***************************************************************** 07/01/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.156 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 AFP: Iran's conservative parliament mulls move to resume uranium enr 2 Korea Herald: Uri proposes politicians visit N.K. 3 AFP: Seoul FM has "good meeting" with NKorean counterpart on nuclear 4 AFP: Powell says US willing to match NKorea 'deed for deed' on nucle 5 US: People's Weekly World Newspaper: Congress OKs massive theft of N 6 US: EnergyPulse: Competing for Energy Resources - Part 2 7 [du-list] Zionists Crime Syndicate & their Weapons of Mass 8 Xinhuanet: Pakistan nuclear test report denied 9 Arutz Sheva: Nuclear Double Standard At U.N. NUCLEAR REACTORS 10 Guardian Unlimited: Hollywood zombies hit Chernobyl 11 US: NRC: Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear 12 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Findings of Palo Verde Augmented Inspection 13 US: PC News Herald: NRC's failure to view Davis-Besse tape frighteni 14 baltic times: Ignalina to undergo crucial inspection 15 ABS-CBNNEWS: After 35 years, Pinoys still paying for nuclear plant 16 US: NRC: Sequoyah Fuels Corporation; Establishment of Atomic Safety 17 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find NUCLEAR SAFETY 18 BBC: Welding led to nuclear subs 19 US: Hawk Eye: IAAP cleanup gets new crew 20 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 21 Yucca Crunch Time, Lobbying Needed Now 22 [NukeNet] Yucca Crunch Time, Lobbying Needed Now 23 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA DOCUMENTS: DOE studies, discussions on Internet 24 US: CD Military: Contaminated soil transfer completed at NAES Lakehu 25 Bellona: Moscow, IAEA support multi-national nuke waste repository f 26 Las Vegas SUN: DOE turns in its Yucca assignment 27 RGJ: Dear President Bush... 28 RGJ: DOE to release Yucca documents 29 US: San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nuclear storage plan may violate state 30 US: Matlock Today: Final victory for campaign 31 US: courier-journal: Highway bill's secrecy rulesspark public-safety 32 US: CCDR: Deadline set for Cotter issue 33 US: Boston.com: Critics say EPA is shirking duty 34 US: Newsday: Colorado ordered to make decision on hazardous waste sh NUCLEAR WEAPONS 35 US: [du-list] Re: [DU-WATCH] Oppenheimer: 100th anniversary US DEPT. OF ENERGY 36 [du-list] Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Ambushed 37 Tri-City Herald: Candidates back Hanford cleanup 38 Boston.com: Ex-resident sues Fernald over experiments 39 Shorthorn: Incident changes Los Alamos deal 40 Oak Ridger: ORNL's Jackson honored 41 Oak Ridger: Area's secret agents target world's security threats 42 Daily Texan: Regents consider Los Alamos bid despite continued oppos OTHER NUCLEAR 43 [NukeNet] NASA SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON SPACE NUKES PLAN 44 Google News Alert - nuclear 45 AFP: Iranian FM says his country will continue building centrifuges 46 Scoop: NASA Seeks Public Input On Space Nukes Plan ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 AFP: Iran's conservative parliament mulls move to resume uranium enrichment [http://www.spacewar.com/] TEHRAN (AFP) Jul 01, 2004 Iran's new conservative-controlled parliament is considering pushing through a bill that would force the Islamic regime to resume uranium enrichment activities, a senior deputy told AFP Thursday. The proposed bill, still under discussion, would scrap a deal signed here last October with Britain, France and Germany under which Iran agreed to make several "confidence-building" gestures to the UN nuclear watchdog. "There are preliminary talks among the MPs," said Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Majlis national security and foreign policy committee. "It has not yet been approved in the committee, but there are talks to end the voluntary suspension," he said. Depending on its purity, enriched uranium can be used as both fuel for a civilian nuclear reactor and for a nuclear bomb. Iran, however, insists it is only interested in generating electricity. The three European states, on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had urged Iran to stop enriching pending the completion of a UN probe into Iran's nuclear activities, seen by the US as a cover for weapons development. Although nuclear fuel cycle work for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, is permitted under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the IAEA sees Iran as a special case given its past concealment of its programme. The probe has yet to be completed, and a resumption of enrichment would be certain to provoke a major crisis with the IAEA. After being slapped with criticism from the IAEA in June, Iran has already announced it will resume making centrifuges, sparking fresh alarm at the IAEA. Some conservative MPs -- who seized parliament from reformists after most moderate candidates were barred from contesting February's elections -- have even gone as far as to call for a pull-out from the NPT. However, analysts say it is difficult to see the moves of the new Majlis as anything other than angry posturing toward the IAEA, given that the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami appears to be out of the loop on nuclear policy. Relations with the IAEA have been decided upon by top conservatives, notably national security chief Hassan Rowhani -- a cleric close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 2 Korea Herald: Uri proposes politicians visit N.K. 2004.07.02 By Kim So-young Uri Party floor leader Chun Jung-bae yesterday proposed that the leadership of the ruling and opposition parties visit North Korea at an early date to promote exchanges between the two Koreas. "Let leaders of the ruling and the opposition visit North Korea together soon and discuss with responsible people ways to encourage exchanges such as inter-Korean parliamentary talks," Chun told a National Assembly plenary session on behalf of the ruling party's 151 lawmakers. He also urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to visit South Korea to hold summit talks with President Roh Moo-hyun. When he held the first inter-Korean summit with then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in Pyongyang in June 2000, Kim promised to come to Seoul. But a rendezvous in the South Korean capital has not materialized amid continued nuclear threats from the North. ***************************************************************** 3 AFP: Seoul FM has "good meeting" with NKorean counterpart on nuclear crisis [http://www.spacewar.com/] JAKARTA (AFP) Jul 01, 2004 South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon was upbeat Thursday after talks with his North Korean counterpart Paek Nam-Sun on ways to defuse the crisis over the North's nuclear weapons programme. "It was a good meeting," Ban told reporters after an hour-long discussion with Paek. "The first important agenda item was on how to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue through peaceful means, through dialogue. "We agreed that the third round of six-party talks made some progress." Representatives of the six nations involved in those talks to resolve the crisis -- China, Russia, the United States, Japan and North and South Korea -- are in Jakarta for Friday's meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a 23-member Asia-Pacific security forum. Paek was due to meet Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi later Thursday for similar talks. One of his aides has said Paek is also willing to meet Secretary of State Colin Powell if the Americans request a meeting on the sidelines of ARF. A third round of six-party talks ended Saturday in Beijing, with signs of flexibility but no concrete progress. Participants agreed to meet again by the end of September. At the last round the US put forward a new plan which would give the North three months to shut down and seal its nuclear weapons facilities in return for major economic and diplomatic rewards. It was the first significant overture to Pyongyang since US President George W. Bush took office in early 2001 and placed Stalinist North Korea on an "axis of evil". North Korea rejected the proposal as unrealistic, but Washington said it expects the North to study it. "The six-nation talks have made some progress and I believe in the process," Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters earlier. "With the joint efforts of all parties, we believe we can work out a solution for a peaceful settlement so that we can have a peninsula that is nuclear arms free and enjoy peace and stability." Li cited an "absence of mutual trust" between the US and North Korea as one of the main hurdles. Paek has also cited a lack of trust but promised to be patient and flexible in the next round of talks. Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) who met Wednesday welcomed apparent progress in the diplomatic campaign and said they were ready to offer assistance if asked. Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said after meeting Paek Thursday that the North's FM was keen to see a reunion between a Japanese woman and her husband and two daughters, who are living in North Korea. Kawaguchi said the husband, Charles Robert Jenkins, a US army deserter, had agreed to a reunion with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, in Indonesia. The FM added that Japan, North Korea and Indonesia would coordinate the time and place of the meeting. Soga returned to Japan in October 2002, around 30 years after being kidnapped by North Korea, leaving her husband and daughters behind. Hatsuhisa Takashima, Japan's chief foreign ministry spokesman, told AFP the mother wanted a reunion around July 23, her younger daughter Brinda's 19th birthday. The elder daughter Mika is 21. "The mother wants a family birthday that day anywhere in the world," he said. "This case involves four nations and is a very rare case. It's a very important humanitarian issue." WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 4 AFP: Powell says US willing to match NKorea 'deed for deed' on nuclear crisis [http://www.spacewar.com/] JAKARTA (AFP) Jul 01, 2004 The US is willing to match North Korea "deed for deed" if it agrees to dismantle its nuclear weapons and halt their development under a plan laid out last week, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday. Powell said Pyongyang would see numerous benefits in the near-term, including security assurances, if it followed the principle of "word-for-word, deed-for-deed" laid out in the US proposal. "We have to see deeds before we are prepared to put something on the table," he told reporters at a news conference on the fringes of a Southeast Asian regional security forum here. "We don't think this will take long, we don't think that what's been asked for would be very difficult to achieve," Powell said. "The United States has made clear to (North Korea) for the past several years that we want to help, we want to help (it) deal with its problems ... but only when it is absolutely clear that (it) has taken irreversible steps that will move us in the right direction toward de-nuclearization," he said. The US plan, presented at multilateral talks on the nuclear crisis that ended Saturday in Beijing, gives North Korea three months to shut down and seal its nuclear weapons facilities in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. The last round of so-called "six-party talks" between the United States, China, Japan, Russia and North and South Korea produced signs of flexibility but no concrete progress. Although the participants did agree to meet again by the end of September, North Korea has rejected the US proposal as unrealistic. Still, Powell said he hoped Pyongyang would give the offer serious study and stressed that Washington would do the same with any counter-proposal. "We are anxious to see the North Koreans move together with us," he said on the eve of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) which he is due to attend and which includes all six parties involved in the nuclear talks. Powell was coy when asked whether he would meet North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun face-to-face on Friday, although a Pyongyang official has said such a meeting could happen if Washington asked for one. But he noted that Paek would be at the ARF plenary and said that at least in that group setting he would "assure (the North Koreans) that we will study their proposals seriously". Powell and Paek met briefly on the sidelines of the July 2002 ARF in Brunei in what was the last face-to-face, cabinet-level contact between the two countries. The crisis erupted in October of that year when US officials said Pyongyang had admitted it was violating an earlier nuclear disarmament pledge by developing weapons grade uranium. Since then, the United States has repeatedly demanded that North Korea totally dismantle its atomic weapons programmes in a verifiable manner and refused to offer concessions until that was done. But at the Beijing talks last week, that insistence was toned down slightly in a bid to cement a consensus among the six parties negotiating the matter, Powell said. "We showed flexibility in our position last week because we wanted our colleagues in the six-party talks to recognize the United States was seeking a peaceful, diplomatic solution," he said. In addition to North Korea, Powell said he would use his time at the ARF to discuss terrorism, including the threat of seaborne attacks in the piracy-prone Malacca Strait, and democratic reforms in Myanmar. The US and Singapore fear that terrorists could hijack an oil or gas tanker and use it as a floating bomb in a maritime version of 9/11. But Washington recently backed away from suggestions that US forces might help patrol the waterway separating Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia after it raised hackles in Indonesia and Malaysia. About half the world's oil supplies pass through the strait. The Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah has launched a spate of bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines in recent years and has plotted attacks in Thailand and Singapore. JI's nightclub bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali, which killed 202 people in October 2002, were the worst terror attacks since September 11. Powell will be at odds with ASEAN on efforts to establish democracy in military-ruled member Myanmar. The ministers on Wednesday dropped calls made last year for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and merely "underlined the need for the involvement of all strata of Myanmar society in the ongoing national convention", which is drafting a constitution. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 5 People's Weekly World Newspaper: Congress OKs massive theft of Native land [http://www.pww.org/] Author: John Gallagher People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/01/04 12:12 The “Western Shoshone Distribution Bill” (S 618/HR 884) has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to the Bush administration for signature. The bill would authorize a payout to the Western Shoshone Indian people of approximately 15 cents an acre for tens of millions of acres of disputed lands in Nevada, Idaho, Utah and California. A majority of tribal councils, representing approximately 80 percent of the population, and the Western Shoshone National Council strongly oppose the measure. The National Congress of American Indians, Amnesty International, Oxfam America, and the Petra Foundation have also denounced the bill. The legislation was passed in the House by a voice vote on June 21. The Senate had previously passed the measure, but because of the death of the Senate bill on June 1, it passed it again on June 25. At stake are 60 million acres of Western Shoshone land recognized by the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. Competing with Western Shoshone interests are corporations seeking billions of dollars in profits from gold, energy production, nuclear waste storage and weapons industries. The land produces two-thirds of the gold in the U.S., making it the third largest gold-producing area in the world behind South Africa and Australia. At a House Resources Committee hearing a year ago, Interior Department officials testified that “vast majority” of Western Shoshones favor distribution of the money. Democratic Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico responded to this testimony by requesting “for the record” whatever documentation Interior had used as the basis for its testimony. Ten months later, Interior has still not honored Udall’s request. Such stonewalling leads to at least two questions. What is the Interior Department hiding? What did it base its testimony upon? This push is being made at the same time that the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste repository is being pushed along and Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) is sponsoring other legislation, HR 2869 and HR 2772, which would open up Shoshone lands to privatization by multinational mining companies and massive geothermal energy development with no provision for Western Shoshone interests or concerns. Additionally, in the last two weeks, notices of intent to impound livestock have been received by Western Shoshone grandmothers Mary and Carrie Dann and other Western Shoshone ranchers. Carrie Dann said it is domestic terrorism designed to steal the dignity of the people. “Economically we were a self-sustaining people. With these recent actions stealing our livelihood we are now facing economic starvation designed to remove us from our lands. To me, that is terrorism. Domestic terrorism. This behavior is designed to steal our dignity, our honor and to make us feel that we are less than or lower than human – we are treated like animals. We are being dehumanized.” Dann said the distribution bill is an unconstitutional, unjust and unwanted payment. “To take this land from us will be to lead us into a spiritual death.” Last year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in its final report on the case of Dann v. U.S., found that with regard to the Western Shoshone, the U.S. is currently in violation of rights to property, due process and equality under the law. It is the first judicial review of the United States law and policy regarding indigenous peoples within its borders. Julie Fishel, attorney for the Western Shoshone Defense Project, said the United States does not want American Indians to learn about the ruling. In a November 2003 letter sent to Secretary of Interior Gale Norton, Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) raised serious concerns about the real intent of the Distribution bill and the involvement of the federal government and mining, energy and nuclear industries in presenting a misleading picture of the issues to the public and to members of Congress. In the letter he raises concerns that the bill may be contrary to federal policies with regard to treatment of Native Americans and may conflict with the Interior Department’s position as trustee and its obligation to uphold the laws of the United States. A copy of the letter and more information on the bill is available on the Western Shoshone Defense Project’s website at www.wsdp.org. The author can be reached at pww@pww.org. PWW: pww@pww.org 235 West 23rd Street New York NY 10011 ph: 212-924-2523 ***************************************************************** 6 EnergyPulse: Competing for Energy Resources - Part 2 Insight Analysis and Commentary on the Global Power Industry [http://pro.energycentral.com] | [http://www.nxtbook.com/fx/books/ectd2004] You know about the gap between electric demand and the ability of your system to deliver. But do you know what today's movers, shakers and thinkers are proposing to do to fill the gaps? Find out today in Building a 21st Century Grid, our Spring, 2004 Special Issue. This article is the second of a two part series. Solar Thermal generation would also benefit from this same phenomenon. If the environmental community was willing to recognize these factors they might re-think their opposition to a major interstate transmission system. Railroads and local IOUs will not be satisfied by this logic but the rate paying public would enjoy the benefits of reasonably priced electricity across the nation. The development of wind, solar, geothermal and hydro-electric electricity would significantly reduce the need for natural gas generation. The development of mine mouth coal or nuclear electricity would reduce the need for natural gas base load generation. The results of these changes in the electricity supply industry would reduce natural gas demand to a level that might re-balance the supply and demand equation for natural gas without the construction of LNG terminals. In addition to the elimination of the need for LNG ports, the construction of a major transmission system would create many thousands of U.S. jobs and would reduce the overall cost of electricity to both individuals and companies. 3. Outsourcing energy jobs: It is simple to conclude that purchasing oil from the middle east is not outsourcing, but that over simplification can be argued. Oil is simply a form of energy that can be displaced by other energy sources. Specifically, ethanol and bio-diesel are direct substitutes for imported oil. Therefore, any oil that is imported that could be provided through the production of either ethanol or bio-diesel is a form of outsourcing of potential U.S. jobs. It is estimated that the U.S. could annually produce more than 10 billion gallons of ethanol and as much as 5 billion gallons of bio-diesel. This production would create jobs across the U.S. that would displace negative balance of trade monies that are being sent off-shore. Since these figures represent less than 10% of the gasoline and diesel fuel being currently consumed they are not significant to oil industry profitability. On the other hand, this energy capacity reduces the need for expanding U.S. refinery capacity and for importing additional fuel as demand continues to grow. The question also should be answered concerning actually reducing demand for gasoline and diesel fuel. The major consumers of gasoline are the nation’s automobiles. The production of Hybrid vehicles by U.S. manufacturers would, over time, either reduce or keep the gasoline consumption constant. U.S. manufacturers of automobiles have been slow to move into the manufacture of Hybrid automobiles and trucks, but with gasoline prices at all time high levels, it is possible that they may finally get started. This development would allow the U.S. consumer’s appetite for large automobiles and SUV to be satisfied while improving fuel economy to reduce the demand for gasoline and diesel fuels. Re-tooling the auto industry will create new job opportunities and may provide a way for U.S. car manufacturers to re-emerge as the world’s premier manufacturers of automobiles. Replacing the existing fleet of cars and trucks with Hybrid vehicles will generate more vehicle sales in a shorter time than any other market development plan the auto industry could imagine – again, more jobs, and let’s not forget, more income for the strained social programs of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. 4. Solving the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid problems: It has been estimated that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will require funding levels exceeding $5 trillion dollars/year by 2040. This level of expenditure will only be possible if the number of U.S. jobs is maintained at a level of approximately 4.25 contributors for each recipient of “social contract” funds. This will mean that the number of jobs in the U.S. must increase from 130 million in 2004 to more than 260 million in 2040 to fund the social systems as they currently exist. Obviously doubling the employment in 36 years will require an average of as much as 400,000 new jobs to be created each month. Clearly, the energy sector alone cannot provide this level of job creation, but it is a basic industry that creates a significant multiplier effect when expanded. It is normally estimated that for each basic industry job that is created at least four other service or supply jobs are created. Therefore, if the energy industry can create 35,000 direct jobs/month for the period, it will have created the required economic expansion to account for one-half of the new jobs that are required to meet the Nation’s social contract for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Maximizing the production of corn for ethanol production along with various oil seed crops for the production of bio-diesel will produce large number of basic industry jobs that will displace imported oil and enhance the U.S. economy while providing funds into the SS/M/M system. Development of additional domestic oil and natural gas resources will create additional domestic jobs that will reduce trade deficits. Expansion of the transmission system and potential expansion of coal and nuclear generation will keep U.S. energy prices competitive in the world and create additional domestic jobs. Expansion of the renewable fuels potential in the form of wind, solar, geothermal and hydro-electric capacity in conjunction with a national grid will not only create many jobs but potentially will reduce the overall cost of electricity. 5. The Federal Solution vs. individual State based solutions: It is becoming increasingly clear that the Federal Government in this election year is not looking for long-term solutions to anything. The two parties are unwilling to agree on anything positive that might provide a greater advantage to one party over the other. Unfortunately, the Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid problems will not sit by and wait for people to agree. These problems will become extremely acute within the next four years. The liquid fuel and energy problems at the Federal level are also immediate in their impacts and cannot wait for reasonable men to find reasonable solutions. Therefore, the only possible solutions that might be available are at the individual State levels. California, Nevada and Arizona provide a specific example of ways that individual States may be able to at least partially accomplish what the Federal Government is either unwilling or incapable of doing. Both California and Nevada have passed laws mandating a certain percentage of their electricity be produced using renewable resources. Other states have also passed this type of legislation but their renewable levels are significantly below those of these two States. Both California and Nevada were looking forward to favorable Federal legislation that would improve the economic environment for wind, solar and geothermal projects. Unfortunately the Federal Government is not capable of producing this legislation. California, Nevada and Arizona are currently faced with a different problem, however with the potential for liquid fuel shortages looming within the next two years. Gasoline and diesel prices have risen to all time high levels and are unlikely to decline in the near future. There are only 12 operating refineries in California and these are operating at near capacity. Therefore, the combination of high crude oil prices and limited refinery capacity have created the high retail pricing levels. California is very unlikely to allow any new refinery construction, therefore they and Nevada are looking for other more creative solutions to the supply problems. California has banned MTBE as an oxygenation fuel additive suggesting that ethanol is a reasonable substitute. The demand for ethanol in California could reach one billion gallons per year by 2007. This demand could be partially satisfied by the development of ethanol production facilities in California. These facilities could utilize some corn grown in California but would derive most of its feedstock from Midwestern corn suppliers. The by-products from the ethanol production may find a ready market in California and the surrounding States. Obviously, one billion gallons of ethanol production would ease the refinery issue and reduce the need for additional imports of crude oil. Nevada is also dependent on the refineries in California for almost all of its gasoline. Since California is likely to take a protective position for its consumers, Nevada may actually have a more severe problem relating to supplies. It has been estimated that it may be possible to construct ethanol production facilities in Nevada, primarily using corn brought in from the Midwest and augmented with locally produced corn. Producing 250 million gallons/year of ethanol in Nevada would provide 10% of its annual consumption of gasoline. The positive economic impact on Nevada would be significant and the easing of the pressure on the California refineries would be critical. If this type of initiative was coupled with some sort of incentive program to encourage the purchase of hybrid automobiles and trucks, the liquid fuels problems could be delayed for many years in the future. Conclusions: (It is time to do the right thing!) Clearly, if both the Federal Government and the individual States took action to either increase domestically produced fuels and electricity, upgrade to a national CD electric grid, as well as reducing the demand for imported liquid fuels, the nation’s economy would benefit significantly. 1. Liquid Fuels and Refineries: a. Construction of new refining capacity is unlikely to provide any real pricing relief for gasoline and diesel. b. The World’s demand for gasoline and diesel oil is increasing at a rate that will continue to drive pricing upward. c. The best position for the U.S. is one that places it in a competitive energy position. d. Producing additional oil from domestic resources along with producing as much ethanol and bio-diesel as possible will provide a long-term energy advantage for the U.S. 2. Automobiles and Trucks: a. Accelerating the production of Hybrid vehicles in the U.S. has the potential for actually reducing the U.S. demand for gasoline. b. If U.S. automobile manufacturers devote sufficient time and energy into the development and distribution of Hybrid automobiles they could create a significant export market to other oil consuming nations. c. The only way to drive down the price of oil will be to bring supply and demand into balance. The developed nations could reduce the short term demand and extend the viability of liquid fuel supplies by committing to the production of Hybrid automobiles. 3. Transmission Systems: a. The overall energy efficiency in the U.S. could be significantly enhanced by the development of a major “Electricity Highway” that would allow more economical transfer of energy across the Nation. b. It would be possible to develop lower cost energy supplies if an adequate transmission system were available. c. A major transmission system would provide sufficient diversity to make wind, solar and hydro-electric projects valuable producers in the marketplace. d. If the wind, solar and hydro-electric assets are developed, they will largely displace the need for using “premium” natural gas as an electricity production fuel. 4. Natural Gas: a. The framers of PURPA were correct when they prohibited the use of Natural Gas as a base load electricity production fuel. This activity has created an imbalance between supply and demand that has driven cost up for all of the users. b. Constructing LNG ports to bring in more natural gas simply increases the negative balance of trade and increases the stress on the U.S. economy. c. The issue of safety associated with LNG terminals has not been addressed when terrorist activities are considered. d. The natural gas problems should be solved domestically by additional exploration along with substitution of renewable energy projects for natural gas using projects. 5. Federal and State Responsibilities: a. The Nation has needed an Energy Bill for more than 10 years. A combination of “Special Interests” and “Party Politics” has kept any meaningful or comprehensive legislation from becoming law. The continuation of this “business as usual” status is absolutely unacceptable. b. If the energy situation is not properly addressed within the next four years the U.S. economy will be stalled. c. The Nation needs to address the funding needs for Social Security/Medicare and Medicaid within the next four years. d. Job creation is the only viable medium term solution to funding social programs. The Energy and Agricultural Sectors of the economy can provide for an important part of a solution to the funding problems that are looming in the very near future. e. If the Federal Government is unable to address these issues, it will fall to the individual States to address them. The creation of Renewable Portfolio Standards, the development of Ethanol and Bio-diesel standards in fuel along with providing incentives for the purchase of Hybrid automobiles can begin at the State level but must ultimately be augmented by Federal programs. [Get Copyright Clearance] Copyright 2004 CyberTech, Inc. Want ***************************************************************** 7 [du-list] Zionists Crime Syndicate & their Weapons of Mass Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:41:04 -0700 Zionist's Crime Cyndicate & their Weapons of Mass Destruction by John Steinbach "Should war break out in the Middle East again,... or should any Arab nation fire missiles against Israel, as the Iraqis did, a nuclear escalation, once unthinkable except as a last resort, would now be a strong probability." Seymour Hersh(1) "Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches." Ariel Sharon(2) --------------------------------- With between 200 and 500 thermonuclear weapons and a sophisticated delivery system, Israel has quietly supplanted Britain as the World's 5th Largest nuclear power, and may currently rival France and China in the size and sophistication of its nuclear arsenal. Although dwarfed by the nuclear arsenals of the U.S. and Russia, each possessing over 10,000 nuclear weapons, Israel nonetheless is a major nuclear power, and should be publically recognized as such.. Since the Gulf War in 1991, while much attention has been lavished on the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the major culprit in the region, Israel, has been largely ignored. Possessing chemical and biological weapons, an extremely sophisticated nuclear arsenal, and an aggressive strategy for their actual use, Israel provides the major regional impetus for the development of weapons of mass destruction and represents an acute threat to peace and stability in the Middle East. The Israeli nuclear program represents a serious impediment to nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation and, with India and Pakistan, is a potential nuclear flashpoint.(prospects of meaningful non-proliferation are a delusion so long as the nuclear weapons states insist on maintaining their arsenals,) Citizens concerned about sanctions against Iraq, peace with justice in the Middle East, and nuclear disarmament have an obligation to speak out forcefully against the Israeli nuclear program. Birth of the Israeli Bomb The Israeli nuclear program began in the late 1940s under the direction of Ernst David Bergmann, "the father of the Israeli bomb," who in 1952 established the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. It was France, however, which provided the bulk of early nuclear assistance to Israel culminating in construction of Dimona, a heavy water moderated, natural uranium reactor and plutonium reprocessing factory situated near Bersheeba in the Negev Desert. Israel had been an active participant in the French Nuclear weapons program from its inception, providing critical technical expertise, and the Israeli nuclear program can be seen as an extension of this earlier collaboration. Dimona went on line in 1964 and plutonium reprocessing began shortly thereafter. Despite various Israeli claims that Dimona was "a manganese plant, or a textile factory," the extreme security measures employed told a far different story. In 1967, Israel shot down one of their own Mirage fighters that approached too close to Dimona and in 1973 shot down a Lybian civilian airliner which strayed off course, killing 104.(3) There is substantial credible speculation that Israel may have exploded at least one, and perhaps several, nuclear devices in the mid 1960s in the Negev near the Israeli-Egyptian border, and that it participated actively in French nuclear tests in Algeria.(4) By the time of the "Yom Kippur War" in 1973, Israel possessed an arsenal of perhaps several dozen deliverable atomic bombs and went on full nuclear alert.(5) Possessing advanced nuclear technology and "world class" nuclear scientists, Israel was confronted early with a major problem- how to obtain the necessary uranium. Israel's own uranium source was the phosphate deposits in the Negev, totally inadequate to meet the need of a rapidly expanding program. The short term answer was to mount commando raids in France and Britain to successfully hijack uranium shipments and, in1968, to collaborate with West Germany in diverting 200 tons of yellowcake (uranium oxide).(6) These clandestine acquisitions of uranium for Dimona were subsequently covered up by the various countries involved. There was also an allegation that a U.S. corporation called Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) diverted hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium to Israel from the mid-50s to the mid-60s. Despite an FBI and CIA investigation, and Congressional hearings, no one was ever prosecuted, although most other investigators believed the diversion had occurred(7)(8). In the late 1960s, Israel solved the uranium problem by developing close ties with South Africa in a quid pro quo arrangement whereby Israel supplied the technology and expertise for the "Apartheid Bomb," while South Africa provided the uranium. South Africa and the United States In 1977, the Soviet Union warned the U.S. that satellite photos indicated South Africa was planning a nuclear test in the Kalahari Desert but the Apartheid regime backed down under pressure. On September 22, 1979, a U.S. satellite detected an atmospheric test of a small thermonuclear bomb in the Indian Ocean off South Africa but, because of Israel's apparent involvement, the report was quickly "whitewashed" by a carefully selected scientific panel kept in the dark about important details. Later it was learned through Israeli sources that there were actually three carefully guarded tests of miniaturized Israeli nuclear artillery shells. The Israeli/South African collaboration did not end with the bomb testing, but continued until the fall of Apartheid, especially with the developing and testing of medium range missiles and advanced artillery. In addition to uranium and test facilities, South Africa provided Israel with large amounts of investment capital, while Israel provided a major trade outlet to enable the Apartheid state avoid international economic sanctions.(9) Although the French and South Africans were primarily responsible for the Israeli nuclear program, the U.S. shares and deserves a large part of the blame. Mark Gaffney wrote (the Israeli nuclear program) "was possible only because (emphasis in original) of calculated deception on the part of Israel, and willing complicity on the part of the U.S.."(10) >From the very beginning, the U.S. was heavily involved in the Israeli nuclear program, providing nuclear related technology such as a small research reactor in 1955 under the "Atoms for Peace Program." Israeli scientists were largely trained at U.S. universities and were generally welcomed at the nuclear weapons labs. In the early 1960s, the controls for the Dimona reactor were obtained clandestinely from a company called Tracer Lab, the main supplier of U.S. military reactor control panels, purchased through a Belgian subsidiary, apparently with the acquiescence of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the CIA.(11) In 1971, the Nixon administration approved the sale of hundreds of krytons(a type of high speed switch necessary to the development of sophisticated nuclear bombs) to Israel.(12) And, in 1979, Carter provided ultra high resolution photos from a KH-11 spy satellite, used 2 years later to bomb the Iraqi Osirak Reactor.(13) Throughout the Nixon and Carter administrations, and accelerating dramatically under Reagan, U.S. advanced technology transfers to Israel have continued unabated to the present. The Vanunu Revelations Following the 1973 war, Israel intensified its nuclear program while continuing its policy of deliberate "nuclear opaqueness." Until the mid-1980s, most intelligence estimates of the Israeli nuclear arsenal were on the order of two dozen but the explosive revelations of Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician working in the Dimona plutonium reprocessing plant, changed everything overnight. A leftist supporter of Palestine, Vanunu believed that it was his duty to humanity to expose Israel's nuclear program to the world. He smuggled dozens of photos and valuable scientific data out of Israel and in 1986 his story was published in the London Sunday Times. Rigorous scientific scrutiny of the Vanunu revelations led to the disclosure that Israel possessed as many as 200 highly sophisticated, miniaturized thermonuclear bombs. His information indicated that the Dimona reactor's capacity had been expanded several fold and that Israel was producing enough plutonium to make ten to twelve bombs per year. A senior U.S. intelligence analyst said of the Vanunu data,"The scope of this is much more extensive than we thought. This is an enormous operation."(14) Just prior to publication of his information Vanunu was lured to Rome by a Mossad "Mata Hari," was beaten, drugged and kidnapped to Israel and, following a campaign of disinformation and vilification in the Israeli press, convicted of "treason" by a secret security court and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He served over 11 years in solitary confinement in a 6 by 9 foot cell. After a year of modified release into the general population(he was not permitted contact with Arabs), Vanunu recently has been returned to solitary and faces more than 3 years further imprisonment. Predictably, The Vanunu revelations were largely ignored by the world press, especially in the United States, and Israel continues to enjoy a relatively free ride regarding its nuclear status. (15) Israel's Arsenal of Mass Destruction Today, estimates of the Israeli nuclear arsenal range from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of about 500. Whatever the number, there is little doubt that Israeli nukes are among the world's most sophisticated, largely designed for "war fighting" in the Middle East. A staple of the Israeli nuclear arsenal are "neutron bombs," miniaturized thermonuclear bombs designed to maximize deadly gamma radiation while minimizing blast effects and long term radiation- in essence designed to kill people while leaving property intact.(16) Weapons include ballistic missiles and bombers capable of reaching Moscow, cruise missiles, land mines(In the 1980s Israel planted nuclear land mines along the Golan Heights(17)), and artillery shells with a range of 45 miles(18). In June, 2000 an Israeli submarine launched a cruise missile which hit a target 950 miles away, making Israel only the third nation after the U.S. and Russia with that capability. Israel will deploy 3 of these virtually impregnable submarines, each carrying 4 cruise missiles.(19) The bombs themselves range in size from "city busters" larger than the Hiroshima Bomb to tactical mini nukes. The Israeli arsenal of weapons of mass destruction clearly dwarfs the actual or potential arsenals of all other Middle Eastern states combined, and is vastly greater than any conceivable need for "deterrence." Israel also possesses a comprehensive arsenal of chemical and biological weapons. According to the Sunday Times, Israel has produced both chemical and biological weapons with a sophisticated delivery system, quoting a senior Israeli intelligence official, "There is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical or biological weapon . . .which is not manufactured at the Nes Tziyona Biological Institute.")(20) The same report described F-16 fighter jets specially designed for chemical and biological payloads, with crews trained to load the weapons on a moments notice. In 1998, the Sunday Times reported that Israel, using research obtained from South Africa, was developing an "ethno bomb; "In developing their "ethno-bomb", Israeli scientists are trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive a gene carried by some Arabs, then create a genetically modified bacterium or virus... The scientists are trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes." Dedi Zucker, a leftist Member of Knesset, the Israeli parliament, denounced the research saying, "Morally, based on our history, and our tradition and our experience, such a weapon is monstrous and should be denied."(21) Israeli Nuclear Strategy In popular imagination, the Israeli bomb is a "weapon of last resort," to be used only at the last minute to avoid annihilation, and many well intentioned but misled supporters of Israel still believe that to be the case. Whatever truth this formulation may have had in the minds of the early Israeli nuclear strategists, today the Israeli nuclear arsenal is inextricably linked to and integrated with overall Israeli military and political strategy. As Seymour Hersh says in classic understatement ; "The Samson Option is no longer the only nuclear option available to Israel."(22) Israel has made countless veiled nuclear threats against the Arab nations and against the Soviet Union(and by extension Russia since the end of the Cold War) One chilling example comes from Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli Prime Minister "Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches."(23) (In 1983 Sharon proposed to India that it join with Israel to attack Pakistani nuclear facilities; in the late 70s he proposed sending Israeli paratroopers to Tehran to prop up the Shah; and in 1982 he called for expanding Israel's security influence to stretch from "Mauritania to Afghanistan.") In another example, Israeli nuclear expert Oded Brosh said in 1992, "...we need not be ashamed that the nuclear option is a major instrumentality of our defense as a deterrent against those who attack us."(24) According to Israel Shahak, "The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is." and "Israel is preparing for a war, nuclear if need be, for the sake of averting domestic change not to its liking, if it occurs in some or any Middle Eastern states.... Israel clearly prepares itself to seek overtly a hegemony over the entire Middle East..., without hesitating to use for the purpose all means available, including nuclear ones."(25) Israel uses its nuclear arsenal not just in the context of deterrence" or of direct war fighting, but in other more subtle but no less important ways. For example, the possession of weapons of mass destruction can be a powerful lever to maintain the status quo, or to influence events to Israel's perceived advantage, such as to protect the so called moderate Arab states from internal insurrection, or to intervene in inter-Arab warfare.(26) In Israeli strategic jargon this concept is called "nonconventional compellence" and is exemplified by a quote from Shimon Peres; "acquiring a superior weapons system(read nuclear) would mean the possibility of using it for compellent purposes- that is forcing the other side to accept Israeli political demands, which presumably include a demand that the traditional status quo be accepted and a peace treaty signed."(27) From a slightly different perspective, Robert Tuckerr asked in a Commentary magazine article in defense of Israeli nukes, "What would prevent Israel... from pursuing a hawkish policy employing a nuclear deterrent to freeze the status quo?"(28) Possessing an overwhelming nuclear superiority allows Israel to act with impunity even in the face world wide opposition. A case in point might be the invasion of Lebanon and destruction of Beirut in 1982, led by Ariel Sharon, which resulted in 20,000 deaths, most civilian. Despite the annihilation of a neighboring Arab state, not to mention the utter destruction of the Syrian Air Force, Israel was able to carry out the war for months at least partially due to its nuclear threat. Another major use of the Israeli bomb is to compel the U.S. to act in Israel's favor, even when it runs counter to its own strategic interests. As early as 1956 Francis Perrin, head of the French A-bomb project wrote "We thought the Israeli Bomb was aimed at the Americans, not to launch it at the Americans, but to say, 'If you don't want to help us in a critical situation we will require you to help us; otherwise we will use our nuclear bombs.'"(29) During the 1973 war, Israel used nuclear blackmail to force Kissinger and Nixon to airlift massive amounts of military hardware to Israel. The Israeli Ambassador, Simha Dinitz, is quoted as saying, at the time, "If a massive airlift to Israel does not start immediately, then I will know that the U.S. is reneging on its promises and...we will have to draw very serious conclusions..."(30) Just one example of this strategy was spelled out in 1987 by Amos Rubin, economic adviser to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who said "If left to its own Israel will have no choice but to fall back on a riskier defense which will endanger itself and the world at large... To enable Israel to abstain from dependence on nuclear arms calls for $2 to 3 billion per year in U.S. aid."(31) Since then Israel's nuclear arsenal has expanded exponentially, both quantitatively and qualitatively, while the U.S. money spigots remain wide open. Regional and International Implications Largely unknown to the world, the Middle East nearly exploded in all out war on February 22, 2001. According to the London Sunday Times and DEBKAfile, Israel went on high missile alert after receiving news from the U.S. of movement by 6 Iraqi armored divisions stationed along the Syrian border, and of launch preparations of surface to surface missiles. DEBKAfile, an Israeli based "counter-terrorism" information service, claims that the Iraqi missiles were deliberately taken to the highest alert level in order to test the U.S. and Israeli response. Despite an immediate attack by 42 U.S. and British war planes, the Iraqis suffered little apparent damage.(32) The Israelis have warned Iraq that they are prepared to use neutron bombs in a preemptive attack against Iraqi missiles. The Israeli nuclear arsenal has profound implications for the future of peace in the Middle East, and indeed, for the entire planet. It is clear from Israel Shahak that Israel has no interest in peace except that which is dictated on its own terms, and has absolutely no intention of negotiating in good faith to curtail its nuclear program or discuss seriously a nuclear-free Middle East,"Israel's insistence on the independent use of its nuclear weapons can be seen as the foundation on which Israeli grand strategy rests."(34) According to Seymour Hersh, "the size and sophistication of Israel's nuclear arsenal allows men such as Ariel Sharon to dream of redrawing the map of the Middle East aided by the implicit threat of nuclear force."(35) General Amnon Shahak-Lipkin, former Israeli Chief of Staff is quoted "It is never possible to talk to Iraq about no matter what; It is never possible to talk to Iran about no matter what. Certainly about nuclearization. With Syria we cannot really talk either."(36) Ze'ev Shiff, an Israeli military expert writing in Haaretz said, "Whoever believes that Israel will ever sign the UN Convention prohibiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons... is day dreaming,"(37) and Munya Mardoch, Director of the Israeli Institute for the Development of Weaponry, said in 1994, "The moral and political meaning of nuclear weapons is that states which renounce their use are acquiescing to the status of Vassal states. All those states which feel satisfied with possessing conventional weapons alone are fated to become vassal states."(38) As Israeli society becomes more and more polarized, the influence of the radical right becomes stronger. According to Shahak, "The prospect of Gush Emunim, or some secular right-wing Israeli fanatics, or some some of the delerious Israeli Army generals, seizing control of Israeli nuclear weapons...cannot be precluded. ...while israeli jewish society undergoes a steady polarization, the Israeli security system increasingly relies on the recruitment of cohorts from the ranks of the extreme right."(39) The Arab states, long aware of Israel's nuclear program, bitterly resent its coercive intent, and perceive its existence as the paramount threat to peace in the region, requiring their own weapons of mass destruction. During a future Middle Eastern war (a distinct possibility given the ascension of Ariel Sharon, an unindicted war criminal with a bloody record stretching from the massacre of Palestinian civilians at Quibya in 1953, to the massacre of Palestinian civilians at Sabra and Shatila in 1982 and beyond) the possible Israeli use of nuclear weapons should not be discounted. According to Shahak, "In Israeli terminology, the launching of missiles on to Israeli territory is regarded as 'nonconventional' regardless of whether they are equipped with explosives or poison gas."(40) (Which requires a "nonconventional" response, a perhaps unique exception being the Iraqi SCUD attacks during the Gulf War.) Meanwhile, the existence of an arsenal of mass destruction in such an unstable region in turn has serious implications for future arms control and disarmament negotiations, and even the threat of nuclear war. Seymour Hersh warns, "Should war break out in the Middle East again,... or should any Arab nation fire missiles against Israel, as the Iraqis did, a nuclear escalation, once unthinkable except as a last resort, would now be a strong probability."(41) and Ezar Weissman, Israel's current President said "The nuclear issue is gaining momentum(and the) next war will not be conventional."(42) Russia and before it the Soviet Union has long been a major(if not the major) target of Israeli nukes. It is widely reported that the principal purpose of Jonathan Pollard's spying for Israel was to furnish satellite images of Soviet targets and other super sensitive data relating to U.S. nuclear targeting strategy. (43) (Since launching its own satellite in 1988, Israel no longer needs U.S. spy secrets.) Israeli nukes aimed at the Russian heartland seriously complicate disarmament and arms control negotiations and, at the very least, the unilateral possession of nuclear weapons by Israel is enormously destabilizing, and dramatically lowers the threshold for their actual use, if not for all out nuclear war. In the words of Mark Gaffney, "... if the familar pattern(Israel refining its weapons of mass destruction with U.S. complicity) is not reversed soon- for whatever reason- the deepening Middle East conflict could trigger a world conflagration." (44) Many Middle East Peace activists have been reluctant to discuss, let alone challenge, the Israeli monopoly on nuclear weapons in the region, often leading to incomplete and uninformed analyses and flawed action strategies. Placing the issue of Israeli weapons of mass destruction directly and honestly on the table and action agenda would have several salutary effects. First, it would expose a primary destabilizing dynamic driving the Middle East arms race and compelling the region's states to each seek their own "deterrent." Second, it would expose the grotesque double standard which sees the U.S. and Europe on the one hand condemning Iraq, Iran and Syria for developing weapons of mass destruction, while simultaneously protecting and enabling the principal culprit. Third, exposing Israel's nuclear strategy would focus international public attention, resulting in increased pressure to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction and negotiate a just peace in good faith. Finally, a nuclear free Israel would make a Nuclear Free Middle East and a comprehensive regional peace agreement much more likely. Unless and until the world community confronts Israel over its covert nuclear program it is unlikely that there will be any meaningful resolution of the Israeli/Arab conflict, a fact that Israel may be counting on as the Sharon era dawns. --------------------------------- Footnotes: 1. Seymour Hersh, The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy, New York,1991, Random House, p. 319 (A brilliant and prophetic work with much original research)2 2. Mark Gaffney, Dimona, The Third Temple:The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation, Brattleboro, VT, 1989, Amana Books, p. 165 (Excellent progressive analysis of the Israeli nuclear program) 3. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Warner D. Farr, The Third Temple Holy of Holies; Israel's Nuclear Weapons, USAF Counterproliferation Center, Air War College Sept 1999 ***************************************************************** 8 Xinhuanet: Pakistan nuclear test report denied www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-01 17:57:04 ISLAMABAD, July 1 (Xinhuanet) -- A local news agency admitted Thursday that misinterpretation led to its incorrect report that Pakistan planned to conduct a nuclear test rather than a missile test as mentioned by President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday. ¡¡¡¡President Musharraf said in a press conference Wednesday night that "in two months time Pakistan will conduct a major test." When asked what kind of a test, the president said a missile test. But a reporter for the News Network International reported that Musharraf disclosed Pakistan would conduct a nuclear test. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 9 Arutz Sheva: Nuclear Double Standard At U.N. 17:58 Jul 01, '04 / 12 Tammuz 5764 The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed El Baradei, suggests that Israel rid itself of nuclear weapons - but insists that Iran's documented pursuit of nuclear capabilities are not a concern. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed El Baradei, suggests that Israel rid itself of nuclear weapons - but insists that Iran's documented pursuit of nuclear capabilities are not a concern. El Baradei told Moscow reporters on Sunday that Israel should take steps to disarm so as to reduce frustration in the region about "what is seen to be a widespread imbalance." The Israelis agree, El Baradei said, "but they say it has to be... after peace agreements. My proposal is that maybe we need to start to have a parallel dialogue on security at the same time we're working on the peace process." He said he would like to see Israel, along with other Middle East countries, open up their nuclear facilities to inspections by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. El Baradei is scheduled to visit Israel and other Middle East countries next month. in a speech two days later, the same El Baradei who called for nuclear-free Middle-East" took a different tone - this time regarding Iran's nuclear program. El Baradei, still in Moscow, said that he was unconcerned by Russia's construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran, brushing aside US allegations that the facility could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, El Baradei said that they had not discussed the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran because the project is an issue of Russia-Iran relations. The United States has strongly criticized Russia for pushing ahead with construction of the $800 million reactor near the Iranian port of Bushehr. The Americans feel that Iran could use Moscow's atomic know-how to develop nuclear weapons. El-Baradei, adopting the Iranian claim, said that "Bushehr is a project to produce nuclear energy" and should not be the center of international concern. All rights reserved IsraelNationalNews © Arutz Sheva Israel Broadcasting Network webmaster@israelnationalnews.com ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: Hollywood zombies hit Chernobyl Geoffrey Macnab Thursday July 1, 2004 The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk] Hollywood film-makers are to shoot a B-movie about brain-guzzling zombies on the site of the most catastrophic radioactive explosion in recent history. The team behind Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis were in defiant mood yesterday on the eve of their two-day visit to Chernobyl. "Yes, it is a holy site ... but at the same time, we're shooting a movie and they are getting paid," says LA-based producer Anatoly Fradis. "There are certainly places where people died or were burned and we are not invading those places." The team have been given permission to shoot a few hundred yards from where the explosion took place in 1986. Fradis, director Ellory Elkayem and line producer Angelo Pastore recently went on a scouting visit to the plant, which still holds 90 tonnes of nuclear fuel. They were armed with a Geiger counter. "Sometimes, it made strange noises," Pastore says. Fradis marvelled at the wildlife: "We saw a catfish that was 80lb. We saw a deer that was enormous - the size of almost an elephant." Chernobyl has been characterised as "the largest ghost town in the world". "It's amazing," says Fradis. "It's like Theatre of the Absurd - Ionesco, Kafka or Beckett." [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 11 NRC: Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear FR Doc 04-14908 [Federal Register: July 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 126)] [Notices] [Page 39976-39977] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jy04-157] Operations, Inc.; Notice of Consideration of Issuance of Amendment to Facility Operating License and Opportunity for a Hearing The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or the Commission) is considering issuance of an amendment to Facility Operating License No. DPR-28, issued to Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, LLC and Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc. (the licensees), for operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VYNPS) located in Windham County, Vermont. The proposed amendment would change the VYNPS operating license to increase the maximum authorized power level from 1593 megawatts thermal (MWt) to 1912 MWt. This change represents an increase of approximately 20 percent above the current maximum authorized power level. The proposed amendment would also change the VYNPS technical specifications to provide for implementing uprated power operation. Before issuance of the proposed license amendment, the Commission will have made findings required by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (the Act), and the Commission's regulations. Within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice, the licensee may file a request for a hearing with respect to issuance of the amendment to the subject facility operating license and any person whose interest may be affected by this proceeding and who wishes to participate as a party in the proceeding must file a written request for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene. Requests for a hearing and a petition for leave to intervene shall be filed in accordance with the Commission's ``Rules of Practice for Domestic Licensing Proceedings'' in 10 CFR Part 2. Interested persons should consult a current copy of 10 CFR 2.309, which is available at the Commission's Public Document Room (PDR), located at One White Flint North, Public File Area 01F21,11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible from the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System's (ADAMS) Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/ [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collecti ons/cfr/] . If a request for a hearing or petition for leave to intervene is filed by the above date, the Commission or a presiding officer designated by the Commission or by the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, will rule on the request and/or petition; and the Secretary or the Chief Administrative Judge of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will issue a notice of a hearing or an appropriate order. As required by 10 CFR 2.309, a petition for leave to intervene shall set forth with particularity the interest of the petitioner/ requestor in the proceeding, and how that interest may be affected by the results of the proceeding. The petition should specifically explain the reasons why intervention should be permitted with particular reference to the following general requirements: (1) The name, address and telephone number of the requestor or petitioner; (2) the nature of the requestor's/petitioner's right under the Act to be made a party to the proceeding; (3) the nature and extent of the requestor's/ petitioner's property, financial, or other interest in the proceeding; and (4) the possible effect of any decision or order which may be entered in the proceeding on the requestor's/petitioner's interest. The petition must also identify the specific contentions which the petitioner/requestor seeks to have litigated at the proceeding. Each contention must consist of a specific statement of the issue of law or fact to be raised or controverted. In addition, the petitioner/requestor shall provide a brief explanation of the bases for the contention and a concise statement of the alleged facts or expert opinion which support the contention and on which the petitioner intends to rely in proving the contention at the hearing. The petitioner must also provide references to those specific sources and documents of which the petitioner is aware and on which the petitioner intends to rely to establish those facts or expert opinion. The petition must include sufficient information to show that a genuine dispute exists with the applicant on a material issue of law or fact. Contentions shall be limited to matters within the scope of the amendment under consideration. The contention must be one which, if proven, would entitle the petitioner/requestor to relief. A petitioner/ requestor who fails to satisfy these requirements with respect to at least one contention will not be permitted to participate as a party. Those permitted to intervene become parties to the proceeding, subject to any limitations in the order granting leave to intervene, and have the opportunity to participate fully in the conduct of the hearing. Nontimely requests and/or petitions and contentions will not be entertained absent a determination by the Commission or the presiding officer of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the petition, request and/or the contentions should be granted based on a balancing of the factors specified in 10 CFR 2.309(a)(1)(i)-(viii). A request for a hearing or a petition for leave to intervene must be filed by: (1) First class mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary of the Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (2) courier, express mail, and expedited delivery services: Office of the Secretary, Sixteenth Floor, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff; (3) E-mail addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV [HEARINGDOCKET@NRC.GOV] ; or (4) facsimile transmission addressed to the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, Attention: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff at (301) 415-1101, verification number is (301) 415-1966. A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, and it is requested that copies be transmitted either by means of facsimile transmission to 301-415-3725 or by email to OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov [ OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov] . A copy of the request for hearing and petition for leave to intervene should also be sent to John M. Fulton, Assistant [[Page 39977]] General Counsel, Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., 440 Hamilton Avenue, White Plains, NY 10601, attorney for the licensee. For further details with respect to this action, see the application for amendment dated September 10, 2003, as supplemented on October 1, 2003, October 28, 2003 (2 letters), January 31, 2004 (2 letters), March 4, 2004, and May 19, 2004, which are available for public inspection at the Commission's PDR, located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O1 F21, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly available records will be accessible electronically from the ADAMS Public Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site, http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html] . Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209, 301-415-4737, or by e- mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of June, 2004. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Richard B. Ennis, Senior Project Manager, Section 2, Project Directorate I, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. [FR Doc. 04-14908 Filed 6-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 12 NRC: NRC to Discuss Findings of Palo Verde Augmented Inspection News Release - Region IV - 2004-03 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region IV No. IV-04-032 July 1, 2004 CONTACT: Victor Dricks Phone: 817-860-8128 E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov] Officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet with Arizona Public Service Co. officials on July 12 to discuss the findings of an Augmented Inspection of the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. APS operates the plant located near Wintersburg, Arizona. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held at Estrella Mountain Community College, North Community Room, 3000 North Dysart Road, Avondale, AZ. NRC officials will be available after the meeting to answer questions from the public. The NRC dispatched an Augmented Inspection Team from its Region IV office in Arlington, Texas June 15 to look into the causes of, and the plant response to, the shutdown of Palo Verdes three reactors on June 14 following a loss of off-site power. The team will issue a written report, which will be made publicly available, by the end of July. Last revised Thursday, July 01, 2004 ***************************************************************** 13 PC News Herald: NRC's failure to view Davis-Besse tape frightening - portclintonnewsherald.com Thursday, July 1, 2004 Opinion The Davis-Besse nuclear power plant has been operating safely since April, but the fallout from corrosion discovered more than two years ago on its reactor head continues. With investigations -- including one by a federal grand jury -- still ongoing, we very well could hear more revelations. Still, a recent report by The Associated Press, based on a story done by The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, shows that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was asleep at the switch from the start. As the saying goes, hindsight is 20-20, but the actions of NRC staffers in the months before the corrosion was discovered are baffling. Some brief background: The NRC had been concerned that some nuclear plants, including Davis-Besse, might be susceptible to cracks on nozzles at the top of their reactors. The cracks could lead to acid leaks from the reactor, which then could cause corrosion. The NRC wanted these plants to shut down in late 2001 to inspect the nozzles. FirstEnergy, the owner of Davis-Besse, fought the shutdown. The company argued that it already was planning a maintenance and refueling shut down for early 2002 and presented evidence that the plant could operate safely until then. Among the evidence was a series of videotapes taken during inspections of the reactor head in 1996, 1998 and 2000. According to the report, senior NRC engineers, risk analysts and at least one manager watched portions of the 1996 and 1998 tapes. They were frustrated by poor lighting and camera angles but said they saw no extensive corrosion. Nevertheless, an increasing amount of acid was evident in the videos. Even more incredulously, the staffers decided not to view the tape from the 2000 inspection. Why? Because a FirstEnergy executive said it showed the same thing as the '96 and '98 tapes. That wasn't the case. Ed Hackett, an NRC metallurgist who later saw the tape while working on the agency's review of Davis-Besse, had this to say about it: "Everyone who saw those tapes here after the fact -- I think 'stunned' would be a good word." He went on to say that if staffers had seen that tape in late 2001, FirstEnergy "would have had to have taken immediate action to figure out what was going on there." So, senior NRC staffers see videos that show increasing amounts of acid. Not only are they not concerned, they are talked out of seeing a follow-up tape that could have confirmed or debunked the threat. The NRC says it has responded to this and other problems discovered during its investigation of the agency's role in the Davis-Besse problem. We certainly hope so; if this was business as usual for the NRC, then the place needs a thorough housecleaning. Originally published Thursday, July 1, 2004 ***************************************************************** 14 baltic times: Ignalina to undergo crucial inspection [http://www.baltictimes.com/spec.php?issue=1] Friday, July 02, 2004 Baltic News Service VILNIUS - The International Atomic Energy Agency is ready to send a task group for the evaluation of safety of the second reactor of Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant, the Lietuvos Rytas daily reported on June 29, signifying that the idea of extending the lifetime of the second unit of the nuclear reactor was being discussed on the international level.The IAEA was to direct a task group of international inspectors for the evaluation of safety of the second reactor provided that Lithuania's government filed a respective application with the agency, said Byung Koo Kim, IAEA director for Europe, Latin America and Western Asia. Lithuania will have to prove the safe operation of the Soviet-designed and made RBMK reactor. A favorable assessment of the unit's safety would benefit the Baltic country in its talks with the European Union on the extension of the Ignalina nuclear power plant's operations, a major source of export revenues, for several years. Meanwhile, the first reactor of the plant will be shut down at the end of this year, in line with pledges to the EU. The second reactor should be decommissioned in 2009 provided that the EU earmarked sufficient funds for the purpose. The daily suggests that the statement of Byung Koo Kim has been coordinated with the IAEA's leadership and may be considered an official position of this U.N. organization. The study conducted by IAEA experts and Baltic energy companies has established that the continuation of operations of Ignalina's second unit until 2017 would boost the reliability of power supply in the Baltic countries and would assure low prices of supply. In the meantime, the Baltic countries should arrange additional storages for natural gas, merge their energy systems with Poland and Finland, curb the consumption of gas for the generation of power and heating and strengthen interlinks in the Baltic region. Termination of Ignalina's operations in 2017 would result in a significant reduction of costs, said Hans Holger Rogner, an IAEA representative. Should the second reactor be shut down earlier, the upgrade of other power plants would consume investments of up to 315 million litas (91.3 million euros), while the expenditures on operating and maintaining power plants and fuel would reach approximately 2 billion litas, and the loss of potential revenues would come to 1.3 billion litas. Construction of a new nuclear power plant would be feasible provided that the installation of 1 kw of capacity cost approximately 4,488 litas, the IAEA noted in its study. In that case the power plant would be capable of competing with other power stations. However, this would occur in 2015 at the earliest. Earlier reports in March suggested that the government was also considering an appeal to extend operation of the first reactor by one year due to delays in constructing boiler stations that would heat the town of Visaginas. Decommission of the first reactor by the end of 2004 was one of the conditions Brussels put on the table in its negotiations with Lithuanian on joining the European Union. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident, the capacities of the first RBMK reactor in Ignalina were slashed from 1,500 MW to 1,300 MW. The second unit, which was started up in 1987, operated at lower than design capacities as well. Although the capacities of reactors have been curbed, in the winter season they reach 1,350 MW for greater efficiency of turbines. All reactor installations had been adapted for the 1,500 MW capacity, according to Jurgis Vilemas, head of the Lithuanian Energy Institute. Scientists believe that the capacity could be raised to at least 1,400 MW or, according to the pessimistic scenario, to 1,350 MW both in winter and summer. ***************************************************************** 15 ABS-CBNNEWS: After 35 years, Pinoys still paying for nuclear plant www.abs-cbn.com July 1, 2004 9:55 PM By JOSE VILLANUEVA TODAY Subeditor Taxpayers would still have to settle $80.4 million worth of debt incurred in the controversial Bataan nuclear power plant, which was considered a white elephant during the Marcos dictatorship, despite coughing up more than P60 billion the past 18 years for the unfinished project, Sen. Ralph Recto warned on Thursday. Realistically, Recto said the debt on the project would be extinguished by 2010, 35 years after work on the plant was constructed in 1975. Recto estimated that by the end of the year, the government would still have an outstanding balance of P4.5 billion. He said the nuke plant is a “constant reminder to governments to think of the future generations every time they borrow money,†an indirect snipe at the Arroyo administration, under whose watch, the budget deficit has ballooned tremendously due to poor tax collection efforts and unfinished tax reforms. The spiraling of the deficit set back the government’s goals to have a balanced budget by three years to 2009. Now, despite previous assurances of its commitment to fiscal discipline, it is unlikely the administration would meet its P197-billion deficit target for the year, due to the amount of funds that were spent in May to secure a new term for President Arroyo. Recto’s comments on the Bataan nuclear plant appeared to be an indirect message to Arroyo to make sure belts are tightened, and that she remains committed to balancing the budget, and passes much-needed reform. “At least three-and-a-half decades, this is the longest paiyukan-style of repayment the government is involved in, and the most painful,†Recto remarked in a statement. The two-reactor 1,200-MW nuclear plant originally cost $600 million when the contract was bid out to Westinghouse in 1974. But the final price was bloated to $2.1 billion due to alleged payoffs to government officials during the Marcos administration. The project came under controversy not only because of its staggering costs, but because of its feasibility as well: it was built near a volcano and an earthquake fault. After the dictatorship was overthrown in 1986, the Aquino administration sued Westinghouse for overpricing the plant and eventually came to an out-of-court settlement for $188 million. But obligations to financiers who bankrolled the project never were extinguished.From 1986 to 1998, Filipino taxpayers paid a total of P48.3 billion, while another P9.5 billion was allocated from 1999 to 2002. This year, the government is scheduled to pay $38.214 million to two Japanese, one Swiss, and two US banks that bankrolled the original construction of the facility. Equivalent to P2.14 billion, total nuke plant debt payments for the year would be bigger than the 2004 budgets of the tourism, trade, social welfare, energy, and budget departments combined, Recto pointed out. “If what we will pay for the useless plant’s debt next year will be distributed among poor households as power charge subsidy instead, then we can provide P300 million worth of electricity per month to 594,440 homes a year,†Recto said. ***************************************************************** 16 NRC: Sequoyah Fuels Corporation; Establishment of Atomic Safety and FR Doc 04-14905 [Federal Register: July 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 126)] [Notices] [Page 39977] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jy04-158] Licensing Board Pursuant to delegation by the Commission dated December 29, 1972, published in the Federal Register, 37 FR 28,710 (1972), and the Commission's regulations, see 10 CFR 2.104, 2.300, 2.303, 2.309, 2.311, 2.318, and 2.321, notice is hereby given that an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is being established to preside over the following proceeding: Sequoyah Fuels Corporation, Gore, Oklahoma Site, (Materials License Amendment). This proceeding concerns a request for hearing submitted on May 17, 2004, by the State of Oklahoma. That request was filed in response to a March 10, 2004 notice of receipt of a January 7, 2004 materials amendment request from Sequoyah Fuels Corporation to authorize a proposed raffinate dewatering project at its Gore, Oklahoma facility site, and of opportunity for a hearing which was published in the Federal Register on March 17, 2004 (69 FR 12,715). The Board is comprised of the following administrative judges: Alan S. Rosenthal, Chair, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Anthony J. Baratta, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Dr. Richard F. Cole, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. All correspondence, documents, and other materials shall be filed with the administrative judges in accordance with 10 CFR 2.302. Issued at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of June 2004. G. Paul Bollwerk, III, Chief Administrative Judge, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. [FR Doc. 04-14905 Filed 6-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 17 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding FR Doc 04-14906 [Federal Register: July 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 126)] [Notices] [Page 39978] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jy04-160] of No Significant Impact for License Amendment for Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability of environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Peter J. Lee, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region III, 2443 Warrenville Road, Suite 210, Lisle, Illinois 60532-4352; telephone (630) 829-9870; or by e-mail at pjl2@nrc.gov [pjl2@nrc.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the issuance of a license amendment to Byproduct Material License No. 24- 15118-01 issued to Northwest Missouri State University (formerly known as Northwest Missouri State College) (the licensee), to terminate its license and authorize release of its Maryville, Missouri facility for unrestricted use. The NRC staff has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) in support of this licensing action 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. Environmental Assessment Summary The purpose of the proposed action is to terminate Northwest Missouri State University's license and release its Maryville, Missouri facility for unrestricted use. In May 1972, the NRC authorized Northwest Missouri State University to use radioisotopes such as phosphorus-32 (P-32), iodine-25 (I-25), tritium (H-3), and carbon-14 (C-14), etc. for laboratory experiments and teaching and training of students. On December 19, 2003, Northwest Missouri State University submitted a license amendment request to terminate its license and release its Maryville facility for unrestricted use. The staff has examined Northwest Missouri State University's request and the information that the licensee provided in support of its request. The NRC staff concluded that the proposed action complies with the license termination criteria in subpart E of 10 CFR part 20 for unrestricted release. III. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has prepared the EA, summarized above, in support of Northwest Missouri State University's proposed license amendment to terminate its license and release the Maryville facility for unrestricted use. Based on its review, the staff has determined that the affected environment and the environmental impacts associated with the decommissioning of Northwest Missouri State University's facility were bounded by the impacts evaluated by the ``Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities'' (NUREG-1496). No outdoor areas were affected by the use of licensed materials. Additionally, no non-radiological impacts were identified. The staff also finds that the proposed release for unrestricted use of the Northwest Missouri State University's facility is in compliance with 10 CFR 20.1492. No other activities in the area that could have resulted in cumulative impacts. On the basis of the EA, the staff has concluded that the environmental impacts from the proposed action would not be significant. Accordingly, the staff has determined that a FONSI is appropriate, and has determined that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement is not warranted. IV. Further Information In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' Northwest Missouri State University's request, the EA summarized above, and the documents related to this proposed action, are available electronically for public inspection and copying from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS). The NRC's document system is accessible from the NRC Web site 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] . These documents include Northwest Missouri State University's NRC Form dated December 19, 2003, with enclosures (Accession No. ML041590566); and the EA summarized above (Accession No. ML041680287). These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Lisle, Illinois, this 17th day of June, 2004. Kenneth G. O'Brien, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, RIII. [FR Doc. 04-14906 Filed 6-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 18 BBC: Welding led to nuclear subs Last Updated: Thursday, 1 July, 2004 [Devonport] Devonport Dockyard said the fires were dealt with swiftly Three fires broke out on nuclear submarines being refitted at Devonport Royal Dockyard, Plymouth, last year. The small fires, between October and December, had "no nuclear or radiological implications", the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said. They were caused by welding work on board the submarines and caused minimal disruption, said yard operator DML. Devonport is currently the UK's only refitting and defuelling site for nuclear submarines. Nuclear fears An HSE spokesman said no enforcement action had been taken against DML, but added: "With fires in confined spaces, the potential is there for people to get hurt." A DML spokesman said: "These were small fires associated with welding operations and all were dealt with swiftly in accordance with DML's response procedures." The nuclear refitting has been the subject of a series of protests by anti-nuclear campaigners. The yard is also being considered as a site for dismantling the UK's redundant nuclear submarines. Concerns have also been raised about the release of tritium, a radioactive substance produced by reactors from nuclear submarines based at the Devonport yard, into the River Tamar. Levels of the chemical released by Devonport increased by 500% in 2003, although the government says that discharges were well within national and international guidelines, and well below that produced by naturally occurring sources in the area. ***************************************************************** 19 Hawk Eye: IAAP cleanup gets new crew Thursday, July 1, 2004, Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST Engineering firm signs on to effort with $39 million contract. By MATTHEW LeBLANC mleblanc@thehawkeye.com [mleblanc@thehawkeye.com] MIDDLETOWN — The U.S. Army has hired a private engineering firm to finish a nearly $130 million cleanup of contaminated Iowa Army Ammunition Plant grounds. The Army will pay Tetra Tech Inc., a Pasadena, Calif.–based firm, $39 million to clean up grounds contaminated by years of manufacturing weapons at the 19,000–acre plant. The company in April also secured a $200 million contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for cleanup efforts in Oklahoma. "The Army will still be involved, but the work will be contracted out," said Darlene Norton, safety specialist at IAAP. The announcement marks a significant change in strategy for the Army, which has overseen cleanup activities on plant grounds since 1994. In the past, engineers from the Army's Environmental Center in Maryland worked to remove contaminated soil and study groundwater. Now, Tetra engineers will perform the work, though the Army will remain as overseer. "The Army continues to be very involved and carries the ultimate responsibility for environmental cleanup," Norton said in an e–mail Wednesday. "An on–site representative will remain at (IAAP) as project manager for the Army and will continue to be involved with management of the entire effort." The Army Corps of Engineers, which also has been involved in the cleanup, has previously worked with private contractors. Also, the contract with Tetra is "performance based," a new system allowing the Army to hire private contractors for a flat rate. If, in the future, more money must be spent on the project, it will be up to the contractor to make up the difference. Beginning in the 1940s, workers at the plant built, test–fired and disassembled conventional and nuclear weapons, leading to contamination in some areas on IAAP grounds. Studies to determine the amount of contamination began in 1978, and the plant was placed on a government list of contaminated areas in line for cleanup in 1989. Work on cleanup, which included an area containing 37,000 cubic yards of dangerous "sludges," began in 1994. Originally estimated to cost about $100 million, the Army has spent about $88 million on the project to date. The Tetra contract will push the cost to about $127 million. It's expected to be completed in 2014. In 2003, a conflict between the Army and the Environmental Protection Agency put a question mark on the pace of the cleanup at IAAP. Plant officials say the contract with Tetra puts an end to the questions. "The Army expects this contract to be the last major expenditure to reach either 'response complete' or to have a remedy in place," said Norton. Since the plant's designation as a federal Superfund site, worries among Middletown residents have circulated regarding the town's proximity to the plant. Federal environmental workers have found dangerous explosives — RDX, TNT, DDT — in wells on plant grounds. Most wells near the plant were replaced with rural water lines that ensured uncontaminated drinking water. Also, a January report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found that contamination at the plant is "not at levels that would result in adverse human health effects to facility residents or to those living nearby." Tetra began work at the plant on June 23, and is working to coordinate further decontamination plans with the Army. The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington Iowa 52601 319-754-8461 Front Desk · 319-754-6824 FAX · 1-800-397-1708 Toll Free ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding FR Doc 04-14907 [Federal Register: July 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 126)] [Notices] [Page 39977-39978] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01jy04-159] of No Significant Impact for Issuance of a License Renewal for Byproduct Material License No. 24-21362-01 for American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc., St. Louis, MO AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Notice of availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Snell, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region III, 2443 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois 60532; telephone (630) 829-9871; or by e-mail at wgs@nrc.gov [wgs@nrc.gov] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the renewal of Byproduct Material License No. 24-21362-01 issued to American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. (the licensee), in St. Louis, Missouri. The NRC staff has prepared this environmental assessment (EA) to support this licensing action 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. Environmental Assessment Summary The proposed action is to renew Byproduct Material License No. 24- 21362-01 issued to the American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. American Radiolabeled Chemicals is licensed to possess byproduct materials to be used in the manufacture and synthesis of radiolabeled chemicals. The licensee primarily uses tritium (H-3) and carbon-14 (C-14), and as a result of licensed activities releases curie quantities of H-3 and C-14 in airborne effluent releases. American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. requested by letter to the NRC dated October 28, 2002, the renewal of Byproduct Material License No. 24- 21362-01, which would have expired on November 30, 2002. The American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. provided radiological airborne effluent release data, radiological air sampling data, and computational results to demonstrate compliance with 10 CFR 20.1201, ``Occupational Dose Limits for Adults,'' and 10 CFR 20.1301, ``Dose Limits for Individual Members of the Public.'' No licensee activities are required to complete the proposed action. The NRC staff has reviewed the radiological airborne effluent release data, radiological air sampling data, and computational results provided by American Radiolabeled Chemicals to ensure the NRC's decision is protective of public health and safety and the environment. III. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has prepared the EA, summarized above, in support of American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc.'s request to renew Byproduct Material License No. 24-21362-01. Based on its review, the staff has determined that there are no radiological or non-radiological environmental impacts associated with the renewal of American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc.'s license. The staff also finds that American Radiolabeled Chemicals demonstrated compliance with the occupational dose limits for adults in 10 CFR 20.1201 and the dose limits for individual members of the public in 20.1301, and finds no other activities in the area that could result in cumulative impacts. On the basis of the EA, the staff has concluded that the environmental impacts from the [[Page 39978]] proposed action would not be significant. Accordingly, the staff has determined that a FONSI is appropriate, and has determined that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement is not warranted. IV. Further Information In accordance with 10 CFR 2.390 of the NRC's ``Rules of Practice,'' American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc.'s request, the EA summarized above, and the documents related to this proposed action, are available electronically for public inspection and copying from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of NRC's document system (ADAMS). The NRC's document system is accessible from the NRC Web site 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] . These documents include American Radiolabeled Chemicals' letter dated October 28, 2002, (Accession No. ML041540462); and the EA summarized above (Accession No. ML041680276). These documents may also be viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR), O 1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a fee. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR reference staff by telephone at 1-800-397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated at Lisle, Illinois, this 17th day of June 2004. Kenneth G. O'Brien, Chief, Decommissioning Branch, Division of Nuclear Materials Safety, RIII. [FR Doc. 04-14907 Filed 6-30-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P ***************************************************************** 21 Yucca Crunch Time, Lobbying Needed Now Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 20:17:09 -0400 Dear All, Please call, fax and/or meet with your Senators & Reps about this sham. The Congressional switchboard is: 202-224-3121. Fax #s and/or arrangements to meet face to face with Senators, Reps or their aids can be obtained and made via this phone#. Some talking point besides those listed below by Kevin Kamps of NIRS [ http://www.nirs.org ] are: 1. If all this works just as industry plans by the time Yucca is full from extant nuclear waste it'll be time to build another national nuclear waste repository and begin shipping and endangering the environment and public yet again. 2. If all this works as industry plans reactors will continue to pose as terrorist targets as will their spent nuclear fuel pools. More operating time and generation of even more nuclear waste will increase the chances of accidents. They are gambling that a nuclear September 11th [or two or ten] won't happen. Remember that Al Qaeda originally planned to use ten airplanes and attack nuclear power plants. Who says they won't do it tomorrow or next month or next year? The nuclear industry and the polititians in their pay are gambling with all our lives. 3. The 10,000 year life span for which Yucca is supposed to "protect" the environment will leave radioactive plutonium-239 "free" for nature to do with it whatever it will long aftyer that 10,000 year period has ended. Pu-239 has a half life of about 24,400 years and a full radiological life that's vastly longer. This is just a perfect example of how the nuclear industry views the situation- disregard science, the environment, people and genetic pools of all species so long as they can continue to crank out their extremely toxic "stuff." Please call now [ 202-224-3121, http://www.senate.gov http://www.house.gov ] and dissemenate to other lists and interested parties. -Bill Smirnow Here's that link to Marvin Resnikoff's study on the Baltimore train tunnel fire and what would have happened had high-level radioactive waste been aboard: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11459.htm Let the games begin... See DOE press release below. Now parties wishing to intervene against the Yucca Mountain dump must turn in the documents upon which they will base their contentions within 90 days, by Sept. 30th. Nevermind that DOE has not yet made its application, nor even finalized its repository design, nor even submitted all the documents it will use to argue in favor of an operating license. Intervenors must prepare and submit their documents against a moving target. Talk about a rigged, illogical procedure! Kevin Kamps, NIRS [ http://www.nirs.org ] P.S. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act held that DOE was supposed to have applied for an operating license within 90 days after Bush approved Yucca. Bush's approval happened on July 23, 2002. Oct. 23, 2002 came and went without an application. DOE's application will not be submitted till Dec. 30th, 2004 at the earliest. So DOE's application comes over two years late. Do you think NRC will let us be two minutes late in filing our documents to support our contentions against the dump by Sept. 30th? Yucca Mountain Documents Made Available for Licensing Proceeding; 1.2 Million Documents, 5.6 Million Pages, Available Via the Internet 6/30/2004 5:57:00 PM -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ To: National Desk and Energy Reporter Contact: Allen Benson of the U.S. Department of Energy, 702-794-1322 WASHINGTON, June 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today certified to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the public availability through the Internet of approximately 1.2 million documents totaling some 5.6 million pages regarding Yucca Mountain. The documents are available on the Department's website, and will be included in the NRC's Licensing Support Network (LSN). This certification is in anticipation of DOE's submitting a license application for Yucca Mountain to the NRC by December of this year. Following submittal of the license application, the Commission will conduct a full and public adjudicatory process on the license application, for which Federal law contemplates a three- to four-year time period. DOE has previously released a substantial number of scientific documents related to Yucca Mountain, including the Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report, Site Suitability Evaluation, and Final Environmental Impact Statement. Many of the 1.2 million documents served as background material for those reports. The documents represent the scientific studies, evaluations, and opinions of more than 20 years of scientific study of Yucca Mountain. Each individual document represents only a piece of the information in the development of the license application. All information must be considered in context and as part of the entire set of documents for any user to draw substantive conclusions about the scientific information in the license application. Selective use of individual documents or portions of documents by any user, including DOE, outside the context provided by other relevant documents is likely to result in inappropriate, faulty, or misleading conclusions. If the 5.6 million pages searchable on the Internet were stacked one on top of the other, the stack would reach a height of approximately 1,800 feet -- some 3 times the height of the Washington Monument. Laid end-to-end, these 5.6 million pages would extend approximately 1,000 miles or almost one-half the distance from Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, Nev. The DOE will be providing additional documents to the LSN as an ongoing activity. Other participants in the licensing proceeding are also required to submit documents to the LSN. DOE's documents may be accessed today at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov, and will be available through the NRC's LSN web site at http://www.lsnnet.gov. Persons without access to Internet connections may use the public access computers at the Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center -- 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas, NV; at the public reading room (1E-190), U.S. Department of Energy, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.; or at most libraries worldwide. http://www.usnewswire.com/ -0- /© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ ***************************************************************** 22 [NukeNet] Yucca Crunch Time, Lobbying Needed Now Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 18:25:13 -0700 Dear All, Please call, fax and/or meet with your Senators & Reps about this sham. The Congressional switchboard is: 202-224-3121. Fax #s and/or arrangements to meet face to face with Senators, Reps or their aids can be obtained and made via this phone#. Some talking point besides those listed below by Kevin Kamps of NIRS [ http://www.nirs.org ] are: 1. If all this works just as industry plans by the time Yucca is full from extant nuclear waste it'll be time to build another national nuclear waste repository and begin shipping and endangering the environment and public yet again. 2. If all this works as industry plans reactors will continue to pose as terrorist targets as will their spent nuclear fuel pools. More operating time and generation of even more nuclear waste will increase the chances of accidents. They are gambling that a nuclear September 11th [or two or ten] won't happen. Remember that Al Qaeda originally planned to use ten airplanes and attack nuclear power plants. Who says they won't do it tomorrow or next month or next year? The nuclear industry and the polititians in their pay are gambling with all our lives. 3. The 10,000 year life span for which Yucca is supposed to "protect" the environment will leave radioactive plutonium-239 "free" for nature to do with it whatever it will long aftyer that 10,000 year period has ended. Pu-239 has a half life of about 24,400 years and a full radiological life that's vastly longer. This is just a perfect example of how the nuclear industry views the situation- disregard science, the environment, people and genetic pools of all species so long as they can continue to crank out their extremely toxic "stuff." Please call now [ 202-224-3121, http://www.senate.gov http://www.house.gov ] and dissemenate to other lists and interested parties. -Bill Smirnow Here's that link to Marvin Resnikoff's study on the Baltimore train tunnel fire and what would have happened had high-level radioactive waste been aboard: http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11459.htm Let the games begin... See DOE press release below. Now parties wishing to intervene against the Yucca Mountain dump must turn in the documents upon which they will base their contentions within 90 days, by Sept. 30th. Nevermind that DOE has not yet made its application, nor even finalized its repository design, nor even submitted all the documents it will use to argue in favor of an operating license. Intervenors must prepare and submit their documents against a moving target. Talk about a rigged, illogical procedure! Kevin Kamps, NIRS [ http://www.nirs.org ] P.S. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act held that DOE was supposed to have applied for an operating license within 90 days after Bush approved Yucca. Bush's approval happened on July 23, 2002. Oct. 23, 2002 came and went without an application. DOE's application will not be submitted till Dec. 30th, 2004 at the earliest. So DOE's application comes over two years late. Do you think NRC will let us be two minutes late in filing our documents to support our contentions against the dump by Sept. 30th? Yucca Mountain Documents Made Available for Licensing Proceeding; 1.2 Million Documents, 5.6 Million Pages, Available Via the Internet 6/30/2004 5:57:00 PM -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ To: National Desk and Energy Reporter Contact: Allen Benson of the U.S. Department of Energy, 702-794-1322 WASHINGTON, June 30 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today certified to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the public availability through the Internet of approximately 1.2 million documents totaling some 5.6 million pages regarding Yucca Mountain. The documents are available on the Department's website, and will be included in the NRC's Licensing Support Network (LSN). This certification is in anticipation of DOE's submitting a license application for Yucca Mountain to the NRC by December of this year. Following submittal of the license application, the Commission will conduct a full and public adjudicatory process on the license application, for which Federal law contemplates a three- to four-year time period. DOE has previously released a substantial number of scientific documents related to Yucca Mountain, including the Yucca Mountain Science and Engineering Report, Site Suitability Evaluation, and Final Environmental Impact Statement. Many of the 1.2 million documents served as background material for those reports. The documents represent the scientific studies, evaluations, and opinions of more than 20 years of scientific study of Yucca Mountain. Each individual document represents only a piece of the information in the development of the license application. All information must be considered in context and as part of the entire set of documents for any user to draw substantive conclusions about the scientific information in the license application. Selective use of individual documents or portions of documents by any user, including DOE, outside the context provided by other relevant documents is likely to result in inappropriate, faulty, or misleading conclusions. If the 5.6 million pages searchable on the Internet were stacked one on top of the other, the stack would reach a height of approximately 1,800 feet -- some 3 times the height of the Washington Monument. Laid end-to-end, these 5.6 million pages would extend approximately 1,000 miles or almost one-half the distance from Washington, D.C. to Las Vegas, Nev. The DOE will be providing additional documents to the LSN as an ongoing activity. Other participants in the licensing proceeding are also required to submit documents to the LSN. DOE's documents may be accessed today at http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov, and will be available through the NRC's LSN web site at http://www.lsnnet.gov. Persons without access to Internet connections may use the public access computers at the Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center -- 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas, NV; at the public reading room (1E-190), U.S. Department of Energy, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C.; or at most libraries worldwide. http://www.usnewswire.com/ -0- /© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 23 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA DOCUMENTS: DOE studies, discussions on Internet Thursday, July 01, 2004 Attorneys for state question whether agency has posted all findings as required by NRC By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON --The Department of Energy certified Wednesday it has made 1.2 million documents available to a special public database, a milestone toward applying for a license to build a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Officials said 5.6 million pages detailing science studies and policy discussions will be found on a searchable Internet site for the Yucca Mountain Project. The site address is www.lsnnet.gov Some of the documents on the licensing support network are background materials for environmental, science and engineering studies that have already been made public in support of the repository. Others might provide fresh insight to the government effort. David Garman, acting DOE undersecretary, said Wednesday some documents contain dissenting views as to whether Yucca Mountain can safely contain 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. "There will be documents that question the safety of the repository," he said. "That illustrates in our mind the nature that this was an honest scientific inquiry." "Here is our information -- the good, the bad and the ugly," Garman said. Attorneys for the state of Nevada do not believe DOE has been complete in its postings, and may challenge the database, according to Bob Loux, executive director for the state Agency for Nuclear Projects. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to appoint an administrative officer within 15 days to hear disputes involving the network. Garman said DOE now expects to submit a repository application to the NRC on Dec. 30, a required six months after certifying its initial database contributions. More documents will be added later. The new target is late by a week beyond DOE's original projection. Anticipating that Yucca licensing will be a long and contentious process, the NRC required DOE, the state of Nevada and other license participants to post documents to the Internet depository as a substitute for protracted legal discovery. Attorneys for the state of Nevada will begin scouring the database, Loux said. "We know there is a whole pile of other documents out there that DOE has and for whatever reason they have decided not to put them on" the licensing support network, Loux said. "The regulations are pretty clear they have to put everything on and we'll challenge them at some point at that." Loux said public comments by project deputy director John Arthur this spring indicated DOE was expecting to post 3 million to 4 million documents amounting to 20 million pages or more. Arthur signed formal documents Wednesday certifying DOE complied with database regulations. Garman said the department posted "everything that we think meets the NRC requirements." He said he did not know the number of documents that were withheld by claims of security or privacy exemptions. An internal audit in May outlined potential problems that it said could delay DOE certification for a year or more. Garman said all issues raised in the audit were solved. Now that the Energy Department has certified its postings, the NRC has 30 days to complete posting Yucca Mountain documents generated by its staff. The state of Nevada has 90 days to make available its documentation. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 24 CD Military: Contaminated soil transfer completed at NAES Lakehurst [Welcome to dcmilitary.com] July 01, 2004 LAKEHURST, N.J. - In May, the Air Force completed the final shipments of plutonium-contaminated soil from the site of a 1960 nuclear missile silo fire. Cleanup of the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center facility has been ongoing for the past two years and is now nearing completion. The shipments (almost 22,000 cubic yards of soil) have been traversing through Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in sealed containers via truck and then loaded onto rail cars on the base for transfer to a disposal site in Utah, according to Capt. Mark Bathrick, Lakehurst commanding officer. Contractors built a special road to the rail site on Lakehurst for transport of the soil. "We worked with the Air Force to insure that the contaminated soil was transported only on federal land through Fort Dix [Army base] and Lakehurst in an effort to avoid any possible contact with the public," Bathrick said. "We wanted to make sure that the transfer was done with the utmost safety and least impact to the surrounding community. I believe our efforts were completely successful." The 75-acre BOMARC site is actually on Fort Dix and owned by the Army, but leased to the Air Force for more than 40 years. The site housed 84 nuclear missiles at one time, but was closed by the Air Force in 1972. After the 1960 fire, the Air Force covered the contaminated section of the facility with a concrete and asphalt cap to contain the plutonium. The site has been closed to the public and monitored since that time. "The cooperative efforts among the Army, Navy and Air Force on projects such as this is due in large to the unique joint agreement that exists among the three central New Jersey military bases," Bathrick said. "The Navy Lakehurst-Fort Dix-McGuire Air Force Base Joint Installation Partnership - the first of its kind agreement in DoD - sets the example for future cross-service alliances." dcmilitary.com is brought to you by Comprint Military ***************************************************************** 25 Bellona: Moscow, IAEA support multi-national nuke waste repository for Russia Moscow’s top nuclear official Tuesday had little comment about the imminent possibility of building a multi-national nuclear waste repository in Russia after he held meetings with President Vladimir Putin and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, but all domestic and international signals indicate the project is in the offing. Mohamed ElBaradei across the table from President Vladimir Putin, third from left. To Putin's right sits FAEA cheif Alexander Rumyantsev. Charles Digges, 2004-06-30 15:01 After what was reportedly a rushed press conference following their meeting with Putin in Moscow, Alexander Rumyantsev, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Atomic Energy, and ElBaradei, were pressed by reporters to give some indication of whether Russia was slated to become a burial site for thousands of tonnes of spent nuclear fuel from around the world. Rumyantsev, swarmed by reporters after the press conference, said only that there are no “minuses” to building such a repository in Russia, adding “just as in France, Britain, and Germany and others that manage irradiated fuel and have the legislative basis—Russia has such a basis,” he said as quoted reported by Russia’s largely independent Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Rumyantsev would not answer questions about how much it would cost to build such a facility or how much Russia’s budget stood to gain from hosting international spent nuclear fuel—though the Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, the FAEA’s precursor, has in the past estimated that Russia could make $20 billion over ten years for offering such a service. Indeed, Moscow likely stands to make even more than that. According to the most recent IAEA statistics available, a half century windfall of nuclear waste awaits Russia if the repository is built. As of 2002, 441 nuclear reactors were functioning world wide. Some 200,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel have been unloaded since nuclear power came into widespread use—a figure that grows annually by 10,000 to 12,000 tonnes intenationally. Rumyantsev was surprisingly reticent to discuss the plans for the repository, especially in light of several high profile announcements over the past week that a deep geologic storage site for spent nuclear fuel will be built in Russia, as it is the only country in the world that has legislation allowing for the import of radioactive waste without requiring that the imported fuel be repatriated to the country of origin after reprocessing. On Monday, ElBaradei said the IAEA will press ahead with plans to build the world's first global atomic waste repository in Russia to keep the dangerous material away from extremists. "It's a very good thing for us. I'd like to push that as much as I can," ElBaradei told reporters on Monday after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. AP "If we can have a state-of-the-art repository here in Russia, that would be a major breakthrough.... [The Russians] are, of course, very keen that we have a robust plan to combat possible nuclear terrorist attacks." ElBaradei stressed that the Russian repository would not be the only one in the world. "But at least this would be the first one which would be ready to accept foreign spent fuel," he said. He added that financing and other issues had yet to be finalized. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, speaking alongside ElBaradei at a conference on Sunday, said Moscow fully supported the IAEA proposal. "Russia is the only country in the world where legislation allows that," he said. Plan slammed by environmentalists The proposed project has rung alarm bells among several environmental organizations, including Bellona, which oppose the import of more spent nuclear fuel to a country that cannot support proper storage for the 10,000 tonnes of native spent fuel it has already accumulated. Environmentalists also point out that such a repository would allow richer nations to dispose of their own nuclear woes by making them the problem of Russia. Equally disturbing is Russia’s precedent of ignoring popular opinion regarding nuclear issues, and building a nuclear repository on the scale of the one currently envisioned would likely be done without taking public opinion in to account, thus further eroding Russia’s already distressed nascent democracy. “They are perfectly satisfied to take nuclear waste and to Russia and its huge expanses, create more radioactive hazards for the environment and human life for a little money,” said Alexander Nikitin, Chairman of the Environmental Rights Center Bellona, or ERC, Bellona’s St. Petersburg Branch. “I have always though this was a terrible idea, but I am more worried now than before because it is being discussed at such high levels.” Bellona physicist and International Programme Director Nils Bøhmer said: “The income for a potential future repository will— if it doesn’t end up in some secret account in Switzerland—will be used to strengthen the power of the successors of Minatom.” He said the project itself will lead to further political and nuclear challenges in Russia and said that “the IAEA involvement in this project is a blow for the growing democratic movement in Russia, and will undermine this development—the people of Russia have very clearly said ‘no’ to any international repositories in Russia.” Russian environmental activist and former Yabloko party Duma deputy Sergei Mitrokhin. Mitrohin.ru Sergei Mitrokhin, a former State Duma Deputy with the environmentally active Yabloko party, stressed that point even further on Echo TV, a non-government controlled Russia satellite television station that broadcasts primarily abroad and to a limited Russian audience. “There is not a single government in the world that accepts imports of nuclear waste for burial,” he said in his televised remarks. “There are only two countries, England and France, that import spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing, but their legislation contains strict prohibitions on the burial of waste that comes as a result of reprocessing, and contains strict demands that the all waste is sent back with the reprocessed product.” The legislation The Russian Duma in 2001 passed a raft of three controversial laws, altering then current legislation, to allow spent nuclear imports. Though some 90 percent of the Russian population was opposed to the import plan, it was nonetheless rifled through the Duma by former Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov, who, many Duma members later admitted, had bought their votes. At the time, the legislation was geared toward attracting foreign spent nuclear fuel to Russia for temporary storage, reprocessing, and return of the processed fuel to the country of origin. But over the past three years, the plan has essentially eroded into long term storage for technical and political reasons. Technically, Russia’s poor reprocessing capabilities allow it to reprocess fuel only from Soviet-built VVER-440 reactors at the Mayak Chemical Combine’s RT-1 facility. The remaining fuel, from VVER-1000 reactors, will eventually be reprocesses, the FAEA says, in 30 years, when cash will be available to build reprocessing facilities at the central Siberian Zheleznogorsk RT-2 facility. Politically, the promised financial boon from imports of foreign spent nuclear fuel have been hindered by the fact that the United States controls some 70 to 90 percent of the world’s spent nuclear fuel, and has, until recently, steadfastly refused to allow any of that fuel to trickle into Russia while Moscow continues to build civilian reactors in Iran. As a result, Russia has had few customers, all of them financially desperate countries of the former Soviet bloc who can afford only cut rate storage prices. The US stance, however, has begun to change. First, in early 2003, the US offered to loosen restrictions on the spent fuel it controls to dissuade Russia from continuing work its nuclear work with Iran, Then, during a conference in Washington, DC held by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last week, building a multi-nation repository for spent nuclear fuel in Russia was broadly supported during panel discussions that included US State Department brass, the IAEA, and think tanks that are working on design schematics for a repository, like the Scowcroft Group. According to the Scowcroft Group’s Daniel Poneman, who took part the Carnegie Conference, said last Tuesday that it was time to “look beyond these political differences and start a serious project for a multi-national repository in Russia as soon as possible.” Bøhmer stronlgly disagreed. “Russia maybe the one country in the world which at present is the least suited to host an international repository,” he said. “First, Russia’s handling of its own waste and spent nuclear fuel speaks for itself. Second, Russia has not developed the necessary democratic system and controll mechanisms that are nececcary to form the basis for an internationally accepted repository. Russia also lacks the transparency in order to assure that the money paid for the fuel is ends up in the right places.” Where will the waste go? At present, most bets are that the repository would be located somewhere near Zhelenogorsk. In a recent interview with Bellona Web, Alexander Agapov, director for the FAEA’s department of safety, ecology and emergency situations said. “Currently, the most suitable place for a repository is an area in the Kranoyarsk region,” he said, because of its proximity to the Krasnoyarsk Mountain Chemical Combine, or MCC—located in the closed city of Zheleznorgorsk. The MCC is an enormous underground former weapons facility that many in favor of the repository say already has most of the crucial infrastructure in place. “The MCC […] is a unique enterprise with enormous experience. We don’t expect any bumps as it is assumed we will be using contemporary equipment,” Agapov said. “I hope that work can begin the Krasnoyask region in the next few years—realizing this project will allow for reliable isolation of waste for a million years.” But a source familiar with the project said it could take years before officials get down to actual construction. "The project is still pretty much in the making. It will take years, more than five years, before it's done," the source said. Spent nuclear fuel is generally stored in water pools for up to four decades for its radioactivity and heat production to decline. After that, most countries plan to seal it in containers and bury it underground. “The readiness of [theRussian Government] and the management of the IAEA to sell the territory of Russia as a nuclear repository is not surprising,” said Vladimir Chuprov, the coordinator of Greenpeace-Moscow’s energy division on the Echo-TV web site. “What seriously troubles us is that the realization of these plans in Russia—where there are no state ecological structures left—could actually happen.” Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] , President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no] Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no] Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway Menu ***************************************************************** 26 Las Vegas SUN: DOE turns in its Yucca assignment Nearly 6 million pages filed to NRC By Suzanne Struglinski < [suzanne@lasvegassun.com] > SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU The Energy Department has released more than 5.6 million pages of documents about Yucca Mountain in preparation to apply for a license to build a nuclear waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The documents can be viewed on the Internet at: + [http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov] + [http://www.lsnnet.gov] There are also public computers available to look at the documents at: + The Las Vegas Yucca Mountain Information Center -- 4101B Meadows Lane, Las Vegas + The Energy Department's public reading room (1E-190), Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department sent almost 6 million pages of Yucca Mountain information to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Wednesday, marking an anticipated, though late, first step in the project's license application process. Nevada attorneys will now carefully search the documents, which are available to the public, to make sure the department sent everything that is required by law to be in the commission's database. Under federal regulations, the department has to tell the commission everything it knows about the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, six months before submitting the project's license application. "We've think we've done a very good job here," said David Garman, acting Energy undersecretary. "I have high confidence we've included everything the NRC requires of us." The department sent all of its information, 1.2 million documents made up of 5.6 million pages, into a computer database known as the License Support Network Wednesday. The department missed its self-imposed deadline of June 23 in order to get the application in by Dec. 23, but certifying all the documents were there Wednesday will allow the application to come by Dec. 30, Garman said. "We wanted to go for greater precision and accuracy," Garman said. "Part of it was just the sheer number of documents." Attorney Charles Fitzpatrick of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, the Virginia law firm hired by Nevada to handle Yucca Mountain legal issues, said Nevada staff will go through the database to make sure it is accessible and has the key documents the state believes should be included. Fitzpatrick said the state has specific things it will look for, but he declined to say what those were. If state officials have objections, they can file those with a hearing officer, who is expected to be named in the next few weeks. Nevada has concerns about the quality of the documents since the Energy Department's estimate has gone down by millions of pages in the last few months, but Fitzpatrick said the state's legal counsel did not want to be "premature in what we do." "We are not going to rush into this in the next two days," he said. The commission now has 30 days to turn in its own documentation while the state and other parties allowed to participate in the process have 90 days to get their documentation online. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said the amount of information is overwhelming. "We're talking about 5.6 million pages -- 1,000 miles of paper -- all to be consumed by the general public seeking to obtain answers to their questions about public safety," Gibbons said. "I can't help but wonder what flaws will become apparent deep within the colossal mountain of documents." Because of the later submission, Garman said he believed the department sent an "extremely honest" batch of documents that will be useful to the public. The documents could also play out in Nevada's legal challenge. The state, trying to stop the project, has filed a series of lawsuits, which are pending in federal court. "The reality is, the questions about Yucca will ultimately be answered by the courts in the form of a few pages," said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev. spokesman Adam Mayberry. Rod McCullum, senior project manager for waste at the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying group, said submitting the documents Wednesday keeps the program on track for handing in the license by the end of the year. "This is a very clear and definitive indicator that the licensing process is on schedule," McCullum said. McCullum said posting all these documents is meant to save time since lawyers would normally ask for a lot of them during discovery periods of a case. Now, everything is already there. "These get down to the nitty gritty on how DOE (Energy Department) got to an answer," he said. NEI will also look through the database to see what the department posted because the group will post its own documents in 90 days. The plethora of documents includes e-mails, letters, technical documents, scientific reports and various documents from 20 years of research on the mountain. It includes information on all 293 key technical issues agreements, the areas the department and the commission agreed needed more answers. So far, 101 have been deemed closed by the commission, meaning it has enough information to review the work, said Michael Voegele, the project's chief scientist. The remaining issues are in various stages of consideration by the commission and all e-mail exchanges between staff members of both agencies and other information on their progress are included in the millions of pages, Voegele said. Garman said this is the first action in what is expected to be a three to four year process. "The burden will be ours to prove our case that the repository is worthy of an NRC license," Garman said. Garman admitted the department included documents that do not support the project, but that they need to be taken into context of the whole project. "You're going to see both sides," Garman said. "That's the way it ought to be. The caveat is that they need to be considered together." The department included scientists' complaints on aspects of the project. "These are old issues, but when you're holding an e-mail in your hand, it tends to give some of these old issues new life," Garman said. "It kind of makes it real and in the minds of some it reinvigorates the story, it breathes new life into the story." He said part of the peer review process is to pick the project apart, and the department included the critical statement to make sure it evaluated all sides. Garman said the department will continue to submit documents to the network, and that if will make another certification when its submits the application six months from now. He said the department is still looking at some documents it would include on the network later. The commission can also ask for more data. "This is not a one-time deal," Garman said. "This is an ongoing aspect." But Fitzpatrick said the additional information is going to be huge point of contention. He said the recent change to the regulation stipulate the parties do not have to send duplicate documents and they can only add documents created after the initial certification. "That's a key difference," Fitzpatrick said. He said information is bound to pop up later, but everything the department had prior to Wednesday needed to be in the database now. Once the department submits the application in December, if it meets its goal, the commission will have three months to review it. The NRC can decide to put it on its docket or send it back to the department with questions. Once on the docket, expected to come around March 2005, the commission has three years to review it, with an optional additional fourth year if Congress allows one. The department would know by 2008 or 2009 if it receives a license to build the repository, but it also needs a license to accept and store waste inside the mountain. The department plans to open the site in 2010. The whole process depends on adequate funding from Congress, which faces serious problems so far this year, and a favorable outcome from the six legal challenges brought by the state against various aspect of the project. The outcome of the November presidential election could also change things, because presumptive Democratic candidate John Kerry has come out against the project. The state will also challenge the application during administrative hearings before the Atomic Safety Licensing Board. The five commissioners would then have the final approval of application. ***************************************************************** 27 RGJ: Dear President Bush... Home [http://www.rgj.com/] Thursday | Jul 1, 2004 Reno Gazette-Journal] TERRI CHOATE Leader-Courier Dear President Bush, I really want you to know that I am not upset because I was not—as that lady in the ad from the Media Fund said—“handpicked” to attend your Reno speech June 18. I am a little miffed that I was passed over after I stood in line in the noon sun for an hour-and-a-half for tickets. However, I realize that the people in front of me in the line had arrived a whole lot earlier, and so maybe they better fit the criterion of being able to stand forever and ever since that’s what they had to do to be there for your speech. But I watched your speech on TV. Great job! Well, the Reno Gazette-Journal noticed you didn’t mention the violence in Iraq or Yucca Mountain in the speech. As to the first—say what? Who doesn’t know there is violence in Iraq? Climb out of your hole and read a paper, man! (Or don’t and you’ll never know it was ever a question.) But because I wasn’t at the Convention Center and because I listened to the pre-speech coverage on the radio, I kept hearing that “third generation Nevadan” telling me over and over that you lied to Nevadans about Yucca Mountain. Accusations of Presidential lying are flying fast and free this campaign season. I guess because your predecessor got caught in one, some people think every president engages in equal lying opportunism. Some of them seem almost to hope so. Personally, I think this is a bad idea to put across to Americans, especially kids. This coming weekend we celebrate, as a nation, the Fourth of July, our founding principles and our founders. I remember as a kid revering our first president, George Washington, because, among other things, “he never told a lie.” I don’t want kids today to question that, to think all Presidents lie, and to conclude that lying is an acceptable form of expression. So I did some research to answer two questions: 1. Did you lie to Nevadans about Yucca Mountain, Mr. President, when you said you would base your decision on placing the nation’s nuclear waste here on “sound science”?; and 2. Who is The Media Fund? My research consisted of spending the better part of two days downloading information from the internet and reading it. It’s true that almost all my information on Yucca Mountain came from the official Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management website and links from it; however, there’s no denying the weight of information available. I’m convinced I now know more than the typical Nevadan—third generation or just in town today—about nuclear waste and its storage. Anyone can check this out at www.ymp.gov/. My research, Mr. President, convinces me that you did not lie, that you did base your decision on sound science. For example, this is what The National Academy of Sciences said in 2000: “After four decades of study, geological disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available...It also offers security benefits...” Charles Shank, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said in Sept. 2001: “We believe that the scientific studies conducted to date show that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the isolation of radioactive waste, with significant performance contributions expected from multiple redundant barriers in both natural and engineered systems...It is my considered opinion and that of my staff that the Yucca Mountain site is suitable for recommendation as the nation’s first geologic repository.” Now, I know the State of Nevada, with its elected Republican Governor and Attorney General, opposes the Yucca Mountain Project. I don’t believe state officials are “lying” in their opposition. The state’s web page declares: “Many studies by federal government scientists and independent contractors suggest that Yucca Mountain is unsafe for holding nuclear waste and keeping it out of the environment. In fact, State of Nevada scientists believe that the site, under the DOD’s own guidelines, should already have been disqualified.” The state’s page also cites “politics and economics” and says “Many feel these influences are too great to allow for an objective evaluation of the site...Dump proponents and the nuclear power industry are eager to get the site approved despite significant environmental and health and safety problems.” The site goes on to point out that “a dump like this...has never been built anywhere in the world.” The problem is that the state, at least on its website, offers no details of “many studies” or “many” who feel politics and economics played a part. The page sounds like it suffers from a case of NIMBY. To me, it seems clear that safe, secure storage of nuclear waste is past due. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, current temporary storage sites at reactors in 31 states, are located near population centers and water sources (lakes, rivers, seacoasts). The potential for contamination is unacceptable. What Yucca Mountain offers is storage “in a desert location, isolated away from population centers, secured 1,000 feet under the surface, in a closed hydrologic basin [meaning it is impossible to infiltrate La Vegas’ water supply], surrounded by military and other federal land [security], protected by natural geologic barriers, protected by robust engineered barriers and a flexible design. The Department of Energy further maintains that the chance of a volcanic occurrence at Yucca Mountain in the next 10,000 years is 1 in 70 million. Earthquakes are a possibility, and so facilities have been designed to withstand severe earthquakes. Because waste must be transported to Yucca Mountain, the DOE makes clear that the waste is solid and cannot spill, nor can it explode or burn. The fact is that in the last 30 years there have been 2,700 shipments of waste over 1.6 million miles with no harmful release of radiation. John Eversole, chief of the Chicago Fire Department, has stated: “The International Association of Fire Chiefs have taken the position that, yes, you can safely move spent nuclear fuel and looking at the protective measures that have been taken, it seems to us that a superior job has been done in preparing to move this product.” Nevadans could look at Yucca Mountain, especially this weekend, as a patriotic contribution to our country: nuclear power produces 20% of our electricity, contributing to “balanced energy security,” as well as powering 40% of our naval fleet, contributing to our military security. In any case, being pro or con Yucca Mountain doesn’t make any of us liars and does not make the President a liar. I’m pro storage at Yucca Mountain even though I know it’s not possible to look infallibly into a 10,000-year future with computer models. State officials are con even though they know Yucca Mountain is not based on wacky or unsound science and that it’s definitely a better choice than what the nation has at present. And that brings me to who is The Media Fund? Again, go to the web and punch in The Media Fund. You will find that The Media Fund is the media arm of Americans Coming Together (ACT), a group formed to come together to defeat George W. Bush. According to the Center for Public Integrity, which claims “investigative journalism in the public interest,” $5 million of ACT’s funds have come from George Soros. It’s not clear if this is a part of the $15 million The Washington Post claimed in November of 2003 that Soros had donated to defeat Bush or in addition to it. The role of The Media Fund is to run ads against Bush in key battleground states. Funding for The Media Fund and ACT also comes from another group called Victory Campaign 2004. All these are “527” groups, meaning they can raise “soft money” from corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals, contributions well in excess of the $5,000 limit per donor per year that political parties can raise. Some of the money Victory Campaign 2004 has raised has come from labor unions, but most is from large donors such as Stephen Bing, who contributed $6.9 million. Who are Stephen Bing and George Soros? Bing, according to the Center for Public Integrity, is a film producer. George Soros is the heavily-accented, Budapest-born financier who dabbles in politics around the world and who is committed not to protecting Nevada from any ill affects from a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain, but rather to the defeat of President Bush in November (“The central focus of my life,” he has said). The truth here is not what The Media Fund is saying to Nevadans. Their even-toned ad, despite use of the highly-charged word “lied,” hides its true message and intent behind what could be thought a public service announcement. The truth is that The Media Fund doesn’t give a hoot about Nevada, third generation spokeswoman or not. There’s a flip side: We’re told that Senator John Kerry has said he will kill the Yucca Mountain Project if he is elected President. Well, maybe, but I’d suggest Nevadans look at the location of the 131 nuclear facilities that will send waste to Yucca Mountain and look also at Senator Kerry’s region of origin. What I’d see is a flip-flop in the making. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 28 RGJ: DOE to release Yucca documents ||| Home [http://www.rgj.com/] Thursday | Jul 1, 2004 5.6 million pages: Documents will be part of the permit application process. Reno Gazette-Journal] Energy Department background: www.ocrwm.doe.gov [http://www.ocrwm.doe.gov] H. Josef Hebert ASSOCIATED PRESS 6/30/2004 11:48 pm WASHINGTON — The government is making available to the public 1.2 million documents related to the federal proposal to build a nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The 5.6 million pages will be part of the Energy Department’s permit application that is expected to be submitted this year to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Most of the papers support documents for previous reports, studies and assessments involving the project. It won final approval from Congress in 2002, pending an NRC license. The documents cover more than 20 years of scientific study of Yucca Mountain, the department said in a statement Wednesday. To dramatize the immense volume of papers, the department said the documents, if stacked in one pile, would be as tall as an 18-story building, or three times the height of the Washington Monument, and, if placed end to end, would stretch from Washington, D.C., to Las Vegas. The repository, proposed for a volcanic rock site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, would become the nation’s central burial place for 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from commercial power plants and defense sites in 39 states. The department hopes to open it in 2010. The NRC licensing process will take several years. The papers were being made available through the Energy Department and NRC Web sites, the department said. © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 29 San Luis Obispo Tribune: Nuclear storage plan may violate state law | 07/01/2004 | Two state Coastal Commissioners seek a hearing on the proposed dry cask installation at the power plant David Sneed The Tribune GENERAL - Two state Coastal Commissioners have identified areas where a proposed dry cask storage installation at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant may violate state coastal protection laws and are recommending a full hearing before the commission. These concerns include coastal access and polluted runoff, among others, surrounding plans to store highly radioactive used reactor fuel in a new above-ground facility at the plant. The recommendation all but guarantees that the commission will schedule a public hearing when it meets July 15 in Costa Mesa. The hearing will be held no sooner than September, said Tom Luster, an analyst in the commission's San Francisco office. "It will be at least a few months past the July hearing," he said. Local environmental activists as well as commissioners Sara Wan of Malibu and Pedro Nava of Santa Barbara raised eight areas of concern after county supervisors approved the project April 20. Staff agrees that six are substantial enough to warrant examination by the commission. Environmentalists said they are pleased that the commission will likely hold a hearing on the project. They are concerned that a facility, which is intended to be temporary, may end up being in place for generations. "The residents of our community must be assured that our fragile coastal zone will not be permanently and possibly irrevocably damaged by PG&E's expanded nuclear waste storage complex," said Rochelle Becker, an activist with the San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, one of the appellants. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials said they will not be surprised if the project goes to a full hearing. The utility contends the facility will be safe. Federal nuclear officials have already approved the project. "Any time the staff recommends a full hearing, it's pretty much a sure thing," said Jeff Lewis, plant spokesman. "We will be looking forward to making our case before the full commission. It's the same case we've made to the planning commission and Board of Supervisors here." PG&E needs to build the storage facility because pools at the plant, where the fuel is currently stored, will be full in 2006. The facility will consist of a concrete pad upon which as many as 138 huge steel-and-concrete casks containing used fuel assemblies will be mounted. State and federal approval of the project will allow the plant to operate until its current license expires in 2025. ***************************************************************** 30 Matlock Today: Final victory for campaign DELIGHTED campaigners have won a David and Galioth battle to prevent Rolls-Royce dumping radioactive waste in their village. The Government has backed an Environment Agency document banning the firm from disposing of low-level nuclear waste at Hilt's Quarry, Crich. The momentous decision represents a stunning success for the Crich and District Environment Action Group at the end of an intense campaign. Rolls-Royce, who had used the site to dispose of waste from its Marine Power Operations facility in Derby, stopped dumping at the quarry in 2002. This latest ruling is official confirmation that the firm will never be allowed to resume the activity and must now sensitively restore the site. Patrick Cooke, founder of the action group, said: "This development is terrific news. It is the end of a determined campaign which has lasted for well over three years. "It all began with a public meeting in the village and, from that small acorn, it grew into a strong campaign. "Now Hilt's Quarry will go back to nature and this beautiful village can start to return to a peaceful existence. This is a very big victory against strong opponents." Trees will be planted, a grass area will be created, a lake will be installed and landscaping work will be carried out as part of a scheme to return the quarry to nature. Mr Cooke added: "To give Rolls Royce their due, they are really making an effort with the nature side of things." [emily.davies@matlockmercury.co.uk] 01 July 2004 reserved © 2004 Johnston Press New Media. Click here for full ***************************************************************** 31 courier-journal: Highway bill's secrecy rulesspark public-safety debate [http://www.courier-journal.com Sunday, June 27, 2004 By JAMES BRUGGERS jbruggers@courier-journal.com [jbruggers@courier-journal.com] The Courier-Journal Deep inside a voluminous highway-spending bill before Congress are two sentences that would allow the federal government to seal information now available to the public, including records related to the transportation of hazardous materials through cities such as Louisville. One sentence would supersede states' open-records laws, including those in Kentucky and Indiana. The other would give the federal Transportation Security Administration wide latitude in defining what is "sensitive" and should be kept secret, letting the agency's director withhold information deemed "detrimental to the safety of passengers in transportation, transportation facilities or infrastructure or transportation employees...." EXPANDING SECRECY The issue: Wording in the U.S. Senate's version of House Resolution 3550, a $318 billion transportation-spending bill that would: + Give wide latitude to Transportation Security Administration in defining what is sensitive transportation information that the public may not see. + Supersede state open-records laws. What's next: A conference committee meeting July 7 to settle House and Senate differences on the spending bill. With so much hazardous material moving through a hub city such as Louisville, the potential effects locally are significant, said Leslie Barras, an environmental attorney and conservation chairwoman of the Sierra Club's Louisville group. "Louisville families have a right to know what's on rail, roads, water and in the air, and how safely it's being managed," Barras said. "While there's a clear need to ensure security from people who would do harmful things, any blanket attempt to block information from deserving citizens is also harmful." The secrecy provisions in the Senate version of the bill, which were not in the House version, were requested by the Bush administration to protect information that could aid terrorists, said Andrew Gray, a spokesman for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, chaired by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Gray said the wording was intended "to extend a level of protection already in place" to state and local governments. Senate and House legislators met Wednesday afternoon to begin to work out their differences on the two versions of the bill, with most of the debate centered on a $34 billion gap between the House-approved $284 billion in transportation spending, and the Senate's call for $318 billion in projects. They have scheduled a second conference for early next month. Both versions include money for two new Ohio River bridges at Louisville. So far, the secrecy provisions have drawn little public comment, but they have gotten the attention of open-government advocates, who contend the wording in the bill that expands the scope of purported "sensitive security information" gives the Transportation Security Administration too much latitude in what to keep secret. For example, they warn that the proposed language could: + Override legal requirements that the Department of Transportation publish statistics on incidents involving hazardous materials. + Prevent the public from finding out how many drivers of trucks hauling hazardous materials have been convicted of drug or alcohol violations. + Block release of information about poor railroad track maintenance. + Ban disclosures about road and rail routes used for transporting nuclear or other hazardous wastes. Some say it is worded so broadly that it could also prevent the public from knowing about mismanagement among public officials and private contractors at the nation's airports and seaports. "Trying to keep quote-unquote sensitive information from the public without defining it really undermines the principles of democracy, and the public's ability to make themselves safer," said Rick Blum, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of more than 30 environmental, public interest and media groups. Steven Aftergood, who tracks secrecy issues for the Federation of American Scientists, also based in Washington, D.C., said the nation's transportation network is so vast that the wording in the transportation bill could affect "many millions of Americans. For a parent near a railroad crossing, would you rather be well-informed or blissfully ignorant?" Local officials sound off A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is on the conference committee dealing with the transportation bill, said the senator would not answer questions about it. "It's too early to discuss individual items which may or may not end up in the final bill," Robert Steurer, the spokesman, said in a written statement. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., also wouldn't comment. Nick Weber, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said the senator had been focusing on the $5.8billion in transportation spending for the Hoosier state that's in the bill, and the 16,000 new jobs it could create. If the secrecy provisions survive, Weber said Congress "would need to be vigilant in tracking the effectiveness and implementation of the bill, to determine if it went too far." Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., was also "most focused on bringing more jobs to Indiana" when he voted for the transportation bill, said his spokesman, Meghan Keck, in a statement. "However, he continues to examine other provisions, including the language that impacts the TSA, as the legislation goes through the conference committee," Keck said, and he "appreciates the need to balance efforts designed to protect national security with the people's right to know." Others said that the open-record advocates are presenting "worst-case" scenarios of the Senate provision, and that the wording is consistent with other policies the government has implemented since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an effort to safeguard the public by limiting access to government records. Alan I. Roberts, who for 25 years ran the Department of Transportation's hazardous materials program, said he does not believe the effect of the secrecy language will be as broad as open-records advocates warn. Roberts, who now leads the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council, a Washington, D.C.,-based industry group whose members include rail and highway shippers, acknowledged, however, that the wording, combined with other new or pending transportation rules from the Bush administration, gives the federal government much greater latitude in deciding what should be secret. For example, he pointed to recent Transportation Security Administration regulations that define "sensitive security information" as anything that could be "detrimental to the security of transportation." "Lacking specific guidance," Roberts said, government employees will be more cautious and won't want to "stick their neck out" and release records that should be public. Other matters at hand It's not just information about the transportation of hazardous materials that's at stake, said Pete Weitzel, coordinator of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government based in Arlington, Va., which represents 26 journalism organizations, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Associated Press Managing Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists. The security language in the bill, HR3550, as amended by the Senate, could make it more difficult for the public to determine whether the people that oversee and operate their local airports and seaports are doing their jobs, he said. Weitzel said some of the journalism groups he represents are lobbying to get the secrecy language deleted. Barras, the Louisville Sierra Club official, said the "devil" would be in the "details" of future regulations drawn up to carry out the law, adding that a proper balance between security and secrecy would let families continue to obtain information they need to decide such things as where to live and send their children to school. Jon Fleischaker, an attorney who has worked for the Kentucky Press Association and The Courier-Journal, called it "very troublesome" for a federal law to give a federal agency the ability to "exercise discretion and close off as many of the records as they see fit." And without an expensive and difficult legal challenge, he said, "... you'll never know what's been sealed." Tom White, spokesman for the American Association of Railroads, said his industry has not taken a position on the secrecy language, but added that, "Some of this information really is sensitive." David Bolger, a spokesman for United Parcel Service, agreed. "We would not want sensitive information that pertains to safety or our employees to be available to the public." Home [http://www.courier-journal.com/index.html] · News Copyright 2004 The Courier-Journal. ***************************************************************** 32 CCDR: Deadline set for Cotter issue 6-30-04 [Canon City Daily Record - Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region, Colorado] [http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com] Health department has until July 9 to decide on Maywood soils Dennis Bloomquist Daily Record Staff Writer The state health department faces a July 9 deadline to decide whether Cotter Corp. can receive soils from a mostly closed industrial complex in Maywood, N.J. District Judge Herbert L. Stern III issued a ruling Tuesday requiring the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to decide to allow or deny shipment of the Maywood soils. However, the health department's decision would apply only to Maywood Soils Allotment No. 1 — the 24,000 tons Cotter requested before the approval of Colorado House Bill 1358. More than 470,000 tons of soil have been earmarked for removal from Maywood, which like the 2,500-acre Cotter Corp. compound and the adjoining Lincoln Park neighborhood is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. John Watson, attorney for Moyes Giles LLP who argued Cotter's case, said the proper decision was handed down based on the letter of the law. "The judge ruled they couldn't hold the Maywood decision hostage anymore," Watson said. "The health department issued a letter Dec. 17 approving the Maywood shipments, then the division director jerked it back based on political considerations. "We're pleased with the decision, which is the right one based on the evidence we submitted." Cotter has conducted direct disposal — dumping of materials from other sites without processing them — intermittently for several decades. However, Gary Baughman, Director of the health department's Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division, said Tuesday that approval of the pre-HB1358 request would not set a precedent that would open the door for more Maywood shipments. "This order is pertaining to a request for a fairly discrete chunk of material from the Maywood site," Baughman said. "I think that's as far as that would go." Baughman said the decision was a surprise. "I don't think we expected this decision. From our perspective, it made sense to wrap it all together," he said. "There are some technical considerations, mostly the handling of materials, associated with this activity that we thought were most effectively addressed in the course of the normal license renewal." Baughman's division also is likely to decide what activities will be allowed under Cotter's new license, of which a draft version is due Dec. 15. The health department had planned to roll its Maywood decision into Cotter's license application. The court order states, "The (health department's) interpretation of the statute as stated in its response and in argument during the hearing was unconvincing." Stern's decision, based on a June 23 hearing, said HB1358 "provides for separate and distinct agency review" of the operating license, and pre-HB 1358 and newly submitted Materials Acceptance Reports. In August 2000, Cotter proposed importing the Maywood soils, and submitted the MARs well before HB1358 became effective June 3, 2003. Stern ordered the health department to declare its rationale when it approves or denies the initial Maywood shipment. "We will certainly respond to the court order and issue our statement on or before July 9," said Marion Galant, health department community involvement coordinator. When Cotter Corp. filed the lawsuit, company president Richard Cherry said, "We have tried every possible way to get the department to act. All the information needed to approve the Maywood soils, including detailed impoundment capacity data, has been in the department's hands for many months." Cherry said deferring the Maywood decision for another year "is clearly in violation of recent legislation that separates and grandfathers the Maywood soils from the license renewal process. We have been left with no other option. We are simply asking the court for help." In the two-page summary, Stern said "The parties acknowledged and the Court finds that Cotter Corp. is subject to an ongoing, valid license issued by the Department, and Cotter has filed a timely application" for renewal of its license for the mill on the southern edge of Cañon City. Cotter operates on five-year licenses. Cotter's last license expired in 2000, but the mill is legally allowed to continue operations under the terms of the previous license, as long as it makes a "timely application." Cotter's license will allow activities ranging from: + Uranium milling, the traditional mission of the facility. + Processing of other materials, such as zirconium and calcium fluoride, which have already been approved, though not pursued on a large scale. + Acceptance of "direct disposal" materials. + Decommissioning and clean-up. Critics of Cotter's ongoing operations have opposed any form of direct disposal into the two large tailings ponds, one of which is at capacity. Another issue still being decided by the health department is the total capacity of Cotter's impoundments. When it closes, the wholly owned subsidiary of General Atomics must have room to bury all of its razed buildings, as well as the contaminated soils around them. Cotter estimates in its license application that disposal of its on-site waste could consume up to 4 million cubic yards, rather than the 500,000 cubic yards estimated in the 1995 operating license. The larger the capacity of the impoundments, the more outside materials such as Maywood soils could be disposed. Cotter contends the low-level radioactivity of the Maywood soils is less hazardous than the materials covered by a thin layer of water in the impoundments. Opponents say Maywood's thorium-tainted dirt could be the precursor to a string of later shipments, in effect making Cotter a "hazardous waste dump." The soils would be hauled cross country by trains. Envirocare, a waste disposal facility in a remote part of Utah, has received some shipments from Maywood. contents Copyright Ó 2004 Royal Gorge Publishing Corporation. All ***************************************************************** 33 Boston.com: Critics say EPA is shirking duty The Boston Globe The federal Environmental Protection Agency and other parties responsible for cleaning up radioactive contamination at the Shpack Landfill site in Norton are ''bailing out on their commitment" to the town, say members of the Citizens Advisory Shpack Team. July 1, 2004 The federal Environmental Protection Agency and other parties responsible for cleaning up radioactive contamination at the Shpack Landfill site in Norton are ''bailing out on their commitment" to the town, say members of the Citizens Advisory Shpack Team. Heather Graf, who lives near the site and coordinates the citizens' watchdog group, said the EPA's latest plan for cleanup recently presented to the town is ''nothing more than an easy exit strategy." She said the plan does not make good on the EPA's promise to protect human health and the environment at Shpack, which once received uranium and radium from Navy reactors, or provide alternatives for future reuse of the site. The EPA is scheduled to hold a public hearing about the plans on July 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the J.C. Solmonese School on West Main Street. JOANNA MASSEY [ /] © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. [ ***************************************************************** 34 Newsday: Colorado ordered to make decision on hazardous waste shipment [http://www.newsday.com] [Everyday Hero] [July 1, 2004] CANON CITY, Colo. -- The state health department must decide by July 9 whether 24,000 tons of contaminated soil can be shipped from New Jersey to a Cotter Corp. uranium mill, a judge said. State District Judge Herbert L. Stern set the deadline Tuesday for a decision on storing the thorium-tainted soil from a Superfund site in Maywood, N.J. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had planned to include a ruling on the 24,000-ton shipment in its decision on what material Cotter can accept under 2003 state law that gave the department more say over the mill south of Canon City. Stern said the department had to consider the issues separately because Cotter sought permission to accept the 24,000 tons before the law was passed. Cotter is seeking permission to accept a total of 470,000 tons of soil from the New Jersey site. Cotter's attorney, John Watson, was pleased with Stern's ruling. "The judge ruled they couldn't hold the Maywood decision hostage anymore," he said. Gary Baughman, the health department's director of hazardous materials and waste management, said he was surprised by the ruling but did not feel it would set a precedent on whether Cotter can accept the entire 470,000 tons. "This order is pertaining to a request for a fairly discrete chunk of material from the Maywood site," Baughman said. "I think that's as far as that would go." Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press Copyright © Newsday, Inc. Produced by Newsday Electronic ***************************************************************** 35 [du-list] Re: [DU-WATCH] Oppenheimer: 100th anniversary Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:40:31 -0700 Dear All, I read the superficial NYTimes article at link below. I can't help but wonder at his thoughts when he found himself dying of throat cancer at the age of 62. We do know what he thought about his participation in the creation of mass destruction: "On the day of the test, Oppenheimer fully realized the enormity of what he had just accomplished. As he stood watching the mushroom cloud, he recalled later, a phrase from the Baghavad Gita, the Hindu scripture, floated through his mind, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." This responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders, and when he met with President Harry Truman in 1946, he exclaimed, "Mr. President, I have blood on my hands." We know he lost his security clearance due to his opposition to building the even more destructive hydrogen [thermonuclear] bomb. Sometimes humans realize their humaneness too late. Added note---reminder, etc---to those concerned about DU. Though it started being used in munitions decades later, it was a component of fallout from the testing of nuclear weapons, as it was used as a jacket to increase bomb yield--more bang for the buck using nuclear waste. Has anyone calculated how much DU was in such fallout? Elaine Michael wrote: Oppenheimer Celebration Examines the Myth and the Man June 29, 2004 By SANDRA BLAKESLEE A 100th-birthday party in honor of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," remembered his controversial accomplishments. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/science/29alam.html? ex=1089562301&ei=1&en=6354c9d306890582 [Brought to you by HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT 45c548.jpg 45c671.jpg ---------- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ * * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: * du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com * * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. Attachment Converted: 45c548.jpg: 00000001,4c6a1896,00000000,00000000 Attachment Converted: 45c671.jpg: 00000001,4c6a1897,00000000,00000000 ***************************************************************** 36 [du-list] Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant and the Ambushed Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:40:56 -0700 Date: July 1, 2004 For immediate release For more information about the book, go to http://Ambushedgrandjury.com Or contact Ron Avery at (719) 561-0833 You may have read about this new non-fiction release, The Ambushed Grand Jury. How The Justice Department Covered Up Government Nuclear Crimes and How We Caught Them Red Handed. (The Apex Press, 2004) Articles about it have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as in the international papers. It’s been on the wire services several times as well. The Ambushed Grand Jury has been number one on the non-fiction bestseller list in the Denver area. The inaugural book reading has been featured on C-SPAN II three times. The book has been discussed (and complimented) by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! (National Public Radio, May 4, 2004) A full length review will appear this fall in Sierra, the magazine of The Sierra Club. Not bad for a book. But The Ambushed Grand Jury is more than just a book. It’s a Citizens’ Grand Jury Investigation aimed at stopping a dangerous plan that started with government deceit back in the 1980s. __________________ Remember when the FBI raided Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant at the end of the Cold War? The Ambushed Grand Jury is the true story of four Citizen Investigators who uncover the Justice Department’s cover-up of deadly Energy Department crimes at Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. A cowboy Grand Jury Foreman, the FBI agent who led the historic raid, a plutonium worker and their volunteer lawyer team up to warn the public about the evidence of deadly contamination the government has covered up. Because now, the government intends to open the former nuclear weapons plant for recreation. Children will play in these radioactive fields. Unless the Citizens’ Investigation ­ with the reader’s help - can stop these dangerous plans. _____________________ The book asks the reader to serve as a Citizen Grand Juror and fill out an indictment form in the back of the book. In the two months the book has been out, more than a thousand people have stepped up to the plate and acted as Citizen Grand Jurors, sending in their indictments. They’ve indicated, unanimously, that The Ambushed Grand Jury has proved that the Justice Department covered up deadly nuclear crimes at Rocky Flats and that the former nuclear weapons plant should not be opened to recreation. And that the United States should not build a Rocky Flats II. Volunteers who’ve now joined the Citizens’ Grand Jury Investigation will be getting those Citizens’ Grand Jury indictments to Congress in the near future. Many readers report in to our website ­ Ambushedgrandjury.com ­ that they’ve bought an extra copy of the book to send to their congressional representatives. A retired librarian and English teacher has volunteered to write book discussion questions as we start our second printing ­ after only two months’ of sales. The volunteers keep coming in. Jon Lipsky, the FBI agent who led the raid on Rocky Flats and then joined the Citizens’ Grand Jury Investigation when he was ordered to lie about it, has had a completely unexpected response. Having revealed that the FBI had ordered him to lie about what had happened at Rocky Flats, he was braced to be censored by the FBI, where he still works, and maybe fired. Instead, he’s been stopped in the halls by colleagues who congratulate him for having the guts to speak out. The Ambushed Grand Jury Citizens’ Investigation seems to be getting some results at Rocky Flats, too: · Congressman Mark Udall from Colorado has asked the local health department, the Department of Energy, and the EPA to read The Ambushed Grand Jury and to review our documentation of contamination in the parts of the former nuclear weapons plant which are to be opened for public recreation. He’s asked the agencies to report back to him. · At our request, Congressman Udall has also obtained release of 65 boxes of technical documentation of the waste handling practices and contamination at Rocky Flats which had been sealed in the Grand Jury vault since the FBI investigation back in 1989. The scientists developing the clean up plans as well as the plans for recreation at Rocky Flats now have access to this important information. The US Attorney still refuses to release the information to the public, so we and several local groups will be filing suit shortly. · Jacque Brever, the former plutonium worker and whistleblower at Rocky Flats who’s featured in the book, is scheduled to take Congressman Udall on a tour of Rocky Flats this August. She will show him places in the areas planned for recreation which had been contaminated by secret dumping during the plant operations. Personal protection gear will be worn and media will be present to ensure that the public has this information as well. · And similar plans to turn contaminated waste sites throughout the country into wildlife refuges and soccer fields, while lowering the clean up standards, are now receiving increased scrutiny and review. All authors’ profits from the sale of the book are distributed to environmental and nuclear watchdog groups around the country. Please be sure to identify the Military Toxics Project when ordering the book! The Ambushed Grand Jury is not about making money; it’s about making participatory democracy work. ## Tara Thornton Executive Director Military Toxics Project P.O. Box 558 Lewiston, ME 04243 (207)783-5091 phone www.miltoxproj.org ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70 http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 37 Tri-City Herald: Candidates back Hanford cleanup This story was published Thursday, July 1st, 2004 By Chris Mulick Herald Olympia bureau SEATTLE -- The four leading candidates for state attorney general said Wednesday that they hope to follow Christine Gregoire's aggressive lead in getting the federal government to clean up Hanford. "I will continue what I think has been a great tradition," Deborah Senn said shortly after appearing with fellow Democrat Mark Sidran and Republicans Mike Vaska and Rob McKenna at a candidate forum at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Green Party candidate Paul Richmond also has entered the race. Perhaps never before have Hanford cleanup efforts had more on the line in an election. Facilities are being built to process the worst of the nuclear reservation's greatest problem -- millions of gallons of wastes stored in underground tanks. The Bush administration is pushing an accelerated cleanup program, which now includes the prospect of reclassifying some wastes. The state believes that could leave some wastes in leaky tanks. And Washington voters will decide the fate of a citizens initiative -- I-297 -- put up by Hanford environmental watchdog Heart of America Northwest that attempts to prevent new shipments of waste to Hanford from other sites until existing Hanford waste is cleaned up. In the meantime, Gregoire, who has won raves for her stern dealings with the Department of Energy, is leaving her post after a dozen years to run for governor. That leaves open the state's premier office for enforcing the Tri-Party Agreement, the legal pact between the state, DOE and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that governs Hanford cleanup. Despite all that, Hanford cleanup has not been made a major campaign issue by any of the candidates, and it did not come up throughout Wednesday's two-hour long program, put on by the King County Bar Association and witnessed by more than 200. It's not what the Seattle public and media want to hear about, several candidates said. But all four major candidates, during interviews before and after the event, praised Gregoire for holding the federal government's feet to the fire. "I really want to build on that success," said Vaska, an attorney in private practice. Vaska, McKenna and Sidran all indicated they've got more homework to do on the subject. Senn, elected to statewide office in 1992 and 1996 as insurance commissioner and who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000, expressed considerably more confidence on the matter. Her husband, Rudi Bertschi, is the former executive board chairman of Energy Northwest, which operates the commercial nuclear power plant in southern Hanford. Senn versed herself in Hanford issues for her Senate run and was known in the Tri-Cities for her opposition to restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility. She joked she may be the only candidate who knows what three parties made up the Tri-Party Agreement. "I'm the candidate in the race who knows the issues," she said. Vaska and McKenna, a King County councilman, were cautious in their criticism of DOE's push to reclassify some wastes. Vaska said he's suspicious the effort is just a way to get around the Tri-Party Agreement. McKenna said he'd be "leery of any reclassification of any high-level waste that would leave it unsafe." But as for whether leaving in the tanks would qualify as unsafe, "that's a technical question I'd have to look at," he said. Senn and Sidran were less cautious, accusing DOE of trying to cut corners. Only Sidran has taken a position on Initiative 297, having given it an early endorsement. The measure has no organized opposition, though some have expressed worries the "not in my back yard" mentality the initiative inspires could make it difficult to ship some of Hanford's waste to other states. "I think our back yard has done it's fair share. Our back yard is full," Sidran said. "I think there's something to be said for standing up." McKenna, Vaska and Senn said they won't take a position on the measure because they may have to defend it in court if elected. During the actual program the candidates spent most of their time listing endorsements, taking shots at each other where they could and explained why their resumes make them most fit for attorney general. Sidran, a former Seattle city attorney, casts himself as the only candidate to have managed a law firm, been a prosecutor and served as legal counsel for a government. Senn said she is the candidate who knows the players in Olympia who turned the Office of the Insurance Commissioner from a "backwater" to a powerhouse for consumer's rights. McKenna touts himself as the only candidate to have any experience making law. And Vaska stakes claim to being the candidate who is not a professional politician, being the only one of the four never to have run for office before. Richmond, who only recently joined the race, is running to shift law enforcement focus from those who commit street level crime to corporations who repeatedly break environmental and other laws. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 38 Boston.com: Ex-resident sues Fernald over experiments [http://www.boston.com/] The Boston Globe" A former resident of the Fernald State School in Waltham filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that he was subjected to radiation experiments more than 50 years ago. By Associated Press | July 1, 2004 A former resident of the Fernald State School in Waltham filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that he was subjected to radiation experiments more than 50 years ago. Charles Hatch, a former resident of the state school for the mentally handicapped, contends in a lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court that he was not informed of his participation in the experiments. The suit names the Department of Mental Retardation as a defendant and seeks unspecified damages. ''They kept on telling him he wasn't a participant," said Hatch's lawyer, Jeffrey Petrucelly. Petrucelly provided a copy of an April 1 letter from the department, however, that indicates that Hatch actually was part of the experiments. In the letter, DMR lawyer Peter J. Morin wrote that after a review of Hatch's records, ''it does now appear Mr. Hatch may have been involved in the aforementioned experiments." Morin apologized for earlier stating that Hatch wasn't involved. A Department of Public Health spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that DMR Commissioner Gerald J. Morrissey Jr. has met with the former Fernald residents and is reviewing the matter. The plight of the former residents of Fernald first came to light about a decade ago, when it was disclosed that some residents had been fed radioactive oatmeal in the 1950s as part of Cold War human radiation experiments. [ /] © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. [http://www.boston.com ***************************************************************** 39 Shorthorn: Incident changes Los Alamos deal [news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu] 817-272-3661 NEWS | july 1 , 2004 UT System A long-standing problem with security at the lab forces the university to bid for control. By Tristan Vawters [ttv3081@exchange.uta.edu] The Shorthorn Staff The UT System intends to submit a declaration of interest to the U.S. Department of Energy concerning the bidding for the management and operating contract of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The management contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico is now up for grabs as the UT System strives to strengthen their research and education opportunities through the acquisition of the nuclear lab. The contract could help the system gain research funding and bolster local and state economic growth, system officials said. If the regents approve the bid, competing for the contract could cost up to $6 million, an expense the system intends to share with partners, both in academia and industry. LANL has been under the contract of the University of California since its establishment 60 years ago. But the lab and university have been found to be in violation of a number of safety regulations that were issued by the National Nuclear Security Administration. On August 5, 2003, two of the labs employees received uptakes of radioactive material that resulted in worker exposures exceeding the annual federal limit of 5 rem. A rem is a unit to measure the amount of damage caused by radiation. The exposure violations that occurred would generally each be considered to represent a Severity Level II problem ... but due to the long-standing nature of the underlying problems that led to this event, each violation is being escalated to a Severity Level I problem, wrote Linton Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. A civil fine of $770,000 was proposed by NNSA against the UC System, but the federal statutes exempt all nonprofit nuclear lab managers from such fines. Due to the labs history of work deficiencies and failure to comply with its own established work controls, the U.S. Department of Energy is forcing the university now to compete for the management contract. Responsibilities such as coming up with solutions to the labs security shortcomings, work control deficiencies and environmental issues will be the systems main expectation if the contract is obtained. UT system officials said, A decision on whether to bid will be made by the Board of Regents ... on the management and operating contract, expected later this year. [http://www.theshorthorn.com] University of Texas at Arlington [http://www.uta.edu] | Department of Student Publications © Copyright 2001. All Rights Reserved. Corrections | Webmaster [online-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu] ***************************************************************** 40 Oak Ridger: ORNL's Jackson honored Story last updated at 12:41 p.m. on July 1, 2004 from staff reports Retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Jackson was honored recently for his work as the Army's director of Logistics and Engineering for all of Southwest Asia, with emphasis on Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq. Jackson is currently the director for Logistics Transformation in Oak Ridge National Laboratory's National Security Directorate. The award is presented each year at the National Cargo Security Council's annual conference in June. The council is a professional association of cargo transportation and security professionals from the entire spectrum of cargo security: air, truck, rail, maritime and intermodal. The award recognizes Jackson's "skillful management of the largest, most successful, and efficient transfer of materials and equipment in the shortest time span in military history." Jackson, who began his 34-year military service in 1969, also recently received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, an award only exceeded in precedence by the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross. ***************************************************************** 41 Oak Ridger: Area's secret agents target world's security threats Story last updated at 11:41 a.m. on July 1, 2004 USE: ORNL's intelligent software agent research actually began in the late-1980s and has involved a number of clients. By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com] Oak Ridge National Laboratory has created a team of special agents that work to uncover national security threats. They're far more high-tech than the so-called "men in black" because these agents are actually software programs that essentially search for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The way it works, according to Thomas Potok of ORNL's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, is the programs scan the Internet, satellite images or various databases worldwide as they search for anything that even hints at a plot. In a nutshell, the programs allow the user to "get rid of all the stuff that doesn't have any value," according to Potok. It's a much more sophisticated analysis than a standard search engine that can return hundreds of results. "We've got one project where we have a Web camera on a port," Potok explained in an interview. "It could be that for many hours there's nothing occurring. Then, in a matter of four or five minutes, three ships come in. "You don't want to be looking at the hours worth of information where nothing is happening," he said. "You want to see just the part where something is happening." According to ORNL officials, by using computers to gather data and reduce the information to what is relevant, the intelligence community can concentrate on analyzing just the meaningful information. This allows people to make quick and accurate decisions based on data instead of relying on instincts or gut reactions. ORNL's intelligent software agent research actually began in the late 1980s and has involved a number of clients. According to Potok, the military is already employing the services of ORNL's software programs. While ORNL has several high-tech agents, one of the most recognizable programs is referred to as VIPAR, according to Potok. This text analysis program can be used to provide timely, coherent information summaries of world news and intelligence from Web-based sources. Potok said all the software programs can be installed from a compact disc. "It's very straightforward," Potok said. While ORNL has had success in the area of intelligent software agents, Potok said he expects greater progress as ORNL's computing capabilities continue to increase. In May, the Department of Energy selected ORNL to build the world's fastest supercomputer. ***************************************************************** 42 Daily Texan: Regents consider Los Alamos bid despite continued opposition - [http://www.dailytexanonline.com] Top Stories | 7/1/2004 'Expression of interest' required by July 12 By Clint Johnson The UT System is continuing to explore the possibility of operating the Los Alamos National Laboratory and will formally announce its interest in acquiring control of the lab by July 12, UT System Vice Chancellor for External Relations Randa Safady said Wednesday. The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday that interested parties should submit an "expression of interest" to the department by July 12, and the UT System intends to comply, Safady said. The official bidding process will take place in the fall. But the System's interest in the weapons-research facility, which was first announced at a Board of Regents' meeting on Feb. 4, has met with opposition from students and faculty. Tuesday's announcement is probably another step toward a likely bid, said Forrest Wilder, a member of UT Watch, which has led opposition to the acquisition. "They continue to walk a fine line, saying they haven't finalized any decisions," Wilder said. "But they are proceeding as if they have already decided." The NNSA has said it will wait until fall to release an official request for bids on control of the lab, which has been run by the University of California System since its creation in 1943. Safady said the UT System Board of Regents will not decide if it should bid until it sees the NNSA's request. In the past five months, opposition to the University's possible bid has included a protest at UT System headquarters and the drafting of a student government resolution calling for more discussion about the subject. Wilder said his group is now working with students of the University of California at Berkeley to protest involvement with nuclear labs. "We don't want to put responsibility for it on either school's back," he said. "We'd like to see all universities wash their hands of Los Alamos." In a June 2 UT System Board of Regents meeting, System Chancellor Mark Yudof said he is listening to student concerns while the System explores a possible competitive bid. ***************************************************************** 43 [NukeNet] NASA SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON SPACE NUKES PLAN Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:40:30 -0700 ----- Original Message ----- From: Global Network To: Global Network Against Weapons Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 3:17 PM Subject: NASA SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON SPACE NUKES PLAN NASA SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON EXPANDING SPACE NUKES PLAN NASA, in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DoE), is seeking public comment by July 30, 2004 on their plan to expand the development and testing of nuclear powered devices called Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) for space missions. NASA is now preparing a major expansion of nuclear powered launches to the outer planets and Mars. a.. Radioactive fuel processing and fabrication would likely occur at Los Alamos Nat'l Lab in New Mexico. b.. Advanced RPS assembly and testing would likely be performed at Argonne Nat'l Lab - West in Idaho Falls, ID. c.. Additional safety testing of advanced RPS could be performed at: Sandia Nat'l Lab (Albuquerque, NM) and Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Aberdeen, MD). d.. Activities associated with the development, testing, and verification of the power conversion systems could be performed at: NASA's Glenn Center (Cleveland, OH); Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA); Boeing Rocketdyne (Canoga Park, CA); Teledyne Energy Systems (Hunt Valley, MD); Stirling Technology Corp (Kennewick, WA); and Lockheed Martin (Valley Forge, PA). e.. Eventual launch of these new nuclear space devices would be performed at: Kennedy Space Center (Florida). Please send your comments to NASA opposing this expanded program of nuclear power in space by July 30, 2004. Comments from people outside the U.S. are also encouraged. Send comments to: Dr. George Schmidt NASA HQ Office of Space Science, Code S Washington DC 20546 rpseis@nasa.gov Suggested comments: 1.. The increase in plutonium production for space missions at Los Alamos laboratory, where DoE already has a bad health and safety track record, will lead to more contaminated workers and groundwater. 2.. The expanded numbers of launches of nuclear devices, on rockets with a historic 10% failure rate, guarantee an accident at some point of catastrophic proportions. 3.. Alternative power sources for deep space missions could be developed if NASA and the DoE put effort and investment into the task. 4.. The Pentagon has long sought to institutionalize nuclear power in space, which would then be available for military purposes. Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 (207) 729-0517 (207) 319-2017 (Cell Phone) http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 44 Google News Alert - nuclear Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 13:57:11 -0700 (PDT) US Stresses Need for North Korea to Dismantle Nuclear Program Washington Post - USA ... administration last week offered a more detailed proposal at six-nation talks in Beijing on how to resolve the impasse over North Korean nuclear ambitions, and ... See all stories on this topic: MUSHARRAF vows to keep up nuclear tests The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia Pakistan will not roll back its nuclear weapons program and plans to carry out another missile test within two months, President Pervez Musharraf has said. ... See all stories on this topic: WELDING led to nuclear subs fires BBC News - London,England,UK Three fires broke out on nuclear submarines being refitted at Devonport Royal Dockyard, Plymouth, last year. The small fires, between ... See all stories on this topic: KOREAN foreign ministers agree to pursue peaceful end to nuclear ... Jakarta Post - Indonesia JAKARTA (AP): The foreign ministers of North and South Korea on Thursday agreed to pursue a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear standoff. ... See all stories on this topic: THE Turkish Energy Minister said that nuclear power plants many ... NTV MSNBC - Turkey ... to television station CNBC-E on Thursday, Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said that his government is to revitalise the construction of nuclear power plants in ... COEBURN man active nationally with nuclear medicine Coalfield Progress - Norton,VA,USA ... Holbrook graduated from there in 1996 with a bachelor of science degree in nuclear medicine technology and won the Mallinckrodt Medical Award of Excellence as ... See all stories on this topic: INDIAN Army may raise nuclear unit Daily Times - Pakistan LAHORE: The Indian Army’s plan to have a ‘dedicated’ nuclear force was gathering momentum, an Indian official told Times News Network during an army ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR Double Standard At UN Arutz Sheva - Israel The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed El Baradei, suggests that Israel rid itself of nuclear weapons - but insists that Iran's ... RUSSIA'S plans for spent nuclear fuel site spark howls of protest SpaceDaily - USA Russia's willingness to build the world's first international depository for spent nuclear fuel Wednesday sparked howls of protests from opponents of the plan. ... See all stories on this topic: MINISTER: Iran won't stop nuclear program Seattle Post Intelligencer - Seattle,WA,USA ... CITY -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on Wednesday rejected international pressure to halt his country's work on centrifuges for its nuclear program. ... See all stories on this topic: This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Remove this News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts/remove?s=92d1672a1b037a07&hl=en Create another News Alert: http://www.google.com/newsalerts?hl=en Try Google News: http://news.google.com/ ***************************************************************** 45 AFP: Iranian FM says his country will continue building centrifuges [http://www.spacewar.com/] MEXICO CITY (AFP) Jul 01, 2004 Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, on an official visit here, said Wednesday his country was determined to continue building uranium enrichment centrifuges, but that the work was not aimed at producing nuclear weapons. "The work we're doing is not illegal," he told a press conference concluding a three-day visit to Mexico. "We have decided (to use) nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and, as we are building seven nuclear installations over the next 20 years, it is natural that for fuel we should produce (the centrifuges) within our own country." He added that the centrifuges were being built "under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and they are assuring that we have no intentions toward nuclear arms and that our work is legal." In February, Iran promised to halt centrifuge component building, in a deal with Britain, France and Germany in return for which the three European Union powers promised help in normalising the Islamic republic's relations with the But Iran claims the European commitments were not honored and, "therefore we have not kept our promise to suspend the construction of the centrifuges," said Kharazi. WAR.WIRE ***************************************************************** 46 Scoop: NASA Seeks Public Input On Space Nukes Plan [http://www.scoop.co.nz/] Thursday, 1 July 2004, 12:58 pm Press Release: Global Network Against Weapons &Nuclear Power in Space NASA SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON EXPANDING SPACE NUKES PLAN NASA, in cooperation with the Department of Energy (DoE), is seeking public comment by July 30, 2004 on their plan to expand the development and testing of nuclear powered devices called Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) for space missions. NASA is now preparing a major expansion of nuclear powered launches to the outer planets and Mars. a.. Radioactive fuel processing and fabrication would likely occur at Los Alamos Nat'l Lab in New Mexico. b.. Advanced RPS assembly and testing would likely be performed at Argonne Nat'l Lab - West in Idaho Falls, ID. c.. Additional safety testing of advanced RPS could be performed at: Sandia Nat'l Lab (Albuquerque, NM) and Army Aberdeen Proving Grounds (Aberdeen, MD). d.. Activities associated with the development, testing, and verification of the power conversion systems could be performed at: NASA's Glenn Center (Cleveland, OH); Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA); Boeing Rocketdyne (Canoga Park, CA); Teledyne Energy Systems (Hunt Valley, MD); Stirling Technology Corp (Kennewick, WA); and Lockheed Martin (Valley Forge, PA). e.. Eventual launch of these new nuclear space devices would be performed at: Kennedy Space Center (Florida). Please send your comments to NASA opposing this expanded program of nuclear power in space by July 30, 2004. Comments from people outside the U.S. are also encouraged. Send comments to: Dr. George Schmidt NASA HQ Office of Space Science, Code S Washington DC 20546 rpseis@nasa.gov Suggested comments: 1.. The increase in plutonium production for space missions at Los Alamos laboratory, where DoE already has a bad health and safety track record, will lead to more contaminated workers and groundwater. 2.. The expanded numbers of launches of nuclear devices, on rockets with a historic 10% failure rate, guarantee an accident at some point of catastrophic proportions. 3.. Alternative power sources for deep space missions could be developed if NASA and the DoE put effort and investment into the task. 4.. The Pentagon has long sought to institutionalize nuclear power in space, which would then be available for military purposes. Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons &Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 652 Brunswick, ME 04011 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com [http://www.scoop.co.nz/welcome.htm] | Copyright (c) Scoop Media ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************