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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Interfax: Russia, Iran to sign supplement to nuke fuel reimport deal
2 AJ: Iran’s air force on alert to defend nuclear sites
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: 'A Nuke for A Nuke': U.S. Scholar Propose
4 YWS: N. Korea Threatens to Exclude Japan from Nuclear Talks
5 Guardian Unlimited Report: N. Korea Won't Invade S. Korea
6 US: Press Herald News: Maine politicians argue nation needs shipyard
7 US: Washington Times: Fewer loose nukes
8 US: Shipyard has proud history, uneasy future
9 US: Anchorage Press: Bush's bizarre experiment
10 US: LA TIMES: Little Room for Error in Catching a Missile
11 Times of India: Quake hits coastal India, over 3,000 killed
12 Guardian Unlimited: Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Detained
13 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Test-Fires Ballistic Missile
14 DAWN: N-issues discussed with Russia -
NUCLEAR REACTORS
15 US: AP Wire: Oconee nuclear close to replacing steam generators
16 US: The Free Lance-Star: Reactor safety gets fresh look
17 US: SD U-Trib: Desalination plans focus on San Onofre
18 Interfax: Nuclear, chemical industry sites in Russia protected - min
19 Sunday Herald: Minister challenges nuclear policy -
20 US: Hampton Union: N-plant shows off ‘Defense in Depth’
21 US: WIStv.com: All three Oconee Nuclear Station reactors will soon h
22 Yahoo!: Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy wins order to supply generators
23 ExpressNewsline.com: Seawater enters nuclear plant after tremors
24 US: YDR: Shutdown at Peach Bottom -
25 ITAR-TASS: Russia to build only VVER-1,500 reactors after 2007 - Rum
26 US: Daily News: PGE unmoved by save-the-tower ideas
NUCLEAR SAFETY
27 US: Planned Human Deaths By Nuclear Power Industry
28 US: Part I of 6-part series on DU
29 BBC: Sea surges kill thousands in Asia
30 US: Boston Globe: Tewksbury residents told tap water safe to drink a
31 ITAR-TASS: Russia disposes of 17 nuclear-powered subs in 2004 - Rumy
32 Independent: 'Dirty' firms fight right-to-know
33 Guardian Unlimited: Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,900 in Asia
34 Guardian Unlimited: South-east Asian tsunami kills thousands
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
35 US: Bradenton Herald: Tallevast residents refuse to let contaminatio
36 BELLACIAO - Sharper watch on nuclear trains - Bellaciao
37 Globe and Mail: Nuclear-waste plan splits Lake Huron community
38 US: FLORIDA TODAY: Radioactive test OK'd for landfill
39 National Post: Residents say no to nuclear waste
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
40 Guardian Unlimited: Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Released
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
41 ABQjournal: LANL Disputes DOE Report; Neutron Science Center Faulted
42 SFBV: UC Regents lose nuclear weapons program, Part 10
43 KTVB.COM: INEEL unveils plan to dismantle 32-year-old Power Burst re
OTHER NUCLEAR
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Interfax: Russia, Iran to sign supplement to nuke fuel reimport deal
Interfax.com Text version Site map
Dec 24 2004 7:35PM
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Russia and Iran are very likely to
sign a supplement to an agreement on reimports into Russia of
spent nuclear fuel from the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran,
which Russia is helping build, the head of the Russian Federal
Atomic Energy Agency said on Friday.
"At the current moment, the Russian corporation TVEL is agreeing
with the Iranian side a contract that would agree the supply of
fresh nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the
return of spent nuclear fuel," Alexander Rumyantsev told a news
conference in Moscow.
© 1991-2004 Interfax
All rights reserved
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution.
*****************************************************************
2 AJ: Iran’s air force on alert to defend nuclear sites
[http://www.aljazeera.com]
12/23/2004
Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a
totalitarian state
Noam Chomsky [http://www.alclick.com/ads/00451/a7.asp]
The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran Iran’s military has been
ordered to stand ready to defend the country in case of an
attack targeting its nuclear facilities, army chief General
Mohammad Salimi said on Wednesday. Gen Mohammad Salimi said that
the training had been suspended to concentrate more on
patrolling the sky.
"The air force has been ordered to protect the nuclear sites,
using all its power," Mr. Salimi told a government newspaper.
"The air force has temporarily suspended all its maneuvers and
focused its means on patrolling the sky," he added. "All our
forces including land forces, anti-aircraft, radar tactics ...
are protecting the nuclear sites and an attack on them will not
be simple," the general said.
Iran fears that Israel may launch a military strike on its
nuclear sites as it has repeatedly accused Tehran of developing
nuclear weapons, claims that Iran strongly rejects. Also
Wednesday, Iran said it had arrested at least 10 spies paid by
Israel and the U.S. to pass information on Iran’s nuclear
program. Gen Salimi's remarks came amid claims that the U.S.
military planners have run simulations of a complex attack on
Iran's nuclear sites.
The U.S. magazine, Atlantic Monthly, has speculated over a
possible U.S. and Israeli attack targeting Iran’s nuclear sites.
However, the U.S. and Israeli officials have denied any such
plans. During an Iranian cabinet meeting, Intelligence Minister
Ali Yunesi asserted that those who were arrested for spying had
been working for the CIA and Mossad.
Also an official said that three of those arrested had been
working within the state's nuclear programme itself. In August,
Tehran announced the arrest of a number of spies accused of
passing secret information to other countries. "More than 10
nuclear spies were arrested during the current Iranian year," Mr.
Yunesi was quoted by the official Irna news agency as saying.
"They are currently in the custody of the revolutionary court,
and we will not announce their names before their trials ...
There is no prominent person among them," Mr Yunesi added. He
added that the 10 were arrested in Tehran and Hormuzgan in
southern Iran.
The U.S. claims that Iran is covertly trying to develop nuclear
weapons.
Iran denies those allegations and maintains that its nuclear
program is purely for peaceful purposes, like generating energy.
Last month an opposition political movement in Iran claimed that
the Islamic republic was hiding a uranium enrichment facility in
Tehran and that it aimed at getting the atomic bomb next year.
The group also said that Pakistani scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer
Khan gave Iran bomb designs and weapons-grade highly enriched
uranium.
2004 AlJazeera Publishing Limited [ border=]
*****************************************************************
3 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: 'A Nuke for A Nuke': U.S. Scholar Proposes Aggressive N.K.
Home> National/Politics Updated Dec.24,2004 18:33 KST
WASHINGTON -- Ted Carpenter, vice president for defense and
foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, said South Korea
and Japan must be permitted to build nuclear weapons in order to
resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
In a recently published book entitled, "The Korean Conundrum:
America's Troubled Relations with North and South Korea,"
Carpenter said that nuclear weapons development by South Korea
and Japan could make North Korea reconsider its intention to
develop nuclear weapons.
*****************************************************************
4 YWS: N. Korea Threatens to Exclude Japan from Nuclear Talks
YONHAPNEWS WORLD SERVICE::ENGLISH NEWS
www.yonhapnews.co.kr
2004/12/24 11:13 KST
SEOUL, Dec. 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea threatened to boycott
future six-way talks on its nuclear weapons program unless Japan
is excluded from the dialogue.
In a report late Thursday night, the North's Central Television
Broadcasting Station blasted Japan for allegedly manipulating the
latest row involving the remains of two Japanese nationals
kidnapped by North Korea decades ago.
*****************************************************************
5 Guardian Unlimited Report: N. Korea Won't Invade S. Korea
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Saturday December 25, 2004 10:46 AM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il has
said his communist country has no intention of invading the
South, an official North Korean news report said Saturday.
The North's media have often said a second Korean war would not
be triggered by North Korean provocation but by an attack from
the South. Nonetheless, it's highly unusual for them to
attribute such a statement to Kim, said South Korea's official
news agency, Yonhap, which monitors the North's media.
``Greater Leader Kim Jong Il has pointed out that in the South
today, there is a fuss over the non-existing threat of invasion
from the North. But in reality, the only existing threat of
invasion is not from the North but from the South,'' said North
Korea's state-run Pyongyang Radio.
Pyongyang Radio relayed Kim's comment at the head of its
commentary accusing the South of an arms buildup. Yonhap carried
the excerpts of the commentary.
The 1950-53 Korean War started with a North Korean invasion of
the South. After three years of fighting between U.N. forces led
by the United States and North Korean troops backed by China,
the war ended with a truce - not a peace treaty - leaving the
divided Korean Peninsula technically still in a state of war.
For years, North Korea has said the United States and its
``cannon-fodder'' South Korean troops plot to invade the North.
It adheres to such rhetoric amid an international standoff over
its nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea keeps a 1.1 million-member military, the world's
fifth largest, which faces off with South Korea's 650,000
military across the world's most heavily armed border.
About 34,000 U.S. troops are stationed in the South to help
guard against the North.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
6 Press Herald News: Maine politicians argue nation needs shipyard
They work to convince Pentagon decision-makers that Portsmouth
doesn't belong on any closure list. -->
MaineToday.com
Story has been corrected [Correction published ] -->
Sunday, December 26, 2004
By BART JANSEN, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WASHINGTON — New England lawmakers are fighting to keep
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open by pleading their case to U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Navy Secretary Gordon
England and by touring the yard with military officials. But
congressional critics have been unable to derail the Pentagon's
goal to close as many as one-fourth of all bases, and Portsmouth
has come close to making the list in previous rounds.
Maine's delegation - Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins, and Democratic Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud - has
lobbied against closing Portsmouth and in favor of rules that
support the island base that largely provides submarine
maintenance.
They have written 10 letters to military officials supporting
the yard as vital because of its deep harbor, nuclear license
and drydock certifications.
England toured the yard in August. Snowe joined Adm. William
Fallon, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, on a tour Nov.
22. And lawmakers are setting up another meeting with England.
The strategy is to keep the shipyard off any list of possible
closures.
"Frankly, we don't know what kind of list is going to be
devised," Snowe said.
"Therefore, we are trying to do everything we can to make sure
the Navy is familiar and well-versed in what we view as the
essential assets of this shipyard."
Collins, the only delegation member on the Armed Services
Committee, said England has told her in meetings that he was
impressed with the yard.
"Our goal is to keep the base off the list in the first place by
pointing out that the shipyard is truly an irreplaceable asset,"
Collins said. "If it does get on the list, and I certainly hope
that it will not, we'll continue to fight the battles."
Rumsfeld has been emphatic about seeking to close bases to save
money. He proposed closing 20 percent to 25 percent of the 425
bases nationwide.
In May, Rumsfeld will propose a list of bases to close.
President Bush will name a nine-member committee to review the
list and make recommendations by Sept. 8. If Bush rejects the
list, it goes back to the committee for revisions by Oct. 20.
If the president accepts the list, Congress has 45 days to
reject the entire list - without amendments - or the closures
occur.
Congress set up the procedure to prevent specific communities
from knowing which bases are at risk until a decision is nearly
made. This limits broad political opposition. But it doesn't
stop lawmakers and community advocates in places like Kittery
from mobilizing to defend their bases.
"A lot of communities cannot attract new business for fear that
the base may leave," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and Armed
Services Committee chairman. "They have to have a decision and
get on with this."
Congress authorized the closure round in Bush's first year in
office. Despite voting three months after the terrorist attacks
on Sept. 11, 2001, Allen and then-Rep. John Baldacci each voted
against the entire defense policy bill that year because of base
closures. But the bill was approved 382-40.
This year, the House agreed to delay the round of base closures
until 2007 and rejected an attempt May 20 to remove the
provision on a 259-162 vote.
But two days earlier, when Snowe and Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss.,
tried to attach similar language in the Senate version, they
lost on a 47-49 vote.
"We are shifting to meet new threats - the best that we can
foresee them," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top
Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. "It has been argued
that you can't perfectly foresee future threats. That is true.
But that is surely no argument for not attempting to make the
assessments in a thorough way, a conscientious way."
The day after the Senate vote, Bush threatened the first veto of
his administration against the defense policy legislation if the
House language prevailed. The provision was dropped in
compromise negotiations.
Now all attention is focused on staying off Rumsfeld's list of
proposed closings.
"It's a process that sort of works in the shadows," Snowe said.
"You just don't know until the list comes out."
A Defense Department report in March found no excess capacity
for shipyards, according to Snowe staffers.
In addition, Portsmouth serves as home port for three Coast
Guard cutters, demonstrating a desirable quality in the
base-closing formula.
The stakes are high. Closing Portsmouth, with about 4,600
workers, could devastate the economy of southern Maine.
The military says that bases closed in previous rounds, such as
the Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, recovered with the same
number of jobs. But that replacement takes years and the
salaries might not match military pay scales.
The Maine delegation has been joined by New Hampshire's
delegation - Republican Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, and
Republican Reps. Jeb Bradley and Charles Bass - and
Massachusetts Democrats Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. John
Tierney.
"I feel that Portsmouth has a very strong case," Gregg said.
"We've been doing shipwork for over 200 years and overhauling
subs for the last 40 years."
Staff Writer Bart Jansen can be contacted at 202-488-1119 or at:
bjansen@pressherald.com
Copyright© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
7 Washington Times: Fewer loose nukes
December 26, 2004
by about six kilograms of highly enriched uranium. That was
the amount of nuclear material that was secretly spirited away
from the Czech Republic and taken into a secure site in Russia
as part of a U.S.-Czech-Russian and International Atomic Energy
Agency mission. The successful mission puts into focus not only
the Bush administration's global nuclear nonproliferation
achievements, but also the Kerry campaign's false claims on the
issue.
Sen. John Kerry made a play at an emotive issue during the
campaign, when he claimed the Bush administration was in effect
moving at a snail's pace to secure nuclear material in the
former Soviet Union. "At the current pace, it will take 13 years
to secure potential bomb material in the former Soviet Union. We
cannot wait that long," he said in a June 1 speech in Florida.
Mr. Kerry was so intent on raising an alarm that he failed to
accurately describe the progress made. For starters, the
analysis Mr. Kerry depended on did not look at the transfers
made in 2004, as Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham noted Tuesday
in a meeting with The Washington Times Editorial Board. Also,
the analysis failed to consider the work stoppage caused by
September 11, and rather than look at the number of sites that
had been secured, the analysis looked instead only at metric
tons of nuclear material.
*****************************************************************
8 Shipyard has proud history, uneasy future
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has faced threat of closure
before, but the sense of dread is growing. -->
">MaineToday.com
Sunday, December 26, 2004
By JEN FISH , Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Staff photo by Gregory Rec
Vehicles exit the main gate of the shipyard during a shift
change. Many people in southern Maine and New Hamphsire have long
family traditions of employment at the facility.
Staff photo by Gordon Chibroski
About 4,600 civilians are employed at the Portsmouth Naval
Shipyard in Kittery, which is also a homeport to three Coast
Guard Cutters, two of of which are seen above on Dec. 24. The
shipyard has a deep-water channel on the Piscataqua River.
Staff photo by Gordon Chibroski
William McDonough, a former commander of the shipyard, now
fights for it through the Seacoast Shipyard Association.
KITTERY — Capt. William McDonough was in his first few days as
commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1974 when a man
approached him claiming to be related. The man was a member of
the Fletcher family, who's relative had married one of
McDonough's seven daughters. "When I got here, the first thing
you found was half of the people are related to each other,"
McDonough, the retired commander of the shipyard, said with a
chuckle.
And that's the case for so many Kittery residents, where the
shipyard has been not just an employer, but a tradition passed
down through generations of families in the entire seacoast
region of Maine and New Hampshire.
"I can't remember growing up when there wasn't a shipyard," said
Eileen Foley, the former mayor of Portsmouth N.H. and lifelong
resident of the area. "My father worked there, my mother worked
there, I worked there. I think it's a part of our living. We're
brought up with it."
For a long time, Foley said, there were many that thought the
shipyard would be there forever. Those same workers would later
learn the opposite. In 1949 there were massive layoffs, and
since then, the specter of closure has loomed over the shipyard.
Veterans of the shipyard are used to rumors of its closure, but
that sense of dread has grown during the past year and continues
to intensify as a new round of base closures is scheduled to
begin in 2005.
The pressure is rising at the shipyard, with efforts in Congress
to put off the base-closure process falling short and reports
that the Navy may award a couple of nuclear submarine projects
to private shipyards.
The Associated Press also reported in October that the shipyard
and the New London Naval Base in Groton, Conn., are the two
locations most likely to be shut if the Navy closes submarine
yards.
The federal government has held six Base Realignment and Closure
rounds since 1964. Three of those rounds occurred in the 1990s.
During that time, Loring Air Force Base in Limestone and Pease
Air Force Base in Newington, N.H., were closed.
The Seacoast Shipyard Association, an advocacy group for the
shipyard, has been working feverishly for the past two years to
shore up both monetary and political support in preparation.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has pledged to reduce the
military's infrastructure by 25 percent, and there are many who
are worried the shipyard's luck has run out, despite its
sterling reputation for finishing contracts on time and under
budget.
The shipyard is the oldest publicly operated yard in the
country. Since the construction of the USS Washington in 1815
the shipyard has been a staple in the Navy's arsenal.
In the beginning of the 20th century, the yard shifted to
building submarines. Its primary mission today is the
maintenance and overhaul of nuclear submarines.
The shipyard is also the homeport to three U.S. Coast Guard
Cutters: the Tahoma, Campbell and Reliance.
About 4,600 people earn their living from the shipyard, which
has also gained the reputation as a first-class technical
training facility for skilled workers.
There is very limited military assigned to the shipyard. If the
yard were to close, its workers would get priority from the
Department of Defense for similar jobs elsewhere, but with more
and more of the military's infrastructure being downsized, its
unclear how many of those jobs will be available.
"The Defense Department does make an effort to help . . . but
it's not a matter of packing them up and transferring them
somewhere else," McDonough said.
But the possibility of losing those jobs doesn't just mean
losing a paycheck for the families affiliated with the shipyard.
It means losing a central part of their home's identity and a
large piece of New England's proud shipbuilding heritage.
Foley was one of the many people who joined the shipyard to help
the war effort. She worked as a painter's helper.
"When World War II started the whole place exploded," she said.
"We were on three shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
She especially remembers how well everyone worked together, and
the feeling of camaraderie that their country needed them and
they were helping to win the war.
The shipyard was also one of the driving forces that helped
build southern Maine and New Hampshire. Families joined the
shipyard in droves during World War II.
Many loved the area so much, that, coupled with the good living
and excellent benefits provided by the shipyard, they stayed,
and the towns of Kittery and Portsmouth grew steadily throughout
the war years.
Kittery's records show its population in the 1930s was about
4,400. That number has grown to more than 9,500, according to
the 2000 census.
Portsmouth was occupied by just less than 15,000 people before
World War II. Today, the city is home to more than 21,000.
"It was a wonderful position," said Henry Hendrikson of Kittery,
who worked as a driller in the yard for 31 years. His father,
Joseph Hendrikson, worked at the yard as well and his grandson,
Stephen, works at the shipyard now.
"It was like a big family over there - you knew everybody by
their first name," said Henry Hendrikson.
Hendrikson's wife, Helen, can trace her own family connection to
the shipyard through six generations.
Her maternal great-grandfather John Glover worked at the
shipyard from 1863 to 1886. Helen Hendrikson's grandfather and
father, John Goodrich, also worked at the yard. Her two
brothers, John Goodrich, Jr. and Albion Goodrich, also worked at
the yard.
Helen Hendrikson also worked at the yard herself during the
1940s, sorting and delivering mail.
"I thought that was the most wonderful job," she said. "We were
all just out of school. They paid $25 a week, and I thought that
was the most wonderful pay."
Henry Hendrikson took his first job at the shipyard shortly
after graduating high school before joining the Air Force. When
he returned in 1946 after three years as a radio operator on a
B-17, he found his job was waiting for him.
He also found he merited a pay raise. When he first started
working in the shipyard, he made 65 cents an hour. When he
returned from the war, he was bumped up to $1.25 an hour.
He and Helen were married in 1948 and lived in Admiralty
Village, the on-base housing for young couples.
"We stayed for two years," Henry Hendrikson said. "The rent was
$37 a month, they threatened to go up to $42, so I told Helen we
couldn't afford it."
Hendrikson found a piece of land on Haley Road for $200 and
began working on his own home, where the couple would raise two
daughters and a son.
"It was eight hours on the shipyard and eight hours here," he
said. In 1951, the Hendrikson's moved into their new home, where
they still live today.
The Hendrikson's still keep an eye on the news even though their
years in the shipyard have past. They hope that more young
people will be able to keep the jobs that helped them build a
family.
"It will affect everything," said Helen Hendrikson, on the
yard's possible closure. "I can't think of many other job offers
that would be suitable for families."
She continued, "it was bad enough when they closed Pease. So
many people depend on the shipyard."
McDonough, who is also related to the Hendriksons through
marriage, said there's hardly a day where he doesn't talk to
someone with a connection to the shipyard.
"I think many (people) have seen that this provided a good job
for my father. Our family was able to weather through the storm
though good times and bad times and the yard was there," he
said.
Staff Writer Jen Fish can be contacted at 282-8229 or at:
jfish@pressherald.com
Copyright© Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
*****************************************************************
9 Anchorage Press: Bush's bizarre experiment
, in Anchorage Alaska - editorialvol13ed51.shtml
Vol. 13, Ed. 51 December 23 - January 5 2005
EDITORIAL
By Joe Conason
After allowing his Republican friends in Congress to spend
without restraint for four years - fearing no veto - George W.
Bush took official notice of the federal deficit on December 20.
The President warned that from now on, he will maintain strict
discipline in spending tax dollars with the aim of cutting the
$500 billion annual deficit by half within five years.
We will submit a budget that fits the times. It will provide
every tool and resource to the military, will protect the
homeland and meet other priorities of the government, he
explained.
The president will reveal further details when he sends his 2006
budget message to the Capitol in February 2005, although the
intention has been clear since last spring. What we can
anticipate is the usual slashing of domestic programs. This
conservative pattern dates back to the Reagan era: spend big on
the military and tax breaks for the wealthy, then cut back on
school lunches, Medicaid, veterans' health care and clean water.
Soon we'll be hearing sonorous speeches from Republican leaders
- including Mr. Bush himself, no doubt - about all the wasteful
spending they so fervently oppose.
Such declarations would be more credible if only these
politicians could curb their profligate enthusiasm for missile
defense - a truly wasteful program that proved again last week
how badly this government manages our money and our security.
In case anyone missed the news, the latest test staged by the
Defense Department's Missile Defense Agency concluded in an
embarrassing failure on December 15. The target rocket launched
on schedule from Kodiak Island, but the interceptor rocket never
left its pad in the Marshall Islands for their planned
rendezvous in space. The cause, according to the Missile Defense
Agency, was an unknown anomaly, which in plain English means
that the Pentagon, after spending roughly $100 billion over the
past two decades on this system, has no idea why it still
doesn't work.
According to newspaper reports, the test had been postponed
several times due to bad weather, so apparently we must hope
that our enemies choose a nice sunny day to attack. In fact, the
interceptor hadn't been tested for two years, because the
previous test in December 2002 was also a disastrous failure. On
that occasion, the kill vehicle didn't separate from the booster
rocket, missed the target by hundreds of miles and finally
incinerated in the earth's atmosphere.
There are many sound scientific and technical reasons why this
particular version of missile defense may never function as
advertised, no matter how many staged experiments are performed.
Previous tests have been carefully rigged by placing a homing
beacon on the target, by launching the target repeatedly along
the same course, and by programming complete information about
the timing and trajectory of the target to the interceptor. The
enemy not only has to attack on a sunny day, but they had better
tell us exactly when and how, too.
Even if the Pentagon's engineers can someday launch an
interceptor rocket that meets an incoming target, the enemy
missile is likely to deploy simple countermeasures that can
divert the kill vehicle. Missile defense isn't nearly ready for
realistic testing, and won't be for years, if ever.
But the president and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have
long ignored those discouraging facts and insisted that they
would deploy the system before the end of Mr. Bush's first term.
To fulfill that pledge, the Pentagon recently installed six
interceptor missiles in Fairbanks. The purpose is obviously
symbolic, since they can't actually shoot down an enemy missile.
(Incidentally, there are cheaper ways to cope with North Korean
nuclear missiles - like destroying them on the launch pad as
soon as they're erected.)
Yet the president plans to continue this bizarre pretense - at
an estimated cost of $55 billion - by further bloating the
missile-defense budget each year between now and 2010. When he
starts cutting domestic programs next year, remember that he
will be spending billions more on missiles that don't fly.
[Anchorage Publishing, Inc.] Anchorage Press articles,
commentary, news, reviews, features and calendar are copyrighted
by: Anchorage Publishing, Inc. 540 E. 5th Avenue Anchorage,
Alaska 99501. For information call 907-561-7737. Website
*****************************************************************
10 LA TIMES: Little Room for Error in Catching a Missile
[Los Angeles Times - latimes.com]
December 25, 2004
By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer
The first line of defense in America's next antimissile system
fails or succeeds in a window of 90 seconds.
That's all the time there is, designers estimate, for a
satellite to detect the flash of an enemy launch, determine that
it is real and send off a counter-missile from the ground.
It all happens too fast to include a human in the loop.
"Time is of the essence," said Craig van Schilfgaarde, the
Northrop Grumman Corp. engineer in charge of the project.
Known as "boost-phase" interception, it is designed to be the
first "layer" of defense, firing rockets at enemy missiles just
after launch, when they are most vulnerable.
The military has already deployed parts of the two other layers
in the missile defense system one targeting missiles as they
cruise through space in midflight and the other aimed at
descending warheads when they are just above their targets.
The three layers are the cornerstone of President Bush's plan to
defend the country against rogue nations, such as North Korea and
Iran, that are gradually developing the ability to produce
weapons with global reach.
But the system has already faced serious problems.
The midcourse missile failed a test Dec. 15 when it shut down
before leaving its silo at the Ronald Reagan Test Site at
Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. It was the second
failure in a major test in two years.
On Dec. 17, the Pentagon announced it was dropping plans to
activate the existing pieces of the missile defense system this
year because it had not completed full "shakedown" testing.
The boost phase reaches into an even more complex realm of
design, in part because of the speed with which it must identify
and destroy an enemy missile.
The payoff could be big. Terry Little, executive director of the
government's Missile Defense Agency, said the boost-phase
interceptors could destroy 80% to 90% of enemy ICBMs, leaving the
other layers to take care of the rest.
But a recent Congressional Budget Office technical report
suggested that the boost-phase system, scheduled for deployment
in 2011, would press the far edge of what was physically possible
in an antimissile system.
Philip Coyle, who headed the Pentagon's testing office during
the Clinton administration, said the design of the boost-phase
system was already buckling under its own complexity.
"The [congressional] analysis confirmed that boost-phase missile
defense isn't practicable," Coyle said. "You can't fool mother
nature."
Today's missile defense programs were inspired by President
Reagan's promise to end "nuclear blackmail" with his Strategic
Defense Initiative, a plan to shield the nation against an
all-out nuclear attack using satellite-fired interceptors.
Dubbed "Star Wars" by opponents in Congress, Reagan's program
fell victim to technical dead-ends, cost overruns and concerns
that it would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,
which banned nationwide missile defense systems.
Missile defense languished until 2002, when Bush withdrew from
the treaty, which he considered a Cold War-era anachronism.
Instead of trying to defend against all-out nuclear attack by a
major power, today's plan targets the less-advanced arsenals of
emerging nuclear states.
The entire system is budgeted at about $50 billion over the
next five years and is likely to cost several times that amount
to build, deploy and maintain.
In July, the Missile Defense Agency began deploying the
midcourse interceptors in Alaska. A second battery is scheduled
for deployment next year at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa
Barbara County.
Mobile Patriot antimissile systems, a key part of the descent
layer (also known as the terminal layer), have been deployed.
A year ago, Northrop won a $4.5-billion contract to develop the
boost-phase interceptors. Congress has approved $348 million for
the current fiscal year.
Boost defense "would never be able to handle every situation
that anybody could conceive of," said Little of the Missile
Defense Agency. "But we could handle enough that we could look
at ourselves as an 80% or 90% solution."
The allure of striking enemy missiles in the boost phase is
that they are easily identified by their plumes just after
launch and, because they are ascending, cannot use their full
bag of tricks to dodge and deceive.
So far, the only part of the boost-phase system that has been
built is a single camouflaged launcher with dual launch tubes.
The 30-foot-long trailer is parked beside a pile of scrap metal
outside a Northrop warehouse near Baltimore.
Little said that the system would not need the technical leaps
that Star Wars required.
"The technology is in hand," he said. "It does not hinge on any
kind of a technology breakthrough."
The trick is getting the pieces to work together all in the
space of a few minutes at most.
To destroy a missile in the boost-phase requires an
unprecedented coordination of space-based sensors,
signal-analysis computers, interceptor agility and enough sheer
thrust to lift a 10-ton object to about 20 times the speed of
sound in less than a minute.
Each interceptor consists of a two-stage booster, followed by a
liquid-fuel rocket that steers the kill vehicle on the last leg
of its journey to the target. It would travel at about 13,400
mph.
After infrared sensors on satellites detect the enemy launch,
interceptors would be directed to the target by terrestrial
command stations that constantly update the target's flight
path. Onboard sensors would take over at close range.
The interceptor's goal is to strike the enemy missile before
the warhead separates from its rocket, usually at an altitude
below 300 miles.
The interceptors gain speed and agility because they don't have
to haul a heavy explosive warhead. Instead, they are designed to
destroy their target with the force of collision.
This "kinetic" attack described as hitting a bullet with a
bullet demands uncanny accuracy.
"What is the precision required? I would characterize it as
within less than a meter" over hundreds of miles traveled, he
said.
To catch an ICBM streaking across the sky, interceptors would
be placed about 600 miles back from the target's launch site on
land or sea.
The military also is developing an airborne laser to shoot down
ICBMs as they ascend.
"These guys are very, very immature in their development," said
Northrop's Van Schilfgaarde, referring to the missile programs
of North Korea and Iran. Even if their technology improves, he
said, "we have tremendous flexibility."
Even before it has gotten off the drawing boards, the
boost-phase system has drawn criticism from a variety of
scientists and engineers, who see it as technological hubris.
It's a needlessly costly and complicated system for a threat
that could, for example, be more easily neutralized with
preemptive strikes, said Theodore A. Postol, a missile expert at
MIT.
The agency's boost-phase plan faces a conundrum that has
plagued missile defense since World War II: Technology advances
tend to favor offense over defense.
The Missile Defense Agency said that 27 nations, including
several with unstable governments, have ballistic missiles. No
rogue nation can deliver a nuclear or chemical warhead to the
United States, but each is striving to improve its technology.
And proliferation is accelerating.
The technical challenges of boost-phase defense are best
captured in the problem of Yazd, an ancient city of about
500,000 in the geographic center of Iran.
To down a missile launched from Yazd and other potential
Iranian launch sites, up to seven interceptor batteries would be
needed in such areas as Iraq, Turkmenistan and the Gulf of Oman
areas that might be hard to reach or secure.
"If you can't get in close, you don't have a boost-phase
capability," Van Schilfgaarde acknowledged.
The Congressional Budget Office report said that defending
against missiles from large countries might require interceptors
that travel up to 22,000 mph beyond today's technology.
One of the most complex parts of the boost-phase interception
is its sensing and targeting system. Launch commands would have
to be automated because the launch window would close long
before a human being could evaluate sensor data, particularly if
several ICBMs were fired at once.
Yet spy satellites that would direct the action are far from
foolproof.
"Sensors are subject to huge [signal] noise problems, so you
have to be careful not to launch too soon," said David Mosher,
an antimissile expert with the Rand Corp. in Arlington, Va.
"Even bonfires are a problem," said Coyle, the Clinton Pentagon
official. "If you make them hot enough with chemicals, to our
satellites at first glance they look like a rocket going off."
Bigger doubts involve interceptor accuracy.
Midcourse missiles, which use a similar kinetic attack, have a
spotty record. They have hit targets in five of nine tests;
succeeding only under what Coyle regards as rigged conditions.
During the recent test in Alaska, the rocket failed to leave its
silo.
Even against slower-moving short- and medium-range rockets,
antimissile systems have been troubled. Patriot interceptors
failed to hit nearly all of their targets during the 1991
Persian Gulf War, according to a congressional investigation and
an analysis by outside scientists. In the Iraq war, Patriots
mistakenly downed two coalition aircraft.
For boost phase, a glancing blow could prove worse than a
simple miss. If the interceptor hits the missile body an error
of a couple of feet over hundreds of miles traveled to the
target an Iranian weapon aimed at San Francisco, for example,
could end up in Russia.
The Missile Defense Agency regards the risk as unfortunate but
acceptable.
"Everything else being equal, a warhead not hitting its
intended target is a good thing," Little said. As bad as it
would be to destroy another populated area, he added, "what's
the alternative? It's worse."
The interceptors could also be mistaken as hostile missiles by
nearby nations.
"The interceptor trajectories from North Korea are generally to
the northwest," noted a critical 2003 report from the American
Physical Society, a leading scientific organization. "An
interceptor fired in defense runs the risk of triggering
retaliatory action by China or Russia."
Little said critics' concerns and a funding cut by Congress
prompted his agency to restructure the development program for
the boost-phase missiles.
Now a preliminary system will be produced before full
development. If Northrop can't demonstrate that the components
work within three more years, the agency may rethink or cancel
the contract.
But the alternatives are also problematic.
Some advocates of missile defense in Congress insist that only
a space-based system a new Star Wars could provide sure
global coverage.
But an orbital defense would pose even more formidable
technical challenges and cost up to $224 billion, the
congressional report said.
To mount a credible orbital system against North Korea and
Iran, up to 10,909 interceptors, together weighing more than
1,000 metric tons, would be needed, the congressional report
said. That would be more than twice the projected weight of the
completed International Space Station, the largest space
assembly in history.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives.
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
*****************************************************************
11 Times of India: Quake hits coastal India, over 3,000 killed
MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2004
indiatimes.com
TIMES NEWS NETWORK &AGENCIES[ SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2004 03:35:06
NEW DELHI: Imagine going for a morning walk along the sea as
you do every morning. The sea is a Pacific influence and you
perhaps dip your toe in the water. But before you realise whats
happening, you are caught in one of the worst natural calamities
in living memory. For hundreds in Chennais Marina Beach on
Sunday morning, it was nightmarishly like this.
For thousands of fisherfolk, who had gone like every morning
into the sea, it was again the same story suddenly being
caught in a phenomenon, tsunami, which struck India for the
first time in recorded history.
The country was still coming to grips with the nature and scale
of the disaster. The toll, according to the government, was
2,000 and rising, but other estimates put the toll at over
3,000. And theres no news yet of 45,000 people in Car Nicobar
and Greater Nicobar where a quake of 7.5 magnitude hit early in
the morning.
The trigger for the tsunami a destructive wave train created
by an undersea disturbance was an 8.9 magnitude earthquake,
just off the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
There were a series of aftershocks, creating mammoth waves that
hit coastal Tamil Nadu, where the toll was the highest, Kerala,
Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry. Orissa and West Bengal escaped
relatively unscathed, with only two deaths reported till
evening.
Over a thousand deaths are feared in the Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, with extensive damage to the airport at Car Nicobar,
just 115 nautical miles (about 300 km) from Sumatra, and
Campbell Bay.
The airport at Port Blair was damaged too, but a couple of
flights took off later with fleeing tourists. Many more are
still stranded.
In Tamil Nadu, the toll is expected to touch 2,500, with one
report putting the figure at over 1,000 in Nagapattinam district
alone. Cuddalore and Kanyakumari were the other badly-hit
districts. Hundreds of pilgrims, including SC Judge GP Mathur,
were left stranded on Vivekananda Rock near Kanyakumari.
Hundreds of fishermen were missing and Chennai was inundated by
what witnesses called six-metre-high waves. The Kalpakkam
nuclear power also reported an influx of sea water, but
officials said it was "fully safe".
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 Guardian Unlimited: Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Detained
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday December 24, 2004 9:16 PM
AP Photo NYYE214
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police detained nuclear whistleblower
Mordechai Vanunu at a checkpoint as he tried to travel to the
West Bank town of Bethlehem on Friday, preventing him from
attending midnight Mass in the traditional birthplace of Christ,
a police spokesman said.
Vanunu, a Jewish convert to Christianity, was released from an
Israeli prison in April after completing an 18-year sentence for
revealing secrets of Israel's nuclear program to the Sunday
Times newspaper in London.
Under the terms of his release, the former technician at the
Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev desert town of Dimona was
barred from leaving Israeli territory and contacting foreigners.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Vanunu was stopped at a
checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which is four miles
away.
Kleiman said Vanunu was in a Volkswagen van emblazoned with the
letters ``TV'' - commonly used to identify press vehicles - and
had a Santa Claus hat in his possession.
``He said he wanted to pray at the Church of the Nativity on
Christmas Eve, even though he knew it was illegal for him to
leave Israel,'' Kleiman said. ``He was detained by officers then
moved to a police station for further questioning.'' He said
Vanunu remained in policy custody late Friday.
Since his release from prison in April, Vanunu has been living
at a Jerusalem Church compound.
Last month he was briefly detained by police on suspicion of
revealing classified information before being freed. Vanunu
denied those charges, saying he has no more secrets to disclose.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
13 Guardian Unlimited: Russia Test-Fires Ballistic Missile
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Friday December 24, 2004 9:16 PM
MOSCOW (AP) - The Russian military successfully test-fired a
mobile version of its top-of-the line Topol-M intercontinental
ballistic missile on Friday, officials said.
The missile was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk
launch pad in the northern region of Arkhangelsk and hit a
designated target on a testing range on the far eastern
Kamchatka peninsula, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said in a
statement.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Economics Minister German Gref
and other top officials attended the launch.
Friday's launch is expected to be the last of four test-firings
of the Topol-M's mobile version before its deployment set for
next year, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The Topol-M missiles, capable of hitting targets more than 6,000
miles away, have been in silos since 1998 and about 40 are on
duty now, according to military officials.
Russian media reports have said the missile lifts off faster
than its predecessors and maneuvers in a way that makes it more
difficult to spot and intercept. It is also reportedly capable
of blasting off even after a nuclear explosion close to its
silo.
``The missile can penetrate all invented and even yet invented
missile systems, including those equipped with space-based
elements, with high probability,'' said Yuri Solomonov, who
heads the Moscow Institute of Thermal Systems which designed and
manufactured the missile.
The deployed Topol-Ms have been fitted with single nuclear
warheads, but officials have mentioned plans to equip each
missile with three individually targeted warheads.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is developing new
strategic nuclear weapons excelling anything which other nations
have. Military analysts have said the new weapon would likely be
based on the Topol-M.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
14 DAWN: N-issues discussed with Russia -
By Q.A.
ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Pakistan said on Thursday that Islamabad and
Moscow had shared their perspectives on the nuclear
proliferation-related issues at the talks held in Islamabad
recently.
Speaking at his weekly press briefing, foreign office spokesman
Masood Khan said Russia was a permanent member of the UN Security
Council and an important member of the international community.
Last year, he pointed out, Pakistan and Russia had developed a
framework for strategic dialogue and cooperation.
Answering questions, the spokesman said Pakistan appreciated the
efforts being made by China for peaceful reunification of Taiwan
with the motherland. "China is playing an important role for the
maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and the
Asia Pacific region," he said, adding "Pakistan endorses the One
China policy and considers Taiwan to be a part of Mainland
China."
He said Pakistan had re-established contact with the interim
Iraqi government and was in the process of identifying new areas
of bilateral cooperation. He said Iraqi people were passing
through a difficult phase in their history and there was a cycle
of violence which must come to an end. "We wish people of Iraq
well and pray that their sufferings come to an end."
Referring to the Commonwealth secretary-general's concern about
President Pervez Musharraf's decision to retain his army post
beyond Dec 31, the spokesman said: "The feedback that I have
received suggests that he was misquoted." He said Prime Minister
Shaukat Aziz would represent Pakistan at the Saarc summit.
© The DAWN Group of Newspapers, 2004
*****************************************************************
15 AP Wire: Oconee nuclear close to replacing steam generators
| 12/24/2004 |
Associated Press
SENECA, S.C. - Replacing steam generators in three reactors at
the Oconee Nuclear Station is close to completion, officials
say.
Workers have installed the generators and replaced vessel heads
during refueling outages. Unit 3 was the last unit to receive
the new generator and should be back on line next week, said
station spokeswoman Linda Conley.
Duke Power, which built and operates the plant, paid roughly
$425 million for the generators. They weigh nearly 500 tons, are
70 feet tall and about 12 feet in diameter.
The plant upgrades began in April 2003, when the first of three
reactor vessel heads arrived. Small cracks were discovered in
the vessel heads nearly four years ago, prompting Duke Power to
replace them.
New vessel heads, weighing nearly 90 tons, can resist
temperatures up to 650 degrees and help control water pressure.
That replacement cost Duke Power about $60 million, Conley said.
The replacement projects will ensure safe and reliable
operation, officials said.
---
Information from: Daily Journal and Messenger,
*****************************************************************
16 The Free Lance-Star: Reactor safety gets fresh look
Fredericksburg.com:
Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing safety issues in
Dominion Power's proposal for new reactors at North Anna.
By RUSTY DENNEN
Date published: 12/24/2004
In the late 1970s, as Virginia Electric and Power Co.'s
application to build two nuclear reactors on Lake Anna was
wending its way through the regulatory process, safety was a key
issue.
Now that Dominion Virginia Power (formerly Vepco) is seeking
permission to eventually add up to two more reactors at the
Louisa County plant, those issues are being revisited by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The NRC staff has issued a draft safety evaluation report as part
of Dominion's application for an early site permit.
That permit would allow Dominion to resolve site and
environmental issues prior to submitting a construction plan and
to "bank" a site for 20 years.
The NRC is looking at several items that could affect the safe
operation of any new reactors. They include:
Seismology, geology, meteorology and hydrology.
Risks from potential accidents.
Security for operations and nuclear materials.
Emergency planning.
For example, in its initial review of the plant before the first
two reactors were built, the NRC conducted an exhaustive study of
geological faults and the potential for earthquakes.
That study concluded that, although there are faults in the
vicinity of the plant, there was nothing serious enough to affect
its safe operation.
Opponents of the latest application maintain that, among other
things, more reactors would add to the tons of highly radioactive
spent fuel already stored at the site and be a more inviting
target for terrorists.
The company says the plant is well protected.
The NRC is expected to finish its safety evaluation by June 2005.
Earlier this month, the NRC released a draft environmental impact
statement which concluded that an early site permit should be
issued. Dominion is about midway through the three-year early
site permit process.
The utility has said it has no immediate plans to add any new
reactors at North Anna, only that it wants to have that option in
the future.
If the early site permit is approved, Dominion would have to
obtain a combined construction and operating permit before adding
any reactors at the plant.
Any new reactors would be built near the existing Units 1 and 2,
which sit under thick concrete containment domes overlooking the
13,000-acre lake. Those began operation in 1979 and 1980.
The plant was originally designed for four reactors, but Units 3
and 4 were scrapped in the early 1980s.
Dominion has 21 days to review the NRC safety report. After that,
it will be available for public inspection in the NRC Public
Document Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., and on NRC's
Web site at nrc.gov/reactors/new-licensing/esp/north-anna.html.
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com
Date published: 12/24/2004
Fredericksburg.com, 605 William Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Comments? Send us Feedback, Phone: 540-368-5055 To contact all
other newspaper departments, please call 540-374-5000. Copyright
2004, The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. of Fredericksburg, Va.
*****************************************************************
17 SD U-Trib: Desalination plans focus on San Onofre
SignOnSanDiego.com >
Agencies consider tapping seawater
By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 25, 2004
Water officials in San Diego and Orange counties have determined
there are no unsurmountable obstacles that would prevent
construction of a desalination facility near the San Onofre
Nuclear Generating Station.
Encouraged by the conclusions of an early study, conducted
jointly by the San Diego County Water Authority and the
Municipal Water District of Orange County, officials are turning
toward getting other stakeholders to support the project.
They include Camp Pendleton, which owns the site; Southern
California Edison, which operates the San Onofre plant; and
state regulators, who will issue the permits.
The desalination plant could supply southern Orange County, San
Diego County and Camp Pendleton with up to 100 million gallons
of potable water daily.
Should all parties agree to a more detailed study, it would be
at least a decade before water could be produced at the site.
There are significant obstacles to overcome before the ocean
water could be poured into a drinking glass.
They range from persuading Camp Pendleton to permit the plant to
be sited on the base to the public's perception about the
quality of the water and the nearby nuclear power plant.
Additionally, environmentalists are wary of plans to develop
desalination projects next to power plants.
Some answers might be forthcoming in about 60 days when a
decision will be made on moving forward with a detailed
feasibility study.
Water districts are drawn to the San Onofre site because of the
decommissioning of the Unit One nuclear reactor, which went
online in 1968 and was shuttered in 1992.
The pipes used to draw in seawater to cool the reactor could be
used in the desalination process, lowering the cost of
constructing the desalination plant by tens of million of
dollars.
Two potential sites have been identified. One is east of
Interstate 5 and about a mile north of the nuclear facility. The
second is on state park land just south of it.
Officials at Edison and Camp Pendleton are neutral on the
project, but they have expressed some concerns.
For Edison, the project cannot impede the ongoing
decommissioning process and the power plant's current
operations.
Once the Unit One reactor is removed, the site will be used to
store nuclear waste until a permanent dump opens at Yucca
Mountain in Nevada, said Ray Golden, an Edison spokesman.
Edison, however, is expected to remove the cooling pipes as part
of the decommissioning process, but the utility is trying to
convince state regulators it would be environmentally sound to
leave the pipes in place.
The state is conducting an environmental impact report on that
matter.
Units two and three, which generate enough power for 2.2 million
homes, have permits good through 2022 and an option for a
20-year extension, Golden said.
For Camp Pendleton, the issue is one of compatibility. Any plan
that does not further Pendleton's primary mission to train
Marines is greeted with skepticism, said Edmund Rogers, a
civilian who represents the base on the water authority's board
of directors.
In addition to the desalination plant, there is talk of
developing sea ports off Camp Pendleton to handle liquefied
natural gas and car imports.
"The purpose of Camp Pendleton is to train Marines to win wars,"
Rogers said recently. "Anything that detracts from that, Marines
look at it negatively."
Environmentalists, meanwhile, might be seen siding with the
military in this matter.
San Diego Baykeeper, though not yet taking a stand, has
reservations about putting a desalination project next to a
coastal power plant.
Placing a desalination facility next to an aging power plant is
likely to extend the operating life of the electricity producer,
increasing the danger to the environment, said Bruce Reznik,
Baykeeper's executive director.
"The desalination facility itself may not be a big polluter,"
Reznik said. "But the environmental damage by these power plants
can be devastating."
Fish are inevitably killed when water is drawn in to cool the
generators, Reznik said, and the warm water that is returned to
the ocean affects the immediate environment.
Baykeeper would like to see more water conservation and
recycling before desalination plants are considered.
But water officials say conservation alone won't solve the
region's water problems. Scarce supplies and the expense of
getting new sources have them considering the desalination
facility. Officials are focused now on determining whether it is
a pipe dream or realistic.
Jimenez: (619) 593-4964; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com
© Copyright 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
*****************************************************************
18 Interfax: Nuclear, chemical industry sites in Russia protected - minister
Dec 24 2004 5:23PM
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Russian nuclear and chemical
industry sites are reliably protected, Emergency Situations
Minister Sergei Shoigu said when asked about a forecast of
emergency situations for 2005.
"Measures that have been taken in the nuclear energy sector in
the past 15 years are providing quite a high level of security,
and more measures are being taken to improve security of all
these facilities. Therefore we are not anticipating any
emergency situations. The same concerns chemical enterprises,"
Shoigu said at a press conference at the Interfax main office on
Friday.
What does concern the Emergency Situations Ministry as regards
the possibility of such occasions in 2005 is gas, oil and other
pipelines, he said.
© 1991-2004 Interfax
All rights reserved
News and other data on this web site are provided for
information purposes only, and are not intended for
republication or redistribution.
*****************************************************************
19 Sunday Herald: Minister challenges nuclear policy -
By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor
The minister with responsibility for renewable energy has
become the first member of Jack McConnells administration to
break ranks over its opposition to nuclear power.
Writing in todays Sunday Herald, Allan Wilson argues that new
nuclear power stations may be inevitable north of the Border
because of the unreliability of other energy sources.
Wilson, deputy to Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace in the
enterprise and lifelong learning department, will now be on a
collision course with Wallaces party, who have ensured that the
Executive has stuck to a non-nuclear policy.
In his article, Wilson questions the merits of phasing out a
source of electricity that he believes has served Scotland well.
Does it make sense, at the very time when climate change and
greenhouse gas reduction have shot up the political agenda, to
be planning the total elimination of nuclear power? he asks.
Wilsons article will be interpreted as an attempt to kickstart a
debate on nuclear power that has lain dormant since devolution.
SNP environment spokes man Richard Lochhead called for Wilson to
be disciplined.
The Scottish Cabinet must immediately disassociate itself from
Allan Wilson, and explain why a junior minister has been allowed
to state a view contrary to official Executive policy, Lochhead
said.
26 December 2004
© newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved
*****************************************************************
20 Hampton Union: N-plant shows off ‘Defense in Depth’
Fri. December 24, 2004
[PHOTO] Photographer's Name NO EMAIL HERE--> Members of
Seabrook Station's Communications Team and representatives from
the station's Emergency Planning group lead members of the local
media on a tour of the nuclear power plant.
Photo by Rich Beauchesne
By Susan Morse smorse@seacoastonline.com
SEABROOK - Seabrook Station unveiled $14 million in security
upgrades on Wednesday, in the first media tour of the nuclear
power plant since the week after the terrorists attacks of Sept.
11, 2001.
"In the days prior to Sept. 11, it was no problem getting groups
in here," said spokesman David Barr.
The upgrades were mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
in 2003, with a completion date of this Oct. 29. The NRC
required enhancements to the physical structure, training and
employee qualifications and a contingency plan, leaving the
implementation up to the individual plants.
The $14 million for the new security measures was paid by
Seabrook’s owners, FPL Energy Seabrook Station, part of FPL
Group, which also includes the subsidiary, Florida Power &Light.
In a tour of the grounds, Barr showed the new security systems
called "Defense in Depth," layers designed to restrict access to
the protected area.
A vehicle barrier system, a continuous line of double jersey
barricades filled with stone, has been set up to prevent
vehicles loaded with explosives from getting close to the plant.
Where a parking lot used to be located in front of the main
entrance, is now a grassy mall. The plant built a new parking
lot for employees beyond the jersey barriers.
The barrier can withstand the force of a fully-loaded dump
truck, said Barr, calling it, "the great wall of Seabrook."
A new vehicle trap has been set up for drivers who need to get
onto the protected area. The vehicles are stopped between steel
bars and are searched.
A second new, inner security fence lines the protected area. The
fence ends at the marsh, which is "a natural barrier," said
Barr.
Elevated guard towers have been added to the perimeter.
The focus of the security measures is the nuclear reactor, an
180-foot high dome made of 6 feet of steel reinforced concrete.
There are two domes, said Barr, nestled like cups, with 5 feet
of air space in between. The actual nuclear fission process
takes place underground, in the reactor vessel.
Fission produces heat to create steam. On the non-nuclear side
of the plant, the steam turns turbines which produce
electricity.
The radiation released from the process is less than two
ten-thousandths of 1 percent a year, said Barr, much less than
the 3 percent released from a TV set.
A second reactor never went online. Last year Seabrook’s owners
removed the rusted dome and replaced it with a new cover. The
space between Unit 1 and Unit 2 is the "50-yard line," said
Barr.
Barr said he could not identify where the spent fuel rods are
stored. The waste is supposed to go to the Yucca Mountain
storage facility in Nevada. With that plan in litigation,
nuclear power plants have been forced to store spent fuel rods
in dry storage on site. By 2009, Seabrook’s space will also be
full and dry storage will be needed, said Griffith.
On a daily basis - in a security measure that has been in place
since Seabrook went online - workers pass through an explosive
detector, a metal detector and an X-ray machine.
Then they go through a hand geometry sensor, which identifies
them before being allowed through the turnstile gate.
To get a badge, workers must pass a psychological assessment,
get an in-depth background check going back three years, an
education check, and alcohol and chemical screening tests.
The force of over 100 security guards is employed by national
contractor Wackenhut. Wackenhut and the nuclear industry has
come under fire by nuclear watchdog groups for overtime worked
by security guards and turnover of employees.
When asked, Barr indicated he didn’t know the amount of security
turnover at Seabrook Station.
"I’d be making it up," he said.
The NRC recently mandated restrictions on the amount of time
security can work.
"One of the things we clearly monitor is the work hours," said
Security Manager John Giarrusso. "The last thing we want to do
to is burn out anyone."
Seabrook employs more than 600 people, said Griffith, and hires
more temporary workers for maintenance during power outages for
refueling.
Seabrook Station has been operating since 1986. In that time, it
has declared nine unusual events - three of them
weather-related. The classification is the lowest declared
emergency at a nuclear power plant. Seabrook has never declared
any higher emergency classification.
Copyright © 2004 Seacoast Online. All rights reserved. Please
*****************************************************************
21 WIStv.com: All three Oconee Nuclear Station reactors will soon have new steam generators
Columbia, SC:
(Seneca-AP) Dec. 24, 2004 - Officials at the Oconee Nuclear
Station say they are close to replacing steam generators in all
three of the station's reactors.
Workers installed the 500-ton, 70-foot generators and replaced
vessel heads during refueling outages beginning in April 2003.
Duke Power decided to replace the vessel heads nearly four years
ago after discovering small cracks in the equipment.
Station spokeswoman Linda Conley says Unit Three was the last
unit to receive the new generator and should be back on line next
week.
posted 7:58am by Chris Rees
Copyright 2000 - 2004 WorldNow and WISTV. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
22 Yahoo!: Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy wins order to supply generators
to US nuclear plant Messenger
Friday December 24, 08:00 AM
TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) said
it has won a order from Southern California Edison (SCE), one of
the largest electric utilities in the US, to supply four
replacement steam generators for use in nuclear power
generation.
The company declined to comment on the size of contract, but it
is worth some 20 bln yen, according to unidentified industry
sources close to the matter.
The order calls for delivery of four replacement steam
generators to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, located
about six kilometers southeast of San Clemente in California,
the firm said in a statement.
nozomi.toyama@xfn.com
Copyright © 2004 AFP AFX. All rights reserved. Republication or
*****************************************************************
23 ExpressNewsline.com: Seawater enters nuclear plant after tremors
: Technology News ExpressNewsline.com-
Publish Date : 12/26/2004 4:24:00 PM Source : Technology
News ExpressNewsline.com
Seawater entered the nuclear power plant at Kalpakkam near here
as giant tidal waves lashed India's east coast following a major
earthquake in Indonesia, according to a media report.
There were, however, no reports of damage to the 310MW plant or
radiation leak, Aajtak TV news channel said.
A 120-member Indian Army team, specially trained in meeting
exigencies, was rushed to Kalpakkam, about 60 km from here, to
assist in relief operations.
The channel said the army unit would take steps to safely drain
the water that had entered the power plant.
The army has special equipment to deal with nuclear, biological
and chemical emergencies. Some of its units have been specially
trained to deal with such events.
A series of aftershocks were felt in towns and cities on the
country's east coast following the earthquake in Indonesia's
Sumatra island that measured 8.5 on the Richter scale.(IANS)
Contact Here : expressnewsline_media@rediffmail.com |
Copyrights Apply, Express Newsline Group. Developed By Express
Newsline Media Online Pvt. Ltd.* -->
*****************************************************************
24 YDR: Shutdown at Peach Bottom -
York Daily Record [ydr.com]
By TOM JOYCE Daily Record/Sunday News
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station's Unit 2 reactor had an
emergency shutdown early Wednesday morning.
It was down for about 48 hours, and started up again on
Friday morning, according to Craig Nesbit, a spokesman for
Exelon, the company that owns the plant.
No radiation leaked during the shutdown, Nesbit said. In
fact, the shutdown didn't occur in a portion of the plant that
contains radiological parts. According to Nesbit, the problem
occurred when a circuit card malfunctioned in the electronic
hydraulic control system.
The plant shut down, as it's designed to do in such
circumstances. Nesbit characterized it as an engineering issue
rather than a safety issue.
The time-consuming part was figuring out precisely where
the malfunction occurred.
"It's a relatively simple operation, but it takes a few
days," Nesbit said.
The plant has experienced several emergency shutdowns in
the past two years, Nesbit said. Plant officials are now
conducting a "root cause investigation" to see if the problems
are all the result of an underlying problem, or simply isolated
occurrences.
"A root cause investigation is a very detailed and
intense look at the root cause of the problem," Nesbit said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could not be reached
for comment. On Friday, the Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal
reported that an NRC spokesman said the commission is concerned
about the frequency of Peach Bottom's shutdowns.
In August, the NRC sent Exelon's CEO a letter warning the
company to improve its routine maintenance work for the remainder
of 2004 or face increased federal oversight. And in September,
the NRC sent a special inspection team to see what Exelon was
doing to prevent emergency shutdowns at Unit 2.
Reach Tom Joyce at 771-2089, 783-2365 or tjoyce@ydr.com.
Copyright © York Daily Record 2004 122 S. George St., P.O. Box
15122 York, PA 17405, (717) 771-2000
*****************************************************************
25 ITAR-TASS: Russia to build only VVER-1,500 reactors after 2007 - Rumyantsev
24.12.2004, 18.30
MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russia will be building only
VVER-1,500 units at nuclear power plants after the year 2007,
head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev
said at a Friday press conference.
“Blueprints of such units will be ready by 2007,” he said.
Construction of units with the capacity of 1,500 megawatt “is
more advantageous economically and better than the construction
of VVER-1,000 reactors,” he said.
“The third VVER-1,000 unit of the Kalinin nuclear power plant
has been launched successfully, and now it is the turn of the
second unit of the Volgodonsk NPP,” Rumyantsev said.
“Russia will have another two or three new units at nuclear
power plants within five or six years,” he said.
“Currently Russia has 30 units at 10 nuclear power plants, and
one unit will be launched soon. The units with the total rated
capacity of 22.242 gigawatt can produce about 143 billion
kilowatt/hours of electricity,” Rumyantsev said.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
26 Daily News: PGE unmoved by save-the-tower ideas
By Venice Buhain
Dec 25, 2004 - 11:11:38 pm PST
Sorry, but the Trojan cooling tower is not turning into a
Starbucks anytime soon.
Local readers thought the cooling tower on the former nuclear
power plant outside Rainier could turn into anything from a
genetic engineering lab to a fishing hole to a cafe, but Portland
General Electric has no such plans. The utility still plans to
demolish the tower in 2018, according to company spokesman Kregg
Arnston.
"These are creative ideas ... but are these revenue-generating?"
he joked, commenting on a recent Daily News request for ideas on
what to do with the tower.
PGE has been decommissioning the plant since the company decided
to shut it permanently in 1993, after it had operated 17 years.
The tower, perhaps Columbia County's best known landmark,
released heat from the power-generating process and did not come
into contact with radioactive materials.
Decommissioning includes decreasing radiation levels at the
plant. Approval of the site for uses other than a nuclear power
plant is expected to come by mid-2005.
The utility is still raising money through ratepayers' bills to
pay for demolishing the tower. Though some parts of the Trojan
site could be put to other uses, the spent uranium fuel from the
plant is expected to remain in a secured area on the campus until
2024.
Even if an entrepreneur were to come forward with an idea for the
499-foot tower, the new use still would be governed by the
federal regulators, Arnston said.
Also, the tower falls within the secured area of the Trojan
campus, he said.
"Even if there was something came to light, it would still be
under the licensing requirements," he said. "That is property
that is not easily for sale."
It would probably have to be leased, he said.
Sidebar:
A month ago, we asked readers what should become of the Trojan
cooling tower. Here are some of the suggestions we received.
"I think the cooling tower should be turned into the Rainier Soda
Fountain and Fishing Hole. That way people could get a "fizzy"
drink while they are going 'fission!' "
-- Diedre Young, science teacher at Cornerstone Community
Christian School in Kelso
"Turn it into an Olympic swimming training facility. The high
diving could be held in the tower and the rest of the swimming
held in the multiple surrounding ponds. [Or] 'tap it' and fill it
with beer for the ultimate Oktoberfest."
-- Roger Thomas, Goble, Ore.
"We should allow Lowe's to use the Trojan tower for a superstore.
Boy, the Longview City Council would sure think twice about
letting that one get away. And, what a change, for people from
Longview to be crossing the bridge to purchase items in Rainier!"
-- Rick Wood, hometown unavailable
"Use the cooling tower as an active cooling tower for an active
nuclear power plant. Then maybe we could have electric rates
that would allow big power users like aluminum plants to have
power cheap enough to stay in business and give us much-needed
jobs. Not to mention the fact that it might help to lower my own
power bill a little."
--- Boyd Starr, Longview
"The tower would make a great composter. Fit the tower with a
giant auger, place composting material in the top and remove the
composted results from the bottom level and there you are ---
planting mix for the masses! Perhaps a way to replenish the
potential damage that Trojan has done.
--- Melinda Albright, hometown unavailable
"A sportsminded-entrepreneur could construct a giant golf ball
to sit on top of the old cooling tower. Think of the visual from
Interstate 5!"
--- Tim Kilmer, Longview
"Tear it down and resell the materials. In this case, it would
be a service to many thousands of people to see that supremely
ugly blight on the landscape disappear."
-- Vince Penta, Longview
"Let's convert the cooling tower to a smoke stack with the
latest, greatest precipitation scrubber system and burn
Longview, Portland and other cities' garbage. ... We could
extract heat from it to generate electricity."
--- R. L. Rutt, Clatskanie
"Trojan would make an excellent prison --- elevators, cages,
peep holes in the very thick walls for windows, if needed.
Execution of prisoners would be very simple --- pushed off the
top into a Dumpster."
--- Richard L. Shern, Longview
"Cover the outside with light-to-electricity cells and use the
direct-current produced for the production of hydrogen."
-- Gerrit G. DeHaas, Longview
© 2004 The Daily News Lee Publications, Inc. Contact
Us 770-11th Avenue • P.O. Box 189 • Longview,
WA 98632 • 360-577-2500 • webmaster@tdn.com
*****************************************************************
27 Planned Human Deaths By Nuclear Power Industry
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 16:10:09 -0500
Premeditated Killing By The Nuclear Industry,
Approved By NRC:
Dr. John W. Gofman has stated in front of federal
judges in U.S. Federal courts that this
constitutes "planned deaths":
Question by the court:
"What does ALARA..."
Answer:
"It permits deaths."
Question:
"Permits human deaths?"
Answer:
"Yes, because ALARA does not say -- see, the only
way you could avoid deaths from the nuclear fuel
cycle is to have zero releases. ALARA says keep
the releases as low as you can reasonably achieve
with the economics that you want to spend on it,
and the equipment that you have available and so
forth. So it is a planned emission of
radioactivity, and that in effect means planned
deaths." -- Dr. John Gofman, in conversation with
the court, October 2nd, 1978, Jeannine Honicker
versus the United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in Federal Court, Nashville, Tennessee,
seeking an injunction to shut down the nuclear
fuel cycle.
http://www.mothersalert.org/chernobyl.html
COMMENTARY ON
CHERNOBYL VICTIMS
Russell Hoffman and Pamela O'Brien
The theory that the Ukrainian Ministry of Heath
inflates the number of dead from Chernobyl in
order to increase funding to them is false.
First, we now have plenty of data to show that
there are significantly increased rates of
radiation-induced diabetes, thyroid cancer
(especially in children), leukemia, chromosome
aberrations and a long list of other illnesses
(thyroid cancer in children has increased ten-fold
around Chernobyl, for example).
Second, the idea that the Ukrainian Ministry of
Health was exaggerating the deaths is an idea
being pushed within the official halls of the
nuclear mafia because the truth was and is so
devastating to their industry. Indeed, Alla
Yaroshinskaya in her book "Chernobyl: The
Forbidden Truth" (Jon Carpenter Publishing Co.,
PO Box 129, Oxford, OX1 4PH England, distributed
in the U.S.A. by InBook, PO Box 120261, 140
Commerce St., East Haven, CT 06512) provides what
I think is ample documentation to indicate that
deaths and other health effects have been
purposefully and seriously UNDERestimated around
Chernobyl (the book has a forward by eminent
physician Dr. John W. Gofman).
Epidemiological data is available from the Belarus
Institute for Hereditary Diseases in Minsk (zip
code 220053), and published in the Japanese
publication Gijutsu-To-Ningn #283, January -
February 1998. (Hiroshima Bunker Woman's Junior
College helped with the document, at Asaminami -
Ku in Hiroshima.)
It is entirely possible that the true number of
dead far exceeds the numbers estimated by even the
Ukrainian Ministry of Health, who after all are
only counting the deaths within a very localized
area. They are not counting the random cancers,
leukemias and birth defects that occur an
extremely difficult-to-measure (low) rates around
the world, but among billions and billions of
people.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Health estimates are
stunning: From Page 8, Permanent Peoples'
Tribunal Session on Chernobyl: Environmental,
Health and Human Rights Implications, Vienna,
Austria, 12-15 April, 1996:
"The minister of health for the Ukraine has
estimate that about 125,000 deaths attributable to
the disaster have occurred over the last 10
years".
The panel was full of distinguished persons and
the testimony was likewise from highly qualified
individuals -- the list goes on for pages and
pages. The Tribunal also explored in detail the
worldwide cover-up about the effects of all forms
of radiation. And the deaths go on and on
too --150,000 by now? Probably that many, if not
more.
WHO alone is insufficient to produce yet another
report. We need outside experts in the medical,
biological, environmental and financial
consequences of radiological dispersals. WHO are
part of the global structure that, as Pamela put
it, "hasn't exactly come out condemning the entire
global nuclear situation in a loud voice".
ALARA stands for "As Low As Reasonably
Achievable". It's definition is in part 20 of the
U.S. code of Federal Regulation of the U. S. NRC
for exposure to radiation. All ALARA means is
that, depending on the amount of money that any
nuclear industry wishes to spend on protection of
the environment and people, and depending on
available technology, that is what they can use!
So if you say, as a nuclear producer, "I only
intend to spend $10 on keeping emissions as low as
reasonably achievable, and that's all the
technology that is available" its OKAY!
Dr. John W. Gofman has stated in front of federal
judges in U.S. Federal courts that this
constitutes "planned deaths":
Question by the court:
"What does ALARA..."
Answer:
"It permits deaths."
Question:
"Permits human deaths?"
Answer:
"Yes, because ALARA does not say -- see, the only
way you could avoid deaths from the nuclear fuel
cycle is to have zero releases. ALARA says keep
the releases as low as you can reasonably achieve
with the economics that you want to spend on it,
and the equipment that you have available and so
forth. So it is a planned emission of
radioactivity, and that in effect means planned
deaths." -- Dr. John Gofman, in conversation with
the court, October 2nd, 1978, Jeannine Honicker
versus the United States Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in Federal Court, Nashville, Tennessee,
seeking an injunction to shut down the nuclear
fuel cycle.
The judge found out that he had no jurisdiction
and that it had to go instead in front of the U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission/NRC judges. The petition
was denied. (It can be found in "Shut Down:
Nuclear Power on Trial: Experts Testify in Federal
Court" ISBN 0-913990-21-3, published in 1979 in
the U. S. by The Book Publishing Company, 156
Drakes Lane, Summertown, Tennessee, 38483.)
--------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Mothers' Alert Home | More Information | Actions |
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*****************************************************************
28 Part I of 6-part series on DU
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 22:48:24 -0600 (CST)
Part 1 is "dynamite -- the remainder is too long for me to download and
post - I suggest y'
all download the remainder before it's blown away from the EEE or bewfore
the author gets turned into an non-reporter.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/specials/dp-du-day1super,0,588771.htmlstory?coll=dp-break
Daily Press ( Hampton Roads Virginia) December 15, 2004
Uranium Dust Leaves a Trail
=================
Matt Rohman returned from the Gulf War with many medals and a long list of
unexplained health problems. He says he encountered depleted uranium dust.
=================
While U.S. forces fight in the streets of Iraq, scientists are finding
more evidence that the depleted uranium weapons we've given them to defeat
the enemy are a hazard to friend and foe.
The weapons, first used in the Persian Gulf War, provide a decided
battlefield advantage. But the mildly radioactive toxic dust that results
when they're used successfully also might be why veterans of the 1991 war
have a disability rate three times as high as those for Vietnam and World
War II vets. The Pentagon dismisses any link between those illnesses and
depleted uranium. This week, the Daily Press takes an in-depth look at the
latest science. You'll see why some experts think now is too soon to pull
the plug on research into whether cancers and brain damage result from
breathing the dust. You'll find out why the U.S. military uses an inferior
process to identify whether our forces have depleted uranium in their
bodies and how British vets are signing up for a better test. You'll meet
Matt Rohman of York County, a Gulf War veteran who's lost all feeling in
his feet and fingers, living every day in pain. Government doctors say his
problems are related to the war, but they don't know how or why. Will a
new generation of warriors meet the same fate?
For Matt Rohman, the symptoms began about the time that his unit returned
to its barracks in Germany after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
First came a fatigue that sleep couldn't cure. Then severe pains in his
joints. His teeth started falling out; his hands and feet went numb.
Asthma grabbed his lungs. Debilitating migraine headaches squeezed his
skull for days at a stretch. Sleeplessness and other symptoms followed.
Now every day for Rohman, 40, begins the same: waking up in his York
County home and trying to figure out how many of the pills and inhalers
from the Veterans Affairs hospital he'll have to use.
He wants to swallow just enough to keep his lungs working and the pain at
tolerable levels. He's willing to ignore some of his problems to keep some
of the drugs in their bottles. That way, his wife, 22-month-old son,
11-year-old daughter and what's left of his life don't disappear into a
medicinal fog.
At best, he'll spend the day with no feeling in his feet or hands,
watching his kids play, pretty much stuck to a chair or the couch. You
could stub out a lit cigarette on any of his fingers or toes, and he
wouldn't feel it because of the neuropathy - a nerve disorder that leaves
him unable to feel anything. On a good day, he's able to hobble across the
room or maybe go out with his family for an hour or two.
The bad days bring pain in his head too intense for him to be much help to
his family or himself. Those days can also mean swelling in his
extremities so severe, the tips of his toes and fingers look like
toadstools and he can't walk at all.
After years of testing and examinations, doctors from the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs have concluded that something happened to Rohman's
brain or central nervous system during the war. The neurological and other
symptoms make that clear.
Repeated tests, including brain and body scans, show that his brain is
swollen. But there's no evidence of a physical injury or cause, those
doctors' reports say, leaving them stumped about why he's so debilitated.
The neurological and other symptoms that Rohman suffers are mirrored in
tens of thousands of others who served in the war. When Rohman filed his
final plea for VA benefits related to wartime service, the document noted
that Rohman had 11 of the 13 officially recognized symptoms consistent
with Gulf War service-related illness. One of the 13 applied only to
women.
The government lists 20 active theories of what caused these problems. But
it provides no answers.
It doesn't even know how many veterans have these problems or where they
live. All that's known is that of the 697,000 who deployed in the war,
more than 183,000 had service-related disabilities at the end of 2003,
with thousands more applications pending. That's 26 percent of the total,
three to five times higher than the rate of disability after World War II
(9 percent), the Korean War (5 percent) and the Vietnam War (9 percent)
for a comparable period.
All from a war that lasted 100 hours, while the others went on for years.
Why?
Perhaps it was the highly potent bug repellent that the military used to
keep away the sand fleas and other pests in the deserts of Iraq, Saudi
Arabia and Kuwait. Perhaps it was the experimental pills that troops were
ordered to take to ward off the effects of disease and chemical weapons.
Perhaps it was the residue of their own government's most effective weapon
for defeating enemy armor - the tank-killing projectiles made from
depleted uranium.
In the past few years, while the media and public have been paying
attention to another war in the region, doctors and researchers have been
finding out more about depleted uranium and how it might be responsible
for some of the problems suffered by veterans of the Gulf War. Some of
this research hasn't been made public yet, while other findings made
ripples only among doctors and professors still in the hunt for a cause
and a cure.
There's now physical evidence that depleted uranium, once in the body,
migrates to the brain, lungs, bones and testicles of rats and mice.
Researchers have found that even a single particle placed in contact with
human bone cells can set off a chain reaction of cell and chromosomal
abnormalities of the type thought to cause cancer.
They've also found that rats with depleted uranium in their bodies develop
tumors and cellular mutations consistent with cancer. And that mice who
breathe in tiny bits of the metal - just like the soldiers on the
battlefield - get genetic mutations thought to be indicative of cancer.
PENTAGON UNWILLING TO FUND NEW RESEARCH INTO ILLNESS
Despite their efforts, these researchers haven't been able to show why
brain scans on Gulf War vets show abnormalities that don't appear in scans
of other servicemen and women who didn't go to the war. They just know
that it's further proof that there's a real problem among those vets.
They also can't say why men and women who deployed in the Gulf War are
twice as likely as others their age to get a fatal neurological disorder
known as ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease.
The questions demand answers. To get them, more money and scientific
patience is needed, these scientists say.
But the main source of that money for the past 13 years - the Pentagon -
says it isn't interested in pursuing new research into the health problems
of its former soldiers. Especially when it comes to studying the health
effects of using depleted uranium on the battlefield, a use that gives the
United States and its allies a lopsided advantage in ground wars.
Pentagon officials have long dismissed the possibility that any of the
veterans' problems are the result of the radioactive toxic dust that
results when depleted uranium weapons hit hard targets. This fall, they
released a $6 million study that they labeled "Capstone" - a title picked
because they say it should close the book on whether inhaling depleted
uranium on the battlefield is a health risk worth considering.
A number of scientists say it's too soon to stop investigating the
possible dangers of these weapons, especially when there have been so few
experiments that show what happens when animals or humans inhale the
special type of dust created when depleted uranium weapons hit their
targets.
None of the recent research that points to possible problems with the
weapons was included or addressed in Capstone, not even the work performed
by government scientists or researchers financed by the Army and
Department of Defense. The Army officer who oversaw the study says that's
because there was a conscious effort to base the work on "mainstream
science," instead of "preliminary data." Critics say that's the
government's way of simply ignoring the emerging and potentially damning
evidence on the subject. With the building body of data, they say, this is
no time to label something the final word on depleted uranium's dangers.
The skeptics include a panel of scientists, doctors and veterans appointed
by the Bush administration to study the nature and status of research into
the cause of the veterans' illnesses. The panel issued its first report
last month and said more research into possible health effects from
depleted uranium was needed.
"We're not finished," says Lea Steele, the panel's scientific director.
The committee's report says poorly planned and administered research
programs are partly to blame for having so little to show for the $247
million spent on research into Gulf War illnesses so far. It points no
fingers, but it does note that 74 percent of that money has been
controlled by the Pentagon and that most of it has gone to support the
now-discounted idea that stress and psychological problems account for the
physical symptoms that vets suffer.
Steve Smithson is a member of the panel and the assistant director of the
American Legion's Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Division. He says
the Pentagon has been trying to prematurely end the debate about possible
health hazards from depleted uranium for years.
"These are very effective weapons," he says, "and they want to keep them."
WEAPONS' POTENTIAL DANGERS WERE KNOWN FOR DECADES
Depleted uranium was used in combat for the first time in the Gulf War.
The weapons proved so effective, troops began calling them "The Silver
Bullet," in honor of their near-magical ability to kill the enemy.
The weapons enable U.S. tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to fire
accurately and decisively from much greater distances than other anti-tank
weapons used in ground combat. That means U.S. troops can kill the enemy
before the enemy can fight back.
Last year, when Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the weapons' effectiveness
played a big role. It was a reason commanders said they could whip Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein with a smaller, lighter - but more mobile - force
than they used in the 1991 Gulf War.
Before that, many people thought that depleted uranium wasn't much more
than low-level nuclear garbage.
Depleted uranium is the byproduct of making "enriched uranium" for nuclear
weapons and fuel. The process involves stripping natural uranium of its
most radioactive components for use in bombs and power plants. What's left
is "depleted" uranium.
In the early days of making nuclear weapons, this byproduct was considered
a problematic waste. But almost immediately, weapons researchers began
trying to make something with it. It took more than 20 years, but by the
late 1970s, they'd succeeded. The Army, Navy and Air Force each had a
weapon using the material.
But they had to wait to see their creation anywhere except a test range.
The first war that involved U.S. forces using tanks against hostile forces
who also had tanks was the Persian Gulf War.
One of the weapons' special properties creates what all acknowledge is the
downside of these weapons.
When those weapons strike something hard, they slice through the target,
getting sharp where other metals get dull. They get sharper by shedding
millions and millions of tiny bits of flaming depleted uranium, spitting
out the bits like shavings from a pencil in a high-speed sharpener.
Once cool, those bits become mildly radioactive toxic black dust
particles, most of them small enough to inhale deep into the lungs.
The Capstone study says those toxic particles will likely remain in the
lungs for years.
U.S. researchers have known that the weapons' use created a long-lived
radiological risk to the lungs since at least the early 1980s. They've
also known that these tiny bits of black dust pose a potentially
catastrophic health hazard for troops on a battlefield.
None of that was revealed publicly when the weapons were put to use.
It wasn't until the mid-1990s that the government officially and publicly
acknowledged that troops in the Gulf War had been exposed to this hazard
and should have been warned and trained about the dangers beforehand.
By then, thousands and thousands of troops had started suffering the
debilitating pains, neurological problems and other symptoms.
Rohman was one of them.
'WE ACTUALLY SLEPT UNDENEATH DESTROYED TANKS ...'
For three months after the fighting stopped, Rohman and his buddies in a
3rd Armored Division combat engineer squadron were ordered to crawl around
in the black dust left over from successful shots of depleted uranium.
He was ordered to live and breathe in it while finishing the job of
destroying damaged Iraqi tanks and munitions, to make sure that the
enemy's equipment couldn't be used again.
"We actually slept underneath destroyed tanks and stuff because we figured
they wouldn't fire at their own destroyed vehicles," Rohman says.
For months, the black dust covered many of those vehicles, rubbing off on
Rohman's clothing, getting on his skin and often into his food and water.
Hundreds of other soldiers were ordered to do the same work, while
thousands of others might have come in contact with the dust through
curiosity or happenstance.
Neither Rohman nor the military can say how many of them got sick like he
did. Rohman says none of the other soldiers from his unit came from nearby
towns or cities, so he lost touch with them while focusing on his own
deteriorating health. Researchers say the military didn't keep, or pursue,
the kind of information that would help them make such determinations.
They also say one of the biggest obstacles to solving the riddle of the
illnesses is that people who appear to have the same experiences reacted
differently - some getting ill and others staying well.
Many soldiers didn't pay the black dust any notice during the war because
the military had never told them about the dangers.
"We didn't know any different," Rohman says.
The Pentagon acknowledged seven years after the war was over that it
should have provided training that advised troops to avoid contact with
the dust or to use safety masks and suits in the situations that Rohman
described.
Instructions on depleted uranium weren't added to the Army's regular
training program until the late 1990s. Since then, the requirements for
telling troops about depleted uranium have been gradually relaxed for
troops who don't fire or handle the weapons.
The Army has a long list of medical and training requirements that must be
met before a soldier is supposed to be sent off to war. The checklist for
Transportation Corps soldiers deploying from Fort Eustis to Iraq is long.
But for the past two years, it hasn't included a requirement that soldiers
in transportation units receive depleted uranium hazard training, even
though the Army's own radiological experts said in 1997 that they should.
Military and medical officials say it's too early to tell what the effect
will be on troops involved in the continuing fighting in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
Department of Defense policy - spurred by members of Congress critical of
the way that the military handled health complaints after the Gulf War -
requires all soldiers, sailors and airmen who come home from overseas wars
to fill out a multipage questionnaire about their health and what they
experienced.
The only specific mention of depleted uranium exposure on the
questionnaire involves one item near the end of a list of 22 possible
exposure risks. The list includes such mundane items as "paints,"
"sand/dust" and "vehicle or truck exhaust fumes." Some soldiers returning
from Iraq say that because they were never given instruction on the
possible hazards, they didn't know what to choose when given the options
of "No," "Sometimes" or "Often" on this question.
Army, Air Force and Navy officials say anyone who checks "Sometimes" or
"Often" is questioned further and tested, if necessary. They also say any
man or woman in the military who deployed and asks for a test for depleted
uranium will be given the test, no further questions asked. Department of
Veterans Affairs officials say the same applies to those who served in the
Persian Gulf War.
PROMISE TO PERFORM TESTS NOT FULFILLED FOR VETERANS
Yet, Rohman's medical records show that he made VA officials aware of his
exposure to depleted uranium six years ago. He's sure that he told them
earlier, but many of his records have been lost, and the earliest date
that he can document is 1998.
When the Daily Press called the VA administrator responsible for the local
testing program to find out why this problem persisted, she immediately
agreed that a mistake had been made and took steps to bring Rohman in for
evaluation. He still hasn't been tested.
It isn't clear whether things have gotten any better for veterans of the
more recent fighting in Iraq.
The Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, checked
in the past year the health forms filled out by more than 1,000 troops
who'd returned from the Gulf War. It found that very few of those who'd
chosen "Sometimes" or "Often" got tested, said Dan Fahey, a congressional
adviser who participated in a briefing on the study.
Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource
Center, a veterans advocacy group, says he's talked to dozens of soldiers
just back from the current war who told him that doctors can't diagnose
their ills but have refused to test them for depleted uranium exposure.
The soldiers even showed him medical records and other paperwork to prove
it, he says. They won't go public for fear retaliation from the military.
Robinson and Smithson say they won't be surprised if there are thousands
of veterans with undiagnosed, unexplained illnesses once the totals are in
from Operation Iraqi Freedom and its aftermath. Rohman says he won't be
surprised, either. He wonders whether this new generation of warriors will
succumb to the same undetected poisons that he believes hit him. His
brothers still wear military uniforms and could be called to combat
tomorrow - one a Marine the other in the Army.
PENTAGON: WE'RE CONVINCED OUR METHOD IS ACCURATE
The Pentagon will say only that as of October, 20,000 troops had been
evacuated from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for noncombat-related
illnesses and injuries and that, on average, about 5,800 troops are on
"medical hold" each day because military doctors haven't finished
diagnosing or treating them. Only five people have tested positive for
depleted uranium from the most recent war - all victims of friendly fire
who had depleted uranium shrapnel in their bodies, the Pentagon says.
Getting tests for depleted uranium exposure from the U.S. military and VA
might be a waste of time, anyway, say Robinson and experts who have
developed those tests for other countries. "Even the test they offer is a
less-than-respected test," Robinson says.
Scientists overseas have spent years creating a more accurate method of
detecting whether there are even tiny amounts of depleted uranium in the
human body.
They say the U.S. government relies on testing procedures and equipment
that have a high margin of error and are capable of discerning the
presence of depleted uranium only in limited circumstances. They say it's
not much of a test if you really want to find radioactive and toxic dust
in particles small enough to the inhaled.
The British government officially takes the same stance as the United
State on the dangers of depleted uranium, but it's financed a much more
exacting test capable of finding out whether someone has even small
quantities of depleted uranium in their system. It doesn't settle whether
the depleted uranium is harmful, but it can identify the veterans' who
definitely have it in their bodies.
That would be an important step forward, several researchers say.
British veterans of the Persian Gulf War began signing up for the tests in
late September.
Rohman would like to take it, but the U.S. military says it has no need to
use it or even find out how it works.
"We're convinced that our method is sufficiently sensitive and accurate
enough," said Lt. Col. Mark Melanson, manager of the health physics
program at the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive
Medicine, the Army's public health agency.
'OUR HUMAN RESEARCH ... HAS A LOT OF SEVERE LIMITATIONS'
He says the government labs used to identify soldiers with depleted
uranium in their bodies can detect the substance as long as there are at
least 3 to 5 nanograms of uranium per liter in a day's worth of urine.
The British test also involves a 24-hour urine sample. But it can
accurately detect depleted uranium when only 0.1 nanogram of uranium per
liter is present, making it capable of detecting amounts 30 times smaller
or more.
The British also say their degree of uncertainty at these lower levels is
less than 1 percent, a much smaller margin of error than the U.S. tests.
Melanson and other U.S. officials say anything below 3 nanograms of
uranium in such a sample is clearly inconsequential. They cite studies of
the known, respected science involving the health effects of uranium,
specifically studies by the U.S. Institute of Medicine and the World
Health Organization.
But the co-author of the Institute of Medicine study, as well as an
epidemiologist who was asked to review it to make sure it was
scientifically sound, say that wouldn't be an accurate reading of the work
at all.
Establishing a lower limwit for inhalation of depleted uranium hasn't
happened, they say, because too little is known about how the substance
reacts with tissues in various parts of the body.
"We have no idea," said Carolyn Fulco, the co-author of the Institute of
Medicine study.
Beate Ritz, an epidemiologist and expert on cancer at the University of
California, Los Angeles, agrees: "Our human research, as valuable as it
is, has a lot of severe limitations." Ritz, one of the scientists and
health experts whom the institute asked to review its work to ensure
accuracy, says it might take decades of following Gulf War veterans to
have even a hazy picture when it comes to cancer.
Fulco and others note that the Institute of Medicine and the World Health
Organization said explicitly that the data on depleted uranium's health
effects were limited and that more research needed to be done.
Still, Melanson thinks that the 50 years of research considered by the
studies is enough to show that low levels of uranium or depleted uranium
in a human's blood, lungs and other body tissue isn't a problem.
Most of that research involved uranium millers, miners and processors.
It fed the government health standards that the Pentagon used in the
Capstone study to establish that inhaling or breathing the dust from the
weapons shouldn't be considered a significant health risk on the
battlefield. Alexandra Miller, a radiobiologist at the Armed Forces
Radiobiology Research Institute, says using that research to dismiss the
possible health effects of depleted uranium weapons is a mistake.
There are many studies of uranium miners' health that indicate problems,
she says. In addition, she says, the studies of miners and millers are, in
many ways, irrelevant to the experiences of soldiers on the battlefield.
When it comes to depleted uranium, she says, there simply hasn't been
enough research on animals to know what happens when rats or humans inhale
the dust from these weapons.
The amount of depleted uranium dust that can be inhaled without harm
simply isn't known yet, she says.
"We don't really know," she said. "Not even for a rat."
*****************************************************************
29 BBC: Sea surges kill thousands in Asia
Last Updated: Sunday, 26 December, 2004
[Madras devastation]
Marina beach in Madras.
Beaches were packed when waves hit
More than 10,000 people have been killed across southern Asia in
massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the
world for 40 years.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck under the sea near Aceh in north
Indonesia, generating a wall of water that sped across thousands
of kilometres of sea.
More than 4,100 died in Indonesia, 3,500 in Sri Lanka and 2,000
in India.
Casualty figures are rising over a wide area, including resorts
in Sri Lanka and Thailand packed with holidaymakers.
DISASTER TOLL Sri Lanka: 3,538 dea
Indonesia: 4,185 dead India: 2,000 dead Thailand: 257 dead
Malaysia: 28 dead Maldives: 10 dead Bangladesh: 2 dead
Source: Government officials
Eyewitness: Tsunami escape In pictures: Quake
disaster
Exact numbers of people killed, injured or missing in the
countries hit, are impossible to confirm.
Hundreds are still thought to be missing from coastal regions
and, in Sri Lanka alone, officials say more than a million
people have been forced from their homes.
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a national
disaster and the military has been deployed to help rescue
efforts.
Hundreds of fishermen are missing off India's southern coast,
and there are reports of scores of bodies being washed up on
beaches.
Night has now fallen across the region.
In Indonesia, communications remain difficult, particularly to
the strife-torn region of Aceh where the main quake was followed
by nine aftershocks. Reports speak of bodies being recovered
from trees.
A national disaster has also been announced in the low-lying
Maldives islands, more than 2,500km (1,500 miles) from the
quake's epicentre, after they were hit by severe flooding.
The Indian-owned Andaman and Nicobar islands, much nearer the
epicentre, were also badly hit.
Casualty reports could not be officially confirmed, but a police
chief told Reuters 300 people had died and another 700 were
feared dead.
Waves forced out from the earthquake are even reported to have
reached Somalia, on the east coast of Africa.
And as far away as the Seychelles, nine people were reported
missing as a two-metre surge struck.
Resort 'wiped out'
International aid agencies have called for a rapid response to
the emergency to avert further deaths.
The European Union immediately pledged 3m euros (£2.1m) to
disaster relief efforts.
[Devastation in Phuket, Thailand]
The Thai resort of Phuket feels the force of the surge
Messages of condolences have poured in from around the world.
US President George W Bush offered aid to affected nations and
expressed sorrow for the "terrible loss of life and suffering".
Harrowing reports of people caught in the devastation and
dramatic tales of escape are emerging from the region.
Jayanti Lakshmi, 70, had gone shopping with her daughter-in-law
in Cuddalore, southern India. Ms Lakshmi returned to find her
son and twin grandsons dead in their hut.
"I wish I had died instead of the others, my daughter-in-law
would have a life. I can't bear to watch her pain," she said.
All of us fear the fin death toll, and in particular are worried
that many tourists who went out on boat trips this morning have
not returned Charles Dickson, Phuket, Thailand Tell us your
experiences
In Thailand, hundreds of holiday bungalows are reported to have
been destroyed on the popular Phi Phi island.
Resort owner Chan Marongtaechar told AP: "I am afraid there will
be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea, and also my
staff."
Indonesia's location - along the Pacific geological "Ring of
Fire" - makes it prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Sunday's tremor - the fifth strongest since 1900 - had a
particularly widespread effect because it seems to have taken
place just below the surface of the ocean, analysts say.
Bruce Presgrave of the US Geological service told the Reuters
news agency: "These big earthquakes, when they occur in shallow
water... basically slosh the ocean floor... and it's as if
you're rocking water in the bathtub and that wave can travel
throughout the ocean."
Experts say tsunamis generated by earthquakes can travel at up
to 500km/h.
*****************************************************************
30 Boston Globe: Tewksbury residents told tap water safe to drink again
Tewksbury residents told tap water safe to drink again Boston
Globe Tewksbury Town Manager David Cressman announced Tuesday
night that the state Department of Environmental Protection has
lifted a health advisory warning residents that perchlorate had
been discovered in the town's drinking water.
December 26, 2004
Tewksbury Town Manager David Cressman announced Tuesday night
that the state Department of Environmental Protection has lifted
a health advisory warning residents that perchlorate had been
discovered in the town's drinking water.
On Aug. 13, after discovering higher levels of perchlorate than
state guidelines permit, town officials issued an alert for
people most susceptible to its detrimental effects.
Last month, the probable source of the contaminant, the
Billerica manufacturing facility of C.R. Bard Inc., ceased
discharging a rinse containing the contaminant into Billerica's
sewer system. The discharge was apparently flowing into the
Concord River toward the confluence of the Merrimack River and
into Tewksbury's drinking-water treatment facility.
Once Bard stopped the discharge, the levels of perchlorate in
Tewksbury's drinking water dropped to acceptable levels and is
now safe to drink, according to state officials.
JOYCE PELLINO CRANE [ /]
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. [ /] More News
*****************************************************************
31 ITAR-TASS: Russia disposes of 17 nuclear-powered subs in 2004 - Rumyantsev
24.12.2004, 18.34
MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia disposed of 17
nuclear-powered submarines in 2004, head of the Federal Atomic
Energy Agency Alexander Rumyantsev said at a Friday press
conference.
“Twelve railroad shipments of spent nuclear fuel from reactors
of the disposed submarines were made to the Mayak plant,” he
said.
Zvezda and Zvezdochka plants processed 874 cubic meters of
liquid radioactive waste and 1,588 tonnes of solid radioactive
waste in northwest Russia. The processed waste was put in
temporary casing.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
store in any medium (including in any other website),
distribute, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, modify or show in
public any part of the ITAR-TASS website without the prior
written permission of ITAR-TAS.
*****************************************************************
32 Independent: 'Dirty' firms fight right-to-know
Editor's Choice
By Severin Carrell and Sophie Goodchild
26 December 2004
Some of Britain's biggest polluters are trying to block new
"freedom of information" rules which will force them to release
confidential data about radioactive leaks, air pollution and
their role in causing global warming.
A Whitehall memo passed to The Independent on Sunday reveals
that Britain's largest power companies, nuclear stations, oil
refineries and water utilities are now lobbying ministers to get
themselves exempted from the sweeping new rules.
This is part of a widespread relaxing of disclosure laws that
come into effect on 1 January, including the introduction of the
Freedom of Information Act. This allows the public to see
previously unpublished emails, confidential files and reports
held by 100,000 public bodies including government departments,
local authorities, schools and police forces.
One quarter of claims made under the historic new legislation
will be rejected on first request, while the public could face
delays of several weeks in getting their hands on documents as
public bodies struggle to cope with the extra workload,
campaigners warned last night.
There are also concerns that ministers may use their special
power of veto outlined in the Act, allowing them to suppress
sensitive documents, for example the Attorney General's legal
advice to the Government on the Iraq war.
Government departments shredded some 100,000 documents in the
run-up to the introduction of the Act, it was reported last
week.
Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of
Information, warned people to be as specific as possible in
phrasing their requests so that they are not refused under
exemptions allowed in the new laws. "There is no doubt that
there is resistance and they [public bodies] will focus on the
harm of disclosure," said Mr Frankel.
"Delays are obviously a problem, we are not talking years, but
there will be some requests which will catch people unawares.
They [public bodies] should not use the applicant's ignorance of
what goes on inside authorities."
Under separate environmental disclosure laws, also coming into
effect on the same day, major industries will be required to
release files about environmental damage - including noise and
air pollution from airports, toxic leaks and carbon dioxide
emitted by power stations.
Business leaders are furious that the Environmental Information
Regulations will go far further than the Freedom of Information
Act.
©2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
33 Guardian Unlimited: Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,900 in Asia
From the Associated Press
[UP]
Sunday December 26, 2004 2:16 PM
AP Photo MAS101 By LELY T. DJUHARI Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The world's most powerful earthquake
in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into
villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more
than 3,900 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of
water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal,
unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west
coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,150
people were killed, the prime minister's office said. Indian
officials said as many as 1,130 died along the southern coast.
At least 408 died on Sumatra from floods and collapsing
buildings. Another 168 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in
Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.
But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with
hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to
Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were
found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil
Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea,
officials said.
The rush of waves brought to sudden disaster to people carrying
out their daily activities on the ocean's edge: Sunbathers on
the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away; a
group of 32 Indians - including 15 children - were killed while
taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day; fishing
boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up
by the waves and tossed away.
``All the planet is vibrating'' from the quake, said Enzo
Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute.
Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed
the Earth's rotation.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of
8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's
fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit
Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
Initial damage centered in the Indonesian province of Aceh on
northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but as
elsewhere, much of the death toll appeared to come from
onrushing floodwaters.
Towns nearest the epicenter were leveled by tidal waves. An
Associated Press reporter saw bodies wedged in trees as the
waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches.
``We still don't know what's happening there because of a lack
of communication,'' said Vice President Jusuf Kalla. ``We're
sending our two top ministers to Aceh right now. We're also
preparing food supplies, medicines and makeshift shelters as
emergency backup.''
The worst known death tolls so far were in Sri Lanka and
southern India.
``It is a huge tragedy,'' said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to
the Sri Lankan prime minister. ``The death toll is going up all
the time.'' He said the government did not know what was
happening in areas of the northeast controlled by Tamil Tiger
rebels.
An AP photographer saw two dozen bodies along a four-mile
stretch of beach, some of children entangled in the wire mesh
used to barricade seaside homes. Other bodies were brought up
from the beach, wrapped in sarongs and laid on the road, while
rows of men and women lined the roads asking if anyone had seen
their relatives.
Around one million people were displaced from their homes,
Weerathunga said.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries,
with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed
ashore. Some 800 deaths were reported in Tamil Nadu state, Home
Minister Shivraj Patil said. In Andhra Pradesh state, 200 were
reported; 102 were killed in Pondicherry.
``I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the
shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if
made of paper,'' said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra
Pradesh's Kakinada town. ``I had never imagined anything like
this could happen.''
The huge waves struck around breakfast time on the beaches of
Thailand's beach resorts - probably Asia's most popular holiday
destination at this time of year, particularly for Europeans
fleeing the winter cold - wiping out bungalows, boats and cars,
sweeping away sunbathers and snorkelers, witnesses said.
``Initially we just heard a bang, a really loud bang,'' Gerrard
Donnelly of Britain, a guest at Phuket island's Holiday Inn,
told Britain's Sky News. ``We initially thought it was a
terrorist attack, then the wave came and we just kept running
upstairs to get on as high ground as we could.''
``People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and
washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got
washed into the sea,'' said Simon Clark, 29, a photographer from
London vacationing on Ngai island.
In the Andaman Sea on Phi Phi island - where ``The Beach''
starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed - 200 bungalows at two
resorts were swept out to sea.
``I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners
missing in the sea and also my staff,'' said Chan Marongtaechar,
owner of the PP Princess Resort and PP Charlie Beach Resort.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic
upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic
plates that make up the so-called the ``Ring of Fire'' around
the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake
struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing
buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage
or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering
magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept.
25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor
that struck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
^---
Associated Press reporters Dilip Ganguly and Gemunu Amarasinghe
in Colombo, Sri Lanka, K.N. Arun in Madras, India, and Sutin
Wannabovorn in Phuket, Thailand, contributed to this report.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
34 Guardian Unlimited: South-east Asian tsunami kills thousands
Thousands killed in Asian tsunami
Staff and agencies Sunday December 26, 2004
[A man surveys tsunami damage off the coast of Lunawa, southern
Sri Lanka] A man surveys tsunami damage off the coast of Lunawa,
southern Sri Lanka. Photograph: AFP/Getty
More than 11,000 people in six countries were killed today when
the most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered huge tidal
waves that hit coastlines across Asia. The death toll is almost
certain to rise further as the full extent of the devastation
emerges.
Tourists, fishermen, hotels, homes and cars were swept away by
walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake,
centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The countries affected were Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India,
Thailand, Malaysia and the Maldives.
Among the worst hit was the island of Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles
west of the epicentre. The death toll stood tonight at up to
4,500, with a million people displaced by the surging wall of
water, according to police and Tamil Tiger rebels. Sri Lanka's
government declared a national disaster.
In Indonesia Reuters reported that 3,000 people had been killed
in the city of Banda Aceh alone, in the province of Aceh on the
northern tip of Sumatra Island. Communication links to several
regions in Aceh were still cut off as night fell some 12 hours
after the quake struck, raising fears that the death toll would
rise further. Hundreds of people were still unaccounted for.
The government struggled to respond to the disaster in Aceh,
which has been torn by separatist violence for 26 years.
In India, the waves swept away boats, homes and vehicles killing
up to 3,000 people in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh and Pondicherry, officials said. Hundreds of bodies were
found on beaches in Tamil Nadu, and more are expected to be
washed in by the sea, officials said. At least 300 people were
killed on India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, and another 700
were missing and believed dead, Press Trust of India cited the
region's police chief as saying.
In Thailand, one of Asia's most popular holiday destinations at
this time of year, at least 289 people were reported to have
been killed and 3,675 injured. According to media reports and
the Thai foreign ministry, the tourists missing, injured or dead
include nationals of Britain, South Korea, Japan, Germany, South
Africa, Hong Kong, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia,
Sweden and the United States.
Another 42 were confirmed dead in Malaysia and two in
Bangladesh. Thousands of people were missing, many of them
fishermen at sea, and rescue workers struggled against
floodwaters to find and evacuate stranded victims.
The global Red Cross issued an emergency appeal for immediate
aid, and President Bush offered "all appropriate assistance to
those nations most affected". He said US relief efforts were
already under way to help people in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Mr Bush joined the Pope in sending his condolences to the people
affected by the disaster.
The quake occurred at a place where several huge geological
plates push against each other with massive force. The scope of
the disaster became apparent only after waves as high as 6
metres crashed into coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean
and Andaman Sea.
Throughout the day harrowing stories emerged as survivors
described what they had witnessed and experienced.
Philippe Gilbert, on holiday in the southern Sri Lankan resort
of Tangalle, recounted how he had gripped a tree and watched
helplessly as his four-year-old granddaughter was dragged away
by waves triggered by the quake. "I was completely carried by an
absolutely monstrous wave that towered over the bungalow," Mr
Gilbert said in a telephone interview broadcast by French
television station LCI. "I lost my granddaughter in it."
In India, P. Ramanamurthy, 40, a resident of Andhra Pradesh, had
watched fishermen clinging on to upturned fishing boats in the
heaving sea. "I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats
flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into
the sea, as if made of paper," he said. "Many boats were
upturned, but fishermen were still holding on to them. They also
were pushed into the sea. It was shocking."
Among those killed in Andhra Pradesh state were 32 people,
including 15 children, who had gone into the sea for a Hindu
religious bath to mark the full moon day, police said. They said
20,000 people were evacuated in four districts.
Holidays turned to disaster in southern Thailand, which welcomes
hundreds of thousands of tourists to its southern beaches during
the Christmas season. Simon Clark, 29, a photographer from
London on holiday on Ngai island with his girlfriend, Caroline
Barton, 25, described how a huge wave had suddenly rushed up the
beach, destroying everything in its wake. "People who were
snorkelling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the
beach, and people who were sunbathing got washed into the sea."
The owner of two resorts on Phi Phi island - where the Hollywood
blockbuster The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was filmed -
said that 200 of his bungalows were swept out to sea, along with
some of his employees and customers. "I am afraid that there
will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea, and also
my staff," said Chan Marongtaechar, who was in the Thai capital
of Bangkok at the time. Officials said more than 600 tourists
and locals were being evacuated by air and sea from the island.
"Just out of nowhere, suddenly the streets [were] awash and
people just running and screaming from the beach," John Hyde, an
Australian state official on holiday in southern Thailand, told
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"People were getting swept along still on their motorbikes,"
Simon Morse, another Australian tourist, told the ABC. "There
were cars that had been picked up by the storm surge and they
were getting pushed down the road, taking things out as they
went."
The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw said: "For all the
huge advances in the control of our lives through science and
technology an earthquake on this scale is truly humbling as well
as profoundly tragic for everyone involved." He said messages of
condolence have been sent to India, Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives and confirmed that
emergency support teams are on standby. He added: "For the tens
of thousands of British tourists in southeast Asia and their
relatives and friends here this will I know be a very worrying
time. "We are doing everything we can to assist but the
disruption to communication in the worst affected areas is
inevitably making it difficult to confirm exactly the situation
on the ground."
The US Geological Survey's website recorded the magnitude 8.9
earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, 1,000 miles
(1,620km) north-west of Jakarta. It was centred 25 miles below
the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range.
The earthquake was the world's fifth most powerful since 1900
and the strongest since a 9.2-magnitude quake hit Alaska in
1964, US earthquake experts said.
The force of it shook unusually far afield, causing buildings to
sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of
Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after
the region's Christian communities had finished Christmas
celebrations.
[UP]
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
35 Bradenton Herald: Tallevast residents refuse to let contamination spoil celebration
| 12/25/2004 |
HOLIDAY HOPE
DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer
TALLEVAST - Darlene Sloan dished up the chicken.
Peggy Ward spooned out the yellow rice.
The mood was festive on the fifth day of Christmas in Tallevast
as residents gathered Wednesday at the community center for yet
another holiday feast of food and fellowship, song and laughter.
Christmas in Tallevast began Dec. 18.
Each night, this tight-knit community of 85 households has
gathered at someone's house or at the community center to share
season's greetings.
On Christmas Eve, they caroled their way from home to home
despite the misty weather.
They refused to dwell on the fear that soil and water tainted
with toxic waste might force them to leave their homes.
Or that decades of breathing beryllium dust might have
compromised their health.
Tallevast residents have hope, says the pastor of Bryant Chapel,
because they know their destiny lies in God's hands.
"The folks here have a special love of the Lord that holds them
together," the Rev. Anthony Thomas said. "I have never seen a
community of people support each other the way these folks do."
Never before has that support been more important, Thomas said.
One year ago, Tallevast residents learned that a plume of toxic
solvents from the old Loral American Beryllium plant had
contaminated their groundwater.
State environmentalists and Lockheed Martin Corp., which
purchased the Loral plant, had known about the contamination for
three years.
But no one told the residents of Tallevast until November 2003.
Thomas has seen his flock angry.
He has seen them depressed.
But never, he said, has he seen them without hope.
"They have placed their future in God's hands,"
Thomas said. "They are depending upon God to bring them through
this ordeal. They are not depending upon lawyers, or
commissioners, or the company. They are depending upon God. They
believe things will work out."
That belief is what gives Helen Heathington the ability to push
her worries aside during the Christmas holiday.
"Everybody seems to be in the holiday spirit," Heathington said.
"We are not down or depressed. We have pushed it all aside."
Folks were happy this week to see Charlie Ziegler, 69, walking
sprightly with his cane after his knee replacement surgery, with
wife Beatrice at his side.
Ziegler worked at American Beryllium for 37 years. His job was
to empty the big bags of toxic dust collected by the vacuum
system that sucked the powdery filings off the worktables of the
precision machinists who made parts for atomic weapons and
missile guidance systems during the Cold War.
Ziegler says he suffers from years of breathing that dust. His
lungs are so scarred that at times he has to lie on his stomach
and hang his head over the side of his bed to breathe.
But on Wednesday, Ziegler was feeling well enough to leave his
two inhalers - "the big one and the little one" - at home.
When asked what holds this tiny town together, Beatrice Ziegler
cast her smiling eyes at her husband and then around the room,
taking in all her friends, neighbors and family.
"If one of us can't do something, another can," she said. "We
have nurses, dentists, plumbers and electricians. We all help
each other out. If one neighbor has a garden and you need greens
or peas, they give it to you. If you need a plumber, the plumber
comes."
The thought of leaving Tallevast casts a shadow over her smile.
"We've been here so long, we don't want to leave," she said. "I
don't mind staying here if it is clean. But the way it is now .
. ." Her voice trails off as she looks around at the children
running past her with squeals of delight. "I just don't know."
Carrie Tisel worries about Zoria, her 6-year-old granddaughter.
"I want my grandchild out of here," said Tisel, who moved to
Tallevast in 1957. "You might be well today, but you don't know
what damage this contamination is doing to the body."
Yet those questions don't dampen Tisel's Christmas spirit.
"No sense worrying about what you can't control," she said as
Zoria hopped into her lap.
Keeping up the spirits of his flock is one of Thomas' top
priorities.
"The Lord speaks to me and gives me a message of hope to give to
them," Thomas said. "I tell them to fast and pray."
Life in Tallevast revolves around Bryant Chapel and Mount Tabor
Missionary Baptist Church.
These two houses of worship, said Helen Heathington, are the
heart of the community, places of refuge, sanctuaries of
strength.
It's love of God that binds Tallevast together, said the Rev.
Ezell Patterson of Mount Tabor. Love that translates into caring
for one another.
Living with the fear that their tiny town might soon be torn
apart and they may be faced to leave their homes has taken a
heavy toll on residents, both pastors say.
They understand the anger that often surfaces among members of
their congregations. Too often they have had to officiate at
funerals for folks who have died from cancers many residents now
believe are related to their exposure to toxic waste generated
by the beryllium plant.
"So many of them worked for years at that company," said Thomas.
"This is their reward for all those years they put in. It just
isn't fair."
But that frustration and anger has a positive side, said
Patterson. Anger has united the community in a quest for
justice, for a better future.
Thomas finds inspiration to help his congregation in scripture.
"Jesus told us we would go through many trials and
tribulations," Thomas said. "But Apostle Paul reminds us that
all things will work together for the good. If God be for us,
who can be against us?"
As neighbors set out the pans of ham and green beans and big
pots of rice and beans, Thomas rose to give the blessing.
"Let your angels watch over this community," Thomas prayed.
The people of Tallevast answered with an enthusiastic "Amen."
Donna Wright, health and
social services reporter, can be reached at 745-7049 or at
dwright@bradentonherald.com.
*****************************************************************
36 BELLACIAO - Sharper watch on nuclear trains - Bellaciao
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Saturday 25th December 2004 (14h03) :
Sharper watch on nuclear trains
by Diet Simon
After a nuclear waste train ran over and killed the French
activist Sébastien Briat nearly seven weeks ago, such trains are
under sharper observation, writes the leftwing newspaper, Neues
Deutschland. Many environment campaigners are asking themselves
whether such an accident could also happen in Germany and what
sort of inhibition threshold there might be for careless and
inconsiderate driving of such trains.
The paper, which was the official mouthpiece of the communist
party in former East Germany, picked up on German IndyMedia
reporting on a nuclear train than ran last Wednesday (15th Dec).
It took four Castor caskets of waste from the shut down Stade
power station near Hamburg to the plutonium factory at La Hague
in Normandy, northern France, a run of several thousand
kilometres through the German states of Lower Saxony,
North-Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and then France.
At several locations anti-nuclear activists protested against
the radioactive cargo. In a number of places they were even able
to stop it.
The activists claim to have halted the train for two hours near
Buchholz (Nordheide) on Wednesday morning. They say the train
raced at 50 to 60 kmh into a barricade of logs and branches.
It had stopped only after passing the obstacle.
This although the activists had thrown fireworks on to the
track to warn the locomotive driver, the group wrote on
Indymedia . A second group had drawn attention to the barrier
with electric torches and banners.
We are enraged and worried that yet again a Castor transport
just keeps going despite alerts, says their report.
In response to several attempts to get a comment, writes Neues
Deutschland, the spokesman of the Federal Border Police (BGS) in
Hamburg was still saying on Thursday that this had been a
freight train . Only on Friday the BGS stated that the freight
train stopped near Tostedt had carried four Castors with highly
radioactive waste.
According to the BGS the safety of the caskets was not
endangered. The thickest branch on the tracks had been only 4 cm
across, said a BGS spokesman.
In the Mahndorf district of the town they placed grave candles
on the rails and the demonstrators themselves lined up alongside
the track. After an accompanying helicopter discovered them, the
locomotive driver was made to stop his train immediately.
Up to this point the police and activist stories basically
tally.
The forced stop will have consequences for the activists from
Bremen. They are under investigation for alleged dangerous
interference with rail traffic.
Participants in a vigil in Osnabrück reported that the train to
La Hague had sped through the unsecured station. But two hours
beforehand a helicopter was circling over the city and watching
the railway line.
There were also protests and vigils against nuclear waste
transportation at the stations in Münster-Hiltrup, Hamm and
Waltrop. Police and border police were using several
helicopters.
Castor transports with spent fuel rods from power stations for
reprocessing in France and England are due to continue to
mid-2005, while return transports to Gorleben and Ahaus for
interim storage are to continue for several years more.
Its to be assumed, writes Neues Deutschland, that the nuclear
industry and politicians wat these transports to stir as little
public attention as possible.
A risky style of driving that is less concerned that up to now
by injured or even dead demonstrators runs counter to that aim,
writes the papers Reimar Paul.
On the other hand, it adds, as in the past the police will do
all they can to get these transports to their destination within
the allocated time windows.
That can mean a higher speed on parts of the route and the risk
of serious accidents if there are protests.
Aktionsbuendnis CASTOR-Widerstand Neckarwestheim
Info-tel 07141 / 903363
by : Diet Simon
Saturday 25th December 2004
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37 Globe and Mail: Nuclear-waste plan splits Lake Huron community
GLOBEANDMAIL.COM
By COLIN PERKEL Canadian Press Friday, December 24, 2004 -
Page A12
A group of residents in and around the scenic Lake Huron town of
Kincardine claim that the province's publicly owned electricity
generator is bribing the town to support Canada's first permanent
burial of radioactive nuclear waste.
They also say a planned telephone poll to gauge local backing for
the project is a sham and want the provincial government to step
in.
Under a recent "hosting" agreement with council that critics say
was inked in secrecy, Ontario Power Generation will pay
Kincardine and four surrounding municipalities more than
$35-million over 30 years.
The money is conditional on community support for the plan to
bury the waste near the shoreline at the Bruce nuclear power
plant.
"This whole process is ethically and morally reprehensible," said
Bob MacKenzie, a businessman in nearby Tiverton. "It smacks of
hush money and inappropriate procedure."
OPG spokesman John Earl dismissed that statement, saying the
project is being advanced on request from the community through
its council.
"The model for this hosting agreement is a model that is used
elsewhere in the world," he said. "It's to have the knowledge
that we have a community that is aware of, and supportive of, the
process."
The $1-billion proposal for a "deep geologic rock repository"
would bury low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from the
province's three main nuclear reactors starting around 2017.
It involves building 38 rock vaults 660 metres below ground, then
filling them with anything from mop heads and disposable clothing
to filters or other contaminated reactor components, some of
which stay hazardous for thousands of years.
About 62,000 cubic metres of such waste is in surface storage at
the Bruce site, and as much as 7,000 more is generated each year.
Kincardine Mayor Glenn Sutton said the community "understands the
nuclear industry," and permanent burial would protect the health
of the 11,000 residents, many of whom benefit economically from
the Bruce plant.
Environmentalists worry about radiation or surface contaminants
poisoning groundwater or Lake Huron.
"It's a mistake to put it deep underground," said Dave Martin of
Greenpeace. "You simply cannot guarantee the integrity of any
deep-rock disposal option."
The poll, to be conducted over 10 days next month, will now
include all Kincardine adults after complaints that only heads of
households would be surveyed.
Still, critics say many seasonal residents will be missed, and
there is not enough information to make an informed decision.
"Support for this agreement shouldn't be based on money," said
Jennifer Heisz of the local group Women's Legacy. "It should be
based on health and safety studies and appropriate site
selection. Those questions have never been addressed."
Ms. Heisz's group has begun a petition to the provincial
government calling for a full-scale municipal referendum.
While an environmental assessment is planned, critics worry it
will be neither thorough nor independent.
*****************************************************************
38 FLORIDA TODAY: Radioactive test OK'd for landfill
Gypsum may speed refuse decay
BY JIM WAYMER
Federal regulators this week approved use of 25 tons of low-grade
radioactive gypsum -- a byproduct of fertilizer -- to top
Brevard's main landfill in west Cocoa.
They hope it eats away at our garbage to free up landfill space.
Researchers conducting the experiment will have to make sure no
gypsum leaches into groundwater at the landfill and no dangerous
gas forms.
About one semi-tractor trailer of gypsum from a U.S.
Agri-Chemicals Corp. mine in Fort Meade will go into Brevard's
landfill at 2250 Adamson Road. The gypsum could arrive in about
three months, as cover for several layers of garbage.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a
letter approving the pilot project to Cocoa Mayor Michael Blake
and to the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research in Bartow, the
sponsor of the experiment. The phosphate institute is a trade
association established by the state Legislature in 1978 and
funded by the phosphate industry.
EPA Assistant Administrator Jeff Holmstead signed the approval
letter Wednesday, said John Millett, a spokesman for EPA in
Washington, D.C.
The gypsum could save about 50 percent of the volume of the
landfill in about five years, according to the Florida Institute
of Phosphate Research, which will pay for the $653,000, four-year
study at Brevard's landfill.
Chih-Shin Shieh, a former Florida Tech professor, proposed the
project. If it works, county officials hope his technique could
double the life span of landfills and cut the cost we pay to
expand them.
EPA held up Shieh's research for more than four years because of
concerns about the health and environmental risk of the gypsum
left over from fertilizer manufacturing.
Natural gypsum, used to make wallboard, is relatively harmless.
But the EPA has concerns about the increased cancer risk from
exposure to the gypsum from phosphate mining, called
phosphogypsum, because it is from slightly more radioactive
phosphate rock.
Another study commissioned by the Florida Institute of Phosphate
Research found less than a three-in-10,000 risk of cancer for
someone living their entire life atop a landfill covered with
gypsum.
Contact Waymer at 242-3663 or jwaymer@flatoday.net
Copyright © 2004 FLORIDA TODAY.
*****************************************************************
39 National Post: Residents say no to nuclear waste
nationalpost.com
December 24, 2004
KINCARDINE, ONT. -- Residents in the scenic Lake Huron town of
Kincardine say they don't want radioactive nuclear waste buried
in their backyards.
The Ontario Power Generation has a $1-billion plan to bury waste
hundreds of metres underground but the residents don't want it
in Kincardine.
The town and four surrounding municipalities are apparently
being offered more than $35 million over 30 years for the plan.
But the residents want nothing to do with it, since some of the
waste can stay hazardous for thousands of years.
© Broadcast News 2004
CanWest Interactive Inc. is an affiliate of CanWest Global
Communications Corp.
Copyright & Permission Rules
*****************************************************************
40 Guardian Unlimited: Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Released
From the Associated Press [UP]
Saturday December 25, 2004 1:46 PM
AP Photo AEM101
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
was freed by Israeli police Saturday, hours after he was
detained for trying to enter the West Bank to attend Christmas
Eve ceremonies in Bethlehem, a police spokesman said.
Spokesman Gil Kleiman said that as a condition of his release
Vanunu is being confined to his Jerusalem residence for five
days.
Vanunu was detained at a police checkpoint late Friday as he
tried to travel from Jerusalem to tBethlehem to attend midnight
Mass.
Vanunu, a Jewish convert to Christianity, was freed from an
Israeli prison in April after completing an 18-year sentence for
revealing secrets of Israel's nuclear program to the Sunday
Times newspaper in London.
Under the terms of his release, the former technician at the
Israeli nuclear facility in the Negev desert town of Dimona was
barred from leaving Israeli territory and contacting foreigners.
Since his release from prison in April, Vanunu has been living
at a Jerusalem Church compound. Last month he was briefly
detained by police on suspicion of revealing classified
information before being freed. Vanunu denied those charges,
saying he has no more secrets to disclose.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
*****************************************************************
41 ABQjournal: LANL Disputes DOE Report; Neutron Science Center Faulted
Sunday, December 26, 2004
Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
Los Alamos National Laboratory officials say they disagree
with several key findings in a recent Department of Energy audit
that questioned the reliability and useful life of a particle
accelerator once considered the "flagship" of the nation's
nuclear science effort.
Paul Lisowski, division director of LANL's Neutron Science
Center, or LANSCE, where the accelerator is located, said
several of the DOE Inspector General's findings were either
incorrect or told only part of the story.
The audit, made public just after DOE's National Nuclear
Security Administration released its draft criteria for
operating LANL earlier this month, made the University of
California, the current manager of LANL, appear to be a poor
facility manager.
DOE is preparing to accept bids for a new operator of LANL
for the first time in the laboratory's 60-plus year history.
Outgoing Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham made the decision to
put LANL's contract up for bid in April 2003 after a series of
security and financial management problems came to light the
previous year.
The University of California's contract to run LANL expires
at the end of September.
The audit reported that LANSCE operates on a $90 million
annual budget and works only about 77 percent of the time— 8
percent below the national standard for similar machines. In
August, the audit notes, the accelerator worked only 44 percent
of the time due to equipment failures.
The DOE audit also highlighted $42 million in deferred
maintenance costs, including $10 million in environmental
remediation and the replacement of some safety parts.
Lisowski, who said the facility is unique in the nation for
its broad applications and critical to LANL's mission of
ensuring the safety and viability of the nation's nuclear
stockpile, contested each of these assertions from the audit.
He said LANSCE actually operates on only $55 million a
year, not $90 million, and that DOE had agreed LANSCE would be
funded to operate at only 75 percent reliability this past year.
By achieving 77 percent reliability, LANL had actually
outperformed DOE expectations, he said.
"We actually exceeded what we told our sponsors we could
meet," Lisowski said, adding that the facility "operates with a
very lean budget."
The overall reliability of the beam was lower than expected
because in August, a fire-prevention system malfunctioned after
a lightning strike, forcing a multiday shutdown, he said. If the
month of August is excluded from the total, Lisowski said, the
beam reliability would have exceeded 82 percent.
Lisowski acknowledged the accrual of deferred maintenance,
but insisted no repairs to parts or elements critical for safety
have ever been deferred.
Built in 1972 for $57 million, LANSCE's particle
accelerator generates a proton beam with energies of up to 800
million electron volts— at one time, a beam more intense than
those from all comparable accelerators in the world combined—
speeding particles up to 84 percent of the speed of light.
Since it was built, new facilities have been added to the
center, making use of the beam, including the most recent
addition, the $16.5 million Isotope Production Facility, which
uses the accelerator's proton beam to produce medical
radioisotopes used in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
"This is an investment that is worth well over $1 billion
now," Lisowski said about the LANSCE facilities that make use of
the accelerator beam.
Alan Hurd, director of LANSCE's Manuel Lujan Jr. Center,
where 13 different experiments run 24 hours a day, seven days a
week while the beam is running, said the audit overlooked the
value the facility serves as a national destination for advanced
science among leading researchers.
He said the center hosted more than 300 researchers last
year, with many more applying for beam time than could be
accepted during its eight-month run.
"The neutron scattering program is exploding in terms of
user visits," he said, adding that the facility is a major
recruitment tool for top scientists.
The DOE audit pushed the question of whether LANSCE could
continue to provide needed research capabilities into the future
and criticized the department's lack of long-term planning
detailing mission priorities.
Lisowski agreed that planning and funding for the facility
is lacking but said LANL and lab director Pete Nanos are
committed to maintaining the facility as a core science and
weapons research facility.
"You want to start funding it now, so it is a good machine
for the stockpile mission and science in the future," he said.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
*****************************************************************
42 SFBV: UC Regents lose nuclear weapons program, Part 10
San Francisco Bay View - National Black Newspaper of the Year
12/22/04 www.sfbayview.com
Decentralize the power grid
by Leuren Moret
In a cold rain Dec. 8, residents blockaded PG&E’s Hunters
Point power plant, demanding a permanent shutdown and its
replacement with clean, green energy generation.
Photo: Greenaction.org
Our energy choices in the past century have brought devastation
to the health of the environment and to public health globally
through pollution and militarism. The nuclear weapons program
exists for the oil companies. Nothing has had a greater negative
impact on our democracy, public health and the health of the
environment than the secrecy of the nuclear weapons program.
The most important decisions in this century will be our energy
choices, and they will determine whether or not humanity
survives.
Professor Peter Barrett, winner of the Marsden Medal for his
research on climate change, said on Nov. 17, 2004: "After 40
years, I'm part of a huge community of scientists who have become
alarmed with our discovery, that we know from our knowledge of
the ancient past, that if we continue our present growth path, we
are facing extinction … not in millions of years, or even
millennia, but by the end of this century."
The hidden international wealthy power elite - the Rothschilds
(see “Against the Red Shield”), British and Dutch royal families,
the Rockefellers and others - are driving the changes now leading
to a New World Order and extinction of the human species. By
promoting destructive energy sources using nuclear blackmail,
energy choices have been of benefit to a small global elite.
Further degradation of civil society is being carried out through
globalization of poverty and the depopulation of oil and resource
rich regions. Corporatization is destroying the future of
nations.
"The Rothschilds are the creators of the international bond
market as we know it today. They were the first multinationals,"
said Niall Ferguson in The Business, London, Feb. 16-17, 2003.
Nation state integration is happening rapidly, such as in South
America, where a meeting this month attended by 12 South American
nations formally recognized the Cuzco Declaration (see “Venezuela
Signs South American Integration”). This European Union-style
agreement will eventually lead to unification of North, South and
Central America and is a step in the implementation of a
one-world government. Masked as a global “War on Terror,” the
attack on civil society is actually a “War on Citizens and the
Commons.” “They” want it all.
Hope through collective action
But it is not too late. In defiance of U.S. federal energy
policy, 17 states in the U.S. have now passed new laws mandating
that 20 percent of their energy be from renewable sources, and
this percentage must increase in increments each year. Solar
energy systems in six schools will be installed in Tucson,
Arizona, in the next year at a cost of $30,000 and a monthly
savings of $60 on energy (see “Arizona Schools to Get Solar
Energy Systems”).
Municipalities and counties in the U.S. are now adopting the
Kyoto Protocol, in defiance of the refusal of the U.S. government
to sign on. City by city and county by county, Americans can do
what their government refuses to do for its own citizens and the
future of the planet.
Sir Martin Rees asserts in “Our Final Century” (Penguin 2003):
“In the 21st century, humanity is more at risk than ever before
from misapplication of science. And the environmental pressures
induced by collective human actions could trigger catastrophes
more threatening than any natural hazards.”
By decentralizing the power grid, municipalities can take control
of their energy needs using renewable energy, and they can
restore citizen power, which has been stolen by fraudulent
elections serving a wealthy power elite. No community knows this
battle better than Bay View Hunters Point, San Francisco’s Black
heartland, fighting for a decade to shut down the PG&E power
plant in their neighborhood, the state’s oldest and one of its
most polluting, and replace it with clean green energy
generation.
People power can throw out the fascists
In less than one year during 2004, elections in Spain, Malaysia,
India, South Korea and Venezuela have thrown out the fascists and
demonstrated that it is possible that “people power” can win.
People taking to the streets by the thousands in the Ukraine this
month, shutting everything down to a dead standstill,
demonstrated that the power of the people can challenge and even
overturn fraudulent elections.
"The people of the Western world have been trained to be good
consumers - to focus on money, sports cars, beauty, consumer
goods,” explained Dr. Johannes B. Koeppl, Ph.D., former German
defense ministry official and advisor to former NATO Secretary
General Manfred Werner, in a 2001 interview with Michael Ruppert,
author of “Crossing the Rubicon” and founder of
FromTheWilderness.com. “They have not been trained to look for
character in people.
“Therefore, what we need is education for politicians, a form of
training that instills in them a higher sense of ethics than
service to money. There is no training now for world leaders.
This is a shame because of the responsibility that leaders hold
to benefit all mankind rather than to blindly pursue destructive
paths.
"We also need education for citizens to be more efficient in
their democracies, in addition to education for politicians that
will create a new network of elites based upon character and
social intelligence."
Remembering Mario Savio and the Free Speech Movement at UC
Berkeley
The Free Speech Movement was about the Vietnam War - and
corporations - and now it’s that time again, to put sand in the
gears of the machine and prevent it from working at all until we
too are free.
“There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so
odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; and
you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon all the
apparatus, and you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it,
the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will
be prevented from working at all.” That’s a quote from Mario
Savio, icon of the Free Speech Movement, written on the walls of
the Free Speech Café on the UC Berkeley campus.
“People power” can bring public power to our municipalities.
Citizen by citizen, city by city, we must make a collective
effort to take back our democracy and have fair and
representative elections.
References
Marsden Medal 2004: Background comments by Peter Barrett,
http://www.geo.vuw.ac.nz/antarctic/ARCMarsdenNotes.html.
“Up against the Red Shield” from MinesandCommunities.org,
http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Company/rothschild01.htm.
“Venezuela Signs South American Integration” by Sarah Wagner,
Venezuelanalysis.com, Dec. 9, 2004,
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1441.
“Arizona Schools to Get Solar Energy Systems,” Associated Press,
Dec. 6, 2004,
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041206/ap_on_sc/sol
ar_schools_1.
To read Parts 1 through 9 of this series, go to
http://www.sfbayview.com/091504/ucregents091504.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/092204/nuclearweapons092204.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/092904/nuclearweapons2092904.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/100604/nuclearweapons100604.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/101304/nuclearweapons101304.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/110304/ucregents110304.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/112404/ucregents112404.shtml,
http://www.sfbayview.com/120104/nuclearcorridor120104.shtml and
http://www.sfbayview.com/120804/nuclearweapons120804.shtml.
Leuren Moret, a geoscientist who worked at the Livermore nuclear
weapons lab where she became a whistleblower in 1991, has
survived 13 years of retaliation from the Livermore Lab and the
University of California and has lived firsthand the experiences
of Karen Silkwood. A radiation specialist, she works around the
world educating citizens, the media and lawmakers about the
impact of radiation globally on the health of the public and the
environment. She assisted with Al-Jazeera’s recent report on
depleted uranium weapons which quickly became one of the most
read articles produced by the website. “DU: Washington’s Secret
Nuclear War” can be read at
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Secret-Nuclear-War14sep04.h
tm. She is an independent scientist and an environmental
commissioner for the City of Berkeley and can be reached at
leurenmoret@yahoo.com.
San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper 4917 Third Street
San Francisco California 94124 Phone: (415) 671-0789 Fax: (415)
671-0316 Email: editor@sfbayview.com
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43 KTVB.COM: INEEL unveils plan to dismantle 32-year-old Power Burst reactor
10:42 PM MST on Thursday, December 23, 2004
Associated Press
BOISE- In its day, the Power Burst reactor at the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Arco was one of the
world's most advanced test reactors.
But it's outlived its usefulness after 32 years, and Department
of Energy officials want to decommission it.
Yesterday, they unveiled preferences for dealing with the
reactor. First, they want to remove a lead shield and empty
water from pools.
Workers would then add another layer of shielding before the
reactor ultimately is decommissioned.
The other option, according to D-O-E officials, is merely to
keep an eye on the facility.
The energy department is taking comment now on what it should
do. More headlines...
KTVB.COM
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