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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 [NYTr] Iraq: "No WMD"-Report; US Kills More Fallujans
2 Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict
3 Las Vegas SUN: U.S. Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD
4 Guardian Unlimited Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict
5 US: Las Vegas RJ: LAS VEGAS VISIT: Kerry rips handling of war
6 AFP: Compromise resolution on Iran submitted at UN atomic agency
7 AFP: IAEA says no sign of nuclear activity at suspect Iranian site
8 AFP: US says draft IAEA resolution on Iran shows 'spirit of compromi
9 Guardian Unlimited: Draft Deprives Iran of Weapons Technology
10 Guardian Unlimited: West sets deadline for Iran to freeze uranium en
11 UPI: Iran to defy ban on enriching uranium -
12 BBC: UN urges cautious Iran approach
13 BBC: Iran offer over nuclear programme
14 AFP: Europe, US Agree On Draft Resolution On Iran Nuclear Program
15 [NYTr] Diplomat: Nukes Not Cause of N.Korea Blast
16 AFP: UN nuclear inspectors heading for South Korea
17 Las Vegas SUN: Diplomat: No Sign of N. Korea Nuke Blast
18 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: USFK Chief Denies Signs of a N. Korean 'O
19 JoongAng Daily: South concedes error in judging explosions' site
20 Korea Times: IAEA Inspection Team Arrives Sunday
21 US: [du-list] America's nuclear wars
22 US: Great Falls Tribune: Air Force lauds response to mock nuclear ac
23 US: CNN.com: CNN examines threat of 'Nuclear Terror'
24 US: KLAS: Veterans for Bush Held News Conference
25 [du-list] Friendly Americans killing canadians
26 Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu on Mideast Nukes
27 iafrica.com sa news WMD case: Witness fears for his life
28 iafrica.com: sa news 'No evidence against WMD suspect'
29 Pakistan News: Senate begins consideration of nuclear control bill
NUCLEAR REACTORS
30 US: NRC: NRC to Discuss Safety Significance of Inspection Finding at
31 Cabinet unveils new measures to eliminate nuclear power
32 US: CaPrep: Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues environmental justi
33 US: NRC: NRC, FPL to Discuss Apparent Violation at Seabrook Nuclear
34 US: JOURNAL NEWS: The cloud overhead
35 US: Union Leader: Nuclear regulators focus on Seabrook plant
36 US: mainetoday.com: Maine Yankee Containment blown up
37 US: NRC: Notice of Issuance of Final Design Approval Pursuant to 10
38 Japan Times: Town wants to wean itself off reactors
39 US: Middletown Press: Nuclear Power plant closing to be discussed
40 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's 2nd Nuke "Sensible" Topic
41 US: news@nature.com: Coming clean about nuclear power
NUCLEAR SAFETY
42 US: [PUBCIT_PRESS] Calif. gov. fails students on food irr. bill
43 US: [du-list] Press Release from NNWJ
44 US: History in making
45 US: Dealing with DU by Carol Wolman, MD
46 US: chillicothe gazette: Edwards gives Piketon folks 15 minutes -
47 US: Las Vegas SUN: Utah senators seek protection from Nevada nuke te
48 US: Hawk Eye: Radioactive mystery found at IAAP
49 US: news@nature.com - Radioactivity gets fast-forward
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
50 [NYTr] Fears about US Plutonium Shipment to France
51 Modesto Bee JAY AMBROSE: Kerry not so complex, after all
52 US: NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet Sept. 22-23
53 Las Vegas RJ: Energy funding limits opposed
54 Las Vegas SUN: New Yucca oversight limits decried
55 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Impact Statement for th
56 The State: Time to move ahead on Yucca Mo
57 US: CCDR: Cotter plans production hike
58 Pahrump Valley Times: Taking back the mountain in the political nigh
59 US: NRC: Requests Comments on a Draft Environmental Assessment Relat
60 statcounter.com: Yucca Mountain: Kerry's Nuclear Power Problem
61 US: PE.com: More agencies seeking water-replacement order
62 KVBC: John Kerry's Stance on Nevada
63 News & Star: Sellafield on alert after leak
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
64 FDLI: Birmingham man witnessed 1946 atom bomb test in Pacific
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
65 Rocky Mountain News: USGS asks to keep research facility open until
66 Portsmouth Herald: Mistake at nuke plant
67 sf new mexican: Lab Firings Serve As Security
68 toledoblade.com: Edwards pledges to keep jobs of workers at uranium
69 Times-News: INEEL moves forward on Pit 4 waste removal
70 ONN. Ohio News Now: Radiation exposure report disputed by subcontrac
71 DOE: Availability of the Bonneville Purchasing Instructions (BPI) an
OTHER NUCLEAR
72 [shundahaialerts] Shundahai Network is in need of support...
73 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Looking for voter fraud
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 [NYTr] Iraq: "No WMD"-Report; US Kills More Fallujans
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 15:49:37 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com
US Air Strike Claims More Women and Children in Fallujah
Baghdad, Sep 17 (Prensa Latina) While residents of Fallujah were talking
over an accord with the Iraqi interim government to peacefully resolve
differences, at least 32 people died and 48 were wounded in US air
strikes on the city, medical sources reported Friday.
Most of the victims were civilians, mainly women and children.
According to occupation forces, the air raids in Fallujah targeted
"cells of terrorists" of Abu Mussab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom they
link to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda.
A military command statement estimates approximately 60 people could
have been killed in the attack against an alleged Al Zarqawi training
camp.
The intensification of the combat against Fallujah is an attempt to
control it before the January elections, a plan imposed by the United
States, according to the media.
Also from Fallujah, Roman daily Corriere della Sera reported today that
Italians Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, part of a humanitarian
organization, along with two of their Iraqi colleagues, were kidnapped
in Baghdad 10 days ago.
ile/ccs/iff/mt
***
Official Inspectors Report No WMDs in Iraq
Washington, Sep 17 (Prensa Latina) Eighteen months after the White House
began the attack on Iraqi, using as pretext the presence of weapons of
mass destruction, the official group of US inspectors report such
weapons were non-existent.
Charles Duelfer led the team producing the 1,500-page report cited in
the New York Times Friday, which will not be released publicly until the
"classified information" it contains is removed.
However, its results are presumed similar to that presented to the US
Congress in October 2003 by former inspector chief David Kay.
Kay, who left his post in January, said that everyone was wrong about a
presumed weapons program by Hussein, and assured there was no firm
evidence that Baghdad was developing a nuclear armament project.
Secretary of State Collin Powell recently contradicted his February 2003
affirmation to the UN Security Council that Iraq had such weapons, now
saying that no weapons of mass destruction will ever be found.
The war in the Persian Gulf nation, the more than 1,000 US soldiers
killed there so far, and the continued resistance against the invasion
are crucial themes for Bush's reelection.
ile/ccs/lb
Copyright (c) 2004 Prensa Latina, SA. All rights reserved.
*
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2 Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 02:23:33 -0500 (CDT)
Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday September 18, 2004
The Guardian
The comprehensive 15-month search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has
concluded that the only chemical or biological agents that Saddam Hussein's
regime was working on before last year's invasion were small quantities of
poisons, most likely for use in assassinations.
A draft of the Iraq Survey Group's final report circulating in Washington found
no sign of the alleged illegal stockpiles that the US and Britain presented as
the justification for going to war, nor did it find any evidence of efforts to
reconstitute Iraq's nuclear weapons programme.
It also appears to play down an interim report which suggested there was
evidence that Iraq was developing "test amounts" of ricin for use in weapons.
Instead, the ISG report says in its conclusion that there was evidence to
suggest the Iraqi regime planned to restart its illegal weapons programmes if
UN sanctions were lifted.
Charles Duelfer, the head of the ISG, has said he intends to deliver his final
report by the end of the month. It is likely to become a heated issue in the
election campaign.
President George Bush now admits that stockpiles have not been found in Iraq
but claimed as recently as Thursday that "Saddam Hussein had the capability of
making weapons, and he could have passed that capability on to the enemy".
The draft Duelfer report, according to the New York Times, finds no evidence of
a capability, but only of an intention to rebuild that capability once the UN
embargo had been removed and Iraq was no longer the target of intense
international scrutiny.
The finding adds weight to Mr Bush's assertions on the long-term danger posed
by the former Iraqi leader, but it also suggests that, contrary to the
administration's claims, diplomacy and containment were working prior to the
invasion.
The draft report was handed to British, US and Australian experts at a meeting
in London earlier this month, according to the New York Times. It largely
confirms the findings of Mr Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, who concluded "we
were almost all wrong" in thinking Saddam had stockpiled weapons. The Duelfer
report goes into greater detail.
Mr Kay's earlier findings mentioned the existence of a network of laboratories
run by the Iraqi intelligence service, and suggested that the regime could be
producing "test amounts" of chemical weapons and researching the use of ricin
in weapons.
Subsequent inspections of the clandestine labs, under Mr Duelfer's leadership,
found they were capable of producing small quantities of lethal chemical and
biological agents, more useful for assassinations of individuals rather than
for inflicting mass casualties.
Mr Duelfer, according to the draft, does not exclude the possibility that some
weapons materials could have been smuggled out of Iraq before the war, a
possibility raised by the administration and its supporters. However, the
report apparently produces no significant evidence to support the claim. Nor
does it find any evidence of any action by the Saddam regime to convert
dual-use industrial equipment to weapons production.
"I think we know exactly how this is going to play out," said Joseph
Cirincione, a proliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace.
"You'll see a very elaborate spin operation. But there's not much new here from
what the ISG reported before," Mr Cirincione said. "There are still no weapons,
no production of weapons and no programmes to begin the production of weapons.
What we're left with here with is that Saddam Hussein might have had the desire
to rebuild the capability to build those weapons."
"Well, lots of people have desire for these weapons. Lots of people have
intent. But that's not what we went to war for."
Mr Duelfer, who is reported to still be in Baghdad, did not respond to a
request for an interview yesterday.
Earlier this year, he told the Guardian that he expected his report would leave
"some unanswered questions".
He denied that he had been under pressure from British intelligence to include
unsubstantiated claims about suspected weapons programmes in his final
assessment.
An email from John Scarlett, then-chairman of Britain's joint intelligence
committee, suggesting the inclusion of "golden nuggets" about various alleged
weapons systems had been a reminder of speculative findings in earlier ISG
reports, Mr Duelfer said.
He had not included them."If someone tries to steer me in one direction, I tend
to go in the opposite direction," he said.
*****************************************************************
3 Las Vegas SUN: U.S. Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD
By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not have stockpiles of
weapons of mass destruction, but left signs that he had idle
programs he someday hoped to revive, the top U.S. weapons
inspector in Iraq concludes in a draft report due out soon.
According to people familiar with the 1,500-page report, the
head of the Iraq Survey Group, Charles Duelfer, will find that
Saddam was importing banned materials, working on unmanned
aerial vehicles in violation of U.N. agreements and maintaining
a dual-use industrial sector that could produce weapons.
Duelfer also says Iraq only had small research and development
programs for chemical and biological weapons.
As Duelfer puts the finishing touches on his report, he
concludes Saddam had intentions of restarting weapons programs
at some point, after suspicion and inspections from the
international community waned.
After a year and a half in Iraq, however, the United States has
found no weapons of mass destruction - its chief argument for
going to war and overthrowing the regime.
An intelligence official said Duelfer could wrap up the report
as soon as this month, but noted it may take time to declassify
it. Those who discussed the report inside and outside the
government did so Thursday on the condition of anonymity because
it contains classified material and is not yet completed.
If the report is released publicly before the Nov. 2 elections,
Democrats are likely to seize on the document as another
opportunity to criticize the Bush administration's leading
argument for war in Iraq and the deteriorating security
situation there.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has criticized the
president's handling of the war, but also has said he still
would have voted to authorize the invasion even if he had known
no weapons of mass destruction would be found there.
Duelfer's report is expected to be similar to findings reported
by his predecessor, David Kay, who presented an interim report
to Congress in October. Kay left the post in January, saying,
"We were almost all wrong" about Saddam's weapons programs.
The new analysis, however, is expected to fall between the
position of the Bush administration before the war - portraying
Saddam as a grave threat - and the declarative statements Kay
made after he resigned.
It will also add more evidence and flesh out Kay's October
findings. At that time, Kay said the Iraq Survey Group had only
uncovered limited evidence of secret chemical and biological
weapons programs, but he found substantial evidence of an Iraqi
push to boost the range of its ballistic missiles beyond
prohibited ranges.
He also said there was almost no sign that a significant nuclear
weapons project was under way.
Duelfer's report doesn't reach firm conclusions in all areas.
For instance, U.S. officials are still investigating whether
Saddam's fallen regime may have sent chemical weapons equipment
and several billion dollars over the border to Syria. That has
not been confirmed, but remains an area of interest to the U.S.
government.
The Duelfer report will come months after the Senate
Intelligence Committee released a scathing assessment of the
prewar intelligence on Iraq.
After a yearlong inquiry, the Republican-led committee said in
July the CIA kept key information from its own and other
agencies' analysts, engaged in "group think" by failing to
challenge the assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction and allowed President Bush and Secretary of State
Colin Powell to make false statements.
The Iraq Survey Group has been working since the summer of 2003
to find Saddam's weapons and better understand his prohibited
programs. More than a thousand civilian and military weapons
specialists, translators and other experts have been devoted to
the effort.
--
*****************************************************************
4 Guardian Unlimited Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict
[UP]
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday September 18, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
The comprehensive 15-month search for weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq has concluded that the only chemical or biological agents
that Saddam Hussein's regime was working on before last year's
invasion were small quantities of poisons, most likely for use in
assassinations.
A draft of the Iraq Survey Group's final report circulating in
Washington found no sign of the alleged illegal stockpiles that
the US and Britain presented as the justification for going to
war, nor did it find any evidence of efforts to reconstitute
Iraq's nuclear weapons programme.
It also appears to play down an interim report which suggested
there was evidence that Iraq was developing "test amounts" of
ricin for use in weapons. Instead, the ISG report says in its
conclusion that there was evidence to suggest the Iraqi regime
planned to restart its illegal weapons programmes if UN sanctions
were lifted.
Charles Duelfer, the head of the ISG, has said he intends to
deliver his final report by the end of the month. It is likely to
become a heated issue in the election campaign.
President George Bush now admits that stockpiles have not been
found in Iraq but claimed as recently as Thursday that "Saddam
Hussein had the capability of making weapons, and he could have
passed that capability on to the enemy".
The draft Duelfer report, according to the New York Times, finds
no evidence of a capability, but only of an intention to rebuild
that capability once the UN embargo had been removed and Iraq was
no longer the target of intense international scrutiny.
The finding adds weight to Mr Bush's assertions on the long-term
danger posed by the former Iraqi leader, but it also suggests
that, contrary to the administration's claims, diplomacy and
containment were working prior to the invasion.
The draft report was handed to British, US and Australian experts
at a meeting in London earlier this month, according to the New
York Times. It largely confirms the findings of Mr Duelfer's
predecessor, David Kay, who concluded "we were almost all wrong"
in thinking Saddam had stockpiled weapons. The Duelfer report
goes into greater detail.
Mr Kay's earlier findings mentioned the existence of a network of
laboratories run by the Iraqi intelligence service, and suggested
that the regime could be producing "test amounts" of chemical
weapons and researching the use of ricin in weapons.
Subsequent inspections of the clandestine labs, under Mr
Duelfer's leadership, found they were capable of producing small
quantities of lethal chemical and biological agents, more useful
for assassinations of individuals than for inflicting mass
casualties.
Mr Duelfer, according to the draft, does not exclude the
possibility that some weapons materials could have been smuggled
out of Iraq before the war, a possibility raised by the
administration and its supporters. However, the report apparently
produces no significant evidence to support the claim. Nor does
it find any evidence of any action by the Saddam regime to
convert dual-use industrial equipment to weapons production.
"I think we know exactly how this is going to play out," said
Joseph Cirincione, a proliferation expert at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace.
"You'll see a very elaborate spin operation. But there's not much
new here from what the ISG reported before," he said. "There are
still no weapons, no production of weapons and no programmes to
begin the production of weapons. What we're left with here is
that Saddam Hussein might have had the desire to rebuild the
capability to build those weapons."
"Well, lots of people have desire for these weapons. Lots of
people have intent. But that's not what we went to war for."
The motives for war, meanwhile, came under fresh scrutiny last
night as the Telegraph reported that Tony Blair was warned in
Foreign Office papers a year before the invasion of the scale of
dealing with a post-Saddam Iraq.
The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Sir Menzies
Campbell, said that if authenticated, the papers "demonstrate
that the government agreed with the Bush administration on regime
change in Iraq more than a year before military action was
taken".
Mr Duelfer, who is reported to still be in Baghdad, did not
respond to a request for an interview on the question of WMD
yesterday.
Earlier this year, he told the Guardian that he expected his
report would leave "some unanswered questions".
What do you think? Email your comments for publication to
politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk
[politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk]
Interactive guides
Blair's road to war
[http://politics.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,10291,906594,00.html]
Full texts
18.03.2003: Emergency Commons motion on Iraq
Government dossier on Iraqi arms
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/documents/2002/09
/24/dossier.pdf]
Government dossier on human rights
[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Politics/documents/2002/09
/24/dossier.pdf]
Useful links
Foreign and Commonwealth Office [http://www.fco.gov.uk]
Iraq sanctions - UN security council
[http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/indexone.htm]
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
5 Las Vegas RJ: LAS VEGAS VISIT: Kerry rips handling of war
Friday, September 17, 2004
Democrat says Bush glossing overdeteriorating situation in Iraq
By ERIN NEFF
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry meets with supporters
after his speech Thursday to the National Guard Association of
the United States at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Photo by John Gurzinski.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry addresses
members of the National Guard Association of the United States
at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Photo by John Gurzinski.
John Kerry backers rally Thursday outside the Las Vegas
Convention Center as the Democratic nominee speaks to the
National Guard Association of the United States
Photo by John Locher [JLocher@reviewjournal.com] .
With the Strip's New York-New York skyline in the background,
Democratic nominee John Kerry descends the steps of his plane
shortly after it landed Thursday in Las Vegas.
Photo by Gary Thompson.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry issued his harshest
criticism yet of the handling of the war in Iraq in a speech
Thursday to National Guard conventioneers in Las Vegas, saying
President Bush misled the nation, rushed to war and ignored
increasingly chaotic signs from that country.
Kerry offered a much different view of the war and homeland
security than Bush did Tuesday in his speech to the same group,
the National Guard Association of the United States.
"Two days ago, the president stood right where I'm standing and
did not even acknowledge that more than 1,000 men and women have
lost their lives in Iraq," Kerry said inside the Las Vegas
Convention Center. "He did not tell you that with each passing
day, we're seeing more chaos, more violence and indiscriminate
killings."
Kerry mentioned a Thursday New York Times article on new U.S.
government intelligence appraisals offering a bleak picture of
the situation in Iraq.
"I believe he failed the fundamental test of leadership," Kerry
said. "He failed to tell you the truth. You deserve better. The
commander in chief must level with the troops and the nation. I
intend to do that, on the good days and the bad days."
Kerry's own staff said afterward the speech was the candidate's
most pointed criticism of the Bush administration's handling of
the war.
Kerry was greeted politely by the crowd, receiving standing
ovations when he was introduced and two other times when he
outlined benefits he would pursue for the Guard. But the
audience was less energetic than it was for Bush on Tuesday,
offering no applause during roughly half of Kerry's 30-minute
speech, the half of which he criticized Bush.
Kerry said the mission in Iraq is in "serious trouble," and
"with each passing month, stability and security seem further
and farther away."
"I believe you deserve a president who isn't going to gild that
truth or gild our national security with politics, who is not
going to ignore his own intelligence," Kerry said. "I believe
you deserve a president who will give the American people the
truth, not a fantasy world of spin, but a world where we
challenge our brave men and women to be able to meet the test of
our times."
Though the response was not nearly as enthusiastic as that
given to Bush, many Guard members and civilians crowded Kerry
after the speech and he shook hands for nearly 30 minutes.
In an interview afterward, Kerry said a lot of guardsmen who
greeted him said they were thankful he came to speak.
"A lot of people came up to me afterwards and said, 'I'm voting
for you; boy you told the truth,' " Kerry said.
Thursday marked Kerry's fourth visit to Las Vegas this year and
the second time both he and Bush have been in Southern Nevada in
the same week. Kerry was in Las Vegas about four hours before
heading to New Mexico for a rally.
Outside the convention center, about 70 veterans, union members
and other Kerry supporters gathered, waving placards and
chanting slogans like "Bush is a zero. Kerry is a hero."
George Saxon, 74, a Korean War veteran who served 23 years in
the military, said he opposes Bush because of troop deaths in an
unnecessary war.
"Kerry knows what goes on in the military because he has been
there," Saxon said. "Bush has only heard about it. Bush doesn't
know anything about the military."
Kerry met with local veterans after touching down in Las Vegas.
John Hunt, the 2002 Democratic nominee for attorney general,
stood with a photo of his son, Billy, 22, a soldier in the 82nd
Airborne who learned Wednesday he was being deployed to
Afghanistan after returning in April from service in Iraq.
Hunt explained the situation to Kerry and asked whether he
would talk to the young man. He said his son was skeptical Kerry
would be on the phone.
"I called my son, and he said `No way,' and then Kerry ... took
the phone and told my son that he was going to do everything he
could to protect all the troops," Hunt said.
Republicans did not let Kerry's visit go unnoticed. In a news
conference at a local club for Marines, Nevada Veterans for Bush
countered Kerry's assertions.
"He has never supported the troops," said Paul Adams, the
group's chairman, referring to Kerry's votes against military
funding during his 20-year Senate career.
Adams was joined by Theresa Bunker, whose son, Josh, 21, is in
the National Guard, and by Guard member Brandon Upton, 19.
"President Bush is my commander in chief, and I'm proud of it,"
said Upton, a member of the 777th Transportation Company.
All three speakers chided Kerry for what they described as his
changing stance on the war in Iraq, a theme stressed by Bush and
Vice President Dick Cheney.
Both hammer Kerry for voting against the $87 billion
supplemental funding bill for military operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan after supporting to go to war in Iraq.
In an interview after his speech, Kerry said he voted against
the funding because he disagreed with the way the Bush
administration pursued the war he supported.
"My vote was the right vote, and it's been proven to be the
right vote because George Bush has messed up Iraq and has messed
up the money," Kerry said.
The Massachusetts senator said only $300 million of the $18.4
billion in that bill earmarked for construction has been spent.
"It's sitting in a slush fund over there," Kerry said. "We
could have been using the money over here. The president clearly
didn't put our country on the right track, and that's why I
voted the way I did. I said at the time, 'You've got to get the
policy right.' He hasn't."
Kerry said he has been discussing for two years the "right way"
and "wrong way" to conduct the war. His approach involved
getting broader international support and a coalition of support
within the Middle East to share the costs of the war.
"And my right way is being proven more and more every day to
have been the right way and to be the way he should have gone,"
Kerry said. "But the president has stubbornly resisted our
advice. And he's gone unilaterally; America's carrying 90
percent of the cost of the war in Iraq, 90 percent of the
casualties, and it's going worse."
In his speech to the Guard, Kerry said the Guard and Reserve,
which compose roughly 40 percent of the troops in Iraq, are
overextended. He repeated his stance that their deployment
abroad constitutes "a backdoor draft."
Kerry said he would create new Army divisions focused on
bioterrorism and return National Guard members to America to
focus on homeland security.
His speech offered no details of his proposals to expand Guard
health care and retirement benefits, nor did he offer specifics
about his plan to shift military priorities.
In the interview, Kerry said he would not impose a draft. He
predicted Americans would sign up for military service because
they could have confidence in his leadership, based on lessons
he learned in his own military service during the Vietnam War.
Bush, he said, did not go to war as a last resort.
"The fact is, he took his eye off the real war on terror, which
is in Afghanistan, and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, shifted it
to Iraq, and we're paying a high price for his judgment."
In several interviews with local television stations Thursday,
Kerry repeated his opposition to Yucca Mountain, discussed how
he would stop the project and criticized Bush for making a
"special interest" decision to bury the nation's nuclear waste
at the site, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Review-Journal writers Frank Geary and Richard Lake contributed
to this report.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
6 AFP: Compromise resolution on Iran submitted at UN atomic agency
http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) Sep 17, 2004
Europe's three main nations submitted a compromise resolution at
the International Atomic Energy Agency seen as a key step towards
setting a deadline for a review of Iran's alleged nuclear weapons
program, an IAEA spokesman said.
"The resolution has been tabled," Mark Gwozdecky said, with the
IAEA's 35-nation board of governors set to meet in a special
session Saturday.
A European diplomat told AFP that Britain, France and Germany had
gone ahead and submitted the draft resolution even though there
were still objections to it from non-aligned countries.
All rights reserved. 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by
*****************************************************************
7 AFP: IAEA says no sign of nuclear activity at suspect Iranian site
[http://www.spacewar.com/] [http://www.spacewar.com/
VIENNA (AFP) Sep 17, 2004
UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday there
was no sign of nuclear activity at the Parchin military site in
Iran which US officials say should be investigated.
"We do not have any indication that this site has any
nuclear-related activities," ElBaradei said.
"We are aware of this new site," he added however at a press
conference at an IAEA board of governors meeting.
Iran denied Thursday that it had carried out any nuclear-related
work at Parchin, a huge military complex 30 kilometres (19 miles)
southeast of Tehran.
A senior US official has told AFP the United States was concerned
about high-explosives testing in Parchin that may "amount to
(nuclear) weapons intent".
Iranian official Hossein Mousavian said in Vienna that the IAEA
had not asked to visit Parchin as part of its investigation of
Iran's nuclear program.
He said that "if this is requested by the IAEA, we are fully
ready to cooperate."
Mousavian said the IAEA had asked Iran "four weeks ago about
reports from open sources of explosive testing but they did not
mention Parchin."
Diplomats have told AFP, however, that the IAEA had asked to
visit Parchin and that the Iranians have not agreed to the visit.
Parchin is a site for a variety of defense projects, including
Defense Industries Organization (DIO) work in chemical
explosives.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is strictly civilian and
peaceful and that it is not developing atomic weapons.
A diplomat close to the IAEA confirmed that the agency had asked
to send inspectors to Parchin but said this was not included in
an IAEA report on Iran published September 1 since "whenever you
are in the negotiating process, you should not mention what you
are negotiating.
ElBaradei defended himself against charges of hiding information
on Parchin.
He said the report contained "all the facts that we think should
be brought to the attention of the (IAEA) board (of governors) at
this stage.
"The report is comprehensive," he said.
He said the IAEA did not like "other people second-guessing our
conclusions nor are we planning to outsource our investigation,"
a clear reference to the United States.
ElBaradei said the IAEA was "in full control" of its
investigation and will continue to do it "with our traditional
fairness and objectivity."
"Should there be any new information now or in the future, I can
assure you it will be brought immediately before the board,"
ElBaradei said.
A US official had told AFP last week that the IAEA had, according
to verbal accounts, dropped the mention of Parchin in its
September 1 report on Iran, as well as a reference to concern
about Iran's work with beryllium.
Beryllium has civilian applications but can also be used in
combination with polonium to make a neutron initiator that is
effectively a trigger for a nuclear bomb.
The official said the concern about Parchin was that the Iranians
may be working on testing "high-explosive shaped charges with an
inert core of depleted uranium" as a sort of dry test for how a
bomb with fissile material would work.
All rights reserved. 2004 [http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of
the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs,
*****************************************************************
8 AFP: US says draft IAEA resolution on Iran shows 'spirit of compromise'
[http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
WASHINGTON (AFP) Sep 17, 2004
The United States said Friday it had shown "the spirit of
compromise" by dropping an ultimatum on Iran's alleged nuclear
weapons program from a proposed resolution at the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and vowed to press ahead with its
adoption.
At the same time, the State Department said the draft, which was
agreed to late Thursday after intense discussions with the
so-called "EU Three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- as well as
Canada and Australia, would keep pressure on Iran to come clean
about its programs or face the potential of the agency referring
the matter to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
"We think that the text that we've worked at very diligently with
our partners is a good text," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told
reporters. "It shows the spirit of compromise and it keeps the
pressure on Iran and sets up the November board meeting for
important decisions."
The draft, to be debated by the IAEA's governing board at a
special session at its Vienna headquarters on Saturday, does not,
as Washington initially wanted, set an October 31 deadline for
Iran to fully suspend uranium enrichment and report on its other
activities to the IAEA and for Iran to be automatically referred
to the Security Council if it failed to do so.
However, it does set a November 25 deadline for a full review of
Iran's nuclear program and calls on Tehran to "immediately"
suspend all uranium enrichment activities, with this also being
reviewed in November. It does not specify any IAEA action to be
taken should Iran fail to comply.
Despite the compromise, diplomats in Vienna say some non-aligned
IAEA members appear to think the resolution is still too strong
and want to avoid making uranium enrichment, which is allowed
under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) something for
which Iran can be punished.
Enriched uranium can be used to make fuel for civilian reactors
but also the explosive core for nuclear weapons.
Iran suspended uranium enrichment in October 2003 as a
confidence-building measure but has continued to support
activities such as building the centrifuges that refine the
uranium despite pledges to the EU Three to halt that work.
Iran insists its program is for civilian energy purposes but the
United States maintains that Tehran is using it to hide nuclear
weapons development and Ereli said Washington had not yet seen
anything to disprove its accusations.
"Frankly, we have not seen anything that would lead us to believe
that Iran has met its commitments to the IAEA with respect to its
centrifuge program or its enrichment process and that's the crux
of the issue," he said.
"They say they were going to do something, they don't do it. They
come up with temporary pledges to do it, and then they even break
those," Ereli said.
All rights reserved. 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
*****************************************************************
9 Guardian Unlimited: Draft Deprives Iran of Weapons Technology
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday September 17, 2004 8:31 AM
By ANDREA DUDIKOVA
Associated Press Writer
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - U.S. and European negotiators have agreed
on a draft resolution meant to deprive Iran of technology that
could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Friday,
with the Americans dropping demands that Iran be given a deadline
to meet a set of conditions.
The draft demands a new Iranian freeze on uranium enrichment by
late fall and expresses ``serious concern'' that Iran ``has not
heeded repeated calls from the board to suspend ... all
enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.''
It also expressed alarm at Iranian plans to process more than 40
tons of raw uranium into uranium hexafluoride, the feed stock for
enrichment.
A senior diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the
text still needed ``a final go round'' Friday among delegations
to the board of governors meeting of the International Atomic
Energy Agency before being formally submitted to the meeting.
``But it looks like we're all on the same page,'' said the
diplomat, suggesting that the Americans and Europeans had laid
aside differences that had delayed agreement and led to days of
back-room negotiations. He said the resolution will likely be
submitted later in the day.
The draft urges Iran to suspend all such activities, called on
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to submit a report by November
reviewing the past two years of his Iran probe, and demanded Iran
``resolve all outstanding issues and inconsistencies'' feeding
fears it may have a weapons program.
That version made no mention of an Oct. 31 deadline - a date
pushed by the United States, Canada and Australia - for Iran to
meet all the conditions. Instead it kept open the option of
``further steps'' if Iran fails to meet the board's conditions by
November - shorthand for possible referral of Iran to the U.N.
Security Council, as demanded by the United States.
Washington had sought a specific date, arguing defiance of the
demands by the should lead to automatic referral.
Iran is not prohibited from enrichment under its obligations to
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but faces growing
international pressure to suspend such activities - which can be
used to generate power or make nuclear weapons - as a good-faith
gesture.
Amid the back-room negotiations, a row erupted between Washington
and the agency, as a U.S. official expressed alarm about a
possible nuclear weapons-related test site in Iran and accused
the IAEA of keeping silent on its own concerns about the issue.
The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity, said the United States believed that Iran's Parchin
complex, southeast of Tehran, is being used by the Islamic
Republic to test high explosives, possibly for use with nuclear
weapons.
Both Iran and the IAEA denied the accusations.
A report ElBaradei wrote for the board on the status of a probe
into Iran's nuclear activities did not specifically mention
Parchin.
``This is a serious omission,'' the U.S. official said.
IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said suggestions that the agency
willfully omitted sensitive information were ``totally baseless
... (and) not worthy of further comment.''
Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright said Iran ignored
IAEA requests to visit Parchin but did not turn down those
requests outright. Albright, now the head of the Institute for
Science and International Security in Washington, described the
site as hypothetically having ``the capacities that could be used
to make high explosives for nuclear weapons.''
---
On the Net:
IAEA: www.iaea.org
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
10 Guardian Unlimited: West sets deadline for Iran to freeze uranium enrichment
Ian Traynor
Saturday September 18, 2004
The Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk]
Four western countries set the scene yesterday for a showdown
with Iran by demanding that it freeze its uranium enrichment
activities immediately.
The US, Britain, France and Germany agreed on a form of words at
the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, which
threatened tough action in November if Iran remained defiant.
The resolution, drafted by the three European countries, said
Iran needed "immediately to suspend all enrichment-related
activities", and asked the IAEA's director general, Mohamed El
Baradei, for a full accounting of the Iranian programme before
the next IAEA board meeting in November.
Dr El Baradei will be asked for a definitive verdict on whether
Iran has a covert project to build an atom bomb.
The demand for a freeze was being contested last night in Vienna
by countries from the non-aligned movement. While it was expected
to be endorsed, the session was adjourned for the third time this
week and the 35-member board is to meet this morning.
Yesterday Dr El Baradei said the latest site to draw Washington's
suspicion - at Parchin, south of Tehran - showed no signs of
nuclear-related activities.
The resolution said the November meeting, after the US
presidential election, would "decide whether or not further steps
are appropriate", meaning Iran could be reported to the UN
security council for sanctions. This is the policy pursued by the
US but resisted, for the moment, by the Europeans.
The US immediately denounced as a ploy Iran's offer to extend its
freeze on uranium enrichment, and Tehran accused Washington of
manipulating the Vienna meeting for political reasons. Iran also
threatened to take the IAEA to the international court of justice
in The Hague.
Yesterday's draft came after four previous attempts in Vienna
this week, reflecting the acrimony involved in reaching a
consensus.
While all the signs are that the two-year-old crisis is coming to
a head, the draft left open the possibility of it dragging on.
The final document said the IAEA's board would "remain seized of
the matter", meaning it could remain on the board's agenda beyond
November.
Earlier versions did not contain this clause.
Although the Europeans have been reluctant to go to the security
council, there is concern that Iran has been playing for time and
the longer the crisis drags the closer they will be to an atomic
bomb.
Dr El Baradei will visit South Korea early next month to
discuss Seoul's nuclear research after the country admitted it
had enriched some uranium and separated plutonium.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
11 UPI: Iran to defy ban on enriching uranium -
(United Press International)
September 17, 2004
Tehran, Iran, Sep. 17 (UPI) -- Influential Iran cleric Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani Friday said his country would reject any
international ban on enriching uranium.
The Iranian News Agency, IRNA, quoted Rafsanjani as saying "we
cannot accept any decision calling on Iran to suspend the process
of enriching uranium."
Rafsanjani, president for two terms from 1989-97 and currently
chairman of the powerful Expediency Council, warned if the
International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, ruled against Iran's
nuclear programs "it will be defying its mission and should be
condemned."
He said Iran will appeal to the International Tribunal in The
Hague if the IAEA imposes such a ban.
"Any fair and just judge in The Hague would definitely rule
against such an IAEA decision," Rafsanjani said. "Iran has proved
several times that it does not surrender to arrogance by
international organizations and will not give up its legitimate
right to develop peaceful nuclear power."
[UPI Perspectives]
*****************************************************************
12 BBC: UN urges cautious Iran approach
Last Updated: Friday, 17 September, 2004
[IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei ]
The IAEA chief says lessons should be learnt from Iraq
The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has called for restraint
and caution in dealing with Iran's nuclear programme.
Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) told the BBC that diplomacy should be given a chance to
take effect.
He cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Iran's nuclear
intentions, citing the lessons of Iraq.
His comments came as the US, France, Britain and Germany called
for Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme.
Art of diplomacy
"You need the carrot and the stick - the incentive and
disincentive - and how you mix these elements in a way that does
not chase one of the parties away, or make them feel complacent,
is really the art of diplomacy," Mr ElBaradei said.
Iran dismisses allegations that it is enriching uranium to
develop nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear programme is
solely for peaceful purposes.
Mr ElBaradei cautioned against creating further barriers between
the country and the international community.
"My desire is to see the Iranian situation resolved, not to see
Iran having nuclear weapons, not to see Iran isolated and become
more hawkish," he said.
"Whatever needs to be done to do that, I am all for it."
Possible sanctions
The US - which believes Tehran is using enriched uranium to build
nuclear weapons - has been lobbying IAEA members to take Iran to
the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
A draft UN resolution agreed by the US and France, Britain and
Germany calls on Iran to suspend its uranium programme as a
confidence-building measure.
The text says the UN nuclear agency should decide in November
whether to take further action against Iran.
But Mr ElBaradei says it is still unclear if the country is
developing nuclear weapons.
Satellite images
Later he dismissed claims by US officials that the site of a
military testing ground near the Iranian capital was linked to
nuclear research.
"We do not have any indication that this site has nuclear-related
activities," he told reporters on the sidelines of an IAEA
meeting in Vienna.
Earlier this week a US nuclear monitor published satellite images
of the Parchin military complex, south-east of Tehran, saying it
may be used for work on nuclear arms.
The new draft resolution still has to be approved by the IAEA's
35-nation board of governors.
The head of the Iranian delegation to the IAEA, Hossein
Mousavian, told the BBC that Iran would decide in the next few
days whether to extend its partial freeze on uranium enrichment.
He said the draft resolution was a politically motivated text and
enriching uranium for civilian purposes was the legitimate right
of every IAEA member.
*****************************************************************
13 BBC: Iran offer over nuclear programme
Last Updated: Saturday, 18 September, 2004
By Bethany Bell BBC correspondent in Vienna
[A general view of Iran's first nuclear reactor, being built in
Bushehr] There are calls for Iran to end enrichment activity
A leading Iranian official has told the BBC that Tehran is
prepared to give further assurances that its uranium enrichment
programme will be peaceful.
The pledge was made by head of the Iranian delegation to the
International Atomic Energy Agency Hossein Mousavian.
The US, Britain, France and Germany have submitted a resolution
to the IAEA which calls on Iran to freeze all enrichment
activities.
Some other board members find that difficult to accept.
Programme 'peaceful'
Mr Mousavian told the BBC that Iran is prepared to discuss giving
further assurances that its uranium enrichment process will be
peaceful and will never be diverted.
He said the Europeans had been informed of the offer.
The question of Iran's enrichment programme is at the heart of a
diplomatic wrangle at the IAEA's board of governors.
The US, Britain, France and Germany are calling for a halt to all
enrichment-related activities in Iran, amid fears that Tehran
could be trying to develop a nuclear weapons programme.
But other board members have expressed reservations and Iran
insists on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
The board is set to consider the resolution on Saturday.
The resolution would impose an indirect deadline on Iran to meet
the board's conditions.
It keeps open the option of further steps if Iran fails to comply
with IAEA demands that could include taking Tehran before the UN
Security Council.
Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and not a matter for
New York.
*****************************************************************
14 AFP: Europe, US Agree On Draft Resolution On Iran Nuclear Program
[http://www.turkishpress.com/]
[http://www.anatolia.com]
AFP: 9/17/2004
VIENNA (AFP) - The United States and three major European nations
have reached agreement in Vienna on a draft resolution on Iran`s
alleged nuclear weapons program in a breakthrough that could lead
to the text being adopted Friday by the UN nuclear watchdog, a US
official told AFP.
In a major US concession, the resolution does not set an October
31 ultimatum for Iran to comply with demands from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to a copy of
the text obtained by AFP.
"The United States ... and the EU 3 (Britain, France and Germany)
have reached agreement on a draft resolution that will be
considered" Friday by the IAEA board of governors, State
Department spokesman Edward Vasquez said Thursday.
Many members of the IAEA`s 35-nation board, including non-aligned
nations, had been hostile to the US`s insistence on an ultimatum.
Non-aligned states were to meet Friday at 0900 GMT and a plenary
session of the board, which has been meeting here since Monday,
was scheduled for the afternoon, diplomats said.
The breakthrough between the United States, Canada and Australia
on one side and Britain, France and Germany on the other came
Thursday evening at a meeting between just the United States and
France and Britain, diplomats said.
They said the United States had complained that Germany was
especially strong in resisting the US hard line while France and
Britain were more willing to negotiate.
The United States, which charges that Iran is secretly developing
nuclear weapons, would like to see the IAEA judge Iran in
non-compliance with nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
safeguards and take Tehran before the UN Security Council for
possible sanctions.
Washington wants to put an end to an IAEA investigation that
started in February 2003 as it feels Iran has been buying time
through extending the diplomatic process in order to push ahead
with a secret weapons program.
The United States on Thursday claimed satellite images of a
military site reported in the media showed Iran`s intention to
manufacture nuclear weapons but the charges were categorically
denied by Tehran.
A Western diplomat close to the talks in Vienna said that despite
the United States acceding to demands from the Europeans to drop
the ultimatum, "the language is still pretty tough. There are the
equivalent of two strong deadlines in the text."
The draft says it is "imperative" for Iran to clear up
"outstanding issues" with the IAEA "before the board`s (next
meeting on) 25 November," such as "the sources and reasons for
enriched uranium contamination and the import, manufacture and
use of centrifuges" in order for IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei
to file a comprehensive report.
It also said it "is necessary that Iran immediately suspend all
enrichment-related activities, including the manufacture or
import of centrifuge components, the assembly and testing of
centrifuges and the production of feed material" for enriching
uranium, the process that uses centrifuges to produce what can be
fuel for civilian reactors but also the explosive core for atomic
bombs.
Iran had agreed in October 2003 to suspend enrichment but has
since backtracked on suspending all related activities and had
alarmed the United States this month by saying it was ready to
convert 37 tons or uranium mineral yellowcake into the gas that
is the feed material for enriching uranium.
The draft says the IAEA board of governors will decide in
November "whether or not further steps are appropriate in
relation to Iran`s obligations under its NPT (nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty) safeguards agreement and to the
requests made of Iran by the board in this and previous
resolutions."
Such steps could be to take Iran to the Security Council,
although there is no automatic requirement for the board to do
this, as the United States had wanted.
The Western diplomat said the United States had not insisted on
its extreme hard-line demands since "it wanted to go forward (on
the Iranian issue) with its friends."
Iran`s delegation chief in Vienna Hossein Mousavian told AFP: "I
don`t believe it`s an important resolution."
He said Iran, which insists its nuclear program is a strictly
peaceful civilian effort to generate electricity, cared about the
report of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to the IAEA board in
November "and the final decision of the board."
Mousavian said the Americans had strived for an ultimatum "since
they need this propaganda for the US presidential election."
[http://www.afp.com/] Copyright 2004 Agence France Presse. All
rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed
without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
Web TurkishPress.com
1997-2004 Anatolia.com Inc.
*****************************************************************
15 [NYTr] Diplomat: Nukes Not Cause of N.Korea Blast
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 15:50:10 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Will the "avaricious capitalist state" be reassured by this news from
the "secretive communist" state? Only the Shadow knows...-NY Transfer]
AP via The New York Times - Sept 17, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Koreas-Explosion.html
Diplomat: Nukes Not Cause of Korea Blast
BEIJING (AP) -- Video footage of the area where North Korea said a huge
explosion occurred showed dozens of workers swarming around a dusty
construction site resembling a large dam project, while a foreign
diplomat who visited the site said Friday he found no sign the blast was
nuclear.
South Korea, meanwhile, said a mushroom-shaped plume thought to be from
the Sept. 9 blast was 60 miles away from the site where North Korea said
it occurred and may have been a natural cloud formation.
Diplomats from seven countries were flown by the secretive communist
state to its remote northeast, near the border with China, on Thursday
to verify claims that the explosion was part of work on a hydroelectric
dam -- not a test of its contentious nuclear program.
``One thing is entirely clear: This was not a nuclear explosion that
happened at this site,'' Sweden's Ambassador to North Korea, Paul
Beijer, said by phone from North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. ``This is a
site where thousands of people are working on dam building.''
Concern was sparked when South Korea reported days after the blast that
a mushroom cloud more than two miles wide had been spotted on satellite.
Independent video of the construction site was obtained by Associated
Press Television News in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, hours
after the ambassadors returned from their visit.
The video, apparently shot from a point high above the valley floor,
showed a building complex intact near a place where rock had been
blasted away, with scores of workers moving around.
A deep excavation with large pools of water and wooden shelters could be
seen across the valley, apparently where the dam is intended to rise,
and a North Korean official was shown pointing out a big billboard
illustrating the completed project.
The size of the cloud and the timing of the blast, which coincided with
the 56th anniversary of North Korea's founding fed speculation by South
Korean media that it was a nuclear test.
But a South Korean official said Friday that the site that North Korea
opened to the foreign diplomats was about 60 miles from the area South
Korean officials had initially pinpointed as a site for the mushroom cloud.
``We believe that there was no explosion in the place where intelligence
authorities had previously suspected that there were signs of an
explosion,'' Deputy Unification Minister Lee Bong-jo told reporters in
Seoul.
Lee suggested that Seoul concurred with the North's claims.
``We believe that the explosion described by North Korea ... has to do
with a hydroelectric project,'' he said.
South Korea's main intelligence agency also said Wednesday that the
mushroom-shaped cloud might have been ``an unusual form of natural
cloud, given the weather conditions there at the time, besides the
possibility of blasting to build a hydroelectric power plant.''
The incident came during efforts to arrange a new round of six-nation
talks on demands for the North to give up its nuclear ambitions. The
talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan.
Experts say they don't believe the North would conduct a nuclear test
near its border with China, a major ally and aid donor to the isolated,
impoverished country.
British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell, who visited Pyongyang this
week, said the North's foreign minister told him the blast was part of
demolition work for a hydroelectric project.
Beijer said North Korean officials at the construction site told the
diplomats two unusually large blasts occurred there on the night of
Sept. 8 and early Sept. 9. He said they explained how much explosive was
used.
The delegation was led by Britain's ambassador to North Korea, David
Slinn, and included diplomats from the Pyongyang embassies of Russia,
Poland, Mongolia, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
Slinn declined to comment, but the British Foreign Office issued a
statement in London saying the group visited the construction site of a
hydroelectric project.
The diplomats reached the site in Samsu county after a 1 1/2 hour flight
followed by a three-hour drive in an off-road vehicle, Beijer said.
They spent about 90 minutes taking photos, talking to officials at the
site and gathering information that they sent back to their governments
for analysis, the ambassador said. He didn't say whether delegates
carried Geiger counters or took soil samples at the site.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
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16 AFP: UN nuclear inspectors heading for South Korea
[http://www.spacewar.com/] WAR.WIRE
VIENNA (AFP) Sep 17, 2004
UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed Friday the
body was embarking on a new round of inspections in South Korea
into the secret manufacture of small amounts of potentially
bomb-grade enriched uranium and plutonium.
"We are getting very active and good cooperation on the part of
the Republic of Korea," ElBaradei told reporters at a meeting of
the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of
governors.
He said the IAEA was "sending a team of inspectors to the
Republic of Korea tomorrow (Saturday)."
The IAEA hope by November to "be able to provide a comprehensive
report and provide assurances to the... international community"
that South Korea is not a nuclear weapons threat.
ElBaradei said he "would be going to the Republic of Korea early
in October and I will have the opportunity to discuss this with
the government and other officials in Korea."
In Seoul, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon told a parliamentary
hearing Wednesday that the IAEA inspectors were expected to visit
two state nuclear centers where South Korean scientists extracted
a small amount of plutonium in 1982 and conducted research to
enrich uranium in 2000.
"We have nothing to hide. We are ready to cooperate with their
transparent inspection," a government official told AFP.
The UN watchdog sent inspectors to South Korea two weeks ago to
look into the experiments.
Yonhap news agency said the new five-member team will conduct a
six-day inspection as a follow-up to the initial visit.
ElBaradei said Monday that 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of uranium
metal was produced in undeclared conversion activities in the
early 1980s and a small amount of this was used in 2000 to
produce the enriched uranium.
ElBaradei expressed "serious concern" about the activities.
In Seoul, the science ministry said scientists produced about 150
kilograms of uranium metal in 1982 from phosphate ore at three
undeclared facilities. Uranium metal can be used as nuclear fuel
or as a radiation shield.
The facilities were dismantled after scientists used 3.5
kilograms of the uranium metal in 2000, it said, adding South
Korea still keeps 134 kilograms in storage.
The ministry attributed the loss of the remaining 12.5 kilograms
to natural wastage.
It asserted the experiments were purely for academic research but
did not clarify why the production of uranium metal was
undeclared.
In Vienna, South Korea's ambassador to the IAEA Cho Changbeom
told the IAEA board Friday that Korea "remains firmly committed
to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and nuclear
non-proliferation."
South Korea is a member of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
and has ratified the Additional Protocol to the NPT that allows
for wider IAEA inspections.
All rights reserved. 2004 Agence France-Presse
[http://www.afp.com/] . Sections of the information displayed on
*****************************************************************
17 Las Vegas SUN: Diplomat: No Sign of N. Korea Nuke Blast
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING (AP) -
Sweden's ambassador to North Korea said Friday that diplomats
who visited what North Korean officials claimed was the site of
a huge explosion last week saw no evidence to support fears it
might have been caused by a nuclear blast.
Diplomats from seven countries were taken Thursday to a
construction site for a hydroelectric dam where North Korean
officials said there were two planned explosions on Sept. 9,
Ambassador Paul Beijer said.
"One thing is entirely clear: This was not a nuclear explosion
that happened at this site," Beijer said by phone from
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. "This is a site where
thousands of people are working on dam building."
The timing of the explosion on the 56th anniversary of North
Korea's founding had led to speculation that it might be a test
by the North's nuclear program, but experts said they didn't
believe it was a nuclear test.
British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said this week that
the North's foreign minister told him during a visit to
Pyongyang that the blast was part of demolition work for a
hydroelectric project.
Beijer said North Korean officials at the site in the country's
remote northeast told the diplomats the blasts were needed for
construction of the dam and explained how much explosive was
used.
The delegation was led by Britain's ambassador to North Korea,
David Slinn, and also included diplomats from the Pyongyang
embassies of Russia, Poland, Mongolia, Germany, Sweden and the
Czech Republic.
Slinn declined to comment, but the British Foreign Office issued
a statement in London saying the group had visited the
construction site of a hydroelectric project.
Some South Korean news reports suggested the group might not
have been taken to the source of the blast.
Asked whether he was certain they saw the proper site, Beijer
said, "No, but we didn't have any indication that we were in the
wrong place either."
The diplomats reached the site in Samsu county after a 1
1/2-hour flight and then a three-hour drive by off-road vehicle,
Beijer said.
They spent about 90 minutes taking photos, talking to North
Korean officials at the site and gathering information that
their governments' technical experts would analyze, the
ambassador said.
--
*****************************************************************
18 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: USFK Chief Denies Signs of a N. Korean 'October Surprise'
Updated Sep.17,2004 17:38 KST
USFK commander Gen. Leon LaPorte
Concerning rumors of an "October Surprise" claiming that North
Korea may suddenly carry out a nuclear test in October, USFK
commander Gen. Leon LaPorte said Friday that there have been no
signs discovered that North Korea would conduct such a nuclear
test. In a press conference with Korean Ministry of Defense beat
reporters at Yongsan, LaPorte said only North Korea knew whether
it had the capabilities to carry out a nuclear test. He also
added that should North Korea conduct a nuclear test, a response
would be decided following sufficient discussion between Korea
and the United States, and that the North Korean nuclear issue
would be resolved through diplomatic means like the six-party
talks.
LePorte also said about the recent explosion in North Korea's Kim
Hyong-jik County, Ryanggang Province that the incident was still
under investigation, and specific information had yet to be
collected. About suspicions that there have been snags in
exchanging intelligence between Korea and the United States, the
general said the two governments and military intelligence
authorities have been sufficiently and quickly exchanging
information on demand. He said both he and Combined Forces
Command chief Gen. Kim Jang-soo studied the same intelligence
reports every day.
(Jang Il-hyeon, ihjang@chosun.com )
*****************************************************************
19 JoongAng Daily: South concedes error in judging explosions' site
September 18, 2004 KST 14:54 (GMT+9)
South Korea acknowledged yesterday that it had misjudged where
two large explosions occurred last week in North Korea, saying
it had missed the actual location by as much as 90 kilometers,
or 55 miles.
In a press briefing, Rhee Bong-jo, vice minister at the
Unification Ministry, said the government has no additional
information to support its initial assessment of the location of
the blasts.
After the first reports of the explosions on Sept. 8 and 9, the
possibility was raised in the press that the North might have
conducted a nuclear test or suffered a massive armaments
accident.
The South identified the site of the blasts as the North's
Kimhyeongjik county in Yanggang province near the Chinese
border.
As speculation swirled, North Korea told visiting diplomats that
the explosions were the result of a hydroelectric power project.
A group of diplomats was taken Thursday to Samsu county, 90
kilometers from the originally suspected site, to confirm the
North's explanation.
"There is no convincing evidence that the explosions actually
took place where the government had initially believed they took
place," Mr. Rhee said. "From now on, the government must be
careful not to stir up the people and to cause controversy."
Seoul also concluded that a mushroom-shaped cloud over the
Kimhyeongjik county, which initially prompted the international
speculation of a nuclear test, was a natural phenomenon.
South Korea obtained the photo of the cloud from a U.S.
commercial satellite. A shock of 2.6 on the Richter scale was
registered from the blasts, the government said.
Diplomats from seven countries with missions in the North were
taken to the construction site of the Samsu power plant near the
country's northern border on Thursday.
They said yesterday North Korean officials had briefed them in
detail about the hydropower project.
The North reportedly conducted a series of deliberate
demolitions in the past week, and two large-scale blasts were
carried out on Sept. 8 and 9.
In an interview with Kyodo News Agency, Doris Hertrampf, the
German ambassador to North Korea, said she was told that the
demolitions had moved 150,000 cubic meters of earth and rock.
Swedish Ambassador Paul Beijer said North Korean officials told
him that 300 tons of explosives were used to carry out the job.
Other diplomats from Britain, the Czech Republic, Mongolia,
Russia, Poland and Sweden surveyed the site.
by Lee Young-jong, Ser Myo-ja myoja@joongang.co.kr>
2004.09.17
[http://joongangdaily.joins.com/faq.html]
*****************************************************************
20 Korea Times: IAEA Inspection Team Arrives Sunday
Hankooki.com > The Korea Times
By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
A five-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) will arrive in Seoul Sunday to investigate South Korea's
nuclear experiments after the U.N. nuclear watchdog rounded up
discussions Friday on the covert tests with fissile material,
which it described as a matter of ``serious concern.''
Before ending its five-day session in Vienna, Austria, the IAEA
board of governors was to discuss whether South Korea violated
international law by carrying out nuclear experiments in the
1980s and 2000.
The board, however, was not expected to adopt a chairman's
statement criticizing Seoul's nuclear tests, government officials
in Seoul said.
Instead, they predicted that the IAEA will put greater focus on
Seoul's atomic tests in November after inspectors come up with
their final report on the nature and scope of the activities that
took place in South Korea.
The inspection team will begin their second investigation of
South Korea's nuclear-related facilities on Monday, including the
main laboratory in Taejon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul.
Government officials said the inspectors will focus on finding
out details of the uranium conversion activities conducted in the
1980s that produced 150 kilograms of uranium metal. They will
also attempt to determine why only 134 kilograms of the metal
remain, officials said.
In addition, inspectors will try to gain a clear picture of where
the 2.5 kilograms of irradiated depleted uranium came from and
why the scientists involved in the 1980s experiments separated a
small amount of plutonium from the irradiated material.
South Korea recently admitted to the enrichment of uranium in
2000 through a laser separation method as well as the plutonium
extraction in 1982 that may have violated international law.
Even though the Seoul government has claimed that it didn't
authorize the tests, some IAEA member countries are suspicious of
its explanation that those scientists had conducted experiments
out of ``scholastic curiosity.''
The IAEA board of governors was to begin discussing South Korea's
possible violation of international law at 10 p.m., Korean
Standard Time, before finishing up its five-day session.
Lee Kyu-hyung, spokesman of the Foreign Affairs-Trade Ministry,
said at a news briefing that the South Korean case is categorized
on the board's agenda as ``other matters,'' and was not one of
the main topics.
``During their meeting on the final day, comments will be made by
board members but we don't know who will speak and what they will
say about our nuclear tests,'' Lee said. ``After listening to the
comments, IAEA Secretary General Mohamed ElBaradei will decide
whether he will include any remarks in his summary.''
ElBaradei, who plans to visit South Korea in October, expressed
``serious concern'' over South Korea's failure to report its
nuclear experiments at the opening of the board of governors
meeting on Monday.
In a related development, a delay in planned six-way talks to
work out a solution to North Korea's nuclear programs appeared
certain with Pyongyang saying it will not attend the talks until
Seoul fully discloses details of its atomic experiments.
``North Korea clarified its stance that it can never sit at the
table to negotiate its nuclear weapon programs unless truth about
the secret nuclear experiments in South Korea is fully probed,''
the North's official news agency KCNA quoted a spokesman of the
North Korean Foreign Ministry as saying.
im@koreatimes.co.kr 09-17-2004 16:34
*****************************************************************
21 [du-list] America's nuclear wars
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:50 -0700
Americas Nuclear Wars
By Paul Harris
Sep 15, 2004 Axis of Logic
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_11792.shtml
American soldiers have dropped Depleted Uranium (DU)
on
enemy combatants since 1991. It is lethal, it is
horrid, and
even though it doesnt 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 couldnt 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 Husseins 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
Theres
nothing like it. Its the biggest Fourth of July show
youve
ever seen, and to see those tanks just boom, and
stuff
just keeps spewing out of them they just become
white hot.
Its 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 Americas 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:
* to test the efficacy of 4th generation nuclear
weapons
still in their development stage
* to blur the distinction between conventional and
nuclear
weaponry
* 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 Americas allies to decline
invitations to future military excursions.
Regardless of the peril presented by the enemy,
Americas
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 (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
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22 Great Falls Tribune: Air Force lauds response to mock nuclear accident -
greatfallstribune.com
Local News - Friday, September 17, 2004
By PETER JOHNSON Tribune Staff Writer
Air Force officials expressed pleasure Thursday with the response
of federal, state and local officials during a huge,
three-day-plus mock nuclear accident and cleanup.
"It wasn't the kind of exercise that we were graded on, but we
felt it was a success in validating the emergency plans and
procedures we have in place," said 2nd Lt. Justin McVay.
"The men and women here at Malmstrom as well as other federal,
state and local workers all responded with the utmost expertise
and professionalism.
"It helped confirm that we as part of the Air Force are ready to
respond with emergency capabilities to any real world incident,
as unlikely as they may be," he said.
McVay stressed that one key to the exercise was coordination
among the 650 some local, state and federal officials involved,
"and it came off very well."
The national Diligent Warrior exercise was planned by the U.S.
Defense Threat Reduction Agency and coordinated by the U.S. Space
Command.
The exercise started Monday morning when a simulated traffic
accident was set up on Malmstrom between a fuel tanker truck and
a payload transport vehicle that supposedly was carrying a
Minuteman III nuclear warhead.
Barrels of fuel and tires were set afire and area fire
departments responded. Military police traveling in a convoy with
the transport vehicle fanned out to protect it.
Gradually over the three days, state, federal and local officials
came to evaluate the potential environmental damage done by the
mock accident.
The exercise also called for military police to deal with pickets
and military lawyers to address concerns by property owners.
The role-playing exercise, which went through the night, ended
Wednesday, and environmental officials with the different
agencies had a final discussion of procedures Thursday morning.
In real life, environmental decisions and cleanup could take
months or even years, with regular monitoring, he said.
McVay said different military groups involved would evaluate how
the exercises went and whether they needed to change any of their
procedures to react better in future events.
He was asked about an incident early in the exercise when
military police reportedly mock-fired a shot at an actor playing
a civilian passerby who happened upon the scene and ignored their
requests to back away.
McVay said that the incident was apparently the result of
miscommunication, with the actor possibly being assigned to the
wrong location and being told earlier to stay in place.
"In real life, virtually all civilians would be expected to move
back if they were told to do so by armed military police," he
said.
Since the shooting incident was unlikely to have happened in real
life and would create a lot of complications, the exercise
commander decided to consider it an "artificiality," or
aberration, essentially directing everybody to ignore it and go
on as if it hadn't happened, McVay said.
"Our security forces are highly trained and know exactly how to
respond to incidents," he added.
Johnson can be reached by e-mail at
[pejohnso@greatfal.gannett.com] or by phone at (406) 791-1476 or
(800) 438-6600.
Originally published Friday, September 17, 2004
Copyright 2004 Great Falls Tribune. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
23 CNN.com: CNN examines threat of 'Nuclear Terror'
- Sep 17, 2004
(CNN) -- Nuclear terrorism is the ultimate nightmare. As the
world marks the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks,
the prospect of terrorist organizations acquiring nuclear
material has become an increasingly serious source of anxiety for
governments and intelligence agencies around the world.
It's also the topic of "CNN Presents: Nuclear Terror," which
examines how terrorists might get nuclear weapons -- and what
would happen if they used them.
The physical, psychological, political and economic damage from
any kind of nuclear attack by terrorists -- whether a "dirty
bomb," in which nuclear material is mixed with explosives, or a
more sophisticated nuclear device -- would be devastating.
"If terrorists succeeded in putting together a crude nuclear bomb
and they put it in Grand Central Station in New York, and set it
off on a typical work afternoon, within days half a million
people would be dead. You would have to evacuate all of
Manhattan," says Matthew Bunn of Harvard University's Kennedy
School of Government.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has spoken openly of his desire
to acquire nuclear know-how. Intelligence sources, government
officials and scholars point to three countries they fear could
be the source of nuclear material for terrorists:
+ When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia inherited a huge
stockpile of nuclear weapons -- much of which is poorly guarded
and easily vulnerable to theft.
+ Pakistan is believed to have at least 50 nuclear weapons, and
it's known that at least two Pakistani nuclear scientists met
with bin Laden in August 2001.
+ North Korea has for years sold ballistic missiles to almost any
country that asked, including Iran, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
Experts believe North Korea now has at least a half dozen nuclear
bombs. In addition, law enforcement and diplomatic sources say,
North Korea has long been heavily involved in a host of other
illicit activities, including drug trafficking, counterfeiting
and money-laundering. These have given the North Koreans close
connections with a wide assortment of criminal networks across
Asia, providing the Pyongyang regime with a ready-made
infrastructure for any potential deal to sell nuclear material to
terrorists.
"CNN Presents: Nuclear Terror" brings together a team of CNN
correspondents, including U.S. National Security Correspondent
David Ensor, Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty and Senior Asia
Correspondent Mike Chinoy, to investigate whether the threat of
nuclear terrorism has grown worse.
2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
*****************************************************************
24 KLAS: Veterans for Bush Held News Conference
September 17, 2004
Brian Podner, Photojournalist
The Nevada National Guard and Veterans for Bush showed their
support for the President Thursday afternoon. They say George
Bush is the only presidential candidate qualified to lead our
nation's war on terrorism.
(Sept. 16) -- Out of respect for the National Guard, the Nevada
Republican Party says it did not organize a Kerry protest
Thursday outside the convention center. But the group "Nevada
Veterans for George Bush" held a news conference at the
Leatherneck Club of Las Vegas on Spring Mountain Road.
Members of the Nevada National Guard and Veterans for Bush were
there to show their support for the President. They say George
Bush is the only presidential candidate qualified to lead our
nation's war on terrorism and they want four more years of his
leadership.
Unlike the crowd of Bush bashers outside the convention center on
Tuesday, you didn't find any Kerry protesters outside the
convention center during the Senator's visit Thursday. Instead,
Republican veterans, National Guard members and their families
gathered quietly at the Leatherneck Club Thursday afternoon.
These Bush supporters say Senator Kerry doesn't have the backbone
or the experience to do what's necessary to protect this nation
against terrorism at home and support peace in the world. These
pro-Bush groups said Kerry changes his opinions as often as he
changes his clothes and that in today's uncertain world --- they
want a leader who is certain in his actions as the nation's
Commander in Chief.
Earlier Thursday, Nevada Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons
addressed the National Guard Association. Gibbons said that the
war ahead and the way ahead will be led by the National Guard.
Nevada Veterans for Bush say its misleading for Senator John
Kerry to tells Nevadans that he'll get rid of the Yucca Mountain
nuclear dump because Congress is sending the dump to Nevada, not
the President.
Brian Allen, Reporter President Bush Honors National Guard
During the President's noon hour address to the National Guard,
he defended his record in Afghanistan and Iraq and highlighted
his own service in the guard. More>>
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content Copyright 2000 - 2004
WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. For more information on
*****************************************************************
25 [du-list] Friendly Americans killing canadians
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:52 -0700
Friendly Americans Killing Canadians
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20040915054900200
Thursday, September 16 2004 @ 08:00 AM MDT
Contributed by: harrisp
Views: 214
by Paul Harris
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 couldnt 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.
But few understand that the United States is still
lying. 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 Husseins 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
American soldiers have dropped Depleted Uranium (DU)
on enemy combatants since 1991. It is lethal, it is
horrid, and even though it doesnt have the bluster
and showmanship of a mushroom cloud, it is still a
nuclear bomb.
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'.
But lest we blame the United States for all acts of
unconscionable callousness, we should recall earlier
words relating to weapons of mass destruction: I am
strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against
uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good
and it would spread a lively terror (Winston
Churchill, commenting on British use of poison gas
against the Iraqis shortly after the First World War).
CANADIAN CASUALTIES
There are known Canadian victims of these American
nuclear wars.
According to the Uranium Medical Research Centre
(UMRC), Captain J. Terry Riordan was the first
Canadian known to have died from what is officially
known as 'Gulf War Illness' (GWI). At his death, his
bones were reputedly rife with depleted uranium. His
widow, Susan, currently advocates to seek justice for
sick and dying Gulf and Balkan veterans contaminated
with DU.
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 both the
Canadian and the U.S. governments for proper DU
screening programs, a series of reports from the two
countries confirm the inadequacy of testing efforts by
both governments and their fundamental failure to
understand the ramifications of DU use. In the absence
of adequate testing and follow-up, the military ---
mainly the U.S. military at this point --- 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 Canada, a joint paper prepared in 2002 by the
Medical Policy Unit of the Department of National
Defense, the Royal Military College and various
contract laboratories conceded that their testing
methods are inadequate. The paper discusses a series
of radiological studies that were botched, testing
completed at taxpayer expense, while ignoring the well
established and well documented advice of independent
researchers.
SELF ABUSE
It is perhaps the ultimate act of infamy when a nation
destroys its own sons and daughters in the name of
some spurious military adventure. The evidence is
clear that the United States is doing precisely that
to its soldiers.
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.
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 Theres nothing like it.
Its the biggest Fourth of July show youve ever seen,
and to see those tanks just boom, and stuff just
keeps spewing out of them they just become white
hot. Its 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
Americas craven allies, including 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:
to test the efficacy of 4th generation nuclear
weapons still in their development stage
to blur the distinction between conventional and
nuclear weaponry
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 Americas allies to decline invitations to
future military excursions.
Regardless of the peril presented by the enemy,
Americas 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
www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/uranium/
Details Paul Harris, YellowTimes.org (March 12,
2003)
several reports prepared by the World Depleted
Uranium Weapons Conference
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
more on this from Google News
francais(google)
english(google)
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Friendly Americans Killing Canadians
Authored by: whelan costen on Friday, September 17
2004 @ 12:26 AM MDT
Paul, you are so right on! Where is the outrage, I
heard, only once a young soldier in Iraq talking about
the horror he was seeing daily, he used Napbalm or
whatever they're calling it and watched a man carrying
his wife down the road with no face, he was sickened
and said, he will not talk about this when he gets
home, 'if people really want to know they'd be here
with me seeing it'(or words to that effect). As I said
I only saw the interview once, I wonder why?
Really it seems in this world of communication, we
aren't doing a very good job and communicating the
truth.
---
If I stand for my country today...will my country be
here to stand for me tomorrow?
[ Reply to This | #]
What's Related
www.csmonitor.com/atcsm...
www.uraniumweaponsconfe...
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26 Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu on Mideast Nukes
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 06:45:41 -0500 (CDT)
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
Friday, September 17, 2004
Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu on Mideast Nukes
The U.S. government has been making demands regarding Iran's nuclear
program. On Thursday afternoon State Department spokesperson Richard
Boucher was asked about "Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower" and
his proposal that "there be a trade-off between the Iranian nuclear program
and the ending of the Israeli one." Boucher declined to comment on the
proposal.
When asked about Israel's nuclear capacity, Boucher said: "I'm not
making judgments or presumptions about that. We've had a view on the
universal adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that we've expressed
many times, that applies in all cases." Israel is not a signatory to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty. U.S. government officials have consistently
avoided acknowledging Israel's nuclear arsenal.
MORDECHAI VANUNU, vanunumvjc@hotmail.com
Vanunu exposed the Israeli nuclear arsenal in 1986. He was released in
April 2004 after serving an 18-year sentence, most of it in solitary
confinement. Vanunu is available for a limited number of interviews. He
said today:
* "The U.S. goes to Iraq in the name of fighting against weapons of mass
destruction while it does not even acknowledge Israel's capacity. The
obvious thing to do is to ensure that all states in the region -- including
Israel and Iran -- do not have nuclear weapons."
* "Israeli governments which have been behind building these nuclear
weapons are betraying the Israeli citizens, the Arab community and all of
humanity. Israel has been building nuclear weapons, they now have enough
material for hundreds of atomic bombs. I was a technician at the Dimona
plant; my main job was making lithium-6 for use in hydrogen bombs. There is
no justification for Israel having hydrogen bombs."
* "In 1986 I was kidnapped by Israel in Rome after revealing its massive
nuclear arsenal to the London Sunday Times. I was sentenced to 18 years
because I revealed the truth to the world. I suffered 18 years of cruel,
barbaric treatment under the Israeli authorities. I'm glad to have some
freedom now, but I'm not allowed to speak to any foreigners or to go to any
other country for one year. I would like to go to the U.S. where there are
more freedoms. I do not feel safe in Israel, I have been threatened, I'm
called a traitor in the street. Especially because I have become a
Christian, I do not have equal human rights. The Israeli government and
media have built a very bad image of my case here."
* "With its nuclear weapons, Israel is much more aggressive, so it doesn't
move to a real peace with the Palestinians or Syria or Lebanon or Jordan.
Its nuclear weapons are used as political power. Without even using them,
the nuclear weapons help Israel do what it wants so it doesn't respect
international law. When he was defense minister, Sharon destroyed Iraq's
nuclear reactor in 1981 so that no other country in the region would have
nuclear weapons."
For a recent interview with Vanunu, see:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/18/136217
For more on Israel's nuclear arsenal, see:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/graphics/strategic_israel_dw.htm
FELICE COHEN-JOPPA, freevanunu@mindspring.com, http://www.vanunu.com
Cohen-Joppa is the coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai
Vanunu. She noted that Vanunu has just been awarded a peace grant by Yoko
Ono. [See:
]
THOMAS COCHRAN, tcochran@nrdc.org
Director of the Nuclear Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council,
Cochran wrote the paper "The Relevance of Mordechai Vanunu Disclosures to
Israel's National Security."
____________________
From the State Department briefing, September 16, 2004:
QUESTION: Larry Franklin's case had to do with presidential policy on Iran,
for the most part, according to news reports. Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli
whistleblower, has been urging for some time that there be a trade-off
between the Iranian nuclear program and the ending of the Israeli one. And
there has been, as you know, negotiations in Jerusalem on that, or some
information from IAEA has been transmitted to the Israeli government. Now,
I wondered what the U.S. attitude is in Vienna at the IAEA on this subject
of trading off Israeli nuclear program and the ending to it, whatever --
BOUCHER: I guess that's being speculated about in the press, but that is
not the issue in Vienna. The issue in Vienna is whether Iran has for almost
two decades hidden covert programs designed to make nuclear weapons and
whether or not Iran has complied with the obligations -- the requirements
of the Board of Governors' resolutions, the requirements of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the protocols that Iran has -- well, I'm not
sure of the status of the additional protocol, but the requirements of the
treaty, and the commitments that Iran itself made. That's the matter that's
before the International Atomic Energy Agency and that nations are
currently discussing now.
QUESTION: Does the United States, then, feel that the Israeli nuclear
program, which is now out -- Avner Cohen has written a full book on it,
Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in jail because of it. It's obvious that
they do have such a nuclear program. Does the United States consider that
that's absolutely essential to Israel's security?
BOUCHER: I'm not making judgments or presumptions about that. We've had a
view on the universal adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that we've
expressed many times, that applies in all cases.
QUESTION: But Israel is not a member, has refused to be a member.
BOUCHER: That's right. We encourage all nations to be members and adhere to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
____________________
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
_________________________________________________________________
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27 iafrica.com sa news WMD case: Witness fears for his life
[http://iafrica.com/news]
VANDERBIJLPARK
Posted Fri, 17 Sep 2004
A man who has turned State witness in a weapons of mass
destruction case has allegedly received death threats, the
Vanderbijlpark Regional Court heard on Friday.
This emerged during a bail application by two Randburg
engineering company directors arrested during an international
investigation into a nuclear trafficking network.
Gerhard Wisser and Daniel Geiges faced four charges under the
Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act and the
Nuclear Energy Act. They were arrested shortly after similar
charges were withdrawn against Vanderbijlpark engineering company
director Johan Meyer.
Meyer has since turned State's evidence.
The court was told on Thursday that Meyer had received death
threats and Wisser's wife Erika is being investigated in this
regard.
Beeld newspaper reported that German authorities were considering
requesting South African authorities to hand Wisser over to them
for further questioning because they believed he lied to them
during his arrest in Germany earlier this year.
The court was told that the two had allegedly amassed massive
fortunes through the alleged involvement in an international
syndicate and that Wisser had three international bank accounts.
Sapa
Copyright 2002 iafrica.com, a division of Metropolis*.
*****************************************************************
28 iafrica.com: sa news 'No evidence against WMD suspect'
[http://iafrica.com/]
[http://iafrica.com/news]
VANDERBIJLPARK
Posted Fri, 17 Sep 2004
There was no evidence to link Randburg engineer Daniel Geiges to
an international nuclear component trafficking network, the
Vanderbijlpark Regional Court heard on Friday.
The court was hearing a bail application for Geiges and his
colleague Gerhard Wisser. Geiges is a project manager at Krisch
Engineering. The two were arrested earlier this month.
They face four charges under the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of
Mass Destruction Act and the Nuclear Energy Act. The charges
relate to their alleged possession and attempted export of a
lathe that could be used to manufacture a gas centrifuge to
enrich uranium.
Geiges's advocate Elize Eksteen said in none of the documentation
seized was there any specific mention to the Denn lathe mentioned
on the charge sheet.
"There is nothing untoward in this. There is more than one lathe
in the market for various functions and assignments," Eksteen
said.
She said that although there was fax and email communication
between Geiges and Vanderbijlpark engineer Johan Meyer, who has
since turned State witness in the case, there was nothing
irregular about this.
"He (Geiges) is a project manager, so there would obviously be
correspondence between a prospective client but there is no link
in the document to the charges," she said.
The charges did not provide specifics and Meyer was yet to
testify under oath as required in the indemnity procedure.
She said Geiges was not a flight risk and had close ties with his
family in South Africa.
Sapa
Copyright 2002 iafrica.com, a division of Metropolis*.
*****************************************************************
29 Pakistan News: Senate begins consideration of nuclear control bill
PakTribune.Com
Sha'aban 3, 1425 Hijri
Friday September 17, 2004
ISLAMABAD, September 18 (Online): Senate Friday began
consideration of the nuclear control bill 2004.
The bill called 'the export control on goods, technologies,
material and equipment related to nuclear and biological weapons
and their delivery system bill 2004' was moved by the minister
of state for foreign affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar in the
Upper House.
The opposition members opposed moving of the bill.
The House would continue further consideration when meets again
today (Saturday).
Earlier the National Assembly already passed bill without any
objection and resistance.
With adoption of new legislation, Pakistan claimed total
destruction of the nuclear proliferation network.
Proposed law would control export of goods, technologies,
material and equipment related to nuclear and biological weapons
and their delivery systems.
Minister of state for foreign affairs Makhdoom Khisro Bakhtiar
in his statement of reasons and objects of the new legislation
said that purpose of the legislation is to safeguard national
security and to fulfill Pakistan 's international obligations as
a responsible nuclear weapons state.
New law would check the proliferation of nuclear and biological
weapons and missiles capable of delivering such weapons.
Bill contains eleven clauses and provides 14 years jail and Rs 5
million fine in addition to confiscation of property and assets
of the offenders including nuclear scientists and other accused
found guilty of proliferation.
The bill empowered law-enforcing agencies to confiscate any
material meant for export and inspect the consignment.
Proposed law also empowered the federal government to vest
investigation and power of arrest authorized by law in the
officials of the customs administration or other agencies.
Draft law provides right of appeal to the convicts in the High
Court within 30 days.
End.
[http://www.paktribune.com/ezone]
Pakistan News Service PakTribune.com Pvt Ltd 2003-2004
*****************************************************************
30 NRC: NRC to Discuss Safety Significance of Inspection Finding at Cooper Nuclear Station
News Release - Region IV - 2004-03
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region IV
No. IV-04-038 September 17, 2004
CONTACT: Victor Dricks
Phone: 817-860-8128
E-mail: opa4@nrc.gov [opa4@nrc.gov]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will meet with
representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District on Monday,
September 27, in Arlington, Texas, to discuss the safety
significance of an inspection finding at Cooper Nuclear Station.
The plant is located near Brownville, Neb.
An NRC inspection completed on July 15 identified an apparent
violation of NRC requirements involving changes in the position
of several valves during maintenance that might have prevented
the service water system from functioning under some conditions.
The service water system supplies cooling water to
safety-related plant equipment.
The NRC preliminary evaluation found the safety significance of
this issue to be greater than green, because it affected the
reliability of the service water system for 21 days before the
problem was detected. However, it does not represent a current
safety concern because the licensee has changed the valve
settings to their proper positions.
The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear
power plants with a color-coded process which classifies
inspection findings as either green, white, yellow or red, in
order of increasing safety significance.
The September 27 meeting, called a regulatory conference, allows
Nebraska Public Power District officials to provide the NRC with
any new information and to present its views of the issues
safety significance. The meeting will begin at noon in the NRCs
Region IV office in Arlington. The public can observe the
meeting, and NRC officials will be available before its
conclusion to answer any questions.
No final decision on the safety significance, any apparent
violation or any enforcement action will be made during the
regulatory conference. Information presented at the conference
will be used by the NRC staff, along with the inspection
findings, to determine the final safety significance of the
problem. Those results will be posted on the NRCs web site at:
www.nrc.gov/what-we-do/regulatory/enforcement/current.html#reacto
r.
Last revised Friday, September 17, 2004
*****************************************************************
31 Cabinet unveils new measures to eliminate nuclear power
Publish Date:09/17/2004
Story Type:National Affairs;
Byline:Cecilia Fanchiang
The Nuclear-Free Homeland Commission recently came up
with a package of practical resolutions to turn Taiwan into a
nuclear-free island. The scheme includes 22 guidelines and 80
"action plans," each with its own timetable. The resolutions
would be administered by the Bureau of Energy (BOE). One of the
commission's tasks is to educate the general public about nuclear
power and involve them in policy-making.
Taiwan has three nuclear power plants, with a fourth
currently under construction.
The BOE would work closely with the Atomic Energy
Council (AEC), the government department responsible for the
development and application of nuclear technology in Taiwan. The
AEC's mandate is to ensure a radiation-free environment, manage
radioactive waste and handle nuclear emergencies.
Once a year the commission holds an annual meeting to
review the previous year's accomplishments, determine which
policies it will advocate, and address the issue of controlling
radioactive waste in Taiwan. These meetings bring together
nuclear scientists and members of five government task forces.
The government's long-term goal is to eliminate the need for
nuclear power plants on the island by advocating a shift to
renewable energy resources.
In February 2001, the Executive Yuan signed an agreement
with the Legislative Yuan to guide the development of Taiwan's
energy strategy. The document urges that economic factors, social
development, world trends and the spirit of international
treaties be taken into account when the government makes policy.
With the passage of the Basic Environmental Law in 2002, Taiwan
became the first country in Asia to promise to become a
nuclear-free nation.
To cultivate a deeper level of social consensus,
commission members have mapped out strategies to expand a
government campaign to promote a nuclear-free homeland. According
to a progress report issued by the commission,
environmental-protection educational activities have been
provided at 277 locations as of the end of June. A bill proposed
by the Ministry of Education would have the nation's senior high
school curriculum include such subjects as "respecting life" and
"caring for the sustainable development of the Earth" by the 2006
school year.
In 2003 alone, more than 76 college-level courses on
energy have been offered at 24 educational institutes, including
the Chungchou Institute of Technology. A special project included
seminars and community activities around Taiwan to promote the
idea of a nuclear-free Taiwan to the general public and the
private sector.
The government plans to increase incentives to promote
the types of business that consume little energy. Other
strategies call for lowering Taiwan's dependence on imported fuel
and putting the issue of moving toward renewable energy on the
government agenda.
A bill proposed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs
would expand the use of green energy sources from the current 5.4
percent of the nation's total power sources to 10 percent by
2010, with an estimated jump to 12 percent by 2020.
"It is inevitable that reusable energy alone will become
the only solution," said BOE Director-General Yeh Huey-ching.
The economic incentives toward using renewable energy
sources are limited in Taiwan, Yeh pointed out. He added that the
island is overpopulated and most of its land is mountainous,
which makes most known forms of renewable energy unusable. Solar,
wind and tidal power all require large land areas in order to
function efficiently.
*****************************************************************
32 CaPrep: Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues environmental justice policy
[http://www.caprep.com/sponinfo.htm]
[capitol@caprep.com]
WASHINGTON (08/27/04) -- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
has issued a policy statement providing its consolidated views
on how it will treat environmental justice matters in agency
regulatory and licensing actions.
The policy statement recognizes that the impact of the agencys
regulatory or licensing actions on certain populations may be
different from those on the general population due to a
communitys distinct cultural characteristics. The policy
statement reflects the view that the disproportionately high and
adverse impacts of a proposed action that fall heavily on a
particular community call for close scrutiny under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In February 1994, President Clinton issued to all Federal
agencies Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address
Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income
Populations, which directed them to make achieving environmental
justice part of their mission by identifying and addressing
disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental
effects of their programs, policies and activities on minority
and low-income populations.
Although independent agencies, such as the NRC, were only
requested to comply with this Executive Order, the agency in a
letter to President Clinton indicated that it would endeavor to
carry out the measures set forth in the Order as part of its
efforts to comply with NEPA.
A draft policy statement on this subject was issued for public
comment on November 5, 2003. No substantive changes were made as
a result of the comments received.
A copy of the final statement will be published in the Federal
Register.
Telephone: (530) 676-9334 FAX: (530) 676-9387 Email:
capitol@caprep.com [capitol@caprep.com]
Copyright 2004 Capitol Reports. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
33 NRC: NRC, FPL to Discuss Apparent Violation at Seabrook Nuclear Plant
News Release - Region I - 2004-04
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
Office of Public Affairs, Region I
September 16, 2004
CONTACT: Diane Screnci (610) 337-5330 Neil A. Sheehan (610)
337-5331 E-mail: opa1@nrc.gov [opa1@nrc.gov]
nuclear power plant. The company operates the plant, which is
located in Seabrook, N.H.
The meeting, known as a Predecisional Enforcement Conference,
will begin at 9 a.m. in the Public Meeting Room at the NRCs
Region I Office, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pa. The
meeting will be open to the public. Interested members of the
public will have an opportunity to ask questions of NRC staff
before the meeting is adjourned.
The apparent violation involves a portion of NRC regulations
known as 10 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) 50.59. Under 10
CFR 50.59, nuclear power plant operators may make changes to
their facilities without prior NRC approval but only if certain
requirements are met.
When the plant was licensed, the Safety Evaluation Report stated
that the plants circulating-water system (the system that draws
water from the ocean, circulates it to cool various plant
components and then discharges it) had the potential to flood
the turbine building if one of its lines ruptured and its pumps
were not halted. However, the safety evaluation further noted
that even if the pumps continued to operate, scuppers, or
drains, and doors that were to be installed in the turbine
building would cause the water to flow out to the yard and away
from plant structures. In addition, water level alarms were to
be installed in the circulating-water pits in the turbine
building to alert the control room of a system rupture.
In 1997, Seabrook determined that neither the scuppers nor the
pit level alarms had been installed. In response, the level
alarms were installed, but the scuppers were not. Instead, the
scuppers were removed from the plants FSAR. Seabrook took that
action based on a 10 CFR 50.59 evaluation it conducted that
indicated NRC approval was not needed.
Based on an inspection completed on June 30 of this year, NRC
inspectors have concluded that the change to eliminate the
scuppers required prior NRC approval.
At the Predecisional Enforcement Conference, FPL Seabrook will
be able to present additional information concerning the issue,
including the safety significance of the change.
No decision will be made at the conference. Rather, NRC staff
will take information provided under consideration and render a
decision regarding any possible enforcement action in the near
future.
Last revised Thursday, September 16, 2004
*****************************************************************
34 JOURNAL NEWS: The cloud overhead
(Original publication: September 17, 2004)
A black cloud has hung over Indian Point nuclear power plants all
summer, and it has nothing to do with Ivan or Charley or Frances
or any of those storms running amok in this hemisphere.
In July, the bestselling report of the 9/11 commission included a
thinly veiled reference to what likely was Indian Point, noting
that Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta "considered targeting a
nuclear facility he had seen during familiarization flights near
New York." It already was known that one of the planes that
struck the World Trade Center flew over Indian Point during its
short flight down the Hudson River and into history.
Then came Rory Kennedy's late summer HBO documentary, "Indian
Point: Imagining the Unimaginable," which imagined the, well,
imaginable the prospect of a hijacked airplane striking the
plants, a topic taken up by Journal News staff writer Roger
Witherspoon just after the 9/11 attacks. Coinciding with the HBO
special: release of a Union of Concerned Scientists study that
predicted 44,000 sudden deaths and more than a half-million over
time following a 9/11-like hit at Indian Point.
And we won't even get into the late-August ruling by state
Supreme Court Justice Michael Kavanagh, who in a court dispute
strikingly similar to an ongoing controversy at Indian Point,
ordered the shutdown of the 500-megawatt Danskammer power plant
in Newburgh, on the grounds that state environmental officials
illegally allowed it to use millions of gallons of Hudson River
water in its cooling process, to the detriment of aquatic life.
Yet all of the foregoing actually represents the good news at
Indian Point.
In a move that transcends the theoretical, Indian Point owner
Entergy Nuclear Northeast said this week that it had asked
federal regulators to approve a labor strike plan calling for the
use of replacement workers if security guards at the two plants
walk off the job when their contract expires Oct. 2. A special
Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector was at the plants this
week to observe Entergy's crash training program for prospective
replacements.
"It is Entergy's responsibility to make sure that any replacement
guards conform to all of our rules and regulations," said NRC
spokesman Neil Sheehan, whose agency is almost always on the same
page as the regulated. "They will have to meet the same
requirements as the regular guard force."
Somehow, that does not make us sleep any better. Even with the
regulars on board, security at the Buchanan plants and the
nation's 100-plus other nuclear plants has been a concern. Last
year, the bipartisan General Accounting Office of Congress took
the NRC to task for failing to prepare nuclear power plant
security teams adequately for terrorist attacks. It specifically
complained of unrealistic drills that seemed all but rigged to
have the plants' security teams beat the attacking "terrorists."
Among other security failings, the GAO chided the government for
not treating more seriously an incident in which NRC officials
found a security guard asleep at his post. The New York Times
subsequently reported that the guard was on duty at none other
than Indian Point. During hearings this week in Washington, the
GAO told a House subcommittee that the NRC's monitoring of
reactor security had been largely a "paper review" that hardly
reflected the urgency of the task. Hard to imagine how hiring
replacement workers might instill more confidence.
Perhaps Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, knows of what we speak. Last
year, she proposed the Nuclear Security Act, which would call for
a federal takeover of security forces at the nation's nuclear
power plant akin to the federal government's assumption of
airport security after 9/11. Federalization might better ensure
continuity in training, preparedness and coordination and avoid
such suspect substitutes for security as contemplated here.
Entergy and the NRC have opposed such a change. With the strike
cloud hovering, the proposal should be revisited.
[http://www.thejournalnews.com] -
Copyright 2004 The Journal News, [http://www.gannett.com/] .
Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam Counties
in New York.
[http://www.thejournalnews.com/include/terms.html] (updated
12/17/2002)
*****************************************************************
35 Union Leader: Nuclear regulators focus on Seabrook plant
[http://www.theunionleader.com/fast.html]
News - September 17, 2004
By ERIK STETSON The Associated Press
CONCORD Nuclear regulators plan to meet with Seabrook Nuclear
Power Plant officials next week to discuss a possible problem
with the plants water system.
The public meeting, set for Thursday in King of Prussia, Pa.,
will not immediately result in an enforcement action against
Seabrook.
Plant safety documents say the power stations water-circulation
system could flood its turbine building if a line ruptured and
the systems pumps didnt shut down. But the documents also call
for installing alarms, drains and doors in the turbine building
to offset flooding if the pumps didnt stop working.
The circulation system draws ocean water, uses it to cool plant
components, then discharges it. The safety documents are
company-generated materials submitted to the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission as part of its licensing application.
Seabrook began operations in 1990. The plant noted in 1997 that
the alarms and drains hadnt been installed. Workers later
installed the alarms, but plant officials removed the drains from
their design plans, regulators said in a statement.
Regulators said the plants officials reviewed federal rules and
decided they didnt need government approval to remove the drains
from their plans. But regulators said a June 30 inspection led
them to conclude that removing the drains did require approval.
The meeting will center on that issue. Seabrook representatives
will have the chance to present information about the change and
its safety ramifications.
Seabrook spokesman Alan Griffith said the turbine buildings
large, roll-up doors are one of several systems able to remove
water, making the drains unnecessary. But, he added, the plant
should have kept regulators in the loop.
He called the problem an honest mistake regulators have been
aware of for some time.
It is not a safety issue, he said. It is an oversight on our
part.
Regulators said they would render a decision on the matter in
the near future after the meeting. Griffith said he couldnt
predict what the decision would be.
The Union Leader.
*****************************************************************
36 mainetoday.com: Maine Yankee Containment blown up
WISCASSET, Maine With a thunderclap of explosives, Maine
Yankees containment dome toppled to the ground Friday in one of
the final steps toward completion of the nuclear power plants
decommissioning.
The 150-foot-tall structure served as the most visible symbol of
the 900-megawatt plant during 24 years of operation.
Fridays event marked the first time explosives have been used to
knock down a commercial reactor containment building, officials
said.
About 1,100 pounds of explosives were placed in holes drilled
into the structure to topple the reinforced concrete dome that
was designed to withstand earthquakes, tornadoes and
hurricane-force winds.
As the countdown concluded, the explosives lit up, the legs
supporting the dome buckled and the structure came down in one
piece as planned.
The crowd broke into applause as a cloud of dust rose from the
rubble.
The nearly 500 people permitted to enter Maine Yankee property to
witness the blast were required to stay 1,000 feet from the
containment.
Dudley Leavitt Sr., who helped build the dome, watched its
destruction with a tinge of sadness. He said he thought the plant
had a lot more life left in it.
"Its a shame that they shut this down. There are plants that are
older that are still in operation across the country," said
Leavitt, 66, of Topsham, who oversaw the steel reinforcement of
the dome.
Steve Ward, Maines public advocate for utility issues, had mixed
emotions about what he witnessed.
Maine Yankee provided low-cost energy without producing
greenhouse gases, he said, but the problem of long-term storage
of the nuclear fuel assemblies has never been resolved.
"The federal government has utterly failed to deal with the spent
fuel issue. Its like building a wonderful, livable mansion that
has no septic system. It doesnt even have an outhouse," Ward
said.
Ray Shadis, a nuclear power opponent who lives in neighboring
Edgecomb, noted that the dome could be seen above the trees from
homes near the plant.
"This is strictly symbolic and nothing more," he said of the
demolition, calling it just another step in the lengthy
decommissioning process. "Its the last major demolition
activity."
In advance of Fridays blast, a steel plate lining the structure
was removed and holes were cut to weaken the structure, whose
walls were 4 1/2 feet thick at the base and 2 1/2 feet thick at
the top.
The explosives were not designed to reduce the dome to rubble.
The idea was simply to lower the dome so it could be reached by
heavy equipment that would complete the job of picking apart the
structure.
About 20 million pounds of rubble from the building will be
hauled by rail to a low-level radioactive waste repository in
Utah.
The pressurized water reactor began operation in 1972 and
survived three statewide referendums aiming to close the plant in
the 1980s.
It was shut down following operational problems that escalated
after the discovery of cracked steam generator tubes in 1994. The
plant was shut down in 1995 while sleeves were installed to
reinforce each of the 17,000 tubes.
Problems continued to mount in 1996 and the plant was placed on
the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions list of worst-run plants in
1997.
Maine Yankees board voted to close the plant permanently in
August 1997, 11 years before the plants license was set to
expire.
By the time decommissioning is completed next year, it will have
cost $500 million. All that will remain are a security building
and storage facility where 60 canisters contain the highly
radioactive fuel rods.
The spent fuel assemblies will remain until the federal
government follows through with its promise to build a repository
for high-level radioactive waste.
Maine Yankee and other utilities have sued the federal government
for the costs of storing the fuel rods until 2010, the target for
the proposed national nuclear waste site to open at Nevadas
Yucca Mountain.
___
On the Net:
www.maineyankee.com
Copyright Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
37 NRC: Notice of Issuance of Final Design Approval Pursuant to 10 CFR
FR Doc 04-20988
[Federal Register: September 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 180)]
[Notices] [Page 56101-56102] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17se04-97]
Part 52, Appendix O, Westinghouse Electric Company AP1000
Standard Design The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued
a final design approval (FDA) to Westinghouse Electric Company
for the AP1000 standard design pursuant to 10 CFR part 52,
Appendix O. This FDA allows the AP1000 standard design to be
referenced in an application for a construction permit or
operating license under 10 CFR part 50, or an application for a
combined license under 10 CFR part 52. In addition, the
Commission has issued the Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER)
that supports issuance of the FDA.
Issuance of this FDA signifies completion of the technical review
phase of the application for certification of the AP1000 design
under Subpart B of 10 CFR part 52. The NRC staff performed its
technical review of the AP1000 Design Control Document (DCD) and
Probabilistic Risk Assessment in accordance with the standards
for review of design certification applications set forth in 10
CFR 52.48 that were applicable and technically relevant to the
AP1000 design or were modified by the exemptions identified in
section 1.8 of the NRC's FSER (NUREG-1793).
On the basis of its evaluation and independent analyses, as
described in the FSER, the NRC staff concludes that
Westinghouse's application for design certification meets the
applicable portions of 10 CFR 52.47 and the review standards in
10 CFR 52.48. Therefore, the AP1000 application is ready for the
rulemaking phase. The NRC staff and Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards will utilize the AP1000 DCD
[[Page 56102]] and will rely on it in the rulemaking phase of the
design certification review process pursuant to 10 CFR 52.51. A
copy of the AP1000 FSER and FDA have been placed in the NRC's
Public Document Room, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville
Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852, for review and copying by
interested persons.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 13th day of September, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission William D. Beckner, Program
Director, New Research and Test Reactors Program Division of
Regulatory Improvement Programs, Office of Nuclear Reactor
Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-20988 Filed 9-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
38 Japan Times: Town wants to wean itself off reactors
Saturday, September 18, 2004
But perks, jobs, the mob hold sway over accident fears, tourism
hopes
By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer
MIHAMA, Fukui Pref. -- With its quiet coves, white sandy beaches
and turquoise waters, the seaside town of Mihama already attracts
lots of local surfers and sunbathers.
Local officials know it has the potential to draw others as
well, and are attempting to promote the town nationwide as a
great summer holiday destination.
There is just one problem.
Mihama is also home to three reactors, one of which was the
scene of an accident last month that killed five subcontractor
workers, although there was no radiation leak. The five were
scalded by steam that burst from a corroded secondary coolant
pipe that had not been inspected since the reactor started up in
1976, even though the utility had been warned to check it months
earlier.
"It's pretty difficult to develop other industries, such as
tourism and agriculture, when Mihama is so reliant on the nuclear
power industry for its revenue," town assemblyman Teruyuki
Matsushita said. "Not many people are going to want to swim in a
bay with nuclear power plants nearby."
Local residents, municipal officials and activists both for and
against nuclear energy all agree that last month's accident at
the Mihama nuclear plant's No. 3 reactor damaged local trust in
promises by power utilities that atomic plants are safe.
Yet, at the same time, there is also a feeling of resignation
among many that, whatever the dangers, there is little they can
do to change things because the town is so economically dependent
on the nuclear power industry.
The latest figures show that in fiscal 2002, Mihama, with a
population of about 11,500, had tax revenues of nearly 3.1
billion yen.
Of this figure, two-thirds, or 2.1 billion yen, came from Kansai
Electric Power Co., which operates the Mihama plant, and from
other businesses related to the nuclear power industry.
"We need the nuclear power industry," said Jitaro Yamaguchi, town
assembly chairman. "Otherwise we'd be in far worse (economic)
shape than we are now."
But the financial contributions of the nuclear industry do not
stop at tax revenues.
Since 1974, when the central government enacted legislation to
provide towns hosting nuclear-related facilities with financial
incentives, Mihama has received billions of yen in low-interest
or no-interest loans and grants, from both the state and Kepco.
The money has been used to build modern facilities. A public
gymnasium completed several years ago, for example, cost 2.6
billion yen. About half that figure -- 1.35 billion yen -- was
paid for with grant money.
Then there are the free concerts and other cultural events Kepco
often sponsors or underwrites for residents of both Mihama and
neighboring Tsuruga, where many who work at the Mihama plant
live.
They also receive free cable TV. The channel to keep an eye on,
though, is Channel 9, the emergency channel run by the city of
Tsuruga. When an accident, no matter how large or small, occurs
at a local nuclear plant, a red buzzer attached to the cable box
goes off, allowing residents in Tsuruga and Mihama to tune into a
text broadcast about what happened.
Makio Tashiro, an antinuclear activist in Tsuruga, complained
that such perks have turned Tsuruga and Mihama into "nuclear
power colonies."
"For the past 30 years, local residents have been getting all
sorts of things from the central government or Kepco as a way to
show gratitude for allowing nuclear power plants to be built," he
said.
"A lot of people now think it's natural not to pay much, if
anything, for concerts, art exhibitions, or first-run movies.
They've become too economically and psychologically dependent on
nuclear power to think independently."
There are no official figures available on how many Mihama or
Tsuruga residents work at the Mihama plant. Kepco says about 80
percent to 90 percent of the nearly 1,000 workers at 130 Kepco
subcontractors who work in Mihama during normal operations are
residents of Fukui Prefecture.
During a plant's regular inspection period, which used to take
three months but has been shortened to about 40 days due to
cost-cutting pressures, 2,000 people working at 220
subcontractors take part in the inspections, Kepco said.
But as Tashiro and Matsushita note, these figures are not
complete. They include only the known subcontractors and exclude
those hired through job agencies and those who may have joined an
official subcontractor temporarily.
"Subcontractors form a giant pyramid where life for the few at
the top is pretty good," said Tashiro, whose work includes
assisting and advising nuclear plant workers.
"But the situation gets worse as you go farther down, to second,
third, fourth, or fifth-level subcontractors," he said. "Nobody
really knows where the bottom is, only that those at the bottom
have it the worst."
Then there is the mob connection. Based on their conversations
with police and gangsters themselves, Tashiro and Matsushita say
they firmly believe Tsuruga-based Masaki-gumi, one of the main
gangs in the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, acts as a broker,
providing unskilled and semi-skilled labor to the bottom-level
subcontractors.
"There is no doubt that Masaki-gumi is involved," observed
Tashiro, who says he grew up and remains in contact with several
of its members. "Although it is one of the newer gangs to join
Yamaguchi-gumi, it is one of the wealthiest because of its
involvement in the nuclear power industry."
Fukui Prefectural Police would not comment on these allegations,
claiming only that there was no conclusive proof of underworld
involvement in the industry.
For Tsuruga or Mihama-based nuclear plant workers at the bottom
of the subcontractor pyramid, the pay is not very good given the
risks -- an average of about 10,000 yen a day after taxes. For
those with certain technical skills, the pay scale increases to
18,000 yen or even 20,000 yen a day during inspections.
But with inspections now shortened to 30 to 40 days, those who
once counted on working for three months at between 10,000 yen
and 20,000 yen a day now find themselves with a lot less income,
adversely affecting the local economy.
In Tsuruga, the majority of stores on the main street in front
of the station are boarded up, with only the odd restaurant or
coffee shop open.
Even at the main shopping mall, with its ultramodern movie
theater and restaurants, customers are few and far between.
"Business fluctuates. Whenever there are inspections at the
power plants, we get an influx of people and things are good,"
said Mie Akagawa, who works part-time at one of the restaurants.
"But otherwise, things are pretty slow."
In Mihama, where an estimated 60 percent of the workforce is
employed, directly or indirectly, by the nuclear power industry,
the August accident brought home the dangers of relying too
heavily on nuclear power.
But with Matsushita the only antinuclear member of the 17-member
Mihama assembly, changing entrenched local attitudes that see
nuclear power as an economic blessing is tough.
Yet the recent accident, combined with the fewer jobs at the
power plants and the knowledge that Mihama's reactors are between
20 and 35 years old and may suffer further problems, has even
pronuclear assembly members questioning the excessive reliance on
nuclear power, he said.
"There is a growing realization among my fellow assembly members
that we cannot rely forever on the nuclear power industry for our
economic prosperity," Matsushita said.
"Hopefully, Mihama will now start discussing how to reduce our
financial reliance on nuclear power and develop other industries,
such as agriculture and tourism."
The Japan Times: Sept. 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
39 Middletown Press: Nuclear Power plant closing to be discussed
By JOSH MROZINSKI Middletown Press Staff
09/17/2004
MIDDLETOWN -- The Community Decommissioning Advisory Committee is
holding a meeting on Sept. 21 at 6 p.m.
The committee, which held a meeting in May at the Haddam Neck
Connecticut Yankee site, will be meeting at the Connecticut Light
and Power site on Randolph Road in Middletown.
The meeting on Sept. 21 will continue the May meeting where an
update on the nuclear power plants decommissioning process was
given. At the May meeting, the fuel transfer process was
explained.
That process is bringing spent-fuel rods and greater than Class-C
Waste, cut up metal from the reactor vessel, to dry casks on a
storage area three-quarters of a mile from the plant.
Attorney Nancy Burton and Frank Warmsley Sr., have claimed the
site as the propertyof Venture Smith, an 18th century slave and
ancestor of Warmsley.
Kelley Smith, spokeswoman for Connecticut Yankee, said the 17th
cask is currently being processed.
Fourteen of the casks contain spent-fuel while two of the casks
have greater than Class-C Waste, she said.
Smith said they started demolishing buildings after the May
meeting.
"Well be providing information about what buildings are being
demolished," Smith said.
A status update on the wells and the site closure plan, which is
a part of the decommissioning process, will be given.
The power plant has been monitoring the ground water after tests
had shown some of its wells showed elevated levels of Tritium.
Since then the level of Tritium and Strontium-90 in the wells,
which are near the containment dome in the center of the plants
about 20 acre footprint, have been declining.
"During the course of the year, the ground water results have
been excellent," Smith said. "For Tritium, all the monitoring
wells on the site now meet the EPA drinking water standard for
Tritium."
Hugh Curley, chairman of the committee, said the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, which usually attends the meetings, wont
be attending the Sept. 21 meeting.
He said the power plant will explain why some of the vertical
concrete casks experienced water buildup and how the problem was
remediated. He said he will also be asking the power company
about how the containment dome materials will be transported from
the site once it is destroyed.
The Haddam tax question is also on the agenda. This agenda item
is about a Sept. 20 public hearing. At this hearing, which will
be held at 7 p.m. in the Haddam-Killingworth High School, a
representative from Wiscasset, Maine will be talking about his
towns effort to get more taxes from Maine Yankee Atomic Power
Plant for its property.
The town thinks the power plants property is worth more because
nuclear waste, which couldnt easily or at all be stored
elsewhere, is kept on it. Maine Yankee has disputed the towns
$212 million assessment, saying the property is instead valued at
$4.3 million.
The power company has appealed to the Maine Property Tax Review
Board in Augusta.
To contact Josh Mrozinski, call (860) 347-3331, ext. 222 or email
jmrozinski@middletownpress.com
The Middletown Press 2004
[editor@middletownpress.com] .
*****************************************************************
40 Sofia Morning News: Bulgaria's 2nd Nuke "Sensible" Topic
[Sofia News Agency]
novinite.com
Politics: 17 September 2004, Friday.
Romanian authorities see the construction of the second Bulgarian
nuclear power plant in Bulgaria as a "sensible" one.
We asked Bulgaria to provide us with information on that sensible
project, Mircea Geoana, Romania's Foreign Minister, said at a
press conference in Bucharest. He said that once Sofia gives that
information the Romanian officials are determined to ask Brussels
whether the project is safe for the environment.
Geoana also said that a Romanian commission is also checking the
Bulgarian project. The Romanian foreign minister pointed out that
the Bulgarian state has acted "correctly" by informing Bucharest
on its project. Unlike Ukraine, Bulgaria is acting as an honest
neighbour, Geoana said.
The Romanian politician also said that Bucharest would ask for
extremely strict security measures.
Earlier in September residents of the Danube-town of Turnu
Magurele, South Romania, protested against the construction of a
nuclear power plant on the Bulgarian side of the river. The
protesters were holding slogans with "We do not want new
Chernobyl" and "No to radioactive pollution".
Bulgaria's second nuclear plant in Belene was re-launched for
construction after a government decision end of last year. It had
been set to a halt in 1992 due to protests from
environmentalists.[ width=]
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41 news@nature.com: Coming clean about nuclear power
Published online: 17 September 2004; |
muse@nature.com: Coming clean about nuclear power
Philip Ball
Politicians will continue to make all sorts of promises, but we
will only be able to fight climate change if we address both the
benefits and pitfalls of nuclear power, says Philip Ball.
Tony Blair wants a 60% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
But it's not clear how Britain can meet those targets.
Punchstock
Whatever other effects it has, climate change is producing some
unlikely bedfellows. Right-wing parties are brandishing their
green credentials, and some environmentalists have emerged as
advocates of nuclear power. Politicians are turning somersaults
in their efforts to present the right face to disparate camps:
yes, they say, we support economic growth and oil exploration, as
well as wind power, a hydrogen economy and carbon sequestration.
Whether you are an industrialist or an ecowarrior, we're right
behind you.
The Bush administration treads this tightrope with brazen
ambiguity. "Global climate change is a serious long-term issue,"
the US president told Nature recently (see "Head to head"), only
to add that "considerable uncertainty remains about the effect of
natural fluctuations on climate and the future impacts climate
change will have on our natural environment". So is there cause
for alarm or not? The United States, he says, should "mitigate
the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions", but not, apparently, in
line with even the timid constraints of the Kyoto Protocol.
In a speech on 14 September, the British prime minister Tony
Blair seemed to be more forthright. Climate change, he said, is
"the world's greatest environmental challenge," and "timely
action can avert disaster". But happily, this dark cloud for
industry has a silver lining, as averting climate change presents
"immense business opportunities".
Perhaps it is unfair to criticize politicians for such mixed
messages. After all, they do not have the luxury of the
black-and-white arguments that lobbyists serve up. Sooner or
later, however, we are going to have to face the bad news, which
no politician wants to acknowledge: there really is no sweetener
to the problem of climate change.
Immense opportunity?
Blair is not wrong to see opportunities in climate change: the
goal of reducing fossil-fuel emissions could be a tremendous
stimulus for technology. We want cheaper, more efficient
photovoltaic cells, better thermoelectric materials for
harvesting geothermal energy, artificial photosynthesis and
photocatalytic splitting of water, and more compact and
convenient fuel cells. We need better insulators and we need
ways to capture carbon from its gaseous forms.
But these are opportunities only in the sense that the global
AIDS epidemic offers opportunities for biomedical research. They
are opportunities we would be happier living without. And as
with HIV, we don't know yet whether we'll find the answers in
time.
Another problem with Blair's position is that his climate-change
targets for Britain are so ambitious that some commentators have
greeted them with derision. He wants a 20% reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions by 2010 and no less than a 60% reduction by
2050. As Blair himself admits, "This implies a massive change in
the way [Britain] produces and uses energy." The Times
newspaper, for example, responded by saying, "Blair has no way
of meeting these targets. There is no reputable scientist
unbribed by government subsidy who regards them as remotely
feasible."
More to the point, the Times lambasts Blair for failing to make
any promises about what, to many, seems the obvious solution:
nuclear power.
All the British government will say on this is that it does "not
rule out the possibility that at some point in the future new
nuclear build might be necessary if we are to meet our carbon
targets".
That is surely a coy way to skirt around what may be the key
issue. One can argue endlessly about the cost and efficacy of
wind turbines and other renewable sources, and about the savings
achievable by better efficiencies in energy use, but it's
incredibly difficult to see how the numbers will ever add up to
a 60% carbon dioxide cut in 45 years. Moreover, wind and solar
energy are hampered by being intermittent: their 'capacity
factor' (the ratio of total annual power output to potential
output if operating always at full power) is typically around
25%, compared with 90% for nuclear power.
Running out of time
Perhaps even more pertinently, we may not have five decades to
play with. That, at least, is the view of James Lovelock, the
independent scientist lionized by environmentalists for his idea
that our planet operates as an interconnected biogeophysical
system, which he calls Gaia. "We do not have 50 years," Lovelock
says. "We have no time to experiment with visionary energy
sources; civilization is in imminent danger and has to use
nuclear, the one safe, available energy source, now or suffer
the pain soon to be inflicted on our outraged planet."
Lovelock has ruffled feathers with this so-called environmental
heresy, but at least no one can accuse him of shying away from a
difficult choice. Tony Blair knows that in Britain nuclear power
is still deeply unpopular, and it certainly has a dire economic
record. The existing UK power plants alone soak up around
[sterling pound] 12 billion (US$21.5 billion) in subsidies; the
bill for revitalizing the nuclear industry would be breathtaking.
There is less squeamishness in the United States, and George W.
Bush (but not John Kerry) has declared an intention to expand
nuclear power generation. In Japan, nuclear plants account for
around one-third of the country's total electricity production;
in France, three-quarters of the total power is nuclear and the
country has one of the cheapest electricity supplies in Europe.
New reactor designs should make them safer and more economical,
and might use excess heat to generate hydrogen fuel from water.
All this seems to imply that nuclear power, if well managed, can
work. No one can deny that the waste-disposal problem remains.
But there is no reason to believe it is intractable, and indeed
this is arguably another technological 'opportunity'.
Still, a proper debate about the virtues of nuclear power must
acknowledge its vices. The legal action that the UK government
faces from the European Union over sloppy accounting for the
waste stored at the Sellafield plant is a timely reminder of the
difficulties of ensuring that nuclear material remains in the
right hands; the links between civil power and weapons
technology have never been severed. Mining of uranium has been
messy and exploitative in the past. And the impending twentieth
anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster might make the coming year
a tricky time to conduct a dispassionate debate about nuclear
energy.
But it has to happen. Tony Blair is surely right to say that you
cannot remove nuclear power from the agenda "if you are serious
about the issue of climate change". Neither can you discuss that
agenda with an expectation of zero risk. Whether or not Lovelock
is right about the timescales, there will be dangers implicit in
whatever course of action we take.
2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
*****************************************************************
42 [PUBCIT_PRESS] Calif. gov. fails students on food irr. bill
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:54 -0500 (CDT)
Public Citizen Press Releases
Providing the latest information about Public Citizen activities
-------------------------------------------
Sept. 17, 2004
Governor Fails California Students by Vetoing Parents' Right to Know
Bill
Statement of Anna Blackshaw, Director of Public Citizen's California
Office
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to veto AB 1988, which
requires school board approval, public disclosure and parental
notification before irradiated foods can be purchased for school lunch
programs, deprives California's students and parents of valuable
information about what is in their school lunches.
AB 1988 would have protected parents' right to know what their children
eat at school and provided a democratic decision-making process for a
highly controversial issue that has parents concerned across the state.
The bill required simple actions, such as labeling irradiated food on
school menus, that would not be a financial burden on school systems
using these foods. For schools choosing not to serve irradiated foods,
the bill would not impose any costs. In fact, the irradiated ground
beef currently being offered to states through the National School Lunch
Program is significantly more expensive than non-irradiated ground beef,
ensuring that the increased price of irradiated food would make a much
more dramatic impact on school food budgets than any labeling
requirement in AB 1988.
While the California Department of Education is not carrying irradiated
ground beef in its commodity distribution system for this school year,
schools can still purchase irradiated foods from other sources. Current
regulations on the labeling of irradiated food do not apply to food
served in schools because they apply only to food purchased in the
grocery story. This means that it is more important than ever for local
school districts to follow the example of the six California school
districts that have already banned irradiated food from their
cafeterias.
Given the scientific uncertainty over the safety of irradiated foods
and their wide-scale rejection by consumers, it is important to involve
parents in decisions regarding food their children will be served. With
this veto, Governor Schwarzenegger has failed California's students and
parents.
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
with an office in Oakland. For more information, please visit
www.citizen.org.
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To be removed from this list send an email to pcpress@citizen.org with "unsubscribe pubcit_press" in the message.
Please visit our website at www.citizen.org
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43 [du-list] Press Release from NNWJ
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:57 -0700
.
PRESS Release
Vina Colley 740-2275
In a message dated 9/16/2004 7:03:28 PM Eastern Standard Time,
vcolley@earthlink.net writes:
Vina Colley, the head of watchdog group National Nuclear Workers for
Justice and President of Portsmouth/Piketon Resident for Environmental
Safety and Security a local community group an former Portsmouth Gaseous
Diffusion facility employee, applauded Kerry's letter to help sick and
dying workers from the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant and hopes that it
will be put across the line for all nuclear workers.. Today nominee Vice
President John Edwards come to the streets of Portsmouth, Ohio Vina asked
John Edwards and Congressman Strickland on behalf of NNWJ for a seat at the
table for the sick and dying workers and they both said we will look into
it. We questioned whether we will ever see changes in the program unless
we the victims can be there for input..
..There is no doubt that Kerry administration will understand that we
need changes in the Defunct EEOICPA but who will be the right agency for
compensating injured workers. It is a strange perversity of the Bush
administration that the energy compensation system was given to the
Department of Energy, the same agency responsible for the injuries. No
surprise that under Bush, practically no injured workers have been
compensated but the lawyers for the government and for big contractors have
gotten even richer. Kerry obviously understands this issue and has
committed himself to correcting it."
Strickland should be applauded for educating Kerry and staff on the
Defunct Energy Eemployee Occupational Illness Program Act of 42 U.S.C.&
7384 2000 compensation bill and trying to make changes. National Nuclear
Workers for Justice thinks Kerry will do the right thing when elected..We
should have a voice we are the ones that have been fighting this problem
since the 80's..
We would like to know what Kerry means by 'ensuring the future health
and prosperity of the community and its workforce,' " and hope we have
a voice to what kind of jobs we would like at the plant.. National Nuclear
Workers for Justice and Portsmouth/Piketon Resident for Environmental
Safety and Security feels Kerry can make the change..
. NNWJ and PRESS thinks Kerry will do the right thing when elected it
will be a wait and see process.
www.nnwj.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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44 History in making
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:58 -0700
History in the making: President Bush visits southern Ohio, cruises
through Pike
County
VAN ROSE
Staff Writer
vrose@newswatchman.com
The economy, healthcare and small business growth were just a few topics
President George W. Bush discussed Friday as he made a campaign stop at
Shawnee State University's Rhodes Athletic Center in Portsmouth.
It was the president's second appointment of the day, slated between two
additional stops in Huntington, W.Va. and Chillicothe. His agenda was
clear: to
encourage Republicans to support his campaign so that they can urge others to
vote in the Nov. 2 election as well.
"I got some work I gotta do," said Pres. Bush after walking on stage before
a crowd
of enthusiastic supporters. "I'm here to ask for your vote. I believe
you've got to
get out among the people and ask."
The first supporters to show up at the Rhodes Center had to wait three
hours for
Pres. Bush to arrive. Several speakers addressed the crowd during that time,
including Shawnee State University President Dr. Rita Rice Morris, former
Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Anthony Muoz, Ohio Senator Doug White
and U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, among others.
Scioto County Republican Party Chairman Rodney Barnett, who was the first to
speak, was pointed out the significance of the president's stop in Portsmouth.
"This is the first time since 1932 that an incumbent Republican has visited
Scioto
County, Ohio," he said.
Pres. Bush was quick to explain his plans for the next four years:
permanent tax
relief, medical screening and prescription drugs for Medicare recipients,
medical
liability reform, and a new tax policy to benefit small businesses.
Ohio is lagging behind other states in growth following the recent
recession, the
president said, pointing to an economy that has been through "a heck of a
lot" and
that was spiraling out of control before he ever took office in 2001. He
expects
continued tax relief to stimulate economic growth.
"It'd be a mistake for Congress not to make tax relief permanent," Pres.
Bush said.
The current war in the Middle East has taken a toll on the economy, the
president
said, but military action against former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein which
began
in 2003 was endorsed by Bush's rival, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Ironically,
Sen.
Kerry voted not to support military funding for the forces serving
overseas, stating
that it was a complicated issue, according to Pres. Bush.
"There's nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat," he said.
The president made one of his last comments answering an audience member's
question, which concerned the legacy he plans to leave behind when his time in
office is through.
"I'd hope, after 50 years, people will say we put in place a certain
momentum that
caused more and more people to demand to live in liberty," he said. "I'd
hope that
after my time as president, all eight years of it, people would say George
Bush
didn't waver in his belief. One of my legacies would be a peaceful world."
*****************************************************************
45 Dealing with DU by Carol Wolman, MD
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:21:53 -0700
DEALING WITH DU BY CAROL WOLMAN, MD
Our descendants will curse us for allowing the planet to become polluted
with uranium dust. Helen Caldicott warned us back in 1992 about the
dangerous residue of radioactive material left in Iraq by the use of
depleted uranium weaponry. Since then, this gene-altering weaponry has
been used in the Baltics, in Afghanistan, and again in Iraq, even now.
The attached three articles detail the horrors of depleted uranium. For a
good summary of the current political status of DU weaponry, I also
recommend Washington's secret nuclear war from aljazeera.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B2E2DF9B-1E0C-43F4-BBF6-074C1367E27C.htm
Why are we not heeding the many warnings? There are two powerful
reasons: 1) the US military officially denies that DU is harmful, and
exerts strong pressure on the scientific community to keep quiet on the
subject; 2) people shut down psychically rather than confront the reality
that we are poisoning the precious gene pool for all future generations.
How bad is it? Leuren Moret, an outspoken scientist working in this area,
believes that as the DU dust from Iraq and Afghanistan is picked up by wind
and enters the atmosphere, the toxicity will spread around the
globe. Major Doug Rokke, whose job it was to deal with DU residue in Iraq
after Gulf War I, stresses that there is no way to clean it up. And the
half life is 4.5 BILLION years.
This is not a local problem, way over there in Iraq. Our own military
personnel have been badly poisoned; recent reports point to very high rates
of disability in veterans of Gulf War I, and of birth defects in their
children.
How can we deal with this horror? There is intrapsychic work to be done
before we can do the external work of confronting the powers-that-be and
getting them to turn off the DU spigot. We must deal with our psychic numbing.
First step- we must get our heads out of the sand and acknowledge the
problem. We've made a terrible mess, and it may not be possible to clean
it up. This has to be faced, squarely and honestly.
Next, we need to work through depression and despair. It's hard to
believe that God who created life and sustains it, would allow it to be
destroyed in this way. I personally have gone through a crisis of faith
this past month, and come out the other side.
Praying steadily, I've gotten this far: we have to face the problem before
God will give us a solution. Another way to say the same thing is, that if
we face the truth, we can find the strength to seek solutions. If ever we
needed a higher power, we need it now.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
Psalm 17: 6
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/091704.htm
In the name of the Creator, Carol Wolman
----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Kohls
To: Gary Kohls
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 3:01 PM
Subject: Fascism Alert: The Horrors of Nuclear War (and DU)
The Effects of Nuclear War
by Russell D. Hoffman
A year ago, India surprised the CIA -- and nearly everyone else except,
perhaps, Pakistan, who seems to have been nearly ready -- by setting off
several underground nuclear explosions. Then Pakistan, claiming
self-defense, followed suit. But what would actually happen if India and
Pakistan had a nuclear exchange?
Most people in India and in Pakistan (and in the U.S.) probably do not know
that as many as 9 out of 10 people -- or more -- who die from a nuclear
blast, do not die in the explosion itself. Most people probably think that
if they die from a nuclear blast, they will simply see a flash and get
quickly cooked.
Those within approximately a six square mile area(for a 1 megaton blast)
will indeed be close enough to "ground zero" to be killed by the gamma rays
emitting from the blast itself. Ghostly shadows of these people will be
formed on any
concrete or stone that lies behind them, and they will be no more. They
literally won't know what hit them, since they will be vaporized before the
electrical signals from their sense organs can reach their brains.
Of the many victims of a nuclear war, these are the luckiest ones, of course.
Outside the circle where people will be instantly vaporized from the
initial gamma radiation blast, the light from the explosion (which is many
times hotter than the sun) is so bright that it will immediately and
permanently blind every living thing, including farm animals (including
cows, sacred or otherwise), pets, birds while in flight and not to mention
peasants, Maharajah's, and Government officials -- and soldiers, of course.
Whether their eyes are opened or closed. This will happen for perhaps 10
miles around in every direction (for a 1 megaton bomb) -- further for
those who happen to be looking towards the blast at the moment of
detonation. Even from fifty miles away, a 1 megaton blast will be many
times brighter than the noonday sun. Those looking directly at the blast
will have a large spot permanently burned into their retinas, where the
light receptor cells will have been destroyed.
The huge bright cloud being nearly instantly formed in front of them (made
in part from those closer to the blast, who have already "become death"),
will be the last clear image these people will see.
Most people who will die from the nuclear explosion will not die in the
initial gamma ray burst, nor in the multi-spectral heat blast(mostly X-ray
and ultraviolet wavelengths) which will come about a tenth of a second
after the gamma burst. Nor will the pressure wave which follows over the
next few seconds do most of them in, though it will cause bleeding from
every orifice. Nor even will most people be killed by the momentary high
winds which accompany the pressure wave. These winds will reach velocities
of hundreds of miles an hour near the epicenter of the blast, and will
reach velocities of 70 miles per hour as far as 6 miles from the blast (for
a 1megaton bomb). The high winds and flying debris will cause shrapnel-type
wounds and blunt-trauma injuries.
Together, the pressure wave and the accompanying winds will do in quite a
few, and damage most of the rest of the people (and animals, and
structures) in a huge circle -- perhaps hundreds of square miles in area.
Later, these people will begin to suffer from vomiting, skin rashes, and an
intense unquenchable thirst as their hair falls out in clumps. Their skin
will begin to peel off. This is because the internal molecular structure of
the living cells within their bodies is breaking down, a result of the
disruptive effects of the high radiation dose they received. All the
animals will be similarly suffering. Since they have already received the
dose, these effects will show up even if the people are immediately
evacuated from the area --hardly likely, since everything around will be
destroyed and the country would be at war.
But this will not concern them at this time: Their immediate threat after
the gamma blast, heat blast, pressure wave and sudden fierce wind (first
going in the direction of the pressure wave --outwardly from the blast --
then a moment later, a somewhat weaker wind in the opposite direction),will
be the firestorm which will quickly follow, with its intense heat and
hurricane-force winds, all driving towards the center where the radioactive
mushroom-shaped cloud will be rising, feeding it, enlarging it, and pushing
it miles up into the sky.
The cloud from a 1 megaton blast will reach nearly10 miles across and
equally high. Soon after forming, it will turn white because of water
condensation around it and within it. In an hour or so, it will have
largely dissipated, which means that its cargo of death can no longer be
tracked visually. People will need to be evacuated from under the fallout,
but they will have a hard time knowing where to go. Only for the first day
or so will visible pieces of fallout appear on the ground, such as
marble-sized chunks of radioactive debris and flea-sized dots of blackened
particles. After that the descending debris from the radioactive cloud will
become invisible and harder to track; the fallout will only be detectible
with geiger counters carried by people in "moon suits". But all the moon
suits will already be in use in the known affected area. Probably, no one
will be tracking the cloud. One U.S. test in the South Pacific resulted in
a cigar-shaped contamination area 340 miles long and up to 60 miles wide.
It spread 20 miles *upwind* from the test site, and 320 miles downwind.
Where exactly it goes all depends on the winds and the rains at the time.
It is difficult to predict where the cloud will travel before it happens,
and it is likewise difficult to track the cloud as it moves and dissipates
around the globe. While underground testing is bad enough for the
environment, a single large above-ground explosion is likely to result in
measurable global increases of a whole spectrum of health effects. India or
Pakistan will deny culpability for these deaths, of course. The responsible
nations, including my own, always do.
But the people who were affected by the blast itself will not be worrying
about the fallout just yet.
A 1 megaton nuclear bomb creates a firestorm that can cover 100 square
miles. A 20 megaton blast's firestorm can cover nearly 2500 square miles.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were small cities, and by today's standards the
bombs dropped on them were small bombs.
The Allied firebombing of nearly 150 cities during World War Two in Germany
and Japan seldom destroyed more than 25 square miles at a time, and each of
those raids required upwards of 400 planes, and thousands of crewmembers
going into harm's way. It was not done lightly. And, they did not leave a
lingering legacy of lethal radioactive contamination.
In the span of a lunch hour, one multi-warhead nuclear missile can destroy
more cities than all the incendiary raids in history, and the only thing
the combatant needs to do to carry off such a horror is to sit in
air-conditioned comfort hundreds or even thousands of miles away, and push
a button. He would barely have to interrupt his
lunch. With automation, he wouldn't even have to do that! The perpetrator
of this crime against humanity may never have seen his adversary. He only
needs to be good at following the simplest of orders. A robot could do it.
One would think, that
ONLY a robot WOULD do it.
Nuclear war is never anything less than genocide.
The developing firestorm is what the survivors of the initial blast will be
worrying about if they can think straight at all. Many will have become
instantly "shell-shocked" incapacitated and unable to proceed. Many will
simply go mad. Perhaps they are among the "lucky" ones, as well.
The firestorm produces hurricane-force winds in a matter of minutes. The
fire burns so hot that the asphalt in the streets begins to melt and then
burn, even as people are trying to run across it, literally melting into
the pavement themselves as they run. Victims, on fire, jump into rivers,
only to catch fire again when they surface for air. Yet it is hard to see
even these pitiable souls as the least lucky ones in a nuclear attack. For
the survivors of the initial blast who do not then die in the firestorm
that follows, many will die painfully over the next few weeks, often after
a brief, hopeful period where they appear to begetting better. It might
begin as a tingling sensation on the skin, or an itching, which starts
shortly after the blast. These symptoms are signs that the body is starting
to break down internally, at the molecular level. The insides of those who
get a severe dose of gamma radiation, but manage to survive the other
traumas, whose organs had once been well defined as lungs, liver, heart,
intestines, etc., begin to resemble an undefined mass of bloody pulp.
Within days, or
perhaps weeks, the victim, usually bleeding painfully from every hole and
pore in their body, at last dies and receives their final mercy.
But this too will probably not be how most victims of a nuclear attack will
die. A
significant percentage, probably most, of the people who die from a nuclear
attack will die much later, from the widespread release of radioactive
material into the environment. These deaths will occur all over the world,
for centuries to come. Scattered deaths, and pockets of higher mortality
rates, will continue from cancer, leukemia, and other health effects,
especially genetic damage to succeeding generations.
Nuclear weapons do not recognize the end of a war, or signed peace
treaties, or even the deaths of all the combatants. They simply keep on
killing a percentage of whoever happens to inhale or ingest their deadly
byproducts.
Some deaths will occur hundreds and even thousands of miles away, because
low levels of ionizing radiation are capable of causing the full spectrum
of health effects, albeit at a lower rate within the population. Not to
mention the radioactive runoff from the rivers and streams that flow
through the blast area and the area under the
radioactive mushroom cloud's drift. It may carry its deadly cargo for
thousands of miles, raining a fallout of death only on some cities, and not
on others. It will land upon nations which had not been involved in any way
in India's dispute with
Pakistan. These nations will be mighty hurt and mighty upset.
Nuclear weapons do not recognize international borders.
Finally, an atmospheric blast of a nuclear "device" creates an EMP
(Electro-Magnetic Pulse)which can be as large as Pakistan or even India
--perhaps even larger than India and Pakistan together. The higher the
altitude of the blast, the bigger the circle of damage will be from the
EMP. This is a very serious concern for those of us in the high-tech
industries, such as myself.
The Electro-Magnetic Pulse will electrify allsorts of metallic structures
that are not normally electrified except by the occasional short circuit or
lightening strike. This will be a lot like the whole country getting struck
by lightening all at the same time.
As computer chips make better and better use of "real estate", using more
and more delicate electronic circuits, the more tightly-packed transistors,
capacitors, diodes and resistors become more and more vulnerable to the EMP
which will be carried into the chips via the connecting wires. The
Electro-Magnetic Pulse is one of the
reasons above-ground testing was stopped. (The other reason was that it
became impossible to deny that the radiation dispersed by the tests was
killing people.)
Pacemakers, for example, may stop working because of the "hit" from the
EMP. It will be quite something to see people in a thousand mile radius of
the epicenter of the blast (or further) who are using pacemakers, suddenly
drop dead, and all the
computers permanently go down and all the lights go out, all at the same
time. And commercial and private aircraft will drop out of the sky, since
their sensitive electronics and fly-by-wire systems are not very well
shielded from the EMP.
These planes will then not be available for evacuation purposes, nor will
they be available to air-drop food, water, morphine and cyanide, all of
which will be in great demand throughout the area.
A year ago people were dancing in the streets over this in both India and
Pakistan. Why?
Home plumbing systems and most other plumbing systems are good examples of
large metallic structures that will suddenly become electrified, destroying
the motors, gauges, electronics, etc. which are attached to the plumbing
systems. More and more pumping equipment is computer controlled nowadays
for efficiency. Imbedded controllers are becoming prevalent but as they do,
the potential damage from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse increases dramatically.
Train tracks will also carry the charge, as well as telephone wiring. All
these things will have a nearly simultaneous surge of energy sent through
them, igniting gas containers such as fuel storage tanks, propane tanks,
and so on. Whatever doesn't
blow up will at least stop working.
My country has lived under the Russian and Chinese threat of nuclear war
for many decades now, and it is not a pleasant thought. This is nothing to
dance about. There is no benefit to having, or using, nuclear weapons.
I think the world would be a better place if we all stopped and said, "I
will not be a part of this. I do not need these weapons, for I would never
commit this sin against my own children, nor against my neighbor's
children, nor against my enemy's children, nor even against my enemy. I
choose not to be a part of this madness."
There is a greater battle mankind must fight than against each other.
Humanity's fight right now, is for humanity's general survival despite
depleted and poorly used resources, environmental degradation (there is
none greater than that from a nuclear explosion), dwindling effectiveness
of antibiotics and other wonder drugs, an uneven distribution of available
food, knowledge and wealth, and against weapons of mass destruction.
America had three excuses for her previous use of nuclear weapons in war,
which we plead every time it is mentioned. First, we claim that we did not
understand back then (over 50 years ago) all the ways nuclear weapons
damage the Earth and her
living inhabitants. Second, we claim that there was a war going on, and
that had we not used these weapons, perhaps a million soldiers would have
died invading Japan instead. But this second excuse is weakened by the
knowledge that Japan was at that time very near collapse anyway. She was
without an air defense, a sea defense, she did not have advanced radar, she
had lost all her good
pilots, millions of soldiers were either dead, wounded, captured, or
uselessly stuck on nameless islands in the middle of the Pacific, and towns
in her homeland was being firebombed on almost a nightly basis. Our third
excuse was that both Japan (and
definitely Germany) were building their own nuclear weapons, and DEFINITELY
would have used them against us had they succeeded in developing "the bomb"
before the war ended. The war could not go on forever. We were, indeed,
running out of time.
Perhaps these excuses are insufficient, but India and Pakistan hasn't even
got them. India can, and therefore should, along with Pakistan, renounce
nuclear weapons and the nuclear option. Perhaps her populace does not
understand the full nature of the threat of nuclear weapons, and thus they
are dancing in the streets, but I hope that her leaders do. However, I
strongly suspect most of them are unaware of the things I have written
about in this newsletter. Perhaps you, dear reader, will help me to educate
them in this matter.
The author is grateful for the assistance of Pamela Blockey-O'Brien and
others in the research and preparation of this statement.
http://www.mothersalert.org/nuclearwar.html
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\The Effects of Nuclear War.doc"
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\When Right Isn't Right DU.doc"
Attachment Converted: "c:\program files\eudora\attach\DU A Crime in Progress.doc"
*****************************************************************
46 chillicothe gazette: Edwards gives Piketon folks 15 minutes -
Friday, September 17, 2004
By LISA ROBERSON Gazette Staff Writer
PIKETON -- They just keep coming back for more.
Just nine days after a stop in Chillicothe, Sen. John Edwards
returned to the Scioto Valley for a brief appearance.
Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice president, made a
surprise visit Thursday to the Boilermakers Local Union 150 in
Piketon and delivered a quick speech to about 60 workers and
residents. The stop was made while Edwards was on his way to a
speaking engagement in Portsmouth.
U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lisbon, introduced the senator from
North Carolina, who spoke for about 15 minutes. Strickland
represented Pike County before his district was redrawn two years
ago.
Thursday's speech echoed the one Edwards delivered in Chillicothe
last week. However, within minutes of climbing on to the back of
a pickup truck, Edwards hit a key topic with talk of jobs at the
Piketon uranium enrichment plant.
"Sen. John Kerry and I are going to make sure the Piketon plant
stays open and that the new Piketon plant is built and built on
schedule," he said before getting briefly interrupted with a
tractor-trailer driver who blow his horn in support. "Not only
that, we are going to make sure the workers that are sick get the
help they need."
Employment was not the only hot topic Edwards touched on in his
brief address. He quickly switched his message to health care and
prescription drug costs.
"Why in the world would the people of Ohio rehire as their
president the man that has cost them thousands and thousands of
jobs, who (has) driven up health care costs?" he said. "Health
care costs are up $3,600 right here in Ohio in the last four
years. That's real money for most people."
The rising cost of health care has kept 76-year-old Maggie Dewey
at work.
"I still work to make ends meet," she said. "I shouldn't have to
work at my age, but I do because health care is too much. I spend
about $190 a month on health care alone."
Dewey said she believes in Kerry and Edwards because she thinks
they believe in the working class.
"I'll like to see them get that health care plan off the ground
and I'll like to retire," she said.
While Edwards didn't talk about abortion, it is still a very
important issue for Chris Mason.
"We are just one U.S. Supreme Court justice away from overturning
Roe vs. Wade," said the 52-year-old woman from Piketon. "If
George W. Bush is re-elected, I'm sure he will try and pack the
court with people to get that tossed out and, for that, I could
never, ever support George Bush."
Edwards urged residents to not just listen to the speeches but to
also judge Bush on his record.
"He said one thing at his convention that I actually agree with,"
he said. "He said he wants to be judged on his record. I say he's
right. We want George Bush to be judged on his record. During the
time Bush has been president, 5 million Americans lost their
health care, 4 million Americans have gone into poverty and 1.5
million private sector jobs have been lost -- 230,000, or one out
of five, lost right here in the state of Ohio."
The number of job loses is what Richard Holland, of Waverly, said
he is looking at. Holland is a member of the boilermakers union
and said each day he worries his job will be outsourced.
"This country is so polarized right now," he said. "Either you
have the wealthy CEOs who are making millions or you have the
middle class that has seeped into the working poor. We need
someone who can bring back the working middle class. That's what
this country was built on."
(Roberson can be reached at 772-9376 or via e-mail at
[lroberso@nncogannett.com]
Originally published Friday, September 17, 2004
Copyright 2004 Chillicothe Gazette. All rights reserved. Use of
*****************************************************************
47 Las Vegas SUN: Utah senators seek protection from Nevada nuke testing
Today: September 17, 2004 at 11:51:23 PDT
Utah senators seek protection from Nevada nuke testing
By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Utah's senators have introduced a bill to protect
the state's "downwinders" if nuclear weapons are tested again at
the Nevada Test Site.
But Utah Republican Sens. Robert Bennett and Orrin Hatch say
their bill, introduced Sept. 7, was not in response to any
recent signal from the White House or Pentagon that President
Bush intends to order a new generation of underground blasts.
"This just puts additional safeguards into the law," Bennett
spokeswoman Mary Jane Collipriest said.
Renewed testing at the storied Nevada nuclear proving grounds
has long been a matter of speculation. President Bush has not
signaled that he wants new tests, but Pentagon officials have
said they might be necessary to test old warheads or to develop
new ones.
The bill would specifically require the energy secretary to
notify the public of the time, date and place of any new test
seven days before the test.
Further, the bill would require:
+ A public meeting in southern Utah after the test, to review
the results.
+ A National Academy of Sciences analysis of the National
Nuclear Security Administration's safety, health and
environmental safeguards. (The NNSA manages the Test Site.)
+ A new Nevada Test Site Citizens Review Board to review health,
safety and environmental issues related to new testing.
The Bennett-Hatch bill also would create new grants for
independent radiation testing; an academic center under the
National Institutes of Health to study radiation and human
health; and a study of anyone exposed to radiation during
testing.
President Bush has asked the NNSA to shorten the amount of time
the Test Site would need to become ready for new underground
nuclear experiments, if ordered, while stressing that he has no
plans to order tests.
In separate letters from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz and NNSA Director Linton Brooks, the Bush
administration officials reassured the Utah lawmakers that there
have been no shifts in that stance.
Bennett was concerned that the administration's interest in the
development of a nuclear bunker buster bomb might require new
tests. But Wolfowitz assured him that the Bush administration
had "no plans" to conduct underground tests of the "Robust
Nuclear Earth Penetrator," or RNEP.
If the administration decided to move from study to eventual
testing of the bomb in Nevada, Bush would request the test money
from Congress and lawmakers could have their say on it then,
Wolfowitz wrote.
Brooks went further, saying that the NNSA believes that
resuming testing to certify the RNEP is "not an option."
Brooks also implied that the tests probably were unnecessary.
The study of the RNEP is centered on reconfiguring two existing
nuclear weapons, Brooks wrote. "Both are well-proven systems
with an extensive test pedigree from the 1970s and 1980s,"
Brooks wrote.
The Test Site is an expanse of desert larger than Rhode Island,
with its nearest border 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It was
home to 928 full-scale nuclear tests, most underground, from
1951 to 1992, when a moratorium was declared by President Bush's
father.
Utah lawmakers are keenly interested in the prospect of renewed
testing because many residents of the state developed
radiation-related diseases after the Nevada tests.
"We must not jeopardize the health and safety of our citizens
as we work to protect our national security," Bennett said.
"Utahns have already paid too high a price."
*****************************************************************
48 Hawk Eye: Radioactive mystery found at IAAP
[http://archive.thehawkeye.com]
Friday, September 17, 2004,
[http://www.thehawkeye.com/
Experts say radiation from unknown item holds little danger.
By MATTHEW LeBLANC mleblanc@thehawkeye.com
[mleblanc@thehawkeye.com]
MIDDLETOWN A sweep of Iowa Army Ammunition Plant grounds
prompted by former workers afraid that radioactive materials were
left there despite recent cleanup efforts has yielded a small
chunk of radioactive metal. Environmental experts say they don't
know what it is or where it came from.
"I don't know if we'll ever be able to figure out what exactly it
is," said Steve Bellrichard, an environmental protection
specialist at the Middletown plant.
Crews from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found the chunk,
which resembles a small drawer pull, last month during an
inspection of four areas selected by former workers as likely to
contain radiation. Three of the areas tested negative for
aboveaverage radiation. The metal was found in the fourth area,
where crews dumped contaminated soil from a cleanup effort nearly
two years ago.
The chunk tested positive for Cesium 137, a lowlevel radioactive
isotope used in density gauges and for machine calibration by
various industries.
Environmentalists and ACE officials say there is little danger
surrounding the metal piece, despite it being measured at several
times more radioactive than much of the area in which it was
found.
Brian Harzek, an ACE radiation protection specialist, said
Thursday the level of radiation in the metal chunk measures lower
than a typical hospital Xray.
"This is a 10th of what you'd get by getting a chest Xray," he
said.
However, the mystery lies in the origin and quantification of the
metal chunk. Army crews covered with plastic and dirt several
tons of soil removed from other sites at the 19,000acre plant in
2002. The metal chunk was found just outside of that area.
Former workers warned the ACE that radioactive materials still
could be present in some areas last month. Inspectors swept the
grounds Aug. 16 through 26.
Sharon Cotner of the ACE's St. Louis office said initial tests on
the selected areas indicated no radiation contamination. A sweep
was ordered anyway.
"We felt we should still go out and at least do a screening
survey to show there was nothing there," Cotner said.
Beginning in the 1940s, workers at IAAP built, testfired and
disassembled components of conventional and nuclear weapons in
some areas on plant grounds. Studies to determine the amount of
contamination began in 1978, and the plant was placed on a
government list of contaminated areas in line for cleanup in
1989. Work on cleanup began in 1994.
Estimates for the cost of the cleanup range from $100 million to
$127 million. The Army has spent $88 million on cleanup to date.
Since the plant's designation as a federal Superfund site,
worries among Middletown residents have circulated regarding the
town's proximity to the plant. Federal environmental workers have
found dangerous explosives RDX, TNT, DDT in wells on plant
grounds.
Harzek said the ACE will work to determine what the metal chunk
is and where it came from. Until then, the area where it was
found will continue to be monitored, he said.
"It's a big jigsaw puzzle," Harzek said. "You have to find the
pieces."
IAAP issued a statement earlier this week urging the public not
to worry about the find.
Bellrichard said the metal chunk does not represent a larger
problem with radioactive contamination at the plant.
"We don't want people to panic over this," he 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
[webmaster@thehawkeye.com]
*****************************************************************
49 news@nature.com - Radioactivity gets fast-forward
Published online: 17 September 2004; |
Philip Ball
A radioactive element's rate of decay has been speeded up.
Could we neutralize radioactive waste more quickly? Corbis
Scientists in Japan have persuaded a radioactive material to
decay significantly faster than normal.
The rate of decay of radioactive atoms is often regarded as
something preordained and beyond our power to manipulate. It has
been known for some time that that is not really the case, but
this change, almost 1%, is by far the most dramatic effect
achieved so far. It decreased the half-life of beryllium-7 by
about half a day.
In principle, the result suggests that we might be able to
neutralize nuclear waste faster. The researchers admit, however,
that the possibility of magnifying the effect enough to
significantly speed up this process remains "somewhat remote".
Electron grab
Atoms of beryllium-7 decay by grabbing electrons from their
surroundings. The electron is absorbed into the nucleus, where it
combines with a proton to make a neutron, transforming the atom
into a different element, lithium-7.
The rate of this kind of decay depends on the chance of an
electron straying into the nucleus and getting absorbed. So
increasing the density of electrons surrounding the atomic
nucleus can speed up the decay. The reverse is true for the types
of decay that involve expelling a neutron: increasing the
electron density around that type of atom slows the process down.
At least, that is the idea. But the changes seen previously have
been tiny. Now Tsutomu Ohtsuki of Tohoku University in Sendai,
Japan, and colleagues have boosted the effect by trapping
beryllium-7 atoms in molecular cages. They report their results
in Physical Review Letters1.
The researchers induced a nuclear reaction to produce beryllium-7
atoms with a lot of energy, which were able to bash their way
through the walls of cage-like carbon molecules called
buckminsterfullerenes.
Once the beryllium atoms are trapped, the carbon cage surrounds
them with a dense cloud of electrons. This makes it more likely
for an electron to get into the trapped atom's nucleus and induce
decay. The researchers found that beryllium-7 encased in
buckminsterfullerene has a half-life of about 52.5 days, compared
with 53 days for pure beryllium-7. The half-life is the time it
takes for half of the initial amount of material to decay.
Waste disposal
Speeding up decay by less than 1% will not help much in disposing
of radioactive waste with half-lives of thousands or millions of
years. So could the effect be made much bigger?
Peter Mller, a physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
in New Mexico, says that if you could recreate conditions such as
those found in the interior of a hot star, changes in nuclear
decay rates could be much more dramatic.
"People don't know how to engineer such an environment," he
admits. But squeezing a radioactive substance to very high
pressures might enhance the effect that Ohtsuki and colleagues
have seen.
2004 Nature Publishing Group | Privacy policy
*****************************************************************
50 [NYTr] Fears about US Plutonium Shipment to France
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 01:35:38 -0500 (CDT)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Flash, al Qaeda -- the US is sending two ships with potential
Weapons of Mass Destruction to France from in the next few
weeks.]
News about Ireland & the Irish
The Irish Times - Sept 17, 2004
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/0917/4273648379HM5NUCLEAR.html
Fears About Nuclear Shipment Off Coast
by Liam Reid
A United States congressman has raised concerns about the
potential of a terrorist attack on a shipment of weapons-grade
plutonium, which will pass within 200 miles of the Irish coast in
two ships in the next few weeks.
Mr Ed Markey, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives,
wrote to the US Secretary of Homeland security, Mr Tom Ridge
questioning the adequacy of security measures in relation to the
shipment of 140 kilogrammes of plutonium oxide.
The material is from the US military's bomb-making programme and is
being shipped from Virginia to France, where it will be made into
fuel rods for nuclear reactors.
The ships are due to arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, later
this week, where the nuclear material will be loaded. The return
voyage, to Cherbourg, passing anywhere between 150 and 200 miles
off the coast of Cork, is expected to take up to two weeks.
The plutonium will then be trucked to Caderache, a nuclear plant in
Provence. It is estimated that there is enough material to make
over 60 atomic bombs.
According to Greenpeace, Ireland could object to the shipment on
the basis of safety at Caderache, where two workers were
contaminated during an accident last week. The European Commission
has previously raised concerns about safety at the plant, according
to Greenpeace.
(c) The Irish Times
*
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*****************************************************************
51 Modesto Bee JAY AMBROSE: Kerry not so complex, after all
Modbee.com
Scripps Howard News Service
Last Updated: September 17, 2004, 05:12:00 PM PDT
(SH) - He had given his reporting-for-duty salute and was roughly
in the middle of his acceptance speech when John Kerry said that
"there are those who criticize me for seeing complexities." He
went on to say that he did see them because "some issues just
aren't all that simple."
Oh, the cheering. The crowd was in love.
The fact, though, is that the assertion of his complexity is
less an accusation by critics than an applause line of
supporters. President Bush, they would have you know, is slow,
uncomprehending, something of a dolt, while their guy deals with
the multiple layers of reality, is subtle, highly intelligent, a
master of nuance.
I will grant that Bush is inarticulate, as he conceded in his
own acceptance speech at his own party's national convention. I
will also grant that Kerry sometimes puts words together very
impressively. But just as a stumbling tongue is no sure evidence
of a stumbling brain, a nimble one does not necessarily show
depth, especially when that nimble tongue soon contradicts itself
or finds facile rationales for opportunistic positions.
Where was the complexity when Kerry recently said that a
congressional failure to extend a ban on so-called assault
weapons meant that Bush was making "the job of terrorists
easier"? Is this self-advertised hunter aware that the banned
weapons are no greater in their capacities than many hunting
rifles? If Mr. Complexity wants to ban the assault weapons, why
not ban the hunting rifles, too? And do his analytical gifts
really lead him to the conclusion that al Qaeda operatives will
be walking into gun stores in the future to purchase weapons
banned for no better reason than that they looked threatening?
Has he considered that the terrorists' chosen weapon on Sept.11,
2001, was box cutters?
To be fair to Kerry, it is true that Bush had it both ways on
this issue - he said he was for extending the ban while doing
nothing to persuade Republicans in Congress to get going. Bush,
though, is the complex one on Nevada's Yucca Mountain. That's
where the federal government has agreed to deposit nuclear waste.
Kerry wants to drop Yucca. He says transporting the waste from
nuclear plants to the site could be dangerous and that the site
might not be absolutely safe. Has he considered that nuclear
wastes have been safely and carefully transported in this nation
for decades without incident? Does he realize that wherever the
wastes are sent, they will have to be transported? Is he aware
that the wastes pose many times the danger in the 39 states where
they now reside than they would in an underground site that has
been studied for 20 years, and that it might well take another 20
years to find another site that comes close to being as sound?
Bush is on the side of science, wanting to move ahead with the
project. Kerry is on the side of an intellectually unadorned
pursuit of Nevada's electoral votes.
Let's get to Kerry's economic plan. He wants to cut the federal
deficit in half. To get there, he plans to tax higher-income
groups more. But that won't help because he also plans to spend
that money on new and enlarged programs and to enact new cuts in
middle-class taxes. How, then, will the deficits get smaller? I
confess that the puzzle is too complex for me. Bush, while not
much better, is not nearly so grandiose in spending ambitions.
The plain, honest, down-to-earth truth is that much of what
Kerry's fan club calls complex is often just incoherent, as when
he votes to authorize the war in Iraq and makes the case that
Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction, then says it is
the "wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time" and claims
that Bush misled us into the war by saying Saddam had weapons of
mass destruction.
"Isn't he sophisticated?" his advocates then ask. No, he isn't,
any more than he was when he criticized Bush for wanting to bring
troops home from South Korea and Germany - a proposition he had
himself said he would entertain two weeks earlier.
A discussion of issues approximating the complexity of those
issues isn't about to happen soon in a presidential contest, but
there is something we can reasonably hope for: less demagoguery,
some honesty about difficult choices and consistency of vision.
Contact Jay Ambrose, director of editorial policy for Scripps
Howard Newspapers, at AmbroseJ@shns.com [AmbroseJ@shns.com] .
Copyright 2004 The Modesto Bee. About The Bee
*****************************************************************
52 NRC: NRC Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste to Meet Sept. 22-23 in Las Vegas, Nevada
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. 04-116 September 16,
2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commissions Advisory Committee on
Nuclear Waste will hold a public meeting Sept. 22-23, in Las
Vegas, Nev., to discuss the likelihood and possible impact of a
volcanic event in the region of Yucca Mountain, the location of
a proposed high-level nuclear waste repository. Stakeholder
organizations will make presentations to the committee members.
The meeting will begin at 8 a.m. each day at the Suncoast Hotel,
Ballroom A, at 9090 Alta Drive. The two-day meeting is open, and
oral or written statements may be presented by the public. A
complete agenda will be available on the NRCs Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/acnw/agenda/2004/
. Those intending to speak at the meeting should notify Howard
Larson at 301-415-6805 as far in advance as possible so
arrangements can be made; he is also the contact person for more
information about the meeting.
Last revised Thursday, September 16, 2004
*****************************************************************
53 Las Vegas RJ: Energy funding limits opposed
Friday, September 17, 2004
Lawmakers say newrules restrict YuccaMountain foes
By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Federal lawmakers on Thursday called on Energy
Secretary Spencer Abraham to rescind new guidelines that some
Nevada counties complain are hindering their involvement in the
Yucca Mountain Project.
If Abraham does not comply, the next step could be legislation
in Congress to overturn the new rules. Or perhaps yet another
lawsuit against the Energy Department, according to aides for
Nevada lawmakers.
Five Nevadans in Congress asked Abraham in a letter to explain
new DOE guidelines for how counties can spend federal money they
are given each year through the Yucca program.
Ten counties have divided $4 million this year.
Subject to certain restrictions, the money can be spent to
assess how the proposed nuclear waste repository will affect
county residents.
Guidelines for 2005 that were given to counties on Aug. 27
include new limits on spending for "transportation activities,"
including commenting on DOE's proposal to build a railroad from
Caliente across rural Nevada to the repository site in Nye
County.
Also, counties would be unable to spend federal money to load
their research into a Yucca Mountain licensing database, an
initial step to participate in Nuclear Regulatory Commission
hearings, according to Nevada officials.
Energy Department officials said they were interpreting federal
law.
But Nevadans say the new guidelines interpret the law more
strictly than in the past, when spending to participate in
licensing and transportation was permitted.
"It seems to me the timing is really suspicious," said Abby
Johnson, a nuclear waste consultant to Eureka County.
"At a time when transportation planning on the part of DOE is
actually starting to occur, when we are actually looking at
ground impact from the construction of a rail line, they would
find suddenly there is no basis for affected local governments
to participate in those activities," Johnson said.
"I just have to wonder if this is a way to marginalize the
counties."
The DOE guidelines contained some positives for the counties.
Counties holding unspent funds at the end of a fiscal year can
carry it over into the new year, the department said.
Also, counties can keep any interest accrued on federal aid, as
long as it is spent on approved Yucca Mountain activities.
Nye County commissioner Candice Trummel said the DOE rules were
mixed as far as their impact.
Trummel said she doubted Nye would pursue any complaints about
them.
"There were positives as far as Nye County was concerned, and
the negatives are things we can work around," Trummel said.
Unlike Clark County and some other rural counties, Nye County
participates in cooperative agreements with the Energy
Department that provide funding to carry out specific Yucca
activities.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to wait for Abraham's response
before deciding whether to introduce legislation to reverse the
guidelines, a spokeswoman said.
Other Nevada lawmakers have begun research to determine if
legal action might be warranted, congressional officials said.
The letter to Abraham was signed by Reid, Sen. John Ensign,
R-Nev., and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter, both R-Nev., and
Shelley Berkley, D-Nev.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
54 Las Vegas SUN: New Yucca oversight limits decried
Nevada delegation sends objections to energy secretary
By Benjamin Grove SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department is unfairly trying to
restrict Nevada's ability to monitor the department's Yucca
Mountain project, the state's five members of Congress said.
In a letter sent Thursday to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham,
the lawmakers objected to department officials who last month
outlined plans to apply stricter control over how the state
spends federal money on Yucca oversight. Specifically, the
lawmakers are concerned that the department aims to limit their
ability to spend money to analyze proposed waste transportation
routes.
"We request that the Department reconsider its funding guidance
and continue to provide local governments with the necessary
oversight resources," the lawmakers wrote.
Congress each year gives Nevada and nine counties money to use
for oversight of Yucca, a plan to bury the nation's high-level
nuclear waste at the site 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The
Nevada counties, plus one in California, split $4 million this
year.
There are limits on spending. The federal money cannot be used
for anti-Yucca lobbying or lawsuits, for example. But lawmakers
say the department now intends to limit the spending in new
ways, curbing the ability of state officials to conduct basic
oversight.
Energy Department officials have said they are not trying to
block Nevada oversight in new ways; the department is just
following the federal law that limits the spending, a department
spokesman said.
*****************************************************************
55 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Impact Statement for the
FR Doc 04-20852
[Federal Register: September 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 180)]
[Notices] [Page 56104-56105] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17se04-99]
Proposed National Enrichment Facility in Lea County, NM,
NUREG-1790, Draft Report, and Notice of Public Meeting AGENCY:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of availability of draft environmental impact
statement and notice of public meeting.
SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is issuing a Draft Environmental Impact
Statement (DEIS) for the Louisiana Energy Services (LES) license
application, dated December 12, 2003, as revised by letters dated
February 27, 2004, and July 30, 2004, and docketed on January 30,
2004, for the possession and use of source, byproduct and special
nuclear materials at its proposed National Enrichment Facility
(NEF) in Lea County, New Mexico.
The DEIS discusses the purpose and need for the proposed LES
facility and reasonable alternatives to the proposed action,
including the no-action alternative. The DEIS also discusses the
environment potentially affected by the LES proposal, presents
and compares the potential environmental impacts resulting from
the proposed action and its alternatives, and identifies
mitigation measures that could eliminate or lessen the potential
environmental impacts.
The DEIS is being issued as part of the NRC's decision-making
process on whether to issue a license to LES. Based on the
preliminary evaluation in the DEIS, the NRC environmental review
staff has concluded that the proposed action would have small
effects on the physical environment and human communities with
the exception of: (1) short-term impacts associated with
construction traffic, accidents, and waste management, which
would be small to moderate, and (2) beneficial economic impacts
of the proposed NEF on the local communities which have been
determined to be moderate. The DEIS is a preliminary analysis of
the environmental impacts of the proposed action and its
alternatives. The Final EIS and any decision documentation
regarding the proposed action will not be issued until public
comments on the DEIS have been received and evaluated. Notice of
the availability of the Final EIS will be published in the
Federal Register.
DATES: The NRC is offering an opportunity for public review and
comment on the DEIS in accordance with applicable regulations,
including NRC requirements in 10 CFR 51.73, 51.74 and 51.117. The
comment period on this DEIS will be 45 days from the date the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency publishes the notice of
availability in the Federal Register. Written comments submitted
by mail should be postmarked by that date to ensure
consideration. Comments mailed after that date will be considered
to the extent practical. Comments will also be accepted by
electronic or facsimile submission.
ADDRESSES: Members of the public are invited and encouraged to
submit comments to the Chief, Rules Review and Directives Branch,
Mail Stop T6-D59, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington,
DC 20555-0001. Please note Docket No. 70-3103 when submitting
comments. Comments will also be accepted by e-mail at
[nrcrep@nrc.gov] or by facsimile to (301) 415-5397, Attention:
Anna Bradford.
Public Meetings: The NRC staff will hold a public meeting to
present an overview of the DEIS and to accept oral and written
public comments. Prior to the public meeting, the NRC staff will
be available to informally discuss the proposed LES project and
answer questions in an ``open house'' format. This ``open house''
format provides for one- on-one discussions with the NRC staff
involved with the preparation of the LES Draft EIS. The meeting
date, time and location are listed below: Thursday, October 14,
2004. Eunice Community Center, 1115 Avenue I, Eunice, New Mexico.
Open House: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., Public Meeting: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The meeting will be transcribed and will include: (1) A
presentation summarizing the contents of the DEIS and (2) an
opportunity for interested government agencies, organizations,
and individuals to provide comments on the DEIS. Persons wishing
to provide oral comments can register in advance by contacting
Ms. Anna Bradford at (301) 415-5228 by October 8, 2004, or at the
public meeting. Individual oral comments may have to be limited
by the
[[Page 56105]] time available, depending upon the number of
persons who register.
If special equipment or accommodations are needed to attend or
present information at the public meeting, the need should be
brought to Ms. Bradford's attention no later than October 1,
2004, to provide NRC staff with adequate notice to determine
whether the request can be accommodated.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For environmental review
questions, please contact Anna Bradford at (301) 415-5228. For
questions related to the safety review or overall licensing of
the proposed NEF, please contact Timothy Johnson at (301)
415-7299.
Information and documents associated with the proposed NEF
project, including the Environmental Report and the License
Application, may be obtained from the Internet on NRC's LES Web
page:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fa
c/lesfacility.html] . In addition, all documents, including the
DEIS (ADAMS Accession Number: ML042510184), are available for
public review through the NRC electronic reading room:
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html] . Any
comments of Federal, State and local agencies, Indian tribes or
other interested persons will be made available for public
inspection when received. Documents may also be obtained from
NRC's Public Document Room located at U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike (first floor),
Rockville, Maryland. For those without access to the Internet,
paper copies of any electronic documents may be obtained for a
fee by contacting the NRC's Public Document Room at
1-800-397-4209.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The NRC staff has prepared a DEIS in
response to an application submitted by LES for a license to
construct, operate and decommission a gas centrifuge uranium
enrichment facility in Lea County, New Mexico. The DEIS for the
proposed NEF was prepared by the staff of the NRC and its
contractor, Advanced Technologies and Laboratories,
International, Inc. and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in
compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and
the NRC's regulations for implementing NEPA (10 CFR part 51). The
proposed action involves a decision by NRC of whether to issue a
license to LES to construct, operate and decommission the
proposed NEF.
The NRC staff published a Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS for
the proposed NEF and to conduct a scoping process, in the Federal
Register on February 4, 2004 (69 FR 5374). The NRC staff accepted
comments through March 18, 2004, and subsequently issued a
Scoping Summary Report in April 2004 (ADAMS Accession Number:
ML041050128).
The DEIS describes the proposed action and alternatives to the
proposed action, including the no-action alternative. The NRC
staff assesses the impacts of the proposed action and its
alternatives on public and occupational health, air quality,
water resources, waste management, geology and soils, noise,
ecology resources, land use, transportation, historical and
cultural resources, visual and scenic resources, socioeconomics,
accidents and environmental justice. Additionally, the DEIS
analyzes and compares the costs and benefits of the proposed
action.
Based on the preliminary evaluation in the DEIS, the NRC
environmental review staff has concluded that the proposed action
should be approved, unless safety issues mandate otherwise, with
implementation of the proposed mitigation measures that could
eliminate or lessen the potential environmental impacts. The DEIS
is a preliminary analysis of the environmental impacts of the
proposed action and its alternatives. The Final EIS and any
decision documentation regarding the proposed action will not be
issued until public comments on the DEIS have been received and
evaluated.
Notice of the availability of the Final EIS will be published in
the Federal Register.
Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this 2nd day of September, 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Scott C. Flanders, Deputy Director, Environmental and Performance
Assessment Directorate, Division of Waste Management and
Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and
Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 04-20852 Filed 9-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
56 The State: Time to move ahead on Yucca Mo
09/17/2
By SUSAN WOOD
Guest columnist
Debate on the need for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository recently resumed. South Carolina has a stake in this
because we have seven nuclear power reactors and immobilized
high-level waste at the Savannah River Site.
But the issue is far bigger than that. The nation and the world
need nuclear power because nuclear is safer, cleaner and cheaper
than any alternative way of making large amounts of electricity.
The Yucca Mountain repository is needed, and it is needed now
because utilities are running out of storage space for their
spent nuclear fuel. The federal government has responsibility to
solve this, and Yucca Mountain is the agreed solution.
Today, about 20 percent of the nations and the worlds
electricity comes from nuclear plants. In South Carolina it is
56 percent, which leads the nation. For several decades, all
U.S. presidents and Congress have agreed that nuclear power
should be part of our energy mix. So the question becomes, what
should we do with the spent fuel?
For decades prestigious groups, including the National Research
Council, have recommended geologic disposal. In 1987, the
government chose Yucca Mountain for the Energy Department to
evaluate. Commercial spent fuel and defense high-level waste
would go there. Nuclear utilities are storing 40,000 metric tons
of spent fuel around the country, and 103 operating plants
create an additional 2,000 metric tons annually.
Opponents of Yucca Mountain recently won a partial victory in a
court case that ruled that the plan to protect the public for
10,000 years from even minuscule amounts of contaminated
groundwater was not long enough. The nuclear utilities may
appeal that ruling. If that appeal fails, DOE will either change
design to meet a longer requirement or get a new law authorizing
the 10,000 years.
Unfortunately, fear-mongering by anti-nuclear groups has
convinced many Nevada citizens of dangers from transporting the
spent fuel to the site, contaminated groundwater and terrorists
blowing up shipment casks spreading lethal radioactivity.
Studies by many experts have not found such dangers.
Have all the risks (dangers) been identified and addressed?
Potential risks have been exhaustively studied by expert
scientists and engineers since 1978. No piece of land on Earth
has been more thoroughly studied. The bottom line is Yucca
Mountain repository will be ultra-safe. A massive body of more
than a million documents supports that conclusion.
What about transportation risks? Worldwide, more than 10,000
shipments of spent fuel and high-level waste have been made
without a single release of radioactivity and without radiation
harm to anyone. The public routinely accepts far greater risks
from shipped hazardous materials such as gasoline, liquid
petroleum, acids and ammonia.
The radiation dose a person would receive standing by the road
or rail when a spent fuel shipment goes by will be about 0.00001
millirem. That is a minuscule fraction of the 410 millirem
annual dose from natural radiation too low to even talk about.
Is the spent fuel shipping cask a likely target for terrorists?
No. Shipping casks are very robust. The spent fuel is now stored
less securely in 131 locations in 39 states. Those are much more
likely targets. The terrorist risk would drop to near zero when
the spent fuel is in the repository.
Why Yucca Mountain? Yucca Mountain was selected because it is
arid, geologically stable, remote (90 miles) from population and
has a stagnant water table 1,000 feet below where the spent fuel
will be. Some have said theres no safer place on Earth.
The last volcanic eruption there was 12 million years ago.
Because of tectonic plate movement, the magma that produced that
eruption is no longer under the site. Earthquakes are highly
unlikely, and even if one occurred, the chance of damage to the
storage casks 1,000 feet down is extremely remote. The chance of
contaminated groundwater ever reaching some unsuspecting farmer
is incredibly small.
Is 10,000 years not long enough to assure protection? Ten
thousand years ago, humans were hunter-gatherers without a
written language, with only simple tools and with no energy
sources other than fire and their own muscles.
If this problem occurred today, we could solve it. Since human
knowledge is growing exponentially, isnt it a little silly to
speculate that our descendants 10,000 years from now wouldnt
know how to solve it?
It is time to end the frivolous lawsuits and get on with it.
Dr. Wood is chairperson of Citizens for Nuclear Technology
Awareness.
TheStateOnline
*****************************************************************
57 CCDR: Cotter plans production hike
9-17-04
[Canon City Daily Record - Canon City and the Royal Gorge Region,
Colorado]
[http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com]
Uranium, vanadium prices spur mining, processing for mill
Dennis Bloomquist
Daily Record Staff Writer
Cotter Corp. has "reinvigorated" operations at its three mines on
Colorado's Western Slope as well as doubled the workforce in
the Caon City mill in anticipation of increased uranium and
vanadium production.
"We are almost at our full compliment of people at the mill,"
Cotter spokesman Jerry Powers said Thursday, adding there are now
73 employees, plus as many as 20 contractors from three companies
who have spent six months retooling the plant from experimental
zirconium processing to its mission since opening in 1959:
milling of uranium and vanadium.
Rich Ziegler, Cotter executive vice president, said the
corporation, a subsidiary of General Atomics, will "invest
millions of dollars in preparing to resume production from
Colorado ores." He said additional hiring is also possible at the
mill.
The company announced it has boosted its workforce to about 95
people throughout the state, with plans to add another 25 workers
by January, mostly engineers, entry-level miners and safety
technicians in Montrose County. The company said 22 people now
work in its Nucla and Naturita mines, designated JD-6 and JD-9,
about 125 miles southwest of Grand Junction.
Powers said two other Western Slope mines could open on a
government lease: JD-8 and SM-18, likely to be run by
contractors.
For most of the past year, Cotter reported a staff of about 37
workers at the mill. Ziegler said the new hires "cover a diverse
array of specialties, from operators and mechanics to lab
analysts and accountants."
"It is good to be back processing ore and to be serving again as
a vital national resource and a leading economic engine in
Fremont and Montrose counties," Ziegler said. "The Caon City
mill will be the only facility in the country producing uranium
using conventional mineral extraction technology and the only
facility in the United States producing vanadium from ore."
Cotter critics remain skeptical of the mill's renewed activity.
Sharyn Cunningham, who with Jeri Fry formed Colorado Citizens
Against Toxic Waste, said, "I believe this press release is the
response to the license renewal meeting Tuesday night, where
there was an overwhelming call for decommissioning from citizens,
the Colorado Medical Society, local government officials, and the
candidates for Fremont County Commissioner all based on
Cotter's dismal health and safety record."
Cunningham said the announcement is premature, and nothing but an
attempt to counter a devastating blow delivered to Cotter on
Tuesday night by the community. During the meeting, several
citizens asked the health department to shut down Cotter.
Ziegler said the mill began crushing ore Aug. 24. The mines are
trucking about four loads of ore per week to the mill, Powers
said. "The mill is designed, and we we're able to process 1,200
tons a day, but Cotter won't be anywhere near that," Powers said.
Cotter credited climbing uranium prices with the surge in
activity.
"Uranium is approximately $20 per pound today, up from about $10
in 2003," Ziegler said in a press release. "That trend, along
with a parallel rise in vanadium prices, has allowed us to follow
suit with employment levels at the Caon City mill and the West
Slope properties." Uranium was at $19.75 per pound yesterday,
compared with about $11 per pound one year ago.
Uranium yellowcake, after further refinement in another facility,
is used as fuel in nuclear power plants, which Cotter said supply
more than one-fifth of the nation's electricity. Vanadium, which
forms naturally in uranium ore, is a metal used for hardening and
strengthening steel.
The market prices of uranium and vanadium are historically
volatile. Powers said when he went to work for Cotter in 1978,
the price was more than $40 dollars per pound, but within a few
years plummeted to about $6 per pound.
Vanadium prices have quadrupled in the past year, from about $1
per pound to about $4 per pound. Powers said vanadium was
"oversupplied, and market fluctuations are common," but added
there is an increased demand for steel for new construction, and
"it's on a big upswing."
Cotter will soon have enough yellowcake accumulated to make a
shipment by train, Powers said, although he added he could not
divulge any target dates due to concerns about national security.
Powers said hundreds of barrels of calcium fluoride, which were
ordered by the health department to be processed, are in the mill
circuit. The ore can sit in solution for an indeterminate time,
he added, until the decision is made to dry, barrel and ship it.
Cotter claims processing uranium and vanadium "generates millions
of dollars for the local economy and pays hundreds of thousands
in property taxes that largely go to support the local school
district."
Cunningham disagrees, saying, "The claim the Caon City mill
generates millions of dollars for the local economy is overblown
and has been contradicted in socioeconomic studies." She said the
property taxes would be due regardless of the level of activity
at the mill.
Cotter awaits issuance of its draft license by the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment due by Dec. 14.
The health department could order an immediate closure or allow a
range of activities from increased uranium processing as
recently requested in the amended license application to direct
disposal of wastes from other Superfund sites.
"This mill is too close to a population." Cunningham said. "If
Cotter weren't grandfathered in, the regulations wouldn't allow
them to be in this area. This is a total disregard for the wishes
of our community."
News and information is updated Monday - Friday at 5:00pm. Entire
contents Copyright 2004 Royal Gorge Publishing Corporation. All
Rights Reserved. CUSTOMER SERVICE
*****************************************************************
58 Pahrump Valley Times: Taking back the mountain in the political night
September 17, 2004
DOUG McMURDO MORE COLUMNS
Yucca Mountain is not in Clark County. It is in Nye County. It's
our mountain. Nye County is not a suburb of Las Vegas. Not yet,
anyway."
According to Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino, between 300 and 400
new voters registered too late to participate in the Sept. 7
primary, but one can bet they'll be ready for action come
Election Day.
In fact, I'd wager a few hundred more might sign up prior to the
Oct. 12 deadline to vote in the Nov. 2 general election. This is
the question that must be asked: Is the surge in voter
registrations related to a certain candidate or ballot question -
or is the rush of a suddenly civic-minded citizenry simply a
reflection of unbridled growth?
The answer is probably a little of both. Clearly the fact more
that than 1,000 folks, and counting, have moved to Pahrump this
year has something to do with swollen voter rolls. But for the
life of me I can't figure out what issue or candidate, at least
on the local level, could trigger such an avalanche of voter
registrations.
The only answer left that could be attributed to Pahrump's
wholesale rockin' of the vote, logically, is the presidential
race. And that puts the Nye County electorate in a unique
situation. All of the smart people proclaim Nevada as one of 22
battleground states that will decide who will reside in the White
House in January. If the number of visits from Bush/Cheney and
Kerry/Edwards are any indication, the candidates certainly
believe Nevada's five electoral votes are critical to their
respective political ambitions.
And of all the issues that Nevadans face - serious water
worries, off-the-chart growth, crumbling highways, public lands,
Medicare, educational inadequacies - the Yucca Mountain project
is the topic these two candidates believe we worry about.
Once in the White House President Bush endorsed Yucca Mountain.
This wasn't too long after he said he wouldn't while campaigning
in the Silver State in 2000. Kerry has said he would keep nuclear
waste out of Nevada, yet he has a pretty solid Senate record of
voting pro-Yucca Mountain.
If the mountain is the issue that will decide Nevada, then I
think it's time the powerful political operatives in Vegas and
Reno take note of one fact that never gets mentioned in or out of
the state: Yucca Mountain is not in Clark County. It is in Nye
County. It's our mountain. Nye County is not a suburb of Las
Vegas. Not yet, anyway.
For the record Las Vegas, one gazillion population, is 100 miles
southeast of Yucca Mountain. Pahrump, 31,103, is less than 50
miles from the mountain. Tonopah, 2,811, is about 90 miles north
and Beatty, 1,080, is 20 miles east. Amargosa Valley lies 20
miles south. And the folks in Amargosa Valley, those poor, poor
people, are down grade from the mountain, meaning the water that
flows under Yucca flows into the farming community of 1,262 human
beings.
We don't know about you but we're a bit perturbed neither of the
candidates, nor any of their mouthpieces, have ever uttered the
words Nye County when speaking of the mountain. Hint: we're the
home team.
One would think the site to store the deadliest substance on the
planet was parked in the shadows of the spaghetti bowl in Vegas,
or next door to the UNR student union - not smack dab in the
middle of Nye County.
Since folks living outside of Nevada apparently think a nuclear
waste repository would only impact Vegas, and thus they don't
care, the candidate who came to Nye County for a heart-to-heart
with the very people in harm's way would make for compelling TV.
Bush or Kerry could invite journalism's heavy hitters to make
sure the world sees there is more to Nevada than the bright
lights of the big city.
The candidate that paid a visit to Nye County might mosey on
down to Amargosa Valley. There he could talk to Ed Goedhart of
the Ponderosa Dairy. Goedhart puts many a cow in the stall every
day. Does either candidate realize Goedhart's company supplies
most of Nevada with its milk? Let's hope those early warning
monitoring wells pick up leaked radionuclides mixing in with
Amargosa's groundwater - and hopefully before the community
becomes home to the state's next mysterious cancer cluster.
Either candidate could travel just about anywhere in Nye County
and he'd hear the same old song when it comes to the mountain.
The words might sound a lot like resignation, but they are really
more of a pragmatism based on empirical evidence.
Sing it like it was one of those old-time country-western tunes:
"The government owns Nye County, just about 98 percent; she gives
us money for our trouble, helps us pay the rent.
"And if she wants Yucca for a repository, we know we'll take it
like a great big suppository, because the government owns Nye
County, just about 98 percent."
See, you newly registered 300 to 400 voters have to understand
the Yucca Mountain project is not an issue here in the county
where it sits. And the hypocrites elsewhere in Nevada who seem to
fight against Yucca Mountain with great passion are just making
political hay.
My advice is to go with the candidate that realizes what the real
issues are in Nevada - serious water worries, off-the-chart
growth, and crumbling highways, public lands, Medicare,
educational inadequacies ...
Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com.
For comment or questions, please e-mail
webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com
[webmaster@pahrumpvalleytimes.com] Copyright Pahrump Valley
Times, 1997 - 2004
*****************************************************************
59 NRC: Requests Comments on a Draft Environmental Assessment Related to
FR Doc 04-20989
[Federal Register: September 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 180)]
[Notices] [Page 56102-56104] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17se04-98]
a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Decision To Take No Further
Action at the Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority Site
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is considering the
alternative of issuing a decision of no further action for the
Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority (KVWPCA) site in
Leechburg, Pennsylvania and has prepared a draft Environmental
Assessment (EA) in support of this action.
The NRC staff has developed a draft EA to address this action
(see Section II of this Federal Register notice). In accordance
with both the NRC and Federal guidance, NRC is requesting
stakeholders comments regarding the action for inclusion to the
EA. If any interested stakeholders have comments regarding the
NRC's draft EA, please provide them within 30 days from the date
of this Federal Register notice so they may be fully considered.
If you require additional information, please contact the project
manager, Kenneth Kalman, at 301-415-6664 or by e-mail at
klk@nrc.gov [klk@nrc.gov] . I. Summary KVWPCA operates a waste
water treatment plant in Leechburg, Pennsylvania, about 40
kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Pittsburgh on the flood plain
of the Kiskiminetas River. From 1976 to 1993, KVWPCA treated
sewage sludge by incineration. KVWPCA disposed of the resulting
sewage sludge ash by mixing it with water to form a liquid slurry
and pumping this material into an onsite lagoon. Discharges to
the lagoon ceased in 1993 and plans for closure were developed in
1994.
Subsequent analyses revealed that subsurface uranium
contamination was present in the ash lagoon. The NRC staff
conducted a dose assessment related to the incinerator ash lagoon
at the KVWPCA site and has determined that the ash meets the
NRC's criteria for releasing sites for unrestricted use under the
License Termination Rule 10 CFR Part 20, Subpart E. The KVWPCA
site is not licensed by the NRC. Since the material in the ash
lagoon meets the criteria for unrestricted use, NRC has
determined that the site can be released from NRC jurisdiction
without further remedial action.
II. Environmental Assessment Introduction In 1994, plans were
made to remove the ash from the lagoon at the KVWPCA site. In the
course of site closure, the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Resources notified NRC that elevated uranium
concentrations had been found in an ash sample from the KVWPCA
site. Subsequent analyses revealed that subsurface uranium
contamination was present at concentrations of up to 34
becquerels per gram (Bq/g) [923 picocuries per gram (pCi/g)]
total uranium, and that the material was enriched to
approximately 4% uranium-235. Further characterization revealed
that the volume of the contaminated ash is approximately 9,000
cubic meters (320,000 cubic feet) and that the total uranium
inventory is approximately 32-41 gigabecquerels (0.85-1.1 Ci),
resulting in an average total uranium concentration of
approximately 3.0 Bq/g (80 pCi/ g). The contaminated ash is
highly heterogeneous and the highest levels of contamination are
found over a relatively small area, at a depth of 2 to 3 meters
(m) [7 to 10 feet (ft)]. Radionuclides other than uranium are
also present, but at much lower concentrations.
The contamination is believed to have resulted from the
reconcentration of uranium-contaminated effluents released from
the sanitary sewers and laundry drains of the Babcock & Wilcox
(B) Apollo facility. During its operation, the B Apollo facility
conducted fuel manufacturing and fabrication. Upon successful
completion of its decommissioning activities, the NRC terminated
the B Apollo site's license on April 14, 1997. There is no
evidence suggesting that the discharges from the B Apollo
facility exceeded permissible levels during operation.
NRC, KVWPCA, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection (PADEP) have engaged in numerous interactions on the
decommissioning of the KVWPCA site. By letter dated November 7,
2003, NRC staff informed KVWPCA that it would be conducting a
dose assessment to determine what actions should be taken at the
KVWPCA site.
This letter also noted that PADEP has taken the position that
under Pennsylvania's Solid Waste Management Act, the ash in the
lagoon should be removed and properly disposed of per the
Commonwealth's jurisdiction over the material as solid waste.
Therefore, the NRC staff's dose assessment included scenarios for
leaving the ash on site as well as scenarios for removing the
ash.
NRC staff conducted dose assessments for a range of potential
scenarios. These scenarios include a removal scenario, in which
the contaminated ash is excavated and removed to an offsite
disposal facility, and an onsite no-action scenario, in which the
lagoon is abandoned in place with no remedial actions performed.
The onsite scenarios included a reasonably foreseeable future
land use case and a pair of less likely cases used as assessment
tools to bound the uncertainty associated with future land use.
In all of the scenarios, doses from the groundwater pathway are
expected to be significantly limited by the relatively
non-leachable form of uranium in the ash as determined by
leaching tests.
It is likely that the contaminated ash will be removed from the
lagoon, and that the site will continue to be used as a waste
water treatment plant. Thus, the critical group in the removal
scenario is the workers who excavate the contaminated ash and are
exposed through inhalation of resuspended fine contaminated ash
particles and direct irradiation. In addition, to address the
possibility that the ash may be removed to a RCRA-permitted
landfill, potential impacts of more aggressive leachate chemistry
(low or high pH conditions) on uranium mobility were considered
and the range of doses to a hypothetical individual residing near
the landfill was qualitatively evaluated.
The dose to workers who excavate and remove the ash is expected
to be approximately 0.15 mSv (15 mrem). Since any removal
operation would take considerably less than one year, this
constitutes the total annual dose in the year of removal. Doses
to ash removal workers are dominated by the inhalation of
uranium-234 and uranium-238 along with a small additional dose
from external exposure. Doses to the ash removal workers are
limited by the
[[Page 56103]] relatively low average concentration of these
isotopes, the limited exposure time during excavation of the ash,
and the limited respirability of the ash particles.
Three cases of the onsite no-action scenario, in which the ash is
assumed to be left in place without any remedial action, were
also evaluated. These include a recreational use case, in which
the property is converted into a riverside park; an agricultural
use case; and an intrusion case, in which it is assumed that a
volume of ash is excavated for the construction of a basement and
the excavated ash is spread on the land surface. These cases,
while less likely, were evaluated because they are useful
assessment tools. Since they comprise a range of future land
usages and include all exposure pathways, they can be used to
bound other scenarios and, therefore, provide an evaluation of
the uncertainty associated with future land use.
In the event that the contaminated ash remains onsite with no
remedial action taken, the assumption of a recreational exposure
case results in a annual dose of approximately 0.01 mSv (1 mrem)
over the next few centuries, eventually rising to approximately
0.02 mSv (2 mrem) at 1000 years. This result is approximately an
order of magnitude lower than either the agricultural case or the
intrusion case because no crop intake is assumed in the
recreational case.
The results of analysis of the agricultural case indicate that
the peak annual dose within the 1000-year compliance period is
predicted to be less than 0.2 mSv (20 mrem) and to occur at 1000
years after the present time. Results of the analysis of the
intrusion case indicate that the peak mean annual dose within the
1000-year compliance period is also expected to be less than 0.2
mSv (20 mrem) and to occur at 1000 years after the present time.
In the agricultural and intrusion cases, it was assumed that a
person would site a well or cultivated field at a random location
within the 4000 m2 (1 acre) site. In the unrealistic case that a
farmer were to occupy the site and place a home in the most
contaminated 200 m2 (0.05 acre) area on the site, the peak annual
dose would be expected to be well below the public dose limit and
thus this scenario is not given further consideration in the
staff's evaluation.
Regardless of whether the ash is left in place or excavated and
removed pursuant to Pennsylvania State law, the NRC staff
concludes that the doses for all scenarios meet the NRC's
criteria for unrestricted use (i.e., the doses are less than 25
mrem per year). Therefore, no further remedial action under NRC
authority is required. The staff's dose assessment is presented
in greater detail in SECY-04- 0102, ``The Results of the Staff's
Evaluation of Potential Doses to the Public from Materials at the
Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority site in Leechburg,
Pennsylvania.'' Proposed Action The proposed action is for NRC to
take no further regulatory action regarding the KVWPCA site.
Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action The purpose of the
proposed action is to allow the KVWPCA site in Leechburg,
Pennsylvania, to be made available for unrestricted use. This can
be justified by demonstrating that the site meets the NRC
criteria for unrestricted use. Should the proposed action be
approved, under Pennsylvania's Solid Waste Management Act, PADEP
could require that the ash in the lagoon be removed and disposed
of as solid waste.
NRC is fulfilling its responsibilities under the Atomic Energy
Act to make a decision on release of facilities for unrestricted
use that ensures protection of public health and safety and the
environment.
Alternative to the Proposed Action Based on its dose assessment,
the NRC staff found the KVWPCA site to be acceptable for release
for unrestricted use. The only alternative to the proposed action
would be to make no determination regarding the need for NRC
action at the site (i.e., a no-action alternative). This would
leave the KVWPCA site subject to potential unnecessary regulation
by NRC. The staff has determined that the site meets the NRC
criteria for unrestricted use and that no further action by NRC
is necessary. The no-action alternative is not acceptable because
KVWPCA does not plan to conduct any activities that would require
NRC oversight.
The Affected Environment and Environmental Impacts The site is
located in the central portion of the Appalachian Plateau
physiographic province. The Allegheny River and its tributaries
such as the Kiskiminetas River drain the majority of the region.
The KVWPCA site drains into the Kiskiminetas River.
The ash lagoon occupies approximately one acre of the 36-acre
KVWPCA site. The bottom of the lagoon basin was excavated into
the native silty clay of the bench terrace of the Kiskimenetas
River. The lagoon is 2 to 3 meters deep. Land use within the
vicinity of the site consists of medium-sized rural residences,
small farms, and light industrial areas.
The NRC staff has reviewed the Closure Plan for the KVWPCA site
and a draft Environmental Impact Statement for decommissioning
the nearby B Shallow Land Disposal Area in Parks Township,
Pennsylvania (NUREG- 1613). As discussed earlier, the NRC staff
has conducted a dose assessment using site-specific data. Based
on its review and analyses, the staff has determined that the
affected environment and environmental impacts associated with
the release for unrestricted use of the KVWPCA site is bounded by
the impacts evaluated by the ``Generic Environmental Impact
Statement in Support of Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for
License Termination of NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities''
(NUREG-1496). The staff also finds that the proposed release for
unrestricted use of the KVWPCA site is in compliance with Title
10, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 20.1402, ``Radiological
Criteria for Unrestricted Use.'' The proposed action will result
in no physical change to the site. Therefore, the NRC expects no
significant impact of a nonradiological nature. However, by NRC
taking no action, PADEP will have the ability to exercise its
authority to require the material to be removed from the site,
which will result in physical change to the site. The NRC staff
has found no other activities in the area that could result in
cumulative impacts.
Agencies and Persons Consulted This EA was prepared by the NRC
staff. The NRC staff has been in contact with the State of
Pennsylvania regarding this issue and has informed the state of
its proposal to take no further action at the Kiski Valley site.
The State Office of Historical Preservation, the State Fish and
Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were not
contacted because release of the KVWPCA site for unrestricted use
would not affect historical or cultural resources, nor would it
affect threatened or endangered species. No other sources were
used beyond those referenced in this EA.
NRC published this draft EA for public comment and will address
comments received in the final EA.
Conclusions The NRC staff concludes that the proposed action
complies with 10 CFR Part 20. NRC has prepared this EA in support
of the proposal to take no further action in regard to the KVWPCA
[[Page 56104]] site. On the basis of the EA, NRC has concluded
that the environmental impacts from the proposed action are
expected to be insignificant and has determined that an
environmental impact statement for the proposed action is not
necessary.
List of Preparers Kenneth Kalman, Project Manager, Division of
Waste Management and Environmental Protection.
List of References 1. November 7, 2003. Letter from Kenneth
Kalman to Robert Kossack, ``Nuclear Regulatory Commission Staff
Intent to Conduct Dose Assessment of the Kiski Valley Water
Pollution Control Authority Site.
2. Kenneth Kalman (2004). The Results of the Staff's Evaluation
of Potential Doses to the Public from Materials at the Kiski
Valley Water Pollution Control Authority site in Leechburg,
Pennsylvania. (SECY-04-0102). U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, June 22, 2004.
3. Chester Environmental (1994). Closure Plan for Incinerator Ash
Lagoon, Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority,
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Chester Environmental.
Pittsburgh, PA, July 1994.
4. Chester Engineers (1997). Ash Lagoon Closure: Kiski Valley
Water Pollution Control Authority. Chester Engineers, Pittsburgh,
PA. February 1998. (ADAMS ML003683061). 5. Draft Environmental
Impact Statement on Decommissioning of the Babcock and Wilcox
Shallow Land Disposal Area in Parks Township, Pennsylvania
(NUREG-1613). U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of
Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, August 1997.
6. Generic Environmental Impact Statement in Support of
Rulemaking on Radiological Criteria for License Termination of
NRC-Licensed Nuclear Facilities (NUREG-1496). U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research,
July 1997.
III. Further Information Supporting documentation is available
for inspection at NRC's Public Electronic Reading Room at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ADAMS.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ADAMS.html]
.
A copy of the draft EA can be found at this site using the ADAMS
accession number ML042320320. Any questions should be referred to
Ken Kalman, Decommissioning Directorate, Division of Waste
Management and Environmental Protection, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555, Mailstop T7-F27, telephone
(301) 415-6664, fax (301) 415-5397.
Dated at Rockville Maryland this 13th day of September 2004.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Daniel M. Gillen,
Deputy Director, Decommissioning Directorate, Division of Waste
Management and Environmental Protection, Office of Nuclear
Material Safety and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 04-20989 Filed 9-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
60 statcounter.com: Yucca Mountain: Kerry's Nuclear Power Problem
Junkscience Report: Steven Milloy
by Steven Milloy, [http://www.junkscience.com]
September 17, 2004
John Kerry has been much lampooned for saying that he "actually
voted for" funding U.S. troops in Iraq "before he voted against
it."
He's in a another contradictory position when it comes to nuclear
energy.
Kerry's Web site states that "nuclear power can play an essential
role in providing affordable energy while reducing the risk of
climate change." His aides also say he is for nuclear power.
So far, so good. But then on a recent campaign stop in Las Vegas
about 100 miles away from the planned Yucca Mountain site for
the long-term disposal of waste from nuclear power plants Kerry
said, "When I'm president of the United States, I'll tell you
about Yucca Mountain: Not on my watch."
The realty of the matter, however, is that you can't be "for"
nuclear energy but "against" Yucca Mountain.
Yucca Mountain is on a remote desert on federally protected land
within the secure boundaries of the former nuclear-weapons
testing grounds known as the Nevada Test Site that is, Yucca is
in the middle of nowhere.
The idea is to place sealed containers of radioactive used fuel
from nuclear power plants in underground tunnels deep below Yucca
Mountain. This system, which has been in the works for about 25
years, is designed to prevent radiation from the waste leaking
into the environment for (supposedly) tens of thousands of years.
The need for Yucca Mountain is simple. Without it, nuclear power
plants, which provide about 20 percent of U.S. electric power,
may have to start shutting down in the near future.
Used nuclear fuel is currently stored on-site either in
steel-lined concrete pools filled with water or, in situations
where the pools are full, in above-ground dry-storage facilities.
Under a 1982 federal law, used fuel was supposed to be
transported to a centralized storage facility such as Yucca
Mountain by 1998. But since the Yucca Mountain site was
selected for the repository in 1987, anti-nuclear activists have
been able to delay progress.
Not only have the activists whipped up public fear of Yucca
Mountain among Nevadans, but they've also been successful in
getting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set overly
stringent, if not flat-out impossible-to-meet, waste-containment
standards for the site.
Perhaps the most outrageous requirement is that the Department of
Energy ensure that used fuel stored at Yucca Mountain remain
contained on-site for 10,000 years a period of time roughly
twice as long as all of recorded history.
As if that standard weren't tough enough to meet, a federal court
recently ruled that 10,000 years was not long enough.
Yucca Mountain, the court said, must function acceptably for
hundreds of thousands of years.
Needless to say, it doesn't look like Yucca Mountain will be
opening on schedule, if ever, and that may be a major problem.
Although nuclear power plants were designed to store at least a
decade's worth of used fuel, they are now running out of space.
By 2010, which is the earliest date that Yucca Mountain could go
into operation in the best of circumstances, 78 of the nation's
103 nuclear plants will not have space for used fuel in their
pools.
Though fuel may be stored in the above-ground dry storage
containers, this is expensive $1 million for a container stored
outside on a concrete pad and some states have already moved to
limit the expansion of these facilities, thanks to pressure from
anti-nuclear activists.
So why do anti-nuclear activists oppose Yucca Mountain,
especially when it would allow the safe burial of nuclear waste
in the middle of nowhere rather than the above-ground storage of
waste near populated centers?
The activists don't really oppose the burial of nuclear waste
under all conditions, but they know that the longer Yucca
Mountain is delayed, the more difficulty nuclear power plants
will have storing used fuel so they'll have to produce less of
it.
Anti-nuclear activists, in fact, hope to shut down the nuclear
power industry by making it impossible for nuclear plants to
store used fuel anywhere.
This strategy is akin to the adolescent prank of putting a banana
in an automobile tailpipe without anywhere for exhaust to go,
the engine will stall.
There is no practical centralized repository alternative to Yucca
Mountain, a site that has been under study and development for
decades. Any alternative site would likely absorb a similar
amount of time something the nuclear-power industry may not
have.
Given that nuclear power is the only realistic alternative to
burning fossil fuels for electricity generation and Sen. Kerry
is a believer in man-made global warming it's possible, I
suppose, that he could always reverse his position on Yucca
Mountain if elected.
Nah, he'd never do that.
Steven J. Milloy is the publisher of
[http://www.junkscience.com/] , an adjunct scholar at the Cato
Institute, and a columnist for FoxNews.com.
Since April 1, 1996, JunkScience.com has had a discernible
impact in the fight against junk science and garnered numerous
awards.
Junkscience.com has also been spotlighted by the Washington
Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Detroit
News, The Times (UK), Financial Times (UK), Daily Telegraph (UK)
Forbes, MSNBC and many other popular media outlets.
*****************************************************************
61 PE.com: More agencies seeking water-replacement order
| Inland Southern California | San Bernardino Metro
PERCHLORATE: County-owned land was the source of a pollutant
found in Rialto water.
12:40 AM PDT on Friday, September 17, 2004
By K. FRANKE SANTOS / The Press-Enterprise
A water-replacement order expected today doesn't go far enough in
protecting water supplies for Fontana and Rialto residents, an
attorney for two water agencies says.
The Fontana Water Co. and West Valley Water District want four of
their wells included in the order, according to a written request
submitted Tuesday.
The order, expected to be issued by the Santa Ana Regional Water
Quality Control Board, is likely to require San Bernardino County
to replace some of Rialto's water from a well that may become
tainted by perchlorate.
"The overall response is significantly inadequate," said Barry
Groveman of Musick, Peeler & Garrett, an attorney for the Fontana
Water Co. and West Valley Water District. "It's like building a
fireline around one tree in the forest."
A plume of perchlorate contamination originating from
county-owned land east of the Mid-Valley Landfill in north Rialto
has polluted a monitoring well 250 feet from a drinking water
well called Rialto No. 3, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant
executive officer of the water board.
The county will drill new wells, pump out the tainted water,
treat it and then provide that water to Rialto customers.
"We'd just like to see the regional board and the county go a
step further, and look at some of the existing problems," said
Anthony Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water District.
Five of the district's 20 wells have been affected by
perchlorate. Two of those five have treatment systems in place.
Perchlorate is a salt used as a propellant for fireworks and
munitions. Some scientists say it impairs functioning of the
thyroid, a gland that regulates metabolism, while others say it
has no such effect.
The water board probably will not address Fontana and West
Valley's request today, Berchtold said. It will be discussed at
the board's next meeting Nov. 5.
The three Fontana Water Co. wells mentioned in the written
request are not in the path of the perchlorate plume, Berchtold
said.
The West Valley well is in the path of the plume but a monitoring
well closer to the perchlorate plume is not contaminated, he
said.
An earthquake fault serves as a natural geological barrier
between the landfill and the Fontana wells, said David Wert,
spokesman for the county. "Nothing west of the landfill could be
affected by anything underneath the county's property," he said.
Groveman disagreed.
"There are no such things as natural barriers," he said.
Reach K. Franke Santos at (909) 806-3065 or [fsantos@pe.com]
More headlines...
*****************************************************************
62 KVBC: John Kerry's Stance on Nevada
September 17, 2004
Mitch Truswell Reporting [Mtruswell@kvbc.com]
John Kerry heads to Colorado today, pushing his plan to reform
health care if he is elected. Yesterday, the Democratic
Presidential candidate stopped in Las Vegas . He spoke at the
National Guard Association convention. President Bush addressed
the same group Tuesday.
Yesterday, I had the chance to talk one-on-one with Senator Kerry
about Yucca Mountain . In his words, the Bush Administration is
trying to shove the project down the throats of Nevadans.
"It's been in the works for 20 years... and its cost this country
millions already."
But that's not a reason, in Senator John Kerry's eyes, to
continue with a radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain .
"We've seen several analyses that say this is less than what it
ought to be in terms of security. So it's up to a President to
make a wise decision, not a special interest decision."
That, Kerry believes, is what's guided the Yucca Mountain policy.
Under the Bush administration, he says, even the sound science
promised, is not holding up.
"What George Bush is doing and special interest is doing is
ignoring science. But not only ignoring science but be prepared
to lessen the radiation standards if they can in order to do it."
He's talking about a Court of Appeals decision that the
Department of Energy takes another look at its 10-thousand year
radiation standard. The DOE based its safety projections on those
10-thousand years. The court said that may not be long enough to
protect the public's health. For now, Kerry says nuclear waste
should stay where it is.
"The movement of nuclear materials across the country is not
without its own dangers. Dry cask and pond storage we have today
is in fact safer and more effective. Now if you have something
that is dangerous you don't do it."
That's a promise Kerry says he plans to keep. Kerry says nuclear
waste should be kept where it is now. He says it should stay
there until technology finds better ways to transport or store
it. President Bush wants less writing from the nation's doctors.
The President made health care the focus of his campaign speech
yesterday in Blaine , Minnesota . He says modernize. Mr. Bush
says doctors should be using computers instead of scratch pads.
The President says converting health care records to computers
will save patients money. He also told voters there are safety
issues that keep the government from allowing drug imports.
"I know it sounds attractive to some, the importation of drugs,
and it may work. But sure enough, if we're not careful, drugs
manufactured in the third world that we have no control over
could use Canada to get into this state. And then we've got a
problem, a safety problem."
The President heads to North Carolina today for a campaign
fundraiser.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content Copyright 2000 -
2004 WorldNow and KVBC. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
63 News & Star: Sellafield on alert after leak
7:00 - 18 September 2004
SELLAFIELD had to be put on alert after radioactive liquid
escaped in one of the main plants that helps to cut radioactive
discharges into the sea.
The site’s emergency control room swung into action and an
order issued for all building and area control points to be
manned in case urgent communications had to be made to the
workforce.
BNFL has denied that workers were asked to keep building windows
shut and stay indoors until the incident was dealt with.
Spokesman Nigel Monkton said: “The workforce were free to come
and go.”
The incident happened in the enhanced actinide removal plant,
where smoke was seen rising from a pump.
There was more concern when a small amount of radioactive liquid
was detected around the pump.
The plant then had to be evacuated, but apparently fewer than a
dozen people were involved.
BNFL say the liquid was not particularly radioactive and there
was no release to the environment.
[news@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk]
*****************************************************************
64 FDLI: Birmingham man witnessed 1946 atom bomb test in Pacific
Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc.
By Rusty Ebert, Ledger correspondent September 17, 2004
BIRMINGHAM -- Ralph Boley of Birmingham witnessed one of the most
unique -- and controversial -- projects in U.S. naval history.
Fifty-eight years ago this summer, he and more than 37,000
other Navy personnel, were part of what was called Operation
Crossroads, where two atomic weapons were detonated in the
Pacific.
Operation Crossroads was an atmospheric nuclear weapon test
series conducted in the summer of 1946. The series consisted of
two detonations, each with a yield of 23 kilotons: A.B.L.E.
detonated at an altitude of 520 feet July 1, and B.A.K.E.R.
detonated 90 feet underwater July 25.
It was the first nuclear test held in the Marshall Islands.
The series was to study the effects of nuclear weapons on
ships, equipment, and material. A fleet of more than 90 vessels
was assembled in Bikini Lagoon as a target. This target fleet
consisted of older U.S. capital ships, three captured German and
Japanese ships, surplus U.S. cruisers, destroyers and submarines,
and a large number of auxiliary and amphibious vessels.
A support fleet of more than 150 ships provided quarters,
experimental stations, and workshops for most of the 42,000 men
(more than 37,000 of whom were Navy personnel) of Joint Task
Force 1, the organization that conducted the tests. Additional
personnel were located on nearby atolls such as Eniwetok and
Kwajalein. The islands of the Bikini Atoll were used primarily as
recreation and instrumentation sites.
Before the first test, all personnel were evacuated from
the target fleet and Bikini Atoll. These men were placed on units
of the support fleet, which sortied from Bikini Lagoon and took
positions at least 10 nautical miles east of the atoll.
Boley enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June 1945, when World
War II was winding down in the Pacific, two months prior to the
dropping of atomic weapons on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
He was stationed on the west coast and then transported by
aircraft carrier to Pearl Harbor.
The Navy knew his mission, but Boley didn't.
"We had to take our personal effects and lock them up
[before leaving the mainland]. They told us that we couldn't take
cameras," he said.
For the complete story, read the Sept. 17 Fairfield Ledger.
Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc. 2004
*****************************************************************
65 Rocky Mountain News: USGS asks to keep research facility open until 2009
Chris Schneider News
Under 25 feet of water, the U.S. Geological Survey's nuclear
reactor glows Wednesday at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood.
The facility is the only active reactor in Colorado and is one of
30 nationwide used only for research. The reactor is set to shut
down in October 2007, but the USGS is seeking a two-year
extension from federal regulators.
State nuclear reactor vies for time
By Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News
September 17, 2004
An eerie blue glow emanates from the bottom of a 25-foot-deep
tank filled with water.
Below the calm water, a fierce nuclear reaction takes place that
breaks atoms of uranium, releasing high-energy neutrons and some
heat.
This nuclear reactor, tucked away at the Federal Center in
Lakewood, is the only active one in Colorado and is among the 30
nationwide used for research. It is not used for commercial
purposes.
Owned by the U.S. Geological Survey, the reactor was set to shut
down in October 2007. But the agency is seeking a two-year
extension until 2009 and is waiting for approval from federal
regulators.
"This is a very small reactor and used only for scientific
research," said Tim DeBey, manager of the reactor. "We'd like to
keep it going for a few years. And after its license expires, the
management will decide what to do."
Built in 1969 at a cost of $500,000, the reactor has performed
more than 420,000 analyses for the USGS as well as various state
and federal agencies.
The tests are conducted on samples of rocks and minerals that are
sealed in aluminum cans and put in the core of the reactor. The
reactor transforms the samples in particular ways to help the
scientists with their research.
A few years ago, elk herds in Yellowstone National Park were
dying of a mysterious disease. The National Park Service sought
the geological survey's help to figure out the cause.
A sample of elk teeth was mailed to Lakewood, where James Budahn,
a scientist, conducted experiments using the nuclear reactor.
Budahn has been using the reactor to analyze samples of dust
taken from corals off the coast of Florida.
His premise is that the dust - originally from the Sahara desert
in northwestern Africa - is carried by trade winds across the
Atlantic Ocean. The particles eventually settle on the corals,
causing a bleaching disease that leads to the corals' death and
damaging the reef ecosystems.
"The corals are dying of natural causes," Budahn said, referring
to his analysis. "And there is not much we can do about it."
In a case closer to home, Michael Kunk - a USGS scientist for 26
years - has found that an area of about 1,400 square miles in
west central Colorado has sunk 1 kilometer in the past 3 million
years.
Kunk used the reactor to determine the age of rocks, minerals and
fossils in that area.
He concluded that waters of the Colorado, Crystal and Roaring
Fork rivers are eroding the salt and gypsum in an area near Eagle
and Carbondale. As a result, the area is sinking - albeit at an
extremely slow rate.
"This is something that people building homes in that area must
know," Kunk explained. "In fact, the rate of collapse has
accelerated tenfold in the past 3 million years."
The reactor uses uranium fuel rods. The USGS did not reveal the
number of rods being used for security reasons. U-235 - the
uranium isotope used in nuclear fission - has a half-life of 713
million years - meaning it loses half of its radioactivity over
that span.
DeBey said the reactor, because of its small size, uses the
original set of uranium rods purchased 30 years ago. But the rods
have to be switched at times, depending on the nature of
scientific experiments being conducted.
The unused rods are stored at a nearby, highly secure building.
And there is no fuel waste because all the rods are still being
used.
But the gloves, overalls and other items used during the
experiments become contaminated. These items are dumped in a
55-gallon steel drum at a nearby site in the Federal Center. When
filled, which usually takes a year, the sealed drum is trucked to
a disposal site near Hanford, Wash.
"The materials disposed of from this site contain very low levels
of radioactivity, comparable to the radioactive waste from
universities or hospitals," DeBey said.
Kunk recalled that some radioactive isotopes were injected into
him in a hospital before some medical tests. When he came to work
the next day, he set off all the alarms because his body was more
radioactive than his surroundings.
"I was hotter than anything else around me," Kunk said with a
laugh.
DeBey reiterated that the reactor is designed to automatically
shut down if it gets too hot. So there is little chance of a
meltdown or other nuclear accident.
Despite its small size and low level of radiation, the U.S.
Geological Survey maintains tight security at the reactor. The
agency spends from $300,000 to $350,000 each year on maintenance
alone.
DeBey did not reveal the security details. He said there is
round- the-clock vigilance and that security has been tightened
since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The reactor also is supervised by the National Regulatory
Commission, the department of Homeland Security, the state and
local police and the city of Lakewood.
"If people write to us, expressing concern, we invite them to
visit the facility," DeBey said. "We invite schoolchildren to
tour the reactor and learn more about nuclear- based research."
Most people don't know about the reactor because the agency
doesn't advertise it, DeBey conceded. And environmental
activists, most of whom are unaware of the reactor, expressed
concern when told of the facility.
"Gosh, I didn't know we have a nuclear reactor in Colorado," said
Erin Hamdy of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in
Boulder. Hamdy has worked on the cleanup of Rocky Flats, which
formerly made triggers for nuclear weapons.
"Anytime you have a nuclear reactor in a residential area, there
is concern about a potential nuclear- based accident," Hamdy
said. "Depending on the type of work it does, a reactor can
release heavy water vapor or other forms of gases into the air.
"And transporting the nuclear waste to other sites through
communities, on interstates and highways can be hazardous."
Phil von Hake, a contractor who works at the Federal Center, said
the reactor concerns him. He said he avoids the building with the
purple and yellow sign, which denotes nuclear radiation.
"I work eight hours a day and there is a reactor, a small one,
practically sitting across the street from me," von Hake said. "I
am worried but not enough to start looking for a new job."
Colorado's only reactor
Where: Federal Center, Lakewood
Purpose: To generate high-energy neutrons using nuclear
fission. The neutrons are used for scientific research.
Cost: $500,000 to build in 1969; up to $350,000 a year to
maintain
Life span: Was supposed to shut down in 2007. The owner, the
U.S. Geological Survey, has applied for a two-year extension.
chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2976
*****************************************************************
66 Portsmouth Herald: Mistake at nuke plant
Friday, September 17, 2004
By Erik Stetson Associated Press
CONCORD - Nuclear regulators plan to meet next week with
officials at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant to discuss
a possible problem with the plants water system.
The public meeting, scheduled for Thursday in King of Prussia,
Pa., will not immediately result in an enforcement action against
Seabrook.
Plant safety documents say the power stations water-circulation
system could flood the turbine building if a line were to rupture
and the systems pumps didnt shut down. The documents also call
for installing alarms, drains and doors in the turbine building
in an effort to offset flooding if the pumps didnt stop working.
The circulation system draws water from the ocean, which it uses
to cool plant components, and then discharges it. The safety
documents are company-generated materials submitted to the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of its licensing
application.
Seabrook began operation in 1990. The plant noted in 1997 that
the alarms and drains hadnt been installed. Workers later
installed the alarms, but plant officials removed the drains from
their design plans, regulators said in a statement.
Regulators said plant officials reviewed the federal rules and
decided they didnt need the governments approval to remove the
drains from their plans. But regulators said a June 30 inspection
led them to conclude that removing the drains did require
approval.
That will be the subject of next weeks meeting, at which
Seabrook representatives will have a chance to present
information about the change and its safety ramifications.
Seabrook spokesman Alan Griffith said the turbine buildings
large roll-up doors are one of several systems that could aid in
removing water, making the drains unnecessary. He acknowledged,
however, that the plant should have kept regulators in the loop.
He called the problem an "honest mistake" that regulators have
been aware of for some time.
"It is not a safety issue," he said. "It is an oversight on our
part."
Regulators said they would render a decision on the matter "in
the near future" following the meeting. Griffith said he couldnt
predict what that decision would be.
"Theyre going to have to take in all the information and make a
judgment on what, if anything, comes after that," he said.
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67 sf new mexican: Lab Firings Serve As Security
Fri Sep 17, 2004 7:15 pm
Blog [http://www.santafenewmexican.blogspot.com/]
[http://www.santafenewmexican.com
So heads have rolled, at last, on the Hill.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, paralyzed this summer when yet
another security lapse became the last straw, this week announced
official action against 23 workers suspended for security and
safety lapses.
Four were fired. One might resign in lieu of firing. Seven
suffered disciplinary blows of one kind or another. One is still
under investigation. Ten were let off the hook.
Little by little, work has resumed at some parts of the lab,
after months of mandatory meetings for employees some valuable,
most merely onerous. But for those 12,000 men and women, some
employed by the federal government and the University of
California, others in the hire of independent contractors and
consultants, attending lectures beat being laid off by a long
shot.
Maybe in another month or so, things will be back to normal but
not the normal the nuclear-weapons lab had come to know in
recent decades: Things had gotten far too slack, far too
good-ol-boy for as serious a mission as LANL is supposed to be
carrying out.
Lab officials for years were positively blas about the risk of
wildfire in the woods around them; only when the Cerro Grande
fire swooped into Los Alamos four years ago, destroying 400
homes, did it occur to the scientist-managers that, gee, maybe
there is cause to worry about all that transuranic material were
working with.
As for injuries to people working with radioactive material and
lasers, not to mention run-of-the-mill workplace hazards, the
attitude seemed to be dont worry; weve got precautions in
place. But that was of little comfort to those injured in spite
of those precautions.
And storage and disposal of hazardous waste? Shhhh.
Back when we were trying to end a world war, there might have
been an excuse for such high-handedness. But at least in those
days, the labs founders were aware of a leading security risk:
spies.
From its army-post status in the 1940s, Los Alamos has evolved
into a quasi-campus. While security measures have remained in
place, the culture became more collegiate than warlike.
With less paranoia may have come more rapid scientific advances,
but the labs progress is of more than mere academic interest;
Americas enemies, present and future, are mightily curious about
what goes on up there. Now that LANL has become the new Rocky
Flats, our nuclear-bomb-trigger factory, the country cant afford
wink-and-nudge attitudes toward security. Terrorism today wears
many faces, all of them demanding wariness.
So with the dropping of the other shoe, wrapping up an
investigation by turning suspensions into punitive action, the
labs latest leader, Pete Nanos, has made it clear: Hes serious
about security and safety. Procedures have been updated, and,
with any luck, lab employees at all levels will see this weeks
action from a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I perspective.
The labs management contract, for six decades in the hands of
the University of California, is open for bidding. Theres been
clear warning from Congress and the Department of Energy that
they will brook no further nonsense like the missing or
unaccounted-for computer disks that led to this long
stand-down.
Given the headaches Cal has undergone, would-be competitors
arent exactly clamoring for the job; perhaps some might seek
partnerships in management and research.
For now, lab employees can hope that the worst is over; that they
can get back to vital defense and energy efforts. We urge them a
cautious return to work.
By Don Nickell (Submitted: 09/17/2004 6:59 am)
Interesting comparison to private industry security, Adrian.
In the 60's my wife worked for Mattel toymakers in Los Angeles,
she was secretary to the Treasurer. In order to get into the R&D
or production facility she had to have an armed escort that
followed her everywhere, if she was given some documents it
first went to the escort, then to a review group. It may have
slowed business a bit, but can you imagine the theft of items
and ideas that Mattel faced? EVEN Dorothy Chandler did't have
free run of those facilities.
I came to LASL in 1971 and was amazed at the lackadaisical
security. It seemed theft was everywhere. People were drawing
plywood, 2x4s, electrical wiring, etc. from stock and using it
for building their homes. I see all that has finally changed,
how much I don't know. I discussed the problem with my division
leader and was scoffed at. My attitude ultimately got me laid
off in 1986, ostensibly for whistle blowing.
Keep the faith. Maybe new times are in the offing?
By Adrian Arvin (Submitted: 09/17/2004 5:04 am)
It's a shame when a national lab still has to resort to
carrying disks around to perform their work. Unfortunately all
of the video game software developing companies have better
security since they use a secured network to do their work - so
why can't the lab? I mean in this day and age what should be
more secure - video games or nuclear weapons?
Privacy Policy | 2004, Santa Fe New Mexican, all rights
*****************************************************************
68 toledoblade.com: Edwards pledges to keep jobs of workers at uranium plant
Piketon workers show their support
Article published Friday, September 17, 2004
[Photo] Candidate John Edwards appears encouraged after
delivering a stump speech in Portsmouth, Ohio, yesterday. Edwards
pledges to keep jobs of workers at uranium plant ( ASSOCIATED
PRESS )
By [jprovance@theblade.com] BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU
PORTSMOUTH, OHIO - Vice presidential candidate John Edwards
promised workers at a southern Ohio uranium enrichment plant that
their jobs would be safe under a John Kerry presidency.
"John Kerry and I will make sure the Piketon plant stays open
[and] that the new Piketon plant is built and built on schedule,"
the Democratic North Carolina senator told about 75 union members
outside their hall as he toured economically struggling
Appalachian counties in Ohio and West Virginia yesterday.
"Not only that, we're also going to make sure that the workers
who've been sick get the help that they need," he said.
The stop came less than a week after President Bush visited the
region and met with four Piketon workers, demonstrating that,
while Ohio is considered the national battleground, southeastern
Ohio is the state's battleground.
The plant, which once employed about 2,500, was scheduled to
close several years ago, but it was placed on standby after
George W. Bush was elected. The plant employs about 1,200 today
while a new defluorination plant is constructed to remove
fluorine from thousands of tons of depleted uranium to make it
marketable for fuel at nuclear power plants.
"Bush made a promise in 2000 as governor of Texas, and he honored
that promise" said Chuck Wiltshire, of the Triangle of
Prevention Program, a safety program with the Paper,
Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International
Union. Despite that promise, he supports Mr. Kerry.
"We're not sure about the future for one thing," he said. "We
haven't gotten a letter of support from President Bush, and it
isn't because we haven't asked."
Bush spokesman Kevin Madden said it was hypocritical for the
Democratic ticket to talk up nuclear jobs in southern Ohio while
opposing federal plans to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain
in Nevada.
"The Piketon plant was hemorrhaging jobs under the previous
administration," he said. "Because of President Bush, Piketon is
creating jobs in the Portsmouth area, which is important to
southern Ohio. The President is cognizant that Piketon is vital
to the nation's energy. The President is committed to the plant."
Ohio and West Virginia went with Mr. Bush in 2000 over Al Gore by
margins of 3.5 and 6 percent respectively. But the Kerry-Edwards
ticket is banking that it can deny Mr. Bush the two states' total
of 25 electoral votes in 2004 by focusing on regions that have
missed the economic turnaround touted by the President.
Ohio's and West Virginia's unemployment rates for July, the
latest figures available, were 5.9 and 5.1 percent respectively,
compared to an August national average of 5.4 percent.
In Scioto County, Ohio, where Mr. Edwards rallied yesterday,
voters opted for Mr. Bush by 4 percentage points in 2000. The
county's jobless rate is 8.5 percent.
"One out of every five jobs lost in America was lost right here
in Ohio," Mr. Edwards said during a rally in the center of
Portsmouth on the Ohio River. "Why in the world would people in
Ohio rehire a man to be their president who lost them 230,000
jobs?"
Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.
[http://www.realcities.com] 2004 The Blade. By using
this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and
our visitor agreement. Please read them. The Toledo Blade
Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000
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69 Times-News: INEEL moves forward on Pit 4 waste removal
Twin Falls, Idaho
www.magicvalley.com The Times-News
Twin Falls, Idaho
Originally published
Friday, September 17, 2004
By Michelle Dunlop Times-News writer
IDAHO FALLS -- What's being called the first modern large-scale
excavation of radioactive waste buried above the regional aquifer
is scheduled to get under way this October at the Idaho
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, the U.S. Department of
Energy announced Thursday.
Earlier this year, after a decade of efforts, the Energy
Department completed its waste removal test pilot at INEEL's Pit
9. That program facilitated its latest endeavor -- excavating a
half acre section of Pit 4, located in the same Radioactive Waste
Management Complex as Pit 9.
"The bottom line is we think this is a good step forward in waste
retrieval and removal," said Kathleen Trever, the Department of
Environmental Quality's INEEL oversight administrator.
During a 30-day comment period held this spring by the Energy
Department in conjunction with the state of Idaho and the
Environmental Protection Agency, the public had the opportunity
to offer opinion on the Pit 4 plan in one of two ways: by
participating in any one of five public meetings held throughout
the region or by sending written comments.
"Generally speaking, the public was generally in favor of this
proposed action," said Bruce Byram, a spokesperson for INEEL.
What is at Pit 4?
From January 1963 to September 1967, Pit 4 received Cold War-era
nuclear weapons production waste, which was shipped from the
Rocky Flats weapons lab near Denver.
Pit 4 contains what officials at INEEL feel is a high
concentration of transuranic waste including plutonium, beryllium
and americium. Uranium and volatile organic compounds can also be
found in the dig area. Other waste items include solid stabilized
slabs that don't contain transuranic waste, contaminated garbage
such as paper, gloves and glass.
Much of the waste was originally stored in drums, carton and
boxes. In Pit 9, workers found many of the drums had degraded,
Byram said. However, plastic bags, which held much of the waste
inside the drums, held up.
"The vast majority of those drums are not intact," Byram said.
Byram expects to find similar conditions in Pit 4.
Although there is no liner under Pit 4, Trever said, there is
groundwater monitoring around the Subsurface Disposal Area within
the waste management complex.
What will happen at Pit 4?
The Energy Department has already constructed an enclosed
structure above the retrieval and removal site at Pit 4. The
Energy Department will target certain wastes for removal at the
site.
"It reduces a significant amount of transuranic waste and
volatile organic compounds," Byram said. "The VOCs are known to
be mobile, meaning they could move toward the aquifer."
However, Byram said, the volatile organic compounds wouldn't pose
a risk for hundreds of years.
The transuranic waste, Byram said, will be tested. If that waste
meets waste acceptance criteria, he said, it will be sent to the
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
According to Trever, the Pit 9 excavation provided useful
information that will be applied at Pit 4.
"What we learned from our excavation at Pit 9 is that transuranic
waste is concentrated in a few waste streams," she said.
"We're concentrating on retrieving certain types of wastes,"
Trever continued. "What we're going after would look like a piece
of concrete."
After taking public comments into consideration, Byram said, a
sampling process was added to the retrieval and removal plan.
Workers will take 68 samples of nontargeted waste -- meaning
waste that does not appear to be transuranic waste or volatile
organic compounds, Byram said.
"The main change we discussed was people asking, 'How do you know
what you're leaving behind?'" Trever said.
The nontarged waste will be tested in order to give workers and
the public a better understanding of what types of waste will be
left behind.
This nontargeted waste is of particular concern to Beatrice
Brailsford, of the Snake River Alliance.
"You never know how they're going to pick and choose what's going
to go," she said. "We have a very strong bias that all the waste
should be removed."
In total, approximately 20 percent of the total volume of waste
will be removed from Pit 4 which has a surface area of 107,082
square feet. The retrieval and removal will take place an a half
acre section in the eastern portion of Pit 4.
"The Alliance is very supportive of removing waste above our
aquifer," Brailsford said.
However, Brailsford said, the organization questions whether the
Energy Department and INEEL have made arrangements with the Waste
Isolation Pilot Program in New Mexico -- the location where
transuranic waste excavated from Pit 4 is supposed to be shipped.
"It's easy for someplace like INEEL to say 'we're going to ship
all this somewhere,'" Brailsford said. The more difficult part is
finding a facility that will take the waste, she said.
A final decision on how to handle all of the waste within the
Radioactive Waste Management Complex won't occur until 2008,
Byram said. However, the Department of Energy is moving ahead
with its plan for Pit 4 in an effort to protect the Snake River
Plain Aquifer, he said.
"This type of large scale excavation has never been done at the
Subsurface Disposal Area," Byram said.
Times-News writer Michelle Dunlop can be reached at 735-3229 or
by e-mail at [mdunlop@magicvalley.com] .
Copyright 2004, Lee Publications Inc.
Magicvalley.com is an on-line division of The Times-News,
published daily at 132 W. Fairfield St.,
Twin Falls, Idaho 83301 by Lee Publications, Inc., a subsidiary
of Lee Enterprises.
*****************************************************************
70 ONN. Ohio News Now: Radiation exposure report disputed by subcontractor
September 18, 2004
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- An Oak Ridge subcontractor contends four
cleanup workers exposed to radioactive material in August
wouldn't have been sent into the area if the danger had been
known.
David Sharp, chairman of Sharp and Associates Inc., on Thursday
disputed comments by Gerald Boyd, the Department of Energy's Oak
Ridge manager, that workers were aware of the hazard and chose to
work without respirators.
"What actually took place, as far as we can tell, the site was
not adequately characterized. So, we went in there with the idea
that there was not any significant amount of alpha
contamination," Sharp told The Knoxville News Sentinel.
Sharp said he would feel "really bad" if the Columbus, Ohio-based
company had been sloppy in its preparations and had somehow
caused the work exposures, but he said that wasn't the case.
The company was the lead subcontractor on the cleanup of the Hot
Storage Garden, a site once used for storage of highly
radioactive materials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Neither the official work plan nor the project's "radiological
work permit" anticipated levels of radioactivity that would
require the use of respirators, Sharp said.
The project has been suspended pending an investigation. Boyd
issued a $250,000 fine against Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's
environmental manager, for the mishap and other problems.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content Copyright 2004,
WorldNow and Dispatch Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
71 DOE: Availability of the Bonneville Purchasing Instructions (BPI) and
FR Doc 04-20993
[Federal Register: September 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 180)]
[Notices] [Page 56046] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr17se04-52]
Bonneville Financial Assistance Instructions (BFAI) AGENCY:
Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), DOE.
ACTION: Notice of document availability.
SUMMARY: Copies of the Bonneville Purchasing Instructions (BPI),
which contain the policy and establish the procedures that BPA
uses in the solicitation, award, and administration of its
purchases of goods and services, including construction, are
available in printed form for $30, or without charge at the
following Internet address:
http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/kgp/bpi/bpi.htm
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/kgp/bpi/bpi.h
tm] .
Copies of the Bonneville Financial Assistance Instructions
(BFAI), which contain the policy and establish the procedures
that BPA uses in the solicitation, award, and administration of
financial assistance instruments (principally grants and
cooperative agreements), are available in printed form for $15
each, or available without charge at the following Internet
address: http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/kgp/bfai/bfai.htm
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.bpa.gov/corporate/kgp/bfai/bfai
.htm] .
ADDRESSES: Unbound copies of the BPI or BFAI may be obtained by
sending a check for the proper amount to the Head of the
Contracting Activity, Routing CK-1, Bonneville Power
Administration, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon 97208-3621.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Manager, Corporate
Communications, 1- 800-622-4519.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BPA was established in 1937 as a
Federal Power Marketing Agency in the Pacific Northwest. BPA
operations are financed from power revenues rather than annual
appropriations.
BPA's purchasing operations are conducted under 16 U.S.C. 832 et
seq. and related statutes. Pursuant to these special authorities,
the BPI is promulgated as a statement of purchasing policy and as
a body of interpretative regulations governing the conduct of BPA
purchasing activities. It is significantly different from the
Federal Acquisition Regulation, and reflects BPA's private sector
approach to purchasing the goods and services that it requires.
BPA's financial assistance operations are conducted under 16
U.S.C. 839 et seq. and 16 U.S.C. 839 et seq. The BFAI express
BPA's financial assistance policy. The BFAI also comprise BPA's
rules governing implementation of the principles provided in the
following OMB circulars: A-21 Cost Principles for Educational
Institutions A-87 Cost Principles for State, Local and Indian
Tribal Governments A-102 Grants and Cooperative Agreements with
State and Local Governments A-110 Uniform Administrative
Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of
Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organizations
A-122 Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations A-133 Audits
of States, Local Governments and Non-Profit Organizations BPA's
solicitations and contracts include notice of applicability and
availability of the BPI and the BFAI, as appropriate, for the
information of offerors on particular purchases or financial
assistance transactions.
Issued in Portland, Oregon, on September 9, 2004.
Kenneth R. Berglund, Manager, Contracts and Property Management.
[FR Doc. 04-20993 Filed 9-16-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
72 [shundahaialerts] Shundahai Network is in need of support...
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 17:22:06 -0700
Shundahai Network is in need of support for our upcoming Nuclear Free Great
Basin Fall Gathering, on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Utah, Oct.
8-10th 2004.
Details of the Gathering are forthcoming, in the meantime please check out
our website www.shundahai.org for updates and additional info on nuclear
issues and environmental justice.
Also, please check out our new online fundraising store linked on the top
of our home page for cool new Shundahai Network logo t-shirts and gift
items to show your support! (www.cafepress.com/shundahainet)
Thank you for your support and concern,
The Shundahai Network
www.shundahai.org
shundahai@shundahai.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SHUNDAHAI NETWORK--Dedicated to Breaking the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony
with all Creation"
Shundahai Network
PO Box 1115
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
Office: 801.533.0128
Fax: 801.533.0129
mailto:Shundahai@shundahai.org
http://www.Shundahai.org
========================================================
It's in our back yard... it's in our front yard. This nuclear contamination
is shortening all life. We are going to have to unite as a people and say
no more! We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to
save our planet here. We only have One Water...One Air...One Mother Earth."
Corbin Harney -Newe (Western Shoshone) Spiritual leader, Founder & Chairman
of the Board of The Shundahai Network
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You have received this e-mail because you either signed up on the Shundahai
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If you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to
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IF you were forwarded this email by a friend and would like to sign up to
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73 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Looking for voter fraud
LAS VEGAS SUN
President Bush, during his visit to Las Vegas this week, told
Nevada Republican leaders that he was concerned about the
possibility of voter registration fraud in Clark County. Bush
also mentioned that federal officials could be sent here to
investigate the allegations. And Karl Rove, the president's
chief political adviser, told Secretary of State Dean Heller, a
Republican, that he shared Bush's view.
These are some serious concerns, so a little background is
needed to put this in context. Clark County Registrar of Voters
Larry Lomax has said an unusually large number of people have
registered to vote multiple times. Lomax has speculated that
this might be the result of paid workers trying to fraudulently
sign up as many people as possible in order to boost the money
they receive from the political groups that have hired them --
something that clearly is illegal. But this doesn't necessarily
mean that these new voters will end up trying to cast ballots
several times -- Lomax noted that he didn't see any such fraud
during the primary election. For that matter, with all the
checks in place at each voting precinct, pulling off such fraud
on Election Day would be incredibly difficult. We hope that
federal investigators from the Justice Department aren't goi ng
to be sent here as a partisan tactic to quell an effort by
legitimate groups, which are backing Democrats, to register l!
arge numbers of new voters. Rove's interest in all of this does
make us suspicious about the real motives here.
President Bush would be taken more seriously on this issue if
the GOP wasn't making a huge push this election to get
Republicans to cast absentee votes, one of the easiest ways to
commit voter fraud. In Nevada, to get an absentee ballot, you
don't have to have a medical excuse nor do you have to say that
you will be out of town on Election Day. Nevada law allows
voters, for any reason, to use absentee voting. There really is
no way to verify that those requesting ballots actually cast
their votes by themselves. It truly is an honor system, and one
that's ripe for fraud. How extensive is the Bush-Cheney absentee
ballot campaign in Nevada? In Clark County alone it has sent out
more than 370,000 absentee ballot request forms to voters -- and
there are only 224,000 registered Republicans in Clark County.
Should President Bush be worried about the specter of fraud
this election? You bet. But he's looking in the wrong place.
*****************************************************************
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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
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