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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 WorldNetDaily: October Surprise and the 'axis of evil'
2 Chief Of UN Atomic Watchdog Reiterates Call For Iran's Nuclear Compl
3 Persian Journal Gholam shire'i: Nuclear bill defends public rights -
4 Korea Herald: Russian parliamentary leaders in for nuke discussions
5 [NYTr] Nuclear Castrophe is the Tipping Point
6 US: [NukeNet] Elitism: Stop, Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School
7 US: DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak
8 BBC: White House rivals race to finish
9 TIME Asia Magazine: Nuclear Shell Games --
10 Times of India: Nuclear Outlaws: Rogue States Make a Mockery of NPT
11 Moscow Times: Putin Eyes Nuclear Terrorism
NUCLEAR REACTORS
12 The Herald: Nuclear industry urged to come clean over leaks
13 US: Platts: Markey wants NRC to suspend `non-essential' proceedings
14 Mid Day: Tarapur N-plant to run for another 30 yrs
15 US: SF Chronicle: Big Science with tiny particles hits a snag
16 Sify: REL keen to enter nuclear power market
17 US: NRC: Tennessee Valley Authority; Notice of Withdrawal of Applica
18 US: NRC: Solicitation of Public Comments on the Implementation of th
19 US: NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Find
NUCLEAR SAFETY
20 [NukeNet] : [NYTr] A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
21 [NYTr] Boyle: Elite Law Schools and War Crimes
22 Bellona: Ladoga radioactive pollution feared
23 US: DOL: Energy Employees Compensation Program Home Page
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
24 US: deseret news: Easy mark for terrorists
25 Las Vegas RJ: Editorial boards split on election
26 Las Vegas SUN: Clinton: Nevada 'massively important' for Kerry
27 RGJ: Ann Richards blasts Bush, Cheney
28 US: Salt Lake Tribune: Stop nuclear waste
29 US: Lowell Sun: Perchlorate levels down slightly in Tewksbury
30 US: NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) 2004 Meeting Tra
31 OCHA IRIN KYRGYZSTAN: Landslide threatens waste dump in Naryn -
32 PRN: Sierra Club Votes '527' Campaign Heads into Final Stretch
33 US: PE: Products: California water utility removes perchlorate, VOCs
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
34 November Surprise Piketon, Ohio
35 DOE: American Statistical Association Committee on Energy Statistics
36 DOE: Sale of Surplus Highly Enriched Uranium
37 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho
OTHER NUCLEAR
38 UK The Times: Bush v Kerry: state by state guide
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 WorldNetDaily: October Surprise and the 'axis of evil'
SATURDAY OCTOBER 30 2004
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
To the dismay of the neo-crazies, the Iraqi puppet government has
just reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency that 195
metric tons of HMX, 141 metric tons of RDX and 5.8 metric tons of
PETN have gone missing.
Why report that to the IAEA? Because Iraq had imported or
manufactured all three of these high-explosives for use in their
illicit nuke program Hence, the Iraqi stocks had been subject to
the IAEA Safeguards and Physical Security regime ever since they
were discovered at Al-Qaqaa in 1991.
How long have they been missing?
The IAEA last checked the integrity of their "seals" in March of
2003, just days before Bush attacked Iraq. Bush has not allowed
IAEA back in Iraq since.
Mohammed al-Sharaa, who headed, then and now, Iraq's
safeguarded-site monitoring department, says, "It is impossible
that these materials could have been taken from this site before
the regime's fall."
An IAEA spokeswoman says that after hearing of the looting at the
principal safeguarded site at Tuwaitha in April 2003, the IAEA
formally expressed concern "about the security of the
[safeguarded] high explosives stored at Al-Qaqaa."
But not to worry. One of the Pentagon neo-crazies – John A. Shaw,
the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology
security – has just told Gullible Gertz at the Washington Times
that he "believes" Russian special forces, working with Iraqi
intelligence, "almost certainly" took custody of all those
safeguarded high-explosives and smuggled them out of Iraq – to
either Syria or Iran – just before Bush invaded.
Neither Shaw, Gertz nor even John Kerry seems to have grasped the
import of Shaw's accusations.
A Bush administration weenie has just formally accused the
Russians of conspiring with the Iraqis, Iranians and perhaps the
Syrians to subvert the IAEA Safeguards regime and to assist Iran
or Syria acquire a nuke capability, in flagrant violation of the
Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons!
Maybe it would help you to know what Shaw knows about HMX and
RDX.
In a first-generation implosion-type nuke – like the Fat Man we
dropped on Nagasaki – a spherical sub-critical mass of fissile
uranium is surrounded by "shaped charges" of chemical
high-explosives. When detonated, the high-explosives "shaped
charges" create a spherically symmetric imploding shockwave,
which compresses the 7-inch-diameter sub-critical sphere into a
teeny-tiny highly super-critical sphere. A fission "chain
reaction" is then initiated, which continues exponentially until
enough fission energy is produced to blow the supercritical mass
apart.
Since half the nuclear yield comes from the last "generation,"
the art of the nuke designer is to compress the fissile material
as much and as quickly as possible and then to keep it
supercritical for as long as possible.
To do that, the nuke designer needs a special kind of
high-explosive that didn't really exist in 1944. As a result, the
Fat Man –which used conventional explosives – had a low yield but
weighed about 10,000 pounds. So, to get the yield up and the
weight down, U.S. nuke scientists began developing their own
high-energy, but relatively insensitive, explosives.
By 1947, scientists at Los Alamos had created RDX, the first
plastic-bonded explosive. Soon afterwards, scientists at Lawrence
Livermore developed the even more energetic HMX. Most of the
nukes in our stockpile today utilize RDX and HMX plastic-bonded
explosives.
So, the HMX and RDX the IAEA found at Al-Qaqaa was for Iraqi
nukes. They had built an RDX production plant at Al Qaqaa. It was
destroyed in the Gulf War and never rebuilt.
However, the Iraqis were unable to produce significant quantities
of fissile uranium, so the HMX and RDX stocks were never needed.
But RDX and HMX can be used for other purposes, such as mining or
tunneling or demolition. Hence, the Iraqis were allowed to keep
their stocks of HMX and RDX – safeguarded by the IAEA – until
they could come up with plans for using their stocks peacefully.
Until now, the pre-election brouhaha has focused on the possible
use in Iraq of those "missing" hundreds of tons of "conventional"
high-explosives.
But in the extremely unlikely event that Shaw is not crazy, it
might be a good idea for Kerry to bring up the nuke programs the
neo-crazies allege Iran and North Korea have jump-started because
Bush invaded Iraq.
Iraq had RDX and HMX for nukes, but no fissile material. But both
Iran and North Korea have – or soon could have – fissile material
for nukes, but no RDX or HMX.
So, who says you're safer now than before Bush invaded Iraq?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy
implementing official for national security-related technical
matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and
Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office
of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr.
Prather also served as legislative assistant for national
security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking
member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate
Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had
earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico.
E-MAIL GORDON PRATHER [gprather@worldnetdaily.com] | GO TO
[WorldNetDaily.com]
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
*****************************************************************
2 Chief Of UN Atomic Watchdog Reiterates Call For Iran's Nuclear Compliance
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:00:19 -0500
X-Temp-Whitephrase: YES NUCLEAR
CHIEF OF UN ATOMIC WATCHDOG REITERATES CALL FOR IRAN'S NUCLEAR COMPLIANCE
New York, Nov 1 2004 6:00PM
The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency's top official today called
on Iran to do its utmost to build confidence by suspending
activities related to uranium enrichment and reprocessing-related
activities.
In his annual report to the UN General Assembly, Mohammed ElBaradei,
head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he
had urged Iran to pursue a policy of "maximum transparency" so
that the outstanding issues could be resolved.
"This is clearly in the interest of both Iran and the international
community," he stressed.
Describing the Agency's recent work in Iran and Libya as marked by
"disturbing lessons," the <"http://www.iaea.org/index.html">IAEA
chief hinted at the possibility of the existence of an "extensive
illicit market" for the supply of nuclear items, which, he said,
"clearly thrived on demand."
Noting that technical barriers to accessibility of nuclear technology
have eroded overtime, Mr. ElBaradei stressed the need to find
"better ways and means" to control the production of enriched uranium
and the reprocessing of plutonium.
Reporting to the Assembly on the question of nuclear capabilities
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), he described
the situation as "a serious challenge," while hoping that the six-party
talks would lead the country to re-endorse the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (<"http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/WMD/treaty/">NPT).
In his assessment of Libya's decision to roll back its nuclear weapons
programme, the IAEA chief said it appeared to be "consistent
with the information available," but added further investigation
were still needed.
On the question of Iraq, Mr. ElBaradei said he hoped the Security
Council would soon provide guidance on its mandate. "It is clearly
important to bring the whole question of weapons of mass destruction
in Iraq to closure as soon as possible," he told the Assembly.
Referring to a mandate given to him by the IAEA's membership, Mr.
ElBaradei said he intended to organize a forum early next year to
explore the possibility of establishing a nuclear weapons-free
zone in the Middle East, hoping that such a move could strengthen
efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement in the region.
2004-11-01 00:00:00.000
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3 Persian Journal Gholam shire'i: Nuclear bill defends public rights -
[http://www.iranian.ws/]
Oct 31, 2004, 12:35
Iran's mullah-run majlis speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel also
known as "Gholam shire'i" in majlis said here Sunday that the
bill on getting access to peaceful nuclear technology urged the
government not to ignore nation's right to use the technology for
peaceful purposes.
Talking to foreign and domestic reporters, he added the bill,
approved by majlis deputies on Sunday, will determine the
framework for the Iranian delegation in conducting future
negotiations.
"The ratification lightens the atmosphere for wise negotiations,"
Gholam shire'i said.
Asked whether the bill would contradict agreements between the
Iranian delegation and the EU big trio (Germany, Britain and
France), he stated, "when we set the limits of a playground, we
have not banned the game."
"If negotiators reach a consensus that would lead to freezing
Iran's access to nuclear technology, the talks were doomed to
failure whether the bill approved or not," Gholam shire'i
stressed.
Based on the bill, Gholam shire'i said, the government is obliged
not to ignore the Iranian nation's right in getting access to
peaceful nuclear energy.
"The bill is not new. This is what we have insisted since the
start of negotiations.
© Iranian.ws
*****************************************************************
4 Korea Herald: Russian parliamentary leaders in for nuke discussions
2004.11.02
[http://www.voiceware.co.kr]
A Russian parliament delegation arrived in South Korea on Monday
afternoon to participate in discussions on the stalled
negotiations of the North's nuclear arms issue, members of the
South Korean National Assembly said on Monday (November 01).
Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy chairman of the State Duma and
Commission for International Affairs, and three other
representatives are visiting South Korea for talks with
parliamentarians of South Korea over the matter of resuming
six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Lim Chae-jung, head of the unification, foreign affairs and trade
committee, invited Kosachev, a key aid to Russia's former Prime
Minister Yevgeny Primakov. "I know Kosachev as a close aid to
former Prime Minister Primakov," Lim said. "We will talk with him
about parliamentary cooperation for more exchanges of the two
countries and about the six-party talks."
The delegation from Russia will stay in Seoul till Friday, during
this time they will pay a courtesy call to Kim One-ki, the
Assembly speaker, on Tuesday they are scheduled to meet with
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and on Wednesday they will meet with
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.
The Russian delegation is scheduled to give a press conference at
the Westin Chosun Hotel on Thursday before departing Seoul.
[Digital Herald News]
2004.11.02
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5 [NYTr] Nuclear Castrophe is the Tipping Point
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:12:55 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Mart
Rabble.Ca - Oct 29, 2004
http://rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=3D34865
[Originally published in The Toronto Globe and Mail, where Rick Salutin's
column appears every Friday.]
Nuclear catastrophe is the tipping point
by Rick Salutin
Anchor to anchor, NBC's Tom Brokaw told the CBC's Peter Mansbridge on
Monday that the U.S. is deeply divided between two candidates with
"vastly divergent views." My problem is, I don't see it. On Iraq, George
Bush wants to stay and win. John Kerry - wants to stay and win. They
differ only on how it's going. On same-sex marriage, one is against it
and wants a constitutional amendment. The other is against and doesn't
want an amendment. So why are we told there is a gulf, and why does each
side seem to truly feel they are battling the devil on the other side?
It gets more confusing when you consider the animosity between liberals
and conservatives. Something as mild as universal health care isn't even
on the table in this great fracas. But there's no doubt most Americans
believe they are in the vortex of an ideological war.
The claim may serve one purpose. By implying a state of conflict, it
diverts attention from the crucial fact of U.S. politics: a massive
national consensus about the right to project U.S. power anywhere, its
imperial - project. Think how pervasive that assumption is. More like
recognizing a fact than a right. U.S. troops in Iraq, Somalia, Korea,
never seem out of place. They sit on the borders of declared enemies,
like the former Soviet Union, Iran or North Korea; yet if those
countries had forces ringing the U.S., it would lead to war - and almost
did in 1962. The best asset of a controversial policy is for it to
appear uncontroversial. So no questions are raised, or are quickly
marginalized, on both the left and right.
But really, why call that consensus the crucial fact in the U.S.?
Doesn't it just belong to "foreign policy," one of many issue areas?
That may be so in a place like Canada, but a foreign policy based on the
right to go anywhere and subjugate anyone is different. It touches and
distorts every value in a society: from the nature of democratic process
to the personalities formed in kids. It affects the way all citizens, in
every sector, see themselves and others. The declared motive doesn't
matter: spreading democracy, plundering resources, doing God's will. It
will breed attitudes about power, inequality, the absolute truth of
one's ideas; it affects economics, culture, everything. How does it do
so? Seymour Hersh, who exposed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam 35 years
ago, said this week that the mother of a U.S. soldier told him: "I sent
them a good boy and they gave me back a murderer." It happens that way,
and in other, subtler ones.
It can happen to any nation, once it takes on such a role. It has
transformed Israeli society, especially since the conquest and
occupation of 1967. That Canadians do not generally betray such
attitudes has nothing to do with us being better people. It's because we
haven't been given imperial experiences. In cases where we play
analogous parts, with aboriginal peoples, for example, we don't measure
up well.
As for the "bitterly divided" U.S. election, try this. Imperial policies
beget a kind of domestic imperial politics, which is not about resolving
differences via democratic debate, but is modelled on conquering versus
conquered, rulers versus ruled, winners and losers. Things get tenser
when the empire itself is challenged and, most of all, when it bogs down
as it has in Iraq. If the imperial mentality makes people haughty, mean
and unwilling to deal with contradiction, then a threatened imperialism
will make them more so, because now they're scared and their basic sense
of superiority and power is under stress. And so the current "season of
mean" in the U.S. All the normal political nastiness gets augmented.
Many on the left are nursing a certain whimsy about John Kerry in
office. "My guess is," wrote my friend Linda McQuaig, "he would behave
less aggressively in the world than Bush." I respectfully scoff. My
guess is, in the Kennedy or Clinton mode, he'd be as or more aggressive,
as he has promised. But I also think the theopolitically blinkered Bush
team is more likely to lead us all into nuclear catastrophe than the
"reality-based" John Kerry. For me, global incineration is the tipping
point. I'm hoping for a Kerry win.
*
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6 [NukeNet] Elitism: Stop, Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:34:06 -0800
by request. fab.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu [mailto:owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu]
On Behalf Of Francis Boyle
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 1:50 PM
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list'
Subject: Elitism: Stop, Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School Faculty: ASIL
Insights - October 27, 2004
What has become of our so-called "elite" Law Schools: Harvard, Yale,
Chicago, Berkeley.. Either turning out or hiring war criminals, warmongers,
and torturers. something is rotten in the state of "elite" legal education.
They are no longer fit to educate students. There is something
fundamentally wrong with a system of elite legal education that has become
so rotten, corrupt, despicable and anti-democratic.
Francis A. Boyle
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)
----- Original Message -----
From: Francis Boyle
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing
list'
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: YLS?: Stop, Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School Faculty: ASIL
Insights - October 27, 2004
i read the memo by Goldsmith posted on the Washington Post web-site. Truly
disgusting business. Basically authorizing the CIA to kidnap protected
persons from Iraq for the purpose of "interrogation" elsewhere--i.e.,
torture. Authorizing grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and the US
War Crimes Act. In other words, serious war crimes under both international
law and US domestic criminal law. Goldsmith, Wedgewood and Yoo were all
educated at Yale Law School. In other words, YLS has produced three war
criminal law professors. Something is rotten in the City of New Haven. As
an alum I have acted with respect to the Faculty of Harvard Law School. It
seems to me that those of you who are YLS alums had better do something
about the Faculty of Yale Law School before they continue to turn out more
war criminals and warmongers such as Goldsmith, Wedgewood and Yoo.
fab, HLS, 1976
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
(personal comments only)
----- Original Message -----
From: Boyle, Francis
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing
list' ('AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list')
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 2:29 PM
Subject: Stop, Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School Faculty: ASIL Insights -
October 27, 2004
As former Chair of the Harvard Law School Fund Campaign for Greater
Illinois, I am encouraging my fellow HLS Alums to cut-off all funding for
HLS in protest.There is no point funding our adversaries.
Francis A. Boyle, HLS, 1976
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: Boyle, Francis
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 9:51 AM
To: Killeacle (Killeacle)
Subject: Ding & Boycott Harvard Law Schoo Faculty: ASIL Insights - October
27, 2004
From: owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu [mailto:owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu]
On Behalf Of Boyle, Francis
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 9:04 AM
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list' ('AALS Section on
Minority Grps. mailing list')
Subject: Ding & Boycott Harvard Law School: ASIL Insights - October 27, 20 04
Dear Colleagues:
One of you made an excellent suggestion to me: That we proceed to ding
HLS on ALL the surveys we get from US News and World Report and
elsewhere, and drive their rankings down overall and by each specialty.
When they voted to appoint Goldsmith, the Harvard Law School Faculty knew
fell well that he was involved in war crimes activities at the Department
of Justice and the Pentagon. Indeed, Dean Kagan had been personally warned
about this, but the Harvard Law School Faculty voted to appoint a prima
facie war criminal to their Faculty anyway. The Harvard Law School Faculty
is not fit to educate students. We need to drive home to the Harvard Law
School Faculty that this behavior is completely unacceptable to their
Colleagues in the Legal Teaching Profession. The Harvard Law School
Faculty is not above the Law. Therefore, I recommend that we respond to
each and every peer survey we get and rank the Harvard Law School LAST
in each and every specialty and overall.
Francis A. Boyle, HLS, 1976
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu [mailto:owner-aalsmin-l@ube.ubalt.edu]
On Behalf Of Boyle, Francis
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 4:58 PM
To: 'AALS Section on Minority Grps. mailing list' ('AALS Section on
Minority Grps. mailing list')
Subject: Boycott Harvard Law School: ASIL Insights - October 27, 2004
"Finally, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides in part,
"Grave breaches [of the Convention] shall be those involving any of the
following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the
present Convention: . . . unlawful deportation or transfer . . . of a
protected person . . . ." The deportation or transfer would be "unlawful"
if it violates Article 49.[9] Article 146 requires each contracting party
to search for persons alleged to be responsible for grave breaches, and to
bring them before its own courts or hand them over for trial to another
contracting party that has made out a prima facie case against them."
This is precisely what should be done to HLS Professor Jack Goldsmith.
He is responsible for grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and must be
brought before US courts of prosecution for the commission of such war
crimes. Notice too that I was thrown off the ASIL listserves for pointing
this out. No surprise there. As I established in my Foundations of World
Order (Duke University Press: 1999), the American Society of International
Law and the American Journal of International Law were originally
established as front organizations and propaganda mouthpieces for the U.S.
State Department. Nothing has changed.
The Harvard Law School Faculty knew full well of all the nefarious
activities that Goldsmith had engaged in at both the Pentagon and the
Department of Justice before they voted to hire him. Indeed, Dean Kagan had
been told that there was a serious problem with Goldsmith. But they hired
him anyway, and at the height of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, knowing
full well that the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel was the lead agency on
authorizing and approving that torture. For this reason, the Harvard Law
School Faculty is not fit to educate students. I call upon all people of
good faith and good will to boycott the Harvard Law School and its Faculty.
Francis A. Boyle, HLS, 1976
-----Original Message-----
From: ASIL Insights [mailto:insights@asil.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 3:12 PM
To: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU
Subject: ASIL Insights - October 27, 2004
ASIL Insights are available on the ASIL website at:
http://www.asil.org/insights.htm
ASIL Insight
By Frederic L. Kirgis
October 2004
According to news reports, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has
transferred about a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18
months. Their destination has not been made known. The news reports say
that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has prepared a draft
legal opinion that would authorize the CIA to take Iraqis out of the
country for brief periods of interrogation, and permanently to remove
persons deemed to be illegal aliens under "local immigration law."[1]
The United States government has acknowledged that the 1949 Geneva
Conventions apply to the situation in Iraq. This Insight identifies and
briefly analyzes provisions in those Conventions that might apply to these
transfers. It does not reach conclusions regarding the lawfulness of the
transfers under the Conventions. Nor does it consider international human
rights norms that exist independently from the Geneva Conventions.
The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to civilians, including most--but not
all--civilians in occupied territory. According to a handbook published by
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the organization that
administers the Geneva Conventions, "'Civilian person' means any person who
does not belong to the armed forces and does not take part in a 'levée en
masse'."[2](A "levée en masse" would consist of inhabitants of a
non-occupied territory who spontaneously and openly take up arms to resist
an invading force.[3])
As the news media have pointed out, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva
Convention says, "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as
deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory
of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not,
are prohibited, regardless of their motive." Moreover, Article 76 says,
"Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied
country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein."
Article 1 provides, "The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and
to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances." Article
5 sets out a limitation on the rights of a protected person who is
definitely suspected of activity hostile to the security of an occupying
power, but the limitation extends only to forfeiture of the person's rights
of communication under the Convention. Article 6 says that an occupying
power is bound by these Articles (among other Articles) for the duration of
the occupation. The United States and Iraq are parties to the Convention.
Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention says that persons protected by
the Convention are "those who, at a given moment and in any manner
whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the
hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not
nationals." The International Committee of the Red Cross' Commentary to the
Fourth Geneva Convention mentions that during the negotiations leading to
the adoption of that Convention, some speakers observed that the term
"nationals" does not cover all cases. In particular, they said, it does not
cover "cases where men and women had fled from their homeland and no longer
considered themselves, or were no longer considered, to be nationals of
that country."[4]It is possible that some of the recently-transferred
persons are in this category, but it is not clear under the international
law of treaties that this negotiating history could properly be considered
in interpreting the seemingly unambiguous terms, quoted above, of Article 4.[5]
Article 4 also says that "Nationals of a neutral State who find themselves
in the territory of a belligerent State, and nationals of a co-belligerent
State, shall not be regarded as protected persons while the State of which
they are nationals has normal diplomatic representation in the State in
whose hands they are." This provision could apply to non-Iraqi nationals of
a country that has normal diplomatic representation in the United States.
The reason for this provision is that the diplomatic representatives can
adequately protect the interests of their nationals by dealing directly
with the government of the occupying country.[6] But it does not
contemplate a situation in which those diplomatic representatives would be
disinclined to protect their nationals suspected of terrorism that might,
at least in part, be directed against their own government.
Article 4 goes on to say that persons protected by the other 1949 Geneva
Conventions, including the Third Geneva Convention Relative to the
Treatment of Prisoners of War, "shall not be considered as protected
persons within the meaning of the present Convention." The United States
has taken the position that prisoners who are members of Al Qaeda and
related terrorist organizations are not prisoners of war within the meaning
of the Third Geneva Convention. Members of such groups, if they are not
members of regular armed forces, are not entitled to prisoner of war status
unless they carry arms openly and conduct their operations in accordance
with the laws and customs of war.[7]Thus they could be protected persons
under the Fourth Geneva Convention, so long as they do not fall within any
other exception to it.
Even if the local immigration law of Iraq allows deportation of persons
deemed to be illegal aliens, the Geneva Conventions would trump domestic
Iraqi law as a matter of international law--provided, of course, that the
persons being deported are within the protection of the Geneva Conventions.
Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which reflects
customary international law, "A party may not invoke the provisions of its
internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty."[8]
Finally, Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention provides in part,
"Grave breaches [of the Convention] shall be those involving any of the
following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the
present Convention: . . . unlawful deportation or transfer . . . of a
protected person . . . ." The deportation or transfer would be "unlawful"
if it violates Article 49.[9] Article 146 requires each contracting party
to search for persons alleged to be responsible for grave breaches, and to
bring them before its own courts or hand them over for trial to another
contracting party that has made out a prima facie case against them.
About the Author:
Frederic L. Kirgis is Law Alumni Professor at Washington and Lee University
School of Law. He has written books and articles on international law, and
is an honorary editor of the American Journal of International Law. The
author is grateful to Professor Mark Drumbl for his extremely helpful
comments on a draft of this Insight. Any errors or omissions are the
author's own.
[1] Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2004, p. A1; New York Times, Oct. 26, 2004,
pp. A1, A14.
[2] Frédéric de Mulinen, Handbook on the Law of War for Armed Forces 13
(ICRC, 1987).
[3] Third Geneva Convention, Art.4.A(6).
[4] Commentary to IV Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of
Civilian Persons in Time of War, at 47 (ICRC, 1958).
[5] See Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Arts. 31-32, 1155 U.N.
Treaty Series 331, 8 Int'l Legal Materials 679 (1969). Article 32
significantly restricts recourse to the preparatory work of a treaty when
the terms of the treaty have an ordinary meaning in their context and in
light of the object and purpose of the treaty.
[6] Commentary to IV Geneva Convention, at 49.
[7] Third Geneva Convention, Article 4.A. See also ASIL Insight, Status of
Detainees in International Armed Conflict, and Their Protection in the
Course of Criminal Proceedings (Jan. 2002).
[8] Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Art. 27.
[9] Commentary to IV Geneva Convention, at 599. As indicated above, the
deportation or transfer would be unlawful under international law if it
violates the Convention, whether or not it is lawful under the domestic law
of Iraq.
The purpose of ASIL Insights is to provide concise and informed background
for developments of interest to the international community. The American
Society of International Law does not take positions on substantive issues,
including the ones discussed in this Insight. Educational copying is
permitted with due acknowledgement.
Copyright 2004 by The American Society of International Law ASIL Insights
are available on the ASIL website at
http://www.asil.org/insights.htm.
Sign up to receive International Law In Brief via email:
http://www.asil.org/resources/e-newsletters.html#lawinbrief.
Join the ASILforum listserve for open discussions on topics of
international law by going to
http://www.asil.org/forum.htm.
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7 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Oak Ridge
FR Doc 04-24355
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63376-63377] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-56]
Reservation AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Oak Ridge.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770)
requires that public notice of these meeting be announced in the
Federal Register.
DATES: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 6 p.m.
ADDRESSES: DOE Information Center, 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak
Ridge, TN.
[[Page 63377]] FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Pat Halsey,
Federal Coordinator, Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations
Office, P.O. Box 2001, EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831. Phone (865)
576-4025; Fax (865) 576-5333 or e- mail: halseypj@oro.doe.gov
[halseypj@oro.doe.gov] or check the Web site at
http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.oakridge.doe.gov/em/ssab] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of
environmental restoration, waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Agenda: Update on the Environmental Management Program
Speakers--Mike Hughes of Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC Steve
McCracken of the U.S. Department of Energy Public Participation:
The meeting is open to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Committee either before
or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral
statements pertaining to agenda items should contact Pat Halsey
at the address or telephone number listed above. Requests must be
received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable provision
will be made to include the presentation in the agenda. The
Deputy Designated Federal Officer is empowered to conduct the
meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of
business. Each individual wishing to make public comment will be
provided a maximum of five minutes to present their comments.
This Federal Register notice is being published less than 15 days
prior to the meeting due to programmatic issues that had to be
resolved prior to the meeting date.
Minutes: Minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Department of Energy's Information
Center at 475 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN between 8 a.m.
and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by writing to Pat Halsey,
Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations Office, P.O. Box 2001,
EM-90, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, or by calling her at (865) 576-4025.
Issued at Washington, DC, on October 27, 2004.
Rachel M. Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-24355 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
8 BBC: White House rivals race to finish
Last Updated: Tuesday, 2 November, 2004
[George W Bush lands in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday]
Bush and Kerry are on a final dash as the hours tick by
George W Bush and John Kerry have been making last-ditch attempts
to win support on the final day of campaigning in the US
presidential election.
Both men spent Monday targeting key marginal states which could
decide the battle for the White House, a race deemed too close to
call.
President Bush began his day at dawn, with rallies in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico.
Senator Kerry campaigned in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan and
Ohio.
With the latest opinion polls showing the two men neck-and-neck,
both made last-minute appeals to Americans to make sure they cast
their votes on Tuesday, hoping that a final turnout of undecided
voters will work in their favour.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says neither candidate can be
sure of a win, and the last day may be decisive.
Ohio ruling
With the race so close, there are fears of a repeat of 2000's
disputed result and subsequent legal wrangling.
FINAL DAY: CAMPAIGN STOPS
[Map showing wher Bush and Kerry are campaigning on 1 November]
Election result timetable
Q: Electoral College
Already, two federal judges in the key state of Ohio have ruled
that political party observers in polling stations may not
challenge the credentials of voters during Tuesday's poll.
One of the cases was brought by an African-American couple who
argued that plans by President Bush's Republican Party to deploy
such observers in mainly black areas amounted to intimidation.
The Republicans say they should be able to challenge voters to
prevent fraud, and have appealed against the ruling.
Analysts believe the tight race in Ohio may prove the decider.
Even a narrow majority would give the winner the state's entire
set of 20 Electoral College votes that are used to pick the
president.
[John Kerry holds baby Brianna McElroy, months, after Mass in
Orlando] African observer's view World press cynical
The victor there has won the White House in every vote since 1964
- and no Republican has ever won without it.
President Bush started the day in the state.
A vote for his ticket, he told an early-morning crowd in
Wilmington, was a vote for "a safer America and a stronger
America and a better America".
On his stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he said he had "the
finish line in sight" and in Milwaukee he promised a "brighter
day and a more hopeful America for every citizen".
The BBC's Stephen Evans, travelling with the incumbent president,
says there is no certainty of victory within the Bush camp.
One Republican strategist said he was both confident and anxious
about the result.
Florida
Senator Kerry started his day in Florida - the swing state
narrowly won by Mr Bush in 2000 that gave him the election.
The Democratic challenger told supporters it was time to "take
this thing and finish it off and get the job done".
The Democrats have 2,000 lawyers and tens of thousands of
volunteers in Florida to monitor the vote after the controversial
Republican victory there at the last election.
THE CAMPAIGN IN FIGURES 75%: Percentage o
those in an ABC poll who thought it was the most important
election of their lives $272,573,444: Amount raised by
President George W Bush (correct as of 13 October) $249,305,109:
Amount raised by Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry
(correct as of 13 October) 43,256: Number of times adverts were
run from 21 to 27 October $46,367,413: Total amount spent on
adverts from 21 to 27 October 208-169: US newspaper
endorsements for Mr Kerry and President Bush (correct as of 31
October) 28-14: loss by Washington Redskins football team -
since 1936, a loss in their last home game before the election
has been followed by victory for the challenger
Miami voters were crowding into polling stations on Monday to
take advantage of the last day of early voting, amid fears that
they would be overcrowded on election day itself.
A record number of people have been voting early across the
country, including nearly two million voters in Florida.
Leaving the Florida sun for the rain and chill of Milwaukee, Mr
Kerry and his team had to wait on arrival at General Mitchell
International Airport as they crossed paths with Mr Bush.
The BBC's Jill McGivering, with the Kerry campaign, said the
challenger looked confident and relaxed as he told supporters in
Wisconsin this was the most important election of their lives and
urged them to get out and vote.
He was finishing his campaign with a major rally in Cleveland, to
be joined on stage by his family and rock star Bruce Springsteen.
The candidates can campaign until midnight local time - which, in
Washington DC, will be 0500 GMT.
On election day itself, Mr Kerry will vote in Boston after
starting the day in Wisconsin.
Mr Bush's aides say he will vote in his home town of Crawford,
Texas, before meeting campaign volunteers in Columbus, Ohio, and
returning to the White House.
Last-minute adverts
Both camps were wrapping up their campaigns with a record number
of last-minute advertisements.
In the final hours of campaigning, they were less seeking new
converts than trying to get all their supporters out on election
day.
"Get your friends and neighbours to go to the polls tomorrow,"
said Mr Bush in Wisconsin.
Mr Kerry made a similar appeal in Milwaukee:
"Knock on those doors, make those phone calls, help take friends
to the polls."
*****************************************************************
9 TIME Asia Magazine: Nuclear Shell Games --
Nov. 08, 2004
Nuclear Shell Games
Whatever the history of South Korea's nuclear experiments, it
doesn't bother the U.S. Why not?
BY [mail@web.timeasia.com]
Monday, Nov. 01, 2004
The nuclear intentions of Iran and North Korea have been a major
source of global angst for more than a year, and the Bush
Administration is set to keep the pressure on both countries.
Stopping in Seoul last week during a swing through Asia to revive
talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis, Secretary of State
Colin Powell said the world badly needed to get Pyongyang back to
the negotiating table. North Korea "is a danger to every one of
its neighbors," he said.
Powell expressed far less concern about recent revelations that
South Korea, a U.S. ally, has been secretly tinkering with the
ingredients for atomic weapons. The South Korean government in
September admitted it had failed to tell the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) about its experiments with bomb-usable
materials including plutonium, sparking an investigation by the
agency into possible violations of Seoul's nonproliferation
commitments. Although the IAEA is not due to report its findings
until Nov. 25, Powell, in an interview on Korean television, said
the case was as good as closed. "I'm quite sure that the IAEA
will see it as a minor problem with experimentation," he said,
"and not anything for the international community to be worried
about."
Compared with its northern neighbor, South Korea certainly poses
no threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula. But that doesn't mean
the country is innocent of breaking its nuclear promises. Seoul
signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1975, agreeing not
to pursue bomb-making technology and to submit to IAEA monitoring
so that techniques and materials used in nuclear-power plants are
not converted to military use.
Seoul insists its scientists were not conducting weapons research
and that it has fully disclosed its activities. But there is
nagging evidence that the country has for decades periodically
carried out clandestine experiments to gain know-how that would
allow it to quickly develop atomic weapons, specifically through
the production of plutonium and enrichment of uranium. (Much of
the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program concerns
efforts to enrich uranium.) Although those radioactive elements
can be found in peaceful nuclear programs (with 19 reactors
supplying 40% of its electricity, South Korea relies heavily on
nuclear power), Seoul agreed not to produce either enriched
uranium or plutonium without notifying the IAEA because the
materials are essential to atom bombs. Now, the IAEA is trying to
determine the truth. Among the incidents being investigated:
• A 1982 experiment in which a minute quantity of plutonium was
separated from uranium. IAEA inspectors first became suspicious
in 1997 when a swab at a research reactor near Seoul picked up
traces of plutonium that shouldn't have been there. For years,
Seoul offered no explanation, saying the paperwork had been lost.
Finally, in September, the president of the Korea Atomic Energy
Research Institute (KAERI), Chang In Soon, said the traces were
residual material from a "one-off test" in which fuel was taken
from a reactor and dissolved in chemicals, allowing the plutonium
it contained to be extracted. A confidential Ministry of Science
and Technology report obtained by TIME states that five fuel rods
were involved and that testing took place over two months. More
ominously, the test material was "depleted" uranium imported from
the former West Germany in 1976. That was a red flag for the
IAEA, because depleted uranium is no good for power-plant fuel
and creates more plutonium when it decays than does ordinary
uranium. When the agency found out, "it really got people bent
out of shape," says Mark Hibbs, Asia and Europe editor at
industry publication Nucleonics Week. "That made them very keen
to explore more about it."
• The IAEA is also investigating an experiment carried out in
2000 at a sophisticated lab on KAERI's sprawling campus south of
Seoul. Earlier this year, after South Korea ratified a new
protocol giving the IAEA broader inspection powers, Seoul told
the agency that scientists at the institute had used lasers to
enrich uranium. Uranium used in fuel rods is lightly enriched,
usually less than 5%. During the 2000 experiment, however,
researchers produced uranium that was 77% enriched, or nearly
weapons grade. Seoul characterized the laser experiment as
independent research carried out by curious scientists who then
neglected to report it. But TIME has been told by two sources
that one of the scientists involved in the 2000 experiment was
Lee Jong Min, a vice president at KAERI at the time and one of
the country's top laser experts. Lee's office did not respond to
requests by TIME for comment.
Standing beside Powell last week, Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon
insisted his government had nothing to hide. "We're handling this
in a transparent manner," he said. Officials and lawmakers in
Seoul are seething over the international scrutiny, saying their
country is the victim of a double standard because their ancient
rival Japan is allowed to enrich uranium and separate plutonium
to run reactors. "Every nation that pursues the full use of
nuclear technology inevitably gets close to weapons technology,"
says Kim Tae Woo, a nuclear analyst at the government-run Korea
Institute for Defense Analyses. "So what is wrong with that?"
The answer is easy. If a U.S. ally is allowed to get away with
nuclear transgressions, there's every chance that Tehran and
Pyongyang will scream bloody murder—and be less inclined to scale
back their own plans. Seoul's murky nuclear history didn't seem
to disturb Powell. That's a judgment he may yet come to regret.
From the Nov. 08, 2004 issue of TIME Asia Magazine
Copyright © 2004 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 Times of India: Nuclear Outlaws: Rogue States Make a Mockery of NPT
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2004
[http://www.indiatimes.com]
K SUBRAHMANYAM
General Musharraf recently claimed that Pakistan was no more a
rogue state in the eyes of the world. The world, according to
him, was convinced that Pakistan was not instrumental in nuclear
proliferation. In his Iftaar party speech on October 25, he said
he had wisely handled the issue of A Q Khan and other scientists
on the international stage.
Within a few hours of this claim, the Washington Post of October
26, 2004 carried a well-researched front-page article by Barton
Gellman and Dafna Linzer, on Pakistan's proliferation. The
article makes a startling disclosure that Dr A Q Khan's
proliferation activities were perhaps not confined to North
Korea, Libya and Iran. Dr Khan's documents overseas suggest that
there was a fourth country to which Dr Khan might have arranged
supplies of uranium enrichment equipment. A whole shipload of
equipment was expected in Libya in addition to 500 tonnes earlier
unloaded and surrendered to the US authorities. The ship did not
arrive and was believed to have been diverted to another
destination. The US and British intelligence authorities are as
yet unable to identify the fourth country. But they suspect it to
be Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, in that order of
probability.
Pakistan has denied western authorities and the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to Dr A Q Khan. According to
the authors of the article, while Pakistan supplies answers to
written queries by the US and UK intelligence, its cooperation is
less than wholehearted. Given the dismal record of western
intelligence in tracking proliferation, it is difficult to accept
their conclusions on the suspect fourth country. The most logical
candidate is Saudi Arabia. It has already purchased long range
CSS-2 nuclear-capable missiles from China. It is unlikely to
tolerate a Shia, nuclear Iran without an appropriate response.
The Saudis have financed Pakistan's nuclear programme. Prince
Sultan was the only foreigner to be permitted to visit the
nuclear facilities at Kahuta.
When the NPT review conference is held next year, the nuclear
member nations not recognised by NPT Israel, India, Pakistan,
North Korea, Iran and the unnamed nation could well outnumber
the five recognised members, namely, the US, Russia, Britain,
France and China. Of the six outside the pale of NPT, North
Korea, Iran and the unnamed nation deliberately violated the
treaty, thanks to Pakistan. Israel, India and Pakistan are not
signatories to the treaty. Strangely, the US and UK do not
consider Pakistan as a proliferating country, even as they
concentrate their ire on Iran and North Korea.
Iran was subjected to WMD attacks by Saddam Hussein while the
western powers looked the other way. Saddam's nuclear, chemical
and biological weapon proliferation received tacit support from
western companies. After this, Iran sought nuclear weapon
technology from Pakistan in 1987, as was mentioned by Dr A Q Khan
in his confession and confirmed by General Aslam Beg. Today, most
observers agree there is no stopping North Korea and Iran from
acquiring nuclear weapons. Sanctions are unlikely to work against
oil-rich Iran or the hermit country, North Korea. After the US
experience in invasion of Iraq, military action against either
country seems unlikely.
It is obvious that the safeguards envisaged in the
non-proliferation treaty have failed to stop members from defying
the regime and acquiring nuclear weapons. Pakistan, the major
proliferator, aided North Korea and Iran to turn nuclear, cocking
a snook at the much-touted NPT and yet not attracting any
penalties. This has only increased the risks of further
proliferation. In view of this, the US and its allies have
attempted to put in place new measures to halt proliferation, not
envisaged in the NPT. They include criminalisation of
proliferation, expediting US help to Russia under Nunn-Lugar
amendment to safeguard fissile materials of the Cold War era,
tightening supply of equipment and materials, strengthening the
IAEA as a policing organisation, among others. Since these
measures have been unilaterally mooted by the US and its allies,
they have run into opposition, particularly from China, the
original proliferator to Pakistan.
It is now clear that a new regime is needed to prevent nuclear
weapons and materials falling into the hands of non-state actors.
The risks of jehadi non-state actors attempting to get at nuclear
weapons and materials are higher in the Gulf region, which has
seen 1,300 years of religious rivalry between Shias and Sunnis.
With Shia power expanding in West Asia and Iraq coming under
majority Shia control, tensions are likely to increase between
majority Shia populations and Sunni-ruling elites in the Gulf
states, including Saudi Arabia.
If the fourth state to which Pakistan proliferated happens to be
Saudi Arabia, then the world should worry about the possibility
of nuclear escalation between Wahabi Saudi Arabia and its ally,
jehadi Sunni Pakistan on one side, and the Shia Iran and Iraq on
the other. The longest war with highest casualties in the
developing world was waged between Shia Iran and Sunni-led Iraq,
in which WMD was used. The international community should develop
an effective anti-proliferation regime, keeping in mind the
prevailing tensions in the Gulf, while ensuring that nuclear
materials do not fall into the hands of non-state actors in this
region.
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
11 Moscow Times: Putin Eyes Nuclear Terrorism
[http://www.context.themoscowtimes.com/index.html]
Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Page 4.
The Associated Press
President Vladimir Putin on Monday pushed for passing a United
Nations convention on combating nuclear terrorism, saying the
document should help coordinate global efforts to prevent mass
destruction weapons from falling into terrorists' hands.
Putin voiced hope that the current session of the UN General
Assembly would consider Russia's draft of the convention.
"It must create conditions for averting any attempts by
terrorists to get hold of nuclear weapons or any other nuclear
materials," Putin said in a letter to Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami, excerpts of which were released by the Kremlin.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, concerns have grown that terrorists
might try to acquire material for a dirty bomb -- a device that
uses conventional explosives to scatter low-level radioactive
material over city blocks. It has no atomic chain reaction and
requires no highly enriched uranium or plutonium which are kept
under tight security and difficult to obtain. Instead, the
radioactive component is of lower-grade isotopes, such as those
used in medicine or research. The International Atomic Energy
Agency estimates as many as 110 countries do not have adequate
controls over radioactive devices that could be used to build a
dirty bomb.
Copyright © 2004 The Moscow Times. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
12 The Herald: Nuclear industry urged to come clean over leaks
Web Issue 2126 November 01 2004
Herald [http://www.sundayherald.com/]
STEPHEN STEWART
CAMPAIGNERS yesterday called for the "shroud of secrecy"
surrounding the nuclear power industry to be lifted after it
emerged that a huge area of land had been contaminated around a
Scottish site.
An estimated 81,000 cubic metres of soil has been affected at
the Hunterston A power station in North Ayrshire, and British
Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which manages the site, said it was
unaware of the full extent of contamination.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a government body that
oversees the clean-up of nuclear installations, found levels of
contamination were the result of historic leaks.
Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, said
people living and working in and around nuclear facilities had
to be reassured they had not been exposed to radioactive
contamination.
He said: "Despite decades of support and billions of pounds in
public subsidy, nuclear power remains an uneconomic, unsafe and
unwanted energy technology."
Chris Ballance, Green MSP for the South of Scotland, said it
had now been accepted by scientists that there was no safe level
of radiation.
He said: "The public must be told when accidents happen, when
leaks occur. The shroud of secrecy which surrounds the nuclear
industry must be lifted.
"Let us be clear, Scotland neither wants nor needs nuclear
power. There is no such thing as a safe level of radiation."
But a spokesman for BNFL said radiation levels were well within
safety limits at the station, which is being decommissioned.
"We do not know the extent of the contamination, but the figure
of 81,000 cubic metres has been put in as an over-estimate," he
said, adding: "This site is no different to any other industrial
or chemical site where there is some cleaning up to do. There
has not been any danger."
Brian Wilson, former energy minister, said campaigners were
spreading scare stories and claimed the issue had been well
known for some time.
Mr Wilson, MP for Cunninghame North, which includes Hunterston,
dismissed those who had expressed the latest concerns, including
environmental campaign group Greenpeace and Mr Ballance, as the
"usual bunch of anti-nuclear activists who rely on scare stories
to prop up their cause".
Jim Craik, site manager at Hunterston A, attempting to reassure
people living nearby, said: "We have an area of contaminated
land which is quite substantial, much more substantial than we
would like.
"During the 1970s when it was identified, it was brought to the
attention of the regulators and they were satisfied that the
actions we were taking were appropriate."
Copyright © Newsquest (Herald & Times) Limited. All Rights
[http://www.pressnow.co.uk/] :: About Us :: Terms of Use
*****************************************************************
13 Platts: Markey wants NRC to suspend `non-essential' proceedings
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
+ Rep. Edward Markey wants NRC to suspend all "non-essential"
proceedings until the agency reinstates its online document
system, Adams.
In a letter sent today to NRC Chairman Nils Diaz, Markey
(D-Mass.) said he supported the agency's effort to pull documents
containing sensitive information from the public site.
But he said the way NRC approached the review is penalizing
members of the public who need access to materials to prepare for
hearings or a challenge to a licensing request.
Markey questioned why it has taken more than three years since
the 2001 terrorist attacks to search through the records, and he
criticized NRC for failing to "strike a balance" between security
and public access considerations. He asked NRC for a response by
Nov. 19.
Washington (Platts)--29Oct2004
Copyright © 2004 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
14 Mid Day: Tarapur N-plant to run for another 30 yrs
bigbreak.mid-day.com]
By: Ram Parmar
November 1, 2004
Palghar: The country’s first nuclear power plant, the Tarapur
Atomic Power Station (TAPS), will not be scrapped even after it
has completed 35 years of existence.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Nuclear Power
Corporation of India Limited have given positive signals for
continuing the plant, said S C Katiyar, station director, TAPS.
The world over, nuke plants are either dismantled or scrapped
after 25 to 30 years of their peak productivity. But since the
2x160 MWe TAPS, which uses the obsolete Boiling Water Reactor
technology, will be upgraded in 2005, the lifespan of the plant
will be extended by another 30 years.
Katiyar admitted that there was a problem of enriched uranium
fuel supply, which is imported from France, China and other
nations, but added that TAPS has a buffer stock of fuel to last
till 2007.
The original American designers were supposed to lift the spent
fuel after 25 years, but did not do so because of fragile Indo-US
political situation then. The spent fuel was, therefore, stored
at TAPS.
The DAE and the Atomic Energy Research Board scientists have now
developed a new technology of re-processing the spent uranium
into Multiple Oxide (MOX) fuel.
The TAPS plants will be undertaking a refuelling process, where
the entire plant will be shut for a minimum of 20 days when,
formerly, it used to be shut for three months.
The plant may add 4,500 MWe to the national grid by 2007.
Currently, 14 nuke plants are in operation, generating a mere
2,800 MWe. Eight new nuclear reactors are in various stages of
completion in Kaiga (Karnataka), Kundakulam (Tamil Nadu),
Rawatbhatta (Rajasthan) and Tarapur.
TAPS supplies power at a low tariff of Rs 1.10 per unit to the
Maharashtra State Electricity Board which powers parts of Mumbai
and other major cities of the state.
mid-day.com finds out
© 2004 Mid-Day
Multimedia Ltd.
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15 SF Chronicle: Big Science with tiny particles hits a snag
/ PG opposes UC proposal to study neutrinos at nuclear plant
[http://www.sfgate.com/index/] ]
Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
[glenmartin@sfchronicle.com]
Monday, November 1, 2004
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and University of California
physicists are in a big spat over a proposed Big Science project
at the utility's Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis
Obispo County.
UC Berkeley scientists say the plant is uniquely suited for
ambitious neutrino experiments that could yield information about
the fundamental fabric of the universe. It's the kind of bold
project, say boosters, that leads to Nobel Prizes and
technological breakthroughs.
The scientists want to use Diablo's nuclear reactor to measure
the strange way neutrinos -- subatomic particles emitted by stars
and nuclear piles -- "oscillate" between different mass states.
At one time, neutrinos were thought to be massless. It is now
known they do have mass, but not in the sense that a kilogram of
shrimp weighs 2.2 pounds.
Because they are so infinitesimally small, neutrinos exist in the
quantum realm, where rules governing the macro-universe -- the
known world of Buicks and bread boxes -- break down. A neutrino's
mass -- unlike the mass of a larger object -- is not stable, but
exists in a state of probability.
"Say you had some in a box, and you pulled one out and weighed it
and it weighed m-1," said Stuart Freedman, a professor of physics
at UC Berkeley and a faculty senior adviser at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory.
"Then you pulled out an identical one, and it weighed m-2,"
continued Freedman. "It isn't a situation where a neutrino is m-1
or m-2 -- it's a situation where the neutrino is 50 percent one
mass and 50 percent another. This seems surprising, but it's
perfectly natural in quantum mechanics."
Neutrinos manifest three different "flavors," or states of
indefinite mass -- electron neutrinos, muon neutrinos and tau
neutrinos. Scientists hope the parameters that control the
oscillation of neutrinos from one flavor to another can explain a
very big conundrum: Why is the universe that expanded from the
Big Bang mostly matter, rather than the 50 percent matter and 50
percent antimatter that it should be under currently accepted
doctrine?
If one of these parameters -- dubbed theta 13 -- has a value
other than zero, said Freedman, it would largely explain the
matter/antimatter anomaly.
But how to evaluate theta 13? That's where Diablo Canyon comes
in. The site, in essence, consists of a big nuclear reactor next
to some mountains. Nuclear reactors produce large quantities of
antielectron neutrinos, a variety that is particularly easy to
detect.
In conjunction with researchers at California Polytechnic State
University San Luis Obispo, UC scientists want to dig a 20-foot
wide, 1.5- to 2-mile long tunnel through the mountains behind the
reactor, lay some railroad track inside the bore and install two
detectors -- each a big vat filled with 1,000 tons of mineral oil
-- on the rails.
The antielectron neutrinos will collide with protons in hydrogen
atoms in the oil, changing them to positrons and neutrons. That
will result in characteristic energy bursts that will be recorded
by photo detectors. By analyzing the flux of neutrinos between
the two vats, researchers should be able to calculate the value
of theta 13.
It is necessary to shield the detectors with the mountain,
because cosmic rays from outer space can botch the results.
That's why the experiment must be carried out at Diablo Canyon,
say scientists -- no other reactor in the United States has such
a convenient topography.
While this will be Big Science, it will also be slow science.
Though a reactor spews out mind-numbing quantities of harmless
neutrinos, collisions with protons are rare. In a similar
experiment in Japan, the average was about one hit every three
days. The experiment, then, will consist of the big vats of
mineral oil sitting quietly under a mountain for six or seven
years while results are recorded and transmitted to laboratories
automatically.
That makes for a benign project, said Freedman -- and one that
will produce huge payoffs with few, if any, downsides. PG seemed
to agree with the physicists when the idea was broached last
year.
"We were talking to them, working in partnership with Cal Poly,
and things seemed to be going pretty smoothly," said Freedman.
"Then (in September), they abruptly got negative."
That has since led Freedman's group to initiate negotiations with
the managers of the Daya Bay nuclear complex in China, about 25
miles from Hong Kong.
"It's close to the mountains, so it's also suitable," Freedman
said. "They've also been much more responsive to the idea than
PG."
Still, said Freedman, "Diablo is an ideal site, and it'd be
wonderful to do this work in the United States. If we built this
project here, the entire international community (involved in
neutrino work) would coalesce around it."
Jeff Lewis, a spokesman for PG, said the company did not dismiss
the proposal lightly.
"A lot of the (staff) scientists at Diablo were very interested
in this project, would have liked to have seen it happen here,"
Lewis said. "But several things are working against it -- timing
being one of them."
Lewis said the utility is now involved in two major projects at
Diablo --
creating a storage site for spent fuel rods and replacing the
plant's steam generator.
"Those projects are going to occupy us for the rest of this
decade, and they're going to require movement and access through
a very constricted part of the property -- the same part where
the neutrino experiment would be located," Lewis said.
Plant security is another concern, Lewis said.
"Federal security requirements are changing by leaps and bounds,"
he said. "We don't know what they're going to be one month from
the next. So there's the risk they could start (the experiment)
but not finish it. Or what happens if we go back to Orange
Security Threat Level? Whenever that happens, no one but plant
employees could go back there."
Some environmentalists also are chary of the proposal.
"These mountains are a particularly beautiful part of the county,
and a lot of effort has already been expended by the Nature
Conservancy and the San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy to buy and
conserve them," said Gordon Hensley, the executive director of
Environment in the Public Interest and San Luis Obispo
Coastkeeper.
"The last thing we need is another major construction project on
this part of the coast," Hensley said. "There has been no
discussion of environmental impacts or alternatives."
Hensley noted funding has not yet been secured for the project.
"UC Berkeley really hasn't done a good job of selling this," he
said. "The real story is that a lot of people are competing to do
this kind of cutting-edge research. I know the University of
Washington wants to do something similar. This is about a race
for grant money."
But Anthony Buffa, a professor of physics at Cal Poly, said San
Luis Obispo would do well to win any such competition.
"This is going to be the only big global physics experiment
scheduled in the next decade, and it will either be done here or
in China," Buffa said. "The prestige of the U.S. is on the line."
The experiment also means a great deal locally, said Buffa.
"It will enhance the reputation of Cal Poly, and it will bring
$25 million or more directly to the county in construction jobs,"
he said.
Buffa scoffed at PG's objections.
"First they said (the issues) were environmental, then security,
and then when they realized neither were valid, it was all about
their upcoming fuel rod and steam generator projects," Buffa
said. "But we wouldn't be a problem, and they know it. They're an
elephant, we're an ant. When the elephant moves, the ant waits
and only continues when the elephant is out of the way."
E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin@sfchronicle.com
[glenmartin@sfchronicle.com] . Page A - 4
The San Francisco Chronicle]
*****************************************************************
16 Sify: REL keen to enter nuclear power market
Asian CERC
Monday, 01 November , 2004, 15:58
Mumbai: To fulfill the base load requirements of the country,
Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) is looking at the possibility of
setting up nuclear power stations. However, this requires a lot
of support from the government and perhaps for the first time in
the country any private company will be entering the nuclear
power market.
"It will be necessary to have technical support from the
department of atomic energy and NPCIL", a source said. As soon as
the amended Atomic Energy Act on private participation in the
nuclear energy production in the country gets Parliament
clearance, Reliance Energy will be the first company to come
forward to set up nuclear power plants.
The idea is to meet the high-energy demand of the country in view
of depletion of fossil fuel in the coming years. For the
country's expected demand of 600-700 gig watts of electricity by
'50, the new resources should be looked into without any delay.
Other renewable sources that Reliance Energy is working on are
wind and solar energy, mainly to cater to the requirements of
isolated places where there is no connection from the main grid.
Sify Finance Update
sify.com
© Copyright Sify Ltd, 1998-2004. All rights reserved.
Sify.comhosted at SifyHosting India's first Level 3 Internet
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17 NRC: Tennessee Valley Authority; Notice of Withdrawal of Application
FR Doc 04-24303
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63410] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-105]
for Amendment to Facility Operating License The U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (the Commission) has granted the request of
Tennessee Valley Authority (the licensee) to withdraw its March
10, 2004, application for proposed amendment to Facility
Operating License No. NPF-90 for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant,
Unit 1, located in Rhea County, Tennessee.
The proposed amendment would have revised the allowable value as
shown in Technical Specification table 3.3.8-1, ``Auxilary
Building Gas Treatment System (ABGTS) Actuation
Instrumentation,'' for the Spent Fuel Pool radiation monitors.
The Commission had previously issued a Notice of Consideration of
Issuance of Amendment published in the Federal Register on March
30, 2004 (69 FR 16624). However, by letter dated September 24,
2004, the licensee withdrew the proposed change.
For further details with respect to this action, see the
application for amendment dated March 10, 2004, and the
licensee's letter dated September 24, 2004, which withdrew the
application for license amendment. Documents may be examined,
and/or copied for a fee, at the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR),
located at One White Flint North, Public File Area O-1F21, 11555
Rockville Pike (first floor), Rockville, Maryland. Publicly
available records will be accessible electronically from the
Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at the NRC Web site,
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams/html]
. Persons who do not have access to ADAMS or who encounter
problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS, should
contact the NRC PDR Reference staff by telephone at
1-800-397-4209, or 301-415-4737 or by e-mail to
pdr@nrc.gov [ pdr@nrc.gov] . Dated in Rockville, Maryland, this
14th day of October 2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Robert J. Pascarelli, Project Manager, Section 2, Project
Directorate II, Division of Licensing Project Management, Office
of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 04-24303 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
18 NRC: Solicitation of Public Comments on the Implementation of the
FR Doc 04-24304
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63411-63413] From the Federal Register Online via
GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-107]
Reactor Oversight Process AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for public comment.
SUMMARY: Nearly 5 years have elapsed since the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) implemented its revised Reactor
Oversight Process (ROP). The NRC is currently soliciting comments
from members of the public, licensees, and interest groups
related to the implementation of the ROP. This solicitation will
provide insights into the self- assessment process and a summary
of the feedback will be included in the annual ROP
self-assessment report to the Commission.
DATES: The comment period expires on December 16, 2004. The NRC
will consider comments received after this date if it is
practical to do so, but is only able to ensure consideration of
comments received on or before this date.
ADDRESSES: Completed questionnaires and/or comments may be
e-mailed to nrcrep@nrc.gov [ nrcrep@nrc.gov] or sent to Michael
T. Lesar, Chief, Rules and Directives Branch, Office of
Administration (Mail Stop T-6D59), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. Comments may also be
hand-delivered to Mr. Lesar at 11554 Rockville Pike, Rockville,
Maryland, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. on Federal workdays.
Documents created or received at the NRC after November 1, 1999,
are
[[Page 63412]] available electronically through the NRC's Public
Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html] . From
this site, the public can access the NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and
image files of the NRC's public documents. For more information,
contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at
301-415-4737 or 800-397-4209, or by e-mail at pdr@nrc.gov
[pdr@nrc.gov] . FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Serita
Sanders, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (Mail Stop: OWFN
7A15), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington DC
20555-0001. Ms. Sanders can also be reached by telephone at
301-415-2956 or by e-mail at SXS5@nrc.gov [SXS5@nrc.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Program Overview The mission of the
NRC is to regulate the civilian uses of nuclear materials in the
United States to protect the health and safety of the public and
the environment, and to promote the common defense and security
by preventing the proliferation of nuclear material.
This mission is accomplished through the following activities:
License nuclear facilities and the possession, use, and disposal
of nuclear materials.
Develop and implement requirements governing licensed activities.
Inspect and enforce licensee activities to ensure compliance with
these requirements and the law.
While the NRC's responsibility is to monitor and regulate
licensees' performance, the primary responsibility for safe
operation and handling of nuclear materials rests with each
licensee.
As the nuclear industry in the United States has matured for more
than 27 years, the NRC and its licensees have learned much about
how to safely operate nuclear facilities and handle nuclear
materials.
In April 2000, the NRC began to implement more effective and
efficient inspection, assessment, and enforcement approaches,
which apply insights from these years of regulatory oversight and
nuclear facility operation. Key elements of the Reactor Oversight
Process (ROP) include NRC inspection procedures, plant
performance indicators, a significance determination process, and
an assessment program that incorporates various risk-informed
thresholds to help determine the level of NRC oversight and
enforcement. Since ROP development began in 1998, the NRC has
frequently communicated with the public by various initiatives:
conducting public meetings in the vicinity of each licensed
commercial nuclear power plant, issuing FRNs soliciting feedback
on the ROP, publishing press releases about the new process,
conducting multiple public workshops, placing pertinent
background information in the NRC's Public Document Room, and
establishing an NRC Web site containing easily accessible
information about the ROP and licensee performance.
NRC Public Stakeholder Comments The NRC continues to be
interested in receiving feedback from members of the public,
various public stakeholders, and industry groups on their
insights regarding the CY 2004 implementation of the ROP. In
particular, the NRC is seeking responses to the questions listed
below, which will provide important information that the NRC can
use in ongoing program improvement. A summary of the feedback
obtained will be provided to the Commission and included in the
annual ROP self- assessment report.
This solicitation of public comments has been issued each year
since ROP implementation in 2000. In previous years, the question
had been free-form in nature requesting written responses.
Although written responses are still encouraged, we have added
specific choices to best describe your experience to enable us to
more objectively determine your level of satisfaction.
In addition, we are asking for feedback under distinct time
frames to enable us to trend your level of satisfaction: During
the initial year of ROP implementation (2000), and current ROP
implementation. In future years, we will ask for feedback only
for current ROP implementation.
Questions As previously discussed, we are asking for feedback
under distinct time frames to enable us to trend your level of
satisfaction.
The questionnaire has been modified to benchmark the results. In
responding to these questions, please consider your experiences
using the NRC oversight process during initial implementation
(first year of ROP) and current ROP implementation.
Shade in the circle that most applies to your experiences as
follows: (1) Very much (2) somewhat (3) neutral (4) somewhat less
than needed (5) far less than needed If there are experiences
that are rated as unsatisfied, or if you have specific thoughts
or concerns, please elaborate in the ``Comments'' section that
follows the question and offer your opinion for possible
improvements. If there are experiences or opinions that you would
like to express that cannot be directly captured by the
questions, document that in question number 20.
Questions Related to Specific ROP Program Areas (As appropriate,
please provide specific examples and suggestions for
improvement.) (1) Does the Performance Indicator Program promote
plant safety? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (2)
Does appropriate overlap exist between the Performance Indicator
Program and the Inspection Program? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (3) Is
the reporting of PI data efficient? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (4)
Does NEI 99-02, ``Regulatory Assessment Performance Indicator
Guideline'' provide clear guidance regarding Performance
Indicators? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (5) Is
the information in the inspection reports useful to you? 1 2 3
4 5 Initial ROP Implementation............................... [
[ [ [ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ]
Current ROP.............................................. [ [ [
[ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ]
Comments: (6) Does the Significance Determination Process yield
equivalent results for issues of similar significance in all ROP
cornerstones? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (7)
Does the NRC take appropriate actions to address performance
issues for those licensees outside of the Licensee Response
Column of the Action Matrix? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (8) Is
the information contained in assessment reports relevant, useful,
and written in plain English? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ]
[[Page 63413]] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments:
Questions related to the efficacy of the overall Reactor
Oversight Process (ROP) (As appropriate, please provide specific
examples and suggestions for improvement.) (9) Are the ROP
oversight activities predictable (i.e., controlled by the
process) and reasonably objective (i.e., based on supported
facts, rather than relying on subjective judgement)? 1 2 3 4 5
Initial ROP Implementation............................... [ [ [
[ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (10)
Is the ROP risk-informed, in that the NRC's actions are graduated
on the basis of increased significance? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (11)
Is the ROP understandable and are the processes, procedures and
products clear and written in plain English? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial
ROP Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (12)
Does the ROP provide adequate regulatory assurance when combined
with other NRC regulatory processes that plants are being
operated and maintained safely? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (13)
Does the ROP improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and realism
of the regulatory process? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (14)
Does the ROP ensure openness in the regulatory process? 1 2 3 4
5 Initial ROP Implementation............................... [ [
[ [ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ]
Current ROP.............................................. [ [ [
[ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ]
Comments: (15) Has the public been afforded adequate opportunity
to participate in the ROP and to provide inputs and comments? 1
2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (16)
Has the NRC been responsive to public inputs and comments on the
ROP? 1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (17)
Has the NRC implemented the ROP as defined by program documents?
1 2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (18)
Does the ROP reduce unnecessary regulatory burden on licensees? 1
2 3 4 5 Initial ROP
Implementation............................... [ [ [ [ [ a a
a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (19)
Does the ROP minimize unintended consequences? 1 2 3 4 5
Initial ROP Implementation............................... [ [ [
[ [ a a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Current
ROP.............................................. [ [ [ [ [ a
a a a a l l l l l l l l l l ] ] ] ] ] Comments: (20)
Please provide any additional information or comments related to
the Reactor Oversight Process.
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of October 2004.
For the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission . Stuart A. Richards,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Division of Inspection
Program Management, Inspection Program Branch.
[FR Doc. 04-24304 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
19 NRC: Notice of Availability of Environmental Assessment and Finding
FR Doc 04-24305
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63411] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-106] [[Page 63411]]
of No Significant Impact for License Termination for ExxonMobil
Research and Engineering Company's Facility in Annandale, NJ
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Availability.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathy Modes, Materials Security
& Industrial Branch , Division of Nuclear Materials Safety,
Region I, 475 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
19406, telephone (610) 337-5251, fax (610) 337-5269; or by
e-mail: kad@nrc.gov [kad@nrc.gov] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) is terminating Materials License No. 29-05260-13
issued to ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, and
authorizing release of its facility in Annandale, New Jersey for
unrestricted use. NRC has prepared an Environmental Assessment
(EA) in support of this action in accordance with the
requirements of 10 CFR Part 51. Based on the EA, the NRC has
concluded that a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) is
appropriate.
The license will be terminated following the publication of this
Notice.
II. EA Summary The purpose of the action is to authorize the
release of the licensee's Annandale, New Jersey facility for
unrestricted use. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
(ExxonMobil) has been authorized by NRC since June 30, 1986, to
use radioactive materials for research and development purposes
at the Annandale, New Jersey site. On December 18, 2003,
ExxonMobil requested that NRC release the facility for
unrestricted use. ExxonMobil has conducted surveys of the
facility and provided information to the NRC to demonstrate that
the site meets the license termination criteria in Subpart E of
10 CFR Part 20 for unrestricted release.
NRC staff has prepared an EA in support of the license amendment.
The facility was remediated and surveyed prior to the licensee
requesting the license amendment. The NRC staff has reviewed the
information and final status survey submitted by ExxonMobil.
Based on the reviews, the staff has determined that there are no
additional remediation activities necessary to complete the
proposed action. Therefore, the staff considered the impact of
the residual radioactivity at the facility and concluded that
since the residual radioactivity meets the requirements in
Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20, a Finding of No Significant Impact
is appropriate.
III. Finding of No Significant Impact The staff has prepared the
EA (summarized above) in support of the termination of the
license and release of the facility for unrestricted use. The NRC
staff has evaluated ExxonMobil's request and the results of the
surveys and has concluded that the completed action complies with
the criteria in Subpart E of 10 CFR Part 20. The staff has found
that the environmental impacts from the action are bounded by the
impacts evaluated by NUREG-1496, Volumes 1-3, ``Generic
Environmental Impact Statement in Support of Rulemaking on
Radiological Criteria for License Termination of NRC-Licensed
Facilities'' (ML042310492, ML042320379, and ML042330385). On the
basis of the EA, the NRC has concluded that the environmental
impacts from the action are expected to be insignificant and has
determined not to prepare an environmental impact statement for
the action.
IV. Further Information Documents related to this action,
including the application for the license amendment and
supporting documentation, are available electronically at the
NRC's Electronic Reading Room at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html]
.
From this site, you can access the NRC's Agencywide Document
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and
image files of NRC's public documents. The ADAMS accession
numbers for the documents related to this Notice are: The
Environmental Assessment (ML042930009), Letter dated December 17,
2003, requesting termination of the license (ML040130270), letter
dated August 12, 2004, providing additional information
(ML042380119), and letter dated August 31, 2004, providing
additional information (ML042510189). Persons who do not have
access to ADAMS or who encounter problems in accessing the
documents located in ADAMS, should contact the NRC PDR Reference
staff by telephone at (800) 397-4209 or (301) 415-4737, or by
e-mail to pdr@nrc.gov [pdr@nrc.gov] . These documents may be
viewed electronically at the NRC Public Document Room (PDR), O 1
F21, One White Flint North, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD,
20852. The PDR reproduction contractor will copy documents for a
fee. The PDR is open from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Monday through
Friday, except on Federal holidays.
Dated at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania this 25th day of October,
2004.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
John D. Kinneman, Chief, Materials Security & Industrial Branch,
Division of Nuclear Materials Safety Region I.
[FR Doc. 04-24305 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P
*****************************************************************
20 [NukeNet] : [NYTr] A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:33:59 -0800
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com [mailto:nytr@olm.blythe-systems.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 4:45 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: [NYTr] A Global Pact Against Depleted Uranium
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Francis A. Boyle - Sept 23, 2004
His Excellency Michel Barnier
Foreign Minister
French Republic
37, Quai d'Orsay
75351 Paris
FRANCE
FAX: 33-1-43-17-4275
Dear Excellency:
The Republic of Freedonia presents its compliments to the French Republic. I
have the honor to draw to your attention the Protocol for the Prohibition of
the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of
Bacteriological Methods of Warfare of 17 June 1925, for which the Government
of the French Republic serves as the depositary.
The Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibits the use in war of asphyxiating,
poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids materials or devices,
as well as the use of bacteriological methods of warfare. Freedonia believes
that the Geneva Protocol of 1925 already prohibits the use in war of
depleted uranium, uranium ammunition, uranium armor-plate and all other
uranium weapons. Freedonia respectfully requests your Excellency to
circulate this communication to the other High Contacting Parties to the
Geneva Protocol of 1925.
Please accept, Excellency, the assurance of our highest consideration.
Francis A. Boyle
Foreign Minister
Republic of Freedonia
21 September 2004
[you just need to get every Foreign Minister in the world to do the same.
-FAB]
*
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21 [NYTr] Boyle: Elite Law Schools and War Crimes
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:13:37 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Francis Boyle - Nov 1, 2004
War Crimes and Elite versus Non-Elite US Law Schools
The Faculties at such "elite" law schools as Harvard, Yale, Chicago and
Berkeley have made it perfectly clear to the legal community that they are
fully prepared to hire war criminals, warmongers and torturers to their
Faculties, and that they will then train their students to become war
criminals, warmongers, and torturers.. This is an appalling situation. These
so-called elite Law School Faculties are not fit to educate students. These
so-called elite Law School Faculties believe that they are above the Law.
The sheer arrogance of these so-called elite Law School Faculties knows no
bounds.
We should all recall how Muhamed Ali and other Black leaders educated us all
to understand the racist nature of the Vietnam War. Well Whitey is at it
again. This time Whitey is exterminating Brown people in Iraq in order to
steal their oil. The Lancet study just estimated that Whitey has
exterminated over 100,000 Brown People since the start of this racist and
genocidal war in 2003. If you have a look at my book Destroying World Order
(Clarity Press: 2004), you can see that the figures for Whitey exterminating
Brown people for oil in Iraq since the Bush Sr. War against Iraq in 1991 is
approaching about 2 million Iraqis.
Speaking of Vietnam, in December of 1964, Johnson had 140,000 troops in that
country, which is about what we have in Iraq right now. No matter who wins
on Nov. 2, Whitey's racist and genocidal war for oil in Iraq and elsewhere
will go on for a long time. If Bush Jr wins, it is going to get a lot worse.
We are in for a long struggle. Like Vietnam, this war will divert time,
energy and resources from the domestic agendas that we all share in common
to make America a much better place for Peoples of all Colors and Classes.
The war will make that impossible. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of
this war is to make that goal impossible.
For that reason, we non-elite Law School Faculties have to make it very
clear to the legal community that for the duration of this war, we are not
going to hire or train war criminals, warmongers and torturers. This is not
some academic game where "collegiality" counts. In addition to the dead
Iraqis, now over 1100 U.S. soldiers have been needlessly and senselessly
killed. And racist, warmongering, war criminal law professors at Harvard,
Yale, Chicago, Berkeley, Fletcher, Woodrow Wilson and Nitze/Sais , inter
alia, are personally responsible for their deaths. These 1100 dead U.S.
soldiers were our sons and our daughters, our brothers and our sisters, our
mothers and our fathers. At least we owe it to them to affirmatively reject
hiring racist war criminals, warmongers and torturers to our Faculties. And
we also need to make it clear to prospective law students that we are not
going to train them to become racist war criminals, warmongers and
torturers--in contrast to the elite schools such Harvard, Yale, Chicago,
Berkeley, Fletcher, Woodrow Wilson, Nitze/Sais where they will be trained to
become racist war criminals, warmongers and torturers. The Nazis had their
law professors too.
Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Ill. 61820 USA
*
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22 Bellona: Ladoga radioactive pollution feared
Activists of Karelia's association of environmentalists have
expressed concern that an ongoing exploration project at the
uranium deposit outside the village of Karkhu may cause
radioactive pollution in Lake Ladoga, Interfax reported.
2004-11-01 20:35
"Our information suggests that exploration efforts are in their
final sages at an uranium deposit near the village of Karkhu in
Karelia's Piktyarantsk district," association co-ordinator Dmitry
Rybakov told Interfax. The average depth of the uranium deposit
there is 150-300 meters, the association said. The locals said
many of the boreholes are abandoned and not preserved in a proper
way. “The gelogists conduct exploration breaching all the
regulations” Rybakov said to Interfax on October 15.
Publisher: Bellona Foundation [bellona@bellona.no] ,
President: Frederic Hauge [frederic@bellona.no]
Information: info@bellona.no [info@bellona.no] , Technical
contact: webmaster@bellona.no [webmaster@bellona.no]
Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box
2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway
*****************************************************************
23 DOL: Energy Employees Compensation Program Home Page
U.S. Department of Labor Employment Standards Administration
[Photos representing the workforce - Digital Imagery© copyright
2001 PhotoDisc, Inc.] Office of Workers' Compensation Programs
www.dol.gov/esa [ ] Search / A-Z Index
November 1, 2004 DOL Home > ESA > OWCP > EEOICP Home Page
The mission of the EEOICP is to deliver benefits to
eligible employees and former employees of the Department of
Energy, its contractors and subcontractors or to certain
survivors of such individuals, as provided in the Energy
Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act. The
mission also includes delivering benefits to certain
beneficiaries of Section five of the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act.
+ Secretary's Welcome
+ What Our Program Does
+ The Law and Regulations
+ Contact Information
+ Program Information
+ Other Important Links
EEOICP News
APPLY FOR COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS ON-LINE
As of October 21, 2003, the Division of Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation (DEEOIC) began accepting the
following claim forms electronically: Claim for Benefits under
Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act
(EE-1), Claim for Survivor Benefits under Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EE-2), Employment
History under Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation
Program Act (EE-3) and Employment History Affidavit for Claim
under Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program
Act (EE-4). Claimants or affiants can complete forms through the
DEEOIC web site and then either mail them or – NOW! -
electronically submit them directly to the DEEOIC. Click here
for more information and to get started.
This website last updated on October 25, 2004
[http://www.dol.gov/]
U.S. Department of Labor Frances Perkins Building 200
Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20210 [Phone Numbers]
1-866-4-USA-DOL TTY: 1-877-889-5627
[http://www.dol.gov/dol/contact/index.htm]
*****************************************************************
24 deseret news: Easy mark for terrorists
[http://deseretnews.com/dn/edt]
Monday, November 1, 2004
There are 44,000 tons of the highest level of nuclear waste just
waiting to come to the Goshute Indian Reservation here in Utah.
Sue Martin, spokesperson for PFS, says they will be ready by 2005
to begin taking 4,000 casks of the deadliest substance on the
face of the earth. It will be stored in the open on a concrete
pad, like giant bowling pins — 4,000 dirty bombs with a half-life
of 10,000 years.
Could the terrorists capitalize?
Are you kidding? They're licking their chops.
Will our government protect us?
They can't even prevent terrorist attacks in Baghdad's
Green Zone.
Gene Faux
Springville
© 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
25 Las Vegas RJ: Editorial boards split on election
Monday, November 01, 2004
Nevada newspaper endorsements reflect closeness of race By SEAN
WHALEY
REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- So who are you going to vote for, George Bush or
John Kerry?
Would-be voters who look to the state's newspaper endorsements
to help decide who to pick in the presidential election might
end up more confused than enlightened.
Just as the race between Bush and Kerry has divided the nation,
it has divided newspaper editorial boards as well.
Two newspapers, the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Elko Daily
Free Press, endorsed President Bush for a second term.
Three others -- the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Las Vegas Sun and
the Nevada Appeal of Carson City -- endorsed Kerry.
And editorial writers at the Reno and Carson City newspapers
said the decision to go with Kerry over Bush was close.
"It was really a close call by the (editorial) board," said
Steve Falcone, opinion editor for the Reno Gazette-Journal. "To
a large extent, it was the need for change, the thought that
Kerry better reflects the country's values."
But Falcone, who said the board this year included three
citizens in the endorsement process, said he did not know what
the result would be until the vote was cast. The close vote
seems to mirror the views of the public, he said.
"I have not seen this kind of split before in this state,"
Falcone said. "The two sides are so far apart. There is little
room for listening to the other point of view."
Barry Smith, editor of the Nevada Appeal, said the vote for
Kerry by the newspaper's board was close as well.
"I think the bottom line for us was Yucca Mountain," he said of
the proposed nuclear waste repository, 100 miles northwest of
Las Vegas. "There were strong opinions on both sides on the
major issues of the war in Iraq and domestic policy. But we were
unanimous that we agreed with Kerry's stance on Yucca Mountain."
Kerry, in a speech Friday in Reno, said a nuclear waste
repository would not be built at Yucca Mountain if he is elected
president. Bush has allowed the process of licensing the site
for a repository to go forward as president.
Rhonda Zuraff, publisher of the Elko Daily Free Press, said the
decision to go with Bush was not difficult.
"We have a real strong sense of the strength of his leadership,
his consistent message and his common sense approach to managing
natural resources," she said.
John Kerr, editorial page editor for the Review-Journal, also
said the decision to support Bush's re-election was not close.
"We have generally favored the Republican-oriented market
economic policy for more than a decade here," he said.
"We felt he was a more resolute commander-in-chief on the war
on terror," Kerr said.
Las Vegas Sun Editorial Page Editor Mike Campbell offered no
comment on the editorial, saying the newspaper's endorsement of
Kerry speaks for itself.
Erik Herzik, a political science professor and interim dean of
the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada, Reno,
said newspaper endorsements are just one piece of information
voters use in their decision-making process.
"We don't really know what effect newspaper endorsements have,"
he said. "In past elections, the individual who has gotten the
endorsement from most newspapers often has not won."
Herzik said he would take all the newspaper endorsements he
could get as a candidate, but that their real impact is hard to
gauge.
"People are not blank slates, waiting to be told how to vote,"
he said. "They filter the information through their own biases
and perceptions."
Nationwide, Kerry is leading in newspaper endorsements,
according to a tally by Editor &Publisher, a newspaper industry
magazine. So far, 125 newspapers have endorsed Kerry --
including at least 35 that had endorsed Bush in 2000 -- versus
96 for Bush.
Nevada's largest daily newspapers were more in sync in their
endorsements in the major statewide races. Four newspapers
endorsed Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., for another term. The Elko
paper did not endorse in the race.
The three largest papers also agreed on the choices for the
Supreme Court: Jim Hardesty, Ron Parraguirre and Michael
Douglas. The Appeal did not endorse, and the Elko paper chose
Hardesty, John Mason over Parraguirre, and Joel Hansen over
Douglas.
Four of the five papers also endorsed Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.,
for another term in Congress in District 2. The Elko paper has
not endorsed, but would pick Gibbons if it does so, Zuraff said.
The two Southern Nevada newspapers both endorsed Rep. Shelley
Berkley, D-Nev., for another term in Congress in District 1.
The papers split on District 3, with the Review-Journal
endorsing Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., for another term and the Sun
endorsing his Democratic challenger, Tom Gallagher.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
26 Las Vegas SUN: Clinton: Nevada 'massively important' for Kerry
Today: November 01, 2004 at 11:35:51 PST
By Steve Kanigher < [steve@lasvegassun.com] > LAS VEGAS SUN
From Yucca Mountain to homeland security to a livable wage for
working Americans, former President Bill Clinton said there are
numerous reasons why Nevadans should make fellow Democrat John
Kerry the next president.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun en route to a campaign
appearance on Saturday for Kerry at the Desert Willow Community
Center in Henderson, the nation's 42nd president said that the
election Tuesday will be a referendum on Yucca Mountain as it
pertains to Nevada.
Clinton said he believes Kerry's stand against the federal
government plan to ship 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste
to a repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas could help the
Massachusetts senator carry Nevada.
Kerry has charged that Republican President Bush went back on
his word and ignored sound science by signing off on the plan to
bring the radioactive waste to Yucca Mountain. Bush has said that
he considered sound science and that he did not break a promise
he made to Nevadans when he first ran for the presidency in 2000.
Clinton said the presidential election in Nevada is "an
up-or-down referendum on Yucca Mountain" that presents a clear
choice between Kerry and Bush.
"When I ran in '92 I told you I would never approve it unless
the science was right, and I was never convinced, so I resisted
the approval for eight years," Clinton said. "In '92 and '96 the
people couldn't have known so they took me on my word and I am
grateful.
"When President Bush ran in 2000 he said, 'I won't approve it
unless the science is right' and they took him on his word and
gave him a narrow victory here as they had given me twice. So in
2002, as soon as (Energy Secretary) Spencer Abraham says
everything is fine, he immediately approved it. Nevada took him
to court and they said the scientific questions are nowhere near
answered, but they're still pushing for Yucca Mountain.
"So Kerry says it won't happen. We know that the Bush
administration wants it to happen. So this is the first time
Nevadans have had a clear referendum on Yucca Mountain. If George
Bush carries Nevada and is elected president, the inescapable
conclusion will be that a majority of citizens in this state are
willing to take Yucca Mountain. Never mind what the science says.
There's no way out of that. That's the vote."
But Clinton said Yucca Mountain alone wouldn't enable Kerry to
carry the state. A statewide Las Vegas Sun/Channel 8 Eyewitness
News/KNPR Nevada Public Radio poll last month found that only 5
percent of very likely voters said Yucca Mountain would be the
most important issue in their vote for president.
Other issues that Clinton believes will help put Kerry over the
top in Nevada include the state's high percentage of individuals
without health insurance, the high number of personal
bankruptcies and inadequate funding for children who attend
public schools.
"You've been disproportionately hurt by the fact that the No
Child Left Behind act hasn't been funded, and that poor children
have been kicked out of after-school programs," Clinton said.
"Nevada would be disproportionately benefitted by a Kerry victory
by putting more money into eduction.
"Nevada is a state where you can generate enormous numbers of
new jobs with clean energy, solar energy, wind energy, other
things that would make us less dependent on foreign oil. Kerry
will be much more aggressive at pushing that."
Whether the federal minimum wage should be increased from $5.15
an hour, where it has been for seven years, is another issue that
separates Bush and Kerry. Bush has said he would consider an
increase provided it does not place unreasonable costs on small
businesses and other employers.
Kerry has vowed to raise the minimum wage to $7 an hour by 2007,
arguing that the current minimum wage represents a 30-year low in
purchasing power. The issue is also on the ballot in Nevada in
the form of Question 6, a proposed amendment to the Nevada
Constitution that would require employers in the state to raise
the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour for workers who do not have
health care.
"The Republicans always try to put a minimum wage bill in some
sort of poison pill," Clinton said. "The last time President Bush
supported a minimum wage hike it essentially gave the states the
power to opt out of it. The Republicans don't like the minimum
wage. They keep saying it costs employment but there is not a
shred of evidence that it does.
"If anything, it adds a little bit to employment because minimum
wage workers, when they get a hike in their pay, spend all their
money. If you want a minimum wage increase, you ought to be for
Kerry because he's clearly and unambiguously for it. President
Bush has had a Republican Congress. Any time he wanted to raise
the minimum wage he could have raised it. They simply don't
believe in it. It is not a priority of theirs.
"The idea that I got two big tax cuts and we haven't raised the
minium wage is appalling to me. Nobody can really live on the
minimum wage we've got now."
Another difference between Bush and Kerry is their take on the
future of Community Oriented Policing Services, a federal program
Clinton got Congress to approve in 1994 in order to put an
additional 100,000 police officers on the nation's streets.
The program has actually resulted in the hiring of more than
118,000 officers at a cost of more than $9 billion since it was
instituted. The Bush administration, arguing that the program has
already met its goal, has proposed spending just $97 million in
the next federal budget on the program for officer training and
technology.
Clinton said that while the Bush plan would increase funding for
training first responders, it would also eliminate federal funds
for 88,000 police officers nationwide.
"I just think that's a terrible, terrible mistake," Clinton
said. "Kerry will reinstitute it and also beef up our fire
services."
Kerry, arguing that the program has reduced crime and is worthy
to retain for the sake of homeland security, believes it should
be fully funded so that more officers can be hired. He has said
he would provide the funding to hire as many as 100,000 new
firefighters and other first responders nationally and train
5,000 more law enforcement officers to handle homeland security
in local communities.
Again, Clinton believes Kerry is right on this issue.
"This issue doesn't have much traction in the states that don't
feel personally threatened by terror," Clinton said. "But this is
a big issue in New York. Most people outside of New York think
they're voting for Kerry because it's a big liberal Democratic
state. Let me just remind you we have a Republican governor, a
Republican state senate and a Republican mayor of New York City.
New York is not a liberal Democratic state.
"But Kerry is going to win New York big and one reason is the
people of New York, who have paid more than any other people in
America in this war on terror, like his security plan better. A
big part of it is this whole homeland security, first responder
thing.
"The majority of people know that we need to make a new
beginning at home. If they can be convinced that their security
will not be weakened in the fight against terror or in dealing
with the troubles in Iraq by changing presidents, then I think
they'll vote for John Kerry."
Clark County Sheriff Bill Young has said that Las Vegas deserves
more homeland security funding because of its high profile as the
nation's foremost tourist destination. Clinton said arguments
such as those made by Young are "compelling" because homeland
security money should be distributed to localities based on
potential terrorist threat targets or "magnets."
"One of the most disappointing things to me in the Congress is
that half of this homeland security money is just purely given
out on politics," Clinton said. "They give it out on a per capita
basis across the country without any regard to the threat. We
shouldn't be giving out half this money because everyone could
use a new radio system in their police department. It's nice to
do but it's a scandalous waste of money.
"New York is underfunded. Washington, D.C., is underfunded. We
underfund a lot of our ports, like the port of New Orleans, the
port of Miami and the port of Seattle. Las Vegas would fall in
that category."
One facility that Clinton said deserves more funds is McCarran
International Airport.
"The reason I'd like to see more done at the airport here is the
last thing you want to do is make Las Vegas inhospitable," he
said. "You don't want to turn it into an armed camp, where people
feel like it will take them three hours to get through the
airport.
"I would be looking for non-intrusive ways, like checking the
cargo containers or having good camera systems or having good
intelligence about who might be in and out."
As for security abroad, Clinton praised Kerry for gaining the
support of retired generals and admirals who "like his security
plan better than the current administration's plan."
Kerry's plan, according to Clinton, would expand the Army and
get more help in Iraq and elsewhere because "it doubles the
Special Forces and intensifies efforts against Osama bin Laden
and other terrorists."
"It invests more effort in trying to contain the weapons of mass
destruction problem in Iran, North Korea, Russia and elsewhere,"
Clinton said of Kerry's plan.
"It also has a serious homeland security component. Here we are
over three years after 9/11 and we're still checking only 5
percent of the cargo containers at our ports and airports. Every
security expert says you can't have any deterrent effect at all
unless you check a minimum of 10 to 20 percent of them."
Clinton had plenty to say about other topics as well, including
a dispute that Hungarian Holocaust survivors have been having
with the Bush administration.
American Jews, led by critics such as World Jewish Congress
President Edgar Bronfman, have taken the Bush administration to
task for failing to support reparations from the United States
government for Hungarian Holocaust survivors. Bronfman served as
chairman of a bipartisan American Holocaust assets commission
that was formed under Clinton.
The survivors in question were victims of plundered treasure at
the hands of Nazi occupation during World War II. The so-called
Hungarian Gold Train, which included 29 boxcars of gold, silver,
art and other family belongings, was confiscated by the U.S. Army
but a class action lawsuit representing 30,000 Holocaust
survivors was filed in U.S. District Court in Florida seeking up
to $150 million in compensation for belongings that were not
returned to them.
"I don't understand it," Clinton said. "The Bush administration
has presented itself as a great friend of Israel and American
Jewry. There's no question that Jews, as a result of the
Holocaust and the war, lost billions of dollars of assets.
"Now these families, many of whom are poor Hungarian Jews and
some of whom live in Nevada apparently, all they asked for was
compensation of $10,000 per family, very modest compensation. In
fact, they're entitled to more."
The Justice Department initially chose to fight the lawsuit on
grounds that the statute of limitations expired long ago and that
the survivors have no legal grounds to sue the federal
government. The Justice Department has since changed its tune and
announced earlier this month that it would attempt to reach a
settlement.
"The Bush administration fought it in court and they're still
fighting it," Clinton said. "Finally, as the election draws near
they seem to be open to negotiations. I have no explanation for
it. This is an administration that is strong on the upper income
people and throwing money at other people and I think this is
wrong. It shows you an insensitivity that is unforgiveable. I
know it's not a big issue in the election but it's a big issue
with me.
"I put the credibility of the United States on a totally
bipartisan basis out there in the world, that we had to
compensate Holocaust victims for the loss of their assets. In the
single instance where America owes money the Bush administration
has refused to pay up. What was John Ashcroft thinking? They knew
the United States led the world in getting other countries to
give up $8 billion to compensate these families. Our credibility
on this issue has been severely damaged, not only in America but
around the world."
Clinton chastised Bush and the Republican Congress for wanting
to place more power over health care decisions in the hands of
health maintenance organizations and drug companies.
"So they passed a prescription drug bill that had a $40 billion
outright subsidy to the drug companies, actually deprived some
seniors of the coverage they already had, made it illegal for the
government to bargain for lower prices for drugs bought in bulk
under Medicare, and tried to get people to take out medical
savings accounts," Clinton said.
"What Kerry wants to do is to put more power into the hands of
patients and doctors and give individuals and small businesses
more options to purchase health care without mandating anything.
"What Kerry wants to do is give Medicare the power to bargain
for lower costs for drugs bought in bulk, like the VA (Veterans
Administration) hospitals do, allow the reimportation of safe
drugs from Canada to provide price competition, and allow small
businesses and individuals who don't have health insurance to buy
into the federal program, which is a private program. It has over
two dozen choices."
The reason Kerry's health care plan makes sense, Clinton said,
is that because the federal program would be larger, the
administrative cost per policy would be smaller, leading to lower
inflationary costs. Clinton also favors an aspect of Kerry's plan
that offers reinsurance to policy holders who want to exceed
certain limits of health care coverage.
"Kerry's plan is purely voluntary, puts more power into the
hands of patients and physicians, gives them more choice,"
Clinton said. "Bush's plan, I think, is high cost and low
coverage because it continues to push people into HMOs and lets
the health insurance and drug companies call the shots. So I
think Kerry's plan is a lot better."
When asked what a president could do to lower gasoline prices,
Clinton said the long-term answer is for the nation to lessen its
reliance on foreign oil.
"We need to be driving more hybrid vehicles," he said. "We need
to be using more solar power. We need to be using more wind
power. We need to be using more efficient insulation materials in
our buildings, our homes and our factories. There is right now
today a $1 trillion global untapped market for alternative energy
technologies."
The problem is that alternative energy entrepreneurs don't have
the same access to capital as do "old energy" oil and coal
companies, Clinton said.
"The old energy economy, oil and coal, is well organized, well
financed and well connected politically," he said. "What people
should be focused on is whether they want to be paying these gas
prices next year and the year after that and whether they want
their children to be political slaves to a dependence on foreign
oil.
"Even though the economy is down, so we should be using less
energy, we're importing more foreign oil today than we were the
day I left office. We need to change direction."
Recent quadruple-bypass heart surgery has not kept Clinton from
hitting the campaign trail and speaking his mind on behalf of
Kerry as the 2004 election enters the home stretch.
"I feel great," he said. "I get tired fairly easily but
otherwise I'm doing great."
After addressing a Kerry rally Friday at the Clark County
Government Center, Clinton stayed overnight and had the community
center rally on Saturday in Henderson before heading to New
Mexico.
Given Nevada's designation as one of the nation's few remaining
battleground states in the race between Kerry and Bush, it should
surprise no one that Clinton, a skilled campaigner, would want to
visit states in play leading up to the election.
These are some of the election scenarios Clinton believes could
occur, with 270 electoral votes needed for victory:
"Lets suppose John Kerry wins every state that Al Gore won (in
2000) and New Hampshire. That would give him 264 votes. Then, to
win the election, he'd have to win Nevada and Arkansas or Nevada
and one other place.
"Lets suppose John Kerry wins Ohio but loses Iowa and Wisconsin.
To win the election he'd have to win Nevada.
"If he lost Iowa, Wisconsin and Hawaii, one of the states that
is doing better economically because they get huge amounts of
defense spending, he'd have to win Nevada and Arkansas.
"If he won Florida but lost Wisconsin and Iowa and Hawaii, he'd
have to win Nevada. There are several scenarios under which how
Nevada goes will determine the outcome of the presidency. So it's
a massively important state."
Bottom line is no one knows who is going to win, including
Clinton, who occupied the White House from January 1993 through
January 2001.
"No one knows what is going to happen in all these states,"
Clinton said. "Kerry could win in Ohio and Florida and the
election would be over. But Bush could win in Ohio and Florida,
in which case Kerry has got to win a bunch of little states. No
one knows what is going to happen. I don't have a clue.
"All I can do is try to clarify the choices for people. It's an
easy election if people really understand the choices. It's not
like these people don't have clear disagreements. They're both
very strong people. They are people with convictions. But I think
if people clearly understood what the real differences are, they
would choose John Kerry."
All contents copyright 2004 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.
*****************************************************************
27 RGJ: Ann Richards blasts Bush, Cheney
[http://www.rgj.com/]
Steve Timko [stimko@rgj.com]
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
10/31/2004 11:29 pm
TALKING: Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards criticizes the Bush
administration Sunday at the Kerry-Edwards Reno campaign
headquarters.
Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards blasted the Bush Administration on
Sunday for a Medicare drug plan that doesn’t save money for
seniors, for opposing stem cell research that could cure diseases
of the aged and for flip-flopping on a nuclear waste dump at
Yucca Mountain.
Stumping in Reno and Carson City for the Democratic presidential
campaign of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, Richards called on Vice
President Dick Cheney to address these issues when he speaks
today at Sparks High School.
“When Dick Cheney comes tomorrow, you can ask him why 82,000
Nevadans have lost their health care in the last four years,”
Richards said at a press conference.
Richards said Bush’s opposition to harvesting new stem cells for
medical study means there won’t be research “that might be able
to help our senior citizens and children with debilitating
diseases.”
Bush, who defeated Richards for the governor’s seat in Texas in
1994, said four years ago he would reform Medicare, Richards
said. But the drug bill pushed by Bush and the
Republican-controlled Congress that uses a Medicare discount card
only guarantees profits for drug companies and does not save
money for senior citizens, she said.
“We can still buy them cheaper at a discount drug store than we
can with that card,” Richards said.
Speaking earlier in the day to a group of seniors and their
guests at Promenade on the River in Reno, Richards criticized
Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. President Frankiln D.
Roosevelt started Social Security in the 1930s to give people a
guaranteed pension after the collapse of financial markets,
Richards said.
Two people in the audience, who both supported Roosevelt the
first time they voted, gave Richards high marks for her speech.
“She’s incredible,” said Edna Pearl, 91, a Promenade on the River
resident. “She hit on all the big issues. She knows how to
communicate what she’s saying. She has extensive knowledge.”
Janice Goodhue of Reno, also 91, praised Richards for remembering
all of the soldiers killed in Iraq after Bush declared a
successful end to major combat operations.
“Nobody seems to care about the people still being killed, the
19-, 20- and 21-year-old soldiers,” Goodhue said.
When Richards was Texas governor, it was one of the states being
considered as an alternative to Nevada for being home to a
nuclear repository. Richards said at the press conference she
doesn’t think Texas would be willing to take the nuclear
repository today.
“I don’t think there is any way that science can show you it is
safe,” Richards said.
© Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett
*****************************************************************
28 Salt Lake Tribune: Stop nuclear waste
[http://www.sltrib.com]
Opinion
Article Last Updated: 10/31/2004 09:52:08 PM
The plan to ship high-level nuclear waste into Utah and
stockpile the hazardous material in a facility located on the
Skull Valley Goshute Reservation is a bad plan that looks worse
by the day.
The arrangement to store the waste in above-ground containers
at a site alongside one of the nation's most active Air Force
training sites and within a short distance of millions of Utah
residents raises a serious safety concern, including trucking
radioactive material through the heart of major population
centers. Now, federal officials acknowledge there are no safe
arrangements for moving nuclear waste once it arrives in Skull
Valley. In other words, Utah could be saddled with this waste
indefinitely.
Legislation to stop this ill-conceived plan is pending the
U.S. House of Representatives but has languished in the Senate.
Utah's senators, who have been quiet on the legislation thus far,
must take an active role if we are to keep nuclear waste from
flooding our state.
Sonya Dinsdale
Salt Lake City
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
29 Lowell Sun: Perchlorate levels down slightly in Tewksbury
November 01, 2004 Lowell, MA
By VANESSA HUGHES, Sun Staff
TEWKSBURY The most recent tests of Tewksbury's drinking water
found perchlorate levels have dipped slightly since early
October, but are still above the state's recommended limit.
The town is working with the state Department of Environmental
Protection and with the federal Environmental Protection Agency's
Chelmsford lab to continue tests in Tewksbury, Lowell and
Billerica.
But the focus of the investigation is turning primarily to
Billerica, where continued tests find perchlorate in water from
the wastewater treatment plant, said Ed Colletta, a spokesman for
the Department of Environmental Protection.
Tests of Tewksbury's drinking water, from the Merrimack River,
found 1.2 parts per billion of perchlorate on Oct. 19. Levels
were detected at 1.3 ppb on Oct. 5 and 1.4 ppb on Oct. 12.
Recent results are still above the state's advisory limit of 1
ppb and higher than the town's low of 1.1 ppb from Sept. 28.
"Lowell is a negligible player, so it's primarily Billerica, and
the issue has been, is it in the plant or in the distribution
system?" Tewksbury Town Manager David Cressman said.
The town issued a public-health advisory in August, when tests
first detected perchlorate. The chemical, found in such products
as explosives and rocket fuel, is believed to affect the function
of the thyroid gland.
There are no state or federal drinking-water standards for
perchlorate. The general public is not considered at risk, but
the DEP recommends that pregnant and nursing women, children
under 12, and those with untreated thyroid disorders not drink
the water.
Tewksbury's water must have less than 1 ppb of perchlorate for
eight straight weeks in order to lift the advisory.
Perchlorate has been detected in samples from the Merrimack and
Concord Rivers, but Tewksbury's is the only drinking-water supply
impacted.
Officials are studying whether bleach used to disinfect
wastewater is adding perchlorate to the rivers.
Perchlorate has been found at higher levels in treated water
exiting the Lowell and Billerica wastewater treatment plants,
compared to water entering.
The most recent tests at the Lowell plant did not find high
levels of perchlorate. The state will conduct another round of
tests in Lowell next week to determine if the Lowell plant can be
ruled out as a source, Colletta said.
In two weeks, the DEP will focus on the Billerica plant by
testing for seven straight days, taking two samples per day at
different times, he said.
Tewksbury's recent tests found bleach older than 30 days tested
positive for high levels of perchlorate while new bleach had
barely any perchlorate, which is a compound related to chlorine,
said Lewis Zediana, chief operator of the Tewksbury
water-treatment plant.
The town is part of a consortium of 45 communities that use the
same vendor for the disinfectant. Zediana said the town is
exploring whether the way the bleach is made or decomposes is a
factor. The town is looking for bleach vendors that can assure
that perchlorate is not a byproduct.
But the bleach is not considered the sole culprit, Zediana said,
adding that it may be contributing less than 5 percent of the
perchlorate detected.
Officials are also investigating whether the perchlorate is
coming from industrial sources. A company or person could be
flushing the contaminant, knowingly or not, which is not illegal
because the chemical is not regulated, Zediana said. But cities
and towns may begin looking to set their own regulations, he
said.
"If it's one source and we turn it off, we would see results in
under a week," he said. "My hope is that we can find it, turn it
off and go back to normal."
It doesn't take much perchlorate to contaminate the river.
Zediana said 8 pounds of perchlorate is enough to contaminate 1
billion gallons of water with 1 ppb of perchlorate. Tewksbury
uses about 1 billion gallons of water in an entire year. The same
amount passes the town on the Merrimack River daily, he said.
Vanessa Hughes' e-mail address is vhughes@lowellsun.com
[vhughes@lowellsun.com] .
[http://mnglowellsun.healthology.com/]
© 1999-2004 MediaNews Group, Inc.
All rights to republication of special dispatches herein are
*****************************************************************
30 NRC: Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste (ACNW) 2004 Meeting Transcripts
The following links on this page are to documents in Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF). See our Plugins, Viewers, and
Other Tools page for more information.
Date Title
10/20/2004 154th ACNW Meeting
10/19/2004 154th ACNW Meeting
09/23/2004 153rd ACNW Meeting
09/22/2004 153rd ACNW Meeting
07/21/2004 152nd ACNW Meeting
07/20/2004 152nd ACNW Meeting
06/24/2004 151st ACNW Meeting
06/23/2004 151st ACNW Meeting
06/22/2004 151st ACNW Meeting
05/27/2004 150th ACNW Meeting
05/26/2004 150th ACNW Meeting
05/25/2004 150th ACNW Meeting
04/21/2004 149th ACNW Meeting
04/20/2004 149th ACNW Meeting
02/27/2004 148th ACNW Meeting
02/25/2004 148th ACNW Meeting
02/24/2004 148th ACNW Meeting
Last revised Wednesday, October 27, 2004
*****************************************************************
31 OCHA IRIN KYRGYZSTAN: Landslide threatens waste dump in Naryn -
Tuesday 2 November 2004
[http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/default.asp]
ANKARA, 1 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - A potential landslide in the central
Kyrgyz province of Naryn could affect a uranium waste dump,
threatening up to 50,000 people, according to the Kyrgyz
emergency ministry.
"The danger of a landslide is very serious. Currently, according
to an expert who has been monitoring the situation on the ground
since August, the landslide is moving by 1 to 1.5 cm per day,"
Emil Akmatov, a ministry spokesman, told IRIN from the capital,
Bishkek, on Monday.
According to the emergency ministry, a special inter-ministry
commission has just completed an assessment of the situation in
the Min-Kush settlement of Naryn province, where in August a land
mass of some 700,000 cubic metres started to slide down in the
Tuyuk-Suu area.
Experts from the emergency ministry, the academy of sciences and
some scientific research institutions say that if the landslide
collapsed it would create a natural dam 30 m high and a
subsequent reservoir 200 m long.
They warn that this would destroy the Tuyuk-Suu nuclear waste
dump and that the rivers Min-Kush, Kokomeren and Naryn (a
tributary of the Syrdarya river, one of the major water sources
in Central Asia) would be polluted with radioactivity. "If that
were to happen, up to 50,000 people could be affected," Akmatov
said.
There are four uranium waste dumps in the vicinity of Min-Kush
with a total volume of 800,000 cu m, of which 400,000 cu m are
radioactive, according to the emergency officials.
"It is very difficult to determine when the landslide might
collapse as no equipment has been installed in the body of the
landslide to detect any sudden movements," Akmatov said.
But he added that the emergency agency was now working to develop
measures to prevent the potential landslide from causing flooding
and destroying the waste dump. Options include using machinery to
clear up the dam or using explosives to release the water, the
emergency official said.
In 1994, a team of local scientists investigated the nuclear dump
in Min-Kush and proposed a number of solutions to the problem.
One of them was to move the dumps to a more secure area, a move
endorsed by the inter-ministerial commission on the issue.
According to the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), an NGO
working to strengthen global security by reducing the risk of the
use and preventing the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons, there were 36 uranium tailings sites and 25 uranium
mining dump sites in Kyrgyzstan by 1999. Many waste sites, a
legacy of the Soviet Union, are located in areas prone to
earthquakes and landslides, and thus pose an environmental safety
hazard to Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asian region.
All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs 2004
*****************************************************************
32 PRN: Sierra Club Votes '527' Campaign Heads into Final Stretch
[http://www.prnewswire.com/]
[http://www.sierraclubvotes.org]
Thousands of Volunteers Get Out the Vote in 11 Key Sites in
Nine States
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Heading into the final
days of the 2004 election, thousands of Sierra Club volunteers
are mobilizing around the country to get out the environmental
vote in battleground states and raise the profile of
environmental issues in the 2004 election.
Sierra Club principals and on-the-ground spokespeople are
available for comment before and after the election. In addition,
Sierra Club Votes will release a poll on Election Day concerning
voter opinions about the most critical environmental issue in
this year's election -- the designation of Nevada's Yucca
Mountain as a national nuclear waste repository.
The Sierra Club Votes "527" campaign already has proved a
tremendous success. In nine battleground states, staff and
volunteers have knocked on more than 1 million doors, made more
than 1 million phone calls, and sent more than 2.2 million pieces
of direct mail. Additionally, some targeted voters participated
in the Sierra Club's first Internet outreach campaign. As of
October 31, Sierra Club Votes was responsible for more than 4.2
million direct contacts to environmental voters and the
recruitment of nearly 12,000 new volunteers.
Sierra Club members and staff will spend the final day of the
campaign getting out the vote as part of the America Votes
coalition. Spokespeople are available in the following areas:
Local Sierra Club Votes Locations: Following are cell phone
numbers for
Sierra Club Votes spokespeople in battleground states:
* Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM: Jessica Hodge, 202-494-8717
* Columbus, OH: Bryan Clark, 614-461-0734
* New Hampshire: Kurt Ehrenberg, 603-498-2275
* Las Vegas, NV: Tara Smith, 702-308-8227
* Milwaukee, WI: Joyce Harms, 240-425-7830
* Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: Heather Cusik, 612-202-7599
* Philadelphia, PA: Elise Annunziata, 703-629-8441 or Brian
O'Malley,
202-744-8487
* Pittsburgh, PA: Rachel Martin, 814-227-8201
* Portland, OR: Paul Shively, 503-201-1254
* Reno, NV: Illysia Shattuck, 310-386-0455
* Tampa Bay, FL: Darden Rice, 727-560-2479
CONTACT: Kerri Glover of the Sierra Club, +1-202-675-7903.
SOURCE Sierra Club
Web Site: http://www.sierraclubvotes.org
[http://www.sierraclubvotes.org]
[http://www.prnewswire.com/media/]
*****************************************************************
33 PE: Products: California water utility removes perchlorate, VOCs
Monday, November 01
[http://www.pollutionengineering.com]
The Lincoln Avenue Water Company recently started up its
2,000-gpm perchlorate removal system at its two wells in
Altadena, Calif. The system uses a combination of high-flow
vessels from USFilter Westates Carbon and PWA2 perchlorate
removal media jointly developed by USFilter, and Rohm and Haas of
Philadelphia to reduce perchlorate to non-detectable levels. The
system startup enabled the water company to re-open the two wells
and to meet the higher water demands of summer.
USFilter Westates
Palm Desert, Calif.
(908) 704-9027
www.usfilter.com [http://www.usfilter.com]
eProduct Number 423
Copyright © 2004 by BNP Media
[http://www.bnpmedia.com]
*****************************************************************
34 November Surprise Piketon, Ohio
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 18:33:24 -0800
November Surprise Geoffrey Sea*
There is a secret floating around the corridors, cubicles and
chemical pits in Ohio, Kentucky, and Washington DC. Its not a real secret
in the sense of national security or anything like that. Its more of a
national insecurity secret, pertaining to jobs, the deficit, the
environmental health mess left at federal nuclear sites, and Bush-Cheney
campaign strategy.
The big hush-hush is this: Embargoed until after the election, the
Bush Department of Energy will award the new contracts for cleanup and
management of the closed and closing uranium enrichment sites in Piketon,
Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky.
This has been in the works for quite some time. Nearly two years ago,
the administration informed Bechtel-Jacobs Corporation, the current
contractor at both sites, that the contracts would be restructured and that
BJC would no longer qualify to bid owing to its size. The objective is to
downsize and to reorient prime contracts to "small businesses,"
theoretically saving money by eliminating protections for former employees
with grandfathered benefits. Of course another point is to hide the fact
that overall funding and the jobs that go with it are being slashed. Such
contracts do not take two years to award, and all bids have been in since
last March. But somebody somewhere in the political apparatus of the
Bush-Cheney campaign realized that this would be a disaster if made public
before the election.
Of course it already is a disaster, because underground toxic and
radioactive plumes are threatening to migrate offsite (if they havent
already done so) in one of the most scenic and historic locales in Ohio,
and likewise in Kentucky. The Department of Energy will not even release
projections of total cleanup costs at Piketon, because they probably exceed
the quarter billion dollars that it will take to remediate each of the
other, less-problematic enrichment sites.
But thats not the kind of disaster that the Bush administration
worries about. What they worry about is the political disaster of an
announced environmental and job rollback on such strategic electoral
terrain. No one can know the precise numbers until after the awards are
made, but the rumored projection is that about one third of the
approximately 500 onsite jobs at Piketon will have to go immediately, with
another fifty percent reduction to follow later. That will mean an even
bigger cut in actual performance because up to six separate companies will
replace BJC, necessitating wasteful duplication in overhead costs and
administration. In other words, more money may wind up being spent to
employ far fewer people and accomplish less cleanup.
The contracting process was extended three times inexplicably (wink,
wink), as operatives realized that even to announce the awards would let
the cat out of the bag. So Bechtel-Jacobs has been ordered to stay on until
April, even though they now want out. One woman at DOE who reluctantly
agreed to talk to me, said the scheduled award date was "sometime," nervous
about revealing even this much. When I asked a DOE public affairs
spokeswoman if the timing could be election-related, she giggled and said,
"I cant imagine." I asked the same question to a BJC representative and he
just belly-laughed for a very long time. One anonymous source at BJC called
me to say that employees are keeping to the cynical code of silence because
each one is fearful for his job.
Some would say that theres no secret at all, because all you have to
do is read through hundreds of pages of old and new contract
specifications, published in the Federal Register and available online.
Then, if you read between the deleted lines of projected funding and
staffing levels"redacted" to "protect national security"youll know the
naked truth.
John Kerry came to Wakefield, Ohio, just a mile or so down-creek from
Piketons migrating plumes, on October 16. He called for increased funding
for "cleanup of soil, groundwater and hazardous waste from legacy
operations." He seemed unaware, though, that the funding levels are already
being slashed. I guess hes been slacking off on reading and divining
secrets from the Federal Register. And I guess that no one clued him in,
because John Kerry doesnt have a "need to know." Yet.
*Geoffrey Sea is a writer, historian and health physicist now writing a
book about Piketon for Viking/Penguin, due out in 2005.
*****************************************************************
35 DOE: American Statistical Association Committee on Energy Statistics
FR Doc 04-24356
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63376] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-54]
AGENCY: Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of renewal.
SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L.
92- 463), I hereby certify that the renewal, for a period of four
months, of the charter of the American Statistical Association
Committee on Energy Statistics is in the public interest in
connection with the performance of duties imposed on the
Department of Energy by law. This determination follows
consultation with the Committee Management Secretariat of the
General Services Administration, pursuant to section 102-3.60,
title 41, Code of Federal Regulations. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT: Ms. Rachel M. Samuel at (202) 586- 3279.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purpose of the Committee is to
provide advice on a continuing basis to the Administrator of the
Energy Information Administration (EIA), including: 1. Periodic
review of and advice on Energy Information Administration data
collections and analysis programs; 2. Advice on technical and
methodological issues in planning, operation, and the review of
Energy Information Administration statistical programs and their
relative priorities; and 3. Advice on matters concerning improved
energy modeling and forecasting tools, particularly regarding
their functioning, relevancy, and results.
Issued in Washington, DC, on: October 27, 2004.
Carol Matthews, Acting Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-24356 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
*****************************************************************
36 DOE: Sale of Surplus Highly Enriched Uranium
Document Type: Special Notice
Solicitation Number: DOE-SNOTE-041005-001
Posted Date: Oct 05, 2004
Original Response Date:
Current Response Date:
Original Archive Date: Dec 31, 2004
Current Archive Date: Dec 31, 2004
Contracting Office Address
+ P.O. Box 2050, Mail Stop 8009 Oak Ridge TN, 37831
Description
+ The Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security
Administration (NNSA) is soliciting expressions of interest in
the purchase and down-blending of surplus U.S. highly enriched
uranium (HEU).
NNSA is developing a list of companies that may be interested in
the purchase of the surplus HEU. Interested parties may be
commercial nuclear power companies, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) licensed facilities with blend down capabilities, nuclear
fuel cycle suppliers, or teams consisting of several interested
firms. The HEU being offered is believed to be high-purity
material. When down-blended with commercial natural uranium, the
bulk of this material should produce LEU that meets applicable
ASTM specifications for commercial nuclear power reactor fuel.
A portion of this material may require cross-blending or chemical
purification to meet the applicable specifications.
The chemical purification would primarily be required to remove
the uranium from its current alloyed or compounded form.
Any required cross-blending or chemical purification are the
responsibility of the winning bidder or team. The winning bidder
or team will be required to accept delivery of the HEU at a
secure facility in the United States, licensed for possession and
processing of HEU. The winning bidder will be responsible for
ensuring the HEU is blended down to an enrichment level below 10
wt% 235U within two years of receipt. The quantity of HEU
available will be no less than 15 tonnes and up to 17.4 tonnes.
The majority of the HEU, 10 to 12.4 tonnes, is in the form of
metal. The metal is in the form of broken pieces and slugs, with
no dimension exceeding 2.25 inches.
The HEU metal has an average enrichment of approximately 75 wt%
235U.
A small portion of this material may require cross-blending or
chemical purification to meet the applicable specifications. The
remainder of the material is in the form of alloyed and unalloyed
HEU metal, unirradiated HEU reactor fuel elements, and HEU
compounds.
This material would have an average enrichment in the range of
60-75 wt% 235U. The majority of this material may require
cross-blending or chemical purification to meet the applicable
specifications. The winning bidder will be expected to include in
its proposal the capability to down-blend the HEU subject to an
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verification regime on
the down-blending process (but not on material while in storage).
Interested parties must be able to begin receiving the material
by December 31, 2005. NNSA expects to deliver the material at
a roughly steady rate during calendar years 2006-09. This is not
a request for proposals (RFP).
NNSA anticipates issuing a RFP in the first quarter of fiscal
2005 with award in the fourth quarter of FY 2005. A second
announcement will be made prior to release of the RFP to finalize
the bidders list. Interested parties should respond to this
announcement by providing the following information: Company
name, address, a point of contact, contact information (phone
number and e-mail) and a statement of capabilities. Companies are
encouraged to identify any concerns or issues that could impact
their decision to bid on this material and/or suggestions on the
structure of the business arrangement that may improve the
economics of the sale.
Any concerns or suggestions will be kept confidential, but will
be considered in the development of terms and conditions of the
RFP.
NNSA may contact responding companies for additional information.
Responses to this announcement are requested within two weeks of
publication of this expression of interest.
Responses should be sent to Carol Elliott, NNSA Y-12 National
Security Complex, P.O. Box 2050, Mail Stop 8009, Oak Ridge, TN,
37831. Point of Contact
+ Email your questions to Carol Elliott, Contract Officer at
elliottcr@yso.doe.gov [elliottcr@yso.doe.gov]
Additional Information
+ Click here for further details regarding this notice.
[http://e-center.doe.gov/doebiz.nsf/UNID/9788E54145576E8A85256F24
00717192?OpenDocument]
Reference Library [http://www.acqnet.gov] ]
*****************************************************************
37 DOE: Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board, Idaho
FR Doc 04-24354
[Federal Register: November 1, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 210)]
[Notices] [Page 63376] From the Federal Register Online via GPO
Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr01no04-55]
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory AGENCY:
Department of Energy.
ACTION: Notice of open meeting.
SUMMARY: This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EMSSAB), Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The Federal Advisory
Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public
notice of these meeting be announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Wednesday,
November 17, 2004, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Opportunities for public
participation will be held Tuesday, November 16, from 12:15 to
12:30 and 5:45 to 6 p.m. and on Wednesday, November 17, from
11:45 a.m. to 12 noon and 4 to 4:15 p.m. Additional time may be
made available for public comment during the presentations.
These times are subject to change as the meeting progresses,
depending on the extent of comment offered. Please check with the
meeting facilitator to confirm these times.
ADDRESSES: Ameritel Inn, 645 Lindsay Blvd., Idaho Falls, ID. FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL CAB
Administrator, North Wind, Inc., P.O. Box 51174, Idaho Falls, ID
83405, Phone (208) 557-7885, or visit the Board's Internet home
page at http://www.ida.net/users/cab
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ida.net/users/cab] .
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations to DOE in the areas of
environmental restoration, waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Topics (agenda topics may change up to the day of the
meeting; please contact Peggy Hinman for the most current agenda
or visit the CAB's Internet site at http://www.ida.net/users/cab/
[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leaving
FR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.ida.net/users/cab/] ):
Presentations addressing the cleanup and closure of the
Radioactive Waste Management Complex Develop a recommendation on
orphan waste Federal budget process and funding available for the
Idaho Operation Office Public Participation: This meeting is open
to the public.
Written statements may be filed with the Board facilitator either
before or after the meeting. Individuals who wish to make oral
presentations pertaining to agenda items should contact the Board
Chair at the address or telephone number listed above. Request
must be received five days prior to the meeting and reasonable
provision will be made to include the presentation in the agenda.
The Deputy Designated Federal Officer, Richard Provencher,
Assistant Manager for Environmental Management, Idaho Operations
Office, U.S. Department of Energy, is empowered to conduct the
meeting in a fashion that will facilitate the orderly conduct of
business. Every individual wishing to make public comment will be
provided equal time to present their comments.
Minutes: The minutes of this meeting will be available for public
review and copying at the Freedom of Information Public Reading
Room, 1E-190, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20585 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through
Friday except Federal holidays. Minutes will also be available by
writing to Ms. Peggy Hinman, INEEL CAB Administrator, at the
address and phone number listed above.
Issued at Washington, DC, on October 27, 2004.
Rachel Samuel, Deputy Advisory Committee Management Officer.
[FR Doc. 04-24354 Filed 10-29-04; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
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38 UK The Times: Bush v Kerry: state by state guide
November 01, 2004
By Jenny Booth, Times Online
THE KEY STATES
FLORIDA (27 electoral college votes): The collapse of the Florida
voting system caused crisis in the last election and ultimately
delivered the presidency to Bush by 537 votes. John Kerry held
his first rally of the final day's campaigning here. Previously
he has been visiting black churches in the Sunshine State to
improve his support, and Florida's large retired population
prefer the Democrats. Many Hispanics prefer President Bush's
conservative line on abortion and gay marriage, however, and the
Jewish population also prefers Mr Bush, who is the narrow
favourite. Both candidates have spent huge amounts of time and
effort campaigning for its 27 electoral college votes. 2000
result: Bush won by 0.01 per cent.
OHIO (20 electoral college votes): Competition is so hot here
that they are calling it the new Florida. Mr Bush held a pre-dawn
rally in Wilmington at the start of his last day's campaigning.
Ohio's heavy industry has suffered under the President, with
225,000 jobs lost to foreign competitors, and strong resentment
that Mr Bush dropped tariffs on imported steel. Mr Kerry has made
inroads after expressing sympathy for Ohio job losses, and is
thought to be ahead. Mr Bush, however, is favourite with Ohio's
many Christian conservatives, who dislike gay marriage and gun
control. Since 1964 Ohio has voted for the winner in every
election. 2000 result: Bush won by 3.51 per cent.
PENNSYLVANIA (21 electoral college votes): Mr Kerry has
maintained a narrow lead in this most important of the Rust Belt
states, which has been hard hit by job losses and the end of
protective tariffs on imported steel. Mr Kerry's wife, Teresa
Heinz, is based in Pittsburgh and has given a lot of money to
local good causes. Mr Bush has visited in repeatedly. 2000
result: Gore won by 4.17 per cent.
WISCONSIN (10 electoral college votes): A Gallup poll published
on the eve of the election gave Mr Bush a surprising eight-point
lead in this Rust Belt state - although a Zogby poll on the same
day put Mr Kerry seven points ahead. Elections have often been
close here (Al Gore won by just 5,708 votes last time around).
Unemployment will be a key issue - the state has lost about
80,000 jobs since the last election. Wisconsin was the home of
progressive Republicanism, although that tradition seems to have
died out now. 2000 result: Gore won by 0.22 per cent.
THE SWING STATES
ARIZONA (10 electoral college votes): One of the thriving Sun
states, Arizona in the south-west is booming thanks to free trade
with Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement. It has
a Democratic governor, its large population of Vietnam veterans
like Mr Kerry and the state voted for Bill Clinton in 1996. It
then reverted to its Republican tradition for Mr Bush, however.
Analysts say that Arizona is slowly turning Democrat thanks to
Hispanic and Californian incomers, but the results may not be
felt until 2008. 2000 result: Bush won by 6.29 per cent.
ARKANSAS (6 electoral college votes): Bill Clinton's home state
is the only southern state outside Florida where Mr Kerry is in
with a glimmer of a chance. Mr Bush has been leading, making play
on social issues such as guns and gay marriage, but Mr Clinton's
campaign appearances last weekend might help Mr Kerry's chances.
2000 result: Bush won by 5.45 per cent.
COLORADO (9 electoral college votes): This traditionally staunch
Republican state is dominated by the Rocky Mountains. There was
much surprise when Mr Kerry - who was born in an army hospital in
the state - polled strongly here at the start of the race,
putting Colorado back into play. Hispanic incomers may be
shifting the political balance. Mr Bush is still expected to win.
2000 result: Bush won by 8.36 per cent.
IOWA (7 electoral college votes): Mr Bush came within 4,000 votes
of snatching Iowa in 2000, which would have been a startling
upset. He has been targeting the state for frequent visits, and
put in a whistlestop appearance on the last day of campaigning.
But Mr Kerry is popular here, and won the nomination as Democrat
candidate largely on the strength of his overwhelming showing in
Iowa caucuses. His focus on jobs and healthcare has played well
in a state hit by the 2001 recession. Too close to call. 2000
result: Gore won by 0.32 per cent.
MICHIGAN (17 electoral college votes): 200,000 job losses in
manufacturing during the Bush presidency have lent impetus to Mr
Kerry in this Rust Belt state which suffered heavily in the 2001
recession. Car industry unions in Detroit and a large black
population also back the Democrats. Mr Bush needs to win
Michigan, and is fighting hard for it, but he needs the jobs
market to continue to pick up if he is going to steal this state.
2000 result: Gore won by 5.13 per cent.
MINNESOTA (10 electoral college votes): This Mid-Western state
has strong Democrat traditions dating back decades - it last
voted Republican in 1972 - but is now finely balanced.
Independents like Ross Perot have traditionally done better here,
and Minnesota was another state where Ralph Nader's candidacy
nearly proved fatal for Mr Gore in 2000. Analysts expect it
narrowly to stay Democrat. 2000 result: Gore won by 2.41 per
cent.
MISSOURI (11 electoral college votes): The ultimate swing state,
which has voted for the eventual president in every election for
the last 100 years. Like America, Missouri is split between urban
and rural populations, with a strong ethnic mix. Mr Bush won here
by just 80,000 votes, and has been visiting it regularly
throughout his presidency to improve his chances this time. Some
say Kerry has not campaigned hard enough here to win it. 2000
result: Bush won by 3.34 per cent.
NEVADA (5 electoral college votes): Unpredictable. Drifted
towards Mr Bush in 2000 but could equally drift towards Mr Kerry
this time, after the President broke a campaign promise and gave
the go-ahead to an unpopular nuclear waste facility at Yucca
Mountain. A large, mainly desert state with no income tax, famed
for Las Vegas and Death Valley, which makes its money these days
from gambling and prostitution. Tends to vote for eventual
winner. 2000 result: Bush won by 3.54 per cent.
NEW HAMPSHIRE (4 electoral college votes): This low tax state
with its growing population is one of the few in New England that
didn't vote Democrat last time. New Hampshire is known as the
Granite State because of its rugged coastline and it has equally
rugged independent traditions: its motto is Live Free or Die.
Ralph Nader lost this one for Mr Gore last time. They might go
for Mr Kerry because he is a New Englander. 2000 result: Bush won
by 1.27 per cent.
NEW MEXICO (5 electoral college votes): The population of this
south-western state which borders Texas is heavily Hispanic, and
the popular state governor is a Democrat. To counteract this,
hundreds of Bush activists have been volunteering to cross the
border from Texas to campaign in New Mexico, and it is perhaps
thanks to their efforts that the polls put Mr Bush narrowly
ahead. Last time, Mr Gore won by just 365 votes in a state where
only 600,000 bothered to turn out. 2000 result: Gore won by 0.06
per cent.
OREGON (7 electoral college votes): Mr Bush has targeted Oregon,
after narrowly losing it to Mr Gore last time when Ralph Nader
split the Democratic vote. Oregon is the least Democratic of the
West Coast states, and used to be strongly Republican, but Mr
Kerry is thought to have done enough to hang on to it. 2000
result: Gore won by 0.44 per cent.
WEST VIRGINIA (5 electoral college votes): A poor state whose
economy has been damaged by recession. Mr Kerry badly wants to
win it after it turned Republican in 2000, and made it his first
stop on winning the Democratic nomination in March. But this is a
strongly pro-military state where Mr Bush's record on the War on
Terror goes down well. 2000 result: Bush won by 6.33 per cent.
THE BUSH STATES
ALABAMA (9 electoral college votes): This economically backward
Southern state has low average incomes and high crime, poverty
and unemployment. Fifty years ago Alabama was the scene of some
of the fiercest campaigns of the black civil rights movement.
Since then the former Democrat stronghold has turned conservative
and voted Republican in the last seven elections. 2000 result:
Bush won by 14.1 per cent.
ALASKA (3 electoral college votes): Most of Alaska's tiny
population support President Bush's controversial proposals to
drill for oil in the National Wildlife Refuge in this giant,
northern state. The Republican governor is hugely unpopular after
making his daughter a senator, but Mr Bush is still expected to
walk it. 2000 result: Bush won by 30.95 per cent.
GEORGIA (15 electoral college votes): The birthplace of Martin
Luther King is another southern state with a history connected to
the civil rights movement and a large black population. The
economy of its sprawling capital, Atlanta - home of Coca Cola -
is booming however and the city now has a progressive reputation.
2000 result Bush won by 11.69 per cent.
IDAHO (4 electoral college votes): This backwoods Western state,
famed for its potatoes, is solidly Republican. Its inhabitants
tend to mistrust the federal government and believe that the
United Nations is a conspiracy. President Clinton's environmental
efforts to halt road-building and to reintroduce grizzly bears
went down like a lead balloon. Competes with Wyoming and Utah for
the honour of being the most staunchly Republican. 2000 result:
Bush won by 39.53 per cent.
INDIANA (11 electoral college votes): Despite the strong unions
and large number of manufacturing jobs in this Midwest state it
has always had a strong Republican tradition. Famed for its motor
racing, holds the Indianapolis 500 race in May. 2000 result: Bush
won by 15.64 per cent.
KANSAS (6 electoral college votes): This culturally conservative
middle American state, the home of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz,
is known as the US's bread basket because of the large amount of
wheat grown on its flat plains. It has only voted Democrat once
in the last 60 years. 2000 result: Bush won by 20.8 per cent.
KENTUCKY (8 electoral college votes): The rural and religious
Bluegrass state was founded by frontiersmen who crossed the
Appalachian mountains in the 1790s. It has only recently turned
Republican after backing Bill Clinton, but is not expected to
produce any upsets for Mr Bush. 2000 result: Bush won by 15.16
per cent.
LOUISIANA (9 electoral college votes): Dirt poor, with an
ethnically mixed population of blacks who vote Democrat and
Cajuns who vote Republican. John Kerry's chances were never going
to be good in this Southern state, and were worsened when two
Democrat congressman defected to the Republicans, and when the
popular Democrat Senator John Breaux resigned suddenly. Mr Kerry
has not bothered to target it for heavy campaigning. 2000 result:
Bush won by 7.67 per cent.
MISSISSIPPI (6 electoral college votes): This Southern state is
one of the poorest in the US. Twenty per cent of the population
lives below the poverty line, and levels of health, education and
literacy are the worst in America. Gambling is one of the few
growth industries. Expected to be solid for Mr Bush. 2000 result:
Bush won by 16.92 per cent.
MONTANA (3 electoral college votes): Like Idaho, a
sparsely-populated state whose stubborn population doesn't like
governments. Noted for its millions of acres of forest, and for
its backwoods survivalists and militias that are armed to the
teeth. After backing the eccentric billionaire Ross Perot in the
1990s it came through for Mr Bush in 2000, and is expected to do
the same this time. 2000 result: Bush won by 25.08 per cent.
NEBRASKA (5 electoral college votes): Mid-Western, rural state,
relatively poor, whose flat landscape is under-populated.
Inhabitants are strongly religious, mainly farmers and
agri-business folk. Nebraska has voted Republican for the last 50
years and isn't going to change its mind now. 2000 result: Bush
won by 29 per cent.
NORTH CAROLINA (15 electoral college votes): Although this is the
home state of Mr Kerry's running mate, Senator John Edwards, he
does not seem to have made much inroads in the Republican support
in the so-called Tar Heel State. (Because it traditionally
produced a lot of tar from burning pine trees, apparently.) North
Carolinans apparently think that Mr Edwards has abandoned the
state to run for the presidency, and isn't looking after their
interests. Mr Kerry has not been ahead in a single poll here.
2000 result: Bush won by 12.83 per cent.
NORTH DAKOTA (3 electoral college votes): Tends to send Democrats
to Congress and to vote for Republican presidents. A rural state
where farming is the main industry and subsidies are the key
political issue. 2000 result: Bush won by 27.6 per cent.
OKLAHOMA (7 electoral college votes): This central US state which
borders Texas has a boom and bust economy and a 50 year tradition
of voting Republican. 2000 result: Bush won by 21.88 per cent.
SOUTH CAROLINA (8 electoral college votes): This Southern state
divides socially between the rich coastal resorts, including the
state's elegant capital, Charleston, and the rural poverty
inland. It is ethnically mixed and like most of the Southern
states, was once Democratic. Now it is strongly Republican. 2000
election: Bush won by 15.94 per cent.
SOUTH DAKOTA (3 electoral college votes): South Dakota believes
that it is smarter than its namesake state to the north, for by
flirting with both political parties it maximises the amount of
state funded projects to boost its flagging economy. Once it was
a farming state, but now much of the countryside lies unused and
under-populated. Low taxes and low wages have attracted some new
businesses in the IT and financial sector, although these
suffered when dotcom bubble burst. 2000 result: Bush won by 22.74
per cent.
TENNESSEE (11 electoral college votes): A rural state on the
border between North and South which was hotly fought over in the
America Civil War. Al Gore managed to lose Tennessee last time
even though it was his home state. A Massachusetts Yankee like
John Kerry is not likely to do any better. 2000 result: Bush won
by 3.87 per cent.
TEXAS (34 electoral college votes): The Lone Star state is Bush's
backyard. He was Governor here before he was President. Built on
cattle and cotton, it now makes its money from oil and computing.
Every state office is held by a Republican. 2000 result: Bush won
by 21.32 per cent.
UTAH (5 electoral college votes): Utah is the Mormon state, and
the religious right has a strong grip on the country. It has the
toughest anti-abortion laws in the US. It was the scene of Bush's
widest margin of victory in 2000 and may be again this time. 2000
result: Bush won by 40.49 per cent.
VIRGINIA (13 electoral college votes): The home of the National
Rifle Association and the Christian Coalition, the state is
divided between its conservative south and the Democrat voting
suburbs to the north around Washington DC, which suffered after
the dotcom bubble burst. Virginia has been Republican since 1968.
Scenting defeat, Kerry scaled back his campaign here in early
October. 2000 result: Bush won by 8.03 per cent.
WYOMING (3 electoral college votes): This quiet, mid-Western
state is cowboy country, although mining now plays as big a part
in its economy as cattle. The home state of Dick Cheney, the Vice
President, is the most staunchly Republican state in the US,
giving Mr Bush his widest margin of victory in 2000. 2000 result:
Bush won by 40.06 per cent.
THE KERRY STATES
CALIFORNIA (55 electoral college votes): America's richest state
with the highest number of electoral college votes. Mr Bush spent
millions on campaign advertising in an effort to turn California
Republican in 2000 and lost heavily. Mr Gore spent nothing and
won, even though nearly half a million left-wingers voted for
Ralph Nader, the Green candidate. The new Governor, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, may be a moderate Republican but that means
little in the presidential race. Solid for Mr Kerry. 2000 result:
Gore won by 11.8 per cent.
CONNECTICUT (7 electoral college votes): This small and beautiful
New England state is heavily populated by wealthy New York
commuters. After voting Republican in the 1970s and 1980s, its
Democratic tendencies have only been strengthened in the last few
months by a corruption scandal which has led to John Rowland, the
state's Republican former Governor and a good friend of the Bush
family, being impeached. 2000 result: Gore won by 17.5 per cent.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (3 electoral college votes): The urban area
of Washington city does not lie in any US state, and as a result
got the vote only in 1964. Its half a million people beat those
in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to be the most staunchly
Democratic anywhere in the USA. 2000 result: Gore won by 76.2 per
cent.
DELAWARE (3 electoral college votes): Used to be a bellwether
state that picked the winning president, but after turning
Democrat for Clinton in 1992 and 1996, last time it backed Gore
heavily and lost. The state's wealth is largely based on the Du
Pont family business empire, and on its status as a major
financial centre. Very unlikely to change its mind and back Bush.
2000 result: Gore won by 13.1 per cent.
HAWAII (4 electoral college votes): Used to be solidly Democrat,
thanks to the heavily unionised workforce. Mr Bush has, however,
been polling surprisingly well in this chain of beautiful islands
characterised by volcanoes, rainforests and stunning beaches, as
well as bustling cities. The Republicans showed they have
ambitions here by dispatching Dick Cheney for a campaign tour
last Friday. 2000 result: Gore won by 18.3 per cent.
ILLINOIS (21 electoral college votes): One of the Rust Belt
states in the American Midwest, whose heavy industry declined in
the 1970s, Illinois has partially managed to reinvent itself.
Once the ultimate swing state, it backed Kennedy in 1960 and
Nixon in 1968. Now solidly Democrat, the large population around
Chicago - an important manufacturing and services centre, which
backs Mr Kerry - easily outnumbers the rural areas of the state,
which vote Republican. 2000 result: Gore won by 12 per cent.
MAINE (4 electoral college votes): Like many outlying regions,
Maine has a tradition of independent politicians and cares about
local personalities more than it does the party system. It will
probably go with Mr Kerry. 2000 result: Gore won by 5.12 per cent
MARYLAND (10 electoral college votes): This Eastern state
surrounds the Chesapeake Bay, which once provided employment in
fisheries. Maryland's large black and ethnic minority population
traditionally back the Democrats. Many of the state's population
are civil servants, either with the Social Security
Administration which is based in Maryland or in neighbouring
Washington DC. It was a surprise when Bush senior won Maryland in
1988 and Dubya is not expected to repeat the feat. 2000 result:
Gore won by 16.4 per cent.
MASSACHUSETTS (12 electoral college votes): This New England
state and Democratic stronghold returns Mr Kerry as one of its
senators. The other is Ted Kennedy, and the state is the home of
the Kennedy clan. It was one of the few states to stay Democratic
even during the Nixon landslide in 1972. 2000 result: Gore won by
27.3 per cent.
NEW JERSEY (15 electoral college votes): Usually staunchly
Democrat, this small seaside state next to New York has been
riveted by the scandal which saw the resignation of its
Democratic governor, James McGreevey, a married man father of
two, after admitting a gay affair. Mr Bush has done much better
than expected in the polls here, but Kerry is still expected to
win. 2000 result: Gore won by 15.8 per cent.
NEW YORK (31 electoral college votes): After September 11, Mr
Bush fancied he stood a chance in New York, and spent a lot of
time hanging out with firefighters. He is probably regarding this
now as time wasted. If Mr Kerry doesn't get the presidency this
time, then the junior New York senator, one Hillary Clinton, may
be the Democratic torch-bearer in 2008. 2000 result: Gore won by
25 per cent.
RHODE ISLAND (4 electoral college votes): The main industries of
this small East Coast state are healthcare and tourism. Rhode
Island may have a Republican governor, but it votes Democrat in
presidential elections. 2000 result: Gore won by 29.1 per cent.
VERMONT (3 electoral college votes): Ben and Jerry's ice cream is
made in Vermont, and its quirky homemade appeal is typical of the
state's ethos. Howard Dean, the long-time governor, was beaten to
the Democratic nomination by Mr Kerry. If the population of this
tiny, liberal, progressive New England state had the choice of a
moderate Republican to vote for to take their revenge on Kerry,
they might do it. As it is, they are expected to vote Democrat
again. 2000 result: Gore won by 9.93 per cent.
WASHINGTON (11 Electoral Votes): If Mr Bush can win Washington,
then he's got a landslide on his hands. Its largest city,
Seattle, is the hotbed of anti-globalisation, but the rest of the
state is more evenly balanced between liberal coastal cities and
Bush-leaning rural areas. Mr Nader grabbed around 4 per cent of
the vote last time, and his decline should give the Democrats a
useful cushion. 2000 result: Gore won by 5.58 per cent.
Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk
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