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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 L A Times: Flaws Cited in Powell's U.N. Speech on Iraq
2 KRT Wire: U.S. intelligence on Iraq: Cheney just won't let it go
3 UK Independent: Butler Report: Today's full links
4 AU ABC: We were right to go to war - Blair, Howard
5 UK Independent: Now Blair cites regime change as basis for war.
6 Las Vegas SUN: Blair Opponents Not Satisfied by Report
7 US: Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Nader and nadirs
8 US: Free Internet Press: Bush Administration Defies Court's Nuke Ord
9 Harvest Moon Hack: Joshua Greene : The Sickness of War
10 NewsDay: Russia: still as much a mystery as ever
NUCLEAR REACTORS
11 Prague Post: Skoda bids for Bulgarian reactor
12 Reuters: TEPCO to restart Niigata nuclear power unit
13 US: TheDay.com: Millstone Owner Sues Energy Department Over Lack Of
14 US: TheDay.com: Waterford OKs Spending More On Legal Battle In Its T
15 US: TheDay.com: Chemicals In Ground At Millstone
16 US: WFSB: Millstone to store spent fuel rods on site
17 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC vows probe of lost fuel
18 US: NRC: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; Before Administrative Ju
NUCLEAR SAFETY
19 [NYTr] Time to Target Vieques for Superfund Cleanup
20 [du-list] U oxides and target interactions
21 US: SB 922/Governor's comments
22 [du-list] high radioactivity measured in southern Occupied
23 US: CCN: Nuclear activists says state must do more to protect reside
24 NEWS.com.au: Stolen radioactive material found
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
25 Yucca project work to proceed
26 [NukeNet] Yucca Nevada Waste Site Plan to Proceed Despite
27 Las Vegas Mercury: Yucca ruling yields lots of purple prose
28 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Nevadans call for open talks on reposi
29 Las Vegas SUN: Judges to hear state's complaint on nuclear
30 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada wants Yucca meetings public
31 RGJ: Ruling won’t delay Yucca, Energy Department says
32 AU ABC: MP claims nuclear waste is stored in bushland.
33 NEWS.com.au: NT may be nuclear dump site - MP
34 NRC: NRC Names Allen G. Croff to Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
35 US: Come Friday, 7/16/04, 7 pm anniversary of Trinity: first nuclear
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
36 9news.com: Demolition to begin on Rocky Flats plutonium processing b
37 SF Chronicle: Frantic search for lost data at Los Alamos
38 SF Chronicle: UC ripped over data missing at Los Alamos
39 Oak Ridger: Y-12 staff receives PRSA awards
40 U.S. Newswire - Federal Agency Teams to be Honored July 15 for
41 Oak Ridger: Lab modernization going ahead
42 Paducah Sun: PACRO, DOE find home for stranded fluorine cells
OTHER NUCLEAR
43 [du-list] DU in the News - 15th July 04
44 Google News Alert - nuclear
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 L A Times: Flaws Cited in Powell's U.N. Speech on Iraq
[Los Angeles Times - latimes.com]
July 15, 2004
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
[*] State Department analysts saw errors in early drafts,
prompting revisions, report says.
By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON Days before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was
to present the case for war with Iraq to the United Nations,
State Department analysts found dozens of factual problems in
drafts of his speech, according to new documents contained in the
Senate report on intelligence failures released last week.
Two memos included with the Senate report listed objections that
State Department experts lodged as they reviewed successive
drafts of the Powell speech. Although many of the claims
considered inflated or unsupported were removed through
painstaking debate by Powell and intelligence officials, the
speech he ultimately presented contained material that was in
dispute among State Department experts.
Powell's Feb. 5, 2003, speech to the U.N. Security Council was
crafted by the CIA at the behest of the White House. Intended to
be the Bush administration's most compelling case by one of its
most credible spokesmen that a confrontation with Saddam Hussein
was necessary, the speech has become a central moment in the
lead-up to war.
The speech also has become a point of reference in the failure
of U.S. intelligence. Although Powell has said he struggled to
ensure that all of his arguments were sound and backed by
intelligence from several sources, it nonetheless became a key
example of how the administration advanced false claims to
justify war.
Powell has expressed disappointment that, after working to
remove dubious claims, the intelligence backing the remaining
points of his U.N. speech has turned out to be flawed.
"It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong, and
in some cases deliberately misleading, and for that I am
disappointed and I regret it," Powell said in May. A State
Department spokesman said late Wednesday, however, that the
United States made the right decision "to go into Iraq, and the
world today is safer because we did."
Offering the first detailed look at claims that were stripped
from the case for war advanced by Powell, a Jan. 31, 2003, memo
cataloged 38 claims to which State Department analysts objected.
In response, 28 were either removed from the draft or altered,
according to the Senate report, which was released Friday and
included scathing criticism of the CIA and other U.S.
intelligence services.
The analysts, describing many of the claims as "weak" and
assigning grades to arguments on a 5-star scale, warned Powell
against making an array of allegations they deemed implausible.
They also warned against including Iraqi communications
intercepts they deemed ambiguous and against speculating that
terrorists might "come through Baghdad and pick-up biological
weapons" as if they were stocked on store shelves.
The documents underscore the extent to which administration and
intelligence officials were culling a vast collection of thinly
sourced claims as they sought to assemble the case for war. But
the origin and full scope of some errors remain unclear because
Senate investigators were denied access to a number of relevant
documents, according to aides involved in the probe.
The CIA rejected requests for initial versions of what became
the Powell presentation on the grounds that they were internal
working documents and not finished products. And the
Republican-controlled committee did not seek access to a
40-plus-page document that was prepared by Vice President Dick
Cheney's office and submitted to State Department speechwriters
detailing the case the administration wanted Powell to make.
According to the Senate report, the idea for the speech
originated in December 2002, when the National Security Council
instructed the CIA to prepare a public response to Iraq's widely
criticized 12,000-page declaration claiming that it had no banned
weapons. It wasn't until late January 2003 that intelligence
officials learned their work would form the basis for a speech
Powell would give to the United Nations.
Powell and several of his aides then spent several days at CIA
headquarters working on drafts of the speech, in what
participants have described as sessions marked by heated
arguments over what to include.
When Powell appeared before the U.N., he made a series of
sweeping assertions that have crumbled under postwar scrutiny
including claims that Iraq had chemical weapons stockpiles, was
pursuing nuclear weapons and that "there can be no doubt that
Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to
rapidly produce more, many more."
But the documents in the Senate report show that earlier drafts
of the speech contained dozens of additional, disputed claims;
they provide the most detailed glimpse to date into the
last-minute scramble to strike those claims from the text.
Several of the dubious statements in the early drafts had to do
with alleged Iraqi efforts to thwart weapons inspections that had
been restarted by the U.N.
One allegation was that Iraq was trying to keep incriminating
weapons files from falling into the hands of inspectors by having
operatives carry the sensitive documents around in cars. The
State Department reviewers called the claim "highly questionable"
and warned that it would invite scorn from critics and U.N.
inspection officials.
Another claim was that Iraq was having members of its
intelligence services pose as weapons scientists to dupe U.N.
inspectors. But the State Department noted that such a ruse was
"not credible" because of the level of sophistication it would
require.
"Interviews typically involve such topics as nuclear physics,
microbiology, rocket science and the like," the State Department
reviewers wrote, indicating that even a well-rehearsed
intelligence operative would be hard-pressed to pull off such a
charade.
In their critique, State Department analysts repeatedly warned
that Powell was being put in the position of drawing the most
sinister conclusions from satellite images, communications
intercepts and human intelligence reports that had alternative,
less-incriminating explanations.
In one section that remained in the speech, Powell showed aerial
images of a supposed decontamination vehicle circling a suspected
chemical weapons site.
"We caution," State Department analysts wrote, "that Iraq has
given … what may be a plausible account for this activity that
this was an exercise involving the movement of conventional
explosives."
The presence of a water truck "is common in such an event," they
concluded.
The experts labeled as "weak" a claim that a photograph of an
Iraqi with "marks on his arm" was evidence that Baghdad was
conducting biological experiments on humans. The language was
struck from the speech, although Powell told the Security Council
that Iraq had been conducting such experiments since the 1980s.
State Department analysts also made it clear that they disagreed
with CIA and other analysts on the allegation that aluminum tubes
imported by Iraq were for use in a nuclear weapons program. "We
will work with our [intelligence community] colleagues to fix
some of the more egregious errors in the tubes discussion," the
memo said.
In the speech, Powell acknowledged disagreement among analysts on
the tubes, but included the claim. The Senate report concluded
last week that the tubes were for conventional rockets.
In a section on nuclear weapons, the analysts argued against
using a communications intercept they described as "taken out of
context" and "highly misleading." There is no more information on
what was in the intercept, but Powell in his speech referred to
intercepted communications that he said showed that "Iraq front
companies sought to buy machines that can be used to balance gas
centrifuge rotors."
Aside from the two memos, the Senate report refers to other
language that was deleted from drafts of Powell's speech,
although it is not clear who urged the items to be struck.
In one case, Powell was to say that the aluminum tubes were so
unsuitable for use in conventional rockets that if he were to
roll one on a table, "the mere pressure of my hand would deform
it." Department of Energy engineers said that statement was
incorrect.
For all their skepticism, State Department analysts did not
challenge some of the fundamental allegations in the Powell
speech that have since been proved unfounded. Chief among them is
the claim that Iraq had mobile biological weapons laboratories,
an accusation based largely on information from an Iraqi defector
code-named "Curveball."
What the State Department didn't know at the time was that a CIA
representative who had met with Curveball found him to have a
drinking problem and to be highly unreliable. The CIA
representative's red flags were not relayed to Powell until
recently, a State Department official said, when then-CIA
Director George J. Tenet contacted Powell to tell him that
problems with Curveball would be detailed in the Senate report.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives [http://www.latimes.com/archives] . [TMS
Reprints] Article licensing and reprint options
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times By visiting this site, you are
*****************************************************************
2 KRT Wire: U.S. intelligence on Iraq: Cheney just won't let it go
| 07/15/2004 |
BY ERIC MINK
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(KRT) - Late last week, yet another august body - this time the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - issued yet another
massive report again confirming that the U.S. intelligence
establishment got just about everything wrong when it came to
Saddam Hussein's nonexistent biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons.
But buried deep in the Senate report - little noticed and even
less remarked upon - is something important that the committee
credits the intelligence community for getting right. And it puts
the torch to whatever flimsy tissue of credibility the Bush
administration had left:
With respect to contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda during the
1990s, the committee found that the CIA "reasonably assessed ...
that these contacts did not add up to an established formal
relationship."
With respect to al-Qaeda attacks against the United States, the
committee found that the CIA came to a reasonable and objective
conclusion that "to date there was no evidence proving Iraqi
complicity or assistance."
And with respect to who knew what when, the committee determined
that the above CIA judgments "were widely disseminated, though an
early version of a key CIA assessment was disseminated only to a
limited list of Cabinet members and some sub-Cabinet officials in
the administration," the report said.
In other words, Bush and his top officials knew very early on -
earlier than Congress and the public - that there was very little
justification for claims of any meaningful relationship between
Iraq and al-Qaeda.
They made the claims anyway - too many times to count - and
they've continued to make them.
Indeed last month, the Bush administration unleashed its
principal attack dog, Vice President Dick Cheney, when new staff
reports for the independent 9/11 commission said essentially the
same thing the intelligence committee said last week.
The commission report said that contacts between Iraq and
al-Qaeda during the 1990s "do not appear to have resulted in a
collaborative relationship." And it said there was "no credible
evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the
United States."
Cheney launched an offensive against the report, couching it as
dissatisfaction with what he called "outrageous" press coverage
that sowed confusion. But it was Cheney who spread misinformation
in his key interview at the time, a June 17 exchange with
correspondent Gloria Borger on CNBC's "Capital Report":
Borger asked Cheney about the claim - debunked by the commission
report - that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi
intelligence official in Prague in April 2001. "You have said in
the past," Borger pointed out, "that it was `pretty well
confirmed.'''
"No, I never said that," Cheney snapped back. "I never said that.
Absolutely not."
Yes, he did.
On Dec. 9, 2001, Cheney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and
told host Tim Russert, "It's been pretty well confirmed that he
(Atta) did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of
the Iraqi intelligence service."
Borger pursued the issue of the Prague meeting. "This report says
it didn't happen," she said to Cheney. "No," Cheney replied.
"This report says they haven't found any evidence."
Borger was right.
"Staff Statement No. 16," released June 16, says that after
examining all available evidence, "we do not believe that such a
meeting occurred."
Cheney also insisted that the commission's staff report discussed
Iraq and al-Qaeda only in the context of the 2001 attacks on New
York and Washington and "did not address the broader question of
a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda in other areas, in other
ways."
Cheney was wrong.
"Staff Statement No. 15," also released June 16, is a detailed
review of the history of al-Qaeda, including its relationships
with various countries - separate and distinct from the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks. It found evidence that al-Qaeda had definite
relationships over time with Sudan and Afghanistan but not with
Saddam's Iraq.
Cheney then reversed himself: He acknowledged that the report
concluded there was no broad relationship between Iraq and
al-Qaeda but said he disagreed with that judgment.
"Do you know some things that the commission does not know?"
Borger asked. "Probably," Cheney replied.
The next day, the chairman and vice chairman of the commission -
Republican Tom Kean and Democrat Lee Hamilton, respectively -
asked that Cheney provide the commission with that additional
information.
He provided nothing.
After waiting nearly three weeks, Kean and Hamilton issued a
restrained put-down: "The 9/11 commission believes," said a
one-sentence statement dated July 6, "it has access to the same
information the vice president has seen regarding contacts
between al-Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9/11 attacks."
Over the last two and a half years, no one in the Bush
administration has been more strident than Cheney in citing a
meaningful relationship between al-Qaeda and Saddam's Iraq as a
justification for going to war, particularly as the WMD rationale
evaporated. The limited-in-scope Senate Intelligence Committee
report - on top of last month's 9/11 commission staff reports -
now renders those claims meaningless.
Given the intelligence committee's additional finding that the
administration has long known that the assertions were flimsy at
best, it's impossible to say whether Cheney and the
administration have continued to proclaim them out of
desperation, deception or self-delusion.
But there's certainly no longer any reason to pay attention to
them.
---
ABOUT THE WRITER
Eric Mink is commentary editor for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Readers may write to him at: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 900 North
Tucker Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 63101, or e-mail him at
[emink@post-dispatch.com] .
© 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at
[http://www.stltoday.com]
*****************************************************************
3 UK Independent: Butler Report: Today's full links
15 July 2004
News
Who was to blame? No one
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541127
]
Now Blair cites regime change as basis for war. So, was it
legal?
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541121
]
BBC report on 'sexed up' dossier is vindicated, says Dyke
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541120
]
The Debate: Blair accepts his responsibility for mistakes but
insists 'no one lied'
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541082
]
Analysis
How 'patchy' intelligence became proof Saddam possessed WMD
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541105
]
Report will make uncomfortable reading in Downing Street
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541097
]
Incestuous relationship that fed on flawed, unreliable
intelligence
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541193
]
A tale of two inquiries: How Butler's findings compare with
Hutton's
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541237
]
Intelligence on Iraq's WMD: the failures and the mistakes
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541092
]
The Rolls-Royce civil servant who stuck to the beaten track
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541081
]
Should we have gone to war?
[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=541076
]
Comment
Leading article: Blair will pay the price for taking the
nation to war on false grounds
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/story.jsp?sto
ry=541111] [independent portfolio]
Robin Cook: Britain's worst intelligence failure, and Lord
Butler says no one is to blame
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/robin_cook/
story.jsp?story=541109] [independent portfolio]
Patrick Wright: The PM thinks the debate is over. He is wrong
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=5
41108]
Steve Richards: Be clear what Lord Butler is saying: Britain
went to war on a false premise
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/steve_richa
rds/story.jsp?story=541096] [independent portfolio]
Simon Carr: We're all responsible, cries Tony, but at least I
was only following advice
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/simon_carr/
story.jsp?story=541083] [independent portfolio]
Brian Jones: The JIC presented a well-defined picture to
underpin war. Pity it was so flawed
[http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=5
41080]
UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
4 AU ABC: We were right to go to war - Blair, Howard
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
[http://www.abc.net.au/]
PM - Thursday, 15 July , 2004 18:14:51
Reporter: Rafael Epstein
MARK COLVIN: Things went badly wrong with the intelligence, but
no one was really to blame.
That's the slightly quizzical way that much of the British press
has summed up the Butler report, which like the Hutton report
before it, seemed to carry far less of a sting than had been
predicted.
The report has left the politicians and intelligence chiefs
unscathed, but it is still a scathing indictment on the way
London collects its intelligence.
Lord Butler questioned the reliance on a handful of spies with no
firsthand knowledge of Saddam's suspected weapons programs. He
cast serious doubt on the production of reports without the usual
caveats, and he found that there was no intelligence in the years
before the war that suggested Iraq was an imminent danger.
The report mirrored many of the findings from a US Senate
committee last week.
But both British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australia's Prime
Minister John Howard say the Butler inquiry has not changed their
judgment that they were right in their decision to go to war.
Rafael Epstein reports.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Before the war, world leaders were unequivocal.
US President George W. Bush.
GEORGE BUSH: Intelligence gathered by this and other governments
leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and
conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: But a US Senate committee now says that
intelligence was exaggerated, that uncertainties were
unexplained, and that conclusions weren't supported by hard
intelligence reports.
This is what Prime Minister John Howard said just weeks before
the war.
JOHN HOWARD: Its possession of chemical and biological weapons
and its pursuit of a nuclear capability poses a real and
unacceptable threat to the stability and security of our world.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The Australian parliamentary inquiry found some
statements by the Prime Minister were more emphatic than
conclusions formed by Australia's own intelligence agencies.
Partly that was because the Government's public claims were based
on documents from the US and the Blair Government's dossier
published in September 2002. The document dissected and
criticised by the Butler inquiry overnight.
This was Prime Minister Tony Blair in response to that inquiry.
TONY BLAIR: I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems
increasingly clear that at the time of invasion Saddam did not
have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to
deploy.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: The Butler inquiry blames nobody, but it's
scathing in the picture it draws of British intelligence
gathering.
A fifth hand observation of crates handled by Saddam's militia,
that may have contained chemical weapons, turned up in the Blair
Government's dossier implying that Saddam Hussein could launch
missiles with chemical or biological weapons warheads within 45
minutes.
It turns out Britain had no spies in Iraq with firsthand
knowledge of illegal weapons programs. Of the handful that
existed, Lord Butler says there were significant doubts about a
majority of them and more credence was given to untried agents
than would normally be the case.
That mirrors findings by the US Senate committee.
The CIA's assessment that Iraq had 500 tonnes of chemical weapons
was based on second hand reports that Baghdad may have been
shipping such materials because of the reported presence of a
single tanker truck.
And the CIA's assessment that Iraq's entire biological weapons
program was bigger than in the early 1990s, was based on a single
intelligence source, that the CIA did not have direct access to.
The US and British inquiries cite the major problems as the lack
of first hand knowledge, and the deletion of caveats and
qualifications that are usually included in intelligence reports.
But John Howard is unrepentant.
JOHN HOWARD: My position remains that we had strong intelligence
to justify our decision, and nothing in the Butler report alters
that position and if we'd have had our time over again, I would
have taken the same decision.
RAFAEL EPSTEIN: Both the Butler inquiry and the US Senate
committee found spies who insisted Iraq's weapons programs was
weak and stalled were dismissed, but Butler found they were the
spy's who on reflection gave more credible information.
Both inquiries found specialists who questioned just how far
Iraq's programs were developed were either ignored, their
information was misrepresented, or in the UK they weren't allowed
to see all the available intelligence.
TONY BLAIR: Is it now the case that in the absence of stockpiles
of weapons, ready to deploy, the threat was misconceived and
therefore the war was unjustified? On any basis, he retained
complete strategic intent on weapons of mass destruction and
significant capability. The only reason he ever let the
inspectors back into Iraq was that he had 180,000 US and British
troops on his doorstep, he had no intention of ever cooperating
fully with the inspectors and he was going to start up again the
moment the troops and the inspectors departed, or the sanctions
eroded.
MARK COLVIN: Tony Blair, ending Rafael Epstein's report. [
[http://www.abc.net.au/privacy.htm]
*****************************************************************
5 UK Independent: Now Blair cites regime change as basis for war.
So, was it legal?
BBC report on 'sexed up' dossier is vindicated, says Dyke
A tale of two inquiries: How Butler's findings compare with
Hutton's
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
15 July 2004
There was a collective sigh of relief throughout Whitehall in
January when Lord Hutton cleared ministers and officials of blame
for David Kelly's suicide and of "sexing up" the dossier that
made the case for invading Iraq.
Twenty-four weeks later, their hopes that another establishment
figure would approve their conduct in the run-up to war were
dashed.
Although the Butler inquiry's conclusions are couched in the
cautious language of the career civil servant, they paint a
picture of intelligence stretched almost to breaking-point to
justify the conflict, and of a casual approach in Downing Street
to crucial meetings on Iraq.
Despite hearing weeks of evidence, Lord Hutton had refused to be
drawn on the strength of the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's
weapons of mass destruction, insisting it lay outside his remit.
He concluded the September dossier had not been embellished by
Downing Street, although he noted that Alastair Campbell, Tony
Blair's former director of communications, had told John
Scarlett, head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), he
wanted it to be as strong as possible. In a rare critical comment
about the Government, Lord Hutton said it was possible Mr
Scarlett and other JIC members could have been "subconsciously
influenced" by Mr Blair to toughen the dossier's language.
Lord Butler also acknowledged the good faith of the intelligence
services and concluded it had "seen no evidence" to support
allegations that the dossier had been "sexed up".
But his inquiry team was far more candid about the quality of the
dossier, saying it "went to, although not beyond, the outer
limits of intelligence available". It was a "serious weakness"
that the limitations of the intelligence underlying the
Government's claims on WMD were not explained and Mr Blair was
wrong to present it as authoritative.
In a damning conclusion, it said that a clearer dividing line had
to be drawn between the assessment of intelligence and justifying
government policy.
In January, Lord Hutton merely acknowledged the worries of some
intelligence staff over the crucial claim that Saddam Hussein
could launch biological and chemical attacks within 45 minutes of
an order to do so. Again, he said it was beyond his terms of
reference to pass judgement on the most contentious element of
the dossier of September 2002.
The Butler team did not pull its punches on that point,
concluding that the 45-minute claim should not have been included
in the way it was by the Government. It should have provided a
clear explanation whether it referred to long-range missiles or
battlefield munitions. The team pointed to suspicions that the
45-minute claim was included because of its "eye-catching
character".
As a former Cabinet Secretary, Lord Butler's observations on the
machinery of government will make particularly uncomfortable
reading for ministers. He highlighted the "informality" of the
Blair administration's procedures, noting its tendency to
concentrate power in his Downing Street office rather than in the
Cabinet. His report concluded that the "scope for informed
collective political judgement" could have been reduced as a
result.
Lord Hutton barely touched on that. Instead, the focus of his
criticism was the, assertion by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan, that
ministers knew "questionable" claims had been included in the
dossier.
The Butler team said it was not its intention to "revisit issues
already addressed by Lord Hutton", mentioning Mr Campbell - a key
figure in the earlier inquiry - only once in passing and not
calling him to give evidence. Instead it threw its net far beyond
the feud between Downing Street and the BBC that ended in Dr
Kelly's suicide. It concluded, for example, that Iraq "did not
have significant, if any, stocks of chemical or biological
weapons in a state fit for deployment, nor developed plans for
using them" but agreed that Britain's claim that Iraq sought
uranium in Niger was based on credible intelligence.
And it examined in detail the arguments over the legal case for
the war in Iraq, deciding that Lord Goldsmith, the
Attorney-General, was justified in the advice he gave to Mr
Blair.
The Hutton inquiry report attracted accusations of a whitewash
but brought relief to the Government that was paralysed by the
controversy over Iraq. It was just days later that Mr Blair was
forced to ask Lord Butler to head a more wide-ranging inquiry.
There was enough in his conclusions for the Government to seize
on, but also plenty of ammunition for its critics. Last night any
hope that his report would draw a line under the affair looked
forlorn.
WHO DID THE REPORTS BLAME? ANALYSIS BY ANNE PENKETH
TONY BLAIR Prime Minister ALASTAIR CAMPBELL Former No
10 communications director JONATHAN POWELL No 10 Chief of
Staff JOHN SCARLETT Head of Joint Intelligence Committee
SIR RICHARD DEARLOVE Director of MI6
THE BUTLER REPORT
The Prime Minister escapes personal blame for the intelligence
debacle. Mr Blair's "good faith" is not questioned, but the
"informality" of his style of government is.
The Prime Minister's former spokesman appears only once in the
Butler report: Mr Campbell said the dossier's credibility
depended on it being seen as the work of the Joint Intelligence
Committee.
Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, was a
witness but is not in the report. Like Alastair Campbell, the
director of communication, he was deeply involved in the
September dossier.
Lord Butler strongly endorses Mr Scarlett, despite criticising
him for publicly admitting to "ownership" of the September
dossier, which "gave the intelligence more weight than it could
bear".
The head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, was wrong not to share
intelligence, which had to be withdrawn because of its
unreliability, with other agency analysts, the Butler report
says.
THE HUTTON REPORT
The Prime Minister and the Government were cleared of
"dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous" conduct in the lead-up
to the death of the weapons expert David Kelly.
Mr Campbell was cleared of "sexing up" intelligence to claim that
Saddam could deploy WMD in 45 minutes, as had been reported by
Andrew Gilligan on BBC radio.
The Government was cleared of exaggerating the threat. But in an
e-mail, Mr Powell had said the dossier "does nothing to
demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat".
Mr Scarlett may have been "subconsciously influenced" by the
Government but would have been "concerned to ensure" the dossier
was consistent with the evidence.
Lord Hutton's remit did not cover the failure of intelligence
assessment and the reliability of the 45-minute claim. Sir
Richard said then it was "well-sourced intelligence".
WHAT WE STILL NEED TO BE TOLD
After supporting government claims that Iraq was seeking uranium
from Africa, Lord Butler fails to explain why this was not passed
on to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. There is also no
convincing argument as to why the Attorney General's full legal
arguments for war cannot be published.
Mr Campbell's role in the Government's presentation of the case
for war, so prominent in the Hutton report, could pass unnoticed
as he was not interviewed by the Butler committee. Criticism of
the prominence of the "eye-catching" 45-minute claim could have
been laid at Mr Campbell's door.
Lord Butler fails to mention Mr Powell's role in the September
dossier, as one of Blair's closest advisers to be still in his
job. There is no reference to Mr Powell's negotiations with Mr
Scarlett on hardening the contents of the dossier.
Lord Butler passes over Mr Scarlett's relationship with Alastair
Campbell, who called him his "mate" and chaired two JIC meetings
in the preparation of the September dossier. Lord Butler also
fails to explain in detail why Mr Scarlett is allowed to hide
behind "collective responsibility".
Sir Richard has retired, and it is not clear whether anyone
will carry the can for the extremely serious step of withdrawing
intelligence claims that were in the September dossier, namely
the 45-minute claim and a report on Saddam's possession and
production of germ and chemical warfare agents.
UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
6 Las Vegas SUN: Blair Opponents Not Satisfied by Report
By ED JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON (AP) -
0714britain-iraq Prime Minister Tony Blair says the case is
settled: a new intelligence review that clears his government of
intentionally exaggerating the threat posed by Iraq shows his
government joined the war against Saddam Hussein in good faith.
His opponents are not convinced. They hope to capitalize on
widespread public opposition to the war - not to mention the
review's finding that British intelligence about the Iraqi
threat was flawed - during elections that got underway Thursday
to fill two vacant parliamentary seats.
"I hope we will not face in this country another war in the
foreseeable future, but if we did and you identified the threat,
would the country believe you?" Conservative Party leader
Michael Howard asked in the House of Commons.
He accused Blair of taking what spy chiefs called "sporadic and
patchy" intelligence on Iraqi WMD and hardening it into fact.
Blair claimed vindication Wednesday after an official inquiry
concluded that British intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction was flawed, but said the government had not
deliberately deceived anyone as it built a case for toppling
Saddam Hussein.
"No one lied. No one made up the intelligence," Blair told the
Commons, following publication of Lord Butler's report.
"Everyone genuinely tried to do their best in good faith for the
country in circumstances of acute difficulty. That issue of good
faith should now be at an end."
Public faith in Blair and his governing Labour Party were being
tested in two special elections Thursday, prompted by the death
of one Labour lawmaker and the resignation of another.
Both are normally considered "safe" seats for Labour, which won
both by landslides in 2001 and holds 159 more seats than the
combined opposition in the House of Commons. Labour and the
Conservatives, who also backed the war, have campaigned on
domestic issues such as crime, education and health care.
But the Liberal Democrats, the only major party to oppose the
Iraq invasion, have run on a strong anti-war platform in the
Leicester South and Birmingham Hodge Hill districts, which both
have large Muslim populations.
John Benyon, a politics professor at the University of
Leicester, said the Butler report could help Labour. "On the
doorstep in Leicester South we have found that the Iraq war does
not seem to be a big issue, and the Butler report is likely to
make this less of an issue," he said.
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy said Wednesday he
doubted the House of Commons would have backed the war if it had
"known then what it knows today about the state of Saddam
Hussein's weapons."
Blair based his case for joining the U.S.-led invasion on the
threat posed by Saddam's arsenal.
In a September 2002 dossier, he confidently asserted that
intelligence had "established beyond doubt ... that Saddam has
continued to produce chemical and biological weapons."
The Iraq Survey Group has found no evidence to back such claims,
and Blair was forced to follow President Bush's lead in setting
up an inquiry into intelligence failures.
Butler's report concluded that Saddam "did not have significant
- if any - stocks of chemical or biological weapons in a state
fit for deployment, or developed plans for using them."
Like a U.S. Senate report released last week, Butler found
serious flaws in intelligence on Iraq, including a lack of human
intelligence sources. One source's reporting was "open to
doubt," while a second was "unreliable," the report said.
The report criticized Britain's intelligence agencies for
failing to check all their sources and relying on secondhand
reports.
Butler's five-member committee also concluded that the September
dossier left out vital caveats on the limits of spy chiefs'
knowledge and "went to (although not beyond) the outer limits of
the intelligence available."
Blair's government has fought hard against claims, first leveled
in a May 2003 BBC radio broadcast, that it exaggerated
intelligence on Iraqi weapons.
Butler noted there was a "strain" between the measured
assessments of intelligence officers and the government's desire
for information to bolster its Iraq policy. But, like three
previous inquiries, he cleared the government of manipulating
intelligence.
Butler, a retired civil service chief, said he came across no
evidence that spies "were asked to collect intelligence to
justify a particular course of action."
The verdict takes some pressure off Blair, whose popularity and
credibility have been battered by the war and continuing
violence in Iraq. His Labour Party fared poorly in recent local
and European parliamentary elections, and there have been
rumblings within the party calling for his ouster.
--
*****************************************************************
7 Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Nader and nadirs
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004, 05:17:38 PM
By Michael Green
The past week offered several events with good and bad signs
for Nevada:
• Ralph Nader supporters deposited signatures with the secretary
of state's office in hopes of getting him on the November
ballot. One of his big backers, it turns out, is Steve Wark,
once Pat Robertson's local acolyte and now a top Republican
consultant. At least Wark is honest about wanting to help his
party, and he's hardly the first on either side to engage in
such shenanigans.
When Howard Dean, famed for overheated and overrated screams,
pointed out that many of his petitioners around the country are
Republicans who oppose everything Nader has stood for, Nader
called his comments "a desperate attempt to smear our campaign."
No, Nader did that himself.
In 2000, Nader didn't affect the outcome here, but he did
elsewhere. Despite that, he never deserved blame for the
national result. Without him, Al Gore would have carried several
other states and won the White House without Jeb Bush and
Katherine Harris mounting a coup in Florida. And despite its
success--he won, remember--Gore's campaign was a textbook
example of how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But if
Gore had won Nevada, where voters fell for George W. Bush's lies
about nuclear waste (and everything else), Florida and the other
states wouldn't have mattered.
If he makes the ballot, Nader won't be alone, here or
elsewhere. Most third-party candidates run because they
correctly believe the two parties don't stand for their
views--Greens on several progressive causes, Libertarians on
government power and related matters, George Wallace in 1968
because the other parties considered African-Americans human,
Ross Perot in the 1990s on the lack of Martians in government.
But Perot's old party endorsed Nader. How can he affiliate with
them if he claims intellectual and financial integrity? How can
he think aligning with them and helping Bush contributes to his
causes? Because he really is what Democrats accused him of
being: a one-time consumer advocate and admirable public servant
whose megalomania has destroyed his principles.
Since Nevada is a battleground state and independent voters
could affect the result, Nader could matter. But Bush inspires
such devotion or hatred that the winner is likely to have a
large enough margin to leave no doubt, at least in Nevada. Now,
as for Florida...
• When Nader loved the environment, he would have found Yucca
Mountain horrifying. It remains popular with most politicians,
especially Bush and other sound scientists, but Nevada just
received two bits of good news.
A federal court ruled that the feds must do better than claim
the nuclear waste they want to put there will be safe for 10,000
years. Obviously, the judges are optimists. But so are Nevada
Republicans. Attorney General Brian Sandoval was quick to say
the dump is dead. He should hope so. The decision gives the GOP
the chance to say it all worked out in the end and hope voters
don't notice Bush's lies--and that Sandoval and other Bush
lackeys (Gov. Kenny Guinn, Rep. Jim Gibbons and Sen. John
Ensign) went along.
Meanwhile, another good sign was Kerry's selection of John
Edwards as running mate. Edwards had voted for the dump, but
said he would defer to Kerry. Nevada Republicans pooh-poohed
that, which prompts two key points. One, when Republicans change
their mind about making Nevada the nation's nuclear graveyard,
it's in favor of it. Two, contrary to Bush's White House, in a
Kerry administration the vice president's views wouldn't matter
more than the president's. And as his policies demonstrate, Bush
will ignore the law when it suits his purposes. If he can claim
the right to torture, why not the right to rid 49 states of
nuclear waste?
When the Yucca decision came down last week, its meaning was
unclear at first. Actually, Nevada lost on most of what it
argued. But the court ultimately saw through the claims of
scientific care and caution. That gives Democrats another point
to argue against Bush, too.
• State Controller Kathy Augustine may be impeached if she
doesn't resign for using state employees to campaign for her
re-election in 2002. Of course, Augustine has a history. Not
only did she accuse one-time state Sen. Lori Lipman Brown of
refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, but state Sens. Bill
Raggio (still aiding Reno at Las Vegas' expense), Ray Rawson
(probably about to lose to the more dubious Bob Beers) and Sue
Lowden (long since defeated) went along.
Granting that Brown once attacked a fellow Democrat's views
without bothering to talk to him to find out what they were,
playing politics and encouraging corruption are different. But
Augustine's problems beg a question about democracy: Why do we
elect someone to oversee state debt collections and accounting?
It's like electing university regents: Shouldn't they
demonstrate some knowledge of higher education before they try
to run it?
More to the point, Augustine had the support of Republican
leaders who should have figured out that something was
wrong--some of the same leaders who follow Bush with looks
usually seen only in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Can
Democrats make something of that corruption, especially when
questioned about their own--like Wendell Williams, whom Jim
Rogers recently succeeded as chancellor of Nevada's higher
education system?
You know politics is strange when Williams and Augustine end up
looking more principled than Ralph Nader. It almost makes the
idea of four more years of Bush look less scary...nah.
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury, 2001 - 2004
*****************************************************************
8 Free Internet Press: Bush Administration Defies Court's Nuke Order
[editor@freeinternetpress.com]
United States Constitution Article I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.
[http://freeinternetpress.com/]
on Wednesday July 14, @06:50PM from the dept.
The Bush Administration will proceed with a plan to build a
nuclear waste site in Nevada this year despite a court decision
ordering it to prevent radiation leaks for more than 10,000
years, a senior Energy Department official said on Tuesday.
Critics of the project, including Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid
of Nevada, say this recent federal court ruling could permanently
derail a plan to build a massive underground storage depot
beneath Yucca Mountain about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week
rejected Nevada's attempt to block the plan to store 77,000 tons
of waste on constitutional grounds. The court also said, however,
the administration wrongly ignored a recommendation from the
National Academy of Sciences to ensure safety from leaks for well
beyond 10,000 years. Read more.
[http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/07/14/nuclear.yucca.dc.
reut/index.html]
Radioactive releases could peak in 300,000 years and the
administration must assure safeguards on that scale, the court
found, Reuters news agency reports.
Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants is piling up -- there
are over 50,000 tons of it stored at over 100 interim locations
in 39 states within 75 miles of 161 million people.
Even so, the Bush Administration said that it does not intend to
slow down.
Intellpuke: "Ignoring the court's ruling is a prime example of
the Bush Administration's arrogance. Under the U.S. Constitution
it is not above the law, yet it behaves as if it is the only law.
I wonder how many earthquakes have rattled Yucca Mountain in the
past 10,000 years, let alone the past 300,000."
Original materials on this site © Free Internet Press.
*****************************************************************
9 Harvest Moon Hack: Joshua Greene : The Sickness of War
:: The Cleveland Free Times :: Cleveland's Premier Alternative
Jul 15, 2004 - 08:30 PM
· SPEND THE DAY WITH MATT NATHANSON
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
E-mail Joshua Greene at: [jgreene@freetimes.com]
TOO BAD IT'S THE TROOPS and not the leaders who die in war.
Instead we're living through someone's version of hell. I must
have been one bad dude in my last life. Maybe we all were.
Last month we learned that our boys in Iraq are coming up
positive, but it's bad. No joke. Investigative journalist Juan
Gonzalez and the New York Daily News independently tested nine
blood samples from National Guard military police who've
complained of unknown ailments for months now. Four of them
tested positive, not for head lice or mange or syphilis or
derangement or any of the things that you or I are likely to test
positive for. For uranium.
They've got uranium in their lungs.
Bullets made of lead weren't good enough. They couldn't pierce a
tank, so they started using depleted uranium. Must have been a
sale at the nuclear power plant. And it seemed like such a good
idea at the time.
Gonzalez reports that the European Union in January 2003 became
alarmed after a bunch of Italian soldiers started dying from
leukemia. They called for a ban on using bullets made of nuclear
waste. Gonzalez says 1,000 tanks were blown up in the first Iraq
war using depleted uranium bullets. He says the exploding bullets
sent uranium dust into the air. And our boys are now back in
those very areas where this dust is just floating around.
Additionally, he reports that last year alone the U.S. forces
used 127 tons of depleted uranium ammo.
What's up with that?
Who's making decisions saying it's okay to go spraying uranium
around the surface of the earth? How does a decision like that
get made?
Here in Ohio, we just let a corporation that's already proven it
can't be trusted with our safety turn a nuclear power plant back
on. And over there in World War III, they're sending poor boys
into a land we already covered in “low-level radioactive waste.”
Yo, Bush, that's why we were supposed to send the United Nations
soldiers in.
And ain't that just like us. The hard news is, U.S. soldiers are
being exposed to radioactive materials because they're in Iraq.
Forget about what it's been like living in Iraq with radioactive
waste just blowing around. Think the U.S. government keeping our
troops in the dark is a big deal? It is. But who was supposed to
tell the Iraqi kids not to play in the wrecked tanks?
The thing about uranium is it isn't exactly going anywhere
anytime soon. As far as I can tell, the best a human can do right
now is about 110 years. With a half-life of 2.3 million years,
the Uranium 236 they're finding in these soldiers' lungs will
outlive our species. What were we thinking?
There's something wrong about the way we're making decisions.
It's like the time I was really stoned and couldn't figure out
why my motorcycle wouldn't start. So I cut all the ignition wires
and hot-wired it. When that failed, I noticed that the battery
terminals just weren't cranked down tight enough. And so now I'm
left with a bigger problem. But hey, even I know better than to
spray nuclear waste around the surface of the earth.
It's a pretty dark path our whole modern society is on. In
ancient times we had clean air and water, but it got dark at
night and cold in the winter. So in the name of making it light
at night and warm in the winter, we have dirty water and dirty
air. Was darkness really that scary?
I've got a buddy in the armed forces. All last year he was
marching to the administration's tune. “Weapons of mass
destruction,” he was telling me. “We can't have terrorists using
our weapons.” And his argument made sense. It's wrong for
repressed, angry or just really stupid people to be allowed to
use guns or explosives of any type. As we're proving, those are
tools for a society far more advanced than ours.
We think we're advanced 'cause we've got 160 channels of
advertising and mind-control in our homes. We let people with
evil intentions, people we don't know, trust, love or nothing,
come into our homes and tell us what to buy and how to talk.
We're about ready for a trip back to the Stone Age. We need to
relearn some of the basics.
Like don't shit where you eat.
This place, Iraq; it's known as the fertile crescent of the
planet, and we're making it radioactive. Win, we all lose, and
lose, we all lose too. It's just wrong to use weapons that not
only kill our enemy and make his land fallow, but cause our own
soldiers to die too. It's really not hard to understand.
[http://www.freetimes.com/index.php?module=daily_archive] |
*****************************************************************
10 NewsDay: Russia: still as much a mystery as ever
Newsday.com - Opinion
[http://www.newsday.com] \
[July 15, 2004]
James Klurfeld
"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a
riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
That was the description of the Soviet Union by Winston Churchill
in a London radio broadcast on Oct. 1, 1939.
Unfortunately, it's a description that still fits the new Russia
today. The murder of American journalist Paul Klebnikov last week
has whiplashed our attention back to Moscow after months of
attention on Iraq and the Middle East. He was the editor of
Forbes' Russian magazine and was actively investigating the role
of the mafia and oligarchs there.
But Klebnikov is far from the first investigative journalist to
be killed in Russia recently - a fate also suffered by other
major figures who chose to go against the powerful interests that
have benefited from the fall of communism.
No matter whom I talked to about Russia, both the optimists and
the pessimists, there is agreement on one fundamental point:
Russia today is a deeply corrupt society in the midst of an
uncertain transition. While laws have been passed, markets have
been freed and elections held, civil society has not yet taken
hold almost 13 years after the fall of communism.
That's why Churchill's description still fits. Yes, Russia is a
nation in transition, but in transition to what is still not
clear to even some of the most experienced experts.
Marshall Goldman of the Russian Research Center at Harvard
University believes Russia is headed down, back to the bad old
days of fear and repression. The attempts to privatize the
country's economy and introduce the rule of law necessary for a
civil society have failed so miserably that Goldman fears Russia,
even without communism, is going back to its authoritative,
undemocratic roots.
What strikes me about a series of conversations with people just
back from Russia is the descriptions of thorough and rampant
corruption in every nook and cranny of society. That was my
overwhelming first impression of Russia when I started traveling
there in March of 1977. It was a society rotting from the inside.
That Klebnikov died in a stalled hospital elevator would not
surprise anybody who has spent any time in shoddy Russian
buildings, especially high-rise buildings with elevators.
Everybody cuts corners, everybody is on the take.
But another Russia expert, Dmitri Simes, the president of The
Nixon Center, warns not to jump to apocalyptic conclusions.
Russia, he agrees, is in many ways still a lawless and corrupt
society. But that is an inevitable part of a difficult transition
and does not necessarily mean Russia is going to return to being
an evil empire. While the government has taken over independent
television stations, there is still a lively print press that is
highly critical of President Vladimir Putin and there is an
emerging middle class throughout the country.
Simes warns us not to look at Russia through our own cultural
prism. The Russian people tend to be more fatalistic and more
prone to looking for order imposed by a strong government. But
that doesn't automatically mean the end result will be a
repressive dictatorship hostile to the West. Putin, says Simes,
just articulated a foreign policy that recognizes Russia need not
be a dominating world power.
For those who are trying to figure out whether the
nation-building effort in Iraq will succeed, take a look at
Russia, which has been at the task for 13 years. The outcome is
utterly uncertain. And the murder of Klebnikov should be a
reminder of how difficult the task is. What happens to Russia,
which still has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, is as important,
if not more important, than the result in Iraq.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc. [http://www.newsday.com]
*****************************************************************
11 Prague Post: Skoda bids for Bulgarian reactor
[http://www.praguepost.com]
Consortium wants to build controversial nuclear power plant
--> By S. Adam Cardais For The Prague Post The Prague Post -->
(July 15, 2004)
Czech energy company Skoda Praha is leading an international
consortium that is competing with two other groups for a
lucrative contract to complete construction of a nuclear power
plant in Belene, Bulgaria. Although the Bulgarian government is
facing a lawsuit from Ekoglasnost, the Bulgarian chapter of
Friends of the Earth, on the legality of initiating discussions
on the project, the government is in the process of selecting the
winning bidder.
Experts say the Skoda alliance, comprising Skoda Praha, Skoda
Nuclear Building in Plzen and the Nuclear Research Institute in
Rez, has made a proposal that will be attractive to the Bulgarian
government for both financial and political reasons.
A question of price and politics
The Skoda alliance has offered the Bulgarian government a
VVER-1000 reactor, the same model used by the Temelin nuclear
power plant and one in Kozloduj, Bulgaria. The price of each
reactor is around 1.5 billion euros (47 billion Kc/$1.8 billion).
Much of the financing for the Czech proposal is being offered by
Komercni banka, the Italian bank UniCredito and U.S.-based
Citibank. Citibank got involved in the project because U.S.-based
Westinghouse Electric Company is likely to join whichever group
gets the contract, said Jan Haverkamp, a consultant on nuclear
issues for Greenpeace and the World Information Service on
Energy.
The Bulgarian government is also looking for other smaller
investors to finance the project because the investment banks
will not be able to fund it alone, he said.
Komercni banka and Skoda Praha declined to comment on their bid
for the contract.
The other two groups competing for the contract are Canada's AECL
and a consortium of the Russian company Atomstroiexport,
Framatome and Germany-based Siemens. AECL has proposed a Candu-6
reactor and the third consortium has offered either a VVER-640,
VVER 1000/640 or an EPR reactor, Haverkamp said.
Petr Vavra, a consul from the Czech Embassy in Bulgaria, said the
proposal by the Skoda alliance is the most competitive offer for
three reasons. He said the equipment for a plant with a VVER-1000
reactor is available locally, the Czechs have experience building
and operating this kind of plant in Temelin, and Bulgaria has a
work force experienced in operating VVER-1000 reactors.
"The Czech offer will be cheaper because they have experience
building this kind of plant in Temelin, and as far as we
understand from the Bulgarian government, the price for the
construction of the power plant will determine the supplier,"
Vavra said. "But on the other hand this is not just a question of
economics. It's also political."
Haverkamp said political connections would most likely determine
which group gets the contract, and the most influential
connection is the strong link between Bulgaria and Russia.
"The reason that the Europeans were eager to link up with the
Russians is because there is a very close link between the
Russians and the current Bulgarian government," Haverkamp said.
"It is clear to me that the fact they are teaming up with the
Russians improves their negotiating capability with Bulgaria."
The strong relationship between Bulgaria and Russia gives the
consortium with Atomstroiexport an edge, but it also helps the
Czech group because Skoda Nuclear Building was recently bought by
OMZ, a Russian supplier of energy machinery, he said.
The long road to Belene
The Bulgarian government started scouting sites for a new nuclear
power plant in the early 1980s. Belene was selected in the late
1980s and construction on the plant began in 1989, Haverkamp
said.
"In 1992 they decided to drop the project partly because there
wasn't a need for more nuclear power plants and partly because
they had difficulty getting the financing going," he said. "No
one counted on the completion of the plant until a bit more than
half a year ago, when they brought the project back. In December
they decided to go ahead with it."
Ekoglasnost subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Bulgarian
government for violating the Espoo Convention, which in 1991 made
it illegal for a country to make a decision to construct a
nuclear power plant without first conducting an Environmental
Impact Assessment report, Haverkamp said.
Depending on the outcome of the lawsuit, the supplier for the
reactor could be selected as early as November 2004, with
construction beginning early next year. • OPEN CONTRIBUTION -->
S. Adam Cardais can be reached at [business@praguepost.com]
*****************************************************************
12 Reuters: TEPCO to restart Niigata nuclear power unit
Thu Jul 15, 2004 05:24 AM ET
Japan's biggest utility, said on Thursday it would resume
operation of a nuclear power generation unit which had been
unexpectedly shut because of a problem with an electricity
transformer.
TEPCO will resume the No. 1 nuclear power generation unit at its
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata prefecture, northern Japan,
at 8 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) on Thursday, the company said in
a statement.
The 1.1-million kilowatt unit was shut on July 9.
"Typically it takes about two days for a nuclear power unit to
restart generating power after an operation resumption," a TEPCO
spokesman said.
TEPCO confirmed that cracks had been found in part of the
electricity transformer. The nuclear reactor core of the unit
was unaffected, and the transformer was replaced.
TEPCO will have seven of its 17 nuclear units on line after
restarting the No.1 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa unit.
[http://www.reuters.com]
*****************************************************************
13 TheDay.com: Millstone Owner Sues Energy Department Over Lack Of A Federal
Spent Fuel Waste Site
By PATRICIA DADDONA Day Staff Writer, Waterford Published on
7/15/2004
Dominion Resources Inc., the parent company of the firm that owns
Millstone Power Station in Waterford, is one of several nuclear
utilities suing the U.S. Department of Energy for DOE's alleged
failure to build and operate a national radioactive waste
disposal site.
Dominion, which is headquartered in Virginia, sued DOE on Jan. 23
in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A similar case involving
three utilities that own the Yankee group of reactors in Maine,
Massachusetts and Connecticut went to trial Monday, according to
recent Associated Press reports.
Dominion Resources owns and runs the Surrey and North Anna power
plants in Virginia and bought Millstone in the spring of 2001
from Northeast Utilities. Its subsidiary, Dominion Nuclear
Connecticut, owns Millstone's two operating reactors and one that
is being decommissioned.
The lawsuit also was filed on behalf of Northeast Utilities as
well as the Connecticut Light &Power Co. and the Western
Massachusetts Electric Co.
According to the complaint, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982
and contracts dating back to 1983 between DOE and Millstone's
owners required NU, and now Dominion, to store highly radioactive
waste on site until a federal facility could be built in 1998.
The owners also had to pay sizeable annual fees dedicated to
building the repository into a Nuclear Waste Fund, the complaint
states.
Those fees, which are still being paid, today total about $15
million a year, wrote Dominion Resources attorney Brad Fagg of
the Washington, D.C., law firm of Morgan, Lewis &Bockius LLP.
Besides missing its own deadline, the DOE refused to accept
responsibility for the delays in a 1996 case before the U.S.
District Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, Fagg
states, forcing the utilities to sue for breach of contract while
spending millions on extra, temporary on-site storage, security
and annual waste fund fees.
The utilities are suing for costs related to on-site storage and
the delayed decommissioning of some power plants.
According to one member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, DOE
is even now unlikely to meet the new, 2010 deadline for building
a waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr. stated in May that the
facility is still several years away from obtaining construction
and licensing approvals. The earliest it might be available is
between 2012 and 2016, he wrote.
Dominion's lawsuit is not part of the first batch of cases heard
on Monday, company spokesman Pete Hyde said Wednesday.
Neither Fagg nor Joseph Davis, a public affairs spokesman with
the DOE, could be reached to comment.
p.daddona@theday.com
442-2200 | © 1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co. You are 1 of 5
*****************************************************************
14 TheDay.com: Waterford OKs Spending More On Legal Battle In Its Tax Case
With Dominion
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004
By PATRICIA DADDONA Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Waterford The Board of Finance approved more legal fees to
defend the town against a tax appeal by Dominion Nuclear
Connecticut, after learning Wednesday that the judge has
postponed the trial and ordered the company to give the town the
records it needs to build its case.
Last June, Dominion, the owner of Millstone Power Station,
appealed the town's assessments of the power plants in a newly
deregulated market. The company said the town's appraisals were
incorrect and unfair and failed to take into account exemptions
associated with air pollution control devices, to which the
company is entitled.
In asking for another $149,000, First Selectman Paul B. Eccard
told the finance panel that Dominion had refused to provide the
town with records the company used as the basis for its appraisal
records the town needed as part of the discovery process in
building its case.
On Wednesday, Eccard said, Judge Arnold W. Aronson granted the
town's request for postponement of the Aug. 2 trial and ordered
the parties to discuss what has to be done to finish deposing
experts and complete the discovery process. They are also
required to agree upon a date for trial, he said.
The town has already spent $224,669 on the tax appeal and has a
$71,000 balance available for May and June bills, Eccard said.
We've been trying since January to obtain this information in
order to prepare for the town's defense, Eccard said Wednesday
after the finance board voted 5-1 to recommend spending the
$149,000.
To compute the value of Millstone for the 2002 grand list, the
town and Dominion each hired expert appraisers to determine the
fair market value of the reactors and other business property.
The town came up with $1,213,000,000 as a fair market value,
while Dominion put the figure at about $1 billion, Eccard told
the finance panel.
That difference between the appraisals translates into $24
million in lost tax revenue in 2004 alone if Dominion wins the
case, he said. If 20-year license renewals are granted for two of
the three power plants, the cost to the town only increases, he
said.
This isn't an expense, this is an investment, said finance
member George A. Peteros.
Some of the money will be spent on New Hampshire lawyer Anthony
Roisman, who specializes in environmental tax credits, Eccard
said.
Finance member John Sheehan opposed funding the legal fees. The
Representative Town Meeting has final say in appropriating the
funds in August.
After the meeting, Eccard said Dominion told the judge Wednesday
in court that the town's requests for information were too broad.
He acknowledged that Dominion has provided a lot of information
in the last few weeks to the town on computer disks, which the
town is still sorting out.
Dominion spokesman Pete Hyde did not return calls late Wednesday
seeking comment.
p.daddona@theday.com
442-2200 | © 1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co. You are 1 of 8
*****************************************************************
15 TheDay.com: Chemicals In Ground At Millstone
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004
Study finds 19 areas; metal and oil alloys pose no health hazard
By PATRICIA DADDONA
Day Staff Writer, Waterford
Waterford The owner of Millstone Power Station has found 19
areas in the ground contaminated with oil or metal alloys after a
study ordered by the state when the company bought the property
in 2001.
Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, which operates the nuclear power
complex, also found trace levels of radioactivity in soils and on
building surfaces. Officials from the state Department of
Environmental Protection said they pose no health threat.
When Dominion purchased the power station three years ago, the
company agreed to investigate where chemical spills might exist
and clean up problem areas, said Peter Hill of the DEP. The
self-assessment and the removal of contaminated soils are
required under the state's Property Transfer Act, Hill said.
Dominion hired Groundwater Environmental Services of Windsor to
evaluate contamination and complete cleanup, according to Hill.
Dominion refused to allow Gary Iadarola, a licensed environmental
professional with GES, to comment on his fieldwork.
Cleanup will begin in August, Hyde said.
Located on a peninsula that juts into Long Island Sound,
Millstone is the site of two operating power plants and one that
is being decommissioned.
According to Hill, Dominion initially identified 59 or fewer
potential areas of concern. On Tuesday, spokesman Pete Hyde put
the number at 69, which Hill said was an indication that the
company's investigation is thorough.
Of the 19 spots at Millstone where cleanup is needed, most are
composed of soils where oil or metal alloys were left in the
ground after oil or water tanks were removed, Hyde said.
Soil beneath a former salt shed once used to store scrap metal,
for instance, will have to be taken to a hazardous waste landfill
that accepts such material, Hyde said. The shed is located off
the site's main access road on land surrounded on three sides by
woods.
The state will not evaluate Dominion's assessment until the
cleanup is done, Hill said. After that, the company must
continuously monitor groundwater.
We're not doing this because we found something, Hyde said.
This has been on the table since we bought the place. There's no
threat to worker safety or worker health.
Since DEP doesn't impose a deadline, Dominion will take as long
as is needed to address each contaminated area and any new ones
DEP may find when it inspects the station after cleanup is
complete, Hyde said.
For each of the 19, we're going to develop a plan, define the
area, dig out the problem and fix it, so it's going to take as
long as it takes, he said. The point is to get it cleaned up
thoroughly.
Hill and Michael Firsick, a supervising radiation control
physicist with DEP's air monitoring bureau, confirmed that the
amount of radioactivity Dominion detected poses no health threat
on- or off-site.
In lab and computer analysis, DEP determined that trace amounts
were present in soil samples, he said.
The entire site generates about 25 millirems of radioactivity a
year less than the amount produced in a typical chest X-ray,
Hyde said. Firsick characterized background radioactivity, the
amount to which most people are routinely exposed, as 360
millirems a year.
p.daddona@theday.com
1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
16 WFSB: Millstone to store spent fuel rods on site
July 15, 2004
Waterford -- Millstone nuclear power plant provides electric
power to 48 percent of Connecticut. It is scheduled to continue
generating for at least another 40 years and now the plant is
moving toward storing spent fuel rods on site.
Dorothy Cheo and her husband have lived in the shadow of
Millstone for 20 years. Now that construction is underway to
store spent fuel rods and other material on the surface at
Millstone, she says it does not interfere with their life.
"Unless we have some alternative energy, we're stuck with
it,"said Cheo.
Right now contractors are excavating an old parking lot; removing
the soil right down to the bedrock. This half football field size
area will be filled with concrete, 18 feet deep and serve as a
foundation pad to support up to 135 bunkers the size of a one car
garage.
However, Dominion, which owns Millstone, only has permission from
the state to install no more than 49 bunkers for the next two
decades.
"We really want to make sure we have a solid facility, than can
store the waste for a long period of time and safely,"said Pete
Hyde, Millstone spokesperson.
The fuel assemblies in a stainless steel casks which will then be
inserted into a concrete fixture, which will have an additional 5
feet of concrete on top.
Mike Perzenski is familiar with the dry casks storage system and
he has one concern.
"The big thing I hear people questioning about ... will waste
from out of state be shipped in?"he said.
The concrete pad portion of the project will be wrapped up in
October. The storage phase will not begin until late winter of
2005.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2001 -
2004 WorldNow and WFSB. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
17 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC vows probe of lost fuel
[http://www.reformer.com/]
July 15, 2004 Brattleboro, VT
By DAVID GRAM Associated Press
MONTPELIER -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a
special investigation into why the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant
lost track of highly radioactive spent fuel that turned up where
it was supposed to be.
Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the federal agency's Northeast
regional office in Pennsylvania, said the investigation would
begin next month and that NRC personnel would be at the Vernon
plant and its corporate offices in Brattleboro for several weeks.
"There are still some questions unanswered regarding, first of
all, why this material was unaccounted for, even if only
temporarily, and why they had a breakdown in their
record-keeping," Sheehan said Wednesday.
Sheehan said the goal of the NRC probe would be "to get a read
on the overall health of their nuclear materials accountability
program." He said the NRC has "pretty proscriptive" rules on
keeping track of spent nuclear fuel.
Vermont Yankee's owner, Entergy Nuclear, announced on Tuesday
that it had located two pieces of spent fuel in a container in
the plant's spent fuel pool. That word came three months after
the company announced that the fuel segments were not in another
container where they were thought to be and were unaccounted for.
Officials with Entergy, which bought Vermont Yankee two years
ago from a consortium of New England utilities, had spent the
last three months using robots to search the spent fuel pool,
doing records checks and interviewing employees who were at the
plant in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Vermont Yankee spokesman Robert Williams said Wednesday that he
did not have an estimate of how much the company's investigation,
which he said likely would wrap up in a week, would end up
costing. He said a team of Entergy staff and outside contractors
spent between 9,000 and 10,000 hours on the effort.
The fuel pieces broke off a fuel rod assembly in 1979 and were
put in storage shortly thereafter.
Entergy said a check of records at a General Electric laboratory
in California last week turned up evidence that GE had shipped
Vermont Yankee a container specially designed to hold the broken
fuel pieces.
Williams said that while GE had the shipping record, Vermont
Yankee did not have a record indicating that the container had
been received.
"The present-day requirement is that it would be kept. I really
can't speculate about back then," Williams said.
Company officials said the pipe-like container was missed on
earlier searches of the pool with video cameras because it
appeared to be part of the pool's equipment.
Sheehan said it was not surprising that the earlier searches
failed to turn up the missing fuel. "The pool is 40 feet deep.
It's difficult to see the different locations in the pool. That's
all the more reason why they have to have a very thorough set of
records."
Gov. James Douglas said in an interview Wednesday that "the good
news from the safety standpoint is that they have been in the
spent fuel rod pool all along. I'm concerned that we didn't know
there whereabouts of the missing rods for some time." Douglas
said that's why he called for "the most exhaustive investigation
possible."
David O'Brien, commissioner of Vermont's Department of Public
Service, said his department would be closely monitoring the
NRC's investigation. He said he was pleased that the fuel pieces,
which can be lethal to a person exposed to them, had been found.
"The tremendous good news here is that we do know where they are
and we don't have to ponder the what-ifs," O'Brien said.
Of the diligence of Entergy's efforts to solve the missing fuel
mystery, O'Brien said, "They did just what we would expect them
to do. ... That's what you expect a licensee of a nuclear plant
to be able to do, just like we expect our utilities to keep the
lights on."
"I think there is an opportunity here to appreciate the hard
work of people at the facility who have been under a lot pressure
the last few months, a lot of stress," O'Brien added.
Sheehan said the special investigation into the lost-and-found
fuel would be separate from a special engineering assessment of
several plant systems the NRC will do as it reviews Vermont
Yankee's request for permission to increase its power output by
20 percent. The engineering assessment was requested by the state
Public Service Board at the suggestion of the nuclear watchdog
group New England Coalition.
Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
*****************************************************************
18 NRC: Atomic Safety and Licensing Board; Before Administrative Judges:
FR Doc 04-16034
[Federal Register: July 15, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 135)]
[Notices] [Page 42465-42469] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15jy04-102]
Thomas S. Moore, Chairman, Alex S. Karlin, Alan S. Rosenthal; In
the Matter of U.S. Department of Energy (High Level Waste
Repository: Pre- Application Matters); Order (Initial Pre-License
Application Phase Order) July 9, 2004.
Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.1010(d) and 2.1013(c)(1), all filings,
pleadings, and requests (collectively ``filings'') in this high
level waste (HLW) repository pre-license application proceeding
shall be submitted electronically to the pre-license application
presiding officer (PAPO) Board, the other participants, and the
Secretary of the Commission
[[Page 42466]] (SECY). In accordance with the authority conferred
upon the PAPO Board by 10 CFR 2.1010(e) and 2.319(g) and (q) to
regulate the course of the proceeding and the conduct of the
participants, this order sets forth general information
concerning the agency's adjudicatory electronic information
exchange system (EIE) as well as additional requirements and
procedures that must be followed during this pre-license
application phase.
I. Dual Electronic Submission Electronic submission of filings
and PAPO Board issuances shall be accomplished by (1) service via
e-mail; and (2) service via the NRC's adjudicatory EIE. The
adjudicatory EIE, which is a new electronic document exchange
system, will eventually become the sole means of submission of
documents in this proceeding. Until otherwise instructed by the
Board, however, all filings must be submitted both by e-mail and
by the adjudicatory EIE in accordance with the procedures
outlined below.\1\ Filings must be received no later than
midnight Eastern Time on the date due.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \1\ The participants' experiences with the current EIE
system may result in improvements and changes to the system as
appropriate. Accordingly, the participants are encouraged to
contact the EIE Administrator staff at
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/feedback-
eie.html] with information regarding their experiences with the
EIE system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- II. Electronic Submission Via E-Mail To complete
e-mail service on the PAPO Board, a participant shall send the
filing (which should include the certificate of service) as a
file in Portable Document Format (PDF),\2\ as an attachment to an
e- mail message directed to [papo@nrc.gov] , the e-mail address
of the PAPO Board. The participant serving the filing should also
serve all other participants and SECY (e-mail address:
[hearingdocket@nrc.gov] ) in the same manner.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \2\ Participants should consult pages 4-6 of the
Guidance for Submission of Electronic Docket Materials under 10
CFR part 2, subpart J, (EIE Guidance Document)(at
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ehd/ml041560
341.pdf] ) for more information on preferred PDF output file
formats and their recommended uses.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- III. Electronic Submission Via the Adjudicatory EIE
The NRC adjudicatory EIE was designed to allow the NRC and
participants in its proceedings, to submit and exchange material
related to official agency business with its customers and other
Federal agencies across the Internet. The system uses a public
key infrastructure and digital signaturing technology to ensure
that electronic documents can be transmitted via the Internet in
a secure and unalterable manner. In this HLW pre-license
application proceeding, filings are submitted via the
adjudicatory EIE through the use of the HLW Submittal Form. A
submitter must fill in the required fields of the form,
electronically attach the filing to the form (much in the same
way a document is attached to an e-mail message), and then submit
the form and filing. Once a filing is submitted via the EIE, it
will effect electronic service notice of the filing on the PAPO
Board, SECY, and all other persons listed on the EIE official
service list, which will be created and maintained by the
Secretary. The service notice will be in the form of an e-mail
advising the recipients that a document has been filed in the
proceeding and providing them with an electronic link to the
filing that will permit them to view and/or download the
document. After the submitter receives confirmation from the EIE
that the filing has been accepted, the submitter need not take
any further action to serve the document via the EIE.
Appendix I to this order sets forth detailed instructions for
obtaining a Digital ID, filing documents, and viewing filed
documents. If participants encounter any problems while accessing
the EIE, they should contact the EIE Administrator staff for
technical assistance electronically (preferred method) by filling
out a question/concern form at
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/feedback-
eie.html] , or by telephone at 1-888-423-4082 between the hours
of 7:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. e.t. IV. Signature Requirement This
formal adjudicatory proceeding is being conducted under 10 CFR
subpart J and informal letter practice is highly disfavored and
inappropriate. In this regard, pursuant to 10 CFR 2.1010(e), each
filing submitted herein shall be signed and dated by (1) an
attorney having authority to do so; (2) an individual participant
acting pro se; or (3) an authorized representative of an
organization participating without counsel. The signature of the
pro se individual, authorized representative, or counsel is a
representation that the filing has been subscribed in the
capacity specified with full authority, that he or she has read
it and knows the contents, that to the best of his or her
knowledge, information and belief the statements made in it are
true, and that it is not interposed for delay. If a filing is not
signed, or is signed with the intent to defeat the purpose of
this section, it may be stricken.
Compliance with the signature requirement shall be effectuated
via the EIE submission of filing as specified herein, and not via
e-mail submission. In accordance with section 4.0 of the EIE
Guidance Document each participant or its authorized
representative or attorney shall digitally sign the HLW Submittal
Form used to transmit the filing. Digital signature of the HLW
Submittal Form by the authorized person shall be deemed
equivalent to an original signature upon the transmitted filing.
V. Notice of Appearance Pursuant to 10 CFR 2.1001 and 2.314(b),
the first filing by any participant in this HLW pre-license
application proceeding shall be accompanied by a notice of
appearance from that participant's authorized representative or
counsel containing all required information. The notice of
appearance will provide the information necessary to establish
and maintain a service list, so that participants can be
accurately identified and duly notified during this phase of the
proceeding.
VI. Format for Submissions All filings in this proceeding by all
participants--whether by e- mail or by the EIE--shall have the
filing date printed on the top right-hand side of the first page
of the submission. In addition, as outlined by the Commission in
an addendum to CLI-04-20, 60 NRC-- (July 7, 2004), the caption
used on this order should be used for all filings before the PAPO
Board. At the right side of the caption, the participant shall
number each of its LSN-related pleadings.
Thus, for example, a participant's first request should be
numbered [name of participant]-01. Its second request, on a
different issue or subject, will be numbered [name of
participant]-02. For instance, if a participant were to file a
motion, the caption of its first filing would read as follows: In
the Matter of U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (High Level Waste
Repository: Pre-Application Matters) Docket No. PAPO-00, ASLBP
No. 04-829-01-PAPO, Name of Participant-01 The title of the
filing then should be centered on the page and appear immediately
below the caption. Thereafter, filings by that participant and
any other participants regarding that motion should include that
pleading number designation. For example, if the State of Nevada
were to submit an initial motion in this proceeding, the caption
would read as follows:
[[Page 42467]] In the Matter of U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (High
Level Waste Repository: Pre-Application Matters) Docket No.
PAPO-00, ASLBP No. 04-829-01-PAPO NEV \3\-01 \3\ In connection
with development of the License Support Network (LSN) for use in
this HLW proceeding, each LSN participant and potential
participant was assigned a three-letter LSN participant code. For
consistency, participants should use these LSN participant codes
in their filings before the PAPO Board when referring to
themselves or to other participants, after identifying the full
name of the participant the first time it appears in the
document. A list of these codes is appended to this order as
Appendix II. For participants that have not yet been assigned a
three-letter code, the PAPO Board will assign a code to those
participants and so inform the other participants in a later
issuance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- The caption for all subsequent filings relating to
that motion (e.g., Department of Energy answer, requests for
extensions of time to file responses) would likewise read: In the
Matter of U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (High Level Waste Repository:
Pre-Application Matters) Docket No. PAPO-00, ASLBP No.
04-829-01-PAPO, NEV-01 The caption for a subsequent filing by
Nevada unrelated to that initial motion and, for example, seeking
other relief would be NEV-02.
The Commission has also provided extensive guidance on the
submission of materials in this HLW proceeding, including
guidance on what types of documents may be submitted, parameters
for electronic file submission, and optical storage media
submissions, as well as sample transmittal letters and
corresponding EIE forms.
Participants are urged to consult and observe the guidance
provided in ``Guidance for Submission of Electronic Docket
Materials Under 10 CFR Part 2, Subpart J.'' It is so ordered.
For the pre-license application presiding officer board.\4\ \4\
Copies of this order were sent by the Office of the Secretary
this date by e-mail transmission to those served with the
Commission Order in CLI-04-20. In addition, a copy of this order
is being submitted for publication in the Federal Register.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- Rockville, Maryland, July 9, 2004.
Thomas S. Moore, Chairman, Administrative Judge.
Appendix I Prior to filing and viewing documents via the EIE,
each person must (1) obtain a digital signature certificate
(Digital ID), and (2) be placed on the official service list for
the proceeding.
A. Obtaining a Digital ID Each person who wishes to use the EIE
(including administrative or support personnel who will actually
transmit the document to the EIE) must first obtain a Digital ID
in order to digitally sign and submit the form used to transmit
documents and to access the EIE external server to retrieve and
view documents. Additionally, there is a software plug-in that
must be downloaded and installed in order to view the EIE
document submittal form. To avoid technical difficulties, it is
highly recommended that participants use Internet Explorer,
rather than Netscape, to access the EIE. Participants should also
be aware that obtaining a Digital ID is not an automated,
instantaneous process. Participants should begin the process for
requesting a Digital ID well in advance of the date they wish to
begin submitting documents via the EIE. Obtaining a Digital ID
requires both SECY and EIE Administrator approval of an
enrollment request, which could take up to several business days
for a response. A Digital ID can be obtained by following these
steps: 1. E-mail a request to SECY (e-mail address
[hearingdocket@nrc.gov] ), and include your name, participant
affiliation, telephone number, and e-mail address. A request for
a Digital ID will also serve as a request to be placed on the
official service list for the proceeding. If the request is
approved, SECY will so notify the EIE Administrator.
You do not need to wait for a response from SECY to proceed to
the next steps.
2. Access the NRC's home page (
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov] ) and click on ``EIE:
e-submittals,'' which appears in the column on the far left-hand
side of the screen.\5\
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \5\ The agency currently is considering changes to its
EIE Web pages that may affect the wording or location of the
particular headings described in these instructions. When these
changes are effectuated, the PAPO Board will endeavor to advise
participants.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- 3. Scroll down the page and click on the ``First Time
Users: Instructions'' bullet point.
4. Under ``Browser Set Up,'' click on the ``Download'' link and
follow the prompts to download the UWI viewer, which will allow
you to view documents that have been filed via the EIE.
5. Once the viewer download has completed, the viewer must now be
installed. Find the UWI viewer on the computer's C drive (the
application name is ``icsv460kg.exe''). Open the application and
follow the prompts to install the viewer onto the computer.
6. Close the installation wizard and return to the NRC Web page
for ``EIE Instructions for First-Time Users'' (
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/how-to.ht
ml] ).
7. Scroll down the page to ``Step 3'' and click on the text, ``go
to the Verisign/NRC Page.'' 8. Click on the first link, ``Enroll
for a Digital ID.'' 9. Complete the enrollment form as indicated.
Under ``Step 4: Select the Cryptographic Service,'' the form will
default to the appropriate service provider name. Under ``Step 5:
Additional Security for Your Private Key,'' you may choose to
check the ``Protect Your Private Key'' box, but it is not
necessary to do so for enrollment.
10. After completing the enrollment form, click on the ``Accept''
button, and the enrollment request will be sent to the
Administrator. You should receive an e-mail from the
Administrator confirming your Digital ID enrollment request.
11. Once the request has been approved by SECY and the
Administrator has been so notified, a second e-mail will follow
with detailed instructions for retrieving and installing your
Digital ID. The process for requesting, retrieving, and
installing the Digital ID is computer-specific; that is, the
computer used to send the enrollment form must also be used to
retrieve and install the Digital ID.
Once the Digital ID certificate has been installed, the
certificate may be exported or moved to additional computers
(e.g., a laptop).\6\ After installing the Digital ID, you will be
able to submit documents using the EIE and view documents served
by other participants using the EIE.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \6\ For further instructions on importing and
exporting Digital ID certificates, access the NRC Web page for
electronic submittals at
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie.html] .
On the far right-hand side of the screen, under the first bullet
point (``If your PC is to be upgraded * * *''), click on the link
to Internet Explorer, and follow the instructions provided.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- B. Submitting Documents Via the Electronic Information
Exchange Documents submitted via the EIE must be filed using the
HLW Submittal Form. This form allows participants to sign,
enclose (i.e., attach), submit, and verify documents over the
Internet. A submitter must fill in the required fields of the
form, attach the document to be filed, and then digitally sign
the form by using the submitter's unique Digital ID.\7\ Documents
submitted via the EIE are limited in size to 50 MB or smaller.
Documents larger than 50 MB must be
[[Page 42468]] broken up and submitted in segments of 50 MB or
less (see section B.3 below). Additional instructions are
provided below (see sections B.2 and 4) for filing documents that
are, or could potentially be, subject to a protective order and
documents that are required to be filed under oath or
affirmation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- \7\ It should be noted that although the submiter is
digitally signing only the submittal form, this is deemed as the
signature, by the participant, or its authorized representative
or attorney, of the attached document actually being filed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
---------- 1. ``Simple'' Documents. To submit a ``simple'' filing
(i.e., one that is 50 MB or less, not subject to protective
order, and not required to be filed under oath or affirmation):
(1) Access the NRC's EIE Web page (
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie.html] ),
and scroll down the page to the first bullet point. Click on
``Document Submittal Forms.'' (2) Click on third bullet point,
``HLW Hearing Pilot.'' (3) You will be prompted to select the
ASLBP number, which will depend on which Licensing Board you are
appearing before, from the drop-down menu.
(4) Leave the ``Check this box if `Protective Order''' box
unchecked, and click on the ``Go'' button.
(5) Fill in the fields of the HLW Submittal Form: (a) The ``ASLBP
'' and ``Panel Judges'' fields will be automatically populated.
(b) For the pre-license application phase of this proceeding,
fill in the ``LSN '' field as ``None.'' (c) Fill in the ``Author
Name'' and ``Author Affiliation'' fields with the submitter's
information (e.g., attorney's name and law firm).
(d) The ``Document Date'' field must be submitted in MM/DD/YYYY
format (e.g., 07/01/2004). (e) Fill in the ``Document Title''
field as appropriate, and select the appropriate ``Document
Type'' from the drop-down menu.
(f) Fill in the ``Party Identifier'' field as appropriate (e.g.,
Department of Energy) (g) Leave the ``multi-part submission'' box
unchecked.
(6) The default setting on the HLW Submittal Form is to notify
all persons on the service list of the document's filing. To view
the service list, click on the ``Click for Service List'' button.
The ``Notify'' boxes to the far right of the screen have been
automatically checked so that each recipient on the service list
will be notified of the document's filing. You may choose to not
serve certain individuals by unchecking the boxes next to their
names. To return to the HLW Submittal Form, click on the ``Back
to Main Form'' button.
(7) To attach the document being filed, click on the ``Attach
File'' button near the bottom of the screen.
(8) When the ``Attachments'' dialog box appears, click on the
``Attach'' button to browse through the computer's folders and
files for the document to be filed.
(9) More than one file may be attached to the HLW Submittal Form,
so long as the total size of the submittal does not exceed 50 MB
(e.g., a transmittal letter, pleading, and several exhibits may
be attached to and submitted under the same form).
(10) To attach additional files, click on the ``Attach'' button
again to browse through the computer's folders and files.
(11) When all of the appropriate files have been attached, click
on the ``Done'' button to return to the HLW Submittal Form. To
verify which documents have been attached to the Submittal Form,
you may click on the ``Attach File'' button to view the attached
documents.
(12) To remove an attached file from the Submittal Form, click on
the ``Remove File'' button. Highlight the file you wish to
remove, and click on the ``Remove'' button. Click ``Done'' to
return to the HLW Submittal Form.
(13) When you are finished attaching the appropriate files, click
on the ``Click to Authorize Transmission'' button.
(14) When the Digital Signature viewer appears, click on the
``Sign'' button to digitally sign the submittal form.
(15) When the digital signature has been confirmed as valid,
click on the ``OK'' button to return to the HLW Submittal Form.
The submitter's name and e-mail address should now appear in
place of the ``Click to Authorize Transmission'' button.
(a) Once the submittal form has been digitally signed, the form
cannot be altered. If changes need to be made to the form or to
the attachments prior to submitting the filing, click on the
button where the submitter's name and e-mail address appear.
(b) When the Digital Signature viewer appears, click on the
``Delete'' button to remove the digital signature. Click on the
``OK'' button to return to the submittal form. Changes may now be
made to the form and attachments. After the necessary
modifications have been made, repeat Steps (13) through (15)
above to digitally sign the submittal form.
(16) Click on the ``Submit Document'' button to transmit the
document to the EIE. Shortly after the document has been
submitted, the submitter should receive confirmation that the
document has been submitted and that an e-mail has been sent to
each person on the service list notifying the recipient that the
filing is available for viewing.
2. Sensitive Documents. Documents that are, or could potentially
be, subject to a protective order are submitted in much the same
way as ``simple'' documents are. (Please note: Whether particular
classes of sensitive documents (e.g., proprietary, privacy, etc.)
should be submitted through the EIE generally is a matter to be
determined by the PAPO Board, in consultation with the
participants, and memorialized in an appropriate protective
order. Participants are urged to contact the PAPO Board to
request entry of an appropriate protective order prior to
submitting any documents that may have a sensitive status.) (1)
Access the HLW Submittal Form by going to the following Web page:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/document-
submittal-forms.html] , and clicking on the ``HLW Hearing Pilot''
bullet point.
(2) After selecting the appropriate ASLBP number from the
drop-down menu, check box labeled ``Check this box if `Protective
Order,' '' and click on the ``Go'' button.
(3) Fill in the fields of the HLW Submittal Form as indicated in
Step (5) above in section B.1. (4) For documents that are subject
to a protective order, the default setting for the service list
is to not notify any of the recipients. To notify the recipients
who are authorized to see the protected information, you must
manually check the ``Notify'' boxes next to their names.
(5) The procedures for attaching documents, digitally signing the
form, and submitting the form are the same as those set forth in
Steps (7) through (16) above in section B.1. 3. Large Documents.
Documents larger than 50 MB must be broken up into smaller
segments, which must be saved as separate documents. The EIE's
multi-part submission function will then ``bundle'' these smaller
documents together so that recipients will know that the separate
documents are part of a larger submission. To file a large
document in multiple parts: (1) Access the HLW Submittal Form by
going to the following Web page:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/document-
submittal-forms.html] , and clicking on the ``HLW Hearing Pilot''
bullet point.
(2) After selecting the appropriate ASLBP number from the
drop-down menu, click on the ``Go'' button.
(3) Fill in the fields of the HLW Submittal Form as indicated in
Step (5) above in section B.1. (4) In the yellow box to the right
of the screen, check the box labeled ``Check if this is part of a
multi-part submission.''
[[Page 42469]] (5) From the ``Select a Bundle'' drop-down menu,
choose ``New Bundle.'' (6) Attach the first segment of the
document by clicking on the ``Attach File'' button and then
clicking on the ``Attach'' button when the ``Attachments'' dialog
box appears to browse through the computer's folders and files
for the document to be filed. Click on the ``Done'' button to
return to the HLW Submittal Form.
(7) Follow the procedures for digitally signing and submitting
the form set forth in Steps (7) through (16) above in section
B.1. (8) To send the second segment of the document, access the
HLW Submittal Form and fill in all fields as appropriate.
(9) Check the appropriate box to indicate that the document is
part of a multi-part submission.
(10) From the ``Select a Bundle'' drop-down menu, select the
bundle name, which will be labeled by ASLBP number, date, and the
first 64 characters of the document title. If this segment is the
final part of the submission (i.e., part 2 of 2), check the box
labeled ``Check if this is the final part of your multi-part
submission.'' (11) Attach the segment and digitally sign and
submit the submittal form as indicated above in Steps (6) and (7)
of this section.
The notification e-mail sent to the recipients will indicate that
the filed document is part of a larger submission. In addition,
when the recipients visit the link provided in the e-mail, the
submittal form will also indicate that the document is part of a
multi-part submission.
4. Oath or Affirmation. For documents that are required to be
filed under oath or affirmation, refer to page 16 of the
Commission's guidance document, ``Guidance for Submission of
Electronic Docket Materials under 10 CFR Part 2, Subpart J''
(found at:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ehd/ml041560
341.pdf] ).
C. Viewing Documents Filed Via the Electronic Information
Exchange Once a document has been filed via the EIE, within a
short time, service list recipients will receive an e-mail
notifying them that a filing has been made in the proceeding.
Recipients can then access the filing by clicking on the URL
provided in the e-mail. The form used by the submitter to file
the document via the EIE is the same form that will appear after
clicking on the link and can be used by recipients to access and
view the filing. Documents may be viewed and saved in this
manner: 1. Click on the URL provided in the notification e-mail
to retrieve the filing.
2. The HLW submittal form will appear as it was filled out and
filed by the submitter. Recipients will not be able to alter any
part of the submittal form. Recipients will, however, be able to
view the service list, extract (i.e., save) the file, and view
the file. 3. To save the filing to the recipient's hard drive or
network drive, click on the ``Extract File'' button and save the
file to the desired location.
4. To view the document, click on the ``View'' button. When the
``File Download'' dialog box appears, click on the ``Open''
button. Although ``Save'' appears as an option in the ``File
Download'' dialog box, the EIE will not permit recipients to save
the document in this manner; to save the document, use either the
``Extract File'' button or the ``save'' function in the Adobe
Acrobat viewer after viewing the document.
As indicated in the order, technical questions concerning access
to the EIE should be directed to the EIE Administrator via the
Internet (
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/site-help/eie/feedback-
eie.html] ) or via telephone at 1-888-423-4082.
Appendix II
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- Participant Participant code
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- Churchill County, Nevada.................. CHU Clark
County, Nevada...................... CLK Department of
Energy...................... DEN Esmeralda County,
Nevada.................. ESM Eureka County,
Nevada..................... EUR Inyo County,
California................... NYA Lander County,
Nevada..................... LND Las Vegas,
Nevada......................... LAS Lincoln County,
Nevada.................... LNC Mineral County,
Nevada.................... MNE National Congress of American
Indians..... NCA Nevada.................................... NEV
Nuclear Energy Institute.................. NEN Nuclear
Regulatory Commission............. NRC Nye County,
Nevada........................ NYE White Pine County,
Nevada................. WHP
-----------------------------------------------------------------
------- [FR Doc. 04-16034 Filed 7-14-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE
7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
19 [NYTr] Time to Target Vieques for Superfund Cleanup
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:59:26 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
NY Daily News - July 15, 2004
http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/212191p-182755c.html
Time to Target Vieques for Superfund Cleanup
by Albor Ruiz
Finally, there seems to be some concrete hope that the Navy will
fulfill its commitment to the people of Vieques and clean up the
environmental mess that it left behind after 60 years of using the
island for target practice.
It is the least Washington can do for the long-suffering Viequenses.
After years of protests, the Navy finally pulled out of Vieques on
May 1, 2003, but a lot of problems built up over six decades.
Peace and fairness for the almost 10,000 U.S. citizens who live on
the 55-square-mile island cannot be accomplished just by not bombing
it into oblivion any more.
"If they do not eliminate the military toxins accumulated over six
decades of bombing, the Navy will continue to kill our people for a
long time to come," said Ismael Guadalupe, a spokesman for the
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, one of the main
groups that opposed the Navy's presence.
"There hasn't been any cleaning," Guadalupe said recently from the
committee's office in Vieques.
Which is unconscionable. After all, Vieques has the highest cancer
mortality rate among Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities. Clearly, this
is directly linked to the fact that the Navy left behind an
unfortunate legacy of poisonous chemicals, toxic waste, illness,
poverty and God knows how much unexploded ammunition sprinkled on the
island's beautiful beaches. Obviously a lot needs to be done.
In May, a group of concerned Vieques residents visited several
members of Congress in Washington to ask for their support to have
their island decontaminated.
One of the people they spoke to was House Democratic leader Nancy
Pelosi, who three days ago faxed a letter to the federal Office of
Management and Budget - signed by her and 14 other Democratic members
of Congress. In the letter, they asked that the former training sites
of Vieques be included in the Superfund list of environmental cleanup
locations without further delay.
'We expect a positive response soon," said Federico de Jes=FAs, a press
officer at Pelosi's office. "[Puerto Rico] Gov. Sila Calder=F3n met
with the EPA people in June of last year, and the agency made a
positive recommendation. Yet 13 months have gone by, and no action
has been taken."
The Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner in Washington, An=EDbal Acevedo-
Vil=E1, signed the letter, as did New York Reps. Jos=E9 Serrano, Nydia
Vel=E1zquez, Charles Rangel, Joseph Crowley and Elliot Engel.
The Superfund program was established by Congress in 1980 to locate,
investigate and clean up the worst-contaminated sites nationwide. The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administers the program in
cooperation with individual states.
A statement issued Pelosi's office called on the administration to
expedite the inclusion of Vieques in the Superfund list "for the
desperately needed and longoverdue decontamination."
"While we are pleased that the Navy ended their bombing exercises
last year," the letter said, "until the necessary cleanup takes
place, the risks for health and human safety remain."
Erik Lausten, legislative director for the resident commissioner's
office in Washington, also is optimistic.
"We are hopeful that there will be a positive response soon," he
said.
So are the people of Vieques. Their future depends on it.
*
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20 [du-list] U oxides and target interactions
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:32:22 -0700
Micron to nano sized uranium oxides behave according to such factors
as humidity and charge. Tendency is for the oxide powder to stick
together but mechanical forces dislodge it. Charge can attract or
repel it. It is virtually no different in look and feel than the
carbon deposits from a charcoal or wood fire. The oxide particles are
so small they act in a way that makes them seem sticky. This is
actually a function of the very small diameter of the particles not
the chemistry of the oxides.
It is not quite accurate to say that U oxide particles are imbedded
in armor plate. Much of the mass of a penetrator disintegrates on the
way through the target. By-products of oxides and oxide compounds are
deposited inside the armor penetrator's hole, on the face of the
armor outside the hole, in the air and on surfaces on the outside and
inside of the target. As the leading and then following surfaces of
the penetrator's body erodes (by friction and phase shifting) on the
way through the target, it releases material that oxidizes due to the
heat formed by the impact pressures in combination with the
oxidization from the natural pyrophoric character of uranium as well
as its low burning temperature. Doug R's photo and other eye witness
accounts of 120 mm rounds as red hot in the air may indicate oxides
are released mid flight as well.
Eroding and burning result in airborn releases and target surface
deposits. The thickness and quanitity of the oxide deposits depends
on several factors. The deposits rub off if you touch them or rub
against them. High pressure water, steam or sand blasting my help
remove the oxides but hot water and surfactants will not disolve
them. Abrasion is required and soda can help to disolve the particles
in a wash. Paint cannot be applied over the oxides if there is any
quantity present as the paint will not bind to the surface cannot
dissolve urnaium oxides.
As said by another post, the salvaging, torching (cutting) and
welding of metal plate covered in uranum oxides is a hazard to anyone
on the job site. If the metal is not pre-cleaned, exposure to the
oxides remains a threat by skin absorption and inhalation.
Uranium rounds and armor plating do not fuse together. Uranium does
not melt on contact, it breaks and erodes. High velocity uranium
rounds actually "part" the atoms, separate the metal matrix and shift
the target's atomic structure from a solid into a transient dimension
called a plasma.
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21 SB 922/Governor's comments
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:32:07 -0700
Day-care measure termed deficient
Rendell asks Senate to tweak new law on evacuations
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
BY GARRY LENTON
Of The Patriot-News
A loophole in state emergency preparedness plans that left children in
day-care centers uncovered has been made smaller, but is still not closed.
Legislation that Gov. Ed Rendell allowed to pass into law without his
signature yesterday requires for-profit day-care centers to develop
evacuation plans to be used in an emergency, such as a nuclear disaster or a
terrorist attack.
But the measure's failure to cover nonprofit day-care centers, many of them
operated by churches, dismayed its supporters and prompted Rendell to ask
the state Senate to continue refining the law.
>From Our Advertiser
Separate regulations the Rendell administration implement- ed last year
required all day-care facilities to have an emergency plan by July 1.
Child-care advocates, however, are concerned that the regulations, which can
be changed at the whim of a new administration, do not carry the same weight
as the law.
"I'm glad we now have a law that makes evacuation planning for preschool
children permanent," said Larry Christian of New Cumberland, who lobbied for
the requirement. "I do hope the legislators and agencies involved can come
to an agreement that will broaden the number of children this law will
protect."
Christian championed the need for the law in 2003 after discovering that his
children's day-care center, which was within a few miles of Three Mile
Island.
Federal law requires that state and local officials protect people in the
custody of institutions such as schools, nursing homes and prisons.
Child-care facilities were not included in the state's emergency plans.
State Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, sponsored legislation to
correct the problem. At the request of Senate Republicans, her bill was
amended to exempt small centers being run from private homes. Because of the
state's definitions of day care, that change also exempted nonprofit
centers.
The compromise prompted some of the bill's supporters, including Christian,
to call on Rendell to veto the measure. Instead, the governor allowed the
bill to pass into law without his signature.
But in a letter to the state Senate, Rendell called on lawmakers to send him
legislation that would broaden the protection to all child-care operations
licensed by the state.
"The president and former Governor [Tom] Ridge ... call on each of us to be
prepared in the case of an emergency," Rendell wrote. "Yet, this bill is
silent with respect to emergency planning for the evacuation of ... 183,000
children in licensed nonprofit or family-care entities."
Eric Epstein, president of Three Mile Island Alert, who also lobbied for the
bill's passage, said it may be possible to refine the measure to include
nonprofit centers, but exempt the small centers run from private homes.
For now, Epstein said, the bill "is probably the best we could have hoped
for under the situation."
GARRY LENTON: 255-8264 or glenton@patriot-news.com
*****************************************************************
22 [du-list] high radioactivity measured in southern Occupied
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:32:16 -0700
May not have anything to do with DU in Iraq...but you never know, might be
relevant.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AE4FB40C-5F1C-4AED-B02C-2EEAB498AA6B.htm
High radioactivity recorded in Israel
Wednesday 14 July 2004, 13:29 Makka Time, 10:29 GMT
63553.jpg
The Dimona nuclear plant is situated in the Negev desert
63577.jpg
63585.jpg
Worringly high levels of radioactivity have been discovered in southern
Israel's underground water table.
According to scientific research published on Wednesday, the soaring
radioactivity levels measured in the Negev Desert and in the Arava valley
are caused by natural radioactive elements such as uranium and radon gas.
But Professor Avner Vengosh, who co-authored the study by Ben Gurion
University, dismissed any relation between the abnormal findings and the
nearby nuclear plant of Dimona, also in southern Israel.
Contaminated water?
"This phenomena has spread throughout the area," he said, referring to
Jordan and Egypt's Sinai desert.
"We discovered concentrations of radium reaching up to 10 times the normal
average in (Israel's) water table," he added.
Officials in the environment ministry have advised local fish farmers not
to use the water for fear it will contaminate fish destined for human
consumption.
The agriculture ministry insisted however that no contaminated fish had
been found in the area.
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Attachment Converted: 63553.jpg: 00000001,6cd6b04b,00000000,00000000
Attachment Converted: 63577.jpg: 00000001,6cd6b04c,00000000,00000000
Attachment Converted: 63585.jpg: 00000001,6cd6b04d,00000000,00000000
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23 CCN: Nuclear activists says state must do more to protect residents
Cumberland County News: The Press of Atlantic City
[http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com
July 15, 2004
By ANDREW JOHNSON Staff Writer, (856) 794-5111
BRIDGETON - State Department of Environmental Protection and
State Police representatives were in town Wednesday for their
annual presentation of the state's radiological response plan,
concerning the evacuation of a 10-mile area around three nuclear
power reactors in Lower Alloways Creek Township, Salem County,
in the event of an emergency.
Portions of two Cumberland County towns at the northwestern
corner of the county lie within the 10-mile zone affected by the
evacuation plan.
Manager of the state Bureau of Nuclear Engineering, Kent Tosch,
reported that there were no major changes to the plan since last
year that would affect residents in either Stow Creek or
Greenwich townships.
That's a problem, according to the head of the UNPLUG Salem
nuclear watchdog group, Norm Cohen.
Broaching the topic one year ago at the same meeting, Cohen
argued that the state is not taking an active enough role in the
distribution of potassium iodide pills, which the federal
government pays for to provide residents with protection against
thyroid cancer in the event of radiation exposure.
Cohen said a door-to-door effort should be made on the part of
officials, or at least a more proactive effort made to provide
citizens with the pills.
He said that many, possibly half of residents do not have the
pills yet.
Sgt. Timothy Keenan, of the State Police's Radiological
Emergency Response Planning and Technical Unit, grew quickly
irritated with Cohen's argument, which was made after several
others criticized the evacuation plan.
The state has encouraged residents to get the pills," Keenan
said.
Tosch said the pills have been available for two years, but he
was not ruling out Cohen's suggestion concerning a more
aggressive tactic.
"We are taking it under advisement," he said.
He said that the state Department of Health and Human Services,
which was not represented Wednesday, would be the ones to make a
call about distribution tactics.
Tosch said that one possibility discussed would be to have
county health officials hand them out around the time of flu
vaccine shots.
Paul Williams, of Atlantic City, also of UNPLUG Salem, addressed
a potential concern regarding the evacuation plan and the
proposed Thunderbolt Raceway in Millville that could bring
thousands more to the area on race days.
The plan will be changed if it needs to be, Keenan said.
County Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Joseph Sever
pointed to a map that showed Millville possibly 30 miles away
from the edge of the 10-mile zone surrounding the Salem I, Salem
II and Hope Creek nuclear reactors, saying that the racetrack
would not be centrally located in any evacuation effort.
To e-mail Andrew Johnson at The Press:
AJohnson@pressofac.com [AJohnson@pressofac.com]
*****************************************************************
24 NEWS.com.au: Stolen radioactive material found
(July 15, 2004)
[http://www.news.com.au/]
A SAFE containing radioactive materials stolen from a Melbourne
university three days ago was found in a car park today.
Police launched an investigation after the 30cm by 30cm safe was
taken from the physics wing of RMIT University's campus at
Bundoora in Melbourne's north about 4:30pm (AEST) on Monday.
The Department of Human Services warned the contents of the safe
presented a low level hazard to the public and should not be
handled if found.
Detectives had asked for anyone who saw a 1990s model Holden
Commodore with mag wheels in the area around the time of the
theft to contact them.
This morning RMIT security guards found the safe in the car park
of the Bundoora campus.
Police said all the items were still in the safe, which had a
combination and key lock.
Most of the radioactive material in the safe was of a low level
hazard, enclosed in perspex or vials and designed to be safely
handled by students, police said.
But if the vials or perspex covers were damaged the material
could be dangerous.
RMIT's head of the school of applied sciences Peter Cole said
the university had launched a review of its "security processes
and management of all hazardous materials" in the wake of the
theft.
Police said they would continue to investigate the theft.
AAP
Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10).
*****************************************************************
25 Yucca project work to proceed
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 22:29:56 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jul-13-Tue-2004/news/24299896.html
*WASHINGTON -- *A one-paragraph court order issued as Nevadans were
celebrating a federal appeals court ruling on the Yucca Mountain Project
will allow work to continue on the nuclear waste repository, at least
for the time being, attorneys said.
While Nevada officials were hailing Friday's decision as a potentially
fatal blow to the project, the three-judge panel ordered its ruling on a
key health regulation be withheld until seven days after the outcome of
any appeal.
Attorneys and nuclear industry officials said this could delay the
court's mandate for months or a year. A Nevada state official said
delays, if any, would be much shorter.
In the view of some industry officials, the overlooked court order means
a reprieve for the Energy Department. It allows work to continue toward
licensing a Nevada repository while Yucca supporters angle for a more
favorable ruling on appeal, or a rescue by allies in Congress.
"Everything is the same, nothing is different," said Steve Kraft, a
Nuclear Energy Institute director. "It's hard for us to imagine how this
project does not keep going forward until the process keeps playing out."
Marta Adams, a Nevada deputy attorney general, examined the order on
Monday and said it appeared the judges had issued a "holding action" on
their ruling.
"That does mitigate the immediate vacating of the rule," Adams said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out
a 10,000-year radiation standard for the repository, saying it was put
in place in defiance of a National Academy of Sciences recommendation
for a longer protective period.
The standard, which aimed to shield residents from harmful exposures to
radioactive materials, was devised by the Environmental Protection
Agency and incorporated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Neither
agency has commented on the ruling.
The decision said the EPA must either issue a revised standard
consistent with the NAS findings or get Congress to give it authority to
deviate from the recommendations.
Parties to the lawsuit have 45 days to request a rehearing, or to ask
the court for an en banc review by all the judges in the circuit,
attorneys said. Another option is for an appeal straight to the U.S.
Supreme Court, although it was not clear how the order would come into
play in that circumstance.
Adams said Nevada could file motions urging the judges to remove the
hold on their ruling. She said any appeals by the government or the
nuclear industry likely would be quickly dismissed.
"I don't think this has a whole lot of significance," Adams said.
"Rehearings are rarely granted."
Adams added attorneys are continuing to digest the 100-page outcome of
the complex litigation. Joe Egan, the state's lead nuclear waste lawyer,
said Yucca supporters who are projecting a quick rebound in the courts
or in Congress were engaged in "wishful thinking."
"I don't think the court left them much to appeal. There is no basis for
a stay here, none at all," Egan said. "I don't think the licensing
proceeding can appropriately proceed but I don't doubt DOE's facility to
try to do that."
Beyond the legal issues, Egan said he doubted there will be much
appetite in Congress to overturn a court ruling that invalidates health
and safety science behind the government's effort to bury nuclear waste
at a site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The Yucca project also has problems away from the courthouse. The
program is facing a budget crisis in Congress and challenges to its
management of millions of pages of backup documents for an online
database. Attorneys for the state on Monday filed a motion with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to have DOE's database certification
declared invalid.
But an attorney not involved in the lawsuits said his reading suggested
DOE could continue its work while appeals are in progress.
"They can probably proceed under the current ground rules until the
current ground rules are invalidated. If there are appeals, that will
keep the decision from going into effect," said the attorney, who spoke
on the condition he not be identified because he is a party in other DOE
litigation.
That was the same message that nuclear industry executives delivered
Monday during a meeting on Capitol Hill with several lawmakers, staffers
and Energy Department officials according to a Senate aide who received
a report afterward.
NEI executive vice president Angelina Howard said the gathering was a
get-together of the organization's executive board and Yucca Mountain
was among several issues discussed.
Aides said the meeting was authorized by Senate Energy Committee
chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., although it was not clear if he
attended. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., and Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, the
chairman of the House energy and air quality subcommittee, attended
parts of the meeting.
The Senate aide said the officials appeared less worried about the court
ruling than about a Domenici proposal to increase industry fees to make
up a shortfall in next year's Yucca Mountain budget.
Nevada claimed a victory when the circuit court judges invalidated the
10,000-year radiation standard. In another section, the judges confirmed
the state will be allowed to contest a wide variety of environmental
issues during repository licensing.
But in what is being described overall as a mixed ruling, the Energy
Department noted the judges upheld most other segments of the project,
and dismissed the state's contention that the selection of the Yucca
site was a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The Energy Department had been anticipating an unfavorable ruling on the
radiation standard and already was at work forming a response, a top
manager told Yucca Mountain employees in an e-mail on Friday.
"We have been preparing to address this issue in the event that the
court ruling upheld the challenge to the standard," said Margaret Chu,
director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. "We are
already consulting with the other appropriate agencies and we will be
discussing options in the coming days."
Chu reported the court "ruled in our favor on all issues except one,"
and said the decision "is a reaffirmation of the very hard work done by
all participants in the program."
DOE spokesman Allen Benson said he had no comment on the e-mail. He said
Yucca employees were continuing work toward completing a license
*****************************************************************
26 [NukeNet] Yucca Nevada Waste Site Plan to Proceed Despite
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:31:40 -0700
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26032/story.htmNevada
Waste Site Plan to Proceed Despite Ruling
--------------------------------------------------
------------------------
Mail this story to a friend | Printer
friendly version
USA: July 15, 2004
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will
proceed with a plan to build a nuclear waste site
in Nevada this year despite a court decision
ordering it to prevent radiation leaks for more
than 10,000 years, a senior Energy Department
official said.
Critics of the project, including Senate
Minority Whip Harry Reid of Nevada, say this
recent federal court ruling could permanently
derail a plan to build a massive underground
storage depot beneath Yucca Mountain about 90
miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The administration said, however, that it
does not intend to slow down.
"We are still on track toward submitting a
license application in December of this year, and
opening the repository and beginning waste
acceptance in 2010," Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle
McSlarrow told a Senate Energy Committee hearing
on nuclear energy.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia last week rejected Nevada's attempt to
block the plan to store 77,000 tons of waste on
constitutional grounds.
However, the court also said the
administration wrongly ignored a recommendation
from the National Academy of Sciences to ensure
safety from leaks for well beyond 10,000 years.
Radioactive releases could peak in 300,000
years and the administration must assure
safeguards on that scale, the court found.
Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico,
a long-time nuclear industry proponent, said
assuring safety over that timeframe is
"impossible," and that the industry will "stand or
fall" on how the court's objection is addressed.
Spent fuel from the nation's nuclear plants
is piling up - there are over 50,000 tons of it
stored at over 100 interim locations in 39 states
within 75 miles of 161 million people.
Story by Chris Baltimore
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
_______________________________________________________________________
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*****************************************************************
27 Las Vegas Mercury: Yucca ruling yields lots of purple prose
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004, 05:17:38 PM
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
last week dealt a setback to the government's plan to dump
nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada's political leaders all
had something to say about it. Soon after the ruling, e-mails
and faxes started pouring into area news media offices.
The boxing metaphors and hyperbolic assessments reached a fever
pitch.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the decision a "huge victory"
for Nevada and said it was a "significant blow" to the
Department of Energy's project. Then he went a step further,
predicting the ruling was "enough to effectively kill the
project." A justifiable homicide, no doubt.
Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, called it an "important
victory" for the state, declaring that "Nevadans can sleep more
peacefully tonight, confident in the knowledge that there is
recognition in our courts that the EPA deliberately rejected the
sound advice of the scientific community and adopted a standard
that runs contrary to the health, safety and well-being of the
citizens of Nevada." Whew, glad to know that EPA-caused insomnia
is over.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., called it a "historic victory" for
Nevada. He said the court's ruling creates a "monumental
obstacle" for the government to overcome in its quest for a
Yucca Mountain repository. Call it the Stratosphere Tower of
court verdicts.
Tom Gallagher, a Democratic congressional candidate, called it
a "victorious battle" in the war against Yucca Mountain and a
"serious blow" to the project. "I will fight every day to make
sure Yucca proponents never recover from that blow," he
promised, no doubt taking the weekend off from DOE pummeling.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval said the ruling was a "sound
victory" for Nevada and that Yucca Mountain "is stopped in its
tracks." He added that the decision was a "fatal blow" to the
repository. Sandoval concluded with a reference to the Founding
Fathers, who, he suggested, were opposed to nuclear waste
disposal at Yucca Mountain even though in their day no white man
had yet set foot in what later came to be known as Nevada and
nuclear energy, not to mention nuclear waste, had yet to be
invented.
The Kerry-Edwards campaign was not about to be left out of the
excitement generated in this crucial swing state, issuing a
statement bashing the Bush administration for turning its back
on "sound science in its rush to build the Yucca Mountain
repository." Kerry-Edwards promised to "protect Nevada and its
communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump." A bold
vision, one that John Edwards adopted only last week after years
of support for Yucca Mountain. Oh well, he's only the vice
president, right?
The environmental group Public Citizen echoed the Nevada line,
calling the ruling a "major victory...for science over
politics." It added that "given this ruling, the Yucca Mountain
project should be finished."
Now we must return to the real world, where the energy
president, George W. Bush, is still in the White House and those
wily Republicans control both houses of Congress. Nevada may
have scored a "major" or "huge" or "historic" victory, but the
nuclear industry and its pawns in the legislative and executive
branches are not going to just lay down for the count. Not while
thousands of tons of nuclear waste are piling up at nuclear
power plants across the country. Nevadans must know by now that
the Yucca Mountain battle is never really over. The appeals
court ruling certainly means another delay for the $9 billion
project, which is great, but eternal vigilance is the
rule.--Geoff Schumacher
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury, 2001 - 2004
Stephens Media Group
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas RJ: YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Nevadans call for open talks on repository
Thursday, July 15, 2004
DOE officials communicated privately with nuclear agency in wake
of court ruling By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials on Wednesday demanded that
federal executives conduct meetings in public if they want to
discuss changes in the Yucca Mountain Project stemming from a
court ruling last week.
State officials said they are troubled that the Energy
Department communicated privately with the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, and possibly the Environmental Protection Agency,
after a judicial appeals panel invalidated a radiation health
standard for the proposed nuclear waste repository. The
repository would be built about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Any discussions about what to do now should be held in the
open, said Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for
Nuclear Projects.
"Nevada insists on participating in these meetings," Loux said
in a letter sent to EPA head Michael Leavitt and top officials
at the NRC.
Loux pointed to comments by Energy Deputy Secretary Kyle
McSlarrow, who said Tuesday that DOE officials spoke this week
with NRC counterparts about the court's decision and repository
licensing.
Also, Yucca Mountain Director Margaret Chu said in an employee
e-mail after the court opinion was released on Friday that DOE
managers "are already consulting with the other appropriate
agencies and we will be discussing options in the coming days."
Loux wrote that the regulatory agencies need to maintain their
independence and avoid perceptions that new standards will be
"trimmed to fit the needs of the Energy Department."
Responding to earlier Nevada complaints, NRC Chairman Nils Diaz
has said a level of communication between his agency and DOE was
necessary leading up to the filing of a repository license
application, according to Loux.
At that point, the relationship becomes more formal.
An NRC spokeswoman this week confirmed the latest talks with
the Energy Department but said the agency will have the final
word whether to accept a Yucca license application for review.
An EPA spokesman could not be reached Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile Wednesday, a panel of administrative judges scheduled
a July 27 hearing on the Energy Department's handling of an
online document database that has drawn criticism since it was
certified June 30.
The three officers appointed at the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission issued an order directing DOE officials to answer a
series of questions, including what documents have been provided
to the database and which ones have been left out and why.
Nevada officials filed a complaint seeking to have DOE's
certification declared invalid, an action that would force
delays in the program.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
29 Las Vegas SUN: Judges to hear state's complaint on nuclear
documents
Today: July 15, 2004 at 9:46:46 PDT
Judges to hear state's complaint on nuclear documents
By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- A three-judge panel will hear Nevada's complaint
that the Energy Department has not filed all of its backup
documents with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a complaint
that if upheld could delay the department's licensing request.
Nevada officials charge that the federal government has not
properly "certified" its documents -- the backup information is
supposed to be public six months before the license application.
Nevada officials argue that the law requires that the documents
must be on an NRC Web site. The department says it satisfied the
law by putting the documents on its own Web site while the NRC
processes the documents.
If the judges side with Nevada, the database would not satisfy
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's requirements that begin the
Yucca Mountain licensing process, said Joe Egan, a lawyer who
represents Nevada on Yucca issues.
That could cause another delay in the department's plan to
submit the project's license application to the commission in
December, which could stall the entire project. Nevada already
believes work on the application is in jeopardy because Friday's
federal appeals court decision threw out the project's
10,000-year radiation compliance standard, leaving a hole in the
commission's licensing rules.
The department intends to continue work on the application and
supplement it later if the Environmental Protection Agency
issues a new radiation standard, officials have said. It insists
it will meet its December application deadline and still open
the site by 2010.
The commission's Pre-License Application Board, a three-judge
panel, announced Wednesday it will hear oral arguments on July
27 on Nevada's challenges.
*****************************************************************
30 Las Vegas SUN: Nevada wants Yucca meetings public
By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada wants to stop back room meetings between
agencies on how to deal with a federal court ruling on the Yucca
Mountain project.
On Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia threw out an Environmental Protection Agency guideline
that required the high-level nuclear waste dump to contain
radiation for 10,000 years, noting that the National Academy of
Sciences recommended a longer period.
Bob Loux, executive director of the state's Agency for Nuclear
Projects said the federal agencies involved -- the EPA, Energy
Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- may talk
privately to each other on what to do next and he wants to make
sure Nevada is not left out of any conversations.
"It would be highly improper for EPA and NRC to meeting
privately with the one license applicant/entity (the Energy
Department) to whom the rules would apply on determining its new
performance standard," Loux wrote Commission Chairman Nils Diaz
and EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt in a letter sent
Wednesday. "DOE will have a full opportunity to help craft new
EPA and NRC rules by participating in any new public
rule-makings."
Loux said any discussions on the new standards should be kept
public to "avoid suggestions that new rules specifying radiation
standards have been trimmed to the fit the needs of the Energy
Department."
*****************************************************************
31 RGJ: Ruling won’t delay Yucca, Energy Department says
||| Home [http://www.rgj.com/]
Thursday | Jul 15, 2004
Reno
Gazette-Journal]
Yucca Mountain project:
www.ymp.gov [http://www.ymp.gov] Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
www.nrc.gov [http://www.nrc.gov]
Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects:
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste [http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
7/15/2004 12:08 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A top Energy Department official told Congress
that the government’s plan to bury nuclear waste in Nevada won’t
be slowed by a court ruling on a radiation safety standard.
The department intends to pursue a waste repository license while
scientists and designers adapt to new standards ordered by the
court, deputy secretary Kyle McSlarrow told the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
Three U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
judges ruled Friday that the Environmental Protection Agency was
wrong to set a 10,000-year radiation protection standard after a
National Academy of Sciences study commissioned by Congress
indicated the standard should be thousands of years longer.
In the Energy Department’s first detailed remarks since the
ruling, McSlarrow said the Yucca Mountain project can continue
“absolutely.”
The Energy Department’s No. 2 official said there was no reason
the department could not file a license application with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the year as planned,
containing its safety projections for 10,000 years.
He said Energy Department and Nuclear Regulatory Commission
conferred Monday, “and they don’t see a reason why we can’t
either.”
NRC spokeswoman Sue Gagner confirmed talks between the agencies
but could not confirm details.
With an NRC license review scheduled to take three or four years,
McSlarrow told senators the Energy Department believes it could
supplement its application with new performance data if the EPA
issues a new radiation standard.
Some senators said there was a possibility that Congress could
pass a law reversing the court and keeping the 10,000-year
standard.
Yucca opponents who declared victory when the court issued its
ruling scoffed at the department’s attempt to rebound.
“My comment is, good luck. I don’t think this is going to fly in
anyone’s book,” said Bob Loux, chief of Nevada’s state Agency for
Nuclear Projects.
Loux said it would be difficult for EPA to issue a new radiation
standard in three or four years and said Energy Department
efforts probably would end up back in court.
The Energy Department wants to open the repository 90 miles
northwest of Las Vegas in 2010.
Yucca opponents “will make hay with what they got” from the
court, McSlarrow told the senators. But he called the ruling
overall “an enormous victory” for the government.
Judges rejected constitutional and procedural challenges by
Nevada, environmental groups and the nuclear industry.
After the hearing, McSlarrow said the Energy Department has
assurances that the Yucca program will get enough money this year
to avoid layoffs.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett
*****************************************************************
32 AU ABC: MP claims nuclear waste is stored in bushland.
15/07/2004. ABC News Online
[http://www.abc.net.au/]
The federal Member for Solomon in the Northern Territory says
medium-level nuclear waste is being stored in containers in the
bush because there is no central national storage facility.
MP Dave Tollner says the material poses a serious health risk
to anyone who accidentally approaches it.
Mr Tollner cannot identify the source of the material or where
it is being kept but says he has been told it is a major problem.
"I've been led to understand over the last couple of days that
there's waste in the Northern Territory that people don't know
what to do with," he said.
"I've also been led to understand that some of the waste is
stored in used in shipping containers and the like, no lead
lining and that sort of stuff, out in the bush."
But the NT's chief medical officer, Tarun Weeramanthri, says
there are only small amounts of medium-level radioactive waste
in the Territory.
Dr Weeramanthri says most of it is returned direct to the
manufacturers.
"I can reassure the public we have a very strict safety regimen
around radiation," he said.
"We issue licences for people who have to handle radioactive
material and we monitor and enforce the standards."
[http://www.abc.net.au]
© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
*****************************************************************
33 NEWS.com.au: NT may be nuclear dump site - MP
(July 15, 2004)
TWO sites in the Northern Territory could be on a secret list of
possible locations for a commonwealth nuclear waste dump, a
federal MP claimed today.
Labor MP Warren Snowdon said both the Tanami Desert and Bloods
Range near Docker River were touted as possible sites for a
national waste repository in a 1994 government report.
It came as the NT Government today stepped up its opposition to
any moves to make the territory the site of the commonwealth's
nuclear dump.
Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said the states must look
after their own nuclear waste because they had not cooperated in
an agreement to establish a national repository.
The Federal Government would now search for commonwealth land
for a dump to contain medium and low level nuclear waste produced
by Federal Government sources, he said.
Mr Snowdon - whose electorate of Lingiari in the NT outback
includes the two sites - demanded the government release its list
of possible sites.
The 1994 list was a shortlist of eight sites for a national
nuclear waste dump contained in the government paper A
Radioactive Waste Repository for Australia: Site Selection Study
- Phase 2, he said.
"The Government is refusing to confirm or deny whether these two
territory sites are under consideration," Mr Snowdon said.
"It's time we had a bit of honesty from John Howard.
"He has an obligation to tell us the truth and reveal whether
he's considering using our Territory for his nuclear dump."
NT Chief Minister Clare Martin today wrote to Mr Howard seeking
his assurances that the NT would not become the commonwealth's
nuclear dumping ground.
"I have made it very clear to John Howard that the NT will not
be the dumping ground for commonwealth nuclear waste," she said.
"Territorians do not want a nuclear waste dump in their backyard
and they will fight all the way.
"This is the message I have sent directly to John Howard."
Meanwhile, Mr Snowdon rejected claims by local Country Liberal
Party MP David Tollner that medium level nuclear waste was
currently being stored in transport containers in isolated areas
of the outback.
"These claims are simply false and show a scandalous disregard
for the Territory community," Mr Snowdon said.
Mr Tollner has previously said he supported the plan for a
national nuclear waste repository, which should be housed in the
NT if it was deemed the safest possible place for it.
AAP
Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10).
*****************************************************************
34 NRC: NRC Names Allen G. Croff to Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste
News Release - 2004-08 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] No. 04-086 July 15,
2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has appointed Allen G. Croff
to the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW).
The NRC established the ACNW in June 1988 to provide the
Commission technical opinions, independent of NRC staff, on
activities, programs, and key issues associated with the
regulation, management, and safe disposal of radioactive waste.
Croff comes to the ACNW following 29 years with the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. His work at Oak Ridge included staff, line
management, and program management positions concerning waste
management research and development, analysis of nuclear fuel
cycles and nuclear materials management, strategic planning, and
program initiation. Croffs professional experience includes
creating the ORIGEN2 computer code, used world-wide to calculate
radionuclide buildup and decay. He has also applied the code to
nuclear material and waste characterization, risk analysis, and
nuclear fuel cycle analysis.
Croff has developed and evaluated comprehensive, risk-based
waste classification systems, culminating in chairing a
committee of the National Council on Radiation Protection and
Measurements that issued comprehensive recommendations on such
systems. He has also led and participated in national and
international technical committees of the National Academy of
Sciences, the Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee, and
the Nuclear Development Committee of the Nuclear Energy Agency.
Croff earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical
Engineering from Michigan State University in 1971, a Nuclear
Engineer Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1974, and an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee in 1981.
The other ACNW members are Chairman B. John Garrick,
Vice-Chairman Michael T. Ryan, Dr. George M. Hornberger, and Dr.
Ruth F. Weiner.
Last revised Thursday, July 15, 2004
*****************************************************************
35 Come Friday, 7/16/04, 7 pm anniversary of Trinity: first nuclear
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 15:57:18 -0400
We hope you'll be sure to come Friday, July 16, 2004,
7:00 pm, Cafe Mowanaj, 624 T St NW (Howard U. Metro)
on the 59th anniversary of the Trinity Nuclear Test
for the
Josephine Butler Nuclear Free Future Award Ceremony
honoring Ambrose I. Lane, Sr. (WPFW),
the 2004 Butler Award Laureate
Performers: Perry Kine, Yikes McGee, and Shahid Buttar
Organized by John Steinbach, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace
Committee, and Ellen Thomas, Proposition One Committee.
202-682-4282 for further information.
*****************************************************************
36 9news.com: Demolition to begin on Rocky Flats plutonium processing building
written by : [webcontent@9news.com] (Staff) posted by:
[tracey.mattoon@9news.com] (Producer)
9NEWS reporter Bazi Kanani reports on the demolition of one of
the most notorious buildings in the history of Colorado. 9NEWS
at 10:00 p.m. July 14, 2004.');
Building 771 at Rocky Flats will be torn down on Thursday.
METRO AREA - It used to be called the most dangerous building in
America
On Thursday building 771 at Rocky Flats will be torn down.
Building 771 was one of the main plutonium processing centers at
Rocky Flats. The facility turned out 70,000 plutonium triggers
for nuclear weapons between 1952 and 1989.
Despite safety precautions, building 771 has a history of
disturbing mistakes. Over the years, numerous spills, leaks, and
a fire, spread radioactive material through much of the building.
The company handling the Rocky Flats clean up will start tearing
down the building beginning in the morning.
The clean-up at the Rocky Flats plant began in 1995, it's now
expected to be finished in December of 2006, a total of only 10
years and an estimated $7 billion dollars. more headlines >
(Copyright by KUSA-TV, All Rights Reserved)
*****************************************************************
37 SF Chronicle: Frantic search for lost data at Los Alamos
Director of UC-run lab called to S.F. for meeting with regents
[http://sfgate.com]
[kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] Thursday, July 15, 2004
The loss of two storage devices containing classified data at a
University of California-run nuclear weapons laboratory is
another blow to a university system trying to hang onto its
half-century management of the lab.
The devices have been missing for at least a week at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico, and investigators say they are
almost literally turning the lab upside-down in an effort to find
them. They're even receiving help from a special team of
investigators from Washington that U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham sent to New Mexico shortly after learning of the loss.
Los Alamos officials declined to say Wednesday whether the loss
of the devices could threaten U.S. national security. Many such
devices at the lab contain information on weapons ranging from
chemical explosives to thermonuclear bombs capable of vaporizing
cities.
"I can't be specific what the data consists of, I'm sorry. All I
can say is this is a very serious issue," Los Alamos spokesman
Kevin Roark told The Chronicle. He added: "The search does
continue. It is possible that they may never be found."
Among the immediate repercussions:
-- The UC Regents and UC officials have summoned Los Alamos lab
Director George "Pete" Nanos to San Francisco to explain what's
gone wrong at the lab. Nanos is to testify in a public session
after 10 a.m. today at a UC facility at 3333 California St.
-- UC's contract for managing the lab should "immediately" be
terminated by the Energy Department "before they further put our
national security at greater risk," Executive Director Danielle
Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based
nonprofit group that exposes what it calls abuses and
mismanagement by federal agencies, said in a statement Wednesday.
The current Los Alamos contract runs out in September 2005, and
UC officials have not announced formally whether they'll compete
for the next contract.
-- UC's dwindling political support within the U.S. Energy
Department apparently has eroded further. Abraham is "extremely
displeased" by the loss of the devices, his spokesman Joe Davis
said Wednesday.
Over the past two years, Abraham has grown increasingly angered
by security problems at the lab, including revelations of missing
documents at Los Alamos and issues around the safety of storing
plutonium at Livermore. Last year, the scandals helped inspire
Abraham's decision to call for opening future contracts to run
Los Alamos to bidders other than UC. Yet he recently pleased UC
by extending its contract to run the Bay Area's Lawrence
Livermore nuclear weapons lab for another two years.
A team from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration,
ordered to the New Mexico lab by Abraham, already is helping with
the investigation, Davis said.
The missing devices are identified as Classified Removable
Electronic Media or CREMs, lab officials said. Officials refuse
to describe their exact nature or contents.
The story began brewing late Friday afternoon when the lab issued
a press release acknowledging that "two items of Classified
Removable Electronic Media (CREM) were discovered missing from
the Weapons Physics (WP) Directorate. An immediate search did not
locate the items. A subsequent and extensive search is currently
continuing."
The umbrella term "CREMs" refers to a wide range of electronic
devices that can store computer data -- ranging from floppy disks
to large, hard disk drives -- and that can be removed from one
computer and installed in another.
Roark also acknowledged that, in a related recent incident, lab
officials failed to find two computer hard-disk drives in their
accustomed places. After a search that lasted "a couple of
hours," investigators found the disk drives in a safe place.
Roark said an investigation of the latter incident is under way.
If anyone is found to be responsible, he or she might be fired,
he added. However, there is no reason to believe the hard drives
were misplaced for suspicious or nefarious reasons, he added.
Officials with the Project on Government Oversight accused Los
Alamos Wednesday of covering up the brief loss of the hard disk
drives. Roark denied this, stating that Energy Department
regulations don't require such missing materials to be reported
as missing for 24 hours.
Since they were found sooner than that, "those items were, in
fact, not considered 'missing,' " Roark said.
The group's statement blasted Los Alamos management and UC: "Los
Alamos and the University of California had assured the
government that this type of security failure could never happen
because of a fail-safe system which was put in place after the
Wen Ho Lee debacle in 1999 and the missing hard drives incident
(which were later discovered mysteriously behind a copy machine)
in 2000."
The Lee case involved a Los Alamos scientist who came under
suspicion as a possible spy. He was eventually freed.
Pete Stockton, an official with the nonprofit organization and
former special assistant to Clinton administration Energy
Secretary Bill Richardson, said: "We would fire the contractor
(UC). This has gone on too long, they should be terminated
immediately -- like Thursday, Friday! -- and have somebody else
run it."
Reaction From the Energy Department:
A spokesman said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is "extremely
displeased."
From a watchdog group:
UC's contract at Los Alamos should be terminated immediately
"before they further put our national security at greater risk."
From Los Alamos:
A spokesman said, "I can't be specific what the data consists
of, I'm sorry. All I can say is this is a very serious issue.
... The search does continue.''
E-mail the Keay Davidson at [kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] .
[graphical line]
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©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
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38 SF Chronicle: UC ripped over data missing at Los Alamos
Energy secretary 'extremely displeased' with UC-run lab
[http://sfgate.com]
[kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] Thursday, July 15, 2004
The loss of two storage devices containing classified data at a
University of California-run nuclear weapons laboratory is
another blow to a university system trying to hang onto its
half-century management of the lab.
The devices have been missing for at least a week at Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New Mexico, and investigators say they are
almost literally turning the lab upside-down in an effort to find
them. They're even receiving help from a special team of
investigators from Washington that U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham sent to New Mexico shortly after learning of the loss.
Los Alamos officials declined to say Wednesday whether the loss
of the devices could threaten U.S. national security. Many such
devices at the lab contain information on weapons ranging from
chemical explosives to thermonuclear bombs capable of vaporizing
cities.
"I can't be specific what the data consists of, I'm sorry. All I
can say is this is a very serious issue," Los Alamos spokesman
Kevin Roark told The Chronicle. He added: "The search does
continue. It is possible that they may never be found."
Among the immediate repercussions:
-- The UC Regents and UC officials have summoned Los Alamos lab
director George "Pete" Nanos to San Francisco to explain what's
gone wrong at the lab. Nanos is to testify in a public session
after 10 a.m. today at a UC facility at 3333 California St.
-- UC's contract for managing the lab should "immediately" be
terminated by the Energy Department "before they further put our
national security at greater risk," executive director Danielle
Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based
a nonprofit group that exposes what it calls abuses and
mismanagement by federal agencies, said in a statement Wednesday.
The current Los Alamos contract runs out in September 2005, and
UC officials have not announced formally whether they'll compete
for the next contract.
-- UC's dwindling political support within the U.S. Energy
Department apparently has eroded further. Abraham is "extremely
displeased" by the loss of the devices, his spokesperson Joe
Davis said Wednesday.
Over the past two years, Abraham has grown increasingly angered
by security problems at the lab, including revelations of missing
documents at Los Alamos and issues around the safety of storing
plutonium at Livermore. Last year, the scandals helped inspire
Abraham's decision to call for opening future contracts to run
Los Alamos to bidders other than UC. Yet he recently pleased UC
by extending its contract to run the Bay Area's Lawrence
Livermore nuclear weapons lab for another two years.
A team from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration,
ordered to the New Mexico lab by Abraham, already is helping with
the investigation, Davis said.
The missing devices are identified as Classified Removable
Electronic Media or CREMs, lab officials said. Officials refuse
to describe their exact nature or contents.
The story began brewing late Friday afternoon when the lab issued
a press release acknowledging that "two items of Classified
Removable Electronic Media (CREM) were discovered missing from
the Weapons Physics (WP) Directorate. An immediate search did not
locate the items. A subsequent and extensive search is currently
continuing."
The umbrella term "CREMS" refers to a wide range of electronic
devices that can store computer data -- ranging from floppy discs
to large, "hard" disk drives -- and that can be removed from one
computer and installed in another.
Roark also acknowledged that, in a related recent incident, lab
officials failed to find two computer hard-disk drives in their
accustomed places. After a search that lasted "a couple of
hours," investigators found the disk drives in a safe place.
Roark said an investigation of the latter incident is under way.
If anyone is found to be responsible, he or she might be fired,
he added. However, there is no reason to believe the hard drives
were misplaced for suspicious or nefarious reasons, he added.
Officials with the Project on Government Oversight accused Los
Alamos Wednesday of covering up the brief loss of the hard disk
drives. Roark denied this, stating that Energy Department
regulations don't require such missing materials to be reported
as missing for 24 hours.
Since they were found sooner than that, "those items were, in
fact, not considered 'missing,' " Roark said.
The group's statement blasted Los Alamos management and UC: "Los
Alamos and the University of California had assured the
government that this type of security failure could never happen
because of a fail-safe system which was put in place after the
Wen Ho Lee debacle in 1999 and the missing hard drives incident
(which were later discovered mysteriously behind a copy machine)
in 2000."
The Lee case involved a Los Alamos scientist who came under
suspicion as a possible spy. He was eventually freed.
Pete Stockton, an official with the nonprofit and former special
assistant to Clinton administration Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson, said: "We would fire the contractor (UC). This has
gone on too long, they should be terminated immediately -- like
Thursday, Friday! -- and have somebody else run it."
[graphical line]
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©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
*****************************************************************
39 Oak Ridger: Y-12 staff receives PRSA awards
Story last updated at 1:18 p.m. on July 15, 2004
Y-12 National Security Complex employees recently garnered six
awards from the Volunteer Chapter of the Public Relations Society
of America.
Melissa Leinart, Public and Governmental Affairs, along with
Kathryn King-Jones, Heidi Spurling, Betty Martin and Sandra
Schwartz, all of Communications Services, won the Award of
Excellence in the newsletter category for BWX TYmes.
left to right, Sandra Schwartz and Betty Martin, graphic
designers; front row, left to right, Kathryn King-Jones,
writer-editor and Melissa Leinart, managing editor. Not pictured
is Heidi Spurling, writer-editor.
Four writing awards were also won.
Spurling won an Award of Quality in the hard news category for
"Waste Operations Talks Trash."
Bill Wilburn, P, won an Award of Quality in the features category
for "Haute Couture Has Nothing on Y-12." Wilburn and Melissa
Leinart each won Awards of Merit in hard news category for "Fly
Me to the Moons - of Jupiter" and "Keeping Count," respectively.
Pat Carson, P, won an Award of Merit in the special events
category for "A Celebration of the George Washington Carver
Project," a community outreach effort sponsored by BWXT Y-12.
The PRSA, headquartered in New York City, is the world's largest
professional organization for public relations practitioners with
nearly 20,000 members organized into 116 chapters, representing
business and industry, counseling firms, government,
associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and
nonprofit organizations.
Entries were judged by the Houston, Texas chapter of PRSA. BWXT
Y-12 manages the Y-12 National Security Complex for the federal
government.
*****************************************************************
40 U.S. Newswire - Federal Agency Teams to be Honored July 15 for
Energy and Environmental Achievements
7/14/2004 5:25:00 PM
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor, Energy Reporter
Contact: Chris Kielich of the U.S. Department of Energy,
202-586-5806
News Advisory:
18 teams and individuals will be honored at the State Department
Thursday, July 15, at the 2004 Presidential Energy and
Environmental Awards ceremony. This ceremony commends the winners
of the Presidential Awards for Leadership in Federal Energy
Management, now in its fifth year of honoring exemplary energy
efficiency efforts, and winners of the 10th annual Closing the
Circle Awards, which recognizes outstanding environmental
stewardship.
WHAT: 2004 Presidential Energy and Environmental Awards
WHO:
-- Clay Johnson, OMB Deputy Director for Management
-- David Garman, Acting Under Secretary of Energy and DOE
Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
-- Maureen Koetz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for
Environment, Safety and Occupational Health
-- Recipients of the 2004 Presidential Energy and Environmental
Awards; and the Closing the Circle Awards
WHERE: Department of State, Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room,
8th floor
WHEN: 10:30 a.m., Thursday, July 15
NOTE: Reporters who wish to attend must have a valid photo media
I.D. and may be asked to provide proof of citizenship, social
security number and date of birth. Please come to the to the 22nd
and C St. entrance and allow enough time to be cleared in.
http://www.usnewswire.com/ [http://www.usnewswire.com/]
/© 2004 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
*****************************************************************
41 Oak Ridger: Lab modernization going ahead
Story last updated at 11:45 a.m. on July 15, 2004
ORNL OFFICIAL: 'Through the end of this (fiscal year), we will
have spent roughly $200 million and have built 600,000 square
feet of new space.'
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff [paul.parson@oakridger.com]
It's no joke.
During a recent visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a couple
of researchers were spotted practically scratching their heads.
They were trying to figure out which of the six buttons on a
small control panel accomplished a specific task in the new Joint
Institute for Computational Sciences building.
"I'm just trying to figure out how to turn on the lights," one of
them said.
Marie Moffitt/Staff Lanny Bates, division director of the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory's Facilities Development Division,
stands in front of the Research Support Center that's under
construction at the federal facility. The area in the far left
background that's covered with a blue tarp is where the lab's new
visitor center will be.
Yes, even the light switches are high-tech in the state-funded
facility.
The 52,000-square-foot building houses two important programs.
One promotes the use of high-performance computer resources in
Tennessee, and another - the Oak Ridge Center for Advanced
Studies - establishes a 21st century "think tank" for exploring
major science and technology issues.
Though the building is operational, it's located in an area
buzzing with construction and brand new facilities. It is all
part of a massive modernization effort at ORNL.
Also in that area is the year-old Computational Sciences Building
that's connected to two other structures in the modernization
effort - the Research Office Building and the Engineering
Technology Facility. These structures are unique to the national
laboratory system in that they were privately funded through a
special not-for-profit corporation managed by UT-Battelle - the
Department of Energy's managing contractor for ORNL.
Neighboring the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences is
what's being called the Research Support Center - a
50,000-square-foot facility housing a new visitor center,
state-of-the-art conference facilities and a new cafeteria area.
According to Lanny Bates, division director of the lab's
Facilities Development Division, substantial completion of this
building should be done by the end of the current fiscal year,
which is Sept. 30.
He said the dining area will hold about 450 people per seating,
and they expect about three seatings per day. The visitor portion
of the building will be located in steel structure at the front
of the building.
"The steel superstructure will be covered by green tint glass
panels for an atrium effect," Bates noted. "The original design
was blue but we changed it to green to better match the glass in
the existing buildings."
According to Richard Haun, a construction field representative at
ORNL, somewhere between 100 to 115 people are currently working
daily on the Research Support Center building.
"Obviously the number fluctuates over time," Bates added. "Right
now is a peak manpower loading time."
As for the existing visitor center, portions of that facility
could be remodeled, and the building will continue to be used as
office space, according to Bates.
In between the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences and the
Research Support Center, workers are preparing a large area that
will serve as a parking lot as well as a landscaped area. This
should be finished by spring 2005, according to Bates.
Other construction projects in the works include ORNL's $60
million Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and the Joint
Institute of Biological Sciences. According to Bates, design work
on the Biological Sciences facility is currently under way, and
it will be built near the new "Mouse House" or what's officially
named the William L. and Liane B. Russell Laboratory for
Comparative and Functional Genomics.
As for the nanophase center, it will be located atop Chestnut
Ridge with the Spallation Neutron Source - a research facility
that will be completed in 2006.
ORNL's $300 million modernization effort began in April 2000, and
the program is funded by DOE, the state of Tennessee and
Battelle. In the end, the construction of around 10 new
facilities will result in the most radical change in the look of
the ORNL campus in 50 years.
"Through the end of this (fiscal year), we will have spent
roughly $200 million and have built 600,000 square feet of new
space Š 75 percent in the east end (of the campus)," Bates
explained. "By taking advantage of this new modern space, we have
moved people out of about 1.5 million square feet of old,
inadequate and expensive space and have consolidated roughly 800
people onto the main campus from various off-site locations."
*****************************************************************
42 Paducah Sun: PACRO, DOE find home for stranded fluorine cells
The Paducah Sun- Paducah, Kentucky
Thursday, July 15, 2004;Paducah, Kentucky
Page [http://www.paducahsun.com/]
By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
After two years of delays, scrap fluorine cells began leaving the
Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant on Wednesday en route to an
Oklahoma company, saving the Department of Energy $2.5 million in
cleanup costs.
The first four of 70 cells left the plant on a flatbed trailer
headed for Ozark Fluorine Specialties of Tulsa, which makes
fluorine compounds. Shipping will continue for the rest of the
year.
Ozark, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Toxco — billing itself
as the world's largest lithium battery recycling company — will
reuse the cells or sell them to other similar firms. The cells,
removed from one of the plant's most contaminated buildings, were
used many years ago in fluorinating uranium for use in nuclear
fuel.
The deal was brokered in early 2002 by the Paducah Area
Community Reuse Organization, an economic development group.
Trucks were expected to start hauling the cells late that summer,
but radiation-safety issues and federal funding questions delayed
the shipments.
"This is the first step for us to successfully show that we are
an instrument that can safely move property off the DOE site to
approved vendors and save DOE money in the process," PACRO
Director John Anderson said. "They've got $2.5 million more to
spend on cleaning up other things out there."
DOE spokeswoman Laura Schachter said the cell shipments mark the
first transfer of plant equipment through PACRO.
"We're really excited that this is a cooperative public-private
partnership and that PACRO has taken an innovative approach to
benefit the community and taxpayers," she said. "Otherwise, DOE
would have had to cut open the cells and remove and dispose of
the contents at taxpayer expense."
The government gave the cells to Toxco in return for the cleanup
savings and the firm agreed to pay PACRO $75,000 for brokerage
services. The work created 10 local environmental jobs cleaning
the exterior of the cells to remove low-level radiation, lead
paint and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Anderson said.
Greg Cook, spokesman for cleanup contractor Bechtel Jacobs, said
the PCBs were in the paint and in lubrication that had dripped
onto the cells. The cells were removed from a building called the
C-410 "feed plant," where workers once combined uranium
tetrafluoride, or green salt, with fluorine to create uranium
hexafluoride. That product then was fed through the piping system
during enrichment.
Closed since 1976, the feed plant is identified in DOE reports
as perhaps the plant’s most dangerous work area because some of
the uranium was recycled from nuclear reactors and contained
traces of highly radioactive plutonium and neptunium.
About 18 months ago, the Energy Department stopped Bechtel
Jacobs from going inside the building because the electricity had
been cut off, which meant that radiation-safety alarms could not
sound. Resolving that problem caused a lag in cleanup, as did
federal budgetary delays, Anderson said.
Anderson credited Bill Murphie, DOE cleanup manager for plants
in Paducah and Piketon, Ohio, with helping work through the
problems. Murphie took the job after Congress passed legislation
in 2002 meant to improve cleanup by putting the two plants under
direct control and funding of DOE headquarters in Washington.
"With Murphie's arrival, the speed of cleanup and departure of
the cells really picked up," Anderson said. "This is an important
milestone for everybody."
PACRO is counting on recycling brokerage fees and other income
to survive. The Energy Department no longer plans to fund the
group, established in 1997 to offset nuclear plant job losses.
Aside from trying to generate more revenue, PACRO has asked
Congress for nearly $18 million to help develop a regional
industrial park and find new uses for the enrichment plant after
it closes early next decade.
*****************************************************************
43 [du-list] DU in the News - 15th July 04
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 14:31:42 -0700
DEPLETED Uranium: America's Silent Weapon of Mass Destruction
Collective Bellaciao - Paris,France
... The first reports from soldiers returning from Iraq have come in, and
they are testing positive for depleted uranium (DU) in their systems.
...
<http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=1865>
KILLING our own soldiers with radioactive weapons
Cleveland Free Times - Cleveland,OH,USA
... enough. They couldn't pierce a tank, so they started using depleted
uranium. Must have been a sale at the nuclear power plant. And ...
<http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1734>
UK veterans accuse officials of refusing to attend independent ...
Xinhua - China
... and botulism. Exposure to depleted uranium munitions has also been
identifiedas a possible cause of the illnesses. However, it has ...
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-07/14/content_1600314.htm>
THE Coming Years in Iraqnam
Aljazeerah.info
... the most probable outcome the invaders will attempt to impose on this
devastated nation, now poisoned for ten thousand years with Depleted Uranium,
a monstrous ...
<http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/July/14%20o/The%20Coming%20Years%20in%20Iraqnam%20By%20Joseph%20E%20Fasciani.htm>
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44 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 13:33:24 -0700 (PDT)
BUTLER report finds Iraq nuclear threat intelligence flawed
ABC Online - Australia
... The original intelligence assessment was that Iraq had no nuclear weapons
– there was little hard intelligence, and though that picture was unclear,
Baghdad ...
See all stories on this topic:
HERE'S the drum on Sydney's nuclear retirement shed
Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
... Lubi Dimitrovski, head of waste operations at Lucas Heights, among
the 6000 200-litre drums of low-level nuclear waste in storage. Photo:
Peter Rae. ...
See all stories on this topic:
NT may be nuclear dump site: MP
Melbourne Herald Sun - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
TWO sites in the Northern Territory could be on a secret list of possible
locations for a commonwealth nuclear waste dump, a federal MP claimed
today. ...
See all stories on this topic:
RULING on Nuclear Site Leaves Next Move to Congress
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
By MATTHEW L. WALD. ASHINGTON, July 14 - Can the United States ever bury
its nuclear waste? And does it still want to, or need to? ...
See all stories on this topic:
ACF warns Govt will revive nuclear dump plans
ABC Online - Australia
... that people in all the other parts of Australia that are still in the
frame of an imposed and unwanted and a politically driven federal nuclear
waste dump ...
See all stories on this topic:
KHATAMI accuses Europeans of damaging nuclear talks
Daily Times - Pakistan
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday blamed Britain,
France and Germany for a downturn in their nuclear talks, but pledged
that ...
See all stories on this topic:
NORTH Korea admits its nuclear programs are weapons related: US
Channel News Asia - Singapore
WASHINGTON : North Korea acknowledged that most of its nuclear programs
are weapons related, during the recent six-party talks to resolve the
nuclear crisis on ...
See all stories on this topic:
ACT sees little change to nuclear waste disposal
ABC Online - Australia
ACT's chief health officer Paul Dugdale says a Commonwealth decision to
abandon plans for a nuclear waste dump in South Australia will have little
impact on ...
INTERNATIONAL Rectifier To Exhibit At IEEE's Nuclear And Space ...
TMCnet - USA
... leader in power management technology, will be showcasing their latest
devices for high-reliability applications in Booth 26 at the 2004 IEEE
Nuclear and Space ...
PAST Nuclear Tests May Unlock Africa Ivory Sales
AllAfrica.com - Africa
Nuclear physicist Elias Sideras-Haddad says he can determine when an elephant
died as well as its age by a new carbon-dating technique applied to the
tusks - a ...
See all stories on this topic:
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