***************************************************************** 09/02/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.210 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 Iran And Libya Figure High On Agenda Of Upcoming UN Atomic Agency Me 2 Guardian Unlimited Iran: U.S. Sensationalized Uranium Plans 3 Guardian Unlimited: South Korea raises fears of Asian nuclear 4 Korea Herald: U.N. nuke watchdog looking into Seoul uranium experime 5 JoongAng Daily: Seoul says scientists enriched uranium 6 Xinhuanet: ROK, US, Japan to meet on nuke issue next week 7 KoreaTimes: IAEA Probes Seoul's Nuclear Fuel Experiment 8 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA Probes S. Korean Nuclear Experiment 9 IAEA: IAEA Inspection Team Conducting Investigation in South Korea 10 Guardian Unlimited: Watchdog Probes S. Korean Nuke Experiment 11 US: Re: NICHOLS - CORPORALS Don't Order Nuclear Radiation Weapons - 12 US: [southnews] Bush 'trying to derail nukes ban' 13 IAEA: Press Arrangements for the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting 14 IAEA: Press Arrangements For Global Threat Reduction Initiative NUCLEAR REACTORS 15 The Hindu: Kaiga nuke station to start part production in 2007 16 Straits Times: US firms may sell nuclear reactors to Beijing - 17 7news: Nuclear debate heats up in Sydney 18 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet Sept. 19 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Seattle study of Chernobyl finds thyroid 20 US: NRC: NRC Issues Mid-Cycle Assessments for All Nuclear Plants 21 US: M Star Tribune: Xcel to seek nuclear extension 22 US: Tennessean: TVA whistleblower files complaint - 23 US: THE JOURNAL NEWS: Improper water levels shuts down Indian Point 24 Wired 12.09: Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom 25 People's Daily: Nuclear power to fuel growth 26 english.eastday.com: A nuclear pillar in energy fix 27 US: YDR: NRC: Site's nuke license to end - 28 WCCO: Xcel Wants To Extend Life Of Nuclear Reactors 29 US: TheDay.com: Date Set For Hearings In Millstone Tax-credit Case 30 Expatica: Question mark over nuclear phase-out 31 asahi.com: EDITORIAL: Nuclear reactor accident 32 The Whitehaven News: CALL FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS 33 News & Star: Nuclear clean-up boss takes charge NUCLEAR SAFETY 34 US: Daily Californian: Center to Give Compensation For Illnesses Fro NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 35 [NYTr] Irish Govt Must Pursue Brits on Nuke Waste Dumping: SF 36 US: Lowell Sun: Contamination might be traced to Lowell treatment pl 37 US: Lowell Sun: Fouled well leaves Westford family high and dry 38 Guardian Unlimited: BNFL to continue releasing 'killer' gas 39 Guardian Unlimited Letters: More nuclear reactions 40 Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Scratching the surface 41 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca complaint points to unsafe toxic dust levels 42 Interfax: Moscow, Tehran may sign spent nuclear fuel deal soon 43 BBC: EC court challenge to 44 Las Vegas SUN: Lawyers underscore Yucca silica dangers 45 US: Tennessean: TVA spending millions on storage for spent fuel - 46 RGJ: Bush campaign manager downplays Yucca Mountain 47 US: yaledailynews.com: Nuclear waste may blow vote for Bush 48 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: A Yucca Mountain of paperwork to do 49 US: Lowell Sun: Chemical confusion Perchlorate 'danger' levels vary 50 US: YDR: Site cleared of contamination - 51 US: Boston.com: Tests find possible sources of chemical in Tewksbury 52 US: St. Cloud Times: Xcel wants to store nuke waste at plant 53 US: PE.com: Court rejects claim that Lockheed hid disposal records 54 US: SFBV: Request for Health Commission hearing on the Hunters Point 55 Las Vegas SUN: Lawsuit cites warnings of toxic dust at Nevada nuclea 56 Scoop: Unjustified Trans-Atlantic Plutonium Shipment 57 Belfast Telegraph: Nuclear worries over Drigg and Sellafield 58 The Whitehaven News: CLEANER LOBSTERS 59 The Whitehaven News: HUNDREDS APPLY FOR 37 NDA JOBS 60 The Whitehaven News: SELLAFIELD WATCHDOG GOES MORE INTERACTIVE 61 The Whitehaven News: NEW BALLOT ON PAY FOR SELLAFIELD CLEANERS NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 62 Guardian Unlimited: Work With Removable Disks Resumes at Lab 63 Rocky Mountain News: DOE assails report citing Flats danger 64 DenverPost.com: 3 exposed to radiation at Flats 65 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Up to 60 elk may be culled near Hanford 66 Seattle Times: Cheaper plan for Hanford nuclear waste storage studie 67 UPI: Proposed pact would cleanup Los Alamos - 68 New Mexican: State, LANL reach cleanup deal 69 AP Wire: Waste shipments from Paducah plant suspended 70 DOE: Proposed Agency Information Collection 71 TheDenverChannel.com: DOE Denies Charges About Rocky Flats Cleanup 72 NBC: D.O.E. FINED FOR WASTE VIOLATION 73 Colorado Daily DOE: cleanup plans complete 74 Metro Pulse: Frank Talk/Ready for Sprawl II? OTHER NUCLEAR 75 Google News Alert - nuclear ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 Iran And Libya Figure High On Agenda Of Upcoming UN Atomic Agency Meeting Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 15:00:54 -0400 IRAN AND LIBYA FIGURE HIGH ON AGENDA OF UPCOMING UN ATOMIC AGENCY MEETING New York, Sep 2 2004 3:00PM The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency will have a full agenda when its Board of Governors begins a three-day meeting in Vienna on 13 September with issues ranging from forestalling nuclear terrorism to the latest status of the verification of atomic programmes in Iran and Libya. On the opening day, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC48/Documents/index.html">IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei will provide an update on all the major issues since the Board's last meeting in June. At that meeting the Governors deplored that the fact that, overall, Iran's cooperation had not been as "full, timely and proactive" as it should have been. In particular, they cited Tehran's failure to supply data required under treaties seeking to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, including the status of its enrichment programme for uranium - an essential ingredient for atomic bombs. On Libya, Mr. ElBaradei told the June meeting that since the North African country announced in December its decision to eliminate all materials, equipment and programmes leading to the production of internationally proscribed weapons, including nuclear arms, it had "proactively cooperated with the Agency." But he said it was important Libya provide necessary information for a full assessment to be made. Other issues the Board will discuss include measures to strengthen international co-operation in nuclear, radiation and transport safety and waste management, progress on steps to protect against nuclear terrorism, and strengthening the Agency's activities in relation to nuclear science technology and their applications. The Board is composed of 35 Member States and generally meets five times per year - in March and June, twice in September (before and after the IAEA General Conference) and again in December. 2004-09-02 00:00:00.000 ________________ For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news To change your profile or unsubscribe go to: http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml ***************************************************************** 2 Guardian Unlimited Iran: U.S. Sensationalized Uranium Plans From the Associated Press [UP] Thursday September 2, 2004 8:46 PM By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran acknowledged Thursday that it plans to process tons of raw uranium, but said the U.N. nuclear watchdog was informed long ago and accused Washington of sensationalizing the matter. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press that Iran plans to process more than 40 tons of uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas. Experts said the amount was enough for four or five warheads. The U.N. report did not specify what plans Iran had for the material, which is spun in centrifuges to produce enriched uranium. This can then be used to generate electricity or make nuclear warheads, depending on the degree of enrichment. Ali Akbar Salehi, a senior adviser to Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, said Thursday that Iran's plans were not a secret. ``This is the information Iran provided to the IAEA a long time ago,'' he told the AP. In response to what he called Iran's concerted effort to make nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that Washington would urge the U.N. nuclear agency at its board meeting this month to refer the Iranian case to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran denies the allegation and insists its nuclear program is geared only toward producing electricity, not a nuclear bomb. Salehi, Iran's former envoy to the Vienna, Austria-based IAEA, said Iran's uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, in central Iran, has a capacity of converting 30 tons of uranium ore into hexafluoride gas annually. ``The agency knew the capacity of the facility before it was built. The facility is under IAEA safeguards,'' he said. He said the capacity of Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz was also 30 tons per year. The facility in Natanz uses centrifuges to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas and turn it into pellets that are then used as fuel in nuclear reactors. The Isfahan facility was inaugurated in March, but last year Iran suspended uranium enrichment in Natanz as a confidence-building gesture toward the international community. A senior diplomat in Vienna, speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday, said any uranium hexafluoride Iran produces ``could be the feed stock for Natanz.'' Iran says it wants to control the whole nuclear fuel cycle, from extracting uranium ore to enriching it to be used as fuel in nuclear reactors, to avoid dependence on international suppliers. Iran plans to produce 7,000 megawatts of electricity by 2021 through nuclear energy. Salehi said Natanz will be able to meet the fuel needs of only one reactor, meaning Iran will have to buy fuel for the rest of its reactors from the international market. He said extraction of uranium and converting uranium ore into hexafluoride gas was entirely legal, legitimate and under the safeguards of the IAEA. ``Iran has opened its facilities to adequate IAEA inspection, is already implementing the Additional Protocol and intrusive inspections. Technically speaking, there is no way Iran's nuclear program will be diverted toward making bombs,'' Salehi said. Salehi, who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the enrichment equipment in Natanz, once it becomes operational, can't enrich uranium beyond 5 percent, which can only be used to produce fuel. ``To produce a bomb, you need vast facilities, including thousands of advanced centrifuges, cascaded in a special pattern, to work for a long time to produce enough weapons-grade enriched uranium. The equipment in Natanz can't do that, and IAEA cameras there watch the facility 24 hours a day,'' Salehi said. However, David Albright, a former IAEA nuclear inspector, said ``enrichment technology is easy to switch'' to allow the manufacture of highly enriched, or weapons-grade uranium from centrifuges that are set up to make low-enriched uranium, used in nuclear fuel. While Iran does not have the 1,500-2,000 operating centrifuges needed to make enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear bomb in a year, it is thought to have several hundred. That would slow the process over years, but does not mean there are not enough centrifuges - just that it would take a longer time to make highly enriched uranium suitable for a bomb, said Albright, who now heads the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 3 Guardian Unlimited: South Korea raises fears of Asian nuclear arms race UN investigators fly in after Seoul confesses to enriching uranium Jonathan Watts in Beijing and Ian Traynor Friday September 3, 2004 UN nuclear inspectors have launched an urgent investigation in South Korea after the government admitted that its scientists enriched uranium close to the level required for an atomic bomb. Coming amid a 22-month nuclear standoff between North Korea and the US, the revelations are likely to heighten fears of a nuclear arms race in north-east Asia. International Atomic Energy Agency investigators arrived in Seoul last weekend to examine a scientific facility where government scientists used lasers to separate isotopes in 0.2g of uranium in early 2000. Diplomatic sources said Seoul had previously blocked access to the facility, that the IAEA had had suspicions about its nuclear activities, and that further alarming discoveries could be expected. "This is a major event. Very dodgy," said an informed diplomatic source. The experiment was reported to the UN nuclear watchdog last Friday as part of South Korea's commitment to a new nuclear safeguard agreement signed this year. The agreement, signed last February, gives the inspectors the right to more intrusive monitoring at short notice. The sources in Vienna believe the South Koreans have "fessed up" now only because the more rigorous inspections would have located the highly enriched uranium. Although not bomb-grade, it had been enriched to more than 60%, way beyond the level needed for power stations. According to the science and technology ministry, the experiment was conducted without central government approval. Officials said it was terminated immediately. Diplomatic sources, however, are sceptical of the "rogue scientists" explanation. "The fact that we have decided to report this faithfully and transparently to the IAEA reflects our commitment to nuclear nonproliferation," the ministry said. "We are sincerely honouring our obligations for the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation." The enrichment of uranium to this level, however, without being reported for four years, represents a violation of South Korea's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Diplomatic sources also pointed out that although the volume enriched was small, a reported 0.2g, it is 10 times bigger than the discovery in Iran which triggered the current international dispute. IAEA inspectors have previously been unable to take samples at the site, although sampling is now being carried out, diplomatic sources said. The inspectors are to report their preliminary findings to a meeting of the IAEA board in ten days' time in Vienna. Despite assurances that tests will not be repeated, the news is likely to alarm South Korea's neighbours. It has long played the role of dove in efforts to de-nuclearise the pensinsula. During the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee in the 1970s, Seoul launched a secret nuclear weapons programme, but the US persuaded it to abandon the plan. North Korea claims it possesses a nuclear deterrent, but it has yet to test a bomb. A new round of nuclear talks among the six powers in the region - China, Russia, Japan, the US and the two Koreas - is expected this month. South Korea will be hoping that its admission will not complicate negotiations which are already bogged down by mutual distrust. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 4 Korea Herald: U.N. nuke watchdog looking into Seoul uranium experiments The Nation's No.1 English Newspaper (ktg1217@heraldm.com) (smkim@heraldm.com) By Kim Tae-gyun and Kim Sung-mi 2004.09.03 The U.N. nuclear watchdog is inspecting small-scale uranium-enrichment experiments South Korean scientists conducted in early 2000, officials said yesterday. The government reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Aug. 17 that Korean scientists conducted experiments in which they produced a small amount of enriched uranium, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the U.N. body said. The U.N. agency's seven-member team arrived in Seoul on Sunday to investigate. "The ROK (South Korea) informed the IAEA that these experiments had been on a laboratory scale and involved the production of only milligram quantities of enriched uranium," the IAEA said in a statement. These activities were carried out without the government's knowledge at a nuclear site in Korea in 2000, the agency said. The IAEA said the inspectors would return to Vienna early next week. "The experiment was conducted as part of a scientific project to develop a fuel rod for a nuclear power plant here. The uranium produced was only 0.2 grams and the project was carried out for research purposes," said Cho Chung-won, the nuclear bureau chief of South Korea's Ministry of Science and Technology. He said the project was terminated and the facilities were destroyed. The ministry said at the time of the experiment, such activities were not subject to mandatory reporting to the U.N. agency. Experts said the amount of enriched uranium produced was too small to fuel any weapons. They said a nuclear bomb the same size as the one used in Hiroshima in 1945 would require at least 15 kilograms of uranium. "The amount of uranium reported to the IAEA is minimal and the experiment seems unrelated to any attempts to develop nuclear bombs," said Kim Tae-woo, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. Enriched uranium with a density of 5 percent or less is used in commercial reactor fuel. Uranium with 20 percent or higher enrichment levels is classified as highly enriched, and is subject to international safeguards because it can be used to make nuclear arms. ***************************************************************** 5 JoongAng Daily: Seoul says scientists enriched uranium September 3, 2004 KST 13:44 (GMT+9) Officials from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency are conducting inspections in South Korea, seeking evidence that scientists here have produced nuclear materials forbidden under international agreements. At a hastily called news conference yesterday, the government confirmed the inspections and admitted that South Korean researchers had in fact produced a small quantity of enriched uranium. Such work is in violation of a South Korean commitment to keep the peninsula nuclear free. Seoul officials said there had been no intention to produce weapons-grade nuclear material. Scientists at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute carried out experiments in laser isotope separation on uranium in January and February 2000, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Science Ministry said. "The International Atomic Energy Agency sent seven inspectors on Sunday, and they have been engaged in verification activities at the research institute," a spokesman of the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The revelation could pose a problem to international efforts aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program, Seoul officials conceded. They said they had only learned about the experiment last month and then reported it to the nuclear watchdog. The additional safeguard measures, ratified by South Korea in February this year, required all uranium experiments to be reported to the agency. Before, South Korea was not covered by the additional protocols. According to the government, the scientists, while researching domestic nuclear fuel production, produced 0.2 grams of enriched uranium, a tiny fraction of the amount needed to build a weapon, the government said. "Immediately after the experiment, all experiment-related activities were terminated, and the equipment used in the experiment was dismantled," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The South Korean government has never had any program for enrichment or reprocessing of nuclear material, and remains in full compliance with the obligations of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and nuclear non-proliferation." by Park Shin-hong, Shim Jae-woo myoja@joongang.co.kr> 2004.09.03 Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use | ***************************************************************** 6 Xinhuanet: ROK, US, Japan to meet on nuke issue next week www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-03 09:10:39 SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Senior officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet next week to discuss strategies for a new round of six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, a South Korean official was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying on Friday. The meeting is tentatively set for Sept. 9-10 in Tokyo, the unnamed official said. The three countries usually meet for such a strategy session ahead of the six-party talks aimed at solving the nuclear issue. Attending the strategy session will be the top nuclear negotiators from the three countries. They are South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck, US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, and Mitoji Yabunaka, a director general at Japan's Foreign Ministry, said Yonhap. At the end of the third round nuclear talks, the related countries -- China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan -- agreed to hold the forth round of such meeting by the end of September. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 7 KoreaTimes: IAEA Probes Seoul's Nuclear Fuel Experiment Hankooki.com > Korea Times By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been investigating a secret nuclear fuel experiment conducted by a few South Korean scientists in 2000. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Thursday acknowledged that a few Korean scientists had conducted secret nuclear fuel experiments four years ago but added that it has nothing to do with a program for enriching or reprocessing nuclear materials. A MOST spokesman said the unidentified Korean scientists separated 0.2 grams of uranium four years ago in the middle of a nuclear fuel research. He said the South Korean government submitted a report on the secret scientific activity to the IAEA last month. In response, an IAEA inspection team has arrived in Korea on Aug. 29 for a weeklong investigation. ``Some Korean scientists, as part of research into domestic production of nuclear fuel, carried out experiments of laser isotope separation on materials such as gadolinium, thallium, samarium and also a small amount of uranium,'' the MOST said in a statement. The MOST didn't know about the uranium separation until Korea ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol in February, when the full scale of the experiments was brought to light. The comprehensive safeguard requires member nations to report any uranium separation at research institutes and universities as well as nuclear power plants to the Vienna-based IAEA. In compliance with the Protocol terms, South Korea submitted an initial declaration regarding the four-year-old experiment to the UN nuclear watchdog on Aug. 17 this year. The ministry, however, flatly denied suspicion the South Korean government had broken its commitment on nuclear proliferation or that the experiment was geared toward developing nuclear weapons. ``The experiment using uranium was an isolated, laboratory-scale activity for scientific research and immediately after this, all related activities were terminated and the equipment dismantled,'' the statement said. South Korea remains firmly committed to obligations to use nuclear energy peacefully and will continue to comply strictly with nuclear non-proliferation promises, according to a statement by the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry. MOST Atomic Energy Bureau director general Cho Chung-won also brushed off the suggestion that the experiment was associated with the secret development of weapons. ``The separated uranium was not weapons-grade one. And how we can make bombs with 0.2-gram of uranium acquired by a one-off experiment,'' Cho said. Cho insisted such incidents are possible at any time and that as long as scientists report them to the government and the IAEA properly, nothing is wrong. ``The real problem is that the scientists didn't let the government know the experiment result four years ago,'' Cho said. Contrary to some foreign reports, Cho added the scientists involved in the 2000 incident are not under any investigation and they are currently conducting other research activities. The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry also reconfirmed that Seoul will ``continue to comply with its obligations to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and to honor the inter-Korean joint declaration to make the Korean Peninsula nuclear-free.'' ``The fact that South Korea has become the 39th country to ratify the Protocol in the world and that we reported the experiment through our first declaration in a thorough and transparent manner demonstrates once again our firm commitment to nuclear non-proliferation,'' the statement said. South Korea came close to developing nuclear weapons in the 1970s, but scrapped the program under pressure from the United States. voc200@koreatimes.co.kr 09-02-2004 22:34 ***************************************************************** 8 Las Vegas SUN: IAEA Probes S. Korean Nuclear Experiment Today: September 02, 2004 at 7:47:59 PDT By SANG-HUN CHOE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is investigating a secret uranium-enrichment experiment that South Korean scientists conducted four years ago, U.N. and South Korean officials said Thursday. The single experiment in early 2000 was revealed in a report South Korea presented last month to the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the Science and Technology Ministry said in a statement. South Korea reported that its "laboratory scale" experiment "involved the production of only milligram quantities of enriched uranium," the IAEA said in a statement posted on its Web site. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear warheads. But South Korea said Thursday it has no intention of building nuclear bombs and remains committed to international efforts to persuade North Korea to abandon its weapons development. There was no immediate reaction from communist North Korea, which says it is building a "nuclear deterrent" to counter what it calls plans by the United States and its South Korean ally to unleash a nuclear war on the divided Korean peninsula. "The government will take measures to prevent similar things from happening in the future," the statement said, adding that a small group of scientists conducted the experiment on their own initiative. An IAEA investigating team arrived Sunday in South Korea to conduct a weeklong probe into the program, the ministry said. The team will report early next week to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, who in turn will present his findings when the agency's Board of Governors convenes in mid-September. South Korea said the uranium enrichment took place during experiments using laser technology to separate isotopes. Those experiments were part of the country's research for domestic production of fuel for its nuclear power plants. The experiment, conducted in a facility dedicated to research into nuclear fuel, involved separating just 0.01 ounces of uranium, the statement said. The experiment was immediately terminated after it was conducted and the equipment scrapped, according to the ministry. South Korea said the government only recently found out about the unauthorized experiment, when it prepared a report under the terms of a new, tougher safeguard agreement it signed with the IAEA in February that required it to record activities in the fuel research center. "The fact that we have decided to report this faithfully and transparently to the IAEA reflects our commitment to nuclear nonproliferation," the ministry said. "We are sincerely honoring our obligations for the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation." South Korea said it remains committed to keeping the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons. The revelation comes as South Korea and five other countries are trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. That crisis arose after the North reportedly admitted in 2002 having a secret nuclear program in violation of international agreements. South Korea launched a secret nuclear weapons program in the 1970s under military dictator Park Chung-hee, but abandoned the plan after strong U.S. pressure. Lacking oil and natural resources, South Korea's civilian nuclear program today provides more than 40 percent of the country's energy. -- ***************************************************************** 9 IAEA: IAEA Inspection Team Conducting Investigation in South Korea Press Release 2004/08 2 September 2004 | On 23 August 2004, during discussions about the initial declarations of the Republic of Korea (ROK) under the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, the ROK informed the IAEA that it had enriched nuclear material in the course of atomic vapour laser isotope separation (AVLIS) experiments that had not been declared to the IAEA. The ROK informed the IAEA that these experiments had been on a laboratory scale and involved the production of only milligram quantities of enriched uranium. According to the ROK, these activities were carried out without the Government´s knowledge at a nuclear site in Korea in 2000, and that the activities had been terminated. Following receipt of this information, the IAEA dispatched a team of inspectors, headed by the Director of the Safeguards Operations Division responsible for the ROK, to investigate further all relevant aspects of this matter. The inspectors will report to the Director General upon their return to Vienna early next week. The Director General will be informing the Board of Governors of the IAEA´s initial findings at the next meeting of the Board of Governors beginning on 13 September 2004. Press Contacts Mark Gwozdecky Director and Spokesperson Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21270 [43] 664-154-6989 (mobile) m.gwozdecky@iaea.org Melissa Fleming Alternate Spokesperson Div. of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21275 [43] 664-325-7376 (mobile) m.fleming@iaea.org About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright 2003-2004, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: Official.Mail@iaea.org Disclaimer ***************************************************************** 10 Guardian Unlimited: Watchdog Probes S. Korean Nuke Experiment From the Associated Press [UP] Thursday September 2, 2004 11:31 AM By SANG-HUN CHOE Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog is investigating a secret nuclear fuel experiment that South Korean scientists conducted four years ago, the country's science agency said Thursday. The single experiment in early 2000 was revealed in a report South Korea presented last month to the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the Science and Technology Ministry said in a statement. ``The government will take measures to prevent similar things from happening in the future,'' the statement said, adding that a small group of scientists conducted the experiment on their own initiative. An IAEA investigating team arrived Sunday in South Korea to conduct a weeklong probe into the program, the ministry said. The experiment, conducted in a facility dedicated to research into nuclear fuel, involved separating just 0.01 ounces of uranium, the statement said. The experiment was immediately terminated after it was conducted and the equipment scrapped, according to the ministry. South Korea said it revealed the experiment because a new nuclear safeguard agreement it signed in February with the IAEA required the government to report activities in the fuel research center. ``The fact that we have decided to report this faithfully and transparently to the IAEA reflects our commitment to nuclear nonproliferation,'' the ministry said. ``We are sincerely honoring our obligations for the peaceful use of nuclear energy and nuclear nonproliferation.'' South Korea said it remains committed to keeping the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the agency had no comment. But Vienna-based diplomats close to the agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the experiment was focused on enriching uranium. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear warheads. The revelation comes as South Korea and five other countries are trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. That crisis arose after the North reportedly admitted in 2002 having a secret nuclear program in violation of international agreements. South Korea launched a secret nuclear weapons program in the 1970s under military dictator Park Chung-hee, but abandoned the plan after strong U.S. pressure. Lacking oil and natural resources, South Korea's civilian nuclear program today provides more than 40 percent of the country's energy. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 11 Re: NICHOLS - CORPORALS Don't Order Nuclear Radiation Weapons - Presidents Do Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 19:48:46 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
 
Please distribute or publish as you see fit. This is my latest essay to publicize what my own country, the United States, is doing in Iraq with uranium munitions.
 
Regards,
 
Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner
 
 
CORPORALS Don't Order Nuclear
Radiation Weapons - Presidents Do
 
ProgressiveTrail.org - McMinnville,OR,USA
 
".... globe) witnessed the ruthless systematic destruction of the nation
of Iraq by Four Million Pounds of radioactive uranium, so-called "depleted
uranium*" by the ..."
 
 
 ***************************************************************** 12 [southnews] Bush 'trying to derail nukes ban' Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 23:41:31 -0500 (CDT) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/7gSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> THE head of the Arms Control Association and a former senior US official accused the Bush administration today of trying to derail a proposed international ban on the production of material used to make nuclear weapons. Bush 'trying to derail nukes ban' From correspondents in Washington AP 03sep04 THE head of the Arms Control Association and a former senior US official accused the Bush administration today of trying to derail a proposed international ban on the production of material used to make nuclear weapons. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the private research group, said the administration's position that airtight safeguards against cheating could not be found was "something of a poison pill". "We do not agree that this treaty is not effectively verifiable," Mr Kimball said at a news conference. Robert Einhorn, a former assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, said the US administration was determined to kill any prospect of a treaty emerging from a 65 nation conference in Geneva. Mr Einhorn, who is senior security adviser to the Centre for Strategic International Studies, a private research group, said that in light of the September 11 attacks, "The first thing you want to do is to limit the stocks of fissile material worldwide". David Albright, president of the private Institute for Science and International Security, said a treaty without verification provisions, which include onsite inspections, would not make sense. The proposed treaty would outlaw the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for weapons purposes. A nuclear weapon cannot be made without one or the other. US officials are in Geneva outlining the administration's view that compliance with the treaty could not be verified. The treaty is seen by disarmament advocates as a way to curb nuclear weapons programs in India, Pakistan and Israel, which are outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. But in a review, the US concluded an inspection program under the treaty could compromise countries' national security interests and be very costly. Jackie Sanders, the US representative, told the disarmament conference in July that the review also raised serious concerns that realistic, effective verification could be achieved. Also, the administration takes the position that it would be very difficult to determine when fissile material found by inspectors was obtained and for what purpose it was to be used. ________________________________________________ Depleted Uranium Dennis Kyne September 1, 2004 - In May of 2004 I attended my first Barter Faire ever, in Curlew, Washington. Sponsored by the Veterans for Peace, I arrived as far north as I had ever been in America. I came to tell the people of Eastern Washington that depleted uranium needs to be dealt with. I had a wonderful visit, met wonderful people, and made wonderful friends. Thank you, Eastern Washington, for receiving me so nicely. A year prior to my visit, in its May issue, Environmental Magazine informed the world that, "Since the U.S. military's widespread use of DU (Depleted Uranium, U238) in the Gulf became known in 1991, the Pentagon has struggled to suppress mounting evidence that DU munitions are simply too toxic to use. It has cashiered or attempted to discredit its own experts, ignored their advice, impeded scientific research into DU's health effects and assembled a disinformation campaign to confuse the issue." Two months later the Seattle Post Intelligencer stated, "The Pentagon and the United Nations estimate that the U.S. and Britain used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of armor piercing shells made of depleted uranium during attacks on Iraq in March and April [2003] - far more than the 375 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War." ( http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/133581_du04.html ) On February 2 of this year, Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto of Swan's Commentary explained to America, "By now half of all the 697,000 U.S. soldiers involved in the 1991 war have reported serious illnesses. According to the American Gulf War Veterans Association, more than 30 percent of these soldiers are chronically ill and are receiving disability benefits from the Veterans Administration." So, if they have used far more DU than was used in 1991, we should expect far more disabilities, death and chronic pain. That is the truth. In October of 2003, Leuren Moret, an expert on depleted uranium, informed us at the World Uranium Conference in Hamburg, Germany, about Strontium-90 levels in baby teeth from children with cancer. Moret states very clearly, "Since 1975, national rates for children with leukemia have increased by 44% and for children with brain cancer by 50%." In Moret's most recent work, The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War ( http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse 1jul04.htm ), published in the Hamburg Conference conclusions, she adds that, "There was never any doubt about the great biological hazard of massive nuclear fallout even before testing started. But there was little concern about the global low level fallout from atmospheric contamination by very small particles which remain suspended until nucleating agents such as rain, snow and pollution remove them from the air and deposit them in the environment, exposing the global population to chronic low level radiation." In addition to Moret, J. Gould's The Enemy Within illustrates high-risk counties within 100 miles of nuclear reactors using a map that plots breast cancer deaths that are reported annually by counties to the CDC. In the western part of the U.S., the locations of nuclear weapons labs and a few nuclear power plants are indicated by the highest breast cancer deaths. These are the newest victims of exposure to radiation. We know very well that the mining of the uranium for decades has unduly harmed the Native Americans who mined the ore. We know that the government has used troops as guinea pigs in the proliferation of nuclear weapons programs. Now as we accept our newest victims, women and children of every race and class, it is imperative that we recognize these radioactive weapons are omnicidal. That is the truth. In 1991, I served with the 24th Infantry Division, the most criminally negligent division in Operation Desert Shield/Storm. As a medic, I watched as soldiers walked into the carnage that 45 days of bombing had left in the southern part of Iraq and in Kuwait. The signs and symptoms of the exposure appeared quickly with countless troops vomiting and getting pale. Upon return I experienced joint pains, extreme itching that would have me shredding skin, and a feeling that resembled rubbing alcohol burning a cut in the bottom of my stomach. There are countless accounts of birth deformities and miscarriages in returning soldiers. And women have often complained of pain after having sex with returning front line soldiers. In 1995, four years after I filed my complaint about my recurring health problems with the Veterans Affairs, I was finally tested for ionizing radiation, twice. Having never been able to get my hands on the results, I am not sure what my true uranium exposure was. However, since 1995 the VA has compensated me for "undiagnosed illnesses." Funny, the VA will admit I am sick, but they will only diagnose me as undiagnosed. I am a VA statistic, which means I am on record as a casualty. However, my stepbrother is not a VA statistic. He has the same signs and symptoms I display, but is not one of the casualties. My brother-in-law who served farther forward than I did is often called an AIDS patient or cancer victim; he is a casualty who is compensated at 100%. Sadly it took over a decade for the VA to recognize his disability. Even sadder, they say he is not a depleted uranium victim and will not test for ionizing radiation. Three of my family members are sick, from the same war, the same battlefield, and the same nuclear waste that is being hurled at Iraq and Afghanistan currently. That is the truth. How? Why? Is this some sort of Joke? No. Depleted uranium is not new. What is new is the disposal mechanism. In the 80's then-President Reagan made a deal with Russia to stop developing nuclear weapons. We know how short-lived that was. We know that every treaty has been violated and nuclear proliferation is on a rise again. What we didn't know, though, was the answer to the question the environmentalists asked Reagan in the late 80's. "Mr. President, what are you going to do with the waste of the nuclear reactors?" The President informed his citizens that he planned on sending it to the moon or the bottom of the ocean. That is what they had been doing for years; Reagan was the only person whoever felt smart enough to tell anyone. Americans, who would have nothing to do with this environmental desecration, put a stop to it. In 1997, Dan Fahey, cited in Metal of Dishonor, tells us that, "As a result of 50 years of enriching uranium for use in nuclear weapons and reactors, the U.S. has in excess of 1.1 billion pounds of DU waste material." Of this incredible surplus of radioactive waste, some has been buried in isolated spots and a load of it has been used by the Department of Defense in its weapons programs. The military uses this weapon because it is armor piercing. If this weapon is intended for use against armor, and we destroyed most of the Iraqi's armor in 1991, why have we increased the use of it in Iraq from 375 tons to some ambiguous amount? Why is it being dropped all over Afghanistan where there is not one tank verified to be driven by the Taliban or al Quaeda? Dennis Kyne is a fifteen-year veteran of the United States Army. His book Support the Truth is available at The Book Depot in Colville, and at his Web site: www.denniskyne.com. It is dedicated to the half million homeless veterans and depleted uranium victims. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0409/S00009.htm ____________________________________ SILENT STORM (Screening on SBS Thursday 9 September at 8.30pm) In 2001, scientists in a Melbourne laboratory made the startling discovery of thousands of jars of human bone in ashes, which had been stored for up to 40 years. All contained evidence of one of the most dangerous poisons on earth - Strontium 90, a by-product of nuclear testing that can cause bone cancer and leukaemia. All had been collected during autopsies, without consent. More: http://www.enhancetv.com.au/htm/12654054.html The archives of South News can be found at http://southmovement.alphalink.com.au/southnews/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: southnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 13 IAEA: Press Arrangements for the IAEA Board of Governors Meeting + [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] Media Advisory 2004/10 30 August 2004 | A meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors will commence on Monday, 13 September 2004 at 10.30 a.m. and is expected to last at least three days. The Board will discuss, among other issues, measures to strengthen international co-operation in nuclear, radiation and transport safety and waste management; progress on measures to protect against nuclear terrorism; and strengthening the Agency’s activities related to nuclear science, technology and applications. The Board will also focus on nuclear verification issues, including the most recent report by IAEA Director General Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei on the implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement in the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and his report on the implementation of the NPT safeguards agreement between the Agency and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The meeting is closed to the press. The introductory statement by Dr. ElBaradei will be available to the media and will be placed on the IAEA website (www.iaea.org) after delivery at about 11:00 a.m. on Monday. Photo-Op: There will be a photo opportunity at the beginning of each morning and afternoon session. Please sign up by sending an e-mail to Peter Rickwood: P.Rickwood@iaea.org. Camera crews should arrive at IAEA headquarters by 10:00 a.m. and proceed to the Boardroom on C04. Positions in the Boardroom must be taken by 10:15 or 14:45 for afternoon photo-ops. Press working area: There will be a press working area on C03 (for print press, radio and TV) starting from Monday morning at 9:00. Telephone lines: There are telephone lines installed in the press area on C03. Please note that journalists requiring the use of telephones are advised to buy calling cards at the VIC Post Office or alternatively make use of a toll-free 0800-number for long distance calls. You can find information on toll-free numbers at www.telediscount.at. Accreditation: Please fill out the attached accreditation form and return it by fax to Ms. Brenda Blann at +43-1-2600-29610 (email: B.Blann@iaea.org, tel. +43-1-26383) or register on-line. You are required to bring a valid press I.D. TV Crews arriving by car should enter through Gate 3 and inform Mr. Peter Rickwood (P.Rickwood@iaea.org), tel. +43 1 2600 22047, mobile: +43 664- 203 0899, in advance, of your names, affiliations and license plate numbers. Advance notice of satellite trucks is also required. Press Contacts Mark Gwozdecky Director and Spokesperson Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21270 [43] 664-154-6989 (mobile) m.gwozdecky@iaea.org Melissa Fleming Alternate Spokesperson Div. of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21275 [43] 664-325-7376 (mobile) m.fleming@iaea.org About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright 2003-2004, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: Official.Mail@iaea.org Disclaimer ***************************************************************** 14 IAEA: Press Arrangements For Global Threat Reduction Initiative and IAEA General Conference + [IAEA.ORG :: Atoms for Peace] Global Threat Reduction Initiative International Partners Conference (GTRI), 18-19 September 2004 31 August 2004 | Key partners of a global initiative to upgrade nuclear security are meeting at an international conference, "The Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) International Partners Conference" at the Austria Center in Vienna on 18-19 September, 2004. The Conference is co-sponsored by the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Russian Federation. Press arrangements: The Conference begins on Saturday, 18 September at 16:00 with keynote addresses by Spencer Abraham, U.S. Secretary of Energy, Alexander Rumyantsev, Director, Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency and a welcome address by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. There will be a press conference on Saturday at 17:15. The Conference continues on Sunday, 19 September from 10:00 – 13:00 with a number of presentations on threat reduction initiatives and needs. The Conference is open to the press. Accreditation: Media planning to cover the GTRI Conference and/or General Conference are requested to fill in the registration form attached and fax it to: +43 1 2600 29610 by Thursday 16 September, 2004. Registration on the spot will also be possible, or register on-line. Press accreditation badges, which are valid for both the GTRI and GC, will be issued at the press registration desk at the entrance of the Austria Center from 14.00 to 17.30 on Saturday 18 September, from 9.00 –13:00 on Sunday 19 September and from 8:00 on Monday 20 September. Please note that VIC Press Accreditation badges are not valid for entry into the Austria Center. More information about the GTRI Conference is on the or from the US Department of Energy, Office of Global Threat Reduction, in Washington, DC. IAEA General Conference, 20-24 September 2004 High-level delegations from IAEA Member States are meeting at the annual General Conference in Vienna from Monday 20 to Friday 24 September on major issues facing the Agency. Also being convened is a Scientific Forum examining issues and challenges related to the nuclear fuel cycle. The Provisional Agenda for the General Conference is available at: http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC48/Documents/index.html. The plenary sessions of the General Conference are open to the press. A Scientific Forum entitled "Nuclear Fuel Cycle Issues and Challenges" will be held on 20-21 September, 2004 in Room C at the Austria Center. More information on the forum is available at: . There will be a daily press briefing at 11:00 with IAEA Chief Spokesperson, Mark Gwozdecky and other IAEA officials. The venue will be posted in the press working area at the Austria Center. Address: Austria Centre, Bruno-Kreisky-Platz 1, 1220 Vienna. Related Resources: » Registration Form [pdf] » On-line Registration Press Contacts Mark Gwozdecky Director and Spokesperson Division of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21270 [43] 664-154-6989 (mobile) Melissa Fleming Alternate Spokesperson Div. of Public Information [43-1] 2600-21275 [43] 664-325-7376 (mobile) About the IAEA The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) serves as the world's foremost intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology. Established as an autonomous organization under the United Nations (UN) in 1957, the IAEA carries out programmes to maximize the useful contribution of nuclear technology to society while verifying its peaceful use. NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit the Press Section of the IAEA's website (http://www.iaea.org/Resources/Journalists/), or call the IAEA's Division of Public Information at (431) 2600-21270. Copyright 2003-2004, International Atomic Energy Agency, P.O. Box 100, Wagramer Strasse 5, A-1400 Vienna, Austria Telephone (+431) 2600-0; Facsimilie (+431) 2600-7; E-mail: Disclaimer ***************************************************************** 15 The Hindu: Kaiga nuke station to start part production in 2007 Thursday, September 2, 2004 : 1825 Hrs Sirsi, Sept. 2. (UNI): The third and fourth phases of the nuclear power generating units of the Kaiga nuclear power station, with a capacity of 220 MW each, will start production in 2007, its Director G Nageshwara Rao has said. Addressing a press conference at Kaiga on Wednesday, he said while the third phase would start commercial production in March, 2007, the fourth unit would commence operations by September that year. After these two units begin production, 10.56 billion unit surplus power would be given to the Southern Grid. Already two units of 220 MW capacity each were functioning at Kaiga, generating about 12,270 billion units of power upto July last. Informing that 40 per cent of the construction works have been completed, he said the two units would be built at an estimated cost of Rs 3,282 crore. Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of ***************************************************************** 16 Straits Times: US firms may sell nuclear reactors to Beijing - SEPT 3, 2004 NEW YORK - China and the United States are close to resolving a long dispute over the transfer of nuclear technology, paving the way for US companies to sell nuclear reactors to China in transactions that may be worth billions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal said. 'This is happening,' the paper reported on Wednesday, quoting a US State Department official. Sanctions, export controls and most other sale barriers have been removed, he said. If all goes smoothly, Pittsburgh's Westinghouse Electric Co expects to receive US government permission to begin bidding late this year or early next year to provide reactors for one or two Chinese nuclear power plants, with reactors selling for about US$2.2 billion (S$3.8 billion) a pair, company spokesman Vaughn Gilbert told the newspaper. China has embarked on an ambitious plan to add two to three nuclear power plants a year for roughly the next 15 years, so that nuclear power will account for about 4 per cent of the country's power mix by 2020, Mr Zhang Hua- zhu, chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority, had said on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, US entry into China's nuclear market would end a long-running irritant in the countries' trade relations, which have ebbed and flowed with overall ties. Former US president Bill Clinton had revived a 1985 agreement to allow cooperation on nuclear energy. However, the US still did not approve commercial contracts with Beijing, due to additional export controls and concern about prior Chinese proliferation of nuclear technology to Iran and Pakistan, the paper said. -- Reuters The Straits Times ***************************************************************** 17 7news: Nuclear debate heats up in Sydney Date: 02/09/04 Nuclear power may hold the key to sustainable energy supplies in developing countries such as China and India. But it's expected to generate much debate when global industry leaders meet next week in Sydney. The World Energy Council, a sponsor of next week's World Energy Congress, is on record saying it believes nuclear power will play a significant role in securing future supplies, with its environmental advantages, cost stability and high capacity. Council secretary general Gerald Doucet, announcing the 19th World Energy Congress earlier this year, said nuclear power had turned a corner in terms of public debate. "I predict .. it will increase its role in delivering sustainable energy in both developed and developing countries in years to come," Mr Doucet said. But congress executive director Jim Starkey said just as proponents of nuclear technology would be seeking the spotlight during the congress, there would be plenty of opposition. "I think the Chernobyl power plant accident (in April 1986) set the nuclear industry back generations," Mr Starkey told AAP. "But the point from a council point of view is that all options should be looked at. "If nuclear energy (supporters) debate the benefits in nuclear power there are other people amongst the congress delegates that can and will challenge those issues." More than 2,500 delegates have registered for the congress, including nine energy ministers from around he world. Leaders of nuclear power companies in China, India and Japan will discuss the role of nuclear energy as an indispensable means of maintaining sustainable development. And while the topic Nuclear Energy: Inevitable or Irrelevant, chaired by the director general of the Nuclear Energy Agency Luis Echavarri, will be one of the more contentious discussions sessions, the issues of renewable energy, balancing supply and demand in oil markets and the future of financial investment in the sector, should also raise some heat. Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, will don his cap as OPEC president to discuss energy markets, geopolitics and security. With eight out of the 11 OPEC nations located in the Middle East, Mr Purnomo is expected to review the security situation in the region and give a long term perspective on OPEC's future and oil supply in years to come, Mr Starkey said. Other speakers at the congress include BHP Billiton chief executive Chip Goodyear, India's Minister of Power Shri Sayeed and United Nations under-secretary Jose Antonio Ocampo. Copyright © 2004 AAP © Copyright 2004 Seven Network (Operations) Ltd ***************************************************************** 18 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to Meet Sept. 9-11 in Rockville, Maryland News Release - 2004-10 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov No. 04-105 September 1, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards will hold a public meeting Sept. 9-11, in Rockville, Md., to discuss, among other matters, the final Safety Evaluation Report on the license renewal application for the Dresden and Quad Cities power plants in Illinois. In addition, the committee will discuss proposed changes to the License Renewal Program and proposed technical specifications associated with the integrity of steam generator tubes. The meeting will be held in Room T-2B3 of the agencys Two White Flint North building, at 11545 Rockville Pike. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. each day and all sessions will be open to the public except for a safeguards and security session to be held from 2 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 9. Videoconferencing is available for open sessions of this meeting. To use this service, call Theron Brown at 301-415-8066 at least 10 days before the meeting to ensure availability. Those requesting the service are responsible for telephone line charges and for providing the equipment and facilities that they use to establish the videoteleconferencing link. A complete agenda will be available on the NRCs Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acrs/agenda/2004. For additional information, contact Sam Duraiswamy at 301-415-7364. Last revised Thursday, September 02, 2004 ***************************************************************** 19 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Seattle study of Chernobyl finds thyroid cancer link [seattlepi.com] Thursday, September 2, 2004 By TOM PAULSON SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Seattle scientists studying cancer rates among the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion have found the first direct link between thyroid cancer risk and individual radiation exposures. Dr. Scott Davis, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, led a team of researchers in performing an analysis of thyroid cancer rates among Ukrainians who lived and worked near the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. The report is published in the September issue of Radiation Research. "Before Chernobyl, we almost never saw thyroid cancer in children," Davis said. The Chernobyl explosion killed 30 people immediately and exposed millions to radiation. Though it was known that cancer rates were higher in the region after the accident, there were no studies showing a direct correlation between the amount of radiation exposure and an individual's risk of cancer. Davis and his colleagues focused their attention on one isotope, iodine-131, because it can be tracked most easily because of the specific kind of cancer it causes and also because of the group's familiarity studying it at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. "The doses were considerably higher at Chernobyl," said Davis. He and his colleagues led the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, which found no clear evidence of higher rates of thyroid disease or cancer among those exposed to the Hanford site's airborne emissions. The Chernobyl study wasn't launched immediately after the accident largely because of Cold War barriers. But in 1990, a Russian helicopter pilot who had worked on the disaster and later developed leukemia came to Fred Hutchinson for a bone marrow transplant. Davis and his colleague, statistician Ken Kopecky, built on this clinical relationship to establish a scientific collaboration with the Russians to look into thyroid cancer rates. In 1992, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the study was launched. Working with local physicians, the Seattle scientists identified 26 people under 20 years old who had thyroid cancer. Comparing them with 52 healthy people who lived in the same region, the Hutch team collected extensive information about diet, lifestyle and other factors to estimate their likely exposure to I-131. Iodine-131 is one of the primary radioactive isotopes emitted as airborne waste from nuclear plants, and it tends to concentrate in milk or certain other foods. After reconstructing exposures, Davis and his team found that the incidence of thyroid cancer was 45 times greater among those who had received the highest dose of I-131. "This is the first direct demonstration of a dose-response relationship," Davis said. P-I reporter Tom Paulson can be reached at 206-448-8318 or tompaulson@seattlepi.com [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Terms of Service/Privacy Policy ***************************************************************** 20 NRC: NRC Issues Mid-Cycle Assessments for All Nuclear Plants News Release - 2004-10 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC 20555-0001 E-mail: No. 04-106 September 2, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued mid-cycle assessment letters for 102 operating nuclear power plants and posted them to its Web site. The Davis-Besse plant in Ohio remains under a special NRC oversight program and will not receive a mid-cycle letter. Every six months each plant receives either a mid-cycle review letter or an annual assessment letter along with an NRC inspection plan. Updated information on plant performance is posted to the NRC Web site every quarter. The next annual assessment letters will be issued in March 2005. The assessment letters for each plant will be available on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/listofasmrpt.html and through ADAMS, the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System. Help in using ADAMS is available from the NRC Public Document Room by calling (301) 415-4737 or (800) 397-4209. Last revised Thursday, September 02, 2004 ***************************************************************** 21 M Star Tribune: Xcel to seek nuclear extension Last update: September 2, 2004 at 7:18 AM Chris Serres, Star Tribune September 2, 2004 NUCLEAR0902 Xcel Energy Inc. announced Wednesday that it plans to extend the life of its three nuclear power reactors in Minnesota by 20 years. Environmental groups immediately criticized the plan. The utility, based in Minneapolis, said it will seek permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the operating licenses of its nuclear plants, which together produce about one-fifth of the state's electricity. By keeping the plants open, Xcel executives said, they can avoid spending billions of dollars to build new power plants. The three reactors -- one at Monticello, two at Prairie Island in Red Wing -- began operating in the early 1970s under licenses due to expire in 2010, 2013 and 2014. "The cost of providing electricity is a lot more economical if we can continue to operate those plants," said Jim Alders, Xcel's manager of regulatory projects. "Our analysis shows this will benefit ratepayers." But environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Izaak Walton League, said they are opposed to extending the licenses until Xcel finds a better place to store the radioactive waste produced by the reactors. Xcel now stores spent nuclear fuel produced at Prairie Island in steel casks near the reactors, and the utility is seeking permission from state regulators to build another storage facility near Monticello. Environmentalists say those facilities are not designed to store radioactive waste for thousands of years, environmental groups say. "The potential exists that Minnesota may have to store this waste indefinitely," said Bill Grant, director of the Midwest office of the Izaak Walton League, a conservation group. "We don't want to become a dumping ground." But if the plants were shut down, Xcel customers could face higher energy bills, industry experts warn. Minnesotans enjoy some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation in part because so much of this state's energy supply comes from coal and nuclear power plants, which are more affordable than natural gas-fired plants. In addition, the closing of one or both of the nuclear plants could leave Minnesota with a future shortfall of electricity. In a recent report, the Minnesota Department of Commerce estimates that the state needs 2,700 megawatts of additional generation capacity by 2015, assuming the two nuclear plants remain in operation. "Xcel has already proven that it can operate these [nuclear] plants in a safe manner," said Jacob Mercer, a fixed-income analyst at Piper Jaffray &Co. who covers the energy industry. "If it benefits consumers, then why not keep them open?" Most industry experts said they expect the NRC to renew the licenses, after its technical and environmental reviews. The regulatory agency has never rejected an application by a nuclear company to renew an operating license. In the past four years, 26 nuclear power plants nationwide have had their licenses renewed. The real opposition centers on the storage issue, and that fight will occur at the state level. Xcel is seeking permission this fall from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to build another waste storage facility near Monticello. The storage facility would consist of a series of above-ground, concrete vaults spread over an area resembling a large parking lot. Xcel would transport 12- to 14-foot canisters full of spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear power reactors to these vaults. Alders said the vaults can last hundreds of years and can be replaced. Utilities such as Xcel built the vaults as temporary storage sites until waste could be stored permanently at a national repository. The U.S. Department of Energy says Yucca Mountain in Nevada could serve as such a repository, but the approval process is not complete. Some environmental groups say Yucca Mountain is not large enough to handle the nation's entire supply of waste. "There is currently no answer to how we dispose of waste that is highly toxic for an incomprehensible amount of time," said Scott Elkins, state director of the Sierra Club. "Until an answer is found, the best alternative is to simply stop producing the stuff." Chris Serres is at cserres@startribune.com. Return to top [Star Tribune] © 2004 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. 425 Portland Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488Map [The McClatchy Company] company jobscorporate sitecontact us --> 2100 Q Street, Sacramento, CA, 95816 ***************************************************************** 22 Tennessean: TVA whistleblower files complaint - Thursday, 09/02/04 tennessean.com By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press He says he was fired for raising concerns about nuclear reactor KNOXVILLE — A painter foreman working on the $1.8 billion restart of a Tennessee Valley Authority reactor in Alabama claims that he was fired for raising safety concerns. When James Speegle of Tuscumbia, Ala., complained about faulty paint work inside the Browns Ferry plant, his supervisor allegedly said redoing the work later would just mean more money for his company. ''Confusion is money,'' supervisor Seaburn Childers repeatedly told him, according to a complaint charging corporate and criminal fraud filed Aug. 20 with the U.S. Department of Labor. Speegle worked for Stone & Webster, a subsidiary of Shaw Group Inc. of Baton Rouge, La., which holds an $800 million contract on the Browns Ferry Unit One reactor project near Athens, Ala. TVA, the nation's largest public utility, is staking its future power generation needs on returning the long-dormant reactor to service in 2007. Speegle said he was suspended May 22, two days after providing information to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He was fired four days later. Speegle worried that if the paint in the reactor wasn't the right type or properly applied, ''it can crack and decay and clog the drains,'' his lawyer, Debra Katz, said yesterday. ''In the event of a meltdown, the plant can't shut down properly,'' she said in a telephone interview from Washington. ''It is a huge safety problem.'' Katz said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was investigating. TVA's inspector general's office confirmed that it also is looking into the claims. Shaw Group spokesman Chris Sammons said the company will not comment on specific cases. But he said Shaw was ''confident that our operating procedures and policies and employment practices are all proper and in accordance with applicable regulations and laws.'' TVA spokesman John Moulton said the federal utility was aware of the allegations and confident that its quality control procedures would ''ensure that all (paint) coatings meet specifications and standards and will not diminish the safe operation of the nuclear unit.'' TVA provides electricity for 8.5 million people in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. © Copyright 2004 The Tennessean ***************************************************************** 23 THE JOURNAL NEWS: Improper water levels shuts down Indian Point 2 By ROGER WITHERSPOON THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: September 2, 2004) The Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor was shut down early yesterday because of problems maintaining proper water levels in one of the plant's four steam generators. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said an alarm sounded at 12:01 a.m. alerting control-room operators that the water levels and pressures in the non-nuclear side of the steam generator had dropped by 5 percent. The water is converted to steam and piped to an adjacent building where the electricity is created. The drop in the water level was caused by a faulty valve in the feedwater pump that forces water into the steam generator, Sheehan said. Operators shut the plant four minutes after the alarm when they found they could not restore the correct water flow, he said. Indian Point 3, the second reactor at the site in Buchanan, was not affected and continued operating normally. Officials at Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns Indian Point, declined to comment. Yesterday's shutdown at Indian Point 2 marked the first time the plant has stopped operating since the blackout on Aug. 14, 2003. Entergy recently installed two new feedwater pumps at Indian Point 2, replacing units that developed holes in their sides in 2002. The plant was forced to reduce power while the holes were patched. Radioactive water heated inside the nuclear reactor is circulated through thousands of thin metal tubes within the steam generator, then returned to the reactor for reheating. Yesterday, the NRC asked Entergy and owners of the nation's 67 other pressurized reactors to re-examine the methods used to examine the tubes in their steam generators. The order grew out of findings by the agency that some methods used to determine the existence of cracks in steam tubes were ineffective. The NRC will decide if inspections should be ordered at some of these plants. Sheehan said that because Indian Point 2 had new steam generators installed in 2000, "their tubing is more corrosion resistant and they do not fall into the category of plants that are expected to be affected by this order." Copyright 2004 The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper ***************************************************************** 24 Wired 12.09: Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom [Wired News] By Spencer Reiss Issue 12.09 - September 2004 Explosive growth has made the People's Republic of China the most power-hungry nation on earth. Get ready for the mass-produced, meltdown-proof future of nuclear energy. China is staring at the dark side of double-digit growth. Blackouts roll and factory lights flicker, the grid sucked dry by a decade of breakneck industrialization. Oil and natural gas are running low, and belching power plants are burning through coal faster than creaky old railroads can deliver it. Global warming? The most populous nation on earth ranks number two in the world - at least the Kyoto treaty isn't binding in developing countries. Air pollution? The World Bank says the People's Republic is home to 16 of the planet's 20 worst cities. Wind, solar, biomass - the country is grasping at every energy alternative within reach, even flooding a million people out of their ancestral homes with the world's biggest hydroelectric project. Meanwhile, the government's plan for holding onto power boils down to a car for every bicycle and air-conditioning for a billion-odd potential dissidents. What's an energy-starved autocracy to do? Go nuclear. While the West frets about how to keep its sushi cool, hot tubs warm, and Hummers humming without poisoning the planet, the cold-eyed bureaucrats running the People's Republic of China have launched a nuclear binge right out of That '70s Show. Late last year, China announced plans to build 30 new reactors - enough to generate twice the capacity of the gargantuan Three Gorges Dam - by 2020. And even that won't be enough. The Future of Nuclear Power, a 2003 study by a blue-ribbon commission headed by former CIA director John Deutch, concludes that by 2050 the PRC could require the equivalent of 200 full-scale nuke plants. A team of Chinese scientists advising the Beijing leadership puts the figure even higher: 300 gigawatts of nuclear output, not much less than the 350 gigawatts produced worldwide today. To meet that growing demand, China's leaders are pursuing two strategies. They're turning to established nuke plant makers like AECL, Framatome, Mitsubishi, and Westinghouse, which supplied key technology for China's nine existing atomic power facilities. But they're also pursuing a second, more audacious course. Physicists and engineers at Beijing's Tsinghua University have made the first great leap forward in a quarter century, building a new nuclear power facility that promises to be a better way to harness the atom: a pebble-bed reactor. A reactor small enough to be assembled from mass-produced parts and cheap enough for customers without billion-dollar bank accounts. A reactor whose safety is a matter of physics, not operator skill or reinforced concrete. And, for a bona fide fairy-tale ending, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is labeled hydrogen. A soft-spoken scientist named Qian Jihui has no doubt about what the smaller, safer, hydrogen-friendly design means for the future of nuclear power, in China and elsewhere. Qian is a former deputy director general with the International Atomic Energy Agency and an honorary president of the Nuclear Power Institute of China. He's a 67-year-old survivor of more than one revolution, which means he doesn't take the notion of upheaval lightly. "Nobody in the mainstream likes novel ideas," Qian says. "But in the international nuclear community, a lot of people believe this is the future. Eventually, these new reactors will compete strategically, and in the end they will win. When that happens, it will leave traditional nuclear power in ruins." Now we're talking revolution, comrade. Known as China's MIT, Tsinghua University sprawls across a Qing-dynasty imperial garden, just outside the rampart of mirrored Blade Runner towers that line Beijing's North Fourth Ring Road. Wang Dazhong came here in the mid-1950s as a member of China's first-ever class of homegrown nuclear engineers. Now he's director emeritus of Tsinghua's Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, aka INET, and a key member of Beijing's energy policy team. On a bright morning dimmed by Beijing's ever-present photochemical haze, Wang sits in a spartan conference room lit by energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. "If you're going to have 300 gigawatts of nuclear power in China - 50 times what we have today - you can't afford a Three Mile Island or Chernobyl," Wang says. "You need a new kind of reactor." That's exactly what you can see 40 minutes away, behind a glass-enclosed guardhouse flanked by military police. Nestled against a brown mountainside stands a five-story white cube whose spare design screams, "Here be engineers!" Beneath its cavernous main room are the 100 tons of steel, graphite, and hydraulic gear known as HTR-10 (i.e., high-temperature reactor, 10 megawatt). The plant's output is underwhelming; at full power - first achieved in January - it would barely fulfill the needs of a town of 4,000 people. But what's inside HTR-10, which until now has never been visited by a Western journalist, makes it the most interesting reactor in the world. In the air-conditioned chill of the visitors' area, a grad student runs through the basics. Instead of the white-hot fuel rods that fire the heart of a conventional reactor, HTR-10 is powered by 27,000 billiards-sized graphite balls packed with tiny flecks of uranium. Instead of superhot water - intensely corrosive and highly radioactive - the core is bathed in inert helium. The gas can reach much higher temperatures without bursting pipes, which means a third more energy pushing the turbine. No water means no nasty steam, and no billion-dollar pressure dome to contain it in the event of a leak. And with the fuel sealed inside layers of graphite and impermeable silicon carbide - designed to last 1 million years - there's no steaming pool for spent fuel rods. Depleted balls can go straight into lead-lined steel bins in the basement. Wearing disposable blue paper gowns and booties, the grad student leads the way to a windowless control room that houses three industry-standard PC workstations and the inevitable electronic schematic, all valves, pressure lines, and color-coded readouts. In a conventional reactor's control room, there would be far more to look at - control panels for emergency core cooling, containment-area sprinklers, pressurized water tanks. None of that is here. The usual layers of what the industry calls engineered safety are superfluous. Suppose a coolant pipe blows, a pressure valve sticks, terrorists knock the top off the reactor vessel, an operator goes postal and yanks the control rods that regulate the nuclear chain reaction - no radioactive nightmare. This reactor is meltdown-proof. Zhang Zuoyi, the project's 42-year-old director, explains why. The key trick is a phenomenon known as Doppler broadening - the hotter atoms get, the more they spread apart, making it harder for an incoming neutron to strike a nucleus. In the dense core of a conventional reactor, the effect is marginal. But HTR-10's carefully designed geometry, low fuel density, and small size make for a very different story. In the event of a catastrophic cooling-system failure, instead of skyrocketing into a bad movie plot, the core temperature climbs to only about 1,600 degrees Celsius - comfortably below the balls' 2,000-plus-degree melting point - and then falls. This temperature ceiling makes HTR-10 what engineers privately call walk-away safe. As in, you can walk away from any situation and go have a pizza. "In a conventional reactor emergency, you have only seconds to make the right decision," Zhang notes. "With HTR-10, it's days, even weeks - as much time as we could ever need to fix a problem." This unusual margin of safety isn't merely theoretical. INET's engineers have already done what would be unthinkable in a conventional reactor: switched off HTR-10's helium coolant and let the reactor cool down all by itself. Indeed, Zhang plans a show-stopping repeat performance at an international conference of reactor physicists in Beijing in September. "We think our kind of test may be required in the market someday," he adds. Today's nuclear power plants are the fruits of a decision tree rooted in the earliest days of the atomic age. In 1943, a Manhattan Project team led by Enrico Fermi sustained the first man-made nuclear chain reaction in a pile of uranium blocks at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Lab. A chemist named Farrington Daniels joined the effort a short time later. But Daniels wasn't interested in bombs. His focus was on a notion that had been circulating among physicists since the late 1930s: harnessing atomic power for cheap, clean electricity. He proposed a reactor containing enriched uranium "pebbles" - a term borrowed from chemistry - and using gaseous helium to transfer energy to a generator. The Daniels pile, as the concept was called, was taken seriously enough that Oak Ridge National Laboratory commissioned Monsanto to design a working version in 1945. Before it could be built, though, a bright Annapolis graduate named Hyman Rickover "sailed in with the Navy," as Daniels later put it, and the competing idea of building a rod-fueled, water-cooled reactor to power submarines. With US Navy money backing the new design, the pebble bed fell by the wayside, and Daniels returned to the University of Wisconsin. By the time of his death in 1972, he was known as a pioneer of - irony alert - solar power. Indeed, the International Solar Energy Society's biennial award bears his name. By the mid-1950s, with President Eisenhower preaching "atoms for peace" before the United Nations, civilian nuclear power was squarely on the table. The newly created General Atomics division of General Dynamics assembled 40 top nuclear scientists to spend the summer of 1956 brainstorming reactor designs. The leading light was Edward Teller, godfather of the H-bomb, and his message to the group was prophetic. For people to accept nuclear power, he argued, reactors must be "inherently safe." He even proposed a practical test: If you couldn't pull out every control rod without causing a meltdown, the design was inadequate. But Teller's advice was ignored in the rush to beat the Russians to meter-free electricity. Instead of pursuing inherent safety, the nascent civilian nuclear industry followed Rickover into fuel rods, water cooling, and ever more layers of protection against the hazards of radioactive steam emissions and runaway chain reaction. To try to amortize the cost of all that backup, plants ballooned, tripling in average size in less than a decade and contributing to a crippling financial crunch in the mid-'70s. Finally, partial meltdowns at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 pulled the plug on reactor construction in most of the world. Even where the pebble-bed concept took root, the industry's woes conspired against it. In Germany, a charismatic physicist named Rudolf Schulten picked up the idea and by 1985 a full-scale prototype was online - too large, in fact, to meet Teller's inherent safety test. Barely a year later, with Chernobyl's fallout raining over Europe, a minor malfunction at the German reactor set off nightmare headlines. Before long, the plant was mothballed. The twin disasters in Pennsylvania and Ukraine proved Teller's point and inverted his hopeful formulation: The Union of Concerned Scientists pronounced nuclear power "inherently dangerous." The industry, already staggered by overbuilding and runaway budgets, ground to a halt. The newest of the 104 reactors operating in the US today was greenlighted in 1979. And there our story might have ended, except Even as the nuclear establishment was putting all its efforts into avoiding the klieg lights, scientists in two faraway places were carrying the torch for a better reactor. One was South Africa, where in the mid-1990s the national utility company quietly licensed Germany's cast-off pebble-bed design and set about trying to raise the necessary funds. The other was China, where the Tsinghua team pursued a Nike strategy: Just do it. Frank Wu's glass-walled ninth-floor office at Innovation Plaza offers a commanding view of Tsinghua University's leafy campus. That's no accident: The university co-owns this complex of gleaming silver towers, designed as a magnet for high tech startups. Likewise Wu's company, Chinergy, is a 50-50 joint venture between Tsinghua's Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology and the state-owned China Nuclear Engineering Group. "I just had a call from a mayor in one of the provinces," says Wu, who came on board as CEO after a decade spent running financial services companies in the US (where he adopted the English first name). "He asked me, 'How much do we have to pay to get one of those things here?'" If Wu's pebble-bed "thing" is, well, hot, it's because Chinergy's product is tailor-made for the world's fastest-growing energy market: a modular design that snaps together like Legos. Despite some attempts at standardization, the latest generation of big nukes are still custom-built onsite. By contrast, production versions of INET's reactor will be barely a fifth their size and power, and built from standardized components that can be mass-produced, shipped by road or rail, and assembled quickly. Moreover, multiple reactors can be daisy-chained around one or more turbines, all monitored from a single control room. In other words, Tsinghua's power plants can do the two things that matter most amid China's explosive growth: get where they're needed and get big, fast. Wu and his backers aim to have a full-scale 200-megawatt version of HTR-10 by the end of the decade. They've already persuaded Huaneng Power International - one of China's five big privatized utilities, listed on the NYSE and chaired by the son of former premier Li Peng - to pick up half of the estimated $300 million tab. Concrete is scheduled to be poured in spring 2007. By the usual glacial standards, that timeline is nuts for a reactor still on the drawing board. South Africa's pebble-bed group has been working on plans for a demonstration unit near Cape Town since 1993. But with an estimated $1 billion budget and local environmentalists on the warpath, the project remains stuck where it's been for nearly a decade: five to 10 years from completion. Five to 10 years ago, a lot of today's China was little more than blueprints. And Wu, who likes to tell visiting Americans how one of his previous companies beat Sun Microsystems for the contract to wire West Point, has distinct advantages. The INET team, some of whose members studied with Schulten in Germany, has been prototyping pebble-bed designs since the mid-1980s. Also courtesy of the Germans, they have the best equipment in the world for what is probably the stickiest technical problem: fabrication of fuel balls in quantities that could quickly grow to millions. By the time Chinergy's pilot plant is up and running, it's likely that the 30 reactors the government has planned for 2020 will already be under way. By then, however, China's grid is expected to be market-driven, and companies like Huaneng will have a free hand to put plants where they're needed and charge whatever the market will bear. Chinergy's strategy is tailored for this new environment. Power companies operating in regions making the transition from rural to industrial to urban will need to start small, but may suddenly find themselves struggling to meet unexpected demand. That's where the modular concept comes into play: Wu plans to sell power modules - 200-megawatt reactors plus ancillary gear - one at a time, if necessary. Growing utilities will be able to add modules as needed, ultimately reaching the gigawatt range where conventional reactors now reign. Such installations will be affordable to start - and they'll become cheaper to operate as they grow, thanks to economies of scale in everything from security and technicians to fuel supply. Too good to be true? Not according to Andrew Kadak, who teaches nuclear engineering at MIT (including a course titled "Colossal Failures in Engineering"). Kadak is a big-nuke guy by background. From 1989 to 1997, he was CEO of Yankee Atomic Electric, which ran - and ultimately closed - the '60s-vintage plant in Rowe, Massachusetts. Now he's helping INET refine its fuel ball technology and working with the US Department of Energy to build a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Research Lab. "The industry has been focused on water-cooled reactors that require complicated safety systems," Kadak says. "The Chinese aren't constrained by that history. They're showing that there's another way that's simpler and safer. The big question is whether the economics will pay off." In May, British eminence green James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a single self-regulating organism, published an impassioned plea to phase out fossil fuels in London's The Independent. Nuclear power, he argued, is the last, best hope for averting climatic catastrophe: "Opposition to nuclear energy is based on irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the Green lobbies, and the media. . Even if they were right about its dangers - and they are not - its worldwide use as our main source of energy would pose an insignificant threat compared with the dangers of intolerable and lethal heat waves and sea levels rising to drown every coastal city of the world. We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilization is in imminent danger and has to use nuclear, the one safe, available energy source, now, or suffer the pain soon to be inflicted by our outraged planet." Coming to terms with nuclear energy is only a first step. To power a billion cars, there's no practical alternative to hydrogen. But it will take huge quantities of energy to extract hydrogen from water and hydrocarbons, and the best ways scientists have found to do that require high temperatures, up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. In other words, there's another way of looking at INET's high-temperature reactor and its potential offspring: They're hydrogen machines. For exactly that reason, the DOE, along with similar agencies in Japan and Europe, is looking intently at high-temperature reactor designs. Tsinghua's researchers are in contact with the major players, but they're also starting their own project, focused on what many believe is the most promising means of generating hydrogen: thermochemical water splitting. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories believe efficiency could top 60 percent - twice that of low-temperature methods. INET plans to begin researching hydrogen production by 2006. In that way, China's nuclear renaissance could feed the hydrogen revolution, enabling the country to leapfrog the fossil-fueled West into a new age of clean energy. Why worry about foreign fuel supplies when you can have safe nukes rolling off your own assembly lines? Why invoke costly international antipollution protocols when you can have motor vehicles that spout only water vapor from their tail pipes? Why debate least-bad alternatives when you have the political and economic muscle to engineer the dream? The scale is vast, but so are China's ambitions. Gentlemen, start your reactors. Contributing editor Spencer Reiss (spencer@upperroad.net) interviewed Bjorn Lomborg in Wired 12.06. © Copyright© 1993-2004 The Condé Nast Publications Inc. All rights reserved. © Copyright2004, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Lycos Privacy Policyand Terms & Conditions ***************************************************************** 25 People's Daily: Nuclear power to fuel growth UPDATED: 09:16, September 02, 2004 With a decision to move forward to build additional nuclear power plants, nuclear power will take on a larger proportion in China's power supply system. This comes under a backdrop of the country attaching great importance to nuclear safety and participating in all international mechanisms for the prevention of nuclear proliferation. Officials have placed equal importance in co-operation with other countries in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. By 2020, China's nuclear power plants will have an installed capacity of 36 million kilowatts, or 4 per cent of the total installed capacity of the nation's generators, Chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority Zhang Huazhu said yesterday at a news conference in . Currently, the proportion stands at 1.7 per cent. And last year nuclear power plants generated 43.8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, of which 41.5 billion was connected to the power grid, said Zhang, also vice-minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence. The amount of nuclear power last year accounted for nearly 2.3 per cent of the total power generated in China. In East China's and South China's provinces, the proportion was as high as 13 per cent. In comparison, the world average proportion of nuclear power is about 16 per cent. China built its first nuclear power plant, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, in East China's Zhejiang Province in 1991. By now, there are five plants in operation, including nine nuclear power units. The capacity is 7.01 million kilowatts. The capacity will grow to 9.13 million kilowatt next year with the completion of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in East China's Province, Zhang said. Stressing China's particular attention to nuclear safety, Zhang said the government has "established a safety supervision and management system and nuclear safety standards in line with international practices." Zhang pledged that with the promising prospects for the uses of nuclear energy, China is willing to co-operate with other countries and international organizations in this field based on equality, mutual benefit, and peaceful uses. He noted that isotopes and radio logical technologies are widely applied in China in health, agriculture, environmental pro-tection and public security sectors. There were more than 300 institutions engaged in nuclear technology for civilian applications across the country by the end of last year, with a general output of 40 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion), he said. He predicted that the output from the industry of isotope and radiation technologies will exceed 100 billion yuan (US$12 billion) in 2010. Bao Yunqiao, vice-president of the China Energy Research Society, said nuclear power should play an important role in the country's power supply system. He said that should apply especially in southeastern coastal regions the country's most developed areas. Although a capacity of 36 million kilowatts in 2020 is an ambitious target for China, it is still too small an amount, Bao said. Source: China Daily Copyright by People's Daily Online, all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 26 english.eastday.com: A nuclear pillar in energy fix Nuclear power will be an important part of China's energy mix, a senior government official said yesterday. Zhang Huazhu, vice minister in charge of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, said the provisional goal was to have nuclear energy supply 4 percent of electricity by 2020, up from the present 2.3 percent. Zhang said that would require construction of 27 power plants by then with a total capacity of 36 million kilowatts. Hit by massive power shortages as generating capacity falls short of soaring demand, China has recently approved several major nuclear power projects and is set on a rapid expansion. China has stressed its self-reliance in building up its nuclear program. But it is stepping up international cooperation - while emphasizing its commitment to preventing proliferation of atomic weapons. International bids will be sought to supply equipment for two recently approved nuclear plants, the Sanmen plant in eastern Zhejiang Province and the Yangjiang plant in the southern Guangdong Province, said Zhang, who is also chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority. are inviting foreign partners to take part in the construction through bidding so that we can obtain more advanced technology," he said. quotAfter that, we will increase our rate of localization." With reactors costing about US$1.5 billion apiece, the stakes are high. US-based Westinghouse Electric Co and French rival Areva are among the many foreign companies vying for nuclear contracts. Westinghouse is awaiting approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its 1,100-megawatt AP1000 reactor - a pressurized water reactor of the design China has said it wants. China operates reactors of French, Canadian, Russian and Japanese design as well as a domestically developed model. other issue is money," Zhang said. have found that using both foreign and domestic financing is the most effective method." Asked about safety concerns, Zhang said China had a strong record in nuclear safety, having reported no serious accidents since its first nuclear power plant, Qinshan, began operating in 1991. After an accident at Mihama, Japan, killed five people last month, China ordered extra checks. Additional precautions are being taken when performing inspections, he said. China has nine nuclear power plants in operation with a total capacity of 7.01 million kilowatts. Capacity is expected to reach 9.13 million kilowatts in 2005 when the Tianwan plant in east China's Jiangsu Province begins operation. China will concentrate nuclear plants in affluent regions such as Zhejiang and Guangdong, where nuclear power already accounts for up to 13 percent of the total electricity supply, Zhang said. China also carries out studies on uses of nuclear energy in other forms, said Zhang, noting that Isotopes and radiological technologies are widely applied in China in health, agriculture, environmental protection and public security. Xinhua Copyright (C) 2000 www.eastday.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 27 YDR: NRC: Site's nuke license to end - York Daily Record [ydr.com] Thursday, September 2, 2004 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted the request of Babcock and Wilcox Co., Pennsylvania Nuclear Operation, to terminate its license to possess radioactive material at a former nuclear service operations site in Parks Township. The site is about 35 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The NRC released the site for unrestricted use. Daniel M. Gillen said Babcock and Wilcox Co. has cleared the site of radio- active material and is safe for other uses. Gillen is the deputy director for the decommissioning directorate of the NRC's Division of Waste Management and Environmental Protection. Babcock and Wilcox Co. is a manufacturer of Three Mile Island in Dauphin County. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 28 WCCO: Xcel Wants To Extend Life Of Nuclear Reactors Sep 2, 2004 6:37 am US/Central Minneapolis (AP) Xcel Energy officials said the company hopes to extend the lives of its three nuclear power reactors in Minnesota, a position that drew criticism from environmental groups. The utility said it will seek permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to renew the operating licenses of the nuclear plants. Together, the plants -- one in Monticello, the other two at Prairie Island in Red Wing -- produce about one-fifth of the state's electricity. Company executives, who are seeking a 20-year extension, said they can avoid spending billions of dollars to build new power plants by keeping the reactors working. The reactors began operating in the early 1970s under licenses due to expire in 2010, 2013 and 2014. Most industry experts said they expect the NRC to renew the licenses, after its technical and environmental reviews. "The cost of providing electricity is a lot more economical if we can continue to operate those plants," said Jim Alders, Xcel's manager of regulatory projects. "Our analysis shows this will benefit rate payers.." Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Izaak Walton League, said they are opposed to extending the licenses until Xcel finds a better place to store the radioactive waste produced by the reactors. Xcel stores spent nuclear fuel produced at Prairie Island in steel casks near the reactors, and the utility is seeking permission from state regulators to build another storage facility near Monticello. The groups said those facilities are not designed to store radioactive waste for thousands of years. "The potential exists that Minnesota may have to store this waste indefinitely," said Bill Grant, director of the Midwest office of the Izaak Walton League, a conservation group. "We don't want to become a dumping ground." But if the plants were shut down, Xcel customers could face higher energy bills, industry experts warned. Minnesotans enjoy some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation in part because so much of this state's energy supply comes from coal and nuclear power plants, which are more affordable than natural gas-fired plants. The closing of one or both of the nuclear plants could leave Minnesota with a future shortfall of electricity. In a recent report, the Minnesota Department of Commerce estimates that the state needs 2,700 megawatts of additional generation capacity by 2015, assuming the two nuclear plants remain in operation. (© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material WCCO-TV 90 South 11th Street Minneapolis, MN 55403 612-339-4444 ***************************************************************** 29 TheDay.com: Date Set For Hearings In Millstone Tax-credit Case Waterford By PATRICIA DADDONA Day Staff Writer, Waterford Published on 9/2/2004 New Britain  The parties in the Millstone tax appeal case said Wednesday that Judge Harold Aronson has set tentative hearing dates to focus on the issue of air pollution equipment tax credits. The proposed hearings in New Britain Superior Court would be held in mid-November. First, though, the judge must rule on a motion by Millstone owner Dominion Nuclear Connecticut Inc. to dismiss the town of Waterford's attempts to defend itself in the case, according to Dominion Spokesman Pete Hyde and Waterford First Selectman Paul B. Eccard. Dominion has challenged the town's appraised value of $1.2 billion for Millstone Power Station, citing a value of $854 million. Part of Dominion's claim is based on the view that 10-year-old certifications issued by the state Department of Environmental Protection that permit tax exemptions on air pollution control equipment at the plants are still valid. The town claims they are not. Dominion lawyers argue, among other things, that the town failed to exhaust administrative remedies in the matter. A separate judge would referee both parties' requests for discovery to make sure they were reasonable, Eccard and Hyde said. A trial date has not yet been set. Patricia Daddona 1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co. ***************************************************************** 30 Expatica: Question mark over nuclear phase-out 2 September 2004 BRUSSELS - The phase-out of nuclear energy in Belgium is hanging in the balance, it was revealed on Thursday. With the ink barely dry on the law to decommission the country's nuclear plants, Energy Minister Marc Verwilghen has already called the legislation into question. The law, which was passed two years ago by the Verhofstadt administration, foresees a gradual phase-out between 2015 and 2025 of Belgium's seven nuclear reactors. Between them these reactors produce 60 percent of the country's energy. Verwilghen now intends to launch a study of Belgium's predicted electricity needs from 2015. If the best solution remains to provide electricity through nuclear fission then the law will have to be brought back to the negotiating table, he says. It would not be logical to end nuclear power in Belgium only to start buying power from French reactors, Verwilghen argued. His comments have sparked fury among Green politicians including as Olivier Deleuze, the previous secretary of state for energy, as the current law was born out of years of fiery debate. But there appears to be little consensus in the corridors of power about how to tackle such a sensitive political issue. [Copyright Expatica 2004] Subject: Belgian news ***************************************************************** 31 asahi.com: EDITORIAL: Nuclear reactor accident Power companies must share every bit of information. Called to take the witness stand to give unsworn testimony in the Diet over the deadly accident at a reactor in the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, Yosaku Fuji, president of Kansai Electric Power Co., apologized for his company's insufficient management. The lapse in checking the safety of pipes at the Mihama plant resulted in the loss of five lives. Fukui prefectural police are looking at filing charges of professional negligence resulting in death. The issue of responsibility must be clearly established so that appropriate measures can be taken to prevent similar disasters. The accident resulted from thinning of a pipe as its inner side was scraped away by turbulent water current. When it ruptured, scalding steam spewed out at high pressure. The part of the pipe in question had been omitted from an inspection checklist for nearly 30 years since the nuclear reactor first went into operation. When this oversight was noticed, plans were made to inspect it. Unfortunately, it was too late. Since the ruptured pipe was part of the non-radioactive secondary cooling system, engineers at the power plant apparently never considered the possibility of a major accident even if the pipe broke. In pressurized water reactors, steam inside the piping can reach a maximum atmospheric pressure of 150 and the temperature climbs to as high as 300 degrees. In the latest accident, the pipe was so damaged that it ruptured at an atmospheric pressure of 10 and a temperature of about 140 degrees. An engineer specializing in safety at another nuclear power plant said those figures were ``not uncommon even at a street corner factory.'' But that's an arrogant way to think, especially for engineers at nuclear power plants since just the tiniest wear and tear at such a facility can result in a major accident. An inspection carried out after the Mihama accident showed that some bits of equipment were missing from the checklist at another reactor operated by Kansai Electric and a similar omission had occurred at a facility run by Hokkaido Electric Power Co. It also emerged a burst pipe that spewed out high-pressure steam at a thermal power plant in Fukushima Prefecture resulted from thinning of a pipe. These tragedies could have been avoided if the checklist data has been properly managed. Basic mistakes were made mainly because equipment inspections were left to subcontractors. Inspection and planning for inspection of equipment are often entirely outsourced to the manufacturers of nuclear reactors or to the power companies' subcontractors. This practice tends to make the electric power companies, which ought to be ultimately responsible for the safety of nuclear power generation, oblivious to the possibility of an accident. Furthermore, they clearly do not have close relations with the subcontractors. Regarding the omission of some parts of the equipment in the register for inspection, Fuji, the Kansai Electric president, said, ``We trusted that Mitsubishi Heavy Industry would propose all the parts that required inspection without any omission.'' His words speak for themselves. It is also painfully evident that there is no way of telling what will happen in an aging nuclear power reactor. Up until now, the government has ordered electric power companies to conduct regular examinations of parts responsible for an accident only after the event. But dealing with matters this way makes it difficult to prevent another accident. It is essential that power companies are prepare to judge where there are weaknesses in the system and inspect them in time. If only for that purpose, all the power companies should get together to exchange information on even the most minor problems. The experience of handling such problems, along with countermeasures taken, should be made available to other companies as well. In fact, ample information in this regard is available through numerous databases in the United States. One third of all nuclear power generators in Japan are at least 25 years old. Ensuring that aging nuclear generators remain safe is a major big problem that has to be dealt with satisfactorily. --The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 2(IHT/Asahi: September 3,2004) (09/03) ***************************************************************** 32 The Whitehaven News: CALL FOR NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS BRITAIN should back nuclear power for its future energy and build new reactors at Sellafield, claims a Cumbria county councillor. Peter Hodgson, Tory councillor for Millom, said: “I think it is the cheapest and most efficient way of producing energy. “Nuclear power stations today are very safe and I think that is the way we should be going.” Mr Hodgson, 62, trained at Sellafield as an instrument mechanic before moving to Barrow shipyard to work on the first all-British nuclear submarine HMS Valiant. He said: “Other countries probably do not have the same safety measures but in this country we have very good safety measures. “I just think it is a fallacy that wind farms are going to produce the energy we need in the next 30 years. “Demand for power is increasing faster than we can produce it. “I am all in favour of nuclear power. The sooner the better as far as I am concerned. I think that it is the safest, cheapest means of producing energy.” Mr Hodgson said that with Calder Hall power station running down at Sellafield it meant the site was the obvious choice for new nuclear plants. Martin Forwood, of Cumbrians Against a Radioactive Environment, said he did not believe there would be a surge in nuclear power station building in Britain. He said everyone acknowledged the problems of climate change, global warming and carbon dioxide. He said: “Nuclear power has its own global problems so you are just simply exchanging one problem for another.” ***************************************************************** 33 News & Star: Nuclear clean-up boss takes charge 3 September 2004 THE boss of the forthcoming Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has been announced. Dr Ian Roxburgh will be joining the NDA on September 13 and will eventually lead a workforce of 200 civil servants. He has latterly been the chief executive of the Coal Authority, responsible for the clean-up of the industry. He will be in charge of the organisation that will manage the clean-up of 20 nuclear sites across the UK from the NDA headquarters, which will be based in West Cumbria. Dr Roxburgh is a scientist with a long, distinguished career in public and private services. After graduating with a degree in Geology, he later went on to gain a diploma in management studies as well as get a PhD. His career began in the Royal Navy as a sub lieutenant. After serving, he worked at the Essex Rivers Authority before becoming a principal planner at Nottinghamshire County Council. Later he worked at the Planning Inspectorate and became a director at Wimpey Homes before moving on to the role as chairman of NOC Ltd. His appointment has been welcomed by West Lakes Renaissance, the body leading the regeneration of West Cumbria. Nuclear opportunities manager Rosie Mathisen said: “We are delighted that Dr Roxburgh has been appointed as CEO. “His experience in both private and public sectors will ensure the authority operates efficiently in a competitive contract environment.†news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.ukor ***************************************************************** 34 Daily Californian: Center to Give Compensation For Illnesses From DOE Work By AMBER PARRY AND RACHEL KING Contributing Writer Thursday, September 2, 2004 The U.S. Departments of Energy and Labor opened a new resource center in Livermore on Tuesday, aiming to help current and former DOE employees and their families receive compensation for work-related illnesses. The resource center will assist current and former DOE employees who have been exposed to dangerous materials, including radiation, on the job. The center will also provide benefits for families of those who died because of job-related illnesses, authorized by Congress in the 2000 Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act. Under the act, former DOE employees who developed specific illness, including chronic beryllium disease and chronic silicosis, are entitled to payment of medical expenses as well as $150,000 for themselves or their surviving family members. Ten similar resource centers are operating elsewhere in the United States, but the Livermore center is the first in California—a state with 35 DOE sites, including the UC-run Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories. “I am confident that this new facility will take needed strides to ensure that proper compensation gets to former Department of Energy employees who have suffered so much,” said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, in a statement. Tauscher said she began urging U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham for a permanent facility in California nearly two years ago. Tauscher co-sponsored the employee compensation act, citing concerns about the lack of assistance available for employees exposed to radiation on the job. The center is important for California as a whole, said Inga Olson of Tri-Valley CARES, a lab watchdog group. “We wish (the center) had been here much earlier, but it’s very important that it is here now,” Olson said. Center staff are making personal contact with the public in order to establish credibility, Olson said. “The contact is helping regain the trust of the sick workers who have been ignored up until this point,” she said. The center comes as a welcome service for many family members of former DOE employees. Joyce Brooks’ husband, Carl, worked at Livermore lab for 32 years. In July 1999, Carl was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis—a scarring lung disease which he felt was a result of exposure to the toxic metal beryllium during his years at the lab—and died six months later, at age 57. Brooks filed two claims with the Labor Department. They were denied, because her husband’s diagnosis had not been verified by a blood test, disqualifying her from receiving benefits, she said. Brooks then contacted the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, a leading research institute for beryllium and lung diseases. Researchers there found evidence of chronic beryllium disease in her husband’s medical records, Brooks said. She attempted to reopen the case, but the department denied her appeal, she said. Brooks refiled the claim, citing chronic beryillum disease as her husband’s cause of death, she said. After hearing no response, she contacted the department and was told her claim was sitting in Washington, D.C., in the department’s national office, she said. “I believe that this resource center will help people like me to get their claims resolved more quickly, and will avoid others having to go through so much anguish and waiting,” Brooks said at the center’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. She is still waiting for a response from the department. In California, the labor department has compensated more than $13 million to former DOE workers and their families under the act. Contact Amber Parry and Rachel King at newsdesk@dailycal.org. (c) 2004 Berkeley, California dailycal@dailycal.org ***************************************************************** 35 [NYTr] Irish Govt Must Pursue Brits on Nuke Waste Dumping: SF Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 10:14:58 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit sent by RDooling - News about Ireland & the Irish http://www.politics.ie/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6186 Irish Government Have Duty to Pursue British on Sellafield Dumping - Morgan Wednesday, September 01 Sinn Fiin TD Arthur Morgan has reacted to the latest revelations that up to 10,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste have been buried 50 miles from Ireland, on the west coast of Britain. Deputy Morgan commented that 'the Irish government have a care of duty on behalf of the Irish people to relentlessly pursue the British to close down Sellafied'. Speaking today, Deputy Morgan said: "The revelation that up to 10,000 cubic metres of nuclear waste has been buried just 50 miles from the Irish coast is sure to cause consternation amongst the Irish people. It has becoming increasingly clear that the west coast of Britain has become a nuclear dumping ground, thus endangering the lives and surrounding environs of the eastern Irish seaboard. "The Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen, has a care of duty on behalf of the Irish people to relentlessly pursue the British to immediately call a halt to this practice of dumping nuclear waste and ultimately, to proactively seek the closure of the Sellafield plant. "Sinn Fiin is utterly opposed to the indiscriminate dumping of nuclear waste. There is no place in the 21 century for such a dangerous and unpredictable energy source. Both individual states and the EU should be actively leading the way in eradicating nuclear power and replacing it with safe and clean forms of energy". * Search the NYTr Archives at: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ To subscribe or unsubscribe or change your settings via the web, visit: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= ***************************************************************** 36 Lowell Sun: Contamination might be traced to Lowell treatment plant September 02, 2004 Lowell, MA By VANESSA HUGHES , Sun Staff TEWKSBURY Perchlorate contamination in town drinking water might be coming from the Lowell Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Concord River, recent tests revealed. Twenty-one water samples taken from locations along the Merrimack River and the Concord River show trace amounts of the chemical were either in Lowell or downstream. It may be a long time before a source or sources can be pinpointed. "There's no smoking gun, but we are seeing evidence of perchlorate, and we're going to try to follow that evidence. Like a crime scene, one piece of evidence leads to another. We'll keep peeling layers of the onion away until we find something," DEP Deputy Commissioner and Regional Director Ed Kunce said. The tests found traces of perchlorate in water supplies in Lawrence and Methuen, but Tewksbury has the only supply with confirmed perchlorate above 1 part per billion, a level the state set as a health advisory for sensitive residents. Pregnant and nursing mothers, children and those with untreated hypothyroidism are advised not to drink water with perchlorate above 1 ppb. Healthy adults can safely drink up to 18 ppb, according to state guidelines. Tewksbury's Aug. 24 tests found 1.48 ppb in treated water, down from 3.24 ppb Aug. 14. The two highest levels were found in wastewater flowing out of the Lowell plant and also in stormwater discharge draining into the Merrimack River from Brox Industries in Dracut. Discharge from Brox, a quarry and maker of construction materials, had 52.9 ppb of perchlorate, but is not considered a source of Tewksbury's problem because it is downstream. Samples of water coming out of the Lowell plant had 21.9 ppb of perchlorate on Aug. 19, and 3.25 ppb on Aug. 24. In April, tests found 40 ppb in water from the plant. Kunce said the DEP is working with the plant to determine if perchlorate is coming in from sewers or is a product of the treatment process. Treated water tested higher for perchlorate than untreated water, suggesting the disinfection process may add perchlorate to the water. Mark Young, executive director of the Lowell plant, could not be reached for comment yesterday. The DEP is investigating current and former manufacturing sites. Perchlorate traces were also detected on the right side of Lowell's Hunts Fall Bridge and at Route 110 and Haverhill Street in Dracut. Kunce said such discharge is legal because perchlorate is not regulated. There are state and federal guidelines for the chemical, an emerging problem, but there are no enforceable standards. Explosives used for construction-related blasting can contain perchlorate, which is also found in solid rocket fuel, fireworks, enamels and a number of industrial processes including tanning. Blasting at a Westford quarry has been linked to perchlorate in wells there. Kunce said the DEP is trying to work with the blasting industry to learn about blasting agents they use. The state is prohibiting its own contractors from using blasting agents that contain perchlorate. Tewksbury Town Manager David Cressman said he is relieved the perchlorate is not a problem downstream and that the town can rule out sources from New Hampshire. Vanessa Hughes' e-mail address is vhughes@lowellsun.com. © 1999-2004 MediaNews Group, Inc. ***************************************************************** 37 Lowell Sun: Fouled well leaves Westford family high and dry September 02, 2004 Lowell, MA 'My House Is Worth Nothing' By PETER WARD, Sun Staff WESTFORD Whenever he heard blasting from a construction project near his home, Ken Winchester worried that his framed pictures might shake off the walls. But that was nothing compared to his new concern. The town's health director phoned him last week, warning him to stop drinking the water from his well. "She told me, 'All I can tell you right now is your well is heavily infested,'" said Winchester. The dream house he built at 1 Emily Way 15 years ago on a wooded hilltop in the Graniteville neighborhood, he was told, was tainted with a chemical he had never heard of. Perchlorate, found in explosives, is potentially harmful because it interferes with the thyroid gland. Officials found 425 parts per billion in his 250-foot well. Healthy adults are advised not to drink water with more than 18 ppb. The state suggests that pregnant women, children under 12 and people with thyroid problems avoid drinking water at more than 1 ppb. Ken Winchester says the value of his house has gone down the drain since his well was found to be contaminated with perchlorate. sun/bob whitaker The Winchesters have a 12-year-old daughter and twin boys, 8. "It's unbelievable," said Winchester, a Tewksbury native who owns his own heating and cooling business. "Basically, my house is worth nothing." His house, buff with green trim, is near two blasting sites. It's 100 yards from where the Highway Department is building a $10 million highway garage and access road. It's also near a quarry off North Street that had been dormant but reactivated seven years after the Winchesters moved in. At the quarry a quarter-mile away, where blasting stopped about a year ago because of an unrelated legal dispute, officials measured a staggering 819 ppb of perchlorate. A storm drain at the garage site was measured at 40 ppb and a retention pond nearby had 12 ppb. The state Department of Environmental Protection decided to test several private wells, including Winchester's, within a half-mile of the quarry. Two wells had "no-detects" and a third was almost negligible. The Board of Health notified 32 homeowners in the zone and offered water-testing kits from Alpha Analytical Laboratory in Westboro. The discounted price is $100. Winchester suspects the perchlorate is related to the blasting, though officials haven't conclusively linked the two. "It would be an expensive undertaking to say where it's coming from," said Elaine Major, environmental analyst for the Westford Water Department, which in July found 3.3 ppb of perchlorate in one of eight town wells, the Cote well near North Street, now closed. Winchester said the town should bear the burden of showing its blasting hasn't caused pollution. He expressed concern that the town continued to allow blasting after perchlorate was found. "If you or I were a private developer (and doing the blasting) don't you think they'd shut down the project?" he asked. He's worried about his family's health. So far, he won't blame ordinary aches and pains on the tainted water. His wife and kids all appear healthy. "They play sports. I work out every day and we drink a lot of water," he said. "This has been a major blow to us." Selectman Dini Healy-Coffin said the Board of Health worked exhaustively with residents after it received the initial results. But not all results are in yet from private well owners, and she said that data must come in before the town takes its next step. Last week, Winchester rented a Poland Spring cooler and arranged to have bottled water delivered. He's not pleased to shell out the cash he estimates it will cost $70 and upward for a product when his water tasted so good. On the advice of a town official, he filed a complaint with the Fire Department, which issues blasting permits. A week and a half later, no one called him back. Town Manager Steve Ledoux and Fire Chief Richard Rochon couldn't be reached yesterday. "I'm hoping the town would come to me and say. 'We'll bring water to your house,'" he said. His home is 1,100 feet from the water main on North Street. He estimated the cost to hook up at $10,000 to $20,000. His family continues to use the well water for showers, laundry, irrigation and the in-ground swimming pool. The water is also used to provide the "geothermal" heating and cooling. Peter Ward's e-mail address is pward@lowellsun.com. © 1999-2004 MediaNews Group, Inc. ***************************************************************** 38 Guardian Unlimited: BNFL to continue releasing 'killer' gas Environment Agency accepts that Thorp reprocessing plant could be closed before it finds a way to control release of Krypton 85 Paul Brown, environment correspondent Friday September 3, 2004 The Guardian British Nuclear Fuels is to be allowed to continue releasing a radioactive gas blamed for 100 cancers a year - even though it was first ordered to prevent the pollution 27 years ago. After a decade of trying to enforce the planning condition, the Environment Agency has admitted that by the time BNFL could build a facility to control the Krypton 85 gas, the £1.8bn Thorp reprocessing plant which produces it is likely to have shut. The condition was first imposed in 1977 by Mr Justice Parker when he gave permission for the Thorp plant, as he was concerned about the public health implications of releasing the gas. But when the plant opened in 1994 there was no Krypton 85-trapping equipment and up to 500 cubic metres of the gas have been released daily into the atmosphere at Sellafield ever since. Although the gas is widely dispersed by the wind, government advisers have estimated it causes up to 100 extra cancers a year, two of them fatal. Krypton 85 is one of a number of radioactive byproducts released when spent nuclear fuel is dissolved in acid in order to recover plutonium and uranium. For 10 years BNFL has been locked in a dispute with the Environment Agency over the technical and financial feasibility of capturing the gas on a large scale. While the company admitted it had failed to adhere to the planning condition, it insisted this was because the technology was not available to capture such a large volume of gas. But the agency did not accept this explanation, and instructed the company to develop the technology. Since then, BNFL has repeatedly failed to come up with what it considers to be a safe and reliable method of capturing the gas and the agency has repeatedly refused to accept that the company has done enough to tackle the problem. Some reprocessing plants in other countries have Krypton-capturing equipment, but on a small scale. BNFL said it would cost £300m to develop the technology to allow large-scale capturing, which would require freezing the gas to extract it. To make it safe, it would then have to be stored under pressure in bottles for 100 years until the radioactivity disappeared. The agency was not convinced by BNFL's argument and appointed independent consultants to investigate. They said it would cost £75m for a capturing plant, and suggested that BNFL could make money from the process by capturing a second and valuable gas called xenon, which is used in car headlights and double glazing. They estimated that sales of xenon could raise £50m a year. The argument has gone on for so long that a lack of new orders for Thorp means that the flagship plant will probably close by 2010, or possibly sooner, although the agency is still operating to a date of 2016. Last night, a spokesman for BNFL accepted that it was possible to capture Krypton, but said it was extremely difficult on the scale required at Sellafield. He said that, apart from the problem of capturing the gas, it was potentially dangerous to workers to store it under pressure for prolonged periods. In its decision document, which comes into force in October, the agency told the company to reconsider the issue, particularly to discover whether the expanding market for xenon would pay for the recovery of Krypton. It has given BNFL another six months to come up with an answer. [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 39 Guardian Unlimited Letters: More nuclear reactions Thursday September 2, 2004 The Guardian Not all contracts with foreign nuclear customers contain return-to-sender clauses (Ministers break promises over nuclear waste, August 31). Those signed pre-1976 do not include such an obligation on BNFL's customers. Tony Benn, then the energy minister, made a public commitment in 1975 to ensure new reprocessing contracts for Sellafield would have to include a repatriation obligation, following revelations in the media, led by the Observer ("Sweden to dump atom waste on Britain"). Benn made a statement to parliament via a reply to a written question on January 29 1976. How the repatriation pledge might be put into practice was set out more than 10 years later, in a further written reply on May 2 1986. Now, a further 18 years on, ministers are prepared to dump the pledge to enable them to earn money to dump the waste. I objected, in a submission to the DTI in May, arguing all the waste should be returned to customer countries, including an amount of radioactively contaminated decommissioning waste (contaminated steel and concrete etc), based on the proportion of usage of the reprocessing plant required to carry out the foreign customers' reprocessing requirements. Dounreay in Scotland also holds radioactive waste from foreign customers, along with Sellafield, as reprocessing of difficult-to-handle research spent fuel has been undertaken for several foreign customers at this plant. Dr David Lowry Co-author, The International Politics of Nuclear Waste These "secret" proposals come from a DTI consultation document published last January. There has been no breach in government policy, nor any deception. The policy for returning nuclear waste was set out in a 1995 white paper and has been applied consistently since then. The white paper made clear that all high-level waste will be returned to BNFL's overseas customers as soon as practicable. Shipments will begin in 2007-08. The public consultation document on intermediate waste was published in January. The results are now under consideration. The retention of low-level waste was provided for in the 1995 white paper. In our consultation document, we said 10,000 cubic metres of low-level waste was stored at Drigg in Cumbria. Additional amounts of high-level waste will be returned to the country of origin in place of low-level waste retained in the UK. Nothing has been hidden. From next year, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will help tackle the nuclear legacy. An independent committee is due to report on long-term nuclear waste management options by 2006. Stephen Timms MP Energy minister It is no surprise that the government refuses to talk about Italy - it is the only European customer that no longer has a nuclear power programme. This was scrapped in the late 1980s following a post-Chernobyl referendum, long after contracts for reprocessing were signed with BNFL. Without nuclear power stations, Italy is incapable of taking back and reusing the plutonium and uranium recovered at Sellafield. While the government and its watchdogs turn a blind eye, our efforts to highlight the issue resulted in a criminal conviction and fine last year for protesting against a shipment as it arrived at Barrow docks from Italy on its one-way ticket to Sellafield. Martin Forwood Core (Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment) So "intermediate-level waste ... can be packaged in concrete for safety". It will be a bloody good concrete mix that can last 200,000 years. John Moore Bournemouth, Dorset [UP] Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 40 Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Scratching the surface Thursday, Sep 2, 2004, 09:53:23 PM By Michael Green Whether you vote early, late, not at all or multiple times, politicians often end up involved in something that makes you scratch your head. Here are some notes about dandruff prevention: • State Sen. Ann O'Connell understandably is displeased. A citizens group accused her of supporting higher taxes. Since it's impossible to explain the 2003 Legislature in a 30-second ad, unless you just repeat the phrase "mass hysteria" several times, her campaign did the next best thing by attacking the attackers. In algebra, as in politics, a negative multipled by a negative usually equals a positive. As the announcer explained, those claiming to form the citizens group really aren't citizens. They are lawyers and casino executives. In other words, illegal aliens practicing law and running casinos attacked O'Connell. Either that, or O'Connell's ad is as silly as the ads claiming she backs higher taxes. Indeed, O'Connell was virtually a heroine to many of those now attacking her when she opposed higher taxes during the previous two decades. But this time she opposed the higher taxes her newfound enemies wanted. Well, casino executives, lawyers and other folks have the right to do just what they're doing. And it's hard to feel sympathetic toward O'Connell, whose major legislative accomplishment has been to oppose just about everything that would make Nevada a better place to live. But her campaign's response, while illogical, also is superb in one way and migraine-inducing in another. The superbness lies in picking on lawyers, whom people never seem to like until they need one. Perhaps O'Connell's exposure to the Legislative Counsel Bureau, which once ruled that a judicial opinion said exactly the opposite of what it said, has soured her on them as much as the university system counsel's office has soured me. But I happen to like most of the lawyers I have known, and many happen to be public-spirited citizens. I also like chocolate, and find more agreeing with me on that subject than on lawyers. The migraine has to do with gaming. O'Connell is a very conservative Republican. That tends to define her as the sort who would support the biggest business around. Instead, her campaign has put her on the side of Daniel against the (MGM?) lion. • George W. Bush is trying to turn his lie about Yucca Mountain to his advantage. Apparently, when Gaul was divided, Bush thought it was spelled Gall and took all of it. In 2000, with Bush in trouble on the nuclear waste issue, Nevada Republicans asked him to say something--anything. He wrote a letter to Gov. Kenny Guinn, explaining he would rely on "sound science" in making his decisions, then returned his crayons to their original location. In 2002, The Rug ignored sound science and chose Yucca Mountain for the dump. How to respond in 2004? By pointing out that Sen. John Kerry voted for the dump several times. How did Kerry respond? By doing an ad promising not to allow waste to be sent to Nevada. Those who criticize Kerry supporters for saying Bush promised not to send nuclear waste here are partly right. The Rug actually vowed to use "sound science." But since the science is unsound--or at least not yet sound, according to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals--that means he promised not to send nuclear waste here. Lost in all this is the obvious. While Kerry cares about Nevada's electoral votes, he also cares about the possibility that, as president, he might deal with the Senate now and then. The Senate's second most powerful Democrat, Nevada's Harry Reid, is known to feel strongly about nuclear waste. If Kerry becomes president--pray hard that he does--and tries to send waste here, could Reid be a little less cooperative on other issues? Fair enough. But has it occurred to anyone that only a moron, a pathological liar or someone who holds every Nevadan in utter contempt would try to make the kind of case on Yucca Mountain that the Bush campaign is making? You'd think they would be crazy enough to claim that Kerry isn't really a war hero because he wasn't badly wounded enough and opposed the war after having fought in it. Oh, yeah. The Bush campaign is doing that. • By now, you may have watched some of the Republican National Convention and seen the party's gentler side. You know, compassionate conservatives like Arnold Schwarzenegger, who boldly gropes where no man has groped before; Rudy Guiliani, whose fine response to Sept. 11 almost made us forget his policies encouraged policemen to stick plungers up the anal orifices of some suspects; Zell Miller, the Georgian who started attacking Democrats as soon as he wasn't running for office anymore and now devotes himself to repealing constitutional amendments and the result of the Civil War; and Sen. John McCain, whose Vietnam heroism hasn't stopped him from consorting with Republicans who have questioned his sanity and manhood. One goal, some Republicans say, is to show voters what Bush is really like and where he's headed. Whatever you think of Bush, he has been in the White House 3 1/2 years. Isn't that enough time to find out? And you wonder why so much head-scratching goes on. It isn't dandruff. Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury, 2001 - 2004 ***************************************************************** 41 Las Vegas RJ: Yucca complaint points to unsafe toxic dust levels Thursday, September 02, 2004 Lawsuit accuses contractors of withholding information, deceiving tunnel workers By KEITH ROGERS REVIEW-JOURNAL Workers and visitors inside Yucca Mountain inhaled unsafe levels of toxic dust in 2002, five years after a tunnel was completed to study whether the mountain can safely entomb nuclear waste, attorneys claim in court papers filed Wednesday. The second amended complaint against contractors who carved the five-mile tunnel asserts the companies systematically deceived workers and withheld information about levels of lung-scarring dust that should have required them to wear protective gear. One of the plaintiffs, Judy Kallas, a former industrial hygienist for Kiewit Construction Co., stated that her supervisor, Barry C. McNeill, ordered her in 1996 to "change her field notes about the dust levels in the tunnel" so the companies could avoid providing workers and visitors with respiratory protection. "They basically sacrificed the workers," said Joe Egan, an attorney for the plaintiffs, who is also Nevada's lead nuclear waste lawyer in the state's fight against the project. "About 1,000 to 2,000 people have a very elevated risk of contracting diseases, some of which are fatal," he said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. The amended complaint states that a Bechtel SAIC Co. industrial hygienist, Wilbert L. Townsend, warned his supervisors Feb. 20, 2002, that workers in the tunnel's south ramp would be overexposed to silica and other types of harmful dust in less than four hours. "The respirable dust in our tunneling environment is not simply nuisance dust. It is indeed biologically active," he reported. The lawsuit was filed against Bechtel SAIC Co. and a host of other Department of Energy contractors in March on behalf of Yucca Mountain tunnel workers. It was amended in April to, among other things, add visitors Judy Treichel and Steve Frishman. They had toured the mountain numerous times as independent contractors for the state. A Bechtel SAIC spokeswoman said her company's attorneys had not seen the newly amended complaint late Wednesday and could not comment on it. Tom Janssen, a spokesman for another defendant, Kiewit Construction Co., said, "We're looking into it." The amended complaint noted that in 1998, a year after the tunnel was completed, an operations manager had prior knowledge of the dust hazard as crews were about to construct a smaller, cross-drift tunnel. "Resumption of tunneling 'once again presents the possibility for our underground work crews to become grossly contaminated with silica containing dust,' " the complaint quotes TRW's Operations Manager Robert Sandifer as saying. Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal ***************************************************************** 42 Interfax: Moscow, Tehran may sign spent nuclear fuel deal soon Interfax.com Sep 2 2004 3:10PM MOSCOW. Sept 2 (Interfax) - Moscow and Tehran should soon sign an agreement on returning spent nuclear fuel from Iran to Russia, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Gholamreza Shafei said at a Thursday press conference in reply to a question by Interfax. "This should happen very soon. All fundamental problems have been resolved, and therefore the signing of the agreement should not take a lot of time," he said. © 1991-2004 Interfax All rights reserved News and other data on this web site are provided for information purposes only, and are not intended for republication or redistribution. Republication or redistribution of Interfax content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Interfax. ***************************************************************** 43 BBC: EC court challenge to Last Updated: Friday, 3 September, 2004 [Sellafield] EC inspectors says access has been poor at Sellafield The European Commission is expected to launch formal legal proceedings against the UK over nuclear safety at Sellafield plant. The European Court of Justice will hear claims on Friday that Britain has not been allowing the EC proper access. EU inspectors are required to check on material being stored in nuclear plants, to ensure it is not being diverted from peaceful purposes. Inspectors have complained since their first UK visit in 1986 of poor access. The lack of access makes it impossible for inspectors to check the actual amount of material stored against the official records, it is claimed. The legal case centres on some fuel which corroded years ago while awaiting re-processing. It is now in the form of a sludge, making it difficult to estimate the amount of material. Fine threat The high levels of radiation also prohibit on the spot inspections. Earlier this year, Sellafield was warned it could face stiff penalties for not meeting stringent EC rules on nuclear waste. The Cumbrian nuclear reprocessing plant was given until 1 June to come up with an accounting plan on how spent nuclear fuel has been processed. Under the 1957 Euratom Treaty it is up to EU inspectors to check accounting records of the nuclear material and compare them with the results of on-the-spot inspections. The EU has said that the main purpose of such inspections is to make sure the nuclear material used is not diverted from peaceful and non-military uses. ***************************************************************** 44 Las Vegas SUN: Lawyers underscore Yucca silica dangers Today: September 02, 2004 at 9:46:29 PDT By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- Attorneys who filed the lawsuit against Yucca Mountain contractors on the grounds that they did not warn workers about the dangers of silica dust are attempting to paint it as one of the worst industrial disasters in U.S. history. The case may eventually compare to the "Hawk's Nest Incident" of the 1930s, when a tunneling company ordered workers into a mountain in West Virginia, despite documented health risks of silica exposure, said Joe Egan, the Washington, D.C.-area lawyer who filed the lawsuit. "There are many people who will die prematurely as a result of this," Egan said of the Yucca workers. Egan on Wednesday filed an amendment to the original class action lawsuit he filed in March on behalf of former Yucca Mountain employee Gene Griego and others who were involved with Yucca drilling or were otherwise exposed to silica in the mountain tunnel from 1992 to 2003. Griego worked at Yucca from 1993 to 2002 and was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year. The amended lawsuit lists nine corporate defendants -- contractors involved with Yucca tunneling and research, including Bechtel National Inc., Bechtel SAIC Co., Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction Services and former contractor TRW Environmental Safety Systems, a subsidiary that was later folded into Northrop Grumman Corp. Corporate officials were not available for comment. The amendment offers more evidence that the contractors intentionally and willfully exposed workers to danger to save time and money. In some cases, the contractors ignored the safety directives of the Energy Department, the suit says. The amendment includes more information from new research into Energy Department documents and new interviews, Egan said. Egan is the lawyer who is also leading Nevada's effort to challenge the Yucca project in federal court. "In short, although defendants completed the five-mile long main tunnel loop at Yucca in 1997 in record time, they did so by deliberately sacrificing their workforce and ... visitors to meet deadlines, save costs, and earn award fees, intentionally deceiving their workers about the hazards, thereby imposing harm upon them," the amended suit says. The amendment serves to put the scope of the case in historical context, Egan said. As many as 1,500 workers may have died as a result of their work at Hawk's Nest in West Virginia, the lawsuit says. The Energy Department has estimated that 1,200 to 1,500 workers were exposed "significantly" to silica and erionite dusts at Yucca, according to the original suit. ***************************************************************** 45 Tennessean: TVA spending millions on storage for spent fuel - Thursday, 09/02/04 By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Valley Authority, its nuclear waste storage pools overflowing or nearing capacity, is spending millions of dollars storing spent fuel at its reactor sites while waiting for the Department of Energy to open a permanent repository. The nation's largest public utility, though not alone in its predicament, has more than 2,260 metric tons of spent fuel on its hands with no plans to slow down its nuclear program. The storage pool at the Sequoyah station near Chattanooga is full, and the pool at the Browns Ferry station in Athens, Ala., is expected to reach capacity next year. Already, TVA has spent more than $25 million building additional dry-cask storage space at Sequoyah. Some 44.6 metric tons of waste was moved out of the storage pool to the above-ground casks in June. Similar storage costing more than $22 million is being built at Browns Ferry, where TVA has two operating reactors and is spending $1.8 billion to restart a long-shuttered third reactor in 2007. TVA officials say dozens of other nuclear utilities are similarly hamstrung by DOE delays in opening a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. TVA recently won a U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruling that could lead to recovery of storage costs on grounds that DOE breached a 1983 contract to dispose of TVA's nuclear waste beginning in 2002. Meanwhile, TVA says the dry-cask interim storage option is a proven technology already used or planned at 38 nuclear plants. ''I think our first consideration is ensuring the safety of our employees and the safety of the communities where we operate,'' TVA director Skila Harris said in an interview. ''We have invested in the technology and the security measures at those sites that would protect safety. So in terms of safety, I don't consider that an issue.'' Beyond that, she said, the nuclear industry ''has long anticipated that there might be delays in completion of a permanent repository.'' With the support of the White House and Congress, DOE hopes to have Yucca Mountain operating in 2010. But Nevada is waging a court battle, and a federal court in Washington declared in July that even a 10,000-year radiation safety standard proposed by the government was insufficient for the site. ''This is a reflection of poor planning by the nuclear industry,'' said Steve Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. ''They have continued to generate this waste even though they don't have a long-term storage operation for it.'' ''This is sort of the birds coming home to roost, so to speak, on the banks of the Tennessee River,'' he said, noting that all three TVA nuclear stations, TVA's touted alternatives to smog-causing coal-fired power plants, are along the river. Harris, who as an energy consultant studied the finite nuclear waste storage issue as early as the late 1970s, said Yucca Mountain ''is ultimately a political issue more than it is a technological issue.'' Smith disagreed. Ensuring the safe storage of material that will remain radioactive ''for longer than recorded history is a real scientific and technical challenge. It is something that sort of pales human ingenuity.'' TVA, meanwhile, is studying the possibility of building a next-generation nuclear plant at its unfinished Bellefonte site in Alabama. TVA's third operating nuclear plant at Watts Bar in Tennessee, which came on line in 1995, has adequate space in its spent fuel pool until 2018. © Copyright 2004 The Tennessean A Gannett Co. ***************************************************************** 46 RGJ: Bush campaign manager downplays Yucca Mountain RGJ.com By Faith Bremner Gannett News Service 9/1/2004 09:56 pm NEW YORK — The Bush-Cheney campaign is counting on Nevada voters giving the president a break when it comes to his support of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, President Bush’s campaign manager said Wednesday. In an interview with reporters at the Republican National Convention, Ken Mehlman said Nevadans have more concerns than the nuclear waste dump the federal government wants to build about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He said they’re also worried about terrorism, an area where Bush scores high marks with voters, and they support the president’s economic agenda, which Mehlman credited with producing 86,000 new jobs in Nevada since 2001. “At the end of the day, there are a lot of issues the voters will vote on,” Mehlman said. “Do you agree on everything? Not necessarily. But you have to make a judgment about what do you want in the president of the United States as a leader.” Perhaps symbolizing Nevadans who put other issues first, state Attorney General Brian Sandoval was a convention speaker Wednesday night, despite representing the state in its lawsuit against the federal government to try to block the Yucca Mountain dump. A Reno Gazette-Journal/News 4 poll conducted two weeks ago of 600 likely Nevada voters indicates that Yucca Mountain will be an important issue for a majority of Nevadans when determining their vote for president. Fifty-three percent of all Nevada voters and 57 percent of Washoe County voters said the dump will figure heavily into their decision. Other public opinion polls show Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry are neck-and-neck in Nevada. Both campaigns are targeting the growing state and its four electoral votes. Bush two years ago signed legislation designating Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository. President Clinton vetoed similar legislation in April 2000. Democrats like to say Bush flip-flopped on Yucca Mountain because in 2000 he promised Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, a Republican, that he would not approve the site unless it was “deemed scientifically safe.” Republicans accuse Kerry of flip-flopping because over the years he cast several votes in favor of the Nevada site. “He actually voted for the (1987) ‘Screw Nevada’ bill, which ensured that Yucca would be the site for this, and he wrote a letter (to the federal government) saying take this stuff out of my state and put it in Nevada,” Mehlman told reporters. John Kerry supporters say his votes were either procedural or authorized a study of the project. Kerry in 2000 and 2002 voted against legislation to make Yucca Mountain the official, final site. And the Democratic Party platform reads: “We will protect Nevada and its communities from the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, which has not been proven to be safe by sound science.” A Kerry spokesman said, “The difference between these two candidates on Yucca Mountain is night and day.” “John Kerry has promised to stop it in its tracks,” said Kerry spokesman Sean Smith. “George Bush is doing everything he can to bring the nation’s nuclear waste to Nevada.” Mehlman said Bush supports having an impartial, science-based process for ultimately determining where the nation’s nuclear waste should go. “The thing you get with the president … is you get somebody who tells you what he’s going to do and then he follows the process,” he said. “That is what voters in whatever state on whatever issue should want.” Smith said a July federal court ruling shows the Bush administration did not base its decision on good science. The judge said the project’s radiation protection standard did not meet legal requirements set by the National Academy of Sciences. “Bush’s EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) cooked the science and the judge kicked it back to the Bush administration to try again,” Smith said. “Until the science is right, there’s no way this most dangerous substance on Earth should come to Nevada.” © Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett ***************************************************************** 47 yaledailynews.com: Nuclear waste may blow vote for Bush Published Thursday, September 2, 2004 In November, the road to the White House may go through Nevada. Up U.S. Highway 95 and beyond the town of Indian Springs lays a latent political hotbed: Yucca Mountain. Sitting 100 miles northwest of "Sin City," Yucca Mountain is the planned location of a federal nuclear waste repository and could prove to be the deciding factor in the Bush-Kerry showdown of 2004. The Yucca project, passed by Congress and approved by President Bush in 2002, calls for the shipment of over 75,000 tons of nuclear waste from around the United States into Nevada -- for long-term storage buried in the slopes of Yucca Mountain. Senator Kerry has told the citizens of Nevada that he would nix the project if elected president, thus providing a clear alternative to the incumbent Bush on an issue of tremendous local importance. The significance of the Yucca issue to Nevada cannot be minimized. Even in the midst of a political environment so heavily dominated by terrorism and security related concerns, anxieties over nuclear waste threaten to overshadow the prominence of the Iraq dilemma as well as traditional economic concerns in the minds of Nevada voters. Indeed, the Yucca issue itself could very well tilt the state in the Democrats' favor on Nov. 2, as current polling statistics indicate that about 70 percent of Nevada residents are opposed to the Yucca plan. Strategists from the GOP have wisely recognized that Kerry's stance on Yucca could cost their party Nevada's five electoral votes and have therefore been working to portray Senator Kerry as inconsistent on the issue. The Bush campaign has recently stated that while the Massachusetts Senator has voted against the project in some instances, he has voted for it on six occasions between 1987 and 1997. But to assert that Senator Kerry has flip-flopped on the issue or is unsure of his beliefs would be an oversimplification of the facts. Kerry has voted for the Yucca project only on procedural motions to advance the project but has voted against every direct vote of authorization. For example, Kerry's vote in 1987, which President Bush most strongly criticizes, canceled studies of alternative storage sites -- therefore authorizing a study of Yucca Mountain's viability as the country's sole storage facility. The 1987 vote does not appear to be out-of-step with his current advocacy, as it still left the option of leaving the nuclear waste scattered at various sites around the nation -- which is exactly for what he voted when the issue came to its final vote in 2002. Additionally, what seems equally important to consider is that Bush's record on the Yucca issue is not exactly spotless either. During his year 2000 campaign, candidate Bush promised Nevada that he would not approve Yucca unless it met scientific approval for safety and environmental concerns. But President Bush later approved legislation in 2002 authorizing the Yucca project, despite concerns that a scientific consensus had not been reached. Whether science was really on Bush's side does not appear to be a concern of importance, as Nevada residents have voiced their unhappiness with the plan. It is perfectly understandable that the majority of Nevada residents are opposed to using Yucca Mountain as the nation's nuclear waste repository; having tons of radioactive waste shipped from around the nation into one's backyard is not exactly the most attractive of options. Concerns over possible radioactive terrorism run high, and accidental leakage into the groundwater of Nevada would bring whole new meaning to the phrase "hitting it big in Vegas." Historically, the Yucca issue has been a solid indicator of Nevada voting sentiment: Clinton became an outspoken critic of Yucca, and he carried the state in 1992 and 1996, and Bush took a razor thin lead in 2000 only when he mimicked Gore's opposition to Yucca. It therefore appears that Kerry's stance on the issue, despite his supposed flip-flop, may be exactly what he needs to race past Bush in the perceived dead-even dispute for Nevada. If Nevada does indeed elect Kerry, then it may bode very well for his national prospects. After considering the number of electoral votes up for grabs, the winner of Nevada may go on to become the next occupant of the Oval Office. In 2000, Bush won Nevada's five electoral votes, giving him the push he needed to squeak out a four-vote win in the electoral college. With the 2004 election promising to be just as close a contest, it would be no surprise if Kerry's promise to Nevada led him straight to the steps of the White House. Howard Kim is a sophomore in Jonathan Edwards College. Copyright © 1995-2004 Yale Daily News Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 48 Nevada Appeal - Opinion: A Yucca Mountain of paperwork to do September 2, 2004 Why were we worried about Yucca Mountain? Oh, we know the reasons - geological fault lines and underground aquifers, leaky casks and nationwide transportation, shaky science and political gamesmanship. But we overlooked a significant factor in the process than could mean the nuclear-waste repository is a long ways from being started in Southern Nevada. Federal bureaucracy. This week, a federal board which oversees such things said the Department of Energy had failed to provide electronically all its documents supporting the Yucca Mountain project. The DOE argued it had posted some 5.6 million pages of documents. Lawyers for the state of Nevada countered that about 30 million hadn't been posted, nor had about 4 million e-mails. The posting of documents for anyone to read (at www.lsnnet.gov) is an important part of the open process of planning the nuclear repository. It's something the Energy Department agreed to do, and now the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is holding it to that promise. How long it will take to produce the rest of the documents seems to be anybody's guess. The Atomic Safety board's opinion is that it won't take the Energy Department "a significant amount of time." That would be a matter of a few months, apparently throwing a wrench in the department's plan to submit an application for the repository by the end of this year. Yet the Energy Department had 15 years to get ready before it announced on June 30 that all the documents were available. It didn't make it. We don't mean to overstate the importance of this particular deadline, but we simply haven't seen much evidence from the Department of Energy over the years that it can actually accomplish a project as risky and complex as Yucca Mountain. All contents © Copyright 2004 nevadaappeal.com Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701 ***************************************************************** 49 Lowell Sun: Chemical confusion Perchlorate 'danger' levels vary by state September 01, 2004 Lowell, MA Wednesday, September 01, 2004 - 10:44:13 AM EST By VANESSA HUGHES, Sun Staff Tewksbury residents learned their drinking water contained traces of perchlorate when tests confirmed levels above 1 part per billion a level at which the state recommends issuing a health advisory to sensitive residents. Maryland and New Mexico use the same guideline. But in Nevada, the advised perchlorate limit is 18 ppb. New York issues advisories when levels are 5 ppb to 18 ppb, and Arizona uses a health-based guidance level of 14 ppb. In California, where perchlorate contamination is widespread, a public health goal strives to have no more than 6 ppb in drinking water if feasible, but does not consider the amount to pose a significant health risk. Some states recommend varying levels for action, for cleanup and for public notice. Most have no guidelines, and established guidelines are inconsistent. FIRST-(SCHOOL) DAY JITTERS IN ANY LANGUAGE - BATTLEGROUND: michigan - Bush education reform earns plaudits for aim, criticism for targets - City reinstates anti-gang initiative after slayings - For one day, new fish rule the high school pond - GOP injects its own star power - Mass. leaders get their moments in the sun today - Platform splits Massachusetts delegates - State GOP's bright future will rest with local native - Twins' special bond tested by political divide "It is a puzzling issue," said Suzanne Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who said she is unsure of how many states even have guidelines. "Some scientists are saying 200 parts per billion is OK, and then we're recommending 1 part per billion. There are huge differences. Science is not exact." As towns like Tewksbury and Westford struggle to find solutions to perchlorate contamination, the contaminant is also stumping scientists and regulators. Perchlorate, which can affect the thyroid gland, is a component of solid rocket fuel. It is also found in several other products including explosives, fireworks and road flares. Since early August, Tewksbury has confirmed perchlorate in its Merrimack River water at levels above 1 ppb. The amount is commonly compared to a half teaspoon dropped in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. A comprehensive analysis of water tests at 21 sites along the Merrimack River is due to be released by the state Department of Environmental Protection today. Officials are hopeful the expanded testing will determine a source of the contaminant. Perchlorate was also detected in private wells in Westford recently. Perchlorate has been discovered in at least 22 states and at seven sites in Massachusetts. The chemical, initially found primarily near military bases, is appearing in more places, in part because improved technology can detect lower levels. The chemical can inhibit the thyroid gland's ability to produce vital hormones. Some scientists believe perchlorate can impair a newborn's neurological development, though researchers are divided on how harmful the chemical is and at what amounts. There is no federal water standard for perchlorate, leaving it to states to decide whether to issue guidelines for perchlorate or to set enforceable drinking water standards. Massachusetts began mandating perchlorate testing in March to determine whether a statewide drinking water standard is necessary. The DEP set an interim guideline advising pregnant and nursing women, those with hypothyroidism and children under the age of 12, not to drink water with more than 1 ppb of perchlorate. The general public is not considered at risk drinking perchlorate at levels below 18 ppb. Massachusetts used several studies including those of healthy adults and of pregnant rats to set its guideline, said Michael Hutcheson, head of air and water toxics at the DEP. Rodent studies find perchlorate can stunt development in offspring at levels lower than those considered dangerous for humans. The DEP's priority is to set a level that protects the most people, he said, adding that states using a 1 ppb safety guideline also look to the EPA, which set the same interim guideline. California's 6 ppb goal is based on the human study, which examined perchlorate effects on healthy adults exposed for 14 days, DEP officials said. The analysis uses a scientific method to factor in protections for pregnant women and infants, but does not use the rodent studies. Massachusetts researchers see the analysis as less comprehensive; others condemn rodent studies as flawed. Several other factors, including how researchers calculate margins of safety and extrapolate data from animals to humans, determine different standards, Hutcheson said. Some states don't have the technical staff to devote to an in-depth analysis, he said. "With a new chemical where the EPA has not provided any guidance, you tend to see a range of values that states have with different interpretations," Hutcheson said. "Perchlorate has a fair number of studies compared to other chemicals regulated. On the other hand, I'll admit and others will admit, there are things we don't know about perchlorate." The state will determine by the end of the year if the problem warrants creation of a statewide drinking water standard. A standard must consider towns' abilities to pay for and treat perchlorate, and it could be set in 2005, Ed Coletta, a DEP spokesman said. The EPA completed a draft risk study for perchlorate in 2002 and found 1 ppb to be a safety guideline. The study, criticized by some scientists, is currently under review by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The Department of Defense, potentially responsible for costs to clean up perchlorate contaminated military sites, is among those questioning the guideline as too cautious. Other studies find levels below 200 ppb are not harmful. The EPA has come under fire for taking so long to set a standard for a chemical known to be a concern for years. The EPA's Ackerman said the National Academy of Sciences promises to expedite a review within the next six months. The review will help the EPA to set safe levels and to determine a water standard, called a maximum contaminant level, or MCL. "It is a long process because once we set a standard and once the office of water sets an MCL, every state has to set a standard that is at the MCL or below. It has huge regulatory implications, so we want to get it right," Ackerman said. In Tewksbury, some have questioned the DEP's mandate to notify the public of levels slightly above 1 ppb, arguing that it prompts panic. The town, which has no alternative water source, has not been shown any reliable water treatment methods to lower the level to the state's desired amount. Restaurants are asked to take on costs to use bottled water for drinks and cooking. Schools are making plans to use bottled water and restrict access to water fountains. State Rep. James Miceli, a Wilmington Democrat who represents Tewksbury, said he has heard complaints but prefers to err on the side of caution. He said he supports the DEP's protective guideline. "I've had calls from people who do business in Tewksbury that say nobody is coming into the restaurants, nobody buys coffee at the coffee shops, everybody is afraid, and there's panic. I don't think it's a panic. I don't think they give out notification in a haphazard fashion," he said. Vanessa Hughes' e-mail address is vhughes@lowellsun.com. RETURN TO 1999-2004 MediaNews Group, Inc. All rights ***************************************************************** 50 YDR: Site cleared of contamination - York Daily Record [ydr.com] Land in Spring Garden Township is almost ready to be used again. By JENNIFER NEJMAN Daily Record/Sunday News Thursday, September 2, 2004 The past of an old industrial site in Spring Garden Township has nearly been cleaned up. Today, Molycorp officials plan to meet with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Maryland to sign papers that will end the commission's monitoring of the cleanup of low-level nuclear waste at its North Sherman Street site in Spring Garden Township. The property will be released for unrestricted use, meaning either residential homes or industry could move there, said Tom McLaughlin, who is managing the project for the regulatory commission. Molycorp excavated the site to bedrock, removed contaminated dirt and moved in clean dirt, he said. Tests on soil, groundwater and a well water showed that the radiation level is now no higher than what is naturally found in the environment, McLaughlin said. In total, thousands of samples from the soil were collected to meet cleanup standards, according to Molycorp. The company also is working to finish complying with brownfield laws for rehabilitating sites, said Ray Cherniske, manager of remediation sites for Molycorp. He said he didn't believe any more work would be needed, but there are administrative matters to deal with before the site is officially in compliance. The six-acre site is expected to remain industrial, he said. By 2005, Cherniske said he expects, the property will be on the market. He said there has been some interest already. Until the early 1990s, Molycorp manufactured chemicals by extracting materials from ores brought to the site. The company sold the chemicals to companies that used them to make products such as huge magnets, windshield wipers and radios, Cherniske said. During that process, the site had become contaminated with thorium, a radioactive material naturally found in mined ore. The material must be licensed by the commission. In 1993, after ceasing operations, Molycorp began the decommissioning process, which often takes many years. Following safety procedures, the company moved dirt, sending it for disposal by railcar to Texas. The last six cars of dirt left in December, said George Dawes, Molycorp's project manager. He estimates about 50,000 cubic yards of dirt was moved off-site throughout the project. By June 2002, the decommissioning process of about 3.5 acres had been completed, but Molycorp chose to re-evaluate the remaining 2.6 acres. Cherniske wouldn't give an exact cost of the site remediation but placed it between $10 and $20 million. Austin Hunt, a Spring Garden Township commissioner, said Molycorp did a good job because it had been up-front with the community and early on held public meetings. Reach Jennifer Nejman at 771-2026 or jnejman@ydr.com. Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box 15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000 ***************************************************************** 51 Boston.com: Tests find possible sources of chemical in Tewksbury water Boston Globe Joyce Pellino Crane September 2, 2004 --> See all stories on this topic: SOUTH Korea admits nuclear experiments Independent - London,England,UK Officials in South Korea have told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that government scientists conducted nuclear experiments to enrich uranium ... See all stories on this topic: US firms may sell nuclear reactors to Beijing Straits Times - Singapore NEW YORK - China and the United States are close to resolving a long dispute over the transfer of nuclear technology, paving the way for US companies to sell ... See all stories on this topic: EU to take legal action on UK nuclear 'pond' International Herald Tribune - Paris,France BRUSSELS Eager to set high nuclear energy standards for the European Union's new members from the former Soviet block, the European Commission is expected to ... See all stories on this topic: DAILY Chronicles of Nuclear Radiation Environment News Service (subscription) - USA ROCKVILLE, Maryland, September 2, 2004 (ENS) - Incidents of nuclear radiation and problems with power plants across the United States were reported to the ... See all stories on this topic: XCEL seeks extension for nuclear plants, riling environmentalists Miami Herald (subscription) - Miami,FL,USA MINNEAPOLIS - Xcel Energy officials said the company hopes to extend the lives of its three nuclear power reactors in Minnesota, a position that drew criticism ... See all stories on this topic: SHAW Awarded Two Nuclear Power Plant Contracts Scotland on Sunday - Edinburgh,Scotland,UK ... by Constellation Generation Group (NYSE:CEG) to provide engineering support to uprate the licensed power level of Constellation’s Ginna nuclear plant from ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR worries over Drigg and Sellafield Belfast Telegraph (subscription) - Belfast,Nothern Ireland,UK South Down MP Eddie McGrady today hit out at the dumping of up to 10,000 cubic metres of foreign nuclear waste 50 miles from Northern Ireland's coastline. ... See all stories on this topic: NUCLEAR scientists turn game makers DMeurope.com - Netherlands Jobless Russian nuclear scientists will now have a new vocation to keep themselves occupied: designing internet games. Intended ... See all stories on this topic: LAWSUIT cites more warnings of toxic dust at Nevada nuclear dump KESQ - Palm Desert,CA,USA ... in new court filings they were fired after warning government contractors about toxic dust in the tunnel at the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository ... 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