***************************************************************** 09/12/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.218 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 AFP: US determined to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons - Bolto 2 BBC: Iran defends nuclear programme 3 Khaleej Times: Weapons experts say Iran has the ability to build a n 4 Guardian Unlimited: Europe Sets Deadline for Iran on Weapons 5 albawaba.com: Europe's major powers support US stand regarding Iran 6 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Won't Abandon Nuclear Fuel Program 7 AFP: Iran Could Join The Nuclear-arms Club By 2007 8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Gov't Confirms 'Non-Nuclear' N. Korean Ex 9 Daily Yomiuri: ROK N-tests seen as being systematic 10 BBC: N Korea blast 'was not nuclear' 11 BBC NEWS: UK demands N Korea explain blast 12 CBBC: 'Huge explosion' in North Korea 13 Las Vegas SUN: North Korea Won't Abandon Nuclear Programs 14 washingtonpost.com: S. Korea Nuclear Project Detailed 15 WorldNetDaily: U.S. to invade South Korea? 16 KoreaTimes: [Tom Plate] Misleading Korean Nuclear Flap 17 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Nuclear diplomacy with North Korea since 1985 18 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea May Test Nukes, U.S. Warned 19 US: newsobserver: Southerners fear proposed energy regulations could 20 US: washingtonpost.com: Preventing a Nuclear 9/11 21 US: voanews.com: New Study Finds Technology Already Exists to Solve 22 Hindustan Times: No roll back of nuclear programme - Musharraf NUCLEAR REACTORS 23 Daily Yomiuri: Impact of N-plant accident still strong 24 BBC: N Korea attacks South over tests 25 US: Portland Press Herald: Maine Yankee's dome coming down this week 26 US: Times Argus: Glib comments don't mean nuclear energy safe 27 US: Maine Today: Maine Yankee´s dome will come down _ with a boom 28 US: Herald-Palladium: AEP contesting EPA spill penalty 29 ThisisLondon: Stakeholder raps British Energy 30 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulation Chief Dies NUCLEAR SAFETY 31 US: Spectrum: Evidence shows tests were deadly - Opinion - 32 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Idaho downwinders want fallout hearing 33 Xinhuanet: World's 5th beryllium smeltery built in NW. China NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 34 US: SLOT: Where they stand on two environmental concerns critical to 35 US: St. Petersburg Times: Fertilizer plant ready to weather storms 36 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Environment Record an Issue in Nev. 37 US: DenverPost.com: Feds act to protect 3 Utah riverways NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 38 Daily Camera: Lab coattails 39 Tri-City Herald: PNNL key player in post-9/11 security 40 Tri-Valley Herald: Lab will be worldwide clearinghouse for biologica OTHER NUCLEAR 41 DU Activist Looking for Help 42 toledoblade.com: RALPH E. LAPP, 1917-2004 Physicist was integral in ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 AFP: US determined to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons - Bolton [http://www.spacewar.com/ JERUSALEM (AFP) Sep 12, 2004 The United States is determined to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons capability but wants a peaceful solution to the standoff with Tehran, a senior State Department official said here Sunday. "President (George W.) Bush is determined to try and find a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran pursuing nuclear weapons," Under Secretary of State John Bolton, who is responsible for nuclear proliferation issues, told reporters after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. "But we are determined that they are not going to achieve a nuclear weapons capability". Iran insists that its atomic programme is purely peaceful but the United States and Israel in particular fear it conceals efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Israel, which now views Iran as its number one enemy after the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, has been lobbying hard for greater pressure to be exerted on Tehran. "Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons are obvious and all its efforts to hide it as a civil programme are in vain," said Shalom. "Everyone is aware of the fact that it will be a less stable world and we will be living in a nightmare if Iran gets its hands on such weapons." Israel itself refuses to confirm it has a nuclear arsenal but is estimated to possess some 200 warheads. The Israeli army's chief of staff also urged the international community to deal with the emerging nuclear threat posed by Iran. "Iran getting non-conventional weapons capabilities will be a disaster for the stability of the Middle East," General Moshe Yaalon told delegates at an international terrorism conference near Tel Aviv. "It's not just Israel's challenge, it is up to the world to deal with it, either politically or economically. "If not, we will have to reassess our position," he added without elaborating. In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility after intelligence confirmed Baghdad's intention of producing weapons there. Iran has consistently warned that it would retaliate if Israel launched any attack on its nuclear facilities. All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse ***************************************************************** 2 BBC: Iran defends nuclear programme Last Updated: Sunday, 12 September, 2004 [A general view of Iran's first nuclear reactor, being built in Bushehr] Critics ask why fuel-rich Iran wants nuclear energy too Iran has rejected a European bid to make it abandon its controversial nuclear activities but insists it is not pursuing atomic weapons. Germany, France and the UK have drawn up a deadline of November for Iran to abandon all parts of the atomic fuel cycle, particularly uranium enrichment. The proposal is due to be raised at a meeting of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog in Vienna on Monday. The Iranian foreign ministry said the idea was "out of the question". "If the Europeans and the international community want assurances that nuclear technology will be for peaceful purposes, we are ready to give assurances," ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters in Tehran. "But if the issue is that we cannot master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, that is out of the question because we have already reached that point." November decision The European trio due to submit its draft resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has already been involved in delicate negotiations to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. The United States has led concern that the Islamic Republic is developing a nuclear industry which could be used to build weapons. Iran has bought most of its nuclear technology from Russia. The draft resolution gives Iran until November to dispel doubts over its programme, at which stage the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, would decide what further action is needed, if any. The US has asked for the issue to go to the UN Security Council which has the power to impose sanctions or worse. ***************************************************************** 3 Khaleej Times: Weapons experts say Iran has the ability to build a nuclear bomb [http://www.khaleejtimes.com (AP) 11 September 2004 VIENNA, Austria - It’s a nightmare scenario for the West - a hostile Muslim state develops nuclear weapons, throwing the Middle East and the world into turmoil. American officials warn that fear could soon turn into reality with Iran. In Teheran, government authorities deride such concerns and threats as US propaganda. Pointing to faulty US intelligence that prompted the invasion of Iraq to save the world from apparently nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, Iran insists it doesn’t want nuclear arms - and doesn’t have the means to make them. It’s difficult to measure Iran’s intentions and test its assertions that it is only interested in the atom to generate electricity. But weapons experts agree that nearly two decades of covert activities have given the Islamic Republic the knowledge and technology to make nuclear bombs, activities that have mostly come to light in the past two years. If Iran translates those skills into action, the Middle East could become the stage for a nuclear confrontation. After running its own secret program for decades, Israel - Iran’s declared mortal enemy - is thought to have as many as 100 nuclear warheads. Sounding the latest alarm, US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Iran on Tuesday to renounce uranium enrichment, which he said “in our judgment, leads to a nuclear weapons,” or face moves to have it hauled before the U.N. Security Council. Britain delivered the same message, while German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called Iran’s activities “highly alarming.” Ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meeting opening Monday on Iran, the view that Teheran can make nuclear arms - including mastering complex tasks like warhead designs - is shared even by those willing to give Teheran the benefit of the doubt about its intentions. Austrian physics professor Friedrich Steinhaeusler, a former U.N. nuclear safety expert, criticized the “distrust and discrediting of Iran.” But he acknowledged, “there is no lack of knowledge” or resources that would prevent Teheran from making nuclear weapons. Estimates vary on a time frame. US officials have cited intelligence reports as estimating the first Iranian nuclear weapon could be ready by the end of the decade. Former U.N nuclear inspector David Albright says it could be three or four years, or even sooner “if they are pressed.” Alireza Jafarzadeh, a former spokesman for the exiled opposition National Council of Resistance, says Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered Iran’s nuclear establishment this June to put finishing touches on a weapons program by mid 2005. Jafarzadeh’s exile organization played a major role two years ago in revealing to the world what the IAEA had just learned - that Iran was running a secret uranium enrichment program. He said his latest information came from the same sources that leaked the news on Iran’s enrichment activities. Among concerns are plans for a heavy water reactor at the central city of Arak that will produce plutonium, which can be used for nuclear fuel - but more commonly is used for nuclear weapons. Even before Iran revealed its plans for Arak, an IAEA report last year, one of six to date on the status of an agency probe into Iran’s nuclear activities, said Iran had extracted small amounts of plutonium in the laboratory as part of its covert activities. While finding “no evidence” that Teheran tried to make atomic arms, it said such efforts couldn’t be ruled out. The agency has revealed a series of other experiments that could be linked to attempts to make nuclear weapons. But most worrying is Iran’s advanced state of efforts to enrich uranium - a process that also can be used to generate low-grade fuel for power or material enriched to 90 percent or above for nuclear warheads. Enrichment does not violate the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran has accepted. But - with world suspicions high in the wake of 18 years of nuclear secrecy on the part of Teheran - the IAEA and most of its member nations want Iran to scrap enrichment plans as a confidence building measure, something Teheran says it is not prepared to do. Teheran plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium in the central city of Natanz. Iran says the Natanz facility is meant to meet the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor being built with Russian help that is expected to be finished next year. For now, it is far short of that goal, possessing less than 1,000 centrifuges, most of them bought secretly through the black market network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn, the rest made domestically. But Albright says Iran is not far away from being able to make the 20 kilograms (nearly 45 pounds) of highly enriched uranium needed for one crude weapon. “If you have 1,500 centrifuges ... they can make enough highly enriched uranium for about a bomb a year,” says Albright, now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington. He described any weapon Iran would be able to produce as packing about one-fifth of the punch that hit the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Feed stock for the centrifuges is not a problem. Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and last week announced plans to extract more than 40 tons a year. Converted to uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, that amount could theoretically yield about 100 kilograms (more than 200 pounds) of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium - “hypothetically enough to make five crude nuclear weapons,” says Albright. But making enough weapons-grade uranium is only part of the equation. The bomb - or warhead - must also be fabricated using detailed blueprints. Plans for such devices are available on the black market. Libya bought engineers’ drawings of a Chinese-made bomb through the Khan network as part of its covert nuclear program that it renounced last year. Iran says it does not have such drawings, and no evidence has been found to dispute that claim. Still, Albright says that it is possible that Iran already possesses a copy. And while having such blueprints would be “immensely helpful” to Iranian scientists, they are expert enough to draw them themselves, if necessary, says Albright. He described the Chinese design Libya owed up to having as something “that would not take a lot of modifying” to fit it on Iran’s successfully tested Shahab-3 ballistic missile. Equipped with a nuclear warhead, such a missile could add a huge dose of volatility in the Middle East. It has a range of 1,296 kilometers (about 810 miles) - enough to reach Israel, which is likely to respond in kind. © 2004 Khaleej Times All Rights Reserved. ***************************************************************** 4 Guardian Unlimited: Europe Sets Deadline for Iran on Weapons From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday September 12, 2004 12:46 AM AP Photo NY110 By GEORGE JAHN Associated Press Writer BERLIN (AP) - Europe's major powers have agreed to set a November deadline on Iran to meet demands meant to resolve concerns that it is secretly trying to make nuclear weapons, in a confidential document made available Saturday to The Associated Press. The draft resolution was prepared by France, Germany and Britain for Monday's start of a key meeting in Vienna, Austria, of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The draft contains a so-called ``trigger mechanism,'' warning of possible ``further steps'' - which diplomats defined as shorthand for referral of Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose economic and political sanctions. The draft is likely to undergo changes before the three nations submit it at the board meeting of the IAEA. And it still has to be approved by two-thirds of the 35 board members. But it is significant because it puts the three European countries the closest they have formally been to the United States on what to do about Iran and activities that Washington insists show Tehran is trying build the nuclear bomb. Up to now, the European countries have resisted U.S. attempts to have Iran hauled before the Security Council or even hint on a date for such possible action. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for energy production. The draft says Iran must suspend all activities related to nuclear enrichment - including manufacturing of centrifuges - and must meet all requirements posed by the IAEA in its probe into Iran's nuclear activities before IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reports to the board again in November. On the basis of ElBaradei's report, the board will ``probably'' make a ``definite determination on whether or not further steps are required,'' the draft said. ``This is a 'trigger' that can be pulled if the November board deems it necessary,'' said one diplomat. While the last board meeting in June censured Iran for past cover-ups and warned it has little time left to disprove it has a nuclear weapons program, it didn't impose a deadline or even indirectly threaten sanctions. But since then, Iran's earlier commitments to stop some uranium enrichment and related activities have eroded - alienating the three European nations. Enriched uranium can be used to generate electricity or make nuclear weapons. Iran last year agreed to freeze enrichment programs but has since resumed testing, assembling and making centrifuges, a key component of such activities. Last week, it confirmed an IAEA report that it planned to convert more than 40 tons of raw uranium into uranium hexafluoride, the gas put into centrifuges for enrichment. Iran's original suspension pledge came in a deal with Britain, Germany and France but fell short of European demands that Tehran scrap enrichment. Iran is not obliged to halt enrichment under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but Tehran has been under international pressure for more than a year to fully renounce enrichment to counterbalance suspicions generated by nearly two decades of clandestine nuclear activities that came to light only two years ago. On Tuesday, it offered to re-impose a partial freeze on some of those activities, in an apparent move to deflect growing international exasperation ahead of Monday's meeting. But diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP they had not heard of a concrete agreement with the IAEA on that issue by Saturday. The text of the draft had no reference to any commitment by Tehran to re-impose its enrichment freeze. The draft has some positive language. It notes ``the general positive ... Iranian cooperation'' with the IAEA, while asserting that ``the process of providing information needs, in certain instances, to be accelerated.'' But it notes ``with serious concern ... that Iran has not heeded repeated calls from the board to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.'' It ``deeply regrets'' that Iran's partial freeze of enrichment and related programs falls ``significantly short'' of what the IAEA wants ``and also that Iran has since reversed some of those decisions.'' The draft expresses concern about Iran's plans to convert its raw uranium into hexafluoride. And it ``urges Iran to immediately and verifiably to suspend all enrichment-related activities, notably the manufacture of centrifuge components, the assembly and testing of centrifuges, and the production of feed material.'' It asks ElBaradei to present a comprehensive review of his two-year investigation into Iran's nuclear programs, a record of Tehran's cooperation and a judgment on Iran's willingness to fully suspend ``all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.'' On the Net: www.iaea.org Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 5 albawaba.com: Europe's major powers support US stand regarding Iran nuclear activity 11-09-2004, 20:03 Europe's major powers have agreed to set a November deadline on Iran to meet demands meant to resolve concerns that it is secretly trying to make nuclear weapons. A new draft resolution was prepared by France, Germany and Britain for Monday's start of a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The draft contains a so-called "trigger mechanism," warning of possible "further steps," which diplomats defined as shorthand for referral of Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, The AP reported. The draft still has to be approved by two thirds of the 35 board members. It, however, puts the three European countries the closest they have formally been to the United States on what to do about Iran. Up to now, the European countries have spoken against U.S. attempts to have Iran hauled before the Security Council or even hint on a date for such possible action. The draft says Iran must suspend all activities related to nuclear enrichment and must meet all requirements posed by the IAEA in its probe into Iran's nuclear activities before IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei reports to the board again in November. (albawaba.com) © 2004 Al Bawaba [http://www.albawaba.com] ***************************************************************** 6 Guardian Unlimited: Iran Won't Abandon Nuclear Fuel Program From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday September 12, 2004 12:46 PM AP Photo NY110 By ALI AKBAR DAREINI Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Sunday it would not abandon uranium enrichment, rejecting a key demand by three European powers that have threatened to intensify pressure if Tehran does not curb its nuclear program. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran already had the technology required for its nuclear fuel cycle, and would not reverse the situation. But he repeated that Iran was willing to provide guarantees that it was not seeking to build nuclear weapons. A top U.S. official said Sunday that the United States will pursue U.N. sanctions against Iran unless it renounces the quest for nuclear weapons. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, during a visit to Israel, said President Bush is ``determined to try to find a peaceful and diplomatic solution'' to the issue, but hinted that all options, including the use of force, remain open. ``We're determined that they're not going to achieve a nuclear-weapons capability,'' he said. Asefi's comments came a day before a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board to consider Tehran's nuclear program. Board members France, Germany and Britain have come closer to the U.S. stance that the IAEA should refer Iran's nuclear file to the U.N. Security Council - a step that could lead to imposition of sanctions. The three European nations have prepared a draft resolution for the IAEA board that would set a November deadline for Iran to meet demands aimed at clearing up concerns over its nuclear program. Among the demands is that Iran commit not to pursue uranium enrichment and halt related activities. The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would set a ``trigger mechanism,'' warning of possible ``further steps'' if Iran does not comply. Diplomats say the warning is shorthand for referral of Iran's case to the Security Council. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, aiming only to produce energy. Uranium enrichment can produce fuel for a reactor - or, at a higher level of enrichment, material for nuclear weapons. In recent months, Tehran has backed off an earlier suspension of enrichment activities and resumed some preparations for enrichment, though it has not resumed enrichment itself. ``If the demand is that we don't master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, it's out of the question because we have reached that point,'' Asefi told a press conference. ``But if Europeans want assurances that we only make peaceful use of nuclear energy, we are ready to give guarantees,'' he said. Asefi said the guarantees Iran was prepared to offer will be within the framework of the additional protocol to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. ``We are ready to give any sort of guarantees within the framework of the additional protocol,'' he said. Before a meeting with Israel's foreign minister, Bolton said that economic sanctions against Iran are ``not inevitable.'' He said that if Iran follows the lead of Libya, which agreed last year to dismantle nuclear weapons programs, it could prevent sanctions, but noted that Iran has refused to take the necessary steps in the last five meetings held by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. He said the United States and Europe are close to agreement on what steps to take against Iran and that he expected the two sides to reach a deal at the upcoming IAEA meeting. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 7 AFP: Iran Could Join The Nuclear-arms Club By 2007 Sunday, September 12, 2004 AFP: 9/12/2004 VIENNA, Sept 12 (AFP) - Iran could join the small club of nuclear-armed nations by 2007, or sooner if it is secretly developing weapons despite denials, analysts say. The five major powers with nuclear arsenals -- the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France -- are all signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which binds them to guarantees monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). India and Pakistan, which have both openly tested nuclear bombs, and Israel, which is thought by experts to have nuclear weapons as well, are not subject to IAEA inspections because they have not signed the treaty. Analysts remain divided as to whether North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons have yielded concrete results. Iran claims that its nuclear program is entirely oriented towards generating energy and says it is willing to accept inspections, but the United States in particular has asserted that Iran is trying to buy time to build a bomb and has demanded that it give up all its uranium enrichment activities. The United States would like the IAEA to refer the case of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Benn Tennenbaum, an expert at the Federation of American Scientists, thinks that "it will take several years" for Iran to develop a bomb if they only have the gas centrifuge program that is known to be in place. Even if it is fairly-well monitored, he said, "they still have the ability to divert some material," in which case it would take "a few years" to gather enough high-grade uranium to make a bomb. "If they have a separate program, they would probably do it very quickly," he added, noting that such a program would not be subject to inspection. "The IAEA is not a judge of the Non-Proliferation Treaty," explained Mark Gwozdecky, an IAEA spokesman. "We monitor countries' activities -- if there are compliance issues, they are referred to the UN Security Council," he added. In early 2003 Pyongyang informed the United Nations of its withdrawal from the treaty and expelled IAEA inspectors, leading the agency to send the case of North Korea to the Security Council. South Korea has recently admitted that it carried out plutonium experiments banned by the treaty. Lybia's case was also referred to the UN, but only to provide information since Tripoli renounced at the end of 2003 all its programs of weapons of mass destruction. After the first Gulf War in 1991, the United Nations extended extraordinary powers to AIEA and UN inspectors (UNMOVIC) to monitor Iraq's weapons-related activities. There have also been good surprises, Gwozdecky said. After the fall of Ceausescu, Romania's new leaders alerted the United Nations to possibly suspect activities, while Argentina and Brazil both renounced any nuclear ambitions before signing the non-proliferation accord. South Africa was described by the IAEA as a "model of cooperation" for its supervised nuclear disarmament at the end of apartheid in 1993-94. Kazakhstan, Belorus and Ukraine all agreed to ban any stockpiling of nuclear weapons on their national territory following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Experts also note that several highly-industrialized nations -- Germany and the Netherlands, for example -- have a sufficiently developed technological infrastructure to quickly development nuclear weapons if they so decided. "I would be concerned about Japan," Tennenbaum said. "They have a very large nuclear reactor complex and have enormous stockpiles of spent fuel, more than enough to build many bombs," he added. "But they certainly don't have the desire to build it right now." border="0"> [http://www.afp.com/] Copyright 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP ***************************************************************** 8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Gov't Confirms 'Non-Nuclear' N. Korean Explosion Updated Sep.12,2004 19:14 KST It was reported that there was a massive explosion Thursday around the town of Yongjo-ri, Kim Hyong-jik County, Ryanggang Province. U.S. Department of State, sources familiar with North Korea and the Korean government all confirmed the explosion. A high-ranking government official said Sunday, ¡°It is true that a large mushroom cloud about 3.5 to 4 km in diameter was observed by a satellite at around 11:00 a.m. Thursday. It was not a nuclear test, but the explosion seemed to be three times bigger than the one that took place during the Ryongchon Station accident,¡± and added, ¡°Both U.S. and Korean intelligence authorities are investigating what caused the explosion.¡± Chong Wa Dae Spokesman Kim Jong-min said, ¡°We noticed the explosion right after it took place and reported it to the president in writing during a National Security Council meeting. But we cannot decide the nature of the accident yet.¡± The accident took place in a mountainous region 1,500 meter above sea level around Yongjo-ri, where it is known that there were many munitions factories nearby. In particular, the exact spot of explosion is only 10km away southwest from the Yongjo-ri base for Rodong 1 and 2 missiles and some 30km away from the Sino-Korean border. There is much talk about the cause of the explosion. The government official said, ¡°If a nuclear test causes an explosion, we can detect it by reading satellite data. Thus, the recent explosion in North Korea was not caused by a nuclear test.¡± The intelligence authorities assume that an ammunition depot with over 1,000 tons of dynamite or an ammunition car may have exploded, or there may have been a chain explosion of chemical material or a big fire. Some Chinese sources argue that a massive explosion took pace in a munitions factory. Hong Sun-jik, director at the Hyundai Economic Institute said, ¡°Other than the assumption that it may be a simple accident that took place due to old facilities, we cannot exclude the possibility that the explosion may have taken place due to the lack of control of the Kim Jong-il regime, or it may have been connected to a secret feud over the successor of Kim Jong-il following the rumor of death of Kim¡¯s wife, Koh Young-hee.¡± Also, some strongly argue that it is not a simple accident because it took place on Sept.9, the North¡¯s foundation day, which is considered a very important national holiday. Others argue that with Korea¡¯s nuclear experiments in the past at issue in the international community, it could be a false explosion by North Korea to intensify the Korea¡¯s nuclear issue. In other words, the North intentionally caused the explosion to deliver a message to the international community. The government official said, ¡°We will be able to know the exact cause only after North Korea makes an official statement or intelligence authorities announces the results of their analysis.¡± (Choi Byung-mook, bmchoi@chosun.com ) ***************************************************************** 9 Daily Yomiuri: ROK N-tests seen as being systematic Yutaka Ishiguro / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent South Korea conducted multiple experiments in the 1990s related to a uranium enrichment test using a laser process that the South Korean government has admitted to have conducted in 2000, diplomatic sources said Friday. The experiments must have included ones aimed at processing uranium for laser enrichment, sources said. The International Atomic Energy Agency is investigating the experiments South Korea conducted in the 1990s, and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to include the results of the probe in reports he is scheduled to present at the organization's regular board of directors meeting Monday. The South Korean government has admitted that government scientists conducted an experiment in which they extracted a small amount of plutonium at the state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute in 1982. It also has admitted that by failing to report the laser enrichment test conducted in 2000 at the institute, it violated the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's Safeguard Agreement, which obligates signatories to provide prior notification to the IAEA of nuclear-related experiments. But Seoul denied its direct involvement in either of the cases, insisting that the scientists initiated the experiments. The laser enrichment method, which identifies and extracts uranium isotopes for enrichment, consumes less power and requires smaller facilities than the centrifuge separation method, which is the most commonly used method of enriching uranium. This makes it the best method for conducting nuclear tests secretly. While it is not clear whether the experiments conducted in the 1990s eventually led to the production of enriched uranium, it is certain that those tests provided the basic data for the laser enrichment experiment. The facts strongly indicate that the experiments were planned on a long-term basis, which contradicts the South Korean government's prior explanations, analysts said. Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 10 BBC: N Korea blast 'was not nuclear' Last Updated: Sunday, 12 September, 2004 [North Korean soldiers] North Korea keeps a tight grip on information The United States and South Korea have played down suggestions that a massive explosion in North Korea last week was caused by a nuclear device. The blast in Yanggang Province, close to the Chinese border, is said to have happened on Thursday as the Stalinist state celebrated its National Day. The blast created what officials in Seoul say was a peculiar-shaped cloud. As the secretive North stays silent on the blast, a visiting UK minister has asked for an urgent explanation. There was no indication th was a nuclear event of any kind. Exactly what it was, we're not sure Colin Powell UK demands explanation An unnamed diplomatic source, who spoke to South Korean news agency Yonhap in Beijing, said a cloud with a radius of up to 4km (2.5 miles) had been spotted in Yanggang's Kimhyungjik County. The area is mountainous and thinly populated, and home to an underground military base known to contain medium-range missiles. There has been no comment on the incident so far from either North Korea or its closest ally, China. In April, an explosion at a railway station in North Korea killed more than 150 people - but Pyongyang only admitted the incident three days later. 'Not a test' US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he did not believe the blast was connected to North Korea's nuclear programme. "There was no indication that was a nuclear event of any kind. Exactly what it was, we're not sure," Mr Powell told ABC television on Sunday. The BBC's Charles Scanlon, in Seoul, said the South Korean government had confirmed the explosion but was still assessing satellite images of the blast. The South Korean president's office told AFP news agency: "Our government information for now shows North Korea has not conducted any nuclear test. "We are trying to confirm whether it is fireworks, a fire in mountains or an accidental explosion." It was unlikely that North Korea would have carried out a nuclear test so close to the border with China, our correspondent says. He adds that the US suspects that the closed region where the blast occurred may be where the North is conducting an alleged uranium enrichment programme. Diplomatic pressure z UK Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell has demanded an immediate explanation from the North's foreign ministry. Mr Rammell told the BBC he would also be pressing the North to rejoin the "six-party" international talks - involving both Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan. "I think this is going to be a long haul and it's about trying to pull North Korea back from complete isolation," he added. The authorities there have been under huge international pressure to end all nuclear programmes and disarm, but have offered only limited concessions in the three rounds of six-party talks to date. They have not so far committed to attending a fourth round, which the Chinese, as hosts, wanted to start before the end of this month. On Saturday, the North's foreign ministry said reports of nuclear experiments in the South made it even more determined to pursue its own programme. ***************************************************************** 11 BBC NEWS: UK demands N Korea explain blast sd [http://www.bbc.co.uk] Last Updated: Sunday, 12 September, 2004, 13:09 GMT 14:09 UK [ [Bill Rammell] Mr Rammell intends to raise the issue with foreign minister Britain has demanded an immediate explanation from North Korea after reports of a blast that left a mushroom shaped cloud there last week. South Korean media say the explosion took place in Yanggang Province, near China's border, as the Stalinist state celebrated its National Day. UK Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell - in North Korea for talks - said he had asked for "an urgent explanation". Western officials have downplayed suggestions it was a nuclear test. First visit Mr Rammell stressed he only had provisional reports of Thursday's explosion. "I think it is important we get to the bottom of exactly what happened," he said. "I have asked for an urgent explanation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I will certainly be raising it with the Foreign Minister tomorrow morning." North Korea has claimed to have nuclear weapons and to have been working on developing its arsenal. But the outside world has been unable to verify those claims. Mr Rammell is the first British minister to visit North Korea and will participate in three days of talks. He is being accompanied by the Foreign Office's chief human rights expert, Jon Benjamin, who he hopes will make a return visit to Pyongyang at a later date. [ src=] [North Korean soldiers] [ src=] Confusion over blast The UK refused all previous invitations until the communist state agreed to discuss human rights. Mr Rammell opened talks on the state's human rights record, describing recent allegations as "the worst in the world". North Korea's vice foreign minister Kung Sok Ung has promised Mr Rammell another meeting with other officials on Monday. Mr Rammell told the BBC he would also be pressing the North to rejoin the "six-party" international talks - involving both Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan - over its nuclear weapons. "I think this is going to be a long haul and it's about trying to pull North Korea back from complete isolation," he added. The highly secretive country has threatened to pull out of the talks because of perceived American hostility. 'Realistic expectations' Mr Rammell will use Libya as an example of a nuclear state that has been welcomed back by the international community. He will also highlight the advantages to North Korea if it opened up including international aid and that help with energy supplies could follow. "North Korea has a key choice. It can engage in this process and get rid of what it has got and promise not to develop anything further. "Then all sorts of positives can come its way. Isolation is the alternative route." [ src=] E-mail this to a friend [ src=] Printable version [ src=] [ src=] LINKS TO MORE POLITICS STORIES [ src=] SelectCivil servants face strike ballotTUC demands pensions actionLib Dem call for immigrant quotaByers stokes PM succession debateUK demands N Korea explain blastUnison Milburn wild ideas warningCherie hoping for 'fantastic' 50sUKIP money man wants new leaderBrown seeks to retain EU rebateDowning Street hammer man arrestLabour's 'yes' to assembly powersTory MP attacks Howard reshuffleBlair questions NI political willBrown plays down 'cabinet split'Tories 'to axe all tuition fees'Hunt protest outside Blair's homeTories plan NHS negligence reformRedwood returns to Tory frontlineHunting ban to be debated by MPsEU constitution battle restartsQueen's Speech date is revealedUnions warn Blair: 'No stitch-up'Pensioners pile pressure on MPsGay Tory candidate survives voteDate set for Hartlepool electionCunningham falls in SNP reshuffleSecurity 'breaches' at parliamentMoment of decision for NI processHowells returns to education jobLinks to UK political sitesFind your MPA-Z of ParliamentCabinet guideFull in depth reportFull in depth reportIn-depth: Hutton ReportFull in depth reportFull in depth reportToday in ParliamentBBC ParliamentThe Politics ShowThe Westminster HourQuestion TimeAny QuestionsBreakfast with FrostThe Daily PoliticsiCan: BBC's grassroots politics website ] High stakes at talks Q&A: North Korea's nuclear threat Timeline: Nuclear crisis The intelligence 'black hole' [ src=] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2003/nuclear_fuel_cycl e/mining/default.stm] [ src=] [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2003/nuclear_fuel_cycl e/mining/default.stm] | [http://www.bbc.co.uk/info] ***************************************************************** 12 CBBC: 'Huge explosion' in North Korea [http://www.bbc.co.uk] Updated 12 September 2004, 12.40 A huge explosion in North Korea last week sent up a two-mile-wide cloud of dust and left a crater visible from space, according to reports. The South Korean media say the blast happened in Yanggang Province, close to the Chinese border, on Thursday. Although North Korea has not said anything, foreign officials don't think the blast was caused by a nuclear test. Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, who is visiting the country, has asked for an explanation for the explosion. [North Korean soldiers] In April, an blast caused by an accident at a railway station in North Korea killed more than 150 people. North Korea is traditionally a very secretive country, and it took the government there three days to admit to that explosion. Mr Rammell also said he would be trying to get North Korea involved in talks to prevent it being completely cut off from the world. ***************************************************************** 13 Las Vegas SUN: North Korea Won't Abandon Nuclear Programs By SANG-HUN CHOE ASSOCIATED PRESS SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said Saturday that South Korea's secret nuclear experiments involving uranium and plutonium make the communist state more determined to pursue its own nuclear programs, a news report said. A spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry condemned the South Korean nuclear experiments, conducted in 1982 and 2000, as "clearly of military nature," according to Pyongyang's official news agency KCNA, monitored by South Korea's national news agency Yonhap. Officials had feared the recent revelations of those experiments would affect the prospects for six-nation talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs, the unnamed North Korean spokesman was quoted as saying. "We strongly suspect that the United States may have masterminded the experiments that were clearly of military nature," he was quoted as saying. "We cannot but link these developments with the issue of holding six-party talks." South Korea said Thursday that it extracted a tiny amount of plutonium, a key element for making atomic bombs, in a nuclear experiment in 1982. That revelation followed an acknowledgment last week that it enriched a small amount of uranium - another element that could be used to make a bomb - in 2000. The controversy over South Korea's experiments has threatened to further disrupt troubled efforts to persuade North Korea to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons programs. "Under these circumstances, it is only natural that we should never give up our nuclear program," the North Korean spokesman said. The North Korean threat, which follows a pattern of issuing hard-line statements in times of crucial negotiations, came as a delegation of top Chinese government and Communist Party leaders are visiting Pyongyang to discuss issues including the North's nuclear programs. China, North Korea's key ally, has been host to three rounds of six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, but those talks ended without breakthroughs. The talks involve the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia. In a meeting in Tokyo, diplomats from Japan, South Korea and the United States reconfirmed Friday that the next round of six-nation talks must be held later this month as scheduled. North Korea's reluctance to participate has stalled efforts to restart the talks, while South Korea's recent acknowledgment it had conducted nuclear experiments threatened to further complicate the negotiations. South Korea denies any nuclear weapons ambitions, calling those experiments purely "scientific research activities." It says it has been cooperating fully with U.N. nuclear inspectors to ensure transparency. In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Powell attached minimal importance to the recent disclosures that South Korea had engaged in a uranium enrichment experiment four years ago and a plutonium-based nuclear experiment two decades ago. "It's quite clear that these were not intended other than for academic, experimental purposes, and it's over with and I think that's, frankly, the end of the matter," Powell said. "I don't see any great significance to them, but the North Koreans always like to seize on anything to make their point." In its first reaction to the South Korean experiments, however, a North Korean envoy to the United Nations in New York warned Wednesday that the South Korean nuclear activities could trigger a nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia. choe -- ***************************************************************** 14 washingtonpost.com: S. Korea Nuclear Project Detailed Work Called Near Weapons Grade By Dafna Linzer Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 12, 2004; Page A24 As the Bush administration tries to ratchet up pressure on Iran, emerging details of clandestine nuclear work in South Korea indicate that the U.S. ally was more successful than Tehran in producing the key ingredient for a bomb and used deception to conceal the illegal activity from U.N. inspectors for years. In interviews late last week, diplomats with knowledge of both covert programs disclosed that South Korean scientists enriched uranium to levels four times higher than did their counterparts in Iran. Seoul conducted those experiments, in violation of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, two years before Iran did and kept them secret for nearly two years after Iran's came to light, said the diplomats, who would discuss the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency only on the condition of anonymity. [ BORDER=] South Korean workers dismantle the facilities of a research reactor belonging to the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in Seoul. (Kang Chang-kwang -- Hankyoreh News Via AP) The South Koreans appear to have experimented with smaller quantities of uranium than Iran did, and there is no indication that Seoul invested the kind of money and resources that Tehran has put into its program, the diplomats said. IAEA inspectors have yet to uncover the full scope of the activities of either Iran or South Korea. Until two weeks ago, there were no public indications that South Korea had conducted any weapons-related work, and it was not understood how similar the program was to Iran's efforts. The South Korean revelations have thrown the Bush administration's efforts on Iran and North Korea into turmoil. Over the weekend, U.S. officials said they were forced to scale back plans to refer the Iran issue to the U.N. Security Council by month's end. And a statement from North Korea on Seoul's nuclear work cast further doubt on U.S. hopes of resuming talks later this month aimed at persuading North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. U.S. officials had hoped to push its Iran agenda at the IAEA's board meeting that will begin in Vienna tomorrow. But with little support inside the Security Council for muscling Iran, U.S. officials are backing a competing plan from the Europeans that would give Tehran until late November to suspend suspect nuclear work or face the possibility of council action then. "We tried, but we had to give up on our 'noncompliance' resolution right now," said one U.S. official. "We're hoping that triggering language, calling on Iran to take a series of steps by a certain deadline or face an automatic referral, will do the trick." Under the new resolution, the IAEA's board would reconvene at the end of November and judge Iran's compliance based on the full history of its program. European diplomats said a final draft of the resolution is being worked out and emphasized that the new wording offers no guarantee that the matter would wind up before the Security Council. U.S. officials have said it is too early to know whether the South Korean issue should be referred to the council, but they worked hard to avoid the appearance of being softer on friends than on foes. "One thing I can assure is that we will not allow a double standard in terms of how we treat the violations," said John R. Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, who negotiated with the Europeans on an Iran resolution in Geneva last week. The IAEA, which has suspected South Korea of violating the nonproliferation treaty for six years, confronted the Seoul government last December. Several months later, diplomats said, South Korea began to acknowledge the work. Publicly, officials in Seoul said the experiments were one-time efforts by scientists working on their own. But diplomats challenged those assertions and revealed over the weekend that the Seoul government officially and repeatedly blocked IAEA inspections months after the experiments in 2000 and told the IAEA false cover stories. "In 2001, the IAEA asked to conduct a regular inspection and was denied. That happened at least twice before the South Koreans, under some protest, allowed the inspectors in two years later," a diplomat said. During an IAEA inspection last week, South Korean officials could not produce documentation or several scientists who were involved in the work, the diplomats said. That portrayal differs significantly from those offered by U.S. officials who have repeatedly praised South Korea for coming clean voluntarily and cooperating with the IAEA. South Korea says it has cooperated fully with the IAEA and has not been obstructionist. South Korean officials say they have produced reports for inspectors as quickly as possible given the sketchy details remaining about the 1982 plutonium experiment and the February discovery of the 2000 uranium enrichment program. South Korean workers dismantle the facilities of a research reactor belonging to the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in Seoul. (Kang Chang-kwang -- Hankyoreh News Via AP) The IAEA investigation revealed South Korea's work on uranium enrichment, plutonium reprocessing and the production of nuclear equipment including uranium metal for laser technology. When Iran was found to have been working on uranium metal, suspicions were immediately raised about its intentions. "Anytime a country makes uranium metal in secret, you have to worry that they are trying to make nuclear weapons components," said David Albright, a former IAEA nuclear inspector and the current president of the Institute for Science and International Security. Iran was far less successful than South Korea at laser enrichment, according to diplomats and IAEA reports. In 2002, Iranian scientists enriched uranium to about 15 percent while the South Koreans, working two years earlier, enriched uranium to 77 percent, well within the range necessary for a nuclear explosive. South Korea acknowledged the achievement in written statements to the IAEA this summer, the diplomats said. South Korean officials publicly deny uranium was enriched to high levels. The IAEA is conducting tests, and the results are expected soon. Much of Tehran's enrichment work has been done with centrifuges, and officials there said they will continue to assemble the large-scale operation to enrich low levels of uranium for a nuclear energy program. Iran has enriched uranium to 2 percent using the centrifuges but, once mastered, the technology could be used to make highly enriched uranium suitable for bombs. Iran's secret nuclear work was exposed two years ago, and since then IAEA inspectors have been trying to understand how and why Iran hid 18 years of effort. Iran maintains that its goal is to develop a nuclear energy program and that it worked in secret because it feared it would not be believed. South Korea agreed, under U.S. pressure in the 1970s, to give up its nuclear weapons program. In 1991, it and North Korea agreed to ban uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing on the Korean Peninsula. The North is believed to have violated that agreement, and U.S. intelligence estimates indicate Pyongyang may have up to eight nuclear weapons. In the past month, U.S. spy satellites have observed activity in North Korea that some intelligence officials believe could be a sign that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a nuclear test, an administration official who had been briefed on the matter said last week. But he said that while the evidence, such as increased movement of vehicles at suspected test sites, was suspicious, officials were reluctant to draw firm conclusions because assumptions drawn from similar activity observed in Iraq had turned out to be wrong. North Korea said yesterday that talks with Washington and others aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions must be tied to a full investigation of South Korea's work. Talks were to have resumed this month in Beijing, but many analysts think the next round could be delayed until after the U.S. presidential election in November. Staff writer Glenn Kessler in Washington and correspondent Anthony Faiola in Seoul contributed to this report. ***************************************************************** 15 WorldNetDaily: U.S. to invade South Korea? SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11 2004 © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com This week, Undersecretary John Bolton will demand that the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency refer to the U.N. Security Council for possible punishment the "failure" of Iran to promptly disclose its production – during experiments conducted at Lashkar Ab'ad between October 2002 and January 2003 – of milligram quantities of enriched uranium. Technically, all no-nuke signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are required to promptly make all their "nuclear materials" – which includes uranium, however much enriched, of whatever quantity – subject to an IAEA Safeguards Agreement. This year, in the process of negotiating an Additional Protocol to their existing agreement, Iran not only told the IAEA about their attempts to enrich uranium via the Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation process, but showed them the AVLIS equipment, which they have essentially junked. What is AVLIS? AVLIS was a top-secret high-tech candidate to replace the low-tech gaseous diffusion process, developed during WWII, by which all our enriched uranium – for power reactors or for nuclear weapons – was produced. Uranium has to be "enriched" because only seven-tenths of one percent of the atoms contained in natural uranium are "fissile." Most power reactors require about 3 percent of those atoms to be fissile, and our uranium nukes require at least 90 percent. So, in the gaseous diffusion process, uranium-hexaflouride gas under extremely high pressure is forced through hundreds and hundreds of virtually opaque filters – which are slightly less opaque to the smaller fissile atoms – the output from one filter being recompressed and used as input to the next. It takes an enormous amount of electricity to run those compressors, so uranium-enrichment by gaseous diffusion is enormously expensive. In the rest of the world, most uranium is enriched by the gas-centrifuge process. In a gas centrifuge, the unwanted non-fissile atoms are almost literally "thrown" out. It still takes thousands of centrifuges – the output of one being the input for the next – to achieve the required enrichment, but the process requires about a tenth the electricity. We spent more than $3 billion developing centrifuge technology, building and testing thousands of centrifuges. But we never built a commercial-scale gas-centrifuge plant. But the Europeans did, and so did the Russians. We've never really needed one. We haven't produced any weapons-grade enriched uranium for many years. In fact, in 1998, all our uranium-enrichment facilities were turned over to the private sector U.S. Enrichment Corporation. We intended to develop a commercial-scale Uranium-AVLIS process for USEC. The AVLIS process exploits the small differences in energies between the characteristic excited states of different isotopes of the same atom. The energy output of a powerful pulsed laser can be precisely "tuned" so as to selectively ionize the U-235 isotope. The positively charged U-235 ions can then be electromagnetically separated from the other un-ionized uranium isotopes. We spent billions developing the AVLIS technology, building a pilot-plant at Lawrence Livermore National Lab that operated more or less successfully for about 18 months. However, in 1999 the entire program was "suspended" because of "technological problems encountered during test runs of the pilot-plant," and estimates were it would take another $2.5 billion to build a commercial-scale plant for USEC that could not be ready for operation until 2007. Many laboratories around the world have – or have had – AVLIS research programs, but there doesn't seem to be – as yet – a commercial-scale competitor to the gas-centrifuge for uranium enrichment. There is some reason to believe the Russians have employed AVLIS-related technology to remove the unwanted plutonium isotopes from weapons-grade plutonium. So, imagine how ecstatic Bolton was when the IAEA told him that Iran had told them they acquired an AVLIS system, had made milligram quantities of low-enriched uranium and hadn't reported it at the time! But then last week came the terrible news. The South Korean Science and Technology Ministry informed the IAEA that during the same time period, five South Korean scientists – all of whom received their doctorates in the United States – had also made milligram quantities of low-enriched uranium using high-power lasers and related equipment before relegating it to the scrap heap. They hadn't told the IAEA because – like the Iranians – they didn't think milligram quantities of LEU needed to be reported. Now the IAEA Board will have to decide what to do about Iran and South Korea. Oh well, if Bush has to treat South Korea the same way he intends to treat Iran, at least he won't have to invade them. We already have 37,000 troops stationed there. Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. [gprather@worldnetdaily.com] | GO TO GORDON PRATHER'S ARCHIVE webmaster@worldnetdaily.com --> news@worldnetdaily.com--> Contact WND ***************************************************************** 16 KoreaTimes: [Tom Plate] Misleading Korean Nuclear Flap Hankooki.com > Korea Times > Opinion By Tom Plate LOS ANGELES - Fundamentally, as they tend to say in particle physics, the big brouhaha over the secret South Korean uranium enrichment experiment is an absurdity. After all, the amount of fissionable material produced at the national laboratory _ as currently reported _ was trivial: It was about as big-time weapons-grade in the sense of a paper airplane requesting 747-landing rights at Kimpo Airport. The whole flap is curious in the extreme. Seoul voluntarily reported the unauthorized experiment to international authorities, and that should be the end of it. But all sorts of unhelpful parties in the region may want to use the errant experiment for their own purposes. North Koreans may say that the clandestine South Korean program puts both Koreas in a plane of moral equivalency. It doesn¡¯t: South Korea is a far more transparent society and the North Korean nuclear program is thus far more worrisome. Some Japanese circles may want to point to the Seoul admission as further evidence that the Landing of the Rising Sun needs to get cracking and develop its own nuclear weapons program. That would be the worst development imaginable for peace and security. And China, rightly pushing its Six-Party Talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, may point to the revelation as reason for more urgent diplomacy; but of course nothing substantive will happen until after the results of the American elections. How did the flap start? At the end of the day, the origins of the illicit experiment will probably be tracable to South Korean nuclear scientists who did a bit of lab-toying-around on their own. Such amoral conduct would easily track with that of other scientists elsewhere who tend to take matters into their own hands and act as if they are above the law. Basically, brilliant scientists tend to believe they are really not like you and me, that a special set of rules governs them, and that they can do as they please. It¡¯s called the God complex: But this above-the-law attitude creates problems for national governments and new international tensions that need to be smoothed away. The revelation also reminds us that any state that has the steel will to want a nuclear capability (whether subterranean or otherwise) will proceed apace, no matter what anyone else says. South Korea appears not to be in that category, but then there is the question of Iran and Pakistan. It is U.S. policy _ as well as the policy of the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council _ to seek to stymie the increase in the number of nuclear powers, on the entirely plausible ground that fewer is better. But, then again, as India might put it, it is easy to take this line when one already possesses such weapons than when one is on the outside looking in at the comfy nuclear club luxuriating in its high moral line. The ideal number of nuclear powers would be zero, of course. But until and unless the United States _ along with China, Russia, France and Great Britain _ agrees to stuff the nuclear genie back in the bottle by advancing nuclear disarmament by leadership example, others will continually be tempted to lust after nuclear potency, too. Even so, the danger the world faces is not so much from direct nuclear exchange between nuclear states that are in control of their militaries as well as their mental facilities. Rather, as famed theoretical physicist Norman Dombey puts it in the current London Review of Books, ¡°It follows that the international community should focus on the weak link in the non-proliferation regime: that¡¯s to say, states which possess nuclear weapons and are not fully in control of their territory or of their citizens.¡± Seen from this analytical perspective, therefore, nothing on the Korean Peninsula _ north or south _ is anything as worrisome as Pakistan, against which since 911 the U.S. has had to snuggle up ally-style. The U.S. _ the first and only nation-state to have used such weapons in combat _ thus is somewhat responsible for developments there, and is also morally culpable for relying on nuclear weapons as a core part of its military arsenal. ¡°We call upon the citizens of the United States to look squarely at the reality of the tragedies that have unfolded in the wake of the atomic bombings 59 years ago,¡± wrote Iccho Itoh, mayor of Nagasaki, in the Nagasaki Peace Declaration last month on the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the atomic destruction of his city. ¡°¡¦So long as the world¡¯s leading superpower fails to change its posture of dependence on nuclear weapons, it is clear that the tide of nuclear proliferation cannot be stemmed.¡± Nagasaki¡¯s mayor is right. This is the bottom line on nuclear proliferation. We need a world free from nuclear weapons; and so we need a re-moralized United States to take the lead and bequeath planet earth a fate free of nuclear holocaust. For some kind of future nuclear tragedy would seem probable in the absence of transcendent American renunciation. 09-12-2004 19:03 ***************************************************************** 17 Reuters: CHRONOLOGY-Nuclear diplomacy with North Korea since 1985 12 Sep 2004 07:55:26 GMT Source: Reuters SEOUL, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Following is a chronology of key events in the past 18 years of diplomatic efforts to contain North Korea's nuclear ambitions: On Sunday, South Korean media reported that an explosion in North Korea on Sept. 9 produced a mushroom cloud. But South Korean and U.S. officials said it was unlikely that the blast was nuclear. - - - - December 1985 - North Korea joins nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but makes adherence to safeguards agreement with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) contingent on removal of U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea. September 1991 - President George Bush announces withdrawal of all U.S. tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad, including about 100 based in South Korea. December 1991 - Two Koreas sign South-North Joint Declaration on Denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. They pledge not to test, produce, receive, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons. They also agree to mutual inspections. January - September 1992 - North Korea concludes and ratifies comprehensive safeguards agreement with IAEA, then declares seven sites and some plutonium to be subject to IAEA inspection. IAEA discovers discrepancies in North Korea's initial report and asks for clarification on amount of reprocessed plutonium. February 1993 - IAEA demands special inspections of two nuclear waste storage sites, citing evidence that North Korea had been cheating on its NPT commitments. North Korea refuses. March 1993 - Refusing demands, Pyongyang announces intention to withdraw from NPT in three months, citing national security considerations. June 1993 - Following talks with United States, North Korea suspends pull-out from NPT and agrees to accept IAEA safeguards. March 1994 - IAEA inspectors arrive in North Korea for first checks in a year. North's refusal to allow inspections at Yongbyon plutonium reprocessing plant, north of Pyongyang, prompts IAEA to demand it allow all requested checks immediately. June 1994 - North Korea announces withdrawal from the IAEA. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter negotiates deal with North Korea in which it confirms willingness to freeze its nuclear arms programme and resume talks with United States. October 1994 - United States and North Korea adopt Agreed Framework in Geneva calling on North to freeze and eventually eliminate nuclear facilities and allow IAEA special inspections. In exchange, Pyongyang is to receive two proliferation-resistant light-water reactors (LWRs) and annual heavy fuel oil shipments. March 1995 - Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO), a multinational consortium, is formed to build the LWRs. November 1999 - KEDO officials sign contract with Korea Electric Power Corporation to begin construction of LWRs. October 2002 - Top State Department envoy James Kelly confronts Pyongyang with evidence of covert uranium enrichment programme. Pyongyang says it is "entitled to possess not only nuclear weapons but other types of weapons more powerful than them in defence of its sovereignty in face of the U.S. threat". November 2002 - United States and KEDO allies meet in New York and decide to cut off fuel oil shipments. December 2002 - North Korea says it plans to restart Yongbyon reactor, disables IAEA surveillance devices at Yongbyon and expels IAEA inspectors. January 2003 - North Korea says it is quitting NPT, with immediate effect. February 2003 - North Korea says it has put atomic plant at Yongbyon on "normal footing" for reactivation. April 2003 - At talks between U.S. team lead by Kelly and North Koreans and China in Beijing, American officials say North Korea told the United States that it has nuclear weapons and might test therm or transfer them to other countries. August 2003 - Six-way talks on the nuclear issue take place involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia in Beijing. North Korea threatens to test nuclear bomb and test-fire new missile. But it also agrees to more talks and attends inconclusive meetings in February and May 2004. October 2003 - North Korea says it has enhanced its "nuclear deterrent" with plutonium reprocessed from thousands of nuclear fuel rods. Pyongyang says it is willing to display the deterrent. January 2004 - Pyongyang lets unofficial delegation of Americans, including nuclear expert, tour Yongbyon. U.S. nuclear expert Sigfried Hecker says he was not convinced that North Korea could turn its nuclear technology into a weapon or mount it on a missile. February 2004 - The father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, admits to proliferating uranium-linked technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. North Korea calls Khan's confession a lie. September 2004 - South Korea acknowledges that government scientists, in unauthorised scientific experiments, extracted trace amounts of plutonium in 1982 and enriched uranium in 2000. North Korea says it will link the news to six-way nuclear talks. (SOURCES: Arms Control Association, U.S. State Department, Korean Central News Agency) ***************************************************************** 18 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea May Test Nukes, U.S. Warned From the Associated Press [UP] Monday September 13, 2004 12:31 AM AP Photo WX112 By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has received indications North Korea might be trying to test a nuclear weapon, a senior Bush administration official said Sunday. The official said there is no evidence that a large mushroom cloud that reportedly billowed up from North Korea was linked to the communist nation's suspected nuclear weapons program. ``We're watching the indicators to see whether this is normal activity or whether something else is under way,'' the official said on condition of anonymity. The White House periodically receives reports that North Korea is seeking to test a nuclear weapon, the official said. Democrat John Kerry said that just the idea that the United States was thinking North Korea might test a nuclear weapon highlights a national security failure by Bush. Under Bush's watch, North Korea has advanced its nuclear program, he said. ``North Korea's nuclear program is well ahead of what Saddam Hussein was even suspected of doing - yet the president took his eye off the ball, wrongly ignoring this growing danger,'' Kerry said in a statement. ``What is unfolding in North Korea is exactly the kind of disaster that it is an American president's solemn duty to prevent.'' President Bush's senior foreign policy advisers said publicly Sunday that they did not think the reported explosion Thursday near North Korea's border with China was related to North Korea's nuclear aspirations. ``We have no indication that it was a nuclear event of any kind,'' Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC's ``This Week.'' ``Exactly what it was, we're not sure.'' He said the administration was closely watching activities taking place at some sites in North Korea, but that ``it is not conclusive that they are moving toward a test.'' National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' that it would not be ``smart'' for the North Koreans to test because it would further isolate them. Rice also said the explosion was not likely a test. ``We don't think, at this point, it was a nuclear event, but we're looking at it and will get further analysis,'' she said. ``There are all kinds of reports and all kinds of assessments that are going on. Maybe it was a fire - some kind of forest fire.'' Asked whether a U.S. military option is on the table concerning North Korea, Rice said, ``The president never takes any option off the table, but we believe the way to resolve this is diplomatically.'' The United States, Russia, Japan, China and the two Koreas have held talks on North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons development, and they agreed to hold another round of negotiations in Beijing this month. No date has been set. The United States has pushed for North Korea to fully disclose all of its nuclear activities and allow outside monitoring before it receives any assistance. North Korea wants energy aid, lifting of economic sanctions and removal from its inclusion on Washington's list of state sponsors of terrorism. ``North Korea is looking for assurances that we're not going to invade it, we have no hostile intent; they're looking for benefits for giving up their nuclear capability and their nuclear infrastructure. And what we're debating is what will it take to give them the assurances they need and what benefits would they expect over the long haul,'' Powell said. But, he said, the United States will not ``reward them for doing something they should've have been doing in the first place. So we're into a very intense period of negotiations.'' Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 19 newsobserver: Southerners fear proposed energy regulations could hike power prices [http://www.newsobserver.com] Modified: Sep 11, 2004 8:25 AM By JEFFREY MCMURRAY, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON -- With power prices in the South among the nation's lowest, the region's lawmakers are some of the most vocal critics of a plan by federal energy regulators to create standardized, regional markets for wholesale electricity. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission insists prices in the South, along with the rest of the country, would drop if states went along with its proposal to put transmission lines under the control of independent regional transmission organizations, or RTOs. The South has a wealth of power sources, including nuclear and hydroelectric plants, that provide reliable energy and are much closer to the region's larger cities than what is common in other more populated regions, such as New England and the Southwest. Power prices in the South are cheap now. The great unknown for utility customers and the lawmakers who represent them is whether they will stay that way if markets are deregulated. "The markets in our region are serving the consumers well," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. "I can see no reason, no justification for replacing that with a literally untested, federally coerced structure that would have to result in higher prices for the consumer." Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss said the plan also would adversely affect his state of Georgia and "unfairly rewards states which failed to plan for the future." Commission spokesman Bryan Lee says he philosophically disagrees with the position of Shelby, Chambliss and 18 other U.S. senators who expressed their concerns in a July 20 letter. However, he says complaints by Southerners and Northwesterners, who also enjoy cheap power, have put the plan - known as standard market design - on a "very cold backburner." "We've not effectively communicated to folks in the region that this is a customer-protection initiative and is an extension of the commission's long-standing efforts to assure fair and open competition in wholesale power markets," Lee said. "The argument that we're using this to shoehorn the market design rulemaking is something that we disagree with." Still, there remains suspicion among some Southern lawmakers that the federal regulators' ultimate goal is to mandate standardized markets, even if through a piecemeal approach. "I don't think anybody objects to being an exporter of cheap power, but they don't want to have the power prices averaged in a scenario in which cheaper power in Chicago comes at the price of more expensive power in Alabama," said Jim Kerr, a commissioner on the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Southerners have made choices that gives them the reliable, less-expensive energy that they now enjoy, Kerr said. They invested in an extensive power grid and expressed a willingness to construct several plants near population centers, including some nuclear ones that are fiercely resisted in other parts of the country. If there are price advantages as a result, Southern utilities reason, their regular customers should benefit first. "We've got customers we have to serve by law, and that's our top priority," said Terri McCullough, spokeswoman for Southern Company. "Mandating RTOs or a specific form of an RTO would remove the ability of states and regions to adopt models that are best suited to state and regional needs." Lee says he expects the advantages of regional markets will soon become clear to customers in the Southeast and Northwest. "Once folks see the value of the regional transmission organizations and robust competitive power markets, they'll ultimately want to embrace these policies in their regions," he said. "Until that point, we are not going to force it on them." Kerr said he doubts there will be any groundswell among Southerners to hand over control of reliable power to federal bureaucrats and regional oversight groups. "It is really a political commodity," Kerr said. "Look at all the things that have been deregulated - airlines, banks, telephones. None of that comes close to electricity in our day to day lives." --- On the Net: FERC: http://www.ferc.gov Southern Company: http://www.southernco.com End ADV for Sept. 11-12 © Copyright 2004, The News &Observer Publishing Company, a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company[McClatchy Company] ***************************************************************** 20 washingtonpost.com: Preventing a Nuclear 9/11 By Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier Sunday, September 12, 2004; Page B07 This month's hostage tragedy in Russia is a stark reminder of the potent terrorist threat that country still faces -- a threat that could result in a nuclear Sept. 11 if terrorists manage to gain access to Russia's nuclear stockpiles. Unfortunately, the recent claim by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov that inadequately secured nuclear stockpiles in Russia are only a "myth" is far from the truth. There has been a decade of improvements in Russia, but the work remains dangerously incomplete and the threat to nuclear facilities is terrifyingly high. While many of the best-known thefts of nuclear material occurred a decade ago, it was only last year that the chief of Russia's nuclear agency testified that nuclear security was underfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars. At nearly every site U.S. experts visit, they reach quick agreement with Russian experts on the need for substantial security upgrades. Russia's decision to send additional troops to guard nuclear facilities in the wake of the most recent terrorist attacks belies the notion that these facilities were adequately secured before. Moreover, that heightened troop presence is not likely to last and will do little to reduce the danger of theft by insiders. Meanwhile, terrorists are zeroing in on these nuclear stockpiles. Top Russian officials have confirmed at least two cases in 2001 of terrorists carrying out reconnaissance at Russian nuclear warhead storage sites. The 41 heavily armed, suicidal terrorists who seized hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater in 2002 reportedly considered seizing the Kurchatov Institute instead -- a site with enough highly enriched uranium (HEU) for dozens of nuclear weapons. In 2003 proceedings in a Russian criminal case revealed that a Russian businessman had been offering $750,000 for stolen weapon-grade plutonium for sale to a foreign client. Al Qaeda has been actively seeking nuclear material for a bomb and has strong connections to Chechen terrorist groups. Comprehensive U.S.-funded security upgrades have been completed for only 22 percent of Russia's potential nuclear bomb material; upgrades for tens of thousands of bombs' worth of material are still incomplete. Disputes over access to sensitive sites, liability, and other bureaucratic and political obstacles have been allowed to stymie progress for years. This is a global problem. More than 130 research reactors in dozens of countries still operate with HEU fuel, and many have no more security than a night watchman and a chain-link fence. Pakistan's heavily guarded nuclear stockpiles face huge threats, from both insiders and outsiders, including large remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country. The good news is that this is a solvable problem. Plutonium and HEU -- the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons -- are too difficult for terrorists to make. If the world's stockpiles can be locked down and kept out of terrorist hands, nuclear terrorism can be prevented. Many of the needed programs are in place. In addition to continuing efforts to secure Russia's stockpiles, the administration has been exploring similar cooperation with Pakistan and others -- and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham has just launched a Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) designed to remove potential bomb material entirely from the world's most vulnerable sites rapidly. Three steps are urgently needed if the world is to win the race to lock down these stockpiles before the terrorists get to them. First, it will be crucial to implement GTRI as quickly, flexibly and comprehensively as possible -- with a target of removing potential bomb material from the world's highest-risk facilities within four years. Congress should give Abraham both the explicit and flexible authority and the additional funds he needs. Second, the United States and Russia must drastically accelerate their efforts to secure Russia's stockpiles. The next U.S.-Russian summit should focus on agreements to sweep aside bureaucratic and political obstacles and set an agreed deadline for getting the job done. President Bush needs to make clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin that locking down these stockpiles quickly and permanently is central to U.S.-Russian relations and to Russia's own security. Third, the United States must expand the security upgrade effort to the rest of the world, forming a fast-paced global partnership to quickly lock down all the vulnerable nuclear caches that cannot simply be removed or eliminated. Making all this happen will require a sea change in the level of sustained White House leadership, no matter who is president. A full-time senior official is needed -- one who has the president's ear -- to lead the myriad efforts in many agencies meant to block the terrorist pathway to the bomb. This official must also keep the issue on the front burner at the White House day in and day out. Only then will we have done all we should to reduce the risk of a nuclear Sept. 11. Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier, of the Managing the Atom Project at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, are co-authors of "Securing the Bomb: An Agenda for Action." Bunn worked on programs to secure nuclear materials in the Clinton administration, and Wier helped to develop budgets for some of these programs in the Clinton and current Bush administrations. The Washington Post Company: [http://washpost.com/] | ***************************************************************** 21 voanews.com: New Study Finds Technology Already Exists to Solve Global Warming [http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm] Rosanne Skirble Washington 11 Sep 2004, 02:49 UTC A new study finds that technologies already exist to solve the problem of global warming. It says strategies employing these technologies over the next fifty years could put the brakes on rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the earth's atmosphere - a chief cause of global warming. But critics say the study fails to address the economic, social and political costs of such a plan. Steve Pacala Denise Applewhite, Princeton University The study says global warming could be prevented by deploying a wide array of technologies, from renewable energy sources like solar, wind and nuclear power, to alternative bio-fuels, and the capture and storage of climate-changing emissions of carbon from power plants. The study also identifies changes in forestry and farming techniques that could provide additional reductions in carbon emissions. "Anybody that is out there can look at the paper and visit the things that we are talking about and see that they exist at an industrial scale in the marketplace today," says Steve Pacala, the study's author and Princeton University ecology professor. He says a scaling up of the technologies can work to stabilize carbon emissions, which otherwise are expected to double by mid-century. "And most of the science and most of the indicators that we have of what's happened in the past say that we start to encounter serious dangers at about the doubling mark. That means we have to act at the first half of the century because we would reach a doubling by mid-century otherwise, and we would be faced with an energy system that was emitting carbon like crazy and the momentum would carry us on to a tripling." Mr. Pacala says that an excessively carbon- rich atmosphere will likely cause decreased crop yields, increased threats to human health and more frequent extreme weather events. But critics like Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow in environmental policy with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, say the Princeton University study is flawed because it fails to take into account the economic and social costs of its recommendations. "One of their strategies which they said would eliminate a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next fifty years would be to reduce the number of automobile miles traveled, in other words reduce the amount of driving by fifty percent. And, that is going to impose a horrendous cost in terms of people's time, convenience, and lifestyle choices. But then there are the political costs and the intangible costs, which all of us would experience if our driving were somehow limited," he says. Marlo Lewis says the study also ignores political reality, as in the case of nuclear power. The study recommends doubling the current global nuclear capacity to replace coal-based electricity, a strategy that most environmentalists find troubling. "Who are the biggest boosters of the Kyoto Agenda [Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change] of forced de-carbonization? It is the environmentalist movement? [Yes] Is the environmental movement pro-nuclear? [No it is not.] We have spent over a decade in this country debating where to put spent nuclear waste and we still can't come up with an answer. And the environmental movement is still hostile to the transport and disposal of nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, [New Mexico]. And, it is because the environmentalists have blocked it." Steve Pacala says the study contributes to the on-going debate about how the Earth's complex ecosystems should be managed. "We have the technology to engage in wise stewardship of the earth now at a cost that is not prohibitive. So I just think that we have a responsibility as a species to do it," he says. Study author Steve Pacala says aggressive action now would create new industries, improve air quality and decrease reliance on polluting fossil fuels. The research is published in the Journal Science. [http://www.voa.gov/index.cfm] | ***************************************************************** 22 Hindustan Times: No roll back of nuclear programme - Musharraf Home [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/124_0,0000.htm] Sunday, September 12, 2004 | Updated: 13:31 IST Indo-Asian News Service Islamabad, September 12 President Pervez Musharraf has asserted that Pakistan will not roll back its nuclear programme. Speaking to officers and soldiers at the Garrison Darbar in Quetta on Saturday, Musharraf revealed that the Government had spent more money in the last three or four years improving its nuclear capability than during the last 30 years, Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday. Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in May 1998 days, after India stunned the world with a series of similar tests. The international community had condemned both countries for barging into the exclusive nuclear club uninvited and has been pressing both to roll back their nuclear programmes. Both have refused to yield to global sanctions. Musharraf said that all requirements were being met for making the country secure and stable, adding that a strategy for the next 15 years had been chalked out to augment the country's defence. Pakistan's main problem on defence and security fronts was not external threats, but internal challenges like terrorism, he said. Speaking about the steps being taken to eliminate terrorism, he said the Government had been successful in arresting "90 per cent" of terrorists operating in the country. But he said: "We have to root out terrorism to ensure security and stability of the country." The Dawn report did not indicate if he referred to Indian charges that terrorist camps in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir continue to exist despite Islamabad's assurance not to allow areas under its control for terrorist activities. Musharraf said terrorism had turned away foreign investors from the country and weakened the economy. He also declared that Pakistan would not change its stand on Kashmir, but would continue efforts for a peaceful settlement of the issue. Archives available from July 1, 2003. [feedback@hindustantimes.com?Subject=Feedback from the website [http://www.hindustantimes.com] © HT Media Ltd. 2004 ***************************************************************** 23 Daily Yomiuri: Impact of N-plant accident still strong Yomiuri Shimbun The emotional wounds inflicted by the steam blowout that killed five workers and injured six others at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant in Mihamacho, Fukui Prefecture, have not healed in the community and are set to haunt it for some time. All those who were killed in the accident were employees of Kiuchi Keisoku, an inspection firm in Osaka. About 140 workers have since sought advice at the medical clinic at the Mihamamacho power plant, complaining of insomnia, exhaustion and loss of appetite. The accident is expected to cost Kansai Electric Power Co. more than 10 billion yen. "I often dream about a colleague who died in the accident, but I wake up when I remember he is dead," said a male employee at the Wakasa branch of Kiuchi Keisoku in Obama, Fukui Prefecture. On the day of the accident, the employee rushed to the branch after learning about the accident from a television news program. He found his boss there talking to the families of those who had been killed. "It didn't seem real to me," he said. A few days later, he cleared out the desk of a colleague who had died in the accident. "I felt so lonely after his stuff was gone," he said. He was then plagued by sleepless nights, his appetite diminished and he drank more and more often. Sometimes he would cry while drinking at home. He met with a counselor three times, but this sessions failed to make any difference. He spent most of his free time lying down. "To tell you the truth, it's so painful to keep working," the man said. "I thought about quitting my job, but I realized that I should make an effort on behalf of my colleagues who survived and are in hospital," he added. His colleagues had similar stories. Some of them took time off from work, complaining of insomnia and loss of appetite. KEPCO began conducting a survey in late August on about 1,600 workers who were on duty at the plant when the accident occurred to assess its mental and physical effects on employees. The workers were asked to answer about 50 questions, some of which related to the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The sadness of the bereaved families will never disappear. Kazutoshi Nakagawa died in the accident, leaving a 41-year-old wife, Hitomi, who was temporarily hospitalized after the accident. Minoru Takatori, 60, criticized KEPCO for offering only one 30-minute explanation for the accident. At three locations, KEPCO employees and affiliated firms observed a minute of silence to pray for the souls of the five victims at 10 a.m. Thursday, a month after the accident. === Operations resume at 2 reactors KEPCO resumed operations at the No. 2 reactor at Takahama Nuclear Power Plant and the No. 4 reactor at Oi Nuclear Power Plant, both in Fukui Prefecture, on Tuesday after their water pipes were inspected. But the resumption of operations at other reactors is expected to be delayed, and the subsequent financial loss will likely increase. "We've avoided the worst case scenario in which residents protest against resuming operations," a KEPCO executive said. Only three of KEPCO's 11 nuclear reactors have been operating, but the No. 2 reactor at the Mihamamacho plant is expected to resume operations in October after its pipes have been replaced. KEPCO initially expected all inspections, which will be conducted by three groups, to be complete within two weeks, and estimated its financial losses to reach about 10 billion yen, but the amount could increase. Copyright 2004 The Yomiuri Shimbun ***************************************************************** 24 BBC: N Korea attacks South over tests Last Updated: Saturday, 11 September, 2004 [South Korean workers dismantle experimental reactor at a former research centre in Seoul ] Seoul says only miniscule amounts of nuclear material were produced North Korea has said that news of recent nuclear experiments in the South has made it even more determined not to abandon its own weapons programme. South Korea has admitted experimenting with plutonium and uranium and has been chided by the United States. The North accused the US of backing the research and said international talks on its nuclear plans were in question. Delegations of Chinese and British officials are currently holding talks in the North's capital, Pyongyang. The north said Washington had adopted double standards on nuclear technology. It is self-evident th [North Korea] can never abandon its nuclear programme under such a situation North Korea "It has transferred nuclear technology to its 'allies' and connived at their nuclear weapons-related activities and possession of nuclear weapons," a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry said on Saturday. "But it has worked hard to stamp out nuclear activities for a peaceful purpose after faking up 'misinformation' about [North Korea] on account of its ideology and system." The row centres on recent revelations in the South: + Seoul admitted extracting a small amount of plutonium - a key ingredient in nuclear bombs - in secret research conducted in the early 1980s + South Korean scientists produced 0.2 of a gram of uranium in 2000 through scientists who did not have government approval + Unconfirmed reports are also emerging of other undisclosed nuclear tests Diplomatic mission The BBC's Charles Scanlon reports from Seoul that the North appears determined to use the revelations about the South to maximum effect. "It is self-evident that [North Korea] can never abandon its nuclear programme under such a situation..." the North's foreign ministry said. This is the start of a ver very long haul to try to edge North Korea back from complete isolation Bill Rammell Foreign Office minister UK challenges N Korea on rights "We cannot but link these cases to the issue of resuming the six-party talks." The talks on the North's programme - which involve both Koreas, the US, China, Russia and Japan - were stalling already, our correspondent says. But now the North has ammunition to question the South's true intentions and to justify its own well-advanced atomic bomb programme, he adds. A high-level delegation from China, the North's main ally, arrived in Pyongyang on Friday for talks which observers see as a last-ditch attempt to save the six-party negotiations. The delegation's leader, Li Changchun, is expected to meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-Il. UK Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell has also arrived in the Communist state in a bid to start a new dialogue over its nuclear weapons programme as well as its human rights record. ***************************************************************** 25 Portland Press Herald: Maine Yankee's dome coming down this week Many involved in the nuclear power plant's controversial existence plan to watch it fall Friday. --> [http://www.mainetoday.com] Sunday, September 12, 2004 By ANN S. KIM, Portland Press Herald Writer Staff photo by John Patriquin Maine Yankee is shown in 1996, the year before the plant was closed after officials determined it was no longer economical to operate. A $500 million decommissioning process would ensue. HISTORY 1966: Maine Yankee Atomic Power Co. formed. 1968: Construction begins after the Atomic Energy Commission issues a permit. 1972: The Maine Yankee nuclear plant begins commercial operation following a four-year construction period. Original cost: $231 million. 1978: Maine Yankee establishes world records for most continuous days of operation (392) by a nuclear power plant and most electricity produced in one continuous run of operation (7 billion kilowatt-hours) by a nuclear power plant. 1980: Referendum vote to close Maine Yankee fails. 1982: Second referendum to close plant fails. 1987: Third referendum to close plant fails. 1988: Maine Yankee ranks seventh among 300 free world nuclear power plants in total generation, third among 110 U.S. nuclear power plants. 1989: Highest production year in the history of the plant: 6.9 billion kilowatt-hours produced. 1993: Highest production in the history of the plant during a refueling year: 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours produced. 1997: Maine Yankee closes after officials determine it is no longer economical to operate the plant. Planning for the decommissioning process begins. 1999: Maine Yankee begins gutting buildings. 2000: Maine Yankee ships three giant steam generators by barge to a facility in Tennessee. Construction of a "dry" fuel-storage facility begins. 2001: Maine Yankee starts to demolish buildings. 2002: Reactor vessel shipped off-site; more buildings demolished; company begins moving spent fuel assemblies into dry storage facility. 2003: Reactor containment dome to be disassembled and moved off-site. 2004: Remaining buildings to be demolished. Final stages of decommissioning process will begin. No buildings will be left except for the fuel storage facility. 2005: Decommissioning process will be completed, but Maine Yankee will remain responsible for storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies until a federal storage site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada starts accepting waste. - Research contributed by staff researcher Beth Murphy Source: Maine Yankee WISCASSET — Workers will bring down the Maine Yankee containment dome with explosives this week, demolishing the last significant remnant of the nuclear power plant that fueled discord as well as homes and businesses. For more than a quarter-century, the steel-reinforced, concrete dome has served as the most visible symbol of Maine's sole nuclear power plant. Maine Yankee has variously represented an economic engine, a source of cheap, clean power and a potential danger. The dome is visible from Westport Island, across the Sheepscot River from the plant's site on Bailey Point. One hundred and fifty feet tall, it rises above a thin fringe of trees over a now-empty space that once housed the reactors and steam generators. "It's nice to see it go," said Dennis Cromwell, a 44-year-old islander who as a child watched the blasting for the site construction from across the water. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd see it go the other way." The announcement in 1966 that a nuclear power plant would be built in Maine came at a time when atomic energy was seen as source of clean, cheap power. The coming years, however, brought increased skepticism and eventually, in 1979, the country's worst nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Maine Yankee soon became a magnet for controversy as opposition to nuclear power grew. In the 1980s, activists brought forward three ballot initiatives that would have shut the plant down. Each sparked bitter debate, but Maine Yankee survived each attempt. In the end, it wasn't the voters who decided the plant's fate. The aging plant had grown too expensive to run as shutdowns and repairs became more frequent and costly. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission put Maine Yankee on its list of worst-run nuclear plants in the country in 1997 and, by the spring of that year, daily operating costs were running close to $1 million. Ultimately, the plant's owners and a prospective buyer were unable to reach a deal to keep Maine Yankee operating. In August 1997, the board of directors voted to permanently cease operations with 11 years left on the plant's license. About 92 percent of the decommissioning process has since been completed, according to Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes. The total estimated cost is $500 million, of which about $460 million has been spent. The buildings that housed the turbines, and the storage pools that once held spent fuel rods, have already been demolished. Some warehouse space and offices remain, but only 42 of the 480 employees who once worked for Maine Yankee remain on its payroll. "Suffice it to say, we're very close to the end," Howes said. During its heyday, Maine Yankee proved to be an economic boon to the area. "They had paid about 95 percent of our taxes," said Judy Flanagan, a member of Wiscasset's board of selectmen. "We called it the golden goose." Residents enjoyed low property taxes, the fire department got new vehicles and the police added more officers. The schools could afford to take in the children of nearby communities at reduced tuition rates. For many in the area, employment at Maine Yankee was desirable and often a family affair. Bryan Selee, an engineer who now owns a business in Portland, met his wife at Maine Yankee. His father, stepmother and father-in-law have also worked there. "A job at Maine Yankee was a good job to have, good benefits, the job security was there," he said. Selee, 36, said he felt very comfortable at the site because he knew about all the controls in place and felt the people working there were highly competent. Opposition to the plant, he said, may have come in part from a lack of understanding. "I think there was an element of overreaction to certain things. I guess it would be hard without working there and not having the information that someone has working there," he said. Ray Shadis of Edgecomb, who has spent the better part of two decades trying to shut down the plant, said voters were getting weary of the issue by the time the third referendum was held in 1987. "Maine, maybe more than any other place in the country, had an ongoing, tense, adversarial kind of debate on nuclear," he said. "You could say, the 24 years the plant operated, there was never a quiet period that lasted more than a year or two." Shadis, who has been involved in various incarnations of the anti-nuclear effort in Maine, is now head of a watchdog group called Friends of the Coast and serves on a community advisory panel to the decommissioning. He works closely with some of his former adversaries. Maine Yankee anticipates decommissioning to be complete in the spring, but Shadis doesn't believe his work will be finished then because of the radioactive waste that will remain on the site. As the site undergoes decommissioning, its license area is shrinking. Eventually it will be limited to the dry-field storage facilities, where the spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in casks. That waste will stay there until the federal government is able to find a permanent disposal site for high-level waste. The federal government wants to send nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Nevada in 2010, but Nevada is suing the Department of Energy to keep the material out. Maine Yankee, meanwhile, is among the parties suing DOE for delays in accepting the waste. The blasting of the containment building is scheduled for Friday morning. The building has been gutted, and already 13 million pounds of steel and concrete have been removed to create openings. Workers are wrapping the columns created by the openings with fabric and chain-link fencing to keep debris from scattering. The columns have been drilled to hold up to 1,900 pounds of explosives that will bring the dome down. Large equipment can then break up the pieces for shipping to a low-grade radioactive waste site in Clive, Utah. In all, about 20 million pounds will be hauled away. Although Maine Yankee provided some of his family members with a living, Cromwell, of Westport Island, said he wasn't sad when it was shut down. He said he will be among the many people who are likely to line up opposite Bailey Point to watch the demolition. "Watched it go up, got to watch it come down," he said. Staff Writer Ann Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at: akim@pressherald.com [akim@pressherald.com] ***************************************************************** 26 Times Argus: Glib comments don't mean nuclear energy safe September 12, 2004 As a Brattleboro resident and college professor teaching energy technologies, I question the glib pronouncements that nuclear energy is "clean, safe and dependable." The public statements from the self-proclaimed pro-business Vermont community led by Gov. Douglas could not be further from the truth. Dependable? Uranium is a finite natural resource, just like fossil fuels. U.S. production of uranium ore peaked in 1980 and has been reduced to a trickle. Today, over 90 percent of the fissionable fuel "burned" in U.S. nuclear plants is imported – be it mined, refined, machined or fabricated in a complex web of operations beyond our borders. Safe? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission exists simply because nuclear technology is flat-out dangerous. The nuclear industry not only contaminates through accidents, but as a matter of routine operational necessity, it continuously releases chemical, thermal and radioactive pollutants. At the end of the fuel cycle, tens of thousands of tons of intensely hot, radioactive spent fuel rods must be stored, isolated and guarded for thousands of years — a challenge that is emerging as a scientific and physical impossibility. Clean? The industry touts itself as a "clean" energy alternative to combat global warming. In fact, the energy-intensive nuclear fuel cycle (mining, refining, manufacture, transportation and storage) generates almost as much carbon dioxide as would the burning of fossil fuels directly to replace the nuclear industry's electric output. Uranium enrichment alone is one of the most CO2-intensive industrial operations on the planet. Furthermore, uranium enrichment within the United States uses 93 percent of the refrigerant chlorofluorocarbon gas made in this country. The global production of this gas, as readers may recall, has been banned worldwide as the destroyer of the ozone layer. It comes as no surprise that the world-class Kyoto scientists rejected nuclear power as a solution to climate change and global warming, ruled it out as a sustainable energy source and denied the industry clean-fuel credits. If you want technical information, start with www.nirs.org/ [http://www.nirs.org/] . For a young Russian woman's personal experience motorcycling through the countryside around Chernobyl, go to elenaschernobyl.com/. When I drive by Vermont Yankee, I see large nondescript buildings and think about the governor's reassuring language supporting nuclear energy. Both whitewashed structures and words appear so innocuous. Like the tip of an iceberg. Richard Foley Brattleboro © 2004 Times Argus [http://www.timesargus.com/] ***************************************************************** 27 Maine Today: Maine Yankee´s dome will come down _ with a boom [http://www.mainetoday.com] [http://www.mainetoday.com] Sunday, September 12, 2004 9:30 pm By DAVID SHARP WISCASSET, Maine The most visible symbol of the defunct Maine Yankee nuclear power plant _ the massive domed containment building _ will be eliminated from the landscape with a big boom this week. Explosives will bring down the reinforced concrete structure as the plant´s decommissioning speeds toward a finish next year. Friday´s event will mark the first time explosives have been used to knock down a commercial reactor containment building, said Justin Manafort, vice president of Manafort Bros, which is overseeing the decommissioning. "Other reactors have been taken down but none of this size or magnitude. The majority are done conventionally with cranes and torch cutting. We chose to use this explosive operation to bring it down," Manafort said. It´s no small task: the 150-foot-tall structure was designed to withstand natural disasters including hurricanes and tornadoes with 4 1/2-foot-thick walls at the base consisting of steel-reinforced concrete. In fact, more than 1,500 pounds of dynamite expected to be used on Friday won´t reduce the containment vessel to rubble. Instead, the mighty dome is expected to topple intact onto a massive pile of rubble, where it will be broken apart by heavy construction equipment. The pieces will be hauled away along with most other evidence that this was once the site of a 900-megawatt power plant. Already, the decommissioning is in the final stretch. The visitor center and the spent fuel pool are gone, and workers recently removed the pavement from the 7parking lot of the administrative building. Furniture and office equipment are on their way out, and the four-floor office building will be gone this fall. The site near the containment building looks like a giant archaeological excavation with scores of tiny flags planted in the dirt. On a recent day, workers with radiological survey meters walked across the grounds to verify that contaminated soil had been removed. The goal is to finish the physical work in January. Then there will be paperwork to be completed and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will have to sign off on the work, said Maine Yankee spokesman Eric Howes. Once the decommissioning is complete, the only remnants of the old power plant that will remain will be the power grid, along with a security building and newly constructed fuel storage area, Howes said. Highly radioactive fuel rods will be kept in 60 canisters at the storage area until a federal radioactive waste repository is built, which is decades away. "It´s our responsibility to safely store it until the federal government lives up to its responsibility to remove it," Howes said. As for the land, 430 acres have been sold for development of an industrial park, and 200 acres are being given to the Chewonki Foundation. Part of the grounds will be transformed into a marsh. Nuclear watchdog Ray Shadis and a few others have remained to help oversee the decommissioning process. The efforts of the local community helped to ensure the strictest cleanup standards, he said. But Shadis remains troubled by the remaining fuel rods, which he contends could be targeted by terrorists despite security officers and an earthen berm built around the perimeter. As for the dome´s destruction, Shadis said he won´t view that as a momentous occasion. For him, he recalls the removal of the sirens designed to warn of a radioactive release as a bigger milestone. "When we saw that happen, my reaction was, ´What were we thinking?´ All of a sudden you don´t have to worry about getting up in the middle of the night and never coming back to your home," he said. Critics said the plant was a major environmental and health threat, even though plant officials touted Maine Yankee´s safety record. The plant was shut down permanently in 1997 after a string of operational problems. On the Net: Maine Yankee www.maineyankee.com Copyright © Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. ***************************************************************** 28 Herald-Palladium: AEP contesting EPA spill penalty St. Joseph-Benton Harbor, Michigan Saturday, September 11, 2004 [http://www.heraldpalladium.com] By MICHAEL ELIASOHN / H-P Business Writer BRIDGMAN -- American Electric Power is contesting a proposed penalty of $60,548 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency against Cook Nuclear Plant in connection with an accidental spill of sodium hypochlorite into Lake Michigan. The penalty, announced this week, is not directly related to the spill on Nov. 16, 2002. Rather, the EPA contends AEP failed to notify promptly the National Response Center and state and local authorities about the accidental release and also was late in filing follow-up reports. "We have requested a hearing with the EPA," said Cook plant spokesman Bill Schalk. "We would like to provide some clarification about the notification and hope to reach a settlement with them." He said the power plant periodically releases sodium hypochlorite into the intake tunnel to prevent buildup of zebra mussels and algae. The intake tunnel pulls in cooling water from Lake Michigan. The EPA said sodium hypochlorite, which is used as a disinfectant in chlorination systems, can cause severe skin and eye irritation or burns to broken skin, and also is a respiratory irritant. Although the EPA says 1,227 pounds of sodium hypochlorite were released, Schalk said the amount was a mixture of the chemical and water and the concentration was "extremely low." The EPA said the problem "was caused by a disconnected pipe connection that flowed onto the floor, then into a drain and ultimately into a reservoir that feeds into a condenser and then into Lake Michigan." Schalk said the water-sodium hypochlorite mix was in a storage tank and leaked because of a loose valve fitting. The liquid leaked into a containment device, which overflowed, allowing the mixture to go into a drain and then into the lake. "When we discovered the leak, we took prompt action to stop it," Schalk said. It is believed it was leaking about eight hours when the problem was discovered. Copyright © 2004 The Herald-Palladium ***************************************************************** 29 ThisisLondon: Stakeholder raps British Energy 12 September 2004 A ROW has broken out between British Energy and one of its major shareholders over whether the nuclear power giant was insolvent during a controversial restructuring. It threatens to dilute BE's shareholders almost out of existence. American hedge fund Polygon argues that as it was not insolvent, the board had no right to act without approval. A BE spokesman insisted: 'There is not a shred of doubt that BE was insolvent between August 2002 up until the time that the restructuring was agreed.' Last week BE's biggest shareholder said it is not backing calls for the nuclear generator's restructuring to be renegotiated - just two months after saying it was. Invesco, with a 10.1% stake, said in July it was backing moves to overhaul the scheme where shareholders end up with just 2.5% of the company. However, it said: 'Invesco is not currently involved in efforts to promote an alternative restructuring.' ***************************************************************** 30 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulation Chief Dies Sofia News Agency] novinite.com Bulgaria’s nuclear regulation chief Emil Vapirev, 56, has died Friday, colleagues announced. Photo by bnsa.bas.bg Politics: 11 September 2004, Saturday. The chief of Bulgaria's Nuclear Regulation Agency, Emil Vapirev, died on Friday. Information about the cause of Vapirev's death was not immediately disclosed. Employees at the agency said Saturday that the burial service was due on September 13. The 56-year-old man chaired the Agency since 2002. "Professor Vapirev stood up for the interests of Bulgaria's nuclear energy sector when it was going through rough times. He also enjoyed international recognition," a message from the NRA said. Novinite.com (thebulgariannews.com also) is unique with being a ***************************************************************** 31 Spectrum: Evidence shows tests were deadly - Opinion - thespectrum.com Sunday, September 12, 2004 IN OUR VIEW Claims by a pair of Southern Utah scientists that nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site was not a contributing factor in the cancer suffered by thousands of Downwinders must astound a community that has buried far too many people from the disease. On Thursday night, Bruce Church and Antone Brooks told a crowd at Dixie State College that although high radiation exposure is a serious danger, Washington County does not have higher cancer rates or shortened life expectancies as a result of the nuclear fallout. During the testing era, such statements were commonplace as government officials whitewashed the effects of radiation. The scientific community today, however, believes there is enough hard and anecdotal evidence to support the claims of the Downwinders. After years of investigation, the National Cancer Institute in 1997 admitted that fallout from the atomic bomb tests blanketed the nation at levels much higher than what the government has admitted to since the testing ended. In his book "Under the Cloud: The Decades of Nuclear Testing," considered by many to be the most researched work on the subject of nuclear radiation fallout, Richard L. Miller shows a map that illustrates the chilling path he says the fallout followed in contaminating the contiguous United States and parts of Canada. There is also the preliminary report by the Centers for Disease Control released in 2002 that claims that as many as 15,000 people nationwide may have died from radiation resulting from nuclear tests. The report goes on to claim that anybody born in the continental United States after 1951 has been exposed to radiation from the tests. It took a year of negotiations to get the CDC to release that much information. A final report has been frozen in "internal delays" by the Department of Health and Human Services. How is it that Church and Brooks can make a statement so contrary to the nation's leading scientific agency that researches disease? It must first be underscored that Church was affiliated with the Nevada Test Site for 31 years. This is either damning evidence in the eyes of Downwinders who challenge his claim as repetition of the government's party line during the testing period or fodder for those who hold out the belief that the testing was harmless. Even the government admitted a degree of culpability when, in 1990, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which freed $50,000 each to those who lived or worked downwind of the Nevada Test Site; $75,000 to workers who participated in above-ground testing; and $100,000 to those who worked in uranium mines. Brooks shrugs that off, saying "it's cheaper to pay off than fight them (the Downwinders)." Something clearly happened to the people of Southern Utah and the rest of this country when atomic bombs were being exploded above and below the surface of the Earth. Something spurred the dramatic incidences of cancer that has spread through this country since that time. It is painfully obvious to us that there is a connection between the tests at the Nevada Test Site and those tragic deaths. There are too many grave stones in area cemeteries and people debilitated by rare illnesses to believe otherwise. Originally published Sunday, September 12, 2004 Copyright ©2004 The Spectrum. All rights reserved. Users of this site agree to the Terms of Service ***************************************************************** 32 Salt Lake Tribune: Idaho downwinders want fallout hearing [http://www.sltrib.com] Article Last Updated: 09/11/2004 02:18:26 AM No compensation: Some residents and the state's congressional delegation want the motion, even if no federal money will be paid By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune WASHINGTON - Idaho's congressional delegation has written to researchers studying the expansion of federal compensation for Utah, Nevada and Arizona victims of airborne radioactive fallout from weapons testing, asking them to hold hearings in their state, even though Idaho downwinders are not eligible for the $50,000 payments. If granted, the request would mark the third addition to what the National Academies of Sciences Board on Radiation Effects Research originally intended to be a small-scale study with just a single public hearing in St. George. Pressure by Southwestern state and federal lawmakers and constituents clamoring to be heard, has already prompted the board to conduct additional hearings in Window Rock, Ariz., and in Salt Lake City. A similar outcry is now rising in Idaho, portions of which were also dusted by the fallout from Cold War-era nuclear weapons tests in the southern Nevada desert. A 1997 National Cancer Institute study determined four Idaho counties in the center of the state - Gem, Lemhi, Blaine and Custer - received heavier doses of Iodine-131, which may increase the risk of thyroid cancer, than some Utah counties whose residents qualify for the federal radiation exposure compensation program. "We've got fireworks going on up here over this because Idaho got some of the worst fallout, yet has always been left out [of the compensation]," said Preston Truman of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, the president of Downwinders, a national advocacy group for victims of radiation fallout. "And it's not just Idaho. You've got western Montana, sections of western Colorado, northwest New Mexico, Iowa and upstate New York all with high fallout doses, but not only are they not covered, they haven't been told about this study." Idaho's all-Republican congressional delegation sent a formal hearing request to the radiation research board Thursday, noting that more than 300 Idahoans had already submitted testimony for the study committee and that more want to be heard. "While the number of written responses is encouraging, in talking with our constituents, we are convinced that an opportunity for the public to give oral testimony at a location in Idaho will increase the likelihood that those Idahoans who wish to have their information incorporated into the study will have another format in which to do so," reads the letter signed by Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo and Reps. Mike Simpson and Butch Otter. The $1 million study was launched when Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., inserted a provision into the 2002 Health and Human Services spending bill. The provision ordered the National Academies to determine if the length of time of fallout exposure should be shortened to qualify additional people for payments under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which Hatch authored, as well as whether additional cancers and occupations should be added for eligibility. Scientists disagree whether there is adequate, validated evidence to make a direct link between the level of fallout sustained by downwinders and the occurrence of certain cancers in downwind populations. csmith@sltrib.com © Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune. ***************************************************************** 33 Xinhuanet: World's 5th beryllium smeltery built in NW. China www.xinhuanet.com www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-11 20:44:17 URUMQI, Sept. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The earthwork of a beryllium smeltery, believed to be the fifth of its kind in the world, has been completed in Fuyun County in northern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China. Workers are busy installing and testing equipment at the 50-million-yuan (6-million-US dollars) smeltery and operation is scheduled to begin in November. The annual production of the plantis designed at 100 tons of beryllium oxide and 800 tons of beryllium-copper alloy. Beryllium, also known as metallic glass, is a deoxidizer and additive applicable for producing many kinds of alloys. It is widely used in the fields of electronics, power, petroleum and chemistry. The beryllium reserve in Fuyun County makes up 70 percent of the total reserve in China. Some 31,300 tons of beryllium ore has been exploited in one mine alone. Enditem Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 SLOT: Where they stand on two environmental concerns critical to SLO County San Luis Obispo Tribune | 09/12/2004 | David Sneed and Nathan Welton The Tribune President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry have contrasting platforms on two environmental issues critical to San Luis Obispo County voters: nuclear waste storage and offshore oil development. The president has consistently supported the establishment of a national repository for highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Such a facility would take spent fuel from Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Kerry, meanwhile, opposes Yucca Mountain. Regarding offshore oil, the Bush administration has sought to work with California officials over plans to buy back offshore leases from oil companies. But the administration has also taken steps to weaken state oversight of such offshore development. Kerry would limit oil exploration to places where production already occurs, such as regions of the Gulf of Mexico. The candidates differ on ways to develop new domestic supplies elsewhere. Drilling could turn out to be a critical issue to many local voters, but whether it'll make a difference in the election remains to be seen. ***************************************************************** 35 St. Petersburg Times: Fertilizer plant ready to weather storms [http://www.sptimes.com/] Hurricane Ivan Hillsborough and CF Industries officials say its plant can handle more rain without risk of environmental pollution. By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff Writer Published September 11, 2004 CRYSTAL SPRINGS - CF Industries, a fertilizer manufacturer with a plant on the Hillsborough/Pasco county line, says its facility can handle more rainy weather without concern of an environmental hazard. Spokeswoman Rosemary O'Brien said the plant could store up to 37 more inches of rain before having to release any polluted water into nearby waterways. This week, Cargill Crop Nutrition, a phosphate plant in Riverview, dumped 70-million gallons of slightly radioactive water into a creek that feeds into Hillsborough Bay after a dike broke during Frances. And Cargill scrambled Friday to safely contain millions more gallons of polluted water in a brimming, 238-acre holding pond in anticipation of Hurricane Ivan's soaking the area with more rain. O'Brien said CF Industries is a long way from that scenario. "Our situation is really very different," she said. "We have quite a bit of room in terms of water." "We've been very aggressive to keep those water levels down by recycling our water, not taking in freshwater, so that we have these 37 inches right now, after two hurricanes." CF Industries would have to begin neutralizing wastewater if it received another 15 inches of rain. Then, it would still have breathing room up to the 37-inch mark. In the case of that much rainfall - roughly the total amount Tampa Bay received from April through August this year - treated wastewater would flow into a series of ponds on company property. Only after all those sites were filled would the polluted water be released into Big Ditch Creek or Blackwater Creek, both of which lead to the Hillsborough River. "We would do everything we could to keep the overflow on our property," O'Brien said. Sam Elrabi, spokesman for the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission, agreed CF is adequately prepared. "CF is not anywhere near the situation that Cargill is in. They have plenty of room to accommodate big storm events," Elrabi said, adding that the 37-inch figure was conservative. Rainwater, once it falls on the phosphate plants, is considered industrial waste that must be contained. So when CF Industries' plant receives 1 inch of rain, that translates to 23-million gallons of water it must hold on site, Elrabi said. At Cargill, the figure is 18-million gallons. It's not just water that worries environmental regulators. Pollution can spread when heavy winds toss contaminated water out of the holding ponds. Or worse, strong gusts can weaken or break the walls of the ponds. "Hurricane-force winds are a major concern for all of us when you are talking about big ponds," he said. "(They) can take so much beating from the waves and water." Water levels in those ponds are directly related. "When the facility is not full, the waves won't reach the top," Elrabi said. "You have less to worry about." [Last modified September 11, 2004, 07:16:02] © 2004 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times ***************************************************************** 36 Guardian Unlimited: Bush Environment Record an Issue in Nev. From the Associated Press [UP] Sunday September 12, 2004 7:16 PM AP Photo WHRE108 By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - For environmentalists hoping to turn anger at President Bush into electoral votes for John Kerry, the biggest and perhaps only field of dreams is a nuclear waste dump site in Nevada. Lesser hopes are pinned on mercury-polluted waterways in Wisconsin and Florida, and woodlands threatened by road-building and other development in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon. Voters upset at Bush's environmental record might give Kerry a boost in all those states. But Nevada, where Bush wants to entomb a half-century's waste from atomic power plants, is the only state where an environmental issue can realistically swing the outcome, according to environmental leaders and political analysts. ``Kerry is competitive because of it,'' said Ted Jelen, chair of political science at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. ``He otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance.'' Environmental groups are mostly staying away from Nevada, aware their unpopularity in the state might hurt Kerry, a Massachusetts senator. Bush won Nevada, 50-46 percent, over Democrat Al Gore in 2000. But the state is fighting the Bush administration over building a nuclear waste dump in the desert 90 miles from Las Vegas. Kerry has consistently voted against Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for the waste repository from the time Congress picked it in 1987. Jelen said there is a widespread perception Bush lied about basing his decision on science, and Democrats profited with heavy turnout at caucuses in February. Yet environmental causes remain ``an unpopular symbol'' in a state heavy with ranching and mining interests. ``Kerry's position is simple: 'Bush lied to you, I will reverse it.' The Republicans and the Bush campaign have not come up with a good response to that,'' Jelen said. The Bush and Kerry campaigns declined to comment. On Sunday, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper, endorsed Bush for re-election in an editorial that applauded his response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and called him ``the right president at the right time.'' Questions remain over the movement of water through rocks and whether waste canisters might corrode as part of the $58 billion Yucca project. In February, Bush said 20 years and nearly $7 billion worth of study had convinced him the project was scientifically sound. More broadly, Republicans do not see the environment as a bright spot for Bush. Jim DiPeso, policy director for REP America, a pro-Republican environmental group based in Albuquerque, N.M., pointed only to Bush's new goals for increasing wetlands and rules to reduce diesel pollution. ``There isn't much that he has to run on to turn out environmental voters for him,'' DiPeso said. ``It's not their strength; they know it's not their strength.'' He said Kerry could benefit in Western states like New Mexico and Arizona where ranchers, hunters, fishermen and environmentalists all worry about oil and gas drilling on public lands and logging in national forests. Likewise, in Nevada. ``If enough votes are guided by concern about Yucca Mountain ... it's very conceivable those five electoral votes could end up in Kerry's column,'' DiPeso said. The League of Conservation Voters, which considers itself the political arm of the environmental movement, is spending $6 million to defeat Bush. The Sierra Club, the only other major political player among environmental groups, is spending $5 million. Defenders of Wildlife is spending $750,000, its first such political foray. The three groups are each going after voters in Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All but Pennsylvania had the closest margins in the 2000 presidential race. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife also are putting efforts into Nevada and New Hampshire. The Sierra Club also is working in Minnesota and Ohio. Defenders of Wildlife is in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington state. ``We may yet move into Nevada,'' said Mark Longabaugh, senior vice president for political affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. ``Partly, it's a resource decision.'' Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, says his group missed recognizing the potential for the race to tighten in Arizona. Seldom does the environment play more than a background role in determining who occupies the White House. But Pope see worries about air and water pollution fitting with broader security concerns this election. ``It's about family safety this year,'' Pope said. ``This election is about turnout.'' Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, described Bush and Kerry as polar opposites on reducing air and water pollution, and protecting and using natural resources. ``We think if it's as close as it was in 2000, we can make the difference in three or four states,'' he said. ^--- On the Net: League of Conservation Voters: http://www.lcv.org REP America: http://www.repamerica.org Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org Defenders of Wildlife: http://www.defenders.org Bush-Cheney: http://www.georgewbush.com Kerry-Edwards: http://www.johnkerry.com Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 ***************************************************************** 37 DenverPost.com: Feds act to protect 3 Utah riverways Published: Sunday, September 12, 2004 By The Associated Press Moab, Utah - Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Saturday officially withdrew nearly 200 miles of scenic riverways along the Green, Colorado and Dolores rivers in southeastern Utah from the exploration and location of new mining claims. The order will provide protection for 20 years of 111,895 acres of public lands along 192 miles of river corridor. The order also helps protect at least 161 prehistoric sites, habitat for six threatened and endangered species and 32 Bureau of Land Management recreation facilities constructed along the Colorado River. "This order is an additional layer of protection for some of the most prized recreational riverways in the West," Norton said during Saturday's ceremony at Big Bend Campground, along the Colorado River east of Moab. "This will ensure that the scenic and natural character of these special places is sustained for years to come." Maggie Wyatt, with the Moab BLM office, said the withdrawal "will help to maintain the outstanding scenery and outdoor recreational opportunities that are vital to the local economy." River-related tourism is one of the main drivers of the economy in southeast Utah. The BLM said interest and economic benefits from recreational use along the three rivers has far eclipsed former uranium and placer gold mining uses. All contents Copyright 2004 The Denver Post or other copyright ***************************************************************** 38 Daily Camera: Lab coattails Federal facilities have molded, helped Boulder September 12, 2004 Without the federal laboratories, Boulder would be far different from its present incarnation. It would still be a university town, with all the concomitant pleasures and pains. But it would lack the depth and breadth of scientific endeavor of which Boulder can boast today. As the laboratories celebrate five decades in the Boulder Valley, it's appropriate to note the contributions they've made to our lives here and beyond. Former President Truman decreed that federal facilities should be dispersed around the nation to lessen the potential devastation of a Soviet nuclear attack, and in 1949 the Department of Commerce announced that Boulder would be the site for the National Bureau of Standards' Central Radio Propagation Laboratory. The generosity — or perhaps magnanimous self-interest — of Boulder citizens helped land this big fish. Led by the Chamber of Commerce, local residents raised $90,000, most of which was used to buy 217 acres of grassland at the base of the foothills. That land, which the chamber donated to the federal government, is now the main federal campus in Boulder. At the time, Boulder was only 20 percent of its present size, and because Baseline was the city's southern border, 325 Broadway was essentially in the boonies. But the 450 researchers and others who were working on the site by 1954 soon dispelled the notion that they'd been consigned to a "scientific Siberia." Their work complemented that of the scholars at the University of Colorado. And it broke important ground. At their inception, the federal labs were viewed in large part as a means to ensure the United States' victory in the Cold War. For a time, federal scientists in Boulder produced liquid hydrogen for the world's first hydrogen bombs. The labs developed standards for radio transmission. They enlarged our understanding of superconductors, which, for instance, facilitated the development of modern computers. The labs have unparalleled expertise in the reliability of building materials, and one division of the labs is investigating the structural failures that led to the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York. Time is a standard measure of reference, and the agency formerly known as NBS also sets the standard on that. The labs are the home of the atomic clock, which won't gain or lose a second for 50 million years. Through the years, the labs have been known by various arrangements of alphabet soup. NBS became the National Institute for Standards and Technology in 1988. In 1965, the CRPL became the Environmental Science Services Administration. In 1970, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration became the new umbrella agency for ESSA and marine services. And in 1978, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration was hatched as a new branch of the Department of Commerce. These labs dovetailed with the work of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, CU and private, entrepreneurial research. Together, they have helped transform this scientific Siberia into something of an intellectual oasis. Along the way, they've advanced the frontiers of science and even helped land a Nobel Prize. The Boulder of today is a world apart from the relative quiet and innocence on 1949. But the city has profited from the labs. And so has the world. [http://www.scripps.com] Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera and the E.W. Scripps Company. All rights reserved. Any copying, ***************************************************************** 39 Tri-City Herald: PNNL key player in post-9/11 security This story was published Saturday, September 11th, 2004 By Jeff St. John Herald staff writer Imagine a set of gates at every border crossing, seaport and airport cargo terminal in the country, screening incoming vehicles and cargo for radiation to intercept materials meant for radiological "dirty" bombs or other terrorist threats. In July 2002, when Bob Thompson asked volunteers to work on a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory project to help make that idea a reality, he was expecting about 30 lab employees to show up. He was a little surprised to meet 300 people volunteering their services. Since then, he's seen PNNL staff work overtime for the Radiation Portal Monitoring Project he manages. "We've asked the impossible of them, and we haven't been disappointed," he said. The reward, he believes, is in working to prevent another disaster like the one on Sept. 11, 2001. Since the project's start in early 2002, more than 600 PNNL employees have worked on the Homeland Security project, he said -- designing and contracting for the monitors, helping install and test them in the field and training the users of the devices, which passively detect neutrons and gamma rays emitted by radioactive materials. As of this month, more than 240 of the monitors have been installed at U.S. border crossings, seaports, airports and mail and cargo facilities, said Mike Milne, Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Seattle. "We're adding more all the time," he said. "Our goal is to ultimately screen 100 percent of all the incoming goods, people and conveyances for radiation." PNNL's record of technological breakthroughs in radiation monitoring, as well as the nearby presence of the Department of Energy's HAMMER emergency response training center at Hanford, made PNNL a natural for coordinating such a project, Milne said. For about a decade, similar detection technology has been in use in industry and by governments trying to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, said Michael Spradling, PNNL interdiction programs manager. The catch, Spradling said, was that "neither one of those (uses) was really intended for the type of interdiction in the volume of traffic customs sees on a daily basis." PNNL's job was to design systems that could catch radioactive materials in cars, trucks, train cars and shipping containers while avoiding delays that could seriously impede the free flow of trade, he said. "A lot of the science that has been brought to bear on this project has been in line with that balance point," he said. By mid-2002, the contractors working with PNNL had the first prototype detectors testing in the field, Spradling said. That's when Thompson put out the call for lab volunteers that drew such an overwhelming response. Steve Shaver, the project's "land vector deployment manager" who spent many grueling weeks installing and testing the new monitors in places like the North Dakota-Canada border in the cold of winter, said that volunteer spirit helped the project move faster than it otherwise might have. "I know what kept people involved was the very real sense of urgency, on Customs' part and on PNNL's part, to get these things out," Shaver said. He experienced firsthand the challenge of installing the sensitive monitors at border crossings, working at odd hours to avoid disrupting border traffic and through holidays to complete the project as fast as possible. "We were constantly modifying designs in the field," he said, both to make sure they worked correctly and to ease their use. The project, now near the end of its second year, is far from finished, Thompson said. So far $161 million has flowed through PNNL to the various government agencies and contractors working to meet the goal of screening every vehicle and piece of cargo coming into the country. Given the threat, the PNNL staffers working on the project are happy to keep at it, Spradling said. "I've never been prouder to work on a project," he said. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 40 Tri-Valley Herald: Lab will be worldwide clearinghouse for biological threats 9/12/2004 Center about ready to go live, provide 24-hour-a-day advice By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER It was an extraordinary report out of southwest Pakistan: Foot-and-mouth disease carried by goats was killing "dozens" of shepherds and their kin in remote Balochistan. Maureen McCarthy is an expert in nuclear waste. But as federal research chief for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, she knew humans do not get foot-and-mouth disease, much less die from it. But if a wildly virulent form of foot-and-mouth landed in the United States, McCarthy knew, "it would devastate us economically" She telephoned Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where scientists were just creating a new clearinghouse for assessing biological threats. Within 24 hours, McCarthy had her answer: A mistranslation had led Pakistani media and authorities to the wrong disease. It was Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a deadly tick-borne illness endemic to South Asia. As of Friday, the nation's new Biodefense Knowledge Center is about to go live, ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week to tackle the scariest and most arcane questions about potential bioterror threats and advise how to deal with them. Led by Bill Colston, a Livermore biophysics and medical engineering expert with a dozen patents to his name, the center's team of 75 scientists is on call full time for the Homeland Security Operations Center, the nerve center for the nation's post-Sept. 11 anxiety, 2,540 miles away in a former naval office close to the National Cathedral. Last week, the ops center handled a report that someone was attempting to poison the drinking glasses of Republican conventiongoers. Conclusion: Not likely. The Biodefense Knowledge Center at Livermore is a one-stop shop for questions about germs, tapping biologists, chemists and computer engineers from Liver- more, Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, three universities and a Rolodex of top specialists in the world's nastiest microorganisms. "It's kind of a mix of techno-geeks and experts in bio, chem, rad and nuke," said Colston. Their stock in trade is "reachback" -- wonkspeak for instant, deep and trustworthy expertise at the end of a secure phone line, video link or e-mail. "It's the first of its kind in the United States," said Charles McQueary, the Homeland Security Department's undersecretary for science and technology. The center "will serve as the hub for the nation's biodefense expertise." The center's scientists will have research databanks, models and computer simulations at their fingertips, so that they can predict the spread of a cloud of germs as well as the spread of disease in a city. They are expected to discern an attack from a natural outbreak and tell locals what to do. "An unstated function is to calm things down," said Don Prosnitz, deputy director of Livermore Lab's Homeland Security Organization. "We can pull together the experts and say, 'No, this is natural.' And we expect to be doing a lot of that kind of thing." When not responding to emergency calls that require answers in an hour or a day, the center's staff are dreaming worst-case biological attacks on the United States for each of the dozens of germs identified by the federal government as possible weapons. Two years of those studies are expected to yield vital information that the government lacks: How many and what kind of antibiotics and vaccines does the nation need to buy? And where should it stock them? McQueary said such work and hundreds of other scientific projects are critical to domestic defenses against terrorist attacks. He thanked scientists of the national labs, dozens of whom monitored radiological and biowarfare detection equipment during the summer's political conventions. "You bring the best and the brightest, who serve with commitment and conviction," McQueary said. "We need you now." Most of the top echelon of the Department of Homeland Security ventured across the country this week, making visits to such battleground states as Pennsylvania and Ohio. They carried endorsements of the president and the message that America on the eve of a third Sept. 11 anniversary is very much safer. "President Bush has remained firm in his resolve to protect the nation from another devastating attack," McQueary said. Tri-Valley Herald All Rights Reserved ***************************************************************** 41 DU Activist Looking for Help Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 11:32:12 -0500 (CDT) Forwarded with Compliments of Free Voice of America (FVOA): Accurate News and Interesting Commentary for Amerika's Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free. NOTE: Dennis Kyne has been a tireless campaigner for ending the breathtakingly evil use of socalled Depleted Uranium; so I hope you can help him; I'll get $50 to him. -- kl, pp From: "dennis kyne" Date: September 9, 2004 8:43:28 PM GMT+07:00 Subject: I Need Help Hello All, I was arrested in New York during the massive sweeps of the RNC. I am scheduled to reappear in court on October 25th to challenge eight different counts and I promise all, I was the loudest person there, but I surely didn't need to be cited for acting violently, they buried me into the system and kept me locked up in the TOMBS, the Manhattan Detention Center. This system has very few white people incarcerated; however, the African-Americans in the system loved what was happening on the streets and taught me how to use the phones and got my ass back out of jail as fast as I was put in. Inmates said they appreciated the work of the protesters, fed me anything around that didn't have meat and said that because of the work we had done, the jail system, for the very short time we were present, was free of cockroaches and the dehumanization that we all know goes on in the prisons of America. I experienced no racism in this facility after being warned by police my number was up. So, I currently need to raise money for travel expenses back to New York and any fees that should need to be covered. Below is a list of the work I have done in the past couple of months, I have taken a vow of nonviolence and am insulted that the police are insinuating that because I am a combat Veteran I MUST be violent. That is the stigma we veterans live with for our entire post- combat lives, and it is not only unfair, as most of you know it is untrue. I fight for equality and justice, and most of all truth, and as a lot of you know, I operate as somewhat of a Lone Wolf because of the intensity under which I function. I watched as police were ordered to drop young women, detain 16-year-old boys, and round up chinese food delivery people with the only qualification for detention "being on a bike" while the critical mass folks rode by. It was Martial Law, it is not what I almost died in Combat for. I watched as people became unhealthy in a bus terminal used to detain people, and I stayed with an oppressed majority in the TOMBS and learned that we are all in this together. I am asking anyone who can help me with a donation of any amount so I can fly to New York and defend myself against these incredibly loaded charges. If you see it as within your means, please use: PO Box 720254 San Jose, CA 95172 USA Dennis Kyne Please forward this to anyone or all. In peace and gratitude, Dennis AP PHOTO IN NEW YORK OF DENNIS KYNE http://it.news.yahoo.com/040829/38/2x3ra.html DENNIS' ARTICLE ON DEPLETED URANIUM http://www.ncmonthly.com/My2Cents.html#anchor800227 ASPEN DAILY NEWS WRITES ON DENNIS KYNE http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/Gulf-War-Kyne6aug04.htm BOZEMAN CHRONICLE WRITES ON DENNIS KYNE http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/08/12/news/uranium.txt GLENWOOD SPRINGS WRITES ON DENNIS KYNE http://www.postindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040815/VALLEYNEWS/108150002/0/FRONTPAGE&rs=2 IDAHO OBSERVER WRITES ON DENNIS KYNE http://proliberty.com/observer/20040410.htm ***************************************************************** 42 toledoblade.com: RALPH E. LAPP, 1917-2004 Physicist was integral in nuclear debate Article published Saturday, September 11, 2004 [Photo] Ralph E. Lapp, who often spoke in the Toledo area from 1956 to 1979, addressed issues linked to nuclear science. ( THE BLADE ) FROM BLADE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS WASHINGTON - Ralph E. Lapp, a physicist who was involved in atomic weapons from the earliest days of the Manhattan Project, was a prominent figure in the Cold War debate about civil defense, and continued to speak out about the health effects of radiation into the 1990s, died Tuesday in Alexandria, Va. He was 87. The cause was pneumonia after surgery, his family said. In December, 1942, when Enrico Fermi was preparing the first demonstration of a human-made nuclear chain reaction in a squash court under the stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, Mr. Lapp was studying cosmic rays with equipment housed in the stadium's press box. He later wrote that he was lugging a Geiger counter down from the box and "soon found myself inside the stands amid other white-jacketed men," who were working with the nuclear reactor. His son Dr. Christopher W. Lapp said his father had told the family that he sneaked into the room, introduced himself as a physicist, and was put to work. After the war, Mr. Lapp was hired by the Manhattan Project's successor agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, and became assistant director at its Argonne National Laboratory, the nuclear research laboratory operated for the government by the University of Chicago. He left the government in 1950 and became a private consultant on nuclear issues. In that capacity, he wrote more than 20 books and numerous magazine articles, many on the theme that while nuclear war was a profound threat, the dangers of radiation were often overstated. Mr. Lapp spoke in Toledo and the area more than a half-dozen times, from 1956 to 1979. During these appearances he often addressed several themes. Favorites included excess government secrecy and the risks of nuclear war. In 1956 in Lima, Ohio, for example, he scorned what he saw as a veil of governmental secrecy thrown over scientific projects. He also called for controls on nuclear weapons testing. The next year in Toledo, he warned about the risk of nuclear war with the Soviet Union and called for finding a way of settling disputes peacefully. In November of 1957, speaking at Collingwood Temple, he criticized the lack of basic science education in the United States and warned about indiscriminate use of X-rays and radioactive isotopes in medicine and dentistry as hazards to health. In 1958, he told Toledo teachers the nation must have a cabinet-level department of science to spur research in order to compete with Russia. At the University of Toledo in 1972, he proposed construction of offshore nuclear power plants as a long-range solution to power shortages. Four years later, at a session on regional energy strategies, he complained that what he called reckless criticism by some scientists was confusing the public about the risks of nuclear power and hindering the development of nuclear power. Besides his son Christopher, he is survived by his wife of 48 years, Jeannette, and another son, Nicholas. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************