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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 AFP: US falters in getting hard line against Iran's nuclear program
2 Unlimited: Iranian Freeze on Uranium About to End
3 Xinhuanet: Washington's Iran tough talk questionable
4 chinadaily: Rationality needed to solve Iran nuclear issue
5 brunei-online: Iran refuses to budge from its nuke stance
6 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Another IAEA probe
7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Diplomats: "6-way Talks Unlikely to Be He
8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: British Official: Pyongyang Unwilling to
9 JoongAng Daily: IAEA coming to search for lost uranium
10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: IAEA to Write Report on South Korean Nucl
11 BBC: Mystery over N Korea cloud
12 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: IAEA to Send Second Team of Inspectors to
13 Bangornews.com: Fear & Nukes in North Korea
14 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Looks to Delay Nuclear Talks
15 Xinhuanet: IAEA to send second inspection team to South Korea
16 Korea Times: IAEA Inspection to Focus on Unreported Uranium
17 Korea Times: Summits Bring Political Honeymoon
18 Korea Times: Lingering Nuclear Suspicion
19 Korea Times: Moscow, Seoul Enjoy Peaceful Dividends in New Relations
20 AFP: Seoul seeks Russian help in restarting N.Korea nuclear talks
21 AFP: N.Korea not ready to resume nuclear talks: Russia
22 US: [NYTr] Nuking the American Mind
23 [du-list] Washington's secret nuclear war
24 US: AxisofLogic: U.S. Military: Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover
25 US: AxisofLogic: Critical Analysis: America’s Nuclear Wars
26 US: Rep. Waxman: Secrecy in the Bush Administration
27 SA News24: Lawyers for 'WMD pair' puzzled
28 AFP: UN atomic agency ends special investigation of Libya's nuclear
29 News24: SA, UN in joint nuke probe
30 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Chief: Russia Increasing Vigilance
31 asahi.com: Mutual distrust reinforces nuclear addiction
32 AFP: Pakistan adopts bill to tighten controls on nuclear exports
NUCLEAR REACTORS
33 US: [NukeNet] NY Times Runs Interference For Indian Point
34 US: [NukeNet] Radiation Release Possible in Plant Attack
35 US: Portland Press Herald: Yankee dome to fall in a cloud of dust
36 US: NRC: NRC Proposes Tougher Export-Import Requirements for High-Ri
37 US: NRC: Sunshine Act Notice
38 The Herald: British Energy war of words escalates
39 BBC: UK needs 'more nuclear stations'
40 US: Platts NEI: Nuclear industry will meet NRC security deadline
41 US: Pulse of the Twin Cities: 20 more years of nuclear?
42 US: Insight Mag: GAO Raises Concerns Over Nuke Security -
43 US: Lincoln County News: The dome at Maine Yankee
44 Korea Times: KEDO to Compensate Korean Companies
45 Scotsman.com: Blair Warns of Safety Fears Hurdle for Nuclear Energy
46 US: Newsday: Nuclear power plant shut down again for valve repair
47 US: Newsday: Lawmakers question agency's monitoring of nuclear power
48 US: TheDay.com: Burton Running For Legislature On Anti-nuke Platform
49 ThisisLondon: Bondholders 'No' to British Energy
NUCLEAR SAFETY
50 US: How Airplanes Can Be Easily Hijacked Still Says Ex Customs Agent
51 [du-list] DU - teh stuff of nightmares
52 US: Hawk Eye: Kerry weighs in on claims
53 US: Hawk Eye: Claims report blames Congress
54 US: Hawk Eye: Leach and Boswell sign on
55 US: courier-journal: Sick-worker program may change
56 US: Idaho Statesman: Downwinders to tell their tales, thanks to dele
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
57 AFP: UN to help Iraq clean up toxic pollution after conflicts
58 Las Vegas SUN: OPINION: Yucca project to fail regardless of politics
59 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca lawsuit well warrants strong action
60 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: GOP plays word games on Yucca
61 Las Vegas SUN: State protests limits on Yucca oversight
62 Nevada Appeal: AG calls for investigation of Yucca construction haza
63 US: CCDR: Citizens: Shut down Cotter
64 US: Charleston.Net: Protest readied for weapons-grade plutonium ship
65 US: TownOnline.com: Perchlorate FAQ:
66 US: TownOnline.com: River, plant eyed as perchlorate source
67 Pahrump Valley Times: Nevada files another Yucca project lawsuit
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
68 Las Vegas RJ: New DOE rules concern Clark County officials
69 Tri-City Herald: Panel OKs $1 million for Hanford Reach visitors cen
70 SF Chronicle: Four workers fired, one resigns in Los Alamos lab scan
71 DOE: [Docket Nos. PL04-15-000, RM02-12-000, RM02-1-001, RM02-1-005]
72 Daily Camera: Flats analyzing buffer zone hot spot
73 State Dept: U.S., IAEA Program Promotes Nuclear Plant Safety
OTHER NUCLEAR
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 AFP: US falters in getting hard line against Iran's nuclear program
[http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
The United States appeared to falter Tuesday in its push for a
hard line over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program as a
meeting of the UN atomic agency was suspended for more talks.
The meeting in Vienna of the International Atomic Energy Agency
adjourned its plenary session until further notice in order to
allow for informal talks, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.
"There is a lot of hard negotiating going on," IAEA chief Mohamed
ElBaradei told reporters.
IAEA officials said that a resolution might be brought before the
IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Friday, but this was not
certain.
The United States is pushing for the atomic agency to adopt a
resolution at a meeting in Vienna this week that would set a
deadline, possibly as early as October 31, for Tehran to fully
suspend uranium enrichment and to take other measures, diplomats
said.
"We want the resolution to lay out essential and urgent steps for
Iran to take," a US official said.
He said the United States saw the deadline as a "trigger," so
that if Iran failed to do what was asked, the IAEA would
automatically at its next meeting in November take Tehran to the
UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
A non-American western diplomat said Washington was pushing for a
tougher resolution than one drafted by Britain, France and
Germany, who have stressed constructive engagement, rather than
confrontation, with Iran.
Their resolution gives Iran a November deadline to allay concern
that it is secretly making atomic weapons but does not say that
Iran should automatically be taken to the Security Council if it
fails to do this.
Non-aligned states were firmly in support of the European
position.
Malaysia's IAEA ambassador Hussein Haniff said they "do not want
to see a trigger mechanism becuase that is pre-emptive."
He said the IAEA should work from reports by its director general
ElBaradei and "there is nothing in the report that calls for Iran
to be referred to the UN Security Council."
Meanwhile, Iran appeared to be hardening its stance, saying it
would not agree to an unlimited suspension of uranium enrichment,
a process that makes what can be fuel for civilian reactors or
the explosive core of atomic bombs.
Hossein Mousavian, the head of the Iranian delegation to the IAEA
meeting, warned that "we will not accept any bargaining for an
unlimited suspension."
"Iran will not accept having to make new commitments that extend
the scope of the suspension of uranium enrichment," he said.
Tehran insists its program is strictly for civilian purposes and
within the confines of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT).
The United States however maintains Iran has not lived up to an
agreement a year ago to suspend the building of centrifuges used
for enriching uranium and is in fact conducting a covert program
to produce nuclear weapons.
ElBaradei warned against a deadline, saying he had not yet
decided whether Iran's program had peaceful intent or was
designed to develop weapons.
"There is no artificial deadline whereby I can say in November, I
can promise that everything will be completed," he told
reporters.
"Have we seen any proof of a weapons program? Have we seen
undeclared enrichment? Have we seen undeclared material?" he
asked.
"Well, obviously on these issues until today there is none of
that, but are we in a position to say that everything now is
peaceful? Obviously we are not at that stage."
He said the investigation was "very complex" as it depended on
information from both Iran and countries involved in the
international black market that supplied Tehran with nuclear
materials.
ElBaradei said he was ready to give an "evaluation" to the IAEA
board of governors that would decide on a deadline, "but I am
giving advance warning that this will not be the end of the
story."
All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
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2 Unlimited: Iranian Freeze on Uranium About to End
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday September 15, 2004 8:46 PM
By GEORGE JAHN
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A senior Iranian envoy suggested Wednesday
that Tehran's partial yearlong freeze on uranium enrichment is
about to end, shrugging off U.S. and European pressure to
renounce the process and end fears that his country wants to make
nuclear arms.
Both Washington and the European Union want a commitment from
Iran to stop enrichment and have been working on a resolution to
be adopted at an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting
demanding that Tehran agree to such a freeze.
But they differ on the firmness of the wording of a resolution,
with the United States seeking European support to have Iran
hauled before the U.N. Security Council if it defies conditions
meant to dispel suspicions about its nuclear agenda.
Hossein Mousavian, Iran's chief envoy to the meeting, suggested
Iran was not about to cave in to threats of Security Council
action, which could lead to sanctions.
``I think one year is enough,'' he told The Associated Press,
when asked if his country would agree to extend a commitment to
suspend enrichment that it made last October. Mousavian did not
name a date for a resumption of enrichment, but suggested it
could be ``a few months'' away.
Deep U.S.-European differences on the wording of the draft
resolution persisted into Wednesday, leading to an adjournment of
the meeting of the IAEA's board of governors until Friday to
allow back-room negotiations and consultations with capitals.
Still, copies of both the U.S. and European drafts - made
available in full to The Associated Press - showed both sides
favoring some kind of deadline for Iran to commit to a new freeze
on enrichment - and at least an implicit threat of referral to
the Security Council if Tehran remained defiant.
Iran is not prohibited from enrichment under its obligations to
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but has faced mounting
international pressure to suspend the technology - which can be
used both to make nuclear arms and generate electricity - as a
gesture to dispel suspicions it is interested in making weapons.
Last week, Iran confirmed an IAEA report that it planned to
convert more than 40 tons of raw uranium into uranium
hexafluoride, the feed stock for enrichment.
Even before that, international concerns grew because of
perceptions that a suspension of enrichment and related
activities was never fully enacted and had eroded since Tehran's
pledge a year ago.
An IAEA report has given Iran some good marks for cooperation
with the most recent phase of an agency probe into nearly two
decades of covert nuclear activities that came to light only two
years ago. But the report also said Iran must do more to banish
all suspicions it harbors nuclear weapons ambitions.
Mousavian referred to that report in arguing there was no need to
demand a further freeze.
``All major necessary confidence-building measures have been
taken by Iran, and today the agency has full control and
supervision,'' he said. ``That's why we believe that (a) one year
suspension is good enough.''
Mousavian downplayed the significance of U.S.-European
differences on the language of any resolution, suggesting the
rift was more over style than substance.
``They have the same opinion, but the Americans are in a hurry
for a harsh decision and the Europeans believe in dialogue,'' he
said.
That view was echoed by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, the
closest figure to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
and head of the Expediency Council, a powerful arbitrating body
within the ruling establishment.
``America and the Europeans follow the same objective: denying
Iran mastery over nuclear technology,'' Rafsanjani told state
television. ``The Americans say that impudently, while Europeans
say (it) diplomatically.''
Among the differences were on a deadline. The Americans asked
that the draft call on Iran to meet demands by Oct. 31. The EU
text remained more vague, asking only that IAEA Director General
Mohamed ElBaradei submit a comprehensive report before November
for evaluation by the board.
---
On the Net:
IAEA: http://www.iaea.org
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
3 Xinhuanet: Washington's Iran tough talk questionable
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-15 14:09:13
BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- As the motives for the war
against Iraq disintegrate, the United States has seemingly found
a new target against which to act tough.
US Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton warned on Sunday
the United States will pursue sanctions against Iran if Teheran
does not renounce its quest for nuclear weapons.
Bolton also said President George W. 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.
Such talk is not new. We heard a similar tone from Washington
when it targeted Iraq.
As early as almost three years ago, the US blacklisted Iran
with Iraq, Syria, Sudan and the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (DPRK).
Urging the so-called "axis of evil" to renounce terrorism,
Washington singled out Iran to be the "epicentre" of
international terrorist funding.
The US Congress has been drafting a joint resolution since
May, calling for punitive action against Teheran if it does not
fully reveal details of its nuclear programme.
It seems inevitable that Iran will come into the military
crosshairs of the United States.
Bolton spoke a day before the opening of a key meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear
watchdog.
A draft resolution on the Iran issue made by Britain, France
and Germany was presented to IAEA's meeting yesterday.
Iran rebuffed on Sunday the key demand by the European powers
which have threatened to intensify pressure if Teheran does not
curb its nuclear programme.
The three European powers have set a November deadline for it
to meet certain conditions meant to banish concerns that it is
secretly trying to make nuclear weapons.
The warning is viewed as shorthand for the referral of Iran's
case to the UN Security Council, raising the possibility of
Security Council sanctions.
Up to now, the three European countries have resisted US
attempts to have Iran hauled before the Security Council.
With the US presidential election drawing ever closer, the
Bush administration's Iran policy may remain unclear because of
this.
According to US officials, decisions on how to deal with Iran
will not be made until after the US elections in November, noting
that the US is awaiting the findings of the IAEA on Iran's
nuclear activity.
The IAEA has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for
two years, ever since the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI) reported in August 2002 that Teheran was concealing
several massive nuclear facilities from the UN watchdog.
It has uncovered many potentially weapons-related activities
but has so far found nothing to confirm US allegations that Iran
has a covert nuclear programme that goes beyond what is required
to generate electricity.
How can the world, then, trust the reliability of US
intelligence on Iran after the information it gave on Iraq turned
out to be so dubious?
(By Bi Lun with China Daily)
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
4 chinadaily: Rationality needed to solve Iran nuclear issue
Fang Zhou Updated: 2004-09-15 08:52
It seems that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is
determined to free itself from US influence in solving the
Iranian nuclear issue despite continuing diplomatic pressure from
Washington for a tougher stance on Teheran.
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, said on
Monday there is no deadline for it to end its investigations into
Iran's programme, which Washington says is for the production of
nuclear weapons. Teheran maintains it is for peaceful purposes.
"It's an open process and we will finish when I believe we are
finished," ElBaradei said at a board of governors meeting of the
IAEA in Vienna, although he did call on Iran to provide more
information.
Elbaradei also said the world's nuclear body has gained some
progress in Iran's nuclear probe with the co-operation of Teheran
and other countries.
Britain, France and Germany warned Iran of possible "further
steps" from the IAEA if it fails to respond to international
concerns about its weapons-related nuclear programme by November,
when the Vienna-based nuclear agency convenes its next board of
governors meeting.
This ultimatum-issuing tone is not constructive.
The three European "big powers" have remained in contact with
Iran since its uranium enrichment was released last year. The
United States has recently lobbied to have Teheran hauled before
the United Nations Security Council.
John R. Bolton, US Undersecretary of State, even threatened on
Sunday that the United States will push for sanctions against
Iran if Teheran does not renounce its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The three European countries' November deadline for Teheran can
drive the issue into an impasse rather than solve it.
The intransigence by Iran and the United States is reminiscent of
the eve of the Iraq War, when the United States also set a
deadline for former Iraq's Saddam Hussein regime to accept UN
nuclear inspection teams to inspect its alleged weapons of mass
destruction programme.
This ultimatum has since proved to be useless as the United
States, its inspectors, and the IAEA have so far failed to find
sound evidence for any such programme in Iraq.
The IAEA and other international organizations should be given
their own space to operate independently when dealing with
international issues.
(China Daily)
©Copyright 2004 Chinadaily.com.cn All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
5 brunei-online: Iran refuses to budge from its nuke stance
September 15, 2004
www.brunei-online.com
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran refuses to accept an unlimited suspension
of uranium enrichment and will not stop the manufacture of
centrifuges, one of the Islamic republic's top nuclear officials
was quoted as saying Tuesday.
"We will not accept any bargaining for an unlimited suspension,"
said Hossein Mousavian, a top member of the Iranian delegation to
a key meeting in Vienna of the UN nuclear watchdog.
Limiting Iran's mastery of the nuclear fuel cycle is at the
heart of the debate at the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) over US-led calls for the Tehran regime to be referred to
the UN Security Council for enforcement action.
"Iran will not accept committing itself to a new suspension of
the manufacture of parts" for centrifuges used for enrichment,
Mousavian was quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency
ISNA.
"Iran will not accept having to make new commitments that extend
the scope of the suspension of uranium enrichment," he told ISNA
from Vienna.
Iran had last October suspended the enrichment of uranium as a
confidence-building measure while under investigation by the IAEA
on the US charges it was secretly developing nuclear weapons.
Uranium can be enriched through centrifuges into a highly
refined form that can be used as fuel for civilian reactors or to
make an atomic bomb.
Nuclear fuel cycle work for peaceful purposes is permitted under
the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its additional
protocol, but there are worries Iran could master this and then
use it for military purposes.
Britain, France and Germany have been trying to get Iran to
agree to surrender its enrichment programme in return for a
guaranteed supply of nuclear fuel and increased trade.
Mousavian said this was out of the question.
"If the final (IAEA) resolution demands the continuation of the
enrichment suspension, Iran will reject it," he said, adding that
the Europeans had already made such a demand and Iran had refused
it.
Iran has only agreed to suspend enrichment pending the
completion of the IAEA investigation, and Mousavian insisted Iran
had done enough to build confidence.
"We consider that Iran has done a lot to build confidence,
notably by signing the additional protocol and implementing it,"
he said, referring to a supplementary treaty allowing tougher
IAEA inspections.
Mousavian said on Monday Iran was ready to resume enriching
uranium within a few months although no decision had been
reached, in the clearest sign yet that the year-old suspension
was about to be ended.
He said Iran was disappointed with Britain, France and Germany,
with whom it signed the October agreement to suspend enrichment
and increase cooperation with the IAEA.
He said the three European powers had promised to have the IAEA
investigation wrapped up by last June and provide transfers of
peaceful nuclear technology, but had failed to honour their
undertakings.
Copyright © 2003 Brunei Press Sdn Bhd
[http://www.bruneipress.com.bn] . All right reserved.
*****************************************************************
6 Korea Herald: [EDITORIAL]Another IAEA probe
2004.09.16
The International Atomic Energy Agency is sending a second
inspection team to South Korea this weekend to delve into its
suspicions about the nation's past nuclear experiments.
The dispatch of another team in less than three weeks is
evidence of how seriously the U.N. agency regards the recently
disclosed plutonium extraction and uranium enrichment, no matter
how small their amounts may have been. On Monday, Mohamed
ElBaradei, IAEA director general, termed the failure to report
them immediately as a "matter of serious concern."
But the second round of inspections should not be a cause of too
much concern to the South Korean government if the nuclear
scientists involved conducted the experiments out of curiosity,
as it claims. Instead, this should serve as an occasion for the
government to clear any doubts the U.N. agency may harbor about
them.
It is of no use for the government to brush aside the IAEA
director general's remark as mere rhetoric or to complain that it
is unduly being bashed by the international news media when it
has nothing to hide about extracting a negligible amount of
plutonium in 1982 and producing a tiny amount of enriched uranium
in 2000. It is also useless to appeal to the U.N. agency that it
had no ill-conceived intentions about the experiments.
What the government needs to do is to convince the inspectors
with facts that it was not behind the experiments. It may do so
by making all existing records about them available to the
inspectors, give them uninhibited access to all the nuclear
facilities they wish to check and arrange meetings with any
nuclear scientist they wish to interview.
The government is urged to take great care not to bungle this
time, as it did when it reported the uranium enrichment in June
this year as required under the additional protocol to the
nuclear safeguard agreement. It could have avoided the brouhaha
if it had unveiled at the time all the facts about the
experiments, not only to the IAEA but also to the news media.
2004.09.16
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7 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Diplomats: "6-way Talks Unlikely to Be Held This Month"
Updated Sep.15,2004 14:25 KST
A proposed round of six-way talks aimed at resolving North
Korea's nuclear ambitions is unlikely to take place before the
end of this month as planned. That's the growing consensus among
analysts and foreign diplomats. After a four-day trip to the
North this week Britain's Foreign Office minister said he
expects Pyongyang to wait out the U.S. presidential election in
November so as to cut a deal with the winner over its nuclear
weapons program.
The six-way talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions are
unlikely to be held by the end of this month as agreed in June.
This is according to British junior Foreign Minister Bill
Rammell in Beijing before leaving for North Korea. "I've
certainly very strongly urged the North to do it according to
the agreed time schedule which is before September. But they
didn't, in normal discussions, give commitment to do that," said
Rammell.
Rammell is among other western diplomats who were invited by the
North to visit the site of a huge explosion last week that
Pyongyang claims was caused by efforts to make a hydroelectric
power plant. Also China, for the first time, officially said the
6-way talks have become unlikely to be held this month due to
lack of time in making necessary preparations.
Since the last meeting in June, North Korea has been stepping up
its criticism of "hostile U.S. policies" against the North.
Pyongyang has been seeking one-on-one talks with Washington but
the U.S. has insisted on a 6-way framework comprising the two
Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
Arirang TV
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8 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: British Official: Pyongyang Unwilling to Set Date for
Updated Sep.15,2004 08:43 KST
British Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell, left, shakes
hands with North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun/AP
A British diplomat returning from North Korea says it remains
unclear whether there will be a fourth round of nuclear
disarmament talks this month. However, the official said
Pyongyang remains committed to the negotiations process.
British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell says North Korean
leaders indicated they are committed to resolving the nuclear
crisis through six-way negotiations. But, he says, they did not
tell him if they would make good on their earlier agreement to
return to multiparty negotiations by the end of this month.
"At the end of the discussions, what was clear to me was that the
North Koreans were saying they were still committed to the
six-party talks process but weren't prepared to commit to a
date," says Mr. Rammell. "I simply said to them, 'you have got to
come back to the table.'"
Mr. Rammell spoke to reporters in Beijing on his way home to
London after a visit to Pyongyang.
A number of diplomats from the United States, China, Japan and
South Korea have been in consultations over the past few days,
trying to get the talks going. A fourth round of negotiations,
which also include Russia, was tentatively planned for next week.
The talks are meant to persuade Pyongyang to abandon efforts to
build nuclear weapons.
Mr. Rammell says North Korean officials did not give him a clear
reason for why they are hesitant to return to the talks. "They
claim that since the last round of the six party talks, there
have been adverse developments," he says. "I have to say their
reasoning I did not find convincing and different people gave me
different reasons as to why they were not coming back to the
table."
Mr. Rammell says one obstacle presented by the North Koreans is a
recent revelation that South Korean scientists secretly conducted
uranium and plutonium experiments - a disclosure that prompted
North Korea last week to threaten an arms race.
The British official says he called on Pyongyang officials not
use that as an excuse to stay away from negotiations. Some
analysts also have speculated that North Korea may be waiting for
the outcome of the November presidential elections in the United
States before deciding how to proceed.
The British diplomat's visit to Pyongyang came amid continuing
concerns over the cause of a large explosion in a remote part of
North Korea. Pyongyang officials have said the blast was part of
a hydro-electric dam project.
North Korea has offered to let Britain's ambassador and other
diplomats in Pyongyang inspect the location. British officials
say they are making preparations for the trip to the area.
VOA News
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9 JoongAng Daily: IAEA coming to search for lost uranium
2004.09.15
An international nuclear inspector team coming to South Korea
next week will be trying to discover what happened to 12.5
kilograms (27 pounds) of purified uranium, which the South
Korean government cannot account for.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog
based in Vienna, has reported that South Korean nuclear
researchers in 1982 produced 150 kilograms of refined uranium
metal. From that amount, 3.5 kilograms were used up to produce
0.2 grams of enriched uranium in an experiment in 2000.
South Korean inventories show 134 kilograms of the metal remain
in government facilities. The whereabouts of the rest, 12.5
kilograms of uranium metal, is a mystery.
Seoul maintains its nuclear experiments in the early 1980s and
2000 were not authorized by the government and were isolated
cases that were for academic purposes.
The Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that five or six IAEA
officials will visit Korea starting Sunday and tour the Korea
Atomic Energy Research Institute in Daejeon and a research plant
in northern Seoul.
A senior government official said, "This is not additional
inspection but a supplementary inspection." The official made a
distinction between additional and supplementary, saying he
expected there to be no further revelations of South Korean
breaches of international agreements.
by Choi Jie-ho jieho@joongang.co.kr>
*****************************************************************
10 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: IAEA to Write Report on South Korean Nuclear Experiments
Updated Sep.15,2004 19:06 KST
It has been noted that the secretary-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will issue a worried and critical
report on uranium and plutonium tests that Korea had conducted
since the 1980s.
Diplomatic sources of the IAEA said Tuesday that IAEA
Secretary-General Mohamed ElBaradei would express his concern
over Korea¡¯s uranium separation tests before the closing of the
directors¡¯ meeting for the third quarter. The meeting opened
Monday and will run through Friday with 35 director countries
participating. Unlike a resolution, the report has no binding
authority. But it is expected that the report will be used to
criticize the Korean government, which has been lax in managing
its nuclear programs.
In the secretary-general¡¯s report, the director countries will
express concern over a series of nuclear tests conducted in Korea
and will urge Korea to fully reveal its nuclear tests. At the
opening of the meeting on Monday, Secretary-General ElBaradei
already expressed his ¡°serious concern¡± over Korea¡¯s failure
to report its uranium separation test.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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11 BBC: Mystery over N Korea cloud
Last Updated: Wednesday, 15 September, 2004
[Images pictured on Sept. 26, 2000, left, and on Sept. 15, 2004 ]
Satellite images from before (l) and after (r) the blast show
little change
The cause of a massive cloud which appeared over North Korea last
week remains shrouded in mystery.
North Korea says controlled explosions related to dam building
caused the cloud, which South Korean observers described as
mushroom shaped.
But a South Korean satellite which photographed the area on
Wednesday provided inconclusive evidence.
And South Korea's National Intelligence Service said the cloud
may in fact have been a natural formation.
"There might have been a blast to build a hydroelectric power
dam... or there might have been natural clouds with a peculiar
(mushroom-like) shape," the agency was quoted as reporting.
The confusion may be resolved on Thursday, when Britain's
ambassador in Pyongyang, David Slinn, and a group of other
foreign diplomats are due to visit the site and seek further
information.
The cloud, which appeared near Yongjo-ri in Yanggang Province,
initially triggered fears North Korea had risked the wrath of the
international community by testing a nuclear device.
The US and South Korea have since discounted that possibility.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said North Korea's explanation
for the blast squared with the information Washington had
gathered.
"The information they gave is consistent with what we saw, that
it might have been demolition work for a hydroelectric facility,"
Mr Powell told Reuters news agency on Tuesday.
*****************************************************************
12 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: IAEA to Send Second Team of Inspectors to South Korea
Updated Sep.15,2004 14:21 KST
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it plans to send
an additional team of inspectors to South Korea. The focus of
the inspection is expected to be on solving unanswered questions
from a previous investigation conducted earlier this month. IAEA
inspectors are also likely to investigate fresh revelations that
South Korea produced natural uranium metal in 1982 in three
undeclared facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it will send an
inspection team to South Korea to further investigate the
country's controversial nuclear experiments. This would be the
second team to visit Korea since the country recently revealed
ambitious scientists had conducted unsanctioned tests to extract
plutonium and separate uranium in 1982 and 2000. Earlier this
month, a seven-member inspection team had completed a week-long
investigation on the facilities in question.
IAEA inspectors are slated to arrive here on Saturday to revisit
research institutes and facilities where the two experiments
were carried out. The inspection team is expected to interview
those who were involved in the experiments, collect more nuclear
waste samples, and investigate related government officials.
An IAEA official said the additional mission is an extension of
the previous one adding the nuclear inspectors could conduct a
few more investigations until the board reconvenes in November.
That's when the IAEA's board of governors meets again to decide
what kind of decisions they will reach on South Korea based on a
full written report.
Seoul has maintained that these nuclear activities were
isolated, unauthorized and carried out for academical purposes.
The government has also pledged to fully cooperate with the IAEA
to demonstrate its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Arirang TV
*****************************************************************
13 Bangornews.com: Fear & Nukes in North Korea
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
President Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry seem to be
competing for who can scare American voters the most about
possible North Korean nuclear weapons. Mr. Bush listed the
country with Iraq and Iran as members of an "axis of evil" and
thus as potential targets for pre-emptive attack under his
preventive war doctrine. Mr. Kerry, in a recent political blast,
accused the president of letting a "nuclear nightmare" develop,
although he differed from the president in advocating a return to
direct one-to-one negotiations, which the Bush administration
abandoned when it took office.
Two developments have suddenly injected North Korea's nuclear
program into the American presidential race. First came a series
of intelligence reports suggesting to some experts that North
Korea was preparing to conduct its first test explosion of a
nuclear weapon. Then came a huge explosion near North Korea's
border with China and initial reports of a "mushroom cloud," the
signature sign of a nuclear explosion.
But Pyongyang has now said it was a deliberate detonation to
demolish a mountain as part of a plan for construction of a
hydroelectric dam and has offered to permit foreign envoys to
inspect the scene. U.S., British and South Korean officials seem
to have accepted that explanation. But North Korea's nuclear
program remains a hot U.S. election issue.
One of the cooler heads among the American specialists on North
Korea has just finished an analysis that explains North Korea's
motivations and offers hope for a peaceful solution that either
President Bush or a President Kerry can pursue if they can shake
off the scare tactics of the hawks in both parties. Selig S.
Harrison, a Washington-based scholar who recently returned from
North Korea, has been writing the analysis at his summer home on
Islesford for presentation at a conference at Lake Como, Italy.
Based on his many discussions with North Korean leaders, Mr.
Harrison concludes that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons
not for leverage against its neighbors or to reduce the need for
costly conventional weapons but because of fear and insecurity.
He quotes former defense secretary William Perry as saying that
North Korea seeks to deter the United States from attacking: "We
do not think of ourselves as a threat to North Korea, but I fully
believe that they consider us a threat to them." Mr. Harrison
says that North Korea began serious efforts to develop nuclear
weapons and long-range missiles as a direct response to the
30-year U.S. deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South
Korea.
Negotiations now are stalled over a Bush administration
accusation that North Korea has begun secret work on an
enriched-uranium bomb in addition to its acknowledged development
of a plutonium-based weapon. The U.S. position is that North
Korea must first admit that it has been conducting the alleged
secret project. Mr. Harrison says that North Korea may be using
low-enriched uranium for power production and that producing
high-enriched, weapons-grade uranium is far more difficult and
expensive.
The administration has yet to provide supporting evidence about
the uranium charge to Congress or to allies in Seoul, Tokyo,
Beijing or Moscow, he adds, concluding that he believes the
administration exploited limited intelligence to head off
Japanese and South Korean overtures to North Korea.
Mr. Harrison advocates deferring the uranium issue and focusing
on the plutonium issue until greater trust has been developed
though step-by-step mutual concessions.
©2004 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
14 Guardian Unlimited: North Korea Looks to Delay Nuclear Talks
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday September 15, 2004 7:31 AM
By BARRY SCHWEID
AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - North Korea is looking for an extended delay in
resuming negotiations over its nuclear weapons program and even
told China there was no point in continuing the six-sided talks
at all, a senior U.S. official says.
The talks, which recessed in late June, had been expected to be
resumed by the end of September. Hoping to persuade North Korea
to halt its program, the Bush administration was willing to offer
written assurance that it had no plans to attack, while Japan and
South Korea were expected to lay out economic incentives they
would offer.
But North Korea has sought one-on-one talks with the United
States and has decided to wait until at least after the Nov. 2
presidential elections to start talking again, the U.S. official
said Tuesday.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry favors direct talks
with North Korea about its nuclear program. President Bush has
pursued six-party talks involving North Korea's nearest neighbors
- China, South Korea, Japan and Russia - as well as the United
States to confront North Korea with the aim of halting its
development of nuclear weapons.
China already has concluded that negotiations would not resume
this month as planned, said the official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. The Bush administration is inclined to expect a
delay until after the election.
In Moscow, the Russian delegation's leader, Deputy Foreign
Minister Alexander Alekseyev, was quoted as telling the Interfax
news agency the next round of six-nation talks would not be held
this month.
``The Russian side unambiguously believes that it would be
correct to hold this round at the end of September, as was
decided during the third round in Beijing. But for a series of
reasons, it can't be done,'' Alekseyev said.
Kerry, meanwhile, has accused the Bush administration of letting
a ``nuclear nightmare'' develop by refusing to deal with North
Korea when it first took office in 2001.
``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.
U.S. analysts are convinced North Korea is at the brink of making
several nuclear weapons. Negotiations became even more urgent
with a North Korean blast last week that produced a mushroom
cloud near the Chinese border.
The U.S. official characterized as dubious North Korea's
explanation that the blast was the demolition of a mountain for a
hydroelectric project. For one thing, the blast does not appear
to have had the magnitude to demolish a mountain, the official
said.
At the same time, he said, the Bush administration has not yet
figured out what happened.
China would be the best source of information outside Pyongyang,
but so far Chinese officials have not given the Bush
administration any evaluation they may have made, the official
said.
A State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, said only that ``it
will be an issue we will continue to look at closely.''
South Korean officials said Tuesday they were trying to verify
North Korea's claim that the explosion involved a civilian
project.
Meanwhile, even though North Korea has told China it did not plan
to resume six-party talks this month, North Korean leader Kim
Jong Il told British diplomat Bill Rammell something different,
the official said: that North Korea remained committed to
resuming talks as planned.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, ``People are
looking at the calendar and drawing the conclusion that the North
Koreans may not fulfill the promise and commitment they made at
the last round of talks to have these talks in September.''
``At this point, I don't think there is any clear indication from
the North Koreans what their intentions are and what their
reasons might be,'' Boucher said.
``It's too early to draw a conclusion on this, but it does appear
that the North Koreans have been stalling,'' he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
15 Xinhuanet: IAEA to send second inspection team to South Korea
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-15 20:55:00
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A five-member inspection team
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will arrive here
Sunday for a six-day investigation over South Korea's nuclear
material experiments, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
The IAEA team will inspect facilities in the state-run
(South) Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute in Daejeon city
and its research center in northern Seoul.
IAEA officials stayed in South Korea from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5
toprobe into two experiments conducted by South Korean scientists
many years ago.
Seoul admitted earlier this month that several scientists
extracted small amount of plutonium in 1982 and separated 0.2
gramof uranium in 2000.
Tests on plutonium and enriched uranium are strictly
monitored by the UN nuclear watchdog as they are two key
ingredients of nuclear weapons.
IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday that South Korea
produced 153 kilograms of uranium metal in 1982 at one of three
nuclear facilities undeclared to the watchdog. He also expressed
"serious concern" over the experiments.
South Korea is reportedly storing 134 kilograms of uranium
metal in Daejeon, 164 km south of Seoul, after using some 3.4
kilograms for the 2000 experiments. That means 15.6 kilograms of
uranium metal remain unaccounted for.
Yonhap quoted analysts as saying that the second IAEA
inspection team's main target is the 15.6-kg uranium metal.
Seoul claimed that it produced the uranium metal as part of
efforts to localize nuclear fuel amid skyrocketing international
prices of natural uranium then.
The nuclear power generation accounts for some 45 percent of
the country's total energy resources.
"It was nothing more than pure research work," Cho Chung-won,
director-general of the Science and Technology Ministry was
quotedby Yonhap as saying. "We extracted 800 kilograms of natural
uranium from phosphoric ore, and used most of them as nuclear
fuel for the Wolsong nuclear power plant."
"We produced uranium metal by transforming the remnants," he
added. "Some 15 kilograms of uranium metal were lost in the
courseof experiments. The failure to report the work to the IAEA
was just a mistake."
Seoul repeatedly claimed that those experiments were
conducted by some scientists for academic purposes, and that the
government was not aware of them in advance.
The IAEA chief planned to report the results of the
inspections to a meeting of the agency's board of directors in
November. Enditem¡¡
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
16 Korea Times: IAEA Inspection to Focus on Unreported Uranium
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
The five-member inspection team from the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), who will arrive in Seoul on Sunday for
additional investigations into South Korea's nuclear experiments,
will focus on the 150 kilograms of uranium metal produced in the
early 1980s at three facilities that had not been declared to the
nuclear watchdog, according to sources here.
Staying here until Sept. 26, the inspectors are expected to
interview scientists involved, take environmental samples and
visit the nuclear research facilities in Seoul and Taejon where
the two controversial experiments took place in 1982 and 2000,
officials said. During their first visit early this month, the
IAEA inspectors didn't meet Korean scientists.
The second visit in two weeks by the United Nations nuclear
watchdog has the Seoul government puzzled over what further
explanations it can provide, but Rep. Cho Seong-tae of the ruling
Uri Party said it is a good chance for the country to clear
everything up.
``We haven't tried to develop nuclear weapons and didn't try to
test fissile materials with the aim of making a bomb,'' Cho,
former Defense Minister, told The Korea Times. ``I think this is
the country's chance to make everything clearer and prevent this
kind of event from happening again.''
Foreign Affairs-Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon plans to reaffirm
Seoul's commitment to a nuclear-free peninsula during his keynote
speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Sep. 24, but many foreign
critics are still suspicious.
Magnifying suspicions, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday
that South Korea produced 150 kilograms of uranium metal in the
early 1980s.
``It's unfortunate that our scientists have caused this
suspicion,'' Cho said. ``If these kind of doubts linger, we will
face restrictions in using nuclear energy even for peaceful
purposes (including electricity generation).''
He said South Korea has kept to its nuclear-free policy in a
transparent manner.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also said during an
interview with Reuters on Tuesday that those experiments by South
Korean scientists do not suggest that Seoul has ``an interest in
a nuclear weapons development program.''
``So let the IAEA consider this and make a judgment as to whether
that should be the end of it, or to close the case down entirely
and refer it to the Security Council as just an informational
matter,'' Powell said.
The first IAEA team conducted inspection in South Korea from Aug.
29 to Sept. 4 to look into the experiments that led to the
production of tiny amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium, the
two main types of fissile material used in nuclear weapons.
Some critics in Seoul say that the IAEA wants to clean up their
reputation by proving their impeccable inspection skills, which
were severely criticized when they tried and failed to find
nuclear materials in Iraq.
im@koreatimes.co.kr 09-15-2004 16:09
*****************************************************************
17 Korea Times: Summits Bring Political Honeymoon
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
Following is the first in a three-part series of articles on
relations between Korea and Russia since the setup of diplomatic
relations 40 years ago. Dr. Lankov contributed the article on the
occasion of President Roh Moo-hyun's visit to Russia starting
Sept. 20 - ED.
By Andrei Lankov
In September 1990 the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and
the Republic of Korea signed a declaration of mutual recognition.
Formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, absent
from 1948, were finally restored.
President Roh Moo-hyun, left, shakes hands with Russian President
Vladimir Putin during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC
summit in Bangkok last October.
The September declaration was signed amid high expectations and
euphoria. The ¡®South Korean boom¡¯ in the USSR and the ¡®Soviet
boom¡¯ in the Republic of Korea occurred in the late 1980s and
early 1990s. Being deprived of normal contacts for so long, the
two countries were discovering one another with great and
sometimes misplaced enthusiasm.
This enthusiasm was principally, but not exclusively, focused on
economic matters. The prospects for economic cooperation between
the two countries looked brilliant. In the late 1980s, the Soviet
Union was the world¡¯s third largest economy. It also possessed
huge deposits of mineral resources. The Soviet market for Korean
consumer goods had, as everybody believed, enormous potential,
especially because the acute shortage of consumer goods in the
USSR was a well-known fact.
South Korean businesses rushed to Russia. In September 1989
alone, all top four Korean conglomerates _ Hyundai, Samsung,
Daewoo, and LG _ opened their offices in Moscow. They were
followed by lesser companies and swarms of small businessmen
looking for money and adventure in the newly opened Russia. They
found their counterparts among similarly enthusiastic _ and even
less experienced _ wannabe businesspeople from Russia who, in a
happy coincidence, had discovered Korea around the same time.
As subsequent events demonstrated, there was a great deal of
truth in the initial optimism. But the aspiring businessmen of
1990 or 1991 lacked local knowledge and had a poor understanding
of how the other side¡¯s economy actually functioned. They
compensated for this with unbeatable enthusiasm and energy.
Sometimes it helped. In merely three years, trade between the two
countries doubled: from $600 million in 1989 to $1,202 million in
1992. Soon after establishment of diplomatic relations, the ROK
gave Russia a large amount of credit, it was initially expected
to reach $3 billion (though less than half of this amount was
actually provided).
The collapse of the USSR in December 1991 dealt a major blow to
the euphoria of the initial period. Few people expected the
Communist superpower to disappear that soon, and most of those
who did still underestimated the difficulties that lay ahead for
the post-Communist economy of Russia. This led to the collapse of
many business plans that had been formulated in the late 1980s
with the Soviet realities in mind. The volume of trade between
the two countries dropped from $1,202 million in 1991 to $759
million in 1992. Experts began to talk about the ``burst of the
Soviet bubble,¡¯¡¯ and many business enthusiasts from both
countries switched their adventurous energy to China.
However, the pessimists were eventually proven wrong. After the
initial disappointments, it became clear that success would come
to the companies with the persistence (and resources) to maintain
their presence in a new market for a concerted period of time.
Despite all the economic uncertainties, the early 1990s was a
political honeymoon between the two countries. In November 1992,
President Yeltsin came to Seoul as the president of the newly
established Russian Federation. It was one of his first overseas
trips in this capacity, and this demonstrated both the actual and
symbolic importance of a successful, capitalist and democratic
South Korea to the Russian reformers. Among other things, Yeltsin
expressed his regret over the tragic incident of 1983 when a
Korean passenger jet was shot down by a Soviet pilot.
In total, there have been four summits in Moscow and Seoul from
1992-2004. Kim Young Sam visited Moscow in 1994, and Kim Dae Jung
followed in 1999. Two Russian presidents have also been to Seoul:
Boris Yeltsin in 1992 and Vladimir Putin in 2001. In other words,
after 1988 each Korean and Russian chief executive has visited
his counterpart. The chief executives of both states have also
frequently met during international forums in third countries.
However, honeymoons do not last forever. Moscow and Seoul¡¯s
honeymoon period was over around 1995, but did not give way to
apathy or crisis. Relations simply moved away from the
unrealistic hopes of the earlier era, and became more stable and,
in the long run, better founded.
Aside from economic problems, the changes were driven by the new
political situation. Post-Communist Russia, in spite of its still
formidable military, economic and technological potential, was a
superpower no more. One of the reasons for Seoul¡¯s earlier
enthusiasm for better relations with Moscow was the hope that
Russia¡¯s supposed leverage over the North could be used to
influence Pyongyang or mediate between the two Koreas. However,
after the nearly total breakdown of relations between Moscow and
Pyongyang in 1991, these expectations were left floundering.
By the mid-1990s, the Russian public, increasingly unhappy about
the results of market reforms, started to question the policy of
an unconditional alliance with the West _ the cornerstone of
Moscow¡¯s diplomacy in the first years of Yeltsin¡¯s presidency.
Bowing to domestic public opinion, the Russian government began
to distance itself from the US-led West, to which the ROK clearly
belongs.
North Korea, long ignored by Moscow, regained some importance in
its diplomatic strategy and concepts of a ``balanced approach¡¯¡¯
(that is, dealing with Pyongyang and Seoul impartially), gaining
some currency in Moscow. Objectively, such an approach was also
beneficial to South Korean interests as well _ as was
demonstrated by Russia¡¯s participation in the six-party talks on
the North Korean nuclear issue.
The worst crisis to strike relations between two countries
probably came in 1997. In July, a prominent Russian official was
caught by police in Moscow handing classified papers to a Korean
diplomat. Naturally, the Korean diplomat (believed to be an
employee of the National Intelligence Service) was expelled from
Russia, and Seoul reciprocated by ousting a Russian diplomat,
also said to have been an undercover intelligence operative.
Fortunately, the ``spy scandal¡¯¡¯ did not have lasting
consequences for relations, since both sides treated it in a
rational and cool, if somewhat cynical, manner. Indeed, such
things happen: states have spied on each other since time
immemorial. If anything, the speedy recovery of relations
demonstrated just how sound a foundation they had.
Scope of Bilateral Economic Exchange Widens
Meanwhile, economic cooperation kept growing. After 1993, trade
between the two countries increased steadily, reaching 3,260
million in 1995. Then it suffered a temporary reverse when nearly
simultaneous economic crises hit both countries in 1997-1998. By
2003, the trade volume had exceeded 4.1 billion dollars (Korean
exports to Russia were $1,659 million, and imports from Russia
$2,522 million). Russia is now Korea¡¯s 18th largest trade
partner.
A fair promoting Samsung Electronics gets underway in Moscow. /
Courtesy of Samsung
As was expected when diplomatic relations were first established,
Russian exports to Korea largely consist of raw materials. In
2003, the major items were steel and iron (including scrap iron),
nickel, aluminium, coal, and oil. These items account for more
than half of the total Russian exports to Korea. This creates a
paradox: for the last few years Korean imports from Russia have
consistently exceeded Korean exports to that country, but the
Russian economic presence in Korea is almost unnoticed to a lay
person while the Korean presence in Russia is highly visible. The
Russian businesses in Korea are selling raw materials and their
activities here are known only to a handful of specialized
businessmen and experts. Korean companies in Russia, dealing
largely with consumer goods, are waging large-scale advertisement
campaigns and have become highly visible on huge billboards in
downtown Moscow and Petersburg.
Korean exports to Russia include home electronics of all kinds,
computers, communication devices, plastics, garments and, of
course, cars. A South Korean car is now a familiar sight on the
roads of virtually any Russian city. During the first six months
of 2004, Russian consumers bought 150,000 new foreign cars, and
22 percent of this total came from the makers Hyundai and Daewoo.
Within the last two years, Hyundai has tripled its sales in
Russia and became the second most popular brand on the Russian
automotive market. An increasing number of Korean cars are
assembled locally in Russia and in other post-Soviet republics.
Currently about a thousand Korean companies are permanently
present on the Russian market, but most of the trade is conducted
by a handful of large conglomerates. LG, Samsung, Hyundai, and
few others of their ilk control over 70 percent of all exchange
with Russia. This is understandable: these large companies are
major buyers of the metal, oil and coal that form the bulk of
Russian exports to Korea. They are also the major producers of
the consumer electronics and cars that feature so prominently in
Korean exports to Russia.
But there is another dimension to the economic relations of the
two countries beyond traded goods. Politics have transformed
South Korea into a virtual island. Since the division of
1945-1948, all traffic from and to this country has had to be by
air or sea. In recent years, the suggestion that North Korea will
sooner or later open its borders for the South Korean cargo
transit has gained momentum. This will make possible large-scale
transportation projects, necessarily involving Russia. By far the
most important (and most widely discussed) is the construction of
a Trans-Korean Railroad and its connection with the
Trans-Siberian Railroad. According to more sanguine estimates, it
will cost some $900 to send a 20-foot container from the Russian
border station of Khasan to Hamburg. The transportation of the
same container from Pusan to Hamburg by sea now costs $1,350: a
significant $400 (or 30 percent) difference per container. Even
if these estimates are excessively optimistic, there is little
reason to doubt that the land route would save both time and
money for Korean companies trading with Europe.
And, of course, there is a multitude of pipeline projects,
largely to do with natural gas. Russia possesses about 30 percent
of the world¡¯s known gas deposits, and many of its rich gas
fields are located in Eastern Siberia, not far from Korea. The
potential is great, but investment is necessary, so the numerous
competing pipeline projects have now become the center of
complicated diplomatic and financial combinations _ somewhat akin
to the struggles that surrounded the great railway construction
projects about a century ago.
However, relations between the two countries are not only about
shrewd political maneuvering, trade and investment. They also
involve communication between the peoples. Over the 15 years that
have passed since the establishment of relations, Russians and
Koreans have opened up to one another. But this should be a topic
of another article.
09-15-2004 19:40
*****************************************************************
18 Korea Times: Lingering Nuclear Suspicion
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Opinion
Government Should Convince Local Audience First
The suspicion surrounding local scientists' nuclear experiments
is deepening both at home and abroad. In his first public
comments since the International Atomic Energy Agency launched
investigations, Director General Mohamed ElBaradei expressed
``serious concern'' about Seoul's failure to report these tests
as required. The U.N. watchdog will also send an additional
inspection team on Saturday. Still officials here say they have
done ``nothing seriously wrong.'' Most Koreans feel utterly
confused between the two widely differing allegations.
For many who had expected little more than a light reprimand at
the ongoing IAEA assembly in Vienna, the revelation of unknown
facts is not just disappointing but quite embarrassing. Foreign
reports summed up the international agency's doubts as a
six-point query, including the production of 150 kilograms of
uranium metal, part of which was used in nuclear enrichment
experiments later. The IAEA's investigation focuses on whether
the South Korean government omitted its report knowingly or not.
Some foreign media even seem to suspect Seoul that has been
behind these nuclear efforts.
Still, the government officials' responses can hardly sound
understandable. Minister of Science and Technology Oh Myung said
he found no problem with the latest IAEA report on uranium metal.
``It was done 20 years ago. The facilities have all been
dismantled,'' Oh told reporters. A Foreign Ministry official
described ElBaradei's expression of concern as a ``cliche.'' In
brief, the Korean officials are saying what looked like new facts
were all contained in their confidential report to the IAEA, but
the agency disclosed them in detail beyond necessity.
Seoul has maintained the position it has opened all sites and
hidden nothing intentionally, while admitting some mistakes out
of either ignorance or negligence and ascribing most of the
controversy to the secretive nature of nuclear dialogue. We hope
it is right. But there still seems to be too wide a gap, not only
between the facts presented by both sides but also in the ways
they interpret the facts to believe so. As the government has
kept denying something only to acknowledge it later upon the
revelation by the foreign media or the IAEA, many Koreans suspect
it is hiding something.
The as-I-am-clean-nothing-will-matter attitude does not work.
Seoul should drop the piecemeal approach and lay bare the truth
once and for all. It first ought to convince its own people, who
have the right to know. After accepting the blame for its
violations, the government should be able to refute the
misunderstandings or exaggerations on the part of IAEA, if there
were any. If Korea had no intention or capacity to make nuclear
weapons, the government only has to prove it. Nothing would be
more foolish than to inflict damage upon national interest and
reputation due to small mistakes or misunderstandings.
09-15-2004 18:36
*****************************************************************
19 Korea Times: Moscow, Seoul Enjoy Peaceful Dividends in New Relations
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
This is the second in a series of articles on the upcoming summit
between President Roh Moo-hyun and his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin. - ED.
By Vitaly Ignatenko
Hardly any other country has been developing relations with
Russia so dynamically in the past years as the Republic of Korea.
History created conditions for the restoration of ties between
Moscow and Seoul after a decade-long break. Now, one can only
wonder how it all happened and why the relations between
neighbors that have displayed mutual interest in each other for
centuries were interrupted for such a long time.
This historic background allows me, as a direct participant in
the restoration of diplomatic relations and as the chairman of
the Society of Russian-Korean friendship, to state with pleasure
that current relations are a ``love match.''
The Russians treasure such Korean traits such as their
industriousness, enterprising nature, exactingness and firmness
of purpose. Therefore, our people get on so easily and such
people's diplomacy has helped professional diplomats considerably
in erecting the modern building of Russian-Korean cooperation
from solid and reliable constructions.
I believe it is important to recollect all that as we are
readying for a visit from President Roh Moo-hyun to Russia. The
current level of dialogue became possible due to radical changes
in the policy of our countries. Reforms and democratic
transformations in Russia were developing simultaneously with the
processes that took place in the south of the Korean peninsula.
In 1988, millions of Russians could watch live coverage of the
Seoul Olympics. Naturally, they noticed not only splendid sport
facilities, but also a beautiful, modern city with lively
quarters along the banks of the Han River.
The Cold War separated us, but as the mighty wall of ideological
standoff collapsed, we realized we can be partners. I believe it
was not occasional that President Roh announced his intention to
visit Russia right after taking office. Russian President
Vladimir Putin also selected the South Korean itinerary for one
of his first foreign visits.
I have visited Northeast Asian countries quite a few times on
various official and public missions and I have to say I share
the opinion that the development of the 21st century will depend
considerably on the situation in the region. As the South Korean
president noted at his inauguration ceremony, the economy of the
region exceeds one-fifth of world production, while the total
population of the countries of the area exceeds the population of
the European Union.
Russia has vast borders on the Pacific coast and is interested in
the development and prosperity of Northeast Asia. The processes
would have definitely accelerated had the tensions on the Korean
peninsula eased.
Russia is doing everything it can to make the settlement of the
North Korean nuclear problem stable and dynamic. We believe Seoul
is worthily assessing Russian efforts. Moscow, in its turn,
speaks of coincidence of positions: we agree that despite its
complexity, the problem has to be resolved only by peaceful means
and with an account of the interests of all countries of the
region.
That is how we interpret the statements of President Roh and of
the government of the Republic of Korea. This balanced approach
manifested itself in the proposal immediately made by the South
Korean leadership to help eliminate the aftermath of the railway
catastrophe in the North.
When guns fire, muses are silent, and vice versa. Peace provides
considerable dividends for overall development. Diplomacy used to
limit its task to protecting peace from war. Now it aims to make
peace brighter, richer and more substantial.
The peaceful portfolio of orders contains the link-up of Korean
railways with the Trans-Siberian to create a single new corridor
that will solidly connect Asia and Europe. It will trigger new
reciprocal flows of businessmen, engineers, students and numerous
ordinary travelers. It will not only bring stability to the
Korean peninsula, but will also allow dialogue about ``Eurasia
without division lines.''
Our bilateral trade increased by one-third last year, but I
believe it is only the beginning. The ``Made in Korea'' trademark
is valued in Russia as a very reliable brand. Moscow streets see
more and more elegant cars with Korean names, to which Russian
motorists are already familiar with. Korean-made mobile handsets,
electronic household devices and clothes are in high demand in
Russia, while downtown Moscow will soon see the elegant
silhouette of a business complex erected by the Lotte Company.
The project of supplying Siberian natural gas to South Korea
speaks for itself. The business cooperation portfolio also
contains joint space research, peaceful atomic power engineering
and information and biotechnology projects. And that is only a
small part of the list of our joint efforts.
Last year, I visited the Republic of Korea on a very moving
mission. Together with Korean friends we paid tribute to the navy
men of the Varyag cruiser and the Koreets gunboat. The crews of
the legendary Russian warships clashed with an overwhelming
Japanese fleet in February 1904.
Now a monument in the port of Inchon commemorates their exploits.
It was a very warm and touching ceremony, which involved
officials of both countries, military men, and what is more
important, young people who will develop our relations to last
for years to come.
The upcoming visit of President Roh will allow us to
``synchronize our watches'' along all cooperation guidelines. We
trust each other and see a large field of coinciding interests:
the fight against international terrorism and proliferation of
mass destruction weapons and enhancing the role of the United
Nations and such regional forums, including APEC and ASEAN.
I am convinced the upcoming Moscow summit will give a new impulse
to our cooperation. Not only Russia and the Republic of Korea,
but other countries of Asia and the Pacific Rim will profit from
it. Diplomats, experts and journalists from all over the world
will attentively follow the meeting of our presidents.
It so happened that the visit of President Roh coincides with
the centennial anniversary of our news agency. ITAR-TASS wires
its news in six languages (Russian, English, French, Spanish,
German and Arabic) and regularly informs Russia and the world
about the lives of our Korean neighbors.
For many friends from the Republic of Korea, our headquarters on
Tverskoy Boulevard in downtown Moscow is not an alien home. We
have accepted high-level Korean delegations and held round-table
discussions and news conferences devoted to the possibilities of
new times. We hope our Korean partners will actively participate
in the first-ever World Congress of news agencies, which
ITAR-TASS initiated to convene in Moscow in late September.
Vitaly Ignatenko is a director general of the official Russian
ITAR-TASS news agency, chairman of the Society of Russian-Korean
friendship.
09-15-2004 19:43
*****************************************************************
20 AFP: Seoul seeks Russian help in restarting N.Korea nuclear talks
Homebase"> [http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
MOSCOW (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
Russian and South Korean diplomats held talks in Moscow on
Tuesday focused on efforts to persuade Pyongyang to resume
faltering six-way talks about its nuclear weapons program, the
foreign ministry said.
Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Alexeyev met with South
Korean counterpart Lee Soo-Hyuck, Seoul's top nuclear negotiator.
"Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to resume the negotiating
process so that all participants can search for a compromise
solution," a statement said.
The Russian official said he was not certain North Korea would
agree to take part in the next round of talks as scheduled this
month in Beijing, but he voiced hope that another date could be
fixed.
"We agreed to pursue consultations in various formats and are
counting on the fourth round being held, if not in September,
then within a reasonably short time," Alexeyev was quoted as
saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
The trip completes a round of bilateral consultations between
South Korea and other members of talks involving the two Koreas,
Japan, Russia, China and the United States.
North Korea has indicated it may not attend the talks aimed at
resolving the two-year-old impasse over its nuclear ambitions.
The Stalinist country maintained a tougher stance after South
Korea disclosed its own nuclear experiments to enrich uranium
four years ago and to extract a small amount of plutonium in the
1980s.
Both enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to manufacture
atomic bombs, but South Korea said its experiments were purely
for academic purposes.
A Russian delegation led by Sergei Mironov, the speaker of
Russia's Federation Council (upper house of parliament), met
Monday with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, ITAR-TASS reported.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun is to visit Russia next week
for talks on curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and
trans-Siberian railway links.
All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
*****************************************************************
21 AFP: N.Korea not ready to resume nuclear talks: Russia
[http://www.spacewar.com/] [http://www.spacewar.com/]
MOSCOW (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
Russia said Tuesday that it did not expect North Korea to agree
to resume faltering six-way talks about its nuclear weapons
program as scheduled this month.
"Russia of course would like to see this round take place at the
end of September as agreed at the third round in Beijing. But for
many different reasons, this is not working out," Russian deputy
foreign minister Alexander Alexeyev said after meeting with South
Korean counterpart Lee Soo-Hyuck.
"In this situation we should work together and make efforts to
ensure that the fourth round is held as soon as possible," he was
quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Lee, Seoul's top nuclear negotiator, had come to Moscow in a bid
to get Russia's help in persuading North Korea to come back to
the negotiating table.
Moscow's pessimistic statement came as the United States has
expressed disappointment with Pyongyang's reluctance to commit to
a date for new six-way talks.
"We remain ready and anxious to return to the six-party talks and
we are disappointed with the reasons the DPRK (North Korea) has
given for stalling," James Kelly, the top US envoy on North
Korea, said in a statement Tuesday as he ended two days of talks
in Beijing.
South Korea has been holding a series of bilateral consultations
with other members of talks involving the two Koreas, Japan,
Russia, China and the United States.
North Korea has indicated it may not attend the talks aimed at
resolving the two-year-old impasse over its nuclear ambitions.
The Stalinist country maintained a tougher stance after South
Korea disclosed its own nuclear experiments to enrich uranium
four years ago and to extract a small amount of plutonium in the
1980s.
Both enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to manufacture
atomic bombs, but South Korea said its experiments were purely
for academic purposes.
A Russian delegation led by Sergei Mironov, the speaker of
Russia's Federation Council (upper house of parliament), met
Monday with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, ITAR-TASS reported.
Russia is considered to be one of the countries with closest
diplomatic ties to the hermetic regime in North Korea.
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun is to visit Russia next week
for talks on curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons drive and
trans-Siberian railway links.
All rights reserved. © 2004 [http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of
the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs,
*****************************************************************
22 [NYTr] Nuking the American Mind
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 06:51:55 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
The Management School of Restorative Business - Sept 14, 2004
http://www.restorative-business.org
Nuking the American Mind
On Monday, September 13, 2004 the newsreader on CNNs Today program
announced: South Korea's Yonhap news agency is reporting a huge explosion
shook North Korea's northernmost province on Thursday [September 9, 2004]
producing a mushroom cloud over 4 kilometers (two miles) wide.
Two satellite photos of what appeared to be the aerial views of any
industrial area accompanied the broadcast.
CNNs correspondent in Korea explained that both the South Korean and US
government experts believe that the explosion was not cause by a nuclear
test (mainly because neither radiation nor significant seismological
activity was detected.) Further, it was explained that because of the
proximity of the incident area to the Chinese border, it was highly unlikely
that the North Koreans would have tested a nuclear device.
At the end of the program, however, the newsreader posed the todays
question. He asked the viewers to email CNN and express their views on
whether the explosion was in fact a nuclear detonation: What do you think,
was the explosion a nuclear test or not?
The implication was that something was amiss, that the official findings of
both the South Korean and US governments concerning the cause of explosion
were wrong, for instance, or they weren't telling the truth; but you, the
knowledgeable viewer, must know a lot more about nuclear weapons testing and
the political circumstances in North Korea that had led to the explosion -
despite evidence to the contrary and regardless of the geopolitical
implications.
CNNs request sounded bizarre mainly because the experts, much to their
dismay, had already ruled out a nuclear test.
So what did CNN hope to achieve from this trivial exercise? Did they really
hope to hear from a renegade nuclear weapons expert who had observed the
mushroom cloud, tested the explosion site, concluded that the explosion was
in fact a nuclear detonation, was now watching the program, and willing to
share top secret information with CNN?
Hardly!
If CNN didn't realistically expect to receive new expert opinions that
contradicted the evidence on the mystery explosion, why, then, they
invited their viewers, mainly laypersons, to email their opinion about the
highly specialized (and sensitive) subject of nuclear tests in North Korea?
Why did CNN insist that its viewers make such a trivial commitment to email
the program?
CNN has started a multi-prong psychological assault on its viewers. Their
news anchors no longer talk about bringing the terrorists to justice;
instead they encourage killing a sinister mind manipulation exercise to
influence the viewer psychology, since the average viewer in America is not
an assassin.
In the current milieu of fear, uncertainty and insecurity in America,
however, it isn't difficult to convince the public that the act of killing
is a necessary requirement of our time [sic.] By repeating and frequently
reporting this requirement, the necessity for killing becomes a part of
the viewers self-image. Soon the CNN view, however much contorted, becomes
the viewers self-image. This is achieved through influencing the viewers
fixed-action patterns, or automatic sequences of behavior. The
fixed-action patterns can then be activated by a trigger feature turning
otherwise normal viewers into just about anything that CNN likes them to be.
All CNN has to do then is to, say, apply the terrorist label to anyone,
anyplace, anytime. The viewers will carry out the necessary action to deal
with the situation in order to maintain self-image consistency.
CNN is applying the same self-image consistency technique that the Chinese
military used successfully to indoctrinate the American POWs during the
Korean war.
In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion Robert B. Cialdini writes:
During the Korean war, many captured American soldiers found themselves in
the prisoner-of-war (POW) camps run by the Chinese Communists. It became
clear early in the conflict that the Chinese treated captives quite
differently than did their allies, the North Koreans, who favored savagery
and harsh punishment to gain compliance. Specifically avoiding the
appearance of brutality, the Red Chinese engaged in what they termed
lenient policy, which was in reality a concerted and sophisticated
psychological assault on their [American] captives. After the war, American
psychologists questioned the returning prisoners intensively to determine
what had occurred. The intensive psychological investigation took place, in
part, because of the unsettling success of some aspects of the Chinese
program. For example, the Chinese were very effective in getting Americans
to inform on one another, in striking contrast to the behavior of American
POWs in World War II. For this reason, among others, escape plans were
quickly uncovered and the escape attempts themselves almost always
unsuccessful. Cialdini quotes Dr. Edgar Schein, a principal American
investigator of the Chinese indoctrination program in Korea, about the
escapes: When an escape did occur, the Chinese usually recovered the man
easily by offering a bag of rice to anyone turning him in. Cialdini adds:
In fact, nearly all American prisoners in the Chinese camps are said to
have collaborated with the enemy in one form or another.
How could such thing happen? Surely the American soldiers were trained to
provide no information other than their name, rank and serial number.
Cialdini says, An examination of the Chinese prison-camp program showed
that its personnel relied heavily on commitment and consistency pressures to
gain the desired compliance from prisoners. [cf., CNNs captive audience.]
So how did the Chinese make their American captives, without physically
brutalizing them, to give military information, turn in fellow prisoners,
or publicly denounce their country?
The answer was quite simple: start small and build.
[P]risoners were frequently asked to make statements so mildly
anti-American or pro-Communist as to seem inconsequential [. . .] But once
these minor requests were complied with, the men found themselves pushed to
submit to related yet more substantive requests.
This technique is used regularly by many businesses. The salespeople call a
variation of this subtle, yet astonishingly powerful, approach
the-foot-in-the-door technique. The technique works by asking the subject
to make a trivial commitment. Once the subject has made her initial
commitment, it is possible to make her comply with larger requests, even if
remotely related to her earlier commitment.
The psychologists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser, who in mid-1960s
became aware of the amazing power of this technique say: What may occur is
a change in the persons feeling about getting involved or taking action.
Once he has agreed to a request [no matter how small or trivial], his
attitude may change, he may become in his own eyes, the kind of person who
does this sort of thing, who agrees to requests made by strangers, who takes
action on things he believes in, who cooperates with good causes.
Cialdini warns: What the Freedman and Fraser findings tell us, then, is to
be very careful about agreeing to trivial requests. Such an agreement can
not only increase our compliance with very similar, much larger requests, it
can also make us more willing to perform a variety of larger favors that are
only remotely connected to the little one we did earlier. Its this second,
general kind of influence concealed within small commitments that scares
me.
The technique is used to influence both the future behavior and, more
alarmingly, the self-image of the subject. Once you can influence the
subjects self-image, she would comply with any and all of your requests
that are consistent with her manipulated view of herself. That is how the
subjects are indoctrinated.
Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from
their words than from their deeds. Cialdini says. Observers trying to
decide what a man is like look closely at his actions. What the Chinese have
discovered is that the man himself uses this same evidence to decide what he
is like. His behavior tells him about himself; it is a primary source of
information about his beliefs and values and attitudes. Understanding fully
this important principle of self-perception, the Chinese set about arranging
the prison-camp experience so that the captives would consistently ACT in
desired ways. Before long the Chinese [read CNN, FOX, BBC] knew, these
actions would begin to take their toll, causing the men [also women or
children] to change their views of themselves to align with what they had
done.
Writing was one sort of confirming action that the Chinese urged
incessantly upon the men [and CNN urges upon its viewers]. It was never
enough for the prisoners to listen quietly or even agree verbally with the
Chinese line; they were always pushed to write it down as well.
So the next time CNN (or indeed any other organization that is even remotely
connected with the mass media) asks you to make a small, trivial commitment
such as voting in their polls or emailing them about anything, remember that
there is much larger force at work: a small, trivial commitments can turn
prisoners into collaborators and viewers into whatever CNN wants you to
be!
*
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23 [du-list] Washington's secret nuclear war
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:44:15 -0700
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B2E2DF9B-1E0C-43F4-BBF6-074C1367E27C.htm
Washington's secret nuclear war
By Shaheen Chughtai
Tuesday 14 September 2004, 22:17 Makka Time, 19:17 GMT
The US has dropped tonnes of depleted uranium on Iraq
Illegal weapons of mass destruction have not only been
found in Iraq but have been used against Iraqis and
have even killed US troops.
But Washington and its allies have tried to cover up
this outrage because the chief culprit is the US
itself, argue American and other experts trying to
expose what they say is a war crime.
The WMD in question is depleted uranium (DU). A
radioactive by-product of uranium enrichment, DU is
used to coat ammunition such as tank shells and
"bunker busting" missiles because its density makes it
ideal for piercing armour.
Thousands of DU shells and bombs have been used in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and - both during the 1990-91
Gulf war and the ongoing conflict - in Iraq.
"They're using it in Falluja, Baghdad is chock-a-block
with DU - it's all over the place"
Major Doug Rokke,
ex-head of US army DU project
"They're using it now, they're using it in Falluja,
Baghdad is chock-a-block with DU - it's all over the
place," says Major Doug Rokke, director of the US
army's DU project in 1994-95.
Scientists say even a tiny particle can have
disastrous results once ingested, including various
cancers and degenerative diseases, paralysis, birth
deformities and death.
And as tiny DU particles are blown across the Middle
East and beyond like a radioactive poison gas, the
long-term implications for the world are deeply
disturbing.
DU has a "half-life" of 4.5 billion years, meaning it
takes that long for just half of its atoms to decay.
Sick soldiers
Only 467 US soldiers were officially wounded during
the 1990-91 Gulf war.
But according to Terry Jemison at the US Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA), of the more than 592,560
discharged personnel who served there, at least
179,310 - one third - are receiving disability
compensation and over 24,760 cases were pending by in
September 2004.
A sixth of the Iraq war veterans
have already sought treatment
This does not include personnel still active and
receiving care from the military, or those who have
died.
And among 168,528 veterans of the current conflict in
Iraq who have left active duty, 16% (27,571) had
already sought treatment from the VA by July 2004.
"That's astronomical," says Rokke, whose team studied
how to provide medical care for victims, how to clean
contaminated sites, and how to train those using DU
weapons.
Rokke admits the exact cause for these casualties
cannot be confirmed. But he insists the evidence
pointing to DU is compelling.
"There were no chemical or biological weapons there,
no big oil well fires," he says. "So what's left?"
Cradle to grave
Dr Jenan Ali, a senior Iraqi doctor at Basra
hospital's College of Medicine, says her studies show
a 100% rise in child leukaemia in the region in the
decade after the first Gulf war, with a 242% increase
in all types of malignancies.
The director of the Afghan DU and Recovery Fund, Dr
Daud Miraki, says his field researchers found evidence
of DU's effect on civilians in eastern and
southeastern Afghanistan in 2003 although local
conditions make rigorous statistical analysis
difficult.
Iraqi and Afghan doctors have
seen a rise in deformed foetuses
"Many children are born with no eyes, no limbs, or
tumours protruding from their mouths and eyes," Miraki
told Aljazeera.net. Some newborns are barely
recognisable as human, he says. Many do not survive.
Afghan and Iraqi children continue to play amid
radioactive debris. But the US army will not even
label contaminated equipment or sites because doing so
would be an admission that DU is hazardous.
This "deceitful failure", says Rokke, contradicts the
US army's own rules, such as regulation AR 700-48,
which stipulates its responsibilities to isolate,
label and decontaminate radioactive equipment and
sites as well as to render prompt and effective
medical care for all exposed individuals.
"This is a war crime," Rokke says. "The president is
obliged to ensure the army complies with these
regulations but they're deliberately violating the
law. It's that simple."
No remedy
But these blatant violations are practically
irrelevant because Rokke's Iraq mission found that DU
cannot be cleaned up and there is no known medical
remedy.
US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony
Blair used Saddam Hussein's alleged possession of
illegal weapons to justify invading Iraq. But several
prominent jurists hold Bush and Blair guilty of war
crimes for waging DU warfare.
The vice-president of the Indian Lawyers Association,
Niloufer Bhagwat, sat on an international panel of
judges for the unofficial International Criminal
Tribunal for Afghanistan.
Bhagwat and her fellow judges ruled that the US had
used "weapons of extermination of present and future
generations, genocidal in properties".
Friendly fire
And not just against defenceless Afghan civilians.
Critics say George Bush (R) and
Tony Blair are 'war criminals'
"Bush was guilty of knowingly using DU weaponry
against his own troops," Bhagwat told Aljazeera.net,
"because the president knew the effects of DU could
not be controlled".
A prominent US international human-rights lawyer,
Karen Parker, says there are four rules derived from
humanitarian laws and conventions regarding weapons:
weapons may only be used against legal enemy military
targets and must not have an adverse effect elsewhere
(the territorial rule)
weapons can only be used for the duration of an armed
conflict and must not be used or continue to act
afterwards (the temporal rule)
weapons may not be unduly inhumane (the "humaneness"
rule). The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 speak of
"unnecessary suffering" and "superfluous injury" in
this regard
weapons may not have an unduly negative effect on the
natural environment (the "environmental" rule).
Illegal weapons
"DU weaponry fails all four tests," Parker told
Aljazeera.net. First, DU cannot be limited to legal
military targets. Second, it cannot be "turned off"
when the war is over but keeps killing.
Third, DU can kill through painful conditions such as
cancers and organ damage and can also cause birth
defects such as facial deformities and missing limbs.
"Use of DU weaponry violates the grave breach
provisions of the Geneva Conventions"
Karen Parker,
human rights lawyer
Lastly, DU cannot be used without unduly damaging the
natural environment.
"In my view, use of DU weaponry violates the grave
breach provisions of the Geneva Conventions," says
Parker. "And so its use constitutes a war crime, or
crime against humanity."
Parker and others took the DU issue before the UN in
1995, and in 1996, the UN Human Rights Commission
described DU munitions as weapons of mass destruction
that should be banned.
Deceit
Despite the evidence, Rokke says Pentagon and Energy
Department officials have campaigned against him and
others trying to expose the horrors of DU.
That charge is echoed by Leuren Moret, a geoscientist
who has worked at the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence
Livermore nuclear weapons research laboratories in
California.
White House denials are part of a long-standing
cover-up policy that has been exposed before, she
says.
President Bush insists warnings
about DU are merely propaganda
"For example, the US denied using DU bombs and
missiles against Yugoslavia in 1999," she told
Aljazeera.net. "But scientists in Yugoslavia, Greece
and Bulgaria measured elevated levels of gamma
radiation in the first three days of grid and carpet
bombing by the US."
Moret said: "A missile landed in Bulgaria that didn't
explode and scientists identified a DU warhead. Then,
Lord [George] Robertson, the head of NATO, admitted in
public that DU had been used."
Even the US army expressed concern about the use of DU
in July 1990, some six months before the outbreak of
the first Gulf war. Those concerns were later echoed
by Iraqi officials.
Denial
But brushing his own army's report aside - now said to
be "outdated" - US President George Bush has dismissed
such warnings as "propaganda".
"In recent years, the Iraqi regime made false claim
that the depleted uranium rounds fired by coalition
forces have caused cancers and birth defects in Iraq,"
says Bush on his White House website.
"But scientists working for the World Health
Organisation, the UN Environmental Programme and the
European Union could find no health effects linked to
exposure to depleted uranium," he said.
Bush can point to a World Health Organisation (WHO)
report in 2001 that said there was no significant risk
of inhaling radioactive particles where DU weapons had
been used.
It said the level of radiation associated with DU
debris was not particularly hazardous, but it accepted
that high exposure could pose a health risk.
Scientific studies
WHO also commissioned a scientific study shortly
before the 2003 invasion of Iraq that warned of the
dangers of US and British use of DU - but refused to
publish its findings.
The study's main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, told
Aljazeera.net that "the report was deliberately
suppressed" because WHO was pressed by a more
powerful, pro-nuclear UN body - the International
Atomic Energy Agency. WHO has rejected his claims as
"totally unfounded".
"[WHO's] report was deliberately suppressed"
Dr Keith Baverstock,
co-author of WHO report on DU
The study found DU particles were likely to be blown
around and inhaled by Iraqi civilians for years to
come. Once inside a human body, the radioactive
particles can trigger the growth of malignant tumours.
Bush's claim that the UN Environmental Programme
(UNEP) gives DU pollution a clean bill of health is
also disingenuous.
UNEP experts have yet to be allowed into Iraq, its
spokesman in Geneva Michael Williams told
Aljazeera.net, citing security concerns.
And a scientific body set up in 1997 by Green EU
parliamentarians - the European Committee on Radiation
Risk (ECRR) - found that DU posed serious health
risks.
An eminent Canadian scientist involved with the ECRR,
Dr Rosalie Bertell, says the deadliness of DU derived
not just from its radioactivity but from the
durability of particles formed in the 3000-6000C heat
produced when a DU weapon is fired.
"The particles produced are like ceramic: not soluble
in body fluid, non-biodegradable and highly toxic,"
she told Aljazeera.net. "They tend to concentrate in
the lymph nodes, which is the source of lymphomas and
leukaemia".
Known killer
The US military and political establishment cannot
plead ignorance. As early as October 1943, Manhattan
Project scientists Arthur Compton, James Connant and
Harold Urey sent a memo to their director, General
Leslie Groves, saying DU could be used to create a
"radioactive gas".
DU targets human DNA and may
thus affect future generations
In 1961, two nuclear experts, Briton HE Huxley and
American Geoffrey Zubay, informed the scientific
community that DU targeted human DNA and "the Master
Code, which controls the expression of DNA", Moret
said.
In September 2000, Dr Asaf Durakovic, professor of
nuclear medicine at Washington's Georgetown
University, told a Paris conference of prominent
scientists that "tens of thousands" of US and UK
troops were dying of DU.
Death sentence
"There has to be a moratorium on the manufacture,
sales, use and storage of DU," geoscientist Moret
says, warning that this will not happen unless more
Americans realise what is happening.
The Middle East has been severely contaminated, warns
Moret. "That region is radioactive forever," she says,
but worse is yet to come.
Moret says the air carrying DU particles takes about a
year to mix with the rest of the earth's atmosphere.
Radioactive sites continue to kill
and contaminate Iraqi children
The radiation released by DU nuclear warfare is
believed to be more than 10 times the amount dispersed
by atmospheric testing.
As a result, DU particles have engulfed the world in a
radioactive poison gas that promises illness and death
for millions.
Rokke went to Iraq a fit and healthy soldier, but the
major is now beset with a variety of illnesses and
each day is a struggle.
He suffers from respiratory problems and cataracts
while his teeth - weakened by DU radiation - are
crumbling. At least 20 of the 100 primary personnel he
worked with on the US army's DU project have died.
Most of the rest are ill.
Meanwhile, WHO says cancer rates worldwide are set to
rise by 50% by 2020, although it does not link this
publicly to DU.
"They would never say that - they offered various
strange explanations," said Moret. "But DU is the key
factor. People will slowly die."
Aljazeera
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24 AxisofLogic: U.S. Military: Nuclear Weapons Stealth Takeover
By LEUREN MORET
Sep 14, 2004, 19:11
5 Admirals, U.C. Regents, Carlyle Group, and Rand
"I think some of these folks would put nuclear tips on ice cream
cones if they could."
U.S. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) on efforts by Bush
Administration officials to repeal a research ban on low-yield
nuclear weapons.
Global Security Newswire ‘Quote of the Day’ May 19, 2003
UC AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS: THE KISS OF DEATH
The top-secret Manhattan Project was laid out by Robert
Oppenheimer the night Ernest Lawrence took him to the Bohemian
Club during WW II. It was a part of California’s brutal rise to
economic and political power, described in IMPERIAL SAN
FRANCISCO: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. In 1939, Nobel
Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr had argued that building an
atomic bomb "can never be done unless you turn the United States
into one huge factory." Years later, he told his colleague
Edward Teller, "I told you it couldn’t be done without turning
the whole country into a factory. You have done just that." That
was after Edward Teller had stuck the knife in Oppenheimer’s
back, and pulled his clearance. Teller (also known as ‘Dr.
Strangelove’), went on to promote a grandiose US nuclear weapons
program for decades at the nuclear weapons labs: Berkeley,
Livermore and Los Alamos.
The program remained under a no-bid University of California
management contract for 61 years. In a stealth takeover by the
Carlyle Group, facilitated by 5 Admirals, the management contract
will be transferred next year to the University of Texas where
the military and the Carlyle Group will have control. A new
‘ramping up’ of the nuclear weapons program is underway, with
program funding at the highest level ever - even higher than
during the Cold War – extending nuclear weapons into outer space,
into the very atmosphere that makes life on earth possible, and
with no "real" enemy in site.
ESTIMATING THE COLD WAR MORTGAGE
In 1995 dollars, according to the Department of Energy (DOE) the
US spent approximately 300 billion dollars on nuclear weapons
research, production, and testing. Today in the nuclear weapons
complex there are 10,500 contaminated sites, 2.3 million acres
under DOE ownership, and 120 million square feet of buildings.
The 1995 high base cost, estimated by the DOE Environmental
Management program, to clean up the environmental legacy is $350
billion. That excludes the Nevada Test Site, Hanford, the
Savannah and Clinch rivers, and the Columbia river which are
considered to be "national sacrifice zones" because the
technology does not exist to clean them up.
That was the cost for cleaning up the environment. The damage to
the human health not only of Americans, but also to the global
population, was predicted by the European Committee on Radiation
Risk (ECRR), in a 2003 independent report on low level radiation
for the European Parliament, to be 61,600,000 deaths by cancer,
1,600,000 infant deaths, and 1,900,000 foetal deaths. "In
addition the ECRR committee predicts a 10% loss of life quality
integrated over all diseases and conditions in those who were
exposed over the period of global weapons fallout."
The cost to the predominantly black community at Hunter’s Point
Naval Shipyard in San Francisco is much greater. Navy ships
brought back to Hunter’s Point shipyard for decontamination by
the Navy, after the first atmospheric tests in the Pacific, led
to the establishment of the secret Naval Radiological Defense Lab
(NRDL) which operated at the shipyard into the 1970’s.
Secret experiments exposing animals, plants, soldiers, prisoners,
and local residents to radiation were conducted at the NRDL,
where 550 civilian scientists worked with 65 Naval officers to
study the biological effects of ionizing radiation.
The radioactive waste and dead animals from the lab were dumped
at the shipyard, filled a back bay, and sunk off the Golden Gate
bridge in a battleship and 55 gallon drums, contaminating one of
the richest fisheries in the world. The community today has the
highest rates of breast cancer in women under 40 in the US, as
well as high rates of other radiation related diseases. A former
City of San Francisco coroner found that every Hunters Point
resident he had done an autopsy on, had cancer no matter what
the cause of death.
Even worse, the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP),
while conducting studies on infant mortality and cancer around
nuclear power plants, discovered that milk contaminated with
radiation has been shipped into black inner city communities – a
genocidal plan which explains why blacks have the highest cancer
rates, infant mortality, and asmtha (Gotham Gaz.May 2003) in the
US, which has been blamed on poverty. The studies using US govt.
data on radiation in milk revealed that at the time of Chernobyl
the Pennsylvania Milk Board had been selectively shipping
radioactive contaminated milk from dairies around the Three Mile
Island and Peachbottom reactors into eastern black inner city
communities (see Jay Gould, Deadly Deceit: Low Level Radiation,
High Level Coverup). In an RPHP study on health improvements by
race in San Francisco County, after the shutdown of the Rancho
Seco nuclear power plant in 1989, health improved for all ages,
diseases and races except for blacks. Black infant mortality
also increased after startups and accidents, but unlike
improvements for whites and Asians which decreased after the
1989 shutdown, black infant mortality reflected startups and
shutdowns at other nuclear power plants in California.
UC REGENTS MEETING - MAY 15, 2003: THE POINT MAN
One year ago Admiral Linton Brooks, Administrator of the
National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) under DOE,
informed Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante and the UC Regents that
the management contract for the nuclear weapons labs would be
put up for competitive bid for the first time, with the award
made in 2005. When a Regent asked if it would be for all the
labs or just Los Alamos, he replied that "it would be for Los
Alamos". Later another Regent questioned him again, and this
time he said "it would be inconceivable for just one lab". He
requested a competitive bid from UC, but the Regents were now
leery of the politics involved, and Brooks was challenged by a
fiery Bustamante. The Lt. Governor demanded to know why UC
should waste millions of dollars preparing a bid when the
University of Texas was the most favored institution to get the
award, and had a member of the University of Texas on the blue
ribbon panel making the award decision.
Admiral Brooks also informed the Board of Regents that "we’re
back in the bomb business" because Los Alamos had just produced
the first plutonium "pit" since Rocky Flats closed down. He
indicated that they would be making "mini-nukes" only, and
nuclear weapons testing would start at the Nevada Test Site in
2005. An hour later, and 45 miles away, he announced to
Livermore employees that "we’re back in the bomb business" and
they would be making big ones, little ones, and more. By this
time it seemed to me that Admiral Brooks was a slippery
character and I began to wonder why an Admiral was involved.
UC REGENTS MEETING - AUGUST 17, 2004: TWO ADMIRALS STAGE "THE
SETUP"
On August 4, 2004, UC President Dynes, a physicist and
consultant to Los Alamos and former Chancellor of UC San Diego,
and Gerald Parsky, Chair of the UC Regents, visited Los Alamos
and met with employees over recent security and safety lapses
repeated at the lab. Parsky told them:
"The regents will be left with no choice about the contract
competition if we do not feel confident that you understand the
importance of security, procedures and safety at the lab. If we
feel that you understand this and that steps are being taken to
address these issues, the regents will not only endorse
competing for this contract – we will compete to win."
During three minutes of public comment before the Regents on
August 17, I informed them that the lab contract was going to
the University of Texas, it was a ‘done deal’. I told them that
the management contract change was a chess move the Carlyle
Group was making to privatize the nuclear weapons program, and
owned 70% of Lockheed Martin Marietta, and that Lockheed a year
ago had bought Sandia Labs (they make the trigger for nuclear
weapons). When "Carlyle" was mentioned I noticed that the Chair,
Gerald Parsky and Vice Chair Richard Blum (married to Senator
Diane Feinstein) started shifting around in their chairs. Body
language can say a lot. They began a disruptive and loud
conversation carried on through the rest of my comments. As a
Livermore whistleblower, I commented that the loss of computer
discs with classified information and missing keys had happened
practically every day for 61 years under sloppy UC management,
and that science fraud as well as health and safety violations
had been just as bad. [During my week of security briefing at
Livermore in 1989 we were told that a scientist taking
classified material home in his briefcase did not notice it had
fallen off the back of his bike. A merchant found the battered
briefcase in an intersection, and several days later a horrified
lab security employee found that every page of a lengthy report
with "CLASSIFIED" stamped on each page had been taped in the
window of the merchant’s shop hoping the owner would claim his
lost secret documents.] What was even more egregious I pointed
out, was an article in the July 10, 2004, issue of the Daily
Mirror about the murder by the Mossad of Robert Maxwell, a
British publisher. It revealed that Maxwell, who was the former
owner of the Daily Mirror, was a high level Mossad agent, and
had sold PROMIS software to Los Alamos with a back door for the
Mossad to spy on the lab. In closing, I told the Regents that no
matter who got the contract award, "the University of California
would forever be known as the University that poisoned the
world…"
As Admiral George P. Nanos, Director of the Los Alamos lab
(appointed Jan. 2003), and Admiral S. Robert Foley Jr., UC vice
president for laboratory management (appointed Nov. 2003), sat
down at the table where the Regents waited, I began to wonder
how many more Admirals were involved and why. It did not take
long to find out. Admiral Foley informed the Regents about the
missing CREM, computer storage devices with classified data, and
acknowledged that the security lapse damaged the university’s
chances of retaining its Los Alamos contract. "This erodes your
position, without any question at all. It’s about as bad as it
could be when you’re trying to prepare for a re-competition". He
announced that Jack Killeen had been appointed to the UC
Presidents Office as special assistant for Los Alamos security:
"Jack’s our guy, he was with Wackenhut and he’s our guy…". Among
lab employees Wackenhut was better known for ‘wacking’ lab
whistleblowers like Karen Silkwood, attempting to run people
like Dr. Rosalie Bertell off the road, and has a well-deserved
reputation for being a nasty outfit. President Bush and his
brother, Governor Jeb Bush, are known to spend time together
hanging out with cronies at the Wackenhut "country club" in
Florida. Admiral Nanos continued and complained that employees
would not follow the security and safety rules. When Foley
chimed in that there were going to be more security incidents
and lapses at the lab in the future before they got it
straightened out, it began to look like a setup. Regents Blum,
Parsky, Connerly and a few more leaned forward and demanded to
know how it was possible, and stated it was unacceptable, that
there would be more security lapses. Foley should have been
fired on the spot for falling down on the job. It was obvious
that Nanos and Foley were there to blame the employees, justify
the management change, and discourage the Regents from competing
for the contract. And justification for "cleaning house" and
removing the "old guard" who would stand in the way of a
takeover and for what is planned for ramping up the program.
An Editorial in the Oakland Tribune the day before remarked that
the NNSA was established in 1991 after the Wen Ho Lee scandal,
but had failed to address real security lapses since. NNSA is in
bed with the lab administrators which it supposedly is
overseeing. This had been exactly my experience at Livermore in
1991 when I reported graft, fraud, corruption, contractor
overcharges, and health and safety violations on the Yucca
Mountain Project and Superfund Project to Richard Berta, the
Western Regional Inspector in the DOE Inspector General’s office
for the nuclear weapons labs, Site 51, and the Nevada Test Site.
After bringing two inspectors to my house and taking my
testimony, he reported to Duane Sewell, the "secrets keeper" at
the lab, and Bert Hefner, lab PR person. When I called a month
later to talk to Berta about the outcome, he said "we found no
basis to your allegations… and I got a new office with a view
and new oak furniture from Sewell…". My allegations had been
reported many times to the FBI by other more senior lab staff…
and they were ignored as well. The Editorial concludes:
"NNSA failed miserably in its policing responsibilities. It
should be reorganized or axed, and Brooks and other top
officials should be replaced with more independent,
less-compromised leadership."
The meeting ended before Dr. Walter Kohn, a physicist
representing the UC Faculty opposed to UC management of nuclear
weapons labs, was able to speak before the Regents. Regent
Sherry Lansing, CEO of Paramount Pictures, stood up and
announced in a loud voice "…oh Walter, I want to hear your
presentation [at a future meeting]… but I have a plane to
catch…", and crossed the room to give him a big kiss. By this
time I had decided to investigate the UC Regents and their ties
to the defense industry. Later that evening, a friend told me
"…they ARE the Carlyle Group…".
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STUDENTS – The FIAT PAX Website
Right after the Regents meeting I contacted a group of students
and a Texas State Representative Lon Burnam, opposed to the
Univ. of Texas bid for the nuclear weapons management contract.
A student told me about FIAT PAX, a website put together by UC
Santa Cruz students listing the top 50 University recipients of
defense funding for research (see below), and their ties to
corporations (see below). The UC Regents with ties to the
defense industry were listed with detailed bios. Parsky, the
Chair, was the top fundraiser for Bush (after Ken Lay) in both
Presidential election bids, and a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations. Vice Chair Blum was tied to the Carlyle
Group, invested in URS Corporation (leading contractor with
DOD), Korea First Bank [Carlyle is moving into Korea and taking
over banks], and sits on the Board of Northwest Airlines. [A
FOIA document revealed in 2001 that Northwest was the first
airline to collaborate with NASA to install mind-reading
technology in US airports to catch "terrorists".] Regent Lansing
was a trustee of the RAND Graduate School, a branch of the RAND
Corporation which had been involved in war-gaming nuclear wars
between the US and the USSR, and acts as a bridge between US
universities and the military. I also learned that the Carlyle
Group managed large amounts of endowment funds for the
University of Texas, and that CALPers, the State of California
workers pension fund which is the largest in the nation owns
5.2% of Carlyle. FIAT PAX sums it up:
"The University of California’s system wide finances are
incredibly entangled with weapons manufacturers. The UC’s
retirement plan portfolio is invested in dozens of
military-industrial contractors through stock purchases. At
least five corporations within the UC retirement portfolio
conduct virtually no business other than weapons manufacturing
and military subcontracting, these are: General Dynamics with a
UC investment of $21,471,120, Northrop Grumman for $16,125,200,
Raytheon for $16,818,200, TRW for $8,327,650, and Lockheed
Martin for a staggering $33,046,370."
"It is through these informal personal, formal institutional, and
financial exchanges that universities serve the warfare state and
its corporate allies. Personal relationships connect military,
corporate, and university personnel while bridging the divide
between these institutions. Formal institutional links establish
cooperation and coordination across the
military-industrial-academic complex. Be they research
institutes, labs, and centers, or personal relationships spanning
industry-university-military, the web of connections far exceeds
any attempts to quantify."
And then I knew that the Admirals, and vested Regents, were the
kiss of death to the UC bid.
ADMIRAL VISHNU BAGHWAT, FORMER CHIEF OF THE INDIAN NAVY
On July 17, 2004, Admiral Vishnu Baghwat replied to my question
"Why are so many Admirals involved with the nuclear weapons
contract bid?":
"The reason why the Navy and the Admirals are predominantly
involved in the weapons is that until the Space military launch
posts are ready and positioned with the minimum degree of
reliability, the US Navy has more than 70 % of the first and
second strike capability on its boats and hence an equivalent
amount of the budget earmarked for strategic systems."
His comments made the link for me between the nuclear weapons
program, the Navy, NASA, and other types of directed energy
weapons developed in nuclear weapons labs intended for space.
Marion Fulk, a former Manhattan Project scientist and retired
Livermore nuclear physical chemist told me that nuclear weapons
cannot be used in space without contaminating the atmosphere,
and laser weapons will not work because there is too much space
trash already up there which will impede the effectiveness of
the lasers. Wars in space will create more space trash until it
is impossible to leave the earth, which already according to
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, is very dangerous now since a paint
chip nearly took out the windshield of the space shuttle. The US
plans to weaponize space are a violation of the United Nations
1967 Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,
including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The intent was
"to promote international co-operation in the peaceful
exploration and use of outer space" and specifically prohibited
the weaponization of space with ANY weapons, including nuclear
weapons.
The 2001 Space Preservation Act, HR 2977 which was introduced by
Congressman Dennis Kucinich, let the cat out of the bag and
revealed under the "Definitions" in the bill, that directed
energy weapons which can target individuals and populations from
space for the purposes of psychotronics, mind control, and mood
control, are clearly the new space weapons intended to establish
global dominance by the New World Order. Directed energy weapons
developed in the nuclear weapons labs have been used on nuclear
weapons lab whistleblowers, UC students, handed over to the EPA
to use on environmentalists, and to the FBI to turn over to
local law enforcement. These weapons are now land, air, and sea
based. Space is the last frontier.
ADMIRAL BOBBY RAY INMAN – SPOOKS-R-US
Tipped off by a journalist in Washington DC, my investigation of
Admiral Bobby Ray Inman revealed that he was THE Admiral at the
center of the spider web. A look at his social network (see
[http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_INMAN_BOBBY_RAY]
[- src=] opens in new window) helped put the ‘puzzle palace’
together, and I discovered he was National Security Advisor to
five Presidents, Director of the NSA, Deputy Director of the CIA
under William Casey, Vice Director of the DIA, Director of Naval
Intelligence, President of SAIC, Chair of the 1985 Congressional
‘Inman Commission’ on Terrorism, affiliated with the Carlyle
Group, on the advisory boards of Tufts and the University of
Texas, represents SBC Communications Corporation at Cal Tech,
Chairman Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, and a member of both the
Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. And,
Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is a member of the University of Texas
faculty. One could say he is a dangerous man.
One job he didn’t get was Secretary of Defense under Clinton:
"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman, stung by press and Senate
criticisms of his record, asked President Clinton to withdraw
his nomination as secretary of Defense. A Clinton aide, George
Stephanopoulos, later wrote that Inman had held back information
during his White House background check."
A look at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
reveals just exactly what kind of activities are undertaken in a
spook shop where there is no accountability, and what business
Inman was conducting at SAIC under his leadership. SAIC is one of
the largest private employee-owned corporations, and like the
Carlyle Group, escapes scrutiny (because it is privately owned)
despite annual revenues of more than $5.9 billion. In 1990 it was
indicted and pled guilty to ten felony counts of fraud on a
Superfund site, called "one of the largest [cases] of
environmental fraud…" in Los Angeles history. DOE contracted SAIC
to manage and operate the Yucca Mountain Program, which I worked
on as a scientist at the Livermore Lab. I became a whistleblower
at Livermore in 1991 because of my knowledge of the extent of
science fraud on the most important public works project in US
history. SAIC’s control over internet domain names, gained when
they purchased Network Solutions Inc., caused a furor and
identified the ties in SAIC to "the shadow ruling-class within
the Pentagon".
Basically SAIC is a private spook corporation, involved in voting
machines (SEQUOIA etc.), controlling the internet (Network
Solutions), training foreign militaries, and the contractor that
set up global communications for the US military. The internet is
being changed from a public resource to a lucrative operation
influenced by spooks and former Pentagon officials. The internet
was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project
to begin with.
One of SAIC’s prime clients is DARPA (DOD), which recently
employed 5-time convicted felon Admiral Poindexter, an associate
of Inman’s going back to Iran-Contra. Poindexter was forced to
resign over his involvement with PAM, a "terrorism futures
market" DARPA project which predicted assassinations, terrorism
and other events in the Middle East. His earlier controversial
program TIPS – the Total Information Awareness Program – was set
up to spy on Americans. He was also involved in creating large
information databases on Americans which are now being used to
track citizens. SAIC also had contracts to develop information
systems for the Pentagon, FBI and IRS. Police can now legally
stop a person on the street, ask their name, type it into a palm
pilot and come up with detailed personal information in a few
seconds. An Associated Press story on Sept. 9, 2004, "Conn. City
Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" revealed that police in New
Haven, Connecticut, are now driving around in police cars with
infrared scanners connected to databases which they are using on
license plates to hunt for "criminals", tax delinquents, and
parking ticket violators. Some of the $25,000 scanners were paid
for in one month from collected revenues. A military project,
the real purpose of the internet is revealing itself:
"The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more
controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an
elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be
possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every
citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even
the most personal information about the citizen. These files
will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities."
- Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The association of Admiral Inman, the Bush crime syndicate,
Texas oil companies, and the Carlyle Group with the University
of Texas explained why an advanced 4th generation nuclear
weapons research program is there. And it explained why the
University of Texas is so eager to take over the nuclear weapons
labs. But this takeover resembles Inmans involvement with a
stealth takeover of the Mars program transferring it from JPL
management and control to NASA.
The NASA Deep Space Program was started at JPL to do space
exploration more efficiently with lower costs. Criticism of
NASA/JPL Mars mission failure problems in the Thomas Young
Report released on March 28, 2000, revealed that the supposedly
public space program had been hijacked into secrecy and that the
military was calling the shots. NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin
on March 29, 2000, revealed at JPL the day after release of the
report, just who was in control and the existence of an
oversight committee that nobody at JPL knew existed:
"I’d also like to acknowledge Admiral Inman, head of the JPL
Oversight Committee at Cal Tech. He couldn’t be here today, but
I talked to him by phone. His commitment to the team here is
also unwavering. And I thank him for that."
Goldin was there "to address beleaguered personnel, scientists
and engineers of the Nation’s premier unmanned center for
planetary exploration, and to somehow advise them of the new
political and engineering realities, while simultaneously
exhorting them to continue to new heights but now under more
stringent NASA management". The real question is what was
Admiral Inman doing as chair of a committee in a private
university overseeing all civilian unmanned exploration of the
planet Mars without the knowledge of anyone at JPL?
In two years Admiral Bobby Ray Inman took over the space
program, and in another year from now he will have succeeded in
taking over the nuclear weapons program. When Newsweek called
him "a superstar in the intelligence community", it was for good
reason.
A Naval officer I interviewed later replied when I asked him if
he knew Inman "…oh yeah… he’s one of the players…".
DEPOPULATION: 4th GENERATION NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND DEPLETED
URANIUM
The development of 4th generation nuclear weapons is now
underway in the US (in first place), Germany and Japan (tied for
second place), followed by Russia and other nuclear and
non-nuclear States. As an expert witness on the environmental
and health effects of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry for the
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan held in Japan in
2003, I discovered that there was a connection between the use
of depleted uranium by the US since 1991- in the Middle East,
Yugoslavia, and Central Asia - and 4th generation nuclear
weapons. [Carlucci, former Chairman of the Carlyle Group
(1989-2003), sat on the Board of Directors of General Dynamics
(1991-97) which is one of the main manufacturers of DU weaponry
in the US.] International scientists, Drs. Andre Gsponer, J.-P.
Hurni, and B. Vitali, watch-dogging nuclear weapons developments
globally, pointed out that DU weaponry is being used to study
the radiobiological effects of the new nuclear weapons now under
development:
"It is shown that the radiological burden due to the battlefield
use of circa 400 tons of depleted-uranium munitions in Iraq (and
of about 40 tons in Yugoslavia) is comparable to that arising
from the hypothetical use of more than 600 kt (respectively 60
kt) of high-explosive equivalent pure-fusion fourth-generation
nuclear weapons."
The use of weapons in war are most effective when the weapons do
not kill, but create long-term health and environmental
consequences such as lingering illnesses which slowly destroy
the health of the environment and productivity of a nation and
the economy. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam is a good
example of an environmental disaster with lingering and
long-term health effects on a population, as well as causing
trans-boundary contamination. DU is a permanent terrain
contaminant with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, forms immense
volumes of nano-sized particles (smaller than bacteria or
viruses) which are lofted permanently as components of
atmospheric dust traveling around the world until they are
rained or snowed out of the air. There is no possible protective
clothing, air filters, or treatment for internal exposure to
this form of a poison radioactive gas. It was proposed as a
military poison gas weapon in 1943 under the Manhattan Project.
Even worse, uranium targets the DNA, and the Master Code
(histone) which controls the expression of the DNA, and slowly
destroys the genetic future of exposed populations. The
[http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/2302.html] , defines a
Weapon of Mass Destruction as:
The term ’’weapon of mass destruction’’ means any weapon or
device that is intended, or has the capability, to cause death or
serious bodily injury to a significant number of people through
the release, dissemination, or impact of - (A) toxic or poisonous
chemicals or their precursors; (B) a disease organism; or (C)
radiation or radioactivity.
The US has staged four nuclear wars since 1991 using illegal DU
dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets as radiological
weapons and released an amount of radiation into the atmosphere
which is at least ten times more radiation than the equivalent
of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, released during atmospheric testing.
In June 2003, the WHO predicted in a press release that cancer
will increase 50% globally by the year 2020, which can only be
from an environmental cause. Already medical and scientific
journals are reporting mysterious increases of infant mortality
in 20 regions of Europe (Lancet Jan. 2004), the UK (Guardian
Aug. 2004), and the US (New Scientist Feb.2004). Infant
mortality should be decreasing now as a continuing trend for
more than a century because of improved education and prenatal
care, instead it is increasing in the US for the first time in
45 years with no identified cause. For radiation specialists,
infant mortality is the most sensitive indicator of radioactive
pollution, a response researchers have identified as a result of
exposure to low level radiation from atmospheric testing and
nuclear power plant accidents, releases, and startups. The
global pollution from thousands of tons of DU in nano-size
particles traveling around the earth and being deposited in the
global environment will have a devastating long-term effect. Not
only will it cause illnesses and genetic mutations in the future
generations of those internally exposed, but it will have a
depopulating effect long proposed by the US military. DU is the
perfect weapon delivering nanoparticles of poison, radiation,
and nano-pollution - the real killer – directly into living
cells where they cause the cells to go haywire and
dysfunctional:
"Should humans be so stupid as to continue both technological
escalation and wars between nation-states, radiological warfare
might well be a far more safe and humane way to conduct
extermination of large numbers of people, or the emptying out of
troublesome political centres, than any of the various biological
alternatives."
MORE-4-US
Research on population control is now being carried out secretly
by biotech companies. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a University of
California microbiologist discovered that wild corn in remote
parts of Mexico is contaminated with lab altered DNA. He was
denied tenure at UC Berkeley when he reported this to the
scientific community, despite the embarrassing discovery that
the Chancellor denying him tenure was getting large cash
payments from a biotech company each year. Chapela revealed that
a spermicidal corn developed by a US company is now being tested
in Mexico. Males who unknowingly eat the corn produce non-viable
sperm.
Depopulation is quite another thing. It is killing off large
segments of living populations. Even Prince Philip of Britain, a
member of the Bilderberg Group, is in favor of depopulation:
"If I were reincarnated I would wish to be returned to earth as
a killer virus to lower human population levels."
[- src=] Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, leader of the World
Wildlife Fund - quoted in ’Are You Ready For Our New Age
Future?’, Insiders Report, American Policy Center, December ’95)
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been proposing,
funding, and building BioWeapons Level 3 and Level 4 labs at
many places around the US – even on university campuses and in
densely populated urban locations. In a BioWeapons Level 4
facility a single bacteria or virus is lethal.
For what purpose are these labs being developed, and who will
make the decisions on where BioWeapons created in these
facilities will be used and on whom? More than 20 world-class
microbiologists have been murdered since 2001, mostly in the US
and the UK – nearly all were working on developing ethnic
specific BioWeapons.
Citizens around the US are frantically filing lawsuits to stop
these labs on campuses and in communities where they live.
Despite the opposition of residents living near UC Davis, where
a BioWeapons Level 4 lab was planned with the support of the
town Mayor, she suddenly reversed her position after a monkey
escaped from a high security primate facility. When residents
claimed that if UC Davis could not keep monkeys from escaping
from their cages, they certainly could not guarantee that a
single virus or bacteria would not escape from a test tube. The
escaped monkey killed the project.
The extreme secrecy surrounding the takeover of nuclear weapons,
NASA and the space program, and BioWeapons labs is a threat to
civil society, especially in the hands of the military and
corporations.
THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
The New World Order can be described as a network of members of
the Bilderberger Group, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and
the Trilateral Commission. The membership in both the CFR and
the Trilateral Commission by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman is of
particular interest in light of the developments surrounding
control by the military of the US nuclear weapons program and
the NASA space program.
"The Council on Foreign Relations is the American Branch of a
society which originated in England… (and)…believes national
boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule
established….
"The Trilateral Commission is international…(and)…is intended to
be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial
and banking interests by seizing control of the political
government of the United States."
With No Apologies (1979) by former Senator Barry Goldwater
"The interests behind the Bush Administration, such as the
Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission -
founded by Brzezinski for David Rockefeller - and the
Bilderberger Group, have prepared for and are now moving to
implement open world dictatorship within the next five years.
They are not fighting against terrorists. They are fighting
against citizens."
- Dr. Johannes B. Koeppl, Ph.D., former German defense ministry
official and advisor to former NATO Secretary General Manfred
Werner.
THE MEDIA
At this time in history, it is incomprehensible how a nation can
enjoy the benefit of the most sophisticated communications
technology in world history and remain so uninformed… or dumbed
down. The policies being carried out by the US government that
are destructive, both domestically and around the world, are
being conducted under a veil of secrecy. The only possible way
this dumbing down or control of information could occur is that
it has been socially constructed. It is a conspiracy of lies,
manipulation and disinformation which increasing numbers of
Americans are aware of and should be calling it treason:
"The Rockefeller family has always taken a lead role in the CFR.
In the 1960s, while American men and women were dying in the
jungles of Vietnam and while the military/industrial complex was
sucking trillions of dollars out of American taxpayers’ wallets,
the Rockefeller dynasty was financing Vietnamese oil refineries
and aluminum plants. If there had ever been a formal declaration
of war, the Rockefellers could be tried for treason. Instead,
they reaped dividends.
These are just a few of the abuses of power which demonstrate
the results of the power elite’s manipulations of our destiny as
a society. If you’ve ever wondered why you don’t hear about this
network of power, just take a look at the CFR’s membership
roster. Many of the chief executives and newspeople at CBS,
NBC/RCA, ABC, the Public Broadcast Service, the Associated
Press, the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, the
Washington Post, and many other key media outlets are CFR
members. International power orgs depend on the masses remaining
ignorant for their plans to come to fruition."
David Rockefeller, a member of the Bilderberger’s, thanked the
media facilitators:
"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the NY Times, Time
Magazine and other great publications whose directors have
attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion
for almost 40 years....It would have been impossible for us to
develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the
lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more
sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government.
The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world
bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination
practiced in past centuries."
- David Rockefeller speaking at the Bilderberger meeting in June
1991 in Baden Baden, Germany
MEDIA MEMBERSHIP: Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) Trilateral
Commission (TC)
CBS
Laurence A. Tisch, CEO CFR
Roswell Gilpatric CFR
James Houghton CFR/TC
Henry Schacht CFR/TC
Dan Rather CFR
Richard Hottelet CFR
Frank Stanton CFR
NBC/RCA
John F. Welch, Jr., CEO CFR
Jane Pfeiffer CFR
Lester Crystal CFR/TC
R. W. Sonnenfeldt CFR/TC
John Petty CFR
Tom Brokaw CFR
David Brinkley CFR
John Chancellor CFR
Marvin Kalb CFR
Irving R. Levine CFR
Herbert Schlosser CFR
Peter G. Peterson CFR
John Sawhill CFR
ABC
Thomas S. Murphy, CEO CFR
Barbara Walters CFR
John Connor CFR
Diane Sawyer CFR
John Scali CFR
Public Broadcast Service (PBS)
Robert MacNeil CFR
Jim Lehrer CFR Charlane Hunter-Gault CFR
Hodding Carter III CFR
Daniel Schorr CFR
Associated Press (AP)
Stanley Swinton CFR
Harold Anderson CFR
Katherine Graham CFR/TC
Reuters
Micheal Posner CFR
Baltimore Sun
Henry Trewhitt CFR
Washington Times
Amaud de Borchgrave CFR
Children’s TV Workshop
(Sesame Street)
Joan Ganz Cooney, Pres. CFR
Cable News Network (CNN)
W. Thomas Johnson, pres. TC
Daniel Schorr CFR
New York Times
Richard Gelb CFR
William Scranton CFR/TC
John F. Akers, Dir. CFR
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Dir. CFR
George B. Munroe, Dir. CFR
Donald M. Stewart, Dir. CFR
Cyrus R. Vance, Dir. CFR
A.M. Rosenthal CFR Seymour Topping CFR
James Greenfield CFR
Max Frankel CFR
Jack Rosenthal CFR
John Oakes CFR
Harrison Salisbury CFR
H.L. Smith CFR
Steven Rattner CFR
Richard Burt CFR
Flora Lewis TC
Time, Inc.
Ralph Davidson CFR
Donald M. Wilson CFR
Henry Grunwald CFR
Alexander Heard CFR
Sol Linowitz CFR/TC
Thomas Watson, Jr. CFR
Strobe Talbott TC
Newsweek/Washington Post
Katherine Graham CFR
N. deB. Katzenbach CFR
Robert Christopher CFR
Osborne Elliot CFR
Phillip Geyelin CFR
Murry Marder CFR
Maynard Parker CFR
George Will CFR/TC
Robert Kaiser CFR
Meg Greenfield CFR
Walter Pincus CFR
Murray Gart CFR
Peter Osnos CFR
Don Oberdorfer CFR
WHO SHOULD CONTROL THE US NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM?
"Some people say Domenici is a sucker for big science. And they
may be right."
[- src=] Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), when asked at a press
conference last week if his vigorous support for his state’s Los
Alamos National Laboratory had helped create a culture of
complacency that contributed to last month’s security and safety
lapses.
In 1991, Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector for the
Department of Energy at the nuclear weapons labs and the Nevada
Test Site, told me:
"The nuclear weapons labs exist for the Pentagon… and the
Pentagon exists for the oil companies…"
It is inappropriate for a university to be in control of nuclear
weapons research and management. University of California
faculty have long opposed UC management of the labs, supported
by a majority of the students. UC is now in the position of
managing, developing, proliferating, investing in, and profiting
from Weapons of Mass Destruction. The fact that UC investments
of $33,046,370 in Lockheed Martin Marietta (70% owned by
Carlyle), and $21,471,120 in General Dynamics – one of the two
biggest US manufacturers of DU weaponry which has been sold to
29 countries, make UC complicit in war crimes. Students and
faculty should be informed of this. The State of California
employee pension fund owns 5.2% of the Carlyle Group.
The military, should NEVER be in control of ANY nuclear weapons
program, it should ALWAYS be in civilian hands. And the Carlyle
Group, a private corporation with vested interests and ties to
oil companies, has NEVER been investigated or subjected to ANY
oversight whatsoever, and for that reason should not have any
control or influence over US nuclear weapons policy and
development. Admiral Bobby Ray Inman and his associates in the
intelligence business have demonstrated their systematic abuse
of the internet, voting machines, and American civil liberties.
Should we give them the trigger, the nukes, the budget they
want, and the cover of secrecy? I don’t think so.
Management and oversight of the nuclear weapons labs belongs at
the National Science Foundation, a US government agency, with
the resources to make rational decisions and reign in the
planned unlimited proliferation of nuclear weapons on earth and
in space.
"There is a toxic quality to war that affects the inner life of
individuals and, as a collective consequence, the society
itself. In the degradation and dehumanization of the individual
lies the destruction of all mankind."
- Butler Shaffer
ALL governments are terrorist organizations…and for that reason
Humanity is on the brink of extinction.
References:
IMPERIAL SAN FRANCISCO – Urban Power, Earthly Ruin by Gray
Brechin, UC Press January 1999.
"Estimating the Cold War Mortgage: The 1995 Baseline
Environmental Management Report" US DOE Office of Environmental
Management Executive Summary, March 1995.
"Closing the Circle on the Splitting of the Atom: The
Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production in the US and
What the DOE is Doing About It" US DOE Office of Environmental
Management, January 1996.
"ECRR: 2003 Recommendations of the European Committee on
Radiation Risk – Health Effects of Ionizing Radiation Exposure
at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes, Regulator’s
Edition: Brussels, 2003". [http://www.euradcom.org/]
"Asthma; Infant Mortality; Recruiting Foster Parents" by Lynda
Crawford Gotham Gazette May 05, 2003.
[http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/children/20030506/2/379]
Deadly Deceit: Low Level Radiation, High Level Coverup by Jay
Gould and B. Goldman (1990).
Letter to Employees of University of California-managed National
Labs
Today at Berkeley Lab August 6, 2004
[http://www.lbl.gov/today/2004/Aug/06-Fri/letter-jump.html]
"A Career in Microbiology Can Be Harmful to Your Health: Death
Toll Mounting as Connections to Dyncorp, Hadron, PROMIS Software
and Disease Research Emerge", Michael Davidson and Michael C.
Ruppert, February 14, 2002.
[http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_14_02_microbio.html
]
Media coverage of Los Alamos security lapse, July 2004.
[http://www.4law.co.il/lanl1.htm]
"NASA plans to read terrorist’s minds at airports" by Frank J.
Murray 8/17/02, Washington Times.
[http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020817-704732.htm]
Air Travel Privacy FOIA Documents: "NASA Ames Research Center
Northwest Airlines Briefing December 10-11, 2001", Electronic
Privacy Information Center.
[http://www.epic.org/privacy/airtravel/foia/foia1.html]
Stop Carlyle! website
[http://isuisse.ifrance.com/stopcarlyle/enindex.htm]
"Our Opinion: NNSA must share blame for Los Alamos mistakes"
August 16, 2004, Oakland Tribune.
[http://ucnuclearfree.org/articles/2004/08/16_oped_nnsa-must-shar
e-blame.htm]
FIAT PAX – Let There Be Peace: A Resource on Science,
Technology, Militarism and Universities
[http://www.fiatpax.net/]
"Defense Funding at 50 Universities"
[http://www.fiatpax.net/profiles.html]
"The University Web of Corporate Power"
[http://www.fiatpax.net/dohe/universitynetwork.htm]
"UC’s retirement fund investments"
[http://www.fiatpax.net/iilinks2.html]
United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty
[http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/treat/ost/outersptxt.htm]
HR 2977 Space Preservation Act of 2001
[http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/hr2977.html]
Social Network Diagram for Admiral Bobby Ray Inman
[http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_INMAN_BOBBY_RAY]
"1994: Former admiral Bobby Ray Inman"
[http://www.appointee.brookings.org/sg/a2.htm]
"Pentagon scheme for a futures market in terror" by Berry Grey,
July 31, 2003, World Socialist Web Site
[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/fut-j31_prn.shtml]
"BEST GUESS: Economists explore betting markets as prediction
tools" by Erica Klarreich, Science News Oct. 18, 2003, V. 164
p.251-253. [http://www.sciencenews.org/]
"Conn. City Uses Scanners to Nab Criminals" by Diane Scarponi,
Sept. 9, 2004.
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040909/a
p_on_re_us/scanning_for_scofflaws]
Summary of Thomas Young Report released on March 28, 2000
[http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/news/news71.html]
"When The Best Must Do Even Better" remarks by NASA Admin. Dan
Goldin at JPL on March 29, 2000.
[http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/ftp/Goldin/00text/jpl_remarks.
txt]
International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan
[http://bellaciao.org/Reform/2004/Afghanistan-Criminal-Tribunal10
mar04.htm]
[http://afghan-tribunal.3005.net/english/]
FourthGeneration Nuclear Weapons: The Physical Principles of
Thermonuclear Explosives, Inertial Confinement Fusion, and the
Quest for Fourth Generation Nuclear Weapons, by Andre Gsponer
and J.-P. Hurni (1999).
[http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/INESAPTR1.html]
A comparison of delayed radiobiological effects of
depleted-uranium munitions versus fourth-generation nuclear
weapons by A. Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni, and B. Vitale, 4th
International Conference of the Yugoslav Nuclear Society,
Belgrade, September 30-October 4, 2002.
[http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0210071]
"Letter to Congressman McDermott from Leuren Moret – February
21, 2003."
[http://bellaciao.org/2003/Leuren-Moret-Gen-Groves21feb03.htm]
"Preferential Staining of Nucleic Acid-Containing Structures For
Electron Microscopy" by Huxley and Zubay, J. Biophysical and
Biochemical Cytology (J. Cell Biol.) 11 (2): 273.
[http://bellaciao.org/Huxley-Zubay-Staining1nov61.htm] (Nov
1961)
"Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War" by Leuren
Moret, World Affairs Journal August 2004.
[http://bellaciao.org/en/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm]
"Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets -
A death sentence here and abroad" by Leuren Moret, Aug. 18,
2004, San Francisco Bay View.
[http://bellaciao.org/en/DU-Dirty-Bombs18aug04.htm]
WHO press release 03/09/08: "Global cancer rates could increase
by 50% to 15 million by 2020"
[http://bellaciao.org/Health/2003/Cancer-Rates-15M3apr03.htm]
"Sudden unexplained infant death in 20 regions in Europe: case
control study" R.G. Carpenter et al, Lancet January 17, 2004,
V.363, p.185-191.
"Rise in stillbirths prompts inquiry" by John Carvel, August 20,
2004, The Guardian
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1287041,00.html]
"US infant deaths rise for first time in 45 years" by Shaoni
Bhattacharya, Feb 12, 2003, New Scientist.
[http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99994675]
"Three Mile Island: Health study meltdown" by Joseph Mangano,
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, September/October 2004, Volume
60, No. 5, pp. 30-35.
[http://www.thebulletin.org/issues/2004/so04/so04mangano.html]
"Smart dust, roboflies, microbugs: UC is spying on you" by
Leuren Moret February 26, 2003, San Francisco Bay View.
[http://bellaciao.org/2003/Berkeley-Library-Classified22feb03.htm
]
Statement by Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh
[http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/]
Statement by Dr. Johannes B. Koeppl, Ph.D.
[http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/]
Statement on role of Rockefellers on Council of Foreign
Relations [http://isuisse.ifrance.com/emmaf/base/cfrnwo.html]
Statement by David Rockefeller at Bilderberger meeting June 1991
[http://homepage.mac.com/kaaawa/iblog/C337802379/E1557478132/]
MEDIA MEMBERSHIP: Council On Foreign Relations (CFR) Trilateral
Commission (TC)
[http://www.freedomdomain.com/neworder/connections.html]
[http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/Moret-Nuclear-Carlyle16sep04.
htm]
*****************************************************************
25 AxisofLogic: Critical Analysis: America’s Nuclear Wars
[http://www.axisoflogic.com
By Paul Harris
Sep 15, 2004, 08:35
American soldiers have dropped Depleted Uranium (DU) on enemy
combatants since 1991. It is lethal, it is horrid, and even
though it doesn’t have the bluster and showmanship of a mushroom
cloud, it is still a nuclear bomb.
It is one of the ironies of history: The United States went to
war against Iraq in 2003 on the basis that Iraq was chock-a-block
with ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (WMD). Eventually, the
Americans had to admit they were wrong and they just couldn’t
find those weapons. Many skeptics suspect the Bush administration
lied about the WMDs in Iraq to cover a desire to invade and steal
Iraqi oil. They continue to lie: Iraq is full of WMDs, both used
and unused, but the Bushoviks and their sycophantic media fail to
alert the public because it is the Americans who are using them.
Despite going to war in Iraq on the basis of fabricated evidence
about Saddam Hussein’s stock of vicious weapons, the United
States itself has a long history of manufacturing, storing,
selling and deploying WMD. As far back as the Second World War,
there is clear evidence of use by the United States of several
chemicals which meet the current U.S. definition of WMD. Still,
most of us who point fingers at the Americans are best familiar
with their exploits in Vietnam.
Agent Orange and napalm are the best known WMDs used in Vietnam
although the Americans also deployed Agents White, Blue, Purple,
Pink and Green (all of the ‘agents’ were so named because of the
colour of distinguishing markers on their shipping containers).
These products are actually herbicides, developed during the
1940s, and were used in Vietnam as defoliants to strip away the
forests and trees in order to deny the enemy hiding places. Most
of these products are known carcinogens and their extensive use
in Vietnam has compromised the health of many who came in contact
with them, including American forces; and they were used in far
greater concentrations than would be usual.
Napalm, or jellied gasoline, was also used as a defoliant in
Vietnam but, unlike the Agents, it burned the vegetation and
killed by incineration anyone unfortunate enough to get in the
way. Those of us old enough will remember the horrifying
television images of Vietnamese children being incinerated.
This was not the first or only use of this material: napalm bombs
were dropped on Japan by Allied troops during World War II and
used in flamethrowers in Germany in that same war. Later, it was
used by United Nations forces during the Korean War before
reaching the apex of its popularity during the Vietnam conflict.
Although its use was banned by the United Nations in 1980, the
United States did not sign the agreement.
The U.S. claimed to have destroyed all its supplies of napalm by
2001 but that appears to be a matter of semantics rather than
fact; current evidence seems to verify that they have used it as
recently as 2003 in Iraq. A report carried in The Independent on
August 10, 2003 quotes Colonel James Alles, commander of Marine
Air Group 11: "We napalmed both those [bridge] approaches.
Unfortunately there were people there ... you could see them in
the [cockpit] video. They were Iraqi soldiers. It's no great way
to die. The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological
effect." The United States has denied using napalm but only
because they have altered the petroleum distillate used and
renamed the product the ‘Mark 77 firebomb’. Its victims will
surely appreciate the clarification.
While the United States remains the only nation to actually drop
an atomic bomb on an enemy, there have been four occasions in the
past 15 years where the United States has actually engaged in
nuclear war: in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, and in Gulf Wars I &
II.
Background
The use of DU is illegal under all international agreements,
treaties, and covenants and it is illegal even under U.S.
military law regarding WMDs. But in defiance of those
international treaties, and its own laws, the United States
continues to use this destructive material in full knowledge that
its use could result in the slow annihilation of all species,
including our own.
Depleted uranium is the waste by-product of nuclear weapons and
domestic nuclear power. It is deadly and is used in weapons
because it is cheap and ignites and burns fiercely on hitting a
solid target. When it impacts, it releases an aerosol of fine
uranium oxide that is breathable and spreads great distances by
wind until rain comes to weigh it down, where it falls to the
ground and is absorbed into soil or water sources. The Americans
have given DU to weapons manufacturers free of charge.
It was first developed for the U.S. Navy in 1968 and DU weapons
were supplied to, and used by, Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur
War. Since, the U.S. has sold DU weapons to at least 29
countries. The plans for this substance, however, actually date
back to 1943. A declassified document from the Manhattan Project
is a blueprint for depleted uranium weapons.
Euphemistically, some in military circles refer to DU as the
Trojan Horse of nuclear war, the ultimate gift that keeps on
giving. The half-life of the material is 4.5 billion years.
Scientists are quite certain on two points: DU is deadly; and the
effects of this material will continue to contaminate the earth
long after humans are extinct. They are also fairly clear that
continued use of DU will mean the future is going to move ahead
without us.
There should be no misunderstanding about the seriousness of this
material: it meets the U.S. definition of a 'weapon of mass
destruction' and while the United States is prepared to invade
sovereign countries on the basis they 'might' have WMD themselves
and they 'might' be willing to use them, the Americans are
actually using them. And they use them in complete disregard for
the people and nations on which they are dropped, even in
disregard of the health of their own and allied troops. On that
basis, there is some serious question as to whom has really
earned the title 'Evil Empire'.
Self Abuse
In the three-week Gulf War in 1991, just 467 U.S. personnel were
reported as wounded. Of the 580,400 GIs who served in that war,
more than 11,000 are now dead and in excess of 400,000 are on
permanent medical disability. New cases are arising by an
astounding 43,000 per year. In a nutshell, more than 70% of those
who served in the Gulf in 1990-91 now have medical problems.
The only substances to which these troops are known to have been
exposed are vaccines and depleted uranium. Vaccines do not cause
the diseases these troops have contracted. The only known
exposure with the potential to cause these illness is the
depleted uranium.
In response to the mounting evidence of the hazards, the American
response has been to use the same material in the Balkans, in
Afghanistan, and for a second time in Iraq. For protestors and
advocates for the afflicted, there is no comfort in knowing that
this transcends politics and has now gone on through three
presidential administrations.
Even worse, the Americans knew the deadly hazard inherent in this
material before they ever started to use it. A military report
prepared by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1974 stated: "In
combat situations involving the widespread use of DU munitions,
the potential for inhalation, ingestion, or implantation of DU
compounds may be locally significant." A contractor to the
military, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
noted in a July 1990 report that "aerosol DU exposures to
soldiers on the battlefield could be significant, with potential
radiological and toxicological effects."
For 13 years, veterans of Gulf War Part One, and subsequently the
Balkan veterans, have been hounding their governments to
determine if they have been contaminated by the DU used in those
conflicts. They are unable to search for this evidence through
conventional medicine because suitable testing equipment is not
available outside of government facilities owing to the national
security issues involved.
There has been a lengthy debate over the issue of GWI, and now
Balkan Illness, while many allied personnel who served in those
conflicts have endured unexplained and premature deaths or
debilitating systemic illnesses. There is evidence of
transmission of related diseases to sexual partners and children
born to these veterans since the conflicts.
But while the veterans continue to pressure the U.S. government
for proper DU screening programs, a series of reports confirm the
inadequacy of testing efforts and the fundamental failure to
understand the ramifications of DU use. In the absence of
adequate testing and follow-up, the military continues to use
this material in a form of Russian Roulette with its own troops,
notwithstanding the horrendous results on the nations where the
weapons are being dropped.
In the words of the well-known humanitarian, Henry Kissinger:
"Military men are just dumb, stupid, animals to be used as pawns
in foreign policy." And as if to prove his point, a report
carried by both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post on
February 27, 1991 quoted American troops firing DU weapons at
hapless Iraqi soldiers: "We toasted him … we hit the jackpot … a
turkey shoot … shooting fish in a barrel … basically just sitting
ducks… There’s nothing like it. It’s the biggest Fourth of July
show you’ve ever seen, and to see those tanks just ‘boom’, and
stuff just keeps spewing out of them … they just become white
hot. It’s wonderful."
Where is the outrage?
Americans have cheered the successes of their military men and
women in Iraq and Afghanistan and, to a lesser degree, in the
Balkans. Most remain ignorant of the horrendous weapons their
troops used to destroy such feeble enemies. Even more, they are
almost completely ignorant of the hazards faced by their own
troops from the toys at their disposal.
There is no outrage in the U.S. for the dangers being faced by
American troops, even less outrage for the innocent victims of
this lethal onslaught. But America’s craven allies, including my
country Canada, can offer no excuses for their silence. None of
the information presented in this article is secret; it is
readily available from a variety of sources. In several
countries, including Canada, there are victims of DU exposure who
thought they were going to fight the good fight, little realizing
that their best buddy was going to expose them to lethal
substances, just because they could.
The American decision to initiate the use of DU weaponry, and
then to continue its use even when evidence mounted to thwart any
lingering doubts about the hazards, is a despicable act. This was
a cold, calculated decision to inflict long-lasting harm on
enemies with no regard for the innocent in those lands and no
regard even for American and allied troops.
There are few observers who would excuse any other nation
behaving in this way from charges of war crimes.
Bracing for the next American onslaught
Depleted uranium appears to have been given the green light in
1990 three reasons:
q to test the efficacy of 4th generation nuclear weapons still in
their development stage
q to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear
weaponry
q to facilitate the reintroduction of nuclear weapons into the
American arsenal
And it has done a marvelous job of stopping the enemy.
Unfortunately, the side effects on civilian populations and the
long-lasting environmental effects are horrendous. If the use of
this weaponry marks the future of American strategy, and given
their proclivity for military adventures, the deleterious effects
of DU on the environment and on the population of various
countries is assured. More, the health of American and allied
troops is also compromised. The continued use of DU weapons
should be sufficient reason for America’s allies to decline
invitations to future military excursions.
Regardless of the peril presented by the enemy, America’s allies
need to be concerned about the peril presented by America.
Sources include:
‘Depleted Uranium: U.S. Commits War Crime Against Iraq, Humanity’
– Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press
‘Cancer Epidemic Caused by U.S. WMD’ – Christopher Bollyn,
American Free Press
‘No protection from known danger’ – Dan Fahey, Military Toxicity
Project
‘Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets – A
death sentence here and abroad’ – Leuren Moret
‘Depleted Uranium: The Trojan Horse of Nuclear War’ – Leuren
Moret
‘The People versus George Walker Bush: International Criminal
Tribunal for Afghanistan at Tokyo’
‘An Examination of Uranium Levels in Canadian Forces Personnel
Who Served in the Gulf War and Kosovo’ – Health Physics Society
Journal, 82(4): 527-532; April 2002
‘Perpetual Death from America’ – Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki
‘Trail of a Bullet’ – a special series prepared by the Christian
Science Monitor (
[http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium] )
‘Details’ – Paul Harris, YellowTimes.org (March 12, 2003)
several reports prepared by the World Depleted Uranium Weapons
Conference ( [http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de] )
various reports prepared by the Uranium Medical Research Centre –
especially see the report ’12 years too late?’ for an extensive
list of source material © Copyright 2004 by AxisofLogic.com
Paul Harris is a regular contributing writer for Axis of Logic
and is self-employed as a consultant providing businesses with
the tools and expertise to reintegrate their sick or injured
employees into the workplace. He has traveled extensively in what
is usually known as "the Third World" and has an abiding interest
in history, social justice, morality and, well, just about
everything. Paul covers central African current events for News
From The Front (nftf.org) where his articles are frequently
republished on the United Nations website (monuc.org). His work
can also be found at YellowTimes.org and vivelecanada.ca, where
he is a member of the Advisory Board on Canadian Sovereignty.
Paul lives in rural Canada surrounded by corn, cows, and turnips.
*****************************************************************
26 Rep. Waxman: Secrecy in the Bush Administration
September 14, 2004
Rep. Henry A. Waxman has released a comprehensive examination of
secrecy in the Bush Administration. The report analyzes how the
Administration has implemented each of our nations major open
government laws. It finds that there has been a consistent
pattern in the Administrations actions: laws that are designed
to promote public access to information have been undermined,
while laws that authorize the government to withhold information
or to operate in secret have repeatedly been expanded. The
cumulative result is an unprecedented assault on the principle of
open government.
Extended Overview »
Rep. Waxman and other members of the Government Reform Committee
have also introduced legislation to reverse the Bush
Administration's policies and restore open government.
REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS | Section links jump to bookmarks in
full report
Full Report (81 pp.)
Executive Summary
Introduction
PART I: Laws that Provide Public Access to Federal Record
The Administration has narrowed in scope and application each
of the landmark laws enacted by Congress to promote "government
in the sunshine."
I: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The Administration has limited the scope of the primary federal
law providing the public with a right to information held by the
executive branch and has resisted information requests through
procedural tactics and delays.
II: Presidential Records Act
The President has issued an executive order undermining the
Watergate-era law that makes presidential records available to
historians and the public.
III: Federal Advisory Committee Act
The Administration has undercut and evaded the federal law that
requires openness and a balance of viewpoints on government
advisory bodies.
Part II: Laws that Restrict Access to Public Records
The Administration has reversed steps taken by the Clinton
Administration to declassify information and has expanded the
capacity of the executive branch to operate in secret.
I: National Security Classification of Government Records
The President has expanded the classification powers of
executive agencies, resulting in a dramatic increase in the
volume of classified government information.
II: Expanded Protection of "Sensitive Security Information"
The Administration has obtained an expansion of sensitive
security information to allow the withholding of information
about the safety of any mode of transportation.
III: Weakened DHS Disclosure Under the National
Environmental Policy Act
The Administration has proposed a directive that would permit
the Department of Homeland Security to conceal information about
the environmental impacts of its activities.
IV: Expanding Secret Government Operations
The Administration has expanded its authority to conduct law
enforcement operations in secret with limited or no judicial
oversight through the enactment of new laws such as the USA
PATRIOT Act and novel interpretations of existing authorities.
Part III:Congressional Access To Information
The Administration has repeatedly refused to provide members of
Congress, the Government Accountability Office, and
congressional commissions with information necessary for
meaningful congressional oversight.
I: GAO Authority to Investigate Accountability
The Administration has challenged the authority of the
congressional General Accountability Office to review federal
records and investigate federal programs.
II: Seven Member Rule
The Administration has challenged the authority of members of
the House Government Reform Committee to obtain information on
matters within the jurisdiction of the Committee.
III:Witholding Information from Congress
The Administration has frequently withheld information sought
by ranking members of congressional committees.
IV:Investigative Commissions
The Administration resisted or delayed providing information to
the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United
States, the commission created by Congress to investigate the
September 11 attacks.
Conclusion
The Bush Administration has systematically sought to limit
disclosure of government records while expanding its authority
to operate in secret. Taken together, the Administrations
actions represent an unparalleled assault on the principle of
open government.
Commitee on Government Reform Minority Office | U.S. House of
Representatives
Photo of Rep. Waxman: [c] 2004 Kay Chernush
*****************************************************************
27 SA News24: Lawyers for 'WMD pair' puzzled
[http://www.news24.com
Elise Tempelhoff
Vanderbijlpark - "We would very much like to know why the charges
against Johan Meyer have been withdrawn while the other two men
have to remain cooped up in the cells downstairs."
This was the question being asked by advocate Anand Choudree on
Tuesday shortly before he applied for bail on behalf of
66-year-old Gerhard Wisser and his colleague Daniel Geiges, 63,
both engineers from Kirsch Engineering in Strijdompark, Randburg.
The two men were arrested last Wednesday night on charges under
the laws on nuclear power and weapons of mass destruction, a
couple of hours after similar charges against the 53-year-old
Meyer, an engineer from Pretoria and director of Tradefin
Engineering in Vanderbijlpark, were withdrawn.
As Wisser's lawyer, Choudree found it "strange" the State was not
revealing Meyer's plans for the future.
Heinrich Badenhorst, Meyer's lawyer, said Geiges and Wisser's
bail application had to be heard before he could issue a
statement about why all charges against Meyer had been withdrawn.
'Stacks of statements'
He did not want to confirm or deny rumours that Meyer had already
been taken up in a witness-protection programme because he had
turned State witness.
Wisser and Geiges will probably hear only on Wednesday whether
they qualify for bail.
The case was postponed on Tuesday afternoon because the State
apparently "unexpectedly" buried its lawyers under "stacks of
statements".
Advocate Eloize Eksteen, who appeared on behalf of Geiges, said
they were surprised by the "stack of sworn statements" the State
had handed them early on Tuesday morning.
"We would like to be able to answer, and for this we will need
some time."
Wisser and Geiges looked pale, nervous and tired.
Choudree said the men are "naturally" disappointed because they
could not be released on bail on Tuesday, but they understood it
was better to postpone the case.
He will demand that Wisser be released on bail, because the
German government allowed him bail on similar charges and even
allowed him to travel to South Africa.
Edited by Iaine Harper
*****************************************************************
28 AFP: UN atomic agency ends special investigation of Libya's nuclear program
[http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
The UN atomic agency took Libya off its agenda Tuesday as a
special subject to investigate for nuclear safeguards violations
after getting months of cooperation from Tripoli over its
disbanded atomic program.
Libya will now be only "part of our routine verification, which
is good so at least Libya is off our agenda," International
Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei told reporters at a
meeting of the IAEA's board of governors.
He said he hoped the same could happen for Iran, which the IAEA
is currently investigating on US charges that Tehran is secretly
developing nuclear weapons.
The United States has called on Iran to be as forthcoming about
its nuclear program as Libya has been.
The IAEA said in a report in August that "good cooperation" from
Libya "has enabled the agency to build an understanding of
Libya's previously undeclared nuclear program."
The IAEA, the UN organization that verifies adherence to the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has been overseeing Libya's
disarmament, which Tripoli agreed to last December 19 with the
United States and Britain.
The IAEA will still be looking into what a spokesman called
"critical questions" about whether Libya had made copies of
nuclear weapons designs it had obtained through the black market
run by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The IAEA is trying to piece together how Khan's network was run
and who else got nuclear technology from it. Khan has reportedly
confessed to filtering such technology to Iran and North Korea.
All rights reserved. © 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
*****************************************************************
29 News24: SA, UN in joint nuke probe
[http://www.news24.com
Gerhard Wisser, right, and Daniel Geiges appear in the
Vanderbijlpark magistrate's court. (Johann Hattingh, Beeld)
Vienna - South Africa is working closely with the UN atomic
agency to help it uncover international smuggling in nuclear
weapons-related materials, a senior South African official said
on Wednesday.
"We will co-operate with the (International Atomic Energy Agency)
in every way," said Abdul Samad Minty, head of the South African
Council for the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Tuesday a South African
investigation into a businessman arrested for illegally trading
in nuclear material was helping shed light on nuclear programmes
in Iran and Libya.
ElBaradei told reporters his agency was getting "a lot of
information that could have an impact on our understanding of
both the Iranian programme and the Libyan programme."
The IAEA sent investigators earlier this month to South Africa
after businessman, Johan Meyer, 53, was charged with three counts
of being in possession of sensitive nuclear-related equipment and
of illegally importing and exporting nuclear material.
Meyer has since been released and charges dropped against him.
There has been speculation he has been co-operating with South
African authorities.
Two German men living permanently in South Africa were charged
last week by a South African court with illegally exporting
equipment to enrich uranium.
Minty said the arrests were part of a probe into ties with a
nuclear smuggling network thought to be linked to Pakistani
scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan who admitted in February to helping
Libya and other nations develop their weapons programme.
Gerhard Wisser, 66, and Daniel Geiges, 65, living permanently in
South Africa, appeared before a local court on four counts of
contravening the Nuclear Energy Act and a law banning the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Minty said they were allegedly involved in the "import and export
of a controlled flow-forming lathe as well as the production and
possession of certain components associated with a centrifuge
enrichment plant without the necessary authorisation."
He said "these activities were intended to assist in the now
abandoned nuclear weapons program of the Libyan government."
He said police had in searches found 11 shipping containers at
one company, containing components associated with a centrifuge
uranium enrichment plant. He refused to say exactly what sort of
equipment was found.
Minty said the police had also found "documents" during the
investigation but he once again refused to provide details.
Khan sold nuclear material to North Korea, Libya and Iran through
a network that involved about 20 countries.
Libya agreed last December to disband its programmes to make
weapons of mass destruction, and has since been co-operating with
the IAEA.
Information from Libya has helped IAEA investigators understand
more about Iran's nuclear programme and its acquisition of
sensitive atomic materials abroad.
Now information from South Africa is taking the IAEA further in
understanding the illegal smuggling network.
"In general when police do investigations, they interrogate
people in ways the IAEA can't. That information gets shared with
us," a Western diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP.
He said this information enabled the IAEA to "pursue
international links, people who are part of this web."
Another diplomat said that front companies which people use to
make black market acquisitions change frequently "but the people
do not",
Edited by Tisha Steyn
*****************************************************************
30 Guardian Unlimited: Nuclear Chief: Russia Increasing Vigilance
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Wednesday September 15, 2004 10:16 PM
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's nuclear chief said on Wednesday he was
told to increase vigilance at nuclear facilities following a
spate of attacks because it was clear terrorists would not
hesitate to use radioactive materials if they could get them.
Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief Alexander Rumyantsev said the
nation's nuclear facilities are safe from terror attacks and
thefts but acknowledged controls over radioactive materials at
clinics and industrial plants have been loose.
He said the brutality of recent attacks in Russia have raised
fears terrorists might try to obtain nuclear materials.
``It has become clear that if terrorists get hold of something
like that, they will definitely use it,'' Rumyantsev told
reporters.
More than 400 people have been killed in attacks the past month,
including a school siege in Beslan that left 338 dead and the
bombings of two passenger planes.
Rumyantsev admitted authorities have been negligent in disposing
worn-out equipment involving lethal radioactive isotopes. Such
equipment, used for cancer treatment in clinics and for various
industrial purposes in manufacturing industries, has been
carelessly dumped across Russia, he said.
``Such equipment has been found in dumpsites, among garbage,''
Rumyantsev said.
He added that Russian and U.S. officials had taken joint efforts
to strengthen control over medical and industrial radioactive
sources. The Russian government has recently toughened
legislation to help track down radioactive equipment.
Many experts warn that medical and industrial radioactive devices
could be used by terrorists for making a radiological dispersal
device, or dirty bomb.
Unlike nuclear warheads that are designed to kill and destroy
through a huge nuclear blast, dirty bombs - which thus far no one
has employed - would rely on conventional explosives to spread
radioactive material.
Rumyantsev said all Russian nuclear facilities, including nuclear
power plants and waste storage facilities, are securely guarded
by heavily armed Interior Ministry troops.
But he also acknowledged that the nation has had natural uranium
and other radioactive materials stolen since the Soviet collapse.
``Tens of kilograms, maybe up to 220 pounds of raw uranium, have
been stolen by people who hoped to sell it at profit because of
their ignorance,'' Rumyantsev said. ``Only some 10 percent of
these materials have been found.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
31 asahi.com: Mutual distrust reinforces nuclear addiction
Vox Populi, Vox Dei
Six years after winning the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, medical
missionary and theologian Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) appealed
for the abolition of nuclear weapons in a broadcast from Radio
Oslo. Addressing a world torn by the Cold War and increasingly
fearful of a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet
Union, Schweitzer packed his appeal with timeless insight.
Not only did he urge the United States, Britain and the Soviet
Union--then the only nations possessing nuclear arms--to abandon
their weapons, but he also warned of the frightening consequences
of such weapons falling into the hands of unscrupulous
troublemakers.
According to ``Kaku-no Kasa-ni Owareta Sekai'' (A world shadowed
by a nuclear umbrella), a book from Heibonsha, Schweitzer said to
the effect that once a crack formed in a dam, that dam was doomed
to burst.
Since the end of the Cold War, the ``dam bursting'' seems to have
been escalating rapidly. The existence of a widespread network of
black marketers, dealing in equipment and information related to
nuclear weapons, has come to light.
In his confession this year, Abdul Qadeer Khan, dubbed the
``father of Pakistani nuclear development,'' revealed a part of
his underground operations.
Corporations in more than 20 countries are said to have been
involved in Khan's black market. But the ``real purchasers'' were
nations, and named among them were North Korea and Iran. Given
the possibility of terrorist organizations getting hold of those
weapons, it is truly chilling to imagine ``ultimate weapons''
changing hands in the black market.
Schweitzer also lamented in his radio address: ``We live in a
time when the good faith of people is doubted more than ever
before. Expressions throwing doubt on the trustworthiness of each
other are bandied back and forth.''
Our present time is no different. The mutual distrust of those
who feel they must have nuclear weapons is throwing the world
into fits of anxiety, and this in turn is further reinforcing the
world's addiction to nuclear weaponry.
South Korea has admitted scientists conducted nuclear-related
experiments. In North Korea, a massive explosion was reported
recently. Even though this was apparently not a nuclear test, I
worry about a deepening of mistrust.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 14(IHT/Asahi: September 15,2004)
(09/15)
*****************************************************************
32 AFP: Pakistan adopts bill to tighten controls on nuclear exports
[http://www.spacewar.com/] [http://www.spacewar.com/]
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
Pakistan's parliament Tuesday passed legislation tightening
export controls to prevent nuclear proliferation and laying down
tough penalties for violators.
The bill approved by the National Assembly, or lower house of
parliament, will now go to the Senate for its approval to become
law.
It aims to "regulate and control export, re-export,
trans-shipment and transit of goods and technologies, material
and equipment related to nuclear and biological weapons and
missiles capable of delivering such weapons."
Violators would face up to 14 years' jail and a fine of five
million rupees (285,000 dollars).
"It is an important legislation and will effectively curb any
chance of illegal export of any atomic, biological or missile
technologies," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.
The government said the law was being enacted in line with a UN
Security Council resolution, passed in April this year, aimed at
keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the reach of
terrorists and black market traders.
"By adopting this bill, Pakistan would fulfil its international
obligation and strengthen its credentials as a responsible
nuclear weapons state," it said.
Pakistan was hit by an arms proliferation scandal early this year
when the architect of country's atomic weapons programme, Abdul
Qadeer Khan, publicly confessed to leaking nuclear secrets to
Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan was given a conditional pardon by President Pervez Musharraf
but he remains under virtual house arrest in the capital
Islamabad.
Minister of state for foreign affairs Khusro Bakhtyar told the
house that "the bill would convey a positive signal to the
international community regarding Pakistan's sincerity and
commitment to the cause of non proliferation."
All rights reserved. © 2004 [http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of
the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs,
*****************************************************************
33 [NukeNet] NY Times Runs Interference For Indian Point
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:43:57 -0700
The NY Times needs to be called, faxed and met
with as to why this personalization of Jim Steets
was done. 2 whole sentences were given to
anti-Indian point of view. A personalization
should be given to Marilyn Elie, Kyle Rabin, Mark
Jacobs or any of the others who have worked so
long and so well trying to awaken the public and
shut down this stationary radiological nuclear
weapon. The NY Times can be called at:
212-556-1234. Their web site is:
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/nyregion/15profile.html
PUBLIC LIVES
The Public, and Cheerful, Face of Nuclear Power
By MAREK FUCHS
Published: September 15, 2004
HITE PLAINS
ONE day it's a faulty steam valve causing a
temporary shutdown; the next it's an environmental
group clamoring for a permanent shutdown. No
matter what the news swirling around the Indian
Point nuclear power plant - and given the vehement
opposition to it, the news is not always
favorable - out trots Jim Steets, the plant's most
visible spokesman, with an easy smile and an
eagerness to field any question.
Advertisement
He comes from his tan, 12th-floor office here in
White Plains to step in front of the tape
recorders and cameras and accuse the plant's
critics of herd thinking, uninformed biases and
worse. He then waxes close to rhapsodic about the
benefits and proficiencies of Indian Point,
located in Buchanan, in northern Westchester
County.
Though he occasionally gets tough, framing his
argument with the subtlety of a medicine ball, Mr.
Steets has such a friendly bearing that even those
who complain that he argues in blind or bad faith
concede that he is, well, a nice guy.
Mr. Steets, boyish-looking at 51 despite a wintry
thatch of hair, says the plant's detractors are
simplistic and overly suspicious, but he sees some
similarities in himself. "I am idealistic, just
like they are," he said. "We're just on the
opposite ends of what we believe in." Not that he
isn't surprised sometimes to find himself cast as
the public face of one of the nation's most
criticized nuclear plants. "If you had asked me 20
years ago, I'd say, 'Nah, I'll never be a shill
for nuclear power.' My image of it at that point
was of the nuclear industry criticizing how it was
portrayed on 'The Simpsons.' Give me a break."
But in the three years since the 9/11 attacks, Mr.
Steets's job as a spokesman for Entergy, which
owns the plant, has not been an easy lift. The
latest piece of bad news is "Indian Point:
Imagining the Unimaginable," a documentary by Rory
Kennedy that had its premiere on HBO last week. It
contends that a terrorist attack on Indian Point
could be easy and apocalyptic, calling the
security inadequate and citing the plant's
location 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, in
one of the most densely populated spots in the
country.
Ms. Kennedy is the sister of Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., a lawyer for Riverkeeper, the environmental
group that probably ranks as Indian Point's most
vocal opponent. At one point in the movie, the two
Kennedys hover unimpeded in a helicopter over
Indian Point - proof, they say, of the plant's
vulnerability.
Mr. Steets scoffs, calling that action typical of
the opposition's tendency toward stunts and
polemics. "We knew it was R.F.K. up in that
helicopter and were confident that he did not
intend to fly it into a containment dome," he
said. "Do we have to shoot him down to prove a
point to him? If we play the game to their
ridiculous level, someone would get hurt."
Before Sept. 11, opposition to Indian Point, which
supplies 20 to 40 percent of the electricity to
New York City and Westchester County, came from a
small assortment of groups concerned about its
poor safety record, but the wider community seemed
only vaguely aware of the plant's presence. After
one of the hijacked planes flew by the plant on
its way to the World Trade Center, public fear put
Indian Point into a defensive crouch. Even Mr.
Steets said he had worried briefly that the plant
could be vulnerable.
"I wasn't sure about the capabilities of the
structures to withstand an assault from the air,"
he said. "We are all smart people," he added,
referring to his colleagues in public relations,
"but not that sophisticated." All it took to
reassure him was visits from structural engineers
who explained the "physics of force" and the
soundness of the plant's containment domes.
But Alex Matthiessen, executive director of
Riverkeeper, is not reassured. "Jim is a nice,
amiable guy," he said. "But he's regrettably
guilty of using the same deceitful public
relations tactics that his and other polluting
industries are famous for.''
MR. STEETS'S interest in public relations was
piqued early, when he was a communications student
at Fordham University. He may be one of the few
undergraduates to have sat in a dorm room lost in
fascination at the concise, well-structured
explanations coming from spokesmen interviewed on
the television news. A few years later, Mr.
Steets, who grew up a block from the beach in
Spring Lake, N.J., was hired to handle publicity
for power lines being installed by the New York
Power Authority.
He arrived at Indian Point a decade ago, working
in the shadow of the domes until about 18 months
ago, when he moved to his current office so he
could be in the loop with the Entergy executives
who work here. (He keeps the radio near his desk
tuned to an album-rock station in the hope of
hearing his favorite, Led Zeppelin.) He commutes
from Middletown, N.Y., where he lives with his
wife and three children; he plays basketball to
stay trim and release the tension from his job.
His office conveniently overlooks the county
office building. That way, Mr. Steets jokes, he
can stand up from his desk and "shake a fist at
Andy Spano," the county executive, who began
calling for the plant's closing after Sept. 11.
Lately those calls have been muted. Indian Point's
safety record has improved, electricity demand
keeps increasing, and since the blackout last
summer, the idea of importing power from afar is
less attractive. Two years ago, Westchester
residents were talking worriedly about matters
like spent-fuel pools, but there is less of that
today. "The middle-grounders have just gone back
to the middle ground," Mr. Steets said, declaring
victory. "People want to know the plant is safe.
Then they want to turn on 'The Apprentice.' "
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34 [NukeNet] Radiation Release Possible in Plant Attack
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:44:09 -0700
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Nuclear-Plants-Aircraft.html
Radiation Release Possible in Plant Attack
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 14, 2004
Filed at 8:57 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission has concluded that it is unlikely
significant amounts of radiation would be released
in a deliberate crash of a jetliner into a nuclear
power plant, but that engineering tests have not
entirely ruled out the possibility of radioactive
releases.
The NRC said studies on a limited number of
nuclear power plants by federal research labs and
agency staff showed that even if there were
initial releases of radioactivity, plant operators
would have time to take actions to reduce the
impact on public health. It was the most expansive
public comment to date on what might happen in a
terrorist attack.
Advertisement
NRC Chairman Nils Diaz, in an interview with
The Associated Press, said Monday that while ``it
is possible there would be some damage and there
could be some (radiation) releases ... it is not
probable.''
Nevertheless, added Diaz, ``We cannot rule
out the possibility that damage would occur and
radioactive releases would take place. We're
saying it would be very difficult for significant
damage to take place (and) to get a major release
of radioactivity in a very short time.''
The government and nuclear industry have
been particularly concerned since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks that al-Qaida might target
a commercial nuclear power plant. There is some
evidence that a reactor may have been a potential
target when the 2001 attacks were being planned.
Before 2001, neither the nuclear industry
nor its government regulators had seriously
considered the vulnerabilities of a reactor to a
deliberate crash of a large aircraft loaded with
fuel.
Since then, the NRC has been examining a
number of classified engineering studies on such
an attack. It has been using research from the Los
Alamos and Sandia national laboratories as well as
its own studies to determine how vulnerable
commercial power reactors are to such an attack.
In the facilities analyzed, the studies
found the likelihood of damaging the reactor core
and releasing radioactive material that could
affect public health and safety is low, Diaz wrote
in a Sept. 8 letter to Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge.
Diaz wrote that ``in the unlikely event''
that a crashing aircraft would cause a radiation
release, ``there would be time to implement the
required on-site mitigating actions'' to protect
public health.
Elaborating on the letter, Diaz said Monday
it is the agency's view that even if there is
damage to key areas of the power plant, the extent
of damage would not be so severe that actions
cannot be taken to reduce the threat of
significant radiation exposure to the public.
Nevertheless, the NRC assessment appeared
less certain that an industry-backed study
released in late 2002, which said categorically
that a large jetliner would fail to penetrate a
nuclear power plant's concrete containment dome.
That study, conducted by the Electric Power
Research Institute, concluded that engineering
models showed that a fully fueled Boeing 767 would
fail to breach a reactor's four-foot-thick
concrete containment dome. The industry cited the
study as showing there would be no radiation
release.
Marvin Fertel, vice president of the Nuclear
Energy Institute, the industry trade group, said
he saw no conflict between the industry-backed
study and the NRC findings. He said the government
studies, details of which are classified,
``apparently looked at other parts of the plant
and reached basically the same conclusion we did
that it's very hard to get a large release.''
Diaz said the NRC conclusions were based on
data that involved more than just the impact of an
aircraft on the reactor containment dome. He said
more than one containment dome design was studied
as well as the potential impact of an aircraft on
different parts of a power plant complex where
damage might have an effect on plant safety and
operation.
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35 Portland Press Herald: Yankee dome to fall in a cloud of dust
The debris left Friday shouldn't cause concern about
radioactivity, say state and federal officials. Today's
question: Are you concerned about the demolition of the Maine
Yankee nuclear plant and any possible health risks from the
dust? -->
[http://www.mainetoday.com]
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
By ANN S. KIM, Portland Press Herald Writer
Associated Press
Rectangular openings were cut from the Maine Yankee dome to
create columns, which will be collapsed by explosives. The
columns have been wrapped in fabric and chain-link fencing to
contain debris when the building is brought down Friday.
The demolition of Maine Yankee's containment dome this week in
Wiscasset is expected to leave the steel-reinforced structure on
the ground and dust in its wake. That dust, state and federal
officials say, shouldn't be a cause for worry.
The 150-foot-tall structure is one of the last remnants of the
now-defunct nuclear power plant, which has been undergoing
decommissioning since 1997.
The reactor and the steam generators that were housed in the dome
have been removed and all contaminated surfaces have been
eliminated, said Ronald Bellamy, the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission's regional chief of decommissioning.
"There's no concern about any of the dust particles carrying
radioactive material off site," Bellamy said.
Maine Yankee had to clean the structure long before it got to
this stage, and that process was checked by the state and the
NRC, said Charles Pray, the state's nuclear safety adviser.
"We feel very confident that those criteria have been met," Pray
said.
Workers have cut rectangular openings out of the dome to create
columns, which have been wrapped in fabric and chain-link fencing
to prevent flying debris.
A 1,000-foot exclusion zone will be set up before the demolition,
which is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. The zone will extend about
500 feet into the Back River and Bailey Cove.
A warning horn will sound five minutes before the blast and will
be followed by a series of long signals. A minute before the
demolition, the horn will sound again, followed by a series of
short signals. Federal and state regulators will be on hand and
an all-clear signal will sound after the blast.
Explosives will collapse the columns, causing the dome to fall
intact. Excavators will then be able to break up the dome and
load the debris - about 20 million pounds worth - for shipping in
about 100 rail cars.
No radiological material was detected when a test blast was done
on one of the columns Monday, said Eric Howes, a Maine Yankee
spokesman.
Much of the material likely is radiologically clean, but Maine
Yankee decided to ship all material from the nuclear side of the
plant to a low-level waste facility because it will be more
efficient than sorting out the slightly contaminated material,
Howes said.
The debris from Maine Yankee falls into the Class A category, the
lowest level of low-level waste, said Tim Barney, senior vice
president of Envirocare of Utah, which is taking the material.
"It's not high at all. It's like a dental X-ray," Barney said.
Spent fuel rods, on the other hand, are between 10 million and 40
million times as radioactive as Class C material, the highest
category of low-level material, Barney said.
Ray Shadis, executive director of the Friends of the Coast
nuclear watchdog group, said he's had a few inquiries about
demolition dust from summer residents on Westport Island.
"So far as I know, the containment itself is relatively clean,"
said Shadis, who serves on a community advisory panel to the
decommissioning. "But if they had concerns, they might leave for
the day."
Staff Writer Ann Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:
[akim@pressherald.com]
*****************************************************************
36 NRC: NRC Proposes Tougher Export-Import Requirements for High-Risk Radioactive Materials
News Release - 2004-11 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] No. 04-115 September
15, 2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing tougher licensing
requirements for the export or import of high-risk radioactive
materials that could be used in so-called dirty bombs or other
terrorist weapons.
This action is an important part of the governments effort to
protect the American people from the malevolent use of
radioactive materials while continuing to permit their peaceful
use in a wide range of industries and medicine, Commission
Chairman Nils J. Diaz said.
The United States has taken the lead in persuading the
international community to strengthen the control of high-risk
radioactive materials that could conceivably fall into the hands
of our adversaries, Diaz added. This proposed regulation is
another step by the Commission to protect the common defense and
security at home and abroad from the threat of radiological
terrorism.
The proposed rule would implement export-import provisions of
the Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive
Sources adopted last year by the International Atomic Energy
Agency. The United States played a key role in developing the
Code of Conduct and, at U.S. urging, the Group of Eight
Industrial Nations agreed at their June 2004 summit in Sea
Island, Ga., to implement the Codes export-import provisions by
December 2005.
The new NRC regulations would require specific licenses for all
exports and imports of high-risk radioactive materials (in
sealed sources or in bulk) as defined in the proposed rule. The
proposed rules lists of nuclear materials and radioactivity
levels of concern are essentially identical to those found in
the Code of Conduct. Anyone in the United States wishing to
export or import these materials would be required to apply for
NRC approval. Under current NRC regulations, these radioactive
materials may be exported or imported under a general license,
which does not require filing an application to the NRC or the
issuance of licensing documents.
Comments on the changes will be accepted for 75 days following
publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register,
expected shortly. Comments should include the identification
number RIN 3150-AH44 in the header or subject line. Comments may
be mailed to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications
Staff. They may be e-mailed to: [SECY@nrc.gov] , via the NRCs
rulemaking Web site at [http://ruleforum.llnl.gov] , or through
the Federal Rulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov.
Comments may also be hand-delivered to 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on federal
workdays.
Last revised Wednesday, September 15, 2004
*****************************************************************
37 NRC: Sunshine Act Notice
FR Doc 04-20857
[Federal Register: September 15, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 178)]
[Notices] [Page 55656] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15se04-75] [[Page 55656]]
DATES: Weeks of September 13, 20, 27, October 4, 11, 18, 2004.
Place: Commissioners' Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike,
Rockville, Maryland.
Status: Public and Closed.
Matters To Be Considered: Week of September 13, 2004 Tuesday,
September 14, 2004 9:30 a.m. Discussion of Security Issues
(Closed--Ex. 1) Week of September 20, 2004--Tentative There are
no meetings scheduled for the Week of September 20, 2004.
Week of September 27, 2004--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the Week of September 27, 2004.
Week of October 4, 2004--Tentative Thursday, October 7, 2004
10:30 a.m. Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex.1) 1 p.m.
Discussion of Security Issues (Closed--Ex.1) Week of October 11,
2004--Tentative Wednesday, October 13, 2004 9:30 a.m. Briefing on
Decommissioning Activities and Status (Public Meeting) (Contact:
Claudia Craig, 301-415-7276) This meeting will be webcast live at
the Web address--http://www.nrc.gov
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov] .
1:30 p.m. Discussion of Intragovernmental Issues (Closed--Ex. 1 &
9) Week of October 18, 2004--Tentative There are no meetings
scheduled for the Week of October 18, 2004.
*The schedule for Commission meetings is subject to change on
short notice. To verify the status of meetings call
(recording)--(301) 415- 1292. Contact person for more
information: Dave Gamberoni, (301) 415- 1651.
* * * * * The NRC Commission Meeting Schedule can be found on the
Internet at:
http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-making/schedule.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/policy-makin
g/schedule.html] . * * * * * The NRC provides reasonable
accommodation to individuals with disabilities where appropriate.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in these
public meetings, or need this meeting notice or the transcript of
other information from the public meetings in another format
(e.g., braille, large print), please notify the NRC's Disability
Program Coordinator, August Spector, at 301-415-7080, TDD:
301-415- 2100, or by e-mail at aks@nrc.gov [aks@nrc.gov] .
Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be
made on a case-by-case basis.
* * * * * This notice is distributed by mail to several hundred
subcribers; if you no longer wish to receive it, or would like to
be added to the distribution, please contact the Office of the
Secretary, Washington, DC 20555 (301-415-1969). In addition,
distribution of this meeting notice over the Internet system is
available. If you are interested in receiving this Commission
meeting schedule electronically, please send an electronic
message to dkw@nrc.gov [dkw@nrc.gov] . Dated: September 9, 2004.
R. Michelle Schroll, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 04-20857 Filed 9-13-04; 10:07 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-M
*****************************************************************
38 The Herald: British Energy war of words escalates
Web Issue 2094 September 15 2004
BEN GRIFFITHS September 15 2004
CREDITORS of troubled nuclear power firm British Energy
yesterday waded into the row with rogue shareholder Polygon by
warning the US hedge fund to back off or face legal action.
The move represents an escalation of the war of words which has
broken out between the electricity generator and Polygon, which
has been pressing for a better deal for investors from British
Energy's £5bn restructuring arrangements. A letter dated
September 14 was sent to Polygon's legal team on behalf of an ad
hoc committee of creditors. It claimed the US investor had
undertaken an "orchestrated campaign to subvert British Energy's
binding restructuring through the release of disinformation to
the market".
Polygon, represented by McDermott, Will &Energy, has demanded
an extraordinary meeting after East Kilbride-based British
Energy threatened to de-list the company if shareholders fail to
approve the rescue plan.
Under the terms of a deal carved out in October 2003,
shareholders will get 2.5% of the company with the rest going to
creditors and bondholders in exchange for wiping out £1.3bn of
debt.
Creditors have warned Polygon that a de-listing is legal if
required to ensure that the rescue package goes through.
The letter from London law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham &Taft
added: "It is dangerous for your client to contend that the
company should not take steps to promulgate the CRA (creditor
restructuring agreement), since that is exactly what the company
is bound to do."
The row has blown up in anticipation of the imminent approval
for the rescue plan by the European Commission's competition
authorities, after which shareholders will be asked to vote and
the debt-for-equity swap will go ahead.
Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights
[http://www.pressnow.co.uk/] :: About Us :: Terms of Use
*****************************************************************
39 BBC: UK needs 'more nuclear stations'
Last Updated: Wednesday, 15 September, 2004
Storage containers for vitrified waste, BNFL]
Radioactive waste is the issue which dogs nuclear
Climate change demands Britain consider building new nuclear
power plants, says Lord May, the Royal Society president.
The government's former chief scientist told the Daily Telegraph
that the UK would struggle to reduce its emissions of carbon
dioxide without nuclear.
He said politicians must be courageous and start talking about
the "unpopular child in the energy family".
He argued that the idea Britain could meet its energy needs with
renewables alone was simply wishful thinking.
The truth is that it will difficult for Britain to lead the way
on climate change in the mid-term future without building new
nuclear power stations [ src=] Lord May, Royal
Society
The head of the UK's national academy of science was reacting to
the keynote environment speeches given this week by Prime
Minister Tony Blair and Conservative opposition leader Michael
Howard.
Both recognised the potential disaster facing the planet if CO2
emissions grew unchecked but neither mentioned building new
nuclear power stations as a possible solution to the problem.
'So much at stake'
Challenged directly on the subject by BBC News Online after his
address, Mr Howard said: "Only a government can take that
decision... We'll decide when we return to government."
Mr Blair reiterated his position in the Commons on Wednesday when
he said the government had an open mind.
[Lord May of Oxford (Royal Society)]
Lord May: Time to act is now
"We have made it clear in the White Paper that we published that
we haven't shut the door on [nuclear] but until the issues to do
with cost and public concern over safety can be met there is
simply not the consent to go ahead with it," he said during
Question Time.
But Lord May said the politicians' lack of courage on the issue
was disappointing.
"The truth is that it will be difficult for Britain to lead the
way on climate change in the mid-term future without building new
nuclear power stations," he wrote in his Telegraph opinion
column.
"Looking to the future, we need to be aiming for reductions in
carbon dioxide emissions of about 60% by the middle of this
century to avoid the worst-case scenarios for climate change.
I
think it's rather sad th for years Britain has been advised by
people who don't see what the rest of Europe is doing on
renewable energy Roger Higman, Friends Of The Earth
"Yet Britain's emissions actually rose by 1.5%
between 2002 and 2003.
"Many of us want to believe in the promise of largely benign
renewable energies, such as wind and solar, to satisfy completely
our seemingly insatiable appetite for energy at low cost to the
environment. But now, when there is so much at stake in averting
a climate crisis, is not the time to retreat into wishful
thinking."
European lead
Lord May is among several leading thinkers to raise the issue of
a new nuclear building programme.
Professor James Lovelock - who developed the Gaia Hypothesis of a
benign, self-regulating Earth - outraged the environmental lobby
earlier this year when he also called for nuclear to play a part
in tackling climate change.
And Sir Crispin Tickell, formerly the UK's ambassador to the
United Nations, has accused British politicians of failing to
give a lead on nuclear energy.
But any move to extend the lives of nuclear power stations, let
alone build new ones, is likely to provoke strong public
opposition.
Sizewell B in Suffolk, a pressurised water reactor, was the last
nuclear plant to come into operation in the UK, in 1994. It took
seven years to build, after the largest ever public enquiry in
Britain.
Many of the country's other stations are now approaching the end
of their lives.
Roger Higman, a climate change campaigner for Friends Of The
Earth, rejected Lord May's analysis.
He described nuclear power as an "expensive, dirty option".
"It is intimately associated with the technologies that are used
to make nuclear weapons," he told BBC News Online.
"If we are going to be using nuclear to combat climate change, it
will be impossible to persuade anybody else to reduce their
emissions without giving them access to nuclear power... and that
also enables them to build bombs."
Mr Higman said the UK had superb renewable potential in wind,
wave and tidal power.
"I think it's rather sad that for years Britain has been advised
by people who don't see what the rest of Europe is doing on
renewable energy, and isn't following it up."
*****************************************************************
40 Platts NEI: Nuclear industry will meet NRC security deadline
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
+ The nuclear power industry expects to meet federal security
requirements by the NRC's Oct. 29 deadline, the Nuclear Energy
Institute's (NEI) chief nuclear officer said today. Marvin Fertel
told a House panel that the security enhancements to be put in
place will continue to make nuclear power plants "a model for
industrial security in America." One exception, he noted, might
be the implementation of requirements for bullet-resistant
enclosures because the U.S. military had priority in getting the
steel for its needs in fighting the war in Iraq. Christopher
Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the House Government Oversight
Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats
&International Relations, said it appears NRC is too close to the
industry it regulates. But Fertel countered that there has been
an intense effort to improve security since the 2001 terrorist
attacks.
Washington (Platts)--14Sep2004
Copyright © 2004 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
41 Pulse of the Twin Cities: 20 more years of nuclear?
PulseTC.com
Wednesday 15 September @ 15:34:09
XCel Energy seeks to extend license of state's three reactors By
Carey L. Biron
Minnesota’s three nuclear plants, the source of three decades of
bitter political fights between Xcel Energy and grass-roots
coalitions, will keep on running 20 years past their expiration
dates if the company gets its way.
The nuclear facility in Monticello and the two at Red Wing’s
Prairie Island have been operating for more than three decades,
and are nearing the end of their federally-licensed life
spans—currently scheduled for 2010, 2013 and 2014. For the
conservation and Native American groups who despise the use of
nuclear power and the local storage of radioactive waste, those
dates were the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then, on the first of this month, the plants’ owner,
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, announced it will seek approval to
keep on running the plants for 20 more years.
To keep the plants going, Xcel needs two things: federal approval
from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and somewhere to put
all the waste. The first is not expected to be much trouble for
the company, as the NRC has never rejected a re-licensing
application. The second requirement might also have become easier
for the company since last year, when the legislature gave away
its power to the governor-appointed Public Utilities Commission
(PUC).
“The people of Minnesota have a lesser ability to influence PUC’s
decisions,” than the decisions of elected officials, warned Scott
Elkins, the Sierra Club’s state director. “So the public will get
less of an opportunity to be heard both in the relicensing
process, as well as in the nuclear waste storage process than
they did in the past.”
The author of last year’s bill putting the PUC in charge of
regulating Xcel was Sen. Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing)—a paid
employee of Xcel Energy at the same time he was writing a
legislative bill to help the company.
In 1994—the first time the energy company came to the state with
a storage request, to stockpile high-level nuclear waste in
temporary casks at the Prairie Island facility—there were
political fireworks. Although Xcel has more lobbyists than any
company in the state, grassroots groups were able to force a
compromise; the company could store some waste if it invested in
alternative energy.
“Now it appears that they’ve totally thrown in the towel on
making that sort of transition,” suggested Elkins.
Current projections by the Minnesota Department of Commerce
estimate that Minnesota’s energy consumption needs will increase
by 2,700 megawatts in the upcoming decade —assuming that the
current nuclear plants continue operating. Xcel’s Jim Alders,
manager of regulator projects, says that this extraordinary
increase in need is where the conversation for renewable
resources needs to begin.
“Nuclear power plants are part of our baseload facilities; they
operate around the clock,” he said. “We’re going to have to add
hundreds and hundreds of megawatts of new power plants, just to
keep up with the demand for electricity. That’s where there
should be a vigorous debate about how much of that should be in
renewables. You don’t increase the potential for renewable
resources by doing away with nuclear power plants. What you do
instead is make the cost of electricity more expensive.”
For the people of Monticello, any misgivings about the plant and
stored waste seem to have been snowed under long ago. Monticello
City Administrator Rick Wolfsteller recently told the Monticello
Times that Xcel will pay just under half of the city’s taxes this
year. Back when the plant first opened, that figure was closer to
75 percent.
Next door to the Prairie Island plants, the Mdewakantonwan
community—paid $1 million per year as long as the plants continue
operating—“has been a reluctant neighbor of the plant and
storage,” said Jake Reint, a spokesman for the community. Reint
says that, while the tribal council is not surprised by the news,
“the council does still believe that there needs to be a
permanent storage solution before we get too far down the line of
operating the plant indefinitely.”
That appears to be significantly easier said than done. Although
the federal government did finally name Nevada’s Yucca Mountain
as the only option for long-term waste storage, it has
encountered legal and logistical problems.
“We found that radiation release standards wouldn’t protect the
health of future generations,” said the Public Citizen’s Michelle
Boyd. “They arbitrarily gerrymandered the site boundary so that
radiation release standards would go 18 kilometers to a control
area,” Boyd argued. “According to their own standards, for 10,000
years no one’s supposed to drink the water or grow food on that
land. However, there are already wells on that land and there is
farming just south of there.
Boyd says that this 10,000-year period doesn’t even get to the
waste material’s most dangerous period. “It’s ludicrous:
according to the National Academy of Sciences, the maximum doses
are likely to occur at 30,000 years or more,” she said.
Even if Yucca Mountain were to open today, the Sierra Club’s
Scott Elkins says that it wouldn’t even be big enough to handle
all of the waste material. “So there’s the concern on the part of
a lot of folks that these storage sites on the flood plain of the
Mississippi River will in essence become permanent nuclear waste
storage facilities,” he said.
Not only is Xcel shirking its legal mandates by not investing in
more renewable energy sources, says George Crocker of the North
American Water Office, but doing so would be significantly easier
and more economical than the public is usually told.
“Minnesota exports about $10 billion to import its energy; about
a third of that is for electricity,” he said. “In other words,
the money train leaves each year with about $3 billion … There
are so many ways that we could channel that money—that we are
spending on energy anyway—and use it instead for local economic
development with locally available community based renewable
energy. That’s exactly what Xcel is trying hard not to do.”
The state’s reactors account for about 20 percent of Xcel’s
overall capacity, Crocker emphasizes. “We could easily have a
system in which 20 percent was wind and still not be in the way
of reliability of the system. So that means that wind, all by
itself, could displace the energy and the capacity that these
reactors produce.”
Since the 1994 agreement, Crocker says that progress made in
Minnesota’s energy infrastructure has been backsliding. He says
that he’s not surprised by Xcel’s decision to renew their nuclear
licenses, but he is saddened.
“The reason we’re not doing [renewables] and instead are doing
nuclear is because that’s the way that the people running Xcel
make their money,” he said. “It has everything to do with
privilege and the sunk investment that’s already made into these
obsolete and terribly, increasingly dangerous nuclear
technologies. What’s probably even more disturbing, though, is
that there are so many people in this state that are functionally
illiterate about how their utility services are delivered that
Xcel could even dream of trying to do such an irresponsible
development.”
Copyright © Pulse of the Twin Cities and [http://hostingave.net]
*****************************************************************
42 Insight Mag: GAO Raises Concerns Over Nuke Security -
[http://www.insightmag.com
Posted September 15, 2004
By Thom J. Rose
U.S. nuclear power plants are better protected than they were
before Sept. 11, 2001, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
charged with enforcing their security does not know exactly how
safe they are, Jim Wells, director of natural resources and
environment at the Government Accountability Office, told a
Tuesday congressional hearing.
Wells said the NRC has pushed plants to tighten security by
issuing a series of advisories and orders dictating specific
hardening measures for all private nuclear facilities and has
revised its description of the hostile threats for which nuclear
power plants should be prepared.
"While we applaud these efforts, it will take several more years
for NRC to make an independent determination that each plant has
taken reasonable and appropriate steps to protect against the
threat presented in the (revised description)," Wells told the
House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and
International Relations, according to prepared remarks.
Wells said that while the NRC has called for significant security
improvements, its review of plant security plans has been rushed
and has relied largely on documents submitted by plant operators
rather than visits to plants. That approach affords regulators no
opportunity to evaluate the specific conditions of each facility,
Wells said.
"For example, the plans do not detail defensive positions at the
site, how the defenders would deploy to respond to an attack or
how long the deployment would take," he said.
The mock attacks known as force-on-force tests provide large
amounts of specific data about plants' implementation of their
plans, and the NRC has ramped up its force-on-force testing
program, but Wells said it will take up to three years for the
commission to test all of the country's 64 nuclear power sites.
Furthermore, the GAO has warned that security plans should be
fully considered before their implementation is tested.
Wells and several subcommittee members also questioned the makeup
of the NRC's planned force-on-force tests, which are set to be
carried out by Wackenhut, a company that guards many of the
plants in question.
"This relationship with the industry raises questions about the
(testing) force's independence," Wells said.
Wackenhut and the NRC have defended Wackenhut's assignment to
carry out the tests, saying the commission will oversee every
step of the testing and that Wackenhut employees are uniquely
qualified for the project.
Wells further faulted the NRC for not following up on violations
discovered in early tests.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., said,
"Despite persistent efforts by reactor operators and regulators
to minimize the risks of containment breach or spent-fuel
sabotage, surrounding communities and those farther downwind take
little comfort from a cozy, indulgent regulatory process that
looks and acts very much like business as usual."
Wells said the NRC has neglected to make conclusions drawn from
inspections available to plants other than the one being tested
or to regional offices that could benefit from lessons learned.
Marvin Fertel, chief nuclear officer of the industry group
Nuclear Energy Institute, told the subcommittee nuclear power
plants have made great strides but shouldn't be pushed to digest
too many more changes in the near term. He called for a period of
"regulatory stability" during which plants could integrate the
changes they have already been called upon to make.
Fertel said the nuclear power industry has spent $1 billion to
improve security since Sept. 11, 2001.
"The NRC has recognized that the commercial nuclear energy
industry has reached the maximum level of security enhancements
that can be expected from a private entity," Fertel said.
"Further increases to nuclear plant security requirements could
have serious policy implications."
Luis Reyes, the NRC's executive director for operations,
submitted testimony calling for a number of statutory changes he
said would allow the commission to further enhance security.
The NRC has requested authorization for nuclear power-plant
guards to carry more powerful weapons for use in a possible
terrorist attack. The commission has also called on Congress to
expand the number of nuclear industry employees who are subject
to fingerprinting and background checks and to make carrying a
dangerous weapon into a nuclear facility a federal crime.
The commission would also like Congress to expand the classes of
nuclear facilities, fuels and materials that are protected from
sabotage by federal law and to extend NRC regulatory oversight
jurisdiction to include discrete sources of accelerator-produced
radioactive material and radium-226.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer who testified on behalf
of the Union of Concerned Scientists, told United Press
International he was pleased to learn that the NRC has trained
with the Department of Defense, NORAD and Northcom to respond to
a hijacked commercial airplane directed at a nuclear facility.
"It was good to hear that that's in place," Lochbaum said.
Lochbaum urged the NRC to require power-plant owners to transfer
spent fuel more than five years old into dry casks surrounded by
earthen berms and other protective devices and called for
increased public debate of nuclear security issues.
"There is a way to discuss this important issue in public and to
do it responsibly," Lochbaum said. He cited the subcommittee
hearing as an example of a productive discussion that did not
release any sensitive security information.
Thom J. Rose is a writer for UPI, a sister news agency of
Insight.
Copyright © 1990-2003 News World Communications, Inc.
Editorial Feedback [editor@insightmag.com
*****************************************************************
43 Lincoln County News: The dome at Maine Yankee
September 15, 2004
All eyes have been on Maine Yankee in Wiscasset since
decommissioning began in 1997 as a model for other closing
nuclear power plants, and demolition of the containment dome
Friday morning is no exception.
The collapse of the 145-foot high dome with the implosion of
concrete columns hewn from the structure is in a very real sense,
a symbolic end to an era of economic boon for Wiscasset and the
Midcoast.
Maine Yankee began operation in 1972 bringing new employment
opportunity and business but then closed more than 10 years
sooner than the 2008 license.
About 200 invited guests, former employees, and news media will
gather at the plant site to observe the dome fall from its
concrete columns at around 10 a.m.
Many other people are expected to observe the spectacle from
across the river from the plant.
“It will not totally disappear, though,” said company spokesman
Eric Howes.
Referring to inaccuracies of current news reports, he explained
that the columns now supporting the dome are themselves 145 feet
high. They will collapse from explosives wired to them, and
explosion experts anticipate the top of the dome falling down
intact.
The top will then be accessible to excavation equipment for
demolition and later, transportation elsewhere. “That’s the
purpose, to get the dome closer to the ground,” Howes said.
There will be a 1000-foot exclusion zone in place prior to the
blast, which, according to Maine Yankee officials, is the “safest
most efficient method of demolishing a building of this size”.
The steel reinforced concrete walls range from 4.5 feet thick at
the base to 2.5 feet thick at the top.
The entire dome has been radiologically surveyed inside and out
to assure that it meets the standard for demolition, according to
Howes. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the State of
Maine have independently confirmed the survey results, he said.
With the dome and all the other buildings soon missing from the
scene, the site will revert back to it natural setting except for
the spent fuel storage installation. The storage facility will be
there until the federal government opens the national repository
at Yucca Mountain, Nev., which is scheduled to begin taking
high-level nuclear waste in 2010.
Dismantling of the rest of the buildings will continue until the
end of the decommissioning process, which officials have said is
on target for the company’s 2005 goal for completion.
The plant site at Bailey Point is expected to have only
restricted use aside from the onsite storage facility, but
infrastructure work for a multi-use technology park is underway
for the 441 acres of land on the other side of Ferry Road. The
parcel recently exchanged hands from the company to Natural
Resources via the Town of Wiscasset, which purchased it from
Maine Yankee.
The other property, known as Eaton Farm, is to go to the
Chewonki Foundation for recreational-educational purposes.
Vol. 129 - No. 37 [
This site is owned by Lincoln County News ©
2002
*****************************************************************
44 Korea Times: KEDO to Compensate Korean Companies
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Nation
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
The Seoul government is seeking ways to compensate private
companies in South Korea that have suffered financially due to
the halted construction of two light-water reactors in North
Korea, officials said Wednesday.
``We are consulting with KEDO's board members over compensation
for losses from idle manpower and equipment,'' said a Seoul
official involved in the $4.6 billion project of the Korean
Peninsula Energy Development Organization, an international
consortium established in 1994.
He explained that the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation
(KEPCO) has already given a total of 9.65 billion won ($8
million) to private companies to alleviate their financial
burdens.
`` KEDO's money will go directly to KEPCO, if the international
consortium agrees with our proposal,'' he said.
To prevent further financial loss, the official also said that
the Seoul government will demand Pyongyang lift its ban on the
removal of equipment set up by South Korean companies at the site
in Kumho, eastern North Korea.
KEDO decided on Dec. 1 last year to temporarily suspend the
project to build the power plants by one year. The U.S.
government will reconsider the fate of the project in December.
In a bid to keep the project afloat, the Unification Ministry in
Seoul is seeking to extend the suspension period by another year.
South Korea and Japan stand to lose most of the $1.52 billion _
$1.1 billion from Seoul and $400 million from Tokyo _ the
consortium has so far invested in the project if the project is
scrapped for good.
The KEDO project was an integral part of an agreement between
Washington and Pyongyang in 1994, under which the North pledged
to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for reactors and
heavy oil shipments.
However, the North was later found to have violated the agreement
by operating a secret nuclear weapons program in 2002. The U.S.
officially halted its oil shipments and has been pushing for the
termination of the project. Japan and the European Union, the
other two KEDO members, have been siding with the United States.
South Korea, which bears 70 percent of the total cost of building
the two power plants, wants to resume the project after the
on-going nuclear crisis is resolved by the six-way talks.
im@koreatimes.co.kr 09-15-2004 17:16
*****************************************************************
45 Scotsman.com: Blair Warns of Safety Fears Hurdle for Nuclear Energy
Wed 15 Sep 2004
By Joe Churcher, Chief Parliamentary Reporter, PA News
Public safety fears and high costs would have to be overcome
before there was any chance of building any new nuclear power
stations, Prime Minister Tony Blair said today.
He told MPs at question time that the Government had not “shut
the door†on nuclear but there was “simply not the consentâ€
for it to expand as things stood.
Mr Blair said renewable energy sources would play a “vital
part†in reducing greenhouse gases.
Tory former minister David Heathcoat-Amory (Wells) had told him
the Government’s energy policy “makes no sense†as it would
“desecrate†the countryside with wind farms while allowing
nuclear power to “wither awayâ€.
But Mr Blair backed the use of new technologies.
He said: “It is a perfectly coherent policy to say that we are
going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy and
greater energy efficiency is a good way of achieving it.â€
“We have made it clear in the White Paper that we published
that we haven’t shut the door on it
nuclear] but until the issues to do with cost and public concern
over safety can be met there is simply not the consent to go
ahead with it.
“That is why it is important we continue to invest in new
technologies such as renewable energy.†[
©2004 Scotsman.com [http://www.scotsman.com/] |
*****************************************************************
46 Newsday: Nuclear power plant shut down again for valve repair
[http://www.newsday.com]
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) _ The Indian Point 2 nuclear power plant was
taken out of service Wednesday for the second time in two weeks
so a valve could be repaired, its owner said.
The plant was shut down safely, with no danger to the public,
said Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast.
The valve, known as a check valve and used to prevent backflow in
the feedwater system, was not closing completely, Steets said.
He said the plant had been running at 70 percent capacity for a
few days while engineers tried to find a way to repair the valve
without shutting the reactor, but eventually decided a shutdown
was required.
"We couldn't achieve the isolation we wanted," Steets said.
He said the plant, one of two on the Hudson River in Buchanan,
would be offline for several days. Indian Point 3 was not
affected.
Although the previous shutdown, which lasted from Sept. 1 to
Sept. 3, was also due to a faulty valve, there was no
relationship between the two outages, Steets said.
Before the Sept. 1 shutdown, Indian Point 2 had run for 382
consecutive days dating back to the blackout of August 2003.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
*****************************************************************
47 Newsday: Lawmakers question agency's monitoring of nuclear power plant
security
[http://www.newsday.com]
By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer
September 14, 2004, 6:45 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cannot independently verify
that every nuclear power plant is taking required safeguards to
protect against a terrorist threat, congressional investigators
told a House subcommittee Tuesday.
Senior NRC officials strongly challenged that assessment and said
the agency, through onsite inspectors and other activities, is
aggressively monitoring security compliance at the nation's 103
reactors at 65 sites.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the subcommittee,
said there still "is no reasonable assurance plants are
adequately protected" even though the NRC in April 2003 developed
new standards as to what kinds of potential terrorist attacks
plant operators must be prepared to repel.
He accused the NRC and industry of trying to "minimize the risks"
of a terrorist attack that could lead to a radiation release and
accepting "a cozy, indulgent regulatory process that looks and
acts very much like business as usual."
That brought an emotional response from Roy Zimmerman, head of
the NRC's security office, who said he was concerned that
lawmakers were assuming the NRC is not paying attention to
security.
"We're laying awake at night. We've very concerned," Zimmerman
said. "We're constantly looking and working very long hours to
get out ahead of those that want to do us harm. We're not
lackadaisical."
The Government Accountability Office told the subcommittee that
the NRC's monitoring of reactor security has been largely "a
paper review" that falls short of assuring that industry security
plans are meeting the more stringent requirements now demanded.
At the same time, the GAO, which is the auditing arm of Congress,
said critical "force-on-force" mock attacks to physically test
security at the plants will not be completed at all facilities
until late 2007.
"It will take several more years for NRC to make an independent
determination that each plant has taken reasonable and
appropriate steps to protect against the (terrorist) threat
presented," GAO investigator Jim Well told a House Government
Reform subcommittee on national security.
NRC officials, who also testified before the panel, strongly
disputed the GAO assessment and said the agency has increased
inspection hours at the power plants fivefold and has physically
reviewed 80 percent of the security items plant operators must
address.
"We have inspectors (at the plants) all the time," said Luis
Reyes, the NRC's executive director for operations. "We are there
where the rubber meets the road when it comes to inspections."
The GAO report also criticized the NRC for "not following up to
verify that all violations of security requirements have been
corrected" and for not filing official reports on all such
incidents.
At least two NRC inspectors are assigned to each of the 65
commercial nuclear power plant sites in 31 states. Reyes
acknowledged they have broad responsibilities and do not file
written reports on all security shortcomings _ only "the more
significant ones."
Those viewed as of "low level" importance are evaluated on a
sample basis, he said. "It's a matter of resources."
In separate testimony, nuclear industry representatives said
utilities have spent more than $1 billion on security
improvements and increased security forces by 60 percent, hiring
3,000 additional officers, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Nuclear power plants are the most secure commercially owned
facilities in the country," said Marvin Fertel, senior vice
president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry trade
group.
Among the improvements cited were expansion of security
perimeters around plants, more patrols within security zones,
installation of new barriers to protect against vehicle bombs,
installation of high-tech surveillance equipment, increased
communications and coordination with local, state and federal
police authorities. The NRC also has required plants to conduct
force-on-force mock drills once every three years, instead of
once every eight years as required before 2001.
On the Net:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
Nuclear Energy Institute: http://www.nei.org
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
*****************************************************************
48 TheDay.com: Burton Running For Legislature On Anti-nuke Platform
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004
The leader of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone
launched a bid Tuesday for a seat in the state's 135th House
District, pledging to shut down Northeast nuclear power stations
if elected.
Nancy Burton, 54, of Redding, is running as a Green Party
candidate. Her goal is to fight for clean air, clean water, and
clean government, according to a speech presented at a press
conference Tuesday in Redding.
The district also covers Easton and Weston.
In her speech, Burton vowed to close Millstone station in
Waterford and the Indian Point power stations in New York, saying
the electric generators pose a grave risk to public health and
safety.
Burton is a licensed attorney in New York and at the federal
level, but has been disbarred in Connecticut for violating rules
of conduct while representing clients in a lawsuit. She is still
pursuing federal legal challenges by the coalition to Millstone's
new spent fuel storage permit and possible re-licensing of two of
its reactors. She is seeking reinstatement as a lawyer here.
Born in Keene, N.H., Burton earned a bachelor's degree in
journalism from New York University and a law degree at Brooklyn
Law School. A lifelong Democrat, she switched to the Green Party
this year when asked to run.
There's a clear need in Hartford for a true voice of the
people, Burton said.
She has lived in Redding for 20 years with her husband, William
Honan. They have three grown children.
Patricia Daddona
1998-2004 The Day Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
49 ThisisLondon: Bondholders 'No' to British Energy
15 September 2004
LAWYERS acting for British Energy's leading bondholders have
rejected shareholder Polygon's calls for changes to the
restructuring of the ailing nuclear generator.
Polygon's eleventh-hour proposals - including a rights issue to
pay off bondholders - have 'no basis in law or recent practice',
says a letter sent by bondholders.
The letter, in response to one sent by Polygon to BE, accuses
Polygon of an 'orchestrated campaign to subvert BE's binding
restructuring through the release of disinformation to the
market'.
In a second blow, a source close to Humbert Drabbe, head of the
European Commission's competition unit, played down the
significance of its meeting with Polygon later this week. 'They
asked for a meeting at service level, and that is what they will
get.'
Polygon refused to comment. EC approval of BE's restructuring
could come as early as next Wednesday.
*****************************************************************
50 How Airplanes Can Be Easily Hijacked Still Says Ex Customs Agent At JFK Airlines
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:35:24 -0400
And then they can fly them into nuclear power,
DOE nuclear weapons[or their equivalent in other
NWStates] or chemical plant facilities. A brief,
much understated scenario from the nuclear
industry themselves, commissioned by NRC is:
http://www.mothersalert.org/crac.html
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091504W.shtml
Ex-Feds Blast 9-11 Panel and Bush
By James Ridgeway
Village Voice
Tuesday 13 September 2004
Government agencies roasted for screw-ups in war
on "terror".
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A group of 25 former federal
employees directly involved in the government's
counterintelligence and counterterrorism programs
held a press conference here this morning to
lambaste both the 9-11 Commission and the Bush
administration for failing to hold government
officials accountable for failures leading up to
9-11.
The ex-employees, from the FBI, CIA, FAA,
Customs, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, had
firsthand knowledge of their agencies' activities
in counterintelligence and counterterrorism.
Bogdan Dzakovic, a former special agent at the
FAA, said he repeatedly sought to warn his
superiors of mismanagement and the dangers of
terrorism, but to no avail. He was a leader of a
"Red Team" at FAA, engaged in preparing for
terrorist attacks. But he said the security
measures in his agency were "little more than
window dressing," and quoted one frustrated
colleague as saying, "The FAA is so screwed up I
don't know where to begin."
Diane Kleiman, a former Customs agent at JFK who
was fired in 1999, scoffed at the idea that
airport security has been improved. Emphasis on
checking passengers coming into the airport hides
the real problems in the back of the airport, she
said, where literally anybody can board a parked
plane. She outlined a scenario, for instance, in
which, say, 10 terrorists could apply to be cargo
handlers (a job with high turnover), get hired and
work, but then quit, retaining their passes, which
give them access to ramps and the unlocked
aircraft. They then could enter the airports with
backpacks full of explosives, get on the planes,
stash the bags in the cargo holds, and leave. In
this way, 10 planes with all their passengers
could be blown up.
Holding up a special government
security-clearance pass, she described how lax
airport security remains. Her pass gave her
entrance to every nook and cranny of the airport,
from ramps to runways to planes to cargo-handling
entrances. Such a pass is worth thousands of
dollars to any would-be terrorist. When she was
fired, nobody took this valuable passport from
her. "The leadership and management at JFK are
terrible," she said.
The 25 signed a letter to Congress - organized
by Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI whistleblower who
is blocked from telling what she knows by a
Justice Department gag order - citing "intentional
actions or inaction by individuals responsible for
our national security, actions or inaction
dictated by motives other than the security of the
people of the United States."
The 9-11 Commission's final report, the letter
added, "deliberately ignores officials and civil
servants who were, and still are, clearly
negligent and/or derelict in their duties to the
nation. If these individuals are protected, rather
than held accountable, the mindset that enabled
9-11 will persist, no matter how many layers of
bureaucracy are added, and no matter how much
money is poured into the agencies. Character
counts. Personal integrity, courage, and
professionalism make the difference. Only a
commission bent on holding no one responsible and
reaching unanimity could have missed that."
-------
*****************************************************************
51 [du-list] DU - teh stuff of nightmares
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 14:44:13 -0700
DU - The stuff of nightmares
By Julie Flint
Special to The Lebanon Daily Star
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=8333
Two years before the invasion of Iraq, a report
commissioned
by the World Health Organization warned that the
long-term
health of Iraq's civilian population would be damaged
by the
use of depleted uranium (DU) - radioactive waste from
the
nuclear industry which is used to harden missiles,
shells
and bullets and which slices through tank armor like a
knife
through butter. The WHO did not make the report
public. Odd,
that.
DU has been called the "Trojan Horse" of the wars in
Iraq -
and Afghanistan and Kosovo and Bosnia - a weapon that
keeps
on killing. On detonation, DU armaments release a
spray of
radioactive dust that can be carried in the air over
long
distances and which, when inhaled, goes into the body
and
stays there. The dust remains radioactive for 4.5
billion years.
The WHO report was written by three of Europe's top
radiation scientists, including Dr. Keith Baverstock,
for
more than a decade the WHO's leading expert on
radiation and
health. After retiring from the WHO, Baverstock leaked
the
report to the media earlier this year. It concluded
that
microscopic particles of DU would be blown around and
inhaled by Iraqi civilians for years to come, and
could
trigger the growth of malignant tumors. Baverstock
believes
the WHO deliberately suppressed the report - probably
under
pressure from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA),
a more powerful UN body that promotes nuclear power.
In
response, WHO claims the IAEA's role was "very minor"
and
says the report was not approved for publication
because
"parts of it did not reflect accurately what a
WHO-convened
group of international experts considered the best
science
in the area of depleted uranium."
In other words, its own chosen experts got it wrong.
Odd, again.
Had the study had been published in November 2001,
Baverstock believes there would have been more
pressure on
the Allies to limit their use of DU during the
invasion of
Iraq - and to clean up afterward. But it wasn't
published.
As a result, Iraq is now playing host to some 350 tons
of DU
fired in 1991, but also to more than 1,000 tons
reportedly
fired in 2003. The "reportedly" is needed here because
the
armed forces are playing coy with figures. No wonder:
handlers of DU in the US and Britain are required to
wear
masks and protective clothing. Imagine Iraqis having
to
dress like that for 4.5 billion years.
Nuha al-Radi, the much-loved Iraqi artist and diarist
who
died in Beirut on August 31, believed her leukemia
could
have been caused by DU. And if not DU, then something
else
to which Iraqis were knowingly exposed in the wars
since
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. For DU is not the only
concern in the "toxic wasteland" that many scientists
say
Iraq has become. There are also the chemical weapons
the
Baath regime used against its own people, and in its
war
with Iran, and, most recently, the chemical and
biological
materials released into the atmosphere by Allied
bombing of
Iraqi stockpiles in the first Gulf war of 1991.
Nuha, who didn't believe the first war would take
place, was
devastated by the second. "The carnage takes place in
apocalyptic proportions," she wrote at her lowest
point.
"Sometimes I want to cry, but I resist. I am totally
withered, and feel so useless." We talked of working
together on a film that would investigate the
pollution of
Iraq and its people. Nuha was convinced that DU was
entering
the water table and flowing into every corner of the
country, poisoning everything. But she fell ill, and
we did
nothing.
Looking at the DU debate now, one thing is
crystal-clear:
there are two very district bodies of opinion - and
both
claim to be informed. The question is, by what?
On one side, there are the governments that use DU
weapons,
the IAEA, NATO and WHO, who maintain (publicly, at
least)
that DU is not particularly dangerous and has no
long-term
effects. On the other side, united by varying degrees
of
concern, are the European Parliament, which has called
for
an immediate moratorium on the use of DU weapons,
Belgium,
Portugal, France, Spain and Italy, who don't use them
and
want an inquiry into them; the United Nations
Environmental
Program; and many independent scientists, several of
whom
have first-hand experience of the legacy of DU.
After the first Gulf war, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a
colonel in
the US Army Medical Corps, was put in charge of
Nuclear
Medicine Service at the Department of Veterans Affairs
Medical Center. He discovered unusual radiation levels
in
veterans and became convinced not only that DU was
killing
them, but also that it was causing changes in the
human gene
pool that would damage future generations. He found
"considerable resistance" from the government to his
work on
DU and was asked to stop. He refused. Two months after
writing to President Bill Clinton to request an
inquiry into
DU contamination, he was fired - and went on to become
Clinical Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
at
Georgetown University in Washington.
A nutter? Hardly. Yet Durakovic says soil samples from
Iraq
show radiation levels 17 times higher than is
acceptable -
threatening, he says, environmental "catastrophe." He
believes that DU contamination from the 1991 war may
have
exposed the entire Gulf population.
When the 1991 war started, Dr. Doug Rokke, a Vietnam
veteran, forensic scientist and retired army major,
was
recalled from academia and sent to the Gulf as part of
the
army's Depleted Uranium Assessment team. "The US Army
made
me their expert," he says. "I went into the project
with the
total intent to ensure they could use uranium
munitions in
war, because I'm a warrior. What I saw as director of
the
project led me to one conclusion: uranium munitions
must be
banned from the planet, for eternity, and medical care
must
be provided for everyone" - those on the firing end
and
those on the receiving end.
Many in Rokke's Gulf team are now dead. He himself
suffers
from serious health problems including brain lesions
and
lung and kidney damage. When government doctors
finally
agreed to test him in November 1994, three-and-a-half
years
after he fell ill, while he was director of the
Pentagon's
Depleted Uranium Project, he was found to have 5,000
times
the permissible level of radiation in his body -
enough to
light up a small village.
DU, he says, is the stuff of nightmares.
Julie Flint is a veteran journalist based in Beirut
and
London. This is the first of two articles on depleted
uranium, which she wrote for THE DAILY STAR
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52 Hawk Eye: Kerry weighs in on claims
[http://archive.thehawkeye.com]
Monday, September 13, 2004 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
Presidential candidate pushes for change in handling former
weapons workers' compensation.
By MATTHEW LeBLANC
mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
In what already has become a heated battle for the White House,
John Kerry has weighed in on the issue of ailing nuclear weapons
workers, telling an Ohio congressman that he and running mate
John Edwards would ensure that thousands sickened by work at
Energy Department sites nationwide would be paid under a federal
workers' compensation program.
The move once again pits the Massachusetts senator against the
Bush administration, which has in recent months announced
opposition to changes that would quicken the pace at which the
former weapons workers are paid.
Kerry sent a letter to Ohio Rep. Ted Strickland, a Democrat,
outlining in broad strokes his plan for the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program before a speech by Bush
in Portsmouth, Ohio, Friday. Earlier this year, Kerry criticized
the program, saying delays within the system are "wrong."
"The Cold War was ultimately won in no small part by those who
have served in the nation's nuclear facilities," Kerry said.
"With this in mind, I want to assure you that a Kerry–Edwards
administration will take our nation in the right direction by
ensuring the future health and prosperity of the community and
its workforce."
A bipartisan group of senators is currently pursuing changes in
the 4–year–old EEOICP. Legislation moving claims control from the
much–criticized Energy Department to the Department of Labor
remain in the hands of House and Senate conference committee
members. A decision on whether to move the legislation to the
Senate floor is expected later this year.
Bush lobbyists will argue against the bill, saying a change would
create "an unworkable process" and cause more delays. Spokesmen
for Bush have declined to comment on the administration's
opposition.
But proponents of the legislation, including Iowa Sens. Tom
Harkin and Charles Grassley, say the proposal would speed up a
claims process that has left thousands of former workers and
their families without government–prescribed benefits.
According to Energy Department data, only $700,000 of the nearly
$95 million allocated by Congress for the compensation program
has been doled out.
Kerry sent the letter Thursday before Bush was scheduled to speak
near the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio,
where workers' illnesses have been linked to employment at the
facility. He promised to make benefits available "in a timely and
equitable manner."
"Deserving workers will no longer be kept waiting to receive the
benefits Congress prescribed," Kerry said.
In Iowa, more than 1,600 former nuclear weapons workers at the
Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown have applied for
benefits, though only a handful have received money. Workers
there built, test–fired and disassembled components of nuclear
weapons from the 1940s to the mid–1970s.
Vina Colley, the head of watchdog group National Nuclear Workers
for Justice and former Portsmouth facility employee, applauded
Kerry's letter but questioned whether he would actively seek
changes in the program if he is elected president in November.
She also has filed claims under EEOICP.
"I'd like to know what he means by 'ensuring the future health
and prosperity of the community and its workforce,' " she said.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · [webmaster@thehawkeye.com]
*****************************************************************
53 Hawk Eye: Claims report blames Congress
[http://archive.thehawkeye.com]
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
Investigation says lagging agency not made aware of urgency.
By MATTHEW LeBLANC
mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
A portion of a complicated federal workers' compensation program
for former nuclear weapons workers has more than 19,000
unprocessed claims even though lawmakers say the payments should
be on the fast track.
Congressional investigators say more than 90 percent of claims
sent to government doctors in the last 2 1/2 years for radiation
exposure estimates remain in limbo, according to a report issued
this month by the Government Accountability Office. Investigators
say uneven coordination between the Labor Department and the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health created the
backlog in claims that may take years to work out.
NIOSH officials oversee "dose reconstructions" in which doctors
estimate the amount of harmful radiation to which a worker was
exposed during work at plants nationwide.
"Of the more than 21,000 claims requiring dose reconstruction, 9
percent were fully processed," the GAO wrote.
The investigation, ordered last year by Indiana Republican Rep.
John Hostettler, is at least the second into portions of the
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
Previous inquiries into other portions of the program noted
delays and other administrative problems.
However, the latest investigation places the blame on Congress —
not program administrators — for the backlog. While nearly 85
percent of claims that do not require dose reconstructions were
completely processed by Labor officials, the GAO faults lawmakers
for not making clear the ramifications of the expansive program
to NIOSH.
Congress passed legislation in 2000 creating the compensation
program, which gives out one–time $150,000 payments to former
nuclear weapons workers sickened by work at Department of Energy
plants. The Labor Department immediately began processing claims,
despite NIOSH being ill–equipped to handle them early on in the
program's history, the GAO said.
"Unlike Labor, which was able to immediately begin processing
claims at the start of the program..., NIOSH needed time to
develop the necessary regulations and to get staff and procedures
in place to perform dose reconstructions," the report said. "In a
May 2004 report to Congress, NIOSH reported that many of the key
program pieces, such as recruiting and training staff, were not
completed until 2003."
In contrast, the GAO reports that claims processed by Labor
officials had exceeded 24,000 by Aug. 1.
"Labor generally met its timeliness goals for processing claims,"
the report said.
The backlog could still affect about 1,600 former Iowa Army
Ammunition Plant workers who have filed claims under this portion
of the program. Many of those workers filed claims, arguing they
had contracted cancer while working at the Middletown plant,
where they built, test–fired and disassembled components of
nuclear weapons from the 1940s to the 1970s.
The backlog at NIOSH is centered on cancer claims, and the agency
currently has no timetable in place for their completion.
Members of Congress, including Sens. Charles Grassley, R–Iowa,
and Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, remain committed to moving all claims
filed under EEOICP to the Labor Department. Legislation that
would complete the move remains in committee, where House and
Senate leaders will decide whether to make the change later this
year.
The Energy Department runs the other portion of the program.
Also cited in the GAO report is a failure by NIOSH to complete
"site profiles" detailing levels of hazardous chemicals and
radiation at Energy sites around the country. The profiles are
used to determine what employees were exposed to at the time of
their work at the sites.
NIOSH doctors use the site profiles to complete the dose
reconstructions.
The GAO report questions whether dose reconstructions have even
begun on workers at sites without site profiles.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
[webmaster@thehawkeye.com]
*****************************************************************
54 Hawk Eye: Leach and Boswell sign on
[http://archive.thehawkeye.com]
Tuesday, September 14, 2004 Site updated daily at 11 a.m. CST
By MATTHEW LeBLANC
mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
Two members of Iowa's congressional delegation have signed on
with Kentucky and Ohio lawmakers to urge a joint Senate and House
committee to make changes in a federal workers' compensation
program.
Reps. Jim Leach, R–2nd District and Leonard Boswell, D–3rd
District, each signed a letter sent last week to House Armed
Services Committee members likely to be on the committee that
decides whether the changes will be made.
Reps. Tod Strickland, D–Ohio, and Ed Whitfield, R–Ky., wrote the
letter.
Proposed legislation would move control of claims filed under the
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program from
the Energy Department to the Labor Department. Proponents argue
the move would expedite claims for thousands of ailing former
nuclear weapons workers who filed the claims.
Currently, Labor and Energy officials run separate parts of the
program.
"When ... EEOICP was created, there were bipartisan doubts about
whether it made sense to divide claims processing
responsibilities between DOE and DOL ...," the lawmakers wrote.
"We strongly believe that acceptance of the Senate provision will
honor a national commitment to assist those veterans of the Cold
War who were told help is on the way when the law was enacted
four years ago."
At the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown, nearly 2,200
workers have applied for benefits under EEOICP. Only about 40
have received compensation payments, according to Labor
Department statistics.
Aides to Sen. Charles Grassley, R–Iowa, said house conferees had
not been picked as of Monday.
"Sen. Grassley's staff continues to work with members of the
committee of jurisdiction to educate them on the Senate
provisions," said Beth Pellett–Levine, Grassley's press
secretary.
Grassley and Sen. Tom Harkin, D–Iowa, each have introduced bills
seeking to simplify the complicated program.
The Hawk Eye 800 S. Main St., Burlington, Iowa 52601 319-754-8461
· 1-800-397-1708 · FAX 319-754-6824 · webmaster@thehawkeye.com
[webmaster@thehawkeye.com]
*****************************************************************
55 courier-journal: Sick-worker program may change
www.courier-journal.com
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Few claims paid in nuclear program
Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp predicts that Congress will
put the Labor Department in charge of a compensation program for
sick Cold War-era nuclear weapons workers that has stalled under
Energy Department control.
"Too many members of the House and the Senate lost confidence in
the Department of Energy because they got so far behind," the
Chattanooga Republican said Monday.
Congress enacted a law four years ago directing the Energy
Department to help workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
in Western Kentucky and other plants that handled nuclear
material file claims for lost wages and medical benefits under
state workers' compensation systems.
That reversed a decades-old practice in which the government
helped contractors fight the workers' claims.
Lawmakers and many of the workers, including hundreds in Wamp's
district in Oak Ridge, claim the Energy Department has squandered
much of the $95million it received. As of the end of July, the
agency had paid only 31 claims out of about 25,000 filed.
Wamp told The Knoxville News Sentinel that he still believes that
Oak Ridge workers would get federal benefits faster under
improved management by the Energy Department.
But he said, "I think their reputation in managing the program
was damaged, maybe irreparably." The Senate voted earlier to put
the Labor Department in charge.
Wamp said he will support whatever compromise the House and
Senate craft, although he remained concerned that getting the
Labor Department ready could lead to further delays.
Copyright 2004 The Courier-Journal.
*****************************************************************
56 Idaho Statesman: Downwinders to tell their tales, thanks to delegation
09-15-2004
Joe Jaszewski / The Idaho Statesman
Sen. Mike Crapo, who has taken the lead in fighting for
compensation for downwinders in Idaho, shakes hands with Sheri
Garmon on Saturday at a town meeting in Emmett. Garmon has
survived thyroid cancer, but now suffers from breast cancer,
which spread to her bones and liver. She is responsible for
getting the attention of Crapo and other politicians who now are
focused on winning federal compensation for Idaho victims of
fallout from nuclear bomb testing.
Dan Popkey [dpopkey@idahostatesman.com]
The Idaho Statesman | Edition Date: 09-15-2004
Idaho's downwinders will finally have the chance to tell their
stories to the scientists that count, thanks to pressure from our
congressional delegation.
This is a key step toward Idahoans being included in a federal
compensation program for cancer victims subjected to fallout from
nuclear-bomb tests.
The National Academies of Science said Tuesday it will come to
Idaho to hear testimony, as scientists already did in Utah and
Arizona. NAS will recommend whether to expand payments to cancer
victims in Idaho and other areas.
The news came five days after a delegation letter to NAS. Sen.
Mike Crapo, who promised downwinders in Gem County on Saturday he
would fight to include them in the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act (RECA), welcomed the news.
"I applaud NAS for showing the resilience to be flexible enough
to accommodate it because we need a venue for Idahoans to express
their opinions," Crapo said.
More than 400 written comments have been received from Idaho by
the Board on Radiation Effects Research (BRER), an arm of the
NAS. But NAS had resisted holding a fourth public meeting.
NAS spokesman Bill Kearney said it's unclear whether the full
committee preparing a report for Congress will come to Idaho. At
the very minimum, Kearney said, Dr. Isaf Al-Nabulsi, director of
the study, will hear testimony. She may be joined by Evan Douple,
director of BRER, and some of the 10 members of the committee
preparing the report.
Sen. Larry Craig has personally asked Al-Nabulsi for two Idaho
meetings, but Kearney said the decision on how many meetings will
be held has not yet been made.
RECA provides $50,000 "compassionate payments" to cancer victims
in 21 counties in Utah, Nevada and Arizona who suffer from any
one of 19 cancers. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, author of the 1990
law, secured $1 million for the study with an eye to expanding
compensation to more diseases and geographic areas.
Hearings were held in St. George, Utah, and Window Rock, Ariz.,
the heart of the region where $360 million has been paid to
victims and their survivors. Pressure from northern Utah, which
is not covered, forced BRER to hold a third meeting in Salt Lake
City in July.
After that meeting, the issue exploded in Idaho, which suffered
from some of the heaviest fallout from above-ground tests in
Nevada between 1951 and 1962.
Custer, Gem, Blaine, and Lemhi counties ranked second, third,
fourth and fifth in the nation, respectively, in radioactive
iodine-131 doses, according to a National Cancer Institute study
published in 1997. The other 40 Idaho counties all got more
iodine-131 radiation than some of the counties covered by RECA.
The NAS is a private, non-profit research organization. Its
report to the U.S. Health Resources Services Administration is
due March 31. A final report is due to Congress by June 30.
NAS is reviewing the most recent science on radiation exposure
and associated cancers or other diseases. NAS will recommend to
Congress whether to "include additional illnesses, geographic
areas, or classes of individuals" as eligible for compensation
under RECA.
But Congress will decide whether to expand the law. Hatch has
said he wants at least four more Utah counties included, and the
Utah Legislature asked Congress to include the whole state.
On Saturday, Crapo told downwinders that, at a minimum, Custer,
Gem, Blaine and Lemhi counties ought to be added to RECA. Though
he said the chances were slight for success before adjournment
this year, he said he would look for opportunities to amend the
law now.
Crapo got out ahead of his colleagues with that promise. "I think
that may have created a little bit of anxiety because that's not
a very likely outcome," he told me Tuesday. "They may have felt I
was creating an expectation of performance by the delegation that
was not realistic."
So Tuesday night, Crapo, Craig and Reps. Mike Simpson and C.L.
"Butch" Otter met in Craig's secret "hideaway" office in the
Capitol to discuss the issue. They did not emerge with a
delegation position, but the good news is they appear to be
working to advocate for Idahoans, as Hatch has for his
constituents.
Slipping in an Idaho amendment this year is a long shot, but the
work being done now will be vital in 2005. Success requires
unity. Craig's help is critical. He sits on the Judiciary
Committee that Hatch chairs. And both he and Simpson are members
of the Appropriations committees.
All four Idahoans say they will fight for Idaho victims if the
science warrants compensation. Now that they've gotten the
attention of the scientists, the effort to win coverage for
Idahoans has taken a big step forward.
*****************************************************************
57 AFP: UN to help Iraq clean up toxic pollution after conflicts
[http://www.abcsolar.com/]
[http://www.terradaily.com/]
GENEVA (AFP) Sep 14, 2004
The UN environmental agency said Tuesday it would help Iraq
clean up highly toxic pollution incurred in a decade of
instability or conflict, including depleted uranium from bombing
by US-led forces.
The UN's Environment Programme (UNEP) will initially assess five
priority environmental "hot spots", mainly industrial sites
around Baghdad and Fallujah containing thousands of tonnes of
toxic chemicals and pollutants that pose a direct threat to human
health, officials said.
They include 5,000 tonnes of spilled chemicals at the Al-Doura
refinery and a seed store where 50 tonnes of seeds coated with
methyl mercury fungicide were recently looted, raising the threat
of contaminated food supplies.
"We estimate that there are more than 300 sites in Iraq
considered to be contaminated to various levels by a range of
pollutants," said Klaus Toepfer, UNEP executive director.
Toepfer said Iraq's new government had also asked for help to
deal with depleted uranium (DU), used to reinforce
armour-piercing shells and bombs of the kind deployed by US and
British forces in successive conflicts in Iraq.
"The request from the government of Iraq is to be available for
other questions, this includes depleted uranium," Toepfer told
journalists.
DU dust has been blamed for causing severe illness long after
ammunition explodes, and became the focus of a propaganda battle
under Saddam Hussein's regime.
Britain has handed over detailed maps of locations in southern
Iraq where about 1.9 tonnes of DU was used in 2003 to help the
clean-up, Toepfer said.
"We did not get additional coordinates or information from the
United States so far," Toepfer said.
"We need the coordinates, otherwise a study or assessment is not
possible," he added.
Iraq's environment minister, Mishkat Moumin welcomed the planned
long-term cooperation with UNEP on a clean-up, which is expected
to take years.
"My country is faced with a wide range of pressing issues that
must be addressed if the Iraqi people are to enjoy a stable,
healthy and prosperous future," she said in a statement
UNEP official Pekka Haavisto said the environmental hot spots
were a "very important threat" and involved spillages of huge
quantities of sulphuric acid, tetra-ethyl lead and oil and other
chemicals.
The fungicide-contaminated seed stocks at Al-Suwaira were also
shrouded in mystery. UNEP was told that contamination occurred in
an unclear "poisoning incident" as far back as 1971-72, Haavisto
said.
All rights reserved. © 2004 [http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of
the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs,
*****************************************************************
58 Las Vegas SUN: OPINION: Yucca project to fail regardless of politics
Today: September 15, 2004 at 10:24:23 PDT
By Brian Sandoval
WEEKEND EDITION
September 11 - 12, 2004
Brian Sandoval, a Republican, is attorney general of Nevada.
It is unfortunate that the debate in Nevada over Yucca Mountain
has drifted into election-year politics. Because, if you haven't
noticed, Nevada has recently won several crucial legal battles,
and, as a result, the project will soon collapse under its own
ill-conceived weight. It will do so irrespective of politics.
Allow me to summarize some of our successes. In July a federal
appeals court ruled that the federal government had "unabashedly
rejected" sound science in setting the radiation standards for
the repository. It overturned the Environmental Protection
Agency's rules for the repository, and it overturned the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's licensing rules for the project.
Last week the full D.C. Court of Appeals denied the nuclear
industry's petition for rehearing, voting 7-0. The mandate of the
court will shortly take effect, with the result that the Yucca
project will have no regulatory infrastructure. The rejected
regulations took a decade to develop.
That's not all Nevada won at the court of appeals. The court
denied the federal government's claim that all environmental
issues surrounding the project were moot, and invited Nevada to
file as many environmental challenges as it wants. Last week I
filed the first such lawsuit, contesting the transportation
decisions made by the Energy Department, including its decision
to construct in Nevada the longest new rail line in America in 80
years. It is important to note that many of the proposed waste
shipments would go through Las Vegas.
In Congress this summer, the efforts of Nevada's delegation
apparently helped solidify an 85 percent slashing of the Yucca
budget for the new fiscal year -- the critical year when the
government was supposed to file an application for a construction
permit.
In federal court in Las Vegas this year, Nevada successfully
preserved the state's claims against the federal government for
the massive amounts of water Yucca will use. Without water, the
project cannot even be constructed.
In that same court, a powerful class action lawsuit is pending
against Energy Department contractors who built the exploratory
tunnels at Yucca, contending workers and visitors were grossly
overexposed to toxic mineral dusts through corruption, fraud and
concealment. Several workers are already dying, and liability to
the project's builders and the Energy Department, which may have
to indemnify them, may be enormous. And to build Yucca at least
another hundred miles of tunnels will have to be dug. Who will
dig them? The workforce no longer trusts the department.
There's more. In the Energy Department's first-ever appearance
before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last month on issues
concerning mismanagement of millions of Yucca documents, a
three-judge Hearing Board granted every request by Nevada's
attorneys. The board threw out the federal government's
"certification of compliance" with applicable rules, which was
supposed to have triggered a whole sequence of events to commence
construction. Now it will take at least a year for the Energy
Department to regroup.
More important is the signal this case sent. After years of
flouting and changing its own rules to cure its failures, the
Energy Department now has to meet someone else's rules. Its first
experiment was a disaster. Indeed, I'm told that the board's
61-page decision is the most scathing ever issued in an NRC
licensing proceeding.
Notwithstanding Nevada's victories and the federal government's
failures, the Energy Department insists it will file a
construction application for Yucca by the end of the year. If and
when that application is ever docketed, Nevada will be ready to
counter it with a full-court press in a three-year proceeding in
Las Vegas. The state's technical experts and attorneys are
preparing up to 200 scientific challenges. Of these, there are
dozens which, taken alone, would kill the project if granted by
NRC's judges.
Many will depict glaring, embarrassing technical errors by the
federal government, such as underestimating the probability of a
volcano at Yucca by a factor of 10, or using the wrong water to
test the corrosion of waste containers in the mountain. It is
this proceeding that will, in fact, test the soundness of the
science used at Yucca. We expect to prevail on the merits, and to
do so resoundingly.
Some in Nevada, prodded by nuclear industry lobbyists, have
suggested the state should throw in the towel and negotiate for
unspecified "benefits" from the federal government for hosting
Yucca. But Nevada is winning this war. And those benefits,
whatever they might be, will not make the repository safe.
A state's first duty is to safeguard its citizens, and, as the
attorney general of Nevada, I am convinced that the Yucca Project
is unsafe. Therefore, I will exhaust every remedy at my disposal
to defeat it.
Nevada has recently enjoyed important legal victories, but it is
incumbent upon everyone in this fight to remain steadfast in our
commitment to work together and prove to the world that the
project poses unacceptable risks to the health, safety and
welfare of our citizens and the environment.
The final battle over Yucca, at the NRC, will prove that a safe
repository cannot be built in the porous volcanic rock that
constitutes Yucca Mountain. If the project has not collapsed by
then, this final battle will expose it for being the
ill-considered project that it is.
*****************************************************************
59 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Yucca lawsuit well warrants strong action
Today: September 15, 2004 at 9:49:12 PDT
LAS VEGAS SUN
A class-action lawsuit against nine Energy Department
contractors that have performed work at Yucca Mountain is
gathering momentum. The civil suit, first filed in March in
Clark County District Court, claims that the contractors
willfully exposed workers to toxic dust in order to meet
deadlines. This week the suit was amended to add the names of
two former industrial hygienists who worked for Yucca
contractors. The two claim they were fired, one in 1996 and the
other in 2002, after warning their separate employers about the
toxic dust.
The lawsuit was filed by the Washington-area law firm of Egan,
Fitzpatrick, Malsh &Cynkar, the same firm Nevada has hired to
lead the state's legal efforts against the opening of Yucca
Mountain in Southern Nevada. The Bush administration and its
Energy Department are pushing to open the mountain by 2010 as a
burial vault for the nation's high-level nuclear waste.
Joe Egan, the attorney handling the lawsuit, told the Sun that
what has happened at Yucca Mountain since research and tunneling
began there in 1992 is nothing short of an industrial disaster,
one of the worst in U.S. history. "There are many people who
will die prematurely as a result of this," Egan said. The suit
says that as many as 1,500 workers may have been exposed to
deadly dusts, including silica and erionite. It claims that the
contractors "intentionally and fraudulently concealed the truth
about the hazards at Yucca Mountain" and "placed a higher
priority on ... deadlines than they did on human safety and
health." The contractors deny the allegations.
In August the Sun's Washington reporter, Suzanne Struglinski,
uncovered memos and e-mails showing that the Energy Department
knew about the danger of toxic dust at Yucca Mountain years
before it warned the workers. The documents were among the
papers the Energy Department has filed as part of its
application to open Yucca Mountain. In January the Energy
Department started a silicosis screening program for former
contract workers, after acknowledging that dust protections,
including proper respirators and ventilation, may not have been
up to date or even enforced at Yucca from 1992 to 2000.
Also adding to the lawsuit's momentum this week was Nevada
Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who notified the Energy
Department that he is considering criminal charges against the
nine contractors. The lawsuit "raises grave issues of possible
corruption, malfeasance and deliberate violations of law ..."
Sandoval said in a letter to the Energy Department's inspector
general. Sandoval is right to be monitoring this case and his
strong warning is justified and welcomed.
*****************************************************************
60 Las Vegas SUN: Letter: GOP plays word games on Yucca
During the Republican National Convention, party officials
agreed upon their party platform, the basis from which their
party positions derive. Once again they have tried to fool
Nevadans with word games.
In 2000 "sound science" were the words of choice to hide their
true intentions on moving forward with Yucca Mountain. Now,
rather than mentioning Yucca Mountain or Nevada by name, their
platform states, "President Bush supports construction of new
nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative,
and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally
sound nuclear waste repository."
Don't fall victim to word games like "environmentally sound
nuclear waste repository." They mean the unsafe Yucca Mountain
site, which will put our families at risk if opened.
SCOTT GARNCARZ
*****************************************************************
61 Las Vegas SUN: State protests limits on Yucca oversight
By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Nevada officials say the Energy Department is
trying to limit the state's ability to oversee the department's
efforts to make Yucca Mountain a nuclear dump.
Nevada lawmakers today are drafting a letter to the Energy
Department objecting to the department's stricter new
interpretation of rules on how nine Nevada counties can spend
federal money for Yucca oversight.
Clark County Commission Chairman Chip Maxfield and Vice
Chairwoman Myrna Williams also fired off a letter this week to
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
The letter said that department staffers at an Aug. 27 meeting
in Las Vegas explained to county officials that there may be new
curbs on how the county could spend money analyzing the
department's Yucca project.
The letter asks Abraham to reconsider new limits.
"The latest action by the DOE cuts deep into the (counties')
ability to provide meaningful oversight of DOE activities at
perhaps the most critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain
program," the letter said. "This attempt to curtail (county)
activities in the most critical program areas at a time when
important decisions are being made should not be supported."
Congress in recent years has given the state and nine counties
money to oversee the federal project, a proposal to construct a
national high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas.
Last fiscal year the counties received $7 million for
oversight. This year they received $4 million, said Irene Navis,
Clark County nuclear waste division manager.
There are limits on how the money can be spent. The money
cannot be used for lobbying or lawsuits against the project, for
example.
The Energy Department is simply following the federal law that
limits the Yucca oversight spending, department spokesman Joe
Davis said.
But Nevada officials are concerned that department staffers
have said they will now be using a strict new interpretation of
the rules to enforce new limits on basic project oversight.
Specifically, Nevada officials are concerned that the
department will no longer allow them to spend their oversight
money for certain kinds of research of a new Yucca document
database called the License Support Network. They are also
concerned that they would be limited in analyzing a proposed new
nuclear waste rail route in Nevada.
"We're prohibited from scoping out any of the transportation
stuff," Williams said in an interview.
Nevada lawmakers could introduce legislation to ease Energy
Department restrictions on how the money is used, Reid
spokeswoman Sharyn Stein said today. In the meantime, the
lawmakers plan to send Abraham a letter of their own requesting
a reconsideration of the rules.
*****************************************************************
62 Nevada Appeal: AG calls for investigation of Yucca construction hazards
Geoff Dornan, [gdornan@nevadaappeal.com]
September 15, 2004
Attorney General Brian Sandoval has called on the inspector
general of the federal Department of Energy to investigate
allegations of dangerous health violations during construction of
Yucca Mountain.
In a letter to Gregory Friedman of the DOE, Sandoval referred to
a private lawsuit filed in Las Vegas on Sept. 1 charging that
employees and visitors to Yucca Mountain were repeatedly exposed
to dangerous levels of silica dust during construction of the
Yucca tunnels.
"I have reviewed the lawsuit and believe it raises grave issues
of possible corruption, malfeasance, and deliberate violations of
law by Department of Energy contractors who dug several miles of
tunnels at the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
site, with the result that thousands of people working or
visiting in the tunnels apparently were exposed to potentially
life-threatening levels of silica and other carcinogenic dusts,"
the letter states.
It says a number of those workers have already contracted
silicosis - a progressive disease which eventually destroys the
lungs.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 10 former workers, but seeks
status as a class- action suit on behalf of all workers exposed
to dangerous levels of silica dust from 1992 through 2000.
It also covers all visitors to the Yucca Mountain site who were
exposed for more than two hours - potentially thousands of
people.
It names Bechtel Corp., TRW and several other contractors
involved in constructing the site and drilling more than five
miles of tunnels under Yucca Mountain, charging they
"intentionally, deliberately, callously and/or with reckless
disregard, exposed workers and visitors to known, highly
carcinogenic airborne hazards."
It says those contractors "fraudulently concealed the nature of
such hazards and they took measures to deceive workers and
visitors by hiding, doctoring or failing to accumulate key data
on actual workplace conditions."
The suit says those dangerous conditions were hidden until
exposed publicly earlier this year. And during those years, the
suit charges, contractors took extensive efforts, including
threatening employees with the loss of their jobs, to conceal the
dangerous levels of silica dust being generated in the tunnel
drilling and ordering them to change their reports. It says the
company repeatedly downplayed the dangers to workers and didn't
provide proper respiratory gear and protective clothing during
the drilling.
Sandoval's letter says he was "particularly struck by the
extensive number of documentary citations that were compiled in
the complaint, most taken from the DOE or contractor records.
"It clearly warrants a thorough investigation by your office,
which I assume is already underway," the letter states.
And it says the state will be closely following the matter to
determine if state action is warranted.
Contact Geoff Dornan at [nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net] or
687-8750.
All contents © Copyright 2004 nevadaappeal.com
Nevada Appeal - 580 Mallory Way - Carson City, NV 89701
*****************************************************************
63 CCDR: Citizens: Shut down Cotter
9-15-04
[Canon City Daily Record - Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region,
Colorado]
[http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com]
Application calls for processing uranium, importing waste
Dennis Bloomquist Daily Record Staff Writer
About 200 people filled the Washington Elementary School
auditorium to convey one resoundingly clear message: close down
Cotter Corp. and order immediate cleanup of the 46-year-old
uranium mill site on the southwest corner of Cañon City.
Tuesday night's meeting was exactly three months before the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's deadline
to issue Cotter's draft operating license.
According to the requirements of Colorado House Bill 1358, the
health department must issue the license by Dec. 14.
However, none of the primary parties — Cotter Corp., the health
department or concerned citizens — believes the draft license
will end the debate.
Steve Tarlton, leader of the health department's radiation
management unit, said any concerned party would have the right to
appeal the license — or sue.
The draft-operating license could allow Cotter to engage in a
wide range of activities, including processing of radioactive
ores or direct disposal of radioactive wastes. Alternatively, the
license could call for immediate closure of the facility.
"We urge you to renew the license only for decommissioning of the
plant and cleanup," said Dr. Curtis Harlow, who received applause
when he read a resolution adopted this week by the Colorado
Medical Society to urge the health department to deny importation
of wastes from other states as "inappropriate and unsafe."
The doctors' proclamation points out Cotter has been cited with
more than 150 violations by the health department through 2003.
The physicians oppose shipments of radioactive soils from
Maywood, N.J., saying the new license calls for "a shift of
function to waste disposal."
Nobody spoke on behalf of the mill, though Cotter officials
Richard Ziegler, Steve Landau, Pat Mutz and Phil Krauth were in
attendance.
About 600 acres in the mill area and current and former
impoundment areas must be "cleansed" before Cotter could walk
away from the facility, when the 2,500-acre compound would fall
under the ownership of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Also in attendance, though not on the dais, was Joe Schieffelin,
Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division compliance
program manager. He said Tarlton's department would produce the
license, then pass it up the chain of command to Schieffelin,
then to Gary Baughman, director of the Hazardous Materials and
Waste Management Division.
Health department Executive Director Douglas Benevento will make
the final decision on Cotter's license, Schieffelin said.
Among the issues discussed by Tarlton were:
— The health department is inspecting Cotter and conducting an
on-site evaluation of its laboratory.
— Cotter now is requesting separate closure of the impoundments,
as was the plan in the 1995 license, rather than at once, as the
current application originally requested. The cap over the
tailings ponds will have a cover of vegetation, Tarlton said,
which works better in arid climates, costs less and will simplify
closure. Interim capping of the secondary impoundment, which is
at capacity, is possible, he added.
— Cotter will be required to characterize buildings, structures
and windblown soils in the current and old mill areas, as well as
pond areas, to update its risk assessment and mitigation
strategies.
The analysis is likely to be instrumental in determining the
capacity of the primary impoundment, which in turn decides what
activities Cotter can undertake under the new license.
— Cotter in July submitted long-requested health and safety
procedures, Tarlton said, and Friday gave its new cleanup plan
for the Old Ponds area to the health department, replacing
"additional cleanup plans that didn't work."
Tony Belaski, a retired doctor, said decommissioning "is an
uncontested fact that will happen at some time." He said the area
over the primary impoundment will be a "90-acre off-limits dead
zone that will be with us longer than the Egyptian pyramids — but
I can guarantee it won't be a tourist site."
Belaski urged the health department to minimize the size of the
"footprint" of the mound that will encase the tailings, tainted
soils, and rubble from the mill buildings to 150 acres or less,
from the more than 600 acres currently targeted for remediation.
"It's taken 50 years to get us into this mess, which will be with
us for thousands of years," Belaski said. "Now, let's get it
right."
Numerous political candidates and officeholders called for
immediate decommissioning, including independent Fremont County
commission candidates Skip Moreau and Paul Kendall.
Democrat Emily Tracy, running for Colorado House District 60
representative, said Gov. Bill Owens has exhibited a "distinct
lack of interest in the welfare of Fremont County citizens." She
pointed out that Sept. 21 will be the 20th anniversary of
Cotter-Lincoln Park's listing as a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Superfund site.
Mike Stiehl, the Republican nominee against Kendall in District
1, said tests must be conducted of the impoundments and Wolf Park
mineshafts honeycombed beneath the Cotter compound. He said
cleanup would result in many more jobs than the 37 on site at
Cotter.
A 147-acre radioactive cleanup in Durango resulted in 180 jobs
and expenditure of $53 million over five years, he said. In Grand
Junction, 114 acres were scoured over nine years, producing 800
jobs at a cost of over $450 million, he added.
Cotter has conducted sporadic uranium processing, but for years
has tested other processes, including zirconium milling.
However, Cotter at the end of August announced that it intends to
resume production of uranium yellowcake, which is further refined
elsewhere for use as fuel in nuclear power plants.
Cotter's license proposal includes the possibility of increasing
its production from 5 percent to 85 percent of the nation's
uranium yellowcake supply.
Republican Ed Norden, Moreau's opponent in District 3, was
"called out" by Kendall, and said, "I'm on the record that I do
not think this community needs the negative impact of shipping
waste from one Superfund site to another." He urged the health
department to complete the cleanup of Lincoln Park — and stop the
flow of 3.5 gpm of contaminated water — so the neighborhood can
be delisted as a Superfund site.
Joy Biederman, an attorney in California and Arizona, said she
and her husband had unwittingly "moved into the middle of the
Lincoln Park Superfund site," but will be moving back out by the
end of the year. She said "an incredible place is being destroyed
by one corporation, which is committing trespass by spewing
contamination beyond Lincoln Park."
Several former Cotter employees said they had serious health
concerns:
— Lara Smith took the microphone with her daughter, Lilly Rose,
in her arms. She said she was pregnant with the now 2-year-old
while she worked in the mill, which failed to monitor her
radiation exposure.
Smith recounted an incident in which workers were ordered to
clean up beneath a large ore vat, and when the truck left a
trail, were told to scrape the dirt up with shovels and disperse
it into blustery wind.
— Doug Day drew a standing ovation when he said he has 10 inches
of medical files from Cotter-related maladies. He said he was
operating a yellowcake dryer when an overhead feeder tube burst,
immersing all but the top of his head, nose and mouth in uranium
dust.
Valerie Frenz, a registered nurse who is conducting a health
survey through Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, said an
independent audit of Cotter's procedures exhibited "carelessness
and a lack of common sense for the environment and the well-being
of Cotter employees."
Pending is a Cotter lawsuit against the health department asking
immediate approval of shipments of radioactive soils from
Maywood, N.J., as well as financial damages from the health
department. Maywood is also a Superfund site.
Cotter is seeking Allotment 1, the first 24,000 tons of about
470,000 tons of soil earmarked for removal from Maywood. Cotter
won the bid for Allotment 1, which would pay about $60 million to
the railroads and Cotter for transporting and storing the soils.
Officials said Maywood wastes are between 1 percent to 10 percent
as radioactive as the ores processed by Cotter.
That dispute could be resolved in an Oct. 25 administrative
hearing that could last as long as a week.
Richard Dana, a retired judge with the Judicial Arbiter Group
Inc., Denver, will hear the case. Dana heard an appeal of
Cotter's 1995 license application, under which Cotter has
continued to operate while its December 2000 application has been
reviewed by the health department.
Anyone interested in becoming a concerned party in the Oct. 25
hearing can contact the administrative law judge, as listed on
the health department Web site, [http://www.cdphe.state.co.us] ,
Tarlton said.
If the hearing fails to resolve the dispute, the case could be
heard by Denver District Court judge Herbert Stern, who on June
29 issued a 10-day deadline for the health department to approve
or deny the Maywood shipments.
On July 9, the health department denied Cotter's request,
spurring the suit and hearing.
In its rejection of the Maywood soils, the health department
cited questions about Cotter's ability to safely handle
radioactive materials, and doubts about the capacity of the
tailings impoundments.
News and information is updated Monday - Friday at 5:00pm. Entire
contents Copyright Ó 2004 Royal Gorge Publishing Corporation. All
Rights Reserved. CUSTOMER SERVICE
*****************************************************************
64 Charleston.Net: Protest readied for weapons-grade plutonium shipment
09/15/04
BY BO PETERSEN
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Some 300 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium is on its way through
the Charleston Naval Weapons Station to France, and two
environmental groups plan a last-ditch protest against the
shipment today.
The plutonium powder was to be hauled by truck from Los Alamos,
N.M. It will then be loaded on one of two armed freighters for
transport and will be tested for possible use as MOX, or mixed
oxide, fuel in nuclear reactors. The ships are expected to arrive
in port today, said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International.
Greenpeace has joined with a local group, Citizens Against
Plutonium, to oppose the shipment because of environmental risks
and possible terrorist threats. They plan a kayak and boat
flotilla, and will fly kites reading "S-T-O-P P-L-U-T-O-N-I-U-M"
as a demonstration from 5-8 p.m. today at Waterfront Park.
The groups hope to stir public outrage "to close the harbor to
plutonium shipments," said Merrill Chapman of Citizens Against
Plutonium. The groups say the shipment poses large environmental
risks -- representing enough plutonium to make 50 nuclear bombs
or an untold number of "dirty" radioactivity-spreading bombs.
They also fear possible sabotage or accidents with the
containers.
They say a formal threat assessment hasn't been done for the
shipment but that there was an assessment done of the groups'
protest.
"That reflects their priorities," Clements said. "They're
reversed." The groups also cited safety problems at the French
facility and the threat of hurricanes.
A federal spokesman said MOX fuel has been shipped to Europe and
Japan for 15 years. "It's yet another example of these
anti-nuclear groups throwing any argument they can against the
nuclear non-proliferation agreement we have with our
international partners," said Bryan Wilkes, a National Nuclear
Security Administration spokesman.
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, who has questioned nuclear material
transportation security in the past, contacted the Homeland
Security office with his concerns. Markey, D-Mass., said in a
statement that security measures around nuclear facilities and
materials have long been "woefully inadequate."
"We have learned from numerous intelligence sources and captured
al-Qaida operatives that attacks on U.S. nuclear facilities or
using nuclear materials are attractive targets for terrorists,"
he said. "My concern about this particular plutonium shipment is
that the shipment will be vulnerable to attack or diversion, both
in the U.S. and particularly in France, where security measures
are even less stringent than they are here."
In reply to a letter from Markey, a Homeland Security
spokeswoman said the two transport ships will be escorted in and
out of U.S. waters by a combination of Coast Guard cutters,
boats, aircraft and "other law enforcement and Navy assets."
"We are confident the material will be protected," Wilkes said,
adding the ship and escort will be heavily armed with military
backup throughout the route.
A Coast Guard spokesman in Charleston said the port captain
decided against closing the port to other traffic, but boaters
should be aware that precautions, including a security zone, will
be enforced around the vessels.
"We have prepared extensively for this. A security plan is in
place," said Lt. j.g. Robert Taylor, assistant operations officer
with the Coast Guard Group in Charleston. "We're going to have a
noticeable force in place to impede any attempt to interfere with
or possibly do any harm to this shipment. We will be especially
alert and vigilant during this shipment."
Bo Petersen can be reached at (843)745-5852 or
bopete@postandcourier.com.
Copyright © 2004, The Post and Courier, All Rights Reserved.
[webmaster@postandcourier.com]
*****************************************************************
65 TownOnline.com: Perchlorate FAQ:
Wilmington Advocate - Local News
Wednesday, September 15, 2004What is perchlorate?
Perchlorate - CIO4 - is a salt that is naturally occurring
and a man-made product. Production of ammonium perchlorate -
which is the most commonly made perchlorate- began in the United
States at the end of WWII.
What is perchlorate used for?
Perchlorate and other perchlorate salts are used in a wide
range of industrial applications including fireworks, solid
rocket fuel, matches, lubricating oils, nuclear reactors, air
bags and fertilizers. Its most common use is in explosives and
rocket propellant.
How does it effect humans?
Perchlorate effects the thyroid gland, which is responsible
for controlling growth, development and metabolism. The compound
prevents the thyroid from taking in iodide, found in salt and
seafood, which the gland needs for the production of thyroid
hormones. Effects of decreased thyroid activity can lead to
fatigue, depression, anxiety and a diminished sex drive in adults
and abnormal brain development in children. One study showed
chronic lowering of thyroid hormones due to high perchlorate
exposure could result in thyroid gland tumors.
Who would be at greater risk of perchlorate?
Pregnant and nursing women and children under the age of 12.
Since thyroid hormones are required for prenatal and postnatal
growth and development, it has long been recognized that thyroid
deficiency in children could lead to mental retardation and other
developmental disorders such as decreased learning capabilities.
Iodide is also a concentrate in women's breasts and perchlorate
could find its way into maternal milk. Individuals with a
pre-existing thyroid problem, like hypothyroidism, should also
avoid perchlorate.
At what level is perchlorate dangerous?
That is the $64,000 question. Despite nearly a decade of an
ever increasing contamination, neither the federal or any state
environmental agency can come up with a standard. Massachusetts
has set a level of 1 part per billion for certain sensitive
subgroups and 18 ppb for the rest of the population. Currently,
the US EPA has set a public health goal at 1 parts per billion.
California, which has the largest number of contaminated sites in
the US, has adopted a temporary level of 6 ppb. The EPA is
expected to finalize its draft health risk assessment and
establish the final reference dose range by December.
Is it possible for perchlorate to be in food?
Tests show elevated levels of perchlorate in lettuce and
vegetables that were irrigated by Colorado River as the plants
take up, store, and concentrate the chemical. There is some
question, however, as to how much you have to ingest before you
are affected by the chemical.
Are there any other locations of perchlorate contamination?
In the past ten years, perchlorate has been detected in 20
states, effecting more than a 400 drinking water sources. By far,
California is the state with the greatest contamination. The
Golden State has 32 confirmed sites At only 12 of those sites,
563 drinking wells have been shut down. Nearby, Long Island, New
York has eight sites.
How does perchlorate get into the water system?
As with most pollutants, perchlorate migrates into the soil
and enters wells or will drain into bodies of water such as river
or ponds. In California, most of the worse sites was where
munitions were dumped into the soil or water sources.
What contaminated Tewksbury's water supply?
The DEP believes the contamination comes from the town's
main water supply source, the Merrimack River. The 110-mile long
river that rises in central New Hampshire. The rivers watershed
includes 5,000 square miles with numerous tributaries including
the Souhegan River in Merrimack N.H. and the Shawsheen River.
Where and who polluted the Merrimack??
That remains a mystery. Currently officials from the
Massachusetts DEP does not have a clear-cut culprit such as an
industrial outlet that would be the prime place They are testing
the river along several sites. Tests in both Lawrence, Andover,
and Lowell have not detected the problem..
Are there other sites in Massachusetts where perchlorate has
been detected?
This year, the state's DEP discovered eight sites - from Mt
Greylock to the Cape - effected by elevated levels of the
chemical. Perchlorate was first discovered in the state at the
Massachusetts Military Reservation (where Otis Air Force Base is
located), which is also a hazardous waste site.
Sources: US Food and Drug Adminstration, Environmental
Working Group, California Department of Health Services
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
Inc.
*****************************************************************
66 TownOnline.com: River, plant eyed as perchlorate source
By Bethan L. Jones/ Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
The Concord River and the City of Lowell's Waste Water Treatment
Plant are being eyed as the possible sources for perchlorate
contamination in Tewksbury's water.
The initial results from the state Department of
Environmental Protection testing of sites along the Merrimack
River on Aug. 24, including where the Concord and Merrimack
converge, indicated perchlorate levels above the state sanctioned
1 part per billion coming from both the Concord River and the
Lowell WWTP which are upstream from the Tewksbury water treatment
plant intake.
Tewksbury town officials, however, say the most recent tests
are not conclusive enough.
"We don't have the diagnostics of what's going on in the
river," said David Cressman, Tewksbury town manager.
One of the issues raised by the latest testing is the
substantial increase of perchlorate in treated water. On Aug. 3,
the first appearance of perchlorate in Tewksbury water, raw water
from the Merrimack at the Tewksbury water treatment plant tested
at .83 ppb. Finished water on the same day tested 1.35 ppb. The
DEP and the town water treatment plant staff have said the water
treatment process can remove up to half of the perchlorate.
"It's one of the mysteries of the chemical," said Ed
Coletta, spokesman for the state DEP, adding that very little is
still known about the chemical compound, which is viewed as
harmful to those in sensitive populations such as children under
12, pregnant or nursing mothers, and those with hypothyroidism as
perchlorate affects the production of thyroid hormones. Coletta
said the increase could be from the perchlorate becoming
concentrated through the water purification process or produced
by the disinfecting of the water.
Cressman said part of the problem could be the testing. In
Lowell, DEP waited 12 hours between draws, the amount of time it
takes water to circulate through the water treatment system, thus
testing approximately the same batch of water. In Tewksbury,
where it takes between four to six hours for water to circulate
through the plant, the water samples of both intake and output
water were taken at the same time. To try and rectify the
problem, Cressman asked Lewis Zediana, chief engineer at the
Tewksbury water treatment plant, to pull water samples every two
hours.
Even with the 12 hour wait in Lowell, DEP results showed a
consistent increase in perchlorate in the effluent water, a fact
DEP is investigating.
In response to the findings, the DEP has begun a third phase
of testing, which will include sites along the Concord River.
"We're very interested in the Concord," said Coletta, adding
that an old Raytheon plant abuts the river in Billerica and
Tewksbury that produced munitions at one time. Perchlorate is an
ingredient for the production of explosives and war heads.
The DEP will also be testing the Stony Brook in Westford, a
town which has been struggling with perchlorate in water sources
when it was discovered in very high numbers in an old quarry and
in a private well. While Coletta said any link between the two is
"highly improbable," they want to make sure they "rule everything
out."
While the DEP testing has yet to find a smoking gun, the
state plans on enlisting the assistance of the US Geological
Survey to determine the hydrology of the river. This testing,
Coletta said, could take weeks or even months.
Tewksbury has been continuing their own testing, at the cost
of about $200 per test. They are now looking to the Environmental
Protection Agency branch in Chelmsford to do some free testing in
the hopes that the town work can expedite the process.
"We're moving aggressively," said Cressman.
The town has talked with DEP concerning changing the intake
for the treatment plant. Tewksbury's, unlike any of the other
four municipalities drawing from the Merrimack River, intake pipe
sits at the bottom of river in the center. There is some thought
the perchlorate may be relatively dense and sinking to the
bottom, explaining why Tewksbury has levels above 1 ppb while
Andover, Lowell, Lawrence, and Methuen have found no more than
traces of perchlorate. To test this hypothesis, Tewksbury has
asked the DEP to take samples at different depths rather than
just surface water.
Tewksbury is presently experiencing a voluntary water ban
for people within the sensitive populations. Those individuals
who are not under the age of 12, pregnant or nursing, or
suffering from hypothyroidism can consume water up to 18 ppb.
Perchlorate is a salt-like compound which affects the
thyroid gland from producing correct hormones. Children who do
not have correct thyroid hormone levels can experience mental
retardation or other developmental problems, while adults may be
unable to maintain energy or their metabolism.
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
*****************************************************************
67 Pahrump Valley Times: Nevada files another Yucca project lawsuit
September 15, 2004
By STEVE TETREAULT PVT WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Attorneys for Nevada opened a new front against the
Yucca Mountain Project on Sept. 8, suing the Energy Department
over its plans to ship nuclear waste on a railroad to be built
through rural Nevada.
DOE failed to perform adequate environmental studies before
identifying a preferred 319-mile railroad corridor from Caliente
to the Yucca site in Nye County, the state charged in a lawsuit
filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Additionally, the state contended DOE unlawfully designated
itself as the lead federal agency to develop the railroad when
such powers reside with another agency, the Surface
Transportation Board.
That decision shut out independent regulators, the lawsuit said.
A third issue in the 19-page filing says the department revived
a backup strategy of loading railroad cars with nuclear waste
casks designed to be carried by trucks, after initially rejecting
the idea as being impractical and the most expensive, and "having
the highest estimates of occupational health and public health
and safety impacts."
"It's uncanny how DOE manages to do precisely the wrong thing,"
Attorney General Brian Sandoval said. Rep. Shelley Berkley,
D-Nev., said the state is exposing the Caliente rail line as a
"billion dollar boondoggle."
An Energy Department spokesman declined to comment on the
lawsuit, which contains complaints that Nevada officials have
raised since DOE began unveiling its Yucca transportation
strategy last December.
Answering the previous criticism, DOE officials have said their
actions are legal and proper.
The legal challenge to DOE's transportation plan is the eighth
lawsuit the state has pressed against the proposed nuclear
repository since the project began taking its current shape in
2001.
Six of the cases were consolidated and heard by the court in
January. In July, judges issued opinions on those cases, with the
government prevailing on most but losing a key ruling against a
radiation benchmark that is causing DOE and the Environmental
Protection Agency to re-evaluate repository safety standards.
A Nevada lawsuit filed in March over federal aid for the state to
continue monitoring the Yucca program is scheduled to be heard in
January.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright © Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2004
*****************************************************************
68 Las Vegas RJ: New DOE rules concern Clark County officials
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Clark County officials are up in arms over Energy
Department guidelines that set new limits on how Nevada counties
can spend federal aid to monitor the Yucca Mountain Project.
The officials said the guidelines will restrict Nevada counties
from raising concerns about nuclear waste transportation,
including DOE plans to build a railroad from Caliente to the
proposed Yucca repository site in Nye County.
The new rules also would disallow use of federal money for
counties to fully participate in Yucca Mountain licensing
hearings, including placing their research on a document
database operated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that had
been allowed in previous years, they said.
"This latest action by the DOE cuts deep into the (counties')
ability to provide meaningful oversight of DOE activities at
perhaps the most critical juncture in the Yucca Mountain
program," Clark County commissioners Chip Maxfield and Myrna
Williams said in a letter sent to Energy Secretary Spencer
Abraham on Sept. 8.
Maxfield and Williams asked Abraham to reconsider the
guidelines.
County officials also notified Nevada's federal lawmakers in
hopes Congress will pass legislation this fall to reverse the
rule, according to Irene Navis, manager of the Clark County
nuclear waste division.
The guidelines were distributed during an Aug. 27 meeting in
Las Vegas involving DOE officials from Nevada and Washington and
representatives of local governments who receive an annual
government stipend to study potential repository impacts.
Nine counties in Nevada and one in California have split $4
million in oversight funds this year, including $880,000 for
Clark County.
The counties are forbidden by law from spending any federal
money to lobby on the Yucca project, to develop litigation or to
build coalitions to oppose the program. Counties submit work
plans for the DOE to review each summer.
The Energy Department had no immediate comment on the letter to
Abraham. Department spokesman Joe Davis said Congress sets rules
for how counties can spend their oversight funds through annual
spending bills.
But Clark County officials said the DOE appeared to be applying
a stricter interpretation of the law this year.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
69 Tri-City Herald: Panel OKs $1 million for Hanford Reach visitors center
This story was published Wednesday, September 15th, 2004
By Les Blumenthal Herald Washington, D.C., bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday
approved $1 million in funding to develop a visitors center at
the new Hanford Reach National Monument.
The funding was included in the Interior Appropriations bill the
committee sent to the Senate floor. The House-passed version of
the interior bill does not include funding for the center.
"The center is key to our efforts to tell the long and varied
history of the area and let visitors know of all the diverse
recreational opportunities the greater area has to offer," said
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is a member of the committee and
was instrumental in passing the legislation creating the national
monument.
"I have worked with the community for 11 years on protecting the
Hanford Reach area and look forward to the day we can cut the
ribbon on this new center," she said.
The funding would come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
which manages the monument.
Earlier, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., was able to insert $1.57
million in funding for the visitors center into a House
transportation bill authorizing highway and other programs over
the next six years. But that bill is mired in controversy and its
fate this session remains uncertain.
"Doc's been working on this project for some time now and is
supportive of funding for the visitors center whether it comes
from the House or the Senate -- or a combination of both," said
Jessica Gleason, a spokeswoman for the congressman.
Local organizers have estimated the visitors center could
ultimately cost between $14 million and $20 million.
© 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services
*****************************************************************
70 SF Chronicle: Four workers fired, one resigns in Los Alamos lab scandal
MARY PEREA, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
(09-15) 17:51 PDT ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) --
Four Los Alamos National Laboratory workers were fired and one
will resign under pressure for their roles in a security and
safety scandal at the lab, the lab's director said Wednesday.
The fired workers were among 23 suspended this summer after two
computer disks containing classified information went missing and
an intern was injured in a laser accident. The discovery of the
missing disks July 7 prompted a virtual shutdown of the nuclear
lab, idling roughly 12,000 workers.
A lab official originally said five workers were terminated, but
a spokesman later clarified that by saying four employees were
terminated and one "will resign in lieu of termination."
Of the remaining 18 employees, seven were subject to other
discipline such as demotion from management, salary reductions or
written reprimands. One remains on investigatory leave. Ten will
return to their positions with a finding of "no wrongdoing."
"It's very important to get this behind us," Director Pete Nanos
said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. Nanos spoke
by cell phone from an airplane after meetings in Washington, D.C.
Nanos declined to discuss specific cases of fired employees but
said that some were dismissed for "not taking actions that you
were supposed to take, or signing off on things that you hadn't
done." Another employee had not taken appropriate precautions in
a safety area.
"We really did fit the punishment to the acts that were done,"
Nanos said.
Three of the workers will leave the lab in connection with the
missing computer disks; the other two were involved in an
accident in which a laser injured an intern, he said.
"These personnel actions touched all levels of employment, staff
and management and varying levels of tenure," lab spokesman James
Fallin said. He declined to be more specific about the lab
departments or positions involved.
Nanos also said the northern New Mexico lab has finished its
investigation into the two missing disks, also known as
"classified removable electronic media," or CREM. Information
from the probe has been turned over to federal authorities. Nanos
refused to release additional details. He said other agencies are
still investigating.
Nanos, who held a series of all-hands meetings with lab workers
after the scandal broke, added that the "commitment of employees
right now is extremely high."
Fallin emphasized "that today's announcements provide very clear
evidence that it's not business as usual at this laboratory. ...
Accountability is the order of the day."
The University of California operates the lab under a contract
with the Energy Department. S. Robert Foley, the university's
vice president for laboratory management, said the disciplinary
action was important.
"This action moves (the lab) one step closer to completing the
restart of all activities," he said.
Problems at Los Alamos have drawn criticism from Congress and
senior officials at the Energy Department, putting in question
the fate of the 61-year-old institution -- the birthplace of the
atomic bomb. The Los Alamos management contract has been put up
for bid for the first time in the lab's history.
[graphical line]
The San Francisco Chronicle
©2004 Associated Press
*****************************************************************
71 DOE: [Docket Nos. PL04-15-000, RM02-12-000, RM02-1-001, RM02-1-005]
FR Doc E4-2190
[Federal Register: September 15, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 178)]
[Notices] [Page 55609-55610] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr15se04-40]
Interconnection for Wind Energy and Other Alternative
Technologies; Standardization of Small Generator Interconnection
Agreements and Procedures; Standardizing Generator
Interconnection Agreements and Procedures; Supplemental Notice of
Technical Conference September 8, 2004.
In a Notice of Technical Conference issued August 27, 2004, the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced that it would host
a technical conference on Friday, September 24, 2004 to discuss a
petition for rulemaking submitted by the American Wind Energy
Association (AWEA) related to the adoption of certain
requirements for the interconnection of large wind generators.
The AWEA petition is available at:
http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/gi/wind/AWEA.pd
f
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/in
dus-act/gi/wind/AWEA.pdf] .
The purpose of this Supplemental Notice of Technical Conference
is to provide more detail to interested
[[Page 55610]] parties, and those who may wish to request to
speak, regarding the issues that will be discussed at the
Technical Conference.
Commission Staff is interested in speakers who can discuss wind
and other technologies that may require special interconnections
due to the method in which they add electricity to the grid.
Staff has prepared a list of potential topics, questions and
issues that may be addressed by speakers at the conference, to
aid interested parties and speakers in determining whether they
will attend and/or submit a request to speak. While additional
items may still be addressed at the conference, the topics,
questions and issues Staff has identified to date include: I.
Should There be Special Interconnection Requirements for Wind
Generators, or Should These Interconnections be Governed by the
Requirements of Order No. 2003 and Order No. 2003-A? a. How are
wind technologies different? b. What is meant by low voltage
ride-through capability? How does it work? c. Is a low voltage
ride-through standard necessary for the interconnection of wind
generators? Why or why not? d. Do intermittent generators need
special interconnection requirements? e. Are wind generators able
to provide reactive power? Should they be required to provide
reactive power? f. Should wind generators be exempted from the
power factor design criteria set forth in Order No. 2003-A. Yes
or No, and discussion of why.
g. Are there other technologies that also need special
interconnection requirements like wind? What technologies? Why?
h. Should wind technologies be exempted from having to file the
full engineering and system design information at the time of the
interconnection request? i. What is the experience of
transmission providers and State regulatory agencies with
interconnecting wind and other such technologies? II. How Should
Any Special Interconnection Requirements be Related to the Size
of the Wind Facility? a. Should there be special requirements for
large wind farms? For example, should large wind facilities be
required to determine SCADA (system control and data acquisition)
equipment prior to the interconnection studies? b. What SCADA
information is required? c. How do these requirements vary with
the size of the wind facility? d. Are any special interconnection
requirements also necessary for small (under 20 MW) wind
facilities? III. What, if Any, are the Reliability and Safety
Implications of the AWEA Proposal? IV. Are Special Standards
Needed for Wind Interconnection Studies? a. Are wind and other
such technologies properly represented in the current engineering
models used in interconnection system impact studies? b. Is any
special generating or system design information or models needed
to conduct interconnection studies? As noted in the earlier
notice, the conference will be held at the Commission's
Washington, DC headquarters, 888 First St., NE., 20426. The event
is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. and end at approximately 4:30
p.m. (Eastern Time) in the Commission Meeting Room, Room 2-C.
The conference is open for the public to attend, and registration
is not required; however, in-person attendees are asked to
register for the conference on-line by close of business on
Wednesday, September 22, 2004 at
http://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/wind-0924-form.asp
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration
/wind-0924-form.asp] . Parties interested in speaking at the
conference should file their requests to speak no later than
close of business on September 10, 2004. An on-line form
requesting to speak is available at:
http://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/speaker-form.asp
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration
/speaker-form.asp] .
Transcripts of the conference will be immediately available from
Ace Reporting Company (202-347-3700 or 1-800-336-6646) for a fee.
They will be available for the public on the Commission's
eLibrary system seven calendar days after FERC receives the
transcript.
Additionally, Capitol Connection offers the opportunity for
remote listening and viewing of the conference. It is available
for a fee, live over the Internet, by phone or via satellite.
Persons interested in receiving the broadcast, or who need
information on making arrangements should contact David Reininger
or Julia Morelli at the Capitol Connection (703-993-3100) as soon
as possible or visit the Capitol Connection Web site at
http://www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu] and
click on ``FERC.'' For more information about the conference,
please contact Bruce Poole at 202-502-8468 or at
bruce.poole@ferc.gov [bruce.poole@ferc.gov] . Magalie R. Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E4-2190 Filed 9-14-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6717-01-P
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72 Daily Camera: Flats analyzing buffer zone hot spot
Mailing address: Broomfield Enterprise 1006 Depot Hill Road,
Suite G Broomfield, CO 80020
EPA will conduct further testing
By Alisha Jeter, Enterprise Staff Writer
September 15, 2004
Officials overseeing scientific sampling in the Rocky Flats
buffer zone are trying to determine the source of
higher-than-typical trace plutonium.
The nearly 6,000-acre buffer zone has been generally regarded as
a clean area, absent of radiological materials routinely used at
the former nuclear munitions trigger-making operation once
located on the 300-acre core the buffer surrounds.
Samples of dirt taken in March as part of an overall sampling of
the buffer zone pointed to a hot spot near Colo. 128 on the
site's northern border. The area yielded a reading of 7.25
picocuries of plutonium per gram of soil — or about 100 times the
typical level of 0.066 picocuries per gram for the site.
A picocurie is a measurement of radioactivity.
The reading does not, however, exceed the 50 picocuries per gram
regulatory limit for Rocky Flats.
The sample was analyzed a second time upon receipt of the
original results by the lab engaged by clean-up contractor
Kaiser-Hill and the reading dropped to 2.56 picocuries per gram
of dirt.
Kaiser-Hill officials attributed the range in readings to the
nature of the test. Within each 30-acre grid, five samples are
taken and consolidated to produce a composite result for the
grid, officials said.
The 30-acre grid area from which the sample was taken is one of
about 115 areas mapped across the buffer zone using geographic
information systems technology, said Lee Norland, Kaiser-Hill Co.
manager of data and documentation for sampling and close-out for
the site's comprehensive risk assessment. All of the other cells
reported readings within expected ranges, Norland said.
He discussed the hot spot Monday with the Rocky Flats Coalition
of Local Governments, which includes leaders from communities
around the site just south of Broomfield.
Additional analysis is ongoing to determine whether the
contamination is particular to one spot or spread throughout the
grid area. New samples were taken Thursday and data is expected
within about a month, Norland said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct sampling
next week within the same areas sampled by Kaiser-Hill crews,
said Mark Aguilar, Rocky Flats project coordinator for the Denver
regional EPA office.
Jane Uitti, a policy analyst for the Boulder County Commissioners
and a member of the coalition of local governments, expressed
concern about the hot spot's proximity to Boulder County land,
particularly the Coalton Trail . She said she'll be interested to
see where the contamination lies, once the additional sampling
data is in.
"We would have significant concerns about what is over there,"
Uitti said.
[http://www.scripps.com] Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera
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73 State Dept: U.S., IAEA Program Promotes Nuclear Plant Safety
[http://www.state.gov]
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), along with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), have produced a
computerized training program that could help prevent an accident
like the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant,
according to a September 13 INEEL press release.
The training module is a customization of RELAP5-3D -- a computer
code developed at INEEL to simulate possible accidents in
water-cooled nuclear reactors -- that focuses on the safety needs
of many countries such as Russia, Slovakia and Lithuania.
"We've participated with many countries in Central and Eastern
Europe to provide them with training that has contributed
significantly to the growth of safety in their nuclear reactors,"
said Mike Modro of INEEL. "We've shared our training, and now
they are establishing independent safety thinking at the power
plants in those countries."
RELAP5-3D simulates reactor emergencies and is used to analyze
accidents in water-cooled nuclear power plants and related
systems. The code can be applied to a full range of postulated
reactor accidents and can assess safety needs before the reactor
is built.
The training module, made up of 5 digital video discs (DVDs),
includes audio and visual presentations of RELAP5-3D training
materials. The materials have been translated into Russian.
Using the DVDs and the Internet, small numbers of students at
different locations can receive RELAP5-3D training without the
expense of holding a large training class at a single location.
Text of the INEEL press release follows:
Department of Energy Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory Press release, September 13, 2004
INEEL assists in international effort to increase nuclear plant
safety
Engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, in cooperation with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, are promoting nuclear reactor
safety worldwide. One tool these engineers are using in their
effort is a computerized training program that could help prevent
an accident like Chernobyl.
The training module is a customization of RELAP5-3D that focuses
on the safety needs of many countries, such as Russia, Slovakia
and Lithuania. "We've participated with many countries in Central
and Eastern Europe to provide them with training that has
contributed significantly to the growth of safety in their
nuclear reactors," said Mike Modro of the INEEL. "We've shared
our training, and now they are establishing independent safety
thinking at the power plants in those countries."
RELAP5-3D is a computer code developed at the INEEL to create
computer models of water-cooled nuclear reactors. Simulating
emergencies a reactor might experience, RELAP5-3D is used for the
analysis of accidents in water-cooled nuclear power plants and
related systems. The code can be applied to a full range of
postulated reactor accidents and can assess safety needs, even
before the reactor is built.
The five-DVD set contains the audio and visual portions of a
10-part, 78-session slide presentation of RELAP5-3D training
materials. These materials describe the code models, input and
applications, and include sample problems and example accident
simulations. The recordings were developed as part of the
Integrated Training and Accident Analysis System developed for
the Kursk 1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), an RBMK-1000 reactor,
which is the same design as the reactor at Chernobyl.
A unique aspect of the training DVD is the Russian translation.
Paul Bayless, an engineer at the INEEL, spent two weeks in July
2003 at the IAEA in Vienna recording the training. He said, "One
of the more challenging aspects of making the recordings was not
having any students to interact with; it was just me and a Slovak
cameraman who spoke very little English." In November 2003, the
INEEL's Jim Fisher recorded additional materials specific to the
Kursk 1 plant during a training class conducted for the plant
engineering staff in Kurchatov, Russian Federation. The Russian
translation is by Olga Poliakova from the Voronezh NPP, Russian
Federation.
The INEEL plans to use the DVDs as part of its RELAP5-3D training
courses. Using the DVDs and the Internet, small numbers of
students at different locations can receive RELAP5-3D training
without the expense of holding a large training class at a single
location. Operating on a personal computer, the DVDs allow
students to select which parts of the training they would like to
work on at any particular time. The individual presentations are
assigned proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, or advanced)
based on the user's familiarity with the code. Recommended
sequences of presentations are also included for specific subject
areas or code user proficiencies.
Anyone interested in obtaining RELAP5-3D training can contact
Gary Johnsen at the INEEL at (208) 526-9854 or by e-mail at
gwj@inel.gov.
The INEEL is a science-based, multiprogram national laboratory
dedicated to advancing the U.S. Department of Energy's strategic
goals in the areas of environment, energy, science and national
security. It is the home of science and engineering solutions and
is operated for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho, LLC.
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory INEEL
(http://www.inel.gov) INEEL Newsdesk Home
(http://newsdesk.inel.gov)
[http://usinfo.state.gov/about/private.htm] | WEBMASTER
[Embassy of the United States]
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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:
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