***************************************************************** 11/07/04 **** RADIATION BULLETIN(RADBULL) **** VOL 12.266 ***************************************************************** RADBULL IS PRODUCED BY THE ABALONE ALLIANCE CLEARINGHOUSE ***************************************************************** Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject line and first line of body NUCLEAR POLICY 1 San Francisco Chronicle OpEd Iran & Nukes 2 BBC: 'Agreement' in Iran nuclear talks 3 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Says Provisional Nuke Pact Reached 4 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. Researched, Simulated Nuclear Strike 5 Interfax: North Korea in favor of bilateral talks with U.S. 6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Seoul, Washington Reaffirm Dedication to 7 Korea Times: Seoul Awaits Pyongyang's Return 8 US: Wisconsin State Journal: State needs better mix of energy 9 US: Tallahassee Democrat: City must diversify its energy supply 10 WorldNetDaily: Bye-bye, ElBaradei NUCLEAR REACTORS 11 [NukeNet] Russian Nuclear Reactor Restarted 12 US: [toeslist] BP - Enron II 13 US: DECATUR DAILY: TVA hurts credibility when officials cover up 14 Bellona: Shutdowns at Ukrainian reactors 15 US: toledo blade: Fermi II begins outage for refueling, maintenance 16 US: Brattleboro Reformer: NRC: Plant can handle power boost 17 US: Times Argus: Yankee problems detailed NRC says issues won't prev 18 Japan Times: Defense Agency says SDF cut would put reactors in dange 19 ITAR-TASS: Balakovo nuclear power station resumes working NUCLEAR SAFETY 20 US: [du-list] military uranyl nitrate inhalation 21 US: Seattle Times: Downwinders win ruling on emissions 22 US: Bradenton Herald: Beryllium risk may have spread 23 US: Arizona Republic: Gulf Illness forces retirement NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE 24 BBC: Protester dies under atomic train 25 US: 26 Las Vegas SUN: Brian Greenspun: Were we thinking? 27 Las Vegas SUN: Opinion: The Status Quo Election 28 US: Tri-City Herald: Nuclear waste reclassifying ruling reversed 29 RGJ: Nevadans still oppose Yucca dump 30 AFP: Thousands demonstrate nuclear waste shipment to German dump 31 Deutsche Welle: Protestor Killed in Castor Transport NUCLEAR WEAPONS US DEPT. OF ENERGY 32 [du-list] Oak Ridge People - Peace Walk to UN '05 33 chillicothe gazette: Piketon plant gets NRC report card - 34 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Court overturns ruling on Hanford waste 35 ABQjournal: EPA Opening Agreement to Public 36 Tri-City Herald: Some Hanford builders feel hands are tied 37 Amarillo Globe: Lightning protection lacking at Pantex OTHER NUCLEAR 38 Korea Herald: IAEA team completes nuclear experiment inspection ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** FULL NEWS STORIES ***************************************************************** ***************************************************************** 1 San Francisco Chronicle OpEd Iran & Nukes Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 03:45:02 EST San Francisco Chronicle          www.sfgate.com        Return to regular view ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contesting Iran's nuclear future - Bennett Ramberg Friday, November 5, 2004 Iran continues to challenge international efforts to hold it accountable for its suspicious nuclear activities. Later this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors will meet to address the issue against the backdrop of growing fear that time to contain the country's nuclear ambitions is running out. This leaves little doubt that Iran will be high on the Bush administration's foreign-policy agenda in the months to come. To date, the IAEA has relied on public shame to force Iran's compliance. In the past two years, agency inspectors laid bare much of Tehran's nuclear program. But suspicions remain that Iran's ruling mullahs have not revealed all. Should Iran continue to waffle, the international community must decide if it must take more aggressive steps to force the revolutionary state to accede. The following options suggest that there is no clear path. The most benign approach would be to continue current IAEA efforts. Arguably, agency inspections and quarterly public reports will, in time, embarrass Iran to resist the nuclear-weapons temptation. This butts against two facts, however. First, suspicions persist that Iran has not come clean about all its nuclear activities. Second, Iran's enrichment and reprocessing endeavors make no sense apart from nuclear weapons. For example, the solitary power reactor Tehran hopes to initiate in 2005 or 2006 does not justify the economic investment in facilities to recycle nuclear fuel into weapons-grade material. Believing that diplomacy had not run its course, Britain, France and Germany opened a dialogue with Iran outside the IAEA framework. In October 2003, the three European powers sent their foreign ministers to Tehran. The diplomats offered economic carrots and peaceful nuclear-energy assistance as a quid pro quo for Iran to halt its developing enrichment program. The meeting prompted cautious optimism: Tehran announced that it would suspend the manufacture of nuclear centrifuges. Nine months later, the mullahs reversed themselves. Chagrined, the Europeans renewed the dialogue. The Iranians stonewalled. They declared that "no country has the right to deprive us of nuclear technology." The Europeans remain undaunted. They continue to try. Today, for instance, they are sitting down with the Iranians in Paris, where they will likely continue to dangle economic incentives in exchange for Tehran's promise of a halt to Iran's enrichment program. Tehran's probable, coy response: It might suspend -- again -- its enrichment activities, but just for a short time, to give diplomacy a chance. Unimpressed, the Bush administration remains convinced that Iran is using diplomacy to buy time for its nuclear ambitions. For months, the administration has pushed the IAEA to declare Tehran in violation of its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. The result would place the matter before the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. But this is another path to nowhere. Iran's critical vulnerability to sanctions -- reliance on the hard currency earned through oil exports -- is a double-edged sword. The United States is unlikely to generate Security Council support for measures that will restrict the already tight oil market. Washington also is stuck on its own petard -- the Iraq WMD intelligence debacle. In the absence of a nuclear weapons "smoking gun" -- certified by the IAEA -- the Security Council is unlikely to issue more than a rhetorical slap on the wrist that calls upon the mullahs to reconsider their transgressions. Among the dwindling options is confrontation. One option would galvanize members of the Proliferation Security Initiative -- which includes a core group of a dozen or so nations that have agreed to intercept WMD contraband -- to isolate Iran until it disgorges its nuclear weapons capacity. However, building the PSI into a serious new "alliance of the willing," in the absence of a clear and present danger, is unlikely. Then there is military action. Only military occupation can guarantee Iran's nuclear disarmament; limited military strikes will not destroy hidden nuclear facilities. But, in the Iraq aftermath, either option would be a hard sell to the American public. On the other hand, Israel, which considers Iran a mortal enemy, does not require a sales job. Jerusalem repeatedly has declared that it will not allow Iran a nuclear weapons capacity. But Israel is in no better position than the United States to destroy the program. This leaves two factors that may impact Iran's nuclear future. One is peaceful regime change. Although there is some hope that a new generation of Iranians -- who might be more nonproliferation compliant -- will replace the mullahs, there appears to be little prospect in the short term. In time, impetus could come from a thriving democratic Iraq. Unfortunately, Baghdad's political future will not be resolved anytime soon. On the flip side, the United States and its allies could concede that little can be done to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions. By accepting this prospect, the challenge will be to keep the nuclear peace. The solution must include an explicit warning to Tehran from Washington and Jerusalem: Any Iranian nuclear threat or act -- or any complicity in a terrorist nuclear act -- would result in the elimination of the revolutionary regime by any and all means. The time to issue this warning is now, before the mullahs realize their nuclear ambitions. The result might have a sobering impact as Iran weighs a nuclear armed future. Bennett Ramberg served in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Page B - 9 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/05/EDGPN9LHJR1.DTL ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ ***************************************************************** 2 BBC: 'Agreement' in Iran nuclear talks Last Updated: Sunday, 7 November, 2004 [Preliminary installation of a turbo generator at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant] Iran denies claims that it wants to build nuclear weapons Iran says it has reached a preliminary agreement with Britain, France and Germany to address concerns about its nuclear programme. Details of the accord reached in Paris have not been revealed but an Iranian negotiator said fundamental principals had been agreed. Europe has called on Iran to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities. Iran denies it has a secret weapons programme, but is threatened with UN action unless it stops its activities. 'Nothing settled' "Negotiations were very hard and complicated but we reached a preliminary agreement on an expertise level," said Hossein Mousavian, head of Iran's delegation in Paris. "It is a framework that contains the viewpoints of all sides." He said the draft had to be approved by the capitals of all four countries involved in the negotiations before it could be made public. It is still unclear whether the two sides have resolved serious differences. Europe wanted Iran to suspend enrichment of uranium in return for a trade deal, and an opportunity to buy nuclear fuel. Iran, however, repeatedly said it would never give up its right to master nuclear technology, though it did indicate it might consider a short-term suspension of enrichment. A European Union source told Reuters news agency that "nothing is settled" and that the discussions "were difficult, very difficult". BBC correspondent in Tehran Frances Harrison says given the lack of consensus in the international community about how to tackle Iran, there has been pressure on the Europeans to keep the process of dialogue going. They had threatened to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council, but China and Russia indicated they would not back such moves - and they both have veto votes in the Security Council. ***************************************************************** 3 Las Vegas SUN: Iran Says Provisional Nuke Pact Reached Today: November 07, 2004 at 2:53:54 PST ASSOCIATED PRESS TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - 1106iran-nuke Iran and European nations reached a provisional agreement over Iran's nuclear program at talks aimed at avoiding a U.N. showdown, but all parties involved still must approve it, Iran's chief negotiator said Sunday. The agreement worked out with Britain, France and Germany could be finalized in the next few days, Hossein Mousavian told state-run Iranian television from Paris, where talks wrapped up Saturday. He said the parties held 22 hours of negotiations. "They were very difficult and complicated negotiations, but we reached a preliminary agreement at the expert level," Mousavian said. "It contains the basic viewpoints of the two sides. The four countries are to take this to their capitals (for final approval)." Mousavian said he was optimistic the preliminary agreement would be approved and made official in the next few days. -- ***************************************************************** 4 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: U.S. Researched, Simulated Nuclear Strikes on North Korea Updated Nov.7,2004 16:35 KST It has been revealed that the United States researched scenarios in which it used 30 nuclear weapons in the event of a North Korean invasion of South Korea. It also conducted training exercises in which aircraft dropped mock nuclear warheads in preparation for a worst-case emergency on the Korean Peninsula. In particular, it was revealed the U.S. learned of North Korea¡¯s nuclear development program through satellite surveillance in 1982, 3 years before North Korea joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Up till now, it was not known that the U.S. had been aware of facilities in North Korea where nuclear weapons development could take place since the 1980s. These shocking facts were reported Sunday in a special feature by Japan¡¯s Kyodo News, quoting secret government and CIA documents declassified in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act at the request of a U.S. anti-nuclear environmental protection group and declassified documents obtained by civilian research institutes. ***************************************************************** 5 Interfax: North Korea in favor of bilateral talks with U.S. Interfax.com Text version Site map Nov 6 2004 5:18PM BEIJING. Nov 6 (Interfax-China) - Pyongyang believes bilateral talks between North Korea and the United States would be the best way to seek a solution to international problems caused by North Korean nuclear programs, a North Korean diplomatic source said on Saturday. The source told Interfax that North Korea and the United States would then be able to come to terms on 90% of their points of dispute. He pointed out that bilateral U.S.-North Korean talks had been proposed in the election program of John Kerry, who lost Tuesday's U.S. presidential election to incumbent president George W. Bush. The source accused the United States of taking advantage of the current six-nation negotiation format to shift part of its responsibility for unsolved problems onto other negotiators. That, he said, explained Bush's championship of the six-party format. The negotiators are, beside North Korea and the United States, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia. The source also poured cold water on Chinese appeals that the fourth round of six-nation talks, which was scheduled for September 2004 but was canceled after North Korea accused the United States of a hostile policy toward Pyongyang, should be held before the end of 2004. China takes the line that the fourth round "should take place as soon as possible, in November or before the end of the year," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said on Tuesday. "As soon as possible - that's our position," she told a briefing. The North Korean source said Zhang's statement was premature. [KP ASIA EMRG DIP AER US CN KR JP RU EUROPE EEU] as © 1991-2004 Interfax ***************************************************************** 6 Korea: Digital Chosunilbo: Seoul, Washington Reaffirm Dedication to Resolving Nuclear Updated Nov.7,2004 13:55 KST President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush vowed to press ahead with multilateral efforts to coax North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. They concurred on the nuclear issue over a telephone conversation in which Mr. Roh also congratulated the U.S. leader on his re-election. Reaffirming their dedication to regional stability, President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to seek an early resumption of six-party dialogue to resolve nuclear concerns on the Korean peninsula. In a telephone conversation Friday night local time, Mr Roh congratulated the U.S. leader on winning his second-term in office, adding that the result was tangible proof of the public's favorable evaluation of his leadership. Briefing reporters following the exchange, presidential spokesperson Kim Jong-min also revealed President Roh's proposal for renewed bilateral efforts to tackle the nuclear issue diplomatically was well-received by Mr. Bush. The U.S. President reportedly emphasized the importance of a joint approach to convincing North Korea to surrender its nuclear ambitions through multilateral negotiations. The discussions also involving China, Japan and Russia are currently at a standstill with North Korea refusing to participate, citing the Bush administration's hostility toward Pyongyang. Mr. Roh and Mr. Bush are poised to meet for talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Chile later this month. Arirang TV ***************************************************************** 7 Korea Times: Seoul Awaits Pyongyang's Return Hankooki.com > The Korea Times Seoul Awaits Pyongyang's Turnaround By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea is waiting for North Korea's return to the negotiation table as it tries to build up closer coordination with the United States and Japan for an early resumption of the stalled six-party nuclear talks. Seoul and Tokyo agreed in their foreign ministers' talks on Saturday to try to restart the stalled six-party process concerning Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, urging the North to come back to the table ``unconditionally by the end of this year.'' South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun also asked U.S. President George W. Bush to make his utmost efforts to bring an early, peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff, when he made a telephone call Friday night to congratulate Bush on his reelection. ``We'll now have to listen to the North's response,'' a Seoul diplomat, involved in the six-party talks, told The Korea Times. ``What's important at the moment is North Korea's position. We expect to hear from the North through its ally, China.'' In its first response to the outcome of the Nov. 2 U.S. election, Pyongyang said last week it will not return to the six-party nuclear talks unless there are ``material changes to U.S. policies'' in the second-term Bush administration. But Seoul officials believe the North, despite the usual rhetoric, might soon come back to the talks after reshaping its negotiation strategies, with which it is expected to try to wangle compensation from the U.S. if a face-saving exit is provided. ``North Korea might take its foot off the brake as the traffic signal has now changed,'' the official said. Chung Dong-young, unification minister, also said on Friday that ``North Korea is showing signs of changing after the U.S. election,'' hinting at the possible restoration of the inter-Korean relations that have been left somewhat strained since July. In a somewhat different vein, however, Japanese media reported that Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura talked about the possibility of economic sanctions against North Korea while meeting with President Roh, Saturday. He reportedly said the Japanese public believes Tokyo should impose economic sanctions on Pyongyang if it fails to show sincerity in talks to resolve the kidnapping of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the past few decades. ``We will address the public's concerns after closely watching the working-level meeting in Pyongyang on Nov. 9 (on the kidnapping issue),'' he was quoted as telling Roh. The Roh administration opposes economic sanctions or any other kind of hard-line pressure on the North under its policy of engagement with Pyongyang. Japanese media reported Machimura's remarks represented the differences between Seoul and Tokyo, with the former stressing dialogue with Pyongyang and the latter ready to take a tougher policy toward the Kim Jong-il regime if dialogue did not go as planned. North Korea and the U.S., along with South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, agreed in June to hold a fourth round of six-party talks by the end of September. But the new round of talks never took place with Pyongyang appearing to stall while it waited to see who won the U.S. presidential race. The nuclear crisis began in October 2002 when U.S. officials claimed North Korea had admitted to pursuing a secret uranium-enrichment program. North Korea now denies having such a program, and has demanded energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for freezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms program. The U.S. says North Korea may have enough fissile material to produce between two and five nuclear weapons. Pyongyang has said the U.S. must drop what it calls a ``hostile'' policy toward it before the talks can resume. Roh will have an opportunity to discuss the nuclear issue with Bush when they meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Chile this month, while he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in a summit in mid-December. jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr 11-07-2004 16:35 ***************************************************************** 8 Wisconsin State Journal: State needs better mix of energy 11:27 pm 11/06/04 Most Wisconsin homeowners are likely to see their heating bills jump by 25 percent or so this winter, thanks to a sharp increase in the cost of natural gas. The state should treat the higher heating costs as a warning about energy policy. To secure an affordable, reliable energy supply, Wisconsin will need to increase the diversity of the state's energy mix. Toward that end, three policies should be paramount. • Remain open to the construction of coal- fired power plants. • End the state's moratorium on nuclear power plant construction. • Boost the use of wind power. The link between higher heating bills and energy diversity is important to understand. A chief reason for the big increase in heating costs is the rising demand for natural gas from the electricity-generation industry. Traditionally in Wisconsin, coal-fired power plants have been the primary source of electricity. But recently, natural gas plants have been an attractive alternative. However, the new natural gas power plants have put electricity generation in competition with home heating for a limited natural gas supply. The result: substantially higher prices. The state Public Service Commission, aware of the problem, has wisely approved construction of two WE Energies coal-fired power plants near Oak Creek. Those plants promise to help meet the growing demand for electricity without putting more pressure on the natural gas market. But the Oak Creek plants have energized opponents who aim to virtually close Wisconsin to the construction of any more coal-fired power plants, even though new plants would be far cleaner than the ones the state now lives with. The argument against the use of coal to generate electricity should not prevail. Wisconsin simply cannot afford to so limit its energy choices. Neither should the state deprive itself of the choice to build more nuclear power plants to meet electricity needs. Nuclear energy is a clean source of power that deserves consideration in the state's energy mix. But the state has maintained a ban on nuclear plant construction since 1983. Legislation lifting the ban made it out of an Assembly committee last winter. The Legislature should pass the bill in its next session. The Legislature should also encourage the expansion of wind power by endorsing a state task force's recommendation to require utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The aim is to nudge utilities toward taking further advantage of wind power, which is by far the most promising renewable power source for electricity generation. Wind turbines are already projected to account for 20 percent of the electric generating capacity coming on-line in Wisconsin over the next six years. The 10 percent requirement wisely contains an escape clause, should meeting the provision prove too costly for ratepayers. Supporting wind, nuclear and coal power cuts across political constituencies. Wind power supporters, for example, frequently are among the opponents of nuclear and coal power. But if Wisconsin is to keep its lights on, at an affordable cost, the state cannot get trapped into either/or politics. The state must adopt a strategy that does not limit choices but creates them. Copyright © 2004 Wisconsin State Journal ***************************************************************** 9 Tallahassee Democrat: City must diversify its energy supply | 11/07/2004 | By J. Sam Bell MY VIEW It is no secret that electricity prices are high in Tallahassee. In fact, they are among the highest in the state. Over 98 percent of the city's generators burn natural gas almost exclusively. The next generation addition (a gas turbine now under construction) will also burn natural gas, increasing dependence on that fuel. There is no relief in sight for high natural gas prices. The demand for natural gas is high and its price is closely tied to oil, which is also destined to move higher. It is obvious that the city needs to find less expensive ways to obtain its product. Basically, all the city's supply eggs are in one basket. Resource portfolio diversity is not being practiced here and this should give everyone pause. Such strategies are highly recommended in investing, balancing stocks, bonds, real estate and cash. In our case, we are hostage to the pricing and supply of a single fuel. No one can be an expert on the future of fuels; therefore, balancing our generation portfolio is a logical strategy to achieve lower risk in fuel supply and pricing. The city's electric staff is currently preparing an integrated resource plan (IRP) with which to identify future resource requirements. Results are months away. In the meantime, let's review what we know . No matter how efficient it is, continuing to build natural gas generation will only compound our problem. Generation from renewable fuels (e.g., solar, geothermal, wind) is expensive and requires resources not readily available in Tallahassee. Construction of new nuclear generators is far in the future, if ever. Power may be available from generators on other systems, but the city's transmission system has limited ability to import and export power. In the final analysis, less expensive electricity for Tallahassee equates to coal. Our city has a long history of concerns about coal's effects on the environment, and rightly so. In the early '90s this concern prompted an amendment to the city charter prohibiting coal plants in Leon or any adjoining counties. But today's world is not the world of 15 years ago. Coal plants have been successfully built and operated in all parts of the United States. New coal is amazingly cleaner than "old" coal. Gainesville is a rabid environmentally sensitive community and yet was able to bring together all the affected parties and come to a compromise that allowed them to build coal plants. Gainesville, aside from using state-of-the-art technology, has adopted an aggressive conservation program to offset CO2 emissions and deal with climate change issues. Coal plants do not have to be built in Leon County to bring benefits to the city. For over 20 years, customers in South Florida have enjoyed low-cost power through "coal by wire" from Georgia. The Florida Municipal Power Agency is considering constructing a large coal project in Perry. FMPA has a excellent track record of successful power projects. Historically, these have been projects owned by a number of municipal systems. The proximity to Tallahassee would make the power from this facility accessible through new transmission lines. (The city can own transmission outside the city limits; witness the lines to our St. Marks Purdom power plant.) Such transmission lines would also serve to strengthen the city's connection to the Florida/Georgia electric grid. And there likely are other opportunities. Florida Power & Light, heavily into nuclear and natural gas and looking to diversify, is considering two 600-megawatt coal units. It already owns coal units jointly with the city of Jacksonville. Seminole Electric Cooperative owns and operates coal generation for its 10-member systems; rumor has it that there is more coal capacity in its future plans. The Department of Energy recently awarded Orlando Utilities Commission and its partners a $235 million grant for development of what energy officials describe as one of the cleanest coal-fired power plants in the world. Electric system planning studies are important but require time to complete. When the alternatives are limited, market conditions may dictate more aggressive initiatives. Most well-managed electric utilities have recognized the value of joint ownership to diversify their generation and lower their operating costs. Coal plants take a long time to permit and build. In order to reduce our vulnerability to rising petroleum prices, we must move promptly to identify what business opportunities are available and charge our electric staff with establishing relationships to compete for these opportunities. This is even more urgent if we are to achieve more affordable power rates with which to successfully support our economic development efforts. I urge the City Commission to quickly adopt an aggressive policy of pursuing initiatives to lower our cost for power, including coal-fired generation. J. Sam Bell is Tallahassee's former Electric Department director and assistant city manager responsible for utilities. He spent his 40-year career in the management of both public and private utilities. Contact him at Jsambell@comcast.net. ***************************************************************** 10 WorldNetDaily: Bye-bye, ElBaradei SATURDAY NOVEMBER 6 2004 Posted: November 6, 2004 One result of Bush's re-election will be an attempt next month by Undersecretary of State John Bolton to deny Mohamed ElBaradei another term as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA was originally set up in 1957 to promote the international, safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear energy. But, in 1968, the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons gave the IAEA this important additional mission. Each non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the Treaty undertakes to accept Safeguards – as set forth in an agreement to be negotiated and concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency in accordance with the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Agency's Safeguards system – for the exclusive purpose of verification of the fulfillment of its obligations assumed under this Treaty, with a view to preventing diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. ElBaradei was originally appointed in December 1997 and re-appointed to a second term in September 2001. A third term would begin in September 2005 ElBaradei had been a senior member of the IAEA Secretariat since 1984, holding a number of high-level policy positions, including that of the IAEA legal adviser and, beginning in 1993, assistant director general for external relations. The IAEA Secretariat comprises 2,200 multi-disciplinary professionals and supporting staff drawn from more than 90 countries. No NPT signatory has yet "diverted" any "source or special fissionable material" made subject to an IAEA Safeguards agreement So, what has Bolton got against ElBaradei? Well, back in 1991, as a condition of gaining a "cease-fire" in Gulf War I, Iraq unconditionally accepted U.N. Security Council Resolution 707, which required Iraq's full cooperation in the destruction, removal or rendering harmless – under IAEA supervision – of all nuclear-weapons-usable materials, all potentially related subsystems or components and all potentially related research, development, support and manufacturing facilities. In September 1991, the IAEA seized documents in Iraq completely characterizing its secret NPT-prohibited nuke program. By the end of 1992, the IAEA had largely destroyed, removed or rendered harmless all relevant Iraqi facilities and equipment. Hence, long before December 1998 – when IAEA inspections were brought to a halt by Clinton's attempt to depose Saddam Hussein from 20,000 feet – ElBaradei could report that Iraq was in substantive compliance with UNSCR-707. Four years later, at the insistence of President Bush, the Security Council passed UNSCR-1441. Bush claimed to have "slam-dunk" evidence that ElBaradei had missed finding significant components of Iraq's nuke program. Bush alleged Saddam still had a nuke program and would have nukes to give terrorists within a year or less. So ElBaradei and his inspectors went back in and conducted a total of 218 inspections at 141 sites, including 21 sites designated by Bush that the IAEA had never inspected before. Result? On March 7, 2003, ElBaradei told the Security Council, "After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq." A few days later, on March 16, 2003, the United States, United Kingdom and Spain announced that – contrary to U.N. inspectors' reports to the Security Council – they were convinced the threat posed by Saddam was so grave and imminent that they could wait no longer for a Security Council resolution authorizing their use of force. They informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan and ElBaradei that it would not be "prudent" for their personnel to remain in Iraq. Hence, ElBaradei effectively prevented the U.N. "sanctioned" application of the Bush Doctrine – shoot first and rationalize the killing later – to Iraq last year. Worse, he has thus far prevented the U.N. "sanctioned" application of the Bush Doctrine to Iran. Bolton and the neo-crazies insist – as they did last year about Iraq – that Iran has a nuke program underway in violation of the NPT. They want the IAEA Board of Governors to refer their charges to the U.N. Security Council for possible punishment. However, ElBaradei is due to present a report next week to the IAEA Board summarizing his two-year intrusive investigation of Iran's nuclear program. He is expected to report that he found no evidence of a nuke program in Iran. A decision by the 35-member board to make such a referral – or to appoint the IAEA director general – requires a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting. Bolton is unlikely to get the two-thirds majority for the referral. But he may prevent a two-thirds majority from re-appointing ElBaradei. Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. webmaster@worldnetdaily.com ***************************************************************** 11 [NukeNet] Russian Nuclear Reactor Restarted Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:30:35 -0800 Media quoted local residents as saying they saw a white cloud above the plant and did not believe the authorities, suspecting a cover-up like the one that followed the 1986 explosion at the power plant of Chernobyl, now in Ukraine. The background radiation on its site did not and does not exceed natural levels specific for the European part of Russia.'' http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nuclear-russia.html Halted Russian Atomic Power Station Resumes Work By REUTERS Published: November 6, 2004 Filed at 8:36 a.m. ET MOSCOW (Reuters) - A reactor at a Russian atomic power station which was closed after a malfunction resumed work on Saturday, the station said. ``Reactor No.2 of the Balakovskaya nuclear power station was switched on at 0340 a.m. on Nov. 6, 2004 upon the completion of short-timed repairs,'' the station, located in the central Russian town of Saratov on the Volga, said in a statement on its site www.balaes.ru. Advertisement ``All four reactors of the Balakovskaya nuclear power station are loaded. The station has been working and is working safely. The background radiation on its site did not and does not exceed natural levels specific for the European part of Russia.'' The reactor was switched off on Thursday after a leak of radiation-free water which supplies a steam generator. The station said the leak was inside the station and neither water nor steam leaked outside. Authorities have said there was no accident or a leak of radiation. Media quoted local residents as saying they saw a white cloud above the plant and did not believe the authorities, suspecting a cover-up like the one that followed the 1986 explosion at the power plant of Chernobyl, now in Ukraine. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Reactor.html Russian Nuclear Reactor Restarted By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 6, 2004 Filed at 10:00 a.m. ET MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian officials on Saturday restarted a nuclear reactor that sparked widespread panic in southern Russia when it automatically shut down earlier this week. After the shutdown, rumors immediately spread that there had been a major accident. Officals insisted there had been no radiation leakage from reactor No. 2 at the Balakovo nuclear power plant in the Saratov region. Advertisement The reactor, which was shut down Thursday because of a turbine malfunction, was restarted at 3:40 a.m. Saturday and was running normally, Russia's Rosenergoatom company said. Hundreds of residents fled homes near the reactor, dozens of businesses temporarily shut down and pharmacy's sold out of iodine, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported. Iodine can block absorption of radiation by shutting down the thyroid gland. ``The whole city lost their heads,'' Anna Vinogradova, head of Balakovo's Department of Environmental Protection, told Kommersant. ``All the telephone lines were busy. People were telling each other to drink vodka, take iodine and no matter what not to use public water.'' Sergei Kiriyenko, President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Volga region, made a quick visit late Friday to the region, 560 miles southeast of Moscow, to try to calm fears. He inspected all four reactors at the power plant, including No. 2, Russian media reported. ``I am confident that there is no threat to people in Balakova, the Saratov region and moreover in neighboring regions,'' Kiriyenko said on Russian state television. The former Soviet Union was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor at the Chernobyl atomic plant in Ukraine exploded in April 1986. Families of station workers in the nearly company town were not informed about the accident for days and so couldn't take any precautions. Today the region where the fallout settled has high rates of thyroid cancer, an illness that can be caused by exposure to radiation. Chernobyl was closed in 2000. Russia has 10 nuclear power plants with a total of 30 nuclear reactors. _______________________________________________________________________ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Here: http://www.energyjustice.net/nukenet/ Change your settings at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nukenet_energyjustice.net ***************************************************************** 12 [toeslist] BP - Enron II Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2004 00:59:48 -0600 (CST) "Conspiracies rarely exist." -- Dennis Gartman in The Gartman Letter, September 14, 2004 * * * Statement by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Thursday, November 4, 2004 http://www.cftc.gov/opa/enf04/opa5018-04.htm WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing and simultaneous settlement of charges against BP Energy Co., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of BP America Inc., for engaging in illegal wash trading on an electronic trading platform. The CFTC order, issued on November 4, 2004, finds that on six occasions between April and June 2000, a former trader for BP Energy executed prearranged trades for electricity contracts at identical prices. On each occasion, according to the order, the BP Energy trader and the counterparty trader prearranged the wash sales over the telephone. They agreed to execute one buy or sell on an electronic trading platform and to execute the opposite buy or sell over the telephone, thus offsetting the initial trade on the trading platform, the order finds. The order also finds that these trades resulted in a financial nullity. According to the findings in the order, BP Energy violated the prohibition against illegal wash sales as contained in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The order further finds that because BP Energy caused prices to be recorded on the electronic trading platform that were not true and bona fide, the transactions resulted in the reporting of non-bona fide prices. BP Energy's internal control culture failed to prevent the execution of the wash sales, according to the order's findings. The order directs BP Energy to cease and desist from further violations of specified provisions of the CEA, pay a $100,000 civil penalty, and comply with specified undertakings, including an undertaking by BP Energy and BP America to provide future cooperation to the commission in its ongoing investigations and litigation of related matters. In consenting to the entry of the CFTC order, BP Energy neither admitted nor denied the findings made in the order. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/NJYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toeslist/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: toeslist-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 13 DECATUR DAILY: TVA hurts credibility when officials cover up www.decaturdaily.com SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2004 EDITORIAL The first news report of a fire at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in March 1975 noted there had been a small blaze. Nothing major, just a routine incident in which all the safety emergency systems performed properly and the units shut down as planned. That, of course, was not the severity of the fire that critics say came close to being the first meltdown of a nuclear plant. Browns Ferry workers, as it turns out, didn't handle the situation well. Another incident at the plant that occurred Oct. 24 jogged memories of that event of nearly 30 years ago. TVA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission left it to whistleblowers to report that a 32-ton crane trolley fell and broke. The Union of Concerned Scientists made the incident public because, the group said, neither TVA nor the NRC had done so. The crane trolley fell nearly 3 feet as workers lowered it to the refueling floor. TVA told the scientist group it is investigating to see if the fall damaged the structural integrity of the building that's in an area between the three reactors. Browns Ferry had a near meltdown in 1975 as the result of an engineer allowing a candle flame to get too close to foam used to chink air leaks. The flame spread quickly and affected operators' ability to bring things under control. A 32-ton crane trolley falling onto the refueling floor of a building where nuclear materials could have been present sounds serious. TVA and NRC say they are investigating and will take proper action to see that a similar incident doesn't happen again. But the manner in which the public received the news about the accident suggests neither federal agency was in any hurry to get the information out. That, of course, leaves people to wonder why and fear the worst. Safety procedures and training are vastly better today, but TVA's willingness to cover up apparently hasn't changed much. Copyright 1999 THE DECATUR DAILY. All rights reserved. AP contributed to THE DECATUR DAILY 201 1st Ave. SE P.O. Box 2213 Decatur, Ala. 35609 (256) 353-4612 webmaster@decaturdaily.com www.decaturdaily.com ***************************************************************** 14 Bellona: Shutdowns at Ukrainian reactors The fourth reactor of Rivno NPP was shutdown yesterday. 2004-11-05 18:15 The opening ceremony of the new fourth reactor at the Rivno NPP took place just recently on October 16. The shutdown was triggered by the oil leak in the electrical generator yesterday. The incident did not influence the radiation situation at the plant and around it. The repair works should be finished by the end of November 7, ForUm reported. The 4th unit of VVER-1000 type at the Rivno NPP has 1 million kW capacity. On October 13, the second reactor unit at the South-Ukrainian NPP suffered an automatic shutdown. First, the faulty turbine automatics control system led to the 78% capacity reduction of the unit. Then the strange sounds were heard from the turbine. The plant’s staff decided to conduct emergency shutdown of the second unit, but the shutdown operation did not go smoothly as some power disturbances hit the reactor’s control and protection system what triggered the reactor shutdown. According to the reports, the radiation situation remained normal. On October 14, the reactor was operated at the minimum controlled capacity. Today 11 of 15 nuclear reactor units are in operation in Ukraine. Publisher: Bellona Foundation, President: Frederic Hauge Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact: webmaster@bellona.no Telephone: +47 23 23 46 00 Telefax: +47 22 38 38 62 * P.O.Box 2141 Grunerlokka, 0505 Oslo, Norway ***************************************************************** 15 toledo blade: Fermi II begins outage for refueling, maintenance Sunday, November 07, 2004 Article published Sunday, November 7, 2004 NEWPORT, Mich. — Detroit Edison Co.’s Fermi II nuclear plant in northern Monroe County was taken offline yesterday morning for what is expected to be a monthlong outage for normal refueling and maintenance. John Austerberry, a spokesman for the utility, said the process of shutting down the reactor began at 4 a.m. and took about 12 hours. Each of the nation’s 103 operating nuclear plants is taken offline for about a month or longer once every 18 months to two years so its reactors can be refueled. Maintenance activities that can’t be performed while the plants are running also are done. The usual factor in determining whether plants go 18 months to two years between outages is the grade of uranium-enriched fuel. © 2004 The Blade. The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660 , (419) 724-6000 ***************************************************************** 16 Brattleboro Reformer: NRC: Plant can handle power boost November 07, 2004 Brattleboro, VT By WILSON RING Associated Press MONTPELIER -- The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant in Vernon can safely increase power by 20 percent, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday. But a team of NRC inspectors found eight problems at the Vernon reactor that were described as of "very low safety significance." The problems ranged from how the plant would find power for its safety systems in the event of power blackout to issues with reactor condensation tanks. "Overall, the team found that the components and systems reviewed would be capable of performing their intended safety functions and that you have implemented sufficient design controls for engineering work... including your (power increase) request," said a letter from the NRC's Director of Reactor Safety Wayne Lanning to Vermont Yankee Vice President Jay Thayer. "However, the team identified eight findings of very low safety significance," the letter said. "None of the identified findings resulted in system inoperability.." Vermont Yankee's owner Entergy Nuclear wants to increase power at the 540 megawatt plant by 20 percent. Some have questioned whether the 30-year-old reactor can handle the strains that would be put on it by the power increase. The NRC is expected to rule by January on the power increase request. The conclusions of the report are due to be discussed at a public meeting between the NRC and Vermont Yankee. Officials have promised interested parties and members of the public an opportunity to speak at the meeting. The meeting had been planned for next week, but officials postponed the meeting after Vernon officials said they didn't have a location large enough to accommodate all the people who would be expected to attend. The meeting has not yet been rescheduled. "It's excellent news," said Vermont Yankee spokesman Rob Williams. "The team found that our engineering has appropriate controls to ensure safe operation." He said the plant would address the concerns raised by the NRC. "The preliminary results reinforce our confidence that our plant is well suited to continue moving forward with our uprate initiative," Williams said. "We will ensure we address the minor issues identified by the team." Ray Shadis of the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition dismissed the report. "It is a fiction," Shadis said. "It is a huge disservice to the people of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts who in the thousands called for an independent safety assessment." "Our suspicion is that this report is being finessed, bent, folded, stapled and mutilated in order to fit the agenda of giving the licensee whatever it wants," Shadis said. William Sherman, the nuclear engineer for the state of Vermont, said he was pleased with the inspection process. "I was very impressed with both the quality of the NRC inspectors and the way that the inspection was conducted," Sherman said. But Sherman said the state didn't consider the problems noted by the NRC to be minor. "From the state of Vermont's point of view we consider all of those items significant," Sherman said. "We are going to follow these items until they are corrected and we understand the corrections." The issues noted by the inspectors included how the emergency systems at Vermont Yankee would be powered in the event of a power blackout. Alternative power would available from a hydroelectric dam in town, but it would take at least two hours to make the switch, the report said. But the inspectors found Vermont Yankee could cope without electrical power for at least two hours. The report also said Vermont Yankee hadn't taken measures to ensure temperatures in storage tanks remained within specifications. But the report said the equipment could still perform its functions. Copyright © 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This ***************************************************************** 17 Times Argus: Yankee problems detailed NRC says issues won't prevent uprate November 6, 2004 By Vermont Press Bureau MONTPELIER — A team of engineers recently discovered eight problems at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in Vernon, but a preliminary report issued Friday said none of them were serious enough to prevent the plant from safely boosting its output. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials on Friday also canceled a meeting scheduled for Tuesday regarding both the engineering inspection and the plant's recently discovered missing fuel rods. The NRC earlier this week decided to close the meetings to the public after safety concerns were raised by Vernon town officials about a large public turnout. But after talking to Vermont's congressional delegation, the NRC instead postponed the meeting until a larger venue can be found. The preliminary engineering report outlined several flaws at Yankee, but classified them all as having "very low" safety significance. The problems — which involve the plant's electrical power supply and reactor core cooling system — must be fixed before Entergy Nuclear, the company that owns Vermont Yankee, can be granted permission to increase the plant's power output by 20 percent. "These things have to be addressed not just for power uprate, but for continued operation," said Bill Sherman, a nuclear engineer with the state's Department of Public Service. "Most of them, in my opinion, will not be difficult to fix." Nuclear activists, however, were disturbed by the preliminary report and its lack of data. They expressed concern that the NRC has not yet released a final engineering report so they could thoroughly review the findings and reach their own conclusions. Entergy wants to increase power at the 540-megawatt facility but activists question whether the 30-year-old reactor can handle the strain of a power increase. "It has been almost two months since the inspection and we have not gotten a final report," said Raymond Shadis, a technical advisor to the New England Coalition, a Brattleboro-based nuclear watchdog group that opposes Yankee's power boost. "We see delays as the NRC taking the opportunity to finesse the report and make it look good," Shadis said. "We want the full report with raw numbers. We don't want something coming out with management control." The NRC is expected to rule by January on the power increase request. The preliminary engineering report concluded that: + An adequate alternate power source was not available following a blackout to supply backup power to Yankee within an hour to ensure the plant's reactor is cooled. The report said as long as two hours may be needed. + Entergy failed to correct a "long-standing" deficiency in a control valve that supplies cooling water to a reactor core cooling system. + Entergy failed to ensure the temperature inside a condensate storage tank stayed constant so a backup water supply for cooling maintained the proper temperature. Entergy officials called the problems minor. "This is excellent news," said Rob Williams, an Entergy spokesman. "Overall, the engineering team found our plant has excellent controls to ensure safe operations. These preliminary results reinforce our position that our plant is well suited to continue moving forward with our uprate initiative." NRC officials will publicly discuss the preliminary report when a new meeting is scheduled, said Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman. No date or place for the public gathering was announced. "We want to make sure all the parties who want to attend this can make it," Sheehan said. "Hopefully the meeting will be held within several weeks." Shadis said the NRC will now have to hold two meetings: one to address the preliminary engineering report and another one to discuss the final report. Any attempt not to hold a second meeting will be problematic, he said. "The preliminary report is not adequate for anyone to make any kind of assessment or ask any informed questions," Shadis said. "This will not be settled until they release the final report and we receive the underlying documents." The concern about an exceptionally large turnout for Tuesday's meeting at Vernon Elementary School was triggered by a New England Coalition press release that encouraged the public to attend the 6 p.m. gathering. According to Vernon Fire Chief Terrance Parker, the elementary school gym cannot safely accommodate more than 500 people and there was concern that as many as 1,000 people could show up, overwhelming the town's ability to manage the crowd safely. The meeting was canceled after Vermont's congressional delegation insisted it remain open to the public. Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., is the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which oversees the NRC. "Senator Jeffords and the Vermont delegation called for an open meeting," said Diane Derby, Jeffords' spokeswoman. "They agreed, but now have to find a day and a place." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact John Zicconi at . © 2004 Privacy Policy | Subscriber Agreement ***************************************************************** 18 Japan Times: Defense Agency says SDF cut would put reactors in danger Monday, November 8, 2004 An internal Defense Agency document says that cuts in Self-Defense Forces personnel and equipment as proposed by the Finance Ministry could leave nuclear reactors open to attack and hamper disaster relief operations. The document was drafted by officers in all three branches of the SDF, agency sources said. It is aimed at countering the Finance Ministry's informal proposal that Ground Self-Defense Force personnel be cut by 40,000 to 120,000 and the number of tanks and artillery pieces be reduced by 50 percent to 60 percent. A cut in SDF personnel is one of the issues in the government plan to update the long-term National Defense Program Outline later this month. SDF personnel and equipment cuts were also favored in a Cabinet decision in December 2003 that gave the green light to Japan's participation in a U.S.-initiated missile defense project, and in a report by an advisory panel on security to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in early October. The Defense Agency document says a personnel cut could result in severe damage in the event of an attack on nuclear reactors, oil refineries or other crucial facilities. The SDF would not be able to dispatch relief units quickly to areas hit by typhoons, earthquakes or other disasters, resulting in a higher number of casualties, it says. The personnel cut proposed by the Finance Ministry would also force the Defense Agency to abolish at least 50 garrisons, a third of the total, which would have a serious impact on nearby economies and employment, it says. The document says the Defense Agency is ready to cut tanks, artillery pieces and other equipment by 20 percent to 30 percent, but the Finance Ministry's proposal to slash up to 60 percent "lacks grounds" and would hamper the nation's ability to cope with an armed attack. The Finance Ministry has also called for cutting the number of fixed-wing patrol aircraft in the Maritime Self-Defense Force and fighters in the Air Self-Defense Force. These proposals cannot be accepted, the document says. Reducing patrol aircraft would limit the MSDF's ability to deal with incidents on remote islands, while the demand to cut fighters shows the Finance Ministry's failure to sufficiently consider the regional military situation, it says. The Japan Times: Nov. 8, 2004 (C) All rights reserved ***************************************************************** 19 ITAR-TASS: Balakovo nuclear power station resumes working [ITAR-TASS News Agency of Russia] 06.11.2004, 14.58 SARATOV, November 6 (Itar-Tass) - After the short-time repair, Reactor No Two at the Balakovo nuclear power plant was switched on overnight, sources in the plant public relations centre told Itar-Tass. The plant worked and is working safely. The radiation in the area did not and do not exceed the normal levels of the European Russia region, a plant personnel member said. The plant security service is investigating at present from where rumours about an accident at the station were spread. The public relations centre does not rule out the panic was fueled deliberately. © ITAR-TASS. All rights reserved. You undertake not to copy, store in any medium (including in any other website), distribute, transmit, re-transmit, broadcast, modify or show in public any part of the ITAR-TASS website without the prior written permission of ITAR-TAS. ***************************************************************** 20 [du-list] military uranyl nitrate inhalation Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:30:28 -0800 5 November 2004 Ms. Toby Litovitz, M.D. Director National Capital Poison Center Washington, D.C. by email to toby at poison dot org URANYL NITRATE INHALATION BY MILITARY PERSONNEL Dear Dr. Litovitz: We share the goal of preventing poisonings, saving lives, and decreasing health care costs. I am writing concerning an unusual hazard affecting hundreds of thousands of former and current military personnel. I believe there is an enormous opportunity for health care cost reduction. An emergency is occurring because of inhalation of toxic [1] uranyl nitrate(s) from the use of depleted uranium shells and rounds by the United States military. This may be the largest scale emergency that either of us has ever encountered. I understand that uranyl nitrate is "very toxic by inhalation" with a "danger of cumulative effects" [2], and forms easily when burned in air by nitrogen-based explosive compounds. Uranium "is a natural pyrophoric material which enhances ... incendiary effects" [3] meaning that it burns (spontaneously if dust) in air, and forms nitrates when burned in the presence of nitrogen (from air or more easily from nitrogen-based explosives.) "Both uranyl nitrate and uranyl nitrate hexahydrate are moderately soluble in water and in the body. This means that if ingested or inhaled, they will readily be transported to the rest of the body. They can also be absorbed through the skin." [1] "Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are contaminated with radiation likely caused by dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops, a Daily News investigation has found." [4] The use of uranium shells has become common in the U.S. military [5]. "Observed health effects include decreased litter size in mice born to DU-implanted females and neurocognitive problems. In vitro studies found DU induces mutagenicity and cellular changes that may lead to cancer. US military researchers attribute depleted uranium's short-term effects to its heavy metal toxicity, and its long-term effects to a combination of toxicity and alpha radiation. Based on their findings, US military researchers have called for further studies of depleted uranium's carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and male and female reproductive effects." [6] However, research on this subject is apparently being blocked [7], apparently in violation of multiple laws, regulations, and treaty obligations [8]. The attempted rebuttals to these hypotheses are inconclusive [9] and have been inaccurately summarized by the government [10]. Symptoms of Gulf War syndrome/illness are identical to those of uranium pyrolite inhalation [11]. This fact has also been deliberately suppressed. "UMRC's Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.... UMRC found artificial uranium in bomb craters, surrounding watercourses and the bodies of civilians exposed to US Coalition bombing in Afghanistan. Civilians surveyed presented with the classical symptoms of internal contamination by uranium, which began after exposure to the bombing. The presence of artificial uranium in environmental and biological samples indicates that the bunker buster warheads used in Afghanistan are made of uranium. Uranium is a chemically and radiologically toxic element, clinically proven to be a cause of various types of cancer and congenital malformations (birth defects). Internal contamination of uranium is responsible for variety of systemic and organ system problems, which has never been considered or studied by the Defense Department or Veterans health programs as possible cause of Gulf War Illness. The symptoms of internal contamination by uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan civilians are identical to the symptoms of US and Coalition veterans complaining of Gulf War Illness." Testing for uranium contamination is difficult [12] but can be done easily with modern equipment. I wish you the best of luck. If you concur with this assessment, would you please forward this information to the state poison control centers, alphabetically from Colorado through Wyoming, and please let me know your decision? I will send more information at a later date. REFERENCES [1] http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/tr2001331/tr2001331.html -- please see also: http://www.cadu.org.uk/info/veterans/7_2.htm [2] http://physchem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/UR/uranium_nitrate.html -- key: http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/risk_phrases.html [3] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/pgu-14.htm -- please see also: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm [4] http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/180333p-156685c.html -- please see also: http://www.cadu.org.uk/info/veterans/7_1.htm [5] http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030818a7.htm -- revised: http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/NewsArticle.cfm?NewsID=577 [6] http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/Policy.htm -- please see also: http://www.cadu.org.uk/info/reports/monk.htm [7] http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/Shays.htm -- please see also: http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/ensign.htm [excerpt from book: http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/mettoc.htm ] [8] http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/ware.htm -- please see also: http://www.thefourreasons.org/duresources.htm [9] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/docs/du/mr1018.7.chap3.html -- please compare and contrast to [10]: [10] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/docs/b04151999_bt170-99.htm -- "INDICATES NO EVIDENCE" should be "INDICATES EVIDENCE"; background: -- http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/docs/t04191999_t0415gwi.htm [11] http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/4.html -- please see also: www.umrc.net [12] http://www.umrc.net/uranium_analysis.aspx For more information, please see: http://www.miltoxproj.org/assesment.htm http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/DU_Quotes/DU_Quotes.htm http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/danjuly99.html http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/DU_Titlepage/chrisfoia.html http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/list.htm http://www.iacenter.org/du4497.htm http://www.iacenter.org/nowar_du.htm http://www.iacenter.org/du-warcrime.htm http://www.iacenter.org/du_banconf.htm http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/ Sincerely, James Salsman +1.650.793.0162 considering bcc: other poison control centers, offices, and officers -- your opinion? ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 21 Seattle Times: Downwinders win ruling on emissions Sunday, November 07, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M. By The Associated Press SPOKANE — A federal judge has ruled that plutonium-making at Hanford in the mid-1940s was an "abnormally dangerous" activity that put thousands of people in Eastern Washington at risk. That means people who live downwind of Hanford and allege harm from Hanford's radiation emissions won't have to prove that government contractors DuPont de Nemours and General Electric acted recklessly when they chemically separated uranium to make plutonium for nuclear bombs. The only issue will be whether releases of radioactive iodine-131 actually harmed people, said Louise Roselle of Cincinnati, lead attorney for the downwinders. "This is a major ruling for the downwinders," she said. U.S. District Judge William Nielsen wrote in his Nov. 3 order that emissions of I-131 could result in "serious illness with serious consequences" — thyroid problems, in particular. State law imposes strict liability for abnormally dangerous or ultra-hazardous activities, the judge wrote. "If the activity is abnormally dangerous, then the defendants may be held strictly liable for plaintiffs' damages, regardless of whether defendants exercised the utmost care in the conduct of their activities at Hanford," the order says. The contractors disagree. "We believe this decision is fundamentally wrong and merits appeal," said Kevin Van Wart, lead attorney for the Hanford contractors. "We still have years of litigation ahead of us." Nielsen is preparing for a March trial involving 11 "bellwether" cases to determine an outcome for thousands of others who sued. The lawsuits were filed beginning in 1991, after a government study said the Hanford releases were large enough to increase health risks for people living downwind of the plant. The entire nation benefited from Hanford's role in developing the nuclear bombs that were dropped on Japan to end World War II, but all the risk from the dangerous manufacture of plutonium was borne by those living downwind, Nielsen wrote. "The innocent people who can prove they suffered harm should be compensated by the entire nation who benefited from the activity," his order says. Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company ***************************************************************** 22 Bradenton Herald: Beryllium risk may have spread | 11/07/2004 | Some fear toxic dust from Tallevast plant spread throughout Manatee DONNA WRIGHT Herald Staff Writer MANATEE - The risk from exposure to toxic dust generated by the Loral American Beryllium Co. for four decades may extend far beyond former workers to everyone who had contact with them, one of the nation's top lung specialists warns. That risk may reach beyond the Tallevast community where the plant operated, because workers carried the toxic dust on their clothes, shoes and in their hair to their homes throughout Manatee and Sarasota counties, said Dr. Lisa Maier of National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. "The risks of secondary exposure are significant," Maier said. "We know from a recent study we conducted with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health that workers at similar facilities tracked home dust on a regular basis. Beryllium wipe samples found dust on steering wheels, the floorboards of cars, car seats and baby seats." Maier fears the same conditions existed here. American Beryllium was one of many defense and energy contractors who held government contracts during the Cold War to manufacture parts for nuclear weapons and missile guidance systems. Beryllium, an exotic and expensive metal, was perfectly suited for aerospace projects because it was lightweight and strong. But beryllium is also a carcinogen, and the dust created when the metal is worked in fine-precision machining can cause respiratory ailments that can be fatal. Exposure to that dust is one of many threats facing the Tallevast community, where chemical spills and leaks from the former beryllium plant contaminated the soil and private water wells for years. The potential pathways for community exposure are many - from workers who may have tracked the toxic beryllium dust home over the years and potentially contaminated their families, to employees who left the plant during breaks while still in uniform to eat at area restaurants, to the linen service that collected the open hampers of dirty uniforms for washing. Maier also questions how much dust might have escaped the plant through smoke stack emissions or exhaust systems over the years. "We know secondary exposure is significant," Maier said. Cases of beryllium disease in the 1940s have been found among residents living five miles downwind from a beryllium plant in Lorain, Ohio, she noted. That could take contamination into the heart of Bradenton and Sarasota. Tiny amounts dangerous The national standard for what is considered "safe" exposure to beryllium dates to 1949 - and it is "dangerously inadequate," says Dr. Lee S. Newman, director of the National Jewish Center. The exposure limit is set at 2 micrograms per cubic meter over an eight-hour work shift. That equals a minuscule pile of beryllium dust - about the size of a pencil eraser head dispersed in a space that is 8 feet deep and as big as a football field. Newman and his staff have documented cases of chronic beryllium disease in people who have had far lower levels of exposure. Precision machinists who work with beryllium metals and alloys have an overall beryllium sensitivity rate of 9.6 percent, Newman has found. In some shops, where safety measure were lax, the exposure rate has been as high as 20 percent. That could mean 300 workers of American Beryllium's estimated 1,500 employees carry the potential to develop beryllium sensitivity and perhaps chronic beryllium disease. What is not known is how many of their relatives and friends have also been exposed through the dust those workers tracked home. Covered in beryllium dust Workers and residents say dust was everywhere. In the 1950s and '60s, ordinary Sears and Roebuck vacuum cleaners were used to remove the dust from work stations, recalled workers employed at the plant then. Even when the big central vacuum system was installed, it frequently broke down, say workers employed during the 1980s and '90s. When spare hoses weren't available, duct tape was used to mend the break. Herald interviews with former workers provide even more details of possible contamination paths. Former employees frequently left the plant in their uniforms to grab lunch at nearby restaurants, recalls Terry Owen, the last union president to represent workers before American Beryllium closed in 1996. Until the early 1980s, workers were allowed to smoke in the plant, including in the labs. They would smoke while grinding beryllium, Owen said, and they kept the cigarettes out where they were exposed to the dust. Workers wore uniforms, and a linen service transported those dirty clothes in open hampers from the plant to the laundry truck, Owen said. A company janitor usually rolled those hampers out to the truck where they were loaded by the driver. Somebody had to wash those uniforms, which were covered in a fine dust. Workers also had to re-enter milling and machining areas after changing into their street clothes to punch out at the company time clock, so their street clothes may have been contaminated, said Ray Stephens, a machinist who worked at the plant from 1980 to 1982. No one wore shoe covers, and workers seldom showered at the plant after taking off their uniforms, he said. "We were allowed only so much time, about 15 minutes to change and punch out. Sometimes there would be 30 to 40 men in there and just three showers," Stephens said. The women's locker room had just one shower, Owen said. "It was really hard to get to the locker and get your clothes changed in time to punch the time clock before the shift ended, let alone wash up," she said. "Then after you got your clothes changed, you had to walk back into the machine shop to punch out." The men's locker room had no door, Stephens said. The dust from the machining and lathing areas had easy entry to the lockers where employees hung their street clothes. The dust clung to their skin and hair, waiting to be transferred to a wife or child when they arrived home from work, Owen said. "We know dust has been been tracked all over the community, but we just don't know at what levels," said Heather Davis, the coordinator of the beryllium program at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center. "We don't know where it has gone and we don't know what is a safe level of exposure." Not a threat yet Neither the local health department nor the state health assessment team consider beryllium exposure a serious issue yet in this community. But Maier asked Manatee County health officials to offer a community surveillance program to routinely screen Tallevast residents with a specialized blood test that can detect the beginning stages of beryllium disease. Manatee County Health Department's answer was no. Charles Henry, Manatee County supervisor of Environmental Health, said that soil samples conducted in the environmental investigation of the chemical leaks revealed no traces of beryllium. "If it's not in the soil, we have no scientific basis to know if residents are being exposed," said Henry. But Maier cautions that the threat comes not from what is in the soil today, but from what levels of dust might have been airborne and distributed throughout the community over the past four decades. State health officials are closely monitoring the results of beryllium sensitivity blood tests performed on former workers seeking compensation through a federal program for beryllium employees who worked on Department of Energy projects. If those tests show a high number of positives, Henry said, then there may be cause to test residents with the beryllium blood test developed at National Jewish. National Jewish is working with Sarasota Memorial Hospital and Dr. John Swisher, a Sarasota lung doctor, to expedite the testing of workers. Maier agreed that testing the workers first has merit, but that approach will work only if most of the former workers are tested. That would reduce the chance for statistical error and give a true picture of the risk. Maier urges any Tallevast resident or someone close to a former worker who has unexplained respiratory disease, asthma or a diagnosis of sarcoidosis to have the beryllium sensitivity blood test. Beryllium disease is often misdiagnosed as asthma or sarcoidosis, which causes the same thickening and scarring of the lungs. Workers and residents alike may have to go through years of blood testing because of the length of time it takes for the sensitivity to develop, Maier said. A negative test does not exclude the possibility of developing the sensitivity in subsequent years. "Once you inhale beryllium dust, you carry a lifetime risk for the development of beryllium sensitivity and chronic beryllium disease," Maier said. The symptoms of beryllium disease - shortness of breath, night sweats, rapid weight loss, fatigue and sometimes skin disturbances - can take up to 40 years to develop, Maier said. And by the time they appear, patients are already quite sick and treatment options are limited. Beryllium disease can then spread to other organs of the body and can, in some cases cases, be fatal. No cure is known, said Maier, but the disease can be managed, especially if it is detected in the early stages of allergic reaction before symptoms occur. Laura Ward, president of FOCUS, a community group fighting for Tallevast residents' rights, echoes Maier's concerns. "We do have a concern about beryllium exposure," said Ward. "We know the workers brought the dust home. We were always exposed." Ward hopes Maier's concern prompts local health officials to action. "Our local people are just sitting back twiddling their thumbs," said Ward. "I don't know if they don't know what to do or they don't want to do it. We have been exposed to things that could kill us. We are talking about our lives. We want people to step forward." ABOUT AMERICAN BERYLLIUM The Loral American Beryllium Co. was one of many defense and energy contractors who held government contracts during the Cold War to manufacturer parts for nuclear weapons and missile guidance systems. American Beryllium operated a plant in Tallevast until 1996 when Lockheed Martin assumed ownership. Lockheed has since sold the plant to Wire Pro Inc. which produces cables and wiring harnesses. Tallevast residents suspected for years that illnesses were caused by the close proximity to the American Beryllium plant. Residents were notified nearly a year ago by state and federal officials about a potential threat because of well water contamination caused by chemical leaks and spills at the plant. State and federal officials were aware of the potential threat for up to three years before notifying Tallevast residents. The residents have since organized and hired attorneys. TOXIC POLLUTION Tallevast residents have been dealing with a plume of beryllium contamination in their neighborhood from the former Loral American Beryllium Co. plant. Today the Herald reports exposure might extend beyond the Tallevast community where the plant was located. 'Once you inhale beryllium dust, you carry a lifetime risk' ***************************************************************** 23 Arizona Republic: Gulf Illness forces retirement [azcentral.com] Gulf Illness forces retirement Mysterious disease renders Army veteran unable to keep teaching Lars Jacoby The Arizona Republic Nov. 8, 2004 12:00 AM Many veterans who served during Operation Desert Storm suffer from a variety of symptoms commonly called Persian Gulf Illness. Several things are believed to cause the illness, including exposure to depleted uranium and oil well fires. Shawn Livingston, 43, of Gilbert, knows the pain that the mysterious illness can cause. She suffers from pain in her joints, as well as degenerative disks. The illness has forced Livingston to retire from teaching, because she wasn't able to give her students the same effort she could 10 years ago when she jumped into teaching after the first Gulf War. "Everything kind of caught up to me," Livingston said of the illness. "It kills me, because part of the reason I got into teaching was for the kids." The former Army linguist said she enjoyed teaching her students about their country and all the freedoms it has to offer - something she knows not everyone in the world can claim. "I'm totally in support of it," Livingston said of the war in Iraq. "I was over there, I saw the atrocities firsthand that Saddam Hussein committed on his people and the Kuwaiti people." The former Islands Elementary teacher signed up for the Army at 28 and maintains that despite her illness she contracted from her time there, she would do it all over again. "If I could, I would go back in a heartbeat," she said. Takemoto Williams/The Arizona Republic Shawn Livingston served in Copyright © 2004, azcentral.com. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 24 BBC: Protester dies under atomic train Last Updated: Sunday, 7 November, 2004 [A train carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany (2001)] Shipments of waste resumed in 2001 A anti-nuclear protester has died after his leg was severed by a train carrying atomic waste from France to Germany. The 23-year-old lay down on the track as the train passed near the town of Avricourt, eastern France. The train had already been delayed for two hours while police cut free two other protesters who had chained themselves to a section of track. The train was carrying nuclear waste being sent back to Germany after reprocessing in northern France. Paramedics offered the protester emergency treatment and rushed him to hospital for surgery. He died before reaching a nearby hospital, the Associated Press reported. Too late to stop The train driver tried to brake after seeing a group of people sitting on the tracks, a spokeswoman for French railway company SNCF told Reuters. "Some of them got up. He pulled the emergency brake, but one of the people remained sitting, and one of his legs was cut off and he has died," she said. Earlier in the day another group of protesters delayed the train's journey for around two hours. Two activists from the Sortir du Nucleaire (Out of Nuclear) group chained themselves to the tracks at Laneuveville-devant-Nancy, forcing the train to stop while police removed them. Unpopular cargo The train set off on Saturday from the La Hague reprocessing plant in Valognes, north-western France, on its journey to the German town of Dannenberg. From Dannenberg the trains' 12 containers - holding 175 metric tons of atomic waste - are due to be shipped to a nearby dump at Gorleben, 12km away. The French protests followed a protest by 4,500 people at the Gorleben site in Saturday. German anti-nuclear campaigners have long claimed the reprocessed nuclear waste is unsafe. Under agreements with Britain and France, Germany sends nuclear waste for reprocessing in both countries but is obliged to take back the resulting waste. ***************************************************************** 25 Revealed: the huge mountain of unofficial nuclear waste - [Sunday Herald] + [click here for the Sunday Herald homepage] print edition site map news alerts . + NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR Est 1999 [click here for news] [click here for news in focus] [click here for international] [click here for seven days] [click here for sport] [click here for business] [click here for e-music] [click here for magazine] [click here for weblog] [click here for online section] IN THIS SECTION: --> Fair trade protest by Scots dairy farmers By Jenifer Johnston £3,600 fine for smokers who flout ban gets go-ahead this week By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor Black Watch in most dangerous area in Iraq as insurgents flee Fallujah ahead of US onslaught By Neil Mackay British left must get over Kerry defeat Powerplay: Iain Macwhirter tells the left to lick its wounds, learn its lessons and look to the future Cardinal urges the Executive to heed US moral victory Catholic church speaks out as a force for political change in Scotland in wake of Bush win By Jenifer Johnston, Religious Affairs Correspondent Church Moderator calls for euthanasia debate By Paul Hutcheon Curing societys evils demands community-based solutions Fifth column: Kenny MacAskill argues that the only way to beat crime is to pursue policies that promote social inclusion Endangered polar bears on thin ice By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Eyewitness tells of chaos after train crashes at level crossing By Bridget Morris Fears for SAC as chair stays empty By Senay Boztas GP contracts sabotaging drug treatment By Stephen Naysmith, Social Affairs Correspondent Health board faces £100m debt collapse By Liam McDougall, Health Correspondent London releases first glimpse of proposed Olympic stadium By James Hamilton Lottery celebrates a decade of can-do attitude Anniversary awards highlight good causes, but critics warn of government takeover By Stephen Naysmith MSPs to be taught how to read By Senay Boztas McConnells ban could be key moment for devolution itself Holyrood commentary: Iain Macwhirter McConnells wife told to back off in culture wars Official role in review again under scrutiny By Paul Hutcheon, Scottish Political Editor New attempt to promote festival for all Scotland By Senay Boztas, Arts Correspondent Personal mentors may oust nursery nurses Expert proposes European solution to child education By Peter John Meiklem Poll shows lack of trust in Labour By Paul Hutcheon Revealed: how dodgy accountants are propping up gangland Scotland .INVESTIGATION. Police call for lifetime ban on professionals involved in organised crime By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor Revealed: the huge mountain of unofficial nuclear waste Contamination nine times worse than admitted By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor Safety expert calls for end to BSE cattle culls Pennington says slaughter a waste of public money By Jenifer Johnston Steeplejack Dibnah dies of cancer By James Hamilton The Big Debate: The fight the First Minister is determined not to lose Public against smoking ban in pubs By Paul Hutcheon The Shock Of The Jock Alan Taylor's Diary Welsh seeks to prick conscience of the rich Trainspotting author backs Edinburgh poverty action plan By Senay Boztas, Arts Correspondent [Send to a friend] email [Print this article] print Revealed: the huge mountain of unofficial nuclear waste Contamination nine times worse than admitted By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor The mountain of radioactive waste that will be left by Britains nuclear programme is at least nine times higher than previously admitted, a new report by government advisers has revealed. A massive 18 million cubic metres of soil and rubble is now known to have been con taminated by leaks, spills and discharges at 30 nuclear sites across the country over the past 60 years. That figure could double to 36 million cubic metres when the full extent of the problem is revealed. Only 1.9 million cubic metres of low-level radio active waste has been declared in the official inventory. The news follows revelations in the Sunday Herald last week that a large area of land around the Hunterston nuclear power station in North Ayrshire had been contaminated . The latest report, by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM), which advises the Scottish Executive, warns that there is currently no solution for dealing with the waste. This report reveals the vastness of the problem , said Dr David Lowry, consultant editor of the land contamination newsletter, Brownfield Briefing. It is extraordinary to learn that such large volumes are not included in the official UK inventory of nuclear waste. CoRWMs report, released last week, is the most comprehensive assessment to date of Britains legacy of radioactive rubbish. The waste comes from defunct and operating nuclear power plants, military nuclear bases and medical radioisotope factories. In Scotland, the waste has been generated at six sites: Hunterston, Dounreay in Caithness, Torness in East Lothian, Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway, Rosyth in Fife and the Clyde naval base, near Helensburgh. CoRWM concludes that there are 2000 cubic metres of high-level radioactive waste, 349,000 cubic metres of medium-level waste and 1.93 million cubic metres of low-level waste. But it adds that there will also be a huge volume of contaminated soil, rubble and other wastes from cleaning up the nuclear sites over the next century. It estimates this will amount to 18 million cubic metres enough to fill 200,000 double-decker buses. This is a rough figure, CoRWM says, which may end up being two times too low, or two times too high. The figure includes the 81,000 cubic metres of contaminated land at Hunterston . It also includes an estimated one million cubic metres of contamination from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria. At Dounreay, the UK Atomic Energy Authority says that 7500 square metres of land is contaminated 5% of the open ground on the site. The amount of radioactive soil, rubble and other low-activity wastes planned for disposal over the next 30 years is between 26,000 and 45,000 cubic metres. All these wastes low in radioactivity but high in volume pose a dilemma. While regulatory agencies say they might need to be buried at special sites with other radioactive waste, the nuclear industry would like to leave them where they are. Owing to the increase in future volumes of site clearance waste, it will be necessary to review the scale of, and arrangements for dealing with, these wastes, says CoRWM. Green MSP for the South of Scotland Chris Ballance, who was instrumental in uncovering the contamination at Hunterston, accused the nuclear industry of playing Russian roulette with public health, public money and the environment . It also raised questions about nuclear secrecy, and suggested that there may be other radiation leaks which have been covered up, he argued. The cost to the taxpayer of cleaning this up if that can be done is anybodys guess. The Green Party will next week be questioning ministers on how much contamination has been found around Hunterston, Dounreay, Torness and Chapelcross. And last week, party co-leader, Robin Harper, quizzed First Minister Jack McConnell on the Hunterston contamination. CoRWM was set up by ministers in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2003 to recommend what should be done with nuclear waste. It includes 13 experts from universities and consultancies and has promised to make its final recommendations in July 2006. CoRWMs chairman Gordon MacKerron pointed out that low-level wastes were not part of its remit, which is restricted to medium and high-level wastes. But another government group which had been looking at low-level wastes, the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC), had been suspended. Government has no source of independent advice on the low and very low-level waste, MacKerron said. CoRWM cannot make credible recommendations to government without looking at the whole picture and that includes low and very low-level waste. David Lowry said that RWMAC had flagged up the looming problem of high- volume decommissioning wastes a year ago. But it seems that the Executive and the ministries in Westminster have paid no heed, he said. The Executive said it was aware of the nuclear industrys legacy. We do not accept that putting a figure on the amount of low-level nuclear waste adds any risk to human health or the environment, said a spokesman. The scale and scope of the issue is being reviewed. Proposals on how these wastes can best be managed for the long term will be brought forward shortly. The British Nuclear Group, which runs 10 nuclear plants in the UK, including Hunterston A and Chapelcross, said that no firm decisions had been taken on what to do with the waste. Most of it would probably be left where it is for the moment, and would be dealt with in the future by the governments Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which starts up next year. British Energy, which runs Hunterston B and Torness, accepted that there could be 18 million cubic metres of site clearance waste. We have contributed to that figure and we are totally supportive of CoRWM, a spokeswoman said. Friends of the Earth, however, dismissed suggestions that there was nothing to worry about. This latest revelation of the problems of nuclear power should act as a warning to all those who think building new nuclear power stations is a smart idea, said the environmental groups chief executive, Duncan McLaren. 07 November 2004 back to previous page Is the proposed £3,600 fine for smoking in public places fair? Yes No view results news - news in focus - international - sport - business - sevendays - review - magazine - blog ebooks - meet the staff - archive - awards news alerts - letters - subscriptions - - sales &advertising - recruitment - property - site map © newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved ***************************************************************** 26 Las Vegas SUN: Brian Greenspun: Were we thinking? Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun. WEEKEND EDITION November 6 - 7, 2004 The people have spoken. The people are always right. There are almost half the voters in our country who don't believe that America has made the right decision. But the beauty of this country and our democratic system is that the majority has spoken clearly that President George W. Bush will be our president for the next four years, and so it shall be. And if ever there were a question about that fact -- and there must not be -- Sen. John Kerry put all that to rest on Wednesday in his concession speech. Perhaps for the first time in his campaign, John Kerry in defeat let the people of this country know who he really is. We saw his emotion, we saw his candor, we saw his humanity. The shame is that in American politics we don't get to see very much of that from either candidate. Instead, we and they get handled by the experts who won't let the American people see who the candidate really is for fear that he may offend -- someone. But that is for another day. Today, as someone who opposed the president's re-election, I offer my congratulations. President Bush not only won a majority of American votes, but a clear victory in the Electoral College. His victory is legitimate and, like it or not, that is the way this democracy works. When President Bush spoke to the nation an hour or two later he was gracious in victory. He was happy but humble and he reached across the political divide and spoke directly to John Kerry's supporters. He spoke of a new term in which there was a new opportunity to reach out to the "whole nation," one in which we can come together to work together because, in doing so, "there is no limit to the greatness of America." It remains to be seen which direction the Republicans will take us now that they have firm control of the major branches of government. And with the vagaries of life on the Supreme Court, it is highly probable that Bush will stamp his brand on that institution as well. We are in a situation that is not unlike that of the Republicans for so many years when the Democratic Party was in control and the GOP felt left out of the process. And we have just witnessed the result of that policy. So we shall see which way Bush goes, and as he goes in the next four years, so will go the fortunes of the Republican Party. Because it appears to me that the only way the Democrats can right themselves is if the opposition gives them the chance. That's because I believe the American people are basically a good and decent people who want to help their neighbors while they secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their loved ones. The political divide that defines the two-party system today has people of good will on both sides of the aisle with neither side having a clue how the other can think the way it does. It is starting to remind me of what people must have felt like in the middle of the 19th century when the issue of slavery divided families, friends and loved ones. As abhorrent as slavery was, there were people of goodwill who just couldn't understand why their families and friends were willing to kill each other over the need to end it. While it isn't quite the same thing, issues like gay marriage, abortion and prayer in school have so gripped a significant portion of the voting public that they cannot contemplate another point of view. Indeed, they will not countenance an opposing opinion, and they let their voices be heard every Election Day. If we don't find a way through this problem, people of good will, good intentions and with good hearts will find themselves as separated from their friends and families as those of our ancestors did over the issue of slavery. I also understand that Kerry's inability to carry the state of Ohio made anything we did in Nevada moot, but that doesn't excuse us for the great harm I know that we have done to the people of this state. Because, by not rebuking the president for failing to keep his promise to Nevadans about Yucca Mountain, we have condoned his choice of our state as the site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste. As sure as I am sitting at this computer pounding out these thoughts, the White House and the Congress will move with all dispatch to change the law, change the rules and change whatever else they have to in order to make sure that Yucca Mountain opens on time -- if not sooner. By approving his decision on Yucca Mountain, which our vote did, we have removed from Sen. Harry Reid whatever ammunition he had in telling his Senate colleagues that his state was against playing host to the deadliest poison known to man. What were we thinking? Am I that wrong? Will Yucca Mountain actually be good for us in Nevada? Will an accident on Interstate 15 help or hurt a city that depends upon the goodwill and feelings of safety of the millions of tourists who come here each year? Obviously, I am wrong because Nevadans have not heeded the warnings of the man who has to carry the fight in the United States Senate and the people who must fight the odds against a well-financed and all-powerful nuclear power industry hell-bent on burying their mistakes in our backyard. Wrong or not, though, I will continue to inform on this issue in the hopes that one day -- hopefully before it is too late, if we have not already reached that time -- the people with the most to lose -- that would be the folks with all that money on the Strip and all those jobs in our major industry -- will wake up. Until then, I will just assume that we continue to be naive and stupid. Someone, please, prove me wrong. ***************************************************************** 27 Las Vegas SUN: Opinion: The Status Quo Election November 05, 2004 By Jon Ralston <> LAS VEGAS SUN WEEKEND EDITION November 6 - 7, 2004 When Nevadans awoke after Tuesday's election, they found the power matrix here, as in Washington, had barely changed. The congressional delegation was intact. The Republicans still controlled the state Senate, the Democrats the Assembly. Lynette Boggs McDonald was still a Clark County commissioner. This was the Status Quo Election, from the top on down. Nevada remains a reliably red state, although some of the blood spilled here Tuesday was Republican. A party-switching state senator (Ray Shaffer) suddenly in an unfriendly district and two inconsequential GOP assemblymen (Ron Knecht and Don Gustavson) lost their elected jobs Tuesday. But not a single Democratic incumbent lost or came close to losing -- not in federal races or legislative contests. Those that were supposed to win before Nov. 2 arose on Nov. 3 with their titles intact; those that didn't win were left contemplating a return to private life. The real deck-shuffling occurred in the primary with the inevitable demise of indictment-burdened County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and the defeats of two conscientious and tireless state lawmakers. One (Sen. Ann O'Connell) got caught up in a legislative moment, said "what the heck" to a protest tax bill, and paid with her seat. Another (Sen. Ray Rawson) was ground up by a relentless opponent whose anti-tax persona and shoe leather probably made the devout Mormon incumbent want to have a few beers. The three GOP lawmakers who lost Tuesday have never seen the word "influential" in proximity to their names. Shaffer was an opportunistic pol who switched parties so he could garner a chairmanship (the all-unimportant Transportation Committee) and went from being a Democratic backbencher to a Republican backbencher. Knecht decided it was a bright idea to fulminate against government in a state capital district teeming with government workers, and Gustavson was a one-dimensional lawmaker who knew how to say "no" but not much else. None of them will be missed. The real story of Campaign '04 was what didn't happen, the dogs that didn't bark. Yucca Mountain was a political molehill -- we Fourth Estaters, including the national media, built it up, but the voters apparently didn't see it. The anti-tax revolution occurred only in the minds of a few frothing Republicans, ironically claiming only the tax-averse O'Connell, who signed onto a $1.6 billion bill to protest the gross receipts tax and lived to regret it. And the great, apocalyptic showdown between the doctors and the lawyers turned into a rout as the physicians used spin and money to fuel an impressive ad campaign while the attorneys tried legal legerdemain and patronizing palaver that the public soundly rejected. All that talk of the Democrats tapping into the burgeoning Hispanic population in Southern Nevada never really materialized, either -- or at least it didn't affect the presidential campaign here. Indeed, while the Democratic machine purred nicely in key areas, guaranteeing legislative incumbents huge victory margins, it didn't change the results of the last presidential race or the previous contest for the only competitive congressional seat. In the end, Tom Gallagher did not fare much better than Dario Herrera did in 2002 against Jon Porter, barely cracking the 40 percent barrier. And Kerry actually fared worse than Al Gore did in Clark County -- Gore defeated Bush in Southern Nevada by 6.5 percentage points in 2000 while Kerry only beat the president by just under 5 percentage points last week. So much for The House That Harry Built -- it might have helped propel Sen. Reid to a record victory but the touted trifecta of the minimum wage initiative, the revitalized Democratic organization and the voter registration surge did not pay off Tuesday at the ballot box. After a season engorged with breathless, hyperventilating news releases, both parties here showed immediately after the election that they either don't get it or are delusional. The state Democrats put out a news release celebrating "'victories in state races," as if the legislative gains were a gleaming silver lining. But the cloud itself was so dark everywhere else that no one was going to even see the silvery light the Democrats tried to shine. State GOP Chairman Earlene Forsythe was equally in denial as she boasted about how it is "gratifying to know that a small state like Nevada could play such an important role in the election of 2004." Actually, despite all the attention lavished on the state, Nevada did not matter -- the president didn't need the state to get to 270. So whither the political dynamic now that Campaign '04 is about to slip into Campaign '06 with an irritation called Session '05 sandwiched in-between (and Session '04, too, if someone doesn't find Controller Kathy Augustine a job soon and get her to resign)? Let's take a look at the federal, state and local arenas: Federal The ineluctable truth about Tuesday's results is simple: Barring any major missteps, none of Nevada's members of Congress can be beaten. Rep. Shelley Berkley (66 percent) and Rep. Jim Gibbons (67 percent) did not have serious threats and never will -- the opposition has surrendered. But as much as the Democrats don't want to hear it, GOP Rep. Jon Porter's 14-point win indicates he, too, has that seat for as long as he wants it. Porter's district does not have the daunting demographics of those of Berkley and Gibbons. But a closer look at the underlying trends in that area show that Republicans consistently have outperformed the Democrats there. And it is an evolving, suburban congressional district, which favors the GOP. Tom Gallagher, the ex-Park Place CEO, may have been a flawed candidate. But it is a flawed premise to think that any Democrat can win here. Get used to the delegation, folks -- the trio is here to stay, at least until Jim Gibbons runs for governor and a Republican (Secretary of State Dean Heller, perhaps) will take his place. Sen. Harry Reid's smashing victory (60 percent) over anti-gay marriage activist Richard Ziser doesn't reveal much. Reid won this race when he scared Gibbons out months ago. The only question was how much of a pest Ziser would be on Reid's path to a fourth term. Answer: Not much. Reid's ascension to Tom Daschle's leadership job is historic -- never has a Nevadan led a major party and the new post arguably will make Reid the most powerful Democrat in Washington. What he does with that clout greatly will influence how long the post-election cries for bipartisanship will last. Reid is equally comfortable as a partisan attack dog and bridge-building, nonpartisan conciliator. That is how a senator from a small state gets to become leader of the Senate Democrats. How much will the new post help Nevada? It's hard to imagine Reid, who is a porkmeister extraordinaire, could bring home more bacon. But if he can increase the state's cholesterol level, he will. And this gives him more opportunity to deal directly with President Bush and his House counterparts. The president probably will forgive Reid his constant pounding on him over Yucca Mountain as the product of a local political imperative. As for the dump, former President Bill Clinton almost had it right when he told the Sun just before the balloting that the election was "an up or down referendum on Yucca Mountain." Not really. Most Nevadans oppose the dump. But what the election showed -- again -- was that it is not a top of mind issue, despite some questionable exit polling that indicated it drove some new voters. So much hype was given to Yucca Mountain in the media and especially in television ads -- Reid and Kerry and Gallagher all did ads on the issue -- that people knew what the score was. But they chose Bush anyhow, showing that Nevadans, like people everywhere, were more concerned with Iraq and the economy. Yucca Mountain Fatigue Syndrome (YMFS) is no longer a theory. It's a fact, reaffirmed by the election. And the next step is also guaranteed: More talk of negotiating for benefits, which will set off a political paroxysm. It also must be said one last time how pathetic the state's GOP elite were on this issue this cycle. For the first time in history, the state had leverage because of how important Nevada was to both campaigns. But no one even tried to extract a promise or a concession from President Bush. Instead they mouthed banalities about agreeing to disagree and how straight Bush had been with the state. They should all pay a political price for not playing carpe diem politics here -- but they will not because YMFS will save them. State Assembly Democrats could argue that they received a mandate from voters Tuesday as they took over three seats previously held by Republicans and none of their incumbents had a close race. And while some, especially Republicans, forecast doom for a Democratic caucus that unanimously voted for virtually every tax increase proposed in Sessions '03, they are now closer to a veto-proof majority (now that would have been useful 18 months ago). The story here is the impact of get-out-the-vote efforts and the Democratic success in redistricting in 2001, which allowed the party to make its incumbents more secure. And the tax increase, which few people actually feel, was a non-event -- in fact, four of the so-called Fearless/Mean Fifteen of the Republican Assembly Caucus will not be returning. Two -- Knecht and Gustavson -- were booted by voters and two more -- David Brown and Walter Andonov -- chose not to run again. The GOP caucus will be decidedly less conservative as Bob Seale, who replaced Andonov, is a moderate and future caucus leader, and Scott Sibley showed no signs of being an ultra righty. The real question is whether Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick will face a challenge after the disaster of Campaign '04. Hettrick and others had all but considered it a foregone conclusion that the Republicans would take control, a stupendous miscalculation. Will the caucus decide that Hettrick, who perfectly fits the most famous Durocherism about nice guys, should step aside for someone a little more politically calculating and savvy? Or is Hettrick the perfect man to reach out to the other side in what is being played, as on the national scene, as a new era of bipartisanship? Speaker Richard Perkins, whom the Republicans foolishly tried to take out and didn't come close, may be careful what he wished for as he will have to herd three new cattle. Holding 26 together is slightly more difficult than holding 23 -- and he also has to choose new chairmen of key committees. Wendell Williams is gone from education. Mark Manendo will not chair government affairs again after the sexual harassment charges of Session '03. Perkins will have to negotiate an interesting thicket, too -- working with Gov. Kenny Guinn, who will be looking to erase memories of the taxing session of '03, and setting a Democratic agenda that will pave the way for a planned gubernatorial run. He may be looking to teach the Republicans a lesson for their campaign hubris. But they will be waiting to pounce at every turn to help their all-but-announced contender for Guinn's job, Jim Gibbons. Down the hall, Bill Raggio already has proved the post-Session '03 obituaries wrong and retained his scepter as majority leader and Finance Committee chairman. One reason is the loss of outspoken Southern Nevada power advocate Ann O'Connell and the other is the play-ball attitude of newcomer Bob Beers, who now is wearing a Great Conciliator mask as he accepts Raggio's brilliant offer of Finance vice-chairman. And Dennis Nolan, who once called for Raggio to step down when he was running against the Raggio-anointed Richard Bunker, now is the master's lieutenant as assistant majority leader. Without O'Connell, the caucus rebels -- Barbara Cegavske, Sandra Tiffany and Mark Amodei -- will have less room to maneuver. And Raggio may have to spend less time fending off a coup and more time on legislating. The Democrats will have slightly more leverage by increasing their numbers by one. Minority Leader Dina Titus also will have the Perkins problem -- trying to be leader while also attending to the politics of running for governor. Raggio will be looking to help Gibbons every chance he gets. Titus actually has two new caucus members -- Steven Horsford replaced Joe Neal and Lee ousted Shaffer. Those freshmen will be vying for credibility and impact, with Horsford, a bright, rising star, having the edge over John Lee, who can barely hide his ambition. It's unlikely the session will be as rancorous as last year as Guinn is likely to begin to pursue a legacy agenda. But with the governor's race already having begun and some budget problems sure to surface, smooth sailing also is hardly likely. So is the message from the Clark County Commission results that growth is good, that developers reign supreme? Incumbent Lynette Boggs McDonald and Chip Maxfield were portrayed as shills for the building community and both retained their seats. Boggs McDonald's opponent, David Goldwater, actually ran a slow-growth campaign. Perhaps the story here is that anything will still go. Not exactly. Goldwater, pounded from Day One by Boggs McDonald on a variety of personal issues, never was able to have the discussion. And Maxfield had enough money to overwhelm his aggressive but financially strapped challenger, Jerry Tao. The lesson here is that it remains extraordinarily difficult to unseat a sitting county commissioner because of the access to Strip and developer money -- unless it is in a primary and unless the incumbent happens to have a federal indictment. Mary Kincaid-Chauncey never had a chance, it turns out, and Assemblyman Tom Collins was in the right place at the right time with the right demographics. North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck was a quality candidate and ran a fine campaign -- she just had the wrong party affiliation, as 10,000 more Democrats than Republicans are registered in the district. The stench of Operation G-Sting will hang over the commission for years, though, especially because it will be a long time before anyone goes to trial and the FBI still seems to be looking into other avenues of corruption. Trying to navigate through the public distrust of local governments with all of the ethical issues that have been raised in the last few years will continue to be a challenge. Collins is a bit of a wild card on the commission. He surely will be more outspoken than Kincaid-Chauncey and may not be as supportive of Manager Thom Reilly's attempt to change the culture of government benefits and salaries. But this is a board now where the locus of power is with Bruce Woodbury, Maxfield, Boggs McDonald and Rory Reid, who will continue to form a coalition on many issues. Reid, unlike the others, may be a Democrat, but he is a pragmatist, too. Boggs McDonald, who is as ambitious as anyone, will be a force on the board now that she has won re-election. But some Democrats believe she will be ripe for the picking with a candidate without Goldwater's baggage. Maybe. But she certainly proved in this election that she is willing to do what it takes -- both in fund raising and campaign bludgeoning. I wouldn't bet against her. So the status quo reigns for now in Clark County and Nevada. But for how long? Campaign '06 began the day after Campaign '04 ended and two years from now, we will have a new governor, probably one new congressman and probably half the constitutional officers will have either run for some other office or been forced from office. The County Commission may be changing, too, as yet another legislator, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, covets Myrna Williams' seat. And who knows? If Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman listens to his ego instead of his heart (and his wife), he may run for governor and win, meaning we will have a new mayor, too. The prospects are deliciously intriguing. I can hardly wait. ***************************************************************** 28 Tri-City Herald: Nuclear waste reclassifying ruling reversed This story was published Saturday, November 6th, 2004 By The Associated Press An appellate court has overturned a lower court's ruling barring the U.S. Department of Energy from reclassifying high-level waste at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington, saying it was too soon to consider opponents' claims. A federal judge in Idaho last year barred the Energy Department from reclassifying the waste after the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Snake River Alliance, the Yakama Nation and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes filed suit. The Energy Department maintains that some highly radioactive residue in the waste tanks is too expensive to extract. The department has proposed reclassifying it as less dangerous, combining it with concrete grout and leaving it where it is. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of Boise ruled the Energy Department's plans conflicted with provisions of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The appellate court said Friday it was too soon to say if those plans violated the act. All parties must adopt a wait-and-see attitude rather than make assumptions about the Energy Department's intentions and ability to dispose of waste, said a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "There might be some danger in waiting, but that is not a greater hardship for NRDC and the rest of our society than the one already imposed by our high-level-waste Frankenstein," the court said. The court sent the case back to the lower court with directions to dismiss. "The good news, from our perspective, is that the court did not rule on the merits of the case, and as far as we're concerned, it's a sound case. All it said is that the timing is off," said Elliott Negin, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The lawsuit had been filed to block waste reclassification in Idaho, South Carolina and Washington. Earlier this year, however, Congress approved a measure reclassifying sludge in the South Carolina and Idaho tanks from high level to incidental, a category that means it can be left in the tanks and combined with concrete grout. The move essentially made the lawsuit moot for South Carolina and Idaho, but the reclassification did not apply to Washington. Washington and five other states had filed "friend of the court" briefs to the appellate court, asking it to uphold the Idaho judge's decision. David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for Washington, said the state's concern all along has been that the Energy Department not violate the law. "The court recognizes how extremely important this issue is, the disposal of highly radioactive waste," Mears said. "We'll be watching DOE's actions very closely and making sure they follow this appropriately and will file a legal challenge if they don't." Colleen French, an Energy Department spokeswoman, said the agency was reviewing the ruling and would not comment further. As much as 100 million gallons of nuclear waste were stored over the years in 239 tanks in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina. Some of it has been removed and processed for permanent disposal. But about 85 million gallons remain to be processed in some manner. Critics contended that leaving any waste in those tanks will threaten the Columbia River at Hanford, as well as the Snake River aquifer under the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the ground water at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. About 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste from World War II and Cold War-era plutonium production is buried in Hanford's 177 aging underground tanks. An estimated 67 of the tanks have leaked radioactive brew into the soil, contaminating the aquifer and threatening the Columbia River, less than 10 miles away. The 1989 Tri-Party Agreement, a Hanford cleanup pact signed by Washington, the Energy Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, requires the Energy Department to remove as much waste as technically feasible, but not less than 99 percent. Initiative 297, which state voters overwhelmingly approved Tuesday, requires the Energy Department to clean up all of the tank waste. The initiative bars the federal government from sending more out-of-state nuclear waste to Hanford until all the existing waste at the site is cleaned up. The initiative is expected to face legal challenges. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 29 RGJ: Nevadans still oppose Yucca dump Friday, Nov. 5 is the deadline to enter. Nevadans still oppose Yucca dump Despite voting for President Bush: Survey shows an increasing number back fight against nuclear repository. Anjeanette DamonRENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Two days after Nevada voters turned down a presidential candidate who promised to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, state officials released a survey they say shows increasing opposition to the project and that support for the state’s costly fight against it remains high. But proponents of the project say the results of the presidential election in the Silver State prove Nevadans are more willing to see the repository move forward and that politicians don’t have to take an anti-Yucca Mountain stance to win election here. The survey, conducted from Oct. 7 to Oct. 18, wasn’t released until Thursday — four days before the state asks a legislative committee for another $1.75 million to continue fighting the project. According to the poll 76.8 percent of respondents opposed the project, compared to 75 percent who opposed it in 2003. Sixty-seven percent of those polled supported continuing the fight instead of making a deal with the federal government for benefits. The repository is designed to permanently store 77,000 tons of the nation’s most radioactive waste about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The state has spent more than $100 million over the past two decades fighting the project. “It is reassuring to know the public agrees with our aggressive approach to stopping the project,” said Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who recently won a federal court decision that some say has killed the project. Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John Kerry made Yucca Mountain a centerpiece to his Nevada campaign, vowing to end the project if he was elected. Two years into his first term, Bush approved Yucca Mountain as the storage site. Former President Bill Clinton, in a speech three days before the election, said the presidential race offered Nevada voters their first chance to be heard on the project. A vote for Bush was a vote for the project, he said. That’s all the ammunition project supporters need. “It speaks for itself,” said Bob List, a consultant to the Nuclear Energy Institute, which supports Yucca Mountain. “The Democrats characterized it as a referendum on the project and, lo and behold, George Bush carried the state by a substantial margin.” Bush won Nevada by 2.5 percentage points this year, compared to his 3.5-point margin over Al Gore in 2000. Sandoval, who has led the state’s recent legal fight against Yucca Mountain, also led Bush’s reelection campaign in Nevada. He said the election results don’t undermine public support for fighting the repository. “People realize this is a fight that is in the courts,” Sandoval said. “It is important for the public to know how the people in Nevada are consistently against the project regardless of who is in the White House.” In July, a federal court found the repository did not meet safety standards set by the National Academy of Sciences — a requirement set by Congress for the project to move forward. To save the project, the Environmental Protection Agency must write new standards — a process that could take more than a decade — or Congress must change its requirement. Either way, state officials say the project is “dead in the water.” That hasn’t stopped them for asking for money, to fight whichever remedy the Bush administration pursues. “We need to be ready,” said Bob Loux, Nevada director of nuclear projects. The nuclear industry remains steadfast in its resolve to see the project through. “Everyone acknowledges the project opponents made a poster boy out of this project to try to win the election,” List said. “The people of Nevada saw it as political posturing. So, I do believe that the likelihood of the project moving forward has certainly increased. And with the Republicans gaining members in both houses of Congress, there is a consensus in Washington that they need to get this done.” John Hadder, Northern Nevada director for Citizen Alert, an anti-Yucca Mountain group, said the election results don’t mean Nevadans want to the see the repository in their state. “There’s a lot of factors that go into how voters decide on a presidential candidate,” he said. “Obviously Yucca Mountain was only one factor. Voters had a lot of other things on their minds.” Project opponents also point to the U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s landslide reelection victory. Reid, D-Nev., has been a strident Yucca Mountain opponent. And as Senate Minority Leader, a position he is widely considered to win, he’ll have even greater power to thwart the project, they said. Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. ***************************************************************** 30 AFP: Thousands demonstrate nuclear waste shipment to German dump Saturday November 6, 11:09 PM DANNEBERG, Germany (AFP) - Thousands of anti-nuclear protestors gathered in northern Germany to protest at the imminent arrival of a shipment of highly radioactive waste from France to a German storage dump. The estimated 5,500 protestors gathered as a train carrying 12 containers of nuclear waste prepared to leave the La Hague nuclear plant in northern France later on Saturday. The material left the plant Saturday evening and was expected to cross the French-German border on Sunday and to reach the German town of Dannenberg 24 hours later, where the waste is expected to be loaded on to trucks to cover the last few kilometres to the Gorleben dump. After demonstrating in Danneberg market square on Saturday, demonstrators gathered at the railway station, temporarily blocking the tracks to be used by the train. More than 12,000 police were deployed last year for similar convoys in one of the largest security operations of its kind ever mounted in Germany. No protests were expected in France. Anti-nuclear and environmental campaigners say the shipments are dangerous and that the waste will contaminate the water table at Gorleben. Germany, which has no treatment facilities of its own, sends spent fuel rods for reprocessing at the La Hague plant before they are returned here for storage. Copyright © 2004 AFP AFP. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 31 Deutsche Welle: Protestor Killed in Castor Transport 07.11.2004 Protestors frequently act as human obstacles to delay the transport A train carrying "Castors" of nuclear waste from France to Germany ran over a protestor who had chained himself to the tracks, severing both of his legs. He died of his injuries a short while later, police reported. A 23-year old environmental activist paid the ultimate price for his convictions on Sunday. Despite a large security operation, the young man managed to chain himself to the railway tracks near Avricourt, in protest of the latest transport of nuclear waste from a French reprocessing plant in La Hague to a storage facility in Gorleben, Germany. A spokeswoman for France's SNCF rail operator said the train's driver noticed a group of people sitting on the tracks, and pulled the emergency brake. "One of the people remained sitting, and his legs were cut off and he has died," the spokeswoman said. The French nuclear technology company, Cogema, said it regretted the "dramatic accident." A company spokesman in Paris said Cogema Logistics staff charged with overseeing the transport couldn't explain how the accident had happened. The train loaded with highly radioactive nuclear waste had been stopped earlier on Sunday for two hours because of two demonstrators who had chained themselves to the tracks. The Castor transport was originally scheduled to arrive in Dannenberg, eastern Germany, on Sunday afternoon. From Dannenberg, the containers are loaded onto trucks to be transported to the storage facility in nearby Gorleben. Dannenberg residents shocked The citizens' initiative in the Dannenberg region, which helps to plan protest action, said it was "shocked and disturbed" by news of the deadly accident. Organizers said they would discuss what consequences the news had for further planned protest action. Thousands of demonstrators have been gathering in Dannenberg since Saturday. In past years, the Castor transports saw violent clashes between anti-nuclear activists and police. The environmental group Greenpeace has warned that the Gorleben storage site is unsafe over the long term and risks contaminating ground water. DW staff (dc) [de:mehr] ***************************************************************** 32 [du-list] Oak Ridge People - Peace Walk to UN '05 Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2004 22:30:45 -0800 Sorry Oak Ridge People. et al.. I lost your addresses and I have to post to general list. DGSE or Fatherland Security got my HD via a rogue MS file.. Stop The Bombs International Peace Walk by peacehq Email: ffpindy (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) 05 Nov 2004 The Stop The Bombs International Peace Walk is being organized by members of the International Coalition For A Nuclear Free Future. This walk will take place from March 12th, 2005 to May 2nd 2005. The walk will start at the Y12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tennessee. This complex is currently producing components for the life extension upgrade of the W76(Trident) warhead under the Stockpile Life Extension Program. W76 warheads are being dismantled, aging parts are replaced or refurbished, and the reassembled warhead is certified to be reliable of 100-120 years. Last year, Y12 completed life extension upgrades on every W87(MX missle) warhead in the US arsenal. When the W76 work is finished Y12 will begin upgrading the B61 bomb. Y12 makes the thermnuclear part of the bomb. Clearly, upgrading our nuclear arsenal to extend the life of warheads for 100 years violates the US obligation, under Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to pursue complete disarmament "at an early date". The walk will end at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty talks are being held. It is our stated purpose to bring public awareness to this Treaty and illustrate to those in charge that a vast population of this world wants complete nuclear disarmament. Those interested in joining this project should contact us at ffpindy (at) hotmail.com for further information. See also: http://peacehq.tripod.com/PHQ_Icnff/icnff-home.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this groups send a message to du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. In the body of the message type unsubscribe and send. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: du-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ***************************************************************** 33 chillicothe gazette: Piketon plant gets NRC report card - http://www.chillicothegazette.com Saturday, November 6, 2004 Public welcome at talk about safety features By DANIEL PRAZER Gazette Staff Writer The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Licensee Performance Review for the Piketon uranium enrichment plant will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9, at The Ohio State University South Centers, 1864 Shyville Road, Piketon. The NRC representatives will first go over its findings, then United States Enrichment Corp. management will be able to respond. The meeting will be open to the public, and a comments and question-and-answer period will cap off the meeting. PIKETON -- The United States Enrichment Corp. and the surrounding community will get an explanation of the plant's report card from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during a public meeting Tuesday. The NRC does a regular review of activities at the Piketon uranium enrichment plant, said NRC spokesman Ken Clark. During the Tuesday meeting, regulators will discuss the results of their evaluation, which covers Oct. 1, 2002, through Aug. 7, 2004. "It's simply a meeting with the USEC management to discuss with them, in brief, the NRC's latest appraisal of safety operations, regulatory safety operations at the Portsmouth plant," Clark said. The two entities will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday at The Ohio State University South Centers, 1864 Shyville Road, Piketon. After the NRC goes over its findings, USEC will respond. A public participation session will cap off the meeting. Overall, the report shows the company is conducting its activities safely, according to a Sept. 22 letter from the NRC to USEC. There are, however, some areas where improvement needs to be made. "They did say that we needed to improve in the area of radiation program protection requirements, and they also talked about procedure adherence and maintenance activities," said USEC spokesperson Angie Duduit. "They will go over their report at the public meeting on Tuesday, and we will also be expected to tell them what we're doing to make improvements in those areas." The radiation protection program, Duduit said, has acceptable requirements. The problem lies in their application. "They're just saying that our requirements, actually our implementation of the requirements, need to improve," Duduit said. The letter points out a failure to properly store a piece of equipment under requirements for high-level radiation area controls, failure to conduct an adequate survey to determine if monitoring of radiation doses was required and failure to record those surveys, and failure to follow procedures governing radiological operations and respiratory protection. The NRC said USEC also needs to continue paying special attention to adhering to its procedures, she said. Another NRC public meeting originally scheduled for Nov. 15 has been indefinitely postponed. That meeting would have discussed the environmental portion of USEC's pending application to run its planned centrifuge enrichment plant, but because the NRC had to take its online reading room down for security concerns, that would have not given the public enough time to read over the documents in question, Duduit said. USEC corporate spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said the postponement won't affect the company's timetable for receiving its license. It's already ahead of schedule, she said. "That little bit of time postponing that won't affect it," she said. "The NRC's the one who calls the shots on this, but it didn't seem to me like it would be postponed a long time." (Prazer can be reached at 772-9364 or via e-mail at dprazer@nncogannett.com) Originally published Saturday, November 6, 2004 Copyright ©2004 Chillicothe Gazette. All rights reserved. ***************************************************************** 34 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Court overturns ruling on Hanford waste [seattlepi.com] Saturday, November 6, 2004 By SHANNON DININNY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS YAKIMA -- An appellate court has overturned a lower court's ruling barring the Energy Department from reclassifying high-level waste at a nuclear site in Washington state, saying it was too soon to consider opponents' claims. A federal judge in Idaho last year barred the Energy Department from reclassifying the waste after the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Snake River Alliance, the Yakama Nation and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes filed suit. The Energy Department maintains that some highly radioactive residue in the waste tanks is too expensive to extract. The department has proposed reclassifying it as less dangerous, combining it with concrete grout and leaving it in place. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of Boise, Idaho, ruled the Energy Department's plans conflicted with provisions of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act. The appellate court said yesterday it was too soon to say if those plans violated the act. All parties must adopt a wait-and-see attitude rather than make assumptions about the Energy Department's intentions and ability to dispose of waste, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. "There might be some danger in waiting, but that is not a greater hardship for NRDC and the rest of our society than the one already imposed by our high-level-waste Frankenstein," the court said. The court sent the case back to the lower court with directions to dismiss. "The good news, from our perspective, is that the court did not rule on the merits of the case, and as far as we're concerned, it's a sound case. All it said is that the timing is off," said Elliott Negin, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The lawsuit had been filed to block waste reclassification in Idaho, South Carolina and Washington. Earlier this year, however, Congress approved a measure reclassifying sludge in the South Carolina and Idaho tanks from high level to incidental, a category that means it can be left in the tanks and combined with concrete grout. The move essentially made the lawsuit moot for South Carolina and Idaho, but the reclassification did not apply to Washington state. Washington and five other states filed "friend of the court" briefs, asking the appellate court to uphold the Idaho judge's decision. David Mears, senior assistant attorney general for Washington state, said the state's concern all along has been that the Energy Department not violate the statute. "The court recognizes how extremely important this issue is, the disposal of highly radioactive waste," Mears said. "We'll be watching DOE's actions very closely and making sure they follow this appropriately and will file a legal challenge if they don't." Colleen French, an Energy Department spokeswoman, said the agency was reviewing the ruling and would not comment further. As much as 100 million gallons of nuclear waste were stored over the years in 239 tanks in Idaho, Washington and South Carolina. Some of it has been removed and processed for permanent disposal. But about 85 million gallons remain to be processed. Critics contended that leaving any waste in those tanks will threaten the Columbia River at south-central Washington's Hanford site, as well as the Snake River aquifer under the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the groundwater at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. About 53 million gallons of highly radioactive waste from World War II and Cold War-era plutonium production is buried in Hanford's 177 aging underground tanks. An estimated 67 of the tanks have leaked radioactive brew into the soil, contaminating the aquifer and threatening the Columbia River less than 10 miles away. The 1989 Tri-Party Agreement, a Hanford cleanup pact, requires the Energy Department to remove as much waste as technically feasible from Hanford, but not less than 99 percent. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer] 101 Elliott Ave. W. Seattle, WA 98119 (206) 448-8000 Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer ***************************************************************** 35 ABQjournal: EPA Opening Agreement to Public ABQjournal.com Saturday, November 6, 2004 Albuquerque Journal--> By Adam Rankin Journal Staff Writer Capitulating to pressure from various citizens groups, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decided to open for public review a draft surface-water monitoring agreement for Los Alamos now under negotiation between EPA and the Energy Department. EPA officials had earlier refused to make the draft agreement public, saying the law didn't require public input on it. "It is something that we pushed for, and it is something that we are very happy EPA granted," said Jon Goldstein, spokesman for the state Environment Department. The draft agreement released by EPA requires Los Alamos National Laboratory to monitor and sample storm-water runoff in canyons at about 60 automated monitoring stations, according to the draft monitoring plan. Under the agreement, or Federal Facility Compliance Agreement, LANL also has until Dec. 31 to submit a pollution discharge application to EPA that will regulate storm-water runoff from individual solid waste sites. State Environment Department chief Ron Curry said a "fence-to-fence" contaminant investigation and cleanup at the laboratory is contingent on successfully implementing an interim surface-water monitoring agreement between EPA and DOE. The interim agreement would allow the state to monitor surface water runoff from the laboratory under the authority of the EPA and the federal Clean Water Act until the state negotiates permanent jurisdiction over surface-water pollutants, tentatively expected around 2006. New Mexico is one of five states that lacks authority to regulate or enforce surface water regulations. DOE and state Environment Department officials had voiced their support for making the draft agreement available for public review. Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, a Santa Fe-based watchdog group, and the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board wrote separate letters to EPA, urging the agency to make the draft agreement public and to accept public input when crafting a final version. Richard Greene, EPA Region 6 administrator in Dallas, wrote in a letter to the citizens groups that EPA has been working closely with the state to develop the surface water monitoring agreement. "I think, basically, we are pleased that EPA released this document for public review; we need to be able to see everything," said Joni Arends, director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. She said she wants to see the final agreement have more details about when DOE needs to act to cleanup contaminants after high pollution readings. "We see some holes in this already," she said about the draft agreement. Copyright Albuquerque Journal ***************************************************************** 36 Tri-City Herald: Some Hanford builders feel hands are tied This story was published Saturday, November 6th, 2004 By Annette Cary Herald staff writer PORTLAND -- Hanford construction workers rarely, if ever, assume their responsibility to call a halt to work if they believe safety or health is being compromised, according to the Hanford Advisory Board. Peer pressure and a lack of information about safety programs contribute to the problem, which has the potential to become worse as more small businesses pick up subcontracted work at Hanford, said board members who met Thursday and Friday in Portland. In a July 2004 report looking at safety problems in the area around Hanford's huge underground tanks of radio-active waste, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found workers called a halt to work 66 times in two years because of safety concerns. None of them were called by construction workers at the tank farms. When operations workers call for work to be stopped for safety reasons, the crew continues to be paid. But when construction workers cannot work -- whether because of bad weather or safety problems -- the crew is sent home. "Even if you are willing to accept the loss of pay, the people around you are not," said Keith Smith, a board member who represents the public. Some workers also fear that those who raise questions about safety will be the first to be laid off, he said. The board drafted advice to the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology recommending improvements. The three agencies oversee Hanford's environmental cleanup through the so-called Tri-Party Agreement. If work is stopped for a safety problem, construction workers should be reassigned to other jobs, if possible, board members said. They said workers also could remain on the job to plan for a quicker restart, enroll in required training or be given medical evaluations for either routine or newly discovered job hazards. "You don't have the right to stop work if you aren't paid," said Gerald Pollet, who represents the watchdog group Heart of America Northwest on the board. The board also recommended auditing be done to make sure Hanford's safety plan is being used at all levels, particularly among nonmanagement workers. "You can have a pretty-looking safety program that doesn't get down to rank and file," Smith said. "You see a lot of that at Hanford." The report on stop-work calls at the tank farms could be deceptive, said Becky Holland, who represents the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council on the board. Construction workers may be going to health and safety officials on the job who stop work, she said. Other members pointed out Hanford construction projects generally have a better safety record than the national average for construction sites. "If we wait until death or injury, it's a little late," Smith said. "Our hope is this advice will prevent death or injury." Work on Hanford's $5.7 billion vitrification plant that will turn waste left from the past production of plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program into a stable glass was plagued by close calls in the first half of the year. After talking to workers, Mike Keizer, who represents the Central Washington Building Trades Council on the board, believes at least one incident might have been prevented if workers had better understood their right to call a stop to work. Some workers were concerned a "curtain" of connected pieces of metal rebar that fell while being lifted by a crane did not look safe, but they were under pressure to finish the job because of limited crane time, Keizer said. Hanford also had a worker death this summer when a subcontractor employee fell off a ladder as he was helping move a portable building. With the push by the Bush administration to award more small-business contracts at Hanford, more employees who are unfamiliar with Hanford safety programs will be working on the site, said Pamela Brown Larsen, Richland's representative on the board. It will be important to audit businesses new to the Hanford site to make sure they and their workers are following Hanford safety programs, she said. © 2004 Tri-City Herald, Associated Press &Other Wire Services ***************************************************************** 37 Amarillo Globe: Lightning protection lacking at Pantex 11/07/04 By JIM McBRIDE jim.mcbride@amarillo.com Amarillo Globe-News The Pantex Plant continues to improve its electrical and lightning protection systems, but a nuclear safety agency says some significant lightning protection issues remain unresolved. In a Nov. 3 letter to top National Nuclear Security Administration officials, Defense Nuclear Facility Safety Board Chairman John Conway cited the plant's progress in improving its electrical and lightning protection systems. In particular, the board credited contractor BWXT Pantex with protecting electrical equipment from accidental sprinkler system activations and repairing leaking roofs over electrical equipment areas. But the board's letter says more work needs to be done to beef up Pantex lightning protection. "A number of significant issues related to lightning protection identified in BWXT project plans remain unresolved," according to the letter. "The board encourages the National Nuclear Security Administration and its contractors to finalize the outstanding items from these project plans expeditiously." Pantex has an extensive lightning detection and warning system, but one of the plant's four lightning sensors began to suffer frequent failures in May, according to board reports, but the contractor is working to correct the problem. Some Pantex nuclear facilities also still lack adequate surge protection and many electrical cables in two weapons facilities may need to be replaced, reports show. Todd Harris, manager for BWXT Pantex's process equipment engineering section, said Pantex is bringing more sensors on-line to supplement its lightning detection system. "Numerous engineered and administrative controls are in place to keep weapons operations safe in the event of a lightning strike," Harris said in a statement. "Appropriate technologies and controls are in place to ensure safe operation of the facility in all environmental conditions." The plant, he said, installed additional surge suppressors to the circuits entering buildings; added a grounded shield between test equipment and nearby wall-mounted equipment; and established controls to ensure equipment is located a safe distance from walls and metal objects in weapons production areas. In September 1997, the board first asked the Energy Department to prepare a detailed technical report and comprehensive analysis of lightning hazards to nuclear weapons operations. Two years later, Sandia National Laboratories, a weapons design laboratory, recommended that nuclear warheads not be transported in unprotected areas during lightning warnings or lightning storms. ***************************************************************** 38 Korea Herald: IAEA team completes nuclear experiment inspection 2004.11.08 The five-member inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency left for Vienna on Sunday (November 7) following the closing of their six-day visit to South Korea in order to examine South Korea's nuclear experiments conducted in 1982 and 2000. The inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog focused on the transfer of uranium metal to the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) from another nuclear research center in Gongneung-dong, northern Seoul, officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology said. The IAEA team also interviewed the South Korean scientists and inspected their notes to determine the whereabouts of missing uranium metal and laser equipment for the separation of uranium, which was disposed of by the South Korean scientists, the officials said. The inspection was the third round of inspections so far by the IAEA team since South Korea acknowledged in early September that its scientists extracted or enriched a small amount of plutonium and uranium, two main fissile materials used in nuclear weapons, in 1982 and 2000. South Korean officials said the two laboratory experiments were purely scientific and isolated incidents that were unrelated to any weapons program. The earlier inspection teams visited in August and September to look into South Korea's explanations. Officials in Seoul said that this probe is the final stage to be conducted by the IAEA before submitting a report to its 35-nation board of governors, which is expected to convene on Nov. 25. The board is most likely to make the final decision at that meeting on whether to refer South Korea to the U.N. Security Council over the experiments. ***************************************************************** NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: *****************************************************************