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                         NUCLEAR POLICY
 
1 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Denies Nuke Relations With N. Korea
2 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Accuses U.S. of War Pretext Plot
3 US: [NYTr] US Offers Evidence on Padilla's "Dirty Bomb Plot"
4 US: Reuters: Kerry: Nuclear terrorism is gravest threat to US       
5 US: WorldNetDaily: What's a neocrazy to do?
6 US: Reuters: Bush Seeks to Broaden Fight Against Spread of WMD      
7 VANUNU interviewed
8 VANUNU INTERVIEW / SUNDAY TIMES
9 Las Vegas SUN: Partition Bonds India, Pakistan Leaders
10 BBC: Europe's energy use still rising 
11 Haaretz: Vanunu: Exposing Israel's nuclear secrets was not betrayal 
12 Seychelles NATION: Assembly paves way for peaceful use of nuclear ma
13 FT: Anger as Malaysia detains nuclear suspect  
14 Toronto Ontario Star: Ontario urged to drop nuclear fix, seek altern
15 Xinhuanet: Nuclear attack against US inevitable: US academic   
16 Maariv International: BBC airs interview with Vanunu 
17 ThisisLondon: Britain faces EU 'nuclear fine' 
 
                         NUCLEAR REACTORS
 
18 US: FLS: Nuclear power could mean the end of America's oil dependenc
19 US: Salt Lake Tribune: An overdue debate: Boosting nuke power to avo
20 KoreaTimes: Quakes Cause Public Fears About Nuclear Plant Safety 
21 US: NRC: Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, R. E. Ginna Nuclear
22 US: Reuters: Constellation seeks new license for N.Y. nuke          
23 National Post: Use renewables, not nuclear: report 
24 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's N-plant Contracts German NUKEM, GNB
25 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find
26 US: NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for th
 
                          NUCLEAR SAFETY
 
27 [NYTr] Vieques: Military Failure to Clean Up Denounced
28 [DU-WATCH] Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq
29 Taipei Times: Potassium iodide pills part of nuclear safety campaign
30 Aljazeera.Net: Radioactive machine stolen in China             
31 US: The Ledger: Man Exposed To Radiation
32 US: Casper Star Trib: Company seeks gas near nuclear bomb site
33 US: New York Times: As New York Fumes, Wyoming Says It, Too, Needs 
34 New Straits Times: Radioactive material to be safely shipped out of 
35 St. Petersburg Times:  Bellona Wins Case on Secrets of Nuclear Subma
 
                         NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
 
36 US: Las Vegas SUN: AP: Miners Drawn to Illegal Congo Uranium
37 JoongAng Daily: 10 localities' voters tender new bids for nuclear wa
38 UPI: Bulgaria signs nuclear waste plant deal - 
39 startribune: Editorial: Nuclear waste/Best plan: No dregs left behin
40 KoreaTimes: 11 Counties Vie for Nuclear Waste Site 
41 AU ABC: Govt clarifies waste transport risk » 
 
                         NUCLEAR WEAPONS
 
 
                        US DEPT. OF ENERGY
 
42 Hanford New: Nuclear stockpile stewards devise new tests
43 Boston Globe / Opinion: A nuclear band-aid
 
                          OTHER NUCLEAR
 
44 Google News Alert - nuclear
45 Google News Alert - nuclear
46 New York Times: Looking for Some Help for Love Canal's Other Site
*****************************************************************
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                         FULL NEWS STORIES
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 1 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Denies Nuke Relations With N. Korea

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - 

Iran said Tuesday it has never received nuclear technology from
communist North Korea. 

"We never had nuclear relations with North Korea," Iran's
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said at a press conference in
Seoul. 

Kharrazi said Iran's nuclear technology is self-developed, and
the international community doesn't need to worry about his
country's nuclear capabilities, according to South Korea's
Yonhap news agency. 

Iran Embassy officials in South Korea were not immediately
available for comment. 

Earlier this month, diplomats told The Associated Press that
evidence gathered by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy
Agency suggests North Korea was the source of nearly two tons of
uranium hexafluoride delivered to Libya as part of attempts by
Moammar Gadhaffi to build nuclear warheads. 

The investigation was incomplete, but the evidence highlights
concern that North Korea could be running a uranium-based
nuclear weapons program, or supplying other nations the know-how
to build atomic arms. 

The United States and other countries accuse Iran of running a
covert nuclear weapons program. Iran has rejected the
allegations, saying its program is geared only toward generating
nuclear power. 

"We will act in accordance with the International Atomic Energy
Agency," Kharrazi said, according to Yonhap. 

On Saturday, North Korea denied allegations it provided Libya
with uranium in early 2001, and accused the United States of
running a "smear campaign" against it. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 2 Las Vegas SUN: N. Korea Accuses U.S. of War Pretext Plot
 
 By HANS GREIMEL ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Monday accused the Bush
administration of making up reports about the North's nuclear
weapons program as a pretext for war, saying it echoed similar
allegations Washington made about weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq before the U.S.-led invasion. 

The published commentary came as regional powers are trying to
arrange a third round of talks on defusing the standoff over
North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The United States, North Korea
and four other nations agreed to meet before July, but no date
has yet been set. 

At issue are Washington's charges that North Korea is running a
secret enriched uranium-based nuclear weapons program besides
the plutonium-based one the communist nation has acknowledged. 

The dispute flared in October 2002, when the United States said
North Korea admitted operating the uranium program in violation
of international agreements. North Korea has publicly denied
this, and the nuclear talks have since bogged down, in part,
over the question of how to handle the uranium allegations. 

On Monday, North Korea accused the United States of fabricating
the uranium program as a way of fanning concern about weapons of
mass destruction and winning public support for an invasion. 

"The Bush war forces are going to apply what it used in Iraq to
the DPRK," said North Korea's official KCNA news agency. "Having
worked out a plan to launch a new war on the Korean peninsula in
the wake of that in Iraq, the U.S. is building up in advance
public opinion about fictitious development of 'enriched
uranium' in the DPRK." 

DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North
Korea's official name. 

Eradicating weapons of mass destruction was cited by the Bush
administration as a primary reason for invading Iraq. No such
weapons have been found, despite extensive searches. 

Before the war, Bush had lumped Iraq together with North Korea
and Iran as members of his "Axis of Evil." 

"The U.S. does not hesitate to wantonly violate the sovereignty
of other countries by setting afloat sheer lies for its own
selfish interests," the KNCA report said. 

The United States believes North Korea already has one or two
atomic weapons and enough raw material to make several more on
short order. 

North Korea says it is willing to freeze its nuclear weapons
program in exchange for aid. But Washington demands that the
alleged uranium program be included and says assistance won't
come until the North has committed to "complete, verifiable and
irreversible dismantling" of all nuclear development. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 3 [NYTr] US Offers Evidence on Padilla's "Dirty Bomb Plot"
 
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 23:24:35 -0500 (CDT)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit

The Scotsman - Tue 1 Jun 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3005569

Al-Qaida American Planned Dirty Bomb Attack - U.S. Claims

"PA"

An American, suspected of being an al-Qaida member, was training
to blow up hotels and apartment buildings in the US in addition to
a possible attack with a bdirty bombb radiological device, according
to government documents.

The documents, released by the Justice Department today, said that
former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla and an al-Qaida accomplice
were to enter the US through Mexico or Puerto Rico.

bPadilla and the accomplice were to locate as many as three high-rise
apartment buildings which had natural gas supplied to the floors,b
the government summary of interrogations revealed.

bThey would rent two apartments in each building, seal all the
openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings
simultaneously at a later time,b the papers alleged.

The documents said al-Qaida officials were sceptical of Islam convert
Padillabs ability to set off a dirty bomb but were very interested
in the apartment operation.

Top al-Qaida officials bwanted Padilla to hit targets in New York
City, although Florida and Washington DC were discussed as well,b
the summary said.

Padilla was to conduct an Internet search on buildings that had
natural gas heating, open a bank account and obtain documents needed
to rent an apartment.

The plot called for blowing up 20 buildings simultaneously, but
Padilla said he could not rent multiple apartments under one identify
without drawing attention.

Padilla, who has not been charged with any crime and whose confinement
is pending before the Supreme Court, has been in a military prison
in South Carolina for about two years.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month whether American
citizens like Padilla who are deemed benemy combatants,b can be
held indefinitely in military jails without any of the traditional
legal rights.

Padilla was arrested by the FBI at Chicagobs ObHare International
airport in May 2002 after arriving on a flight from Pakistan.

He was held as a bmaterial witnessb for a federal grand jury
investigating the September 11 attacks.

But a month later, President Bush invoked his power as commander
in chief and declared Padilla an enemy combatant.

He was sent to a military jail.

* To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web,
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*****************************************************************
 4 Reuters: Kerry: Nuclear terrorism is gravest threat to US                                        Tue

Jun 1, 2004 03:27 AM ET                                                                 

By Patricia Wilson 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nuclear terrorism is the gravest threat 
the United States faces, Democratic presidential candidate John 
Kerry said on Tuesday as he offered a plan to secure atomic 
arsenals and materials around the world. 

"The enemy is different and we must think and act anew," Kerry 
said in excerpts of remarks prepared for delivery in West Palm 
Beach, Florida. "We have to do everything we can to stop a 
nuclear weapon from ever reaching our shore and that mission 
begins far away." 

In the second of three speeches on national security, Kerry is 
expected to propose a new high-level White House job to oversee 
efforts to prevent a terrorist attack using nuclear weapons and 
recommend speeding up a current program to secure nuclear 
material in the former Soviet Union. 

"The greatest threat we face today (is) the possibility of al 
Qaeda or other terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear 
weapon," Kerry said. "Osama bin Laden has called obtaining a 
weapon of mass destruction a 'sacred duty.'" 

The senator from Massachusetts, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign 
Relations Committee, also said he wanted to end nuclear programs 
in countries like Iran and North Korea. 

Kerry has criticized President George W. Bush for refusing to 
hold bilateral negotiations with North Korea. He has said he 
would adopt a two-track policy of continuing the six-party talks 
that include Russia, Japan, China and South Korea while also 
holding direct discussions with Pyongyang. 

After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Kerry said 
Americans needed to "take away politics, strip away the labels" 
and ask honest questions. 

"Have we done everything we could to secure these dangerous 
weapons and materials? Have we taken every step we should to stop 
North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs? Have we reached out to 
our allies and forged an urgent global effort to ensure that 
nuclear weapons and materials are secured?" 

NUCLEAR DEACTIVATION 

"The honest answer, in each of these areas, is that we have done
too little, often too late, and even cut back our efforts," he
said.                              

 A Kerry foreign policy adviser said when Bush came to office he 
curtailed the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, known as 
Nunn-Lugar after the two senators -- Democrat Sam Nunn and 
Republican Richard Lugar -- who created it.

In the past decade, the program has spent $4 billion to help 
former Soviet states eliminate or secure nuclear, biological and 
chemical weapons, including the deactivation of more than 6,000 
nuclear warheads.

Kerry has supported expanding and accelerating Nunn-Lugar as an 
important defense against terrorists and rogue states obtaining 
old Soviet weapons of mass destruction.

"If we secure all bomb-making materials, ensure that no new 
materials are produced for nuclear weapons, and end nuclear 
weapons programs in hostile states like North Korea and Iran, we 
will dramatically reduce the possibility of nuclear terrorism," 
he said.

The presumptive Democratic nominee, who is locked in a tight 
battle with Bush five months ahead of the Nov. 2 election, has 
launched an 11-day mini-campaign devoted to national security as 
the chaos in Iraq and the June 30 handover to an as-yet-unnamed 
interim government dominates the headlines.

Last week, he outlined four "imperatives" -- rebuilding alliances 
"shredded" by Bush's go-it-alone policies, modernizing the U.S. 
military, using diplomacy, intelligence, economic power and 
American values to defeat threats and freeing the United States 
from its "dangerous dependence on Middle East oil.

Bush and his Republican allies have tried to portray Kerry as an 
equivocating liberal, soft on defense and weak on fighting 
terrorism.

*****************************************************************
 5 WorldNetDaily: What's a neocrazy to do?

 MAY 29 2004           
                                
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com 

When President Bush declared war on terrorism, he pledged to 
prevent regimes – such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq – from 
providing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons to terrorists. 

Of course, Iran and Iraq had both developed chem-bio weapons and 
had used them against each other in the Iran-Iraq War. And, in 
the aftermath of the Gulf War, the International Atomic Energy 
Agency discovered that Iraq – a signatory to the Nuclear 
Non-Proliferation Treaty – had attempted to develop nukes, taking 
advantage of the fact that IAEA inspectors were then limited to 
visiting "declared" facilities. 

However, as a condition of the Gulf War cease-fire, Iraq was 
required to destroy – under the supervision of United Nations 
inspectors – all its chem-bio weapons, and to destroy – under the 
supervision of IAEA inspectors – what remained of its 
unsuccessful nuke program. 

Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Gulf War, the IAEA Board of 
Governors developed a model of an Additional Protocol to be 
negotiated and signed by all NPT-signatories. The IAEA's 
Safeguards regime was to be transformed, thereby, from a simple 
quantitative system into a qualitative system. 

Henceforth, the IAEA would develop a comprehensive picture of an 
NPT-signatory's nuclear and nuclear-related activities, including 
nuclear-related imports and exports. The Additional Protocol also 
provided the IAEA the authority to visit any facility – declared 
or not – to investigate questions or inconsistencies in an 
NPT-signatory's declarations. 

As of Bush's declaration of war, neither Iran nor North Korea had 
yet signed an Additional Protocol. But – as a consequence of the 
cease-fire resolutions – Iraq was effectively already subject to 
an Additional Protocol for nukes and for chem-bio weapons, as 
well. 

That presented a major problem for the neo-crazies. 

Thanks to Bob Woodward, we know that Bush already had the 
Pentagon working on an invasion plan for Iraq. Furthermore, 
public opinion polls showed that the only acceptable rationale 
for such an invasion would be the possession by Iraq of nukes and 
an intention to give those nukes to terrorists. 

What were the neo-crazies to do? 

Well, first attack the IAEA. Discredit it. Call Director General 
Mohamed ElBaradei a liar, or worse. Tell Congress and media 
sycophants there is incontrovertible proof that Saddam Hussein 
will have nukes to give terrorists within a few months. 

Then, a few days later, attack Iraq. 

Unfortunately for the neocrazies, the whole world soon learned 
the IAEA and its enhanced Safeguards system was effective. And 
ElBaradei was not lying. There had been no attempt to resuscitate 
Iraq's nuke programs. None. Worse, North Korea withdrew from the 
NPT on the eve of the invasion and began recovering weapons-grade 
plutonium from the spent-fuel elements formerly under IAEA lock 
and seal. Soon, the Koreans really could have nukes to give 
terrorists. 

Worse still, Iran announced it would negotiate and sign an 
Additional Protocol. 

What were the neo-crazies to do? 

Well, there was essentially nothing they could do about North 
Korea. All our armed forces were needed to suppress Iraqi 
opposition to our occupation. 

There were no forces available to invade Iran, either. 

So, get Congress to pass Concurrent Resolution 398 which: 

calls upon all State Parties to the Treaty on the 
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons – including the United 
States – to use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade, and 
prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons – including ending 
all nuclear and other cooperation with Iran (including the 
provision of dual use items) – until Iran fully implements the 
Additional Protocol between Iran and the IAEA for the application 
of safeguards. 

Then set about foiling Iran's attempts to "fully implement" an 
Additional Protocol. 

How? 

Declare economic war. Resolution 398 also: 

A) urges Japan to ensure that Japanese commercial entities not 
proceed with the development of Iran's Azadegan oil field; 

B) urges France and Malaysia to ensure that French and Malaysian 
commercial entities not proceed with their agreement for further 
cooperation in expanding Iran's liquid natural gas production 
field; 

C) calls on all countries to intercede with their commercial 
entities to ensure that these entities refrain from or cease all 
investment and investment-related activities that support Iran's 
energy industry; and 

D) calls on the president to enforce the provisions of the Iran 
and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 to discourage foreign commercial 
entities from investing in Iran's energy industry. 

So, how's the economic war against "terrorism" going? 

Well, last week, Spain – our former military ally in Iraq – 
signed textile, shipping, fisheries, agriculture, tourism and 
automotive trade agreements with Iran. 

What's "C'est la guerre" in Spanish?
 
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy 
implementing official for national security-related technical 
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and 
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office 
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. 
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national 
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking 
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate 
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had 
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence 
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National 
Laboratory in New Mexico. 

[WorldNetDaily.com] 

--> news@worldnetdaily.com--> Contact WND
  [http://www.fiberinternetcenter.com]         
*****************************************************************
 6 Reuters: Bush Seeks to Broaden Fight Against Spread of WMD               
         
Tue Jun 1, 2004 08:37 AM ET                                                             

By Wojciech Moskwa 

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - President Bush said Tuesday an 
international drive to halt the spread of weapons of mass 
destruction should be expanded to target those funding the deadly 
trade. 

In a videotaped address Bush said his Proliferation Security 
Initiative (PSI), launched a year ago in this southern Polish 
city, had already boosted security by stopping shipments of 
dangerous weapons and their components. 

"We are determined to keep the world's most dangerous weapons out 
of the world's most dangerous hands," Bush told delegates from 60 
countries at the PSI meeting. 

"I proposed to expand the work of the PSI beyond the interdiction 
of shipments to disrupt and bring to justice the middlemen and 
financiers that enable this dangerous trade." 

Bush welcomed last month's United Nations Security Council 
resolution calling on countries to expand the legal tools 
available to fight the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and 
biological weapons. 

Now PSI participants are grappling with how best to share 
intelligence and develop their capabilities to stop weapons of 
mass destruction (WMD) ending up in states viewed with distrust 
by Washington, such as North Korea, Syria and Iran. 

"To get an effective campaign worldwide, you have to go after the 
complete life-cycle of WMD, beginning with the laboratories where 
it is developed, manufacturing, financial and shipment networks," 
U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told Reuters on the 
sidelines of the meeting. 

In a coup for Bush's initiative, Russia joined the core-PSI group 
Monday, casting aside doubts the initiative could hamper its 
trade with countries at odds with Washington. 

But Moscow's delegate to the meeting, Siergiey Kislyak, made 
clear that PSI would not supersede national roles. 

"Each and every country is responsible for combating illegal 
trade. The PSI might be useful by raising international awareness 
and by helping coordinate efforts," he told reporters. 

The PSI's biggest achievement so far has been the interception by 
the United States and its allies of a Libya-bound ship carrying 
weapon components. The seizure last year helped persuade Libya to 
finally drop its nuclear weapons program. 

Delegates hoped to amend regulations on international shipping, 
which carries three-fourths of global trade, to make it easier 
for agents to board vessels as well as boost security and 
self-policing measures among operators.                                 

*****************************************************************
 7 VANUNU interviewed
 
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 14:03:46 -0500 (CDT)

 
possibly repptitious  !!

MichaelP ==================

 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/432459.html

   Ha'aretz, Israel - May 27, 2004

Sunday Times gets first interview with Vanunu since release from jail

"I suspected she was an agent for the Mossad," Mordechai Vanunu says of
the woman who lured him into captivity, in an interview that will be
published in the Sunday Times on Sunday.

He was interviewed by journalist and author Yael Lotan, an activist for
nuclear disarmament in the Middle East and a member of the Movement for
the Liberation of Mordechai Vanunu. The interview was made on Saturday on
behalf of the British journalist Peter Hounam and a BBC production crew
working on a documentary of the Vanunu story.

The interview was what led the Israeli secret service, the Shin Bet, to
arrest Hounam.

Lotan told Haaretz the story in the Sunday Times, the first since Vanunu
was released after 18 years in jail for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets
to the same British newspaper, will appear under her name. "To a certain
extent we bypassed in a legal way the limitations imposed on Vanunu," she
said.

Among limitations set by the Shin Bet and the courts is that Vanunu is not
permitted to meet foreign nationals without the approval of the
authorities. Consequently, the interview was not held by a foreigner but
an Israeli, bypassing the restriction.

Before the interview, Lotan met Hounam in the compound of the St. George
Anglican church, where Vanunu has been staying since his release, and with
Chris Mitchell, the producer of Magnetic North, the company producing the
BBC documentary. She admits to consulting the two but stresses "I did not
receive any guidance or questions from them. I know the subject very
well." She then met with Vanunu, and an Israeli cameraman and aide, and
carried out the interview inside the church. Meir Vanunu, one of
Mordechai's brothers, was also present and photographed the scene.

Lotan insists neither Hounam or Mitchell were present during the
interview. The Shin Bet disagrees, saying that both foreigners were in the
hall and could hear and see the interview.

The interview lasted two hours, in English, according to Lotan. The
synopsis of the interview told to Haaretz by Lotan suggests that nothing
new was revealed. The only detail that Vanunu mentioned was that he
suspected "Cindy," the woman that entrapped him and led to his capture by
Israeli agents, of being an agent for the Mossad.

Vanunu said he confronted her with a question on her connection with the
Mossad. But, he says, Cindy pretended she did not understand a thing and
maintained her role as an American tourist.

To a different question, Vanunu says he felt the gravest danger for him
was in London, because he knew that Israeli intelligence was aware of his
presence in the British capital. He therefore left, for Rome, with Cindy.  
"I did not think they would follow me there," he says.

In the interview he answers questions about his background, as a native of
Morocco, his childhood and university days. "I did not ask him about
nuclear weapons and about the production processes in Dimona," Lotan says,
"because I knew that on the basis of the restrictions, he should not be
asked about this, and also because I know this subject very well." Lotan
says Vanunu spoke in detail about two subjects, his experiences when he
left Israel, and his feelings of being 11 out of his 18 years of
imprisonment in solitary confinement. Vanunu said he felt he was losing
his sanity in solitary and set as his goal "to survive and remain sane."  
Describing the first time he was released from confinement and was allowed
to walk in the courtyard of the prison, Vanunu says "I could walk and see
for the first time plants, flowers and humans and then I felt that I was
free." Lotan says she was impressed by "Vanunu's display of amazing peace,
quiet, self control and sense of humor."

Regarding his decision to "tell the world" of the goings on in the reactor
in Dimona, Lotan says that Vanunu says he has no more secrets to reveal
and he wishes to leave Israel and begin his life anew.

In response to the question whether Lotan feels "used" by Hounam and the
BBC unit, she says that she would not describe her involvement in the
affair as "a trick."

Lotan says she is thinking of writing a book on the case and she feels the
interview with Vanunu was part of that preparation. She also says she
never had the tape of the interview, which Lotan says was always kept by
the recording crew.

=========

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2761-1128411,00.html

Sunday Times May 30

 30 May 04

Introduction Vanunu: the truth about my kidnap

by Tom Walker

 FOR the first time since he was kidnapped by Israeli agents in 1986,
Mordechai Vanunu has spoken out publicly about his abduction and 11 years
in solitary confinement.
 
Vanunu, in the only interview he has given since he vanished from London
18 years ago, explained why he fell for "Cindy", the Israeli undercover
agent who lured him into a honey trap.

He revealed that there was a Frenchman among his abductors;  told how he
was beaten and injected with drugs during his kidnapping; said he had no
regrets for taking the wraps off Israel's secret nuclear arsenal and
disclosed that he thought he was losing his mind in prison.

"You forget the past. Your brain is empty of all the images you have of
the past. Watching only walls all day can damage the brain," he said.

Vanunu, who left prison last month after serving his full sentence for
treason and aggravated espionage, gave the interview to an Israeli
journalist as he is banned from speaking to foreigners.

Last week Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times reporter who broke Vanunu's story
and subsequently campaigned for his release, was arrested in Tel Aviv by
Israeli security agents hunting for tapes of the interview.

He was freed after the intervention of Vanunu's lawyers and the British
ambassador.

Vanunu has been unable to tell his story in his own words since September
1986 when he handed Hounam details and photographs of Israel's secret
nuclear weapons plant, housed in a deep bunker at Dimona in the Negev
desert.

Israel has always refused to confirm that it has nuclear weapons. At the
time, experts estimated that it had no more than 20 bombs. Vanunu, a
former technician at Dimona, revealed that it had the production capacity
for well over 100 atomic weapons and was able to make much more powerful
thermonuclear bombs. He supplied details of the programme.

It was while Vanunu was staying in London, as The Sunday Times checked his
disclosures before publication, that "Cindy"  caught his eye on a West End
street. "She looked like a very nice woman, American, a little bit of a
beauty, not tall or short, blonde hair," Vanunu told his interviewer.

"After crossing the street she went in one direction and I went in
another, but after 50 yards I asked myself if she was interested in me. Go
and ask her what she wants, I said to myself.

"I caught up with her and asked her, "Who are you and what are you doing?'
We started talking." A close relationship developed:  "She was good
company and affectionate. She used to kiss me a lot - all the time."

Cindy persuaded him to take a short holiday with her in Rome, where he was
immediately ambushed and repeatedly injected with a drug - "I could walk
and see, but I was not in control" - and shipped in chains to Israel.

"One (of the guards) was Israeli but we spoke in English. The other one
was a Frenchman, speaking in French, not understanding English. I spoke a
few words to him because I knew French."

He was landed clandestinely on an Israeli beach, strapped to a stretcher
and taken to Ashkelon prison where he remained until last month.

"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 to the ground. You lose everything," Vanunu recalled.

Initially he was kept "in a very secret part of the prison. Nobody knew
about me. They kept me for five days in a small cell without windows".
When he was charged with aggravated espionage and high treason, "I was
very angry. I was not a traitor; I did not go to any enemy with my
information. I didn't work as a spy. I felt they just wanted to punish
me".

He said his motive was "not about betraying Israel; it was about saving
Israel from a new holocaust. My point was to bring the subject to the
public and to prevent any future war and make it very clear that war is
not the way to solve problems."

Vanunu was in solitary confinement for 11-1/2 years of his sentence: "I
decided I should do everything I could to keep my sanity. 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.

"I could not speak with anyone, so I decided that I could speak by
reading. I used to take the Bible in English to read it in a loud voice,
or I prayed in a loud voice, or I was singing, humming.  Most of the time
my aim was to be alert. I was afraid that I would be under psychological
brainwashing - that they could change my mind, put some new idea, a little
idea here or there."

Vanunu's lawyers are to seek an urgent meeting with Israel's
attorney-general to try to lift the ban on him leaving the country or
meeting foreigners.

They believe the government is in a dilemma about how to handle mounting
concern about the restrictions after a week of heavy-handed actions by
Shin Beth, the internal intelligence service. Vanunu's brother Meir said
Israel had reached the point where a negotiated solution might now be
considered.

"He has no more secrets to reveal," Meir said. "He has given a detailed
press interview with which the secret service can find no fault."

Besides arresting Hounam and Saadi Haeri, a BBC editor, last week, Shin
Beth also stopped Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, head of the Anglican church in
the Middle East, as he was entering Israel from Jordan on Friday. The
bishop has allowed Vanunu to stay at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.

"They made me remove all my belongings, took me to a room and interrogated
me for 90 minutes," El-Assal said yesterday.  "They tried to persuade me
to stop providing sanctuary to Mordechai."

May 30, 2004

Leading article: Let Vanunu go free

The details of the kidnapping and capture of Mordechai Vanunu in 1986 by
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, read more than ever like spy
fiction. Mr. Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear
centre, was in the process of revealing the secrets of his country's
nuclear weapons programme to The Sunday Times when he was lured from
London to Rome by "Cindy", an attractive blonde "American" working for
Mossad. The honey trap was sprung and the courageous whistleblower was not
to taste freedom for 18 long years. Now we at last know the details of Mr.
Vanunu's abduction, they reveal the brutality with which he was treated.
Once delivered by Cindy into the hands of Israeli goons, he was beaten and
drugged repeatedly, well beyond the point where it became dangerous. His
hands and feet were chained on the journey by ship to Israel. His arrest
was kept secret from the outside world. That was just a foretaste of
things to come. For 11 years of the 18 he spent in Israel's Ashkelon
prison, he was held in solitary confinement for no seemingly good reason.
Few of us can comprehend what 11 years alone in a cell measuring three
metres by two could have been like. His own despairing descriptions, "You
had nothing to do . . . you cannot go anywhere; you cannot come back",
probably do not do it full justice. For two years the lights were kept on
all day and all night, a camera monitoring his every movement.  Even after
that, guards would visit his cell every half-hour, keeping him awake so
that he was driven to exhausted despair.

The aim was clear. The Israeli authorities wanted to break him;  they
regarded him as an enemy of the state and believed (wrongly) that he had
more secrets to reveal. He was, to his great credit, too strong to be
broken. But Israel's paranoia has persisted, as we have seen from the
absurdly restrictive terms of his release. He is out of prison but far
from free, prohibited from going near airports, ports or foreign
embassies. His telephone is tapped and he must seek permission before any
contact with foreigners, whether journalists or not. According to Joseph
Lapid, Israel's deputy prime minister, he remains a danger. "We think he
still knows secrets and we don't want him to sell them again," he said
this weekend. "We think there are things he knows that he hasn't divulged
yet. He may do so - he's hell-bent to harm this country, he hates this
country."

This is nonsense. Mr. Vanunu did not wish to harm Israel. He wanted to
prevent a nuclear holocaust in which he feared that Israel could be
destroyed. And he has no more secrets. "I did what I did and it ended with
the Sunday Times article (in 1986).  Since it was published there are no
more secrets. Much more important, it is 18 years since that happened.
What Israel has been doing for the last 18 years is its problem, not
mine," he says in his interview in News Review today.

Israel will never accept that Mr. Vanunu did the world a favour by
revealing the scale of Israel's nuclear programme. Instead what we are
witnessing from the country's government is vindictiveness and unjustified
paranoia.

That suspicion extends to those who have contact with him. 

Last week Peter Hounam, a journalist for this newspaper, was seized by
Shin Beth, the country's internal secret service, interrogated and held
for 24 hours. This time they were in pursuit of what they believed to be a
missing tape of an interview with Mr. Vanunu.  There was, of course, no
missing tape.

Mr. Hounam is now back in London, shaken but little the worse for wear.
Mr. Vanunu remains in Israel, bound by the terms of his release. He would
like to leave for Europe or America to start a family and embark on a new
career, possibly teaching. He does not intend to campaign against Israel
or become a focus for anti-Israeli protest. But as long as he is forced to
remain in Israel, his supporters will continue to protest and seek to
embarrass the government. He has served his sentence. He should be allowed
to enjoy genuine freedom. Israel has nothing to lose by it and much to
gain by showing magnanimity

THE INTERVIEW
Vanunu: my story

Eighteen years after he was kidnapped and jailed for revealing Israel's
nuclear bomb to the world, Mordechai Vanunu has given his first interview,
reliving the terror of his abduction and the anguish of solitary
confinement, which he suffered for more than a decade.

Under the terms of his release from prison, he spoke to an Israeli
journalist, Yael Lotan, as he is barred from talking to foreigners.

The former technician at Dimona, Israel's nuclear centre in the Negev
desert, vividly remembers the events of September 1986, after he had given
his story to The Sunday Times. Growing increasingly frustrated as the
newspaper checked out his disclosures before publication, he feared that
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, was closing in. Yet when the net
was cast in a street in London's West End he fell into it.

When I arrived in London I thought to myself: be careful, don't engage or
try to find any woman. But after two or three weeks I got interested in
one. It was a honey trap. She was standing at a place to buy cigarettes
when I saw her. She looked like a very nice woman, American, a little bit
of a beauty, not tall or short, blonde hair.

We both walked on and came to a crossroads, where she stopped and I spoke
to her. After crossing the street she went in one direction and I went in
another, but after 50 yards I asked myself if she was interested in me. Go
and ask her what she wants, I said to myself.

I caught up with her and asked her: who are you and what are you doing? We
started talking. I was suspicious, and I asked her if she was a Mossad
spy. "Oh no, no," she replied. "What is Mossad?"

She asked me my name. I said George, because that was the name I had
registered under at the hotel - George Foresty.

"Oh you're not George," she replied.

So I told her who I really was and what I was doing in London.

I felt it was not about betraying Israel; it was about saving Israel from
a new holocaust, because if they used nuclear weapons then their enemies
would retaliate. By publishing Israel's nuclear secrets, the fact that
Israel has nuclear weapons, you are preventing them from using them,
because all the world will know and no one will let them use them.

My point was to bring the subject to the public, to open debate in Israel
too, and to prevent any future war and make it very clear that war is not
the way to solve problems - you have to solve the problem by peace.

Cindy - that was her name - said she was a tourist from Philadelphia, 26
years old. She was working as a beautician, and her father was a writer
and her mother also a writer. Her parents were divorced.

When I told her about the delays by The Sunday Times she told me: "Come
with me to New York, and I will help you with lawyers and good
newspapers."

We started meeting day after day. We went to the cinema and saw a film,
Witness, about a child who saw a murder case, and we went to a play, 42nd
Street.

The Sunday Times knew I had found this woman. Peter Hounam, my main
contact on the paper, told me many times:  "Be careful, I don't trust
her." Everyone was warning me, but I didn't understand why I should be
suspicious of her. She was good company and affectionate. She used to kiss
me a lot - all the time.

So another Sunday came and The Sunday Times still didn't publish the
story. Cindy said she was going to Rome to visit her sister, and she
wanted me to go with her.

I said no, but I changed my mind. I thought the Mossad was looking for me
in London. If I went to Rome they would lose me, and I would come back to
London after a few days. I decided not to tell Peter or the others on the
newspaper.

She bought the tickets. We met in Victoria station and from there we took
a taxi to the airport. I was not suspicious, nothing at all. I never
suspected her because I was sure that if they wanted to kidnap me or do
something they could do it in London. At that time I didn't understand
that Italy was an open state. During the cold war many people were
kidnapped there, and there were many spy games there. London was a harder
place for Israel to act.

We landed in Rome, where she said her sister and a friend would meet us.
Instead I saw an Italian with flowers coming towards us. We got into his
car and he started driving us towards Rome very fast. We sat in the back.
She diverted my attention with a lot of kissing until we reached a small
house, not in Rome but maybe in a suburb.

As I followed her into the house two people jumped on me. They were behind
the door; I didn't see them. One hit me in the stomach and, as I bent
over, they got me to the ground and shut my mouth. A woman injected me.
Cindy had disappeared.

I lost consciousness. I awoke on a large bed in my underwear.  One man was
on the left and the woman was on the other side trying to inject me. They
couldn't find a vein. I pointed out the vein in the crook of my right arm.
We didn't speak at all; I just pointed with my finger, no language.

They injected me again. I passed out once more. When I awoke they gave me
my clothes, but I was drugged. I could walk and see, but I was not in
control.

We left the house and returned to the car. I sat in the back between the
two men. The woman who had injected me was in the front with the driver.
Through the fog of the drug I decided that, when I woke up, I would try to
cause some trouble. Maybe people who saw us fighting would try to stop the
car.

After 20 minutes or half an hour I could feel the drug wearing off.  The
car came to a small village. When the driver started slowing down I jumped
on him and tried to stop the car by causing an accident.Immediately the
two men jumped on me; one hit me in the stomach again. I started shouting
for help but one of the men said in Hebrew to the woman: "Inject him
twice."

"It is very dangerous," she said.

"Do it."

She injected me and I passed out. I regained consciousness again when I
felt the car driving over pebbles. The car stopped and I saw sea and a
yacht, and a small commando boat coming towards us. It was night time.

>From the commando boat six Israeli soldiers appeared. They put me on a
stretcher, took me to the commando boat and ferried me to the yacht. I
heard someone shouting in Hebrew: "Put him in the deputy's cabin."

In the morning I found myself chained by my hands and legs, and by another
chain to the bed. When they brought me breakfast I told them to undo the
chains so I could eat. They refused. I did not eat for 48 hours.

After two days I started eating and asked them: "Who are you?  Where is
this ship going? I want to meet the chief of this ship."

One said: "I am the chief." He said: "We here are French people, English
and Israeli." But I was seven days on this boat and only saw three people
- the two men who were with me in the car and the woman who injected me.

One was Israeli but we spoke in English. The other one was a Frenchman,
not understanding English. I spoke to him a few words because I knew
French. He had a scar on his left hand, maybe damaged in some activity or
burnt. They didn't inject me any more. They even gave me a book I had in
my bag, The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.

The ship took seven days to get back to Israel. In my view they didn't
know what they were going to do. Maybe they were just sailing around,
waiting to see if The Sunday Times would publish the article. I was also
wondering what the paper would do. Were they going to publish it or not? I
didn't know what would happen. Was this suffering going to be worth it?

[The Sunday Times had no idea that he had been kidnapped.  While Hounam
tried repeatedly to contact him, the newspaper completed its checks on the
story and decided to go ahead and publish.]

On the Saturday night I felt the boat make a U-turn and get under way.
Perhaps that was when The Sunday Times published the article, and they
decided to bring me to Israel. We arrived at a beach, I think at Caesarea
between Tel Aviv and Haifa - at least I saw the Roman wall there on the
beach.

Two officers of Shin Beth [the Israeli security service] came to the boat,
handcuffed me and took me away by stretcher.

They put me in a car, on the floor. The two men sat on the seats and
started talking to me. One of them told me to thank God I was still alive.
I don't know if he wanted to frighten me. They asked what The Sunday Times
had given me. How much money had I received? (None.) Why had I become a
Christian? I told them I didn't want to answer any questions without my
lawyer.

We drove straight from the beach to Ashkelon prison where I was taken
before a Shin Beth investigator. After a few minutes he put The Sunday
Times on the table and said: "Look what you did."

The Sunday Times had at last published my revelations. At first I was very
happy to see that I had succeeded. My mission was accomplished. Details
would be in the papers all over the world.  On the other hand, I knew they
could take revenge against me.

I was kept in a very secret part of the prison. Nobody knew about me. They
kept me for five days in a small cell without windows, only a mattress and
nothing else. They didn't let me go outside to walk or see the sky.

The interrogation lasted only three days because I confirmed what I had
done and why. I said I wanted to inform all the people of the Middle East,
Arabs and Israelis, that Israel was producing nuclear weapons. I wanted
them to know, and to prevent the future use of nuclear weapons.

They brought a nuclear scientist with whom I had worked at Dimona. We sat
down and I decided to tell him everything I had published in the hope that
I would make it clear to them that these secrets were out. He wanted to
know what else I had told The Sunday Times, and I told him everything.

After one week in the prison I told the Shin Beth I wanted to meet a
priest. That made them more angry and they started laughing and making me
angry. I made it clear I was going to keep my Christianity. I asked for
the Mezuzah [the religious symbol attached to the doorpost of Jewish
homes] to be taken from my cell doorway.

They did not let me meet a lawyer for two weeks, and it was about five
weeks before a judge forced them to admit they had me in custody. Since
the kidnapping nobody had known where I was. They had wanted to keep me
under "administrative arrest", which would have meant they could keep me
in silence for one or two years. Now that it was out in the open that I
was in Israel, I was moved from Shin Beth's hands to the main prison.

The Israeli public had no idea what had happened to me, so I decided to
try to publicise my kidnapping. I wrote about it on my hand the first time
I went to court, but then I thought there might be no journalists to see
it so I erased it. It turned out that there were reporters there, so I
wrote the message again on my next visit to court. On my palm I wrote that
they had hijacked me in Rome, and on the underside of my fingers I wrote
that Israel has plutonium, lithium, tritium, all the materials I told The
Sunday Times about. But then I thought it was too much and would make them
angry so I deleted it and left only the kidnapping message.

The prison guard checked but didn't realise there was anything.  When I
came to the court I pressed my hand to the window of the prison van and
the journalists were surprised. They didn't know what was going on.The
manager of the prison got very upset.  Before going to court I had asked
him to give me a pen. So he thought I had used it to write the message. I
told him I hadn't.  The prison authorities became very angry. They decided
that every time I was going to the court to put a helmet on my head, a
crash helmet. They shackled my hands to guards. I thought I would die
without air in the helmet. I raised this in the court to the judge many
times, but he didn't support me.

The first time I went to the court I had grown a beard. I then shaved, and
they tried to get me to grow it again by not giving me a razor. They said
I could use it to commit suicide, but it was really to force me to grow a
beard. According to their psychology, if you grow a beard and cover your
head you will become a rabbi.  The people who saw me outside would think I
was a Jewish man, a rabbi.

YL: You spent such a large chunk of your life behind closed doors and the
first 11 years in solitary confinement. How does one survive that?

I was charged with aggravated espionage and high treason. I was very
disappointed and angry. I was not a traitor; I did not go to any enemy
with my information. I didn't receive orders from any spy organisation. I
didn't work as a spy. So I felt they just wanted to take revenge and to
punish me as much as they could.

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 to the ground. You lose everything. But my case was also special.
They put a lot of restrictions on me from the beginning. It was very hard
to be alone - not to speak to anyone, to be under these restrictions. I
decided I should do everything I could to keep my sanity. 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."

I gave myself another mission target, which was to survive. I dealt with
any problem I faced in this situation. For example, I saw in the first few
days that I could not speak with anyone. So I decided that I could speak
by reading. I used to take the Bible in English to read it in a loud
voice, or I prayed in a loud voice, or I was singing, humming. I decided
to continue learning English, to listen to the BBC. I received a radio and
used to receive the BBC World Service. I was already a vegetarian and
decided to continue with this: to eat eggs but not meat. Also doing
exercises in my cell.

Ashkelon prison had only Palestinian prisoners at that time.  There were
600. I would walk in the courtyard when they were back in their cells.
When I went through their sections to the courtyard I would see them in
their cells and they would ask how I was. They used to leave me some tea
and coffee and sent me some baklava each Ramadan. They gave it to the
manager and the manager would bring it to me. So we established a very
good relationship but we had no contact.

Most of the time my aim was to be alert. I was afraid that I would be
under psychological brainwashing - that they could change my mind, put
some new idea, a little idea here or there. So for 24 hours a day I was
alert for what was happening and suspecting anything. That was my way to
survive. The cell was about two metres by three metres, with a shower
place and toilet there. It was in a part of the prison where many guards
were coming and going - a lot of noise every night. It was a very narrow,
small cell without air. The air only came from the window into the
corridor. It had no other window to let in fresh air.

You had nothing to do every day, for 24 hours you were alone.  You cannot
go anywhere; you cannot come back. The first time you confront this
situation is that you wake up in the morning at eight o'clock. You put on
your clothes and shoes and you are not going anywhere. You are sitting on
the bed eating your breakfast, and you realise your body cannot go.

Your mind does not understand this situation; it takes a long time to
cope. You are wearing your clothes and shoes and not going anywhere, just
sitting on the bed trying to read.

When I started a hunger strike it convinced the manager of the prison that
I was going to commit suicide, so they wanted to protect me from myself by
watching. They put a light on in my cell for 24 hours a day for two years.
I could not sleep well with a light on all night and with a camera
watching. After the light was turned off the games of the Shin Beth
continued. It they wanted to disturb my sleeping, sometimes they sent a
guard to check me every half hour - to come with a light to see if I was
there, or if I had run away or would commit suicide. Disturbing sleep is
one of the big ways of damaging the human mind.

We presented many petitions to the court about these conditions but Israel
continued to demand I be in solitary confinement.

YL: Did you know your brother Meir was mounting an international campaign?

Yes. I received a lot of support and mail and information from him and
others telling me what was going on. But it was very difficult. All that
mail and support is no substitute for freedom - to walk free or see
flowers, or eat as a human being, to speak to a human being.

After 11-1/2 years in solitary confinement your life is very difficult.  
You forget the past. Your brain is empty of all the images you have of the
past. Watching only walls all day can damage the brain. I was very close
to suffering damage to my senses, my reality.

Shin Beth and Mossad use a lot of psychology, very sophisticated
brainwashing to destroy a man and damage his mind. They even cause damage
by food. They know you are alone and you have no substitute for freedom,
so they send you a lot of food to eat. When you are alone in the cell you
can satisfy your anger by eating a lot of bread, eggs, cheese, fat,
chocolate.

They send things that could destroy your health in the hope you get a
heart attack or some other illness.

I noticed all this. Everything was under my suspicion. I survived by
questioning why they did this or said that. But in spite of all my
attempts to fight back, the lack of open space and fresh air was damaging
my health. So they decided they couldn't keep me like this for 18 years.
After 11 years and two-thirds of my sentence, they decided I should be
free to walk outside in the general prison area. That was my first feeling
of freedom, freedom to go outside to see flowers, to see green and just to
walk. Not just going round and round in the courtyard.

Now I could go 200 metres with no one stopping me. That is a good feeling.
To see the sky. Smell the air and hear the birds.  See people walking. I
was not yet free but my body had at least become free.

The criminals were now there. I didn't have good contact with them because
all of them were Jewish Zionists. When they are in prison those drug users
and criminals become very patriotic, anti-Vanunu, anti-Arab. I had many
arguments with them in the beginning. Later I decided it was not worth
talking to them and I isolated myself from most of them. A few were very
friendly and tried to support me. Two or three brought me food and things
like that.

I never imagined I would spend almost the whole sentence in prison. I
always believed that next day, next month, next year I was going to be
free. I didn't accept I was a spy sentenced to 18 years and I hoped that
something would happen, that I would wake up and someone would say it is a
mistake, you should be free. And each time I would continue to wait and
wait.

I imagined myself, my life in that cell, like a man in a station. He is
waiting for a train to come to take him, and I was in this station waiting
for that train of freedom to take me. Waiting, and I believed the train
was coming - today, tomorrow, the next hour.  And the train didn't come
until the end of the sentence. When they told me it was 18 years I did not
believe I would stay until 2004. In 1986, to think about 2004 is a very,
very long time.

The 'incriminating' notebooks that had lain in my cell for 13 years

A month before Vanunu's release, notebooks were found in his cell in which
he had written details of his work at Dimona.

These are now being used as evidence that he has more secrets to reveal -
hence the restrictions placed on him, banning him from talking to
foreigners or going abroad. This is his explanation to Yael Lotan:

Until June 1991 I used to pray and read in a loud voice every day and did
a lot of exercise in the courtyard. I used to run for two hours, and then
take a cold shower. In June 1991 I felt there was something wrong with my
health. I really thought I was going to die from too much exercise and
poor nutrition. I stopped reading out loud, changed from vegetarian to
eating meat and everything, and I decided to check what was in my bare
brain - what was going on in there, if it was still good or not.

I decided I would sit down and write all I remembered about the Dimona
reactor. For a month I wrote down all that I had worked on, full details
in English. It was a mental exercise. I found that I still remembered a
lot; my mind and brain worked very well.

I then put the work aside, and it stayed in my cell. If they had checked
the cell in 1992 or at any time they could have found it.  So it stayed
there until one month before my release when they checked the cell and
took these notebooks.

The restrictions on me now - I think they are stupid and not reasonable. I
did what I did and it ended with the Sunday Times article. Since that
article was published there are no more secrets.

Much more important, it is 18 years since that happened. What Israel has
been doing for the last 18 years is its problem, not mine. I have no more
inner secrets. I think they should lift these restrictions and let me
start my life abroad.

I have no regets in spite of the fact I have paid a heavy punishment, a
large price.
*****************************************************************
 8 VANUNU INTERVIEW / SUNDAY TIMES
 
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 16:01:40 -0700

 
<x-flowed>
Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #18

Vanunu Interview/Sunday Times

** PLEASE FORWARD TO SYMPATHETIC LISTS **

UPDATE

1.  "VANUNU: MY STORY" SUNDAY TIMES INTERVIEW

2.  HOUNAM'S STORY OF HIS ARREST

3.  OTHER PRESS REPORTS

4.  Write to Mordechai Vanunu

==============
1.  "VANUNU: MY STORY" SUNDAY TIMES INTERVIEW

Vanunu interview, Sunday Times (London) 30 May 04

Introduction
Vanunu: the truth about my kidnap

by Tom Walker

FOR the first time since he was kidnapped by Israeli agents in 1986, 
Mordechai Vanunu has spoken out publicly about his abduction and 11 years 
in solitary confinement.

Vanunu, in the only interview he has given since he vanished from London 18 
years ago, explained why he fell for "Cindy", the Israeli undercover agent 
who lured him into a honey trap.

He revealed that there was a Frenchman among his abductors; told how he was 
beaten and injected with drugs during his kidnapping; said he had no 
regrets for taking the wraps off Israel's secret nuclear arsenal and 
disclosed that he thought he was losing his mind in prison.

"You forget the past. Your brain is empty of all the images you have of the 
past. Watching only walls all day can damage the brain," he said.

Vanunu, who left prison last month after serving his full sentence for 
treason and aggravated espionage, gave the interview to an Israeli 
journalist as he is banned from speaking to foreigners.

Last week Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times reporter who broke Vanunu's story 
and subsequently campaigned for his release, was arrested in Tel Aviv by 
Israeli security agents hunting for tapes of the interview.

He was freed after the intervention of Vanunu's lawyers and the British 
ambassador.

Vanunu has been unable to tell his story in his own words since September 
1986 when he handed Hounam details and photographs of Israel's secret 
nuclear weapons plant, housed in a deep bunker at Dimona in the Negev desert.

Israel has always refused to confirm that it has nuclear weapons. At the 
time, experts estimated that it had no more than 20 bombs. Vanunu, a former 
technician at Dimona, revealed that it had the production capacity for well 
over 100 atomic weapons and was able to make much more powerful 
thermonuclear bombs. He supplied details of the programme.

It was while Vanunu was staying in London, as The Sunday Times checked his 
disclosures before publication, that "Cindy" caught his eye on a West End 
street. "She looked like a very nice woman, American, a little bit of a 
beauty, not tall or short, blonde hair," Vanunu told his interviewer.

"After crossing the street she went in one direction and I went in another, 
but after 50 yards I asked myself if she was interested in me. Go and ask 
her what she wants, I said to myself.

"I caught up with her and asked her, "Who are you and what are you doing?' 
We started talking." A close relationship developed: "She was good company 
and affectionate. She used to kiss me a lot - all the time."

Cindy persuaded him to take a short holiday with her in Rome, where he was 
immediately ambushed and repeatedly injected with a drug - "I could walk 
and see, but I was not in control" - and shipped in chains to Israel.

"One (of the guards) was Israeli but we spoke in English. The other one was 
a Frenchman, speaking in French, not understanding English. I spoke a few 
words to him because I knew French."

He was landed clandestinely on an Israeli beach, strapped to a stretcher 
and taken to Ashkelon prison where he remained until last month.

"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 to the ground. You lose everything," Vanunu recalled.

Initially he was kept "in a very secret part of the prison. Nobody knew 
about me. They kept me for five days in a small cell without windows". When 
he was charged with aggravated espionage and high treason, "I was very 
angry. I was not a traitor; I did not go to any enemy with my information. 
I didn't work as a spy. I felt they just wanted to punish me".

He said his motive was "not about betraying Israel; it was about saving 
Israel from a new holocaust. My point was to bring the subject to the 
public and to prevent any future war and make it very clear that war is not 
the way to solve problems."

Vanunu was in solitary confinement for 11-1/2 years of his sentence: "I 
decided I should do everything I could to keep my sanity. 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.

"I could not speak with anyone, so I decided that I could speak by reading. 
I used to take the Bible in English to read it in a loud voice, or I prayed 
in a loud voice, or I was singing, humming. Most of the time my aim was to 
be alert. I was afraid that I would be under psychological brainwashing - 
that they could change my mind, put some new idea, a little idea here or 
there."

Vanunu's lawyers are to seek an urgent meeting with Israel's 
attorney-general to try to lift the ban on him leaving the country or 
meeting foreigners.

They believe the government is in a dilemma about how to handle mounting 
concern about the restrictions after a week of heavy-handed actions by Shin 
Beth, the internal intelligence service. Vanunu's brother Meir said Israel 
had reached the point where a negotiated solution might now be considered.

"He has no more secrets to reveal," Meir said. "He has given a detailed 
press interview with which the secret service can find no fault."

Besides arresting Hounam and Saadi Haeri, a BBC editor, last week, Shin 
Beth also stopped Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, head of the Anglican church in 
the Middle East, as he was entering Israel from Jordan on Friday. The 
bishop has allowed Vanunu to stay at St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem.

"They made me remove all my belongings, took me to a room and interrogated 
me for 90 minutes," El-Assal said yesterday. "They tried to persuade me to 
stop providing sanctuary to Mordechai."


May 30, 2004

Leading article: Let Vanunu go free

The details of the kidnapping and capture of Mordechai Vanunu in 1986 by 
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, read more than ever like spy 
fiction. Mr. Vanunu, a former technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear centre, 
was in the process of revealing the secrets of his country's nuclear 
weapons programme to The Sunday Times when he was lured from London to Rome 
by "Cindy", an attractive blonde "American" working for Mossad. The honey 
trap was sprung and the courageous whistleblower was not to taste freedom 
for 18 long years. Now we at last know the details of Mr. Vanunu's 
abduction, they reveal the brutality with which he was treated. Once 
delivered by Cindy into the hands of Israeli goons, he was beaten and 
drugged repeatedly, well beyond the point where it became dangerous. His 
hands and feet were chained on the journey by ship to Israel. His arrest 
was kept secret from the outside world. That was just a foretaste of things 
to come. For 11 years of the 18 he spent in Israel's Ashkelon prison, he 
was held in solitary confinement for no seemingly good reason. Few of us 
can comprehend what 11 years alone in a cell measuring three metres by two 
could have been like. His own despairing descriptions, "You had nothing to 
do . . . you cannot go anywhere; you cannot come back", probably do not do 
it full justice. For two years the lights were kept on all day and all 
night, a camera monitoring his every movement. Even after that, guards 
would visit his cell every half-hour, keeping him awake so that he was 
driven to exhausted despair.

The aim was clear. The Israeli authorities wanted to break him; they 
regarded him as an enemy of the state and believed (wrongly) that he had 
more secrets to reveal. He was, to his great credit, too strong to be 
broken. But Israel's paranoia has persisted, as we have seen from the 
absurdly restrictive terms of his release. He is out of prison but far from 
free, prohibited from going near airports, ports or foreign embassies. His 
telephone is tapped and he must seek permission before any contact with 
foreigners, whether journalists or not. According to Joseph Lapid, Israel's 
deputy prime minister, he remains a danger. "We think he still knows 
secrets and we don't want him to sell them again," he said this weekend. 
"We think there are things he knows that he hasn't divulged yet. He may do 
so - he's hell-bent to harm this country, he hates this country."

This is nonsense. Mr. Vanunu did not wish to harm Israel. He wanted to 
prevent a nuclear holocaust in which he feared that Israel could be 
destroyed. And he has no more secrets. "I did what I did and it ended with 
the Sunday Times article (in 1986). Since it was published there are no 
more secrets. Much more important, it is 18 years since that happened. What 
Israel has been doing for the last 18 years is its problem, not mine," he 
says in his interview in News Review today.

Israel will never accept that Mr. Vanunu did the world a favour by 
revealing the scale of Israel's nuclear programme. Instead what we are 
witnessing from the country's government is vindictiveness and unjustified 
paranoia.

That suspicion extends to those who have contact with him. Last week Peter 
Hounam, a journalist for this newspaper, was seized by Shin Beth, the 
country's internal secret service, interrogated and held for 24 hours. This 
time they were in pursuit of what they believed to be a missing tape of an 
interview with Mr. Vanunu. There was, of course, no missing tape.

Mr. Hounam is now back in London, shaken but little the worse for wear. Mr. 
Vanunu remains in Israel, bound by the terms of his release. He would like 
to leave for Europe or America to start a family and embark on a new 
career, possibly teaching. He does not intend to campaign against Israel or 
become a focus for anti-Israeli protest. But as long as he is forced to 
remain in Israel, his supporters will continue to protest and seek to 
embarrass the government. He has served his sentence. He should be allowed 
to enjoy genuine freedom. Israel has nothing to lose by it and much to gain 
by showing magnanimity

THE INTERVIEW
Vanunu: my story

Eighteen years after he was kidnapped and jailed for revealing Israel's 
nuclear bomb to the world, Mordechai Vanunu has given his first interview, 
reliving the terror of his abduction and the anguish of solitary 
confinement, which he suffered for more than a decade.

Under the terms of his release from prison, he spoke to an Israeli 
journalist, Yael Lotan, as he is barred from talking to foreigners.

The former technician at Dimona, Israel's nuclear centre in the Negev 
desert, vividly remembers the events of September 1986, after he had given 
his story to The Sunday Times. Growing increasingly frustrated as the 
newspaper checked out his disclosures before publication, he feared that 
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, was closing in. Yet when the net 
was cast in a street in London's West End he fell into it.

When I arrived in London I thought to myself: be careful, don't engage or 
try to find any woman. But after two or three weeks I got interested in 
one. It was a honey trap. She was standing at a place to buy cigarettes 
when I saw her. She looked like a very nice woman, American, a little bit 
of a beauty, not tall or short, blonde hair.

We both walked on and came to a crossroads, where she stopped and I spoke 
to her. After crossing the street she went in one direction and I went in 
another, but after 50 yards I asked myself if she was interested in me. Go 
and ask her what she wants, I said to myself.

I caught up with her and asked her: who are you and what are you doing? We 
started talking. I was suspicious, and I asked her if she was a Mossad spy. 
"Oh no, no," she replied. "What is Mossad?"

She asked me my name. I said George, because that was the name I had 
registered under at the hotel - George Foresty.

"Oh you're not George," she replied.

So I told her who I really was and what I was doing in London.

I felt it was not about betraying Israel; it was about saving Israel from a 
new holocaust, because if they used nuclear weapons then their enemies 
would retaliate. By publishing Israel's nuclear secrets, the fact that 
Israel has nuclear weapons, you are preventing them from using them, 
because all the world will know and no one will let them use them.

My point was to bring the subject to the public, to open debate in Israel 
too, and to prevent any future war and make it very clear that war is not 
the way to solve problems - you have to solve the problem by peace.

Cindy - that was her name - said she was a tourist from Philadelphia, 26 
years old. She was working as a beautician, and her father was a writer and 
her mother also a writer. Her parents were divorced.

When I told her about the delays by The Sunday Times she told me: "Come 
with me to New York, and I will help you with lawyers and good newspapers."

We started meeting day after day. We went to the cinema and saw a film, 
Witness, about a child who saw a murder case, and we went to a play, 42nd 
Street.

The Sunday Times knew I had found this woman. Peter Hounam, my main contact 
on the paper, told me many times: "Be careful, I don't trust her." Everyone 
was warning me, but I didn't understand why I should be suspicious of her. 
She was good company and affectionate. She used to kiss me a lot - all the 
time.

So another Sunday came and The Sunday Times still didn't publish the story. 
Cindy said she was going to Rome to visit her sister, and she wanted me to 
go with her.

I said no, but I changed my mind. I thought the Mossad was looking for me 
in London. If I went to Rome they would lose me, and I would come back to 
London after a few days. I decided not to tell Peter or the others on the 
newspaper.

She bought the tickets. We met in Victoria station and from there we took a 
taxi to the airport. I was not suspicious, nothing at all. I never 
suspected her because I was sure that if they wanted to kidnap me or do 
something they could do it in London. At that time I didn't understand that 
Italy was an open state. During the cold war many people were kidnapped 
there, and there were many spy games there. London was a harder place for 
Israel to act.

We landed in Rome, where she said her sister and a friend would meet us. 
Instead I saw an Italian with flowers coming towards us. We got into his 
car and he started driving us towards Rome very fast. We sat in the back. 
She diverted my attention with a lot of kissing until we reached a small 
house, not in Rome but maybe in a suburb.

As I followed her into the house two people jumped on me. They were behind 
the door; I didn't see them. One hit me in the stomach and, as I bent over, 
they got me to the ground and shut my mouth. A woman injected me. Cindy had 
disappeared.

I lost consciousness. I awoke on a large bed in my underwear. One man was 
on the left and the woman was on the other side trying to inject me. They 
couldn't find a vein. I pointed out the vein in the crook of my right arm. 
We didn't speak at all; I just pointed with my finger, no language.

They injected me again. I passed out once more. When I awoke they gave me 
my clothes, but I was drugged. I could walk and see, but I was not in control.

We left the house and returned to the car. I sat in the back between the 
two men. The woman who had injected me was in the front with the driver. 
Through the fog of the drug I decided that, when I woke up, I would try to 
cause some trouble. Maybe people who saw us fighting would try to stop the car.

After 20 minutes or half an hour I could feel the drug wearing off. The car 
came to a small village. When the driver started slowing down I jumped on 
him and tried to stop the car by causing an accident.Immediately the two 
men jumped on me; one hit me in the stomach again. I started shouting for 
help but one of the men said in Hebrew to the woman: "Inject him twice."

"It is very dangerous," she said.

"Do it."

She injected me and I passed out. I regained consciousness again when I 
felt the car driving over pebbles. The car stopped and I saw sea and a 
yacht, and a small commando boat coming towards us. It was night time.

 From the commando boat six Israeli soldiers appeared. They put me on a 
stretcher, took me to the commando boat and ferried me to the yacht. I 
heard someone shouting in Hebrew: "Put him in the deputy's cabin."

In the morning I found myself chained by my hands and legs, and by another 
chain to the bed. When they brought me breakfast I told them to undo the 
chains so I could eat. They refused. I did not eat for 48 hours.

After two days I started eating and asked them: "Who are you? Where is this 
ship going? I want to meet the chief of this ship."

One said: "I am the chief." He said: "We here are French people, English 
and Israeli." But I was seven days on this boat and only saw three people - 
the two men who were with me in the car and the woman who injected me.

One was Israeli but we spoke in English. The other one was a Frenchman, not 
understanding English. I spoke to him a few words because I knew French. He 
had a scar on his left hand, maybe damaged in some activity or burnt. They 
didn't inject me any more. They even gave me a book I had in my bag, The 
History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.

The ship took seven days to get back to Israel. In my view they didn't know 
what they were going to do. Maybe they were just sailing around, waiting to 
see if The Sunday Times would publish the article. I was also wondering 
what the paper would do. Were they going to publish it or not? I didn't 
know what would happen. Was this suffering going to be worth it?

[The Sunday Times had no idea that he had been kidnapped. While Hounam 
tried repeatedly to contact him, the newspaper completed its checks on the 
story and decided to go ahead and publish.]

On the Saturday night I felt the boat make a U-turn and get under way. 
Perhaps that was when The Sunday Times published the article, and they 
decided to bring me to Israel. We arrived at a beach, I think at Caesarea 
between Tel Aviv and Haifa - at least I saw the Roman wall there on the beach.

Two officers of Shin Beth [the Israeli security service] came to the boat, 
handcuffed me and took me away by stretcher.

They put me in a car, on the floor. The two men sat on the seats and 
started talking to me. One of them told me to thank God I was still alive. 
I don't know if he wanted to frighten me. They asked what The Sunday Times 
had given me. How much money had I received? (None.) Why had I become a 
Christian? I told them I didn't want to answer any questions without my lawyer.

We drove straight from the beach to Ashkelon prison where I was taken 
before a Shin Beth investigator. After a few minutes he put The Sunday 
Times on the table and said: "Look what you did."

The Sunday Times had at last published my revelations. At first I was very 
happy to see that I had succeeded. My mission was accomplished. Details 
would be in the papers all over the world. On the other hand, I knew they 
could take revenge against me.

I was kept in a very secret part of the prison. Nobody knew about me. They 
kept me for five days in a small cell without windows, only a mattress and 
nothing else. They didn't let me go outside to walk or see the sky.

The interrogation lasted only three days because I confirmed what I had 
done and why. I said I wanted to inform all the people of the Middle East, 
Arabs and Israelis, that Israel was producing nuclear weapons. I wanted 
them to know, and to prevent the future use of nuclear weapons.

They brought a nuclear scientist with whom I had worked at Dimona. We sat 
down and I decided to tell him everything I had published in the hope that 
I would make it clear to them that these secrets were out. He wanted to 
know what else I had told The Sunday Times, and I told him everything.

After one week in the prison I told the Shin Beth I wanted to meet a 
priest. That made them more angry and they started laughing and making me 
angry. I made it clear I was going to keep my Christianity. I asked for the 
Mezuzah [the religious symbol attached to the doorpost of Jewish homes] to 
be taken from my cell doorway.

They did not let me meet a lawyer for two weeks, and it was about five 
weeks before a judge forced them to admit they had me in custody. Since the 
kidnapping nobody had known where I was. They had wanted to keep me under 
"administrative arrest", which would have meant they could keep me in 
silence for one or two years. Now that it was out in the open that I was in 
Israel, I was moved from Shin Beth's hands to the main prison.

The Israeli public had no idea what had happened to me, so I decided to try 
to publicise my kidnapping. I wrote about it on my hand the first time I 
went to court, but then I thought there might be no journalists to see it 
so I erased it. It turned out that there were reporters there, so I wrote 
the message again on my next visit to court. On my palm I wrote that they 
had hijacked me in Rome, and on the underside of my fingers I wrote that 
Israel has plutonium, lithium, tritium, all the materials I told The Sunday 
Times about. But then I thought it was too much and would make them angry 
so I deleted it and left only the kidnapping message.

The prison guard checked but didn't realise there was anything. When I came 
to the court I pressed my hand to the window of the prison van and the 
journalists were surprised. They didn't know what was going on.The manager 
of the prison got very upset. Before going to court I had asked him to give 
me a pen. So he thought I had used it to write the message. I told him I 
hadn't. The prison authorities became very angry. They decided that every 
time I was going to the court to put a helmet on my head, a crash helmet. 
They shackled my hands to guards. I thought I would die without air in the 
helmet. I raised this in the court to the judge many times, but he didn't 
support me.

The first time I went to the court I had grown a beard. I then shaved, and 
they tried to get me to grow it again by not giving me a razor. They said I 
could use it to commit suicide, but it was really to force me to grow a 
beard. According to their psychology, if you grow a beard and cover your 
head you will become a rabbi. The people who saw me outside would think I 
was a Jewish man, a rabbi.

YL: You spent such a large chunk of your life behind closed doors and the 
first 11½  years in solitary confinement. How does one survive that?

I was charged with aggravated espionage and high treason. I was very 
disappointed and angry. I was not a traitor; I did not go to any enemy with 
my information. I didn't receive orders from any spy organisation. I didn't 
work as a spy. So I felt they just wanted to take revenge and to punish me 
as much as they could.

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 
to the ground. You lose everything. But my case was also special. They put 
a lot of restrictions on me from the beginning. It was very hard to be 
alone - not to speak to anyone, to be under these restrictions. I decided I 
should do everything I could to keep my sanity. 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."

I gave myself another mission target, which was to survive. I dealt with 
any problem I faced in this situation. For example, I saw in the first few 
days that I could not speak with anyone. So I decided that I could speak by 
reading. I used to take the Bible in English to read it in a loud voice, or 
I prayed in a loud voice, or I was singing, humming. I decided to continue 
learning English, to listen to the BBC. I received a radio and used to 
receive the BBC World Service. I was already a vegetarian and decided to 
continue with this: to eat eggs but not meat. Also doing exercises in my cell.

Ashkelon prison had only Palestinian prisoners at that time. There were 
600. I would walk in the courtyard when they were back in their cells. When 
I went through their sections to the courtyard I would see them in their 
cells and they would ask how I was. They used to leave me some tea and 
coffee and sent me some baklava each Ramadan. They gave it to the manager 
and the manager would bring it to me. So we established a very good 
relationship but we had no contact.

Most of the time my aim was to be alert. I was afraid that I would be under 
psychological brainwashing - that they could change my mind, put some new 
idea, a little idea here or there. So for 24 hours a day I was alert for 
what was happening and suspecting anything. That was my way to survive. The 
cell was about two metres by three metres, with a shower place and toilet 
there. It was in a part of the prison where many guards were coming and 
going - a lot of noise every night. It was a very narrow, small cell 
without air. The air only came from the window into the corridor. It had no 
other window to let in fresh air.

You had nothing to do every day, for 24 hours you were alone. You cannot go 
anywhere; you cannot come back. The first time you confront this situation 
is that you wake up in the morning at eight o'clock. You put on your 
clothes and shoes and you are not going anywhere. You are sitting on the 
bed eating your breakfast, and you realise your body cannot go.

Your mind does not understand this situation; it takes a long time to cope. 
You are wearing your clothes and shoes and not going anywhere, just sitting 
on the bed trying to read.

When I started a hunger strike it convinced the manager of the prison that 
I was going to commit suicide, so they wanted to protect me from myself by 
watching. They put a light on in my cell for 24 hours a day for two years. 
I could not sleep well with a light on all night and with a camera 
watching. After the light was turned off the games of the Shin Beth 
continued. It they wanted to disturb my sleeping, sometimes they sent a 
guard to check me every half hour - to come with a light to see if I was 
there, or if I had run away or would commit suicide. Disturbing sleep is 
one of the big ways of damaging the human mind.

We presented many petitions to the court about these conditions but Israel 
continued to demand I be in solitary confinement.

YL: Did you know your brother Meir was mounting an international campaign?

Yes. I received a lot of support and mail and information from him and 
others telling me what was going on. But it was very difficult. All that 
mail and support is no substitute for freedom - to walk free or see 
flowers, or eat as a human being, to speak to a human being.

After 11-1/2 years in solitary confinement your life is very difficult. You 
forget the past. Your brain is empty of all the images you have of the 
past. Watching only walls all day can damage the brain. I was very close to 
suffering damage to my senses, my reality.

Shin Beth and Mossad use a lot of psychology, very sophisticated 
brainwashing to destroy a man and damage his mind. They even cause damage 
by food. They know you are alone and you have no substitute for freedom, so 
they send you a lot of food to eat. When you are alone in the cell you can 
satisfy your anger by eating a lot of bread, eggs, cheese, fat, chocolate.

They send things that could destroy your health in the hope you get a heart 
attack or some other illness.

I noticed all this. Everything was under my suspicion. I survived by 
questioning why they did this or said that. But in spite of all my attempts 
to fight back, the lack of open space and fresh air was damaging my health. 
So they decided they couldn't keep me like this for 18 years. After 11½ 
years and two-thirds of my sentence, they decided I should be free to walk 
outside in the general prison area. That was my first feeling of freedom, 
freedom to go outside to see flowers, to see green and just to walk. Not 
just going round and round in the courtyard.

Now I could go 200 metres with no one stopping me. That is a good feeling. 
To see the sky. Smell the air and hear the birds. See people walking. I was 
not yet free but my body had at least become free.

The criminals were now there. I didn't have good contact with them because 
all of them were Jewish Zionists. When they are in prison those drug users 
and criminals become very patriotic, anti-Vanunu, anti-Arab. I had many 
arguments with them in the beginning. Later I decided it was not worth 
talking to them and I isolated myself from most of them. A few were very 
friendly and tried to support me. Two or three brought me food and things 
like that.

I never imagined I would spend almost the whole sentence in prison. I 
always believed that next day, next month, next year I was going to be 
free. I didn't accept I was a spy sentenced to 18 years and I hoped that 
something would happen, that I would wake up and someone would say it is a 
mistake, you should be free. And each time I would continue to wait and wait.

I imagined myself, my life in that cell, like a man in a station. He is 
waiting for a train to come to take him, and I was in this station waiting 
for that train of freedom to take me. Waiting, and I believed the train was 
coming - today, tomorrow, the next hour. And the train didn't come until 
the end of the sentence. When they told me it was 18 years I did not 
believe I would stay until 2004. In 1986, to think about 2004 is a very, 
very long time.

The 'incriminating' notebooks that had lain in my cell for 13 years

A month before Vanunu's release, notebooks were found in his cell in which 
he had written details of his work at Dimona.

These are now being used as evidence that he has more secrets to reveal - 
hence the restrictions placed on him, banning him from talking to 
foreigners or going abroad. This is his explanation to Yael Lotan:

Until June 1991 I used to pray and read in a loud voice every day and did a 
lot of exercise in the courtyard. I used to run for two hours, and then 
take a cold shower. In June 1991 I felt there was something wrong with my 
health. I really thought I was going to die from too much exercise and poor 
nutrition. I stopped reading out loud, changed from vegetarian to eating 
meat and everything, and I decided to check what was in my bare brain - 
what was going on in there, if it was still good or not.

I decided I would sit down and write all I remembered about the Dimona 
reactor. For a month I wrote down all that I had worked on, full details in 
English. It was a mental exercise. I found that I still remembered a lot; 
my mind and brain worked very well.

I then put the work aside, and it stayed in my cell. If they had checked 
the cell in 1992 or at any time they could have found it. So it stayed 
there until one month before my release when they checked the cell and took 
these notebooks.

The restrictions on me now - I think they are stupid and not reasonable. I 
did what I did and it ended with the Sunday Times article. Since that 
article was published there are no more secrets.

Much more important, it is 18 years since that happened. What Israel has 
been doing for the last 18 years is its problem, not mine. I have no more 
inner secrets. I think they should lift these restrictions and let me start 
my life abroad.

I have no regets in spite of the fact I have paid a heavy punishment, a 
large price.

2.  HOUNAM'S STORY OF HIS ARREST

Snatched ... just like Mordechai
When Israeli security struck after the Vanunu interview, Peter Hounam got a 
short, terrifying taste of what his subject had been through.

It was meant to be a relaxed evening at a small fish restaurant near the 
Tel Aviv beachfront with Yael Lotan, the Israeli journalist who had 
interviewed Mordechai Vanunu. I drove there from Jerusalem and headed into 
the suburb of Givatayim to pick Yael up.

In Katznelson Street, close to her apartment, a small white car pulled out 
of a parking space and blocked my path. Another blocked the rear.

My door was wrenched open, an arm reached across and turned off the 
ignition, and a tough looking man wearing a police cap pulled me out of my 
seat into the road.

"You are under arrest," he said. "Please do not resist. We are police. Go 
over to the pavement."

For weeks I had prepared myself for trouble with Israel's feared security 
apparatus. My relationship with Vanunu was of great concern to Shin Beth, 
the internal secret service. As I watched plainclothes officers remove my 
two bags, containing tapes, notebooks and my laptop, I realised I was in 
for a rough time. At all cost I had to make sure Mordechai would not be 
placed in jeopardy in the forthcoming interrogation.

I was pushed into the back of a Toyota and told I was being taken to my 
hotel in Jerusalem and then to a police station.

The journey was hair-raising, the driver overtaking on the wrong side at 90 
mph.

He was even trying to send a text message at high speed. He put the phone 
away when I shouted at him, and slowed down a little.

My fear now was that nobody would know I had been arrested. Yael would 
realise something was wrong, but I had to find a way of telling somebody 
quickly.

When we reached the Jerusalem hotel, in the Arab east part of the city, the 
restaurant tables outside were packed with diners. As I was escorted inside 
by officers in jeans and T-shirts, I saw Donatella Rovera, Amnesty 
International's Middle East representative. I rushed over and grabbed her arm.

"Tell The Sunday Times I have been arrested," I yelled as I was dragged away.

The police were furious. One said: "Mr. Hounam, that was not a very good 
idea. If we have more trouble, we will use handcuffs."

In my room a thorough search began. One of the policemen loaded all my 
papers into carrier bags. I asked if I could take a book or a newspaper 
with me. A cop looked at me menacingly and said: "Believe me, Mr. Hounam, 
where you are going, you will not have time to read a newspaper."

We returned to the car for the short journey to Jerusalem's central police 
station in the Russian compound, a huge complex of decrepit buildings built 
during the British mandate years.

I was escorted up some steps, along a corridor and into a room that was 
locked behind us. I realised this was the special police section, 
equivalent to Britain's Special Branch. Its role is to work with the secret 
service.

I watched as, one by one, my belongings were taken to an adjacent room. I 
could hear the police searching, and they got annoyed when I poked my head 
round the door. "Sit down, Mr. Hounam," one said quietly. "We will deal 
with you shortly."

I surprised myself that I was so calm. I had time to reflect that I had 
been expecting something like this to happen ever since 1986, when I first 
went to Israel after Vanunu's disappearance. He had been jailed for 18 
years for the most serious of offences, aggravated espionage and treason, 
and I was his accomplice as the reporter who put his story in The Sunday 
Times. Yet nothing had happened to me in dozens of visits over the years, 
until now.

After waiting for more than an hour, I was eventually told to stand up and 
hold out my hands. Handcuffs were slammed on my wrists. Feeling like a 
dangerous criminal, I was marched out of the building and into the car for 
a short ride through an arch into another part of the complex.

At a sordid glass booth with two guards inside, I was told to stand in 
front of a home video camera. "Look straight at it," barked a tall guard 
who came up beside me, the first to show real aggression.

Into a bag went my wallet, comb, pen, watch and belt. A guard pointed to my 
shoes and off came my shoelaces. After a phone call to higher authority, I 
was allowed to keep my glasses.

Another guard, smiling in a rather apologetic way, led me along another 
corridor, through a locked door and into a tiny waiting area. The next step 
was completely unexpected. He opened a cupboard and took out a battered 
pair of scuba-diving goggles. The glass lenses had been removed and 
replaced by black plastic. These were put over my eyes and I entered total 
darkness.

With one guard tugging and another pushing, I was shuffled along a network 
of corridors. Doors were unlocked and I was pushed through.

"Take it off please," said a voice.

What a contrast. I was in a beautifully furnished office, with concealed 
lighting, two flat screen computer terminals and two elegantly curved 
desks, devoid of any paperwork. Sitting behind them were two of the men I 
had seen in my hotel room.

"Sit down please, Mr. Hounam," said one. "Do you know why you are here?" I 
said it was probably to do with Mordechai Vanunu.

"Of course, you are right," he said. "You are no longer in a police 
station, you are in the hands of Shabak, also known as Shin Beth. We call 
it the Internal Security Service. You have been arrested for 24 hours but 
we can continue to keep you by going to court. You will not be able to see 
a lawyer for four days. That is the rule."

He went on: "Of course, you know it is about Vanunu, but you must also know 
that we are looking into an interview we believe you arranged with him for 
the BBC. We want to know why you did this. In fact, we want to know 
everything you have been doing recently."

No surprise there. When I came to Israel last month to report Vanunu's 
release for The Sunday Times I was also helping make a BBC documentary 
about him. My aim in the weeks after his release was to get an exclusive 
interview with him for this newspaper and film it for the BBC. Restrictions 
imposed by the ever-obsessive security authorities banned him from speaking 
to foreigners but permitted him to be interviewed by any Israeli.

I was of the firm belief, as was Vanunu, that an interview would help to 
highlight the ridiculousness of the restrictions, and show those in the 
Israeli government who had displayed a degree of common sense about the 
issue - notably the attorney-general, Menahem Mazuz - that they were 
pointless and repressive.

With this in mind, the interview took place last weekend in St. George's 
Cathedral, Jerusalem, where Vanunu has been staying since his release. Yael 
Lotan conducted it with an Israeli film crew. I sat well out of the way, as 
did the BBC producer, Chris Mitchell. The essential rule was that neither 
of us must communicate with Vanunu.

There was a hitch, however. Preparing to fly home last Sunday, Mitchell was 
stopped at Tel Aviv airport. All the video cassettes were seized, and his 
mobile phone.

A further worrying development happened on the morning of my arrest. 
Outside St. George's Cathedral I bumped into the man editing the BBC 
documentary, Saadi Haeri. He was clearly in Israel incognito, perhaps to 
help take out duplicate copies of the interview. He followed me into a 
nearby hotel and we exchanged a few words. I had in my pocket a single 
video cassette of an interview with Vanunu's brother, Meir, and I gave it 
to him. We then parted.

As the Shin Beth interrogators took it in turns to grill me, it became 
clear that Saadi had been picked up and forced to give up at least some 
video cassettes. A massive surveillance operation had been conducted and 
they believed I had other cassettes, or knew where they were.

The lead interrogator was tall, tough and middle-aged with receding grey 
hair. He told me to call him Ifftakh, clearly not his real name. He was not 
friendly.

"Mr. Hounam," he said. "We know you are lying to us. We know you can lead 
us to more tapes. We know you have been hiding tapes. You will remain here 
until you tell us where they are."

Needing more time to think, I asked to take a lavatory break. On went the 
goggles and I was shuffled away. With the goggles removed I found myself 
staring at a filthy hole in the ground. The walls were grimy and covered in 
graffiti.

Back in the interrogation room the relentless questioning continued. I told 
them they had made a huge error, one of many that simply served to 
highlight the travesty of Vanunu's treatment.

I rather foolishly said: "You know, you should keep me for several days, 
because the story is only going to get bigger every day. I am not a 
helpless Palestinian with no friends in the outside world. The Sunday Times 
will be in action, so will the British government (I hoped). It will be a 
story all over the world."

They both got really angry.

"Are you threatening us?" they yelled. It was such an absurd response that 
I could only laugh.

"Why don't we all go home?" I said. One of them did just that, leaving 
Ifftakh to try to break me.

It was about 3 am. By now I was taking frequent lavatory breaks, using the 
time as I shuffled around blindly to gather my thoughts.

It was then that I realised my captors had made a stupid but understandable 
mistake. During the questioning, it emerged that on the tapes seized from 
Mitchell they had noticed a break in the recording at a point where Vanunu 
had spoken briefly, but legally, about his work at the Dimona nuclear 
weapons plant.

The Shabak had jumped to the conclusion that there was a missing section of 
the interview, no doubt packed with secrets.

Putting two and two together and making five, Shabak had deduced that 
Hounam had the missing tape. I had been seen handing Saadi a tape but this 
had proved to be the wrong one. So where was the real one?

I could easily prove they were wrong. In the bags they had seized from me 
were two audio cassettes of the interview. I scornfully pointed out to 
Ifftakh that by comparing this soundtrack with the videos he could hear 
there was nothing missing.

You could see the penny dropping when I explained that the discontinuity in 
the video was because the crew had stopped recording when Vanunu began to 
talk about visiting a sensitive room at Dimona. The tapes had been wound 
back and the offending section recorded over.

The mood eased. Ifftakh began asking if I could recommend any good 
restaurants in London. He said he would retire soon and write a book about 
his experiences in Shabak.

"Why not do it now? I could get a lot of money from The Sunday Times," I joked.

Ifftakh was getting tired. It was 4:40 am but I was happy to go on. In a 
way I had begun to like him. "You seem a nice guy," I said. "How can you do 
such a dreadful job?"

"Sometimes we have to do things we don't like," he replied, almost 
ruefully. "We'll continue tomorrow morning."

On went the goggles again and I was shuffled away. When they were removed I 
was pushed gently into a cell, part of a warren of squalid dungeons. There 
was a lavatory hole in one corner and a sink that emptied into it, a crude 
form of flush. Previous occupants had scrawled on the walls with whatever 
came to hand, including blood, faeces, yoghurt and semen.

There were blankets and two foam mats on the floor, no windows, but two 
bright lights burnt continually. This was my bleakest moment. Was I right 
to hope this might be over in just a day or two? I lay down and pulled a 
few blankets over me.

I was completely unconscious when at 6 am I was aroused by a guard. 
Breakfast came: a small plastic bag containing a boiled egg, four baby 
tomatoes like they sell at Sainsbury's, four slices of inedible bread and a 
small pot of yoghurt. I had the egg and tomatoes.

Until late in the morning I had nothing to do but to sit and reflect. I'm 
in solitary confinement, I thought, just like Mordechai. But he was caged 
like this for 11½ years. My solitude only lasted for five hours. Yet in no 
time I was bored, nothing to read and dark walls and filth all around me.

At about 11:30 am the goggles came back on and I was pushed along to 
another room, this time tiny and shabby. Sitting behind a desk, wearing a 
skullcap, was Sergeant David Nitzan, who said he was there to take a 
statement from me on Shabak's behalf.

He wrote down that I was suspected of "spying on Israeli nuclear secrets, 
and also serious spying on Israeli nuclear secrets". This sounded serious, 
the equivalent of the "aggravated espionage" that earned Vanunu his sentence.

Nitzan, however, turned out to be a cheery chap as he wrote answers to a 
series of questions that the Shabak had given him. At the end, I had to 
remind him that he hadn't asked me about the missing tape. He was grateful 
and I duly dictated a denial that one existed.

At around 3 pm one of my interrogators popped his head round the door and, 
looking rather sheepish, said the British consulate had come to see me. In 
came Valentine Madoojemu, vice-consul, and Sam Bayyuk, pro-consul. They 
said that the British ambassador had been furious and had insisted on 
consular access after it had been initially denied. The Israeli press had 
also gone berserk on the story, accusing Shabak of making a huge mistake.

My description of my filthy cell was so graphic that the vice-consul 
promised to insist on better conditions. An hour later I was shifted to an 
almost identical cell with less muck on the walls. A nice guard brought me 
a bucket of soapy water and a squeegee and politely suggested I wash the 
floor. I was also brought a towel and prison issue socks, vest and 
underpants, all ludicrously too small.

Now Avigdor Feldman and Mikhal Sfard, two of Vanunu's lawyers, arrived. 
They had moved mountains to overturn the ban on my seeing them. Beaming, 
they explained that the Ministry of Justice had been hugely embarrassed by 
my arrest and wanted a way out. There was no question of deportation. I was 
simply asked if I was willing to leave the country in 24 hours. I agreed, 
as I had been intending to leave by today anyway.

The Shabak agreed to return all my seized belongings once they had been 
checked; but my belt, shoelaces, watch, wallet and other bits and pieces 
were restored straight away. At 8 pm I walked out of the jail a free man. I 
was no longer a "serious spy".

-END-
=============
3.  OTHER PRESS REPORTS

The Independent

Israel attacks BBC 'tricks' in taping Vanunu Whistleblower insists he 
revealed secrets to prevent 'second holocaust' By Donald Macintyre in 
Jerusalem 30 May 2004

The Israeli authorities' frequently tense relationship with the BBC will 
take a turn for the worse this week when they complain about the methods 
used to broadcast a taped interview with nuclear whistleblower Mordechai 
Vanunu.

The Foreign Ministry is expected to seek a meeting with the BBC's Middle 
East bureau chief, Andrew Steele, to discuss the circumstances in which the 
tape of the interview was smuggled out of the country despite demands that 
all copies be handed over to the Israeli censor.

Peter Hounam, the journalist who first broke the story in 1986 of Mr. 
Vanunu's revelations of Israel's nuclear weapons programme and who has been 
making a documentary on him for the BBC, was ordered to leave the country 
last week after being held for 24 hours by Shin Bet, the domestic 
intelligence agency.

Shin Bet conspicuously failed to find all the tapes, despite their 
interrogation of Mr. Hounam and the separate detentions of two members of 
the team from the Magnetic North independent production company, Chris 
Mitchell and a freelance editor, Sadi Haeri.

The interview was carried out on behalf of the team and The Sunday Times by 
Yael Lotan, an Israeli supporter of Mr. Vanunu, who was released last month 
from jail after serving an 18-year sentence. The restrictions attached to 
Mr. Vanunu's release expressly preclude him from meeting foreigners without 
prior permission. The BBC repeatedly trailed the interview, conducted eight 
days ago, on its news bulletins yesterday.

A senior government source in Jerusalem said there could be "repercussions" 
for relations between the BBC and the Israeli government. The source added 
that the government wanted to express its "disappointment" that the BBC had 
appeared prepared to "trick" Israel by bypassing restrictions, including 
those on Mr. Vanunu after his release.

In his interview Mr. Vanunu appears to say nothing new of relevance to 
Israel's present security. He strongly denies that he betrayed the country 
and says that he exposed Israel's nuclear secrets because he wanted to 
prevent the second holocaust that might occur as a result of a nuclear war.

He also reveals that "Cindy", the Mossad agent who lured him from London to 
Rome where he was seized, had kissed him throughout the car journey from 
Rome's airport to distract him from the trap he was falling into. He says 
he had suspected she might be a Mossad agent but that she appeared not to 
know what he was talking about when he challenged her. He adds: "I'm not 
interested in living in Israel. I want to start my new life in the United 
States or Europe."

Shin Bet, which says that Mr. Vanunu breached his restrictions by meeting 
Mr. Hounam, is still deciding whether to take action against him.

- END -

Ma'ariv English website, May 31, 2004

Vanunu: I just wanted to let world know

In first interview after release, nuclear spy says he was disappointed 
after being accused of treason. Shaul Adar, Britain

Advertisement 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.
-END-
=============

4. Write to Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai would love to hear from his friends and supporters.  You can 
write to him at:
Mordechai Vanunu
c/o Cathedral Church of St. George
20 Nablus Road
PO Box 19018
Jerusalem 91190
Israel

The U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu would appreciate any news 
clippings about the release for our files.  Please send to the campaign at 
PO Box 43384, Tucson, AZ 85733 US.  Also, if anyone taped any of the TV or 
radio coverage, we would appreciate a copy.  Thanks!

=================
If you would like to receive these alerts directly, please subscribe by 
sending a blank e-mail to free_vanunu-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

- END -
Felice Cohen-Joppa
Coordinator
U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
POB 43384
Tucson, AZ 85733
Phone/Fax 520-323-8697
freevanunu@mindspring.com
www.nonviolence.org/vanunu

</x-flowed>
*****************************************************************
 9 Las Vegas SUN: Partition Bonds India, Pakistan Leaders

 By PATRICK McDOWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS 

GAH, Pakistan (AP) - Lost among timeless farmlands, the
Pakistani village of Gah was a dusty backwater until a few days
ago, when the tortuous path to peace with India suddenly took a
detour through it. 

Carefully turning the tattered pages of the three-room school's
enrollment book, teacher Ghulam Mustafa finds the name Manmohan
Singh, born in Gah in 1932, enrolled as a pupil in 1937 - the
same Manmohan Singh who was sworn in May 22 as prime minister of
India. 

With Singh's accession, India and Pakistan for the first time
are both ruled by men born in what is now enemy territory -
opposite sides of the line that divided their adopted countries
amid massive bloodshed when Britain granted independence in
1947. 

Now millions are hoping that Singh and Pakistan President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf - who was born in the ancient Muslim quarters
of New Delhi - can draw on their histories as children of the
partition to lift the permanent threat of war that has been
worsened in recent years by nuclear weapons. 

"The leaders of both countries want the situation to improve,"
said Sher Mazan, 55, a senior Pakistani Foreign Office official
from Gah who frequently visits his family and owns some of the
village's best farmland. 

"Manmohan Singh belongs to this area, so there will be different
considerations about Pakistan," Mazan said. 

"Definitely, it will make a difference that he was born here. In
our part of the world, we always take care of the place we were
born." 

Gah's 2,000 villagers are farmers and small tradesmen in turbans
and baggy pants. Even though the village has electricity, it is
a long way from Oxford University, where Singh studied
economics, or the Finance Ministry, where he launched India on
the road to free-market reforms in the early 1990s. 

Singh, 71, was 14 when he left with his family, and he has not
been back. Musharraf, the 60-year-old general-turned-president
of Pakistan, left New Delhi when he was 4 and did not revisit
the ancestral home until three years ago. 

Ahmed Khan, a 73-year-old barber, is one of the few still alive
who went to school with Singh, in an era when Gah's population
was equally divided among Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. 

"I played at his house, on the grounds," Khan recalls. "He was a
really good student, yes, but I remember him being very strong.
He used to beat us in fights." 

The house where Singh lived with his family - wealthy Sikh
landlords who also ran a dried fruit business - is now only a
pile of stones near a well, overlooking terraced wheat fields.
The Hindu and Sikh owners of the neighboring homes fled to India
decades ago and the Muslims moved in. 

Gah is in Pakistan's Punjab province - part of a princely state
split by partition, with the rest in India. The village was a
microcosm of partition's human price. Villagers recall Muslim
outsiders massacring two dozen Hindus after hearing Hindus
somewhere were killing Muslims. Refugee Muslims were later
settled here with government land grants, but they soon sold out
and moved to the city. 

Overall, some 10 million to 12 million people were uprooted and
an estimated 1 million were killed. Bitterness was reinforced by
three wars and the division of Kashmir, the Himalayan territory
both countries claim in its entirety. 

Both Musharraf and Singh are stressing good will. They spoke for
20 minutes by phone Sunday and said they want to keep talking. 

The sense of urgency is strongest in Kashmir, where a separatist
insurgency launched in 1989 has claimed some 65,000 lives and
morphed into a front of Islamic extremist holy war in the
Indian-ruled portion. On the day Singh and Musharraf spoke by
phone, a land mine in Kashmir killed 29 people in a bus. 

Singh and Musharraf "know what broken homes mean," said Sheikh
A. Qayom, an analyst based in Srinagar, the summer capital of
Indian-held Kashmir. "Certainly, this will make them more
sensitive to Kashmir's split and therefore they can address the
matter more effectively." 

Urvashi Butalia, author of the book "The Other Side of Silence -
Voices from the Partition of India," says the trauma of the
partition has received little official recognition. 

"Sometimes there's a fear of addressing the dark side," said
Butalia, a child of Sikh-Hindu parents who left Pakistan. "There
is this tremendous need to reconnect and then put closure to
it." 

In Gah, villagers think closure could start with a party and a
visit by India's new prime minister to his birthplace. 

The villagers hope they might get a new well out of the deal.
They promise to decorate the mud-brick walls and throw a big
feast. 

"If they belong to this place, and they want to come back, the
Hindus and Sikhs can," said Shah Nawaz, 65. "Manmohan Singh
should come back and build his house here." 

--- 

Associated Press reporter Beth Duff-Brown in New Delhi
contributed to this report. 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 10 BBC: Europe's energy use still rising 
 
  Last Updated: Tuesday, 1 June, 2004
 
By Alex Kirby 

BBC News Online environment correspondent   

[Matterhorn at dawn   AP]                               

Glacier loss proves climate change is increasing, the EEA says                                                              

The countries of Europe are not keeping their promises on the 
environment, the European Environment Agency believes. 

The agency, a European Union body, says the latest trends show 
growing evidence of climate change, on land and at sea. It says 
there are also worrying levels of urban air pollution and 
agricultural contamination of water, and increasing amounts of 
packaging and other waste. 

The agency calls in its report, EEA Signals 2004, for more use of 
market-based instruments to change behaviour. 

Hard choices 

The report says the evidence of climate change comes from 
receding glaciers, disturbance of marine species, and rising 
energy consumption. 

It says ways to tackle this include increasing energy efficiency, 
greater use of renewable energy, and "rethinking options for 
transport" - something for which politicians in many countries 
have shown little stomach. 

[Dustmen and lorry   PA]                                
Europe's waste problem will become unmanageable, the agency 
thinks                                                             
                                        
The report says the number of weather- and climate-related 
disasters in Europe during the 1990s was double the figure of the 
previous decade. 

It says their average cost "is conservatively estimated at around 
10bn euros (£6.7bn) per year and rising". 

The agency's executive director, Professor Jacqueline McGlade, 
said: "Such figures suggest that managing Europe's natural 
resources is increasingly important for ensuring the viability of 
Europe's economic and social capital. 

Wasted expenditure 

"This is money that could otherwise be spent in productive ways, 
for example to promote competitiveness and innovation, which are 
defining conditions for delivering sustainable economic growth." 

Other findings in the report include: 

+ nitrate pollution from farming is continuing, and there is 
evidence that consumers are paying most of the clean-up costs for 
drinking water + much of the continent's urban population is 
still exposed to air pollution above health protection levels, 
with low-level ozone and particulates the main concerns + the 
area of built-up land is growing much faster than the population 
+ packaging waste is rising, and is projected to continue doing 
so; "overall trends in waste generation are unsustainable and 
current policy tools inadequate". Professor McGlade said the 
report showed the need for more progress in managing the 
environmental impacts of agriculture, transport and energy in 
particular, and for influencing the behaviour of consumers. 

She urged a greater use of market-based instruments to manage 
demand and incorporate "external" costs into prices, and said 
environmentally-targeted subsidies and innovation were also 
important. 

The EEA's 31 members are the 25 EU states, the three EU candidate 
countries - Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey - and Iceland, 
Liechtenstein and Norway. Membership negotiations are under way 
with Switzerland. 
*****************************************************************
 11 Haaretz: Vanunu: Exposing Israel's nuclear secrets was not betrayal    

[http://www.haaretz.com]          

  News Updates    Mon., May 31, 2004 Sivan 11, 5764    Israel
    
  By Haaretz Service   	 
    
In his first interview since his release last month after 18 
years in jail for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to a British 
newspaper, Mordechai Vanunu told the BBC in an interview aired 
Sunday night that he did not feel he was a traitor to the 
country.        

"I felt it was not about betraying; it was about reporting. It 
was about saving Israel from a new holocaust," he said.

Speaking to the BBC's This World program, Vanunu said he had "no 
regrets despite the fact I have paid a heavy punishment, a large 
price." 

"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 
judgement." 

The interview sparked controversy in Israel ahead of its airing, 
when the British journalist making the program, Peter Hounam, was 
arrested by the Shin Bet security service last week, on suspicion 
of violating Vanunu's terms of release, which include a ban on 
meetings with foreigners. 

The interview was facilitated by an Israeli, Yael Lotan, thereby 
bypassing the ban. 

In the interview, Vanunu reiterated his desire to leave Israel, 
which was also banned. 

"I want to leave Israel, I'm not interested in living in Israel," 
he said. "I want to start my new life in the United States, or 
somewhere in Europe, and to start living as a human being." 

Days before his 1986 expose of Israel's nuclear capability 
appeared in the Sunday Times, Vanunu was seized by Israeli agents 
from an apartment in Italy, where he had been lured by a female 
agent nicknamed "Cindy." 

Vanunu described to the BBC how she brought him from London to 
Rome and distracted him en route. 

"We sat in the back [of the car]. She used the time for kissing 
me, to divert my attention by a lot of kissing," he said. 

The BBC program also included comments by Justice Minister Yosef 
Lapid, who argued that Vanunu still posed a threat to Israel's 
security. 

"We think he still knows secrets and we don't want him to sell 
them again," he told This World. 

"We think there are things he knows that he hasn't divulged yet. 
He may do so - he's hell-bent to harm this country, he hates this 
country."           

  Mordechai Vanunu giving the victory sign as he leaves Ashkelon 
jail last month. (AP)   

[feedback@haaretz.co.il] 
  
  © Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved   
*****************************************************************
 12 Seychelles NATION: Assembly paves way for peaceful use of nuclear material 

[http://www.seychelles.net
  
Members of the National Assembly gave their stamp of approval to
allow Seychelles to make use of nuclear technology materials for
peaceful purposes after they endorsed the ratification of a
nuclear arms non-proliferation treaty. 

Ratification means Seychelles could pursue technology used for
radio-active treatment for cancer patients. 

The motion in last Tuesday’s assembly, which called for the
ratification of the Agreement for the Application of Safeguards
in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons and Protocols, was presented by the Leader of
Government Business Patrick Herminie. 

The protocol being ratified, he said, allowed countries which
are not nuclear powers to have access to materials that can be
used for various purposes condoned under the main treaty, such
as for electricity, medical use, food security or mine
detection. 

The protocol itself has three main components, including
material accountancy, containment and surveillance. Material
accountancy, Mr Herminie said, regulated the quantity of
plutonium and uranium to be used by a non-nuclear power in its
projects. 

The country concerned has to give precise information to other
member states about the project in question and disclose means
of getting rid of excess materials. This aspect of the treaty,
he said, was important to ensure strict monitoring so that the
materials did not end up in the hands of rogue nations or
terrorists organisations. 

Mr Herminie said currently Seychelles was not in possession of
any nuclear materials, but revealed that the government was in
preliminary talks with the International Atomic Agency to get
access to nuclear technology to be used in a radio-active
treatment for cancer to be introduced in the future. 

Seychelles signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons in March 1985.   
    
[http://www.seychelles.net
  
The Seychelles Nation Newspaper's office 
 Long Pier Road,Victoria Seychelles, P.O.Box 800 
 Victoria , Seychelles
 Tel: (248) 225775 or 722680 on weekends & public holidays      
    Fax: (248) 321006 
   
  Copyright 2000 © Seychelles Nation      
*****************************************************************
 13 FT: Anger as Malaysia detains nuclear suspect  

  By John Burton in Singapore  

  Published: June 1 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: June 1 2004 5:00  
     
Malaysian human rights groups yesterday accused the government of 
engaging in a possible political cover-up by imprisoning without 
trial an alleged key figure in the global nuclear smuggling 
network headed by Pakistan's top nuclear scientist. 

Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan businessman living in 
Malaysia, was arrested last week under the country's Internal 
Security Act, which allows a two-year detention without charges 
being brought before a court.

Mr Tahir was closely linked to a company owned by the son of 
Abudullah Badawi, the prime minister, that was involved in 
supplying centrifuge parts to Libya's nuclear weapons programme.

His detention was "a clear example of abuse of power" since it 
could protect "other important persons in the scandal of nuclear 
weapons from being exposed", said Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, head of 
a coalition of rights groups campaigning for the abolition of the 
ISA.

The detention order for Mr Tahir was signed by the prime minister 
in his dual role as home minister.

Mr Syed Ibrahim said the government should either release Mr 
Tahir or bring him to trial, which would offer him a chance to 
expose others who might be involved in supplying nuclear parts.

Mr Tahir is the highest-ranking operative in the nuclear 
smuggling group of Abdul Qadeer Khan to be jailed since the ring 
was uncovered early this year. Mr Khan has been pardoned by the 
Pakistani government.

When Mr Tahir's role was disclosed in February, Malaysia refused 
to arrest him then because it said he had not broken any local 
laws.

"We are puzzled why he was arrested now rather than several 
months ago. His detention prevents bringing forward essential 
information in a transparent manner and instead keeps it hidden 
from the public eye," said Cynthia Gabriel, head of Suara Rakyat 
Malaysia, a leading human rights group.

Mr Tahir had earlier been questioned about his role in the Khan 
network by the Malaysian police, who released a report absolving 
Scomi Group, the company controlled by the prime minister's son, 
Kamaluddin Abdullah, of any complicity in the deal.  
     
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2004. "FT" and "Financial 
Times" are trademarks of the Financial Times.
*****************************************************************
 14 Toronto Ontario Star: Ontario urged to drop nuclear fix, seek alternatives
 
TheStar.com - 

  Tue. Jun. 1, 2004. | Updated at 02:20 PM  

FROM CANADIAN PRESS

If the Ontario government wants to shut down its coal plants by 
2007, it must permanently sideline the restart of the Pickering A 
nuclear unit and instead focus on the construction of natural 
gas-fired plants and renewable energy facilities, says a report 
to be released Tuesday.

 Although the report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance gives the 
government a B-plus grade for taking steps to phase out the 
province's five coal-fired plants, it warns the government will 
only be falling into a sinkhole if it continues with the 
rehabilitation of Unit 1 at the Pickering A nuclear reactor.

 "Hopefully they will reject that recommendation because that 
could badly sidetrack the government and lots of money could be 
wasted on pursuing nuclear, which is the highest-cost and 
highest-risk option to phase out coal in Ontario," Jack Gibbons, 
chair of the alliance and an author of the report, said in an 
interview.

 Ontario Power Generation has a dismal record for cost overruns 
and lengthy delays with its refurbishment of its nuclear 
reactors, says the report, a copy of which was obtained by The 
Canadian Press.

 A decision by OPG's board about the reactor is expected in June, 
but the final decision will rest with Premier Dalton McGuinty and 
his cabinet, the report says.

 The report also says it would be about 45 per cent cheaper to 
build a high-efficiency natural gas electricity generating plant 
than to spend about $500 million on the restart of Unit 1.

 The alliance gives the government kudos for its call for 300 
megawatts of renewable energy and 2,500 megawatts of conventional 
electricity, along with its promotion of energy conservation and 
its move to more realistic energy prices.

 But there's still a long way to go before the government can 
make up the energy supply that will be lost by the closure of the 
polluting coal plants, the report says.

 "There is no question that if the government doesn't pick up the 
pace of its actions in the next six months, it risks falling 
seriously behind and missing key opportunities to improve public 
health for the people of Ontario," Gibbons said.

 The coal plants are one of the province's worst polluters.

 The government has missed a number of key opportunities as it 
aims to shut the coal plants by 2007, the report says.

 The government hasn't ordered the Independent Market Operator to 
develop an aggressive demand-response program — such as paying 
major energy consumers like factories to curb use during peak 
hours in the summer.

 The IMO would get the money back through its charges to market 
participants, and all businesses would benefit since electricity 
prices would drop along with demand, Gibbons said.

 In the next six months, the government must move ahead on having 
smart electricity meters installed in homes so people can save 
money by conserving energy, the report says.

Legal Notice: Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All
rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of
any material from www.thestar.com [http://www.thestar.com] is
*****************************************************************
 15 Xinhuanet: Nuclear attack against US inevitable: US academic   

  www.xinhuanet.com

  www.chinaview.cn 2004-06-01 13:44:27   

    WELLINGTON, June 1 (Xinhuanet) -- A nuclear attack by 
terrorists against the United States is inevitable, said an 
American international relations expert visiting the New Zealand 
University of Canterbury. 

    Last week US Attorney General John Ashcroft said credible 
intelligence from multiple sources indicated that the al Qaeda 
terror network was planning an attack on the US in the next few 
months. 

    Professor Terry Nardin, a political scientist from the 
University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, said in statement Tuesday 
that despite the intelligence sources of the US authorities, 
terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda are still capable of 
planning and carrying out attacks. 

    "I see a kind of offence-defence race. We're busy defending 
ourselves in ways that we've thought of and al Qaeda people, who 
are smart, are busy thinking of ways to get around it," he said. 

    Nardin said there are so many weapons floating around, there 
isso little control over nuclear material, biological weapons and 
soforth, "I think it's only a matter of time before there is some 
catastrophic event." 

    Nardin believed it is not difficult to transport nuclear 
materials or biological materials around. 

    "There may be a gesture of inspecting aircraft luggage and so 
on but the whole world container trade goes on so people move 
around and things move around," he said. Enditem   


  Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 16 Maariv International: BBC airs interview with Vanunu 
Says he decided to reveal nuclear secrets because of war in Lebanon.
 
13 Sivan 5764 2 June, 2004         

  [contact@maariv.co.il?subject=Maariv News Service] 

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has shown a television 
interview with released nuclear spy Mordecai Vanunu last night 
(Sunday). It was his first media interview since his release. 

During the interview with Yael Lotan, Vanunu said that the war in 
Lebanon has influenced his decision to reveal some of Israel’s 
nuclear secrets. “It was not the real world. It was an invasion 
and there was a lot of propaganda used to justify it. I found 
myself identifying with the Arabs. Very gradually, I found myself 
on the left�. 

Vanunu said that he was also influenced by the spread of nuclear 
radiation after the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and his conversion 
to Christianity. “It was a period of breaking down barriers and 
beginning a new way of life�, he said.
 
(2004-05-31 09:45:01.0)   
      
  © Maariv International 2004 All Rights Reserved     
*****************************************************************
 17 ThisisLondon: Britain faces EU 'nuclear fine' 
 
thisislondon.co.uk]   

Guy Dresser, This Is Money 
1 June 2004 

NUCLEAR operator BNFL is set to miss a key European Union 
deadline today to clean up part of its Sellafield reprocessing 
plant. 

The EU told Britain earlier this year it had to do more to tackle 
a series of reinforced concrete ponds that store radioactive 
waste at the Cumbria plant and extended the deadline by when the 
UK has to set out how it will achieve the task. 

That deadline expires today and missing it could cost BNFL a 
hefty fine and see the UK hauled before the European Court. 

Under European law all EU member states must declare exactly how
much nuclear material it possesses. The British Government‘s
failure to reveal exactly what is in the concrete ponds at
Sellafield means that the UK is technically in breach of EU law. 

EU spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said in April that it did not know 
exactly how much waste is stored in the concrete ponds, which 
were built in the late 1950s, because inspectors hadn‘t been 
given enough access to the site.

Kemppinen said: 'British Nuclear Fuels has failed to comply with 
the rules concerning accounting for nuclear material and the 
access of Commission inspectors to nuclear material to check the 
nature and quality and quantity of the material. 

'It is impossible to determine accurately the quantities of 
material stored and on the spot inspections cannot take place 
because of the high level of radiation and poor visibility in the 
part of the facility concerned.'

Some of the nuclear waste within the pond has corroded or 
disintegrated, making the fuel removal and cleaning request from 
the EU especially difficult to fulfill, according to reports. 

The clean-up will be a lengthy task because high levels of 
radiation near the concrete ponds limit the amount of time 
workers can spend working there. 

*****************************************************************
 18 FLS: Nuclear power could mean the end of America's oil dependence
 
  [fredericksburg.com]   

 Date published: 6/1/2004 

The world has only two sources of energy in the quantity needed 
to serve our nation: fossil fuels and nuclear power. 

The quantities of solar power, wind power, and other options are 
too low. This year's $1-a-gallon oil-price increase cost our 
nation $300 billion, and undoubtedly this cost will continue to 
grow. What should we do? 

The world has 1 trillion barrels of oil in the ground and 
consumes 26 billion barrels a year. In 40 years it will be gone. 

However, by building thousands of synfuel plants, another 2-3 
trillion barrels of oil can be extracted from sand beds, tar 
beds, and coal beds. 

All of these sources are private and beyond our nation's control. 
By simply allowing plant construction to lag behind demand, the 
price of this oil can be kept at its maximum-revenue level. Thus, 
we face a future of high prices, permanent shortages, increased 
global warming, and continued pollution of our environment. 

Worse yet, it is unlikely that these high profits will be 
invested within our borders. 

Clearly, if the country is to buy energy at a competitive price, 
then it must create an excess of energy. The 300 billion gallons 
of oil that we consume each year equals the energy output of 
1,700 nuclear reactors. 

Allowing for growth and some excess capacity, we can achieve oil 
independence in 20 years if we build 100 nuclear reactors a year. 

The new pebble design is reputed to be 100 percent safe. Nuclear 
power costs are equivalent to oil at $2 a gallon. 

This will provide enough power to replace our oil furnaces and, 
using electrolysis, to manufacture the pollution-free hydrogen 
gas for our new fuel-cell cars. To prevent monopoly pricing, our 
nation should retain possession of the plants. 

Walt Velona 

Locust Grove 

Date published: 6/1/2004 

Fredericksburg.com, 605 William Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 
Comments? Send us Feedback, Phone: 540-368-5055 To contact all 
other newspaper departments, please call 540-374-5000. Copyright 
2004, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Va. 
*****************************************************************
 19 Salt Lake Tribune: An overdue debate: Boosting nuke power to avoid climate chaos 

May 31, 2004   

Gwynne Dyer SYNDICATED COLUMNIST 

    "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 civilization
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 civilization. . . . 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 expresses regret for 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). 
    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 microclimate 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 optimize conditions on
Earth for living things. But this system 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
civilization, such as 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. 
   ----- 
    Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose
articles are published in 45 countries. 
    
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. 
*****************************************************************
 20 KoreaTimes: Quakes Cause Public Fears About Nuclear Plant Safety 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Nation   

By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter

 Saturday¡¯s strong earthquake and aftershocks have set off 
public fears about the safety of nuclear power plants in North 
Kyongsang Province, close to the epicenter. 

The most powerful earthquake, recorded at 5.2 on the Richter 
scale, occurred Saturday afternoon 80 km east of Uljin, North 
Kyongsang Province, and two minor quakes occurred the next day. 
The first aftershock, at 4.45 a.m. 70 km southeast of Uljin, was 
recorded at 2.0 on the Richter scale and the second one, with a 
magnitude of 2.2, occurred 9:45 p.m. 10 km northwest of Uljin.

 ``Small aftershocks after a powerful quake are very common. 
Sunday¡¯s two quakes are merely aftershocks from Saturday¡¯s 
quake, the strongest quake observed in recent years,¡¯¡¯ a 
weather administration official said. 

Although no damage or casualties were reported, public concerns 
over the safety of facilities such as nuclear power plants in 
Uljin and Wolsong are growing, as the epicenter of the last quake 
was inland. It is also expected that building standards will also 
be affected by this recent quake. 

There are four nuclear power plants operating in Uljin, another 
one under test operation, and another one under construction. 
Another four more plants are planned.

 The alarms installed at the plants did not go off, as the quakes 
didn¡¯t reach the minimum level required by quake detectors.

 ``Those power plants were designed to resist quakes of a 
magnitude 6.5, which is 30 times stronger than Saturday¡¯s one. 
They will be fine even if an earthquake 30 times more powerful 
breaks out right under the plants,¡¯¡¯ an official of science and 
technology ministry said.

 However, the ministry¡¯s explanation is not enough to relieve 
public worries, as the plants¡¯ ability to resist powerful 
earthquakes is unverifiable, and there is a possibility that 
future quakes will exceed a magnitude of 6.5.

 Japan, which has frequent earthquakes, has tried to strengthen 
the safety standards of buildings after suffering quakes of a 
magnitude of 7.3 in Kobe and Osaka in 1995.

 There has been talk that Korea should prepare for the 
possibility of large-scale quakes by checking the 
earthquake-proof standards of nuclear power plants and conducting 
earthquake drills. But related authorities have neglected those 
opinions as of yet.

 ``The authorities should check the safety of existing plants and 
postpone the planned constructions of the four new plants until a 
thorough inspection has been carried out,¡¯¡¯ a civic group said. 

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr 05-31-2004 18:14         
*****************************************************************
 21 NRC: Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, R. E. Ginna Nuclear
 
                        FR Doc 04-12212 
[Federal Register: June 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 105)] 
[Notices] [Page 30963] From the Federal Register Online via GPO 
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jn04-131]                         
 
Power Plant; Notice of Issuance of Renewed Facility Operating 
License No. DPR-18 for an Additional 20-Year Period Notice is 
hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (the 
Commission) has issued Renewed Facility Operating License No. 
DPR- 18 to Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation (licensee), the 
operator of the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant (Ginna). Renewed 
Facility Operating License No. DPR-18 authorizes operation of 
Ginna by the licensee at reactor core power levels not in excess 
of 1520 megawatts thermal (490 megawatts electric) in accordance 
with the provisions of the Ginna renewed license and its 
Technical Specifications.
 
The Ginna plant is a pressurized, light-water-moderated and 
cooled, nuclear reactor located in Wayne County, New York.
 
The application for the renewed license complied with the 
standards and requirements of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as 
amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations. As required 
by the Act and the Commission's regulations in 10 CFR Chapter 1, 
the Commission has made appropriate findings, which are set forth 
in each license. Prior public notice of the action involving the 
proposed issuance of the renewed license and of an opportunity 
for a hearing regarding the proposed issuance of the renewed 
license was published in the Federal Register on September 30, 
2002 (67 FR 61354).
 
For further details with respect to this action, see (1) the 
Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation's license renewal 
application for R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant dated July 30, 
2002, as supplemented by letters dated through January 9, 2004; 
(2) the Commission's safety evaluation report, dated May 2004 
(NUREG-1786); (3) the licensee's updated safety analysis report; 
and (4) the Commission's final environmental impact statements 
(NUREG-1437, Supplement 14, for the R. E. Ginna Nuclear Power 
Plant, dated January, 2004). These documents are available at the 
NRC's Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, and can be viewed from 
the NRC Public Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
.
 
Copies of Renewed Facility Operating License No. DPR-18, may be 
obtained by writing to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Director, Division of 
Regulatory Improvement Programs. Copies of the R. E. Ginna 
Nuclear Power Plant Safety Evaluation Report (NUREG-1786) and the 
final environmental impact statements (NUREG-1437, Supplement 14) 
may be purchased from the National Technical Information Service, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22161 
(http://www.ntis.gov 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ntis.gov] ), (703) 605-6000, or 
Attention: Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing 
Office, PO Box 371954 Pittsburgh, PA. 15250-7954 
(http://www.gpoaccess.gov 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.gpoaccess.gov] ), (202) 
512-1800. All orders should clearly identify the NRC publication 
number and the requestor's Government Printing Office deposit 
account number or VISA or MasterCard number and expiration date.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 19th day of May, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Steven West, Acting Program Director, License Renewal and 
Environmental Impacts Program, Division of Regulatory Improvement 
Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
 
[FR Doc. 04-12212 Filed 5-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 22 Reuters: Constellation seeks new license for N.Y. nuke                                   Tue

Jun 1, 2004 08:45 AM ET                                                                 

NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - Constellation Energy Group Inc. 
(CEG.N: Quote 
[http://www.investor.reuters.com/FullQuote.aspx?ticker=CEG.N&targ 
et=%2fstocks%2fquickinfo%2ffullquote] , Profile 
[http://www.investor.reuters.com/CompanyOverview.aspx?ticker=CEG. 
N] , Research 
[http://www.investor.reuters.com/StockReports.aspx?ticker=CEG.N] 
) filed an application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission for a 20-year renewal of the operating licenses for 
units 1 and 2 at the Nine Mile Point nuclear station in New York. 

The current 40-year operating licenses were scheduled to expire 
in August 2009 for 565 megawatt unit 1 and October 2026 for 1,105 
MW unit 2, according to a statement from the NRC on Friday. 

Together the two-units produce enough energy to power more than 
1.6 million homes. 

Unit 1, which started producing power in 1969, is one of the 
oldest reactors in the United States still in operation. 

Unit 2 began commercial operations in 1988. Officials at 
Constellation were not immediately available to discuss why unit 
2's 40-year license expires in 38 years. 

Industry sources have said it usually takes a company about five 
years to obtain a new operating license from the NRC. 

The Nine Mile Point station is located in Scriba, New York, about 
95 miles east of Rochester, New York. 

Constellation, which owns all of unit 1, operates the Nine Mile 
station for its owners. 

Unit 2 is owned by Constellation (82 percent) and the Long Island 
Power Authority (18 percent).                            

*****************************************************************
 23 National Post: Use renewables, not nuclear: report 

  Gillian Livingston Canadian Press   

June 1, 2004
 
TORONTO -- If the Ontario government wants to shut down its coal 
plants by 2007, it must permanently sideline the restart of the 
Pickering A nuclear unit and instead focus on the construction of 
natural gas-fired plants and renewable energy facilities, says a 
report to be released Tuesday. 

Although the report by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance gives the 
government a B-plus grade for taking steps to phase out the 
province's five coal-fired plants, it warns the government will 
only be falling into a sink hole if it continues with the 
rehabilitation of Unit 1 at the Pickering A nuclear reactor. 

"Hopefully they will reject that recommendation because that 
could badly sidetrack the government and lots of money could be 
wasted on pursuing nuclear, which is the highest-cost and 
highest-risk option to phase out coal in Ontario,'' Jack Gibbons, 
chair of the alliance and an author of the report, said in an 
interview. 

Ontario Power Generation has a dismal record for cost overruns 
and lengthy delays with its refurbishment of its nuclear 
reactors, says the report, a copy of which was obtained by The 
Canadian Press. 

A decision by OPG's board about the reactor is expected in June, 
but the final decision will rest with Premier Dalton McGuinty and 
his cabinet, the report says. 

The report also says it would be about 45 per cent cheaper to 
build a high-efficiency natural gas electricity generating plant 
than to spend about $500 million on the restart of Unit 1. 

The alliance gives the government kudos for its call for 300 
megawatts of renewable energy and 2,500 megawatts of conventional 
electricity, along with its promotion of energy conservation and 
its move to more realistic energy prices. 

But there's still a long way to go before the government can make 
up the energy supply that will be lost by the closure of the 
polluting coal plants, the report says. 

"There is no question that if the government doesn't pick up the 
pace of its actions in the next six months, it risks falling 
seriously behind and missing key opportunities to improve public 
health for the people of Ontario,'' Gibbons said. 

The coal plants are one of the province's worst polluters. 

The government has missed a number of key opportunities as it 
aims to shut the coal plants by 2007, the report says. 

The government hasn't ordered the Independent Market Operator to 
develop an aggressive demand-response program -- such as paying 
major energy consumers like factories to curb use during peak 
hours in the summer. 

The IMO would get the money back through its charges to market 
participants, and all businesses would benefit since electricity 
prices would drop along with demand, Gibbons said. 

In the next six months, the government must move ahead on having 
smart electricity meters installed in homes so people can save 
money by conserving energy, the report says. © Canadian Press 
2004 

  Copyright © CanWest Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
CanWest Interactive Inc. is an affiliate of CanWest Global
*****************************************************************
 24 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's N-plant Contracts German NUKEM, GNB
 	 	 	 	 	 	
SOFIA NEWS AGENCY             

[http://www.novinite.com/]

Business: 31 May 2004, Monday.

A contract for the design and construction of a new storage for 
spent fuel at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant was signed Monday with 
a tie-in between Germany's RWE NUKEM Gmbh and GNB mbh.
 
The contract is worth EUR 48.7 M and is financed by an 
international fund administered by the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development.
 
The new facility will be able to store casks of spent nuclear 
fuel up to fifty years. The design of the storage will allow 
expansion of its capacity.
 
The storage will be constructed for four years and a half, 
Kozloduy CEO Yordan Kostadinov announced.
 
Bulgaria's only nuclear power plant Kozloduy reported net profit 
of BGN 9,6 M for 2003, down by BGN 3.8 M year upon year due to 
the closure of the two oldest reactors at the end of 2002.[ 

 All Rights Reserved © Novinite Ltd., 2001-2004 - Copyright
*****************************************************************
 25 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
 
                        FR Doc 04-12213 
[Federal Register: June 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 105)] 
[Notices] [Page 30963-30964] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jn04-132]                         
 
of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for ABB Prospects, 
Inc.'s Facility in Windsor, CT AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission.
 
ACTION: Notice of availability of environmental assessment and 
finding of no significant impact.
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Randolph C. Ragland, Jr., 
Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission, Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, 
Pennsylvania 19406; telephone (610) 337-5083; by facsimile 
transmission to (610) 337-5269; or by e- mail to rcr1@nrc.gov 
[rcr1@nrc.gov] .
 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear 
Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing a license amendment to 
Material License No. 06-00217-06 issued to ABB Prospects, Inc., 
to authorize the decommissioning of its CE Windsor facility in 
Windsor, CT. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in 
support of these actions in accordance with the requirements of 
10 CFR Part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has concluded that a 
Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is appropriate. The 
amendment will be issued following the publication of this 
Notice.
 
II. EA Summary The purpose of the proposed action is to authorize 
the decontamination and decommissioning of the ABB Prospects, 
Inc.'s CE Windsor, CT site to permit release for unrestricted use 
and termination of NRC License No. 06-00217-06. From the 
mid-1950s, the Combustion Engineering (CE) Site in Windsor, CT 
has been involved in research, development, engineering, 
production, and servicing of nuclear fuel systems, and services. 
On October 15, 2003, ABB Prospects, Inc. submitted
 
[[Page 30964]] a site-wide Decommissioning Plan (DP) for the CE 
Windsor, CT facility, and requested NRC to amend NRC License No. 
06-00217-06 to incorporate the DP into the license. ABB 
Prospects, Inc.'s proposed action was previously noticed in the 
Federal Register on February 6, 2004 (FR Volume 69, Number 25, 
Pages 5879-5880], along with a notice of an opportunity to 
request a hearing.
 
At the completion of remediation, ABB Prospects, Inc. plans to 
conduct radiological surveys sufficient to demonstrate that the 
site meets the license termination criteria in Subpart E of 10 
CFR Part 20. The NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the 
proposed license amendment. NRC evaluated the proposed action, 
alternatives to the proposed action, the affected environment, 
radiological impacts to workers and the public from planned 
decommissioning activities, and planned actions to minimize the 
impact to the environment.
 
III. Finding of No Significant Impact On the basis of the EA, NRC 
has concluded that there are no significant environmental impacts 
from the proposed action and has determined not to prepare an 
environmental impact statement.
 
IV. Further Information The EA and the documents related to this 
proposed action, including the application for the license 
amendment, the DP, and supporting documentation, are available 
for inspection at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room at 
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] 
(ADAMS Accession No. ML040300149. These documents are also 
available for inspection and copying for a fee at the Region I 
Office, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406. 
Persons who do not have access to ADAMS, should contact the NRC 
PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 
415-4737, or by e-mail to

 
pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at King of Prussia, 
Pennsylvania, this 21st day of May, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Marie T. Miller, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of 
Nuclear Materials Safety, RI.
 
[FR Doc. 04-12213 Filed 5-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 26 NRC: Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for the 
 
                        FR Doc 04-12214 
[Federal Register: June 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 105)] 
[Notices] [Page 30962-30963] From the Federal Register Online via 
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jn04-130]                         
 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request 
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
 
ACTION: Notice of the OMB review of information collection and 
solicitation of public comment.
 
SUMMARY: The NRC has recently submitted to OMB for review the 
following proposal for the collection of information under the 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
chapter 35). The NRC hereby informs potential respondents that an 
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and that a person is not 
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
 
1. Type of submission, new, revision, or extension: Extension.
 
2. The title of the information collection: NRC Forms 540 and 
540A, ``Uniform Low-Level Radioactive Waste Manifest (Shipping 
Paper) and Continuation Page;'' NRC Forms 541 and 541A, ``Uniform 
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Manifest, Container and Waste 
Description, and Continuation Page;'' NRC Forms 542 and 542A, 
``Uniform Low-Level Radioactive Waste Manifest, Index and 
Regional Compact Tabulation''.
 
3. The form number if applicable: NRC Forms 540 and 540A; NRC 
Forms 541 and 541A; and NRC Forms 542 and 542A.
 
4. How often the collection is required: Forms are used by 
shippers whenever radioactive waste is shipped. Quarterly or less 
frequent reporting is made to NRC depending on specific license 
conditions.
 
5. Who will be required or asked to report: All NRC-licensed low- 
level waste facilities. All generators, collectors, and 
processors of low-level waste intended for disposal at a 
low-level waste facility must complete the appropriate forms.
 
6. An estimate of the number of annual responses: NRC Form 540 
and 540A: 2,500.
 
NRC Form 541 and 541A: 2,500.
 
NRC Form 542 and 542A: 22.
 
7. The number of annual respondents: NRC Form 540 and 540A: 2,500 
licensees.
 
NRC Form 541 and 541A: 2,500 licensees.
 
NRC Form 542 and 542A: 22 licensees.
 
8. An estimate of the total number of hours needed annually to 
complete the requirement or request: NRC Form 540 and 540A: 
10,050 (.75 hours per response). NRC Form 541 and 541A: 44,341 
(3.3 hours per response). NRC Form 542 and 542A: 567 (.75 hours 
per response). 9. An indication of whether section 3507(d), 
Public Law 104-13 applies: N/A.
 
10. Abstract: NRC Forms 540, 541, and 542, together with their 
continuation pages, designated by the ``A'' suffix, provide a set 
of standardized forms to meet Department of Transportation (DOT), 
NRC, and State requirements. The forms were developed by NRC at 
the request of low-level waste industry groups. The forms provide 
uniformity and efficiency in the collection of information 
contained in manifests which are required to control transfers of 
low-level radioactive waste intended for disposal at a land 
disposal facility. NRC Form 540 contains information needed to 
satisfy DOT shipping paper requirements in 49 CFR part 172 and 
the waste tracking requirements of NRC in 10 CFR part 20. NRC 
Form 541 contains information needed by disposal site facilities 
to safely dispose of low-level waste and information to meet NRC 
and State requirements regulating these activities. NRC Form 542, 
completed by waste collectors or processors, contains information 
which facilitates tracking the identity of the waste generator. 
That tracking becomes more complicated when the waste forms, 
dimensions, or packagings are changed by the waste processor. 
Each container of waste shipped from a waste processor may 
contain waste from several different generators. The information 
provided on NRC Form 542 permits the States and Compacts to know 
the original generators of low-level waste, as authorized by the 
Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985, so 
they can ensure that
 
[[Page 30963]] waste is disposed of in the appropriate Compact.
 
A copy of the final supporting statement may be viewed free of 
charge at the NRC Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 
11555 Rockville Pike, Room O-1 F21, Rockville, MD 20852. OMB 
clearance requests are available at the NRC World Wide Web site: 
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comment/omb/index.html 
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving 
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/doc-comm 
ent/omb/index.html] . The document will be available on the NRC 
home page site for 60 days after the signature date of this 
notice.
 
Comments and questions should be directed to the OMB reviewer 
listed below by July 1, 2004. Comments received after this date 
will be considered if it is practical to do so, but assurance of 
consideration cannot be given to comments received after this 
date. OMB Desk Officer, Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs (3150-0164; 3150-0166; 3150-0165), NEOB-10202, Office of 
Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.
 
Comments can also be submitted by telephone at (202) 395-3087.
 
The NRC Clearance Officer is Brenda Jo. Shelton, 301-415-7233.
 
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 24th day of May, 2004.
 
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 
Brenda Jo. Shelton, NRC Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief 
Information Officer.
 
[FR Doc. 04-12214 Filed 5-28-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P

 
*****************************************************************
 27 [NYTr] Vieques: Military Failure to Clean Up Denounced
 
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 00:09:12 -0500 (CDT)

 
Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424  Vieques, Puerto Rico  00765
Tel 787 741-0716    Fax 787 741-0358   
Email:  oficina@prorescateviques.org
http://www.prorescatevieques.org           
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bieke_pr/ 

30 May, 2004     Press Release

Viequenses in ex military zone to denounce lack of clean up 
and demand return of lands

The Committee for the Rescue and Developmnet of Vieques (CRDV) mobilized on
Sunday around one hundred people in fishing boats to the area once used by
the US Navy for bombing and other military practices.  Representatives of
religious communities, labor and political leaders joined dozens of Vieques
residents in the activity titled, "The Return to the Camps".  In reference
to the civil disobedience camps that stopped Navy bombing for a year
following the deathof David Sanes in April of 1999, the activity was held to
dramatize the urgent necessity for decontamination and the return of
Vieques' lands to its people.  CRDV spokespersons expressed satisfaction
with the participation and the committment shown by diverse sectors of the
Puerto Rican society in this post bombing stage of the struggle for peace on
Vieques.

Eleven people stayed in the restricted area - now controlled by the Federal
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) - until Tuesday, to denounce the slowness of
the clean up process and lack of action by Puerto Rican and Federal
politicians to have lands transferred to the people here.  The Viequenses,
Mario Sol=EDs, Jos=E9 Rivera, Rafael Brignoni, Abdel Guadalupe, H=E9ctor
Cintr=F3n, Emma Nieves, Kathy Gannett and Ismael Guadalupe, with support
from Alberto Mill=E1n, Carlos Claudio and Richard Matos, pro Vieques
activists from the main island, set up camp where the first ecumenical
chapel had been built.  During Sunday's activities, flowers were tossed at
sea in memory of Jenny Ben=EDtez (CRDV) recent Viequense cancer victim and
Zoraida Figueroa, one of the founders of the Pro Vieques Camp next to the
Federal Prison in Puerto Rico.

The activists who remain in the area indicated by telephone that visitor in
yahts that frequent the area every week end since the Navy stopped bombing,
have created an enormous garbage dump and denounced the lack of action by
FWS on this situation.  They described as incompetent this federal agency
that did nothing to protect Vieques nature during decades of military
destruction and now does nothing to avoid this new form of contamination on
this island municipality.

Committee spokespersons said they do not discount future use of non violent
civil disobedience in defense of the environment, health and the natural
right to enjoy and use their territory.  Group leaders also mentioned
upcoming actions to push for sustainable, community controlled development
and against recently announced mega hotel projects planned for the island.

                                *
To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit:
http://tania.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr

=================================================================
  NY Transfer News Collective   *   A Service of Blythe Systems
           Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
              339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
  http://www.blythe.org                  e-mail: nyt@blythe.org
================================================================= 
*****************************************************************
 28 [DU-WATCH] Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq
 
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 02:16:49 -0500 (CDT)

 
Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq

Story by Lisa Richwine REUTERS USA: May 24, 2004

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25212/story.htm

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military should clean up depleted uranium
ammunition scattered across Iraq to prevent future health problems
such as cancer and birth defects, a leading anti-nuclear activist
said.

The Pentagon said it had not found any evidence the material, which
is so dense it can pierce steel tanks,

causes long-term health consequences. An ongoing study of 1991 Gulf
War veterans has shown no ill effects.

But Dr. Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician and president of the Nuclear
Policy Research Institute, linked depleted uranium to higher rates
of cancer and birth defects in Iraq following the Gulf War.

Depleted uranium ammunition is being used by U.S.

troops in Iraq and could seriously harm civilians living there in
the decades to come, said Caldicott, founding president of

Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-nuclear group that
shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

"We should be taking responsibility for what is happening over
there," she told reporters at the National Press Club.

The Pentagon should test buildings in Iraq for depleted uranium,
destroy ones with high levels and bury the material underground,
Caldicott said.

The U.S. government also should compensate people with

cancer related to the material, she said.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production.

It strengthens ammunition and gives weapons twice the range of ones
using other heavy metals. Tanks made with depleted uranium have
proven impenetrable by enemy weapons, the

Pentagon said.

There has been controversy about it since its use during the Gulf
War and the Balkans conflict, including some claims that European
soldiers may have developed leukemia after being exposed to the
material in Kosovo in 1999.

"We don't see anything from the science" indicating long-term health
problems to people exposed to depleted uranium in the environment,
said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Defense Department's deputy director
for deployment health support.

An ongoing study of 70 Gulf War veterans who were hit by weapons
using depleted uranium in "friendly fire"

incidents has found no major health problems for the soldiers or
their 35 children, Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick said research on potential long-term impacts is continuing.

"We are looking at it scientifically. We are keeping an open mind
to it," he said in an interview.

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 29 Taipei Times: Potassium iodide pills part of nuclear safety campaign 

[http://www.taipeitimes.com]     

By Chiu Yu-Tzu STAFF REPORTER Tuesday, Jun 01, 2004,Page 2 

Advertising [Advertising] Nuclear safety will be increased in the 
near future by providing potassium iodide (KI) pills to residents 
living near nuclear power plants and adopting recently-improved 
plasma technology to resolve problems with the treatment of 
low-level radioactive waste, Atomic Energy Council Chairman 
Ouyang Min-shen (¼Ú¶§±Ó²±) said yesterday. 

Since Taiwan's first nuclear power plant opened in 1978, there 
have concerns over nuclear safety, including emergency measures 
and treatment of radioactive waste. 

Because a major nuclear accident could expose tens of thousands 
of people to high levels of radiation, environmentalists and 
health professionals have advocated stockpiling KI tablets or 
distributing them to people residing near the plants.

 Ouyang said that the council decided to provide KI pills to 
residents living within 5km of the three operational nuclear 
power plants.

 "I think our society is mature enough to deal with the issue. 
The government will not hesitate to talk about nuclear safety 
with the public," Ouyang said.

 According to council deputy chairman Chiou Syh-tsong (ªô½çÁo), 
the Department of Health would soon discuss how to handle 
dispensing the pills. By law, such pills can only be obtained by 
prescription.

 "We believe that the Department of Health will handle the issue 
smoothly because precedents can be seen in France and parts of 
the US," Chiou said.

 Meanwhile, Ouyang said the council will tackle problems with the 
treatment of low-level radioactive waste soon. He said the 
Institute of Nuclear Energy Research had significantly improved a 
process involving thermal plasma vitrification treatment of such 
waste.

 Ouyang said long-standing problems with the waste could be 
resolved if state-run Taiwan Power Co used the technology.

 The technology can reduce the volume of untreated waste to 
one-third the original amount and the vitrified remains can be 
safely stored in a final repository.

 "Therefore we shouldn't have the kind of local opposition and 
geological challenges when choosing potential sites for final 
repositories of low-level waste," Ouyang said.

 He said vitrified radioactive materials would be bound up in 
glass or other depositories and would not be easily released.

 "Even if water comes in contact with the waste after it is 
placed in a disposal facility, there will not be problems with 
fallout," Ouyang said.

 Under ideal conditions, he said that the treatment of 98,000 
barrels of low-level radioactive waste stored on Orchid Island 
and some similar waste in operational nuclear power plants would 
be launched within four years. This story has been viewed 433 
times. 
  

Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved. 
*****************************************************************
 30 Aljazeera.Net: Radioactive machine stolen in China             
                                                                         
Authorities in China are concerned about the theft of a piece of
potentially deadly radioactive equipment. 											

Hundreds of police in Shanghai have been searching for a small 
cylinder containing a gamma-ray apparatus capable of transmitting 
fatal doses of radiation, Chinese state press reported on 
Tuesday. 

The 10kg box containing the instrument used to perform industrial 
radiography on construction sites disappeared early on Saturday 
after a company driver parked a car carrying the cylinder outside 
his flat, the Shanghai Daily said. 

When he returned, the canister clearly marked with a warning 
sign, was missing. 

Press reports said a two-day search in the city's northern 
Jingshan district were yet to yield results. Police were not 
available for comment. 

The company has offered a $1200 reward for information leading to 
the discovery of the hazardous material. 

"As a professional, he should have never left such equipment out 
of his sight on the street, let alone leaving it unattended," the 
Shanghai Daily quoted Lu Shuyu, a radiation expert, as saying of 
the driver.                                                                                   

AFP  
*****************************************************************
 31 The Ledger: Man Exposed To Radiation

Lakeland, Polk County, Florida
 	 	 
  Lakeland, Florida 

Published Monday, May 31, 2004
 
The Associated Press
 
A man was exposed to radiation in a soil-testing device that had 
been reported stolen from a construction site, officials said.

The man told authorities Saturday that he found the machine on 
the side of the road, Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue officials 
said. He was taken to Baptist Hospital for observation after the 
portable nuclear moisture-density gauge was recovered at his 
suburban West Kendall home.

U.S. South Engineering and Testing Lab, which reported the theft 
Friday, uses the device to test soil compactness.

The device, which can cost as much as $10,000, presents no public 
health threat if properly stored in its protective case.

  Last modified: May 31. 2004 12:00AM Back to Top

Copyright 2004 The Ledger
*****************************************************************
 32 Casper Star Trib: Company seeks gas near nuclear bomb site
 
Casper, Wyoming - Tuesday, June 01, 2004    
  
www.casperstartribune.net    

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) -- A Texas energy company wants 
permission to drill a natural gas well not far from where a 
43-kiloton nuclear bomb was exploded underground in 1969.

Presco Inc. official Kim Bennetts said Thursday strict 
precautions and state restrictions will be followed if 
authorities approve the permit request.

The Energy Department can impose conditions whenever a well is 
proposed within three miles of Project Rulison, where the bomb 
was exploded 8,400 feet underground in an unsuccessful bid to 
free gas reserves.

The well would be drilled as much as 3,000 feet from the 
half-mile radius "ground zero" zone surrounding the site, 
Bennetts said at the Northwest Colorado Oil and Gas Forum. 

The site is about six miles southeast of Parachute.

"They've found little or no dangerous radioactivity remaining 
since the 1971 burning of about 150 million cubic feet of gas" 
from the site, Bennetts said. "We feel that if there is any 
(radioactivity) still down there, it's in (different sandstone 
formations) and can't migrate more than a few hundred feet."

He said the well could be plugged if tests show gas is 
contaminated.

Energy Department project manager Pete Sanders said only 
background radioactivity had been found during 30 years of tests 
on water sources.

Presco President David Wheeler said the company would likely 
apply for a permit from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation 
Commission soon. If approved, the well could be drilled in late 
August or early September.

"We don't have billions of dollars to throw at this, so we're 
going to do it right," Wheeler said. "We're telling you what 
we're going to do; now we're going to do it right."

Residents at the meeting said they were not convinced things will 
be done safely.

"If you accidentally drill into a crack that has some of that gas 
and it's released into the air, that would be hell for this whole 
valley," Harold Graves of Battlement Mesa said.

W. Michael Smith lives near Silt, where natural gas seeping into 
a creek has been blamed on a nearby well.

"We were told that something like that could never happen," Smith 
said. "Now you want to drill around a nuclear site and you're 
telling us the same thing." 

  Copyright © 2004 by the Casper Star-Tribune published by Lee 
Publications, Inc., a subsidiary of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated   
*****************************************************************
 33 New York Times: As New York Fumes, Wyoming Says It, Too, Needs 
Antiterror Funds
 
Ernie Leyba for The New York Times Antiterror money got a
chemical identifier set for Cheyenne's Fire Department.   

Ernie Leyba for The New York Times Francis E. Warren Air Force 
Base, just off the Interstate, is home to the 90th Space Wing, 
which oversees an arsenal of 150 Minuteman III and 50 Peacekeeper 
nuclear missiles. Their locations are on the Internet.   

 By EDWARD WYATT

Published: June 1, 2004

[C] HEYENNE, Wyo., May 27 - It is hard to imagine there are many 
terrorist threats in a place where tumbleweeds regularly blow 
down the streets, as they do here in Wyoming's largest city and 
state capital.

For those who doubt, however, Wyoming officials point to the two 
men who were stopped by a state trooper in February on Interstate 
80 about 10 miles east of Cheyenne, near the Nebraska border. The 
men, thought by the state police to be white supremacists, had 
nine pipe bombs in the rented trailer attached to their rented 
truck. Wyoming officials disposed of the bombs using a robot 
bought with a federal antiterrorism grant.

That grant was part of the very antiterrorism program that Mayor 
Michael R. Bloomberg recently called "pork barrel politics at its 
worst." Testifying in May before the commission investigating the 
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Bloomberg said too much 
money was going to places that face limited threats - like 
Wyoming, whose population is about half a million, the smallest 
in the country - which this year will receive more than $38 a 
person in antiterrorist financing, more than any other state and 
seven times the per-person amount that will flow to New York.

But as with the nuclear missiles that stand hidden in silos 
beneath the rolling hills and grassy plains here in the state's 
southeastern corner, the logic of why so much homeland security 
money seems to be flowing so freely in Wyoming can be found only 
below the surface.

As was made clear recently by the vague descriptions of terrorist 
threats highlighted by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Robert 
S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., no one except the 
terrorists themselves can know when or where the next strike will 
come. 

"If we understand anything about the psychology of terrorism," 
said Larry W. Majerus, deputy director of the Wyoming Office of 
Homeland Security, "it is that attacks in the future are likely 
to be multiple and designed to get the biggest psychological 
effect they can possibly get. One way to do that is to attack in 
areas where there is the least capacity to respond," like 
Wyoming.

Upon inspection, it is not terribly hard to find potential 
targets for terrorists here. If the exit on Interstate 25 marked 
"Missile Drive" is not enough of a hint, for example, then the 
models of three intercontinental ballistic missiles standing at 
the entrance to the Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, just off 
the Interstate, makes it clear that there is more going on here 
than meets the eye.

The base is home to the 90th Space Wing, which oversees an 
arsenal of 150 Minuteman III and 50 Peacekeeper nuclear missiles. 
The missiles are spread across a network of underground silos in 
eastern Wyoming, western Nebraska and northern Colorado. Although 
military and state officials have kept extra-quiet about the 
arsenal and have tightened security around the base since 9/11, 
the locations of the missile silos can still be found on the 
Internet.

 Cheyenne, population 53,000, sits at the intersection of 
Interstate Highways 80 and 25, two of the nation's busiest 
arteries. The Union Pacific and Burlington Northern lines also 
intersect here, and rail freight cars are perhaps one of the few 
things that outnumber cows, buffalo or elk in this state.

Both the railroads and the highways, of course, are used to 
transport large amounts of chemicals and hazardous waste, in 
addition to providing prime routes for terrorists to travel 
across the country. Wyoming is one of the country's biggest 
suppliers of beef and agricultural products, making the safety of 
the food supply a primary concern for state officials. Much of 
the coal used on the East Coast, meanwhile, originates here, and 
the state produces significant amounts of oil and gas. A power 
plant in southwestern Wyoming, near Rock Springs, provides power 
to much of the West Coast.

To address these threats, Wyoming is scheduled to receive $18.8 
million this fiscal year - six-tenths of 1 percent of the $2.9 
billion in counterterrorism grants being awarded by the federal 
Department of Homeland Security. 

continued

         Copyright 2004  [http://www.nytco.com/]  | 
*****************************************************************
 34 New Straits Times: Radioactive material to be safely shipped out of Lumut 

Malaysia News Online
 
  Wednesday, June 02 2004,   

Mimi Syed Yusof  [mimisy@nst.com.my] 

IPOH, May 31:

  The iron oxide or “red earth” currently stored on a plot of 
land at the Kampung Acheh Industrial Park in Lumut is expected to 
be shipped out within 10 days. 

Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Dr Rehir 
Dahlan said he was informed of this by the operator managing the 
industrial by-product, after a visit by AELB officials last week. 

He said the samples collected by his officials verified that the 
radioactive activity of the iron oxide was low. 

However, he said preventive measures have been taken to ensure 
that the iron oxide was properly stored while waiting for it to 
be shipped out.
 
Copyright © 2004 NST Online. All rights reserved. Powered by:
Zope, Red Hat, Apache, Python, Perl
*****************************************************************
 35 St. Petersburg Times:  Bellona Wins Case on Secrets of Nuclear Submarines -

#973, Tuesday, June 1, 2004   

By Vladimir Kovalev 

STAFF WRITER Environmental Rights Center Bellona on Thursday won 
a court case over a dispute with the Defense Minister and the 
Navy Commander on declassifying information about accidents on 
board Soviet nuclear submarines.

 The presidium of the Moscow City Court said that the information 
requested by environmentalists cannot be classified and that 
Bellona can demand its release.

 "This ruling establishes a precedent," said St. Petersburg 
lawyer Ivan Pavlov, head of the Institute for the Development of 
Freedom of Information, who was hired by Bellona to work on the 
case. "In the past the courts had no idea at all how to get 
documents declassified." 

"After we have dealt with some formalities, the case will be 
handed over to the Presnya District Court [in Moscow]," he said 
Thursday in a telephone interview. "In theory, it should be heard 
within the 10 days after the case is submitted, but it is 
unlikely to happen so fast judging from how our courts work."

 Bellona is seeking information on nuclear submarine accidents 
that occurred between 1961 and 1985.

 It sent its first request to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in 
mid-2002. Within a month Navy head Vladimir Kuroyedov replied, 
telling the environmentalists he refused to supply any 
information about the accidents.

 Bellona then used a court system that demonstrated its 
unwillingness to tackle such a sensitive matter as that of 
classified information.

 "This case is full of interesting moments," Pavlov said.

 Bellona filed its first case in August 2002 to Presnya District 
Court, which has jurisdiction over cases involving the Defense 
Ministry. But the court refused to hear the case, saying that 
state secrets were a matter for the Moscow City Court.

 In August last year, the city court ruled that Bellona's request 
was outside the jurisdiction of "a court of a city of federal 
significance" and said the case should be heard in the Presnya 
court because it "does not concern state secrets."

 "We found ourselves in an absurd situation with two rulings that 
completely contradicted each other," Pavlov said.

 Thursday's ruling has paved the way for the requests to be 
answered.

 "It is more or less known what happened, when and on which 
submarines," Bellona representative Rashid Alimov said Monday a 
telephone interview. "There is information in our reports, but we 
wanted it to be confirmed officially." 

"According to our information taken from different open sources 
there were failures on nuclear reactors between 1961 and 1985 on 
submarines with tactical numbers K-19, K-387, K-208, K-279, 
K-447, K-508, K-209, K-210, K-216, K-316, K-462, K-38, K-37, 
K-371, and K-367," Bellona's request for information says. "It is 
known that there were human casualties and also that radiation 
leaked into the atmosphere. But to this day information on the 
consequences of the accidents is hidden from the public."

 Kuroyedov said he "does not know which open sources were used to 
get information on accidents, and what is more, the tactical 
numbers of submarines" and has confirmed only one, that of K-19. 
In his letter to Bellona Kuroyedov said only that all measures 
necessary to take care of victims had already been implemented.

 Bellona treated the letter as an attempt to avoid having to 
supply the information requested.

 The Navy press service could not be reached for comment Monday.

 Bellona's report on the Murmansk-based Northern Fleet mentions 
18 cases of technical failures involving Soviet nuclear 
submarines from 1961 to 1985, including cases in which people 
died.

 According to the report, 39 sailors died Sept. 8, 1967 in the 
Norwegian sea as a result of a fire on board the submarine K-3; 
28 sailors died a result of a fire on Feb. 24, 1972 on board the 
famous K-19 submarine, which was on its way back from service in 
the Northern Atlantic; on Sept. 26, 1976 another 8 sailors died 
in the Barents Sea as a result of a fire started by old rags 
catching fire on board the submarine K-47; 13 sailors died on 
June 18, 1984 after an electrician's clothing caught fire on 
submarine K-131, and two crew died on K-387 in 1976 as a result 
of a condenser failure.

 All this and the rest of the disasters linked to different leaks 
and technical problems with reactors on submarines are described 
in detail on the web site bellona.org. More top stories: FSB 
Tells NTV to Cut Clip | Admirer of Russian Avant-Garde Wins 
Pritzker | Lappeenranta and Imatra: Finnish Cities Linked to St. 
Pete | Visitors With Swastikas | St. Petersburg's 301st 
Anniversary | Something to say? Write to the Opinion Page Editor. 
E-mail [letters@sptimesrussia.com?subject=Bellona Wins Case on 
Secrets of Nuclear Submarines ] or online form: 


If you are willing for your comment to be published as a letter 
to the editor, please supply your first name, last name and the 
city and country where you live. Your email: Little about you:
 
[Copyright] copyright The St. Petersburg Times 1993-2004        
    
*****************************************************************
 36 Las Vegas SUN: AP: Miners Drawn to Illegal Congo Uranium
 
 By TODD PITMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS 

SHINKOLOBWE, Congo (AP) - Business is booming in the mining zone
that supplied uranium for the atomic bombs unleashed on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki - despite a decree by Congo's president
banning all mining activity here. 

President Joseph Kabila ordered the zone closed three months ago
amid growing concerns that unregulated nuclear materials could
get into the hands of so-called rogue nations or terrorist
groups. Yet 1,000 miles away from the capital, Kinshasa,
thousands of diggers are still hacking away at a dark cavity of
open earth in this southeastern village, filling thousands of
burlap sacks a day with black soil rich in cobalt, copper - and
radioactive uranium. 

The illegal mining provides stark evidence of how little control
Africa's third-largest nation has over its own nuclear
resources, highlighting the government's weak authority beyond
the capital in the aftermath of Congo's devastating 1998-2002
war. 

"They're digging as fast as they can dig, and everyone is buying
it," John Skinner, a mining engineer in the nearby town of
Likasi, said of the illegal freelance mining at Shinkolobwe.
"The problem is that nobody knows where it's all going. There is
no control." 

The raw uranium is an inadvertent addition to the miners' real
prize - high-grade cobalt in lucrative concentrations - and
there is no evidence Congo's uranium is being spirited away to
terrorists. The United States, which pressured Kabila to close
the mine out of concern over the uranium, said in March it did
not believe there was any "worrisome movement" of the
radioactive ore at Shinkolobwe. 

But some proliferation experts worry because the digging is
uncontrolled, and they caution that even small amounts should be
tracked for misuse. 

Shinkolobwe's deposits were discovered in 1915 when Congo was a
Belgian colony. The find helped thrust the world into the
nuclear age, providing much of the uranium used in the atomic
bombs the United States dropped on Japan in 1945. 

Shinkolobwe ceased to be profitable and closed in 1960, Mining
Minister Diomi Ndongala said. Belgian authorities, apparently
concerned about the mine's safety, filled the main uranium shaft
with concrete. 

Congo's war and accompanying lawlessness brought prospectors
back in 1998. Miners dug new pits just a couple hundred yards
from the rusting, weed-choked uranium factory. 

Kabila moved against the mine in February to "protect the
environment, the population and the world against terrorism,"
Ndongala said. 

His ban has never been enforced, however. Ndongala spoke of
plans to drive the miners away from Shinkolobwe with soldiers,
but said his cash-strapped government "doesn't have the means"
to do so. 

And perhaps, little real incentive. 

Mining is big business in Congo. Government officials declined
to give figures on the cobalt industry, but overall exports -
including cobalt, diamonds, copper and coffee - topped $1
billion in 2002. 

Today at Shinkolobwe, some 5,500 Congolese using shovels, hoes
and bare hands haul ores overland to nearby Likasi, where
businessmen from Africa, India, China and elsewhere have set up
13 smelting mills. 

The end product, and just as often the raw material itself,
known as heteroginite, is shipped south by road to neighboring
Zambia, and then abroad. 

Industry officials say the heteroginite primarily contains
high-grade cobalt. But "trace quantities of uranium are being
exported unwittingly" along with it, said Skinner, the mining
engineer, a Zimbabwean who is a longtime Congo resident. 

The diggers, uneducated, hungry and fearful for their jobs, deny
any uranium is being mined. 

Provincial governor Aime Ngoy Mukena confirmed to The Associated
Press that the heteroginite contains uranium, but he and other
officials declined to say precisely how much. 

Alex Stewart (Assayers) Ltd., a British-based company that
provides lab services to the mining industry, found "a high
concentration of the highly radioactive uranium-235 in steels
from Shinkolobwe," European Parliament member Bart Staes wrote
to the European Commission in 2003. 

The isotope uranium-235 is needed to support chain reactions in
nuclear reactors and weapons. The metal must be refined first, a
process called enrichment. 

Foreign experts say the uranium being dug up at Shinkolobwe is
not significant enough to attract terrorists - a basic bomb
needs a half-dozen tons of the raw ore. But no one consistently
monitors how much is being mined or exported. 

About 20 state mining police officers are posted at Shinkolobwe,
but their main task is to ensure diggers pay their taxes. On the
Congolese frontier, underpaid officials are easily bribed to let
shipments through. 

"It's a whole other problem when governments can't control what
happens on their own land," said Michael Levi, a science and
technology fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. 

Mukena, the governor, told AP that government experts test all
minerals for export, but state labs do not have the means to
detect uranium. 

"There is no local laboratory that can do it," Mukena said,
adding that Shinkolobwe was closed partly for that reason. 

The U.S. government recently sent experts to inspect
Shinkolobwe. U.S. Embassy officials in Kinshasa declined to
detail their findings. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. organization
that monitors nuclear facilities, also has offered to inspect
the mines. The government has not taken up the offer, agency
spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said by telephone from IAEA
headquarters in Vienna, Austria. 

The IAEA begins tracking uranium ore only after it has been
enriched into weapons-grade material, a process that requires
extremely sophisticated technical know-how, Fleming said. 

"There is a huge, long process you have to go through before it
gets to a point of concern for the world," Fleming said. 

Tom Cochrane, director of the nuclear program at the Natural
Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based advocacy group,
agreed. 

Pre-enriched, "it's not very good dirty-bomb material," he said. 

Levi, however, argued that even small quantities should be
tracked. 

"The assumption in the past was always that you'd have to divert
a huge amount of uranium to make a bomb," Levi said from
Washington. "But you can do most of the research leading to a
bomb with small amounts of uranium. So you can get very far
without being detected." 

Saddam Hussein's intelligence archives show a middleman in
Nairobi, Kenya, offered to supply Iraq with Congo uranium in
2000, Newsweek reported in its May 17 issue. A note in the
intelligence service's file suggested Iraq was then under too
much international scrutiny to pursue the deal but recommended
Iraq "maintain contact" with the middleman. 

The Shinkolobwe mine is not Congo's only nuclear worry. In the
capital, an aging, low-power research reactor still operates on
an erosion-prone hill at the university. 

It has been criticized for lax security, and two of its nuclear
fuel rods were stolen in the late 1980s. One was later found in
Italy. The other remains missing. 

As for Shinkolobwe, "if there was really a political will to
close it, it could be closed in a day," Skinner said. "But
everybody is making money out of it, and at the end of the day,
that's what it's all about." 

-- 



*****************************************************************
 37 JoongAng Daily: 10 localities' voters tender new bids for nuclear waste dump
 
June 2, 2004 KST 11:24 (GMT+9)

by Chang Se-jeong ojlee82@joongang.co.kr>   

  2004.05.31       

  Residents of 10 counties and cities have submitted bids to
host Korea's first permanent nuclear waste disposal site, the
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday when it
closed its acceptance of new bids.

 According to the ministry, residents of Soryong and Okdo
counties in North Jeolla province, Buk-myeon in North Gyeongsang
province, Yongsan in South Jeolla province and Seodo in Incheon
signed up to host the nuclear dump on the final day.

 On Saturday residents of five other counties ¡ª Geunnam and
Giseong in North Gyeongsang province, Haeri in North Jeolla
province and Hongnong and Saengil in South Jeolla province ¡ª
had submitted bids. 

Buan county of North Jeolla province submitted no new bid. Last
July, Kim Jong-gyu, the governor of North Jeolla province, asked
Seoul to put the site in that county despite strong opposition
from some local residents. But the ministry said Buan was also
still in the running.

 All of the regions interested in hosting the nuclear waste
facility, which will come with a generous aid package from the
central government, were required to submit petitions signed by
at least one-third of the area's residents over the age of 20.

 In Hongnong, South Jeolla province, 68 percent of the voters
had agreed to bid. 

Although the "citizen bidding" period is over, a ministry
official said, other areas will have another chance to enter the
fray. A second petition, this one from the head of the county
government, must be submitted by Sept. 15. The ministry said
other counties would get another chance to bid then. 

The final decision is to be made before the end of the year.
 

*****************************************************************
 38 UPI: Bulgaria signs nuclear waste plant deal - 

(United Press International)
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 
  June 01, 2004 			   

Sofia, , Jun. 1 (UPI) -- A German consortium has signed a deal to 
build a nuclear waste disposal facility in Bulgaria, local media 
reported Tuesday.

 The $60 million deal was signed between the Bulgarian nuclear 
power plant Kozloduy and German firms GNB and RWE Nukem.

 The nuclear waste facility will become operational sometime in 
2008 and will be capable of handling 2,800 storage units for at 
least 50 years.

 Bulgaria is scaling down parts of its domestic nuclear power 
program due to safety concerns. 

The country hopes to join the European Union in 2007 having 
missed out on the first round of European Union enlargement on 
May 1 this year when eight former communist countries became 
members in the largest ever enlargement wave.

 Fiercely anti-nuclear Austria has been highly critical of safety 
standards in former communist countries, although it has not 
blocked the accession of countries such as the Czech Republic and 
Slovakia, both of which have nuclear power programs and both of 
which border Austria.

*****************************************************************
 39 startribune: Editorial: Nuclear waste/Best plan: No dregs left behind
 
[http://www.startribune.com]     

update: June 1, 2004 at 6:33 AM

When the U.S. Senate reconvenes today, one of the first issues it 
is to address is a significant change in the way this nation 
handles its worst nuclear waste. Senators should not hesitate to 
reject this ill-advised move. 

The waste in question is the mostly liquid byproduct of plutonium 
processing at U.S. weapons plants. Much of it has been collected 
for temporary storage in tanks at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation 
in Washington state, the Savannah River facility in South 
Carolina and the former Idaho National Nuclear Laboratory, now 
known as INEEL. The ultimate plan is to seal it in glass logs for 
permanent storage in the vault now planned for Yucca Mountain in 
Nevada. 

Deteriorating tanks have begun to leak in Washington and South 
Carolina, threatening serious contamination of the Columbia and 
Savannah rivers; INEEL sits atop an aquifer that recharges the 
Snake River in dry spells. Understandably, the Department of 
Energy is interested in speeding the cleanup process at all three 
sites. Incredibly, it has proposed to do so by simply 
reclassifying some waste so it can be left right where it is. 

In essence, DOE proposes to extract and encase as much waste as 
it deems reasonable, then cover the dregs with concrete. It's 
possible that some solution along these lines might make sense. 
But as Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., points out, its proponents 
have failed to provide enough details -- such as the volume of 
material to be left behind -- to permit an independent scientific 
review. Moreover, the nature of this waste is such that 
radioactivity is especially concentrated in the residues. 

Having failed to negotiate a deal with Cantwell and other 
like-minded officials, DOE obtained an executive order allowing 
it to unilaterally reclassify high-level waste at the three 
repositories, in effect exempting it from the 1982 Nuclear Waste 
Policy Act, and to withhold cleanup funds from their states if 
they refused to comply. That effort was struck down in federal 
court. 

Now the department quietly attached equivalent provisions to the 
defense appropriations bill; they are to be voted on as early as 
today. Cantwell and allies have succeeded in removing Hanford and 
INEEL from its provisions, and expect they can strip the language 
permitting fiscal punishment of uncooperative states. 

But Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., insists on letting his state and the 
Energy Department cut their own deal on Savannah River (to the 
consternation of other South Carolinians, including his 
Democratic colleague, Sen. Fritz Hollings). His arguments are 
that, first, the cleanup process will be much quicker and cheaper 
if some waste can be left behind, and, second, that South 
Carolinians ought to be able to decide what's best for South 
Carolina. 

Quicker and cheaper can be valid considerations in planning a 
pollution cleanup, even when the pollutant is concentrated 
nuclear waste -- but only after the highest level of safety has 
been guaranteed. And those guarantees must satisfy national 
standards, not the terms of a side deal. 

The idea that U.S. policies on nuclear waste ought to be subject 
to local-option exemptions is a perennial complication of a 
process that is already complex enough. In the short run, 
Graham's accommodation of the Energy Department's new agenda is a 
bad idea for South Carolina (and Georgia, which shares the 
Savannah River). It would also set a troubling precedent for 
waste handling in other states, beginning with Washington and 
Idaho, but conceivably extending to every other state with 
nuclear waste, military or civilian, in temporary storage. If 
shortcuts can be taken at Savannah River, why not Prairie Island? 
     
  [Star Tribune]     © 2004 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. 
[The McClatchy Company] feedback terms of use privacy policy 
member center [http://www.startribunecompany.com] 
*****************************************************************
 40 KoreaTimes: 11 Counties Vie for Nuclear Waste Site 

Hankooki.com > Korea Times   

By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter 

To the relief of the government, as many as 10 counties had filed 
petitions to accommodate the long-overdue nuclear waste site by 
the final deadline on Monday.

 A total of 11 candidates will compete for the nuclear dump site, 
including Puan of South Cholla Province, where residents will 
conduct a poll to decide whether to offer a bid for the project. 

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) announced 
yesterday nine counties in Cholla and Kyongsang provinces had 
submitted petitions carrying signatures from more than one-third 
of adults aged above 20.

 The regions include Soryong-dong and Okto-myon in Kunsan, North 
Cholla Province, Hongnong-up in Yongkwang, Saengil-myon in Wando, 
Haeri-myon in Kochang and Yongsan-myon in Changhung, South Cholla 
Province.

 Sodo-myon in Kanghwa, Inchon Metropolitan City, Kisong-myon, 
Kunnam-myon and Puk-myon in Uljin, North Kyongsang Province, also 
threw in their hats.

 ``This is encouraging because we expected just four or five 
regions would apply. We think the long-overdue nuclear dump 
project will be finally complete by the end of this year,¡¯¡¯ an 
MOCIE official said.

 The number of candidates may increase as local governments have 
another chance to place preliminary applications by September 15 
after acquiring the signatures of more than one-third of the 
population or local parliament¡¯s approval.

 Among all the applicants, only those regions receiving support 
from a majority in local voting with more than one-third of the 
population taking part will be entitled to place final bids, due 
by the end of November.

 If multiple hopefuls are eligible, a screening committee will 
make the final decision before the end of the year.

 Korea has sought to designate a nuclear waste site since 1986, 
but attempts have been continually frustrated by the desperate 
opposition of local residents.

 Most recently, the government tried to build a nuclear waste 
site in Wido, an islet off Puan, but massive demonstrations 
forced the government to back down.

 Currently, the decision whether to apply to house the site will 
be determined by Puan residents through a vote, which will be 
conducted before the firm-bid dead line of November.

 South Korea retains 18 nuclear reactors in four regions and 
currently stores nuclear waste at interim repositories, full 
capacity of which is expected to be reached by around 2008. 

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr 05-31-2004 22:30         
        
*****************************************************************
 41 AU ABC: Govt clarifies waste transport risk » 

"Australian Broadcasting Corporation

[http://abc.net.au/]

Tuesday, 1 June 2004 

The Victorian Government says the dangers of transporting toxic 
waste along the Calder Highway between Melbourne and Mildura, in 
the state's north-west, must be put into perspective. 

The Calder Highway improvement committee wants the industrial 
waste shipped by rail to a proposed dump in the Mallee to reduce 
the risk of a contamination spill. 

But the Transport and Major Events Minister Peter Batchelor says 
the highway is more likely to be used and could involve up to 10 
trucks a day. 

He says the road transport of diesel and agricultural chemicals 
is a bigger danger than the industrial waste. 

"It will be dried, it will be contained in a truck and it won't 
be flammable," he said. 

"It's not radioactive and the sorts of things that people are 
concerned about, they won't be going to this facility in that 
form or they won't be going there at all." [ more news ] Last 
Updated: 8:39:00 AM (AEST)                  

[http://www.abc.net.au
            


*****************************************************************
 42 Hanford New: Nuclear stockpile stewards devise new tests
	
[http://www.hanfordnews.com]                 
 	     	 	
May 31st 2004

By The Associated Press 

NEVADA TEST SITE, Nev. - At ground zero for the nation's nuclear 
testing, the stewards of the atomic stockpile stopped creating 
mushroom clouds and craters more than a decade ago. 

Now they devise complex underground experiments using radar, 
laser and X-ray imaging to explore the finer points of how 
plutonium performs in an explosion. 

Scientists call the experiments "subcritical" because they don't 
set off thermonuclear blasts like those that rocked the Nevada 
desert northwest of Las Vegas from 1951 to 1992. 

"When you had the nuclear test, what was the proof? It exploded," 
said James Danneskiold, a spokesman for Los Alamos National 
Laboratory in New Mexico, where plutonium triggers for bombs are 
produced. 

"Now, you have to ask the necessary questions to show that the 
weapon still functions as it was designed," Danneskiold said, 
"that it's safe, reliable, and will work when needed." 

The experiments subject plutonium "pits" like those at the core 
of nuclear weapons to stresses that scientists say only high 
explosives can produce. They don't detonate the radioactive 
element, but collect data about how it would explode. 

Contamination is a risk. Darwin Morgan, spokesman for the 
National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that 
oversees the site, said no plutonium detonations have occurred 
and no radioactivity has been released during 20 previous 
subcritical tests. 

Remoteness was a factor when the Nevada Test Site was established 
in 1950 by President Harry Truman. The site encompasses 1,375 
square miles, nearly the size of Rhode Island, and is surrounded 
on three sides by the 4,562-square-mile Nellis Air Force Base 
bombing range. Combined, the federal reservation is larger than 
the state of Connecticut. 

A short distance from the underground test laboratory is the 
Frenchman Flat dry lake bed, where the first of 1,021 Nevada 
nuclear weapons tests was conducted. After 14 atmospheric and 
five underground tests, Frenchman Flat remains strewn with 
structures built in the 1950s to measure the effects of primitive 
nuclear blasts. 

Steel reinforcement bars from a crumbled concrete dome curl like 
hair blown back. Rusting pens mark where pigs dressed in Army 
uniforms were subjected to shock, heat and radiation waves. 
Warped wooden benches sit on a knoll where VIPs watched 
detonations from only nine miles away. 

Before boarding a steel cage elevator for the 75-second descent 
down a mine shaft to the lab, Ghazar Papazian, Los Alamos project 
director at the test site, characterized the safety zones of the 
laboratory as a "nested bottle concept." 

"If the first cork leaks, the second can contain it. If the 
second leaks, the third can contain it," he said, pointing to 
escape routes on a three-dimensional mock-up of one mile of 
underground tunnels. 

At the underground lab, a vault 300 feet deep is filled with 
concrete where the 20 kiloton Ledoux underground nuclear test was 
conducted in September 1990. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima, 
Japan, in World War II measured 16 kilotons. 

Other sealed vaults entomb most of the 20 previous subcritical 
experiments, and quarter-inch steel doors can be closed to seal 
tunnel sections like compartments in a submarine. Rubber-soled 
shoes squeak on painted gray cement floors. 

"Armando," an upcoming test, is the third in a series. Its 
predecessors, "Mario" and "Rocco" in August and September 2002, 
were conducted in six-foot diameter wells drilled 35 feet deep 
beneath the tunnel floor of one finger of the complex. 

The upcoming detonation 963 feet underground will involve high 
explosives inside a steel sphere that would fit in the back of a 
pickup. Cameras, lasers and a special high-intensity X-ray 
focusing 2 million volts of electricity will beam through the 
sphere to measure temperature, pressure and velocity, and any 
microwaves the plutonoium gives off. 

The tunnels will be cleared of workers, while diagnostic 
equipment shielded in tractor-trailer sized containers collect 
data. After the test, the area will be swept for radiation before 
anyone returns. 

"Armando" is designed to answer questions about how plutonium 
ages and whether weapons triggers produced by milling or casting 
processes perform the same, Papazian said. 

Production of weapons-grade plutonium was suspended in 1989 at a 
mill in Rocky Flats, near Denver. A cast process at Los Alamos, 
N.M., is expected to resume producing 10 plutonium pits a year by 
2007, Danneskiold said. 

Tests also seek to determine "if things designed for 20 to 30 
years can last for 40 to 60 years," Papazian said. 

Experiments can cost up to $40 million each, compared with $90 
million apiece for full-fledged underground nuclear tests. 
Papazian said he did not know what "Armando" would cost. 

Test site officials call the program "stockpile stewardship" - 
essential to the U.S. policy of nuclear deterrence. Critics call 
it unnecessary. 

"They're still doing bomb testing," complained Peggy Maze 
Johnson, director of Citizen Alert, a Nevada anti-nuclear 
advocacy group. 

The number of U.S. warheads is classified. The Natural Resources 
Defense Council, which has monitored nuclear issues since 1970, 
estimates the United States has about 10,400 warheads - about 
half the nuclear weapons in the world. 

Morgan said nuclear tests are strictly defined by international 
treaty. 

"We do experiments," he said. "There's no sustained nuclear 
reaction." 

The work has taken on new emphasis with the Bush administration 
seeking to cut the lead time needed to resume full-scale 
underground nuclear testing from in half, to 18 months. 

The United States has observed a nuclear testing moratorium since 
1992, but has not ratified the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban 
Treaty.

© 2004 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
 43 Boston Globe / Opinion: A nuclear band-aid

Boston.com 

  A nuclear band-aid Boston Globe IF THE SENATE isn't careful,
it could vote this week to allow the Department of Energy to
cover some of the nation's most hazardous nuclear waste with
grout instead of treating it properly and eventually entombing
it in a proper waste depository. The material, left over from
Cold War weapons production, sits in huge tanks in South
Carolina and Western ... June 1, 2004 --> <img

June 1, 2004 

IF THE SENATE isn't careful, it could vote this week to allow
the Department of Energy to cover some of the nation's most
hazardous nuclear waste with grout instead of treating it
properly and eventually entombing it in a proper waste
depository. The material, left over from Cold War weapons
production, sits in huge tanks in South Carolina and Western
states. 

The plan, backed by the Department of Energy to save billions of 
dollars in cleanup costs, would reclassify radioactive sludge as 
low-level waste and permit much less stringent cleanup measures. 
Most of the waste left over from reprocessing plutonium for 
weapons would still be shipped to a disposal site in Nevada. The 
sludge that the department wants to cover with cement-like grout 
and keep in place is the material adhering to the sides and 
bottoms of the huge tanks. 

Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state is leading 
opposition to the proposal, a stealth amendment to the defense 
authorization bill, saying grout is something people use in 
bathrooms and shouldn't be used for capping nuclear waste. Her 
state is affected because while the amendment would permit the 
government to reclassify sludge only in South Carolina, it would 
allow the department to withhold cleanup funds for similar tanks 
in Idaho and Washington until they agree to keep their wastes. 

The department prevailed on South Carolina's Republican Senator 
Lindsey Graham to sponsor the measure, which is opposed by that 
state's Democratic senator, Ernest Hollings. The amendment, which 
contradicts the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, has moved forward 
without a single hearing and without consideration by the 
committee with jurisdiction over nuclear waste cleanup, the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

"This is a major change to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that was 
done in a closed-door session with no debate and no public 
hearing," Cantwell said in an interview last week. She said 
independent scientists believe that the grouting process would be 
hard to correct if it doesn't work, and leaving the sludge where 
it is threatens to contaminate ground water. The Senate should 
strip the defense spending bill of this toxic measure. [ /]  © 

Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. 
*****************************************************************
 44 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 13:03:56 -0700 (PDT)

 
10 areas compete for nuclear dump
Korea Herald - Seoul,South Korea
Ten areas across the country have applied to host a new nuclear waste disposal
facility, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday.
...
<http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/06/01/200406010030.asp>
See all stories on this topic:
<http://news.google.com/news?ie=utf8&oe=utf8&persist=1&num=30&hl=en&client=google&newsclusterurl=http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/06/01/200406010030.asp>

SRI Lankan nuclear suspect held in Malaysia
Radio Australia - Australia
A Malaysian rights group has condemned the use of a harsh security law
to detain a Sri Lankan alleged to be involved in an international nuclear
blackmarket. ...
<http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newstories/RANewsStories_1119977.htm>
See all stories on this topic:
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CORRECTED - Cameco not to acquire stake in Texas Nuclear plant
Forbes - USA
In TORONTO item headlined "Cameco not to acquire stake in Texas Nuclear
plant" please read in third paragraph "...announced a $333 million agreement
...
<http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/newswire/2004/05/31/rtr1389789.html>
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VANUNU: Exposing Israel's nuclear secrets was not betrayal
Ha'aretz - Israel
In his first interview since his release last month after 18 years in jail
for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets, Mordechai Vanunu told the BBC
in an ...
<http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/433548.html>
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KERRY to pay more attention to nuclear issues in ties with Russia
ITAR-TASS - Moscow,Russia
NEW YORK, May 31 (Itar-Tass) - John Kerry, the US Democratic Party presidential
candidate, has promised to give more attention to nuclear issues in relations
...
<http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=885053&PageNum=0>
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QUAKES Cause Public Fears About Nuclear Plant Safety
Korea Times - Seoul,South Korea
Saturday’s strong earthquake and aftershocks have set off public fears
about the safety of nuclear power plants in North Kyongsang Province,
close to the ...
<http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200405/kt2004053118131311970.htm>
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NORTH Korea accuses US of concocting nuclear program as pretext ... 
Billings Gazette - Billings,MT,USA
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea on Monday accused the Bush administration
of making up reports about the North's nuclear weapons program as a pretext
for ...
<http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/05/31/build/world/68-nkoreanukes.inc>
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BRASH urged to reveal nuclear policy
NZ City - New Zealand
NZ First leader Winston Peters wants Don Brash to assure New Zealanders
he has no intention of suggesting a change to our nuclear free legislation
before he ...
<http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=39956>
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NUCLEAR parts reached Libya after a US raid
International Herald Tribune - Paris,France
In March, just as the US government was showing reporters some of the sensitive
nuclear equipment that Libya gave up after renouncing its weapons program,
the ...
<http://www.iht.com/articles/522532.htm>
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 45 Google News Alert - nuclear
 
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:47:06 -0700 (PDT)

 
KERRY Vows Action on Threat of Nuclear Terrorism
Wired News - USA
By Patricia Wilson. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Democratic candidate
John Kerry on Tuesday proposed to combat the threat of nuclear terrorism
by securing ...
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NUCLEAR power 'too big' for NZ
New Zealand Herald - Auckland,New Zealand
By SIMON COLLINS science reporter. The head of the Government-appointed
Electricity Commission, Roy Hemmingway, says New Zealand is too small
for nuclear power. ...
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TIGHTENING security at Tennessee nuclear facility
Scripps Howard News Service - USA
By FRANK MUNGER. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. - Under pressure to terror-proof the
Y-12 nuclear weapons plant at Oak Ridge, contractors are hiring more guards
and ...
<http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=OAKRIDGE-06-01-04&cat=AN>
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ELBARADEI says " jury out " on Iran's nuclear plans
Reuters AlertNet - London,England,UK
BRATISLAVA, June 1 (Reuters) - The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said
on Tuesday his inspectors had found no clear proof of a military dimension
to Iran's ...
<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0149372.htm>
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IAEA Inspectors Visit Heavy Water Nuclear Installations in Arak
Merh News Agency - Tehran,Iran
TEHRAN, June 1 (MNA) -- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors
visited the heavy water nuclear installations in Arak for the first time
last ...
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ASIA turns to nuclear to fight power shortages
Financial Times - London,England,UK
Designers and developers of nuclear power stations seeking career opportunities
at the beginning of the 21st century are looking to Asia. ...
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AEP reaches new deal for Texas nuclear plant
Columbus Business First - Columbus,OH,USA
American Electric Power Company Inc.'s deal to sell a nuclear power plant
in Texas has been headed off at the pass. AEP had planned ...
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UN Would Sanction Military Link In Tehran ’ s Nuclear Program
DefenseNews.com (subscription) - USA
UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said June 1 the jury was
still out on Iran’s nuclear program but that he would not hesitate to
recommend ...
<http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2968130&C=america>

SIX arrests in nuclear break-in
BBC News - London,England,UK
Six peace activists have been arrested at one of Britain's key sites for
the production of nuclear warheads. The protesters, from ...
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IRAN official denies 'nuclear relations' with North Korea
USA Today - USA
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Iran said Tuesday it has never received nuclear
technology from communist North Korea. "We never had ...
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 46 New York Times: Looking for Some Help for Love Canal's Other Site
 
Dan Cappellazzo for The New York Times Luella Kenny, 67, at the
Love Canal site. She moved after her son died.   

 By ANTHONY DePALMA

Published: June 1, 2004

[N] IAGARA FALLS, N.Y. - Niagara's rush and roar have long drawn 
both visionaries and hucksters, but few ever matched the audacity 
of William T. Love, a fast-talking drifter who vowed in 1893 to 
build a canal linking this city to a fertile field seven miles 
away and there erect "the most perfect city in existence."

Just a small section of canal was dug, but today the two places 
that would have been connected by water are bound instead by a 
pair of environmental nightmares that arose from the ruins of Mr. 
Love's grandiose dream. 

Near the southeastern end of this city lies the infamous Love 
Canal, the remnant of Mr. Love's doomed plan where tons of toxic 
chemicals were dumped. Federal environmental officials recently 
declared a formal end to the Love Canal cleanup, though 
monitoring continues. 

But there is no end in sight for the problems that have arisen at 
what would have been the northern terminus of Mr. Love's canal. 
He called the area Model City, and now it contains one of the 
largest hazardous-waste landfill sites in the country, right next 
to a government storage site containing radioactive residues from 
the construction of the first atomic bomb. 

In Model City, as in Love Canal, questions are being asked about 
fault and fairness. While the federal government's actions to 
clean up the Love Canal hazards appear to be finally approaching 
an end, the people who live in the Model City area face a 
struggle just to get officials to heed their calls for help. 

"To the government, there are no health issues, no economic 
issues, no community issues," said Vincent Agnello, who leads a 
group of local residents fighting the landfill, run by Chemical 
Waste Management, Inc. and known around town as C.W.M. To the 
government, "This is just a great place to dump," he said. 

Substantial changes in attitudes and regulations help explain the 
disparity between the two communities. The chemical dump at Love 
Canal was ancient by modern standards. It was no more than the 
open pit left by Mr. Love when dumping started in 1942, and it 
had none of the safety features now required by the federal 
Environmental Protection Agency. The chemical landfill in Model 
City, by contrast, was acquired by Chemical Waste in 1984 and is 
far more technologically advanced and more closely regulated.

State and federal environmental officials insist that the waste 
sites in Model City pose no threat to nearby residents. "The 
C.W.M. operation is run properly," said Walter E. Mugdan, 
regional director of environmental planning and protection for 
the Environmental Protection Agency. "It does not represent an 
inappropriate level of risk." 

That assurance, however, means little to the people living around 
Model City. Having watched the intensive government effort to 
clean up Love Canal, residents of Model City expected the same 
diligence in their area and are increasingly frustrated that it 
has not materialized. 

"The whole history of Love Canal has left a legacy of distrust," 
said Sean Q. Kelly, an associate professor of political science 
at Niagara University. "When the government comes in and says 
there's no problem in a place like Model City, people don't 
believe it." 

While Love Canal's origins are now largely forgotten, the horrors 
of what came later are well known. The Hooker Chemical Company of 
Niagara Falls used it as a dumping ground. The canal was capped 
in the early 1950's and sold to the city for $1. 

In the 1970's, water seeped through the broken cap and forced 
chemicals into the basements of homes that had been built near 
the canal. Residents organized and demanded action, which 
provided the catalyst for passage of the federal Superfund law to 
identify and clean up the worst industrial pollution sites in the 
country. 

Some residents - the ones who, like 78-year-old Sam Giarrizzo, 
never considered the canal all that dangerous to begin with - 
were relieved when the Environmental Protection Agency said in 
March that the $400 million cleanup was over. A resident of the 
Love Canal neighborhood since 1957, Mr. Giarrizzo never moved. 




But while some of the contaminated houses have been bulldozed and 
lie buried beneath the surface along with the 20,000 tons of 
hazardous chemicals that could not be removed, Mr. Love's 
dream-turned-nightmare lives on.

"You never get rid of Love Canal," Mr. Giarrizzo said of the 
lingering atmosphere of doubt. "We'll have it forever."

Although the city of Niagara Falls is trying to erase the memory 
of these problems - even renaming the Love Canal neighborhood 
Black Creek Village - residents are bracing for a new round of 
controversy. Sometime next year, the State Department of Health 
is expected to release the results of an epidemiological study of 
6,000 people who lived in the Love Canal neighborhood from the 
1940's to the late 1970's.
        
That study is examining the rates of cancer, mortality and birth 
defects among those residents and comparing them with the rates 
in the rest of Niagara County and the state.

Luella Kenny, 67, moved from Love Canal to nearby Grand Island 
two decades ago after Jon, her 7-year-old son, died of a kidney 
ailment. She believes Love Canal chemicals that seeped into a 
creek behind her house made him ill.

Mrs. Kenny, who is participating in the state study, said she 
feared that it might turn out to be inconclusive, which would 
allow detractors to claim that Love Canal had never presented any 
real danger.

"If you take down Love Canal, you take down everything," she 
said. "All the grassroots groups fighting around the country 
would be undone."

One of those community environmental groups is in Model City, 
where the grimy front windows of the Model City Country Inn look 
out on a steady stream of trucks loaded with waste headed to 
either the Chemical Waste Management landfill or a huge garbage 
dump next to it. The Chemical Waste site is the only commercial 
hazardous waste landfill in the Northeast and contains some of 
the contaminated soil from Love Canal.

State and federal officials consider the Chemical Waste site to 
be well run and have no objections to its continued operation. 
But William C. Roland, a local resident, thinks 62 years of being 
dumped on is enough. He belongs to Residents for Responsible 
Government, which fears that the site's operation has harmed the 
health of people living nearby.

During a recent public hearing, which drew more than 650 
residents, he said he has taken cues from Lois Gibbs, the Love 
Canal resident who received national attention for her cleanup 
demands by refusing to allow a federal official to leave a 
meeting until some action was taken.

"We wanted to do this professionally," Mr. Roland said, "but if 
we have to do what Lois Gibbs did, we will." 

         Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
    
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