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Send News Stories to news@energy-net.org with title on subject
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NUCLEAR POLICY
1 BBC: N Korea 'wary' on nuclear talks
2 BBC: S Korea chided for nuclear tests
3 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North drags feet on 6-way nuclear talks
4 Korea Herald: Lawmakers focus on N.K. nuclear issue
5 US: FCNL :Say No to Funding for New Nuclear Weapons!
6 US: John Pilger: 9/11 Report "refuses to address" unanswered NORAD
7 US: EnergyPulse: The Energy Challenge 2004 - Solar
8 US: MoJo: Going Nuclear (Again)?
9 US: Fairfield County Weekly: Project Censored stories
10 Israel's Re-Arrest of Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu
11 [NYTr] Fascist Israeli Regime Re-arrests Vanunu
12 VANUNU ARRESTED AND CHARGED AGAIN - MORE NEWS TO FOLLOW
13 [NukeNet] Vanunu arrested again
14 [du-list] Interviews Available on Israel's Re-Arrest of
NUCLEAR REACTORS
15 Bellona: Russia not to pay penalty to China for delays at Tianwan NP
16 Floating NPPs and nuclear waste disposal to bring profit to
17 Bellona: An ‘ordinary emergency’ reactor shut down causes widespread
NUCLEAR SAFETY
18 [DU-WATCH] Interesting Article at Ban Uranium Weapons
19 Bellona: Norway sponsored radiation monitoring at Polyarninsky shipy
20 US: KPVI: RADIATION EFFECT ON IDAHOANS
NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
21 US: THE ROY PROCESS IS STILL AVAILABLE
22 US: Lowell Sun: Tewksbury, Billerica to meet on water contamination
23 Bellona: TVEL Corporation to increase nuclear fuel production
24 Bellona: Truck with radioactive scrap metal stopped in Petropavlovsk
25 US: Las Vegas SUN: UNLV researchers tackle nuke waste
26 US: RGJ: Experts discuss recycling spent nuclear fuel
27 US: Tewksbury Advocate: Board creates new policy, perchlorate task f
28 Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Four more what?
29 Las Vegas RJ: Nuclear waste at center stage
30 US: Las Vegas RJ: Whistle-blower claims BLM firing over polluted min
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
31 The Sunflower - November 2004 - No. 90
US DEPT. OF ENERGY
OTHER NUCLEAR
32 [du-list] DU in the news - 11/11/04
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FULL NEWS STORIES
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1 BBC: N Korea 'wary' on nuclear talks
Last Updated: Thursday, 11 November, 2004
[North Korean soldiers]
North Korea has blamed the Bush administration for the stand-off
North Korea has indicated it is not ready to resume stalled
multinational talks on its nuclear weapons ambitions.
Analysts believe Pyonygyang had been holding off in the hope that
a new US president would be elected.
But in their first comments since George W Bush's re-election,
officials from the North reportedly said an early resumption of
talks was not possible.
Thursday's comments were made to Japanese officials in Pyongyang
to discuss abducted Japanese nationals.
There have been three rounds of six-party talks, aimed at
pressuring Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear weapons ambitions.
North Korea refused to attend a fourth in September.
The communist state appeared to see no point in talking before
the US presidential election on 2 November, analysts said.
North Korea has consistently blamed the Bush administration's
"hostile policy" for the nuclear stand-off.
SIX PARTIES TO KOREA TALKS China Japa
North Korea Russia South Korea United States
But now Pyongyang knows the result, it still does not seem keen
to restart discussions.
"We understand North Korea is not positive (on restarting the
talks soon)," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda
told a news conference.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shuzen Tanigawa also said North
Korea was not ready to rejoin the talks, according to Kyodo news
agency.
"They (the North Koreans) said they were not in an environment
where they could restart six-party talks in early stages," Mr
Tanigawa told reporters.
North Korea claims to have nuclear weapons and to be working on
building up its arsenal.
Experts believe the North has already extracted enough plutonium
for six or seven atomic bombs, although this is difficult to
verify as North Korea will not submit to inspections from the
UN's nuclear agency.
Missing
Later on Thursday, Japanese and North Korea officials were
expected to discuss the fate of Japanese nationals allegedly
abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 80s.
Pyongyang allowed five abductees to return to Japan in 2002, but
claims other missing Japanese are now dead.
But Tokyo is sceptical, and wants proof the others have died. It
also wants information on another two people whom North Korea
says never entered the country.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il pledged in May to reinvestigate
the cases.
The abduction is a major stumbling block to the establishment of
diplomatic ties, which would win Pyongyang substantial economic
aid from Japan.
The BBC's Tokyo correspondent, Jonathan Head, says there is
strong public pressure on the Japanese government not to improve
ties with North Korea until it gives a full account of what
happened to all the Japanese abductees.
*****************************************************************
2 BBC: S Korea chided for nuclear tests
Last Updated: Thursday, 11 November, 2004
[Students look at a diagram showing the theory of nuclear energy
at the Seoul Science Museum]
Seoul says the tests were only small-scale
The UN nuclear watchdog has said South Korea has been illegally
conducting secret nuclear tests on a larger scale than Seoul had
previously declared.
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said South
Korea enriched a small amount of uranium in 2000 to a level
almost useable in nuclear arms.
IAEA boss Mohammad ElBaradei said uranium and plutonium tests by
South Korea were a matter of serious concern.
Seoul has repeatedly stressed it has no intention of building
nuclear weapons.
South Korea has admitted that its scientists conducted, without
official authorisation, tests in 1982 to extract plutonium and in
2000 to enrich uranium - two separate routes to an atomic bomb.
But the government has argued that the tests were on too small a
scale to be significant and only 0.7g of plutonium and 200mg of
uranium were produced.
However, South Korea's concealment of its secret tests is seen by
some experts as violation of Seoul's obligations under the
nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
They say it could require the IAEA to refer South Korea to the UN
Security Council.
77% enrichment
The IAEA report obtained by the BBC said that South Korea had
failed to inform the agency about the secret experiments, the
BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna reports.
"Although the quantities of nuclear material involved have not
been significant, the nature of the activities - uranium
enrichment and plutonium separation - and the failures by [South
Korea] to report these activities in a timely manner... is a
matter of serious concern," said the report.
"The agency is continuing the process of verifying the
correctness and completeness of [Seoul's] declarations," it
added.
The report said that South Korean scientists had enriched a small
amount of uranium to 77% uranium-235, which is close to
weapons-grade.
However, it said the average enrichment during the uranium
experiments was about 10.2%.
The report stated that the IAEA had found no indications that the
experiments had gone beyond small-scale laboratory activities.
Mr ElBaradei also praised Seoul's co-operation with the
investigation into the matter.
*****************************************************************
3 INSIDE JoongAng Daily: North drags feet on 6-way nuclear talks
November 12, 2004 KST 14:04 (GMT+9)
November 12, 2004 ¤Ñ Comments from Chinese and Japanese
officials suggest that North Korea was not yet ready to resume
the stalled six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear program.
China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Zhang Qiyue, said in her
daily press briefing that visiting North Korean officials have
told their Chinese counterparts that it would make a decision on
resuming of the talks after it studies the foreign affairs
policy of the Bush administration in its second term.
The North Korean position was laid out by North Korea's vice
foreign minister, Kim Yong-il, during a meeting with Foreign
Minister Li Zhaoxing and his deputy, Wu Dawei.
At talks with Japanese officials in Pyeongyang on kidnapped
Japanese citizens, North Korea said the same thing. Shuzen
Tanigawa, a senior Japanese diplomat said he was told by the
North Koreans that they were not ready to resume the talks soon.
Copyright by Joins.com, Inc. Terms of Use |
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4 Korea Herald: Lawmakers focus on N.K. nuclear issue
2003-11-12
Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties yesterday pressed
the government to come up with early countermeasures to end the
current stalemate in inter-Korean relations and the standoff over
North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
But the rival lawmakers put forth different views on how to
achieve a breakthrough in the deadlocked inter-Korean relations
and in the six-party talks on the North's nuclear issue.
The lawmakers from the ruling Uri Party and the main opposition
Grand National Party revealed their differences during a session
for questioning the government. The session conducted yesterday
marked normalization of Assembly activities after a two-week
suspension.
Uri lawmakers said there is little possibility that newly
reelected U.S. President George Bush will change his hard-line
stance toward the Pyongyang regime, and emphasized the need to
immediately open talks between the two Koreas.
"President Bush, who branded North Korea as part of an 'axis of
evil,' could remain resolute in his position and try to solve the
nuclear problem by a head-on attack on the North," said Uri Rep.
Choi Sung. "Some worry that North Korea could become the next
Iraq."
Due to the uncompromising approach taken by Bush in the past,
his re-election has raised concerns among some liberals in South
Korea, the U.S.'s longtime ally.
Resuming the six-party talks could be a solution, but a summit
between the two Koreas should be held along with the talks, Rep.
Choi added.
Another ruling party lawmaker, Kim Sung-gon, said that if an
immediate inter-Korean summit was problematic under the current
circumstances, the government should review arranging a
parliamentary meeting between the two Koreas first.
(hayney@heraldm.com)
By Shin Hae-in
2004.11.12
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5 FCNL :Say No to Funding for New Nuclear Weapons!
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:57:46 -0800
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Legislative Action Message
Print out this week's LAM and share it with a friend.
November 10, 2004
The following action items from the Friends Committee on National
Legislation (FCNL) focus on federal policy issues currently before Congress
or the Administration.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Say No to Funding for New Nuclear Weapons!
Dear Friends,
As soon as Wednesday, November 17, the full Senate Appropriations
Committee may vote on whether to fund new nuclear weapons for fiscal year 2005.
The committee is expected next week to take up an "omnibus"
appropriations bill. An omnibus appropriations bill takes the place of the
unfinished appropriations bills and is expected to include funding for the
nuclear weapons program.
The Bush administration has asked Congress for $27.6 million to
continue a study on the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), or nuclear
"bunker buster," and $9 million for the Advanced Concepts Initiative for
new nuclear weapons.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (CA) intends to offer an amendment in
committee to delete the funds for new nuclear weapons. The amendment is
unlikely to pass. However, the bill will then quickly go to a House-Senate
conference committee, which is expected to complete its work before
Christmas. The House earlier zeroed out new nuclear weapons funding and may
insist on doing so in conference committee. A partial or complete victory
for nuclear restraint is possible in the final bill coming out of the
conference committee. The result will depend in part on how much opposition
Senate Appropriations Committee members hear from their constituents.
Please contact your two senators today, especially if either is on
the Senate Appropriations Committee. You can view the list of committee
members on our Legislative Action Center. Just go to
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/, click on "Congressional Directory,"
and then select the Senate Appropriations Committee from the drop-down list.
Urge them to oppose funds for new nuclear weapons in the omnibus
appropriations bill. Tell them that new nuclear weapons will not make the
world more secure. Developing new nuclear weapons will send the wrong
signal to the rest of the world that nuclear weapons are usable. In the
long run, pursuing new nuclear weapons will undermine U.S. security.
Contacting your congressperson is easy. You can reach his or her
office in Washington, DC by calling the Capitol Switchboard at
202-224-3121. You can also fax or email him or her from FCNL's web site.
Start with the sample letter posted on FCNL's Legislative Action Center,
personalize the language, then send your message directly from our site.
Here is the link:
http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=6631026&type=CO.
Given the urgency of these issues, we ask that you forward this
action alert to 10 or more of your local friends. Every fax, letter, and
phone call is important. Thanks for your help!
Background: Some civilian military planners and nuclear scientists
are promoting the creation of a new class of earth-penetrating nuclear
weapons. These weapons are sometimes referred to as "bunker busters"
because they would be designed to burrow into the ground to destroy
underground military facilities that are protected by 100 to 300 feet of
reinforced concrete or rock. The Energy Department's fiscal year 2005
(FY05) budget includes $27.6 million for the Robust Nuclear Earth
Penetrator (RNEP). The RNEP would use an existing nuclear weapon,
redesigned for use against underground bunkers. It would have explosive
power up to 70 times that of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
RNEP proponents claim that, because the weapon penetrates the earth
before detonating, it would be a "clean" nuclear weapon. In reality, this
would be an extremely deadly weapon. If detonated in an urban setting, tens
of thousands of people could receive a fatal dose of radiation within the
first 24 hours. More would be killed or injured by the extreme pressures of
the blast and thermal injuries arising from the heat of the explosion.
Still more casualties would result from the resulting fires and the
collapse of buildings from the seismic shock that the explosion would
produce. According to Sen. Jack Reed (RI), Robust Nuclear Earth
Penetrators, "are really city breakers, not bunker busters."
The Bush administration has repeatedly claimed that the RNEP program
is a study and nothing more. However, the administration's intentions
regarding RNEP go well beyond their initial claims. Energy Department
budget documents show funding for RNEP increasing dramatically after this
year. The initial three-year study was to cost $45 million, but the
administration's proposed spending in the next five years would total
nearly $500 million and move RNEP into early development and engineering
stages.
The U.S. has rightly criticized Iran and North Korea for their
nuclear weapons programs. The U.S. has expressed concerns about the nuclear
programs in India and Pakistan. There is also a growing fear that nuclear
materials could fall into the hands of a violent extremist group, such as
al Qaeda. Yet U.S. criticism rings hollow as the U.S. resumes its own
nuclear weapons development programs.
The Bush administration is leading the world down the wrong path.
Instead of adhering to our obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) by reducing reliance on the most horrific weapons ever created
and working for global disarmament, the administration is seeking new uses
for nuclear weapons. Adopting such a nuclear posture is a step backward and
a virtual invitation for other nations to opt out of their NPT obligations
as well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FCNL's office will be closed from November 11-16 as the FCNL General
Committee meets in Washington, DC for its annual meeting. At this meeting,
the committee will set FCNL's legislative priorities for the 109th Congress.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTACTING LEGISLATORS
Capitol Switchboard:
202-224-3121 or 800-839-5276
CONTACTING THE ADMINISTRATION
Sen. ________
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Rep. ________
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
White House Comment Desk: 202 456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
president@whitehouse.gov
White House Web Page
Return to regular view
Information on your members is available at:
FCNL's Congressional Directory
Return to regular view
Your contributions sustain our Quaker witness in Washington.
We welcome your gifts to FCNL, or, if you need a tax deduction, to the FCNL
Education Fund. You can use your credit card to donate money securely to
FCNL through a special page on FCNL's web site. FCNL also accepts credit
card donations over the phone. For more information about donating, please
contact the Development Team directly at development@fcnl.org. Thank you.
To follow these and related issues on a regular basis, we urge you
to read the FCNL Washington Newsletter. Contact FCNL to receive the
newsletter for free on a trial basis or click here to register to read it
online.
FCNL, 245 Second Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20002-5795 USA
phone: (202) 547-6000 (In the U.S. 800-630-1330) fax: (202) 547-6019
email: fcnl@fcnl.org
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6 John Pilger: 9/11 Report "refuses to address" unanswered NORAD
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 18:00:06 -0800
QquestionsjohnXpilger9iiQreportX"refusesXtoQaddress"QunansweredXnoradXquestionsXhttpinnglobalZpress
X-Temp-Subjectphrase2: YES rtX"
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.1 (2004-10-22) on darwin.ctyme.com
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score.0 required0 testsºYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO,
FROM_ORG,SUBJ_PHRASE2 autolearn version0.1
John Pilger: 9/11 Report "refuses to address" unanswered NORAD Questions
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1016
NewStatesman -Issue November 15, 2004
John Pilger speaks out again. Last year, he revealed, that the WMD
propaganda, "was part of a big lie invented in Washington within hours of
the attacks of September 11 2001 and used to hoodwink the American public
and distract the media from the real reason for attacking Iraq...It was 95
per cent charade", a former senior CIA analyst told him.
Now Pilger wonders about yet unanswered questions regarding military
procedures on 9/11:
Iraq: the unthinkable becomes normal
John Pilger
"...Flying into Philadelphia recently, I spotted the Kean congressional
report on 11 September from the 9/11 Commission on sale at the bookstalls.
"How many do you sell?" I asked. "One or two," was the reply. "It'll
disappear soon." Yet, this modest, blue-covered book is a revelation.
Like the Butler report in the UK, which detailed all the incriminating
evidence of Blair's massaging of intelligence before the invasion of Iraq,
then pulled its punches and concluded nobody was responsible, so the Kean
report makes excruciatingly clear what really happened, then fails to draw
the conclusions that stare it in the face. It is a supreme act of
normalising the unthinkable. This is not surprising, as the conclusions are
volcanic.
The most important evidence to the 9/11 Commission came from General Ralph
Eberhart, commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad).
"Air force jet fighters could have intercepted hijacked airliners roaring
towards the World Trade Center and Pentagon," he said, "if only air traffic
controllers had asked for help 13 minutes sooner . . . We would have been
able to shoot down all three . . . all four of them."
Why did this not happen?.....
--
NEU +++ DSL Komplett von GMX +++ http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl
GMX DSL-Netzanschluss + Tarif zum supergünstigen Komplett-Preis!
*****************************************************************
7 EnergyPulse: The Energy Challenge 2004 - Solar
Insight Analysis and Commentary on the Global Power Industry
editor@energypulse.net.
11.11.04 Murray Duffin, Retired
Solar energy is our most abundant renewable resource. An analysis
of insolation in the USA southwest shows that using only the 1%
of the land area considered, that has a slope of 7kWh/sq. m./day
insolation, concentrated solar (CSP) can provide power of
approximately 30 Gwe. With effective storage (as for solar
towers) this potential could provide at least 3x the total
productive energy of today’s economy.
Solar energy generation can be considered in 3 categories, solar
thermal, solar photovoltaic (PV), and solar thermophotovoltaic
(TPV). As TPV is still a far future technology, only the first
two will be considered here. 2004 may have been the watershed
year for the development of solar renewable energy, although that
may not become obvious for several more years. While there has
been little progress in installations in some years, technology
has continued to improve, and with rising costs of coal oil and
natural gas, interest in solar energy is now growing rapidly.
The new economic driver North American production of natural gas
is reported to have declined by more than 3% in 2003 vs. 2002,
and based on reports by the major producers in America,
production in 2004 seems to have declined at least 3% in the
first half, and as much as 10 to 12% in the third quarter y-o-y.
Hurricane damage can account for less than 40% of Q3 decline, so
it seems that decline of mature fields is accelerating. Against
earlier forecasts of natural gas prices below $5.00/Mbtu for H2
2004, recent cash prices have been above $7.00, at a time when
demand is low, and storage is at record levels.
At the same time export demand for coal has caused prices to more
than double, on average, for all but Powder River Basin coal; and
we have seen oil prices rise 70% in a few months and are going
into winter with heating oil stocks low and prices high. With
possible brief respites, these trends appear irreversible.
Solar Thermal Overview There are 2 major sets of solar thermal:
Direct heating and cooling Electricity generation.
Each can be split into flat plate and concentrating (CSP) subsets
although for electricity generation CSP is the economic choice
for all but small-scale applications. + Direct heating and
cooling The mature technology is water heating for home hot
water, space heating and swimming pool heating. Flat plate
technology is common, inexpensive and effective and has been used
successfully with gradual growth for at least 50 years.
Efficiency can be in the 25 to 50% range, depending on design.
More recent technology that is growing rapidly, and is the
preferred choice for larger installations like hotels and public
swimming pools is evacuated tube heating systems which provide
much more heat per unit area, remain effective even during light
overcasts, and can reach 60% conversion efficiency.
Recently compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) have begun to be
industrialized, proving very effective in evacuated tube systems.
The advantage of CPC is that, by concentrating sunlight it can
raise liquid temperature in pressurized systems to >300 degrees
F, enabling economic absorption chillers for cooling systems. CPC
is also effective over a very wide angle of illumination,
eliminating the need for a tracker in a concentrator system. The
California Energy Commission retrofitted and optimized a 20 ton
conventional double effect (2E) LiBr/water absorption chiller to
be solar hot water driven, and have estimated that such a system
can be supplied commercially for Direct heating and cooling
systems have the effect of displacing electricity, to use Amory
Lovin’s term, providing “negawatts” instead of megawatts, and
generally at lower cost than increased generating capacity.
+ Electricity generation (CSP)
Thermal power generation is being addressed in several ways—and
for different sizes of installation: + Solar dish concentrators
driving Sterling engine generators. + Trough concentrators
heating a liquid to gas system driving a turbine generator. +
Solar towers using large reflector (heliostat) arrays to heat
molten salts which, through a heat exchanger, drive steam
turbines. + Solar chimneys using rising air from a large ground
level greenhouse to drive turbines at the base of a km high
chimney.
CSP Details Dish/Sterling systems tend to be aimed at tens of kW
applications for grid connected distributed power, and reach
conversion efficiencies near 30%. Cost of electricity is still
high, though there is a wide range of estimates. Widespread use
seems likely to be well in the future.
Trough concentrators get into the 100s of kW to tens of MW range,
good for locally sighted factory power also at attractive
efficiencies. The best-known examples are the SEGS series (now up
to SEGS 9) in California. Recent projects have been commissioned
in Nevada and Arizona. It has been estimated that a 100 mi.
square in the Nevada desert could provide about 500 GWe, roughly
equal to the USA installed electric power base. Up to now such
applications have limited storage ability, so they are unsuitable
to 24 hr. operation and dispatched power. CPC concentrators might
overcome that drawback. These systems approach 14% efficiency
today and are projected to get to 17% by about 2015.
Solar towers (Power Towers) are MW sized for utility type supply
and have the advantage of retaining heat for 24-hour operation.
Solar 1 was operated near Barstow Ca. in the 1980s as proof of
concept. Solar 2, a 10 MWe upgrade of Solar 1 operated from 1992
to 1999, demonstrating the feasibility of storing heat for
dispatchable power and 24 hr. operation. Solar Tres (17 MWe) has
been planned for Spain, originally to go into operation by late
2003, but now delayed to 2006, seemingly by bureaucracy. Towers
in the 100 MW range are projected. Solar towers are about 23%
efficient in conversion of incident energy to electricity, and
can realize up to 70% capacity factor. Current experience
indicates a space demand of 10 acres/MW, with promise of at least
a 20% reduction.
Solar chimneys4,5 are only theoretical so far, and seem to have
captured most attention in Australia. They can be designed to
heat water during the day to provide energy at night. Efficiency
is estimated as 3%, but it seems likely that this can be at least
doubled. Proposed designs have fresh air drawn into the heating
area at ground level. Drawing in air near the tower top would
augment generation with the sinking column of cooler air. In dry
climates it should be possible to inject water vapor into intake
air to further cool the descending air column. Current projected
design is for 200 MW and requires about 23 acres/MW. Capital cost
of $2.00/Wp is projected, but seems quite optimistic.
For utility scale electricity generation, the best choices today
are trough concentrator and solar tower systems. An excellent
2003 analysis for trough concentrators2 (based on 2002 data and
projections) considers a necessary competitive target price for
electricity of $4.50/MBtu, assuming a floor fixed at that level
by LNG. We now can be sure that LNG will not be a major factor
for at least a decade, and even then will set a floor above
$6.00/Mbtu. This analysis showed trough systems becoming
competitive at 10 Gwe installed capacity and 6 cents/kWh. It now
seems more likely that 7-8 cents/kWh will be good which can be
reached at 5-6 Gwe installed. Another late 2003 report3, using
well reviewed data and analysis developed independently be Sunlab
and Sargent &Lundy gives present electricity costs of 10 – 12.6
cents/kWh now, going to 3.5-5.5 cents/kWh before 2020 for trough
and tower systems. Growing fossil fuel shortages seem certain to
accelerate progress relative to these studies.
Photovoltaic (PV)
Historically PV has been seen as much too expensive for
widespread use, having been represented as “the energy of the
future and always will be”. 2003 saw a novel development that
should change that conclusion. All of the pieces now seem to be
in place for PV to breakthrough all the barriers of demand, cost
and capacity that have been holding it back, but it seems that no
one in the North American PV or electric utility industries has
seen all the pieces yet, let alone put them together to make a
picture
Recent NG demand growth is largely for electricity generation.
From 1993 through 2003 nearly 300 GW of electrical generating
capacity was installed in the USA, about 90% of which is NG
fired, both to meet Clean Air Act requirements, and to add
flexible capability to meet peak loads. Base load demand is
estimated to grow at least 1.5%/yr (6 GW/yr), but seems to have
shot up by at least 5% in 2004 vs. 2003. Therefore NG fired
supply, intended for peaking, is being converted to base load
supply, leaving a growing shortage of peaking capacity. Now
declining NG supply means that peaking demand growth can no
longer be met by adding new NG fired capacity. However peak
demand coincides with peak insolation making PV an attractive
alternative.
So, we have demand, at least if the cost is not too high. Can
needed costs be met, and can there be adequate supply? In
Renewable Energy World, Dec 2002, Auliche and Schulze (A)
estimated worldwide polysilicon feedstock capacity for electronic
grade (EG) silicon at 26,000 metric tons (MT)/yr, with production
estimated at 14,000 MT/yr. With such a large excess capacity,
poly suppliers have been happy to sell EG silicon for PV
production at very attractive prices ($20.00-25.00/kg), enabling
PV producers to lower their prices. As Maycock noted in Solar
Today, Jan/Feb 2004, PV producers have sold cells and modules at
cost, enabling very rapid industry growth in 2001-2003. System
quotes as low as $4.00/Wp installed have been mentioned. Total
world Si PV production in 2003 was about 0.7 GWp, having grown
32% worldwide while actually shrinking in the USA.
A estimated that about 2000 MT each of “off spec” and “non-prime”
EG Si were supplied to the PV industry in 2000. At 17 MT/MWp that
was enough to produce 235 MWp in 2000. Maycock shows 2000
production at 288 MWp, which implies another 1000 MT from
capacity dedicated specifically for PV. With perhaps 8000 MT
excess capacity in 2000 suppliers have had no incentive to add
capacity. However, production of >700MWp in 2003 has surely
consumed the excess capacity, even if price may not yet have been
attractive for the poly producers. In parallel, while technology
is reducing the share of off spec and non-prime Si being
produced, microelectronics demand for Si is growing rapidly. As a
result, in the last 12 months the price of poly has gone from
$20.00-25.00/kg to >$30./kg and is projected to go to
$40.00-60.00/kg. These price increases push bottom prices for PV
installations back to the range of $6.00-7.00/Wp.
While there may still have been some stockpiles from prior years
to work off in 2004, it is probably safe to say that PV growth
will now be limited by poly capacity and price. To aggravate the
situation, during the 2000-2003 period, poly producers
experienced very low ROI, making it difficult now to attract the
large increments of capital needed for conventional “Siemens
process” poly production capacity. Unless there are dramatic
technical advances, this condition is likely to persist for
several years. John Schumacher has pointed out (Solar Today,
Jan/Feb 2004), that breakthroughs are needed in both poly
capacity capital and production costs, and in ways to get more
collector surface per ton of poly. Fortunately, it seems that the
technology now exists to meet both needs, and the only delay
factor is time to recognition and industrialization.
Schumacher7 has already operated a “proof of concept” facility
for a new poly process that has a capital cost about 40% of that
for the Siemens process and projected product price of In Dec.
2003, Origin Energy of Australia8, in conjunction with the
Australian National University (ANU) announced a new “sliver
cell”6 approach to making PV cells from Si wafers that is a
classic example of “lateral thinking”. Origin claims a 12x
increase in collector surface per ton of silicon, and a 30x
potential increase in Wp/wafer. My calculations do not confirm
these claims, but taking all yield factors into account, they can
probably get to >6x increase in collector surface/ton, which is
still a sufficient breakthrough.
In 2004 ANU delivered a paper6 on sliver cells in concentrator
applications, showing a 21% conversion efficiency at 20 suns. The
Fraunhofer Institute has also worked with very thin silicon for
PV and show 24% efficiency at 60 suns. Even at 20 suns and 6x
yield/ton, poly scarcity ceases to be a restraint.
In writing a National Energy Policy “primer” for the House and
Senate Energy Committees in 2001 (which regrettably, but not
surprisingly, they totally ignored), I estimated that we would
need the output of 50 large factories for 20 years to install
enough collector surface at 20 suns to produce 10 quads of PV
solar energy per year. The sliver cell will enable 5 quads in 20
years with only 4 factories. What seemed quite impractical in
2001, now appears quite feasible.
Sliver Cell Whole System Pluses . ANU notes that the cells can
readily be connected in series, reducing the need for protective
diodes and eliminating the transformer from the inverter. In
addition to lowering system cost, these changes would also
improve conversion efficiency to a-c significantly, thus reducing
the needed collector area for a given Wp. Taking all of these
factors into account (Schumacher’s poly + 6x surface increase/MT
+ elimination of diodes and transformer + light weight deriving
from thin slivers + system efficiency) it seems likely that PV
could get to an installed cost of $1.50/Wp before 2010. (ANU has
estimated $1.80/Wp, but it’s not clear that they took all factors
into account).
In a concentrator system, when used for peaking power in
conjunction with a CCGT, the concentrator could also preheat
water for the steam turbine stage, potentially increasing CCGT
output by at least 3%, at no additional cost. If a 500 MW CCGT
installation needed 100 MW for peaking, the extra 15 MW of
thermal energy would lower the total investment per effective Wp
to about $1.30. With regulated utility type financing (cost of
money 3% above inflation) the resulting peaking electricity could
be provided at a cost near 13 cents/kWh. Historic PV electricity
cost estimates have typically been quoted (see the Wall Street
Journal Special Report Sept. 2001) as 22 to 40 cents per kWh.
The average retail price of electricity in the USA in 2002 was 7
cents/kWh, and is surely higher now. Peak electricity price can
be at least 3x, making conventional PV historically
uncompetitive. (In some Calif. districts, base rates are 12
cents/kWh and conventional PV is marginally competitive for peak
power now). At a base cost of 13 cents/kWh, even after markup for
maintenance and OH, PV would be attractive for peaking supply
across the southern tier. This base cost leaves room for
attractive profit margins for everyone. I would expect NG fired
power suppliers to start pushing very hard to have these
technologies industrialized as rapidly as possible.
Conclusions
Solar thermal energy for hot water has long been attractive, and
recent developments now make it attractive for air conditioning
as well. Widespread use could reduce electricity demand in the
USA by at least 10%, and this degree of reduction will probably
become necessary as NG supply declines.
CSP for electricity production begins to look attractive with
rising cost of fossil fuels and very long permitting and
construction times for nuclear. The technology is now
well-understood and poised for rapid development with
corresponding cost reductions. We now need an intelligent
National Energy Policy (NEP), with relatively modest subsidies to
kick-start the needed development. We can be very confident of
successful exploitation.
A major breakthrough in PV technology has now raised the
potential of PV to the level of practicality. Production capacity
is still a limiting factor. Lack of awareness is also a barrier.
Again, an intelligent NEP is the key to further progress.
Reliance on imported fossil fuel energy, with its attendant cost,
security risk and negative payments balance could realistically
be overcome in less than 20 years, with a government driven
“Apollo Program” for energy, focused on efficiency, conservation,
renewables and nuclear. Renewable solar energy is now positioned
to make its contribution.
References:
1) http://www.energylan.sandia.gov/sunlab
2) http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/3solar_henryprice.pdf
3) http://www.energylan.sandia.gov/sunlab/PDFs/Assessment.pdf
4)
http://www.sbp.de/de/html/projects/solar/aufwind/pages_auf/princi
pl.htm
5) http://www.visionengineer.com/env/solar_flue2.shtml
6) http://solar.anu.edu.au/pages/publications2004.html
7) http://jcschumacher.com/
8)
http://www.originenergy.com.au/news/news_detail.php?newsid=233=82
[Get Copyright Clearance] Copyright 2004 CyberTech, Inc. Want
Contact The Author Email the author Phone: (843)849-6328
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8 MoJo: Going Nuclear (Again)?
[MotherJones.com] [Mother Jones] [News]
The atomic industry is poised for a comeback. But can it
solve our energy problems? And at what cost? -->
[Daily Mojo]
November 11, 2004
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal that, with President Bush's
re-election over and done with, the nuclear power industry was
staging a comeback. Indeed, with the president's energy bill
likely to pass in the upcoming months—it was defeated in 2003 by
only a handful of Senate votes—the atomic industry will receive
the subsidies and regulatory support it needs to start building
reactors again, for the first time since demand petered out in
the early 1980s.
Opponents of nuclear power have argued that, because the
industry cannot exist without heavy government funding, it
should not exist at all. As Michael Scherer in Mother Jones last
year, private investors won't touch atomic energy (the capital
costs are too high), and the subsidies exist only because of the
efforts of pork-minded Congressmen like Sen. Pete Domenici
(R-NJ) and Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID). In the conservative National
Review, Navin Nayak and Jeffrey Taylor this state of affairs,
writing that nuclear power "simply does not make economic
sense."
Even so, some scientists and energy experts are taking another
look at expanding nuclear power—which already generates
one-fifth of the electricity in the United States—as a viable
option for the future. At issue is the fact that, at the moment,
there are very few other options for decreasing carbon dioxide
emissions and increasing energy independence in the U.S. As Paul
Roberts in Mother Jones, replacing our current hydrocarbon-based
energy infrastructure with "clean" technologies and fuels will
take many years, and will involve far more publicly-funded
research and investment than has yet been proposed. In the
meantime, nuclear energy cannot be ruled out categorically,
according to the authors of a recent Belfer Center entitled The
Future of Nuclear Power (PDF).
The benefits of nuclear power are fairly straightforward.
Nuclear plants, on the aggregate, are cleaner than
hydrocarbon-based energy plants, producing less carbon dioxide
and particulates than coal plants. A recent Brookings report
noted that, owing to nuclear power plants, "carbon emissions by
the OECD countries are about one-third lower than they otherwise
would be." Increased reliance on atomic power would also no
doubt reduce the United States' dependence on foreign oil.
Yet even those who think nuclear power may be a realistic option
point out that the current nuclear regime is inadequate. Matthew
Bunn, a Senior Research Associate at the Belfer Center, that any
expansion of atomic power will require improvements in three key
areas: 1) avoiding accidents or theft of nuclear material; 2)
"technologies that address complexity, cost, safety, waste
management, and proliferation concerns"; and 3) "transparency in
nuclear decision-making".
The Belfer Center report notes that no existing nuclear
technology can satisfy all of those concerns. The conventional
"once-through" design, in which discharged fuel is sent directly
to disposal, is the most effective in terms of cost, preventing
proliferation, and safety. The main problem there is the
considerable amount of nuclear waste generated. More recent
reactor designs have tried to solve the waste problem by
allowing for reprocessing and recycling of spent fuel—basically
a scaled-down version of the reprocessing technology that the
military uses to make weapons-grade plutonium.
So which method is best? Science writer Michael Levi against the
risks in using reprocessing. Such methods, claims Levi, does
little to reduce the space required to store spent fuel. But
more distressingly, rogue states such as Iran or North Korea
could easily modify civilian reprocessing plants for military
purposes. As such, many scientists recommend sticking with
conventional designs. The Belfer Center reports that "waste
management considerations" do not outweigh "the attendant
safety, environmental, and security risks and economic costs" of
newer, closed-fuel cycle plants. With public attention focused
especially on proliferation threats and the possibility of
nuclear terrorism, that argument could carry the day.
Still, waste management remains a serious issue. Current nuclear
power plants have produced over 40,000 metric tons of nuclear
waste in the last 40 years, scattered in temporary, on-site
storage facilities. The federal government has selected Nevada's
Yucca Mountain as a permanent repository for the waste, which
has become a matter of contention over the years.
Environmentalists contend that Yucca is too unstable to hold all
that material, and that transporting the waste by rail is
unsafe.
Recently in the New Republic Michael Crowley those concerns,
noting that Yucca was "the closest thing to a permanent solution
man can devise." Even if Yucca proves to be a viable option,
however, it won't be nearly sufficient to manage all the waste
of an expanded nuclear industry. For these reasons, the Belfer
Center report recommends the creation of a "long-term waste
management R program", as well as a "network of centralized
facilities for storing spent fuel… in the U.S. and
internationally."
Safety is another concern. At the president's request, Congress
recently renewed the , which caps liabilities on nuclear
accidents, and limits the amount of insurance that plant owners
need to carry. Consumer advocacy groups like Public Citizen that
the support is unnecessary, and causes plant owners and insurers
to worry less about nuclear safety than they otherwise would.
Whatever the merits of the Bush administration's nuclear policy,
it is clear that it will need to spend far more on research on
safety and security issues.
With all the necessary research that needs to be undertaken over
the next few years, is it possible that nuclear power can ever
be economically viable? Possibly. According to a Brookings
Institution , entitled "The Political Economy of Nuclear Energy
in the United States," the country has only turned away from
nuclear power because gas-fired technology is comparatively
quicker and easier to install, and because there is " little
economic incentive to retire the nation's vast coal-burning
infrastructure." If the current energy regime was ever
upset—say, by carbon taxes or a "cap and trade" system for
emissions—nuclear power would become more competitive. The
upside is certainly high. But the country has not yet taken the
hard steps needed to reduce all the downsides.
- Bradford Plumer
© 2003 The Foundation for National Progress
*****************************************************************
9 Fairfield County Weekly: Project Censored stories
November 11, 2004
HERMA PHOTO OBJECT
Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State
University which tracks the news published in independent
journals and newsletters.
From these, Project Censored compiles a list of news stories of
social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or
self-censored by the country's major national news media.
With the help of more than 200 Sonoma State University faculty,
students and community members, Project Censored reviews some 700
stories that have been submitted for consideration, for coverage,
content, reliability of sources and national significance.
Here are Project Censored's 10 biggest examples of major stories
this year that have been relegated to the most obscure corners of
the media world.
1) Wealth inequality in 21st century threatens economy and
democracy
Wealth inequality in the United States has almost doubled over
the past 30 years.
In fact, the Federal Reserve Board's most recent "Survey of
Consumer Finances" supplement on high-income families shows that
in 1998, the richest 1 percent of households owned 38 percent of
the nation's wealth. The top 5 percent owned almost 60 percent of
the wealth.
"We are much more unequal than any other advanced industrial
country," New York University economics professor Edward Wolff
told Third World Traveler .
But that's just part of the problem. "Most Americans believe we
take from people at the top to benefit those below," Pulitzer
Prize-winning New York Times investigative reporter David Cay
Johnston said in a interview. But our tax system is actually set
up such that "people who make $30,000 to $500,000 ... give relief
to those who make millions, or tens and hundreds of millions, of
dollars a year."
The United States isn't alone: Today, almost one-sixth of the
world's population--940 million people--"already live in squalid,
unhealthy areas, mostly without water, sanitation, public
services, or legal security," John Vidal wrote in the U.K.'s
Guardian . A recent United Nations report predicted that, absent
drastic change to reverse "a form of colonialism that is probably
more stringent than the original," one in every three people
worldwide will live in slums within 30 years.
Sources: "The Wealth Divide" (interview with Edward Wolff),
Multinational Monitor , May 2003. "A BuzzFlash Interview, Parts I
and II" (with David Cay Johnson), BuzzFlash staff, , March 26 and
29, 2004. "Every Third Person Will Be a Slum Dweller within 30
Years, UN Agency Warns," John Vidal, Guardian (U.K.), Oct. 4,
2003. "Grotesque Inequality," Robert Weissman, Multinational
Monitor , July-August 2003.
2) Ashcroft versus human rights law that holds corporations
accountable
For decades the United States has trained right-wing insurgents
and torturers, and toppled democratically elected
governments--all in the interest of corporate profits.
But rarely are the agents of repression ever held accountable.
Indeed, many foreign tyrants go on to enjoy plush retirement
right here in the United States.
But recently lawyers have found a way to seek at least a modicum
of justice for victims. The Alien Tort Claims Act, a 215-year-old
law originally passed to prosecute pirates for crimes committed
on the high seas, allows noncitizens to sue any individual or
corporation present on U.S. soil.
Human rights lawyers have pursued 100 cases under the ATCA since
1980. Defendants have included former high-ranking government
officials from El Salvador, Guatemala, Bosnia, and the
Philippines (including ex-president Ferdinand Marcos). The law
has often resulted in victims being awarded millions of
dollars--and in the perpetrators sometimes fleeing the country.
But Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department has set
its sights on the Act, claiming in a brief last year that the law
threatens "important foreign policy interests" associated with
the war on terrorism. Yet hardly a word has been written in the
mainstream media about the Bush administration's attack on the
main legal recourse left in the United States for victims to seek
redress for human rights violations carried out abroad.
Source: "Ashcroft Goes after 200-Year-Old Human Rights Law," Jim
Lobe, and Asheville Global Report, May 19, 2003.
3) Bush administration manipulates science and censors scientists
Tampering with data that threatens corporate profits is much more
widespread under Bush than we've been led to believe.
One of the first White House moves--on the day Bush was
inaugurated--was to fire engineer Tony Oppegard, the leader of a
federal team investigating a 300-million-gallon slurry spill at a
coal-mining site in Kentucky. "Black lava-like toxic sludge
containing 60 poisonous chemicals choked and sterilized up to 100
miles of rivers and creeks," environmental lawyer Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. wrote in the Nation . The EPA dubbed it, "The
greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of the Eastern
United States."
Bush then appointed industry insiders to top EPA posts in charge
of mine safety and health.
In another case, a week after the EPA released a study to
congressional staff about the toxic effects on groundwater of
hydraulic fracturing--a process of injecting benzene into the
ground to extract oil and gas, used by Halliburton, Vice
President Dick Cheney's former company--the agency revised its
findings in response to "industry feedback" to indicate that the
practice posed no threat after all.
In the days and months following the World Trade Center and
Pentagon attacks, the EPA released more than a dozen statements
claiming the air quality in the surrounding "control zone" was
safe--despite evidence that asbestos dust was present in
quantities well above the 1 percent safety benchmark. As a
result, 88 percent of rescue workers suffered ear, nose, and
throat ailments, and 78 percent suffered lung maladies, according
to a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine study. Half suffered persistent
respiratory problems up to a year later.
In November the EPA arranged for Syngenta, the Swiss manufacturer
of Atrazine, to take over federal research of its product, the
most widely used weed killer in the United States. This occurred
despite evidence that high concentrations of Atrazine in
groundwater may be responsible for 50-percent-below-normal semen
counts in men in U.S. farming communities.
There have been dozens of scientists willing to blow the
whistle--normally a reporter's dream come true. But news coverage
hasn't come close to reflecting the gravity of the problem.
Sources: "The Junk Science of George W. Bush," Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., Nation , March 8, 2004. "Censoring Scientific Information,"
Censorship News: The National Coalition Against Censorship
Newsletter , fall 2003. "Ranking Scientists Warn Bush Science
Policy Lacks Integrity," Environmental News Service
correspondents, , Feb. 20, 2004, and others.
4) High uranium levels found in troops and civilians
Last year Project Censored included the United States' and Great
Britain's continued use of depleted-uranium weapons--despite
ample evidence of their acute health effects--among its top 10
underreported stories. Almost 10,000 U.S. troops died within 10
years of serving in the first Gulf War, researchers had found.
And more than a third of those still alive had filed Gulf War
Syndrome-related claims.
In study after study, research pointed to the use of depleted
uranium in U.S. and British weaponry as the culprit. But
authorities concentrated their efforts into obfuscating the
problem.
More recently, the Uranium Medical Research Center, an
independent group of U.S. and Canadian scientists that has
conducted studies of Afghan civilians, found overwhelming
evidence that the United States is also using nondepleted uranium
in its weapons, which is far more radioactive than depleted
uranium.
Leuren Moret, president of Scientists for Indigenous People, has
reported that a U.S. government study conducted on the babies of
Gulf War veterans conceived after the soldiers returned home
found that a full two-thirds suffered from serious birth defects
or illnesses, including being born without eyes or ears, or with
missing or malformed organs or limbs. In Iraq, Moret said, the
defects are even worse.
Sources: "UMRC's Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan and
Operation Enduring Freedom" and "Afghan Field Trip #2 Report:
Precision Destruction, Indiscriminate Effects," Tedd Weyman, UMRC
Research Team, Uranium Medical Research Center, January 2003.
"Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan," Stephanie
Hiller, Awakened Woman , January 2004. "There Are No Words ...
Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs," Bob Nichols,
Dissident Voice , March 2004. "Poisoned?," Juan Gonzalez, New
York Daily New s, April 2004, and others.
5) Wholesale giveaway of our natural resources
Adam Werbach, former Sierra Club president, reviewed the Bush
administration's environmental policy record and came to a
disturbing conclusion: the record is not only bad--it's "akin to
an affirmative action program for corporate polluters," he wrote
in In These Times.
For example, Congress has promised $3 billion in tax cuts to
mining corporations to help them access natural gas embedded in
underground coal deposits in Georgia's Powder River Basin. The
Bureau of Land Management has calculated that miners will waste a
full 700 million gallons of publicly owned water a year in the
process.
The Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative essentially
entails granting logging companies access to old-growth
trees--and then subsidizing them for brush clearing.
And even the giant sequoias former president Bill Clinton sought
to protect, by creating a 327,000-acre national monument in the
southern Sierra Nevada just four years ago, are at risk for being
logged at a rate of 10 million board-feet of lumber a year--a
higher rate than allowed on surrounding national forest lands--in
the name of "forest management."
Sources: "Liquidation of the Commons," Adam Werbach, In These
Times , Nov. 23, 2003. "Giant Sequoias Could Get the Ax," Matt
Weiser, High Country News , June 9, 2003.
6) Sale of electoral politics
The Help America Vote Act required that states submit their
blueprints for switching over to electronic voting systems by
Jan. 1, 2004, and implement those plans in time for the 2006
elections.
Some regions are already using the machines. But those who've
bothered to look into the new systems are sending up serious
warning flares.
A switch to electronic voting might seem innocent enough at
first--until you look at who's implementing it, and how. Indeed,
the transfer represents the privatization of the voting process
in the hands of a select few fervent GOP supporters who've
insisted on keeping their operating systems and codes a trade
secret--meaning they enjoy absolute control over the entire
voting process, including ballot-counting and oversight. There's
no paper trail.
One prime example is Diebold, one of the nation's top electronic
voting machine manufacturers, whose equipment was responsible for
the Florida debacle in 2000. Diebold already operates more than
40,000 machines in 37 states across the country. Many of these
are in Georgia, which in November became the first state to
conduct an election entirely with touch-screen machines.
The other top two electronic voting machine manufacturers,
Sequoia and Election Systems &Software, are equally suspect.
Several of their executives have troubling track records of
corruption and conflict of interest. All three companies are
prominent Republican Party donors.
Sources: "Voting Machines Gone Wild," Mark Lewellen-Biddle, In
These Times , December 2003. "All the President's Votes?," Andrew
Gumbel, Independent (U.K.), Oct. 13, 2003. "Will Bush Backers
Manipulate Votes to Deliver G.W. Another Election?," Amy Goodman
and the staff of Democracy Now!, Sept. 4, 2003.
7) Conservative organization drives judicial appointments
Ever since the Reagan administration, the neoconservatives have
pursued an aggressive campaign to stack the federal courts with
right-wing judges. Their main vehicle: the Federalist Society of
Law and Public Policy, an organization founded in 1982 by a small
group of radically conservative law students at the University of
Chicago.
The effort has been a resounding success. With the help of
Republicans in Congress, 85 extra federal judgeships were created
under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; nine were
created under Clinton.
Now seven out of 12 circuit courts are anti-abortion. Seven of
the nine Supreme Court justices are Republican appointees--and
it's been 11 years since a post has opened up, meaning another
right-winger or two could be appointed sometime soon.
During Bush Sr.'s tenure, one White House insider boasted that no
one who wasn't a Federalist ever received a judicial appointment
from the president.
The Federalist Society now counts Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and prominent members of
the conservative American Enterprise Institute among its
leadership. John Ashcroft, Interior Secretary Gale Norton,
Solicitor General Theodore Olson, and White House Counsel Alberto
Gonzalez--charged with approving judicial nominations before
passing them on to Congress--are all members.
As one might expect, the Federalists have consistently acted in
favor of business deregulation, creationist teachings, property
rights over the rights of individuals, and much of the rest of
the right-wing agenda.
Sources: "A Hostile Takeover: How the Federalist Society Is
Capturing the Federal Courts," Martin Garbus, American Prospect ,
March 1, 2003. "Courts vs. Citizens," Jamin Raskin, American
Prospect , March 1, 2003.
8) Secrets of Cheney's energy task force come to light
As the Bush administration continues to protect the iron wall of
secrecy it's erected around Cheney's energy task force, at least
two documents confirm long-standing suspicions that the
administration's foreign policy is being driven by the dictates
of the energy industry.
When Bush took office in January 2001, he said tackling the
country's energy crisis would be a top priority. The president
established the National Energy Policy Development Group and
appointed former
Halliburton CEO Cheney as its head.
One of the big issues on the table was oil, which accounted for
40 percent of the nation's energy supply.
But rather than lay the groundwork for converting the economy to
alternative, renewable sources, the task force's report promoted
a central goal of "mak[ing] energy security a priority of our
trade and foreign policy." In other words, Cheney's group wanted
to find additional sources of oil overseas and ensure U.S. access
to that oil--whatever it took.
Documents recently obtained from the task force as the result of
a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by public interest
group Judicial Watch indicate Cheney and his colleagues had their
sights on the black gold under the Iraqi desert well before the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In July 2003 the Commerce Department finally turned over records
that included "a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries,
and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas
projects, and 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts,'"
according to Judicial Watch's subsequent press release.
There were also similar maps and charts for Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates. The documents were dated March 2001.
Sources: "Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Feature Map of Iraqi
Oilfields," Judicial Watch staff, Judicial Watch, July 17, 2003.
"Bush-Cheney Energy Strategy: Procuring the Rest of the World's
Oil," Michael Klare, Foreign Policy in Focus, January 2004.
9) Widow brings RICO case against U.S. government for 9/11
As the 9/11 Commission completed its first year, Ellen Mariani
and her attorney held a press conference on the steps of the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to
announce her own startling conclusions.
Mariani, wife of Louis Neil Mariani, who died when terrorists
flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the World Trade Center's
south tower, had come to believe top American officials had
foreknowledge of the attacks, purposefully failed to prevent
them, and had since taken pains to cover up the truth.
The administration, she argues in a federal lawsuit, allowed 9/11
to happen so Bush and company could launch their seemingly
endless, global "war on terror" for their own personal and
financial gain. Her lawyer, Philip J. Berg, a former deputy
attorney general of Pennsylvania, filed a 62-page complaint that
included 40 pages of evidence. "Compelling evidence ... will be
presented in this case through discovery, subpoena power by this
Court, and testimony at trial," he wrote in a press release. But
only Fox News showed up to the press conference, and it never ran
anything on the topic.
Sources: "911 Victim's Wife Files RICO Case Against GW Bush,"
Philip Berg, Scoop (), Nov. 26, 2003. "Widow's Bush Treason Suit
Vanishes," W. David Kubiak, Scoop, Dec. 3, 2003.
10) New nuke plants: taxpayers support, industry profits
If you thought nuclear energy was dead, think again: the Bush
administration's energy bill provides taxpayer cash for companies
that build new nukes.
A secretly crafted provision of the bill, released late on a
Saturday night in November, offers energy companies as much as
$7.5 billion in tax credits to build six nuclear reactors. This
is in addition to almost $4 billion set aside for other nuclear
energy programs.
While the bill has yet to pass into law, it is still being
pursued by supporters in Congress. Estimates on the amount of tax
credits being considered have since risen to "as much as $15 or
even $19 billion."
Sources: "Nuclear Energy Would Get $7.5 Billion in Tax Subsidies,
US Taxpayers Would Fund Nuclear Monitor Relapse If Energy Bill
Passes," Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte, Nuclear Information
and Resource Service, Nov. 17, 2003. "US Senate Passes
Pro-Nuclear Energy Bill," Cindy Folkers and Michael Mariotte,
WISE/NIRS Nuclear Monitor, Aug. 22, 2003.
Copyright © 1995-2004 New Mass Media. All rights reserved.
*****************************************************************
10 Israel's Re-Arrest of Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 14:28:06 -0600 (CST)
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
PM Thursday, November 11, 2004
Israel's Re-Arrest of Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu
"Heavily armed police commandos stormed a Jerusalem church
compound Thursday and arrested nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu,"
the Associate Press reports. Vanunu had been restricted from speaking to
non-Israelis or media and had openly violated such prohibitions, including
appearing on a news release of the Institute for Public Accuracy on Sept.
17: .
The following are available for interviews:
FELICE COHEN-JOPPA, ART LAFFIN, freevanunu@mindspring.com,
http://www.vanunu.com
Cohen-Joppa is the coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai
Vanunu; Laffin is associate coordinator of the group. Cohen-Joppa said
today: "It is an outrage that Israel has re-arrested nuclear whistleblower
Mordechai Vanunu only six months after his release from prison. The unjust
and severe restrictions that have forced Mordechai Vanunu to remain in
Israel following his release last April, and intend to muzzle his voice for
nuclear disarmament, are grave violations of his human and civil rights.
These violations are now magnified as Israel has hidden behind news of the
death of Yassir Arafat to increase its punishment of Mordechai Vanunu.
After 18 years in prison, he has no secrets to reveal. Israel must stop
punishing this man who has already suffered so much for letting the world
know about Israel's nuclear arsenal."
DANIEL ELLSBERG, ellsbergD@cs.com, http://www.truthtellingproject.org,
http://www.ellsberg.net
Author of the book "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers,"
Ellsberg said today: "The only secret Mordechai Vanunu has left to tell the
world is the one he revealed on the day of his release from 18 years in
prison, April 21, 2004: 'I am a symbol of the will of freedom, that the
human spirit is free. You cannot destroy the human spirit.' That is indeed
the most dangerous secret in the eyes not only of Israel but of every state
that withholds vital information from its own citizens, including the U.S.
and U.K. Israel should let the foremost prophet of the nuclear age go forth
to be honored throughout the world -- and we call on them to do so -- but
even if it returns him instead to his 6-by-9 foot cell, Mordechai Vanunu
will remain the most free man on earth."
MARY and NICK EOLOFF, Nick.Eoloff-1@tc.umn.edu
Mordechai Vanunu's adoptive parents, the Eoloffs live in St. Paul, Minn.
They said today: "We are horrified that today armed Israeli special police
forces entered St. George's Cathedral compound in order to kidnap Mordechai
Vanunu for the second time. It is further proof that the security forces
have no respect for an individual's human rights and dignity nor respect
for a religious site which is a sacred place of sanctuary. Mordechai has
always acted from a moral belief that nuclear weapons are immoral and
illegal and that all nations should begin the process of their disarmament."
MARK GAFFNEY, MHGaffney@aol.com,
http://www.counterpunch.org/gaffney01312003.html
Gaffney is author of a book about Israel's nuclear program, "Dimona -- The
Third Temple: The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation." He also wrote the
recent article "The Case of Mordechai Vanunu: Preeminent Hero of the
Nuclear Age." He said today: "Israel has been pressing for attacking Iran
while it is suppressing the truth about its own nuclear weapons program --
the only program which has come out of the Mideast and has actually
developed nuclear weapons and is driving other countries to acquire weapons
of mass destruction."
Background on Israel's nuclear capacity:
A letter from the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem on Vanunu's re-arrest today:
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
_________________________________________________________________
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11 [NYTr] Fascist Israeli Regime Re-arrests Vanunu
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:49:50 -0600 (CST)
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
In Israel the former political prisoner and kidnap victim is under
house arrest for "leaking classified information."
Reuters - Nov 11, 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6789772
Israel Arrests Nuke Whistleblower Vanunu for 'Leak'
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police put nuclear whistleblower Mordechai
Vanunu under house arrest on Thursday on suspicion of spilling more
state secrets, seven months after he completed an 18-year prison term
for treason.
Vanunu was bundled into an unmarked car at the Jerusalem church where he
has lived since he left jail in April, witnesses said. Barred from going
abroad or meeting foreign media for a probationary period, he had been
under constant surveillance.
"He (Vanunu) is suspected of passing classified information to
unauthorized parties," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. "He is also
suspected of violating the terms of his release."
Vanunu, 50, denied the allegations when brought to court later on
Thursday. Flashing the V for victory sign with both his hands, he said:
"The atomic secrets (he revealed) have already been told around the world."
He was later released and put under house arrest for a week in a hostel
attached to the church, police said, adding that they had confiscated
documents and three laptop computers from his room in the church and
would examine them for classified information.
Barred from going abroad or meeting foreign media for a probationary
period, Vanunu had been under constant surveillance. Despite the
restrictions, he gave interviews to reporters which he said were the
sole grounds for his arrest.
"I cannot shut up, I have to have freedom of speech," he told reporters
at the court.
The re-arrest of a man widely reviled in Israel but admired by
anti-nuclear activists worldwide and repeatedly nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize was overshadowed by the death of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat in Paris.
Vanunu was abducted in Rome by Mossad agents and jailed in 1986 for
discussing his work at Israel's main atomic reactor in Dimona with a
British newspaper. His revelations to the Sunday Times led experts to
conclude that the Jewish state had amassed between 100 and 200 nuclear
weapons, all but blowing away the country's policy of "strategic
ambiguity" over its assumed non-conventional arsenal.
In July, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Vanunu to be allowed to
leave Israel before the year-long ban expires, citing Defense Ministry
charges that he intended to reveal more secrets.
Vanunu made a failed bid to win political asylum in Sweden last month,
saying he felt his life was threatened.
In an interview conducted by an Israeli intermediary and broadcast by
the BBC in early June, Vanunu said he had exposed Dimona because he
wanted to save Israel from a "new holocaust."
But he also questioned the Jewish state's right to exist.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.
*
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12 VANUNU ARRESTED AND CHARGED AGAIN - MORE NEWS TO FOLLOW
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:54:40 -0800
Free Mordechai Vanunu - Info & Action Alert #38
**NEWS ALERT ON ARREST OF MORDECHAI VANUNU**
Contact Israeli Embassy to demand his release!
phone:
202-364-5500
email:
ambassador_sec@israelemb.org
fax:
202-364-5607
Public & Interreligious Affairs
v.(202) 364-5542
Political Department
(202)364-5581/2
Press Office
(202) 364-5538
or contact Israeli ambassador in your country -
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.html
FOLLOWED BY:
- Letter from the Bishop in Jerusalem on the arrest of Mordechai Vanunu
- Article from Ma'ariv, English language website, Nov. 11, 2004
================
News Alert From Rayna Moss:
Mordechai Vanunu was arrested this morning in his room at St. George's
Cathedral in East Jerusalem, by a huge police force (about 30 armed
officers). The pretext for his arrest: Vanunu violated the Draconian
restrictions that were imposed on him when he was released from prison in
April, by giving interviews to foreign media.
The attempt to silence Mordechai Vanunu on this of all days, is an attempt
to bury Israel's secret nuclear arsenal together with Yasser Arafat. While
the world media and attention are focused on the burial of the Palestinian
leader, the Israeli government is attempting to disappear the nuclear
whistleblower, whose only crime is revealing the terrible truth that Israel
is trying to hide: weapons of mass destruction that are concealed from
Israeli citizens and from the world.
Mordechai Vanunu is expected to be brought to court on Friday morning,
November 12. His supporters will demonstrate outside the courthouse. Details
will be sent out later today.
For more information:
Rayna Moss: 0507-368236
legalese@netvision.net.il
www.vanunu.com
www.vanunu.co,uk
----------------------------
Letter from the Bishop in Jerusalem on the arrest of Mordechai Vanunu from
St George's Cathedral Close this morning
The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem & The Middle East
The Diocese of Jerusalem
The Rt Revd Riah H Abu El-Assal
11 November 2004
To:
a.. The Most Revd Rowan Williams
Archbishop of Canterbury
b.. The Most Revd Frank Tracy Griswold
Presiding Bishop of ECUSA
c.. The Most Revd Andrew Hutchinson
Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
d.. The Most Revd Peter Carnley
Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia
e.. The Australian Board of Mission
f.. The Revd Canon John L. Peterson
Secretary General of the Anglican Consultative Council
g.. The Revd Samuel Kobia
General Secretary of the World Council of Churches
h.. Mr Jeries Saleh
Middle East Council of Churches
i.. The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem
It is with tremendous grief and sadness that I inform you that the Israeli
special police force entered St George's Cathedral Close today without
permission and took Mordechai Vanunu into custody. Approximately thirty
officers, many with guns, entered the cathedral gardens and interrupted
breakfast in the Pilgrim Guest House. It was a traumatic event that
terrorized many of our tourists, pilgrims, and staff. In the 100 years of
the cathedral's history, such an event has never taken place.
Immediately I related how they have come into a sacred place, and that their
guns were not welcome. The officers with guns withdrew to outside of the
Cathedral Close; however, it came to my attention later, that at least one
of the officers still carried a concealed weapon. This was after I had been
reassured that all weapons had been removed from the church grounds. It is
inconceivable why such force is mandated for procedures like today's.
Mordechai was calm during the search, questioning the need for the
interrogation, and they searched his room in his and my presence. They took
his papers, laptop, and other possessions into custody. I called his lawyer,
and he will meet Mordechai in Petah Tiqva.
This type of entry into a sacred space must not be tolerated by the churches
throughout the world, and it must not be accepted by those who respect the
rights and dignity of every person. We ask the government of Israel to stop
such actions as these, and we call for the respect of sacred places in the
Land of the Holy One. It is with extreme sadness and disappointment that I
must write this letter, and please continue to pray for us in these
difficult times.
Peace of God to all of you,
The Rt Revd Riah Abu El-Assal
Bishop in Jerusalem
cc:
His Excellency, President Moshe Katsav
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
-------------
Ma'ariv, English language website, Nov. 11, 2004
Vanunu detained on suspicion of revealing confidential information
Nuclear spy also suspected of violating restrictions imposed on him during
his April release from prison.
Tal Yamin-Wolfowitz
Mordechai Vanunu was detained this (Thursday) morning by police on suspicion
of revealing confidential information and of failing to abide by the
restrictions that were imposed on him upon his release from prison.
The nuclear spy was arrested after a search was carried out in his room,
which is located in an East Jerusalem hostel not far from the Saint George
Church. During the search, documents and a laptop were uncovered and taken
to the offices of the International Crimes Unit in Petah Tikva for
examination.
Vanunu was under surveillance for months as defense officials estimated it
was only a matter of time until he would be detained. Since his April
release, the nuclear whistleblower has stretched the boundaries of his
restrictions when he spoke with foreign media organizations.
When Vanunu was released, a long list of restrictions was imposed on him.
Among other things, he was not allowed to leave the country, contact foreign
nationals without consent or hold chats on the internet. He was also
instructed to notify officials when he did not sleep at his known residence.
Three months ago, Attorney General Meni Mazuz instructed police to launch a
criminal investigation against Vanunu following the interviews he had given
to foreign media.
(2004-11-11 00:29:45.0)
========
end - more to follow
Felice Cohen-Joppa
Coordinator
U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu
POB 43384
Tucson, AZ 85733
Phone/Fax 520-323-8697
freevanunu@mindspring.com
www.nonviolence.org/vanunu
*****************************************************************
13 [NukeNet] Vanunu arrested again
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:54:49 -0800
Nuclear Whistle-Blower
Is Arrested in Jerusalem
Associated Press
November 11, 2004 10:29 a.m.
JERUSALEM -- Heavily armed police commandos stormed a Jerusalem church
compound and arrested nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu on Thursday,
seven months after he completed an 18-year prison sentence for treason,
witnesses and police said.
Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said Mr. Vanunu had allegedly revealed
classified information, but declined to discuss the nature of his alleged
disclosures or to whom he made them.
Mr. Vanunu, 49 years old, was released from prison in April after 18 years
-- much of it in solitary confinement -- for disclosing secrets he learned
as a technician at the Israeli nuclear reactor in the southern town of
Dimona in the 1980s.
On Thursday morning, about 20 police commandos wearing bullet-proof vests
and wielding machine guns burst into the walled compound of St. George's
Anglican Church where Mr. Vanunu has taken sanctuary in a guesthouse since
his release, arresting him as he ate breakfast. Mr. Vanunu was arrested at
the hostel.
"We were sitting ... having breakfast at nine o clock, then all these
military stormed in, running everywhere with heavy arms," said Ninni
Rydsjo, a Swedish aid worker who was staying at the hostel attached to the
church. "They were looking outside, everywhere. We were very frightened,"
she said.
Ms. Rydsjo said that while Mr. Vanunu appeared calm as he was led away, the
bishop, Riah Abu El-Assal, accused the police of violating the sanctity of
the church.
Police said they had removed papers and a computer from Mr. Vanunu's room.
Mr. Vanunu has acknowledged violating his release arrangement, which barred
him from meeting foreigners or discussing his work at Dimona, but said he
had no more classified information to reveal.
Mr. Vanunu was convicted in 1988 for divulging information and pictures of
the Dimona reactor. The details, published in London's Sunday Times, led
experts to conclude that Israel has the world's sixth-largest stockpile of
nuclear weapons, including hundreds of warheads. Israel has followed a
policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying it has nuclear
weapons.
Mr. Vanunu, a convert to Christianity, became a hero to peace activists for
his role in unveiling Israel's nuclear program.
Peter Hounam, the Sunday Times journalist who published Mr. Vanunu's
nuclear revelations, said he was "horrified" by the arrest, and accused the
Israeli authorities of using Thursday's death of Palestinian Leader Yasser
Arafat to try to divert attention from it.
"I think they deliberately waited until Arafat died," he told the
Associated Press from England. "But I don't think they will succeed because
people all over the world will ask why Israel is being so vindictive." In
an AP interview in September, Mr. Vanunu said he wanted to replace his
Israeli citizenship with a foreign one, perhaps Palestinian.
"In Israel, I am regarded as a traitor ... and since my release they are
not respecting my human rights, my freedom of speech my freedom of
movement," he said at the time. He said he planned to continue his
anti-nuclear campaign, but he had no more secrets to reveal. "All I knew
was published 18 years ago," he said.
--
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14 [du-list] Interviews Available on Israel's Re-Arrest of
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 18:00:01 -0800
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________
PM Thursday, November 11, 2004
Interviews Available on Israel's Re-Arrest of Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu
"Heavily armed police commandos stormed a Jerusalem church
compound Thursday and arrested nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu,"
the Associate Press reports. Vanunu had been restricted from speaking to
non-Israelis or media and had openly violated such prohibitions, including
appearing on a news release of the Institute for Public Accuracy on Sept.
17: .
The following are available for interviews:
FELICE COHEN-JOPPA, (520) 323-8697, ART LAFFIN, (202) 882-9649, (202)
829-7625, freevanunu@mindspring.com, http://www.vanunu.com
Cohen-Joppa is the coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai
Vanunu; Laffin is associate coordinator of the group. Cohen-Joppa said
today: "It is an outrage that Israel has re-arrested nuclear whistleblower
Mordechai Vanunu only six months after his release from prison. The unjust
and severe restrictions that have forced Mordechai Vanunu to remain in
Israel following his release last April, and intend to muzzle his voice for
nuclear disarmament, are grave violations of his human and civil rights.
These violations are now magnified as Israel has hidden behind news of the
death of Yassir Arafat to increase its punishment of Mordechai Vanunu.
After 18 years in prison, he has no secrets to reveal. Israel must stop
punishing this man who has already suffered so much for letting the world
know about Israel's nuclear arsenal."
DANIEL ELLSBERG, (510) 526-2605, ellsbergD@cs.com,
http://www.truthtellingproject.org, http://www.ellsberg.net
Author of the book "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers,"
Ellsberg said today: "The only secret Mordechai Vanunu has left to tell the
world is the one he revealed on the day of his release from 18 years in
prison, April 21, 2004: 'I am a symbol of the will of freedom, that the
human spirit is free. You cannot destroy the human spirit.' That is indeed
the most dangerous secret in the eyes not only of Israel but of every state
that withholds vital information from its own citizens, including the U.S.
and U.K. Israel should let the foremost prophet of the nuclear age go forth
to be honored throughout the world -- and we call on them to do so -- but
even if it returns him instead to his 6-by-9 foot cell, Mordechai Vanunu
will remain the most free man on earth."
MARY and NICK EOLOFF, (651) 698-1493, Nick.Eoloff-1@tc.umn.edu
Mordechai Vanunu's adoptive parents, the Eoloffs live in St. Paul, Minn.
They said today: "We are horrified that today armed Israeli special police
forces entered St. George's Cathedral compound in order to kidnap Mordechai
Vanunu for the second time. It is further proof that the security forces
have no respect for an individual's human rights and dignity nor respect
for a religious site which is a sacred place of sanctuary. Mordechai has
always acted from a moral belief that nuclear weapons are immoral and
illegal and that all nations should begin the process of their disarmament."
MARK GAFFNEY, (541) 783-2309, MHGaffney@aol.com,
http://www.counterpunch.org/gaffney01312003.html
Gaffney is author of a book about Israel's nuclear program, "Dimona -- The
Third Temple: The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation." He also wrote the
recent article "The Case of Mordechai Vanunu: Preeminent Hero of the
Nuclear Age." He said today: "Israel has been pressing for attacking Iran
while it is suppressing the truth about its own nuclear weapons program --
the only program which has come out of the Mideast and has actually
developed nuclear weapons and is driving other countries to acquire weapons
of mass destruction."
Background on Israel's nuclear capacity:
A letter from the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem on Vanunu's re-arrest today:
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
For all list information and functions, including changing
your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page:
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15 Bellona: Russia not to pay penalty to China for delays at Tianwan NPP
On October 19, the acting chief of the Russian Nuclear Regulatory
Andrey Malyshev visited Tianwan NPP’s construction site in China.
2004-11-10 19:57
The first reactor was scheduled for launch back in April and
Russia might face the penalty reaching $200m, Kommersant daily
reported.
The contract for the construction of Tianwan nuclear power plant
was signed in 1997. It stipulates that Russia will build two
power units with total power output of 2,000 megawatts. According
to Mr. Malyshev, in the nearest future the Chinese part must
announce a tender on the construction of two more nuclear power
units. The Russian part is studying the conditions of the tender
and soon will make the decision concerning its participation.
The first power unit of Tianwan nuclear power plant is likely to
be put into operation in two months, Mr. Malyshev said. The
earlier tests revealed 3300 serious defects or “nonconformances”.
However, this is not the record. For example, while testing the
units built by the Electricite de France, 50,000 nonconformances
were found and the start-up was delayed for two years.
Regarding the quality of the Russian equipment, Malyshev said it
was controlled not only by the Atomstroyexport, but also by the
Rostekhnadzor inspection organisation. He believes the quality
control could be lost during inappropriate storage conditions or
installation. The Rostekhnadzor agreed with Chinese partners and
sent its specialists to the site for the whole period of the
construction.
The Atomstroyexport is already late for several months with the
reactor unit launch. Some experts estimate China could demand
from $40m to $200m penalty. Mr. Malyshev, however, hopes to avoid
the penalty by setting a new start-up date together with the
Chinese partners, Kommersant reported.
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
*****************************************************************
16 Floating NPPs and nuclear waste disposal to bring profit to
Severodvinsk
+
+
[Home page in Russian] Rus Eng [Homepage in Norwegian]
Nor Russian NPPs
Russia has 10 nuclear power plants (NPPs) in operation. The
safety standards of the Soviet designed reactors have been
highly questioned by international experts. During the last
decade, the social is Jump to section [Hydrogen report]
About Bellona
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> Access to enviroinformation
Floating NPPs and nuclear waste disposal to bring profit to
Severodvinsk
The deputies from Severodvinsk stated this at the meeting with
Arkhangelsk region governor in October.
2004-11-08 18:16
The participants of the meeting discussed also the perspectives
of the floating nuclear plant construction in Severodvinsk,
Regnum.ru reported. The Federal Special-Purpose Program
stipulates construction of the atomic heating plant in
Severodvinsk covered by off-budget sources. The design works are
completed and the estimated cost of the project is about $175m.
The Federal Atomic Agency on Atomic Energy examines several
possible ways to finance construction of the floating NPP
including credits from China and India on the security of the
Russian Government. The Severodvinsk deputies also believe that
the local budget could profit not only from floating NPP
construction, but also from nuclear waste disposal in
Severodvinsk, Regnum.ru reported.
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Information: info@bellona.no, Technical contact:
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17 Bellona: An ‘ordinary emergency’ reactor shut down causes widespread panic
ST. PETERSRSBURG—Reports about a supposedly common reactor shut
down at the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant in Russia’s southwestern
Saratov region led to wide-spread panic resulting in overdoses of
iodine taken by the fearful against possible radiation poisoning,
and showing up the lack of coordination within the country’s
emergency notification system.
The Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant in Russia's Saratov Region.
balaes.ru
Rashid Alimov, Charles Digges, 2004-11-10 12:50
Last Friday’s rush on iodine in Saratov drug stores was triggered
by the announcement of an emergency shut down of reactor bloc No.
2 at the Balakovo NPP in the early morning hours of November 4th.
Spokesmen for the plant said the situation, though termed
“emergency” was normal and that the shut down had occurred when
the reactor’s safety system s detected a coolant leak. The
malfunction was repaired and the reactor was re-launched.
“Emergency shut-down of a reactor—it’s only a technical term.
There is no emergency. On the contrary, it’s very good, that
disaster protection has done its job,” a spokesman for the plant
told Bellona Web.
But that was cold comfort for residents of Saratov, some 700
kilometres southwest of Moscow, who dashed to drugstores and
bought out stocks of iodine, which, if taken during a radiation
emergency, prevents the digestion of radioactive iodine isotopes
released into the atmosphere. Eventually the panic spread briefly
throughout the rest of the country—which maintains vivid memories
of the Kursk sinking in 2001 and the 1986 explosion at Chernobyl
and the official disinformation campaign downplaying the scale of
the disasters—because nuclear industry officials were sluggish
and vague in responding to reports about the Balakovo incident.
Many therefore decided to take protective measures into their own
hands, and found themselves hospitalized or sitting in emergency
rooms to be treated for iodine overdoses.
Bellona demands that it be included in an independent
environmental investigation now underway to determine the reasons
behind the shut down of Balakovo’s second reactor bloc. Bellona
also demands that a complete report on the incident be made
available to the public.
The shut down that triggered the panic The emergency shut down
occurred late on the night of November 4th and was caused by a
leakage of coolant-water in the reactors secondary circuit, which
automatically triggered the reactors disaster protection system,
plant officials told Bellona Web.
“Disaster protection has worked normally, in four seconds the
reactor was halted,” said the plant spokesman of the emergency
shutdown.
According to Bellona’s Alexander Nikitin, “emergency shut-down is
an extraordinary measure.” It’s permitted to be used only when
all the other ways to control the reactor fail, he said.
Rosatom spokesman Nikolai Shingaryov explained what happened to
Gazeta.ru, saying that a tube from a steam generator in the
second reactor cracked, causing water to leak onto the clamps of
a water pump in the coolant system. The pump then shorted out and
water pressure in the steam generator dropped. When this
occurred, the disaster protection system immediately shut down
the reactor. The pump was changed and the reactor was
re-launched.
“It was an ordinary incident—such things happen on average once
every two weeks,” Shingaryov said.
Nuclear whistleblower Sergei Kharitonov, a former employee of the
Leningrad NPP until he was fired for his fight against plant
authorities in his efforts to upgrade safety there, told Bellona
Web that “such statements from Rosatom’s press service testify to
the evidently complete chaos in the nuclear industry”.
According to the Balakovo NPP representatives, “this event is not
significant for safety and is categorized according to
International Nuclear Events Scale [INES] at level zero.” The
INES scale runs from zero to five, five being the most serious
measure.
Information meltdown News of the event, often contradictory and
incomplete, spread quickly through Russian newswires and
eventually national television. Morning reports on state-run
Channel One from Balakovo, addressing the rumors of an incident
at the nuclear power plant, said that the event was a training
exercise. This made little sense to those who had already heard
wire reports about the emergency shut down of Balakovo’s second
reactor bloc, begging the question among the population as to why
what was reported as minor fault was now being explained as a
training exercise.
In an interview after the shut down, the Balakovo spokesman said
that the television station had “broadcast information without a
full understanding of the situation. This could cause panic.”
The plant’s chief engineer told Bellona Web that there actually
had been an emergency training session on November 3rd. The
Emergency Situations Department of Balakovo and the
administrations of the nearby villages of Natalino and Matveyevka
had been informed about the training executrices, which involved
a test of the emergency notification system and drill evacuation
of plant personnel. The real training exercise could very well
have contributed to the rumors of a more serious accident.
Public information officials at Balakovo managed to cast further
suspicions on the credibility of their own statements by being
uninformed about a planned visit by Sergei Kireyenko, the
Kremlin-appointed presidential emissary to the Privolzhye
district, where Saratov is situated.
When asked to confirm whether Kireynko would indeed visit the
plant following the incident, Balakovo representatives called the
visit “more fantasies.”
But within two hours, the Balakovo NPP released a statement on
its website saying Kireyenko had not only “visited the plant and
personally made sure it was safe,” but that he had “himself
touched the repaired tube, which [earlier] had a leakage of pure
desalinated non-radioactive water.”
A spoon full of sugar would have helped the iodine go down The
conflicting news reports causes panic from Balakovo to Nizhny
Novgorod, some 700 kilometres north of the plant. Residents of
surrounding cities like Penza, Volgograd, Voronezh and Tambov
regarded the official information with disbelief and waited,
according to several local accounts, for radioactive fallout to
come drifting over their cities. Emergency authorities,
meanwhile, were uncoordinated, uniformed and sloppy in their
reaction to the panic, offering few precautions that residents
should be taking, or even if they should be taking precautions at
all.
According to the anti-nuclear Ecodefence! Group, inhabitants of
several small villages surrounding the Balakovo, like Matveyevka,
located 5 kilometres from the plant, were instructed to take
iodine tablets—though without dosage information—and were told
not to come outdoors, and not to tend cattle.
In nearby Saratov, a rush of panicked and confused residents
bought out most of the cities supply of iodine in an onslaught on
local drug stores.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, all students Nayanova
University in Samara, 150 km from Balakovo, were given glasses of
milk with iodine. Kindergartens in the Samara Regions were
ordered not to let children outdoors and to give each child an
iodine-soaked gauze strip to be worn around their throats. At
several regional plants, employees were instructed not to open
windows. Drug stores in Samara saw the same winding lines of
frightened customers queuing up to buy iodine.
Soon seven people came to Samara hospitals with iodine poisoning.
A 52-year-old woman bought iodine salvation for external use and
drank it dissolved in water. She got minor larynx burns, vomiting
and increase of temperature.
Balakovo also reported two iodine over-dosages, said local
Emergency Situations Department deputy head Valery Sarayev,
according to the RIA Novosti Russian newswire.
There was also panic in Penza region. Local news agencies there
reported on patients crowding hospitals with symptoms of iodine
poisoning. Residents of the closed nuclear city of Penza-19 also
gave way to panic. By 11 am on November 5th, all local drugstores
sold out all the iodine.
Local phone stations and mobile works could not cope with the
increased loads. Emergency Situation Department phone lines were
consistently busy. According to local journalists, it was
impossible to get any information by phones from local officials.
Was radiation released? Whether any radiation was released into
the atmosphere remains unclear. “To answer this question, one
needs special research, but we cannot affirm, in principle, that
no release occurred,” an Ecodefence! representative told Bellona
Web.
“When an emergency shut-down happens, overheated radioactive
steam has to be released from the steam generators. Its tubes
always have micro cracks, which is why radiation may get into the
steam, and then into the atmosphere.”
Losses Losses caused by the panic, as well as stress loads on the
Privolzhye are difficult to measure. But the emergency shut-down,
which itself is an extraordinary event, evidently led to a loss
of energy production. But plant representatives of the plant told
Bellona Web that such shut downs for repairs are foreseen
expenses and have little impact on projected energy profits.
Last Friday, November 5th, Saratov Regional Governor Dmitry
Ayatskov issued a statement saying that the Balakovo NPP’s
director, Pavel Ipatov, had said the reactor would be up and
running by 10 pm that evening. Vladimir Ingatov, the plant’s
chief engineer, said the same at a press conference that day. It
was not until the following evening, however, that the reactor
was restarted.
On Monday the Saratov regional prosecutors office declared it
would begin a search for people who had disseminated rumors about
a supposed catastrophe at the Balakovo NPP, though such a
seemingly fruitless pursuit could well have been avoided had
authorities been forthright about the incident from the
beginning.
Balakovo NPP on the international scene The Balakovo plant, which
currently operates four VVER-1000 pressure water reactors, has
been slated as a possible site for the burning of mixed uranium
and weapons-grade plutonium, or MOX, fuel as part of the
US-Russia Plutonium Disposition agreement of 2000. Under this
agreement, both the United States and Russia have agreed to
destroy 34 tonnes each of surplus weapons-grade plutonium in
parallel progress.
But Russian progress is lagging because of funding problems, and
the US State Department has further hindered matters by insisting
that Russia assume full liability for any accidents that may
occur during the building of MOX fabricating and burning
facilities. Russia has stated on several occasions that it will
not agree to such onerous liability terms, thus grinding the MOX
plutonium disposition plan to a halt.
At Balakovo, the reactors would have to be retrofitted at a cost
of several million dollars to make them fit to burn the volatile
MOX fuel. The plant had planned to build two more VVER-1000
reactor blocs, but this was halted by a local referendum in 1993.
Authorities, however, later nixed the referendum, saying that the
two extra reactors would push the MOX programme forward. Even
though it is highly uncertain as to whether the MOX programme
will ever come to fruition, nuclear officials say they still
intend to proceed with the two new reactors at Balakovo.
Rashid Alimov reported from St. Petersburg, and Charles Digges
reported from Oslo.
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
*****************************************************************
18 [DU-WATCH] Interesting Article at Ban Uranium Weapons
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 23:33:18 -0600 (CST)
Hello Du-Watch:
Your Friend Tara Thornton considered the following article interesting and wanted to send it to you.
Draft Convention: Executive Summary
(Date: 2004-10-31 13:06:30)
Topic: ICBUW
URL: http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=160
You can read interesting articles at Ban Uranium Weapons
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org
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19 Bellona: Norway sponsored radiation monitoring at Polyarninsky shipyard
The shipyard signed the contract on installation of the Picasso
radiation monitoring system.
2004-11-10 20:21
The Polyarninsky Shipyard no.1 is situated in Polyarny, a town of
ca 30 000 inhabitants, north of Murmansk in the Kola Bay. The
shipyard has been designated as the recipient of an integrated
radioactive waste management complex as a combination of several
AMEC projects.
The aim of the AMEC project PICASSO is to provide an automated
radiation monitoring system to give information in real time on
the actual radiation situation. It is based on the Norwegian
software PICASSO, adapted for Russian use, and combined with
Russian manufactured radiation sensors. Installation of automated
radiation monitoring at this site ensures safe operation, early
warning in case of accidents and helps protect workers,
population and the environment against radiation. The automated
radiation monitoring system PICASSO-AMEC at Atomflot has been put
into operation in 2003.
The following elements are included in the radioactive waste
management complex: - The Picasso system for radiation monitoring
- The mobile pre-treatment facility for solid radioactive waste -
Light weight storage buildings and containers for transport and
storage of solid waste - The mobile treatment facility for liquid
radioactive waste Eight gross gamma air detectors and one
submersible detector are planned, including one gross gamma
detector in the city of Polyarny.
Gamma radiation detectors will be placed at the following
locations: - Integrated radioactive waste management complex -
The open pad for interim storage of solid radioactive waste - The
piers where submarines are laid up awaiting dismantlement - The
floating docks where submarines are dismantled - The entrance
gate and the radiation safety department building The submersible
sensor for water radioactivity is planned in the sewage discharge
pipe from the waste management complex. This position is
beneficial for the integral assessment of the shipyard's impact
on the water environment, Mil.no reported.
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
*****************************************************************
20 KPVI: RADIATION EFFECT ON IDAHOANS
[NBC Newschannel 6
Nov 10, 2004
Forty years ago, scientists with the United States Government
conducted tests of nuclear bombs. Nine hundred and eleven of
those occurred at the Nevada test site just 90 miles north of Las
Vegas. In 1990, Congress approved the 'Radiation Exposure
Compensation' Act because they realized the health of anyone in
the area could have been affected. While Utah, Nevada, and
Arizona have been approved for compensation by the U.S.
Government, Idaho has not been approved. Aaron Kunz spoke with a
couple of people right here in Eastern Idaho who say it's time
that changed.
According to several studies by the National Cancer Institute,
the prevailing winds blew radioactivity from the Nevada test site
north into Idaho and Montana.
Don McBride and Lana Stoddard have both been told they have
thyroid cancer.
"We were interested because it's kind of unusual for both of us
to have it."
"Have thyroid cancer?"
"Thyroid cancer - and yet there is no history of cancer in our
family."
After a little research, they discovered it may be caused by
government testing of nuclear bombs in the Nevada desert over 40
years ago. The deadly cause, exposure to Iodine 131. What McBride
and Stoddard found through hours of research was a little
shocking.
"They deliberately made sure the winds were blowing this way
instead of towards Los Angeles. So they knew something was going
to happen. Once I read that, I thought, 'Well, it's time we said
something, then.'"
According to a report by the National Cancer Institute, winds
blew Iodine 131 into Idaho and Montana.
Lana Stoddard was diagnosed this year and she's upset that it
will affect her for the rest of her life.
"We've been healthy all our lives; we don't drink, we don't
smoke, we haven't indulged in any of these things that might put
our health at risk, and yet we show up with thyroid cancer."
"I know eventually it's going to get me."
Idaho has until March 1st to make a case. For more information,
you can log onto cancer.gov/i131. The website has a calculator to
get a rough idea of the risk to children born before 1971.
Then you're asked to tell your story. Address it to: Isaf
al-Nabulsi, PhD
Senior Program Officer
500 Fifth Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001.
Email address is ialnabul@nas.edu.
Explorer ©Copyright 2004 Oregon Trail Broadcasting KPVI
*****************************************************************
21 THE ROY PROCESS IS STILL AVAILABLE
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:59:49 -0800
Concerned Citizens,
The Roy Process for denaturing high level nuclear waste, plutonium
and "dirty bomb" elements is still available to a company capable of
realization. This unique photon transmutation method can be done
with existing infrastructure, commercially available machinery and current
supporting technology. A treatment facility can transmute spent fuel
(nuclear waste) at each nuclear power plant where it is stored in cooling
ponds. The heat produced can make steam to drive the existing electric
generators.
Safe and secure burial of high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain is
a scientific impossibility.
Here is the original 1979 article:
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Sunday, November 4, 1979
Process may kill radiation threat
By CLARENCE W. BAILEY
Copyright, 1979. The Arizona Republic
TEMPE -- An internationally recognized Arizona State University physicist
disclosed Saturday that he has discovered a method for treating nuclear
reactor and other highly dangerous radioactive wastes so they will be
harmless.
The procedure was conceived by Dr. Radha R. Roy professor of nuclear
physics who is the designer and former director of nuclear-physics research
facilities at the University of Brussels In Belgium. and at Pennsylvania
State University.
Roy said the process “very roughly can be described in part as a reversal
of phenomena that occur during a nuclear fission chain reactions.
The scientist said the process is the culmination of many years research
“Theoretical analysis and mathematical calculations confirm the process is
highly effective and that any level of radio activity, from weak to strong.
Can be reduced to harmless state in a short period of time,” Roy said.
The thing that is so encouraging is that the method can cancel
radioactivity rapidly enough for it to be of r real practical value
in disposing of dangerous wastes in storage and as they are being
produced, Roy said.
One treatment-plant design which Roy has devised could reduce the
radioactivity of even the most dangerous wastes with half-lives or 15,000
to 40,000 years to a level where they would be essentially harmless in
about 20 days.
A half-life is the time required for a quantity of radioactive material to
lose one half of its radioactive strength.
Roy, who left his native Calcutta, India. to do advanced nuclear- physics
research at the University of London during World War II, said all the
necessary theoretical and quantum electrodynamical work on the process has
been completed.
“There remains perhaps as much as a years work in calculating parameters
and preparing data that will he needed for the engineering design of a
pilot radioactive waste-treatment plant’ he said.
Roy is known internationally among scientists for his many advanced
research contributions in the field of nuclear fission fragments and as the
author of definitive graduate and post-doctoral textbooks used in
universities all over the world. “During the 37 years since the first
fission chain reaction there has been no progress whatever toward the
development of a method of deactivating radioactive waste or even for
storing it safely,” he said.
“The collections of dangerous nuclear wastes in this country alone have now
reached a total of at least 75 million gallons, and it is growing daily.”
He estimated an operational nuclear waste-treatment plant could cost $40
million or more. By contrast, he noted, Congress last summer appropriated
$80 million just to build more concrete storage bunkers to hold only a part
of the growing accumulation of nuclear wastes.
“Since it is so very dangerous to ship strongly radioactive materials it
would certainly be sensible to build a treatment plant for each reactor so
radioactivity could be killed out before the waste is
transported anywhere" the scientist said.
Roy said that the national danger from nuclear waste is "extremely serious"
and urged the federal government to build treatment plants near established
nuclear waste storage areas. Other treatment plants should be constructed
to kill out the radioactivity in the wastes from the nation's weapons
programs and from its educational, industrial, medical and experimental
research facilities he said.
Roy warned that waste containing plutonium 239 is "critically dangerous"
because of its extremely high radioactivity and also because it is the
essential ingredient in an atomic bomb.
The treatment process not only will render plutonium 239 harmless in a
remarkably short time, he said, but also will keep deactivated plutonium
from ever being reprocessed to make an illegal atomic weapon.
Roy further warned that the United States not only is exporting nuclear
energy when it sells reactor technology to foreign nations, but also is
sending overseas the potential for making illegal bombs out of plutonium
from reprocessed nuclear wastes.
The treatment method will guarantee to foreign countries that use nuclear
fission energy that they can maintain an environment free from
radioactivity, and it also could guarantee to the world that there will be
no reuse of plutonium in an unauthorized weapon, he said. Careful
theoretical and mathematical analysis have assured him that the nuclear
waste- treatment process will function reliably and with rapidity and high
efficiency, he said.
"But the existence of this promising nuclear waste-treatment procedure
should not be construed in any sense to mean that nuclear fission power
reactors are safe" Roy said. The contractor who built Three Mile Island's
reactor-like those who built the other 71 reactors now operational in the
United States -- expected that plant to function normally for 30 years in
total safety without event .But the fact is that it went out of control and
nearly created a meltdown which could have destroyed a large part of the
human habitat of east-central Pennsylvania,'' Roy said.
----------------------------------------
Neutralize & Eliminate Nuclear Waste For Good
The Roy Process Brief Description
from the web site:
http://members.cox.net/theroyprocess
Is there a safe process to get rid of nuclear waste? One possible solution
is a process invented by Dr. Radha R. Roy, former professor of Physics at
Arizona State University, and designer and former director of the nuclear
physics research facilities at the University of Brussels in Belgium and at
Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Roy is an internationally known nuclear physicist, consultant, and the
author of over 60 articles and several books. He is also a contributing
author of many invited articles in a prestigious encyclopedia. He is cited
in American Men and Women of Science, Who`s Who in America, Who`s Who in
the World and the International Biographical Centre, England. He has spent
52 years in European and American universities researching and writing
recognized books on nuclear physics. He has supervised many doctoral students.
Roy invented a process for transmuting radioactive nuclear isotopes to
harmless, stable isotopes. This process is viable not only for nuclear
waste from reactors but also for low-level radioactive waste products.
In 1979, Roy announced his transmutation process and received international
attention. The Roy process does not require storage of radioactive
materials. No new equipment is required. In fact, all of the equipment and
the chemical separation processes needed are well known.
What`s the basis for the Roy Process? If you examine radioactive elements
such as strontium 90, cesium 137 and plutonium 239, you will see that they
all have too many neutrons. To put it very simply, the Roy process
transmutes these unstable isotopes to stable ones by knocking out the extra
neutrons. When a neutron is removed, the resulting isotope has a
considerably shorter half-life which then decays to a stable form in a
reasonable amount of time.
How do we knock out neutrons? By bombarding them with photons (produced as
x-rays) in a high- powered electron linear accelerator. Before this
process, the isotopes must be separated by a well-known chemical process.
It is feasible that portable units could be built and transported to
hazardous sites for on-site transmutation of nuclear wastes and radioactive
wastes.
To give an example, cesium 137 with a half-life of 30.17 years is
transformed into cesium 136 with a half-life of 13 days. Plutonium 239 with
a half-life of 24,300 years is transformed into plutonium 237 with a
half-life of 45.6 days. Subsequent radioactive elements which will be
produced from the decay of plutonium 237 can be treated in the same way as
above until the stable element is formed.
From the Patent application
claim:
http://members.cox.net/theroyprocess/additional-uses-royprocess.html
Dr. Roy was right. There IS only one way to totally eliminate high level
nuclear waste and that is to transmute and denature it for good.
Dennis F. Nester
Phoenix, Arizona
(602) 494-9361
Atomic Age Timeline Animation:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/poifu/poifu.swf
*****************************************************************
22 Lowell Sun: Tewksbury, Billerica to meet on water contamination
www.lowellsun.com/
November 11, 2004 Lowell, MA
By JENNIFER AMY MYERS, Sun Correspondent
TEWKSBURY Determined to get to the bottom of the town's
drinking-water woes, Selectman Jerry Selissen said he will a meet
with the Billerica Board of Selectmen on Nov. 15 in hopes of
creating a joint task force between the two towns.
"In speaking with Billerica Board of Selectman Chairman Francis
Fraine, I've realized that their board is not totally familiar
with the issue," Selissen said. "I'd like to familiarize them
with this and get people working together.
"I want to move forward and see if we can find the ultimate
source of the perchlorate and put this to bed once and for all"
Selissen added. "We need to communicate between the communities
about this situation."
In August, perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives
and rocket fuel, was discovered in Tewksbury's drinking water,
prompting a public health advisory.
The chemical has been found in samples taken from both the
Merrimack and Concord rivers, but only Tewksbury's drinking-water
supply has been impacted.
Officials have discovered perchlorate levels in water exiting
the Lowell and Billerica wastewater treatment plants to be higher
than that of water entering the plants. They are investigating
whether perchlorate is a byproduct of bleach used to treat
wastewater.
Town Manager David Cressman told selectmen last night that
perchlorate levels in samples of town drinking water taken in
October ranged from 1.2 to 1.385 parts per billion. In order to
lift the public health advisory, the water must maintain a level
of less than 1 ppb for eight straight weeks.
"Billerica plans to do 24-hour composite sampling at six sewer
pump stations to determine where perchlorate exists in the sewer
collection system," Cressman said.
Cressman added that Lewis Zediana, chief operator of the
Tewksbury water-treatment plant, the DEP and Billerica officials,
believe tests now show perchlorate entering the sewer plant.
Although the general public is not at risk and there are no
federal or state drinking-water standards for perchlorate, the
state Department of Environmental Protection advises that women
who are pregnant or nursing, children under 12, and those with
untreated thyroid disorders not drink the water.
In other business last night, Cressman reported that four
town-owned buildings and six schools are not equipped with
defibrillators.
According to an inventory prepared by Fire Chief Richard Mackey,
the Fire Department has seven defibrillators, the Police
Department has 10 and the library, Recreation Department, senior
center and high school currently house one each.
Town buildings that are not equipped include Town Hall and its
annex, the water-treatment plant and the Department of Public
Works.
"These should almost be standard features in all buildings, like
fire extinguishers," selectmen Chairman Joe Gill said.
A defibrillator provides an electrical pulse through the heart,
restoring a normal rhythm, in the event of a sudden cardiac
arrest.
Cressman said he would like to purchase the four machines needed
to equip the town buildings by the end of this fiscal year,
pending savings in some accounts. If the money cannot be found in
this year's budget, he said he will budget them for next year.
Each defibrillator costs $1497.50, at a total cost of $5,990 to
fully equip town buildings and $8,985 for the schools.
"We should take steps to make sure these things are on site,"
Selectman John Ryan said, reacting to news that the high school
is the only school building that has a defibrillator. "This is a
subject we need to revisit during budget talks."
] © 1999-2004 MediaNews Group, Inc.
*****************************************************************
23 Bellona: TVEL Corporation to increase nuclear fuel production
The production of the uranium powder would increase in four times
after the launch of new line at the Novosibirsk Plant for
Chemical Concentrates.
2004-11-10 17:15
The state Russian Corporation TVEL intends to increase export of
the nuclear fuel by intensifying production of the uranium
powder. The Novosibirsk Plant for Chemical Concentrates, which is
a part of the TVEL, will start construction of the new line,
which should increase the plant’s capacity in four times, daily
Vedomosti reported.
The TVEL is a state corporation where 100% of its shares belong
to the Russian Ministry of Property Relations. TVEL manages the
federal shares of the major Russian companies engaged in uranium
mining and nuclear fuel reprocessing. The TVEL consists of 11
companies specialising in uranium mining, nuclear fuel production
for nuclear plants, navy and research reactors. The Novosibirsk
Plant for Chemical Concentrates produces fuel elements, uranium
for research reactors and lithium and it is the biggest produces
of the fuel for the NPPs. The TVEL controls 89% of the voting
shares of the Novosibirsk plant. In 2003 the plant showed $166m
sales result and $20m net profit. The Novosibirsk plant used to
produce the fuel elements packed with uranium dioxide pellets
from Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. The full dependence on one
supplier forced the Novosibirsk plant to establish its own
production of uranium dioxide pellets and powder.
In 2003 the plant launched the production line with 200 tonne
powder and pellets capacity per year what corresponded to 30-40%
of the plant’s needs. The TVEL’s president Alexander Nyago said
at the opening ceremony of the new production line that the
Novosibirsk plant would be more stable by producing all the
components independently.
The TVEL Corporation is considering the proposal of the
Novosibirsk plant for the construction of the second production
line with 600 tonnes annual capacity. Its construction would
require about $35m, but could allow increasing profit by $10-11m
per year. However, the plant would continue to buy uranium
dioxide pellets in Kazakhstan as the TVEL’s plants increase
production. The complete production at one place could allow
controlling quality better and taking part in the European
tenders for nuclear fuel deliveries, Vedomosti reported.
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
*****************************************************************
24 Bellona: Truck with radioactive scrap metal stopped in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk
The security guards stopped the truck with radioactive scrap
metal at the entry to the commercial port of
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk, the Russian Far East.
2004-11-10 18:10
On October 19, RIA-Novosti reported that radiation alarm was
triggered when a truck was passing the port’s checkpoint. The
truck was loaded with scrap metal from the military unit in
closed town Viluchinsk. The detected radiation levels were not
dangerous. The radioactive cargo was sent back to the military
unit for the thorough check of the container content. The Russian
most eastern nuclear submarine base is situated near Viluchinsk.
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
*****************************************************************
25 Las Vegas SUN: UNLV researchers tackle nuke waste
November 10, 2004
School takes lead in study of transmutation
By Christina Littlefield LAS VEGAS SUN
Some UNLV researchers are trying to be the modern equivalent of
alchemists, but instead of seeking a cost effective way to turn
lead into gold they are searching for an efficient way to change
high-level radioactive waste into low-level waste so that it is
less dangerous.
The technology could eliminate the nation's need to bury nuclear
waste in deep geological repositories such as the Yucca Mountain
site, researchers said.
The problem is that it will take a lot of gold -- billions of
dollars -- to "transmute" nuclear waste on a large scale, said
Anthony Hechanova, director of UNLV's Transmutation Research
Program.
The federal government currently funds transmutation research at
about $60 million a year, Hechanova said, and at the current
rate, large-scale facilities to try to transform the waste will
not be online until 2030. Yucca Mountain is scheduled to begin
accepting waste by 2010.
"Right now, the Department of Energy's interest in the
(research) program is to avoid building a second repository,"
Hechanova said. "If we stay at the current level (of producing
nuclear waste), every 20 years we would need to build a new Yucca
Mountain."
As researchers at the lead university in the national
transmutation research program, Hechanova and other UNLV
researchers are meeting with scientists from around the world
this week to discuss advances in nuclear partitioning and
transmutation that may make the process easier.
This week's international conference, one of a handful the
university hosts on the topic each year, has brought experts on
nuclear fuel and transmutation from 22 countries to UNLV's Harry
Reid Center for Environmental Studies.
Hosting the conference greatly increases UNLV's prestige as a
scientific research university while allowing professors to
discuss their ideas on transmutation with some of the best in the
field, Gary Cerefice, deputy director of UNLV's Transmutation
Research Group, said.
UNLV has been at the forefront of the nation's efforts to find
ways to change nuclear waste since Congress first funded the
research in 2001, Hechanova said. Spurred by the possibility of
playing host to the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain,
Nevada's congressional delegation helped fight for both the
national funding and UNLV's initial $3 million allocation to
research transmutation and radiochemistry.
To date, the university has received about $15 million in
federal money in the past four years to pay for student and
faculty research projects, equipment and infrastructure support
and international collaborations that advance transmutation
research.
That's more money than all of the other participating
universities have received combined, Hechanova said, and allows
UNLV to train both undergraduate and graduate students to be the
future experts on an issue that has uniquely impacted Nevadans
with the proposed Yucca Mountain site. It's also allowed UNLV to
bring on five new professors from such top universities as the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"What does that say about UNLV that people are coming here from
MIT for our academic program," Hechanova said. "I predict that in
about five years UNLV will have the No. 1 actinide program in the
nation, if not the world.
"It makes sense for UNLV to lead this research because if they
do move forward with Yucca Mountain, we want to have experts here
... who are independent from federal government."
UNLV researchers are studying 27 different issues related to
nuclear partitioning and transmutation, including actinide
chemistry, which includes the study of how radioactive metals
react with other materials over time. A new actinide laboratory
being finished this week will allow students and faculty to work
with plutonium.
Nuclear partitioning is the separation of the nuclear waste into
its individual elements. It allows scientists to significantly
reduce the amount of waste that has to be classified as
high-level waste, Hechanova said. Only about two percent of used
nuclear fuel is extremely radioactive and the rest of the waste
can, if separated out, be classified as low-level or
non-radioactive waste.
Some of the elements, such as plutonium, can also be recycled to
produce more nuclear fuel, Hechanova said. In the future, other
elements of nuclear waste may be recycled for use in other
industries, such as medicine.
Once spent nuclear fuel is reduced to its individual elements,
highly radioactive particles can then be changed into low-level
waste, Hechanova said. The transmutation rate can reduce the
waste's radioactive life down to 100 to 300 years as opposed to
the 100,000 years scientists predict the waste will be toxic if
left untreated, Hechanova said.
In predicting the safety of Yucca Mountain, "scientists have a
lot of confidence in how geology materials act over 100 years but
we don't over 100,000 years," Hechnova said.
With the continued advancement of the technology, Hechanova said
it's possible to completely eliminate the need for geological
repositories as all nuclear waste will be able to be recycled or
reduced to such a low-level toxicity that certified landfills
could accept it.
The Nevada Test Site and several other landfills throughout the
country already accept low-level waste, Hechanova said.
The UNLV research program works involves students and faculty in
six departments across three different colleges, including
students studying mechanical and electrical engineering,
chemistry, geoscience, physics and health physics, Hechanova
said.
Students and faculty also benefit from partnerships with leading
nuclear research institutions such as Los Alamos in New Mexico,
and through international collaborations with Russia, the
Republic of Georgia, France, Israel and Canada, as well as the
European community at large, Cerefice said.
The research program has also allowed the university to build
eight new laboratories and bring in equipment such as a
transmission electron microscope that students in several
scientific disciplines can use.
With the capacity to magnify an image up to 1.3 million times,
the transmission electron microscope is a $1.3 million investment
the university could never have made on its own, Hechanova and
Cerefice said.
"We're picking up infrastructure that would take us years to
develop," Cerefice said.
The research program supported more than 35 researchers and more
than 70 students in its first three years, producing 23 master's
degree graduates and one Ph.D graduate, Cerefice said.
"We're training people who will be the decision makers for the
next 50 years."
Questions or problems? Click here.
*****************************************************************
26 RGJ: Experts discuss recycling spent nuclear fuel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/10/2004 11:33 pm
LAS VEGAS — Scientists from around the world were meeting this
week to consider ways to recycle spent nuclear fuel, saying the
process could relieve pressure to bury the highly radioactive
waste at sites such as Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
One expert attending a conference at the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas compared reprocessing and transmutation to “the
alchemist’s dream of turning lead into gold.”
“What hasn’t been shown is the feasibility at the engineering
level,” said scientist Gary Cerefice, among the hosts of the
gathering of about 120 scientists from countries including
France, Japan and Russia.
Although developing the techniques could take decades, the
pursuit continues abroad to reprocess or recycle spent nuclear
fuel pellets.
“We’re doing the research. The implementation is many, many years
away,” said Carter “Buzz” Savage, who directs the U.S. effort at
the federal Energy Department.
Reprocessing and transmutation won’t change the need for a
repository the Energy Department wants to open in 2010 at Yucca
Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But it might reduce or
eliminate the need for future repositories, Savage said.
Reprocessing spent fuel in the United States has been prohibited
since the mid-1970s, although the Bush administration allows
research into extracting usable plutonium and uranium.
The other technique, transmutation, would transform long-lived
radionuclides such as americium and neptunium into smaller
amounts of shorter-lived radioactive materials to be buried in a
repository.
Savage said the government is spending $68 million on the
Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Program, with the same amount
expected next year.
Making transmutation viable would entail licensing a new
generation of reprocessing plants, fuel fabrication plants and
reactors.
Some scientists envision regional facilities handling waste from
commercial power reactors. One scenario would be to put a
facility at Yucca Mountain.
The Department of Energy plans to ask the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in December for a license for the Yucca Mountain
repository. Commission review is expected to take several years.
Copyright Reno Gazette-Journal, a Gannett Co. Inc.Newspaper. Use
*****************************************************************
27 Tewksbury Advocate: Board creates new policy, perchlorate task force
TownOnline.com -
By Bethan L. Jones/ Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
The Board of Selectmen had a quiet meeting Tuesday night, yet
still created a stir when it created a new policy of abutter
notification, and addressed the Fiscal Year 2005 to 2009 capital
improvement plan.
Selectmen John Ryan took advantage of the light schedule to
raise concerns about the boards current policy on notifying
abutters in regard to hearings. The current policy requires the
applicant notify abutters of the initial hearing but not
subsequent hearings. Ryan said he was concerned it becomes
difficult for neighbors to keep track of hearing dates,
especially when hearings are continued from one meeting to
another.
"I just feel if we're going to put something off for a
month, we should notify," said Ryan.
Chairman Joseph Gill agreed with Ryan, saying the current
policy maintains a level of informality. He added the second
notification could be sent first class mail rather than sent
certified.
Town Counsel Charles Zaroulis said it would be appropriate
to require the applicant to send the second notices if they are
the party requesting the continuance. If the town needs
additional time, it will pick up the tab.
Selectmen Douglas Sears said the applicant should be
required to submit an affidavit to the town documenting the
notification, just as they are required for the initial notice.
The selectmen unanimously adopted the new policy and will
notify the other boards in town, urging them to reevaluate their
notification policies.
Town Manager David Cressman presented the board with both a
four year capital improvement and his goals for 2005. Within
both plans, Cressman cited the continued construction and work
centering around the sewer project, with phase nine design work
set to begin within the next few months. The recently approved
senior center project and the continued feasibility study at
Rocco's Landfill are also items which will receive attention and
funds in the upcoming year.
Other projects which have been in the works for some time
such as the town hall improvements and central fire station have
been put on the back burner until FY2007. Cressman also noted
the needed funds for the Tewksbury Memorial High School
reaccredidation and the maintenance on several elementary
schools which are over thirty years old. He added, however, the
plans are both conservative and reasonably attainable.
"[The plans are] something we should be proud of in these
tough economic times," said Ryan.
Selectmen Jerome Selissen informed the board he will be
appearing before Billerica's Board of Selectmen on Monday with
the goal of creating a task force and opening the lines of
communication between the towns in regard to the perchlorate
problem. The Billerica Waste Water Treatment Plant is currently
considered the main source of Tewksbury's perchlorate in the
drinking water.
"We're going to go forward and see if we can't find the
source," said Selissen.
Town tests for the month of October show Tewksbury's
drinking water moving between 1.2 and 1.38 parts per billion,
still above the 1 ppb needed to lift the water ban on those
within the sensitive populations.
The Selectmen and the Board of Health will be interviewing
the four candidates for the open health seat on Tuesday, Nov. 23
at 6:30 p.m. prior to the Selectmen's regularly scheduled
meeting. The Selectmen will then interview candidates for the
Board of Appeals at 7:15 p.m. All interviews are open to the
public but will not be televised.
© Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems,
*****************************************************************
28 Las Vegas Mercury: Backstory: Four more what?
Thursday, Nov 11, 2004, 09:07:11 PM
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury
By Michael Green
By small majorities, Americans support terrorism and Nevadans
want a nuclear waste dump.
It's not just that those who voted for The Rug want the
continued murder of American soldiers in Iraq and persecution of
minorities and the unreligious at home because they mistakenly
think he's moral. Think about it. The Bush campaign used an ad--a
brilliant one, by the way--blasting John Kerry for his comment
that terrorism should be a "nuisance." No, obviously we want it
to be a major threat, controlling our lives forever. Bush's
campaign brilliantly capitalized on public fears and lack of
thought to use it to attack Kerry.
As for Nevada, in 2000, candidate Bush lied about nuclear waste
at Yucca Mountain. Kerry vowed not to put it here. But a
majority, including the R-J editorial page and its discredited
pollster (what happened to Bush's 10- and six-point leads in
Nevada?), chose nuclear waste. Logically, it should be buried
under 1111 W. Bonanza Road or GOP headquarters, where the theory
is that a three-point margin is a mandate only if a Republican
wins. Meanwhile...
• Nevada voters are smarter than South Dakota voters. A small
state is unwise to unload a powerful senior senator, yet South
Dakotans did that to Tom Daschle, a poor minority leader but a
major player. Nevadans overwhelmingly returned their powerful
senior senator, Harry Reid. But six years ago, with Nevadans
knowing he would become assistant minority leader, he won by only
428 votes. So, we're not much smarter.
• If Reid's night was bittersweet, state Senate Minority Leader
Dina Titus' night was more sweet than bitter. Ridding the state
Senate of Ray Shaffer dropped the GOP majority to 12-9, giving
Democrats three seats out of seven on committees and Titus a spot
on the Finance Committee--a fine place for her to exert
influence, especially with a gubernatorial campaign on the
horizon and Republicans staying with Bill Raggio and his pro-Reno
budgeting. Meanwhile, Steven Horsford figures to be more of a
team player and more effective in representing his district than
Joe Neal, who often pecked at Titus, and helping Sen. Mike
Schneider win probably improved relations with the incumbent. Her
Democratic caucus figures to be a bit more united this time.
• If you thought the presidential election was ugly, try the
County Commission. The drunk, the crooked engineer and the strip
club and casino toady beat the mudslinger, the slanderer and the
drunken sexual harasser. But seriously, folks, there may have
been a message. Despite a smaller bankroll, David Goldwater ran
well against Lynette Boggs McDonald on a slower growth platform.
Tom Collins talked about better planning in defeating Shari Buck,
and similar noises came from Jerry Tao, whose loss to incumbent
Chip Maxfield wasn't that large. Could this mean smarter growth
policies?
• Again, women judges. Sandra Pomrenze and Stefany Miley unseated
Family Court judges Bob Lueck and Bob Gaston; Cynthia Dianne
Steel gave better-funded Supreme Court candidate Jim Hardesty a
run for his money; and women either won or garnered significant
percentages in District and Justice Court battles. By the way,
none of them was named Bonaventure.
• Why did I get a mailer from Lori Lipman Brown, once a leading
state Senate liberal, endorsing John Mason, who led the Nevada
Republican Party during one of its sharp right turns in the
1990s?
• Glad that Independent American Joel Hansen lost his bid for
Nevada Supreme Court? Newly elected Justice Michael Douglas was
known for intelligent and gutsy decisions locally, and his new
colleagues Hardesty and Ron Parraguirre are among the state's
most respected District Court judges. But it would be nice to
know who made the racist phone calls opposing Douglas.
• Nevadans are conservative, so they defeated a measure to
increase education spending to fund schools at the national
average, but liberal for supporting a minimum wage hike. They are
conservative because they gave Bush a majority, but liberal
because anti-gay activist Richard Ziser could muster only 35
percent against moderate Sen. Harry Reid. You want election
analysis? Psychoanalysis might work better.
• How important were the 2003 tax votes in the Legislature? The
only Assembly Republican losers, Don Gustavson and Ron Knecht,
were among the 15 obstructionists who blocked the tax hike
through the regular session and two special sessions (and Knecht
really impressed voters by introducing a bill to change Nevada's
name to East California--and he probably opposes "frivolous"
lawsuits). Assembly District 16 gave John Oceguera 58 percent
despite a last-minute mailer from anti-tax blaster George Harris,
who not only has no impact, but added to his sterling record by
misspelling Oceguera's name.
• Some doctors are perturbed. Yes, Questions 3, 4 and 5 went as
they wished. But some residents received pro-Question 3 fliers
accompanied by literature for Bush and other Republicans, and the
doctors made clear they wanted to keep their campaign
nonpartisan. Was it an accident or did it have something to do
with the Republican operatives they hired?
• Finally, here's to Dubya, a terrific politician. A
once-drunken, unthinking liar convinced voters he's more moral
and security-conscious than a man still carrying around shrapnel
from defending his country and willing to sacrifice his wealth to
help the poor. Either that, or 51 percent of American voters are
stupid. That thought is even more frightening than four more
years.
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury, 2001 - 2004
*****************************************************************
29 Las Vegas RJ: Nuclear waste at center stage
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Scientists discuss reprocessing and recycling By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Scientists from around the world traveled to Las Vegas on
Tuesday to talk about a common problem: How to reduce the amount
of nuclear waste destined for yet-to-be-built repositories like
the one planned for Yucca Mountain.
The solution, they said, is to continue to develop and explore
a couple techniques known in scientific circles as reprocessing
and transmutation. As one put it, it's like "the alchemist's
dream of turning lead into gold."
"What hasn't been shown is the feasibility at the engineering
level. We can do it one atom at a time," said scientist Gary
Cerefice, among the hosts of the three-day conference at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. About 120 scientists from
countries including France, Japan and Russia are attending.
Although progress in developing the techniques is measured in
decades, the pursuit continues abroad to reprocess or recycle
materials in spent nuclear fuel pellets.
Reprocessing spent fuel in the United States has been
prohibited since the mid-1970s. The Bush administration allows
research into what it takes to extract usable plutonium and
uranium.
The other technique, transmutation, is aimed at taking
long-lived radionuclides such as americium and neptunium and
transforming them into smaller amounts of shorter-lived
radioactive materials to be buried in a repository.
"We're doing the research. The implementation is many, many
years away," said Carter "Buzz" Savage, who directs the U.S.
effort at the Department of Energy.
Reprocessing and transmutation won't change the need for a
Yucca Mountain repository but may reduce or eliminate the need
for future repositories, he said.
The task of making transmutation viable would entail licensing
a new generation of reprocessing plants, fuel fabrication plants
and reactors.
Some scientists envision regional facilities to cater to
commercial power reactors. One scenario would be to locate them
at Yucca Mountain.
The Department of Energy hopes to begin a licensing review in
December for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, with
first deliveries of spent fuel from U.S. power reactors in 2010.
Savage said the government is spending $68 million on the
Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Program, with the same amount
expected next year.
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
30 Las Vegas RJ: Whistle-blower claims BLM firing over polluted mine
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Federal complaint seeks damages of more than $1 million
By SCOTT SONNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Anaconda mine's pit in Yerington is shown in this July file
photo.
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO -- The Bureau of Land Management's former project manager
for a contaminated mine site in Nevada said Wednesday he was
fired because he refused to stop speaking out about dangers posed
there by radioactive and other toxic wastes.
In a federal whistle-blower complaint seeking more than $1
million in damages, Earle Dixon of Carson City said BLM state
Director Bob Abbey fired him in October in retaliation for his
aggressive research and public comment on the health and safety
risks to workers and the community near the former Anaconda
copper mine on the edge of Yerington.
A copy of the administrative complaint obtained by The
Associated Press said Dixon refused to go along with repeated
attempts by BLM management and the Nevada Division of
Environmental Protection to downplay dangers at the 3,600-acre
site and "sweep the issue under a political rug."
BLM spokeswoman Jo Simpson said Wednesday the agency was not
surprised the complaint had been filed but had no direct response
to the charges.
"We welcome the investigation and we believe the investigation
will bear out that our actions were appropriate," she said.
Environmental Protection Division spokeswoman Cindy Petterson
said the state agency has made no attempt to downplay the
seriousness of the mine's pollution. She said personnel changes
BLM made in the management of the project a month ago "has led to
an improvement in the process."
The complaint says cleanup costs at the abandoned mine owned by
Atlantic Richfield Co. have risen dramatically, from an estimated
$10 million or $20 million to potentially more than $200 million,
as a result of research Dixon conducted or directed on dangers
from uranium and other toxins.
Tests this summer found unusually high levels of radiation in
soil samples at the mine. Earlier groundwater tests showed high
concentrations of uranium in wells on site, up to 200 times the
U.S. drinking water standard.
"The site is an environmental compliance mess. There is nothing
in compliance: not groundwater, not air, not soil," Dixon said.
"It needs to be addressed. I was trying to move forward and get
it addressed and that's not what the BLM or NDEP wanted." "Every
time I would try to put real technical comments in there and cite
things relative to Superfund guidelines, they would take out
those parts and water it down," he said in an interview
Wednesday.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a Washington
D.C.-based watchdog group, filed the formal whistle-blower
complaint with the Labor Department in San Francisco last week on
behalf of Dixon, an environmental protection specialist who
earlier taught at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and spent
eight years doing research for the U.S. Energy Department at the
Nevada Test Site.
The complaint said Dixon was at least partly responsible for
documenting radiation readings, contamination of soil and water,
and Arco and BLM noncompliance with federal pollution standards,
including possible public exposure to radioactive and toxic
metals in airborne dust.
Jeff Ruch, PEER's executive director, said federal law makes it
clear "you cannot be discriminated against for implementing the
Clean Air Act or the Safe Drinking Water Act.
"You can't be fired for doing your job, and Earle Dixon was
fired for doing his job," Ruch said from Washington.
The 34-page complaint includes 23 pages of summaries of notes
Dixon took of meetings and telephone conversations with his
superiors, EPA, state regulators and others over the course of at
least 87 days between the time he was hired in November 2003 and
fired on Oct. 5.
Among other things, Dixon insisted on personally observing
sampling, collecting worker safety-related data, and developing a
formal site health and safety plan "that would draw attention to
the problem by forcing workers to wear respirators, a visible red
flag to the community," the complaint said.
The complaint said BLM responded by criticizing him for his
disclosures, ordering him not to speak to the media, and
censoring and editing his technical communications and memos.
The complaint said BLM's public affairs director in Reno told
Dixon's immediate supervisor on July 23 that Dixon was "not to
talk to press at all" following a telephone interview with AP the
day before in which Dixon said, "Nobody is used to having this
sort of radiation at an old abandoned copper mine."
Copyright Las Vegas Review-Journal
*****************************************************************
31 The Sunflower - November 2004 - No. 90
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 23:22:45 -0600 (CST)
The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational
information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to
global security. Help us spread the word and forward this to a friend.
Click here
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Download the complete PDF Version
* Perspectives
* First Presidential Mandate: Protect Us from Nuclear
Terrorism and Proliferation
* A New Bridge to Nuclear Disarmament
by Douglas Roche
* Take Action
* Election Behind Us, Work Before Us
* Abolition Now and Mayors for Peace Emergency Campaign
* Energy Communities Alliance Annual Conference - Save the
Date
* Proliferation
* Tentative Deal Reached with Iran
* Taiwan Denies Plutonium Experiments
* US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Closes Online Library
* Switzerland Opens Nuclear Investigation, Pakistani
Scientist Remains in Custody
* Russian Scientist Surrenders Weapons-Grade Nuclear
Material
* Nuclear Legacy
* Nuclear Radiation in the Arctic
* US Navy Closes Project ELF
* Sweden Denies Vanunu Asylum
* Nuclear Laboratories
* Work Still Halted at Los Alamos
* Iraq
* Update on the Iraq Debacle
* Missiles, Defense and Missile Defense
* US Defense Companies Reap "Healthy" Profits
* October: International Missile Test Month?
* Nuclear Energy and Waste
* Congress Reclassifies High-Level Radioactive Waste
* Japan Moves Towards Reprocessing Spent Nuclear Fuel
* Yucca Mountain Exacerbates Nuclear Waste Storage Crisis
* Washington State Initiative Blocks Nuclear Waste Dumping
for Now
* US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to Join Search for
Missing Nuclear Fuel Rods
*
Switzerland Increases Distribution of Tablets to Guard Against
Nuclear Radiation
* Nuclear Insanity
* Indian Nuclear Option Helped Remove Potentially
Dangerous Strategic Ambiguities in the Region
* Nuclear Reactor Shut-Down in Russia Causes Frenzy
* French Anti-Nuclear Protester Run Over by Train
* Foundation Activities
* Broadcasting Peace: A Conversation with Walter Cronkite
* Resources
* United Nations Disarmament Stamp
* As Time Goes By: Making the Case for Love in a Time of
Fear
* Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters
Report Published
* Uranium in the Wind
by Ross Wilcock
* Missile Defense All Over Again
* BASIC October Report
* Quotable
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* Stephen Hawking
* Editorial Team
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* David Krieger
* Carah Ong
* Forrest Wilder
Perspectives
First Presidential Mandate: Protect Us from Nuclear Terrorism and
Proliferation | Top
The primary mandate of President George W. Bush is to protect US
citizens. In fact, Republicans and Democrats alike agree that nuclear
proliferation and terrorism are THE greatest threats facing the US . In
his second term, President Bush has the opportunity to make Americans -
and people all over the world - safer and more secure by implementing
responsible nuclear policies that will prevent the spread of nuclear
weapons and prevent terrorists from obtaining and using nuclear weapons,
technology and materials.
To accomplish these goals, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation recommends
that President Bush's first order of business in his second term should
be providing global leadership to create and maintain a worldwide
inventory of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons materials and to place
these weapons and materials under strict international safeguards. The
US should also immediately increase its efforts and devote more
resources to securing loose nuclear weapons and materials in Russia .
Preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism cannot be based
on double-standards. A US nuclear policy that relies on these weapons
for the foreseeable future, combined with the doctrine of preemptive
warfare, encourages other nations to acquire nuclear weapons in pursuit
of their own security needs. President Bush should immediately cease all
efforts to create a dangerous new generation of nuclear weapons,
including the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator ("bunker-busters") and
low-yield nuclear weapons ("mini-nukes"). Researching and developing new
generations of nuclear weapons undermines US credibility in persuading
other nations not to pursue their own nuclear arsenals.
President Bush has said that the US must shoulder the responsibility of
leading global efforts to halt proliferation of nuclear weapons. To do
this, the US must lead all nuclear weapons states in fulfilling their
existing obligations under international law to pursue the phased
elimination of nuclear weapons. There is no other way to assure that
these weapons will not be obtained or used by terrorists or states
hostile to the US .
"President Bush's number one mandate this term is to fulfill his
campaign promise to protect US citizens from the greatest threats facing
us today - nuclear proliferation and terrorism," stated David Krieger,
President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. "President Bush must
restore US credibility around the world by implementing responsible
nuclear policies."
A New Bridge to Nuclear Disarmament | Top
by Douglas Roche
A bridge on the long road to nuclear disarmament was built when eight
NATO States supported a New Agenda Coalition resolution at the United
Nations calling for more speed in implementing commitments to the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The bridge gained extra strength when Japan and South Korea joined with
the NATO 8 - Belgium , Canada , Germany , Lithuania , Luxembourg , The
Netherlands, Norway and Turkey .
These States, along with the New Agenda countries - Brazil , Egypt ,
Ireland , Mexico , New Zealand , South Africa and Sweden - now form an
impressive and perhaps formidable center in the nuclear weapons debate
and can play a determining role in the outcome of the 2005 NPT Review
Conference.
The bridge they have formed links the nuclear weapons States , which are
entrenching nuclear weapons in their military doctrines, and the
Non-Aligned Movement, which wants immediate negotiations on a time-bound
program for nuclear disarmament.
It is hard to know what to call this new collection of important States
in the center. It is certainly not an entity. To be called a working
partnership, it will at least have to pursue a common goal. And it is by
no means certain that the tensions within the center can be contained.
Nonetheless, the strategy adopted by the New Agenda Coalition to make
its annual resolution at the U.N. First Committee more attractive
particularly to the NATO and like-minded States - and thus shore up the
moderate middle in the nuclear weapons debate - is working.
Although the bridge needs strengthening, it is firm enough for the
centrist States to exert leverage on the nuclear weapons States to take
minimum steps to save the NPT in 2005.
Click here
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*****************************************************************
32 [du-list] DU in the news - 11/11/04
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:59:55 -0800
Thursday, November 11, 2004 11:26 AM PST
Your Keyword News Alert for [depleted uranium]
matched the following stories:
Asia Times, Thu, 11 Nov 2004 4:07 AM PST
Middle East http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FK12Ak04.html
"The bombs being dropped on Fallujah don't contain explosives, depleted
uranium or anything harmful - they contain laughing gas - that would, of
course, explain [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld's misplaced optimism about
not killing civilians in Fallujah.
Guardian Unlimited, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 4:07 PM PST
Tumbleweed collection
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/dispatch/story/0,12978,1347782,00.html
Tumbleweed, sometimes called Russian thistle, is that cartwheel-shaped
shrub seen blowing across the screen just before the showdown in dozens of
Westerns. It could have a new role in cleaning up battlefields and weapons
testing grounds, because it has a knack of soaking up depleted uranium, or DU.
Corvallis Gazette Times, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 9:05 PM PST
OSU to host Global Action' series
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2004/11/11/news/community/wedloc03.txt
"From Global Awareness to Global Action," a seven-hour experience focusing
on world issues, will run from 1 to 8 p.m. today at Oregon State
University's Memorial Union.
Fairfield County Weekly, Thu, 11 Nov 2004 1:18 AM PST
The News that Didn't Make The News Make the News
http://fairfieldweekly.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:89269
Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University
which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters.
Seattle Weekly, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 5:05 PM PST
Veterans Day Address to the Nation
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0446/041110_news_veteransday.php
A suggested speech for the president. In honor of Veterans Day this week,
George Bush is likely to say a few words about those who served.
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