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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 Xinhuanet: Iran asks for EU explicit proposal at nuclear negotiation
2 US: Reid to seek Senate's top Democratic leadership post
3 US: UCS: Science in Bush's Second Term
4 US: Las Vegas SUN: New Leader of Senate Democrats Is Steady
5 arabic news: France never hears about Egypt's secret nuclear program
6 Interfax: UK to spend millions on Nuclear Towns program in Russia
7 Bellona: Rosatom’s Antipov stumps for international help, not superv
8 ITAR-TASS: Russia, Britain sign memorandum on nuclear cooperation
9 Business Day: 'Racism forced CEO out of nuclear regulator'
NUCLEAR REACTORS
10 Experts At UN Meeting Endorse Harmonizing Nuclear Power Plant Safety
11 US: Elections and Energy Bill--Let's Act Now
12 US: NRC: News Release - Region II - 2004-055 - NRC to Meet with U.S.
13 CCNMatthews FOR: CANADIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY COMMISSION
14 Japan Times: Niigata aftershock shuts down bullet train line, nuclea
15 ITAR-TASS: Situation at Balakovo NPP stabilised
16 US: NRC: NRC Restores Various Documents Removed from Web Site for Se
17 US: PJStar.com - Journal Star: Security upgraded at Illinois nuclear
18 US: NRC: Material Control and Accounting of Special Nuclear Material
NUCLEAR SAFETY
19 [du-list] British Defence ministry DU report
20 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] International Anti-Food Irradiation Week
21 US: [du-list] Fw: Postponement of November 15 Scoping Meeting
22 [DU-WATCH] weapons dust worries iraqies - provisional
23 [du-list] USUK DU nanopathology solutions
24 US: [du-list] US in U-turn over Gulf war syndrome - New Scientist
25 UK The Times: MoD admits Gulf War mistakes
26 US: WIStv.com Columbia, SC: "Nuclear laundry" moving out of Columbia
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
27 Las Vegas RJ: JANE ANN MORRISON: After low of seeing friend Daschle
28 Las Vegas RJ: Bush victory keeps light green for Yucca Mountain
29 Bellona: Zheleznogorsk Combine unloaded two trains with spent nuclea
30 Las Vegas SUN: Columnist Jeff German: Nevadans lost sight of Yucca
31 deseretnews: Reid poised to take over as Senate minority leader
32 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Voters sound wake-up call
33 Las Vegas SUN: Bush win means renewed support for Yucca dump
34 Las Vegas SUN: GOP: Yucca not a strong enough issue
35 RGJ: Four-year comparison helped Bush in Nevada, poll finds
36 Salt Lake Tribune: Yucca Mountain votes could haunt Utah's senators
37 US: NWTRB Transcripts
38 US: PE.com : PERCHLORATE: The companies are seeking untainted suppli
39 US: WIVB TV4: Train Derailment Stalls Cargo Transfer
40 KLAS: The Political Future Of Yucca Mountain
41 Las Vegas SUN: Bush win gives boost to plan for nuclear waste
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
42 Investor's Business Daily: DOE gives $13M to nuclear consortium seek
43 PRN: DOE Selects NuStart as an Award Candidate
44 WVLT VOLUNTEER: Y-12 officials seek OK to replace warhead manufactur
45 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: State looks into how to enforce Hanford
OTHER NUCLEAR
46 [du-list] Fw: DU in the News - 4th Nov 04
47 [du-list] DU in the news - 5th Nov 04
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 Xinhuanet: Iran asks for EU explicit proposal at nuclear negotiation
www.xinhuanet.com
www.chinaview.cn 2004-11-05 04:42:42
TEHRAN, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- An Iranian diplomat said on
Thursday asked the European Union (EU) to offer a specified
proposal at Friday's nuclear negotiation in Paris, the official
IRNA news agency reported.
"The two parties would prefer to hold the talks in a
positive, constructive and ambiguity-free atmosphere," Pirouz
Hosseini, Iran's representative to the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), was quoted as saying.
He did not rule out a possibility of an agreement reached
during the Paris meeting, saying that it would clearly be
dependent on the EU proposals.
"Iran has time and again stressed that it could agree to
voluntary and definite suspension of the enrichment program,"
Hosseini stressed.
Earlier, the Iranian delegation has arrived in Paris for the
negotiation.
The IAEA last month adopted a resolution, which urges Iran to
suspend all of the activities related to uranium enrichment and
fully cooperate with the inspectors to clear up all related
issues.
The resolution has been criticized and rejected by Iran,
which termed it as "illegal".
The European trio of France, Germany and Britain has offered
to supply Iran with necessary nuclear technology and equipments,
including a light-water reactor, in return for Tehran's unlimited
suspension of uranium enrichment during their two rounds of
fruitless talks in Vienna late October.
Iran at first termed the proposal as "unacceptable", but
softened its stance later.
Tehran has been denying the US accusation of developing
nuclear weapons, asserting that it is politically motivated and
Iran's nuclear research is fully peaceful. Enditem
Copyright ©2003 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
2 Reid to seek Senate's top Democratic leadership post
+ Repository opponent Sen. Harry Reid will seek the top Senate
Democratic leadership position now that Minority Leader Tom
Daschle (D-S.D.) has lost his re-election bid.
Reid, the senior senator from Nevada, was to announce his
candidacy during a press conference this afternoon in Las Vegas.
Reid currently is the assistant minority leader and had been seen
as the heir apparent.
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), however, also is said to want
the post. Reid has spent decades fighting DOE's nuclear waste
repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nev. One nuclear industry
lobbyist has projected that any additional clout Reid might gain
on the Yucca Mountain issue by moving into the top slot could be
blunted by a second Bush term.
President George W. Bush won Nevada's five electoral votes
despite challenger John Kerry's campaign promise to stop the
disposal facility, signaling that Yucca Mountain is not the top
concern of voters in that state, the lobbyist maintained.
The election outcome, the lobbyist asserted, should prompt the
state's entire congressional delegation to rethink its hard-line
opposition to the facility.
Washington (Platts)--3Nov2004
Copyright © 2004 - Platts, All Rights Reserved
[The McGraw-Hill Companies]
*****************************************************************
3 UCS: Science in Bush's Second Term
[Union of Concerned Scientists]
November 3, 2004
Opportunity to Restore Scientific Integrity in Policy Making
Statement by Kurt Gottfried, UCS Board Chair
[spffffff] in Global Environment
Restoring Scientific Integrity
"Now that the politically charged election season is behind us,
Congress should take this opportunity to assure the American
people that decisions about science-related policies will be
based on facts. The administration, relieved of the constraints
of the campaign, should also take steps to restore scientific
integrity in federal policy making.
"People across the country, as well as scientists inside and
outside government, need to hear from our elected leaders that
sciencewhile not the only consideration in policy makingmakes
indispensable contributions to public health, security and the
environment, and will not be suppressed or misrepresented.
"The coalition of scientists and organizations who have come
together around this issue are committed to continue work
towards reforms that will restore scientific integrity to
federal policy making by protecting government scientists
against orders that violate their personal scientific integrity;
restoring independent scientific advice to Congress; restoring
the stature of the president's science advisor and strengthening
the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and ensuring the
independence of scientific advisory bodies.
To set up interviews or for UCS info, contact:
SUZANNE SHAW
617-547-5552
ALDEN MEYER
202-223-6133
© Union of Concerned Scientists
Page Last Revised: 11.03.2004
*****************************************************************
4 Las Vegas SUN: New Leader of Senate Democrats Is Steady
By MARK SHERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Sen. Harry Reid regulated gambling in Nevada when organized
crime ran some casinos, and he lived to tell about it. His
steely resolve in a sometimes dangerous job could come in handy
as the new Democratic leader in a more conservative Senate.
The soft-spoken Reid will, in essence, be the Democratic party's
most powerful elected official, thrust into a position of
prominence by the twin defeats of current Senate Minority Leader
Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Sen. John Kerry.
Until now, Reid was Daschle's deputy, best known by C-Span
audiences as the constant Democratic presence on the Senate
floor. He focused on the chamber's sometimes arcane procedure -
the kind of work that wins respect from colleagues but is
virtually invisible to the public.
He soon will preside over a group of Senate Democrats generally
regarded as liberal. And the caucus will be smaller by four
because of Democratic defeats Tuesday.
Republicans might find it hard to pigeonhole Reid as a liberal
since his anti-abortion, anti-gun-control views are contrary to
Democratic dogma. He was among the minority of Democrats who
voted for a ban on certain late-term abortions and he opposed
extending the ban on assault weapons, winning the endorsement of
the National Rifle Association.
Yet no Democrat is challenging him for leader.
"I think Harry Reid has done the work, put in the time," said
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a strong supporter of both
abortion rights and gun control. "He is a very good floor
leader, very smart. I like the fact that he is a Westerner,
frankly, because I am convinced we have to build the West here.
So I think he is the logical choice at this time."
The son of a hard-rock miner from Searchlight, Nev., Reid also
has been a staunch defender of the mining industry, upsetting
environmentalists who otherwise give him high marks. Critics
also have said Reid has been too willing to help mining and
other interests with financial ties to members of his family.
While Reid's stands on some social issues are more conservative
than those of most other Senate Democrats, he has been the most
vocal opponent of building a nuclear waste repository at Yucca
Mountain, roughly 100 miles from Las Vegas, an extremely
important issue to Nevadans.
He also stood with Daschle, whom Republicans attacked as an
obstructionist because he led Democrats in blocking Bush
nominees to federal judgeships and GOP-written legislation to
limit lawsuits.
Reid lacks a commanding television presence, but he has been the
Democrats' day-to-day leader in the Senate for six years. He
received a lot of the credit when Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords left
the Republican party in 2001, handing control of the Senate to
the Democrats.
"He's got a quiet way of sneaking up on you," said Sig Rogich, a
longtime friend and Republican strategist from Nevada. "He's not
flashy, but he's very steady. He does his homework."
Reid occasionally has shown flashes of anger. A year ago, he
spoke on the Senate floor for 8 1/2 hours straight, upset that
Republicans were planning to spend 30 consecutive hours talking
about four judgeships Democrats had blocked.
"Amateur leadership," Reid said, assessing Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
He later apologized to Frist.
But something else Reid said at the time will likely be put to
the test now that Republicans have expanded their majority and
replaced moderate Democrats with conservative Republicans.
"We cannot be taken for granted," Reid said. "We cannot be
thought of as nothing."
Reid, who will turn 65 next month, has withstood many challenges
over the years, personal and professional. While he cruised to a
fourth Senate term Tuesday with more than 60 percent of the
vote, he won re-election six years ago by just 428 votes.
He also has spoken publicly of his father's suicide in 1972.
Beginning in 1977, he served five years as chairman of the
Nevada Gaming Commission in an era when secret FBI tapes
revealed organized crime controlled some of the Las Vegas
casinos. Those tapes also caused authorities to probe whether
Reid himself had been compromised, but the investigation
exonerated him.
In 1981, police investigated what they called an attempt to kill
Reid after someone rigged his car to explode, running a wire
from the engine to the gas tank.
---
On the Net:
Sen. Reid: http://reid.senate.gov [http://reid.senate.gov]
--
*****************************************************************
5 arabic news: France never hears about Egypt's secret nuclear program
[http://www.arabicnews.com/]
Egypt-France, Politics, 11/4/2004
France said that it has never heard of Egypt's clandestine
nuclear program, noting that the first time it heard about
Egypt's supposed secret nuclear program was through reports
published in one of the French newspapers yesterday, said French
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Herve Ladsous.
Ladsous added that the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA
and its Chief Mohammed Al-Baradei must refute these reports,
noting that Egypt can also respond to the allegations.
Ladsous pointed out that his country has no information in this
respect; therefore it has no comments on what was published in
the French Daily Libration.
[http://search.arabicnews.com]
Copyright & other notices
Copyright © 1995-2003 Arabic News.com, All Rights Reserved.
and ArabicNews are trademarks of ArabicNews.com
*****************************************************************
6 Interfax: UK to spend millions on Nuclear Towns program in Russia
Interfax.com [http://www.interfax.com] Text version
Nov 4 2004 3:08PM
MOSCOW. Nov 4 (Interfax) - Britain intends to appropriate two
million to three million pounds annually on the Nuclear Towns
program, Vladimir Sterekhov of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy
Agency's international unit told Interfax on Thursday.
This pledge is contained in a memorandum signed in Moscow on
Thursday by the agency and the British Department of Trade and
Industry, he said.
Fifteen projects worth over 2 million pounds are now underway in
the framework of the Nuclear Towns program. Jobs are being
created for redundant Russian nuclear engineers residing in
Russia's closed towns.
© 1991-2004 Interfax
All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
7 Bellona: Rosatom’s Antipov stumps for international help, not supervision
In a wide-ranging interview following the IAEA’s Contact Expert
Group, or CEG, meeting in Moscow, deputy Rosatom chief Sergei
Antipov advocated for a guiding structure among nations donating
funding to Russia’s nuclear clean up, but rejected the notion of
an international coordinating structure to oversee nuclear
remediation efforts.
CEG members gathered in Moscow last month. Minatom.ru
Charles Digges, 2004-11-04 10:28
The distinction Antipov drew was at once subtle and stark. He
praised the new, more “professional” structure of the CEG—which
gathered in Moscow on October 13th to 15th—and its embracing of
several new foreign institutions to help fund solutions to
Russia’s nuclear woes. He also made it clear that Russia would no
longer view itself as a charity case for non-proliferation
efforts, but rather a partner—if not the true policy maker—in
issues regarding Russia’s nuclear dismantlement.
The institutions gathered by the CEG included representatives of
the G-8’s Global Partnership—which has pledged $20 billion in
nuclear dismantlement aid to Russia over the next 20 years—and
the signatories of the Multi-lateral Nuclear Environmental
Partnership in the Russia Federation, or MNEPR, accord.
The Necessity of Creating an International Environmental and
Non-Proliferation Oversight Agency
Recent billion-dollar commitments to environmental and
disarmament efforts are laudable and necessary for a secure
future, but they need a strong and informed coordinating body
lest they encounter the familiar bureaucratic impasses that
previous non-proliferation efforts have struggled with.
Read Bellona's Position »
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/navy/co-operation/
29738.html]
At the same time, however, Antipov strongly advocated that the
Rosatom agency have the final word on what nuclear remediation
projects were the priority items, and, ultimately, how and where
funding should be spent. Bellona has advocated in the opposite
direction, and considers that an independent international
oversight agency should be established to oversee Russia’s
nuclear clean up and funding priorities.
“The Global Partnership has appeared, the Institute of Senior
Officials has appeared, which is now the Global Partnership’s
group of experts, and which is also pushing to coordinate all
activities,” Antipov told Minatom.ru, a Rosatom sponsored Web
site.
“[i]t is precisely the CEG that has more favorable chances of
becoming such a chief professional organization. Chief not in the
sense of making decisions but as an expert organ for giving the
most professional recommendations, the most deeply studied
practical issues of integrated submarine dismantlement.”
International coordination in, international supervision out But
Antipov—who was appointed to his deputy’s post at Rosatom from
his former position heading up its department of nuclear
decommissioning last week—was, like the deputies who presided at
the Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, strongly against
ceding Rosatom’s prerogatives on deciding funding priorities to
an international coordinating structure.
“Why build another unneeded structure on top of an already
existing one,” he said. “We always say that such an organ is
Russia in the face of Rosatom. We define and order what Russia
needs to do first in integrated submarine dismantlement, and we
decide in what order this need to be done,” he said. During the
CEG meetings, said Antipov, the Russia delegation was “strict” in
announcing to a number of participating donor nations that they
were not only not helping, but holding back progress, even though
these nations were likely unaware of this. He did not elaborate
as about which nations this applied to, nor would other Rosatom
staff comment on this.
“Under no circumstances should aid turn into a burden or hinder
us […] and we intend to insist on our position henceforth,”
Antipov said.
Antipov said it was equally important that Russia be furnished
with audits of pledged and spent funding from donor nations.
European and American officials were divided in their comments on
Antipov’s approach. “On the one hand, this sort of aggressive
engagements from the Russia side is what we have wanted for some
time,” said one EU official who requested he not be further
identified, “But this cannot eliminate the prerogatives of MNEPR
signatories to set their own agenda’s and influence Russia’s.”
Another official close to the US Department of Defence’s
Cooperative Threat Reduction programme noted “we are not just
helping the Russians to help Russia but to help the world. This
means that under no circumstances will they unilaterally be
deciding where non-proliferation and nuclear clean up funding
will be spent.”
The American official added that “it’s not just a matter of
calling up the West with a grocery list and saying buy this
stuff. Projects must be negotiated and designed in a
multi-lateral way.”
Some of the 195 decommissioned submarines awaiting
dismantlement. KSF.RU/Bellona
Sub Dismantlement Nonetheless, Viktor Akhunov, deputy director of
Rosatom’s Department of Decommissioning Nuclear and Radioactively
Dangerous Facilities, rattled a sub dismantlement figure of
18—five of which were funded by foreign donors— for 2004 while
speaking at the CEG conference.
He added that by the beginning of 2005, 83 more of Russia’s 195
decommissioned submarines would head for dismantlement—41 from
Russia’s northern fleet and 42 from its Pacific Fleet. Of these
submarines, 52 still have their spent nuclear fuel aboard.
Akhunov noted that contracts to dismantle 17 of these had already
been signed but did not say with whom. The Russian government has
decreed that al 93 of these submarines will be dismantled by
2010.
According to Akhunov’s calculations, which he presented at the
CEG, Russia will have to dismantle some 15 to 18 submarines a
year, but that the country is only capable of dismantling 13 per
year—two short of the minimum to fulfil the government mandated
quota. . He projected therefore that at least five submarines per
year would have to be tackled by international donations and
contracts, thus upping the dismantlement tempo to 20 submarines a
year.
He also noted that appropriate storage facilities for the spent
nuclear fuel from these submarines would have to be constructed.
“In conclusion, we need money," he said. “Preferably the sooner
the better so that we can begin to set priorities in work and get
down to business.”
CEG meeting focuses on tightening safety practices for Russia’s
nuclear remediation
In opening statements at last week’s IAEA Contact Expert Group
meeting, and in later interviews here with its chairman, Alan
Heyes, the group gave indications that funding for nuclear
remediation projects was being put to safer and more organized
use by its constituent countries. Read on »
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-o
peration/35586.html]
Dues to Russia earn Rosatom approval In his interview, Antipov
noted that he was keenly aware of those nations represented at
the CEG meeting that paid Russia its rhetorical dues when
addressing the assembled representatives.
“It is gratifying that almost every participant in the meeting
underscored in their presentations that it cannot be forgotten
that we are, before all else, working on the territory of Russia,
specifically for the interests of Russia and therefore the last
word […] on issues of prioritising programmes must be Russia’s,
more particularly, Rosatom’s,” he said.
“This understanding, though it was not immediately grasped by
some people participating in the CEG’s work, pleases us.” Again,
Antipov did not elaborate on which CEG representatives were
opposed to the notion that Rosatom be the sole arbiter of its
nuclear remediation priorities.
Flood of donor money confuses priorities Beginning with the
signing of the MNEPR accord in May, 2003, a cash crop of money
has been pledged by donor nations from the G-8 and Europe. Many
countries, like Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan immediately
engaged in non-strategic submarine dismantling projects. These
submarines, however, were in relatively good shape when
dismantlement work began, bringing encouraging headlines, but
ignoring the vast number of submarines in worse shape that remain
in need of immediate attention.
Other countries signed their own bilateral agreements with Russia
under MNEPR guidelines, and still others donated funding to the
Northern Dimensions Environmental Partnership, or NDEP, an
EBRD-held fund for environmental and nuclear clean up in
Northwest Russia. Donors to NDEP’s “nuclear window”—as those
funds reserved for nuclear clean up are called—also have their
own nuclear priorities for Russia that they wish to pursue
without having Rosatom as a middleman.
Additionally, Minatom often mishandled or misdirected funding
that came from foreign nations, and several million dollars have
been diverted from their intended projects, giving pause to many
donors about trusting Rosatom, whose directorship has not
substantially changed since a government reshuffle abolished
Minatom and replaced it with the new agency. How far foreign
donors are willing to go based on Rosatom’s word—and how far
Rosatom is willing to go to back up its words with actions, are,
as yet, unknown.
Minatom adopts sub dismantlement ‘master plan’ at NDEP meeting
In what could be a profound step toward cooperation between
Russia and the international environmental community, the
Ministry of Atomic Energy, or Minatom, has drafted a so-called
strategic master plan for dismantling ageing nuclear submarines,
Minatom and European officials have said. Read on »
[http://www.bellona.no/en/international/russia/nuke_industry/co-o
peration/32077.html]
Russia’s sub dismantlement master plan In December 2003, what was
then Minatom adopted a so-called master plan for dismantling
submarines, which provided for a surprising breadth of items on
the West’s wish list. These items included tighter scrutiny of
foreign funded nuclear dismantlement projects before they begin,
mandates for higher levels of transparency, accountability and
access for donor nations while the projects are underway, and
complete and transparent audits upon completion.
At the time the plan was first being drafted, Antipov—then still
a deputy minister at Minatom—said the plan must encompass a
complete picture of all ecological problems and planned work, the
consistency of their proposed solutions, and an assessment of
cooperation between separate projects and contracts of donor
nations. He also said, as he did at October’s CEG meeting, that
Russia’s main nuclear industry institution should be the liaison
for cooperation.
“Considering that Russia is the defining link in the ‘nuclear
window’ projects, meaning that Russia decides which particular
projects should be the first to receive funding… of course, this
should be done by a representative of Minatom,” said Antipov in
an interview in January.
The plan was well received by western donor countries and
European parliamentarians, many of whom had gathered at the
Inter-parliamentary Working Group, or IPGW, hearing in Brussels
in 2003, and which was dedicated to the improvement of risk
assessment and funding coordination for nuclear dismantling in
Russia.
Getting master plans off the ground At the CEG gathering,
however, Antipov noted that the legal base for many signatories
of the MNEPR agreement had not yet ratified the accord via their
national parliaments, making it impossible for Rosatom to
conclude bilateral agreements with many countries anxious to
begin making donations.
This, he said, has forced Rosatom into the awkward position of
searching out alternative agreements such as inter-ministry
accords. For instance Australia, which joined the Global
Partnership group of donors only this year, for instance, sent a
$7 million contribution toward submarine dismantlement via Japan,
which is a long-standing Global Partnership donor.
Another problem with many donor nations, Antipov noted, was that
many of them have yet to inform Rosatom what projects they plan
to work on in the short and long term and what sort of financial
investment they are willing to make. This, said Antipov, makes
long term planning for submarine dismantlement and other things
impossible and complicates planning.
As a final note, Antipov emphasised that “all activities of an
organizational, informational or financial character by donor
countries must take place on a clearly defined legal field.”
Without contracts stipulating these items, he stated strongly, it
will be impossible for Rosatom to furnish sensitive information
about submarines and other nuclear facilities to donor states.
“Unfortunately, there are attempts to obtain such information
without the necessary foundation,” he said, without elaborating,
but echoing a familiar ring of secrecy from the quarters of
Russia’s nuclear industry.
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 Menu
*****************************************************************
8 ITAR-TASS: Russia, Britain sign memorandum on nuclear cooperation
ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia]
04.11.2004, 14.38
MOSCOW, November 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian-British memorandum
on “closed cities” will provide new opportunities for the two
countries to develop bilateral economic and industrial ties,
Director of the International Nuclear Policy and Programmes of
the UK Department of Trade and Industry Ian Downing said on
Thursday.
Downing spoke after the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency
(Rosatom) and the British Department of Trade and Industry
signed a memorandum of intent on the Atomic Cities of Russia
programme.
According to Downing, British companies are seriously interested
in the human and intellectual potential that exists in the
closed cities of the Russian atomic industry.
The official stressed the British side hopes that the signed
memorandum will provide a serious foundation for further
development of economic relations between the two countries.
Downing pointed out that the memorandum’s preparation took two
years and the British side was simultaneously studying
possibilities of the British business activities in Russia’s
closed cities. Now it is utterly clear that Russia and Great
Britain are on the right track, the director said.
In the words of department head of Russia’s Federal Atomic
Energy Agency Vladimir Kuchinov, “one of the tasks of the
programme, which is being implemented, is to stop the drain of
experience and knowledge from Russia’s closed cities.”
Rosatom sources pointed out that the Russian-British memorandum
signed on Thursday “considerably facilitates the task to create
30,000 workplaces in the industry’s closed cities within the
coming year the atomic agency is currently faced with.”
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
9 Business Day: 'Racism forced CEO out of nuclear regulator'
[http://www.businessday.co.za/
Political Correspondent
CAPE TOWN Racism, male chauvinism and resistance to
transformation pushed acting CEO of the National Nuclear
Regulator (NNR) Louisa Zondo out of the organisation,
Parliament's minerals and energy committee heard yesterday.
The mainly white male-dominated organisation tasked with
regulating the safety of the nuclear industry had resisted
Zondo's attempts to achieve greater equity, NNR director Derick
Elbrecht said.
The departure after three years at the end of this month of
Zondo, who has been acting in the post since August, is a loss
for the organisation and a public sector short of skilled
personnel. She is a qualified advocate with a post-graduate
degree in public law from the London School of Economics.
No replacement has yet been decided by Minerals and Energy
Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Committee chairman Nkosinathi Mthetwa reacted forcefully to the
reports, saying the committee would not tolerate the continued
existence of racism, which the African National Congress had
fought so hard to overcome.
"We are going to protect those who we want to contribute to
transforming this society. We not going to mince our words, we
are not going to cow and cringe, we are going to make sure in
this instance that the acting CEO becomes the CEO. We will
intervene where we have to."
The NNR employs 74 technical and support staff, and has 12
vacancies. White males represent 44% of the staff, black males
29%, white females 16% and black females 11%. White males
represent 60% of top management and 40% of senior management and
black males 33% and 40% respectively. Elbrecht said that Zondo's
key mandate was to effect transformation in this white
male-dominated environment.
White staff resisted her attempt to implement board decisions
with the staff association putting barriers in her way. The white
staff, mainly scientists, felt young black managers were brought
in at unacceptably high pay levels, he said.
Zondo said the NNR's resource constraints were critical.
"There is a limited pool of expertise nationally. Our resources
are limited in the sense that we do not have the remuneration
systems that are competitive with industry. Therefore our ability
to attract the required levels of expertise is very, very
limited. It continues to be a problem. It is a critical issue."
Zondo did not tell the committee of the resistance she had faced.
She merely said she wanted to move on, but Elbrecht said she was
being diplomatic as she was being pushed because she a black
woman.
Friday 05 November 2004
BDFM Publishers (Pty) Ltd disclaims all liability for any loss,
*****************************************************************
10 Experts At UN Meeting Endorse Harmonizing Nuclear Power Plant Safety Standards
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 12:00:11 -0500
X-Sender-Hostname: mx3.un.org
X-Temp-Whitephrase: YES NUCLEAR
EXPERTS AT UN MEETING ENDORSE HARMONIZING NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SAFETY
STANDARDS
New York, Nov 4 2004 12:00PM
Experts have recommended that countries harmonize global safety standards
for everything from the design to the decommissioning of
nuclear power plants, the United Nations atomic watchdog said today.
The move comes as the growing diversification and globalization of
the industry presents new challenges that must be addressed even
though there has been substantial progress in improving the safety
of nuclear power plants worldwide, according to the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (<"http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/News/2004/topical_issues.html">IAEA).
The Agency said the recommendations made last month in Beijing by
delegates from 37 countries to the IAEA Conference on Topical Issues
in Nuclear Safety outline steps it can take to develop future
These measures include better analysis of what happens as a result
of low-level occurrences in order to prevent worse incidents, encouraging
more transparency in nuclear safety issues, and creating
international management approaches to the long-term operation
“We must seek out ways to share lessons learned in as deep and wide
a manner as possible,” Tomihiro Taniguchi, IAEA Deputy Director
General for Nuclear Safety and Security told the closing session
of the conference, held from 18 to 22 October. “Self sustaining
networks within and between Member States based on strategic knowledge
management are key to achieving this objective.”
2004-11-04 00:00:00.000
________________
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11 Elections and Energy Bill--Let's Act Now
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:42:14 -0800
November 5, 2004
Dear Friend,
Given the election results, there is no doubt that Congress will make a new
effort to enact a major energy bill next session. We dont believe this will
happen during the upcoming lame duck session, but we willof coursealert you
if that becomes the case.
Next year, however, we can expect the worst: an energy bill laden with pork
for the nuclear, coal and oil industries. It will be like last years bill,
but more so. Expect taxpayer funding of new commercial atomic reactors, oil
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reauthorization of the
Price-Anderson limited liability scheme for nuclear utilitiesmaybe even a
new effort to establish Yucca Mountain as an interimradioactive waste
storage site, and more. Lets face it, the energy interests already are
lining up to line their pockets.
But it doesnt have to be that way. The election certainly didnt supply
anyone a mandate on nuclear powerit wasnt even a part of the campaign
dialogue. And remember, with your help, we were able to stop last years bill.
We can do it again, but we need to start now.
We urge you to take the time now, before the new Congress opens, to write
your Senators and House member, and tell themin your own languagethat you
opposed last years energy bill and will oppose any new bill that provides
for taxpayer funding of new reactors, or Price-Anderson reauthorization, or
name another issue that is important to you. Further, you should tell them
that you expect them to oppose such bills, and to do so with all means at
their disposal, including filibuster.
A couple of points you might want to make:
*Nuclear power should compete on its own merits, if it is not economically
viable without taxpayer support, then it should not be used.
*Nuclear power is not a useful means of addressing global warming; its too
expensive. Allocating resources to new nuclear construction means fewer
resources are available for technologies that can effectively help reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
Normally we encourage you to call your Senators, because mail delivery to
Congressional offices is so slow. In this case, however, there is enough
time to write, and there is no more effective means of contacting your
Senators than a self-composed personal letter. So please, write now. And
ask your friends and colleagues to write as well. Address is Hon. (name),
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510 or U.S. House of Representatives,
Washington, DC 20515.
We know that many of you gave a lot of your hard-earned money to political
candidates this year. But now that the election is over, we hope you will
consider an additional contribution to NIRS. We are still trying to meet
our $100,000 matching challenge grant, and we need your help to do so.
Especially those of you who are not yet NIRS members, who know us mostly
through this e-mail list and our website, we hope you will become members
now and help us meet this challenge. You can contribute through our secure
website area
(https://secure.campagne.com/Donation/donate.aspx?id=58),
or mail your contribution to NIRS, 1424 16th Street NW, #404, Washington,
DC 20036. Contributors of $35/year or more can receive our newsletter, The
Nuclear Monitor (a winner of this years Project Censored award for our
reporting on last years energy bill!) by either e-mail or snail mail.
Thanks for your help, support, and continued activism!
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
www.nirs.org
*****************************************************************
12 NRC: News Release - Region II - 2004-055 - NRC to Meet with U.S.
Enrichment Corporation Officials November 9 to Discuss
Performance at Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant
Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW,
Atlanta, GA 30303 www.nrc.gov
No. II-04-055 November 3, 2004 CONTACT:
Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417
E-mail: opa2@nrc.gov [opa2@nrc.gov]
NRC TO MEET WITH U. S. ENRICHMENT CORPORATION OFFICIALS NOVEMBER
9 TO DISCUSS PERFORMANCE AT PORTSMOUTH GASEOUS DIFFUSION PLANT
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials will meet with
officials of the United States Enrichment Corporation in Piketon,
Ohio, on Tuesday, Nov. 9, to discuss the NRCs latest review of
performance at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
The meeting will begin at 1:00 p.m. (EST) at the Ohio State
University South Centers, located at 1864 Shyville Road in
Piketon. The meeting will be open, and interested members of the
public are invited to attend to observe. There will be an
opportunity to ask questions and make comments to the NRC staff
after the business portion of the meeting but before the meeting
is adjourned.
The NRC action is called a Licensee Performance Review and covers
a period from Oct. 1, 2002, through Aug. 7, 2004.
The NRC staff evaluated performance at the Portsmouth plant in
four major areas: Safety Operations, Radiological Controls,
Facility Support and Special Topics. The NRC said Portsmouth
continued to conduct its activities safely, as determined during
the review. The agency said in a Sept. 22 letter to the company
however, that implementation of radiation protection program
requirements was an area identified as needing improvement and
that the company needs to continue to focus upon adherence to
procedures regarding the conduct of operations and maintenance
activities and implementation of its corrective action program.
Interested persons may obtain a copy of the letter and its
enclosure, from the NRC to the licensee concerning the
performance review, by writing, calling, or e-mailing the NRC
Region II office of public affairs in Atlanta at the addresses
listed above.
Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer Last revised
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
*****************************************************************
13 CCNMatthews FOR: CANADIAN NUCLEAR SAFETY COMMISSION
[http://www.ccnmatthews.com]
[http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/]
NOVEMBER 4, 2004 - 13:42 ET
CNSC: Notice of Public Hearing
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(CCNMatthews - Nov. 4, 2004) - The Canadian
Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will hold a two-day public
hearing on an application by COGEMA Resources Inc. (COGEMA) for
the renewal and amendment of the operating licence for COGEMA's
McClean Lake uranium mine and mill operation in Northern
Saskatchewan. COGEMA has requested authorization to continue the
currently permitted activities, and to make modifications to the
JEB Mill at the McClean Lake Operation so that uranium ore slurry
from Cameco Corporation's Cigar Lake mine could be received and
processed at the Mill.
A separate approval from the CNSC would be required before COGEMA
could begin receiving and processing ore from the Cigar Lake mine
at the JEB Mill. /T/
Hearing Day One: January 12, 2005
Place: CNSC Public Hearing Room, 14th floor,
280 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Hearing Day Two: April 6, 2005
Place: CNSC Public Hearing Room, 14th floor,
280 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Public hearings follow the agenda published prior to the hearing
date.
The public is invited to comment on the application either by
oral presentation or written submission on Hearing Day Two.
Requests to participate and text of oral presentations or written
submissions must be filed with the Secretary of the Commission by
March 7, 2005.
Please send interventions to:
c/o Louise Levert
Secretariat
Canadian Nuclear
Safety Commission Tel.: (613) 996-9063 or
1-800-668-5284
280 Slater St., P.O. Box 1046 Fax: (613) 995-5086
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5S9 E-mail:
interventions@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [interventions@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca] /T/
Members of the public are welcome to observe public hearings. For
current agendas and information on the hearing process, visit the
CNSC Web site: www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca
[http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca] . -30- FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
PLEASE CONTACT: The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Louise
Levert Secretariat (613) 996-9063 
[http://w5d.ccnmatthews.com/scripts/search.asp?company=CANADIAN+N
UCLEAR+SAFETY+COMMISSION]
*****************************************************************
14 Japan Times: Niigata aftershock shuts down bullet train line, nuclear plant
Friday, November 5, 2004
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 shook Niigata
Prefecture on Thursday morning, causing a bullet train line and a
nuclear power plant to temporarily halt operations. Only minor
injuries were reported.
[News photo] Schoolchildren take cover at the Maekawa
Elementary School in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, as the city is
shaken by a strong aftershock Thursday morning.
The quake is believed to be an aftershock related to the
devastating magnitude 6.8 earthquake and two other strong quakes
that hit the area on the evening of Oct. 23, the Meteorological
Agency said. Strong aftershocks have been rattling the area ever
since.
The quake, which struck at 8:57 a.m., registered upper-5 on the
Japanese intensity scale of 7 in the towns of Koshiji and
Mishima. Its focus was about 20 km underneath the Chuetsu region
in central Niigata Prefecture, the agency said.
The last time a quake measuring 5 or above on the Japanese scale
hit the area was Oct. 27, when a lower-6 temblor shook the
region.
In Nagaoka, the aftershock caused a 40-year-old man to burn his
hand while frying food at a supermarket, city officials said.
In Kashiwazaki, the No. 7 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
nuclear plant automatically shut down after the quake, according
to Tokyo Electric Power Co. The utility said there was no danger
of environmental contamination.
Bullet train runs on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line meanwhile came to
a halt between Niigata and Nagaoka stations, according to East
Japan Railway Co. The Tsubamesanjo-Nagaoka section of the line,
which had just resumed operations for the first time since the
October quakes, was also among the sections shut down.
The Nagaoka-Echigoyuzawa section -- site of the first bullet
train derailment in shinkansen history -- remains out of
operation, with no likelihood of service resuming anytime soon,
the railway said.
The official death toll in the prefecture from the powerful
quakes since Oct. 23 has grown to 39 with the death of Yokichi
Tamura, 71, who was living in a shelter in Tochio since Oct. 24.
He died Wednesday of what was believed to be a stress-related
heart attack, police said Thursday.
The Meteorological Agency has warned people in the area that
there is a high probability aftershocks measuring 5 or above on
the Japanese scale will continue for about month.
In the cities of Nagaoka and Tokamachi, 92 elementary and junior
high schools and schools for disabled children reopened Thursday
morning.
The prefectural board of education said 35 schools in five
municipalities, including Ojiya and the town of Kawaguchi, are
still closed but may reopen by Monday.
The board said 38 pupils at the elementary school and 86
students at the junior high school in the village of Yamakoshi
will resume classes Monday in borrowed classrooms at a school in
Nagaoka.
The entire village, which was virtually flattened by the Oct. 23
quakes, was evacuated and there is no chance that anyone will
return there in the near future, the board said.
Germany helps out Germany on Thursday offered to extend $50,000
in emergency humanitarian aid for the survivors of a series of
earthquakes that have hit Niigata Prefecture and nearby areas
along the Sea of Japan coast, Japanese officials said.
The German government said the money will be earmarked for
building temporary residences for quake survivors, the officials
said. Many residents have evacuated due to damage to their homes
or fear their houses might collapse as a result of the continuing
temblors.
German Ambassador to Japan Henrik Schmiegelow described the
humanitarian assistance as an expression of Germany's sense of
togetherness with the victims and proof of the close friendship
between the people of the two countries, they said.
The Japan Times: Nov. 5, 2004 (C) All rights reserved
*****************************************************************
15 ITAR-TASS: Situation at Balakovo NPP stabilised
[ITAR-TASS] [ITAR-TASS] [ITAR-TASS]
04.11.2004, 10.57
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, November 4 (Itar-Tass) -- The situation has
been stabilised at the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant (NPP),
Saratov Region, where an emergency disconnection of the second
power unit took place on Wednesday night. The power unit
continues to be disconnected. It is planned to turn on the power
unit overnight to November 5, no earlier than 00.00, Moscow
time, Viktor Bychkov, deputy head of the regional department of
the Emergencies Ministry for the Saratov Region, told Itar-Tass.
According to his information, the incident took place at 01.24,
when three main circular pumps were disconnected simultaneously
as a result of vapour ejection near the sensors. The emergency
protection system was set in motion, and the whole of the power
unit was disconnected. The safe operation system was not upset
at NPP, however. The personnel of NPP remained at their working
places.
At present all the parameters of the regular working regime have
been stabilised, but the power unit still remains disconnected.
The emergency situation did not disrupt electricity supply to
consumers, Bychkov said.
© ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy,
*****************************************************************
16 NRC: NRC Restores Various Documents Removed from Web Site for Security Review
News Release - 2004-14 U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office
of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, DC
20555-0001 E-mail: [opa@nrc.gov] No. 04-140 November 4,
2004
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has restored various documents
that were temporarily removed from its web site Oct. 25 for an
additional security review. These documents are related to a
possible application for a high-level waste repository. The
remainder of the restoration will proceed in a phased manner,
based on priorities and feasibility, with large portions of the
information expected to be restored in the next several weeks.
The Oct. 25 suspension of public access to documents on ADAMS,
the NRCs on-line document library, took place when documents
were identified on that library that could possibly aid
terrorists. The agency concluded that this finding warranted a
temporary suspension of public access while the agency conducted
a review to determine if other documents were present containing
information such as drawings of site layouts.
Most documents removed were located on ADAMS, which is
accessible through the NRC web site at www.nrc.gov. Many other
documents on the web site have remained available, allowing the
public to participate in the majority of the Commissions
ongoing regulatory activities. For example, access to the
majority of rulemaking documents has continued to be available
via the Ruleforum website, which was not affected by the ADAMS
shutdown.
The Commission is committed to conducting its work in the open
to protect public health, safety, and security while maintaining
appropriate accessibility to its activities, said NRC Chairman
Nils J. Diaz. However, we will withhold any information that
could be useful, or could reasonably be expected to be useful,
to a terrorist.
NRC yesterday restored references to the staffs document
collection in its electronic Licensing Support Network (
[http://www.lsnnet.gov] ) for a possible application for a
high-level waste repository. (Documents from other potential
parties to a Yucca Mountain hearing remained available through
the Licensing Support Network during the period while NRC links
were removed.) High-level waste documents on the electronic
hearing docket (located at
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ehd.html#2) have also been
restored for public access.
The agency expects to restore the remaining documents, in the
following priority order, over the next few weeks:
+ Additional hearing-related documents (i.e., non-high-level
waste)
+ Time-sensitive documents related to opportunities for
hearing or needed for public reviews and comments, including
license amendment applications
+ Other nuclear reactor documents, and other documents not
related to specific facilities, in ADAMS
Restoration of documents dealing with nuclear materials (i.e.,
non-reactor documents) is expected to take longer.
Last revised Thursday, November 04, 2004
*****************************************************************
17 PJStar.com - Journal Star: Security upgraded at Illinois nuclear plants
Improvements mandated by federal government
peoria
Thursday, November 4, 2004
By BRANDON COUTRE of the Journal Star
WARRENVILLE - The company that operates Illinois' six nuclear
power plants - including one in eastern LaSalle County - has
completed security improvements mandated by the federal
government and costing upwards of $12 million per station.
In April 2003, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave
nuclear power plants until Oct. 29, 2004, to update security in
light of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Exelon Nuclear Director of Security Roy Lange said meeting the
October deadline didn't come easily.
"It was a challenge," Lange said Wednesday. "Much of the steel
and other materials we were seeking was also being sought by the
military and other governmental agencies."
Exelon held a media session Wednesday at its corporate offices
in Warrenville in DuPage County to discuss emergency response
plans.
The government didn't specify measures on how to secure the
country's nuclear generating stations. Rather, it provided
different security-breach situations that plants must be capable
of defending against.
"It became a question of how can we defend against different
scenarios," said DJ Walker, technical support manager for nuclear
security.
As a result, Exelon has almost doubled security staff.
The company's stations now boast concrete vehicle barriers around
the entire plants, increased fencing and razor ribbon, and, most
noticeably, blast-proof security towers. The towers, similar to a
prison-guard towers, are staffed by armed guards capable of
shooting down intruders.
Besides its plant in LaSalle County, Exelon also operates
nuclear plants in Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Morris and the Quad
Cities.
While Exelon's plants got the initial OK from the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for meeting its guidelines, the agency will
scrutinize security at each plant next year. "Were still awaiting
a full inspection," Lange said.
In the unlikely event of a nuclear emergency, Exelon and the
state of Illinois assert they are ready to respond. Long before
Sept. 11, emergency response plans have been rehearsed.
"We've never had a real serious event we needed to respond to or
recover from. Preparing plans for emergencies is a constant
effort for something we'll probably never have to initiate," said
Jana Fairow, manager of preparedness programs at the Illinois
Emergency Management Agency.
In the event of an emergency jeopardizing the public's health,
emergency plans exist for areas within 10 miles of each station,
as required by the federal government.
An estimated 170,000 people live within 10 miles of a nuclear
station in Illinois.
About 16,000 people live within 10 miles of the LaSalle County
generating station, located in Brookfield Township south of
Marseilles.
Residents in that area annually receive notices outlining safety
information and what to do in case of an emergency.
In addition, safety drills are conducted once every other year at
the nuclear stations, where emergency situations are acted out as
realistically as possible.
"Our plan is very comprehensive and is the result of cooperation
we've had with federal and state agencies," said Jerry DeYoung,
director of state and local programs for Exelon.
[http://www.centralillinoisads.com] © 2004 PEORIA JOURNAL STAR,
INC. :: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643 ::
1-309-686-3000
*****************************************************************
18 NRC: Material Control and Accounting of Special Nuclear Material
FR Doc 04-55523
[Federal Register: November 4, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 213)]
[Rules and Regulations] [Page 64249] From the Federal Register
Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr04no04-2]
CFR Correction In Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations,
Parts 51 to 199, revised as of January 1, 2004, in part 74, at
the beginning of page 466, the following text is reinstated: Sec.
74.7 Specific exemptions. The Commission may, upon application
of any interested person or upon its own initiative, grant such
exemptions from the requirements of the regulations in this part
as it determines are authorized by law and will not endanger life
or property or the common defense and security, and are otherwise
in the public interest.
Sec. 74.8 Information collection requirements: OMB approval.
(a) The Commission has submitted the information collection
requirements contained in this part to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for approval as required by the Paperwork
Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). The NRC may not conduct
or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information if it does not display a currently
valid OMB control number. OMB has approved the information
collection requirements contained in this part under control
number 3150-0123.
(b) The approved information collection requirements contained in
this part appear in Sec. Sec. 74.11, 74.13, 74.15, 74.17, 74.19,
74.31, 74.33, 74.41, 74.43, 74.45, 74.51, 74.57, and 74.59. (c)
This part contains information collection requirements in
addition to those approved under the control number specified in
paragraph (a) of this section. These information collection
requirements and the control numbers under which they are
approved are as follows: (1) In Sec. 74.15, DOE/NRC Form-741 is
approved under Control No. 3150-0003.
(2) In Sec. 74.13, DOE/NRC Form-742 is approved under Control
No. 3150-0004.
(3) In Sec. 74.13, DOE/NRC Form-742C is approved under Control
No. 3150-0058.
(4) In Sec. 74.17, NRC Form 327 is approved under Control No.
3150-0139.
[50 FR 7579, Feb. 25, 1985, as amended at 52 FR 10040, Mar. 30,
1987; 52 FR 19305, May 22, 1987; 56 FR 55998, Oct. 31, 1991; 62
FR 52189, Oct. 6, 1997; 67 FR 78144, Dec. 23, 2002] Subpart
B--General Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements Sec. 74.11
Reports of loss or theft or attempted theft or unauthorized
production of special nuclear material.
(a) Each licensee who possesses one gram or more of contained
uranium-235, uranium-233, or plutonium shall notify the NRC
Operations Center within 1 hour of discovery of any loss or theft
or other unlawful diversion of special nuclear material which the
licensee is licensed to possess, or any incident in which an
attempt has been made to commit a theft or unlawful diversion of
special nuclear material. The requirement to report within 1 hour
of discovery does not pertain to measured quantities of special
nuclear material disposed of as discards or inventory difference
quantities. Each licensee who operates an uranium enrichment
facility shall notify the NRC Operations Center within 1 hour of
discovery of any unauthorized production of enriched uranium. For
centrifuge enrichment facilities the requirement to report
enrichment levels greater than [FR Doc. 04-55523 Filed 11-3-04;
8:45 am] BILLING CODE 1505-01-D
*****************************************************************
19 [du-list] British Defence ministry DU report
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:41:33 -0800
'Troops Left in Dark About Depleted Uranium Risks'
By Tom Whitehead
PA News (Scotland)
November 4, 2004
More could have been done to allay soldiers' fears over exposure to
depleted uranium during the first Gulf War, the Government admitted today.
But defence officials claimed there was no reliable evidence to link
such exposure to ill-health.
Depleted uranium (DU) is used by British forces in anti-armour munitions
and contact with dust particles has been the source of grave health
concerns by some soldiers.
It has also been cited as one possible cause for so-called "Gulf War Syndrome"
A report into health lessons learnt from the 1990/91 conflict, published
by the Ministry of Defence today, said there could have been better
communication to put troops at ease.
...
For the entire article, see
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3717200
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20 [FOODIRRADIATIONCA] International Anti-Food Irradiation Week
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 18:05:30 -0800
International Anti-Food Irradiation Week 2004
It is that time again! As many of you recall, November 21st, 2003
marked the launch of the first International Anti-Food Irradiation
Week.
One year ago, residents of Milford Square, Pennsylvania were fighting
the construction of a food irradiation facility. Unfortunately, the
company, CFC Logistics, won and installed a facility in their
township.
The people of Milford Square are still fighting and have plans for the
2nd International Anti-Food Irradiation Week 2004.
In 2003, activists in the Philippines, Australia, Europe and Brazil
participated in the International Anti-Food Irradiation Week with
lobbying visits, press events, protests and fair activities.
There is plenty of time to plan an event this year, starting November
21st.
- Organize a teach in, a panel discussion, a town meeting or talk to
school children.
- Organize a protest, table at a festival.
- Lobby your government officials.
- Hold a press briefing on food irradiation.
- Promote wholesome sustainable foods!
Please let me know if you do plan an event during the International
Anti-Food Irradiation Week and we will post it on the Public Citizen
website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Lerman
Senior Organizer
Public Citizen, California Office
1615 Broadway, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
ph: 510-663-0888 x 103 f: 510-663-8569
tlerman@citizen.org
http://www.citizen.org/california
Keep irradiated food out of your child's lunch!
Visit http://www.safelunch.org to find out more.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**********
If you do not wish to recieve these emails in the future, please send a
email to tlerman@citizen.org with "unsubscribe foodirradiationca" in the
subject line.
*****************************************************************
21 [du-list] Fw: Postponement of November 15 Scoping Meeting
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:41:31 -0800
----- Original Message -----
From: "Yawar Faraz"
To: "Yawar Faraz"
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 11:37 AM
Subject: Postponement of November 15 Scoping Meeting
The purpose of this e-mail is to notify you of the postponement of the NRC's
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) public scoping meeting that was to be
held on November 15 at the Vern Riffe Career Technology Center in Piketon
Ohio. The NRC decided to postpone the meeting because on October 25, the
NRC made its ADAMS system and Public Document Room, which contained the USEC
Inc. American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) application and Environmental Report
(ER), unavailable to the public. This action was necessitated by the NRC's
initiation of additional security reviews of publically available documents
contained in the NRC's ADAMS database, which is accessible through the NRC's
website, and the Public Document Room, to ensure that potentially sensitive
information is removed from these public information sources. I will notify
you via e-mail once the non-sensitive portions of the ACP application and
the ER documents are made available to the public via these two sources. I
will also notify you via e-mail of the new date for the scoping meeting.
You may also check the NRC's listing of planned NMSS meetings at
http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/public-meetings/meeting-schedule.html#NMSS
Yawar Faraz
Senior Project Manager
Gas Centrifuge Facility Licensing Section
Special Projects Branch
Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington DC 20555
ph no: (301) 415-8113
e-mail: yhf@nrc.gov
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22 [DU-WATCH] weapons dust worries iraqies - provisional
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 00:42:33 -0600 (CST)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1101-01.htm Published on
Monday, November 1, 2004 by the Hartford Courant Weapons Dust Worries
Iraqis Provisional Government Seeks Cleanup; U.S. Downplays Risks
by Thomas D. Williams
Despite assurances from the U.S. military that depleted uranium
from exploded munitions does not pose a significant health threat,
Iraq's provisional government is asking the United Nations for help
cleaning up the low-level radioactive, metal dust spread across
local battlefields by U.S. and British forces during the Persian
Gulf wars.
The request comes as the United States continues to defend depleted
uranium weaponry - prized for its tank-piercing and bunker- or
cave-smashing ability - against strong opposition by other countries,
scientists and veterans organizations.
Great Britain, a major partner in the coalition now fighting in
Iraq, has provided the U.N. with the coordinates where its forces
used depleted uranium, also known as DU, in southern Iraq, but the
United States has not. Britain and Germany are supplying money to
train Iraqis in environmental science. The United Nations plans to
survey for DU hot spots from both wars in Iraq and says it needs
the coordinates for an effective survey.
Neither British nor U.S. authorities have offered to augment the
$4.7 million donated mainly by Japan to the United Nations to
evaluate sites of wartime contamination that health experts say
threaten the well-being of Iraqi civilians.
In late October, Army Lt. Col. Mark Melanson said a five-year, $6
million Defense Department study of a simulated DU tank explosion
shows "the chemical risks of breathing in uranium dust are so low
that it won't cause any long-term health risks," even for the tank
crew.
Health Concerns Remain
Concern about the health effects of depleted uranium is not limited
to overseas countries. The Defense Department's contention that
depleted uranium has not been shown to affect health adversely and
therefore doesn't need to be cleaned up is contrary to its own rules
for handling it. Those rules mirror the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's treatment of
depleted uranium as an environmental hazard and danger to public
health. Federal regulators have shut down some U.S. nuclear weapons
and uranium processing and munitions plants, found to be contaminated
by depleted uranium.
Billions of dollars are being spent on its cleanup in the United
States.
Depleted uranium, or U-238, is a toxic, heavy metal byproduct of
uranium enrichment that gives the world uranium suitable for use
in nuclear weapons and reactor fuel. It is also used in munitions,
ballast for airplanes, tank armor and other products. It has a
half-life of 4.5 billion years.
In 2002 at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in
Bethesda, Md., researchers found that even though the alpha radiation
from depleted uranium is relatively low, internalized DU as a metal
can induce DNA damage and carcinogenic lesions in the cells that
make up bones in the human body.
Depleted uranium was first used widely in combat in the 1991 Persian
Gulf War. The material in armor-piercing munitions ignites and burns
on impact at temperatures of several thousand degrees Celsius. While
burning, tiny particles, or dust, of uranium oxide aerosol are
created.
Wind can carry these considerable distances.
Since 1991, the cancer rates in Iraq have risen sharply in areas
where depleted uranium was used, according to Iraqi medical studies
reviewed by scientists from other countries. In addition, more than
230,000 of the 697,000 U.S. soldiers who served in that war have
filed disability claims for various maladies, the majority of which
fall under the broad category of gulf war syndrome.
With many of the causes of these illnesses still eluding researchers,
several lawmakers, at the urging of veterans groups, pushed for
legislation to study depleted uranium further, to see if there is
a connection with gulf war and other wartime illnesses. It called
also for cleaning up depleted uranium munitions firings.
In the Republican-controlled Congress, the measures quietly died
this fall inside the House Health Subcommittee. Congress and three
presidential administrations have either remained silent on the
dispute or have dismissed the environmental and health concerns
raised.
Council Urges Ban
U.N.-related organizations, citing studies showing more cancers and
birth defects among civilians and soldiers in countries where
depleted uranium munitions have been used, have pressed for more
studies and a ban on their use until the effects are better understood.
The Council of Europe, Europe's oldest inter-governmental organization
of 46 nations, has called for a ban on the production, use, testing
and sale of munitions containing depleted uranium or plutonium.
But U.S. political leaders in Congress and at the White House have
refused to acknowledge that depleted uranium might seriously harm
soldiers and civilians.
At home, the United States has spent billions of dollars cleaning
up depleted uranium - at former munitions factories, military firing
ranges and nuclear fuel production sites. A General Accounting
Office report in 2000 put the cost of cleanup at the uranium
enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky., where DU is processed for use in
weapons and nuclear reactors, at $1.3 billion. By December 2003,
the cost of cleaning up and closing the plant, estimated to take
until 2070, was up to $13 billion
Cleaning up DU contamination in Iraq, experts say, would come with
a multibillion-dollar price tag.
Any money spent on cleaning up depleted uranium in Iraq would be
in addition to the estimated $225 billion that the United States
will be spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if Congress
approves the Bush administration's estimated $70 billion in emergency
funding request early next year.
Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Agency, said
the United Nations has not asked the Department of Defense or State
Department for assistance in cleaning up depleted uranium in Iraq.
The U.N. Environmental Programme's chairman, Pekka Haavisto, however,
said his organization has kept the State Department informed of
those needs.
Since 1991, the United States and Britain have fired hundreds of
tons of DU munitions during four wars - in the Balkans, Afghanistan
and twice in Iraq.
U.N. environmental spokesman Michael Williams said the United States
has not supplied coordinates on the sites where DU munitions were
fired in Iraq or offered to clean it up. Haavisto added: "U.S.
government has the information that if field assessments will be
done, exact DU coordinates are needed."
Bill Dies Quietly
Last year, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, a U.S. Navy psychiatrist
during the Vietnam War, sponsored a bill to pay for a definitive
study of the health effect of DU munitions and to clean up dust and
fragments after their use. The bill was referred to the House Armed
Services and Energy and Commerce committees and then to the committee's
Health Subcommittee, where it died.
McDermott's spokesman, Mike DeCesare, said the Republican leadership
blocked the bill's passage. But a spokesman for the Health Subcommittee
said the committee counsel could find no "aggressive action" by
McDermott to get a hearing for it. DeCesare insisted, however, that
if McDermott is re-elected, he intends to reintroduce the bill,
which was supported by Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays, R-4th District.
"Depleted uranium is a potential health hazard for the Iraqi people
and we need to do all we can to make sure that as Iraq is rebuilt,
we help the new Iraqi government mitigate any public health threats,"
Shays said.
The debate over DU has not made much of an impact on the presidential
race. President Bush sides with the Pentagon. The Democratic nominee,
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts does not have a position on the
use of depleted uranium munitions, his communications director,
Andy Davis, said recently.
Independent candidate Ralph Nader, a Connecticut native, said DU
munitions are environmentally dangerous and should never have been
used in the first place.
"The denial and cruel coverup has gone on too long," Nader said.
"These soldiers and civilians who suffered [adverse health from
exposure to DU] deserve the truth and respectful assistance. The
first step is to admit the problem. The second step is to measure
the size of the problem and then clean up the environmental toxins.
The next step is to stop using depleted uranium munitions."
But the Bush administration, which insists DU poses little environmental
risk so cleanup is not needed, takes the Pentagon's advice on such
matters.
"If the [Defense Department] indicated to us that the DU rounds or
explosions were a cause of concern, and they have not done so, a
study or inquiry of their use would be warranted," said Bush's
National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones. "Then we would
be faced with that decision. The [Defense Department] has not
contacted us, nor to the best of my knowledge has any international
body contacted us."
Jones said.
Kuwait Cleanup
There have been many instances when the military directed depleted
uranium cleanups overseas.
For example, a private contractor working for the Department of
Defense was paid $3.5 million to cleanup DU-contaminated military
equipment and a practice firing range in Kuwait. MKM Engineers Inc.
based in Stafford, Texas, performed a limited cleanup in Kuwait
from February 2003 to June 2004. The company recovered 22 tons of
DU fragments and 75 pieces of non-DU ordnance scrap. The unexploded
DU ordnance was destroyed with Kuwaiti assistance. MKM also cleaned
military hardware, including tanks, and wrapped them to contain
surface contamination before sending them back to the United States.
The U.S. Army Material Command, responsible for the Kuwaiti project,
described the work as retrieval of equipment and munitions, not a
clean up.
The Department of Defense "does not clean up DU once it leaves a
U.S.
weapons system such as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle and hits an enemy
building, or vehicle," said Melissa Bohan, an Army public affairs
official. Army regulations require the clean-up and proper handling
of U.S. equipment hit by depleted uranium munitions.
MKM referred to some of its work in Kuwait as a cleanup. And, the
Defense Department has a low-level radioactive waste cleanup program,
whose goal is "the safe and compliant disposal of low-level radioactive
waste," including depleted uranium. It includes the Army Contaminated
Equipment Retrograde Team, which supervises cleanup of low-level
radioactive contamination of Army equipment worldwide.
Military regulations require immediate medical tests and treatment
for any soldiers exposed to dust and fragments from depleted uranium
shell explosions. Some nuclear scientists studying the health effects
of those inhaling DU believe even a speck of the dust in the lungs
or bloodstream can eventually cause cancer or kidney disease in
adults or cancers or deformities in babies if even one parent has
been exposed.
Marion Fulk, 83, a former nuclear chemical physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory who was involved with the Manhattan
Project's development of the atomic bomb, said that even nano-size
particles of DU in the blood and lungs are a serious destructive
force.
Others who support the Defense Department position say only inhalation
of large quantities creates serious health problems.
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23 [du-list] USUK DU nanopathology solutions
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:41:23 -0800
IMHO we might proceed with healthier results if we (accepting that which
prospective respondents in future compensation claims are denying) focused
positively on DU nanopathology healing methods.
We should not allow professional imperialism to prevent the participation
of all individuals to brainstorming on the means of repair and reparation
and healing which may have to be applied globally, from USUK forces
to natives in Iraq, from nutrition to urgent healthcare to hot areas and
materials avoidance to disposal of contaminated corpses, in the future and
those already interred throughout Iraq and the 1,200 or so already
repatriated, mainly to the US.
eg. the latest advances in Alzheimer's future possible treatments could
impinge on solutions to the USUK attack nanopathology.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3975855.stm
Includes........
Some experts believe autophagy, while playing a key role in keeping cells
clean, may also be implicated in the development of neurodegenerative
conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
The researchers believe their work will aid research in this area.
Dr Wolf Reik, an expert in developmental genetics at the Brabham Institute
in Cambridge, told the BBC News website the study was "interesting and
intriguing".
"It is logical that a baby would need some sort of bridging mechanism to
generate energy when its nutrition supply is cut off when it first leaves
the womb.
"However, existing on internal proteins in this way would only be possible
for a limited period, and a baby would quite quickly need to replace the
lost nutrients from the outside."
Professor Al Aynsley-Green, of Great Ormond Street Hospital, said the
finding was not surprising, given the magnitude of changes that took place
in the body's systems in the period immediately after birth.
Source research..
http://www.rinshoken.or.jp/frm/ef_intro.htm
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24 [du-list] US in U-turn over Gulf war syndrome - New Scientist
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:41:21 -0800
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996609
US in U-turn over Gulf war syndrome
19:00 03 November 04
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition.
Terence Walker is one of the lucky ones. On 19 January 1991 he was
with 6000 British troops at Al Jubayl in Saudi Arabia, as the first Gulf
war was beginning.
At around 3am there were loud bangs and flashes, and troops
scrambled into gas masks as chemical detector alarms sounded. Some
detectors in the area registered the nerve gas sarin, but the UK's Ministry
of Defence later said that these alerts were false alarms.
Since Walker returned home he has suffered from chronic diarrhoea,
sweating, insomnia, muscle and stomach pain, fatigue, loss of memory and
arthritis. That does not sound so lucky. But in 1997, after five years of
trying, he won a full military pension on the basis of some of those
symptoms. Many similarly afflicted Gulf veterans have failed.
Military pensions are awarded when someone's disability or death can
be proved to have been caused by service in the armed forces. Veterans of
the first Gulf conflict say that the illnesses many of them now suffer
follow a characteristic pattern and have a specific cause related to what
happened to them in the area, and should therefore be classified as a
specific disease: Gulf war syndrome.
But for more than a decade, the UK, US, Australian and Canadian
governments have disputed this, claiming that their symptoms are hard to
attribute and often psychological in origin.
Leaked report
Now the US authorities have changed their stance, prompted by recent
American research which suggests there is a disease with a physical basis
linked to chemical exposure in the Gulf.
The UK government still insists there is no link. But American
researchers claim the studies the British are relying on were not designed
in a way that would uncover the syndrome.
According to leaks of a report, which is due to be released next
week by the US Department of Veterans Affairs' Research Advisory Committee
on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, "a substantial proportion of Gulf war
veterans are ill with multisystem conditions not explained by wartime
stress or psychiatric illness".
Some 30% of Gulf veterans suffer from various combinations of
fatigue, muscle and joint pains, headache, and gut and cognitive problems -
over and above non-Gulf veterans, the report says.
It blames damage caused by nerve gas and its antidotes, and
organophosphate insecticides (OPs), which all block the enzyme that
normally destroys acetylcholine, an important neural signalling chemical.
Sprayed soldiers
In the UK, an independent inquiry, funded anonymously and headed by
Lord Lloyd of Berwick, is investigating the illness. Testimony to the
inquiry reviewed by New Scientist shows that British troops were exposed to
the same chemicals as the Americans.
Soldiers' tents were sprayed with locally bought insecticides to
ward off disease-carrying sandflies and mosquitoes, and Walker testified
that some soldiers were even sprayed directly.
Like most troops, Walker also took pyridostigmine, a drug meant to
block effects of nerve gas but which can also cause some of the same
effects. And evidence is mounting that at Al Jubayl or elsewhere in the
battle zone he could have been exposed to sarin.
On its website, the UK's Ministry of Defence admits that Gulf
veterans "have more symptoms and are suffering more severely from them".
But it states "the consensus of the international medical and scientific
community is that there is insufficient evidence to enable this ill health
to be characterised as a unique illness or syndrome".
Large cheques
Psychiatrist Simon Wessely of King's College London, who heads much
of the UK's research efforts into illnesses suffered by Gulf war veterans,
told the Lloyd inquiry: "What is important is that there is a Gulf war
health effect. The Gulf war syndrome debate is really just of academic
importance." Wessely says the veterans get the same symptoms as similar
groups who did not go to the Gulf, "just more of them".
But as British and US witnesses told the Lloyd inquiry, if there
were recognised definitions for a service-induced syndrome, many Gulf
veterans - some 60,000 in the US, and several thousand in the UK - would be
able to claim pensions more easily.
Clearly, admitting the existence of a syndrome will cost money.
Nicholas Soames, an opposition MP, who was Armed Forces Minister from 1994
to 1997 when the UK's investigations of Gulf war illnesses began, told
Lloyd: "The government of course are very reluctant to admit responsibility
for something which is going to involve them in writing large cheques, and
nowhere more so than the Ministry of Defence because there are so many
potential claimants."
False positives
Epidemiologist Robert Haley of the University of Texas in Dallas
blames the US government's past denial of a syndrome on a "10-year
misadventure". Expecting many cases of post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) the US authorities tested large groups of veterans, using
questionnaires designed to screen for PTSD. Some 20% tested positive.
Roughly the same percentage were reporting ill health, so the authorities
blamed the mysterious illnesses on stress, Haley says.
However, the tests they used were designed to pick out possible
cases for psychiatric evaluation, not to give a definitive diagnosis, and
normally give a false positive rate around 20%. Follow-up investigations in
the US and UK later showed only some 3% really had PTSD, not nearly enough
to account for the sick veterans. Yet the conviction that Gulf illness is
somehow caused by stress has persisted.
"What we should have done was what we do for every new disease:
establish a case definition," Haley says. This means finding out what
unusual symptoms people are reporting, then looking for those symptoms in
larger groups to see if they are widespread, associated with particular
histories, or if they occur in characteristic clusters.
With funding from billionaire businessman and one-time independent
presidential candidate Ross Perot, Haley did just that. "When we talked to
the veterans, certain symptoms really stood out," he says. He then
constructed a questionnaire to find out if two separate groups of veterans
had similar symptoms.
Asking specific questions was crucial. "If you ask people, do you
have aches and pains, people will say yes. But if you ask, do you have
severe joint pains that keep you awake and last all day and for months,
healthy people don't. Gulf veterans do."
Multisystem condition
Haley's studies revealed three clusters of symptoms (see table),
which he thinks are variants of the same disease (New Scientist print
edition, 29 March 2003). His findings have been verified by other labs. Han
Kang at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington DC found the
same clusters when he compared 10,000 Gulf to 9000 non-Gulf veterans.
The case for Gulf war syndrome. CLICK to enlarge.
All were more frequent in Gulf veterans, and the most severe
syndrome did not appear in non-Gulf veterans. Similar studies by Keiji
Fukuda and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta
concluded "a chronic multisystem condition was significantly associated
with deployment to the Gulf".
Studies of British veterans by Nicola Cherry, now in Canada at the
University of Alberta in Edmonton, found a neurological syndrome
significantly associated with the direct handling of OPs very much like
Haley's syndrome 2; she did not ask about nerve gas.
Another cluster with numbness, tingling and widespread pain seemed
to correlate with heavy use of DEET insect repellent and bad reactions to
anti-chemical weapons tablets, like Haley's syndrome 3.
Wessely's group uncovered clusters of symptoms but concluded that
they did not qualify as unique syndromes. Haley says this was because the
study did not ask about 12 of the 23 symptoms he found were crucial, and
did include five others that he says obscured the pattern.
No single cause
Other researchers who found no such clusters asked less specific
questions. A study of reproductive health of 42,818 male Gulf veterans by
Rebecca Simmons and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine also asked them to write down their other symptoms.
It was published in July, the week the Lloyd inquiry began,
accompanied by a press release stating it had found no syndrome. But
Simmons told New Scientist that it was not designed to find unusual
clusters of symptoms.
Wessely told New Scientist: "There is not one single cause for the
ill health," adding that he believes we may never fully know what happened
to the people who became ill.
Wessely asked both Gulf and non-Gulf veterans about 50 standard
symptoms. "Gulf veterans reported every symptom twice as often," he told
the Lloyd inquiry. If there were a unique Gulf syndrome, some would be
relatively more frequent in the Gulf group. "But they are just experiencing
more ill health. There is no unique syndrome here."
Wessely favours psychological explanations for Gulf war illnesses.
The only thing that could have affected so many different people, he says,
was stress, especially anxiety about chemical weapons, misinformation about
Gulf war syndrome afterwards, and the many vaccinations Gulf troops
received. His team found the more vaccine Gulf, but not non-Gulf veterans,
received the more likely they are to be ill.
Haley says the questions in Wessely's study were too vague to
distinguish between a real syndrome and people who have, say, occasional
dizziness or joint pain. He says this will confound efforts to uncover a
meaningful pattern behind the veterans' symptoms.
Nerve gas link
Wessely counters that Haley's case definitions were not derived from
large comparisons of Gulf to non-Gulf veterans. Haley says, without a
precise case definition, such comparisons will only uncover non-specific
increases in symptoms and do little to suggest causes.
Haley's work has allowed precisely that exploration. Syndrome 2, the
worst of the three, correlates strongly with exposure to OPs and suspected
exposure to the nerve gas sarin.
Toxic Battlefield. CLICK to enlarge.
Furthermore, Haley's team and two other groups have independently
found specific neural damage that could explain some of the veterans'
symptoms. These veterans also had lower levels of the variant of an enzyme,
paraoxonase, which breaks down sarin-like compounds.
The nerve gas link is crucial to the change of heart in the US.
British and US authorities have denied there was any damage to troops as no
soldiers showed the classic symptoms of acute exposure. But it now appears
that very small, repeated exposure can also harm.
Experiments on animals have shown that exposure to doses of sarin
too low to cause observable immediate effects causes delayed, long-term
nerve and brain damage similar to that seen in veterans.
"False" alarms
It now appears there was plenty of sarin about. The US Department of
Defense told a Senate investigation in 1994 that each of the 14,000
chemical weapons alarms around the troops went off on average two or three
times a day during allied aerial bombardment of Iraq - a total of between 1
and 2 million alarms.
Subscribe to New Scientist for more news and features
Related Stories
Gulf war veterans have fertility problems
14 July 2004
Scientists warn over sarin exposure in Iraq
20 May 2004
ALS risk not limited to Gulf war veterans
29 April 2004
For more related stories
search the print edition Archive
Weblinks
US Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans'
Illnesses
Gulf war syndrome public inquiry, UK
Gulf veterans' illnesses, Ministry of Defence, UK
Simon Wessely, King's College
Robert Haley, University of Texas
Nicola Cherry, University of Alberta
"All alarms were said to be false," James Tuite, a consultant to the
investigation, told the Lloyd inquiry. But UN inspectors later found Iraqi
chemical weapons dumps damaged by bombing, upwind of the Kuwait-Saudi
border - where troops were most likely to later become ill (see map).
In particular, the blowing up of a large chemical weapons dump at
Khamisiyah in March 1991 - after the fighting was over and chemical weapons
detectors had been removed - created a plume of gas, which would have
contained sarin and which could have affected at least 100,000 Allied
soldiers, possibly far more.
A Congressional study released in June this year found that the
plume was "significantly higher" (taller) than the DoD claimed in its
analysis in 2000, so the chemicals in it could have drifted over a wider
area. Meanwhile, it found that two epidemiological surveys based on that
analysis, which found no ill health linked to sarin exposure, were
fundamentally flawed. The VA agreed.
The UK's prime minister, Tony Blair, has stated that there is no use
holding an official government inquiry - which Lloyd's was not - until all
the research is in. Gulf war veterans say that now may be time.
Debora MacKenzie
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25 UK The Times: MoD admits Gulf War mistakes
November 05, 2004
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
THE Ministry of Defence admitted for the first time yesterday the
mistakes it had made in preparing thousands of British troops for
a feared chemical and biological war in the Gulf in 1991.
Thirteen years after the Gulf War, the MoD published a report,
Health and Personnel-Related Lessons Identified, which outlined
numerous policies which had to be changed and implemented for the
latest war in Iraq. However, defence officials remained adamant
that there was still no evidence of a Gulf War Syndrome.
The report was published in advance of the conclusions of an
independent inquiry into Gulf War Syndrome, conducted by Lord
Lloyd of Berwick. His report, which is expected to be critical of
the MoD’s treatment of the 6,000 Gulf War veterans suffering from
ill health, is due in the next two weeks.
The MoD acknowledged that it had not been open about its
anti-biological warfare vaccination programme which included
giving many of the frontline troops a cocktail of injections to
counter anthrax, plague and other bio-chemical attacks.
The report said: “The fact that the MoD was not open about the
UK’s anti-biological warfare immunisation, did not provide
sufficient information to forces about the vaccinations they were
receiving, did not explain the reasons for offering them, or
provide information on the assessments of safety of the vaccines,
sideeffects and so forth, has led to uncertainty, suspicion and
doubt.”
Gulf War veterans, suffering from illnesses ranging from cancers
and motor neurone disease to chronic fatigue, skin rashes,
traumatic stress and aching joints, have blamed the multiple
vaccines for causing the health problems. However, the defence
officials said the interim findings of an important study into
the “medical counter-measures” given to service personnel in 1990
and 1991 showed there had been “no apparent adverse health
consequences”. The final report by the research team is due to be
published in a medical journal by the end of the year.
The MoD also admitted yesterday it had failed to point out the
potential hazards presented by the firing of shells by American
and British forces which had depleted uranium (DU) warheads.
Information about DU “was not always fully disseminated nor was
information on the simple precautions which could have been taken
to minimise these risks”.
The MoD said all these lessons had been taken into account for
Operation Telic, the current campaign in Iraq. Commanders now had
to ensure all their soldiers were regularly immunised against the
usual health risks.
Outlining the results of the MoD’s Gulf veterans’ medical
assessment programme which started in 1993, the report said that
of the 3,244 seen so far, 75per cent were well. Of the 25per cent
unwell, 83per cent of ill-health was accounted for by psychiatric
illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to Tony Flint of the National Gulf Veterans and
Families Association, the only reason the MoD refused to
acknowledge the existence of a Gulf War Syndrome was “because
they don’t want to pay out money”.
Copyright The Times - timesonline.co.uk
*****************************************************************
26 WIStv.com Columbia, SC: "Nuclear laundry" moving out of Columbia neighborhood
November 4, 2004
Catherine Reynolds checks out the last days of a nuclear laundry
(Columbia) Nov. 4, 2004 - A controversial commercial laundry
facility in a residential Columbia community will be torn down.
The official announcement came at around noon on Thursday
concerning the Unitech facility on Edisto Avenue near the
intersection with Wiley Street in the Rosewood community.
Bessie Watson thought this day would never come, "We've been
fighting to get rid of this at least 15 years." It's been a long
fight to ensure the safety of her Rosewood neighborhood, "We've
had radioactive materials right in a neighborhood. Right in the
middle of a neighborhood. This has not been a good atmosphere for
people to live in."
The laundry cleaned radiated clothes from the Savannah River Site
and neighbors like Isaac McClinton worried it made them sick, "I
still believe that it was leaking. I couldn't prove it, but I had
that idea."
In the late 90's, DHEC and the city ran tests that showed the
public was not in danger. Neighbors still pressured lawmakers
like Councilwoman Anne Sinclair until the business moved
two-years-ago, "This is the kind of use that's not compatible
with a residential area."
Sinclair announced the community's fight is finally over. Crews
will start tearing down the building on Monday. DHEC will oversee
the work, testing regularly to make sure the area is safe and
Watson is pleased with the results, "I feel like DHEC has done
their job determining if the soil is clear and the facility is
clear and we can only rely on them."
Columbia plans to revitalize the area. City leaders are looking
at three plans: mixed use, residential or a community park.
By Catherine Reynolds [creynolds@wistv.com] Updated 6:17pm by
BrettWitt [bwitt@wistv.com]
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2000 -
2004 WorldNow and WISTV. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
27 Las Vegas RJ: JANE ANN MORRISON: After low of seeing friend Daschle lose, Reid
moves to claim prize
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Election night for Harry Reid was like a "Survivor" show, with
dramatic highs and lows mixed with self-interest.
He enjoyed his easiest election ever, retaining his Senate seat
with 60 percent of the vote without bothering to debate his GOP
challenger Richard Ziser.
However, his friend, affable U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom
Daschle, was voted off the island by South Dakotans.
Yet that loss makes it possible for Reid to move on up to become
the big kahuna of Senate Democrats.
Daschle is Reid's friend. They both were elected to the Senate
in 1986, and their stars ascended together. Daschle became
Democratic leader in 1995. Reid became assistant majority leader
in 1999. In those positions, they both brought home the bacon.
Tuesday night, when Daschle's numbers began dropping and
Republican John Thune began to overtake him, Reid was the loyal
soldier. While Daschle's fate remained uncertain, he declined to
speculate what it might mean to him.
But as Daschle's numbers worsened, Reid had to be listing, in
his mind if not on paper, those Senate Democrats likely to
support him for the leadership job and thinking about whether
anyone else would make a run for the job.
At 3 a.m. Wednesday, Reid spoke to Daschle in what he called "a
very difficult conversation." Daschle had become the first
Senate leader since 1952 to be rejected by the voters back home.
Apparently, senators can't live by pork alone.
At 6 a.m., Reid started calling Democratic senators to line up
the votes to take Daschle's job.
At 1 p.m., Reid held a news conference and said that out of the
45 Democratic senators, while he needed only 23 votes to win, he
had already snagged 30 senators' votes and had calls out to 10
more.
His message was clear: Potential rivals for the leadership job
need not apply.
It worked with one potential rival. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd
was a contender in the morning and a noncontender by late
afternoon.
The title isn't ceremonial. As minority leader, the man from
Searchlight will craft Democratic policy, set the goals and try
to reach them. Or at least play defense with the GOP agenda.
Because Republicans control the White House, the House and the
Senate, this is no easy assignment, and no Nevadan has ever done
it. But Reid, 64, is a master at using Senate rules to his
advantage. While he'll never be dubbed Mr. Congeniality, he's
effective.
Remember, Reid quietly wooed Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords to leave
the Republican party in 2001. Reid's efforts took the 50-50
split and made it 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans and one
independent, giving him the title of Senate assistant majority
leader for 18 months.
Reid knows how to make a deal, how to reward loyalty and how to
make things happen.
We'll watch whether Reid can avoid being dubbed an
obstructionist like Daschle, one of the reasons the White House
targeted Daschle and recruited Thune.
The White House made a similar move in Nevada by pushing GOP
Congressman Jim Gibbons to run against Reid this year.
When Gibbons passed, no major Republican had time to raise the
money, so Reid cruised to a fourth term with soft TV ads touting
his pork and featuring Searchlight pals talking about him
fondly. One ad revealed that in Searchlight, Reid was called
"Pinky."
(No, it's not a reference to his little finger. When he was
born, a cousin said he was pink, and because his dad was named
Harry, the family dubbed him Pinky, a trivia tidbit most
Nevadans wouldn't know except for the TV ads.)
Pinky Reid. What a moniker.
Perhaps President Bush, with his fondness for nicknames, will
pick it up.
Apparently, Bush is confident Reid will be the man he'll be
dealing with for the next four years about legislation. In the
spirit of good will, the Republican president worked in a
friendly five-minute call to the Democratic senator from Nevada
on Wednesday.
Presumably, Bush has overcome his annoyance from the times Reid
publicly termed the president "a liar" for approving the Yucca
Mountain Project.
Reid embraced the spirit of cooperation, saying it is not the
time to talk about what went wrong or what went right with the
election. "Now is the time for everyone to come together."
Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and
Saturday. E-mail her at jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas RJ: Bush victory keeps light green for Yucca Mountain
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Professor: Issue was oversold as election weapon By STEVE
TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's re-election keeps alive the
federal government's effort to bury nuclear waste in Nevada,
although the project still faces daunting financial and
technical problems, officials said Wednesday.
Critics of the Yucca Mountain Project missed an opportunity to
deliver a crushing blow when Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry
on Tuesday. Kerry had campaigned in Nevada on a promise to
shelve the proposed repository and study alternatives.
Project supporters, including those within the Energy
Department, were breathing easier Wednesday, particularly when
Bush won Nevada 50 percent to 48 percent on his way to
re-election.
"The best outcome was Bush winning, and Bush winning Nevada,"
said an energy industry executive who said he spoke with DOE
officials this week. "At the department, the sword of Damocles
was lifted. There had been a cloud of uncertainty and they
certainly were expecting the worst."
Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan of Nevada said Kerry's defeat
"clearly is a devastating loss for Nevada because Kerry would
have put the whole program on hold and clearly Bush will
accelerate it."
Energy Department officials did not respond Wednesday to a
request for comment in light of the election results. They have
said they want to complete a repository license application by
the end of the year, although they also are evaluating their
timetables in light of legal and budget setbacks this summer.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said it will be difficult to
combat the project when opponents know that Nevada voted for
Bush even after he recommended Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste
in February 2002 and signed the declaration into law four months
later.
"It's becoming increasingly more difficult when the people from
the state of Nevada have just handed a mandate to the very
person who has vowed to turn the state into a nuclear dump," she
said.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's possible ascension to become the
Senate's Democratic leader will be Nevada's "ace hole card,"
with powers to block Yucca legislation, Bryan said.
But an industry executive who asked not to be identified noted
Reid already had free rein in the Senate on Yucca matters. "I
don't see how much more damage he can do," he said.
Kerry stumped on his Yucca Mountain promise during his seven
trips to Nevada, and Reid spotlighted the contender's stance in
a television commercial that ran late in the campaign.
Exit polls showed two-thirds of voters considered Yucca
Mountain important to their decision making, according to The
Associated Press.
But the issue failed to be a silver bullet.
U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Yucca Mountain helped Kerry
to some extent.
"Without this issue, I think Nevada would have gone for Bush by
10 points," Ensign said. "There's no question that a
Massachusetts liberal is not going to get within three points in
Nevada without this issue."
Ensign said Kerry's pressure also forced Bush to promise he
would abide by court rulings and decisions by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission on the project.
Erik Herzik, a political science professor at the University of
Nevada, Reno, said Yucca Mountain was oversold as a potent
election weapon.
"Bush won the state by 20,000 votes four years ago and he won
the state by 20,000 votes this time," Herzik said. Democrats
"tried to push (Yucca Mountain) in a big way and it just wasn't
there.
"This was as clear a referendum on the issue as you can find,
and Yucca lost," Herzik said.
With the dust settling on the election, the Energy Department
is in the same position it was in before: striving to develop a
repository that is in financial distress on Capitol Hill and
lacking a radiation safety standard that was thrown out by a
federal court in July, said Bob Loux, director of the Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects.
"I don't think it makes things any easier for DOE," Loux said.
Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, said key lawmakers supporting Yucca
Mountain are working with the Bush administration to solve a
funding shortfall that might be passed during the congressional
lame duck session later this month.
Hobson, chairman of the House energy and water subcommittee,
said lawmakers are focusing on an amount between the $577
million DOE received last year for Yucca Mountain and $880
million the administration has requested for fiscal 2005. He
would not disclose the amount.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
29 Bellona: Zheleznogorsk Combine unloaded two trains with spent nuclear fuel
in October
The spent nuclear fuel was received from Balakovo NPP and
South-Ukraine NPP.
2004-11-04 19:27
On October 14, the specialists of the Chemical Combine began
unloading of the spent nuclear fuel shipped from Balakovo NPP in
Saratov region. On October 20, 27 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel
arrived from Ukraine.
The shipment went on without incidents. The special police squad
guards from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs constantly
guarded the trains. The Zheleznogorsk Combine specialists
accompanied the train and monitored the state of the spent fuel
day and night. The unloading operation was carried under water
with the help of special equipment and then it was transferred to
the sections for the long-term storage.
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
*****************************************************************
30 Las Vegas SUN: Columnist Jeff German: Nevadans lost sight of Yucca
November 03, 2004
Columnist Jeff German: Nevadans lost sight of Yucca Jeff German's
column appears Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays in the
Sun. Reach him at [german@lasvegassun.com] or (702) 259-4067.
••
It should have been an easy call for Nevadans in the
presidential race.
We had a clear choice between a Republican incumbent pushing
hard to send 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste here or a
Democratic challenger promising to put us out of harm's way and
kill the Yucca Mountain Project.
And yet, as of midnight Tuesday, as I sat down to write this,
Nevada was one of five states too close to call in an election
that was leaning toward President Bush, but still undecided.
When the final Nevada poll results were tallied a couple of
hours later, Bush was declared the winner, giving him the state's
five electoral votes and moving him closer to the 270 votes he
needed to be re-elected.
A Bush victory is the worst possible setback for the Yucca
Mountain opposition forces. Some might even call it a message of
capitulation from Nevada's voters.
"It takes a lot of the zing out of the issue when the fellow who
betrayed us wins Nevada," said former Sen. Richard Bryan, who has
been part of the Yucca Mountain fight for all of its 22 years.
"What it may do is encourage some folks to say this is an issue
the public doesn't care about."
It was obvious that the voters didn't care enough about the
dangers of Yucca Mountain to put John Kerry in the White House.
Bryan said the Bush campaign did a good job of making terrorism
the main issue in the campaign and that tended to drown out other
issues.
We certainly fell for it in Nevada. We let Bush campaign here
without explaining why he lied to us four years ago when he
promised he wouldn't recommend Yucca Mountain if the science
wasn't right.
In the end we forgot what is really important to us --
preserving the future well-being of this state for our children.
And now that Bush has prevailed in Ohio and has won re-election,
we have a president with a mandate to ram Yucca Mountain down our
throats. And we will have no one but ourselves to blame.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, an ardent Yucca Mountain opponent, summed
things up when I spoke to her earlier Tuesday.
"If George Bush is re-elected president of the United States,"
she said, "we are going to get Yucca Mountain. It's that simple."
I suspect she might regret saying those words in the heat of the
battle because our elected officials, including Berkley, aren't
ready to give up the fight just yet, however bleak it now looks
in the political arena.
We still have the courts to turn to, and we may have a stronger
general to lead the fight on Capitol Hill.
The defeat of Sen. Tom Daschle, the Senate's minority leader, in
South Dakota leaves Nevada Sen. Harry Reid as the front-runner to
assume his leadership duties.
If that happens, Reid will be the most powerful Democrat in
Washington and will have more clout to go toe-to-toe with the
Bush administration in the Yucca fight.
But it will be an administration ready to fight harder to make
us the nation's No. 1 dumping ground.
*****************************************************************
31 deseretnews: Reid poised to take over as Senate minority leader
[deseretnews.com]
Thursday, November 4, 2004
By Jerry Spangler Deseret Morning News
WASHINGTON — A senator with deep Utah ties will likely assume one
of the most powerful positions in the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Harry Reid
No, it's not veteran Republican senators Orrin Hatch or
the just re-elected Bob Bennett.
It is Harry Reid — Utah educated and an active member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — who is the
second-in-command Senate Democrat from Nevada.
Reid, 64, is poised to take over the top leadership post
for the minority party now that Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S.D., was an election-day victim of a Republican juggernaut
that saw the GOP boost its Senate majority to 55-45.
The nation's capital has been abuzz with speculation the
past week that Reid — who faced only minimal opposition in his
bid for a fourth term —appeared to be positioning himself for a
run at the top Democratic job should Daschle falter.
His only opposition could come from Sen. Christopher
Dodd, D-Conn., who lost his own bid for the top post to Daschle
by one vote. But Dodd disavowed any interest in the post
Wednesday in an interview with CNN.
And he told Cox News Service, "I really decided that I
can better serve my party and my state by staying out of the
race," Dodd said.
Dodd's recalcitrance removed the only obvious hurdle. "I
have commitments from a majority of my colleagues," Reid said.
President Bush even called Reid to seek "reconciliation"
between the warring political parties, Reid said.
"I appreciate the president reaching out, and I look
forward to working with him on important issues for Nevada and
the nation," Reid said. "At the same time, I will not shirk from
my responsibility to stand up and fight for Nevada values and
Democratic principles."
Reid was unopposed in his bid for the No. 2 position, and
he has spent the past decade cultivating relationships in what
Capitol insiders see as laying the groundwork for a bid for the
top job.
"I have a great deal of respect for Harry," Hatch said.
"He is a tough, smart guy and has been a fighter for his party
and his causes as the Democratic whip. And he also knows about
the issues Utahns face."
Bennett says "all signs" point to Reid being the new
minority leader, and he likes the idea.
"I believe this will change and improve the culture of
the Senate," Bennett said. "As Tom Daschle was the architect of
the obstructionist tactics, which have bogged down the Senate
for so many years, Harry Reid is open to genuine, bipartisan
progress."
Reid's office did not return Deseret Morning News calls.
Democratic senators will elect their leaders before year's end.
Bespectacled and unassuming, Reid bears a resemblance to
former U.S. Rep. Wayne Owens, with whom he shares many of the
same politics.
Declared an "enviromental champion" by the League of
Conservation Voters, his adamant opposition to nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain has been a thorn in the side of the Utah
delegation, which wants Yucca Mountain as the alternative to
storing the waste on Goshute tribal lands in Tooele County.
Reid uses the same arguments for keeping the waste out of
Nevada that Utah officials use for keeping the waste out of the
Beehive State — a point Reid has made repeatedly to Utah's
elected officials to no avail.
"I am dumbfounded why the governor is not fighting with
us," Reid told the Deseret Morning News in 2002. "We fought
(alongside Utah) against Skull Valley. And I don't know why the
two senators of the state are not helping us."
Reid's rags-to-power rise has been well documented. He
was born in 1939 in the tiny Nevada mining town of Searchlight,
where his father was a hard-rock miner. He lived in a small
cabin without indoor plumbing, and he attended a two-room
elementary school.
Since Searchlight had no high school, Harry boarded with
local families in Henderson while he attended Basic High School.
He later married his high school sweetheart, Landra Gould, with
whom he had five children, all of whom attended Brigham Young
University.
With the financial aid of families in Henderson, Reid
later earned an associate's degree in science from Southern Utah
State College (now Southern Utah University) and then a bachelor
of science degree from Utah State University.
He then went to law school at George Washington
University, working nights as a police officer on Capitol Hill.
After a term in the Nevada state assembly, he became the
youngest lieutenant governor in Nevada history at age 30. He
lost his first bid for the Senate in 1974, but in 1983 was
elected to the first of two terms in the U.S. House.
He was elected to the Senate in 1986. He won a fourth
term Tuesday with 61 percent of the vote and even prominent
Nevada Republicans campaigned on his behalf. Among his
supporters are a former chairman of the Republican National
Committee and even the father of the man Reid beat six years
ago, who is now Nevada's other senator.
Reid has won respect from Democrats in the Senate for his
deft managerial skills and for leading a marathon filibuster
this year that awed his colleagues. And Republicans like his
integrity.
"His word's good," former Republican Whip Don Nickles of
Oklahoma said, as Online News Hour reported. "To me, that's one
of the most important things you can say about any senator."
His party loyalty and willingness to take on the grunt
work of the minority party has also won him allies among
Democrats who will now choose a new leader.
"If some other senator came up and asked, 'Could you take
one for the team,' you'd say, 'When did you ever take one for
anybody? Give me a break,'" Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., told
Congressional Quarterly. "But you look at Harry and say, 'OK,
Harry.'"
Not that Reid isn't willing to buck his party, especially
on issues like abortion, where he is pro-life.
And he can play politics with the best of them. He is
credited for wooing Republican Sen. James Jeffords to leave the
Republican Party, swinging control of the Senate to the
Democrats for a time.
Reid has dropped enough hints over the years that he
wants the Senate leadership job. Two years ago, when it looked
like Daschle might retire and run for president, both Reid and
Dodd made known their interest in succeeding him.
Even when Daschle changed his mind, Reid appears to have
been covering his bases.
Associated Press reported that Reid has donated more than
$1 million from his political PAC to the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee — greasing the wheels for a leadership bid.
Dodd's PAC gave only $100,000.
Reid is rushing this Senate leadership choice to quash
any potential competition, Eric Herzik, political science
professor at the University of Nevada at Reno, told Gannett News
Service. But becoming Senate minority leader would push him into
the spotlight, he said.
"He's not going to run for president four years from now.
He doesn't have those ambitions," Herzik told Gannett. "But he
could be a power broker in the party. Harry Reid is as
influential as any Democrat in this country."
E-mail: spang@desnews.com [spang@desnews.com]
© 2004 Deseret News Publishing Company
*****************************************************************
32 Las Vegas SUN: Editorial: Voters sound wake-up call
LAS VEGAS SUN
The national Democratic Party consoled itself in 2000 with the
fact that Al Gore won the popular vote and lost the electoral
vote only after the intercession of the U.S. Supreme Court. The
closeness of the race prompted little in the way of an
introspective examination. Who are we as a party? What do we
really stand for? How could we have lost to a one-term Texas
governor with no national experience? How do we get our message
across in the South and rural America? These questions seem not
to have been asked by Democratic leaders, who concentrated more
on the unfairness of the Florida fiasco than the weakening
underpinnings of their party.
We can see all of this now, after Tuesday's significant victory
by the national Republican Party, which re-elected President
Bush and strengthened its hand in Congress. What can the
Democrats turn to this time to console themselves? Yes, the
electoral votes of a few hotly contested battleground states
went to the Kerry/Edwards ticket. And, yes, there were many
inspiring moments over the past year -- the Democratic primaries
were exciting and the debates went well for Kerry and Edwards.
Yet when the counting was all over on Tuesday, it was the
Republicans walking away with the top prize and enough victories
in congressional races to begin near-total domination of federal
policy. They will set the agenda for the war on terrorism,
homeland security, energy, foreign policy, Social Security,
spending, education, the environment and all other issues
affecting American citizens and the world. The Democrats will
have a say, but with both houses of Congress and the presidency
now firmly in the hands of conservative Republicans they won't
have much clout.
Even Nevadans, who stood to lose major ground in the fight
against Yucca Mountain if President Bush won, cast a majority of
their votes for the president. How could a state that twice
voted for President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and which had so
much to lose over Yucca Mountain, vote both in 2000 and 2004 for
President Bush?
This question, and variables of this question as it applies to
the nation's rural areas and Midwestern and Southern states, now
needs to be asked in earnest by Democrats. This time there is no
consoling themselves about unfair balloting. The country is
obviously pulling away from the Democratic Party. Is it because
of a dearth in leadership? Because of the constant droning of
right-wing radio talk show hosts repeating their simplistic (and
hugely profitable) talking points over and over? Because
Democratic candidates are more concerned about their incumbency
than their party?
Whatever the answers, the Democratic Party needs to find out
and begin once again connecting with its once-stable core of
voters. With such Republicans as President Bush's brother Jeb
waiting in the wings, we shudder to think about the demise of
our competitive two-party system.
*****************************************************************
33 Las Vegas SUN: Bush win means renewed support for Yucca dump
By Suzanne Struglinski SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- Four more years of a Bush administration means
renewed support for a high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca
Mountain, supporters and critics of the project say.
During his re-election campaign, President Bush reiterated his
promise to base the government's decision to store nuclear waste
at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, on "sound science"
and for the courts to determine its fate, while Democratic
candidate John Kerry consistently told Nevada he would stop the
project.
Bush's return to the White House eliminates some uncertainty
about the project's future, but many question remain.
"At least we know now what to expect," said Bob Loux, executive
director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "Nothing
really changes for Yucca Mountain."
The administration has been pushing the Yucca project forward,
with an optimistic goal of opening the repository by 2010. Bush
approved the project in 2002 and his Energy Department has been
working feverishly to meet a self-imposed Dec. 30 deadline to
submit the project's license application, despite Nevada's
strong objections to the government storing 77,000 tons of spent
nuclear fuel in the state.
"It shows there will be support for the program, but I don't
think the other problems have changed," said Brian O'Connell,
nuclear waste program office director for the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which supports
the Yucca program. "It gives a continued sign of support for the
project. I mean, it's obvious."
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said Nevada's votes for Bush
could make her job harder in the House because the people voted
against their own interests of stopping the project. She said
before Tuesday she would be able to tell colleagues that 83
percent of the state was against the government moving waste
there, but she can't say that anymore.
"This election has limited our options dramatically," Berkley
said. "We have no friends in this administration."
Bush has no reason to hold back on pushing his energy policy,
including plans for beginning Yucca construction, and for
developing new nuclear plants in the United States, Berkley's
spokesman David Cherry said.
It's also possible Bush could push for what amounts to a
temporary storage site at the Yucca surface, until the
underground repository is completed, Cherry said. Congress in
past sessions has rejected interim storage.
Terry Freese, director of legislative programs at the Nuclear
Energy Institute, said with Bush back in the White House there
will be less interest in looking for near-term solution for
interim storage of nuclear waste, "because Yucca is not kicked
four or eight years down the road."
He said he did not think it was likely there would be any
discussion of storing nuclear waste anywhere but Yucca. He said
he is confident other concerns on the program will be dealt
with, but acknowledged the exact schedule of the program
"remains to be seen."
Nevada officials noted that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is likely
to become Senate Democratic leader, a step up from his current
position as minority whip, the No. 2 Democrat. That puts Reid in
an even better position to fight Yucca issues. He also sits on
the committee that sets the Yucca budget.
O'Connell said Reid's new position will strengthen his power
with an administration that says it want to cooperate, but he
does not think it will make anything easier.
But regardless of Bush's win and the adminstration's support
for the project, Yucca Mountain faces significant uncertainties,
including the project budget, questions about radiation
protection standards and licensing setbacks.
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said the administration's
policy has not changed on the project, but said the department
still needs to get money from Congress to continue its work.
The Energy Department requested $880 million for the current
fiscal year. House appropriators have approved only $131 million
for the project, and the defense authorization bill, signed into
law last Thursday, only allocated $120 million. The
authorization bill allows Congress to spend money on a program
while the appropriations bill actually puts money into the
account.
The Senate has not passed any portion of the Yucca budget, so
negotiations still have to take place.
Davis said the department also will have to abide what the
Environmental Protection Agency decides to do with new radiation
standards. A federal court overturned the current standards for
how long the repository must keep radiation from escaping into
the environment.
Davis said the department has not taken a position on whether
Congress should change the law regarding the standards,
sidestepping action by the EPA. "That's up to Congress," he said.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has a meeting
tentatively scheduled next week to vote on the Energy
Department's appeal of the licensing board's decision to
invalidate its document database.
The commission licensing board decided Aug. 31 that the Energy
Department did not meet commission rules when it said it made
all of the Yucca project documents available on June 30.
The department has to make all its documents available six
months before it turned in its license application under
commission rules.
Attorney Joe Egan, who the state hired to work on Yucca issues,
said the department's decision to move forward with the
documents and the whole license application process depends on
how it decides to handle the radiation standard.
Egan said it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, including
money spent by Nevada, to continue to pursue a license
application that may not be reviewable by the commission.
*****************************************************************
34 Las Vegas SUN: GOP: Yucca not a strong enough issue
How president won Nevada is up for debate
By Cy Ryan and
Benjamin Grove
SUN CAPITAL BUREAU
As the dust started to settle on the day after the election, the
state's Republican leadership said it was obvious to them why
President Bush won Nevada despite intense Democratic campaigning
here and despite Bush's support for turning Yucca Mountain into
the nation's nuclear waste dump.
In Nevada John Kerry campaigned largely on his opposition to
the Yucca Mountain project, but that issue was less important to
most Nevadans than security and the economy, said Gov. Kenny
Guinn, co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Nevada, and Rep. Jim
Gibbons, R-Nev.
"When you look at the polls, Yucca Mountain was way, way low,"
Gibbons said.
Guinn said that based on polls and his own contacts, education
issues and Yucca Mountain, which is 90 miles northwest of Las
Vegas, were less important to most voters than their safety and
jobs. A poll he saw showed only 2 percent to 2.5 percent of the
people would change their votes based on the Yucca issue.
Gibbons also said the Democrats' effort to tie the Yucca
Mountain project to President Bush didn't work.
But Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., doesn't necessarily buy the
argument that the Democrats in Nevada harped on Yucca too much.
"Without Yucca Mountain, it wouldn't have been a close race in
Nevada," Ensign said, adding that it might have a been a seven-
to 10-point lead for Bush without Yucca. "You had a
Massachusetts liberal running in Nevada. Those two don't match
up."
David Cherry, spokesman for one of Kerry's point people in
Southern Nevada, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said the media in
some ways created a false perception that the Democrats were
only talking about Yucca.
"We thought it was the one thing we needed to talk about
first," but it was hardly the only issue Democrats were touting,
Cherry said.
There was a lot of pent-up frustration among Democrats after
years of trying to get answers from Bush about Yucca, Cherry
said. Bush still never took questions from Nevada media about
the subject, even as Kerry was offering detailed plans about how
he would try to kill the project, he said.
There was a clear difference between Bush and Kerry on the
issue, but it apparently wasn't enough to galvanize the state
behind Kerry during the campaign, Cherry said.
"Maybe people felt like they were beating their head against
the wall," Cherry said.
Another difference between the two sides was that the
Republican campaign for the White House spent more money in
Nevada, Guinn said. He said he has seen figures indicating that
the two parties spent a combined total of $25 million trying to
win Nevada's five electoral votes. He said the Democrats spent
$1.8 million per electoral vote and the Republicans spent $3.1
million for each electoral vote.
But Guinn and Gibbons said that more important was the fact
that Nevadans have remained safe from terrorist attacks and have
enjoyed a strong economy.
"I've said all along we're going for Bush based on the fact we
have been safe," Guinn said. "We went the entire election
without a terrorist attack. People want security No. 1."
Gibbons said, "I think voters of Nevada weighed who was going
to be the best president on national security and the economy."
He noted that Nevada has been mentioned on occasion as a
possible target for terrorists. He said voters were looking for
a strong leader who would "go on the offensive when it comes to
terrorists."
The governor said the second most important issue "in all my
contacts and in polls is the economy, and that relates to jobs.
Nevada led the nation in job creation at a good pace. We are
second in the nation in producing jobs at a livable wage."
Guinn said, "All of us want a really good job, but if it's not
safe what does a good job mean to you?" he said.
Gibbons said the economy in Nevada has turned around since 9/11
and the state has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
"The mining industry is doing well. Things are looking up for
Nevada."
But Gibbons said he figures that the deciding factor for many
voters was that they asked themselves: "Why change leaders in
the middle of a war?"
Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville,
likewise said that while nobody likes the war in Iraq, they
don't want their soldiers to have died in vain.
"We've got to win," he said and added "People felt he (Bush)
was the guy who was going to do it." He said the voters felt
Bush had the "resolve to get the job done."
Gibbons also said education was a strong issue. He said Bush
has followed through with his promises on education and, "He
(Bush) was rewarded with a great vote of support."
Bush defeated Al Gore 49.4 percent to 46.6 percent to take
Nevada's electoral votes four years ago. He beat Kerry 50
percent to 47.4 percent on Tuesday.
Republicans had a 4,400 vote margin in registered voters but
Bush accumulated a 21,567 vote lead over Kerry. Four years ago,
Bush beat Gore by 21,597.
"This president knows we were there for him," Gibbons said. "We
have had a close relationship. Now it will be even closer than
before. We worked hard and he recognized the effort we put out
for his election."
The numerous campaign visits by Bush and Vice President Dick
Cheney allowed Nevadans "from both parties get to know them on a
personal basis," Guinn said.
For his part the governor said he has a personal relationship
with all of the Cabinet members and they have been working to
solve some of the water and land problems.
Gibbons said his own relationship with the Bush administration
probably won't lead to a presidential appointment, however. He
said he is not interested in that because he wants to remain in
the House.
*****************************************************************
35 RGJ: Four-year comparison helped Bush in Nevada, poll finds
Elections 2004
Ritter [online@rgj.com] ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/3/2004 11:28 pm
A comparatively flush economy in a state in which an exit poll
found most Nevada voters described their family financial
situation as the same or better than four years ago might have
tipped the balance for President Bush in Nevada, an analyst said
Wednesday.
“The economy is doing much better in Nevada than the rest of the
U.S.,” said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and
Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “You
would expect people would tend to vote for the incumbent. That
could well account for the narrow margin in Nevada.”
Bush edged Kerry by 21,567 votes, winning another four years by a
percentage of 50-48, according to unofficial final returns from
the Nevada secretary of state.
Terrorism, Iraq and moral values mattered most to voters as they
picked Bush over Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry, according
to an exit poll conducted for the Associated Press in Nevada.
While Bush drew support from 88 percent of those who cited
terrorism, and three of four who called moral values most
important, Kerry attracted 78 percent of those who said they were
most concerned about Iraq.
The Democratic senator from Massachusetts also drew support from
those who called health care and education the top issues.
Nevada’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in September, compared
with 5.4 percent nationally, and Schwer said job growth from
September 2003 to September 2004 was 4.6 percent in Nevada,
compared with 1.3 percent nationwide.
That led three-fourths of voters polled to describe the state’s
economy as good or excellent, and 76 percent to call their
family’s financial situation as good or better now than four
years ago.
The poll conducted Tuesday for AP and television networks by
Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International questioned 2,189
voters, including 465 absentee voters interviewed by telephone
during the past week. Their responses were weighted to represent
21 percent of the total sample — their estimated proportion of
the state’s electorate. Results were subject to sampling error of
plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.
More than half of those who called Nevada’s economy good and 81
percent of those who called the state economy excellent went for
Bush.
One-third of voters described themselves as conservative, and 81
percent of them went for Bush.
Kerry, by comparison, won 55 percent of those who identified
themselves as moderates, and did well with voters concerned most
about health care, jobs and the economy and education. He also
got support from families that make under $50,000 a year, and
from those who said they wanted change or those who disapproved
of the Iraq war.
Voters were split on the president’s performance. Both candidates
held their party bases.
Two-thirds of voters called federal plans for a national nuclear
waste repository in Nevada a factor in their decision-making. But
52 percent of those who called it “somewhat” important, and 75
percent of those who called it “not too” important went for the
president who approved the Yucca Mountain project in 2002.
Bush drew support from married voters and the 90 percent who said
religious faith and strong leadership mattered most in a
president. Eighty percent of those who said clear stands on
issues mattered backed Bush.
Solidly Republican rural Nevada voters went 64 percent for Bush,
while Kerry drew more support in the state’s urban areas around
Las Vegas and Reno. Clark County went Democratic in the
presidential election of 2000, while Reno voted Republican.
About one in seven voters said they were voting in their first
election, and one in five said they’d moved to Nevada in the past
four years.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid drew 24 percent of the
Republicans who voted in his race over underfunded Republican
challenger Richard Ziser. Reid was aided by crossover voting from
GOP voters in a state where Republicans have a narrow 4,000-voter
edge in registration.
Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.
*****************************************************************
36 Salt Lake Tribune: Yucca Mountain votes could haunt Utah's senators
[http://www.sltrib.com]
Article Last Updated: 11/04/2004 01:30:45 AM
By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune
For Utah Republican Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, the
icing on President Bush's re-election victory Tuesday was the
stunning ouster of Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle
of South Dakota, the first incumbent Senate party leader in more
than 50 years to be tossed by voters.
"Huge," said Bennett, "just huge." Hatch called the upset by
Republican John Thune "a real harsh result for Daschle, who is
an old friend, but it is good for Republicans. I think it sends
a message to the Democrats that says, 'Hey, you guys lost this
election because of your obstructionism.' ”
Republicans are assured of at least 54 seats in the
100-member Senate come January, a gain of three from their
current 51-49 edge. The Republican incumbent was also leading in
Alaska as ballots were being counted, which would make the GOP
margin 55-45, five shy of a filibuster-proof Senate.
The likely successor to Daschle as leader of the Democrats'
shrinking numbers is Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who has not
hidden his displeasure over the Utah lawmakers' 2002 vote in
favor of constructing a permanent nuclear waste repository under
Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada.
Hatch and Bennett backed the Nevada dump after getting vague
assurances from the Bush administration that it would not
support temporary nuclear waste storage on the Goshute
Reservation in Utah if the Yucca project moved forward.
Reid has used the clout of his current post as minority
whip - second-in-command to Daschle - to curb spending on the
Yucca Mountain project, with the House and Senate versions of
the 2005 budget at an impasse because they vary by hundreds of
millions of dollars. The future of the Yucca dump also has been
cast into doubt by a federal court ruling that found the
Environmental Protection Agency must design the project to meet
safety standards for hundreds of thousands of years rather than
just 10,000 years, a requirement most lawmakers believe is
impossible to meet.
Hatch and Bennett downplay any grudge or potential payback
Reid has toward Utah for failing to join Nevada's fight against a
waste dump. But say the resentment has come up in negotiations
over a stalled proposal to allow the annexation of Wendover,
Utah, by West Wendover, Nev., and in discussions to create a
wilderness area on the Utah Test and Training Range to block rail
access to the Goshute site.
"He's a little irritated with the nuclear waste problem, but
other than that, Harry and I are really good friends and I
believe that will be advantageous to us," said Hatch. "I don't
think it's a slam dunk for Harry to be chosen, but I have to
think that would benefit Utah because he's from a neighboring
state."
Asked what his relationship with Reid is, Bennett replied,
"Good." Asked to factor in the Yucca Mountain vote, Bennett
said: "Still OK."
"Harry would be a much more effective leader than Daschle,"
said Bennett. "On our side of the aisle, we trust Harry."
Besides Reid's background with Utah - he went to college in
Cedar City and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints - the Nevada senator also is friends with the
family of Utah governor-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. Although Reid is
considered the front runner for the party leadership post, Sen.
Chris Dodd of Connecticut may also be a contender. Dodd is
married to Utah native Jackie Clegg, who used to work for Sen.
Jake Garn of Utah.
"We get along fine with Chris," said Bennett. "There's a
rumor that Hillary [Clinton, the New York senator] might come
forth also, and I think she would be very foolish if she did. If
she wants to be president in 2008, Bob Dole proved you can't do
both, but you can never tell."
© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
*****************************************************************
37 NWTRB Transcripts
[U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board]
Meeting Transcripts and Agendas
November 3, 2004
Note: This page provides a listing of meeting transcripts and
agendas available from this site with the most recent meeting
listed first. Transcripts of older meetings and minutes of the
Board's business meetings are available on request from NWTRB
office. Transcripts after June 2001 are in MS Word (.doc)
format; previous transcripts are in pdf format, which can be
read using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
October 13-14, 2004
October 13, 2004 Transcript
October 14, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Transportation Planning Panel Meeting
Salt Lake City, UT
+ Transportation Issues
September 20, 2004
September 20, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Fall 2004 Board Meeting
Las Vegas, NV
+ Total System Performance Assessment
May 18-19, 2004
May 18, 2004 Transcript
May 19, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Report submitted by EPRI on in-drift chemistry related to
corrosion Spring 2004 Board Meeting
Washington, DC
+ Programmatic Update
+ Corrosion during the thermal pulse
March 9-10, 2004
March 9, 2004 Transcript
March 10, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Materials submitted by M.D. Mifflin
Materials submitted by Tom McGowan
Consultant reports:
Report by Dr. F.W. Schwartz
Report by Rien van Genuchten Panel on the Natural System
Las Vegas, NV
+ Unsaturated Zone Fluid Flow and Radionuclide Transport
+ Saturated Zone Fluid Flow and Radionuclide Transport
January 21, 2004
January 21, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Panel on the Waste Management System
Las Vegas, NV
+ Transportation Strategic Planning Considerations
January 20, 2004
January 20, 2004 Transcript
Agenda
Presentations
Panel on the Engineered System
Las Vegas, NV
+ Project Update
+ Repository Design Update
September 16-17, 2003
September 16, 2003 Transcript
September 17, 2003 Transcript
Agenda
Materials submitted by Mel Gascoyne
Materials submitted by Jacob D. Paz
Meeting of the Full Board
Amargosa Valley, NV
+ Program Update and Project Overview
+ Flow and transport in the unsaturated and saturated zones
+ Updates on igneous issues
+ Updates on DOE's transportation activities
May 13-14, 2003
May 13, 2003 Transcript
May 14, 2003 Transcript
Agenda
Board consultant reports on Igneous Consequences Panel
Introduction
Letter report - Meghan Morrissey
Letter report - Derek Elsworth
Letter report - Melson
Appendix - Melson
Meeting of the Full Board
Washington, DC
+ Thermal Aspects of Yucca Mountain Repository Design
February 25, 2003
February 25, 2003 Transcript
Agenda
Panel on the Waste Management System
Las Vegas, NV
+ Waste Receipt
+ Transportation
+ Repository Operations
February 24, 2003
February 24 , 2003 Transcript
Agenda
Introduction to Reports on Seismic Issues
Letter report - Hendron
Letter report - McGarr
Letter report - Kaiser
Letter report - Veletsos
Panel on the Repository/Panel on Site Characterization
Las Vegas, NV
+ Seismic Issues
January 28, 2003
January 28, 2003 Transcript
Agenda
Meeting of the Full Board
Las Vegas, NV
+ Yucca Mountain Science Programs
+ Materials Testing
+ Barrier Analyses
September 10, 2002
September 10, 2002 Transcript
Swift attachment
Swift presentation
Agenda
Materials submitted by Brian O'Connell
Materials submitted by Joe Carson
Consultant reports on Igneous Consequences Peer Review Panel
Interim Report
Introduction
Letter report from Derek Elsworth
Letter report from William Melson
Letter report from Meghan Morrissey
Meeting of the Full Board
Las Vegas, NV
+ Yucca Mountain Science Programs
+ Barrier Analyses
May 7-8, 2002
May 7, 2002 Transcript
May 8, 2002 Transcript Agenda
Materials submitted by Brian O'Connell
Materials submitted by George Danko
Meeting of the Full Board
Washington, DC
+ Yucca Mountain Safety Case
+ Staged Repository Concepts
+ Corrosion Testing
January 29-30, 2002
January 29, 2002 Transcript
January 30, 2002 Transcript Agenda
Meeting of the Full Board
Pahrump, Nevada
+ Update on scientific studies
+ Hydrogeologic investigations
+ External reviews
September 10-12, 2001
September 10, 2001 Transcript
September 11, 2001 Transcript
September 12, 2001 Transcript
Agenda
Materials submitted by Mayor Oscar Goodman
Materials submitted by John Stuckless
Materials submitted by Tom McGowan September 10, 2001
Materials submitted by Tom McGowan September 11, 2001
Materials submitted by Jacob Paz
Reports on Igneous Consequences Models
Introduction
Letter Report - Derek Elsworth
Presentation - Derek Elsworth
Letter Report - William Melson
Letter Report - Meghan Morrissey
Presentation - Meghan Morrissey
Meeting of the Full Board
Las Vegas, NV
+ Status of DOE's efforts to characterize a site at
Yucca Mountain, Nevada
July 19-20, 2001
July 19 Transcript (400K)
July 20 Transcript (350K)
Agenda (150K - PDF)
Background on Environment (1.2M)
Background on Corrosion (217K)
Workshop Proceedings (2.4M)
Meeting of the Panel on the Repository
Arlington, Virginia
+ International Workshop on Long-Term Extrapolation of
Passive Behavior
June 20-21, 2001
June 20, 2001
June 21, 2001
Agenda
Materials submitted by Tom McGowan
Joint Meeting of Performance Assessment and Repository Panels
Las Vegas, NV
+ Supplemental Science and Performance Analyses
May 8-9, 2001
May 8, 2001
May 9, 2001
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Arlington, VA
+ Scientific and Technical Issues
April 13, 2001
April 13, 2001
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Arlington, VA
+ Developing Multiple Lines of Evidence
January 30-31, 2001
January 30
January 31
Agenda
Materials submitted by Donald Baker
Meeting of the Full Board
Amargosa Valley, NV
+ Scientific and Technical Issues
August 1-2, 2000
August 1
August 2
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Carson City, NV
+ Scientific and Technical Issues
+ Total System Performance Assessment
July 10, 2000
July 10
Agenda Meeting of the Panel on the Waste Management System
Idaho Falls, ID
+ Spent fuel transportation
May 1, 2000
May 1
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Pahrump, NV
+ Repository Design
+ Geochemistry
January 25-26, 2000
January 25
January 26
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Las Vegas, NV
+ Addressing Uncertainty
+ Repository Safety Strategy
+ Scientific Programs Update
September 14-15, 1999
September 14
September 15
Agenda Meeting of the Full Board
Alexandria, VA
+ Repository Safety Strategy
Top
*****************************************************************
38 PE.com : PERCHLORATE: The companies are seeking untainted supplies from
San Bernardino County.
San Bernardino County Inland Southern California
12:53 AM PST on Thursday, November 4, 2004
By K. FRANKE SANTOS / The Press-Enterprise
Two water companies that say the county's landfill is responsible
for their tainted wells postponed a request that the county
replace the perchlorate-contaminated water.
Fontana Water Co. and West Valley Water District asked the Santa
Ana Regional Water Quality Control board to order San Bernardino
County to replace their water in September.
The two water companies allege that the contamination that
threatens a high-production well in Rialto also affects their
wells and that the county should pay by replacing the water.
But the companies need more time and data to prepare their case,
said Rick Ruiz, spokesman for the two water companies.
The request will not be brought up at the water board's next
meeting Dec. 17, he said. It may come up early next year, he
said.
Last week, the county took samples from its 28 functioning
monitoring wells that surround the Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill
in northern Rialto.
The companies are waiting for that data, which should be
available in about two weeks, said Kurt Berchtold, the water
board's assistant executive officer.
A perchlorate plume in the city's aquifer is believed to
originate from land adjacent to the county's landfill property.
The board would have heard the water companies' request on Friday
during its regular meeting, but in an Oct. 22 letter, attorneys
for the companies asked for more time.
The burden should be on the county to prove that it didn't
contaminate Fontana and West Valley's wells, instead of vice
versa, Ruiz said.
"We know (the county) contaminated some portion of the
groundwater basin ... so it's time for them to step up," said
Anthony "Butch" Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water
District.
The county is cleaning up other contaminants that are frequently,
but not always, found along with perchlorate contamination.
"We've been probably the most proactive agency out there, really
trying to get a better understanding of what's going on," said
Rex Richardson of the county's Solid Waste Management Division.
Richardson said that according to a presentation given by a
hydrologist, the contamination coming from the county's site
could not be the same as the contamination in Fontana's wells
because of a fault line.
Ruiz disagreed, saying water can flow over a fault line.
Reach K. Franke Santos at (909) 806-3065 or fsantos@pe.com
[fsantos@pe.com] More headlines...
© 2004 Belo Interactive Inc.
[http://www.belointeractive.com]
*****************************************************************
39 WIVB TV4: Train Derailment Stalls Cargo Transfer
Buffalo, NY -
November 4, 2004
(West Valley, NY, November 4, 2004) - - A train derailment has
stalled the transfer of some very heavy radioactive cargo at West
Valley.
It happened while crews were trying to move a 54-ton melter that
was used to mix highly radioactive liquid waste with glass.
One of four wheels from a rail cart left the track inside a
shielded building.
A spokesman says there is no risk to the outside environment.
Engineers hope to have the hot cargo back on track by Saturday.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2000 -
2004 WorldNow and WIVB. All Rights Reserved.
*****************************************************************
40 KLAS: The Political Future Of Yucca Mountain
November 4, 2004
Brian Allen, Reporter
Senator Harry Reid
(Nov. 4) -- The changing political winds in Washington may
partially turn the tide against the Yucca Mountain Repository.
The Bush Administration supports a plan to store nuclear waste 90
miles north of Las Vegas. But a twist of fate may give Nevada
more power to fight the project.
John Kerry said if he was elected president he would stop Yucca
Mountain in its tracks. But now that President Bush has won
reelection, what does that mean for the project? It may not be
the smooth road you would envision.
It's too early to say if John Kerry winning Clark County in
Tuesday's election can be connected to Yucca Mountain. Former
Nevada Governor Bob List doesn't think so. "It was important to
some people but clearly not an issue that had overriding
significance in how they cast their votes."
List supports the project. So does President Bush, claiming the
nation's nuclear waste must be stored in one area for homeland
security. "The process is going to go forward on a pretty rapid
pace."
List tells Eyewitness News he's recently discussed the project
with the White House, so has Peggy Maze Johnson. "I just got a
letter Monday from the White House." Johnson heads up the
anti-Yucca organization Citizens Alert, and she is fighting the
administration tooth and nail. "There is no sound science the
mountain is not safe."
The Department of Energy believes the mountain is safe, but
acknowledged in August more safety questions needed answering.
President Bush wants to push ahead. It may be Harry Reid who
slows him down. "I think that he's going to be able to be even
more effective in holding back Yucca Mountain," Johnson said.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota
lost reelection. The front-runner to replace him is Harry Reid.
As a senate leader, Reid could seriously diminish federal funding
for the project.
"Harry has never been able to muster a majority of the senate to
stop the project." Former Governor List likes Harry Reid, but
questions how you slam the brakes on a federal project 24 years
in the making. "You don't. You really can't."
The Department of Energy declined to comment for this story. A
spokeswoman for Senator Reid acknowledges the challenge Yucca
Mountain presents. In the meantime, the fight continues -- state
attorneys will argue in Washington this January that the
Department of Energy is withholding money meant to help the state
plan for the repository.
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2000 - 2004
WorldNow and KLAS. All Rights Reserved. For more information on
*****************************************************************
41 Las Vegas SUN: Bush win gives boost to plan for nuclear waste
dump in Nevada
Today: November 04, 2004 at 15:33:51 PST
By KEN RITTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Opponents of a national nuclear waste dump in
Nevada lost their chance to put an ally in the White House with
President Bush's defeat of Democratic Sen. John Kerry.
"If you went into the polls and your top priority was, 'I do not
want nuclear waste in Nevada,' you would have had to vote for
Kerry," said Judy Treichel, a longtime foe of the Yucca Mountain
project. "Apparently there were other issues that people thought
were more important."
Bush carried Nevada by 2 percentage points after facing heavy
Democratic criticism that he reneged on a 2000 campaign pledge
when he approved the plan to entomb 77,000 tons of the nation's
most radioactive waste 90 miles from Las Vegas.
Opinions differed on whether he was hurt by the criticism that
he broke a promise to let "sound science" dictate the
repository's fate when he approved the site with 293 scientific
questions left unanswered.
During four trips to Nevada, Bush defended his 2002 decision and
accused Kerry of turning the issue into "a political poker
chip."
Kerry bluntly promised that Yucca Mountain would not open on his
watch. Top Democrats including former President Bill Clinton
traveled to Nevada and cast the race a referendum on the
project.
"It turned out the wrong way for them," said John Kane, senior
vice president of governmental affairs at the Nuclear Energy
Institute, an industry lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
"We believe the people of Nevada realize this project is going
to happen, and, in fact, are focused on other issues," Kane
said.
In a statewide exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and
TV networks, voters cited terrorism, Iraq and moral values as
the top campaign issues.
But 66 percent also called Yucca Mountain a somewhat or very
important factor in their vote for president.
Kerry drew 73 percent of those who called it "very important."
But Bush got most of those who saw it as less important or not
an issue at all.
"I guess the influence wasn't as big as I thought it would be,"
said Treichel, executive director of the Nuclear Waste Task
Force in Las Vegas. "I guess I have to get over gnashing my
teeth and being upset."
Nevada is pressing lawsuits, hoping to stop the government from
moving highly radioactive waste from commercial and military
sites in 39 states to Yucca Mountain beginning in 2010.
The state's fight might get a boost if Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
wins a bid to become the next Senate minority leader as
expected.
"Yucca is as bad an idea today as it was yesterday or before the
election," Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen said. "But Sen. Reid's
job is a lot harder now, with how the election turned out."
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she expected the Bush
administration would seize on the Election Day results as
justification for the Yucca Mountain project.
She cited an October survey done for the Nevada's anti-Yucca
state Agency for Nuclear Projects that said three-fourths of
Nevadans oppose the project.
"It's unfortunate that we sent this mixed message back to
Washington," Berkley said. "I believe George Bush will interpret
it as a mandate and do whatever he wants."
---
On the Net:
Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects:
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste
[http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: http://www.nrc.gov
[http://www.nrc.gov]
Yucca Mountain project: http://www.ymp.gov [http://www.ymp.gov]
Nuclear Energy Institute: http://www.nei.org
[http://www.nei.org]
--
*****************************************************************
42 Investor's Business Daily: DOE gives $13M to nuclear consortium seeking license
[http://www.investors.com/
By Stephanie I. Cohen
Last Updated: 11/4/2004 6:02:26 PM
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - The Energy Department announced Thursday it
doled out $13 million to two industry groups with the hopes of
jump-starting a licensing process that could lead to the
construction of two nuclear power plants.
A nuclear plant has not been built in the U.S. in more than 20
years. The industry faced intense scrutiny following the 1979
accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear site in Pennsylvania.
The Energy Department awarded $9 million to a consortium being
led by Dominion Resources (D) and $4 million to a groups led by
NuStart Energy.
Both industry groups will test a new regulatory process that
allows companies to apply for a single license for both the
construction and operation of an advanced nuclear reactor. The
licensing process was developed by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
The projects are part of the Nuclear Power 2010 program, which
was announced by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in February
2002 to give a financial boost to nuclear energy projects.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., a strong proponent of nuclear energy
and chairman of the Senate Energy Appropriation Committee, said
in a statement he was "pleased that [Energy Department] has made
funds we appropriated last year available to the consortia and
has agreed to share these costs through 2011."
The chairman also said he will "ensure enough funding in those
out-years to successfully launch these projects."
The Dominion-led group is seeking to build an Atomic Energy of
Canada Advanced CANDU Reactor at a site in Louisa County, Va. as
early as 2014, the energy department said in a statement.
This consortium includes AECL and its U.S. subsidiary AECL
Technologies, Bechtel Power Corp., and Hitachi America (HIT).
The consortium being led by NuStart Energy includes Exelon
Generation (EXC), Entergy Nuclear (ETR), Southern Company (SO),
Constellation Generation Group (CEG), Duke Energy (DKE),
Tennessee Valley Authority, Florida Power &Light Co. (FPL),
Progress Energy (PGN), and EDF International North America.
The consortium is interested in constructing a Westinghouse
Advanced Passive Pressurized Water Reactor or a General Electric
Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor, the Energy Department
said. The consortium plans to select the reactor and a site by
2007 and could have a new nuclear power plant in operation by
2014.
There are 103 nuclear power plants in the U.S. that account for
20 percent of U.S. electric generating capacity.
© 1997-2004 MarketWatch.com, Inc.
Disclaimer. See our Privacy Policy - updated 4/3/03. CBS and the
CBS "eye device" are registered trademarks of CBS Broadcasting,
Inc.
*****************************************************************
43 PRN: DOE Selects NuStart as an Award Candidate
/> [http://www.prnewswire.com/] [ /]
TITLE="http://www.entergy-nuclear.com">
[http://www.entergy-nuclear.com]
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- America needs a plentiful
supply of electricity at an affordable cost and with a very low
environmental impact -- and nuclear energy is one of the few
options available to achieve all three ends, the president of
NuStart Energy Development LLC said today.
Her comments came as the Department of Energy today announced
it has selected NuStart Energy Development LLC's proposal as an
award candidate to receive 50-50 matching funds under its Nuclear
Power 2010 program. The program is part of an overall DOE
strategy to ensure energy stability and fuel diversity by
encouraging power generation advances in nuclear, coal, wind and
solar.
"Nuclear is an expandable and dependable source of power
generation with minimal environmental impact and very stable
production costs. It has the added advantage of increasing
America's energy independence and energy security," said Marilyn
Kray, NuStart Energy president.
The NuStart Energy consortium includes nine nuclear operating
companies that operate 60 nuclear reactors -- 58 percent of the
country's 103 nuclear power plants. Reactor vendors GE and
Westinghouse are also participants in the consortium, making 11
companies in all.
"Twenty-seven new nuclear plants are being built in 10
countries around the world today but none are in the U.S.," Ms.
Kray said. "And almost all of them are using American nuclear
reactor technology as their foundation. We need to ensure that
nuclear generation continues its current contribution of
providing 20 percent of electricity needs in the U.S.
"NuStart's objective is to keep the nuclear option open. We
want to address the challenges facing new nuclear investment and
make nuclear a viable alternative for future generation
development decisions. In part, this will be done by completing
the design detail for the selected reactor technologies, and
demonstrating that a construction and operating license (COL) can
be obtained without undue delay and at a predictable cost."
DOE's selection of NuStart means the two parties now will
begin negotiating a Cooperative Agreement outlining a detailed
program of engineering and licensing work and the cost sharing
involved. Those talks are expected to take several weeks.
The formation of the NuStart consortium and the willingness
of the participants to provide 50-50 matching funds demonstrate
the nuclear power industry's commitment to nuclear energy.
NuStart Energy will be completing for the first time the
detailed engineering design work needed for a comprehensive COL
application. While none of the consortium companies has committed
to build a new nuclear plant, if the NRC grants the license, any
qualified company or group of companies could then be authorized
by NuStart to use the license to build a new nuclear plant.
Such a decision would be based on many factors late this
decade, including power market conditions and projections,
competing fuel prices, the regulatory environment at the time,
the status of permanent used fuel storage and other factors.
Members of NuStart Energy consortium are:
* Constellation Energy, Baltimore, MD
* Duke Energy, Charlotte, NC
* EDF International North America, Washington, DC, the U.S.
subsidiary of
the large French electric utility
* Entergy Nuclear, Jackson, MS
* Exelon Generation, Philadelphia, PA
* Florida Power & Light Company, Juno Beach, FL
* Progress Energy, Raleigh, NC
* Southern Company, Atlanta, GA
* Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, TN
* GE Energy, Atlanta
* Westinghouse Electric Co., Pittsburgh, PA
SOURCE Entergy Corporation
[http://www.entergy-nuclear.com]
[http://www.prnewswire.com/media/]
*****************************************************************
44 WVLT VOLUNTEER: Y-12 officials seek OK to replace warhead manufacturing facility
TV Knoxville, TN:
November 4, 2004
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. The Energy Department has asked for preliminary
approval to replace the nuclear warhead manufacturing operation
at the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge.
The project could take a decade and cost a (b) billion
dollars.The federal manager of Y-12, Bill Brumley, says there's
solid support within the National Nuclear Security Administration
for the project.
The first stage, known as Critical Decision Zero, establishes a
"mission need" for the project.Y-12 is a vital part of the
nation's nuclear defense, manufacturing parts for every weapon in
the U-S arsenal. It specializes in so-called secondaries -- the
second stage of nuclear warheads.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All
[http://www.worldnow.com] All content © Copyright 2001 -
2004 WorldNow and WVLT VOLUNTEER TV,
*****************************************************************
45 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: State looks into how to enforce Hanford initiative
[seattlepi.com]
Thursday, November 4, 2004
By SHANNON DININNY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
State officials are reviewing a voter-approved initiative that
calls for limiting the amount of nuclear waste stored at the
Hanford site, trying to determine what will be required to
enforce it.
Opponents of the initiative contend its future remains in doubt
despite overwhelming support from voters Tuesday.
The 586-square-mile Hanford Nuclear Reservation was created in
World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, which
produced the atomic bomb.
It remains the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, with 53
million gallons of highly radioactive waste stored in underground
tanks and 75,000 55-gallon drums of transuranic, radioactive and
hazardous waste buried onsite. Transuranic waste is highly
radioactive and can take thousands of years or more to decay to
safe levels.
Initiative 297, approved by a more than 2-1 ratio, blocks the
U.S. Department of Energy from sending more waste to Hanford
until the waste already there is cleaned up. The measure takes
effect in 30 days.
Officials with the state Department of Ecology were meeting
yesterday to analyze the initiative and figure out how to enforce
it, said agency spokeswoman Sheryl Hutchison.
The Energy Department took no official position on the initiative
but was also studying the measure and evaluating its options,
spokeswoman Colleen French said.
If the federal agency fights the initiative, the U.S. Justice
Department would handle the court case.
"Legal challenges are inevitable," said Grant Nelson, government
affairs director for the Association of Washington Business. That
group, essentially the state's chamber of commerce, opposed the
measure.
A lengthy court battle could delay cleanup and jeopardize about
$2 billion in annual federal funding for work at the contaminated
site, Nelson said.
"I think it's safe to say the federal government will not want to
put its limited available resources toward a project that is now
clouded," he said.
Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America Northwest,
said initiative supporters will mount a vigorous defense if the
measure goes to court.
The Seattle-based Hanford watchdog group sponsored the initiative
and covered most of its $1 million cost.
[Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA
98119 (206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
Send comments to [newmedia@seattlepi.com]
*****************************************************************
46 [du-list] Fw: DU in the News - 4th Nov 04
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:40:20 -0800
Hopefully with live links
Wednesday, November 3, 2004 9:45 PM PST
Sarin 'Gulf war syndrome cause'
BBC News Wed, 03 Nov 2004 10:41 AM PST
Gulf war syndrome may have been caused by exposure to the
nerve gas sarin, according to reports.
Gulf war syndrome linked to sarin
DeHavilland Wed, 03 Nov 2004 4:08 PM PST
Gulf war syndrome has been linked to exposure to the nerve gas
sarin, used by Saddam Hussein in 1991, according to researchers in America.
US Election Outcome Impacts Europe
Deutsche Welle Wed, 03 Nov 2004 11:50 AM PST
A day after the US poll, DW-WORLD readers comment on Bush's
re-election and predict a rocky future road for international relations.
The following comments reflect the views of our readers as received so far.
USEC Inc. Reports Results for 3rd Quarter 2004; $3.4 Million
Quarterly Loss in Line with Guidance; USEC Increases
Business Wire Wed, 03 Nov 2004 2:01 PM PST
BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2004--USEC Inc.
(NYSE:USU) today reported financial results for the third quarter ended
September 30, 2004 of a net loss of $3.4 million or $.04 per share compared
to net income of $3.4 million or $.04 per share in the same quarter last
year.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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47 [du-list] DU in the news - 5th Nov 04
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 2004 15:41:27 -0800
>
> Thursday, November 4, 2004 11:27 AM PST
> Your Keyword News Alert for [depleted uranium]
> matched the following stories:
>
> CNews, Thu, 04 Nov 2004 10:16 AM PST
> Britain, wary of Gulf War illness, tests health of troops returning from
Iraq http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2004/11/04/700580-ap.html
> LONDON (AP) - Britain is testing the health of thousands of soldiers who
fought in Iraq, defence officials said Thursday, as research into Gulf War
illnesses continues.
>
> Bloomberg.com, Wed, 03 Nov 2004 10:22 PM PST
> WMC Expects Other Mining Companies to Consider Bids (Update3)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000081&sid=aOBnJk_bcCe0&refer=austr
alia
> Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- WMC Resources Ltd., which rejected a A$7.4 billion
($5.5 billion) approach from Xstrata Plc, is probably a target for other
miners, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Brook said. It hasn't received other
approaches for information.
>
> DeHavilland, Wed, 03 Nov 2004 4:08 PM PST
> Gulf war syndrome linked to sarin
http://www.dehavilland.co.uk/webhost.asp?wci=default&wcp=NationalNewsStoryPa
ge&ItemID=6092242&ServiceID=8&filterid=10&searchid=8
> Gulf war syndrome has been linked to exposure to the nerve gas sarin, used
by Saddam Hussein in 1991, according to researchers in America.
>
> Deutsche Welle, Wed, 03 Nov 2004 11:50 AM PST
> US Election Outcome Impacts Europe
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1384561,00.html
> A day after the US poll, DW-WORLD readers comment on Bush's re-election
and predict a rocky future road for international relations. The following
comments reflect the views of our readers as received so far.
>
> Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance, Wed, 03 Nov 2004 1:44 PM PST
> USEC Inc. Reports Results for 3rd Quarter 2004
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041103/35785_1.html
> USEC Inc. today reported financial results for the third quarter ended
September 30, 2004 of a net loss of $3.4 million or $.04 per share compared
to net income of $3.4 million or $.04 per share in the same quarter last
year.
>
> See more news stories that match your keyword at:
> http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=&p=depleted+uranium
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