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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 US: Guardian Unlimited: Profits of war
2 Las Vegas SUN: Australian Report Finds Iraq Data Flawed
3 BBC: Australia's Iraq war case damned
4 Xinhuanet: Blair calls for understanding over CIA failure to prevent
5 UK Independent: No respite for Blair as MPs reopen intelligence inqu
6 [NukeNet] Force Would Not Stop Any Iran Nuke Plans: Experts
7 Korea Herald: U.S. policy on Korean Peninsula needs an overhaul
8 Korea Herald: [NEWS ANALYSIS]Roh, Koizumi build mutual confidence
9 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Disputable summit diplomacy
10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Leaders of S. Korea, Japan Wrap Up Summit
11 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Executive Board of KEDO Meets in New York
12 PRAVDA.Ru: The secret life behind Kremlin walls exposed -
13 BBC: Beijing 'brown-out' to save power
NUCLEAR REACTORS
14 US: [DU-WATCH] Citizens' Groups in Licensing Hearing of Nuclear
15 US: SignOnSanDiego.com: Diablo Canyon nuclear unit goes off-line as
16 US: Lowell Sun Online: Westford warns about fouled water
17 US: The Mercury: Exelon seeks township OK for security upgrades at n
18 Ecolinks: Bulgaria Closes Reactors
19 Reuters: Successful N-plant attack unlikely - UK report
20 News & Star: Sellafield attack would cause cancers
21 US: NRC: NRC Announces Opportunity For Hearing on Application to Ren
NUCLEAR SAFETY
22 [DU-WATCH] UK government accused of hindering Gulf inquiry
23 BBC: Cancer study move angers
24 US: Deseretnews.com: Nuclear trust fund is nearly dry
25 Scotsman.com: 'End Fair Deal Delays for Sick Gulf Veterans' - Ex-Com
26 US: ENN News: Do cancers cluster around atomic plants?
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
27 US: The Columbian: Bonneville Cleanup an Explosive Situation
28 Las Vegas RJ: RADIATION STANDARD: Yucca ruling has agency scrambling
29 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Back to drawing board
30 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast contamination worse than first repor
31 US: heraldtribune.com: Tallevast pollution worse than thought By DEB
32 Governor Guinn: A RESOUNDING VICTORY IN YUCCA FIGHT
33 US: Daily Camera: Project should increase pipeline capacity
34 US: PE.com: Perchlorate-cleanup funds nearly assured
35 AU ABC: Defence probe possible radioactive contamination »
36 PRN: LES Comments on the ASLB Ruling Today
37 US: NEWS.com.au: Closure fails to dent uranium
38 US: KRNV: Contractor says waste is ready to go, government says not
39 US: Paducah Sun: Paducah closer to uranium recycling
40 US: Las Vegas SUN: New tests: Radioactive soils at Yerington mine
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
41 SF Chronicle: U.S. asks FBI to join probe of Los Alamos /
42 channelcincinnati.com: Radioactive Cleanup At Fernald Site On Hold
43 U.S. Newswire: DOE Requests Proposals for Cleanup of Hanford's
44 Daily Texan: Lab security worse than thought -
45 Oak Ridger: DOE nearly finished in investigations
46 Oak Ridger: POGO: ax NNSA chief
47 DOE: Subcommittee
OTHER NUCLEAR
48 Google News Alert - nuclear
49 Japan Times: Dream of wind power flags
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1 Guardian Unlimited: Profits of war
Halliburton has become a byword for the cosy links between the
White House and Texan big business. But how did the company run
in the 90s by Dick Cheney secure a deal that guaranteed it
millions in profit every time the US military saw action? In this
exclusive extract from his new book, Dan Briody reveals how the
firm made a killing on the battleground
Thursday July 22, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
[The Halliburton Agenda by Dan Briody]
Buy The Halliburton Agenda at Amazon.co.uk
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471638609/guardianunli
m-21/026-1680037-5943634]
On January 12 1991, Congress authorised President George HW Bush
to engage Iraq in war. Just five days later, Operation Desert
Storm commenced in Kuwait. As with the more recent war in the
Gulf, it did not take long for the US to claim victory - it was
all over by the end of February - but the clean-up would last
longer, and was far more expensive than the military action
itself. In a senseless act of desperation and defeat, Iraqi
troops set fire to more than 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, resulting in
a constant fog of thick, black smoke that turned day into night.
It was thought the mess would take no less than five years to
clean up, as lakes of oil surrounding each well blazed out of
control, making it nearly impossible to approach the burning
wells, let alone extinguish them. But with the fighting over,
Halliburton angled its way into the clean-up and rebuilding
effort that was expected to cost around $200bn (£163bn) over the
next 10 years.
The company sent 60 men to help with the firefighting effort.
Meanwhile, its engineering and construction subsidiary Kellogg
Brown & Root (KBR) won an additional $3m contract to assess the
damage that the invasion had done to Kuwait's infrastructure - a
contract whose value had multiplied seven times by the end of
KBR's involvement. More significantly still, KBR won a contract
to extract troops from Saudi Arabia after their services were no
longer needed in the Gulf. Halliburton was back in the army
logistics business in earnest for the first time since Vietnam.
The end of the Gulf war saw nothing less than the rebirth of the
military outsourcing business.
Military outsourcing was not new. Private firms had been aiding
in war efforts since long before KBR won its first naval
shipbuilding contract. But the nature of military outsourcing has
changed dramatically in the last decade. The trend towards a
"downsized" military began because of the "peace dividend" at the
end of the cold war, and continued throughout the 1990s. This
combination of a reduced military but continued conflict gave
rise to an unprecedented new industry of private military firms.
These firms would assist the military in everything from weapons
procurement and maintenance to training of troops and logistics.
In the decade after the first Gulf war, the number of private
contractors used in and around the battlefield increased tenfold.
It has been estimated that there is now one private contractor
for every 10 soldiers in Iraq. Companies such as Halliburton,
which became the fifth largest defence contractor in the nation
during the 1990s, have played a critical role in this trend.
The story behind America's "super contract" begins in 1992, when
the department of defence, then headed by Dick Cheney, was
impressed with the work Halliburton did during its time in
Kuwait. Sensing the need to bolster its forces in the event of
further conflicts of a similar nature, the Pentagon asked private
contractors to bid on a $3.9m contract to write a report on how a
private firm could provide logistical support to the army in the
case of further military action.
The report was to examine 13 different "hot spots" around the
world, and detail how services as varied as building bases to
feeding the troops could be accomplished. The contractor that
would potentially provide the services detailed in the report
would be required to support the deployment of 20,000 troops over
180 days. It was a massive contingency plan, the first of its
kind for the American military.
Thirty-seven companies tendered for the contract; KBR won it. The
company was paid another $5m later that year to extend the plan
to other locations and add detail.
The KBR report, which remains classified to this day, convinced
Cheney that it was indeed possible to create one umbrella
contract and award it to a single firm. The contract became known
as the Logistics Civil Augmentation Programme (Logcap) and has
been called "the mother of all service contracts". It has been
used in every American deployment since its award in 1992 - at a
cost of several billion dollars (and counting). The lucky
recipient of the first, five-year Logcap contract was the very
same company hired to draw up the plan in the first place: KBR.
The Logcap contract pulled KBR out of its late 1980s doldrums and
boosted the bottom line of Halliburton throughout the 1990s. It
is, effectively, a blank cheque from the government. The
contractor makes its money from a built-in profit percentage,
anywhere from 1% to 9%, depending on various incentive clauses.
When your profit is a percentage of the cost, the more you spend,
the more you make.
Before the ink was dry on the first Logcap contract, the US army
was deployed to Somalia in December 1992 as part of Operation
Restore Hope. KBR employees were there before the army even
arrived, and they were the last to leave. The firm made $109.7m
in Somalia. In August 1994, they earned $6.3m from Operation
Support Hope in Rwanda. In September of that same year, Operation
Uphold Democracy in Haiti netted the company $150m. And in
October 1994, Operation Vigilant Warrior made them another $5m.
In the spirit of "refuse no job", the company was building the
base camps, supplying the troops with food and water, fuel and
munitions, cleaning latrines, even washing their clothes. They
attended the staff meetings and were kept up to speed on all the
activities related to a given mission. They were becoming another
unit in the US army.
The army's growing dependency on the company hit home when, in
1997, KBR lost the Logcap contract in a competitive rebid to
rival Dyncorp. The army found it impossible to remove Brown &
Root from their work in the Balkans - by far the most lucrative
part of the contract - and so carved out the work in that theatre
to keep it with KBR. In 2001, the company won the Logcap contract
again, this time for twice the normal term length: 10 years.
To the uninitiated, the appointment of Cheney to the chairman,
president, and chief executive officer positions at Halliburton
in August 1995, made little sense. Cheney had almost no business
experience, having been a career politician and bureaucrat.
Financial analysts downgraded the stock and the business press
openly questioned the decision.
Cheney has been described by those who know him as everything
from low-key to downright bland, but the confidence he inspired
and the loyalty he professed made him an indispensable part of
Donald Rumsfeld's rise to power. In the 1970s, Rumsfeld became
Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff, with Cheney as his
deputy. In those days, Cheney was assigned a codename by the
secret service that perfectly summed up his disposition:
"Backseat".
But Halliburton understood Cheney's value. With him as CEO, the
company gained considerable leverage in Washington. Until
Cheney's appointment in the autumn of 1995, Halliburton's
business results had been decent. After a loss of $91m in 1993,
the company had returned to profitability in 1994 with an
operating profit of $236m. With the new revenue coming in from
Logcap, Halliburton and its prize subsidiary, KBR, were back on
track. Though Logcap was producing only modest revenues, it was
successful in reintegrating KBR into the military machine.
The big opportunity came in December 1995, just two months after
Cheney assumed the post of CEO, when the US sent thousands of
troops to the Balkans as a peace-keeping force. As part of
Operation Joint Endeavour, KBR was dispatched to Bosnia and
Kosovo to support the army in its operations in the region. The
task was massive in scope and size.
One example of the work KBR did in the Balkans was Camp
Bondsteel. The camp was so large that the US general accounting
office (GAO) likened it to "a small town". The company built
roads, power generation, water and sewage systems, housing, a
helicopter airfield, a perimeter fence, guard towers, and a
detention centre. Bondsteel is the largest and most expensive
army base since Vietnam. It also happens to be built in the path
of the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil (Ambo) Trans-Balkan
pipeline, the pipeline connecting the oil-rich Caspian Sea region
to the rest of the world. The initial feasibility project for
Ambo was done by KBR.
KBR's cash flow from Logcap ballooned under Cheney's tenure,
jumping from $144m in 1994 to more than $423m in 1996, and the
Balkans was the driving force. By 1999, the army was spending
just under $1bn a year on KBR's work in the Balkans. The GAO
issued a report in September 2000 charging serious cost-control
problems in Bosnia, but KBR retains the contract to this day.
Meanwhile, Cheney was busy developing Halliburton's business in
other parts of the world. "It is a false dichotomy that we have
to choose between our commercial and other interests," he told
the [public policy research foundation] Cato Institute in 1998,
speaking out against economic sanctions levied by the Clinton
administration against countries suspected of terrorist activity.
"Our government has become sanctions-happy," he continued.
In particular, Cheney objected to sanctions against Libya and
Iran, two countries with which Halliburton was already doing
business regardless. Even more disconcerting, though, was the
work the company did in Iraq. Between his stints as secretary of
defence and vice-president, Cheney was in charge of Halliburton
when it was circumventing strict UN sanctions, helping to rebuild
Iraq and enriching Saddam Hussein.
In September 1998, Halliburton closed a $7.7bn stock merger with
Dresser Industries (the company that gave George HW Bush his
first job). The merger made Halliburton the largest oilfield
services firm in the world. It also brought with it two foreign
subsidiaries that were doing business with Iraq via the
controversial Oil for Food programme. The two subsidiaries,
Dresser Rand and Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co, signed $73m-worth of
contracts for oil production equipment.
Cheney told the press during his 2000 run for vice-president that
he had a "firm policy" against doing business with Iraq. He
admitted to doing business with Iran and Libya, but "Iraq's
different," he said. Cheney told ABC TV: "We've not done any
business in Iraq since UN sanctions were imposed on Iraq in 1990,
and I had a standing policy that I wouldn't do that."
Three weeks later, Cheney was forced to admit the business ties,
but claimed ignorance. He told reporters that he was not aware of
Dresser's business in Iraq, and that besides, Halliburton had
divested itself of both companies by 2000. In the meantime, the
companies had done another $30m-worth of business in Iraq before
being sold off.
The Dresser merger was, it appeared, the crowning achievement of
the Cheney years at Halliburton. But Cheney left Halliburton
several other legacies. David Gribbin, Cheney's former chief of
staff, became Halliburton's chief lobbyist in Washington. Admiral
Joe Lopez, a former commander of the sixth fleet, was hired to be
KBR's governmental operations expert. Together, Cheney's team
made Halliburton one of the top government contractors in the
country. KBR had nearly doubled its government contracts, from
$1.2bn in the five years prior to his arrival, to $2.3bn during
his five years as CEO. Halliburton soared from 73rd to 18th on
the Pentagon's list of top contractors.
After 9/11, KBR went to work on the war on terrorism, building
the 1,000 detention cells at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for terrorist
suspects, at a cost of $52m. The work had to feel familiar to
KBR: it had done the exact same job 35 years earlier in Vietnam.
When troops were deployed to Afghanistan, so was KBR. It built US
bases in Bagram and Kandahar for $157m. As it had done in the
past, KBR had men on the ground before the first troops even
arrived in most locations. They readied the camps, fed the
troops, and hauled away the waste. And they did it like the
military would have done it: fast, efficient, and effective. It
was good work, solid revenues, but nothing like the windfall the
company had experienced in the Balkans.
In addition, Halliburton won the contract for restoring the Iraqi
oil infrastructure - a contract that was not competitively bid.
It was given to Halliburton out of convenience, because it had
developed the plan for fighting oil fires (all, by this time,
extinguished). Despite the new business, the fortunes of
Halliburton and its subsidiary have not prospered. The stock that
Cheney cashed in near its peak, when he renewed his political
career in 2000, has since plummeted. The main culprit was the
1998 merger with Dresser, which saddled the company with asbestos
liabilities that ultimately led to two Halliburton subsidiaries -
one of them KBR - having to file for bankruptcy.
When Cheney left to become Bush's running mate, he took a golden
parachute package - in addition to the stock options he was
obliged to sell for $30m. In September 2003, Cheney insisted:
"Since I've left Halliburton to become George Bush's
vice-president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten
rid of all my financial interests. I have no financial interest
in Halliburton of any kind and haven't now for over three years."
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a non-partisan agency
that investigates political issues at the request of elected
officials, says otherwise. Cheney has been receiving a deferred
salary from Halliburton in the years since he left the company.
In 2001, he received $205,298. In 2002, he drew $162,392. He is
scheduled to receive similar payments through 2005, and has an
insurance policy in place to protect the payments in the event
that Halliburton should fold. In addition, Cheney still holds
433,333 unexercised stock options in Halliburton. He has agreed
to donate any profits to charity.
· The Halliburton Agenda by Dan Briody is published by John Wiley
and Sons Ltd at £16.99. To order a copy for £14.99 plus p, call
Guardian Book Service on 0870 836 0875.
Media New York Times [http://nytimes.com] Washington Post
[http://washingtonpost.com] CNN [http://cnn.com]
Government US government portal [http://www.firstgov.gov/] White
House [http://www.whitehouse.gov/] Senate
[http://www.senate.gov/] House of Representatives
[http://www.house.gov]
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
2 Las Vegas SUN: Australian Report Finds Iraq Data Flawed
By ROD McGUIRK ASSOCIATED PRESS
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -
Australia's decision to invade Iraq was based on thin, equivocal
and uncertain intelligence about that country's weapons of mass
destruction, a report on Australia's prewar intelligence
gathering found Thursday.
But the report by former Australian diplomat and spy master
Philip Flood cleared Prime Minister John Howard's government of
allegations that it doctored intelligence assessments to boost
its case for joining the U.S.-led invasion.
In his 185-page report, Flood lamented "the thinness of the
intelligence on which analysts were expected to make difficult
calls" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The findings
were similar to reports issued in both the United States and
Britain.
"There was little by way of hard current intelligence available
to analysts across the range of WMD capability issues," Flood
said. "Much of the information that was available was equivocal
or of uncertain validity."
He added, "the weakness of the intelligence picture was in part
due to inadequate collection."
The efforts of Australian spy agencies the Office of National
Assessments and Defense Intelligence Organization was further
complicated by their almost complete reliance on intelligence
gathered by the United States and Britain, Flood said.
But he said the agencies had taken a more conservative view to
the intelligence than their U.S. and British counterparts.
"Using similar but not all of the material available to the U.K.
and the U.S., Australian assessments on Iraq's capabilities were
on the whole more cautious and seem even closer to the facts as
we know them so far," Flood said. "There was not, as some have
charged, a blind adherence to U.S. and U.K. assessments."
Flood also found "no evidence of politicization of the
assessments on Iraq, either overt of perceived," Howard said
later.
That ruling is a major boost for Howard ahead of elections
expected in September or October.
He sent 2,000 troops to back the U.S. and British military in
the invasion and still has nearly 900 military personnel in the
region.
Flood found a need for greater transparency and accountability
in the Australian intelligence community.
He recommended the prime minister's major adviser on
intelligence analysis, ONA, have its annual budget almost
doubled to $18 million a year.
"Mr. Flood found that the Australian intelligence community is
performing well and is a potent capability for the government,"
Howard said in a statement.
The Labor Party, the major opposition, said Howard "stands
condemned" for taking Australia to war with an under-resourced
intelligence community.
The Australian Democrats opposition party dismissed the Flood
findings as little more than a whitewash and called for a new
independent inquiry with special coercive powers to investigate
intelligence agencies.
Howard ordered the Flood inquiry in March on the recommendation
of a parliamentary committee that looked at Australian
intelligence agencies leading up to the Iraq war.
The parliamentary report concluded there were unlikely to have
been large stocks of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before
the war.
It also found the government had not misrepresented Australian
intelligence to bolster the case for war.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an ally of Howard and
President Bush in the Iraq invasion, was similarly cleared of
allegations that he exaggerated the intelligence basis for war
in a report on prewar intelligence last week by Lord Butler.
All three leaders have stood by their decisions to go to war
despite flaws found in their intelligence about the danger posed
by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's weapons.
--
*****************************************************************
3 BBC: Australia's Iraq war case damned
Last Updated: Thursday, 22 July, 2004
[Australian PM John Howard in Iraq]
"Thin intelligence": PM Howard with Australian troops in Iraq
Australia relied on "thin, ambiguous and incomplete" intelligence
to go to war in Iraq, according to an inquiry.
But the independent report by Philip Flood, a diplomat and former
spy master, clears Prime Minister John Howard of "politicising"
intelligence.
Its conclusions echo those reached by separate US and UK
inquiries prompted by the failure to find the banned Iraqi
weapons that formed the case for war.
Australia sent 2,000 troops to Iraq last year; 900 are still in
the area.
Prime Minister Howard commissioned Mr Flood's inquiry in March,
on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee investigating
the role Australia's spy agencies had played in the build-up to
war.
The BBC's Sydney correspondent, Phil Mercer, says the Flood
report, like its US and British equivalents, blames intelligence
failures on spy agencies, sparing the politicians.
Investigators attached to Mr Flood's team interviewed Mr Howard,
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Defence Minister Robert
Hill.
Bali failure
The Flood report also says that Australia, like other countries
in the region, was not aware enough of the threat posed by Jemaah
Islamiah (JI), the militant group which has been blamed for the
bomb attacks in Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people,
many of them Australian tourists.
The report says Australia's spies should have known more about
the "terrorist capabilities and intentions" of JI.
But it says that there is no evidence Australia had any specific
warning of the Bali attack.
Recommendations
Prime Minister Howard has hailed the report for clearing his
government of allegations it interfered with pre-war intelligence
on Iraq to fortify its argument for backing the US-led war.
Mr Howard is set to face the electorate in September or October
this year in a campaign which pits him against the staunchly
anti-war Labor Party leader, Mark Latham.
Mr Latham has pledged to withdraw what remains of Australia's
Iraq contingent if he wins the election.
The Flood report makes several recommendations for the reform of
Australia's spy agencies - all but one of which Mr Howard has
said he will implement.
Mr Howard says he will not rename the prime minister's
intelligence advisers, the Office of National Assessments (ONA).
The report also calls for intelligence assessments to be more
transparent and accountable and for the ONA's budget to be
doubled to A$25m ($18m) a year.
*****************************************************************
4 Xinhuanet: Blair calls for understanding over CIA failure to prevent
terror attacks
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-07-22 22:55:15
LONDON, July 22 (Xinhuanet) -- British Prime Minister Tony
Blair on Thursday called for public understanding over the
failure of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to prevent
the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, saying the CIA
did everything it could to prevent the attacks.
"I would like to pay tribute to the CIA and the work that it
has done...It is very, very tough after an event as terrible as
Sept. 11 because the agency and other people are called upon to
defend themselves," Blair told his monthly news conference at 10
Downing Street.
"If anything could have been done, I am sure it would have
beendone," Blair told reporters.
"What is absolutely clear is that al-Qaeda will cause as much
death as possible, and if they can get hold of a chemical or a
biological or a radiological nuclear device, they will," Blair
said, stressing that Britain was taking whatever steps it could
tocounter the threat of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
"Virtually in each major country in the world today, there
are people who would do this if they could do it, and it's our
job to try and stop them," Blair said.
Blair's comments came as an independent US commission on the
Sept. 11 terror attacks was due to reveal its final report later
on Thursday after two years of exhaustive investigation.
Earlier reports said US intelligence bodies were expected to
come under harsh criticism for failing to avert the airliner
hijackings and suicide attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, in which about
3,000 people died. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 UK Independent: No respite for Blair as MPs reopen intelligence inquiry
By Colin Brown and Andrew Grice
22 July 2004
The inquiry into the flawed intelligence which led Britain to
war in Iraq on false claims that Saddam Hussein possessed
weapons of mass destruction is to be reopened by a Labour-led
select committee.
The Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (FAC) agreed at
a meeting behind closed doors to write to Jack Straw, the
Foreign Secretary, with a series of questions, including whether
he told the Prime Minister that the intelligence had been
withdrawn in July last year, because it was no longer judged to
be credible.
The Independent also learnt that the Prime Minister's
Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) agreed at a separate
private meeting yesterday to look into the revelations in the
Butler report that MI6 had withdrawn the intelligence
underpinning the WMD claims.
The decision by the two committees to pursue the unravelling of
the evidence surrounding the Government's Iraq dossiers was a
fresh blow to Mr Blair after surviving Tuesday's Commons debate
on Iraq. He was hoping to draw a line under the row for the
summer, but it is now certain to continue rumbling until the
party conferences in the autumn.
The Government also will be alarmed to discover that Donald
Anderson, the Labour chairman of the FAC, may also have lost the
Labour majority on the committee after two Labour MPs who have
been highly critical of the Government - Eric Illsley and Andrew
Mackinlay - refused to vote with the Labour majority.
The Labour MPs on the committee tried to stop it pursuing the
inquiry beyond writing to Mr Straw. However, in a split vote, it
was agreed to use an expert to investigate the disparities in
the evidence to Hutton and that taken by the committee in
private session from Mr Straw. Mr Illsley and Mr Mackinlay
abstained in the vote, allowing the opposition MPs on the
committee, including the Liberal Democrat David Chidgey, and
Andrew Mackay, a former Tory whip, to inflict a four-three
defeat.
The opposition MPs will seek the support of Mr Illsley and Mr
Mackinlay to recall Mr Straw if disparities are found in the
evidence. The MPs want to know why neither they nor the Hutton
inquiry were told about the withdrawal by MI6 of the crucial
evidence in July, 2003.
Mr Straw revealed on Tuesday that he was told of the withdrawal
in September last year. Mr Blair refused yesterday to give
details about when he was told, but insisted it was "as a result
of the Butler inquiry" into the intelligence mistakes. Bob
Marshall-Andrews QC, a Labour MP opposed to the war, tabled a
further question to Mr Blair demanding the date on which Mr
Blair was told. Mr Marshall-Andrews said: "This is the silver
bullet. Someone is going to come out of the shadows and say, 'I
did tell the Prime Minister before he went before the Hutton
inquiry'. That would be fatal for Tony Blair. Politically, he
would be dead."
The ISC inquiry is part of its rolling programme of intelligence
scrutiny. Sources close to the committee said they had agreed
yesterday to continue investigating the withdrawal of the
evidence. They have more power than the FAC to demand to see
ministers' intelligence briefings. They were told orally by Sir
Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, in July last year that the
intelligence on chemical and biological weapons had been
withdrawn as unreliable. They kept it secret until the Butler
report was delivered. "It was given to us in more than usual
confidence," said the source.
Lord King of Bridgwater, a former Tory defence secretary and ISC
chairman, said both the ISC and the FAC were right to launch new
investigations to restore confidence in their scrutiny role. He
said it was "extraordinary" that Mr Blair was not told that the
discredited intelligence was withdrawn even though Mr Straw was
informed last September. He added that either the Civil Service
was falling down on the job or the Prime Minister was told and
did not remember it because there were not proper minutes.
MPs were sceptical that Mr Blair was not told, saying it
"beggared belief" that backbenchers on the ISC were aware of the
withdrawal of the intelligence while the Prime Minister was not.
They pointed to a memorandum sent by Mr Straw to the FAC last
July which said: "The Prime Minister and other ministers who are
members of the Committee on Security and Intelligence see all
Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) papers." The JIC was told
that the evidence was discredited and withdrawn.
There was speculation at Westminster that officials had decided
not to tell Mr Blair in order to create "a firewall" to protect
him from allegations that he misled Parliament over the threat
posed by Iraq.
Asked if that was the case, Mr Blair's official spokesman said
Downing Street would not be drawn into "processology". He added:
"The important thing is that this was one element but not the
only element."
Meanwhile, Lord Butler has been summoned to the Commons Public
Administration Select Committee on 21 October to give more
evidence on his finding that Mr Blair had operated a
"sofa-style'' clique, instead of proper Cabinet committees with
minutes.
THIRTEEN MONTHS OF SCRUTINY
BUTLER INQUIRY
Investigated the flaws in intelligence on WMD and their use by
Downing Street. Started, 5 February 2004; published, 14 July
2004.
Findings: Intelligence on WMD was patchy and sporadic, and
limitations of the intelligence in the September 2002 dossier
were not "made sufficiently clear", with important caveats
removed.
HUTTON INQUIRY
Looked into the circumstances surrounding the death of David
Kelly. Started, 1 August 2003; reported, 28 January 2004.
Findings: Dr Kelly's meeting with Andrew Gilligan breached civil
service rules. BBC editorial systems defective. No 10 did not
"sex up" WMD dossier.
INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE
Wide remit to investigate the claims in intelligence dossiers
and BBC allegations, concerning the way they were drawn up.
Started, 8 May 2003; reported, 9 September 2003.
Findings: The fact that the 45-minute claim referred to
battlefield weapons, not missiles, should have been highlighted.
COMMONS FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
Investigated decision to go to war in Iraq. Started, 17 June
2003; reported, 21 July 2003.
Findings: Cleared Tony Blair's former director of
communications, Alastair Campbell, of BBC charge of "sexing up"
dossier on WMD against the wishes of the intelligence services;
45-minute claim did not warrant the prominence given to it in
the dossier.
UK Independent Ltd.
*****************************************************************
6 [NukeNet] Force Would Not Stop Any Iran Nuke Plans: Experts
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:55:12 -0700
1.Force Would Not Stop Any Iran Nuke Plans:
Experts
2. Israel Sees 'Nuclear Capable' Iran by 2007
3. Poor Relations With Iran Turning Worse
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-iran.html
Force Would Not Stop Any Iran Nuke Plans: Experts
By REUTERS
Published: July 22, 2004
Filed at 10:13 a.m. ET
VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) - A military strike on
Iranian atomic facilities would delay but not
destroy the development of any nuclear weapons
program, diplomats and analysts said.
``Military action is not the answer,'' said a
senior international diplomat involved in the
investigation of Iran's nuclear plans.
``It would only push them underground, like in
Iraq,'' said the diplomat, who declined to be
named. Israel has hinted it could use air strikes
to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which it and
Washington believe are part of an attempt to
acquire atomic weapons under cover of a civilian
nuclear power program -- a charge Iran denies.
Advertisement
Convinced that Saddam Hussein was developing
nuclear weapons, Israel bombed Iraq's Osiraq
nuclear reactor in 1981. But instead of stopping
him from pursuing the bomb, Saddam went
underground and worked in secret until the program
was uncovered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog in
1991.
Several analysts and diplomats said Iran learned
from Iraq's mistakes and may be hiding nuclear
sites from U.N. inspectors, who have been probing
Tehran's atomic program for nearly two years to
verify that it is peaceful as Iran insists.
``I think it's impossible to take out Iran's
nuclear weapons program with military strikes,'' a
defense industry expert, who declined to be named,
told Reuters. ``They can recuperate.''
But Gary Samore, director of studies at the
International Institute of Strategic Studies in
London and a former adviser to ex-President Bill
Clinton, said military action could significantly
delay any Iranian atomic weapons program.
``Military action could delay the development of
nuclear weapons, assuming they know the right
sites. It could buy them a considerable amount of
time,'' Samore said. ``At least part of Iran's
clandestine program is now public. The question is
whether there are parts we don't know about yet.''
CALLS FOR SANCTIONS
The United States has not threatened Iran with
military action.
For over a year, Washington has tried
unsuccessfully to push the International Atomic
Energy Agency to report Tehran to the U.N.
Security Council, which could impose painful
economic sanctions, for hiding its
uranium-enrichment program for nearly two decades.
U.S. officials say this was a blatant violation of
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but its call
for reporting Iran to the Security Council has met
with strong opposition from the European Union's
three biggest states.
Israel Elad Altman, director of studies at the
Institute for Policy and Strategy in Herzliya,
Israel, said the French, German and British
``carrot and stick'' approach has failed and
sanctions are needed. The European trio promised
Iran peaceful nuclear technology in exchange for
suspending its uranium enrichment.
Iran pledged in October to fully suspend the
program but recently said it would resume the
manufacture, assembly and testing of enrichment
centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium
for weapons.
``We must impose sanctions that really hurt,''
Altman said. ``Iran needs sanctions that make them
pay a price. If sanctions don't work, then they'll
have to use military strikes. They don't need to
hit every facility. It would just be symbolic.''
Iran has already warned that military action would
mean the end of cooperation with the IAEA. The
agency has uncovered many potentially
weapons-related activities in Iran, but no clear
proof that Washington is right about Iran -- no
``smoking gun.''
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-israel-iran-nuclear.html
Israel Sees 'Nuclear Capable' Iran by 2007
By REUTERS
Published: July 21, 2004
Filed at 2:49 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli estimates of when
Iran will be able to build a nuclear bomb have
been shifted two more years to 2007, an
intelligence report said Wednesday and analysts
credited the delay to international scrutiny of
Tehran.
Security sources quoted the report -- delivered to
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in private and leaked
in part to the media -- as saying that within
three years Iran would have the means to produce
an atomic bomb by itself.
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Iran vehemently denies pursuing nuclear weapons,
arguing its atomic ambitions are limited to
generating electricity.
Tehran officials have also accused Israel of
trying to distract the international community
from its own assumed nuclear arsenal and stoking
world opinion against the last Middle East foe
which could challenge it militarily.
In 2000, Israeli security sources told Reuters
that Iran would be nuclear-capable within five
years and was developing long-range missiles with
which to lob warheads at Tel Aviv.
The regional picture has since changed, with a
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq bringing neighboring
Iran under closer watch by the West -- especially
after Tehran admitted in November to buying
centrifuges used to enrich uranium from a black
market set up by Pakistani nuclear weapons expert
Abdul Qadeer Khan.
For over a year, the United States has tried to
pressure the U.N. International Atomic Energy
Agency to report Iran to the Security Council for
hiding its uranium enrichment program.
``The sense in Israel is that the international
pressure and threat of sanctions against Iran have
held up its nuclear ambitions, if only by
hindering the supply of equipment and know-how,''
said Alon Ben-David, an analyst with Jane's, which
publishes Jane's Defense Weekly.
``But no one believes the Iranian program has come
to a halt. This is seen as a hold-up only,''
Ben-David said.
Experts say that once a country has enough fissile
uranium, it is only months away from a nuclear
weapon.
As well as acquiring technology from Khan, Iran
has experimented with various avenues of enriching
uranium, Western diplomats say. Also, traces of
bomb-grade uranium found inside the country last
year have never been adequately explained.
But the Iraq upheaval, and the West's more
stand-off approach to North Korea amid widespread
beliefs that Pyongyang already has nuclear arms,
may have accelerated Iran's ambitions, they say.
``Iranian leaders got together after the Iraq war
and decided that the reason North Korea was not
attacked was because it has the bomb. Iraq was
attacked because it did not,'' a Western diplomat
told Reuters this week, citing intelligence
reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-US-Iran-Crisis.html
Poor Relations With Iran Turning Worse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 21, 2004
Filed at 8:17 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is
pressing Britain, France and Germany for strong
measures against Iran in response to its violation
of a nonproliferation agreement reached with the
three last fall, a State Department official said
Wednesday.
The issue is part of a deepening American concern
over recent Iranian activities that range from
weapons programs to terrorism. To head off a
potential crisis, some analysts believe the
administration should work harder to promote a
dialogue with Iran.
Advertisement
The United States believes Iran is developing
nuclear weapons, a view reinforced by Iran's
recent decision to resume construction of
centrifuges. This is a key step in the development
of a uranium-based bomb, one that Iran promised
the Europeans last fall that it would not take.
It is not clear what the United States expects the
three European Union members to do in response.
The administration believes it is imperative that
the three demonstrate to Iran that it must suffer
consequences for not fulfilling the agreement.
Iran has said it feels no obligation to honor the
agreement, alleging that the Europeans had
violated a promise to ensure that the U.N. nuclear
watchdog group would give Iran a clean bill of
health.
Iran insists its nuclear program has nothing to do
with weaponry and is meant to meet domestic
electricity needs.
There are additional American concerns, including
word that the bipartisan commission investigating
the Sept. 11 attacks has concluded that Iran gave
al-Qaida hijackers safe passage through the
country after their training in Afghanistan.
A White House spokesman said Monday there was no
evidence that Iran had prior knowledge of the
Sept. 11 plot. The commission report is due
Thursday.
Amid the stepped-up accusations about its
behavior, Iran has been projecting a benign image
to the world. Rend al-Rahim Francke, Iraq's chief
representative in Washington, told The Associated
Press in an interview Monday that Iran has played
a positive role in the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
She said Iranian authorities recently captured 200
Afghan fighters who were en route to Iraq.
The Bush administration, in addition to lobbying
the Europeans, has been attempting to persuade all
members of the U.N.'s nuclear nonproliferation
agency that it is time to refer Iran's nuclear
activities to the U.N. Security Council.
John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms
control, told Congress last month that the Iranian
program was a ``threat to international peace and
security.'' He said Iran's hard-line Islamic
regime, now 25 years old, clearly has a covert
program to develop and stockpile chemical weapons
and probably has an offensive biological weapons
program.
Until about a year ago, the United States
maintained a low-key dialogue with Iran, then
decided it was a waste of time.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says a
renewed engagement is possible only under certain
conditions.
``We're willing to sit down, if the president
determines it's in our interest to do so, and if
we think there's the opportunity for progress,''
Boucher said Monday.
A Council on Foreign Relations task force issued a
report contending the administration must do more
to avert another crisis in the Persian Gulf
region.
``The urgency of the concerns surrounding (Iran's)
policies mandates the United States to deal with
the current regime rather than wait for it to
fall,'' said the report from the panel co-chaired
by former national security adviser Zbigniew
Brzezinski and former CIA director Robert Gates.
Brzezinski told reporters Monday that engagement
with Iran would be a useful step even if it
produced no results because it would mold greater
international solidarity in opposition to Iran.
Gates said the U.S. military option against Iran
must never be ruled out. Still, he acknowledged,
the costs of any such step would be exorbitant
because key nuclear weapons sites are located in
or near large civilian populations.
He added that a U.S. military attack would
galvanize support for the Tehran government across
the country. Iranian authorities, he said, could
retaliate by destabilizing neighboring Iraq and
Afghanistan, countries in which, he noted, the
United States has an undeniable strategic stake.
_______________________________________________________________________
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7 Korea Herald: U.S. policy on Korean Peninsula needs an overhaul
2004.07.23
By Stephen W. Linton
WASHINGTON - Like the seas that surround it, the Korean Peninsula
has a well-deserved reputation for being dangerously
unpredictable. Under the storm-tossed surface, however, run
strong currents that give both direction and intent to these
oft-troubled waters.
Public opinion in South Korea sometimes swells into strong and
dangerous currents. Once formed, these long-term trends in public
sentiment are slow to change and almost impossible to reverse.
And. as the last South Korean elections proved beyond question,
even the U.S.-ROK Security Alliance is not a large enough anchor
against this tide. Indeed, there are three strong 'consensus
currents' in South Korea which run counter to American policy.
All are particularly characteristic of South Korea's younger
generation and are dangerous to continued American influence in
the region.
The first holds that U.S. policy is bad for Korea's economy. In
the 1950's, American aid comprised more than 50 percent of the
South Korean economy. For the next three decades, access to
American markets fueled South Korea's dramatic economic advance
from one of the world's poorest to one of the wealthiest nations.
Nevertheless, many Koreans now think American policy is a threat
to Korea's economic future. How did this come about?
The thinking here is that access to cheap North Korean labor
would rejuvenate South Korea's stumbling economy. In fact, North
Korea is South Korea's last chance to regain international
competitiveness, particularly in the low-tech sectors that once
fueled South Korea's economic miracle. Unfortunately, America's
economic restrictions on goods produced in North Korea keep the
two Koreas from what could be an advantageous marriage of South
Korean technology and North Korean labor.
Young Korean entrepreneurs are particularly bitter about the
losses they believe they are sustaining due to American policy
toward North Korea. As a result, no matter how well South Korea's
economy prospers, the perception remains that Koreans could do
much better if not for American restrictions on business with the
North.
The belief that American policy is bad for the South Korean
economy has a counterpart in North Korea as well. Instead of
blaming their socialist system for chronic economic hardship,
most North Koreans believe that their nation would be as wealthy
(or wealthier) than the South if only North Korea had equal
access to United States and other Western markets. Consequently,
no matter how much humanitarian aid they receive from Washington,
North Koreans still think that the U.S. embargo is denying them a
level economic playing field and holding them back from gaining
what is rightfully theirs.
The second consensus current holds that American policy is bad
for Korea's security. The U.S.-ROK Security Alliance has been the
backbone of South Korea's defense for a half-century. But recent
polls show a majority of South Korean citizens, particularly the
young, now see America as their biggest national security threat.
What is driving this dramatic change of opinion? Many young
Koreans believe that Washington's aggressive pursuit of the "war
on terror," particularly its pre-emptive policy and pressure on
"rogue nations," poses even graver risks to peace in East Asia
than North Korea's WMD programs. Many fear America's war on
terror is not only a war between "haves and have-nots," but also
a conflict that is creating more enemies than it destroys, and,
consequently, putting Korea and other U.S. allies at greater
rather than lesser risk of terrorist attack.
The third consensus current holds that American policy is a
threat to Korea's ethnic and national aspirations.
Unquestionably, South Korea would not have survived the Korean
War were it not for the American military. But for many Koreans
today, particularly those too young to remember the horrors of
the war, the future of Korea as a reunited ethnic nation
transcends even the importance of state survival. Unless North
and South reunite, they believe, the future of Koreans as an
independent people is in doubt.
According to this line of thinking, the presence of U.S. troops
in South Korea is the major obstacle to reunification and, thus,
to Korean ethnic and national aspirations. To add insult to
injury, foreign troops on Korean soil are also an affront to
Korean pride. A Republic of Korea dependent on the United States
for its security is a liability to its bid to join the ranks of
advanced nations.
Koreans who interpret their history to be a litany of
victimization by rapacious foreign powers maintain that
self-defense, even with nuclear weapons, is a national and ethnic
right. Doubtful that North Korea would use WMD against fellow
Koreans, they insist a reunited Korean Peninsula should keep
nuclear and all other defense options open to discourage future
invaders.
A majority of younger Koreans strongly believe that the United
States, China, and Japan want to hold Koreans back from achieving
all they can. Some even speculate that the catalogue of U.S.
concerns about North Korea - a list that includes not only North
Korea's WMD but also missile sales, human rights abuses,
counterfeit money, and drugs - is part of an elaborate plan to
further isolate the North and retard reconciliation and
reunification of the peninsula.
On the surface, it would appear that these three public consensus
currents leave little room for the U.S.-ROK Security Alliance.
Nevertheless, it may still be possible to turn the tide of public
opinion away from anti-Americanism by undertaking a judicious
re-articulation of America's core concerns for Korea and the
region. The objective of a policy overhaul by Washington should
be to develop policies that complement, rather than frustrate,
the sentiment of South Korea's youthful 'New Majority'.
An effective U.S. policy toward North Korea would comprise three
elements to achieve an immediate, comprehensive solution to the
standoff with North Korea. First, it would focus primarily on WMD
and secondarily on everything else. The United States would
encourage South Korea and other allies in the region to take
leadership in resolving North Korea's non-WMD related negatives,
such as human rights abuses, drugs, counterfeit money, etc.
Second, Washington must express a willingness to extend the kind
of iron-clad security guarantees to North Korea that the United
States has given South Korea under the alliance, contingent on
only two conditions: a) that Pyongyang irreversibly abandon all
of its WMD-related programs; and b) that Pyongyang implement
simultaneously a robust and verifiable non-aggression pact with
South Korea. Violation of this pact would automatically nullify
the proposed security agreement between the United States and the
N.K. Third, the United States should lift all economic
restrictions on trade with North Korea indefinitely, contingent
on a comprehensive annual review.
*****************************************************************
8 Korea Herald: [NEWS ANALYSIS]Roh, Koizumi build mutual confidence
2004.07.23
By Seo Hyun-jin
Free from formalities, leaders reach agreement on closer ties
[http://www.voiceware.co.kr]
JEJU - The leaders of South Korea and Japan held two days of
talks in a casual setting, but the outcome was no less
substantial than their four previous formal-dressed meetings in
addressing crucial pending issues.
President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Jinichiro
Koizumi boosted their momentum to resolve North Korea's nuclear
issue by pledging to offer economic aid to the North in return
for its nuclear dismantlement.
They also reached on a host of measures to enhance bilateral
exchanges including Japan's decision to allow South Koreans to
enter Japan without visas for the six-month duration of the 2005
Aichi World Exposition and to review permanent visa exemption in
the future.
President Roh Moo-hyun talks with Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi on a bench near the Shilla Hotel on Jeju Island
yesterday. Koizumi returned home after a two-day visit to Korea.
[The Korea Herald]
Political analysts said this type of working summit, which both
sides agreed to facilitate, will contribute to building
confidence between the two countries as the relations have often
been marred surrounding disputes over Japan's harsh colonial rule
of Korea between 1910 and 1945. "South Korea and Japan still have
differences and mistrust regarding the North Korean nuclear
problem. So it is very important that the leaders meet often and
adjust positions," said Jin Chang-soo, a senior researcher at the
private Sejong Institute.
Japan has resorted to both pressure and dialogue in dealing with
North Korea, though recently showed some reconciliatory gestures.
South Korea hopes Japan will take a softer stance on Pyongyang
and ameliorate the ties with the communist country soon.
During a joint news conference with Roh on Wednesday, Koizumi
said Seoul, Tokyo and Washington shared the goal of the complete
dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs but
responses of the countries can be different.
"I think it is meaningful that South Korea and Japan took
security issues as the main agenda of the talks," Jin said.
Besides the nuclear issue, both sides took important steps to
enhance the relationship as the two countries marks the 40th
anniversary of the diplomatic normalization next year.
Koizumi's decision to review permanent visa-free entry for South
Koreans to Japan is regarded significant, considering Japan has
been inactive on the issue though Japanese tourists to South
Korea have been given the status since 1994.
Both sides also decided to make joint efforts to provide an
environment for concluding a high-level free trade agreement.
To continue this type of a casual summit, Koizumi invited Roh to
visit Japan in the latter half of the year and Roh agreed on the
proposal.
Despite the agreements, Roh and Koizumi revealed disaccord on
tricky history issues though they said they would focus on
future-oriented matters rather than issues that would paralyze
the development of bilateral relations.
Roh asked the Japanese side to take the initiative to settle the
lingering disputes, saying "I hope rational, good wisdom and
solution will come from the Japanese public," and he would not
raise those issues during his term.
The ruling Uri Party and the opposition Grand National Party had
different takes on the summit.
The GNP criticized Roh of conducting "humiliation diplomacy" by
promising not to take issue with Japan's glossing over the past.
But the Uri Party said Roh chose the right direction to upgrade
the Seoul-Tokyo relationship.
(shj@heraldm.com)
2004.07.23
*****************************************************************
9 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Disputable summit diplomacy
2004.07.23
By Seo Hyun-jin
[http://www.voiceware.co.kr]
They met in casual outfits to stress the summit was informal.
But neither of the two leaders could have been in a casual mood.
Aside from the obvious urgency of the topics on the table for
their two-day encounter, they must have felt the heavy pressure
of domestic politics. If the two leaders wished for momentum to
boost their slipping leadership at home through their brief
summit on a resort island, they will have to wait some time for
report cards.
Emerging from the first session on Jeju Island Wednesday,
President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi reaffirmed their intermediary roles in resolving the
North Korean nuclear issue. They both offered economic rewards
to the North for giving up its nuclear ambitions. Koizumi
reiterated his proposal to normalize relations with the
communist state at an early date, hopefully within a year, and
provide economic assistance.
The two leaders virtually echoed U.S. Undersecretary of State
John Bolton who had said during his visit here earlier this week
that the United States was not "in a holding pattern" and hoped
North Korea would make "a strategic choice" before the U.S.
presidential election in November. The best choice would be "the
Libya model" which enabled its leader Moammar Gadhafi to retain
his regime in return for giving up nuclear arms development and
allowing international inspections.
The Roh-Koizumi talks were apparently set up in connection with
the recent whirlwind visits to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing by top
U.S. officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. They delivered
Washington's notably relaxed position concerning the nuclear
dispute. In another softened move, the Bush administration
permitted a North Korean envoy to the United Nations to visit
Washington to attend a forum on security on the Korean Peninsula.
All these appear to be hopeful signs that the upcoming fourth
round of the multilateral conference, expected to be convened in
Beijing by the end of September, may find a breakthrough in the
long standoff between the United States and North Korea. With
many fingers kept crossed, President Roh has backtracked from
pushing for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
During a joint news conference with Koizumi, he said he doubted
it would help resolve the nuclear issue if he hurried into a
summit without considering the North's stance.
Roh's apparent shift from his earlier interest in holding an
inter-Korean summit as a process toward a nuclear settlement, as
well as his statements about the history of Korea-Japan
relations, will stir up controversy at home. Eventually, the
summit with Koizumi will likely add more fuel to the unceasing
disputes about the leadership of the embattled president. This
will naturally add to the question as to the purpose of the
summit, which was organized in obvious haste.
The United States and Japan might have both wanted to sound out
the position of the Roh administration toward North Korea as its
arguably soft attitude has caused skepticism among
anti-communist conservatives. Koizumi, on his part, could have
taken the opportunity to perform a visible part in the
protracted dispute surrounding the North Korean nuclear arms
program. In the wake of his defeat in recent elections, he must
be desperate to overcome his eroding electoral strength.
Koizumi is also under fire for undermining relations with China
with his controversial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. Critics
sum up Tokyo-Beijing ties as "chilly politics and hot
economics." Roh may find himself under subtle diplomatic
pressure to keep his promise to be a "bridge" between the two
countries in the delicate geopolitical situation. It can be an
extremely awkward role as Korea suffered more under the Japanese
rule in the 20th century.
The president was imprudent to say he would make sure that
Korea will not take issue with history during his
administration. He should have remembered that 2005 will not
only commemorate the 40th anniversary of the normalization of
Seoul-Tokyo relations, but will also mark the centenary of the
forceful signing of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905, which
practically stripped the declining Joseon dynasty of its
sovereign power in a prelude to the annexation five years later.
2004.07.23
*****************************************************************
10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Leaders of S. Korea, Japan Wrap Up Summit Talks on Jeju
Island
Updated July.22,2004 13:50 KST
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi have wrapped up summit talks on the resort
island of Jeju.
Prior to that, the two leaders went on a morning hike and went
over the previous day's discussions.
On Wednesday, they agreed to work closer together to peacefully
resolve North Korea's nuclear tension and strengthen bilateral
cooperation on a host of tie-boosting measures, including work to
promote a free trade agreement and Japan's visa waivers for South
Korean visitors during the 2005 Aichi World Expo.
They also talked about holding another working summit in the
year's second half in Japan.
Should North Korea halt its nuclear programs, President Roh also
said, Seoul is willing to offer economic benefits to the North
while Prime Minister Koizumi expressed intentions to normalize
diplomatic relations with Pyongyang within a year.
Arirang TV
*****************************************************************
11 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Executive Board of KEDO Meets in New York
Updated July.22,2004 14:00 KST
The executive board of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development
Organization, or KEDO met in New York on Wednesday.
Board members from South Korea, the United States, European
Union and Japan, focused on ways to preserve and maintain
equipment and materials for the suspended project of two
light-water reactors in North Korea.
The international consortium halted its reactor project for a
year in November, 2003, after Pyongyang failed to freeze its
nuclear development programs as promised in a 1994 pact with the
United States, in return for the supply of two light-water
reactors for power generation.
The first reactor was due to be completed last year but work had
been delayed because of nuclear tension and other problems.
*****************************************************************
12 PRAVDA.Ru: The secret life behind Kremlin walls exposed -
07/22/2004 12:14
Former Kremlin employee talks about the life of Soviet and
Russian top officials behind Kremlin walls
The life behind Kremlin walls has always been hidden from the
public eye. Numerous legends and rumors have been going around
Kremlin secrets, but they have never been exposed to anyone.
Russian and foreign people have always been interested in the
Kremlin life; every little detail immediately attracts people's
attention. Nowadays, one may do a tour of the Kremlin territory,
visit churches and museums, but access to official buildings is
still strictly forbidden. The chairman of the Kremlin's protocol
service Vladimir Shevchenko unveils several secrets of the
Kremlin life. The protocol service is in charge of little things
which make the president look and act like the president. The
service deals with the president's image, dress code, public
behavior, etc. [ hspace=5 src=]
The Kremlin metro and the air-raid shelter
A secret metro line was built during Stalin's stay at power. The
train for line was special: it was reminiscent of a little tram
without any comforts at all. The underground line was meant to
be used in case of emergency in order to evacuate top officials
from the Kremlin. Nowadays, the Kremlin line of the Moscow metro
cannot be used for passenger transportation at all: it requires
capital repairs. In addition, it is situated close to
underground communications. A special air-raid shelter was also
built for Kremlin officials. It was located under Stalin's
apartment. People say Stalin descended to the shelter in the
fall of 1941during an air-raid warning.
Nuclear briefcase
There are three nuclear cases in the state. The president and
the defense minister own two and the other one is kept at the
general headquarters. Every briefcase comes with a special bag.
The case and the bag contain the instant response system, which
immediately informs the president about the target of enemy's
nukes, time left until the strike, how nukes can be intercepted
and which actions can be done in response. In addition, the
system provides efficient connection with all instances in
charge of the state's security and defense. The decision about
the use of nuclear weapons can be made only with the president,
the defense minister and the general headquarters commander.
Nuclear cases are made by the company Samsonite. They are ten
centimeters thick and weigh several kilograms. Nuclear cases
always follow the president, no matter where he goes. They are
carried by specialists of electronics. When Putin was flying a
Su-27 pursuit plane in the spring of 2000, there was another jet
flying nearby with an operator holding a nuclear briefcase in
his hands.
How presidents talk on the phone
As a rule, the Foreign Affairs Ministry organizes phone
conversations with foreign countries' presidents. For example,
the US State Department contacts the Russian Foreign Affairs
Ministry or the Russian ambassador in the USA and says that Mr.
Bush would like to talk to Mr. Putin. Putin's assistant for
international affairs, or the president himself, is immediately
informed about it. The president appoints the time of the
conversation, adequate services arrange the connection and check
its quality. Foreign Ministry's specialists translate the
conversation in a special booth. Sometimes the presidents use
two translators on both sides, sometimes they use only one.
Kremlin wages
President Putin is paid 63 thousand rubles a month (about
$2,000). Boris Yeltsin's salary was 20,000 rubles, a raise took
place recently. The head of the presidential administration
receives about 45,000 rubles, his deputies are paid 27-30
thousand, others receive 12-15 thousand rubles a month. Kremlin
officials use free of charge mobile communication, they are
provided with state vehicles. Presidential administration
officials can buy discounted tickets to a very good holiday
house; they use the services of the Kremlin hospital. There is
no polyclinic in the Kremlin -there is only a small first-aid
station.
The Kremlin food is very delicious and diverse. Officials are
served best cakes and buns. Kremlin cooks work there for 20 or
40 years, their secrets literally go from one generation to
another. For official receptions in the Kremlin they serve
traditional Russian dishes. Vodka was more popular before,
nowadays it has been replaced with wine. Russian wines are
produced only in Dagestan, in the Krasnodar and Stavropol
regions. That is why Kremlin officials drink import wines from
Italy, France or Moldavia. Kremlin has a kitchen of its own,
they cook for 200-250 persons there. There is a small restaurant
in the building, where the presidential administration sits. The
Kremlin kitchen has been special since Stalin times. It was
modernized during Yeltsin's stay at power. Now it is outfitted
with up-to-date kitchen equipment. The Kremlin kitchen has
always been a secret object. All cooks, their assistants,
waiters and waitresses were listed in KGB.
Political Bureau members and candidates were called 'objects.'
Each member had a special individual number. The first person to
eat Kremlin meals was the sanitary doctor. The food would then
be packed in containers and put in fridges for 24 hours. The
kitchen personnel could not access the special base, which
supplied high-quality products. However, they could bring home
most delicious meals on biggest national holidays - November
7th, the New Year and May 1st.
All Soviet leaders liked good nutritious and tasty meals.
Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev would spend a lot of time at
dinner table. Mikhail Gorbachev was a gourmet too, although
Boris Yeltsin preferred plain Russian food.
To be continued.
Read the original in Russian: (Translated by: Dmitry Sudakov)
Pravda.Ru
L1999-2002 "PRAVDA.Ru".
*****************************************************************
13 BBC: Beijing 'brown-out' to save power
Last Updated: Thursday, 22 July, 2004
[Child drinking water from water bottle]
Fierce temperatures are putting resources under pressure
Beijing has experienced its first brown-out of the year - a
partial power cut to save energy as China grapples with soaring
electricity demand.
It came as China's state media announced that the authorities
have approved two nuclear power projects in regions particularly
hit by shortages.
Thousands of companies in Shanghai have switched to working at
night so there is no need to use air conditioning.
State press articles have urged people to stop wearing suits in
the summer.
According to China's Xinhua news agency, Beijing's grid switched
off power to parts of more than 10 districts and counties of the
capital, after three electricity generators in Beijing, Tianjin
and Hebei broke down on Wednesday.
China hopes that the introduction of two more nuclear power
plants will help to fulfil the country's demand for energy, which
has soared as its economy has boomed.
The State Council has given the go-ahead for work to begin at the
Lin'ao power plant project in Guangdong province and at the
Sanmen project in Zhejiang province, Xinhua said.
"Nuclear power generating is a kind of clean and safe way of
power supply, with mature technology and good flexibility," the
cabinet was quoted as saying.
China has four nuclear power plants, accounting for less than 2%
of the country's total energy supply. It hopes to expand that to
make up 4% of the total by 2020.
Energy industry officials warned on Thursday that China is
expected to see a 250m-ton annual crude oil shortage by 2020.
*****************************************************************
14 [DU-WATCH] Citizens' Groups in Licensing Hearing of Nuclear
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 23:50:58 -0500 (CDT)
US Govt defends inclusion of PS and NIRS re LES in New Mexico
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1752
July 19, 2004
Government Judicial Body Affirms Role of Citizens' Groups in
Licensing Hearing of Nuclear Plant
WASHINGTON, D.C. Today's ruling by a federal judicial board
affirming the participatory role of two public interest organizations
in the upcoming licensing hearing for a proposed nuclear fuel plant
in southeastern New Mexico is a step in the right direction toward
protecting the public interest, co-petitioners Public Citizen and the
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) said.
The board accepted all but one of the groups' complaints
(called "contentions") about the application of Louisiana Energy
Services (LES), the multinational company seeking to build a uranium
enrichment facility near Eunice, N.M. The plant would process uranium
fuel for sale to operators of commercial nuclear power reactors.
The groups said that the company didn't adequately address the
environmental impacts of the plant, the disposal of the radioactive
waste it would produce and other factors. Public Citizen and NIRS
represent their members living near the site of the proposed facility.
"We applaud the board's ruling, which recognizes the validity of
our complaints as well as our right to participate in this licensing
process on behalf of our members in New Mexico," said Wenonah Hauter,
director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment
Program, which petitioned jointly with NIRS to intervene in the
licensing hearing. "This is an important step to ensure that all
parties' concerns are heard before the government considers granting
LES a permit for this plant."
The ruling came from a three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board
(ASLB) appointed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the
federal agency responsible for licensing and regulating the domestic
nuclear industry. The board will hear, in a courtroom-style
proceeding, disputes arising from LES's license application and other
relevant documents. The ASLB also admitted contentions from New
Mexico's attorney general and the state's Environment Department.
"We are elated that the people will get a voice in this hearing,"
said Michael Mariotte, executive director of NIRS. "The substance
of our contentions is strong; we believe it will be very difficult
for LES to make a case before an impartial board that it should be
allowed to operate this unnecessary nuclear facility."
The board confirmed that the citizens' groups will be able to
formally participate in the licensing hearing by presenting their
disputes regarding such issues as the need for the proposed plant,
its possible impact on local water resources, LES's uranium waste
storage and disposal plan, and the company's financial plan for
dealing with the hazardous radioactive material produced by the
facility during and after its period of operation.
The ASLB accepted the following contentions:
LES's application does not contain a complete or adequate assessment
of the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project on
ground and surface water, contrary to regulatory requirements.
The application does not contain a complete or adequate assessment of
the potential environmental impacts of the proposed facility upon
local water supplies, contrary to regulatory requirements. Further,
to introduce a new industrial facility with significant water needs
in an area with a projected water shortage runs counter to the
federal responsibility to act "as a trustee of the environment for
succeeding generations," according to the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA).
LES does not have a sound, reliable or plausible strategy for
disposal of the large amounts of radioactive and hazardous depleted
uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) waste that the plant would produce.
Moreover, LES's application seriously underestimates the costs and
the feasibility of managing and disposing of the DUF6.
The application fails to discuss the impacts of construction and
operation of facilities that will be required to manage the waste
that would be produced by the plant.
LES has presented insufficient estimates of the costs of
decommissioning the plant at the end of its useful life.
LES's application does not adequately describe or weigh the
environmental, social and economic impacts and costs of operating the
facility, and LES inadequately considers the need for the facility.
The application does not contain a complete or adequate assessment of
the potential environmental impacts of accidents involving natural
gas transmission pipelines.
The NRC's licensing process is a formal legal procedure administered
by the ASLB. Contentions must involve genuine disputes over factual
issues instances where LES might be in violation of federal
regulations or where LES's license application is incomplete or
misleading. Contentions must be backed up by affidavits and testimony
from expert witnesses people who are acknowledged leaders in their
fields.
This is LES's third attempt to secure a site for its proposed
nuclear plant. The company withdrew its application to build a
similar plant in Louisiana after nearly a decade of intense citizen
opposition and unfavorable rulings by an ASLB. LES made another
attempt to locate the plant in Tennessee, but was again expelled by
local opponents before it had a chance to submit an application to
the NRC. Citizens were concerned about the company's misleading
statements and lack of a clear plan for the disposal of its waste.
To read today's ruling, click here.
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15 SignOnSanDiego.com: Diablo Canyon nuclear unit goes off-line as
state faces another day of hot weather
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:53 a.m. July 22, 2004
FOLSOM As electricity grid managers prepared for another day
of high energy demand Thursday, one of two units at a nuclear
power plant was shut down so workers could fix a leaky pipe,
cutting 1,100-megawatts of electricity from the state power grid.
One of the units at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San
Luis Obispo County was shut down after workers found a crack in a
pipe that delivers water to cool a pump, said David Proulx, a
senior inspector with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The water was not involved in reactor cooling and there was no
threat of radioactive contamination, Proulx said.
"I can't overemphasize that this is clean water," Proulx said.
The two units at the plant normally produce 2,212 megawatts of
electricity. One megawatt is approximately enough electricity for
750 homes.
There was no estimate of how long the unit would be off line.
The plant's owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., didn't
immediately return a call from a reporter seeking comment.
The loss of electricity came a day after California set another
record for electricity consumption reaching 44,360 megawatts
Wednesday, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman for the
Independent System Operator, which manages much of the state's
power grid.
Wednesday was the third day in a row that California broke
records for electricity use, as air conditioners continued to
provide relief from above-average temperatures blanketing most of
the state. Temperatures in the Sacramento-area were forecast to
top 100 again Thursday, but McCorkle said grid managers didn't
expect electricity use to top Wednesday's record.
The good news Thursday was that a "nice layer of fog" rolled into
the Bay Area, she said, dropping temperatures by a few degrees.
"Shaving a couple degrees off doesn't sound like a lot, but it
means 400 or 500 megawatts that we don't have to line up,"
McCorkle said.
Power grid managers don't expect the high electricity demand to
trigger a repeat of the blackouts that hit the state in 2001.
More power plants have been built around California since then
to prevent a repeat.
Until Monday, the previous peak-demand record had stood since
1999.
About the Union-Tribune | Contact the Union-Tribune
© Copyright 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
16 Lowell Sun Online: Westford warns about fouled water
July 22, 2004
Lowell, MA
By PETER WARD, Sun Staff
WESTFORD Tests this month showed that a town well and the
treatment plant it feeds contained traces of a potentially
harmful chemical typically found in fertilizer or explosives,
said an official from the Water Department, which yesterday was
busy alerting the public.
The department's routine quarterly tests on July 13 detected
traces of the chemical perchlorate, and on July 16 officials shut
off the Cote Well, one of three wells that feed the Nutting Road
water treatment plant.
Elaine Major, an environmental analyst with the Water Department,
said they shut the well as soon as preliminary results arrived
and conducted second tests "as fast as possible."
Officials don't know how the well was fouled.
The other two wells were tested and found to be free of
contamination.
OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION 7/22/2004 - Taking her Shot at
Glory - Artists help folk festival open eyes - Manslaughter pleas
in Townsend slaying - Timing, staff changes fueled
The amount of perchlorate, an oxidizer found in solid rocket
fuel, safety flares, fireworks and fertilizer, exceeded a strict
state recommendation for drinking water but was well below what
the state deems unhealthy for consumption. Nevertheless, the
Water Department yesterday sought to alert the most sensitive
populations, such as pregnant women, infants, children up to 12,
and people with a hyperthyroid condition. The area served most by
the Nutting Road plant includes the neighborhoods in and around
Nabnasset Village.
"Any of those sensitive populations that are worried should
contact their health-care provider," said Major, whose department
mass-mailed a warning yesterday and by state law was required to
place notices in local newspapers.
Only the Cote Well was tainted. The five wells that feed the
Forge Village treatment plant were not contaminated, Major said.
All water customers are now being served water from the clean
wells.
Bathing and showering in the water is and was safe, even when
the water contained perchlorate, said Major.
However, the town has asked that people in the affected
neighborhood throw out ice cubes, juices, baby formulas and other
beverages prepared before yesterday.
The amount of perchlorate found at the Cote Well, located near
the new middle school off Groton Road, averaged 3.3 parts per
billion while the amount at the Nutting Road plant averaged 2.4
parts per billion. Traces of the chemical were less at the plant
because water there was diluted by two additional wells.
There is no federal standard for perchlorate. The Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection has recommended a limit of
1 part per billion for sensitive populations, and it requires
additional tests when tests exceed that amount.
By contrast, California allows up to 4 parts per billion. The
Massachusetts DEP said perchlorate is unhealthy at or above 18
parts per billion.
Officials confirmed test results by sending pairs of tests to
two different laboratories.
The positive test followed a negative test three months ago.
"We know it wasn't there in April," Major said.
Officials don't know how the perchlorate got into the
groundwater.
The Fire Department, which authorizes blasting in town, was
reviewing the permits it issued over the past few months, said
Major.
The Cote Well is especially vulnerable. It has an unusually high
water table measured at 5 feet from the ground's surface last
winter and is located in very porous gravel, said Major.
The police chief and fire chief did not return calls yesterday.
The town manager was out of the office for the day.
To try to pinpoint the source where the chemical entered the
ground, officials were conducting tests of monitoring wells
around the Cote Well.
"To me it's important," said Major. "We don't want it to happen
again."
Residents contacted last night hadn't yet heard about the
problem.
Paul Murray of Wilshire Avenue in Nabnasset said the fouled
water raises questions that must be addressed.
He said officials should examine how the land near the Cote Well
was used in the past, if any dumping occurred there and if the
water quality might be affected by the rampant development of
recent years.
Murray, a retired electronics engineer and former Finance
Committee member, said he worries that Westford's housing boom is
over-taxing its wells, causing them to over-extend their reach
underground.
Whatever the problem, however, Murray said he is confident that
the Water Department will correct it and be candid with the
public as it was a few years ago when it detected harmful E-coli
bacteria in the water supply.
"They did a superb job getting it under control and with
notification, and I'm sure they'll handle this in the same
fashion," Murray said.
For more information, call Major at 978-399-2457 or visit the
town's Web site: www.westford.mec/edu
[http://www.westford.mec/edu] and click public utilities.
[Click here to order Home Subscription] © 1999-2004 MediaNews
Group, Inc. All rights
*****************************************************************
17 The Mercury: Exelon seeks township OK for security upgrades at nuclear plant
Thursday 22 July, 2004
Seth Goldstein sgoldstein@pottsmerc.com 07/22/2004
LIMERICK -- Exelon Corp. has presented plans to the township to
build a larger training center and install seven guard towers at
its Limerick Generating Station.
The training center and guard towers are part of mandated
security upgrades ordered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC issued the regulations in 2003 to address concerns about
security at the nation’s nuclear power plants in light of the
terrorism threat, Exelon spokesman Craig Baines told the township
supervisors Tuesday.
The 84,000-square-foot training center would be located in a
parking lot adjacent to the learning center, just northeast of
the second cooling tower, he said.
The training center is being moved closer to main facilities at
the nuclear plant for security purposes, said Chris Curtis,
another Exelon representative at Tuesday’s meeting.
"By moving it closer to the rest of the facility it helps us
better protect our assets," Curtis said.
The guard towers will be strategically placed throughout the
facility to improve the security, Curtis said.
The NRC has mandated that these improvements be completed by Oct.
29, Curtis said.
Township Supervisor Rick Fidler said he was aware of the
importance of the new structures, but he said he believes that
Exelon is asking for an excessive amount of waivers from township
ordinances.
"I don’t understand why the township should let you do what you
want to meet your deadline," Fidler said. "If you were willing to
still do some of the things the township is requiring and meet
your deadline, I think we would look at this a little more
favorably."
Fidler reminded Exelon officials that the township does not
receive tax revenue from the Limerick plant. While Exelon needs
to meet federal requirements, Fidler said he doesn’t see how
township residents would benefit from the supervisors granting
waivers.
The security features that the NRC has required Exelon to install
will make the community safer, Curtis replied.
The elimination of the parking lot and the company’s request for
a waiver from its obligation to install additional lighting
around the building were listed as major concerns by the
supervisors.
Curtis said there is plenty of parking at the facility now. The
lighting around the proposed building area is more than
sufficient, he added.
Exelon had originally informed the township that construction
would start by April 2003.
"What took you so long?" supervisors’ Chairman Ken Sperring
asked.
Curtis explained that Exelon needed clarification about the NRC’s
requirements for the security upgrades.
Once the requirements were clarified, Exelon proceeded with
development of the building, Curtis said.
Wary of granting approval without Exelon meeting some of the
township’s requirements, Fidler asked what penalties Exelon is
facing for not meeting the NRC deadline.
Curtis said the NRC has not specified what penalties might be
imposed for lateness.
Sperring pointed out that Exelon knew about the NRC requirements
for more than a year, but waited until now to come to the
township.
Curtis said Exelon was working on its designs for the upgrades.
Supervisor Frank Grant asked how long Exelon would need to review
ordinances required by the township. About a week, Curtis said.
The board put off deciding on approval of the building project
until its Aug. 3 meeting.
©The Mercury 2004
*****************************************************************
18 Ecolinks: Bulgaria Closes Reactors
[http://www.ecolinks.net]
SOFIA, BULGARIA, July 22, 2004 - Two units from Bulgaria’s only
nuclear plant, Kozlodui, will be closed in 2006 due to
environmental safety concerns.
Bulgarian officials agreed to a deal with the European Union;
part of the arrangement included decommissioning units 3 and 4 as
a condition for the country's accession to the EU in 2007. A
European Union financial aid program will give Bulgaria EUR62
million to help Bulgaria close the reactors.
The Soviet-designed units are thought to be unsafe because the
440-megawatt pressurized water reactors do not have concrete
encasement to contain radioactive materials from spreading in
case of an accident. The units will be closed four and six years
ahead of their life span. Units 1 and 2 were closed in 2002 with
the help from the EU.
The Kozlodui plant, constructed in 1969, is located 200
kilometers (125 miles) north of Sofia and sits on the banks of
the Danube River. It is now equipped with two newer
1,000-megawatt reactors with safety encasements. The facility
provides 47 percent of Bulgaria's electricity.
[http://www.earthvision.net/market/addstory.cfm] To Return to
Index of all EarthVision Stories
*****************************************************************
19 Reuters: Successful N-plant attack unlikely - UK report Thu
Jul 22, 2004 07:13 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A successful attack on a British nuclear power
plant would be "highly unlikely" to kill many people immediately
but could cause large numbers of long-term cancers, according to
a report on Thursday.
The study into the threat of terror attacks on both civilian and
military nuclear facilities said even an unsuccessful attempt
could have an economic or social impact by affecting public
confidence in nuclear power generation.
The report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology,
published on its Web site, drew only on publicly available
information and made no recommendations.
It said there was enough information in the public domain to
identify ways attackers might effect a release of radioactive
material, but not enough to draw conclusions on the likelihood of
a successful attack, nor the size and nature of any release.
Anyone planning an attack on a nuclear power plant would have two
choices: either blast through the thick concrete shielding its
superheated radioactive core, or get past security and damage the
site's critical safety systems.
The report played down the likelihood of either approach
succeeding.
Citing a U.S. study, it said a Sept. 11-style attack on a nuclear
plant by a hijacked commercial airliner would probably fail
because the aircraft would be unlikely to strike at the angle and
speeds needed to cause sufficient damage.
And it said an attempt to damage safety systems would need a high
degree of access, co-ordination and detailed plant knowledge.
If there were a release of nuclear material, its impact would
depend on weather conditions and the efficiency of measures to
protect people from radiation, including evacuation, sheltering
and restricting food and water supplies.
Britain has 13 active nuclear power plants, with six in
decommission, as well as large amounts of nuclear material at the
Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria, northwest England, and
at a former research site at Dounreay in Scotland.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, public access to nuclear plants
has been greatly restricted and some information formerly in the
public domain has been withdrawn, the study said.
*****************************************************************
20 News & Star: Sellafield attack would cause cancers
2:49 - 23 July 2004
on 21/07/2004
A successful terrorist attack on a UK nuclear facility would be
“highly unlikely†to kill large numbers of people
immediately, but could contaminate extensive areas of land and
cause widespread cancers, a parliamentary report warned today.
The report considers a wide range of potential terror threats to
nuclear power stations, from a September 11-style suicide
aircraft attack to the deliberate release of radioactive material
by armed militants who seize a plant’s control room or the
detonation of a hijacked fuel tanker alongside a coastal plant
like Sellafield in Cumbria.
It examines the potential dangers that material released in an
attack on reactor sites in northern France could drift across the
Channel to the UK or that terrorists could target shipments of
nuclear material.
In a worst-case scenario, experts believe that aircraft impact
could cause “significant release of radioactive material with
effects over a wide areaâ€, said the report, compiled by the
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (Post).
But it highlighted analysis indicating that the difficulty of
accurately targeting the most sensitive buildings in a nuclear
facility made a devastating strike unlikely.
Today’s report, entitled Assessing the Risk of Terrorist
Attacks on Nuclear Facilities, draws together information already
in the public domain in order to inform MPs and peers in their
deliberations. It does not make any recommendations on action to
minimise the risk of catastrophe.
It stated: “There is sufficient information in the public
domain to identify possible ways terrorists might bring about a
release of radioactive material from a nuclear facility.
“However this information is not sufficient to draw conclusions
on the likelihood of a successful attack, or the size and nature
of any release.
“After September 11 2001, additional protection measures have
been put in place to increase security and to strengthen
emergency planning at and around nuclear facilities. However,
full details are not in the public domain.
“Nuclear power plants were not designed to withstand some forms
of terrorist attack, such as large aircraft impact, but existing
safety and security regimes provide some defence.â€
One study by the US Nuclear Energy Institute found that
structures housing nuclear fuel at American plants would not be
breached even by a Boeing 767 jet travelling at 560 km/h, and
pointed out that such buildings were “small targets†compared
to the World Trade Centre or the Pentagon.
Another study in Germany said that releases of radioactive
material could not be ruled out, particularly in older
facilities.
But it said the effects of aircraft impact would be
“controllable†so long as there was not direct damage to the
reactor building, control room or spent fuel ponds.
The Post report warned that international comparisons could be
misleading, as nuclear plant designs vary so widely from country
to country.
Much information on security measures at British plants is
classified to prevent it from aiding any terrorists planning an
attack, it said.
No analysis of the potential effects of a truck bomb has been
made publicly available for almost 20 years, since a US study
suggested that such an attack could cause “unacceptable damage
to vital reactor components†even if the bomb were detonated
off-site.
Safety features built into nuclear plants in the UK made a
deliberate release of radioactive material by terrorists who
forced their way into the control room unlikely, even if they
were able to get past security guards and barriers.
“A ground-based attack ... would need to be highly coordinated
and would require detailed site-specific knowledge of plant
operations and design,†the report said.
The chairman of the board of Post, Labour MP Dr Phyllis Starkey,
said: “Like all Post’s publications, this report makes no
policy recommendations.
“Unlike most of the publicly available information on this
issue, which comes from groups that either have a pro-nuclear or
anti-nuclear stance, the report aims to help MPs and peers find
their way through a maze of technically difficult and politically
sensitive issues by providing an objective overview of a policy
area which arouses strong opinions on all sides.â€
Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley said: “This report
highlights the risks of terrorist attacks on nuclear power plants
and underlines why the Government should close these
installations as soon as possible.
“Existing nuclear facilities are not designed to withstand
terrorist attacks and it is not possible to make new plants
attack-proof either.
“At a time when some people are clamouring for more nuclear
reactors, this report should serve to make them stop and make a
sober reassessment of their proposals.â€
news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk
[news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk] or post it on our Forums
*****************************************************************
21 NRC: NRC Announces Opportunity For Hearing on Application to Renew Nine Mile Point Operating
Licenses
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. 04-088 July 21, 2004
opportunity to request a hearing on an application from
Constellation Energy Group Inc. to renew the operating licenses
for Units 1 and 2 of the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant for
an additional 20 years.
The Nine Mile Point plant is located near Oswego, N. Y. The
current operating licenses for Units 1 and 2 expire on August
22, 2009, and October 31, 2026, respectively.
NRC staff has determined that Constellation Energy has submitted
sufficient information for the agency to formally docket, or
file, the application. Docketing the application does not
preclude requesting additional information as the review
proceeds, nor does it indicate whether the Commission will grant
or deny the application.
A notice of NRCs determination and the opportunity to request a
hearing was published in the Federal Register today. The
deadline to request a hearing is September 20. By that date,
petitions must be filed by anyone whose interest may be affected
by the license renewal and who wishes to participate as a party
in the proceeding. A request for a hearing and a petition for
leave to intervene must be filed with the Secretary of the
Commission, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C.
20555-0001, Attention: Rulemaking and Adjudications Staff. They
may also be submitted by fax to 301-415-1101, or e-mail to
hearingdocket@nrc.gov [hearingdocket@nrc.gov] , delivered to the
NRC Public Document Room at 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland.
Copies of petitions should also be sent to:
-- Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, or by fax, 301-415-3725,
or e-mail, OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov [OGCMailCenter@nrc.gov] ; and
-- Mr. David R. Lewis, Esq., Shaw Pittman, 2300 N Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20037 (attorney for the licensee).
Additional information about the opportunity for a hearing may
be found in the Federal Register notice. A copy of the license
renewal application is available on the NRC web site at this
address:
http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applicati
ons/nine-mile-pt.html. The document is also available for
inspection at the NRCs Public Document Room in Rockville,
Maryland, and at the Penfield Library Reference and Documents
Department, State University of New York, in Oswego.
For more information, contact Tommy Le, License Renewal Project
Manager for the Nine Mile Point plant, Division of Regulatory
Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001;
telephone 301-415-1458.
Last revised Thursday, July 22, 2004
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22 [DU-WATCH] UK government accused of hindering Gulf inquiry
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 23:50:54 -0500 (CDT)
NATURE.COMNEWS@NATURE.COMNATUREJOBSNATUREEVENTSABOUT NPGHelpNature.com
site index
Published online: 21 July 2004; | doi:10.1038/news040719-8
UK government accused of hindering Gulf inquiry
Helen Pearson
Quarrel brews over evidence for soldiers' sickness.
Over a quarter of Gulf veterans have experienced some form of illness.
) Punchstock
Britain's Ministry of Defence has asked scientists studying Gulf War
veterans' illnesses to withhold some of their findings from an ongoing
investigation into the mysterious affliction.
The independent inquiry, which started on 12 July, aims to pinpoint the
cause of the ailments reported by veterans of the 1990-91 conflict, which
are often dubbed Gulf War syndrome. The inquiry is funded by anonymous
donations and is the first such investigation to take place without the
official involvement of the government.
Last week the Ministry of Defence sent a letter to over 40 scientists who
carry out government-sponsored research, asking them not to discuss
unpublished results at the inquiry because such results would not have been
scrutinized by other scientists yet. The memo also says that it would not be
"appropriate" for government ministers or members of the armed forces to
attend the investigation.
The ministry says that an inquiry is premature, because establishing the
cause of veterans' ill health requires more medical evidence than is
currently available. They insist they are helping the inquiry by sending any
relevant documents. "We are by no means trying to gag people," says
spokeswoman Rachel Yeomans.
We are by no means trying to gag people
Rachel Yeomans
Ministry of Defence
But the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, a UK organization
that circulated the defence ministry's letter to the press this week, says
that the ministry is not cooperating with the investigation. The association
believes that the government is attempting to avoid taking responsibility
for actions that might have triggered the illness. "They're trying to do
damage control," says the association's chairman Shaun Rusling.
It is not clear whether scientists will heed the ministry's plea: University
of Sunderland chemist Malcolm Hooper, who has been involved in helping
British Gulf veterans, says that he still plans to appear before the
inquiry. "Scientists have always talked about things before they are
published," he says.
Reporting sick
The existence, or not, of Gulf War syndrome has been the subject of intense
debate ever since veterans began lining up at clinics. Last week, for
example, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Gulf
soldiers were more likely to report ill health than those who had not fought
there. But the study could find no single explanation for their symptoms,
which include fatigue, muscle pain and memory loss1.
Veterans say that they want their illness to be acknowledged so that they
can receive appropriate medical care and disability pensions, and pursue
research into treatments. An estimated 25-30% of veterans are thought to
have suffered some form of illness after the first Gulf War.
They're trying to do damage control
Shaun Rusling
vice chairman War Veterans and Families Association, UK
Robert Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in
Dallas, who has led much of the research into Gulf War illnesses, believes
that a key cause of the soldiers' sickness was low-level exposure to the
nerve gas sarin. The gas may have been released by the bombing of chemical
weapons facilities in Iraq. He points to evidence such as animal studies in
which doses of sarin caused symptoms similar to those the veterans are
experiencing.
Several other factors have been implicated in the condition, including
cocktails of military vaccines against anthrax and plague, organophosphate
pesticides, depleted uranium in weapons and anti-nerve-gas tablets.
The US government has acknowledged that toxins used in the war may be
responsible for Gulf War-related illnesses. By contrast, although the UK
Ministry of Defence acknowledges that there are such illnesses, it does not
recognize a single 'Gulf War syndrome' or a likely cause.
Experts say that troops returning from Iraq after the recent conflict are
not showing the same symptoms because they have not been exposed to the same
vaccines or toxins. "There's no mystery disease this time," Haley says. But
a study in BMC Public Health this month showed that around one in six
soldiers are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety or
depression2.
References
1 Hoge C.W. et al. N Engl J Med, 351. 13 - 22 (2004).
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/1/13 | Article | PubMed | ISI |
ChemPort |
2 Simmons R.K. Maconochie N. & Doyle P. BMC Public Health, 4. 27
doi:10.1186/1471-2458-4-27 (2004). | Article | PubMed |
Top
)2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
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23 BBC: Cancer study move angers
Last Updated: Thursday, 22 July, 2004
by Nic Rigby BBC News Online, Norwich
[Bradwell Power Station]
Bradwell Power Station in Essex is at the centre of controversy
A former environment minister has attacked the decision to call
off a major study into the rates of cancer near a former nuclear
power station.
The investigation into a possible cancer cluster at Bradwell,
Essex, had the support of all sides in the radiation debate.
It was due to report in summer 2004, but BBC News Online revealed
in June that it had been abandoned.
Michael Meacher MP said the public had a right to know of any
possible risks.
It seems to me disgraceful any reasonable evidence to examine on
the causes of cancer in this area is not followed up Michael
Meacher MP, former environment minister
The investigation was to have been carried out by CERRIE - the
Committee Examining Radiation Risks from Internal Emitters -
which was set up by Mr Meacher, who was Minister for the
Environment between 1997 and 2001.
Environmental scientists said it has been scrapped because of
"strong evidence of a cancer cluster" but that was disputed by
another scientist who blamed lack of time.
On Thursday, Mr Meacher told BBC News Online it was vital that
this study was undertaken.
"It is not satisfactory for a government organisation - designed
to uncover the evidence - to not systematically follow up the
evidence," he said.
'Lack of time'
He suggested that "lack of time" was not an adequate excuse.
"I think that is ridiculous. We are talking about the health of
the nation," he said.
"It seems to me disgraceful if any reasonable evidence to examine
on the causes of cancer in this area is not followed up."
He suggested that studies should also look at the cancer rates
near other former nuclear power stations and present nuclear
power stations, such as Sizewell in Suffolk.
On Thursday a spokesman for CERRIE said he could not comment at
this stage.
In June BBC News Online reported CERRIE members scientist Dr
Chris Busby, of the environmental consultancy Green Audit, and
Richard Bramhall believed the committee's pro-nuclear members
feared the study would show increased cancer levels in the area
near Bradwell nuclear power station.
'Extra cancer deaths'
Dr Busby told BBC News Online: "The study would have confirmed
the effect was there. They did not want this. They pulled the
plug. We are left with our (Green Audit's) original finding which
shows the existence of the effect."
Dr Richard Wakeford, principal research scientist at British
Nuclear Fuels and CERRIE member, disputed Green Audit's study
showing a cancer cluster.
"Essentially we just ran out of time to do this study," he said.
CERRIE includes representatives from the Low Level Radiation
Campaign, Green Audit, the National Radiological Protection
Board, Greenpeace and British Nuclear Fuels.
Bradwell, one of the oldest nuclear power stations in the UK,
shut down in March 2003 when it stopped generating electricity.
*****************************************************************
24 Deseretnews.com: Nuclear trust fund is nearly dry
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Hatch, White House issue warning on aid for downwinders
By Lee Davidson Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — Both Sen. Orrin Hatch and
the Bush administration are warning anew that, unless Congress
acts quickly, the government again will run out of money to
compensate downwind cancer victims of atomic testing.
Possibly making the money squeeze tighter, Hatch also
called Wednesday for expanding compensation to cover new people
with additional types of cancer and to give downwinders more
money to match the higher amounts now given to cancer victims
who were Energy Department employees or Nevada Test Site
participants.
That came during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, chaired by Hatch, on the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act program, which Hatch and the late Rep. Wayne
Owens, D-Utah, pushed through Congress in 1990. Hatch later
expanded it in 2000.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey S. Bucholtz
testified that without action by Congress, "The trust fund would
be exhausted, based on our projections, during fiscal 2005."
The trust fund ran out of money before — and the
government merely sent claimants IOUs until money was available
months later — after the program was expanded to include more
people with more types of cancer in 2000.
To help ensure that would not happen again, Congress in
2002 passed legislation to automatically appropriate each year
what it thought would be adequate amounts of money for the
program through 2011.
However, it assumed a sharp decrease in claimants would
occur through the years. Bucholtz said those steep drops have
not occurred, leaving a projected $72 million shortfall for
successful claims through 2005.
President Bush's 2005 budget already requested that extra
amount to fill the gap, and the House included it in its version
of the Commerce-State-Justice Appropriations bill. However, the
Senate has yet to act, and the money could always drop out in
House-Senate negotiations on a final bill.
Even if that amount is added for shortfalls through 2005,
Hatch said he is worried the program will continue to face
future shortfalls. He noted the General Accounting Office
recently predicted additional shortfalls of another $35 million
between 2006 and 2011.
Bucholtz, who oversees administration of the program, had
even worse news. "The GAO estimate will be on the low side" —
with the shortfall possibly being up to $80 million, he said,
although firm figures are not yet available.
Hatch asked that firmer figures be prepared soon to give
Congress time to fill the gap before any IOUs are ever issued
again.
To show the effects of IOUs on claimants, Hatch invited
Rita Torres of Surprise, Ariz., to testify about how her father,
Joe Torres of Monticello, Utah, received an IOU and never was
paid before he died in 2001 from cancer resulting from his work
as a uranium miner.
She read a letter he wrote to Bush before he died that
said, "Approving a program then not funding it is sort of like
offering help and leaving town. It just isn't right. . . . It is
hard to fight cancer and fight the government."
Hatch said, "I do not want to put RECA claimants through
that again, and I will fight tooth and nail for the funding to
make RECA whole again."
He also said he will fight to expand the program. He said
it is unfair that downwinders receive only $50,000 — but other
legislation allowed $75,000 for those who participated at the
Nevada Test Site, and $150,000 plus medical expenses for workers
at Energy Department atomic processing plants.
He said, "I do not understand this inequity and will not
rest until it is addressed."
Agreeing was witness Helen Bandley Houghton of San
Antonio, who grew up in Richfield, Utah, and was paid $50,000
for colon cancer she suffered from upwind tests.
"I cannot understand why the government would decide that
some people would get $150,000 plus lifetime medical benefits,
and the others would not only lose two and three members in a
family, but their homes, and leave their families with medical
bills that seem insurmountable," she said.
Hatch also noted that because of previous legislation,
the National Research Council is reviewing scientific data to
see if radiation may have caused more types of cancer than are
currently eligible for compensation, and to recommend possible
expansion.
A report on that is due next June. As part of that
research, the NRC and the Department of Health and Human
Services are holding a hearing in Salt Lake City next week to
hear from people and groups who feel illnesses they suffer
should be eligible for compensation, but now are not.
Bucholtz said the RECA program has paid $771 million in
compensation through the years to 11,700 claimants. He said the
Justice Department has denied 5,600 claims, and about 2,500
claims are still pending.
E-mail: [lee@desnews.com]
© 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
25 Scotsman.com: 'End Fair Deal Delays for Sick Gulf Veterans' - Ex-Commander
Friday, 23rd July 2004
[http://www.pressassociation.co.uk/]
Wed 21 Jul 2004
By Jennifer Sym, PA News
The commander of British forces during the first Gulf war today
urged an end to the “nagging issue†of delays in pension
payments for sick veterans.
General Sir Peter de la Billiere said he wanted to see a proper
and thorough investigation of complaints, for the sake of both
past and future personnel.
The plea was backed up by other former members of the military
command, who appealed for the Ministry of Defence to “apologise
and compensate†the sick.
Sir Peter asked: “How long do you wait?
“If you delay it much longer a lot of people are going to be
dead who should have benefited but never will and I would have
thought that if my family or I had been involved and I had been
ill then I would want to settle the matter.
“Otherwise it’s going to be a nagging issue at the back of
one’s mind for the rest of one’s days and probably in the
minds of one’s family.â€
Personnel in the first Gulf War were inoculated with a cocktail
of drugs, including plague and anthrax, and given NAPS (Nerve
Agent Pre-treatment) tablets.
Some believe the medication left them with a range of
debilitating illnesses, including chronic fatigue, memory loss,
depression, mood swings, aching joints and cancerous tumours.
Other factors could be pesticide sprays, or exposure to depleted
uranium, the inquiry has heard.
Sir Peter said he himself had taken NAPS and been given around
nine injections – and experienced flu-like symptoms for the
following 48 hours.
But he said it would be “a very unwise commander†not to have
ensured the protection of troops, although jabs were voluntary
“as far as I’m aware although I don’t think people were
encouraged not to accept themâ€.
The hearing was told estimated casualty figures were likely to
have increased by around five per cent had Saddam deployed
chemical and biological weapons.
Stress and locally-bought fly spray which apparently had the same
ingredients as sheep dip could be investigated, he felt.
He questioned whether the NAPS tablets had ever been taken on as
wide a scale and for so long as in the conflict.
His appearance before the three-strong inquiry panel was preceded
by evidence from Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Craig of
Radley, then Chief of Defence Staff who served in the War
Cabinet.
Successive governments, he said, had tried to establish a
“common causative factor†to account for the variety of
illnesses veterans complain of.
He told the inquiry: “This search for some Holy Grail is
proving fruitless.â€
He said he feared a shortage of service doctors and nurses may
have had a part to play in the veterans’ conditions, but added
that the lack of “closure†was indefensible.
“It is time for the MoD to accept that they have not been able
to disprove that the individuals’ illness is not Gulf
service-related and to compensate and apologise to those that
have been kept waiting far too long for satisfaction,†he
added.
Field Marshal Lord Bramall said when there was reasonable doubt,
suffering veterans should be given the benefit of it and called
for them to get a “fair dealâ€.
The independent inquiry is funded by an anonymous donor and
headed by former law lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick.
Support groups claim about 6,000 veterans have suffered
unexplained ill-health since the 1991 conflict and more than 600
are said to have died.
The MoD has always denied the existence of so-called Gulf War
Syndrome, insisting there was no single cause of the illnesses
suffered.
Following evidence from veterans, the inquiry adjourned this
afternoon, and will reconvene early next week.
*****************************************************************
26 ENN News: Do cancers cluster around atomic plants?
Thursday, July 22, 2004By Trish Riley,
E/The Environmental Magazine
Raised on fresh fruits and vegetables by his vegetarian mother,
Ty-Michael Schmidt never even had a cold or ear infection before
the age of five. Then doctors found a tumor in his abdomen. His
mother and some scientists suspect the tumor has something to do
with the fact that he lives near a nuclear power plant.
"I never knew a child with cancer until my son," said Audra
Schmidt of Hobe Sound, Florida. "Now I know nothing but kids with
cancer. At least 50 kids in our local area have it."
But there's not a cancer cluster in the neighborhood, according
to the St. Lucie County, Florida Health Department, which
conducted an in-depth study of the homes of 28 children with
cancer.
During the same period, another 12 cases were identified in
nearby Martin County. Tests were conducted on water, soil, air,
and dust for 561 different chemicals and potential contaminants.
The results were negative for all chemicals tested.
"We have yet to find any commonality," said James Moses, director
of environmental health for St. Lucie County. "We are dealing
with 30 cases from 1981 to 1997. There was no cancer cluster."
The study continues, though, because it did find a marked
increase in childhood cancers of the brain and central nervous
system: 15 diagnosed in three years, nine within a seven-month
period. The report notes that the trend should be monitored and
perhaps studied further.
Health officials did not test for Strontium 90 (Sr-90), a
radioactive carcinogenic byproduct of nuclear fission. The
Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), a nonprofit research
center in New York City, recently released a study linking
increased incidence of childhood cancers to areas near nuclear
power plants. The study was published in the peer-reviewed
Archives of Environmental Health last year.
"Of the 14 areas studied, the two counties closest to the
reactors in St. Lucie County had the highest cancer rates," said
principal researcher Joseph Mangano, national coordinator of the
RPHP. Mangano said the Florida State Cancer Registry lists four
cases in St. Lucie County for children under 10 from 1981 to
1983, but this increased to 30 cases from 1996 to 1998.
Accounting for a near doubling of population, the incidence still
represents a 40 percent increase, compared to an average national
increase of 11 percent in childhood cancers.
The RPHP has also been studying radiation levels in baby teeth of
children around the country. Dubbed the Tooth Fairy Project,
researchers report higher levels of Sr-90 near nuclear power
plants, including St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties. Water
samples indicate higher levels of Sr-90 in areas within 20 miles
of the nuclear power plants than in more distant locales. The
study also found that the levels of Sr-90 in the teeth of
children diagnosed with cancer were nearly twice as high as
levels in children who do not have cancer.
These results are hotly disputed by the multibillion dollar
nuclear power industry.
"Their claims are false," said Rachel Scott, spokesperson for
Florida Power and Light, which owns the St. Lucie and Miami's
Turkey Point nuclear power plants. "Cancer levels are not higher
in South Florida. The levels of Strontium 90 are not higher in
South Florida, according to the Florida Department of Health and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."
The nuclear industry blames any Sr-90 still in the environment on
residual effects of bomb testing. But a U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency report says because of decay, insignificant
levels of Sr-90 remain in the soil and atmosphere from the bomb
tests that ended 40 years ago.
"This touches a nerve in the nuclear power industry," said
Stephen Lester, science director of the Center for Health,
Environment and Justice (CHEJ). "These plants are releasing small
quantities of low-level radiation every day. The amounts may seem
insignificant, but when you look at 50 cities, you can see it
slowly has an impact." At least two families were sufficiently
convinced to file suit against Florida Power and Light because of
their children's illnesses, which include one death. "A huge
thing at stake here is the state of nuclear power plants," said
Nancy LaVista, attorney for the plaintiff families. "If in fact
it is giving cancer to our children, we have a right to know and
a duty to protect all citizens of Florida."
St. Lucie and Martin County families have joined forces to create
a packet detailing their children's illnesses.
"It's not so much for our children, who are already sick," said
organizer Debi Santoro, whose four-year-old daughter, Jadyn,
contracted cancer when she was six months old. "It's for the
children to come. These children are dying and they're not going
to die in vain; they're going to help other children."
In another part of the country, New York's Westchester and
Suffolk counties and the state of New Jersey have appropriated
funds to study areas near nuclear plants where cancer clusters
are suspected.
A 2003 report released by the European Committee on Radiation
Risk found the risk from low-level radiation to be significant,
concluding, "The present cancer epidemic is a consequence of
exposures to global atmospheric weapons fallout in the period
1959 to 1963, and more recent releases of radioisotopes to the
environment from the operation of the nuclear fuel cycle will
result in significant increases in cancer and other types of ill
health."
Meanwhile, U.S. industry officials label the reports "junk
science" and push a nuclear energy agenda. The federal government
and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are currently promoting
legislation to renew interest in nuclear power and encourage the
development of more new nuclear power plants for the first time
since the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979.
Stephen Lester of CHEJ suggests the power industry adopt his
organization's new Be Safe Campaign. He said, "It's based on the
fundamental principle of public health that says, 'If it is
dangerous or has the potential to harm, proceed with caution.'"
Now 10, Ty-Michael Schmidt spent a year in the hospital
undergoing radical experimental treatment for a rare form of
cancer. Doctors have never been particularly encouraging about
his prognosis, giving him only six months to live when he was
diagnosed four years ago, but he is in remission and he's beaten
the odds thus far. Doctors say his cancer can be traced to fetal
cells, meaning it developed in utero.
For now, RPHP researchers recommend that concerned people try a
remarkably simple precaution: Drink only water that comes from a
deep, protected source or that has been filtered to remove Sr-90
particles (such as by reverse osmosis).
Source: [http://www.emagazine.com/]
Network Inc. Copyright © 2004 Environmental News Network Inc.
*****************************************************************
27 The Columbian: Bonneville Cleanup an Explosive Situation
[http://www.columbian.com] Serving Clark County, Washington
Thursday, July 22, 2004
By ERIN MIDDLEWOOD, Columbian staff writer
PROEBSTEL - A field here is yielding an unusual harvest.
Barbed wire. Pieces of a blown-up car. Rifle casings. A 155
mm artillery shell.
A contractor for the U.S. Army has uncovered these items
since early June, when workers began digging at Camp Bonneville.
The Army stopped training at the 3,840-acre base north of
Camas in 1995, but its plans to turn over the land to Clark
County for a regional park have stalled because unexploded
munitions and other pollution riddle the property.
After years of investigating the extent of pollution at the
base, the Army has begun the actual cleanup.
"Everybody gets frustrated with studies," said Eric
Waehling, the base environmental coordinator. "You want to get
out there and do something."
An official with the state Department of Ecology, which
ordered the cleanup, echoed his sentiment.
"After all the years of study, it's nice to have fieldwork
going," said Barry Rogowski, a toxics cleanup supervisor for the
agency.
Though the Army must eventually find and remove potentially
deadly unexploded ordnance strewn around the base, it's starting
with a plot of roughly an acre near the camp's northern
boundary. There, soldiers destroyed munitions by detonating them
and burying the remains.
The ammunition has leached the explosive compounds ammonium
perchlorate and RDX into the groundwater. Steep slopes make it
difficult to pinpoint the edge of the polluted plume of water,
but testing shows it has spread 300 feet but remains inside the
camp's boundary.
"We're making sure we don't have a source continuing to leak
into groundwater," Waehling said.
A crew from Tetra Tech of Pasadena, Calif., which has a $5.3
million contract with the Army, has been scraping away the hard,
clay soil six inches at a time to carefully remove ordnance and
the other debris. The crew has dug 3 feet deep so far, and may
excavate 15 feet, depending on what's found.
"We're finding everything from a rifle bullet to a 5-inch
rocket," said Robert Stout, Tetra Tech's supervisor on the job.
He and his crew found pieces of a car, probably blown up
during training, and part of a Sparrow air-to-air missile, which
the U.S. Air Force probably disposed of at Camp Bonneville after
training on how to disarm the device. Surprises included a kit
for training soldiers how to detect chemical weapons and a Civil
War-era Burton projectile.
Stout and his crew use a metal detector to determine the
size and shape of buried munitions before lifting a pick and
shovel to dig them out.
When they find rounds that look live, they must blow them up
that day. As of last week, they had destroyed 203 artillery
pieces, tamping them with sandbags before triggering them from
1,000 feet away.
"We work really hard so this isn't dramatic and they aren't
afraid with every shovel dig. But this is dangerous work,"
Waehling said. "Nothing that looks like a projectile can leave
the site."
The soil smells of diesel, because soldiers used the fuel to
burn munitions, Stout said. But the real worry is the ammonium
perchlorate and RDX that seeped from munitions.
The crew will sift the tainted dirt before shipping it off
to a hazardous waste dump. Once all the munitions and dirt are
gone, then the Army must figure out how to treat the
groundwater.
If the toxic plume is moving very slowly, the Army may
choose to leave it. Or it may pump the water out or try to treat
it in place.
Tetra Tech is experimenting with a new technique that
involves injecting corn syrup into the water, which encourages
bacteria to grow. The goal is to get the bacteria to break down
RDX and ammonium perchlorate by consuming the oxygen in those
chemicals, leaving behind carbon dioxide and chloride.
Waehling expects the cleanup of the munitions dump to be
completed this fall. Dealing with unexploded ordnance on the
rest of the base is another matter.
After years of work, the Army and environmental regulators
still don't know how many of the potentially lethal munitions
may litter the camp.
Rogowski estimates that it will take the Army three years to
do the studies necessary to even begin cleaning up the
unexploded ordinance, and several years after that to do the
actual work.
"It's not going to get done soon," he said.
The Army had planned to turn over Camp Bonneville to Clark
County under the Base Realignment and Closure Act. The county
wants to use the land as a regional park with campgrounds, an
outdoor school and an American Indian cultural center. But a
fast-track deal to transfer the property fell apart last year.
"Right now," Waehling said, "we don't have a transfer date."
Update
Previously: The U.S. Army in 1995 closed Camp Bonneville, a
training base north of Camas, with intentions of cleaning up the
property and turning it over to Clark County for use as a
regional park.
What's new: The Army is cleaning up a landfill that has
tainted groundwater with explosive compounds.
What's next: No date has been scheduled for transfer of the
base to Clark County.
[http://www.columbian.com/archives]
Copyright © 2004 by The Columbian Publishing Co. P.O. Box 180,
Vancouver, WA 98666. No part of this publication may be stored
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas RJ: RADIATION STANDARD: Yucca ruling has agency scrambling
Thursday, July 22, 2004
NRC seeks recommendation on whetherto accept nuclear waste dump
application By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Regulators are uncertain what to do in the wake of
a court decision that has greatly complicated the Yucca Mountain
Project.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission asked its general counsel to
study whether the agency can or should accept an application for
a Nevada nuclear waste repository that is beset with
uncertainties after judges voided a radiation health standard
this month, chairman Nils Diaz said.
"We need to get to a decision to accept the application or
not," Diaz said after a scheduled commission meeting. "We are
not at that point."
The new clouds over the Yucca program increase the likelihood
that a repository will be delayed years beyond a 2010 target
opening, NRC commissioner Edward McGaffigan added.
"From the date on which clarity emerges, that puts it probably
at 10 years," he said. "In the best case you could shave a year
or two."
The NRC, along with the Energy Department and the Environmental
Protection Agency, is sorting out a host of legal, technical and
procedural questions raised by the July 9 ruling in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A three-judge panel threw out a 10,000-year radiation
protection standard for the repository, saying its authors at
the EPA disregarded a 1995 National Academy of Sciences study
that suggested protective standards should be set for perhaps
hundreds of thousands of years longer.
Department of Energy officials said they still plan to file a
license application later this year. They expect the NRC will
begin a formal review while the court ruling is appealed, or as
the EPA or Congress forge new standards.
The judges withheld their ruling on the radiation standard
until after appeals requests are decided. While there is an
expectation the ruling will be appealed within the 45 days
allowed, none has been announced yet. Spokesmen for the EPA and
for the Energy Department did not return calls on Wednesday.
The government activity is being monitored closely by officials
in Nevada, who believe the court delivered a potential knockout
blow by voiding part of the repository's radiation protections.
The state is prepared to take the government to court if
repository licensing goes forward, said Bob Loux, executive
director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"Our view is that (the NRC) cannot accept an application." Loux
said. "It seems to me it is time for the commission on their own
to take a stand on the issue and stop worrying about what the
industry says and doesn't say."
McGaffigan said the nuclear industry is proposing the NRC
docket the license application and work on segments that do not
involve long-term radiation until the 10,000-year standard is
settled.
In addition to the web of tunnels where 77,000 tons of highly
radioactive waste will be stored, the Yucca facility will
consist of an above-ground complex where the nuclear material
will be placed in containers for disposal.
"You could be working theoretically on the easier parts first,
getting some of the work out of the way, but you would still be
waiting for the (radiation) standard to do the hard stuff," said
McGaffigan, who stressed he has not taken a position on the
matter.
Diaz also said he will not consider the details of moving into
a Yucca licensing phase until NRC attorneys advise whether the
application could even be accepted.
The NRC had supported the 10,000-year radiation standard voided
by the court. McGaffigan said he was troubled by the National
Academy of Sciences study that formed the basis for the court's
ruling.
McGaffigan said scientists on the study panel assumed residents
in the repository vicinity in the far future "are going to be
dumber than people today" and would be unable to filter
impurities from water supplies.
"There is technology available in the 21st century that would
drive (radiation) doses pretty darn close to zero and meet all
the EPA standards," he said. "I suspect that humans will not be
dumber in the 5000th century than in the 20th century."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
29 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Back to drawing board
LAS VEGAS SUN
In a ruling earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia sent into limbo the timetable for opening
Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump. The Energy Department's
designs are based on the mountain's ability to protect the
outside world from radiation for 10,000 years. The court threw
out that standard, citing research by the National Academy of
Sciences that shows the standard should be much longer.
The Energy Department, though, still plans to submit an
application for a license to operate Yucca Mountain this year,
and to open the dump by 2010. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
which will decide on the license, would then have two options --
begin evaluating aspects of the Energy Department's application
that do not pertain to the radiation standard, or wait for a new
standard. In our view, it's impossible to set a meaningful
standard for even a thousand years, much less 10,000 years. The
whole dangerous project should be shut down. At the very least,
not one minute should be wasted evaluating the license
application during the time the Energy Department is trying to
set a new radiation standard.
*****************************************************************
30 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast contamination worse than first reported
| 07/22/2004 |
[Frank Williams, right, who has lived in Tallevast since 1926
and in his present home for 45 years, sat on his doorstep with
grandsons Rafael and Lamar in May 2004 as Manatee County workers
hooked up temporary water connections to residents who used
contaminated well water.]
TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE-The Herald
Frank Williams, right, who has lived in Tallevast since 1926
and in his present home for 45 years, sat on his doorstep with
grandsons Rafael and Lamar in May 2004 as Manatee County workers
hooked up temporary water connections to residents who used
contaminated well water.
DANA SANCHEZ
Herald Staff Writer
Tallevast residents learned today that toxic contamination around
the former American Beryllium plant extends further south and
east than they were previously told.
A plume of contamination up to three times larger than the one
identified earlier by Lockheed Martin now casts a shadow over
this small neighborhood of front porches.
"They're giving us results and saying there's nothing to worry
about, and they're showing a plume about three times what's
supposed to be here," said Laura Ward, president of Tallevast's
community development group, FOCUS.
Leaders from the Department of Environmental Protection released
test results publicly today after the most extensive testing to
date was conducted on soil and water samples in June.
*****************************************************************
31 heraldtribune.com: Tallevast pollution worse than thought By DEBI SPRINGER
Southwest Florida's Information Leader
Subscribe [http://www.michaelsaunders.com/]
Thursday, July 22, 2004
[debi.springer@heraldtribune.com]
MANATEE COUNTY -- Pollution near the site of a former weapons
manufacturing plant in Tallevast is more widespread and at higher
levels than initially thought, state officials said Wednesday.
A recent spate of tests found heavy metals and petroleum in the
soil at 14 sites in the area and a plume of contaminated ground
water much larger than the five acres found in earlier tests,
said state Department of Environmental Protection officials.
Several DEP officials went door-to-door in the south Manatee
County community Wednesday evening to let residents know about
the findings and about a community meeting called for today. But
the DEP refused to release any specifics of its findings, saying
it was still compiling the information and wanted to wait until
tonight's meeting to reveal exactly what it had found.
The DEP has also denied repeated requests, beginning on Monday,
from the Herald-Tribune seeking the agency's test results. The
agency gave various reasons for the denials, at one point saying
the only copy it had of the report was at the printer.
Mike Sole, DEP division director for waste management, handed out
fliers in Tallevast on Wednesday evening. The three-page fliers
announced today's meeting, exalted the DEP for "completing 9
months of work in three weeks," and giving a six-sentence summary
of its findings.
"DEP's recent scientific analyses of the site indicate that the
plume of solvents in the ground water is larger and more
concentrated than originally delineated by Lockheed's
consultants, extending farther to the south and east," the flier
said.
Sole declined to discuss the agency's findings Wednesday.
Residents said they are more convinced than ever that the
pollution is responsible for a high rate of cancer and other
illnesses in the community. They also said they're not sure what
to believe from the DEP anymore.
"Everything they've done has been very underhanded. The trust is
just out the window," said Wanda Washington, a lifetime resident
and vice president of the community group FOCUS.
"We need our own technical advisers in here. We can't work
together," Washington said.
Resident Sharon Smith said she was born and raised in Tallevast,
and nearly half of her family worked at the former American
Beryllium Co. plant. Smith wants more answers, she said.
"I don't know what could be wrong with me because of all this,"
Smith, 47, said.
The DEP first learned about Continued 1 | 2 | Next
>>
*****************************************************************
32 Governor Guinn: A RESOUNDING VICTORY IN YUCCA FIGHT
Court of Appeals Decision
On July 9, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a
decision that is a major setback for the Department of Energy’s
(DOE) effort to place nuclear waste in our state at Yucca
Mountain. The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals’
decision reinforces the State of Nevada’s position that the
science used by the Department of Energy is not sound nor is it
safe, and that the 10,000-year standard used by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is woefully inadequate and
is inconsistent with the Congressionally-mandated
recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences.
It is important to note that the court vacated the primary EPA
rule governing the project, holding that the EPA deliberately
rejected the sound advice of the scientific community and
adopted a standard that is not safe. The EPA chose to ignore the
National Academy of Sciences’ recommendation of a health
standard that would protect the public for between 300,000 and
one million years when the repository would be experiencing its
peak radiation hazard. Instead, the EPA opted for the
expeditious – but much more dangerous and indefensible –
standard of 10,000 years. The State of Nevada’s legal team has
serious doubts if the EPA can now adjust its science in such a
way to fit the 300,000- to 1-million year standard, given
Yucca’s unique and porous geology.
Second, and just as important, the court vacated the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) rule governing repository licensing.
This means there is currently no rule against which to license
the project. The NRC will have to wait until EPA puts out a new
rule, and it too will have to promulgate a new rule. This is
often a costly and time-draining maneuver, one that can
sometimes – if successful – take up to a decade to complete. For
this to be accomplished, DOE will have to prove what our state
has always wanted it to prove – that the geology of the mountain
is sufficient to retard radiation hazards to a safe level for
all time. It is highly unlikely DOE can succeed in this
endeavor.
Based on this recent ruling, it is obvious that the EPA
deliberately adopted a standard that runs contrary to the
health, safety and well-being of the citizens of Nevada. Prior
to this ruling, the State of Nevada has helped provide funding
for the state’s legal team, and in February 2002, I exercised my
Notice of Disapproval to the U.S. Congress (Governor’s veto)
upon hearing of the decision to recommend Yucca Mountain as a
nuclear repository.
I would like to congratulate Attorney General Brian Sandoval and
the state’s talented legal team for working so hard and so
successfully in bringing about this important victory. There
will no doubt be an appeal from the DOE in the coming months,
but I am confident that the latest ruling has struck a
significant blow in favor of the welfare and safety of all
Nevadans.
Governor Guinn's Archived Messages.
*****************************************************************
33 Daily Camera: Project should increase pipeline capacity
Mailing address: Broomfield Enterprise 1006 Depot Hill Road,
Suite G Broomfield, CO 80020
City paying about $2 million for new pump station
By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer July 21, 2004
A new pump station on the water pipeline from Carter Lake to
Broomfield will increase the pipeline's capacity by 80 percent
after City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement last
week with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District.
The move will expand capacity to bring raw water from the
Northern Colorado lake to 14.4 million gallons per day from 8
million gallons per day, according to Public Works officials. The
plan has been under way since 1999, when the city and others
along the pipeline asked the water district to consider
increasing flow to meet increasing water demands, officials said.
The pipeline was part of a project, opened in 1997, to replace
water supplies from the Great Western Reservoir, which was
contaminated by runoff from the Rocky Flats former nuclear
munitions trigger-making plant. The Department of Energy paid to
replace the system with comparable capacity — the 8 million
gallons per day — on the Carter Lake line, Public Works director
Dorian Brown said.
"Our demands have increased past that point over the years," he
said.
In the original laying of the Carter Lake line, officials bought
right-of-way land to accommodate a second pipeline eventually. To
put off building the estimated $70 million line, engineers
figured they could raise capacity by pressurizing the original
line with two pump stations, Brown said.
Broomfield, through a previous agreement with the water district,
prepaid $1.1 million for the Broomfield pump station's
construction. The city will pay an additional $868,502 for the
station. The town of Erie also will receive increased water flows
from the additional stations and will pay a portion of the
overall $2.3 million cost. The station is expected to open in May
2005.
The second station, known as the Longmont station, was built in
2002, with Broomfield paying a share that amounted to $1.4
million.
The water district will own the two pump stations, as it owns the
33-mile pipeline from Carter Lake to Broomfield through which the
city receives its share of Colorado Big Thompson and Windy Gap
water. The 33-mile Broomfield line is part of about 110 miles of
pipeline from Carter Lake that also extends to Erie, Fort Lupton,
Fort Morgan, Louisville and Superior, said water district project
manager Carl Brouwer.
The city also is negotiating for land for a possible new
reservoir, which could mean further delaying the second pipeline
or eliminating that need altogether, Brown said. Discussions for
possible aquisition of land for the reservoir have been ongoing
since at least last summer. The 520-acre Hoopes Farm property was
identified as a potential location for the reservoir and open
space in 2002. City officials have said the reservoir portion
could be as much as 150 acres, or one and a half times the size
of The Field, home to the Brunner Farmhouse.
City Council approved $43 million in bonds in July 2002 to pay
for the reservoir land and permanent water rights to 2,000 acre
feet of Colorado-Big Thompson Project water. A $16.5 million
portion allotted to the reservoir would pay for land and design
of the reservoir. More bonds would be needed to actually build
the reservoir, which is planned to hold 5,000 to 6,000 acre feet
of water.
[http://www.scripps.com] Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera
and the E.W. Scripps Company. All rights reserved. Any copying,
*****************************************************************
34 PE.com: Perchlorate-cleanup funds nearly assured
| Inland Southern California | Local News
01:27 AM PDT on Thursday, July 22, 2004
By ELLEN BRAUNSTEIN / The Press-Enterprise
A defense appropriations bill that includes $6.5 million to
address perchlorate contamination in the Inland area was approved
Wednesday by a House-Senate conference committee and is expected
to go to a vote this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said.
The military is among several suspected sources of the
rocket-fuel chemical that has polluted 22 drinking-water wells
that serve Rialto, Fontana and Colton and jeopardized water
supplies for 500,000 residents in west San Bernardino County.
The Defense Department also was a primary customer of a
perchlorate plant in Nevada that polluted the Colorado River,
another Inland drinking water source.
The conference committee's report lists spending for several
perchlorate cleanup projects, including $4 million requested by
Feinstein that would be directed to the Environmental Security
Technical Certification Program to conduct research and
demonstrate cleanup technologies in the Rialto-Colton Basin,
where a seven-mile-long plume was discovered in 2002.
An additional $2.5 million requested by Sen. Barbara Boxer,
D-Calif., would go for wellhead treatment, a process that pumps
out contaminated water, treats it and then pumps it back into the
system.
Bill Hunt, a consulting geologist with the city of Rialto, said
the funds would help develop a biological method to destroy the
perchlorate molecule with bacteria. The current method of
filtering does not eliminate it from the environment, he said.
"This will ultimately lower the cleanup cost," said Hunt, who
helped write the proposal seeking $4 million from Congress.
"The Department of Defense is the number one contributor to
perchlorate contamination, and cleanup of these sites is long
overdue," Feinstein said in a statement.
In sufficient amounts, perchlorate can disrupt the thyroid's
ability to produce the hormones that regulate metabolism and
fetal development. More headlines...
© 2004 Belo Interactive Inc.
*****************************************************************
35 AU ABC: Defence probe possible radioactive contamination »
"Australian Broadcasting Corporation Online">
[http://abc.net.au/]
Thursday, 22 July 2004
The Defence Department is looking into whether two of its bases
have been contaminated by radioactive material.
The investigations have been running for 12 months at the Royal
Australian Air Forces bases at Richmond, in western Sydney, and
Amberley in Queensland.
The review is hoping to assess whether past disposal practices
such as burying radioactive waste were appropriate.
The department says a report on the findings of the
investigations will be made public. [ more news ] Last Updated:
3:44:00 PM (AEST)
[http://www.abc.net.au/privacy.htm] | Information about the use
*****************************************************************
36 PRN: LES Comments on the ASLB Ruling Today
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Atomic
Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) issued their ruling regarding
standing, contentions, procedural and administrative matters
regarding the license application submitted by Louisiana Energy
Services (LES) to construct and operate the National Enrichment
Facility (NEF) outside Eunice, New Mexico.
"Several of New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and the
Attorney General's contentions were accepted by the ASLB, an
action we have supported. But -- as we have said before --
regardless of whether an issue will be heard by the board, LES
remains committed to working with the NMED on all issues
including ultimate disposal of the byproduct and any other issues
related to the health and safety of the public and the
environment," said Marshall Cohen, LES Vice President of
Communications and Government Relations.
"We also remain concerned about the possibility of delay for
delay's sake in regard to the contentions raised by NIRS/Public
Citizen. We believe they have one goal and that is to make sure
that the NEF is never built. They have a very different purpose
than the State of New Mexico which is to protect the health and
safety of the citizens," stated Cohen.
The NEF will provide more than 200 permanent jobs and 400 to
800 multi-year construction jobs in Southeast New Mexico. It
will use a proven technology that has operated safely in Europe
for 30 years. NEF expects that the facility by product will be
treated by a new privately operated deconversion facility, and be
safely disposed of following that treatment. LES is now in
discussions with three companies possessing deconversion
technology, looking to have an agreement with one of those
companies by the time the NEF is licensed.
LES is a partnership of major nuclear energy companies.
Partners include Urenco, Westinghouse and U.S. energy companies
Duke Power, Entergy and Exelon.
SOURCE National Enrichment Facility
Copyright © 1996-2004 PR Newswire Association LLC. All
Rights
*****************************************************************
37 NEWS.com.au: Closure fails to dent uranium
(July 23, 2004)
By Jane Williams
URANIUM miner Energy Resources of Australia Ltd said yesterday a
water contamination incident which shut down its Ranger mine in
the Northern Territory for eight days in March had not affected
the company's sales.
ERA said there had been no long-term health effects on its
workers as a result of the incident, where the process water
system containing uranium and chemicals was mistakenly connected
to the system that supplies drinking and showering water.
"The impact was a fall in production in the first half of the
year but this has not impacted ERA's ability to meet its sales
commitments," the Rio Tinto subsidiary said.
At the time 28 workers reported having symptoms, including
headaches and vomiting as a result of the incident. The matter
remains under review by Northern Territory and commonwealth
regulators.
ERA yesterday reported a 17 per cent lift in interim net profit
after higher prices offset the negative impact of a stronger
Australian dollar.
Net profit for the June 30, 2004 half was $11.35 million compared
with $9.67 million in the previous corresponding period. Revenue
from ordinary activities for the half was 10 per cent higher at
$94.36 million.
An interim dividend of 6¢ a share was declared, fully franked at
30 per cent.
ERA shares slumped despite the strong result, closing down 20¢ or
nearly 5 per cent at $4.10.
Wilson HTM, which bought the bulk of the 12,500 shares traded,
said the share price slide was artificially low because of thin
trade in the stock.
"The increase in sales revenue was primarily due to the increase
in the market price of uranium oxide, resulting in an average
realised sales price of $US13.35 a pound (compared with $US10.93
in the 2003 first half)," ERA said.
"This was partially offset by the strengthening Aussie dollar-US
dollar exchange rate." ERA, based in the NT, is 68.4 per cent
owned by Rio Tinto.
The company exports uranium oxide to Asia, Europe and North
America.
The Courier-Mail
Copyright 2004 News Limited. All times AEST (GMT+10).
*****************************************************************
38 KRNV: Contractor says waste is ready to go, government says not yet
CINCINNATI, OH, July 22
The federal government says it isn't ready to start removing
radioactive wastes from concrete silos near Cincinnati for truck
shipments to Nevada for disposal.
The contractor handling the nearly one million-dollar-a-day
cleanup of radioactive wastes at the Fernald site says it's ready
to start removing the wastes from one of three silos.
But the Energy Department is facing the prospect of lawsuits by
Nevada and Ohio over the project. Department spokesman Gary
Stegner said Thursday the government isn't ready to allow the
silo cleanup to begin until an agreement can be reached for the
destination of the waste.
The Energy Department wants to send the waste to the Nevada Test
Site, 65 miles north of Las Vegas. But, Nevada is threatening a
lawsuit to block the shipments. Ohio is threatening a lawsuit if
the silo wastes are temporarily stored at Fernald.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2001 -
2004 WorldNow and KRNV. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
39 Paducah Sun: Paducah closer to uranium recycling
Paducah, Kentucky
Wednesday, July 21, 2004;Paducah, Kentucky
Page [http://www.paducahsun.com/]
DOE will break ground on Tuesday for the long-awaited plant that
will recycle 38,000 cylinders of nuclear waste.
By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
The Department of Energy will break ground at 11 a.m. Tuesday for
a long-awaited factory to recycle 38,000 cylinders of low-level
nuclear waste at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
DOE issued records of decision Tuesday for the 150-job factory,
to be built in front of the uranium enrichment plant in west
McCracken County, and a similar one at a closed enrichment plant
in Piketon, Ohio. Uranium Disposition Services, based in Oak
Ridge, Tenn., has a $558 million contract to build both the
plants and run them for at least five years, after which UDS will
bid for continued work.
The Paducah factory is expected to take two years to build,
generating 100 to 200 construction jobs. It will operate for
about 25 years to convert spent uranium hexafluoride (UF6) from
enrichment operations into more stable material that might be
used commercially.
The groundbreaking will comply with a congressional mandate to
start construction by July 31 after years of bureaucratic delays.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who led the legislative effort, and
others in the Kentucky delegation are scheduled to participate in
the groundbreaking. They will join Deputy Secretary of Energy
Kyle McSlarrow.
"These two facilities will play a key role in helping clean up
the waste from decades of weapons production activities,"
McSlarrow said. The Paducah plant, which once enriched uranium
for weaponry, now produces material solely for use in nuclear
fuel.
"DOE's announcement today means that the agency will be able to
honor this commitment to the community," McConnell said Tuesday.
"I look forward to attending the groundbreaking next Tuesday in
Paducah and will continue working with DOE to see that the
conversion plant begins operations as soon as possible."
Bunning also issued a statement applauding the groundbreaking
and saying he will attend.
The record of decision, which follows a final environmental
impact statement issued a month ago, calls for the factory to be
on 35 acres just south of the plant. The land is near cylinder
yards and across the plant entrance road from the DOE site
office.
The factory will break down UF6 — which is highly caustic on
contact with moisture in the air — into liquid hydrogen fluoride
and uranium oxide. Although fluorine products are very
marketable, the government continues to try to develop commercial
uses for the uranium.
Congress mandated the conversion project in 1998, but the Office
of Management and Budget argued that only one plant was needed,
and some DOE officials claimed the law did not require that even
one plant be built. After four years of delays, Congress passed
strongly worded language in late summer of 2002 giving DOE about
a month to award a contract and requiring that construction begin
by July 31, 2004. The new legislation also required DOE to seek
adequate annual funding to ensure completion of the project,
estimated at $1 billion to build and run two plants.
Although UDS was hired in August 2002, the project ran into more
snags, including concerns about the firm's foreign ownership
component. UDS is a joint venture of three firms, including
Framatome, a French consortium that has been converting uranium
hexafluoride (UF6) waste in Germany since 1994 and in Washington
state since 1998.
Last October, more than 400 people from several states attended a
Paducah contractors’ meeting in which UDS talked about the
business prospects of the plant.
Copies of the record of decision are available on the Web at
web.ead.anl.gov/uranium/ or www.eh.doe.gov/nepa/documents.html,
or at the DOE Environmental Information Center, 115 Memorial
Drive, Barclay Center.
*****************************************************************
40 Las Vegas SUN: New tests: Radioactive soils at Yerington mine
By SCOTT SONNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - New soil tests show significantly high levels
of radioactivity at an abandoned northern Nevada mine, renewing
health and safety concerns and prompting federal land managers
to restrict access to the 3,600-acre site, U.S. regulators told
The Associated Press.
State and federal experts said there is no imminent danger to
residents of the rural community of nearby Yerington. But for
the first time, soil samples show high levels of uranium and
radium are present at the old Anaconda copper mine. The levels
are far above what occurs naturally and are likely the result of
decades of chemical processing of heavy metals.
The new concerns are based on results from nine of 100 soil
samples taken in June at the open pit copper mine where
groundwater tests earlier found concentrations of uranium in
wells at up to 200 times the U.S. drinking water standard.
One of the new soil samples shows alpha radiation levels nearly
200 times more than natural "background" levels and four other
samples are in the range of 25 to 90 times normal, Bureau of
Land Management officials said.
"Nobody is used to having this sort of radiation levels at an
old abandoned copper mine," BLM project manager Earl Dixon told
AP.
Leaders of the watchdog group Great Basin Mine Watch said the
samples are further proof the mine 55 miles southeast of Reno
poses significant health and safety dangers and should be
declared a Superfund site - something Gov. Kenny Guinn has
opposed.
"This is really serious," said Elyssa Rosen, the group's
executive director.
The tests show radiation is present in dust, some of which blew
off the waste heaps into Yerington until steps were taken to
control it in recent years, Rosen said.
"This is the same stuff that was plowed into farmers fields
years ago. So we now know some of the stuff is in the food
chain," she said.
Steve M. Dean, the Environmental Protection Agency's regional
Superfund radiation expert, said the test results are higher
than expected but are "way down from what would be associated
with extremely dangerous radiation levels."
"Nothing we've found says there is any imminent risk, but this
site is certainly no place to be playing," Dean said.
Officials at the EPA's regional office in San Francisco said
Wednesday that they will press for round-the-clock security at
the site until more tests are done and new safety standards
adopted for cleanup workers.
"What the samples told us was that we need to immediately
restrict access," BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said.
EPA also wants air quality tests to make sure radioactive dust
isn't making its way into nearby neighborhoods and reservations.
The agency also advocates interviewing residents about reports
that some potentially contaminated soil was used for area
construction as fill for road beds and housing foundations, said
Jim Sickles, EPA's remedial project manager for the site.
"We want to make sure no one is getting into these areas. We
want to keep the dirt bikers from running around there stirring
up the dust. As long as dust is staying where it is and nobody
is sitting on it, we're OK."
The lab tests were ordered after a BLM surveyor questioned the
high radiation readings on his hand Geiger counter, Dixon said.
"He just didn't believe his meter was reading this high so he
took soil samples as well," he said.
The highest readings were in the processing areas and in the
drain areas where trucks were washed, Simpson said.
The new tests measured for levels of radiation in uranium,
thorium and radium radionucleides. More results are expected
next week, she said.
The mine site is owned by Atlantic Richfield Co. The Anaconda
Copper Co. mined the site for copper from 1953-78 and used the
200-acre processing area to extract copper concentrate from ore
rock using sulfuric acid leaching. ARCO officials did not
immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Jim Najima, chief of the Nevada Division of Environmental
Protection's Bureau of Corrective Actions, said BLM, EPA and
state officials plan to meet Monday to develop information to be
distributed to area residents "so people are not alarmed but
also are informed."
Since receiving the test results, Najima said the state has
marked the processing area, which has always been off limits to
the public.
"Not many people go where all the `stuff' used to be so we are
not overly concerned about that," he said.
--
*****************************************************************
41 SF Chronicle: U.S. asks FBI to join probe of Los Alamos /
But espionage not viewed as likely at UC-run laboratory
[http://sfgate.com]
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
[kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] Thursday, July 22, 2004
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham asked the FBI on Wednesday
to join the investigation into missing classified material at
University of California-run Los Alamos National Laboratory in
New Mexico.
The memo announcing the request notes there is no present reason
to believe that missing classified computer disks were lost
because of "a hostile intelligence motive," that is, espionage.
But the FBI's help is being sought anyway as a "prudent"
maneuver, the memo says.
Officials at the University of California, which manages the
laboratory, promptly vowed to "fully cooperate" with any FBI
investigators.
Los Alamos officials made similar assurances.
"We will of course extend our fullest cooperation to the FBI when
and if they become more intimately involved in an investigation,"
said spokesman Jim Fallin. Meanwhile, he said, "(we) are doing
everything that can possibly be done to determine what happened
(to the two disks). ... They still haven't been found."
For now, there is "no evidence that these materials have left the
laboratory, but we are presuming nothing," Fallin said. "All I
can tell you is we've got a whole lot of smart people looking at
any and all possibilities in excruciating detail, and that
director Nanos is not going to stop until this issue is resolved
-- hard stop, period."
Last week, lab director George "Pete" Nanos ordered a halt to all
regular lab activities in order to give the 12,000 employees time
to reassess their security and safety practices. That process has
started and is expected to last for at least a few weeks.
On Wednesday, investigators were still looking for two missing
disks of classified material, two weeks after the loss was first
reported. Lab officials have repeatedly refused to publicly
describe the contents of the disks, including whether they
contain information about nuclear weapons, and no suspects have
been identified in the loss.
It is the latest in a series of embarrassing security and safety
lapses at the lab that have intensified since 2002.
Abraham's request -- contained in a memo from deputy Energy
Secretary Kyle McSlarrow to Linton Brooks, head of the National
Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the Energy
Department's nuclear weapons complex, including Los Alamos --
came a day after he blasted lab staff members at the nuclear
weapons lab for poor handling of secrets. He also threatened to
fire managers responsible for the security lapses.
Speaking on Abraham's behalf, McSlarrow's memo said: "The
Secretary and I place the highest priority on locating the
missing material and holding accountable those who are
responsible at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"While we are unaware of evidence of activity with a hostile
intelligence motive, in light of the Atomic Energy Act's broad
provisions placing strict controls on Restricted Data and
imposing criminal penalties for associated violations, the
Secretary and I believe it is prudent to seek the assistance of
the Federal Bureau of Investigations (sic) ... in this matter and
have directed the DOE Los Alamos Site Office to request the FBI
Los Alamos Field Office open an investigation into it.
"We expect you to fully inform and coordinate with the DOE Office
of the Inspector General," the memo concludes.
UC spokesperson Chris Harrington issued a one-sentence statement
late Wednesday: "The university will fully cooperate with the FBI
and other appropriate agencies to bring resolution to this
matter."
Abraham's anger at Los Alamos adds to the anxieties of University
of California officials, whose six-decade management of the
weapons lab is threatened by the scandals. Last year, frustrated
by continual security lapses, Abraham announced he would open
future lab contracts to outside bidders.
Some Los Alamos staff members "fail to understand the seriousness
of the situation," Abraham charged Tuesday. He added, without
giving specifics, that he would take "meaningful administrative
and disciplinary action at an appropriate time."
The UC Regents have not yet voted whether to compete for the next
contract, ostensibly because they fear the state can't afford the
cost of a competition -- perhaps $25 million -- at a time of
state budget crisis. The present contract expires in September
2005.
E-mail Keay Davidson at kdavidson@sfchronicle.com
[kdavidson@sfchronicle.com] .
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ
*****************************************************************
42 channelcincinnati.com: Radioactive Cleanup At Fernald Site On Hold
[http://www.ibsys.com/]
Lawsuits Over Nevada Shipments Delay Effort
UPDATED: 4:27 pm EDT July 22, 2004
CINCINNATI -- The government said Thursday it is not ready to
allow a contractor to begin the biggest remaining job in the more
than $4 billion cleanup of a former uranium processing plant.
Fluor Fernald Inc. wants to start removing powdery wastes from
one of three deteriorating, half-century old concrete silos at
the Fernald site, which for almost 40 years processed uranium for
the production of nuclear weapons.
Fluor Fernald, the contractor handling the nearly $1
million-a-day cleanup, had hoped to begin truck shipments of the
waste by this month to the department's Nevada test site where
the government once tested atomic bombs in the desert 65 miles
north of Las Vegas.
But the Energy Department, facing the prospect of lawsuits by two
states over the project, won't "authorize startup until we have a
clear path for the waste," said Gary Stegner, a department
spokesman at the Fernald site, 18 miles northwest of Cincinnati.
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval has threatened to sue to
block the shipments, alleging that the Energy Department plans
inadequate storage of the wastes in unlined dirt trenches at the
desert site. The Energy Department has agreed to Nevada's demand
for a 45-day advance notification of the start of the truck
shipments, but the department hasn't given that notice yet,
Stegner said Thursday.
Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro also has said he will sue if the
silo wastes are removed and temporarily stored at Fernald, saying
that could create environmental and health risks.
Federal officials hope to complete the cleanup in 2006. Congress
is currently providing annual funding of about $320 million.
The plant processed uranium metal from 1951 until 1989 when
production ended to concentrate on the cleanup. The site will
eventually be a wildlife area, with 123 acres of it housing
permanent underground storage of lower-level radioactive wastes.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© 2004,Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc
[http://www.ibsys.com/] .
*****************************************************************
43 U.S. Newswire: DOE Requests Proposals for Cleanup of Hanford's
Columbia River Corridor
7/22/2004 6:28:00 PM
To: National Desk, Energy Reporter
Contact: Joe Davis, 202-586-4940, Colleen Clark, 509-373-5985,
both of the U.S. Department of Energy
WASHINGTON, July 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Department of Energy
(DOE) has released its final "Request for Proposals" (RFP) for
cleanup and closure of Hanford's 210-square-mile Columbia River
Corridor. The work spans the 100 Area, where nine plutonium
production reactors produced material for nuclear weapons; the
300 Area, where uranium fuel was fabricated and laboratory
facilities reside; 400 Area facilities (except the Fast Flux Test
Facility); and a phased cleanup of the complex and
highly-contaminated 618-10 and 618-11 burial grounds.
"This contract work will ensure that we meet the environmental
and regulatory commitments while safely cleaning up the Hanford
site," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "We are
committed to progress and we expect the new contractor to meet
our goals and targets for cleanup."
DOE published a draft solicitation in December 2003 and invited
industry comment. After consideration of those comments and
following industry information exchanges, the Final RFP includes
substantive revisions, including:
Strengthening enforceable contractual requirements for small
business participation, including:
-- Requiring 60 percent of the work to be subcontracted out -
with 50 percent (of the subcontracted work) going to small
businesses, resulting in a minimum of three of every ten contract
dollars to flow to small business; and
-- Eliminating subcontractor fee sharing restrictions for small
businesses.
Revising its expectation for how the contractor will provide a
fair and equitable benefits program, by requiring that:
-- Incumbent contractor employees (Bechtel Hanford Inc., Fluor
Hanford Inc., and their subcontractors participating in the
Hanford Site Pension Plan (HSPP)), will maintain their
participation in the HSPP and the Hanford Employee Welfare Trust
for other benefits; and
-- The contractor provide for non-incumbent employee
participation in a market-based, industry-competitive program for
pension and other benefits.
Moving from 2007 to 2009 the schedule for the start of demolition
of major facilities in the 300 Area still in use by DOE's Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory, and requiring a separate DOE
decision and authorization for the contractor to proceed with
that work;
Extending the proposal preparation period from 45 to 60 days.
DOE has cancelled the prior RFP, issued March 7, 2002, given the
significant changes to the scope and requirements and the passage
of time since it was released.
The new solicitation (number DE-RP06-04RL14655) is posted in the
Richland Operations Office section of the DOE E-Center Industry
Interactive Procurement System at: http://www.pr.doe.gov
[http://releases.usnewswire.com/redir.asp?ReleaseID=33819&Link=ht
tp://www.pr.doe.gov] .
http://www.usnewswire.com/ [http://www.usnewswire.com/]
*****************************************************************
44 Daily Texan: Lab security worse than thought -
[http://www.dailytexanonline.com]
Top Stories | 7/22/2004
Problems linked to failure to follow procedures
By Clint Johnson
Security problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory are worse
than previously thought, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in
a speech Tuesday.
Abraham sent Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and Linton
Brooks, head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, to
Los Alamos on Sunday to investigate recent security lapses.
"[The two] concluded that the failure to follow appropriate
procedures is widespread and extends beyond the security area,"
Abraham said. "As a result, they conclude that Los Alamos lacks
an effective system to ensure the proper accountability of
so-called Controlled Removable Electronic Media, such as computer
disks and hard drives."
Security officials discovered two disks containing classified
data missing from the lab's Weapons Physics Directorate on July
7. Abraham said he will continue to halt all classified
operations at the lab until he is assured by McSlarrow and Brooks
that the problems have been corrected.
The safe that housed the missing disks was in the open and
located in an area that is not monitored or secure, Rep. Joe
Barton, R-TX, who also visited Los Alamos, told The New York
Times Tuesday.
"Congress is fed up with these security lapses," he said.
Abraham called for corrective and disciplinary action and
directed McSlarrow and Brooks to develop additional security
recommendations by the end of the week. He said he will also send
additional security personnel to the NNSA's Los Alamos site
office.
The University of California System has operated the lab since
1943, but the management contract will be up for bidding in the
fall. The UT System and the Texas A System are both considering a
possible bid.
*****************************************************************
45 Oak Ridger: DOE nearly finished in investigations
Story last updated at 11:34 a.m. on July 22, 2004
INFORMATION: Findings expected to be released during public
meeting that has yet to be scheduled.
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff
paul.parson@oakridger.com [paul.parson@oakridger.com]
The Department of Energy is reportedly reviewing two reports
that pertain to a couple of accidents that happened in May.
According to DOE spokesman Steven Wyatt, officials are
examining the "technical accuracy" of the reports that are the
result of two "Type B" investigations - DOE's second highest
level.
One of the reports deals with a May 8 chemical fire on federal
property just outside the security fence of the Oak Ridge K-25
site. The other document addresses small amounts of strontium 90
that leaked onto a portion of Highway 95 on May 14 from a truck
carrying radioactive waste material to the Environmental
Management Waste Management Facility - a disposal site located
on Bear Creek Road near the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Following a green light from Gerald Boyd, manager of DOE's Oak
Ridge Operations office, the documents are expected to be
released during a public meeting, according to Steve McCracken,
the federal agency's local cleanup chief.
A date hasn't been scheduled for the meeting, but it is
supposed to be facilitated by the Oak Ridge Site-Specific
Advisory Board - a federally appointed citizen's panel that
provides advice and recommendations to DOE on its Oak Ridge
cleanup efforts.
McCracken said Tuesday that he had yet to see the reports, and
therefore he couldn't discuss any of the findings.
*****************************************************************
46 Oak Ridger: POGO: ax NNSA chief
Story last updated at 1:38 p.m. on July 22, 2004
By: Paul Parson | Oak Ridger Staff paul.parson@oakridger.com
[paul.parson@oakridger.com]
A Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group is calling for the
resignation of the top official at the National Nuclear Security
Administration - the agency in charge of managing America's
weapons complex for the Department of Energy.
On Wednesday, the Project on Government Oversight said Linton
Brooks "has failed in his role as chief overseer of security in
the Department of Energy, as evidenced by the many security
lapses we have witnessed at New Mexico's Los Alamos National
Laboratory."
Recent problems at the weapons lab include the disappearance of
two electronic data storage devices and a tip that classified
information had been sent over the lab's unclassified e-mail
system several times in recent months.
POGO also cited other security breaches at Los Alamos during
Brooks' watch, including the loss of two vials of plutonium last
year.
Locally, the Y-12 National Security Complex falls under the
purview of the NNSA. The Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant also
faced a security problem last year when somewhere between 200 to
250 keys turned up missing from there.
*****************************************************************
47 DOE: Subcommittee
FR Doc 04-16669
[Federal Register: July 22, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 140)]
[Notices]
[Page 43852]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
[wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22jy04-76]
(INEELHES)
In accordance with section 10(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463), the Agency for Toxic Substances
and
Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) announce the following meeting.
Name: Citizens Advisory Committee on Public Health Service
Activities and Research at Department of Energy (DOE) Sites:
Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Health Effects
Subcommittee (INEELHES).
Times and Dates: 1:30 p.m.--4:45 p.m., August 10, 2004. 8:30
a.m.--2:45 p.m., August 11, 2004.
Place: The Shilo Inn, 780 Lindsay Boulevard, Idaho Falls,
Idaho
83402, telephone 208-523-0088 Ext. 100, fax 208-522-7420.
Status: Open to the public, limited only by the space
available.
The meeting room accommodates approximately 50 people.
Background: Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed
in
December 1990 with DOE, and replaced by MOUs signed in 1996 and
2000, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was
given
the responsibility and resources for conducting analytic
epidemiologic investigations of residents of communities in the
vicinity of DOE facilities, workers at DOE facilities, and other
persons potentially exposed to radiation or to potential hazards
from non-nuclear energy production use. HHS delegated program
responsibility to CDC.
In addition, a memo was signed in October 1990 and renewed
in
November 1992, 1996, and in 2000, between ATSDR and DOE. The MOU
delineates the responsibilities and procedures for ATSDR's
public
health activities at DOE sites required under sections 104, 105,
107, and 120 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or ``Superfund''). These
activities include health consultations and public health
assessments at DOE sites listed on, or proposed for, the
Superfund
National Priorities List and at sites that are the subject of
petitions from the public; and other health-related activities
such
as epidemiologic studies, health surveillance, exposure and
disease
registries, health education, substance-specific applied
research,
emergency response, and preparation of toxicological profiles.
Purpose: This subcommittee is charged with providing advice
and
recommendations to the Director of CDC and the Administrator of
ATSDR pertaining to CDC's and ATSDR's public health activities
and
research at this DOE site. The purpose of this meeting is to
provide
a forum for community, American Indian Tribal, and labor
interaction, and to serve as a vehicle for communities, American
Indian Tribes, and labor to express concerns and provide advice
and
recommendations to CDC and ATSDR.
Matters To Be Discussed: Agenda items include a presentation
of
the Sanford Cohen & Associates Report; a report on the Final
INEEL
Public Health Assessment; the INEEL Worker Cohort Mortality
Study;
and a Historical Review of the INEEL Dose Reconstruction
Project:
CDC's Perspective. Agenda items are subject to change as
priorities
dictate.
Contact Person for More Information: Ms. Natasha Friday,
Executive Secretary, INEELHES, Radiation Studies Branch,
Division of
Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for
Environmental Health, CDC, 1600 Clifton Road, NE. (E-39),
Atlanta,
Georgia 30333, telephone (404) 498-1800, fax (404) 498-1811.
The Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, has
been
delegated the authority to sign Federal Register notices
pertaining
to announcements of meetings and other committee management
activities for both CDC and ATSDR.
Dated: July 16, 2004.
Alvin Hall,
Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for
Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC).
[FR Doc. 04-16669 Filed 7-21-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P
*****************************************************************
48 Google News Alert - nuclear
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 13:02:15 -0700 (PDT)
TROUBLED times at a nuclear weapons laboratory
Economist (subscription) - London,England,UK
For many of the nuclear scientists at the Los Alamos national laboratories
in New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was first put together, such a sentiment
...
See all stories on this topic:
BIRD droppings likely shut down nuclear complex
MSNBC - USA
July 21 - Investigators think they have the straight poop on what caused
the nation's largest nuclear power complex to shut down last month. ...
See all stories on this topic:
IRAN warns EU against double standards over nuclear issue
EUbusiness - London,UK
Iran warned the European Union on Thursday to refrain from using "double
standards" in its dealings with the Islamic republic over its nuclear
activities, the ...
See all stories on this topic:
DIABLO Canyon nuclear unit goes off-line as state faces another ...
San Francisco Chronicle - San Francisco,CA,USA
As electricity grid managers prepared for another day of high energy demand
Thursday, one of two units at a nuclear power plant was shut down so workers
could ...
See all stories on this topic:
UN inspectors plan return to Iraq to finish nuclear study
Taipei Times - Taipei,Taiwan
UN nuclear safeguards inspectors will return to Iraq soon following an
official invitation from the new government, the head of the UN nuclear
agency said on ...
See all stories on this topic:
NUCLEAR missiles claim 'stupid'
Gulf Daily News - Manama,Bahrain
BAGHDAD: Iraq's Interior Ministry dismissed as "stupid" a report in a local
newspaper yesterday that said three nuclear missiles had been found near
Saddam ...
See all stories on this topic:
CHINA approves two new nuclear power plant projects
Channel News Asia - Singapore
BEIJING : China has approved two new nuclear power projects in provinces
particularly hard hit by electricity shortages, state media said Thursday.
...
See all stories on this topic:
ROH, Koizumi pledge cooperation on nuclear standoff
Hi Pakistan - Lahore,Pakistan
... President Roh Moo-Hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
pledged on Wednesday to push for an early end to the North Korean nuclear
standoff as the ...
See all stories on this topic:
NUCLEAR terror attack 'difficult'
BBC News - London,England,UK
An accurate terrorist attack on a UK nuclear plant would be extremely difficult
to carry out, according to a parliamentary report. ...
See all stories on this topic:
This daily-once News Alert is brought to you by Google News (BETA)...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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49 Japan Times: Dream of wind power flags
Friday, July 23, 2004
By DAVID HOWELL
LONDON -- Is Britain about to reverse its policy on civil
nuclear power? Could the British policymakers be reluctantly
coming to accept that while the official energy policy is to keep
only one nuclear power station going after 2020 it may in
practice be necessary to build some more in order to ensure
reliable electricity supplies and keep pace with ever-growing
demand?
The prospect makes the architects of current policy profoundly
unhappy. They had quite a different dream. It was to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions drastically not by going back to nuclear
power, clean though it is, but by dramatic increases in
alternative energy sources, notably wind power.
Backed by green enthusiasts and opponents of nuclear power, the
government has encouraged the erection of wind mills both on land
and offshore around Britain, the theory being that the plentiful
and frequent winds that blow round the British Isles will fill
the generating gap and keep the lights on and the factories
humming.
But the dream is turning into both a fantasy and a nightmare.
The fantasy, or myth, is that wind turbines, even when heavily
subsidized, can produce a sufficient flow of electric power not
only to fill the gap as nuclear stations are closed (at present
supplying 18 to 20 percent of Britain's daily electricity needs),
but also to replace fossil fuel-burning stations as well,
especially coal-fired power stations, reckoned to be the worst
offenders.
The reality is that these colossal metal structures that are
sprouting up in vast clusters, the so-called wind farms, across
the exquisitely beautiful uplands of Britain cannot begin to fill
the gap.
The reason for this is that conventional power stations have to
be kept idling on standby (burning up fossil fuel) to start
generating current the moment the wind drops, as well as to keep
the great blades turning, since it is fatal if they stop.
So the net contribution of wind power to the electricity grid is
minuscule. It is estimated that to match the output of one
nuclear power station would require a "farm" of wind turbines the
size of inner London.
By contrast the environmental desecration that wind turbines
cause is enormous. Skylines of timeless beauty in England,
Scotland and Wales are being pierced by these jagged spikes,
villages overshadowed, homes made uninhabitable. The size of
these intruders is breathtaking -- at around 180 meters they are
three times as high as Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar
Square, with blades so vast that a jumbo jet could fly through
the span.
Bewildered birds are slaughtered by them, villagers are made
sleepless by their clanking hum, hillsides are torn up to build
roads to the turbine sites and pylons are erected to take
electricity -- what there is of it -- across the countryside to
join the main grid system.
This is a violation of England's "green and pleasant land" on a
grand scale. The well-meaning "greens" who thought they were
backing a new and gentler kind of energy now find they have
spawned something many times more monstrous than the smokiest old
power station.
Respected organizations like Friends of the Earth and
Greenpeace, which have strongly backed wind power, now look like
bullying lackeys or, to put it more bluntly, like idiots.
Yet behind these absurdities and fantasies lies an even bigger
flaw in the whole thinking behind wind farms in Britain. This is
the myth that what Britain alone does in the way of checking
fossil fuel-burning -- outside of setting an example -- will make
the slightest difference to global warming and the objectives of
the Kyoto Protocol.
Coal, oil and gas consumption world-wide are all set to soar
over the next decade. China is gulping up oil and coal, with
India following. The United States, which has rejected the whole
Kyoto doctrine, continues to use energy at a rate 20 times per
head greater than in the developing world.
Conservation technologies may help dent this coming growth, and
the big switch from oil to cleaner gas for power stations may
help reduce carbon emissions a little. But the overall trend is
massively upward, and unfortunately the piece of heaven sited
above Britain does not know it is British. Even if all British
fossil-fuel power stations were shut down tomorrow, the
greenhouse effect overhead would be just as bad.
The one answer for the future, both by example and by direct
contribution to a clean environment locally, is nuclear power,
which produces no carbon dioxide at all. Sensible countries are
facing up to this, and around the world at this moment, 30 new
nuclear stations are being built (adding to the 438 in
existence).
For instance China is building one new nuclear station a year.
Finland, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, France, India and many
others are all facing up to a peaceful nuclear future. Even
politically correct Sweden is lifting its veto on nuclear power
as new techniques emerge for handling nuclear waste. There is
talk of revolutionary new and smaller nuclear stations that
consume their own waste -- the ultimate clean, green machines.
Britain used to be the pioneer in civil nuclear power, thanks to
brilliant and inventive scientists and engineers. Long before
most countries, it saw the first nuclear stations operating
successfully and safely. In the 1980s, under Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, a bold new program of 12 large nuclear
stations was announced. Twenty-five years later, only one has
been built and British nuclear energy policy is in abeyance.
The time has now come for this old brilliance and impetus to be
revived. Nothing else will deliver the greener, cleaner energy
future that everyone desires.
David Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former
chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a
member of the House of Lords.
The Japan Times: July 23, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who
have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for
non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more
information go to:
*****************************************************************