or dying. The one exception
was a Navajo man who said he was told by medical staff that he
wasn't sick enough yet to apply for compensation, to come back
in August when perhaps he would be sicker. In Navajo, that
amounts to a death wish, he said.
The committee, which is under the mandate of Congress to assess
scientific evidence associating radiation exposure with cancer
and other illnesses, was asked to take back a simple message to
"Washingdoon": "That 'compassionate payment' you promised back
in 1990 when you passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act
to make up for knowingly and willfully risking our lives -- it's
time to pay up. And we're not taking any more I.O.U.s."
Rena Harrison Ellis of Tonalea, Ariz., a Navajo downwinder and
daughter of a uranium miner, is also a survivor of breast
cancer. Born in September 1953 in Chinle, Ariz., she moved a
couple hours away to Tonalea after getting married. A lifetime
resident of Apache and Coconino counties, she still is having
trouble proving her existence and residence and therefore is not
eligible for compensation.
Ellis, whose testimony was read into the record last week before
the committee, said she was born prematurely because both
parents were exposed to the uranium mines.
"Like many other dependent children of miners, as I grew older,
I experienced many different types of sickness. I was
underweight, weak, had seizures, major rashes and sores all over
my body, and major coughing spells ...
"Uranium radiation does not kill you outright. It has attacked
my body and the genetic damage it has caused will be passed on
to future generations of my children and grandchildren. Too many
of us have become sick and too many of us have had to bury our
loved ones.
"I have been sliced, radiated, and coughed till I am blue in the
face. I am one of the unlucky ones that was in the wrong place
at the wrong time when the government decided to blast away
those testing bombs," Ellis said.
"We deserve justice. We deserve more research, and in the name
of God, we demand that we never, ever again be guinea pigs or
subjects of government sponsored atomic testing and have the
federal government play dumb about it.
"The federal government now owes me and my children and those
that are suffering, to study the full health effects of nuclear
testing and to compensate the downwinders fairly with $100,000,
and to provide them with medical benefits. The federal
government owes us scientific answers. The agony of living with
cancer fares out to more than a measly $50,000," she said.
Ellis wonders whether she will ever be compensated. Though she
has filed for compensation, she has been unable to prove her
residency because: She was born at home, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs destroyed the school records at Many Farms where she
attended, and the land use permit from BIA Natural Resources
which her grandfather transferred to her dad in 1941 is not
acceptable to the U.S. Department of Justice.
"I am expected to have had a land use permit in my name, even
though I was just a child growing up," she said.
"I am alive and standing right here in front of you and yet the
federal Department of Justice tells me that I do not exist and I
do not count," she said.
Tuesday's underground nuclear test in Nevada was designed to
examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by
forces produced by chemical high explosives. The test is
subcritical, according to NNSA. "That is, no critical mass is
formed and no self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction can occur;
thus, there is no nuclear explosion."
Subcritical experiments produce essential scientific data and
technical information used to help maintain the safety and
reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile, according to NNSA.
The "Armando" was conducted at the U1a Complex, an underground
laboratory made up of a series of tunnels with small excavated
experiment alcoves mined at the base of a vertical shaft about
960 feet below surface.
Anti-nuclear groups believe the tests might be seen as flying in
the face of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has
never been ratified.
Two weeks ago, 83 members of Congress who signed on to a letter
to the House Armed Services committee calling for elimination of
the nuclear "bunker buster," said pursuing new nuclear weapons
sends a "dangerously mixed signal to the rest of the world and
erodes our nonproliferation credibility."
*****************************************************************
44 Paducah Sun Editorial: Sick workers need real help
www.paducahsun.com
Paducah, Kentucky
Thursday, May 27, 2004 Editorial
STILL WAITING
Thousands of sick nuclear workers are still languishing in the
Department of Energy's dysfunctional compensation program, with
little or no relief — or justice — in sight.
The DOE program has a backlog of more than 23,000 claims,
including about 2,800 claims filed by workers and former workers
at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. As of early April, the
four-year-old program had paid one claim.
First District Congressman Ed Whitfield, Sen. Charles Grassley,
R-Iowa, and other members of Congress have applied pressure on
the agency to speed up the claims process, but to no avail.
During congressional hearings in April, DOE administrators took a
beating over the program's inability to move claims submitted by
workers suffering from illnesses related to exposure to toxic
substances. A short time later, two DOE officials in charge of
the compensation program left the agency, sparking hope among the
workers' congressional allies that the energy bureaucracy would
make speeding up the claims process a top priority.
After observing DOE in action on the environmental cleanup at the
uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, western Kentuckians know
that speed and efficiency aren't the agency's calling cards.
The ailing workers are caught in an open-ended bureaucratic
process that offers them at best a small hope of ever receiving
just compensation for their job-related illnesses.
Rod Cook, an employee at the Paducah plant who has lost one-fifth
of his lung function from breathing asbestos, put the problems in
the claims program in a human perspective when he observed that
he agreed to give the plant a hard day's work, but not part of
his lung.
"Somehow, I'd like to be compensated by somebody," Cook said.
Whitfield is backing an amendment to the defense authorization
bill that would marginally improve the workers' chances of
receiving compensation.
The amendment, which passed by a voice vote last week, would make
several changes in the compensation program, including the
elimination of a pay cap for doctors who serve on claims panels.
Under the amendment, the market would set pay levels for the
physicians.
DOE officials requested these changes, saying they would help the
agency pay at least several hundred claims by the end of the
year. But even if DOE meets that target, more than 22,000 sick
workers would still be waiting in line on Jan. 1, 2005.
In announcing his support for the amendment, Whitfield stressed
that it falls far short of fixing the flawed compensation system.
But he said it may be the only help the workers will receive from
Congress this year.
The fatal flaw of the program is that it does not give DOE the
authority to direct its contractors or their insurers to pay
claims.
So even if the agency accelerates the processing of claims — only
about 400 have been approved so far — the workers still may never
see a check.
As a former official of the union that represents workers at the
Paducah plant put it, the DOE program is a "cruel and unfortunate
hoax." The program requires sick workers to jump through several
bureaucratic hoops, but at the end gives them no assurance of
ever receiving compensation.
The DOE program is beyond repair. The only real hope for those
waiting for assistance is a proposal backed by Whitfield to move
the program to the Labor Department.
Labor Department officials oversee a separate program that
compensates workers with radiation-related illnesses. Since July
31, 2001, the department has approved more than 12,000 claims and
paid a total of $820 million in compensation. In Kentucky alone,
the program has paid 1,100 claims.
Workers whose claims are approved by Labor Department officials
don't have to worry about compensation — the money is paid from a
federal fund set up for that purpose.
Congress must take responsibility for the failure of the DOE
compensation program. The hearings and the amendments to the
original legislation are only serving to perpetuate this "cruel
and unfortunate hoax."
*****************************************************************
45 Taipei Times: N-waste sollution???
Help in store on nuclear waste LIKE MAGIC: The nation has spent
a long time puzzling over what to do with waste from its nuclear
power plants, but an official says things might be about to get
easier
By Ko Shu-ling STAFF REPORTER , IN ILAN COUNTY Sunday, May 30,
2004,Page 3
Advertising [Advertising] The nation's troublesome nuclear-waste
legacy may be over by the end of the year as the Atomic Energy
Council expects to reach a scientific breakthrough in its methods
of handling radioactive waste, council Chairman Ouyang Min-shen
(¼Ú¶§±Ó²±) said yesterday.
"Plasma technology, adopted from the US, Russia and Japan by the
Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, is an efficient, economical
and safe way to handle nuclear waste," Ouyang told the Taipei
Times yesterday during a two-day orientation program for new
Cabinet officials in Ilan County's Wu-chieh towhship.
The nation is storing roughly 98,000 barrels of low-level nuclear
waste on Orchid Island. The issue of relocating the waste has
been a headache for the government. The Ministry of Economic
Affairs has been mulling whether to move the waste abroad or
relocate it elsewhere domestically, but has not yet reached a
decision.
With the new technology, Ouyang said that the council hopes to
complete the relocation project by 2008, when President Chen
Shui-bian's (³¯¤ô«ó) second four-year term expires.
The funding for the relocation project would come from the
nation's NT$300 billion (US$9.1 billion) nuclear handling fund.
Ouyang estimated that the project might cost about NT$30 billion.
One of the biggest challenges facing the nuclear industry today
is how to store and dispose of nuclear waste, which remains
radioactive for millions of years.
One approach to this problem involves bombarding the waste with
neutrons to speed up the process through which long-lived
isotopes decay into nuclei -- with much shorter half-lives.
"Physicists in the UK and Germany have now demonstrated a new
laser-driven approach to transmutation," Ouyang said.
The laser approach ionizes gold to form a plasma and then
accelerates electrons in the plasma. When the electrons strike
the solid gold of the target they emit gamma rays. A sample of
nuclear waste containing radioactive iodine is then placed behind
the gold target. Transmutation occurs when a gamma ray ejects a
neutron from an iodine-129 nucleus to leave behind short-lived
iodine-128 nucleus.
"Using lasers is a relatively cheap and very efficient way of
disposing of nuclear waste," Ouyang said.
"Now we need to improve our methods so that we can deal with the
sort of volumes likely to be produced by the nuclear industry in
the future," he said.
According to Ouyang, radioactive waste processed using the
plasma technology is rarely used in large countries because they
prefer the traditional method of storing the waste underground.
That method is highly difficult here because land acquisition is
more expensive and difficult, Ouyang said. This story has been
viewed 297 times. + Advertising
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
46 Bradenton Herald: Lawyers prepare case for Tallevast
| 05/28/2004 |
CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION
DANA SANCHEZ
Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - Attorney Robert Walker was talking to clients in a
church when county trucks drove up and workers passed out bottled
water and letters announcing contamination in drinking water
wells previously considered safe.
A personal injury lawyer from Richmond, Va., Walker traveled to
Manatee County after assembling a team of attorneys from
nationally recognized firms that will explore legal options for
Tallevast residents.
Residents said Thursday that they have officially retained legal
services in an attempt to learn if the illnesses said to be
plaguing their community can be traced to chemical contamination
from the former American Beryllium Co. plant.
"We have officially taken on the case," Walker said. "We made the
decision over the weekend. I came down on Tuesday to get the ball
rolling."
Attorneys from around the country flew to the area this week to
talk with residents.
At a closed-door meeting Thursday evening, attorneys gathered
with at least 100 residents at a church in Tallevast to answer
questions.
"We have the duty to make sure everyone's involved and informed,"
said Gary Kendall, a partner with Michie, Hamlett, Lowry,
Rasmussen &Twill PLLC of Charlottesville, Va.
In conjunction with the legal team arriving, residents, who have
been reluctant to accept the official version of test results
from drinking water wells, are taking their own water samples to
a local lab for testing. The bill will be paid by Lockheed
Martin, who bought the former American Beryllium plant as part of
a larger purchase of Loral and has promised to clean up the
contamination.
Water test results are expected as early as today, said Laura
Ward, president of FOCUS, a community activist group.
Legal team grows
Tallevast's legal team includes lawyers from Motley Rice LLC of
Charleston, S.C., and the Michie-Hamlett firm.
Motley Rice is a firm that spearheaded a $370 billion settlement
against tobacco companies. The Michie-Hamlett firm specializes in
asbestos and environmental litigation.
Local attorneys will be involved, though Walker declined to name
them.
Clients include Tallevast's community group, FOCUS, and
individual residents.
Lawyers declined to say how many, or if all Tallevast residents,
have retained them.
Just that it was "a lot," Walker said.
"I'm hoping all the residents will let us represent them, but
that won't happen," he said.
With 25 years of experience focused on clients with occupational
diseases, Kendall said he is familiar with the repercussions of
exposure to chemicals in the workplace.
"This is both a workplace and a residence for them," Kendall
said. "This involves one of the most basic human needs: water."
Walker was in the community Wednesday when county utility workers
rolled in to hook up five houses to county water that had been
identified with contaminated well water.
Attorneys are questioning, among other things, whether some basic
principles have been violated and what are considered acceptable
levels of chemicals in drinking water.
"You have an obligation to ensure you don't hurt others," Kendall
said.
Case options
The retainer agreement allows attorneys to investigate the case
further and find out what's going on, Walker said.
What kind of case it will be and how much it will cost is yet to
be determined, attorneys said.
"We don't know if it's going to be a class-action lawsuit,"
Kendall said. "We're going to explore all legal options."
Payment will be on a contingency basis, attorneys said.
The attorneys' decision to take on the case has brought the
community relief, Ward said.
"Someone is working for us," she said. "It feels great to have
attorneys of their expertise on our side. That's why we went
after who we did."
Walker, who has no experience in environmental litigation, said
he is an expert at putting together teams. He is also a friend of
her family, Ward said.
"So we knew what his capabilities were," she said.
No contract has been signed with the attorneys and the FOCUS
group, but there is an agreement in place, Ward said.
Tuesday's news of contamination in five wells previously
considered safe came as a shock to Tallevast residents, Ward
said.
In a joint effort, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection and the Manatee County Department of Health last week
tested 17 drinking water wells beyond the boundaries of a
contamination plume identified by Lockheed Martin. They found
levels of solvents, including trichlorethylene, at two to 70
times the drinking water standard in five wells.
The levels aren't high enough to cause an immediate health
hazard, but they are a hazard when consumed over the long term,
said Charles Henry, environmental health director at the health
department.
"To keep us from panicking, they had those wells tested," Ward
said. "Now, we're panicking."
Residents say they're eager to have the remaining 12 wells hooked
up to county water quickly. The county has promised to do this,
but said it could take up to six months.
"We've canvassed the neighborhood, and everyone wants to be on
county water because they are afraid," Ward said.
Like most communities, Tallevast residents trusted the people in
charge of the chemicals to be good stewards, Kendall said.
"When you break that trust, the consequences can be serious," he
said. "These families are legitimately concerned for their safety
and their future. It's too early to say who'll pay."
*****************************************************************
47 Bradenton Herald: County racing to bring water
| 05/29/2004 |
TALLEVAST HOMES
Homes near the former American Beryllium plant are being
connected
DANA SANCHEZ
Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - County utility crews worked through the day without a
break to hook up another 12 homes to county water Friday.
Five homes with contaminated wells were switched to county water
earlier this week.
All 17 private wells in proximity to a former American Beryllium
plant were recently tested, and only five were found to contain
poisons leaked from the plant. Though contamination was not found
in well water samples at the remaining 12 homes, Lockheed Martin,
who has accepted responsibility for cleaning up pollution at the
former American Beryllium plant, agreed to pay for the hook-ups.
All Tallevast residents should now be on county water through the
temporary hook-ups, and no longer dependent on well water, County
Administrator Ernie Padgett said Friday.
Three two-man utility crews worked through the day to ensure
Tallevast residents won't have to go another weekend with anxiety
over their well water, county officials said.
Residents decided to take their own well water samples to a local
lab of their choosing after solvents were found at levels above
the drinking water standard in wells outside a contamination
plume identified by Lockheed Martin.
Samples were taken from 17 wells identified as still being used
within three-tenths of a mile of the plant.
Well water analysis is being done by a local lab, paid for by
Lockheed. FOCUS leaders, who have headed a group to protect the
neighborhood and look at legal redress, declined to identify the
lab pending release of results.
Residents were expecting the lab results Friday but they will
have to wait until next week, a FOCUS leader said.
The solvent trichlorethylene was found at levels two to 70 times
the drinking water standard in five of 17 wells still in use
Tuesday in Tallevast.
Tests were done by the county Department of Health in conjunction
with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and were
given to Tallevast residents Wednesday.
In light of earlier assurances that residents were safe, the
tests yielded unexpected results, officials and residents have
said.
But the wait is over for all residents using those wells who fear
well water contamination.
The speed with which the county was able to complete the switch
to county water was dependent, in part, on getting permission
from residents to go onto their private property, officials said.
That wasn't difficult to achieve, said Wanda Washington, vice
president of Tallevast's FOCUS group.
"Everyone is afraid of the contaminates," Washington said on
Friday. "We've been drinking it many years. Most of us, all our
lives. So everyone is hoping to be hooked up."
County workers were able to move fast.
"Those guys really care and they know this a public health
issue," said John Barnott, administrator for utilities customer
service.
The next step for residents is permanent hookups to county water,
Padgett said. Those could take longer than the two days it took
the county to do the temporary hookups.
Permanent installation takes longer because engineers must ensure
residents have good water pressure, said John Barnott,
administrator for utilities customer service.
Hookups are free for residents, Lockheed officials have said.
Residents will be responsible for paying monthly water bills
based on usage, Padgett said.
*****************************************************************
48 Bradenton Herald: Owner assures factory site safe
| 05/30/2004 |
TALLEVAST POLLUTION
The former American Beryllium plant is now used to make wire
connectors from non-toxic materials
KEVIN O'HORAN
Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - Workers now earning a living at the former American
Beryllium Co. plant face no health threats from chemicals leaked
there in years past or beryllium residue deposited during decades
of work, according to the site's current owners.
But that declaration by officials with WPI Interconnect Products
doesn't rule out an inspection by the federal Occupational Safety
and Health Administration, should anyone at the 1600 Tallevast
Road plant feel less than secure.
"If an employee working there has concerns about safety or health
conditions, they have the right to file a complaint any time,"
said Les Grove, area director for OSHA's Tampa office.
The 5-acre site has been an eddy of activity and accusations
since community members learned in November that cancer-causing
toxins had fouled soil at the site and groundwater there and
under area homes.
The scrutiny grew much more intense late Tuesday, when tests of
private wells in the area found groundwater contamination had
spread much farther than estimated, even after officials
essentially had given the "all clear" sign.
But WPI executives stressed everything remains clear for
production to push on at the plant, which landed in the company's
hands in 2000 thanks to a purchase from Lockheed Martin Corp.
Lockheed had bought the plant in 1996, part of a larger corporate
acquisition of defense systems held by Loral Corp., which had
owned the Tallevast site since the plant opened in 1961.
Part of the Lockheed-WPI agreement called for testing the land
and structures for pollution and health hazards for workers, said
Trish Du Bois, a spokeswoman with New Jersey-based WPI.
The tests revealed the chemical problems, which Lockheed agreed
to clean per Florida Department of Environmental Protection
standards.
The aerospace titan already has scraped away the tainted soil,
carting off some 500 tons. And though Lockheed hasn't yet started
to purify the tainted groundwater, the plant draws its water from
county lines and not wells there.
"We're hooked into the county system," Du Bois said, "and have
been for as long as we've been there."
Other tests, though, revealed levels of beryllium dust throughout
much of the plant. And inhalation of beryllium has been linked to
chronic lung disease and cancer, according to federal health
officials.
So, Lockheed-hired cleaners, under the watchful eye of WPI-hired
consultants, stripped and scrubbed the buildings, from stem to
stern.
"Prior to WPI occupying the site in 2000, the building interiors
were essentially gutted," said Jerry Eddis, WPI's president.
"All ceiling materials - tiles, grids, insulation, HVAC, air
handlers, carpeting, etc. - were removed and disposed of
off-site."
One reason they were able to gut the building is the difference
in operations. Where American Beryllium once ground, drilled and
otherwise machined the prized but toxic metal into aerospace
parts, WPI now pumps out more down-to-earth wire and cable
connectors.
Of course, the cleansing and change in operations don't
necessarily make the site a safe workplace, experts caution, just
a different workplace.
And one under the watchful eye of OSHA.
As was American Beryllium.
Once.
"We had an inspection May 30, 1996," Grove said.
That sole inspection turned up one violation, he noted, of a
machine safety lapse that "could have basically been anything."
But there have been no inspections since WPI took control of the
site, no inspections since Lockheed found contamination there.
And OSHA has no plans to head back to the site any time soon,
Grove said, unless an employee, employer or someone else demands
it.
There are many reasons for the seeming indifference.
"If an employee or employer complains about exposure to
electrical wires," he said, "we'll go investigate that. If they
complain about exposures to different chemicals, if they're
concerned about their health, we'll go out and investigate that."
So far, no one has complained.
And Eddis doesn't see where anyone would.
At least, not where the American Beryllium saga is concerned.
"The health and safety of our employees is very important to
WPI," the company president said, "and we have 100 percent
confidence in the safety of our facility."
By
Herald Staff Writer
*****************************************************************
49 lamonitor.com: Lab presses its $2.2 billion budget for savings
The Online News Source for Los Alamos
ROGER SNODGRASS, roger@lamonitor.com, Monitor Assistant Editor
Los Alamos National Laboratory expects to spend almost $2.2
billion this fiscal year, on a curve that has seen its
expenditures rise by 41 percent over the last four years and 80
percent since the last quarter of 1996. Eighty percent of the
growth in operating spending during much the same period has come
from Department of Defense programs and Safeguards and Security,
according to a presentation to senior managers.
Officials of Los Alamos National Laboratory provided the
information, as they spoke recently about trends, current costs
and ongoing efforts to improve business efficiency that they say
have reduced laboratory overhead by 2 percent during the current
budget cycle, resulting in a $40 million savings that will be
plowed back into science programs.
In a review process, begun last year by Director G. Peter Nanos,
the lab focused on improving its cost of doing business, said Jay
Johnson, LANL's chief financial officer and controller.
The first step was to condense a welter of 400 different overhead
rates that were being charged for projects across the laboratory
and then compare them to industry and other laboratories. The
third step was to squeeze some savings out of the budget. "We
spent energy just tracking 400 rates," Johnson said. "Now, with
just under 30 overhead rates, it's easier to keep score."
A team led by lab's Budget Officer Aaron Menefee simplified the
accounting schedule. Information that was contained in a two-inch
binder is now printed on a three-inch card. Multiple rates had
grown out of efforts to be more precise in pricing, Menefee said,
who noted, "The complexity wasn't buying us that amount of
precision,"
After the changes won approval from overseers at the National
Nuclear Security Administration, the lab revised its affected
business systems and then reviewed the project to make sure there
weren't any negative impacts.
It was all done in less than six months, Johnson said, an
equivalent to "breaking the four-minute mile."
With many fewer variables, the comparison with other labs and
with industry became easier to make. That was the second step.
Although the "score" they gathered showed LANL to be relatively
comparable, said Johnson, "Pete Nanos is not content to be in the
middle of the pack. The third step was to deliver, to influence
that score."
So they set out to reduce the overhead budget by $40 million,
calling for cuts and savings from every directorate.
These came by reducing the general and administrative (G)
operations, re-evaluating investments, postponing planned hiring
in some cases, streamlining projects and relying on efficiencies.
"We had to find some seven-digit numbers to get to that ($40
million)," Johnson said, adding that the savings strengthened the
lab programs, and in one program area provided "enough room to
have a contingency" budget.
One apparent casualty of the budget crunch was suggested by a
sign seen at the Oppenheimer Study Center last month, saying that
the library would not be buying any new books.
Johnson said he didn't know anything about the particular
situation, but he knew the library had made significant
investments over the last five years and had added to the
electronic media that is available.
Asked to inquire about the situation, a lab spokesperson said the
library's budget had been cut by $150,000, but that $100,000 had
been restored.
Every effort was made to spread the pain around and not to impact
programs or people, Menefee said. "What's best for the
institution is best for all of us."
Johnson said the lab's current budget reflects a number of
construction projects, both small and large, that are one-shot
additions to the total. The lab expects to resume a more normal
growth pattern for the near future.
This year's total includes $70 million in residual fire recovery
costs that have been carried over from previous years.
© 2003 Los Alamos Monitor All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
50 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 12:26:22 -0700 (PDT)
MIAMI-DADE police search for stolen nuclear soil-testing gauge
Miami Herald (subscription) - Miami,FL,USA
The portable nuclear moisture-density gauge is used to test soil compactness,
said Kimberly Hanlon, a spokeswoman for US South Engineering and Testing
Lab Inc. ...
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UN still concerned over Libyan nuclear program
ABC Online - Australia
A report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog says questions still need
to be answered about Libya's nuclear weapons program. ...
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KEY operative of Pak nuclear deals held
Indian Express - New Delhi,India
Beijing, May 29: A Sri Lankan businessman arrested as the suspected middleman
in a nuclear parts network run by a Pakistani scientist posed a national
security ...
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PAKISTAN tests nuclear-capable missile
Telegraph.co.uk - London,England,UK
Pakistan has successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile,
a week after a new government took office in its nuclear-armed neighbour
India. ...
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BULGARIA'S Nuclear Abilities "Obstructed" by EU
Novinite - Bulgaria
... Ritch also pinpointed that half of Bulgaria's electricity comes from
nuclear reactors, underlining that in recent years, Bulgaria has upgraded
its technical ...
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NUCLEAR reactor to arrive amid protest
Taipei Times - Taipei,Taiwan
An anti-nuclear activist group said yesterday it would hold rallies to
protest the delivery from Japan early next month of the second of the
two reactors for ...
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GOVT ignoring nuclear test anniversary, says PML-N
Hi Pakistan - Lahore,Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, May 28: PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq on Friday criticized
the government for ignoring the anniversary of Pakistan's nuclear tests
and disowning a ...
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NUCLEAR power and global warming
Trinidad & Tobago Express - Trinidad and Tobago
When James Lovelock calls for a massive expansion in nuclear power generation
to ward off the worst effects of climate change, as he did in a front-page
...
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FRANCE, Viet Nam sign deal for first nuclear power plant
Viet Nam News - Hanoi,Vietnam
HA NOI — Viet Nam and France will co-operate to develop Viet Nam’s
fledgling nuclear energy industry. At a meeting on Thursday ...
A real nuclear danger
International Herald Tribune - Paris,France
... been distracted by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it has neglected
the far more urgent threat to American security from dangerous nuclear
materials that ...
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51 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 12:23:10 -0700 (PDT)
LIBYAN nuclear material missing
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
A few days after Libya's historic pledge on December 19 to abandon the
quest for nuclear weapons, Libyan intelligence officials met visiting
US diplomats to ...
See all stories on this topic:
NUCLEAR arrest taints Malaysian PM
The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
The belated arrest of a Sri Lankan businessman at the centre of an international
nuclear arms-smuggling scandal is shaping as a serious embarrassment for
...
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'NUCLEAR' discovery temporarily shuts down neighborhood
Centre Daily Times - Centre County,PA,USA
But along with weeds he also found a yellow and black box about the size
of a car battery with the word "nuclear" on the side. "That's ...
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NORTH labels reports of nuclear sale ‘a plot'
Joongang Ilbo - Seoul,South Korea
... sold uranium hexafluoride to Libya. The uranium can, after processing,
be used for nuclear weapons. The state-run Korean Central ...
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NUCLEAR Soil-Testing Gauge Recovered
NBC6.net - Miami,FL,USA
... Authorities said the man has been exposed to low-level radiation in
the portable nuclear moisture-density gauge. It used to test the soil
compaction. ...
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NUCLEAR deal needed with North Korea
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA
... Angeles Times. Every day, North Korea increases its nuclear capabilities
- and the price it will demand to give them up. Yet the ...
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JOHN Kerry names nuclear security cooperation as priority
ITAR-TASS - Moscow,Russia
... The Washington Post said that Kerry would make a speech on Tuesday
to outline his ideas of the prevention of terrorist acts using nuclear
and biological weapons ...
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VANUNU Shared Israeli Nuclear Secrets to Prevent Jewish Genocide
Zaman - Turkey
country from a new Jewish genocide.' Vanunu (50) was an employee at Dimona
nuclear central. He said in an interview to be broadcast ...
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BACTERIA found in nuclear waste
Indianapolis Star - Indianapolis,IN,USA
... have discovered bacteria swarming in the toxic sediment beneath underground
tanks that have leaked radioactive waste at the Hanford nuclear reservation,
home ...
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AUSTRIA and Slovakia face up to the future of nuclear energy
EUbusiness - London,UK
... marking EU enlargement have barely ended but Austria and Slovakia have
already become embroiled in a sharp polemic on the future of nuclear energy
in central ...
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